Pumping the brakes…

There’s a cute little analogy running around the web about vaccines. A lot of my friends of the progressive bent have been posting and re-posting it, hoping to shame and embarrass their “anti-vaxxer” friends, another cute phrase designed to impugn anyone who disagrees with big government thinking; a common tactic on the left when their arguments are flawed and fly in the face of personal freedoms. The analogy goes something like this; you have the personal freedom to remove the brakes from your car, but you’re not that stupid are you? What idiot in his right mind would do such a thing and expose themselves and those around them from unnecessary risks. Friggin’ idiots would, that’s who. And you’re not an idiot are you? Sweet. How far should we take this analogy? Let’s see where it leads.

Anti-lock stupidity…

The last time I had my brakes fixed, I don’t recall Midas handing me a twenty page document to detail the possible side effect and dangers associated with new brakes. How many people one wonders, have died from complications due to having their rotors turned? Any people suffer a stroke? Anyone suffer a severe adverse reaction? Anyone develop any rare cancers from new brake pads? If new brakes are so safe, shouldn’t the government fully indemnify Midas the way they have the pharmaceutical companies? Why not? Maybe “Big Brake” needs the same congressional relationships enjoyed by “Big Pharma.”

So at the end of the day, what my friends are saying is that eventually, at the point of a gun, the government should pull up to your driveway with their Homeland Security tow truck and take your car by force. All for the benefit of the greater good, or at least “for the children.” Fascism always goes down a little easier when it’s “for the children.” What ever happened to all the other catch phrases that mattered to the left? “My auto-body, my choice” comes to mind. How about, “keep your government out of my garage?” After all, if someone identifies as “brakeless”, who are we to judge. Brakeless cars are cars too; they should be able to share the road with everyone else. Don’t want to damage my car’s self-esteem and all. Yeesh.

No. I’m not a “vax-denier” or whatever term of derision is currently in vogue. I grew up on military bases where immunization was a ritual. Couldn’t start the new school year without those shots. You got your pencils, your glue, construction paper and a whole week of pretty irritated shoulders. Hell, I even have the residual scars some of these wonderful advances in medicine left behind. Did my part, thank you. Of course, I never got to volunteer. And my parents weren’t given much of a choice. Big government put the brakes on us, as it were.

Fast forward to the birth of my two children. My wife and I never made any decision alone; we researched and questioned our pediatricians unmercifully. Luckily, we had doctors who were more concerned with the health of our children than the health of the government; or the pharmaceutical companies for that matter. We steer clear of the flu vaccine; my inoculated friends seem to get the flu more often than I do. And the school system was unrelenting in trying to jab our daughters full of Gardasil; luckily, our doctors weren’t too keen on the risks associated with the wonder drug of the day. But as they say in the media, “the science is settled”….

So now the push. Why now? My daughters, or anyone’s children who are unvaccinated, pose the same risk to you and your offspring as they did three months ago. Or three years ago. Question; if your vaccine is so effective, why the hell are you afraid of those who don’t get it? I thought you’re rendered immune? Is your miracle poisonous cocktail effective or not? Can’t say for sure can you? So you blindly, willingly, inject yourself with who knows what and you still roll the dice that it’s effective, playing the odds on only one side. You poo-poo the risks associated with the side effects but are willing to take the risk that you’ve been injected with a chemical cocktail that may be no more effective than chicken soup. But at least your car has brakes. Government brakes. Maybe it’s not a car; maybe it’s a cattle truck.

Now we see the uptick in cases of measles; where does this come from? How many unvaccinated children just miraculously, spontaneously developed measles? Something they ate? Something they caught from the cat? No, more likely the administration knowingly subjects you “brakers” and your vaccinated kids to children from third world origins, places where, unlike the USA, these diseases have not been eradicated. If little “jimmy or Suzie trust-fund liberal” goes to school in a place like, oh, Lynn Mass, he’s sitting at a desk next to a child(?) whose age we aren’t even allowed by law to inquire about. What the hell makes you think we know their medical history? But this flood continues unabated, the real topic we should be discussing, while we debate whether or not Joe citizen has brakes on his car. Hear that sound? That’s the beeping noise of the truck backing up in your driveway, ready to remove your “car” from your responsibility. You’re too stupid to own a car; cars belong to everyone. It takes a village to raise a car. As it were.

So, for all of you “brakers” out there; you continue to give this administration cover. They flood your communities with diseases that used to be a distant memory and convince you that the only way to address the problem is to surrender more of your personal freedoms, give into the fear that it’s your neighbors; people you have known and trusted for years, that are the problem. If only there was a law that could be used to compel these miscreants to bare the arms and buttocks of their children for government approved inoculation and indoctrination, you’ll fee safe. Safe and smug I might add.

