In Six Months, I Turn 50

Feeling sentimental, I looked at my blog posts from my 40th birthday:

Cathy Seipp writes:

Not long ago I was so pleased to find myself linked in the same sentence with Mark Steyn — in John Birmingham’s Sydney Morning Herald article about witty righties and humorless lefties — that I immediately ordered Birmingham’sout-of-print book, “How to Be a Man.” I figured this would be the perfect 40th birthday present for Luke Ford, especially because of the Australian connection. And indeed it was, at least in my opinion. Luke isn’t very gracious about presents, but I assume he’ll at least learn something from it. It’s a good book, as of course I read it first. (Along with Maia and Grandpa, who were both quite glued to it.)

…Someone else gave Luke some AMC movie passes, so Monday he took me and Maia to see “United 93,” which we all liked very much, although Maia thought it was too sad and Luke had to march around my backyard afterward for a good 20 minutes, demanding that we all imagine him saying manly things like “Scramble those jets” and “I want action, not answers” and (of course) “Let’s roll.” He only stopped when my Dad finally came
outside and distracted him with a dirty joke.

One good thing about Luke: He’s an appreciative audience and when he laughs, he laughs so long and loud you think his sides actually might split. He also cackled happily for quite a while at the pre-movie commercial about some bed-wetting product.

Luke’s “let’s roll” dialogue fantasies were at least a relief from his conversation on the way to the movie, which consisted almost entirely of him saying things like, “Do you think I’m exploitative of women?” “Am I self-centered and narcisstic?” “People say I’m manipulative — am I?”

He wouldn’t let me change the subject, and just saying “yes, yes, yes” gets boring after a while, so eventually I reminded him that, you know, some women charge 95 cents a minute for these kinds of conversations.

From My 40th Birthday Party Thrown By Holly Randall

Crystal,
Luke
Crystal,
Luke
Crystal,
Luke
Lexxi,
Luke
Lexxi,
Luke, Rich
Lexxi,
Luke, Rich
Lexxi,
Luke
Holly,
Derrick
Luke
Derrick,
Lexxi, Luke
Luke,
Crissy

Luke

My writing seems more spontaneous and creative ten years ago. It crackles and shocks and some of it embarrasses me.

I didn’t own a computer when I turned 30, but a year before that, I had a camera and produced interviews like this:

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Never Buy A Cheap IPad

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Don’t Hang Out With Guys Named Antwan

Comments to Steve Sailer:

* Meanwhile, another football player shot, while hanging out with a guy named Antwan.

Moral: don’t hang out with guys named Antwan. Your chances of not being shot go up exponentially.

* Steve, one point that you miss, and it is perhaps the most important point of all is the *moral* right of the white west to remain the white west, regardless of politicians, economists, professional liars, and any other faux ‘justification’ of race replacement.

At root, this is the only point that really counts.

* In America I think conservatives have more kids than liberals. But liberals control the indoctrination of the youth through education. Thus many kids from conservative homes become liberal. If a conservative couple has three kids they are lucky if one remains conservative after 12 years of school.

Does this not exist in Israel? How do conservative Israelis go to school and not become indoctrinated? Or are their history books just not written by the Howard Zinns of this world?

* Also, is the right/left divide the same in Israel as it is everywhere else? I doubt if the Israeli left goes on about Jewish privilege or indulges in the ethnomasochism that defines the left in the US and Europe. I think there’s a consensus across the political spectrum that the country is by its founding principles a Jewish state. Can you imagine an Israeli socialist candidate squirming uncomfortably if a journalist asked him if he intends to serve Jewish interests, the way a white Western politician (Orbán excepted) would do in the equivalent situation?

* A real tour de force, Steve. Particularly the comment about conservatives being the second most liberal people on earth.

What I am amazed at is that nowadays most everyone knows, through the power of the internet, that in every white country on earth the immigration level is increasing at a worrying rate and they have a good idea that it will bring about our genocide – though not in those terms. A decade ago I thought that we would require a compelling documentary to bring about this understanding. I would not have thought likely that people similarly as literate and intelligent would be writing comment after comment in the major online newspapers displaying the understanding I had back then and found it extremely challenging to communicate.

