Thomas Sowell: “In liberal logic, if life is unfair then the answer is to…”

Random Thoughts

By Thomas Sowell | June 22, 2012 | American Spectator

Liberal logic has become a contradiction in terms.

Random thoughts on the passing scene:

Many people may have voted for Barack Obama in 2008 because of his charisma. But anyone familiar with the disastrous track record of charismatic political leaders around the world in the 20th century should have run for the hills when they encountered a politician with charisma.

What is scarier than any particular political policy or issue is the widespread tendency to treat political issues as personal contests in talking points — competitive skill in fencing with words — rather than as serious attempts to find out what the facts are and what the options are.

Stefan Molyneux: Statism is Dead (Parts 1-5) [Video]

Stefan Molyneux: The Matrix [Video]

“The Matrix” Transcript:

Media Myth Debunked: Class Sizes Have Dropped 40 Percent Since 1960

By Noel Sheppard | June 11, 2012 | Newsbusters

A regular media meme, especially since Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s comments regarding public sector employees last week, has been that there just aren’t enough school teachers in America.

Such statements ignore that according to the Census Bureau, since 1960, the average class size in our public schools has declined by 40 percent as the number of teachers rose almost four times faster than the student population.

Has the Communist Manifesto replaced the Constitution?

By George Hawley | June 9, 2012 | Young Americans for Liberty

When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union imploded two years later, Americans sighed a breath of relief. Seemingly overnight, our debilitating fear that a horde of T-72’s would blitz through the Fulda Gap evaporated; the world realized a nuclear holocaust would not be the Cold War’s coup de grace. What’s more, the Cold War’s conclusion freed millions of souls from Soviet oppression. We were right to be relieved. American conservatives, who were eager to take credit for USSR’s demise, were feeling particularly triumphant at that time. We had finally reached the “end of history,” and “democratic capitalism” reigned supreme. It remains to be seen, however, whether post-Cold War conservative chest thumping was truly justified.

Although all freedom lovers should celebrate the downfall of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the peaceful death of the Soviet Empire did not necessarily indicate the demise of Marxism as a force in the world. In fact, a strong case can be made that the United States is more Marxist now than ever before. It is true that a socialist revolution did not occur, as Marx predicted, via an apocalyptic struggle between workers and the bourgeoisie, but a socialist revolution of sorts nonetheless occurred. To those who believe Marxism has been relegated to “the dustbin of history,” I can only point to the words of Marx himself. The world we inhabit is not so different from the one Marx envisioned.

The Evolution of Socialist Strategies to Rescue Socialism from Failure [Infograph]

Source: Ideowar.com

Communitarianism: This is Your Future

From the Post Sustainability Institute:

Economic collapse creates a chain of events, but on a micro level (county, city) there is a marked reduction in revenue for maintenance of services. Loss of services to outlying areas means, for example, roads not being maintained to rural and suburban areas. Roads not being maintained to those areas, schools not being supported in those areas, law enforcement/fire/social services not being supported in those areas means a gradual movement into the denser city centers.  Add to that the increased cost of gasoline (manipulated), and the higher cost of energy (manipulated) to heat and cool statistically larger homes, and you have more pressure to leave rural and suburban areas. Reduction of energy usage is key.  Smart Growth/New Urbanism in Redevelopment Areas is the supposed answer: smaller units, attached condos, little or no parking, few private cars.  More eyes on the street.  Redevelopment projects are the implementation arm of the UN plan, and include rezoning of huge sections of your cities to Smart Growth zones. This physical manifestation of UN Agenda 21 is social engineering paid for with your property tax dollars.    These areas then have their property taxes diverted away from your services and into the pockets of a few developers and bond brokers for 30-45 years.  Result?  Bankrupt cities and counties.

Turn Out The Lights – The Largest U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wretchedness

Staff Report | May 24, 2012 | The Economic Collapse Blog

Once upon a time, the largest U.S. cities were the envy of the entire world.  Sadly, that is no longer the case.  Sure, there are areas of New York City, Boston, Washington and Los Angeles that are still absolutely beautiful but for the most part our major cities are rapidly rotting and decaying.  Cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis and Oakland were all once places where middle class American workers thrived and raised their families.  Today, all of those cities are rapidly being transformed into cesspools of filth, decay and wretchedness.  Millions of good jobs have left our major cities in recent decades and poverty has absolutely exploded.    Basically, you can turn out the lights because the party is over.  In fact, some major U.S. cities are literally turning out the lights.  In Detroit, about 40 percent of the streetlights are already broken and the city cannot afford to repair them.  So Mayor Bing has come up with a plan to cut the number of operating streetlights almost in half and leave vast sections of the city totally in the dark at night.  I wonder what that will do to the crime rate in the city.  But don’t look down on Detroit too much, because what is happening in Detroit will be happening where you live soon enough.

It’s the Culture, Stupid

By Tom Tancredo | May 25, 2012 | WND

Exclusive: Tom Tancredo asserts election is about worldview clash, not economics

There is a growing realization in political quarters that there’s more to the resiliency of the Obama regime and his re-election chances than voters’ shifting priorities or occasional upticks in the nation’s economy. But the resiliency of the Obama constituency should not be a mystery: It’s the culture, stupid.

