tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50718132024-03-18T21:37:25.647-07:00Christ the TaoMapping the universe from a Christian perspective, one post at a time.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger624125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-8430416597239433032023-10-12T08:39:00.002-07:002023-10-12T08:39:23.113-07:00Thinking Rationally about Religion and ViolenceTeaching high school kids how to think and do research sometimes drove me to despair. Not because they didn't get it, but because sometimes they did. And then I look at how "successful" thinkers in the Media and often even Academy argue in public, and wondered if I was wasting my time. <div><br /></div><div>Maybe, after all, sloppy use of key terms, broad generalizations based on anecdotal and impressionistic "evidence," free employment of logical fallacies, and in short, shoddy reasoning that makes emotional appeals to dupes, is how to make a name for yourself and grab your share of the world's approval and financial renumeration. Maybe I was setting kids up to fail by teaching them how to think and argue rationally. </div><div><br /></div><div>Such, at least, was my gloomy reflection upon reading Deidre McPhillip's "Religion Needs a Savior: Most people think religion is the root cause of the world's problems, according to an international study," on the US News website. (And a discussion linked to that article at a secularist website that promotes the "future of reasoning.") </div><div><br /></div><div>I told students that one of the first things they needed to do to make a sensible argument, was to define key terms. </div><div><br /></div><div>So what is "religion," used twice in the headline alone, that multi-tasking pest which allegedly causes most the world's problems? The term is famously tricky. Sociologist Peter Berger divided definitions of “religion” into two kinds: substantive, which focus on the content of belief, and functional, which key in on the use society makes religion. For instance, you can define religion as "Belief in God or supernatural powers," or as "The overarching ideology which a group of people take as fundamental in establishing rules of behavior." (Or Paul Tillich's simpler "ultimate concern," to give another "functional" example. The sociologist Emile Durkheim was probably the most famous "functional" theorist.) </div><div><br /></div><div>People ignore this distinction all the time, though it is critical. Secular ideologies often qualify as “religions” under functional definitions. This makes skeptics uncomfortable, because they want to stigmatize “religious” people as inherently irrational, unlike themselves. Functional definitions level the playing field, reminding us that the same psychological and social forces work on us all, whatever we think about God. </div><div><br /></div><div>But an even more important, and obvious, distinction begged by the title of this piece is "Which religion?"
As everyone knows, including those taking the survey, some Muslims have behaved badly of late. (I finally post this after Hamas' recent murderous exploits were celebrated widely.) </div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, so have some Christians, especially if you go back to the Inquisition -- why did you think of that? Because both Christianity and Islam are “Abrahamic religions“ we are told. </div><div><br /></div><div>So it does not even cross the skeptic’s mind that, “Yes, but atheists murdered one hundred million innocent people during our grandparents’ life-times." That is the advantage of implicitly defining religion to exclude their own ideology: they need not be hoist with their own petards. </div><div><br /></div><div>Asking if "religion" has done the world harm is misleading not only because "religion" is poorly-defined, but also because either sort of definition covers very different things. A fallacy of composition is committed. It is unfair to ask folk about "religion in general" when they invariably have particular religions in mind. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Are Lutheran Brethren the root cause of the world's problems?"
No? How about Communism? Capitalism? Technology? </div><div><br /></div><div>"Is Islam the cause of most of the world's problems?” </div><div><br /></div><div>That question won’t fly in Lahore, or else stones will. Go ask police officers in Beijing if the Communist Party has messed up the country, and with luck, you’ll soon be on a flight home. </div><div><br /></div><div>And what does "most of the world's problems" mean? </div><div><br /></div><div>Take out a scratch pad and list a few serious ones: </div><div><br /></div><div>(a) Death.</div><div>(b) Cancer.</div><div>(c) War.</div><div>(d) Mosquitoes and the diseases they bring.</div><div>(e) Ticks and the diseases they carry.</div><div>(f) Traffic jams.</div><div>(g) Bureaucrats.</div><div>(h) The threat of nuclear weapons.</div><div>(i) The rise of Artificial Intelligence.</div><div>(j) Unmelodic music in grocery stores.</div><div>(k) Ugly public art.</div><div><br /></div><div>Your list may differ. But the problem with the article’s title should be obvious. Clearly, most big problems are not caused by religions, however you define the word. (Unless you count Satan’s temptation to “be as gods, eat the apple” as a “religion.”)</div><div><br /></div><div>In China, where few of the 1.4 billion citizens has a religion in the sense of belief in supernatural beings, and the public, observable effect of Buddhism and Christianity is negligible (while Islam is suppressed even more heavily), I suspect "dropping my I phone on the sidewalk" would rank higher as a source of heartache. (Never mind "unrequited love" “bad air” or "getting fired.")</div><div><br /></div><div>So why might people answer "yes" to such an inane question as “Is religion the root cause of the world’s troubles?”</div><div><br /></div><div>Because polls are intended to let people vent, not think. And who are respondents venting at? Not at themselves, of course. At people of other religions.</div><div><br /></div><div>So much for “the future of reasoning.”</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><span style="color: red;">Anecdotal Arguments Against Faith, plus "Expert" Opinions</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div>The contents of the article exhibit do little more to reassure one that post-religious humanity will think clearly or honestly.</div><div><br /></div><div>"RAISED AS A conservative, Sunni Muslim girl in Canada, Yasmine Mohammed said she was taught to always be in fight mode. 'The first thing Islam teaches you is to not question, but follow,' she says. And what she had to follow was a 'Muslim supremacy ideology' that called for violence against anyone who fell out of line and full armies prepared to join the fight when the caliphate was to rise. "Systematic suppression of critical thinking is what makes Muslims ripe to join groups like the Islamic State group or become suicide bombers without questioning the motives of their directives, she says."</div><div><br /></div><div>Not to defend Islam, of which I am not fond, but let us not ignore the fact that, as numerous anthropologists affirm, human nature is fundamentally tribal.</div><div><br /></div><div>And does critical thinking need to be suppressed, or developed? If it came naturally, I'd have to seek employment elsewhere. And when it comes to job security, the US News article is reassuring. </div><div><br /></div><div>"As a radical sect of Buddhist nationalists persecute the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict wages on and a film challenging the Orthodox Church spurs violent protests in Russia, it seems that asserting sovereignty is the only thing the world's religions can agree on today." </div><div><br /></div><div>Take this line of “reasoning,” for instance. Does the author seriously wish to extrapolate from three instances in which groups of "religious" people quarrel (though Israel is one of the least "religious" countries in the world) to argue that there is some sort of general agreement among "the world's religions" to . . . what? "Assert sovereignty?” Claim power over others?</div><div><br /></div><div>Aristotle pointed out that "Man is a political creature.” Since politics means assertion of power, clearly the use of power is a universal human (also lupine) characteristic.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we should generalize from three instances to 6 billion people, while implicitly exempting the "non-religious" billion or two people from that generalization? Never mind the power games that New Atheists play among themselves? Or the fratricidal history of Marxism?</div><div><br /></div><div>My point, of course, is not that atheists are either more or less violent than Shiite Muslims. It is that McPhillip has deceived herself into thinking she has made a rational argument, when she has not come within a country mile of a clear thought. </div><div><br /></div><div>But on she treks: </div><div><br /></div><div>"In a recent Best Countries survey of more than 21,000 people from all regions of the world, the majority of respondents identified religion as the ‘primary source of most global conflict today.’ Spiritual beliefs create an inherent “us vs. them" scenario, experts say."</div><div><br /></div><div>Which experts say that? What are they expert in?</div><div><br /></div><div>Sports and politics also create "inherent 'us vs them' scenarios. Indeed, every assertion of truth, every scientific or historical or psychological claim, every basketball tossed into the air, also creates an "us vs them:” those for, and those against. Society is constantly fracturing along the fault lines of a billion assertions.
Any claim "A" immediately creates a default "non-A" at the other end of the court. Ever line in the sand, saying "This is ours" (Rouseau) creates potential for conflict. </div><div><br /></div><div>McPhillip's borrowed "insight“ is thus simultaneously both trivial and earth-shaking: if she applied the same standard to ideas in general, she would have to portray them all as dangerous. (And maybe they are, for her.)</div><div><br /></div><div>"’When societies shatter, they generally shatter along tribal lines. People are seeing themselves as irretrievably different from their neighbors,’ says Sam Harris, a neuroscientist and philosopher who has published books on Islam and the conflict between religion and science."</div><div><br /></div><div>The movement Harris briefly helped lead has also shattered along tribal lines. The website Sam Harris and the Future of Reason is a site largely for tribal warfare between atheists who hold differing political opinions.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's one reason I find it interesting. If everyone offered the same views about the world, it would make me wonder if I were trapped in the world of 1984 or the planet in Madeleine L’Engle where children all bounce their balls simultaneously.</div><div><br /></div><div>Humans are tribal. Welcome to Anthropology 101.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The divisions created by religion are deeper and potentially more harmful than those formed through other aspects of identity such as race, nationality or political affiliations because they confront individuals with differing opinions on the ultimate purpose of life, experts say. And more than 80 percent of those surveyed said that religious beliefs guide a person's behavior."</div><div><br /></div><div>Here come those ”experts" again.
Which experts, besides the New Atheist Sam Harris? What are their exact words? What evidence do they offer to back up their opinions?</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm an expert in "religion." I don't hear my fellow historians, theologians, or students of comparative religion, saying that religion is more dangerous than politics or nuclear physics, for examples.</div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, the argument given so far sounds like something a crack-pot psychologist dabbling in comparative religion or intellectual history might say. The impact of ideas in the collective is not a question that can be answered theoretically. (Notice the fudge word "potentially," which is a concession that the author cannot back her point up with solid empirical evidence.)</div><div><br /></div><div>If you have proof that "religious" people (by whatever definition) are more violent, cruel or mean than people who lack any beliefs or purpose in life, please offer that evidence, so we can crunch the data! </div><div><br /></div><div>Or how about if we just cite Swami Sam like good faith-heads? </div><div><br /></div><div>"Religion often becomes the master variable," Harris says. "It provides a unique reward structure. If you believe that the thoughts you harbor in this life and the doctrines you adhere to spell the difference between an eternity spent in fire or one spent on the right hand of God, that raises the stakes beyond any other reward structure on earth."</div><div><br /></div><div>Still just one "expert," Sam Harris (whose expertise lies in cognitive science, not religion), offering armchair theorizing. Odd, if “experts" in general are making this point, that she keeps on citing the same fairly young scholar, whose academic work lay in a field remote indeed from the claim supposedly being supported.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Tribal tendencies are natural for humans who need groups and community to survive. But the driving forces behind especially alienating, fundamentalist beliefs are a combination of nature and nurture, experts say. 'Any beliefs that concern the sacred are integral to people’s identities,” says Andrew Tix, a psychology professor at Normandale Community College whose nationally recognized research focuses on religion and spirituality. ‘People differ in how much they’re threatened when the sacred is brought into question.’</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe we should start a drinking game: bottoms up when the word "expert" is used.</div><div><br /></div><div>This expert turns out to be a young instructor, not professor, at a community college. </div><div><br /></div><div>He does hold a PhD in psychology. But these two comments hardly seem to require one to issue. Your most sacred beliefs are part of who you are! (Bet you didn't know that, Irish Catholics! Or Iranian Shiites! Or Icelandic Wiccans!) And some people get more upset than others when you tell them their religion is wrong! </div><div><br /></div><div>Remember, this is expertise talking, so don’t laugh!</div><div><br /></div><div>"He points to psychology’s Big Five theory in which openness to experience is one of five key personality traits that is influenced by genetics and shaped by experiences. Some people have found ways to 'hold their beliefs more lightly and with a sense of mystery,' he says. They would score high on ‘openness,’ while fundamentalists who hold their beliefs with heavy conviction would more likely score low."</div><div><br /></div><div>You may want to sit down for these “heavy” revelations. People who are convinced about what they believe, really believe it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ponder the implications: if you firmly believe that the Earth goes around the Sun, you will score low in measurements of how open you are to changing your mind to thinking both sun and earth circle the moon. Profound, no? </div><div><br /></div><div>But the experts have even more such wisdom to impart. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Religious communities teach different ways of responding to criticism of their identity, Tix says, but it comes down to the notion of threatened egotism.
‘The stronger a person’s convictions in their identity – of which religion is often a key part – the more likely they are to be violent when their identity is threatened.’”</div><div><br /></div><div>You may find it hard to keep up with the flow of earth-shattering profundity. But what this seems to mean is, if you don't care much about your religion, you probably won't lose your cool if someone trashes it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Are we going too fast?</div><div><br /></div><div>Also, if you don't care about your country, you probably won't care if someone invades it. If no one cared about anything -- no country to die for, and no religion, too -- why just imagine!</div><div><br /></div><div>So I am not sure if our experts obtained this vast store of expertise from their PhD studies, or from an old Beatles song. Either way, we soldier on:</div><div><br /></div><div>"The Muslim identity surrounding Mohammed in Canada's British Columbia was strong. She was beaten for not memorizing the Koran and married to a member of al-Qaida as a teenager . . . But after taking a religion course at college, Mohammed said the unease she had always felt with what she was told to believe finally started to take shape. In voicing her newfound convictions to her family, she immediately became part of ‘them’ instead of ‘us.’ The fight turned against her. She says her family disowned her and threatened to have her killed. She fled to different parts of Canada, changed her and her child’s names and says she feels lucky the death threat has so far only been a threat."</div><div><br /></div><div>A sad story, indeed.</div><div><br /></div><div>"It is only in comparison with modern Islam that modern Christianity and other religions appear more benign, says Sam Harris, who is very publicly atheist. 'It’s more than inconvenient that these old [religious] books support things like slavery and the killing of women who are not virgins on their wedding night,' he says. 'None of these books is the best we have on anything we care about. All could be improved with editing, and that should banish any notion that they are the product of omniscience.'” </div><div><br /></div><div>I have seen attempts to "improve" the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount. (Cough, cough.)</div><div><br /></div><div>But we seem to be straying off the path. Wasn’t someone going to make the case that religion is the root of all evil? The title of the piece was "Religion Needs a Savior: Most people think religion is the root cause of the world's problems, according to an international study."</div><div><br /></div><div>Nope! It turns out that this title is a lie. The actual question asked was not about "the world's problems" in general. Rather it asked "What's the primary source of most global conflict today?"</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously, "problems" is a vastly broader set of issues than "conflicts," especially if you add the adjective "global," then the chronological modifier, "today."</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyone who doesn't recognize how dishonest it is to conflate these two, shouldn't stand within ten miles of a keyboard. It is like asking people, "What is the most difficult thing about eating a pineapple?" Then when they say, "Pealing off that hard, greenish-yellow skin," you announce, as your headline, "Most people object to mixed skin colors!"</div><div><br /></div><div>If one were to focus on the present moment in history, Islam is, arguably, the source of most civilizational friction. One could also make a case for the Woke ideology. Look a few years into the past, and it was communism. Look into the future, and the atheist neo-Confucianism of China looms on the horizon.</div><div><br /></div><div>But death, taxes, cancer, and traffic are all arguably bigger problems for most people. And most religions don't cause much fuss, even those that are passionately believed (what Stark called “high tension” faiths.)</div><div><br /></div><div>"But religion is not going away."</div><div><br /></div><div>And if it did, we wouldn't know, since you haven't defined it yet.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Estimates from Pew Research Center predict that the worldwide population of religiously unaffiliated people will shrink from about 16 percent in 2010 to 13 percent in 2050. In the same time frame, the share of Muslims is predicted to grow from 23 percent to 30 percent of the world’s population."</div><div><br /></div><div>Pew Research is an expert on what people think in the present, not the future. We have no idea whether there will even be any human beings 27 years from now, let alone what they will believe. A LITTLE intellectual humility on how our grandkids will identity is advisable.</div><div><br /></div><div>Few predicted the sudden growth of Christianity in China. In recent years, a phenomenon never seen before has occurred in the Muslim world, too -- millions converting to Christ. But in some other countries, the church has suffered sudden reversals.</div><div><br /></div><div>What path people follow in the future, is up to them, and predicated on numerous variables, many of which themselves are complex or invisible to any human or computer prognosticator.
But just a bit more from “experts” before we (finally, yes, sorry) close:</div><div><br /></div><div>"EXPERTS agree that finding a human connection at some level can help build empathy and bridge the gap between conflicting ideologies and identities. 'In many Muslim-majority nations, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, religion is directly tied to national policy and politics.' </div><div><br /></div><div>As is atheist ideology in China, and Woke ideology in California. </div><div><br /></div><div>"For 18 years, the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy, founded by Douglas Johnston, has facilitated faith-based dialogue to find commonalities in these conflicting sides. ‘What you’re doing is shifting accountability from an ideology or political movement to god. If you do that, you tend to find that people behave nicer,' Johnston says. 'It’s incumbent upon all of us to search our beliefs, our instincts and the rest of it and do what we can to be agents of reconciliation.'”</div><div><br /></div><div>This quote seems to contradict everything that went before it. "Religion" was the shark in the pool. Now political ideology becomes the real danger, while faith in God can make us kinder and gentler.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, not all religions, especially defined functionally, appeal to God. John Hick tried to get around this by describing a "Real" that is the truth behind surface manifestations in all religions. One eastern critic pointed out that Hick's "Real" was implicitly theistic, while many theists found it rather un-Real. So Hick's attempt to satisfy everyone ended by satisfying almost no one, as such ghostly universalisms usually do.</div><div><br /></div><div>But I think Johnston is closer to the truth than the other "experts" McPhillip has cited. Of course people can appeal to "Got Mitt Uns" to commit tribal cruelties. Yet anyone who recognizes the image of God on his neighbor, and who hears Jesus tell him that all morality and prophetic writings are summed up in "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself," cannot go full tribal, then look God in the eye.</div><div><br /></div><div>I just read part of a doctoral dissertation by an orthodox Jew who noted that the Miao people in China had been fighting the Han people, and losing, since forever. Their conversion to Christianity, he noticed, allowed some Miao to begin to forgive the Han. And his own faith in God seemed to give him something in common with evangelical missionaries and Chinese minorities alike.</div><div><br /></div><div>So this article fails on all fronts. Religions are complex, varied, and contradictory as the humans they strive to direct. Simple-minded a priori generalizations, inspired by abstract psychological theories and absent careful empirical research discretely analyzed and reported, don't tell us anything. Neither do answers to loaded questions. </div><div><br /></div><div>And really, kids, you need to define your terms clearly, make due concessions, quote qualified authorities while recognizing the limits of their expertise, look at the big picture not just a few convenient facts, and think critically about your thesis. </div><div><br /></div><div>Which, after all, may be worth learning to do, after all. </div><div><br /></div><div>Think critically about religion, and it may not help you get published or elected to office. But as Kipling put it, do all that, and "You'll be a man, my son." </div>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-64354766705275777542022-08-05T11:08:00.002-07:002022-08-05T11:08:11.146-07:00Susan and the "Aslan of Oxford" <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDbqkfYGdLF3iBUqf_rZKHzY0chAipcM3vdNGDD2DydQgXq8buouiqJsFlYvFOJbjIqvFojNObDeaYzx8oNux_N2Sqhwh0FBpuQto0SRLl4KgSyLDVK6h7wl2_c6CzYEQvp6yPJ3OULwdKKq0SklN1Ha2rQpEcB9gH80OS9mFB5wQy1EleFw" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="324" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDbqkfYGdLF3iBUqf_rZKHzY0chAipcM3vdNGDD2DydQgXq8buouiqJsFlYvFOJbjIqvFojNObDeaYzx8oNux_N2Sqhwh0FBpuQto0SRLl4KgSyLDVK6h7wl2_c6CzYEQvp6yPJ3OULwdKKq0SklN1Ha2rQpEcB9gH80OS9mFB5wQy1EleFw" width="156" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem;">What really happened to Susan? C. S. Lewis sometimes received letters asking about her fate. (JK Rowling and Philip Pullman also object to Lewis' story on this account.) He replied to one or two correspondents, "I think Susan's salvation is more of an adult story. Why don't you write it yourself?"</span><p></p><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;"><br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" />So I did, and wove that tale into my new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Case-Aslan-Evidence-Jesus-Narnia/dp/1947929216/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=0MFht&content-id=amzn1.sym.5fe95cd4-8512-42fa-bf21-63d83b898785&pf_rd_p=5fe95cd4-8512-42fa-bf21-63d83b898785&pf_rd_r=F89ZXB67NA7S4B0F56EY&pd_rd_wg=L07qQ&pd_rd_r=a28cfe7b-a6d3-40d4-adad-3d7344cc146a&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m">The Case for Aslan: Evidence for Jesus in the Land of Narnia</a>. Here's how one chapter, set at Wadham College in Oxford, begins:<br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /><br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /><span style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><i style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;">Scene: A second-floor office in a functional stone building, with windows overlooking a grassy quadrangle and ornate spires. An elderly man is staring into space, books jumbled in lopsided piles on his desk. A drawing hangs near the door, of two men in old-fashioned wigs, sitting in a wooden boat with feathered wings, flying above the very quad visible out the window. One is smoking a pipe, while the other trails fishing tackle, at which peck a flock of ducks. A basket of apples rests on the cupboard below the drawing: a faint humming sound can be heard from the cupboard.</i></span></span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">Knock, knock!</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Come in!”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;"><span style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><i style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;">A young lady of about twenty-five enters. She is stylishly-dressed and attractive, with long black hair and a skirt to match. She smiles, a bit crookedly, as if some weight were pressing on her cheeks.</i></span></span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;"><span style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><i style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;">The old man looks up, and his mouth drops open.</i></span></span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“My dear! So good to see you!”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Sorry, professor... It’s been... a while.”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Sit down, sit down! Tea? Coffee?”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Tea, if it’s not too much trouble!”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“I have been praying for you.”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Does it hit the ceiling and bounce back?”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;"><span style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><i style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;">The old man glances at his guest with furrowed brows. He nips several tea leaves and drops them in a ceramic mug decorated with a picture of a cat prowling among peonies.</i></span></span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Here you are,” the professor sighs. The girl puts her hand on his shoulder.</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Sorry, Uncle Digs. But I do wonder. Am I a total lunatic? Did all that— really happen?”<br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /><br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" />“Crazy? No. But you do look tired. What have you been up to for the past, what is it, four years?”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Searching for a door back in, I guess. But it seems the Emperor needed my parents beyond the bloody sea more than their daughter did!”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“I am so sorry. If there is anything I can do— anything at all.”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Well, I wouldn’t mind some sugar. And a few answers, if you can spare them, Professor.</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Even if all those crazy memories were real— horseback rides with centaurs, visits from princes— Rabadash was a dish, you know, I would have loved to see him in donkey ears— the funny way Tumnus danced out of rooms after he scored a diplomatic victory— I can’t believe I’m saying these things out loud to another human being— how would I prove it? Or maybe there’s another way in. Maybe if I could find some clue that Aslan came to our world, I would feel a tad less... alone.</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“So I started visiting the Bod.”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“To find... ?”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“If our Aslan is real. I mean, hang it all, half the colleges in this town— Jesus, Christ Church, Body of Christ... hang his name over their entryways.“<br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /><br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" />“Magdalen for a pert lady disciple.”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“Yes. And a bunch are named for male apostles, too. So I started reading Bultmann. Crossan. Vermes. Meier. Pagels. Ehrman. Piles of stuff, and everyone seemed to find a different Jesus, like the blind men and the elephant.”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;">“But who did you find?”<br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /><br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" />“If you don’t mind, professor, let me ask the questions. Sorry. I guess that means, I haven’t made up my mind. Except I think Empress Jadis runs this hell-hole of a planet.” She smiled faintly. “Especially London. London is the worst.”</span></div><div class="bi6gxh9e" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 8px; transition-property: none !important;"><span class="d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql lr9zc1uh jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v b1v8xokw oo9gr5id" style="animation-name: none !important; color: var(--primary-text); font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; word-break: break-word;"><span style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><i style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;">“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life,” the professor thought to himself. Still, her sarcasm showed spirit. That had to be a good sign.<br style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;" /><br /></i></span></span></div>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-89878007508318972552022-08-01T08:41:00.003-07:002022-08-01T08:41:24.943-07:00Aslan is Loose! <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6g1YOE_lQkiTcnIxD498zTG9m2H-gPyG4WEgl4q3MLfJdPDJ5-BzIqZ7tMn0aWS5o09Qr25y1BlVp4Hengnj_byhzm6a1Zi15MGOjBOPZiUm4WszISxeu53EukanJkr1QBGyUZlgEU2zOt7hfVGznIjx6l_JnBT0kM5gumWzqeh-D0ZcLkg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="324" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh6g1YOE_lQkiTcnIxD498zTG9m2H-gPyG4WEgl4q3MLfJdPDJ5-BzIqZ7tMn0aWS5o09Qr25y1BlVp4Hengnj_byhzm6a1Zi15MGOjBOPZiUm4WszISxeu53EukanJkr1QBGyUZlgEU2zOt7hfVGznIjx6l_JnBT0kM5gumWzqeh-D0ZcLkg=w260-h400" width="260" /></a></div><br />Good morning! You can now purchase The Case for Aslan: Evidence for Jesus in the Land of Narnia, on Amazon!<p></p><br />I think you'll enjoy this book! Everyone else has so far. (See reviews below.) <br /><br />The Case for Aslan does not, as some guess, merely say the obvious, that "Aslan is Jesus." Instead, first I argue that Lewis' critics (Pullman, JK Rowling, John Haldane, even JRR Tolkien) are wrong: Lewis' imaginative worlds are beautiful, morally sound, and appeal to the mind that searches for truth. <br /><br />More importantly, The Case for Aslan is a case for Jesus. In some ways, it is my broadest "Case for Christ" so far. But readers to date also agree that it makes also fun reading -- among others, Puddleglum and Pascal, Dr. Digory Kirke on a flight to "CHAZ International Airport" seated next to Philip Pullman, and (what Lewis sort of asked me to write) how Susan Pevensie finally found Jesus, a story which involves Bart Ehrman and Professor Kirke at his office in Wadham College. <br /><br />Please get a copy on Amazon, and tell people what you think! It would be great to see some thoughtful reviews up. Criticize anything you think I get wrong! My only request is that you make the major theme of the book clear -- some people don't realize how serious, and deep, light-hearted fun of Lewis' sort can be. But warning: like the Wood Between the Worlds, the Case for Aslan can take you anywhere. <br /><br />My first interview was a three-part series with Justin Brierley, to be posted later this month on his C. S. Lewis podcast. I would love to visit your church or field questions on your podcast over the coming months. <br /><br />I also hope some people will like the book enough to want to pass extra copies around. Christmas is coming! And I think this book would work well for a book club or group study. I'll let people know when they can order it directly, with group discounts. As for Kindle, DeWard likes people to purchase physical copies, so Aslan can greet them at the coffee table, then make the electronic version available much later. <br /><br />Here are the first two reviews, and the Amazon link. <br /><br />"In this fun, breezy, kaleidoscopic book, apologist David Marshall puts Lewis into dialogue with everyone from Plato, Pascal, and Plantinga to the intelligent design theorists to the new atheists. While staying true to the spirit and wonder of Narnia, Marshall helps his readers to see the implications that Lewis’s Chronicles have for philosophy, theology, ethics, and science." <br /><br />Louis Markos, Professor in English and Scholar in Residence, Houston Baptist University; author of On the Shoulders of Hobbits: The Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis. <br /><br />"A wonderful exploration of the deeper meaning of Narnia. Beautiful, imaginative, and deeply personal. Anyone interested in the relevance of C.S. Lewis for today will find this book worthwhile.” <br /><br />—John G West, editor, The Magician’s Twin: C. S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society<br /><br /><a class="gofk2cf1 t5a262vz py34i1dx" href="https://www.amazon.com/Case-Aslan-Evidence-Jesus-Narnia/dp/1947929216/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Wsi6A&content-id=amzn1.sym.5fe95cd4-8512-42fa-bf21-63d83b898785&pf_rd_p=5fe95cd4-8512-42fa-bf21-63d83b898785&pf_rd_r=1YVR01J3QZXZ2S5HYP5K&pd_rd_wg=scIZ8&pd_rd_r=1a8538ca-279a-4d3d-9a31-575911f129e0&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m">https://www.amazon.com/Case-Aslan-Evidence-Jesus-Narnia/dp/1947929216/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=Wsi6A&content-id=amzn1.sym.5fe95cd4-8512-42fa-bf21-63d83b898785&pf_rd_p=5fe95cd4-8512-42fa-bf21-63d83b898785&pf_rd_r=1YVR01J3QZXZ2S5HYP5K&pd_rd_wg=scIZ8&pd_rd_r=1a8538ca-279a-4d3d-9a31-575911f129e0&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_m</a>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-39098284221101918702022-06-26T16:19:00.002-07:002022-06-26T16:19:15.828-07:00NT Wright's Criterion of Double Similarity, Double Dissimilarity<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjax-8vETGqF6vJuYjYxaTuXNTSJpoZlFkYizL48NKImMPNsmUXoKYco-ArEg0AwNGwExh0r-h8CS-ryhMAXmqzIeA5A8XoEGABW582nnyMb0uY8H_YmGRV7reJ9sPOhe9yO9-5aD3W1E3pGvCWaBad760DgaYNPhEdxiPARj0hGdj1f5G7Uw" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="820" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjax-8vETGqF6vJuYjYxaTuXNTSJpoZlFkYizL48NKImMPNsmUXoKYco-ArEg0AwNGwExh0r-h8CS-ryhMAXmqzIeA5A8XoEGABW582nnyMb0uY8H_YmGRV7reJ9sPOhe9yO9-5aD3W1E3pGvCWaBad760DgaYNPhEdxiPARj0hGdj1f5G7Uw=w257-h193" width="257" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NT Wright</td></tr></tbody></table>I was recently asked about a criterion for assertaining the historicity of the gospels which the British scholar Tom Wright developed. I believe that criterion, which he called "Double Similarity, Double Dissimilarity," is a powerful analytic tool for testing the earliest writings about Jesus. One may also apply it to records about other historical figures, like the Analects of Confucius. <br /></p><p>Here is the description I gave of that criterion from my 2016 book, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-No-Myth-Fingerprints-Gospels/dp/0970227841/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2C3YT5684D25K&keywords=jesus+is+no+myth&qid=1656285342&sprefix=jesus+is+no+myth%2Caps%2C784&sr=8-1">Jesus is No Myth: The Fingerprints of God on the Gospels</a></i>. This is the whole of Chapter Eight. You can find Wright's original discussion in <i>Jesus and the Victory of God</i>. <br /><br />DM</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: center;"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Chapter Eight: Double Similarity, Double Dissimilarity</span></b><b><span style="background: white; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt;">Big events do mold us, but aside from death (and
then we shall see), after the initial wave passes, life usually regains equilibrium.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You marry.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A year
later, you are blessed with a child.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What has changed?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In a
way, everything.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Not long before, you
cooked instant noodles over a Benson Burner, let moss colonize the grease on
top of the stove, and scoffed with contemptuous detachment at mismatched
socks.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Then you met that special
person.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You put on your best, learned
fine dining or a “great burger joint,” watched your table manners, and stopped
wearing old t-shirts, and used them to dust the furniture.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Your face lit up when your lover said “You
look nice!” because within the sphere of her luminosity, you did.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The two of you found no end of things to talk
about.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Her aura stayed with you when you
lay on your back at night, stared with a sigh at the ceiling, and fell to sleep
amid pleasant dreams.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Then she grew about the waist, and your mutual dreams grew,
too.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Shopping became a mission from
God.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Giving birth was literally an
out-of-body experience.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You became “father”
and “mother” - words from a myth or ancient prophecy, mysteriously applied now
to you.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You were the first creatures
visited by this miracle: Adam and Eve in Eden, Christopher Atkins and Brook
Shields in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Blue Lagoon</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
planet rotated to a new theme song.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sun,
moon and stars bowed down to the infant in the crib.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">King Baby became your sovereign, love,
entertainment system, (broken) alarm clock or crazed rooster that heralded the
new day while the sun lazily rested in remote firmaments of the sky on the far
side of the Earth.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So many changes!</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But
far out at sea, the boat slowly rights from tsunamis that pass under its
keel.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Most of your brain cells remain in
place, however reluctantly they clock in.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Once distended and quirky, your stomach reasserts old cravings.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So there is double discontinuity in marriage and
childbirth.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wedded life is not the same
as singleness, and being a parent is not the same as remaining childless.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The content of your Facebook pages from these
two periods distinguishes them from the rest of your life.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet there is also a double continuity.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The two of you are still “Robert” and “Rebecca”
or “Miles” and “Manny,” children of unique parents, moved by Swan Lake or Taylor
Swift, with freckles and memories of secret love and childish adventures.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus had an impact upon his disciples like the founding of a
new family, or the landing of a shooting star on a desert floor.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The impact of that life left a crater - like
the sudden mixing of meteorite and native sod - impressions, sayings, acts flung
into the pages of the earliest records, that distinguish those records from
what came before or after.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Probably the greatest modern English historian of early
Christianity, N. T. Wright, has developed a powerful argument for the gospels
from this blend of old and new.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wright
taught New Testament at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He is author of an epic series on “Christian
Origins and the Question of God” that is erudite, lucid, and informed as are
few works in the field.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus Seminar
fellow Marcus Borg described Wright as “the leading British Jesus scholar of
his generation.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">The Elusive
Messiah: A Philosophical Overview of the Quest for the Historical Jesus</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">,
philosopher Raymond Martin placed Wright at the forefront of scholars studying
the historical Jesus, praising his methodology as unmatched in sophistication.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In light of the problems we have encountered with
methodologies for evaluating the gospels, perhaps we can gain from Wright’s
perspective.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Israel and the Prodigal Son</span></b></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus and the
Victory of God</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, Wright introduces the argument from “Double Similarity,
Double Dissimilarity” by retelling Jesus’ story of the Prodigal Son.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus told this story in Luke 15, in partial response to
complaints from unnamed Jewish leaders about the company he kept.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Why is Jesus eating with sinners?”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This was a natural question, in a religious
culture in which the need for holiness meant setting oneself apart from the
world.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Aslan was wrong to reduce Jewish
tradition to withdrawal from the Gentile world’s impurities, but he was right
to recognize that as a central element in the tradition, especially pressing in
occupied Palestine.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus told three
parables to answer his critics’ challenge: about a lost sheep, coin, and
son.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A man secured 99 sheep in the pen
to search for one lost on the mountains.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A woman found her lost savings, and called friends over to
celebrate.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In both cases, the moral was
essentially the same: God rejoices when what has been lost, the “sinner,” is
redeemed and brought home, which by implication is what Jesus came to do, “seek
and save that which has been lost.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus’ third story is by far the longest and most famous, and
is an arrow aimed at the caricature of Jewish tradition Aslan perpetrates and
to which he seeks to reduce it.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A father
had two sons.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The younger tired of
working for his father and requested an early inheritance check.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the context of time and culture, this
request must have come as a rude slap in the face to the father: as Wright puts
it, it was like saying “I wish you were dead.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But the father, whom Wright recognizes as the hero of the drama, graciously
granted his son’s outrageous demand.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
son took “his portion” of the family wealth and ran.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In a distant land, he used up those funds,
and was reduced to hiring himself out to a Gentile to watch pigs: lower than a
beetle’s knees, in Jewish thinking.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Then
the thought crossed his mind: “If only I could work as one of my father’s
servants!</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They are at least decently
fed!”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(Reminding Jesus’ hearers what
kind of man the father was.)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So the lad straggled
home, preparing a properly apologetic speech as he trudged along.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But before he reached the estate his father,
ignoring the stoic proprieties placed upon the </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">pater familius</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> in Jewish
and Roman cultures, ran down the road and embraced his lost son.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To this point, as with the stories of the sheep and the coin,
Jesus was simply answering his critic’s question: “Why are you spending time
with these miserable sinners?”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He
answered them in the context of Jewish history.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As Wright explains, “This is the story of Israel, in particular of exile
and restoration.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It corresponds more or
less exactly to the narrative grammar which underlies the exilic prophets, and
the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and a good deal of subsequent Jewish literature.“</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But then the redemptive story Jesus was
telling, and the knife, took a twist, as Wright notes: “For there is a second
son, an older lad, and he represents the people who asked Jesus this question.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And with that twist, Jesus’ judges somehow found themselves
in the defendant’s seat:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“This is an explosive narrative, designed to blow apart the
normal first-century reading of Jewish history and to replace it . . . this
tale subverts the telling of the story which one might expect from mainstream
first-century Jews . . . “ (126)</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What Jewish story is Jesus challenging? </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Israel was defined first by its captivities to
Egypt and Babylon, and as fragments of Greek and Roman Empires, then by promises
of return and reconciliation with God:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Exile and restoration: this is the central drama that Israel
believed herself to be acting out.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And
the story of the prodigal says, quite simply: this hope is now being fulfilled
- but it does not look like what was expected.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Israel went into exile because of her own folly and disobedience, and is
now returning simply because of the fantastically generous, indeed prodigal,
love of her god.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But this is a highly
subversive retelling.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The real return
from exile, including the real resurrection from the dead, is taking place, in
an extremely paradoxical fashion, in Jesus’ own ministry.”</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The older brother represents Jesus’ self-righteous critics, “virtually
Samaritans.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They are “defining
themselves as outside the true family,” Wright explains.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus has flipped the national narrative like
a giant pancake on the griddle, as the prophets so often had done before him.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Only with this further spin: the spotlight
falls now not on some vague but glorious future, an ideal and as yet unrealized
“Suffering Servant” or “Son of David,” but on the man standing in front of
Jesus’ critics: the preacher accused of hanging with outcastes and
lowlifes.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And the whole world (a mission
calling mentioned throughout the Old Testament, but never seriously followed)
would finally be brought into Israel’s story:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“It is time for the Gentiles to come in, because Israel’s
