The London Riots: Before and After Pictures

The BBC has them here.

The current fourth set is of Clapham Junction in south London. I stayed in a B&B there a couple of times a number of years ago. Very nice neighborhood. Or was.

Old Law School vs New Law School

I had never heard of the dichotomy of Old and New Law School, but now that I have read a wee bit about it, it fits in with my impressions in general of the modern American college.

For a specific example, see this on a controversy at the Widener Law School.

Adios California, Hello Austin, Texas

Whatever one thinks of Texas Republicans and their religious proclivities, they seem to be doing a decent job of luring entrepreneurial net taxpayers out of California, while the California Democrats are luring the net tax recipients in.

Each to his own.

UPDATE: Of course, there are hazards to the locals when Californians fleeing the nanny state arrive in large numbers. Southern New Hampshire ran into those when masses of Massachusetts residents fled that state's tax and regulatory hell for low tax, low regulation New Hampshire, and then demanded vastly increased government services. Apparently the Massachusetts schools had failed to tell them that increased services require hire taxes, and increased regulation increases stultifying bureaucracy.

Go figure.

More here.

"It's rare that an entire busload of passengers is shot up."

So sayeth Philadelphia prosecutor Morgan Model Vedejs.

Well, that's comforting.

Here's is a local TV news update. The maniacs have been arrested and are going to trial:

It would have been an even more interesting video if one of the bus riders had pulled out a legally carried pistol and punctured the criminals. No such luck.

Q: Why Can't the President of the United States Make a Speech Like Mayor Nutter's?

A: He could, but he won't, because the President of the United States is Barack Obama.

The transcript of the speech which Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter delivered at the Mount Carmel Baptist Church is here.

One problem with Mayor Nutter's speech, though, was his audience: He likely was speaking to the converted. Still, it was a good speech.

Now let's see if the Philadelphia public will allow him to follow up on it with meaningful action.

A Deer Lick Can be Particularly....

...beautiful.

Tench Coxe on the 2nd Amendment

Whilst noodling about in a somewhat random pattern, I came across a link to this page on Tench Coxe's comments about Americans and weapons:

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." (Tench Coxe in ‘Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym ‘A Pennsylvanian' in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1)

"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American.... [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." (Tench Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.)

Seems about right to me.

Paul Robeson High School for Business and Technology

Last night I saw a sign in the background of a news clip which threw me for a bit of a loop: Paul Robeson High School for Business and Technology. According to WikiPedia, it is part of the New York City Department of Education.

My recollection of Paul Robeson and his politics was pretty hazy, but my impression was pretty strong that he was a communist. He seemed like an odd person to honor by putting his name on a school of business in the United States. So this morning I looked him up.

Robeson claimed to not be a member of any communist party. OK. And he clearly was on the right side in the civil rights struggles of the day. In fact, he seems to have been one of the giants in such basic fights as stopping racist lynchings and legal segregation. On those issues he was on the side of the angels.

On the other hand, while he may never have written a dues check to any communist party, it is hard to imagine he wasn't a communist. And that makes it a bit weird for any pro-capitalism group to name a business school in his honor. Of course, one might reasonably question whether the New York City Department of Education is pro-capitalism.

Without getting into the curriculum or politics of the staff, the school's mission statement can hardly be faulted. It concludes with "We will prepare our students to use business and technology to achieve their personal best, to fulfill their responsibility to their community and to positively influence the course of events in the 21st century." But a Paul Robeson School of Business? How about a Typhoid Mary School of Public Health?

From WikiPedia:

Commenting in 1935 to the Daily Worker on the execution of several peoples as counter-revolutionary terrorists, Robeson said: "From what I have already seen of the workings of the Soviet Government, I can only say that anybody who lifts his hand against it ought to be shot!"

And:

By December 1937 Robeson...spoke out in favor of the emerging Communist revolution in China

Further:

At a Bill of Rights Conference in New York in July 1949, Robeson denounced a motion, which called for the freeing of nineteen members of the Socialist Workers Party convicted in 1941, calling the imprisoned Trotskyists- who were at odds with the Soviet leadership-"the allies of Fascism who want to destroy the new democracies of the world...let's not get confused, they are the enemies of the working class. Would you give civil rights to the Ku Klux Klan?"

Robeson apparently considered Joe Stalin a great guy:

In April 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, Robeson penned a eulogy entitled To You Beloved Comrade, praising Stalin as being dedicated to peace and a guidance to the world: "Through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage."

To Robeson, the good old Soviet Union was a bulwark against capitalism:

Robeson is on record many times as stating that he felt the "existence of a major socialist power like the USSR was a bulwark against Western European capitalist domination of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean." At no time is Paul Robeson on record of mentioning any unhappiness or regrets about his support for the Soviet Union and his hopes for socialism in Africa and Asia.

I'm From the Government...

...and I'm here to help you:



Thanks to InstaPundit for the tip.