Some very large segments of the population are immune from any evidence or real-world news of Obama’s failures. The challenge for Republican strategists and Romney advisers is that this problem is far deeper than traditional Democratic constituencies such as organized labor and ethnic minorities. The problem for Republican strategists is that they have great difficulty thinking outside the box of conventional economic issues. They fear “social issues” – which are, of course, cultural issues – and have no contingency plan for dealing with them.

The bad news for Romney is that at least 40 percent of the electorate shares much of Obama’s worldview; their support for Obama does not depend on the direction of the monthly unemployment numbers. That’s not a weak base to build on, and the Republican task of finding 51 percent who will resist the free-lunch demagoguery of the left grows more difficult with each election cycle.

Waking the Sleeping Giant: Book Offers Solutions to Put Liberals on Defense in Politics and Culture

By Tony Lee | May 24, 2012 | Breitbart News

The late Andrew Breitbart knew that in order to defeat the left,  Americans had to first take back the cultural institutions used by the left to advance liberalism.

In their new book, Waking The Sleeping Giant: How Mainstream Americans Can Beat Liberals At Their Own Game, authors Timothy Daughtry and Gary Casselman offer everyday “mainstream” Americans a valuable and important playbook for taking back the broader culture.

Is GOP Headed for Ash Heap of History?

By Patrick J. Buchanan | May 17, 2012 | WND

Pat Buchanan applies latest racial data to realities of Republican Party policies

 Among the more controversial chapters in “Suicide of a Superpower,” my book published last fall, was the one titled, “The End of White America.”

It dealt with the demographic decline of the white majority and what it portends for education, the U.S. economy, politics and national unity.

That book and chapter proved the proximate cause of my departure from MSNBC, where the network president declared that subjects such as these are inappropriate for “the national dialogue.”

Apparently, the mainstream media are reassessing that.

For, in rare unanimity, the New York Times, the Washington Post and USA Today all led yesterday with the same story.

“Whites Account for Under Half of Births in U.S.,” blared the Times headline. “Minority Babies Majority in U.S.,” echoed the Post. “Minorities Are Now a Majority of Births,” proclaimed USA Today.

Jail Time for Insulting Obama? Student Who Stood Up to Outrageous Teacher Speaks for First Time

By Erica Ritz | May 22, 2012 | The Blaze

Obtained by a student with his cellphone, it remained a mystery who the student that challenged the teacher was, though many were impressed that he held his own against the teacher, and without losing his temper like she did.

(Related: N.C. Teacher Suspended For Telling Student He Could Be Arrested for Talking Badly About Obama)

Now, Fox News has tracked down the individual in question, a long-haired boy by the name of Hunter Rogers.

Read the full article here.

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NC Teacher Suspended for Hectoring Students About Respecting Obama

By John Sexton | May 21, 2012 | Breitbart News

Yesterday, Breitbart News reported a story about a North Carolina high school teacher who began screaming at students who dared to criticize President Obama. Today, the teacher in question, Tanya Dixon-Neely, was suspended with pay by the school.

NC Teacher Screams at Student: It’s Criminal to Criticize Obama

By Ben Shapiro | May 20, 2012 | Breitbart News

A YouTube video uploaded on Monday afternoon apparently shows a schoolteacher from the Rowan-Salisbury school district in North Carolina informing a student that failing to be respectful of President Obama is a criminal offense. Breitbart News has uncovered that the student is a high school junior, and that the teacher is apparently one Tanya Dixon-Neely.

The video shows a classroom discussion about the Washington Post hit piece about Mitt Romney bullying a kid some five decades ago. One student says, “Didn’t Obama bully someone though?” The teacher says: “Not to my knowledge.” The student then cites the fact that Obama, in Dreams from My Father, admits to shoving a little girl. “Stop, no, because there is no comparison,” screams the teacher. Romney is “running for president. Obama is the president.”

You Cannot Miss What You’ve Never Had: The Vanishing Feeling of Freedom

By Daren Jonescu | May 19, 2012 | American Thinker

 The primary reason why it is so difficult to defend political liberty today is because freedom is a rational construct, and thus cannot be understood by the irrational.  Children, or adults whose moral reasoning skills are stalled at childish levels, are unable to experience it — they literally don’t know what they are missing.

This is why authoritarians of all stripes are hell-bent on producing and maintaining a society of childish citizens: dependent, trusting of the hand that feeds, obedient, pleasure-centered — perhaps capable of proficiency in well-defined tasks, but frightened, above all else, of being left to “fend for themselves.”

The Balkanization of America: Is Demography Destiny?

By Thomas Sowell | May 18, 2012 | WND

Thomas Sowell asks if ongoing racial polarization will spell disaster for U.S.

Now that census data show – for the first time in American history – the number of white babies born exceeded by the number of babies born to non-white minorities, the question is: What does this mean for the future of American society?

Politically, it means that minorities who traditionally vote overwhelmingly for Democrats can ensure that the country veers ever further to the left over the years, making America more like the welfare states of Europe, whose unsustainable spending led ultimately to financial crises and widespread riots.

But this is not strictly a matter of whites versus non-whites. Jews vote consistently, and almost as overwhelmingly, for Democrats as blacks do. Moreover, Asian-Americans are by no means as likely as other non-whites to vote for the class-warfare, tax-and-spend agenda of the Democrats.

Yet when all is said and done, the future political direction of the country seems painfully clear for these demographic trends, unless something happens to change the current correlation between race and political party affiliation. Moreover, even that may not be enough.

