This is the fourth of my reading/writing journals, a new routine of season 2 of the 13 Weeks Radical Reading Reading Regimen. Each morning I will juxtapose book excerpts with the day’s headlines and then try in the afternoon to make sense of the chaos of the day’s news. So far I’m not doing as well as I hoped. See last Monday’s entry: “We Ought to Defeat Capitalism With Its Own Weapons, Comrades…” And Tuesday’s entry: “Can We Just Fast Forward to 2040? Please?” And Thursday’s 4-page, double-barreled collection “Researching the American Family’s War to Beat Death…” On days when I don’t finish then I’ll plan to do a two-or-three-parter the following day.

Thursday Night’s Reading:

I received a copy of the newest edition of Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati, Robert Anton Wilson’s memoir of his mystical experiments, and returned again to one of my favorite book’s preface:

Quote of Note: “The notion that ‘reality’ is a noun, a solid thing like a brick or a baseball bat, derives from the evolutionary fact that our nervous systems normally organize the dance of energy into such block-like ‘things,’ probably as instant bio-survival cues. Such ‘things,’ however, dissolve back into energy dances — process, or verbs — when the nervous system is synergized with certain drugs or transfmuted by yogic or shamanic exercises or aided by scientific instrutments. In both mysticism and physics, there is general agreement that ‘things’ are constructed by our nervous systems and that ‘realities’ (plural) are better described as systems or bundles of energy-function.” — Robert Anton Wilson.

Friday Morning Book Reading:

I didn’t have time to read very much of my Disney’s World biography that I’ve been enjoying so much. But I did take a few minutes to start the chapter on the decision to film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: 

Quote of Note: “Consequently, he began to regard Snow White as the most testing ordeal of his career whose failure could not only cost him his fortune his marital happiness as well. It had to succeed and be the most acclaimed and entertaining movie he had ever made.” — Leonard Mosley, page 157 of of Disney’s World.

Friday Morning News Round Up

Lead PJM Stories:

J. Christian Adams:What’s In Eric Holder’s Wallet? His Real Race Card

This week, Judicial Watch released documents demonstrating that the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service was deeply entangled in New Black Panther-led rallies and protests in Sanford, Florida, against George Zimmerman. These are the same rallies during which the New Black Panthers called for a bounty on George Zimmerman, and released “dead or alive” posters. The New Black Panther leading the rallies was the same New Black Panther Eric Holder sprang free in the voter intimidation case in Philadelphia.

Bill Straub: What Happened to Congress’ ‘Fast and Furious’ Fury?

Nicholas Ballasy: Giuliani to PJM: Dems Scared Obamacare Will Cost Them in 2014 Midterms

Bryan Preston: White House Defaces American Flag in Video Promoting the Senate’s Immigration Bill

Michael Ledeen: Enough Already! Holder Must Go

Dear General Holder,

Get out of here.  Please.  Yesterday will do fine.  Your command at Justice became intolerable in your first big public statement, four and a half years ago, the one in which you laid out your hateful view of American society:

…in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race.

You were telling us two things:  First, you intended to inflame political racial conflict in the United States.  Despite some boilerplate language about overcoming racism and becoming “one nation,” your speech demanded that we focus on our alleged obsession with racial differences.  You said, quite rightly, that it was intellectually misguided to talk about “black  history” as something separate from “American history,” but you didn’t mean it.  Indeed, you insisted that Black History Month be used to do just that — to treat black Americans separately from the others.

Bryan Preston: If Violence Follows the Zimmerman Verdict, is the Obama Administration to Blame?

The president’s irresponsible comments came at a time when the media still played on George Zimmerman’s identity, either not identifying him racially at all or ascribing him to a newly made-up category: “white Hispanic.” The media’s antics allowed an incorrect image of Zimmerman to solidify, that of an older white male rather than the 28-year-old mixed man he is in reality. Obama’s comments also came at a time when he needed to shore up his base vote to ensure his re-election. Obama’s comments took the false racial narrative that the media and the hustlers had been constructing and planted it firmly on the White House lawn.

