The content of his character

AF - Austin, TX

Melanie, I sent this to Grete at Fox. She is really bothered by this issue and might appreciate the perspective. If, that is, she doesn't read your site. She should. Great stuff.

winston

So true. This is horrible. Obama's presidency will bring about the downfall of the US.

Verity

You know, the sneers of "racism" directed so malignantly at anyone who judges Obama a thug have been effective because those screeching the jibes know their position is false. And they're therefore set up to argue it falsely. They know there are highly respected lawyers, doctors, politicians even!, and business people who are black and enjoy the confidence of both their black and white clients.

They know that Thomas Sowell is the first read of the day for many people, including many white people. They know that, in most instances, white people hauled up on traffic offences don't tremble with fear when the officer says "All rise" and a black judge ascends the steps to the bench and bangs the gavel. All they see is a judge in judge's robes and the appurtenances of the office.

These accusations of "racism" are intentional lies to protect their boy, who they know can't win in a straight fight.

Reg

I've seen numerous web videos made by black American conservatives railing against Obama.

I'm confident of a McCain Palin win. Maybe even a large win.

Brennen Bearnes

Provided that various malefactors don't manage to engineer Yet Another Republican Electoral Theft, I am going to thoroughly enjoy watching this space in the days following an Obama win.

Hamish

Melanie:

(a) Where are your examples of race-related smears you say are directed at any criticism of Obama? Your piece lacks a degree of credibility because you give none. Who are the people using smear tactics to blunt attacks and deflect scrutiny from Obama? Please name them.

(b) I am surprised you do not see why a black American such as Obama might want to go to such a Church as this. To state the obvious, black churches played an enormously important role in the civil rights movement and continue to play an important role. Why would a young black Christian not be attracted to such a legacy? (I speak, by the way, not as some Panglossian fool, but as a white Brixtonian who has more than once had good cause, when dealing with black racists, to invoke MLK's iconic character/colour plea.)

(c) If Bush attended an equivalent 'white' Church, people would be right to be worried about it. To state the obvious, that's because whites are far more numerous and powerful in America than blacks, who remain a disadvantaged minority who face race-based prejudgements from other people in their everyday lives. Blacks have in the past been bought and sold as chattels by white Americans and until recent decades were treated as second class citizens by the law. They continue to face huge disadvantages in life compared to white people. All this is to put it at its mildest.

(d) To discount this background, and to imply that Obama is some kind of oddball racist nutter because he attended such a Church, requires (if you will forgive me) the eye of faith.

Lee Laurie

Reg....if your theory is true and McCain wins then there will be riots in the streets....according to this mornings Daily Telegraph

HarleyDavidson

NBA star, Charles Barkley, said black folks have been voting Democratic for 50 years, and they're still poor. It is the disadvantaged who habitually elect Democrats --- yet are still disadvantaged. Go figure!

Look, if Obama and his campaign thugs can successfully paint former President Clinton and Mrs Clinton as racists it is no secret why Team Obama consistently scream racism when the Messiah is forced to confront his ACORN, Ayers, Rezko, Dohrn, Farrakhan, Kahelid, Reverend Wright and friends.

Now it appears the word socialism is a code word for black. At lest according the an article in the Kansas City Star.

This guy, Obama, is one paranoid freak. Man if Obama and his freak show can paint Bill and Hillary Clinton as racists then no one is safe from those Chicago thugs.

Conservative Cabbie

Reg

I admire your confidence. A win is still possible, it's not however going to be a large one.

Have you all seen the latest. Apparently according to a journalist on the Kansas City Star, socialist is actually a code word for black. Liberals just make this stuff up, it's a mad mad world we live in.

john problem

It's all so yesterday, this racism thing. Of course the nutty pastor whipped up enthusiasm in such an obvious way it's what those pastors do. Of course there are people out there who love to go on about disadvantaged blacks. But this is the 21st. century and there are other more pressing issues - like foreign belligerence, like a financial crisis, like the ecology... Obama's views on these don't seem to be coloured by colour. In any event, those who don't want him as President need fear nothing. The Republican party will come up with one of their marvellous sleight-of-hand vote-counting tricks and win by a handful, as they did with Bush.

Conservative Cabbie

FAO Brennen Bearnes and all wingnuts in need of a lift.

There are 3 national polls that are showing McCain within 1-2 points of Obama nationally (AP, Battleground and IBD/TIFF (the most reliable poll in 2004).

