Doris Lessing just won the Nobel Prize for Literature–you can view her unscripted reaction to the news here. She wrote a piece in 2003 about Robert Mugabe that I found online at an African website–here’s a sample:

In fact, “our customs” are strongly valued when they have to do with the subjection of women. The law of the land may say one thing on paper- Zimbabwe’s early Marxist phase, as in other Communist countries, imposed many kinds of equality. But “our customs” still make sure that a woman has no right to the money she has earned, or to her children. She is her husband’s vassal. When Mugabe was met at the airport by hand-clapping and kowtowing maidens, and he was criticised (in the early days) for this sign of backwardness, the reply was “it is our custom.”

A man in a three-piece suit, in a government job, will still beat his wife-or try to; the women are fighting back. And he will consult soothsayers and shamans. Superstition still rules. It is “our custom” to look for the evil eye when a family member gets sick or a cow falls lame and then pay the witch doctor to exact revenge. It is becoming “our custom” to try to find virgin partners if you are HIV-positive, for to have sex with them will cure you of AIDS. (AIDS has spread widely in Zimbabwe.) The use of human parts in medicine goes on; it is the custom.The Jewel of Africa

In the Nassau County raids discussed by Henry McCulloch here, one of the complaints by Nassau County executives was that the Federal agents were wearing cowboy hats:

Scores of federal immigration agents from around the country, some wearing cowboy hats and brandishing shotguns and automatic weapons, endangered residents and local police officers last week as they raided homes in Nassau County in a poorly planned antigang operation, county officials charged yesterday.

[Raids Were A Shambles, Complains Nassau to U.S., By Nina Bernstein, New York Times, October 3, 2007]

Later, defending the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers,

Peter J. Smith, the special agent in charge of the raids for the agency, denied the charges.

“All those allegations that he’s making, they’re without merit,” he said. Only one of 180 special agents assigned to the operation from the agency’s Office of Investigations was wearing a cowboy hat out of personal preference, he said.

And why not? I wear cowboy hats out of personal preference myself. So does Joe Guzzardi.

Here’s the actual letter of complaint from Nassau County Police Commissioner Lawrence Mulvey to ICE:

The federal operation utilized border patrol personnel from around the country who had not trained together for this complex mission. “[S]ome [I.C.E.] members wore cowboy hats and in the view of some of my members displayed a “cowboy” mentality.

Of course, the “cowboy mentality” is what made America great, and is probably exactly what you need in an operation where the goal is to “Head ‘em up” and “Move ‘em out.”

Anyhow, I’m calling this offensive. The Cowboy mentality is, as far as I know, superior to the New York State politician mentality, and cowboys as a group tend to come from one ethnic group, (mostly Scotch-Irish) which makes this, yes, an Insensitive Ethnic Reference, and I hope the people who spend all their time looking for new ways to be offended by Ann Coulter will pay a little attention to this massive slur on the Cowpoke-American community. Or putting it another way, suppose he’d complained about agents wearing turbans, and saying that they’d “terrorized” the illegals? That would be insensitive!

We recently noted a story by Dimitri Vassilaros in the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review on Alexandria VA mayor William Euille’s decision to use taxpayer money to hand out various forms of public assistance. I was quoted describing this as a “flagrant effort to subsidize colonization”.

On Friday, Los Angeles City Council took another step to requiring home-improvement stores to set aside space (“including plumbing facilties”) for day laborers a.k.a. illegal immigrants. (Day-labor plan moves forward in L.A. council, by Rick Orlov, DailyBreeze.com, October 13 2007).

This is a particularly interesting form of subsidy to colonization: mandated by government, but not actually passing through its books. It’s just like the U.S. government mandating hospitals to treat the uninsured a.k.a. illegals - something that the Mexican government, of course, doesn’t do to Mexican hospitals.

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s motive is obvious: Reconquista. Alexandria’s Euille, however, an American black mayor in a significantly black city, is betraying not just his nation, but his race.

Email Alexandria officials or email Mayor Euille directly here.