From week-to-week (sometimes day-to-day) the employees of this retail giant are bent on moving products and categories from aisle to aisle with little concern for the aggravations this entails for its customers...especially to those who wanted to make a “quick stop” for a necessary item. Quick stops become aggravating layovers. In addition, to those of us with a less robust constitution and even less body fat, the sub-normal ambient temperatures are enough to bring on the shivers. And frequently at this time of year one faces the delight of exiting into an outside world of high-,80’s, low ‘90’s temperatures.
Nevertheless, the store employees remain among the most courteous and knowledgeable one will find anywhere - and that, and that alone, expedites the shopping experience. But it remains an experience best appreciated in the very early or very late hours.
Friday, June 14, 2019
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
...to slice and dice a fetus and sell it for parts
(Obviously, this post was initiated several years ago but life interfered and I’m just going to finish it off - recent events would suggest it remains timely.)
She's back…the incredible tin-eared, brassy, bossy loudmouth from Park Ridge, Illinois…transplanted to Arkansas where she could pass the bar and be elevated to presidential consideration through coitus with Hope's most renowned (and public) Lothario. And she has just claimed the unborn have no constitutional protections. If this is indeed the case, is it legitimate to prosecute a fiend who has, in a physical assault, killed a woman's unborn child? I would think not but these people make up the rules (and change them) as they go along…just read a couple of Ginsberg's decisions.
A couple of centuries back we shed British rule. Among the reasons was to rid ourselves of the English tradition (in the House of Lords) to allow idiot fathers, to be followed by their idiot sons, to be followed by their idiot grandsons, etc. Today, Bushes follow Bushes, Bayhs follow Bayhs, Sununus follow Sununus, Kennedys follow Kennedys, Byrds follow Byrds, Longs follow Longs, Babbitts follow Babbitts, Cuomos follow Cuomos, Gores follow Gores, Browns follow Browns, etc.
It goes on and on but to give you a brief idea that this isn't new, check Wikipedia for "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_political_families_(A)", and go through the alphabet. The numbers for A thru F follow:
A. 89
B. 263
C. 218
D. 120
E. 48
F. 93
But, increasingly, spouses (most often female) are running for, and winning, the offices held by their recently deceased spouses. One needs better references to become a short order cook than to be a member of the Federal and State governing elites. And now we have seen this absurd practice elevated to the highest level.
Of course, there remains an outside chance that more and more will "get the Bern" and defeat the dragon lady. However, it's unnecessary and since six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, Norman Thomas pointed out when he decided to no longer run: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party had adopted our platform."
Demonstrating an even deeper understanding of what was occurring in American politics, he added: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism'. they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation without knowing how it happened."
So Hillary will more than likely be our next President - I doubt that she will serve two terms - her age and temperament mitigate against it. But before she leaves, unborn children, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and Christianity in general will have been thrown under the bus of Liberalism. And, if Boy Trudeau has any influence south of his border, we will also have embraced involuntary euthanasia of the elderly (Hillary will exempt herself and a few of her fellow female "victim" pals).
What Hillary leaves undone will be carried toward fruition by Michelle O - who will serve two terms. The whole plan will be completed under Chelsea as that chubby cheeked little cherub rounds out the ultimate coup: the installation of a female oligarchy, convinced of their victimhood and determined to maintain a "Wise Latina" majority on the Supreme Court.
The only unresolved problem will be the inevitable emergence of a male Islamic electorate which never has and never will accept female leadership…even one that isn't pushy. Unlike their feminized male American counter-parts, the Arab men will reject a "back of the bus" status, will continue to father as many children as they choose, and will most definitely not submit their children to America's pathetic educational system. Their children will learn, as children have learned for millennia, to cherish and embrace the faiths and beliefs of their fathers. And that includes pushing back against those who demand conformity to whatever doctrine is the "special of the day."
Saturday, November 17, 2018
The end of the world, memory, and golfing supremacy
I received a notice recently that unless I once more shared my great thoughts with the world in general and my multitude of faithful readers in particular, I would lose my posting rights. This caused me a degree of distress as I have discovered with advancing age, my great thoughts still arrive, but my ability to retain them for any significant length of time is limited.
Just the other day as I was drifting off to my second of three daily naps, I had a vision of how the universe began and noted it on a pad I keep next to my bed. Unfortunately, I neglected to include any salient details and felt so dreadful, I immediately dozed off again. I mentioned this to an acquaintance who observed: "Nobody wants to know - its no fun. The fun only occurs when the sanctimonious on each side of the issue begin their timeless and repetitive chatter - in actuality, only a handful of very pretentious and boring individuals keep the debate going."
This soothed me for a while until I realized I didn't really give a fig about how the universe began. In fact, I would wager many would agree. On the other hand, a great, great many are concerned about when their own individual universe will end - as it most surely will. Thoughts along these lines make further napping difficult and, interestingly, make them almost impossible to forget.