It’s not about brakes. Soon, it’ll be where you can park your car. How many cars you can have; what type of car you can have. Or, whether you can have a car or not. And as you continue to move down this path, remember, you are pushing for a world where they can, at the point of a gun, come and take your car. It’s for the children you know; keep feeding into the hysteria that they manufacture to convince you that they are the only solution to the problems that they create.

No problem; just keep pumping those brakes…..

The prettiest sound on Earth…

I refuse to watch the video. I usually like to see things for myself, although one needs to be careful in today’s world of digitally altered propaganda. However, the ISIS video of the immolation of their captured Jordanian pilot should probably be viewed by every person on the planet. If one can get beyond the horrific suffering of Moaz al-Kasasbeh, you can hear the expressions of glee and triumph in the voices of the soldiers of Allah in the background. Of course, they aren’t doing this in the name of Islam. Unless that is, you ask them their motivation. It doesn’t really matter to ISIS how you refer to them. Labels and the fear of offending someone (or being offended) are concerns that only paralyze the west. Those who follow a religion that celebrates death and martyrdom over the sanctity of life are looking for greater rewards than an apology for being photographed naked at Gitmo. While we tie our hands over the strategy we should pursue to defend civilization, they tie the hands of women and children before forcibly removing their heads from their bodies. Shooting these barbarians from a distance gets one labeled a “coward.” Such is the complicity of the progressive left of the world.

The greatest victory of the progressive left in its war on western values to date is probably best remembered in the image of the last chopper taking off from the rooftops in Saigon. A stark statement to be sure, but no less true. The war was lost at home, lost in the classrooms of major centers of “learning,” where young minds were taught the moral relativism that elevates the left’s romantic affection for communism and socialism as a more enlightened concept than the individual freedoms espoused by western society. Once Saigon fell, the wonders of communism gave us the killing fields of Cambodia where the communist regime murdered almost two million of its own people. Back then, we were racist as well, seeking only to conquer and kill “the yellow man,” according to Springsteen.

Fast forward to 2015 and the left is still on its march to destroy the foundations of the western world in the name of “equality,” “justice,” “diversity,” whatever. The battle still rages on campuses everywhere, teaching our best and brightest future leaders of the world that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” The cultural elites of the left will hashtag their asses off to show solidarity for one day, exclaiming “Je suis Charlie,” then protesting against Israel the next, chanting “Allahu Akbar” in the faces of Jewish students and decorating their frat houses with swastikas. In a macabre twist of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the left does its best to make sure that we do not identify the political ideology posing as a religion, lest we insult the “moderate majority” of Muslims. Interesting phrase that; moderate Muslim. Of course, we are told that we can’t paint the whole Muslim world with the actions of a few. How many is a few? What is the definition of a moderate Muslim? If there are close to two billion Muslims in the world and the radical extreme makes up only a tiny portion of that number, one would have to logically assume that radical Islam would not be an issue at all. Maybe we can’t paint them all with a broad brush, but the circle of people who surrounded the gay man executed by ISIS this week seemed extreme. Or were they moderate? Are there really that many people who would come out to the town square to throw moderate stones at a man just because he was gay? Maybe if their moderate beliefs told them to. Someone supports the radicals in their midst; funds them, feeds them, occupies the rug next to them, hides them. Not sure but from where I stand, it looks like radical Muslims will kill you in an effort to impose their beliefs on the world. Moderates will stand back to watch as radicals kill you to impose their beliefs on the world. Same goal, different tactic?

Once this plague has been released into the wild, does the left hope to contain it? Either they are too stupid to realize the danger, or they too are using the twisted ideology for their own end game. Who visited the State Department recently? It wasn’t Netanyahu. No, the white house is actively trying to destroy his re-election bid in Israel. It wasn’t Egypt’s al-Sisi, the man who was in the forefront of battling the Muslim Brotherhood on the streets of his own country. No, it was the very same Muslim Brotherhood that the State Department cozied up to, then lying about the meeting to the press. The administration is working with the Brotherhood to oppose al-Sisi. Make of that what you will.

