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February 3, 2014

Why Is the Southern Poverty Law Center Trying to Crush a Small Jewish Organization?

By Selwyn Duke

It seems as if certain purported civil-rights activists think homosexuals are like some organized-crime groups: you can join the gang, but the only way you can leave is feet first.

A case in point is a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey against JONAH International — a Judaic organization that helps people overcome unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) — and some of its associates by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). And what is the basis for the lawsuit? As co-founder of JONAH Arthur Goldberg explained to me:

[T]he lawsuit was filed under the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act alleging the commission of a consumer fraud on the unproven theory that same-sex attraction is inborn and unchangeable. Therefore, the programs and counselors to which we refer people have allegedly committed a consumer fraud because those seeking such services allegedly cannot change. Their goal is to put us (and other small organizations like ours) out of business.

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January 22, 2014

Andrew Cuomo: An Extreme Statement From an Extreme Man

By Selwyn Duke

God’s moderation is man’s extremism. This occurs to me when considering the remarks recently made by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. As you may know, the governor addressed a Republican schism while a guest on the New York Public Broadcasting radio show “The Capitol Pressroom” and said, “Extreme conservatives who are right-to-life, pro-assault-weapon, anti-gay … have no place in the state of New York — because that’s not who New Yorkers are.” And many observers think that this reveals who Cuomo really is.

In fairness, it appeared as if Cuomo was referring to how such individuals had no place in Empire State politics because they don’t have the votes in New York to carry the day. So while other commentators are busy condemning the governor for being, as late radio legend Bob Grant used to call Cuomo’s father, “Il Duce” (which does truly characterize him), there is so much more that can be said about Cuomo the Younger’s impolitic remarks.

First, everything Cuomo does must be interpreted within the context of his apparent 2016 presidential ambitions. They are why he visibly pushed radical pro-abortion legislation last year and signed the “SAFE Act” anti-Second Amendment law, and it may explain why he would say that “extreme conservatives” have no place in New York: He is positioning himself as Mr. Progressive-on-steroids in preparation for the Democratic primaries. As to this, I have a New York message for Cuomo.

Read the rest here.
January 21, 2014

Ducking the Real Issue on Duck Dynasty

By Selwyn Duke

This past December, the Duck Dynasty television show became “duck and cover,” with the forces of pinkness going nuclear on its patriarch, Phil Robertson, after he uttered some words about the most victimey of victim groups. For those who missed the story, the saga began when GQ interviewer Drew Magary asked Robertson what he considered sinful, prompting the bearded born-again Christian to say (as presented by GQ),

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers — they won’t inherit the kingdom of God.”

The response was quite predictable. While the Bill Clinton impersonators, W.C. Fields acolytes, gilded Gordon Gecko Wall Street warriors, and the idolater and swindler lobbies were mum, the homosexual activist group GLAAD was anything but glad (never mind gay), calling Robertson’s comments “vile” and extreme. The result was that A&E, the station carrying the Duck Dynasty reality show, did duck and cover and quickly announced an indefinite suspension of Robertson. To his credit, however, Robertson stood by his beliefs, and his family and formidable fan base stood by him, causing A&E to cave and reinstate him on December 27. And all’s well that ends well, right? Not so fast.

Read the rest here.
January 21, 2014

Feminism’s War on Women

By Selwyn Duke

When decades ago feminists promised to liberate women, they didn’t say it would be liberation from morality. But the movement that once protested the viewing of females as sex objects, now is turning them into sex rejects.

A case in point is Feminista Jones, who recently appeared on the Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show. Described by Salon.com as a “sex-positive black feminist” and “social worker,” Jones wrote in a recent article that “you don’t have to love someone to have sex, but you should, at the very least, respect your partners and yourself enough to make what goes on between you pleasurable and safe.” And how many “partners” should a person have? Jones told Peterson, “A person can have as many sexual partners as they want.”

After Peterson mentioned that such promiscuity makes you a “whore,” Jones objected to the use of the word; not surprisingly, she rejected the concept of shame as well, maintaining that it doesn’t actually serve to control behavior. (I wonder, has she ever heard of political correctness and its social pressure?)

Read the rest here.
January 17, 2014

Thus Spake the Potheads

By Selwyn Duke

It’s starting to appear as if marijuana users have become the homosexual lobby of the chemically dependent. What do I mean? Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson could mention one sexual behavior (adultery) as disqualifying someone from the “kingdom of God,” but mentioning that “other” sexual behavior? That’s a boycottin’, pardner! Likewise, there’s no shortage of articles about the perils of smoking tobacco — about how it causes lung cancer, emphysema and premature aging; about how it’s a dirty, nasty habit — all without indignant smokers crawling out of the woodwork to protest, between hacking coughs, that their passion is being unfairly demonized. But dare imply that inhaling copious amounts of marijuana smoke may not be one of Dr. Oz’s top ten health recommendations, and, well, the potheads cometh.

