The Discerning Texan
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
-- Edmund Burke
-- Edmund Burke
Friday, August 03, 2007
Two Oregon Schoolboys being "Nifonged" by Overzealous Prosecutor
This is where the Left (and Teacher's Unions) have taken local government. Shakespaere may have been onto something in Henry VI... :
Two middle school boys in Oregon are scheduled for trial on Aug. 20 to face charges of harassment and sexual abuse for allegedly slapping female classmates on the rear end in February.According to ABC News, Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, face up to 10 years in jail and a lifetime as registered sex offenders if convicted, all over a stunt Mashburn claims was practiced by girls and boys alike every Friday during school.
Bradley Berry, the district attorney who appears to be doing his best Mike Nifong impression by prosecuting the boys seemingly for doing little more than acting like kids, maintains that his office “aggressively” pursues sex crimes that involve children. “These cases are devastating to children,” Berry said. “They are life-altering cases.”
Berry is correct, though he isn’t referring to Mashburn and Cornelison, whose lives he’s apparently trying to destroy single-handedly. Instead, he perversely suggests that teenage girls are going to be ruined for life because a couple of 13-year-olds behaving like clowns smacked them on the backside.
Read the rest. Unbelievable...
Labels: Indoctrination not Education, PC, Prosecutorial Excess, The Left
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Churchill removed from school curricula in favor of Global Warming mythology
This is decidedly NOT the United Kingdom's "finest hour" :
Fury erupted last night after Sir Winston Churchill was axed from school history lessons.I'm truly speechless about this one. The English Speaking Peoples are committing cultural suicide.Britain’s cigar-chomping World War Two PM — famed for his two-finger victory salute — was removed from a list of figures secondary school children must learn about.
Instead they will be taught about “relevant” issues such as global warming and drug dangers. Churchill’s grandson, Tory MP Nicholas Soames, branded the move “total madness.”
The decision to axe Churchill is part of a major shake-up aimed at dragging the national curriculum into the 21st century, it was claimed last night.
But the plan — hatched by advisers — angered schools secretary Ed Balls, who vowed to probe all the changes to the curriculum.
The proposals will see traditional timetables torn up, with pupils focusing on modern “relevant” topics such as drug and booze abuse, climate change and GM foods.
Churchill — voted the greatest ever Briton — goes off the required lessons list, along with Hitler, Gandhi, Stalin and Martin Luther King.
Labels: Academia, Global Warming Hysteria, History, Ignorance of History, Indoctrination not Education, UK, Winston Churchill
Saturday, June 30, 2007
What if we Were the "Last Best Hope" and Nobody Knew it?
Bill Bennett focuses on the problem of an entire American generation starving for a realistic version of US history. I alluded to this yesterday, but Bennett puts it quite succinctly here:
... Our children do worse in American history than they do in reading or math. McCullough testified we were facing the prospect of national amnesia, saying, “Amnesia of society is just as detrimental as amnesia for the individual. We are running a terrible risk. Our very freedom depends on education, and we are failing our children in not providing that education.”Of course, Bennett's own books are the perfect remedy for this problem; but I don't blame Bennett for the self-promotion opportunity; he should be congratulated instead for addressing a real need.
McCullough is right, and it is a double tragedy: a) our children no longer know their country’s history and b) the story they do not know is the greatest political story ever told.
It is not our children’s fault. Our country’s adults are expected to instill a love of country in its children, but the greatness and purpose of that country are mocked by the chattering classes: Newspaper columns and television reports drip with a constant cynicism about America while doubts about her motives on the world stage are the coin of the realm. Too many commentators are too ready to believe the worst about our leaders and our country, and our children’s history books — and even some of the teachers — close off any remaining possibility of helping children learn about their country.
Many of our history books are either too tendentious — disseminating a one-sided, politically correct view of the history of the greatest nation that ever existed; or, worse, they are boring — providing a watered down, anemic version of a people who have fought wars at home and abroad for the purposes of liberty and equality, conquered deadly diseases, and placed men on the moon.
