Right to Opine

Hearing the Democrats constantly whine about obstructionist Republicans blocking Obamacare, I was reminded of one of the lesser-known of Aesop’s tales…

One day some wealthy men were walking together when they came across a hungry man. They formed a committee of ten to determine how best to address the situation. Six of the men declared, “This hungry man has no food. Tomorrow we should make him a sandwich–a crap sandwich.” Alarmed, the other four protested, “Crap will do the poor man no good. We should make the sandwich of roast beef instead. After all, you wouldn’t eat a crap sandwich would you?”

Replied the six, “But we don’t have to eat a crap sandwich. We have roast beef. He, however, has no roast beef and will be content with crap.”

When the four refused to feed the man a crap sandwich, the six huddled together. They did not want to be held solely responsible for feeding the man a crap sandwich and sought the assent of the other four. After some consideration, they returned to the four and said, “We have just the thing. Rather than a mere sandwich we will make him a foot-long crap hoagie.”

Concerned that the six would prevail and provide nothing of value to the hungry man, the four proposed at least adding lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo to make the crap hoagie more nutritious and palatable. The six agreed but, after hearing the poor man declare he did not want a crap sandwich, one of the six decided it would, after all, be better to make the hoagie of roast beef rather than crap.

When the time came to feed the man, the four–now five–refused to make the sandwich at all. The six–now five–cried, “Why will you not feed this poor man? We allowed you to add lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo.”

“Because,” replied the four–now five–, “a crap sandwich, dressed however nicely, is still a crap sandwich. The man does not want one and we will have no part in it. Why, when you were six, did you not feed the man crap yourselves?”

CNN has determined that

Activists in the Tea Party movement tend to be male, rural, upscale, and overwhelmingly conservative, according to a new national poll.

Yep, just a bunch of angry white men. (Note that they don’t report the racial make-up of the respondents but we all know that rural, rich conservatives are all white, right? Right?) The poll numbers came from a telephone survey in which 124 (of 1,023) respondents indicated “they had taken active steps to support the Tea Party, such as donating money or attending a rally.”

A whopping 124 respondents and CNN takes polls like this seriously? You have got to be kidding. Really, you don’t have to be a statistician to know that in a country of 300 million, a political movement which has drawn tens of thousands of rally attendees (and the ire of the mainstream media) cannot possibly be accurately described by 124 people. They claim a sampling error of 9 points. As a mathematician I find that claim highly dubious, but even if accurate no self-respecting pollster would stake any credibility on that error. Interestingly enough, when I revisited the article, the complete poll data was no longer available.

This is neither responsible, unbiased journalism nor reliable statistical work. But it’s good enough for CNN to run it as a headline on their Politics front page.

According to MSNBC, a professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville has killed three of her colleagues and wounded three others. I don’t buy it. It’s illegal to carry a handgun on the UAH campus, so this couldn’t possibly have happened.

The police responded quickly, but not soon enough for the three who died. When will we drop the pretense that “gun-free” zones are gun-free…or safe? At least one student showed the common sense we need.

Gina Hammond, a UAH student, told WAFF that she lobbied the University of Alabama trustees to allow students with gun permits to carry their weapons on campus. She was turned down.

“I’m scared to go back to school,” Hammond said. “However, if they were to allow me to carry my pistol on campus, I would not be as scared.

“… I’m sorry that nobody in that room had a pistol to save at least one person’s life,” Hammond said.

It’s long past time to rethink the policy that provides target-rich environments and turns the law-abiding into victims.

“This is a tragedy of immeasurable proportions and a terrible a blow to our community,” said U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith, R-Ala., in whose district the shootings occurred. “Now is a time for thoughtful prayer for those affected.”

No. Now is a time to allow the innocent to protect themselves.

They give shows to people like Joy Behar. Sure Fox has Glenn Beck, but Joy has all of his fanaticism without his boyish charm, quick wit, or sheer entertainment value. (Ratings clearly bear out the disparity in popularity between the two.) He’s often outlandish, but she’s purely vitriolic.

Consider this recent segment, during which she spent a few minutes with Eve Ensler (author of “The Vagina Monologues”) bashing Sarah Palin.

In a very tired continuation of the common leftist theme that conservatives simply aren’t very intelligent, Behar and her guest are appalled that someone who isn’t a proponent of anthropomorphic global warming (AGW) could possibly run for Vice President. At one point Behar, obviously disgusted, says,

Every scientist of any note believes in it but Sarah Palin doesn’t believe in it.

