Quote of the day

"Remember this, that every 'improvement' improperly so-called, hath an equal opposite effect, as science says. Count the 'improvements' of the past hundred years and you'll see why we're now in such disgrace." Tito Perdue, The Node.

This day in history

In 1913, the 16th Amendment, establishing federal income tax, was ratified.

And ever since then, DC has used that money to expand its power at home and abroad.

Ahmadinejad calls for new world order ‎

Whoa! Ahmadinejad wants a "new world order"?

What a raving, megalomaniacal lunatic! Who does he think he is, George H.W. Bush?

Why Did the South Secede?

Don't look now, but there's a confluence of trends, from scientific insights, to bungled military adventures, to the crushing deficit, to the spectacle of a dysfunctional and authoritarian central government, that's forcing Americans to reconsider established dogma about that government.

The most fundamental dogma propping up DC's power is that of the global liberator that arose from the noble crusade to end slavery at home and institute equality for all. And that myth has been taking a real beating lately. Here's the latest example, from Capitalism Institute:

Of all of the misunderstood events in history, the American Civil War is probably the worst of the lot.

Most students believe that the South was fighting to keep all of the slaves in bondage, while the benevolent Yankees were fighting to free the slaves in captivity — nothing could be further from the truth.

History books are written by the victors. This simple-yet-powerful sentence explains why the “winners” of every war rarely are seen as the “bad guys” for quite some time after the war.

Please read the whole thing, then bookmark it.

Great change is coming.

The Tribal Psychology of Politics

"Liberals need to be shaken," says former liberal Jonathan Haidt. Liberals "simply misunderstand conservatives far more than the other way around."

What could have led a credentialed leftist in a profession dominated by other leftists (psychology) to turn apostate? Simple: human nature. The more Haidt learned about what motivates political choices, the more he realized that leftist theories run counter to human nature:

He first plunged into political research out of frustration with John Kerry's failure to connect with voters in 2004. A partisan liberal, the University of Virginia professor hoped a better grasp of moral psychology could help Democrats sharpen their knives. But a funny thing happened. Haidt, now a visiting professor at New York University, emerged as a centrist who believes that "conservatives have a more accurate understanding of human nature than do liberals."

Despite their proclaimed reverence for reason and science, liberals ignore facts that clash with their preconceived notions. Science continues to erode many cherished leftist articles of faith. The liberal conception of man as an autonomous, disconnected being guided by reason ignores the complexity of individual and group personalities. As I wrote on E.O. Wilson and his breakthrough work in sociobiology:

Social behavior can be explained by the biological drive to preserve one’s genetic inheritance. Parents sacrifice for their children, warriors sacrifice for their tribe, and soldiers sacrifice for their nation to ensure the survival of their kin.

Society is held together by the loyalty and affection of extended families – in other words, their blood ties and shared history. This continuity with the past not only provides the individual with identity and purpose, but maintains social order and cohesion, preserving the traditions and way of life that reflect our God-given character as a people.

That's conservatism, folks, backed by both world history and science.

Thanks to Peter for the link!

Quote of the day

Click image to Texas-size!
Thanks to Michael for the graphic!

Groundhogs in the news

Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter. Good - I just love these 68-degree days!

Meanwhile, in the District of Corruption:

'Dead' Potomac Phil predicts months of D.C. gridlock

Potomac Phil, in his first prognostication ever, agreed with Punxsutawney Phil. Both predicted six more weeks of winter.

D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans conferred with the rodent before making the announcement.

"It looks like there are a lot of shadows out here folks. Six more weeks of winter and nine more months of gridlock in the Congress," Evans said.

Even stuffed rodents see there's no future in DC. When will we learn?

Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations: "Ban the box!"

In light of this recent tragedy here in Charlotte, where an ex-con murdered his co-worker in a bungled robbery, this campaign in Philadelphia to prohibit ALL background checks can only be called a tragedy in the making:

New legislation in Philadelphia aimed at giving ex-convicts a chance to make a better first impression at job interviews was the topic of a legal seminar this morning in center city. Employers were learning how the law is being enforced by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.

The law firm of Zarwin Baum hosted the seminar for some of their clients, addressing a new regulation that has been dubbed “Ban the Box.”

Those regulations prohibit employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s criminal background on the initial application. “Banning the box” refers to the box that would ask, “Have you ever been convicted of a crime?”

I'm all for giving someone a second chance - that is, IF they demonstrate true repentance. But an employer can't even make that determination if he doesn't know all the facts. For the safety of innocent co-workers, employers must be able to uncover an applicant's history.

