Education

Education - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Stupid Things People Say

April 2, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Dennis Prager is fond of saying he’ll take clarity over agreement any day and that is a good phrase to keep in mind when you open your big mouth to join the debate. In keeping with the quest for intelligent dialog, here is a list of ten things that I think we should all stop saying because it makes those who indulge in them look, well, stupid.

1). “That’s just your opinion.”

Really? What else would it be? Who goes around blurting out everyone else’s opinion but never their own, anyway? Don’t say this because being captain obvious doesn’t make you look any smarter than the person you’re castigating for having an opinion with which you do not agree. Also, do not immediately reject things just because you think it is “an opinion” because at some point you are stating that nothing can be known or true and everything is “just an opinion.” This sort of sloppy thinking leads to reducing everything to a lie and, well, if that’s true, what’s the point of having a debate at all?
Continue reading “

Stupid Things People Say”

Education - History - Media - Media Bias - Warner Todd Huston

La Amistad: How the AP Commonly Muffs American History

March 31, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press has a famous book on grammar and style that its news writers use to govern their work, a book that is also popular with the whole American news industry. It has served as a standard for many years. The AP, however, seems to have no style or rule for reporting history. Or rather, perhaps it does and the rule is to purposefully garble American history, always skewing it. The APs recent report on a re-creation of the famous 19th century, two-masted schooner La Amistad, famous for its connection to America’s slave trade history, is a case in point.

As it happens a replica of the famous ship was built to highlight history of the slave trade as part of UNESCO’s Slave Route Project, “to remind the world of the consequences of slavery and to promote cultural exchanges.” The problem with APs coverage, though, is that it does not mention the facts about La Amistad leaving the impression that the ship was an American slave trader. In truth it was not an American slaver, though. On top of that the AP seems to think the ship was “made famous in a Stephen Spielberg movie” instead of made famous by the trial that resulted in its seizure by U.S. authorities in 1839.
Continue reading “

La Amistad: How the AP Commonly Muffs American History”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Liberals - President - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

Obama To Take Over Control of College Textbooks?

March 30, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Candace de Russy over at National Review posted an alarming example of Obama power grab. Or perhaps more precisely it’s yet another alarming example of an Obama power grab. This time Obama apparently is setting the table to take control of what is printed in our nation’s college textbooks.

This one slipped past my radar in August of 2009, but apparently Barack Obama signed the Federal Textbook Act (Download .pdf file) that made provisions for the federal government to take control of the pricing and availability of the text books in our institutions of higher learning (at least the ones that take federal funding).

According to the language of the act, it is all about keeping textbooks affordable for students.
Continue reading “

Obama To Take Over Control of College Textbooks?”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Frederick Meekins - Liberals - President

Still Lessons To Be Learned From The Obama School Address Controversy

March 29, 2010 by

-By Frederick Meekins

Lincoln is credited with saying that the philosophy of the classroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. Likewise, totalitarian movements such as Nazism and Communism expended considerable resources on efforts designed to sway the youth of their respective countries into embracing ideologies inimical to the self interest of the student.

Viewing himself in the pantheon of historical figures by which entire eras are remembered, Barack Obama also realizes the necessity of claiming the hearts and minds of the young if he is to transcend the chasm between that of mere government administrator or even head of state to that of an adored icon an entire culture or way of life is built upon.

Though the administration distanced itself from the original lesson plan and disavowed any purpose for the President’s broadcast address other than to tell students to stay in school, the fact that such a document was even formulated provides a glimpse into the worldviews of the influential at the highest levels of the bureaucracy and administration. Therefore, even if the misbegotten memorandum is scrubbed from the Internet and its existence denied to the same extent as the Star Wars Christmas special, it must still be scrutinized as part of the documentary history of the United States.

Continue reading “

Still Lessons To Be Learned From The Obama School Address Controversy”

Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Illinois - Illinois Policy Institute - Illinois State Government - Liberals - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois: Landmark School Choice Bill Could Get Vote Soon

March 24, 2010 by

From the Illinois Policy Institute…

SB 2494 passed out of committee just moments ago. This bill, sponsored by the Rev. Sen. James Meeks, would create a pilot school voucher program for students in struggling Chicago public schools.