The unfortunate thing is that rather than deal with these problems openly through rigorous debate, the left and mainstream right have attempted to use all manner of dirty tricks to prevent this debate from occurring… in all white countries. Globalization of thought, of media, of elite and their ideas have seen to this. So we have this pressure cooker situation building. Elites have doubled down on immigration for various purposes. Immigrants have been dispersed everywhere possible. And it is this as much as anything… our lying eyes conveying the reality of what is transpiring, that is bringing about a mass conversion of attitudes. Everywhere.

The analogy to a pressure cooker is the same as to a bomb. You can pour a can of gunpowder on the ground, light it, and you will get a flash but the reaction is harmless from a few feet away due to the ease in which it is dissipated. Put that same gunpowder into a thick steel sphere with an inconsequential hole to introduce the initial spark of the reaction – a vast difference. The reaction has nowhere to go at first. But it is a mistake to think that one is preventing anything in the nanoseconds that the steel sphere contains the reaction. No, all that is done by this is ensure that the reaction is continued to the furthest possible extent as it pushes against the mutual constraint of the shell, finding no outlet. When the containing shell eventually bursts as it must, an immensely powerful, outwardly focused shockwave is the only possible result, and this must destroy everything in its path for a good radius.

How to diffuse this situation? The governments of the world must act firstly to stop cramming the steel shell of Europe and Anglosphere with more powder. Then they must act to remove the existing gunpowder from what is now a bomb of their own construction. Good luck with that.

* Antagonistic nationalist governments arise as proxies or byproducts of imperial conflict. The German Empire stoked Irish nationalism in their conflict with the British Empire, the British stoked Arab nationalism against the German allied Ottomans, the Russian Empire stoked the Armenians against the Ottomans and the Serbs against the Austro-Hungarian and German empires, the Third Reich stoked Eastern European and Indian nationalism against Russia and Britain, Imperial Japan stoked SE Asian nationalists against the European empires, the US stoked SE Asian nationalism against Japan, etc.

The problem now is that there has been too much state peace. Immigration and low-intensity conflict and crime is not enough to generate antagonistic nationalist governments. For that you want major conflict and war, and at this point that’s only really possible with Russia or China.

* Conservative whites have more kids than liberal whites, so overall the white electorate is moving away from the left. However, the fertility rate for blacks and latinos is still above that of whites so on the whole the left still has a great future ahead of it provided it turns out voters. We’ll probably have much more overtly racial politics as well.

Nature selects for those that are more aggressive in maintaining their advantages, so what’s going to happen to the soft, self-loathing whites who populate the left and refuse to defend their own group’s values and culture when blacks and latinos finally seize the reins of the Democratic Party? I suspect they will go the way of Woodrow Wilson at Princeton – despite their progressive bona fides they will join the list of people to be shamed and shunned for real or perceived offenses against the oppressed.

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Liberals Aghast as US’s “25 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods” All Happen to be Black

I remember one Shabbos morning at YICC circa 2000, the bloke making the announcements noted a soul food restaurant opening up nearby. “Either they know something we don’t or we all need to sell our homes as fast possible.”

From The New Observer:

Liberals across America are reported to be aghast at a new survey by real estate website NeighborhoodScout.com which showed that the nation’s 25 most dangerous neighborhoods all just happen to be in black areas.

“Using exclusive data developed by NeighborhoodScout, and based on FBI data from all 17,000 local law enforcement agencies in America, we here report those specific neighborhoods in America that have the highest predicted rates of violent crime per 1,000 neighborhood residents of all,” that website reported.

“Violent crimes include murder, forcible rape, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. These neighborhoods are the epicenters of violence in America, where social issues are likely to ignite into violence and spread.”

