Selwyn Duke

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Our Bailout Culture and the Beauty of Bankruptcy

December 22, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

The story of the Prodigal Son teaches a beautiful lesson about repentance and forgiveness. As you may know, it involves a lazy, irresponsible young man who insists upon taking his share of the family inheritance immediately and striking out on his own. He then proceeds to squander it on a dissolute lifestyle and ends up destitute, living like an animal. Duly chastened and humbled and purged of his spirit of entitlement, he approaches his father in contrition and asks for aid, saying that he would be satisfied to just be treated as a servant. The father, overwhelmed with joy, forgives his son, proclaims him “found” and holds a celebration commemorating his return. Of course, the idea is that he was “found” spiritually; he had developed wisdom, the capacity to not just manage money, but life.

Now, after 2000 years, we have gone from Prodigal Son to prodigal sin, and I imagine that today the story might unfold quite differently. The son’s problem would probably be related via cell phone, be chalked up to a matter of money, and remedied not with character formation but cash flow.
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The Ignoramus Americus

December 19, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

There is often a profound difference between morality and legality, and, if this were a just world, a good percentage of the American left would be tried for treason. If that seems a radical statement, I ask you: What price should be paid for sowing the seeds of your nation’s destruction? What should be the punishment for creating millions of people so ignorant, so effete, so corrupted in judgment that they are unable to sustain a free republic, resist enemies foreign and domestic, and perpetuate their culture? I’ll leave that to you to decide and just talk a bit about the state of the electorate.

I have often written about the ignorance that has resulted from decades of pathetic, dumbed-down parenting and schooling, and, sadly, there’s no shortage of material on this subject. In fact, you could probably read three large volumes on it and not know all Americans don’t know about what they should know. However, one short article recently written by economics professor and columnist Dr. Walter Williams perhaps tells us all we need to know. It is called “Ignorance reigns supreme” and relates the findings of a national survey measuring people’s knowledge of civics titled “Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions.” Its findings are staggering, although not at all surprising to me. For starters, 71 percent of Americans surveyed failed the test, and the average score on it was 49 percent. As for some details, Williams tells us (some of the following information he gleaned from sources other than the survey):
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The Socialist and the Stone

December 15, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

When I was still within a stones’ throw of ladhood, I had an acquaintance who was essentially a socialist. I can’t say for sure he proclaimed himself as such — although I believe he did — but that was certainly where his passions lay.

He was a man of about 60 years, and his exterior matched his ideology. Much of his hair and its melanin had obviously been redistributed, and he certainly was the very model of a modern minor socialist.

I’d say the year was about 1989, the tail end of the booming Reagan era, and the scene was a city park in the Bronx, New York. I was an aspiring tennis player, and it was where I used to hone my skills, although by this time I had moved on to better things and was only an infrequent visitor. The man in question had long been a recreational player at the park, although he never showed signs of enjoying the game very much. But, then, he didn’t really show signs of enjoying anything. Bubbling exuberance did not ooze from his pores.
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Race in the Third Millennium

November 29, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

Although the show was propaganda produced by leftist Norman Lear, no one could accuse “All in the Family” of not being funny. Its protagonist, blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker, is one of those legendary television characters, and one of his uproarious lines is apropos here. It was uttered during a scene in which his daughter, Gloria, passionately asked him, “Daddy, did you know that 65 percent of the people murdered in the last ten years were killed by handguns?” The curmudgeonly patriarch’s reply was classic: “Would it make you feel any better, little girl, if they was pushed outta’ windas’?”

While what follows isn’t the conclusion Lear wanted us to draw, the truth is that many Americans would feel better. People tend to fixate on the boogeyman of their ideology, and they often don’t trouble much about evil when it’s not committed in his name.

We see examples of this phenomenon today, and this brings me to a couple of questions of my own. Can tyranny be visited in the name of only one particular lie? And would it make you feel any better if millions were oppressed or murdered to promote a fashionable lie? The truth is, sadly, millions would feel better.
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Obama: Fear and the Security Force

November 22, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

In all my life I have never seen such intense emotion surrounding a leader as that evoked by Barack Obama. Even Ronald Reagan, the Gipper himself, didn’t enjoy the kind of prostration of the will offered to the president-elect by hordes of followers. Yet, while people the world over are imbued with “hope” and chant Obama’s slogan “Yes, we can!” — for instance, the French are using their translation of it, “Oui, nous pouvons!” — some of the intense emotion is of a very different species.

