Adieu, 2010, Bonjour, 2011!
I wonder where 2010 went. I also wonder where 2009, 2008, or even where 1990 and 1980 went!
New Year’s 2011, traditionally a time for renewal which rarely happens and for resolutions which few people keep, is upon us and the airwaves and blogosphere are awash in reminders of what notables died this past year, of what happened of consequence in 2010, and of what we can expect and/or hope for in the next year.
As for New Year resolutions, I’ve rarely made any ever since I resolved to stop supporting the New York Yankees during the Billy Martin-George Steinbrenner wars, then relented and changed my mind after they made peace, then re-resolved after those wars resumed, then relented again.
I finally gave up on New Year resolutions. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3251)
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Revisioning Jane Fonda
Revisioning Jane Fonda
. . . Less well-known and even more damning are Fonda’s seditious radio broadcasts on behalf of the Communist North Vietnamese “in which she called American military leaders ‘war criminals” and, following the return home of some POWs who described mistreatment by the North Vietnamese, saying that Americans should ’not hail the POWs as heroes, because they are hypocrites and liars:’ “ http://tiny.cc/217ka
Fonda’s half-hearted, non-apologetic apologies for some–far from all–of her actions and statements during that time have failed to cut it for most Americans who still regard her as a traitor.
Therefore, as the former Barbarella enters her dotage, a little revisionism was in order lest her memory be forever tainted, lest she be historically regarded as worse than Tokyo Rose, which she was.
TruthorFiction.com,which provided the above quotations, addressed what it calls, “an erumor” currently being circulated which purports that President Obama is considering honoring Fonda and which cites statements by various POW’s attesting to their maltreatment by their captors. Obama’s plan to confer honors on Fonda as one of the “100 Women of the Century” has not been verified but, given that he’s Obama, is entirely within the realm of possibility.
However,TruthorFiction.com, which printed 3 versions of the “erumor,” two from 2005 and the 2010 version, contends, “This story [of the POWs] hearkens to a real visit to North Vietnam by Jane Fonda in July of 1972, but the stories about betraying POWs is [sic] not true. . . This particular email includes three stories, two of which have been denied by the POWs who are named, and one of which has been confirmed as true by the source, although he was not named in the email. . ."
(read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3243)
. . . Less well-known and even more damning are Fonda’s seditious radio broadcasts on behalf of the Communist North Vietnamese “in which she called American military leaders ‘war criminals” and, following the return home of some POWs who described mistreatment by the North Vietnamese, saying that Americans should ’not hail the POWs as heroes, because they are hypocrites and liars:’ “ http://tiny.cc/217ka
Fonda’s half-hearted, non-apologetic apologies for some–far from all–of her actions and statements during that time have failed to cut it for most Americans who still regard her as a traitor.
Therefore, as the former Barbarella enters her dotage, a little revisionism was in order lest her memory be forever tainted, lest she be historically regarded as worse than Tokyo Rose, which she was.
TruthorFiction.com,which provided the above quotations, addressed what it calls, “an erumor” currently being circulated which purports that President Obama is considering honoring Fonda and which cites statements by various POW’s attesting to their maltreatment by their captors. Obama’s plan to confer honors on Fonda as one of the “100 Women of the Century” has not been verified but, given that he’s Obama, is entirely within the realm of possibility.
However,TruthorFiction.com, which printed 3 versions of the “erumor,” two from 2005 and the 2010 version, contends, “This story [of the POWs] hearkens to a real visit to North Vietnam by Jane Fonda in July of 1972, but the stories about betraying POWs is [sic] not true. . . This particular email includes three stories, two of which have been denied by the POWs who are named, and one of which has been confirmed as true by the source, although he was not named in the email. . ."
(read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3243)
Update: Neil Abercrombie and the Birthers
Update: Neil Abercrombie and the Birthers
. . . As Abercrombie averred last week, “What bothers me is that some people who should know better are trying to use this for political reasons. Maybe I’m the only one in the country that could look you right in the eye right now and tell you, ‘I was here when that baby was born.’ “
Maybe. What bothers me is that the governor, at 72 the oldest governor in the country, seems a bit addled, not as much by his advancing years as by his blind allegiance toward Barack Obama, his ideological background, and his own “political reasons.”
There seems no doubt that the Marxist Abercrombie was a jazz-listening, beer-swilling intimate of the president’s Marxist parents at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa but where he says he was when the world was blessed by the arrival of Barack Junior is inconsequential. The governor is as unreliable a witness as Obama is a real American, no matter where he was born.
It’s now been revealed, thanks to the organization’s official literature, that Abercrombie was a member of the Marxist-radical Democratic Socialists of America, members of which include the failed mayor of New York City, David Dinkins, the radical Ruth Messinger, openly socialist Ron Dellums, black reparations advocate John Conyers, and other riffraff: http://tiny.cc/uez9v
Guilt by association is repugnant and I wouldn’t dare suggest that the estimable governor would dare prevaricate in order to bolster the citizenship credentials of a like-minded, socialist soul and offspring of his fellow, deceased Marxist buddies. I wouldn’t suggest such a thing!
I’d assert that it’s a probability. Abercrombie would swear that he was in attendance when Karl Marx created the universe if it would help Barack Obama. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3240)
. . . As Abercrombie averred last week, “What bothers me is that some people who should know better are trying to use this for political reasons. Maybe I’m the only one in the country that could look you right in the eye right now and tell you, ‘I was here when that baby was born.’ “
Maybe. What bothers me is that the governor, at 72 the oldest governor in the country, seems a bit addled, not as much by his advancing years as by his blind allegiance toward Barack Obama, his ideological background, and his own “political reasons.”
There seems no doubt that the Marxist Abercrombie was a jazz-listening, beer-swilling intimate of the president’s Marxist parents at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa but where he says he was when the world was blessed by the arrival of Barack Junior is inconsequential. The governor is as unreliable a witness as Obama is a real American, no matter where he was born.
It’s now been revealed, thanks to the organization’s official literature, that Abercrombie was a member of the Marxist-radical Democratic Socialists of America, members of which include the failed mayor of New York City, David Dinkins, the radical Ruth Messinger, openly socialist Ron Dellums, black reparations advocate John Conyers, and other riffraff: http://tiny.cc/uez9v
Guilt by association is repugnant and I wouldn’t dare suggest that the estimable governor would dare prevaricate in order to bolster the citizenship credentials of a like-minded, socialist soul and offspring of his fellow, deceased Marxist buddies. I wouldn’t suggest such a thing!
I’d assert that it’s a probability. Abercrombie would swear that he was in attendance when Karl Marx created the universe if it would help Barack Obama. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3240)
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Whistleblowers, Then and Now
Whistleblowers, Then and Now
Today, airline pilot Chris Liu is deemed a threat, saw his home raided by the TSA and sheriffs, and had his badge, credentials and permit to carry a firearm revoked, all for revealing in YouTube videos “sensitive information” on the fraud that San Francisco International Airport calls its security system. Liu is still under investigation.
That system involves patdowns, metal detectors. naked body screening of airline passengers and airport employees but requires members of ground crews to simply smile and wave to TSA officials. That’s a tad oversimplified: They must also swipe their badges to access the tarmac and aircraft landing and taking off. Whether they carry weapons, bombs, or box cutters will never be known, unless they use one of those weapons, bombs, or box cutters to perpetrate a catastrophe.
Ground crews must have better unions than air travellers and other airport workers and must inherently pose less of a security risk than toddlers, old ladies or even pilots since Liu blowing that whistle was considered totally reprehensible, not to mention deeply embarrassing to SFO, to the Transportation Security Agency, and to the commander in chief, all of whom pride themselves on the superlative safety they have brought to air travel in America.
What a crock! As one observer re-phrased the new TSA motto: “If you see something, say something–unless it embarrasses the White House!” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3236)
Today, airline pilot Chris Liu is deemed a threat, saw his home raided by the TSA and sheriffs, and had his badge, credentials and permit to carry a firearm revoked, all for revealing in YouTube videos “sensitive information” on the fraud that San Francisco International Airport calls its security system. Liu is still under investigation.
That system involves patdowns, metal detectors. naked body screening of airline passengers and airport employees but requires members of ground crews to simply smile and wave to TSA officials. That’s a tad oversimplified: They must also swipe their badges to access the tarmac and aircraft landing and taking off. Whether they carry weapons, bombs, or box cutters will never be known, unless they use one of those weapons, bombs, or box cutters to perpetrate a catastrophe.
Ground crews must have better unions than air travellers and other airport workers and must inherently pose less of a security risk than toddlers, old ladies or even pilots since Liu blowing that whistle was considered totally reprehensible, not to mention deeply embarrassing to SFO, to the Transportation Security Agency, and to the commander in chief, all of whom pride themselves on the superlative safety they have brought to air travel in America.
What a crock! As one observer re-phrased the new TSA motto: “If you see something, say something–unless it embarrasses the White House!” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3236)
Bad Pennies, Bad Birthers?
Bad Pennies, Bad Birthers?
I don’t know the derivation of the idiom, “to turn up like a bad penny,” but if it means that certain nasty things keep recurring for a reason, lots of “bad pennies” keep turning up in America.
One very nasty penny is the one that was thrown into the political ring almost three years ago by so-called “birthers,” people not much interested in Sir Elton John’s surrogate baby but who are very much interested in just who the hell our president is, where he really came from, and whether he should be deposed and sent back to Kenya to let the Village Nitwit, VP Biden, rule us for the next two years.
Those weirdo birthers have been treated by the mainstream media as disgruntled losers since even before Barack Hussein Obama became president, ever since they raised the question as to where he was born and why, to this day, he still refuses to authorize release of the only concrete evidence that would certify his eligibility to serve as president of the United States, a valid birth certificate.
Considering what’s at stake, such a request hasn’t been all that much to ask, except to Obama and his MSM. Now, that penny, that worm, is turning and whether it ends up to be a bad penny or bad worm is entirely in Obama’s court.
When an old bud and schoolmate suggests the president clear the fetid air surrounding his presidency by authorizing release of an official, verifiable, long-form Hawaiian certificate of birth, it would seem incumbent on Obama to comply. When an allegedly objective television political commentator who has admittedly and unashamedly experienced thrills running up his legs in the presence of his idol demands that the idol produce the damned thing, Obama should take heed as if it were a biblical injunction . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3230)
I don’t know the derivation of the idiom, “to turn up like a bad penny,” but if it means that certain nasty things keep recurring for a reason, lots of “bad pennies” keep turning up in America.
One very nasty penny is the one that was thrown into the political ring almost three years ago by so-called “birthers,” people not much interested in Sir Elton John’s surrogate baby but who are very much interested in just who the hell our president is, where he really came from, and whether he should be deposed and sent back to Kenya to let the Village Nitwit, VP Biden, rule us for the next two years.
Those weirdo birthers have been treated by the mainstream media as disgruntled losers since even before Barack Hussein Obama became president, ever since they raised the question as to where he was born and why, to this day, he still refuses to authorize release of the only concrete evidence that would certify his eligibility to serve as president of the United States, a valid birth certificate.
Considering what’s at stake, such a request hasn’t been all that much to ask, except to Obama and his MSM. Now, that penny, that worm, is turning and whether it ends up to be a bad penny or bad worm is entirely in Obama’s court.
When an old bud and schoolmate suggests the president clear the fetid air surrounding his presidency by authorizing release of an official, verifiable, long-form Hawaiian certificate of birth, it would seem incumbent on Obama to comply. When an allegedly objective television political commentator who has admittedly and unashamedly experienced thrills running up his legs in the presence of his idol demands that the idol produce the damned thing, Obama should take heed as if it were a biblical injunction . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3230)
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Sir Elton John and the Eternal Question: Who's Your Daddy?
Sir Elton John and the Eternal Question: Who's Your Daddy?
It’s undeniable. Elton John and David Furnish make a beautiful couple. And “their” new son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John who weighed in 7lb 15oz, 22 inches long at birth, is surely a beautiful baby.
“The couple have not said which of them is the biological father of the baby, who was born via a surrogate mother in California on Christmas Day.” The more relevant issue is that, since both John and Furnish are both being billed as, “husbands,” who will little Zachary Jackson Levon call, “Daddy,” and what will he call his other parent? Daddy 2? Other Daddy? Mommy Substitute?
Whatever they are, their civil partnership was legalized in England five years ago following what could be called a 12 year courtship.
Entertainer Sir Elton John, 62, and Canadian filmmaker, David Furnish, 48, are both a little long in the tooth to have a baby so maybe an even better question might be: When Zack hits teenagehood, how will he address 74 year old Sir John? As Sir John? As Elder Dad? As Daddy Elton? As Gramps?
So many questions, so few answers. A pre-emptive solution to all these pun-less conundra was offered by officials in Ukraine in 2009 when they said, “Nyet” or the Ukrainian equivalent, to John and Furnish when they tried to adopt a Ukrainian baby boy . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3223)
It’s undeniable. Elton John and David Furnish make a beautiful couple. And “their” new son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John who weighed in 7lb 15oz, 22 inches long at birth, is surely a beautiful baby.
“The couple have not said which of them is the biological father of the baby, who was born via a surrogate mother in California on Christmas Day.” The more relevant issue is that, since both John and Furnish are both being billed as, “husbands,” who will little Zachary Jackson Levon call, “Daddy,” and what will he call his other parent? Daddy 2? Other Daddy? Mommy Substitute?
Whatever they are, their civil partnership was legalized in England five years ago following what could be called a 12 year courtship.
Entertainer Sir Elton John, 62, and Canadian filmmaker, David Furnish, 48, are both a little long in the tooth to have a baby so maybe an even better question might be: When Zack hits teenagehood, how will he address 74 year old Sir John? As Sir John? As Elder Dad? As Daddy Elton? As Gramps?
So many questions, so few answers. A pre-emptive solution to all these pun-less conundra was offered by officials in Ukraine in 2009 when they said, “Nyet” or the Ukrainian equivalent, to John and Furnish when they tried to adopt a Ukrainian baby boy . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3223)
The Inexorability of Obamacare Death Panels
The Inexorability of Obamacare Death Panels
(The following are fabricated excerpts from a fabricated chat between a relative and an elderly grandmother which may soon closely resemble a conversation in many homes:)
“Hey, Grandma! How would you like to visit Doctor Jones? Just for a sitdown, unnerstand?”
“I understand but I feel fine.”
“Well, ya know, you’ve been sick in the past. Remember that gall bladder thing? And the breast cancer? And ya do have that pacemaker. And ya have been complaining about heartburn. And the ambulance had to come for you! Ya just never know about that stuff. Not to mention, Gram, well you’re 84!”
“I’m 83! And my gall bladder was removed, so, too, was the cancer, and I take Tums for my indigestion. I feel fine! You needed an ambulance when you got so drunk you fell down the cellar stairs! What’s all this about doctor sitdowns, anyway?”
“Grams, you’re 84, okay, 83 almost 84, don’t ya think it’s, well, time?”
“Time for what?”
“Umm, well, time to shuffle off to Buffalo, as they say, to umm, time you stopped sucking the med system dry? I mean, the gubmint says you’re hurting all the rest of us! Why not just die and get it over with?”
“Know what, Sonnyboy, I’m gonna outlive all of you so stick it in your ear! You out to kill me, or what?”
“Well, that’s sorta the plan, Gram.”
Call a sow’s ear a silk purse in-the-making, it’s still a sow’s ear. Calling detaching the male connector from the wall outlet is still pulling the plug.
Call a death panel a doctor sitdown or end of life care or an elder consult, it all means the same thing, the same thing for which Sarah Palin was mocked for even suggesting, the same thing the Obamians swore on all that was holy was not and would not ever be a feature of Obamacare, the same thing that was the hidden centerpiece of that monstrous 2000+ page legislation passed last year which no one read.
Death panels are here . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3218)
(The following are fabricated excerpts from a fabricated chat between a relative and an elderly grandmother which may soon closely resemble a conversation in many homes:)
“Hey, Grandma! How would you like to visit Doctor Jones? Just for a sitdown, unnerstand?”
“I understand but I feel fine.”
“Well, ya know, you’ve been sick in the past. Remember that gall bladder thing? And the breast cancer? And ya do have that pacemaker. And ya have been complaining about heartburn. And the ambulance had to come for you! Ya just never know about that stuff. Not to mention, Gram, well you’re 84!”
“I’m 83! And my gall bladder was removed, so, too, was the cancer, and I take Tums for my indigestion. I feel fine! You needed an ambulance when you got so drunk you fell down the cellar stairs! What’s all this about doctor sitdowns, anyway?”
“Grams, you’re 84, okay, 83 almost 84, don’t ya think it’s, well, time?”
“Time for what?”
“Umm, well, time to shuffle off to Buffalo, as they say, to umm, time you stopped sucking the med system dry? I mean, the gubmint says you’re hurting all the rest of us! Why not just die and get it over with?”
“Know what, Sonnyboy, I’m gonna outlive all of you so stick it in your ear! You out to kill me, or what?”
“Well, that’s sorta the plan, Gram.”
Call a sow’s ear a silk purse in-the-making, it’s still a sow’s ear. Calling detaching the male connector from the wall outlet is still pulling the plug.
Call a death panel a doctor sitdown or end of life care or an elder consult, it all means the same thing, the same thing for which Sarah Palin was mocked for even suggesting, the same thing the Obamians swore on all that was holy was not and would not ever be a feature of Obamacare, the same thing that was the hidden centerpiece of that monstrous 2000+ page legislation passed last year which no one read.
Death panels are here . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3218)
Monday, December 27, 2010
Dodging Terrorist and Administration Bullets
Dodging Terrorist and Administration Bullets
. . . The “terror gaffe” committed by Clapper was far less a gaffe than a horrifying instance of proof that, with all the billions spent by our government to secure America’s safety and security, we’re about as safe and secure as we were on the morning of September 11th, 2001, or less so. This despite national security adiviser John Brennan’s reassurance that, “We are in much better position today than we were last year at this time,” which in itself is scary.
Cause for trepidation over the security of our national security is not simply rooted in consistent and persistent lapses at airports. When National Intelligence Chief Clapper freely, unashamedly, admitted his obliviousness concerning the disruption of a major terrorist plot in London and the arrest of a dozen terrorist suspects, he could not even be granted a pass due to what could indelicately be termed a brain fart.
When asked by ABC News’ Diane Sawyer about his thoughts concerning those arrests, Clapper in effect responded by mumbling ala Tweety Bird, ”London? What? Terrorists? Where? When? Do you see a cat? I don’t see a cat.” Deer in headlights show more awareness.
