From WorldNetDaily, October 6, 2003:

“On all the matters that touch upon the critical moral issues, Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the evil side. This is a fact. A mere list of the positions he supports is enough to make this plain: abortion as a ‘right,’ cloning of human beings, governmental classification of citizens by race, public benefits for sexual partners outside of marriage, disrespect for property rights against environmental extremism, repudiation of the right to bear arms — no more need be said to show that this candidate is wrong where human decency, human rights and human responsibility bear directly on political issues.” [my emphasis]

What changed?

Posted by La Shawn @ 12:50 pm
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Fringe does a beautiful job showcasing this week’s submissions to the Carnival of the Vanities.

Christian Carnival is up at Parablemania. I wish I had the time to comment on a few of these submissions. I may do so sometime tomorrow, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, go give a blogger some love.

Posted by La Shawn @ 7:10 am
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Either Alan Keyes has lost his mind, or he’s getting back at The Man. You may have heard of The Man. He’s responsible for all that ails the black community.

Keyes is now a slave reparations proponent. A commenter at Ramblings’ Journal suggested (tongue-in-cheek?) that Keyes may be taking revenge on the Illinois GOP for using him as a token. I wasn’t following this story because frankly, I couldn’t care less about Keyes or the race in Illinois; however, now that I’m thinking about it, I can’t figure out why else Keyes would support such nonsense.

This is why I’m not a liberal, and I thought it was the reason why Keyes wasn’t a liberal. Without the ability to read his mind, I have no idea why he’s supporting reparations. The possibility that gets top billing is his desire, subconscious or otherwise, to mock the GOP while garnering publicity for himself.

According to the Chicago Tribune (registration req.):

Speaking at a news conference at the Hotel InterContinental in Chicago, Republican Keyes added to his now familiar talking points his stance on slavery reparations.

Prompted by a reporter’s question, Keyes gave a brief tutorial on Roman history and said that in regard to reparations for slavery, the U.S. should do what the Romans did: “When a city had been devastated [in the Roman empire], for a certain length of time — a generation or two — they exempted the damaged city from taxation.”

Keyes proposed that for a generation or two, African-Americans of slave heritage should be exempted from federal taxes — federal because slavery “was an egregious failure on the part of the federal establishment.” In calling for the tax relief, Keyes appeared to be reaching out to capture the black vote, something that may prove difficult to do, particularly after his unwelcome reception at the Bud Billiken Day Parade Saturday.

>> Read more

Posted by La Shawn @ 7:00 am
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Just kidding, Mrs. Williams!

I may get to meet Walter Williams tomorrow at the Cato Institute’s “Affirmative Action after Michigan” policy forum. Williams will moderate a panel of speakers representing different organizations (People for the American Way? Aren’t they communists?) If you’re in town, I’ll see you there. If not, you can listen or watch live online.

You might hear my disembodied voice asking a question on the pretense of challenging one of the speakers, but all I’m really doing is plugging my blog. Confession is good for the soul. Just kidding…

This is a wonderful opportunity to listen, learn, take notes and gather material for blogging and column-ing. And network. Blurb from Cato:

One year after the Supreme Court decided twin affirmative action cases involving the University of Michigan, colleges across the country have retooled their systems to comply with the Court’s decision. Because legal questions about preferential admissions policies are largely settled, policymakers must focus on important recent studies about the practical effects of affirmative action. Does affirmative action raise the incomes of minority students? Does it reduce minority graduation rates at selective schools? Join several scholars for a crucial update on recent legal and policy developments.

I’m going to pretend to be somebody important and try to get involved in the discussion. The forum begins at 4:00 p.m. EST with a reception to follow. That’s when I’ll make my move!

Just kidding., Mrs. Williams!

Posted by La Shawn @ 12:50 pm
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If you heart GWB, show your support for the president and click on the link to buy “I heart GWB” merchandise: yoga pants, and t-shirts, even tiny tees for babies. Go check it out!

Posted by La Shawn @ 12:23 pm
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Not really. The headline is just the opposite (the plan is to remove troops), but it may as well read that way, for all the substance and integrity John Kerry brings to anything he has to offer America. He’d “attack” the plan no matter what it was. Whatever President Bush wants to do, Kerry would do the contrary.

