Saturday, July 4, 2009

BlogWonks

Opinion Matters

Archive for February, 2007

Don't Follow the Path of Political Correctness, Mr. President

Posted by Felicia Fee Benamon On February - 26 - 2007

I believe President Bush has had good intentions as he has led this nation for 2 terms. I believe along the way, though, he has lost his way as he is listening to advice that is not necessarily in the best interest of this country. Political correctness has also infiltrated the Bush administration.

I’m trying to figure out the logic of the Bush administration for allowing 10,000 Saudi students into this country to “study” at our universities. Many of whom are liberal bastions, spewing how bad America has become. Yet President Bush is allowing tens of thousands of Saudi students, who may have questionable attitudes towards the US, to come here and study. Aren’t we shooting ourselves in the foot?
There is also news that Saudi citizens are funding terrorists in Iraq. The AP reports:
 ”…the U.S. Iraq Study Group report said Saudis are a source of funding for Sunni Arab insurgents. Several truck drivers interviewed by The Associated Press described carrying boxes of cash from Saudi Arabia into Iraq, money they said was headed for insurgents.Two high-ranking Iraqi officials, speaking on condition of 96 because of the issue’s sensitivity, told the AP most of the Saudi money comes from private donations, called zaqat, collected for Islamic causes and charities.

Some Saudis appear to know the money is headed to Iraq’s insurgents, but others merely give it to clerics who channel it to anti-coalition forces, the officials said.”

***
So why would we allow more Saudis into the US when many Saudis are being taught a way of life that is fundamentally hostile to the policies and way of life here in America?
It’s not only Saudis, but Muslims in general. Even as Islamic terrorism is raging in countries all over the globe, America continues to open its arms to anyone who wants to live here. We did so for Muslim teenager Sulejman Talovic (the Utah shooter) and his family as they fled the conflict in Bosnia in the ’90’s. But Talovic decided to repay the US by shooting down 9 people (5 of whom he mortally wounded, 4 others survived) at a mall in Utah around Valentine’s Day. 
Do I think for one moment that teenager Talovic wanted to go on his own personal jihad? You bet.  After all, this isn’t the first time someone with a Muslim background living in the US has gone on a tirade, killing at random. We are at war, and this teen probably felt it was his own way of committing to “the cause of jihad” by killing Americans.  Reportedly, he is heard screaming, “Allau Akbar” when police caught up to him, but of course the liberal media won’t tell the truth about that.  They barely mentioned he was Muslim.
Talovic was a quiet person… a term which was also used to describe at least one of the 911 hijackers.  There could be many more like Talovic living in America right now, those who seem to be good citizens, but in their heart bears allegiance to a cause or country other than America.
It is scary to think that there are those among us who have hatred in their hearts to harm innocents, and at the same time, our government isn’t taking steps to curtail the amount of people entering the US on student visas, or by other methods. The illegal immigration debate rages on and the borders are just as dangerous as ever. At some point, the debating has to stop and reason takes over. America cannot be open to the world at this time.
Let loose our troops 
The way we are conducting the war on terrorism has become politically correct. In the beginning, President Bush emphatically declared that the US would, “find terrorists wherever they hide and bring them to justice.”  I took him to be very serious, that the US will track down and destroy anyone who sought to harm this country. Why then are we playing politics with this war? Why are we concerned about being so sensitive to certain groups?
The US needs to unleash hell against our enemies if we are to succeed. If the US military is known the world over for its power, we should use everything at our disposal to showcase that strength. 
Iraqis will gain an insurmountable amount of respect for our troops when we get serious and stage an ongoing offensive, and hold Iran accountable for it’s evil influences in Iraq. And when we give our military the tools needed to fight the war in Iraq, and let loose our troops to do their job, then we will see our troops back home on American soil.
It looks as if the US may soon make a move on Iran.  Iraq’s refugees are being offered asylum in the US, and the number could reach as high as 7,000 or more.   As I’ve called to attention the amount of people from Middle Eastern countries that we are allowing into the US, a friend of mine had a thought that if we go to war with Iran, will we absorb their refugees as well? That’s something to think about as we already have huge populations of people entering our country already. War with Iran will bring an overwhelming amount of people to the US. 
We are losing our identity as America becomes no more than a place, and not a people. We are losing it to political correctness.  I would like to see a rise of Americans who in their heart burns a love for America and a love to keep America strong and free. I would like to see our President stand strong as he had in the early stages of the War on Terror and not give in to those pushing political correctness, which only seeks to weaken our nation more and more.
I want to see our troops get everything they need to fight this war on terror, and I want to see them allowed to exact damage on our foes so that they may be quick to finish the job they started.
So I’m asking, Mr. President, please stand as a true conservative. Please stand as the man I believe you to be. Shun liberal political correctness…our nation depends on correct decisions being made by our leaders. And decisions motivated by political correctness will get us nowhere.
Related Reading:
10,000 Saudi students on US Campuses:
Saudi Citizens Funding Iraq Insurgents:
Utah Shooter Was a Bosnian Immigrant:
Why No Mention That Salt Lake Shooter Was Muslim?:
7,000 Iraqi Refugees to Be Permitted Into U.S.:
 