The most unsettling aspect of Clapper’s ignorance of an event that was of major import to our national security was not even his bewilderment at the question or his desperately looking to Brennan to bail him out but rather in the spontaneous cover up by his fellow experts and by the White House . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3175)
. . . The “terror gaffe” committed by Clapper was far less a gaffe than a horrifying instance of proof that, with all the billions spent by our government to secure America’s safety and security, we’re about as safe and secure as we were on the morning of September 11th, 2001, or less so. This despite national security adiviser John Brennan’s reassurance that, “We are in much better position today than we were last year at this time,” which in itself is scary.
Cause for trepidation over the security of our national security is not simply rooted in consistent and persistent lapses at airports. When National Intelligence Chief Clapper freely, unashamedly, admitted his obliviousness concerning the disruption of a major terrorist plot in London and the arrest of a dozen terrorist suspects, he could not even be granted a pass due to what could indelicately be termed a brain fart.
When asked by ABC News’ Diane Sawyer about his thoughts concerning those arrests, Clapper in effect responded by mumbling ala Tweety Bird, ”London? What? Terrorists? Where? When? Do you see a cat? I don’t see a cat.” Deer in headlights show more awareness.
The most unsettling aspect of Clapper’s ignorance of an event that was of major import to our national security was not even his bewilderment at the question or his desperately looking to Brennan to bail him out but rather in the spontaneous cover up by his fellow experts and by the White House . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3175)
Leftist Desperation and Bristol Palin
Leftist Desperation and Bristol Palin
. . . Bristol was a challenge, though. She’s widely admired for how she is dealing with her out-of-wedlock baby, for dumping the screwy sperm donor, Levi Johnston, and for her advocacy of teen sexual abstinence so what could the pro-abortion-as-a-sacrament left say? They certainly couldn’t criticize her physiognomy which would just further accent the notorious ugliness of most liberal women!
Got it! She’s fat, her dancing on “Dancing with the Stars” stunk, that contest was fixed by ballot-stuffing Tea Partiers, and Bristol, (with Kate Gosselin), ruined the show!
(Re: the “fat issue,” Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho, and the lie that Bristol was forced to dance on the show by her mother, see “There’s Something about Bristol,” http://tiny.cc/1n0tf)
In the midst of the “DWTS” competition, TVSquad.com bemoaned, “There’s been a lot of conspiracy theorizing about Bristol Palin’s [and partner Mark Ballas'] survival on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ even after so many clearly stronger competitors have been eliminated. Eliminated ”shockingly,” TVSquad added: http://tiny.cc/1n0tf
As if that were not bad enough, that same website chimed in after the “DWTS” conclusion that, despite unprecedented ratings, the show was “now tainted,” ruined, scandalized due to the presence of the “dancing divas,” Ms. Palin and reality star, Gosselin.
I, too, am shocked I tell you! . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3209)
. . . Bristol was a challenge, though. She’s widely admired for how she is dealing with her out-of-wedlock baby, for dumping the screwy sperm donor, Levi Johnston, and for her advocacy of teen sexual abstinence so what could the pro-abortion-as-a-sacrament left say? They certainly couldn’t criticize her physiognomy which would just further accent the notorious ugliness of most liberal women!
Got it! She’s fat, her dancing on “Dancing with the Stars” stunk, that contest was fixed by ballot-stuffing Tea Partiers, and Bristol, (with Kate Gosselin), ruined the show!
(Re: the “fat issue,” Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho, and the lie that Bristol was forced to dance on the show by her mother, see “There’s Something about Bristol,” http://tiny.cc/1n0tf)
In the midst of the “DWTS” competition, TVSquad.com bemoaned, “There’s been a lot of conspiracy theorizing about Bristol Palin’s [and partner Mark Ballas'] survival on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ even after so many clearly stronger competitors have been eliminated. Eliminated ”shockingly,” TVSquad added: http://tiny.cc/1n0tf
As if that were not bad enough, that same website chimed in after the “DWTS” conclusion that, despite unprecedented ratings, the show was “now tainted,” ruined, scandalized due to the presence of the “dancing divas,” Ms. Palin and reality star, Gosselin.
I, too, am shocked I tell you! . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3209)
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Happy Kwanzaa, Etc. Part Two
Happy Kwanzaa, Etc. Part Two
(Please see “Happy Kwanzaa . . . Part One,” http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3157, which discusses the invention of Kwanzaa. Part Two features more information on Kwanzaa’s inventor, Maulana Karenga/Ron Everett, his annotated ”Welcome” to the official Kwanzaa website, his criminal, seditious background and history, and a brand new invention, “Trees, and Shrubs, Are People, Too Festival.”)
Included on the site are the 2010 Kwanzaa theme, ”Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba: [helpfully translated as] An Ethics of Sharing Good in the World,” details on Kwanzaa’s “Seven Principles,” invitations to make donations and to purchase books and other products, and “The Founder’s Welcome,” which is remarkably rich both in both imagination and ironies.
In appreciating Kwanzaa, and its founder’s imagination and irony, it’s worthwhile to reprint that 3 paragraph welcome, presented here with bracketed editorial comment:
The Founder’s Welcome
Dr. Maulana Karenga . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3186)
(Please see “Happy Kwanzaa . . . Part One,” http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3157, which discusses the invention of Kwanzaa. Part Two features more information on Kwanzaa’s inventor, Maulana Karenga/Ron Everett, his annotated ”Welcome” to the official Kwanzaa website, his criminal, seditious background and history, and a brand new invention, “Trees, and Shrubs, Are People, Too Festival.”)
Included on the site are the 2010 Kwanzaa theme, ”Kwanzaa and the Nguzo Saba: [helpfully translated as] An Ethics of Sharing Good in the World,” details on Kwanzaa’s “Seven Principles,” invitations to make donations and to purchase books and other products, and “The Founder’s Welcome,” which is remarkably rich both in both imagination and ironies.
In appreciating Kwanzaa, and its founder’s imagination and irony, it’s worthwhile to reprint that 3 paragraph welcome, presented here with bracketed editorial comment:
The Founder’s Welcome
Dr. Maulana Karenga . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3186)
A Leftist's Less than Wonderful Life
A Leftist's Less than Wonderful Life
It’s ”really the most terrifying Hollywood film ever made, a tale of hunger, greed and a troubled America.”
Only a misanthropic, jaded contributor to Salon.com, or to one of that website’s twisted sister sites, could interpret Frank Capra’s classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life” in such a fashion as columnist Rich Cohen does.
Sadly, some people get up every morning in America and spend a good part of their day, if not their entire day, not in giving thanks for having been born in and for having prospered in our great land but in thinking up ways to denigrate “their” country, to undermine its values and traditions, or to simply poke holes in good things.
While conferring needlessly gratuitous compliments upon the late renouned director Frank Capra as “an Italian immigrant who . . . lived through the Depression, then through the rise of terrible ideologies,” Cohen concludes that Capra ”knew how bad things could get. He knew, too, that the United States was not immune and this knowledge spiked his love with the worst kind of fear. The result was that special melancholy, blue shot through with black, that runs through his films, the best of which are parables that operate on various levels, some of which were probably unknown to Capra himself:” http://tiny.cc/aoj8o
The supremely arrogant Cohen knows what that ignorant Italian immigrant couldn’t possibly grasp: In Cohen’s warped view, Capra’s philosophy and films were attributable to the fact that he “loved America [but only] because America saved him.” Capra had no appreciation of his adopted country, no patriotism, no innate sense of rectitude and morality, just a debt of gratitude to America.
To Cohen, the protagonist of “IAWL”, George Bailey, isn’t really saved at all. As Cohen writes at the end of his trash piece, Bailey was living in the tawdry Pottersville all along and never did live in the wholesome Bedford Falls and Cohen admits he relates to the Pottersville tawdriness.
That’s why, to the omniscient Cohen, in the last scene, “George looks at his friends with terror. He’s happy to be alive, but he’s disillusioned, wised up in just the worst way. He finally knows the world as it really is, what his friends are capable of, the dark potential coiled in each of them . . . It’s the sort of vision that makes a person go insane. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3192)
It’s ”really the most terrifying Hollywood film ever made, a tale of hunger, greed and a troubled America.”
Only a misanthropic, jaded contributor to Salon.com, or to one of that website’s twisted sister sites, could interpret Frank Capra’s classic film “It’s a Wonderful Life” in such a fashion as columnist Rich Cohen does.
Sadly, some people get up every morning in America and spend a good part of their day, if not their entire day, not in giving thanks for having been born in and for having prospered in our great land but in thinking up ways to denigrate “their” country, to undermine its values and traditions, or to simply poke holes in good things.
While conferring needlessly gratuitous compliments upon the late renouned director Frank Capra as “an Italian immigrant who . . . lived through the Depression, then through the rise of terrible ideologies,” Cohen concludes that Capra ”knew how bad things could get. He knew, too, that the United States was not immune and this knowledge spiked his love with the worst kind of fear. The result was that special melancholy, blue shot through with black, that runs through his films, the best of which are parables that operate on various levels, some of which were probably unknown to Capra himself:” http://tiny.cc/aoj8o
The supremely arrogant Cohen knows what that ignorant Italian immigrant couldn’t possibly grasp: In Cohen’s warped view, Capra’s philosophy and films were attributable to the fact that he “loved America [but only] because America saved him.” Capra had no appreciation of his adopted country, no patriotism, no innate sense of rectitude and morality, just a debt of gratitude to America.
To Cohen, the protagonist of “IAWL”, George Bailey, isn’t really saved at all. As Cohen writes at the end of his trash piece, Bailey was living in the tawdry Pottersville all along and never did live in the wholesome Bedford Falls and Cohen admits he relates to the Pottersville tawdriness.
That’s why, to the omniscient Cohen, in the last scene, “George looks at his friends with terror. He’s happy to be alive, but he’s disillusioned, wised up in just the worst way. He finally knows the world as it really is, what his friends are capable of, the dark potential coiled in each of them . . . It’s the sort of vision that makes a person go insane. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3192)
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Happy Kwanzaa, Etc. Part One
Happy Kwanzaa, Etc. Part One
I hate to rain on anyone’s parade or holiday and at my age I guess I’m easily confused but Kwanzaa really confounds me.
Wikipedia defines that confounding holiday as “a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities such as the lighting of a kinara, [a candleabrum very similar to a menorah] and libations, and culminates in a feast and gift giving [which sounds suspiciously like Christmas]. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated from December 26, 1966 to January 1, 1967.”
How does one ”celebrate” a fantasy?
Maybe it’s the fact that Mr. Karenga could just sit down one day and decide he would “create” a holiday or that Kwanzaa just happens to coincide with the Christmas season that confounds me. Since he was manufacturing his holiday, anyway, why not choose February which only has Groundhog Day as competiton or August which cries out for something to distinguish it besides heat?
In protest of commercialism, George’s father, Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld” created the holiday of “Festivus,” replete with an aluminum ”Festivus Pole” to be celebrated on December 23rd but everyone, okay, most people, realized Festivus was a joke.
Today, many people take Kwanzaa seriously!
Festivus was more real, and funnier, although I admit that the inclusion of a “traditional” Kwanzaa song at my granddaughter’s holiday concert was pretty amusing. It mostly consisted of two kids listlessly banging on African bougarabou drums as the chorus sang some very forgettable lyrics. I wondered when the “tradition” began. A month ago? Last Tuesday? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3157)
I hate to rain on anyone’s parade or holiday and at my age I guess I’m easily confused but Kwanzaa really confounds me.
Wikipedia defines that confounding holiday as “a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities such as the lighting of a kinara, [a candleabrum very similar to a menorah] and libations, and culminates in a feast and gift giving [which sounds suspiciously like Christmas]. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated from December 26, 1966 to January 1, 1967.”
How does one ”celebrate” a fantasy?
Maybe it’s the fact that Mr. Karenga could just sit down one day and decide he would “create” a holiday or that Kwanzaa just happens to coincide with the Christmas season that confounds me. Since he was manufacturing his holiday, anyway, why not choose February which only has Groundhog Day as competiton or August which cries out for something to distinguish it besides heat?
In protest of commercialism, George’s father, Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld” created the holiday of “Festivus,” replete with an aluminum ”Festivus Pole” to be celebrated on December 23rd but everyone, okay, most people, realized Festivus was a joke.
Today, many people take Kwanzaa seriously!
Festivus was more real, and funnier, although I admit that the inclusion of a “traditional” Kwanzaa song at my granddaughter’s holiday concert was pretty amusing. It mostly consisted of two kids listlessly banging on African bougarabou drums as the chorus sang some very forgettable lyrics. I wondered when the “tradition” began. A month ago? Last Tuesday? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3157)
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Nativity
The Nativity
The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000.
The Gospel according to
St. Luke
2
The Birth of Jesus
Mt. 1.18-25
1
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2
(And this taxing was first made when Cyre’ni-us was governor of Syria.)
3
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house and lineage of David,)
5
to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Shepherds and the Angels
8
¶ And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.
10
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men.
15
¶ And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16
And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
Merry Christmas!!
The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000.
The Gospel according to
St. Luke
2
The Birth of Jesus
Mt. 1.18-25
1
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2
(And this taxing was first made when Cyre’ni-us was governor of Syria.)
3
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, (because he was of the house and lineage of David,)
5
to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Shepherds and the Angels
8
¶ And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid.
10
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men.
15
¶ And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16
And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17
And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18
And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
Merry Christmas!!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Christmas Twelve: The Gospel of St. John
Christmas Twelve: The Gospel of St. John
“The Greatest Book Ever Written,” by Larrey Anderson
As we ponder, each in our own way, this most special of holidays, I have a suggestion: read (or reread) the greatest book ever written — the Gospel of John.Christianity has given the world many things. Its detractors say Christianity has provided the world holy wars and religious persecution. Its adherents proclaim that it has brought salvation to mankind. As a philosopher I find some truth, and much exaggeration, in each of those positions. Christianity has a checkered past and a challenging future. It also has the most important manuscript ever penned by a human being.
Scholars still dispute the date when the Gospel of John was written and they argue about who wrote it. I have always found these debates not only tedious — but also pointless. If ever a book transcended time and authorship, it is the Gospel of John. Perfection mocks lowly time. Inspiration requires no byline.
As prose the Gospel of John has no peers. (The Dialogues of Plato and some of the works of Shakespeare are as close as any get.) The Gospel is an unsurpassed literary masterpiece. It is history, philosophy, poetry, and religion seamlessly woven. The composition is so close to flawless that the words translate easily into almost any language.
Appropriately enough the greatest book ever written begins with a reflection on writing. The language soars in the original Greek:
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
It pounds like the jackhammer of truth in Latin:
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum.
And it mesmerizes in English (especially the KJV):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3163)
“The Greatest Book Ever Written,” by Larrey Anderson
As we ponder, each in our own way, this most special of holidays, I have a suggestion: read (or reread) the greatest book ever written — the Gospel of John.Christianity has given the world many things. Its detractors say Christianity has provided the world holy wars and religious persecution. Its adherents proclaim that it has brought salvation to mankind. As a philosopher I find some truth, and much exaggeration, in each of those positions. Christianity has a checkered past and a challenging future. It also has the most important manuscript ever penned by a human being.
Scholars still dispute the date when the Gospel of John was written and they argue about who wrote it. I have always found these debates not only tedious — but also pointless. If ever a book transcended time and authorship, it is the Gospel of John. Perfection mocks lowly time. Inspiration requires no byline.
As prose the Gospel of John has no peers. (The Dialogues of Plato and some of the works of Shakespeare are as close as any get.) The Gospel is an unsurpassed literary masterpiece. It is history, philosophy, poetry, and religion seamlessly woven. The composition is so close to flawless that the words translate easily into almost any language.
Appropriately enough the greatest book ever written begins with a reflection on writing. The language soars in the original Greek:
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
It pounds like the jackhammer of truth in Latin:
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum.
And it mesmerizes in English (especially the KJV):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3163)
A Secular Christmas
A Secular Christmas
. . . Point is, there is room during Christmas for a certain degree of secular jollity, wassailing, mistletoe-ing, jingle bell-ing, and partying. Santa, Rudolph, trees, colorful lights, gift-giving all add to the festivity that is Christmas.
True, Christians now have to engage in an annual battle in the War on Christmas against those who would foist “Holiday Day” upon us and deny our Christian, and Christmas, heritage but that’s become part of the tradition, an unfortunate part.
With all that in mind, just join in the fun, always remembering what has become a hackneyed expression, that there’s a reason for the season–and it’s not Santa Claus! . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3154)
. . . Point is, there is room during Christmas for a certain degree of secular jollity, wassailing, mistletoe-ing, jingle bell-ing, and partying. Santa, Rudolph, trees, colorful lights, gift-giving all add to the festivity that is Christmas.
True, Christians now have to engage in an annual battle in the War on Christmas against those who would foist “Holiday Day” upon us and deny our Christian, and Christmas, heritage but that’s become part of the tradition, an unfortunate part.
With all that in mind, just join in the fun, always remembering what has become a hackneyed expression, that there’s a reason for the season–and it’s not Santa Claus! . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3154)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Bye, Bye, Internet
Bye, Bye, Internet
With apologies to Don McLean and for the lack of rhyme, “So, bye, bye Miss Internet Pie,/ Drove my gubmint Chevy to the gubmint Net/ And the Net was dead.”
Just as with the unfair, unconstitutional, so-called government “Fairness Doctrine,” the government is at it again, trying to inhibit free speech: ”The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday voted 3-2 to back Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan for what is commonly known as ‘net neutrality,’ or rules prohibiting Internet providers from interfering with legal web traffic.”
Opposed by Republicans and supported by Democrats, the FCC changes delighted President Barack Obama who said the FCC’s action will “help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet” by imposing Internet traffic rules.
When Democrats and this president so strongly back such new regulations, it’s a certainty they stink.
Dating to 1949 and dumped in 1987 thanks to an executive order issued by President Ronald Reagan, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to “afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance,” the Fairness Doctrine failed miserably since it served only to accomplish the precise antithesis of its stated purpose by stifling dissent.
Its abolition opened the door to conservative talk radio, and the rest is history.
Fast forward a quarter century during which time there have been rumblings and grumblings from the Left to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, all of which rumblings and grumblings thankfully were rejected. Today, however, we have a new danger posed for the First Amendment and for the Democrat powers-that-be, the Internet.
