I firmly believe that a person has a right to burn the US or any flag as part of a protest as long as they are safe about it. People have a Constitutional right to free speech and I think this is a form of it.
I also believe I have the right and possibly the duty to kick the living crap out of you if I see you do it.
Thoughts?
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Ben Stein's Final Column -- Celebrity Worship
People who fawn over how beautiful Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt's latest bastard child is need to have their head screwed back on straight. Ben Stein put it much better than I can below:
"How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?
As I begin to write this, I 'slug' it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is 'eonline FINAL,' and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.
It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.
Beyond that, a bigger change has happened..? I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a 'star' we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails..
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him..
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament..the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But, I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human
Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.
By Ben Stein"
"How Can Someone Who Lives in Insane Luxury Be a Star in Today's World?
As I begin to write this, I 'slug' it, as we writers say, which means I put a heading on top of the document to identify it. This heading is 'eonline FINAL,' and it gives me a shiver to write it. I have been doing this column for so long that I cannot even recall when I started. I loved writing this column so much for so long I came to believe it would never end.
It worked well for a long time, but gradually, my changing as a person and the world's change have overtaken it On a small scale, Morton's, while better than ever, no longer attracts as many stars as it used to. It still brings in the rich people in droves and definitely some stars. I saw Samuel L. Jackson there a few days ago, and we had a nice visit, and right before that, I saw and had a splendid talk with Warren Beatty in an elevator, in which we agreed that Splendor in the Grass was a super movie. But Morton's is not the star galaxy it once was, though it probably will be again.
Beyond that, a bigger change has happened..? I no longer think Hollywood stars are terribly important. They are uniformly pleasant, friendly people, and they treat me better than I deserve to be treated. But a man or woman who makes a huge wage for memorizing lines and reciting them in front of a camera is no longer my idea of a shining star we should all look up to.
How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a 'star' we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model? Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails..
They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer. A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.
A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him..
A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.
The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.
We put couples with incomes of $100 million a year on the covers of our magazines. The noncoms and officers who barely scrape by on military pay but stand on guard in Afghanistan and Iraq and on ships and in submarines and near the Arctic Circle are anonymous as they live and die.
I am no longer comfortable being a part of the system that has such poor values, and I do not want to perpetuate those values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject.
There are plenty of other stars in the American firmament..the policemen and women who go off on patrol in South Central and have no idea if they will return alive; the orderlies and paramedics who bring in people who have been in terrible accidents and prepare them for surgery; the teachers and nurses who throw their whole spirits into caring for autistic children; the kind men and women who work in hospices and in cancer wards.
Think of each and every fireman who was running up the stairs at the World Trade Center as the towers began to collapse. Now you have my idea of a real hero.
I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters This is my highest and best use as a human. I can put it another way. Years ago, I realized I could never be as great an actor as Olivier or as good a comic as Steve Martin or Martin Mull or Fred Willard--or as good an economist as Samuelson or Friedman or as good a writer as Fitzgerald. Or even remotely close to any of them.
But, I could be a devoted father to my son, husband to my wife and, above all, a good son to the parents who had done so much for me. This came to be my main task in life. I did it moderately well with my son, pretty well with my wife and well indeed with my parents (with my sister's help). I cared for and paid attention to them in their declining years. I stayed with my father as he got sick, went into extremis and then into a coma and then entered immortality with my sister and me reading him the Psalms.
This was the only point at which my life touched the lives of the soldiers in Iraq or the firefighters in New York. I came to realize that life lived to help others is the only one that matters and that it is my duty, in return for the lavish life God has devolved upon me, to help others He has placed in my path. This is my highest and best use as a human
Faith is not believing that God can. It is knowing that God will.
By Ben Stein"
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Illegal Aliens
Illegal Aliens are called Illegal Aliens because they are criminals who aren't from here. If you don't like that, change the law so they aren't criminals (please don't).
People who call Illegal Aliens "Undocumented Workers" or "Undocumented Immigrants" are politically spineless. Call them what they are until the law is changed.
Question: Are elected leaders who don't enforce the law and/or prevent others from doing so criminals themselves?
People who call Illegal Aliens "Undocumented Workers" or "Undocumented Immigrants" are politically spineless. Call them what they are until the law is changed.
