Posts
August 12, 2011
Stephen Goldstein
The Sun Snetinel
RE: Shades of Janet Cook! – Some comments on your prototypical “balloon juice” column in today’s Sun-Sentinel
My dear Professor,
Your nomination of Emmett, the Boston cab driver, as Everyman bespeaks another ailment common to practicing modern American Liberals.
Apparently fewer and fewer of us still remember the lessons of formal Logic.
It trained you, not what to think, but how to think.
One of the ways it did that was by pointing out how not to think.
I shant burden you with tales of the Trivium lest I overload your already overtaxed synapses.
I am loath to put too much on your plate so I will stick to one.
Particulars do not make universals.
You say that Barney Frank’s loud televised public eructations notwithstanding, he will be re-elected because Everyman Emmett “prizes free public education”. [An unasked and therefore unanswered question is why doesn’t the President share his feelings. No “free” public school system spends more per pupil than Washington, D.C. Could there be a more dramatic affirmation of “free” public education than to have a D.C. yellow school bus pull up in front of the White House and pick up the Obama children? I don’t think so either.]
Further, you quote Everyman Emmett thus: “We need jobs.”
Does he mean “shovel ready” jobs like those promised in February, 2009?
Does he mean jobs like those “created” in the legendary 2010 Summer of Recovery?
You say that Everyman Emmett wants Congress to “pass the Federal budget”.
Did you tell him that when Democrat was in the White House and had overwhelming majorities in both Houses no budget was ever introduced?
Silly me!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Stephen L Goldstein, The Sun Sentinel
September 4, 2011
Stephen L Goldstein
The Sun-Sentinel
RE: Modern American Liberalism, pet peeves, and your brutally honest explanation of the connection between them in your column in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
I can’t stand ending sentences with prepositions. There are but two exceptions to this hard and true rule. [Exceptions to rules – moral relativism - are one of the driving forces of modern American Liberalism, no?]
#1 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if there is a proposition attached to it. #2 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if you are a fan of Winston Churchill.
As to signing a statement, any statement, I suggest you remove the 2x4 from your eye before trying to get the mote out of your neighbor’s eye. When will the editorials of the Sun-Sentinel be signed? I have been told by a highly placed source, one that must remain confidential, that you will resign should your policy of signing everything not be adhered to. ”Adhered to”? Count me as a big fan of Churchill.
The next time a “highly placed source who must remain confidential” tips you on a private sin of a public servant you must instantly “out” him lest you wish to confirm that as a card carrying modern American Liberal your favorite color is still plaid.
I have been in Texas on personal business. Because of my international acclaim as a ditch digger I volunteered for the “shovel ready” moat project on the Rio Grande. Since I am from Florida I volunteered to bait my man eater traps with live baby manatees to secure a few dozen 10 to 12 foot bull gators for the soon to be finished moat. It was the least I could do for the Waiting for Godot “summer of recovery”.
I got to your column on the Internet. I never did thank Vice President Alpha Gump for his timely discovery of same. That was a busy time for him. His main job then was keelhauling Governor Dukakis – “Competence, not character”, remember? – for giving a weekend furlough to convicted rapist murderer Willie Horton who, mirabalie dictum, raped and murdered again. That’s one of the beauties of modern American Liberals. “They never let you down.”
“People should be required…” is the war cry of the Democratic Party. It is the iron fist in the iron glove. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. Light bulbs, teenage obesity, Gibson guitars, 5th trimester abortions, drowning polar bears, Affirmative Action, furbish louseworts, Global WarmingCoolingClimateChange, bad war vs. good war, green jobs, “Pass the bill so we can see what’s in it”, the minimum wage, bad Bush deficits vs.
good Obama deficits, believing that making the rich poorer will make the poor richer, skipping the part where Keynes says tax cuts are must in a recession, “Will no one rid me of that damned Constitution”? airport groping, eating your seed corn, “fairness”, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as the prototypical modern American Liberal Nazi, “reset” buttons – Thank God that tomorrow is a holiday! Listing all those sins could cause terminal carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ll dip both hands in freezing pickle brine like the morning after medicine.
“People should be required…” must be offset by “Quis custodes custodiet?”. Translation? Send a SASE.
“Average Americans are probably the world’s least informed people.” Would it mark me as a knuckle dragging, homophobic, gun toting, Tea Partying, Global Warming denying zealot if I were [N.B. the use of the subjunctive] to ask for the whole list?
Where do we rank compared to the Uighurs? How about the mighty Flems and their eternal foes, the stout Walloons? Serbs? Croats? The unfairly rich swells who summer on Martha’s Vineyard? The Kikuyus? The Goths? The people of Paraguay? The people of Zimbabwe? Les merdes du Quebec? The people who vote for Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters? The non-swimming Cubans? Los aficionados de Chavez? The people still yearning for Midnight Basketball? Wal*Mart haters? Moderate Muslim terrorists?
The election in 2008 of a total non-entity, a man devoid of any experience beyond that of perpetual victimhood, a man who would be hard pressed to find his ass using both his hands, may well buttress your argument.
I ask you to remember 1976 and 1980.
On the trip back to the White House after his inauguration in 1977 it became obvious to those Americans still capable of rational thought that America had blundered in electing Jimmy Carter. It took less than 3 years for him to convince the rest of America that he was without doubt the worst President of the 20th century. As soon as the Constitution allowed the “least informed average Americans” unelected him.
It may be too soon – it’s only 11 years into the new century – to give Lord Barack the Beneficent the same laurel earned by Clod Carter. He has set the bar of ineptitude so high that it would take 7 league boots to get near it.
One thought and one suggestion before getting back to the border for armed. night patrol.
Walls work very well when they are built to keep people. out Take a peek at China and the wall that Hadrian built. Both worked. The one best remembered for keeping people in, the Berlin Wall, worked for almost 30 years.
Obama said he wanted to “transform society”. I’ll start by transforming the way English is taught in this country. Serious thought must be given to Napoleon’s rule before a battle. 3 soldiers were chosen at random and tried for cowardice. They were found guilty and executed. He said it “encouraged the others”. It would work wonders with syntactically challenged teachers.
The thought is that the hiring of English teachers should be given the same status as the hiring of the football coach. Macbeth must be on par with the tight end coach. The retention and promotion of both should be on parallel track. Diagramming a sentence should be as important as attacking a two-deep zone. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda holds no water in the post-game film review. It should be given less tolerance in the FCATs. Try it. In fact it should be “required”.
Kevin Smith
PS – As to “conferring lifetime titles”…My father was born before man flew. He was graduated from grammar school on a Friday night. Saturday morning he was shoveling coal at the end of 22nd street in Bayonne, NJ. He was 26 years old before he went to high school. He was 36 years old when he passed his Bar exam. He won a lot of money betting on Truman in 1948. When he died, after man went to the moon, walked around, and came back, and after his time on the Bench, he was still called “Judge”. What’s your problem with that?
Stephen L Goldstein
The Sun-Sentinel
RE: Modern American Liberalism, pet peeves, and your brutally honest explanation of the connection between them in your column in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
I can’t stand ending sentences with prepositions. There are but two exceptions to this hard and true rule. [Exceptions to rules – moral relativism - are one of the driving forces of modern American Liberalism, no?]
#1 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if there is a proposition attached to it. #2 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if you are a fan of Winston Churchill.
