Tuesday, February 18, 2014



HIGH SCHOOL 1957 vs 2014

Scenario 1:
Jack goes duck hunting before school and then pulls into the school parking lot with his shotgun in his truck's gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2012- School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario 2:
Johnny and Mark get into a fist fight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2012 - Police called and SWAT team arrives -- they arrest both Johnny and Mark. They are both charged with assault and both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario 3:
Jeffrey will not be still in class, he disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to the Principal's office and given a good paddling by the Principal. He then returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2012 - Jeffrey is given huge doses of Ritalin. He becomes a zombie. He is then tested for ADD. The family gets extra money (SSI) from the government because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario 4:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college and becomes a successful businessman.
2012 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse, Billy is removed to foster care and joins a gang. The state psychologist is told by Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has an affair with the psychologist.

Scenario 5:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares his aspirin with the Principal out on the smoking dock.
2012 - The police are called and Mark is expelled from school for drug violations. His car is then searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario 6:
Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.
2012 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against the state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English is then banned from core curriculum. Pedro is given his diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2012 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents - and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated. Johnny's dad is placed on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario 8:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2012 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.




Leftists prefer fraud to heroism

They are themselves frauds

HERE'S a story about the cultural divide. Hollywood blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street did brisk business on the east and west coasts of the US when it opened in late December last year. It's a lurid yet true story about stockmarket crook Jordan Belfort and his piggish behaviour when he starts raking in more money than a boy from Queens ever thought possible. Lone Survivor is a gritty, gut-wrenching recount of a 2005 US SEAL mission in Afghanistan that goes badly wrong that is attracting huge crowds in the flyover states of the US. As one pundit wrote late last month, "Both are leading contenders for the most controversial US film of the year; like rival presidential candidates, they've carved up their own swaths of America."

You'd think that arty, so-called progressives would hate The Wolf of Wall Street as a gross glorification of testosterone-fuelled greed and stock market scams, not to mention the dwarf-throwing contests, the prostitutes, the repugnant displays of wealth, the on-screen misogyny, the mansions and flashy cars, the drug-taking binges on cocaine and Quaaludes. Wrong. You'd think they might regard as repugnant the film's failure to address the shocking personal and financial costs paid by the victims swindled by Belfort. Wrong.

New Yorkers, who have historically voted Democrat, just loved the movie. Same in San Francisco where I just managed to find an empty seat one night in early January. That city last voted for a Republican president in 1956. The film has earned five Academy Award nominations and the American Film Institute puts it on the top 10 list for 2013. Writing in America's bastion of literary and cultural commentary, The Atlantic, critic Christopher Orr gushed that director Martin Scorsese had delivered "a great - no, a f . . king great - movie." It is, wrote Orr, a "marvel of indecency", a "magnificent black comedy, fast, funny and remarkably filthy." That's the only bit Orr got right. Scorsese's three long hours of big screen self-indulgence is filthy.

By contrast, Lone Survivor scored two minor Oscar nominations for sound editing and sound mixing.

It is, wrote LA Weekly critic Amy Nicholson, "a jingoistic snuff film," that preaches "brown people bad, American people good."

When I saw it in New York there were many empty seats.

Based on a best-selling 2007 memoir of former Navy SEAL, Marcus Luttrell, the film recounts Operation Red Wings. On June 27, 2005, a four-man reconnaissance and surveillance team is dropped by helicopter high on the Sawtalo Sar mountain in the rocky and perilous Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan to locate a little known Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. When a group of local goat herders come across the SEALs team, the soldiers must decide whether to let them go - and risk the Taliban being informed of the team's whereabouts - or killing the civilians to avoid the mission being compromised. The leader, Lieutenant Michael Murphy agrees with Luttrell to let the local Afghanis go. Within an hour of that fateful decision, Taliban fighters are everywhere, armed with AK47 rifles, light machine guns and rocket propelled grenades. Luttrell is the lone survivor from the battle that ensues. Injured, alone and hiding, he is rescued by local Afghanis who feed and hide him until US forces rescue him.

The recount of Operation Red Wings is ugly, compelling, brutal and difficult to watch. One thing it is not is pro-war. Yet, this is precisely the allegation made by some members of the Left. Writing in The Atlantic, Callum Marsh is concerned by the "cartoon villainy" - the film treats the Taliban as the enemy. In fact, the Taliban is the enemy. The film, he says, resembles one of those "multi-million dollar recruitment videos." The film, he grumbles, is "enthusiastically pro-war".

