The Few, The Proud

I just added Andrew Breitbart's new blog, Big Journalism, to my Blogroll List because that's where I can find Kyle-Anne Shiver's work and because it's really good.

Today features yet another great article by Ms. Shiver about the Main Stream Media and James O'Keefe. It puts the radical Sixties into perspective for those of us who survived it and for those who've only heard the stories.

Obama Needs Our Help

Somebody must get word to him about the leaked emails from the Climate Research group in England. He must not be aware of the biggest world wide scandal in recent history. Surely, if he knew that the global warming "science" is standing on shaky ground, if not directly on thin air, he would make an announcement and call off his trip to Copenhagen, wouldn't he?

Here are a few suggestions for articles to email to him from the bountiful list available on the Internet:

Sweetness and Light has numerous articles on the scandal including "Even the NY Times Begins to See the CRU Hoax."

UK Telegraph has "East Anglia Does U-Turn in Climate-Change Row."

Clive Crook wrote an excellent article in The Atlantic: “The stink of intellectual corruption is overpowering.”

Wall Street Journal: If you can’t trust scientists…

Christopher Booker (UK): Worst Scientific Scandal of our Generation

Shamelessly Stolen from Townhall.com

The Left and Terrorism

J.R. Dunn has a great essay at The American Thinker about the erroneous worldview of the left in America. I highly recommend it for all readers to understand the scope of the problems we face today in America and to begin correction before the country is destroyed.

He opens with the assertion that the "Jihadis will return" and closes with the following paragraphs.

There is a difference between dissent and desertion, criticism and undermining. That difference has been lost amid a fog of relativism in the past few decades. But behind that fog, the hard stone of reality remains. It's no longer a game. People are going to die because of the actions taken by this country's leftists. Recognizing the differences lost in the relativistic fog has become a matter of life and death.

The terror conflict is a two-front war. It always has been, as reluctant as we are to admit it. The time to open the second front is coming.

Your Homework Assignment

1. To get a fresh understanding of the dangers of current health care proposals, read Thomas Sowell's article at Townhall. Fables for Adults by out favorite economist/philosopher illustrates the folly of Obamacare.

2. To get some idea of the public relations work the US media has performed for liberal causes during the last 60 years, read Media Malpractice: Tom Brokaw's World Implodes in The American Spectator. From Barry Goldwater to John Edwards to ACORN, it reveals the depth of the deception and misinformation the mass media has inflicted on unknowing Americans. In the fifties and sixties, only those few who read National Review knew what was really happening, but now the Internet and talk radio daily bring more truth to light, effectively curtailing their influence.

3. To get a new understanding of the big picture, read about George Soros' nefarious role in our national decline. He prefers to stay in the background, but his power is global. Changing the US is his crowning achievement.

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum or The Truth Shall Set You Free*

The relationship of truth to freedom has been known for so long that it is warp and weft of human existence. Whether or not one believes in God and whether or not one always tells the truth to others, everyone believes freedom lies in knowing the truth and working within the framework of reality, at least for himself.

As James Lewis, in “Indulging Craziness,” reminded us last Sunday, psychiatrists and therapists know that crazy patients will never improve if those around him accept his warped view of reality. Indulging in a flawed version of reality makes the patient and, eventually, those around him crazier than ever. For the last half century, American society has cosseted those with grievances until our ability to function is almost permanently crippled. We have acted like indulgent parents who allow their miscreant children to ignore reality until they terrorize the whole neighborhood instead of growing up to become assets to the community.

At first, many questioned their victim status, but churches, YMCA’s, and other groups began conducting “consciousness raising” workshops to teach different groups just how oppressed they were. It is now part of the curricula from kindergarten to graduate school.

As a result, entire groups of people, including our current President and most Congressional Clowns, know nothing of the generosity and bravery exhibited throughout American history as compared to other nations, but they can speak at length on a moment’s notice about every flaw and misstep of the last 234 years.

Thus, we just had the sad experience of watching a noted Harvard scholar screech “racial profiling” when a patrolman merely checked on the possibility of burglary at his home because of a neighbor’s call. We cringed when Obama insisted on taking sides without checking on the facts. And we suffered with an innocent policeman who was brave enough to answer the call without knowing what he would encounter behind that front door.

Police brutality happens, and rightfully outrages everyone when it does. But it hasn’t happened enough for innocent citizens to cringe at the sight of a policeman or to refuse to offer identification when requested.

After decades of allowing the insanity of grievance politics to dominate the public square, we have begun to accept symbolic acts in lieu of real, honest change by “perpetrators” or their “victims.” It has encouraged the festering of grievances, like cancerous tumors poisoning the whole body.

For example, many Americans believed last November if they did the symbolic act of voting for Obama, it would erase racial tensions in the United States. Instead, we just witnessed a wealthy, influential black professor yelling insane accusation to a while police officer in a town run by a black mayor, in a state with a black governor, while his black president agreed with his crazy accusations.

“The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.” Herbert Spencer

It's time to grow up, forgive our enemies, and insist on facing the truth in every situation, not feel good platitudes or ill founded accusations.

*St. John 8:32

One Chart = 1000 Words

Click on chart to enlarge it.

Dr. Sanity has posted this chart which explains relationships that I've been intending to cover for months. However, I must admit that the chart does the work of many words, even mine, for anyone who understands and remembers the Twentieth Century. If you would like a more thorough discussion, go here to read about the Left's inexplicable love affair with tyrants and their failed tyrannies.

The most frightening aspect is realizing how successful the Liberal Left has become in the freedom loving United States by carefully managing its message through academia, mass media, and the entertainment industry. Those who dare to oppose the agenda have immediately been branded as heartless misanthropes in a surreal inversion of reality, a la Alice in Wonderland.