Where are the engineering jobs going?

UPDATE BELOW:

To immigrants, that's where. From Numbers USA:

Earlier this week, Pres. Obama was caught off-guard in an internet Q&A when a woman asked why the government continues to issue work visas to foreign engineers while her engineer husband can't find a job.

The President found the question "interesting" because "industry tells me that they don't have enough highly skilled engineers."

The White House sent out spokespersons to defend the President by talking about how not enough Americans are getting engineering degrees.

My immediate question was: How many Americans with engineering degrees don't have an engineering job? Amazingly just this afternoon, Dr. Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies has published a report that answers the question.

We will talk more about the meaning of these stats in the webcast. But chew on the numbers.

U.S.-BORN INDIVIDUALS WITH ENGINEERING DEGREES (under age 66)
(based on most recent American Community Survey by the Obama Administration itself)

101,000 -- U.S. engineers looking for a job who can't find any work at all
244,000 -- U.S. engineers who have dropped completely out of the labor market
1,470,000 -- U.S. engineers who are working but no longer as engineers
---------
1.8 million -- Total U.S.-born individuals under the age of 66 who have engineering degrees but don't have an engineering job

Government isn't very good at creating jobs, but it's darned effective at gaming the system to favor politically connected big business.

Obama, that man of the people, still enjoys more support from the financial industry than any of his Republican rivals. This was true in the 2008 election, too.

Stabbing American workers in the back is a win-win for Obama. He gets big money from big business, which can't get enough cheap, exploitable labor. And his leftist base gets more Third-World immigrants - future clients.

And folks wonder why the League of the South considers this government illegitimate.

UPDATE:

Here's how John Derbyshire sums up the Open Borders position:

To judge from blogs and comment threads, it makes perfect sense to that mighty legion of persons who believe that the nation’s laws should strive to ensure that citizens enjoy no advantage whatsoever over non-citizens; or, to put it another way, that the nation’s citizenship should be worthless and the nation itself a fiction.

"Worthless citizenship." Bull's eye!

Israel to deport South Sudanese

I guess Israel didn't get the memo telling them opening their borders would magically make their country better:

Some 7,000 South Sudanese are believed to be in Israel, part of a larger influx of African migrants who have poured into the country in recent years. Some are refugees, while others are seeking employment.

Israel is trying to stop the wave of arrivals, building a barrier along the border with Egypt and pledging tough punishments to people who assist them.

Speaking Tuesday, Haddad said the South Sudanese will be offered voluntary deportation and around $1,300. After March 31, Haddad says they will be deported.

Good for the Israelis. They know the primary right of peoples and nations is that of NOT committing suicide.

Occupy Charlotte has made its mark!

Problem is, it's hippy poop. Police say that while camping out on the City Hall lawn and lifting up our collective conscience, the protesters used a storm drain for a commode. The Fire Department's HazMat team has been called in to clean it up.

It's an honor to have been excluded by people like this.

Quote of the day

"Had you permitted our people to depart in peace, we would have proven ourselves your greatest friend. Having chosen otherwise, we shall one day become to you as Little David in the Holy Scripture. Just as the Colossal Roman Empire broke apart, so shall the demise of their empire. Lawfully, peacefully and honorably!" Unknown

Thanks to loyal reader Earl for the quote!

Abbeville Institute Conference

The Abbeville Institute is holding its Tenth Annual Scholar's Conference. This year's theme is, "The War Between The States: Other Voices, Other Views." From their web site:

Nationalist historians for 150 years have protected Americans from confronting the stark immorality of prosecuting what French philosopher Bertrand de Jouvenel called, “a war such as Europe had never yet seen” to force eleven States into a federation from which their people had voted to secede. Should eleven American States secede today and form a federation of their own, such a war would be judged criminal.

Northern opposition to the war was more extensive, complex and had more respectable adherents than the mainline account allows, e.g., Governor Seymour of New York, 1861: “Indeed, Can we so entirely forget the past history of our country, that we can stand upon the point of pride against states whose citizens battled with our fathers and poured out their blood upon the soil of our state. Upon whom are we to wage war? Our own countrymen….”

Lincoln and his party often acted as an embattled minority in the North. The Sesquicentennial offers an opportunity to explore the view point of the most neglected and misrepresented segment of American opinion on the great conflict at the center of our history.

For more information, click here.