exile is at last over, and she has been restored.”</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For Jews, restoration should mean God’s return to the
temple.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus cleansed that temple, a
symbolic act Aslan confuses with mere sedition.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus was not just causing a ruckus: he was reminding Israel that divine
visitation was a call to repent.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wright
points out that Luke could not have invented the ever-so-Jewish, but
subversive, theme of a rebuilt Temple that is laced throughout early Christian
literature.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet the theme of Israel’s
Messianic restoration, then mission to the world, was “held in common with all
the other major early Christian writers” (128).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thus, “like a great pincer movement,” we “work inwards
towards Jesus” from Jewish context and early Christian theology.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The “simplest solution” to explaining this
mass of complex but converging data (having added a dialectical alloy, Wright’s
method thus strengthens the concept of coherence) - the meteor’s impact, the
birth of a new family - is “that Jesus himself believed that he was the agent
of his strange return from exile.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
resurrection would be God’s stamp of approval upon his ministry.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">All this - resurrection, forgiveness,
restoration, return, the rule of God - was occurring “under the noses” of the “self-appointed
stay-at-home guardians of the father’s house” (128).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">God thus proved kind as the prophets predicted, but
prodigally kind, kind in a revolutionary, even threatening way.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Israel “could say to her god ‘I wish you were
dead,’ but this god would not respond in kind.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When, therefore, Israel comes to her senses, and returns with all her
heart, there is an astonishing, prodigal, lavish welcome waiting for her”
(129).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Prodigal Son thus does not merely teach, in an abstract
sense, it embodies or incarnates truth, it “creates a new world.”</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This is why Jesus’ story, drawing in the whole ministry that
the tale encapsulates, felt to some listeners like a sucker-punch to the gut:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“It is not a matter . . . Of Jesus offending some petty
scruples here or there, or of an abstract challenge offered by one timeless
religious system to another.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus is
claiming to be ushering in Israel’s long-awaited new world; and he is doing it,
apparently, in all the wrong ways.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus
is enacting the great healing, the great restoration, of Israel.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And he interprets his own actions in terms of
the fulfillment, not of a few prophetic proof-texts taken atomistically, but of
the entire story-line which Israel had told herself, in a variety of forms,
over and over again” (130).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wright begins with the Prodigal Son, but argues that this
algorithm draws in the whole gospel story of redemption.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Dramatically, historically, theologically,
the parable fits perfectly into the ministry of Jesus . . . Jesus is
reconstituting Israel around himself” (131).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The world loves the story of the Prodigal Son.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is the sort of tale a 19</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
Century novelist would make hay of.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(And
come to think of it, Charles Dickens also loved this story and borrowed its
plot, for instance in </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Great Expectations</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Forrest Gump’s prodigal love towards Jenny
can be read the same way.)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To say this
story “coheres” with the rest of Jesus’ ministry is an almost comical
understatement.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Prodigal Son draws
Jesus’ ministry around it like a well-tailored suit.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is a perfectly-chosen final chisel stroke
that gives the Thinker’s eyes their intensity, the fingers almost touching as
God reaches out to Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What does this master stroke of a rhetorical gambit have to
do with historical evidence?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Simple.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The gospels are “Facebook postings” from a
particular period in Christian history, testable and datable debris scattered from
the impact crater of historical causation.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wright explains:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“The parable only makes sense as a retelling of Israel’s story;
but it also only makes sense as a profoundly subversive retelling of that story
. . . As a parable, not least in its manner of concluding one scene too early,
it makes sense precisely at that moment in history when the possibility of
Israel’s redemption happening in this fashion is being controversially mooted,
not when it is being climactically and publicly celebrated.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The parable thus fits exactly into the gap
between Judaism and early Christianity . . . It is thus decisively </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">similar </i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">to
both the Jewish context and the early Christian world, and at the same time
importantly </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">dissimilar </i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. . .” (131-2, Wright’s emphasis)</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">From this discussion emerges Wright’s criterion of double
similarity:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“When something can be seen to be credible (though perhaps
deeply subversive) within first-century Judaism, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">and </i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">credible as the
implied starting point (though not the exact replica) of something in later
Christianity, there is a strong possibility of our being in touch with the
genuine history of Jesus.”</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Already Wright is hinting at a second and complementary half
to the criteria.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Even stronger evidence
of historicity is found when not only does a given story or scene fit like hand
in glove within a duel historical context - say, between falling in love and
having a child - but when part of the story differs doubly from “before” and
“after” contexts as well.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(And thus is “deeply
subversive” of what came before, and not an “exact replica” of what comes
after, either.)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Your honeymoon was a
distinctive era of your life: you were no longer merely your parents’ child or
a lonely single, but neither had the baby arrived.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But that life made no sense apart from your
own parents, and the subsequent growth of your family and its smallest members
is best explained as the fruition of that union.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Later Wright argues that “double similarity and double
dissimilarity must characterize any analysis that claims historicity”
(226).</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This seems a bit much.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As Wright says about the Prodigal Son, “one
swallow does not make a summer,” and we shall host a large flock of evidences
for the gospels in subsequent chapters.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But Wright is right to recognize DSDD as a sweeping pattern to which
much of the gospel material does indeed conform, and which supports the
historical truth of that material. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Consider even the famous phrase “The Kingdom
of God,” which Aslan supposes is code for </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">La
Revolucion.</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus announces in
Matthew and Mark, “The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at hand.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Repent, and believe in the good news!”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wright points out that even here, Jesus’
words are almost unprecedented:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“No one in Judaism had said quite that before, but the
sayings make no sense except in a firmly Jewish context.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Equally, the early church, venturing beyond
the borders of Judaism, did not announce the kingdom in these terms - they
would have meant nothing to Gentiles - and yet the announcement they made, and
the life they led, are unthinkable without this kingdom being believed to have
come in a still very Jewish sense.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They
were not, after all, offering ‘a different religious option’ to a world already
sated with such things.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They were
announcing that the one true god, the creator, had fulfilled his purpose for
Israel and was now, in consequence, addressing the whole world” (227).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jesus did not “address” the world as a military conqueror, as
Aslan supposes.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wright sardonically
notes a similar proposal that predated Aslan by some 23 years, “The authors are
to be congratulated on finding yet another new way of making Paul the corrupter
of the religion of Jesus” (450n).</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Rather, in the face of cruel Roman imperialism, Jesus called Israel to
repent of her “militaristic nationalism.”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Israel’s true calling was not to merely kill Roman soldiers and set up a
new mega state, but to bring light of a new sort to the world:</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“One of the key elements in Jesus’ perception of his task was
therefore his redefinition of who the real enemy was; then, where this enemy
was actually located; then, what this enemy’s strategy was, and how he was to
be defeated . . . (this theme) looms large in the gospels.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is comparatively scarce in other early
Christian literature, and is very differently treated in non-Christian Jewish
literature of the time.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">At the same
time, it is a thoroughly Jewish perception of reality, and makes excellent
sense as the presupposition of what we find in early Christianity.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It thus meets the test, which is of course
only ever applicable in a broad-brush way, of double dissimilarity and double
similarity” (450).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Again and again, even the most “ace” among our ACE detectives
adopts schemes of interpretation that simply ignore large swaths of historical
data. Aslan and Carrier go so far as to
pretend that Jesus didn’t even tell his followers to love their enemies. Wright’s dialectic, by contrast, has the
merit of preserving contrasting shards of evidence within a coherent
whole. Yes, Jesus was “a Messiah,” as
Aslan argues. But “Messiah” took on new
meanings in light of his personality and mission. (As the word “Sage” [</span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: SimSun; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">聖人</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">]
would gain new meaning in the wake of Confucius’ life - another great thinker
whose historicity is I think supported by DSDD.) </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; layout-grid-mode: char; line-height: 150%; mso-pattern: solid white; mso-shading: windowtext; text-align: left;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Wright noted that scholars are coming to recognize that the
Messianic awareness permeating the gospels can hardly have been pure Christian
novelty. Why would Jesus’ first
followers make up a “Messiah” so far at odds with the expectations of the
Jewish people? “Why bother to invent
passages, sayings, and above all a title that would be at best beside the point
and at worst dangerously misleading?” (488-9) Jesus was a Messiah whom Jews did
not expect, but who could not have appeared anywhere else. He was the savior Christians would worship,
but more complex, edgy, even quirky, and unpredictable than the simplified figure
of later Christology - yet only such a person could produce such a creed: </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“We may suggest that the portrait of Jesus as
Messiah in the synoptic gospels is not only significantly different from what
the Jewish context would have led us to expect (though is makes sense only within,
and as a key variant upon, that Jewish setting).</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It is also significantly different, both in
context and in the tone of presentation, from what we find in the early church
(though the church’s proclamation of Jesus as Messiah makes sense only if we presuppose
something like the gospels’ picture) . . . As in other cases, the picture the
gospels paint is both continuous and discontinuous with non-Christian Judaism
on the one hand and the life of the early church on the other, in such a way as
to force the historian to postulate that we are here in touch with Jesus
himself” (489).</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">How much of the gospels does Wright’s method
for seeking historicity vindicate?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Most
of the framework and quite a bit of the finish, I think.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The gospels are deeply Jewish. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Even Luke cannot be understood in any other
cultural context.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet they break with
Judaism - no break is not the right word - Jesus does not abolish, but he
fulfills on unexpected terms and with surprising force.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">No one predicted the sort of fulfillment whose
characteristics I shall describe.</span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It may sound like a joke to ask, “Are the
gospels Christian?”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They are the
founding texts of Christianity, its Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, and
Constitution rolled into one.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The past
two thousand years are the impact crater of this missile: Augustine, Francis,
Thomas Aquinas, cathedrals, universities, missions, stained glass windows,
Handel’s Messiah, the names of Hispanic baseball players (and my two sons) -
all derive from these four small texts.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet Christianity never produced anything like
them again.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Read the hagiographies that
Ehrman reproduces of Paul, Peter, John, or Thomas.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The atmosphere has changed.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We have crossed a great frontier.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The child in the crib has graduated from college
and gone out into the world.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The power of Double Discontinuity, Double
Continuity lies in its scope.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It does
not cover a few random verses, or one or two analogies.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The gospels are deeply Jewish, yet stand out
dramatically from Hebrew tradition.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They
are the origin of Christian tradition, yet could not have been, and were not,
written again, after those first few years of life.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The rest of this book may, if you like, be
read through this grid.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p align="left" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: left;"><br /></p>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-71847652234575439222022-04-02T08:20:00.000-07:002022-04-02T08:20:07.839-07:00My Censored Review of John McWhorter's Woke Racism<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2BgvcdmIVhNQJIhS7isVDsjBqVdGyviWFLFYQ05smH9WpWpkPTjYK497n-hl7TMgdG-r93abjmNUfFl9kXfgWquyqI85Jl4q7M2ZdQHDwCnO_D5K8jyw_xDIc10X9v_UGpJukItpqBydlUv7vyiZmRxiWL9P4Jk_IkKbtYDZFXTA9EW4BIQ" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="181" data-original-width="243" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2BgvcdmIVhNQJIhS7isVDsjBqVdGyviWFLFYQ05smH9WpWpkPTjYK497n-hl7TMgdG-r93abjmNUfFl9kXfgWquyqI85Jl4q7M2ZdQHDwCnO_D5K8jyw_xDIc10X9v_UGpJukItpqBydlUv7vyiZmRxiWL9P4Jk_IkKbtYDZFXTA9EW4BIQ=w245-h182" width="245" /></a></div><br />Several months ago, I posted a three-star review of John McWhorter's Woke Racism which was doubly incorrect: for approving of his attack on the New Racism, and for disapproving of his attacks on Christianity. It was a thorough, evidence-based critique, and became the most popular on Amazon's page for that book. But then it disappeared. I asked why, and was told it would be reinstated. But then it disappeared again. I prodded again, but it did not reappear, so far as I know. <br /><br />Perhaps it disappeared into the Woke Zone. <br /><br />Anyway, here it is, by request. Hopefully this corner of the Internet is still untouched by censors. <br /><br />I have thought about sending McWhorter a copy . . . he responded in a friendly way to a previous inquiry. And maybe I should see about publication elsewhere. <br /><br /><p></p><p>* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *</p><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> is such a lively writer, so lucid and sharp, and his argument here is so important (or would be, if only), that one must justify giving the book but three stars. I will not do so by echoing the reviewer below who calls this "right-wing whining:" <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> echoes too many Democratic talking points for my taste. Yet he has much to say that should be heard.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pity he almost ruins it by dropping so much poorly-aimed ordinance, stupidly taking out potential allies, including me, as collateral damage. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Stupid" is not normally a word one would associate with this brilliant scholar. But <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> is a linguist, dabbling here in religion. I am a philosopher of religion, who dabbles in language occasionally. The problem with religion is, everyone thinks they're an expert, even if they are as weakly-informed on the subject as Sigmund Freud, Steven Pinker, or Richard Dawkins. <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> attacks it with the same ignorance and arrogance. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Should one call woke ideology a "religion?" That depends on how you define the word (see Peter Berger): the odd thing is, <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> doesn't give a definition, despite the importance of this classification. By some definitions, <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> would also qualify as a religious person, and his own beliefs -- which he proselytizes here, apparently thinking others should agree with him, though he describes those as marks of religion -- are potentially subject to some degree to the same criticism he levels on his targets. He criticizes Manicheanism, but edges towards a Gnostic view of society, with the Enlightened faithful battling legions of the superstitious and cognitively lazy. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you're writing a book to convince people to oppose a popular new faith, why spend so much time attacking people who might prove to be your allies?</div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And so ignorantly! Cotton Mather is a byword for blind faith? Actually he was keenly interested in the sciences, which pious Christian thinkers did much to create, and helped stop small pox in its tracks in Boston. Ben Franklin credits him for inspiring his own good works. No, religions are not all the same, even so-called "Abrahamic religions" (a dubious category), any more than all writing systems are the same. No, blind faith or "unempirical" beliefs are not the necessary hallmark of Christianity: in fact, almost every sermon to pagans in the Acts of the Apostles is highly empirical. Nor is it true that early Christians simply "thought of themselves as bearers of truth, in contrast to all other belief systems." Again, read Acts, and see how Paul interacted with Stoic philosophers in Athens. Or Justin Martyr, Origen, St. Augustine, after him. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on how Christianity sees other faiths, mostly in the Chinese context, but with reference to other civilizations as well. (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fulfillment-Christian-Religions-David-Marshall-ebook/dp/B08MYZZ75Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=31HX7CYD99LLH&keywords=fulfillment+christian+model+of+religions&qid=1648912500&sprefix=fulfillment+christian+model+of+religions%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-1">Fulfillment: A Christian Model of Religions</a>.) <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> continually takes irrelevant shots at a version of Christianity that a child should not hold. And does he not think himself a bearer of truth? If not, why write? It is irritating to buy a critique of a modern ideology that the author understands, and get so much of a attack on an ancient ideology that he clearly does not, in a field not his own, with so little self-criticism. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span>'s epistemology is also dubious. He decries the "suspension of disbelief" in religion. But really, conflicts between opposing authorities -- say, your eyes, and what your best friend tells you -- are inherent in the human condition. The only rational way to act in this world, is by ignoring some doubts, most of the time. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At the end of the book, <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> tells readers, "If you wish to expel religion, Sigmund Freud, The Future of An Illusion." But as Kevin Williamson put it recently, "As a scientist, Sigmund Freud was a man whose name was one vowel away from being the perfect aptronym . . . " At best, on religion, I find "Fraud" an amusing crackpot. That <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> thinks he's the go-to guy, is astonishing. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> also assumes that "religions" are essentially the same thing -- even if he doesn't bother to define the word. But every object in the cosmos larger than a small protein is unique, for those who study that class of objects. Religions are far more varied than snowflakes. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-style: inherit;"><span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> does mention one difference between religions: Wokism has not developed a concept of forgiveness yet. But as I explain in "Letter to a 'Racist' Nation," woke concern for those on the margins is a fragment off of Christian theology, introduced by Jesus. You don't easily find it in Greco-Roman civilization before that: read Suetonius, or Tom Holland's </span><i>Dominion</i><span style="font-style: inherit;">. Nor do you find it in Aztec or Nazi religions. As Chesterton put it, isolated from Virtue as a whole, compassion has gone mad in modern American society, with results that </span><span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span><span style="font-style: inherit;"> well describes. </span></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Another valid link between Christianity and Wokism is explained by Rene Girard, whom <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">does not mention: the notion of scapegoating. For Christians, Jesus took the sins of the world upon himself. Girard points out, however, that he also subverts and exposes all attempts to scapegoat. Jesus was thus the historical antidote to Cancel Culture, Girard argues. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">While I'm being one-sided, I should also mention <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span>'s mild support for BLM and less mild criticism of the police. It's not just that my brother's a cop, and he's saved lives (of what color, it doesn't matter) in many ways, while as predicted, BLM protests were again followed by a huge upsurge in murders. But also, I visited CHAZ. Just to the west of the Seattle East Precinct I found "Blue Lives Murder" graffiti. By the front door to east, protestors had hung a poster of 29 African-Americans killed by police in WA state in recent years. (Ignoring Whites, Asians, Natives, and Hispanics.) I researched those and other "victims" of police shootings (see <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Letter-Racist-Nation-Yourself-Together-ebook/dp/B08FVPFB1J/ref=sr_1_1?crid=172PL3OBHGFSD&keywords=letter+to+a+racist+nation&qid=1648912686&sprefix=letter+to+a+racis%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-1">Letter to a "Racist" Nation</a>) and found almost all were aggressively wielding guns or other weapons. Some of these "victims" had already murdered someone. In fact, some 3000 innocent Americans die of medical errors, for every one killed by Law Enforcement. It was a witch hunt, in 2020. Dr. <span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span> needs to treat BLM propaganda more critically. </div><div style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><span class="marko1x60f2vv" data-markjs="true" data-ogab="" data-ogac="" data-ogsb="" data-ogsc="" style="border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">McWhorter</span><span style="font-style: inherit;"> is in over his head in religion. He is much better when describing culture, psychology, and faculty gossip. His prose floats like a butterfly, then stings like a bee. Unfortunately, this butterfly floats over the wrong target, and the bee wastes too many stings on a Rock that has worn out whole hives of hornets and yellowjackets. While wonderfully readable, this book is ill-conceived, and to me, rather irritating. </span><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br aria-hidden="true" style="background-color: white;" /></div>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-38381546919361833882022-01-18T09:03:00.005-08:002022-01-18T10:19:01.522-08:00Grant and the Chinese<p> The following is an excerpt from Mark Twain's autobiography, accessed at Gutenberg.net.<br /><br /></p><center><h2 style="color: green;">GRANT AND THE CHINESE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9qTaaSZpzAzWyTH65-rFIUlgeqEaFPlGsXO1rQPMLUR2Gs8iOp0jnWebXyuxZbfc1uBzfL_30H3mhblP0qjEifPabpuz6zVyCVjySsSwuoXYYYy1pjKVJzFinr2OlDlWK6S6/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="490" data-original-width="700" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9qTaaSZpzAzWyTH65-rFIUlgeqEaFPlGsXO1rQPMLUR2Gs8iOp0jnWebXyuxZbfc1uBzfL_30H3mhblP0qjEifPabpuz6zVyCVjySsSwuoXYYYy1pjKVJzFinr2OlDlWK6S6/" width="320" /></a></div><br /></h2></center><p><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">Early in 1884, or late in 1883, if my memory serves me, I called on General Grant with Yung Wing, late Chinese minister at Washington, to introduce Wing and let him lay before General Grant a proposition. Li Hung-Chang, one of the greatest and most progressive men in China since the death of Prince Kung, had been trying to persuade the imperial government to build a system of military railroads in China, and had so far succeeded in his persuasions that a majority of the government were willing to consider the matter--provided that money could be obtained for that purpose outside of China, this money to be raised upon the customs of the country and by bonding the railway, or in </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvFIPNisOpsO8sELSaz2xGuXgGXOFK-EB5csWVNkocEJ8dgTT0GLavlSixLMTvurPaeatY6ATtX_r0CsxwmfIyuVcrIk90ce6oFERT9HXGr81b73amUb3Z4uLBpdgeifA6KoQ/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="520" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGvFIPNisOpsO8sELSaz2xGuXgGXOFK-EB5csWVNkocEJ8dgTT0GLavlSixLMTvurPaeatY6ATtX_r0CsxwmfIyuVcrIk90ce6oFERT9HXGr81b73amUb3Z4uLBpdgeifA6KoQ/" width="320" /></a></div><br />some such manner. Yung Wing believed that if General Grant would take charge of the matter here and create the syndicate, the money would be easily forthcoming. He also knew that General Grant was better and more favorably known in China than any other foreigner in the world, and was aware that if his name were associated with the enterprise--the syndicate--it would inspire the Chinese government and people and give them the greatest possible sense of security. <p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">We found the general cooped up in his room with a severe rheumatism, resulting from a fall on the ice which he had got some months before. He would not undertake a syndicate, because times were so hard here that people would be loath to invest money so far away; of course Yung Wing's proposal included a liberal compensation for General Grant for his trouble, but that was a thing that the general would not listen to for a moment. He said that easier times would come by and by, and that the money could then be raised, no doubt, and that he would enter into it cheerfully and with zeal and carry it through to the very best of his ability, but he must do it without compensation. In no case would he consent to take any money for it. Here, again, he manifested the very strongest interest in China, an interest which I had seen him evince on previous occasions. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBrLwk2zRKZq6kIsy9sTVxHqXiy7l6pHZkO1dAg6UTWSTe4tq3YUwwbG5ckCg6MrNTcIKHZykd1eynxWqdXoWize89wbz9pVFWjzkpy-fKn-Btew6Pqtl1i1_rmF0XgHYe9Wx/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="829" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCBrLwk2zRKZq6kIsy9sTVxHqXiy7l6pHZkO1dAg6UTWSTe4tq3YUwwbG5ckCg6MrNTcIKHZykd1eynxWqdXoWize89wbz9pVFWjzkpy-fKn-Btew6Pqtl1i1_rmF0XgHYe9Wx/" width="199" /></a></div><br />He said he had urged a system of railways on Li Hung-Chang when he was in China, and he now felt so sure that such a system would be a great salvation for the country, and also the beginning of the country's liberation from the Tartar rule and thralldom, that he would be quite willing at a favorable time to do everything he could toward carrying out that project, without other compensation than the pleasure he would derive from being useful to China.<p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">This reminds me of one other circumstance.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">About 1879 or 1880 the Chinese pupils in Hartford and other New England towns had been ordered home by the Chinese government. There were two parties in the Chinese government--one headed by Li Hung-Chang, the progressive party, which was striving to introduce Western arts and education into China; the other was opposed to all progressive measures. Li Hung-Chang and the progressive party kept the upper hand for some time, and during this period the government had sent one hundred or more of the country's choicest youth over here to be educated. But now the other party had got the upper hand and had ordered these young people home. At this time an old Chinaman named Quong, non-progressionist, was the chief China minister at Washington, and Yung Wing was his assistant. The order disbanding the schools was a great blow to Yung Wing, who had spent many years in working for their establishment. This order came upon him with the suddenness of a thunderclap. He did not know which way to turn.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAIcnmq_Lnf683fsKWF1fuH9YUsgZMt4_rr9xS8b5MOTejGDBK2Kb1niRIgOmZy8R2qYtMaDOBERt24a-sAyJqVykDy-fayOjOJdC2hzMYxsLKxjU67ZDKrBl4AkrwPAMThtp/" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img data-original-height="487" data-original-width="323" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAIcnmq_Lnf683fsKWF1fuH9YUsgZMt4_rr9xS8b5MOTejGDBK2Kb1niRIgOmZy8R2qYtMaDOBERt24a-sAyJqVykDy-fayOjOJdC2hzMYxsLKxjU67ZDKrBl4AkrwPAMThtp/w212-h320/image.png" width="212" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rev. Joseph Twichell</td></tr></tbody></table><br />First, he got a petition signed by the presidents of various American colleges, setting forth the great progress that the Chinese pupils had made and offering arguments to show why the pupils should be allowed to remain to finish their education. This paper was to be conveyed to the Chinese government through the minister at Peking. But Yung Wing felt the need of a more powerful voice in the matter, and General Grant occurred to him. He thought that if he could get General Grant's great name added to that petition, that alone would outweigh the signatures of a thousand college professors. So the Rev. Mr. Twichell and I went down to New York to see the general. I introduced Mr. Twichell, who had come with a careful speech for the occasion, in which he intended to load the general with information concerning the Chinese pupils and the Chinese question generally. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">But he never got the chance to deliver it. The general took the word out of his mouth and talked straight ahead, and easily revealed to Twichell the fact that the general was master of the whole matter and needed no information from anybody, and also the fact that he was brimful of interest in the matter. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">Now, as always, the general was not only ready to do what we asked of him, but a hundred times more. He said, yes, he would sign that paper, if desired, but he would do better than that: he would write a personal letter to Li Hung-Chang, and do it immediately. So Twichell and I went downstairs into the lobby of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, a crowd of waiting and anxious visitors sitting in the anteroom, and in the course of half an hour he sent for us again and put into our hands his letter to Li Hung-Chang, to be sent directly and without the intervention of the American minister, or anyone else. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">It was a clear, compact, and admirably written statement of the case of the Chinese pupils, with some equally clear arguments to show that the breaking up of the schools would be a mistake. We shipped the letter and prepared to wait a couple of months to see what the result would be.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">But we had not to wait so long. The moment the general's letter reached China a telegram came back from the Chinese government, which was almost a copy, in detail, of General Grant's letter, and the cablegram ended with the peremptory command to old Minister Wong to continue the Chinese schools.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">It was a marvelous exhibition of the influence of a private citizen of one country over the counsels of an Empire situated on the other side of the globe.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;">Such an influence could have been wielded by no other citizen in the world outside of that Empire; in fact, the policy of the imperial government had been reversed from Room 45, Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, by a private citizen of the United States.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 1.35em; text-align: justify;"> </p>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-5476160360191344652021-12-22T14:11:00.001-08:002021-12-22T14:11:43.629-08:00Autobiography of Edith Marshall IV<p>Help came for the people in need in 1935 when FD Roosevelt was elected president. That was when the WPA was initiated and people were given work under jurisdiction of their state government, also the CCC camps came into being where the youth of the nation were given work cleaning trails and work to be done in the country's forests. </p><p>Hope was once more born in the hearts of the people. Those who had been on welfare were being given jobs, which restored confidence and hpooe for a better life once again. It was a time when my confidence was reforn and I went seeking a home for our family. We had moved five times in one year and I had no intention of having to move again. Ralph was not sure that it was the teim when we could afford a down payment and it did seem impossible, for he had just started to work at Sand Point. But my mind was much made up, and I went looking to see what could be accomplished toward finding something. I think God worked a miracle for us that day. I inquired at the real estate office of B- Homes in West Seattle, telling the older man who was in charge that day that I could pay $30 down and $60 within 90 days. That seemed to be all right with him, and he showed me the little house on 40th SW which almost at once became our home. The house was old, and the basement was full of water, but that didn't matter: it was close to the schools and it was a place we could call our own, and we wouldn't have to move again. It took a long time, about 20 years, for us to pay for it, and there was much to take care of, but new siding and a roof were applied, fixing the walls in the basement so that the flooding was taken care of. Later a new furnace was put in, but the problem of only one bathroom remained. I wonder now how we ever managed, but it was home!</p><p>The children all grew up there, went to scohol and church in the neigborhood. It was from there that Stan enlisted in the (GCS?), a branch of the service in Alaska. It was while living there that Shirli met John Strong and was married to him in Dec. following her graduation from high school in June. It was at the practice of that wedding ceremony that Gloria met Paul Swanson who later became her husband. </p><p>Our little house seemed almost to burst at the seams, with seven of us, plus all the young people who gathered there. Many young service men came as well as school friends of our children. </p><p>It was a time of great stress, for we were in the middle of World War II, when all good citizens felt responsible to help in the war effort. Having two sons in the service and later the third, I felt it a privilege to give as much help and support to other young men as possible. </p><p>One day Ralph, who was working at the Bremerton Navy Yard, came home and told of a young sailor whom he had invited to come home with him for dinner. A few nights later he came. He was a handsome boy (he was only seventeen), and had a way about him that found a place in my heart. Whenever his ship (the Lexington) was in port, he came to our home whenever possible. He was, I felt, just a scared little boy, and we gave him a sense of security, for he said that he always felt safe in our home. He felt the Lord was there. </p><p>Those days of fear and doubt now seem to far removed, but they were merely stepping stones that led to higher heights and a stronger, better life. The days of poverty and grief were merely stepping stones chiseled out o fhte rock with little steps going upward. We can struggle against many odds, but unless we start the climb upward, we shall remain on the first step of that rock and be destroyed by the (fiercest) storms of life. Steps upward can be precarious but we have an "Anchor," the "Good Shepherd" who really cares, for He was poor for our sakes too. Each step has its own hazards, but these are stepping stones of life and Peter tells us: "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trials," for there will always be a slippery slope of sickness on which we may feel that we shall surely fall, but the Master reaches out His rod; we grasp it and are safe. There is also the stepping stone of failure. This is a grievious stone which is so rough it seems to tear at our feet, which causes us much pain and we wonder if we can make it. We are reminded once again of David's assurance in Ps. 23: "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." There is comfort for the weary, and new strength for our climb upwards. And so through all the storms of life we are comforted and strengthened as we look to the Shepherd of our souls. </p><p>I was never quite sure what Paul meant when he said, "When I am weak, then I am strong." But we can only become strong (spiritually which I think Paul meant) when we are willing to confess that we are weak, and are willing to accept His strength. </p><p>My family all came to that time when they needed "His strength" and accepted it. We are all stepping on some slippery stones from time to time, but underneath are the "Everlasting Arms" and we go on with our faith renewed and strengthened in the inner man / woman. </p><p>Our family of five children has grown now with ten grandchildren and one great-grandson.</p><p>John, my first son-in-law, has been a pastor and a schoolteacher for many years, and how his son David is following in his father's footsteps. I am so proud of him as I am of his brother . My very first grandson John, who is a doctor now stationed with the Air Force in Germany. Deborah, John's and Shirli's only daughter, is also a very special person, at present teaching a class of retarded children and working on her Masters. I have much pride in Marlys, Gloria and Paul's only child, woh is employed as a registered nurse. John and Pat have four children: Laurel who is married to Rand Fullington and is a bank officer. Steve is a policeman in Kirkland and is being mightily used by God. David and Peter live at home, but David is hoping to go to China as, I think, a missionary. </p><p>Dayle -- Ron and Phyllis' son - is married to a little southern girl (a very lovely one) and living in Florida. Cindi is working for SPU and it also taking some classes hoping to graduate as a CPA. </p><p>I feel that I am greatly blessed with all my family. They are all very precious to me and while that climb up from the very depths of poverty was a most difficult one, I am so fortunate that the Lord chose me for this task. There is just one note of sadness that I feel inclined to add, the fact that my precious first-born son Stan could not have a son of his own. He would have been a very wonderful father, but God in His infinite mercy knows what is best for us all, so I accept that and thank Him for knowing what is best for us all. </p><p><br /></p>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-74668228906196404192021-12-22T09:26:00.000-08:002021-12-22T09:26:01.429-08:00Autobiography of Edith Marshall: A Meeting at Alki <p> <b>A Meeting at Alki</b></p><p>Life really began for me on a Sunday in late May. It was to be an afternoon of recreation for a girlfriend and I, traveling by streetcar from our respective rooming houses to Alki Beach to hear a band concert. Radio was just beginning to come into being, but there were usually band concerts at various parks during the summer for entertainment. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GdO8ZJLUswo0sVH0YGw3NFAN5i9haXlFKdPJSxLWEaZ0YN3TLulpXcL5VukPWn3M67eQGePcuJm9FLvzqF8eQoBlQeq439WVLMLVvP4cmmDk4pgb4rIb72wais1rSYN-8MZK/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="1300" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0GdO8ZJLUswo0sVH0YGw3NFAN5i9haXlFKdPJSxLWEaZ0YN3TLulpXcL5VukPWn3M67eQGePcuJm9FLvzqF8eQoBlQeq439WVLMLVvP4cmmDk4pgb4rIb72wais1rSYN-8MZK/" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom Hanks at Alki in another romantic <br />comedy. </td></tr></tbody></table><br />I don't know why, but as a teenager and on into my twenties, my warddrobe always contained a black dress or two. My mother often chided me for wearing black, saying that I had plenty of time to wear it when I was old. My answer would be, "I will wear bright colors when I am old." I have not changed my mind concerning this answer, for in my old age, I still desire color in my warddrobe. </p><p>On the day, so different from all the rest, I was wearing my favorite black dress and a black horsehair hat. It was in an era when girls wore becoming things which made them look like ladies. It was a "pre-flapper age," and skirts were worn just below the calf of the leg, and one did not think of going anywhere without a hat. Hats were very important -- the right one could make you look beautiful -- or at least make one feel that way, and that was really what mattered most. </p><p>The concert ended all too soon, but my friend Hagel and I were loath to leave. It was such a treat here in the great outdoors with the waves of Puget Sound lapping at our feet. We were ill-prepared for the two young men approaching. There seemed to be nothing very outstanding in the one who approached me except for his eyes and his smile. I have never been quite sure of the color of his eyes, but they appeared to be a sort of blue-grey, they were beautiful and had a way of looking at me in a caressing way. His hair was dark. I had always preferring blonds, but here was Ralph asking us to go to dinner with him and his friend. </p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUpYfA0bV_voDHtVOJmiNANVkaGEmKqxXk1dzjD5311kaLp5F5Xf9DIasP7FB1mMS3KQLPifuayHYqbXqYx38-mznNsTAUBnvI9Axs6RjqXgycrDZVvmwX8lYBiTgZhlZVyspG/" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="986" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUpYfA0bV_voDHtVOJmiNANVkaGEmKqxXk1dzjD5311kaLp5F5Xf9DIasP7FB1mMS3KQLPifuayHYqbXqYx38-mznNsTAUBnvI9Axs6RjqXgycrDZVvmwX8lYBiTgZhlZVyspG/" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Old Homestead on Alki</td></tr></tbody></table><br />It solved a problem for Hagel and I for we were both short of funds. It meant that our dinner would be paid for, also our streetcar fair home. The "Old Homestead" restaurant was one of the very few places who served really good meals in the area of Alki so we went there for a delicious chicken dinner. That was the beginning. The next date was on Memorial Day when the four of us went back to Alki for a picnic. There was a lovely path up on the hill a ways with blueberry bushes covered with the loveliest big blueberries, which we picked, eating a few. </p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYurp9IJy5d2oqEetUKe1ArUJm_FBQYnc2fy4vBEepQj9XsE7xHLLfV_IUgUDFi-KRBe0wjxLw5RAuh_Xnp1GCIcOfqZ011QmUKirxESeqgLsUup4KzFUJsRKoWaSVe6VLNTEA/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="1300" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYurp9IJy5d2oqEetUKe1ArUJm_FBQYnc2fy4vBEepQj9XsE7xHLLfV_IUgUDFi-KRBe0wjxLw5RAuh_Xnp1GCIcOfqZ011QmUKirxESeqgLsUup4KzFUJsRKoWaSVe6VLNTEA/" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Methodist Church on Capitol Hill, <br />presumably the site where Ralph and Edith were<br />married. The first pastor was Daniel Bagley, the<br />driving force behind establishing the University of<br />Washington in Seattle.</td></tr></tbody></table>Ralph was eager for more and more dates, but I was not quite willing to give up dates with other young men. There was a doctor's son in whom I was quite interested and two or three others. But my hours were such that sometimes I was unable to go out for an evening because I was working late. It seemed not to matter as to the lateness of the hour as far as Ralph was concerned, and so he often met me at the office when my shift was over. We both liked to walk and we often walked in Volunteer Park and just enjoyed the warm summer evenings. It was a case of love at first sight with him, and he often said that he proposed to me that very first night. I'm not sure, but it was indeed a short courtship, for we were married six months later, on a dark dismal November, at a Methodist church on Capitol Hill in Seattle. <br />My feelings were about as uncertain as the weather, but as the pastor finished the service, declaring us husband and wife, the sun broke through the clouds and rested on our heads. A load lifted from my shoulders, for I felt it was God's blessing on our union. </p><p><b>August 31, 1981</b></p><p>It seems to be the time that I must try to get all the loose ends of my life tied together in one package. So often I have put down my thoughts in little pieces of notepaper, and often some of these have been lost or destroyed. Because many of the things I have written, or perhaps I may say most of the things were written under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, so I feel they were worth preserving. </p><p>Perhaps it is not strange that I feel impelled to write today. It would have been my dad's birthday, and is also the forty-ninth birthday of John, my second son. It seems so long ago that a squirming piece of humanity was placed in my arms and he seemed to look directly into my eyes, and at that first look, he entered into my heart. </p><p>Those were the hard years of my life as we had gone through the great depression, and we had not yet seen the end of it. It, I think changed my whole personality, for life just seemed to become one battle after another. There was always the concern as to the proper food for the children, decent clothing and housing. There were four now, with John's coming. If one has never gone through all the pressures and worries of a depression such as this one, it is hard to imagine what a change it can make in one's personlity. I had always been a very quiet, shy person who ran from trouble, now all of a sudden I found myself a mother lioness fighting for her whelps. I was not a nice person to be around those days. </p><p>I loved my family with a fierceness that was almost overwhelming. It left me feeling helpless, there was so little I could do. How I wish that I might have had the pleasure of prayer! It would have made such a difference. But both Ralph and I had not been to church in a long time, and when one ember is separated from the fire, it eventually goes out. </p><p>But God was still on the throne and He still cared. One night I was awakened by a voice calling my name. It was called three times - I still heart it after I was awake. Suddenly I felt that I was being lifted, and I heard the sound of a great organ and voices "like the sound of many waters" singing and at the same time a fragrance not of this world seemed to fill the room. </p><p>God still wanted me, and loved me! </p><p>"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,</p><p>That saved a wretch like me. </p><p>I once was lost, but now am found,</p><p>Was blind, but now I see."