Obama’s Homosexual America: President embraces liberal goal of ending marriage and societal stability

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner | May 10, 2012 | The Washington Times

President Obama has made it official: He now supports same-sex marriage. It is his latest onslaught on traditional America. Mr. Obama has made history. He is our first commander in chief to openly embrace legalizing homosexual and lesbian unions. He has crossed a cultural watershed, paving the way for the eventual triumph of the homosexual agenda. Rather than being a victory for “civil rights” or “marital equality,” Mr. Obama’s decision puts America on the path to moral disintegration. We are one step closer to becoming like secular, post-Christian Europe.

For years, Mr. Obama claimed his position was “evolving.” Facing re-election and under growing pressure from liberal interest groups, especially the powerful homosexual lobby, he finally capitulated. His decision was not based on principle, but cynical politics. Mr. Obama needs the gay and lesbian vote to win in November. Immediately upon his announcement Wednesday, Hollywood donors opened their checkbooks. Millions were pumped into the Obama campaign coffers; the liberal base has been energized, and the cultural left is hailing Mr. Obama as the Martin Luther King of our time. The president believes it is an electoral masterstroke.

Instead, he has made a big mistake. Same-sex marriage is opposed by most Americans. On Tuesday, North Carolina became the 31st state to vote for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The referendum was not even close: More than 60 percent of voters supported Amendment One. The liberal media, such as the New York Times, consistently portray anti-gay-marriage advocates as bigots.

This is nonsense. Most Americans are neither intolerant nor bigoted. Rather, they understand that marriage is the basic institution of society. For thousands of years in the West, it has had a privileged role. Marriage solidifies the bonds between a man and a woman, laying the foundation for raising children in stable families. It is the glue that binds a functioning, viable social order. Marriage is the natural unit that enables society to perpetuate itself from one generation to the next. This is not hate; it’s common sense.

Read the full article here.

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Gary Casselman and Timothy Daughtry Discuss “Waking the Sleeping Giant” [Video]

The Psychology of the liberal Mind: How Mainstream Americans Can Beat Liberals at Their Own Game [Video]

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Could George W. Bush Be the Last Republican President?

By Myra Adams | May 4, 2012 | PJ Media

Is it possible that George W. Bush could be the last Republican president ever, or at least for the foreseeable future?

Am I crazy to even formulate that question?

Maybe not and here are 10 reasons why.

1. Rapidly changing demographic trends that favor the Democrat Party.

2. An education system controlled by liberals that churns out young liberals.

3. A population with an ever increasing dependence on government in the form of entitlements and subsidies.

4. A mainstream media that is overwhelmingly comprised of journalists who subtly and not so subtly spin the news in support of Democrats and liberal causes.

5. The influence of Hollywood, which makes it cool to be a liberal Democrat.

6. The growing power concentrated in local, state, and federal government worker unions, whose members actively campaign against Republicans on the taxpayer dime.  (See WI Governor Walker’s upcoming recall election for an active example of this.)

7. A culture where non-traditional social and sexual behavior has become mainstream.

8. A hatred for Republicans in general and a tendency to blame the party for “the mess we’ve inherited.”

9. A Republican Party that is growing increasingly white, old, southern, and male, while alienating majorities of younger voters, Hispanics, African Americans, gays, teachers, young professionals, atheists, unmarried women, and even suburban married women.

10. The internet and the growing social media phenomenon that strongly tilts in favor of Democrats.

Together, all of the above reasons are reflected in the latest Obama vs. Romney Real Clear Politics Electoral College map.

Currently with 270 electoral votes needed to win, the states that are either likely or lean Obama total 253, while Romney’s likely or lean states total 170.

What is even more significant is the list of toss-up states.

Below is a list with their electoral votes and a hyperlink to the latest Obama vs. Romney polling averages in each state.

Arizona (11)

Colorado (9)

Florida (29)

Iowa (6)

Missouri (10)

New Hampshire (4)

North Carolina (15)

Ohio (18)

Virginia (13)

Together these 9 states total 115 electoral votes, of which Romney must win 100 if he is to reach 270.

Consult your nearest statistician for the odds of that happening.

Upon examining this lopsided electoral matchup, one could conclude that Romney is not the strongest candidate the Republicans could nominate to go up against Obama.

Sure, you could say that, but you would be wrong.

Read the full article here.

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Bishop Says Obama on Hitlerian Path

By Cliff Kincaid | April 18, 2012 | Gulag Bound

Comparing Obama to Hitler is something that the liberal/left used to blame on the Tea Party. However, posters and signs showing Obama with a Hitler moustache were inevitably traced to followers of Lyndon LaRouche. They sometimes tried to portray themselves as conservatives, but in reality LaRouche is a former Marxist who ran for president as a Democrat. They like to cause deliberate political confusion.

Now that an educated Catholic Bishop with knowledge of history and a commitment to religious freedom has made the comparison, however, the national media cannot decide on how to respond.

When I saw the headline, “Bishop Compares Obama Policies to Hitler, Stalin,” over an article on Newsmax.com, the conservative website, I thought at first it must be an error or exaggeration. Was a Catholic Bishop actually being this harsh? I have reported on the reaction of the Catholic Church to the Obama Administration’s birth control mandate affecting religious institutions. My local priest called it evil and demonic and has suggested the church will be persecuted and ministers jailed for resisting the federal onslaught. But comparing the President personally to Hitler and Stalin?

