Mark Steyn (Obamacare’s Magical Thinkers) offers up the details about CGI (Conseillers en Gestion et Informatique), Obama’s Healthcare.gov web designer. Steyn, being Canadian-born, pays more attention to the goings on with our neighbors to the north, so he already knew a great deal about CGI. He asks:
“Was the government of the United States aware that CGI had been fired by the government of Canada and the government of Ontario (and the government of New Brunswick)?”
Filed under Politics
Yesterday my post highlighted a Thomas Sowell article on the race-hustling industry in America and today he presented the second part, “Race-Hustling Results: Part II”, at Townhall.com and it’s also on National Review Online with a different title, “The Business of Being Offended”. He offers one of the most honest takes on the results of decades of grievance politics, determined initiation of programs to keep minorities enslaved to state programs and aligned to the political hand that feeds them, and a culture that gravitates toward the lowest rather than aspiring toward the highest. This paragraph sums up where we are at:
“Young blacks are especially susceptible to the message that all their problems are caused by white people — and that white society is never going to give them a chance. In short, they are primed to resent and hate individuals they have never seen before and who have never done a thing to them.”
All sorts of studies abound about the racial divide and from decades of this area being a political tinderbox, for every statistic purporting one fact, you’ll find some determined politically motivated folks conjure up statistics stating the exact opposite. The one thing, numbers aside on black women compared to black men in college, that is irrefutable is the large number of black men in prison. Beside that trend is the irrefutable fact that more than 72% of black children are born to single mothers and this leads to a large number of women and children trapped in a cycle of poverty and government dependency.
It’s very easy for white middle class and above people to cast judgments and get behind all sorts of broad-stroke welfare reform programs, like drug-testing before benefits or making welfare dependent on seeking employment, but few people want to look at this national problem close-up and personal and actually see that these are individual Americans, whose potential seems destined to be unrealized from birth. We should commit that every American child should be able to reach for the stars.
For some reason in America, we always look to government solutions for problems that require committed social action (being good neighbors), that finds expression in community action and used to be most commonly found in our churches. Unless and until we get enough people to stop dividing America into raging factions, where the only ones who benefit are the race-hustlers and politicians, we will never be able to bridge this gaping cultural divide and have one America, where every child really does count. This type of commitment starts at the most basic level – one on one communication and building trust. It starts with one person daring to offer a helping hand.
Gladius is a committed conservative, but what he emailed me a couple days ago goes beyond politics, it cuts to the what is ailing America – a lack of moral courage:
“Bottom line is that nothing occurs in a vacuum. It is a cliché but it is true: If we have strong individuals, we can have strong families; with strong families we can have strong churches; with strong churches we can have strong communities; strong communities beget strong states; strong states a strong nation. We are at a loss for strong individuals. Moral courage has been trained out of too many through a corrupt and liberal education system. Principles are deemed narrow-minded bigotry rather than honorable. Greed is rampant. And, through it all, the rot of individual integrity is sapping our strength.”
Dr. Sowell and Gladius expressed the problem a little differently, but they both traced it back to the roots – a breakdown of our communities, because our families have fallen into disarray. While it would be nice to believe that money can solve this problem and that with a few more determined social-engineering programs and millions more in tax dollars tossed at the problems, we would have our solution. Decades of widening income and social gaps, decimation of largely black urban inner-cities, sky-high incarceration rates of young black males, so many single black moms trying to go it alone clearly show that governmental band-aids can’t stop this hemorrhaging. It’s going to take lots of committed helping hands to pull people up in communities all across America, resuscitating an American spirit that seems to be almost on it’s last breath.
We need to focus on helping individuals in our own communities, mentoring, truly being good neighbors and investing the time to make sure we don’t forget to rescue those who keep falling through the cracks. To even begin the process takes finding a way to talk to each other as neighbors first, not as political opponents. Our out-of-control politicization of every issue in America, which often seems deliberately motivated by various factions, will end up destroying our Republic, unless we commit to a drastic course correction. I’ll harken back to President George Washington’s Farewell Address to our young nation on the dangers of letting political factions burn out of control;
“It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection”
For more on George Washington’s timeless advice to keep our Republic strong and united and how he helped me form my American character, here is my “The duty of a wise people” blog post from back in May. I’m searching for the Livy (that old Roman historian) quote on how the virtues of a Republic can be restored by the example of one man and will add it to the bottom once I locate it, because it speaks to where we are at with our own Republic.
Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, Food for Thought, Politics
Thomas Sowell, renowned economist, writer, and social commentator, wrote an excellent piece, “The Bad Fruits of Race Hustling” (here), in today’s National Review Online. He tackled race hustling and the many naysayers who opine that for most black and many other minority groups opportunity does not exist in America. You can always count on Thomas Sowell to hone in on home truths, using simple, direct language – yes, he’s a direct and to the point writer, but his writing is pure golden honey, he begins:
“Years ago, someone said that according to the laws of aerodynamics bumblebees cannot fly. But the bumblebees, not knowing the laws of aerodynamics, go ahead and fly anyway.”
