Back Talk

More on the deterioration of our culture.

It occurs to me that we’ve experienced more than a little corruption of our culture; we have witnessed a cultural revolution that started during the 1960’s. A revolution every bit as world changing as two other revolutions during that same decade: Chairman Mao and the gang of four communist cultural revolution in China and Iran’s cultural revolution when Jimma Carter refused to support the Shah, the Islamic extremists and mullahs took control, and expunged all western and non-Muslim influences in their country, Of course, in doing so, Iran stepped back in time a few hundred years. What happened to start the American cultural corruption that became a true revolution? In the 1960’s, a bunch of posturing middle class college kids, with inspiration from leftist professors, full of restless energy and ready and willing to demonstrate for just about anything, used the anti-war movement excuse to spearhead the uprising and turn college campuses into raging riots. They stormed administration buildings, burned, and vandalized, but they got America’s attention. With the help of the liberal, herd-like press, they forced our weak kneed Congress to withhold support for the troops; then we dropped support for the South Viet, denying them the ability to continue the fight. After all, Walter Cronkite pronounced on the evening news that the war was lost. The Communists soon overran South Vietnamm, there was mass killing, and we have a blight on our collective soul to this day. The make love not war, free-love, do whatever feels good, absence of moral or ethical absolutes generation changed America forever.

Posted by Jim at 04:42 PM | Permalink

A CNN talking head today was almost giddy with pleasure in reporting the Dow Jones market drop and that our economy is in trouble.

Clinton and Obama have been crowing about economic woes, demagogueing the issue; you know, blaming Bush and the big bad Republicans. Economics genius Nancy Pelosi suggested extending unemployment term and payments and food stamps, the usual Democrat suggestions that invariably increase unemployment, the deficit, and further damage the Economy. The DemPols and the media – either from partisanship or ignorance – say they “believe” we are in a recession. The technical definition of recession is as a drop in a country's gross domestic product (GDP) for two or more successive quarters, so we either are or we aren’t. Our “economic crisis” is more of a credibility crisis caused largely by the media and congressional Democrats who need the economy as an election issue. The problem is that these things can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. We have weakness in the housing industry, the credit problems, and the weak dollar, and continued increases in congressional spending, but unemployment is still extremely low, productivity is high, and Americans are living better than they ever have. Wall Street analyst Dick Bove wrote that “the worst of the financial crisis may well be behind us.” The stock market is still strong. The dollar on foreign-exchange markets is beginning to go up. Analyst Donald Luskin suggests that “the worst of the future-inflation threat may now be over.” These optimistic analysts may be overlooking the persuasive power of the Democrat politicians and the major media who want to see our economy collapse.

Posted by Jim at 11:09 AM | Permalink

A Clinton has been caught being a Clinton.

Trying to inflate her significance during her first lady years, Hillary said she came under sniper fire on a trip to Bosnia. She said her plane took evasive maneuvers before landing and the pilot told them to sit on a flak jacket. When someone questioned the validity of this, she and her staff vehemently and indignantly (no person can be so indignant as an expert liar) reaffirmed the claim, but evidence to the contrary has become too overwhelming to deny. It turns out a press crew accompanied the trip, filmed her opening the hatch and accepting a bouquet from a girl at the foot of the ramp. There was no sniper fire, no evasive maneuvers, and no danger. The Air Force pilot said he not only did not advise using flak jackets but had never, in his pilot’s career advised such. The fact that the Clintons have habitually told this sort of pointless lies no doubt explains Hillary’s low approval and trust ratings. She once explained her questionable one-hundred thousand dollar turnover in the commodities market by saying she learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market, but it turns out the Journal didn’t cover that market back then. She told how frightened she was on 9/11 because Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center at the time. Well, oops again; Chelsea was in bed watching TV at the time and even related that a friend called to tell her to watch what was happening on TV. Hillary said she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary which is pretty far fetched because the man climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth. Democrat politicians, in general, seem to have strong fibber DNA which they frequently demonstrate, the leftist media pretty much gives them a free pass, and their core voters never seem to mind when it comes time to vote. Al Gore, a serial liar, almost made it to the Presidency, was well respected and is still a hero to the Democrat electorate.

