Witch’s Will For A January Morning
My Pick of the Litter Today
The Role of ‘Educators’
by Thomas Sowell
Many years ago, as a young man, I read a very interesting book about the rise of the Communists to power in China. In the last chapter, the author tried to explain why and how this had happened.
Among the factors he cited were the country’s educators. That struck me as odd, and not very plausible, at the time. But the passing years have made that seem less and less odd, and more and more plausible. Today, I see our own educators playing a similar role in creating a mindset that undermines American society.
Schools were once thought of as places where a society’s knowledge and experience were passed on to the younger generation. But, about a hundred years ago, Professor John Dewey of Columbia University came up with a very different conception of education — one that has spread through American schools of education, and even influenced education in countries overseas.
John Dewey saw the role of the teacher, not as a transmitter of a society’s culture to the young, but as an agent of change — someone strategically placed, with an opportunity to condition students to want a different kind of society.
A century later, we are seeing schools across America indoctrinating students to believe in all sorts of politically correct notions. The history that is taught in too many of our schools is a history that emphasizes everything that has gone bad, or can be made to look bad, in America — and that gives little, if any, attention to the great achievements of this country.
If you think that is an exaggeration, get a copy of “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn and read it. As someone who used to read translations of official Communist newspapers in the days of the Soviet Union, I know that those papers’ attempts to degrade the United States did not sink quite as low as Howard Zinn’s book.
That book has sold millions of copies, poisoning the minds of millions of students in schools and colleges against their own country. But this book is one of many things that enable teachers to think of themselves as “agents of change,” without having the slightest accountability for whether that change turns out to be for the better or for the worse — or, indeed, utterly catastrophic.
more: http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/01/08/the-role-of-educators-n1482868
I liked these stories too…
The New Liberal Aristocracy
Modern elitists are past masters at preaching one thing and practicing another.
By Victor Davis Hanson
“Limousine liberal” is an old American term used against those who inherited lots of money and then became “traitors to their class” by embracing populist politics.
The Roosevelts and Kennedys enjoyed the high life quite apart from the multitude that they championed. And they were exempt, by virtue of their inherited riches and armies of accountants and attorneys, from the higher taxes they advocated for others. Few worried about how their original fortunes were made long ago, or that as lifelong government officials they had their needs met by the state. Most were relieved instead that as very rich people they wanted less rich people to pay their fair share to help the poor.
But the new liberal aristocracy is far less discreet than the old. Most are self-made multimillionaires who acquired their money through government service, finance, law, investment, or marriage. If the old-money liberals lived it up tastefully within their walled family compounds, the new liberal aristocrats are unashamed about living openly in a manner quite at odds with their professed populist ideology.
Take former vice president Al Gore. He has made a fortune of nearly a billion dollars warning against global warming — supposedly shrinking glaciers, declining polar-bear populations, and the like — while simultaneously offering timely remedies from his own green corporations, all reminiscent of the methodology of Roman millionaire Marcus Licinius Crassus, who profited from fires and putting them out. Now Nobel laureate Gore has sold his interest in a failing cable-television station for about $100 million — and to the anti-American Al-Jazeera, which is owned by the fossil-fuel-rich royal family of Qatar. Gore rushed to close the deal before the first of the year to avoid the very capital-gains tax hikes that he has advocated for others less well off. That’s a liberal trifecta: enhancing a fossil-fuel consortium, attempting to beat tax hikes, and empowering an anti-American and anti-Semitic media conglomerate run by an authoritarian despot — all from a former vice president of the United States who crusades for ending our reliance on fossil fuels and for raising taxes on the wealthy.