For example, if Bush suddenly favored skin color preferences, the Kerry sound bite you’d hear is,"How outrageous! Race discrimination is anathema to our Constitution. Speaking of the Constitution, I fought in Vietnam under Old Glory to secure the rights of all Americans. I won three Purple Hearts, and my crewmates and I…”

If Bush concluded that government schools needed a few billion more tax dollars and that he was dismantling his school accountability law, No Child Left Behind, Kerry would cry, “How outrageous! While Bush lounges at Kennebunkport, your hard-earned dollars are being wasted in a decaying public school system. Speaking of decay, I know all about decay. I fought in Vietnam under Old Glory to secure the rights of all Americans. I won three Purple Hearts, and my crewmates and I…”

For this week at least, he opposes Bush’s plan to withdraw 70,000 American troops from Europe and Asia. Why? According to the article, the plan will send “the wrong message to countries like North Korea, where the United States has been working to deter Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programs.”

He will enlighten the Veterans of Foreign Wars at a convention in Ohio. Bush announced his plan to the same group on Monday. John Kerry is a screeching squirrel. That’s all the time (and maturity) I need to “analyze” his opinions.

Posted by La Shawn @ 12:06 pm
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I just finished a radio interview on the “The Lynne Breidenbach Show” on WTWB Florida Talks. Lynne contacted me after reading the NRO article.

Her voice made me think of Janet Parshall, who I really like. I thought we were going to talk about the Kerry attack ads apprearing on black radio stations. I’m sort of glad we didn’t. Instead, we talked about the weblogging phenomenon, the need for more bloggers like the Conservative Brotherhood, why blacks keep voting for Democrats, etc. I announced the blog address over the air a few times.

With each show I’m less nervous. Before long, Rush will be calling me to sit in for him. Can you imagine?

Posted by La Shawn @ 5:45 pm
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“Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.”

People who believe in Christ and have given their lives over to him know they have divine purposes in life. Would you want to know the specifics, as John the Baptist knew? He was born to announce the coming of the Messiah. Can you imagine such a mission? In Mark 1 we read:

John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “There comes One after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (1-11)

John, a distant cousin of Jesus, had the honor of being his forerunner, the one who prepared the way. Read more about John’s mission. His birth also was foretold.

But John was beheaded for the faith. King Herod jailed him because he dared show “intolerance” toward the king. John informed him that it was unlawful to be married to his own brother’s wife. The king’s wife wanted John killed, but the king refused. He knew John was a righteous man and feared him. But… >> Read more

Posted by La Shawn @ 12:40 pm
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Posted by La Shawn @ 7:11 am
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The gangs of Virginia. Who would’ve thought that Virginia would one day have a growing gang problem? Usually a southwest/southeast D.C. phenomenon, violent thug group activity has increased across the river.

But these gang members aren’t black; they’re Hispanic, mostly illegal aliens. Not only are they shooting and knifing each other on the street in broad daylight (and killing bystanders), their very presence on the street is illegal.

Michelle Malkin’s blog is the first place you should visit to find resources and information about the horde of illegal immigrants crowding out the nation’s public schools, draining its health care system and committing crime. Yesterday she cited a City Journal article by Heather Mac Donald, “The Immigrant Gang Plague”:

Federal law enforcement officials in Virginia are tracking with alarm the spread of gang violence from Northern Virginia west into the Shenandoah Valley and south toward Charlottesville, a trend so disturbing that they secured federal funds this May to stanch the mayhem. “This is beyond a regional problem. It is, in fact, a national problem,” said FBI assistant director Michael Mason, head of the bureau’s Washington field office.

Open-borders apologists dismiss the Hispanic crime threat by observing that black crime rates are even higher. True, but irrelevant: the black population is not growing, whereas Hispanic immigration is reaching virtually every part of the country, sometimes radically changing local demographics. With a felony arrest rate up to triple that of whites, Hispanics can dramatically raise community crime levels.

