WHITE HOUSE: Gay rights marchers? Where? “He knows this march is happening, and he can’t even acknowledge it?” Hey, that’s the same way he treated the 9/12 Tea Party protesters . . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Orin Kerr seems to think my linking of John Aravosis’ headline above is misleading. Well, follow the link and watch the video and make up your own mind. I think the White House is clearly trying to marginalize the gay-rights protesters which — as noted above — is their standard response to protest.
And hey, I was the one who was too quick to praise Obama for his gay-rights speech. So I could be wrong . . .
The first troops to reach Oxford found over 100 wounded federal marshals at the center of campus, 27 of them hit by civilian gunfire. Packs of hundreds of rioters swarmed the city, some holding war dances around burning vehicles. . . . Snipers opened fire on the Army convoys and bricks struck the heads of American soldiers. Black G.I.’s in one convoy were ambushed by white civilians who tried to decapitate them in their open Jeeps with metal pipes.
Maj. William Callicott of the Mississippi National Guard had served in World War II; he said he “never was as terrified as I was going onto the campus that night.”
“It was the fact that I knew there had to be some local people from my hometown probably over there in that mob,” Major Callicott said. “That’s what really worried me. If we killed anybody it could be my next-door neighbor.”
The Army troops restored order to the school and the city, block by block. A girl watched a team of infantrymen under attack on the Oxford town square and, according to a reporter at the scene, wondered aloud, “When are they going to shoot back?” Except for a few warning shots, they never did.
Yet when the soldiers left the city a few weeks later, they marched into oblivion. Most were under orders not to talk to the press. The Cuban missile crisis unfolded just weeks later, wiping Oxford from the front pages.
I sent this out to my National Security Law seminar earlier, but thought it was worth blogging, too.
UPDATE: Reader Deborah Durkee writes:
Thanks for posting the excerpt of the NY Times article, Prof. Reynolds.
My (caucasian) daughter has been working on her Ph.D. at Ole Miss in Oxford (she’s now interning in CO). One of her best friends is a lovely young black woman from the Chicago area. Her folks want her to move back home, but she loves the South. Loves Mississippi and Memphis just an hour north.
Mississippi (I’m sure) still has remnants of the old Mississippi, but my daughter never saw it, and this generation of young adults believe in everyone is a person…period. It’s great to honor those who helped in that “integration fight” that I watched (all scary) on television as a child. It’s even a greater honor to those who fought that fight that the old South has changed so much that blacks from Chicago want to come home to live.
Yes, there’s been quite the reverse-diaspora going on over the past decade or so. Meanwhile, this story is news to a lot of people. There’s great footage in Eyes On The Prize, where it looks like something out of Apocalypse Now.
PRAISE FOR MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: “At a time when many celebrities risk alienating their fan base by voicing political views, McConaughey is opting to speak out on behalf of our men and women in uniform.”
OKAY, SO ACCORDING TO THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE GUIDELINES I’m entitled to nominate someone. And, in fact, I have — I nominated Arthur C. Clarke back in the 1990s, on the basis that his invention of the communications satellite had done more to promote world peace than any politician. Alas, they gave it to Yasser Arafat that year, which kinda chilled my interest in further nominations.
But hey, maybe I should try again. Any suggestions for nominees for next year?
IF YOU MISSED IT ON XM OR SIRIUS, you can hear the latest PJM Political online. But what’s this about “the recovering Vodkapundit”? Don’t tell me Green’s gone on the wagon? . . .
UH OH: Small Banks Failure Rate Grows, Straining F.D.I.C. “Regulators expect closures to ripple through hundreds of small banks over the next couple of years, especially in the Midwest and Southeast, where lenders have been hard hit by the recession.”
UPDATE: I talked to an uncle today, who’s on the board of a couple of small community banks. He says that the FDIC insurance premium increases are very hard on small banks, and will accelerate closure problems — and that the new idea of having banks prepay premiums for 3 years to help build up FDIC reserves is making people wonder about the FDIC’s strength. What would you think of an employee who asked for a 3-year salary advance? . . . .
MICHAEL S. MALONE: A real-estate technology race. “But the big tech battle in the real estate business these days, the Apple-Microsoft of the realty game, is being fought across multiple platforms and is for control over the biggest database in the industry: listings.”
