A diversity officer's schedule

I always say, "Diversity?!  Why aren't we talking about UNITY in this nation?"
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In fact, Michael Savage has said, "Diversity is perversity," demonstrating his strong taste for it as propaganda, res ipsa loquitur.  One could say the same for "Wellness" (although I could stand to lose a few pounds).  Bringing us to the first thing I read in boxers and t-shirt this morning:  The newest edict from the U.S. Department of State is the use of terms like "hold down the fort" or "rule of thumb" may be considered racist or sexist, so strike them from your communications.  Great job.

It is so frakking Orwellian that there even need be a tax-funded, full-time diversity officer - in any government agency.  The employees are so undereducated that they require someone to manage it for them full-time?  What a sham. Unfortunately, the Canadians and Brits among many, many others have adopted this rueful trend toward self-destruction and adapted it for their needs - beyond all recognition. The Bible can be considered hate speech in Canada, an arrestable offense. In Britain, for example, If a child complains, "I'm fat," parents are told to discuss body diversity and how their ideals may lack diversity. If you're a foster parent and not down with the homoghey, kiss your kids (and your @$$) goodbye.

So is this what the D.O. schedule at the State Dept. looks like?

8 A.M. - Morning meeting. "O.k. everyone, go do a lot of diverse stuff out there!"
9 A.M. - 11 A.M. - Think about diversity for a few hours, Google diversity and copy/paste some hyperlinks onto a word document, print it out for your staff to research and gravely tell them you are "very concerned"
11 A.M. - 2 P.M. - Take the metro somewhere fancy to have lunch and be seen looking smug and prim in your $1,100 taxpayer funded suit with your "diverse" friends, likely to all be of your own race
3 P.M. - 3:05 P.M. - Decide that 'Hold down the fort' and other common phrases are offensive, spam the entire workforce with your ill-conceived nonsense
3:05 P.M. - 4 P.M. - Update the CEO on your morning's ponderings, put yourself in for an award, and call it a day

- Don't forget to check the nanny state breaking news link on the right hand side of this site. ~Ed.

Flotsam and jetsam

Just a few notes.  Drove myself to the doctor this a.m., made the mistake of tuning into NPR.  Today's topic?  Standard NPR white people talking about [white] racism in the U.S..  Some overzealous neighborhood watch chairman shot a black person, which is no doubt a tragedy - had heard mention made very briefly in the news last week. Allegedly, this was racism, or at least NPR's roundtable wished to perpetuate that.  What a great way to start the day:  Let's start the day with some "progressive" white guilt and keep beating that drum of disunity and disharmony.

For added good measure, the fart-snifting liberal femme summed up her feelings stating,
"Blah blah racist blah racist blah blah SEXIST TOO." 
...Progressives.

---

The new desk working name is "The Desk of High-Minded Indignation."

---

Have lived in the same home for a number of years and in the midst of my average subtopian life, have watched kids sprout up quickly. (Do I change as well?)?  The kid two doors down apparently started JROTC and was explaining this to his friends while on the way home from school.  LT Poopers and I passed and complimented him on his uniform.  That has to feel good for him, and I've done my good deed for the day.  I've also done my small part to keep Communism and Islamo-fascism on uneasy footing.

---

As I learn more of

• Economies, 
• Economic liberalization and the
• Non-Aligned Movement, of
• Critiques and praise for international financial institutions
• and Agreements, 
• People protesting WTO (and not knowing why), 
• China booming and U.S. bailing,
• Cities like Detroit failing due to mismanagement and ... liberalism,  
• Public[?!] vs. private unions (go, Gov. Christie!)
• Unfirable federal and state bureaucrats
• the Difficulty of creating business
• the Overabundance of regulation (in the waiting room, I watched a newsman on the boob tube apply for a permit to sell lemonade in NY)  Check out REGULATION NATION, here: (LINK)
• the Mediocrity of the wealthy Republican candidate with nice hair and a big bankroll

I feel like I'm achieving a slow epiphany that things might get worse before they get better here.

QOTD

"Someone was arrested over the weekend for trying to blow up the US Capitol, they happened to be from Morocco," Gingrich said, referring to the FBI arrest of Amine El Khalifi Friday while he was allegedly en route to commit a suicide bombing. "Under the Obama administration's willful dishonesty, it would be highly inappropriate to describe what motivated him, because that would somehow be politically incorrect."