*Felicia (Fee) Benamon is a political columnist who writes for various conservative sites including RenewAmerica.us, Daley-Times Post, Renaissance Women ( http://www.rwnetwork.net/ ) , Capitolhillcoffeehouse.com, TheConservativeVoice.com, Mensnewsdaily.com, ConservativeCrusader.com, and other news sites like AmericanChronicle.  Felicia also does freelance writing/reporting in her area.  She hails from a military background, and has been politically active since the 2000 elections.  Felicia has been a guest speaker on KYAL2K, conservative talk radio (www.k-talk.com), Salt Lake City, UT, and America Talks, conservative internet talk radio, with David Zublick (www.americatalks.com).
You may email Felicia: Feereports@aol.com .

 

Of Rights and Character Assassination: A Review of Indoctrination U.

Posted by Bernard Chapin On February - 25 - 2007

Should Conservadom, in the spirit of positive reinforcement, ever decide to create awards for its most valuable commentators, it is quite likely that David Horowitz will be summoned to the podium each and every year until the time of his death. Few other figures have so resolutely, and creatively, battled the left over the course of the past two decades. His ingenuity, zeal and sense of humor are apparent in the titles of his works, such as How to Beat the Democrats and Other Subversive Ideas, The Art of Political War and Other Radical Pursuits, and Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes. His careful and inflammatory choice of wording is again discernible in his latest release, Indoctrination U: The Left’s War Against Academic Freedom. The book is essentially a postscript to last year’s The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America as it provides an antidote to the toxins disseminated by the 101 pseudo-scholars detailed within.

The cure Horowitz offers to the propagandizing of the bottom10 percent of the professorate is called The Academic Bill of Rights. The context and story behind Indoctrination U is the author’s attempt to gain publicity for the proposition. Having it enacted by state legislatures was never his primary goal. What he sincerely desired was for universities to preemptively adopt its essence into their own bylaws.

The Bill itself is reproduced in an appendix. Its language is well-crafted and rather innocuous, yet one would never know this from the reaction it received from its critics. They dubbed it “crazy, Orwellian, a witch hunt,” and totalitarian in nature. Their disparagement is perhaps a ruse to better enable them to protect their own privilege as tenets like, “No faculty shall be hired or fired or denied promotion or tenure on the basis of their political or religious beliefs” is not the stuff of McCarthyism. Although, should it be rigidly interpreted, a clause like, “Faculty will not use their courses for the purpose of political, ideological, religious or anti-religious indoctrination” would completely threaten the activists’ way of life. Commandments like that are far more threatening than having their beloved Fairness Doctrine applied to network news broadcasts or NPR.