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January 13, 2014

Forget Christie; Let’s Talk about Big Fat Traffic Jams

By Selwyn Duke

One unmentioned irony of the Chris Christie road-revenge scandal is that the powers-that-be finally found a traffic jam they didn’t like. Now, don’t get me wrong, having always lived in the NY metropolitan area and often having wanted to split a vein while in the midst of the NY/NJ road experience, I think that anyone who purposely exacerbates traffic problems should be confined to a small cell and forced to listen 24/7/365 to Nancy Pelosi’s nails-on-blackboard speeches. But I have to tell you: it has always seemed that NY and NJ public officials have utter disregard — if not contempt — for drivers in their states. In fact, their policies have long had the effect of exacerbating traffic problems.

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January 9, 2014

Influential Beats: The Cultural Impact of Music

By Selwyn Duke

The Devil really is a fellow of wine and song,
Playing a tune that trades right for wrong.
The tone-deaf man will hear his notes and say,
What could be wrong with being festive and gay?
And when a sad tomorrow that tune does bring,
Few will know that from their own lips it did spring.

There perhaps is something primal about music, something that can touch or twist one’s soul. This is no doubt why Ludwig van Beethoven said, “Music can change the world,” and William Congreve famously wrote that music “has charms to soothe a savage breast.” And music’s power is tacitly acknowledged all the time. For example, last year Michelle Obama lent her name and image to a rap album that complements her “Let’s Move!” anti-obesity campaign. And while a track featuring a trio called “Salad Bar” and a song entitled “Veggie Luv” is easy to mock (given their mother’s priorities, I can just hear Sasha and Malia singing, “And we’ll have fun, fun, fun till daddy takes the tea cake away”), there is method to the first lady’s madness. As Boston College professor emeritus William K. Kilpatrick wrote in his book Why Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong:

[We] tend to learn something more easily and indelibly if it’s set to a rhyme or song. Advertisers know this and use it so effectively that we sometimes have difficulty getting their jingles out of our heads. But there are more positive educational uses. Most of us learned the alphabet this way and some of our history as well (“Paul Revere’s Ride,” “Concord Hymn”). Recently some foreign language courses have been developed which employ rhyme and song as the central teaching method. Similarly, one of the most successful new phonics programs teaches reading through singing.

Quite true. To this day I can recite a McDonald’s Big Mac-recipe jingle I heard as a little child — verbatim. And I only had to hear the weather advice “Red sky in morning, sailor take warning; red sky at night, sailor’s delight” once to remember it forever. But since all power can be misused, can music possibly usher in a storm of civilizational upheaval? If it can soothe the savage breast, does it not follow that it can also inflame it?

Read the rest here.
January 9, 2014

The Genocide of Dead White Males

By Selwyn Duke

With the way dead white males get vilified nowadays, it almost makes me afraid to die. And with the way true education is being killed off, you may be afraid to send your kids to school.

A generation ago we heard the chant, “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western culture’s gotta go!” And it’s going, alright. One of the more recent casualties was the University of California at Los Angeles’ humanities program, which until 2011 was one of the last bastions of traditional Western scholarship in the humanities. Rick Moran at American Thinker recently covered this, and quoting a Wall Street Journal piece he writes:

Where previously, undergrads would have to take one course studying Chaucer, 2 for Shakespeare, and one on Milton, a "revolt" by junior faculty forced "a mandate that all English majors take a total of three courses in the following four areas: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability and Sexuality Studies; Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies; genre studies, interdisciplinary studies, and critical theory; or creative writing."

Read the rest here.
January 8, 2014

Is Bill de Blasio Trading Horses for Money?

By Selwyn Duke

They used to hang horse thieves — now they elect them mayor. As many know, New York City’s new commandant, Bill de Blasio, has sworn that one of his first acts upon taking office will be to ban Central Park’s iconic horse-drawn carriages. He claims that forcing horses to work in Manhattan is inhumane, but is he really just kowtowing to a big real-estate developer who heavily supported his campaign?

Interestingly, there was a time when de Blasio was more blasé about these animal-rights concerns. In fact, when he had the chance as a City Council member to support legislation banishing NYC’s hansom cabs in 2007, he balked. Now, though, he leaves no doubt as to his position. As NBC New York wrote:

Read the rest here.
January 6, 2014

America’s Death by Debt and Taxes
By Selwyn Duke

While the United States put a man on the moon in 1969, it took a bit longer to get there with our spending. But we finally made it with our profligate ways, as 3.9 trillion (our estimated 2013 budget) one-dollar bills stacked up would reach all the way to the moon — and beyond. The question is, can we reach the moon with taxes, too? Since many Americans seem to think so — and continue voting for politicians who spend like drunken sailors — let’s place the issue of taxes and spending in perspective.

Many people believe Americans are under-taxed, even though 2013 federal tax revenue will be $2.9 trillion. So mull over the following examples pertaining to this figure (taken from Rob Bluey at The Foundry and updated):
- It is 2,900 billion.
- At $45.8 million per year, LeBron James would need to work 63,318.8 years to earn it.
- Average life in the U.S. lasts 2.4 billion seconds.
- 2.9 billion seconds ago take us back to the year Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy: 1922.
- 2.9 trillion seconds ago woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats walked the Earth. It was 89,944 B.C.
Read the rest here.