Guest Blogger - Douglas Hoffman

kiss the frog

When I was in Washington State for Christmas last year and only had internet access for a half an hour a day or so, the only blog I read every time I logged on was Balls and Walnuts. This man can excite you with sci fi, bitch out Bush, fix your kid's ear infection, review romance novels, and make a kick ass pesto...so of course he's married. Nevertheless, a true renaissance man.

His post will make you angry, and will make you think. That is so sexy.

I'm honored to have him here today. -BG

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The Mexican Question

For some folks, genocide is just another tool in the toolbox. On April 27, Nashville radio talk show host Phil Valentine recommended that Border Patrol Agents shoot illegal immigrants, and the crowd cheered. (Hat tip to Tennessee Guerilla Woman.)

That's a lot of shooting, but they don't call it the "white man's burden" for nothing. No one said turning America into an Aryan nation would be easy.

Genocide has a long if not proud history here in the States. Let's give a passing nod to the liquidation of Native Americans, our most successful genocidal campaign, something no doubt fondly remembered by the people who wish the same for "Islamofascists," i.e., any practicing Moslem -- people like Michael Savage:

In April 2006 Savage, a Bronx-born Jew, called for the murder of 100 million muslims, saying ""intelligent people, wealthy people...are very depressed by the weakness that America is showing to these psychotics in the Muslim world. They say, ‘Oh, there’s a billion of them’…. I said, ‘So, kill 100 million of them, then there’d be 900 million of them.’ I mean...would you rather us die than them?...Would you rather we disappear or we die? Or would you rather they disappear and they die? Because you’re going to have to make that choice sooner rather than later.” (Quoted in Wikipedia.)

Asshole. The fact that he looks like a hairy version of my grandpa nauseates me. The fact that any Jew could blithely call for genocide makes me want to scream.

Okay, Hoffman, calm down, get back on topic.

Yes, let's stick to a discussion of homegrown genocide, the kind that doesn't require a trip overseas, the kind that will rely on an army of pistol-packin' Minutemen (which my wife pronounces my-NOOT-men) itching to shoot anything nonwhite and warmblooded. And why shouldn't the Minutemen fulfill their destiny? They have history on their side.

In 1845, President James Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to move his forces into disputed territory near the Rio Grande (disputed by the Americans, that is). Taylor arrived in March 1846. By April 1846, Polk's move achieved its desired effect: not one, but two lethal incidents occurred, involving the deaths of Taylor's men. The Mexicans had supposedly drawn first blood, and now the US could claim the moral upper hand. From Polk's speech to Congress: "But now, after repeated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil . . ." American soil being a dubious claim at best.

Despite the opposition of the antislavery Whigs (who feared a southwestern land-grab would only add to the South's power), Congress voted overwhelmingly in favor of war. Public support was spotty, but public opposition was spottier still. According to Howard Zinn,

The churches, for the most part, were either outspokenly for the war or timidly silent. Generally, no one but the Congregational, Quaker, and Unitarian churches spoke clearly against the war.

However, as always, certain strident voices made themselves heard. A writer in the American Review, the Michael Savage of his day, "talked of Mexicans yielding to 'a superior population, insensibly oozing into her territories, changing her customs, and out-living, out-trading, exterminating her weaker blood . . .'" The New York Herald made it sound like a good thing: ". . . we believe it is part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country." And God, of course, loved the idea of conquest, too: "That the redemption from 7,000,000 of souls from all the vices that infest the human race, is the ostensible object . . . appears manifest." (All quotes from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, linked above.)

What followed was a relatively short but bloody war, with heavy losses on both sides. Despite the successful land grab, the historical outcome was by no means blissful. The Mexican-American war increased internal tensions over slavery, ultimately leading to the American Civil War, the most deadly war in US history, where 620,000 Americans died.

We now have an escalating war of rhetoric against illegal dark-skinned immigrants, a cold war which may soon heat up. American Aryans fear their soon-to-be-minority status. How afraid are they? When will their racism become more bold, and when will it translate into lethal action? Is it that far-fetched to imagine it spilling over to encompass our legal Hispanic citizens?

Is it that far-fetched to imagine another American Civil War -- this time, a race war?