No Reparations For Slavery

Like a bad case of recurring indigestion, the "Black Lives Matter" movement has generated new murmurs and groans of reparations for slavery. Enough already.

Slavery has existed since the dawn of recorded history. It was (and still is) part of African culture as well. To assert that America carries unique guilt for the peculiar institution is offensive. Americans and other white Westerners hardly had to chase slaves down to capture them, as Africans eagerly booked each other's tickets onto the middle passage.

What makes America unique is not the evil of slavery and certainly not the evil of racism, which also is universal. Instead, what makes America unique are the blessings of limited government, the rule of law, and economic prosperity. Those Africans whose ancestors came here have received something that their left-behind brethren can only dream of. When asked what he thought of Africa upon visiting it, Muhammad Ali exclaimed, "Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat," perhaps the most profound thing he ever said. Such insight is lost on the loathsome Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who refuse to stand for the national anthem; the irony of hearing men who are showered with money and women complain about how America oppresses them is so thick you can choke on it. If America is oppressive, go live in a typical African country for a year and find out just how tough the police and the living conditions are over there. 

It's also nonsensical to blame slavery for blacks' current difficulties with rampant fatherless homes and illegitimacy. By the 1880s -- a mere blip after slavery was abolished in America -- three quarters of black families were two-parent, and this share increased to 85% in the 1920s. The black illegitimacy rate was a mere 14% in 1940. It was only after the federal government got into the unconstitutional business of distributing welfare that these numbers took a staggering turn for the worse. Who would have thought that subsidizing illegitimate children and single mothers creates more of them? Crime is an outgrowth of these problems, and blacks commit crime at a rate vastly disproportionate to their small share of the population. To argue that slavery made them do it doesn't deserve a response.

Even if I'm completely wrong on these points, the fact remains that no living American ever has been a chattel slave or bought, sold, or owned one. To demand that the living pay for the sins of the dead is to work a corruption of blood, a barbaric concept that the Constitution explicitly rejects.

America already has gone far beyond the call of duty by outlawing the slave trade, fighting a bloody war to end chattel slavery, guaranteeing blacks civil rights in a prosperous nation, and spending the last two generations funneling trillions of dollars into the black community. This last endeavor was not required or even allowed by the (supposed) supreme law of the land, yet the demands for reparations grow only more shrill with each passing season.

The final irony is this: most blacks as well as whites today don't even want to be free. No, they want government to use its blunt tools of fear and violence to take care of them from cradle to grave. They want to be slaves. Why demand reparation for the very evil you embrace?

This Is What Passes For Higher Learning Today

Princeton University, the most prestigious undergraduate institution in the land, has declared that its employees and students should use neologisms in lieu of the word "man" whenever possible. In a brave new world where the mere utterance of a contrary opinion triggers people into epileptic fits, Princeton has chosen to swim with the tide rather than against it.

Anyone contemplating the education of his children should steer them far away from the modern university, which is a socialist, misandrist, anti-Western, schizophrenic cesspool. It's bad enough that these asylums are unconstitutionally subsidized with federal taxes, but to add insult to injury, students and parents must pay a king's ransom for the privilege of turning a mind into mush.

In America, of course, nobody really cares about education or intellect. Credentials are all that matter, since we are a nation of shallow consumers who judge a product by slick advertising and labels rather than actual content, which requires effort to discern. Garbage in, garbage out.

The good news is that there's no need to tear this system of "higher learning" apart -- it will fall apart by virtue of its own internal rot. Larger numbers of young men are forgoing this miasma to do something worthwhile with their lives and keep their sanity and finances intact.

Clinton Commercial Reveals America's Faustian Bargain

I recently saw a television commercial for Hillary Clinton, but it never bothered to explain why she should be president. Instead, it explained why Donald Trump should not be, which I suppose is a wise strategy for her ("no matter how loathsome I am, he's worse"). I was prepared to switch the channel when a parade of establishment empty suits declared that Donald Trump cannot be trusted with America's nuclear arsenal. Now, this intrigued me. Apparently, the president cannot be someone as volatile and uninformed as Trump because the president has his finger on "the button" and can unleash Armageddon.

These eminent personages are completely ignorant of America's founding philosophy, which is this -- NOBODY can be trusted with too much power. The founders operated on the assumption that any power that can be abused will be abused, which is precisely why they split the functions of the federal government and kept the vast majority of power with the several states.

The fact that Hillary Clinton claims Trump is too dangerous for the presidency is an admission that the presidency is too dangerous for anyone, including Hillary herself. Americans are not supposed to resign themselves to hoping that government power will not be abused; rather, Americans have a right to feel comfortable knowing that government power cannot be abused, certainly not to the Biblical extent now possible. Those days are long gone, though, as most Americans have entrusted government with the unconstitutional power to do virtually everything under the sun.

No sane person would conclude that it's safe to trust one person versus another with the power to annihilate humanity. At the end of the day, Hillary's commercial proves that just about everyone is unhinged, not merely Trump.