I blame Walt Disney

Some idiot in Bejieng decided he wanted to cuddle with a Panda bear.  A real one.  In the zoo.  So not realizing that the operative word in “panda bear” is “bear” and not “panda”, he hopped a fence into the panda exhibit.  After the zookeepers extracted the panda’s teeth from his flesh, he expressed surprise at its reaction to his presence.

This is the result of large scale urbanization and unrealistic education.  People lose touch with the reality of wildlife and life and death in general and replace it with a mythology presented by children’s fairy tales (aka New York Times, NBC, Universal Studios, etc.).  How many different ways can polar bears be presented as cute cuddly little white stufties, and how completely divorced from reality can that image be?  If a polar bear catches you in the wild and it’s hungry, you’re dinner.  Speaking of dinner, how many urban dwellers really know where dinner comes from?  When they drive by cows in a field and then stop for a hamburger, can they even imagine what went on between the cow and the hamburger?  Do they know that their hamburger used to be cow?

How completely is modern education corrupted from teaching reality?  A commentator somewhere marvelled that the average American public school student can tell you all about the destruction of rain forests in South America and that it’s being caused by greedy corporations (actually, much of the destruction is caused by greedy little homesteaders), but can’t tell you how the sewer system works, how important that is to modern life and longevity and that it is generally a service provided by a private corporation.

Modern urban dwellers are being reduced to the high tech equivalent of the New Guinea cargo cultists, believing the trappings of modern life are provided for them by unknowable means.  If you say, “I support family farms.” three times then…Pop…food magically appears on store shelves.  People drive cars as if the gas pedal is a direct link to God.  When that link is severed, they go through the ritual of opening the hood and standing in respectful prayer staring at the incomprehensible world of Technology before them having not a clue what might have gone wrong, but sure that if they had been ‘a better person’ God would not have forsaken them.

Who could benefit from this fundamental failing in the education system?  Who most benefits from a population of ignorant rubes who are, ironically, convinced by that same educational system that they are the most enlightened generation eva’h?  Could it possibly be the government, which by the way runs the public school system?  More specifically, the people in government who view the government as the source of all goodness, the answer to all problems.  Could it be…

William Ayers! …YES!

Huh?

For the record, I did not start this out to end up here.  I started out beating up on Walt Disney for creating generations of people who can never survive on their own in the wilderness and ended up beating up on people who can never survive anywhere…which brought me to William Ayers because, by golly, every right winger has to say that name at least once a rant.

Did Ayers create the decrepit public education system?  No.  His presence as an ‘educator’ is a symptom of a much larger malady.    He moved from “I don’t understand.  They hate me no matter how many bombs I throw” to respected academic because he fit into an culture that was already there.  A culture of self-righteous, anti-everything, elitists convinced that they alone have the wisdom to rule all.  Using the academic platform not to promote individual growth and responsibility but to push the culture of victimhood and dependence on a government of the elite.  Namely, themselves.

Conservatives need to take back the public schools.  Vouchers are not the only solution because they only help students of parents who make the effort to use them.  The public school systems are simply to much a part of most communities to think, or even hope, that they will go away.  Conservatives need to take back the public schools not at the national level by campaigning against the Department of Education (that’s more a fiscal issue than an education issue).  They need to taake back the schools at the local school board level and at the state department of education level.  Challenge the mind numbing teachers unions and provide legal support for teachers and administrators who use judgment and good sense.  Push curricula that actually makes kids smarter rather than mind-numbed robots of people who look down on them.

And maybe, a reformation of the public school system will make kids smart enough to know better than to cuddle with a bear, panda or not.

The Blue Coats are coming! The Blue Coats are coming!

Update:  My two regular readers pointed out at dinner today that I should clarify from where I am coming from when listing congresscritters to call.  This being appropriate as my two regular readers live in the same district.  The people listed below represent Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.  Obviously, the senators represent the entire state, but that does inlcude the 1st distrct.  So there.

The Donks in Congress have a major post-ChristmasHoliday Surprise in store for all you good little boys and girls next year.  Writing congresscritters is better than voting.  It’s legal to do it early and often.  And e-mail is WAY easier than the old Western Union polito-grams.