Class warrior Barack Obama spent his winter break in a ritzy rental on a Hawaiian beach. It cost the taxpayers $7 (or is it $20?) million to jet him and his entourage 6,000 miles for their tropical vacation. But whether the first family escapes to Hawaii or Martha’s Vineyard or Costa del Sol, the image of a 1 percent lifestyle seems a bit at odds with the president’s professed disdain for “millionaires and billionaires,” “fat cats,” and “corporate-jet owners” who supposedly can afford such tony retreats only because they have done something suspect. The media used to ridicule grandees like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush for wearing cowboy hats and wasting precious presidential time chopping wood or chain-sawing dry underbrush on their respective overgrown ranches. But for liberal class warriors, golfing and body surfing in the tropical Pacific while staying at a zillionaire’s estate become needed downtime to prepare for the looming battle against 1 percenters. One wonders about the conversation between the Obamas and their landlord. “We will stay here, but only on the condition that you remember that you didn’t build it”?
more: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/337123/new-liberal-aristocracy-victor-davis-hanson
Ed Koch: I Knew Obama Would Betray Israel
I admire former Mayor Ed Koch’s willingness to break with his own party on issues of principle, but his comments to the Algemeiner today are mind-boggling. In between some very strong denunciations of the Chuck Hagel nomination, Koch casually let it drop that he suspected Obama would abandon his pro-Israel positions after the election. The former mayor, of course, endorsed Obama’s reelection and served as one of his surrogates to the pro-Israel community:
“Frankly, I thought that there would come a time when [Obama] would renege on what he conveyed on his support of Israel,” said Koch, adding, “it comes a little earlier than I thought it would.”
“It’s very disappointing, I believe he will ultimately regret it,” Koch said, “and it undoubtedly will reduce support for him in the Jewish community, but I don’t think he (the President) worries about that now that the election is over.” …
Koch explained to The Algemeiner why he decided to back the President’s re-election even though he says he suspected that Obama would backtrack on his pro-Israel overtures. “I did what I thought was warranted and intelligent,” he said, “He was going to win! There was no question about it. I thought it would be helpful to have a Jewish voice there, being able to communicate.”
The Mayor says he has no regrets, “it’s wouldn’t make any difference. The Jews were going to vote for him no matter what. And that’s the nature of the Jews. They are always very solicitous of everybody else except there own needs and community.”
Just a reminder, here’s what Koch said in a video endorsement for the Obama campaign in October:
“I’m confident President Obama will continue his unambiguous commitment to the Jewish state in his second term, building on his record of leadership by preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon and funding the Iron Dome missile defense system that is saving Israeli lives.”
To summarize: Koch believed none of that, but still vouched for Obama with Jewish voters because a.) Obama was going to win and it was important that Ed Koch maintain good relations with the White House so he could encourage pro-Israel policies (which isn’t working out too well, considering the Hagel nomination), and b.) Jews were going to vote for Obama no matter what (which would kind of mean Ed Koch’s entire schtick is irrelevant, no?).
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/01/07/ed-koch-i-knew-obama-would-betray-israel/
What is means to me personally is that Ed Koch has NO principles. He just likes getting in front of the cameras from time to time to prove to himself that he still has some relevancy. IMO, he doesn’t.Sometimes I wonder if principles are even in the DNA of a politician.
Tea Party Re-Flexes Its Muscle
The state of the tea party evokes Mark Twain: Reports of its death were an exaggeration.
Tea party activists who say they deliberately sat out the fiscal cliff debate are ready to reassert themselves as Congress and the Obama administration take up the debt ceiling and automatic spending cuts under the sequester.
more: http://www.rollcall.com/news/tea_party_re_flexes_its_muscle-220633-1.html?pos=hftxt
Obama Supporters Are Shocked, Shocked, I Tell You….
My mother always used to say, “Life is the best teacher.” Sure is — and sometimes it smacks you right upside the head. It appears that this has happened with Barack Obama supporters now witnessing their paychecks shrink in the wake of tax increases. And they’re none too happy. In fact, they’re shocked.
Shocked, I tell you.
Providing examples of this liberal anger and angst, Joseph Curl writes:
“What happened that my Social Security withholding’s in my paycheck just went up?” a poster wrote on the liberal site DemocraticUnderground.com. “My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don’t feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna’ hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What happened?”
Well, pal, I’ll explain it. George Bush has found a way to control Obama’s mind, sort of like a zombie. I mean, you don’t think the great orator’s mouth makes all the mistakes it does (off-Teleprompter) because it’s actually controlled by the great orator’s brain, now, do you?
