SelwynDuke.com

Target: Old White Men

By Selwyn Duke

While modern society prides itself on being unbiased, it’s no exception to the rule that every age has its fashionable prejudices — and unfashionable people. Among the latter today are white men, and the closer they are to “dead white male” status, to use a favored leftist descriptive, the greater the disdain in which they’re held.

Black Friday’s Black Hearts

By Selwyn Duke

“As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.” So said the Frank Costanza character on Seinfeld, as he described a toy-store struggle with another man over a doll during the holiday season. It was comedic fiction, but, lamentably, it is also art that has been imitated by life.

Most of us have heard the Black Friday stories. Two men viciously beat another man over shoes in a Sacramento mall; two people were shot over a parking spot at a Florida Wal-Mart; there was a brawl over women’s underwear at a California Victoria’s Secret; and a man punched another while trying to cut in line at a Texas Sears, prompting the victim to pull a gun. I guess you don’t mess with Texas shoppers. These incidents are nothing unusual, either, as Black Friday — the mad shopping day after Thanksgiving — is now associated as much with bad behavior as good deals.

It’s ironic, too. A day originated for the purpose of giving thanks for what we have is now followed by one devoted to aggressively seeking what we do not. And while it’s fashionable to bemoan the commercialization of holidays, we ought to wonder how we got to this point. Because it didn’t happen overnight.

Ever since “holy days” was contracted into “holidays,” there has been ever less holiness in them. This is no coincidence.

Read the rest here.

What do We Have to be Thankful for?

By Selwyn Duke

Among the beautiful messages in the 1937 film Captains Courageous is one relating to thankfulness. When spoiled rich kid Harvey says to Portuguese fisherman Manuel about Manuel’s father, "[H]e didn’t do much for you; I mean, he didn’t leave you anything,” it evoked quite a reaction. Manuel passionately replied in his broken English:

He leave me this hurdy-gurdy [a musical instrument] that his grandfather leave him. He teach me how to fish, how to sail a boat. He gave me arms and hands and feet, feeling good outside... and he teach me how to feel good inside. My father do all this; he have 17 other kids, beside. What else a father do, huh?

This dialogue presents two very different perspectives. One always wants more; the other knows we have already gotten more. And don’t we see both — one perhaps all too frequently — represented in our society today?

Maine’s Mysterious Black Voters

By Selwyn Duke

There are endless “anecdotes” from the last election “that prove nothing about vote fraud,” as the critics put it. And one that would be comical, were this not a tragic topic, involves reports of dozens of black voters showing up to cast ballots in small Maine towns. The Portland Press Herald writes:

Invasion of the Liberal Body Snatchers

By Selwyn Duke

When I was a younger and more naïve man, I sometimes thought to myself, “Boy, if I could just get a forum in which to express my ideas, I could really change people’s minds.” This was before I realized that, more often than not, it wasn’t a matter of changing minds. It was a matter of changing hearts.

This is why I shake my head when hearing talk of how conservatives can possibly “win over” women or Hispanics or blacks or whatever the latest pander-worthy group may be, of how they need to “reach out” or “reframe their message,” as if everyone is a logic-worshipping Mr. Spock. After all, even if the media would disseminate the conservative argument without twisting it into a soggy, unpalatable pretzel — which they won’t — did it ever occur to these tacticians that the problem isn’t mainly a matter of intellect, but emotion?

Shameless Judges Strike Down Michigan Affirmative-action Ban

By Selwyn Duke

Hundreds of years ago, satirist Jonathan Swift described lawyers as “a society of men … bred up from their youth in the art of proving, by words multiplied for the purpose, that white is black, and black is white….” And evidencing that some things never change is the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In an 8-to-7 decision, the court just declared Michigan’s constitutional amendment banning affirmative action (AA) unconstitutional, with multiplied words that molest reasonable minds. Fox10Tv.com writes:

The court said the 2006 amendment to the Michigan Constitution is illegal because it presents an extraordinary burden to opponents who would have to mount their own long, expensive campaign through the ballot box to protect affirmative action.

That burden "undermines the Equal Protection Clause's guarantee that all citizens ought to have equal access to the tools of political change," said Judge R. Guy Cole Jr., writing for the majority….

However bad AA may be, the “reasoning” of these judges is more troubling still. For their argument could be used to strike down any law. ObamaCare? Overturn it “because it presents an extraordinary burden to opponents who would have to mount their own long, expensive campaign through the ballot box to protect” healthcare choice.

Read the rest here.

Useful Liberal Idiots and Vote Fraud

By Selwyn Duke

Among the responses to my recent article on Democrat vote fraud were those of liberals who were happy to hear no evil, see no evil — and be the evil. Their rationalization-aided attitudes ranged from accusing traditionalists of being sore winners to equating 2012 with Bush-Gore in 2000 to simply denying hard evidence. Does it matter at all to you, liberals, that Democrats were actually caught on video facilitating and promising to engage in vote fraud? Rhetorical question, I know. And the denial much reminds of what ex-KGB Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov said about people born of the process of “demoralization”: even if you took them to the USSR so they could see the gulags with their own eyes, they would not believe it.

In Defense of Price Gouging

By Selwyn Duke

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, there has been much talk about price gouging. New Jersey is prosecuting some who engaged in it, and pundit Bill O’Reilly has threatened to put offending gas stations in his fearsome Factor pillory. But is this prudent?

To be clear, I personally wouldn’t want to raise prices amidst a disaster were I a provider of products or services. And I’m not alone: After devastating floods struck the Margaretville, NY, area last year and destroyed the local supermarket and drug store, the only remaining mass supplier of food, Dollar General, refused to increase its prices (its nobility earns it a plug). Yet is it beneficial to use government to compel all businesses in disaster-stricken areas to follow suit?

Obviously, there is no action without motivation. If someone provides products or services, he does it for some reason, such as profit, a feeling of gratification, the idea that it’s God’s will, or out of some conception of what’s right. And that there are so many more businesses than charities in the world indicates that profit is a far more common motivator than all the other reasons combined. This is why business owners who would, left to their own devices, hold the line on prices during disasters are probably in the minority.

Read the rest here.

Was the 2012 Election Stolen?

By Selwyn Duke

As the 2012 election approached, conservative enthusiasm grew. Mitt Romney was drawing huge crowds while Barack Obama spoke in half-filled stadiums. All the passion lay on the right while the left was discouraged with a promised messiah who proved merely a politician. And the prediction was that, in contrast to 2008, Republican turnout would dwarf the tuned-out and carry the day. Hence the shock November 6 eve. How could Romney lose, especially by such a wide electoral margin?

Maybe he didn’t

At least not legitimately.

Reader Email: Possible Duke Contradiction?

JM writes:

Dear Sir,

In your latest article “Where do we go from here”, you state: 

And will we, as all civilizations eventually do, soon go the way of ancient Rome? It's possible. Remember, however, that when Rome fell there were still people living in her lost lands. They still had to forge societies. And some did a better job than others. 

As a fellow Christian, I viewed the entire article as an appropriate view of our current society and likely future. 

I read your article about Justice Roberts’ decision regarding Obamacare (a low point in history for the court) where you made the statement: 

(If you're unusually astute [this does not include Roberts], you understand that civilizations move through phases, and our current leftist one won't last forever.)

In less than three weeks you went from “phases, and our current leftist one won't last forever” to basically advising to stockpile and form local groups for common defense and needs.  That’s a bit of a change of perspective in such a short period of time.  This change of attitude is what I would like to see explained a bit further. 

Sincerely,

JM

Dear JM,