100,000 Viewers on The Claremont Conservative

So, we have 100,000 viewers, according to Lijit. 

Hurray! Huzzah! Yippy! 

Brian Kennedy's Op-Ed on What a Single Nuke Could Do

After having read the Claremont Institute's Brian Kennedy's Wall Street Journal piece on electromagnetic pulses and nuclear weapons, let me just say that I'm positively euphoric that my dad decided to buy a Honda generator several years ago. (Much good it'll do me way out in sunny California.)

All kidding aside, why do we allow any of the Iranian top leadership to exist? Surely we could place a bounty on each and everyone of them and use targeted assassinations, if necessary.

Of course, now that the Democrats control Washington we are less likely to see any kind of resolve. Not that we saw any when the Republicans ran things either. They granted an avowed enemy of the United States, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a visa, but denied one to Narendra Modi, a free-market loving minister of India because of the pressure of such terrorist-supporting groups like C.A.I.R.

Pitzer Students Destroy CGU Property

You remember when the Pitzoids destroyed our fountains, don't you?

Well, they destroyed a bit more than that up by C.G.U. (Hat tip: The Claremont Insider)

Claremont Parents Promise Civil Disobedience Against Far Left, Grievance Activists

A different kind of Tea Party

In today's Los Angeles Times, you'll find a brouhaha has erupted over elementary school kids wearing Indian costumes to an annual Thanksgiving get together in the town of Claremont, California. The school board has gotten together at the urging of several retired professors, one of which is from Pitzer, and banned the headdress altogether, though the event is still on sans costumes. (Really, what's the point then?)

Naturally, parents are taking their stand. Some have promised to send their kids with headdress anyways, which recalls the great Boston tea party. And as you could expect, the blogosphere has gone wild and the sleepy little town of Claremont made it all the way to the top of The Drudge Report. The best write up of which is from none other than the indefatigable Claremont Insider who has some great photos of all the nuts who came out of the woodwork for the protest.

Here's the essential quote from one of those types:

"It's demeaning," Michelle Raheja, the mother of a kindergartner at Condit Elementary School, wrote to her daughter's teacher. "I'm sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis), or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation's history."

Raheja, whose mother is a Seneca, wrote the letter upon hearing of a four-decade district tradition, where kindergartners at Condit and Mountain View elementary schools take annual turns dressing up and visiting the other school for a Thanksgiving feast.

And here are a few quotations from some of the parents who refuse to be bullied.

Kathleen Lucas, a Condit parent who is of Choctaw heritage, said her son -- now a first-grader -- still wears the vest and feathered headband he made last year to celebrate the holiday.

"My son was so proud," she said. "In his eyes, he thinks that's what it looks like to be Indian."

Among the costume supporters, there is a vein of suspicion that casts Raheja and others opposed to the costumes as agenda-driven elitists. Of the handful of others who spoke with Raheja against the costumes at the board meeting, one teaches at the University of Redlands, one is an instructor at Riverside Community College, and one is a former Pitzer College professor.

Raheja is "using those children as a political platform for herself and her ideas," Constance Garabedian said as her 5-year-old Mountain View kindergartner happily practiced a song about Native Americans in the background. "I'm not a professor and I'm not a historian, but I can put the dots together."

The debate is far from over. Some parents plan to send their children to school in costume Tuesday -- doubting that administrators will force them to take them off. The following day, some plan to keep their children home, costing the district attendance funds to punish them for modifying the event.

"She's not going to tell us what we can and cannot wear," said Dena Murphy, whose 5-year-old son attends Mountain View. "We're tired of [district officials] cowing down to people. It's not right."

Who could really blame Claremont parents for wanting to defend their children against PC bullies? At a time when Inland Empire has some of the highest unemployment in the country, it's natural that people find their meaning in tradition. Isn't it enough that Ms. Raheja's kindergarten daughter will get affirmative action into virtually any top college if she keeps her grades just slightly above a C+?

And what's Beth Bingham of the school board opinion on the matter of whether or not the children are taught "racism"? Shouldn't she be dealing with her underaged-drinking, stealing son?

Maybe it will be like, say Pomona College, and they'll ban a song without any racist origin whatsoever. (See the next issue of The Claremont Independent for more details.)

Kevin Vance and Ward Connerly on the Color Blind Constitution

Fighting for a Colorblind Country

Ward Connerly is founder and president of the American Civil Rights Institute. This year, he led efforts to approve ballot propositions banning affirmative action in Colorado and Nebraska. Amendment 46 in Colorado failed with 49 percent of the vote, while Initiative 424 passed in Nebraska with 58 percent of the vote. I recently asked him a few questions about these efforts and his plans for the years to come. Why do you think Amendment 46 failed in Colorado? For several reasons. Number one, there were about 13 or 14 initiatives on the ballot, and there was a very well-organized “just say no” campaign that was intended to discourage future ballot initiative proponents from pursuing initiatives by triggering their defeat this time around. The second issue was the enormous effort that was waged by Senator Obama to get out the vote. He had a lot of money and hired a lot of people who joined forces with some of our opponents, and they walked precincts door to door and they urged people not only to vote for Senator Obama, but while you’re there, also to vote against Amendment 46. If we did not have to run during this Obama year or if we did not have so many initiatives on the ballot, I believe we would have won by 15 points. The third thing, and this is one that is highly conjectural, is that it appears that many individuals did not fully understand what our initiative was. For example, we lost in a lot of districts that were McCain districts. Was there anything unique going on in Nebraska that eased passage of Initiative 424? I think it was just the message. Our message that this was just about fairness, that we have reached the point in Nebraska where we don’t have to worry about treating people differently, and the state motto is equality under the law. Therefore we should live up to our creed and put it in the constitution. What are the most likely opportunities for success in the next four years for the anti-affirmative action movement? Given the fact that we now have a self-identified black man as the president of the country, I think it is much more difficult for racial advocates to argue for discrimination. Given that difficulty, it is an excellent time for those of us on my side of the issue to put the nail into the coffin of these policies. So the three states I think are fertile ground for 2010 are Colorado, Arizona, and Missouri. The opposition will have a hard time replicating what they did this year. There has been a lot of discussion since the election about how conservatives can appeal to minority voters. How do you think the GOP could or should reach out to minority voters, and do you think anti-discrimination initiatives can play a role? I certainly think we should reach out to everyone. I am not a proponent, however, of trying to reach people on the basis of their color, race, or ethnic background, or circumstances such as that. Once my party starts doing that, it corrupts its own hard-core values. I have seen over the last 10 years enough things the Republican party has done to appear more attractive to blacks and Hispanics that violate the professed beliefs of the party that I shudder at using that kind of tactic.