Category: Society & Culture

This Thanksgiving

America, Family, Society & Culture

A week from today our family will be gathered together at our house to celebrate Thanksgiving. In chaotic times such as these there are two ways the gathering can go: either we’ll all use the occasion to whine and vent our frustrations or we’ll compartmentalize them out and reflect on the half-full cup. I’m hoping the latter will prevail.

Today’s Wall Street Journal had an article that I’ve clipped and will share with our family this year, and every year going forward. It’s entitled “When the Next Generation Has to Step Up on Thanksgiving”. It focuses on the baton-handoff that must occur as the family patriarch and matriarch age and are unable to host and manage the mayhem that always attends the holiday. But it also offers wisdom for every Thanksgiving. If followed, the chances of having the half-full cup scenario has a good chance of materializing. I highly recommend the article.

As for giving thanks and gratitude. Today I’m going to share a personal anecdote describing a seminal moment in my upbringing.  It informs what Thanksgiving means to me.

THE CAIRO INCIDENT

In 1967 (I was 15) my Mom and Dad and I took a trip to Greece and the Middle East. It was on our stop in Cairo that I had an experience that was one of those “I’ll never forget” moments that shapes a life.

We were walking out of the Nile Hilton hotel where we were staying. As we exited the doors onto the sidewalk a group of kids, 5 or 6 as I recall, came up to us begging for food or money. Ragtag, dirty, with pleading eyes, the group included a couple of teenagers.

This was the first time in my life I had ever been solicited by someone my own age. I had seen plenty of panhandlers before in Paris, in New York and elsewhere, and groups of little kids swarming around tourists, but never before had I experienced direct eye contact with kids my own size and age.

I expected my father, a veteran traveler and tourist who had been subjected to similar circumstances countless times during his worldwide travels, to simply keep walking. Instead, he turned back to the doorman of the hotel, handed him some money and asked him to personally ensure that these kids were fed a proper meal. The doorman, shocked and hesitant, reluctantly promised he would. As my dad turned to the group he pointed to the doorman, who explained to them what he was going to do. One of the teenage boys then turned not to my father, but to me, clasped his hands in prayer-like fashion, nodded his head and uttered in Arabic “Shukran” or “Thank You”, then put his arm around his little brother, who did the same. Later when we returned the doorman recounted how he had sent to the hotel kitchen for “guest lunchboxes” and distributed them to the children.

Irrespective of whether or not these kids were putting on an act, I was so taken aback and moved by the incredibly sharp contrast between my life and theirs that I vowed never again to complain about the food on my plate or the comforts I enjoy.

And so to this day, and for the rest of my life, I will be grateful for the privilege and opportunity of living in freedom in this greatest of all countries and for the incredible wealth we have: to include the feast of food, family and friends at Thanksgiving.

Techno-Intrusion

Religion, Society & Culture, Technology

The intrusion of technology in our lives is rapidly becoming domination. The abrogation of humanity to artificial intelligence (emphasis on “artificial”) is real and advancing rapidly.

It is alarming how much our society has become enslaved by the little screen in our hands. And I do mean enslaved. It’s no longer FOMO (the Fear of Missing Out). It’s that for some, even many, every moment of every day is monitored, organized (or disorganized), influenced or controlled by technology. It’s as if we’ve outsourced our critical thinking abilities, self-control, conduct governors, interpersonal communications, hell, our consciousness. It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that some have outsourced their SOULS.

I don’t need an “app” to monitor how much I sleep at night. I don’t need to be fed “relevant” advertising when I visit a website. I don’t want “free” stuff. The price of “free” is relinquishing personal data to an amorphous algorithm that creates a digital profile of me. That profile is used (and manipulated) in all sorts of ways, the vast majority of which are driven by the pecuniary interests of the technology company that conjured up, sorted and sold my profile to anyone who would pay for it.

