Richard Land and the Censoring of Discourse about Race in America


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On Emigration


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Recently there has been a record number of people emigrating–that is, leaving the United States permanently for another country. Some of these individuals have sought dual citizenship; others have renounced their United States citizenship and have become citizens of their adopted country. People leave for various reasons. Many years ago, some American Communists left the country for the Soviet Union or other communist countries. Some jazz musicians, tired of the racial prejudice they faced in the United States, went to Europe, where they received a warm welcome. In the Vietnam War, young people desiring to avoid the draft went to Canada or other countries, and not all of them returned to the United States.

Today the motives for leaving the U.S. are different. The United States currently has the highest corporate tax rate in the world, as well as high income and social security personal taxes. Some parts of the country have property taxes so steep that paying them would be like making a normal house payment in the South. Since the U.S. continues to collect income tax from dual citizens overseas, some Americans have renounced their United States citizenship when they left the country–a record number last year.

Another reason people leave is fear of tyranny. The Bush Administration began a new trend toward expansion of executive power which had been limited since the abuses of the Nixon and earlier administrations. Mr. Obama has continued that trend with a vengeance. The use of “czars” over various aspects of the economy and government, the government seizure of General Motors along with the refusal to pay promised dividends to people who paid higher prices for stocks that guaranteed dividends, and attempts by the administration to circumvent religious freedom have led some of the American people to fear a future dictatorship. With Congress passing a law giving the president the right to authorize the assassination of American citizens suspected of terrorism, there is no protection for people from the use of deadly force by the government. All the government would have to claim is that someone is suspected of terrorism. Fears of even greater expansion of federal authority if Mr. Obama were reelected have led some people to consider leaving the country.

Concern about the moral and religious direction of the country is another motivation for emigration. The American people are going down the European path of secularization, with weekly church attendance down almost ten percent in ten years. A record number of Americans classify themselves as “atheist” or “agnostic,” and the percentage of elite opinion leaders who are irreligious is significantly higher than the average for Americans as a whole. One look at a link of professed atheists and agnostics among Hollywood actors reveals that many of the celebrities people worship are utterly secular in their world views. In addition, ramped promiscuity have led to record illegitimacy rates, and a high divorce rate has helped weaken the traditional family. The abortion rate has gone down from 1.5 million to 1.3 million a year, but the number of abortions remains the highest in the industrialized world. I know of at least one traditional Christian who has emigrated to Roman Catholic Poland, and I doubt he is the only one. I hear increasing talk among the traditionalists I know of the possibility of leaving the country–and this is not mere talk–some are seriously considering leaving.

Now there is no paradise anywhere on earth, no place to avoid the effects of the Fall. But when a nation has become so decadent that many people are leaving and more are considering it, it is a sad day for that nation. This is especially true of the United States, a country to which so many people still desire to come. Moral and cultural decline, as well as a frankly disgraceful administration, have finally pushed loyal Americans away–the America they see now is not the America with which they grew up. Like me, they see a nation turned upside down, in which wrong is considered right, and right is considered hate.

Personally I do not want to leave–I am a Southerner, currently living in my adoptive home of North Carolina, but born and reared in Tennessee and still a Tennessean by heart. There remain millions of decent people in the United States who “have not bowed down their knees to Ba’al.” The country is beautiful, with mountains and hills still untouched by development, farmers enjoying the fresh scent of tilled earth, families in which spouses and children love one another, churches in which people worship. There is still much for which to fight. I understand those who emigrate and do not condemn them–thoughts of emigration have crossed the back of my mind, too. But I also understand those who wish to keep fighting against the decline of traditional culture and against rapidly increasing federal power. Godspeed to both groups.

Stop Being So Sensitive!


I am utterly sick of sensitive people–not those “sensitive” in a good way, but those people who are professionals at being offended in order to get their way or get money. Those after money are only different in degree than someone who points a gun at someone and says, “Hand over your money.” Discussing certain issues is taboo at many colleges and universities due to the intimidation and (sometimes) violence of the left. Consider what has happened to conservative speakers who come to college and university campuses. While some are treated with respect, others have been shouted down or threatened physically (as Tom Tancredo was treated a few years ago at UNC-Chapel Hill, when a brick was thrown through a window by a thuggish group and

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his talk was cancelled for the sake of everyone’s safety). In other cases, academics have lost their jobs when they criticized the politically correct mainstream–I know one personally. Most of them have either gotten their jobs back or been given a settlement since, thus far, the courts have respected freedom of speech. That could change in the future as Mr. Obama‘s appointments pile up in the federal judiciary.