You post: “Many of the newspaper’s sales come in hotels and airports.”
Every time I get USA Today in a hotel, it’s free. Some sale.
Yes, this is something addressed at InstaPundit many years ago, to the discomfiture of the USA Today circulation folks. Personally, I think that newspaper circulation figures probably have Enron-style accounting behind them, but what’s sad is that even that isn’t enough to keep the numbers up. As I said then I don’t have anything against USA Today, which is actually quite a good paper, but still, free copies aren’t the same as sales, and calling it a “sale” when the hotel buys the paper and buries the charge in the guest’s bill seems a stretch.
KINDLE GOES GLOBAL: “The current Kindle can wirelessly download content in the U.S. over Sprint Nextel Corp.’s network, but outside the country you must connect it to a computer with a USB cable to add content. The international version will be able to wirelessly download content over AT&T’s network around the world.”
As I’ve noted before, I’ve come to actually prefer reading Kindle books on the iPod Touch.
The overall level of violence in the country continues to decline, despite the occasional terrorist bombing. This has led to continued economic growth, and more Iraqis are using their freedom of movement, and action, to protest government incompetence. The inept performance of elected and appointed officials is more stark in Iraq, where economic freedom has created many spectacularly successful entrepreneurs, and a growing middle class. Thus it is obvious that Iraqis can get things done, and more Iraqis are openly upset at the poor performance of their elected officials.
I guess that’s why our own government is trying to stifle entrepreneurship — to get rid of that embarrassing contrast . . . .
WEAPONS FAILURES IN AFGHANISTAN. “A small but vocal number of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq has complained that the standard-issue M4 rifles need too much maintenance and jam at the worst possible times.”
MAYBE MY PRAISE FOR OBAMA’S GAY SPEECH CAME TOO SOON: At least the gay community is more skeptical. “Forgive me for not being excited by promises. Forgive me for not feeling as hopeful as I was on November 4, 2008.”
Also, “Is President Obama a Sissy?” “I fear he’s too stuck in the past with what happened to Bill Clinton in 1993 and Rahm Emanuel is standing right there by his side confirming that fear.”
UPDATE: More criticism rounded up here: “It appears that the gay community is holding Obama to a higher standard than the Nobel committee. Obama’s past approach – Let’s divide this up; I’ll talk, you swoon – isn’t working.” Apparently, I let my reflexive Obama-optimism get ahead of me here . . . .
NEWSWEEK:Obama as Gorbachev. “Granted, the comparison is more than a little overripe, even alarmist–the United States is still the world’s most powerful country, and it is in no danger of collapsing like the Soviet Union. But there are disturbing parallels. . . . As Obama finds himself bogged down in one nearly impossible issue after another—financial reform, health care, budget deficits, Afghanistan—while meeting with a solid wall of GOP opposition, some around the world wonder whether the America everyone used to look to for leadership is unreformable itself.”
Hey — I predicted “thumbsucker columns on whether America is ‘ungovernable!’” Right on schedule!
And I’ll repeat my earlier question: If Obama is America’s Gorbachev, who will be America’s Putin?
UPDATE: A reader emails:
Aren’t you missing a step? Isn’t the more relevant question at this point: “Who will be America’s Yeltsin?” That is, who will steward the post-”reform” America into such comprehensive ruin that we actively long for a return to the glory of the recent past, no matter how ghastly the baggage that goes with that?
America’s Putin? Who can say? That’s a beast slouching toward Bethlehem waiting to be born. But America’s Yeltsin? I definitely think Joe Biden is up to the task. Mitt Romney, too. Does anyone have Jerry Brown’s email address? Teddy Kennedy would have been perfect for the role, and there’s nothing that says he can’t do it posthumously. There’s no shortage of candidates for the Yeltsin role.
Yeah, the Yeltsin slot’s one for which most of the Senate is suited. Hence my skipping a step . . . .
Okay, actually that’s not quite fair. Yeltsin did actually demonstrate courage a time or two.
UPDATE: Reader Douglas McRae writes that ungovernability isn’t a bug, it’s a feature!
