Tag: Opinion

Closing Thought–22Dec16

School is out and a visit from my granddaughter….our conversation rolled around to school and education…..she asked a billion question about my time in school and we compared notes…

She then asked me why some people seem to disparage people that are educated…..a damn good question…..

I remember back in my younger days when my mother was determined that I get an education and then a good job and on and on….what we use to call the American Dream.

When I quit college after a year and enlisted in the Army she, my mother, was noticeably disappointed in my choice…..she was concerned that once I returned that I would settle for something less than she thought was best (a typical mother)……or that I would follow in my father’s footsteps and make the military a career.

I made her day when after the service I returned to school and finished my BS degree….sadly she passed before I finished all my studies….but I would like to think she is proud of what I have accomplished.

My hard work got me a good job with good wages, travel and life experience.

But these days to be educated, at least in some circles, makes you an outsider.  Today if you are educated and voice an opinion from a scholarly point of view then you are labeled many derogatory things……like an apologist or a bleeding heart or a socialist or something worse…today I am a “globalist”….(if the users had spent more time in school and less time with their head up their butt then they would know that they are using the term wrongly)

If you are an academic or scholarly or even opinionated then you are the dregs of society…you are a know nothing….and stupid……that is unless you agree with their warped sense of society….then you are a patriot even possibly a saint.

There is a certain sector of our society that cannot tolerate being wrong….that their opinions are the ONLY opinions……they do not want a society of thinkers but a society of head bobbing sheep…..people who will NOT question the reasoning of the day….or the warped reasoning of their minions.

These are the same “people” that wear flag pins, have bumper stickers and use the term patriotic and hero ad nauseum……and will label anyone that will not conform as un-American and a whole array of other labels that make absolutely NO sense.

The direction of the country appears to be one that I am concerned about….it has been coming for a long time but now it is front and center….to be educated in America is a negative……now where have I seen this before? (That is a history question that may require Google for some)

People are worried about a Pres. Trump….I am also….but when I start seeing terms like “traitor” and “cancer” applied to another American then we have a PROBLEM.

Missing Plane Editorial

Opinion from the desk of IST editor

I have resisted conventional wisdom and stayed away from the whole affair of the missing plane…….there have been a wealth of opinions, analysis and speculation on what happened to make this plane veer off course.

It is official as of yesterday……the plane went down in a remote section of the South Indian Ocean with all hands…….it is time to move on and let the families deal with this situation in their own way.  Rehashing what everyone thinks happened is of no use to anyone.

At this point in the ‘investigation” and the story the media is doing NO one any good….they are allowing “experts” that profit from this situation drive the story.  These people are fear mongering and that equals profits……they are using any and all scenarios to keep the other plane carriers worried that something like this could happen to them….and that is good for business.

The media has talked to everybody that has ever seen a 777….the only ones left are the vultures that want to turn this tragedy into profits…..they are acting as enablers………

An official statement has been issued…the story is dead with the single exception if they find the black box……which will do nothing to explain the trip…all it will do is tell what the last 2 hours were…..that is it.  The media needs to let it go.

It is time for the families to deal with their loss and they need their privacy……..

This is NO longer a major story……..MSM needs to back off and do what they pretend they are about….reporting the news.

Just Another Rant

Do you ever want to just scream….STOP IT! At the top of your lungs when reading the news?

Do not know about you but there are times when I feel that all my effort is in vain.  No matter how hard one works to keep the people/reader informed the more there is resistance to the truth….I realize the “truth” is subjective but facts are facts and NO amount of twisting them will make them accurate to the bright light of scrutiny….and there is my problem.  Some people do not want the truth….they do however want their beliefs reinforced to make them feel better about their beliefs……

It seems it is no longer what is good for all the citizens and the country but rather what the individual wants everyone to believe and act……….it is all personal….it seems few can look past their own selfish little priorities to see the larger problems and do not want real solutions just band aids and slogans…..and all is about the issue du jour….there is not much thinking outside of the box…….just regurgitation of sites in the mist…….it is all too frustrating at times…….

Once or twice a year I get thoroughly disgusted with the chatter…..little to none is what is needed……..knowing that I get frustrated every year I try to have a stash of drafts on my blog that I can use when  amI just are too disgusted to do any research or reading…….I will be posting those drafts for awhile…..I will check back a couple of times a day and reply to any comments…….please keep reading….I will be back!