The impact of legal immigration

Hey, Occupiers! Want to do something to help the middle class? Here's what's hurting working people in this country:


While most journalists refuse to discuss critically in-sourcing (using work visas to flood the US with cheap labor to drive down American wages), Dan Rather breaks the mold and makes this one-hour documentary on how big business is faking labor shortages to get work visas and flood the US with cheap labor. He even takes on Bill Gates' dishonest reports given to Congress. He discusses Wall Street's and Obama's adamant support of flooding US with cheap labor to kill wages. He argues that flooding the US with cheap labor has all but killed the American middle class.

Thanks to Matthew for the heads up!

Blacks vs. Koreans in Dallas

The shape of things to come? Could be - and it's scary:

Korea's consul-general in Houston is now in Dallas, Texas, to try and quell rising anti-Korean sentiment there after a dispute between different ethnic groups began spiraling out of control.

This comes as leaders of the African-American community in southern Dallas called for a boycott of Asian-owned businesses as a protest against what they call "racist business-owners."

Tensions have been mounting since early this month, when a Korean owner of a gas station and an African-American customer got into a verbal altercation, in which racial slurs were reportedly made.

The Korean government has been advising the Korean community there to remain calm and not stoke the fire.

Dallas has the largest Korean-American community in the state of Texas with about 1,000 businesses there owned by Koreans.

Where to begin?

First of all, why is the Korean government involved in a law enforcement problem in Dallas, Texas? I can't think of a more chilling illustration of how America has been transformed from a nation into nothing more than an extended stay motel.

This is an example of the unforeseen consequences of DC's open borders policy. Only "racist" white Southerners conflict with blacks, right? But now we're seeing some novel racial clashes taking place. What's next? Uighurs and Palestinians duking it out in Memphis? Albanians and Masai squabbling in the Pensacola Wal-Mart?

Finally, at some point we have to recognize that all the airy theories and pontification about "diversity" is dangerously out of touch with the way the real world functions. Only a cloistered university professor could imagine that diversity provides "tremendous benefits in terms of improved morale, outside-the-box thinking, greater teamwork, and an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect."

That emperor is naked. And not all that good looking.

Israeli Officials: Attack on Iran Must Come ‘By Summer’

Hmmm - in other words, just before the US presidential election.

Of course, the timing would be pure coincidence.

Stop thinking outside the Beltway!

Almost everyone agrees DC is a bloated, bungling mess that's dragging the country it mismanages down with it.

But here's the standard response from Mitt Romney: "If people want change in Washington you have to bring in someone from outside Washington."

You see, no matter how bad the central government screws things up, we can ONLY think in terms of how to adjust the machinery of power in DC. No other option is thinkable.

But there IS another way. It's already in place, and already in use. Alabama, for example, has successfully tackled the crime and unemployment made worse by illegal immigration - and the ruling elite's Inquisition is screaming bloody murder. Those squeals tell us we're on to something.

But you're not supposed to know that! And those who find out will be called bad names by you-know-who.

Dismantling the Republic

The Ebook edition of “Dismantling The Republic,” which was reviewed in the Jan.-Feb., 2012 edition of Confederate Veteran, is now available at www.smashwords.com. The book contains 14 chapters and two appendices. Appendix A is a parallel comparison between the U. S. Constitution of 1787 and the Constitution of the Confederate States of 1861. Appendix B contains all of the secession ordinances of the seceding states. This book sells for $15 in the print edition, but it can be purchased online by clicking here. It's only $3.99.

“Dismantling The Republic” chronicles the incremental attacks on state sovereignty from the Constitutional Convention of 1787 to the present. Abraham Lincoln, is identified as the principal figure in the dismantling of the American republic, and how he, and his political heirs, achieved that. It delineates the specific issues that gave rise to the Tea Party Movement and concludes with a difficult, but feasible, solution to restoring the republic of 1787---secession.

“Dismantling The Republic” was authored by Jerry C. Brewer, Commander of the Pvts. Grayson & Brewer Camp, 2118 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans in Elk City, Oklahoma and is a true account of history from the Southron perspective.

A free ebook reader for computers may be downloaded from Adobe Digital Editions.

Leon Panetta defends dictatorship

Glenn Greenwald rips into the Democrats' fake concern for Constitutional rights. With one of their own in the White House, Panetta (and many other Democrats) say it's just fine that the Commander-in-Chief wields all the dictatorial powers, and then some, that W and Cheney claimed:

But this is one of the towering, unanswerable hypocrisies of Democratic Party politics. The very same faction that pretended for years to be so distraught by Bush’s mere eavesdropping on and detention of accused Terrorists without due process is now perfectly content to have their own President kill accused Terrorists without due process, even when those targeted are their fellow citizens...

