Friday, October 19, 2007

Hard To Port, Many Storms

Sometimes topical proximity trumps temporal proximity, I always say....

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When Bill Clinton was president, I never watched or listened to a single one of his speeches. Nor did I read any of them. When I heard his voice coming through my TV or radio or any other electronic device, I'd put an ax through it, whether or not it was mine.
Okay, I'd just turn it off. Which probably pissed off more than a few strangers, but it was either that or boil my ears constantly.
But it never would have occurred to me to do something like this:
But for nearly three dozen [Lancaster, PA] youngsters from the U-Gro child care center, located just off the President's motorcade route on Stony Battery Road, it was all about waving hand-drawn flags, singing songs and holding banners welcoming to Lancaster one of the most powerful men in the world.
"What an opportunity this is for our children," center director Liz Burkhard said while herding children ages four to six into a compact, orderly row behind the yellow police tape lining Stony Battery at Church Street.
One group of protesters quickly descended on the happy cluster, however, chanting and singing their own songs to drown out the children's voices.
"Stop brainwashing children to support a President who doesn't deserve our support," one man yelled through a bullhorn. Others told the kids to "educate yourselves" and said "your parents are killing you" by supporting Bush and the war.
For all the prattle about "vast right-wing conspiracies" and "right-wing extremists" and "Republican hate machines," I don't recall either Sick Willie or any moppets along any of his motorcade routs ever having to endure such vile thuggery. That's probably because hard-core Bushophobes really don't have anything better to do.
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Another example of how referring to today's liberals as Stalinists is anything but hyperbole:
In 1997, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) adopted a surreptitious political agenda in the form of a new code of ethics, enjoining social workers to advocate for social justice "from local to global levels." A widely used textbook - "Direct Social Work Practice: Theory and Skill" - declares that promoting "social and economic justice" is especially imperative as a response to "the conservative trends of the past three decades." Clearly, in the social work profession's catechism, whatever social and economic justice are, they are the opposite of conservatism.
The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the national accreditor of social work education programs, encourages - not that encouragement is required - the ideological permeation of the curricula, including mandatory student advocacy. The CSWE says students must demonstrate an ability to "understand the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination."
At Arizona State University, social work students must "demonstrate compliance with the NASW Code of Ethics." Berkeley requires compliance as proof of "suitability for the profession." Students at the University of Central Florida "must comply" with the NASW code. At the University of Houston, students must sign a pledge of adherence. At the University of Michigan, failure to comply with the code may be deemed "academic misconduct."
Schools' mission statements, student manuals and course descriptions are clotted with the vocabulary of "progressive" cant - "diversity," "inclusion," "classism," "ethnocentrism," "racism," "sexism," "heterosexism," "ageism," "white privilege," "ableism," "contextualizes subjects," "cultural imperialism," "social identities and positionalities," "biopsychosocial" problems, "a just share of society's resources," and on and on. What goes on under the cover of this miasma of jargon? Just what the
American Association of University Professors warned against in its 1915 "Declaration of Principles" - teachers "indoctrinating" students.
Ah-ah-ah, Mr. Will; that's judgmentalism, and is strictly forbidden. Good thing you're not a social worker, or you'd be boiling in fat-free vegetable oil right now.
Besides, it's only "indoctrination" if a school teaches free-market capitalism, or rugged individuality, or American greatness, or Gaia help us, traditional values. As long as curricula enforce smothering, stultifying, oppressive left-wing conformity, that, my good man, is "education".
Or re-education, as the case may be. Uncle Ho's Vietnamese "social workers" set quite the example for the quick learners at the CSWE, didn't they?
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You wouldn't think neoBolsheviks and Islamists would have so much in common, would you? Just the latter's homophobia would seem to create an unbridgeable schism all by itself.
But like the supposed irreconcilability of Sunni and Shia, the little pinko dhimmis are always riding to the rescue of their jihadi comrades - especially if they can smear conservatives in the process:
The President of The George Washington University, Steven Knapp, came out swinging when he thought that conservative students had hung pernicious, anti-Muslim fliers around campus. "There is no place for expressions of hatred …. We do not condone, and we will not tolerate the dissemination of fliers or other documents that vilify any religious, ethnic or racial group," he said in a statement released to the media. The Executive Vice President of the Student Association called the acts "heinous" and said that he "would support expulsion."
Emblazoned on the much-reported fliers were the words "Hate Muslims? So Do We!!" The fliers went on to stereotype an Arab Muslim as having "lasers in eyes," "hatred for women," a "suicide vest," and a "hidden AK-47." The ads were maliciously attributed to Young America's Foundation.