As to signing a statement, any statement, I suggest you remove the 2x4 from your eye before trying to get the mote out of your neighbor’s eye. When will the editorials of the Sun-Sentinel be signed? I have been told by a highly placed source, one that must remain confidential, that you will resign should your policy of signing everything not be adhered to. ”Adhered to”? Count me as a big fan of Churchill.
The next time a “highly placed source who must remain confidential” tips you on a private sin of a public servant you must instantly “out” him lest you wish to confirm that as a card carrying modern American Liberal your favorite color is still plaid.
I have been in Texas on personal business. Because of my international acclaim as a ditch digger I volunteered for the “shovel ready” moat project on the Rio Grande. Since I am from Florida I volunteered to bait my man eater traps with live baby manatees to secure a few dozen 10 to 12 foot bull gators for the soon to be finished moat. It was the least I could do for the Waiting for Godot “summer of recovery”.
I got to your column on the Internet. I never did thank Vice President Alpha Gump for his timely discovery of same. That was a busy time for him. His main job then was keelhauling Governor Dukakis – “Competence, not character”, remember? – for giving a weekend furlough to convicted rapist murderer Willie Horton who, mirabalie dictum, raped and murdered again. That’s one of the beauties of modern American Liberals. “They never let you down.”
“People should be required…” is the war cry of the Democratic Party. It is the iron fist in the iron glove. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. Light bulbs, teenage obesity, Gibson guitars, 5th trimester abortions, drowning polar bears, Affirmative Action, furbish louseworts, Global WarmingCoolingClimateChange, bad war vs. good war, green jobs, “Pass the bill so we can see what’s in it”, the minimum wage, bad Bush deficits vs.
good Obama deficits, believing that making the rich poorer will make the poor richer, skipping the part where Keynes says tax cuts are must in a recession, “Will no one rid me of that damned Constitution”? airport groping, eating your seed corn, “fairness”, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as the prototypical modern American Liberal Nazi, “reset” buttons – Thank God that tomorrow is a holiday! Listing all those sins could cause terminal carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ll dip both hands in freezing pickle brine like the morning after medicine.
“People should be required…” must be offset by “Quis custodes custodiet?”. Translation? Send a SASE.
“Average Americans are probably the world’s least informed people.” Would it mark me as a knuckle dragging, homophobic, gun toting, Tea Partying, Global Warming denying zealot if I were [N.B. the use of the subjunctive] to ask for the whole list?
Where do we rank compared to the Uighurs? How about the mighty Flems and their eternal foes, the stout Walloons? Serbs? Croats? The unfairly rich swells who summer on Martha’s Vineyard? The Kikuyus? The Goths? The people of Paraguay? The people of Zimbabwe? Les merdes du Quebec? The people who vote for Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters? The non-swimming Cubans? Los aficionados de Chavez? The people still yearning for Midnight Basketball? Wal*Mart haters? Moderate Muslim terrorists?
The election in 2008 of a total non-entity, a man devoid of any experience beyond that of perpetual victimhood, a man who would be hard pressed to find his ass using both his hands, may well buttress your argument.
I ask you to remember 1976 and 1980.
On the trip back to the White House after his inauguration in 1977 it became obvious to those Americans still capable of rational thought that America had blundered in electing Jimmy Carter. It took less than 3 years for him to convince the rest of America that he was without doubt the worst President of the 20th century. As soon as the Constitution allowed the “least informed average Americans” unelected him.
It may be too soon – it’s only 11 years into the new century – to give Lord Barack the Beneficent the same laurel earned by Clod Carter. He has set the bar of ineptitude so high that it would take 7 league boots to get near it.
One thought and one suggestion before getting back to the border for armed. night patrol.
Walls work very well when they are built to keep people. out Take a peek at China and the wall that Hadrian built. Both worked. The one best remembered for keeping people in, the Berlin Wall, worked for almost 30 years.
Obama said he wanted to “transform society”. I’ll start by transforming the way English is taught in this country. Serious thought must be given to Napoleon’s rule before a battle. 3 soldiers were chosen at random and tried for cowardice. They were found guilty and executed. He said it “encouraged the others”. It would work wonders with syntactically challenged teachers.
The thought is that the hiring of English teachers should be given the same status as the hiring of the football coach. Macbeth must be on par with the tight end coach. The retention and promotion of both should be on parallel track. Diagramming a sentence should be as important as attacking a two-deep zone. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda holds no water in the post-game film review. It should be given less tolerance in the FCATs. Try it. In fact it should be “required”.
Kevin Smith
PS – As to “conferring lifetime titles”…My father was born before man flew. He was graduated from grammar school on a Friday night. Saturday morning he was shoveling coal at the end of 22nd street in Bayonne, NJ. He was 26 years old before he went to high school. He was 36 years old when he passed his Bar exam. He won a lot of money betting on Truman in 1948. When he died, after man went to the moon, walked around, and came back, and after his time on the Bench, he was still called “Judge”. What’s your problem with that?
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Robert Watson, Ph.D. Lynn University
September 25, 2011
Robert Watson, Ph.D.
American Studies
Lynn University
3601 N. Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Boca Raton, FL
RE: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Quaff deeply…” – Some comments on your “Kick me, please kick me” column in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
I’ve been away.
The manatee trapping – think low cholesterol sausage for the homeless – season doesn’t begin until Halloween. I’ve scheduled my Obamacare/Medicare cost reduction campaign – senior citizen python wrestling in a single elimination mode – to begin on Thanksgiving. With far too much time on my hands I seek targets of opportunity.
Bingo!
Guess whose ass is in the 10 ring?
#1 – “AMERICANS ALWAYS RALLY AROUND THE FLAG” – They did not fully do so in the American Revolution. They did not do so in the War of 1812. They did not do so in the Mexican War. They did not do so in the American Civil War. They did not do so in World War 2 until the modern American Liberals of the day were shocked, shocked when Hitler, Stalin’s best friend forever, invaded the rodinya. They did not in Vietnam. They did not in Iraq. I wonder where Cindy Sheehan was when this country supported the invasion of Libya.
#2 – “ FEAR IS A POWERFUL EMOTION” – You’re right. You may wish to add “Stones are hard and water is wet” to Watson’s List of really Useful Aphorisms”. Would you retroactively condemn Admiral Halsey, another proud son of New Jersey, for saying “the Japs are lousy yellow rat monkey bastards”?*
No navy in the History of the world was as ferocious and as victorious as the American Navy in 1942. Salamis, Lepanto, and Trafalgar were not 5 carnage filled days combined. Jutland was but a bloody afternoon.
Some portion of this staggering accomplishment – Tokyo to Midway to Ironbottom Sound – has to be attributed to the salutary effects of fear. The later Battles of the Philippine Sea and of Leyte Gulf followed by the invasion of Okinawa were won partly by the fear instilled in the American Navy in 1941.
#3 – “NO ONE POLITICAL PARTY OWNS PATRIOTISM” – True. True. I remember the call to arms issued by Senator John Pastore [D-RI]. He said that when the bad guys “looked down the barrel of the Kennedy/Johnson cannon” they knew that the American people were serious. How did that work out?
#4&5 – “IT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR AMERICA TO BE STRONG MILITARILY” & “A NATION CANNOT FIGHT 2 WARS SIMULTANEOUSLY” - The evidence of your own eyes demands acceptance of the fact that a nation can neither borrow nor can it tax its way to prosperity and power. No nation, anywhere, anytime has ever done so. I search vainly for answer to the poser that asks, if deficits under Bush were bad, why are they good under Obama.