Labels: History, Indoctrination not Education
Sunday, May 13, 2007
The Shame of Hamline University
Glenn Reynolds quotes Captain Ed's interview of Troy Scheffler, that man who was booted from Hamline University's downtown Minneapolis campus for advocating a Concealed Carry policy on campus.
When you can no longer even say what you think should happen on a college campus--where the free exchange of ideas is supposed to be encouraged--all because your solution might offend someone, then America has officially become Stalinized; only marginally better off than the poor souls who toiled and died in the Gulags of the former Soviet Union...for the same reason.
The good Captain reports that the situation has still not resolved itself:
When you can no longer even say what you think should happen on a college campus--where the free exchange of ideas is supposed to be encouraged--all because your solution might offend someone, then America has officially become Stalinized; only marginally better off than the poor souls who toiled and died in the Gulags of the former Soviet Union...for the same reason.
The good Captain reports that the situation has still not resolved itself:
As it turns out, Troy wasn't even referring to the main campus when he complained about the gun-free zone. He told us that security actually does a good job protecting the main campus, but he attended classes in the school's downtown Minneapolis facilities at night -- which is not a safe place to be, and where Hamline provides no security. Since Troy has a state license to carry a concealed weapon -- which means he's passed the background checks and training requirements -- all he wanted to do was to get their permission to have the opportunity to defend himself in case he got attacked.
So far, the school hasn't budged. Troy doesn't really want to return there anyway under the circumstances, but he worries that the incompletes he had to take and the record of the suspension will damage his chances to get into law school. In fact, he has just about despaired of that career at this point, and isn't sure what he will do now.
The First Amendment is there for a reason. And if there is any place in America where that Constitutional right should be treated as liberally as possible, it is the University campus. Hamline University has disgraced itself for all the world to see. But what is happening here is far more ominous than a simple suspension: what is happening is that Political Correctness is endangering the very foundations of this country and what it is supposed to stand for.
Labels: Indoctrination not Education, PC, Right to Bear Arms, The Left, Thought Police
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Gasp! Blasphemy at Tufts University
It's official: Islam has become a "protected class" in the parlance of Political Correctness. And, simultaneously, Tufts University has become a disgraceful parody of what being a "university" is all about.
Labels: Academia, Indoctrination not Education, Islam, PC, The Left, Thought Police
Thursday, May 10, 2007
PC On Campus Boiling Over: Grad Student booted from Campus for ADVOCATING Carry Law
This is a spectacular illustration of just how far gone Political Correctness is on University Campuses these days. Consider this alongside the writings of Orwell and Huxley; and in light of the actions of Lenin and Stalin and you really do begin to wonder what country we live in. Because certainly isn't the result that Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Jay, and Franklin envisioned.
And to think--our Universities--where all things in the "universe" are to be considered fair game. But alas, in an American academic environment which has been so severely poisoned by leftist ideology and the "thought police"--and increasingly on our Public Airwaves--"All Things Considered" truly does mean all "leftist" things considered...and only those things.
(h/t to the Instapundit for finding this)
And to think--our Universities--where all things in the "universe" are to be considered fair game. But alas, in an American academic environment which has been so severely poisoned by leftist ideology and the "thought police"--and increasingly on our Public Airwaves--"All Things Considered" truly does mean all "leftist" things considered...and only those things.
(h/t to the Instapundit for finding this)
Labels: Indoctrination not Education, PC, The Left, Thought Police
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
UPDATED Out of the Agony, Memories of a Hero--and Signs of an Academic and Moral crisis in our Education system
UPDATE: my first take did not quite come out exactly the way I wanted, so I've made some revisions for readibility and understanding.
Glenn Reynolds is all over the VT tragedy from multiple angles, and he gets the hat/tip for finding this one too: at least one story of true heroism came out of yesterday's events. Go read it now, then come back and let's wrestle with some questions about that dark day I can't quite let go of...
