Most kids these days who graduate from public high schools seem to only
want to earn enough money to provide toys and games and entertainment
for their own amusement. Most of them, in my opinion, don't have
any plans or any intention of making the world a better place, and very
few have a realistic idea of success. This is the natural result
of a system that teaches young people to do whatever it takes to
make themselves happy.
No
Phones in Lavatories. [Scroll down] What on earth is wrong with us?
Not only have we forgotten how to imbibe the news pleasurably, we've forgotten how to eat
convivially and we've forgotten how to dress decently. By all accounts, the late Frank Field
MP was an exemplary individual, but what does it say about our society that those reminiscing about
him made mention of the fact that he was able to dress himself nicely, demonstrating how rare this
now is? We all understand that MPs are not going to improve our lives. Indeed, it is
MPs with their mad efforts to outlaw a virus, a natural gas and human difference, that have caused
most of the mess. The days of economic growth and pleasant cities are over.
Stop dressing
so tacky for church. If the Rev. John DeBonville could preach a sermon to lift the
souls of churchgoers across America, his message would be simple: Stop dressing so tacky for
church. DeBonville has heard about the "come as you are" approach to dressing down for Sunday
service, but he says the Sabbath is getting too sloppy. When he scans the pews of churches,
DeBonville sees rows of people dressed in their Sunday worst. They saunter into church in baggy
shorts, flip-flop sandals, tennis shoes and grubby T-shirts. Some even slide into the pews carrying
coffee in plastic foam containers as if they're going to Starbucks.
A
U.S. ambassador was just sworn in on a Kindle. On Monday [6/2/2014], Suzi LeVine
became the first U.S. ambassador (she's the American representative to Switzerland) to be sworn in
on an e-reader: [Photo]v LeVine took the oath on a digital copy of the U.S. Constitution stored on
a Kindle Touch. But that's not the only time a digital device has replaced its dead-tree
predecessor. In February, New Jersey firefighters were sworn in on an iPad edition of the Bible
when nobody could find a version in print.
Government
Agency Scraps Employee Ratings To Avoid 'Discrimination'. One government agency has decided
that the results of employee ratings are too discriminatory, and eliminated the process entirely.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Monday that it will now award all employees the
highest rating regardless of performance reviews. The CFPB, which oversees transactions in the
financial sector for the federal government, decided to no longer conduct employee reviews because
there were just too many apparent "significant disparities" between the races, ages, and locations
of its employees.
Federal
Judges Question Constitutionality Of Obama's Prized Consumer Agency. A federal appeals court appears ready to
declare the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) unconstitutional, a major blow to the first new
agency created under President Barack Obama. The possibility of dramatic action against CFPB arose in an oral argument
Tuesday [4/12/2016] before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Everyone
gets a perfect score! Federal financial agency ditches employee performance ratings.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog department created in 2011 to create a level
financial playing field for American consumers, has scrapped its internal employee performance
review process following revelations that nonunion workers and caucasians routinely scored better
than unionized employees and minorities in 2013. The annual performance reviews award scores on a
scale from 1 to 5 and are closely tied to salary raises, bonuses and career advancement. Instead
of keeping the scores in place, agency leaders have decided to award all of their 1,100 employees
ratings of '5.'
Groan ranger. [Scroll
down] But the tired idea that Indians were ecologists, right down to their allegedly noble killing habits, is itself an early-'70s myth
that doesn't stand up to historical scrutiny, so this would-be daring film gets stuck in PC quicksand. In fact, the Indians used any
wasteful methods they could to kill buffalo (including driving them off cliffs or setting fire to the land on all four sides), then left most
of the meat to rot in the sun.
Companies
Sued For Trying To Avoid Hiring Convicts. In 1963, the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King said it was his hope
that black Americans would no longer be judged on their color of their skin, but on the content of their character. Fifty years
later, the Obama administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says King got it wrong. The EEOC launched two lawsuits
against private companies this week over their use of criminal background checks, claiming that in rejecting applicants with proven
criminal records, they somehow discriminated against minorities under a disparate impact clause in their guidelines.