As to the two front war I suggest that you familiarize yourself with World War 2. I had an uncle who went everywhere MacArthur went. I had another uncle who made 3 forced landings: North Africa, Sicily, and Anzio. My wife’s father was 8000 yards off the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944. She had an uncle who ran convoys to Murmansk. 4 oceans, 3 continents, at least 9 countries.
There is no better definition of a two front war than that.
#6 – “THE OLD CONVENTIONAL, BI-POLAR WORLD” – You end by saying that “America is strongest when it is respected around the world”. I must have missed those lectures. Did Hellenic architecture enable a polyglot collection of city states to conquer the mightiest power on earth? Did Aeneas and Juvenal empower Rome to be able to enforce Pax Romanica?
Is it Ritalin or Thorazine that is the drug of choice for bi-polar disorders? If you are referring to the 45 year dust up with the Russkies, the one that Reagan won without firing a shot, what was the alternative therapy? If Walter Mondale had pushed the 1985 equivalent of the famous RESET button what would have happened?
Was there ever a stronger, more feared, and more respected power on earth than America on September 2, 1945? When MacArthur said, “These proceedings are closed”, he turned to Admiral Halsey and said, “Bill, where the Hell are those planes?” As if by magic 1000 planes overflew the USS Missouri. They blocked out the sun in a way not seen since Thermopylae.
That we chose to give away our treasure and our power is the subject of a different discussion.
#7 – “THERE ARE DANGERS IN GROUP THINK” – Right again. When I think of all the buffoonish Luddite nitwit ohmadans who swear allegiance to the
“settled science” of Global Warming the dangers of “Group Think” are writ large. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is supposedly “settled science”. After more than 150 years it is still called a theory. Why is that? Just 2 days ago the “settled science” of Einstein was challenged in a way not seen in a century. You may remember that tomatoes were long thought to be poisonous. I’m glad that got cleared up. What would we do without pizza? Wasn’t it “settled science” that the sun revolved around the earth. It didn’t make Gus Ptolemy a bad guy.
If you are referring to “group think” when it comes to war time leaders making war time decisions a different dynamic applies. Information to a war time leader is like water to a garden. It takes a long time to judge the crop. Thus, when President Roosevelt called Governor Warren in 1942 and told him that he was sending him the 1940 Census data to him to help him lock up all the slopes, he was acting on what he thought was the best information available and in the nation’s best interest. One of those conveniently forgotten facts is that in addition to the 150,000 Japanese-Americans interned there were almost 30,000 German-Americans and Italian-Americans also locked up. Their “We’re sorry. We didn’t mean it. Please forgive us” compensation package is, I think, still being negotiated. Compared to the surgeon the pathologist has a far simpler task. Autopsies stop for lunch. Emergency pneumonectomies can’t.
#8 – “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.” – So what? The Logic that enabled Obama to join in the invasion of Libya is just as compelling as when it is applied to Sadam Hussein. Both were bad guys. Both killed a lot of people. All the world’s intelligence services plus a majority of Congressional Democrats thought he posed a clear and present danger to this nation. There are no mulligans in poker or realpolitik. Are dead American soldiers killed in Iraq – the bad war – anymore dead than American soldiers killed in Afghanistan – the good war?
#9 – “Ten years later…” – Your argument that we have created a “terrorism industrial complex” and that we have “established a monstrous bureaucracy” proves the History does repeat itself. I’ll leave it to you place the nametags of “tragedy” and “farce” on the proper chests.
The longest war in American History, the 48 year war on poverty, a war that we entered into without any stated goals and certainly no exit strategy, and if we are to believe the Congressional Black Caucus, is a continuing failure. The second longest, the war against drugs, is also a quagmire. About the latter at least it can be said that it has created thousands of “shovel ready” jobs. Alas, they are all South of the border. Why don’t we have a peace conference on a joint Oprah/Doctor Phil show and surrender?
Speaking of a “monstrous bureaucracy” what do you think will happen should Obamacare be fully implemented? Think of the best of the IRS, the DMV, and the Post Office on steroids cubed. “Anticipation is the greater joy” is still in force, yes?
#10 – “We were attacked by a handful of radical individuals” – Right again. You say it caused us to “weaken civil liberties and suspend constitutional rights”. Whatever Darth Cheney, the evil puppet master, made Bush do he did not suspend the writ of habeas corpus as Lincoln did. He didn’t arrest and exile a Congressman as Lincoln did.
The problem with the “radical individual” premise is that their forebears did the same thing. If Islam is a religion of peace what were they doing half way across Europe less than a century after the religion was begun? How did the basilica of Saint Sophia become a mosque? Who was Cervantes fighting when he was wounded?
If Camp Gitmo, America’s first Caribbean based adult sleep away camp, is used to recruit terrorists, how did the 20 WOG terrorists get together to kill 3000 people on September 11, 2001? If it so bad why didn’t Salama Yomama, as Senator Lard Kennedy used to call him, shut it down as promised?
The eternal conflict, to cite Burke, is between order and freedom.
There are lessons to be learned from History.
Nolo me tangere cum impecunis still rings true
Maybe it’s time to update Cartago delenda est to Mecca delenda est.
Look at the time! I have to get back to judging my essay contest “Why it is ‘settled science’ that polar bears should drown”.
Kevin Smith
Robert Watson, Ph.D.
American Studies
Lynn University
3601 N. Military Trail
Boca Raton, FL 33431
Boca Raton, FL
RE: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Quaff deeply…” – Some comments on your “Kick me, please kick me” column in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
I’ve been away.
The manatee trapping – think low cholesterol sausage for the homeless – season doesn’t begin until Halloween. I’ve scheduled my Obamacare/Medicare cost reduction campaign – senior citizen python wrestling in a single elimination mode – to begin on Thanksgiving. With far too much time on my hands I seek targets of opportunity.
Bingo!
Guess whose ass is in the 10 ring?
#1 – “AMERICANS ALWAYS RALLY AROUND THE FLAG” – They did not fully do so in the American Revolution. They did not do so in the War of 1812. They did not do so in the Mexican War. They did not do so in the American Civil War. They did not do so in World War 2 until the modern American Liberals of the day were shocked, shocked when Hitler, Stalin’s best friend forever, invaded the rodinya. They did not in Vietnam. They did not in Iraq. I wonder where Cindy Sheehan was when this country supported the invasion of Libya.
#2 – “ FEAR IS A POWERFUL EMOTION” – You’re right. You may wish to add “Stones are hard and water is wet” to Watson’s List of really Useful Aphorisms”. Would you retroactively condemn Admiral Halsey, another proud son of New Jersey, for saying “the Japs are lousy yellow rat monkey bastards”?*
No navy in the History of the world was as ferocious and as victorious as the American Navy in 1942. Salamis, Lepanto, and Trafalgar were not 5 carnage filled days combined. Jutland was but a bloody afternoon.
Some portion of this staggering accomplishment – Tokyo to Midway to Ironbottom Sound – has to be attributed to the salutary effects of fear. The later Battles of the Philippine Sea and of Leyte Gulf followed by the invasion of Okinawa were won partly by the fear instilled in the American Navy in 1941.
#3 – “NO ONE POLITICAL PARTY OWNS PATRIOTISM” – True. True. I remember the call to arms issued by Senator John Pastore [D-RI]. He said that when the bad guys “looked down the barrel of the Kennedy/Johnson cannon” they knew that the American people were serious. How did that work out?