</p><p>I'm really writing all this to you, my family. Others would not be interested, perhaps you won't be either, but I try to do these things which please the Lord, and somehow I feel He wants me to do this. It is, after all, to His glory. I have gone into some things of the past -- things I would like to forget but feel somhow that they are vital to the present. Only those who have suffered much are able to succor those who are "pressing through their valley of Baca." (Ps. 84) Only those who have gone through a long drought can truly appreciate the pools of water." It was a great day for me when I finally realizied the extreme drought in my life. </p><p>It made a difference in Ralph, too, when he finally drank from that kind of water, Jesus talked to (the) "woman at the well" about. His smoking caused me a great deal of concern as he often went to sleep while smoking and was always burning holes in his clothes and one time burnt a big hole in one of our best blankets. There is always the danger of fire in which people lose their lives. But praise God! When Ralph accepted Him the smoking went along with other sins. </p><p>There was a day, a dark cloudy day in November -- November 25, 1923 in fact -- when we repeated our vows to Rev. Fletcher in his office of the Capitol Hill Methodist church. It was a day when, like most girls, I presume I was a little fearful, not sure that I was doing the right thing. Then just as the pastor pronounced us man and wife, the sun broke through the clouds and just seemed to shine upon our heads. It was to me like the blessing of God, and I felt better. </p><p>The next day (Monday), we both went back to work; I as a telephone operator and he as a cable-slicer's helper. I worked for a couple of years, and the third year, Gloria came to brighten our lives. I thought she was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. She was a healthy bab -- so she was good. She cried only when she needed a change or when she was hungry. </p><p>The golden curls she was born with were replaced by light brown, but she was nonetheless beautiful. Her laughter was like music, and even her cries had a musical ring. </p><p>Things were not going well financially, work was scarce and suddenly the depression was upon us. Gloria was almost three, and another child was on the way. Because things were so tight and no one that I really trusted to take care of Gloria, I persuaded my doctor to permit me to be delivered at home. This one was to be a very special one, for God had touched me in a way I had never known before. I think I must have felt much like Elizabeth felt when Mary went to tell her of the promised Messiah she was to bring forth, and we are told that the babe (she Elizabeth was carrying) leaped in her womb for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. </p><p>Whatever the reason, my health seemed to be better and I was less tired. When Stan, this second baby, arrived just a week before my own birthday, he really just seemed like a gift from God. He was somehow so different from new born babies. There was no fist waving in the air, but he would lie in his little bed with his hands folded as if in prayer. He was so good, and so sweet! </p><p>He seemed to grow up so fast, and it was such a joy to watch him walking so quickly and quietly on his little toes. He could just melt my heart looking at me so soberly with his big eyes and little dimpled chin. He was so good, and always such a quiet little fellow. Had I known what the years would bring forth, I might have felt a little like Mary as she cradled the Christ child in her arms. Time can bring forth such fearful things. Many times as my first-born son was in the midst of the II World War I felt as if I were being crucified along with him. Had it not been for the comparison of Him who was crucified that awful day on an old rugged cross, we would never have made it. How good God is!</p><p>Shirli, my second little girl, came just eighteen months after Stan, and she was such a sweet little baby, who grew up too fast. She was the only one of our five children who seemed anxious to be born, and she always seemed just as anxious to grow up. She ws always so lively and such a happy little girl and so beautiful! </p><p>When Ronald, our fifth child, came along, she adored him and loved giving him his bottle and never seemed to tire waiting for him to finish. His was a very difficult birth, but what a joy to hold this last beautiful son. He had little blond curls, which I was very hesitant to sacrifice to the sheers. </p><p>Looking back, I think how wonderfully God had provided. We all had good health, and even as God promised to feed the little birds, we were worth more than many sparrows to Him. </p><p>Had I known Him as I do now, it could have made much difference in our life, but God was leading one step at a time. </p><p>John was born at a time when things were still depressed, but help was on the way. I felt better that summer too than I had with the first three children. I often went out very early in the morning in search of wild blackberries, and perhaps that was one reason I felt better. The fresh air and exercise were good therapy for me. </p><p><br /></p>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-3025458596588893812021-12-21T13:01:00.006-08:002021-12-21T13:01:54.714-08:00Autobiography of Edith Marshall II<p><b>A Summer to Remember</b></p><p>Life was young and life was sweet! The First World War had not become a reality as yet, and we lived in ignorance of it becoming so. Birch Bay was far removed from the cares of the world. It was a beautiful resort place with a lovely pavilion where people gathered every Saturday night. It had a very nice floor -- smooth glass and dancing was so enjoyable there. </p><p>I was spending part of my summer there, and I look back upon that summer as the most enjoyable one of my entire teenage years. It was the first Saturday night I had gone there was a boy friend and a couple of girl friends. I was dressed in a white cotton dress with trimmings of black and white stripes. My shoes were white, and I was bubbling over with youthful happiness. </p><p>As we entered the pavilion, I looked across the room, my eyes encountering a young man leaning against the wall. He was tall, slender, and blond. A lock of hair over his forehead seemed to have a way of falling in the opposite direction of where it was supposed to go. Little things that just stood out, which gave me a desire to meet him. I said as much to my sister, and as though he had gotten the message, he crossed the room rapidly and asked for the next dance. I can't remember whether it was a waltz, a two-step or what. All I could think of was that I was dancing with him and I was very happy! There were others, too many to count, but call it what you will, I was really hooked! </p><p>I counted the days each week waiting for Saturday night. My boy friend who was always so good to take me and my girl friends, did not dance himself but he said he wanted me to have a good time, even if it was with someone else. </p><p>Each Saturday night my new "heart throb" was there and almost as soon as I entered the pavilion, he was there at my side. Then all too soon it was the last Saturday for me. I was going home. I did not tell this handsome young man of my plans, and that last night as we danced cheek to cheek I felt that if we could just go on dancing and being held close by him I would be the happiest girl in the world. But even then, I knew in my heart that nothing could come of it. </p><p>It had been a beautiful summer, but now it was ended and I must return home and to school for another year. I went out of his life, and he out of mine without a word -- leaving no address with him, not even telling him goodbye or that I would not be back. Life it like that! So many people in passing who could perhaps make for much happiness if only there was time. But time moves on and so we must move with it. But there are memories which come to us from time to time like perfume from a lovely rose. </p><p><i>(Note: the following almost two pages are written quite faintly: I'll transcribe what I can. After that, things become much clearer. The date of 1920 is given for the car in a darker pen, and Grandma says this was a great treat for teenagers in the early 1920s, but Grandma would have been 20 in 1917 already, so that doesn't fit. -- DM.) </i></p><p>Beatrice was my very closest friend, and when she suggested that I drive with her from Mount Vernon, WA, to Seattle, in the new Chevrolet her Dad had just purchased, I was delighted. </p><p>Back in the early 20s that was quite a trip for two teenage girls. After . . . Skagit County . . . <i>(This paragraph is hard to make out)</i><br /><br />We had left quite early in the morning, and arrived in Everett about noon. Everett was quite a mill town, and gave every evidence of that fact, as the mill whistle blew for lunch, and workers began to appear as if by magic; they had been disgorged from the (smith's . . . ). </p><p>. . . from Everett there were more woodlands and scattered farm-home. The farms were smaller and more scattered than those we had known in the Skagit Valley, but mostly attractive and well-cared for. </p><p>The trip was a very pleasant one, for Beatrice and I had much in common. We (sang) and enjoyed every mile of the way. I had made reservations at the Arlington Hotel for the night, and when arriving in Seattle, we made our way there. </p><p><i>(The next paragraph is illegible to me. Maybe someone else can make it out. The following several paragraphs are spotty.) </i></p><p>. . . home . . . by the University District where some of Beatrice's family lived. We spent a short time walking along Lake Washington, enjoying the beauty of the day and of the area. </p><p>We had . . . driven a third of the way home . . . to Beatrice, that something was wrong . . . I said, 'Beatrice, I'm not going to . . . ' </p><p>Beatrice pulled over to the side of the road, opened the . . . under the seat where we had just sat . . . and taking . . . </p><p><i>(The rest of this story is illegible, and then a stronger pen takes over. I rearrange the following sections, however, to place more of Grandma's Skagit experiences before experiences involving World War I, the move to Seattle, and influenza . . . it appears that the following chapter will being with a story that takes place at Alki Beach.)</i></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>The County Fair</b></p><p>When I look back upon the years I keep wondering about the special days such as the Fourth of July, the County Fairs and celebrations that were so important to us in those days. Of course there was a certain excitement with great crowds of people coming to town to partake in it. I usually went to such celebrations with my sister or perhaps a friend or two. </p><p>Perhaps one that I enjoyed more than any other was the County Fair, where there was much to see besides people. One night we went with a couple of young men, and we had such an enjoyable time. I still can't remember what we saw as to displays, but we were having so much fun, they didn't seem important. </p><p>I can't remember either what I wore, except a new black velvet (<i>looks like </i>"tam and shanter?)" ) with a red feather on one side. The young man with me liked it too, and he proceeded to take possession, wearing it as gauntily as a (Sear's?) man would. </p><p>Strange how such small things remain as little shalfts of sunlight peaking through the clouds on a dark day. This McFee was indeed a Scotsman who made one feel sort of special just being with him. I indeed carried a torch for him many days. </p><p><b>The Square Dance</b></p><p>Living in the country all the years of my young life, there was little entertainment, except perhaps a movie on Saturday night and church on Sunday, so it was a real lark for me when a young man who was living in a small house we had rented to him, asked me to accompany him to a square dance being held at his brother's house, who lived five or six miles further out in the country. </p><p>There were very few cars being used then, and Jim had called for me with a nice buddy drawn by two beautiful horses. As we went farther out into the country, the road seemed to get worse by the moment. It caused me to wonder if Jim deliberately hit all the rough spots, which threw me against him, which seemed to please him. He knew I was fearful of being thrown out, or the buggy being tipped over in one of the deep ruts. But he was very pleased with himself -- was he not being the big strong man who had everything under control -- even if I wasn't? </p><p>Arriving at his brother's home, I was received royally -- for wasn't I Jim's girl? </p><p>The night went all too quickly. The house was filled with young people. I did not know how to square dance as all I knew was ballroom dancing. This presented no problems as all of the young men were eager to teach me, and it wasn't hard as we listened to the man who called out </p><p>In 1923 I moved to Seattle where I had a job with the telephone company. It was difficult for me coming to a strange city, not knowing anyone. But I felt constrained to go. <br /><br /><b>(Next: A Meeting at Alki)</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-31039281136985401402021-12-20T12:36:00.007-08:002021-12-24T14:43:06.645-08:00Autobiography of Edith Marshall I<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>There is No End</b></span></p><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">The Date and Place . . . </div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">It was the year 1897, the month of April, day 22nd. A baby girl was born -- the seventh child in a family of eight. The place, a small town in the state of Ark, a town so small that it doesn't even appear on the map. Our farm was so large -- a whole section of land, and afforded almost everything we needed at home. There was an orchard that yielded a bounty of apples, peaches and plums. The fields produced plenty of corn, some of which my dad my dad would take the mill to ground into meal. The cattle and pigs produced the milk, butter and meat for the table. The chickens gave us the eggs and sometimes fried or roast chicken. There was also a surplus of wild pigeons and turkeys that my Dad often hunted. </div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Our home was built of logs at a time when the country was torn by the Civil War. My grandparents had moved from Texas to Arkansas in an effort to escape some of the havoc of that war . . . </div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">The house had remained very much as it had been during my maternal grandparents' time, who had built it. There was a large stone fireplace on one side of the wall in the room where we always gathered on Sunday night, where we children liked to eat our cornbread and milk before the fire. Sometimes my older sister would make toffy from the homemade sorgum and it was a real fine time for me. She was my favorite sister for she was so understanding and good to me.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle ii04i59q" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Looking back at those days that were so unhurried, so blessed with each season's produce, the green vegetables in the spring, the melons and fruit of summer, and the yielding of grapes and nuts of the autumn, yet, my Dad was always talking of going west . . . I suppose stories of those who had come to Washington State had come to him, causing him to desire to make the change. I'm sure that God must have been in it for our lives are not our own. He has planned our lives long before we are born. And so we came to Wash. state!</div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">We traveled by wagon with our trunks and such possessions as we brought, to the nearest railroad station at Gravette. One of my aunts lived there and we stayed overnight with her, catching the next train out in the morning. Trains those day swere much to be desired. The coaches were often cold and uncomfortable, sometimes so warm that the windows were opened for a breath of air. This had to be watched by the conductor as we went through many tunnels on our way west. If one window was left slightly open the coach would fill with smoke from the train's smoke-stack. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Arriving in Kansas City, Missouri, we had to change trains. This was the first time that my sister Sue and I had ever seen a negro. It was also the first indoor toilet that we had ever seen, and we were intrigued with the long chain we could pull sending water into the toilet bowl, from the high tank. It gave us a chance to catch a glimpse of the black woman who did the cleaning and who became impatient with our many trips to the restroom. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Only Dad could have sustained my poor mother on that trip. There was not much rest or sleep for her with three of us younger ones sharing the two seats for the first days it took to make the trip. But my mother was one of those rare persons who gave without even a thought of rewards. She was one who could sing to me and soothe my earaches or whatever seemed to affect me. She had many old-fashioned remedies, too, which always seemed to work. Her voice had a sweet high quality which I loved and which was admired by all who heard her. She often sang with a group who entertained with their acapello choir. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">My dad was quite a social lion in his younger days, but after the change of environment, he discovered that life was much different than it had been previously. There was work to be done on the farm in Washington State such as he had never done before. There were trees to cut and stumps to be removed such as he had no experience in before. There was a barn to build along with a new house, a chicken house, and fences. The crops to be planted were also different from those in the south. No sweet potatoes or melons, no peanuts or gubers as we called them. Irish potatoes, peas, beans, and such vegetables as did not need to heat of the south were substituted. This was a way of life that we had not known, and it was especially irksome to my dad, who wanted to return to Ark. But this was one time that my dear mother stood firm. She had seen her old house sold with all of its wide acres of farmland, fruit and hardwood forests, and now she had nothing to which to return. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">It was a time of growing, building and learning many things. It was not an easy time for me as a child. I was a very shy person, and perhaps because of that, some children picked on me, until sometimes I just wished I could disappear. But I was learning and eventually becoming more able to cope with life. God does not put us in the world just to leave us at its mercy. I have felt his Divine guidance throughout my whole life, even when I did not know Him. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">I have always loved to read and whatever books came into my hands were very quickly read and often re-read. Poetry has always been irresistable to me and I memorized a great many poems from the second grade on through high school. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Only one thing interested me more than reading a story: to listen to a good story-teller. Such a one was a little old lady whom everyone called Grandma Mitchell. She made the rounds visiting all her old friends once or twice a month. Grandma was small and the best words I can find to describe her was, "the little grey lady." She never wore any color that I was aware of, just greys and blacks seemed to be the limit of colors in her wardrobe. Just a drab little woman, you say? Not on your life! Grandma Mitchell was all fire and warmth inside. She never forgot the fire of her youth in crossing the plains in a covered wagon: the nights around the campfires, people banding together as a protection against the Indians. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Grandma knew how to tell these stories in such a way that she could hold us spellbound as we sat at her feet all ears and literally tingling with expectancy as the stories progressed. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">There was probably much fear on both sides as the people pressed further and further west; the Indians fearful of what the white man would do, and the white man fearful of what he and his family might be facing. Grandma was made of that sturdier stuff, like those who came before, withstanding disease, sickness, and even death because of faith in One who had conquered it all, and was the real leader into the unknown. Grandma told of the many kind Indians who came with offerings of corn, wild turkeys or perhaps venison. The white people often repaid them with perhaps medicine for one of their tribe who was suffering from disease, and often went with them to minister as best they could. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Grandma had many funny stories to tell as well as those horrifying ones of Indian attacks on the wagon trains. One she told a a little white woman being left alone in a little log cabin while her husband hunted for wild turkes or other wild food. An Indian brave walked in and was about the help himself to some food she was preparing. Picking up a hot skillet she chased him from the cabin. He flet in terror of that hot skillet. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">There were stories of nights of terror and nights of hope. The strongest only survived. The weak ones were often overcome by hunger and sickness, then death would take its toll. Many graves were left along the trail as a witness to the price paid by those who came before. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">But those who were strong and survived the rigors of the long trek west, opened up a brand new land and a new life for those of us who were to come later. Besides the barren plaiuns and a scarcity of water, of heat that seemed to scorch through their very vitals, there were poisononous snakes and often wild animals, also the unfriendly Indians. But those who came through just as Grandma Mitchell, were led by something greater, a () that led even as the Children of Israel were led into a land that had been prepared for those of faith in the move them were making. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">There were weddings among the travelers, and soemtimes a birth for these were a people who loved, a people who cared for one another. They needed each other. They were learning a lesson many have never learned that there is a strength in love, in caring for those who are needy and less able to help themselves. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Grandma has made her last trip - her final one across the Great Divide. She is gone from us but the memory of a great and valiant little lady lingers in the heart of a child who can see. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><b>First Love</b></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">There was a time, that I might call the age of innocence. It was a time when the world was peaceful, as far as we knew it. There was always hope, and something to look forward to. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">At the time I was fifteen, an age when girls (boys too, I suppose) begin to dream dreams. Many hours of each day I spent day-dreaming. To me at that age, nothing was impossible, so if my dreams were all far-fetched, as a better-informed person could have reminded me, it made no difference to me. I had read many books, and had not things always <span style="font-family: inherit;">turned out well for those who really believed in themselves? </span></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">One (day) after school, a boy I had known ever since we were in the second or third grade, was waiting for me and we walked home from school together. It was a nice feeling being with him, even though we practically walked on opposite sides of the road. I always knew the days when he planned to walk me home for he always came to school dressed in his Sunday best. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">My mother was very much opposed to him walking me home, because he came from a broken home, which amounted to a disgrace in those days. The result was that he only walked part of the way, and we would just stand and talk for a while. But that didn't work out because of a neighbor's wagging tongue. He would tell my sister when she would go home from work, and she would tell mother. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">There had to be another way to avoid that gossipping neighbor, so we went to a () round-about way which led through a pasture which ended across the (field) from my home. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">I don't remember what we talked about, but it didn't seem to matter: just being together was enough. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Then one day my mother opened a letter he had mailed to me. It was a love letter and my mother was furious. It probably caused her to distrust her, even though she had never spoken these words to me. In the letter he asked me to go to a party being given by one of his boy friend's mothers, with him. After reading the letter, mother wouldn't let me go. I was very bitter towards my mother for a long time. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Our friendship continued for some time, whenever we had the opportunity to see each other, but there was never an endearing name or a word of love from him. Our friendship was sweet and wholesome such as one doesn't see these days -- and so it ended as it should, with just kind and generous thoughts toward each other. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">He was leaving to go live with his father, and I (returned) to my day-dreaming. </div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br /></div><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">
</div></div>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-35070604447559180822021-12-08T08:15:00.004-08:002021-12-08T13:07:09.378-08:00Announcement: UW Ratio Christi<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjthFIA7rguPEQAbo9qCyYF8UWI0-ulT-OnlRKrICStSzGxmg70LTOC_0-kg7dEhVT5bwM8B_2HrCXSYQlRLzz0JzDiCa2E4TsKdQGVOlnrngUM8A0jZFnGej_Too2ZNM0UEnFD/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjthFIA7rguPEQAbo9qCyYF8UWI0-ulT-OnlRKrICStSzGxmg70LTOC_0-kg7dEhVT5bwM8B_2HrCXSYQlRLzz0JzDiCa2E4TsKdQGVOlnrngUM8A0jZFnGej_Too2ZNM0UEnFD/w400-h266/IMG_4176.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Announcement</span></b></span><p></p><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="99fo9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="99fo9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />This past summer, I was asked to serve as Chapter Director of an organization called Ratio Christi ("The Reason of Christ") at the University of Washington in Seattle. After getting to know one another, and a wad of paperwork, I have now begun to act in that capacity. (And may help this organization in other ways, we'll see.)</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="6prm0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6prm0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="6prm0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="b2j5e-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="b2j5e-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="b2j5e-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">The University of Washington is one of the world's leading research schools . With 48,000 students and 5,800 academic staff, it is by far the largest university in the Northwest. Among those who have studied or taught there: </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="6iq33-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6iq33-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="6iq33-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="bcats-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bcats-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="bcats-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Pappy Boyington, World War II ace who led the Black Sheep Squadron. ("Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" -- highly fictionalized TV series.)</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="4m6tn-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4m6tn-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="4m6tn-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="e73k6-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e73k6-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="e73k6-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Ted Bundy, infamous serial killer. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="a4c2o-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="a4c2o-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="a4c2o-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="4uq0c-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4uq0c-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="4uq0c-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Bruce Lee, who could have ended Bundy's career quickly. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="4lks1-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4lks1-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="4lks1-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="fndm9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fndm9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="fndm9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Bill Gates learned how to program as a high school student on UW computers. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="11q13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="11q13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="11q13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="5aa1b-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5aa1b-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="5aa1b-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Robin DiAngelo wrote White Fragility, making her one of the most influential opinion molders in America. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="4g8uq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4g8uq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="4g8uq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaaLQdDDiGd_pyK8BR77T8P3t-G-QwLGhhU2whH5RRhzyE8cXEKS9vkhWCHApEkqXza-nNEWio-7kD-MzMpA2mCctt6Q2FpT36yUvmKML_qn8YZClr6abbDldQZ9hMOV8jkrT/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpaaLQdDDiGd_pyK8BR77T8P3t-G-QwLGhhU2whH5RRhzyE8cXEKS9vkhWCHApEkqXza-nNEWio-7kD-MzMpA2mCctt6Q2FpT36yUvmKML_qn8YZClr6abbDldQZ9hMOV8jkrT/w400-h266/IMG_0111.JPG" width="400" /></a></div></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="74js-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="74js-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="74js-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Rodney Stark, the great sociologist of religion, from whom I and other Christian thinkers have learned much, taught at the UW for 32 years.</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="26ug0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="26ug0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="26ug0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="1q6i8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1q6i8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="1q6i8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Tom Foley served as Speaker of the House. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="3dp2u-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3dp2u-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="3dp2u-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="bv2s3-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="bv2s3-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="bv2s3-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">I am a Husky, too. I earned my BA and MA at Washington, largely at the Jackson School of International Studies. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="cpto8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cpto8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="cpto8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="fcru9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fcru9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="fcru9-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Hundreds of thousands who will shape the world for good or evil come to the UW to have their minds shaped. Who will do the shaping? It would be unfair to describe the UW a "woke madrassa." A student can still get an excellent, not overly-ideological, education in STEM, medicine, or business. But many departments, and even the otherwise wonderful library system, render uncritical fealty to the holy trinity of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on their home pages. Even unbelieving or left-wing professors have told me stories that reveal the indoctrination and even Cancel Culture at work in some fields: Quillette has even run articles about such phenomena at Washington. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="cicjj-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="cicjj-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="cicjj-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="9ru13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="9ru13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="9ru13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Like all major universities, many Christian organizations serve the Husky study body. But none, besides Ratio Christi, seem to offer in-depth training in Christian thought and apologetics. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="8l7ff-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8l7ff-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="8l7ff-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="dgi1j-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dgi1j-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="dgi1j-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><b>What is Ratio Chrisi? </b></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="c4d6d-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="c4d6d-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="c4d6d-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="6iqka-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6iqka-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="6iqka-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">Jesus told us to "Love the Lord your God with all your mind." Ratio Christi helps college students and professors gain sound reasons to believe the Christian faith. It is a fairly new ministry, which has taken off mostly in the United States but also overseas. RC works with churches and other ministries. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="5me69-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5me69-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="5me69-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="1eks-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="1eks-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="1eks-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">The UW chapter of RC was set up a few years ago: after some bureaucratic opposition, it is now a recognized club that meets once a week at the Husky Union Building (HUB) to discuss truth from a Christian perspective. About ten students come at present. The student president is a smart and enthusiastic young woman, supported by other students. I have been participating since the beginning of the school year, on a small scale, which I plan to ramp up, now. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="ev3ku-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ev3ku-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="ev3ku-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="e7ido-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e7ido-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="e7ido-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><b>My Background and Duties</b></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="38fr2-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="38fr2-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="38fr2-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="2me13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2me13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="2me13-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">This sort of ministry is, you may see, up my alley. I have been in teaching for some 20 years. Most of my fourteen or so books are in apologetics. While my PhD is in "Theology of Religions," especially in the Chinese context, my arguments for the Christian faith have covered a wide range: faith and reason, historical evidences for Jesus, Critical Race Theory, the history of missions, how Christianity has improved society, and of course, World Religions. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="e6hln-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e6hln-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="e6hln-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="59erp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="59erp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="59erp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">My writing has been described as "careful scholarship, (a) depth of insight and logical analysis matched only by his illustrative genius" (Ivan Satyavrata); "Spectacularly argued, spectacularly written, and even more spectacularly timely;" (Ralph Winter); "cultural analysis several levels deeper, and in prose that is several levels higher, than we've come to expect;" (Frederica Matthewes-Green); and "deep, original . . . Stimulating and provocative" (Tony Lambert), to give a few quotes. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="6t3aq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="6t3aq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="6t3aq-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="5r2e0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5r2e0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="5r2e0-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">What will my concrete responsibilities be, besides teaching some of this stuff? </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="dt2n5-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="dt2n5-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="dt2n5-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="ebsui-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="ebsui-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="ebsui-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Network with other ministries for mutual support and to present the Gospel to Husky students and staff. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="3kjd4-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3kjd4-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="3kjd4-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Give support, encouragement, and guidance to students. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="d558i-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="d558i-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="d558i-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Two or so public outreach events each year. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="3pstl-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3pstl-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="3pstl-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Get to know and support professors, and to give them an opportunity to support students. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="4udfp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4udfp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="4udfp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="3gaci-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="3gaci-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="3gaci-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">In addition, I also hope to: </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="fu8rp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fu8rp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="fu8rp-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="8ijn6-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8ijn6-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="8ijn6-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Support RC and other local ministries in other ways. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="aucep-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="aucep-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="aucep-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">* Continue writing and speaking. My new book, The Case for Aslan: Evidence for Jesus in the Land of Narnia, is due out early next year. That is essentially an overall apologetic for the Christian faith, in light of C. S. Lewis' seemingly lightest works. A more cutting-edge volume, "How Jesus Liberates Women" is also nearing completion. I also continue to write regular articles for The Stream. Presently I am doing a series on the growing conflict between China and America. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="2h78a-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2h78a-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="2h78a-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="fmc3m-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fmc3m-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="fmc3m-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">I welcome invitations to speak, almost anywhere in the world, or online. </span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="fngio-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fngio-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="fngio-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="djjll-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="djjll-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="djjll-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><b>How can you help? </b></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="4afa8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4afa8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="4afa8-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;"><br data-text="true" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;" /></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="48fki" data-offset-key="an6rg-0-0" style="animation-name: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; transition-property: none; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="an6rg-0-0" style="animation-name: none; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; transition-property: none;"><span data-offset-key="an6rg-0-0" style="animation-name: none; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none;">If you would like to be involved, I'd love to tell you more! "The fields are purple and gold to the harvest!" Chapter directors raise support for themselves, and their chapters, along with some administrative costs. There may be volunteer opportunities as well, and your prayers would be appreciated. Please contact me for more information. </span></div></div>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-63270818665300133022021-01-30T21:25:00.001-08:002021-01-30T21:25:42.425-08:00Vampires vs. Nazis: Umair Haque and the Racism of Anti-Racism<p><span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">In </span><span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Letter-Racist-Nation-Yourself-Together-ebook/dp/B08FVPFB1J/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=letter+to+a+racist+nation&qid=1612063740&sr=8-1">Letter to a 'Racist' Nation</a>,</i></span><span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> I warned against two phenomena: "Woke Fragility," and "the New Racism." Woke Fragility arises from the privilege which left-wing ideologues are given in modern American society: control of most the Media, the Academy, and now many important corporations. When power is crossed, as Robin DiAngelo noted in </span><span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><i>White Fragility</i></span><span color="inherit" style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">, the powerful often get irritated. Her prime error lay in failing to recognize that she is among the most powerful people in America today, and a paradigm of political privilage and intellectual fragility. </span></p><p>The New Racism is exhibited in both <i>White Fragility</i> and <a href="https://stream.org/an-open-letter-to-anti-racist-author-ibram-kendi/">Ibram Kendi's <i>How to be Anti-Racist</i></a>. The way to be anti-racist, Kendi informed his millions of readers, is to discriminate against white people on acount of their skin color. This paradox is what I call the "New Racism." </p><p>Probably the most hysterical example of both phenomena I have come across outside of the Nation of Islam confronted me when I made the mistake of opening a piece from "The Medium" recently, by a London business consultant named Umair Haque. The rage of the man puts DiAngelo's school-marmish white guilt, and Kendi's intellectually-driven fanaticism, in the shade, drinking lemonaide and kicking their heels. </p><p>Yes, a new era of racism has dawned. Haque's popular rants demonstrate how virulent, nasty, and un-self-critical, this New Racism has become in some quarters. </p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Let us go line-by-line through much of this self-styled "vampire's" rant, and see why it does, indeed, belong to the forces of darkness and death, as well as of taudry melodrama. </span></p><p>I'll underline the words "white" and "minority" to show that vampires, too, can be Manicheans in good standing. </p><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #800180;">"Donald Trump revealed a great and terrible truth: who America 'really' is. "</span></b></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"A <u>white </u>person, especially a <u>white </u>liberal, will cry, shaking their head at events like, for example, the coup at the Capitol: “this isn’t who America is!” And a <u>minority </u>will respond, shaking their head, “this is exactly who America is!”</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hague flaunts his racism from the get-go, because he knows his followers will cheer. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">An idea, even a stupid one like "Most Americans are right-wing, rioting lunatics" is located in the brain, not in the melanin. One can say something ludicrous like this, regardless of the color of one's skin - or refrain from doing so.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And of course there was no "coup," though if there had been one, led by BLM and Antifa, Haque would have cheered loudly. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"The <u>white </u>person will feel a sense of <u>white </u>rage at the minority, and the <u>minority </u>will feel a kind of weary, bitter disappointment with the <u>white </u>person. This scene is repeated a thousand times a day."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For Haque, what matters is the color of your skin, not the content of your character. Feelings are divided by skin color, as are the ideas that inspire them. Racism is a kind of animistic magic, which ascribes thoughts, values, and emotions to inanimate objects or properties like color. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nowadays, his anti-racist racism is repeated far more often than the conventional kind.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Back in 2016, Trump announced a “Muslim Ban.”</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Actually, what Trump fought for was a ban on immigrants from Muslim countries which could not be trusted to screen their people accurately. A pretty obvious thing to do.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"<u>White </u>liberals, angry, replied: “We will stand with you! At the airports, if we have to!” And, to their credit, they did. The first time around, at least. By the third time Trump tried his <u>ethnic </u>ban, though, no <u>white </u>“allies,” as we say these days, were to be found."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That's because you're lying about the ban, Haque. Not that I'm a liberal. But your obsession with skin color is calculated to stir up "white guilt," for those foolish enough to be so manipulated. (Make excuses for your own racism.)</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And "Muslim" is not an ethnicity, however convenient that would be for Haque's rhetorical purposes.<br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Around the same time of my first example, maybe a little before, figures like Steve Bannon began to be hailed in the American press and media — a new vanguard of exciting, glamorous, perhaps even revolutionary leaders."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In fact, the American Media always despised Bannon, including <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/11/steve-bannon-trump-administration-alt-right-breitbart-chief-strategist/">conservative outlets like National Review</a>. This ridiculous comment, utterly contemptuous of reality, shows what value Haque places on truth. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Why wouldn’t anyone say fascism? That is what we <u>minorities </u>wondered."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In fact, plenty of liberals (I hate to give in to this man's racism and mention the color of their skin) in Portland and Seattle attacked police officers in the name of attacking fascism. But what does that word mean? "Might as well call someone as jackass," as Lenin reportedly put it. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The word "facism" was over-used by Marxists in the past, and has long since lost all real value. I suspect that communists use the term to distract us from how similar they are to the worst of those they attack: angry, irrational, violent, merciless, and bossy. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"<u>White </u>liberals imagine themselves to be good and thoughtful people."