Read the entire article yourself and I promise you will not be disappointed. Back in July I wrote one of my rambling pieces “Good Citizen Solution Starts With You” (here) and although Dr. Sowell states the case much more eloquently, I do believe we both see America as a place of hope rather than a prison of thwarted dreams. I ended my meandering post with this,
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” – Martin Luther King, Jr. ( I Have A Dream speech, August 28, 1963), I was a toddler and here we are 50 years later still retracing our steps, trying to realize this dream. Instead of letting our hopes be dashed over a local tragedy of two young men brawling in the street one night, we’ve got to set our sights on getting to that mountaintop where freedom rings for every American child and hope rises above being a political slogan. Hopefully, in my four children’s lifetime this dream will become reality.
Decided to add more because bumblebees and flying made me remember a story I read a few months back at the Library of America, Story of the Week site (you can sign up for email delivery). The story is called, “The Day I Sprouted Wings”, by J. Herman Banning. Banning was the first black male to receive a pilot’s license in America in 1926, Even more amazing is the story of Bessie Coleman, the first black female pilot and the first black pilot to receive an international pilot’s license in 1921. Believing you can fly really does matter.
Filed under Culture Wars, Politics
It’s called the Second Oldest Profession for a reason. This article posted on The XX Committee blog offers a much needed historical background on intelligence-gathering to put the media hype in the wake of the Snowden leaks in perspective. Definitely worth your time.
Filed under Foreign Policy, Politics
Grab your tissues, another of those touching (more like ridiculous) stories on “bullying” about an aunt who organizes her facebook “friends”(correctly termed list of random people whom you might or might not know, but what’s in the meaning of a word anyway, right?) to rally together to support her nephew in confronting his bully (story here at the Blaze ). With 101 against 1, geesh, even Napoleon would have retreated in the face of those odds. C,mon, what the heck is going on with this hyping bullying and turning it into a national crisis, where talk swirls about criminalizing this behavior? Are kids really so much more vicious than in previous times? Is the internet the catalyst? Or does the failure fall closer to home, with parents (most likely parent, actually) failing to teach and train (yes, kids need training just as much as dogs) basic manners and self-control? And will the solution come from parents doing their job or will the ever-intrusive state solution be what forces the cultural course correction? Or, as Gladius likes to phrase it, perhaps, “we are essentially doomed”.
Let’s face facts, this new media type event is becoming a typical ploy for media attention. If the aunt really thinks she helped her nephew learn a new survival skill, she’s very deluded. If the nephew thinks these clowns who showed up are really his friends, he’s in for a sad awakening when the cameras move off in search of another ridiculous antic that passes for a “teachable moment” in America these days. Let’s not forget the “reformed” bully, who didn’t want to look bad in front of the cameras, in addition to being surrounded by 101 opponents, c’mon does anyone believe this silly staged event changed his behavior for the long-term? The press eats up these absurd stories, but make no mistake they are playing to a deliberate push (“nudge” is the Cass Sunstein preferred term) to looking for outsiders to solve your problems. In the real world, you teach kids how to cope with bullies (I fought them, as my sisters can attest to how many fights I got into with bullies on our school bus), you don’t orchestrate some camera-ready moment seeking media attention. All this plays to the larger push toward sensationalizing a human behavior as old as human existence and casting it as a unique new problem in need of experts (usually in plentiful supply in academic and government circles) to impose new ways to deal with the behavior. Thus, boys who act like boys, wanting to run, play, hit and break things, become sufferers of ADD or ADHT, in need of relentless drugging and therapy and bullies present a new challenge, in need of national programs to combat. Like sheep, most Americans follow along, preferring to be led along this path that leads to relying on the government pastures and government shepherds to mind us. Yes, mean old libertybelle will continue to be the incorrigible black sheep, because I’d rather be the last voice in this American wilderness telling people, “Think for yourself!” and “This is a bunch of bs!” than to submit to having my mind controlled by this relentless stream of made-up problems with their government solutions at the ready.
Filed under Culture Wars, Education, Politics, The Media
A detailed new report in the Parisian daily Le Monde, based on sources inside France’s foreign intelligence service (DGSE), paints a dire portrait of the rising number of Westerners going to wage jihad in Syria. I’m providing the highlights of this important assessment.
The jihadist routes to Syria have expanded significantly just since the summer. The unexpected resistance of the Bashar al-Assad regime has exerted a “power of attraction” in France and other countries. “Nothing like it has ever been seen before, even for Afghanistan,” a senior French intelligence official noted.