I could go on but its a little after 10 p.m. now and that means my wife's addiction to Fox news will shortly abate and I will have an opportunity to watch whatever dreck comes on at these late hours. At one time not too long ago I would use these hours to watch the evening replays of the day's professional golf tournaments. American players (like the Brits before them) were the titans of the sport. Unfortunately, again like the Brits, they are being dethroned by upstarts from unexpected parts of the world - mostly from the Asian countries. This is particularly noticeable in women's golf where women from South Korea have become a dominant force.
Sic transit gloria.
Just the other day as I was drifting off to my second of three daily naps, I had a vision of how the universe began and noted it on a pad I keep next to my bed. Unfortunately, I neglected to include any salient details and felt so dreadful, I immediately dozed off again. I mentioned this to an acquaintance who observed: "Nobody wants to know - its no fun. The fun only occurs when the sanctimonious on each side of the issue begin their timeless and repetitive chatter - in actuality, only a handful of very pretentious and boring individuals keep the debate going."
This soothed me for a while until I realized I didn't really give a fig about how the universe began. In fact, I would wager many would agree. On the other hand, a great, great many are concerned about when their own individual universe will end - as it most surely will. Thoughts along these lines make further napping difficult and, interestingly, make them almost impossible to forget.
I could go on but its a little after 10 p.m. now and that means my wife's addiction to Fox news will shortly abate and I will have an opportunity to watch whatever dreck comes on at these late hours. At one time not too long ago I would use these hours to watch the evening replays of the day's professional golf tournaments. American players (like the Brits before them) were the titans of the sport. Unfortunately, again like the Brits, they are being dethroned by upstarts from unexpected parts of the world - mostly from the Asian countries. This is particularly noticeable in women's golf where women from South Korea have become a dominant force.
Sic transit gloria.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Education Today: What awaits an optimistic grandchild?
I recently searched my text files for matieral I had collected on C.S. Lewis' "The Abolition of Man." I found it in "April, 2012." While there I came across a piece I had written reflecting my hopes for my grand-daughter's educational progress as she was abou to enter high school. I post it now since she will return to us next month to finish her final year and then, perhaps, college. I have made two minor modifications, both marked off by brackets.
Has American leadership failed once too often? A 2005 Harris Poll indicates it wasn't that high to begin with. Figures revealed that Americans distrust government by a 57%-22% margin, distrust the political parties by 77%-8%, and distrust Congress by 56%-22%. The ongoing Real Clear Politics website shows congressional distrust leading by a 60%-30% margin. Nevertheless we are being asked to believe that these same groups are on the threshold of solving our energy crisis, our health care crisis, and our financial crisis...within six months.
The press (distrusted by 62%-22%) paints a picture of a handful of legislative Neanderthals attempting to cripple legislation which, if passed, would usher in a new era of prosperity, unprecedented good health, and permanent energy security. Unfortunately, I look to history for guidance and it indicates that the wag who suggested that the last "big-scale" government triumph was World War II (a military venture) is correct. All the other biggies (all social ventures) from Social Security to Medicare/Medicaid, the FDIC, Amtrak, the post office, and prescription drug legislation, are notable for two characteristics: first, each has gone broke or is in the process of doing so and, two, those politicians who supported their passage were easily re-elected.
I'm confident our current federal representatives, like their predecessors, will successfully bungle them all. I would hope, though, that Education, being a state and local issue, we might fare better as local representative must face their neighbors regularly and can't hide behind a phone-in Town Hall meeting.
Historically, Tennessee education has been a key issue for a whole string of governors. It has been suggested that Governor [now Senator] Alexander was appointed Secretary of Education largely on the "success" of his Better Schools Program; Governor McWherter was widely lauded for the Tennessee Education Improvement Act and the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS).
A year ago Governor Bredesen came forward with the Tennessee Diploma Project (TDP), a program "designed to challenge students and better prepare them for college and the workforce." Then former Senator Frist introduced SCORE, the "State Collaborative on Reforming Education...[which] will focus on jumpstarting reforms that will help Tennessee schools, teachers, and students meet this bar."
Despite the fulsome praise given these programs, educational achievement levels remain discouragingly unimpressive. They're certainly at a level that leaves our graduates at a significant disadvantage when competing against the best this country and others will produce.
While we might hope that new thinking will lead to new approaches, an overview of the current batch indicate they all contain elements first put forward in the 1983 landmark study "A Nation at Risk." That report put forward 38 solid recommendations - none were adopted. Twenty-five years later many are being reconsidered, although in modified form.
To date almost every major study, blue ribbon report, or idle thought has been put forward by members of either the education or political establishments. Not surprisingly, many of the notables from the political sphere continue to shield their children from the public education system. Interestingly, their private-school educated offspring often follow them into political office (e.g, the Kennedys, Bushes, Dodds, Bayhs, Byrds, Udalls, Romneys, Gores, Sununus).
