Don't worry, it happens at my school all the time

Out of New York City comes the story of 21 year-old Tatiana Reina. It seems Tatiana had herself a good ol' time attending high school, as it took her 6 years to complete it, with an academic record that, in the words of the New York Post, included, "a dismal record marked by truancy and failing grades." Not to worry though, Tatiana's principal made sure that she still received a diploma, after she allegedly pressured Tatiana's teachers to inflate her grades to ones that barely managed to squeak her through.

What does Tatiana think about all this? The last line from the article pretty much sums things up:

Asked about her atrocious attendance, she explained, "There wasn't no problem. I just didn't go."

This article caught my interest, because my fellow teachers and I see this academic atrocity every stinking year at the middle school at which I teach. I have taught more students than I wish to count whose GPA was either 0.00 or something just above it, yet they are passed on to the next grade for the next school year. I have taught 8th graders who received a grade of F in every one of their classes during every trimester, and they still moved on to high school. The worst thing that happens to these failing 8th graders is that they don't get to participate in any end-of-the-year activities such as walking in graduation or attending dances and trips. Big whoop - they still get to go to high school the next school year. Unlike this school in Brooklyn that passed on Tatiana, at least the high school into which my middle school students are fed actually still - presumably - has specific standards that prevents a student like Tatiana from graduating.

Even when a parent wants her child to repeat a grade at my school, it doesn't happen. I will never forget a couple of years ago, when during the first week of school, I called the mother of one of my 7th grade students who was already exhibiting behavioral issues in class. When the mother answered the phone, I did the standard teacher phone introduction: "Hello Ms. So-and-So, I am your son's 7th grade history teacher." There was an uncomfortable silence, and then the mother said, "I'm sorry, did you say '7th grade'?" I confirmed this, and the mother proceeded to unload on me about how she had called my principal and the school counselor back in June, and demanded that her son repeat the 6th grade because he had failed just about every subject during the previous school year. Yet, that student was still passed on to the next grade, even after the student's own mother had asked that he not be.

What really disheartens me and the other teachers at my site is that our students know all about this charade being carried on in my school district. They know that they can goof around, not do any work at all, and they will still be passed to the next grade. They even tell us teachers that they know this. Unless a student has a conscientious parent at home who demands that the student do what is required in school, then there is little other incentive to get the student to perform. Due to budget cuts, our sports program was done away with two years ago, so incentive to keep grades up to play has been removed. On the other hand, that never seemed to be a big motivator for many students, even if they loved to play sports. I remember one 7th grader I taught who was convinced he would be going to the NBA. The fact that he was never academically eligible to even play basketball at the middle school level didn't seem to faze him.

What do you do when nothing works anymore? Even showing a movie, which used to get the interest of my generation, seems to be blase' to this generation. There seems to be little that inspires, that motivates, that lights an intellectual fire which will get these students to want to learn much of anything. For too many, even the prospect of failing high school doesn't seem to bother them.

The list of reforms that must be made is a large one, but for starters, perhaps society's safety net, which was turned into a hammock about 45 to 50 years ago, needs to be reverted back to a simple safety net again. From what I see, I don't see much urgency of economic survival in the attitudes and actions of many of my students. I certainly don't see that from Tatiana Reina. That needs to change.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Michelle Obama: Do as I say, not as I do

My hat is off to Jake Tapper of ABC News for this enlightening story:

Since Barack is so busy with his golf game, he sent his wife, Michelle, to the Gulf of Mexico region in his stead. During a speech she gave, Michelle Obama urged us peasants to vacation along the Gulf of Mexico:

It is vacation time. Folks are looking for things to do with their kids, and this would be a great opportunity to do a few things -- help this community, send a different message about the extent of the spill, and also think long term about how the rest of the country can help this economy and the folks down here,” Mrs. Obama said at the Panama City Welcome Center.

Mrs. Obama said the word needs to get out to Americans that there are “beautiful beaches” along the Gulf Coast and it’s a great time for families to come down with their kids.

Now, it just so happens that the Obamas are going on a vacation themselves over this coming weekend. Where are they going?

The Obama family will be taking a mini-vacation of their own this weekend, but instead of going to the Gulf Coast they are traveling to Maine’s Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park.

President Obama famously said that he "will not rest" until this oil debacle in the Gulf is solved. If he is going to go back on that promise by resting after all - as he already has on numerous occasions - the least he could do would be to set an example and spend his weekend on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. Good leadership there, President Obama!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

California Attorney General/former Governor calls me a "Teabagger"

I gotta tell you, these Democrat/Statist politicians are finding it more and more difficult to conceal their contempt and hatred for those with whom they disagree. It's one thing if they are private citizens, but it's quite another when they are blatantly insulting people from my side of the political aisle while at the same time being paid with my hard-earned tax dollars.

After running the state of California into the ground 30 years ago as a two-term Governor, current California Attorney General Jerry Brown now wants a third opportunity to finish the destruction he started. And anyone who doesn't want that to happen gets called a vulgar sexual insult by the Attorney General/gubernatorial candidate from California:



Let's not sugar coat this shall we? For the record Mr. Brown, contrary to your assertion, never in my life have I accepted a man's testicles into my mouth, as you imply, and I don't ever plan on doing so. And judging how easily and absent-mindedly your insult rolled off your forked tongue, I get the impression you freely use this term quite often in your everyday dealings. Shame on you.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Another congresscritter forgets he is an employee, not an overlord

Before I left for Round 2 of my vacation last week, I posted a video of oft-abusive Congressional Representative Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-CA) snidely insulting his constituents at a Town Hall meeting.

