Max Brantley stated on the Arkansas Times Blog on March 7, 2011, “Charter school performance is more about demographic makeup of student bodies than educational strategies.”

I think the real reason that people want to move their children to better schools is that they care about their children. Many black people are upset at inner city schools and are doing just that. For years the Memphis City School officials have claimed they have been victims of white flight. However, it appears the last ten years they have been victims of “everybody flight.” Over and over we have had to listen to all the allegations of racism leveled at those who leave the city limits to take their kids to schools that perform better. Maybe it is not about demographics but about discipline and demanding more of the students? Take a look at this article from the Commercial Appeal:

City officials across DeSoto County on Friday were relishing 2010 Census figures that showed sharp population increases — and signaled economic and service opportunities.

And while the overall growth came as no surprise, analysts at the University of Mississippi said there was one myth-busting figure: “Black flight” was a large factor in countywide growth. African-Americans make up nearly half of DeSoto’s 54,000-person population increase from the last census.

In Hernando, which more than doubled from 6,838 in the 2000 tally to 14,090, city Planning Director Bob Barber said: “The figures aren’t unexpected, but when it all becomes official it takes things out of the realm of speculation.

“By going to 10,000-plus, we register on more radar screens of private investors and developers looking for that threshold. As to the public sector, there now are things that we will be eligible for as a city that we weren’t previously.”

Hernando Mayor Chip Johnson said, “We’re always looking for new opportunities” in grants and enhancements to boost services.”

Southaven soared 69 percent in population to 48,982, and is now Mississippi’s third-largest city after Jackson and Gulfport. Olive Branch grew from 21,054 to 33,484; Horn Lake from 14,099 to 16,066; and rural Walls surged from a 2005 estimate of 452 to 1,162.

As a whole, DeSoto County’s population rose 50 percent, adding more than 54,000 for a total population of 161,252. That moves DeSoto from fifth to the state’s third-largest county, jumping over Rankin and Katrina-battered Jackson counties, said Clifford Holley, interim director of the Center for Population Studies at Ole Miss. Hinds, site of Jackson, is still the largest county, with coastal Harrison second.

But what struck Holley as interesting was that while notions are popular of white outflow from Shelby County feeding DeSoto’s growth, the census figures show that of the 54,000-person growth, 23,050 are listed as black residents.

“In 2000 there were only about 12,000 black people in DeSoto; now the figure nearly triples to 35,266 of the total population,” said Holley. Much of the black share, he said, must come from shifts from Shelby and even within Mississippi — people looking for higher-paying jobs, better schools, a safer place to live.

That makes sense to Hernando Mayor Johnson.

“It’s incredible — the jobs, schools, medical facilities and infrastructure that are such a draw to everyone,” he said. DeSoto’s growth “is just due to high standards that have been set — and people realize that. Here in our city, we really didn’t plan all this growth, we just set out to make Hernando a great place to live.”

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com

Gov. Tim Pawlenty RNC Speech Part 3 of 3

I am in Central Florida and today was the liftoff for the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral. I learned when I went to rent a car a couple of days ago that  most of the people that rented cars a few days ago for the Daytona 500 did not return them because of the upcoming Discovery takeoff.

It is sad to me that our government does not have much money because of the wasteful stimulus law and other sad attempts to buy ourselves out of this recession. Now programs like our space program will suffer because of all these ploys by the Democrats. Pawlenty is right when he says our federal government has got way too big.

I wanted to include some posts from the article “Excerpts: Tim Pawlenty’s Courage to Stand.” Former Minnesota Governor Discusses Losing the VP Slot to Sarah Palin and How President Obama ‘Broke His Promise’ in His New Book:”

Pawlenty on describing his philosophy toward
government that echoes tea party principles:

“Endless government growth becomes a form of
tyranny. When the government takes up more and more space — space that was previously reserved for
individuals, families, the faith community, charities,
markets and the private sector — the result is more
displacement, discouragement, disincentive, and
dependency. As government swells to become nearly
everyone’s financial nanny, freedom and personal
responsibility are diminished.”

