Tax Dollars at Work and Play

I had free Tai food the other day.  And all I had to do was endure an hour of anti-White racial agitation to get it.

Mai Nguyen is the founding director of the Asian/Hispanic/Native American Center at Wright State University and the founding president of Ohio Consortium of Multicultural Centers in Higher Education (OCMCHE).  In reckless disregard for irony, Ms. Nguyen, a refugee from Vietnam, has made a nice living for herself giving lectures on how evil White people treated Asians.  Waylaid by an Asian friend, I found myself listening to one of these lectures at the government’s Asian Pacific Island something-or-other.  Hey, free food!

The bête noire of the Ms. Nguyen, is – wait for it – immigration restriction, and in particular the Immigration Act of 1924, although she does take time to discuss the WWII internment of Japanese.  Her narrative was one of immigrant flows from a succession of Asian countries, each in turn provoking nativist backlash and restriction.

Several thoughts come to mind.

The audience was comprised mostly of Asians (though not entirely; I surprised at the number of Caucasians in attendance).  Since they had security clearances, they were, to a man, American citizens in good standing.  So whatever our restrictions on Asian immigration, those restrictions were definitionally not offenses against these Asians or their ancestors.  So why should they be upset?

But of course, I’m not that naïve.  I know exactly why they’re upset:  they racially identify with the greater transnational Asian community.  On the one hand, in the context of the present state of American culture and politics, this is entirely understandable.

On the other hand, it aggravates the perils of immigration under our present circumstances.  Leave aside the problematic implications of celebrations of ethnic pride for American unity in general.  Here we have a group of people who, by virtue of their above-average intelligence, orderliness, and industry, have been quite successful here in America.  Yet instead of celebrating that success, nor even opposing the real and ongoing discrimination they face in most college admissions to the benefit of blacks and Hispanics, they instead nurture hatred against its historic (i.e., white) majority because, once upon a time, we tried to keep our own country.

What’s in this for me and my children?  How does it benefit them to allow immigration to enlarge a group that is growing in both economic power and hostility to whites?

Mmm . . . I’m not sure that the usual people will like the potential application of this logic.  Forget I said anything.

The Thai food was catered.  Thai food isn’t really to my tasted, but you can’t argue with free.  Our plates were prepared by young Thai girls of limited English proficiency.  I spoke with one:

How long have you been in the U.S.?

Five years.

How do you like living here?

Eh . . . [Non-committal head movements.]

This was obviously a family restaurant.  I’m curious as to her visa status, or indeed her lawful presence here.  I’m also wondering how much personal choice she had in coming or remaining.

The Real Purpose of Regulation

Matt Yglesias discovers bureaucracy.  The American Interest gloats:

As Yglesias’ experience shows, the move for government reform does not need to be an ideological or partisan issue: liberals should fight pointless, expensive, poor-exploiting and opportunity-killing regulation as hard as conservatives.

But it has, to some degree, become a partisan issue because upper middle class progressive intellectuals often know nothing about the real effect of the regulations they do so much to promote. The reason for this is simple: they are almost never in the position of running businesses.

It’s touchingly naive to assume upper middle class progressives, or the upper middle class in general, spends much time worrying about the effect of their regulatory policy on the poor.  I propose an alternative explanation:  local regulatory policy helps liberals avoid the consequences of their stated beliefs in immigration and Civil Rights.

Immigration swells the population and, with it, the demand for housing and government services.  Regulating the supply of housing and, more importantly, enforcing occupancy regulations slows the increase in population and increases the value of the existing housing stock, to the apparent benefit of existing residents.

Civil Rights laws with respect to housing makes it relatively difficult to defend against minority encroachment in a straightforward way.  It can be done – my own community does it through mechanism I only partially understand – but it helps to be upper middle class.  But working-class neighborhoods are in constant churn:  minorities move in, whites move out, the neighborhood declines and becomes a slum, then in some cases it gentrifies depending, presumably, on location.  But regulations written, not in the interest of development or “the poor”, but to raise the cost of movement, can arrest this process.

On the other hand, DC is in the process of gentrifying, an eventuality that upper middle class progressives would want to encourage to the extent they have political power.  I don’t actually know whether the particular regulations Yglesias finds so odious help or hinder it.

Diversity Propaganda Watch: Φville Edition

My daughter came home from school all giggly about a wall poster she had spotted there and whose contents she had carefully copied down for our mutual amusement:

Our community is made up of people from many cultures and diverse backgrounds.  Look around.  We are all different!  These differences can enhance our relationships.  Diversity makes us unique!

