"History is full of ironies. Of course, it was the British who invented the concentration camp, and they did that during their war with the Afrikaners in South Africa. Afrikaners, of course, were the inventors of apartheid. Israel has learned from the South African example and perfected it. In a sense, made it even worse. And now we're into concentration camps for Palestinians, by people who, themselves, are the descendants of Nazi concentration camp inmates. You can't make this stuff up."
Or do you mean, after a whole lot of bullshit and blood, the pattern seems to be that somebody, eventually, may get around to it?
But anyway, that's not "any other country" - as whites used to proudly remind us - it's South Africa.
And South Africa, now, is no longer the country that whites used, to accumulate vast wealth, while blacks were forced to live in poverty to the sound of their whips and guns.
Incredible irony - especially when coupled with the out-of-this-world expectation anyone would come to help - when (if you're looking at the country's history through a post-racial lens) no one ever reallyhas before.
Or are you seriously going to tell us, during these last few centuries of abuse, white South Africans - or anyone else - held a reasonable expectation of the Calvary running in whenever a black person was forcibly having their fingernails (or other body parts) removed?
I don't know which tips the scales of insanity the most:
The murderous enterprises, whites seemingly have always erected, or the lies they've told themselves about them,...
Christian Rap is only going to get you in trouble at an atheist's convention. (I mean, why anyone would want all this jargon taking up space in their heads is beyond us. Then again, why anyone would want all this jargon taking up space in their heads - so they can knowledgeably comment on it - is also a pickle we'd be better off tackling at another time.) Anywhere else, I guarantee you, this Q + A will get you pats on the back - no problem.
People listen to bad messages in music because they lack imagination. It's not their fault. They don't live in a stimulating environment (Even animals prefer being hit to no stimulation at all). Crate Diggers are driven by a desire for understanding the world of music's contours. Being exposed to everything destroys the hype. There's only two kinds of music - good and bad. The subject matter is up to you.
This isn't an unembarrassing Rap record, but Elvis Costello hooking up with The Roots' (and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon's) ?uest Love - who seems as determined as Elvis to hook up with everybody. Together they came up with this threadbare, oh I don't know, authentic fake I Am The Walrus rebellion, from Jamaica, for the masses. Or something. It's hard to tell because it just kinda lays there. I poked it with a stick and found it's not a bad song, if a bit under-produced. In the suburbs, on decks across the country, it has a shot at defining cool for a while. Everywhere else, it will be put out of it's misery quickly, except for the memory it happened. And that, too, will go soon enough. I can see why these two might share long phone calls, but not this.
Both this Rap and it's beat are throwbacks to the 70's tribal style of Gil Scott Heron and The Last Poets. Let's call it the sound of Rap's Community Organizer Contingent. The place where Obama feels deep, NewAgers start dancing (but not listening) and unarmed conservatives nervously start eyeing each other, remembering tales of cannibalism and old Tarzan movies. Not to fear. It's just a beat. Plus Democrats feed on themselves, which is why this guy's talking. You want to hear a message of self-reliance? Well here it is, twisted, on a Monday morning:
"It’s interesting the way most of the media has rallied to defend [Alec] Baldwin even as they rallied to destroy Paula Deen"
But, but - BUT - Reynolds doesn't seem to grasp he (as part of "the media") shouldn't be trying to destroy either one for talking:
See, he wrote that statement while linking to an article by Jim Treacher, attacking Baldwin, like Treacher and Reynolds are liberals ("that racist, misogynist homophobe Alec Baldwin.")
Tell me - is that irony, hypocrisy, or just a Baldwin-hating fad? Really, please, help me:
This is great because A) I haven't done a Madonna post in a looong time, and B) I can't stand Madonna. So, if you can grasp it, work with me to try and appreciate the full zen-like irony of this Kabbalah master's spiritual group working to create nothing:
A high-profile charitable foundation set up to build a school for impoverished girls in Malawi, founded by the singer Madonna and fellow devotees of a prominent Jewish mysticism movement, has collapsed after spending $3.8 million on a project that never came to fruition.
The board of directors of the organization, Raising Malawi, has been ousted and replaced by a caretaker board, including Madonna and her manager, officials with the organization said Thursday. Its executive director, who is the boyfriend of Madonna’s former trainer, Tracy Anderson, left in October amid criticism of his management style and cost overruns for the school. These included what auditors described as outlandish expenditures on salaries, cars, office space and a golf course membership, free housing and a car and driver for the school’s director.
Most strikingly, the plans to build a $15 million school for about 400 girls in the poor southeastern African country of 15 million — which had drawn financial support from Hollywood and society circles, as well as the Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre International, an organization devoted to Jewish mysticism — have been officially abandoned.