I return from vacation to find another video of a Congresscritter behaving badly. This time, it is Ciro Rodriguez, another Democrat, from Texas. During a meeting at what looks like a restaurant, Rodriguez obviously doesn't appreciate a female constituent calling B.S. on his incorrect numbers regarding Obama's Health Care Deform Bill, which Rodriguez voted in favor of passing.

The reaction of Rodriguez is not only unacceptable towards the female constituent, his demeanor toward her leaves me with the distinct impression that he protesteth too much:



What a tool. With any luck, his behavior will be taken in to account on election day. If not, the majority of the voters in his district will prove to be as big a bunch of morally corrupt ignoramuses as the ones who keep voting in Pete Stark decade after decade.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Off on another adventure

Blogging will again be non-existent for the next week, as my family and I depart for our annual pilgrimage to the beauty of our cabin near Lake Tahoe. I have been going to this location with my wife and her family for exactly 10 years now, and I never tire of it.

Again, this is the time of year when I love being a teacher!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

The Declaration of Independence

Read it again for the very first time:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson (principal author of the Declaration of Independence)

Grandpa saves the day

With Independence Day upon us, Jay Leno went on one of his infamous Jaywalking Q&A sessions which showcases the best ignorance our populace has to offer. At the end of the segment, a grandpa swoops in to correctly answer these basic questions. As for the younger generation - including a college professor who thoroughly embarrassed herself - what will they be able to answer when they are the grandpa/grandma?



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Maybe he eats a lot of Twinkies?

Hard Rocker Ozzy Osbourne Wants His DNA Mapped To Find Out Why He's Still Alive:

Alcohol and drug abuse has killed too many rock stars to mention, but at 61, Ozzy Osbourne is going strong.

Now DNA researchers in St. Louis say they're part of a team working to determine why decades of substance abuse didn't take down the Prince of Darkness....

I guess Ozzy is just not ready to go off the rails of this crazy train called life.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Obama and Pelosi need to get their stories straight

Here is our Dear Leader talking about the unemployment rate the other day:



OK, I follow him somewhat: We should be happy the unemployment rate is only 9.6%, because it could up in the 12-15% territory instead. That's a pretty sad and pathetic rationalization, but I can follow it.

However, this issue gets more complicated after Nancy Pelosi opens that incoherent hole under her nose:



Ahhh, so that is how it works! Unemployment creates jobs! If that's the case, then Obama has it all wrong. We WANT to have the unemployment rate at 12 or 15 percent. On second thought, let's just fire everybody! Think of the - how did Nancy put it? - injection of demand into the economy that would occur if everyone lost their job and went on unemployment. I feel stimulated just talking about it!

Seriously, you people on the left side of the aisle out there who think that President Obama and Speaker Pelosi are doing a bang-up job: do you really believe that, or are you just too proud to admit that you got snookered into voting for them?

We are so screwed.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

A final word on Robert Byrd

In the past, I have had sometimes heated arguments with peers and commenters about what they insist is the racism that supposedly exists in the Republican Party. One of my standard comebacks to that argument is to point out that Senator Robert Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia, was not only reelected over and over for decades, but was put into positions of high power - such as Majority Leader and President Pro Tempore - by his Democrat cohorts, and was referred to by the leftist news media with the exhalted title, "The Conscience of the Senate."

These titles and accolades become a problem for the Democrats when you consider that Robert Byrd was a member of, and recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan. After I point this out to my opponent, that is when the gnashing of teeth begins, along with the bleating about how I'm not being fair because Byrd was a KKK member so long ago.

My standard answer to that is to ask a simple question: Would you be so forgiving of Byrd if he were a Republican?

One of these defenders of Byrd's KKK days is none other than former President Bill Clinton, who glossed over Byrd's KKK membership as simply an effort by a southern boy to get elected to office. This isn't surprising, seeing as how one of Bill Clinton's mentors was Senator J. William Fulbright, who was a sworn segregationist, and was joined by none other than Robert Byrd on the floor of the Senate in filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Now that Robert Byrd has departed this world for that great Klan meeting in the sky, I will continue to use him as a prime example of the hypocrisy of Democrats and Leftists. After all, they never voted Byrd out of office; he had to be carried out on a slab.

For the sake of posterity and selective memories of those on the left, here are a few choice quotes and facts from Robert C. Byrd, and keep in mind that all of this was after the year 1943, which is when Byrd claims he left the Klan:

• In 1945, Byrd wrote a letter to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo, in which he complained about the impending desegregation of the U.S. Armed Forces. Byrd vowed that he would, "never submit to fight beneath that banner (the American flag) with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."
• In 1946, Byrd wrote a letter to a KKK Imperial Wizard, in which he wrote, "The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia...."
• In 1964, Robert Byrd didn't just filibuster the Civil Rights Act, he stood on the floor of the Senate and talked for 14 straight hours in an unsuccessful attempt to wear down his opposition. He was kept company by the aforementioned Clinton mentor, J. William Fulbright, and Senator Al Gore, Sr.
• In 1967, Byrd opposed the nomination of Thurgood Marshall as the Supreme Court's first black Justice. While I would admit that I too would have voted against Marshall, my concerns would have been on ideological grounds. I think Byrd had a more colorful concern.
• If these are all too far in the past for you, here is a Byrdism from 2001. In a televised interview with the late Tony Snow, Byrd had this to say about race relations in the United States: "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I'm going to use that word." Again, Byrd said that one on television!

