New Republic: Know What Baltimore’s Actual Problem Is? It Didn’t Move Far Enough Left

By William Teach May 4, 2015 – 7:29 am

And segregation from over 50 years ago. After discussing several Conservative articles blaming the failure of Baltimore on Liberal policies, New Republic writer Rebecca Leber writes in her article entitled Liberal Policies Didn’t Fail Baltimore. Here’s What Did.

Conservatives base this logic—that the city somehow proves government investment and social programs are bad policy—on a selective history of Baltimore, noting for instance that its residents have elected only one non-Democratic mayor since the 1940s. But Baltimore’s problems stretch further back, to institutionalized racial discrimination in the early 20th century. Federal and local policymakers of the time redlined areas with “undesirable racial concentrations” to omit them from mortgage insurance programs.

Most of those policies were ruled illegal and/or unconstitutional. Even community covenants which forbid homeowners to sell their properties to Blacks were deemed illegal. All the rules, covenants, laws, and such weren’t just a Southern thing, but were present throughout the country, especially in cities that tended to lead Democrat 100 years ago, and including the north, as Blacks migrated out of the South due to their jobs being replaced by machines. And those “racial discrimination” policies were pushed mostly be Democrats as official platforms.

And over the century, the same neighborhoods faced one destructive policy after another, from mass incarceration to the rise of predatory banks.

If you do the crime and get busted, you’ll do the time. As for predatory banks, this occurs amongst the entire population. But, this is all a way to deflect attention and the discussion away from reality. You may have started drinking because of things other people did, but, after being an alcoholic for 40+ years, the blame is on you.

“If the goal of early segregationist policies was to concentrate black Baltimoreans in a single location, separated from opportunity, then it worked,” Jamelle Bouie writes at Slate. “More importantly, it’s never been unraveled; there’s never been a full effort to undo and compensate for the policies of the past. Indeed, the two decades of drugs and crime that marred Baltimore in the 1980s and 1990s helped entrench the harm and worsen the scars of the city’s history.”

Except, this wasn’t planned, it just happened, particularly as Whites moved out when Blacks moved in, turning White urban neighborhoods Black (the discussion of “why” is a different discussion). Let’s also not forget that Blacks and Liberals are now complaining about “gentrification”, ie, White people moving into the neighborhoods and revitalizing them. Here’s where it gets most amusing

Democrats exacerbated these problems not by embracing the policies of the left. Rather, they dug the hole deeper by yawing to the right. Aggressive policing, tougher drug sentencing, slashing the budgets of school and public housing and parks—throughout Baltimore’s history, lawmakers at the local, state, and federal level adopted policies that entrenched poverty and segregation in the city.

So, what they’re saying, beyond that More Liberal Policies Are Needed, is that Liberals are against law and order, and are for people doing all sorts of hard drugs. Democrats have fought any cuts tooth and nail, and usually see an increase in budgets, not them being slashed. Of course, since the actual tax base keeps falling, they have to raise taxes to pay for the programs, resulting in a further erosion of the tax base, which means they have to raise the taxes, and around we go.

President Barack Obama hinted at the need for assistance in off-the-cuff remarks this week, though it’s unlikely to come from federal politicians. “If we really want to solve the problem, if our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could,” he said, adding, “I think we all understand that the politics of that are tough because it’s easy to ignore those problems or to treat them just as a law-and-order issue, as opposed to a broader social issue.” Conservatives keep trying to change the conversation.

So, the “proper” conversation is apparently to not only keep doing the liberal policies that have failed, but to make them even more liberal. How’s that worked out in Detroit?

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: New Republic: Know What Baltimore’s Actual Problem Is? It Didn’t Move Far Enough Left »

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If All You See…

By William Teach May 3, 2015 – 1:00 pm

…is an awesome low carbon travel mode of a skateboard, offset by the evil CO2 infused beer, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day Blazing Cat Fur, with a post on the “vagina voters”.