#4&5 – “IT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR AMERICA TO BE STRONG MILITARILY” & “A NATION CANNOT FIGHT 2 WARS SIMULTANEOUSLY” - The evidence of your own eyes demands acceptance of the fact that a nation can neither borrow nor can it tax its way to prosperity and power. No nation, anywhere, anytime has ever done so. I search vainly for answer to the poser that asks, if deficits under Bush were bad, why are they good under Obama.
As to the two front war I suggest that you familiarize yourself with World War 2. I had an uncle who went everywhere MacArthur went. I had another uncle who made 3 forced landings: North Africa, Sicily, and Anzio. My wife’s father was 8000 yards off the coast of Normandy on June 6, 1944. She had an uncle who ran convoys to Murmansk. 4 oceans, 3 continents, at least 9 countries.
There is no better definition of a two front war than that.
#6 – “THE OLD CONVENTIONAL, BI-POLAR WORLD” – You end by saying that “America is strongest when it is respected around the world”. I must have missed those lectures. Did Hellenic architecture enable a polyglot collection of city states to conquer the mightiest power on earth? Did Aeneas and Juvenal empower Rome to be able to enforce Pax Romanica?
Is it Ritalin or Thorazine that is the drug of choice for bi-polar disorders? If you are referring to the 45 year dust up with the Russkies, the one that Reagan won without firing a shot, what was the alternative therapy? If Walter Mondale had pushed the 1985 equivalent of the famous RESET button what would have happened?
Was there ever a stronger, more feared, and more respected power on earth than America on September 2, 1945? When MacArthur said, “These proceedings are closed”, he turned to Admiral Halsey and said, “Bill, where the Hell are those planes?” As if by magic 1000 planes overflew the USS Missouri. They blocked out the sun in a way not seen since Thermopylae.
That we chose to give away our treasure and our power is the subject of a different discussion.
#7 – “THERE ARE DANGERS IN GROUP THINK” – Right again. When I think of all the buffoonish Luddite nitwit ohmadans who swear allegiance to the
“settled science” of Global Warming the dangers of “Group Think” are writ large. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is supposedly “settled science”. After more than 150 years it is still called a theory. Why is that? Just 2 days ago the “settled science” of Einstein was challenged in a way not seen in a century. You may remember that tomatoes were long thought to be poisonous. I’m glad that got cleared up. What would we do without pizza? Wasn’t it “settled science” that the sun revolved around the earth. It didn’t make Gus Ptolemy a bad guy.
If you are referring to “group think” when it comes to war time leaders making war time decisions a different dynamic applies. Information to a war time leader is like water to a garden. It takes a long time to judge the crop. Thus, when President Roosevelt called Governor Warren in 1942 and told him that he was sending him the 1940 Census data to him to help him lock up all the slopes, he was acting on what he thought was the best information available and in the nation’s best interest. One of those conveniently forgotten facts is that in addition to the 150,000 Japanese-Americans interned there were almost 30,000 German-Americans and Italian-Americans also locked up. Their “We’re sorry. We didn’t mean it. Please forgive us” compensation package is, I think, still being negotiated. Compared to the surgeon the pathologist has a far simpler task. Autopsies stop for lunch. Emergency pneumonectomies can’t.
#8 – “Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.” – So what? The Logic that enabled Obama to join in the invasion of Libya is just as compelling as when it is applied to Sadam Hussein. Both were bad guys. Both killed a lot of people. All the world’s intelligence services plus a majority of Congressional Democrats thought he posed a clear and present danger to this nation. There are no mulligans in poker or realpolitik. Are dead American soldiers killed in Iraq – the bad war – anymore dead than American soldiers killed in Afghanistan – the good war?
#9 – “Ten years later…” – Your argument that we have created a “terrorism industrial complex” and that we have “established a monstrous bureaucracy” proves the History does repeat itself. I’ll leave it to you place the nametags of “tragedy” and “farce” on the proper chests.
The longest war in American History, the 48 year war on poverty, a war that we entered into without any stated goals and certainly no exit strategy, and if we are to believe the Congressional Black Caucus, is a continuing failure. The second longest, the war against drugs, is also a quagmire. About the latter at least it can be said that it has created thousands of “shovel ready” jobs. Alas, they are all South of the border. Why don’t we have a peace conference on a joint Oprah/Doctor Phil show and surrender?
Speaking of a “monstrous bureaucracy” what do you think will happen should Obamacare be fully implemented? Think of the best of the IRS, the DMV, and the Post Office on steroids cubed. “Anticipation is the greater joy” is still in force, yes?
#10 – “We were attacked by a handful of radical individuals” – Right again. You say it caused us to “weaken civil liberties and suspend constitutional rights”. Whatever Darth Cheney, the evil puppet master, made Bush do he did not suspend the writ of habeas corpus as Lincoln did. He didn’t arrest and exile a Congressman as Lincoln did.
The problem with the “radical individual” premise is that their forebears did the same thing. If Islam is a religion of peace what were they doing half way across Europe less than a century after the religion was begun? How did the basilica of Saint Sophia become a mosque? Who was Cervantes fighting when he was wounded?
If Camp Gitmo, America’s first Caribbean based adult sleep away camp, is used to recruit terrorists, how did the 20 WOG terrorists get together to kill 3000 people on September 11, 2001? If it so bad why didn’t Salama Yomama, as Senator Lard Kennedy used to call him, shut it down as promised?
The eternal conflict, to cite Burke, is between order and freedom.
There are lessons to be learned from History.
Nolo me tangere cum impecunis still rings true
Maybe it’s time to update Cartago delenda est to Mecca delenda est.
Look at the time! I have to get back to judging my essay contest “Why it is ‘settled science’ that polar bears should drown”.
Kevin Smith
Thursday, September 22, 2011
AN UPDATE ON FRAU OBERST DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
AN UPDATE ON
FRAU OBERST DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ
9/21/11
I Let the 10th anniversary of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she of the Medusa wanabee hair, she of the perpetual giving her husband’s bank a wink, a nod, and a long swig from the public teat, she of forgetting which President signed the homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” reg, she of the great civility speech given after a mad man shot her friend but before Chip off the old block Young Thug Hoffa, Jr, said, “Let’s take those bastards out”, she of “We own the economy” – Giving the devil her due, every time she stands up she should get a standing O, such is the burden of carrying big brass asymmetrical cojones – sending the cops [Agent Thomas as the Good Cop and Agent Mineva as the Bad Cop, both members of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement]] to my house because of something I wrote.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2001
2 men with badges and guns, 2 men with the full majesty of the law behind them, 2 men following their orders because an elected official, one who claims to have 2 degrees in Political Science, forgot the majestic 5 words at the start of the First Amendment – “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW…”
“Free men speak with free tongues” was a good start to a free society when it was first used 25 centuries ago. For someone to say that she has 2 degrees in Political Science and not to be familiar with the agora and parrhesia would indicate that the only classes she ever attended were Chilling Effect 101 and Slippery Slope Seminar. Come to think of it there could be no better academic training for a modern American Liberal than those. “Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee” [Nat Hentoff] is one the books that Little Debbie uses to start her annual book burning raree.
I used to think Debbie was smart.
Smart was replaced by shrewd.
Now I know she’s dumb.
That she is not as dumb as her co-conspirator Commissioner Stacy Ritter is meant to be taken as “damning with faint praise”. Ms. Ritter is so dumb she thinks manual labor is the hombre who mows her lawn. She’s not called “Cementhead
for nothing. Debbie is gaining on her.