The story within this story is the way in which his enemies eschew discussion of the document in favor of excoriating Horowitz. They had several opportunities to do so as he posed for them repeatedly atop a podium during his college speaking tour. Wherever he went, he was alchemized into a resolution for debate. A trip to one California state school saw him become the first conservative invited there in its 11 year history while at Butler he got hit in the face with a pie [stunning argumentation]. Even more absurd was the warning an administrator gave just before he commenced his speech at the University of Chicago. She noted that a safe room was available should the speaker’s words prove too harrowing for youthful ears to tolerate. His presentation at Reed College was unexpectedly rebutted by the Dean who had little to say about the Academic Bill of Rights but denounced Horowitz as a “political pornographer.” The dean’s spiel was actually encouraging because pressure from his superior brought about an apology. Horowitz was met by protestors at Penn State even though the university’s Policy Manual contains the same type of restrictions on instructor behavior which are outlined in the Bill.

Those who actually discussed the initiative were generally dismissive. One proclaimed it a “solution in search of a problem.” How much better off the country would be if such a view was correct. The liberal arts programs within our universities have become leftist bastions whose purpose is no longer to pursue truth. Unlike with the sciences, whose colleges are the finest in the world, numerous liberal arts departments have become completely politicized and are little more than ad hoc centers of agitprop.

Many of our tenured luminaries even question whether there is such a thing as truth or objectivity at all. Their skepticism makes for all kinds of classroom mischief as they idolatrously worship the troika of race, class, and gender. What “social justice” should mean is that the citizenry has the right to keep what they’ve earned, but, in the mouths of radicals, it is morphed into a description of government’s attempt to pit one social group against another via an arbitrary, and authoritarian, redistribution of wealth scheme. Political correctness functions as the academy’s Cerberus. It tyrannizes the marketplace of ideas and uses wonderland logic to turn its critics into peddlers of hate speech.

Some have argued that the professorate’s overwhelmingly leftist slant fails to prove that any discrimination in hiring transpired—even though they would never repeat these same words regarding the proportion of minorities within a particular business or profession. Theoretically, this is true but there is no shortage of evidence documenting the penchant anti-liberal utopians have for barring the impure from their ranks. None of this really matters though as the Bill has no provision for the hiring of conservatives. What’s done is done. The hope for people like Horowitz is that public awareness of past wrongs will allow for the future to be salvaged.

Given his adroitness and experience, the author could not have been too surprised by the reaction he received from those in the bunkers of the Ivory Tower because his appearances were intentionally provocative. The speech he gave at Duke is transcribed in these pages. It turned out to be quite inspiring which meant that half of the audience either fainted or walked out. The Director of the Anthropology Studies program recommended that her students strip to the waist as a form of protest but the wards failed to follow her order; although, Horowitz was met with the bizarre tactic of synchronized giggling. Irrational backlash like that is to be expected as emotionality and obstruction have been the left’s weapons of choice since humans first found a way to end words with “ist” and “ism.”

In the final analysis, what good has come from the imbroglio over The Academic Bill of Rights? Well, there have been some mild successes. Princeton University passed a “Student Bill of Rights” while Temple University enacted a policy to prevent students from being politically bullied in the classroom. According to Horowitz, over 20 projects similar to Penn State’s Center for the Study of Free Institutions and Civic Education have been created as a means to instill intellectual diversity into our universities. Of course, for the foreseeable future, the only accolades academe will win for tolerance are ones it bestows upon itself.

Length, or a lack thereof, is the lone reservation this reviewer has about Indoctrination U. Another four or five chapters would have been mightily appreciated. Horowitz admits that there were many attacks and accusations that he chose not to document, but we would be better off if he had. Not only do these “teachable moments” provide proof of perpetual injustice, they also make for serious entertainment. Seinfeld would have difficulty dreaming up material as goofy as the “safe room” comment in Chicago.