It will continue to be a stain on the Democrat Party that they tolerated and defended Robert C. Byrd for 6 decades, while smearing the good names of other members of Congress whose bigger crime was apparently having a "R" next to their names instead of a "D." The state of West Virginia should be ashamed for sending Byrd back to Congress for those 6 decades as well. The good news for that state is that its citizens shall not soon forget their fallen Senator. I think half the bridges and buildings in the state are named after him!

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

I'm too tired of guns, I'm switching to paddles

In December, 1993, a deranged racist named Colin Ferguson boarded a Long Island express train and began shooting people at random. When he was done, 6 people were dead, and 19 were injured. Thanks to New York's draconian anti-gun laws, no one else on the train was armed, and Ferguson was only tackled by some bystanders when he stopped to reload. Among the dead and wounded were the husband and son of Carolyn McCarthy, who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1996.

Instead of working toward making it possible for law-abiding citizens to defend themselves by getting rid of anti-gun laws that disarmed only the law-abiding, McCarthy decided instead to spit upon the memory of those killed and injured on that train by becoming a tireless advocate for more federal anti-firearms laws that would render people even more defenseless and leave them at the mercy of criminals who have no compunction about violating laws that tell them they can't carry a firearm.

In the wake of the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court decisions, I don't know if McCarthy is giving up or just branching out. In her latest attempt to stay relevant, she has introduced a bill in the House that would make it a federal crime for a school to inflict corporal punishment on a student.

In the past few years, as the behavior of students gets more and more out of control, quite a few school districts around the country have begun to take a second look at corporal punishment, and have brought the paddle out of retirement. Representative McCarthy apparently can't stand for this, and has decided that there oughta be a law.

Never mind the fact that Article I Section 8, which lists the powers of Congress, grants no such power to the U.S. Congress to pass a law regarding this issue.

I realize that some of my readers may be in favor of banishing corporal punishment in schools (I say spank 'em!). However, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. The question of corporal punishment in schools is one that must be debated and legislated at the state and local level, not at the federal level.

Ah, but when you read the article, notice something very important that you could easily overlook. If this bill were to actually become law, it would only apply to public and private schools that receive federal funding. That is where the feds trap you. They are really only one degree removed from the mafia in this regard. Once you take their money, you have to abide by their rules. If I recall correctly the last statistics I saw, the federal government only provides about 7% of the funding of our nation's schools. That's a lot of influence for such a relatively paltry sum of money.

Nevertheless, somehow, I don't think Carolyn McCarthy - or most members of Congress for that matter - could give a rip less about any limits imposed on the power of Congress.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Supreme hypocrisy

Jacob Sullum of Reason Magazine does a much better job that I could have done of articulating a very important point about the dissenting Supreme Court Justices - Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Sotomayor - in the recent McDonald v. City of Chicago decision in which the majority of the Justices made it perfectly clear that the 2nd Amendment applies to state and local governments as much as to the federal government.

Sullum points out that in so many other cases, the dissenting justices trample all over state and local rights by overturning constitutional laws passed by the legislatures or city councils of those jurisdictions - anti-abortion laws and anti-pornography laws being two prime examples. With the 2nd Amendment however, all of a sudden, these same Justices are all in favor of letting state and local governments pass all the anti-self defense laws they want.

Read Sullum's excellent column if you are really in the mood for a crash course in the abundant hypocrisy from those fascists in the Court's minority.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Pete Stark is a disgrace

California Bay Area Congressman Fortney "Pete" Stark has totally forgotten who works for whom. Watch this sorry excuse for a public servant openly insult and mock his constituents at a town hall meeting.

The subject is illegal immigration, and Stark makes it perfectly clear that not only does he support people coming in to our country illegally, he is willing to assist them in their illegal actions by supplying ladders to the illegal aliens in order to help them get over any wall or fence that is built on the U.S. border.

The video is almost 10 minutes long, and the whole thing is well worth watching, but if you don't have that kind of time, viewing the first 3 minutes will give you a good idea about what kind of a despicable human being Pete Stark "Raving Mad" really is.

Florida has Alan Grayson, and California has this foolish, foolish man:

Are the members of Stark's district so morally bankrupt that they are willing to repeatedly vote this man into office, election cycle after election cycle? I ask this question because Stark was reelected to his district in 2008 with a whopping 76% of the vote. I am very curious to see what his percentage will be this November, and judging by the district he represents (Oakland, south to Fremont), I don't see his vote percentage dropping all that much. I hope I'm wrong.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

It's a great day for America

From Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the majority decision:

The city of Chicago (City) and the village of Oak Park, a Chicago suburb, have laws that are similar to the District of Columbia’s, but Chicago and Oak Park argue that their laws are constitutional because the Second Amendment has no application to the States. We have previously held that most of the provisions of the Bill of Rights apply with full force to both the Federal Government and the States. Applying the standard that is well established in our case law, we hold that the Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States....

