The news is full of a memorandum of understanding towards a formal end of hostilities between The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America.
Excellent!
Hopefully Iran means it this time and we can stop blowing them up.
I've said before that I would be far happier if our nations were friends.
I hope it's possible.
I doubt it will be as long as even a thread of the leadership from before we started dropping bombs is still in charge of the place.
The more I dig into the problem, the more convinced I am that much of "racism" is conflict of culture and not any actual failing of any particular string of genes.
Are blacks stupid? Are whites smart?
Probably not.
But to make a bad analogy: How far are you going to get using Apple Basic to program an IBM?
It's not going to work.
Western Civilization is a framework of values. Use that framework and you're guaranteed a level of success and comfort within it.
Perhaps not great wealth, but you will not starve.
There are some cultures which cannot work within that framework.
There are some which almost work within it.
Because Western Civ is a culture of education and science, it tends to accumulate wealth and advance technology.
That wealth has allowed some "almost" cultures to exist within it. It's propped up more than a couple non compatible cultures too.
The people in these cultures are currently successful in spite of their native culture, not because of it, thanks to the largess generated by The West.
The problem is they think they are successful because they've been told all cultures are equivalent.
The gigantic problem is that all cultures are not equivalent.
It didn't used to be a problem.
Once upon a time there was a vast, and brutal, education program running in America which took people from other cultures and got them up to speed with Western Civ.
It was called "The Melting Pot."
If you ask a teacher today, they will describe something sitting on a stove making a stew-like mixture.
That wasn't the original meaning.
It was a crucible.
The good from the outside culture was burned out and absorbed into the, stronger, alloy of American culture. The bad, the slag, was discarded.
Our long, festering, issue in America is and has been actively preventing black people from assimilating into American culture.
This is where there's genuine racism.
But you didn't need to be a racist to see that a slave assimilated into western culture wouldn't be a good manual laborer.
But! BUT! BUT! Western civilization, with its idealism and embracing of freedom and liberty had slowly been coming to the idea that slavery is wrong.
What better way to convince yourself that it was still OK to keep that peculiar institution going than to promote the idea that the slaves were incapable of being equal members of American civilization?
An idea promoted so well that the very people most oppressed by the concept have bought into it so fully I despair at the task of fixing that lie.
The idea that it's their genes and not the subculture is something that creeps into, otherwise, rational people's thoughts.
Why?
Because membership in this subculture requires one to be of the no longer enslaved race.
How does this subculture react to its members coming to the same conclusion as I have? It curses them and tries to drag them back in, like crabs in a cookpot keeping others from escaping if they are doomed.
It's ingrained.
The good news is that it wouldn't take but two generations to unfuck.
BUT! (again with the buts)
We have to decide to fire up the melting pot and let it work its brutal magic. And make no mistake, it will be brutal.
At the end, though, we could have black skin have no more meaning than having auburn hair or green eyes.
We've come so very close more than once.
Every time it's been actively sabotaged by "people" with strong incentives to keep the status quo. People who have convinced themselves that blacks are incapable of being full members of society because of genetic failings. Gee, that sounds familiar, Mr Crow!
While we're on the topic of bigotry and why I think that the concept has merit:
Italians, Irish and Catholics.
They were subjected to as bad (some even say worse) discrimination and abuse than any free-black person endured. In some cases, being Irish was worse than being a black slave. A slave, being property, had some value to their owner. Irish laborers were considered disposable. If one were to die, you'd shrug and get two more off the dock. YOU DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO PAY FOR THEM!!!
But the Irish went from filthy Micks to identifiable surname in about two generations.
TWICE!
Italians, same thing.
Catholicism took JFK to assimilate, but that had more to do with the idea of obeying The Pope than a real hatred. Americans used to be distrustful of someone who had extra-territorial allegiances.
We know, in our hearts, that it's possible.
PS: Reading the history of a couple of places in Africa convinces me even more that it's a culture issue than anything else. Rhodesia might be another example of where it was actively prevented from happening. The white government repeatedly stated that the black population was "not ready" for full enfranchisement. That they lacked the education to handle the responsibility of the vote.
Well, Zimbabwe kind of underscores what they said would happen if majority rule was implemented before such education was disseminated. But, then, Communists never did value education when there was a population to subjugate.
Gum chewing lawsuit can proceed.
As a sufferer of misophonia, I applaud this decision and hope she gets paid.
I know the stress it puts on all my friends and family when I'm past my saturation point and can't take it anymore.
Watching Texas come out of the water here:
I recall that Russia lost a floating drydock a while back and they're hung up and can't work on their big ship in the mean time.
We, on the other hand, have enough of the things to tie up one to fix on a museum piece for a year.
America is still doing OK. We just need to stop the sabotage.
Judging by all of the indicators that The People are fed up with how things are going and wish to change from The Evil Party to The Stupid Party in November...
We should have a decent majority in both Congressional houses coming.
The thing is, with the whispered news coming from Arizona and Michigan that the 2020 election was, indeed, fucked with...
2022 is a test to see if the system really is rigged and that the soap and ballot boxes have failed; leaving only one box left.
Well informed voters and honest elections are king pins of this Republic.
The latter is far more important than the former.
The LA Times admits that Benitez's ruling is probably going to stand.
One quote stands out, "Newsom contends that the AR-15 is “nothing more than a weapon of war.”"
Let's go there, Gavin!
I direct you to Miller v US where the case was remanded back to the lower court because nobody could show that a sawed-off shotgun was a weapon of war.
If Miller had been busted for having a BAR, the entire NFA would have been gutted like a trout in 1939.
So, pull at that thread, Gavin; the only thing that's kept it from being reaffirmed is the court's ignoring the 2nd Amendment and a flat refusal to incorporated it under the 14th.
Cue Bob Dylan...
The times, they are a changin'.
Thanks! Cocaine Mitch! because the 9th Circuit, today, doesn't look like it did thirty years ago.
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