Kit Bond Republican running in 2010.  He needs to be reminded that not being a RINO is OK.  In fact, it’s prefered.  Bipartisanship with the Democrats means doing what they want. We don’t want that. He needs to know that.

Claire McCaskill Democrat running in 2012. Thinks she’s safe because she has four years and a Messiah for cover. Needs to be reminded that Missouri is not a blue state and that Missourians are rather conservative. This is not Massachusetts on the Missouri River.  She needs to learn that there are advantages to being a blue dog in a red state.

Lacy Clay if you feel like wasting your breath.

Tod Akin is receptive to people outside his district. Give him some love.

Issues:

Freedom of Choice Act: The Catholic Church is threatening to close it’s entire medical system if FOCA forces them to perform abortions at their institutions.  Catholic medical centers make up about 1/3 of the hospitals in the US.  Think of St. Johns Mercy, St. Louis University Hospital, St. Mary’s, Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, etc. closing their doors overnight.  I’m sure the Democrat’s response will be to try to nationalize them because of the medical “crisis” they caused.  This is some high stakes poker the Catholic Church is playing.  The bishops are sounding like they have a Cause and they’re ready to tie themselves to stakes and light the fires.  There’s an easy way to avoid it.

Employee Freedom of Choice Act (Uh huh)  Card Check…uncheck.

Tax increases.  It’s simple.  Any congresscritter who can’t demonstrate that they wrote a check and sent it to the IRS as a gift to the country has no business telling me I need to pay more.  Capishe?  In fact I want the Charlie Rangel tax plan enacted as law.  Namely, it doesn’t matter what the tax code says, I won’t pay it and I won’t get in trouble for it.

Folks…sitting back with popcorn and watching the show is NOT an option.  Barry may be trying to start out halfway middl’n.  But congress is going to push a way left agenda and He has NEVER fought his party.  The press will not report on what’s going though Congress.  They will focus on the One and use him as a Trojan Horse to lull the citizenry into a sense of complacency while the leftists open the gates to let the barbarians in.

Oh, yeah.  Did I mention Comprehensive Immigration Reform?

It’s only fair

Citi Bank paid $400 million for a billboard add on the new Yankee Stadium (Wow.  And these guys strutted around like they were the Masters of the Universe).  Since the taxpayers just coughed up about eight hundred times that amount to bail them out, might I suggest a name change to go with the ownership change?

No more Man’s Best Friend

Deleted the Man’s Best Friend page because it is not really MY thing.  It is the thing of She Who Is Away At School Learning About Sharks (SWIAASLAS).  She has been given the assignment to biuld a Shark Blog when she is home this Christmas (YES!  I SAID CHRISTMAS! <Evil cackle>) break.

The One True Religion

And I’m not talking about any of the usual suspects.  I’m speaking of the Religion of the Left.  The Religion of the Atheist Humanist progressive.  I speak of course of the Religion of Godvernment.

“WHAT!” the Humanist Athiest Progressivist Leftists (HAPL) cry in self rightlefteous indignation.  “We do not believe in the existence of a god.  We are above such things.  We are what We have been Waiting for.  We do not believe in mythical beings.”

“Are you sure?  Don’t you believe that if a sparrow falls to Earth, the government should put it on the Endangered Species List?  That if you are afflicted, the government should heal you with National Health Service?  That the government should take care of the poor, yet make it easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get a tax exemption?  That men are ruled by the stars and starlets but government rules the stars, and their directors and producers?  That government has the power to raise or lower the oceans and cool or warm the Earth.  That the government can stop earthquakes and volcanoes by appeasing Mother Gaia?  That government can provide light without actually generating energy?”

“These are not beliefs of a religion!  Government (may peace be upon it) is simply the Will Of The People.”

“What people?”

“The Important People!  Those who are incapable of human frailty.  You know…Progressives, Democrats, graduates of Ivy League schools and anyone who criticizes George Bush or Sarah Palin.”

“Who said they are incapable of human frailty?”

“The Heralds!  The Daily Herald.  The Miami Herald.  The Boston Herald.”

“But aren’t they just examples of democrats reporting favorably about other democrats?”

“NO!  They are Journalists.  They are above petty human biases.  They say so themselves.  Therefore it has to be true.  They would not write it if it was not true.  The government would strike them down if they did.”