“Every scientist of any note” does not include

• Joanne Simpson, the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, later one of NASA’s lead weather researchers, president of the American Meteorological Society, and recipient of the AMS’ Carl-Gustaf Rossby Award
• Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner in physics
• William Happer, Princeton University physicist, chair of Princeton’s research board, winner of Germany’s Humboldt Award, the American Physical Society’s Broida Prize and Davisson-Germer Prize, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Edison Prize
• Freeman Dyson, Princeton University physicist and mathematician, co-founder of Operations Research (field of mathematics) and creator of the Dyson Series (math again), unified quantum electrodynamics theories, and more; winner of the Lorentz Medal (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and Max Planck Medal (German Physical Society)
• Claude Allegre, French Socialist and geochemist who once espoused the theory, winner of the Crafoord Prize (which, like the Nobel Prizes for sciences, is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences), Wollaston Medal (Geological Society of London), and Golden Medal of the French National Center for Scientific Research
• Richard Lindzen, MIT Professor of Atmospheric Science, winner of the American Meteorological Society’s Meisinger and Charney Awards, American Geophysical Union’s Macelwane Medal, and the Leo Prize from Sweden’s Wallin Foundation
• William Gray, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, pioneer in hurricane forecasting
• Antonino Zichichi, Italian nuclear physicist and president of the World Federation of Scientists
• Khabibullo Abdusamatov, Russian astrophysicist, supervisor of the Astromeria project (International Space Station) and head of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ space research
• Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist, winner of the American Astronomical Society’s Newton Lacy Pierce Prize
• Roy Spencer, principal research scientist, University of Alabama (Huntsville) and U.S. Science Team Leader for NASA’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (used by satellites to measure temperatures), former senior scientist for climate studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center; winner of the American Meteorological Society’s Special Award
• Jan Veizer, Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, winner of Killam Award (Canada Council), Hutchison and Logan Medals (Geological Association of Canada), Miller Medal and Bancroft Award (Royal Society of Canada), and Leibniz Prize (German Research Foundation)

This is a short list of just a dozen, and is hardly exhaustive. The Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works details more than 700 international scientists who are skeptical of AGW. Looks like Palin is in some pretty impressively stupid company.

A common misconception on the left is its arrogant and elitist notion that if only conservatives were better educated they’d be more liberal.

• Marx studied law in Bonn and Berlin.
• Lenin had a degree in law (his father was an official in the Russian education system).
• Stalin attended Tiflis Theological Seminary and was later a private tutor/instructor.
• Mao Zedong went to Beijing University.
• Ho Chi Minh was educated in France and was, at one time, a teacher.
• Pol Pot was a graduate of the École Française d’Électronique et d’Informatique (French School of Electronics and Computer Science) in Paris.

On the other hand:

• George W Bush and Clarence Thomas graduated from Yale.
• Thomas Sowell is an economics fellow at Stanford.
• Bill O’Reilly holds degrees from Boston University and Harvard.
• Charles Krauthammer holds degrees from both Harvard and Oxford.
• Michelle Malkin went to Oberlin (a rather left-wing college).
• Bobby Jindal went to Brown University and Oxford (Rhodes Scholar).
• Newt Gingrich got his PhD in history from Tulane and was a college history prof for almost a decade before entering politics.

The difference isn’t education. It’s values.

Many of us tend to encapsulate the Christmas story by having it end tidily with three wise men bringing gifts to a cuddly little baby. Some of us know better…

An eight-year-old boy was given an assignment in class to draw something that reminded him of Christmas. His picture got him sent home and ordered to undergo a psych evaluation because of its violent imagery. What did he draw? Machine gun-toting Santa? No (though I think that’d be pretty cool). Vampire Rudolph feasting on elves? No. Headless Frosty with a chainsaw? No.

He drew a picture of Jesus crucified on the cross.

Read that again. The blatant and pernicious anti-Christian bias in our educational system could not be more clear.

Here’s a news flash for the uninformed: the Christmas story has a really violent, bloody episode just before the plot’s climax. If you don’t include the death and resurrection of Christ then Christmas has no meaning whatsoever. This young boy demonstrated what very few adults do—a complete understanding of the meaning of the holiday. Rather than punish we should emulate.

For a supposed Constitutional scholar, lawyer, and professor, our President doesn’t appear to know the document at all. To wit:

U.S. Constitution, Article 1. Section 9. No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.

Ergo without the express consent of the Congress, Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize is strictly unconstitutional, as it is awarded by a committee of five persons elected by the Norwegian Parliament (see <http://nobelprize.org/nobelfoundation/org_structure.html>).

Of course devoted Obama supporters will say this doesn’t matter. It should be noted they also have no respect for our Constitution.

All men are created equal. — Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Except men who like to dress like women or sodomize other men. They’re more equal. — Hate Crimes Bill, October 26, 2009

Comforting to know our federal government considers homosexuals more valuable than the rest of us.

In his address to Congress Wednesday, President Obama asserted once again that his health care plan would not fund abortion. Let’s examine that claim using the most widely quoted current proposal.

HR3200 Subtitle B Section 2511 (p. 992) provides for “School-Based Health Clinics” (SBHC) to be funded with your tax dollars. This sounds great on the surface. Who doesn’t want to provide health care for our kids? The problem is that the language is, deliberately, overly broad and opens the door for groups such as Planned Parenthood, our top abortion provider, to open clinics in our schools.

