UPDATED: BHO’s ‘Blackism’ (& Boorishness)

Barack Obama, Political Philosophy, Pseudo-intellectualism, Race, Racism

There is a “difference between learning a culture and learning the ideology that is abstracted from it,” explains Jack kerwick, with reference to what he terms Barack Obama’s Blackism. “The difference between culture and ideology is the difference between a living faith and a static creed.”

“Blackism is an ideology,” contends kerwick. “The Blackist sees the entire world, from ‘the beginning,’ so to speak, to the present, in terms of racial categories, yes, but, more importantly, from the perspective of black deprivation. Race is the organizing principle of his schemata…the ideology of Blackism is not to be confused with black culture. This, though, isn’t to suggest that there is no relationship between the two. There is: the former is a caricature or abridgment of the latter. …”

“That is, like any other ideology, the ideology of Blackism is an abstraction from a complex, concrete, historically-specific tradition. In this case, the tradition in question is that of what we call black culture.”

Blackism, like any other ideology, supplies for its adherents a method, a relatively few basic principles or rules to which any black person living in any place and at any time can subscribe. To put it more clearly, unlike so-called black culture, Blackism doesn’t require immersion in a traditional form of life. Fluency in a culture is like fluency in a language; it is a hard won achievement that can be had only after much practice and over an extended period of time. Mastery of an ideology, in glaring contrast, is something that can be gotten within no time, for the rules or principles of an ideology are propositions that readily lend themselves to memory.

Obama has embraced “Blackism” for obvious reasons. Read “Obama and the Ideology of Blackism”; it’s a most provocative and thoughtful piece.

UPDATE (April 19): I agree with George. I don’t know if Kerwick presumes intelligence, but BHO is most certainly not overly intelligent, and he is certainly no intellectual, as I tried to show in ‘You Can’t Fix Stupid.’

Step Closer to Nationalizing Natural Gas

Barack Obama, Constitution, Energy, Ethics, Government, Regulation, Socialism

As America, led by the mindless media, fusses and frets over the parasites and the prostitutes—the poor women have been stiffed by the worms, as in not always paid for services rendered—news comes, via the SPPI Blog (hat tip to Roger Chaillet), that BHO has surreptitiously issued a Presidential Executive Order:

The Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources Executive Order seeks to create what amounts to a Presidential super committee that will oversee the regulation and development of the ‘unconventional’ natural gas industry for the purpose of ensuring a long-term natural gas supply for the United States, as well as to do so in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

Expect energy costs to go up some more, although the last is the least of our problems.

Politicians Are Not Patriots; Prostitutes, On The Other Hand…

Crime, Ethics, Etiquette, Government, Labor, Media, The State

If regular visits with prostitutes kept the political class from launching trillion-dollar war- and welfare programs, and financing Fanny, Freddy and the Fed—I would personally contribute to a prostitution fund.

These prostitutes would be patriots.

(I mean no offense to prostitutes in this post. They are self-reliant, tough people who provide a necessary, if unsavory, service. I use “prostitute” here purely as a convention.)

A million here and there for a good time; that’s nothing in the grand scheme of the crimes committed by the Empire’s foot-soldiers and stooges and the cost of these crimes.

I’m referring to the latest storm in a C-Cup over which big media is having a conniption. It is the scandal at Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, last Saturday, currently being finessed as an “alleged misconduct” and as a mere “incident.”

“The Secret Service sent home some of its agents for misconduct that occurred at the hotel before President Barack Obama’s arrival on Friday for the Summit of the Americas.” The scandal involves at least 10 members of the U.S. special forces, no less.

Wouldn’t you like to be “sent home” when you blow an assignment at work and leave the tab for the boss?

Note that not once did Dana Bash of CNN or Bret Baer of Fox News float the concept of firing the oink-sector scum. All share an understanding that no one who serves Uncle Sam and his agencies ever gets dismissed or disgraced. TSA pimps have license to fondle a crippled child or feel up the scarred breast tissue of a cancer survivor at the nation’s airports–and their identities and jobs remain protected.

Yeah, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.”

Another minor scandal, where dismissing the detritus involved does not seem to be an option, is the General Services Administration’s $800,000 Las Vegas orgy at our expense, with GSA official Jeffrey Neely at the helm. Wouldn’t you know it? Mr. Neely “just invoked his fifth amendment rights and refused to answer any questions in the committee’s inquiry.”

As to the safety of the parasites and whether it was compromised by the prostitutes: I hope so. I want working for government to be one of the most dangerous jobs ever (unfortunately, the honest work of fishermen earns that distinction).

UPDATED: IRS Survivors (Fleeing Police State USA)

Founding Fathers, Ilana Mercer, Law, Liberty, Natural Law, Taxation

Writer Christopher Sandford describes his interactions with the Internal Revenue Service as “dealing with a simultaneously incompetent and psychotically aggressive opponent.” “What is beyond a doubt is that our relentlessly progressive and humanely empathetic leader had done precious little for the rights of those of us who find ourselves caught in the spokes of his infernal government machinery. Indeed, he and his government myrmidons have frequently spoken of their intention to pursue the allegedly noncompliant taxpayer to the very brink of that unhappy individuals’ endurance and sanity. That most certainly is part of Obama’s record.” (Writing in the April issue of Chronicles Magazine.)

“Think the IRS can’t send you to prison?,” warns CBS’ Survivor winner Richard Hatch in a timely television commercial. “The IRS sends people to prison and they’re not celebrities. If you owe the IRS $10,000 or more, call for your free tax consultation NOW. Listen, I went to prison for over four years, and you don’t want to,” Hatch tells potential victims.

The US government exercises a brutal tax-enforcement regimen. As a police state, it regularly finds citizens guilty of crimes absent the intent to commit a crime—the legal imperative of mens rea.

The “taxpayer,” compliant or not, however, must accurately be described as an innocent, non-aggressive property owner, who has the natural right to keep what he has worked for, or what was voluntarily bequeathed to him.

In the case of the so-called “non-compliant” victim of this armed and dangerous syndicate—the state—his actions have been criminalized, even though his alleged crime, more often than not, was unintentional; he did not mean to “deprive” his masters of the spoils of his labor.

Going by Thomas Jefferson, we live under tyranny, for as this founder said, “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

UPDATED (April 17): Fleeing Police State USA. Special Report: Tax time pushes some Americans to take a hike.