Many cops and youth workers blame the increase in gang appeal on the disintegration of the Hispanic family. The trends are worsening, especially for U.S.-born Hispanics. In California, 67 percent of children of U.S.-born Hispanic parents lived in an intact family in 1990; by 1999, that number had dropped to 56 percent. The percentage of Hispanic children living with a single mother in California rose from 18 percent in 1990 to 29 percent in 1999. Nationally, single-parent households constituted 25 percent of all Hispanic households with minor children in 1980; by 2000, the proportion had jumped to 34 percent.

Bad news.

I don’t know how the Virginia Attorney General’s or U.S. Attorney’s Offices are set up, but they should follow the lead of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. Under the direction of the former U.S. Attorney, Wilma Lewis (a Bill Clinton appointee), the office created the Gang and Intelligence Unit (re-named Organized Crime and Narcotics Trafficking) in the late 1990s. Notorious gangs were prosecuted under federal law, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. If there wasn’t enough evidence to put thugs away for murder (they often killed witnesses), they’d be put away for life for racketeering.

You hardly ever read gang-related stories in D.C. involving black gangs these days. Hispanic gangs dominate the headlines.

Washington Post (registration req.) gang-related stories:

— Assistant Prosecutor To Focus On Gangs
— Killing at N.Va. Party May Be Tied to Gang
— Va. Man Guilty Of Gang Activity
— Va. Teenager Pleads Guilty in Machete Attack

As Virginia’s law enforcement units struggle to handle this mess, I wonder if it will occur to them to deport the criminals back where they came from? We’ll see.

Addendum: At least Virginians (legal residents) get to protect themselves with firearms, unlike D.C. residents.

Posted by La Shawn @ 7:05 am
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It seems there’s no end to the opportunities to promote your blog!

Jeremy at Parablemania hosts the next Christian Carnival. I assume the deadline is Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. (EST?), but check with him.

Jeremiah over at Fringe blog hosts the upcoming Carnival of the Vanities. Submissions are due Tuesday by 11:30 p.m. (EST, PST? Who knows? Ask him!)

And don’t forget to join Carnival of the Bush Bloggers. Submissions for the Monday showcase are due every Friday.

I keep forgetting about the Watcher’s Council. Visit the site for details about submitting links.

Posted by La Shawn @ 7:11 pm
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Golden boy Barack “He speaks so well!” Obama seems to be well-liked by many. My aunt even ordered me to “leave him alone” after reading this post about him last month. (Can’t do it, P!)

Obama will most likely become America’s 5th black United States senator. A typical liberal, he voted pro-infanticide in the Illinois Senate, as I’m sure he’ll continue to do on the federal level if given an opportunity. Just a guess. I suspect that rogue groups will continue to challenge President Bush’s Partial Birth Abortion Ban as “unconstitutional.” Poor babies.

Jill Stanek, a former abortion nurse who testified before the Illinois Senate in favor of legislation defining all live born babies as legal persons, describes Obama:

I now know Obama’s mannerisms well, the way he leans back in his chair, thoughtfully rests his chin in his hand, and with Daschle-like softness of voice, skillfully reasons that allowing live aborted babies to die is necessary to protect the rights of aborting mothers and aborting doctors.

Obama lists no religious affiliation on his site, and I’m not about to guess on that one. Even if he considered himself a Christian, it wouldn’t stop him from voting pro-death, strangely enough. I wrote about this phenomenon in a column titled “Christians” Oppose Partial Birth Abortion Ban. Warning: Another former abortion nurse describes an infanticidal act in detail.

Also see “Keyes Bashes Obama’s Views on Abortion.”

(Hat tip: Aaron, The Liberal Slayer)

Posted by La Shawn @ 6:27 pm
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Christian blogger Joshua Claybourn’s mother has died. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Posted by La Shawn @ 5:28 pm
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Update (8/17/04): Check out Duane’s ambulance. Hilarious!

…roars the dinosaur, also known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). But they barely manage a squeak.

These limousine liberals with no important work left to do just released a “special report", ominously titled, “The Long Shadow of Jim Crow: Voter Intimidation and Suppression in America Today” (PDF). Talk about hyperbole! The NAACP ought to be ashamed.