This new power for parents promises that many children can enroll in schools that are better able to meet their needs. It promises that surrounding public schools will improve, and it promises that everyone in Illinois, as taxpayers, will benefit.

This is landmark school choice policy in the making.
Continue reading “

Illinois: Landmark School Choice Bill Could Get Vote Soon”

Anti-Americanism - Britain - Education - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

The Left Turning Western Civilization into Alice’s Wonderland

March 17, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see”
–Alice of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Clearly the left are Aliceites. They are aficionados of Alice viewing the world through the looking glass. They want a world of nonsense, a world devoid of meaning so that everything can be molded and morphed at will into anything that appeals to temporary desires. It is called situational ethics, which are, of course, no ethics at all.

Today we have two examples of this, one in America and one in England. We’ll focus on England first.

The UK Telegraph is reporting about the new it, the new thing assuming a status of “personhood,” a genderless human. That’s right the Telegraph is purporting that a British citizen is “officially” a genderless human, neither male nor female.

Norrie May-Welby, we are told, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990. For a time this “person” lived as a woman. But now she-he-it has decided that, “The concepts of man or woman don’t fit me. The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification.”

And so, the Aliceites in British government decided to comply and make May-Welby an “official” person of “no specific gender.”
Continue reading “

The Left Turning Western Civilization into Alice’s Wonderland”

Africa - Christianity - Crime - Economy/Finances - Education - Foreign Countries - Government - Health - History - Islam - Media - Media Bias - Race - Religion - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

AP Slips in ‘Poverty’ As Reason For Nigerian Massacres

March 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

True to its fealty to left-wing, western pop psychology, the Associated Press thinks it knows one of the principle reasons why roving gangs of Muslims are hacking Christians to death and burning their villages to the ground in Nigeria: It’s “poverty.”

Liberals that struggle to understand why man is often so cruel to his fellows seem always to have assumed that poverty is a key factor in violence and crime, but rarely it is the factor that liberals assume it to be. Poverty is no picnic, but it is not the cause of crime and violence. It is more likely a symptom itself rather than a catalyst.

It’s a chicken and egg question, of course. What came first, the poverty or the crime? But the simple fact of the matter is that poverty is seen in every corner of the Earth, yet crime rates vary wildly from area to area and era to era. So, if poverty is constant and is the catalyst for crime, why doesn’t crime hold at a fairly constant rate? It seems pretty obvious that crime is not directly caused by poverty.
Continue reading “

AP Slips in ‘Poverty’ As Reason For Nigerian Massacres”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Children - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Entertainment - Government - Hollywood - Liberals - Military - President - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

Obamaganda: Another School Sings Praises to Dear Leader

March 11, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s a veritable cornucopia of Obamagandistic musical agitprop. You’ll recall the militaristic, fascist-styled Obama youth corps from 2008 where a line of inner city youth stamped out their obeisance militia-like to The One like good little automatons? Perhaps the slickly produced exploitation of sweet faced children from Hollywood that same year will ring a bell? Or maybe your favorite is this misuse of class time in Georgia? Or per chance you’ll recall “Barack Hussein Obama, mmm, mmm, mmm“? These are excellent examples of the Obama version of Leni Riefenstahl’s art.

But those? Well, those are all low class affairs done without an entire orchestra to back them up.

Now we have the brilliance of School children in Illinois, Comrade Obama’s home turf, to add to the din of young musicians enslaved to efforts to exalt Dear Leader. And this tops them all in production values — or at least in scope — for the Midwest Young Artists organization, a group dedicated to “inspiration through music,” has taken upon itself to give the Obammessiah the full orchestral treatment along with a choir and a spoken word segment to round out the production. Uncle Joe couldn’t have created a better display of fealty to Dear Leader. Kim Jong Il is likely red with envy.
Continue reading “

Obamaganda: Another School Sings Praises to Dear Leader”

Bill Brady - Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - GOP - Government - Government, Ill. County - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Pat Brady - Republicans - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’

March 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In his budget speech, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a one percent hike in the state income tax in order to”restore our education budget to current levels.” A one percent increase is like a 33% increase if the tax goes from a flat tax of 3% to one of 4%.

In his speech (beginning on page 10) Quinn addresses the education budget. Sadly, Quinn’s proposal does nothing to address why the problem has arisen in the first place.