Restaurant
Tells Woman who Ran into Cross-Dresser in Ladies Room to Try Men's Room. A Nashville woman who found herself
face-to-face with a "big, burly" cross-dresser in the ladies room of a family restaurant felt her horror turn to anger after
a restaurant manager suggested she try the men's room. Transgendered people in several states have been fighting for
the right to use public restrooms that correspond with whatever sex they consider themselves, with lawmakers in California
and Massachusetts providing support for the idea.
You are among the last weeds in the Marxist
Garden. If we do not eradicate the parasites from our Society, then our society will collapse. We can tolerate some
quantity of parasitic leeching, but not the level we have today. According to recent reports half of the households in America
receive some sort of parasitic benefit, and a third of our population are suffering one STD or another, half of all marriages end in
divorce, our literacy rate and cognitive abilities of our young are in the toilet, homosexuality is accepted to be on the same moral plane
as matrimony, and the number of Americans today who genuinely subscribe to Jefferson's Rightful Liberty is probably under 3% of the
population.
Federal Prisons
Plan to Release More Inmates on 'Compassionate' Grounds. To reduce the growing prison population and escalating prison
costs, the U.S Bureau of Prisons says it is now revising its "compassionate release" rules so more ailing and aging inmates can be freed.
A report from the Justice Department's inspector general says the revised rules will expand the compassionate release program by making
inmates with a life expectancy of up to 18 months eligible for consideration (versus the current 12 months).
Only the finest! Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops. A man whose bid to
become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city. The
2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court's decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards
were applied to everyone who took the test.
Labor
Dep't. Spending $26M to Help Juvenile Delinquents Get Jobs, Pass Background Checks. The U.S. Labor Department on Monday [4/1/2013]
announced the availability of $26 million in grants to improve the job prospects -- and expunge the court records -- of
young people who have spent time in juvenile detention centers. The "Face Forward" grants will support job-training and
skills-development to help people ages 16-24 overcome the stigma of a juvenile arrest record, which can be a lifelong
barrier to advancement in the workforce.
Today's public library could be mistaken for a halfway house,
homeless shelter, or federal penetentiary. Shush! I write from the public library, which doubles as my
city's daytime homeless shelter. I spend four hours a day there reading and writing. Other patrons, often accompanied by all of
their worldly possessions, go there to sleep, masturbate, and stare blankly at the lights. Isn't this what the local Greyhound
terminal is for? A diversion program for juvenile delinquents apparently meets daily on the first floor. [...] A visit to the Boston
Public Library invites the question: what good is a beautiful building that smells like urine?
Bad at Their Jobs, and Loving It.
A company's best employees should also be its happiest and most engaged, but that's not always the case. A new study finds that,
in 42% of companies, low performers actually report being more engaged — more motivated and more likely to enjoy working at their
organization, for example — than middle and high performers do.
The Presidency Loses Its Final Traces of Dignity.
The desecration of the presidency under Obama has been so methodical and obvious. We've watched Obama literally — not figuratively — bow to
foreign leaders, chew gum at the ASEAN Summit and elsewhere, inhabit the Oval Office in Casual Friday outfits, put his feet up on every piece of furniture in
sight — historic or not — host entertainers in the Situation Room, and wonder aloud "whose a-- to kick." Meanwhile, his wife stages potato
sack races in the East Room and his vice president suggests Republicans will put African Americans back in chains and giggles through his debate with GOP vice
presidential nominee Paul Ryan.
Why Is Obama so Nasty and Vulgar? Rude, insulting language
about Romney from the president. Vulgar sexual innuendo, aimed at seducing young women to vote for him. The vice president asking a bereaved parent about
the size of his murdered son's testicles. It's quite a spectacle. We're a fractious people, and our politics have always been full of colorful language,
but I can't recall the current depth of vulgarity. The "politics of personal destruction" have gotten uglier.
Debasing the Presidency. Critics are harping that Barack Obama is
running a campaign that in its coarseness, smallness, and pettiness marks a new low in American politics. Why are they so outraged?
He has behaved this way ever since he moved into the Oval Office. Many people have criticized Barack Obama for his failures as president. [...] The list
goes on and on, with nary a word of criticism from the journalists, professors, and pundits who would decry such steps as dictatorial actions of an imperial
president had they been undertaken by a Republican. The New York Times would be calling for impeachment by now.
