My own eulogy to Ted Kennedy

The hagiographic tributes to the "Lion of the Senate" continue to pour in - the latest coming from the left-leaning New Republic which appeared in today's Forum section of the Sunday Sacramento Bee. So, let me simplify things for everyone. You want to remember Ted Kennedy? Here is all you need to know:

1. Chappaquiddick. 'Nuff said on that one.

2. His slanderous lies against Robert Bork when Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court in 1987. Kennedy actually said the following words on the floor of the Senate not 45 minutes after Bork was nominated, and Kennedy paid no price for it:

"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is -- and is often the only -- protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy... President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice."

3. Kennedy was instrumental in transforming the face of the United States by ensuring the mass immigration of millions of people from third world countries who had and have no business coming here, either because of their political ideologies which are incompatible with our tradition of individual freedom, their dependence upon our welfare system, their refusal to assimilate into our national culture, or because of diseases that they reintroduce into our country. If you think Kennedy was proud of this so-called accomplishment, you wouldn't know it from the speech he gave in favor of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that caused all this mess:

"First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same.... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset.... Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia.... In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.... The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."

So how did that work out for us?

4. According to Republican political consultant Marc Nuttle, Ted Kennedy revealed his true colors - both politically and egotistically - during a Senate hearing on January 20, 1995. Kennedy demonstrated a moment of candor in front of no less a luminary than economist Milton Friedman, who was testifying in favor of a constitutional amendment that would require a balanced budget. Kennedy began bellyaching about how such an amendment would prevent government from helping people in need and would restrict the federal government from fairly distributing resources in an equitable manner. To this assertion Friedman responded,

"Senator, socialism hasn't worked in 6,000 years of recorded history. Why won't you give up on it?"

According to Nuttle, who was present to witness it, Kennedy stood up and uttered,

"It hasn't worked in 6,000 years of recorded history because it didn't have me to run it."

Do we really need a #5?

Good Day to You, Sir

This cop tells us what we already know

Boy, I sure love YouTube. There of course is a lot of superfluous crap on it, but it also serves as an invaluable tool for preserving that which should be remembered. Watch and listen to this astonishing exchange between a police officer and a sign-holding anti-Obamacare protester outside a town hall meeting. And I mean, truly astonishing:



Of course, if our esteemed president can gain control of Internet content, like a proposed bill in Congress is trying to authorize, then videos like this won't be much of a worry anymore, now will they?

Good Day to You, Sir

Another reason to be embarrassed for California

Because this lying, racist, communist creature hails from my once great state. That's bad enough. What makes it even more delicious is that she is a congresscritter from from the Los Angeles area. Listen to Diane Watson wax poetic about race, Castro, and Che.



What an abominable human being.

Good Day to You, Sir

I hope she slaps him when she sees him

So Teddy Kennedy is no longer among the living. This is the part where I am supposed to put politics aside and be respectful toward his passing. OK. But I think the person who needs to be remembered in all this is the woman that Kennedy left to die in an overturned car. Mary Jo Kopechne possibly lived for up to 3 hours in that car before the water level erased the air pocket she was using. But let's say she died on impact; Kennedy still left her to go sober up, take a shower, and get some shuteye before he finally went to the police and reported the crash.

So Ms. Kopechne, when you see Teddy in the great Hereafter, feel free to unload on him.

Good Day to You, Sir

Donahue flunks the Friedman School of Economics

Hat tip to Neal Boortz (see blogroll) for posting this gem. Watch this vintage footage of free-market economic genius Milton Friedman shooting down the silly arguments of socialist economic ignoramus Phil Donahue.

This is great stuff:



Too bad that this exchange did nothing to change Phil Donahue's mind, as the rantings on his cancelled MSNBC show made evident several years ago.

Good Day to You, Sir

Questions about gender make you a... racist. Huh?

Even if you don't follow the sport of track and field like I do, you might nevertheless have heard about a controversy that took place at the recent Track and Field World Championships, which concluded in Berlin a few days ago. The runaway winner of the women's 800 meter run was Caster Semenya of South Africa. Let us take a gander at young Caster:

There have been some questions raised about the gender of Caster Semenya due to her manly looks and muscled physique. So is she a girl or isn't she? That's not what I am worked up about. What has me in a tizzy is the race card being pulled by leaders of South Africa in addressing the controversy. According to them, the only reason Semenya's gender is being questioned is because she is a black African:

The president of Athletics South Africa, Leonard Chuene, was also defiant and said he had resigned from his seat on the IAAF board to protest the organization's treatment of Semenya... "We are not going to allow Europeans to describe and define our children," he told a news conference, which Semenya attended although she did not address reporters... Semenya's supporters say the allegations against her are motivated by jealousy and show racial discrimination against Africans. (Emphasis by Chanman)

Oh, yeah, that's the ticket. No white female athlete has ever had her gender questioned; only the black ones.

I guess this South African official wasn't paying attention during the 1970's and 1980's when female athletes from Eastern Block communist countries were showing their grotesque selves at track meets all over the world. How about current world record holder in - of all events - the 800 meters, Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia, who set the still-standing record of 1:53.28 back in 1983? Check out her feminine self:

Or how about Ewa Klobukowska of Poland, who actually did fail a gender test in the 1960s:

Those are two real-life examples, but the stereotype of the manly eastern European female athlete lives on. Just think of the uni-browed lovely with the Princess Leia hair buns in the Vince Vaughn/Ben Stiller movie Dodgeball. Hey, she was white, too!

For South African officials to base their arguments on racism toward their athlete is ludicrous. All it does is make me think that perhaps they doth protest too much.