Read: If All You See… »

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Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach May 3, 2015 – 10:07 am

Happy Sunday! Another super fine day in America. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, the NY Giants are faced with the daunting task of facing the Eagles, who have QBs named Bradford, Sanchez, and Tebow (snicker). This pinup is by Arthur Sarnoff, with a wee bit of help

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Patterico discusses a cop shot in NYC
  2. Scared Monkeys notes the cops being called over a kiss
  3. Raised On Hoecakes covers the NYC MTA banning free speech
  4. The Astute Bloggers wonders what is causing so many problems in the Black community
  5. The Camp Of The Saints discusses the savage nation
  6. The Gateway Pundit notes firefighters firing back at Obama
  7. The Lonely Conservative wonders why never again keeps happening
  8. The People’s Cube covers Hillary pushing the radical concept of Honesty
  9. Independent Sentinel has proof of Obama endangering national security
  10. Moonbattery notes the billions George Soros owes in taxes
  11. Legal Insurrection has free speech on campus
  12. Lady Liberty 1885 wonders if our education system has become the post office
  13. Gay Patriot has a lesbian teacher using math class for indoctrination
  14. Five Feet Of Fury notes why all great writers are conservatives
  15. And last, but not least, Fire Andrea Mitchell notes that at least one ISIS flag was seen in Baltimore
  16. And one to grow on: Maggie’s Farm says Happy Massacre Day!

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page. While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me

Don’t forget to check out all the other great material all the linked blogs have!

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. (BTW, since someone asked, the reason I leave links for the previous week up (or you might see a *) is because they are place holders for later in the day or for next weeks. Easier than rewriting all the time. Also, the listing order has to do with how they are added over time, not how good a post is. I just copy and paste from the previous week, then edit. If you see one of the *’s, go ahead and check out the blog anyhow, see if there is an update. I cannot update with my Android during the day.

Read: Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup »

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What Does $130 Million Buy? In Baltimore, Continued Squalor

By William Teach May 3, 2015 – 8:38 am

Strange how, no matter how much money is applied, Liberalism keeps failing Blacks. As one person in the comments notes in relation to the Washington Post headline “Because it’s not about the money, ultimately.”

Why couldn’t $130 million transform one of Baltimore’s poorest places?

Along the street where Freddie Gray was arrested, abandoned houses are gashed with gaping holes. The roof on an old red-brick building is collapsed. A storm drain is clogged with concrete.

Sandtown-Winchester is crumbling, and there is little to suggest that two decades ago visionary developer James Rouse and city officials injected more than $130 million into the community in a failed effort to transform it. Instead there are block after block of boarded-up houses and too many people with little hope.

“It’s frustrating,” said Stefanie DeLuca, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist who has studied the neighborhood. “How much money would it take? It certainly seems on an instinctual level that $100 million should have made some difference.”

But for much of Sandtown, life remains bleak. Once home to Thurgood Marshall, Billie Holiday and Cab Calloway, the West Baltimore neighborhood has suffered from unemployment, crime and poverty rates well above the city’s average, census and other data show. The state spends nearly $17 million just to incarcerate its former residents. Life expectancy is 10 years below the national average.

There are typically three major schools of thought on the failure of these big cities. One, from those that the Southern Poverty Law Center terms “White Nationalists” (being a Black or Hispanic nationalist isn’t considered hate to the SPLC, but that’s a different story), this is the fault of Blacks. They say that Blacks “revert to the mean” as a group when gathered in large groups. They say this is what is expected.

Then you have those on the Right who say that this is exactly what one would expect from Leftist doctrine.

Then there are those on the Left who will say there hasn’t been enough money put into these neighborhoods and cities.

My thought is that Liberalism may be good for mostly White liberal cities and areas, such as Portland, Seattle, San Fransisco, and Vermont, but utterly fails in majority-minority (Black) very liberal cities like Baltimore, Detroit, Birmingham, Camden, etc. To use Liberals own talking points, Liberalism is racist. It’s methods and modes fail Blacks. How is it that $130 million dumped into a neighborhood has failed?