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I agree that Woke liberalism is neither a good nor a thoughtful ideology, for reasons I explain in </span><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Letter to a 'Racist' Nation</i></span><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, though some liberals may be kind and well-spoken.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"And all that is how fascism got normalised and legitimised in America."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This gentleman is enormously attached to the word "facism," as were the Marxist-Leninist-Maoists. I prefer the word "jackass" -- it is much clearer.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"By early 2018, little children were in concentration camps. In those camps, there were allegations of mass sexual abuse. They were ripped away from their parents, some never to be “reunited.” All that is a form of genocide. Not even attempted genocide, but successful genocide."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">These are lies. Anyone who cares about the truth probably already knows that, or can learn the facts in a few moments of searching.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The policy referred to began under a black president, actually (for those who think skin color is important). For an explanation, read <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dhs-responds-to-claims-545-immigrant-children-have-yet-to-be-reunited-says-some-parents-refused-reunions">"DHS Responds To Claims 545 Immigrant Children Have Yet To Be Reunited, Says Some Parents ‘Refused’ Reunions,</a>" at the Daily Wire.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"America was a society that would tolerate the worst abuses human beings could make happen."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the conclusion Haque wanted to reach, obviously. The mite of unexamined evidence he offered in support of that conclusion was just an excuse for his hatred, as I show was so often the case with fake "racist incidents" that went viral during Trump Admin. In this age of fanaticism, too many are addicted to these accusations, like a heroin addict. The 10 Minute Hate becomes as necessary a part of one's routine as that morning cup of coffee.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"That brings me to my fourth example. Mass death. 400,000 people died of Covid within one year. Much of this was due to a lunatic President leading an army of aggressive anti-maskers. But much of it was also due to <u>white </u>liberals treating all this like some kind theoretical debate or college seminar or game…all over again."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">More nonsense. As I explain at </span><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>The Stream</i></span><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, there are 12 reasons why America was more vulnerable to Covid than most other countries. (We also held a few advantages):</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="x_cl x_cm x_az x_ba x_bb x_bc x_bd x_be x_bf x_yq x_bj x_cp x_cq x_kk" data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://stream.org/grading-trump-on-his-covid-performance-did-he-really-kill-all-those-people/?source=responses-----cfd901b1e91d---------------------respond_sidebar-----------" id="LPlnk502678" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">https://stream.org/grading-trump-on-his-covid-performance-did-he-really-kill-all-those-people/</span></a></span></p><div class="LPBorder264118" id="LPBorder_GTaHR0cHM6Ly9zdHJlYW0ub3JnL2dyYWRpbmctdHJ1bXAtb24taGlzLWNvdmlkLXBlcmZvcm1hbmNlLWRpZC1oZS1yZWFsbHkta2lsbC1hbGwtdGhvc2UtcGVvcGxlLz9zb3VyY2U9cmVzcG9uc2VzLS0tLS1jZmQ5MDFiMWU5MWQtLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS1yZXNwb25kX3NpZGViYXItLS0tLS0tLS0tLQ.." style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 16px 0px; max-width: 800px; min-width: 424px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 674px;"><table id="LPContainer264118" role="presentation" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-color: rgb(200, 200, 200); border-radius: 2px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; font: inherit; padding: 12px; width: 674px;"><tbody><tr style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-spacing: 0px;" valign="top"><td style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><div id="LPImageContainer264118" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; height: 134.933px; margin: 0px 12px 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 240px;"><a href="https://stream.org/grading-trump-on-his-covid-performance-did-he-really-kill-all-those-people/?source=responses-----cfd901b1e91d---------------------respond_sidebar-----------" id="LPImageAnchor264118" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><img alt="" height="134" id="LPThumbnailImageId264118" src="https://stream.org/wp-content/uploads/President-Trump-COVID-Press-Conf-edit.jpg" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; display: block; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="240" /></a></div></td><td style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; width: 386px;"><div id="LPTitle264118" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: wf_segoe-ui_light, "Segoe UI Light", "Segoe WP Light", "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 21px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 8px 12px 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://stream.org/grading-trump-on-his-covid-performance-did-he-really-kill-all-those-people/?source=responses-----cfd901b1e91d---------------------respond_sidebar-----------" id="LPUrlAnchor264118" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Grading Trump on His COVID Performance: Did He Really Kill All Those People? | The Stream</a></div><div id="LPDescription264118" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: wf_segoe-ui_normal, "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 8px 12px 0px; max-height: 100px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joe Biden, in his bumbling way, has accused the president of being responsible for all 200,000 (plus or minus three zeroes) American deaths from COVID-19. Is anyone surprised? Of course not. Most of us once thought the fact that Trump is often obnoxious would keep him out of the White House. Plenty of people will still vote against him in November for that reason. But no, he hasn't blown up any countries (I note with relief), while his enemies burning down cities right and left (mostly left). So a few crude Twitter comments plus his other faults are not going to keep me from voting for him this time. The Left has redefined "obnoxious," and not even Donald Trump can compete. (You know that's true when the big question to ask now is, "Which cities will they torch next?"But what of the "COVID-killer in the White House" theory? Should it stick? This has become the chief argument for the prosecution, so it is worth examining. Let's try a radical experiment here. Let us simply seek the truth.To judge an action f</div><div id="LPMetadata264118" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #a6a6a6; font-family: wf_segoe-ui_normal, "Segoe UI", "Segoe WP", Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">stream.org</div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span><p></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">America does not, in fact, have the highest death rate from this disease. Other advanced First World countries do. This is a little surprising, given just one of </span>those factors: how common obesity is in America, and the fact that it increases vulnerability to Covid by 50%. Given how infrequent obesity is in Italy, for instance, one might expect that nation to suffer far fewer deaths. And that's just one factor. But no doubt the Italians and Belgians are also racists. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"<u>White </u>liberals . . . couldn’t bring themselves to believe math. And therefore, by treating Covid like a game, normalised its spread. Maybe it was freedom not to wear a mask."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Of course this racist offers no evidence that "white liberals" treated Covid "like a game," or didn't wear masks. (When it is perfectly obvious that most did, but not obvious that there is some relationship between melanin and the impulse to wear masks.)</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And if white liberals didn't wear masks, wouldn't that make them die at a higher rate than more responsible "minorities?" </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I'm a conservative, and early in this epidemic I fought to import masks . . . My boss sent me hundreds from overseas, and I passed them out, then fought to ease bureaucratic restrictions on import. This is the first time I thought that the color of my skin had anything to do with wearing a mask . . .</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"America consists now of three tribes. One, regressive <u>white </u>people, whose entire lives and lifestyles are devoted to supremacy and hate, in harder or softer ways. These are the Trumpists."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I guess this is supposed to include me? Because I voted for Trump the second time, against all that goodness and grace in the streets of America last summer?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Our "entire lifestyles" are "devoted" to supremacy and hate? Can't we even go to the park and walk our dogs without hating? Or listen to Christmas carols? Or watch NFL football? "Get back to your racial supremacy and hatred, slave!" </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />What a concept this warped and angry gentleman has of other peoples' lives. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Haque clearly has no idea whatsoever of who conservatives are. Maybe he is afraid to find out. His own ideology of hatred is brittle, which may be prompting some of this anger. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And, of course, despite such rabid rhetoric, Trump increased his vote among minorities this election. The dam of racist anti-racism may be springing a leak.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Two, the other kind of <u>whites</u>. The ones who think they are much better, much smarter, much more moral, and so on."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Liberals, too, in this gentleman's twisted thinking, are classified by melanin count.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"And finally, there are minorities."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The good guys, presumably.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Now, <u>whites </u>think they are pitted against one another — and that is the dumb, false story told in the everyday media. But what we <u>minorities </u>know is a very different truth."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Remember, Vampire here speaks for all minorities. If you are a minority and disagree with him, perhaps you should check your melanin count. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"<u>White </u>people will always choose themselves over us. That is why and how fascism got normalised and legitimised in America. It was <u>white </u>liberals tolerating regressive, hateful <u>white </u>people — and then, flying into fits of rage, calling the rest of us alarmists, hysterics, and hyperbolic for pointing that simple fact out."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Has someone been calling Vampire hysterical? I can't imagine why.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Remember, vampires cannot see their own images. Imagine the horror Haque would feel if he could see what is so blindingly obvious about himself. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Fascism got normalized and legitimised in America. But it wasn’t regressive, hateful <u>whites </u>who normalized it. It was <u>white </u>liberals. Regressive and hateful <u>whites </u>could spread fascism, sure. But they don’t control America’s institutions and power centers and norms. <u>White </u>liberals do. Fascism spread in America because <u>white </u>liberals treated it like some kind of intellectually pleasing game, some kind of deeply absorbing debate, a “provocation,” something to be proven wrong. But what kind of astonishing idiot needs fascism to be proven wrong?"</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And who needs to define fascism? Or prove what you define exists?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Interestingly, though, the "minority" Jonah Goldberg agrees that liberals lean towards fascism, for very different reasons. I think he defines the word first, and doesn't classify people by skin color. (Five uses of "whites" as a synonym for "demons" in this paragraph alone.)</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Fascism is a pattern of escalation of abuse, which happens when fanatics who think some people are subhumans seize control of the state."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Finally, a definition of "fascism!" Not a very accurate one, though.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The temptation to treat other people as less than human is perennial, to every person of every color, sex, or ideology. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is obvious whom Haque regards as subhuman. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Hate, scapegoating, dehumanisation, bans, camps, raids, genocide, mass death. That’s fascism."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sounds like communism. And scapegoating (see Rene Girard) is ancient, arising millennia before fascism was invented. The riots last summer were a textbook example of scapegoating, even the fact that they occured during a pandemic. (I explain their timing and psychological roots in </span><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Letter to a "Racist" Nation</i></span><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.) </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Worst of all, flying into <u>white </u>rage, and hounding those of us who warned that…"</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Haque wears his racism on his sleave like a badge of honor.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Who else puts kids in camps? Tortures them, which is what “family separation” is? And who doesn’t care enough about that to stop it? The answer, sadly, is: <u>white </u>liberals."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I KNEW Joe Biden was a Nazi! But what about sweet Kamala? She separated a lot of families, too, when she prosecuted criminals. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"What Donald Trump revealed about America is the following terrible truth. <u>White </u>people will always choose <u>white </u>people over minorities . . . America came to the final endpoints of fascism, mass death and coup. It got there because <u>white </u>liberals legimized and normalized fascism to such a degree that the rest of the world was horrified. Not shocked, mind you — but just horrified."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No mention, yet, of months of BLM riots, which did vastly more damage, expressed more rage and hate, ruined vastly more businesses, and injured exponentially more people. Not that cops (or "pigs" as Colin K called them) are unhuman, mind you.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"We <u>minorities </u>spent the last four years feeling physically ill every single day, afraid for our lives and our loved ones, terrorised by <u>white </u>America. "</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Again, Haque presumes to speak for tens of millions of Americans. If he really has felt this way for four years, well being a vampire no doubt takes a toll. But he should see a doctor, a priest, and a psychotherapist.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></b></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></b></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"You cannot know the feeling in the pit of your stomach that your family might disappear — and have to live with it every day — unless it is happening to you."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Here is is hard to to know what Haque is on about on any level. Are aliens beaming people with high melanin counts off this planet? Maybe he's referring to the fact that America, like every other country on earth (not just the "fascist" ones) has rules about who can enter, and those who break those rules are subject to export? At least we don't rise in the middle of the night to drink peoples' blood.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But I have tried your patience. If one were a collector of bon mots of inanity, one would feel rich as Bilbo in the dragon's lair after Smaug shuffled off his mortal coil. But let us skip, finally, to the end, or at least the beginning of the end:</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Everything is not fine. Donald Trump revealed to us just how much America hates us. Oh, we always knew that the bad <u>whites </u>hated us. And we had an inkling that the good ones were not that good . . . your entire society hates you, only some a little less than others — is too much to bear . . . "</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When a country becomes as horrible as the US, emigration is an honorable option. Might I suggest Venezuala? There seems to be plenty of space down there right now, and they hate fascists and Americans, too.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"Donald Trump revealed the truth of <u>White </u>America.</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></b></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #800180; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"We see it, us <u>minorities</u>. The whole world sees it. But <u>white </u>liberals still don’t. And that, strangely, funnily, stupidly, terribly, is the truth of <u>White </u>America. The bad ones want to annihilate the rest of us. The good ones? They’re busy looking the other way."</b></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></p></div><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As a conservative who considers you a dingbat, a racist, a sophist drunk on bad rhetorical whine, and a poor excuse for calling mankind "homo sapiens," I wouldn't raise a finger to hurt, still less "annihilate" you, still less people I love and admire of other races. May God bring your fevered head peace. Again, you simply don't understand us. Perhaps you are projecting. Did you participate in the Burning Times last summer? This is a seldom-understood principle of psychology: one's own hateful actions, beget more hateful emotions. This rant bears the stamp, perhaps, of a guilty conscience? One has to wonder. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span color="inherit" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Except in the hypocrisy of its hatred, and utter contempt for truth, in some ways Mr. Haque's rant is a typical sample of the New Racism. Notice how many times he uses the word "white." Note that you could swap out the words "demon" and "demonic" for "white" (or "jackass" or "cow demon snake spirit") and the essay would make exactly the same amount of sense. </p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"The people of one race I hate are not human, because they all perceive others as subhuman for their race."</p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Fanaticism is a perennial, but it comes up a different color every year. Like Saurman's cloak, the color this year seems to be everything but white. <br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx8VuTPLxWgy5Z83dYZdXDh8n9m_8Diquxf4j7r0Ys21Rtp3dK4xiujVVHggu9b7Z7MVoUkfl9kk3nmdP-cBN8JID3jQZCpFo6iIR2LnHLavSuSiWrDICAfD9TwRV1b6mb5xy/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="529" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYx8VuTPLxWgy5Z83dYZdXDh8n9m_8Diquxf4j7r0Ys21Rtp3dK4xiujVVHggu9b7Z7MVoUkfl9kk3nmdP-cBN8JID3jQZCpFo6iIR2LnHLavSuSiWrDICAfD9TwRV1b6mb5xy/" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Gandalf, White Supremacist. </div><br /><br /><p></p></div>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-17746598347726267952020-11-11T20:43:00.001-08:002020-11-11T23:27:29.477-08:00Answer to an angry John Pavlovich<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglYw5X3hUy0k-dzYce8Ar-Xg3x5pkR9v-ZpBYHKsJ1XIKh8BjLpR9fICoqn2-OuRCvedfiC8XxaqPojjTDOnBHcM2upQHbRjGzORqKOgmEUWiCD6kgdTtwG0aP5eNhNRsd_GVn/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="1000" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglYw5X3hUy0k-dzYce8Ar-Xg3x5pkR9v-ZpBYHKsJ1XIKh8BjLpR9fICoqn2-OuRCvedfiC8XxaqPojjTDOnBHcM2upQHbRjGzORqKOgmEUWiCD6kgdTtwG0aP5eNhNRsd_GVn/" width="320" /></a></div><br />Calling someone "dear" is a letter-writing convention in English. It does not imply that the recipient of your letter IS dear to you. Such is certainly not the case with John Pavlovich's "dear White Evangelicals" letter, below. It was written two years ago: I hope John has calmed down. <p></p><p>Let us, at least, respond dispassionately. </p><p> </p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: inherit; font-size: 18px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700;">"Dear White Evangelicals,"</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I need to tell you something: People have had it with you."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What, all people everywhere? With all of "us?" Aren't we people, too? What did we do, forget to feed the cat? </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"They’re done.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"They want nothing to do with you any longer:"</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Nothing? Not even writing letters? </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"And here's why. They see your hypocrisy, your inconsistency, your incredibly selective mercy, and your thinly veiled supremacy."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wow! All of us? Maybe we stepped on the cat's tail! </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"For eight years they watched you relentlessly demonize a black President; a man faithfully married for 26 years; a doting father and husband without a hint of moral scandal or the slightest whiff of infidelity."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I never demonized Barack Obama. Does that mean I'm not really saved? Or not really white? </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I see Barack Obama as a human being, not a devil. Yes, he seems to be a good family man. I have never questioned that, nor his intelligence or political talent. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Most of his policies, I soundly reject, like those of all liberals. I think they are dead wrong, on most issues. I also didn't care for the way Obama politicized the FBI, which was one of many forms of political corruption he is charged with. And whenever he spoke about conservative ideas, he unleashed an army of straw men on us. He is a talented politician, but not that rare thing, an honest one. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"They watched you deny his personal faith convictions, argue his birthplace, and assail his character—all without cause or evidence.</span> </b><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>They saw you brandish Scriptures to malign him and use the laziest of racial stereotypes in criticizing him."</b><br /><br />I do wonder about a man's faith when he attends a church of bigots and hate-mongers like Jeremiah Wright for political reasons, and when he votes to allow babies to be killed up to the moment of birth. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But honestly, I don't even know what John is talking about, here. Who used what lazy racial stereotype on Barack Obama? The insult I usually heard was that he talks like a liberal law professor, or that he's from Hawaii, but he and Hillary put on phony southern accents on call. Are those laze racial stereotypes? </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Which is the greater bigot: a person who criticizes a black politician (born to both black and white parents, actually) for policy reasons he can articulate, or a person who accuses "white evangelicals" of all manner of evils, without specifying which ones, when they offended, what precisely they did wrong, and where? </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">Bigotry does not depend on race. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">You accuse us of quoting Bible verses. One does, indeed, come to mind, about a man with a log in his eye, offering to do surgery on a man with a speck in his. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"And through it all, White Evangelicals—you never once suggested that God placed</span> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">him</span></em> <span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">where</span> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">he</span></em> <span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">was, </span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you never publicly offered prayers for him and his family, </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you never welcomed him to your Christian Universities, </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you never gave him the benefit of the doubt in any instance, </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you never spoke of offering him forgiveness or mercy, </span><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">your evangelists never publicly thanked God for his leadership, </span><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">your pastors never took to the pulpit to offer solidarity with him, </span></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you never made any effort to affirm his humanity or show the love of Jesus to him in any quantifiable measure."<br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pavlovich is dishonest and not very smart, obviously. Otherwise one might try to explain to him the unique burdens of proof placed upon those who make universal negative claims. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If I owned a Christian college, I certainly would not welcome a politician who adhered to the policies of Barack Obama to speak to the student body as if I thought they should hear those policies affirmed. And it is true, I was not very grateful for his leadership, nor for that of Bill Clinton or Joe Biden. And I doubt Pavlovich is grateful for that of the Bushes or Donald Trump. (He'll prove that shortly.) </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The president needs mercy? In the American system, citizens have a right to criticize political leaders. Barack Obama had the power to grant mercy to whomever he wished. I have no such power. Did St. Paul offer "mercy" to Nero? Not that I'd put Obama in the same category, but this is a strange demand. The love of Jesus does not require us to affirm immoral policies or people who use power to oppress the weak. Neither does American democracy demand that we "offer solidarity" with people with whom we wholeheartedly disagree. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"You violently opposed him at every single turn—without offering a single ounce of the grace you claim as the heart of your faith tradition.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold;"> </span><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>You jettisoned Jesus as you dispensed damnation on him."</b><br /><br />Violently? <b> <br /><br /></b>In fact, I recall one evangelical pastor, Rich Warren, moderating a debate between Obama and McCain. I don't recall Warren "dispensing damnation." Nor anyone else. I don't even own a "damnation dispensor." They were all out when I got to the store. <br /><br />This man offers no evidence for his sweeping accusations, or any limit to whom he is accusing. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>"And yet you give carte blanche to a white Republican man so riddled with depravity, so littered with extramarital affairs, so unapologetically vile, with such a vast resume of moral filth—that the mind boggles."</b><br /><br />Here comes the love Pavlovich was talking about. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As a matter of fact, I wrote an ebook recommending against Trump, in the 2016 primaries. And <a href="https://stream.org/spiritual-dangers-trump-presidency/">my article saying the same went viral on a Christian web site</a>. So much for "carte blanche." But clearly this man is far beyond caring whether what he says is TRUE or not. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"And the change in</span> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you</span></em> <span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">is unmistakable.</span> <span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It has been an astonishing conversion to behold: a being born again.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"With him, you suddenly find religion.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With him, you’re now willing to offer full absolution.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With him, all is forgiven without repentance or admission.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With him you’re suddenly able to see some invisible, deeply buried heart.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">With him, sin has become unimportant, compassion no longer a requirement.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></b><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><b>With him, you see only Providence."</b></span><br /><br />And with him, suddenly Democrats care about adultery? <br /><br />But I don't recognize what this man says of "white evangelicals," except as regards a few rare individuals, like Robert Jeffress. Most of us voted for Trump, but neither in 2016 nor in 2020, did we tell such silly stories about him. I have never met an evangelical under the delusion that he or she has the power to forgive Donald Trump for his sins, or that that is his or her job. We voted for him because we agree with many of his policies. His poor character was, unfortunately, part of a package deal. We only have two major parties in America, so a perfect match is rare. But yes, if he or Obama wish to repent of their sins, we shall rejoice, along with the angels in heaven. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"And White Evangelicals, all those people who have had it with you—they see it all clearly.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"They recognize the toxic source of your inconsistency.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"They see that pigmentation and party are your sole deities."<br /></span><br />Odd, then, that you and your allies are always the ones who bring up race. Your allies are the ones who make fake racial incidents go viral, again and again, as I show in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Letter-Racist-Nation-Yourself-Together-ebook/dp/B08FVPFB1J/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=letter+to+a+racist+nation&qid=1605154179&sr=8-1">Letter to a 'Racist' Nation</a>. This is your obsession, not ours. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The sheer stupidity of this claim, its desperation, is astounding. We are not only racists, we WORSHIP skin color. Furthermore, aside from the Republican Party, it is our ONLY god. <br /><br />This is a man who cares nothing about truth. He only wants his rant to sound deep to himself and whoever gets off on listening to such tedious, fact-free, hateful rants. <br /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"They see that you aren’t interested in perpetuating the love of God or emulating the heart of Jesus. </span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">They see that you aren’t burdened to love the least, or to be agents of compassion, or to care for your Muslim, gay, African, female, or poor neighbors as yourself.</span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b> </b></span><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>They see that all you’re really interested in doing, is making a God in your own ivory image and demanding that the world bow down to it. </b></span><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>They recognize this all about white, Republican Jesus—not dark-skinned Jesus of Nazareth."</b><br /><br />Actually, hearing the voice of Christ, I spent years trying to try to save tribal girls in Taiwan who had been sold into slavery.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But you judge me, and every white evangelical -- you brought up skin color, not us -- who disagrees with you politically. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your rant is tinny. It lacks eloquence or reason. You're making up threadbare lies, without offering a scrap of evidence, without a hint of treating the people you hate with compassion or even half an ounce of cat sense. (Cats look before they leap, don't they?) </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Unlike you, I am left feel calm but a little sad by your palpitations. I feel sorry for you, John. You sound like a miserable person, trapped in a universe of hate. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Maybe you should get a dog. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">"</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700;">And I know you don’t realize it, but you’re digging your own grave in these days; the grave of your very faith tradition."</span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Your willingness to align yourself with cruelty is a costly marriage.</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> </span><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yes, you’ve gained a Supreme Court seat, a few months with the Presidency as a mouthpiece, and the cheap high of temporary power—but you’ve lost a whole lot more."</span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Three seats on the Supreme Court now, actually, thank you. And maybe fewer less dead infants, and more fidelity to the US Constitution. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In that first ebook of mine, like some other evangelicals, I did in fact express concern about what a Trump presidency would do to Christianity in America. So you're wrong about that, as about everything else -- and I wasn't alone. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But as citizens, we have a civic obligation to vote for the person who is most likely to do our country good. I doubt it would have been Hilary Clinton, and I doubt it will be Joe Biden. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If some people leave the faith because of that judgement, so be it. That is their decision. Perhaps fueled by the sort of over-the-top anger you are displaying. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Anyway, God hasn't died. Who knows what His plan is? I know some people have walked away from Him. No doubt politics had something to do with that. But it would be immoral to allow oneself to be manipulated by threats into voting for a political party that justifies partial birth abortion. <br /><br /><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><b>"You’ve lost an audience with millions of wise, decent, good-hearted, faithful people with eyes to see this ugliness."</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">What, wise, decent, good-hearted and faithful like you? </span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"You’ve lost any moral high ground or spiritual authority with a generation.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You’ve lost any semblance of Christlikeness. </span></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You’ve lost the plot.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></b><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>And most of all you’ve lost your soul."</b><br /><br />Now we've lost our souls! Where did that thing go? Under my shoe? No, that's my sole. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I stood up for young women being sold into prostitution in Taiwan. And when I vote for Republicans, I believe I'm standing up for the unborn, and for fidelity to the Constitution of the United States of America, among other values. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It's not for you to judge that choice, John. You may think you sound prophetic. But really it comes across as catty, shrill, unreasonable, and deeply uncharitable. </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"I know it’s likely you’ll dismiss these words.</span> <span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The fact that you’ve even made your bed with such malevolence, shows how far gone you are and how insulated you are from the reality in front of you.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"But I had to at least try to reach you.</span> <span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s what Jesus would do.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Maybe you need to read what he</span> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+5-7&version=NIV" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1abc9c; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out 0s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">said</span></a> <span aria-hidden="true" class="blast mmt-sentence" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">again—if he still matters to you."</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And you, John, need to grow up and think like an adult. You should be ashamed of such childish rants. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Find out what people really think, and why they think it. </p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Or maybe you're afraid to. Maybe your sweeping denunciations, without bothering to ask questions, without bothering to read, without bothering to offer evidence, reflect a deep-seated fear in your own soul.</p><p style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A fear of what? At some level of your being, perhaps you know. See if you are willing to ever knock on that door. </p>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-78418668040870770392020-10-30T20:10:00.000-07:002020-10-30T20:11:22.874-07:00Racism or the Tao? <p>The following is a chapter-long excerpt from my new ebook,<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Letter-Racist-Nation-Yourself-Together-ebook/dp/B08FVPFB1J/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=letter+to+a+racist+nation&qid=1604113525&s=digital-text&sr=1-1"> Letter to a "Racist" Nation: </a></i></p><p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Chapter Four: The Tao of Right
Living</span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Black Lives
Matter!" Reads a sign in front of the pretty Methodist church a few
blocks from my house, its white spire backdropped by a granite mountain made
famous in the TV show<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>Twin Peaks.</i> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I helped take the census in this
town ten years ago, so have some idea of its demographics. Occasionally I
hear Chinese spoken at the main store in town, and I know there are a few other
Asians here besides those in my family. One of four restaurants in town
is Mexican, and I interviewed other Hispanics scattered around. There may
be a few African-Americans in our community, but I have yet to enjoy the privilege
of meeting them, except when I subbed in local schools. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The value of black contributions
to American society is heavily emphasized in those schools, and I have helped
teach in every public school in this and a neighboring district. I have
never heard anyone in my town deny that in fact the lives of black citizens
hold value. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">So what it the point of the
sign? <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Does the
pastor of that church think some black community member is being persecuted by
the rest of us? If such a thing were to happen, I would hope she would go
to those responsible, and rebuke them as they deserve. I would be willing
to join her. Anyway, the young people in our district hear this message
constantly in local schools. So why dominate your front yard with a
sign preaching a message that we have all heard thousands of times before, with
which we whole-heartedly agree, and that we can seldom apply to those we meet
on a daily basis? <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Wouldn't
"Thou shalt not commit adultery?" be more practical? </span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">A less-prominent banner hangs
across the second floor of the church, offering a version of the Ten
Commandments that seem to come half from the Bible, half from the Democratic
Party platform: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Be the
Church!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Protect the
Environment!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Care for the
poor!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Forgive
often!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Reject
racism!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Fight for the
powerless!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Share earthly and
spiritual resources!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Embrace
diversity!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Love
God!" </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">"Enjoy this
life!" <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This seems to reflect a richer set
of values than posters at the average BLM demonstration, odd as it may be to
see "Love God" ninth on a church's list of fundamental values.
But even thus fortified, the toolbelt of our soul seems poorly-equipped to
construct a village. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The Tao</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>Abolition of
Man</i>, C. S. Lewis described what he called the "Tao," a
transcendent set of moral truths of which he believed all humanity was
aware. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The term<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>Tao<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span></i>or<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>Da<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">o </span></i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">(<span style="background: white;"> </span></span></span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%81%93" target="_blank" title="wikt:道"><span lang="ZH" style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "MS Mincho"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-language: ZH; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0in;">道</span></a></span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">) </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">has been used for
thousands of years in China, Japan and Korea to mean "road"
"path" or "way." Long before the founding of Taoism
by Lao Zi, it had evolved from its primary meaning of "route," then
"to speak," to emerge as "the principal of reason,"
"all truth," or the "Way of Heaven," terms the great 19th
Century translator James Legge used to translate passages in the pre-Confucian
classics. Confucius himself used the word to mean "the Way,"
"right principles," or "the proper course:" a model of life
exemplified by divinely-appointed sages. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lewis described the Tao as a
universally-recognized set of moral principles and truths flowing from some
principle of ultimate meaning:<br />
<br />
"It is the reality beyond all predicates, the abyss that was before the
Creator Himself. It is Nature, it is the Way, the Road. It is the
Way in which the universe goes on . . . It is also the Way which every man
should tread in imitation of that cosmic and super-cosmic progression,
conforming all activities to that great exemplar" (28).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In an appendix, Lewis gathered
quotations from around the world to illustrate the Tao as recognized in many
cultures. He classified fundamental moral duties as general and specific
beneficence ("Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"), duties
to parents, elders, ancestors, and children, the "Law of Justice,"
including honesty and sexual justice, good faith and veracity, mercy, and the
"Law of Magnanimity" which for Lewis seemed to include courage
("Death is to be chosen before slavery and base deeds.") His
point was that like mathematics or logic, basic moral intuitions are truths
outside our minds, not ideas cultures invent, but facts about right and wrong
which we discover. (Though different cultures may stress varying duties
and form clearer or less clear ideas of these truths, just as some people work
out mathematical laws in more detail.) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Do not be a racist"
might be classified as one precept within the "Law of General
Beneficence." Lewis argued (quoting Confucius!) that a single law
cannot stand alone, but derives validity from the whole. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The fact that you obsess on one
narrow statute, and forget the Tao from which it gains validity, reflects both
moral progress and regress. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your concern about racism reflects
progress, because the ancient Romans seldom recognized a duty to the poor and
marginalized. In his magisterial work<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Dominion</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">, historian Tom Holland
argues that our care for those on the margins of society comes from the
Judeo-Christian tradition, in particular the teachings and life of Jesus.
I think one can find buds promising a similar blossoming on the stems of early
Buddhism (the<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>Dhammapada</i>), the writings of Mozi, and to
lesser degrees Confucius and Lao Zi, along with Greek and Roman Stoics.
(And the ethical nursery where Jesus no doubt picked up his own shoots before
nurturing them to verdant blooms, the Hebrew prophets.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">But what all these pre-scientific
thinkers held in common were well-stocked tool belts, not one sad hammer with
which to pound like Bam Bam Rubble. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">
The Tao encourages no narrow obsession. Whether in Stoic, Buddhist,
Confucian, or Christian forms, it provides a vastly richer and more positive
worldview than either "Black Lives Matter" or even the New Ten
Commandments hanging from my neighborhood church. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Take Confucius for example.
A<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/02/chinese-history-lessons" target="_blank" title="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2017/02/chinese-history-lessons"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: blue; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">standard Chinese high school textbook</span></a></span><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">accurately describes his
philosophy as the "mainstream" of Chinese thought. In<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/True-Son-Heaven-Fulfills-Chinese-ebook/dp/B089LX9PGG?pf_rd_r=ZT5P0D6DCD0X6DAJCZTX&pf_rd_p=be25f964-4afb-442f-819e-9e628b270a7c&pd_rd_r=419d6b2a-712b-4dbc-9bb7-610b0a00e7ca&pd_rd_w=25gXK&pd_rd_wg=ltZLJ&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_d" target="_blank" title="https://www.amazon.com/True-Son-Heaven-Fulfills-Chinese-ebook/dp/B089LX9PGG?pf_rd_r=ZT5P0D6DCD0X6DAJCZTX&pf_rd_p=be25f964-4afb-442f-819e-9e628b270a7c&pd_rd_r=419d6b2a-712b-4dbc-9bb7-610b0a00e7ca&pd_rd_w=25gXK&pd_rd_wg=ltZLJ&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_d"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: blue; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">True Son of Heaven: How Jesus
Fulfills the Chinese Culture</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, I argue that the staying power
of Confucius, and his influence on East Asian culture, depended on virtue
deriving from humility pointing in four directions: above (loyalty to parents,
magistrates, and God), beneath (kindness to children, disciples, and other
subordinates), within (humility), and outward (curiosity and the thirst for
education that Confucius taught a quarter of the world, and allows East Asian
cram centers to print money like the Mint to this day.)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: white; border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The Tao
allowed for progress, Lewis insisted. Where feet were bound or widows
burnt, followers of Jesus brought it. The Tao may be as universal as the
sky, but like the universe itself, it creates space for seekers of truth to
expand into. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even St. Paul's most pared-down
tool belt of virtues is both oddly formidable, and remarkably useful: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control." </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Social scientists have come to
recognize the civilization-building power of the final item on this list.
Max Weber's classic The<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism</i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span>linked such religious virtues to
secular success. The fruits of the spirit may include patience and
self-control, but to apply those virtues in the workplace, will bring money in
the bank. Likewise, Mona Charen's<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>Sex Matters</i>,
and Heather MacDonald's<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span><i>War on Cops</i>, demonstrate
that a lack of self-control and sexual faithfulness undermines one's power to
express love, destroys peace and joy, and creates a ruthless subculture of
predators and prey. <br />
<br />
It is for want of "fruit of the Spirit" that murder rates soar on the
South Side of Chicago. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Virtue is power. It is the
reliable child who is given the flag to direct traffic. Sexual
self-control creates families and gives them strength. Scrooge's hard
work and careful saving allows him to buy a Christmas turkey for the
Cratchits. (Dickens' own father lost his son’s esteem by wasting his
earnings.) </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Am I boring you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you rather drive a "Black Lives
Matter" sign into the front lawn of your church, and gain cheap grace?