The Newsmax headline about the charge concerned a story from LifeSiteNews.com. The Daily Caller titled it: “Illinois Bishop: Obama ‘intent on following a similar path’ as Hitler, Stalin.”

I went to the www.LifeSiteNews.com and the headline over its story was only slightly different: “Obama taking ‘similar path’ as Hitler and Stalin: Illinois bishop.” The question then became—were these stories somehow exaggerating what the Catholic Bishop said?

The Catholic Post ran the full text of the homily of Bishop Daniel R. Jenky at the Mass during the April 14 “A Call to Catholic Men of Faith” in Peoria. The homily is also available on podcast. The headlines did indeed capture the essence of what he said. The Bishop goes by the title “Most Reverend Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C., D.D.” CSC stands for the Congregation of the Holy Cross, the order that runs Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana. D.D. stands for Doctor of Divinity. He is an educated man. His education includes:

• College: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
• Novitiate: Holy Cross Fathers’ Novitiate, Bennington, Vermont
• Seminary: Moreau Seminary, Notre Dame, Indiana
• Theology: Moreau Seminary, Notre Dame, Indiana

Taking aim at Obama, Hollywood and the media, the Bishop said:

“For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire.

“The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism.

“And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.

“The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS [Health and Human Services], and of the current majority of the federal Senate.” (Applause)

It turns out that the Bishop was just getting warmed up.

Read the full article here.

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Reading the Contempt of Socialists

By Bruce Deitrick Price | May 6, 2012 | American Thinker

What, if any, is the connection between illiteracy and ideology?

George Orwell, our greatest political sociologist, has some ideas.  He is the master explainer of governance, power, totalitarianism, education, and the dynamics of class warfare.  It’s an ugly picture.

In his seminal essay, “Ignorance Is Strength,” Orwell lays down the iron rule of history: “Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world[:] High, Middle, and Low.”

Orwell cynically notes that the Middle always campaign for power by promising the Low that they will be moved toward the top.  In fact, if the Middle are able to seize power, they establish themselves as the High, the Low are crushed, and that’s the end of the story until the next Middle become powerful enough to start another cycle.

Orwell concludes: “As soon as they have reached their objective, the Middle thrust the Low back into their old position of servitude, and themselves become the High.”

Many observers would say, especially with Obama in the White House, that we are witnessing an attempted coup by the current Middle — intellectuals, academics, ideologues, journalists, thinkers, and talkers (i.e., people who feel entitled to run the world because they are so smart).  This hungry Middle wants to take power from the bankers, tycoons, entrepreneurs, and industrialists — the movers and organizers who have run the world for several centuries.

But let’s focus on the Low — can they improve their lives by siding with the Middle in this ongoing coup attempt?  Will the Middle, this time, actually try to lift up the Low?

Orwell’s essay is depressing because he sees no hope that the Low can ever improve their condition.  In his view, the Middle are always liars, manipulators, and exploiters, despite their honeyed promises.

Why is Orwell so sure that the Middle always abuse the Low?  And can we find proof of Orwell’s pessimistic vision?

One bit of history strikes me forcefully in this context.  When the Progressives in this country took control of public education, fighting under the banner of John Dewey’s socialist ideas, you might have expected — or hoped — that they would use their new power to lift the lower classes to some higher place.  They did not.

They had power by the 1930s, and their first big move was to throw phonics out and introduce Whole Word, which requires children to memorize words as diagrams.  It seems to me a particularly revealing move.  From that time forward, our public schools have churned out more than 50 million functional illiterates.  We have one million dyslexics, with some estimates much higher.  We have a vast decline in culture, in general knowledge, and in ordinary common sense.  (If people still have any of that, it’s arguably because they are constantly interacting with movies and TV; most of this so-called entertainment is more sophisticated than most of the so-called education served up in our public schools.)

And all this decline was accomplished by a simple device: our collectivist educators, having climbed their way to the top, refused to let the peasants learn to read.

To me, it’s shocking.  But there’s little doubt that that is what happened, and it is confirmation of George Orwell’s cynicism.  He said that the Middle, when they got power, would never give the suckers an even break.  That’s what we have seen in the public schools of our country for the last 80 years.  What the Low get is dumbing down and illiteracy.

The reason for using Whole Word never seemed to have anything to do with helping the Low.  A cursory look at literacy statistics proves that this method is a bust and generally hurts the slower students most.  The real agenda always seemed to be making sure that the Low stay low, and in creating an economic and cultural disaster zone where the Middle can sign up new recruits and continue their assault on the High.  Indeed, the Middle use their control of education primarily to wean the Low away from supporting the High.  Education today is a war of propaganda against the status quo, until the High give up.  Isn’t this what we are seeing?

Read the full article here.

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Obama Campaign: Romney Would Ruin Life of Composite Woman

By Ben Shapiro | May 3, 2012| Breitbart

President Obama’s campaign re-election website has put up a public relations initiative called “The Life of Julia.” The goal of this initiative: to compare “how President Obama’s policies would help one woman over her lifetime – and how Mitt Romney would change her story.” It’s propaganda of the worst order. It’s a typical Obama scare tactic. And worst of all, it assumes that Julia will remain dependent on the government her entire life.

Julia’s story begins when she’s 3. Thanks to President Obama, the website says:

Julia is enrolled in a Head Start program to help get her ready for school. Because of steps President Obama has taken to improve programs like this one, Julia joins thousands of students across the country who will start kindergarten ready to learn and succeed.