Curl continues:
The Twittersphere was even funnier.
“Really, how am I ever supposed to pay off my student loans if my already small paycheck keeps getting smaller? Help a sister out, Obama,” wrote “Meet Virginia.” “Nancy Thongkham” was much more furious. “F***ing Obama! F*** you! This taking out more taxes s*** better f***ing help me out!! Very upset to see my paycheck less today!”
How can you pay off loans with smaller paychecks, Virginia? Ask Nancy; she sounds like a real intellectual.
Curl again:
“_AlexTM“ sounded bummed. “Obama I did not vote for you so you can take away alot of money from my checks.” Christian Dixon seemed crestfallen. “I’m starting to regret voting for Obama.” But “Dave” got his dander up over the tax hike: “Obama is the biggest f***ing liar in the world. Why the f*** did I vote for him”?
I could explain why, Dave — very clearly. But I don’t use the kind of language you do. So I’ll just say, my good man, that you’re what they now call a “low-information voter.” And you and your comrades have given us a low-information president.
As has been said so many times, and will undoubtedly be said many times again, there just ain’t no cure for stupid.
What Up With Republicans?
Republicans to Reid: Pass a Budget if You Want a Debt Ceiling Increase
by Katie Pavlich
Round two of another fiscal crisis is already underway as debate over raising the nation’s borrowing limit, better known as the debt ceiling, heats up. Majority leader Harry Reid has blatantly ignored the law by failing to introduce a budget for more than 1300 days. House Republicans on the other hand have fullfilled their duty to the law by introducing and passing a budget every year since Obama has been in office. As Byron York points out, Reid’s actions could give Republicans some leverage when it comes to satisfy Presindent Obama’s request to increased borrowing (and spending) ability.
Now the question is will the GOP have the balls to stick to this? Or will they fold at the first mean words from the left and the lefty media? Will they make poor little John Boehner cry again?
California: Living the Turquoise Dream
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about California’s return to fiscal solvency thanks to a round of tax hikes; the ‘one percent’ of Californians are, we have been told, happy to pay their fair share and to participate in the rescue of the Golden State.
That’s what the politicians say; some of the actual taxpayers dissent. As Robert Cristiano laments over at the New Geography website (h/t @kausmickey), when the new taxes, the old taxes and the ever-increasing regulatory barrage all come together, life in California loses its charm.
What is my fair share? Under existing Federal and State income tax rates, I will pay 50% of my income in taxes. In California alone, my “fair share” on a million dollars of income is $133,000 each year. In exchange for my taxes, I receive little from the state. In addition, I pay gasoline taxes that pay for the upkeep of the highways. I pay airline taxes that maintain the airports I use. I pay among the highest in the nation sales tax on what I consume. I pay property taxes for the schools my grown children no longer use (they have already left California). I pay utility taxes for the upgrade of infrastructure. I pay higher health insurance rates. I already pay more than my own way.
I used to develop new homes in California and paid development fees, school fees, park fees, bridge & thoroughfare fees, endangered species fees, utility hook up fees, and processing fees to employ the city workers who reviewed my plans. Such fees totaled $40,000 to $75,000 for each new home built in California. I more than paid my own way. Such new homes are no longer feasible in California considering that home prices have fallen between 20-40% since 2008. And with the new regulations to be imposed in 2013 with the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, housing and energy will cost even more making new houses even less attractive than they are now.
Mr. Cristiano’s problem is that he is a target for all three pillars of California’s progressive coalition. To the Democrats who represent lower income people and to those who represent state and city workers, he is a source of revenue to be milked. To the anti-development greens, he is an enemy to be destroyed—the human equivalent of crabgrass. People who become rich by developing suburban housing tracts were the heroes of post World War Two California; for progressives they have become villains who get rich by destroying the earth.
more: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/01/06/california-tumbles-deeper-into-economic-abyss/
Why Hagel Was Picked
Chuck Hagel has been nominated to supervise the beginning of a generation-long process of defense cutbacks. If a Democratic president is going to slash defense, he probably wants a Republican at the Pentagon to give him political cover, and he probably wants a decorated war hero to boot.