Federal
Judge Imposes Racial Quota on FDNY, Responding to Minorities Who Failed Entrance Exams. A federal judge is
ordering the New York City Fire Department to implement racial quotas to address grievances from minorities who failed entrance
exams. On July 5 in Brooklyn, Nicholas G. Garaufis, a Clinton-appointed judge for the Eastern District of New
York, issued a ruling that requires two of every five newly hired fireman to be black and one of every five, Hispanic —
until the department has fulfilled the court-ordered quota of 186 black and 107 Hispanic hires.
Racial Arsonists' New
Target: FICO Credit Scoring. It was bad enough the government pressured banks to rubberstamp home loans for folks with poor
credit scores. Now there's a more dangerous push to attack the credit-scoring system itself.
8
New Ways You Might Be Insane. "Psychiatrists manufacture mental diagnoses the way the Vatican manufactures
saints," says Dr. Thomas Szasz, an outspoken critic of modern psychiatry and author of Psychiatry: The Science of
Lies. This view may be extreme, but some of the new "mental illnesses" under consideration for the new edition
nonetheless sound a little... crazy. Here are eight you may already be suffering from, whether you knew it or not.
America's One True Religion:
If fewer folks celebrate Mass, then they certainly celebrate themselves. But if they don't celebrate themselves,
they celebrate other mortals. We call these other mortals "celebrities." Indeed, America has a culture of
celebrity. Some of our celebrities are celebrated for nothing more than their celebrity; they're "famous
for being famous," and they seem to have no redeeming qualities. We're celebrating the wrong celebrities.
There've been only twelve men who have trod the Moon. Yet we ignore them and celebrate Eminem and Snoop Dog.
Academic
conference seeks to normalize pedophilia. Researchers from several prominent U.S. universities
will participate tomorrow in a Baltimore conference reportedly aiming to normalize pedophilia. According
to the sponsoring organization's website, the event will examine ways in which "minor-attracted persons" can
be involved in a revision of the American Psychological Association (APA) classification of pedophilia.
Are
Mental Health Professionals Working to Normalize Pedophilia? As law enforcement agencies around
the world continue to round up adults who prey on children, a small group of mental health professionals
appears to be trying to facilitate a change in how pedophilia is defined and diagnosed.
A Nation That
Honors Sin. The increasingly intrusive apparatus of bureaucratic control forces many people
to act as if they approve of sins they oppose. Think of the college professor who would suffer
professionally if his companions knew that he opposed "gay rights," of the nurse who would be fired
if it were known that she opposed "reproductive rights" (i.e, abortion); of the college student whose
grade would be arbitrarily lowered if he expressed opposition to the favoring of nonwhites at the expense
of whites. The mandatory approval of sin forces many people to hide their true beliefs, and they often
become demoralized at this erosion of their integrity.
Why Political
Perversions Get a Pass. There is no excuse for the sins of our politicians but what is even
more disturbing is the absence of any sense of morality in the voters who keep these corrupt perverts in
office.
Accusation that Voter ID Is Racist Demeans
Blacks. The left, which dominates our culture and educational institutions, has too often lowered
standards for black Americans. Even worse, it has declared that if you are black, "they isn't" is not
only not to be corrected, but many in academia have declared it an acceptable form of English, i.e., Ebonics,
or Black English.
Liberalism
is Destroying Christian Churches. The National leadership of many of our Protestant churches has
long been far to the left in political ideology. The same is true of the National Council of Churches.
Some of their liberalism has even filtered down into some of the churches at the local level. They have
continually pursued many leftist causes over the years — some of which have been communist. Many
have adopted all of the current leftist ideologies, including same-sex marriage, acceptance of sodomy as commendable,
amnesty for illegal aliens and open borders, global warming propaganda, government controlled medical care,
and the treating of Islam as an equal and acceptable religion.
Narcissism is No
Longer a Psychiatric Disorder. Narcissistic personality disorder, characterized by an inflated sense
of self-importance and the need for constant attention, has been eliminated from the upcoming manual of mental
disorders, which psychiatrists use to diagnose mental illness.
The Editor says...
Narcissism may be rampant, but that doesn't mean it's normal.
