Much Ado About a Presidential Speech

I can certainly understand the concern that many parents have regarding President Obama’s speech to schoolchildren nationwide today. After all, fresh off a campaign, Presidents (especially left-leaning ones) tend to make every public speech a campaign speech. Fears of political indoctrination are not entirely unfounded.

Fortunately–and perhaps in order to asuage the fears of the common man–Obama released the text of his speech the day before it was delivered. This allowed concerned parents (and conspiracy theorist Republicans) to parse and analyze to their hearts’ content.

I can’t help but find all of this furor a bit ironic. After all, it is no secret that by-and-large America’s public school teachers tend to be left-leaning themselves. Take a quick survey of political bumper stickers in the faculty lot of your local high school and you will have to agree. Get into a political question-and-answer session with a local school administrator and you will probably long for the days when an Obama speech interrupted the normal curricular activities. Hey, at least Obama gave you access to an advanced copy of what he is going to say to your children.

I’m not opposed to parents voicing their concerns over this issue. I just don’t understand why those same parents exercise blind faith in their schools and their children’s teachers every other day of the year.

Conformist Propaganda Comes to CBS

I could hardly believe my ears.

TV is not very good in August, and on CBS tonight it was worse than normal. It seems the powers-that-be decided to dredge out their prize piece of propaganda for their late summer evening entertainment.

They showed an episode of the show “Criminal Minds” called “Minimal Loss.” The episode surrounds an investigation, raid, and Waco-like standoff at a cult compound in Colorado. The cult leader is played by Luke Perry, and several real-life elements are inserted into the show: allegations of forced “marriages” to children, charges of weapons laws violations, drinking poison, underground tunnels, botched police operations … it seriously resembled a montage of all that was wrong about how the Janet Reno Justice Department interacted with the public.

But the writers of the show did more than pick a fight with religious cults … this time they added a healthy dose of conformist propaganda as they paraded the real villains of the world: Libertarians. The “cult” is really a libertarian compound!

Yes, that’s right. Let me give you a second or two to let it soak in. … Libertarians are the source of evil in the world. Here are a few tidbits that the script “teaches” the CBS faithful about the nature of libertarianism:

• Libertarians don’t pay their taxes.
• Libertarians think it is ok for adults to have sexual relations with children.
• Libertarians use violence to achieve their political goals.
• Libertarians are not religious.
• Libertarians routinely assault government agents.
• Libertarians routinely ignore gun laws.

The show originally aired in early October last year. … Wait for it. … There it is!! It just clicked in your mind that the episode aired just before the last presidential election. It is a typical example of efforts taken on a broad scale to silence and marginalize anyone who does not fit the status-quo. With the choice before the American people – McCain or Obama – the message was clear: You can vote for anyone to be president, as long as the candidate is either a Republican or a Democrat. Yes, boys and girls, any one of you can grow up to be president, as long as you are willing to be either a Democrat or a Republican. If someone comes along spouting off something about “freedom” or “the founding fathers,” they  must be a part of a cult.

Not that I can undo the damage, but I encourage my readers to take a closer look. First of all, libertarianism is a political philosophy, not a perspective on religion. I happen to fit the standard mould of a “religious” person, and I also happen to hold to a type of libertarian political philosophy.  … I guess I’ll go start a cult. …

In any case, I bet most of you (my readers) are, in fact, libertarians. Just see for yourself: http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html

Anyway … I just thought I’d rant about the idiocy in the writing room at CBS.

Thanks for reading.

I take requests.

As I plan how I will continue my ‘blog, I have been giving thoughtful consideration of what topics I might address in future posts. As part of this planning process, I decided it would be good to solicit my readers. I figure two or three additional opinions might help generate ideas.

So… if you have an idea or suggestion for future ‘blog post topics, or issues you would like to see addressed here, please post a comment to this ‘blog entry and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

Where in the world is Rich Holland?

For both of my regular readers, I need to apologize for allowing me ‘blog to fall by the wayside.

I have had several (more important) things to do that took up the bulk of my time.

I’ll be back to blogging soon.