It is fear.

In all my life I have never seen an American politician who could make so many Americans’ blood run cold. Some may mention the left’s feelings regarding Reagan or President Bush, but there is no equivalency. For all of leftists’ bluster and melodrama, they weren’t afraid of those men as much as they, well, just hated them. Sure, leftist ideologues said those two Republicans were scary, but the same people also said that each one was both dumb and Machiavellian. Hatred is an emotion, and emotion isn’t logical; it just conjures up whatever feels right at the moment.
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How Barack Obama Will Ensure His Victory in 2012

November 16, 2008 by

-By Selwyn Duke

Even before the election, with the realization that a Barack Obama presidency lay on the horizon, many saw a silver lining in the cloud that drifted into Washington, DC, from the left coast. “The right will be re-energized,” many thought, “and we’ll have a better Republican candidate and improved prospects in 2012.” Moreover, it was figured that Obama will exacerbate a bad situation, causing a meltdown in our economy and emboldening enemies without and within, thereby creating fertile ground for a Republican victory. Of course, the GOP nominee may in fact be better four years hence, although he is far more likely to be so in terms of persona than policy. But his prospects are a different matter.

No one likes the bearer of bad news, but, in this case, to render good news would be to offer bad prognostication. Frankly, I don’t see anything short of divine or devilish intervention (and the latter favors the president-elect) that will prevent Obama from being a two-term president.
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The French First Lady: Eye Candy and Air

November 15, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

It’s hard to shock a man living in a planetary insane asylum, so it doesn’t raise my eyebrows when I watch a people commit suicide. Nevertheless, I had to shake my head when I read about how Barack Obama’s election has inspired France to consider affirmative-action policies to combat their dreaded “white political and social elite.” Weighing in on this pressing problem is none other than singer, esteemed intellectual and French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Writes Cnews.canoe.ca:
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Obama the Justifier

November 3, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

Election reportage is reaching a fever pitch, and one of the hottest stories concerns a recently revealed interview Barack Obama gave to Chicago Public Radio in 2001. In it, then Illinois state senator Obama talked about whether his desire to spread the wealth around might be better accomplished legislatively or through the courts and lamented that the latter hadn’t done enough to further this socialist goal.

While many have heard the interview, very few have identified its most troubling aspect. It’s not that Obama’s answers were peppered with various forms of the term “redistribute,” as all politically sentient beings already know this is what he aims to do with other people’s money. It wasn’t that he said the Warren court wasn’t really all that “radical.” It’s not even that he strongly implied the Constitution was flawed, as no legal document is perfect, and many thinking people would like to see the Constitution altered in some way. No, there is something far, far more chilling, although, to many, it may seem somewhat innocuous. It was when Obama spoke of how legal “justifications” could be found allowing the courts to order redistributive policies. This single, solitary statement transcends one policy and reveals The One’s philosophy.

If I said “So-and-so has his justifications or “He just wants to justify his actions,” we all know that the italicized words don’t have a positive connotation. Justifications are not usually synonymous with reasons – they tend to be more akin to rationalizations.
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The Terrorist Attack of 2010

October 27, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Selwyn Duke

The date is November 9, 2010, and you turn on the radio to listen to the news over morning coffee. Economic times have been tough, and you’re not expecting much to uplift the soul. Yet, what you hear still makes your blood run cold.

Nuclear devices have been detonated almost simultaneously in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. Tens of thousands are dead or dying, and millions more are being evacuated, owing to radioactive contamination that will now make huge swaths of the cities uninhabitable.

President Obama is currently on the air addressing the nation. Everything he says sounds reassuring and mellifluous, just like it always does, just like it always has. Right now he is talking about the emergency response and government efforts to help the victims and apprehend the perpetrators. He speaks of how we must pray for our fellow Americans.

More information will be forthcoming, and we will see his calm countenance on TV and hear his resonant, composed voice again. Of that you can be sure.

But there is something he won’t tell us.