Western diplomats and spies have noted the steep rise in the number of mujahidin headed to Syria coming in from the Caucasus, especially Chechnya. Two transit points have been identified in Europe. The Austrian capital, Vienna, is a major junction for volunteers from the Caucasus who are traveling on to Syria via Turkey.
French intelligence has uncovered another…
View original post 435 more words
Filed under Foreign Policy, Politics
Good article by Barry Rubin at The Counter Jihad Report.
Filed under Foreign Policy, Military, Politics
More big picture strategic moves in the works hit the press lately and none of them are being made by the United States. China brought up and escalated talk about a replacement currency for the US dollar and now, in light of our fiscal irresponsibility, they’re pushing hard for it again and you know what, more countries might buy into that (story here). And Putin continues to play chess, while Obama gloats about his “winning” this latest petty fiscal showdown with the Republicans in Congress. Putin orchestrated the US ouster from using the base at Manas in Kyrgyzstan, putting our travel distance, this is an “if” Hagel works out a deal with Romania to use a base there for supply routing, from 638 miles using Manas to Kabul to 2300 miles from Romania to Afghanistan (story here). Yes, Mr. President, you’re quite the strategic genius on the world stage and at home. Can anyone spell the word “retreat”, because most assuredly others see America’s rear march commander in action and they eagerly want to close with an adversary in full retreat, waving a white flag. This President can’t even define America’s national interests in real terms, but prefers to roost in dangerously delusional far-left cloud-cuckoo-land, while America’s adversaries keep their eyes and strategic objectives in sharp focus – no head in the clouds from their vantage point. It’s very sad to be able to understand and appreciate your adversaries’ strategic moves, while being totally baffled and embarrassed by your own country’s ineptitude and cluelessness in every international endeavor. We are not only losing in small strategic instances internationally, we’re losing American power in both reputation and in deed – all because of this President’s failure to understand America’s strategic national interests in the real world, not his college campus leftie causes.
America, in past generations, has had presidents who rise to the occasion and lead our country competently through perilous times without the benefit of actual military experience. However, in times past it was a given that these men had a working knowledge of military history and geography. A few missteps could be naive mistakes, but watching President Obama’s stream of anti-American moves we should be aware that before us now, or maybe slinking around, leading us from behind, is one who is more inclined to side with our adversaries than our own military. It’s frightening that more Americans can’t see that this man is dangerously working against us. I wonder if he even understands the importance of supply lines to military operations, but then again for him soldiers are likely terrorists and terrorists are misunderstood freedom fighters. Don’t let the bumbling explanations fool you – he’s deliberately and determinedly following his own map to American irrelevancy….. and moving at warp speed to get there.
Filed under Foreign Policy, Military, Politics
“It never rains when I can make it pour“
Honestly, I really do try to be cheerful, I mean, every Monday I give you, free of charge, several jokes to cheer you up but the fact is it is impossible to avoid the really bad news. And ‘over there’ the news is getting ‘worserer and worserer’. You might reply something to the effect of who gives a damn? Well, I do! I love the place despite its manifold faults and vices. And, like it or loath it, it looms alarmingly large on the global landscape. So for me, reading Jeremy Warner in The Telegraph and then Jeffrey Lord in The American Spectator has made me even more miserable than the steady rainfall outside my garret window has already done.
Mr. Warner (such an appropriate name) warns of the imminent death of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. In doing so he joins a growing chorus:
That this position – what Giscard d’Estaing referred to as America’s “exorbitant
privilege” – could so casually be put at risk by politicians on Capitol Hill is
an extraordinary spectacle that may be indicative of a great power already
seriously on the wane.
However, he suggests that it might be a slower decline and fall than some suppose not least because so much of the world’s trade is conducted in dollars. Nevertheless, he sums up the predicament, thus:
Serious alternatives to the dollar, such as a global reserve currency, are
still a long way off, but the latest shenanigans on Capitol Hill have given the
search for them renewed and added momentum. The US is recklessly throwing away its future.
All that, of course, is a symptom of a malignant disease at the heart of the American body-politic. Jeffrey Lord, in a long and detailed examination seeks to define the cause. In his opinion, and it is one I share, it is the incessant and semi-secret attack of surreptitious Marxism. If that makes me (and him) sound like born-again Joe McCarthys, so be it, but any detailed examination of the Democrat party, the higher reaches of the American academy, the civil service, the judiciary and now, according to Mr. Lord, the armed services, would convince anyone that whilst most of the participants are the usual “useful idiots” the controllers are Red in tooth and claw! Meanwhile, the stupid and stupified traditional leadership of the Republican party remain oblivious still believing that they live in the ‘good ol’ days’ of schmoozing and deal-making:
The difference — the central and critical difference — is that after decades of left-wing devotion to the hijacking of America, to the idea of transforming it [my emphasis], there are still Republicans and even some conservatives who don’t understand the nature of either their opponents or their opponents’ objectives.
