July 1, 2004
MELT THIS, BARONE!!!!!:
A $1,000 Bet For Barone (Steve Sailer, May 30, 2004, V-Dare)
[L]ast July Barone produced a steaming pile of punditry called "The Good News Coming from Iraq" based on what Chalabi told him after a Dick Cheney speech at the American Enterprise Institute. (I know that sounds like it's from "The Onion," but I'm not making it up.) Barone’s conclusion: "All this is tremendously encouraging. Many of these things might have happened earlier had planning not been conducted on two tracks, by the State Department and the Defense Department, until George W. Bush ordered January 20 [2003] that Defense would be in charge. State planners had envisioned a very different process, one which would not have put Iraq on the track toward democracy and the rule of law. Fortunately, Defense has been able to do that, with critical help from Chalabi and other Iraqis who share those goals."Will neocons TV pundits like Barone ever have to pay any career price for
being spectacularly wrong? Or are they so coddled that failure is automatically forgiven because they are celebrities?
This attack is somewhat mysterious because Mr. Barone and Mr. Chalabi would seem to have been quite right and Iraq is well on its way to becoming a representative democracy. Indeed, the biggest mistake we made post-war was probably not turning power back quickly enough. But Mr. Sailer then reveals Mr. Barone's true crime:
Barone has been also an important intellectual spokesman for the second half of the Bush Administration's peculiar Invade-the-World / Invite-the-World platform. Barone's shallow 2001 book, "The New Americans: How the Melting Pot Can Work Again," which I reviewed for VDARE.com, constituted about as much scholarly support as Bush's obsession with increasing immigration could muster.
Bad enough thinking brown peoples can govern themselves, but to think they should be welcomed in America is beyond the Pale. One notes with particular hilarity the reference to George "Bush's obsession with increasing immigration". Kind of like Mark Ray Chapman accusing someone of being obsessed with John Lennon. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2004 10:23 AM
I've always found it mildly hilarious that some of the most rabid anti-immigrationists in the whole USA congregate at vdare.com, which appears to be named for Virginia Dare--the first baby born to immigrants in the New World.
Posted by: Mike Morley at July 1, 2004 11:06 AMKeeping in mind that she disappeared soon after birth, I believe.
You're right. One should choose one's symbols and icons with a bit of care.
Posted by: Barry Meislin at July 1, 2004 11:33 AMBarry, Mike
Actually it is a good choice. Native Americans should have not allowed "open immigration", see what happened to their culture.
Ah, but who will win the bet?
Posted by: Paul Cella at July 1, 2004 12:57 PMI read Mr. Sailer's review of The New Americans and remember thinking how unceasingly savage he was to Barone. It was an extremely rude and vicious performance, conducted almost entirely on the ad hominem level. I say that as somebody who has certain sympathies with both sides of the immigration conflict.
Sailer has always acted like this towards his opponents, which is one reason I don't normally bother to read him.
Posted by: Matt at July 1, 2004 3:57 PMWow, Sailer doesn't think much of dark-skinned people. In other hot news, dog bites man.
Posted by: Casey Abell at July 1, 2004 4:47 PMAnd Virginia Dare was the first WHITE baby born in the New World. Well, technically, she was the first child of English parents. For folks like Sailer, that makes all the difference.
Posted by: Casey Abell at July 1, 2004 4:52 PMIf Steve Sailer were racist, wouldn't he leave California for a state with a 97% white population such as New Hampshire?
Casey: "she was the first child of English parents. For folks like Sailer, that makes all the difference"
Are you claiming that the United States being settled primarily by the English didn't make a difference?
Posted by: Carter at July 1, 2004 7:06 PMIf you think skin color doesn't make a real big difference to Steve Sailer, you haven't read much of what he writes. As for the state he's in, I could make a rude remark but I won't.
Posted by: Casey Abell at July 1, 2004 8:32 PMDon't worry, Carter, Mr. Abell will surely pronounce Bill Cosby a racist as well.
Posted by: Paul Cella at July 2, 2004 7:40 AM"And Virginia Dare was the first WHITE baby born in the New World. Well, technically, she was the first child of English parents. For folks like Sailer, that makes all the difference."
And for folks like oj as well.
Posted by: at July 2, 2004 12:25 PM