What to do? thought the Left. Why “regulate” it, of course!
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, former staffer for Chuck Schumer and on the Select Committee to investigate Iran-Contra, former tech advisor to the president, and member of the board of CommonSenseMedia.com, is the administration’s point man in the new battle which one wag has described as “a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3145)
With apologies to Don McLean and for the lack of rhyme, “So, bye, bye Miss Internet Pie,/ Drove my gubmint Chevy to the gubmint Net/ And the Net was dead.”
Just as with the unfair, unconstitutional, so-called government “Fairness Doctrine,” the government is at it again, trying to inhibit free speech: ”The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday voted 3-2 to back Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan for what is commonly known as ‘net neutrality,’ or rules prohibiting Internet providers from interfering with legal web traffic.”
Opposed by Republicans and supported by Democrats, the FCC changes delighted President Barack Obama who said the FCC’s action will “help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet” by imposing Internet traffic rules.
When Democrats and this president so strongly back such new regulations, it’s a certainty they stink.
Dating to 1949 and dumped in 1987 thanks to an executive order issued by President Ronald Reagan, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to “afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance,” the Fairness Doctrine failed miserably since it served only to accomplish the precise antithesis of its stated purpose by stifling dissent.
Its abolition opened the door to conservative talk radio, and the rest is history.
Fast forward a quarter century during which time there have been rumblings and grumblings from the Left to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, all of which rumblings and grumblings thankfully were rejected. Today, however, we have a new danger posed for the First Amendment and for the Democrat powers-that-be, the Internet.
What to do? thought the Left. Why “regulate” it, of course!
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, former staffer for Chuck Schumer and on the Select Committee to investigate Iran-Contra, former tech advisor to the president, and member of the board of CommonSenseMedia.com, is the administration’s point man in the new battle which one wag has described as “a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3145)
Bye, Bye, Internet
Fast forward a quarter century during which time there have been rumblings and grumblings from the Left to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, all of which rumblings and grumblings thankfully were rejected. Today, however, we have a new danger posed for the First Amendment and for the Democrat powers-that-be, the Internet.
What to do? thought the Left. Why “regulate” it, of course!
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, former staffer for Chuck Schumer and on the Select Committee to investigate Iran-Contra, former tech advisor to the president, and member of the board of CommonSenseMedia.com, is the administration’s point man in the new battle which one wag has described as “a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally.”
Already shot down by a federal appeals court in its effort to “regulate” the Net, the FCC has new rules up its sleeve for an “open internet,” thanks to Democrats who plan to enhance “the free and open nature of the Internet” by crippling it.
Creating a non-existent straw man by manufacturing a problem over interference of legal web traffic by isp’s and “worries that large phone and cable firms were getting too powerful as Internet gatekeepers,” Genachowski’s FCC is imposing a cure for a patient without an ailment.
As the World Street Journal points out, “Most consumers haven’t had a problem viewing whatever they want online; few instances have arisen of an Internet provider blocking or slowing services.” Ever alert, however, the FCC is worried about “future harms:” http://tiny.cc/oezyc
When the feds get so worried, we should all get worried, although for different reasons.
This, after all, is the federal government in action, an institution not known for having much in the way of foresight, witness the Fairness Doctrine, known for attempting to suppress contrary viewpoints, also witness the Fairness Doctrine, and especially famous for intending unintended consequences. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3145)
What to do? thought the Left. Why “regulate” it, of course!
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, former staffer for Chuck Schumer and on the Select Committee to investigate Iran-Contra, former tech advisor to the president, and member of the board of CommonSenseMedia.com, is the administration’s point man in the new battle which one wag has described as “a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally.”
Already shot down by a federal appeals court in its effort to “regulate” the Net, the FCC has new rules up its sleeve for an “open internet,” thanks to Democrats who plan to enhance “the free and open nature of the Internet” by crippling it.
Creating a non-existent straw man by manufacturing a problem over interference of legal web traffic by isp’s and “worries that large phone and cable firms were getting too powerful as Internet gatekeepers,” Genachowski’s FCC is imposing a cure for a patient without an ailment.
As the World Street Journal points out, “Most consumers haven’t had a problem viewing whatever they want online; few instances have arisen of an Internet provider blocking or slowing services.” Ever alert, however, the FCC is worried about “future harms:” http://tiny.cc/oezyc
When the feds get so worried, we should all get worried, although for different reasons.
This, after all, is the federal government in action, an institution not known for having much in the way of foresight, witness the Fairness Doctrine, known for attempting to suppress contrary viewpoints, also witness the Fairness Doctrine, and especially famous for intending unintended consequences. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3145)
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Eric Holder's Islamic Myopia
Eric Holder's Islamic Myopia
As the Brits haul in slews of terrorists and the Western world prepares for anticipated terrorist attacks during the holidays and as we observe the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist massacre over Lockerbie, Scotland, Attorney General Eric Holder gave an interview on terrorism.
“He doesn’t seem to be pulling any punches.” “Remarkably candid and quite blunt.”
Those interview assessments by ABC’s George Stephanopoulis and Pierre Thomas, respectively, are both reflective of what’s grievously wrong with Holder and the lapdog mainstream media that cover him and this administration.
At first listen, the AG appears justifiably concerned over the “terrorist threat” faced by the United States. Just the thought keeps him up at night, the same thought that many other officials have already said keeps them up at night.
As he says, “What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant,” thereby apprising the American public of realities most already know, and issuing a CYA alert for when the threats come to fruition.
“What was uppermost on his mind, however, is the alarming rise in the number of Americans who are more than willing to attack and kill their fellow citizens,” http://tiny.cc/tj3rj, another fact of life of which any thinking American has been well aware for a good while.
Holder’s “wide-ranging” interview fails to range even remotely into the realm of just whom these terrorists actually are, namely, Muslims, Islamic fanatics, the specific threat to America’s safety, security, and survival. Not once in his wide-ranging, no punch-pulled, candid, blunt interview does he mention that detail.
That failure to acknowledge the Islamic jihad against the West has become a sick joke with the Obama administration. For some reason, the president and his minions such as Holder have long been loathe to identify the specific nature of the threat we face.
Conjecture that the reason is related to Obama’s Muslim roots, to fear of alienating our “allies,” to bowing and scraping to all things and individuals Islamic, is usually greeted by the adminstration and its MSM lackeys as evidence of gross bigotry against “people of color” and irrefutable proof of ignorance and mindless fear of people who may be “different,” people we simply misunderstand.
Here’s a clue, Messrs Holder and Obama: We understand them all too well . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3131)
As the Brits haul in slews of terrorists and the Western world prepares for anticipated terrorist attacks during the holidays and as we observe the 22nd anniversary of the terrorist massacre over Lockerbie, Scotland, Attorney General Eric Holder gave an interview on terrorism.
“He doesn’t seem to be pulling any punches.” “Remarkably candid and quite blunt.”
Those interview assessments by ABC’s George Stephanopoulis and Pierre Thomas, respectively, are both reflective of what’s grievously wrong with Holder and the lapdog mainstream media that cover him and this administration.
At first listen, the AG appears justifiably concerned over the “terrorist threat” faced by the United States. Just the thought keeps him up at night, the same thought that many other officials have already said keeps them up at night.
As he says, “What I am trying to do in this interview is to make people aware of the fact that the threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is constant,” thereby apprising the American public of realities most already know, and issuing a CYA alert for when the threats come to fruition.
“What was uppermost on his mind, however, is the alarming rise in the number of Americans who are more than willing to attack and kill their fellow citizens,” http://tiny.cc/tj3rj, another fact of life of which any thinking American has been well aware for a good while.
Holder’s “wide-ranging” interview fails to range even remotely into the realm of just whom these terrorists actually are, namely, Muslims, Islamic fanatics, the specific threat to America’s safety, security, and survival. Not once in his wide-ranging, no punch-pulled, candid, blunt interview does he mention that detail.
That failure to acknowledge the Islamic jihad against the West has become a sick joke with the Obama administration. For some reason, the president and his minions such as Holder have long been loathe to identify the specific nature of the threat we face.
Conjecture that the reason is related to Obama’s Muslim roots, to fear of alienating our “allies,” to bowing and scraping to all things and individuals Islamic, is usually greeted by the adminstration and its MSM lackeys as evidence of gross bigotry against “people of color” and irrefutable proof of ignorance and mindless fear of people who may be “different,” people we simply misunderstand.
Here’s a clue, Messrs Holder and Obama: We understand them all too well . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3131)
Have Yourself a Very Lousy Christmas!
Have Yourself a Very Lousy Christmas!
Two instances of people destined to have a lousy Christmas: Iraqi Christian refugees in Sweden and FLOTUS:
Sweden, the country that still preaches Muslim inclusion even after an Islamic terrorist tried but failed to blow up Stockholm just last week, apparently is very selective as to finding room at their inn. Iraqi Christian refugees need not apply.
Sweden’s policy toward Christian refugees my be predicated on practical, if nonsensical, reasons, namely that there’s little angst there over screwing over Christians since Christians aren’t likely to protest by planting bombs in the Swedish capital, so those irrepressible–and dumbass–Swedes “are deporting Iraqi Christians fleeing their 2000 year homeland seeking refuge in Sweden because of murderous attacks against them by Iraqi Muslims in Iraq.”
Follow the Swedish logic?
Sweden and most of Western Europe, (and, to a lesser extent, the United States), are virtually under siege by their burgeoning Islamic populations so, what to do? Well, of course, and just in time for Christmas, show those Muslims who’s in charge! Muslims.
Even as, “Muslim immigrant neighborhoods are considered ‘no go’ by Swedish police as the Muslim newcomers have established their own societies while living off generous Swedish welfare,” Mother Svea shows how little it cares about its sovereignty and integrity. “In Malmo and certain other regions in Sweden police and other political figures are quiet about violence by Swedish Muslims against Swedish Jews or else they join the leftists blaming the Jewish victims:” http://tiny.cc/s5zc7
To deal with its national immigration mess, Sweden chose the path of least resistance: “Sweden’s migration minister has refused to respond to concerns from the United Nations and the Council of Europe about Sweden’s decision to resume the deportation of [Christian] Iraqis. . . For these Christians, returning to Iraq might be a death sentence . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3121)
Two instances of people destined to have a lousy Christmas: Iraqi Christian refugees in Sweden and FLOTUS:
Sweden, the country that still preaches Muslim inclusion even after an Islamic terrorist tried but failed to blow up Stockholm just last week, apparently is very selective as to finding room at their inn. Iraqi Christian refugees need not apply.
Sweden’s policy toward Christian refugees my be predicated on practical, if nonsensical, reasons, namely that there’s little angst there over screwing over Christians since Christians aren’t likely to protest by planting bombs in the Swedish capital, so those irrepressible–and dumbass–Swedes “are deporting Iraqi Christians fleeing their 2000 year homeland seeking refuge in Sweden because of murderous attacks against them by Iraqi Muslims in Iraq.”
Follow the Swedish logic?
Sweden and most of Western Europe, (and, to a lesser extent, the United States), are virtually under siege by their burgeoning Islamic populations so, what to do? Well, of course, and just in time for Christmas, show those Muslims who’s in charge! Muslims.
Even as, “Muslim immigrant neighborhoods are considered ‘no go’ by Swedish police as the Muslim newcomers have established their own societies while living off generous Swedish welfare,” Mother Svea shows how little it cares about its sovereignty and integrity. “In Malmo and certain other regions in Sweden police and other political figures are quiet about violence by Swedish Muslims against Swedish Jews or else they join the leftists blaming the Jewish victims:” http://tiny.cc/s5zc7
To deal with its national immigration mess, Sweden chose the path of least resistance: “Sweden’s migration minister has refused to respond to concerns from the United Nations and the Council of Europe about Sweden’s decision to resume the deportation of [Christian] Iraqis. . . For these Christians, returning to Iraq might be a death sentence . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3121)
Monday, December 20, 2010
A Celestial Eccentricty: Winter Solstice Meets Lunar Eclipse
A Celestial Eccentricity: Winter Solstice Meets Lunar Eclipse
(Non-) ALERT! Perennial “panickers,” who would include the Y2k crowd, the Mayan calender aficionados, and the “Sarah Palin Is a She-Devil” crew, should adjust their receptors, grab their tin-foil hats, and head for the hills before Tuesday, December 21st when “a celestial eccentricity” is set to occur, the overlapping of this year’s winter solstice with a full lunar eclipse, a first in 456 years. . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3115)
(Non-) ALERT! Perennial “panickers,” who would include the Y2k crowd, the Mayan calender aficionados, and the “Sarah Palin Is a She-Devil” crew, should adjust their receptors, grab their tin-foil hats, and head for the hills before Tuesday, December 21st when “a celestial eccentricity” is set to occur, the overlapping of this year’s winter solstice with a full lunar eclipse, a first in 456 years. . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3115)
The USPS' Operation Santa
The USPS Operation Santa
Excerpts from the millions of letters received by the USPS “Operation Santa” which links needy kids with “Secret Santas:” Melanney, 9, asked Santa for a coat and boots. “I have been a very good girl this year,” she wrote. Another “little girl didn’t want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother.” Cesar, age 7, wrote to Santa that, “This year my mom don’t have much money to spend on Christmas gifts so I’m writing to you. It would make us [Cesar and his baby sister] very happy if you and your elves would bring us toys and clothes.” One mom sent a turn-off notice from the electric company. A single mother of a girl, 8, and a boy, 2, wrote that she recently lost her job. “I am unable to buy my children toys and clothes. Santa, may you help me with my family?” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3108)
Excerpts from the millions of letters received by the USPS “Operation Santa” which links needy kids with “Secret Santas:” Melanney, 9, asked Santa for a coat and boots. “I have been a very good girl this year,” she wrote. Another “little girl didn’t want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother.” Cesar, age 7, wrote to Santa that, “This year my mom don’t have much money to spend on Christmas gifts so I’m writing to you. It would make us [Cesar and his baby sister] very happy if you and your elves would bring us toys and clothes.” One mom sent a turn-off notice from the electric company. A single mother of a girl, 8, and a boy, 2, wrote that she recently lost her job. “I am unable to buy my children toys and clothes. Santa, may you help me with my family?” . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3108)
Sunday, December 19, 2010
DADT Repeal: Civil Rights Milestone or Military Millstone?
DADT Repeal: Civil Rights Milestone or Military Millstone?
“We righted a wrong. Today we’ve done justice:” Sen. Joe Lieberman
“When breaking down the specifics, more respondents answered unfavorably or remain uncertain about a policy change than those who favor repeal:” Rep. Duncan Hunter
Whether it represents justice or uncertainty, homosexuals are beyond giddy in some instances over the long-awaited, long-Obama-promised repeal of Bill Clinton’s cure-all for inclusion of outed gays in the United States’ military, the misbegotten policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” unaffectionately known as DADT.
Bubba’s sop to his homosexual supporters essentially boiled down to a policy of advising gays to keep their sexual inclinations to themselves and instructing their military superiors not to ask how personnel got off sexually as long as they didn’t overtly get off in mess halls, barracks, shower rooms, foxholes, etc.
The repeal of Bill Clinton’s 17 year old policy of DADT was an insult to our millions of heterosexual men and women in the armed forces and an insult to the intelligence of the American people who are being led to believe that our military will be able to continue to function as it should and must.
DADT was a farce from the beginning. Its repeal could be farcical catastrophe.
The lopsided, Democrat sponsored repeal vote of 65-31 in the Senate was assured after the Pentagon released the results of its extended study/poll of those in the military and their families which allegedly, unexpectedly, showed that 70% had no problem with gays serving openly. That conclusion depends in large part on who counted and who interpreted the votes and why those “respondents [who] answered unfavorably or remain uncertain” were ignored.
As Rep. Hunter, a Marine colonel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, noted, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3098)
“We righted a wrong. Today we’ve done justice:” Sen. Joe Lieberman
“When breaking down the specifics, more respondents answered unfavorably or remain uncertain about a policy change than those who favor repeal:” Rep. Duncan Hunter
Whether it represents justice or uncertainty, homosexuals are beyond giddy in some instances over the long-awaited, long-Obama-promised repeal of Bill Clinton’s cure-all for inclusion of outed gays in the United States’ military, the misbegotten policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” unaffectionately known as DADT.
Bubba’s sop to his homosexual supporters essentially boiled down to a policy of advising gays to keep their sexual inclinations to themselves and instructing their military superiors not to ask how personnel got off sexually as long as they didn’t overtly get off in mess halls, barracks, shower rooms, foxholes, etc.
The repeal of Bill Clinton’s 17 year old policy of DADT was an insult to our millions of heterosexual men and women in the armed forces and an insult to the intelligence of the American people who are being led to believe that our military will be able to continue to function as it should and must.
DADT was a farce from the beginning. Its repeal could be farcical catastrophe.
The lopsided, Democrat sponsored repeal vote of 65-31 in the Senate was assured after the Pentagon released the results of its extended study/poll of those in the military and their families which allegedly, unexpectedly, showed that 70% had no problem with gays serving openly. That conclusion depends in large part on who counted and who interpreted the votes and why those “respondents [who] answered unfavorably or remain uncertain” were ignored.
As Rep. Hunter, a Marine colonel who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, noted, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3098)
Christmas Anecdotes
See “Christmas 8 A: Personal Christmas Anecdotes–The Santa Schtick” (http://tiny.cc/zm3ys) What follows are anecdotes not personal in nature but interesting, encouraging, and inspirational.
Ever wonder why the audience customarily stands during performances of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus?” I used to think it was out of reverence for the explicit Christian meaning of that ending to the second part of his Messiah,
Apparently, I was wrong, at least according to the Choral Society of the Moriches, (New York), which explains in its program for its 2010 Christmas concert that it was all a misunderstanding.
It seems England’s King George II attended the less than sell-out first performance of Messiah at the Covent Garden in 1743 and, being hard of hearing, thought he heard the first strains of the British national anthem when the “Hallelujah Chorus” began and so leapt to his feet with the rest of the audience following suit.
I doubt anyone had the heart or nerve to tell George he was mistaken and, as a result, audiences have been rising to their feet for 267 years ever since which, whatever its origins, is still a nice tradition.
Less historically-amusing was a grinch attack on the Payne County Bank in Perkins, Oklahoma by Federal Reserve bank examiners. It wasn’t exactly a sneak attack since it had been scheduled, just like the one at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life” just before Angel Second Class Clarence Odbody saves George Bailey’s life but this time there was no Odbody available and it wasn’t a matter of life or death anyway.
