So much crime, from so few

Concerning the "Jena 6," I heard someone say that "blacks are criminals." A very harsh thing to say. And untrue.

I'm not one of those who believes that anyone is inherently criminal. But I do believe that the civil rights movement and blacks' unrelenting connection to it has painted them into a corner. And it's all about exploitation.

From the 1960s, an industry was built based on so-called "civil rights." The right to vote, the right to an education, the right to pursue your own life, yes, all of those things are well and good and entitled by God, and affirmed through the U.S. Constitution. But what emerged from the 1960s were people who found that they could make one hell of a good living riding the back of prejudice. Enter the NAACP, the ACLU, and others.

PROFESSIONALS
I'll save everyone a recap of the last 40 years. In the now of 2007, we see an attempt to return to the glory days of civil rights, this time with an exploitation of people and situations. A look at the Jena 6 flap is revealing.

The usual suspects of the civil righteous - Sharpton, Jackson, the NAACP, et.al. - have come out of the woodwork to flex their skin tone and get Mychal Bell released - regardless of what he has done. They're even applying pressure on the Louisiana governor to do so. In hearing their rhetoric, Bell has never done anything wrong, despite evidence that long before the Jena 6, Bell had been in trouble with the justice system (Bell was adjudicated in at least 3 violent crimes prior to the troubles at his high school, leading to his receiving harsher treatment than the rest).

I, for one, don't think for a moment that the aforementioned care a whit about Bell. They see him as a platform to further their "cause," which, by the way, is also their profession. Remember that.

With so much to gain personally, the questions to start asking concern the civil righteous' motives and intent.

INTENT VS RESULT
We can't know what's in someone's head as to intent. But what we can know are the results of actions: assuming Bell gets off from all charges (and considering the politics of the case, there's a good chance he will), he'll still be guilty of crimes, yet free from prosecution, free to commit more crimes.

Because blacks tend to self-segregate, Bell will in all likelihood return to this culture and be committing his crimes in that "'hood," against other blacks. Multiply this times any number of other people you care to, and we start to see why there's so much crime in black communities.

WORLDVIEW
Whites view another white's criminal actions as a very bad thing, and want to see that individual judged on his individual behavior, and punished accordingly. This is in concert with the overall message of the Bill of Rights - everything based on the individual. However, blacks seem to view another black's prosecution symbolically; that all blacks, including themselves, are being prosecuted for the actions of a single one. Of course, it's not the case, but this would explain why black juries tend to dismiss horrendous actions of other blacks in the face of walls of evidence. O.J. Simpson and blacks' hysterically joyous reactions to his freeing is a case in point.

SELF-INJURY
So there we have it: blacks want other blacks freed from the perceived racial injustice of the "white" justice system. However, they victimize themselves when these people return - unpunished, unreformed and unrepentant - to their lives in the black community, to the very places where these jurors live.

Blacks need a better distinction between "prosecution" and "persecution," lest they be taken advantage of by the prostitution of the likes of Sharpton, Jackson, and the NAACP.

Teen at center of 'Jena 6' case back in jail - USATODAY.com

Teen at center of 'Jena 6' case back in jail - USATODAY.com: "LaSalle Parish Judge J.P. Mauffrey sentenced Bell to a secure juvenile facility for 18 months for two prior cases said activist Al Sharpton, who had been working to release Bell. Bell, 17, was convicted earlier this year on a simple battery charge and for property damage in cases unrelated to the beating of the student.

"I call upon the Governor of Louisiana, who has the overseeing powers over the juvenile criminal justice system to meet with us to immediately intervene on this obviously biased decision by the same Judge," Sharpton said in a news release Thursday night."

Who else think that Bell should be released, but only under Sharpton's direct and personal supervision, meaning Bell has to reside in Sharpton's home with him?

More proof Bush is an idiot

FOXNews.com - Death Penalty Case Puts Bush and Texas at Odds Over Mexican's Fate - Local News |

The case of Jose Ernesto Medellin has become a confusing test of presidential power that the U.S. Supreme Court, which hears the case this week, ultimately will sort out.

The president wants to enforce a decision by the International Court of Justice that found the convictions of Medellin and 50 other Mexican-born prisoners violated their rights to legal help as outlined in the 1963 Vienna Convention.

That is the same court Bush has since said he plans to ignore if it makes similar decisions affecting state criminal laws.

"The president does not agree with the ICJ's interpretation of the Vienna Convention," the administration said in arguments filed with the court. This time, though, the U.S. agreed to abide by the international court's decision because ignoring it would harm American interests abroad, the government said.

Texas argues that neither the international court nor Bush has any say in Medellin's case.

Medellin was born in Mexico, but spent much of his childhood in the United States. He was 18 in June 1993, when he and other members of the Black and Whites gang in Houston encountered two teenage girls on a railroad trestle.The girls were gang-raped and strangled. Their bodies were found four days later.

Medellin was arrested a few days later. He was told he had a right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, but the police did not tell him that he could request assistance from the Mexican consulate.

Medellin gave a written confession. He was convicted of murder in the course of a sexual assault, a capital offense in Texas. A judge sentenced him to death in October 1994.

22 homicides in a month brings 'chaos' - Examiner.com

22 homicides in a month brings 'chaos' - Examiner.com:
"“What we need is people’s outrage toward the violence in the city to be directed toward working with the police to put an end to it,” Clifford said. “This young man was shot in broad daylight along a busy street. There should be a line of people waiting to tell police what happened and what they saw.”"

And herein lies the problem: no outrage, except for the petty, juvenile silliness that took place in Jena, Louisiana. Especially telling, the young man shot in broad daylight was a student of Morgan State University, the same place where students mobilized and took a civil rights party train to Louisiana. They should have walked down to City Hall and protested the shootings. Stupid.

Filmmaker's excess political donations draw fine -- baltimoresun.com

Excess political donations draw fine -- baltimoresun.com: "Robinson used 20 corporations in which he is the sole stockholder to give $34,000 to Gov. Martin O'Malley's campaign, $58,000 to Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown's campaign and $33,000 to Peter Franchot's campaign for state comptroller. Robinson also contributed $4,000 in his name to Franchot's campaign."

On Congress

We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex--but Congress can.
- Cullen Hightower

Televised Debates

Here's a quote from comedian Gallagher that I thought was well-applied to televised political debates:

"Don't you wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There's one marked 'Brightness,' but it doesn't work. "