HR 1913 Passed House; Fight It in The Senate Now

Last week the heavy Democrat majority in the House easily passed Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 and, in the process, even refused to amend it to specifically exclude pedophiles from the list of “protected” sexual orientations or practices. It is not yet listed on the calendar for a vote in the Senate, but Sen. Ted Kennedy and 34 co-sponsors introduced a similar bill (S 909) that is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

There is still time to fight it, but you must call your Senators immediately to let them know of your opposition. Also notify members of the Senate Judicial Committee; the Democrat members are: Leahy, Kohl, Feinstein, Feingold, Schumer, Durbin, Cardin, Specter, Whitehouse, Wyden, Klobuchar, and Kaufman. The seven Republicans are: Hatch, Grassley, Kyl, Sessions, Graham, Cornyn, and Coburn. The Capitol Switchboard number is 800-202 224-3121 or you can easily find their numbers on the Internet.

As written, it elevates current or perceived sexual orientation to the same legal protection that is now reserved for race. By default, it then criminalizes those who believe homosexual practices (as well as other sexual activities that have been considered deviant) to be immoral. This act will put serious constraints on both freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

It encourages prosecution for all pursuits, including speech, perceived to be hateful by inserting federal authorities and federal money into criminal cases, which are usually the jurisdiction of the states. This opens the door to double jeopardy where one could be tried twice for the same act, both in federal and state courts.

It could protect the participants in activities that are against the law in most states, such as incest, prostitution, bestiality, and pedophilia. Because the bill does not specify, but merely mentions sexual orientation, it could also normalize by federal law a range of bizarre sexual behaviors now considered deviant by the American Psychiatric Association.

Like all hate crime legislation, it punishes thought and intent, rather than visible acts, thus giving the government the authority to determine and then punish someone’s inner thoughts and motivation, a practice formerly left to God alone.

Verdict First, Evidence Afterwards

The San Francisco Examiner has a great editorial today about the “climate change” hearings in the US House last week . (Read Gore Refuses Global Warming Debate for some background information.) They conclude that Congress is determined to pass laws regulating emissions (i.e. Cap and Trade legislation) regardless of whether Global Warming is a threat or not. Some Legislators see Cap and Trade as a cash cow for revenue, despite its estimated costs to American Taxpayers.

Someone needs to remind them of end of the story about The Goose That Laid a Golden Egg.

Separation of Church and State?

The recent claims that there should be no mention of God in our government or public discourse are just that -- recent. They arose through activists filing law suits that eventually were settled in appellate courts, not by public demand or open votes. So they reflect the beliefs of our black robed Masters of the Universe, not the people of the US. If you check out this post on What Does The Prayer Really Say, you will see a compilation of the opening lines in nearly all of our state constitutions. Guess what? They all acknowledge and thank God. Read the comments section also for additional information about the faith of our founding fathers.

On a similar note, the late Fr. Richard John Neuhaus spent the last years of his life trying to restore the acknowledgement of God and Judeo-Christian thought to current discussions. He wrote The Naked Public Square as well as other books, but was best known for the magazine he founded, First Things: The Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life. The magazine is rigorously interdenominational, with contributions from some of the best thinkers of our era discussing politics and culture from a religious point of view that paints the entire picture, not some attenuated vision that ignores reality. The magazine still reflects its founder's premise; check it out for thought provoking articles.

Call about HR 1388 Today

The GIVE or the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act will eliminate community based learn and serve programs. Instead it establishes a college level service-learning agenda and another research program that studies and implements similar plans in the primary and secondary levels of education. It makes the federal government the locus for service and organizes our children into a corps of “volunteers.”

There are many things wrong with this approach, not the least of which is that coerced service is not volunteerism. There is the question of expense and effectiveness. Then there is the big problem of its constitutionality, like, does it force citizens into involuntary servitude?

This act will come up for vote tomorrow, so today is the day to let your representative know how you stand.

On a personal note, this is but the latest fad to emerge from “academentia.” The university where I once taught jumped on the bandwagon and insisted that all freshmen participate in a community workday. Even on that level, the program was grossly mismanaged. They assigned an assisted living center to my group, but would not allow anyone tell the students what to expect or give specific instructions beforehand. So most kids stood around in uncomfortable clusters, watching the patients instead of interacting with them. I hate to think of the silly rules and restrictions coming down the pike when the planners are even further removed from the place of action.

Racial Cowards in "Academentia"

When I was advising university students on the courses they should take, a young black student came in who only wanted to take one course for the summer term. I told him that the tuition for summer school covered two classes and encouraged him to take another one to keep from wasting his money. He left in a huff and I went on to the next student in line.

Within 15 minutes an imperious black female professor insisted on interrupting my schedule to discuss a “very important matter.” She was there to tell me that I had insulted the student by assuming he could not afford to “waste” money because he was black. She came to my office to get me to apologize to him for my racial insensitivity.

I told her that all advisors were instructed to remind all students to take two courses for the summer term, unless they had an important reason to not do it.

I also informed her that of my four children, three were married: one to an Hispanic, one to a Caucasian, and one to a Black. If I were racist to any degree, that would not have happened.

She left hurriedly before I could explain that my children’s friendships and marriages resulted from judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. And furthermore, it happened without affirmative action, quotas, or lessons in politically correct behavior.

If Attorney General Holder is correct that we are a nation of cowards, it is because we have been taught to be cowardly by political correctness. In fact, it has been pounded into us until it’s almost impossible to discuss anything frankly and it only causes trouble.