Happened Again!

Generally fraternal twins look disimilarly, obviously, but when dealing with parents who are of different races, the results can be even more amazing. Now, when it happens TWICE, you know you have yourself a very unusual family indeed.

These little lovelies, twins themselves, are holding their baby brothers, also twins.



And here are the lucky parents!



It's amazing how much the darker girl looks like her father, whereas the moppet with the ginger hair came out looking like her own mother's clone...and yet, I can see BOTH parents in their faces, to a remarkable degree.

What a fascinating example of phenotypes at work.

Related

Remember this photo of two little twin girls, one black and one white? Their parents were themselves each the product of a white mother and black father.



In the article about them, it is said the chances of such children being born of one race each, is 1,000,000 to 1 (a rather convenient and not very believable sounding stat). Nevertheless, it is a very rare occurence indeed to have two sets born like that.

Remembering Dr. King

Say what you will about tomorrow's Presidential Inauguration (and this is fair warning to my dear readership, that I will be largely mute on the topic), but even a die-hard Republican cannot help but smile at the wonderful kismet of Martin Luther King Jr. Day being followed by a virtual national holiday for blacks everywhere, on January 20th.

Considering we're a few days away from February, which is African-American history month in the US, it must make a lot of people feel fulfilled indeed.

Here is Dr. King, who is one of my orator heroes, holding up his Nobel Prize, wearing the most beautiful mourning jacket and Ascot tie for the event. How proud he looks. How proud he would've been on Tuesday.

He didn't get there with us, but his legacy burns bright.

Let Us Never Hear The Word "Racism" Again

Not in the United States of America. Never again. Racism as a societal curse and cultural impediment is dead. Do you doubt it? Don't -- it was buried today.

From now on, we are a post-racial society with all that that means, good bad and imperfect.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has at last come true.

Metrosexual Neo-Nazis With Rifles

Below is the appositely-named, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tennessee. He and another fellow skinhead Neo-Nazi planned to off Senator Barack Obama, but were apprehended by the ATF before carrying out their dastardly deed.

I cannot tell you how much I loathe skinhead white supremacists, and hope they throw the book at this pair.

But first a question:

What's up with the Marilyn Manson makeup and transvestite look...?



...are they going for a Hermann Göring hommage?



Idiots.

ADDED: Ah, I was reminded about that cryptic "88" just now. In case you didn't know, H is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and for Neo-Nazis "88" is short-hand for Heil Hitler.

It is a well-known fascist code number around the world, except perhaps for Cubans (it's a super bad luck number in Cuba). In fact, rumours about Italy's goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, weirdly chose "88" as his squad number when he was at Parma, despite the fact that it's unusual for a football squad to assign numbers above 23.

He denied he was a fascist, but you know, I've always wondered about him. He may not be a Nazi, but with that hot pink jersey, he's definitely a metrosexual.

NTTTAWWT. <3.

Whitey Shouldn't Vote

There are no words which can do this bit of drivel in the Philly Inquirer justice. Just read it.

White people shouldn't be allowed to vote
It's for the good of the country and for those who're bitter for a reason and armed because they're scared.

Jonathan Valania is editor in chief of the blog Phawker.com

As a lifelong Caucasian, I am beginning to think the time has finally come to take the right to vote away from white people, at least until we come to our senses. Seriously, I just don't think we can be trusted to exercise it responsibly anymore.

I give you Exhibit A: The last eight years.

In 2000, Bush-Cheney stole the election, got us attacked, and then got us into two no-exit wars. Four years later, white people reelected them. Is not the repetition of the same behavior over and over again with the expectation of a different outcome the very definition of insanity? (It is, I looked it up.)

Exhibit B is any given Sarah Palin rally.

Exhibit C would be Ed Rendell and John Murtha, who in separate moments of on-the-record candor they would come to regret, pointing out that there are plenty of people in Pennsylvania who just cannot bring themselves to pull the lever for a black man - no matter what they tell pollsters.

These people are ruining things for the rest of us white people who are ready to move on. Sure, they have their reasons, chimerical though they may be: He's a Muslim. He's a terrorist. He's a Muslim terrorist. He's going to fire all the white people and give their jobs to blacks.