          (LINK)

QOTD

"Liberals by definition would make terrible home schoolers. Assuming their children avoided being aborted they would then be denied the indoctrination and spoon feeding of of rote liberal pablum and nonsense that you can only get in a liberal big government education factory. On the off chance a liberal does home school they will invariably fill their kids head with so many ideas designed to make them reliant on others they will produce a social cripple and tomorrows entitlement pariah without ever letting them meet their like-minded future "Occupy whatever" members. Who will then lead them around by the nose? How will they learn their PC catechism? Leave home schooling to conservatives so they can produce a generation of rugged individuals able to survive after liberalism and socialism create their inevitable bankrupt dysptopia. At least those kids will be able to traverse the smoking ruins of society and restart it using whatever leftover starving liberal drones they can assemble."  

~ 'Deanayer' on why you never hear about liberals home-schooling. 

Article: "Failing culture puts women in combat"

Author Maginnis lays it on the line by speaking up against the inverted totalitarianism of political correctness.  What interests me about the new dogma of women serving in combat roles are the human factors:  mens' natural inclination is to protect women, and women can be a distraction, which never gets reported anywhere.  In a generation or three, we will continue to sandblast common sense until it's erased from memory.

Received via the Center for Military Readiness, excerpted below.

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum is right about one of the reasons women should not serve in combat, but such commonsense may come too late to keep our daughters from being forced into battle.
Last week Mr. Santorum said women should not serve in combat because men might be distracted from their mission by their “natural instinct” to protect women. He referred to camaraderie of men in combat and said the presence of women was “not in the best interest of men, women or the mission.”
His comments were prompted by the Pentagon’s announcement changing its ground combat exclusion policy to assign women to front line support jobs, like medics and radio operators. This is the latest in a multi-decade campaign of incremental changes that could compel the Supreme Court to require women to be included in a future draft.
We got to this point because feminists insisted, our leaders caved and our culture became so indifferent to violence against women that three-fourths now support the idea of women in direct combat.

           ~Robert Maginnis, writing for Human Events (online)
             (LINK)

Rand Paul, the next Rosa Parks?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/rand-paul-in-pat-down-standoff-with-tsa-in-nashville/

Sen. Rand Paul, known for espousing libertarian values like his father, presidential candidate Ron Paul, was detained by TSA at the Nashville, Tennessee Airport today after a sensor presumably alerted on his leg.  When ordered to prepare for a pat-down, Paul refused and requested to return through the machine, to the ire of dronelike TSA security enforcers who called police.  When Paul asked to use his cell phone to call his lawyer,  he was told that he would be forced to endure a pat-down.  The entire debacle lasted over two hours, caused Paul to miss his flight and a speech before 200,000 U.S. citizens.  TSA and its leader, the failed Arizona governor Napolitano do not apply prudence when enforcing inspections, instead opting to make the process as difficult as possible and focusing their attention on scrutinizing the elderly, minors under ten years of age, and Medal of Honor recipients.

   

   Legal note: Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution provides general immunity for congressmen from being detained. A Republican, Sen. Paul did not show his credentials or demand special treatment given his political position, but stood his ground until he could be released. 

Screed: "Where have all the fighter pilots gone?"

I got this from a friend of mine! Thought it good enough to pass on................
Beginning with McNamara the powers that be decided to run the Air Force like an 8 to 5 business. Warrior leaders of General LeMay's stature were no longer to be found. The fundamental job of the military, "kill people and break their things", became seriously hampered by "rules of engagement" whose guiding logic is political, not successful combat. I agree with the author. If and when the US military is defeated, it will be running the best Day Care centers in the world. GCB.
We used to go to the Officers Club or NCO Club Stag Bar on Friday afternoons to drink, smoke and swap lies with our comrades. Think about this when you read the rest of the letter below:
What happened to our Air Force/Marines/Army/Navy............. (or Military)?

Drinking then became frowned on. Smoking caused cancer and could "harm you." Stag bars became seen as 'sexist'. Gradually, our men quit patronizing their clubs because what happened in the club became fodder for a performance report. It was the same thing at the Airman's Club and the NCO and/or Top 3 clubs. Now we don't have separate clubs for the ranks.

Instead we have something called All Ranks Clubs or community clubs. They're open to men and women of all ranks....from airman basic to general officer. Still, no one is there. Gee, I wonder why. The latest brilliant thought out of Washington is that the operators ("pilots?") flying remote aircraft in combat areas from their plush desk at duty stations in Nevada or Arizona should draw the same combat pay as those real world pilots actually on board a plane in a hostile environment. More politically correct logic?

They say that remote vehicle operators are subject to the same stress levels as the combat pilot actually flying in combat. ----- REALLY...you're bull-shitting me!!!???