There is something he will never tell us.
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Barack Obama’s Campaign of the Lie

October 22, 2008 by

-By Selwyn Duke

Absent the ability to read minds and hearts, I can’t really tell you if Barack Obama is uniquely dishonest. What is for certain, though, is that his campaign is uniquely deceitful. These two things are not synonymous. Politicians are famous for suppressing facts and manufacturing fantasies to hide their faults, and, while Obama certainly practices this sleight-of-hand, I can’t say he is more inured to it that your average prevaricating pol. But what is doubtless is that he has more faults to hide.

It’s ironic that Obama has used the “lipstick on a pig” line, because Avon’s whole inventory couldn’t, sans media spin, cover up his true colors. And color is a factor this election. It’s not that the senator is black, however, or that, as he said last debate alluding to McCain’s criticism, he is “green behind the ears.” It’s that he is red behind the ears.
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The Obama Youth

October 6, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke


It really does seem that the more evil a movement is, the more likely it is to enlist children in its cause. (Well, they really do make beautiful little human shields.) In the above video, 22 young, impressionable victims of misguided parents are singing a song in homage to Barack Obama as if he’s a god . . . or an extremely good imposter.

Interestingly, the way the story behind this has developed provides an excellent example of how leftists have absolutely no courage of their convictions. The Drudge Report had linked up to the video on Tuesday (9/30), giving it exposure to millions of ears, including many unsympathetic ones. Thus, some of those who responded to it in the YouTube comment section entered negative responses. So, lo and behold, what did these activist-minded leftists do? They turned the original version into a private video, meaning, only those they invite may now view it (here is the YouTube page of the original poster). Fortunately (or unfortunately – no exposure is almost always worse than criticism), though, other Web users had already posted it, which is why it’s still available.
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Does Pro-life Now Mean Pro-libertinism?

October 2, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

At NationalPost.com, journalist David Frum has a piece in which he discusses what he perceives to be the transformation of the pro-life movement. His thesis is that the widespread acceptance of unwed motherhood – including by pro-lifers – has eliminated the stigma attached to the state, thereby causing a quarter-century decrease in the abortion rate.

Frum starts out talking about how the applause for Sarah Palin’s pregnant, 17-year-old daughter at the Republican Convention reflects this sea-change. Then, contrasting today’s sexual mores and abortion rate with those of 27 years ago, he writes:
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Political Elections, Cultural Elections, and the Votes that Really Matter

September 24, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

To be honest, treating politics isn’t my favorite pastime. Sure, like other commentators I do it, but it’s not something I can truly sink my teeth into. I’ll explain why momentarily.

This election season, my pen has directed many slings and arrows Barack Obama’s way. I criticized John McCain, too, but that was during the primaries. Now there is what I perceive to be a clear and present danger in the person of a slick demagogue, so my sights — and my site — are trained in one particular direction. Because of this, however, I sometimes receive emails from disenchanted rightist voters. “What do you have to say about McCain?” some ask. “How is he any better than Obama?”

My feelings toward such respondents vacillate between surliness and sympathy. I understand why they feel the way they do, but they don’t understand me. I’m neither a party man nor a doctrinarian. I’m probably at least as dissatisfied with our wanting candidates as those who write me, and I can sum up my reasoning very simply:

Both candidates deserve to lose.

Only, one deserves to lose more.
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Why John Edwards’ Affair Matters

August 19, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

It has become a stereotypical pattern with men. A lad with a salad-days libido has a girl in every port, plays fast and loose with feelings and breaks hearts. Then he gets older, marries, has a daughter, and becomes very protective. He doesn’t want her dating guys who are just like he was.

What this tells us is that when it’s our ox being gored, reality often becomes crystal clear. Sure, as a young man, dad no doubt rationalized his behavior. But when the object of ravishing eyes is his daughter, he knows what having good character means, why it matters and wants her beau to possess it.
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Barack Obama and Defining Anti-Americanism Downwards

August 8, 2008 by

-By Selwyn Duke

If Barack Obama sought to win the votes of Germans, he need seek no more. Of course, his new image was all the rage in the Old World long before he gave his July 24 speech in Berlin. Along with the mainstream media and murderer Dale Leo Bishop, Senator Sweetness and Light is the man the Europeans want as our leader.

Although Obama certainly has a stateside cult following as well, one reason Americans’ enthusiasm pales in comparison may be that we – at least some of us, anyway – can decipher his words better than foreign-language speakers. As to this, there is a certain segment of the Berlin speech I’d call your attention to:

“I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.”