It honestly doesn't get any more metaphysical than this:
Madonna and her manager (!) sit on a charitable board, to help extremely poor girls, through building an already-overly-expensive school that will never exist.
Yes! Yes! Yes! I love it!
It's not as cool as Oprah's African "Leadership Academy" for girls, which resulted in rapes and lesbian relationships with the principal (and other horrible weirdness) only to have Oprah admit she was too busy, picking out drapes, to pick the staff, but it's close. I mean, if Madonna doesn't build it, who can get hurt, correct? (Of course, right after all that, Oprah gave one of her American audience's A NEW CARRRRR!!!! and then nobody cared about what happened to no stinkin' African kids.)
The choice of "the boyfriend of Madonna’s former trainer" as executive director is a nice touch as well. Message:
I might take the daring leap into full blown atheism. I was once a guy that read Tarot cards, believed in angels, played with pendulums and spent a fortune on books like "The Secret". I now have no doubt that all of that stuff is at best, a fun distraction and at worst, a dangerous delusion. I feel like my eyes are opening to a new level of personal truth and with that truth, ironically perhaps, my long-time depression is slowly dissolving and a boyhood sense of scientific wonder is re-appearing.
More and more, I want to get out of Los Angeles.
Yes, Sir. When you finally come to terms with reality, the last place you'll want to be is one of those so-called "power spots" or dream factories - where you can see the cogs turning and you're still treated worse than someone in the audience. Where you realize you're being used. What is anyone in any of those places for again?
While having a debate with a reader about George W. Bush, he gasped:
I've gotta say, I spend time on political message boards and the comments sections of news sites and partisan sites on both sides of the aisle, and there have been very few times I've overlapped with [a] level of adulation of the previous President that you express -- "love him as a great leader" and "one of the greatest leaders we've ever had" ... it's hard to believe you're serious.
Honestly I don't recall any, but there must have been an example or two stated without intentional irony. I just don't remember them specifically.
To which we say, well, there's not one iota of irony involved here. But we do understand the surprise, because - we're sure - most TMR readers aren't aware that (with our having served in the military) we've probably got a lot more history with the Bush family than most can imagine,...
TMR says both Meeks and Blatter are (mostly) correct, though we're only going to deal with Meeks' comments here. (Sorry, Robin - next time.)
Of course, Glenn Reynolds ironically (and wrongly) labeled Meeks' comments "WELCOME TO “POST-RACIAL” AMERICA" like he (Reynolds) knows anything about being post-racial.
Almost every statement Reynolds makes on race seems designed to keep the bullshit going - he can't conceive of either dropping it as a subject or redefining his views - which is why we lashed out (ironically) at he and Ann Althouse the way we did recently.
Both Reynolds and Althouse are fakers in this regard, and race has been been one of the main areas where both have bothered us for some time.
You can't read them, if you're black, and not have race (and many times class) rubbed in your face continuously.
They not only won't shut up about it but, as this latest comment shows, they always end up on the wrong side of "post-racial" progress.
Theirs is a racial outlook still based in 1960s "politically correct" ideology that should have no place in 2010-11 American thought.
The truth is Meeks was/is right. The fact the armies of political correctness have the power to make him feel pressured enough to back down (or that he's too pussy to stand by what he knows is right) is one of the shames of our time.
People forget that before Meeks spoke up, Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) had correctly said much the same thing in a Wall Street Journal essay entitled "Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege":
In an odd historical twist that all Americans see but few can understand, many programs allow recently arrived immigrants to move ahead of similarly situated whites whose families have been in the country for generations. These programs have damaged racial harmony. And the more they have grown, the less they have actually helped African-Americans, the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action as it was originally conceived.
The injustices endured by black Americans at the hands of their own government have no parallel in our history, not only during the period of slavery but also in the Jim Crow era that followed. But the extrapolation of this logic to all "people of color"—especially since 1965, when new immigration laws dramatically altered the demographic makeup of the U.S.—moved affirmative action away from remediation and toward discrimination, this time against whites. It has also lessened the focus on assisting African-Americans, who despite a veneer of successful people at the very top still experience high rates of poverty, drug abuse, incarceration and family breakup.
Those who came to this country in recent decades from Asia, Latin America and Africa did not suffer discrimination from our government, and in fact have frequently been the beneficiaries of special government programs. The same cannot be said of many hard-working white Americans, including those whose roots in America go back more than 200 years.
Where should we go from here? Beyond our continuing obligation to assist those African-Americans still in need, government-directed diversity programs should end.