“But why would the government strike down a journalist if they lied to make the government look better?”

“If it makes the government looks better, it is not a lie.  That is the Truth.”

“But how do you know?”

“Because we have Faith.”

“Our Government, which art in Washington,

hallowed be thy name;

thy Administration come;

thy will be done,

in Main Street as it is in Harlem.

Give us this day our daily government cheese.

And forgive us our trespasses,

because property rights are anti-revolutionary.

And lead us not from temptation;

but deliver us from responsibility.

For thine is the administration,

the party, and the bail out,

For ever and ever.

Amen.”

I’m shocked. Shocked and appalled I tell ya’

My spelling has been criticized.  Goes back to my old saying…spell check doesn’t mean spell wright.

Day 9 of of being a member of the Blogging Universe.  And Universe is a good way to describe it.  A big emptiness interspersed with a smattering of bright spots.  I suspect I’m not a bright spot.

Shame on me

I should have posted before that Nov 22 is Boy Scout food drive day. (Someday more people than me may read it!)  This is the largest food drive in the country.  The Greater St. Louis Boy Scout Council is where it started and remains where is most successful.  I participated as a scout leader for six years.  It’s an amazing thing to watch the tons of fods stuffs showing up at a packing center in bags, being sorted, boxed and stacked into big 40 foot trailers by kids from 10 to grandparents.

There’s nothing Progressive about the left

Don Surber discusses an article writen by Michael Lind in Salon.  Maybe I should see who Lind was discussing.  The question was whether “Liberals”, who have been calling themselves “Progressives” because evil Republicans made “Liberal” a dirty word, can start calling themselves “Liberals” again.

The answer is NO.  Not only should they not call themselves “Liberals”, they shouldn’t call themselves “Progressives”.  They should call themselves “Leftists”.  Because there is nothing much liberal or progressive about the left.  Statism, with its obsession with control and repression of liberties does not promote what liberals like the US Funding Fathers espoused and promoted.  In fact, if you read and understand the US Constitution, you can see that the Founding Fathers were very much the anti-statists.

If the Republican party want to complete the demonization of the word “Liberal”, it should adopt it for its own use.  Republicans – Liberal Conservatives.  Promoting individual liberties against state power, which is the conservative thing to do.

The Million Gun March

As is becoming increasingly evident, and has been brought up all over the web, everything that comes out of Obama’s mouth has an expiration date.  His claim to support and uphold the 2nd Amendment has expired.  His nominee for Attorney General, Eric Holder, is a hard core gun grabber.

So I was working out at the gym this morning wondering how to respond to a gun ban proposal and the Million Gun March came to mind.  What if a million gun owners descended on Washington, DC?  Dissent is the highest form of patriotism after all.  A million gun owners walking around Washington, DC openly carrying.  Rifles and shotguns slung.  Pistols holstered.  Living the Heinlein motto:  An armed society is a polite society.  How do the leftist media (that’s pretty much all the media) spin it when, rather than becoming Dodge City, crime in an armed city goes to just above zero?

This may be a make or break moment in the gun rights movement given the far left government that is forming and their dogmatic, almost religious, quest for a docile, disarmed citizenry.  The SCOTUS justices most likely to resign in the next four years are liberals, which will not enable Obama to change the make-up of the court and overturn Heller.  But accidents and human frailties do arise.  And Obama and friends don’t much believe in the Constitution anyway if it doesn’t serve their purposes.

I thought the Democrats were opposed to corporate welfare?

In 1980, Chrysler got a hand up.  Lee Iacoca to a loan from the government, rebuilt the company and paid the loan back early.

The Great Recurring Auto Bailout (GRAB) has almost no hope of doing anything but cost more money later.  They’re not making any money.  They’re not going to make any money.  They have failed.  Management is clueless.  The UAW is corrupt with visions of the power it used to have.  The companies need to be restructured.  The unions need to be restructured.  Bite the bullet.  Let them fail.

Oh, I forgot.  It’s corporate welfare if you let a successful company keep some of its earnings.  It’s not corporate welfare to pump taxpayer money into failed businesses that funnel tons of money in donations directly and through the unions into the Democrat’s coffers.  Punish success, reward failure.