For the record, here are my town’s demographics from City-Data.com:

• White alone - 8,655 (94.1%)
• Hispanic - 163 (1.8%)
• Two or more races - 139 (1.5%)
• Asian alone - 124 (1.3%)
• Black alone - 83 (0.9%)
• American Indian alone - 17 (0.2%)
• Other race alone - 21 (0.2%)

Candidly, I didn’t know we had 83 black people living here.  I’m curious where we keep them.

I’m proud that my daughter has developed an eye for this nonsense.

Here Come the Trannies.

Transsexuals are now a federally protected class under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.  The link is to the OPM hiring guidance, but since the guidance is driven by an EEOC ruling, it impacts private businesses as well.

It’s difficult to imagine Romney appointees making fundamental weirdness a protected class for employment purposes.  It’s also difficult to imagine them reversing the decision.  Without a pre-existing prejudice in favor of freedom of contract in hiring, or in favor of normal sexual behavior, then reversing the policy gets framed as approving of discrimination against transsexuals.  And who wants to do that?

Thus liberalism gets ratcheted up another notch.

Diversity is Strength! It’s also . . . corruption in public contracting.

From Sunday’s Dayton Daily News:

‘Disadvantaged’ firm wins millions in public contracts Daily News investigation brings up questions of firm’s true ownership. A wealthy developer, David C. Oakes, and his wife controlled a Washington Twp. company that won millions of dollars in public contracts under a federal program that gives a leg up to companies owned by disadvantaged people, a Dayton Daily News investigation found. Developer and civil engineer David C. Oakes and his wife, luxury-home builder Shery B. Oakes, controlled TesTech Inc. for years while the engineering company sought lucrative tax-payer-funded contracts claiming Egyptian-American Sherif Adel Aziz of Washington Twp. was the owner, the Daily News found. Egyptians are not a protected minority group under the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, or DBE, program.  However, Aziz gained entry into the program as an African-American, saying he could trace his heritage to an African Nubian tribe through his religion.

Let me explain how this worked ten years ago.  Businesses that achieve DBE status are allowed to win public contracts at up to 10% more money than the actual lowest bidder.  The reason I know this is because at a major Air Force installation on the Florida panhandle, the contract for base services had been held by the ManTech corporation for a number of years.  But one year, the contractors started identifying themselves by a new name (I forget what; doesn’t matter in this context).  It turned out that a DBE had gotten the contract, and then turned around and subcontracted the entire operation back to ManTech, taking a 10% cut for themselves and . . . well, just themselves actually.  The contract winner didn’t actually have any employees nor any interest at all in actually doing the work.  All they had was a Designated Victim who could overbid by the 10%.

Keep in mind, none of this was a secret.  It was apparently entirely lawful.

Continuing . . .