Well, no. Head Start has been one of the worst failures of the federal government. The Department of Health and Human Services itself found that the government has invested $150 billion in Head Start since 1965 … and that has yielded precisely zero impact for the kids involved. But according to Obama, that dastardly Romney fellow would cut Head Start by 20%. The horror, the horror!

Apparently, nothing happens in Julia’s life until she’s 17. There’s a reason for that – America’s public school system is an utter failure, and Obama knows it. But Obama says that Julia at age 17 is flourishing (presumably she isn’t one of the approximately 25 percent of all students who drop out of school, or one of the 40 percent of black or Hispanic students who do so). Here’s Julia’s life under Obama at 17:

Julia takes the SAT and is on track to start her college applications. Her high school is part of the Race to the Top program, implemented by President Obama. Their new college- and career-ready standards mean Julia can take the classes she needs to do well.

Julia must be one of the lucky ones to get into a charter school. If she goes to one of America’s normal public schools, this is a pipe dream. But according to Obama, nasty Romney would cut funding for public education “to pay for tax cuts to millionaires.” Because what we need is more education spending, not less – even while districts like the Los Angeles Unified School District expend about $30,000 per year per student to achieve the worst results in the nation.

By age 18, Julia’s taking out college loans – with the help of the taxpayer:

As she prepares for her first semester of college, Julia and her family qualify for President Obama’s American Opportunity Tax Credit – worth up to $10,000 over four years. Julia is also one of millions of students who receive a Pell Grant to help put a college education within reach.

So Julia majors in lesbian dance at one of our nation’s colleges. Who pays? Obama doesn’t say.

At age 22, Julia undergoes surgery:

It is thankfully covered by her insurance due to a provision in health care reform that lets her stay on her parents’ coverage until she turns 26.

Because God knows that this independent young woman can’t buy her own health care, obtain it through her college, or find another way to pay for her surgery. Also, what kind of surgery is this? Is it elective? Is it required? Who knows? And let’s not mention that the average 22-year-old isn’t receiving surgery. Obamacare hurts Julia because she’s subsidizing her parents, since she has to pay higher costs once she obtains her own insurance.

At 23, Julia “starts her career as a web designer.” This assumes she will have a job in the private sector under Obama. Or, that she’s going to be hired to design programs like “The Life of Julia.”

Because of steps like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Julia is one of millions of women across the country who knows she’ll always be able to stand up for her right to equal pay.

She can sue people. Julia’s friends, the trial lawyers, are overjoyed!

Read the full article here.

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Black Teen Run Off the Liberal Plantation

By Matthew May | May 2, 2012 | American Thinker

Do you know the name Jada Williams?

You probably know the name Sandra Fluke.  She received a phone call from the incumbent president after the mean old white man on the radio called her a name.  You probably know the name Trayvon Martin.  The incumbent president answered a planted question from a White House reporter to indicate that Trayvon, slain by an individual representing the heretofore unknown demographic of white Hispanic, looked like he could be the president’s son.

Jada Williams is a 13-year-old student from Rochester, New York.  Earlier this school year, she was given a copy of the book The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by the great patriot Frederick Douglass.  Her assignment was to read the book and write an essay about her impressions.  Her essay was to be entered in a contest.  Jada Williams happens to be black.  Many of her teachers are white.

Reading Douglass can — and should — incite rage and astonishment at the depths to which barbaric slaveowners and their deputies sank in treating their fellow men.  The violence perpetrated upon Douglass and other slaves by the protected class of overseers is relayed in stark detail — to wit, an anecdote about an overseer named Mr. Gore:

Mr. Gore once undertook to whip one of Colonel Lloyd’s slaves, by the name of Demby. He had given Demby but few stripes, when, to get rid of the scourging, he ran and plunged himself into a creek, and stood there at the depth of his shoulders, refusing to come out. Mr. Gore told him that he would give him three calls, and that, if he did not come out at the third call, he would shoot him. The first call was given. Demby made no response but stood his ground. The second and third calls were given with the same result. Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with any one, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim, and in an instant poor Demby was no more…He (Gore) was asked by Colonel Lloyd and my old master, why he resorted to this extraordinary expedient. His reply was, (as well as I can remember,) that Demby had become unmanageable.

Ms. Williams struggled with the initial part of the assignment.  She found it difficult to encounter some of the vocabulary used by Douglass.  Exasperated at being unprepared to confront the text, she sought definition to that which she did not comprehend.  Once she became satisfied that she grasped Douglass’s use of the language, she understood what Douglass was describing.  She was struck by comparisons between her life and Douglass’s characterizations of the plantation overseers and masters and mistresses who denied him knowledge for fear of his becoming aware of his humanity.

In her essay, Ms. Williams drew a parallel between what she saw as a group of self-satisfied “white teachers” overseeing dysfunctional students (characterized by Ms. Williams as “so-called ‘unteachable'” students) who were not being properly taught, illiterate and perpetually ignorant.  This she considers a form of slavery.  Ms. Williams quoted an arresting passage from Douglass’s description of one of his masters, a Mr. Auld, happening upon his wife instructing Douglass in basic reading:

If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there will be no keeping him. It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.

One wonders if the copy of Douglass’s book read by Ms. Williams included, as do some editions, a letter written to Douglass by Massachusetts abolitionist Wendell Phillips.  Phillips surmised that Douglass’s experiences as a slave amounted to “[t]he cruel and blighting death that gather over his soul.”  An oft-quoted phrase about writers or by writers is that “writers write what they know.”  So Ms. Williams wrote.