Posted by Jim at 04:16 PM | Permalink

Michigan has experienced the hardest winter ever, or at least since 1880 when record-keeping started, Wisconsin had a record high 95 inches of snow.

We have seen similar reports throughout the country and the world. Now, some scientists are saying that the warming trend actually plateaued in 1998, and the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,) confirmed the data. Global warming zealots have ignored this because it shoots down their basic selling points – that man creates unnecessary carbon dioxide which causes the planet to warm, which melts the ice pack, which kills the polar bears, which upsets the school children, which causes parents to worry, so America has to cripple its economy by enacting unreasonable standards and restrictions on all businesses and set our lifestyle back 100 years to fix it. But, as John Adams said, “facts are stubborn things.” The shoot-down factor is that, although the planet has not been cooling for 10 years, carbon dioxide has indeed increased. The scientists believe the increase is nature-caused, and a harmless factor, considering that carbon dioxide is the main ingredient in nurturing all plant growth. I am beginning to mistrust the global warming zealots. I’m even starting to doubt whether that great meteorologist and environmental crusader, Al Gore, was telling the truth when he said he invented the Internet.

Posted by Jim at 08:44 AM | Permalink

Regarding my lamentation of the deterioration our popular culture, I’ve asked myself if I am guilty of the usual old guy musings, “why, when I was young….”

Has our society really sunk as low as it appears? We’ve heard the rationalizations about the technology boom, advances in communications, and the Liberals’ refrain that we are a more “progressive” society. Closer examination does not sooth. Even the Liberals, who believe internet child pornography is free speech, agree that we have taken a step down. Many prime time TV programs would have been considered soft porn a few years ago; a sitcom can air the f-word and still get a PG rating. Blood, guts, violence, sex, and killings are de-rigueur. Music lyrics teem with brutality, violence, incest, and women are called bitches. Middle school kids have a vocabulary that would embarrass longshoremen. Ethics, morals, and principles were once all-important, but, in recent times, the media and Liberals have told us that principles are an unnecessary quality for our leaders. We used to have a religion-based culture, and we now have a self-serving one whose motto is “whatever feels good is ok.” There are no moral absolutes, no good versus evil, and no right versus wrong. Marriage is irrelevant to having babies, 47 million abortions since Roe v. Wade – only 7.5% for health reasons – homosexual marriage is here, many of our politicians denigrate patriotism, do not believe America is the best county in the world, and are willing to give up our sovereignty in the name of diversity and multi-culturalism. The media is anti-military, anti-religion, anti-family values, anti-tradition, and anti American. We have 15 to 30 million illegals aliens with a million more are coming every year, and our politicians are too weak to really attack the problem. Illegals commit 50% more crimes than U.S. citizens and 75000 are in our prisons; in thirty years American culture will no longer exist. What used to be Ozzie and Harriet is now sex, drugs, and rap music. Teachers downgrade America. A teacher told his students that America is the best country in the world and the Associated Press called it “teaching bigotry” and the teachers union called for the teacher’s dismissal.

Posted by Jim at 04:12 PM | Permalink

The recent hoohaw over the bigoted anti-American preacher, J. Wright, and his 20 year long relationship with presidential aspirant Barack Obama is at the same time enlightening and depressing.