Federal and state officials are investigating possible violations of DBE law by Aziz and have questioned TesTech’s relationship with two other companies controlled by David and Shery Oakes:  CESO Inc. and Design Homes and Development Co., the Daily News has learned. The newspaper's investigation, which followed a July 7 raid by FBI and federal transportation agents, uncovered a pattern of activities that raises questions about the true ownership of TesTech, and whether Aziz runs the company as he has repeatedly told government officials. For example: At the same time Aziz was seeking disadvantaged status in 2004 and calling himself the sole owner of TesTech Inc., Shery Oakes was telling a different government arm that she and David Oakes owned TesTech.  Shery, who like Aziz is an Egyptian-American, and David, who is white, are too wealthy to qualify for DBE status. Shery Oakes was twice listed on 2007 campaign finance reports ad TesTech’s owner.  David Oakes also signed paperwork filed with the Ohio Department of Health as TesTech’s president years after it received DBE status. Federal law requires that DBEs be independent from any other company to ensure that those qualifying for disadvantaged status actually run the business.  Yet a company owned by David Oakes, CESO Testing Technology, for years held federal and state licenses on equipment needed in TesTech’s work.  The two companies also had the same headquarters and shared letterhead, personnel and equipment. The name TesTech appears interchangeably with CESO Testing Technology and CESO Inc. in documents the companies filed with government entities.  Some documents list David Oakes as Aziz’s boss.  And though CESO Testing Technology was doing business under the TesTech name in Ohio, it never filed the required registration with the state. Neither Aziz nor the Oakeses agreed to be interviewed for this story, though in a prepared statement released Sept. 23 Aziz said, “I am currently and always have been the sole owner of TesTech Inc.” TesTech provides environmental assessments and a variety of engineering services that include drilling, field and laboratory testing and inspection work at construction sites.  The company’s public clients include Dayton International Airport; Dayton Public Schools; the county engineers in Montgomery, Warren and Greene counties; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The company also won engineering work on federally funded highway projects, including reconstruction of Interstate 75 through downtown Dayton.  Private sector clients have included WalMart and Target.  According to its website, TesTech has 85 employees in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Missouri. The company reported annual sales in 2009 of $5.7 million, according to documents Aziz filed with the city of Dayton. The DBE program that TesTech used to win public contracts was meant to redress discrimination.  It gives small businesses owned by women, members of certain minority groups and other disadvantaged people preferential treatment in winning government contracts. The federal government has an “aspirational goal” of giving DBE companies 10 percent of contracts funded by the U.S. Transportation Department, said Steve Faulkner, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, which administers the program in Ohio. “Having DBE status gives you a piece of the pie,” said Eric Chaffee, who chairs the Project for Law and Business Ethics at the University of Dayton Law School. Penalties for DBE fraud can range from fines and restitution to exclusion from federal contracts and even imprisonment.  The Transportation Department’s Inspector General in fiscal 2008 helped to obtain 67 federal indictments, 09 convictions, 104 administrative actions against companies and the collection of $544 million in fines and restitution. More recently, the g0vernment stepped up enforcement after the Government Accountability Office in 2009 and 2010 found fraud and abuse in other federal contracting set-aside programs. “The main group that gets hurt (by DBE fraud) is the DBE owners who aren’t fraudulent,” said Tim Lohrentz of the Insight Center for Community Economic Development in Oakland, Calif.  Fraud also puts legitimate contractors of all races at a competitive disadvantage, he said, and “it puts doubt in the public mind about the program as a whole.”

Can’t have doubt about the program, now can we.  How touching the concern about the harm to “legitimate contractors of all races”, when putting white contractors at a “competitive disadvantage” is the point of the whole freakin’ program!

Continuing . . .

Federal Raid On July 7, federal agents executing a sealed warrant removed boxes from the Galleria building at 8534 Yankee St.  The building, which is owned by the Oakes-controlled Yankee Partners LLC, houses the headquarters of TesTech, CESO Inc., and Design Homes. Aziz, in a statement released after the raid, said, “We have been in discussions with the DOT over the last few years, responding to their questions about our company and we have cooperated fully.” Federal officials wouldn’t comment and have filed no charges. The Montgomery County Republican Party also has its headquarters in the Galleria building, paying $1000 a month in rent.  Party Chairman Greg Gantt said he moved the headquarters there last year after seeking out a landlord who was supportive of the party. The Oakeses and their companies are major political donors, contributing at least $79,700 since 2002 to the county GOP and mostly Republican national, state, and local candidates. “I don’t see any real connection between whatever issues are going on with the Department of transportation and our leasing space from (the Oakeses),” Gantt said.  “Based on my personal knowledge with them and what personal conversations we have had, they have a conservative Republican philosophy and that’s why they are supportive (of Republicans).”

I tried looking up the Oakeses on OpenSecrets.org, but all I could find was about $2500 in donations to congressman Mike Turner.

[Boring section about case details deleted.]

Continuing . . .

Minority heritage questioned Ohio and federal transportation officials are moving to strip TesTech of its DBE status.  On March 18, ODOT sent a letter to Aziz giving him the reasons for the decertification:  Officials believe he is not a member of a recognized minority group, makes too much money to qualify and isn’t the true majority owner. Aziz appealed the finding, signing the letter “president and Sole Shareholder” of TesTech.  A November hearing is expected. Aziz won the DBE certification on appeal in 2005 after being turned down by the state in 1998 and 2004. To be eligible for DBE status, companies must be at least 51 percent owned by socially and economically disadvantaged people, and those owners must be in control of day-to-day operations.  There are limits on a company’s gross receipts, and the personal net worth of a disadvantaged owner cannot exceed $1.3 million, an amount that was increased in January from $750,000.

Right.  Because having a net worth of six times the national median just isn’t enough.   The truly disadvantaged have a net worth ten times the median.

TesTech benefited greatly from its DBE status.  It’s impossible to know how much in taxpayer money the company was paid or how much it obtained as a DBE because TesTech did business with so many government entities.  But a Daily News review of area and state contracts found TesTech was paid at least $4.7 million since 2003 by the Ohio Department of Transportation, Montgomery County, the city of Dayton and Dayton Public Schools. TesTech’s DBE status assisted it in getting much of that work, contract documents and interviews show.