It was a matter of politically-correct grinchism which concluded with proof that we can indeed still fight city hall, and Washington.
The Feds had their PC noses out of joint because of “a Bible verse of the day, [posted on the bank's website] crosses on the teller’s counter, and buttons that say ‘Merry Christmas, God With Us,’ “ all federal crimes or at least deemed ”inappropriate” by government lackeys. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3086)
Ever wonder why the audience customarily stands during performances of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus?” I used to think it was out of reverence for the explicit Christian meaning of that ending to the second part of his Messiah,
Apparently, I was wrong, at least according to the Choral Society of the Moriches, (New York), which explains in its program for its 2010 Christmas concert that it was all a misunderstanding.
It seems England’s King George II attended the less than sell-out first performance of Messiah at the Covent Garden in 1743 and, being hard of hearing, thought he heard the first strains of the British national anthem when the “Hallelujah Chorus” began and so leapt to his feet with the rest of the audience following suit.
I doubt anyone had the heart or nerve to tell George he was mistaken and, as a result, audiences have been rising to their feet for 267 years ever since which, whatever its origins, is still a nice tradition.
Less historically-amusing was a grinch attack on the Payne County Bank in Perkins, Oklahoma by Federal Reserve bank examiners. It wasn’t exactly a sneak attack since it had been scheduled, just like the one at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life” just before Angel Second Class Clarence Odbody saves George Bailey’s life but this time there was no Odbody available and it wasn’t a matter of life or death anyway.
It was a matter of politically-correct grinchism which concluded with proof that we can indeed still fight city hall, and Washington.
The Feds had their PC noses out of joint because of “a Bible verse of the day, [posted on the bank's website] crosses on the teller’s counter, and buttons that say ‘Merry Christmas, God With Us,’ “ all federal crimes or at least deemed ”inappropriate” by government lackeys. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3086)
Friday, December 17, 2010
Amanda Knox and Taylor Momsen: Sexual Abandon and Sexploitation
Amanda Knox and Taylor Momsen, Sexual Abandon and Sexploitation
For the record, I believe I’m just being more honest than most elders when I concede an appreciation of youthful beauty. An elderly uncle once admitted to the truism that when we stop looking, we’re dead. I also confess to appreciating and treasuring family, country, New York Yankee baseball, and pistachios.
That said, I still don’t know if Amanda Knox, the self-described “Foxy Knoxy” and reputed American “she-devil” who was convicted in Italy of murdering her roomie, British student Meredith Karcher, got a fair shake in her trial and if she merited her sentence of 26 years.
Far from looking like the sweet young thang of three years ago, Amanda is now a tad dazed and haggard and anything but serene but she still proclaims her innocence in that horrendous crime and contends, ”This is all an enormous mistake.”
For those not familiar with the sordid events of November 1st, 2007 in Perugia, Italy, see “Foxy Knoxy Re-Visited,” http://tiny.cc/en3tr
Of course, except for terrorists, most criminals say their convictions were all mistakes, or they were framed, or that the devil made them do it but, nevertheless, as in the case of pedophile teacher Debra Lafave who was sentenced to probation rather than to 30 years, also in 2007, when her American judge judged she was far too pretty to be confined to jail, it seems natural for people, especially males, to cut some slack for pretty females.
Even allowing that Lafave was spared prison for a crime of the flesh and Knox was convicted of murder, sexual assault, and obstruction of justice, there are certain similarities in the 2 cases, similarities predicated on young, female attractiveness, which in Debra’s instance bought her a free ride on probation, in Amanda’s instance resulted in a refusal by many to believe her guilt.
In her last court appearance, “Knox, 23, broke down several times as she addressed the court for almost twenty minutes in an emotional and quivering voice, as she stressed she had nothing to do with Meredith’s brutal murder. The American [note that British newspaper emphasis] also dismissed the prosecution’s view of her saying she was not the ‘dangerous, diabolical, jealous and uncaring’ person she had been described as at her original trial, telling the court: ‘That girl is not me.’ “
“Knox also expressed her sympathy towards Meredith’s heartbroken family and friends and said: “I am very sorry that Meredith is no longer here:” http://tiny.cc/zpclu
Whatever that girl was she and regardless of the final disposition in the matter of Foxy Knoxy, who was a wild 20 year old at the time of Karcher’s murder, her proven life of abandon and sexual promiscuity may have been contributing factors. In turn, her licentiousness, loosed when she became free of familial and national bonds in Perugia, may have had its roots in America’s teen role models and highly sexualized teen culture. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3031)
For the record, I believe I’m just being more honest than most elders when I concede an appreciation of youthful beauty. An elderly uncle once admitted to the truism that when we stop looking, we’re dead. I also confess to appreciating and treasuring family, country, New York Yankee baseball, and pistachios.
That said, I still don’t know if Amanda Knox, the self-described “Foxy Knoxy” and reputed American “she-devil” who was convicted in Italy of murdering her roomie, British student Meredith Karcher, got a fair shake in her trial and if she merited her sentence of 26 years.
Far from looking like the sweet young thang of three years ago, Amanda is now a tad dazed and haggard and anything but serene but she still proclaims her innocence in that horrendous crime and contends, ”This is all an enormous mistake.”
For those not familiar with the sordid events of November 1st, 2007 in Perugia, Italy, see “Foxy Knoxy Re-Visited,” http://tiny.cc/en3tr
Of course, except for terrorists, most criminals say their convictions were all mistakes, or they were framed, or that the devil made them do it but, nevertheless, as in the case of pedophile teacher Debra Lafave who was sentenced to probation rather than to 30 years, also in 2007, when her American judge judged she was far too pretty to be confined to jail, it seems natural for people, especially males, to cut some slack for pretty females.
Even allowing that Lafave was spared prison for a crime of the flesh and Knox was convicted of murder, sexual assault, and obstruction of justice, there are certain similarities in the 2 cases, similarities predicated on young, female attractiveness, which in Debra’s instance bought her a free ride on probation, in Amanda’s instance resulted in a refusal by many to believe her guilt.
In her last court appearance, “Knox, 23, broke down several times as she addressed the court for almost twenty minutes in an emotional and quivering voice, as she stressed she had nothing to do with Meredith’s brutal murder. The American [note that British newspaper emphasis] also dismissed the prosecution’s view of her saying she was not the ‘dangerous, diabolical, jealous and uncaring’ person she had been described as at her original trial, telling the court: ‘That girl is not me.’ “
“Knox also expressed her sympathy towards Meredith’s heartbroken family and friends and said: “I am very sorry that Meredith is no longer here:” http://tiny.cc/zpclu
Whatever that girl was she and regardless of the final disposition in the matter of Foxy Knoxy, who was a wild 20 year old at the time of Karcher’s murder, her proven life of abandon and sexual promiscuity may have been contributing factors. In turn, her licentiousness, loosed when she became free of familial and national bonds in Perugia, may have had its roots in America’s teen role models and highly sexualized teen culture. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3031)
The Insanity Goes On: America and Terrorism
The Insanity Goes On: America and Terrorism
Einstein’s now-famous theory of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, is in process of being proven as valid as his equally-famous theory of relativity and the leaders of Western civilization are its most proficient proponents.
America’s and the West’s policy toward Islamic terrorism and terrorists, if indeed it can seriously be considered policy, is fundamentally, and insanely, flawed and reactionary: We wait, they do something, we react. It can be reduced in equivalency to the advice many practical parents give to their sons when they are the victims of school bullies: If he hits you, hit him back or else he will continue to hit you, or worse.
Other parents instruct their kidlets to go tell a teacher or tell an administrator or tell it on some mountain, all of which tactics invariably result in Little Johnny being ostracized, labeled a snitch, being bloodied even more by the bully’s buddies and/or by the bully himself off schoolgrounds in a dark alley.
The chief problem for America and the West with employing either of those approaches is that America and the West aren’t being threatened by some snotnosed kid out to make a schoolyard name for himself or merely acting out some psychological issues. Radical Islamists are certainly out to make a name for themselves and are acting out of a deep-seated and perverted visceral fury, intermixed with a disturbed religious fervor, but their aims go far beyond those of a bully.
Their intent is not to bloody noses but to maim and murder Americans and Western Europeans, to destroy our basic institutions and the societies in which those Americans and Western Europeans live, and to establish a new, world, Islamic-sharia-Koranic order. And there is no one we can turn to to ”tell on” them.
Yet, as seen in the case of the recent Stockholm bombing and the multiple attempts to execute mass mayhem in the United States, from the “Underwear Bomber” last Christmas to the Portland “Holiday Bomber” last week, we patiently wait and wait and wait.
We seem to be waiting for another 9/11, or worse . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3070)
Einstein’s now-famous theory of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, is in process of being proven as valid as his equally-famous theory of relativity and the leaders of Western civilization are its most proficient proponents.
America’s and the West’s policy toward Islamic terrorism and terrorists, if indeed it can seriously be considered policy, is fundamentally, and insanely, flawed and reactionary: We wait, they do something, we react. It can be reduced in equivalency to the advice many practical parents give to their sons when they are the victims of school bullies: If he hits you, hit him back or else he will continue to hit you, or worse.
Other parents instruct their kidlets to go tell a teacher or tell an administrator or tell it on some mountain, all of which tactics invariably result in Little Johnny being ostracized, labeled a snitch, being bloodied even more by the bully’s buddies and/or by the bully himself off schoolgrounds in a dark alley.
The chief problem for America and the West with employing either of those approaches is that America and the West aren’t being threatened by some snotnosed kid out to make a schoolyard name for himself or merely acting out some psychological issues. Radical Islamists are certainly out to make a name for themselves and are acting out of a deep-seated and perverted visceral fury, intermixed with a disturbed religious fervor, but their aims go far beyond those of a bully.
Their intent is not to bloody noses but to maim and murder Americans and Western Europeans, to destroy our basic institutions and the societies in which those Americans and Western Europeans live, and to establish a new, world, Islamic-sharia-Koranic order. And there is no one we can turn to to ”tell on” them.
Yet, as seen in the case of the recent Stockholm bombing and the multiple attempts to execute mass mayhem in the United States, from the “Underwear Bomber” last Christmas to the Portland “Holiday Bomber” last week, we patiently wait and wait and wait.
We seem to be waiting for another 9/11, or worse . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3070)
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Personal Christmas Anecdotes
Personal Christmas Anecdotes
We all have favorite Christmas stories, well most of us do, those who celebrate Christmas, that is, which is most of us. Those tales can range from the nostalgic to the bittersweet to those we’d like to forget to those we can only barely remember.
Certain personal anecdotes stick in our minds like year old candy canes tend to stick to the roof of our mouths. Again, some are nostalgic, some bittersweet, some we’d like to forget, and some almost buried in the recesses of our aging brains. What follows is a story that combines all of the above.
The Santa Claus Incidents: When I was into my annual Santa Claus phase, dressing up as that little, old elf, I had various experiences including being asked to do my Santa shtick outside the home of one of our children’s friends who had younger siblings.
That shtick was a simple gig, lots of ho-ho-hoing and reindeer bell ringing while Santa was burdened under a huge bag of rolled-up newspaper and sporting a flashlight covered in red foil, simulating Rudolph’s nose, all performed at a safe distance where costume malfunctions were undetectable to young minds filled with thoughts of sugar plums, and video games.
All went well for the 5-minute duration of that performance and Santa could see the kidlets’ faces gleefully-plastered against a kitchen window as he went through his backyard routine. As he headed off to his 4-wheeled, Honda-motorized sleigh, the mom opened the door and motioned to him. She advised Santa that she had no clue as to who he was but thanked him profusely, anyway.
Santa had gone to the wrong house.
On another occasion Santa did find the right house and , , ,
Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3066)
We all have favorite Christmas stories, well most of us do, those who celebrate Christmas, that is, which is most of us. Those tales can range from the nostalgic to the bittersweet to those we’d like to forget to those we can only barely remember.
Certain personal anecdotes stick in our minds like year old candy canes tend to stick to the roof of our mouths. Again, some are nostalgic, some bittersweet, some we’d like to forget, and some almost buried in the recesses of our aging brains. What follows is a story that combines all of the above.
The Santa Claus Incidents: When I was into my annual Santa Claus phase, dressing up as that little, old elf, I had various experiences including being asked to do my Santa shtick outside the home of one of our children’s friends who had younger siblings.
That shtick was a simple gig, lots of ho-ho-hoing and reindeer bell ringing while Santa was burdened under a huge bag of rolled-up newspaper and sporting a flashlight covered in red foil, simulating Rudolph’s nose, all performed at a safe distance where costume malfunctions were undetectable to young minds filled with thoughts of sugar plums, and video games.
All went well for the 5-minute duration of that performance and Santa could see the kidlets’ faces gleefully-plastered against a kitchen window as he went through his backyard routine. As he headed off to his 4-wheeled, Honda-motorized sleigh, the mom opened the door and motioned to him. She advised Santa that she had no clue as to who he was but thanked him profusely, anyway.
Santa had gone to the wrong house.
On another occasion Santa did find the right house and , , ,
Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3066)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Obnoxious and Presumptuous: Michelle O. and Baba W.
Presumptuous and Obnoxious: Michelle O. and Baba W.
Being obnoxious and being presumptuous often go hand in hand and both are annoying. Michelle Obama and Barbara Walters are notorious for having melded the two annoying qualities.
The ungainly “Lady O,” best known for lacking pride in her country for most of her adult life. in her current role as First Lady or FLOTUS has been trashing about for something else to make her proud and finally hit on it this year. In her unpaid but perk-stuffed role as presidential wife, she must have felt she had to do something.
Former FLOTUSES have dedicated themselves to pretending to be president, (Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton)), to keeping their hats on straight, (Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower), to White House beautification, (Jackie Kennedy), to environmental enhancement, (Lady Bird Johnson), and to literacy, (Laura Bush).
Michelle Obama’s new found niche is fat kids.
Now, it may be true that childhood obesity is a serious problem in America but hardly the national security, indeed, national survival illusion, issue that Mrs. Obama seems to want it to be. Still, it’s a worthy project for a first lady–until she veered into the obnoxious-presumptuous sphere by believing in her self-importance and brilliance.
She veered into that sphere when, typically dropping her “g’s” in such words as “tryna” and “doin,” she lectured America on nutrition. While acknowledging it was “ultimately the responsibility of parents,” she ripped a page from Hillary’s “Village” by saying, “We can’t just leave it up to the parents:” http://tiny.cc/wz7cv . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3061)
Being obnoxious and being presumptuous often go hand in hand and both are annoying. Michelle Obama and Barbara Walters are notorious for having melded the two annoying qualities.
The ungainly “Lady O,” best known for lacking pride in her country for most of her adult life. in her current role as First Lady or FLOTUS has been trashing about for something else to make her proud and finally hit on it this year. In her unpaid but perk-stuffed role as presidential wife, she must have felt she had to do something.
Former FLOTUSES have dedicated themselves to pretending to be president, (Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton)), to keeping their hats on straight, (Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower), to White House beautification, (Jackie Kennedy), to environmental enhancement, (Lady Bird Johnson), and to literacy, (Laura Bush).
Michelle Obama’s new found niche is fat kids.
Now, it may be true that childhood obesity is a serious problem in America but hardly the national security, indeed, national survival illusion, issue that Mrs. Obama seems to want it to be. Still, it’s a worthy project for a first lady–until she veered into the obnoxious-presumptuous sphere by believing in her self-importance and brilliance.
She veered into that sphere when, typically dropping her “g’s” in such words as “tryna” and “doin,” she lectured America on nutrition. While acknowledging it was “ultimately the responsibility of parents,” she ripped a page from Hillary’s “Village” by saying, “We can’t just leave it up to the parents:” http://tiny.cc/wz7cv . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3061)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Hagar and the Former Vikings
Hagar and the Former Vikings
I’ve always enjoyed Hagar the Horrible, the rumpled, glutinous, fierce Viking warrior of the eponymous comic strip who, despite his highly profitable pillaging of England, is most often unappreciated by his Valkyrie-esque wife, Helga, who persistently nags him for his poor etiquette even when he returns home with multiple enemy arrows rotruding from his person.
Today’s Scandinavians could learn a great deal from Hagar.
Back when, way back when in the late eighth to the mid-eleventh centuries, during the hey-day of the Viking Age, their and Hagar’s forebears didn’t give a rat’s ass about the sensitivities of their enemies–who were just about everyone. They just plundered their way around Europe with not a care as to
Today, those intrepid Norsemen of modern-day Sweden don’t seem to think or operate that way.
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark have been rendered into shadows of their former Viking selves, Hagars without all those protruding arrows, committed to their socialistic societies, enjoying life to the fullest, praying to Odin and Thor that the modern world with all its attendant violence and terrorism will just pass them by and leave them to their Ikean pleasures.
Sadly, former Norsemen and women, it just doesn’t work that way, any more than it worked that way in the U.S. in 2001, in Bali in 2002, in Beslan and Madrid in 2004, in London in 2005, or in Mumbai in 2008.
The primary enemy on the planet today, the enemy of every non-Muslim nation on our planet, doesn’t discriminate between those nations which make nice to Islam and those who don’t. Everyone is fair game including, Sweden has discovered, the people of Stockholm . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3048)
I’ve always enjoyed Hagar the Horrible, the rumpled, glutinous, fierce Viking warrior of the eponymous comic strip who, despite his highly profitable pillaging of England, is most often unappreciated by his Valkyrie-esque wife, Helga, who persistently nags him for his poor etiquette even when he returns home with multiple enemy arrows rotruding from his person.
Today’s Scandinavians could learn a great deal from Hagar.
Back when, way back when in the late eighth to the mid-eleventh centuries, during the hey-day of the Viking Age, their and Hagar’s forebears didn’t give a rat’s ass about the sensitivities of their enemies–who were just about everyone. They just plundered their way around Europe with not a care as to
Today, those intrepid Norsemen of modern-day Sweden don’t seem to think or operate that way.
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark have been rendered into shadows of their former Viking selves, Hagars without all those protruding arrows, committed to their socialistic societies, enjoying life to the fullest, praying to Odin and Thor that the modern world with all its attendant violence and terrorism will just pass them by and leave them to their Ikean pleasures.
Sadly, former Norsemen and women, it just doesn’t work that way, any more than it worked that way in the U.S. in 2001, in Bali in 2002, in Beslan and Madrid in 2004, in London in 2005, or in Mumbai in 2008.