It would appear our leaders are certain as to what they wish their children to be exposed to educationally. By extension, we must assume our public schools do not provide it - although much in the various curricula would not exist without an approval by them or their staff. Am I upset about this situation? You bet...and with adequate reason.
No less an individual than Bill Gates, whose foundation has poured over $2 billion into the public education system has said "It surprises me that more parents are not upset about the education their own kids are receiving....Many of the small schools that we invested in did not improve students’ achievement in any significant way....These tended to be the schools that did not take radical steps...We had less success trying to change an existing school than helping to create a new school."
In the spirit of Gates, then, I speak as an adult with a grand-daughter in the system, Here's what a high school graduate wishes for her:
First, I want her to learn that her real education begins after she's finished with school. Ideally, she will learn how to learn - how to gauge a problem, develop a solution, and attempt to implement it. And, of greater importance, proceed to another solution if the first fails.
This leads naturally to the second, which is to learn that failure is an essential part of growth; in fact, it's an every day event that must be dealt with. I expect her to get D's and F's if that's what she deserves; praise ought to be used sparingly and for unusually high performance.
I want her to discover that learning through reading is greater than that achieved by watching and listening. Reading is an "active" pursuit, one that fully engages the mind. Watching videos or listening to recordings are passive and far less effective since it's easy to get distracted and miss the message. Lectures, regardless of the skill of the presenter, can be very effective only with superior note-taking - an art form that must also be learned.
I want her to learn that there is greater satisfaction in accomplishing a minor skill than in daydreaming of performing impractical ones; that knitting an Afghan is a towering achievement that makes creating a spreadsheet appear a pedestrian endeavor. That building a tree house is a monument that mocks the transience of a Power Point presentation.
I want her to learn that no virtue is more highly prized than trustworthiness. We are where we are because we were betrayed by governmental and business interests in whom we had placed an inordinate amount of trust. If we had only heeded the answers provided to the Harris poll we might have avoided some of this. Unfortunately, despite our better instincts, we want to believe in our major institutions; they are, after all, the ones that "have made us great."
Yet even the most cursory study of our history would reveal that we have been proven fools time and time again. Leave it to a Russian, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, once imprisoned for speaking out to give appropriate advice regarding politicians: "Don't believe them, don't fear them, don't ask anything of them." But governments and businesses can come back with different names and faces and, once again, ask for and receive our trust. With an individual, though, once trust is lost, it's usually lost forever.
For that reason I also want her to learn that guilt can be a healthy emotion. There's nothing pathological in a conscience telling the individual that she knowingly acted inappropriately and that, if possible, apologies must be given and amends made. This is especially important in this time when cheating has become so big and so prevalent, that success is gauged by the what degree to which it is limited; no one seriously believes it can be stamped out. The reason it can't be eliminated borders on the obscene - no guilt is attached to indulging in it.
Some studies find that as many as 80% of high-achieving high schoolers and 75% of college students admit to cheating. More telling is why they cheat. As they move from grade to grade they gradually discover that despite previous high marks, they are ill-prepared for the bigger challenges. So, many feel it's necessary to cheat and do so - with no remorse (and why not, they might argue, the system has "cheated" them by awarding promotion despite substandard work).
Their comeuppance occurs in the commercial world where cheating and substandard work are grounds for dismissal. This point shouldn't be interpreted as a blanket indictment of the teaching profession. In a report issued by Arthur Levine, a well regarded writer on education, he comments that "Teacher education is the Dodge City of the education world,...There is no standard approach to where and how teachers should be prepared...A majority of teacher education alumni [61 percent] reported that schools of education did not prepare graduates well to cope with the realities of today's classrooms..."
I want her to be required to state her views, with substantiating documentation, on a variety of issues appropriate to her age level. And I want those views challenged if they merit challenge, and support if they merit support. But, under no circumstances, should her right to state them be prohibited.
I want her to learn that each learning discipline has its own rules and procedures. For instance, natural science is one thing, and political science quite another. Politics operates on consensus: 50% plus one will generally carry the day. Victors frequently claim (speciously) that they were on the "right" side. Science is based on evidence gained through experimentation which is falsifiable - that is, the experiment can be repeated over and over by other scientists in other locales with identical results. Even then it isn't proven or "right." As Einstein observed: "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong." (As a matter of interest, neither Darwinism nor Creationism are falsifiable…both persist on faith.)
I want her to learn perspective by studying the order in which things are prioritized. She can do this by being taught how to observe what her friends and acquaintances believe is important; what her parents, teachers, ministers, and other elders believe. If, for instance, she sees that over half of the teaching staff, and learns that more than half of the school budget is expended on non-core pursuits, then perhaps the publicly proclaimed core is not the real core.
