Random Thoughts at the End of a Tough Week

In reading a couple of books over the past few weeks, I am struck by this.  Once a person has a job in DC, with the federal gov't, that person always has a job, some job, with the feds, for life.  These appointees (or even elected officials) bounce from federal job to federal job.

Is this how far we have fallen?  In an e-mail exchange about a vocal Congressional critic of the President, talk was of an IRS audit of this Congressman.  It's not just that this administration uses the machinery of the Leviathan (the federal government) to punish or at least threaten or cow its critics. That's not the worse part.  It's that we all know or at least expect it will happen. Where is the outrage?  Oh, it lasts about two or three minutes, that's about it.  Where are the Democrats on this?  (The Republicans, the opposition can be dismissed as, well, the opposition--that is if they show any concern at all. And the establishment Republicans are once again on vacation on this.)  Oh, they complain about the Tea Partiers, oh yeah they do.  But who have the Tea Partiers audited?  Whose phones have they tapped?  Who have they stripped of licenses to do business? Yep, they, not a government run amok with power, are the real danger!   

Is there any US institution more intolerant than education?  I'm not sure there is.  From the public and private K-12 schools to the colleges and universities, there is little room for one who bucks the so-called "conventional wisdom."  Ostracism, name-calling, etc. greet one who doesn't buy into the latest credo.  Hmmm......  I thought education was, ultimately, concerned with the free exchange of ideas.  Ideas succeed or fail on their own merits, not whether they fit the currently accepted mantras.  I guess I thought wrong.

In the same vein, or at least a similar one, why does it seem that to the Democrats, "bipartisanship" (Oh, I detest that word!) is a one-way street.  Note recent votes in Congress or even your own state legislature.  Note the President's mode of operation, "My way or the highway."  This is opposed to W. Bush, who caved in to "bipartisanship" (Oh, I detest that word!) and fouled up so many things.

How ignorant are people?  They still hold to what the media have told them, repeatedly, "But Bush lied."  (Of course that's reinforced again and again by the Democrats.)  Yet, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and the rest lie, lie, and lie again and people don't at all react.  Oh, those few who do criticize are marginalized, if not polarized.

I wonder how journalists look at themselves in the mirror.  Do those who think, who are honest, not care that their profession has been hijacked by disingenuous, dishonest people?  Or, are there no honest, concerned journalists?  I won't be the pot calling the kettle black and will admit that there are few teachers willing to openly criticize what many privately rant and rave about--that is, those who aren't sheep (see the previous paragraph).

I'm not a big fan of Limbaugh.  Buffoon usually comes to mind when I think of him.  But I heard him say something quite funny and profound today.  (I don't normally listen to him, but I picked up Bopper from a half-day of school--another teacher boondoggle--and we were playing games with the car radio.)  A caller mentioned the US media exploiting the death of Nelson Mandela, comparing--favorably, of course--their messiah Obama to Mandela.  Limbaugh interrupted the caller, saying, "How does Mandela stack up?"  I chuckled right out loud.