I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but racism is one of those things that only gets worse if everyone is talking about it. Plenty of people just live their lives and don’t really care. Yes, they may segregate, but that’s not racism, that’s just comfort zones. We need to be careful to keep a sense of proportion when we talk about racism. For example, Obama failed to do so a few months back when he said he could no more throw Rev. Wright under the bus than his grandmother for saying that she was uncomfortable in some black neighborhoods. What Obama did there was despicable and lessened the meaning of racism. Being a bit concerned for your safety in a black neighborhood notorious for crime is very different than a pastor who spreads lies and hate against another race. Likewise, groups of people who naturally segregate according to culture or ethnicity or economic status is very different than a group of thugs terrorizing the minorities in their area.

As for Europe… I didn’t mean that the Muslims would instigate the bloodshed (besides those who are already causing havoc on a relatively low scale). I meant that the native Europeans will tire of the riots and bombings and allowances for sharia law and rise up and do something about it. I’m not terribly familiar with Jenkins, but I’ve read a bunch of Mark Steyn. However, I would somewhat disagree that radical Muslims are the “extreme” minority. Yes, they may still be the minority, but not by as much as you may think. Polls have shown that a pretty healthy percent of European Muslims approved of the 9/11 attacks and believe that sharia law should be the law of the land in their adopted country. What’s worse, those numbers are growing as the young Muslims become more radical. The cause for this trend toward extremism among second generation immigrants can at least in part be blamed on the multiculturalism cult that the West has prostrated itself to. Europe has largely lost all sense of itself, and can no longer offer anything to which Muslim immigrants can assimilate. So, left jobless and rudderless, they are easy prey to the radical imams who teach hate throughout the mosques of Europe.

I agree with most of what you say about Europe. However, I do believe you have the wrong view of Muslims because you think most of them are extremists (I assume that’s what you mean by the term ‘radical’). Muslim extremists are actually the extreme minority (akin to Fundamentalist Christians in America; they exist and there are a significant number, but they are a minority by far). Have you been reading Phillip Jenkins? He’s great (seriously, he’s the man).

Also, your last statement puzzles me, because many people (besides politicians, liberals, and a few hicks in Alabama) DO care about race. Even in towns and schools that are segregated, the blacks hang out with the blacks, the latinos with the latinos, the Asians with the Asians, and the whites with the whites. I agree that racism isn’t a huge problem in America per se, but to just shrug it off and act like nobody cares is a bit near-sighted. It may not be as prevalent as in the 50s and 60s, but it’s still very much alive. From what I’ve observed, probably the most persecuted group of people in terms of race are the Mexicans. Also, I’m not speaking of racism just by white people, because I believe many blacks are every bit as guilty as the whites.

How’s that now?
I’m not saying I don’t believe you but explain how you are so far ahead of Europe in your tolerance levels?

It all depends on how you view the Constitution.

It is not disrespectful to the constitution to read it word for word and try to adhere to it the way that the founding fathers created it in the late 1780′s.

HOWEVER, it is also not disrespectful to the constitution to read it as a living and breathing document. Especially seeing as some of those founding fathers (especially Jefferson and Franklin) were fairly forward thinking.

If anything, it is unfair to those same founding fathers who were paving such new ground to say that their document ISN’T a living document. There is no way that they could have foreseen $150K hospital stays (people would have just died if they needed that much care in the 18th century). There is no way that they could have foreseen $100K college educations. There is no way that they could have foreseen a country that would become an urban society as opposed to a rural one. Heck, they didn’t even think that blacks were real people, and the american style of slavery was one of the few that had no rules on the books about abusing slaves.

If you want to debate the merits of the the two views of the constitution, that’s fine. But to say that I, as a liberal, don’t respect the constitution? Please, just give it a rest. Goldwater, Will and Buckley would have never stooped to such a level. If you’re going to call yourself a conservative, then adhere to their standards.

He will return before ANY nation respects race. Remember, by comparison, this country is one of the least racist in the world. Europe is extremely racist, Africa is defined by in-fighting between slightly different ethnic groups and tribes, Asia is full of anti-other Asian sentiment. Because this country is so racially and ethnically mixed, and because of its Judeo-Christian heritage, it is ahead of the curve. That doesn’t mean that tons of work still needs to be done, but just that it has done a great job of fixing the problems thus far.

I wouldn’t disagree with that.

Look at the way we deal with the race issue 124 years after the fact. The first 80 years after the civil war were spent with the US essentially being an apartheid state. The following 40 plus years have been spent, to varying degrees trying to clean up the mess.

Sure, on a governmental level, the mess is largely clean.

But on a social level? Please. Jesus will return well before we see a nation of people that truly RESPECTS race in this country.

And we ARE poorer for it.

Or for the day that disputatio makes a logical argument.

Planned Parenthood is not that far removed from Sanger, and today its main objective (besides making money) is greasing the wheels of population control. And nothing a white liberal elite loathes more than the underclass, which is made up of mostly minorities in this country.

So, Margret Sanger, the founder of PP was a eugenicist. And PP has its origins in eugenics. Therefore, it must presently be a pro-eugenics organization. The United States was founded by slaveholders and protected chattel slavery. So, it must presently be a pro-slavery country. Or at least, its pro-slavery origins means the country is forever tainted and tied to its pro-slavery past. Really?