I want her, through an examination of history, to appreciate that she lives in very unusual times. For thousands of years humans, regardless of their country, lived hand-to-mouth existences. Abundance was a rarity, thrift was a necessity, and old age was fifty. Children then, as now, were regarded as precious - except that "then" their value was measured by the amount and quality of the labor they could provide.
Each was expected to contribute more than they consumed (profit); failing that (loss), their hours were extended or their food portions cut. For about four generations, though, we have experienced an explosion of wealth; even the poorest among Americans today live much better than 99% the people who populated this country in 1909. As a result of this abundance, in many households children are treated as perfect little beings of high value, extreme fragility, and modest expectations. When does this obsessive sheltering end? According to some Human Resource departments, it has reached the point where parents are calling the employers of their adult children demanding that they be treated with more respect. Apparently it was a successful tactic during their school years.
Once she grasps the importance of history and where we stand in relation to prior events of similar magnitude and duration, I want her to ask the obvious question: Can these boom years continue unabated? If the answer isn't a clear "yes" and there's no [biblical] Joseph stocking the silos with surplus, then it's time to learn to live with less, maybe much less. If things do become so economically severe that the toys and/or activities she uses to amuse herself become unavailable or too expensive, she will have to rely on imagination and creativity - a life of the mind - to create a fulfilling and meaningful existence.
This can be accomplished cheaply through reading and contemplation. However, if we she's unaccustomed to challenging her intellectual faculties, she's in for some hard times. In "The Rhythm of Life" Matthew Kelly writes, "In the silence, we see at one time the person we are and the person we are capable of becoming... It is precisely for this reason that we fill our lives with noise, to distract ourselves from the challenge to change." If anyone doubts this I ask them to consider the recent riot at our local jail was triggered by the removal of radios from prisoners' cells.
I want her to realize that what "is" is not necessarily what "ought" to be. And that if "what is" can be changed for the better then change ought to be pursued; if it can't then it must be recognized and endured. But to attempt change for change's sake is an empty and, perhaps, dangerous gesture. Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas usually have bad consequences. However, one must be solidly grounded by a stringent moral code before presuming to tell others that they are in error - which is why the Platonic ideal is to see things as they are and to simply accept them.
One current "bad" idea is the contention that positive change naturally follows additional education. While this may be applicable to some, a recent study of employers' hiring practices revealed that "...two-thirds reported rejecting applicants because of a lack of 'basic employability skills,' such as reliable attendance and punctuality." All the schooling in the world will not improve the employability of an individual who, when given the choice, chooses the deer stand over the job site.
There are just a few more specific things I would like her to have learned by the time her schooling is completed. I'll limit my reading list to two. The first would be a short piece of commentary written in 1914 by Elbert Hubbard called "Message to Garcia." It should be read once a year - by just about everybody. The second is a short Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken."
In the field of general education I believe there are some concepts and individuals which/who receive little or no attention, but which/who can be enlightening. Among them are: the Stockdale Paradox, the Law of Diminishing Returns, the Lorenz Attractor, the Pythagorean Theorem, Pascal's Wager, Moral Hazard, the Invisible Hand, Maslow's Theory Z, Occam's Razor, Kant's Categorical Imperative, the Code of Hammurabi, Wagner's Law, the Rule of Three, and, finally, the Trivium and Quadrivium. Individuals worth knowing include Wat Tyler, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Rose Wilder Lane, Daniel Shays, Horatio Bunce, G.K. Chesterton, Jonas Salk, Emily Dickinson, Eric Hoffer, Richard Feynman, John Taylor Gatto, and Albert Jay Nock.
Finally, there is an area of education I don't want her exposed to without prior consultation. It is in the realm of contemporary values. If the mandarins of education and their legislative princes feel the Christian values we try to instill in her should not be taught, I can accept that. However, should the administration decide to promote a set of values contrary to those already prohibited, we are going to have major problems.
Let's not be genteel about this. Our children are in the public education system because the law demands it. The law further demands we pay for it through our property taxes. However, we are not entirely powerless and will demand (vehemently if necessary) that her "captivity" not include an indoctrination that includes alien concepts and theories. If any one set of values is deemed repugnant and prohibited, then all sets of values must be prohibited. To do otherwise, amounts to a tacit endorsement of those values no matter how benign the stated intention.
We are asked to trust that our children are receiving the best the state has to offer and that recent results indicate improved performance. However, history reveals that past promises of a similar nature have fallen short. Additionally, the Cato Institute reports that in some states authorities have been known for "...setting standards as low as they can, defining proficiency as loosely as possible, and administering easy tests, thereby avoiding the law's penalties to the greatest extent possible while still claiming success."