This project was started in the late 1990’s, in a poor area, 72 blocks which had been decimated by the crack epidemic. And just decimated period. After $130 million, what has changed?

The effort to revive Sandtown was massive. More than 1,000 homes were eventually renovated or built. Schools were bolstered. Education and health services were launched.

But there were many obstacles along the way, according to Enterprise’s report. Some residents complained that the vision was too grand to execute. Others involved said the city’s bureaucracy stifled innovation.

The most significant problem, according to community organizers and the Enterprise report, was that new businesses and jobs never materialized. And as Baltimore’s decent-paying manufacturing jobs vanished — a problem shared by Detroit, Cleveland and other Rust Belt cities — there were fewer and fewer opportunities for Sandtown residents to find meaningful work.

If you’re just giving people things, but do not change the dynamic of the neighborhood, jobs won’t simply show up out of thin air when it is still dangerous, criminal, the properties left to rot, the residents didn’t care less, having been completely dependent on government, oh, and government gets in the way. Drugs continue to be rampant, and residents were hooked left and right, committing crimes left and right. One of the schools is now a drug rehabilitation center.

The city tried. It hired people to knock on doors and offer health screenings. Others visited the homes of truant students to find out what was preventing them from attending school. Organizers helped form community groups and began a neighborhood newsletter to bring people together.

Rather than empowering people, giving them help, the ever helping hand of the Nanny State got involved. And once again failed.

“We were naive,” said Diane Bell McKoy, president and chief executive of Associated Black Charities and a former top aide to Schmoke. “We meant well, and we mean well, but I don’t think we have taken time to dig deeply enough to find the answers.

Liberalism in a nutshell: naive and good intentions, that fails to solve the issue. And continues to fail in the Black community. Why is it that Portland, with a population of 609K, which continues to grow, has half the number of police officers as Baltimore and its population of 622k, which is going down? Baltimore needs 53.4 law enforcement employees (includes civilian employees) per 10K residents. Portland has 20 per 10k. Seattle has 28.7. San Francisco is at 16.8.

Portland is 76% white, 6.3% Black. Seattle is 69.5% White, just 7.9% Black. San Fran, 54.3% White, just 6% Black (34.4% Asian). Baltimore is 31.6% White, 63.3% Black. The first three, featuring mostly White liberals, are doing well. The latter is mostly Black and liberal, and failing. Why, exactly, do Blacks keep voting for a Party and doctrine that fails them as a group? Why is it that the liberal White cities need so many fewer law enforcement employees? Why is it that Portland can piss away taxpayer money on “climate change” initiatives, as well as have money to spend on parks and greenspaces, whiles Baltimore has to spend a huge percentage of its budget on law enforcement and the criminal justice system?

Liberalism apparently works for White People, and fails Blacks. Strange, eh? It’s almost like it’s set up that way.

BTW, if this conversation is “triggering” and makes you want to go to a “safe space”, you should ask Eric Holder to stop calling people cowards for refusing to discuss race.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Uh Oh: Study Shows That CFLs Could Increase Risk Of Skin Cancer

By William Teach May 2, 2015 – 1:29 pm

Let’s be clear: this is just one study

(13WMAZ) Florida residents are accustomed to hearing about skin cancer risks from the sun. Less familiar? Risks from light bulbs.

But fluorescent light bulbs do contain significant levels of ultraviolet radiation – the main skin cancer risk factor. And a 2012 study by researchers at Stony Brook University in New York found that close, prolonged exposure to compact fluorescent bulbs “exacerbated skin conditions,” including skin cancer.

Fluorescent bulbs aren’t new – most office buildings in America use the familiar long, flickering rods. What is relatively new is the arrival of the curlicue-shaped compact fluorescent bulbs. As part of the federally mandatory phase out of incandescent light bulbs – contributors to greenhouse gasses and possibly climate change – compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) have become commonplace.

