Austin Bay points out the cultural basis for this:
Ethno-nationalism contrasts with civic nationalism (e.g., U.S. nationalism) where the body politic's unifying bond is not ethnicity, but shared citizenship in a democratic state established and operating under the rule of laws that protect the rights of individual citizens.
one reason why immigrants in the US have managed to assimilate but they have trouble in Europe is this tribalism idea. A Muslim Somali or Catholic Filipino can become a full fledged American, but he can never really become a German or a Frenchman.
this is the explanation why so many Americans agree with Trumpieboy about the "flag" protests: they are essentially rejecting the idea of civic nationalism in favor of identity politics, which leads to tribalism.
And, by the way, the ceremony of saluting the flag at baseball games goes back to 1918:
On September 6, 1918, during a World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs—how strange does that sound?—the band in Chicago played "The Star Spangled Banner" during the seventh-inning stretch. The U.S. was in the midst of World War I, and Cubs’ third baseman Fred Thomas, on leave from the Navy at the time, saluted the flag in response to hearing the anthem. Other players followed Thomas’ lead, and the crowd sang along.
The moment was so stirring that the New York Times chose to highlight it, writing, “First the song was taken up by a few, then others joined, and when the final notes came, a great volume of melody rolled across the field. It was at the very end that the onlookers exploded into thunderous applause and rent the air with a cheer that marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm
the intellectuals have been sniping at this and the post 911 custom of singing God Bless America, but it is because they ignore the value of custom in society to bind people together.
There is good "multiculturalism" which respects and sees the good in cultures and emphasizes the common values, as opposed to the newfangled "multiculturalism" which seems to be more about hating American culture than about rejoicing in the good parts of other cultures that can strengthen the US as a society.
A good explanation of how ceremony shapes cultures can be found in Paul Woodruff's book Reverence: renewing a forgotten virtue.
LINK from a review:
Reverence is an ancient virtue that survives among us in half-forgotten patterns of civility and moments of inarticulate awe.
Reverence gives meaning to much that we do, yet the word has almost passed out of our vocabulary.
Reverence, says philosopher and classicist Paul Woodruff, begins in an understanding of human limitations. From this grows the capacity to be in awe of whatever we believe lies outside our control -- God, truth, justice, nature, even death. It is a quality of character that is especially important in leadership and in teaching, although it figures in virtually every human relationship. It transcends religious boundaries and can be found outside religion altogether.
Woodruff draws on thinking about this lost virtue in ancient Greek and Chinese traditions and applies lessons from these highly reverent cultures to today's world. The book covers reverence in a variety of contexts -- the arts, leadership, teaching, warfare, and the home -- and shows how essential a quality it is to a well-functioning society.
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related item: Spengler on the Kurds.
Trump opposed the election, I suspect because the State Dept opposed it and I suspect partly because it will mess up the war against ISIS.
One hopes Trump will pull a "Harry Truman" and overturn the "experts" and support them (as Harry Truman opposed the SD and supported an independent Israel).
Joe Biden was ridiculed years ago for saying Iraq will stay at war until they break into three countries, so that each ethnic group can have a say in their own destiny.
Heh. Joe was probably right.
But this goes beyond Iraq:
Turkey risks losing their western territory where a large minority of Kurds live.
Given Turkey's history of ethnic cleansing of Armenians and Greeks, and now their push toward Islamification, one does hope this can be settled in a peaceful manner.
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Get Religion discusses the religious background for the Saudis changing the law to allow women to drive.
much of the pressure to change the law actually is because middle class Saudis, who can't afford a private driver, have to wait for the husband to come home from work to drive his wife to shop.
The original law might have been to protect women, who are vulnerable if they get a flat tire etc. while driving.
but other Muslim countries have no problem allowing Women to drive, and remember: most Muslims do not reside in the Middle East.
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related item:
StrategyPage discusses the woes of this group of migrants who never were accepted into Burmese society. And then the Saudis "reeducated" some of them working in Saudi, and voila, an upsurge in violence and Burmese pushback.
read the whole thing for more background and details.
Burmese suspicions voiced earlier in 2017 that someone was supplying cash to buy arms and otherwise support Rohingya rebels turned out to be true as more became known about the origins of the ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army), its founder and why much of the cash came from Saudi Arabia.
and this one mentions Pakistan is guilty of this too.
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Tennessee church was attacked by immigrant Not yet known if race or religion or being mad at someone who attended the multiracial bible church was the source of his anger, or maybe he had descended into paranoia and nobody stopped him, not even the police who were aware he had problems.
I read that the response of local churches are holding prayer services to pray for those injured, and for the shooter. And the local Muslims are sending apologies and sympathy to those hurt, even though the shooter's religion is not known, and he has a Christian first name.
If someone tries to attack you when you are in a restaurant or bank, what do you do? Hide or Run?
The dirty little secret is that if you are not trained to respond without thinking, you will freeze.
But people who are trained will respond and try to stop the attacker.
One of the worst terrorist attacks in the US was when a single terrorist shot a bunch of peaceful people inside of a nightclub that catered to gays and Hispanics.
Pro gun types say: That would not have happened if those inside had guns and/or had fought back.
maybe, or maybe not.
So yesterday, I was watching Homicide Hunter, and a similar attack occurred, when a paranoid schizophrenic decided to revenge himself on some ent people in a biker bar, who alas didn't have guns inside, but did fight back.
Two dead and six injured was the result.
Alas, as Lt. Joe Kenda points out: the two who died were heroes who died trying to save their friends, but they couldn't convince a jury of this.
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