The reason for this harsh and cruel but valid and truthful judgment is because of her take on the special election in Brooklyn’s 9th Congressional District.
Move over Baghdad Bob! Here comes Debbie, Debbie!
She said “The Democratic Party has always had a problem with this district”.
Her tongue should have been rocket propelled out of her mouth and into a place of honor at Katz’s Deli.
They solved the problem when Warren Harding was President. That was 90 years ago. Sam Ervin and John C. Stennis, 2 lifelong Democrats and defenders, fierce defenders, of segregation – Did I just repeat myself? - marveled at the ability of the 9th district to elect any Democratic Son or Daughter of the Desert who drew breath on Election Day. District 9 encourages dead men voting. It draws the line at dead candidates winning. If they didn’t FDR would win every election for everything everytime.
Bugsy Siegel and Dutch Schultz [Schultz? Perhaps a DNA check is in order] thought about running there. If they had they would have received 106% of the vote.
This is a district where delis are not permitted to advertise bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.
This is a district where anything less than medium well roast beef earns a visit from the dreaded Food Police and a trip to the culinary side of Camp Gitmo.
This is a district where, thanks to Chinese legerdemain, pork becomes chicken.
This is a district where bi-valve mollusks are allowed to pass through only if they are on sealed trucks and never on Shabbos.
This is a district where the vote to name a park after Julius and Ethel Rosenberg is always close.
This is a district where being a junior mohel can earn you a merit badge.
This is a district where any mention of chicken liver and mayonnaise in the same
sentence can lead to a one-way trip to the stoning pit.
This is a district where Weiner, the eponymously named Congressman, waved his foreskinless weenie around for a month before a late night visit from the Stern Gang convinced him to fall on his sword. That’s the metaphorical sword, not the one eyed trouser snake that now is yet more proof of the law of diminishing returns.
This is a district that just elected a Roman Catholic Republican. It gets better. He was a TV executive who was instrumental in putting Rush Limbaugh on national TV.
And Debbie, Debbie, now the face of the Democratic Party, henceforth to be known as Dizzy Debbie, says that Democrat always had a problem with the 9th district?
The loonies are running the bin. The boobies are running the hatch.
In the big picture, the one that will be unveiled in November, 2012, that may be good.
On the other hand, 2 of the last 3 Vice Presidents – Alpha Gump and Curley Biden – have been, to be charitable, developmentally disabled. Can you imagine them on a tandem bike pedaling in opposite directions? I can. How many ways could they FUBAR a two car funeral? Thank God for logarithms!
This chick knows her base.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
AN UPDATE ON
FRAU OBERST DEBBIE WASSERMAN-SCHULTZ
9/21/11
I Let the 10th anniversary of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she of the Medusa wanabee hair, she of the perpetual giving her husband’s bank a wink, a nod, and a long swig from the public teat, she of forgetting which President signed the homophobic “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” reg, she of the great civility speech given after a mad man shot her friend but before Chip off the old block Young Thug Hoffa, Jr, said, “Let’s take those bastards out”, she of “We own the economy” – Giving the devil her due, every time she stands up she should get a standing O, such is the burden of carrying big brass asymmetrical cojones – sending the cops [Agent Thomas as the Good Cop and Agent Mineva as the Bad Cop, both members of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement]] to my house because of something I wrote.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2001
2 men with badges and guns, 2 men with the full majesty of the law behind them, 2 men following their orders because an elected official, one who claims to have 2 degrees in Political Science, forgot the majestic 5 words at the start of the First Amendment – “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW…”
“Free men speak with free tongues” was a good start to a free society when it was first used 25 centuries ago. For someone to say that she has 2 degrees in Political Science and not to be familiar with the agora and parrhesia would indicate that the only classes she ever attended were Chilling Effect 101 and Slippery Slope Seminar. Come to think of it there could be no better academic training for a modern American Liberal than those. “Free Speech For Me But Not For Thee” [Nat Hentoff] is one the books that Little Debbie uses to start her annual book burning raree.
I used to think Debbie was smart.
Smart was replaced by shrewd.
Now I know she’s dumb.
That she is not as dumb as her co-conspirator Commissioner Stacy Ritter is meant to be taken as “damning with faint praise”. Ms. Ritter is so dumb she thinks manual labor is the hombre who mows her lawn. She’s not called “Cementhead
for nothing. Debbie is gaining on her.
The reason for this harsh and cruel but valid and truthful judgment is because of her take on the special election in Brooklyn’s 9th Congressional District.
Move over Baghdad Bob! Here comes Debbie, Debbie!
She said “The Democratic Party has always had a problem with this district”.
Her tongue should have been rocket propelled out of her mouth and into a place of honor at Katz’s Deli.
They solved the problem when Warren Harding was President. That was 90 years ago. Sam Ervin and John C. Stennis, 2 lifelong Democrats and defenders, fierce defenders, of segregation – Did I just repeat myself? - marveled at the ability of the 9th district to elect any Democratic Son or Daughter of the Desert who drew breath on Election Day. District 9 encourages dead men voting. It draws the line at dead candidates winning. If they didn’t FDR would win every election for everything everytime.
Bugsy Siegel and Dutch Schultz [Schultz? Perhaps a DNA check is in order] thought about running there. If they had they would have received 106% of the vote.
This is a district where delis are not permitted to advertise bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches.
This is a district where anything less than medium well roast beef earns a visit from the dreaded Food Police and a trip to the culinary side of Camp Gitmo.
This is a district where, thanks to Chinese legerdemain, pork becomes chicken.
This is a district where bi-valve mollusks are allowed to pass through only if they are on sealed trucks and never on Shabbos.
This is a district where the vote to name a park after Julius and Ethel Rosenberg is always close.
This is a district where being a junior mohel can earn you a merit badge.
This is a district where any mention of chicken liver and mayonnaise in the same
sentence can lead to a one-way trip to the stoning pit.
This is a district where Weiner, the eponymously named Congressman, waved his foreskinless weenie around for a month before a late night visit from the Stern Gang convinced him to fall on his sword. That’s the metaphorical sword, not the one eyed trouser snake that now is yet more proof of the law of diminishing returns.
This is a district that just elected a Roman Catholic Republican. It gets better. He was a TV executive who was instrumental in putting Rush Limbaugh on national TV.
And Debbie, Debbie, now the face of the Democratic Party, henceforth to be known as Dizzy Debbie, says that Democrat always had a problem with the 9th district?
The loonies are running the bin. The boobies are running the hatch.
In the big picture, the one that will be unveiled in November, 2012, that may be good.
On the other hand, 2 of the last 3 Vice Presidents – Alpha Gump and Curley Biden – have been, to be charitable, developmentally disabled. Can you imagine them on a tandem bike pedaling in opposite directions? I can. How many ways could they FUBAR a two car funeral? Thank God for logarithms!
This chick knows her base.
Kevin Smith
WARRIORBARDIT@BELLSOUTH.NET
Leonard Pitts Jr., The Miami Herald
September 18, 2011
Leonard Pitts Jr.
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33316
RE: Death penalty? Death penalties? Some comments on your column “The Roman Arena of the Death Penalty” in today’s Miami Herald.
Mr. Pitts,
I found two conflicting numbers – 1173 & 1266 – about the number of executions in this country since Gary Gilmore restarted the hangman’s serenade in 1975. [ I was at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on an entirely different matter when Gilmore’s last stay was denied.]