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you fear that telling men and women
to get married before sleeping together will sound "patronizing,"
"bigoted," or "racist," because those are the only tools left
in your belt? Or are you afraid you might have to follow Paul’s code
yourself? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Restrained sexuality may build
civilizations, but it frightens a Roe Vs. Wade generation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The concept of
"racism" is a valuable tool. Without it, some sudden gust of
prejudice might blow the shingles off our roof and drench us all. We must
keep this hammer within easy reach, and be prepared to use it. We do not
want to return to the worst crimes of our past, which betrayed every
"fruit of the spirit" on the deepest level. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"That's just your pampered white
reality!”</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I hear a voice saying. “Stop
hiding your head in the sand! Even if you don’t experience it in your
suburban cocoon, listen to the news, and you'll know that acts of gross
white-on-black racism occur in America every day!" </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I bet Pentheus wished he had
hidden his head in the sand, before his mother tore it off his neck.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">If America is really still a
racist society (in the only sensible sense, a country that commonly and
systematically mistreats people for their color), why have you fallen for every
race-bating scam that has come down the pike in recent years? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The word “racism” has become a
powerful weapon to control Americans of all races, and keep them at one
another’s throats.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is why when you
hear the word, you jump, like one of Pavlov's poor, reactionary hounds. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-81430847552090809232020-10-06T21:26:00.001-07:002020-10-06T21:26:40.861-07:00The Prehistory of Sex: An InventoryI doubt you could make a book called <i>The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture</i> boring, and Timothy Taylor does not. Nor does he pretend to be entirely clinical when he describes (or reproduces photos of) the things dirty really old men painted on rocks and other surfaces. His occasional voyeurism is narrated in a "pop science" tone: it's not pornographic or titillating in the slightest, but at times it's not always exactly not a pre-history of pornography, either.<br />
<br />
Why is a Christian scholar like myself reading such a book? Well, because I'm writing a book on "How Jesus Liberates Women." And if you want to know what liberation is, you have to look at how things were before we (men, too) were liberated.<br />
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The story is interesting, too, though Taylor's worldview seems to be such that he gets some of the background facts wrong, and doesn't always highlight what he gets right purposefully. But it is, as I said, a good read nonetheless, not merely for subject matter.<br />
<br />
My purpose here is not to do a classical book review, but to take stock of some of the more interesting passages, and comment on a few, as part of my on-going research project. I think visitors to my blog will find much of this interesting as well.<br />
<br />
"Women lost their hair, (Darwin) believed, because men found hairlessness attractive, not because it was burdensome . . . " (35)<br /><br />This reminds me of a passage from a Hindu book which recommends that men seek mates who have neither too much nor too little body hair.<br />
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"Among the many curiosities about the monogamy theory, not least is the fact that the current level of monogamy globally is largely the result of the influence of Judeo-Christian values during the past five hundred years. Although some of the largest population blocs have adopted monogamy, a majority of individual societies worldwide still practice some form of polygamy. There is thus no evidence for monogamy ever having 'evolved' in any species-wide sense among humans." (40)<br />
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One of the most important, and solid, quotes in the book, in my opinion. <br />
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Monogamy was not preached in the Old Testament, but was encouraged in a number of ways, as I showed in earlier posts. The New Testament became stricter, and changed the world much for the better, as I intend to show in detail.<br />
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<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000;">"The first systematic sexual division of labor, with males hunting and females gathering, might also date to this time (1.8 million years ago)." (43) </span></b><br />
<b></b><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="color: #990000;"></span><br />
<b><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000;">"I believe that the invention of the baby-sling was the single most crucial step in the evolutionary development toward larger brains."</span></b><span style="background-color: #990000;"> </span>(46)<br />
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The words "I believe" here capture the probative value of Spencer's speculations about how babies developed bigger brains pretty well. He tells a "just so" story which probably has little to do with what really happened, but is interesting nonetheless.<br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>"Marx and Engels considered that 'the first division of labor is that between man and woman for child breeding,' and Engels went on to state that 'the first class antagonism which appears in history coincides with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in monogamous marriage, and the first class oppression with that of the female sex by the male."</b> </span>(77)<br />
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This is the kind of crackpot theorizing that swept the world of "thought" in the 19th Century, and of which we have yet to be rid. How did Engels know where "the first antagonism" appeared? How could he not know that his circle of radicals had already proven that "free love" can be a lot more antagonistic, or predatory? After all, he raised a young man as his "son" but reportedly later admitted the "son" had been sired by his friend Karl Marx on the housekeeper. <br />
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Of course, Marx and Engels were nothing if not geniuses at increasing the net pool of antagonism in the world.<br />
<br /><b style="color: #cc0000;">
"At Middle Stone Age sites in southern Africa dating from sometime after 300,000 B.P. red ocher begins to be found. " </b>Some 200,000 years later, its use<b style="color: #cc0000;"> "becomes very widespread." (99)</b><br />
<br /><b style="color: #cc0000;">
"The earliest firm evidence for formal burial of the dead comes from Skhul Cave in Israel, where nearly 100,000 years ago an archaic homo sapiens was laid out next to a boar's jaw." </b>(109)<br />
<br />
Taylor attempts to explain the "around 200 Ice Age statuettes of women" so far discovered in Europe. (116) As he points out, even accounting for cultural differences, the women are seldom comely. He denies that these depict a powerful matriarchy that existed at the time. "Among archeologists this theory has very little support." (117) The statuettes show women with no faces, and doing nothing, unlike "the vigorous goddesses of India." (119) Nor are they pornographic: "Others feel that the Venus figurines are neither attractive nor erotic." (121) 23% are 15 years old or less (so one scholar analyzes them), mature pregnant women (17%), mature non-pregnant (38%), and women over 35 (22%). Taylor suggests that they may have been marriage tokens, given with a woman in marriage. <br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">
"Marriage -- an institution that, however imprecisely defined, is present in all known communities."</span></b> (125)<br />
<br />
Here's a generalization that makes sense to me, and should be carefully considered for its implications for early Christian history:<br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">
"Contrary to popular belief, nonliterate societies are much more likely to do things in the same way, generation after generation, than literate societies. The reason is that the nonliterate must commit detailed cultural knowledge to memory rather than relying on a written record. It is entirely possible that some basic elements of meaning stayed fairly constant for over 15,000 years -- because there was no reason to change them."</span></b> (135)<br />
<br />
This might also explain awareness of God in numerous very primitive societies around the world, as described by Lang, Schmidt, Corduan, and others.<div><br /></div><div>However, Columbia linguist John McWhorter argues persuasively that language is always changing, including grammar, but that writing can anchor those changes to some degree. (As occurred with Chinese.) <br />
<br />
Yamana Yaghan men in Amazonia had a hut from which women were excluded, recalling a legend of a time when women "had sole power; they gave orders to the men who were obedient, just as today the women obey the men . . . " (137)<br />
<br />
These sorts of huts and legends are apparently common in primitive societies. <br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">
"To forestall this, the men inaugurated a secret society of their own and banished forever the women's Lodge in which so many wicked plots had been hatched against them. No woman was allowed to come near the Hain on penalty of death."</span></b> (138)<br />
<br />
Don Richardson describes such huts among the Yali in the mountains of New Guinea.<br />
<br />
Taylor also mentions the Kayapo of central Brazil, "where the men's house is the scene of the ritualized gang rape of young girls." <br />
<br />
He does not explain the context for this or its alleged extent. <br />
<br />
Joan Bamberger argues:<br />
<br />
"<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">The myth of matriarchy is but a tool used to keep women bound to her place. To free her, we need to destroy the myth."</span></b> (139)<br />
<br />
Taylor may be right that Ice Age figurines reflect a society in which women were faceless and powerless, though I find the evidence he offers, again, only partially compelling. Women relied on men for their meat. He argues that Mesolithic communities are a bit more egalitarian: "obvious signs of gender inequality are fewer . . . " (146). <br />
<br />
Civilization brought about a turn for the worse for women, he argues:<br /><br /><span style="color: #990000;">"<b>The growing population of the Near East introduced yet another economic factor into the equation that was eventually to reforge women's economic inequality in bonds so durable that they persist into the present day: farming, and its concomitant rules of production and property." (146)<br />
<br />
"Human beings, far from being cast out of the garden, turned themselves out of Eden." <br />
<br />
"I believe that the first farmers in Europe had a fundamentally exploitative attitude towards everything including sex -- being violent, unbalanced people, whose idea of a good time was felling trees, erecting great stone phalluses, and sanctifying them with sacrificial victims, often women and children."</b> </span>(149)<br />
<br />This news will disappoint those who conceive of "primitive man" in egalitarian terms. </div><div><br /></div><div>
Mediterranean tribes knew 250 useful species of wild plants. (149)<br />
<br />
Jericho was an early farming town, from 8500 BC, relying on a few crops, and quickly losing that wealth of botanical knowledge. <br />
<br />
In Texas, farming increased the size of women. In the Mississippi Valley, the opposite: "everyone got smaller, but women much more so." (152)<br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #990000;">
"Modern hunter-gatherers, even those who have been pushed into marginal environments (as most of them have been) appear to work much less in order to stay alive and well than do farmers." (164)<br />
<br />
"The Mesolithic economy of postglacial Europe was a thriving one, yet it gave way, mile by mile, ineluctably, to a farming economy." (164)<br /></span></b>
<br />
This also sheds light on the various "falls" which the early books of the Bible describe, including the Israeli desire for a king, and the oppression which the prophet warns will follow.<br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #990000;">
"I do not believe that women built Stonehedge. Perhaps they had a hand in it, and a woman was certainly sacrificed in one of its foundation ditches, but like guns and rockets, it is essentially a male monument." </span></b>(167)<br />
<br />
Well, come to that, most inventions are "male." Let's not be snooty about it.<br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #990000;">
"In the long barrows, bones are placed like seeds in a womb of earth, as if waiting for the moment of rebirth. Often, the ground beneath the barrows has been plowed."</span></b> (184)<br />
<br />
One suggestion is that the ground has been prepared for the planting of the dead.<br />
<br />
At the winter Solstice, December 21, light "can enter the narrow opening and strike the back wall of the burial chamber." (187)<br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #990000;">
"The resurrection of the bodies of the dead is symbolically connected to the resurrection of the year itself - the point of exact midwinter, after which the sun must begin to come back or there will be no spring."</span></b> (187) <br />
<br />
Barrows were used until about 2500 BC. (The scene in <i>Fellowship of the Ring</i> where the hobbits are stuck in a barrow, also evokes such antiquity, though not perhaps quite as great. And also resurrection. Tolkien is also right to associate the barrows with evil, apparently.)<br />
<br />
Woodhedge, a three year old girl's body was found, her head split with an axe. (189) <br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #990000;">
"John Barber, who has excavated many sites in Scotland, suggests that several infant burials around passage graves - ten at Quarterness, twenty-four at Isbister -- represent systematic infanticide of neonates. At Stonehedge a woman and child were buried in the great ditch close to the entrance to the monument. Attitudes towards (at least some) women seem to have been no better than toward some unfortunate children."</span></b> (189)<br />
<br />
And people wonder why God repented of creating this race. <br />
<br />
Ian Kinnes, British Museum, "while there are not many bodies (at Neolithic sites), where there are they tend to be women . . . " (189)<br />
<br />
Taylor thinks these monuments exemplify a "bigger is better" attitude of farmers, who make use of just a few resources. This may be argued, but then he lets himself go into:<br /><br /><b><span style="color: #990000;">"Most profoundly, the idea of a basic dichotomy in the world, of a struggle between man (in the deliberately sex-specific sense) and nature, is what lies behind our continuing lunatic progress towards ever deeper ecological disaster."</span></b> (192)<br />
<br />
Here a bit of religious clap-trap evolves into political clap-trap. In fact, the air and water has grown far cleaner in recent decades in advanced countries, and forests have been planted or allowed to reseed themselves in vast swatches of the planet. <br />
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<br /></div>David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-32719049291441313852020-08-19T18:46:00.000-07:002020-08-19T18:46:06.029-07:00Letter to a "Racist" Nation<br />
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My new ebook, "Letter to a 'Racist' Nation" is now available on Kindle! It is priced to sell. The style is not measured or gentle, because I am not in a gentle mood, and I don't think America needs soft or appeasing words right now. The book can be compared to a loving slap in the face administererd to someone who is suffering dangerous delusions.</div>
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That, I argue, is the condition the US is in right now. No, the police are not racist thugs, by and large. They are being scapegoated under circumstances that Rene Girard, the brilliant student of the human condition, long ago prophesied. The accusation of "racism" is inevitable in our culture, for the same reason ealier generations of scapegoats were accused of "incest," "poisoning the wells," "counter-revolution," and other crimes considered especially vile in their cultures. The mentality that lodges such accusations indiscriminately, which one might call "Woke Fragility" (with no apologies to Robin DiAngelo, she owes them to us) has also consumed the Academy and Woke Big Business.</div>
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I argue that the Gospel helps us understand this moment, and lends us the chief hope we have for escaping from the ditch we have so foolishly dug for ourselves.</div>
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I have not studied this form of neo-Marxism so long as at least two of my Facebook friends. But I bring a few unique understandings or perspectives to the subject: (a) Cultures, which I believe matter more than Race today; (b) History of Religions; (c) a brother who served as a cop in Greater Chaz for three or four decades, and told me his stories; (d) living in Greater Chaz; (e) sharing a university with DiAngelo, which "awoke" me to the phenomenon of Woke Fragility: (f) experience as an educator, since it is from the public schools that much of the contagion has spread; (g) I have also done a bit of research, especially on police shootings.</div>
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Do enjoy the book. I'm letting Facebook and blog friends know first, hoping you'll post interesting reviews, and if you like it, pass the word along.</div>
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This is not an academic work: it is a cry from the heart. I have, however, done my best to get my facts straight, which I can't say about all those I criticize.</div>
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<a data-ft="{"tn":"-U"}" data-lynx-mode="asynclazy" data-lynx-uri="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB08FVPFB1J%2Fref%3Dsr_1_2%3Fdchild%3D1%26keywords%3Dletter%2Bto%2Ba%2Bracist%2Bnation%26qid%3D1597356154%26sr%3D8-2%26fbclid%3DIwAR3ElG_taCfKHzusyGbgYJZE6cVUjUDqPohrdxAMAOnrYp20wMKQKhfbmO4&h=AT1OHRC6Dm7TLfv4iVIvJLzABqaG5EfnuCxX8oRzsEnuBs8JLHRIk9nQRjYO9cGP3NEKiUnFPLs-XGJUjuArlFrnloA2JRYg6Pl-4lIiwnxysC6ROwl0YcX3JAVLO1V1Sq2ymW4hKT8FRbhH_3_zJENGOb8lViYVVomQyEp9Flw" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FVPFB1J/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=letter+to+a+racist+nation&qid=1597356154&sr=8-2&fbclid=IwAR3ElG_taCfKHzusyGbgYJZE6cVUjUDqPohrdxAMAOnrYp20wMKQKhfbmO4" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08FVPFB1J/ref=sr_1_2…</a></div>
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PS: Thanks to Michael Hunt for creating the cover image, and to The Stream for publishing early versions of Chapter 8 and Chapter 11. I neglected to include that note of gratitude in the book yet; I'll have to go back and add it later.</div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-53365363073077603742020-06-26T15:59:00.001-07:002020-06-26T15:59:48.779-07:00Do Blue Lives Murder? Report from ChazThe great literary anthropologist, Rene Girard, wrote, "Human culture is predisposed to the permanent concealment of its origins in collective violence." I just paid a visit to the Western Hemisphere's newest nation, the Peoples' Republic of Chaz (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone), and found that, indeed, this new state is hiding the guilt of its bloody foundation.<br />
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Changsha, Hunan Province, holds four outdoor entertainments: the pedestrian mall, the Xiang River, a three mile long sand spit in the middle of the river called Tangerine Island, where a young Mao Zedong used to swim, and Yue Lu Hill, a peak about 700 feet high behind Hunan University and a huge statue of Mao. I often met friends by that statue to climb the hill. Some people would abase themselves before the figure of Mao. As a young man, Mao studied at Hunan Teacher's College, and hung out at the Autumn Admiring Pavillion, just up the slope from his rocky image and the famous Confucian Yue Lu Academy, a precursor to the later schools. It was at this academy that the Song Dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi, co-founder of neo-Confucianism, once debated a rival. Zeng Guofan, the famous Hunan general who defeated the Tai Pings, also studied here. </div>
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Hiking that little mountain on an almost weekly basis, I always wondered at the many graves on its slopes. Why, in a place of great significance for more than a thousand years, all the memorials were to people who died after the communist revolution in 1949? </div>
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After the revolution, China seemed determined to forget its national past, and set up idols commemorating the most recent tyrant instead. Every city in China has a memorial to its revolutionary martyrs. The most famous no doubt lies in Tiananmen Square across from the gate where Mao's portrait hangs. Here, on Tiananmen Square, students have often died for the future of China, as I described in my first book. (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/True-Son-Heaven-Fulfills-Chinese-ebook/dp/B089LX9PGG/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=true+son+of+heaven+marshall&qid=1593203140&sr=8-1">A Kindle version is now available!</a>) </div>
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America's Cultural Revolution of 2020, the so-called "Great Awokening," requires its martyrs, too. Once you erase the past, tearing down statues of Columbus, Washington, Jefferson, Robert E Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant, you need some worthy image to take their place. </div>
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<b style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">The Martyrs of Chaz</b></div>
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<b style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Human culture is predisposed to its permanent concealment in collective violence." -- Rene Girard</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBaTIep5xV6xABNlSltyP8DAYcxvkYbVyF14bR9-trrzbA71ysXa78bz0oFkZinfM-POCBYGJKLN983SKnEYoDZCfQFvm48xl_LFz0-y959Vwyk76egD3AVtKVAk0c1PKrHuV/s1600/IMG_4609.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuBaTIep5xV6xABNlSltyP8DAYcxvkYbVyF14bR9-trrzbA71ysXa78bz0oFkZinfM-POCBYGJKLN983SKnEYoDZCfQFvm48xl_LFz0-y959Vwyk76egD3AVtKVAk0c1PKrHuV/s400/IMG_4609.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On the fence in front of the East Seattle precinct front door hangs a poster entitled, </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"25 + Black Lives Killed by Police in Washington State." </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That poster actually names twenty-seven men and two women. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #3a3a3a; font-size: 12pt;">Most of those killed by police in Washington State (even more than in America as a whole) are white. According to<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counted-police-killings-us-database">The Guardian's interactive website</a>, in 2016, sixteen whites were killed by police in the state, and three blacks. Yet no White, Hispanic, Asian or Native American is included in this list of alleged martyrs. (Though some are so light in skin, that one wonders how a racist officer would identify them as black.) </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Here are their stories, as told in local newspapers. Most of these killings took place in the Greater Seattle area. There is, if anything, an anti-police bias in these sources. Not only al-Left papers like The Stranger and The Weekly, but "mainstream" papers like the Seattle Times, and probably most suburban papers, too, would tend to lean Democratic and be race-conscious. </span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As you read these stories, ask yourself: 1. Do these men (mostly) deserve the status of martys? 2. Does race overtly enter into the stories of their deaths? 3. If you were in the position of the police, what would you do differently, often with a split-second to make your decision? </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Malik Williams (Line 1, figure 1) got into an argument in Federal Way, south of Seattle, in an apartment parking lot. When the police arrived, finding Williams sitting in a parked car, he allegedly attempted to shoot them, and was killed in return fire. </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’m disgusted that the Federal Way police department MURDERED my brother,” Monique Phelps wrote on Facebook the day her brother was killed. “What happened to be a 911 call for disturbance led to some POORLY TRAINED officers shooting my brother 45 times. INSTEAD OF USING De-escalating tactics. I’m SICK. I’m in rage. And for those 7 officers that was involved, I hope you ROT IN HELL. You killed my brother.” Williams appears to have wounded two officers in the firefight</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What is emphasized in press accounts is that Williams used a wheelchair. (Which, however, was in the back seat at the time, out of sight, according to the police.) </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Williams shot two officers with a 9mm hand gun. He was a </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/investigators-release-video-of-federal-way-police-fatally-shooting-black-man-following-public-outcry/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/investigators-release-video-of-federal-way-police-fatally-shooting-black-man-following-public-outcry/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">violent criminal who had served time for armed robbery</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, as even the Weekly admits</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">: </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"In April 2018, Williams was charged with first-degree robbery after robbing two people at gunpoint on separate incidents at the Renton Transit Center. He was sentenced in January 2019 to concurrently serve 15 months in prison for second-degree robbery and nine months for first-degree theft for the crimes."</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dante Redmond Jones (Line 1, figure 2), a former Marine, died in </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://keprtv.com/news/local/new-information-released-on-officer-related-shooting" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://keprtv.com/news/local/new-information-released-on-officer-related-shooting"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a high-speed chase in the Tri-Cities i</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">n eastern Washington. He allegedly </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/crime/article237690179.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/crime/article237690179.html"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">was trying to ram police vehicles</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, and was shot. Three deputies suffered minor injuries. Jones had been brought up by a foster mother after his birth mother had abandoned him. In </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/interview-with-mother-of-dante-redmond-jones/video_c58024fc-3493-5ba2-9283-0cec5abfcab7.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.nbcrightnow.com/news/interview-with-mother-of-dante-redmond-jones/video_c58024fc-3493-5ba2-9283-0cec5abfcab7.html"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a heart-breaking interview</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, his foster </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">mother describes Jones' generally kind and giving nature, and how he had been traumatized by the sight of children who had been killed by bombs, apparently in Afghanistan, called himself a "monster," and "would harm himself." </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One wonders if this was a case of "suicide by cop." </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bennie Branch (24, Line 1, figure 3) was with his homeless mother when he was approached by police. He was wanted for felonies, but precisely for what, is unclear. His mother</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/pierce-county-detectives-investigating-officer-involved-shooting-that-killed-1/984088741/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/pierce-county-detectives-investigating-officer-involved-shooting-that-killed-1/984088741/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> claimed he was shot while running away</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. The police said a weapon was recovered, but his mother claimed it was just an airsoft gun and he had not been reaching for it. Apparently </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://ebwiki.org/cases/bennie-branch" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://ebwiki.org/cases/bennie-branch"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Branch suffered from drug and mental problems</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hashim Wilson (Line 1, figure 4) of Spokane was pulled over in a routine traffic stop in Tacoma. He alleged got out of the car and pointed a gun at police. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">According to </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/investigation-underway-after-officer-involved-shooting-in-tacoma/968898575/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sound-news/investigation-underway-after-officer-involved-shooting-in-tacoma/968898575/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">a police spokeswoman</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">: </span></span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"When the vehicle stopped, the driver got out," said Cool. "He was pointing a gun at the officer. The officer gave several commands. The suspect did not comply with them. The officer fired his weapon and struck the driver who was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries."</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I could find little further information about Wilson, or why he might use a gun in such a way. I also found no disputes with the police account: neighbors apparently witnessed at least portions of the confrontation. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mantry Norris (Line 1, figure 5) came into a bar waving a knife and mumbling. When he charged a man and stabbed him, the police shot him. An eyewitness reported: </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"It was kind of strange. He was lunging at people with a knife," said one Robert Powell, a black man of about 30. "He charged the other man and police had to do their job." </span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kerry Brown (Line 1, figure 6) wife and three children hid when her husband began shooting the house up. According to the Tacoma New Tribune, "His wife reported than he was shooting a gun and she had locked herself and three young children in the basement." When the police arrived, he fired one shot,</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/crime/article26079130.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.theolympian.com/news/local/crime/article26079130.html"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> hid behind a building, then came out with his handgun</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. A single rifle shot through the abdomen killed him. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Russell Smith (Line 2, figure 1) was wanted for a series of robberies in Bellevue, bank robbery, and assault of a child. When the police showed up at his house, he was in his Mercedes Benz. He put the car into reverse, smashed into a Ford, then put it in drive. Concerned that he was about to run them over, the </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://usgunviolence.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/killed-russell-lydell-smith-seattle-wa/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://usgunviolence.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/killed-russell-lydell-smith-seattle-wa/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">police opened fire, killing the suspect</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">William Floyd McCord (Row 2, Figure 3), shot two Bremerton police officers in a "</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #1990e5; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2017/12/18/officers-sunday-fatal-shooting-identified/961669001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“firefight</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #1990e5; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">." </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #1990e5; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: #333333; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He had been barred from owning firearms after punching his wife in the head, then fighting and injuring officers whom the wife had called. </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The family of one of the officers, Kent Mayfield, who was shot in the stomach in the later firefight mentioned above, released a statement: </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"If there is anything Dad wishes might come from all of this, it is simply that you will hug your own loved ones just a little bit longer and tell them how much they mean to you."</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: black; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Martin Duckworth (Line 2, figure 4) boarded a Route 27 bus in Downtown Seattle, and was asked by the 64 year old driver, Deloy Dupuis, to pay. Duckworth is described by the alt-Left Seattle Weekly as a drug addict and "chronic violator. He opened fire, wounding Dupuis in the cheek and arm, before being shot by police. Dupuis said "It's good to be alive," and made light of "dodging bullets," but his wife said he remained terrified. </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fafafa; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Federal Way Mirror explains that Dennis Clark III, 27 (Row 2, figure 5), shot his girlfriend in the head. She cried out for help first, and he shot a 62 year old man who was trying to call 911. He also turned his weapon on two men in the parking lot of Pinewood Valley Apartments, in an effort to clean the premises of eyewitnesses, for a total of four murders in one day. </span></span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Clark seemed to have a habit of beating his girlfriends: the police had visited at least once before. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Damarius Butts (Row 2, figure 6) </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;">"was shot and killed by Seattle Police after exchanging gunfire with officers following a robbery," according to Seattle station </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.knkx.org/post/king-county-police-shooting-inquests-resume-after-more-year-hold" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.knkx.org/post/king-county-police-shooting-inquests-resume-after-more-year-hold"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">knkx</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;">.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;">The </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/seattle-man-fatally-shot-by-kent-police-identified/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/seattle-man-fatally-shot-by-kent-police-identified/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Seattle Weekly</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> says that William Stokes (Row 3, figure 1) was reported to have been</span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0px;"> armed with a machete and holding a hostage. "Stokes refused commands to put down the machete. The officer felt threatened at one point, fired his gun and killed Stokes."</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3d3d3d; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 0.08px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.4px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0px;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Marvin Hunter, aka Che Taylor (Row 3, figure 2), "</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">spent 22 years in prison for rape, robbery, illegal possession of a firearm, assault and drug possession and delivery,"</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/fatal-spd-shooting-of-che-taylor-inquest-jury-expected-to-return-soon_/502530530/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/fatal-spd-shooting-of-che-taylor-inquest-jury-expected-to-return-soon_/502530530/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">according to KIRO 7 in Seattle</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. He kept</span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> a recently-fired gun in his car, which officers said they thought he was reaching for, and had large stashes of what appeared to be heroin and crack cocaine on his body. </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Officer “Jake” Gutierrez responded to a domestic dispute call in Tacoma and was shot "multiple times" by the next Chaz martyr, Bruce R. Johnson II (Row 3, figure 3). Gutierrez sacrificed himself to save a partner. His assailant, on the other hand, "</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">barricaded himself inside the home and used two young children as human shields," before being dispatched by a Tacoma SWAT team. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Omer Ismail Ali (Row 3, figure 4) attacked a gas station clerk, a woman in the same store, then a police officer, using a wooden club about five feet long. (</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">T</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">he creator of the "25 + Black Lives Killed By Police in Washington State" poster is shameless enough to show Ali with his club.) </span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">This series of events is</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/video-suspect-fatally-shot-after-attacking-cop-2-others/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/video-suspect-fatally-shot-after-attacking-cop-2-others/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">all on film</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">: Ali struck the officer on the head, put him on the ground, and was preparing to attack again, when the officer, fired and killed the criminal, then rolled on the ground in pain from his own wounds. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Charleena Lyles (Row 3, figure 5), suffered from mental problems but was, apparently, able to care for three children who were at home at the time. Lyles called the police to investigate a burglary. In an audio of the call, two officer first calmly and dispassionately discuss what they know of the family, then for two minutes, talk with the woman about the alleged burglary, also in a calm and businesslike manner. Then suddenly, at the very end, you hear "Get back! Get back! Get back!" Then the firing of a weapon. Lyles was pregnant, the knife she was holding does not appear very substantial. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #292929; font-family: Merriweather, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #fefefe; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17.008px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, Helvetica, serif; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Lato, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Marcos Perea (Row 3, figure 6) walked into a care facility south of Seattle one morning early in 2016, and</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://q13fox.com/2016/02/20/murder-suspect-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-on-interstate-5-in-lakewood/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://q13fox.com/2016/02/20/murder-suspect-killed-in-officer-involved-shooting-on-interstate-5-in-lakewood/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">shot his 27-year-old girlfriend, who had recently taken out a restraining order against him.</span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> (The town of Lakewood is famous for the cold-blooded assasinat</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ion of four police officers in a coffee shop several years before.) Perea then led the police on a chase down I 5, which ended in a shootout with twelve officer</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">s from three departments, one tribal. The brother of the murdered nurse, Jessica Ortega, recalled:</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #3a3a3a; font-family: Merriweather, serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“She was all about her kids. She had just got into nursing and was the sister that always kept a smile on her face and always talked about the good things.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #201f1e; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">MiChance Dunlap-Gittens (Row 4, figure 1), was killed by undercover police in Burien, who suspected his friend of a hit-and-run killing a week before. It is alleged that Michance opened fire before being killed, but this is disputed by family, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit and were awarded more than $2 million. </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The exact sequence of events is hard to determine from press reports. </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #212121; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #212121; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Giovonn Joseph-McDade (Row 4, figure 2) was </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.kentreporter.com/news/city-of-kent-ready-to-vigorously-defend-police-department-in-civil-rights-lawsuit/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.kentreporter.com/news/city-of-kent-ready-to-vigorously-defend-police-department-in-civil-rights-lawsuit/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">allegedly trying to run over officer William Davis</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> when he was shot and killed by Davis. No alternative accounts of the shooting seem to be available. Joseph-McDade was a student at Green River College, and his friends find the police account hard to believe. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #212121; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cecil Chaney Tinker-Smith (Row 4, figure 3) was shooting off guns in what a neighbor who called police described as a threatening manner. Tinker-Smith was wanted for various drug infractions. After a long standoff with a SWAT team, in the evening Tinker-Smith opened fire on the police, and was killed by a shot to the head. </span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #212121; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dwight Steward (Row 4, figure 4) had served time for rape, robbery, and assault. Several people reported that he had pulled a gun on them. </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/jan/24/man-shot-by-police-idd-draws-attention-of-naacp/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/jan/24/man-shot-by-police-idd-draws-attention-of-naacp/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Spokane Spokesman reports</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">: </span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Steward was shot after he refused to obey orders to drop two knives he was holding while walking toward police near Andy’s Market on Monroe Street at about 4 p.m. Wednesday, according to court documents.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">
<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Officers found six knives and a machete on Steward, court documents stated.</span></div>
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<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Police received a call at 3:43 p.m. from a man who said Steward pulled a gun on him and his friend, according to court documents. A woman also called police and said Steward had pulled a gun on her husband.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">
<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Officers located Steward between Andy’s Market and the Franz Bakery Outlet. They ordered Steward to get on the ground, but he pu</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">lled two knives from his waistband and approached officers. Officers fired six bullets, according to court documents, and two may have hit Andy’s Market."</span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hussein Hassan (5, 5) was allegedly killed</span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/08/washington-state-muslim-attacks-police-officer-with-sword" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/08/washington-state-muslim-attacks-police-officer-with-sword"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> while attacking a police officer with a sword in Kennewick</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">: </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Hussein Hassan, 46, of Kennewick, was walking on Olympia Street near 10th Avenue with the sword about 6:30 p.m. Witnesses said he seemed to be trying to hide the weapon with a newspaper.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"When Kennewick Officer Jason Kiel got out of his car to talk with him, Hassan charged and started hitting Kiel in the head with the sword.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Just then, a second officer, Joshua Kuhn arrived. Kiel managed to pull back and both policemen drew their weapons and fired at Hassan.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Hassan was taken to Trios Southridge Hospital, where he died, said a police news release. Kiel suffered a head injury and was treated at Trios and later released."</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Hassan was a Somali refugee who apparently had had mental health problems, though </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://keprtv.com/news/local/former-student-of-man-shot-and-killed-by-kpd-officers-speaks-out" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://keprtv.com/news/local/former-student-of-man-shot-and-killed-by-kpd-officers-speaks-out"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">he had helped refugees in Kenya in the past</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. Officer Kiel's injury required 17 stiches. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 26px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">D'Angelo Davis (5, 6) was shot by Tukwila police (near Sea Tac airport) in a shootout after </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="http://seattlemedium.com/constantine-orders-inquest-into-fatal-police-shooting-of-armed-robbery-suspect-in-tukwila/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="http://seattlemedium.com/constantine-orders-inquest-into-fatal-police-shooting-of-armed-robbery-suspect-in-tukwila/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">an alleged armed robbery at a Cash and Carry food store</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://usgunviolence.wordpress.com/2013/12/07/killed-man-tukwila-wa/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://usgunviolence.wordpress.com/2013/12/07/killed-man-tukwila-wa/"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Another account</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> offers a few more details: </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"At around 7:30 p.m. an employee inside Cash & Carry called 911 whispering that there was a robbery in progress. </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The employee called 911 while the robber took the manager to the back of the store to get money. </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Several officers rushed to the scene as the armed robber was walking out of the store. Tukwila Police say the suspect’s gun was visible. Gunshots rang out but police at this time are not sure which side fired first. The suspect died on the scene."</span></div>
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In a sympathetic account in </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;">Crosscut</i></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">, Eugene Nelson (5, 7), a convert to Islam, is described from his brother's point of view as a giving young man who had just lost his mother and others close to him. However, the account describes his death as follows: </span></div>
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<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Lora, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"According to the Kent police department, he had approached his ex-girlfriend’s business in a Kent strip mall, violating a no-contact order set as the result of a fourth-degree domestic violence assault charge. When confronted, the department says he fled in a stolen vehicle, dragging an officer and a police dog who tried to stop him. Two officers fired, killing Eugene.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"The officer and the dog sustained minor injuries.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Lora, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.6em; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Court records show there was a $25,000 warrant for Eugene's arrest; he’d swiped the keys from a BMW dealer when the manager wasn’t looking. It was another tick in a growing list of legal troubles for the 20-year-old, mostly theft charges and what his family describes as a complicated relationship with his ex-girlfriend."</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1c1c1c; font-family: Lora, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; line-height: 1.6em; margin-top: 20px;">
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Manuel Ellis (Line 5, figure 1) died in a case that is <a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/870005544/manuel-ellis-tacoma-man-died-in-police-custody-saying-he-can-t-breathe" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/04/870005544/manuel-ellis-tacoma-man-died-in-police-custody-saying-he-can-t-breathe">being billed, including by Tacoma mayor Victoria Woodards</a>, as a parallel to the George Floyd case. The police approached Ellis when they saw him trying to open the doors of occupied vehicles. The main parallels seem to be that Ellis also said "I can't breath" while being restrained by </span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">police. Methamphetamines were found in his blood: he had a record of drug abuse and mental illness. Woodards mentioned "longstanding racism," but no evidence was given that race was a factor in this homocide. An enlarged heart probably was. He allegedly assaulted an officer and struggled as he was held down. No weapon seems to have been used against him. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: inherit;">The second figure in line 5<span style="font-family: inherit;"> is not named, nor does a photograph of him appear. </span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Shaun Lee Fuhr (Line 5, figure 3) had reportedly been beating on his girlfriend for hours. He had a gun, and had grabbed their one-year old child. The mother was in hysterics as she called the police and begged for help (she had had a restraining order against her lover):</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“My baby's daddy has a gun. He's in the park. He shot in the park. He has my baby . . . I want my daughter. Please. She's only 1. Please I'm scared for her.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">A neighbor was impressed with the gentleness with which the police treated the young child after the shooting. The <a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://komonews.com/news/local/suspect-accused-of-beating-woman-abducting-baby-killed-by-officer-while-holding-infant" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://komonews.com/news/local/suspect-accused-of-beating-woman-abducting-baby-killed-by-officer-while-holding-infant">audio of the mother's call, and a video of the police action</a>, were released to the public. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #121212;">Tiffany Eubanks (Line 5, name four, no photograph) had been </span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/homeless-and-acting-erratically-tiffany-eubanks-died-in-yakima-wednesday-what-happened/article_bb70be76-e6d8-5621-856d-ff760e178ccf.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #121212; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/homeless-and-acting-erratically-tiffany-eubanks-died-in-yakima-wednesday-what-happened/article_bb70be76-e6d8-5621-856d-ff760e178ccf.html">staying recently at the Union Gospel Mission in Yakima</a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #121212;">. Sometimes she seemed friendly, sometimes agitated. She had been imprisoned for a month for assaulting an officer in Oregon. Suffering from drug addiction and mental problems, Eubanks was found weaving in and out of traffic in early June of this year. She became combative with medics, and was placed in the police car. She seems to have suffered a heart attack and died. Yakima County Coroner Jim Curtice explained: </span><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><br style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;" /><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #121212;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"</span></span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Curtice said a drug overdose could be a possible cause of death as well as excited delirium, a condition that can cause agitation, aggression, acute distress and sudden death,</span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span><a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3088378" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #605f5f; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">according to a paper</span></a><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></span><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">on the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website. It can be associated with drug use or mental illness."</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: #444444; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">While this case is still under investigation, there does not seem to be any evidence that Ms. Eubanks was killed by the police. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, Said Joquin (Line 5, figure 5) <a data-auth="NotApplicable" href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/man-shot-killed-by-lakewood-officer-after-lowering-his-arms-investigators-say/L2O3O7BKUBD7RLVGX65GX5FHTU/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/man-shot-killed-by-lakewood-officer-after-lowering-his-arms-investigators-say/L2O3O7BKUBD7RLVGX65GX5FHTU/">was shot at a traffic stop in Lakewood</a> (the city south of Tacoma where Maurice Clemmons had murdered four officers in 2009). The officer, Mike Wiley, said Joquin had been ordered to raise his hands, but claimed Joquin seemed to be reaching for a gun. Joquin's cousin apparently denies this is the case, and the family has filed a $25 million wrongful death suit. I can find little further information about Joquin: his friends deny the police report is credible, but I have found little further about any criminal background or lack thereof. </span></div>