I don't know how high Tennessee has set the bar but if it's too low, the impact will still be felt 50 years from now. Can we really afford to tinker with a mediocre system hoping for marginal improvements? Or is it time to make radical changes, concentrating on the core, eliminating much of the extracurricular fluff, and make schoolwork hard work? I vote for the road less taken.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Dump Congress…let Hannity, Matthews, Madow, and O'Reilly look for productive work
It's likely that most have heard of the Ten Commandments; it's unlikely that most have heard of the Ten Thousand Commandments. The former, at one time, were used a guideposts to living a "moral" life. (I place quote marks around moral since morality, like so many quaint customs, is no longer seen as relevant to modernity). The latter is the title of a report issued every year and which tracks Congressional action (sic) and compares it to the issuance of "rules and regs" by a host of federal agencies.
For the most recent year Congress managed to enact 72 pieces of legislation. Federal agencies, lead by the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency slipped through 3,659 new rules. Total annual agency "rules and reg" cost to taxpayers: $1,863 trillion - to give that number some perspective, individual income taxes for the same period totaled $1.234 trillion.
(As an interesting aside, I checked through the different agencies and their rule making activity - right there at the bottom was the "Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board" with one (1) reg enacted.)
In addition to the enacted rules and regs, there are an additional 2,500 "proposed" regs awaiting a final go-ahead. There are also over 24,000 "public notices" regarding many of our daily concerns. Among these are issues of health care, education, energy production, finance, land and resource management, etc. It is imperative to understand that all these issues, as well as those under agency rules and regs, are written and implemented by groups of nameless, faceless, and unelected individuals - many of whom have agendas of their own, many others who are otherwise unemployable relatives of known vote-gernerators.
These duties were originally deemed responsibilities of the Congress - yet Congress has a chosen to cede its legislative authority to these agencies (There is little use in appealing to the Constitutional relevance anymore, as it is being re-intepreted under a "living document" penumbra. As a result, it can mean one thing to a "wise Latina", and something quite different to an Irish dipsomaniac, or an Albanian dwarf, or a left-handed pole vaulter.)
Nevertheless, it is very apparent that, measured by productivity, our Congress is home to a bunch of shameless underachievers. However, that legislation which they do manage to enact is so horrendously written, so lengthy, and so sweeping, that no member that I am aware of ever read (or understood) the complete text of the Homeland Security Act or the Affordable Care Act. Complete texts of each bill (both of which ran to thousands of pages) were available to our congress people only hours before they voted and passed them.
(There are groups actively seeking to make it mandatory to provide ample time for all bills be read before being voted upon. Apparently, it's considered impractical.)
A final observation: members of the legal profession dominate in both houses, yet it's impossible to find a lawyer who won't insist that you MUST carefully read any legal document BEFORE signing it. Yet these clowns merrily ignore their own cautions and saddle us with legalisms that, to this day, remain undisclosed.
Congress ought to be disbanded. Members of both houses have shown their loyalty is to the party leadership, and not to their constituencies. They leave the really repulsive rule making and regulation writing to legions of non-descript paper-shufflers, thereby immunizing themselves from charges of bad government.
Congress doesn't work because its members don't. 535 additions to the unemployment roles will go all but unnoticed, except by the madmen and women who populate the networks and make public discourse so ugly and incomprehensible.
For the most recent year Congress managed to enact 72 pieces of legislation. Federal agencies, lead by the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency slipped through 3,659 new rules. Total annual agency "rules and reg" cost to taxpayers: $1,863 trillion - to give that number some perspective, individual income taxes for the same period totaled $1.234 trillion.
(As an interesting aside, I checked through the different agencies and their rule making activity - right there at the bottom was the "Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board" with one (1) reg enacted.)
In addition to the enacted rules and regs, there are an additional 2,500 "proposed" regs awaiting a final go-ahead. There are also over 24,000 "public notices" regarding many of our daily concerns. Among these are issues of health care, education, energy production, finance, land and resource management, etc. It is imperative to understand that all these issues, as well as those under agency rules and regs, are written and implemented by groups of nameless, faceless, and unelected individuals - many of whom have agendas of their own, many others who are otherwise unemployable relatives of known vote-gernerators.
These duties were originally deemed responsibilities of the Congress - yet Congress has a chosen to cede its legislative authority to these agencies (There is little use in appealing to the Constitutional relevance anymore, as it is being re-intepreted under a "living document" penumbra. As a result, it can mean one thing to a "wise Latina", and something quite different to an Irish dipsomaniac, or an Albanian dwarf, or a left-handed pole vaulter.)
Nevertheless, it is very apparent that, measured by productivity, our Congress is home to a bunch of shameless underachievers. However, that legislation which they do manage to enact is so horrendously written, so lengthy, and so sweeping, that no member that I am aware of ever read (or understood) the complete text of the Homeland Security Act or the Affordable Care Act. Complete texts of each bill (both of which ran to thousands of pages) were available to our congress people only hours before they voted and passed them.
(There are groups actively seeking to make it mandatory to provide ample time for all bills be read before being voted upon. Apparently, it's considered impractical.)
