When Lying Becomes An Art Form...

Time to ponder some of the most unusual crap this old world can dredge up, brought to you by yours truly.
But first, our Hooiserland weather today will definitely have YOU believing that Spring can't be that far off (with all the stuff that comes along with it).
We'll have mostly sunny skies with a high of damn near FIFTY degrees...that ought to make the nasty gray leftover snow disappear straight away.
Tomorrow, we'll have a nice dose of RAIN...the much wetter and softer version of snow.
In the meantime, fill up that cup of whatever your pleasure is this morning, and let's get the ball rolling...
*** First off the cliff today is an article in today's Journal-Gazette conveniently placed in the OP-ED section. Got my dander up, too.
And it has to deal with racism...or more specifically, what is being touted as an "evolution" of racism.
Here's the link to the article:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140318/EDIT05/303189946/1021/EDIT
And I'm going to use this as a prologue to what I wanted to post about "culture", because that very word is mentioned in the FIRST sentence of the article.
But I must warn you...it's written by a liberal, so you know what to expect.
The story concerns an author, one Ian Haney Lopez, who wrote a book entitled "Dog Whistle Politics - How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class"
(helluva long title)
Well, he's from Berkeley, so THAT immediately gets the hairs on my neck at attention.
Personally, I think the middle class was being "wrecked" for the last several decades (mostly by democrats), as politics and government has taken FROM them to add to the people at both ends of this stick.
The rich (in government) got richer, and the poor remained poor, but their numbers GREW as part of the middle class fell back into financial levels approaching poverty...as we choose to define it today.
This author talks about "coded speech" which not only triggers racial anxiety which allows plausible deniability by crafting specific language, but also allows the speaker to deny that he (or she) is even thinking about race.
Obviously, this is a concept that can only be created by social progressives..because THEY are the only ones who truly want to "help" people.
The article mentions particular catch phrases or buzz-words that have ingrained themselves in our lexicon in recent history.
Let's look at them...
1) INNER CITY - Lopez states that while you can't publicly say black people don't LIKE to work, you CAN say there's an inner city culture in which generations of people don't VALUE work.

We're not Detroit yet...but we're working on it

Funny, in MY part of Fort Wayne's ghettohood (and from my observations)...THAT is pretty much the God's honest TRUTH.
The goal of such "coded speech" (as the author says) "isn't to demonize minorities, but to demonize a government that helps the middle class, and if the Americans have historically associated with inner cities have to be used in the process...so be it."
Well, if the government is giving away the "farm" and causing mass deincentivizing of those living in the inner city TO work, or even to LOOK for work...that's still the truth, right?
 Hard to overcome a "Santa Claus", isn't it?
2) STATES' RIGHTS - Lopez looks at this by citing Barry Goldwater who was critical of "the new deal".

Doesn't say "YOU, the GOVERNMENT" there, does it?

Lopez seems to be a bit presumptuous here.
He says people felt it translated to the rights of states to resist federal mandates to integrate.
3) FORCED BUSING - Lopez calls this "racially neutral", but allowed the North to express fevered opposition to integration without having to mention race.

Talk about yer "fail-fail"..

And how EXACTLY has all this forced busing worked out? More crimes at schools, failure of inner city schools to keep up because of low attendance, low standards, and so on. Many of the old neighborhood schools closed so we could bus kids across town...just so they could be thrust into unfamiliar environments and huge cultural differences.
4) CUT TAXES - Lopez states that when Reagan used this term, he REALLY meant cutting taxes "so your taxes won't be wasted on minorities".

THIS is from the 1950s - still relevant TODAY.

That's outright BULLSH*T and only proves that this author wants free stuff for those not willing to pull their own weight in society.
The WEIRD thing about this, is that when taxes are RAISED (to fund all these government-sponsorship programs) WHY do we see MORE people getting on them...and staying there? Again, when you give people stuff and never expect anything from them to warrant either appreciation OR the opportunity to WORK for what they get...that is NOT called racism, although it is the WORST form of it.
5) LAW AND ORDER - Lopez says this draws on an image of minorities as criminals.Well, when you have an area that is PREDOMINANTLY black...or Hispanic, logic dictates that the MAJORITY of crimes in those areas will be committed BY those particular ethnicities...