What is interesting is that whites under 50k are moving to McCain along with, significantly, catholic voters in a big way according to the IBD poll. McCain has surged among catholic voters from an 11 point deficit to a 9 point lead. Catholic voters are the ones Obama lost to Hillary in the primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Also of note is that Gallup are saying that there is no real indication of an en masse turnout by the youth vote, they are showing that the youth vote for Obama is matching John Kerry in 2004.

Now I realise that there are a lot of very positive polls for Obama but the polls really seem all over the place at the moment. In the space of a week, polling in Ohio has McCain up by two or Obama up by 12. Does anyone really believe that Obama leads by 12 in Ohio. You'd really have to supping on the Kool-Aid to fall for that one.

Look, the fact that McCain is defending in red states and Obama is attacking those same states says a lot, I'm not blind to realities, but all the same I'm ever so slightly open to the possibility of a shock.

One final question. Polls are showing about 10-12% of voters still undecided. If you were planning to vote for Obama, wouldn't you be decided by now. I suspect these undecideds are republican leaners upset by the economic situation but not entirely sure about Obama whether for race, his inexperience or his associations. If they on the day vote for McCain by a magnitude of say 3-1 then Obama's plans for his big party in Chicago may be premature.

I'm just saying....

raymond joseph douglas

America,aided by our duplicitous media,seems to be sleepwalking into a Obama presidency.Every device is been used to bring down the republican ticket.It is alright for Hilary Clinton to spend squillions on clothes,but Palin is vilified for spending money on clothes for her campaign!We are lone voices Melanie!But is Obama the "man of peace" as predicted in revelation 6v2?

Grumpy

If some of you readers are worried about Obama's ties to Christianity via the above, suggest they read about his ties to Islam via

www.danielpipes.org/article/5983

This will pause them in their tracks!

Conservative Cabbie

To brighten the day:

So, Sarah Palin's advisors decide that it is time for her to meet a bunch of serious world leaders. They head to Europe, where, first up, she has an appointment with the Pope. The Pope and some of his Cardinals invite her for a boat ride on the Tiber. As they are sitting in the gondola talking, a wind starts up and blows the Pope's hat into the water. Palin looks around and realizes that no one is going to do anything about it, so she calmy rises, takes off her her high heels, and steps off the side of the boat. Instead of diving into the water, however, she walks across it, to the hat, picks it up and walks back across the water to the boat. She climbs in, hands the Pope his hat and continues discussing whatever it was they had been talking about. The Cardinals are open mouthed in astonishment at what they have just seen. The news media, in nearby boats are busy discussing among themselves how to report it. Headlines the next day at the New York Times, The Washington Post and the networks all blare: New Revelation: Sarah Palin Can't Swim.

Scared in the USA

I am feeling uneasy enough about this info that I decided to pass it on to you (and others). Please take the time to check out the links.

______________________________________________

Book:
William Ayers' forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire (ideology and plan to take over US for new society)
http://www.zombietime.com/prairie_fire/

Video:
Ayers’ Weathermen planned: take-over, re-education camps, mass genocide (25 mil) of capitalists (those of the counter-revolution); and U.S. land dispersal to communist/ soc. Nations
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/5742

A race for the soul of the next President? (post on Ayers and Dorhn's new book, yet to be released)
http://globallabor.blogspot.com/2008/10/race-for-soul-of-next-president.html

Obama’s American Socialism: Decades In The Making (democratic party take over)
http://logisticsmonster.com/2008/10/19/obamas-american-socialism-decades-in-the-making/

Please pass this on.

John Birch

For the white-black analogy to work, you would have to ignore hundreds of years of history that featured things like slavery, lynchings, poverty, voter supression, and general racism. If white people were a minority of the American population who had been treated this way then the comparison would be apt. Otherwise, it is a ridiculous analogy. The point being made, if you ever bothered to actually do a little reading, is that the church Obama went to was not outside of the mainstream of African-American churches for reasons cited above. As for Rev. Wright who hates America, is this the same Jeremiah Wright who joined the Marine Corps to serve his country and who was part of a medical team that treated Pres. Johnson after surgery in the 1960s for which he received a letter of thanks from the President?

Huw Thornton

Good joke, CC. It's certainly brightened my day.

steve

ConservativeCabbie: the IBD poll you identify as reliable has McCain beating Obama among 18-24-year-olds 74% to 22%. Don't be holding out hope based on it.