Years ago I was bitching about the way people act when they are confronted with facts to combat their arguments……they are despicable…..and my grandfather told me…..”when you teach pigs to sing….you waste your time and piss off the pig”……a brilliant man, my grandfather…..

I will be fine as soon as the swelling goes down……..and will be back attacking stupid as always….but for now a step back……..and a cooling off period is needed…….

I hope everyone understands.

Spring Forward

It is the weekend and NOT just any weekend……..it is the weekend where we Americans participate in a damn silly ritual…..Daylight Savings…..personally I think it is a waste of time that does nothing that it is portrayed to do…….

(Newser) – Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday, but no one benefits from it, writes Bora Zivkovic in Scientific American. It will take days for our bodies to adjust to the lost hour—we’re essentially “jet-lagged for a few days”—and even cows will suffer when they’re milked an hour earlier than they’re used to. And for what purpose? DST was established back when lighting was the biggest energy need, so changing the clocks to maximize daylight hours saved electricity. Nowadays, that’s no longer true.

With factories, nuclear plants, airports, computers, and other “time-independent” things using up the bulk of our energy, energy companies have actually done studies concluding DST no longer saves energy. Other studies have shown that in the days following DST, traffic accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, and depression increase. Common sense seems to dictate we stop the practice—but since “it’s a bit unclear who exactly” is in charge of the whole idea (Congress? Individual states? Counties?), it will probably never be abolished. Click for Zivkovic’s full column.

Is there anyone else that thinks this is a complete waste of time ( pun intended)?

Always A Price To Pay

Sunday….a day of reflection….a day of fables and stories with morals….

I have lots of time on my hands and that gives me way too much time to think about things…..some things more than others…..this time it is the price we pay for our beliefs….

In life there seems to be a price that must be paid….to society or the bank or your in-laws….regardless there is always a price….what made me think of this was an episode on the History Channel when there were “mainstream” scientist that were disputing some of the hypotheses that were made on the show…..

There is a certain code of conduct for scientists and academics…if this code is not adhered to then there are consequences, a price if you will, they could be called before a board or threatened loss of tenure or censured or a loss of funds, etc…….No institution wants to be associated with controversy…and if the threats and actions are not enough to make the person shy away from the subject then the big guns come out…public ridicule and shunned by their peers……and the big one….No Publication of papers.

Let me illustrate this for you in a “hypothetical” scenario…..

Let us say there was this young man who’s grandfather introduced him to the world of political philosophy by giving him a copy of Paine’s “Common Sense”…..the young man did not know what he was given for awhile but them he was introduced to American history and government in grade school and the book took on a whole new meaning for him.  Jump ahead to high school, all his interests were centered on history and government to the point that he became a political activists and it was in the day of the battle for civil rights…..he became radicalized he read extensively…Marx, Rousseau, Mill, Burke on and on and then there were the writings of Americans like Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison and Adams…..all this exposure made him hungry for a college degree in political science…

Then war came along and he went to serve in Vietnam and the war made him even more of a radical…the obscenity of war can have that effect on a person……he read to keep his mind active and off the situation around him…Lenin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Che and Giap…..and before long he was out and away from the disgusting thing called war….and he had the GI Bill in hand…

After going through the program he was awarded a BS in PoliSci and went into Grad school for International Relations…after about 4 grueling years a MA…..and he still was not satisfied he felt that he had to get a PhD in political philosophy….he felt like he owed it to his grandfather……still with a little left of the GI Bill off he went………

Many years of study and research he finally had the grades to apply for his PhD…it is now 1976, the Bicentennial…..our hero set off to prove that the Declaration of Independence was actually not written by Jefferson but rather by Thomas Paine…..it was an uphill battle….but after much work he had his research and his thesis in hand…..all that was left was to defend his thesis to a panel……a board……an inquisition…..

Awkward!  The board was made up of people that thought the world was created by the Founding Fathers and to accuse one of the most revered people of lying was an unheard of sin…..hours of questions…all answered…the evidence was there and documented….not one was accepted by the board……in short, our hero was denied….and denied again several years later…..no one would publish his paper, no one would acknowledge his work or his work was ridiculed and he decide to take a break…..he became bitter and more radicalized…….but his inquisitors told him that if would pick a more appropriate subject he would be reconsidered…….he stood by his research and his conclusion……can you say outcast?