<b style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Summary</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">All 27 named civilians killed by police gunfire either had weapons, or were perceived as having weapons. Two unarmed civilians died in police custody, apparently of a combination of drug abuse, heart trouble, and the stress of being arrested and struggling, or of being restrained. It does not appear that anyone used what would normally prove lethal force on either of them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of those with weapons, or thought to have weapons, eighteen had guns. Three of those cases seemed to have involved either a non-lethal "firearm" (an airsoft gun), or cases in which it remains unclear (at least, from what I could find) whether or not the suspects had guns at all. In one case the reporter records the police claim that the suspect was reaching for a gun, but does not say whether or not a gun was found, or whether or not the suspect had any criminal history. But fifteen cases seemed to clearly involve a suspect making threatening actions with a firearm, either against police or against civilians, sometimes both. About 16 of 27 suspects killed by police seem to have murdered or assaulted a civilian before being killed themselves, and seemed in danger of further violence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Aside from guns, suspects used other weapons perceived as potentially deadly: vehicles (3), knife (2), sword (1) machete (1), and a stout 5-foot club (1). In one of those cases, the knife, a close look at the weapon shows that it may not have been very formidable. The officers probably did not have time to carefully examine it before opening fire. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Five of the twenty-seven cases in which police clearly killed a suspect, could themselves be called suspect. All five seem to have involved an officer perceiving threat to his own life. It is hard to tell for sure, from news reports, how reasonable that perception was from the officer's point of view, or in some cases, objectively. Couldn't two officers disarm Ms. Lyles of her flimsy-looking knife? Or did it all happen too quickly to react in any other way? What really happened to Dunlap-Gittens? Did this 16 year old boy selling booze really have a weapon? Why did a 20 year old student at Green River College, or a visitor from North Carolina, die in traffic stops? It may be that the officers in one or more of these cases made deadly split-second errors. Did race play a role? Given overall statistics showing that white officers are not more likely to shoot black suspects, and given the lack of positive evidence for any racial motive, there is no reason to think it did in any one of these cases. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Police brutality" does not seem to explain these cases any more than racism. In most of these cases, violent police action was clearly warranted. In those five, available details are insufficient to judge. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 26px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; color: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What clearly did play a role was perceived danger and fear on the part of the police officer. Could such fear be alleviated with more training, or stricter hiring? Honestly, given the violence of American society, and the prevalence of weapons of all kinds, and the frequency with which civilians use violence against the police, I doubt any amount of training or screening will prevent occasional mistakes from being made. Parallel mistakes are made vastly more often on the operating table, in the classroom, in the corridors of political power, and in the news room. There must be some point of balance, beyond which stricter controls and more "fear of God" on the police, will result in far more harm than they bring good. The Ferguson Effect describes the harm to civilians that results when the police become less aggressive in patroling. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">So this poster does not support the central claim of Black Lives Matter, that the police are a grave threat to innocent, law-abiding citizens, except in the rarest of difficult cases. Nor is there a hint of evidence to support the claim that "Blue Lives Murder," spray-painted on a wall in Chaz. </span></div>
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If we go by facts, rather than images, the narrative of BLM collapses. I think we can safely assume that Washington State is not, in this regard, an anomale. </div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-56780926165556011802020-06-05T14:48:00.000-07:002020-06-05T14:48:24.120-07:00Thank a Cop Campaign! <div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="a1rfs" data-offset-key="9h623-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="9h623-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I seldom do this, but I'm going to ask for your help. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="eus53-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Every day, the police stand up for us. Now, with millions of Americans being whipped into a frenzy of hatred, with police being physically attacked, and frankly with the future of our nation on the line, it is time for us to stand up for them. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4gpe8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Please help my call for a "Thank the Police" campaign go viral. Please <a href="https://stream.org/thank-you-officers/">share my most recent article at The Stream</a>, if you recognize the truth of what I'm saying. If you want to put it in your own words, or add some qualification of your own, of course that's cool, too. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bthck-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">It is when the crowd goes mad, with pitchforks and fire, that we have the chance to stand up like men and women and do what is right. Thank you, too. </span></div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-37783784242458159962020-06-03T09:36:00.001-07:002020-06-03T09:46:18.588-07:00Does History Doom African Americans? <div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
A Facebook friend (JW) offered the following argument about the impact of history upon African-Americans. He argues that even if America is not overtly racist today, the evils of the past are bound to continue adversely impacting the black community. This sounds reasonable, at first glance, though I think the argument needs to be made more clear, and ultimately I don't think it explains America's social and ideological problems very well. </div>
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I'll try to clarify six points in JW's comments first, then briefly consider whether historical injustices really do explain modern problems in the African-American community.<br />
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If you ask me what right I have to offer my opinion about this subject, well it is my country being trashed right now in the name of racial justice. So the question is forced upon us all, even if we are not sociologists or African-Americans. Plus some of these questions are related to the fields of history and inter-cultural understanding on which I may have insights. The present climate of hysteria and hate in America certain demands critical and fair thinking, especially from Christians. But I'll try to recognize my limits. <br />
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<b>I. JW's Thought-Experiment</b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">"This is <u>an unsettling thought to consider: some would like to think that the United States doesn't (anymore) have a systemic problem of racism</u>.(1) That is, <u>there may still be some (many?) individuals with racist tendencies or beliefs</u>, (2) but <u>society as a whole is color-blind and each person has the same opportunities and protections as everyone else. (3) </u></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">"But when you consider that racism has been part of American society from the very beginning, when you consider that economics (from t<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">he lucrative slave trade to redlining), law (from slave ownership to Jim Crow) and culture (the Lost Cause narrative, p<u>ublic commemoration of slave-holders and Confederate officers,(4)</u> etc.) <u>have all actively created and sustained racism for centuries</u>,(5) you <u>have to ask how likely it is that the systemic problems we face today do not have racist dimensions</u>. (6)</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">"History leaves its mark. Society today is the product of institutions and events of the past. And in the American ca<span style="font-family: inherit;">se, those institutions and events heavily involved slavery and racism."</span></span></b></div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">II. Preliminary Problems </b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">1. </span><b>Biases</b><span style="color: #1d2129;">. Let me first question the premise that this line of reasoning is "unsettling." I suspect it supports rather than upsets the political worldview of the person making this argument. It also tends to support, for instance, those demanding reparations for slavery, the protesters, the Democratic Party establishment, and even moderate conservatives like George W. Bush. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The point behind calling this line of reasoning "unsettling" seems to be rhetorical, to predispose the reader to boldly consider the point the writer wishes him to believe. It is also seems to be implied that opposition to that argument may be emotional and self-serving. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Which, indeed, it might be. But biases may lie on both sides, and should be recognized where they lie. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2. <b>Racism vs. Love</b>. I also question the assumption, so common that it is not even questioned, that "racism" should be the sole or primary criterion of justice. (And, perhaps, that racism is how white people see blacks, not how blacks may see Koreans, Irish, or some other group.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The present American obsession with the sin of racism strikes me simplistic, dangerous, and sub-Christian. Jesus told us to "Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself." It is true, to explain what that meant he gave the example of the Good Samaritan, a person who cared for a stranger of another nation along the side of the road. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But while it had a racial component, the conflict between Jews and Samaritans seems to have been primarily ideological and cultural rather than racial per se. One could convert to the God of Israel, have a minor operation (as a male), and become a Jew. The two groups (related in blood) were at odds, as human groups often are, whether divided by grade, sex, race, neighborhood, natiosn, football team, clan, philosophical school, political party, or any of the hundreds of other ways in which human beings team up and face off. Jesus' point was clearly broader than any one of those divisions: your neighbor is whoever you meet, regardless how different in any category. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In addition, "love" here is a concrete act to an individual one meets. It is not a post on Facebook. For all we know, at home this Samaritan insulted Jews like Archie Bunker. Maybe those scornful words were wrong, even "racist," but Jesus didn't talk about them, he talked about how the Samaritan acted. His point is that his followers are to love those we meet. While the word "racism" is useful in a few narrow contexts, the term is broad, underdefined, and is most often used much like a brick through a storefront window, to attack the "Other," rather than to think clearly about degrees of good and evil. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus' vocabulary -- Love God, love your neighbor as yourself -- is far more challenging, covers everyone and every situation, and cannot so easily be used as an excuse for exploiting others or to excuse one's own wrong actions. I think as Christians we should prefer this richer vocabulary and deeper moral philosophy -- and so should everyone else. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: inherit;">3. <b>Color-blind society?</b> Is it true that "S</span>ociety as a whole is color-blind and each person has the same opportunities and protections as everyone else?"</div>
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I don't think it is. It seems rather that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/09/19/the-discrimination-in-college-admissions-nobody-is-talking-about/#7338e3d9658c">European and Asian Americans need higher SAT scores to get into top universities,</a> for instance. That doesn't sound color-blind. I suspect the same justified racial discrimination occurs in many woke capitalist companies and in Democratic administrations. </div>
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This is a racial injustice which I think America does presently accept, but should not. </div>
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<b>4. Should we remember George Washington? </b> Thomas Jefferson? Robert E. Lee? Plato? JW appears to think that they should all resign in disgrace from their pedestals in our collective minds, with his comments about "<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">p<u>ublic commemoration of slave-holders and Confederate officers."</u></span></span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I do agree that we should not commemorate anyone who is famous <i>for </i>slave-trading. And heroes like William Wilberforce and Harriot Beecher Stowe, like those<a href="https://christthetao.blogspot.com/2011/10/abolition-of-slavery-early-years.html"> I recognize here</a>, should be remembered warmly for their contributions against slavery. But it strikes me as fanatical to use this one yardstick alone to measure everyone in the past. George Washington was a man of his time, nor ours. He is beloved as the "father of our nation," who led America in war against the world's most powerful nation and won, then helped establish America as a democracy by serving as president for two terms. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">If JW thinks we should take his face off the quarter because he owns slaves, that is sad indeed. Socrates, too, deserves his status in our memories. The Union armies were not so narrow-minded as to fail to recognize the valor of Robert E Lee, despite his faults, and I see no reason why we should be more narrow-minded than the generation that shed its blood to liberate the slaves. I fear JW will find few heroes from the past to remember, since aside from Jesus Christ, they were all sinners in one way or another. And that would be a loss, not only for their memory, but for the assumption that to be heroic, a person needs to be perfect. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>5. Begging the question?</b> I challenge the word "have" in this sentence, which implies that racism against African-Americans is still a serious problem in America. That is the matter yet to be proven. </span></div>
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<b>6. What?</b> "Y<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">ou have to ask how likely it is that the systemic problems we face today do not have racist dimensions." I am not sure what it means for a problem to "have racist dimensions." If it means, "People must be racist today because of past racism," I don't think that follows. Habits change. Nations of cannibals do not need to continue eating people. Nations with slaves can set them free. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">If it means, "America is impacted by the racism of the past," that is no doubt true, but vague and tautological. All major events of the past impact us in some ways, but often in surprising ways. The British Empire led to the colonization England by Pakistanis, for instance, </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">So I am not entirely sure what JW means, still less what he thinks we should do about it. But whatever we do, we should certainly be moved by the spirit of the Good Samaritan, in seeking the well-being of all whom we are given the chance to help. On that I'm sure we agree. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">Let's look at the overall question, now. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><b>II. Does History Doom African Americans? </b> </span></span><br />
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Really there are two or three questions here: sociological, anthropological, and historical. <br />
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First, what problems are African-Americans presently experiencing? (A)<br />
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Second, what would the "natural" state of any given cultural group be, aside from outside oppression? Can the problems in (A) be explained apart from said historical oppression, in part or in whole? (B)<br />
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Third, does past oppression by itself necessarily create such pathologies in a given culture? (C)<br />
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Any of these questions could serve as the basis for a dozen quarrelsome doctoral dissertations. I shall be simpler, more obvious, and brief.<br />
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<b>A. What problems do African-American experience?</b> I am not black, so some readers may find it presumptuous of me to try to answer this question. And, after all, many African-Americans live happy lives, succeeding in their businesses, families, and maybe even finding and expressing the love of God.<br />
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Still, this question is assumed in JW's comments, and must be addressed.<br />
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While murder rates have come down, there is a high rate of violent crime among young black males, still. About half the murders in America are committed by blacks, mostly young black males, mostly on other black males. A lot of this, of course, is what is called "gang-related."<br />
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Some 70% of African-American children are born to unwed mothers, last I checked. Since I believe marriage is vitally important for society, and because lack of a father in the family is terribly harmful to mothers and children, also to fathers themselves, I think that may be the most serious problem in modern African-American (and, increasingly, European-American and Hispanic) societies.<br />
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Finally, economists and sociologists will say wages and earnings are lower, while crime, obesity, and early deaths are higher, in the African-American community.<br />
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Such is my glib outside overview. I will not presume to say more, and am open to being educated on this subject by those who know this question from the inside better than I. <br />
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<b>B. What is the natural state of any given culture? Can the problems in (A) be explained apart from past oppression? </b><br />
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Cultures around the world vary widely in their attitudes towards violence, marriage, intoxication, pre-marital sex, cuisine (which also impacts health), and every other relevant issue. Here, for instance, is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate">the murder rate by nation</a>.<br />
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The highest murder rates are in Latin America, for instance 52 per 100,000 per year in El Salvador. Murder rates vary across the Americas, with Mexico at 29, Brazil is 27, the US 5, and Canada 1.76. Most of these countries contain a mix of nationalities, but Mexico and El Salvador contain few blacks or, I think, historic slaves. So it is unlikely that a past history of slavery explains those high murder rates. Though one could ascribe it to the later effects of imperialism, Asian countries with very low murder rates were also part of European empires.<br />
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Official murder rates in Africa vary wildly, from about one third of the US rate in Malawi and Cameroon, to twice the US rate in Nigeria, and seven times in South Africa. But overall, the rate of murder in Africa is listed at 12.5 /100,000. This is much higher than the US rate, but about half of the murder rate among African-Americans, and much lower also than that in Latin America.<br />
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Marriage has changed over time. From 1890 to 1970, <a href="https://blackdemographics.com/households/marriage-in-black-america/">both black men and women were more likely to be married than white men and women</a>. And marriage has fallen out of favor for whites, as well. <br />
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So the breakdown of the African-American family is a new development, evidently not caused by slavery or historical racism.<br />
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As for earnings, this, too, varies tremendously among cultures, specifically subcultures in the United States. By far <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income">the richest demographic in America are Indian Americans</a>, with a median household income of more than $132,000 in 2016. Presumably this is due to an influx of tech engineers. Apparently having dark skin is not too much of a liability for them. Number three is South Africans, who may be white or black, while 4th, 5th, and 8th are Taiwanese, Filipinos, and Singaporeans, 9th are Iranian-Americans, and tenth are people from Russia. At the bottom come Somalis, Domincans, Iraqis, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Bahamans, Ethiopians, Burmese, and Afghan-Americans. Family groups at the top earn 2-3 times those near the bottom.<br />
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Clearly, a history of slavery or even Jim Crow laws cannot explain these variations. Even white tribes vary greatly, from Australian Americans at $90,000, to Pennsylania German Americans at little more than half that. Some figures seem quite random. But I think if you checked the history of immigration, you would find that, for instance, educated Taiwanese are more likely to immigrate, while Afghans come more often as refugees and are more likely to come from non-professional classes.<br />
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There is even a great deal of variety among Native American tribes, from some that are very poor, to others that are doing pretty well.<br />
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Look around the world, and you find similar variety in earnings between countries, and between ethnic groups within specific countries.<br />
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So it is hard to believe that even in the complete absence of racism, families belonging to different sub-cultures will all earn a closely similar amount of money. Different cultures emphasize different goods (Ruth Benedict), constructing world views which entail quite different ways of relating to one another, to outsiders, to God, and to the pursuit of worldly goods.<br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">C. D</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>oes past oppression by itself necessarily create such pathologies in a given culture</b>? </span><br />
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Clearly not. And what appears to my outside perspective to be the chief problem in the African-American community, which arguably causes many of the others, the breakdown of the black family, has mostly occurred since the end of Jim Crow laws, and was clearly not caused by them, still less by slavery.<br />
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So yes, society is a product of past influences. But it appears that the worst of those influences is far more recent than slavery, and was sponsored by the ideological Left which blames them on something called "systemic racism."<br />
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I recognize that people of different races in America are not always kind to one another. We do not always act like the Good Samaritan. But I agree with Booker T. Washington, and even with Malcolm X, in thinking that in a generally free society (as America is), what we become chiefly depends on what we make of ourselves. And that is the real challenge for America today.<br />
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Let me recommend interested parties read Mona Charen's marvelous and sometimes painful <i>Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch with Science, Love, and Common Sense</i>. JW is right to look for past effects for the present causes: here, I think, is one of them. Welfare policy might be another, along with the other patronizing attempts to "help" that really hurt.<br />
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-7615572414827325602020-05-12T18:51:00.000-07:002020-05-30T08:32:30.332-07:00What Should We Do About "Racial Disparities?"<div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: #f0f2f5; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important;">
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I once subbed in a Middle School classroom to which a public librarian had been invited that day, to talk about books in her library about the Vietnam War. After she was finished, I asked, "Why were five out of six books you introduced less about Vietnam than about American racism and Vietnam?" She looked surprised: she hadn't even noticed. </div>
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Our friends on the Left talk a lot about race, even when the subject is war in Asia, or a pandemic from Asia that kills prejudicially by age, disability, lung condition, and sex, rather than race. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/">A wild-eyed article in the Atlantic </a>a few days ago, for instance, claimed that Donald Trump and the Republicans don't care about Covid-19 much because it mostly kills black and brown people! </div>
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<span style="color: #050505;">So I recently jumped, perhaps foolishly, into a conversation with a honest liberal Christian named Joshua Waldecker, about a black gentleman from Georgia named Ahmaud Arbery, who had been shot by two white men. The Atlantic article had taken that murder as emblematic of the general racist condition of the United States during a pandemic. So I asked the poster why, out of the thousands of murders in America, he chose to focus on that one. After all, the vast majority of murders in America are either of whites by whites, or of blacks by blacks. And more than twice as many European-Americans are murdered by African-Americans in a given year (at least 2018, according to the FBI), as the other way around, some 500 to some 230. So why focus on this particular case? I added: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #050505;">"Do people on the Left ever get tired of being yanked around like a dog on a leash, like that? I'm curious."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #050505;">Joshua offered four answers, the most interesting to me of which was: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #351c75;">"This is a paradigmatic example of the sorts of racist terrorism people of color talk about all the time. By publicizing it, we get a chance at a national conversation about it."</span></div>
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As my opening anecdote indicates, it seems to me that the Left has "been having a (one-sided) national conversation" about racism for decades now. That "conversation," or monologue, fills the education system and the media. Many of us on the Right were hoping that one good thing that might come of Obama's presidency, bad as it was in general, was that America could finally change the subject to something more important and interesting than skin pigmentation. </div>
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But wait! Joshua responded. What about all the "racial disparities" in America? Shouldn't Christians care deeply about the welfare of others? J confessed he felt dispirited to find so little sign of compassion among conservative (presumably white) Christians, for those of other races who are, presumably, suffering because of systematic racial inequalities in America. </div>
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I asked Joshua to explain what he meant by "racial disparities," and what moral obligations he believed we have in regard to them. I quote J's well-spoken, if I think misguided, explanation in blue below. </div>
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As someone who has lived most of my adult life cross-culturally, which means multi-racially, perhaps my response will be helpful to J, and other Americans who think like him. I hope J finds something of value in my response. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #050505;">JW: </span><span style="color: #0b5394;">"Racial disparities are disparities in health, wealth, education, wages, housing, etc., that fall along racial lines. I think all parties to the discussion should agree that such disparities, in an ideal world, wouldn’t exist.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">"What compels us to address them? Well, for starters I believe human beings, being the social animals we are, are responsible for one another in some capacity. There is no society without a social contract, and that contract compels us to care about others. Moreover, as Christians we’re compelled to care about others *as if they are ourselves* so the social contract Christians engage in is arguably even more extreme than the one embraced by many on the left. Yet Christians, at least white conservative evangelicals in the U.S., rarely want to talk about racial disparities and how to fix them. In fact, often times discussions like that are repudiated by conservative Evangelical leaders as some “Marxist-agenda.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">"Second, these disparities were caused by a long legacy of white supremacy. The history is rather clear on this and as a country we need to own up to that. The most common response to this is “that wasn’t me, why am I responsible?!” to which the answer is clear: the social contract and our countries legacy of white supremacy compels us. It doesn’t matter one iota if I am not personally responsible for Jim Crow or Red-Lining, my country is and therefore my country needs to right its wrongs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">"What’s perhaps less clear is what to do about it. This is where I would love to see more conversation, but frankly I don’t see Republicans talking about it much. Some, but not much. Mostly I see Republicans and conservatives complaining that Democrats use it as a means of polarization, propaganda, and attempts to secure the black vote. But it rarely seems to occur to them that Democrats tend to be the only ones saying we should address it, and often times Republicans are apathetic, dismissive, or even combative. So it’s no wonder black people by and large vote Democrats – they’re the only ones talking about how to solve racial disparities.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">"As for saying conservatives don’t care, of course with anything like this nuance is important. I don’t mean to say they literally don’t care that people are suffering. Many of them do. But generally there is little to no attempt to do anything about it. Yes, conservatives give more to charity than liberals, generally. I’ve seen the stats on that. But bear in mind that giving to a church doesn’t entail one is giving to causes to fight against racial disparities. Caring about charity and donating tithes to one’s local church, or regularly donating to the red cross, or Samaritans purse, etc., isn’t the same as saying these conservatives care about racial disparities and desire to see them fixed asap. And observing the political and religious efforts made by white conservative evangelical organizations and churches shows that combatting racial disparities as barely even on their radar – and in many cases, efforts are being made to thwart the lefts attempt to combat them (see: "THAT'S A MARXIST AGENDA!".</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">"Look at the very comments I’m replying to. You’ve stated that you don’t really care to discuss racial motivations in crimes, you’ve asked what a racial disparity even is, and you’ve questioned why we should feel responsible for fixing them (by putting “fix” in air quotes). This is what I’m talking about. This is the general reaction white evangelical Christians have to racial disparities, and it’s disheartening. As Christians we are *especially* called to combat injustices and make right the wrongs of past generations. Yet the vast majority of what I see from white conservative evangelicals is either apathy, or direct opposition to efforts made to combat racial disparities."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">DM: Thanks, Joshua. I think you err from the very beginning of your answer, and err profoundly. The facts that you think your first paragraph should be morally uncontroversial, and that you only seem a little aware of conservative ideas about improving the condition of African-Americans, actually give me hope that our conversation might prove fruitful. After all, if you KNEW the answers I was likely to give and dismissed them, there might not be anything more for us to talk about. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">I was not surprised to see, in your final paragraph, that you misread my questions a little. I didn't ask what racial disparity is, for instance. I asked you what YOU MEAN by the term. In order to understand an argument, one needs to know what meaning the person making it attaches to terms he employs. As I explain to my students, that's a first step in real dialogue, often over-looked, resulting in people arguing past one another. (Read or reread the dialogues of Socrates.) But you've answered that question, so let's focus on substantial issues raised by your explanation.</span><br />
<span style="white-space: normal;">I'll limit myself in this post to answering five preliminary questions, and save your main question, "What do conservatives think we should do?" for another day. Apparently you've read Thomas Sowell, so you might have more ideas about that than you mentioned. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;"><b>1. Would racial disparities exist in an ideal world? </b></span><br />
<span style="white-space: normal;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #0b5394; white-space: normal;">"Racial disparities are disparities in health, wealth, education, wages, housing, etc., that fall along racial lines. I think all parties to the discussion should agree that such disparities, in an ideal world, wouldn’t exist.</span></div>
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To be honest, it is hard for me to understand what an argument which talks about "racial housing disparities" in an "ideal world" even means, still less what that imaginary ideal should entail for those of us who inhabit this world. </div>
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In C. S. Lewis' <i>Out of the Silent Planet,</i> three unfallen races coinhabit the Planet Mars. None of them are fallen races. But they have adapted to different niche environments. Sorns live in caves, hrossa inhabit huts, I don't remember what sort of houses pfifletriggi live in. Granted, these are different species. But traveling through minority regions of China, I have also observed that different tribes live in a variety of homes. Often people in poorer areas had bigger houses than the richer city-dwellers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Dais lived here; bigger than apartments in Tokyo.</td></tr>
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To me, among humans, cultural differences are more important than racial differences. I don't know why, in a perfect world, people of different cultures would all live in the same kinds of houses of the same sizes in the same neighborhoods. That sounds more like a dystopic than a utopia to me. Indeed, it sounds a lot like the huge apartment complexes in Chinese cities. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOQMj18dYBBsEpO-PwAgfpJYLR12DCLCsNF7b5oa9Bo2fp1JO9eLZ4tJ6ZfZUYIxymb1zazMYqrV7BOdMsc2_j0bzKq3RSdxHVKgwD2iq_iiorFfLatYcb0f7LvJ0N9sQ9oJcf/s1600/25+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="1148" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOQMj18dYBBsEpO-PwAgfpJYLR12DCLCsNF7b5oa9Bo2fp1JO9eLZ4tJ6ZfZUYIxymb1zazMYqrV7BOdMsc2_j0bzKq3RSdxHVKgwD2iq_iiorFfLatYcb0f7LvJ0N9sQ9oJcf/s320/25+%25282%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Why do Tibetans get such big monasteries?</td></tr>
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So whatever Joshua thinks we "should" all agree upon, I see no reason to agree with this fundamental assumption. Except that in an ideal world no one might die at all, so everyone might be equal in health.<br />
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Am I trivializing the poor health from which some minorities suffer? In America, health is closely correlated to life-style choices: diet, smoking, drinking, family, and exercise. These choices differ between ethnic groups. If some people choose to eat fatty or sugary foods, or fail to exercise, while the Japanese, for instance, eat steamed vegetables and fish, what are outsiders supposed to do about that? It's not my business to tell people of other ethnic groups what to eat or how often to work out. Taxpayers already subsidize low-income health care, certainly in my state. One might argue that people ought to keep in shape, for the good of their loved ones, and even for the financial well-being of the taxpayer. But it seems unfair to first ding the taxpayer for his negligent neighbor's health bill, then criticize him for not just forking his income over wholesale.<br />
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<b>2. In a just society, should we expect equality of outcome among people of different races? </b></div>
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This is Joshua's fundamental assumption. But I can see little warrant for it, and many reasons against it:<br />
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a. Equality is, at best, a rare phenomenon in Nature. Stars aren't equal. Planets aren't equal. Mountains differ in minerals, shape, and size. Animals are strikingly unequal. Fish are a byword for inequality, and flowers for variety. </div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">b. As Steven Pinker points out, the conditions that normally create equality in human society are disasters like war, famine, tyranny, and economic collapse. Thus you're more likely to find equality in North Korea than in San Francisco. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">c. Race is, as I implied, often a cipher for culture. I am skeptical of claims that some races are smarter than others. I find great variety among people of all races whom I meet, not only by some theoretical fixed and standard metric called "IQ," but by the many forms of intelligence, some of which I would claim myself, others of which I doubt I possess to any striking degree. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">But as Ruth Benedict shows so well in <i>The Patterns of Culture</i>, and as I have seen, living in many different cultures over the years, human beings collectively form worldviews which lay stress on different goods. Some cultures are more hard-driving, others easy-going. Some encourage strict celibacy, others allow for a good bit of sleeping around. In some cultures, working 9-5 is bare minimum, while in others, such long hours seem crazy, quality time at the beach with one's family is far more important than a few numbers in one's bank account. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">This is one reason why China has become much wealthier per capita than Thailand, since I first when to Asia. (Thailand was far wealthier, when I first arrived.) Talk to either Chinese or Thais, and they will tell you the same thing: the Chinese culture is more hard-driving than the mellower Thai culture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: normal;">The natural state of society is inequality. Add in differing cultures, and variety is bound to increase. Of course, as J points out, that one finds such a situation in Nature need not settle the matter for Christians. But what it does settle is Joshua's third point: </span><br />
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<span style="white-space: normal;"><br /><b>3. Are disparities between races, or cultures, necessarily caused by the sin of the wealthier or more powerful group? </b></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">J seems to assume this as an undeniable fact: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">"Second, these disparities were caused by a long legacy of white supremacy. The history is rather clear on this and as a country we need to own up to that."</span></div>
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I think Joshua is confusing three assertions here, which need to be kept distinct:
3a. Have European-Americans often oppressed African-Americans in the past? As J notes, the answer is unambiguous: "Of course they have."
3b. Was that oppression immoral? Again, "Of course it was." As was oppression by every group that oppressed - as every group has oppressed. </div>
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3c. Are present "racial disparities" necessarily caused by a particular pattern of past oppression? </div>
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That's our question. And there are many problems with an affirmative answer. I am troubled, indeed, that an ernest and intelligent Christian like J seems not to have considered any of them before. </div>
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First, as I pointed out above, one can expect disparities to arise between people of different cultures. Such differences are an empirical and almost universal fact, in every country on earth inhabited by people of more than one culture. I observed such disparities while living with the tribal peoples of Taiwan (and between people of different tribes, the Ami and the Taya, for instance), and among Native Americans, even between Hong Kong Chinese and Chinese in Taiwan.</div>
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Second, some of these disaparities are to the advantage of the minority: Chinese in Indonesia or Malaysia, Jews in Germany or New York, and so forth. </div>
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Third, oppression by the majority is often wielded not to keep a minority from becoming equal, but to make the majority more equal to a thriving and successful minority. Jews thriving economically despite centuries of often harsh oppression. Chinese suffered much in Malaysia and Indonesia where they became rich due to their cultural values of hard work, family, education, and saving money. </div>
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Fourth, look at this chart of income by racial group in the US from Wikipedia. Does "white supremacy" explain much of it?
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<ol style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 3.2em; padding: 0px; white-space: normal;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Indian American">Indian American</a> (2016) : $120,026 <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-0" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Australian American">Australian American</a> (2016) : $90,930<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-0" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="South African American">South African American</a> (2017) : $90,517<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-1" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Taiwanese American">Taiwanese American</a> (2016) : $90,221<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-1" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipino_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Filipino American">Filipino American</a> (2016) : $84,620<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-2" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Austrian American">Austrian American</a> (2016) : $80,717<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-2" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="British American">British American</a> (2016) : $79,872<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-3" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singaporean_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Singaporean American">Singaporean American</a> (2016) $79,852<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-4" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Iranian American">Iranian American</a> (2017) : $78,005<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-5" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Russian American">Russian American</a> (2016): $77,841<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-6" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Japanese American">Japanese American</a> (2016): $77,504<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-3" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Bulgarian American">Bulgarian American</a> (2016): $76,862<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-7" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Lithuanian American">Lithuanian American</a> (2016) : $76,694<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-8" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Israeli American">Israeli American</a> (2016) : $76,584 <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-9" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovene_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Slovene American">Slovene American</a> (2016) : $75,940<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-10" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Malaysian American">Malaysian American</a> (2016): $72,827<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-4" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Americans" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Nigerian Americans">Nigerian Americans</a> (2016) : $75,864<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-11" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Lebanese American">Lebanese American</a> (2016): $75,337<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-12" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Chinese American">Chinese American</a> (2016): $74,764<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-5" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Croatian American">Croatian American</a> (2016): $73,991<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-13" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Sri Lankan American">Sri Lankan American</a>: $73,856<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-14" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Scandinavian American">Scandinavian American</a> (2016): $73,797<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-15" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Belgian American">Belgian American</a> (2016) : $73,443<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-16" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Serbian American">Serbian American</a> (2016) : $73,028<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-17" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Swiss American">Swiss American</a> (2016) : $72,823<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-18" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Italian American">Italian American</a> (2016) : $72,586<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-19" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ukrainian American">Ukrainian American</a> (2016): $72,449 <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-20" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Romanian American">Romanian American</a> (2016): $72,381<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-21" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Greek American">Greek American</a> (2016): $72,291<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-22" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Scottish American">Scottish American</a> (2016): $71,925<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-23" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Indonesian American">Indonesian American</a> : $71,616<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-24" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Danish American">Danish American</a> (2016) : $71,550<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-25" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Swedish American">Swedish American</a> (2016): $71,217<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-26" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Polish American">Polish American</a> (2016): $71,172<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-27" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavic_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Slavic American">Slavic American</a> (2016) : $71,163<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-28" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Norwegian American">Norwegian American</a> (2016): $71,142<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-29" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Canadian American">Canadian American</a> (2016) : $70,809<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-30" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Welsh American">Welsh American</a> (2016): $70,351<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-31" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Czech American">Czech American</a> (2016) : $70,454<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-32" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechslovakia" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Czechslovakia">Czechslovakian American</a> (2016) : $70,084<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-33" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Finnish American">Finnish American</a> (2016) : $70,045<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-34" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Hungarian American">Hungarian American</a> (2016): $69,515<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-35" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Canadian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="French Canadian American">French Canadian American</a> (2016) : $68,075<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-36" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Portuguese American">Portuguese American</a> (2016): $67,807<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-37" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="English American">English American</a> (2016) : $67,663<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-38" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Thai American">Thai American</a> : $67,633<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-6" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovak_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Slovak American">Slovak American</a> (2016) : $67,471<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-39" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Armenian American">Armenian American</a> (2016): $67,450<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-40" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="German American">German American</a> (2016): $67,306<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-41" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Irish American">Irish American</a> (2016) : $66,688<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-42" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghanaian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ghanaian American">Ghanaian American</a> (2016): $66,571<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-43" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Turkish American">Turkish American</a> (2016) : $66,566<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-44" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistani_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Pakistani American">Pakistani American</a> (2016) : $65,389<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-7" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Korean American">Korean American</a> (2016) : $65,186<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-8" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Palestinian American">Palestinian American</a> (2016): $65,170<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-45" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Egyptian American">Egyptian