They simply do not understand that the nature of the Democrat beast has changed irrevocably and thus, the war inside the Republican party between those who do and those who do not is infinitely more lethal than that between them and the Democrats. If indeed a catastrophe occurs then the benefits – oh yes, there are always benefits to someone! – will flow to the organisation that has planned it and instigated it.
The above post from October 16, 2013 has been reprinted with permission from the erudite David Duff at Duff and Nonsense, who writes about news, politics, lots of military history from a wonderfully refreshing British point of view (pssst, and he posts a lot of jokes too).
Filed under Culture Wars, Foreign Policy, History, Politics
Legends on the rise and fall of great societies permeate history with certain threads, like the demise of the common culture leading the list as one of the prime harbingers of “doom”. Yes, that word “doom” comes to mind quite frequently, presaging our presumed ineluctable fated demise. Warning signs, both large and small, abound, blaring out endless streams of our culture and Judeo-Christian value system in full retreat to the relentless moral relativist message.
Some retreat for public relations reasons, like Wal-mart this past weekend (story here). The EBT system failed last Saturday in 17 states, leading to EBT recipients debit cards showing no limits. News reports indicate that in several states Wal-mart stores were crammed with customers filling slews of shopping carts with groceries and “checking out”, swiping their EBT card, which they knew did not have the funds to cover the amount of groceries “purchased” (stolen). The corollary would be long ago when people used personal checks more often and supposing you wrote a check for your purchases knowing you did not have money to cover the purchase. There’s no difference besides the fact that media handlers will guide Wal-mart and the image of Wal-mart tracking down “poor people” for criminal prosecution over this blatant thievery might look like the giant retailer is picking on the little people. Wal-mart will likely end up eating this loss and due to American social conditioning, way too many people will use moral relativism to guide their moral reasoning in the matter – saying things like “Wal-mart can afford it” or “Wal-mart screws over the little guy all the time so turn around is fair play”. Sure, in this case some Wal-mart management in the affected states made the call to let the sales go through rather than stop the theft and they failed to follow the proper procedure in place to call Xerox when EBT cards aren’t working properly.
In this same above-mentioned scenario the more disturbing behavior is that of the crowds of people who flooded Wal-mart stores to steal food in broad daylight, with no moral hesitation. The problem with government hand-outs is the people start beginning to believe these programs really are “entitlements” and thus they never spend a moment’s notice wondering about taking other people’s money as their own, nor do they worry about stealing food from Wal-mart. Taking stuff that is not yours is stealing, no matter the twisted semantics used to rationalize it. To delve further into this moral relativist hellish enslavement of the mind I urge you to read the article Justin linked in a comment here yesterday, “Contemporary Liberal Doublethink: Welfare = Self-Reliance”. The thieves in this scenario won’t bother to “think or reason” about their thievery, no, these are pack animals – used to being led, with no will to think for themselves nor will they ponder things like civic duty, aspiring to become better human beings or much beyond their instant gratification.
PJ Media offered this truly excellent piece written by a writer who pens under the pseudonym, Bookworm, titled “The Surprising Reason Americans Are Vulnerable to Moral Relativism”, which although lengthy, definitely rates the time. This writer posits that our American embrace of Anne Frank’s idealistic belief: “I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.”, creates a syllogism as described in this passage:
“Thanks to those words, Americans accept that “people are truly good at heart.” This belief creates a syllogism, one that sees Americans claiming that it must be a lie when someone dares to claim that another group doesn’t meet certain moral absolutes. How can there be moral absolutes when all “people are truly good at heart”?”
The author goes on to explain why Anne Frank’s simple idealistic belief was not only wrong in her own personal life, where she perished in the Holocaust, but it is simply wrong for mankind, in general. People aren’t truly good at heart – that part takes a great deal of civilizing effort, both in the home and in society in general, hence we used to call it “civil society”. Aristotle offered his definition, “a shared set of norms and ethos, in which free citizens on an equal footing lived under the rule of law”, which puts us on firmer footing than most of the opining from American academics in recent decades. We need that shared set of norms and ethos as the glue to hold our splintering, divided country together. Cutting through the leftist doublethink presents a daunting challenge, but unless we commit to “winning the hearts and minds” of Americans on the importance of being “good citizens”, where “rights” rest right next to “civic duty”, we’ll continue to drift, creating an ever-widening no man’s land, rather than to use a military metaphor and which I use as my gravatar, “march under one flag”. We must become a country under one flag again – we must become American citizens first, political partisans second.
Filed under Culture Wars, Food for Thought, Politics
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