Jesus And Obama Tie In Recent Poll. Who are the role
models for today's 13-17 year olds? That's the question recently posed by Barna Group in his annual
YouthPoll. The way youths answer this question has great import. According to the study,
["]Teenagers' preferences and tastes greatly influence America's cultural identity. The people teenagers
look up to as their role models matter a great deal in determining the shape and substance of the next generation
of churchgoers, consumers and citizens.["] Youth were not permitted to identify their parents as
role models. Yet, family members were still listed as the chief role models by 37% of respondents.
[Italics added.]
Flying
the friendly skies ought to be friendlier. When I got on an airplane for the first time — to
fly from Boston to New York, around 1970 — I got all dressed up. ... I really hate sounding like an old
timer, even if I am becoming one, but the truth is that not only did people used to "dress" to fly, but everyone
was generally on good behavior. Someone might flirt with a flight attendant, but I never saw anyone berate
one; I rarely saw bad behavior at the gates; I can't remember a single screaming match at a ticket counter.
The Editor says...
People used to get dressed up to be part of the audience at a television show. Today, the people on
camera often dress like slobs or prostitutes. Years earlier, people would dress up to go to a radio
station — as part of the cast or even the audience. When I was a child, adults used to dress
rather formally just to go to the bank. These days, people don't even dress up to go to church, if they
go at all. Decorum and propriety are rare commodities.
The Racism of
Diversity. Let's go over what the Naval Academy sees as an artificial achievement barrier.
A black candidate with B and C grades, with no particular leadership qualities, and 500 on both
portions of the SAT, is virtually guaranteed admittance. A white student, who's not an athlete, with such
scores is deemed not qualified. Many black students are admitted to the Naval Academy through remedial
training at the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) in Newport, R.I., which is a one-year post-secondary
school. Finishing the year with a 2.0 GPA, a C average, almost guarantees admission to the
academy. A C average for remedial work is nothing to write home about. Occasionally, when
students don't make the 2.0 GPA target, the target is renegotiated downward.
Is literature the canary
in the mine? If we in the 21st century stand on the shoulders of giants, it must be a particularly light
load for the giants — as there seems to be a dearth of intellectual weight in the current era. Can
you think of any writer as essential as Charles Dickens alive today? Or Tolstoy? Or Emily Dickinson?
Or Hemingway? ... Or Mark Twain?
One
in three recent Atlanta Police Academy graduates have criminal records. Keovongsa Siharath was
arrested in Henry County on charges he punched his stepfather. Jeffrey Churchill was charged with
assault in an altercation with a woman in a mall parking lot. Calvin Thomas was taken into custody in
DeKalb County on a concealed weapons charge. All three are now officers with the Atlanta Police
Department.
Spring
break: hazardous to your health? Spring break should be known as the
anti-Lent. Sex, alcohol, outrageous misbehavior — every indulgence is
mandatory, and magnified live on MTV.
Whatever
Happened to the Family Film? Of the top 20 moneymaking films of all
time, not a single one is rated R, and of the top 50, only five are
rated R — with the remainder being G or PG. Don"t these figures
make you wonder what"s wrong with Hollywood just from a business point of view? Why,
in the face of these statistics, does Hollywood keep putting out so many non-family oriented
movies?
TV Watchdog: FCC Ruling "One Great
Mish-Mash of Imprecision". A pro-family spokesman says the FCC's decision yesterday to dismiss
more than 30 complaints against indecent programming points to the need for a new kind of leadership at the
federal agency. The Federal Communications Commission announced on Monday [1/24/2005] that it had
turned aside 36 complaints that various television stations had aired indecent material during a variety of
programs.
An obituary for
qualities: The year-end obituaries have paid due homage to the national icons, the rich and
famous, the talented and not so. But there really ought to be obituaries not just for people but for
the qualities they represented. For traditions, customs, styles that have faded.
Study says "Language police" are
harming children. Activist groups acting as "language police" are exerting increasing control
over American schools, resulting in bored, cynical and "dumbed down" children, according to a three-year study
of education policy.
Behar:
Baptism = Waterboarding. An ancient Christian religious ritual is apparently comparable
to a controversial interrogation technique, according to Joy Behar of ABC's "The View." ... Behar, of
course, had to add in her usual quip. "Isn't it like water boarding — when they dump your head under
there like that?" Fellow host Elisabeth Hasselbeck quickly replied with, "no."
