Lessons to Be Learned

In the recent past, I've had several folks make faces when I mentioned I heard something on this or that radio program.  Two, one local and one national, hosts were particularly noted as "racist" and "bigoted." That, when I asked what makes the host "racist" and "bigoted," there was no response at all, not even an attempt at an example, is not the point here.  A third instance, when I brought up another host, my conversant asked, "You listen to...?"  Before anything else could be uttered, I quickly said, "No, he's not a racist.  No, he's not a bigot."  That seemed to nonplus the questioner, but again, that's not the point.

I'm about halfway through the autobiography of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.  I don't hold him in reverence as I do, say, Holmes, Harlan, and a few others.  But I also resent the unwarranted vitriol usually tossed his way by the so-called "intelligentsia," well, at least those arrogant enough to believe they are the intelligentsia.

My Grandfather's Son is easy-to-read, somewhat insightful, and gives a glimpse of the man who I came to at least respect after the bigoted (yes, bigoted!) onslaught against him at his confirmation hearing.  This isn't to suggest I fully agree with his rulings/decisions from the bench.  But I think perhaps from personal experience I recognize the dignity he displayed when vehemently attacked by his political opponents in 1991. (How interesting that the same people who lambasted Thomas in the Anita Hill accusations, either strongly defended Bill Clinton or remained noticeably silent when the President was accused of mulitple like offenses.)

But those are matters for another day, perhaps.

Politics, Constitutional and legal opinions aside, I've already been reminded of an important lesson from My Grandfather's Son.  People, at least I, should think as individuals, not as members of some group.  For instance, as a black student who had graduated from Holy Cross and Yale Law, Thomas was expected to think the way, well, the way a black student who had graduated from Holy Cross and Yale Law should think.  And, originally, he did--and acted on that way of thinking.  Soon, however, he became conflicted with what he was supposed to think and how he really did, especially based on his personal experiences and research.  And, he became vilified from straying from that accepted thought.

Because I was/am a teacher, I'm expected to think, speak, and act according to a certain "teacher way" of thinking, speaking, and acting.  That I didn't and don't has made me, in many eyes, an apostate of sorts. That I saw weakness, stupidity, incompetence, etc. and refused to go along with it (to the degree I could refuse) was/is seen as treason, well, of sorts.

All of this leads me back to my opening.  Each of these people, in speaking of these radio hosts, weren't offering their own reasoned opinions, not at all.  (Of course, a clue was they couldn't offer any examples, any bases for their claims of "racist" and "bigot.")  They merely parroted what they've heard from people like them.  They said what they were supposed to say, whether they believe it or even knew what they were saying.

I suppose such reasoning is in the same intellectual domain as "just 'cuz."

Turning the World Upside Down

When Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, he purportedly had his fife and drum corps play a popular London ditty, The World Turned Upside Down.  The lyrics go like this:

If buttercups buzz'd after the bee,
If boats were on land, churches on sea,
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows,
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse,
If the mamas sold their babies
To the gypsies for half a crown;
If summer were spring and the other way round,
Then all the world would be upside down.

Now, some historians doubt this was played, claiming it's a myth.  But it's far too delicious to think otherwise, isn't it?  And of course, some historians still think FDR was one of our best Presidents, that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free any slaves, and that the Versailles Treaty was a rotten treaty that caused WW2.  But I digress......

How's this for turning the world upside down?  Obama lets Iran, a rogue (if not worse) nation, keep its nuclear weapons and gives it $9 billion of American taxpayers' money.  But he doesn't let millions of American citizens keep the health insurance they like/want and, to get new coverage, they have to pay more of their own money!  It's great irony, something we can't make up.  And the LameStreams laud the Iranian deal.  But, of course, the media thought Neville Chamberlain had struck a great deal, too.  ("There he goes with that history stuff again!")  Only later did "Munich," "appeasement," and "Chamberlain" become four-letter words.

Perhaps Obama and Kerry think Iran is "reasonable.  After all, in a letter to his sister shortly after Munich, Chamberlain asserted that Hitler "is a reasonable man."  And who would/could argue with the arrogant, elitist Chamberlain?  Why wouldn't the equally arrogant, elitist Obama and Kerry think the same?  They are far smarter than anyone else, you know.  ObamaCare proves that--er, forget I mentioned ObamaCare.

Now, what Iran has agreed to, according to Mike Rogers, chair of House Intelligence Committee (I will refrain from the comment I'd really like to write.), is to turn its uranium into an oxide powder, which will, the Obama Administration contends, make it useless.  Except, as several nuclear scientists have said, reversing the process of oxidation is very simple.  Besides, does anyone think Iran will stop its work on developing its nuclear capabilities, well, anyone other than the Bozos in the Obama Administration?  The crackpots there, crazy like foxes?, will take our (that is, yours and mine) $9 billion and laugh at us behind our backs.