The primary enemy on the planet today, the enemy of every non-Muslim nation on our planet, doesn’t discriminate between those nations which make nice to Islam and those who don’t. Everyone is fair game including, Sweden has discovered, the people of Stockholm . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3048)
Monday, December 13, 2010
One Man's Stand against Grinchiness
One Man's Stand against Grinchiness
Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas is 53 years old but his title character is as frisky as ever, alive and well in the hearts and minds of Scrooges, Humbuggers, and Grinch wannabes everywhere. Fortunately, more and more anti-Grinchers are finally fighting back in the belief that this may be a time of peace on Earth and good will toward all but that feeling doesn’t preclude asserting one’s faith.
Seuss’ original 1957 Grinch is depicted as a misanthrope who despises most everything but who is especially revolted by the thought of Christmas, so much so that he steals all the Christmas gifts and holiday hams and festive decorations from the good citizens of Whoville and, when Christmas comes anyway, realizes that Christmas isn’t about presents and hams and decorations but rather about much more. He returns all he had stolen, is embraced and welcomed by the Whovillians, and they all, presumably, live happily ever after.
The poor Grinch, a product of the left-leaning, prolific, Theodor Seuss Geisel, did come to understand what Christmas was not but never quite fully comprehended what Christmas was, or at least he never rhymed about it. The Grinch was secularly politically correct long before that term came into existence.
All that notwithstanding, a new and potent entrant into the anti-Grinch arena is Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, who has launched the apolitical website, GrinchAlert.com, in an attempt to inform Americans as to which retailers, government entities, restaurants, banks, airlines, etc. have been good for goodness sake and which have been naughty for whatever sake.
Goodness and naughtiness, of course, are subjective qualities and the only criterion for inclusion on Jeffress’ good or naughty list is whether the listee is in the business of sucking dry all it can from Christmas at the same time refusing to . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3037)
Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas is 53 years old but his title character is as frisky as ever, alive and well in the hearts and minds of Scrooges, Humbuggers, and Grinch wannabes everywhere. Fortunately, more and more anti-Grinchers are finally fighting back in the belief that this may be a time of peace on Earth and good will toward all but that feeling doesn’t preclude asserting one’s faith.
Seuss’ original 1957 Grinch is depicted as a misanthrope who despises most everything but who is especially revolted by the thought of Christmas, so much so that he steals all the Christmas gifts and holiday hams and festive decorations from the good citizens of Whoville and, when Christmas comes anyway, realizes that Christmas isn’t about presents and hams and decorations but rather about much more. He returns all he had stolen, is embraced and welcomed by the Whovillians, and they all, presumably, live happily ever after.
The poor Grinch, a product of the left-leaning, prolific, Theodor Seuss Geisel, did come to understand what Christmas was not but never quite fully comprehended what Christmas was, or at least he never rhymed about it. The Grinch was secularly politically correct long before that term came into existence.
All that notwithstanding, a new and potent entrant into the anti-Grinch arena is Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, who has launched the apolitical website, GrinchAlert.com, in an attempt to inform Americans as to which retailers, government entities, restaurants, banks, airlines, etc. have been good for goodness sake and which have been naughty for whatever sake.
Goodness and naughtiness, of course, are subjective qualities and the only criterion for inclusion on Jeffress’ good or naughty list is whether the listee is in the business of sucking dry all it can from Christmas at the same time refusing to . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3037)
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Christmas Six: The Power of Peaceful Protest
Christmas Six: The Power of Peaceful Protest
There’s still hope out there, folks, for those of you who have verged on despair over the secularism, materialism, and the “I want-ism” of your kids over the last few weeks but that hope won’t be found in many Blue States.
Hope can be uncovered in some of those states but only after tireless and diligent excavating and even then only in moderation.
KFYR-TV, “the voice of the Northern Plains,” is one source of Christmas-greedism-overload relief.
That station featured a Christmas video of a boy searching for the real meaning of Christmas and he didn’t find it with Santa or the latest i-Pod innovation or a new Wii game by sexting an elf-ette, and certainly not by hitching a ride on “The Polar Express.”
The free video is 2 minutes in length and readers can purchase the rest but it’s really not necessary. You might want to have your kids write the ending as an exercise of their Christmas spirit or what that spirit should be: http://www.bceshow.com/
Further west, in the belly of the blue beast, a Redding, California substitute teacher was far more bodacious in her objections to “working in [public] schools where students aren’t allowed to sing Christmas songs that are religious in nature.”
Aptly named and christened Merry Hyatt is proposing “a ballot initiative that would require all public schools in California to give children the opportunity to sing or listen to Christmas carols:”. . .
(read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3027)
There’s still hope out there, folks, for those of you who have verged on despair over the secularism, materialism, and the “I want-ism” of your kids over the last few weeks but that hope won’t be found in many Blue States.
Hope can be uncovered in some of those states but only after tireless and diligent excavating and even then only in moderation.
KFYR-TV, “the voice of the Northern Plains,” is one source of Christmas-greedism-overload relief.
That station featured a Christmas video of a boy searching for the real meaning of Christmas and he didn’t find it with Santa or the latest i-Pod innovation or a new Wii game by sexting an elf-ette, and certainly not by hitching a ride on “The Polar Express.”
The free video is 2 minutes in length and readers can purchase the rest but it’s really not necessary. You might want to have your kids write the ending as an exercise of their Christmas spirit or what that spirit should be: http://www.bceshow.com/
Further west, in the belly of the blue beast, a Redding, California substitute teacher was far more bodacious in her objections to “working in [public] schools where students aren’t allowed to sing Christmas songs that are religious in nature.”
Aptly named and christened Merry Hyatt is proposing “a ballot initiative that would require all public schools in California to give children the opportunity to sing or listen to Christmas carols:”. . .
(read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3027)
The Self-Triangulation, Auto-Strangulation of a Presidency
The Self-Triangulation, Auto-Strangulation of a Presidency
It’s all over for President Barack Hussein Obama. Mark Madoff did it with a dog leash. Barack Obama did it with a picture.
As IOwntheWorld.com put it, “Sad O [that would be Obama, IOTW's less-than-affectionate sobriquet for the president] is sad to know that Bill Clinton’s definition of ‘triangulate’ means that he, Bill, and Hillary are now the 44th Presidents of the United States.” And all this while Barry thought “triangulation” just meant using 3 angles.
Barry has been triangulated, self-strangulated might also fit, not by the Clintons but by “Sad O” himself who virtually abdicated his office on Friday when he walked off the presidential stage during a presidential press briefing and turned it over to Bill Clinton. At first, in a GWB moment, Barry and Billy couldn’t open the locked door to West Wing briefing room but Chief Press Hack Robert Gibbs helped them out and the door was thrown open: http://yhoo.it/i79NYz
The president would have been better off had Gibbs hidden the key.
These 4 pictures say it all, . . .
(Read more and see the pictures at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3016)
It’s all over for President Barack Hussein Obama. Mark Madoff did it with a dog leash. Barack Obama did it with a picture.
As IOwntheWorld.com put it, “Sad O [that would be Obama, IOTW's less-than-affectionate sobriquet for the president] is sad to know that Bill Clinton’s definition of ‘triangulate’ means that he, Bill, and Hillary are now the 44th Presidents of the United States.” And all this while Barry thought “triangulation” just meant using 3 angles.
Barry has been triangulated, self-strangulated might also fit, not by the Clintons but by “Sad O” himself who virtually abdicated his office on Friday when he walked off the presidential stage during a presidential press briefing and turned it over to Bill Clinton. At first, in a GWB moment, Barry and Billy couldn’t open the locked door to West Wing briefing room but Chief Press Hack Robert Gibbs helped them out and the door was thrown open: http://yhoo.it/i79NYz
The president would have been better off had Gibbs hidden the key.
These 4 pictures say it all, . . .
(Read more and see the pictures at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3016)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
In Defense of the Westboro Baptist Church
In Defense of the Westboro Baptist Church
Now that the threat of a demonstration by zealots of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church to create a disturbance at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards has passed, it’s an opportune time to reassess just what Westboro is up to, what it wants, and why those zealots do what they do.
In a previous life, actually in a previous post dated almost a year ago, I wrote about that “The Westboro Baptist Congregation, the WBC, so thrives on outlandish and hateful propaganda that it must be regarded as one of the worst organizations in the nation in terms of vicious radicalism.
“Make no mistake, the WBC has countless hate-peers. Nevertheless, it’s a standout performer, in a class by itself, especially when it comes to attacks on homosexuals and Jews.
“What makes the WBC even worse is that it cites both Old and New Testament scripture to bolster its points of view and its vile invective. Its website, Godhatesfags.com, cites Calvinistic interpretations of Holy Scripture as Biblical truth.”
See “The Westboro Devil Cites Scripture,” http://bit.ly/bCiwP5, which pulls no punches with respect to homosexuality but which, I believe, is far more tempered than Westboro’s extremes.
I retract none of that, although some should be modified.
The WBC is still outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile. However, even in its most recent outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile theatened demonstrations against the memory of Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards, protests that fortunately were never allowed to happen, reasonable people must grant that Westboro has some valid points.
Some additional points, negative points, are that AOL.com, Google.com, and Bing.com have made access to the Westboro Baptist Church home page virtually inaccessible. That concerted effort at internet censorship, assuming my browser isn’t the culprit, stinks almost as much as Westboro’s tactics.
Therefore, in the absence of any other active defense of the WBC and in view of the active suppression of the First Amendment rights of the WBC, I, grudgingly, offer my meager services.
To be blunt, Pastor Fred Phelps and Westboro’s alleged 40,000 adherents may best be described as imbecilic in many of their activities, though not in their beliefs. However, in view of the fact that America regularly elects imbeciles to govern them and millions of Americans worship at the feet of imbecilic celebrities, how can America–and AOL and Google and Bing– presume to selectively censor the WBC? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3007)
Now that the threat of a demonstration by zealots of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church to create a disturbance at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards has passed, it’s an opportune time to reassess just what Westboro is up to, what it wants, and why those zealots do what they do.
In a previous life, actually in a previous post dated almost a year ago, I wrote about that “The Westboro Baptist Congregation, the WBC, so thrives on outlandish and hateful propaganda that it must be regarded as one of the worst organizations in the nation in terms of vicious radicalism.
“Make no mistake, the WBC has countless hate-peers. Nevertheless, it’s a standout performer, in a class by itself, especially when it comes to attacks on homosexuals and Jews.
“What makes the WBC even worse is that it cites both Old and New Testament scripture to bolster its points of view and its vile invective. Its website, Godhatesfags.com, cites Calvinistic interpretations of Holy Scripture as Biblical truth.”
See “The Westboro Devil Cites Scripture,” http://bit.ly/bCiwP5, which pulls no punches with respect to homosexuality but which, I believe, is far more tempered than Westboro’s extremes.
I retract none of that, although some should be modified.
The WBC is still outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile. However, even in its most recent outlandish, hateful, vicious, and vile theatened demonstrations against the memory of Mary Elizabeth Anania Edwards, protests that fortunately were never allowed to happen, reasonable people must grant that Westboro has some valid points.
Some additional points, negative points, are that AOL.com, Google.com, and Bing.com have made access to the Westboro Baptist Church home page virtually inaccessible. That concerted effort at internet censorship, assuming my browser isn’t the culprit, stinks almost as much as Westboro’s tactics.
Therefore, in the absence of any other active defense of the WBC and in view of the active suppression of the First Amendment rights of the WBC, I, grudgingly, offer my meager services.
To be blunt, Pastor Fred Phelps and Westboro’s alleged 40,000 adherents may best be described as imbecilic in many of their activities, though not in their beliefs. However, in view of the fact that America regularly elects imbeciles to govern them and millions of Americans worship at the feet of imbecilic celebrities, how can America–and AOL and Google and Bing– presume to selectively censor the WBC? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3007)
Friday, December 10, 2010
Teachers in Action, in Inaction, in Perversions
Teachers in Action, in Inaction, in Perversions
Teachers, like other human beings, tend to come in all stripes and in all types. In recent decades, however, the once-esteemed teaching profession, including university profs down to elementary school instructors, seems to be attracting more and more oddballs, incompetents–and perverts than ever before.
Take, for example, 57 year old Raymond Devaughn Taylor, an adjunct at Kennesaw State University of Georgia. You are free to take him since Kennesaw no longer seems to want him after, for unknown reasons, he stripped naked in front of his accounting students who, understandably, reacted as if they were sorely in need of a barf bag.
As TrueCrimeReports.com posed the question, “Let’s say you’re the dean of the business school at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. And let’s say you need someone to teach accounting. Do you: A) sign up [the first applicant] even though he looks like he enjoys molesting small children and farm animals, or B) activate the university’s Perv Alert System (TM) and place the school on lockdown. The logical response is B. But for some reason, the real dean chose A. And it naturally didn’t turn out so well.”
That’s a classic understatement. Students ratted Taylor out, he was fired, arrested, and charged with public indecency: http://bit.ly/gnDY7g He was not charged with inducing the gag reflex in his coed students.
Then we have an unidentified teacher in Palm Beach, Florida Jaega Middle School who apparently is a devotee of extreme sports . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3000)
Teachers, like other human beings, tend to come in all stripes and in all types. In recent decades, however, the once-esteemed teaching profession, including university profs down to elementary school instructors, seems to be attracting more and more oddballs, incompetents–and perverts than ever before.
Take, for example, 57 year old Raymond Devaughn Taylor, an adjunct at Kennesaw State University of Georgia. You are free to take him since Kennesaw no longer seems to want him after, for unknown reasons, he stripped naked in front of his accounting students who, understandably, reacted as if they were sorely in need of a barf bag.
As TrueCrimeReports.com posed the question, “Let’s say you’re the dean of the business school at Kennesaw State University in Georgia. And let’s say you need someone to teach accounting. Do you: A) sign up [the first applicant] even though he looks like he enjoys molesting small children and farm animals, or B) activate the university’s Perv Alert System (TM) and place the school on lockdown. The logical response is B. But for some reason, the real dean chose A. And it naturally didn’t turn out so well.”
That’s a classic understatement. Students ratted Taylor out, he was fired, arrested, and charged with public indecency: http://bit.ly/gnDY7g He was not charged with inducing the gag reflex in his coed students.
Then we have an unidentified teacher in Palm Beach, Florida Jaega Middle School who apparently is a devotee of extreme sports . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3000)
Obama Agonistes, Obamacare Agony
Obama Agonistes, Obamacare Agony
There’s something very tragic about President Barack Hussein Obama, something almost as tragic as Obamacare.
Obama isn’t tragic in the traditional literary sense of a protagonist in a tragedy, “A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances,” although some of those elements apply. He’s tragic in the more contemporary sense, more akin to a tragic figure in ”Days of Our Lives” than in classic drama.
Obama lacks the Aristotelian-Sophoclean qualities of a good and highly-esteemed man who suffers in a drama that arouses pity and fear in its audience nor does he fit John Milton’s perfect hero in Samson Agonistes, the tale of Samson the struggler, Samson the combatant. Our president is closer to the perfect dunce.
Barack Hussein Obama is a tragic figure in process of being “brought to ruin” due to his weaknesses and ineptitude and who is destined for his fate because of a fatal character flaw, his inability to perceive that he is in a position he never merited and his inability to understand that he is and has been grossly wrong.
He is struggling and combating due to past errors even as he now, ala Bill Clinton’s abandonment of principle and retreat to the center, seeks compromise on tax issues which in itself is causing him grief from his own Democrat Party and causing him to struggle and combat even more. See “Dems Gone Wild, ‘F*%k the President’ “ (http://tiny.cc/bzntp)
In sum, less than two years in office, Obama has been an abject failure who has been caught in more lies than Richard Nixon could ever conceive, more broken promises and embarrassments, save the blue dress incident, than Bill Clinton could ever imagine, more haplessness and faux pas and English language malapropisms than George Bush committed.
Okay, that last about Obama surpassing GWB . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2991)
There’s something very tragic about President Barack Hussein Obama, something almost as tragic as Obamacare.
Obama isn’t tragic in the traditional literary sense of a protagonist in a tragedy, “A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances,” although some of those elements apply. He’s tragic in the more contemporary sense, more akin to a tragic figure in ”Days of Our Lives” than in classic drama.
Obama lacks the Aristotelian-Sophoclean qualities of a good and highly-esteemed man who suffers in a drama that arouses pity and fear in its audience nor does he fit John Milton’s perfect hero in Samson Agonistes, the tale of Samson the struggler, Samson the combatant. Our president is closer to the perfect dunce.
Barack Hussein Obama is a tragic figure in process of being “brought to ruin” due to his weaknesses and ineptitude and who is destined for his fate because of a fatal character flaw, his inability to perceive that he is in a position he never merited and his inability to understand that he is and has been grossly wrong.
He is struggling and combating due to past errors even as he now, ala Bill Clinton’s abandonment of principle and retreat to the center, seeks compromise on tax issues which in itself is causing him grief from his own Democrat Party and causing him to struggle and combat even more. See “Dems Gone Wild, ‘F*%k the President’ “ (http://tiny.cc/bzntp)
In sum, less than two years in office, Obama has been an abject failure who has been caught in more lies than Richard Nixon could ever conceive, more broken promises and embarrassments, save the blue dress incident, than Bill Clinton could ever imagine, more haplessness and faux pas and English language malapropisms than George Bush committed.
Okay, that last about Obama surpassing GWB . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2991)
Thursday, December 9, 2010
John Lennon, Flawed Man in Life, Demigod in Death
John Lennon, Flawed Man in Life, Demigod in Death
“And this man has now become a god?” (Cassius, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, I, ii)
To anyone who has until now doubted that Western civilization has been inexorably sliding into history’s toilet, this should reassure you that you are quite correct and that we are on our last, creaky legs.
Jealous, possessive, violent, angry, chauvinistic, abusive, adulterous, prideful, arrogant defender of a twice-convicted murderer, buddy to the Chicago Seven and violent Yippie peace activists Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Angela Davis, and Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party, Marxist sympathizer, confirmed druggie object of a deportation attempt in the U.S. as a persona non grata, John Lennon has now become a virtual saint.
No one as yet, to my knowledge, has suggested this deeply-flawed, wife-beating, borderline seditionist, drug-addled man “is now become a god,” except in the eyes of his celeb-fixated idolators who would, if they could, elevate him to that status in the crowded pantheon of entertainers if not crown him superior to all those lesser gods.
It’s startling to witness how death and 30 years can induce such absurd, widespread mania.