It's about damn time! The Supreme Court has essentially been kicking the can down the road on this issue since the 14th Amendment was approved in 1868, and even before then. Why the 14th? That amendment ensured that states could not deprive Americans (especially former slaves) of their unalienable rights, which included life, liberty, and property. Since the Bill of Rights were originally written to only limit the power of the federal government, the 14th Amendment forced the states to abide by the Bill of Rights as well.

Members of Congress who worked on the 14th Amendment at the time of its inception were pretty clear about its impact on self-defense rights:

Republican Representative Thaddeus Stevens, who was directly involved in ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, was not ambiguous about whether the right to keep and bear arms applied to the states.

“Disarm a community and you rob them of the means of defending life. Take away their weapons of defense and you take away the inalienable right of defending liberty,” Stevens said. “The Fourteenth Amendment, now so happily adopted, settles the whole question.”

Now with this 5-4 decision on McDonald vs. City of Chicago, the 2nd Amendment has now officially been incorporated into the states, just as the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th Amendments have been previously.

Now we get to hear the usual hollering and wailing from the firearmphobia crowd as they hysterically talk out of their caboose about all the increased shootings and killings that will happen in the wake of this decision and the almost-inevitable rollbacks of local anti-gun laws. Of course, not only will gun crimes not increase, they will invariably go down, as they have shown to do everywhere that law-abiding citizens have gained the ability to better exercise their unalienable right to defend themselves. Even crime-infested Washington D.C. has seen a dramatic drop in murder rates after the Supreme Court's recent Heller decision struck down just some of D.C.'s draconian gun control laws.

Let's hope California gets a clue with a quickness so I can start lawfully carrying in and around Sacramento.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Guantanamo: Obama screws up yet again

From the New York Times on January 22, 2009:

WASHINGTON — President Obama signed executive orders Thursday... ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year....

"[W]ithin a year," the article says. That means the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba should have been shut down by January 2010.

How has that been working out? Here is your answer. This is another blurb from the New York Times on June 25, 2010:

Stymied by political opposition and focused on competing priorities, the Obama administration has sidelined efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, making it unlikely that President Obama will fulfill his promise to close it before his term ends in 2013....

Naturally, this news was released in the Times on a Friday, so that this story will fly under the radar this weekend, and get minimal coverage when the news cycle begins on Monday. The cacaphony of noise coming from the people who voted for Obama should be louder than an arena full of soccer fans blowing on vuvuzelas, but I doubt we are going to hear very much, especially compared to when Obama's predecessor sat in the Oval Office.

After all, I'm sure many of you remember the common wisdom of just a year and a half ago: Obama was going to bring change; he was going to convince the world love and respect us again by taking benevolent actions like, oh, say, closing Guantanamo!

Many would argue that Obama can't do this by himself (even though it was an executive order that he signed that called for Guantanamo's closing); that the consent of Congress would be needed as well. Seeing as how the U.S. Congress still has commanding Democrat party majorities in both the House and Senate, this shouldn't be much of an issue, right? This same Times article says, nope:

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who also supports shutting it, said the effort is “on life support and it’s unlikely to close any time soon.” He attributed the collapse to some fellow Republicans’ “demagoguery” and the administration’s poor planning and decision-making “paralysis....”

Ah, so it's the Republicans' fault - the same Republicans who could easily be outvoted by their Democrat counterparts should the closing of Guantanamo need Congressional support.

So what is causing this "decision-making 'paralysis'" in the Obama administration regarding whether or not to close Guantanamo? Perhaps the opinions of millions of voters might have something to do with it:

When Mr. Obama took office a slight majority supported closing it. By a March 2010 poll, 60 percent wanted it to stay open....

Once again, President Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress (along with squishy Republicans like Lindsey Graham) have seriously misread the mood and intentions (and perhaps the ignorance) of the American voters out there. The idea of closing Guantanamo sounded wonderful to so many people. The problem came when the uncomfortable question was raised as to where to house some of these bloodthirsty terrorists who were housed there. Being banished to an island surrounded by hundreds of miles of shark-infested waters is one thing. But having a chance to escape into the Illinois countryside is quite another. Once people realized that the Illinois option - or something like it - was the alternative, then minds began changing right quick. Perhaps people should have thought of this before they pulled the lever for Barack Obama.

Of course, I should be careful about mentioning this thorny Guantanamo issue. Take note of what happened to me the last time I got into a discussion about it with someone.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Yeah! Let's boycott... where again?

If you have seen this before, I don't give a rip; it needs to be seen again. Watch an Arizona boycott-supporting city councilcritter from Milwaukee make an ass out of herself as she argues that Arizona doesn't have any good reason for passing SB 1070 since Arizona doesn't even share a border with Mexico. The best part is watching one of the colleagues of this geographically-challenged councilcritter correct her in a most deadpan but humiliating manner.



Remember folks, according to conventional wisdom, it's supposed to be those on the left of the political aisle who are the intellectuals, while us hayseed conservatives ain't got none of dem dar brains.

This is where my new signoff really comes in handy:

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Back from Oregon!