I find it hard to believe we have arrived at this point almost 150 years after the end of slavery and 44 years after the Civil Rights Act with so many American Blacks bitter and angry. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised; people who make a living off this stuff like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, relentlessly beat the drum of victimhood, turning every issue involving a Black American into a racial one. The leftist media, always there to make any situation worse, encourage the victimhood angle and amplify the blame-the-country syndrome at every opportunity. My first reaction to the hateful anti-White and anti-American rantings of Reverend Jeremiah Wright was that Black America would condemn them; however, a steady stream of Black American listeners have been calling the talk shows denying, rationalizing, and defending the preacher and justifying Obama’s long relationship with him. Except for a few radical Nation of Islam types, the calls invariably start with the usual disclaimer: “I don’t agree with everything Wright says…..but…. Then comes the justification routine of “our people were forcibly brought here as slaves, our rights were denied, we are victims, we need reparations, we deserve affirmative action, racial quotas over whites, and so you should understand and forgive Reverend Wright for saying America is evil and deserved to suffer 9/11.” The point is not whether there is justification for Wright and his followers’ feelings. The issue here is Obama’s inner feelings? How much of the Wright garbage does he agree with? Can he lead all of America? It is way too late for Obama to have much deniability after sitting in his mentor minister’s church listening to this hateful stuff for 20 years. Whether or not this ugly episode casts doubt upon Obama’s feelings toward white America, it casts plenty of doubt upon his judgment.

Posted by Jim at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We Americans pay these taxes:

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines
(indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax
(FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax
(42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense
(tax on the money)
Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges
(tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties
(tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Taxes
(Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax
(SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines
(indirect taxation)
Trailer registration tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

None of these taxes existed 100 years ago, we were the most prosperous country and had the largest middle class in the world, and had no national debt.

Posted by Jim at 11:36 AM | Permalink

A local letter writer spoke out in support of the teachers union, a tough task considering the union has been the principle cause of our deteriorating government education system.

The teachers union’s goals seem to be a constant demand for higher teacher pay and benefits, hanging on to the tenure policy that protects incompetent teachers, fighting efforts to require standard testing, pay increases based upon proficiency, enriching union management and generally maintaining the status quo. The writer made the odd argument that every “adult should care deeply about school children because they are our future care givers and tax base.” And, that “They are the ones who will take care of us in rest homes in our final years.” No, we care about our kids’ education because we want them to get the best shot at learning the things they need for a fulfilling life and real chance to compete in the world. As I said earlier, our students’ scores keep dropping yearly relative to all other countries. We now rank below Latvia, right down there with Romania, Croatia, and Albania, far below western European countries. During this failure, the Teachers union has ignored or blocked every single attempt at innovation in fixing our collapsing Government school system. Nero fiddles while Rome burns. The union resisted school vouchers in the face of successful voucher programs - a couple of inner city voucher programs were very successful. The union fought hard, and is still fighting, home schooling, once again, in the face of hard evidence showing home school kids score better than our government school kids. The union, being one of the country’s most powerful, and therefore rich with funds they take involuntarily from the teachers, has bought and paid for our California legislature. That legislature is going to require parents to have a teaching credential before they can home school. Another blow for dumbing down our young people.

Posted by Jim at 03:57 PM | Permalink

Barack Obama’s Preacher, J. Wright, the big grief causer for Obama’s presidential bid, gave world class racist, Louis Farrakhan, a lifetime achievement award.

Wright said “no, no, no, not God Bless America, God Damn America.” The first Sunday after 3000 innocent Americans died in the attack on 9/11/2001, Wright said America deserved it. That was over six years ago, and Obama said he only recently learned of the remarks. Yikes. In the military, we had the standing joke that, if it appears you are going to take the blame for something, do three things: shift the blame, muddy the issue, and go on leave. Typical Chicago politician that he is, Obama practices a similar tactic: shift the blame (I don’t agree with everything he said,) muddy the issue (I didn’t hear all the anti-American, racist rantings,) and lie like a fiend (I only just recently heard of the things racist Wright screamed from the pulpit. Obama attended that church regularly for 20 years (that’s over 1000 Sundays,) was married there, children baptized there, called Wright his “mentor,” his “spiritual advisor,” and hired him for his campaign staff. I understand Wright packaged and sells several of his sermons; thus explaining why we hear so many of these hateful ravings in the public forum. He was obviously proud of these bigoted remarks, putting the lie to Barack defenders’ claim that they were isolated statements. The Obamas listened to this stuff for 20 years which explains Michelle Obama’s unfortunate racial statements. She is, after all, not a politician with the politician’s sense of foot-in-mouth control. An Obama apologist argued that Wright was rather like having a crazy uncle who said embarrassing things. No, it isn’t; one has no choice of one’s uncle, but does choose his minister. How is this man supposed to be the leader of all Americans? This is a big problem for Obama; even a Chicago politician won’t be able to lie his way out of this one.