Finished? Good, let's talk:
Obviously, the valor and sacrifice of Professor Librescu--a Holocaust survivor--is a great, heroic story of sacrifice. And one thing that popped out as slightly ironic is that the most notable heroic act we know about from yesterday was performed by an engineering professor of Israeli descent.
Allow me to explain what I mean: once upon a time not so many years ago (or so we are told by Hollywood), most of the Jews of Europe were led to their slaughter with little or no resistance, like sheep--victims who did not even resist when they could have. Hollywood especially portrays these lost souls as the archetypal "victims"--rather than historical ones (witness films like Schindler's List); still I doubt that the folks in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising or the prisoners who led successful revolts at the Sobribor and Treblinka death camps would completely agree with this post-modern assessment of the unwillingness of Europe's Jews to fight back. So now, we fast forward to sixty plus years later: we are told that American college kids--the same age as those fighting for us abroad--are killed, allowing one shooter to systematically shoot them (and reload)--one by one, execution style-- while meanwhile it is an elderly Jewish professor who fights back. Is it only me who finds this juxtaposition ironic?
Obviously Professor Librescu deserves great honor and accolades for his bravery under fire. And those kids certainly do not deserve our derision in this awful moment--their loss is a tragedy beyond words. So I really want to take care not to be insensitive here--what I have to say is not about them except in a theoretical sense, and I do not want to dishonor the dead; they don't deserve it--still I just can't help myself from asking why didn't more of them try to fight back? It has been a burning question in my mind--and having not been in that terrible room that answer will never be known. But nevertheless I cannot help but wonder, what if some of them had?
In any case it is clear now that this one professor, anyway, did chose another path to frozen, impotent surrender to madness. He made the decision not to go gently into that good night--and sacrificed his life for his students, knowing full well it might come to that. And lives were saved because of him. That, my friends, is honor. That is taking responsibility for one's own life and the lives of others, rather than handing over his fate to a psychopath. And what that is not--Ladies and Gentlemen--is the act of a "victim". Then or now.
But what of the students who either could not or did not fight back? What can explain this? Is it the case now that gradually, American generations in their protective bubbles have slowly but surely been taught to un-learn these concepts which made the counrty great in favor of concepts like: it's all relative; one man's terrorist is just a misunderstood freeedom fighter; that America, what it stands for, and everything we have here--is the result of imperialistic plunder; that our country is NOT worth fighting for; that America is the primary source of of evil, as opposed to being the last line of defense against it? We have taught our young people to believe we are the cause of monsters wanting to extinguish us in the name of their God?? That we are all "guilty" because of our country's success, and thus somehow deserve punishment? I would be remiss if I did not point out that this same guilt goes a long way towards explaining how easily people have been swayed by a false Global Warming "consensus".
I think it is high time to ask whether the incessant "pacifism"--which our Leftist teacher unions are indoctrinating our kids' to believe from birth--is a "good" thing. Is it? What about responsibility? What about the notion that there is something greater and more noble and more worthy than the almighty and all-powerful self.
And what of the false idol of "self esteem"--which comes very often at the cost of dumbing down reward and achievement to a least common denominator, just so the non-achieving kids don't "feel bad". As an example, my neice ran in a cross country meet and got a Medal for finishing in the top 15. I ran track, and to me a medal for 15th is not something that encourages excellence--it encourages and condones mediocrity. It demeans the accomplishment of those who work hard enough and excel enough to finish in the top 3. While this self-esteem-uber-alles mindset may work in the short term in preventing "hurt feelings", in the long term it teaches our kids that not "hurting feelings" is a more important and worthy goal than is succeeding--and that failure is not a bad thing either.
This is not to discount the value of decency. But the result serves to squelch the competitive drive--which is the one advantage which has kept America as the leader of the world when it comes to can-do innovation. And making sure we all "feel good" definitely does not teach the inherent value of the individual, and teach kids to scratch and claw and fight to achieve for themselves. And so, how we then expect these kids to compete in a cutthroat global economy?