Seven leftist students have since come forward to take credit for creating and posting the fliers. One of the students, Brian Tierney, is a self-described socialist who fantasizes about lining up George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz in front of a firing squad. Another student, Adam Kokesh, is currently being prosecuted for defacing public property during an anti-war rally. Overall, the GWU seven aren't the sharpest utensils in the drawer. They claimed the flier was "expos[ing] the upcoming Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week sponsored by the GWU Young America's Foundation for the celebration of racism that it is." Leaving aside for a moment the fact that Islam isn't a race, these students charged conservatives with racism, and then to buttress those baseless claims, these same radicals manufactured actual racist material to pin on the young conservatives.
So far, President Knapp has been less than enthusiastic about taking any type of disciplinary action now that liberals have been revealed to be the culprits. "We have established judicial policies and procedures," University spokeswoman Tracy Schario said. "I am confident that President Knapp will let them take their course."
What about not "condon[ing]" and "tolerat[ing] the dissemination" of hate? All of a sudden the administration is concerned about due process? Yet when the fliers were first spotted, Young America's Foundation students were dragged into an
administrator's office, presumed guilty, pressured—unsuccessfully—to sign a statement disavowing hate speech that may originate from any of their future events, and hauled before a University "Peace Forum" where they were jeered at by fellow students.
So much for due process!
I'm sure if Muslims were the intended target of the fliers, President Knapp would've probably announced plans to build a multimillion-dollar mosque on campus, Imams would be hired as visiting professors, prayer rugs would be imported from Saudi Arabia, and the school would institute a new study abroad program to Mecca.
Alas, conservatives were the target, so President Knapp's wrath has subsided, and his clarion call for justice is no more. And that means that the political profiling of conservatives continues for another day.
Left-leaning double-standards are as old as the hills on granny's chest, as the old saying goes. Particularly on college campii, where using such expressions will probably get you arrested these days.
Thing is, that isn't much of an exaggeration. I wonder how far we are from open, official, across-the-board discrimination based on political affiliation and/or ideological bent - especially on college campii, where it is already close to being a reality [Okay, fifteen months from tomorrow, but let's pretend it's still indeterminate....]. I also wonder how it is that no "self-described socialist" has yet tried to act out Brian Tierney's twisted, seditious fantasy. That we know of, I'm assuming - I'll guarantee the Secret Service has logged a lot of overtime the past seven years.
Ironic it is that these GWU nutters are showing how thoroughly they've dhimmized themselves in their despicable campaign to persecute conservative students into third-class citizenship. Though it is an impressive achievement in an etymological sense: they're managing to redefine bias, cowardice, and treachery all at the same time.
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In other cases, though, "political profiling of conservatives" is just rank paranoia, and the pathetic attempt to garner public attention - and listeners:
Air America radio host Randi Rhodes is temporarily off the air, but claims she was brutally attacked near her Manhattan apartment are bogus, her lawyer and a police source said today.
Fellow host Jon Elliott claimed on the liberal radio network that Rhodes had been mugged while walking her dog, Simon, on Sunday night. Elliot, who said Rhodes lost several teeth in the attack, waxed about a possible conspiracy.
"Is this an attempt by the right-wing, hate machine to silence one of our own?" he asked on the air, according to Talking Radio, a blog. "Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we’re winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us?"
A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging. Cops from Manhattan's 17th Precinct called her attorney, who told them Rhodes was not a victim of a crime, the source said.
Wow; I didn't know Err America was even still on the err (um, air). Didn't they go bankrupt some time ago? Or did George Soros open up his checkbook again?
As to Randi of the Redwoods losing several teeth, honestly, how could anybody tell the difference? Or am I thinking of Janeane Garofalo? How would Jon Elliot spreading this manure all over the back forty goose Rhodes' audience when his is probably even smaller? And what is with his paranoia, anyway? His party rules Congress and its goddess is steamrolling toward the presidency-for-life in just twelve and a half short months - in other words, they are winning.
And yet what are they doing with their ascendancy? Threatening us (ask Jason Mattera and the aforementioned Lancaster, PA parents), trying to silence us ("Fairness" Doctrine, anyone?) - and that's before Hillary takes over.
Oh, yes, and smearing the entire conservative movement with a lie so ephemeral even its avowed beneficiary wouldn't help sell it.
Reminds me of one of George Carlin's few witty comments on politics (paraphrased):
I don't vote. I always stay home on Election Day. But if you want to cast your ballot, go ahead, have fun, enjoy yourself. The difference between you and me is, when I'm finished masturbating, I'll have a little something to show for it.
If Zippy The Pinhead (or whatever her name is) gains as many listeners from this defamation stunt as teeth she didn't lose, maybe I'll put Jenber up to claiming on Hard Starboard Radio that dastardly Hoosier State Donks have snuck staples into every square of her twelve-pack of double-ply bathroom tissue.
Talk about a means to an end....
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And lastly, how's this for Enemy Media comic relief:
That's the actual headline, folks. The ensuing story is less garish, but no less lamentationary:
At what's believed to be the world's largest cemetery, where Shiite Muslims aspire to be buried and millions already have been, business isn't good.
A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds.
The only line missing is, "'Surge' working, terrorists and Democrats hardest hit...."