These New (York) Times —
Inherent Contradiction Of Modern Dogma. As Chuck Colson notes, "It may be fashionable to dismiss
moral truth claims, but the absence of truth leads to chaos, and we find we can't live with it. The Times
can't live with a reporter carrying its own philosophy to its logical conclusion."
We're all
victims. Critics have noticed that nobody is responsible for anything anymore,
since almost everyone is a victim. Here are the top 10 victim stories of 2005.
Coddling Criminals:
Drown Your Babies, Walk Away Free. This has happened at least twice in Texas in this
decade — practically the liberal's definition of an epidemic. But it's a liberal approach to
crime and punishment that defined Lisa Diaz as "crazy" and allowed her to walk out of a mental hospital
"cured" after drowning her two little girls just three years ago.
A World without Adversity: There was
once a time when parents pointed out bums on the streets and told their children that this was what could
happen to you if you didn't bother to learn the things you needed to know, and do the things you needed to
do, to make it in life. Today, children are taught to be "non-judgmental" and the media keep saying
that these drug-ridden derelicts are "people just like us" who happened to fall on hard times -- even
though study after study shows what a pious lie that is.
A World Without "F's": Whiny parents
wonder why public schools have abandoned standards, forsaken accountability and adopted appeasement as
their primary educational mission.
The End Of America's Prestige:
A friend of mine once told a college class that nobody ever woke up in 476 A.D. (the date historians define
as the fall of the Roman Empire) and said, "Gosh, I'm in the Dark Ages." His point is plain enough.
Transitions happen gradually, and the people who live through them never realize what is happening. So it
is with Americans. We are living in the ruins of a once-great republic. Now an empire utterly
devoid of moral authority, the United States has nothing left but its military power and its capacity to
consume on credit.
Weakened Culture, Weakened
Schools: As both sides of the Atlantic reel from the latest bout of school shootings, this time
in Erfurt, Germany, fundamental questions about our society and its institutions are tragically brought to
the forefront.
One Man's Dung is
Another Man's Art: When it comes to art, I'm a Norman Rockwell kind of guy. Maybe that's
partially why I'm so shocked by what has been labeled as "art" by our federal government.
A Kindler, Gentler... Less-Fit Military:
Walk, don't run. That's an order for the service men and women of U.S. Southern Command headquarters in
Miami. Their weekly fitness runs were terminated recently when a female officer claimed they were
"demeaning." According to media reports, the officer objected that the Friday jogs "subjected slow
runners to ridicule from faster runners." And you thought war was hell. Let the social scientists
worry about verbal interaction among "ability groups." But let the administration and Congress put
national security ahead of political correctness.
A Mom Reflects on Dodge
Ball Bans: Adults should once again allow kids to play cops and robbers, cowboys and indians,
Batman, or dodge ball on school playgrounds without fear of expulsion. There is nothing more fun than
watching children play. This is how they learn to develop social skills and their imaginations.
Bread and Circuses: In his book Bread and
Circuses, Patrick Brantlinger analyzes the idea of "bread and circuses" as a narcotic for the masses throughout
history. Brantlinger defines as "negative classicism" the idea that Rome was decadent and that our
society is sliding downhill to a Roman-style decadence. "The shade of Rome," says Brantlinger, "looms
up to suggest the fate of societies that fail to elevate their masses to something better than welfare checks
and mass entertainments."
Cultural Sewage: It's
the Law of Dilution: If you add a cup of water to a barrel of sewage, you get a barrel of sewage; but
if you add a cup of sewage to a barrel of water, you still get a barrel of sewage.
The Virtue of Individualism: The committee
gave me an ultimatum: change the speech topic completely and write about what the committee wanted me to
write about, or "resign" from the speaking position. I remained firm to my decision not to change the
idea of my speech.
When the Chips Are Off: If Americans
overwhelmingly favor the V-chip, why don't they use it? In his 1996 State of the Union address,
President Clinton urged Congress "to pass the requirement for a "V" chip in TV sets, so that parents
can screen out programs they believe are inappropriate for their children." He said the technology
would enable parents "to assume more personal responsibility for their children"s upbringing." This
was an odd way to characterize the V-chip, which actually represented an abdication of parental
responsibility. Instead of monitoring what their kids watch and deciding for themselves what was
appropriate, parents would rely on ratings assigned by the networks. There would be no need for active
supervision or discussion: Once the V-chip was programmed, everything would be automatic.
