The Tilled Land

Retro
The New York Times website today featured a fourteen minute video retrospective of the Tawana Brawley affair. All will remember the incident in which a black teenager claimed she was raped by several upstate New York cops. Of course it was later determined that it was a complete fabrication. The cops were wrongly accused and, no doubt, actual black women who were victims of rape were thenceforth viewed skeptically.  Figuring prominently in the video was Obama adviser and MSNBC host Al Sharpton. 

Who is a man of God. 
Who did not apologize for his role in falsely inciting racial animosity.
Who does not apologize even today. 
Who has the ear of the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world. 

Even Eliot Spitzer (a.k.a. Client #9) apologized for whoring around before getting his own television show. 

Not Sharpton.


Let's Dance
An internal watchdog at the Treasury Department is set to report Tuesday that the IRS spent almost $50 million on more than 200 employee conferences from 2010 through 2012, spending the tax-collecting agency's new acting commissioner called "inappropriate." (WSJ, 6/2/2013)

So Liberals, please note. When we say that taxes should not be raised, spending should be cut, this is what we mean.


Stumblebum
A second major piece of legislation that would have made Illinois the 13th state to allow same-sex couples to marry also stumbled in the closing days of the session. The Senate passed a bill to legalize the unions in February, but the House failed to take up the measure in the face of pressure from the Roman Catholic Church and a group of black ministers.  (WSJ, 6/2/2013)

Whatever one's view of gay marriage - and reasonable people can have entirely different opinions - it is worth noting again the opposition of many black clergymen. So for gay marriage advocates, can we have a little more tolerance for those who oppose? Labeling opponents as homophobic is not a good strategy and you might be surprised at the constituency of those who hold divergent views.