Rank 25: Chicago, IL (S Indiana Ave / E 60th St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 65.77

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 15

Rank 24: Tulsa, OK (E Apache St / N Quaker Ave)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 66.88

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 15

Rank 23: Memphis, TN (Saint Paul Ave / Walnut St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 67.26

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 15

Rank 22: St. Louis, MO (Cass Ave / N 9th St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 67.75

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 15

Rank 21: West Memphis, AR (E Broadway St / Stuart Ave)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 68.9

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 15

Rank 20: Indianapolis, IN (North Indianapolis)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 69.02

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 14

Rank 19: Flint, MI (Chambers St / Stonegate Dr)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 70.05

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 14

Rank 18: Nashville, TN (8th Ave S / Wedgewood Ave)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 70.59

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here: (in one year): 1 in 14

Rank 17: Indianapolis, IN (N Meridian St / E 34th St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 72.71

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 14

Rank 16: Chicago, IL (S Ashland Ave / W 76th St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 73.05

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 14

Rank 15: Houston, TX (Sauer St / Mcgowen St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 75.89

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 13

Rank 14: Rockford, IL (Kishwaukee St / Grove St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 77.6

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 13

Rank 13: Chicago, IL (S Homan Ave / W Roosevelt Rd)

Violent Crime Rate: (per 1,000): 80.17

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 12

Rank 12: St. Louis, MO (Delmar Blvd / N Euclid Ave)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 82.76

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 12

Rank 11: Memphis, TN (E Eh Crump Blvd / S 4th St)

Violent Crime Rate : (per 1,000): 82.91

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 12

Rank 10: Saginaw, MI (E Holland Ave / E Genesee Ave)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 85.64

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 12

Rank 9: Atlanta, GA (Hopkins St SE / Adair Ave SE)

Violent Crime Rate: (per 1,000): 86.14

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 12

Rank 8: Greenville, SC (Woodside)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 86.38

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 12

Rank 7: Detroit, MI (Wyoming St / Orangelawn St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 90.82

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 11

Rank 6: Houston, TX (Scott St / Wilmington St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 91.27

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 11

Rank 5: Spartanburg, SC (Washington Heights)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 96.55

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 10

Rank 4: Chicago, IL (S Halsted St / W 77th St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 116.56

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 9

Rank 3: Detroit, MI (Gratiot Ave / Rosemary)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 123.93

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 8

Rank 2: Detroit, MI (Mack Ave / Helen St)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 145.29

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 7

Rank 1: Detroit, MI (W Chicago / Livernois Ave)

Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 149.48

Chances of Becoming a Victim Here (in one year): 1 in 7

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LAT: Jury orders Kabbalah Centre and former director to pay $177,500 in sexual assault lawsuit

bergs

LAT: Yehudah Berg, left, Rabbi Phlip Berg, Karen Berg and Michael Berg in 2009. Rabbi Yehuda Berg and the Kabbalah Center were ordered to pay $177,500 to a woman who alleged that Berg plied her with drugs and alcohol with the intent of raping her. (Shai Halamish)

From the Los Angeles Times:

A Los Angeles jury on Tuesday ordered Kabbalah Centre International and a former co-director of the organization to pay a total of $177,500 to a former student who alleged the rabbi plied her with drugs and alcohol with the intent of raping her.

Last year, Jena Scaccetti sued the organization, which is headquartered in Los Angeles, alleging that Rabbi Yehuda Berg forced her to drink alcohol and take prescription drugs as he tried to have sex with her.

The jury rejected a battery claim against Berg, whose father founded the organization. But the panel found he was responsible for inflicting emotional distress on Scaccetti.

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The ADL Wants To Restrict Your Speech, Import More Muslims

Perhaps the ADL has a point. Nothing helps curtail freedom quite like more Muslims.

From the New Jersey Jewish News in 2010:

Concerned that some recent incidents of bullying in cyberspace have taken on an anti-Semitic tone, the Anti-Defamation League is calling for a toughening of state law to prevent hateful text messaging and harassment via Internet websites.

Etzion Neuer, director of the ADL’s New Jersey region, said he has received complaints from several parents whose teenagers have been tormented with anti-Semitic e-mails and Web postings.

Neuer is working with Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Dist. 37) to revise New Jersey’s law on bullying.

Huttle advocates tightening the law by requiring school districts to have a single uniform policy for penalizing young offenders.

“We have to have the consequences in school. This is where it is stemming from,” she told NJJN. “We need to give the school districts the responsibility to suspend or expel people.”

The bill calls for discipline after alleged bullies are given hearings before councils made up of students, administrators, and teachers, she said.