What a trip! I caught up with my Aunt and Uncle, along with my cousin, who also lives in the same area. My kids got to play with the three German Short Hair dogs that are owned by my aforementioned relatives; they ran around the sod/seed farm my aunt and uncle own; they rode on a tractor and a riding lawn mower with my uncle; and they saw numerous examples of the beauty that Oregon and northern California have to offer. Here is just a smattering of what we saw and did during my absence:


The fun begins when you get about an hour north of Sacramento on I-5. As you drive up the Central Valley, you begin to see this little white triangle dead ahead in the distance. It gets bigger...


and bigger...


and bigger...


Until finally, you can see Mount Shasta up close in all her majestic glory. Usually, our trips end at this location, but this time, we continued north where we spent the night in the charming little town of Ashland, Oregon. Ashland is only a few miles above the California border. It is the home of Southern Oregon University, and even more famously, the Oregon Shakespearean Festival. I have attended several plays there over the years, and even though Ashland's mini-Berkeley feel can grate on me (it is a university town, after all), the beauty of the town itself and its location more than make up for its leftist pretentions. If you ever get a chance to see a Shakespeare play in Ashland, I highly suggest you take advantage. The plays take place on an outdoor stage that was built for the occasion:


On a June night, fourteen years ago, I watched Romeo and Juliet in this theater. The night was warm, with no wind. With those conditions, I felt like I was indoors, but the birds chirping in the distance reminded me that I was not. It was lovely.

The next morning, it was off to Salem, which was about another five hours to the north (Oregon is deceptively huge!). After a brief sojourn for lunch in Eugene, which is home to the University of Oregon, we arrived in Salem in the mid-afternoon. My aunt and uncle actually live about 10 minutes east of Salem in the foothills of the Cascades. Here is just the part of their property that includes their house:


Adjacent to this are fields of flowers and Christmas trees. Northwestern Oregon is one of the, if not the biggest suppliers of Christmas trees in the country. I paid more attention to the flowers:



Our first full day there, we went to a children's museum in downtown Salem for the kiddos. I won't bore you with all the adorable shots of them having fun. Let's move on to the activity we did the next day, and that would be a trip to what I think is one of the most beautiful locations on earth, and that would be Silver Falls State Park, which is located about 20 miles east-southeast of Salem, even further toward the Cascade range. This is one of those locations where photographers can't miss. You don't have to do anything special to make your photos look good; all you have to do is point and shoot. Here are some examples:












There are several falls in this park where you can actually walk behind them. The falls have eroded the rock face in such a way that a kind of recessed cave has formed behind them, making it very easy to go behind the falls for a reverse view, like this:




There are also smaller falls that are just as beautiful as the taller ones. Heh... "smaller." This one is over 60 feet.


My son is high-tailing it back toward the parking lot. He knows there is one more thing I want to shoot before we go back to the car:


Whenever I see a footbridge, I gotta switch to the ol' black and white.

We left Salem on June 17th - my birthday. I figured what better way to celebrate it than to make a stop in the area in which I grew up. That would be the Klamath and Siskiyou Mountains of northern California, just over the border from Oregon. We traveled south along I5 until we got to Grants Pass, Oregon. From there, we made a 20 minute hop along Highway 199 to Cave Junction, Oregon. From Cave Junction, you can take a 30 mile journey along a curvy mountain road with 13% grades through the Siskiyou Mountains that will take you into the northern California town of Happy Camp. The locals on both sides of the border refer to the trip on this road as "going over Greyback." Near the 4,000+ foot summit of Greyback, we made a quick stop for this panoramic view:


Directly below me is the Indian Creek watershed that leads towards Happy Camp. On the horizon, you can see the snowcapped peaks of the Marble Mountains.

Once we reached Happy Camp, we went ahead and let the kids get out of the car and cavort where Indian Creek empties into the Klamath River.

When I was a kid, I would celebrate the end of every school year by walking or, later, driving over that bridge and throwing a pencil into the river. The little rituals that defined me...

After finishing with Indian Creek, we drove two more hours back to Mount Shasta City, where we spent the night. The next morning, we went somewhere that my wife has been dying to go for the last few years, and that is a lavender farm off of Highway 97, just a few miles northwest of the mountain. Due to the unseasonably cold spring and summer we have been having, the lavender hadn't fully bloomed yet, but the views from this farm were unmatched:

The snowcapped mountains on the right are the Eddy Mountains, which are part of the Klamath Mountain range. To the left is Black Butte, a 6,000+ foot cinder cone that was formed by an eruption of Mount Shasta about 10,000 years ago. Ten years ago, my mother and I hiked to the top of Black Butte. You want to talk about amazing scenery! The problem is that I didn't have a digital camera at the time. Guess I'll have to make the hike again someday and take some more modern photos.


There's nothing like a little journey to God's Country to clear the head. Once the journey is over, I already begin looking forward to the next one.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Time to see the sights!

Seeing as how I am a schoolteacher, it is high time to take advantage of this fact and go on a road trip.

The fam and I will be traveling north to Salem, Oregon to see my aunt and uncle. Since I grew up in the northern California/southern Oregon region, I can't wait to see quite a few familiar sights while also introducing my children to them as well.

In the meantime, I don't have a guest blogger, so you all will once again have to pine for my insight until my return. Hopefully, I will have some great photos to post.

Until then,

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Warning: These documents may be hazardous to your ignorance

Here's another example of the commonly-held belief that our society is losing its marbles. A publishing company called Wilder Publications produced copies of the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Thomas Paine's Common Sense, and the Federalist Papers. So far so good - lots of publishing companies print these documents.