And now we know, behind the scenes, the Eric Holder Justice Department was working hand in glove with the protesters to apply the pressure that eventually forced Chief Lee from office and brought the charges to bear against Zimmerman.

As the trial has wound toward its conclusion, threats of violence have exploded online. I wish I could share Bob Owens’ optimism that there will be no violence regardless of the verdict, but the sad fact is that we have riots over sports championships in this country now. When we have a government working behind the scenes to exert undue pressure on local officials to placate the Al Sharptons of the world, we have a government dangerously taking sides with a man who has shown before that he doesn’t mind a little blood if it furthers his career. Sharpton, now a host on MSNBC, came to fame orchestrating the Tawana Brawley hoax against an innocent man. He fomented a race riot that resulted in death at Freddie’s Fashion Mart in 1995. Violence and the threat of violence have been in Sharpton’s tool box from the beginning of his long, disgraceful career. Obama and his Department of Justice sided with the media and Sharpton, and against the local police, and against the rule of law.

President Obama owes it to the American people to speak out against the possibility of violence but he is unlikely to say anything. What can he say at this point? That he no longer believes his hypothetical son would look like Trayvon? That the Department of Justice’s role early in the controversy was conducted by more “rogue employees.” Obama’s government took a side, and it was the side of racial strife, division, and ultimately the threat of violence if the jury hands down a politically incorrect verdict.

Friday’s PJ Lifestyle Stories:

Sarah Hoyt and Charlie Martin: Book Plug Friday

John Boot: 5 Movie Stars Whose Careers Are in Trouble

Sarah Hoyt: Tips for Surviving Professionally in a Time of Catastrophic Change

Walter Hudson: Why M. Night Shyamalan Sucks (and How He Can Be Great Again)

Kathy Shaidle: Raining on the Nelson Mandela Parade

Idealistic kids eagerly embraced Mandela as the Gandhi they never had, a Martin Luther King of their very own.

Of course, the real Nelson Mandela was, like those two men, flawed. Arguably moreso.

At least Gandhi and King had preached and practiced non-violence.

During my youth, Mandela’s criminal past was, if you’ll pardon the expression, whitewashed.

….

And when Mandela was arrested, the authorities claim to have uncovered “210,000 hand grenades, 48,000 anti-personnel mines, 1,500 time devices, 144 tons of ammonium nitrate, 21.6 tons of aluminium powder and 1 ton of black powder.”

Governments around the world, such as the U.S. and Great Britain, placed the ANC on their terror lists, along with the PLO, the IRA and the FLQ.

So when the Left adopted the destruction of apartheid as its new fashionable cause in the late 1980s, the organizer of that “Free Nelson Mandela” concert, Tony Hollingsworth, knew he needed to “personalize” the cause, and give that particular person a big makeover, pronto.

Hollingsworth now admits that the all-star extravaganza, “had everything to do with ridding Mandela of his terrorist tag and ensuring his release. (…) Mandela and the movement should be seen as something positive, confident, something you would like to be in your living room with.”

Mandela danced out of prison less than two years after the concert.

Oh, and not long after that, he was filmed singing an ANC song about killing white people…

Charlie Martin: Emmet Kelly, Harold Lloyd, and Edward Snowden

So then the Chinese get a look at what he’s carrying, and they say, hey, this isn’t worth the trouble. They let Snowden “accidentally” slip out of Hong Kong to Russia because of a “bureaucratic slip-up”.

Snowden arrives in Russia, and at first Putin seems to be inclined to help — then he cools on him, finally saying that if Snowden wants to stay he’s got to stop leaking information about his great friends to Americans. My guess? They also got a look at Snowden’s information and realized that a chance to look like Obama’s friend was worth more than the information.