It might be pointed out to Senator Obama that if he finds a perfect country, he should be sure not to go there.
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Judge-mentally Impaired Should Get Off Michael Savage’s Back

July 26, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

It seems as if taking offense is the recreation of choice in modern America. The latest example (of which I’m aware; I’m sure our UPS {umbrage per second} statistic is sky high) has resulted in a planned protest at WOR Radio in Manhattan over some comments radio talk show host Michael Savage made concerning autism. Or, to be precise, the commentary involved not that condition but behavior that might be misdiagnosed as autism. Here is what Savage said, as reported by wcbstv.com:

During the July 16 edition of his show, Savage claimed that autism is “[a] fraud, a racket. … I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’”

One person who took exception to this commentary was Martin Schwartzman, the father of an autistic child. He opined:

“I couldn’t understand why someone could be so heartless and so insensitive, and also so ignorant for a national talk show host . . . . It was so hurtful to all individuals with disabilities, particularly those with autism, but I really think he should be removed from the air.”

For all I know, Mr. Schwartzman may be a very decent man, but evident is that he has never listened to Savage’s show. If he had, there are a few things he would probably understand.
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Barack Obama and Equal Pay for Women

July 16, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

What do you call a man who sermonizes about the evils of paying women less than men but allows that very practice in his own office? While a certain unflattering noun would leap to the minds of most, we can now apply a proper one: Barack Obama.

Although the Illinois senator has vowed to make pay equity between the sexes a priority in his administration, it has been revealed that he doesn’t practice what he preaches. Writes CNSNEWS.com:
“On average, women working in Obama’s Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator . . . . Of the five people in Obama’s Senate office who were paid $100,000 or more on an annual basis, only one – Obama’s administrative manager – was a woman.”

Now, some might call Obama a hypocrite. Isn’t he guilty of the very invidious discrimination he claims plagues America? It’s certainly easy to take this tack, and many on my side will have a field day doing so. Yet, such an analysis only qualifies us for a job such as, well, working in a leftist senator’s office. Let’s look a little deeper.
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The War on Boys: Where Feminists and Men’s Rights Activists Go Wrong

June 30, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

One problem with one-issue activists, it seems, is that they often view matters from only one dimension. This has always been one of the characteristics of feminists. Men get blame for being history’s conquerors and killers, for instance, but no credit for being its innovators and healers. We will hear about how women “create life” while men only destroy it, but forgotten are the fruits of men’s labors. Were it not for male medical advances that virtually eliminated female death during childbirth, many feminists wouldn’t be around to crow about their fecundity.

Given this misandrist atmosphere, it’s not surprising that an opposing group called “men’s rights activists” would arise. They rebut feminist ideology, bring many important issues to light and usually make excellent points. And I tend to like them.

One issue they’re front and center on is the “war against boys.” This refers to the characteristic problems exhibited by modern lads – such as higher dropout rates, worse grades, and lower college attendance than girls and a far greater likelihood that they’ll be targeted by the ADHD police for a pickling with Ritalin – and the causes of these things. As for the latter, men’s rights activists implicate a prevailing anti-male attitude in a highly-feminized society. And I essentially agree with that analysis. Yet, despite this, like the feminists, they go badly astray. In fact, the two groups have more in common than they would care to admit.
Really, this is no surprise, as the problem I speak of isn’t unique to an activist of a given stripe but is one of modernity. To introduce it, I will cite a recent article by one David Kupelian titled “The war on fathers.” It’s an excellent piece by a man who has much of value to say, and I encourage you to read it. Yet it also contains the following line, “. . . young boys . . . don’t naturally thrive when forced to sit still at a desk listening to a teacher lecture for six hours a day . . . .”
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A Socialist by Any Other Name . . .

June 28, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

One of the consequences of being right in an age of lies is that it brands you as a radical. Remember that being an extremist doesn’t mean you’re wrong, but simply that your views deviate greatly from those of the mainstream. If you say that 2+2=4 in a land where everyone else insists it’s 5, you’ll be labeled a radical. The same is true if you assert that a certain society of men is full of wolves when everyone else believes they’re sheep.

Now, for years I’ve been telling people that most of our Democrats are essentially socialists; sure, either they won’t admit it publicly or aren’t fully aware of it themselves (quite common; self knowledge is often sorely lacking, especially among leftists). It was a message as hard to relate as it is for many to accept, as it renders you something less than the kind of “credible” commentator who gets invitations to appear on Fox News (bigot Opio Sokoni was on O’Reilly last week). But that message now goes down a little easier with the recent Democrat proposal to nationalize oil refineries.