Nondiscrimination laws should be applied equally among all citizens, including those who happen to be white. The need for inclusiveness in our society is undeniable and irreversible, both in our markets and in our communities. Our government should be in the business of enabling opportunity for all, not in picking winners. It can do so by ensuring that artificial distinctions such as race do not determine outcomes.
Memo to my fellow politicians: Drop the Procrustean policies and allow harmony to invade the public mindset. Fairness will happen, and bitterness will fade away.
"The more [these programs] have grown, the less they have actually helped African-Americans, the intended beneficiaries of affirmative action as it was originally conceived." To deny that truth is to deny blacks what is rightfully theirs, and to lie to society as a whole. When even popular law professors don't understand the dynamics at work in a overly-racialized (and, thus, occasionally silly) country such as ours, we doubt that many others will see where the proper role of racial programs should be, either.
We can "do the right thing" by blacks, accounting for historical injustices, while also eliminating race as a concept in our society - as a matter of fact, we should've been there already - but trying to batter down those trying to get it right, using the evil of political correctness, is definitely no way to go forward.
"I wonder whether irascible Democrats who rode around with those snazzy bumper stickers reading "He's not my president" for the past eight years realize the irony of their call for national harmony."
-- David Harsanyi, saying the kind of thing the Cult of Obama doesn't like to dwell on, for Real Clear Politics.
Barack Obama is now my president - and he's yours, too - so "spread the wealth around" in ways only you and I appreciate, and that's at:
"Although I'm sure this was meant ironically (although one can never be sure), somehow I don't think that linking Al Gore with Jesus is a particularly good idea."
-- Orac, on the silly new "follower" bag that's making the rounds, over at Respectful Insolence.
There's no such thing as karma either. Jeez.
And what would Al Gore do? He'd be a total hypocrite, of course (he can't break such a long-established pattern) which should make anyone who's smug enough to buy this stupid bag feel like they're doing the right thing. It can't miss.
And speaking of can't-miss hypocrisy:
Isn't this the exact same kind of thinking and behavior liberals complain about when Christians do it?
This is great because A) I haven't done a Madonna post in a looong time, and B) I can't stand Madonna. So, if you can grasp it, work with me to try and appreciate the full zen-like irony of this Kabbalah master's spiritual group working to create nothing:
It's not as cool as Oprah's African "Leadership Academy" for girls, which resulted in rapes and lesbian relationships with the principal (and other horrible weirdness) only to have Oprah admit she was too busy, picking out drapes, to pick the staff, but it's close. I mean, if Madonna doesn't build it, who can get hurt, correct? (Of course, right after all that, Oprah gave one of her American audience's A NEW CARRRRR!!!! and then nobody cared about what happened to no stinkin' African kids.) 
When you just can't do it any longer, this is what you're left with:
While having a debate with a reader about George W. Bush, he gasped:
Men today can be such cowards. 
Today James Meeks back-tracked on his statement that only blacks should be eligible for city contracts set aside for "minorities". 
Like FIFA president Sepp Blatter recently back-tracking on his statement that gays shouldn't be acting out in Qatar, this is stupid and wrong. 
TMR says both Meeks and Blatter are (mostly) correct, though we're only going to deal with Meeks' comments here. (Sorry, Robin - next time.)
Of course, Glenn Reynolds ironically (and wrongly) labeled Meeks' comments "WELCOME TO “POST-RACIAL” AMERICA" like he (Reynolds) knows anything about being post-racial. 
Almost every statement Reynolds makes on race seems designed to keep the bullshit going - he can't conceive of either dropping it as a subject or redefining his views - which is why we lashed out (ironically) at he and Ann Althouse the way we did recently. 
You can't read them, if you're black, and not have race (and many times class) rubbed in your face continuously. 
They not only won't shut up about it but, as this latest comment shows, they always end up on the wrong side of "post-racial" progress. 
They make it so we can't truly trust them on much in this regard. 
Theirs is a racial outlook still based in 1960s "politically correct" ideology that should have no place in 2010-11 American thought.
The truth is Meeks was/is right. The fact the armies of political correctness have the power to make him feel pressured enough to back down (or that he's too pussy to stand by what he knows is right) is one of the shames of our time. 
People forget that before Meeks spoke up, Senator Jim Webb (D-Virginia) had correctly said much the same thing in a Wall Street Journal essay entitled "Diversity and the Myth of White Privilege":
"I wonder whether irascible Democrats who rode around with those snazzy bumper stickers reading "He's not my president" for the past eight years realize the irony of their call for national harmony."
There's no such thing as karma either. Jeez. 