Um . . . duh?  What would be the other reason to have DBE status?

Continuing . . .

TesTech was incorporated in Ohio in 1997 by local attorney James Weprin, who has incorporated various Oakes companies.  After being turned down as a DBE by the state of Ohio in 1998, the company gained limited DBE status in 2002 through the Columbus Airport Authority and a year later through the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.  After Ohio approved TesTech as a DBE in 2005 it was certified by Michigan and Kentucky.  Aziz withdrew TesTech from Michigan’s DBE program in 2009 and the company was decertified by Kentucky in 2010 after TesTech briefly dropped out of Ohio’s program. Aziz, 49, holds bachelor’s and master's degrees in engineering, respectively, from Egypt’s Cairo University and Wright State University.  He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1991.  Aziz and his wife, Dr. Nancy Zaki, own a $643,390 Washington Twp. home built on land they bought from Shery and David Oakes Ltd. in 2004 according to the Montgomery County Auditor. Aziz gave sharply different versions of his net worth to two separate government entities last year. In April 2010, when he applied for the city of Dayton’s set-aside programs for small, disadvantaged and minority businesses, he said he had a negative net worth of $46,145.  But when he reapplied in October 2010 for DBE status in Michigan, Aziz stated his net worth of $470,697.

I don’t see any reason to believe either of these numbers, but it says about the state of mortgage lending when an Egyptian immigrant can borrow that kind of money with so little capital.

[More boring case history deleted.]

Continuing . . .

The Oakeses live in their $2.3 million home in Washington Twp. where they hosted a major fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society, the Cattle Baron's Ball, in August 2010. Shery, 51, and her family emigrated from Egypt in 1965 and she was naturalized in the United States in 1974.  Her father, Bushra Migally, was a professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin, where Shery earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. In 1987 she established Design Homes and Development Co., the most high-profile of the couple's many companies. In 2007 reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith's lavish post-funeral reception was held at a $ 14.9 million vacation property in the Bahamas built by Design Homes and owned by Shery Oakes. It is not clear if she still owns the property. Shery also is chief executive of DHDC Inc., a real estate, construction and civil survey services company. She successfully applied for Minority Business Enterprise certification through the state for DHDC, stating she is an African-American. The MBE program, which does not place limits on personal net worth, opens doors to set-asides for public contracts but not the federally mandated access to the big pot of transportation money available to DBE companies. In 2004 Shery sought state assistance for construction of a new headquarters for the various Oakes companies. In her application, she identified the "Oakes Companies" as CESO Inc., CESO Testing Technology, TesTech Inc. and Design Homes - "all owned by David and Shery Oakes." "All of the Oakes Companies work hand in hand for each other in services,” she wrote in the application filed with the Ohio Department of Development. “No changes in ownership will occur.” That same year Aziz applied for federal DBE status, telling ODOT he was the owner of TesTech.

Does anyone still get rich by creating value anymore?  Or is it always just value transference.

[More boring ownership history deleted.]

Concluding . . .

Troubling questions Experts on DBE fraud say the results of the Daily News investi­gation raise troubling questions about the true ownership of Tes­Tech. "It certainly sounds like you have an affiliation problem here," said Edward DeLisle, a Philadel­phia attorney who specializes in DBE fraud cases. "The highest officer has to be the disadvantaged person. It (the title of president) certainly would signify that he (Oakes) has control." DeLisle said fraud in DBE con­tracts is becoming more common. In today's down economy, "you're seeing companies, just to stay alive, creating companies run by people that claim to be disad­vantaged," he said. "Companies are getting desperate, especially in the construction industry where the private industry has pretty much dried up." The U.S. Transportation Department's inspector general lists DBE fraud as its top priority. Common fraud schemes include use of front companies that do little or no actual work, or part­nering in illegal ways with DBEs, according to the IG website and a number of experts an the program. "The biggest one we see is, they will hire somebody to be the designated minority or veteran," said Earl Gregorich, who heads the Small Business Devel­opment Center at Wright State University. "(It's) kind of a straw man situation. It’s the most com­mon because it's the easiest one to pull off." Contact these reporters at (937) 225-7455 or lhulsey@DaytonDailyNews.com and (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com. Lynn Hulsey is an investigative reporter who covers government and politics for the Dayton Daily News. She is a graduate of the University of Dayton and has reported for the paper since 1995. Tom Beyerlein has won state and national journal­ism awards for investigative business reporting.

