Ron Paul’s remarks on the war, to the House

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a gag about clashing jargons

Sheldon Richman on the “Minuteman Project”:

. . . this “citizens’ neighborhood watch along our border” looks for foreigners who, by and large, are seeking better, more-productive lives for themselves and their children. The self-appointed American border guards inform the authorities when they find any. This strikes me as most out of keeping with the heritage of a country born in revolution, devoted to individual freedom, and skeptical of political power. The irony is that these Americans claim to be acting in the tradition of the original Minutemen, those brave early Americans who were always ready to engage the British forces during the struggle for independence.

Selwyn Duke, a suspiciously white male, comments on the diversity police:

It’s a bit like insisting that every can of paint contain equal amounts of every color, so as to ensure that every color has a place in every can. This certainly would increase the constituent elements in every can, but the end result is that you would be left with only one color of paint in the world. Trying to make the constitution of every unit of society uniformly diverse does not yield true diversity, for it serves to make every unit the same.

Other links du jour — the jour in question being February 16-17, up to which I have caught in reading Rational Review News Digest:

Dave Kopel: The Klan’s Favorite Law

Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Real Social Security Reform

Tim Worstall: The Money Is In the Long Tail

Those who are committed to these leftish values of both a statist economy and a redistributive tax system need to make a choice, which of those do you actually want?

Inherit the Wind somehow never mentioned that the evilutionist textbook used by John Scopes was racist and eugenist. Jim Lindgren, Volokh Conspirator, has the story.

The ever-amazing Joshua Burton calls my attention to this song from someone I’d never heard of before.

Heather Mac Donald: The Diversity Taboo (cited indirectly by Eric Rasmusen)

Swen quotes Phil Ochs’s “Love me, I’m a Liberal”, which reminds me of this from The National Lampoon’s White Album Gold Turkey: National Lampoon Radio Hour/Greatest Hits:

I wish I was a Negro, with lots of Negro soul,
so I could stay true to my ethnic roots and still play rock and roll.
If I was a funky Negro, eatin’ soul food barbecues,
I wouldn’t have to sing the middle class liberal Well-Intentioned Blues.

I wish I was an Indian, a grown-up Sioux papoose,
so when I get drunk on a beer and a half I have a good excuse.
I’d be a noble savage, wouldn’t ever wear no shoes,
and I wouldn’t have to sing the middle class liberal Well-Intentioned Blues.

I wish I was a wetback on a strike in a lettuce patch
or a slant-eyed peasant with Viet Cong stashed underneath my thatch.
I only ever cross a picket line to pay my union dues
to keep on singing the middle class liberal Well-Intentioned Blues.

But I am not a Negro (come on!), not a red man nor a Mex. (Join me, kids!)
I’m a member of the oppressing color, language, age and sex.
I sympathize with the Arab cause; I feel for the put-upon Jew.
And I keep singing —
the middle class liberal —
humanitarian —
meaningful dialogue —
we are all responsible Well-Intentioned Blues.

(And again I wish I knew how to display this with hanging indents.)

A year ago Maher Arar, a citizen of Canada, was arrested at a New York airport on his way home, and deported to Syria. I suspected he’d never be seen again, but he is now back in Canada, much the worse for wear.

Nov.15: a longer story (New York Times)