Whoa! Panetta, a liberal Democrat from the Clinton administration, now clicks his heels and defends the president's power to call legal hits at will?

Sure. As George Will recently observed, "progressives" have always longed to forge a nation where the citizens march "in lock step, shoulder to shoulder, obedient to orders from a commanding officer." All in the name of "progress," you see.

But that's the role of liberalism in the DC Empire - it gussies up brute power with a facade of noble intentions. What I once wrote about the Bush regime is just as true about Obama:

With Communist egalitarianism and Nazi economics, Neo-Conism avoids the flaws (racism, planned economy) while appropriating the strengths (universalism, mercantilism, and really good citizen surveillance) of both totalitarian systems. Combining the world's largest economy and the world's noblest ideals, Bush's USA is the most powerful force the planet has ever seen.

And ... the greatest threat to our liberty and security, as Leon Panetta just admitted.

Bitter cold records broken in Alaska

Now this is cold:

The weather station in Jim River, AK closed in on the all time record coldest temperature of -80°F set in 1971. That’s not only the Alaska all-time record, but the record for the entire United States. Unfortunately, the weather station stopped reporting at -79°F.

And, as Jack London once warned, you just don't go out when it's below minus 75:

The cold of space smote the unprotected tip of the planet, and he, being on that unprotected tip, received the full force of the blow. The blood of his body recoiled before it. The blood was alive, like the dog, and like the dog it wanted to hide away and cover itself up from the fearful cold. So long as he walked four miles an hour, he pumped that blood, willy-nilly, to the surface; but now it ebbed away and sank down into the recesses of his body.

Just reading that makes me shiver!

DC's "Blowback" foreign policy

EndorseLiberty gives us a great video summary of how we got tied into knots in so many places around the world. The unforeseen consequences of sticking our nose into everybody else's business leads to some ironic, even bizarre, screw-ups. For example: guess who the CIA once described as "a presentable young man," a socialist we ended up backing?

It's time to end this insanity.

Thanks to Peter for the heads up!

Quote of the day

"I wish I could claim that I’m Hispanic." Mitt Romney

Police arrest Occupy Charlotte protesters

With shouts of "Arrest us! We'll multiply!" some members of Occupy Charlotte refused police warnings to end their protest on the City Hall lawn. The six who were arrested had locked legs and refused to budge, requiring the police to physically remove them from the lawn, and take them into custody.

These are dangerous people. A month ago, four Charlotte Occupiers were arrested for arson.

Fighting the smears

The Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch blog features a post that slams State and local efforts to stop illegal immigration as the work of "xenophobes and nativists." (I assume there's nothing wrong with the radical alienists of La Raza and MEChA.) The Immigration Reform Law Institute has filed an amicus brief defending Utah's immigration law, and that just won't do, rails Mark Potok, because the Institute is connected to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and they're connected to the Pioneer Fund. And the Fund, according to Potok, was "started by Nazi sympathizers."

Really? The links Potok provided are to older SPLC rants, rather than to the maligned group. So I Googled "Pioneer Fund" just to see what they had to say for themselves.

It turns out that five of those founders fought for the Allies in World War II, and one served as a staff attorney at the Nuremberg Tribunal. The Fund is purely a research organization, dedicated to the "scientific study of heredity and human differences."

And if there are scientific explanations for such differences as, oh, the racial performance gap - which even liberals acknowledge - then by all means let's explore them. Maybe, suggests Steve Sailer, understanding them can lead to better policies in the schools and the workplace.

What burns me about Potok's post is the utter dishonesty of his argument. On the Internet, a link serves the function of a footnote - it's the proof of your assertion. Instead, he linked to his own organization's past attacks on the very individuals and groups being attacked.

You'll notice that whenever I make a point, I link to that person's or group's own web site to back up my argument. For example, if I claim Mark Potok collaborates with Communists, I don't link to the Free Magnolia, but to the SPLC and to The Socialist Worker, where the reader can examine the quotes and make up his own mind if I characterized the facts correctly.

But distortion of the facts and intimidation are all our enemies have going for them. Read the SPLC attack on FAIR, and you'll see it comes down to nothing but name-calling. That's not a free exchange of ideas, but character assassination. Such will only poison the public forum.

The South's history, thought, and actions have long been subject to similar intellectual dishonesty and outright slander, and the left and its allies are doing the same to conservatives. But the truth is on our side, and we will fight our fight honestly and energetically. That's what I try to do on this blog, and I deeply appreciate the contributions from readers who want to see this work continue.

So when you consider whether to renew your League of the South membership, or if you want to support this blog, just remember the unethical and deceptive methods of those who attack us. You'll know what to do.

