DETROIT HARDBALL !!
Indie Journalism, social commentary, and liberated speech
(a throw-back from the club car of the Twentieth Century Limited)
Written and edited by Mike Madias and Ellen Hildreth
Published by the BlueJean ThinkTank
E-mail - hardball@madias.org
MySpace - www.myspace.com/goodeats
Online Book Store - www.lulu.com/thinktankbooks
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The Weak in Review
What fresh Hell is this?
By Ellen Hildreth
(said to be the most dangerous woman in the most dangerous city in America)
It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas,
We have Air-Wick, spicy pumpkin.
A can of Glade, in evergreen.
A touch of Spanish saffron.
For the soup tureen.
But it isn't festive.
We don't uncork the rum.
Till Sunday morning Free Press
And the perfume samples come.
Truly, deeply, madly,
Ellen
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GOOD EATS !! – Dinner that can’t be beat
and a blog at Alice’s restaurant
from BlueJean ThinkTank
Words, sticks and stones; then the good eats
By Mike Madias
1. Words – Human Events
Early in 2007 there was a political storm surrounding Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim ever elected to Congress. It had been reported that on the 24th of December 06, Ellison made this statement as part of an address given in Dearborn: “On January 4, I will go swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I’ll place my hand on the Quran.”
Congressman Virgil Goode (R-VA), sounded the alarm that Islamic Americans who run for office represent a danger to the Christian/American way of life. He said, “If American citizens don't wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration, there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran . . . I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary.”
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/goode-letter/
Many people who support Goode probably got this email:
Dear Fellow Conservative:
Europe Surrenders!
Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a Muslim muezzin. Millions of Europeans already do.
And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength" -- while Talibanic enforcers cruise our cities burning books and barber shops... the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn't violate the "separation of church and state" ... and the Hollywood Left gives up gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy.
If you think this can't happen, you haven't been paying attention, as the hilarious and brilliant Mark Steyn -- the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world -- shows to devastating effect in his New York Times bestseller, AMERICA ALONE: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT.
As Steyn puts it, "The future belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West -- wedded to a multiculturalism that undercuts its own confidence, a welfare state that nudges it toward sloth and self-indulgence, and a childlessness that consigns it to oblivion -- is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization."
Europe, laments Steyn, is almost certainly a goner. The future, if the West has one, belongs to America alone-with maybe its cousins in brave Australia. But America can still survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world's last best hope.
Tom S. Winter,
Editor in Chief, Human Events Magazine
Human Events is a magazine that publishes Ann Coulter's columns and sells her books. This type of thinking is generally called Nativism. It is published out of Washington D.C.
"There has never been, nor could there ever be, a publication more devoted to fundamental American principles than HUMAN EVENTS."
– Jesse Helms
According to the Wikipedia, Nativism promotes the following ideas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativism_(politics)“Anti-immigration sentiments are typically justified with one or more of the following arguments, claiming that immigrants:
* Language: Isolate themselves in their own communities and refuse to learn the local language.
* Employment: Gainfully acquire jobs which would have otherwise been available to native citizens.
* Nationalism: Damage a sense of community and nationality.
* Consumption: Increase the consumption of scarce resources.
* Welfare: Make heavy use of social welfare systems.
* Overpopulation: May sometimes overpopulate countries (Or abandon their native countries)
* Ethnicity: Can swamp a native population and replace its culture with their own.
* In some cases deplete their countries of origin of badly needed skills (known as the "brain drain").
2. Sticks – KKK
Virgil Goode and Tom Winter preach the doctrine of Nativism. But those are just words. They won’t break anyone's bones. The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are an example of a contemporary organization devoted to Nativism.
From the Wikipedia:
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is the name of several past and present organizations in the United States that have advocated white supremacy, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, racism, homophobia, anti-Communism and nativism. These organizations have often used terrorism, violence, and acts of intimidation, such as cross burning and lynching, to oppress African Americans and other social or ethnic groups.
In the late 1920’s the KKK had about 5 million members nationwide. In some parts of the mid-west
40% of those who were eligible (white, protestant men) were members. The Klan controlled the state governments of Tennessee, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Indiana, where Klansman Edward Jackson was elected governor of Indiana, and filled the state governing apparatus with appointees who were Klan members.
From the Wikipedia:
“In the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan, at the height of its influence and popularity, decided to make Anaheim a model Klan city. In 1924, the Klan secretly managed to get four of its members elected to the five-member Board of Trustees. Nine of the ten members of the police force were also Klansmen. The four Klan trustees served for nearly a year, until they were publicly exposed, and voted out in a recall election in which 95% of the population participated.”
Anaheim, California is no longer known as the model KKK city. Now it is known as the home of the Mighty Ducks NHL hockey team and the happy kingdom of Disneyland.
The Klan is quite active in Bay City, Saginaw, Midland and other parts of Michigan. There is a television show that is on the air every Friday night called “This is the Klan-This is the Truth.”
This program has the appearance of being a religious talk show. It features commentary by Pastor Thomas Robb and Spokeswoman Rachel Pendergraft. It is taped in Harrison, Arizona and distributed to public access cable stations all over the country, including Midland, Michigan. You can look at a recent program online at http://www.whitepride.tv/ .