A final observation: members of the legal profession dominate in both houses, yet it's impossible to find a lawyer who won't insist that you MUST carefully read any legal document BEFORE signing it. Yet these clowns merrily ignore their own cautions and saddle us with legalisms that, to this day, remain undisclosed.
Congress ought to be disbanded. Members of both houses have shown their loyalty is to the party leadership, and not to their constituencies. They leave the really repulsive rule making and regulation writing to legions of non-descript paper-shufflers, thereby immunizing themselves from charges of bad government.
Congress doesn't work because its members don't. 535 additions to the unemployment roles will go all but unnoticed, except by the madmen and women who populate the networks and make public discourse so ugly and incomprehensible.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Barry and Kerry ignore history
There seems to be a remarkable degree of complacency over the recently negotiated "agreement" with the Iranians over their nuclear capability (or lack of it). Barry posits that "…I'm keeping all options on the table but if I can do it diplomatically, that's how we should do it. And…that, for sure, is the preference of the American people."
Speaking as one of those "American people," baloney.
My opposition isn't based on the current Iranian regime or its leadership. Rather, the history of negotiated settlements with Muslim leaders, especially when they've been the weaker party, has been one of total failure. These failures can be attributed to "taqiyya", a negotiating stance taken by Muslims which allows them to lie to "infidels" to protect themselves.
Allied with taqiyya principle is that of kitman, a tactic which allows Muslim negotiators to engage in un-Muslim behavior as a ruse to fool the infidels. This may involve the consumption of alcohol or the eating of pork - one who so indulges, comforts himself that he remains "mentally" committed to the tenets of his beliefs which, because it is done in the spirit of advancing Islam, absolves him of the transgression.
As Abu Bakr, himself a military leader, put it: "If I take an oath to do something and later on I find something else better than the first one, then I do what is better and make expiation for my oath." (Bukhari 78:618)
Nor do these mental and moral gymnastics end there. The most prominent tactic is that of the hudna or "treaty of convenience." It originated with Muhammed himself when he negotiated a 10-year treaty with Mecca (the Treaty of Hudaibiya). Within two years, Muslim forces broke the treaty and overran Mecca. They claimed that the attack was legitimate as an ally of Mecca attacked an ally of theirs. However, once the treaty had been established, the caravans once again began moving in great numbers… Muslim forces "waylaid every caravan from Mecca (for since the truce, traffic with Syria had again sprung up) and spared the life of no one.”
The precedent was set and duplicity in negotiations has become part and parcel of Islamic treaty making and breaking. (Doesn't anyone ever notice the frequent Mid-East "cease fires" that occur - only to be followed up some time later by "surprise" attacks by Islamic forces or rockets? Cease fires are nothing more than periods of re-armament and propagandizing.
Muslim scholar, Bassam Tibi explains: "In this sense Muslims believe that expansion through war is not aggression but a fulfillment of the Koranic command to spread Islam as a way to peace. The resort to force to disseminate Islam is not war (harb), a word that is used only to describe the use of force by non-Muslims."
A further refinement of taqiyya is the "we were attacked" justification. As many things Muslim, an attack can come in a variety of guises. Cartoons featuring Muhammed, the banning of the burqah, or supporting Israel are just a few of the actions that have prompted retaliation.
As Bat Ye'or notes in her must-read "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis", it was almost fifty years ago that French scholar Charles-Emmanuel Defourcq "explained that according to the juridicial concept of jihad, war was the normal state of relations between Muslims and Christians. All…treaties between them were called 'truce treaties.' (6th edition, pg. 33)"
Under these conditions there has not, is not, and will not be a lasting peace with Islam. Those who indulge in the effort are wasting their time and affording the opposition an opportunity to improve their position - until such a time when they once again feel they have an upper hand, and hostilities WILL break out.
And I believe we've had enough of this "religion of peace" baloney (or globaloney) that's swept the world (or at least the political and journalistic portions). Following is a partial listing of Islamic peace initiative in JUST the middle portion of the 8th century:
635: Battle of Bridge, Battle of Buwaib, Conquest of Damascus, Battle of Fahl.
636: Battle of Yarmuk, Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, Conquest of Madain.
637: Conquest of Syria, Conquest of Jerusalem, Battle of Jalula.
638: Conquest of Jazirah.
639: Conquest of Khuzistan. Advance into Egypt. Plague of Emmaus.
640: Battle of Babylon in Egypt.
641: Battle of Nihawand; Conquest of Alexandria in Egypt.
642: Conquest of Egypt.
643: Conquest of Azarbaijan and Tabaristan (Mazandaran).
644: Conquest of Fars, Kerman, Sistan, Mekran and Kharan. Assassination of Umar. Uthman ibn Affan becomes the caliph.
646: Campaigns in Khurasan, Armenia and Asia Minor.
647: Campaigns in North Africa. Conquest of the island of Cyprus.
648: Campaigns against the Byzantines.
659: Conquest of Egypt by Muawiyah I.