How do I personally go about making this country ungovernable in a thousand small instances of civil misobedience? Some ideas would be file my income tax forms on April 15th on paper by mail, listing my race as NOYB (none of your business), weekly emails to my legislators, etc.
Civil “misobedience”? I like that. Sounds like some sort of work-to-rule campaign . . .
In your post you comment that the judge is stating the obvious in calling California government dysfunctional. But it’s important to note that he apparently doesn’t consider the elected officials to be dysfunctional. Instead, he blames the voters. Government is dysfunctional in the judge’s eyes principally because California voters, using the referendum process, created a requirement of a supermajority to raise taxes and consequently “California’s lawmakers, and the state itself, have been placed in a fiscal straitjacket by a steep two-thirds-vote requirement — imposed at the ballot box — for raising taxes.”
It apparently didn’t occur to the judge that Californians might not want to make it easy for their legislature to enact confiscatory taxes, or that California’s fiscal mess could be resolved through cuts to profligate spending rather than to continue to shovel ever-increasing amounts of taxpayer dollars into government’s gaping maw. Rather, he sees the voters and the referendum process as impediments to unrestrained government spending.
It’s astonishing to see how many of our public officials appear to be firmly convinced that the people work for the government, and not the other way around.
Excellent point. And it would seem that Justice Ronald George has raised questions about his ability to rule fairly in questions involving ballot initiatives.
UPDATE: Okay, it’s $39.95, which is 20 bucks less than I paid, and 25 bucks less than they’re asking for the ones I bought now. And the only difference is color.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Geez, that was fast. They’ve already raised the price — in less than half an hour. This is like some kind of Heisenberg-pricing, where if I point it out, it changes . . . .
MORE: Reader David Cho thinks I’m overoptimistic: “You don’t actually expect Obama to keep his word, do you? This will end up like his promise to close Gitmo. I’m amazed anyone believes anything he says.” Well, we’ll see.
TUCSON TEA PARTY UPDATE: “About 6,000 people descended Saturday on Tucson Electric Park for the Tucson Tea Party event, billed as Tucson’s Last Stand. The event kicked off with Tucson Tea Party organizer Trent Humphries expressing his own brand of hope for the future: ‘I love the smell of freedom in the morning.’ By 8:07 a.m., nearly two hours before the speeches began, the main parking lot of the Tucson Electric Park was filling up.”
UPDATE: More: “If the B.C. Court of Appeal orders the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee to put on an event for female ski jumpers, the International Olympic Committee won’t recognize the results or hand out medals, Dick Pound, Canada’s IOC member said Thursday. Even worse, he said, it would likely wreck any future chances of Canada hosting another Olympics.”
Why not just abolish the Olympics? The whole enterprise is increasingly corrupt and lame anyway.
10 WEEKS AFTER PASSING BUDGET, California Is Already In The Red. Plus this: “California, a state that’s been among the hardest hit by the recession, had already issued $22 billion of debt since March, including $8.8 billion of notes that provided the state with an advance on taxes collected next year.”
OUCH: “USA Today is expecting to report a 17 percent decline in circulation. That would be its largest drop ever. While most large newspapers are struggling to keep print subscribers and newsstand sales, USA Today is also being slammed by the slump in travel. Many of the newspaper’s sales come in hotels and airports.”
MICKEY KAUS: “Funding for 300 miles of actual (not ‘virtual’) fence along the Mexican border appears to have been killed in a House-Senate conference, after the Senate voted for it 54-44. So Senators from California, Arizona and Texas get to say they voted for the fence, but it doesn’t get built. That’s how Kabuki is done!”
BBC: What happened to global warming? “For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.”
POLL: 54% Favor Middle-Class Tax Cuts Over New Spending on Health Care. “Thirty-three percent (33%) of voters say new spending for health care reform is more important. But 54% rate middle class tax cuts as the priority over more health care spending. Thirteen percent (13%) aren’t sure. These findings are identical to ones just before Congress’ August recess and prior to President Obama’s effort to jump start his health care reform initiative with a nationally televised speech to Congress.”
THE HAZARDS OF BLOGGING: “The state of New York has cut off unemployment benefits for a 2008 law grad after she reported collecting $1.30 a day in advertising income from her blog.”
