I hope retro-progressive multiculturalists won't assail me for a link to this article, Gay Politician Killed 'To Protect Muslims' in the Gay News Forum. Here is a very telling quote:

He said: "I confess to the shooting. He was an ever growing danger who would affect many people in society. I saw it as a danger. I hoped that I could solve it myself.

The radical Left activist likely does not see the irony in killing a man who spoke of the dangers to freedom of speech and action in Dutch society with the growth of Muslim influence. Now that many on the Left are whispering about anti-Semitism because of their solidarity with the oppressed people of color, perhaps they will start to engage in homophobia as well, since it is a decadent practice often condoned by the "white power structure." When you look at it numerically, it seems like a no-brainer, a small segment of Western society that is shielded by outmoded Eurocentric values such as liberty and freedom set against the panoply of diversity and the time honored traditions of people of color....

I am tempted to paraphrase Niemoller here, "First they came for the Jews, and then they came for the queers...."

(thanks for Steve Sailer for pointing me to this story, though the choice of website to link to was all mine)

Update: Sailer on Pim in this week's VDARE column.

Armed forces

Soldier white

Mar 27th 2003

From The Economist print edition

Britain's armed forces are solidly white. That's a problem for them

BRITISH and American troops may be fighting shoulder to shoulder in Iraq, but it's easy to tell them apart. In pictures from the Gulf, our boys stick out for two reasons: they don't wear sunglasses, and they are nearly all white.

Fewer than 2% of British servicemen and women are members of ethnic minority groups, compared with 9% of the population as a whole and 37% of the American armed forces. The British army is more diverse than the navy or the air force (both around 1% non-white), but that does not make it any more representative of British society, since many of those black and Asian soldiers are foreigners. This year, for instance, the force recruited 380 Jamaicans, 438 Fijians—and just 344 non-white Britons.

There is no reason why the armed forces ought to mirror the civilian population—as the police, for example, should. But the services will have to do better at minority recruitment if they want to keep their strength up. Competition from civilian employers is fierce at the moment, and the northern industrial towns that traditionally supplied men are in decline. As their populations fall, so the recruitment pool shrinks. For two out of the last three years, the army has fallen short of its recruitment targets.

The forces are now trying to bring in more non-white Brits, but they are up against some imposing obstacles. Only six years ago, the Commission for Racial Equality uncovered evidence of deeply-rooted racism in the army—and all the services subsequently signed up to a plan to improve the way they dealt with non-whites. Although things have got better since then, the military still struggles to convince ethnic minorities that its much-vaunted history and traditions do not extend to racial purity.

The whiteness of the military is in part just a numbers problem. As Chris Myant of the Commission for Racial Equality says, “if unemployed black men from Tottenham as well as unemployed white men from Salisbury thought of joining the army, they wouldn't have a recruiting problem.” But it is also a matter of skills shortages. As the services become more high-tech, their need for recruits with mathematical and computer skills is rising. The army tends to recruit from the lower echelons of society; and poor ethnic-minority youngsters tend to be better-educated than whites in the same social group.

The armed forces have changed in other ways, too. They now spend much of their time on peacekeeping missions, where a premium is placed on tact and sensitivity. Even when fighting, soldiers are expected to make judgments about people that go beyond appearances. In Iraq, British soldiers are trying to spot the difference between civilians, reluctant soldiers, and diehard loyalists (who may be dressed as civilians); they are not just going after people with moustaches. A military that can cope with a bit of diversity in its own ranks is likely to be better at this sort of thing.

Red headed chicks feel less pain, I just thought they were a pain?

Minor note, will be in Portland for a few days doing stuff-posting will be light....

Also, I'm thinking of moving to Austin, TX. If you have any opinions or advice on the town, email me at razib -at- gnxp.com.

Beliefnet has an article highlighting the split in the Muslim community between those who think it is acceptable to join the American military forces and those who do not. Please note that this is not a new problem. During the Franco-Prussian and Austro-Prussian Wars in the 19th century there was some worry among the junker officer corps that newly incorporated Catholic Germans would not fight against co-religionists (this turned out to not be a problem). Additionally, early Christians generally did not join the Roman military because they considered the state inimical to their own interests. The legions remained one of the last bastions of paganism in the Roman state-early in the 5th century the emperor rescinded an order that officers had to be Christian because of objections from followers of the old cults that were well represented among the centurions (the rankers were almost all German at this point). I understand that American Christians have fought against Christian powers, but then, America is a Christian nation itself. The situation with Muslims is not quite analogous, as it seems quite likely that the next few years will involve a fair amount of conflict with Muslim polities, and Muslim soldiers will have to fight under the command of Christian officers.

John Jay Ray points me to this paper titled Mathematical giftedness and family relationship. I suspect GNXP readers might be curious....

Note: I am posting the first paragraph of this piece and have a link to the whole thing (it is long). Thanks to Jason M for the editing help. There were some technical difficulties with adding the whole entry.*

It is in vogue today on the multiculturalist Left to speak up for 'indigenous' people-giving voice to the voiceless [1]. There are those on the Right who take an expansive view of conservatism who also harbor such sentiments, but they are a distinct minority in their camp [2]. In my experience, the question is less 'is it good for the indigenes?' and more 'how did whitey screw up now?' This explains part of the focus on white on non-white oppression (and yes, I know there are many examples) as opposed to inter-non-white conflicts (the body count is probably far higher in
the past few years in this category-and yes, part of it is that the same appeals to humanitarianism do not seem to work on such 'authentic' peoples as the Indonesians in Irian Jaya-in fact, where is the Indonesian equivalent of the Democrats in apartheid South Africa, who argued for one-man-one-vote against the Nationalists? I know Amien Rais has made some sounds toward federalism, but his party has also flirted with Lakshar Jihad).

Click here to read the whole thing....

Update: Interesting perspective on the schism between Western and Eastern Chalcedonian Christianity.

*I tried to post the whole thing, but MOVABLE TYPE causes an "Internal Server Error" when I try to build it. I seems that this doesn't happen when I attempt to put about half of it in, but beyond a certain size, I can't get it to post. My initial liberalism posts were pretty long, so I don't know what's going on. I thought perhaps it was the hyperlink tags, but when I removed them, the same problem occurred. Anyone encountered this? I switched to MySQL and I double checked the data type for the entry is TEXT so it shouldn't matter-and it wouldn't give that error anyhow if it was a MySQL problem from what I know. Email me at razib -at- gnxp.com if you have any ideas or have had the same problem.

Of reports that Akbar was a convert to Islam, Heath said he had heard nothing officially, but added, "Asan Akbar is probably not Southern Baptist."

From Motive a mystery in fatal grenade attack.

Why do they hate us? Cuz we're fucking kuffirs!