So, where does this leave the Middle East?  Hmmm......  My guess is the Saudis will feel betrayed (rightly so, as much as I dislike them) and vulnerable.  With their money, they can buy a bomb or two from, say, the Pakistanis.  The Israelis are now much more likely to make a preemptive strike against the Iranian nuclear factilities.  In other words, Kerry and Obama, with their continued fumbling and bumbling, have created an arms race, a nuclear arms race, in the Middle East.

Can the Nobel Committee have a revote??????

BTW, I received an e-mail announcing that Congressman Levin has introduced a bill to renew federal unemployment compensation.  I sent a return e-mail asking when he was planning to introduce a bill to repeal ObamaCare.  Gee, I'm still waiting for a response to my e-mail of a month or so back, which read, "Maybe you should have read the bill first?"

Mike Rogers also talked about ObamaCare and its provisions.  He said the government's own estimates are that by next year, 40,000,000 Americans will have lost their health insurance.  (I think a newspaper article used a higher figure, up to 80 or 90 million.)  So, to remedy a problem--so it was termed a "problem"--the Bozos in Washington passed a law, thousands of pages long, a bill they never read, to give health insurance to 15 or 20 million uninsured (many of whom are illegal immigrants or who opted, by personal choice, not to spend money on health care) and it resulted in the loss of up to 40 million already-insured people to lose their coverage?  That sure sounds brilliant.

Of course, a guy with whom I spoke a couple weeks ago insisted, really insisted, that "health insurance is a right!"  I let him rant/rave for a couple of minutes and then gave him examples of people for whose health care I don't want to pay--smokers, obese people, couch potatoes, etc.  I ended the conversation with something like, "Instead of going on a vacation for two weeks, why don't you stay home and buy a health insurance policy for one of the uninsured?"  He didn't answer and didn't have to answer.  "Don't tax you and don't tax me.  Tax the fellow behind the tree."

ISOP and other sundry things....

So the comet ISOP is out there, however fleeting.  I thought it was out there the other night, but watching through binoculars reevaluated.  Then I pegged it for a helicopter, due to what I thought was a red blinking light at its rear.  I rechecked tonight and I think it's the comet, the red blinking lights the comet's tail.  It's pretty cool, esp for an ex-astronomy jock.  I think this is the first one I've seen since Hale-Bopp (a much cooler name) about a dozen years or so ago--maybe longer.  I remember running right along side of it during the Light Fest 8K at night.  It was pretty cool, esp with its long tail.

Last Sun AM we ran in shorts and tee shirts.  This AM it was 13 degrees!  Temperatures were forty + degrees colder this AM than last week.  Heh Heh Heh......

And I filled up with petrol tonight.  Granted, I didn't have my 10-cents off per gallon Kroger bonus, but I still paid 40 cents more a gallon.  Ouch!  That's five bucks.  I guess I should be thankful it's not already back up to $5 a gallon?

I read two letters to the editor in recent newspapers from folks who noticed what I did last month--their auto insurance premiums have gone up, one, I think, was 15% and the other 10%.  One said a call to his insurer revealed, yep, you guessed it--ObamaCare and personal liability increases because of it.  All told, so far, our insurance premiums--health and auto--will cost us at least $1500 in '14.  Good thing I have that money tree in the backyard--and that the windstorm blew down the black walnut tree instead of it!

Are these the beginning signs?  Yesterday, I was driving to my blind buddy's for our weekly run.  I left a bit early, to scrape the frost off my windshield and, at least planned, to buy petrol.  It's about an hour there, an hour to run, and an hour home.  I took a gander at the car clock and smiled a bit, if only for a short while.  I thought I had a few minutes to spare, making my drive home a bit less hectic since K and C were walking and I had to be back to watch the kids.  Oops!  I suddenly remembered, so K and C could walk, that I had moved up my run with my blind buddy by half an hour.  I had forgotten.  After all, I did make the change on Fri afternoon!  Now, I wasn't ahead of the game, but behind.  How could I have forgotten?  Beats me, except that......  And, the drive home was hindered by snow squalls, heavy ones that left the last 10-12 miles of my drive home on some very slick roads.  Then, today, I was proud of myself that I wrote and typed two articles for which I had end of the month deadlines.  They took almost six hours, including a little bit of last-minute research I had to do.  Good!  Now, only one more article, one column, and one review left by the 30th, next Saturday.  Then I remembered; I already did the other (the third) article and had sent it in to my editor last week.  I felt pretty good about finishing it, not so good about not remembering.  One would think I'd remember, but I didn't.