However, Wilder added something to the Constitution, the Declaration, and the other documents that other companies have not: A warning label.

Here's what some people think of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence:

“This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today.”

Wow. Exactly which values would that be? The adherence to limited government? The idea that we have natural rights that government cannot take away? The abolition of slavery?

If Wilder Publications was afraid that their copies of our founding documents would cause controversy, I wonder if they are satisfied that their idiotic warning labels will offend many more people than the documents themselves ever will?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Prince Charles channels Kent Brockman

Heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, is a megalomaniacal environmentalist; he has demonstrated this in the past.

What we did not realize until now is that Prince Charles believes that the answer to implementing his environmental megalomania is the religion of Islam:

Prince Charles yesterday urged the world to follow Islamic 'spiritual principles' in order to protect the environment.
In an hour-long speech, the heir to the throne argued that man's destruction of the world was contrary to the scriptures of all religions - but particularly those of Islam...

He added: 'The inconvenient truth is that we share this planet with the rest of creation for a very good reason - and that is, we cannot exist on our own without the intricately balanced web of life around us.
'Islam has always taught this and to ignore that lesson is to default on our contract with creation.'

Like cowardly "Simpsons" news broadcaster Kent Brockman, Prince Charles would embrace our new environmental overseers:



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Not to worry, I'm not that bad... yet.

Since it is almost two in the morning and I am checking the Internet before turning in, I felt obligated to post this article.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Tea Party protest turns violent... but it's not the Tea Party people committing the violence!

A peaceful Tea Party protest was crashed by a Lefty hothead who put his debating skills on display by attacking the wife of a local Republican official and then punching the official when he came to his wife's defense:

Between this and the Code Pink thugs who heckled Nancy Pelosi the other day, you would think that the Old Media (and Pelosi) would be all over this rash of Leftist violence and disruption. Yeah, right.

Exit question: Do you think Pelosi would have been equally as patient with those hecklers had they been conservative Tea Party members? Yeah, right.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Time to toss "diversity" back in the face of the Left

I was just listening to local talk radio host Eric Hogue who pointed out a rather important element of yesterday's primary election in California. While Democrat/Leftist talking points this morning are concentrating on the attempt to "buy" the election on the part of billionaires like gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina, what is being downplayed is the fact that the Republican party - the so-called party of the white guys - just elected two women as the nominees for two major public offices.

But wait, there's more. The Republicans chose Abel Maldonado - a Latino - as the nominee for Lieutenant Governor. They chose Damon Dunn - a black man - as the nominee for Secretary of State. They chose Mimi Walters - a woman - as the nominee for state Treasurer. The first white male chosen was Tony Strickland, who is running for state Controller.

There it is! The racial, ethnic, and gender diversity that those on the Left often accuse the Republicans of not embracing. Let's see if the Republicans receive any acknowledgement for this from the Left, or will the goal posts be moved once again?

Not to mention, with Republican women running for high office in California (Whitman and Fiorina), Nevada (Sharron Angle will be taking on Dirty Harry Reid), and South Carolina (Nikki Haley will be running for Governor), will the press be slobbering all over themselves about the "Year of the Woman" like they were in 1992 when the Dems elected four female Senators?

Remember, diversity only counts on the Democratic side of the aisle.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Good to see the NAACP is still relevant

What would we do without the continued vigilance of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

What is killing California?

Public employee unions are killing California. Who made that possible? Jerry Brown, when he was governor the first time around.

What is a great reason for not allowing Jerry Brown back into the California Governor's chair? Former mayor of San Diego, radio talk host, and columnist Roger Hedgecock lays it out:

Perhaps even more damaging to California was 1978 legislation signed by then Gov. Brown allowing collective bargaining for public employees. No single act has changed California for the worse more than this one.

Before 1978, there was a relatively small state government. Employees were protected by civil service. Pay was lower than comparable jobs in the private sector but job security and good benefits – plus the old notion of "public service" – drew many talented people to work in government.

Today, the primary goal of powerful public employee unions is to get the Legislature they bought and paid for to enact a new law making it illegal for any city or county to declare bankruptcy without guaranteeing union contract terms. Taxpayers and "public service" be damned....

Read the rest of Mr. Hedgecock's enlightening column here.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Coming to ObamaCare hospitals near you?

Just as the United States is taking a serious trip down the path to socialized health care, Great Britain has been speeding along that highway for some time now. It seems their vehicle is seriously breaking down:

Millions of patients face losing NHS care as bosses prepare to axe treatments to make £20billion of savings by 2014, a top doctor has warned.
Among procedures being targeted by health trusts are hernias, joint replacements, ear and nose procedures, varicose veins and cataract surgery....

It is an inevitable fact that when the government starts paying for peoples' health care, demand will skyrocket to the point where rationing must be implemented. What is happening in Britain is exactly what could happen here if we continue the path that was rammed down our throats earlier this year.

There is a reason why 63% of likely voters in a Rasmussen poll oppose ObamaCare.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Dear Florida, Please vote this man out in November

Alan Grayson is the gift that keeps on giving. In the past, this Democrat congressional representative from Florida has stated that Republicans want people to "die quickly" rather than seek health care; he has tried to use the power of the Federal Elections Committee to go after his critics, including calling for one to be sent to jail for five years; he has even crashed meetings being held by his critics. The man is a nutjob.