American</a> (2016) : $64,728<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-46" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Vietnamese American">Vietnamese American</a> : $64,191<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-9" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Scotch-Irish American">Scotch-Irish American</a> (2016) : $64,187<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-47" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Yugoslavia">Yugoslavian American</a> (2016) : $63,765<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-48" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Dutch American">Dutch American</a> (2016) : $63,597<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-49" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="French American">French American</a> (2016) : $63,471<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-50" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Syrian American">Syrian American</a> (2016): $63,096<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-51" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepali_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Nepali American">Nepali American</a> : $62,848<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2014_4-0" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2014-4" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[4]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-5" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[5]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Albanian American">Albanian American</a> (2016) : $62,624<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-52" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyanese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Guyanese American">Guyanese American</a> (2016) : $60,968<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-53" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Nigerian American">Bahamian American</a> (2016): $60,732<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-54" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="West Indian American">British West Indian American</a> (2016): $60,407<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-55" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Cambodian American">Cambodian American</a> : $60,192<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-56" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laotian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Laotian American">Laotian American</a> : $58,130<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-57" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Cuban American">Cuban American</a> : $57,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-PewHispanic_6-0" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-PewHispanic-6" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[6]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="West Indian American">West Indian American</a> : $56,998<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-58" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Brazilian American">Brazilian American</a> (2016): $56,151<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-59" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbadian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Barbadian American">Barbadian American</a> : $56,078<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-60" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Americans" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Argentine Americans">Argentine American</a>: $55,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-auto_7-0" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-auto-7" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[7]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Cajun American">Cajun American</a> : $52,886<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-61" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Jamaican American">Jamaican American</a> (2016): $52,669<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-62" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidadian_and_Tobagonian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Trinidadian and Tobagonian American">Trinidadian and Tobagonian American</a> : $55,303<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-63" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moroccan_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Moroccan American">Moroccan American</a> (2016) : $52,436<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-64" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peruvian_Americans" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Peruvian Americans">Peruvian Americans</a> : $52,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-65" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Americans">Unclassified Americans</a> (2016): $51,601<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-66" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordanian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Jordanian American">Jordanian American</a> (2016): $51,552<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-67" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="German American">Pennsylvania German American</a> (2016): $48,955<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-68" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuadorian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Ecuadorian American">Ecuadorian American</a> : $49,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-69" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_Americans" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Colombian Americans">Colombian American</a> : $48,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-auto_7-1" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-auto-7" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[7]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Haitian American">Haitian American</a> (2016): $47,990<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-70" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Verdean_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Cape Verdean American">Cape Verdean American</a> (2016) : $47,281<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-71" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladeshi_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Bangladeshi American">Bangladeshi American</a> : $47,252<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-72" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac American">Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac American</a> (2016): $44,733<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-73" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Afghan American">Afghan American</a> : $43,838<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-74" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080;" title="">Ethiopian American</a>:(2016) $42,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-75" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Burmese American">Burmese American</a> : $41,357<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-76" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rican_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Puerto Rican American">Puerto Rican American</a> : $40,064<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-asian2016_2-10" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-asian2016-2" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[2]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Mexican American">Mexican American</a>: $40,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-auto_7-2" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-auto-7" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[7]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Iraqi American">Iraqi American</a> : $38,000<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-auto_7-3" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-auto-7" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[7]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Dominican American">Dominican American</a> (2016) : $32,818<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-77" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somali_American" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Somali American">Somali American</a> (2016): $18,756<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-byancestry_3-78" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-byancestry-3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[3]</a></sup></li>
</ol>
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<span class="mw-headline" id="By_Native_American_tribe_grouping">By Native American tribe grouping</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 1em; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color: #54595d; margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income&action=edit&section=3" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Edit section: By Native American tribe grouping">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color: #54595d; margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></h2>
<ol style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; list-style-image: none; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 3.2em; padding: 0px; white-space: normal;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickasaw" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Chickasaw">Chickasaw</a> : $49,963<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-0" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choctaw" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Choctaw">Choctaw</a> : $47,783<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-1" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Natives" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Alaska Natives">Alaska Natives</a> : $47,401<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-2" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscogee" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Muscogee">Creek</a> : $41,897<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-3" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Iroquois">Iroquois</a> : $40,471<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-4" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Cherokee">Cherokee</a> : $37,730<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-5" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfeet" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Blackfeet">Blackfeet</a> : $37,033<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-6" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chippewa" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Chippewa">Chippewa</a> : $34,463<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-7" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumbee" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Lumbee">Lumbee</a> : $33,863<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-8" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_people" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Navajo people">Navajo</a> : $31,057<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-9" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sioux" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Sioux">Sioux</a> : $29,079<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-10" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Apache">Apache</a> : $28,745<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NA2014_8-11" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income#cite_note-NA2014-8" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;">[8]</a></sup></li>
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If "white oppression" is the explanation for why non-whites are poorer on average than whites, then what explains this complexity? Why do Nigerian Americans make four times as much as Somali Americans? Of course one might say that immigrants permitted into the US are more likely to have professional skills and be wealthy, and their children will inherit those advantages. But that's also a cultural explanation, which shows how marginally valuable "white oppression" has become as an explanation for "disparity" in modern America. </div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;"><b>4. What moral implications should we draw from these disparities? </b></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">I think we should avoid two simplistic extremes. One would be to say income is a simple proxy for moral value. People who learn such virtues as Max Weber praised, work hard, save, marry one person and stay married, raise children together within that relationship, will be far more likely to succeed in life than the children of "welfare queens." But "getting ahead" in life is not the only value, and it is not irrational to stress other goals, such as enjoying a good party late at night with close friends, or relaxing on the beach, or being generous to family members in need. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">So there is a moral component to these differences, but the relationship is not simple. It is a mistake both to ignore than moral component, and to forget Jesus' warning of the dangers of pursuing wealth. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;"><b>5. Is it moral to level economic outcomes? </b></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">Suppose Family A comes from a Confucian background which emphasizes education, hard work, and savings. Books are read. Suppose Family B is more laid-back, and some members imbibe in certain substances. The TV is always on.<br /><br />Suppose A gains a family income of $150,000, while B barely manages to bring in $50,000. After taxes and government support, these numbers are $100,000 and $60,000.</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">Let me propose that at that point, to further redistribute taxes to make these two families exactly equal in outcome, would be grossly immoral. It would also have four harmful effects: (a) it would take incentive away from A to work; (b) it would teach B to be lazy; (c) it would ruin the economy and make the whole nation much poorer; and (d) furthermore, I assert that it would contradict the teachings of the Bible (Proverbs, for instance), of Aesop, and be immoral. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">So no, I don't think it would be ethical to try to end "disparities" in income. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">However, as a typical conservative, I do believe in a modest safety net. I don't object to A paying more taxes than B, or B receiving some subsidies from the government. (Though I am deeply concerned about our federal deficit, but that's another issue.) If B is handicapped, that's even more understandable. And if B stands in real need, A would be right to voluntarily offer more help. </span><br />
<span style="white-space: normal;">But now we are beginning to edge towards a sixth question, which I do not plan to answer in detail today: </span><br />
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<span style="white-space: normal;"><b>(6) What do Christian conservatives propose, then, to help improve the lives of African_Americans and other ethnic groups which are poorer? </b></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">This is Joshua's main question. But since I have critiqued many of his underlying presuppositions, which he seemed to think unassailable, I'm not sure we're ready for that question, yet. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: normal;">I will say, though, that I admire Booker T. Washington (maybe even Malcolm X) more than Martin Luther King. And I think the former two gentlemen would understand the conservative view of self-help better than King, or the Democratic Party which panders to those who too readily admires him. I think the conservative approach is more effective as well as more moral than the approach which the Democratic Party has promoted for many years. </span></div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-53848636596576140462020-04-26T12:34:00.001-07:002020-05-02T14:06:14.134-07:00No, the Shutdowns Are Not "Pointless" <a href="http://www.rnningfool.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/FS_CautionSlipperyWhenWet__08458.1332953704.1000.1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="See the source image" border="0" src="http://www.rnningfool.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/FS_CautionSlipperyWhenWet__08458.1332953704.1000.1000.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">A controversial radio host named Bryan Fischer argues that <a href="https://www.afa.net/the-stand/culture/2020/04/shutdowns-were-pointless-all-along/?fbclid=IwAR3k_vK6Kx3mMPm_PeGPffzEgMnW9QdhH57czglvhkNilvI5q1CxQBPi0I4#.XqC2pKlqEqF.facebook">"Shutdowns were pointless all along." </a> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Citing Yitzhak Ben Israel, an Israeli general with a background in physics, math, and philosophy</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">,</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Fischer argues that the coronavirus comes and goes in its own mysterious time, and will work its evil magic no matter what we do. Italy suffered badly because of its poor health system. Sweden is doing about the same as America, even though they have not shut their economy down as we have. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVkStdc9ZgSgCm0UcZOK0_VcKUYzEPFcNz2LHjMiLLnf3WDfPPK-0BI6hGBqK84Yb0_6I3REhBQVSnFacfR6q2d7HHXGSMjSdjizjM19g1mwFOgdE8Cenhdc-WkeawYXLFxMcV7Q/s1600/Picture+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="See the source image" border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVkStdc9ZgSgCm0UcZOK0_VcKUYzEPFcNz2LHjMiLLnf3WDfPPK-0BI6hGBqK84Yb0_6I3REhBQVSnFacfR6q2d7HHXGSMjSdjizjM19g1mwFOgdE8Cenhdc-WkeawYXLFxMcV7Q/s200/Picture+3.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our sacrifice has all been in vain! Claims Fischer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I would argue, rather, that if this article is anything to go by, Fischer's BA degree in philosophy at Stanford University was in vain. And for all the mistakes they have made, our present leaders are not the worst possible leaders, giving the worst possible advice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fischer fails to cite those he differs with much. By contrast, I will quote his entire article, word-for-word, and give a blow-for-blow description of where it goes wrong. (Seventeen points in total.) </span><br />
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<span data-contrast="auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: inherit;">"President Trump wisely has taken his first steps to reopen America, and has just as wisely reminded the nation’s governors that the ball is in their court.1 This is not just wise, it’s brilliant: if people are torqued at government restrictions, they will not have the president to blame. Their beef will be with their governors and their governors alone."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Trump first said the timing for reopening was entirely his decision. After he said that, it seems, one of his advisors opened up the Constitution and showed him that it wasn't. </span></div>
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<span data-contrast="auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">"I’ve argued from the beginning of this manufactured crisis that far more damage will be done by the panic (2) than by the virus. It turns out I was right. And now a prominent Israeli professor (3) is confirming what I have said all along."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2. People of Fischer's ilk tend to use the word "panic" to refer to "taking strong measures to stop the spread of Covid-19." Of course that's not the normal meaning of the word. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">3. The word "professor" doesn't tell us anything about the man's expertise.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"Yitzhak Ben Israel of Tel Aviv University, who is on the research and advisory board for one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world (Teva) (4), has concluded that all the lockdowns, all the shutdowns, all the closing of churches, schools, beaches, businesses, restaurants, and parks was nothing more than economy-destroying madness. It has all been unnecessary because </span><a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/marinamedvin/2020/04/15/israeli-professor-shows-virus-follows-fixed-pattern-n2566915" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;" target="_blank"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">coronavirus runs its own course</span></a><span data-contrast="auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"> no matter what governments do or do not do."(5)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4. Being on a board does not make one an expert in a relevant field, which Israel does not seem to be. Beware of slippery writers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">5. "Run its own course no matter what governments do or do not do." That's the closest we have come so far to a thesis statement. What does "run its own course" mean? Keep an eye on that slippery shell. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"Professor Ben Israel plotted the rates of new coronavirus infections in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Spain -<u> the countries that most resemble the United States in culture and governing structure.</u>(6) He discovered an amazing and even astounding thing. It didn’t matter whether a country pursued a severe incarceration-in-place policy like Israel, or <u>went about business as usual like Sweden,</u>(7) coronavirus followed precisely the same pattern. In the words of columnist Medina Melvin of Townhall,</span><span data-contrast="auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"> “</span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">coronavirus peaked and subsided in the exact same way. In the </span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">exact, same, way</span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">.”(8)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"Dr. Ben Israel’s research showed that all countries experienced identical patterns of disease progression. Infections grew steadily, even exponentially, until they peaked in the sixth week, and began to rapidly subside by the eighth week."</span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6. If the virus doesn't care about government policies, why does it care about governing structure or culture? Or is Fischer playing a confidence game here to exclude countries that quickly and effectively shut Covid-19 down? Why not New Zealand? Or Taiwan? Or South Korea, which is also democratic, entrepreneurial, and advanced? (True, a more relevant commonality between these three nations is that they are all islands, or effective islands, but Fischer doesn't mention that.) </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7. Sweden hasn't entirely "gone about its business as usual." That's a simplification of their policies. </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8. Again, what does "in the exact, same, way" mean, exactly? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Does it mean: (a) Epidemics rise exponentially, then begin to flatten into linear growth, plateau, then drop slowly, then rapidly? Or (b) No matter what government does, the same percentage of people will get sick and die? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The first is trivial, and irrelevant to Fischer's thesis, which is that it doesn't matter what government does. Who cares what the shape of the curse is? We care how high it gets, and whether lots of people live or die. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But it is certainly not true that the virus "followed precisely the same pattern" in sense (b). The death rate in Sweden, for instance, has so far been six times that of its neighbors Norway and Finland per capita. (Which share cultures and governing styles with one another more than with the US!) Maybe that disparity will narrow in the future, but that's the reality right now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of the countries Fischer does name, Germany, which has one third to one fourth the number of deaths per capita of its fellow western European powers (UK, France, Spain, Italy), is the outlier so far. If Israel is right about the timing -- eight weeks (though I am skeptical) -- then Germany is as much through this thing as Spain, but at a far lower cost in lives! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So Fischer is cherry-picking and equivocating, to make a very dubious. Slippery when wet! </span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">"Israel has imposed strict quarantines. It does not allow residents to even leave their neighborhoods to buy food. Beyond that, they are only permitted to leave their homes for essential work and medical care."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"These restrictions applied even during Holy Week, when just a handful of worshipers were allowed at the Western Wall (the holiest site in Judaism) during Passover, and Easter Mass was performed at a nearly empty Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the site where Jesus was crucified.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"> </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">"In Stockholm, by stark contrast, cafes and restaurants are open. Kids are going to school and to soccer practice. Parks are full. Sweden, in other words, is open for business. People are practicing some social distancing, and gatherings of more than 50 people have been suspended.</span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">"But the disease has followed the same arc in both places, which means Israel - and the United States - locked everybody down for no good reason."(9)</span><br /><br />9. Now this argument is really weird. It makes me wonder if Fischer may be either poorly informed, or just not so bright, Stanford philosophy BA notwithstanding. Groteseque dishonesty is also possible, I suppose, and the hopes that his readers are gullible. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Israel, with a population of nine million, has experienced 200 deaths from Covid-19. Sweden, with ten million, has experienced 2000. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Who can't find that out gross disparity with the click of a mouse? Who is Fischer trying to fool, and why do they allow themselves to be hoodwinked? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or are we to care only about the timing of a curse, not about those extra 1800 lost lives? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"Professor Ben Israel says the virus follows its own fixed pattern, which is not dependent on how much or how little freedom citizens are permitted to enjoy. “There is a decline in the number of infections even [in countries] without closures, and it is similar to the countries with closures.”</span> </span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">While the “expansion (of coronavirus infections) begins exponentially” it “fades quickly after about eight weeks,” for reasons still unknown to epidemiologists. The virus seems to have its own life cycle."</span> (10)</span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10. Again, Fischer ignores the distinction between the shape of curves and timelines, and life vs. death. </span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is also magical thinking. </span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Consider the most obvious case Fischer excludes: China. It is simply a fact that if you lock everyone indoors for two months, the virus will die. China proved that. </span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The spread of disease is a science, not a magical black box. Sneeze or cough droplets with viral particles in another person's face, and that person is likely to get sick. Keep to yourself, and eventually you'll die or recover, and you won't be able to sneeze the disease along. </span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Fischer, and perhaps Israel if he's being represented correctly, wants us to believe the spread of a virus is magic. We can't stop it. We can't comprehend it. Closing doors won't help. Wearing masks won't help. Staying home won't help. We can only go about our lives and wait for it to run its course. </span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is as if medical science had never been invented. </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">"Italy has an unusually high mortality rate, but Ben Israel attributes that more to Italy’s substandard health system, which also collapsed in 2017 because of the seasonal flu." (11)</span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">11. Others say Italy had a pretty good health care system, especially in the north, where Covid-19 killed so many. Until now, Italy has enjoyed one of the longest life-expectancies in the world, far longer than the US. </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But Fischer doesn't seem to be aware that the disease was almost as deadly in Spain, Belgium, England, France, New York, and New Jersey, among other places. I guess they all have especially bad health care systems, too? Unlike, say, India, or Mexico? </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"The professor believes this evidence - actual evidence and data, not the projections of some model - indicate that there is no need for either quarantines or economic closures.</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"So</span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"> what’s behind all the quarantines and lockdowns? Said Professor Ben Israel, echoing my words from the very beginning of this crisis, 'I think it’s mass hysteria. I have no other way to describe it. 4,500 people die each year from the flu in Israel because of complications, (12) so close the country because of that? No.'”</span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"> </span></span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"> </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/03/25/14/26395446-8151825-image-a-92_1585147118564.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="See the source image" border="0" height="274" src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/03/25/14/26395446-8151825-image-a-92_1585147118564.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nothing to see here, folks. Just an ordinary church service! </td></tr>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">12. Some 15,000 people have died in Lombardy, which has a population about the same as that of Israel, over the past <i>month </i>or so. And that's with most people NOT getting the disease. Whether or not you call worrying about getting more than three year's worth of deaths in one month "hysteria" or not, depends I guess on your tolerance for coffins in your church. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"Remember that our own mass hysteria was triggered by Dr. Fauci running to President Trump with the hysterical predictions Professor Neil Ferguson of the UK. Ferguson projected that 2.2 million Americans would die from coronavirus.(13) That number has now been ratcheted down, by the University of Washington model Dr. Fauci now embraces, to about 61,000, (14) the number of Americans who die in a bad flu season.(15) Ferguson has now reduced his projected death toll in the UK to 20,000, just four percent of his original prediction."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">13. Ferguson said nothing of the sort. In fact, he explained the 2.2 million figure as being <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf">"i</a></span><a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf">n the (unlikely) absence of any control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behaviour.</a>" So that was only if neither government nor even individuals change their behavior in any way. And his team's paper very clearly said they did NOT expect that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It is remarkable how often that report is misrepresented. Did Fischer even read it? Why is he talking about a report he apparently hasn't read? Or lying about one he has read? </span><br />
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14. Sorry to say, the 61,000 projection will likely be exceeded by Tuesday. 100,000 looks more likely now, for the first wave. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">15. The UW figure also consciously depends on variables, such as how we act. The numbers have changed, because our behavior changed. To pretend these were given as fixed numbers, is either astoundingly dishonest or stupid. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">"Ferguson predicted in 2001 that mad cow disease would kill 150,000 in the UK. The actual death </span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">toll</span><span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">? One hundred and seventy-seven. Why anybody gives Ferguson’s numbers any credibility at all, let alone histrionically closes down the most successful economy in history, is one of the mysteries of the ages." (16)</span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">16. Given that Fischer is telling falsehoods about Ferguson's "predictions" in the present case, I will save myself the trouble of asking for a reference for this claim, beyond noting that he didn't give one. </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"So, the Israeli professor has demonstrated that our coronavirus closures were a disastrous, colossal, catastrophic mistake.(17) Americans have lost jobs and businesses because of this, and some of those jobs and businesses may not come back for a long time. It will take us a decade to repair the damage we have done in just one month of cravenly surrendering to panic and fear."</span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">17. General Israel (again, a philosopher, mathematician, physicist and military man, not a biologist or doctor) has shown nothing of the sort. But Fischer has shown he will cherry-pick, or simply ignore, data to make his point. He has shown he will look at data showing ten times as many people die in one country as another, and say the two cases are exactly the same. He has shown he will misrepresent those he wishes to make look foolish. (Notice that while I have quoted his entire article, he doesn't even give the short relevant quotes to prove his case against Ferguson.) He has shown that he believes in magic, in viruses that break through locked doors and spread in a mysterious fashion beyond anyone's control. He has shown that when the need arises, he can ignore the world's largest country where the virus originated, to make his point. </span></span></div>
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<span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":360}" data-wac-het="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It seems Fischer has been banned in some forums for his previous quackery. I do not agree with that decision. I prefer error out in the open, where it can be refuted. But that he is a dishonest quack, is pretty clear. </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">"Here’s hoping - and praying - that every governor in America will reopen his state so that America can get back to being America again." </span>(18)</span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">18. Amen. And here's hoping we get the disease well under control first, and institute strict measures in testing and contract tracing to keep it there. </span></span></div>
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<span data-contrast="none" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then we need to start thinking about paying off this horrendous debt we have accumulated, and dealing with China. The challenges before our generation are great, indeed. Burying our heads in the sand at any stage will not help us meet those challenges. </span></span></div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-51897450897005231812020-04-16T19:36:00.001-07:002020-04-26T12:51:03.895-07:00Letter from Wuhan Virology Institute<div align="justify" style="background-color: white; padding: 0px;">
<i>Over the past week or so, some western journalists have echoed the suspicions of some Chinese netizens two months ago, in arguing that Covid-19 escaped from the Wuhan Virology Institute. I have also discussed this possibility. So I thought it would be appropriate to translate the letter posted in February by the leadership team of that institute, defending themselves. </i><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fellow staff and graduate students: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ever since the explosion of the New Coronavirus Pneumonia (Covid-19), party cadres at the institute, workers and researchers determined to carefully put into practice the Party Central Committee's decision, and the academy's party (), strict control measures, to proactively bear the weighty burden of attacking this epidemic scientifically. Recently, the Internet has spread wild rumors about our institution, for instance: "Covid-19 is man-made," "The Virus was leaked from a P4 facility," "The military has taken control of P4," "Some researcher died because the virus was leaked," "One researcher was 'Patient Zero,'" . . . and so on. This has drawn attention from all quarters, creating enormous harm to scientific researchers engaged in front-line study at our institute, and also interrupting the critical scientific battle our institute is engaged in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Since the epidemic occurred, our institute has spent its energy racing to carry out scientific research. Our institution's co-workers and students responded to the call for research by voluntarily setting aside the New Year holiday and overcoming all kinds of difficulties, to strictly enact the various rules for administration of epidemiological and experimental lab safety. We fought each minute and second, night and day battling in the front lines against this epidemic, practicing what a tech writer called the duty of "creating new technology and science, to benefit the nation and the people." The cluster of top-notch bio-safety platforms at our institute are dedicated to public safety both domestically and internationally. We are cooperating in an important way with relevant domestic and international organizations to add strength to research efforts on Covid-19. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From the evening of December 30th, 2019, when our institute received unknown pneumonia samples from Dr. Jin Yintan, night after night (we organized our strength), conducting research for 72 straight hours, and on January 2nd, 2020, we determined the entire genome of Covid-19. On January 5th, we separated out the virus strain. On January 9th, standard samples were preserved in the national virus resource bank. On January 11th this was among the virus sequences which the National Safety and Health Commission handed over to the World Health Organization. At the same time, we also expended a great deal of effort and made excellent progress in such matters as determining the source of the sickness, the origin of the virus, detection of the illness, preventative medicines, vaccine development, and animal modeling. Aside from that, our institute was also a designated organization in Wuhan, laboring to test for Covid-19. From January 26 on, about 4000 samples of Covid-19 patient wipes accumulated. Our institute also sent a small team of employees and grad students to support the city of Huang Gang (note: a city just east of Wuhan) in pathogen testing, working with all their heart and strength to control the epidemic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking back at the past more than a month of difficulties and labor, we have nothing to be ashamed of! </span><br />
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In the current epidemic, scientific and technological research is the front line against pestilence. Let us unite around the Central Party whose core is Comrade Xi Jinping, determine to answer the call of the Central Party, and wholeheartedly exhibit the value of the bastion of each party layer and the model of front-line pioneering! Let everyone have determined faith, eliminate interference, unite as one, with all our beings do our best at scientific research and all facets of epidemiological control, showing through our accomplishments the mission and service of our "national STEM team," so that we win this war by controlling the epidemic, offering the strength of technological support!<br />
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So now, China, turn it up! Wuhan turn it up! We at Wuhan Virology will certainly turn it up! </div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> United members of the leadership team, China Academy of Science Wuhan Institute of Virology</span></div>
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February 19, 2020<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shi Zhengli, the "Bat Woman" who has pioneered research into dangerous viruses found in bats at the Wuhan Virology Institute. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">全所职工、研究生:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> 新冠肺炎疫情爆发以来,全所党员干部、职工和研究生坚决贯彻落实党中央决策和院党组部署,严防严控疫情,主动承担科技攻关重任。但近期,网络流传涉及我所若干谣言,如“新冠病毒源于人工合成”“病毒是从P4泄露的”“军方接管P4”“某研究人员因病毒泄露死亡”“某研究生是‘零号病人’”“某研究员实名举报所领导”等,引发了各界的持续关注,对坚守科研一线的我所科研人员造成极大的伤害,也严重干扰了我所承担的战“疫”应急科研攻关任务。</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> 疫情发生以来,我所全力以赴开展科研攻关,我所同事、同学响应研究所号召,主动放弃春节假期,克服重重困难,严格落实疫情防控及实验室生物安全管理各项规定,争分夺秒、夜以继日,奋战在战“疫”第一线,践行科技工作者“创新科技,报国为民”的责任和担当。我所高等级生物安全团簇平台秉持面向国内外开放的</span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=%E5%AE%97" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; transition: all 100ms cubic-bezier(0.42, 0, 1, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">宗</a><a href="https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=%E6%97%A8" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 100ms cubic-bezier(0.42, 0, 1, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">旨</a></span><span style="color: #2a3235; font-family: , "blinkmacsystemfont" , "roboto" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 23.52px; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">,还为国内外相关机构开展新冠病毒联合科研攻关提供了有力 </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">。</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> 2019年12月30日晚,我所收到武汉市金银潭医院送来的不明原因肺炎样品后,连夜组织力量、连续72小时攻关,于2020年1月2日确定新冠病毒的全基因组序列,1月5日分离得到病毒毒株,1月9日完成国家病毒资源库入库及标准化保藏,1月11日作为国家卫健委指定机构之一向世界卫生组织提交了病毒序列。同时,还在病原鉴定、病毒溯源、病原检测、抗病毒药物及疫苗研制、动物模型建立等方面开展了大量工作,取得了良好进展。此外,我所作为武汉市指定的机构之一,参与了新冠病毒肺炎病原学检测工作,自1月26日起,累计检测疑似新冠肺炎病人咽拭子样本约4000份,我所还派出了由职工和研究生组成的小分队,支援黄冈市病原学检测,为疫情防控工作尽心出力。</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> 回首过去一个多月的艰辛付出,我们问心无愧!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> 疫情当前,科技攻关就是战“疫”前线。让我们紧密团结在以习近平同志为核心的党中央周围,坚决响应党中央号召,充分发挥各级党组织的战斗堡垒作用和党员干部在科研一线的先锋模范作用!请大家要坚定信心,排除干扰,团结一致,全身心做好科技攻关和疫情防控各项工作,用扎实的工作成绩体现科技“国家队”的使命和担当,为打赢疫情防控战提供有力的科技支撑!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> 当前,中国在加油!武汉在加油!我们武汉病毒所也一定要加油!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">中国科学院武汉病毒研究所领导班子全体成员</span></div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-31173487041341497452020-04-03T18:25:00.002-07:002020-05-05T08:21:48.746-07:00Does California have "Herd Immunity?" <span style="font-family: inherit;">Recently, <a href="https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/half-the-population-could-already-have-coronavirus-224446/">reports of a study from </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><a href="https://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/half-the-population-could-already-have-coronavirus-224446/">Sunetra Gupta</a>, professor of theoretical epidemiology at Oxford University, "went viral," claiming that the United Kingdom might not suffer so badly from Covid-19 because it already had achieved something called "herd immunity." The virus had already made the rounds and rendered enough people immune to it that it couldn't spread far or fast, like trying to start a wet log on fire. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On Monday, Victor Davis Hanson offered the same suggestion about California at the end of <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-california-herd-immunity/">an otherwise interesting article on National Review</a>. Then Rush Limbaugh, saying he likes to think for himself, pushed this theory today on his show. This theory has now percolated down to the popular level, for instance <a href="https://medium.com/morozko-method/the-curve-is-already-flat-2de80eed1bd0?fbclid=IwAR1WfHtm5aG6xs109UQOQiFM7Em1wzS8ZD2MVJhhNzql_Rb9I5aiP1OvFW4">this heartfelt and troubling story</a> from an intelligent Arizona Mom who has been (stupidly) denied cancer treatment because of the pandemic, which she thinks has already passed. <a href="https://www.professorhinkley.com/blog/why-is-oregon-still-on-lock-down">Another article claiming Covid-19 was "on its way out"</a> in Oregon, and New York, so shutting the states down destroyed their economies for nothing, has gone viral. The premise also seems to be that the good people of Oregon State must have also cycled through this disease and come out the far end -- without having the bad manners of dying of it in mass, as elsewhere. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why are there far fewer Covid-19 cases in California than New York? The theory is that Californians were actually hit by the virus much earlier, and gained "herd immunity." Californians are now sharing stories on Facebook of how they felt sick earlier this year and got over it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Herd immunity is real, and easy enough to understand in theory. One can compare it to wearing masks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Suppose you have a disease that spreads from one sick person on average to two others. Those two in turn cough on four others, then eight, then sixteen. After five generations of illness, you have 31 sick people, supposing none have recovered or passed away yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now suppose everyone wears masks that prevents one half of all transmissions. Or suppose half the people have already been exposed to the disease and developed effective antibodies. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now one person coughs on two, but only one catches the disease. And she coughs on two others, but only one gets ill. So instead of having 31 sick people by the fifth generation, you only have five. Add another five generations, and the ratio of sick people in these two hypotheses is 100-1. You have an epidemic in one place, but a minor outbreak that health officials can deal with between trips to the back nine, in the other. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We should not apply the Herd Immunity theory to California, I will argue. Far better to rely on masks. </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sunetra Gupta on British Herd Immunity</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; white-space: normal;">Sunetra Gupta, a theoretical epidemiologist at Oxford University, expressed surprise that the </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/world/europe/coronavirus-imperial-college-johnson.html" style="color: black; font-family: inherit; white-space: normal;">"Imperial Model" warning of possible high loss of life in the UK and US from Covid-19</a><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit; white-space: normal;"> (up to 2.2 million in the United States, if nothing was done), had been so easily accepted and acted upon. According to the Financial Times, her own team found reason for optimism in the idea that both countries had also developed "herd immunity:" </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">"Professor Gupta led a team of researchers at Oxford in a modeling study which suggests that the virus has been invisibly spreading for at least a month earlier than suspected, concluding that as many as half of the people in the United Kingdom have already been infected by COVID-19."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If that is so, </span><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oxford-epidemiologist-heres-why-that-doomsday-model-is-likely-way-off" style="font-family: inherit;">hardly anyone who gets the disease gets really sick</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">. Less that one in a thousand will even need to stay in the hospital. Good news! The dreaded pandemic had already largely washed through Britain with hardly a ripple. </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Victor Davis Hanson on California Herd Immunity</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Victor Hanson, an often insightful historian and curmudgeon, then </span><a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-california-herd-immunity/" style="font-family: inherit;">asked on March 31 why New York and not California has been struck</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> so hard by the disease. Twenty times as many New Yorkers had died, as of his writing, than Californians, per capita. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Citing Gupta, Hanson suggested that maybe the reason things aren't so bad yet in California, is residents had already gone through this wave: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">"Many Californians complained late in 2019 of getting the flu a bit early, with flu symptoms that were somewhat different from the norm, at times including severe muscle aches, some digestive cramping, an unproductive cough, and days or even weeks of post-fever fatigue."</span><br />
<span style="color: #2d2d2d;"><br /></span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: inherit;">Suppose that was Covid-19 in disguise? </span><br />
<span style="color: #2d2d2d;"><br /></span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">"So given the state’s unprecedented direct air access to China, and given its large expatriate and tourist Chinese communities, especially in its huge denser metropolitan corridors in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, it could be that what thousands of Californians experienced as an unusually “early” and “bad” flu season might have also reflected an early coronavirus epidemic, suggesting that many more Californians per capita than in other states may have acquired immunity to the virus."</span><br />
<span style="color: #2d2d2d;"><br /></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sorry to disappoint you Californians and Brits. But I think this</span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> "Herd Immunity" theory is historically unsound as it applies to both places, for five reasons: </span><br />
<span style="color: #050505;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">(1) It is suspicious that Hanson's hypothesis purports to explain both why Covid-19 has NOT exploded in California, and why it HAS exploded in Lombardy. (Which, he says, also experienced unfamiliar respiratory problems early in winter.) When your theory is that flexible, you should step back and put on your N95 BS protection mask on, so as not to get sprayed by particles. </span><br />
<span style="color: #050505;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">(2) Where is the positive evidence that millions of Brits or Californians contracted Covid-19? A few anecdotal coughs and fevers, such as one does get in winter? Sorry, that's not enough. We also need to assume the public health professionals and most of the doctors and scientists were easily fooled, while an admittedly brilliant historian and a clever radio talk show host see through the fog. (Gupta is an expert in a more relevant field. But still, she is a <i>theoretical </i>epidemiologist. What her theory most lacks is rootedness to facts, as we shall see.) </span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">The theory is speculative, mildly conspiratorial (because it assumes most of the experts are out to lunch or too hidebound to add two and two), and runs the danger of wishful thinking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(3) Covid-19 has caused massive fatalities where even a large minority of people are known to be infected, such as Lombardy, the Barcelona and Madrid areas, Iran, Holland, and eastern France. Known deaths from this disease in France yesterday and today were some 2400, not counting those outside of hospitals,<a href="https://www.newsy.com/stories/italy-s-13-000-coronavirus-deaths-may-be-vastly-undercounted/"> as the Wall Street Journal report</a><a href="https://www.newsy.com/stories/italy-s-13-000-coronavirus-deaths-may-be-vastly-undercounted/">ed yesterday</a>. And even in regions where the disease has spread most virulently, most people have tested negative: only some 35% tested positive even in Lombardy, Italy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">That's why most of the population is still hiding indoors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gupta's theory that only one in a thousand infected people even needs to go the hospital is refuted by Lombardy alone, where even with only 40% of those tested showing positive, and only a small fraction of the population tested, one in a thousand citizens has not only stayed in the hospital, but died of the disease in that region. Gupta's speculative numbers have already been falsified in the harshest way possible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And the disease has proven little more gentle in Spain, Holland, Sweden, or now New York or London. This disease doesn't come unheralded or leave unmourned. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(4) <a href="https://covidtracking.com/data/state/california#historical">Testing on Covid-19 in California</a> has shown a strong rise over the past month or so. After 7,981 had been tested by March 16th (presumably testing greatly favored those who showed symptoms or who had been exposed), only 335 people tested positive, a bit more than 4%. By contrast, almost half of those tested in the past week, some 14,000 (aside from the many tests still out), have tested positive. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">(5) Geneticists can <a href="https://www.gisaid.org/epiflu-applications/next-hcov-19-app/?fbclid=IwAR3k2kap26UU_yCUeEM__V_3r0PkqVkS1AXfhDiDLHoM_UxfXyBKIMhid8M">trace the history of Covid-19 through its mutations,</a> and that history does not seem to support the "Early Immigrant Herd Immunity" theory.