First of all, why is it always black voters who are “intimidated?” Why not white women or Asians or…sorry, I forgot. Blacks are victimized and still suffering from the “legacy of slavery", so I guess we’re a little jumpy.

The overview begins this way:

In a nation where children are taught in grade school that every citizen has the right to vote, it would be comforting to think that the last vestiges of voter intimidation, oppression and suppression were swept away by the passage and subsequent enforcement of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. It would be good to know that voters are no longer turned away from the polls based on their race, never knowingly misdirected, misinformed, deceived or threatened.

Unfortunately, it would be a grave mistake to believe any of it.

In every national American election since Reconstruction, every election since the Voting Rights Act was passed, voters — particularly African American voters and other minorities — have faced calculated and determined efforts at intimidation and suppression. The bloody days of violence and retribution following the Civil War and Reconstruction are gone. The poll taxes, literacy tests and physical violence of the Jim Crow era have disappeared. Today, more subtle, cynical and creative tactics have taken their place.

OK.

In the opening of the 25-page report, the NAACP lists what’s presumably their strongest examples of “Jim Crow” voter intimidation": >> Read more

Posted by La Shawn @ 12:47 pm
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What a good idea. A group of conservative Christians is about to turn Big Government against some of its staunchest proponents: liberal churches.

Big Brother Church Watch is sending spies into liberal churches to find out if they advocate a particular politician while preaching in the pulpit:

If there is any indication of an endorsement of, or objection to, a specific political candidate, the group has said it will report that church to the Internal Revenue Service, which could revoke their tax-exempt status.

The group is targeting so-called “liberal churches” such as the Metropolitan Community churches, Unitarian Universalist fellowships and African Methodist Episcopal churches.

Note that the reporter writes so-called and places parentheses around liberal churches. I guess Ms. Allen doesn’t think there’s any such thing. Generally, liberal churches are those that accept certain parts of the Bible and reject others, usually the essential parts. For example:

“We’ve got nothing to hide,” said the Rev. Stephanie Burns [woman], pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church of Fredericksburg. “We do make available voter registration materials and focus on issues in our community, but we lobby the issue within the limitation of our 501©(3) status.”

The Metropolitan Community Church is a Christian denomination reaching out primarily to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. [Do they reject the lifestyle while accepting the person or “preach” that whatever the person wants to do is OK with God?]

The Rev. Jeff Jones, senior minister at the local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship [denies the deity of Christ], said he has no concerns of the monitors.

“We are involved in social justice issues,” he said. “But we stay focused on issues, not parties or candidates.”

I have to note that the issue of women pastors is not considered essential Christian doctrine.

I grew up attending predominantly black churches, but I never noticed veiled political “preaching” until I attended a black church in D.C. I’d writhe in my seat (was I the only one?) as the preacher or guest speakers asked why Americans were “killing babies in Iraq” or that a “certain politician” was trying to turn back the clock on civil rights, etc.

The preacher never said, “Don’t vote for Bush” or “Put John Kerry in the White House", so should this be permissible? Or is freedom of speech an issue?

I was even treated to a “black” interpretation of Scripture. Ok, my excuse for even showing up at such a place was that I was looking for a new church, and until I found a good one, I attended the church closest to where I lived.

Since becoming a Christian, I’ve attended two conservative Reformed churches. Besides asking the congregation to “pray for our leaders", I never heard either pastor advocate a particular candidate, veiled or otherwise.

There are some churches, as you know, that allow politicians to speak during services. John Kerry and John Edwards are at least two I know about. Plain wrong. If churches want the benefit of tax exemptions, they must meet certain obligations. No church is required to obtain an exemption, but if they choose to do so, they cannot openly campaign in church.

What exactly is a liberal church? More on this later.

By the way, will someone define “social justice?” I don’t get it.

Update: Avery comments on “social justice.”

Posted by La Shawn @ 7:04 am
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Attention Bloggers: Watcher of Weasels runs a showcase of the week’s best posts (bloggers are so generous when it comes to recognizing other bloggers, aren’t they?), and they currently have a vacancy on the Watcher’s Council:

Zee at Spiced Sass has decided to step down from her seat on the Watcher’s Council. You know what that means… now that she has decided to step down, there is one open seat and I need to find a blog worthy enough to fill it. Anyone that has a blog, please read the up-to-date version of the rules here and contact me if you are interested in applying for membership. I plan on choosing a replacement in time for that person to participate in the August 17th nominations process and that week’s vote.

