Thursday, May 28, 2009

Racism and the Double Standard in America

Okay, so let me ask you a simple question: what would happen if a white male who was a Federal judge and a nominee for the US Supreme Court had made this statement:

"I would hope that a wise white male, with the richness of his experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina male who hasn't lived that life."

Honestly, now...just what do you think would happen? I'll tell you what would happen - he would be branded a racist by every minority group and media outlet in existence in the United States, that's what. And anyone who says anything different is either a blithering idiot, out of touch with reality, or is intentionally ignorant of the truth in America.

But a white male didn't say it. A Latina female said it, and what she said was exactly this:

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

This statement was made as a part of a speech given in October, 2001 by Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Of course, the Obama administration is saying that her statement is "being taken out of context" and that it was only 32 words of a speech containing more than 4,000.

In other words, they want you to totally and completely ignore the racist remark she made to the students at the University of California, Berkely and focus on the other times she DIDN'T make a racist remark. And, of course, all of the news media are flocking to do the same, praising Obama's choice and telling us that we should just not pay any attention to the racist remark that a Federal judge and Supreme Court nominee made.

As we say down here in the South, "That dog won't hunt!"

Like him or not (and I can't stand him), Rush Limbaugh has a valid point. Using the standards of the day that have been formulated by "politically correct" America, Sonia Sotomayor is a "reverse racist." (Personally, I disagree with the term. She not a "reverse" racist, she's just a racist, period.) And, like him or not, Newt Gingrinch also has a valid point - if a white man had made that statement, he'd be forced to withdraw. For that reason, along with the reason that she's a racist, Sotomayor should also withdraw.

But you and I both know she won't. Why should she? She has the first black President of the United States and every minority group in existence on her side, ready to fight for her because - well, because she's Latina.

And THAT, friends and neighbors, is called RACISM!

IHC

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Bigotry, idiocy, and intentional ignorance

Every now and then I get a not-so-subtle reminder (or two, or three) of just how important my membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans is, and how important it is that I continue to enlighten the unenlightened about the true history of the South, the Southern people, and the War for Southern Independence.

My latest reminder came a few days ago while I was on YouTube, listening to an old Waylon Jennings song called "Southern Pride." After listening to the song I took a look at some of the comments about the song that people had posted, and as usual, as soon as someone started commenting about how they were proud of the South and proud of being Southern, the discussion quickly turned into a pissing contest led by those (intentionally?) ignorant people from the other side of the Mason-Dixon line. And, as usual, the tired old topic of slavery was brought up, followed closely by their hatred of the Confederate Battle Flag and about how the South was full of nothing but black-hating racists. Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before; it was bullshit then, and it's bullshit now.

But among all of the crap being posted, I saw something new this time that caught my attention to the point where I just had to reply. I usually try and stay out of pissing contests like this one because my past experience has shown me that those "fine" people of the Northern persuasion who say crap like that are usually so bigoted in their views that nothing you can ever say will change their minds, so I usually don't even try. But this one caught my eye and got a response from me. So here it is, cut and pasted ver batim from the original thread:

"The biggest cult in the world the "KKK" has not one member in the north, but has every member in the south. Now that says something. "

Yeah, it says something, all right. It says that the poster, who goes by the handle of "ihavtugo" (he can't spell, either) is either chronically stupid and out of touch with reality, not to mention American history, or he's just another South-bashing hatemonger just trying to stir up trouble.

Or is he just intentionally ignorant? Here's another gem from "ihavtugo," who says on his Google page that his real name is Jordan and he's living in Boston - surprise, surprise:

"Think you dumb ass why the fuck would the north have slaves? Theirs no farms! there's factories. And obviously white women worked in the factories."

I guess Jordan was sleeping during American History in school, because I'm pretty sure that even in the Northern-published textbooks now being used in the public school systems nationwide, they don't teach that "white women" worked in the factories in the 1800s, because they didn't. The Irish immigrants did, and under worse conditions than some slaves in the South, I might add.

Which brings us to the main topic of this post, that being the intentional ignorance of some folks when it comes to American history in general, and Southern history in particular.

I find it absolutely inconcieveable that anyone in this day and age would actually believe that Klan membership was exclusive to the South, and that no one in the North - or in any other part of the country - was in the Klan. The truth, for those of you who are interested, is this: There are several different Klan organizations in the United States, with the Independent Klans of America being the largest and most active. Nationwide, there are Klan groups of various sizes active in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

And it took me all of ten minutes to research this on the web and find this out. And my source? The Anti-Defamation League website. If there's any group out there that's going to keep their finger on the pulse of the Klan, the ADL is it.

So what's my point? My point is that with a simple ten minutes of my time, I increased my knowledge on something and am no longer ignorant in that area. So if I can do it, why can't other people, especially the ones who like to bad-mouth the South and sling the same tired old accusations around?

Simple. It's SO much easier to justify your dislike for something if you don't know the truth about it, because if you find out the truth you may just find out that you're wrong. It's also much easier to avoid admitting that ALL of our nation was responsible for the institution of slavery, and keep on placing all of the blame on the South thereby keeping the South forever on "the stool of everlasting repentance," as stated by the Kennedy brothers in their book, "The South Was Right!" rather than to admit the truth - the factual, historical truth as opposed to what is being taught in our public school systems nationwide.

I guess, when it comes to people shedding their robes of intentional ignorance and actually learning the truth, I should spit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one gets filled first. So I guess I'll just have to keep on fighting, keep on telling the truth to those who would rather not hear it, keep on defending the South's honor and the honor of my ancestors who fought for a noble cause - and, in many cases, died for it. But that's OK, I don't mind. My ancestors surely deserve my efforts at defending their honor, and I find it an honor to do so.

And if I need to tell you exactly what "noble cause" I'm referring to, all I'll say is this: ten minutes of research on the web!

IHC

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend at last!

So what do you have planned for Memorial Day weekend? Going to take a trip to the lake, maybe? Load the wife and the kids in the SUV or mini-van and head out for a relaxing, fun-filled four-day weekend at the lake…sounds like a plan, right? Or maybe the lake isn’t your thing, so you head for the beach instead.

Or maybe you’re just going to hang around the house, have a cook-out in the backyard with some friends from work over for the day, sit around and relax, drink beer, burn some dogs on the grille and just marvel at how great life is on this holiday weekend!

Maybe you’re going to take a short road trip and go see some of the family in the next town or the next state over since you haven’t seen them in a while. Once there, then you can sit around and drink beer, burn some dogs and relax…absolutely! After all, you’ve worked hard for this holiday and you sure as hell deserve it!

Really? News flash: you haven’t worked half as hard nor sacrificed half as much as those who really deserve it but can’t enjoy it as you can.

Instead of taking a trip to the lake with the family, a US Army infantryman stationed in Iraq will read an e-mail from his wife about how much she misses him, and about how much everyone wished he could have gone to the lake with them. He’ll read this as he looks at the pictures of his family at the lake having a good time – as good a time as they can, that is, with him half a world away in a place where any moment on Earth could be his last.

Instead of hanging around the house cooking out in the backyard and drinking beer, some US Navy sailors will set up a small, portable grill on the flight deck of their aircraft carrier “somewhere in the Persian Gulf” and will grill US Navy-issued hot dogs and hamburgers, tossing a football around while the dogs are cooking. And they’ll be drinking cokes and Gatorade instead of beer, all the while wishing they were in their own back yard instead of where they really are.

Instead of traveling to the next town over to see family, a US Marine will get in his humvee and drive to the next camp over to see his best friend from high school, a US Air Force Security Forces member who is standing guard at the main entrance to his camp. During the conversation they will have, they’ll both remember the third member of their high school trio who enlisted at the same time as they did, and who was killed in an IED explosion six months ago.

These are the people who REALLY deserve the Memorial Day weekend – them and the hundreds of thousands of people who have, at one time or another in their lives, worn one of the uniforms of the Armed Forces of the United States.

Some of them have been buried in it.

Compared to what they’ve done, you don’t deserve shit.

My “brutha from anutha mutha,” Bulldog, uses a quote in his e-mails that I will try to remember now: “A veteran is one who, at one time or another, wrote a check payable to the United States of America for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.’” Far too many of them have had that check cashed, and it is for them that the Memorial Day holiday was first created.

Keep that in mind this weekend, if you please, and sometime during your busy weekend it would be nice if you and your family could take a moment out to remember those who are currently serving our nation in faraway lands, separated from family, friends, and loved ones. While you’re at it, say a quick prayer for their safe return and for those who have sacrificed their lives protecting your freedom to celebrate the weekend.

IHC

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

There's a message here....


...and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. I mean, after all, when's the last time you saw someone getting their mug shot taken wearing a "Bush" or a "Reagan" t-shirt?


How about "never?"


IHC

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

"FUMB! WE CAME ANYWAY!"

This is what is written on the back of a t-shirt I bought last weekend at Suck Bang Blow in Four Points, and it's pretty much the attitude of all of the bikers I talked to while at the Myrtle Beach Spring Rally, also known as Bike Week.

As anyone who reads either my blog or the blog of my "brutha from anutha mutha," Bulldog Chief knows, this past week Bulldog rode his Harley Electra Glide Standard from his home in Brandon, Mississippi to my house in Lexington, SC for the purpose of making the trip with me to Bike Week in Myrtle Beach. The last rally that Bulldog and I had been to was to the Harley Rendevous Classic in Maryville, New York in July 2006, so we were long overdue for a blowout! Around six PM on Thursday, May 7, Bulldog pulled up into my driveway, parked his bike in my garage, and half an hour later we were sitting down drinking the first of what would be many, many cold beers over the next four days.

We didn't have to be at the hotel in North Myrtle Beach until three, so we left the house around 9 or so. I rode my wife's Road King instead of taking my Nightster for two reasons: I don't have any luggage big enough that will fit the Nightster for that long a trip, and the Road King has cruise control. 'Nuff said.

Anyhow, we got to the hotel around two, checked in, and then started to find our way around town. That was easy, considering that the promoters of the rally published a map which not only showed us where all of the attractions - meaning the vendors and, most importantly, the biker bars - were located; it also showed us in full color exactly where the city limits of Myrtle Beach were located. This was an area that we avoided like the plague for the three days we were in town, and for good reason - the city of Myrtle Beach, in response to a civil suit action filed against them by the NAACP and the ACLU, recently passed a very strict set of city ordinances aimed specifically at driving not only the Spring and Fall rallies out of town, but the Atlantic Bike Week rally as well.

Never heard of the Atlantic Bike Week rally? It's also known as "Black Bike Week." More on the significance of this later.

In any event, the two ordinances that MB passed that would hit the Harley riders the hardest were the requirement that all motorcycle riders/passengers must wear helmets inside the city limits, and the one restricting the decible level of aftermarket pipes to such a low level that any type of after-market pipes would violate the ordinance. And everyone knows that the first thing most Harley riders do after they buy their bike is change the pipes; the second thing they do is change the seat. So as a result of these ordinances plus a slew of others, the organizers of the rally were forced to scatter the vendors around the city limits, placing all of them outside the city limits of Myrtle Beach. This increased the time needed to ride from place to place, but that's not such a bad thing to a biker after all.

So, map in hand, Bulldog and I proceeded to locate the vendors and some of the many bars we would visit. Not long after we arrived we had dinner at the Hooters on Highway 17, where our waitress told us how she didn't understand why the Spring Bike Week folks were being forced to suffer for the sins of others, specifically the folks who attended Black Bike Week. She told us of how last year, she had a large group of BBW riders run up a $200.00 tab on her, then skip out without paying for it. Her boss, kind soul that he is, made her pay for it instead of just eating it himself. Nice guy, huh?

We then paid a visit - a very short visit - to the Broken Spoke Saloon. I'd call this place a dive, but as Bulldog said that night, you'd have to do at least $20,000 worth of renovations to be able to call it a dive. Yes, it was that bad. If you've never been, I'd suggest you not go. Really.

The next day we started out on our two-day odyssey of travelling from biker bar to biker bar, with a few stops at the vendors along the way. The only time we spent any money inside the city limits of Myrtle Beach was when we had lunch at Margaritaville; you see, I'm a Parrotthead from way back, and I just had to go eat there! Aside from that, the city of Myrtle Beach didn't see a dime from us! We quickly discovered the virtues of Highway 17 Bypass, which takes you around the city limits instead of through the city, which saves you a bunch of time when travelling from bar to bar.

And lemme tell ya, we did travel from bar to bar! We did them all - Suck Bang Blow at Four Points, the original Suck Bang Blow on Murrell's Inlet, the Beaver Bar, the Beaver Bar II, Hoof 'n Finz, the Doghouse, the Doghouse II, the Dead Dog...the only one we didn't hit was the Iron Gate because we didn't feel like riding through the city to get to it. All the others could be ridden to without having to go through the city, so we did just that!

Sunday afternoon around three or so, Bulldog and I were sitting on the front porch of the Beaver Bar watching the beer babe in front of us and the traffic out on the street when I made an observation to him. I told him that throughout the last two days, we had seen literally thousands of bikers, all of them drinking, but we had seen only one - ONE - biker who was staggering drunk. There had been NO fights, NO getting loud and rowdy, NO burnouts in the streets, NO racing, NO stabbings, NO shootings, and NO walking out on tabs. All of these activities, by the way, take place every year during Black Bike Week. We were both pleased and, I think, a little surprised by this, but pleasantly so. I went on to say that I think in another two years or so, when the organizers of the rally have enough time to secure a place where they can centrally locate all of the vendors (which I really hope is Murrell's Inlet, but I think it's gonna be North Myrtle Beach), the people in Myrtle Beach are gonna find themselves saying, "WTF did we do??? Murrell's Inlet and North Myrtle Beach are gonna be raking in the cash, while Myrtle Beach is gonna be raking in....well, nothing.

All I can say is, Mayor Rhodes and the members of the City Council, you asked for it. You tried to keep us out, but we came anyway! We came, we had a damned good time, and we did it without spending a dime in your city! Sunday afternoon at the Beaver Bar I saw a biker wearing a shirt that on the back in big orange letters, said "FUMB," with "Spring Rally 2009" below it, and below that, it said "WE CAME ANYWAY!" I just had to have me one of those shirts, and a few hours later at Suck Bang Blow I found one and bought it. I plan on wearing it every time I go to Myrtle Beach from now on.

Monday morning came all too quickly, and with it came the forcast of a 70% chance of not just rain but thunderstorms in Myrtle Beach, so Bulldog and I hit the road early. We left the hotel at 7:00 and rode nonstop to Camden, where we pulled off to have breakfast at a Waffle House and wait out the rain we could see five miles down the road ahead of us. No sooner had we gotten inside than the rain came. Half an hour later we were back on the road, and half an hour after that we were back at my house relaxing. The trip to the Spring Rally was nothing short of fantastic, and it was easily one of the best vacations I've ever had!

I just think it's a damned shame that the mayor and the city council let themselves be forced into taking the course of action they did by the NAACP and the ACLU. My opinion is this: why punish the masses for the sins of the few? Instead of taking action to banish ALL bike rallies from Myrtle Beach, why not just banish the one that causes all the problems?

The answer is simple, and you know it as well as I do. And save me the bullshit about being "fair," and "what's good for one is good for all." MY having to suffer for the sins of someone else is FAR from being "fair." For the people at Spring Bike Week to have to suffer for the sins of the people at Black Bike Week is a far cry from being "fair."

And before you start slapping the "racist" label on me, lemme ask you a question: would you be thinking that if I were a black biker complaining about the bikers at Spring Bike Week?

I didn't think so.

Just because a white guy says it don't make it racist, especially if it's the truth.

IHC

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

I'm curious

Got to wonderin' yesterday just how many people actually read what I write here...I know of at least four who do, but aside from that I have no idea.

So do me a favor - if you're reading this, drop me an e-mail at http://www.soothsayer1@hotmail.com and let me know. Or post a comment at the bottom, whichever, just something to give me an idea of who else is reading this besides me and four others!

IHC

Sunday, May 3, 2009

This should be good

Well, it's happened. One of the Supreme Court justices has announced that he's going to retire at the end of this session, so that means the Great Pretender will get to select a Supreme Court justice. Oh, joy.

I very clearly remember during the past election campaigns that one of the things we were warned about if NObama got elected was that he would have the chance to appoint at least one and maybe two justices to the Supreme Court, as a few of the members were getting long in the tooth, so to speak. So now, just more than 100 days into his reign - I'm sorry, his administration - the Great Pretender will get his chance.

I, for one, am very curious to see who he's going to nominate. I'm even more curious to see just how much of a stink the Republicans remaining in Congress are going to raise when he makes his nomination. The fight should be interesting, to say the least.

One of the things that NObama said during his campaign was that he was "pro-Second Amendment," although I don't believe that for a millisecond - not with his voting record in Congress, I don't. Well, now will be his chance to do one of two things: prove that he meant what he said and NOT nominate an uber-liberal, anti-Second Amendment candidate for the position, or prove that he's just another lying, scum-sucking, lowlife politician who will say anythign to get elected and nominate an uber-liberal, anti-Second Amendment candidate.

I bet that Billary "We are the President!" Clinton wishes she weren't the Secretary of State right now...after all, that's only a four year gig, eight years at the very most if we're REALLY unlucky, while an appointment to the Supreme Court is for LIFE. So whaddaya think - does she have the cajones to resign as SecState and hope for a shot at the Supreme Court, or is she gonna stay where she is and try a second run at the White House through the front door this time?

Stay tuned, sports fans, this is gonna get interesting.

IHC