(6) The Seattle Flu Study seems to put <a href="https://komonews.com/news/coronavirus/seattle-researcher-debunks-theory-covid-19-spread-in-calif-in-november">the final nail in the coffin of this theory</a>. (And more recently, antibody tests in California.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So sorry, California Dreamers. (And Brits.) Hunker down. The crest of the wave is still coming. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But that doesn't mean California has to experience what New York did. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And why is that? </span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why did Covid-19 explode in New York, but not California? </span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So why did Covid-19 spread so rapidly in New York, but less rapidly in California, or here in Washington, where it got the earliest start of all? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Earlier, <a href="http://christthetao.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19-why-here-why-there.html">I analyzed nine hypotheses for why this disease has spread rapidly in some places, but not others</a>. (I have now revised that post from two weeks ago.) I called these "A Culture of Contact," "Bad Faith," "Cool, Slightly Drier Weather," "The Camel Cries" (travel), "A Human Petri Dish," "Socialized Medicine," "The Donald," "Cultural Arrogance," and "The Judgement of God." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">* Culture of Contact surely must be a large part of the answer. New York City, like Wuhan, Milan, and Barcelona, are all huge cities with well-developed subway systems. New Yorkers are "packed on top of one another." The New York subway network sees 1.6 billion riders a year, seven times the nation's second largest system in Chicago. By contrast, people in Los Angeles pretty much all drive, with the local trains gathering only 42 million riders a year. While San Francisco is one of America's most crowded cities, BART receives only 1/12th of the ridership of New York's subways. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Before the outbreak, a<a href="https://knewz.com/coronavirus-nyc-subway-system/"> study showed that the New York subway was already a stew of bacteria and viruses.</a> Furthermore, the outbreak in New York generally seems to follow commuting patterns, into New Jersey and other suburban areas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">* Southern California's desert-like weather might have impeded the spread of the disease in two ways: by killing the virus when broadcast out-of-doors more quickly, and by keeping people out of doors. (Sitting on lawn chairs at Cal Tech is feasible in February, lying on the grass at Columbia less inviting that early. Cough into the wind, and most virus diffuse and die.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">* It is true that California (and Washington) host many flights from East Asia. But so does New York, also from Europe, so that factor is probably more-or-less a wash. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">* Arrogance, human sin generally, the authority of Donald Trump, and medical systems, are no doubt relatively constant between the two population centers east and west. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">* Another factor which Limbaugh mentioned was that California closed down two days earlier than New York. He scoffed at the idea that two days could matter. But of course, a lot can happen in two days. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My impression is, Washington State fought its earliest-in-the-nation outbreak more aggressively and professionally than some other states. The concentration of tech fire-power here and institutions like the University of Washington Med School (and Virology Department), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have it seems to me helped push back against the spread of Covid-19 in a more unified and forceful way than some states may have managed. Washington has conducted more tests than almost any other state. Also, like Boston, Seattle has a highly-educated population, who likely take better care of themselves. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Some of these factors likely also play a role in the Bay Area, though less in Los Angeles, where California cases are concentrated. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">* Neither should one completely discount the importance of dumb luck. Once a disease is wide-spread, the numbers are likely to even out. But as Washington State shows, one unfortunate traveler who coughs in the wrong place can lead to a major outbreak a month later. (His case history and its aftermath has been carefully studied.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />So no, I don't think "Herd Immunity" helps explain why California has gotten off relatively easily so far, at least compared to it's East Coast rival. Neither is this theory needed. Population density, commuting patterns, climate , and bad luck, do more, I think, to explain why New York and not Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Seattle, have been most terribly struck by the Covid-19 epidemic to date.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Testing has been lax in California, however, testing the state's better luck. While Washington State has tested 80,000 people, California, with more than five times the population, still only has results for 35,000 (with 60,000 more results waiting to come in.) </span>Probably many more now have the disease than have been verified as having it. David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-16910308354490095842020-03-31T20:42:00.001-07:002020-05-30T09:24:50.762-07:00"Christians Poisoned the Wells!" -- Katherine Stewart, New York Times<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">A week ago, the New York Times warned against encouraging hatred towards one group of Americans by associating them with the dreaded Covid-19: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">As bigots blame them for the coronavirus and President Trump labels it the 'Chinese virus,' many Chinese-Americans say they are terrified of what could come next."</span></span></b></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/KStewartPortrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="See the source image" border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/KStewartPortrait.jpg" style="color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" width="148" /></a><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then last Friday, America's "paper of record" changed its mind about scapegoating groups of people over pandemics. In a piece originally entitled "The Road to Hell was paved by Evangelicals," (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/27/opinion/coronavirus-trump-evangelicals.html">the title has now been toned down</a>) Katherine Stewart tried to exploit the present crisis to stir up more proper hatreds: </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-weight: inherit;">"</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown."</b></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The hypocrisy, of course, is rich,<a href="https://stream.org/are-evangelicals-responsible-for-the-spread-of-covid-19-in-america/"> as Michael Brown among others have noted</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But calling someone a hypocrite does not prove his or her claim false. The New York Times may be all kinds of hypocrite (granted) and their hate speech all kinds of dangerous (blaming whole groups of people for diseases never hurt anyone, did it?), yet their claims may still find a basis in reality. </span></div>
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It is a medical fact, after all, that wrong as racism is, this particular virus did originate in China, among Chinese. Furthermore, Chinese cuisine may have played a role in that transmission, along with the Culture of Cover-up in a China ruled by the communist party.</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">But Stewart appeals to "science" and "reason," as we will see. So let us analyze her argument as a claim or claims supported (or not) by evidence, a line of reasoning purportedly backed up by logic and facts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The subtitle of the piece implies six claims: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Evangelicals were "determined" to help Donald Trump become president. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">2. They "deny" science, in some sense no doubt to be explained. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">3. They "bash" government, again in some sense yet to be developed. (Keeping in mind that this piece itself is about to bash American government, which is led by Donald Trump, in SOME sense.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">4. Evangelicals care more about how loyal folks are than how qualified they are. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">5. A recent spike of deaths in such liberal enclaves as New York and Seattle, and after the neo-pagan <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-orleans-epicenter-coronavirus-mardi-gras-could-be-blame-doctors-n1167741">festival of Mardi Gras in New Orleans, </a>somehow flows causally from the work of evangelicals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">6. And therefore evangelical Christians should be blamed for economic and personal woes caused by the spread of Covid-19, which have impacted "all" of us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit;">This seems quite a lot to prove in one article. Let's see how Ms. Stewart makes out. No doubt we'll learn something, if not about American evangelicals, at least about Ms. Stewart, the </span><i>New York Times</i><span style="font-style: inherit;">, and the nature of scapegoating. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'll take Stewart's claims bite by bite. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;">"</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;">At least since the 19th century, when the pro-slavery theologian Robert Lewis Dabney </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.newhopefairfax.org/files/Dabney_Theo-logical_Limites_of_Science.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">attacked</a><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"> the physical sciences as 'theories of unbelief,'</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> hostility to science has characterized the more extreme forms of religious nationalism in the United States."</span></b></span></div>
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What relationship does one racist theologian (a "mainline Presbyterian," at that) in the Old South bear to an argument about reason, science, modern evangelicals, and a 21st Century pandemic? Is this supposed to support the claim that "extreme forms of religious nationalism," whatever that means, have long been "hostile to science?" </div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Hard to say, because that's all Stewart says about 19th Century American Christianity. </span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">She does not mention the fact that the abolitionist movement was largely led by zealous believers, as sociologist Rodney Stark and others have shown. She also does not mention the evangelical ant-slavery tract, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit;">Uncle Tom's Cabin, </span><span style="font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;">which had an enormous influence on liberating slaves. She seems to bring in the Rev. Dabney at best to make a feint at adding historical depth to her thesis, more likely to cite irrelevant calumny to predispose her readers against American Christians of all sorts - like mentioning the Merchant of Venice in an article about Jews poisoning wells. (A rhetorical act which itself is called "poisoning the well.")</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">"Today, the hard core of climate deniers is concentrated among people who identify as religiously conservative Republicans. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> And some leaders of the Christian nationalist movement, like those allied with the </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://cornwallalliance.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">Cornwall Alliance</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> for the Stewardship of Creation, which has denounced environmental science as a 'Cult of the </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://cornwallalliance.org/2010/11/sounding-the-alarm-about-dangerous-environmental-extremism-explosive-new-dvd-series-resisting-the-green-dragon-now-being-distributed-nationally-and-abroad/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">Green Dragon</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">,' cast environmentalism as an alternative — and false — theology."</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Here's another well-poisoning term: "climate denier." Who on Earth denies climate? I would not deny that wild accusations against tens of millions of Americans in leading newspapers might potentially create a "climate" of hysteria or hatred. So I guess I'm not a "climate denier?"<br /><br />Taken literally, a "climate denier" might seem to be someone who does not believe that the Amazon basin contains a tropical rainforest, or that Greenland is subject to regular snow falls in winter. </span></div>
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Don't be thick, you tell me. Stewart simply means that some people disagree with her theories about climate change, not that they deny climates even exist. Yes, but shouldn't she <span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">say what she means? Again, I suspect she is simply lying when she claims that Cornwall Alliance has ever "denounced environmental science." </span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Disagreeing about a claim within a discipline is not the same as declaring the whole discipline anathema. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-weight: inherit;">Cornwall Alliance, run by Calvin Beisner (whom I tagged, and who pointed out his own <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/01/new-york-times-ignores-the-evidence-to-slander-christians-as-coronavirus-deniers/?fbclid=IwAR3iYOISVxigQueREybvTqwBN4kK_0XOMq4UI1DTMC2SpzaWhOzWOeZgS5o">article responding to Stewart and the hornets nest of haters she stirred up</a>), does indeed argue against some elements of the Anthropogenic Global Warming consensus. They describe their position as follows: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><b>"The Cornwall Alliance is a network of evangelical Christian scholars–mostly natural scientists, economists, policy experts, theologians, philosophers, and religious leaders–dedicated to educating the public and policymakers about Biblical earth stewardship (men and women working together to enhance the fruitfulness, beauty, and safety of the earth, to the glory of God and the benefit of our neighbors), economic development for the poor (through private property rights, entrepreneurship, free trade, limited government, the rule of law, and access to abundant, affordable, reliable energy), and the gospel of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God by grace through faith in the atoning death and vindicating resurrection of Jesus Christ."</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-weight: inherit;">I don't see anything here about denying environments, or even denying that environments can change. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">"This denial of science and critical thinking among religious ultraconservatives . . . "</span><br /><br />Now disagreement over the cause of atmospheric warming has evolved into not just a denunciation of environmental science and a denial of climatology, but denial of all science AND of critical thinking. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">How does a woman making such a flimsy argument, more like a bird darting from branch to branch than a sturdy bridge across a canyon, dare to mention critical thinking? </span><br />
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No evidence has yet been offered that anyone "denies" any part of science, let alone all of it. We have jumped from one bigoted Calvinist in the Old South (whom it might be anachronistic to call "evangelical") to an organization worried about the poor in modern America, somehow joined by their alleged "denial" of some undefined aspect of rationality -- without a single clear example, let alone a survey of who is guilty, or evidence that the larger group to which they allegedly belong is guilty at all. </div>
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Genuine critical thinking would be welcome. Stewart does, at least, begin to focus on response to Covid-19 now: </div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="color: #3d85c6;">"(This denial) . . . now haunts the American response to the coronavirus crisis. On March 15, Guillermo Maldonado, who calls himself an 'apostle' and hosted Mr. Trump earlier this year at a campaign event at his Miami megachurch, <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article241209151.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">urged</a> his congregants to show up for worship services in person. 'Do you believe God would bring his people to his house to be contagious with the virus? Of course not,' he said."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally, a drop of evidence relevant to Stewart's point! Although the website for the church she mentions now says:<br /><br /><span style="font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">"As we continue to monitor news of COVID-19, we want to assure you that your safety is our number one priority. For that reason, our ministry will follow the requests made by the CDC and has decided that all Supernatural Encounters events from now until July will be postponed."</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"Rodney Howard-Browne of The River at Tampa Bay Church in Florida mocked people concerned about the disease as '<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/03/pastor-laid-hands-trump-says-avoiding-coronavirus-pansies/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">pansies</a>' and insisted he would only shutter the doors to his packed church 'when the rapture is taking place.' In a sermon that was live-streamed on Facebook, Tony Spell, a pastor in Louisiana, said, 'We’re also going to pass out anointed <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.newsweek.com/pastor-holds-service-over-1000-parishoners-defiance-large-gathering-ban-1493113" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">handkerchiefs</a> to people who may have a fear, who may have a sickness and we believe that when those anointed handkerchiefs go, that healing virtue is going to go on them as well.'”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">For all I know, the Apostle Maldonado and Rev. Howard-Browne may have waited too long to shut down their operations. </span><span style="color: black; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Disney World didn't close until March 15th. American has over 300,000 churches. It would be a miracle indeed, if none of them were headed by presumptuous fools. </span></span></div>
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Did such meetings actually foment the spread of Covid-19? Stewart offers no evidence that they did. But of course disease no doubt does spread in churches, as in any other public forum where sick and healthy people meet.</div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit;">Two weeks ago, I described </span><a href="http://christthetao.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19-why-here-why-there.html" style="font-style: inherit;">nine factors which may contribute to quick spread of the Wuhan virus</a><span style="font-style: inherit;">. </span><i> (Note: that post has been updated a few times: the number of factors discussed is now fourteen.) </i></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit;">One of the causes I mentioned was "bad faith:" The examples I gave were the "New Heaven and Earth Church of Jesus" cult in Daegu, Korea, and Shiite Muslims in Iran who kissed a shrine in defiance of disease. (</span><i>Others were added later -- DM</i><span style="font-style: inherit;">.) I compared the attitude of such "believers" to Satan's temptation of Jesus: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">"If you are the Son of God," he said, </span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">throw</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">yourself</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">down</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> For it is written: "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"</span></span></div>
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Such "bad faith" could indeed be a contributing factor to the spread of Covid-19 in America, along with Mardi Gras, old folks' homes, New York subways, Amazon warehouses, doctors' offices, and Satanic covens. But Stewart makes no attempt to show that evangelical worship services actually have played a major role in transmission of the disease. Continued failure to back up one's slurs with serious, systematic evidence seems itself to reflect "bad faith." </div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"By all accounts, President Trump’s tendency to trust his gut over the experts on issues like vaccines and climate change does not come from any deep-seated religious conviction."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now that's a problematic admission for her thesis . . . </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">But Stewart is arguing, so far, mostly from her own gut, or spleen. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: inherit;">"But he is perfectly in tune with the religious nationalists who form the core of his base. In his daily briefings from the White House, Mr. Trump actively disdains and contradicts the messages coming from his own experts and touts as yet unproven cures."</span></div>
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Stewart's new claims here, rather than supporting her old ones (she has already admitted that Trump is probably NOT motivated by evangelical faith), raise new questions: </div>
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1. Are "religious nationalists" really the "core" of Trump's base? </div>
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2. Does Trump routinely "disdain and contradict" his own experts? <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/fauci_trump_listens_to_scientists">Dr. Anthony Fauci denies this</a>, saying Trump listens carefully and accepts his claims, complaining (in his mild way) that the press is trying to pick a fight.<br />
3. Is it really a service to the country for the left-wing press to try to turn Trump against government experts at a time like this?) </div>
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4. By "tout unproven cures," I assume Stewart refers to Trump's hopeful but much-scorned words about chloroquine. Trump expressed optimism that that and other drugs would prove effective. Indeed, numerous doctors around the world have been using it for some time, not because they all dial up Donald Trump when they plan a treatment, but because they've seen the same "unproven" but suggestive evidence.<br />
5. Anyway, if Donald Trump is dismissive of science (despite Dr .Fauci's claims), wouldn't that undermine Stewart's thesis, by reminding us that evangelical faith is not, in fact, a necessary cause of such an error? </div>
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Is that Stewart's evidence that Trump is "denying science?" Telling the American people that scientists and doctors have found drugs that might prove useful in combating a deadly epidemic, which doctors in fact are widely using, then saying "I feel good about this," followed by "We'll see?" </div>
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Good heavens. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>"Not every pastor is behaving recklessly, of course, and not every churchgoer in these uncertain times is showing up for services out of disregard for the scientific evidence. Far from it."</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Far indeed. Citing three reckless pastors is pathetic support for the notion that evangelical faith is to blame for the spread of a disease out of communist China. Good to see this curt nod to reality. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>"Yet none of the benign uses of religion in this time of crisis have anything to do with Mr. Trump’s expressed hope that the country would be 'opened up and just raring to go by Easter.' He could, of course, have said, 'by mid-April.' But Mr. Trump did not invoke Easter by accident, and many of his evangelical allies were pleased by his vision of 'packed churches all over our country.'”</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Though I am not sure I would call myself an evangelical or a Trump supporter, I plead guilty to this alleged "anti-science" crime. I would have much liked to have seen the virus die down enough to celebrate Easter this year. I would have loved to go into a packed church and sing out loud, "Christ the Lord is risen today!"<br /><br />I'd also like to eat in restaurants again, go to work without fear, and freely visit the home of friends. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">For these anti-science thought-crimes, of which Trump is the Felon-in-Chief, forgive us, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><i>New York Times</i></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">. (Of course Trump regretfully admitted this opening up unlikely to happen so early. I am sorry, too.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>“I think it would be a beautiful time,” the president said."</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; text-align: center;">Amen. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">"</span><b>Religious nationalism has brought to American politics the conviction that our political differences are a battle between absolute evil and absolute good."</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">While editorials in the </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><i>New York Times</i></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> blaming Christians for gifting the country with a plague tend to bring America together in sweet harmony. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Stewart's lack of self-awareness is astounding. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">"When you’re engaged in a struggle between the “</span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://davidson.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-davidson-remembers-phyllis-schlafly" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">party of life</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">” and the “</span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.amazon.com/Party-Death-Democrats-Courts-Disregard/dp/1596980044" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">party of death</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">,” as some religious nationalists now frame our political divisions, you don’t need to worry about crafting careful policy based on expert opinion and analysis. Only a heroic leader, free from the scruples of political correctness, can save the righteous from the damned. Fealty to the cause is everything; fidelity to the facts means nothing. Perhaps this is why many Christian nationalist leaders greeted the news of the coronavirus as an insult to their chosen leader."</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">While "many" left-wing politicians greeted the attempt to protect us from it as racist xenophobia, if you want to put it that way. </span></div>
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<a href="http://thewisdomdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/walrus-and-the-carpenter-illustration-id462973483.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="See the source image" border="0" src="http://thewisdomdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/walrus-and-the-carpenter-illustration-id462973483.jpg" height="240" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;" width="320" /></a>Some people on both sides unfairly demonize opponents. Indeed, Stewart is engaged in just such an act of demonization in this piece. Her complaint about extreme rhetoric is like the Walrus complaining that the Carpenter has unfairly dined upon naive young oysters. </div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">But what is one to say when Democrats vote overwhelmingly against a bill requiring doctors to give medical care to infants who are born alive during abortions? Or against laws against partial birth abortion? Though we're wandering far afield now from Stewart's original claims. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">"In an interview on March 13 on 'Fox & Friends,' Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, called the response to Coronavirus '</span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jerry-falwell-jr-suggests-to-fox-and-friends-that-north-korea-created-the-coronavirus" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">hype</a>'<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> and 'overreacting.' 'You know, impeachment didn’t work, and the Mueller report didn’t work, and Article 25 didn’t work, and so maybe now this is their next, ah, their next attempt to get Trump,' he said."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">I don't know if Falwell is being accurately represented or not, but frankly, I have never been fond of the man. What was far more dangerous, though, was the mayor of New York City telling people on February 13th:</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="color: #990000; font-family: inherit;">"Unfortunately many businesses and restaurants in Chinatown, Flushing, and Sunset Park are suffering because some customers are afraid of the coronavirus. But those fears are not based on facts and science. The risk of infection to New Yorkers is low. There is no need to avoid public spaces. I urge everyone to dine and shop as usual.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">But no need to mention Mayor De Blasio, because he is a "spiritual but not religious" former campaign worker for Hillary Clinton. He was telling people to go out and party on behalf of politically CORRECT causes. And he is mayor of the city that is getting hammered right now. (Note: and from which city <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/new-york-city-coronavirus-outbreak.html">the same New York Times notes that Covid-19 spread around the United States.)</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">"When Rev. Spell in Louisiana </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/louisiana-pastor-defies-coronavirus-order-draws-over-1-000-people-n1168501" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">defied</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> an order from Gov. John Bel Edwards and hosted in-person services for over 1,000 congregants, he asserted the ban was 'politically motivated.' Figures like the anti-L.G.B.T. activist Steve Hotze added to the chorus, </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQgsJL5_EbI&feature=youtu.be" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">denouncing</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> the concern as — you guessed it — “fake news.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">So now we have examples of dumb pastors in Virginia, Florida, and Louisiana, plus (a sign that Stewart is running short of relevant examples) a doctor who is pushing vitamins (not Jesus) to boost one's immunity against the disease. Such is the evidential base upon which our apostle of critical thinking builds the foundation for her condemnation of tens of millions of Americans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><b>The Trump Cabinet</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span>Four pastors and an Old South racist theologian -- now two Trump officials. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">"One of the first casualties of fact-free hyper-partisanship is competence in government. The incompetence of the Trump administration in grappling with this crisis is by now well known, at least among those who receive actual news. February 2020 will go down in history as the month in which the United States, in painful contrast with countries like South Korea and Germany, failed to develop the mass testing capability that might have saved many lives. Less well known is the contribution of the Christian nationalist movement in ensuring that our government is in the hands of people who appear to be incapable of running it well."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Democrats have not yet been able to find a clear link between Donald Trump and the CDC's terrible blunder. Others have pointed out a damaging pattern of bureaucracy and reliance on regulations which predated Trump, and which Trump and other Republicans have fought against. But don't worry, when that link between Trump and slow testing is established, you'll hear about it right away. Only now we have to find some Christians in the administration to blame, too. Otherwise we're off on another free-association tangential rant against Republicans, rather than the purported target of this piece. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">"Consider the case of Alex Azar, who as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services has had a prominent role in mismanaging the crisis. It seems likely at this point that Mr. Azar’s signature achievement will have been to </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2020/01/23/hhs-secretary-azar-statement-on-march-for-life.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">rebrand</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> his department as the 'Department of Life.' </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"> Or maybe he will be remembered for establishing a division of Conscience and Religious Freedom, designed to permit health care providers to deny legal and often medically indicated health care services to certain patients as a matter of religious conscience."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">May God abundantly bless Azar if he manages to protect believing doctors from tyrants who wish to force them to kill the unborn against their consciences and the life-affirming civilization which the Gospel created in the ruins of Roman cruelty. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">But sadly for Stewart's increasingly desperate thesis, Mr. Azar is an Eastern Orthodox Christian, not an evangelical. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: #351c75; font-family: inherit;">"</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;">Mr. Azar, a '<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://capmin.org/ministries/washington-dc/white-house-cabinet-sponsors/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">cabinet sponsor</a>' of <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/opinion/trump-evangelicals-cyrus-king.html" style="border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="">Capitol Ministries</a>, the Bible study group attended by multiple members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet . . . "</span></span></div>
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A smoking gun! This man apparently believes in the Bible! Which many <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gods-Philosophers-Medieval-Foundations-Science/dp/1848311508">historians of science credit for helping to inspire the birth of modern science</a> . . . </div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">" . . . Brought with him to Health and Human Services an immovable conviction in the righteousness of the pharmaceutical industry (presumably formed during his five-year stint as an executive and lobbyist in the business), a willingness to speak in the most servile way about “the </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/leadership/secretary/speeches/2018-speeches/remarks-to-the-heritage-foundation.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">courage</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">” and “openness to change” of Mr. Trump, and a commitment to </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-01-24/trump-administration-moves-against-california-on-abortion-coverage" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">anti-abortion politics</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">, </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/planned-parenthood-sues-over-abstinence-only-sex-ed" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">abstinence education</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> and other causes of the religious right. What he did not bring, evidently, was any notable ability to manage a pandemic. Who would have guessed that a man skilled at praising Mr. Trump would not be the top choice for organizing the development of a virus testing program, the delivery of urgently needed protective gear to health care workers or a plan for augmenting hospital capabilities"</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Stewart is, yet again, meandering in search of relevant evidence and a coherent argument. Must be under one of these rocks!</span><br />
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Her thesis is supposed to be that evangelicals (not Eastern Orthodox Christians) are being hired despite lack of qualifications, and botching things due to their incompetence and ideology. (She seems to assume, BTW, that in a free country, a pandemic can be "managed" quite easily, despite the examples of Western Europe and Brazil.)<br />
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No qualifications? Here, according to Wikipedia, are some of Azar's relevant credentials: </div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>"On August 3, 2001, Azar was confirmed as General Counsel of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Health_and_Human_Services" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="United States Department of Health and Human Services">United States Department of Health and Human Services</a>. George W. Bush's first HHS Secretary, Tommy Thompson, said Azar played an important role in responding to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="2001 anthrax attacks">2001 anthrax attacks</a>, ensuring there was a vaccine ready for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Smallpox">smallpox</a>, and dealing with outbreaks of <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="SARS">SARS</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Influenza">influenza</a>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-whois_6-1" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Azar#cite_note-whois-6" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">[6]</a></sup> On July 22, 2005, Azar was confirmed as the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Azar#cite_note-16" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">[16]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17" style="font-size: 11.2px; line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Azar#cite_note-17" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">[17]</a></sup> He was twice confirmed unanimously by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="United States Senate">United States Senate</a>.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>"Working under Secretary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Leavitt" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Mike Leavitt">Mike Leavitt</a>, Deputy Azar supervised the operation of HHS, which would grow to annual budget of over $1 trillion by 2017 when he was appointed Secretary. Azar led the development and approval of HHS regulations, led U.S. government efforts to encourage worldwide pharmaceutical and medical device innovation, and was in charge of the HHS response to an initiative implemented by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="George W. Bush">George W. Bush</a> to improve government performance."</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Apparently, the notion that Azar is unqualified did not occur to anyone in the US Senate. No doubt that body also uniformly consists of evangelical Bible-thumpers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Why mention the fact that an eastern orthodox Christian with such a richly relevant CV says nice things about his boss in a piece purported to prove that evangelicals are to blame for a pandemic which began in China and has peaked so far in southern Europe and Iran? And this, in the name of critical reasoning, fairness, and science? </span></div>
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OK. We're just a few fact-free panegyrics from the finish line. </div>
<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">"Or consider Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and another 'cabinet sponsor' of Capitol Ministries. As a former pediatric neurosurgeon, Mr. Carson brought more knowledge about medicine to his post than knowledge about housing issues. But that medical knowledge didn’t stop him from </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-20-sen-bernie-sanders-dr-ben/story?id=69465733" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">asserting</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> on March 8 that for the 'healthy individual' thinking of attending one of Mr. Trump’s then-ongoing large-scale campaign rallies, 'there’s no reason that you shouldn’t go.'”</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">So Christianity is also somehow to blame for the fact that a cabinet official, like the irreligious mayor of New York, the Democratic mayor of New Orleans, and lots of other people on both sides of the political spectrum, still thought three weeks ago that public meetings were OK. (Though probably not in New York City! Context might be relevant.) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: inherit;"><b>"It is fair to point out that the failings of the Trump administration in the current pandemic are at least as attributable to its economic ideology as they are to its religious inclinations. When the so-called private sector is supposed to have the answer to every problem, it’s hard to deal effectively with the very public problem of a pandemic and its economic consequences."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ma'am, wasn't your last point that in fact, the federal bureaucracy screwed up? (Which it has, again and again, due to over-reliance on regulations which Donald Trump has tried to simplify?) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">"But if you examine the political roots of the life-threatening belief in the privatization of everything, you’ll see that Christian nationalism played a major role in creating and promoting the economic foundations of America’s incompetent response to the pandemic</span><span style="color: #333333;">."</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-style: inherit;">Stewart now has the gall to tell us what we will find if we do her research for her, which she clearly has not bothered to do, and dig up the evidence she has failed to give to support her arguments. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">These comments also contain even more new and sensational claims, in lieu of evidence for those already on the table. Christians favor "privatization of everything!" (Including the White House? Yosemite? The USS Gerald Ford?) The US did worse in handling this pandemic than European countries! (By what metric?) </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Stewart is also contradicting herself again. Christians are to blame both for incompetence in federal office (because the Democrats have done so well!), and for worrying about trusting too much in the competence of government! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;">Yet when Trump stopped Chinese from entering the US, Joe Biden warned against his "</span></span><span style="color: #2b2c30; font-style: inherit;">hysterical xenophobia." The Democratic House even wrote a bill to prevent Trump from banning flights. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit;"><span style="color: #2b2c30;">Bernie Sanders, an evangelical socialist, not a Christian, also took advantage of Trump's actions to accuse him of vile motives: </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bret Baier</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit;">: "If you had to, would you close down the borders?"</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Bernie Sanders</span>: "No. What you don’t want to do right now when you have a president who has propagated xenophobic, anti-immigrant sentiment from before he was elected. What we need to do is have the scientists take a hard look at what we need to do. There are communities where the virus is spreading. What does that mean? It may mean self-quarantine, maybe not having public assemblies.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #783f04;">"But let’s not go back to the same old thing. Isn’t it interesting that a president who has been demagoguing and demonizing immigrants, the first thing that he can think about is closing down the border . . . "</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Those remarks have not aged well. But Stewart cherry-picks stupid comments only from people she desires to demonize, ignoring those by her own allies, even when they are far stupider and of more import. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">"For decades, Christian nationalist leaders have lined up with the anti-government, anti-tax agenda not just as a matter of politics but also as a matter of theology. Ken Blackwell of the Family Research Council, one of the Christian right’s major activist groups, has gone so far as to cast </span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.frc.org/op-eds/trump-and-welfare-reform-no-more-free-lunch" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">food stamps</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"> and other forms of government assistance for essential services as contrary to the 'biblical model.' Limited government, according to this line of thinking, is '</span><a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-7-number-1/biblical-foundations-limited-government" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="">godly government</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;">.'”</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The alternative being . . . unlimited government? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>"When a strong centralized response is needed from the federal government, it doesn’t help to have an administration that has never believed in a federal government serving the public good. Ordinarily, the consequences of this kind of behavior don’t show up for some time. In the case of a pandemic, the consequences are too obvious to ignore."</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Now we are asked to believe that the Trump administration "has never believed in federal government serving the public good?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Good heavens. Stewart's rhetoric becomes more reckless and unsupported by evidence as she goes on. </span></div>
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I teach 16 year old Chinese students how to argue rationally. I would be ashamed if one of them turned in such a mass of anecdotal, self-contradictory, meandering, lily-pad hopping, question-begging, vitriolic, hypocritical, inflammatory, and utterly uncritical effusions. </div>
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Here again were Stewart's original implied claims: </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>1. Evangelicals were "determined" to help Donald Trump become president. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>2. They "deny" science, in some sense as yet unspecified. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>3. They "bash" government, again in some sense unspecified. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>4. They care more about how loyal folks are than how qualified they are. (More, one assumes, than politicians have generally valued loyalty since the first chief of the first tribe gathered his warriors to attack an enemy tribe or hunt a mastodon.) </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>5. A recent spike of deaths in such liberal enclaves as New York, Seattle and a Michigan run by a Democrat who despises Donald Trump and who still lags Minnesota in testing, is somehow causally down-stream from the efforts of a coterie of Bible-readers in the White House. (Update: two months later, the vast majority of Covid-19 deaths are still in Democratic districts. This is not necessarily to blame Democrats, but to demonstrate the absurdity of Stewart's argument.) </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>6. Also the shutting down of the government and the spread of Covid-19.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In support of these claims, Stewart cites a bigot who lived in the Old South 170 years ago, a few dumb but obscure preachers, one evangelical and one Eastern Orthodox cabinet member whom she vaguely accuses of some common or unspoken error, and tangents about abortion, global warming, and whatever else her audience wants to hear. She conflates conservative governing ideology with libertarianism, conflates AGW skepticism with denial of climate or loathing towards environmental science, and in general, can't keep to any of her points for five minutes, let alone back them up with pertinent still less systematic evidence. And she keeps a blind eye to parallel, even greater sins of her own crew. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />All the while touting the value of critical reasoning! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It hardly need be said that as arguments, still less as exemplars of the goodhearted spirit the New York Times says we should seek in these times, these assertions remain "naked as a monkey's butt," as the Dai people in southern China describe a mountain bereft of any trees. </span></div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071813.post-53022404247842068042020-03-17T11:03:00.000-07:002020-04-26T12:52:02.507-07:00The World Should Thank China! And America Should Apologize! Here's my translation of an article in China's official news agency, Xinhua ("New China"), that has stirred angry reactions in the United States.<br />
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I'll write some commentary on this later. Certainly there is much to say in response. One important point: I do not know how much these views represent the thinking of the Chinese leadership.<br />
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The original is included below. -- DM<br />
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<b>The Truth is, the World Should Thank China</b><br />
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March 4, 2020 Source: <span style="color: #404040; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 700; text-align: center;">黄生看金融微信公号</span><br />
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Today, yet another state in the US has declared an emergency. The state of Florida announced public health emergency conditions. The state governor publicly announced that two people had tested positive for the New Corona Pneumonia (note: Covid-19, to be used below), awaiting confirmation from the federal Disease Control, and that at present these two people are being quarantined. Presently, after the states of California and Washington, this is the third US state to declare an emergency. This is a clear sign that Covid-19 is spreading like wildfire in the US. In addition after America announced the first death from Covid-19 yesterday, today it was discovered that two people had already died from the disease. What is ridiculous is that in order to confirm an instance of Covid-19, the Center for Disease Control needs to confirm, indeed the governor of Florida expressed dissatisfaction for this reason, and the state declared the Emergency before the case had been confirmed by the Center for Disease Control.<br />
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Clearly, America underestimated Covid-19, for the reason above, all confirmations of infections have to come from the Center for Disease Control, causing the whole world to doubt American data.<br />
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As Covid-19 has become more and more serious in the US, Trump continues to come out and bluster off the record, telling the American people not to worry. But actually, in his heart Trump is extremely concerned, and the Vice President, who is in charge of combating Covid-19 is even more worried, praying in the White House that the Covid-19 epidemic will quickly pass.<br />
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<span style="color: #404040;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">(Photo given below.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">At this time, Trump turned around completely, and started giving China emphatic praise. The day before yesterday at a press conference, an American reporter asked Trump: "If the Covid-19 epidemic worsens in America, would the American government consider measures like those taken by China?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #404040;"><span style="font-size: 18px;">At the time Trump said they would make use of a portion of Chinese measures to control Covid-19. and mentioned that China has made tremendous progress, you can see Starbucks open in China again, Apple has resumed full-scale production, Chinese prevention measures against Covid-19 have gained remarkable progress. </span></span><br />
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It was obvious that these words were from the heart, and because at the present moment there has been a big change, China has made important progress in controlling Covid-19, while America is trapped in the midst of the squall. More and more states are announcing emergency conditions, American medical equipment is extremely short, and an uncontrolled coronvirus epidemic will be practically impossible to avoid. </div>
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The American stock market has plunged several days in a row, losing more than 12% of its value in a short week. Facing this crisis of collapse caused Trump (to recognize) that when the American stock market continued to plunge, this would not only influence American economics, but also affect Trump's reelection. As the Covid-19 epidemic continues to spread, the challenge that Trump's presidential seat of authority faces grows larger and larger.<br />
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If at this time, China were to announce (that it was) limiting Americans or people who had visited America from entering China, and announce that Chinese were restricted from heading to the United States, that is to say institute travel restrictions on the United States, then American economics would suffer a huge blow, and the American stock market would collapse even more. But China did not do this. </div>
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But everyone should know, after Covid-19 exploded in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, Trump's American government first announced that it would bring Americans home from Wuhan, leading other countries to scurry in and follow their example, forcing China to stand by and watch. </div>
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Not only so, the American government also announced that it was restricting Chinese and foreigners who had visited China from entered the US, which is to say indirectly announcing travel restrictions on China, making other countries in the world covertly to render China isolated. The impact on Chinese economics was enormous. </div>
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These actions by America were extremely lacking compassion, like throwing rocks on someone who has fallen into a well, going after someone when they're sick. But now China's Covid-19 situation is under control. Aside from Wuhan, new cases are in the single digits, while the situation in America is increasingly serious.<br />
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If at this time China were to carry out revenge, aside from announcing a ban on American travel, China could also announce that it was carrying out a war strategy of controlling medical products, forbidding exporting to America. In which case the US would plunge into great seas and oceans of coronavirus (汪洋大海). </div>
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According to what an official at the American Center for Disease Control says, most American masks are produced in China and imported from China. If China were to forbid the export of masks to the United States, then the US would run completely dry of masks, and couldn't even take the most elementary precautions to prevent Covid-19.<br />
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In the same way, an official at the American Center for Disease Control openly admitted that an enormous majority of American drugs are imported, some imported from Europe, but Europe has placed the production facilities for these medicines in China. Therefore more than 90% of American imported medicines have some connection with China. The underlying meaning was, at this time, if China were to announce that medicines they should seek to use drugs to satisfy domestic needs, America would descend into a Covid-19 hell. </div>
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But there is humanity among mankind. The Chinese government and Chinese people have never done this, tossing stones at someone in a well, still less prohibit exporting drugs to America. As China's Covid-19 situation has gradually come under control, China is greatly expanding its ability to export masks and medicines, and America is one of the regions that is asking for them. American officials, for instance Secretary of Commerce Ross, American Secretary of State Pompeo, and White House Economic (note: Trade) Adviser Navarro, openly gloated over the Chinese Covid-19 situation, expressing the hope that the explosion of the pandemic in China would be useful to the United States, bringing business back to America, and advising the world to consider the dangers of China's distribution chain. The notorious Wall Street Journal even published an odious essay (note: literally "reek for ten thousand years"), "China is the Sick Man of Asia." At the time, the American New York Times also openly put out an article, criticizing China for shutting up Wuhan, calling it a violation of human rights. This American culture of tossing rocks on a man in a well is truly disgusting. But now the Fengshui (literally wind-water) has turned around, and America has become a a victim of the new Coronavirus. At this time China has not tossed rocks in the well, and has not blamed America. The US should now even more apologize to China for all these previous errors. </div>
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During this period, a certain kind of voice is being deliberately hyped, saying that China owes the world an apology. This is extremely ridiculous. In order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, China sacrificed an enormous amount, spending an huge economic sums, cutting off the spread of Covid-19. There is no country that has paid so great a sacrifice in stopping the spread of Covid-19. </div>
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In addition, according to research by Academician Zhong Nanshan, while Covid-19 erupted in China, its origin is not necessarily from within China. Now a great deal of research points to the origin of Covid-19 may possibly be another country. America, Italy, Iran and other nations generally haven't had the opportunity to test Asian cases to prove this point. So China has still less cause to apologize. </div>
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Now we should forthrightly say, America owes China an apology, and the world owes China a voice of thanks. Without China's huge sacrifice and expense, there wouldn't be this valuable window of time to fight Covid-19. One can say that the strength of China alone, steadfastly held out against the epidemic for a long time. This is truly a deed to amaze Heaven and Earth, and make the spirits themselves cry! </div>
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理直气壮,世界应该感谢中国</div>
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<span class="h-time" style="margin-right: 20px;">2020-03-04 10:45:32</span> 来源: 黄生看金融微信公号</div>
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今天,美国又一个州宣布紧急状态,美国佛罗里达州宣布进入公共卫生紧急状态,佛州州长办公室对外宣称,该州已经发现了两人为新冠肺炎推断确诊病例,需要等待美国疾控中心进一步确认,目前这两人正在接受隔离治疗。这是美国继加利福尼亚州、华盛顿州之后,美国第三个宣布紧急状态的州,可见新冠肺炎疫情在美国已经出现了星火燎原的迹象,而且继昨天美国公布第一例新冠肺炎死亡病例后,今天又发生了一起新冠肺炎死亡病例,总共已经有了两名死亡病例。然而荒唐的是,美国现在要确诊一名新冠肺炎病例,还需要美国疾控中心最终审核,这也就是佛罗里达州对此表示很不满的原因,虽然美国疾控中心还没有最终确认,佛州自己就宣布进入紧急状态了。</div>
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很显然,美国真实的新冠肺炎疫情被严重的低估了,原因就是上面说的,所有的确诊病例,必须由美国疾控中心来最终认定,这使得美国的数据一直让人全世界怀疑。</div>
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随着美国新冠肺炎疫情越来越严重,特朗普也不断出来吹风,让美国民众不要恐慌,但实际情况是特朗普内心也非常着急,负责新冠肺炎疫情防控的美国副总统彭斯更是大为紧张,在白宫办公室祈祷新冠肺炎疫情尽快过去。</div>
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这个时候,特朗普发生了一个很大的转变,开始对中国赞扬有加。在前天的一场记者招待会上,有美国记者问特朗普:“如果美国的新冠肺炎疫情恶化,美国政府是否会考虑采取和中国类似的措施呢?”</div>
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特朗普当即表示,会采取部分中国的措施来控制新冠肺炎,并表示现在中国取得了很大的进展,可以看到星巴克在中国重新开业了,苹果公司在中国已经全面恢复了生产,中国的新冠肺炎防控确实取得了很大的进展。</div>
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很显然,特朗普的这番话是发自内心的,也是因为现在角色发生了转换,中国控制新冠肺炎取得了重大的进展,而美国却陷于疾风骤雨之中,越来越多的州宣布紧急状态,美国的医疗物资极度紧缺,一场失控的新冠肺炎疫情几乎无法避免。</div>
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美国的股市连续大暴跌,短短一周的时间跌幅超过12%,直追美国次贷危机期间的大崩盘,这让特朗普如坐针毡,一旦美国股市继续暴跌,不仅仅影响美国经济,也影响特朗普的总统连任,一旦新冠肺炎疫情继续蔓延,特朗普的总统宝座面临的挑战就越来越大。</div>
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如果这个时候,中国宣布限制美国人或者去过美国的人进入中国,宣布禁止中国人前往美国,实际上就是对美国实施旅行禁止,那么美国的经济将会遭受巨大的打击,美国的股市更会暴跌,但是中国并没有这样做。</div>
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而大家要知道,当中国湖北武汉爆发新冠肺炎疫情后,特朗普的美国政府第一个宣布从中国武汉接回美国人,导致了其它国家纷纷跟进,使得中国当时非常被动。</div>
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不仅仅如此,美国政府还宣布限制中国人和到过中国的外国人进入美国,实际上就是对中国间接宣布旅行禁止,让世界上其它国家变相对中国形成孤立,对中国的经济冲击是很大的。</div>
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美国这些做法非常不厚道,可谓在落井下石,趁人病要人命,而如今中国的新冠肺炎疫情已经得到了控制,除了武汉外,其它地方新增确诊病例为个位数,而美国的新冠肺炎疫情却越来越严重。</div>
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如果这个时候中国对美国进行报复,除了宣布对美国旅行禁令外,还宣布对医疗产品进行战略管控,禁止出口美国,那么美国将会陷入新冠病毒的汪洋大海之中。</div>
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根据美国疾控中心官员的公开表示,美国的口罩大部分是中国生产,并从中国进口的,如果中国禁止将口罩出口到美国,那么美国就会陷入口罩荒,防范新冠病毒最基本的措施都无法做到。</div>
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同样根据美国疾控中心官员的公开表示,美国的药物绝大部分也是依靠进口,有些药物是从欧洲进口,但是欧洲又将这些药物的生产基地放在中国,因此90%以上的美国进口药物都和中国有关。言下之意,这个时候只要中国宣布药品尽量满足国内而禁止出口,美国将会陷入新冠肺炎疫情的地狱。</div>
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然而,人间有大爱,中国人民和中国政府从来没有这样做,没有对美国落井下石,更没有禁止口罩和药品出口美国,随着中国的新冠肺炎疫情逐渐受到控制,中国的口罩、药品的出口能力将极大的提升,而美国正是需求方之一。美国政府的官员,比如商务部长罗斯,美国国务卿蓬佩奥,美国白宫经济顾问纳瓦罗等,公开对中国的新冠肺炎疫情幸灾乐祸,表示中国爆发新冠肺炎疫情对美国有利,有利于企业回流美国,还呼吁世界上的企业考虑中国供应链的风险。甚至臭名昭著的《华尔街日报》还发表了一篇遗臭万年的文章《中国是亚洲真正的病人》,美国的《纽约时报》当时也公开发文,谴责中国武汉封城,说是侵犯人 权。美国这种落井下石的文化,实在让人不齿,而如今风水轮流转,美国成为了新冠肺炎疫情的受难国,这个时候中国没有落井下石,没有谴责美国,这个时候的美国,更应该为之前种种的错误行为向中国道歉。</div>
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这段时间,有一种声音故意在炒作,说中国欠世界一个道歉,这是非常荒谬的,中国为了抗击新冠肺炎疫情,做出了巨大的牺牲,付出了巨大的经济成本,切断了新冠病毒的传播途径,没有哪个国家在这次新冠肺炎疫情中做出了如此大的牺牲和付出。</div>
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而且,根据钟南山院士的研究,新冠肺炎疫情虽然在中国爆发,但是源头并不一定在中国。现在很多研究也指向新冠病毒的源头可能来自其它国家,美国、意大利、伊朗等国家的很多没有亚洲接触史的新冠肺炎确诊病例就说明了这一点,因此中国更没有理由道歉。</div>
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现在我们应该理直气壮的表示,美国欠中国一个道歉,世界欠中国一声感谢,没有中国的巨大牺牲和付出,就不可能为全世界赢得宝贵的抗击新冠肺炎疫情的时间窗口,可以说中国一己之力,硬生生的将新冠肺炎疫情挡住了很长一段时间,真的是惊天地、泣鬼神!</div>
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David B Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04029133398946303654noreply@blogger.com0