Blago Guilty!

Critical Thinking Activity

Propose a real-world example that correcponds to the series of cartoons below.

Values

Reported in many newspapers, the “Hooters” controversy in a Pennsylvania middle school has made national news. The comment below was posted by a more “progressive” reader in response to a woman who said she was a parent of one of the students and expressed outraged at the actions of the school chaperones.

“Really, please, you are the reason the world has sex addicts. Your post was so absurd and ridiculous I could not get through it. It’s a restaurant, not a strip club, your 14 year old will be fine, what do you do when he is at the beach? Or maybe you don't take him because of all the so called sinful things his raging hormones might think. So he might get a chubby now and then, might jerk off...so what it’s perfectly normal....sexuality is a part of life and they are learning it early in school.”

What strikes me as most offensive is the way the legitimate concerns of the parent are dismissed so condescendingly by the writer. I would not be surprised if she had no children of her own.

I am not usually characterized as a sexual prude, and I have been to Hooters, but taking a group of 8th graders to lunch at Hooters as part of a school sponsored field trip is irresponsible—period. I was amused by the cowardly statement by the district superintendent who said he wished the chaperones had made a different choice, but no parents had complained. The decision by the chaperones was wrong and should have been confronted as such, whether any parents objected or not. I am fairly certain that such a decision would never have been made by one of my colleagues. If it had, I am sure my principal would have treated such a poor decision privately with an appropriate reprimand and publically apologized to the parents whether they complained or not. It would have been treated as a serious lack of judgment, not an unfortunate mistake.

The quote below is from a woman who was trying to defend Representative Anthony Weiner for his recent bad actions. She is trying to minimize his responsibility by blaming it on the women he texted.

“Everyone always blames the man! What about these women who send lewd pictures of themselves to entice these men who already have this problem. They send them these lewd, half naked pic's and talk dirty, sexy, and everything you can imagine to these men to get them to do these things, ( send nude photos, talk nasty to them ) and then all of a sudden they decide to go public with it. I myself think that is very low grade. If you didn't like where it was going on you should have put a stop to it before it got out of hand. I (BLAME) the women too, if not more. They can put an end to it anytime their little heart desires, but no they keep playing the game, and then decide to cause a public scandal with what has been going on for 3 yrs. Why? Why bring it out now? All you did was ruin a man’s life, granted he was a big part of it, but after all "HE"S A MAN” You women have to learn to live with the fact that "ALL" men have a strong sex drive, and your teasing them just makes it worse!!!”

What this says about our society is significant as well as a little distressing. Taking both of these comments into consideration two things are clear; (1) Anthony Weiner should have spent more time at Hooters when he was 13, and (2) he could still get reelected in his district.

Why I hate Politics!

My mother-in-law, God rest her soul, observed that the continuum between liberals and conservatives was a circle not a line. In other words, as the two positions became more and more extreme they actually moved ever closer together rather than apart. This observation is crystal clear to any objective observer; assuming there are any objective observers left. Sadly, almost everyone who votes has rationalized their position to the extent that they are blinded to the truth.

The problem, in my opinion, is that the media has taken sides and has stopped presenting information without also spinning it to sway opinion. This is done by both the movements, liberal and conservative, each maintaining they are impartial, when in fact they are both full of shit. Let me give you an example.

In my opinion Rush Limbaugh is an arrogant, self-important ass, who mistakenly thinks that his success is based on his superior intelligence and talent. In reality, his success can be attributed to being in the right place at the right time with a marketable “monkey trick.” The fact that he is insufferable does not affect the validity of his arguments or positions. Being basically conservative, I would agree with much, but not all of what he proposes, even if I would rather plunge a knitting needle into my ear than spend any length of time listening to him. His counterparts on the liberal side are equally detestable.

Yesterday I was listening to our local “progressive” radio station and was assaulted by one of the most vile, detestable programs I can remember. The host (I don’t recall his name) who apparently prides himself on being civil and not allowing any negative talk on his program referred to Limbaugh as hateful , suggesting that something terrible must have happened to him during his life to make Rush the way he is. When a caller challenged his commitment to civil discourse the host spent twenty minutes explaining how calling Limbaugh “hateful” and implying that he—along with his audience--are mentally ill was not uncivil, essentially because it was true. How he kept a straight face during his explanation is a mystery to me. The program also contained a commercial for a book that outlined how conservatives were horribly bad people, with an entire chapter concerning the Cheney family and how wicked and corrupt they are. There are numerous counter arguments against the conservative solution to our social/economic problems, but you won’t hear any on this “progressive” station. Just vote against them because they are “bad” people—that should be enough reason.

If the founding fathers could have known the extent to which these examples of political propaganda and character assignation would be publically decimated by the media, they might not have written a right to free speech into the constitution. These propaganda machines, left and right, liberal and conservative are shameful, appealing to the most bigoted and ignorant in society.

Hopefully, one of the hottest levels of Hell is reserved for the media who promote this circus for personal gain and those political partisans who use this propaganda to decide who to vote for. They are the problem.