Israel

Congratulations!! You found a letter from a Black Christian who claims he is not voting for Obama because of his faith, but reading his email it's obvious he's not voting for him because of issues. The first thing he quotes is the laughable National Journal poll which rates Obama as most liberal Senator of 2007. What he fails to mention, or probably didn't bother to read or find out about is that the National Journal poll is flawed. What happens is the conservative editors, journalists and commentators of the magazine cherry pick 99 senate votes and rank the Senators according to those votes. That would mean that he is far more liberal than Russ Feingold or Bernie Sanders, and if you knew anything about US politics you would see that that is bunk.

The second part deals with his real problem with Obama which is the abortion issue. This man has his views and his talking points, which are shared by many here. The Partial Birth bill he quotes has been clarified but, judging by the zeal shown in his email that wasn't good enough for him, so he's going to vote for the man who changed his position on abortion to get the right wing conservative vote.

It's great that Huntley Brown, concert pianist doesn't need the help of his community to make him feel better about himself, or his family, or his community, or to his work ethic, or to help provide for the community,but guess what? NOT ALL YOUNG BLACK MEN ARE THE CONCERT PIANIST HUNTLEY BROWN AND LIVE IN HIS WORLD. Maybe they want them to be involved in the positive aspects of the community they live in.

HarleyDavidson:

Great Charles Barkley quote from when, 2005? 2004?

Why not use his quote from 2006:
"I used to be a Republican before they lost their minds"

Reg: I have seen numerous web videos of white conservatives including, Charles Buckley, Andrew Sullivan, Ken Alderman, Kathleen Parker,Michael Smerconish, and Christopher Hitchens all railing against McCain/Palin. Does this mean that Obama/Biden will win big? I don't know but at the moment they are ahead.

Huntley Brown finishes his email by saying that "The sad part is I have been getting hate mail and my family is being harassed. As you can imagine not everyone is happy with my e-mail."

What, does he think he is the only one? Maybe he should read some of the mail that the likes of Kathleen Parker or Smerconish got, or even read some of the comments posted here about Andrew Sullivan. His decision is not unique and neither is the reaction. He has made it, he sticks to it, so don't whine about it.

Steve R

'one of the most sinister and insulting accusations hurled at any criticism of Israel is that it is motivated by ‘anti semitism’'

etc.

Byron in Wahroonga

***I am surprised you do not see why a black American such as Obama might want to go to such a Church as this***

Obama's not a Christian, Hamish. No Christian would leave his brother in the Nairobi slums on $5/month. That's why Obama spent 20 years fine-tuning his resentment at Jeremiah Wright's church of the poisoned mind.

logdon

It's not his colour which concerns me, or I guess many people. From what I see around me we live in a post-racist age and that seems to transcend class and income brackets. However when politics raises it's poisonous head the race card is still alive and well, exploited to it's hilt and doing far more harm than good. There is one grouping which disingenuously keeps racism alive by conflating it with religion, which has openly declared war on the west and the rest of the world and that is radical Islam. They hate Jews. They enslave blacks. They even kill members of the same faith but of a different sect. In other words they hate with a violence bordering on the pathological, the 'other'. Obama isn't even black, he is mixed race yet has chosen to magnify his 'blackness' in order to inflame and divide. One thing he won't boast of is his Muslim faith. The BBC denies it out of hand with zero back up evidence, after all he's their boy isn't he, yet his Father is Muslim and a young Obama attended a madrassa. So for this knee-jerk denial of what is plain to see, he was raised as a Muslim, we should ask why? Why the sensitivity? The inestimable Daniel Pipes provides an answer here http://www.danielpipes.org/article/5983.
And why will he not produce a valid birth certificate?

D

And now that you've said it repeatedly, would you please be quiet?

Verity

Hamish, the shrieks of 'racism' are in the comments of every blog (including this one), put forward by self-righteous, manipulated trolls such as your good self, in every newspaper column dealing with the election, on every call-in radio programme. You mean you missed them? ALL of them?

Obama is to use your words, an oddball racist nutter. A specially groomed racist nutter at that. He was chosen not for any particular political skills or insights he may (but doesn't) have, but because he is a nice looking half-black person.