Jacksonville resident Gerie Leigh, an ardent environmentalist, was an early adopter of compact fluorescent bulbs, changing out every light in her house several years ago. But after six serious skin cancers in three years, and four just since last May – she’s changed them all again, this time to LED lights. (snip)

Dr. Miriam Rafailovich, who conducted the study at Stony Brook, could not comment directly on Leigh’s concerns, but told First Coast News that she believes there are concerns with prolonged exposure to CFLs. “What we found was that these bulbs would emit radiation where if you were exposed to them you got your daily dose not in eight hours, but in minutes,” she says. Her research found that cells exposed to close range compact fluorescent bulbs, “stopped growing and changed shape.” The cause appears to be cracking or deterioration of bulb’s protective white lining, which the study found could allow UVA and UVC to escape.

Good thing Los Federales mandated doing away with most standard light bulbs eh? Add this to the mercury issue, and that CFLs seem to be lasting around the same as old school light bulbs, and these are super fantastic replacements.

Read: Uh Oh: Study Shows That CFLs Could Increase Risk Of Skin Cancer »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 6 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 2, 2015 – 1:00 pm

… are awesome apples which are needed to reduce obesity for the sole reason of climate change, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is House of Eratosthenes, with a post on why Millennials are afraid of scary ideas.

Read: If All You See… »

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Baltimore Police Officers Identified, 3 Of 6 Are Black

By William Teach May 2, 2015 – 8:16 am

This kinda erases the whole “it’s all about racism” talking point. The tweet comes via Breitbart‘s long continuously update post on #BaltimoreRiots

Of course, this doesn’t erase the seemingly known issue of outrageous actions by some members of the Baltimore PD, in a Very Liberal City run by Democrats for well over 40 years.

(Baltimore Sun) Widespread outrage over the death of Freddie Gray gave way to impromptu celebrations Friday after Baltimore’s chief prosecutor filed criminal charges against the six police officers who arrested him, drove him to a police station and ignored his pleas for medical help.

State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby charged the driver of the van with second-degree murder and the other officers with offenses that included involuntary manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. The officers were taken into custody Friday and released on bail.

The Fraternal Order Of Police are asking Mosby to recuse herself. One also has to wonder if Mosby over-reached on some of the charges, possibly in order to get “justice” for all those who were protesting. We’ll soon see. But, it does sure seem like the conduct of the officers was poor, and possibly criminal. And we have to wonder why Freddie Gray was arrested in the first place, was not only handcuffed but had his feet shackled, and was not properly belted in the police transport.

Of course, the problems in Baltimore are white racism, per the NY Times (among others)

The problem is not black culture. It is policy and politics, the very things that bind together the history of Ferguson and Baltimore and, for that matter, the rest of America.

Even though the city has a Black Mayor, police commissioner, and police chief, with a majority of the city council being Black, and the population being 65% Black, and let’s not forget heavily Democratic, the problem is your White Privilege. With all due respect, rarely are there riots/agitation within the White community, and when they occur, it’s usually Leftists (Occupy movement, Seattle WTO riot, riots because their sports team won/lost the championship)

Specifically, the problem rests on the continued profitability of racism. Freddie Gray’s exposure to lead paint as a child, his suspected participation in the drug trade, and the relative confinement of black unrest to black communities during this week’s riot are all features of a city and a country that still segregate people along racial lines, to the financial enrichment of landlords, corner store merchants and other vendors selling second-rate goods.

The city has been under Democratic rule since the late 1960’s. Interestingly, when Whites start moving into Black neighborhoods, we get complaints of “gentrification”. There are all interesting complaints. Yet, 50% of the officers charged in Freddie Gray’s death are Black.

Of course, this is all related to slavery

The problem originates in a political culture that has long bound black bodies to questions of property. Yes, I’m referring to slavery.

And White people (which would include Orientals and everyone who isn’t Black) owning property 150 years after slavery was abolished is still slavery. How do we take this seriously? Again, with all due respect, perhaps it is high time for the Black community as a whole to take responsibility for what goes on in their communities, rather than Blamestorming.