Quinn asks for no necessary cuts, he asks for no union concessions, he makes no effort to tighten our education belt in Illinois. Quinn should be slashing the unnecessarily lavish benefits that teachers unions force out of the state, hundreds of useless administrators should be fired and their positions eliminated. The whole education establishment needs to be assessed for it excess. Those imagining that the “fix” is just to pump more money into these failing schools are fooling themselves.

But Quinn is doing nothing but treading water with the state’s education establishment when he should be demanding a bottom to top review of the waste of public education in Illinois.
Continue reading “

Quinn’s Wants 1% Income Tax Hike ‘For Education’”

Anti-Americanism - Christianity - Education - Islam - Liberals - Patriotism - Religion - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

What is a ‘Religious Extremist’? This Lefty Weekly Sure Doesn’t Know

March 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For the Independent Weekly of Durham, North Carolina, writer Sam Wardle proves that he hasn’t a clue how the phrase “religious extremist” is properly defined. But, I’d suggest that his confusion is endemic in the far left and proves to show why so many in the west don’t understand how to face and defeat the real religious extremism of radical Islam.

In a story about Representative Sue Myrick (R, NC) and her association with The National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools as juxtaposed with her condemnation of radical Islam, Wardle sees no difference between a radical Islamist that might blow himself up with a suicide vest or cut off the head of a helpless captive and a Christian American that wants to use properly constituted law to have the Holy Bible used in the classroom.

Certainly you can disagree with having the Bible used as a text in the classroom, but to say that a person that does want the Bible in the classroom is no better than a terrorist is, well, just plain stupid. It is also intellectually vapid. Unfortunately, Mr. Wardle is all too representative of the vapidity of the left that so often comes to this intellectually dishonest conclusion.
Continue reading “

What is a ‘Religious Extremist’? This Lefty Weekly Sure Doesn’t Know”

Chicago - Cook County - Education - Illinois State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Chicago Charter School’s 100% College Bound Senior Class

March 8, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is very good news, though I am a tad skeptical about a 100% stat… still the AP reports:

A Chicago school that claims to be the nation’s first all-boys public charter high school comprised entirely of black males has accomplished an uncommon feat.

Every member of Urban Prep’s first senior class has been accepted into a four-year college or university.

Urban Prep founder and CEO Tim King highlighted the accomplishment by telling an assembly that only four percent of Urban Prep’s freshman in 2006 were reading at grade level.

What good news. Like I said, I am a bit skeptical of any 100% stat, but even if it turns out its only 95% it doesn’t matter. This is a fantastic achievement.

Kudos to Urban Prep Academies!
Continue reading “

Chicago Charter School’s 100% College Bound Senior Class”

Anti-Americanism - Children - Education - Florida - House of Representatives - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Religion - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

Terrorists at Fla. Atlantic U Are O.K., Young Americans for Freedom VERBOTEN

March 8, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

We send our young adults to university to be educated in the ways of the world, we all know. Following that well-worn path, young James Schackleford decided on the publicly funded Florida Atlantic University for his edification and boy did he learn a lesson about modern education last week. Mr. Schackleford learned that the FAU administration prefers on its campus Islamic terrorist supporters over representatives of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom organization. He also learned that it’s open season on all conservatives at our American universities.

At the Boca Raton campus Mr. Schackleford determined that his school needed a chapter of YAF, a 40-year-old conservative student organization, and so gathered a few like-minded students to meet with YAF State Director Daniel P. Diaz to discuss how they should proceed on organizing a chapter in the school.

As the few gathered were meeting, university administrator *David Blank burst into the room and demanded that they cease their meeting and vacate the room. According to the YAF press release, Mr. Diaz asked for an additional 15 minutes to finish and Blank acquiesced to the request. But the 15-minute grant was short lived.

Upon hearing Diaz address the liberal bias on the FAU campus, Blank stopped the meeting again and boorishly ordered the students to vacate the meeting room. Blank the shut off the room lights, tore down the group’s promotional posters, and called the campus police.