The country and western singer accompanying Governor Palin on the campaign trail is also a good looking man, a black, and a most appealing singer. Achieving black people are everywhere in American life. One of the most popular country and western singers ever was Charlie Pride, a black guy who constantly topped the c&w charts around 30 years ago. The people who were buying his music and making him rich 30 years ago, are rednecks. You've heard of them? Those people who, in your fevered imagination, hate black people?

There are black Americans sitting on the Supreme Court for God's sake! The only people making an issue of Obama's being half-black are the left, and they are using his race as both a bludgeon and a shield.

He was chosen specifically for his race. He was chosen because they could use his race as a shield against criticisms of inadequacy and criticisms of the murky people and shady organisations behind him.

john doe

If the Obamanation wins this election, the real winner will be the media,not his holiness. Mcluhan was right way back in the 50s when he said that the medium was the message. And yes Melanie, God help America, that it's come to this dreadful pass of mass indoctrination.

john doe

Steve R spewed: 'one of the most sinister and insulting accusations hurled at any criticism of Israel is that it is motivated by ‘anti semitism’'

And your point is? oh master of logical,rational and informed discourse.

Hamish

Verity:

1. Your personal abuse weakens the force of your argument, and has the unfortunate effect of making you seem mildly unhinged. Or perhaps you believe that everyone who has a different perspective from you is being "manipulated" into holding wrong opinions. Not a great starting-point for any discussion.

2. The fact that some white people enjoy records by black musicians, and that there are lots of successful black people in US public life, isn't relevant to anything I said or to the question at hand.

3. Nothing I said implies that I have believe (even in my "fevered imagination") that C&W fans, or white Americans, or people who are both of these things, necessarily hate black people. That said, there are of course still plenty of racists in America -- some of them black people and some of them white -- whose votes will be influenced by the candidates' colour.

4. You say: "The only people making an issue of Obama's being half-black are the left". Don't be silly now.

5. "He was chosen specifically for his race". Really? Who knew? Did ALL the people who voted for him in the primaries prefer him solely on the basis of his skin colour? Or were some of them interested in his policies? The second, I suggest.

6. None of this is to deny that the fact that Obama is a light-skinned black man / mixed race / in your phrase "half-black" man is a potential electoral advantage right now in the US. So what? That is who is he is. Should he be barred from standing in case his complexion helps him? Get over it.

phil

Verity, erm ,was this you that wrote on oct 17 on the culture thread
"I saw Obama appearing on some high profile charity black tie even along with John McCain and Obama looked fairly pale - for him. Like a white person with a tan. So I guess he's not blacking up for formal events. He was a deep glowing ebony for his gig in front of the styrofoam pillars in Denver"

Perhaps it another impersonator or have you been on the road to Damascus -that is where you have the real world revealed to you isn't it ? .have you realised how distasteful your comments are ?and can we now expect better from you.although only yesterday on this very thread you wrote-----"You know, the sneers of "racism" directed so malignantly at anyone who judges Obama a thug have been effective because those screeching the jibes know their position is false"------it is very confusing you know

logdon

Yet more.

"http://www.islamist-watch.org/article/983
When Barack Obama's campaign needed a base for harvesting votes from the southern precincts of Philadelphia, it set up shop in a building owned and managed by controversial real estate baron Kenny Gamble. Also known as Luqman Abdul Haqq, Gamble holds a senior position with the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), whose founding is traced to a convicted cop-killer and whose leadership is stacked with radicals. He likewise serves as a community organizer of sorts — one who has been accused of slowly transforming his neighborhood into a "black Muslim enclave."
The office opened on August 21 at 1501 Christian Street, with Gamble himself cutting the ceremonial ribbon. Makeshift banners proclaim it the "South Philly Obama Headquarters," the address of which is listed on the Obama-Biden website as a field office for the Pennsylvania Campaign for Change. Philadelphia tax records identify Gamble as the owner of the property, while signage indicates that the building is home to Universal Educational Management, part of his Universal Companies conglomerate.
Gamble's associates and agendas expose him as a dubious figure that politicians seeking to present an image of inclusion would be wise to avoid. This is doubly true for a campaign like Obama's that already has suffered serious missteps in its interaction with the Muslim community.
Best known for his work in the music business, Gamble has held high-ranking posts with the Muslim Alliance in North America, which focuses on African-American converts to Islam. That description fits Gamble and most of the group's senior members, some of whom also have roots in the Nation of Islam and Black Panther movement. Indeed, the formation of MANA was inspired by Jamil Al-Amin, the onetime Panther "justice minister" H. Rap Brown. MANA's enthusiasm for Al-Amin remains untainted in the wake of his conviction for the 2000 murder of a sheriff's deputy. He has even addressed, by telephone, MANA meetings at Gamble's United Muslim Masjid.
MANA's governing bodies teem with Islamists: Siraj Wahhaj, the organization's amir, was named as a potential unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, supports Shari'a-prescribed punishments, and predicts America's demise unless it "accepts the Islamic agenda." Johari Abdul-Malik directs outreach activities for a Virginia mosque repeatedly tied to terrorism cases. Abdul Alim Musa promotes anti-Semitic and anti-American conspiracy theories and has expressed admiration for Hamas, Hezbollah, and Osama bin Laden........

It continues....

"Gamble's bizarre statements to Philadelphia magazine last year added more fuel to the fire: "You don't see the lion with the tiger. You don't see the tiger with the panther," he said. "You don't have people selling goods and services in the Irish community from some other community. In the Russian community, you don't have people from other communities. In the Puerto Rican community, the Puerto Ricans have their own economy, they have their own stores." The article notes that Gamble's musings sound like an endorsement of segregation and a desire to engineer a zone exclusively for black Muslims."

In other words Obama is now nestling with people who openly espouse segregation? Is that how 'hope' is defined? Back to Selma and Rosa Parks? Martin Luther King will be revolving in his grave.

Paul

"One of the most sinister and insulting accusations hurled at any criticism of Barack Obama is that it is motivated by ‘racism’ – indeed, that if he loses the election this will be due to the incorrigible racism of red-neck America."

Michelle Malkin has commented on this a number of times. ...And has likewise run into a firestorm of
racial hatred for daring to do so.

Logdon

Hamish says....

'Nothing I said implies that I have believe (even in my "fevered imagination") that C&W fans, or white Americans, or people who are both of these things, necessarily hate black people. '

Has he perchance listened to Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music? It's by Ray Charles who I believe was black. So much for the stereotype!

Verity

Hamish, quoting me: You say: "The only people making an issue of Obama's being half-black are the left". Don't be silly now.

As I said, the only people making an issue of Obama's race are the left. The right is more interested in his connections with Islam. The right is also tiring of the left shrieking, "Racist" every time they make a well-reasoned, well-grounded criticism of Obama's murky background. You will have to accept that many people loathe Obama for his own dear self - nothing to do with the tint of his skin. Just as they loathe William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, white, both of them, for their own selves and their breezy, unrepentant statements that they don't regret the murders they committed. The right doesn't like lawlessness. (Oooooooh, what about the illegal war in Iraq then? What about -"

5. "He was chosen specifically for his race". Really? Who knew? Did ALL the people who voted for him in the primaries prefer him solely on the basis of his skin colour? Or were some of them interested in his policies? The second, I suggest.

Well, there we differ. The left has been ravening to give the right - "Bush, Cheyney, Halliburton, Rumsfeld, illegal war, UN Resolution what about Kosovo then" a black, so to speak, eye. Blind, of course, to the fact that the US Secretary of State is a black individual with one hell of a lot more significant achievements - as in, having been the president of Stanford University, for one; being a concert pianist for another - than becoming a boss in the sleaze-ridden Chicago party machine. And his wife, who has ridden the "diversity" and grievance gravy train, despite having received two scholarships to two prestigous Ivy League universities also fails to charm.

By the way, Hamish, you mention "mixed race", which is a British term that has always given me the creeps. I suppose it is a sop for those council estate children whose skin is of a darker hue but their mother can't remember who was passing through her council flat on the night they were conceived.

I find it a distasteful phrase.

Of all your prissy little lecture, this phrase stands out: "Obama is a light-skinned black man." Why do you define him as black rather than as a dark-hued white man? Do you, obviously British, understand that this is offensive? It harks back to the days of the plantations and slavery when anyone with a tiny tint of black was classified as "black". Just reading your sentence gave me the creeps.

Verity

Phil, I usually I skip your predictable comments, but you do need to know that Obama appears to have blacked up for Denver. I was not the first to mention it. He certainly looked one hell of a lot darker than he did in his joint appearance at the fund raiser with McCain a week or so ago, where he looked two or three shades darker than Senator McCain.

No reason not to wear make-up under the strong spotlights. Actors wear exaggerated make-up on stage. Obama looked blacked up.

There are some very fine, very intelligent, very achieving black people of the right who would get landslides of votes from white (and black and Mexican) Republicans.

It is Obama's murky record and his moral character that people find repulsive. Not the colour of his skin.

Straydingo

I am an Aussie that has lived in the UK for the last 10 years and I am so tired of hearing European prejudiced about the USA, which clearly stems from both a sense of insecurity and jealousy.
Another thing that gets my back up is hearing Europeans saying that if the Americans don’t vote Obama President it proves they are racist.
Now I ask those of you who read this and share this view to pause for a moment and think about that statement.
Now I would like you to point to one European nation that currently has a Black President/Prime Minster....can you explain why a continent as civilised and rich in history as Europe has failed to manage to produce a Prime minster or President whose ancestry stems back from Africa, India, China etc...How many female Prime ministers or Presidents have there been?

Frank P

The tacit threat by the Obama supporters now being circulated widely through the big media is that, should Obama lose the election, there will be an uprising of blacks throughout the US with extreme violence on the streets, the implication being that the only way Obama can now lose is through a 'rigged election organised by Mc Cain supporters'. Nice!

One hopes that this will raise the fighting spirit of those who do not support Obama and harden the resolve of those 'undecided' voters to have the balls to resist such threats: Ye Gods! "Vote Obama, or else ..!" Hmmmnn.

It is noted that there have been no such threats from the non-blacks on the grounds that ACORN is attempting to rig the election, which indeed it is.

Black-mail indeed! And the Obamaoists have the gall to accuse McCain and his team of 'racism'.

fellow traveller

Verity: once more!

"..."mixed race", which is a British term that has always given me the creeps. I suppose it is a sop for those council estate children whose skin is of a darker hue but their mother can't remember who was passing through her council flat on the night they were conceived.

I find it a distasteful phrase."

and you're a distasteful bigot. It's a shame that Melanie doesn't get involved in the replies to the blog, because then she could tell you exactly what she thinks of the BNP, who you recently declared your support for.

Meanwhile, if you're British, you're mixed race too, you fool. The fact that it doesn't show in your skin colour doesn't give you the right to insult the families for whom it does.

Your think like a child.

Anon

I fix my gaze on one teeny weeny glint of hope:
The endless barrage of pro-Obama forecasting could goad the American electorate so badly that they'll bolt out - bits between their teeth - and vote against him.

I won't risk my meagre funds on the bet, though.

Tess

I just did a news search to see if this email I received was true. It looks like it must be, and I would say, "God bless Huntley Brown" for standing up for his beliefs as a Christian. I'm right there with him. I vote not based upon someone's speech or looks, but based upon their character and their actions. Thank you for writing about this.

Bob R

It looks like Obama will be POTUS and he will certainly be the worse president in US history. I can see one positive. The people who will elect him have grown up in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity; they apparently think this is the natural order of things, hence the acceptance of the empty headed slogan "Obama for Change". Well they will get change all right, and this way they will learn.

Non Partisan

Melanie your going to lose this one ok !!!

Non Partisan

Good on you Brennan !!! Its going to be great entertainment mate. I'll be watching from Australia.

Verity

Fellow Traveller - I intuit that you live in a lovely, well-equipped home with a rather nice garden that does not belong to the taxpayers.

Verity

Fellow Traveller - Do you understand the anthropological word "race"?

We need to get this out of the way. Someone who is English and marries someone who is, let's say, French, will have Caucasian children. Not "mixed race" in your debased and illiterate understanding of the word. Caucasian covers a vast territory. Even to the outskirts of your town, where the buses stop running.

We cannot allow the illiterates to start definining scientific terms.

Hamish

Verity:

You wrote:

"By the way, Hamish, you mention "mixed race", which is a British term that has always given me the creeps. I suppose it is a sop for those council estate children whose skin is of a darker hue but their mother can't remember who was passing through her council flat on the night they were conceived."

This, and your subsequent post regarding Obama's 'blacking up', are grossly offensive. There are hints in your previous posts that suggest you are a race-obsessed conspiracy theorist. I chose to ignore them and give you the benefit of the doubt. What a schmuck I was to waste my breath.

As we say here: End of.

Verity

Hamish - but of course! Anyone other than the annointed one and his followers who mentions race is fixated on race and thinks that Obama is a BAD THING because he is half-black! It's obvious! But, have you noticed - I have - that the only people who refer to Obama being half black are his disciples? No one else seems to give a stuff. But this is a major reason that he was selected. Untouchability. Say that you think Obama's policy du jour is dangerous for the West, and you will be accused of "racism".

It's the only weapon in an empty, echoing armory.

BTW, I said I find the British term "mixed race" offensive and demeaning. I've never heard it used anywhere but Britain. You people who have elevated race to an obsession should at the very least look the word up in the dictionary. There are only six races in all of humanity. Get over it.

If Obama wears black make up to appear before the multitudes in front of the equally phony polystyrene Greek pillars, this will be noticed and commented upon. At he very least, with all that fake grandeur, he should have swanked out in a toga.

Don't waste any more of your breath. Your brain badly needs the oxygen.

Verity

Let's not forget the fake Presidential seal that Obama had designed to look like the respected real thing, and that he had affixed to his lectern for going to Germany.

Until he was legally required to remove it or else.

I absolutely cannot imagine any other candidate thinking he could have a pretend seal made and pose as the President overseas. Any other cheap shyster would find this referred to in the press even now, months later. But Obama gets a pass on this outrage.

The Truth Hurts

"How many (European)female Prime Ministers or Presidents have there been?"
Straydingo

Err....Maggie Thatcher springs to mind

How many female Presidents have there been in the US?

And while we are on the subject, how many Aboriginal Prime Ministers have there been in Australia?

Craig Strachan

The black community in the United States has historical challenges and consequent dysfunctions that the white community simply does not.

So, no, I wouldn't vote for a white candidate who adhered to such a declaration, because it would lead me to suspect he was flirting with supremacism.

For a black candidate to adhere to such a declaration simply says to me that he's serious about uplifting his community.

Craig Strachan

The black community in the United States has historical challenges and consequent dysfunctions that the white community simply does not.

So, no, I wouldn't vote for a white candidate who adhered to such a declaration, because it would lead me to suspect he was flirting with supremacism.

For a black candidate to adhere to such a declaration simply says to me that he's serious about uplifting his community.

Anon 1

Mr. Strachan, re: "The black community in the United States has historical challenges and consequent dysfunctions that the white community simply does not."

Might I suggest that race is not the factor that should determine response to this (?out of context) statement? My reading is: 'every race has in its history events that might have rendered some people dysfunctional.' However, the events will differ for each race, and reactions will vary among individuals. Furthermore, present-day reactions and perspectives depend on subsequent interpretations of a first event and on an intervening chain of reactions.

In other words: to express the problem in polarities - black and white - is to misrepresent it.

JohnW

We've had Affirmative Action policies, following which it's just a natural progression to have what is now an Affirmative Action Election. Such policies dictate that if you don't favour the black candidate, you are automatically a racist!

danpa

Melanie... you've got to be the BEST CARPENTER in the world... you sure know how to hit the nail on the head.......

fellow traveller

Verity: Just so you know, I live in a place where there are plenty of people of every type of race, and I don't have a garden (tho not sure why that's relevant).

"Someone who is English and marries someone who is, let's say, French, will have Caucasian children."

There are plenty of English people who could marry plenty of French people and have very black children indeed, because they're both black.

"The only people who refer to Obama being half black are his disciples? No one else seems to give a stuff."

The only person on this blog who obsessively comes back to the non-story of Obama "blacking up" is you. So you pretty obviously give a stuff.

"We cannot allow the illiterates to start defining scientific terms... there are only six races in all of humanity"

200 years ago a few people thought this, and of course some of the 20th century's more notorious demagogues based their ideas on this discredited theory.

Practical measurement and DNA analysis show it's pseudoscientific nonsense, and even if it wasn't, it wouldn't help anyone - except people who think that these "races" shouldn't mix for some reason.

Is that your point?

Water

The truth is the truth no matter how old it gets.

Verity

Fellow Traveller - Where on earth did I say people from different races shouldn't marry and raise a family? Where? Come on - where? Point it out.

I don't know how to say this any more simply, as I had already intuited that things had to be very, very simple for you and had already written in words of one syllable so you could follow them easily with your forefinger - I object to the British term "mixed race".

See? It's the term I object to.

I think it is fatuous and condescending and, in some creepy way, degrading.

I won't be responding to any of your further drooling lunacy on this or any other subject.

fellow traveller

Verity: there's no point in any theory about 'six races' unless you think the distinctness of these imaginary groups has some practical value (a distinctness which doesn't, by any useful measure, exist).

It's none of your business how mixed race people choose to describe themselves.

You speculated that you'd support the BNP next time you vote, which specifically opposes mixed-race relationships. You seem to be revisiting that idea. To which I say: good for you.

I note you're not arguing the other points.

Don't kid yourself that your arguments are too complicated for me. I understand you perfectly well. It's the substance I loathe.

Jill

Brown also strikes a big chord with me when he writes:
"I have problems with both candidates, but the differences I have with Senator McCain are pale in comparison with the ones I have with Senator Obama.
The sad part is I have been getting hate mail and my family is being harassed. As you can imagine not everyone is happy with my e-mail. God bless you richly."

I support him, and lots of other Americans do, too. He's not the only black in America who will not vote for Obama. They just don't get international attention from the MSM because they don't fit their screwed up narratives.

Bob

Scare tactics and More scare tactics.. Nothing is going to work for sure.

If you want to know about obama read more at http://www.politico.com/arena/

Who are his past friends.
Obama thinking you cannot decipher easily and you cannot judge him by associations

Water

Looking at Mel's latest thread, this seems like anything other then fear mongering.

phil

verity now says .."Phil, I usually I skip your predictable comments, but you do need to know that Obama APPEARS (Phil's emphasis) to have blacked up for Denver. I was not the first to mention it. He certainly looked one hell of a lot darker than he did in his joint appearance at the fund raiser with McCain a week or so ago, where he looked two or three shades darker than Senator McCain."

Well it is an improvement on her previously categorical statement -less disgusting ? you all can judge -personally I am reminded of a second hand car salesman from a bygone age, moving with the wind- don't worry for her guys ,she wont be offended she never reads what I write :),but for those that wonder why I take her to task ,its because if someone doesn't many will think we agree with her and I,m sure most do not .

Frank P

Verity

I'm still trying to make up my mind about whether he's using light toner in those States where he thinks it would advantage him and no toner in others where that would do the trick, or vice versa with dark toner. Perhaps someone who has seen him immediately after a swim can put us out of our misery?

Has race ever been more of an issue in a US election, I wonder, despite the efforts of the Big Media to suppress Obama's use of it as an ambivalent device? We can only hope it will blackfire, but we must never underestimate the credulity of the electorates of any 'democratic' country. After all we've had NuLab in power for eleven years now and the way the Tories are shaping up at the moment, should be prepared for a further extension of the Dodgsonian insanity (regardless of whether they oust NuLab or not).

We have each warned Cameron about the immaturity of the arrogant juvenility of his side-kick, Osborne the Prat, since he first appointed his best buddy to the plum Cabinet post, through the Speccie blog sites and others which he should read even if he doesn't. His failure to listen and act, then also fail to shitcan him when the absolutely predictable chain of cockups occurred over Mandelson, Deripaska, the Rothschilds et al. (in whatever sequence they occurred) indicates that Call-me-Dave would also fail the Psychometric Test for the post to which he aspires.

But then, what Prime Minister including and since Sir Robert Walpole (who loosely invented the post) has been anything other than bonkers; overweeningly ambitious; venal; or permutations of all three character defects? None would have passed any fitness or competence test that could be devised by anyone of sound mind. My only prerequisite these days would be: do any candidates have the interests of The United Kingdom at heart -I could forgive the other criteria failures if one such a politician existed.

Suggestions please - and be prepared for some explosive scoffing and hysterical snorting if you attempt it!

phil

Frank P- I nervously offer Winston for your approval -you wouldnt be here without him ,nor me .

mike

the above anolagy is old hat,barack obama will be a great president

hadrian

Biblically there is but one race- the human race! There ARE nations but those entities are based on shared laws and territorial reach.
Can you imagine the absurdity of trying neatly to classify an individual according to 'pure race'? The concept's entirely false and should have no place in the Christian church. Of course it is smart arsed evolutionists who've peddled this concept most assiduously in their vain speculations about 'primitive' to 'advanced' races.

phil

Suggestions please - and be prepared for some explosive scoffing and hysterical snorting if you attempt it!

Frank p the world awaits your judgement on Winston