No one wants war. Clarification; no one who values life wants war. Those who were bred into an ideology that celebrates suicide and the death of anyone who does not follow that same orthodoxy love war. They are instructed to do so. They hide their weapons in hospitals, mosques and school yards, watching as the west flails about, tearing our hair out over collateral damage. They bring their warfare into the heart of their own cities, killing anyone, Muslim and non-Muslim who doesn’t further the end cause, their world caliphate. This will not end with drones. You can’t target them from miles away with smart bombs. Like the cockroaches they are, they scurry back into the population of moderates, people who won’t stop feeding them, people who won’t stop funding them, people who won’t point them out, people who won’t kill them in their midst. What’s worse is they are using the same tactics in the west, beheading people in Oklahoma, bombing delis in Paris. And all we have are leaders who caution us not to defame the religion. Leaders who for some reason cannot bring themselves to utter Islam and terrorist in the same sentence. The same collectivist mindset and tactics that brought us the fall of Saigon and all the other massacres associated with socialism and communism in the twentieth century are now being employed to destroy the west in the twenty-first.

After they covered the smoldering remains of pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, once the last stone struck the gay man in Syria, one could imagine the evening call to prayer where the faithful, moderates and otherwise, came to give thanks to Allah, having struck another blow in their quest for worldwide domination.

Get used to that sound. It’s a sound you can hear all over the United States. It is the sound of the coming storm. It is, after all, “..one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset.”

The color of words…

I’d never heard of Benedict Cumberbatch before. My youngest daughter and her friends were discussing him a few weeks ago, apparently enamored with his acting prowess. Okay. Can’t say as I’ve seen any of his work, but he’s been getting some free press recently. I’m not quite sure if he’s happy with it, but when you’re in his line of work, isn’t any press good press? Unless you’re accused of being a racist. Hey, he’s not a real racist; he only plays one on T.V. Or something like that. Note to Mr. Cumberbatch; you’re only a racist because you apologized for being one.

Apologies anyone?

Seems Cumbersomeone used the word “colored” when describing, if I dare, people of color. You know, people that might be affiliated with the NAACP. He apparently used the offending term when speaking with Tavis Smiley about the difficulty he sees for some of his fellow actors “of color” getting roles in the UK but finding success here in the good ole racist U.S. of A. Smiley notes the success actors have had crossing the pond when he makes this statement to Cumberwho;

Tavis: It is, but now it ain’t even just white Brits. It’s Black Brits who are taking jobs now. You look at the “Selma” script. You look at “12 Years a Slave”. I mean, I love all these actors. They’re wonderful, but you guys are coming over here just taking over, man.”

To which Mr. Cumberbatch launches into full-on hate mode with his response;

Cumberbatch: Well, it’s an even playing field [laugh] which is we all stand in our tights under the same conditions. I can’t speak for David Oyelowo, but those are two actors who work and live here as well, you know. They paid their dues for years by just beautiful, beautiful performances from very fine actors.

And I think as long as we pay our subs and our taxes over here when we work camp, I think it’s fair game. I mean, you know, Meryl Streep can come over and play Margaret Thatcher. Why can’t we come over and play in your sand pit, you know?

In all seriousness, I know what you’re saying. I think as far as colored actors go, it gets really difficult in the U.K. and I think a lot of my friends have had more opportunities here than in the U.K. and that’s something that needs to change.

Ouch. A whole lot of hate goin’ on right there. He used the “C” word. The Bastard.

Of course, being a brit, he probably didn’t quite understand the power of the English language; I mean, being an English actor and all. Or at least he didn’t understand the Orwellian gymnastics liberals will go through to look for any slight as defined by the dogma of the Church of the Perpetually Aggrieved.

Not only did he apologize, he told us that he was “devastated.” Devastated mind you. The Atlantic was totally enthralled by his apology, reminding us all that it was a teachable moment for Cumberbatch. Who knows, maybe using the word “colored” was a window to his heart; he’s white you know, so he’s immediately suspect, even if he was speaking about the difficulties of black actors in the UK. The Atlantic goes to great pains to show that his was an apology given “the right way.” They do have a point; there are many times when apologies are given solely for the show and the marketing effect, professionally penned by PR professionals and handlers, never actually stating that the offending individual was ever truly sorry for anything other than someone else taking offense. And there’s always plenty of offense to be taken. Even when none is offered.

It doesn’t matter though; he’s apologized and that’s it. Apologized and confirmed that racism is alive and well, demonstrated by his painfully cavalier attitude of the usage of the word “colored.” I fully expect from this point that when any of the Al Sharptongues of the liberal race-baiting industry utters the term “people of color” the Atlantic will be demanding the correct mea-culpa. I do not plan on holding my breath.

