Victor Davis Hanson:
The question is not why Pennsylvanians "cling to their religion", but why do the Obamas still cling to the Trinity Church that seems far more extreme than anything I've seen in rural America.
Hat tips: Gateway Pundit and Larwyn
The question is not why Pennsylvanians "cling to their religion", but why do the Obamas still cling to the Trinity Church that seems far more extreme than anything I've seen in rural America.
"They're trying to bamboozle you. It's the same old okie-doke. Y'all know about okie doke, right? ... They try to bamboozle you. Hoodwink ya. Try to hoodwink ya. Alright, I'm having too much fun here. ... "--Barack Obama
"You've been hoodwinked. You've been had. You've been took. You've been led astray, led amok. You’ve been bamboozled."--Malcolm X
You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Well, I was born in a small town
been laid off in a small town
jobs are gone in a small town
Oh these are calamities
All my guns are so small town
My church is in the same small town
My fears are so small town
Provides little diversity
Indoctrinated in a small town
Taught to fear others in a small town
Antipathy in that small town
Another boring misogynist that's me
I been bitter in a small town
Called a quitter in a small town
Fell through the Bush economy in this small town
Chicken's come home to roost y'see
No, I cannot forget we are strugglin' and run down
I cannot forget scapin' by, my family
Yeah, we are just jammed up here in this small town
And doggone it, I'm young, just forty-four baby!
Got nothing against a big town
Except immigrants causin' low pay
No religion in the big town
Just us rednecks in a small town
Well, I was born in a small town
And taught to hate in a small town
Gonna die in this small town
Unless Obama comes to rescue me...
...Reinaldo Bolivar speaking in Senegal has advised African nations to nationalize their oil resources in order to fight poverty and follow the example of Venezuela.
Africa currently produces 15% of the world’s oil and according to Bolivar “Africa's oil is plundered by multinationals: they sell it very expensively even here" he suggested that by pooling resources Africa could supply its own market.
Bolivar went on to say "There are some things for (African countries) to learn: the principal of nationalization of our basic industries, our natural resources in Venezuela, is something we consider necessary for our riches to benefit the people..."
Mugabe's land reform program was supposed to redistribute among poor blacks large commercial farms owned by about 4,500 whites that covered 80 percent of Zimbabwe's best land. Instead, he used the farms to extend his patronage system, giving them to ruling party leaders, security chiefs, relatives and friends.Zimbabwe had been a major food exporter until then, but its agricultural sector collapsed and the economy started unraveling. Today, a third of Zimbabweans depend on international food handouts, and another third have fled abroad looking for work or political asylum...
Zimbabwe is in the grip of its worst humanitarian crisis since independence. Twenty years ago the country was hailed as an African success story and dubbed the "breadbasket" of southern Africa. Now its economy is in tatters and the World Food Programme (WFP) estimates a third of the population faces food shortages...
...Zimbabwe now has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world and one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates. Just under 25 percent of people aged 15-49 are HIV-positive, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
And with the economy in shreds, unemployment is running at an estimated 70 percent. Inflation is also rampant, standing at 164.3 percent in the year to June 2005...