Now that I've primed you a little, read on.

There are many who will agree with these sentiments, but they apply to more than just fighter pilots. Unfortunately, the ones with the guts to speak up or push for what they believe in are beaten down by the "system."

"Unfortunately there is a lot of truth in the following text - supposedly, Secretary Gates had a force beating the bushes to learn who wrote this....

Where have all the fighter pilots gone?

Good Question.

Here is a rant from a retired fighter pilot that is worth reading:

It is rumored that our current Secretary of Defense recently asked the question, "Where are all the dynamic leaders of the past?" I can only assume, if that is true, that he was referring to Robin Olds, Jimmy Doolittle, Patton, Ike, Boyington, Nimitz, etc.?

Well, I've got the answer:

They were fired before they made Major! Our nation doesn't want those kinds of leaders anymore. Squadron commanders don't run squadrons and wing commanders don't run wings. They are managed by higher ranking dildos with other esoteric goals in mind.

Can you imagine someone today looking for a LEADER to execute that Doolittle Raid and suggesting that it be given to a dare-devil boozer - his only attributes: he had the respect of his men, an awesome ability to fly, and the organizational skills to put it all together? If someone told me there was a chance in hell of selecting that man today, I would tell them they were either a liar or dumber than shit.

I find it ironic that the Air Force put Brigadier General Robin Olds on the cover of the company rag last month.

While it made me extremely proud to see his face, he wouldn't make it across any base in America (or overseas) without ten enlisted folks telling him to zip up his flight suit, get rid of the cigarette, and shave his mustache off.

I have a feeling that his response would be predictable and for that crime he would probably get a trip home and an Article 15. We have lost the war on rugged individualism and that, unfortunately, is what fighter pilots want to follow; not because they have to but because they respect leaders of that ilk. We've all run across that leader that made us proud to follow him because you wanted to be like him and make a difference. The individual who you would drag your testicles through glass for rather than disappoint him.

We better wake the hell up! We're asking our young men and women to go to really shitty places; some with unbearable climates, never have a drink, have little or no contact with the opposite sex, not look at magazines of a suggestive nature of any type, and adhere to ridiculous regs that require you to tuck your shirt into your PT uniform on the way to the porta-shitter at night, in a blinding dust storm, because it's a uniform.

These people we're sending to combat are some of the brightest I've met but they are looking for a little sanity, which they will only find on the outside if we don't get a friggin' clue. You can't continue asking people to live for months or years at a time acting like nuns and priests. Hell, even they get to have a beer.

Who are we afraid of offending? The guys that already hate us enough to strap C-4 to their own bodies and walk into a crowd of us? Think about it.

I'm extremely proud of our young men and women who continue to serve. I'm also very in tune with what they are considering for the future and I've got news for whoever sits in the White House, Congress, and our so-called military leaders. Much talent has and will continue to hemorrhage from our services, because wanna-be warriors are tired of fighting on two fronts - - one with our enemies, another against our lack of common sense.

Take it or leave it....that's just the way it is, no. if's and's or but's...................

Worthy of passing on ??? OK...........if not shit-can it !

Judge Brown
Veteran

Should a Hooters girl be allowed to speak to students at their school?

   Huge ripples in the internet yesterday on this question.  What's your opinion?  I say, "Yes, of course."



A now famous picture illustrating the concept between progressive feminist fantasy and reality.


   -The article in question: (LINK)

   -The best comments:

Great, a para-legal that THINKS she is a lawyer. Our economy, which is basically swirling around in the toilet, is being run in Washington by mostly lawyers. I would rather fire all of the lawyers, and para-legals, and put the Hooter's Girls in charge. I'm sure they could do a better job and certainly they will show more respect to the citizens of the USA. Unfortunately Ashley, you got your name in the SPTimes, which in this case is NOT a good thing. Because other parents will not agree with you, you have probably doomed
your son to ridicule. Good job.

Many a college student waited tables through college. Nothing wrong with learning customer service. keeping track of multiple tasks and team work.

   -The story of an amazing Hooters girl who made her way to Vice Presidency of the company: (LINK)

   -The quote by Dr. MLK, Jr.:
 
 

 
Fin.

Flotsam and Jetsam

 Updated 19 NOV 11
 

• 

  2000s Jaguar S-type

  
  

  

  Older, '90s style Jag, just as the beautiful

  lines and grill started coming off. 

