St. Louis CofCC Blog

Detroit News has the skinny. Gingrich, like Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI) before him, has the usual response that anyone with two eyes and a brain has upon seeing most of Detroit. However, this business of blaming labor unions is a crock, and is an example of Gingrich looking at the world through his economic ideological glasses.

In the 1950s, organized labor had more influence over Detroit and other major American cities in the north and east than it does today. Many industrial operations required more workers, and in big northern cities, those workers were almost universally members of their respective unions. However, nobody in his right mind would have called Detroit a “disaster” in 1955; people were more likely to call it the heart of American industrial might. Therefore, unions can’t be the cause of Detroit’s decline.

In fact, industrial and other labor unions were the proximate cause of the improving standard of living that the working middle class saw in Detroit and other cities in the years after World War II. Furthermore, the phrase “working middle class” owes its existence to organized labor.

There has to be something different about Detroit in 2007 compared to Detroit in 1955. Maybe someday I’ll figure it out.

From the article:

“Detroit is on an upswing,” she said. “I would invite Newt Gingrich to come here.” Conyers said she would give Gingrich a personal tour of the city.

Gingrich does not need to go to Detroit to get the grand tour. All he would need to do is click this link.

UK Daily Mail:

Five boys as young as 10 stoned to death a man playing cricket with his son, the Old Bailey heard today.

They were part of a gang that launched the assault that triggered a heart attack in 67-year-old Ernest Norton, the jury was told.

It was an “unnecessary, pointless and random attack” on a Sunday afternoon at Erith leisure centre, Kent, the court heard.

The gang shouted abuse at Mr Norton as he played cricket with son James, 17 on the outside tennis courts. When Mr Norton objected they bombarded him with rocks and wood. Hit at least twice, he collapsed and died.

“The defendants’ youth is no defence,î said David Fisher QC, prosecuting. “They were jointly responsible for this attack and jointly responsible for the death.”

The five defendants, all from Erith, sat in the dock with their parents. None has any previous convictions or police cautions.

They cannot be identified because of their age. The youngest, 10 when Mr Norton died in February last year, is now 12. The oldest was 13 and is now 14.

The group, with up to 15 members, had shouted that James was “a rubbish bowler” and told his father to “go back to your old people’s home”, the jury was told. Mr Norton warned the gang to “p*** off” and the bombardment began, the court heard; he walked forward but was felled by a blow to his left temple which fractured his jaw.

The 12-year-old boy who allegedly threw the stone “stood there and laughed” then ran off, a 13-year-old girl witness told police. The boy, now aged 14, is said to have shouted at Mr Norton, “I’m going to knock you out,” calling him a “no-tooth c***”.

One witness said the stone was as big as “half a brick”, the court heard. Some of the throwers were allegedly part of a gang known as The New Estate.

A neighbouring householder saw the gang throwing missiles towards the courts, the jury heard. “She then heard one of the group shout, ‘Oh, no!’ and they ran away,” said Mr Fisher.

“As the boys ran past her house she heard one say, ‘He’s dead, he’s dead.’ He was panicking.”

Another witness heard one of the boys say: “Did you get him?” and others reply: “Yeah, I think so,” “Yeah, I got a shot,” and “I think I got him with one.”

If their youth is no defense, then the British juvenile justice system and the Daily Mail should at least tell us their racial identities.  The fact that a “group” of 15 “youths” did this is probably a clue that the “youths” didn’t look like the victim.

Tongue Tied Blog:

Using Correct English is Racist??

“What is a nerd? Mary Bucholtz, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has been working on the question for the last 12 years. She has gone to high schools and colleges, mainly in California, and asked students from different crowds to think about the idea of nerdiness and who among their peers should be considered a nerd; students have also “reported” themselves. Nerdiness, she has concluded, is largely a matter of racially tinged behavior. People who are considered nerds tend to act in ways that are, as she puts it, “hyperwhite.”

We already know from the Seattle School System that the concept of forward planning is racist, because blacks and Hispanics don’t do enough of it.

Therefore, it won’t be too long that a white man who uses proper English, has individual ambition to acquire knowledge and skills, delays instant gratification a number of times during his life, takes out a retirement fund, purchases insurance policies and maintains them, is almost always punctual to work, school and other appointments, pays his bills on time, pays his debts on time, has a good credit score and record, rarely if ever utilizes the social welfare system during the prime of his life and working years, makes decisions on personal conduct based on the ramifications for his old-age health and those who depend on him, volunteers for a worthy cause and makes charitable donations, limits his sex partners to those with whom he is in a committed relationship (or worse, marriage), is involved in the daily lives of all of his children, and supports them all financially and in every other way possible, starts and contributes to a college fund and annuity for his children, keeps his domicile tidy (even if it takes the nagging of his wife, live-in girlfriend or homosexual partner), and does not commit a felony crime, will himself be arrested in his elderly years for having committed a hate crime, and be portrayed by the media and the criminal justice system as the worst hate criminal in world history, simply by engaging in behaviors that blacks and Hispanics have a hard time doing.

Mayor Slay:

Charter School Numbers

* Number of individual charters in the City of St. Louis = 10
* Number of charter schools in the City of St. Louis = 15
* Charter school tuition = Free
* Likely number of City students enrolled in charter schools this school year = 8,000

How ’bout these numbers:

* Number of charter schools in Missouri outside of St. Louis City and Kansas City = 0
* Number of charter schools in St. Louis City established to appeal to white students = 0
* Likely number of white City students enrolled in charter schools to avoid SLPS incompetency and to avoid paying parochial school tuition = 0