Posted by Jim at 11:52 AM | Permalink

I need a credibility check. Did I or did I not read a week ago that a Center for Disease Control study found that one out of every four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. One in four.

A few years ago we called it venereal disease, but that phrase may be too politically incorrect for some group or other so we call it STD. Perhaps its too harsh sounding since it points the accusing finger at our pop culture that has glorified sex and promiscuity to the point that teens see sport sex as a, not to be missed, healthy and fun part of life – like a sock hop but with more physical contact. Have you ever watched the well-acted and produced popular teen show “Friday Night Lights” where every week the prime-time 17 year-olds rut like rabbits?” The teen VD report appeared in an internal section of the paper, and I have seen no real discussion on the news. Perhaps the media was too absorbed in their Eliot Spitzer/hooker extravaganza. (the publicity was bad for Spitzer but good for the hooker who will now be very rich from interviews, a Playboy spread, and probably a book and movie contract.) Look for said hooker to be a presenter at next years Oscars. A few years ago, this sort of news about our teens would have scandalized America, shaken it right down to it core; today, it hardly produces a stir. This study was a further reminder of how far our ethical and moral standards have sunk – our popular culture, movies, music, art, and other entertainment is circling the drain. Senator Patrick Moynihan, the last honest Democrat senator, described it as “defining deviancy down.”

Posted by Jim at 03:57 PM | Permalink

Shame on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat cronies.

They have knowingly left our country in jeopardy for a month now because of their failure to sign off on the “Protect America Act” to give our intelligence groups the right to gather information on possible terrorist activity. The senate has already passed its version and is waiting for the house Democrats to act. The reason the DemPols are holding this up, aside from their predictable obstruction of the President, is to protect the lawyer lobby that contributes hugely to very Democrats who are doing the obstructing. The lawyers have forty-one lawsuits ready to file against the telephone companies for cooperating with the CIA and FBI in wiretapping and monitoring suspected terrorists. The lawsuits punish the telecommunications companies for cooperating with our intelligence agency to make our country safer. Without protection from billions of dollars in lawyer enrichment lawsuits, the companies won't cooperate with U.S. intelligence agencies. It is a dishonor for Pelosi, et-al to take something as important as American security along party lines placing politics ahead of the country, but then, that behavior is pretty routine nowadays. Thus far in the battle of politics versus American security, the tally is lawyers and Democrat House members winning, America losing.

Posted by Jim at 03:35 PM | Permalink

Barack Obama has started the spin control over an event that could well end his chance for the presidency.

New releases of racist anti-white speeches by Obama’s minister, Jeremiah Wright, whom Obama has taken on as a member of his campaign team. Correspondent Mike Gallagher on the minister: “Wright is radical racist, an angry, vicious little man who blamed America for 9/11 and said we should say God Damn America, not God Bless America.” Wright said that the white man intentionally put AIDS into the Black community, and keeps the Black man down so he can more easily control him. He said one of the white man’s goals is to “keep the third world in grinding poverty.” Obama has few options to answer this so he is making the political, however unpersuasive, one that he didn’t hear any of the racist diatribes in all the 20 years he has been attending the sermons – that he doesn’t agree with everything Wright said. Wright’s ugly remarks were not made last week; he has been raging like this in his sermons and has appeared in heated TV debates for 20 years. Obama’s statement that he heard none of this wild ranting is too much of a credibility stretch. An Obama supporter said, “For perspective, I certainly do not agree with everything the pastor said every Sunday.” That’s a bit like saying Hitler was wrong about some things, but he built some great roads in Germany. How is Obama going to convince anyone, other than the blindly dedicated, that he should be the leader of all of America’s people after he sat and listened to those racist sermons every Sunday for 20 years, called Wright “his mentor,” his “spiritual advisor,” and took him on to help run his campaign?

Posted by Jim at 10:29 AM | Permalink

With a woman and a Black man vying for the presidency, the leftist media and nation’s Liberals are on heightened political correctness alert.