It didn’t end there. According to YAF, the campus police arrived and began to harass the students and Mr. Diaz outside as they were in the process of leaving the campus. The police demanded to see student IDs and then menacingly followed YAF rep. Diaz to his car.
Continue reading “

Terrorists at Fla. Atlantic U Are O.K., Young Americans for Freedom VERBOTEN”

Anti-Americanism - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media - Michigan - Public Employees Unions - Rights - SEIU - Socialism - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Support This Detroit Socialist

March 7, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left is constantly attempting to wave its hand dismissively at our claims that they are socialists and communists. They claim they are true blue Americans and we are lying about them. Unions are one of the biggest perpetrators of this misinformation.

Well, it appears that in Detroit unions came out in support of a goof ball that claimed himself to be a socialist. They all stood in the Michigan cold saying their “yeas” as he spoke about getting a free university degree, and as he touted a socialist “right” to food and their own house.

Here we see members of the AFT and the SEIU nodding in appreciation of this socialist’s ideas. They stood by his side as he pronounced these socialist “principles.”

Anyone that tells you that unions aren’t socialists and communists needs to explain why unions came out in support of this un-American nut in Detroit.
Continue reading “

Unions Support This Detroit Socialist”

Christianity - Education - Family - History - Religion - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture - Western Civilization

Why Many American Christians Really are Un-Christian

March 7, 2010 by

-By Selwyn Duke

In this age of media insolvency and newsroom job cuts, I sometimes think that restaurant reviewers are doubling as religion writers. After all, both today seem to treat their subjects as matters of taste. In fact, I expect to soon open a modern newspaper’s religion page and read something akin to the following:

The steeple was sufficiently impressive, although there were obvious stress cracks in the paint. As I entered the church, I was greeted by an all too obsequious usher whose fawning attempts to please were rendered quite unwelcome by his dollar-store shoes, mismatched tie and sport coat, and noticeable dandruff. I was secondly accosted by the aroma of incense, which, although vaguely reminiscent of a potpourri, was overpowering and gratuitous. I entered a pew and found it had been finished with a dark stain wholly ill-suited to the pine of which it was constructed. My kneeler rotated easily on its hinges but emitted a perceptible squeak, and, more egregiously, its cushioning would probably be found wanting by someone suffering from patella tendonitis or another debilitating physical condition. Certainly, if your spirit is willing but your flesh weak, this may not be the church for you . . . .

What brings this to mind is an article I stumbled across today about Tiger Woods, his Buddhism and his reaction to Brit Hume’s January recommendation that the golfer explore Christianity to remedy his woes. It was penned by David Gibson, a “religion” writer who says that he is, as I am, a convert to Catholicism. If I seem suspicious of his Catholicity — of, in fact, his religiosity — it’s because I am. His biography states, “Gibson won the Templeton Religion Reporter of the Year Award, the top honor for journalists covering religion in the secular press. In November he will receive the top prize for opinion writing from the American Academy of Religion,” and both are quite fitting. His writing seems more secular than religious and reduces Truth to opinion.
Continue reading “

Why Many American Christians Really are Un-Christian”

Children - Civil War - Education - Entertainment - Frederick Meekins - Mississippi

Will Admiral Ackbar Replace School’s Confederate Mascot?

March 4, 2010 by

-By Frederick Meekins

Students at the University of Mississippi are campaigning to make Admiral Ackbar from “Return of the Jedi” the school’s new mascot.

The school banished its old mascot Old Reb, an elderly Southern gentleman in Confederate garb, because of “negative connotations of the old South”.

If the Rebel Alliance had the same backbone as these radical multiculturalists, Vader and Palpatine would have conquered the galaxy without even having to build a Deathstar.

Frankly, there is no pleasing these malcontents.
Continue reading “

Will Admiral Ackbar Replace School’s Confederate Mascot?”

Anti-Americanism - California - Christianity - Education - Founders - History - Liberals - Religion - Warner Todd Huston

Teacher Wins Against Ban of His Patriotic Banners in Classroom

March 2, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back in January of 2007 math teacher Brad Johnson of Westview High in San Diego County, California was told by his school administrators told him he had to take down the patriotic banner he had put up in his classroom because the word “God” appeared on it.

Johnson, of course, was quite upset about being told to take down his banner and took the school to court. In 2008 Judge Roger T. Benitez sided with the patriotic-minded teacher saying that the school was “brash” in its effort to force the teacher to take down the banner.