Perhaps Ms. Williams’s use of the phrase “white teachers” was provocative.  Yet this is her reality.  Her plea was not that her teachers should be fired or punished in any way.  Her plea was conciliatory and did not limit blame for what she sees as an intolerable situation to them alone.  She asked that her teachers — and her fellow students — work in concert to spread knowledge and prepare their students and themselves in such a way so as to be able to engage a mind like Frederick Douglass without frustration:

A grand price was paid in order for us to be where we are today; but in my mind we should be a lot further, so again I encourage the white teachers to instruct and I encourage my people not to just be a student, but become a learner.

The essay that Ms. Williams wrote was never entered in the essay contest.  Instead, she was harassed out of her school by the very people whose assistance she requested.

Read the full article here.

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David Barton is Today’s #1 Google Trend After Talking About Religious Freedom on ‘The Daily Show’

By Billy Hallowell | May 2, 2012 | The Blaze

Conservative historian David Barton, a knowledgeable source when it comes to understanding America’s faith roots, is a frequent guest on GBTV. And today, Barton became the number one trending topic on Google. The astounding accomplishment, CNN’s Belief Blog reports, came after the historian‘s Tuesday evening appearance on Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.”

A screen shot showing David Barton’s placement on the Google trends list

Barton has been an advocate for the notion that Christianity was at the root of the nation’s founding and that the faith system has played a key role in shaping American history. This detail, he argues, has been removed from history books and is not discussed adequately in classrooms. His organization, WallBuilders, is focused on promoting this long-lost history and defending the nation’s Christian heritage.

(Related: Do You Know the Real Story Behind the ‘Jefferson Bible’? David Barton Shared it With Beck)

Barton’s new book, “The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson,” delves into the issue of whether Thomas Jefferson was, indeed, secular — or religious. The popular evangelical historian tries, throughout the text, to refute the notion that he was an anti-theist politician. Recently, Barton appeared on GBTV, where he told Glenn Beck that the history of the Jefferson Bible has been twisted.

Naturally, the evangelical leader is not without his critics. On Tuesday evening, as noted, he made yet another appearance (yes, he’s been on before) on “The Daily Show,” where he discussed faith in America.

“You are prolific as always,” Stewart said, as he began his discussion with Barton. The two spent the first portion of the interview discussing misconceptions surrounding Jefferson.

“The biggest feeling — that he was an atheist or a secularist. He just wasn’t. He was a religious guy,” Barton said. “His activities, his actions, his givings, his money — now he had some comments that you could take out of context…but when you look at hundreds of his letters, you just don‘t get the sense that he’s an atheist.”

Watch the first part of the interview, below:

Read the full article here.

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The Empire of Poverty [Video]

By Daniel Greenfield | April 29, 2012 | Sultan Knish

Controlling a large number of people isn’t easy. The United States alone consists of 312 million people spread out across nearly 4 million square miles. Add on nearly 500 million for the population of the European Union and another nearly 4 million square miles of territory. Then pile on Canada with 34 million people and another 4 million square miles, Australia with 22 million and 3 million square miles and a few other stragglers here and there, and the postmodern rulers of the progressive empire have to cope with nearly a billion people spread out across 15 million square miles.

Large territories and large numbers of people are very difficult to govern. Structures tend to break down and people further away from the centers of power don’t listen to the boys at the top. The only way to make a going proposition of it is to consolidate as much power as possible at the center and the very act of centralizing power leads to tyranny.

The most direct chokehold possible is physical. China’s rulers, faced with vast territory and population, turned to the water empire. The modern West is quickly rediscovering a more sophisticated form of hydraulic despotism, cloaked in talk of saving the planet and providing for everyone’s needs.

Western resources are not innately centralized, which makes seizing control of them and routing them through a central point more difficult. This has to be done legislatively and has to be justified by a universal benefit or a crisis. One example of this is FDR’s Agricultural Adjustment Act which allowed the government to control wheat grown on a farm for private consumption. Another is nationalizing health care by routing the commercial activity of medicine through government organs. Both services and commodities can be controlled in this manner.

But the larger challenge is that the West is rich and a water empire depends on scarcity. Central control is much less potent if there is plenty of the commodity or service available. It’s only when shortages are created in bread or health care that the system really wields power by rationing a scarce commodity or service.

If a resource is scarce, then the water empire has to distribute it efficiently. But if a resource is widely available, then the water empire has to find ways of making it scarce, until the demand vastly outstrips the supply.

The modern water empire is dependent for its power on manufactured shortages. The rise of the progressive state was closely tied to its exploitation of shortages. Its challenge has been to win the race with industrial productivity by manufacturing shortages and destroying wealth faster than it could be created. While the machine of industry created wealth, the machine of government destroyed it. Today the machine of government is very close to winning the race, creating a state of permanent shortages.

Manufactured shortages are the great project of modern governments. This manufacture is done by prohibitively increasing the cost of creating and distributing products and services, by controlling the means of production in the name of wealth redistribution and by prohibiting the production on the grounds that it is immoral or dangerous. Over the 20th century the transition was made from the first to the second and finally to the third.

The third means of manufacturing shortages is the final trump card in the race between human ingenuity and government power. It began with pollution regulation and has reached the stage where all human activity, from a bike ride to the corner to a puff of exhaled air, is a form of pollution. The carbon footprint is to the human being what the Agricultural Adjustment Act was to wheat, a mandate for total central regulation of all human activity.