All the charges about Hagel’s views on Israel or Iran are secondary. The real question is, how will he begin this long cutting process? How will he balance modernizing the military and paying current personnel? How will he recalibrate American defense strategy with, say, 455,000 fewer service members?
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/opinion/brooks-why-hagel-was-picked.html?_r=0
So Hagel, the RINO, was chosen as a useful idiot and Obama’s bitch?
Isn’t that special? 
Meet the ‘Bullies’: Breitbart Editor Exposes Obama’s Army of Thugs in New Book
Exit of EPA boss a protest
EPA chief Lisa Jackson suddenly resigned last week because she was convinced that President Obama is planning to green-light the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, The Post has learned.
“She was going to stay on until November or December,” said a Jackson insider. “But this changed it. She will not be the EPA head when Obama supports it [Keystone] getting built.”
While the State Department — not the Environmental Protection Agency — is responsible for the pipeline process because it’s an international project, Jackson is still the president’s top adviser on ecological policy.
more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/exit_of_epa_boss_protest_9t4e0tKdNgiYPVoCgt1nBP
Liberal Cockroaches
Chicago Murder Rate Proves That Liberals Don’t Care About Gun Deaths
I Will Not Be Intimidated
As a young boy I was shot by a man whose clear intent was to kill me as I had deliberately, by throwing broken bricks at him, interrupted his attempt to rape a young teen-aged girl, allowing her to escape. To this day I can still see the evil in his face and the sun glistening off the barrel of the pistol he aimed in my direction. As I turned and began to run away he fired hitting me in back. The bullet entering my chest felt as if someone had hit me with baseball bat followed immediately by an excruciating burning sensation as I fell to the ground from the impact. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, but I was able scramble to my feet and run as far as I could until finally passing out from the shock and loss of blood. Fortunately, someone came to my rescue and took me to a military hospital and the first step on my journey to the United States.
According to the current incarnation of the American left, who traffic constantly in victimhood and noble intentions, I should be in the vanguard of the mandatory gun control and confiscation movement. That somehow it was the inanimate object this soldier was holding and not him that was responsible for the attempt on my life or to ignore the fact that his mindset was such he would have used any weapon at hand to accomplish the same goal.
On the contrary, I own a handgun today because of the experience of coming face to face with the evil that permeates some men’s souls. I and the girl I rescued were defenseless. There were no police or armed citizens around and the death of another homeless and unknown boy and girl, buried in an unmarked mass grave, would have been just another easily ignored casualty of the post-War period. I was determined that I would never again face a similar circumstance. I have had in my possession firearms for virtually my entire life, as I have been fortunate to live in the one nation on earth that has embedded in its founding document the right to bear arms.
more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/01/i_will_not_be_intimidated.html#ixzz2HOWqiPn8
Adam Carolla On If Christie’s Weight Matters, Taxes & Welfare
Media Malpractice:
Gun Laws in Chicago ‘Don’t Even Exist,’ Sputters Clueless Ed Schultz
This isn’t the self-imposed idiocy commonly exhibited by liberals, but a rarefied strain found in left-wing radio and MSNBC. Ed Schultz, standing astride both, embodies it.
Bad enough that Schultz insisted on his radio show Friday that heck no, gosh darn it, Bill Clinton was absotively, posalutely never tried in the Senate after he was impeached during the Lewinsky scandal. This from a man whose radio program begins with the lead-in, “where truth and common sense rule.”
On that same radio broadcast, Schultz dug deep to reveal he’s not equipped to render a valid opinion about, well, just about anything. Take it away, Big Eddie (h/t, audio, Brian Maloney at mrctv.org) –
The gun laws and the gun violence in Chicago is a helluva lot different than it is in New York City. There’s two different worlds when it comes to gun violence, it’s not even close. New York City is not, you know, an all-safe zone or what not, I’m not trying to make that case. But a city that has got strict, the strictest gun laws in America put forth by Mayor Bloomberg, versus the gun laws that apparently don’t even exist in Chicago, you’ve got two totally different numbers when it comes to lives lost.