Pawlenty on a heated meeting he had as a legislator
with then-Gov. Jesse Ventura, who was mad at
Pawlenty for accusing the former Navy Seal of
leaving taxpayers “behind enemy lines.”:

“The hockey player and wrestling fan in me would
have some taken pride in surviving a Jesse Ventura
smackdown. But the apology felt better. And that was
all it took to let the air out of the balloon. He went
from enraged to reasonable and graciously accepted
the apology. The meeting ended well.”

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com

(Video from Robybrock) State Sen. Gilbert Baker discusses moving a portion of Pulaski Co. into Arkansas’ Fourth Congressional District.

New Series on 2012 Congressional Districts Part 1

John Brummett in his article “New day confronts congressional districts,” (Arkansas News Bureau, Feb 3, 2011), asserts:

We now have three Republicans in these four congressional seats. We have Republicans composing more than 40 percent of the Arkansas General Assembly that must redraw the districts in this session. We have a Senate State Agencies Committee, which will consider the matter, that consists of four Democrats and four Republicans.

Based on still-preliminary numbers and generous rounding, we have the 1st District needing to gain about 50,000 persons; the 2nd District needing to lose about 15,000; the growth hotbed of the 3rd District needing to lose about 110,000; and the 4th District across southern Arkansas needing to gain about 75,000.

Now let me make an observation. The 2010 Congressional election proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that both Central Arkansas and North West Arkansas voted in Republican Congressmen with large margins. It seems that 125,000 of these voters from these two districts have to be moved to the other two districts (50,000 to 1st where Republican Rick Crawford won close race and 75,000 to 4th where Democrat Mike Ross won with 57% of the vote).  

Brummett does know how it will all settle out but he puts out a educated guess:

If Democrats eventually settle on a compromise designed to do as little damage as possible, it probably will look this way:

The 1st District would be extended westward across northern Arkansas all the way to Marion and Boone counties (arch-conservative Harrison, that is to say) and into a portion of Carroll County, then trade Cleburne County to the 2nd District in exchange for Van Buren County.

The 2nd, which need not change much, would be taken care of by that Cleburne-Van Buren trade and by losing Yell County and a sliver of Perry County to the 4th District.

The population-exploding 3rd District would constrict around Washington and Benton Counties but keep Fort Smith and Sebastian County.

The 4th would reach northward to pick up Franklin and Johnson counties (Ozark, Clarksville) from the 3rd District and Yell County and that sliver of Perry County from the 2nd.

The real gamble will be if the Democrats try to make a run at the 2nd district. I think that Tim Griffin has a bigger margin of victory now with the rapid growth of Saline County and Faulkner County to work with, and it would take a lot to put him at a disadvantage.

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com

CBS — October 19, 2010 —

New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny talks to Jan Crawford about the state of Democrats in the South… Are they a dying species?

In the article “Southern Democrat much closer to extinction after GOP wave,” (Washington Times, Nov 4, 2010), Ben Evans notes:

After this week’s elections, the Democratic Party barely holds a presence in the region outside of majority-black urban areas such as Atlanta and Memphis. The carnage for the party was particularly brutal in the Deep South, where just one white Democrat survived across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina…

“Right now in most of Dixie it is culturally unacceptable to be a Democrat. It’s a damn shame, but that’s the way it is,” said Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a campaign strategist for conservative Democrats such as Jim Webb of Virginia, one of the few remaining Southern Democratic senators.

The losses were particularly disappointing for the party after the baby steps it made in the South in 2006 and 2008, when it picked up a host of Republican-leaning House districts and won Senate seats in North Carolina and Virginia. Many thought the party had learned its lessons and had begun to reverse recent history by nominating conservative candidates who hit the right notes on divisive social issues such as abortion and smaller government.

None of it mattered Tuesday.

Democrats didn’t just see most of their recent gains obliterated, they lost at least 19 Southern House members and a senator, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Even some of the most conservative Democrats such as four-term Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia and 10-term Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi couldn’t withstand the wave. It also snared such veterans as John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the 14-term chairman of the House Budget Committee, and 14-term Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia…

Most of the losing Democrats this year were moderates representing Republican-leaning districts. And the challenges could get even tougher for Southern Democrats as legislatures begin redrawing congressional districts from the 2010 census.