Let’s review the yummy diversiness:

• First generation immigrants claiming benefits for “discrimination;”
• Politically connected real estate developers;
• Racial redistribution at the expense of whites; and
• Government corruption.

When I first heard of this story, I almost couldn’t believe it.  Not because the story is unlikely; on the contrary, it’s all too likely.  But rather because I usually read about this kind of thing at Half Sigma, or iSteve, or VDare.  But in fact, this one article is the only reporting in the country on the Oakes/Aziz connection, and the bulk of it is behind the Daily News subscriber firewall.  I only found out about it because I have friends in Ohio.  It’s almost as if the media don’t want us to know about corruption in DBE contracting.

From the Archives: the Cult of Diversity

 

THE SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE
CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
WASHINGTON DC

JUL 31 2005

SECAF/CSAF Letter to Airmen:  Diversity and the United States Air Force

To the Airmen of the United States Air Force,

     Today’s Air Force is composed of America’s finest men and women.  From all walks of life—rural farms, inner cities, and every place in-between—young Americans are drawn to the call of Integrity, Service and Excellence.  We celebrate this diversity, recognizing that such a mix of experience leads to a breadth of perspective and broader horizons, and ultimately innovative ways to maximize our combat capabilities for the Joint Team.

     Harnessing such magnificent differences into an effective, coherent team takes solid leadership,quality training and a conscious effort toward mutual respect on all our parts.  Tolerating harassment of any type is no different than committing the offense.  As we become a leaner, more lethal force, we simply have no place for such potentially criminal or divisive behavior.

     We are all Airmen, and under enemy fire the race, religion, sex or geographic origin of the Airmen fighting next to us is irrelevant.  We expect you to exhibit a similar whole-hearted respect toward your fellow Airmen – your Wingmen – wherever you work today.

     The United States’ first national motto, “E pluribus unum,” means “out of many, one.”  Initially, the motto referred to the formation of our great Nation for the thirteen colonies.  Is subsequently took on new meaning as people from all over the globe immigrated here, making the U.S. a multicultural “melting pot,”  Today, that phrase reminds us that we’re in this fight together.  Let’s make sure the efforts and innovations of all Airmen are welcomed and appreciated.  Your Nation demands no less.

 

Michael W. Wynne
Secretary of the Air Force

 

T. Michael Moseley
General, USAF
Chief of Staff

Considering themselves wise . . .

Robin Hanson celebrates 9-11:

In the decade since 9/11 over half a billion people have died worldwide. A great many choices could have delayed such deaths, including personal choices to smoke less or exercise more, and collective choices like allowing more immigration. And cryonics might have saved most of them.

Yet, to show solidarity with these three thousand victims, we have pissed away three trillion dollars ($1 billion per victim), and trashed long-standing legal principles. And now we’ll waste a day remembering them, instead of thinking seriously about how to save billions of others. I would rather we just forgot 9/11.

Do I sound insensitive? If so, good — 9/11 deaths were less than one part in a hundred thousand of deaths since then, and don’t deserve to be sensed much more than that fraction. If your feelings say otherwise, that just shows how full fricking far your mind has gone.

Let’s help him out:

• Of last decade’s half-billion dead, most succumbed to natural causes and accidents.  Don’t take it personally.
• Of those that died by direct human agency, most shared no meaningful ties of blood, culture, or nation with us.  I wish them no ill, but I haven’t the energy to feign much sympathy.
• Of those that were Americans, most were killed by other Americans.  These may, in fact, deserve more attention than they receive; if so, we should start by reporting them honestly.

The attacks on 9-11 were especially salient because a sizeable number of our fellow countrymen were dramatically murdered by aliens on behalf of an alien ideological agenda.  That this commands special attention among Americans is pretty basic to an understanding of human nature, and if Robin’s feelings say otherwise, that just shows how full fricking far his mind has gone.

More foolishness:

I am a proud resident of Fairfax County, in the U.S. state of Virginia. Today, I want to warn my fine fellow Fairfax folk: we interact too promiscuously with outsiders! For example, we are allowed to buy things made outside Fairfax, and leave the county to travel or work. Fairfax firms can even choose outsiders as investors, employees, and suppliers . . . .