Since statistical sampling was once the darling of modern American Liberals I will use 1224.5 as my paradigmatic template for the number of toe-tagged executed killers, alleged or otherwise.
What I can’t find, save for one example, is the alleged number of the alleged victims killed by the alleged perpetrators.
The poet was right. “After the first death there are no others.”
Missing from your feelings filled column about justice denied is the racial element. Usually, not today, there is an argumentum ad captandum decrying the racial disproportionality of the death penalty.
There is one death penalty that is applied in such a racially disproportional manner as to demand a genocide investigation. There is a backlog of cases in The Hague for participants in never ending ax fight between the Serbs and the Croats. For the most part they involved consenting adults killing for their culture. Why is there no outcry about abortion?
Black females make up about 6% of population.
They have had between 35% and 40% of the abortions in this country since 1973.
A social scientist would be comfortable with 20,000,000 as the number of Black babies being aborted in this country since Roe v Wade.
Has a potential Barack Obama or maybe even a Leonard Pitts been sucked out of a Black woman’s innards and sent on a one way trip to the “undiscovered country”?
You spoke of the “thumbs up-thumbs down” death penalty process in this country. In New Jersey, my home state, there are two basic rules concerning murder trials.
#1 – The alleged perpetrators cannot plead guilty.
#2 – A guilty verdict triggers an automatic appeal.
An about to be aborted baby – Black or White – has no access to due process. It can neither plead guilty nor can it enter an appeal. Some convicted murderers have waived any appeal and have demanded that death penalty be imposed post haste. There is no record of a foetus so doing.
You end your column thus:
“A reverence for life can still trump a need for death.
Consider this column a lonely cheer for life.”
An about to be aborted baby – White or Black – has no one speaking for it.
If not you then who?
Kevin Smith
PS – No mention of the death penalty in America is complete without mentioning the name Ricky Ray Rector. Whatever else Bill Clinton did to Sister Souljah he didn’t kill her.
Leonard Pitts Jr.
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33316
RE: Death penalty? Death penalties? Some comments on your column “The Roman Arena of the Death Penalty” in today’s Miami Herald.
Mr. Pitts,
I found two conflicting numbers – 1173 & 1266 – about the number of executions in this country since Gary Gilmore restarted the hangman’s serenade in 1975. [ I was at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on an entirely different matter when Gilmore’s last stay was denied.]
Since statistical sampling was once the darling of modern American Liberals I will use 1224.5 as my paradigmatic template for the number of toe-tagged executed killers, alleged or otherwise.
What I can’t find, save for one example, is the alleged number of the alleged victims killed by the alleged perpetrators.
The poet was right. “After the first death there are no others.”
Missing from your feelings filled column about justice denied is the racial element. Usually, not today, there is an argumentum ad captandum decrying the racial disproportionality of the death penalty.
There is one death penalty that is applied in such a racially disproportional manner as to demand a genocide investigation. There is a backlog of cases in The Hague for participants in never ending ax fight between the Serbs and the Croats. For the most part they involved consenting adults killing for their culture. Why is there no outcry about abortion?
Black females make up about 6% of population.
They have had between 35% and 40% of the abortions in this country since 1973.
A social scientist would be comfortable with 20,000,000 as the number of Black babies being aborted in this country since Roe v Wade.
Has a potential Barack Obama or maybe even a Leonard Pitts been sucked out of a Black woman’s innards and sent on a one way trip to the “undiscovered country”?
You spoke of the “thumbs up-thumbs down” death penalty process in this country. In New Jersey, my home state, there are two basic rules concerning murder trials.
#1 – The alleged perpetrators cannot plead guilty.
#2 – A guilty verdict triggers an automatic appeal.
An about to be aborted baby – Black or White – has no access to due process. It can neither plead guilty nor can it enter an appeal. Some convicted murderers have waived any appeal and have demanded that death penalty be imposed post haste. There is no record of a foetus so doing.
You end your column thus:
“A reverence for life can still trump a need for death.
Consider this column a lonely cheer for life.”
An about to be aborted baby – White or Black – has no one speaking for it.
If not you then who?
Kevin Smith
PS – No mention of the death penalty in America is complete without mentioning the name Ricky Ray Rector. Whatever else Bill Clinton did to Sister Souljah he didn’t kill her.
Dwight Garner @ the New York Times
September 16, 2011
Dwight Garner @ the New York Times
RE: Michael Moore and your inclusion of him in the hagiography of modern American Liberal wafflers, wimps, weasels, and wussies as recorded by you in the New York Times.
Mr. Garner,
Mother Jones? Woody Guthrie? Phil Ochs? Rachel Carson? [Why not Margaret Sanger? How did Margaret Mead miss the cut?] Harvey Pekar?
Mighty fine company for Michael Moore, America’s favorite fat man, now that Fatty Arbuckle and Oliver Hardy have gone to that great big Ben & Jerry’s in the sky, the one where Chunky Monkey and Death by Chocolate can be mainlined. Jowl liposuction on his moon pie puss could give Haiti a good, sit down Sunday dinner. But enough of that ad hominen stuff.
Your first five templates used to nominate Michael Moore, AKA “Pant Load Lard Ass”, to the Hall of Fame of Loutish Ohmadahns are either narcissistic phony bastards, Homerically dimensioned frauds, or world class “moonbat” wingnuts. Rachel Carson earns special mention for being a scientific faker worthy of Guinness Book accolades. Her book, Silent Spring, is helping to restore the unfairly tarnished reputations of Lysenko and the Piltdown Man.
It is your mention of Woody Guthrie that stirs the embers of an almost forgotten fire. It is one that has gone down the memory hole that modern American Liberals quickly dig when yet another of their gravity defying “balloon juice” pipe dreams runs into reality.
I’m glad that his guitar “fought Fascists”. It was a bit late in joining the fray but so was “Papa Doc” Joe Kennedy, the Hitler loving anti-Semite.
Some things are owed to the record.
From August 22, 1939 to June 21, 1941 Woody Guthrie’s guitar was not fighting Fascists. His weekly tract, aptly named Woody the Red, said that Hitler was an OK guy. In case you are not familiar with the above mentioned dates you’ll be shocked, shocked to learn that they cover the period when Hitler and Stalin were pals. “BFF” as the new social networks would say.
Would I be too far out of line to say that Woody was OK with the flattening of Poland, the defeat and occupation of France, the bombing of London, and the construction of the abattoirs and charnel houses that were used to kill and cook the Jews? Qui tacet consentit still means Silence gives consent, doesn’t it?
No off handed reference to Christopher Hitchens can be allowed to pass without mentioning George Orwell. Orwell, one of Hitchens’s favorites, will not be in your Progressive Hall of Fame. “Homage to Catalonia”, “Animal Farm”, and “1984”, books that pilloried the brutal tactics of Stalin, would never pass the muster of the modern American Liberal word police who are in charge of such things.
I like to ask hacks of the New York Times if there have been any sightings of Walter Duranty. He was the bought and paid for KGB agent who won a Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Reporting when he was the Moscow correspondent of – you guessed it – the New York Times.
Duranty began the “low, dishonest decade” that ended with Guthrie, who ignored the massacre of the Kulaks and the Moscow show trials because of his slavish devotion to Stalin, giving Hitler the green light to give a new meaning to murder.