Character comes from taking your lumps and getting back up again. Lather, rinse, repeat cycle multiple times. And every time you stagger again back to your feet after having been knocked down, you do not give up; you know to your core that you can DO this thing--with enough patience, persistence, and effort. It is "The Little Engine that Could." Today's Academia would have written a book that would have been titled something like "The Victimized Oppressed-Group Member who Cannot be Expected To--so give them Your job". We now seem to treat failure as a result equally as "worthy" as achievement, and teachers teach that the American Dream is an "illusion". This is unconscionable to me. But it clearly is the end result of a society that values the RESULT of "equality" for all (the least common denominator) over giving each individual an equal opportunity to succeeed--but teaching that individual that doing so is their responsibility. In other words: we no longer teach our children about the real world. But I digress from my original point...
As I said, the purpose of this is not to criticize any of those unfortunate kids who did not fight back in Blacksburg--they were after all only reflecting the fatally flawed mindset of their 60's-generation teachers: "All you need is Love", "Everything is relative", "Imagine there's no countries...", "ALL people are good at heart"... etc. But clearly we live in times (and yesterday was a stark example) when this paradigm is completely inadequate to equip someone to handle a life or death situation without freezing into terrified submission or surrender. As I mentioned earlier, Forensic psychologist Dr. Helen Smith addressed this phenomenon yesterday, and it definitely is worth a click (if you haven't gone there already).
So part of the tragedy of 4/16/07 is that many of those kids in Blacksburg may not have had the emotional or ideological wherewithal to resist in that situation, because they simply did not have the world view or strength of character that would have come from a strong belief in self, duty, country. But I do not blame these innocent kids for this: I blame a broken Leftist "seniority over competence" educational system which has helped to transform scores of our kids into pacifist, relativist automatons. Again, I wasn't there and we will never really know for sure exactly how it happened. But the very sound of reports of the "execution style" killings really disturb me.
What is the solution? Well how about starting by insisting our educators teach our children things that we were taught which our kids are not being taught: about the greatness and goodness of their country and the rightness of the American dream and of our form of government; about Adam Smith, and Capitalism being the foundation upon which all successful societies are built--and that in this competitive age Capitalism is not a dirty word, but rather the greatest force for good for the planet; about the Founders, and the brilliant and heroic pioneers who made what we have possible; about the blood which has been shed by so many hundreds of thousands before them--just so that their lives could be so comfortable and easy today; about honor, and duty, and sacrifice for your fellow man; about doing whatever is necessary to protect the innocent and to keep this magnificent experiment we have going strong; about the kinds of things those frightened adults on Flight 93 did spontaneously--and also under no illusions--and which other brave American men and women do every day in far away places like Anbar province and Afghanistan and Sudan and Baghdad.
In the end, the seeming contrast yesterday of students allowing their own murder without resistance--weighed against the heroic deeds of an Israeli-immigrant Professor--appears to make some disturbing suggestions of how far we have fallen in our teaching our children the values and character they will desparately need for a self-sufficient and noble adult life; and it speaks to the drastic shift in priorities needed in our educational system to get us there.
As Tom Petty so aptly put it: "It's wake up time..." Let's get started.
Glenn Reynolds is all over the VT tragedy from multiple angles, and he gets the hat/tip for finding this one too: at least one story of true heroism came out of yesterday's events. Go read it now, then come back and let's wrestle with some questions about that dark day I can't quite let go of...
Finished? Good, let's talk:
Obviously, the valor and sacrifice of Professor Librescu--a Holocaust survivor--is a great, heroic story of sacrifice. And one thing that popped out as slightly ironic is that the most notable heroic act we know about from yesterday was performed by an engineering professor of Israeli descent.