I pretty much stopped reading right there, since I long ago outgrew a taste for comparing actual human ties and sentiments with fictitious ones.  But as long as we’re playing reductio ad absurdum, let me have a go at it:

I am a proud resident of the Hanson household.  Today, I want to warn my fine fellow Hansons:  we allow outsiders too much access to our domicile.  Non-Hansons are allowed to enter at will without so much as a by-your-leave.  They consume more of family resources than they contribute, they strain the carrying capacity of the living room sofa during “What Not to Where,” and they fail to respect household social norms like flushing the toilet and not hitting others . . . .

Once we come to see our nation as an extended family, then the sentiments of ordinary Americans become a lot more understandable, perhaps even to economists.

Happy Easter Spring Spheres

From the Seattle News:

A sophomore at a local private high school thinks an effort to make Easter politically correct is ridiculous.

Jessica, 16, told KIRO Radio's Dori Monson Show that a week before spring break, the students commit to a week-long community service project. She decided to volunteer in a third grade class at a public school, which she would like to remain nameless.

"At the end of the week I had an idea to fill little plastic eggs with treats and jelly beans and other candy, but I was kind of unsure how the teacher would feel about that," Jessica said.

"I went to the teacher to get her approval and she wanted to ask the administration to see if it was okay," Jessica explained. "She said that I could do it as long as I called this treat 'spring spheres.' I couldn't call them Easter eggs."

Diversity at Work: Cleveland Edition

From FoxNews.com:

School officials in Ohio have launched an investigation after a beating of a student was videotaped and posted online, Fox 8 reports.

The fight was recorded outside the Martin Luther King Jr. Career Campus in Cleveland just before the school let out for spring break, according to the station.

Do we even have to watch the video?

 

Here are the stats on Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.  The “career campus” gets a 2/10 from GreatSchools.net.

Pleasantly SurprisedUPDATE: Expectations Met

In all honesty, after yesterday’s events in Mazar-e-Sharif, I had this post already written in my head.  It was going to be titled “Profiles in Cowardice” or “Be-TRAY-us Redux”, which tells you most of what you need to know about where my baseline expectations have fallen.

So you can imagine my gratification when I heard this during the COMISAF standup:

Well, obviously what took place in Mazar is tragic, horrific, reprehensible and beyond any comprehension by any religion and it was good to see President Karzai put out a condemnation statement last night, along with of course the NATO secretary general and many others.  The fact is that this event in the United States, which drew all of about twelve people, never would have drawn interest out here had it not been for the way it was echoed and highlighted, and that is a tragedy in and of itself frankly.  We’re going to have to watch very very carefully to see if this escalates elsewhere in the country now, keep our finger on the pulse of various events . . . .

Again, this is a very worrisome development.  I’m not sure what repercussions it will have for the international community.  I think we need to ensure that it is the first topic on the senior security shura today, so for DCOS STRAT  Engagement, please make sure that we would like an explanation from the Minister of Interior what is being done, what has been done, what will be done.  We need to contact the religious leadership we have established relationships with.  Tell them that they need to do some serious soul searching because it is my impression that elements of the religious establishment are the ones that fanned the flames on this and poured gasoline on it, and frankly, they probably have to do, again, a bit of internal examination to ask themselves if this was something they want to be associated [with], is this something their religion stands for in Afghanistan and so forth.  There is a fine line between a peaceful demonstration and violence in this country.  And they obviously – their actions at the end of the day – got out of control.  It’s interesting, because President Karzai has cautioned once or twice, he’s noted that peaceful demonstrations don’t always stay that way in Afghanistan, and yet this is how this came about . . . .

But indeed, there’s got to be some serious soul searching here by people who are supposed to be giving moral guidance to citizens of this country.

Now, while the boss of course put some thought into this – he’s nothing if not careful – keep in mind he was speaking extemporaneously without a prepared text.  Obviously, this was not the speech I would have given; I was over my illusions about the true essence of Islam by September 12, 2001.  But note what he did not do:  he did not attack Terry Jones for exercising his constitutional rights, he did not try to play both sides by calling for “mutual tolerance” or any of the multi-cult phrases of national suicide.  He instead put the blame squarely where it belonged, no equivocation.

Well done, sir.

UPDATE: I noticed P4 giving a press conference Sunday. Here he is "protecting and defending the Constitution of the United States." Pathetic. (H.T.: månesteiner in the comments.)

On the Opening Ceremony

Did it occur to anyone else that the tragic death of Nodar Kumaritashvili received more recognition from Olympic Officials than they've given the Munich massacre in the last forty years?