“Even though the anti-bullying law is already on the books, it is not being followed by many schools,” Neuer said. “Schools have to create consequences for a kid who bullies. Schools need to have programs to form anti-bullying task forces that involve school staffs, administrators, and parents.”

Among the complaints Neuer has received are those from two parents who reported that their daughters received anti-Semitic text messages.

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The ADL wants more Muslims in America and more restrictions on our freedom of speech

ADLLauterAE_300_200_90

“National ADL civil rights director Deborah Lauter and NJ ADL director Joshua Cohen said much has to be done to combat anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bias, and hate crime on the Internet.”

From the New Jersey Jewish News:

The Anti-Defamation League is looking to strengthen hate-crimes laws in New Jersey and across the country in an initiative it is calling “50 States Against Hate.”

Prompted by the June murder of nine African-Americans at a historic church in Charleston, SC, the ADL is partnering with civil rights groups and labor unions to press for stronger laws, better training for law enforcement personnel, improved data collection, and increased reporting.

In New Jersey, the organization will focus on underreporting, on-line bullying, and discrimination against transgender people.

“New Jersey has very good laws on the books, but we would like to up our game in terms of law enforcement,” said Deborah Lauter, the ADL’s national civil rights director, in an interview at NJ Jewish News offices in Whippany.

“We are concerned not only about having laws on the books, but making sure communities know about them and law enforcement is taking them seriously,” she added.

In 2014, the ADL logged 107 anti-Semitic incidents in New Jersey — a 27 percent increase from the 78 incidents reported in 2013.

“We have some cities that are underreporting hate crime,” including incidents occurring on line, said Joshua Cohen, ADL’s NJ director, who joined Lauter for the interview.

“The Jewish community is very comfortable in the United States. We trust law enforcement and are more likely to report hate crimes than others,” Lauter acknowledged; however, “the Muslim community may not have the same comfort level in dealing with the police.”

Cohen cited a June incident when a Muslim student came to class at Colonia High School wearing a head scarf. She felt intimidated after a photograph of her was posted on Facebook and Snapchat along with the word “ISIS.”

“It flew through social media, and it took the school four months to investigate,” said Cohen, whose office dealt with her complaint. “The administration’s first response was to deny it was an incident of bullying.”


“The Jewish community is very comfortable in the United States. We trust law enforcement and are more likely to report hate crimes than others,” Lauter acknowledged; however, “the Muslim community may not have the same comfort level in dealing with the police.”

Cohen cited a June incident when a Muslim student came to class at Colonia High School wearing a head scarf. She felt intimidated after a photograph of her was posted on Facebook and Snapchat along with the word “ISIS.”

“It flew through social media, and it took the school four months to investigate,” said Cohen, whose office dealt with her complaint. “The administration’s first response was to deny it was an incident of bullying.”

In late October, Colonia’s schools superintendent told a WPIX-TV reporter, “Not only is it harassment and bullying and intimidating, but it’s hateful. It’s biased and it’s ignorant.”

Lauter said the ADL has been working with private Internet companies to focus attention on hate issues. “We have developed a set of best practices for what we would like the Internet companies to do to define what is and is not allowed on the Internet as offensive material and making sure the companies are taking down offensive material when it is reported,” she said.

Another growing area of concern is discrimination against transgender people.

“We were very disappointed when Gov. Chris Christie vetoed legislation in August that would have allowed transgender individuals to change their sex designation on their birth certificates,” said Cohen. “We will continue to advocate for those changes, and we continue to provide anti-LGBT bias resources to our schools.”

Lauter said the ADL is sometimes caught in a struggle between religious freedom and civil rights, especially when women’s and gay rights issues conflict with conservative Christianity.

“When I look at LGBT challenges and challenges to women’s reproductive rights, they come from the conservative Right that wants to impose its religious values on the rest of us,” Lauter said. “Many of them believe this is a Christian nation, but while most people are Christians, our founding fathers never conceived of it as a Christian nation.

“We need to talk to them in terms of respect for differences and respect for others,” she continued. “They have an absolute constitutional right to their religious values, but they may not impose them on the rest of us.”

The ADL leaders said the group’s broader civil rights activities are inseparable from its defense of Jewish interests.