  
  

     Which limp-wristed lisper decided to make the newer S-type Jaguars look so gottamned effeminate?  With the effete, heart-shaped/butt-shaped grill I guess I can understand why mechaphilia exists.  There is nothing masculine about this car whatsoever and little redeeming; I would be mortified to be seen driving this car; I'd have to hire a driver so I could duck down in the back seat.   

• 
  

     If you were a store manager, and in consideration of your employees' sanity, would you have the courage to turn off the Christmas music that begins on November 1st during non-peak hours, while keeping it quiet from management?

•   Sense experience that doesn't get enough consideration: the hearing of old mechanical sounds (LINK)

•    "Worst First", (LINK) the idea to keep kids cooped in away from playgrounds, safe from the obsessive and incipient fear of unseen danger lurking everywhere, seems to be today's modus operandi of the Defense Department's leadership philosophy.                                           

•   Finally, a quote of the day: "Liberalism is the f__t upon which wafts diversity."  (source Unknown)  Balkanization, and a lack of national unity and moral outrage is what leads to incidents like the elderly man attacked in Chicago, to the extremely tragic urban blight of Detroit.  I'm not inclined to give you an earth-shattering essay defending this statement (one: that's not my writing style, two: reductio ad absurdum), please don't think I'm here to harp on ethnicity or the issues of dogmatic multiculturalism; I'm talking about the kind of permissiveness, relativism, fear and one-dimensional thinking so entrenched in our culture which has set the conditions for all this to happen.  This bystander attitude.  Don't criticize.  It's at the heart of the school lunch debate going on right now:  yeah, limited government, health public policy and so forth, but could there be an inherent cultural sub-agenda coming from top down acknowledging that America's cultural vibrance is on a track to oblivion unless we get strong again?  Physically, as well as morally?



Tournament dilemma: Which choice would you make?

   Precis:  A teen in high school refuses a match against a female wrestler, a principled stand.  Some find this curious, even distasteful.  However, the political correctness movement frequently contravenes common sense.  Order and harmony are quintessential foundations in our society.  As with the last Dark Age, we think we've reached the horizon of knowledge, but this time we use it as an excuse to fiddle with relativism to an endless degree. 

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa high school wrestler who was one of the favorites to win his weight class defaulted on his first-round state tournament match rather than face one of the first girls to ever qualify for the event.
   Joel Northrup, a home-schooled sophomore who was 35-4 wrestling for Linn-Mar High this season, said in a statement that he doesn't feel it would be right for him to wrestle Cedar Falls freshman Cassy Herkelman. Herkelman, who was 20-13 entering the tournament, and fellow 112-pounder Ottumwa sophomore Megan Black, who was 25-13, made history by being the first girls to qualify for the state tournament. Black was pinned quickly in her opening round match.
   "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Cassy and Megan and their accomplishments. However, wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times," wrote Northrup. "As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa."
   There were several thousand fans on hand Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena, but many were watching other matches when the referee raised Herkelman's hand to signal her win. There was a smattering of cheers and boos from the crowd before Herkelman was whisked into the bowels of the arena.

(LINK)

jukeofurl
02/18/2011 8:15 AM

   The boy exhibited integrity and decency. Wrestling involves the kind of contact which the human body cannot differentiate when it is conducted by a gender which may create have a sexual attraction. In some ways, a male would involuntarily be at a disadvantage on several levels. A stable male psyche strives to protect females and/or children. Not "subdue" them physically. The girls have been granted a gratuitous and frivolous equality. Though I would not deny them their rights, I would question the intelligence of the morons who mandated it. Maybe it is time to examine what wrestling truly is - outdated in a society theoretically beyond its primal origins
jimmy7050
02/18/2011 2:15 AM
   This young man is a gentleman and I respect him for it. In this day and age of mindless scumbags his age with their pants hanging down to their knees and sideways caps, the dull, vacant stupid looks on their faces.......who would think nothing of assaulting women for "disrespekting" them.
Damn animals. Good for the kid !!!

Article: "Why They Don’t Need To ‘Touch Your Junk’ At Israeli Airports"

Excerpt: "The real difference between the Israeli and American approach is the target. Israel tries to identify and stop the terrorist while the U.S. targets the bomb or other weapon. This approach does not change whether there is a left or right wing Prime Minister in power because the government realizes for Israel, the fight against terrorism is a fight for its very survival. Thus her government and citizenry have a view of preventing terrorism that is unencumbered by the political correctness which restrains efforts in the United States."

