Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

Today’s elitist college students are good at standardized tests, but they can’t figure out good and evil

Posted: October 15, 2023 by John Ruberry in education, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, middle east, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics, war
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

Sherman McCoy, the Yale-educated lead character of Tom Wolfe’s novel The Bonfire of the Vanities–and an old money WASP–saw himself as a “Master of the Universe.”

But as the Book of Proverbs says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

At America’s elite universities, such as Yale and the rest of the Ivy League, as well as NYU, Stanford, and some others, there are thousands of students who see themselves as Masters of the Universe. In reality, they have the right family connections, and they are very good at taking standardized tests, such as the SAT. Or, instead of being old money types like McCoy, they check the right woke boxes. 

Ryna Workman, who is non-binary (box one), Black (box two), and a leftist (box three), in her (Workman prefers they/them pronouns) role as president of the NYU Student Bar Association president, wrote a hateful anti-Israeli statement about the October 7 attacks that, among other things, said that the Jewish state “bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.” Among those murdered were babies. The Nazi’s Einsatzgruppen also indiscriminately killed babies–and many others–during the Holocaust.

People calling their political enemies Nazis is as old as the Nazi movement and almost always it’s an overstated charge–but calling Hamas members Nazis is accurate. 

Fortunately, there has been some pushback. Winston and Strawn, an elite Chicago law firm where Jim Thompson, Illinois’ longest-serving governor–and a Republican–once served as CEO, repealed its job offer to Workman. 

Good.

After former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who had previously served in the Clinton and Obama administrations, decried the dozens of Harvard student groups siding with Hamas over Israel in a statement, some of those organizations retracted their support. 

Summers, on X, said, “In nearly 50 years of @Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today.” 

These so-called Masters of the Universe are playing with half a deck of cards, one filled with jokers, not the harmless harlequin types, but evil clowns of the Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix ilk. 

In the words that Dan Bongino uses so often, “They are stupid smart people.” These young elitists don’t know the difference between good and evil.

So many of them are the evil Jokers of the Universe.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Five Completely Non Israel Things Under the Fedora: How Cool is that? House Keeping, Slightly Premature, The (Now) Under the Radar Synod and a Mathematical Patriots Update

Posted: October 10, 2023 by datechguy in baseball, catholic, fun, nfl, politics, Sports
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

I know there is a lot of serious stuff on Israel to write about but for one day we’re going to almost completely ignore it:

As a python fan and a bit of a geek I don’t think it gets any cooler than this:

It’s easy to make him laugh; he’s that sort of fellow. But I have to tell you that when I made him laugh, when he actually laughed, complete with head tossed back, it was one of those moments in life you just encase in Lucite and put on the shelf. Put that on my tombstone: “Made Michael Palin Laugh, and Did Not Otherwise Embarrass Himself. Much. Well, a Bit. Alright, Somewhat. Honestly, Loads” or something.

With all the horror I’ve been reading about the last few days to be able to read that and imagine the joy of that moment, that was special.

Today there should be a vote on a new speaker for the house. Jim Jordan is considered a favorite although there is at least one report that Speaker McCarthy might be nominated by some allies and of course Steve Scalise who was Majority Leader is in the running.

Whoever wins will have a lot on their plate to deal with but that it’s been reduced to a second or third string story gives the GOP some flexibility in how they deal with it.

When I heard on my way home that the highly favored Dodgers had lost their 2nd straight against the Arizona Diamondbacks in their best of five series to go to the National League Pennant Series against either Philly or Atlanta all I could think of was their welcoming the anti Catholic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to their Stadium and found myself spontaneously making up and singing a parody song titled: “Don’t Piss off God” (sung to the tune of “Don’t bring me Down”).

Baseball being baseball it might be premature for such a song but if the Diamondbacks complete the sweep or even win the series I just might write out the lyrics and post them.

Never thought I’d be cheering against a Dave Roberts team but hey the Dodgers made their bed.

Speaking of both God and the practical news blackout on stories not involving Israel and Hamas the Synod is still going on in the Catholic church and one of my big worries is that the folks hoping to push though their whole “Mortal Sin is OK” platform.

It’s moments like this when I’m not surprised that there were at one time up to three popes each claiming to be the legit one and the church highly divided.

Of course the last time this type of thing came up Saint Pope Paul VI surprised everyone by his issuance of Humanae Vite which, to the shock of the left, not only affirmed the church’s position on life and contraception but urged governments to do the same.

I would be both shocked and not shocked if Francis ended up doing the same. I would be shocked because that would be completely out of Character of for this pope but I would also not be shocked because over history that’s how God rolls.

Faith is not just believing in God, but believing he knows what he’s doing. That’s how I’m handling it.

A week or so ago I noted that the 2023 New England Patriots after four week2 had averaged 13 1/4 points offensive per games with Bill (the savior) O’Brian as the offensive coordinator as opposed to Matt (The Evil One) Patricia’s 16 3/4 offensive points per game.