“Our priority is to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all,” said Lauter. “If we want the Jewish community to be safe, we will fight on behalf of making this country more equitable because it serves us all. It is in our self-interest to make sure democracy is strong.”

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ADL: Once We Were Strangers Too: The Jewish Responsibility to Welcome Refugees

Jonathan A. Greenblatt, head of the ADL, writes:

Just as anti-Semitism was behind America’s denial of refuge to Jews in the 1930s and 40s, Islamophobia undergirds much of the anti-refugee sentiment today. It was wrong then, just as it is wrong today.

In September, if people were to close their eyes and picture a Syrian refugee they would likely see the heartbreaking image of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi’s lifeless body face down in the waves. Three months ago the haunting image of the young Kurdish boy who had drowned seeking refuge ignited social media and captured the hearts and minds of millions. Leaders around the world, stirred to action by the photo, began announcing that their countries would take in more refugees. President Obama soon announced that the United States would open its doors to 10,000 Syrians seeking refuge.

In the past few days there has been a dramatic reversal. With news that one of the attackers in Paris may have slipped into France among Syrian refugees with a fake passport, fear-mongers have promoted another image: the specter of an ISIS terrorist, masquerading as a refugee, using the humanitarian crisis as a cover to slip into the United States.

Giving into – and stoking – that fear, more than half of U.S. governors in the days following the horrific attacks in Paris said either that their states would not accept Syrian refugees or called on President Obama to seal the borders altogether to those fleeing violence in Syria. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had once called the image of Aylan Kurdi “a symbol for this country’s inaction,” now said he would not even allow in orphans under the age of five. The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of a bill temporarily freezing Syrian and Iraqi refugees’ entry into the U.S.

While anxieties over security understandably run high, the United States cannot allow fear to govern. The Syrian refugees—the very same people fleeing a civil war fueled by ISIS’s brutality—are victims, not perpetrators of terror. Turning our backs on refugees now would hand ISIS a victory, trapping millions in their brutal grasp and bolstering their claims of a religious and cultural war.
In rushing to appear “tough” on national security, our leaders have ignored or overlooked what the U.S. is already doing very well. The screening process for refugees is more rigorous than other entry method for the U.S., making it the single most difficult way to enter the country. Compare this to the means by which more than 60 million tourists visit the U.S. every year – tens of millions hail from 38 countries where no visa is required – with hardly any screening at all. By contrast, people fleeing conflicts seeking refugee status must first undergo a multi-year screening process that includes interviews and background checks with American embassies, the Department of Homeland Security, and domestic and international intelligence agencies.

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WP: Plan A for GOP donors: Wait for Trump to fall. (There is no Plan B.)

Donald Trump is going to be our next president. The more the media attack him, the more we love him.

Any monied elite who goes on the warpath against Trump is putting his life at risk. Americans are fed up with being screwed by their ruling class (two million legal immigrants a year, etc).

From the Washington Post:

As the combative mogul enters his fifth month at the top of the GOP presidential field, attempts to derail him remain anemic, underfunded and unfocused — and they are likely to stay that way until the Iowa caucuses in less than 10 weeks.

Most of the party’s financiers and top strategists are sitting on the sidelines. Many are reluctant to spend money against Trump after watching others fumble as they tried to handle his counter-punches…

The absence of a big-money response to Trump is especially striking, given the mounting anxiety among GOP leaders about his lasting dominance in the race and his accumulation of incendiary statements. Some also are wary of trying to short-circuit him in a year when anger toward elites is boiling over…

After conducting two focus groups of Trump supporters this fall, GOP consultant Frank Luntz said he has concluded that there is no political issue or stance that will turn off his supporters.

“They came to him because he is unlike any other politician,” Luntz said. “That allows him to do and say things others could not and get away with it.”

One party strategist privy to recent research on Trump voters said that none of the messages tested swayed them — including his past support for universal health care or fond words about the Clintons.

“They’re in­cred­ibly angry, and he’s the first guy in their mind who speaks to that anger in a visceral way,” said the strategist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the findings. “They have a deep longing for that.”

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WP: In 1968, a British politician warned immigration would lead to violence. Now some say he was right.