"The ISA (Israeli Security Agency) calls it  'human factor.' Some part of that human factor would cause Al Sharpton to show up to picket the Airport if it was practiced in the US." - Jeff Dunetz

Read more here: (LINK)

Corned beef hash

   I'm thinking about language, manners and civility as they relate to politics.  I was outside Home De-pot the other day. A Philly cheesesteak outfit has set up shop out front, and we decided to stop by. A mid-40s looking, hairy white guy in a yellow tank top walks up with his son, under ten.

   "Sup, dawg?" he says to the cheesesteak guy.

[Sound of needle violently skidding off of record player]

   "Good evening, Sir."

   Thugged-out Hulkster wannabe orders SIX hot dogs (no, make that seven, I'll eat one on the way home), shops, returns, and 'Sup dawgs' again. The vessels in my head want to explode. I pity the boy in tow.  I just read somewhere that the English language is undergoing its most significant evolution (a major overhaul, a mutation of cultural transmission and redefinition) since Shakespearean times, some 500 years ago.  However, this does nothing to soothe me nor defy the terrible irony that this unseemly gent just engaged in the lowest form of street English.  Why did he do it? 

-----------------

SIDEBAR 1: Linguistics
Article:  "Texts, e-mails and t.v. slang transforming English"

• Webpage: The Bad Linguistics Page - offers counterpoint on the premise that English is degenerating, discusses foreign language aptitudes

• Forum: From a discussion on a NYT article regarding students' declining scores
  "Hell, this is a culture (from what we are being fed through music/movies/entertainment which I know is not always an accurate depiction of real life but it's what we are being shown as the way things are) that prides itself on ignorance. A culture that puts pimps, drug dealers and the 'thug life' as what is to be aspired to."
  
  "And we wonder why the kids from this environment don't care about education."

------------------
SIDEBAR 2: Political orientation, taboos, and the awkward, polarized disaffection we find ourselves in:

• Forum: From a discussion on the first lady of the U.S. attempting to shake an Indonesian Minister's hand, which is taboo in a Muslim country:

   "I personally find it useful to think of it automotive terms. The 'left' of the political spectrum is the accelerator, the 'right' is the brake. Neither is the answer by itself, you can accelerate out of control and crash or you can never get off the brake and go nowhere."
   "The majority of people in any given society just want predictability. They just want to have a job and a family and a reasonable expectation that they will still have those things tomorrow. Call them conservatives."
   "Others agitate for change in pursuit of ideals. The ones who want to turn the world on its ear in order to right injustice. Those are liberals."
   "The problem is that we'd never have come down out of the trees if we followed the first camp and we'd have a new government every other day if we followed the second."
/being a whole-hearted adherent to either side is stupid

   Sure, but like restoring works of art, don't we want to keep the institutions in good order that keep civility intact, repudiate ignorance, and make our nation strong?  How did we find ourselves reversing everything we knew to be good and true a decade ago, normalizing political correctness, and so cowardly to appease that we embarked on a national apology tour?  That we forbade a 13 year-old from riding a bike to school that flew a small U.S. flag, lest we offend someone?  And so on, and so forth. 

--------------------

   So I'm at Applebee's the next day:  men eating with hats on?!  (Backward baseball caps) Take your damn hats off at the dinner table.  Set an example.  Care.  I went to a Ryan's Steakhouse buffet once, and after the lady tending the buffet got done sharing a parole story, I noticed that dad, elder son, youngest son all sat in a row like birds on a wire, each with ball caps donned and elbows on table.

   Don't say, "'Sup dawg!" and expect to be taken seriously!

   Moving on up the chain...  if you're a president or first lady, GET YOURSELVES A PROTOCOL STAFF. The principals were not "keepin' it classy, keepin' it real" because they invited Hollywood over to the W.H.  And our leaders don't belong on talk shows.  We should not tolerate Jon Steward calling our president "Dude."

Getty Images

 It's a noisome, fatuous trend.  Look at some notable recent fauxs pas:

- Don't make people take down the cross when you elect to speak in their offices
- Don't make the Dalai Lama walk by trash at your state visit
- Don't try to hug the Queen of England
- Don't repeatedly exclude the "God" part of the Declaration of Independence

• Related article: "Freudian slips may hurt Obama"

  And the worst of all:

- Obama: "We are not a Christian nation." by John Eidsmoe (Author's final line: "America’s generosity is a response learned from our Christian heritage.")

   Tell me, on whose authority did the noble community organizer pass that dirty lie?