Allow me to explain what I mean: once upon a time not so many years ago (or so we are told by Hollywood), most of the Jews of Europe were led to their slaughter with little or no resistance, like sheep--victims who did not even resist when they could have. Hollywood especially portrays these lost souls as the archetypal "victims"--rather than historical ones (witness films like Schindler's List); still I doubt that the folks in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising or the prisoners who led successful revolts at the Sobribor and Treblinka death camps would completely agree with this post-modern assessment of the unwillingness of Europe's Jews to fight back. So now, we fast forward to sixty plus years later: we are told that American college kids--the same age as those fighting for us abroad--are killed, allowing one shooter to systematically shoot them (and reload)--one by one, execution style-- while meanwhile it is an elderly Jewish professor who fights back. Is it only me who finds this juxtaposition ironic?
Obviously Professor Librescu deserves great honor and accolades for his bravery under fire. And those kids certainly do not deserve our derision in this awful moment--their loss is a tragedy beyond words. So I really want to take care not to be insensitive here--what I have to say is not about them except in a theoretical sense, and I do not want to dishonor the dead; they don't deserve it--still I just can't help myself from asking why didn't more of them try to fight back? It has been a burning question in my mind--and having not been in that terrible room that answer will never be known. But nevertheless I cannot help but wonder, what if some of them had?
In any case it is clear now that this one professor, anyway, did chose another path to frozen, impotent surrender to madness. He made the decision not to go gently into that good night--and sacrificed his life for his students, knowing full well it might come to that. And lives were saved because of him. That, my friends, is honor. That is taking responsibility for one's own life and the lives of others, rather than handing over his fate to a psychopath. And what that is not--Ladies and Gentlemen--is the act of a "victim". Then or now.
But what of the students who either could not or did not fight back? What can explain this? Is it the case now that gradually, American generations in their protective bubbles have slowly but surely been taught to un-learn these concepts which made the counrty great in favor of concepts like: it's all relative; one man's terrorist is just a misunderstood freeedom fighter; that America, what it stands for, and everything we have here--is the result of imperialistic plunder; that our country is NOT worth fighting for; that America is the primary source of of evil, as opposed to being the last line of defense against it? We have taught our young people to believe we are the cause of monsters wanting to extinguish us in the name of their God?? That we are all "guilty" because of our country's success, and thus somehow deserve punishment? I would be remiss if I did not point out that this same guilt goes a long way towards explaining how easily people have been swayed by a false Global Warming "consensus".
I think it is high time to ask whether the incessant "pacifism"--which our Leftist teacher unions are indoctrinating our kids' to believe from birth--is a "good" thing. Is it? What about responsibility? What about the notion that there is something greater and more noble and more worthy than the almighty and all-powerful self.
And what of the false idol of "self esteem"--which comes very often at the cost of dumbing down reward and achievement to a least common denominator, just so the non-achieving kids don't "feel bad". As an example, my neice ran in a cross country meet and got a Medal for finishing in the top 15. I ran track, and to me a medal for 15th is not something that encourages excellence--it encourages and condones mediocrity. It demeans the accomplishment of those who work hard enough and excel enough to finish in the top 3. While this self-esteem-uber-alles mindset may work in the short term in preventing "hurt feelings", in the long term it teaches our kids that not "hurting feelings" is a more important and worthy goal than is succeeding--and that failure is not a bad thing either.
This is not to discount the value of decency. But the result serves to squelch the competitive drive--which is the one advantage which has kept America as the leader of the world when it comes to can-do innovation. And making sure we all "feel good" definitely does not teach the inherent value of the individual, and teach kids to scratch and claw and fight to achieve for themselves. And so, how we then expect these kids to compete in a cutthroat global economy?