Building a Gun-Control Society

This article by Robert Waters is a bit dated now, but it is worth the read. The main thing that strikes me is the fact that when so-called “gun control” laws are passed, the result is merely the creation of a new class of criminals – the one’s who break the gun control laws. Such laws don’t actually do anything to make anyone more safe, they just create new criminals. Of course those of us who want to be good, law-abiding citizens will attempt to obey the new laws. Soon, however, those who own guns or lobby against gun control legislation will be viewed by the society as a whole as the real criminals.

Self defense is a basic human right.

Those who would ban guns are of the sort who will also ban many other things. Eventually, they will ban something that you care about; so you should care about guns.

I hope you aren’t surprised – they aren’t using the bailout to bail us out.

It was billed as a measure to purchase troubled assets – to get the credit market moving again. Now that they have their hands in our pockets, they admit that they aren’t going to do that at all. See this article, which says, in part:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday that original plan to purchase distressed mortgage assets from Wall Street firms is not the best use of the $700 billion financial rescue package, and officials will now focus on direct capital injections into the struggling financial firms.

This comes after Paulson said buying troubled assets — the plan originally advertised to the public — would take too much time in a financial crisis that continues to test the patience of investors, government and the public. 

That’s what I figured. All that hype was just to get us to open our pockets nice and wide so he could go after it with both hands. We have just witnessed the greatest theft in history. Our grand children will curse us for our weakness and naiveté.

Image is everything.

I know I will probably be misunderstood in what I am saying in this post . . . but I really think it needs to be said.

The person who won the election and is now the president-elect of the United States won the election based on image and not on ideas. I have listened to, read, and watched a little more than a day’s worth of coverage of the election results, and not once have I heard of a single commentator talk about how Obama’s ideas and vision for the country is what compelled people to vote for him. Instead, we have seen the focus on the nations first African-American president. Now, I understand the significance of this; and I do feel a sense of pride in our country . . . that we demonstrated that racism and bigotry will never win the day.

But the fact remains Obama got elected for what he “looks like” and not for his ideas. I don’t mean he got elected because he is black. That’s not what I am saying at all. But just think about it – he is relatively young, he is physically attractive, well spoken, tall, kind . . . he has a great image. Add to that the fact that he is black and he has the complete package. Black voters had an understandable urge to vote for a black man. White voters had an understandable urge to make a “statement” in voting for a black man-that we aren’t racists, that we can overcome our collective guilt for past injustices. I am convinced that the vast majority of those who voted for Obama voted based on this image, the figure and symbol of social progress.

John McCain could have been Reagan re-incarnate and would still have lost the election. Sarah Palin could have turned out to be an Alaskan version of Margaret Thatcher, and we would still be hearing reports of McCain campaign infighting over her selection. Why? Because this election, I am sad to say, was not an election about ideas . . . it was about image.

Take the Quiz

The world’s smallest political quiz: http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html

Take it, you might be surprised how it comes out.

President Obama

Get used to how it sounds, folks. McCain’s campaign is dying a slow death. The worst part of it all is that the waning support for McCain has people thinking that maybe Obama is the right choice for our country.

Let me just lay my cards on the table for you: Neither Obama nor McCain are good for our country. There are some stark differences between the two . . . but in the end, they share in common the fact that they want to take us down the road of less liberty, fewer civil rights, and a more powerful federal government. They may be going down different paths, but they both lead to the same place.

Remember this November – a vote for “the lesser of two evils” is still a vote for evil. I don’t know about you, but I refuse to vote for evil.

Obviously, this is an emergency!

Here is a little snippet from the “Emergency Economic Stabilization” bill up for consideration in Washington:

SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN. 

(a) INGENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b)is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub-301

paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A) the following new subparagraph: 

‘‘(B) EXEMPTIONFOR CERTAIN WOODEN ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not apply to any shaft consisting of all natural wood with no laminations or artificial means of enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold separately or incorporated as part of a finishedor unfinished product) of a type used in the manufacture of any arrow which after its assembly—

‘‘(i) measures 5⁄16of an inch or less in diameter, and 

‘‘(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow described in paragraph (1)(A).’’. 

(b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by this section shall apply to shafts first sold after the date of enactment of this Act.

Yes, that’s right. The “emergency” includes modifying tax provisions governing wooden arrows made for children. Yep, sounds like they have everything well in hand up on Capitol Hill. We should just trust them and let them pass the legislation they know is for our own good.