But he isn't done yet: Grayson is again calling for his opponents to be jailed.

The other day, Grayson was talking to fellow leftist nutjob and talk radio host Stephanie Miller. The subject was the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Here is the relevant portion of the conversation between Grayson and Miller:



Leaving aside the incredible notion that a sitting U.S. Congressman is publicly calling for American citizens to be arrested and jailed simply because they disagree with him, Grayson doesn't even have an argument to counter that of his opponents. The best he can suggest is that you should call them names and hang up on them. The guy is just a loser on all counts.

Hopefully, he will be a loser this coming November.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

California's State Assembly assaults our right of self-defense

Already possessing the reputation of being one of the most anti-gun states in the Union, California's State Assembly seems hell-bent on not only maintaining that reputation, but increasing it to the point of absurdity.

The two latest examples are Assembly Bills (AB) 1810 and 1934.

AB 1810, introduced by Democrat Assemblyman Mike Feuer of Los Angeles, extends the already-existing registration of handguns to long guns such as rifles and shotguns. As usual, if this bill is passed into law, the only people who will abide by this law are law-abiding people who don't commit much, if any, crime in the first place. What makes AB 1810 even more absurd is that while California's Assembly is busy passing this bill, our neighbors to the north in Canada are in the process of getting rid of their long gun registration policies, with that country's Parliament voting 164-137 in favor of scrapping the requirement for Canadians to register their rifles and shotguns. Columnist Peter Worthington of the Toronto Sun has this to say on the reasons for the registration repeal:

For starters, gun registration has cut down on neither crime nor gun violence -- and forget the support given the program by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. Try asking individual cops, and you get a different, non-political answer.

The idea that police rely on the registry in the detection of crime, makes no sense. When you get down to it, no one has an accurate idea of how many guns there are in Canada, or who owns them...

The answer is that there are literally millions of unregistered hunting rifles and shotguns out there that Canadians haven't registered and aren't declaring -- and aren't using to commit crimes.

If you accept this -- and how can you not, if you check the record -- the gun registry is little but an expensive, unnecessary, largely useless waste of time. Bureaucratic boondoggle aptly describes the program.

You would hope that the leftist Democrats who control California's legislature could take a clue from Canada's experience, but few people would attest to the presence of much, if any, rationality on the left side of the Assembly chamber. Soon, we will see if the left side of the Senate chamber will show any signs of sanity on this issue.

Then there is AB 1934. As the law is currently written, Californians cannot carry concealed handguns without a permit, which, if you live in an urban county, is dang near impossible to obtain. However, there is nothing in the law that prevents Californians from openly carrying a handgun as long as it is unloaded. If I want to strap my 9mm into a holster on my hip and carry the bullets in another pocket, I can do so... for now. AB 1934, introduced by Democrat Assemblywoman Lori Saldana of San Diego, will make it illegal for Californians to openly carry unloaded handguns.

To many gentle souls in today's society, it is quite shocking to see someone openly carrying a firearm in public. Once upon a time, this sight was not so unusual. Of course, this was back when Americans were a much more informed populace who were more likely to be armed with bravery and gumption, in addition to their firearm.

One of these gentle souls wrote a letter to the editor that was published in today's Sacramento Bee. In singing the Assembly's praises for passing AB 1934, the writer said:

The California Assembly is to be commended for the civilized action it has taken to prohibit carrying of exposed handguns in public. It is one small reason to be glad that we live in California, and be proud of our state for setting an example.

Shame on members who opposed the action. They and the gun lobby should realize that we no longer live on the frontier as some people in other states, like Texas, seem to think.

As soon as someone tries to bolster their anti-gun argument with the scare tactic of threatening a return to the Wild West, then they have already lost the argument. If these people would actually do the research about life in the so-called Wild West, they would see that they are actually bolstering the argument of their opposition. If only we could return to the conditions of the Wild West, our country would be a much safer and more calm place to be. Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen write about this common fallacy in their wonderful book A Patriot's History of the United States. In speaking of the violent reputations of the mining towns and the cow towns that saw bored cowboys arrive with their herd to drink and let off steam, the authors had this to say about the reality of the Wild West:

[T]he numbers of capital crimes in the West appear to be well below current violence crime rates, so the Wild West was only moderately more violent than the rest of society.

Historian Roger McGrath studied the Sierra Nevada mining towns of Aurora and Bodie, which had more potential for violence than other western towns. There he found that homicide rates were high, expecially among the "bad men" who hung out at the saloons, although the homicide rate was about the same as in modern-day Washington D.C. Yet he also discovered that virtually all other crime was nonexistent, certainly due in part to the presence of an armed populace. Robberies in Aurora and Bodie were 7-percent of modern-day New York City's levels; burglary was 1-percent; and rape was unheard of.

Another study, by Robert Dykstra, of five cattle towns with a reputation for violence - Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City, and Caldwell - discovered that the total cumulative number of homicides was less than two per year. Again, rape and robbery - except for trains and stagecoaches - was largely unknown. Still another researcher, examining Texas frontier towns (are you listening Bee letter writer?) from 1875 to 1900, found murder to be rare - not counting "fair fights" staged by gunslingers. Burglary and theft were so absent that people routinely did not lock their doors. Even in the California gold fields, with all its greed, researchers found little record of violence.