660: Ali recaptures Hijaz and Yemen from Muawiyah. Muawiyah I declares himself as the caliph at Damascus.
670: Advance in North Africa. Uqba bin Nafe founds the town of Kairouan in Tunisia.[4] Conquest of Kabul.
672: Capture of the island of Rhodes. Campaigns in Khurasan.
674: The Muslims cross the Oxus. Bukhara becomes a vassal state.
711: Conquest of Spain by Tariq ibn Ziyad and of Transoxiana by Qutayba ibn Muslim.
712: Conquest of Sindh by Muhammad ibn Qasim
717: Beginning of the Second Arab siege of Constantinople. Death of Sulayman. Umar II becomes Umayyad Caliph. Pact of Umar.
718: End of the Second Arab siege of Constantinople.
721: First Turgesh invasion into Transoxiana
725: The Muslims occupy Nîmes in France.
732: The Battle of Tours in France.
742: The Muslim rule restored in Qairawan.
746: Battle of Rupar Thutha, Kufa and Mosul occupied by Marwan II.
751: In the Battle of Talas, the Abbasid armies defeat Tang Dynasty of China.
759: Abbasid conquest of Tabaristan.
Check out each of the following centuries and discover for yourself just how peaceful Muhammed's descendants have been.
Barry and Kerry (the former in trouble, the latter out of his depth) needed some "good news" and a pause to catch their collective breath. The good news just isn't that good (especially as there is Democrat grumbling over the agreement) and although a pause is much more enjoyable in Hawaii, the rest of the world (unlike our Congress) doesn't just doze off while Barry putts around the islands.
Speaking as one of those "American people," baloney.
My opposition isn't based on the current Iranian regime or its leadership. Rather, the history of negotiated settlements with Muslim leaders, especially when they've been the weaker party, has been one of total failure. These failures can be attributed to "taqiyya", a negotiating stance taken by Muslims which allows them to lie to "infidels" to protect themselves.
Allied with taqiyya principle is that of kitman, a tactic which allows Muslim negotiators to engage in un-Muslim behavior as a ruse to fool the infidels. This may involve the consumption of alcohol or the eating of pork - one who so indulges, comforts himself that he remains "mentally" committed to the tenets of his beliefs which, because it is done in the spirit of advancing Islam, absolves him of the transgression.
As Abu Bakr, himself a military leader, put it: "If I take an oath to do something and later on I find something else better than the first one, then I do what is better and make expiation for my oath." (Bukhari 78:618)
Nor do these mental and moral gymnastics end there. The most prominent tactic is that of the hudna or "treaty of convenience." It originated with Muhammed himself when he negotiated a 10-year treaty with Mecca (the Treaty of Hudaibiya). Within two years, Muslim forces broke the treaty and overran Mecca. They claimed that the attack was legitimate as an ally of Mecca attacked an ally of theirs. However, once the treaty had been established, the caravans once again began moving in great numbers… Muslim forces "waylaid every caravan from Mecca (for since the truce, traffic with Syria had again sprung up) and spared the life of no one.”
The precedent was set and duplicity in negotiations has become part and parcel of Islamic treaty making and breaking. (Doesn't anyone ever notice the frequent Mid-East "cease fires" that occur - only to be followed up some time later by "surprise" attacks by Islamic forces or rockets? Cease fires are nothing more than periods of re-armament and propagandizing.
Muslim scholar, Bassam Tibi explains: "In this sense Muslims believe that expansion through war is not aggression but a fulfillment of the Koranic command to spread Islam as a way to peace. The resort to force to disseminate Islam is not war (harb), a word that is used only to describe the use of force by non-Muslims."
A further refinement of taqiyya is the "we were attacked" justification. As many things Muslim, an attack can come in a variety of guises. Cartoons featuring Muhammed, the banning of the burqah, or supporting Israel are just a few of the actions that have prompted retaliation.
As Bat Ye'or notes in her must-read "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis", it was almost fifty years ago that French scholar Charles-Emmanuel Defourcq "explained that according to the juridicial concept of jihad, war was the normal state of relations between Muslims and Christians. All…treaties between them were called 'truce treaties.' (6th edition, pg. 33)"
Under these conditions there has not, is not, and will not be a lasting peace with Islam. Those who indulge in the effort are wasting their time and affording the opposition an opportunity to improve their position - until such a time when they once again feel they have an upper hand, and hostilities WILL break out.
And I believe we've had enough of this "religion of peace" baloney (or globaloney) that's swept the world (or at least the political and journalistic portions). Following is a partial listing of Islamic peace initiative in JUST the middle portion of the 8th century:
635: Battle of Bridge, Battle of Buwaib, Conquest of Damascus, Battle of Fahl.
636: Battle of Yarmuk, Battle of al-Qādisiyyah, Conquest of Madain.
637: Conquest of Syria, Conquest of Jerusalem, Battle of Jalula.
638: Conquest of Jazirah.