Well, after so long we have some news to report on this story and it is good news, indeed. The very same judge that sided with Mr. Johnson two years ago has officially ruled in favor of the teacher’s right to free speech.
Continue reading “

Teacher Wins Against Ban of His Patriotic Banners in Classroom”

Chicago - Education - Illinois - Liberals - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Students Launch “Illinois Deserves Better” Organization to Combat Partisan Administrators

February 25, 2010 by

Students at the University of Illinois are announcing the official formation of a Registered Student Organization, the aim of which is to fumigate the Urbana campus of partisan and corrupt administrators. In reaction to a scandal wrought at the hands of Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Renee Romano and her staff in the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations (OIIR), ‘I Deserve Better’ is striving for a refreshed administration of integrity and mutual respect so that the campus may finally move beyond an era of clout. The group will advocate for the replacement of Vice Chancellor Renee Romano and Associate Vice Chancellor Anna Gonzalez and will call for a full review of their offices and financial endeavors. Those at ‘I Deserve Better’ believe that in a time of extreme economic hardship, when students and their families are asked to give more and faculty and staff are asked to work for less, that runaway administrative costs and malfeasance are exceptionally intolerable.
Continue reading “

Students Launch “Illinois Deserves Better” Organization to Combat Partisan Administrators”

Education - Illinois - Illinois Policy Institute - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois School Choice—and the Institute—in the Wall Street Journal‏

February 23, 2010 by

In case you missed it, today’s Wall Street Journal carried an excellent column highlighting the efforts of the Illinois Policy Institute and the Rev. Senator James Meeks to promote a school voucher program—a program that will give families stuck in Chicago’s worst schools a chance for a better education and a safer learning environment.

The venue was a sold-out lunch put on by the Illinois Policy Institute (IPI). The result? Something new in Windy City politics: a powerful black Democrat reaching out to a free-market think tank to force reform on the city’s most hidebound institution—the Chicago public schools…

A few years back, Barack Obama named him someone he looked to for “spiritual counsel.” Now the man they call “the Reverend Senator” has done the unthinkable: He’s introduced a bill to provide vouchers for as many as 42,000 students now languishing in Chicago’s worst public schools. He tells me he thinks he can get enough Democrats on his coalition to get it through.

Continue reading “

Illinois School Choice—and the Institute—in the Wall Street Journal‏”

Chicago - Children - Education - Illinois - State Government

Unfunded Mandates Bill Part of Larger School Funding Push

February 23, 2010 by

-By John Myers of Catalyst Chicago

In Government and Policy A downstate legislator is pushing a proposal to free schools from some of the state’s unfunded mandates as a way to ease the burdens of districts as they grapple with the current fiscal crisis.

HB 4711 would allow districts to ignore regulatory mandates that lack clear funding sources — with several notable exceptions, such as special education and the school lunch programs. One example: Requiring that two-way radios be installed on each school bus.

HB 4711 passed out of the House Education Committee on a bipartisan 13-5 vote Thursday, but it has a long way to go before it becomes law. Desperate district leaders support the idea, but teachers’ unions are wary of it, saying that it is too broad and unclear.
Continue reading “

Unfunded Mandates Bill Part of Larger School Funding Push”

Anti-Americanism - Congress - Constitution - Education - Federalism - Founders - Frank Salvato - Government - History

Our Federal Government’s Basic Purpose

February 22, 2010 by

-By Frank Salvato

In February of 2009, legislation was introduced in the 111th Congress that would protect the First Amendment rights of United States citizens when faced with malicious lawsuits, brought against them in foreign courts, claiming defamation. The Free Speech Protection Act of 2009 is meant not only to secure and assure a US citizen’s First Amendment right to free speech in the aforementioned circumstance, but to serve as a tool in guaranteeing our nation’s sovereignty under constitutional law. As of this writing, Senate Bill 449, officially titled as introduced as “A Bill to Protect Free Speech,” languishes in the Senate Judiciary Committee. We all must ask why.