Mark Pryor said on Arkansas Week in Review which was broadcast on AETN on Dec 24th, “We owe the American people good government and to try and be productive. I think one reason why you saw the elections turn out the way they turned this November was because I think people all across America feel like the folks inside the beltway are  not listening. I try to listen and to be home as much as I possibly can.”

Senator Pryor claims to be listening to the people back home. Evidently the reason most of these Democrats in the south are losing is very simple. They do not represent the conservative values of the people in the south. Is Senator Pryor listening to the people of Arkansas who have voted against every Democrat in 2010 that wished to represent them in Washington. Did the people of Arkansas want Obamacare? The verdict is clear from the results in 2010 that they did not. Take a look at my earlier post where I show he ignored what the people thought and voted with his liberal northern senator friends.

President Obama and the Democrats have not given up on the South. They have in fact announced that the 2012 Democratic National Convention will be in Charlotte, NC. They probably have about the same chance as carrying the South as Pryor has to staying in office in 2014.

Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist, discusses atheism pt 1

In his article “Athiesm’s Big Night in Little Rock,” (The Morning News, April 27, 2007), John Brummett stated: I’d asked Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School, if he expected trouble — a shouting demonstration from zealous religious believers, perhaps. “Could be,” he said.

The atheist scientist Richard Dawkins was the speaker that night in Little Rock and he had a haughty attitude towards Christians. Brummett’s comment shows the attitude towards Christians that religious believers can be dangerous. Kerby Anderson answered this concern in his commentary “Answering the New Atheists.” He observed:

For our discussion, we will be using the general outline of the book Is God Just a Human Invention? written by Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow, Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow, Is God Just a Human Invention? (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2010)…

The New Atheists contend that religion is not just false; it’s also dangerous. Sam Harris believes it should be treated like slavery and eradicated.{14} Christopher Hitchens wants to rally his fellow atheists against religion: “It has become necessary to know the enemy, and to prepare to fight it.”{15} Richard Dawkins is even more specific: “I am attacking God, all gods, anything and everything supernatural, wherever and whenever they have been invented.”{16}

Much of the criticism against religion revolves around violence. We do live in a violent world, and religion has often been the reason (or at least the justification) for violent acts. But the New Atheists are kidding themselves if they think that a world without religion would usher in a utopia where there is no longer violence, oppression, or injustice.

Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow point out in their book on the New Atheists that details matter when you are examining religion. Injustices by the Taliban in Afghanistan ought not to be used as part of the cumulative cases against religion in general or Christianity in particular. The fact that there are Muslim terrorists in the world today does not mean that all Muslims are dangerous. And it certainly doesn’t mean that Christianity is dangerous.

Alister McGrath reminds us that “all ideals—divine, transcendent, human or invented—are capable of being abused. That’s just the way human nature is. And that happens to religion as well. Belief in God can be abused, and we need to be very clear, in the first place, that abuse happens, and in the second, that we need to confront and oppose this. But abuse of an ideal does not negate its validity.”{17}

Religion is not the problem. People are the problem because they are sinful and live in a fallen world. Keith Ward puts this in perspective:

No one would deny that there have been religious wars in human history. Catholics have fought Protestants, Sunni Muslims have fought Shi’a Muslims, and Hindus have fought Muslims. However, no one who has studied history could deny that most wars in human history have not been religious. And in the case of those that have been religious, the religious component has usually been associated with some non-religious, social, ethnic, or political component that has exerted a powerful influence on the conflicts.{18}

The New Atheists, however, still want to contend that religion is dangerous while refusing to accept that atheism has been a major reason for death and destruction. If you were to merely look at body count, the three atheistic regimes of the twentieth century (Hitler in Nazi Germany, Stalin in Russia, and Mao in China) are responsible for more than 100 million deaths.

Dinesh D’Souza explains that “Religion-inspired killing simply cannot compete with the murders perpetrated by atheist regimes.” Even when you take into account the differences in the world’s population, he concludes that “death caused by Christian rulers over a five-hundred-year period amount to only 1 percent of the deaths caused by Stalin, Hitler, and Mao in the space of a few decades.”{19}

Religion is not the problem; people are the problem. And removing religion and God from a society doesn’t make it less dangerous. The greatest death toll in history took place in the last century in atheistic societies.

Richard Dawkins on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox:

Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist, discusses atheism pt 2