Bernard Chapin is a writer living in Chicago who is the author of Escape from Gangsta Island, and is currently at work on a book concerning women. He can be contacted at veritaseducation@gmail.com.

 

Colder Warming Worsens

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 20 - 2007

The lamestream media told you:

Sub-zero cold blanketed the northeast, following severe snowstorms in the nation’s midsection, plus eight feet of snow in New York, and is blamed for numerous deaths.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

The timing of the freezing weather is very bad, coming as it does on the heels of the Paris “science” conference held to add legitimacy to global warming theories that are in vogue. No explanation for the discrepancy has been issued, but cynics expect at least some “authorities” to blame the cold on heat-trapping “greenhouse” gases.

The warming effect of running six billion heaters, at 98.6 degrees, 24 hours a day for an average of 70 years each, has not been factored into the equations. A Page Nine Special Report on Global Whining will be released shortly.

Tax is Tax

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 19 - 2007

The lamestream media told you:

President Bush remains firm on his commitment to not increase taxes, but plans to raise $81 billion by adjusting fees for a variety of services, according to the McClatchy chain of papers and wire services.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

If your government gets money and it comes from you, it’s taxation. Watchdog groups like newspaper chains have lately preferred to disguise this for the public for an unknown reason. Critics charge it is propaganda designed to mislead sheeple and the ignorant. Reporters could not be reached for comment.

To hide taxes, they are now referred to as fees, user fees, tariffs, subsidies, subsidy reductions, benefit reductions, allocations, allotments, allowances, decreased allowances, rate surcharges, funding, stipends, costs, cost of living increases, adjustments for inflation, ramp ups, planned expansions, withholdings, FICA payments, add-ons, hikes, charges on taxpayers, regulations, licenses, wage and labor rules, and revenue generators.

“Technically, these aren’t taxes,” McClatchy reports. Right.

“Technically, this is not reporting,” says The Uninvited Ombudsman. No ethics-violation charges are expected.

Illegals

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 19 - 2007

Illegals’ Crimes Recognized

“Many White supremacists blame immigrants, particularly Hispanics, for crime, struggling schools or unemployment,” reports Erin Texeira for the Associated Press on 2/6/07.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Are people, including stereotyped racists, blaming illegals for problems, or just recognizing obvious problems?

Law enforcement officials, politicians, government bureaucrats, the “news” media, school administrators and the public at large have long been keenly aware that crime, struggling schools and unemployment problems are fueled in large measure by illegal Hispanic immigrants who have snuck into the country and are siphoning off resources, creating problems, committing crimes and protesting.

The AP reporter must have singled out White supremacist groups to suggest they are about as bright as everyone else.

Prison populations, English-language learner programs and day laborers clogging parking lots and street corners stand as hard evidence of the problem White supremacists are now credited with recognizing, according to geniuses at the Associated Press.

In other news, illegal Hispanics in the U.S., estimated to number at least 30 million, are largely Christian, and will turn out to be valuable allies against Muslim islamofascists, who are stepping up efforts to trash American culture and institute a global jihadi caliphate here, as they are succeeding in doing in Europe.

Racial Teen Pregnancies

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 18 - 2007

The lamestream media told you:

“Even as teen pregnancy rates have declined across the country over the past decade, the teen pregnancy rates among Latinos remains high,” reports Gannett’s number two paper (after USA Today), The Arizona Republic.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Teen pregnancy rates among Latinos are not remaining high, they are increasing dramatically, according to the chart printed with the story. Why reporters would whitewash the text when the actual numbers are provided is not known. The suggestion that Americans can’t understand numbers cannot possibly be correct.

Race-based reporting is now an accepted cultural norm and form of diversity for multiculti lamestream reporters.