The Free Speech Protection Act of 2009 (the short title for S449) is meant to protect writers, authors, lecturers and any other US citizen against “libel tourism,” a phrase emanating from a lawsuit over the book Funding Evil, by Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, explained in a short film titled The Libel Tourist and in an article titled, A Federal Law is Needed to Deter Libel Tourism, by Daniel J. Kornstein. Mr. Kornstein refers to libel tourism as:
Continue reading “

Our Federal Government’s Basic Purpose”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Chicago - Children - Communism - Cook County - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Family - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Rights - Senate - Socialism - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Democrats Don’t Trust Americans

February 15, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

My headline is a statement of fact. Democrats don’t trust Americans because they are always looking for ways to cut them out of the process. Here we have another example of that axiom proven out.

Illinois State Senator James Meeks, the Reverend Meeks, parades around as a man of the community, a man of the people, a man that wants to lead the folks to take control of their own lives through government.

In keeping with his commitment to give power to the people… Meeks has introduced a bill that would take more power away from the people and give it to the state. Yeah, it does make Meeks a hypocrite if you were to actually believe his lies about “power to the people” and all.
Continue reading “

Democrats Don’t Trust Americans”

Chicago - Constitution - Education - Elections - Founders - GOP - History - Illinois - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Republicans - State Government - Warner Todd Huston

Oh Lord, Bill Brady Goofs American History

February 15, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Greg Hinz, the lefty columnist from Crain’s Chicago Business, has a quick post on our presumptive GOP nominee for Governor that doesn’t put him in the best light. It seems that Mr. Brady is a tad sketchy on American history, sadly.

After being asked by the media if his running mate, the 27-year-old Jason Plummer, was too young to be a proper Lt. Governor candidate, Brady said this:

“How old was Thomas Jefferson when he wrote the Constitution?” Mr. Brady asked. “Age isn’t the only barometer of qualification.”

Ugh. Brady needs to read a few history books as there are several things wrong with this statement.

First of all Jefferson was 33 when he penned the first few drafts of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Secondly, the Constitution was written in 1787, just over ten years later and by then Jefferson was in his 40s.

Thirdly, Thomas Jefferson had precisely zip to do with the Constitution. It was written while he was an Ambassador to France. Jefferson wasn’t even in the country at the time!

Columnist Hinz missed that third fact, as well.

Sigh. It’s such a shame that so many Americans just plain have no clue about American history. In this case a man who would be Governor and another in the media that thinks he’s in a position to critique him.

Maddening. Simply maddening.
Continue reading “

Oh Lord, Bill Brady Goofs American History”

Education - Government - Israel Teitelbaum

Farewell to the Kennedys – Hello Civil Rights

February 13, 2010 by

-By Israel Teitelbaum

Along with millions of my contemporary Americans, I vividly recall where I stood on November 22, 1963 hearing the shocking news that President John F. Kennedy was shot, and the horrific announcement, “The President of the United States has died.”

I was in my dorm room, with fellow American students studying at the Rabbinical College of Canada, where we had precious little time to delve into politics. Yet, JFK was our hero, who had our respect, admiration, even love.

Little did we know that one year after taking office in January 1961 he had signed Executive Order 10988 that would lead our nation down a long slippery slope resulting in the takeover of all branches of our federal and state governments by leftist forces powerful enough to overwhelm the voting public.

The political Goliath JFK had established reached its ultimate conquest on November 4, 2008 with the election of the most leftist President and Congress our nation has ever known. The recent election of Scott Brown, on the heels of GOP wins in Virginia and Massachusetts, may signal the willingness of voters to slay this giant.
Continue reading “

Farewell to the Kennedys – Hello Civil Rights”

Abraham Lincoln - Anti-Americanism - Constitution - Education - Government - History - Military - Patriotism - Warner Todd Huston

The Lincoln We Need

February 12, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For Lincoln’s birthday, I repost this from a year ago…

These last 20 or so years has seen a bifurcated treatment of Abraham Lincoln. There are the enthusiasts and hagiographers that still revere him as the best that America has to offer — the proverbial great emancipator, Father Abraham. Then there is a second stream, enthusiasts of another sort, viewing the Civil War president in the opposite manner. That second group are the Lincoln haters. Those such as Thomas DiLorenzo, the sort that calls Lincoln a criminal and despot, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., the sort that castigates Honest Abe as an unremitting racist, have been joined by a small group of Lincoln detractors trying to convince America that Lincoln is to be discounted, even hated by history.