It appears that the legislature of the late, formerly great state of California has a lot to learn regarding the effectiveness of ensuring that law-abiding citizens are not stopped from exercising their God-given right to defend themselves with any means necessary, including firearms.

But since this same Leftist/Democrat-controlled state legislature doesn't seem capable of learning that raising taxes and spending continues to ruin our state's economy, I'm not holding my breath that they will achieve a moment of clarity regarding the benefits of an armed populace either.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

U.S. Debt Clock: 13 trillion reasons to feel depressed

Feel like joining me in a pity party? All you have to do is take a gander at our U.S. National Debt Clock.

The most depressing part of the clock is located in the upper-left-hand corner, which shows not only how much our country owes, but also includes a breakdown of what each individual and taxpayer owes as well.

I suggest you take a few swigs from a bottle of stiff spirits before clicking on the link.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

You're doin' a heckuva job, Obama

Since the Lefties in the media and Congress keep wanting to drag the actions of George W. Bush into the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I will indulge them. After all, as ridiculous as it was to do so, Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina has been used to pillory him ever since; I would think it is only fair to apply the same standard to Obama's response to the oil spill.

So what has been Obama's response? And where is Kanye West to rail against it?



"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Americans still don't know much about history

Every year, organizations conduct tests and surveys in order to get an idea of what the American people do and do not know about our country's history and system of government. And every year, the majority of the American people do not disappoint in putting their embarrassing ignorance on display.

The latest bad news comes from a poll done by FindLaw.com, which found that 99% of the American people cannot name all the Supreme Court justices. While I realize that being in that 1% who can is a tall order, is it too much to ask for people to be able to name at least ONE justice? For 66% of those polled, it is too much to ask.

Other results from the poll showed that:

• More Americans could identify Michael Jackson as the composer of "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" than could identify the Bill of Rights as a body of amendments to the Constitution.
• More than 50 percent of respondents attributed the quote "From each according to his ability to each according to his needs" to either Thomas Paine, George Washington or President Obama. The quote is from Karl Marx, author of "The Communist Manifesto."
• More than a third did not know the century in which the American Revolution took place, and half of respondents believed that either the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation or the War of 1812 occurred before the American Revolution.
• With a political movement now claiming the mantle of the Revolutionary-era Tea Party, more than half of respondents misidentified the outcome of the 18th-century agitation as a repeal of taxes, rather than as a key mobilization of popular resistance to British colonial rule.
• A third mistakenly believed that the Bill of Rights does not guarantee a right to a trial by jury, while 40 percent mistakenly thought that it did secure the right to vote.
• More than half misidentified the system of government established in the Constitution as a direct democracy, rather than a republic-a question that must be answered correctly by immigrants qualifying for U.S. citizenship.

I would say that the result that disturbs me the most is the common belief that Marx's maxim about abilities and needs being an integral part of our system of government. We have drifted so far from the orginal intent of our Constitution and way of life that I seriously wonder if we will ever get it back.

I am beginning to understand how Cicero felt as he watched the Roman Republic collapse and turn into a tyrannical Empire. For Cicero and the Roman Republic, there was no happy ending. For our sake, I hope against hope that history will not repeat itself.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Some perspective on the BP oil gusher

First off, the purpose of this post is not to downplay or make light of the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I just find it fascinating that there have been oil spills in the past that have been so much worse, but yet life has gone on. Trying to be a glass-half-full kind of guy, I think of these oil spills of the past when I wonder what the future will hold for the coasts of Louisiana and Florida. As you check out the 10 biggest oil spills in history, remember that the emission from the current one stands at about 30 million gallons.

So, here are the 10 biggest oil spills in history.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Washington Post rediscovers the root cause of crime

You can read the entire column by Richard Cohen here, but this morsel from that column that pretty much sums things up:

But the latest crime statistics strongly suggest that bad times do not necessarily make bad people. Bad character does.

Isn't it great when people on the Left are mystified by the obvious?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Hey Nancy, here's another Word: Deranged

Keep in mind folks, this woman is third in line to the presidency.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Deranged-CA) was speaking to a Catholic group on Capitol Hill the other day. Here is the good Word:



Here is a transcript, just in case you can't stand to listen to this woman's voice:

“They ask me all the time, ‘What is your favorite this? What is your favorite that? What is your favorite that?’ And one time, ‘What is your favorite word?’ And I said, ‘My favorite word? That is really easy. My favorite word is the Word, is the Word. And that is everything. It says it all for us. And you know the biblical reference, you know the Gospel reference of the Word.”

“And that Word, is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word. The Word. Isn’t it a beautiful word when you think of it? It just covers everything. The Word.

“Fill it in with anything you want. But, of course, we know it means: ‘The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.’ And that’s the great mystery of our faith. He will come again. He will come again. So, we have to make sure we’re prepared to answer in this life, or otherwise, as to how we have measured up.”

I have to chuckle as I listen to this woman - who is loved by secular leftists everywhere - prattle on about making sure that the public policy she works toward passing is in synch with this mysteriously religious Word.

Imagine what the reaction in the media would be if this were, say, Sarah Palin uttering this moronic mumbo-jumbo instead of Pelosi?

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

Remember

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson