… for repeating some of David’s post, but it’s 22.13, we’re watching the 10pm news, and I have a bet with my son as to when the BBC producers will turn away from the magical fairytale in Camelot and address the possibility that the United Kingdom economy may be about to collapse. 10.17 is our current guess, but it could be later – perhaps in the “and finally …” segment.
22.16 – “And now Middle Eastern reaction to the inauguration …”
(I have another bet – that tomorrows 6pm news will tell us what Obama had for “his first White House breakfast”)
UPDATE – 22.19 “And here, more grim news on the economy“.
(I see the BBC are bigging up our current “low inflation” and the prospect of “increasing the money supply“. Invest in wheelbarrows now !)
gordon-bennett | 21.01.09 – 4:55 pm |
It’s only garbage talk if you don’t think about the point. I have for some months had to put up with a procession of smug blacks continually implying that once we have a black President everything will be sorted out.
They are the root cause of this problem (the CRA and ACORN, etc.). Blacks’ crime rates, illegitimacy rates and welfare takeup rates are holding us back. They are always there with their hand out to whitey at the same time as (falsely) accusing us of racism. They say we are holding them back because they are black but the sad truth is they are holding themselves back by their lack of marketable talent and their apparent inability to benefit from the education system.
Okay, now that’s a different point, with some merit. (Except ACORN, for which I blame white neo-Marxists.) The Obamessiah himself has spoken about black fathers taking more responsibility, and many people – white and black – have been saying that if nothing else, his election must be used as proof that blacks can stop blaming racism for all their woes, and start believing that progress is possible. That’s not the same thing as your original comment, as far as I can tell.
In your country I seem to be reading all the time about blacks rising up through the system only to be sacked for corruption. (So many Mayors, so many black hands in the till.)
Yes, another real problem. It’s not racist to point that out. I see this as evidence of the corrupted culture of politics in that community, but it doesn’t mean that blacks are corrupt, full stop. Not at all. I’m pretty sure that’s not what you mean, either. There are, obviously, plenty of white communities with massively corrupt politics. I grew up in Arizona, parts of which were controlled by the mob, and other parts were controlled by a few developers. No blacks. New York City politics was corrupt before blacks were even allowed to vote. So it’s about the culture and community, not really race. But again, I say it’s not racist to point out that there’s a problem of corruption in black politics. Of course, they all seem to be Democrats…..
In the case of (for example) Zimbabwe and South Africa we have handed over well run, prosperous countries and the blacks have squandered every opportunity to build on the legacy and reduced those countries to shambolic hellholes.
Yes, true. Not racist, just a cultural issue, exhibited by many, shall we say, non-modern cultures left to run themselves after colonization/external rule with no help or adult supervision.
What I am saying is shocking, not because it’s untrue but because you don’t normally hear it because one is not allowed to say/write this sort of thing.
I’m not a bnp’er or a racist but I am a realist.
Understood. But none of this really excuses that first comment, in my opinion. I hope you realize that the whole slavery thing makes that a dead argument. Not helpful, really.
If you think I’m wrong then refute me, don’t just try to put me down with an insult.
I’m pretty much only refuting that initial comment, not all of the above. The use of language is important in getting these ideas across properly, though.
If the organiser of this blog don’t want to hear this sort of critique then let me know and I wont write about it again.
Your original comment wasn’t a critique along the lines of your reply to me. The only thing I would add is that we should all be careful the way we phrase these criticisms because it’s just fodder for the trolls and Beeboids who look for any excuse to discredit this blog.
Gordon Bennett
In the case of (for example) Zimbabwe and South Africa we have handed over well run, prosperous countries and the blacks have squandered every opportunity to build on the legacy and reduced those countries to shambolic hellholes.
What you say is correct to a point, but you imply that Mugabe/Mbeki etc have failed BECAUSE they are black, and that the previous leaders succeeded BECAUSE they were white. Thats not true. Mbeki/Mugabe have failed because they have been hopeless leaders. Mbeki has been indecisive and has prioritised positive discrimination ahead of common sense. Mugabe has failed because he is corrupt and a tyrant. They have failed, and they have squandered a legacy, but they have failed because they are bad leaders, not because they are black leaders. Race has nothing to do with it.
Gordon-bennet,
I’m more concerned that dear old lefty has been nurturing a culture of victimhood, and not only amongst black people. Instead of thanking whitey, perhaps they should slap those lefty enfeeblers round the chops.
Umbongo,
Great post, very well said.
caveman, Umbongo, GCooper, Cassandra, Grant, Sue and John Reith spins in his grave: Thanks for your kinds words. I have not left yet but am, as they say, “considering my position”.
Sue: definitely NotaSheep, but then goats and sheep are easily confused until you know the correct way to differentiate between them.
Umbongo 4:18
No problem , mate !
I think we all tend to post hastily and read hastily here sometimes, especially when our passions are high.
I try and go into a dark room and bang my head against a hard object before I post, but it doesn’t always work !
Chas 1:41
Thanks for that clip.
Where on earth do the BBC find vermin like Esler ?
I have more respect for Hamas terrorists, at least they are willing to die for their “cause”. How many of their BBC apologists are willing to risk their own worthless skins ?
Jesus wept: don’t be so soft on Gordon. It’s pure Stormfront!
Sue 5:21
Great post as usual. Glad you are not put off my some of the laddish bad language here !
Atlas 5:41
Loved your comment ” This country may not be Cuba, just yet ” !
David,
Apologies for being insufficiently clear – thanks for your comment above (3:41) Indeed I was specifically objecting to the offensive assertion of G-B that – to paraphrase – ‘blacks have done nothing and achieved nothing [is this because they are blacks?] and (by implication) Obama is a poor choice because of his race’ This is completely unacceptable, untrue, and pure manna to anyone who wants to discredit this site.
Further I agree that it is the BBC articulating a deeply felt liberal belief in identity politics that is so reprehensible in its coverage. It has lost sight of any impartiality and is overjoyed in flagging Obamas race.
The BBC are delighted with Obama because he is Liberal and ‘a man of colour. However, were he to be a black woman clone of Mrs Thatcher or Rolald Regan I am sure their adoration would be brief. The remaining puff, hyperbole and dross will fall away very quickly
In order to eliminate racism the first thing the liberal media (and the BBC in particular) should do is to stop obsessing about it, and and close down the identity industry it has generated
Finally – re the Peter Sellers classic, if I recall Chauncy was an idiot obsessed with television, with no idea of the operation of the world: a very apt comparison with empty and pointless high sounding slogans generated by ‘some 27 year old at Starbucks’
It’s all too much | 21.01.09 – 6:58 pm |
I’m not alone in making the analogy. I believe a few of us here were commenting almost a year ago about the “blank slate” and all that. I forget where I first saw the “Being There” reference, but this post from last March sums it up pretty well.
And here are some quotes from the film to illustrate the point.
President “Bobby”: Mr. Gardner, do you agree with Ben, or do you think that we can stimulate growth through temporary incentives?
[Long pause]
Chance the Gardener: As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden.
President “Bobby”: In the garden.
Chance the Gardener: Yes. In the garden, growth has it seasons. First comes spring and summer, but then we have fall and winter. And then we get spring and summer again.
President “Bobby”: Spring and summer.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
President “Bobby”: Then fall and winter.
Chance the Gardener: Yes.
Benjamin Rand: I think what our insightful young friend is saying is that we welcome the inevitable seasons of nature, but we’re upset by the seasons of our economy.
Chance the Gardener: Yes! There will be growth in the spring!
Benjamin Rand: Hmm!
Chance the Gardener: Hmm!
President “Bobby”: Hm. Well, Mr. Gardner, I must admit that is one of the most refreshing and optimistic statements I’ve heard in a very, very long time.
[Benjamin Rand applauds]
President “Bobby”: I admire your good, solid sense. That’s precisely what we lack on Capitol Hill.
to thank white people for making all the inventions, discoveries and progress on Earth and to acknowledge that blacks have played little or no part in all of that.
gordon-bennett | 21.01.09 – 2:26 am |
Before Elvis Presley sang “Hound Dog,” Big Mama Thornton had house-trained that canine. Before Bill Haley & the Comets popularized “Shake, Rattle & Roll,” Big Joe Turner had done all three. The Crewcut’s “Sh-Boom” was originally sung by The Chords, and The Beatles’ “Roll Over Beethoven” was rocked by Chuck Berry well before the boys from Liverpool “invaded” America.
http://inventors.about.com/library/blblackinventors.htm
Brother green,
Credit for the contribution to pop music has always been forthcoming by whites but pop music didnt give us computers/medicine/sicence/machines
/nuclear power/civilisation/rule of law/trains/roads/modern farming techniques/telecomunications/classical
music/engineering/space travel did it?
Yes, pop music is nice but it aint gonna cure cancer or end poverty is it?
Yes, pop music is nice but it aint gonna cure cancer or end poverty is it?
Cassandra | 21.01.09 – 8:19 pm |
did i say it would ?
anyway you obviously missed the list of black inventors.
http://inventors.about.com/library/blblackinventors.htm
Credit for the contribution to pop music
Cassandra | 21.01.09 – 8:19 pm |
that should read the creation of pop music by the way.
i miss bush already..
he gave a STORMING speech last night
“i never gave attention to opinion polls – i just did what was right”
cant find the youtube url for it, but its a cracker of a speech.
found it a bit of it.. on LGF
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/32510_Bush_at_Welcome_Home_Rally
I wrote a short, angry post on the tumbleweed blog (iain dale’s diary) to the effect that it would be really revolutionary if obama (or any prominent black) stood up to thank white people for making all the inventions, discoveries and progress on Earth and to acknowledge that blacks have played little or no part in all of that.
gordon-bennett | 21.01.09 – 2:26 am
and i think obama will do just that.
for if you dont acknowledge a problem, you cant begin to solve it.
i do note from obama’s speech yesterday that there was ZERO chip-on-the-shoulder bollocks.
good. if that inspires black americans to lift themselves up, rather than blaming others,. then that can only be a GOOD thing.
brother green writes: “that should read the creation of pop music by the way.”
I think you will find there was popular music before. Quite a lot of it in fact.
Credit for the contribution to pop music has always been forthcoming by whites but pop music didnt give us computers/medicine/sicence/machines
/nuclear power/civilisation/rule of law/trains/roads/modern farming techniques/telecomunications/classical
music/engineering/space travel did it?
Yes, pop music is nice but it aint gonna cure cancer or end poverty is it?
Cassandra | 21.01.09 – 8:19 pm
actually theres a synergy between pop music AND technology.
pop music influenced steve jobs to set up apple computers.
kraftwerk used the latest computers of the 1970s to make their synth noises.
Heaven 17 were originally computer programmers.
i could go on…
GCooper | 21.01.09 – 9:14 pm |
yeah i forgot vera lynn and george formby.
and i havent even touched on the “pop culture” influence of what were once 100 per cent geek tech inventions – such as the internet and “websites”…
nowadays we talk about a facebook generation – wasnt too long ago when Tim Berners Lee was making the first HTML pages at CERN…
in fact , its gone beyond mere influence – the internet has elected a new president of America.
obama would never gotten to that office without “pop culture” on the net…
And I would draw brother green’s attention to refutation of the black ‘inventions’:
http://www33.brinkster.com/iiiii/inventions/
archduke | 21.01.09 – 8:59 pm |
i miss bush already..
same here,
20’000 people were out in force to greet him at the airport in texas i read,pretty amazing for someone nobodys supposed to like.
Tiglath-Pileser III | 21.01.09 – 9:24 pm |
o.k you win,black people are useless.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/obama_inauguration/7842169.stm
Are we to expect a daily commentary on the messiahs term in office?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/obama_inauguration/7842169.stm
Obama is a fascist and Imperialist demagogue. He believes history has given America a special mission to play in the world. Isn’t stuff like that what started the Iraq war?
“We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus–and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth”
We are the ones we have been waiting for, we are the world, we are everything.
“the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.”
America, the last best hope on Earth.
Such dangerous naïvety and Imperial hubris (“a new era of peace”), is for people who can’t cope with reality anymore and have falsified and obscured the real complexity of life into a day dream of “One-World”.
For traumatised people living in a cultural wasteland of nihlism (which is implicit in liberalism), they have to believe in this stuff to earn themselves a reprieve from an otherwise painful and pointless existence.
brother green 9:31:
didn’t say useless – just providedd FACTS ! Sorry!
Tiglath-Pileser III | 21.01.09 – 10:01 pm |
since when is an internet link a fact.
But internet facts are OK when provided by you at 8:26pm posting?
BBC: Judge halts 9/11 trial
How green will Obama be?
Is this shi*te what we are going to have to put up with day after day from the BBC? The liberal wank-fest continues.