It’s never nice to speak ill of the dead, although liberals rarely if ever abide by that restriction and which is why I’ll wait a while to comment on Elizabeth Edwards’ recent demise but, when mindless adulation devolves into bizarre devotion, something need be said before the whole of humanity succumbs to mass idolatry.
Chief Beatle, John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE, was shot to death on December 8, 1980 by a deranged Mark David Chapman while in the company of his second wife, Yoko Ono, as they approached the main entrance of their residence, The Dakota, in New York City.
Ms. Ono, second wife to Lennon whom he called “mother,” is a Japanese artist, musician, and agitator with a history of unseemly associations in her own right but that’s a subject of a future analysis.
It should be noted that Lennon’s MBE title, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2985)
“And this man has now become a god?” (Cassius, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, I, ii)
To anyone who has until now doubted that Western civilization has been inexorably sliding into history’s toilet, this should reassure you that you are quite correct and that we are on our last, creaky legs.
Jealous, possessive, violent, angry, chauvinistic, abusive, adulterous, prideful, arrogant defender of a twice-convicted murderer, buddy to the Chicago Seven and violent Yippie peace activists Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Angela Davis, and Bobby Seale of the Black Panther Party, Marxist sympathizer, confirmed druggie object of a deportation attempt in the U.S. as a persona non grata, John Lennon has now become a virtual saint.
No one as yet, to my knowledge, has suggested this deeply-flawed, wife-beating, borderline seditionist, drug-addled man “is now become a god,” except in the eyes of his celeb-fixated idolators who would, if they could, elevate him to that status in the crowded pantheon of entertainers if not crown him superior to all those lesser gods.
It’s startling to witness how death and 30 years can induce such absurd, widespread mania.
It’s never nice to speak ill of the dead, although liberals rarely if ever abide by that restriction and which is why I’ll wait a while to comment on Elizabeth Edwards’ recent demise but, when mindless adulation devolves into bizarre devotion, something need be said before the whole of humanity succumbs to mass idolatry.
Chief Beatle, John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE, was shot to death on December 8, 1980 by a deranged Mark David Chapman while in the company of his second wife, Yoko Ono, as they approached the main entrance of their residence, The Dakota, in New York City.
Ms. Ono, second wife to Lennon whom he called “mother,” is a Japanese artist, musician, and agitator with a history of unseemly associations in her own right but that’s a subject of a future analysis.
It should be noted that Lennon’s MBE title, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2985)
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
John Stossel Raises an Obvious Question
John Stossel Raises an Obvious Question
Ok, what’s really up with John Stossel, I mean, really? He can’t be what he seems, a true-blue conservative, a free thinker, an honest reporter and still have people listen to and read what he believes.
Stossel’s latest excursion into controversy, “Why Do the Poor Stay Poor,” will surely be interpreted by the liberal, leftist, mainstream media–all redundancies, I know–as a reactionary, conservative, ignorant rant–all redundancies to the left, I know–while all Stossel is doing is reiterating a question that any thinking individual and the 4 million poor of the world should be asking.
There is a poor cure and it involves the rule of law. If you don’t have a legal stake in where you live, property rights, you are virtually non-existent. It’s as simple as ownership in a country rather than merely inhabiting a country.
Strike the “virtually” in all too many places.
Stossel cites Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru, who points out that, “Four billion people in the world actually build their homes and own their businesses outside the legal system. . . Because of the lack of rule of law (and) the definition of who owns what, and because they don’t have addresses, they can’t get credit (for investment loans). To get an address, somebody’s got to recognize that that’s where you live.”
De Soto went on, “When you make a deal with someone, you can be identified. But until property is defined by law, people can’t . . . specialize and create wealth. The day they get title (is) the day that the businesses in their homes, the sewing machines, the cotton gins, the car repair shop finally gets recognized. They can start expanding. That’s the road to prosperity. But first they need to be recognized by someone in local authority who says, ‘This is yours:’ ” http://tiny.cc/ahrsb . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2976)
Ok, what’s really up with John Stossel, I mean, really? He can’t be what he seems, a true-blue conservative, a free thinker, an honest reporter and still have people listen to and read what he believes.
Stossel’s latest excursion into controversy, “Why Do the Poor Stay Poor,” will surely be interpreted by the liberal, leftist, mainstream media–all redundancies, I know–as a reactionary, conservative, ignorant rant–all redundancies to the left, I know–while all Stossel is doing is reiterating a question that any thinking individual and the 4 million poor of the world should be asking.
There is a poor cure and it involves the rule of law. If you don’t have a legal stake in where you live, property rights, you are virtually non-existent. It’s as simple as ownership in a country rather than merely inhabiting a country.
Strike the “virtually” in all too many places.
Stossel cites Hernando de Soto, president of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Peru, who points out that, “Four billion people in the world actually build their homes and own their businesses outside the legal system. . . Because of the lack of rule of law (and) the definition of who owns what, and because they don’t have addresses, they can’t get credit (for investment loans). To get an address, somebody’s got to recognize that that’s where you live.”
De Soto went on, “When you make a deal with someone, you can be identified. But until property is defined by law, people can’t . . . specialize and create wealth. The day they get title (is) the day that the businesses in their homes, the sewing machines, the cotton gins, the car repair shop finally gets recognized. They can start expanding. That’s the road to prosperity. But first they need to be recognized by someone in local authority who says, ‘This is yours:’ ” http://tiny.cc/ahrsb . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2976)
Manipulated News from China and Al Sharpton
Manipulated News from China and Al Sharpton
When we used to think of “news,” we thought of contemporary developments that somehow could affect us, the country, our neighborhoods, etc. Lately, news has become far more manipulated, serving, as with the MSM, more as a vehicle for propagandizing than for the dissemination of actual information.
International “news” has long been that way, propagandistic, especially if it emanated from behind the late, unlamented Iron Curtain, Cuba, the People’s Republic of China, et al. None of that group have really changed much in presenting real news, they’ve just gotten a tad more subtle and they lie better than in the past.
Case in point is China which has just announced, via a “top diplomat,” that it ”does not want to ‘replace’ [sic] the United States from its dominant role in the world, and the world should not fear China’s rise.”
Said diplomat, Dai Bingguo, wrote in an essay carried on the Foreign Ministry’s website, which gave it an official imprimatur and which was lapped up by Reuters, “The notion that China wants to replace the United States and dominate the world is a myth. Politically, we . . . respect the social systems and development path of the different peoples of the world [and] economically, we wholeheartedly want to continue to develop. Militarily, we are not engaged in an arms race:” http://tiny.cc/k9rp8
Those statements are commendable, not for their truth and sincerity, but for the achievement of perpetrating four monumental, blatant lies within the span of three sentences!
No interest in supplanting the U.S. which China now virtually owns? No need for the world to fear China’s meteoric rise and its economic incursions into Africa and Latin America? Respect for the different peoples of the world even as China fails to show respect for its own people by forced abortions? No arms race while China engages in an unprecedented build-up of its land and air power while establishing the first modern navy in its history?
That was indeed a marvel of attempted news manipulation, Mr. Bingguo, who also threw in a veiled warning: “The international community should welcome and not fear China’s peaceful development, help it and not hinder it, support it and not hold it back.” But the world also needed to “understand and respect China’s reasonable interests and concerns.”
The next thing we may expect could be a demand that all peoples of the planet begin eating with chopsticks.
I don’t know if the Reverend Al Sharpton is adept at using chopsticks but he’s certainly marvellously skilled in distorting news events. IOwntheWorld.com featured a brief story and video clip of the Reverend Al in action.
Sharpton grants no quarter to the Chinese when it comes to news manipulation. . .
Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2973)
When we used to think of “news,” we thought of contemporary developments that somehow could affect us, the country, our neighborhoods, etc. Lately, news has become far more manipulated, serving, as with the MSM, more as a vehicle for propagandizing than for the dissemination of actual information.
International “news” has long been that way, propagandistic, especially if it emanated from behind the late, unlamented Iron Curtain, Cuba, the People’s Republic of China, et al. None of that group have really changed much in presenting real news, they’ve just gotten a tad more subtle and they lie better than in the past.
Case in point is China which has just announced, via a “top diplomat,” that it ”does not want to ‘replace’ [sic] the United States from its dominant role in the world, and the world should not fear China’s rise.”
Said diplomat, Dai Bingguo, wrote in an essay carried on the Foreign Ministry’s website, which gave it an official imprimatur and which was lapped up by Reuters, “The notion that China wants to replace the United States and dominate the world is a myth. Politically, we . . . respect the social systems and development path of the different peoples of the world [and] economically, we wholeheartedly want to continue to develop. Militarily, we are not engaged in an arms race:” http://tiny.cc/k9rp8
Those statements are commendable, not for their truth and sincerity, but for the achievement of perpetrating four monumental, blatant lies within the span of three sentences!
No interest in supplanting the U.S. which China now virtually owns? No need for the world to fear China’s meteoric rise and its economic incursions into Africa and Latin America? Respect for the different peoples of the world even as China fails to show respect for its own people by forced abortions? No arms race while China engages in an unprecedented build-up of its land and air power while establishing the first modern navy in its history?
That was indeed a marvel of attempted news manipulation, Mr. Bingguo, who also threw in a veiled warning: “The international community should welcome and not fear China’s peaceful development, help it and not hinder it, support it and not hold it back.” But the world also needed to “understand and respect China’s reasonable interests and concerns.”
The next thing we may expect could be a demand that all peoples of the planet begin eating with chopsticks.
I don’t know if the Reverend Al Sharpton is adept at using chopsticks but he’s certainly marvellously skilled in distorting news events. IOwntheWorld.com featured a brief story and video clip of the Reverend Al in action.
Sharpton grants no quarter to the Chinese when it comes to news manipulation. . .
Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2973)
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
There's Something about Bristol
There's Something about Bristol
It’s far different than that “something” about Cameron Diaz’s Mary but it’s pretty evident that the Left has something about Bristol, Palin, that is.
The latest something oozed out of the mouth of second-rate, proud member of the “D-List” comedienne, Kathy Griffin, currently on tour in Afghanistan allegedly to entertain the troops.
She failed miserably to entertain them, shaming the memories of Bob Hope and hundreds of other real entertainers over the years who went “over there” to bring some laughs and support from those of us “over here.”
In the process, she pissed them off and they responded accordingly with resounding rounds of boos when she tried to diss Bristol Palin, oldest daughter of Sarah Palin, by saying Bristol was fat, and not just fat but “Precious” fat, ”the only contestant in the history of ["Dancing with the Stars"] who actually gained weight.”
Oddly, she did get some yuks by joking about deformities to the troops when she inanely quipped, “I know. Individual deformities. Uh, sue me, but that shit’s funny. Hear me out. My left boob is actually bigger than my right boob . . . And let me tell you something—20 minutes ago backstage, when I was giving a topless lap dance to the commanding officer—you know, I had my deformity. We were laughing about it. So that one’s on him:” http://tiny.cc/22u0i
Well, no, “that” wasn’t a joke on their C.O. as much as on Griffin, herself. The troops were laughing at her not with her.
Griffin tried to overcome the chorus of boos resulting from her fat joke on Bristol by adding, “She gained like 30 pounds a week, I swear to God. She’s like the white Precious,” which she felt was so witty she repeated, “like the white Precious.” After saying she loved their booing, Griffin sought refuge by introducing the cast of “Jersey Shore” which finally quelled the disapprobation.
That followed her hilarious put-down of our fighting men and women by saying, “And I know you guys have been all caught up in protecting the country and stuff but I just want to tell you what we’ve been doing on the home front, the really important news:” http://tiny.cc/1w51l
I’m certain Kathy Griffin has never even met Bristol Palin, as certain as I am that Griffin is a tasteless, useless appendage to the USO troupe. But what exactly is it about Bristol that invites such gratuitous, senseless carping which echoed Margaret Cho’s attacks a week earlier on her “friend” Bristol?
Together with Griffin, Cho defines feminine unattractiveness but the cause must be deeper than that.
The 42 year old has-been-who-never-was, Margaret Cho, the Korean American feminist and avid supporter of all things gay let loose a barrage of unsubstantiated lies against her fellow “DWTS” contestant, including the baseless allegation that Sarah Palin blamed Bristol for her loss in 2008 and that her mother forced Bristol to appear on “DWTS.”
In her column, “Pistol Whipped,” Cho demonstrated the fine, Oriental art of setting up her target by saying, “She’s warm and incredibly supportive, and I think that she looks beautiful out on the dance floor. It’s heartbreaking that people are so awful to her about her weight.” Then she goes for the jugular . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2961)
It’s far different than that “something” about Cameron Diaz’s Mary but it’s pretty evident that the Left has something about Bristol, Palin, that is.
The latest something oozed out of the mouth of second-rate, proud member of the “D-List” comedienne, Kathy Griffin, currently on tour in Afghanistan allegedly to entertain the troops.
She failed miserably to entertain them, shaming the memories of Bob Hope and hundreds of other real entertainers over the years who went “over there” to bring some laughs and support from those of us “over here.”
In the process, she pissed them off and they responded accordingly with resounding rounds of boos when she tried to diss Bristol Palin, oldest daughter of Sarah Palin, by saying Bristol was fat, and not just fat but “Precious” fat, ”the only contestant in the history of ["Dancing with the Stars"] who actually gained weight.”
Oddly, she did get some yuks by joking about deformities to the troops when she inanely quipped, “I know. Individual deformities. Uh, sue me, but that shit’s funny. Hear me out. My left boob is actually bigger than my right boob . . . And let me tell you something—20 minutes ago backstage, when I was giving a topless lap dance to the commanding officer—you know, I had my deformity. We were laughing about it. So that one’s on him:” http://tiny.cc/22u0i
Well, no, “that” wasn’t a joke on their C.O. as much as on Griffin, herself. The troops were laughing at her not with her.
Griffin tried to overcome the chorus of boos resulting from her fat joke on Bristol by adding, “She gained like 30 pounds a week, I swear to God. She’s like the white Precious,” which she felt was so witty she repeated, “like the white Precious.” After saying she loved their booing, Griffin sought refuge by introducing the cast of “Jersey Shore” which finally quelled the disapprobation.
That followed her hilarious put-down of our fighting men and women by saying, “And I know you guys have been all caught up in protecting the country and stuff but I just want to tell you what we’ve been doing on the home front, the really important news:” http://tiny.cc/1w51l
I’m certain Kathy Griffin has never even met Bristol Palin, as certain as I am that Griffin is a tasteless, useless appendage to the USO troupe. But what exactly is it about Bristol that invites such gratuitous, senseless carping which echoed Margaret Cho’s attacks a week earlier on her “friend” Bristol?
Together with Griffin, Cho defines feminine unattractiveness but the cause must be deeper than that.
The 42 year old has-been-who-never-was, Margaret Cho, the Korean American feminist and avid supporter of all things gay let loose a barrage of unsubstantiated lies against her fellow “DWTS” contestant, including the baseless allegation that Sarah Palin blamed Bristol for her loss in 2008 and that her mother forced Bristol to appear on “DWTS.”
In her column, “Pistol Whipped,” Cho demonstrated the fine, Oriental art of setting up her target by saying, “She’s warm and incredibly supportive, and I think that she looks beautiful out on the dance floor. It’s heartbreaking that people are so awful to her about her weight.” Then she goes for the jugular . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2961)
Monday, December 6, 2010
A Child's Heaven on Earth: The Sunset Sudbury School
A Child's Heaven on Earth: The Sunset Sudbury School
“No more pencils, no more books,/ No more teachers’ dirty looks./ Kick the desks, kick the chairs./ Kick the teachers down the stairs!” Far out of earshot of teachers, we used to chant that bit of doggerel when school was let out for the summer.
You won’t ever hear any of that or anything like it in or near the Sunset Sudbury School in Davie, Florida where kids pretty much rule the roost.
The Sunset Sudbury School, an unfortunate name which suggests ending rather than beginning, “South Florida’s first and only Sudbury model school, . . . on the cutting edge of education reform today,” according to its website, is a non-profit “alternative school” for kids aged 4-18, with annual tuition ranging from $3,300 to $6,600 which would be money well spent because Sunset knows that it is succeeding in its goals.
After all, it’s been in operation since August 23, 2010 and its first-year enrollment is 20 students.
Nevertheless, Sunset Sudbury’s goals are admirable, indeed: “Students of all ages can be expected to be: Self-directed, motivated, and enthusiastic lifelong learners, Creative and self-confident, Responsible, independent, and resourceful, Community-minded, and Highly adept at communication:” http://sunsetsudbury.org/
Dedicated to the idealistic proposition that what America’s children need is freedom and “justice” and, well, more freedom, kids attending Sunset can decide to contemplate their navels, or not, arrive whenever they want and leave whenever they wish, as long as they meet a very minimal number of hours in attendance. Exams are non-existent, even FCATs, as is homework, as are teachers in the traditional school sense, and hence chalkboards and lesson plans.
The kids set their own agendas and establish their own rules, sort of.
Again, according to Sunset’s website, “Rules for day-to-day life at the school are made by School Meeting, where each student and staff member has one vote. All students serve periodic terms on the Judicial Committee, which deals with rule violations.” How much input is received from 4, 5, or 6 year olds or how well those cherubs judge on the Judicial Committee is unclear.
Lord knows, American public education needs a top to bottom revamping but this has all been tried on an adult level any number of times before. Such experiments were all the rage in 18th and 19th century America: the Amana Colonies, Brook Farm, the Oneida Community, et al., all predicated to one degree or another on establishing utopias, perfect societies. Except for those built on strict religious principles, such as by the Shakers and the Moravians, all failed.
Perfect societies tend to function much better with perfect people. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2953)
“No more pencils, no more books,/ No more teachers’ dirty looks./ Kick the desks, kick the chairs./ Kick the teachers down the stairs!” Far out of earshot of teachers, we used to chant that bit of doggerel when school was let out for the summer.
You won’t ever hear any of that or anything like it in or near the Sunset Sudbury School in Davie, Florida where kids pretty much rule the roost.
The Sunset Sudbury School, an unfortunate name which suggests ending rather than beginning, “South Florida’s first and only Sudbury model school, . . . on the cutting edge of education reform today,” according to its website, is a non-profit “alternative school” for kids aged 4-18, with annual tuition ranging from $3,300 to $6,600 which would be money well spent because Sunset knows that it is succeeding in its goals.
After all, it’s been in operation since August 23, 2010 and its first-year enrollment is 20 students.