David Oyelowo came to Cumberbatch’s defense, calling the matter exactly as it was; ridiculous. Oyelowo might want to tread lightly. He’s trying to gain acceptance in a country where other people get to define if you’re actually black enough to be a black man. (Is that phrase still allowed?) He’s not going to do himself any favors using phrases like “Excellence is the best weapon against prejudice. I intend to be part of the solution and not the problem. You’ve just got to keep on banging out good performances.” What a quaint notion for the truly racist of the world. People rising and falling on their own merits, their own actions and deeds. You know; the content of their character, that sort of thing.

Let the apology tour begin. Expect to see Cumberbatch next on Oprah, or having a beer summit at the White House, possibly doing penance with Jesse Jackson. Maybe someone will provide him with a list of the unacceptable, offensive words du-jour so he can do his press junkets without further insult. Of course, it’ll need to be updated quite regularly, as the victim class is ever growing and liberal linguistics is part of the effort to increase the size of the pool of the offended. The more words they can use to divide us, the more of us they can divide.

I sincerely apologize to anyone I’ve offended. No really, I mean it.

Going vertical…

Was listening to the chatter box on the drive home last night when I caught the end of a conversation about people who are labeled “GSA.” I didn’t catch the earlier part of the broadcast and the story ended without redefining what the acronym meant. Of course, the useful little acronyms of today usually stand for some type of behavior that would demand much more scrutiny if referred to in terms other than the sympathetic innocuous alphabet soup that seeks to brand the behavior as “normal” or looking for acceptance. Turns out, this is just another opportunity for me to be labeled a hater, a bigot, regardless of the fact that the definition causes me an autonomic reflex akin to a finger down the back of my throat.

Who walked her down the aisle?

Turns out that GSA stands for “Genetic Sexual Attraction,” another useful term in the long road to marginalize behaviors once thought of as quite repulsive. Another supportive term for this behavior is “consensual incest.” How sweet. What Neanderthal could be against something consensual? Certainly not someone enlightened. Hey, it doesn’t affect others right? What two people do in their own bedrooms and all. Well, you know.

The article that spawned the conversation called “What it’s like to date your dad” was written by Alexa Tsoulis-Reay for New York Magazine. In it, she recounts a conversation she had with an eighteen year-old girl (woman?) who is on her way to marriage with the man of her dreams, the man who took her virginity; her father. The article is painful to read and though it’s been edited, it’s quite evident that we’re dealing with two psychologically damaged individuals. At least Ms. Tsoulis-Reay doesn’t take a stand on the issue; she lets the young woman speak for herself and the only mention of acceptance of the behavior is buried in a link to the “marriage equality” blog of adult incest advocate Keith Pullman. I didn’t bother to peruse his website. Wanted to keep my dinner down you know.

Reading through this interview leaves one with the impression that there are truly affected individuals in this world, seeking acceptance where they should be seeking help. But that hasn’t stopped these types of crusades before. One wonders how long it will be before this last taboo is challenged somewhere in some obscure courtroom, with advocates assuring us that it happens in nature, it’s part of the human experience, that it’s part of our history and it’s between consenting adults, that it affects no one other than those who are being oppressed by a biased society. Hey, incest is just a social construct we’ll be told, and of course, someone will suggest that we’re born that way. That your skin crawls at the thought of a man grooming his sixteen year-old daughter for sex is your problem, not theirs.

Samantha Allen at The Daily Beast calls it rape, pure and simple. Ms. Allen correctly describes the power imbalance inherent in these types of father-daughter relationships, an imbalance always present in cases of incestual rape. Reading again through the interview with the young woman in question, one can see that she’s a person who has very little control over her life or her own emotions, looking for someone in authority to give her the relationship she always wanted with the most important male figure in her life, her father. She is a product of her damaged childhood, a childhood he helped damage and one he’s now willing to take complete advantage of. Of course, we can’t glimpse his own personal story as he’s not interviewed for the article. So maybe I’m passing judgment here without the facts, but this is one sick bastard too. Of all the men in the world, he is in the best position to understand the difficulties she had in her past, her abandonment issues, and her emotional immaturity. Had he not been her father, we would view him as a child abuser, grooming his intended target for his own warped sexual gratification. Applying the term “consensual incest” does little more than give him and others like him a moral “pass”, excusing behavior that we would condemn him for if she had been a student of his or a neighbor’s daughter.

As always, there is data. Of course, it’s provided by Pullman and it is suspect. His claim is that up to fifty per cent of these types of relation-reunions end up in sexual attractions. I won’t bore you with the details; Ms. Allen does that quite well. At the end of the day, we have a man in a position of power and authority abusing the trust and vulnerability of his daughter for his own sexual gratification. That there are people like him in the world is truly depressing. That there are others in the world like Mr. Pullman who advocate for them is truly frightening.