(c) USE OF FUNDS.—Funds awarded under a grant under this section may be used for—

(1) providing training related to the provision of comprehensive primary health services and additional health services;

What, exactly, are the “additional health services” here? We don’t really know, as the bill does not specify. You can, however, connect the dots. Oversight of the clinics is left to the Secretary of Health & Human Services (SHSS), currently Kathleen Sebelius who is a radical pro-abortion advocate and supporter of late-term abortionists (e.g., the late George Tiller).

(d) CONSIDERATION OF NEED.—In determining the amount of a grant under this section, the Secretary shall take into consideration—

…

(3) other factors as determined appropriate by the Secretary.

This gives quite a bit of leeway to the SHSS. She could, for example, grant greater funding to SBHCs that provide “family planning” counseling of the sort she approves.

(l) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

(1) COMPREHENSIVE PRIMARY HEALTH SERVICES.—The term ‘comprehensive primary health services’ means the core services offered by SBHCs, which shall include the following:

…

(C) OPTIONAL SERVICES.—Additional services, which may include oral health, social, and age-appropriate health education services, including nutritional counseling.

Sounds innocuous enough but what, exactly, are “age-appropriate health education services” under this definition? Would pro-abortion counseling qualify? Given the current SHSS you can count on it.

(3) SCHOOL-BASED HEALTH CLINIC.—The term ‘school-based health clinic’ means a health clinic that—

(A) is located in, or is adjacent to, a school facility of a local educational agency;

…

(4) SPONSORING FACILITY.—The term ‘sponsoring facility’ is—

…

(D) a nonprofit health care agency;

Bingo! Planned Parenthood qualifies. In fact, they wouldn’t even have to operate on school grounds. Any Planned Parenthood clinic near a school would qualify under this plan.

Now back to Obama’s claim that our tax dollars would not fund abortions. First note that nothing in this bill excludes abortion and great leeway is given to the SHSS to determine how funds are meted out. There is no guarantee here that funds would not be used directly for abortion. Assume, for the sake of argument, that none are. Even in that case Planned Parenthood clinics on or near school grounds would qualify for these funds. In practice every dollar they receive for even legitimate purposes frees up another dollar to fund the rest of their practice…being America’s number one provider of abortions.

Republican Congressman Charles Wilson may have been out of line concerning the venue of his outburst, but he was correct. Mr. Obama, you lie.

Why did we keep our daughter home from school today? So we could watch the President’s speech with her and provide corrections where necessary. You can be sure our public schools will not balance their adulation of The One with anything approaching reality.

After last week’s firestorm of protests over the supplemental materials provided to teachers, President Obama gave a rather bland and predictable speech to our nation’s students this morning. (The prepared text can be found here.) The problem with his speech wasn’t what he said, but that he didn’t mean it.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But you don’t really mean it. It’s one thing to claim to set high standards. It’s another entirely to enforce those standards. One of your biggest backers, the NEA, opposes enforcement of standards (i.e., failing students and denying graduation). As a state senator, U.S. senator, and now as president, you have done absolutely nothing to change that. Without enforcement standards are meaningless. Your record speaks for itself.

My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had.

But you know that’s only a half-truth. The fact is, you were largely raised by your maternal grandparents, one of whom was vice president of a bank. You didn’t grow up poor. You didn’t grow up disadvantaged. You grew up in a comfortable neighborhood in Hawaii and chose to waste your time hanging around a Marxist mentor and smoking dope. Puhlease.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

Ah, if only you really believed that. If you did, you’d support eliminating affirmative action and other racial quotas. You’d support reducing government expenditures on welfare and entitlement programs. You’d insist that college admissions and job opportunities be given to the best qualified candidate, not the most racially diverse candidate. But you don’t. Instead you support expanding entitlement programs, encouraging future generations to rely more and more on the government rather than themselves. You have put zero pressure on universities and corporations to give rewards to those who have earned them.

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.

But we’re not allowed to let kids fail, even when they don’t do their work at all, much less when they do it but poorly. Instead we pass them on from grade to grade and they never learn from their failure because they aren’t allowed to fail.

If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave.

Um, actually, I think that is a pretty obvious definition of a troublemaker. (From Merriam-Webster: trou-ble-mak-er, n., a person who consciously or unconsciously causes trouble.) Quit with the touchy-feely stuff, sir, and just tell them to shape up. Of course, there have to be consequences or they won’t, so never mind. Keep the feel-good slop flowing.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day.

Yes, but the group you ask for help includes Marxists, tax cheats, racists, etc. Hopefully our kids will choose wiser advisors.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation.

And let’s all recall what that revolution was about…taxes! A sobering history lesson for you, Mr. President, as we host our TEA parties across the nation.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Um, why isn’t the ACLU up in arms over this? A high school valedictorian can’t mention God in a graduation speech but you give your homeboy a pass? To quote our fearless leader, “Enough!”