OK, out to get Ashley, Cody, and Michael a piece of cherry pie I baked this afternoon.  Then, it's off to bed for them--with Grandpa not far behind.

Jefferson

Regardless of what I read about Thomas Jefferson (and Joe Ellis' book The American Sphinx is top-flight), he never seems to match up with Lincoln or Washington.  Oh, Jefferson is a superstar, no doubt about it. His second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is the American Creed.

I think JFK wasn't far off the mark when, at a dinner for Nobel prize winners, he said, "This is the second greatest congregation of intelligence the White House has ever seen."  The "greatest," he added, was when "Jefferson dined alone."

Still he belongs in the American Hall of Fame, along with John Adams, Alex Hamilton, Ben Franklin, James Madison, et al. 

For some time there have been e-mails going around about things Jefferson purportedly said.  Although the sentiments are correct, not all are accurate.  Here is a quotation that he did utter and it's very appropriate, although it came 200+ years ago in 1795 (if I remember correctly).  "Our citizens are divided into two political sects.  One which fears the people most, the other the government."

Here's another, from his First Inaugural Address:  "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.  This is the sum of good government...."

And today's Democrats claim to be "the party of Jefferson."

Let me add some things about MOOCs, the current trend toward more and more online and virtual courses.  (Are they the same??????)   I realize that I am a Luddite, one to whom technology is not "God."  Hey, I still don't have a cellphone!  I also know the purported virtues of online courses/education, individuals working at their own paces/levels, making education more available to more people (particularly the poor, which I think is a specious argument), etc.  I've blogged before about the trend toward more and more of these online courses, so no need to cover that again.  But I read two articles about MOOCs last week, one bashing them and one defending them.  And there was one common theme throughout both articles.  Boiled down, it was this:  follow the money!  That, as I've suggested before, is behind this (and many other pseudo-reforms in education).  It's not about improving education (oh, maybe a bit, but not the primary goal), but making somebody lots of money.  "The Common Core," "Everyday Math," etc., you name, it and then just follow the money and you'll see what their real goals are.

"Nuclear Option"

First, what ding-a-ling started calling this the "nuclear option?"  But, the name is irrelevant in the larger scheme of things.

How is it spelled?  H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E-S!!!!!!  Yes, I think that's it.  So the Democrats rammed through legislation to change Senate rules that have been in place for more than a century.  Generally restricted to confirmation of federal judge appointments (excluding Supremes), it nevertheless exposes, yet another time, the hypocrisy of Democrats--and Republicans!

Let's take a trip in the way-back machine--Poof!  Magic!--about five or six years ago.  Weren't the shoes on the other feet?  Change the dates and the parties, but keep the "outrage."  Yep, then, the Republicans were trying to change the rules and the Democrats were crying "Foul!"  Now, it's the Democrats who actually have changed the rules and the Republicans are upset.

Again, I ask, "How can any right-minded person continue to vote for the majority of Democratic and/or Republican candidates?"  To do so seems to confirm my view that a vote for either party, as opposed to a minor/third party, is a wasted vote.  Of course, maybe many people don't think a vote for a Bozo is wasted; I'm not sure.

And here's the President, whose photo must be next to the word "hypocrite" in the dictionary," talking about "the gears of government have go to work" and that the old rules are "a reckless and relentless too to grind all business to a halt."  Wait a minute!  We can use that way-back machine again--Poof!  Magic!--to locate that You Tube video of then Senator Obama giving a seven-minute speech lambasting the Republicans for trying to do what his own Democrats did yesterday--and now he lauds his own party for it!

And one might intelligently argue--Well at least I might argue, I don't know how intelligently--that "the gears of government" should be ground to "a halt."  What are these Bozos doing passing laws that have 20,000 pages of regulations and codes?  Look at the federal income tax laws and codes.  Look at ObamaCare. These fools don't know what's in what they've passed; if they can read, they surely haven't read the laws.  If they have read them, then they are fully responsible for all the junk that they spew.  I don't know what's worse--not reading them and passing anyway or reading them, knowing they are junk, and passing anyway. Regardless, a pox on both their arrogant, elitist houses.

Remember the WSJ a few years back, speaking of Congress, "Don't do something; just stand there."