Par for the course on the SE side.

The law of averages never seemed to dawn on Mr. Lopez, did it?
(Typical liberal mentality.)
"What we really need is law and order...we need to crack down". 
Sounds like a spokesperson for the FWPD and the gang unit tactics against CRIMINALS (read gang members) on the SE side.
Wow, didn't think about the FWPD (and associated state and federal agencies) as being RACIST...but that's what Lopez would have US believe.
6) WELFARE and FOOD STAMPS - Lopez states that while such things were broadly embraced during the NEW DEAL era (and given mainly to whites), there was no stigma attached to it...UNTIL the 1960s and LBJ's "racial-justice" component.
Then Lopez believes it allows conservatives to start painting a picture of a WEALTH-TRANSFER from the middle and upper class to minorities.

Less of the former - more of the latter.

How's THAT been working out?
Damn near HALF of our population is receiving SOME form of "government-assistance".
Whatever system was put into place was NEVER designed to endure such a burden...it's totally unsustainable, because sooner or later, you WILL run out of OTHER PEOPLES' MONEY to fund such garbage.
And while there ARE those that DO need such help (and should by all means GET it), it doesn't mention the FRAUD committed by others, or those that just want to kick back and take it easy while Uncle Sam pays the freight.
7) SHARIA LAW - Lopez looks at this as merely a ploy by Republicans to frighten Americans into thinking this new brown contingent of immigrants is dangerous. REALLY?

You people THINK so, hmm? Think AGAIN.

Tell THAT to those in the Boston Marathon BOMBING...or those that died or were injured when "they" hit the WTC..TWICE.
There ARE internal threats by some who enter this country legally, but we also have to worry about those entering ILLEGALLY as well.
This author needs to wake up and smell the coffee burning.
8) ILLEGAL ALIEN - Knew this one was coming.

Phil Collins got it RIGHT!

Lopez says we're always concerned about the MEXICAN border and not about the CANADIAN one.
Actually, we're watching BOTH borders, but the southern one gets the most attention, because MORE drugs are coming through from down THERE.
Not to mention that CANADA is a lot better attuned to what happens along the border than say Mexico and it's corrupt as the day is long government.
Lopez can try to make a convincing argument, but anyone with half of their synapses firing can see the inherent FLAWS in his work.
Through ALL the crap he tosses at the reader, one thing becomes clear in his tirade against this "perceived:" new racism...
We, from MY generation used to not call such tripe racism...we LIVED through that time. and saw REAL racism at work, abhorrent as it was.

What Lopez writes about is not racism...it's THE TRUTH.
And maybe some day, he will be set free by it.
Meanwhile, if you want the TRUTH about race in America, pick up anything by Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, John McWhorter, or Larry Elder...ALL distinguished men of color.
And conservative.
Moving on...
*** Last up today, I know I get tired of all the double-standards I see around me...and perhaps you do as well. It gets real old, real fast.

It's the type of thing you cant avoid...like a deer that jumps out of the woods in front of your vehicle (hopefully that never happens).
And it's managed to infiltrate into every aspect of our society.
What passes for racism these days is another thing that won't go away...thanks to the LIBERALS out there, who, if they had gotten to power in the years after the Civil War and remained in power, we'd still have slavery. It wasn't a bunch of black democrats that created the NAACP; it was a bunch of old white guys (conservatives) that wanted better for their FELLOW MAN, even if he/she was a different color.
Hell the acronym STILL has "colored people" in the it.
You'd think we'd have gotten past THAT at least.
Now, when I hear that our society has CULTURE issues, that sets me off, because all this can be avoided...by CHOICE (there's that nasty word again...lol).

We DO have such problems in this country, and dancing about them or keeping them all at arm's length isn't helping to solve any of them.
The liberal mindset is simple - BIGGER government to take care of everything AND everyone without exception (or disagreement) - we used to call that socialism...or fascism.
The conservative mindset is just as simple - SMALLER government, more state control with accountability from ALL ranks of politics, and an equal opportunity for ALL the citizens to succeed, rather than a guarantee of success (by redistributing the wealth of others).
And such a choice is ours for the asking...and taking.
May we ask the right questions to find the answers we seek, and take such answers to solve our OWN problems.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.