We used to argue about the slippery slope. At best, the slope is now greased with all manner of personal lubricants; at worst, it’s gone completely vertical.

Benched…

I guess I’m a cold hearted bastard. I’ve always felt that you step into the ring, onto the field, out on the court; you put up or shut up. Life’s kinda like that; you win, you lose. But you play. Or you don’t; it’s that simple. Or is it?

At least everybody gets one…..

What should have been done to protect the tender sensibilities of the Bloomington High School Girls basketball team? Maybe they need to be taught from the beginning that if you’re not good enough to be on the floor, then you should stay home. Or maybe you should just walk away and give up halfway into the game. Why is there so much shame in losing and no shame in giving up? Or for making excuses? Or no shame in crying from the sidelines after you’ve lost, whimpering that you shouldn’t have been allowed to lose by that much.

I just watched a most improbable comeback this weekend, with the Seahawks trailing at 19-7 with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter. I didn’t see Russell Wilson head to the locker room after he threw his fourth interception. Those icky mean spirited Packers kept picking off his passes, rushing him hard on every pass play. He should have called it a day, asked the NFL for some relief from the pass rush. It’s only fair. Of course, the Patriots came back from not just one, but two fourteen point deficits to beat the Ravens the previous Sunday. How many chances did the NFL have to call that game over and just send everyone home?

It’s quite telling that the Hawks of Arroyo Valley High school had already won four games by impressive margins, 98, 81, 74 and 73 points to be exact. And Bloomington had already lost one game in the season by 91 points. Seems like there’s quite a disparity in the league and it’s not the fault of the girls or the coach of Arroyo High school.

To counter this imbalance, someone must pay the price and it’s coach Michael Anderson. Let’s not cloud the issue with emotional detritus. He has to be punished for bad sportsmanship; winning. And winning large. Can’t have that. And whether you like it or not, the gooey mess you wish to tar him with splatters over every one of the girls on his team who took the floor to try their hardest, to perform at the level of their individual abilities. How dare they be better than the sympathetic figures of their opponents who obviously lacked the skill or abilities to put up more than one bucket? Harsh reality to be sure, but a reality nonetheless.

And their arrogance knows no bounds; they managed to beat their next opponent 80-19 with their coach banished from the sidelines. Apparently they didn’t get the message. It’s okay to be better than your opponent, but by just a little. What type of punishment should be meted out to them?

None. They’ve been punished. They too are bad sports. At any given time they could have chosen to quit, throwing the game in the name of “good sportsmanship.” Otherwise, how could they expect everyone to get a trophy when they continue to show their skills and determination to such an extent that it highlights the lack of ability on the part of their opponents? That cannot stand. Not in today’s world where everyone’s feelings are far more important than the tough lessons life tends to rub in our faces.

Bloomington losing coach, Dale Chung, quipped “People shouldn’t feel sorry for my team. They should feel sorry for his (Anderson’s) team, which isn’t learning the game the right way.” Coach Chung should be fired. Immediately. Never mind that he obviously doesn’t have the skill to field a competitive team; or that he and his athletic director should have done all they could to find a league that his team could actually compete in. Sorry coach, I do feel sorry for your team. They have no leader for a coach. That’s probably the genesis of their problems. What pray tell would be “learning the game the right way?” To demean your opponents by giving up when you’re in the lead? Or quitting when you’re not? By not competing to the best of your abilities? Obviously, his team is being taught that when you lose, you whine. Not introspection. No goals to achieve, no lessons to be learned from the loss other than how to impugn the victors, ignoring the fact that you don’t have the talent to be competitive? Lessons one can assume, that won’t serve his girls well in life. If you can’t strive to be better, make sure you strive to discredit those who are. Someone will give you a trophy anyway.

Maybe I am a cold hearted bastard. I’ve watched my daughters’ teams get horrifically embarrassed. And the best I could offer them was support; telling them that they met a team that outplayed them, a team that was better than they were. A team they should strive to be like. Maybe just maybe, they should use the losses to motivate them to look inwards, find the determination to continue, to improve, to compete. What was I thinking? I should have just pulled them from the game and taken them home, thinking all the while about the strongly worded letter of admonishment I was going to send to the coach and principal of the offending winning team. What kind of father am I?

Simple; the kind of father who swallows hard with pride when my girls walk off the court after a loss with the same dignity and integrity as when they are victorious. That, Coach Chung, is “learning the game the right way.”