While the second means of manufacturing shortages only justified redistributing wealth, the third prevents its creation. It is the final lock of the water empire. When it slides into places, shortages become permanent and the Empire of Poverty rules over all.

The Empire of Poverty is the modern incarnation of the water empire, its feigned concern for social equality disguising its hunger for total power. With the third stage, the empire of poverty is mostly putting aside its pretense of controlling production in order to maximize human benefits from the products or services and is shifting over to controlling production in order to deny use of the products and services to those who need them.

Global Warming rhetoric is still couched in the usual social justice rhetoric, aimed at the poorer kleptocracies who are eager to join the line for a handout, but its logic is poverty driven. It is not out to create wealth, but to eliminate it, on the grounds that cheaply available food or electricity is an immoral activity that damages the planet.

Read the full article here.

Adam Taxin interviews Daniel Greenfield for a bit under five minutes about his Sunday, April 29, 2012 column, “The Empire of Poverty.”

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An Excellent Education Is Possible, Just Not In American Schools [Video]

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Liberal Bias Starts in High School Economics Textbooks

By Charlie Kirk | April 27, 2012 | Breitbart

All across the country, students are studying for Advanced Placement exams coming in the middle of May. Students in AP Economics are taught with Krugman’s Economics for AP by Margaret Ray and David A. Anderson, adapted from Paul Krugman and Robin Wells’ Economics (Second Edition). Our public education system is supposedly one without bias, a place where any student can come and learn without any form of partisanship. Instead, our classrooms are slowly becoming political lecture halls with teachers being pawns to further the doctrine of liberalism and “equality.”

Throughout the entire textbook, there are historical, factual, and statistical distortions. For example, Chapter 36 (“The modern macroeconomic consensus”) contains 16 sweeping generalizations such as: “Nearly all macroeconomists now agree… There is now a broad consensus… Today, most macroeconomists believe… Almost all macroeconomists now accept…” (pp. 355-58). None of these assertions are backed up with even a single citation. If a student were to submit an essay with such disregard for basic evidence, it would ensure a failing grade.

I find it troubling Krugman’s Economics for AP concludes that Reagan’s “supply-side economics is generally dismissed by economic researchers. The main reason for this dismissal is lack of evidence.” Referring to economic growth and output, our textbook goes on to state there was “no sign of an acceleration in growth after the Reagan tax cuts.”

Read the full article here.

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Wisconsin Teachers Union Threatens Parent for Challenging Union Abuses

By Education Action Group | April 25, 2012 | Breitbart

RACINE, Wis. – Former Racine Unified school district board member Brian Dey has had his fair share of run-ins with the district’s teachers union.

He proposed Act 10-style cuts when he served on the board between 2005 and 2008. More recently, he pressed school officials to launch an investigation into the union’s allegedly illegal campaigning on school property.

But it was the outspoken education reformer’s comments about the apparent union connection to a “Student Bill of Rights” that prompted a Wisconsin Education Association Council attorney to threaten a defamation lawsuit to shut him up.

It didn’t work.

In an interview with EAGnews.org, Dey said he was somewhat surprised by the threatening letter he received from the WEAC earlier this month, but the experience has only strengthened his resolve to speak out about union abuses and the benefits of Act 10 in Wisconsin’s public schools.

“Initially I laughed because it’s similar to threats (from the union) in districts across the state against those who come out … for Act 10 and Scott Walker,” Dey said. “I’m not intimidated, nor am I going to be quiet about it.

“I don’t agree with collective bargaining for professionals, I just don’t.”

Collective bargaining for teachers is somehow at the center of a “Student Bill of Rights” allegedly drafted by students in Milwaukee and Racine, most of whom have been inducted into the radical group Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES).

YES is led by left-wing Horlick High School teacher Al Levie, who is prone to dragging his students with him to protest and heckle lawmakers he doesn’t agree with. YES and Levie are also tied to Voces de la Frontera, an organization that advocates for extremely liberal immigration policies and collective bargaining privileges.

Teachers involved with YES are WEAC members, and a central issue of the “Student Bill of Rights” conveniently mirrors the union’s top priority – collective bargaining. The fact that students introduced the document after marching from Big Labor headquarters in Racine has convinced Dey that WEAC likely is involved with the “student effort.” He has spoken up about the issue on blogs and online news forums.

Now, WEAC’s high-dollar attorney wants Dey to shut his mouth about the situation, and to stop talking about union abuses he has highlighted for taxpayers in the past.

Cease and desist

Here are some excerpts from WEAC’s cease and desist letter, sent to Dey by union attorney Jina Jonen:

“I have received information that you have made defamatory and other false statements about the Racine Education Association (REA), Mr. Jack Bernfeld (REA Executive Director) and Mr. Pete Knotek (REA President) to the public, and in particular, on your blog and in the press.

“To give a few examples, contrary to your statements, the REA and/or its representatives:

– Did not draft or participate in drafting the student bill of rights;
– Did not organize any “sick out” last year when Governor Walker and his legislature stripped teachers of their right to have a voice in making educational decisions that drastically impact students and our schools;
– Did not advocate for or participate in any illegal actions regarding political campaigns, Act 10 or any other matters.”

Jonen then threatened Dey with a lawsuit if he doesn’t keep quiet.

Read the full article here.