The constant Blame that has cropped up during the age of Obama, and in particular the last 3-4 years, seems to be counterproductive. I’ve been seeing more and more comments from Whites that Blame blacks, that create separatism, something that wouldn’t have happened that long ago. It’s almost like Whites are tired of being the recipients of Blame. For my part, I’m tired of being the recipient of Blame for something I have nothing to do with. Only White people are allowed to be blamed, we’re accused of “unconscious racism”, and so many other things. It’s tiresome, and I believe it makes many people just not give a damn about race. At Salon a few days ago we got

Dear white Facebook friends: I need you to respect what Black America is feeling right now

The article was all about telling White people to shut up. Imagine an article written in reverse, and ends with

Black is Beautiful and Black Lives Matter,

Are we allowed to write “White is Beautiful” and “White Lives Matter”? We all know the answer. I’m tired of all those who attempt to divide us by race, and Blame others for their own failings.

The real question should be “why are mostly White Very Liberal cities doing well, and mostly Black Very Liberal cities doing very bad?” Is it Blacks, as some posit, or is it that Liberalism is very bad for Blacks?

Read: Baltimore Police Officers Identified, 3 Of 6 Are Black »

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Unidentified Duke Student Apologizes For Hanging Noose, Was Not Even Related To Race

By William Teach May 2, 2015 – 7:36 am

It’s been about a month since the Duke campus became a hotbed of outrage, with the Social Justice Warriors marching, demonstrating, telling us in one breath that they had no fear and in the next that the noose created a hostile atmosphere. Then, the student who left the noose was found. And the campus and story went quiet. The AP said there were lingering questions. At least one, the reason for the noose, has been solved

(WRAL) The Duke University student who placed a noose in a tree on campus outside the Bryan Center a month ago issued a written letter of apology to the campus community on Friday.

“Through my lack of cultural awareness and joking personality, I ended up unintentionally creating a huge mess for myself, my friends, my family and many members of the Duke community that I severely regret,” the student wrote.

The student said the noose was hung as a prank to entice friends to “hang out.”

It’s a pretty short article for the almost-resolution of an incident that required vast amounts of coverage for about three days starting April Fool’s Day. If you read the letter we find out

I have explained my story to Duke Administrators and law enforcement officials as well. I told them the sequence of events whereby something that I made out of a piece of yellow cord I found, for what I considered at the time to be innocent fun, was instead taken for something so terrible. My purpose in hanging the noose was merely to take some pictures with my friends together with the noose, and then texting it to some others inviting them to come and “hang out” with us — because it was such a nice day outside. If there was ever a pun with unintended consequences — this was certainly one. In addition, when I left I carelessly forgot the noose hanging on the tree for the rest of the afternoon and the evening rather than discarding it, as I should have. As a result, people saw it and because of the historical meaning of a noose in the South, a fact that because of my background and heritage I was completely unaware of, conclusions were made that whomever had made the noose did it for racist reasons. This led – completely justifiably — to the student demonstrations, and the school’s expression of disgust of my actions. The Duke Community should take pride in the spirit that unfolded and was demonstrated by the student body during those peaceful demonstrations.

So, a college kid doing something really stupid and insensitive by accident and without thought. Imagine that! The person, whoever they are, apologizes profusely and is reading

a book written by Sherrilyn Ifill, titled “On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the Twenty-first Century.” It is a book, which looks at the relationship between decades-old lynchings and today’s racial violence. I am reading this book so that I may better understand the negative power that the noose, a symbol of lynching, has come to represent in America. I have learned a hard and valuable lesson on many fronts, including that what can be funny for one group of people may bring back very negative, unacceptable symbols of hatred to others.

But, not all are accepting

Reggie Benbow, a graduate business student who is African American, summed up his reaction in one word: “Flabbergasted.”