639: Conquest of Khuzistan. Advance into Egypt. Plague of Emmaus.
640: Battle of Babylon in Egypt.
641: Battle of Nihawand; Conquest of Alexandria in Egypt.
642: Conquest of Egypt.
643: Conquest of Azarbaijan and Tabaristan (Mazandaran).
644: Conquest of Fars, Kerman, Sistan, Mekran and Kharan. Assassination of Umar. Uthman ibn Affan becomes the caliph.
646: Campaigns in Khurasan, Armenia and Asia Minor.
647: Campaigns in North Africa. Conquest of the island of Cyprus.
648: Campaigns against the Byzantines.
659: Conquest of Egypt by Muawiyah I.
660: Ali recaptures Hijaz and Yemen from Muawiyah. Muawiyah I declares himself as the caliph at Damascus.
670: Advance in North Africa. Uqba bin Nafe founds the town of Kairouan in Tunisia.[4] Conquest of Kabul.
672: Capture of the island of Rhodes. Campaigns in Khurasan.
674: The Muslims cross the Oxus. Bukhara becomes a vassal state.
711: Conquest of Spain by Tariq ibn Ziyad and of Transoxiana by Qutayba ibn Muslim.
712: Conquest of Sindh by Muhammad ibn Qasim
717: Beginning of the Second Arab siege of Constantinople. Death of Sulayman. Umar II becomes Umayyad Caliph. Pact of Umar.
718: End of the Second Arab siege of Constantinople.
721: First Turgesh invasion into Transoxiana
725: The Muslims occupy Nîmes in France.
732: The Battle of Tours in France.
742: The Muslim rule restored in Qairawan.
746: Battle of Rupar Thutha, Kufa and Mosul occupied by Marwan II.
751: In the Battle of Talas, the Abbasid armies defeat Tang Dynasty of China.
759: Abbasid conquest of Tabaristan.
Check out each of the following centuries and discover for yourself just how peaceful Muhammed's descendants have been.
Barry and Kerry (the former in trouble, the latter out of his depth) needed some "good news" and a pause to catch their collective breath. The good news just isn't that good (especially as there is Democrat grumbling over the agreement) and although a pause is much more enjoyable in Hawaii, the rest of the world (unlike our Congress) doesn't just doze off while Barry putts around the islands.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Make way for single pay - Pt. 2
On October 23 I suggested that Obamacare was a ruse to lead us to Fearless Leader's ultimate dream: Single Payer Medical Coverage. The Daily Beast chimes in:
"Could anger at the Obamacare rollout make Americans more receptive to a kind of Medicare-for-all system? That's what activists are hoping – and they're plotting a state-by-state fight. As the rollout of Obamacare clunks forward, activists who opposed the law from the beginning say it is time to seize the moment, to tear down the current healthcare edifice and start anew, especially now as frustration with the law's implementation is reaching a peak.
"On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the American Health Security Act, which would require each state to set up a single-payer healthcare system and would undo the exchanges that have plagued Obamacare. Meanwhile, various state-led efforts are under way that advocates hope will sweep the country statehouse by statehouse, as soon as lawmakers see the advantage of a single-payer system."
The article goes on to suggest that the possibility "is gradually becoming more mainstream among the Democratic establishment…"
Meanwhile, as more and more individuals discover what their actual cost will be, and as more and more Millennials refuse to buy in, Barry's soon to be off on a 17-day vacation in Hawaii…the First Family reimburses the government for what the airfare would cost - you pay for the rest.
Last year (2012) similar trips and other expenses charged to the tax-payer by the Obamas logged in at $1.4 BILLION.
For a guy who doesn't know what the hell his subordinates are doing, he does know how to live and spend lavishly.
"Could anger at the Obamacare rollout make Americans more receptive to a kind of Medicare-for-all system? That's what activists are hoping – and they're plotting a state-by-state fight. As the rollout of Obamacare clunks forward, activists who opposed the law from the beginning say it is time to seize the moment, to tear down the current healthcare edifice and start anew, especially now as frustration with the law's implementation is reaching a peak.
"On Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the American Health Security Act, which would require each state to set up a single-payer healthcare system and would undo the exchanges that have plagued Obamacare. Meanwhile, various state-led efforts are under way that advocates hope will sweep the country statehouse by statehouse, as soon as lawmakers see the advantage of a single-payer system."
The article goes on to suggest that the possibility "is gradually becoming more mainstream among the Democratic establishment…"
Meanwhile, as more and more individuals discover what their actual cost will be, and as more and more Millennials refuse to buy in, Barry's soon to be off on a 17-day vacation in Hawaii…the First Family reimburses the government for what the airfare would cost - you pay for the rest.
Last year (2012) similar trips and other expenses charged to the tax-payer by the Obamas logged in at $1.4 BILLION.
For a guy who doesn't know what the hell his subordinates are doing, he does know how to live and spend lavishly.
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