But those are just the little white lies these people allow themselves to be told, a self-induced cognitive dissonance that lets them avoid saying the unsayable: I cannot pull the lever for a black man.

Hey, some people just aren't ready yet, even the governor said so. Just like some people aren't ready yet for computers or setting the clock on the VCR.

Or, to hear Murtha tell it, some people - specifically some people in Western Pennsylvania - will never be ready. But the fact is, if you did a statewide head count of racists, you'd find just as many in eastern Pennsylvania as you would in the western part of the state.

That's why this ban on white people voting I'm proposing has got to be statewide. And I'm sorry to say, it's going to have to include all white people, even those who would vote for Obama, because you can't just let some white people vote. That would be unfair.

By this point, you either think I am joking or are calling me an elitist. I assure you I am neither. OK, maybe a little of both. But it wasn't always like this. I come from the Coal Belt, from that Alabamian hinterland between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, as per James Carville's famous formulation.

I am, in fact, just two generations out of the coal mines that blackened the lungs of my grandfather, leaving him disabled, despondent and, finally, dead at the ripe old age of 54.

So, understand that I am saying all this for the good of the country and, in fact, for the good of those hard-working white people that Hillary used to pander to.

I know those people, I come from them. They are not some shameful abstract demographic to be brushed under the rug of euphemism by Wolf Blitzer and his ilk.

I have broken kielbasa with those people. I went to school with their children. I have gone to Sunday Mass with a deer-hunter hangover with those people. They are bitter with good reason, and they are armed because they are scared. They mean well, but they are easily spooked.

I fear for what is to become of them after the campaigns leave town for the last time, and Scranton and Allentown and Carlisle go back to being the long dark chicken dance of the national soul they were before the media showed up.

And a too-good-to-be-true stereotypical comment from a Democratic Underground commenter:

"6. hmmm - interesting idea - only non-whites to vote. Might improve things!

.
.
.

lets say only natives/first nation people can vote, and black people too, cuz the white man dragged them over here . . .

I'd give it an ok for Canada too

after all,

us whites sure aren't "native" to this continent . .

oh yeah, I'm white, but not proud of it

I'd take my chance with the native vote.

It IS their land we're on,

right?"

You know, they don't call them DUmmies for nothing.

The Racism Meme

Yesterday, we saw the dams break in a McCain rally. People inside were frustrated, enormously so, with the way this election has been evolving.

Let me explain to you what those frustrations are:

1- People are frustrated that Americans are poised to elect a Leftist man, whose personal world view is more pro-world, than exclusively pro-American.

2- People are frustrated that the tinge of Socialism is all around the United States, aided and abetted by the present administration, no matter how important the bailout was.

3- People are frustrated that there is no oversight in Congress, to get to the bottom of this scandalous situation.

4- People are frustrated that media have a cone of silence around the Obama campaign, and refuse to do their jobs, that is, to investigate his past fully once the Democratic primary has been over.

5- People are frustrated that they their own Party have selected a Republican-in-Name-Only candidate to run for the Presidency in 2008.

6- People are frustrated that said candidate refuses to address aspects of his opponent's character and associations, which would shine a light on his past.

7- People are frustrated that a woman who has the potential to be the future of her Party, has had her side of the campaign bungled.

8- People are frustrated at the treatment given said woman, by media, and the opposition's supporters which smack of elitism, and are frankly sexist.

9- People are frustated that they see prominent Republicans jumping ship, when their side needs support the most.

10- People are frustrated about the lack of leadership shown by all their leaders, from economic to political, in this country.

Not once do you see "race" being mentioned there, because for the great majority of people who support one candidate over the other, his race has nothing to do with why they are electing him.

There is a small sliver of white people who will vote for this candidate because he is black. There is an overwhelming majority of black people who will do so too, but in the same fashion as the Catholics who voted for John F. Kennedy did so then. It's understandable.

What is not understandable is the rampant and absurd charge of racism which has been used as a cudgel of intimidation.