I know, hard to believe isn’t it? This from a man paid to bloviate. Correction — this from a man paid by liberals to bloviate. Accuracy not required.
Fracking Safe in NY State, Says Leaked Report
Thanks to a leak from an anonymous insider, we learned Thursday that a report commissioned by the State of New York has given fracking a clean bill of health. The insider “did not think it should be kept secret” and released the document, which is now nearly one year old, to the New York Times, which reported:
The state’s Health Department found in an analysis it prepared early last year that the much-debated drilling technology known as hydrofracking could be conducted safely in New York.
The eight-page analysis is a summary of previous research by the state and others…[that] delves into the potential impact of fracking on water resources, on naturally occurring radiological material found in the ground, on air emissions and on “potential socioeconomic and quality-of-life impacts.”…[It] concludes that fracking can be done safely.
The analysis and other health assessments have been closely guarded by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and his administration as the governor weighs whether to approve fracking. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, has long delayed making a decision, unnerved in part by strident opposition on his party’s left.
This is very good news. Contrary to green fears that fracking is a mortal danger to both humans and the environment, this report finds exactly the opposite, arguing that fracking “can be done safely within the regulatory system that the state has been developing for several years.” With the environmental concerns largely settled, the ground is now set for New York to claim its share of the energy revolution and the jobs and industry that come with it.
Unfortunately, the fact that the Cuomo Administration attempted to keep the report a secret suggests that Albany was nonetheless worried about a green backlash.
more: http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2013/01/05/fracking-safe-in-ny-state-says-leaked-report/
Oh my. Will the left now unleash Matt Damon on the state of New York. Or just show his mindless movie at the right until they capitulate. Or commit suicide.What does it say about Cuomo as a leader if he’s “afraid” to release a report because the environmentalists won’t “like” it? Weeny? And here I thought all the weenies were on the right.
It’s the Foreign Policy, and We Are Stupid
by Roger L. Simon
During his late, lamented campaign, Mitt Romney opined:
It’s the economy, and we’re not stupid.
Well, maybe. But the economy is a lot of people, millions of them actually, from the assembly line worker to the CEO, and has a surprising way of righting itself despite a plethora of bad policies. Capitalism is a mighty motor; economies rebound when you least expect them to.
Not so with foreign policy. It’s in the hands of one man — the president.
Yes, Congress has the right to declare war, blah blah. History has shown us again and again who is really running the show on global matters. The president is dictating foreign policy usually before anybody outside his inner circle knows what is happening, and long before his adversaries can do much about it.
more: http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/01/08/its-the-foreign-policy/?singlepage=true
Reid: Sandy Was Much Worse Than Katrina, You Know
by Guy Benson
Whether he’s publicly recapitulating the hallucinations of an imaginary friend, or wrongly assuring the public that various government programs are “fully funded,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tends to struggle with the truth. The recent high-octane bout of partisan wrangling over whether to pass a porked-up Sandy relief bill is finally complete, and Reid is unhappy that Congress didn’t spend more money. To emphasize his frustration, he downplayed the severity of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction in order to cast Sandy as far worse — thus indicting those who opposed even one cent of unrelated “relief” spending as uncaring, heartless bastards.
Does anyone, other than a low-information aka libtard, pay any attention to this lying POS. Of course it goes without saying, although say it I will, that the POS MSM acts as if he is actually sane.
IMO, and it is JMO, 3 of the top Dems are certifiable. That would be Reid, Biden and Pelosi. The others are just evil.
Worth a Read:
Krauthammer: “Barack Obama Has Zero Interest In Cutting Spending”
Colorado: Hundreds Of Moonbats In Boulder Hold Candlelight Vigil For Elk Killed By Police Officer…
Why So Serious? Is Conservative Despair Justified?
link: http://pjmedia.com/andrewklavan/2013/01/07/why-so-serious/?singlepage=true
Party On New Yorkers!
link: http://spectator.org/blog/2013/01/07/promoting-the-party
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Patriotism… is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime. ~ Adlai Stevenson