There is a great article on this very subject by a writer named Lance Fairchok; it is titled “Why Do We Call Them ‘Democrats’?” After quoting a couple of Democrats who waxed enthusiastic about nationalizing the oil refineries, he presents this Freudian slip by Congressman Maxine Waters:
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The Crime of Being White

May 29, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

Just recently I wrote a piece about Keith John Sampson, a college student who was charged with “racial harassment” for reading an anti-Ku Klux Klan book. Not surprisingly, the article evoked a great response, including emails from those with their own stories to tell about persecution inspired by what I will call caucaphobia. A couple of these accounts are so compelling – compared to one even Sampson’s problems pale – that I’ve decided to publish them in this piece (both readers allowed me to use their names; their correspondence has been edited for punctuation, grammar and style). These are the stories the mainstream media won’t tell, straight from the front lines of the culture war. They give voice to a persecution whose name most dare not utter.

First we have Mr. David Gonzalez of Illinois. He wrote:
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Read a Book, Get Charged with Racial Harassment

May 18, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

The May 9 edition of the New York Post carries a short article by an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis student named Keith John Sampson. He tells a story of being charged with “racial harassment” simply because he was “caught” reading an anti-Ku Klux Klan book. I’m not kidding. Sampson tells his story:

The book was Todd Tucker’s ‘Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan’; I was reading it on break from my campus job as a janitor. The same book is in the university library . . . .

But that didn’t stop the Affirmative Action Office of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis from branding me as a detestable Klansman.

They didn’t want to hear the truth. The office ruled that my ‘repeatedly reading the book . . . constitutes racial harassment in that you demonstrated disdain and insensitivity to your co-workers.’

The affirmative-action officer – who draws a salary of $106, 000 a year to perform her crucial role and is obviously a woman of inestimable intellect – neither examined the book nor spoke with Sampson. He wasn’t guilty until proven innocent. He was just guilty.

To make a long story short, the charges were only dropped months later after the institution of lower learning came under pressure from the media, the ACLU (hey, even a blind squirrel . . .) and a more noble entity called the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
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The Hard Truth about a Soft Science: Why Psychology Does More Harm Than Good

May 4, 2008 by 1 Comment

By Selwyn Duke

In his book The Future of an Illusion, Sigmund Freud said of religion and morality,

“It would be an undoubted advantage if we were to leave God out altogether and admit the purely human origins of all the precepts and regulations of civilization.”

In making this statement, Freud weighed in on one of life’s most important questions: What is the nature of right and wrong? Is it real, something existing apart from man, a reflection of Absolute Truth, of God’s will? Or is it, in accordance with the atheist model, merely a product of mortal minds and thus synonymous with consensus opinion? Freud made it clear he believed the latter.

While many may debate Freud’s influence over modern psychology, there is no doubt that the atheism and moral relativism he espoused reign in it. This is not to say there aren’t exceptions. There is the American Association of Christian Counselors, and many people will speak glowingly of positive experiences with Christian therapists. And, while I myself would never have need of such services (although some of my critics may beg to differ), I have had the pleasure of corresponding with an individual of this stripe, author, speaker and family psychologist John Rosemond, a man traditional to the core. Yet, in just the way we refer to the Founding Fathers’ ideology as “classical liberalism” so as to distinguish it from the modern variety, there is a reason why we use a modifier and call such people “Christian Counselors”: They are not the norm.
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When Will We Admit the Truth About Barack Obama?

May 1, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

If you interview someone for a job, you’ll expect him to tell you what you want to hear. There’ll be a façade, and his darker side will remain well-hidden. Now, let’s say a requirement for the job is that the applicant likes children, and he does his best Captain Kangaroo. But then you find out he has a job history of indifference to and perhaps even abuse of them and that, during unguarded moments, he has expressed disdain for them. What will you believe, what he tries to sell you or history and hair-down revelations?
Remember this when evaluating the profound discrepancy between Barack Obama’s damage-control denials and flowery rhetoric, and his long track record. Understand that he, like the other candidates, is interviewing for the job of president with you, the interviewer. His job is to bend the truth; your job is to discern it. The only question is: Who will do a better job, he or you?

