Mainstream television media paints an interesting picture of the "protestors" staging rallies all around the country -- from Wall Street to Washington DC, and now Atlanta... However, the "unsanitized view" of the Atlanta protestors is much more disturbing. What's up with this echo chanting of the masses, an inculcation of group think? While I respect John Lewis for his participation in the Civil Rights movement, I'm not the biggest fan of his work as a Congressman from Georgia. Nonetheless, I'm shocked that a crowd of his admirers and supporters would refuse to let him speak at their protest. It seems that he wasn't on their agenda. Seriously -- these people had an agenda? As we learned from "Occupy DC", the protestors involved are basically clueless. Their only common goal seems to be the transformation of America into a Communist society by targeting the only real source of wealth generation, the private sector. It's rather telling that one man standing next to Lewis at the occupation in Atlanta wore a t-shirt proudly declaring himself a "union thug". These misguided angry people bemoan the salaries of "corporate fat cats" but ignore the real cause of economic turmoil in America -- entitlement programs, bloated government salaries and excessive government pensions. You only have to read the Sunday paper in Savannah to learn the local school superintendent's annual salary paid from taxpayer coffers is $192,147 and "numerous administrative positions make over $100,000 a year." (Savannah Morning News 10/9/11 pg 14A, letter to editor … [Read more...]
Archives for 2011
American education and the myth of social justice
"Man on the street" reporter Adam Kokesh provides some fascinating insight into the current state of higher education in the United States by interviewing protestors at the "Occupy DC" rally in Washington last weekend. I should warn the viewer in advance that the video seen by following this link is both hysterically funny and seriously depressing. Saturday Night Live has never been this funny....but when one realizes these young "skulls full of mush" will someday try to lead a future generation in America, depression sets in. If these protestors represent our best and brightest, America is doomed. A young George Washington University student/protestor named Doug decried the loss of American civil liberties -- while simultaneously professing to support installation of a more totalitarian government that would enforce his "beneficial" ideas to improve society by force. Do people ever think before opening their mouth anymore? Immediately after agreeing the use of force is wrong, with his next breath Doug equivocated his position to Mr. Kokesh. He tried to sound intelligent, possibly stretching the limits of his vocabulary as he asked, How do you induce voluntary cooperation on them (the wealthy, powerful "ruling" class") in order to maximize social justice? You don't, as Mr. Kokesh correctly responded. Voluntary cooperation and social justice are concepts that do not go together. Social justice doesn't exist anywhere. It is a myth, perpetuated by advocates of socialism. Doug seemed unable to comprehend that it's wrong to force redistribution of … [Read more...]
Is Roseanne Barr a brilliant comedienne?
I've never been a fan of Roseanne Barr. Her voice is grating and quite frankly, she never struck me as funny. Just annoying. I never watched her television show. I did see her try to sing (or pretend to try to sing) our national anthem before a baseball game, but her rendition was truly awful, very offensive and literally painful to the ears. I happen to love the country that gave her the opportunity to earn ridiculous wealth with marginal talent and didn't find her butchering of the anthem the least bit amusing. However, I'm beginning to suspect that Roseanne has been a comic genius whom I've simply failed to appreciate. After she pulled off a deadpan delivery of this skit disguised as a live interview in which she suggests we send bankers of a certain income bracket to re-education camps or the guillotine. I was about ready to ROFLOL, as they say here on the internet. Something stopped me, though. Specifically, it was the suspicion she had really been dead serious. Now if it was a joke, it was a good one. She really had me going there for a minute -- actually, she's still got me going. Though Roseanne's rant wasn't as funny as Sunny's take on eating the rich, Sunny had been able to edit out her outtakes. Without even a hint of breaking a smile, Roseanne calmly called for the confiscation of wealth and decapitation (if necessary) of bankers with accrued wealth in excess of $100 million dollars who refused to fork it over. It's kind of scary to believe she might have been serious. But Shirley, she's couldn't have been, could … [Read more...]
Capital punishment versus life without parole
For a couple of reasons, I haven’t been writing much recently for online publication. First and foremost, I had no internet service at my mother’s house down in Savannah. But even after I got connected, I still didn't write much for online consumption. The truth is that I haven’t wanted to say anything about the execution of Troy Davis, the topic du jour. Frankly, I thought I might sound a little bloodthirsty or racist if I condoned his execution. Besides, several friends have written excellent articles that explored the relevant facts surrounding the Davis death penalty/MacPhail murder case. Therefore, I didn't believe it was necessary for me to voice yet another opinion. But opponents of capital punishment have refused to let go of the issue. They have also consistently neglected to mention some of the relevant facts beyond some eyewitnesses recanting their testimony. Those opposed to the death penalty have concentrated their argument on the possibility Davis might have been innocent as an excuse to insist his sentence should have been commuted to life without parole. His advocates must not appreciate statistical analysis. Troy Davis admitted being at the scene of two separate shootings the night Officer MacPhail was killed. He even acknowledged being in the parking lot when MacPhail died. The odds against an innocent person being found at two crime scenes on the same evening are simply astronomical. The odds against finding blood from the victims on the clothing of a bystander aren't very good, either. Nor do innocent people normally … [Read more...]
Watching the media watchdog
PolitiFact Georgia is supposedly a non-partisan media watchdog group that rates comments from politicians and political advocates on something called a Truth-O-Meter. The scale ranges from completely true and goes beyond completely false to a "liar, liar, pants on fire" category that denotes the most egregious offenders. PolitiFact Georgia recently declared a group known as Sovereign Citizens United (SCU) had their "pants-on-fire" given their claim that U.S. Congressmen from Georgia Hank Johnson and John Lewis were both socialists. The media watchdog gave that evaluation of the SCU statement U.S. Reps. Hank Johnson, John Lewis and other members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are socialists who are openly serving in the U.S. Congress. Agreed, making the unfounded accusation that a U.S Congressman is a socialist does cast that member in a negative light, in effect demonizing him (or her) in the eyes of many, but a hero in the eyes of some. And if SCU wasn't telling the truth, their accusation would be a rather insidious, terrible lie. That much is true. Which begs the question... Quid est veritas? The fact-checkers decreed The S-word [Socialist] is overwhelmingly considered a toxic label in American politics. Yet, it is used more frequently these days, most often as a way to demonize liberal politicians. I get it -- it's bad to call someone a socialist if it isn't true. And what irrefutable proof did the fact checkers procure making them confident enough to declare SCU such bold-faced liars with their pants on fire? Well...they did ask … [Read more...]
