Month: October 2009

Over the weekend, George Will remarked:

Eighty percent of the revenue of the Mexican cartels is marijuana. If you really want to go after the Mexican cartels—and I’m not saying that’s the only criterion for public policy— you’d legalize marijuana.

Jacob Sullum sees this as a small step forward:

It's not clear that Will welcomes legal gambling, legal prostitution, and legal pot, but at least he understands how prohibition strengthens organized crime. And even if he doesn't support legalization yet, at least it's in his vocabulary. Unfortunately, Will did not stop there. "There is one problem," he said later in the discussion, reporting that he had learned from a recent conversation with drug czar Gil Kerlikowske that "marijuana is getting much better." He did not explain why that's a problem.

A reader writes:

As a native Scandinavian, (not to mention loyal daily reader and fellow European-American transplant) I wanted to point out some things about the article about Tingbjerg to which you linked. The article is nothing more than an entirely one-sided portrait of an issue, albeit a well-written one. Mr. Bawer describes

Copenhagen as something resembling a war zone, adding that "things are considerably worse in many other European cities (such as Bradford and Malmö)." I have lived in both Copenhagen and Malmö, and I can assure you that this is pure hyperbole.

In linking to Human Rights Service, I think some context regarding the organization is needed. 

While there is little doubt that failure of integration is a major problem in Europe, and one that is rarely adequately discussed with enough honesty, I would not rely on HRS for my information. The organization has strong links to Fremskrittspartiet, the Norwegian anti-immigration party. According to Norwegian Wikipedia, HRS has been criticized by anti-racist organizations as "a clearly immigrant-hostile organization" and "a right-populist, muslim-phobic interest group" My translations from Norwegian). HRS has also called the Norwegian government ombudsman for anti-discrimination and equality "the ombudsman for Islam and discrimination" (I'm assuming against white Norwegians).

The articles on the HRS web site describe a Europe that does not exist. Europe is no more being taken over by millions of extremely violent fundamentalist Muslims than the United States is being taken over by drug-dealing, Communist Black Power radicals intent on . Sure, all of those people exist, but they are not seizing power. You frequently comment on why the Republicans have moved from small government conservatism to white, right wing populism. Why do you not apply that same analytical approach to the sometimes hateful propaganda supplied by Mr. Bawer and HRS?

Again, I'm not doubting the facts of the case in Tingbjerg, but if I described my neighborhood in Brooklyn, or my old one in Oakland, California, with those same black-tinted glasses, you would think that the United States is in immediate danger of succumbing to gun-wielding, crack-smoking African Americans who only speak ebonics and non-English-speaking Latinos who are invading, one border jumper at the time.

Also, it's "Tingbjerg", not "Tinjberg."

From Washington, it's very hard to know for sure the details of any particular case. But Bruce Bawer is not in any way a racist or Islamophobic. He's concerned about core civil equality and toleration. And I'm happy to post alternative views of the same set of facts. Pnce the HV ban is lifted, I hope to be able to visit Europe again to see for myself in so far as I can.

Dreher pivots off Ta-Nehisi’s post on race, class, obesity and shame:

Reading Coates’s piece made me reflect on the love-hate relationship I have with the South, which is my native culture. It’s not that I carry around with me a burden of shame and an “I’ve got to show them” competitive mentality, as Coates does with reference to blackness. Living in the North for so long — and culturally speaking, Washington DC and South Florida are the North — made me appreciate what was deeply good about the South. That’s something I didn’t see when I was a young man, and could only see its flaws. Maybe I came to terms with my inner redneck; in any case, I came to see rednecks with a lot more nuance than I did before.

And being around Northern white people, so many of whom were full of self-congratulation about their social progressivism, not realizing how provincial and bigoted they were, made me profoundly identify with Randy Newman’s famous satirical song “Rednecks.” It really is true, I think, that the only kind of person its perfectly safe to piss on in smart company is white working-class Southerners. “Sweet Home Alabama” is the classic, anthemic f-you by people who don’t think they have a damned thing to be ashamed of. I love this song because it makes me forget that I chose to leave, and am something of a fraud and a poseur because of it.

And yet, when the South keeps coming up last in many quality of life measures — health, education, unwed births, etc. — it’s hard to deny that there’s something particularly wrong with us. It’s redneck culture — white rednecks and black rednecks both, people who live chaotic lives, dwell on grievance and resentment, and despise boring bourgeois standards of sobriety, order and respectability. It seems like we can’t overcome it.

Michael Wolff does his usual stuff on the Obama-Ailes dust-up. This is a pretty hilarious set-up on Ailes:

Before getting to my relative affection for Ailes, let me note that he will be 73 in 2012; he’s vastly overweight (and sensitive about it); he has health problems and can’t walk very well; he’s ghoulish looking; he’s deeply and nuttily paranoid (he discusses freely, albeit in lowered voice, the plans of radical Muslims to storm his house in New Jersey); and he may not be capable of doing 15 minutes without an offensive utterance.

Run, Roger! Run! And who doesn't pine for the "relative affection" of Michael Wolff?

Goldblog goes to bat for Dalia Mogahed, who was recently smeared as a radical by Hannity and others for misconstrued remarks made on a TV show hosted by a member of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an extremist Muslim group:

Well, I know Dalia Mogahed, and if she’s a Muslim extremist, then I’m the King of Sweden. From  everything I can see, Dalia went on the show in her role as a pollster, and, in the conversation, stuck to her polling data.