Character comes from taking your lumps and getting back up again. Lather, rinse, repeat cycle multiple times. And every time you stagger again back to your feet after having been knocked down, you do not give up; you know to your core that you can DO this thing--with enough patience, persistence, and effort. It is "The Little Engine that Could." Today's Academia would have written a book that would have been titled something like "The Victimized Oppressed-Group Member who Cannot be Expected To--so give them Your job". We now seem to treat failure as a result equally as "worthy" as achievement, and teachers teach that the American Dream is an "illusion". This is unconscionable to me. But it clearly is the end result of a society that values the RESULT of "equality" for all (the least common denominator) over giving each individual an equal opportunity to succeeed--but teaching that individual that doing so is their responsibility. In other words: we no longer teach our children about the real world. But I digress from my original point...
As I said, the purpose of this is not to criticize any of those unfortunate kids who did not fight back in Blacksburg--they were after all only reflecting the fatally flawed mindset of their 60's-generation teachers: "All you need is Love", "Everything is relative", "Imagine there's no countries...", "ALL people are good at heart"... etc. But clearly we live in times (and yesterday was a stark example) when this paradigm is completely inadequate to equip someone to handle a life or death situation without freezing into terrified submission or surrender. As I mentioned earlier, Forensic psychologist Dr. Helen Smith addressed this phenomenon yesterday, and it definitely is worth a click (if you haven't gone there already).
So part of the tragedy of 4/16/07 is that many of those kids in Blacksburg may not have had the emotional or ideological wherewithal to resist in that situation, because they simply did not have the world view or strength of character that would have come from a strong belief in self, duty, country. But I do not blame these innocent kids for this: I blame a broken Leftist "seniority over competence" educational system which has helped to transform scores of our kids into pacifist, relativist automatons. Again, I wasn't there and we will never really know for sure exactly how it happened. But the very sound of reports of the "execution style" killings really disturb me.
What is the solution? Well how about starting by insisting our educators teach our children things that we were taught which our kids are not being taught: about the greatness and goodness of their country and the rightness of the American dream and of our form of government; about Adam Smith, and Capitalism being the foundation upon which all successful societies are built--and that in this competitive age Capitalism is not a dirty word, but rather the greatest force for good for the planet; about the Founders, and the brilliant and heroic pioneers who made what we have possible; about the blood which has been shed by so many hundreds of thousands before them--just so that their lives could be so comfortable and easy today; about honor, and duty, and sacrifice for your fellow man; about doing whatever is necessary to protect the innocent and to keep this magnificent experiment we have going strong; about the kinds of things those frightened adults on Flight 93 did spontaneously--and also under no illusions--and which other brave American men and women do every day in far away places like Anbar province and Afghanistan and Sudan and Baghdad.
In the end, the seeming contrast yesterday of students allowing their own murder without resistance--weighed against the heroic deeds of an Israeli-immigrant Professor--appears to make some disturbing suggestions of how far we have fallen in our teaching our children the values and character they will desparately need for a self-sufficient and noble adult life; and it speaks to the drastic shift in priorities needed in our educational system to get us there.
As Tom Petty so aptly put it: "It's wake up time..." Let's get started.
Labels: Heroism, Indoctrination not Education, Sacrifice, The Left, Virginia Tech Rampage
Monday, April 02, 2007
British Schools to refrain from teaching about the Holocaust/Crusades so as "Not to Offend" Muslims
Welcome to the world of Political Correctness, the Virulent Disease.
No wonder they are cowering over this hostage drama...
No wonder they are cowering over this hostage drama...
Labels: Appeasement, Indoctrination not Education, Islamic Fascism, PC, UK
Monday, February 26, 2007
No Child Left Behind
Cartoon by Larry Wright (click to enlarge)
Labels: Appeasement, Cartoons, Democrat Sabotage, Indoctrination not Education
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
London Islamic Principal: 'Yes we use Textbooks that calls Jews "Apes"...'
'... and no, we won't stop using them.'
Just another "hate crime" courtesy of "The Religion of Peace".
Just another "hate crime" courtesy of "The Religion of Peace".
Labels: Indoctrination not Education, Islamic Fascism, UK