For the next 30 years or so, our hero worked in lots of blue collar jobs and as a labor activist as well as a politician activist….he work in the Middle East as a researcher for a Spanish newspaper…..still radicalized….still reading…..he found at this point that socialist and Marxist organizations wanted people that thought outside the box….for awhile he had found a home…..he researched, published, and lectured….but his goal was still elusive…..During these years he took up the study of economics and finished up course work from the George Institute of Economics…..but during this time he continued to work at blue collar jobs and writing on politics and economics….but his goal was still elusive…..

But there is a happy ending to his saga…..Then out of the blue he was contacted by a University in Europe that had seen an old copy of his thesis and was interested in talking with him….after much correspondence and meetings…he was awarded a double PhD, political philosophy and political history……he had finally made his dream come true and dedicated all his efforts to his grandfather…..

I guess the moral of this “hypothetical” saga is that there is always a price to pay for your beliefs, but NEVER abandon them for the sake of anything…..our hero paid a huge price for his ideals for 30+ years before someone realized that he knew what he was talking about….

There is always a price to pay if you stand by your ideals……the price is well worth it, in my opinion……

Did our “hypothetical”  hero live happily ever after?  Happiness is a philosophical question and that is a whole other post……

Sesame Street: A Brainwashing Tool?

Remember a decade or so ago when some right wing whacko said that the kids show “Tellie Tubbies” was about homosexuality?  Well, at least one of the characters, the purple one, I believe, because it carried a purse…..I wish I could take this brand of BS seriously, but then I do not take too many of the right wing blowjobs seriously….

But they are not finished…..NO!  They are not finished….now they are claiming that Sesame Street is a left wing conspiracy to turn your children into…….DEMOCRATS!

……..clap for Ben Shapiro for exposing Sesame Street for what it really is– a tool of Hollywood liberals used to brainwash little boys before they’re even old enough to ask for a Barbie Jeep, and little girls into thinking that body hair is probably ok (it’s not.)  (from a blog called The ‘Cac)

Oh God!  They are back…the whackos that want to see their name in lights and find a hidden agenda in everything but where they will are…..OK, first let me say that if learning to write, read and do math will turn them into Dems then the party would be in a lot better shape than it is today….maybe by left wing they really mean……SOCIALISTS……….we know how popular that analogy is with the right wing nuts, don’t we?   Again if that was truly the case then would not Marx be a lot more popular than it is?

This is just total CRAP!  Crap spread by tiny little minds that cannot accept that they are stupid and society’s comic relief……informed people are laughing uncontrollably at the mental capacity of these jokes…….I guess every court has to have its jester…..

What is next?  What will be the next great left wing conspiracy?  The Wiggles or maybe that damn irritating Blue Dog?

2010 Presidential Scorecard

As of noon today, Pres. Obama will begin his 3rd year of his presidency and as usual I will give my score card of his accomplishments as president……

Foreign Policy…..75…..C+

Domestic policy…..85…..B

Bipartisanship…..75…..C+

Leadership…..75…..C+

Keeping Promises…..70…..C

His overall score as president is 75 or a C+….this is higher than originally calculated because of his successes in the Lame Duck session of Congress….In my opinion, so far he is only slightly above average as far as a president goes……these next two years will determine if he will be known for more than being the first Afro-American president…..

What Is The American Dream?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  American Society

I have spent a lot of time trying to people, readers in this case, to think about what they believe when it comes to politics and theory…..I begin the new year continuing my pursuit of making people stop and think about their political beliefs……are those beliefs what you think they are?

How many times have you heard the term “American Dream”?  Or that he/she is living the American dream?  And how many times have you asked….what the hell is the American Dream?  Does anyone truly have an answer?

Once it was to have a family that consisted of 2.3 kids…….or that you own a ranch style home with a 2 car garage and a patio….but is that really an American dream?  Or could it be that you spend lots more than you actually have?  How about a good retirement at an age where you could actually enjoy your declining years?  Maybe that your children will have a better life than you had?  What is the dream we all talk about?

Maybe we should dream about winning the Lotto….or having a billion dollars and our way with the little people around us…….or is the dream elusive?  A mirage always just out of reach and when we finally get to it…it is nothing but the same life we have now?

Or is it just a slogan thought up by some weepy politician to make it appear that he/she cares more than they really do?  Is it really something that we all aspire to at some point in our lives?

The American dream is subjective, at best…….but there is one thing for sure….. it IS a dream……a pipe dream!  And few actually arrive at their dream (as it is described by most) and the ones that are lucky enough to arrive become whores to greed and envy……some us are better off not ever realizing that American Dream….

So, the question still remains….just what the Hell is the American Dream?  And how does one define something so elusive?

Any thoughts?