Immigrants Hate Immigrants

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 18 - 2007

The lamestream media told you:

Under pressure from Washington, Mexican authorities are cracking down on South Americans who sneak up through Mexico to sneak into the United States. Civil rights groups fear the immigrants are being treated poorly by Mexicans, and crammed into overcrowded cells.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

A rumor that Mexico is running out of lower-class people it can export to the United States, after exporting millions a year for decades by sneaking them across the border illegally, could not be confirmed. The Mexican elite class is doing quite well, according to most economic indicators.

The 30 million illegal immigrants estimated to have already been snuck into this country amounts to approximately one third of the entire Mexican population.

Budget Corruption Overlooked

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 17 - 2007

The lamestream media told you:

President Bush’s proposed $2.9 trillion federal budget is (pick one, based on what you typically read:) a disaster, ingenious, will work, will fail, depends on luck, is too high, too low, spends money in the wrong place) and likely to meet stiff resistance in the Democrat Congress.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Most state’s reporters included a column about how much money their own state would “get” from the federal budget, and generally complained it was too little, even if it was an increase from last year.

No reporters mentioned that if the federal government hadn’t taken all that money from the public in the first place, states wouldn’t have to “get” it back for social services, roads, schools and all the other expenses government has adopted.

Reporters failed to mention that it costs a fortune for the central federal authorities to take all that money from the people as taxes and withholdings. They then spend and lose a fortune while “managing” it all year long. They also use up and spend a fortune giving the money back to the states they took it from.

It’s hard for the average person to imagine how wealthy we’d all be if the government didn’t take so much in the first place. Reporters refused repeated requests to report on it.

None of the interest the feds make on all that money they take (and bank) goes back to the people they took it from.

It is highly questionable whether most of the expenditures of those billions of dollars are authorized by the Constitution, a point overlooked by lamestream reporters in their rush to complain that they are not getting enough back.

According to economics expert and frequent Page Nine guest columnist Craig Cantoni, nearly 60% of the federal budget now is redistributions — taken from the public and given away to people and uses deemed worthy by the bureaucrats in charge. No arrests have been made.

“Pikes,” says Cantoni, “we need heads on pikes to slow down the theft and redistribution the government is calling a budget.”

The leader of the black congressional caucus, a race-based group within Congress, that calls itself non-partisan, publicly announced its intention to get on the right committees and get that money for their constituents, a completely unAmerican position, challenged by no reporters. Rumored charges of ethics violations have not materialized.

Tracking Plutonium Shipments

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 17 - 2007

The lamestream media told you:

Nancy Pelosi has made the nation safer by quickly enacting recommendations made by the unbiased non-partisan Iraq study group.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

Shipments of bomb-grade uranium and plutonium are tracked by U.S. agents from the CIA, according to Congressman Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.). Under the Pelosi bill, Renzi notes that this authority is transferred away from us and to the United Nations. A quick review of the bill confirms the shift to the U.N. is buried in a mass of new WMD procedural changes.

Toys For Police

Posted by Alan Korwin On February - 16 - 2007

The lamestream media told you:

In order to reduce violence, protect the innocent, and fight rampant corruption in Mexico, Mexican federales confiscated all firearms from the police in Tijuana.

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has circulated news that the Tijuana, Mexico, police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers whose guns were confiscated. I am not making this up.

The city’s 2,000 police officers have been without guns since Jan. 5, when their firearms were confiscated amid allegations that corrupt officers were supporting drug traffickers. How the 1,940 officers without slingshots will cope was not covered.

No news was issued on whether U.S. police would have their guns changed to slingshots to address allegations that some corrupt officers here support the drug trade.

Critics note that the entire U.S. war on some drugs supports the drug trade, with price supports and a system that makes every drug available in every city in America. “In the war on drugs, the problem isn’t the drugs, it’s the war,” says one critic on condition of anonymity.

To get on the excellent NSSF news list, visit http://www.nssf.org. NSSF sponsors “First Shots,” a program that introduces newcomers to the joys, excitement and wholesome fun of the shooting sports.