   I don't mean to only call out the White House, but we need a return to civility, common ideals and common ground.  Instead, we focus on what makes us different rather than what unifies us.  Why do we pride ourselves on ignorance?  Why are so many forces complicit in standing up to traditional values?  Why don't people dress the way they did to ride an airplane 30+ years ago, and instead wear pajamas, flip-flops, and other underwear in public?  Why do we have a http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/ website?  Why are we racing to the bottom?  If you dropped a stone, would you hear it hit?

Big Sis and frotteurism

Infowars via DRUDGE on new security procedures (LINK).

Hey, I'll be glad to 'opt-out' if the feeler-up lady is hot. 

"What military would want a bunch of left-wing reporters trailing them, other than one with an auto-immune disease?"
-Michael Savage

"The fact that you ran a red light is probably because it is a norm in your culture"

How shiate gets done in today's America.

Article: Loss of language, loss of thought

by Wolfgang Grassl
(excerpted article - full article can be found HERE)

Loss of language among the younger population -- that is to say, the ability to formulate and enunciate properly constructed sentences that reflect clear thought -- is growing at a staggering rate in the United States. Even among students whose academic aptitude is well above the national average, my years as an undergraduate business professor show that four out of five will make grave spelling errors in written assignments or exams, and about half that regularly commit grammatical blunders. The ubiquitous confusion between "there" and "their" may still be considered a quaint and negligible fluke that nearly creates a new orthographic norm; the inability to express lucid arguments must not.


What is being lost is the capacity to think in terms of cause and effect, of distinguishing between differing levels of argument, and particularly any appreciation for abstraction. Increasingly, students expect to be spoon-fed with concrete examples, operational instructions, mechanical repetitions, and pictorial representation. The loss of language is but a symptom of the loss of thought -- and losing thought means losing much more.

Assume a typical question in an introductory class on marketing: "Why do we segment markets?" A typical student response is: "What do you mean?"

The traditional way of defining something, according to Aristotle and the scholastic logicians, was per genus proximum et differentiam specificam: We need to name the higher category to which a term belongs, then specify some characteristic that sets it apart from other things within this category.

However, "like" does not seek to place a ball into the next higher category of spheres or objects, nor does it offer a synonym. It gives an instance of balls, or of the usage of balls. Providing merely an aspect of what is to be explained is not only reductionist (by substituting a part for the whole); it is also a subjectivist move that avoids describing and thus reflecting on the essence of what is to be explained. It is indicative of our age of increasing relativism under the guise of "pluralism" and "tolerance" -- your feeling about the nature of something is just as good as my feeling, because there really isn't any "is"; there may not even be an "a." Then a ball might as well have edges, for who can tell me that I can only call something a ball if it is round?

The problem ultimately lies in a misconstrued metaphysics, or rather in the absence of any notion of ontology at all.

Surveys show that the average American receives some 5,000 external stimuli per day and spends more than eight hours a day in front of screens -- television, computer monitors, cellphones, gaming consoles, and so on. Where in earlier ages people worked in their gardens, played an instrument, went fishing, read books, entertained guests, or engaged in conversation with family or friends, they have become passive and speechless consumers of canned content. These screens help produce a people that is losing its language. But more importantly, these people no longer see structures in their world but rather a bewildering juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated events. Vicarious living and proxy experiences are the deeper problem with our students' loss of language.

Of course, not all students are alike: Many do excel and emerge as active thinkers and thoughtful speakers. But as a society, we are a far cry from seeing the critical thinking that progressive educators want to convey. In order to think critically, one must be able to keep causes apart from effects, fact from interpretation, belief from knowledge, definitions from explanations, and much more. Critical thought requires determining the range of alternatives and applying to them a clear and consistent standard of evaluation.

Colossal immigration catch 22s in post-modern America finally coming to light

What part of invasion do we not understand?  Madness being propagated by the MSM and democratic anti-Americans this week as Shamnesty II: National Suicide Boogaloo ramps up for a volley.

You really need to see this video if you can find it:  A group of a dozen or so illegals running through the actual vehicle checkpoint at the San Diego/Tijuana border, weaving their way around cars, suitcases and clothes in hand.  The brazenness in this instance was particularly appalling, entering in broad daylight, at an official security checkpoint.  It's nowhere near as bad as the miles of trash left behind in the desert, or anything like this anecdote suggests:

"Throughout the 1980's and early 90's the 14-mile stretch of border in San Diego was hostile, violent, and out of control," wrote Glynn Custred, an emeritus professor of anthropology at CSU East Bay. "Crowds would gather on the Tijuana side and pelt border-patrol agents with rocks ...almost daily thousands of Mexicans would gather on the U.S. side, then dash forward en masse in what were known as banzai runs."- Louis Freedberg
The deluge of immigration headlines in the past several days since Gov. Brewer (AZ) signed a new immigration enforcement bill makes the lines in the sand very visible separating people of reason, who believe in sovereignty and law, and the irrational crowd who trumps reason with the magic race card.  I can't buy the argument against sovereignty - all arguments should cease much earlier than getting to that point.  Some legal immigration is needed.  However, unchecked immigration levels are unsustainable, meaning this:  Look at America as a lifeboat.  You have room for 50 people, 50 more are in the drink.  What do you do?  Instead of availing themselves to logic or even listening, opponents make absurd claims that without the illegals, oranges will cost $500 a bushel.  Nonsense. The welfare state plays a large role in this, and our abundance of convenience, and our overflowing self-love all contribute to this idea.  When there is work to be had, people will work.  Competition for work is still a non sequitur, but the old ways of going to work in whatever was available do seem to be lost on us. 

It is passing strange for federal officials, including the president, to accuse Arizona of irresponsibility while the federal government is refusing to fulfill its responsibility to control the nation's borders. Such control is an essential attribute of national sovereignty. - George Will
 
"Ask any American of every ethnicity how often they are asked for picture ID. The answer is it happens on a daily basis- checking into hotels, using credit cards, at job interviews. We should be used to this by now. The only place we don’t have to be documented is at the voting booth. If voters had to prove their eligibility the Democrats would lose their base and their power. Once again the Democrats are displaying the Pavlovian response of injecting race into issues that should be looked at instead with common sense." - Alicia Colon

Enforcement: why not?  The impetus for the Arizona law stems from the federal government not protecting the border, while border states are left to absorb the billions of dollars in costs from those with no interest but self-interest. 

"As the rhetoric on illegal immigration continues to grow out of control, it’s more important than ever to share the facts on Arizona’s new law. The reality is that Arizona’s new law mirrors federal law, which the federal government is not enforcing. George Will put it in perspective; the federal government's refusal to control the border is what has caused this problem in the first place."
- Gov. Jan Brewer, Arizona
Encouragingly, several states are following suit even though the sewer pipe of misinformation flowing from the MSM posits that enforcing standing laws is not in America's best interest.

"You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see that the grand plan of the Democrats is to entrap illegal immigrants by giving them legal status and then enslave and destroy them with numerous Fedzilla handouts and programs."   - Ted Nugent

The president himself recently used the race card, rallying African-Americans, Latinos, and women to help elect Demoncats in the Congressional elections this year.  This is the same great uniter that denounces the Arizona law, and whose biggest accomplishment will be to upend every stone looking to legally circumvent Congress and ignore the will of the American people in health care reform efforts.

"OBAMA IS LIKE A DESTRUCTIVE CHILD WHO TAKES APART A WATCH AND THEN CAN’T PUT IT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN." - Michael Savage

The best news so far is that the Arizona law will influence illegals to depart Arizona, and states are building steam in crafting their own self-preservation doctrine, encouraged by the brave people of Arizona who weren't afraid to adopt common sense.  "Oklahoma, Ohio, Utah, Georgia, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, Nebraska, and Missouri have all taken up measures similar to that of Arizona." (Ibid.) It is utterly clear that no state wanted to be first in doing this, otherwise we would have seen a lot more Prop 187s.  Additionally, a courageous new bill is working its way up the chain in Arizona, which seeks to deny public funding to schools teaching ethnic studies - "The new bill would make it illegal for a school district to teach any courses that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government, promote resentment of a particular race or class of people, are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group or 'advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals'."  I have said often before that more than ever, this country suffers from a lack of national unity, promoting diversity at every turn - the Tower of Babel, a nation divided against itself. 

The current political environment is so blanched by the death of common sense in America, we find it easier to make millions of tiny, relatively anonymous pinpricks at our foundations than to make a concerted protest against the forces that threaten them.

For further reading:

1. http://californiawatch.org/watchblog/arizona-immigration-law-has-roots-california-border-turmoil - 80s border issues - Prop. 187
2. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/04/28/national/a150736D30.DTL - Brewer on so-called profiling concerns
3. http://www.helium.com/items/1819327-illegal-immigrants-plan-to-leave-arizona-over-new-immigration-law - Initial successful impacts of the Arizona bill
4. http://bigjournalism.com/aliciacolon/2010/04/29/from-one-hispanic-to-others-re-arizona-youre-being-had-by-the-media/#comments - A journalist calls out the democratic party's strategy to foment hatred of the US law among illegals
5. http://janbrewer.com/email/email.php?ID=51 - Arizona's new law mirrors federal law, which the gov't does not enforce
6. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/2010/04/28/20100428will29.html - Veteran journalist George Will on the law
7. http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnHawkins/2008/10/03/the_death_of_common_sense_in_america - One attempt seeking to explain how we forgot where we came from
8. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/30/arizona-legislature-passes-banning-ethnic-studies-programs/ - Ethnic chauvinism and diversity indoc.

