A few years ago, the NCAA demanded that schools with Indian mascots (American Indian)change their mascots, with the exception being Florida State. Florida State has what they call a "special" relationship with the "Seminole Nation." The penalty for all those who did not succumb to the power of the NCAA was going to be no post-season games (tournaments, bowl games, etc.). In other words, WE, the almighty NCAA don't care what you, your student body, or your local population think. WE know better than you (sounds like the overly assertive Federal Gov't in some cases). I don't know if this penalty was ever enforced.
This was a movement started in 1969 with Dartmouth (originally founded to educate Indians ironically) and lots of colleges and high schools followed their lead.
The 27 Indians who claim to be offended by the mascots should probably look around the reservation once or twice. Indians wear the stuff! In fact, it gives them a sense of identity. They are proud of their heritage, and should be.
Today's mascots aren't the comic-like, stereo-typed mascots of the 1920s and 30s (see the Cleveland Indians or Stanford Redmen historical mascots). They are proud, noble characters and most schools (and most Indians) are rightly proud to have them. In fact, I'd argue the Cleveland Indian, the Washington Redskin, and the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux are among the coolest mascots around.
The NCAA ruling is beyond stupid since they simply don't have the power to dictate what a university decides its mascot should be. Let the schools decide and deal with the public on their own.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Buying Votes -- Here They Go Again
This being an election year, it's time once again to revisit old ideas for vote-buying with taxpayer money. A certain Representative X (D - MI) introduced "The Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012" (H.R. 4170) on March 8th. Here's what X said, "It's time for Congress to stand up for the rights of student loan borrowers. It's time to forgive these student loan debts."
RIGHTS? WHAT RIGHTS? I think they have the right to re-pay what they signed up to borrow. Isn't anybody responsible for their own actions anymore?
Since the Federal Government took over the entire student loan industry as part of the Healthcare takeover (a.k.a. "Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010"), the Federal Government owns all that debt and is in a position to forgive it. That, of course, would be utterly stupid... unless it's an election year and you need to buy votes.
Yes, that's what welfare, social security, and food stamps really are. They started off as noble causes, but turned into abominations used to scare the public and to buy votes. Do you think they really care about the poor? They'd just as soon stomp on the necks of the poor for power.
Rights. I guess people have the right to become slaves to the state... or maybe we'll just mandate that.
RIGHTS? WHAT RIGHTS? I think they have the right to re-pay what they signed up to borrow. Isn't anybody responsible for their own actions anymore?
Since the Federal Government took over the entire student loan industry as part of the Healthcare takeover (a.k.a. "Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010"), the Federal Government owns all that debt and is in a position to forgive it. That, of course, would be utterly stupid... unless it's an election year and you need to buy votes.
Yes, that's what welfare, social security, and food stamps really are. They started off as noble causes, but turned into abominations used to scare the public and to buy votes. Do you think they really care about the poor? They'd just as soon stomp on the necks of the poor for power.
Rights. I guess people have the right to become slaves to the state... or maybe we'll just mandate that.
One State Is Too Big To Lose
This being an election year, it dawned on me (once again) that one certain state is too big for its britches (and budgetary brain power!). California has 55 electoral votes out of 538. That's 10.22% of the total and 20.3% of the total needed to win (271). This means 1/5 of the work necessary to be elected President is done if California is won.
That is too much power and too much political pandering in one state. The brilliance of the Constitutional compromise that gave us equal representation in the Senate and per capita representation in the House remains brilliant to this day; however, it is skewed when it comes to the electoral college--all per capita.
By the way, Texas is second with 34 votes and New York is third with 31.
Here's my solution; another Constitutional amendment. This one would split a state if it gets too many votes in the electoral college. A line must be drawn somewhere and I'll call it 15% of the total needed to win. If a state gets more than 15%, it should be split as the people of the state find fit (into two or three, etc) The one rule to the split would be that no remnant would end up with more than 10% of the electoral total needed to win.
The two big conundrums for the People's Republik of Kalifornia would be... How do we split all that debt from living beyond our means for the last 40 years? The other would be: Do we put liberal whack-jobs in one half and the normal people (a.k.a. extremists) in the other half, or try to make both winable.
That is too much power and too much political pandering in one state. The brilliance of the Constitutional compromise that gave us equal representation in the Senate and per capita representation in the House remains brilliant to this day; however, it is skewed when it comes to the electoral college--all per capita.
By the way, Texas is second with 34 votes and New York is third with 31.
Here's my solution; another Constitutional amendment. This one would split a state if it gets too many votes in the electoral college. A line must be drawn somewhere and I'll call it 15% of the total needed to win. If a state gets more than 15%, it should be split as the people of the state find fit (into two or three, etc) The one rule to the split would be that no remnant would end up with more than 10% of the electoral total needed to win.
The two big conundrums for the People's Republik of Kalifornia would be... How do we split all that debt from living beyond our means for the last 40 years? The other would be: Do we put liberal whack-jobs in one half and the normal people (a.k.a. extremists) in the other half, or try to make both winable.
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