Almost daily, along with the usual rough and tumble of election year politics, some notable has blurted out something for which he or she felt the hot knife of political correctness. They boldly committed truth-telling. Iowa Congressman Steve King is in deep yuck because for saying that terrorists groups would be glad to see Obama elected. This is of course true, but the P.C. police are unmoved by the facts. Obama said he would meet with any group without any preconditions, that he would not continue to support our troops with funding, and that he would bring our troops home (surrendering Iraq to the terrorists.) The PLO, Hezbollah, and Iran, the groups who have vowed to destroy Israel have publicly announced their preference for Obama. Clinton campaign official and former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro pointed out the 500 pound gorilla in the room by saying that Obama was in his current position because he is Black, and Clinton fired her post haste. Pundits are blaming some of these outbursts of truth for turning the campaign into one of race and gender. Baloney. It has been racist, as well as sexist, from the first day that Obama became a serious contender. A steady string of Black callers to talk shows openly stated they would vote for Obama without regard for his position on the issues. They didn’t know or care that he was ranked the most liberal senator in Congress. Yesterday, news outlets were printing and playing recordings of speeches of Obama’s minister, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, with whom Obama has been associated for 20 years and who has joined Obama’s campaign staff. They were the most anti-white racist remarks I’ve heard since the days of the Black Panthers. ABC reported quoted Wright: “The government gives Blacks the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three strikes law and then wants us to sing 'God bless America,' No, no, no, not 'God bless America,' God damn America.” The most jolting irony of the harsh treatment of King and Ferraro, and others before them, is that it is a clear case of reverse racism.

Posted by Jim at 07:38 AM | Permalink

California legislature is obsessing over child and adult obesity, and like all good liberals they think that the answer to any real or imagined problem is to pass a new law.

Our representatives want to do just that. The real reason they are working this issue is for the usual self-serving reasons: it is relatively non-controversial, will put no votes at risk in their next election, and because it avoids their having to tackle serious problems such as illegal aliens, budget failure, deficit, term limits, redistricting, and out of control spending. Here, let me make it easy for the legislature. Rather than spend a few hundred thousand dollars of taxpayer money to study and discuss ad-nauseum the issue of why children are obese try this: restore school physical training (I realize this is problematic for some schools who have banned their students from running to avoid the risk of injuries and the ensuing attack of the legal lizards) council parents to stop stocking their kitchen like a movie snack bar, shut off the TV and video games from the time school lets out until suppertime, and curtail the happy-meal/chicken McWhatever four times a week. I don’t really expect the legislature to try such an approach because I’m sure it is politically incorrect to infer that parents are culpable or that such actions might offend the entertainment world and, besides, it’s not the politicians’ money, it is ours and spending someone else’s money is easy.

Posted by Jim at 09:01 AM | Permalink

The California legislature, the nation’s leader in wiping away its citizens' liberties in the name of taking care of said citizens because they are just too stupid to do the right thing.

Our legislature, home state for that twin flagship of leftist lunacy, San Francisco and Berkeley, where they threw out our military recruiters and are going to erect bronze plates in the sidewalk to commemorate homeless deaths, has come up with another one. Parents will no longer be able to home school their children unless they have a teaching credential (the parents, not the student.) Home schooled kids have performed better on standard tests than government public schools but our Democrat legislature pushes that fact aside. Rather than ask themselves why the performance difference, they are taking their predictable approach and merely banning home schooling. If you cannot defeat your opponent in a debate, just have him removed from the debate. The teachers unions, having bought and paid for the California legislature, have fought any attempt at school choice or innovation that threatens the status quo. Home schools, as with charter schools, have been an open sore to the powerful unions because they decrease the head-count based funds – the life blood of any totalitarian organization. American schools are turning out students who can’t read, can’t do simple math, have no knowledge of American history, and are slipping further down the ranking of nations. We now rank below Latvia, right down there with Romania, Croatia, and Albania, far below western European countries.

Posted by Jim at 03:38 PM | Permalink

The liberal propaganda outlet, New York Times, is nothing if not persistent.