Bruce Bawer: The Lion in Winter: Gossipy Lunches with Orson Welles, Hollywood’s Original Badboy Filmmaker

Welles and Jaglom also wander into politics. Jaglom (none of whose movies I’ve ever seen, as far as I can remember) comes off as a standard showbiz lefty, who has no apparent trouble with Hollywood Stalinism but despises director Elia Kazan for “naming names” in 1952 to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Welles can’t forgive Kazan either (even though he forgives German and French entertainers who performed for Nazis during the war), but at least he makes a point of mentioning the newspaper columns he wrote in the 1940s, in which he attacked Stalinist Russia “at a time when everybody thought God was smiling on Stalin.” He says he begged HUAC unsuccessfully to let him come to D.C. to explain to them “the difference between a Communist and a liberal.” And he says that in his experience “right-wingers” are “usually nicer people than left-wingers.” When Jaglom, coming off as a parody of P.C., says he’s “tormented” daily by his privileged life while children starve in Africa (“I should feel guiltier than I do”), Welles punctures his posturing: “Oh, the irony of these kinds of conversations is that they end with: ‘Do you want some berries?’”

Also Around the Web Last Week:

Thomas Sowell at National Review: Who Is Racist?

Over the generations, black leaders have ranged from noble souls to shameless charlatans. After the success of the civil-rights insurgency, the latter have come into their own, gaining money, power, and fame by promoting racial attitudes and actions that are counterproductive to the interests of those they lead.

None of this is unique to blacks or to the United States. In various countries and times, leaders of groups that lagged behind, economically and educationally, have taught their followers to blame all their problems on other people — and to hate those other people.

This was the history of anti-Semitic movements in Eastern Europe between the two World Wars, anti-Ibo movements in Nigeria in the 1960s, and anti-Tamil movements that turned Sri Lanka from a peaceful nation into a scene of lethal mob violence and then decades-long civil war, both marked by unspeakable atrocities.

Ann Coulter: This Year’s Duke Lacross Case

This week, instead of attacking a Hispanic senator, Marco Rubio, I will defend a Hispanic citizen, George Zimmerman, on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman would make a better senator.)

It’s becoming painfully obvious why no charges were brought against Zimmerman in this case — until Al Sharpton got involved. All the eyewitness accounts, testimony, ballistics and forensics keep backing up Zimmerman. We should send a big, fat bill for the whole thing to Sharpton, courtesy of MSNBC.

CNN: IT director who raised questions about Zimmerman case is fired

Kruidbos said that, when he printed a 900-page Florida Department of Law Enforcement report from Martin’s cell phone in late 2012 or early 2013, he noticed information was missing.

Concerned that attorneys did not have all the information they needed to prepare the case, he said, he reported his concerns to a State Attorney’s Office investigator and later to prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda.

Kruidbos said he generated a report that was more than three times the size of the one that had been handed over.

For example, Kruidbos said that 2,958 photos were in the report given to the defense but that his report contained 4,275 photos.

Kruidbos also said that he has been told to not put specific case-identifying information into internal e-mails.

Friday Evening Double Date With The Wife and Friends:

[jwplayer config=”pjm_lifestyle” mediaid=”47109″]

I agree with Stephen Green’s review, cross-posted from Vodkapundit:

Pacific Rim: High Concept, Big Fun

I can’t wait to see the movie again — Guillermo Del Toro’s movies tend to reward repeat viewings, I’ve found. Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy films are favorites. So since Friday night I’ve had the humans-in-giant-machines-fighting-for-their-lives against cruel monsters motif in mind as the ideological factions of our country continued beating on one another…

Weekend Readings on Spirituality:

From page 144 of Jacob Slavenburg’s The Hermetic Link: From Secret Tradition to Modern Thought, a book I’m reading to study the spiritual ideas that inspired the development of modern science during the Renaissance:

Quote of Note: “When someone asked Hermes what God is, he answered: ‘The maker of the All, the all-knowing Consciousness, for eternity.” — The Hermetica

Later, from page 160:

Quote of Note: “Life is the making-one of Mind and Soul; accordingly Death is not the destruction of those that are at-oned, but the dissolving of their union.” — Jacob Slavenburg.

