baldilocks

Speaking of Stuff That Matters...

Just looking at these monstrosities makes my back hurt.

Do fashion designers hate women? I think so.

(Thanks to The Manolo)

What About The Stuff That Matters?

Bob Owens's piece at Pajamas Media elicits nothing but a hearty "amen" from me since it's something I've been circuitously trying to point out for sometime now, via the fact that Obama and I have nearly the same origins but diametrically opposite political views.

Is Barack Obama black enough to be president of the United States? Is he too black? Does he belong to a church that is too radical? Is he too unpatriotic? Too Muslim? Is he too...Somali?

These are but a few of the tangential charges leveled against Barack Obama in what could be dubbed "the politics of personal distraction."

Bob goes on to list some of the whisper campaigns which have erupted--some which are more serious than others. (The fact that Obama has ties to infamous terrorists William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn--husband and wife--most assuredly falls into the 'more serious' category.)

But Bob might as well be talking to the wall in some cases. Being in my unique position has reinforced an old lesson, one magnified countless times since the inception of this blog back in 2003: there are some people who are unable to separate what matters from what doesn't. There are some who cannot separate what an individual does from what he/she is.

Several people I know have observed that the amount of available information seems to have varied directly with the amount of crazy/stupid/willfully ignorant people. I wonder if this is true. It could be that the amount of said people remains static, but because of the Internet, we "normal" people have more access to such people. Or it could be that the explosion of information coupled with generally poor formal education (including mine; Known Unknowns) produces people who don't know how to interpret information--don't know how to separate the bull from the bull byproducts, as it were and don't want to know (Unknown Unknowns). In this way do conspiracy theories gain adherents.

At any rate, I’m not above considering the fantastical and the improbable if given enough verifiable evidence as to the truth of the matter(s). All too often, however, people aren’t willing to wait around for evidence of the truth to come out. In their impatience, they will make up their own “truth.” I’ve seen some of it regarding Obama’s and Ochieng’s African lineage—that our tribe—Luo--is composed of mostly Muslims (false), that this same tribe is forcible circumcising both men and women (Luos historically do not practice circumcision or FGM). And, as a result I’ve been the target of bigotry and some racism from so-called allies on the Right, likely prompting Lefties to taunt me with “we told you so” (and thereby making an analysis error of their own).

As I said the other day, those who are able need to learn to separate what is proven from the apparitions found in nightmares. An additional wall needs to be built between what’s proven and one’s ugly little prejudices; to stop elevating those prejudices into virtues and stop pretending that those prejudices are anything other than personal shortcomings.

(Thanks to Donald Rumsfeld)

Harry Comes Home

After yesterday's report that Prince Harry was deployed to Afghanistan, it's unsurprising that the UK, Defense (Defence) chief decided to cut short the self-described Bullet Magnet's tour of duty.

Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, chief of the Defense Staff, said he decided to withdraw the prince after senior commanders assessed the risks, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. [SNIP]

British officials had hoped to keep Prince Harry's deployment secret until he had safely returned, but they released video of him serving in Helmand province after the leak. The Australian women's magazine New Idea reported on Harry's deployment in January. The news appeared Wednesday in the U.S. Web site the Drudge Report, and media around the world subsequently reported it. [SNIP]

Harry conceded in an interview filmed last week that when he returns to Britain he could be a "top target" for Islamic terrorists.

"Once this ... comes out, every single person that supports them will be trying to slot me," he said.

But he said his deployment was a welcome chance to escape from paparazzi and hostile headlines. He said it was probably the best chance he'll ever get at being a normal person.

The article goes on to describe Harry's youthful scrapes, which is well as it serves as contrast to his honorable if short service.

I saw someone suggest that Harry should henceforth be called Prince Hal. Shakespeare would understand.

Kenya: Resolution to the Crisis

Kibaki and Odinga sign the agreement ending the unrest in their country.

Under the deal brokered by chief mediator Kofi Annan and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the leaders agreed to form a coalition government which will radically alter the way Kenya will be governed .

Mr Odinga is almost certain to become independent Kenya’s second prime minister after Mzee Jomo Kenyatta who held the post at independence in 1963.

Thursday’s agreement, which came after two days of intense diplomatic activity states that the post of Prime Minister will be created to co-ordinate and supervise affairs of Government. The premier will be leader of the largest party or coalition in Parliament.