The paper will continue right through the general election to do whatever damage it can to Republican nominee John McCain. This is the man the Times editorial board endorsed as the nominee on the Republican ticket, although only because Democrats think Romney or Thompson would be more difficult for the Democrats to defeat. The once honorable paper made a tabloid style effort to trash McCain a couple of weeks ago by insinuating that he had an affair eight years ago with a female Washington lobbyist. Then the Times questioned whether McCain was legally eligible to be president because he was born to military parents on a U.S. base in the Canal Zone. These attempts were petty, small-minded efforts with no legs. The paper’s latest trash drop at least has some truthful basis. It has brought up McCain’s previous bout with melanoma skin cancer to place doubts in the voters’ minds about his longevity. This, along with the regular comment about his advanced age in case we simple minded readers had forgotten. The New York Times is using the technique that Democrat politicians have used for years and the Clinton war room developed to perfection: keep throwing mud as long as it takes; some of it will eventually stick.

Posted by Jim at 10:34 AM | Permalink

I see the Enterprise Record has another front page piece about the Buddhist Monk that Chico State contracted to build a sand mandala at the Bell Memorial Union.

The Monk is now sweeping up after 5 weeks of painstakingly placing the colored sand almost grain by grain to make the design. Ok, I’m s senior citizen, times have changed, but what’s with all the touchy-feely, quasi spiritual, mystical, transcendental stuff our colleges and universities are so enthralled with nowadays? My college had exhibits and displays, but they were never intended to make one feel otherworldly or restful of spirit. They were intended to simultaneously interest and educate (imagine that.) A couple of times the Engineering department set up a “Foucault Pendulum,” a specific weight pendulum swinging on a 70 foot wire that swings indefinitely, and traces an arc covering a full circle demonstrating the earth’s rotation. Incidentally, who paid for this soul-changing experience? Is there a budget line item in the Chico State budget called “sand mandala” or “Buddhist Monk” or “weird things for which there is no category?” How many taxpayers got their money’s worth of soul tweaking for this? A few months ago there was an article about the Chico State professor (that’s right, a tenured professor) who, in her spare time, performs a laying-on of hands to cleanse a person’s aura. It’s hell working one’s way through life with a dirty aura. I’m assuming Chico State is no worse than any other college – although we are talking California here – but they give degrees in fields they can’t even really describe and classes in such vague things as “environmental psychology.”

Posted by Jim at 11:46 AM | Permalink

One of my blog mates gave me an opening for a follow-up of yesterday’s blog on media bias that was specifically about the media’s partisan sanctification of Barack Obama at Hillary Clinton’s expense, probably causing her downfall.

He didn’t exactly deny media bias - a monumental task considering all the evidence to the contrary including admissions by several of the media giants – so he advised Conservatives to stop crying about media bias and about the predominance of liberal teachers and college professors. He is absolutely right about the futility of crying; as I have often said, “It is what it is and it isn’t going to change.” I’ve always known about the bias, but, as a Liberal, I was fine with it because it validated my own views. However, as a newly minted Conservative – the worst kind – I feel free to shine the light on obvious press partisanship that poses as news and to expose left-wing teachers and professors when they propagandize our youth. Unquestionably, the media and their beneficiaries, the Liberals, would rather Conservatives clam up about it, but I don’t see that happening.
My fellow blogger posed a couple of questions. The first: would we Conservatives rather have those liberal professors on welfare rather than teaching? This one is too easy; of course I would rather have them unemployed than have them indoctrinating pliable 18 year-olds who look up to those professors for life’s answers. They instill the Liberal crusader mindset into those kids, some of whom never leave the education system and become future indoctrinators. Perhaps I was just a naïve small town kid but, as a 17 year-old attending my first college history class, I soaked up every word from the Marxist professor who seemed to be on a mission to glorify socialist philosophy. I walked away thinking Lenin was a superhero. The second question was more challenging: To fix the problem, why don’t more Conservatives enter journalism or teaching? Conservatives sometime post-college tumbled to the airy, feel-good, think with the heart and not the brain, lofty liberal crusade stuff. They recognized the empty but nice-sounding phrases as just that; e.g., care for the poor, the homeless, world peace, free health care, take from the rich and give to the poor, big business is evil, pacifism is the only way, and some pot for every chicken. They are uninterested in a lifelong crusade of indoctrinating people and turn their attention to starting their own business, a successful career, marriage, and family. His suggestion to Conservatives for combating the problem is for more of them to get into journalism field. For Conservatives to enter journalism and write their slant on the news hardly solves the core problem; Tainted news is still tainted news.

