Month: March 2008

The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama, Keith Olbermann and others would have us believe that Black men in America have an exclusive claim on suffering, one that seems to be based primarily on being snubbed by taxi drivers.
Here’s a statistic or two for consideration:
Based on the numbers in 2000, approximately 1/3 of the male prison population was Black, or 791,600 out of 2.1 million.
Assuming that Black Americans are 12% of the population, the number of Black male prisoners was/is roughly 3 times the norm.
Obviously, that’s a lousy statistic, but there are other demographic groups who are over-represented in prison – and by far greater ratios than this. And some of these demographic groups don’t have anyone, let alone hoardes of high-visibility spokespersons and politicians, to make the public even dimly aware of their plight.
There are no statistics on adult prisoners who are adoptees, but consider the following:
According to the book Chosen Children by Lori Carangelo, twenty-five to 35% of the youth in residential treatment centers are adopted. Based on the percentage of adoptees in the general population (2-3%), that’s 12 to 17 times the norm.
Let’s recap that: not 3 times, like the Black male prison population, or even 5 times or 10 times. Twelve to 17 times the norm.
At California-based psychiatric treatment facility Coldwater Canyon Center, 60-85% are adopted – 30 to 40 times the norm.
Besides the obvious trauma suffered by adoptees, including physical and sexual abuse, there is evidence to suggest that a baby’s body produces abnormally high levels of the stress hormone cortisole if the child is separated from its mother. This can cause the type of brain damage that has serious long-term consequences.
I think that trumps not being able to hail a cab.
My point is not to play one-upsmanship games with anyone, but to point out the absurdity of this mess created by a manipulative, nasty old demagogue and his Far Left apologists.
Billions of dollars and probably billions of hours have been invested in trying to correct the obvious wrongs done to Black Americans. Maybe some of that investment has been misguided or inefficient, but the fact that the Obama family lives in a million dollar home and has a combined income in the comfortable 6 figures is proof that at least some African Americans have been able to succeed in the 21st century.
That kind of measurable, demonstrable success is, I submit, the product of hard work, not bitter rhetoric.
It took hard work for Obama to be elected the president of the Harvard Law Review, but a host of other people worked equally hard to raise funds for the scholarship programs that paid for his education at the exclusive Punahou School in Hawaii and the two Ivys, Columbia and Harvard.
And it wouldn’t kill either Wright or Obama to acknowledge that obvious fact and to show a modium of humility and gratitude in the process.

First season’s yardwork yesterday at 11 and 20, and not a moment too soon: crocuses are already up at 11, and some of the decorative grasses have started.

Until this morning, I would have sworn that the newspaper columns about the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s pursuit of a gambling license were written by the same people who produce 99.9% of the technical books and articles out there (my favorite author Jesse Liberty being the most distinguished exception to that rule).
In other words, the articles have been confusing, contradictory and abominably written.
Finally, though, the Boston Herald’s Casey Ross laid it all down in clear, understandable English.
Thank you, Mr. Ross.
Here are the facts:
There are three proposals on the table.
First, the tribe can bid for a license under the governor’s three-casino plan. The Legislature would have to approve this.
Second: the tribe is pursuing a separate agreement with the governor to allow “unlimited casino gaming”, i.e., slots and gaming tables, at the Middleboro site, in exchange for labor and environmental concessions, revenue sharing with the state, and payment for infrastructure upgrades and other costs. The Legislature would have to approve this agreement.
Finally, the tribe can seek approval from the Dept. of the Interior to put the Middleboro casino site in federal trust, a process that could take a year or more. According to Mr. Ross’s article, this would be a “Class II gaming facility with modified slot machines and limited table games”. In this case, though, the tribe wouldn’t need the Mass. legislature’s approval, and they wouldn’t have to pay for infrastructure upgrades, share revenue with the state, etc.
Got it?

There was snow on the ground when I got up at 4:30. A little while later, it was sleeting, about an hour ago it was raining, and now (8:17 am) it’s not doing much of anything.
I was ecstatic for myself – it’s Saturday and thus, was not required to venture forth – but not envying Peter, who had to drive his entire family to Boston for a conference this morning.

One wonders if the upcoming Rezko trial and its potential impact on Obama’s Teflon-coated campaign isn’t the driving force behind all the babble about “change”, “healing souls”, etc.
Put another way, is Obama motivated by a guilty conscience, or is his campaign really proof that innocents can triumph in a land of political wolves?
For example, there have been a lot of numerical manipulations around the proportion of the Obama campaign that has been funded from small contributors.
People have practically been standing on their heads, slicing the numbers to the point of absurdity, to prove that Barack Obama isn’t in the pockets of the rich because “most”/”the majority”/”all” (see the Washington Post, huffingtonpost.com, etc.) of his donations have been in small amounts.
The reality is that only about 1/3 of Obama’s total contributions have come from small donors, those in the $200 and under category.
This info is readily available from the FEC, which has posted totals through January 31 for all of the candidates.
This is not to say that either the Clinton or McCain campaigns are exemplary in this regard (15.5% and 24.8%, respectively). The difference is that they haven’t made this statistic a litmus test for ideological purity.
In fact, no one has done as well as Ron Paul in the area of attracting donations from the hoi polloi: over 62% of Paul’s coffers came from people contributing $200 or less.
Clinton
$200 and Under $18,660,346 15.54%
$200.01 – $499 $4,876,808 4.06%
$500 – $999 $6,790,257 5.66%
$1000 – $1999 $20,013,590 16.67%
$2000 and Over $69,717,042 58.07%
Obama
$200 and Under $47,323,742 33.85%
$200.01 – $499 $10,452,546 7.48%
$500 – $999 $11,440,957 8.18%
$1000 – $1999 $21,130,641 15.11%
$2000 and Over $49,472,185 35.38%
McCain
$200 and Under $12,255,455 24.78%
$200.01 – $499 $2,595,721 5.25%
$500 – $999 $4,292,476 8.68%
$1000 – $1999 $8,648,735 17.49%
$2000 and Over $21,657,862 43.80%
Paul
$200 and Under $20,480,336 62.89%
$200.01 – $499 $2,456,663 7.54%
$500 – $999 $3,482,780 10.69%
$1000 – $1999 $3,164,245 9.72%
$2000 and Over $2,981,117 9.15%