On Sunday I failed to stick with the usual reading routine but got caught up later in the evening when I read some more of Shmuley Boteach’s Kosher Jesus, the subject of Rhonda Robinson’s ongoing blogging series. Here’s an excerpt from page 43 in which the Orthodox Rabbi discusses the gospel of Mark, noting its similarities to Jewish teachings and rabbinical practices:

Quote of Note: “In multiple instances Mark relates Jesus going so far as to order those who witness his healings not to tell others. He feared — rightly, as it turned out — that his followers would highlight his personality at the expense of his calling.” – Shmuley Boteach

Weekend Headlines at PJM:

Bryan Preston: Occupy Site Organizing Trayvon Martin Post-Verdict ‘Actions’

Howard Nemerov: Maryland’s Highest Court Promotes Anti-Gun, Pro-Criminal Agenda

In 2010, Maryland’s Court of Appeals ruled that residents need a state permit to take a gun outside the home, upholding the conviction of a man who committed no other “crime” than publicly possessing a firearm.

This week, the same court voided a five-year mandatory, no-parole sentence for gun possession by a convicted felon. When the defendant was convicted of “drug distribution,” the same jury also found him guilty of being a felon in possession, and the judge added the five-year sentence. Maryland’s Court of Appeals voided the felon-in-possession enhancement and ordered re-sentencing because, according to Maryland law, the defendant’s non-violent earlier conviction enabled him to qualify for a more lenient ruling.

The felon in possession was arrested for crimes committed in Baltimore. This ruling means a lighter sentence for a drug dealer who has no problem breaking federal law against felons owning guns. Drug dealers often use guns to further their “business.”

Rick Moran: Greenwald: Snowden Docs Could Be U.S. Government’s ‘Worst Nightmare’

Bryan Preston: Zimmerman Found Not Guilty (MSNBC, SPLC, Bill Maher, Twitter Reax)

Roger L. Simon: Obama Big Loser in Zimmerman Trial

Forget the over-zealous prosecutors and the repellent state attorney Angela Corey (who should be immediately disbarred or, my wife said sarcastically, elevated to director of Homeland Security) and even the unfortunate Trayvon Martin family (although it is certainly hard to forget them — they have our profound sympathies), the true loser at the Zimmerman trial was Barack Obama.

By injecting himself in a minor Florida criminal case by implying Martin could be his son, the president of the United States — a onetime law lecturer, of all things — disgraced himself and his office, made a mockery of our legal system and exacerbated racial tensions in our country, making them worse than they have been in years. This is the work of a reactionary, someone who consciously/unconsciously wants to push our nation back to the 1950s.

It is also the work of a narcissist who thinks of himself first, of his image, not of black, white or any other kind of people. It’s no accident that race relations in our country have gone backwards during his stewardship.

Bryan Preston: Double Jeopardy: NAACP Wants DOJ to Pursue Civil Rights Violation Charges Against George Zimmerman

Bridget Johnson: Obama: ‘We are a Nation of Laws, and the Jury Has Spoken’

Bridget Johnson: Black Caucus Responds to ‘Devastating’ Verdict: ‘Turn Your Pain Into Passion, Purpose’

Last year, when the Trayvon Martin story first broke I began blogging about it at the PJ Tatler and created this image:

I still need to finish defining the 10 Commandments of Postmodern Blackness… Something on the to-do list…

Self Improvement-Saturday at PJ Lifestyle:

Sarah Hoyt: What Are the Best Apps For Artists and Writers Desperate To Get Work Done?

Rhonda Robinson: Keeping Afloat With A Budget

Barry Rubin Cross-Post: The Battle of Gettysburg Refought, 150 Years Later

Charlie Martin, 13 Weeks: Do Americans Get Enough Salt In Their Diets?