Question: Are elected leaders who don't enforce the law and/or prevent others from doing so criminals themselves?
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Make English the Official Language of the USA
The US doesn't have an official language because there were so many German speakers in the country at the time of our founding. The Founders deliberately chose not to address the subject. Our hatred of the British lasted through the 1800s. In fact, there was considerable debate during the early part of World War One about which side we'd enter... English or German. We should have stayed out of that one for a variety of reasons. I believe that event was the start of our downfall, not our ascendence.
Back to the subject! Immigrants to the US through the 1800s and well into the 1900s spoke a variety of languages and settled in neighborhoods with their own countrymen. They continued to speak their various languages, but most learned English and forced it on their kids. They were smart enough to know their kids would need it to succeed here as Americans. They were also proud of their kids as they picked up the language. Total immersion works!
I am all for various people keeping their religions, customs, and languages. My ancestors came here before 1776 and the Germanic ones kept their religion and their language. They still speak German today. They also speak English better than most people they'd call "English." I highly encourage foreign language speakers to keep speaking their language, but you have to learn English too.
Luckily, at the time of this posting, 30 states have passed English-only laws, often by popular referendum. There is some sanity out there. Oklahoma will probably vote this way in 2010. It looks like popular referendums are the only way to get this done since our elected representatives are usually too spineless or too stupid.
Bi-lingual education is a joke. Many believe bi-lingual education is the best way to assimilate people. The trouble is, many don't want to or think they don't need to assimilate. Bi-lingual education does nothing but hold kids back because there is no incentive to learn English. There are kids who grow up in several areas who might go their whole lives without being fluent in English because they aren't forced to learn it. That is borderline criminal negligence. Those kids will be disadvantaged for life. Those parents might as well cut off one of their kid's hands. It would have the same effect.
I fully support H.R. 997 - The English Language Unity Act of 2009(http://www.usenglish.org/view/575). If the present US Congress has any guts, they'll pass this bill into law. It'll be challenged by some ACLU commie lawyer who needs a real job and some commie judge will overturn it. The law will make it to the Supreme Court and we'll see what those people are made of.
FYI to everyone who is born here. You are an American, nothing more. You're American, same as me. Deal with it. The only hyphenated Americans who have a right to be hyphenated have dual citizenship.
FYI #2: There is nothing rascist here. I'm looking out for the non-English speakers, no matter what country they came from (preferably legally).
Thoughts?
Back to the subject! Immigrants to the US through the 1800s and well into the 1900s spoke a variety of languages and settled in neighborhoods with their own countrymen. They continued to speak their various languages, but most learned English and forced it on their kids. They were smart enough to know their kids would need it to succeed here as Americans. They were also proud of their kids as they picked up the language. Total immersion works!
I am all for various people keeping their religions, customs, and languages. My ancestors came here before 1776 and the Germanic ones kept their religion and their language. They still speak German today. They also speak English better than most people they'd call "English." I highly encourage foreign language speakers to keep speaking their language, but you have to learn English too.
Luckily, at the time of this posting, 30 states have passed English-only laws, often by popular referendum. There is some sanity out there. Oklahoma will probably vote this way in 2010. It looks like popular referendums are the only way to get this done since our elected representatives are usually too spineless or too stupid.
Bi-lingual education is a joke. Many believe bi-lingual education is the best way to assimilate people. The trouble is, many don't want to or think they don't need to assimilate. Bi-lingual education does nothing but hold kids back because there is no incentive to learn English. There are kids who grow up in several areas who might go their whole lives without being fluent in English because they aren't forced to learn it. That is borderline criminal negligence. Those kids will be disadvantaged for life. Those parents might as well cut off one of their kid's hands. It would have the same effect.
I fully support H.R. 997 - The English Language Unity Act of 2009(http://www.usenglish.org/view/575). If the present US Congress has any guts, they'll pass this bill into law. It'll be challenged by some ACLU commie lawyer who needs a real job and some commie judge will overturn it. The law will make it to the Supreme Court and we'll see what those people are made of.
FYI to everyone who is born here. You are an American, nothing more. You're American, same as me. Deal with it. The only hyphenated Americans who have a right to be hyphenated have dual citizenship.
FYI #2: There is nothing rascist here. I'm looking out for the non-English speakers, no matter what country they came from (preferably legally).
Thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)