Excellent points, Mr. Elder, as always.

"When one recklessly, irresponsibly and with absolutely no basis calls someone a racist, or accuses him or her of racism or of racial insensitivity"

I don't even understand why Beck retreated from his remarks, since anyone who's read President Obama's books or listened to him on the campaign trail has heard him make racially charged statements. He referred to his own grandmother as "a typical white person." He referred to white folks in fly-over country as bible-clutching, gun-toting, bitter clinging morons who hate people "who aren't like them." He admitted to having zero facts in the Gates case, but then plunged ahead with the only two facts that mattered to him: Gates was black and the cop was white, therefore "obviously the police acted stupidly."

Those are just some of the more recent incidents. That's in addition to the fact he sat in Rev. Wright's intensely racist, anti-semitic church for 20 years and never objected to a syllable the man uttered. Beck was not wrong to level the charge at Obama; he was wrong to retract it.

Now Michael, your racism is showing. Everyone knows Obama was not in attendance the days that Wright was spouting off and if he did happen to be at one he was merely 'present'.

WELL SAID, Mr. Elder. Thank you for being direct. I do have one question: What do you think the real racists will do when the rest of us, waving the Stars and Stripes, are singing at the top of our voices "We Shall Overcome"?

B.B. asks: I do have one question: What do you think the real racists will do when the rest of us, waving the Stars and Stripes, are singing at the top of our voices "We Shall Overcome"?

They'll be voting democrat and calling us by their new label: "Fascist!"

I'm glad to be a contractor on a military installation where I see people of all races and colors wearing all different ranks and succeeding.

The failure rate and discharge rate are pretty much the same across the spectrum of races and gives the lie to it is somebody else's fault that I don't succeed.

Remember, when you point a finger to blame someone else, there are three pointed back at you.

I'm glad to be a contractor on a military installation where I see people of all races and colors wearing all different ranks and succeeding.

The failure rate and discharge rate are pretty much the same across the spectrum of races and gives the lie to it is somebody else's fault that I don't succeed.

Remember, when you point a finger to blame someone else, there are three pointed back at you.

An apology for "Hymie-town?" Wow. I missed that. The last time I saw him mention it (or, rather, not mention it) was when Ed Koch called him on it and demanded an apology. Jackson's answer was a vicious smile and not a word. The problem with victim-power is you have to keep being a victim to use it, or submit your constituency to a victim status, even if that means making up racist incidents (Tawana Brawley). Guys like him and Sharpton remind me of the divide and conquer strategies of a Yassir Arafat who got fat on the misery of his own people.

Slurs are the only thing Democrats have left. Let's all stick to the issues, and pile-drive the idiots in November.

I will give any African American person who wants to call me a racist a pass. It's okay. I think even Rep. Waters has a kernal of sincerity in feeling that conservative white people are racists. She's wrong, but she (as almost all African-American people) has a personal and family history which gives her the right to her feelings.

What infuriates me is (almost albino-White) Howard Dean taking that (serious and troubling charge) and trivializing it, making it a mere epithet. White Liberals take something that is terribly serious problem and turn it into a schoolyard taunt. They pull the teeth from the charge, and then, when an African American person honestly reports that he perceives racism, people discount it as merely a stratagem. The charge stops dialogue, because the non-African-American person perceives the charge as a mere insult, the Liberal stratagem for silencing opposing viewpoints, not an accurate reporting by the African American person of his own perception of the situation.

I do not believe in the law of hate.

I believe in the law of love....I

would like to see a time when man

loves his fellow man and will forget

his color or his creed.----Clarence Darrow

(1857-1938)

From Abu Nudnik: Guys like him and Sharpton remind me of the divide and conquer strategies of a Yassir Arafat who got fat on the misery of his own people.

... and won a Nobel Peace Prize in the process.

Forget Beck, the Left called Bush a racist even though he appointed the first and second black Secretaries of State and never said anything even remotely close to being racially charged.

It's funny. Racism is no longer about black and white or inclusion v discrimination; racism is about conservative v liberal.

Apparently, if you are for lower taxes and limited government, you're a racist no matter what. And, if you're for higher taxes and expanded government, you can't possibly be racist no matter what you say or do.

That logic escapes me, but apparently it works for the Left.

To dante: Why should you give a "pass" to any "African-American" who wants to call you a racist? I firmly believe that there are substantially more anti-European-American blacks in this country than there are anti-African-American whites. Tolerance seems to be in short supply all around, but it is more PC for many of American blacks to not only throw the race card willy-nilly, but also play the "entitlement" game. EVERYBODY needs to get an education and/or training and WORK for a living.

@ dante re: 09 02 2010 at 18:44 -- I agree with you completely, and comment only on one issue that desperately needs to be addressed - the practice of putting America second.

"African American", "Italian American", "Japanese American"... all putting America second! While this may appear to be a matter of semantics, sir, I assure you it is not; young, impressionable minds see this and independently reach the conclusion that this ordering is proper - and come to be, like the Pretender, ashamed and apologetic for this (in their mind) second-rate nation.

I admit that "American, of " (your family's heritage here) "descent" is less flowing - clunky, even - but it is both accurate and fulfilling of the "Necessary and Proper" criteria that should guide every decision of a free individual.

Thank you for your time and understanding, sir.