An exclusive interview with Robert H. Goldsborough

Robert Goldsborough's lively and long career as a border security activist is both inspiring and fascinating. Peter Gemma interviews this aging but still active warrior. Here's a sample:

The Obama administration is attacking the rights of states on how they handle the illegal alien threat along a number of fronts, and they have lots of resources -- especially our tax money. The Supreme Court holds the key to many questions of how far states will be allowed to protect their citizens. Congress lost its will to fight the larger battle: the greatest threat to U.S. homeland security comes from illegals who enter the country. It is all too easy for illegal aliens to slip in beneath the radar -- never being detected and deported.

You definitely want to read the whole thing.

NAACP opposes popular vote

This May, North Carolina will give the people of this State the opportunity to consider an amendment upholding traditional marriage.

But the NAACP wants it struck from the ballot. NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous claims same-sex "marriage" is today's battleground in the never-ending civil rights movement: "And if we at the NAACP are committed to anything, it's pushing America closer to her ideals."

No, it isn't. The NAACP now stands with the venomous left, which seeks to wreck this country so it can rebuild it on its own twisted terms. In fact, the NAACP is collaborating with hard-left groups against blacks, who overwhelmingly support traditional marriage. In fact, a 2009 Pew Forum poll revealed that 62% of blacks opposed gay marriage.

The Frederick Douglass Foundation is a conservative black organization which has gone on record opposing Mr. Jealous' actions. You want some stubborn resistance to the radical homosexual agenda? Check out the Frederick Douglass Foundation blog.

Ed Sebesta watch

Eek! Homophobia! Ed Sebesta says I have it.

Yes, if you do not support the radical "gay" agenda, then you suffer from a debilitating, irrational fear. Just as the old Soviet Union would ship protesters to mental institutions, the last surviving Evil Empire dismisses its dissidents as just plain crazy.

Sebesta's latest blogging project is entitled, "Neo-Confederate Homophobia," and sub-titled, "A blog for the Lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender communities about neo-Confederate homophobia. Homophobia and neo-Confederacy overlap and intersect much more than is realized." No, really.

Intrigued, I wanted to leave a helpful and supportive comment. Sadly, I was informed, "Only a member of this blog may post a comment." Now the "Neo-Confederate Homophobia" blog has been in business since May of 2011. I scrolled down the page to tally the number of comments made on each of Ed's posts. Here are the results:

0
0
0
0
0
0
0

I was never good at math, so I ran these numbers through an Excel spreadsheet. If I correctly used Excel's @Sum() function, then "Neo-Confederate Homophobia" is clearly Ed Sebesta's most successful offensive against Southern heritage. So far.

The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution

Clyde Wilson, who refers to himself as a "recovering professor," demonstrates that the Constitution is NOT a surrender of all rights to DC, but a "limiting document" designed to halt any possible centralization of power.

Well done, Clyde!

Quote of the day

"After Iraq, after Afghanistan, after Libya, after all of these horrors and many more, can the American people be led into another war? Why, it's the easiest thing in the world." Arthur Silber

The Decline of the American Empire

Kirkpatrick Sale, the director of the Middlebury Institute, reviews Morris Berman's Why America Failed. Berman's book, argues Sale, is essential to understanding how the DC Empire achieved its present status. It did so by relentlessly pursuing its notion of "progress," an impossible goal perfectly suitable for "a nation of hustlers," a people "relentlessly on the make."

And what does a nation of hustlers do to those who get in their way? The South is a perfect example - as well as a model for future conquests:

In fact that civilization will always take steps to marginalize it, even destroy it if necessary, a fact that Berman illustrates in a chapter on the antebellum South. He shows how the South was "the one example we have of an opponent of [the dominant] ideology that had real political teeth," and blatantly opted for a life premodern (indeed "neofeudal"), agrarian, slow, conservative, and honoring tradition, honor, chivalry, and hospitality more than making a buck or inventing a gadget. This ultimately the increasingly industrial and expansive North could not stand and so began a war to destroy it. "The treatment of the South by the North," Berman says, "was the template for the way the United States would come to treat any nation it regarded as an enemy: not merely a scorched earth policy, but also a ‘scorched soul’ policy’" that it would use in Hawaii, the Philippines, Cuba, Japan, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and anywhere else it could achieve it.

This is why the Civil War remains a hot issue today - the triumphalist mythology that grew out of the Northern victory is the foundation for today's militarism, which is prettied up with talk of "liberation" and "equality."

Thanks to Robert for the heads up!