If skin colour really doesn’t matter, why keep repeating “he’s black?” Because it DOES mnatter to them. Its inverse racism. Multi-culti-nazi.
If Mr Obama was the descendent of slaves, then there would at least be historical justice to celebrate. But with his father being from Kenia, he is more likely to be the descendent of slave owners.
This point would probably be wasted on Beeboids and other obamamaniacs, for whom his colour alone suffices for justice to victims of slavery. Racists.
archduke | 21.01.09 – 9:06 pm |
good. if that inspires black americans to lift themselves up, rather than blaming others,. then that can only be a GOOD thing.
Hear, hear. If nothing else, that could be the new President’s greatest accomplishment. The benefits for society at large are immense if he could do something like that.
I hate the policies he campaigned on, but I love the fact that he told black kids to pull their damn pants up. And nobody’s going to bitch about “acting white” ever again.
Having role models besides preening athletes, rappers, and preachers will enable black kids to contribute to this country’s greatness like never before. Of course, they had plenty of role models already, like Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Denyce Graves, Ken Chenault, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, James DePriest, and Tony Brown. But then, they weren’t really allowed to respect those men before. If they finally are, then that would be real, dramatic Hope and Change.
Of course, if the Obamessiah/Pelosi/Frank policies drive the country into the ground, it won’t matter, and when his term is up we’ll be right back where we started.
brother green. | 21.01.09 – 10:03 pm
OT – but “pop” is short for popular – you could argue that any music through the ages that was popular is “pop music” – Now if you are talking about rock n roll or rhythm and blues that may be a different matter. Although I am no expert.
I wish Obama luck – although I suspect that the US have just elected their own Tony Blair – all gloss and no substance.
You know Obama called himself a “mutt” once. It was in a press conference and was meant to be a little bit gentle self-depreciation. But doesn’t “mutt” rest on the dubious idea of distinctly “pure” races?
I think he’s the stuff Nazism was made of. I think he has a semantically inverted Nazi racism. It isn’t a case of Blond German master race to rule the earth, but a kind of American “universal” “mutt” humanity that represents a false “peace” and “unity” in utter sameness with a historically ordained mission to improve the world.
I think Obama espouses the most dangerous kind of nationalism, the one with a “Holy Mission” that Hannah Arendt described. We know he’s irrational judging from his ideas about a sympathetic relationship between the sea-level and his winning the election. We know he’s trying to refloat the American dollar on state expenditure. We know he’s going to set up a Civilian Army corp to militarise, brainwash, and indoctrinate America.
It’s to early to say what’s going to happen. But I don’t think it will get to Third Reich levels because not even Obama can suspend the constitution.
Tiglath-Pileser III | 21.01.09 – 10:12 pm |
i dont remember saying so.
archduke
…there was ZERO chip-on-the-shoulder bollocks.
Yep, well spotted. Most of the speech was sophomoric, indifferently delivered and, er, nearly as uninspiring as a monologue from Mr Preiser.
I have my doubts that O will inspire American blacks in any durable way: generations of underperformance, lame excuses and ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’ don’t dissipate in four or eight years. Obama may help a bit, but it’s more likely blacks will change out of fear and necessity: the Latino minority is growing fast in numbers, talent and power, often competing for space on the tit. So pulling your finger out may become a question of survival. White guilt isn’t enough to keep the money flowing, not in the present mood, regardless of who is in the WHouse.
And it doesn’t help that O is a mulatto raised by white grandparents.
Then there’s Michelle…
So O’s a wobbly role model, IMO.
Jon | 21.01.09 – 10:35 pm |
yes your right jon,i cannot think that henry purcell or vaughn williams were ever influenced by roy ayers
and robert johnson,i guess i’m talking about pop music from the 40’s onwards.
knacker | 21.01.09 – 10:53 pm |
At least I did say “if”. Good points about “soft racism”, and the more robust Latino community. But I don’t understand why you say the black kids will change out of “fear”.
Maybe the “necessity” you’re talking about relates to what I was saying? If you think about it, The Obamessiah doesn’t actually have to do much of anything to be a good role model, aside from not turning into Hugo Chavez or something, you know? Just being elected is accomplishment enough for the whole “possibilities” theme. More than anything else, others will hold him up as a positive role model, doing that work for him. Not such a bad thing, in my view, and I’d give him some credit for that.