We’ve now finished week five.

In week five last year Patricia’s offense scored 22 of the patriots 29 points in a win vs the Lions bringing their record to 2-3 and their avg points on offense per game to 17.8

Meanwhile Bill O’Brian’s team was shut out in a 34-0 rout vs the Saints putting their record at 1-4 and putting their avg points per game at an even 11.

That is better than a touchdown per game worse that an offense that was constantly under attack by local media

Maybe if they ask really nice Patricia might come back.

Why is Nobody Asking the Obvious Question Here?

Posted: October 5, 2023 by datechguy in politics
Tags: , ,

I noticed this story at Instapundit when I got home from work:

In an update to this story, we’re learning that it wasn’t McHenry but McCarthy himself who was behind the call to get Pelosi kicked out of her hideaway office, something few on the House side have outside of high-ranking members. Further, the person who will be utilizing that office will be … McCarthy:

Apparently it is protocol that the previous speaker gets the office and now that McCarthy is a former speaker, the office becomes his. But that’s not the thing that raises an obvious question, this is:

Notably, in his farewell remarks late last night, McCarthy said that Nancy Pelosi had assured him that he could return to the rule allowing any member to seek to vacate the chair because she and the Democrats would stand with the Speaker. If so, that was a statement consistent with the long values of the House. 

emphasis mine

Now correct me if I’m wrong but I was led to understand that Nancy Pelosi was just another member of the Democrat caucus these days and the Democrats minority leader was Congressman Hakeem Jeffries.

That being the case why is anyone negotiating with Pelosi and or why is Pelosi making deals for the Democrats? Is Jeffries minority leader in name only was Pelosi usurping his position or did Jeffries use her as a catspaw to deke McCarthy if he was foolish enough to presume Democrats were honorable?

I think these are all good questions that deserve answers.

5 Speaker Overboard Thoughts Under the Fedora, The Stupid Party, Some Working with Dems is More Equal Than Others, The Biden Escape Hatch, Questions and the way to go

Posted: October 4, 2023 by datechguy in politics, under the fedora
Tags: , , , ,

I have no non-work net access at work nor do I own a cell phone so I was planning to write something about the Pope tonight when I instead got word of what went on in the house.

Seriously? With a six vote majority you vote out a speaker who on the whole has exceeded expectations for conservatives despite holding the thinnest of thin majorities?

The GOP is called the stupid party for a reason

One of the objections to Speaker McCarthy was that he made a deal with the Democrats for a continuing resolution to keep government open. A resolution Democrats were so afraid of passing that one of the pulled a fire alarm to keep it from happening.

So because they were so upset at McCarthy for working with Democrats to keep the government funded, those who opposed him worked with the entire Democrat caucus to remove him.

Am I the only one noticing the Irony here?

To me the most frightening part of this is what Glenn Reynolds noted:

Heck, if I’m the Democrats, I vote somebody tolerable as President Pro Tem of the Senate, then have Biden and Kamala both step down. With the Speakership of the House vacant, they could pick a succesor president that easily. If I’m Chuck Schumer, I’m scheming for that right now . . .

As of this moment there is no GOP member in the line of succession. This is the perfect chance for the left to rid themselves of both Biden and Harris. That Gaetz & company didn’t think of this is criminal.

I hate to say it but given the violence we’ve seen from the left if I was Joe Biden or Kamala Harris I’d be scared for my life till a new speaker is in place.

The logical questions that comes from all of this are these:

  1. Who is an acceptable speaker to these eight?
  2. Do the eight have a candidate who would be acceptable to the rest of the party
  3. Would the eight support any candidate that didn’t give them the power to boot him and would any republican in his right mind take the job knowing that these people will boot him if he doesn’t obey?
  4. How long are these people willing to keep the house without a speaker?
  5. Are there any parliamentary tricks that the Democrats can use to get the speakership if the GOP doesn’t have their full membership present to keep them from winning such a vote and if so who on the GOP side are watching for that?
  6. Did they think of any of this stuff before taking this vote

This is pretty much a dog catching a car and not knowing what to do with it, or as Sam Rayburn used to say: “Any old jackass can knock down a barn door, it takes a carpenter to build one.”

Now I’m just a small blogger who has been here for almost 15 years and I’d like a conservative speaker to advance conservative values so let me give a piece of advice to members of the GOP who would like that, particularly the entertaining eight.

If you want to get a strong conservative as speaker elect enough republicans to get a solid majority so that you can put through a conservative speaker

If you don’t elect republicans you don’t get a conservative speaker and if you are not able or willing to go out and find republicans who can win in districts currently held by Democrats and support them to the max then all the bluster about Speaker McCarthy is just BS.

Older Entries
Newer Entries