I swear to you, that will have a catastrophic effect later on as you yourselves will be swallowed whole, on the rebound, by that charge.

This race isn't about race, except to those who have a stake in using race to shame, silence and browbeat people. We see the ugly fruits borne out of that in Europe today, in terms of extremism and nationalism.

I beg you, do not make the same mistake in America.



ADDED: Creepily enough, the man you see above, Austria's Freedom Party leader, Jörg Haider, was killed Saturday morning in a car crash.

If Obama Is Doing So Well In the Polls

Does that mean Americans are less racist today, than they were two weeks ago?

What could account for this sea-change in voter confidence of one African-American candidate? Is racism something temporary, or deeply entrenched in the psyche of all voters who were against Senator Obama until mid-September of 2008?

Does racism only raise its ugly head when things are going well?

What else could account for this remarkable swing to Senator Obama, when his supporters and pro-Obama journalists were saying that the only reason they could fathom for him not doing as well, was that white people (especially) were unable to vote for a black man no matter what?

Here's what I think:

I would like to suggest that there were some who were peddling the charge of racism for cynical reasons: they are disgusting race-baiters who wished to shame people into thinking they were bigots for not being for Obama.

Never again should the charge of racism cross the lips of any person in America, to do with Senator Obama's polling numbers.

For it is patently obvious that race could not matter less when we experience an economic downturn, thus swinging people's confidence to him in such a way, as to be irrefutable.

Let me be clear. Racism is disgustingly alive today. But my point is that it is not racism which was at fault when he was doing less well in polling numbers, than people believed should've been the case.

In short, it's not the colour of a person's skin, or gender, but life's circumstances and perceived character which are the overwhelming arbiters which determine who one votes for in this election.

Everyone who leveled the charge of racism a short two weeks ago should be ashamed of themselves today.

Clash Of American Civilisations

Let me pause from my usual Your Daily Sarah routine of the last weeks. I want to discuss a weightier topic today with the readership.

When you are a foreigner, like I still am in many respects despite my flag-waving, you are actually "taught" certain things about Americans:

- People in the street, who are barely literate themselves, will scoff at Americans for their lack of culture and geographical knowledge

- Academics in our schools and Universities will present American history in as predatory a light as possible

- News media and famous intellectuals of the day will, with infinite Schadenfreude, rail about the downhill nature of the American state

Do they want America to fail? Yes, some foreigners do. But many, many more do not.

Even the ones who do, wish little actual harm to the American people -- they just want America the nation to be more "like others". In short, they wish to end American exceptionalism, built they believe on religion, military power and above all, capitalism. As they see it, this triumverate is hopelessly out of date, barely past the Industrial Revolution. The modern response for any clear-thinking country should be securalism, peace, and socialism, but America just doesn't "listen".

But it's more than that. Their unease is almost animistic in scope -- I believe that for some people, good comes in measured doses. Call it the Gold Standard of Karma.

To some people, it's as if America has hoarded most of the goodness available in the world. It "prevents" others from advancing. That is an affront to many people, some of whom consider themselves to be far better, as a nation and as a people, to be beneficiaries of Fate's bounty.

Consider these facts.

Few nation-states have access to two oceans. No nation was able to carve an inland empire and populate it not just coastally, but inside the interior, like America has since 1620. Brazil doesn't even come close. Even States which would be uninhabitable in other countries, due to extremes in weather, function at 100% normalcy (such as Alaska and Arizona, coincidentally enough...). The 50 States are all solvent, at that, contributing to the common weal. Lastly, despite very real structural problems, like slavery, segregation, and runaway markets, the American state sails on 232 years after its birth whereas other republics are in their fifth or more incarnations.

Why? Why?

The American way of life is the reason.

When I came to this country, no one had to tell me to love it. I did that on my own. I embraced this country knowing the realities I had seen elsewhere were exponentially worse than anything existing in America, even in crime and drug-use.

I did it despite having come from a vibrant, successful country, where I had a wonderful road paved ahead of me due to my academic accomplishments and social background. I chose uncertainty, but the choice wasn't fraught with nervousness. I was coming to America, after all. If bad things have to happen, it's better that they happen here. Recovery is quicker.