Here, writ large, is the Left's frequent preference for simplistic picture book politics. Their kneejerk judgments cause their moral compass to spiral in the wrong directions where The Wolf of Wall Street is lauded a masterpiece for its filth but Lone Survivor is just a filthy pro-war movie that legitimizes "feelings of xenophobia and American exceptionalism."

Lone Survivor is an anti-war film. Not anti-military, for these men form a dedicated band of brothers driven by love of country and love of liberty. But by showing the hauntingly horrific side of war (is there any other side?), Lone Survivor is a deeply cautionary tale about the profound moral quandaries and the human price of war.

Luttrell, the man who survived this mission, said it best on Fox News last month when asked about the critics who pan the movie as pro-war: "Pro-war? Is that a real term? There's nothing glorious about war. There's nothing glorious about holding your friends in your arms and watching them die. There's nothing glorious about having to leave your home for six to eight months while your family is back here. No one wants war. It's the most horrible thing in the world." Lone Survivor is no more pro-war than The Wolf of Wall Street is pro-women. And what a shame the blinkered critics can't see the irony of their reactions.

Alas, Lone Survivor also betrayed the Right's tendency towards its own mental default positions. Interviewing Luttrell, CNN's Jake Tapper said the loss of life seemed "senseless". Soon enough Twitter trolls rose up and talking heads on Fox News attacked Tapper for suggesting the Navy SEALs had died for nothing. By revealing the horrors of war, Lone Survivor necessarily raises the complicated, morally messy question of whether the war was worth it. It's a pertinent question given the precarious security situation in Afghanistan even before US combat troops pull out at the end of this year.

While conman Belfort is cashing in on his newfound fame by giving motivational lecture tours, Luttrell now runs the non-profit Lone Survivor Foundation to help combat veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress and other problems that arise after returning to civilian life. The movie has sparked increased interest from soldiers seeking the kind of counselling Luttrell developed through his daunting experience. This counts for naught in the glittering, artificial world of Academy Awards that invariably lauds yet another Woody Allen film about a middle-aged neurotic woman and Scorsese's depiction of a young narcissistic New York stockbroker. But Luttrell's story of true grit counts for plenty in the real world.

SOURCE






A Southern Black History Month tribute

“If you can cut the people off from their history, then they can be easily persuaded.” —Karl Marx

Did you know that Black units were segregated in the Union army but Black soldiers were integrated in the Confederate Army?

February is Black History Month and America will not forget her past!

This Black History Month tribute is dedicated in memory of Atlanta, Georgia native and friend Eddie Brown Page, 111. Eddie was a Black Historian who loved American history “not political correctness” and knew the true stories about the men and women who bravely carried the United States and Confederate flags into battle.

The stories about Billy Yank and Johnny Reb of color should be shared during Black History Month by teachers, students, parents, historians and all who love the true history. Please read the Sons of Confederate Veterans information sheet about Black Confederates.

Black Americans today like: Mr. H.K. Edgerton from North Carolina, Mr. Nelson Winbush from Florida and Professor Edward Smith from Washington, D.C. teach the true history of the South and the USA. Mr. Winbush’s Maternal Confederate Grandfather Louis Napoleon Nelson fought with General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Winbush and Edgerton are both members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Mr. Edgerton is also past president of a North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP. Read more about Mr. Edgerton here:

Black Confederate Soldiers included men like: Amos Rucker who fought alongside his Southern Comrades and upon his death in 1905 was buried with full honors with his Confederate gray uniform and casket draped with the Confederate Battle flag. His long missing grave marker at Atlanta’s Southview Cemetery was remarked in 2006 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The 1989 movie “Glory” educated us about the Black men who fought in the Union Army during the War Between the States…But, where are the movies about the Black men who served the Southern Confederacy?  Did you know that Black units were segregated in the Union army but Black soldiers were integrated in the Confederate Army?

Mr. Ed Bearss, who served as Chief Historian of the National Park Service from 1981 to 1994 said:  “I don’t want to call it a conspiracy to ignore the role of Blacks both above and below the Mason-Dixon Line, but it was definitely a tendency that began around 1910.”

Did you know that….