Washington Post: Enoch Powell had long been known as a firebrand politician, unafraid to speak his mind and be provocative. A former classical scholar, few doubted his intellect, and his military service during World War II spoke to his bravery. Margaret Thatcher herself even dubbed him “the best parliamentarian I ever knew.”

And yet, after one extremely controversial speech he gave in 1968, this British politician had any chance he had of a successful mainstream political career destroyed. In fact, throughout much of Britain his name became synonymous with racism and prejudice.

Now, almost 50 years later and with Europe in the grips of a new crisis which intertwines immigration, integration and violence, some in Britain are asking the question: What if Enoch Powell was right?

The comments that ended Powell’s career were contained in what is now known ominously in Britain as the “Rivers of Blood” speech. Speaking at a General Meeting of the West Midlands Area Conservative Political Centre on April 20, 1968, Powell suggested that Britain’s acceptance of high levels of immigration from Commonwealth nations was like building its own funeral pyre.

“As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see ‘the River Tiber foaming with much blood,'” he warned, adding that British workers who would find themselves “strangers in their own country” and that immigrants should be sent back to their home countries.

The speech also quoted crude, malicious language to describe recent immigrants to Britain from the Commonwealth and suggested that these immigrants were harassing his British-born constituents – even pushing “excreta” through one woman’s letter box.

Powell was no fringe politician. He had previously served as the government minister for housing and had only recently been defeated by Edward Heath for leadership of the Conservative Party. At the time of his speech, the party was in opposition and he was in charge of its defense policy. His comments came just as Britain debated the Race Relations Act 1968, which sought to end discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity or national origins.

While reports say that his speech was received warmly by those in the room with Powell, it caused outrage when it appeared in the press. The Times of London called it an “evil speech,” adding that it was “racialist” and “disgraceful.” Powell was fired from frontline politics after several high-ranking Conservative colleagues threatened to quit if he stayed on. Powell remained in the Conservative Party until 1974, when he made an unorthodox move to become an Ulster Unionist Party MP for a Northern Ireland seat (he turned down calls to join the far right National Front). He remained a polarizing if marginal figure until 1987, when he stepped back from politics to pursue his own pursuits, eventually dying in 1998.

Despite Powell’s dramatic fall from grace, after recent attacks by extremists left 130 dead in Paris, his ideas appear to be receiving attention once again. To those who sympathize with Powell, it appears that the “Rivers of Blood” are finally here. There have been floods of comments in support of him online. One Conservative researcher in Wales recently suggested on Facebook that Powell was a “visionary” for his speech (the researcher later said he hadn’t understood the speech and apologized).

Bill Etheridge, a Member of the European Parliament for the anti-immigration U. K. Independence Party, gave a speech last week that praised Powell, adding that “the creed of multiculturalism is in fact a creed of surrender and it will lead to rivers of blood.” A multicultural Britain was “diversive [sic] not just diverse,” he added.

Meanwhile, writing in the newspaper the Telegraph this weekend, columnist and Powell biographer Simon Heffer argued that the Paris attacks had indeed proven Powell right. “If you seek the monument of Powell’s critics, look about you,” Heffer wrote. “We are a prosperous, decent country that normally embraces many faiths and outlooks within a strong common culture. Yet we have this malignancy eating away at a part of us: and our political class still fears to take the lead necessary to deal with it.”

These arguments aren’t necessarily surprising. While many British politicians expressed disgust with Powell’s speech at the time, his anti-immigration views were far from uncommon. One Gallup poll from 1968 found that 74 percent of the population agreed with his comments. It’s even suspected that his decision to pull his support from the Conservatives in 1974 due to their stance on European integration cost them that election. His views on immigration and nationalism have had an undercurrent of support in Britain ever since.

In fact, almost half a century later, his eloquent, intellectual style of anti-immigrant nationalism looks something like a model for populist far right candidates all across Europe (and perhaps America too). And in Britain there have been a growing number of attempts to rehabilitate or at least reevaluate Powell’s image in recent years – the Paris shootings are just the latest opportunity.

Powell’s supporters argue that he showed prescience in foreseeing the problems that immigration would entail. There are certainly some signs this is true: His suggestion that by the year 2000 around 10 percent of Britain’s population would be made up of immigrants and their offspring is in line with reality, for example.

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