One (in)famous Chapelle’s Show sketch was about a famous Klansman who, though blind, had written several anti-black books and delivered stirring speeches on record, and only appeared in public with his hood on. The joke? He was black and didn’t know it.

Now comes word that an American fascist leader from the 30s was actually “black.” Though as my girlfriend would point out, this says a lot more about different constructions about who is “white” and “black” than it does about this particular guy.

It should be noted, of course, that not all fascists were necessarily as virulently racist as Hitler’s Nazis or the KKK…but there was probably a lot of crossover, and Dennis was an anti-Semite. Of course, this doesn’t separate him much from aspects of mainstream black American culture. Lots of examples of this kind of oppressed-group-on-oppressed-group hate exist, and there have even been other recent examples of “passing” as the dominant group in order to cast aspersions on the group you don’t want to be associated with.

So, while an interesting tidbit, the tone of “wow look at that crazy racist history” in the Guardian (leaving aside their portrayal of Southern miscegenation laws as “American”) should probably be “look, another example of an established but not much-discussed trend.”

Let’s just get to the summary of this article:

Asian-American leaders are calling on a weekly newspaper to apologize and cut ties with a writer who penned a column titled “Why I Hate Blacks.”

In the piece, which appeared in the February 23 edition of San Francisco-based AsianWeek, contributor Kenneth Eng lists reasons why he supports discrimination against blacks, writing, among other things, “I would argue that blacks are weak-willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years.”

An official at the nationally circulated paper apologized and called the column’s publication a mistake.

Yowza. It’s 2007. Yes, it’s within Eng’s rights to say it, but it’s also within my rights to tell the Asian-American leaders protesting the piece that it is right and proper to hold the newspaper accountable for printing such garbage.

Apparently this is “Sandy the libertarian informs people why they could afford to be a bit more liberal” week.

Eric Meyer came out against diversity not as opposition to artificial quotas, but lamely saying that there wasn’t anything he could do in finding non-white-males to speak at his conferences given that non-white-males aren’t well known. That it is a self-fulfilling prophecy seemed to escape him–I guess it’s all the book publishers’ faults.

Also, while the state shouldn’t be snatching kids because bad parents have let them get a little porky, a 218-pound 8-year-old is not “a little porky.” The kid can’t walk five minutes without vomiting or becoming completely winded. And he weighs more than me. And he’s eight. Pace extreme libertarians, I don’t think eight years old is quite advanced enough for taking sole responsibility for his own actions.

Tony: Well, George, old boy, here’s a hearty “fuck you” from the bottom of my heart for losing me the PMship to Gordon Brown. Peace out, bitch.

Thanks, DRF, for pointing this video out.

This time, let’s make it really creepy. Let’s worry about sexual harassment–from preschoolers.

Damarcus Blackwell’s four-year-old son was lining-up to get on the bus after school last month, when he was accused of rubbing his face in the chest of a female employee.

The prinicipal of La Vega Primary School sent a letter to the Blackwells that said the pre-kindergartener demonstrated “inappropriate physical behavior interpreted as sexual contact and/or sexual harassment.”

Yeah. Here’s the thing. Even if someone had been sexually abusing or showing that 4-year-old sexual content, he wouldn’t know what the behavior meant. Note the interesting language: “interpreted as sexual contact”.

Wow, who would believe these liberals, huh? Actually, this was in the Reddest area of a Red state, near Waco, Texas.

The father has requested the incident be expunged from his son’s record. The “sexual” references were deleted, but the “incident” remains.

So ladies, beware these 4-year-old predators, ready to force themselves on you. Gosh, I hope none of the preschoolers I meet are gay, or I’ll be next. Eeeeek!

(Not the Colombian girl named America, I know, but the country.)

I did call them “Freedom Fries,” but with irony and because it pisses off the French, which is always entertaining. I also thought there must be WMDs, and they didn’t give me the option to say that the UN is both a tool to gain international support and run by Euro-wusses and Third World dictators. (But who else are we going to deal with? Asians?) Plus Islamists do hate our freedoms, and I hate them back. But that has little or nothing to do with Iraq.

George Allen, despite trying to use gay-bashing to boost his electoral chances, has proved too racist even for many who believe that Adam and Steve tying the knot will cause them to leave their wives for those hot, hot Congressional pages. Now that Allen has managed to legalize wife-beating in Virginia in the interests of protecting his job, will he take it out on his wife, Susan, if the recount doesn’t go his way? He can always challenge the constitutionality of any domestic violence law if it includes references to people “living as married” as happened in Ohio.

George, don’t beat Susan or your kids, even though you’re objectively pro-wife-beating.

Gay marriage is already illegal in Virginia. Voting for the amendment that enshrines this ban in the Virginia constitution will not make it more illegal, but it will make laws against domestic violence unconstitutional.

So if you favor domestic violence, vote yes and remember when it comes right down to it, that’s what you fundamentally believe.

The song is good punk; the words sound a bit hokey until you realize they’re not really about the October Revolution, but about the September revolt against the current socialist prime minister:

Being somewhat distant from the current situation, I won’t comment. But I have been to Hungary several times, and Budapest is one of my favorite cities to visit in the world. The food is great, the people are friendly, the wine is wonderful, and the music is sublime. Progressive rock fans should check out Solaris.

Last night I went to a Reason happy hour and got to meet Radley Balko, who has just published a study on the overuse of SWAT teams. Small towns with a few thousand people will have a SWAT team and an armored personnel carrier…and use them to do early-morning no-knock raids on nonviolent drug suspects–when they hit the right apartment.

SWAT teams were originated in Los Angeles by the (in)famous police chief Darryl Gates. They were conceived for situations where criminals or terrorists had large arsenals, had barricaded themselves, or had hostages.

So it was timely that this morning I read about Canada having re-evaluated their use of SWAT for the purpose it was originally intended in this CNN piece on the Montreal college shootings:

Police credited aggressive new procedures with stopping the gunman, who died in a shootout with police.

Montreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme said the lessons learned from other mass shootings had taught police to try to stop such assaults as quickly as possible.

“Before our technique was to establish a perimeter around the place and wait for the SWAT team. Now the first police officers go right inside. The way they acted saved lives,” he said.

So, while US small towns are sending in SWAT teams to bust teenagers who score a little weed, Canada is backing off them for their original intended purpose.

Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate the whole SWAT concept.