Article: "Your right not to be offended"

by Charles Stone
URL: http://ezinearticles.com/?Your-Right-Not-to-be-Offended&id=75198

Every time you turn around today you are almost sure to offend someone. In our land of victimhood it has become difficult to avoid saying or doing something which will cause someone else to feel bad or put upon or irritated.

The events of September 11, 2001 have created a whole new group of people to be offended. It is nearly impossible to criticize the terrorists, (all Muslims), without evoking an outcry from secular and religious organizations ready and waiting to impart their own brand of political correctness. The question is; how are the terrorists supposed to be identified? They are of different nationalities so that won't work. They come from different cultures, so, ditto. Their family histories vary widely. In fact, the only common threads are religion and a hatred of America and Americans.

Well funded organizations have sprung up, like mushrooms around a cow flop, that have no function other than to pander to the offended. It has become a cottage industry for the disaffected. Search the newspapers, electronic news media and the Internet for a person, preferably famous or at least wealthy who has made a statement that can be construed as anti-anything and find some person or group who doesn't like it and WHAM!, instant lawsuit.

It wasn't always that way, of course. In the past, if somebody said something about you that you didn't like you would reply in kind, punch the rascal in the nose or swallow hard and take it. That was before the recent proliferation of parasites, (Oops! beg pardon; lawyers) that now infest the land.

Attorneys aren't solely to blame,of course, they're just the primary financial beneficiaries. There are also a couple of generations of government school graduates who have no clue about what the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution means or how it should be applied.

The point is; you don't have a right not to be offended. You can shun the offender, rebut him, make fun of him or even risk prosecution by responding physically, but you shouldn't be allowed to use the police powers of the state to keep him from being offensive.

Call them doctors, not "providers"

It can't be just me that thinks this, but I'm surprised that there hasn't been an uprising from an all too nonchalant citizenry, and from doctors themselves, over the term "provider."
I once read an article by a doctor with maybe the semblance of heartburn over this issue, gone, buried, as we accept another doublespeak, neutered term into the lexicon. The creep of lazy language - why does it take root, and why no resistance?

Doctors go to school for years and years to earn their credentials and a title to boot. Somewhere I have a USA Today poll clipped that listed America's top five professions: doctor, firefighter, teacher, clergy, military officer. (Note: lawyer didn't make the cut.) My father grew up in the medical "old school," a harsher time unknown to you and me. He made housecalls, travelled by foot, performed emergency and routine surgeries, was the doctor to five railroads, and served as a medical officer to the Coast Guard.

So today, we have large-scale health organizations that train every schlub or policy wonk answering phones to lump everyone as a "provider." Nameless, faceless, provider.

Doctors are entitled to better and should insist on being called "Doctor."

Quote of the day: On unruly children in public

From a forum post about an unruly child who was slapped in Wal-Mart by an unrelated adult, by "Worldwalker." I really love the last paragraph.

"Speaking of kids crying really loud, no, you do not have a right to allow your kid to scream in a store, a restaurant, a movie theater, or anywhere else where civilized behavior is expected. You have no more right to do so than I have to play the bagpipes there. Of course a 2-year-old isn't mature enough to be responsible for his own behavior ... which is why it's your job to see that he doesn't do uncivilized things. That goes with this whole "parent" thing. Having a child is a major responsibility, and part of that is accepting that taking proper care of that child is going to require some changes in your lifestyle. You can't go on as if nothing has changed and demand that other people endure the consequences."

"If you've got a child who's too young to behave in public places, then don't take him into those places until he's old enough. Leave him with Grandma for the afternoon. Get a babysitter. Shop online. Get the movie from Netflix, with the added bonus that you can watch it without being distracted by the heavy breathing three rows back. Get take-out."

"Your right to swing your fist in the air stops where my nose starts. Your right to let you child do whatever it wants stops where other people's rights -- what's called "quiet enjoyment" start. It's like we're starting into a social tragedy of the commons, where people take a little bit more, and a little bit more, until eventually have a world with all the charm, pleasantness, and civility of a cage full of poo-flinging monkeys."