So, which Lincoln is the Lincoln? Is he the Lincoln of “the great emancipator” or the Lincoln of the “great despot” and which Lincoln is the one we as Americans should know?

In truth he is all and neither of the two views in current, popular memory. He is neither the vision of the Constitution destroying, negro hating man the detractors wish to foster, nor the spotless demi-god that the hagiographers want to claim as theirs. Yes he did single things that pulled out of context to the whole of the man are both racist and despotic. He was a man, flawed and imperfect to be sure, but he was also one so singularly radical and ahead of his time that I believe we should lean towards reverence as opposed to despising the 16th president.

Continue reading “

The Lincoln We Need”

Barack Obama - Children - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - Government - Health - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama: Vending Machine Operator in Chief

February 10, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Wanna know the next stop for the Big Government juggernaut? School vending machines. That’s right, now that Obama has taken control of the auto manufacturers next he wants to control what sort of vending machine your schools have. Right after that he’ll likely decide that he….

You know, right there I was going to try and make some sort of outrageous statement as a joke, I was going to compare this socialist’s next move to something nutty, but I realized that there is no way to shock or outrage any more. Obama is such an outright dictatorial socialist that no one would be shocked by any joke I could make. I couldn’t come up with anything that would startle because, well, anything I’d joke about would seem utterly plausible.
Continue reading “

Obama: Vending Machine Operator in Chief”

Book Reviews - Books - Education - France - History - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

The Intellectuals What Ain’t

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no better example of how low intellectuals have fallen than the case of Bernard-Henri Lévy, intellectual, provocateur, member of the well-regarded French nouveaux philosophes and, it seems, all around gullible fool.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, better known to those in the know as BHL, has become a laughing stock of modern inteleckshoouls everywhere with the publication of his much anticipated book on philosopher Immanuel Kant.

Oh, there’s sharp criticism in Lévy’s new Kantallope, there’s bomb thrown name calling, and nose-up-turning galore. Kant, according to Lévy, is a “raving lunatic” and a “fake.” And to prove his case Lévy uses the anti-Kanti words of the famous 20th-century philosopher Jean-Baptiste Botul — known as the father of the philosophical school of Botulism.

Yeah. Big problem for BHL, though. Jean-Baptiste Botul is a fictional character made up as a joke in 1999 by a journalist. I mean, come on, if you didn’t see the joke in “the school of Botulism” what sort of bat do you need upside your head to see the truth?
Continue reading “

The Intellectuals What Ain’t”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Economy/Finances - Education - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Lobbyists - Pensions - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education

February 8, 2010 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

One would think that a teacher that had 30 some years ago allegedly impregnated a 16-year-old student, a few years later sexually accosted two 12-year-old students, and was accused of molesting yet another student four years after that, would be out on his ear never to teach or be allowed around children again.

But the New York teachers union would beg to differ.

In fact, the union has differed so much that troubled teacher Francisco Olivares has been continually paid his $94,154 a year salary even though he’s been kept from the classroom for the last seven years.

So, who cares what the union says about this guy? Unfortunately, the union’s resistance to getting rid of him is enshrined in state law. The school can’t get rid of this dead weight either.

As a result, because the school can’t fire him and the union won’t let them, Olivares sits day in and day out in what is called a “rubber room” getting paid his full salary. That is getting paid his fall salary courtesy of the taxpayers of New York.
Continue reading “

Why Unions Are Dangerous in Education”

Children - Education - Entertainment - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Hitchens Says Sports Suck… And I Agree

February 6, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, Christopher Hitchens has finally written something with which I can whole heartedly sign on. In his latest Newsweek piece Hitchens decries the sham that is sports — especially international soccer tournies. He slams the supposed benefits of sports and rightly pinpoints the singular truth that sports brings out the worst in everyone.

Hitchens eviscerates the lie that sports “brings people together,” lays low the lie that sports is good in schools, and obliterates the idiotic babble that sports are in any way filled with good role models — or that they even could present good role models.

I loved this delicious paragraph, delivered after delineating the “shock” that one sports dolt had when another dissed him:
Continue reading “

Hitchens Says Sports Suck… And I Agree”