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28 Signs That U.S. Public Schools Are Rapidly Being Turned Into Indoctrination Centers And Prison Camps

Staff Report | December 30, 2011 | End of the America Dream

It has been said that children are our future, and right now the vast majority of our children are being “educated” in public schools that are rapidly being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps.  Our children desperately need to focus on the basics such as reading, writing and math, but instead a whole host of politicians, “education officials” and teachers are constantly injecting as much propaganda as they possibly can into classroom instruction.  Instead of learning how to think, our children are continually being told what to think.  Not only that, our children are also being trained how to live as subservient slaves in a Big Brother police state.  Today, nearly everything that children do in public schools is watched, monitored, recorded and tracked.  Independent thought and free expression are greatly discouraged and are often cracked down upon harshly.  If students get “out of line”, instead of being sent to see the principal they are often handcuffed, arrested and taken to the police station.  In addition, law enforcement authorities are using weapons such as pepper spray and tasers against young students in our public schools more than ever before.  Children in U.S. public schools are not learning how to live as strong individuals in the “land of the free and the home of the brave”.  Rather, they are being trained how to serve a Big Brother police state where control freaks run their entire lives.  If we continue to allow all of the liberty and freedom to be systematically drained out of our school children, then there is not going to be much hope for the future of this nation.

The following are 28 signs that U.S public schools are being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps….

#1 All 50 U.S. states are now constructing federally-mandated databases that will track the behavior and performance of all public school students in America throughout their entire school careers.  According to the New York Post, the Obama administration wants to use the information that is gathered for a wide array of purposes….

The administration wants this data to include much more than name, address and test scores. According to the National Data Collection Model, the government should collect information on health-care history, family income and family voting status. In its view, public schools offer a golden opportunity to mine reams of data from a captive audience.

#2 All over America, school children are being immersed in the radical green agenda.  In fact, in many areas of the country children are actively trained to watch how their parents behave and to correct them when they are being “environmentally unfriendly”.  The following is from a recent New York Times article about this phenomenon….

“I have very, very environmentally conscious children — more so than me, I’m embarrassed to say,” said Ms. Ross, a social worker in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. “They’re on my case about getting a hybrid car. They want me to replace all the light bulbs in the house with energy-saving bulbs.”

Ms. Ross’s children are part of what experts say is a growing army of “eco-kids” — steeped in environmentalism at school, in houses of worship, through scouting and even via popular culture — who try to hold their parents accountable at home. Amid their pride in their children’s zeal for all things green, the grown-ups sometimes end up feeling like scofflaws under the watchful eye of the pint-size eco-police, whose demands grow ever greater, and more expensive.

Later on in that same article, a district superintendent is quoted as saying that they try to inject the green agenda wherever they can into the curriculum….

“We’re trying to integrate it into anything where it naturally fits,” said Jackie Taylor, the district’s superintendent. “It might be in a math lesson. How much water are you really using? How can you tell? Teachers look for avenues in almost everything they teach.”

#3 One 13-year-old student down in New Mexico was recently handcuffed and forcibly removed from a classroom just because he burped in class.  In all, over 200 students in Bernalillo County “have been handcuffed and arrested in the last three years for non-violent misdemeanors”.

#4 All over America, students are being taught that the First Amendment does not apply in public schools.  Expressions of free speech in school are often cracked down upon very hard.  For example, one group of high school athletes was recently suspended for “Tebowing” in the hallways of their school.

#5 Many public school sex education classes have totally crossed the line.  Instead of just “educating” children about sex, many sex ed courses are now “indoctrinating” children about sex.  One recent example of this was detailed in the New York Times….

IMAGINE you have a 10- or 11-year-old child, just entering a public middle school. How would you feel if, as part of a class ostensibly about the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, he and his classmates were given “risk cards” that graphically named a variety of solitary and mutual sex acts? Or if, in another lesson, he was encouraged to disregard what you told him about sex, and to rely instead on teachers and health clinic staff members?

That prospect would horrify most parents. But such lessons are part of a middle-school curriculum that Dennis M. Walcott, the New York City schools chancellor, has recommended for his system’s newly mandated sex-education classes. There is a parental “opt out,” but it is very limited, covering classes on contraception and birth control.

#6 Sadly, this “sexual indoctrination” appears to be working.  According to one recent study, sexual conduct between teen girls in the United States is now at the highest level ever recorded.

#7 Putting kids in jail has become standard operating procedure in the United States.  Today, nearly one-third of all Americans are arrested by police by the time they reach the age of 23.  At this point, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe, and yet our society just continues to become more unstable.

Read the full article here.

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The Ryan Test: Demagoguery Versus Ideas

August 12, 2012 By John Malcolm Leave a Comment

By Jonathan S. Tobin | August 11, 2012 | Commentary Magazine As John wrote earlier today, liberals are convinced that Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan to be his running mate offers them a golden opportunity to savage the Republicans about the Wisconsin congressman’s budget plans. Predictably, the New York Times delivered one of the first such salvos in its editorial posted […]

Smoking Obama’s Crack and Yearning for the Mud

August 12, 2012 By John Malcolm Leave a Comment

By Vanderleun | August 10, 2012 | American Digest [From 2008. Only the names have been changed because the target has changed.] This downward flight of intellectuals has been going on ever since the Romantic movement began its counter-revolution a couple hundred years ago. No matter how much they flap their lips it’s a fall, not […]