Part of the reason recovery is quicker is that most Americans know that their country "works". How exactly, why exactly, by what miracle exactly, no one really seems to know. But it does.

So knowing this, they do small things that help it along. They love their flag. They revere their Constitution. They have a strong sense of civic duty and volunteerism. They join up to fight for her in droves, out of conviction, not because they have a mandatory military call-up when they turn 18. Yes, they are willing to risk their lives, even in times of war.

And, above all, they hold this truth to be self-evident: that America is a good country.

It's a self-judgement from a hyper-critical people.

They arrived at that conclusion at the knees of their grandparents, who taught them about pogroms, vainglorious absolute monarchs and arbitrary Martial Law. That isn't America. That was never America. That cannot be America.

This American ethos to make things work acts as self-fulfilling prophecy. They go out and find a solution, and then execute it, each generation adding its own twist to the solution.

They do this because whatever faults lie endemic in this nation, America was conceived as an oasis of reason and even today, acts as a springboard to greater freedom for millions of people who still wish to come here. The stakes couldn't be any higher, not just for Americans, but for the world, if only they'd be honest about it.

A really odd thing happened in the 1970s: some Americans were able to insinuate themselves into the country's narrative of itself. These people have a different view of America. For them, the cracks are craters, and the fissures are chasms. The intensity of their feeling was met full on by a cultural pushback, and we are seeing these two collide real-time in 2008.

This is the political part of his essay, that I'm sure you knew was coming.

Because it is my contention that, at the same time, the economic system, political system, and social system of America is undergoing cataclysmic stress.

If the Revolution was Act 1, the Civil War was Act 2, the Gilded Age was Act 3, the Great Depression Act 4, and World War II ushered in Act 5, then we are witnessing Act 6, not in 2001, as many people thought, but in 2008. It is our own mini clash of American civilisations.

On one side, you have traditionalists, people who believe in the free-market and in the strong world leadership America has projected since 1945. They embody that in their own life choices, too.

On the other, you have those who have suffered from both the social and economic side of this America, and though they may personally have overcome them, they believe America leaves too many people behind. If they believe in the free-market system, they also see other systems which are far more equitable, and wish to emulate them.

There is no "give" in either of these mindsets. One is as resolute as the other, each imbued in thinking its way is right. The first because it continues the spirit of America, the second because it believes it will better America.

The people who represent these two modalities will alter the future of America forever. Make no mistake about that. America has reached a point in its history where the choices they make today will define the way it looks in the next 50 years.

Let us, Americans and non-Americans alike, stop pretending with each other that we do not know all of this is at stake.

Let's stop using racism, agism, snobbism as excuses for pin-pricks to our egos.

Face the matter squarely -- there is no middle way in 2008. It's either The Old or The New, and THIS is why the election today is still so close.

America is still deciding.

Related

Roger L. Simon's Article On Why Bill Clinton Is Not On Board
America Will Lose Superpower Status Says German Minister
Deep-Seated Racism To Blame
It's The Second Amendment, Stupid

Michelle No-Belle

After 6 months of intense spotlight, and short of Bill Clinton's stump efforts, an impressive tally of surrogate appearances for her spouse, it can be said Michelle Obama is no stranger to the American public.

We know her face. We know her voice. We even kinda know her body language.

But how much of that is due to media coverage? 99%? A fair percentage, wouldn't you say. And you know what I have begun to notice:

That Michelle Obama is rarely photographed in flattering poses. In fact, she's quite ugly in them.

Oh sure, for every posed, sleek photograph like this one:



(Which, by the way makes the Al/Tipper tongue-lock look tame in comparison. Note to Ebony Magazine: yes, I'm delighted to find out my potential future President shtups his missus. I just don't want to SEE it, you know? Especially from behind, ew)

There's this:



I have entitled this typical facial moue of hers, "Michelle regrets".

The kind of regret in a face that says, in a perfect world, I would be young, rich and successful, married to a great, ambitious guy poised to rule the world. Instead, she got saddled with her god-awful life.

