Here’s an NYT article, “Questions of Size and Taste for Queens Houses,” on the Bukharian Jews from Central Asia who are building vast Oriental palaces in the formerly sedate, tree-lined Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills, paving over all the lawns:
“We like to utilize every single square inch of land, every inch of territory,” explained Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, head of a Bukharian synagogue and community center in Kew Gardens Hills. “For some reason, people don’t appreciate it.”
The Bukharian construction binge is much to the displeasure of the middle class Ashkenazis who have long lived there (Joey Ramone, for example, grew up in Forest Hills). The neighborhood is best known for the tennis club, with its wonderful grass courts (like playing on a putting green), which hosted the U.S. Open up into the 1970s.
I met Joey Ramone in 1982, when he and his mom were standing on a corner in Greenwich Village, eating ice cream cones. He was quite gracious to a slobbering fan.
Jesse Helms died on the Fourth of July, like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. His enemies got a lot of their bile out at the time of his retirement:
After thirty years of service to America, Sen. Jesse Helms has announced he will retire to North Carolina next year and take a well-deserved rest from frustrating the liberal elite, especially the media elite. Those sophisticated scribes have responded in quick and typically venomous fashion: Good riddance, you evil man.
This is how Newsweek’s Evan Thomas expressed his regret: “He was so wonderfully odious…he was very comforting to the east coast media establishment to know that there was an evil guy out there that you could really fear.” Added Time’s Jack White: “As a native North Carolinian, the only question I have is what took him so doggone long? Glad he’s gone.”[Jesse Helms, Maligned American Hero, by L. Brent Bozell III, August 30, 2001]
Helms was famous for his anti-Communism, which is a large part of why he objected to making Martin Luther King Day a national holiday. Sam Francis was on the staff of North Carolina Senator John East, who was actually to the right of Helms on many issues, and Francis did the research for a famous speech delivered by Helms during the debate on the King Holiday.
The other thing Helms is famous for is this television ad opposing affirmative action. Known as the “white hands” ad–Jay Nordlinger of NRO referred to it as the “crumpled paper” ad, for some reason–it depicts the hands of a victim of affirmative action, with the words “You needed that job, but they had to give it to a minority.”
This is an entirely accurate description of affirmative action–it’s the whole point of the thing. David Broder, writing at the time of Helms’s retirement, simply repeated the words of Helm’s ad, and said “That is not a history to be sanitized.”
Well, no. If a politician tells the truth about affirmative action, it’s a history to be celebrated. But few Republicans are willing to do that these days.
I should say that Jesse Helms, who grew up in North Carolina when immigration, thanks to a law passed when he was two years old, wasn’t an issue, was never particularly interested in immigration as a national problem. He had a lifetime rating of B+ from Americans for Better Immigration, but if you look at the trend, his immigration votes took a precipitous downward turn from when ABI started rating him, probably as a result of paying too much attention to what his aides thought about issues like that.
But still, he was one of the few real conservatives in the Senate. The way he was hated proves that.
On the Fourth Of July, President Bush was at Monticello, (Thomas Jefferson’s home,) celebrating Independence Day by swearing in 3,000 new immigrants as American citizens. Here’s part of his speech:
Thank you, and happy Fourth of July. (Applause.) I am thrilled to be here at Monticello. I’ve never been here before. (Audience disturbance.)
To my fellow citizens to be, we believe in free speech in the United States of America. (Applause.)
And this is a fitting place to celebrate our nation’s independence. Thomas Jefferson once said he’d rather celebrate the Fourth of July than his own birthday. For me, it’s pretty simple — the Fourth of July weekend is my birthday weekend. (Applause.)
For some of you, today will be your first Fourth of July as American citizens. A few moments, you will take part in the 46th annual Monticello Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. When you raise your hands and take the oath, you will complete an incredible journey. That journey has taken you from many different countries; it’s now made you one people. From this day forward, the history of the United States will be part of your heritage. The Fourth of July will be part of your Independence Day. And I will be honored to call you a fellow American. (Applause.) [More]
“It was mostly for the freedom of travel,” she said. “Get that blue passport and you can go anywhere.”
It looks to me like Bush needs to read Electing A New People, by Peter Brimelow and Ed Rubenstein. But actually, it’s about eight years too late for that. But it’s one more example of Independence Day morphing into Immigration Day.
And just think…in January 2009, a new President will be sworn in–who will be even worse, whether his name is McCain or Obama. That’s why we keep asking you for money.
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