Would it earn me permanent curmudgeon status if I were to say that Woody had a lot of really smart friends – Mr. & Mrs. Rosenberg, Lillian Hellman, and Alger Hiss leap to mind – who, believing in nothing, believed that Stalin’s shit didn’t stink? I hope so.
Why doesn’t Saint Fatso do a documentary movie on the “unpleasantness” at the Katyn Forest or the Gulag?
Just one more sign of my never ending naiveté’
Sorry about that.
Kevin Smith
Dwight Garner @ the New York Times
RE: Michael Moore and your inclusion of him in the hagiography of modern American Liberal wafflers, wimps, weasels, and wussies as recorded by you in the New York Times.
Mr. Garner,
Mother Jones? Woody Guthrie? Phil Ochs? Rachel Carson? [Why not Margaret Sanger? How did Margaret Mead miss the cut?] Harvey Pekar?
Mighty fine company for Michael Moore, America’s favorite fat man, now that Fatty Arbuckle and Oliver Hardy have gone to that great big Ben & Jerry’s in the sky, the one where Chunky Monkey and Death by Chocolate can be mainlined. Jowl liposuction on his moon pie puss could give Haiti a good, sit down Sunday dinner. But enough of that ad hominen stuff.
Your first five templates used to nominate Michael Moore, AKA “Pant Load Lard Ass”, to the Hall of Fame of Loutish Ohmadahns are either narcissistic phony bastards, Homerically dimensioned frauds, or world class “moonbat” wingnuts. Rachel Carson earns special mention for being a scientific faker worthy of Guinness Book accolades. Her book, Silent Spring, is helping to restore the unfairly tarnished reputations of Lysenko and the Piltdown Man.
It is your mention of Woody Guthrie that stirs the embers of an almost forgotten fire. It is one that has gone down the memory hole that modern American Liberals quickly dig when yet another of their gravity defying “balloon juice” pipe dreams runs into reality.
I’m glad that his guitar “fought Fascists”. It was a bit late in joining the fray but so was “Papa Doc” Joe Kennedy, the Hitler loving anti-Semite.
Some things are owed to the record.
From August 22, 1939 to June 21, 1941 Woody Guthrie’s guitar was not fighting Fascists. His weekly tract, aptly named Woody the Red, said that Hitler was an OK guy. In case you are not familiar with the above mentioned dates you’ll be shocked, shocked to learn that they cover the period when Hitler and Stalin were pals. “BFF” as the new social networks would say.
Would I be too far out of line to say that Woody was OK with the flattening of Poland, the defeat and occupation of France, the bombing of London, and the construction of the abattoirs and charnel houses that were used to kill and cook the Jews? Qui tacet consentit still means Silence gives consent, doesn’t it?
No off handed reference to Christopher Hitchens can be allowed to pass without mentioning George Orwell. Orwell, one of Hitchens’s favorites, will not be in your Progressive Hall of Fame. “Homage to Catalonia”, “Animal Farm”, and “1984”, books that pilloried the brutal tactics of Stalin, would never pass the muster of the modern American Liberal word police who are in charge of such things.
I like to ask hacks of the New York Times if there have been any sightings of Walter Duranty. He was the bought and paid for KGB agent who won a Pulitzer Prize for Foreign Reporting when he was the Moscow correspondent of – you guessed it – the New York Times.
Duranty began the “low, dishonest decade” that ended with Guthrie, who ignored the massacre of the Kulaks and the Moscow show trials because of his slavish devotion to Stalin, giving Hitler the green light to give a new meaning to murder.
Would it earn me permanent curmudgeon status if I were to say that Woody had a lot of really smart friends – Mr. & Mrs. Rosenberg, Lillian Hellman, and Alger Hiss leap to mind – who, believing in nothing, believed that Stalin’s shit didn’t stink? I hope so.
Why doesn’t Saint Fatso do a documentary movie on the “unpleasantness” at the Katyn Forest or the Gulag?
Just one more sign of my never ending naiveté’
Sorry about that.
Kevin Smith
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Stephen L Goldstein, The Sun Sentinel
September 4, 2011
Stephen L Goldstein
The Sun-Sentinel
RE: Modern American Liberalism, pet peeves, and your brutally honest explanation of the connection between them in your column in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
I can’t stand ending sentences with prepositions. There are but two exceptions to this hard and true rule. [Exceptions to rules – moral relativism - are one of the driving forces of modern American Liberalism, no?]
#1 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if there is a proposition attached to it. #2 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if you are a fan of Winston Churchill.
As to signing a statement, any statement, I suggest you remove the 2x4 from your eye before trying to get the mote out of your neighbor’s eye. When will the editorials of the Sun-Sentinel be signed? I have been told by a highly placed source, one that must remain confidential, that you will resign should your policy of signing everything not be adhered to. ”Adhered to”? Count me as a big fan of Churchill.
The next time a “highly placed source who must remain confidential” tips you on a private sin of a public servant you must instantly “out” him lest you wish to confirm that as a card carrying modern American Liberal your favorite color is still plaid.
I have been in Texas on personal business. Because of my international acclaim as a ditch digger I volunteered for the “shovel ready” moat project on the Rio Grande. Since I am from Florida I volunteered to bait my man eater traps with live baby manatees to secure a few dozen 10 to 12 foot bull gators for the soon to be finished moat. It was the least I could do for the Waiting for Godot “summer of recovery”.
I got to your column on the Internet. I never did thank Vice President Alpha Gump for his timely discovery of same. That was a busy time for him. His main job then was keelhauling Governor Dukakis – “Competence, not character”, remember? – for giving a weekend furlough to convicted rapist murderer Willie Horton who, mirabalie dictum, raped and murdered again. That’s one of the beauties of modern American Liberals. “They never let you down.”
“People should be required…” is the war cry of the Democratic Party. It is the iron fist in the iron glove. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. Light bulbs, teenage obesity, Gibson guitars, 5th trimester abortions, drowning polar bears, Affirmative Action, furbish louseworts, Global WarmingCoolingClimateChange, bad war vs. good war, green jobs, “Pass the bill so we can see what’s in it”, the minimum wage, bad Bush deficits vs.
good Obama deficits, believing that making the rich poorer will make the poor richer, skipping the part where Keynes says tax cuts are must in a recession, “Will no one rid me of that damned Constitution”? airport groping, eating your seed corn, “fairness”, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as the prototypical modern American Liberal Nazi, “reset” buttons – Thank God that tomorrow is a holiday! Listing all those sins could cause terminal carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ll dip both hands in freezing pickle brine like the morning after medicine.
“People should be required…” must be offset by “Quis custodes custodiet?”. Translation? Send a SASE.
“Average Americans are probably the world’s least informed people.” Would it mark me as a knuckle dragging, homophobic, gun toting, Tea Partying, Global Warming denying zealot if I were [N.B. the use of the subjunctive] to ask for the whole list?
Where do we rank compared to the Uighurs? How about the mighty Flems and their eternal foes, the stout Walloons? Serbs? Croats? The unfairly rich swells who summer on Martha’s Vineyard? The Kikuyus? The Goths? The people of Paraguay? The people of Zimbabwe? Les merdes du Quebec? The people who vote for Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters? The non-swimming Cubans? Los aficionados de Chavez? The people still yearning for Midnight Basketball? Wal*Mart haters? Moderate Muslim terrorists?
The election in 2008 of a total non-entity, a man devoid of any experience beyond that of perpetual victimhood, a man who would be hard pressed to find his ass using both his hands, may well buttress your argument.
