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Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Race In America

posted by on April 4 at 13:50 PM

Indeed, you the mensch:
will-smith-jerusalem-israel.jpg
First this:

Two-time Academy Award nominee Will Smith is the most powerful actor on the planet, according to an annual list by America’s Newsweek magazine. The Independence Day hunk has eclipsed last year’s winner Tom Cruise and previous regular winner Tom Hanks. Newsweek spoke to a host of studio chiefs and film producers anonymously for fear of offending other stars. Smith was chosen because of his huge box office success and his ability to tackle any genre - sci-fi I, Robot, action comedy Men In Black or drama The Pursuit Of Happyness. Following behind was Johnny Depp at two, Ben Stiller at three, Brad Pitt at four and Cruise at five.

And then this

:
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign in the first quarter of the year, putting him just shy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, who made a splash with her announcement Sunday that she had drawn a record-breaking $26 million.

Obama appears to have surpassed Clinton in several ways: He reported donations from 100,000 people, double the 50,000 people who gave to the New York senator’s campaign. He raised $6.9 million through donations over the Internet, more than the $4.2 million that Clinton raised online.

A black man is the leading figure of America’s immense dream machine? A black man is the leading figure of American politics? I admit, it feels like we are entering a new world with completely new rules. I will, however, remain loyal to Marx and the socialist program of the man whose name and fame was robbed by Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace.

RSS icon Comments

1

http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/FAQ.htm

Question: Did Wallace really, as some claim, "scoop" Darwin on the theory of natural selection?

Answer: No. While Wallace had been thinking in evolutionary terms for many years--in fact, one might reasonably argue (because of his very early interest in social evolution), for as long as Darwin had--the natural selection concept in particular did not occur to him until 1858, by which time Darwin had been studying the idea for some twenty years. Wallace's 1855 paper 'On the Law Which Has Regulated the Introduction of New Species' (S20), which hinted strongly at an evolutionary position, nevertheless contains not even a trace of natural selection-like thinking. Moreover . . . True, Darwin had published nothing concerning natural selection by the time he received Wallace's essay 'On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type' (S43) in mid-1858--and true, Darwin's contribution to the 1 July 1858 introduction of natural selection to the Linnean Society consisted only of two unpublished writings--but it must be remembered that Wallace's essay itself was also an "unpublished writing," and that he had not asked Darwin to submit it for publication. Thus, the overall presentation consisted of three unpublished, unintended-for-publication writings, and it cannot be claimed even technically that "Wallace got into print with a finished work" on natural selection before Darwin did. In fact, Wallace's first natural selection-related analysis (that he did intend for publication, that is!) did not appear until late 1863, a whole four years after On the Origin of Species was published.

Posted by Gopi | April 4, 2007 2:19 PM
2

Wow, somebody already beat me to debunking the Wallace canard.

So I'll just settle for this: Charles, you forgot Tiger Woods.

Posted by Joe | April 4, 2007 3:17 PM
3

America remains sadly racist and antisemitic. Obama's popularity comes from racist liberals who give Obama money in order to appear not racist. It's the same as hipster's claiming to be "cool with Jews". If Obama wasn't black most of these so called liberals wouldn't give him a penny. Blacks are still oppressed in America though less that Jews. During this time of sacred Passover it's important to remind our hearts of the oppression in this world.

Posted by Shoshana | April 4, 2007 4:26 PM
4

Man, this is just so last century.

Posted by Will in Seattle | April 4, 2007 5:16 PM
5

After four days layed up with a vicious bug at a friend's house I plowed through half of something I would otherwise never have picked up, Obama's The Audacity of Hope. Right now I'm just about convinced he is our ONLY hope. Check it out and tell me when was the last time an elected official demonstrated such insight and depth of understanding and compassion. This guy really IS fucking amazing.

Posted by Grant Cogswell | April 5, 2007 1:03 AM
6

I'm a massive paranoid tool. Anti-semitism, anti-semitism, anti-semitism! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Posted by Shoshana | April 5, 2007 9:49 AM

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