Pendergraft is the national membership coordinator of the KKK. Pastor Thomas Robb is the national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
It was public exposure through a free and vigorous press that drove the KKK from the halls of power back to the dark recesses of the margin. The Klan was not killed, but when their presence was exposed, the public shunned them. Every decade or so, it is necessary for an outcry that will bring the public to shun Nativists like the Klan again; and drive them back underground. This is our tine to expose them for what they are.
3. Stones – Vigilantes
The Emigration Party of Nevada is a vigilante segment of the Nativist movement that actively and openly promotes violence.
This is from their web site:
“Are you sick and tired of seeing your country turned into a Third World sewer by immigration? Are you tired of seeing your standard of living drop and our jobs exported to China? . . . [When you encounter voicemail,] are you tired of having to skip 1 for Spanish and 2 for Chinese? Are you tired of pressing 3 for English and getting a receptionist who barely speaks it?
“The Republicans want the cheap labor and the Democrats want the cheap votes. No one in our party [i.e. the Emigration Party] has been bought off. The Republican and Democrat leadership live in gated communities with security guards and do not have to put up with what we do. They don't care if our nation turns into a trash heap.
“America is being destroyed by a modern version of Ghenghis [sp] Khan's army. This invasion makes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor look like a pinprick. We are going to do something about it. If you are tired of this destruction, help us stop immigration and turn emigration into a flood.
“Beware of charlatans in the immigration reform movement. While the big organizations have fancy websites and expensive offices, they are doing nothing. Don't waste your time and money on organizations which FAX the Washington D.C. politicians. Those traitors know what's going on and they don't care. Congress is in terror of the NRA and the AARP but they laugh at the immigration reform movement. They won't be laughing at us much longer. . .
“Remember the Alamo!”
The Emigration Party is more than a group that spews anti-immigrant language and veiled threats. In their version of the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” they publish these lines:
“The light of the moon on the desert below,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
And what to their wandering eyes should appear,
As ten thousand invaders wreaked havoc and fear?
“They murdered our children, and poisoned our pets,
They gang-raped our women and haven't stopped yet.
More rapid than eagles the border they crossed,
To some it appeared that our country was lost.
“When a fine group of men came to answer the call,
While our government fails us, these men will stand tall.
I knew in a moment they must be the ones,
Who would fight and protect us till this war was won.
“On Spencer, on Simcox, on Patriots true,
America's future's depending on you.
To the borders you flocked to defend this fair land
While our leaders do nothing but sit on their hands.”
The lines accuse Mexicans of gang raping the women who belong to “patriots”; murdering children of patriots and feeding poison to the dogs and cats that are pets of patriots. And the lines glorify vigilante action and a war, a jihad against Mexicans. What is the response to the threat of a savage enemy in war time? The Emigration Party is out to create a lynch mob mentality, and call it patriotism. And this party is just one of about 140 such groups that are armed and active along the US/Mexico border.
Currently the Emigration Party is more organized and threatening than the Bay City Klan. While the KKK still exists, it still occupies the extreme margin. The Emigration Party is closer to the GOP than the KKK is.
4. Good Eats !! – a dinner that can’t be beat and a blog at Alice’s Restaurant
I am a Detroit oddball. So when I see vigilante groups going after Mexicans, or gays or Muslims, I can feel the hot breath of a lynch mob at my back. So I hate groups like the Emigration Party of Nevada and the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
I do not think that Nativism can be eliminated. But I do believe that it can be marginalized. We live in a free society. If Nativism is shown, as is; I think that a free people will reject it--even if they are skittish about the threat of Islamic based terrorism.
The way I propose to marginalize the Klan is by adopting a strategy described by Arlo Guthrie. He laid out a plan to end the war in Vietnam in the monologue that was part of the song Alice’s Restaurant. Guthrie told stories that exposed the absurdity of the small town justice system and of the big time Selective Service draft board. Near the end of 18 minutes and 20 seconds of rant, he encouraged his audience to go unannounced to the local draft board, sing a few bars of Alice’s Restaurant and leave.
“You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him.
“And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.
“And three people do it, three--can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out--they may think it's an organization.
“And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends, they may think it's a movement.
“And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the guitar. With feeling! So we'll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and sing it when it does. Here it comes:
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant (excepting Alice).
You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.
Just walk right in, it’s around the back,
just a half a mile from the rail road track
and you can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant”.
My friends, I think it is time for a revival of the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement.
So, if you like what you see here in this blog, forward it to a three people. Do it with feeling, (and if possible do it with three part harmony).
And if this blog gets forwarded and goes to three people—can you imagine three more people reading this blog, liking it and each of them forwarding it to three more people?--the right wingers may think it is a movement.
And can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day, reading this blog, liking it and forwarding it to three people? And friends, they may think it is a movement. And that is what it will be.
The Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement returns. Despite the fact we will never get Alice, we can still get anything that we want.
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Buy Sisters of Mercy- poetry for pleasure
This is a poetry book unlike any you have ever seen before.
You will actually enjoy reading it.
Only $11 at the Lulu Bookstore
http://www.lulu.com/content/366143
Shalom,
Michael Madias
And goodnight Alice, wherever you are.
-30-