Good Day to You, Sir

Sacramento Citizen Column

My latest column is up and running at the Sacramento Citizen. This column is the first in a planned series in which I will be addressing the so-called racial Achievement Gap in standardized test scores and academic achievement.

Good Day to You, Sir

Hoo-Rah!

This brought a smile to my face. Watch this Marine veteran rip into Representative Brian Baird at a town hall meeting in Washington state. Baird is infamous for recently calling townhall protesters "Brown Shirts." This protester really lets Baird have it:



Baird doesn't even know what to say; what can he say? It is so refreshing to watch citizens out there vociferously reminding our congresscritters of who is the employer and who is the employee.

Good Day to You, Sir

The Obama Cult is alive and well among the youth

While our president's job approval poll numbers are in free-fall, he is still quite popular among the younger too-young-to-vote crowd, if what I witnessed in my classroom on Friday is any indication.

I have already forgotton how the subject came up, but I was talking with my 8th graders about controversies that had happened during past presidencies and how those controversies had affected the presidents' popularity. I mentioned the usual events from the Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II years that caused them to be either not reelected, impeached, or otherwise vilified in the press. I then mentioned that the same thing is happening to Obama right now. I mentioned the criticisms he has received about his massive spending proposals and attempts to gut our current health care system.

You should have seen the looks on my students' faces that accompanied the several seconds of shocked silence as my students tried to compute what I had just told them. The look was equal parts confusion and rage. They were confused as to why anyone would actually have a reason to criticize their Dear Leader, and they were enraged that he would actually be criticized. Of course, if you never read or watch the news like most of my students, you would never realize that Obama is actually not universally adored. Believe me, the pleasure of informing them of this fact was all mine.

Good Day to You, Sir

The self-esteem movement hasn't gone away

My five year-old son belongs to a soccer league. This is his first time attempting organized sports, and he played in his first competitive game yesterday evening.

During the game, my son got hold of the ball in the open field and took off with it toward the other team's goal. I began to cheer for him, but that quickly got shot down by the other parents because, apparently, you are not supposed to cheer for your own child - you are only supposed to cheer for the entire team: "Go Firecrackers!"

Later during the game, my son was sitting out for a few minutes, so we kicked the ball around near the sidelines. Since I wasn't paying attention to the game during that time, once my son went back in to the game, I asked my wife what the score was. That's when I found out that they don't keep score during the game, because after all, they only want the kids to have fun. Funny, I thought competition is what makes things fun.

Look, I realize that these kids are only five years old. There isn't a stadium full of people yelling for them. The score of their game is not going to go down in the annals of sports history. I ask though, what is the harm in cheering for your own child at the expense of the other kids? Somehow, I think the other kids will get over it. What is the harm in keeping score? Are these kids' fragile little souls going to be devastated if they lose? And if their souls do shatter, shouldn't they learn from day one how to handle it when losing inevitably happens?

One of the worst things that ever happened to our educational system and our society was when worries about the self-esteem of our children reached obsessive levels. It became accepted orthodoxy that exposing our kids to failure would scar them for life. Instead, it sets them up for further failure by making them afraid to try. What I witnessed at the soccer game last night is a perfect example of the legacy of this self-esteem movement that began in earnest back in the 1970s and 1980s. While some of its excesses have begun to be addressed, the vestiges of this movement are obviously still with us.

Perhaps, the coaches and timid parents believe that winning and losing and scores don't matter to kids so young. Hmmm. Sure enough, after his first soccer match, on the way home, my son asked my wife and me, "So, who won the game?"

Good Day to You, Sir

Another job Americans won't do

If there is a shortage of circus clowns in this country, these illegal aliens could certainly find employment in that industry. Watch as a beleaguered Border Patrol agent is totally outclassed by this multitude of Mexicans. As an added bonus, see if you can keep track of how many there are. Start counting now:



I counted 14... what did you get? Naturally, the only thing that would have made this video more enjoyable is if the minivan had been a Volkswagen Beetle.

Good Day to You, Sir

Queen Sheila holds court

One of the most obnoxious - and most unintelligent - members of Congress is Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas. This is the woman who complained that there aren't enough "black" names for hurricanes (Hurricane Shanequa?) and once told an uncooperative event scheduler "I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen!" She has also pulled the whole "Don't you know who I am" routine with airline attendants when she got the wrong meal.

If you can't believe that one human being can be this reptilian, check out how Jackson-Lee treats one of her constituents during a town hall meeting:



This woman represents everything that is wrong with Congress.

Good Day to You, Sir

It's official: Obama is an ass

I was driving home from my first day back to work this afternoon, when the talk radio station cut away to the bottom-of-the-hour newsbreak. The news played a soundbite from President Obama where he was talking about the health care legislation. What he said in that soundbite astounded me. I went the website for the Associated Press, and lo and behold, I found it in print:

"I suspect that once we get into the fall and people look at the actual legislation that's being proposed, that more sensible and reasoned arguments will emerge. And we're going to get this passed," he said.

You're kidding me right? The man who tried to get this piece-of-crap bill rammed through Congress before their August recess - when no one had time to read it - is now saying that people will be on board with it later this fall once they have time to read it? Changing our tune, are we Barry?

The man is a disgrace.

Good Day to You, Sir

It's on, now

I have returned to the front lines of teaching. Today was the first day back with students. Not much to report, except that I feel like I have done all this before. I think enough years have gone by where I don't get this fresh new giddy feeling on the first day. Instead, I have a "here we go again" feeling.

Luckily, I didn't receive very many frequent fliers from last year, and the ones I did receive are dispersed through several classes, rather than all being concentrated in one particular period like last year. It's a lot easier to pick them off when they don't have the chance to gang up and overwhelm you.

Good Day to You, Sir