DENVER COLUMBUS DAY PARADE IS ON, despite hoax. “A Denver parade in honor of Christopher Columbus is on—despite a phony e-mail that circulated Thursday saying the downtown celebration was canceled for lack of funds. The Sons of Italy’s Columbus Day Parade Committee in Denver was shocked to learn of the e-mail sent to the media, which was signed by Sons of Italy President Richard SaBell. The fake e-mail said protesters had ‘ruined’ the event and tarnished the legacy of an Italian hero.”
UPDATE: Reader Bruce Webster emails:
The real problem with today’s parade isn’t the fake e-mail — it’s the bitterly cold weather. It’s 20 degrees here at our house right now (10 am, Saturday), and the high downtown is on track to set a record for the lowest ‘high’ for this date (the previous ‘low’ high was 34 degrees). Oh, and it’s cloudy and icy.
MARKETS: “We know that gold is soaring. And we know the dollar is slumping. But, did you know that year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is up 18 percent — a great showing, no doubt — gold is up even more? The precious metal is up 21 percent. In other words, measured in true, gold-backed purchasing power, stocks have really done nothing this year. Zip. It is most disappointing.” Yes, whether you use gold as a measure or not, if you measure stocks in constant-dollar-value prices, I’m not sure the market has recovered much if at all.
MEGAN MCARDLE: “I guess I must hate America, but I actually think it’s kind of ludicrous that anyone is even trying to argue that Barack Obama truly deserves this Nobel Peace Prize. Could he have deserved it, after he’d had more than nine months in office? Easily. But he hasn’t had time to, y’know, accomplish anything.”
The Oval Office as some kind of high level Self Esteem Camp? Well, no. You can’t blame Obama for this; he seems to have been as surprised as anyone. It’s just more evidence that the allegedly “serious” institutions of Western society aren’t up to the job.
HANNA ROSIN: Kate Gosselin Does Not Deserve Our Pity. “In celebrity divorce cases, as in regular divorce, we are still conditioned to view the man as holding all the cards. If the woman behaves in a reckless, crazy manner—think Denise Richards, Christie Brinkley, or Tricia Walsh of You Tube rant fame—we assume it’s to make up for her frustration and helplessness. But in this case the gender stereotypes are blinding us to the obvious reality. In this miserable duo, Jon is what divorce attorneys would call the ‘out’ spouse—the one with no money or power who might end up on the street. And like many out spouses, he is looking out for the interests of the kids. For those reasons he is actually the one who deserves our sympathy.”
As I’ve suggested, I think an early phase is internet satire. Tea Party protests are another. Or pranks. But what if you’re in the Hugo Chavez world — not quite outright military government, but not exactly democracy, either? Or just afraid you’re moving that way? One step going beyond mere protests and mockery, but well short of violence, is something like the U.K. fuel protests. Or what would happen if a lot of people showed up at banks and started withdrawing a lot of cash all at once? (Most banks couldn’t deal with much in the way of cash withdrawals — a few dozen people withdrawing a few thousand each at once would overload many, no doubt panicking the powers-that-be). Heck just a bunch of people driving at exactly the speed limit might have a drastic effect on some areas . . . .
I don’t have any answers, and we’re pretty clearly not at that point yet. At any rate, I’d encourage those interested in this to read Pauline Maier’s book. We’re not in colonial times any more, but while the specifics might change the principles are evergreen.
It looks like these servings are based on a 2000 calorie diet. At best, this is survival ration, not much more than that.
But it IS better than nothing, and most folks won’t even have this, if and when.
There does not seem to be any real calorie data on this food supply, but it doesn’t look like more than 2k per day.
Yeah, I vaguely remember linking to some other “year’s supply” items a while back that turned out to be based on a pretty, er, optimistic assessment. But, still, a lot better than nothing. I can’t find that post, but here’s some earlier blogging.
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Decline Is A Choice. “Facing the choice of whether to maintain our dominance or to gradually, deliberately, willingly, and indeed relievedly give it up, we are currently on a course towards the latter. The current liberal ascendancy in the United States–controlling the executive and both houses of Congress, dominating the media and elite culture–has set us on a course for decline. And this is true for both foreign and domestic policies. Indeed, they work synergistically to ensure that outcome.”