Either Obama really is a savior for the third millennium, or the answer is that he is, thus far, besting many of you. Millions flock to him, registering oohs and ahs, fainting and fawning. Even critics and watchdogs heap praise upon him; Bill O’Reilly said he likes Obama and Sean Hannity proclaimed him a “good man.” But what is the truth about this applicant?

Let me tell you a story. In 2002, President Bush signed into law a bill titled the “Born Alive Infants Protection Act” (BAIPA). This law was necessary because, believe it or not, infants were being born alive during attempted abortions and then, ancient Spartan style, left to die. Jill Stanek wrote about this last year, saying:
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Unfair and Unbalanced

April 19, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

The phrase “fair and balanced” certainly has a positive connotation. It is thought the greatest quality a news outlet can possess; it has even become a motto of the Fox News Network. Yet I don’t find Fox very balanced at all.

Oh, I give credit where it’s due. Given that neo-communist organs such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and most other mainstream newspapers believe presenting the “other side” means airing the voice of socialist dissent, Fox and its soul mates are a major improvement. I say soul mates because, while among TV news outlets Fox may be unusual, its perspective certainly is not.

I am never fair and balanced, certainly not in the modern way of thinking. My problem with the approach is that it breeds something akin to the following reportage:

“God says Devil is evil; Devil says God is evil. We report, you decide.”

The above is more literally true than you may think. We often complain about internationalist news bureaus that will call terrorists by a euphemism such as “insurgents” or “militants,” but in the fair and balanced world it makes sense. After all, one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Sure, that widely-accepted U.S. government definition of terrorism states that it is “. . . violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents . . .,” but, first, why should our perspective carry the day? Then, what is this business about “subnational” groups? It is obviously a tendentious definition allowing the biggest bullies on the block, nations, the latitude to employ an effective tactic while denying it to the less powerful. And we know that during WWII both sides aggressively targeted civilian populations. Let’s be fair and balanced now. And all is fair in love and war.
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What should our reaction be when others pray for our conversion?

April 5, 2008 by 3 Comments

By Selwyn Duke

There recently was a story about a German Jewish leader, Charlotte Knobloch, who criticized Pope Benedict XVI for allowing a traditional Easter prayer that calls for the conversion of the Jewish people. Her reaction raises an interesting issue, as praying for conversion isn’t unique to Catholics any more than taking offense to it is unique to Jews. And to start this topic off, I’d like to pose a question: Who do you think would be more likely to take umbrage at being the object of such a supplication, a person of deep belief or one of the superficial variety?

Well, here is a little anecdote. I’m a man who takes his faith very seriously; I believe it is the Truth and that God should be at the center of one’s life. I also know a man who is Jewish and believes just the same. He is orthodox, praying at the appointed times every day – regardless of the situation – and abiding by every one of the 613 Judaic laws that pertain to his life. He is a very saintly, gentle man. And he also has expressed that his faith – not mine, needless to say – is the true one. Now, if I found out that he had prayed for my conversion to what he considers a superior faith, should I be offended?

In fact, neither his perspective nor such a desire would bother me a whit. While this may strike a Richard Dawkins type as strange, understand my position vis-à-vis his attitude: I’d expect nothing less. And anything else would truly be less, as the only thing a belief in the equality of all faiths would tell me is that his faith was lacking.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Race - Selwyn Duke

Cultural Affirmative Action

April 1, 2008 by

-By Selwyn Duke

In a way, I prefer the old, overt affirmative action. While it was government-sanctioned discrimination, at least it was, in some measure, more honest than our cultural affirmative action. There is such a thing. It’s when people in the market and media privilege others – sometimes unconsciously – based upon the latter’s identification with a “victim group.”

This phenomenon is what Geraldine Ferraro referred to recently when she addressed Barack Obama’s meteoric political rise and said, “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position.” Pundits have condemned her for this unfashionable utterance, but it’s no insight. It’s a truth hiding in plain sight.
What do you think Bill Clinton was referring to when he said that he wanted his cabinet to “look like America,” meritocracy or quota orthodoxy? Yet Clinton isn’t alone; he merely gave voice to common practice. Would Condoleezza Rice have been appointed Secretary of State and Joycelyn Elders (the poster girl for AA) Surgeon General if they weren’t black women? Would Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sandra Day O’Connor have ascended to the Supreme Court and Janet Reno been Attorney General if they weren’t female? And, as Ferraro noted herself, she would never have been the 1984 vice-presidential candidate but for her fairer-sex status.

