Christopher Hitchens thinks that Chauncey Bailey, the black Oakland newspaper editor died, allegedly at the hands of Black Muslim thugs who ran a cookie outlet called, ahem, "Your Black Muslim Bakery," because of the politically correct political establishment in that city:
Now, again, I am just asking, but what if this racket had been named the White Christian or Aryan Nations Cookie Parlor? (Motto and mission statement: "Don't F*** With Us.") I think that Oakland's mayor, Ron Dellums—who I was startled to find was still alive—would have joined a picket line around the store (as would I). The same would doubtless have been true of Rep. Barbara Lee, in whose district the YBMB was situated. But instead, in its role as a "community business," the YBMB enjoyed warm support and endorsement from both the mayor and the congresswoman. And the guns for past and future slayings were inside the store.If this isn't softness on crime, then the term is meaningless. Residents have been complaining for a long time about the atmosphere of hatred and violence—and about what some have called the YBMB's attempt to "cleanse" the neighborhood, either of godless liquor stores on the model of jihadism or simply of business rivals and journalistic critics. What were the police doing all this time, and why did Chauncey Bailey have to be murdered before they could be moved to act?
David Horowitz has told the story about how black criminals a generation ago used pseudo-Islam to cover criminal activity, including murder, in the Bay Area, and how leftists refused to confront them. It's what pushed Horowitz toward conservatism, actually. Plus ca change...
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BTW, as a former journalist I take this incident quite seriously. I spent quite a lot of time covering the militia nuts back in the early nineties after I got out of the Army. That including pissing off both black and white militia leaders in my neck of the woods. I took my personal safety very seriously.
For you folks with long memories, the infamous G. Gordon Liddy comments about killing federal agents came to light because of moi. After Oklahoma City I was interviewed on all three major networks.
The last article I did was a few years ago about the White Supremacist busted in Tyler Texas with his own cyanide bomb and huge weapons cache.
I can't stand the politics of Keith Ellison and think he's a first rate moron on all matters of politics and policy. I've never heard a single thing come out of his mouth that made any sense and wasn't complete crap from start to finish. However, the racist smears and true islamaphobic crap that dominated the race for his seat in the house (I live outside the twin cities and had front row seats to this disgusting spectacle) made me pray fervantly before God that he be elected just so that the hate being hurled at him would not be shown to have majority support.
His links to the nation of islam are completely overblown and I never heard anyone actually come up with an example of his supposed anti-semitism. What I did hear was his opponent claiming that Ellison's faith was a reasonable target because Ellison's sort of people wanted to bring down america so we should be very careful about putting one of them into the inner working of our government. After watching the campaign I am forced to assume that people who continue casting him as suspect are at best woefully ignorant of the vile morass they are dipping their toes into or at worst bigots who should be run out of town on a rail. IJS
Funny, the only person I see in this discussion who hated America and took a stand against her principles was one time Marxist David Horowitz.
I live and work close to the scene of the crime. Many of my co-workers knew the victim. He was shot in the morning hours right in front of a local senior center and daycare/kindergarten (14th & Alice) in Oakland. It is also next to the post office. Outrageous.
Rod, I think there's a misunderstanding about the name Black Muslims. The store carries that name because they belong to the group of homegrown black american muslims and not traditional islam (sunni, shia) .Otherwise it would be The Oakland Sunni Bakery. I happen to think Black Muslims (usually Nation of Islam) are crazy and violence-prone but I see nothing wrong with the store name. No more than seeing Indian Sikhs Donut Hole Shoppe or even The White Aryan Used Armpit Joint. They belong to a group of white aryans as opposed to Iranian aryans. White American Used Armpit Joint or Black American Bakery would bother me.
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