Posted by La Shawn @ 8:23 pm
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Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;
Angels descending bring from above,
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.

(Read the rest.)

–Written by Fanny Crosby, who was blinded in infancy.

Posted by La Shawn @ 10:22 am
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Being recognized for your efforts is a good thing. When freelance writer Dan LeRoy contacted me for an interview over a month ago, he didn’t know if National Review would buy his story. I’m glad they did.

The article netted an invitation to blog for Townhall.com and a radio interview (to be scheduled). And it prompted me to start working on the “My Writing” page, still a work in progress.

LeRoy’s article didn’t include all members of the Conservative Brotherhood. The group’s founder, Michael Bowen, issued a call back in May to us right-minded bloggers to join up. He came up with the name and the logo, and he put together and maintains the site. If I’d known that LeRoy wasn’t interviewing all of us, I would’ve told him that it was Cobb who spearheaded our efforts.

Other members of the group are: Michael King of Ramblings’ Journal, Samantha Pierce of Uncle Sam’s Cabin, Darmon Thornton of dcthornton.com and Scott Wickham of Blacks for Bush.

My marketing instinct took over yesterday, and I e-mailed a lot of people. The editor of BlackElectorate.com posted a link to the article under “Culture/Sports", third entry from the top (as of this writing).

(On a side note, read this great response to the “Jesus Was A Liberal” post from Random Observations.)

Before I go, I want to ask liberal readers and commenters a few questions:

— Why do you read and comment on my blog?
— For those of you who comment every day, what’s the attraction?
— Do you spend as much time on the sites of people who share your views?
— Are you hoping to persuade, influence, educate or just contribute to the discussion?

I’ve commented on liberal blogs before, but I rarely went back for seconds. I really want to know why people who don’t like what I say or the way I say nevertheless visit my blog.

I’m curious.

Update: The Booker Rising bloggers have landed a radio interview as well.

Posted by La Shawn @ 7:07 am
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You’ve just entered the domain of my favorite hobby. Relax, take a look around and leave a comment or two. I’d love to hear from you.

I hope you come again!

(I knew if I bugged Glenn enough… )

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker mentions the NRO piece. I’ve linked to his excellent articles a few times.

Posted by La Shawn @ 12:06 pm
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Freelance writer Dan LeRoy interviewed members of the Conservative Brotherhood, including myself, and his fine article has been published on National Review Online. He writes:

Avery Tooley describes himself simply as “a regular brother with some right-leaning political tendencies.” In other words, he’s the kind of black American that — if you listen to the Left and our self-proclaimed “black leaders” — doesn’t really exist.

Yet not only is Tooley, a University of Maryland grad student, a real person, he’s also sharing his conservatism with the world daily via a blog titled “Stereo Describes My Scenario.” Taking its title from a lyric by hip-hop legends Public Enemy, it’s a wide-ranging discussion of music and politics underlaid by a no-nonsense philosophy: “(T)he right’s focus on the individual is the only practical way” to solve the problems of black America.

Tooley isn’t alone in propagating this heresy in the blogosphere, either. He’s one of several black bloggers who make up The Conservative Brotherhood — a group of writers which also includes some women, like La Shawn Barber, a 37-year-old legal assistant and reformed liberal from Washington, D.C., whose own “Corner” features a Christian conservative’s perspective on the issues of the day.

“I didn’t really have a lot of ambitions for it. It started out as a semi-personal journal,” says Barber. But after nine months of blogging and building her audience, “I almost feel like it’s an obligation to stay out in the public eye.”

I need to clarify this part. The “public eye” comment was made in reference to being an alternative voice. I certaintly don’t feel that blogging and writing a column are obligations. Besides that, I wouldn’t change a thing. Read the rest.

Addendum: A link on NRO is better than (dare I say it?) an Insta-lanche!

(Athough I wouldn’t mind getting one of those, too )

Posted by La Shawn @ 7:02 am
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