Cultural affirmative action manifests itself in all arenas, not just politics. A perfect example is Michelle Wie, the female golfer who set her sights on tackling the men’s tour. Based mainly on braggadocio and a fawning media bent on portraying her as an Amazon golfer who would teach the boys a lesson or two, she was granted entry into numerous PGA tournaments, even though untold numbers of male golfers were more deserving. Of course, some will point out that she is quite gifted. Others will say that the market spoke.
That is my point.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - History - Media Bias - News - Patriotism - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture

Why Most Voters Shouldn’t Vote

March 6, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

Often the most fanciful ideas become the least questioned assumptions. In this election season a few have made themselves apparent, such as the notion that “change” is good by definition and “experience” is definitely good. Yet an even better example is the oft-repeated platitude that greater voter participation yields a healthier republic.

Ah, I’ve transgressed against dogma, but let’s be logical. Most of us agree that having an educated populace is a prerequisite for a sound democratic republic. We also know that not everyone is well-educated. Thus, it cannot be a good thing for everyone to vote. For those of you who had trouble following that line of reasoning, please remember that Election Day is November 5.

And one needn’t be disenchanted with universal suffrage to agree. It’s one thing to have one man, one vote; it’s quite another to have one man, one obligation to vote. Yet we still hear that it’s our “civic duty” to go to the polls. Well, no, actually, it’s a civic duty to make ourselves worthy to do so.
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00Publius Contributor - Constitution - GOP - Media Bias - News - President - Security/Safety - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture

Conservatism is Dead; Long Live Conservatism?

February 21, 2008 by

By Selwyn Duke

It seems like just yesterday that many were reading liberalism’s epitaph. After the Reagan years, Republican Revolution of 1994, retreat of the gun-control hordes after Al Gore’s 2000 defeat and George W. Bush’s two successful presidential runs, many thought conservatism was carrying the day.
Ah, if only.

We might ask: With conservatives like President Bush and many of the other Republicans, who needs liberals?
While the media has successfully portrayed the Republicans as the party of snake handlers and moonshine, the difference between image and reality is profound. Bush has just spun the odometer, proposing the nation’s first ever $3 trillion budget. On matters pertaining to the very survival of our culture – the primacy of English, multiculturalism, the denuding of our public square of historically present Christian symbols and sentiments – Republicans are found wanting. As for illegal immigration, both the president and presumptive Republican nominee support a form of amnesty.

Yet many would paint America as under the sway of rightist politics, and some of the reasons for this are obvious. Some liberals know that the best way to ensure constant movement toward the left is by portraying the status quo as dangerously far right. If you repeatedly warn that we teeter on the brink of rightist hegemony, people will assume that to achieve “balance” we must tack further left toward your mythical center. Then we have conservatives influenced by the natural desire to view the world as the happy place they’d like to inhabit. Ingenuous sorts, they confuse Republican with conservative, party with principles, and electoral wars with the cultural one. But there’s another factor: One can confuse conservative with correct.
When is the right not right, you ask? When it has been defined by the left.
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00Publius Contributor - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture

The Wrath of John

February 13, 2008 by 1 Comment

By Selwyn Duke

Writing in the New York Post, columnist John Hurt warns of the obvious. John McCain may be campaigning as a conservative, says he, but once in office the senator will show his true colors and take a sharp left turn. Hurt opines:

He [McCain] claims the mantle of Ronald Reagan. He even claims the mantle of Barry Goldwater, conservatism’s crack version of Reagan. But as McCain clinches the GOP nomination, he will begin his usual leftward lurch.

He will return to his lifelong positions as soft on illegal immigration, skeptical of tax cuts and favoring strong federal control over things like campaign financing.

This is correct, but it gets even worse. The truth is that, once having ascended to the White House, McCain will both have less incentive than ever to listen to traditionalist voices and more reason to despise them.
First, McCain will be once-bitten but not at all shy. What am I talking about? Well, think back to his support for amnesty; the Republican electorate was enraged, his poll numbers dropped to single digits and his campaign was left for dead. No one foresaw him becoming a Lazarus candidate.

Yet rise he did.
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