While I'm at it, a poll the other day for the 2014 US Senate seat in Michigan shows Gary Peters ahead of Terri Lynn Land by a point, 37% to 36%.  I know the election is still a year away.  I know that means 27% of the voters are still undecided.  But how can this be?  How can Peters be within a light-year of Land?  First, she's hardly a staunch conservative and, as state secretary of state, streamlined much of the state government dealing with, well, us.  But, more significant, Peters is one of those Bozos who voted for ObamaCare and, now, supports a bill delaying its implementation for a year--you know, "We're not going to screw you now; we're going to wait until next year."  How distressing that this guy is still anywhere in the ballpark, let alone leading by a point!  Perhaps the Apocalypse is closer than I think??????

Lincoln and Washington

When is a lie not a lie?  When it's an "inaccurate promise." When is a liar not a liar?  When he "misspeaks?"

I know I've written about this foolishness before--either one is honest or one isn't. But I've been reminded of how low we've sunk.  I have just read two books, one about Abraham Lincoln and the other about George Washington.  I certainly have read a lot about the two men, but especially in light of the current climate of where dishonesty is not only rampant, but ignored or defended, Lincoln and Washington are inspiring and breaths of fresh air.  They almost, almost, hold out a ray of hope for the future.

Not even their most vociferous enemies ever accused them of lying or dishonesty.  Oh, they were accused of many things, some not very complimentary ("incompetence" comes to mind), but never of being deceitful and certainly not willfully so.

And it wasn't just their words that were honest.  They lived what they talked--charitable toward others, helpful to those in need, etc.  How unlike our hypocrites of today who, to be honest myself, are good at giving to others, just not with their own money.  They live by the creed, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is ours."

Isn't anyone else disheartened by the sheer magnitude of the culture of dishonesty?  That, in itself, is even more depressing.

I've been ruminating over this one the past week.  Why hasn't anyone picked up on it?  Well, perhaps someone has and I just missed it.  Obama last week told Americans he wanted to fix ObamaCare, he really did, but there were too many regulations (government regulations), too many hoops to jump through, too much red tape for him to do so.  At least, "I can't help right away."  Am I reading irony into that?  Is it not the epitome of irony?  And the guy said it with a straight face.

The Gettysburg Address

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address.  Given my respect, almost veneration of Abraham Lincoln, I think this is the greatest speech ever given on American soil, if not the greatest anywhere ever.  (Granted, some think Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address ranks higher, but that's like picking between the best and the best.)

Lots of myths have grown up around the Address.  No, he didn't write it on the back of an envelope while on the train from DC to Gettysburg.  He was not the featured speaker.  In fact, he was invited as a mere formality and it was a surprise that he accepted; Lincoln didn't venture far from Washington, especially to give speeches.  The main speaker was Edward Everett, former US Senator and president of Harvard, one of the most renowned speakers of the day.  The festivities had originally been planned for earlier, late Sept or Oct, but Everett was recovering from a stroke (or heart attack?)

Everett spoke for more than two hours; Lincoln took just over two minutes.  Purportedly afterward, Everett told Lincoln, "Mr. President, you just said in two minutes what I couldn't say in two hours."  Coming from Everett, that was the highest praise.

Yet, immediate reactions were mixed.  At Gettysburg, it was over almost before it was started.  The crowd, estimated at 15,000 (in a town with a population of 1/6 that), remained silent, either not understanding or thinking there was more to come.  The cameras there to take photos of Lincoln hadn't had time to set up--he was done before the cameramen got started.  Newspapers lauded or pooh-poohed the Address, depending on political affiliation/party.  The naysayers used words like "shameful" and "embarrassing."  Today, that seems incredible.  I guess even then politics trumped intelligence, even common sense.

Read the Address again; it takes a minute or so to read.  Lincoln has redefined the great experiment called "American democracy."  He takes "liberty/freedom" and adds to them "equality."  He cites American exceptionalism (and our current President claims to be a devotee of Lincoln--BAH!).  Note how it is, at the end, not "shall not perish from this land" (or nation or US...), but "from this earth."  (There are several copies of the Gettysburg Address extant; they don't read exactly the same.  We don't know exactly what Lincoln said that day, "this earth" or "the earth."  The meaning is clear, though.)

How important are liberty/freedom and equality?  Well, as he notes, that's why all those people were in Gettysburg that day.  Thousands of good men gave their lives on those July days, gave their lives for liberty/freedom and equality!

Please recognize the poetry of the Address.  Certainly another President (or any speaker) might well have opened with "In 1776" or even "Eighty-seven years ago."  See how Lincoln, who worked on this speech for several weeks beforehand, begins:  "Four score and seven years ago...."  And he uses such poetry throughout the speech.

The ideas and ideal, the poetry, the entire (albeit brief) Gettysburg Address is inspiring, especially in this day and age.