I’ve heard her present the same findings she presented on British television on two separate occasions. I’m sure some people are freaked out by Dalia’s appearance — she covers her hair and dresses very traditionally, though she is not a “veiled woman” in the language of some of the more ridiculous posts on the subject — but I know her as a devout, modest and sensible woman, someone who likes being American very much, and someone who even has — shocking though it may seem — Jews to her home at Ramadan (that would be moi, along with Mrs. Goldblog and several smaller Goldblogs).  Do we agree on much? Nah, especially on Middle East politics. But so what? I don’t agree with this guy on everything, and I don’t think he’s a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir.

One key difference between American Muslims and British Muslims — and this is a massive over-generalization, of course — is that American Muslims seem to like their country very much. Obviously, there are pockets of Muslim extremism in America and I’m all for watching the extremists, and arresting them if needed — but Dalia doesn’t live in one of those pockets. In fact, she is quite often criticized by Muslim radicals as a “sell-out.” Most recently, she was attacked for speaking at an iftar (the Ramadan break-fast meal) at the Pentagon. She’s stuck in the responsible middle, in other words. Right where many thinking people find themselves these days.

Indian Sikh models walk the ramp during the Mr Singh International 2009 Turban Pride Fashion Show on the outskirts of Amritsar on October 26, 2009. A total of 64 contestants from various parts of India participated in the event. By Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images.

Krugman places his bet on health reform winning over voters. Meanwhile, the GOP appears to be basing its 2010 campaign around a mix of earmark reform proposals and promising to cancel remaining stimulus money.

A reader writes:

I believe it was August when you posted a request for people reading your blog to subscribe to the print version of "The Atlantic."  Despite being unemployed and living at my mother's house back home in Michigan, I plunked down the $14.95 for a year-long subscription and received the October issue in the mail a couple weeks ago.  I only today got around to reading it.

Thank you for reminding me that the magazine was available in print form, not just online.  How remarkably refreshing.  There's something to be said for having an actual piece of writing that you can feel with your hands, especially one so well written.  I spent two hours reading, not distracted by IMs,

Tweets, email notifications, or Facebook posts.

(Text messages are another story; I'll have to remember to turn off my phone next time.) And I still only managed to get through barely half of the contents.

I'm just now realizing how the way that I intake information has caused me to develop ADHD-like qualities.  My attention span has dwindled to a pathetic level.  My need for constant and quick inputs of information makes me have to focus just to get past the abstract of a news article.  Because of this, I'm making a concerted effort to slow myself down and actually digest the information that is coming at me.  And reading articles on actual paper instead of off my glaring computer screen is one of my methods to reverse this trend.  It won't happen overnight, but thanks for reminding me of the importance of print media, even if it's a dying species.

A reader writes:

Aaron Renn says that "progressive cities" like Portland, Seattle, Austin, Minneapolis, and Denver having less African Americans than the national average "raises troubling questions."

Seattle has a small black community, but very large Asian and Indian communities (from India).  The conclusion that everyone who is not black is white makes his article not about diversity but his own narrowness of view.

Another writes:

Moved to a Seattle suburb two years ago from Nashville, TN.  At first, I was struck by the lack of African Americans–and in particular, black-owned businesses.  There is an odd, "let's not talk about race attitude here"…which comes from a "we're beyond it" place, but often smacks of "not wanting to deal with it." HOWEVER, Seattle has quite the diverse population:  the 4th largest Asian population in the U.S.  And, mixed marriage is so commonplace it goes virtually unnoticed.  (Can't say that about the South–where "miscegenation" still turns heads). And speaking of diversity, estimates for Seattle's gay population vary but are placed as high as 12.9%.

According to these numbers from 2005, Seattle's black population is 8%, with an Asian population of 14% and Hispanic population of 6%. Another reader addresses the bigger picture:

The idea that all American cities should have a set percentage of blacks is not only a fundamental misunderstanding of the word “diversity,” as Joyner notes, but a surprisingly ignorant of history and people in general.  Did I miss the part of my history class where there was a post-slavery migration of blacks to Denver (little more than a village of cowboys and railroad workers in the 1860s)?  Or the part about the plantations in Minneapolis?  Of course those cities don’t have as many blacks as Pittsburgh.  There was no reason for freed slaves to travel to Seattle or these other cities – many of which were barely on the map at all in 1865.  Like all migrating peoples, African-Americans followed geography, opportunity, and personal connections. 

The pathways originally blazed by the underground railroad didn’t go through Austin or Portland, they went through what is now the rust belt, what was then the locus of industry.  So, yes, if one ignores history, culture, community, economics, and physical geography, blacks should have spread out evenly throughout the United States.  And Arizona and North Dakota should have the same number of Latinos, San Francisco and Des Moines should have proportionally sized Chinatowns, and St. Paul and New Orleans should have equal number of people with Scandinavian heritage.

Conor Friedersdorf points to recent drug violence in Brazil and Mexico in his call for ending prohibition in the US:

Rio’s favelas [slums] date back to Brazil's abolition of slavery in the 19th century. The causes of poverty, crime, and dysfunction in the city are too myriad to list. It is nevertheless true that American demand for illegal narcotics bankrolls murderers, rapists, paramilitary terror squads, and all manner of other ills in the country. Absent the enormous sum our citizens pour into a black market that is largely of our creation, countless Brazilian lives would be better, Rio would be safer, and we’d all be better off.