Frederick Douglas, a former slave, made an interesting but accurate statement in 1861, saying:

“It is now pretty well established, that there are at the present moment many colored men in the Confederate army doing duty not only as cooks, servants and laborers, but as real soldiers, having muskets on their shoulders, and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down loyal troops, and do all that soldiers may to destroy the Federal Government and build up that of the traitors and rebels. There were such soldiers at Manassas, and they are probably there still.”

Some people today call for the removal of Southern monuments but do they know that….

In Mississippi on February 1, 1890, an appropriation for a monument to the Confederate dead was being considered. A delegate had just spoken against the bill, when John F. Harris, a Black Republican delegate from Washington, county, rose to speak:

“Mr. Speaker! I have risen in my place to offer a few words on the bill.  I have come from a sick bed. Perhaps it was not prudent for me to come. But sir, I could not rest quietly in my room without contributing a few remarks of my own.

I was sorry to hear the speech of the young gentlemen from Marshall County. I am sorry that any son of a soldier would go on record as opposed to the erections of a monument in honor of the brave dead. And, Sir, I am convinced that had he seen what I saw at Seven Pines, and in the Seven Day’s fighting around Richmond, the battlefield covered with mangled forms of those who fought for this country and their country’s honor, he would not have made the speech.

When the news came that the South had been invaded, those men went forth to fight for what they believed, and they made not requests for monuments. But they died, and their virtues should be remembered.

Sir, I went with them. I, too, wore the gray, the same color my master wore. We stayed for four long years, and if that war had gone on till now I would have been there yet. I want to honor those brave men who died for their convictions.

When my Mother died I was a boy. Who, Sir, then acted the part of Mother to the orphaned slave boy, but my old Missus! Were she living now, or could speak to me from those high realms where are gathered the sainted dead, she would tell me to vote for this bill. And, Sir, I shall vote for it. I want it known to all the world that my vote is given in favor of the bill to erect a monument in HONOR OF THE CONFEDERATE DEAD.”

When the applause died down, the measure passed overwhelmingly, and every Black member voted “AYE.”

SOURCE






Australia in frontline of BDS campaign

Perhaps much of Jewish mentality throughout the ages has been to keep a low profile in the diaspora, but I believe that Jews need to fight back against the racist campaign of the BDS movement.

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign against Israel today is fought on many fronts across the world. From Israel Apartheid Week at universities, to Danish Banks to academic boycotts and others. It’s even been fought in fizzy drink companies!

The organizers and supporters of this movement like to compare themselves to the campaign against apartheid in South Africa – in other words a good and moral battle against an evil system of injustice. They like to disguise their intentions by using terms such as ‘non-violence’ and ‘international law’.

However, there is nothing moral or just or good about this battle. It is an absolute front for modern day anti-Semitism. The examples are plenty, but here in Australia, a country of immense racial diversity, the BDS movement itself will find itself on the defense.

This Wednesday a lawsuit will resume at the Federal Court in Sydney against Jake Lynch of Sydney University, who is a prominent supporter of the BDS campaign against Israel. The lawsuit was filed by Israeli legal center Shurat Hadin on behalf of an academic Dan Avnon from the Hebrew University. Avnon wanted to do research in Australia but Jake Lynch refused to sign the application, stating his support for the BDS movement. The lawsuit alleges that Jake Lynch is violating Australia’s racial discrimination act by discriminating against Dan Avnon based on his ‘Israeli national origin and his Jewish racial and ethnic origin’.

In a lawsuit like this, there are Jews in Australia who are for it and who are against it. Perhaps much of Jewish mentality throughout the ages has been to keep a low profile in the diaspora, but I believe that Jews need to fight back against the racist campaign of the BDS movement.

Stuart Rees, a supporter of Lynch, has described the lawsuit as ‘absurd’ and accuses Shurat HaDin of acting as a legal attack dog for the Israeli government by using the law to silence the people who support the BDS movement, yet it is ironic for Rees to complain about the ‘law’ being used when it is the BDS’s goal to ‘force’ Israel to act within ‘international law’.

The reality is that if Jews continue to remain silent against these evil campaigns and do not challenge the lies that are being spewed with venomous hatred by the BDS and others, those lies in time will become ‘fact’ by virtue of the lack of an opposing view.

People are entitled to their views and no one is forcing them to buy gefilte fish at the local kosher deli, but when they abuse their professional position, as Jake Lynch has done in a discriminatory way, the line has been crossed.

Jews are known to be the people of the book, so it’s time to use that legal book – and throw it at them!

SOURCE

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here

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