“To know what a noose is, you have to know the significance of it,” Benbow said. “To be in the South, this is still the American South with a history. You can feel it, you can see it. It’s just unbelievable that someone didn’t know what that meant.”

Zoelene Hill, a public policy doctoral student, agreed. The perpetrator, she said, just didn’t understand the outrage his action would generate.

“He thought his inside joke would remain an inside joke,” said Hill, who is African American. “That’s what his problem is. The whole statement was ridiculous.”

Of course, nooses appear in lots and lots of Western movies, movies that typically feature zero Black people. Hey, remember when Sarah Palin was hung in effigy for a Halloween display?

Be that as it may, we still have no idea who the person is, in it is strange that the school is still protecting not only the name, but the race and sex of the person. In the comments at WRAL, we see

According to those who have reviewed the surveillance tapes, she is an AA female who also tweeted to all members of the BSA after hanging the noose. Now we know why the R D B didn’t show up with his roadshow!

To which I responded

Can that be proven? With all due respect, what/who are your sources? Are the tapes available?

And have not received an answer.

What’s also interesting is how all the SJWs failed to appear in the comments of not just the two articles I used, but most others out there. They were hoping for a big racial incident, which failed to materialize.

On the bright side, the idiot student won’t be charged by Government Law Enforcement for his/her unintentional Thought Crime which Offended people and hurt their feelings.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Unidentified Duke Student Apologizes For Hanging Noose, Was Not Even Related To Race »

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Good News: Hurricane Drought Is Just “Bad Luck”

By William Teach May 1, 2015 – 7:15 pm

Even before the massive 2005 hurricane season, which saw multiple major (category 3+) hurricanes make landfall, including Katrina, Warmists were slowly telling us that global warming/climate change would make hurricane season worse. After 2005, they turned the dial up to 11 with this prognostication. And, almost immediately, hurricane activity dropped off, especially for landfalling systems. Even tropical storm levels dropped. Warmists then tried the talking point of “there will be fewer, but they’ll be stronger”.  America has not witnessed a major hurricane make landfall since October 2005, a record time, which stood since the Civil War level. There have been very few tropical systems, much less actual hurricanes, that have made landfall since 2008. So, Warmists then went with the talking point that global warming/climate change was stopping them. And now we get

US hurricane drought is ‘basically dumb luck’, scientists say
No hurricanes category 3 or above have hit the United States for a decade, the longest recorded stretch since scientists began tracking the storms

Ten years ago, an especially strong and destructive hurricane season brought Katrina to Louisiana in August, followed two months later by Wilma slamming into the Florida coast. And then, for the next 10 years, nothing: no major hurricanes have hit the United States since.

As the US approaches another hurricane season beginning on 1 June, it will also be approaching a historic milestone: there have been no category 3 or above hurricanes in nearly a decade, a stroke of luck that scientists say is truly out of the ordinary.

This current “hurricane drought” is the longest ever recorded since scientists began keeping track of hurricanes in 1851. The last record of eight years happened from 1861–68.

New research from Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, suggests the historic drought is probably just a coincidence.

“We concluded it’s basically dumb luck,” said co-author of the report and senior scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Institute Dr Timothy Hall. “If [the drought] went on and on and on we’d question our assumptions, but for now it seems to be luck.”

Could it be just dumb luck? Well, sure. Could it be that the Pause had an effect? Sure thing. Could it be that warming had an effect? Sure. Could it be something else? You bet. But, what this is is excuse making in an attempt to deflect from the original talking points, then, if hurricane activity ramps up (which it surely will at some point), they can then switch back to Blaming Mankind for global warming/climate change.

Read: Good News: Hurricane Drought Is Just “Bad Luck” »

Posted in Collapsing Science, Global Warming | 4 Comments | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 1, 2015 – 1:00 pm

…is wonderful fruit that helps stop slow the rise of the seas, you may just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post on teaching literary feminism.

PS: call me a sexist pig, but I really love the naturalness of the woman in the photo.

Read: If All You See… »

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