Poor Michelle. Life sucks so hard.

If it were only this kind of candid photograph, you might think I were exaggerating. But just look at this photo:



Yes, the overbite doesn't help. Yes, the commie fist pump even less.

(What IS it with the Obamas and fists? Don't go there, I just did, sorry).

And well, being darn well close to 6 feet tall, I suppose the photog had to winch himself on a crane to get the overhead shot.

But couldn't he have waited a split-second more to capture her in passionate dignity? That's not as much a non-sequitur as you might think. Here's Caroline Kennedy showing how it's done.



The next candids are where savvier blogreaders will understand what I really mean about unflattering poses.

This one is just hideous.



Like many tall women, she needs to bring back her shoulders and stop slouching. Probably a defense mechanism "tallies" (as I, a shortie, call them) employ.

But the St. Tropez squint kills her. And the furrowed brow. And grabbing the mic as if she were squeezing the life out of a, well, the mind plays tricks so close to her husband, that's all I'm saying.

Here's another one. Yikes. The photographer really dropped the ball on this shot.



Couldn't s/he have waited one New York second to have gotten a less menacing shot of the Senator's wife?

My God, flashbacks to my irate Headmistress dressing me down in her office are flooding me in waves. Stop it!

Too late.



If the one up top was Michelle Regrets, and the one in the middle, Michelle Berates...this is full-on Michelle Mucho Pissed Off.

Even the angry, scrunchy-wearing 1992 version of Hillary Clinton didn't look this bitter at the patriarchal establishment.

Why, compared to Michelle in 2008, even Hillary's cackle and ability to poke fun at herself was almost...grandmotherly. Bubba turned Bubbe.



But my stars, not even sketch-artists leave her be.



If someone doodled a picture of me showing my "Chinese moustache" lines, I'd be livid. As a dermatology laser treatment survivor, I feel intensely for what Mrs. Obama is going through.

I just can't understand why photographers would do this to Michelle. How mean. How sexist. Frankly, yes, okay, I'll say it -- how racist!!

Yes, you heard me: R-A-C-I-S-T. You know how I know that? Because she's black. Duh.

She's not the first black woman around politics to have to undergo the trials of Sheba in white racist America, either. Look at how the media delighted in portraying poor Cynthia McKinney.



With whacked out, bulging madwoman's eyes you wouldn't elect to dogcatcher, let alone to the US House of Representatives!

I'm just so ashamed of everyone who has contributed in bringing down Mrs. Obama by constantly showing her in unflattering poses.

I think all Americans need a huge time-out in the corner. Think long and hard why you are seeking to bring down this poor woman, and write a letter of apology.

THIS is not the America I knew.

UPDATE: This week's copy of US Weekly to the rescue! The Obamas are "just like us".

And then, of course, there was yesterday's The View!



And no, Whoopi didn't say, "Michelle, you in danger girl!".

Defrock Him Now

One thing is a preacher who doesn't represent my religion, but not one little bit in the name of Jesus Christ, saying abominable things from the pulpit.

But it's quite another thing to hear this foul-mouthed hate-speech from a Roman Catholic priest.

I'm livid.

Words cannot describe how I feel about this man. I merely laughed at Reverend Wright, the clown of Trinity United Church.

But Father Michael Pfleger, a supposed shepherd of my Church...well, it's done gone personal now.



Disgraceful.

There is a serious problem at the church where the almost certain nominee of the Democratic Party, Senator Obama sat for 20 years, listening to similar "sermons".

Never mind that. I am not a fellow Christian or a fellow human being in their eyes, due to my skin colour. I'm just another oppressor.

But I am a Roman Catholic, and it is to my fellow co-religionist that I say:

Cardinal George of Chicago, how can you allow this man to represent Catholics everywhere? You should be ashamed for all of us. Have the guts to defrock him, now.

A Dissenting Voice

(Welcome The Bit Maelstrom readers!)

A reader at Althouse replies to the question, "What's with those 10% of black people who don't support Barack Obama?"