Nevertheless, Sunset Sudbury’s goals are admirable, indeed: “Students of all ages can be expected to be: Self-directed, motivated, and enthusiastic lifelong learners, Creative and self-confident, Responsible, independent, and resourceful, Community-minded, and Highly adept at communication:” http://sunsetsudbury.org/
Dedicated to the idealistic proposition that what America’s children need is freedom and “justice” and, well, more freedom, kids attending Sunset can decide to contemplate their navels, or not, arrive whenever they want and leave whenever they wish, as long as they meet a very minimal number of hours in attendance. Exams are non-existent, even FCATs, as is homework, as are teachers in the traditional school sense, and hence chalkboards and lesson plans.
The kids set their own agendas and establish their own rules, sort of.
Again, according to Sunset’s website, “Rules for day-to-day life at the school are made by School Meeting, where each student and staff member has one vote. All students serve periodic terms on the Judicial Committee, which deals with rule violations.” How much input is received from 4, 5, or 6 year olds or how well those cherubs judge on the Judicial Committee is unclear.
Lord knows, American public education needs a top to bottom revamping but this has all been tried on an adult level any number of times before. Such experiments were all the rage in 18th and 19th century America: the Amana Colonies, Brook Farm, the Oneida Community, et al., all predicated to one degree or another on establishing utopias, perfect societies. Except for those built on strict religious principles, such as by the Shakers and the Moravians, all failed.
Perfect societies tend to function much better with perfect people. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2953)
Update on the Baby Pollers
Update on the Baby Pollers
Alicia and Peter Arnold of Apple Valley, a suburb of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, were in a quandary last month: Should they execute their pre-born, then 17 week baby or should they “keep it,” as if they were discussing an abandoned puppy they had picked up on the side of an Apple Valley road?
What to do? Well, what else could progressive Apple Valley-ites do but throw that extremely personal, moral, and ethical decision onto the floor of millions of internet strangers so that those strangers could determine what the Arnolds should do.
The question boiled down to abortion or life, a tough choice for the Arnolds who didn’t want their lives thrown into upheaval by some intruder in the form of an infant.
By mid-November, the Arnold baby was winning the internet tally by a score of 23,840 to 5,978. Now, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2940)
Alicia and Peter Arnold of Apple Valley, a suburb of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, were in a quandary last month: Should they execute their pre-born, then 17 week baby or should they “keep it,” as if they were discussing an abandoned puppy they had picked up on the side of an Apple Valley road?
What to do? Well, what else could progressive Apple Valley-ites do but throw that extremely personal, moral, and ethical decision onto the floor of millions of internet strangers so that those strangers could determine what the Arnolds should do.
The question boiled down to abortion or life, a tough choice for the Arnolds who didn’t want their lives thrown into upheaval by some intruder in the form of an infant.
By mid-November, the Arnold baby was winning the internet tally by a score of 23,840 to 5,978. Now, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2940)
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Flashmob or no Flashmob, This Was Beautiful!
Flashmob or No Flashmob, This Was Beautiful!
It was hardly the usual venue, with bright Arby’s and McDonald’s and Subway signs in the background and in the midst of Christmas/holiday shopping, when some Connecticut shoppers recently got the all-time treat of their shopping lives.
Unannounced and on silent cue, 300 highly-gifted performers in a so-called “Christmas Flashmob,” some with fresh young faces, some with lined older faces, rose to their feet interrupting the usual holiday music fare being piped into a mall cafeteria in Stamford and delivered a spirited, beautiful rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” that almost rivaled the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
See the complete five minute video here: http://bit.ly/998mVT
Handel’s words and music were inspiring but the real mall show, the real story, was in the delighted expressions of the unsuspecting audience munching their lunch who were not in the least upset over having their meal interrupted. In fact, most seemed hugely entertained and visibly thrilled.
Note, for example, the wide-eyed children awed at what they were witnessing, the respectful and smiling teenagers, the seated mother reaching for the hand of her young son who willingly took it, the older woman brushing aside a tear. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2938)
It was hardly the usual venue, with bright Arby’s and McDonald’s and Subway signs in the background and in the midst of Christmas/holiday shopping, when some Connecticut shoppers recently got the all-time treat of their shopping lives.
Unannounced and on silent cue, 300 highly-gifted performers in a so-called “Christmas Flashmob,” some with fresh young faces, some with lined older faces, rose to their feet interrupting the usual holiday music fare being piped into a mall cafeteria in Stamford and delivered a spirited, beautiful rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” that almost rivaled the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
See the complete five minute video here: http://bit.ly/998mVT
Handel’s words and music were inspiring but the real mall show, the real story, was in the delighted expressions of the unsuspecting audience munching their lunch who were not in the least upset over having their meal interrupted. In fact, most seemed hugely entertained and visibly thrilled.
Note, for example, the wide-eyed children awed at what they were witnessing, the respectful and smiling teenagers, the seated mother reaching for the hand of her young son who willingly took it, the older woman brushing aside a tear. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2938)
The United Nations Gets Religion! (Mayan)
The United Nations Gets Religion! (Mayan)
Oh, great Ixchel, aged Mayan jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine who set the universe in motion, Lady of the Rainbow, water goddess, consort to Votan, goddess of the moon, of reason, creativity and weaving! May you shed reason and shine your light upon the dim bulbs of the United Nations!
That blessing should be granted to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change if Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the gathering, gets her wish.
Figueres invoked Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates, waxing semi-poetic as she pleaded for enlightenment from the ancient goddess: ”May she inspire you–because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools:” http://tiny.cc/wj7q2
The depth and sincerity of the Costa Rican executive secretary’s prayer truly take one’s breath away, unless you consider that there was more to Ixchel than your average Mayan goddess.
She is closely associated with Chac Chel, the Mayan Young Moon Goddess who “is often depicted with a rabbit, . . . She is said to be of a merry and somewhat loose character, and rabbits are also famed for their reproductive abilities. She (as Ix Chel) had a great shrine on the island of Cozumel, one of the places to which hurricane Wilma recently caused great destruction:” http://tiny.cc/eh4t9
Secretary Figueres may or may not have had any intent of associating the delegates with rabbit-like, loose moral character but she certainly wasn’t inviting “great destruction” on Cancun nor upon this latest attempt to foist the farce of global warming, now known as climate change, upon the world.
There’s no need to pray for the destruction or failure of the Cancun U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, this year’s version of last year’s failure at Copenhagen. Figueres should know that it is perfectly capable of failing, imploding, self-destructing on its own, the fate of most U.N. initiatives.
(See “Arrogance on the East River,” http://bit.ly/eL1CBZ, for a review of 2009′s “Climate-gate” and the ensuing debacle in Denmark.) . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2932)
Oh, great Ixchel, aged Mayan jaguar goddess of midwifery and medicine who set the universe in motion, Lady of the Rainbow, water goddess, consort to Votan, goddess of the moon, of reason, creativity and weaving! May you shed reason and shine your light upon the dim bulbs of the United Nations!
That blessing should be granted to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change if Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the gathering, gets her wish.
Figueres invoked Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates, waxing semi-poetic as she pleaded for enlightenment from the ancient goddess: ”May she inspire you–because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools:” http://tiny.cc/wj7q2
The depth and sincerity of the Costa Rican executive secretary’s prayer truly take one’s breath away, unless you consider that there was more to Ixchel than your average Mayan goddess.
She is closely associated with Chac Chel, the Mayan Young Moon Goddess who “is often depicted with a rabbit, . . . She is said to be of a merry and somewhat loose character, and rabbits are also famed for their reproductive abilities. She (as Ix Chel) had a great shrine on the island of Cozumel, one of the places to which hurricane Wilma recently caused great destruction:” http://tiny.cc/eh4t9
Secretary Figueres may or may not have had any intent of associating the delegates with rabbit-like, loose moral character but she certainly wasn’t inviting “great destruction” on Cancun nor upon this latest attempt to foist the farce of global warming, now known as climate change, upon the world.
There’s no need to pray for the destruction or failure of the Cancun U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, this year’s version of last year’s failure at Copenhagen. Figueres should know that it is perfectly capable of failing, imploding, self-destructing on its own, the fate of most U.N. initiatives.
(See “Arrogance on the East River,” http://bit.ly/eL1CBZ, for a review of 2009′s “Climate-gate” and the ensuing debacle in Denmark.) . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2932)
Another Day that May Live in Infamy Part Two
Another Day that May Live in Infamy--November 6. 2012 Part Two
“Another Day that May Live in Infamy–November 6, 2012 Part One” was premised on the very reasonable idea that on the next presidential election date America would have perhaps the last best chance to reverse our current course or to sign on to the self-destructive same ol’ of the last two years. It will be America’s call to re-elect Barack Hussein Obama or not.
As stated in the previous article, “With that looming reality–a scary reality that makes Hillary look good–it is worthwhile to give consideration to what Obama Two, four more years in the White House for the man who has already wreaked general havoc with America’s economy at the same time he has undermined America’s standing in the world community, undermined Americans’ confidence in America, and undermined, perhaps irremediably, America’s future:” http://tiny.cc/ezkiv
The enormity of the challenges we as a people and a nation face today, challenges both domestic and international, unprecedented challenges, if not met head-on with committed fortitude and skilled leadership, could lead to consequences that are beyond imagining.
No where would those consequences be more profoundly felt than in a president’s constitutional right to nominate Supreme Court justices, subject to confirmation by the United States Senate. With his re-election, Obama would have four more years to perpetrate his agenda. With an obsequious Democrat Senate and a complaisant, like-minded SCOTUS on his side, he could influence national thought and policy for twenty or thirty years.
Two years into his tenure, Obama has accomplished nothing insofar as changing the complexion of SCOTUS. He has succeeded in getting new faces on the Court but the two people he nominated merely added more female hormones and no additional liberal votes since they replaced other liberal justices.
To believe this obsessive, ideologically-driven president isn’t chomping at his leftist bit in anticipation of making SCOTUS an Obama Court with far-reaching influence is to be oblivious of how deeply he craves judicial change to complement the radical societal and economic changes he has already implemented.
Four more years in office will undoubtedly afford him at least two and possibly more opportunities to alter both the face and the majority philosophy of the Court, alterations which would take generations to reverse, radical changes in which Obama deeply believes and which could be far more catastrophic than almost any terrorist attack.
America has demonstrated that it can recover from virtually any attack and Obama has already publicly, re-assuredly, professed his confidence that we can “bounce back” from even terrorist nuclear assaults. Recovery from 20 or 30 years of liberal dominance of SCOTUS isn’t nearly as assured which only reinforces the idea that November 6, 2012 represents a watershed, a critical election which will not only determine where we go from there but where we as a nation end up.
Our next general Election Day will be a day which will live in infamy or a day to which Americans may look back and say, “That’s when we saved the country.” Based on Obama’s track record to date, the former designation is much more probable than the latter. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2911)
“Another Day that May Live in Infamy–November 6, 2012 Part One” was premised on the very reasonable idea that on the next presidential election date America would have perhaps the last best chance to reverse our current course or to sign on to the self-destructive same ol’ of the last two years. It will be America’s call to re-elect Barack Hussein Obama or not.
As stated in the previous article, “With that looming reality–a scary reality that makes Hillary look good–it is worthwhile to give consideration to what Obama Two, four more years in the White House for the man who has already wreaked general havoc with America’s economy at the same time he has undermined America’s standing in the world community, undermined Americans’ confidence in America, and undermined, perhaps irremediably, America’s future:” http://tiny.cc/ezkiv
The enormity of the challenges we as a people and a nation face today, challenges both domestic and international, unprecedented challenges, if not met head-on with committed fortitude and skilled leadership, could lead to consequences that are beyond imagining.
No where would those consequences be more profoundly felt than in a president’s constitutional right to nominate Supreme Court justices, subject to confirmation by the United States Senate. With his re-election, Obama would have four more years to perpetrate his agenda. With an obsequious Democrat Senate and a complaisant, like-minded SCOTUS on his side, he could influence national thought and policy for twenty or thirty years.
Two years into his tenure, Obama has accomplished nothing insofar as changing the complexion of SCOTUS. He has succeeded in getting new faces on the Court but the two people he nominated merely added more female hormones and no additional liberal votes since they replaced other liberal justices.
To believe this obsessive, ideologically-driven president isn’t chomping at his leftist bit in anticipation of making SCOTUS an Obama Court with far-reaching influence is to be oblivious of how deeply he craves judicial change to complement the radical societal and economic changes he has already implemented.
Four more years in office will undoubtedly afford him at least two and possibly more opportunities to alter both the face and the majority philosophy of the Court, alterations which would take generations to reverse, radical changes in which Obama deeply believes and which could be far more catastrophic than almost any terrorist attack.
America has demonstrated that it can recover from virtually any attack and Obama has already publicly, re-assuredly, professed his confidence that we can “bounce back” from even terrorist nuclear assaults. Recovery from 20 or 30 years of liberal dominance of SCOTUS isn’t nearly as assured which only reinforces the idea that November 6, 2012 represents a watershed, a critical election which will not only determine where we go from there but where we as a nation end up.
Our next general Election Day will be a day which will live in infamy or a day to which Americans may look back and say, “That’s when we saved the country.” Based on Obama’s track record to date, the former designation is much more probable than the latter. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2911)
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Halal Food Fight and Worse in the U.K. due to Sharia, الشريعة الإسلامي
Halal Food Fight and Worse in the U.K. due to Sharia, الشريعة الإسلامي
For the uninitiated, all of us infidels, ”Halal (Arabic:حلال, ḥalāl; means lawful or legal) a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. It is the opposite of haraam. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law (Sharia, الشريعة الإسلامية).” (Wikipedia)
Got that? Apparently they don’t in the formerly Great Britain where a classic food fight is in progress pitting Christians against Muslims. Like so many other Christian-Muslim battles, tugs of war, especially in the U.K., the Muslims are winning.
The terms ”Great” Britain and ”United” Kingdom are fast becoming anachronistic for many reasons, not the least of which is England’s huge influx of Muslims from all over the globe, Muslims who have since been flexing their Islamic muscles. The latest field of battle is the arena of halal-approved foods and if it’s true that we are what we eat, Brit infidels will soon be converting to the religion of Allah, not without some resistance, however.
“A Christian organization in Britain has launched a petition campaign aimed at defending the right of those who for religious, moral or other reasons do not want to eat meat slaughtered according to Islamic law (shari’a).”
The people at Operation Nehemiah, named after the son of Hakaliah and meaning “Yahweh comforts,” have been getting precious little comfort lately. They’re acting as if the U.K. is still a Christian country, a fantasy dispelled even by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a free country, which is becoming more and more disputable. Still, the Nehemiahs maintain the quaint notion that infidel Brits should be entitled to eat what they want rather than eat what Muslims want them to eat.
What’s this world coming to? Operation Nehemiah thinks it knows: “It argues that the mainstreaming of halal across the world constitutes part of a global Islamization drive:” http://tiny.cc/ti3ro
To be crude, “No sheat, Nehemiah sherlocks!”
The halal issue came to light in the most unlikely of British places, the House of Commons, when lawmakers discovered that, unbeknownst to them, they had been scarfing down halal poultry for an unknown period of time.
As Seinfeld might say, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” since halal dietary laws are little different from kashrut or what we call Jewish kosher food. The sticking point, the sticky wicket, as Brits say, is that the chefs in the Commons’ eatery failed to inform their customers that they were the subjects of a P.C. movement as well as being the subjects of Her Majesty.
As Conservative MP from East Yorkshire, Greg Knight, indignantly objected, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2924)
For the uninitiated, all of us infidels, ”Halal (Arabic:حلال, ḥalāl; means lawful or legal) a term designating any object or an action which is permissible to use or engage in, according to Islamic law. It is the opposite of haraam. The term is used to designate food seen as permissible according to Islamic law (Sharia, الشريعة الإسلامية).” (Wikipedia)
Got that? Apparently they don’t in the formerly Great Britain where a classic food fight is in progress pitting Christians against Muslims. Like so many other Christian-Muslim battles, tugs of war, especially in the U.K., the Muslims are winning.
The terms ”Great” Britain and ”United” Kingdom are fast becoming anachronistic for many reasons, not the least of which is England’s huge influx of Muslims from all over the globe, Muslims who have since been flexing their Islamic muscles. The latest field of battle is the arena of halal-approved foods and if it’s true that we are what we eat, Brit infidels will soon be converting to the religion of Allah, not without some resistance, however.
“A Christian organization in Britain has launched a petition campaign aimed at defending the right of those who for religious, moral or other reasons do not want to eat meat slaughtered according to Islamic law (shari’a).”
The people at Operation Nehemiah, named after the son of Hakaliah and meaning “Yahweh comforts,” have been getting precious little comfort lately. They’re acting as if the U.K. is still a Christian country, a fantasy dispelled even by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and a free country, which is becoming more and more disputable. Still, the Nehemiahs maintain the quaint notion that infidel Brits should be entitled to eat what they want rather than eat what Muslims want them to eat.
What’s this world coming to? Operation Nehemiah thinks it knows: “It argues that the mainstreaming of halal across the world constitutes part of a global Islamization drive:” http://tiny.cc/ti3ro
To be crude, “No sheat, Nehemiah sherlocks!”
The halal issue came to light in the most unlikely of British places, the House of Commons, when lawmakers discovered that, unbeknownst to them, they had been scarfing down halal poultry for an unknown period of time.
As Seinfeld might say, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” since halal dietary laws are little different from kashrut or what we call Jewish kosher food. The sticking point, the sticky wicket, as Brits say, is that the chefs in the Commons’ eatery failed to inform their customers that they were the subjects of a P.C. movement as well as being the subjects of Her Majesty.
As Conservative MP from East Yorkshire, Greg Knight, indignantly objected, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2924)
Christmas Four: Take Your Child to "Hide/Seek?"
Christmas Four: Take Your Child to "Hide/Seek?"
Art for art’s sake, l’art pour l’art, the early 19th century philosophy posited the view that art needs no justification other than being art and that no other purpose is necessary or relevant to the artiste. The definition of “art” on Dictionary.com is ”the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”
Washington’s venerable and esteemed Smithsonian Institution, established in 1846 at the behest of James Smithson for the ”increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,” is in the process of re-defining “what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance” and defiling its role as America’s greatest, free museum and institution.
The Smithsonian’s new exhibition with the cutesy, misleading title, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” which is followed by an equally misleading if not as cutesy program description, could lead families visiting the exhibit to believe they were about to view some nice portraits. Sadly, they would be wrong.