Hats off to Kofi Annan. Let's just say that my expectations were low.

Here the Daily Nation's report, Thus Far Has Kenya Come--a retrospective of the crisis.

The Kenya Crisis

Harry Gets His Wish

To fight alongside his countrymen in Afghanistan and to be "a normal person" if only for a few weeks.

Prince Harry has been fighting the Taleban on the front line in Afghanistan, the MoD has confirmed.

Harry, 23, who is third in line to the throne, has spent the last 10 weeks serving in Helmand Province.

The prince joked about his nickname "the bullet magnet", but said: "I finally get the chance to do the soldiering that I want to do." [SNIP]

In a statement, he said: "I am very disappointed that foreign websites have decided to run this story without consulting us.

"This is in stark contrast to the highly responsible attitude that the whole of the UK print and broadcast media, along with a small number overseas, who have entered into an understanding with us over the coverage of Prince Harry on operations."

Well it's out there now. And I can't help thinking that this experience will set Harry a cut above many members of his family when it comes to character.

Keep your head down, Harry.

(Thanks to Mememorandum)

The Citizenship Wars (UPDATED)

From this missive at Political Gateway--a press release from a blogger(?) named Andy Martin--one might conclude that the McCain story below is a bit of return fire, if an ineffective volley:

“For our ‘Obama Week’ leading up to Barry O’s announcement on Saturday that he feels qualified to lead the free world, ContrarianCommentary.com unleashed a worldwide team of constitutional law experts to delve into Kenyan law and the question of Obama’s citizenship. They were also participating in our CIA-style psychological profile of Obama that will be released Saturday in Chicago. And what we discovered was amazing, a political blockbuster,” says Executive Editor Andy Martin.

“Under the Independence Constitution of Kenya, Obama became a Kenyan citizen on December 12, 1963. He has never renounced his Kenyan citizenship. On his senate web site, Obama tap dances around his own dual nationality when discussing his father. Obama obviously knows, because his father told him, that he also held/holds Kenyan nationality.

Having been born under the exact same circumstances as Obama (native-born American, American mother, Kenyan father) and in the same year (1961), does that mean that I'm a citizen of Kenya? I'm sure that the United States Air Force--who granted me a security clearance once upon a time--would be interested to know that.

A few years back, my father suggested that I petition for dual citizenship--something I'm eligible for by Kenyan law, having one Kenyan parent--but I declined for both loyalty and practicality reasons. However, the fact that I would need to apply for it suggests that the citizenship isn't a done deal for someone who wasn't born in Kenya and who has never lived there.

More:

Obama obviously knows [that he is a citizen of Kenya], because his father told him, that he also held/holds Kenyan nationality.

“Once again, we find Barry O concealing fascinating information about his identity. There is nothing unusual about dual nationality. Indeed, ancient Roman Law doctrines of jus sanguini and jus soli come into play, because both Kenya and the U. S. recognize dual nationality. Once again, the issue is not ‘legality.’ The issue is the cover-up; Obama’s concealment of his own identity. From us, and most of all from himself.

Really? The idea that Obama was concealing such an obvious thing from the public is an interesting conclusion for Mr. Martin to come to. See, from personal experience, it would have never occurred to me to mention such a thing to the public unless someone else brought it up. Like now. It is simply a non-issue because I am an American and have never thought of myself as anything else and neither has my government.

If Mr. Martin is questioning Obama's citizenship, then he is questioning the citizenship of all native-born Americans whose parent(s) were born and/or have citizenship in other countries; countries where the citizenship rules are different than those in this one. Like the NYT with the McCain non-story, such people are banking on ignorance and hitting collateral targets.

Addressing these whisper campaigns is like playing "Whack-a-mole." Get to the issues!

(Thanks to one of Dan Riehl's guests)

UPDATE: (Via Hot Air) Jim Geraghty takes note of the battle.

Some would argue that by virtue of having a Kenyan citizen as his father, Obama "became" a Kenyan citizen back in 1963, even though he was in Hawaii at the time and did not visit the country until much later in his life. Others would argue that that would only apply to those born in the UK or its colonies (and I have no idea whether the United States qualifies as a UK colony under Kenyan law).