Religion-Themed Articles on Sunday at PJ Lifestyle:

P. David Hornik on Claude Debussy: Master of Music, Bungler of Life

Charlie Martin: Heaps of Buddha

Paula Bolyard: New Great Awakening: When Politicians Speak for God

Walter Hudson: Marriage: From Sacred Bond to Status Update

Susan L.M. Goldberg: Single Issue Goddess: The War on Women’s Intellect

Monday Headlines at PJM:

Victor Davis Hanson: President Obama’s New American Vocabulary

Robert Wargas: No True Hispanic

In practice, the Whiteness Studies game works as follows: All bad things are labeled “white supremacy,” which is defined as a complete and total system of “white” bourgeois logic, law, custom, etc. This system is so pervasive that even when a non-white person does something ostensibly racist, he is only acting according to “white logic,” thus his or her racism is actually white racism. Much of this derives from the theories of the pseudoscientist Frances Cress Welsing, whose definition of racismwas white supremacy. Again, word games.

Clayton Cramer: The Race Card: Democracy’s Parasite?

Ed Driscoll: Interview: Brent Bozell on Collusion: How the Media Stole the 2012 Election

Mike McDaniel: Zimmerman Closing Arguments: Detailing What the Mob Ignores

Relevant Headlines From Around the Web Today:

Breitbart: Oakland Anti-Zimmerman Protesters Burn American Flag

Charles C. Johnson at Daily Caller: Conservative filmmaker: Trayvon Martin protesters in Oakland ‘slugged me,’ ‘kicked me’ in the head

Christian Hartsock, a conservative journalist and filmmaker, says he was assaulted and beaten down to the ground by a mob with repeated strikes to the face while reporting at a Trayvon Martin rally in downtown Oakland Sunday night.

“I have interviews and I have footage of [Trayvon protestors] chanting ‘no justice, no peace—fuck you pigs in your sleep,’” Hartsock told The Daily Caller. “One of them was an elementary schooler chanting with his mom.”

Los Angeles Times: LAPD clashes with Trayvon Martin protesters, 1 arrest made

Today’s Parenting and Family Articles at PJ Lifestyle:

Robert Spencer: Can Parents’ Divorce Push a Teen To Join Al Qaeda?

Rhonda Robinson: 5 Reasons Why Trim Healthy Mama Could Be the Last Diet Book You Ever Buy

Paula Bolyard: What If All the Homeschoolers Suddenly Enrolled in Public School?

David P. Goldman: What Do You Do When The Oppressed Are Their Own Worst Oppressors?

The leaders of what used to be a civil rights movement want to talk about everything but the main problem afflicting black people in the United States. That is the breakdown of the black family.

Just 29% of black women over the age of 15 were married in 2010, according to the Census Bureau’s comprehensive Current Population Survey. That compares to 54% of white women. At all ages, black women were about half as likely to be married as white women. That is an astonishing number.

The percentage of out-of-wedlock births has risen from 18% in 1980 to 40% in 2010. Twenty-nine percent of white births were non-marital, against 73% for black births. That’s nearly three-quarters of all black births.

Afternoon Reflections:

Here’s an argument I had over the weekend with a progressive Facebook acquaintance and his friends about the Trayvon Martin case. I haven’t seen this guy in years. We knew one another circa 2004-2005 in undergraduate poetry class when at the time we had comparable postmodern progressive views. He hasn’t changed a bit and nowadays likes to claim that I’m just a terrible, sick person who doesn’t care about children. On Friday he called out both me and another conservative acquaintance and I played along throughout the weekend. Names of the innocent and the guilty erased.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLuZPIc8nSk

This is only going to get worse before it gets better. In Pacific Rim both the number and size of monsters that emerged from the hole under the ocean to wreck mayhem and destruction for NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER only increased. It was only humans followed the advice of Sun Tzu — know thy enemy — and figured out they needed to take the fight directly to the monsters’ home turf that the good guys discovered a way to defeat the vicious creatures emerging to wage a genocidal campaign…