Posted by Jim at 12:54 PM | Permalink

You’ve got to love it. The Clinton’s are victims of media bias – something that has always been so heavily in their favor.

For years, the press has fawned over the Clintons (CNN is jokingly called Clinton News Network,) soft-pedaled damaging information, and provided plenty of favorable publicity but now have dropped them like a hot rock and have been swooning over Barack Obama. The media tends to run in a herd so the mid-campaign switch to Obama was blatantly obvious. Slap Maxwell is dead; today’s journalists attend the same cocktail partys, share the same views, discourage any dissenters, and are an inbred gaggle of political groupies. Frankly, the press’s glorification of Obama and poor treatment of Hillary has been unfair to her and is primarily responsible for her 13 straight primary losses. Then an odd thing happened on the way to the nomination. Saturday Night Live did a funny sketch lampooning the media’s bias and that short little sketch either embarrassed or reminded the press that it is not supposed to be a political advocate and changed the entire nature of the campaign. Interviewers actually started asking real questions of Obama, not just softball generalities and stopped allowing him to get by with glib generalities and platitudes. The herd has lurched off into a new direction and probably is responsible for swinging voter thinking somewhat away for Obama and Hillary’s 3 big primary wins. Hillary’s problem is that the media’s new pang of journalistic contriteness is too little and too late.

Posted by Jim at 09:02 AM | Permalink

Even with having to push against the tide of media propaganda, many Americans and Europeans are starting to question the global warming frenzy.

The man-caused-global-warming-we-will-all-die craze that liberals and publicity seeking Al Gore types are pushing is a conspiracy theory on steroids. How active do you suppose the enviro zealots who are cashing in on the college speaking circuit would be if there was no money involved and no TV face time? In 1973, the conspiracy theory crowd was reaping the money and publicity based upon “global cooling.” I remember, years ago, the conspiracy crowd thought that NASA missile launchings were creating a hole in the atmosphere, destroying the protective ozone, and we would all get cancer and die at a young age. I’m surprised Al Gore didn’t write a book and receive the Nobel Prize for popularizing this catastrophe, except he may have already taken credit for inventing NASA.
More than 400 scientists, economists and experts are attending a three-day Heartland Institute event in New York City to challenge the claim that global warming is a “crisis.” John Coleman, who founded the weather channel, told an audience at the 2008 Conference on Climate Change that the Weather Channel has been an outlet for “global warming alarmism.” A Weather Channel reporter, Heidi Cullen, has said that certain weathercasters should be punished with decertification by the American Meteorological Society. General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who put the issue most succinctly, told a group of reporters that, in his opinion, global warming is a “total crock of ****.”

Posted by Jim at 04:53 PM | Permalink

How about some weather news you will likely not read on our major media outlets; they have already made up their unshakable minds that man has caused the global warming and we need to drastically change our life styles even if those changes cripple our economy and take away our quality of life as we know enjoy it?

Canada’s National Post reports that “snow cover in North America and Asia is greater than at any point in the past four decades, while American temperatures were below the average for the last 100 years.” All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.” Europe has had its most severe winter in decades, China is having its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad saw its first snow in all recorded history. The mind-numbing irony about this entire liberal-manufactured issue is that when, in the eventual future, we end one of nature’s customary cycles and begin experiencing world cooling as we did in the 1970’s, the media will accuse mankind of creating excess carbon dioxide which blocks the suns rays, causing global cooling and threatening the world population with extinction.

Posted by Jim at 12:49 PM | Permalink