Stifling discussion of controversial issues or only allowing one side to express itself does not allow room for learning and discussion. Some of the most productive class discussions I have experienced are when I bring up controversial topics or express “non-politically correct” positions. For example, I am morally opposed to abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Usually I am the only person in class holding that positions, and students are free to argue with me (and they do–vehemently). I learn something from their arguments and hopefully they learn something from mine. What if some “sensitivity Fascist” had said that my position on abortion should no longer be part of the “public square” because it offends some people? Since when did college and university students gain the right not to be offended. I do not mind the Marxist professor two doors down from me expressing his views to his classes as long as students are free to disagree and are not penalized for their positions. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and if Marxist positions can be presented, so can conservative positions in economics, morals, philosophy, and/or religion.

There are so many issues on which this nation is deeply divided–sexual ethics, racial issues, gender issues, issues regarding the role of government in combating poverty, issues surrounding health care. If discussion is halted just because someone is “offended,” this only serves to increase resentment on the part of those who disagree with the position of the professional sensitive person. We become even more divided and angry at one another. The best way for the culture war to become a true war rather than a war by means of language is to stifle discussion.

If “sensitivity training” really dealt with bad behavior, I suppose there would be no problem with it–men and women are wrong if they are in a supervisory position and request sexual favors from an employee before they promote that employee. That is unethical and illegal, and it should be. If someone constantly tells sexual jokes after being warned not to several times, that is bad behavior that can and should lead to termination from a job. But a man who is of equal rank in a company to a woman surely has the right to ask her out unless the company forbids inter-employee dating. Often a woman really will have plans on the day the man wanted to go out, so he will ask her again. Now if she says no then, if I am not mistaken, society generally says “two time’s the charm” and the man should not ask her out again (although there are men who married women whom they asked out many times–and they remain happily married). If some professional sensitive woman whines about sexual harassment when a man asks her out in a nice way on a date, this is oversensitive behavior from someone who either hates men, is a psychopath, enjoys hurting people, or wants easy money. Have some common sense, folks!

Racial issues have become so sensitive that many people won’t talk about them lest someone be offended. I do not deny that there are racists in our society–every society has them–and that sometimes racists will discriminate against those of a different race. When the race card is overplayed, however, in cases in which it is unwarranted, eventually any racial incident comes across as “crying wolf” and genuine incidents of racial prejudice may be unnecessarily ignored. When any criticism of Mr. Obama’s policies is labeled “racism,” that ignores the fact that many people disagree with the President’s policies–including some who voted for him. I do not hate or even dislike Mr. Obama, but I disagree with a number of his policies–and that does not make me a racist. I am a conservative, so of course I will disagree with Mr. Obama on some points. What else would you expect?

Liberals gain their power by playing on the sensitivity and resentments of people. They play up the envy the poor have for the middle classes and the wealthy. They emasculate man by calling any comment “sexist” that does not fit their radical feminist agenda of changing human nature, either by denying differences between males and females or trumping up “female virtues” as superior to “male virtues.” Those positions are self-contradictory, of course, but to the liberal, especially to the “postmodern” liberal, coherence is not a truth preserving condition.

As outspoken as I am, I keep some positions to myself, not because they are wrong, but because I know there would probably be a professional sensitive person in the audience who would misrepresent my beliefs–knowingly. On religious and moral issues I am more outspoken. Political issues are not values free, but they are contingent matters about which people even of similar world views disagree, and I must pick my battles. But I have grown more outspoken over the years because I am sick of a false, hypocritical “sensitivity” stifling discussion, especially of conservative positions, on issues important for the good of society.

The Health and Human Services Department’s Attack on Faith-Based Organizations


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The Budget Crisis: Facing Limitations

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Private Manning’s Detention


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Private Bradley Manning is the solider who allegedly leaked documents to Wikileaks. Whether or not he is guilty of a crime, his present treatment at the hands of the United States government is reprehensible. I had hoped that Mr. Obama would have reversed the barbaric Bush administration policies authorizing torture. Torture is evil in itself whether it involves foreign nationals or American citizens, but it should be particularly disturbing to all Americans that a citizen of the United States would be treated in a barbaric fashion. Mr. Obama, unfortunately, has only given lip service to stopping torture by American law enforcement and military officials. In practice, his administration has been every bit as brutal as the Bush administration. One positive development is that there are a number of critics from all sides of the political spectrum who have opposed the brutal treatment of Private Manning; see the link at With sufficient public pressure, perhaps Mr. Obama can be moved to reverse this atrocious treatment of an American by his own government.

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