The Smithsonian “Hide/Seek” exhibit has little to do with playing Hide and Seek, although that devious title will be sure to draw in its target audience, the kid-crowd.
Instead, “Hide/Seek” is devoted to “such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art—especially abstraction—were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society’s evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment:” http://tiny.cc/awkgk
Paraphrased for the masses, “Hide/Seek,” were it a movie, would be classified X-rated by the MPAA.
Opening just in time for Christmas break, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2919)
Art for art’s sake, l’art pour l’art, the early 19th century philosophy posited the view that art needs no justification other than being art and that no other purpose is necessary or relevant to the artiste. The definition of “art” on Dictionary.com is ”the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”
Washington’s venerable and esteemed Smithsonian Institution, established in 1846 at the behest of James Smithson for the ”increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,” is in the process of re-defining “what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance” and defiling its role as America’s greatest, free museum and institution.
The Smithsonian’s new exhibition with the cutesy, misleading title, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” which is followed by an equally misleading if not as cutesy program description, could lead families visiting the exhibit to believe they were about to view some nice portraits. Sadly, they would be wrong.
The Smithsonian “Hide/Seek” exhibit has little to do with playing Hide and Seek, although that devious title will be sure to draw in its target audience, the kid-crowd.
Instead, “Hide/Seek” is devoted to “such themes as the role of sexual difference in depicting modern America; how artists explored the fluidity of sexuality and gender; how major themes in modern art—especially abstraction—were influenced by social marginalization; and how art reflected society’s evolving and changing attitudes toward sexuality, desire, and romantic attachment:” http://tiny.cc/awkgk
Paraphrased for the masses, “Hide/Seek,” were it a movie, would be classified X-rated by the MPAA.
Opening just in time for Christmas break, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2919)
Friday, December 3, 2010
Another Day that May Live in Infamy Part One
Another Day that May Live in Infamy Part One
Almost 70 years ago, on December 7th, 1941, America sustained a total of 2,896 mostly military casualties at a little known naval base at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese navy staged a massive sneak attack. It took years but we eventually recovered from what FDR termed “a day which will live in infamy.”
More than nine years ago, on September 11th, 2001, America sustained a total of 2,977 mostly civilian deaths when 19 Islamic reprobates attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Again, it has taken years but we have substantially recovered, physically if not psychologically.
On Election Day, November 6, 2012 we may or may not be attacked again by Muslim terrorists in our seemingly endless war with Islam. Should that attack come to pass, barring the unimaginable, it still won’t pack the equivalent and immediate emotional shot to America’s gut that Japan’s unprovoked sneak attack on Pearl Harbor or even the devastating attacks of 9/11 accomplished.
Today, according to Obama, in cock-sure concurrence with Muslim-American political commentator, Fareed Zakaria, we are allegedly ready for anything including nuclear terrorism from which we are well able to “bounce back:” http://tiny.cc/p1jmm
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s nightmare of a “sleeping giant” awoke in 1941 and defeated the Axis powers less than four years later; America has yet to fully awaken to the deadly nature of the threat posed by Islam and we are still at war with the Muslim world, fighting their war instead of fighting to win.
However, whatever happens in that endless war, we will assuredly ”bounce back” because, well, because Obama has told us so, which is damned good to hear . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2832)
Almost 70 years ago, on December 7th, 1941, America sustained a total of 2,896 mostly military casualties at a little known naval base at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese navy staged a massive sneak attack. It took years but we eventually recovered from what FDR termed “a day which will live in infamy.”
More than nine years ago, on September 11th, 2001, America sustained a total of 2,977 mostly civilian deaths when 19 Islamic reprobates attacked the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Again, it has taken years but we have substantially recovered, physically if not psychologically.
On Election Day, November 6, 2012 we may or may not be attacked again by Muslim terrorists in our seemingly endless war with Islam. Should that attack come to pass, barring the unimaginable, it still won’t pack the equivalent and immediate emotional shot to America’s gut that Japan’s unprovoked sneak attack on Pearl Harbor or even the devastating attacks of 9/11 accomplished.
Today, according to Obama, in cock-sure concurrence with Muslim-American political commentator, Fareed Zakaria, we are allegedly ready for anything including nuclear terrorism from which we are well able to “bounce back:” http://tiny.cc/p1jmm
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s nightmare of a “sleeping giant” awoke in 1941 and defeated the Axis powers less than four years later; America has yet to fully awaken to the deadly nature of the threat posed by Islam and we are still at war with the Muslim world, fighting their war instead of fighting to win.
However, whatever happens in that endless war, we will assuredly ”bounce back” because, well, because Obama has told us so, which is damned good to hear . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2832)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
AIDS, HIV, Stigmas, and World AIDS Day
AIDS, HIV, Stigmas, and World AIDS Day
If nothing else, we have to admit that we are truly blessed with a president who, much like Bill Clinton, feels our pain–even as he inflicts it and hopes we don’t notice.
At the risk of overly-parsing presidential words, a small risk when the words are those of the silver-tongued, opaque Barack Hussein Obama, the following is one view of a recent presidential proclamation and its residual consequences.
With over a million people now suffering in the United States from the scourge of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, A.I.D.S., an additional 56,000 being infected annually, and another million afflicted with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control, President Barack Obama’s 2010 World AIDS Day proclamation commemorating that occasion was illustrative of how he feels our pain, inflicts much more pain, and trusts in God or Allah that no one will notice the latter.
Obama urged that “attention and leadership” be devoted to the scourge, that Americans join in “appropriate activities” to remember the victims of A.I.D.S., and recommitted the U.S. to fighting the disease, preventing its spread, and finding a cure, all admirable words and commendable goals.
However, Obama’s reference to “combating the stigma and discrimination” associated with HIV/AIDS slipped into the realm of the very peculiar in that it suggests that Americans not suffering from those mostly sexually-transmitted diseases ignore the existence of the disease in those who are infected as if we were all Mother Theresas or Father Damians. It also suggests some heretofore undisclosed, built-in American immunity.
That is not an attempt to intimate that Americans should shun or discriminate against the sufferers but rather to say that to ignore their afflictions is to ignore the very real potential of encouraging healthy people, through empathy or ignorance, to contract A.I.D.S. or HIV perhaps by engaging in the same, unsafe sexual activities that caused the illness.
After all, if there’s no “stigma,” which, in the case of A.I.D.S./HIV should connote grave, mortal danger, perceived by others, especially by the young, why bother avoiding it? (Those who would dismiss living on the edge like that must not know any teenagers.)
Our president has already proven his mettle in this matter of eliminating stigmas. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2904)
If nothing else, we have to admit that we are truly blessed with a president who, much like Bill Clinton, feels our pain–even as he inflicts it and hopes we don’t notice.
At the risk of overly-parsing presidential words, a small risk when the words are those of the silver-tongued, opaque Barack Hussein Obama, the following is one view of a recent presidential proclamation and its residual consequences.
With over a million people now suffering in the United States from the scourge of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome, A.I.D.S., an additional 56,000 being infected annually, and another million afflicted with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control, President Barack Obama’s 2010 World AIDS Day proclamation commemorating that occasion was illustrative of how he feels our pain, inflicts much more pain, and trusts in God or Allah that no one will notice the latter.
Obama urged that “attention and leadership” be devoted to the scourge, that Americans join in “appropriate activities” to remember the victims of A.I.D.S., and recommitted the U.S. to fighting the disease, preventing its spread, and finding a cure, all admirable words and commendable goals.
However, Obama’s reference to “combating the stigma and discrimination” associated with HIV/AIDS slipped into the realm of the very peculiar in that it suggests that Americans not suffering from those mostly sexually-transmitted diseases ignore the existence of the disease in those who are infected as if we were all Mother Theresas or Father Damians. It also suggests some heretofore undisclosed, built-in American immunity.
That is not an attempt to intimate that Americans should shun or discriminate against the sufferers but rather to say that to ignore their afflictions is to ignore the very real potential of encouraging healthy people, through empathy or ignorance, to contract A.I.D.S. or HIV perhaps by engaging in the same, unsafe sexual activities that caused the illness.
After all, if there’s no “stigma,” which, in the case of A.I.D.S./HIV should connote grave, mortal danger, perceived by others, especially by the young, why bother avoiding it? (Those who would dismiss living on the edge like that must not know any teenagers.)
Our president has already proven his mettle in this matter of eliminating stigmas. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2904)
Christmas Three: Christmas Makes a Minor Philly Comeback
Christmas Three: Christmas Makes a Minor Philly Comeback!
In the midst of the annual War on Christmas, Christian and non-Christian observers of Christmas can take some heart in a report out of Philadelphia.
“Christmas is back” is the lead on a Philly.com article which tells of good tidings in the City of Brotherly Love: “Mayor Nutter, after sustaining two days of controversy, wants ‘Christmas’ back up on the signs at the entrance to the German Christmas Village at City Hall.”
Mayor Michael Nutter–no cheap puns, please!–in his first 4-year term in Philly and scheduled to face a re-elction battle in 2012, decided, after “personal reflection,” to re-instate Christmas after a public uproar that arose to deleting it.
As Philly.com summarized the controversy, “The tempest in a holiday teapot kicked off Monday when workers were spotted taking the word Christmas off the archways into the traditional German Christmas Village outside City Hall in Dilworth Plaza. The organizer took down the word after Managing Director Richard Negrin told him the city had received complaints:” http://tiny.cc/edcze
It wasn’t quite clear as to whom was being referred to as “the organizer,” the origin, volume, and nature of the “complaints” weren’t clarified, Negrin adopted the classic Sgt. Schultz defense of, “I know nutink!” by saying “he never specifically asked for the word to be removed,” and the personally-reflecting Mayor Nutter hastened to add,”The Christmas Village is not a religious service. It’s an outdoor fair. It’s a very commercial enterprise.”
But, why quibble? The word, if not the spirit, of Christmas has been returned to the City of Philadelphia . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2900)
In the midst of the annual War on Christmas, Christian and non-Christian observers of Christmas can take some heart in a report out of Philadelphia.
“Christmas is back” is the lead on a Philly.com article which tells of good tidings in the City of Brotherly Love: “Mayor Nutter, after sustaining two days of controversy, wants ‘Christmas’ back up on the signs at the entrance to the German Christmas Village at City Hall.”
Mayor Michael Nutter–no cheap puns, please!–in his first 4-year term in Philly and scheduled to face a re-elction battle in 2012, decided, after “personal reflection,” to re-instate Christmas after a public uproar that arose to deleting it.
As Philly.com summarized the controversy, “The tempest in a holiday teapot kicked off Monday when workers were spotted taking the word Christmas off the archways into the traditional German Christmas Village outside City Hall in Dilworth Plaza. The organizer took down the word after Managing Director Richard Negrin told him the city had received complaints:” http://tiny.cc/edcze
It wasn’t quite clear as to whom was being referred to as “the organizer,” the origin, volume, and nature of the “complaints” weren’t clarified, Negrin adopted the classic Sgt. Schultz defense of, “I know nutink!” by saying “he never specifically asked for the word to be removed,” and the personally-reflecting Mayor Nutter hastened to add,”The Christmas Village is not a religious service. It’s an outdoor fair. It’s a very commercial enterprise.”
But, why quibble? The word, if not the spirit, of Christmas has been returned to the City of Philadelphia . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2900)
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Pfc. Bradley E. Manning: Soldier, Homosexual, Traitor
Pfc. Bradley E. Manning: Soldier, Homosexual, Traitor
In any event, Pfc. Manning was of no mind to wait to see how the tally went. He was royally pissed at the world in general and the military and America in particular and elected to wage his own, private war.
In an expectedly-sympathetic piece on “the early struggles” of Pfc. Manning, the New York Times reveals that Manning was bullied as a kid, “bullied” being the latest buzzword to gain reader attention.
It seems that young Brad’s gaiety blossomed early and visibly and his fellow students taunted him about it during his years growing up with his mother in her native southwest Wales, taunting which complemented the bullying he received in his Crescent, Oklahoma years with his father when he was harassed “for being a geek.”
The latter just may have been related to his refusal to recite ”under God” in the “Pledge of Allegiance,” or maybe not.
Even with his angelic, baby-faced look, but keeping in mind that Lucifer, too, was once an angel, poor Bradley couldn’t catch a break wherever he went until he went into the U.S. Army where he hit upon his sure-fire solution for getting even with America for his perceived maltreatment, and his failures in life and in the Army.
After falling in love with the love of his life, a “self-described drag queen,” according to the Times, he felt he had “been isolated so long, But events kept forcing me to figure out ways to survive:” http://tiny.cc/zjyii
He didn’t spell out those events but his survival skills led him to decide to steal secret government documents by the hundreds of thousands and to transmit them to the equally-disturbed Julian Assange at WikiLeaks. The rest is history.
One thing is certain, Brad won’t feel isolated ever again. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2894)
In any event, Pfc. Manning was of no mind to wait to see how the tally went. He was royally pissed at the world in general and the military and America in particular and elected to wage his own, private war.
In an expectedly-sympathetic piece on “the early struggles” of Pfc. Manning, the New York Times reveals that Manning was bullied as a kid, “bullied” being the latest buzzword to gain reader attention.
It seems that young Brad’s gaiety blossomed early and visibly and his fellow students taunted him about it during his years growing up with his mother in her native southwest Wales, taunting which complemented the bullying he received in his Crescent, Oklahoma years with his father when he was harassed “for being a geek.”
The latter just may have been related to his refusal to recite ”under God” in the “Pledge of Allegiance,” or maybe not.
Even with his angelic, baby-faced look, but keeping in mind that Lucifer, too, was once an angel, poor Bradley couldn’t catch a break wherever he went until he went into the U.S. Army where he hit upon his sure-fire solution for getting even with America for his perceived maltreatment, and his failures in life and in the Army.
After falling in love with the love of his life, a “self-described drag queen,” according to the Times, he felt he had “been isolated so long, But events kept forcing me to figure out ways to survive:” http://tiny.cc/zjyii
He didn’t spell out those events but his survival skills led him to decide to steal secret government documents by the hundreds of thousands and to transmit them to the equally-disturbed Julian Assange at WikiLeaks. The rest is history.
One thing is certain, Brad won’t feel isolated ever again. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2894)
The Case for Canning Clinton
The Case for Canning Clinton
So the title, “The Case for Canning Clinton,” does not refer to Bubba but rather to his blushing bride, presidential-ever-hopeful, now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, laughably America’s top diplomat.
The former commodity maven who miraculously, artfully, turned a pittance of a thousand bucks into a $100,000. windfall within a year due to her speculative expertise in cattle futures, the same Hillary who, even more miraculously, said she was named after the famed Mount Everest explorer, Sir Edmund Hillary, even though she was a gleam in her daddy’s eye about 5 years before Edmund set foot on the mountain, may finally have met her Waterloo, her long overdue comeppance, thanks to WikiLeaks.
See “The WikiTsunami,” http://tiny.cc/wxv51
The case for canning Secretary of State Clinton is a simple, straightforward one and comes to us directly from the U.S. State Department website which spells out her general mission and which Hillary surely had a hand in composing.
Hillary’s own page on that site defines her duties: ”The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department and the Foreign Service of the United States.”
The website, (Hillary?), further states, “[T]his work starts at home, where we have rejected the false choice between our security and our values. It continues around the world, where human rights are always on our diplomatic and development agendas, even with nations on whose cooperation we depend for a wide range of issues. . . A lot has been said about our 21st century statecraft and our e-diplomacy, but we really believe that it’s an important additional tool for us to utilize.”
Sounding even more Hillary-esque, it goes on to say, “We must use what has been called “smart power”: the full range of tools at our disposal–diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural–picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy:” http://tiny.cc/p2x62
And there you have it folks, the State Department’s cogent delineation of the bases for the removal from office of the Secretary of State: an abject failure to fulfill her assigned mission.
Thanks to the revelations of Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, it is clear that Clinton arrogantly rejected both “our security and our values,” she incompetently misused and failed to use “the full range of tools at our disposal–diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural,” and she obviously picked the wrong tool and “combination of tools.”
In brief, since diplomats, even inept diplomats, love their briefs, Hillary Clinton authorized, ordered, our diplomats and our foreign embassies to spy on other world diplomats and even to look for dirt on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Prostituting our worldwide diplomatic corps might better describe what Secretary Clinton mandated.
Not content to spy on enemies, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2880)
So the title, “The Case for Canning Clinton,” does not refer to Bubba but rather to his blushing bride, presidential-ever-hopeful, now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, laughably America’s top diplomat.
The former commodity maven who miraculously, artfully, turned a pittance of a thousand bucks into a $100,000. windfall within a year due to her speculative expertise in cattle futures, the same Hillary who, even more miraculously, said she was named after the famed Mount Everest explorer, Sir Edmund Hillary, even though she was a gleam in her daddy’s eye about 5 years before Edmund set foot on the mountain, may finally have met her Waterloo, her long overdue comeppance, thanks to WikiLeaks.
See “The WikiTsunami,” http://tiny.cc/wxv51
The case for canning Secretary of State Clinton is a simple, straightforward one and comes to us directly from the U.S. State Department website which spells out her general mission and which Hillary surely had a hand in composing.
Hillary’s own page on that site defines her duties: ”The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department and the Foreign Service of the United States.”
The website, (Hillary?), further states, “[T]his work starts at home, where we have rejected the false choice between our security and our values. It continues around the world, where human rights are always on our diplomatic and development agendas, even with nations on whose cooperation we depend for a wide range of issues. . . A lot has been said about our 21st century statecraft and our e-diplomacy, but we really believe that it’s an important additional tool for us to utilize.”
Sounding even more Hillary-esque, it goes on to say, “We must use what has been called “smart power”: the full range of tools at our disposal–diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural–picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy:” http://tiny.cc/p2x62
And there you have it folks, the State Department’s cogent delineation of the bases for the removal from office of the Secretary of State: an abject failure to fulfill her assigned mission.
Thanks to the revelations of Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, it is clear that Clinton arrogantly rejected both “our security and our values,” she incompetently misused and failed to use “the full range of tools at our disposal–diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural,” and she obviously picked the wrong tool and “combination of tools.”
In brief, since diplomats, even inept diplomats, love their briefs, Hillary Clinton authorized, ordered, our diplomats and our foreign embassies to spy on other world diplomats and even to look for dirt on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Prostituting our worldwide diplomatic corps might better describe what Secretary Clinton mandated.
Not content to spy on enemies, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2880)
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