I quote her response, in its entirety:

"As one of the 10%, I'm not an airy-fairy, pie in the sky person. I want to hear policy positions so that I can sift them to determine their feasibility. Hope and Change are meaningless substitutes for genuine policy positions to address difficult issues. I read history, and I know that Hitler offered hope and change; Germany is changed by his change to this day.

Moreover, I'm not interested in ram-goat, rum, and roti politics (that's Caribbean for race politics). Race is not enough to convince me to vote for someone. As long as the ideas, ideology, and policy offerings are acceptable, the candidate could be any race he wants. Suppose I vote for Obama on the basis of race; how does that address our terrorism problem? Am I to believe that because Obama is from a Muslim Kenyan father that that gives him some sort of extra power in addressing terrorism issues? I don't think so. Muslims are killing Muslims daily. What else is Obama offering besides talk?

I want a candidate who knows American history, who understands the Constitution, who understands the importance of American symbols, and who respects those symbols, who can speak with pride of American exceptionalism. Obama is not that man. Nobody spends 20 years listening to anti-American rhetoric, confesses to being fortified by the anti-American rhetoric masquerading as "sermons" and emerges as a great believer in this shining city on a hill. It is impossible to believe, just from listening to Michelle Obama, that Barack Obama is untouched by 20 years of Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. There's an old saying, 'birds of a feather flock together.' If Wright is an anti-American, anti-Semitic racist, then so is Barack Obama.

Furthermore, I know a communist when I hear one. Barack Obama lacks the basic understanding of capitalism and how it informs a market economy; of taxation and how changes to it can either uplift or degrade the lives of the people functioning within an economic system; of the role of government as the Founding Fathers envisioned it—not cradle to grave.

Finally, I'm a Christian, and I KNOW that no man comes to Christ on his own terms. We come to Christ on Christ's terms, which is naked, poor, weak, filthy, sinful, and in need of salvation. No man who sets the terms for his "acceptance" of Christ is a Christian. After all, the vessel cannot tell the potter how it wants to be made. That's what Obama did before he decided to "walk the aisle." Cheap grace, faux conversion.

My thinking has been influenced by the Bible, the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, Bastiat, and Hayek. There is no way on this God's green earth I shall ever vote for Barack Obama."

Our internets with The Google is wonderful, but let's be honest. You have to sift through a lot of dross, before you find that rare diamond.

But when you do, it hits you with a life force so potent, it may just give you hope to keep searching for more.

That's how I felt when I read her reply.

It's not that I agreed with all her conclusions (e.g.: I've been around very genuine, very scary Communists to know the difference between someone merely influenced by Marxism, as would include the majority of politicians in the world today, to a real one). But then I'm not seeking agreement.

I'm just glad to actually hear something of substance in clearly defined terms without knee-capping us with rage.

A black voice amongst the thousands we've heard these many months, fortified by her conviction but not being hardened by it. More importantly, not pointing an accusing finger at people like myself, for her fate.

How I miss this communion of thought, and how I long to speak to people about race and Senator Obama in these terms. But my words and intentions are always misunderstood the moment they see the colour of my skin, let alone when I reveal how I vote.

Dialogue becomes accusation. And I, who usually takes life in her stride, feel depressed beyond recognition.

So before it's too late, I will say this so that it's on the record:

Speak to me like a fellow traveller on life's treacherous roads, not a jackal who feasted on you for ages. If you do that or tolerate that around you, I will tune you out, and run as fast away from you as I possibly can. I know others will too.

Fortunately, we have places to run to.

But what of a black person who doesn't feel the need or desire to vote for Barack Obama? Those 10% of Democrats and even less of Republicans, not in the primaries, but those faced with voting against Barack Obama in the general election, when the choice is more stark -- those who will know few valleys of acceptance and shelter.

I shudder to think how depressed they can get, so courage. Courage, courage.



Remember, people like me are trying to find you down those valleys.

We'll find each other yet.

Related

I May Be Black, Mr. Obama, But...
Black Republican Woman And Voting for Obama
The Black Vote by Akindele Akinyemi
Size of the Soul
"Get With the Programme"