I ask you to remember 1976 and 1980.
On the trip back to the White House after his inauguration in 1977 it became obvious to those Americans still capable of rational thought that America had blundered in electing Jimmy Carter. It took less than 3 years for him to convince the rest of America that he was without doubt the worst President of the 20th century. As soon as the Constitution allowed the “least informed average Americans” unelected him.
It may be too soon – it’s only 11 years into the new century – to give Lord Barack the Beneficent the same laurel earned by Clod Carter. He has set the bar of ineptitude so high that it would take 7 league boots to get near it.
One thought and one suggestion before getting back to the border for armed. night patrol.
Walls work very well when they are built to keep people. out Take a peek at China and the wall that Hadrian built. Both worked. The one best remembered for keeping people in, the Berlin Wall, worked for almost 30 years.
Obama said he wanted to “transform society”. I’ll start by transforming the way English is taught in this country. Serious thought must be given to Napoleon’s rule before a battle. 3 soldiers were chosen at random and tried for cowardice. They were found guilty and executed. He said it “encouraged the others”. It would work wonders with syntactically challenged teachers.
The thought is that the hiring of English teachers should be given the same status as the hiring of the football coach. Macbeth must be on par with the tight end coach. The retention and promotion of both should be on parallel track. Diagramming a sentence should be as important as attacking a two-deep zone. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda holds no water in the post-game film review. It should be given less tolerance in the FCATs. Try it. In fact it should be “required”.
Kevin Smith
PS – As to “conferring lifetime titles”…My father was born before man flew. He was graduated from grammar school on a Friday night. Saturday morning he was shoveling coal at the end of 22nd street in Bayonne, NJ. He was 26 years old before he went to high school. He was 36 years old when he passed his Bar exam. He won a lot of money betting on Truman in 1948. When he died, after man went to the moon, walked around, and came back, and after his time on the Bench, he was still called “Judge”. What’s your problem with that?
Stephen L Goldstein
The Sun-Sentinel
RE: Modern American Liberalism, pet peeves, and your brutally honest explanation of the connection between them in your column in today’s Sun-Sentinel.
My dear Professor,
I can’t stand ending sentences with prepositions. There are but two exceptions to this hard and true rule. [Exceptions to rules – moral relativism - are one of the driving forces of modern American Liberalism, no?]
#1 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if there is a proposition attached to it. #2 – It is acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if you are a fan of Winston Churchill.
As to signing a statement, any statement, I suggest you remove the 2x4 from your eye before trying to get the mote out of your neighbor’s eye. When will the editorials of the Sun-Sentinel be signed? I have been told by a highly placed source, one that must remain confidential, that you will resign should your policy of signing everything not be adhered to. ”Adhered to”? Count me as a big fan of Churchill.
The next time a “highly placed source who must remain confidential” tips you on a private sin of a public servant you must instantly “out” him lest you wish to confirm that as a card carrying modern American Liberal your favorite color is still plaid.
I have been in Texas on personal business. Because of my international acclaim as a ditch digger I volunteered for the “shovel ready” moat project on the Rio Grande. Since I am from Florida I volunteered to bait my man eater traps with live baby manatees to secure a few dozen 10 to 12 foot bull gators for the soon to be finished moat. It was the least I could do for the Waiting for Godot “summer of recovery”.
I got to your column on the Internet. I never did thank Vice President Alpha Gump for his timely discovery of same. That was a busy time for him. His main job then was keelhauling Governor Dukakis – “Competence, not character”, remember? – for giving a weekend furlough to convicted rapist murderer Willie Horton who, mirabalie dictum, raped and murdered again. That’s one of the beauties of modern American Liberals. “They never let you down.”
“People should be required…” is the war cry of the Democratic Party. It is the iron fist in the iron glove. It doesn’t matter what the subject is. Light bulbs, teenage obesity, Gibson guitars, 5th trimester abortions, drowning polar bears, Affirmative Action, furbish louseworts, Global WarmingCoolingClimateChange, bad war vs. good war, green jobs, “Pass the bill so we can see what’s in it”, the minimum wage, bad Bush deficits vs.
good Obama deficits, believing that making the rich poorer will make the poor richer, skipping the part where Keynes says tax cuts are must in a recession, “Will no one rid me of that damned Constitution”? airport groping, eating your seed corn, “fairness”, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as the prototypical modern American Liberal Nazi, “reset” buttons – Thank God that tomorrow is a holiday! Listing all those sins could cause terminal carpal tunnel syndrome. I’ll dip both hands in freezing pickle brine like the morning after medicine.
“People should be required…” must be offset by “Quis custodes custodiet?”. Translation? Send a SASE.
“Average Americans are probably the world’s least informed people.” Would it mark me as a knuckle dragging, homophobic, gun toting, Tea Partying, Global Warming denying zealot if I were [N.B. the use of the subjunctive] to ask for the whole list?
Where do we rank compared to the Uighurs? How about the mighty Flems and their eternal foes, the stout Walloons? Serbs? Croats? The unfairly rich swells who summer on Martha’s Vineyard? The Kikuyus? The Goths? The people of Paraguay? The people of Zimbabwe? Les merdes du Quebec? The people who vote for Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters? The non-swimming Cubans? Los aficionados de Chavez? The people still yearning for Midnight Basketball? Wal*Mart haters? Moderate Muslim terrorists?
The election in 2008 of a total non-entity, a man devoid of any experience beyond that of perpetual victimhood, a man who would be hard pressed to find his ass using both his hands, may well buttress your argument.
I ask you to remember 1976 and 1980.
On the trip back to the White House after his inauguration in 1977 it became obvious to those Americans still capable of rational thought that America had blundered in electing Jimmy Carter. It took less than 3 years for him to convince the rest of America that he was without doubt the worst President of the 20th century. As soon as the Constitution allowed the “least informed average Americans” unelected him.
It may be too soon – it’s only 11 years into the new century – to give Lord Barack the Beneficent the same laurel earned by Clod Carter. He has set the bar of ineptitude so high that it would take 7 league boots to get near it.
One thought and one suggestion before getting back to the border for armed. night patrol.
Walls work very well when they are built to keep people. out Take a peek at China and the wall that Hadrian built. Both worked. The one best remembered for keeping people in, the Berlin Wall, worked for almost 30 years.
Obama said he wanted to “transform society”. I’ll start by transforming the way English is taught in this country. Serious thought must be given to Napoleon’s rule before a battle. 3 soldiers were chosen at random and tried for cowardice. They were found guilty and executed. He said it “encouraged the others”. It would work wonders with syntactically challenged teachers.
The thought is that the hiring of English teachers should be given the same status as the hiring of the football coach. Macbeth must be on par with the tight end coach. The retention and promotion of both should be on parallel track. Diagramming a sentence should be as important as attacking a two-deep zone. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda holds no water in the post-game film review. It should be given less tolerance in the FCATs. Try it. In fact it should be “required”.
Kevin Smith
PS – As to “conferring lifetime titles”…My father was born before man flew. He was graduated from grammar school on a Friday night. Saturday morning he was shoveling coal at the end of 22nd street in Bayonne, NJ. He was 26 years old before he went to high school. He was 36 years old when he passed his Bar exam. He won a lot of money betting on Truman in 1948. When he died, after man went to the moon, walked around, and came back, and after his time on the Bench, he was still called “Judge”. What’s your problem with that?
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