Of course, Barack Obama has never claimed to be a Kenyan citizen, nor has he, to the best of anyone's knowledge, ever claimed dual citizenship.

Having said that, a serious effort to argue that McCain is disqualified from being president will attempt to establish that a child of one American and one foreign-born parent is eligible for the presidency, but a child of two Americans, one a serving member of the U.S. Armed Forces, born in a U.S. territory (Coco Solo Air Base in the then-American-controlled Panama Canal Zone) is not.

Dear Democrats, please go down this road; Team McCain would like to ensure that their candidate's share of the military and veteran vote goes from 90 percent to 100 percent.

As I said in the comments at HA (not directed at Allahpundit or Geraghty), are we conservatives suddenly in favor of following International Law when it damages our opponents?

Our First Hispanic President

That title could go to presumptive GOP front-runner John McCain who was born in the Panama Canal Zone. It would explain quite a bit.

The New York Times is, yet again, banking on the historical ignorance of the majority of the American voting public.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, [the latter] a Navy officer, were stationed.

Do we really want to bar from becoming president millions of Americans who were born at overseas military installations while their parents were defending this nation?

And if people born in U.S. territories--such as Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Panama Canal Zone circa 1936*--aren't natural born citizens, then what are they? And what are they doing voting in the presidential elections?

"Did IQs drop sharply while I was away?" (Oh wait. I've been here all along.)

I really hate having to be in John McCain's corner on anything. This defense isn't just for McCain, however; it's for the children of my friends--children born in places like Ramstein Air Base, Germany or Misawa Air Base, Japan.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at NYT's behavior anymore, but I am.

(Thanks to Protein Wisdom)

*Jimmy Carter gave the Zone back to Panama in 1977; the deal was done by 1999.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Weren't the first few PsOTUS born in some other country? (Not really asking.) And don't forget, Alaska and Hawaii didn't become states until 1959. What about people born before then? Are they not allowed to become POTUS? Stupidity reigns.

Buckley Quotes

At NRO, of course. The best one is saved for last. See ya later, Mr. Buckley.

Kenya: Coalition Government Agreed To

Well it appears as though Kofi Annan's "go-along-or-else" tactic worked.

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenya's rival politicians reached an agreement Thursday on a coalition government after weeks of bitter negotiations on how to end the country's deadly postelection crisis, mediator Kofi Annan said. [SNIP]

"We have come to an understanding on the coalition government," Annan told reporters. He added: "All I can say is that we do have an agreement."

The devil will surely be observable in the details.

This post is guaranteed to be updated.

UPDATE: Bloomberg:

The [power-sharing] agreement creates the post of prime minister who will have authority ``to coordinate and supervise government functions,'' former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the signing ceremony in the capital, Nairobi. The prime minister and two deputies will be included in cabinet, Annan said.

The prime minister will be chosen by the largest party in Parliament, Annan said. That is Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement, which won 99 seats in the 222-member legislature.

The Kenya Crisis

Whole in My Head

Have you ever been looking for a word to describe a concept that you’ve been observing for a while but didn’t know whether a single word or a two-word phrase for that concept existed?

I had been wondering whether there was a word for a certain way of viewing history; one in which history is obsevered as a chain of interconnected events—where the occurrence and nature of events are dependent upon what came before. This view is in opposition to the view where each event is a standalone occurrence and has little-to-no relation to events occurring before or afterward. (To apply the concept: I’ve had several visitors surf in here to one of my Kenya posts and believe that that particular post was an isolated “nod” to what’s going on over there rather than a dependent unit of an event-chain. As my regular readers know, I have been known to correct that assumption in a less-than-subtle manner.)

As luck would have it—or did Grace have it?—I happened to be reading an interesting text in which the context of a single word implied that it might be equivalent to the above definition. So I looked it up and—Jackpot! The word? Holistic. And I have heard the word used for years. But it had become one of those buzz-words; those light-switch words that will cause a listener to switch off because she has been overdosed with it. Analogy: the effect of the word ‘paradigm’ when the Air Force was indoctrinating its managers with TQM training.

Anyway, I'm excited to have “re-discovered” the word ‘holistic’ but I promise not to use it too much.

Things like this make me happy! Yes, I know.

(Thanks to One Cosmos, a daily visit)