Technology has permeated, or infected, virtually every form of human communication. People facing one another, looking into each other’s eyes, interpreting body language, noting inflection, giving and taking non-verbal cues, interacting with one another in the moment…are behaviors increasingly, frighteningly, diminishing. And since communication, whether incoming or outgoing, is what I would call a basic component of humanity, we are as a result becoming less and less human.

What matters is increasingly lost. Virtue is not even a word or concept in the social vocabulary – it’s an anachronism, out-of-place with life at the speed of text or email traffic. Home and hearth are Hallmark Channel themes. The importance of Family, of doing what’s right, of eschewing wrong, of telling the truth, of adhering to your word, of working hard for an honest day’s wage, of being kind, of self-discipline, of moderation, of humility, of courage, of what used to be common morality…all are for the most part either banned from the new social ether or are relegated to being quaint ideas from the past.

God doesn’t use an iPhone. Many who are tethered to them don’t believe in God anyway. Faith, a moral compass, yardsticks of right and wrong…all have succumbed to technology. Religion is thus also a casualty of technological so-called “progress”.

I admit that I too have been caught by the groundswell. Rather than stick my head out the door to decide what jacket or coat I’ll wear today, I quickly tap my Accuweather app to learn what the temperature is and whether it’ll become warmer or colder. Rather than pick up the phone and call my daughter to ask about some detail of the upcoming grandchild’s birthday party, I send her a text.

Some courageous (and seemingly more happy and content) members of my generation have deliberately eschewed technology. One of my oldest friends still uses a flip phone, and he leaves it on his dresser with a dead battery most of the time. The guy who installed the sprinkler system on our lawn 35 years ago and still services it today doesn’t use email. He carries a cell phone but never answers it. I leave him voicemails but he doesn’t listen to them…he just calls me back when it’s convenient for him to do so.

At first I was annoyed that I couldn’t reach people who had largely disconnected from The Grid, but now I’m starting to appreciate the benefits of lowered blood pressure and appreciation of what IS important that accompanies doing so.

Little by little I hope the pendulum swing towards increasing technological domination of our lives and away from humanity will swing back. It’s happened before in world history. I can hope it will happen again and we’ll all be the better for it.

P.S. I just realized how hypocritical I am for using an iPad to write this post and throwing THESE thoughts out into the social ether as well. Sigh…

Nationalism vs. Globalism

America, Politics, Society & Culture, Values

On a Sunday morning sipping coffee and listening to some peaceful music rather than a blaring shout show on tv, I reflected on the Left’s banal vituperations against ‘nationalists’ and ‘nationalism’. As usual, they have hijacked words and language to warp meaning and seek to paint Traditionalists as negatively as possible.

Thomas Madison, in an article penned yesterday describing the interaction between presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard and ignorant hyper-hag Joy Behar on “The View”, described how Gabbard schooled Behar “on the definition of “nationalist,” a word synonymous with “patriot.”

Madison explained, “The term “white nationalist” has been hijacked by liberal Democrats, beginning in Charlottesville, where the anti-American left began its campaign to make the term synonymous with “white supremacist,” made clear by their continued talking point, citing “white nationalist” and “white supremacist,” in the same sentence. The narrative has been pushed by liberal liars from Barack Hussein to congressional Democrats to the partisan talking heads in the liberal mainstream media, so that today all leftists believe that a “white nationalist” is a “white supremacist” when actually, a white nationalist is a patriot who happens to be white. There are white nationalists, black nationalists, Asian nationalists, and Latino nationalists, American patriots all. But, let’s not allow the truth to interfere with a good liberal smear narrative.”

Nationalism, above all, refers to a belief that individuals and their communities, as well as the nation as a whole, must have sovereignty.[1] I often point out that one of the big differences between the people of England and the people of America is that in England The People are SUBJECTS. In America, The People are CITIZENS. Nationalism is a belief in self-governance by CITIZENS. It is a belief in freedom to set policies and enact laws for ourselves, not subject ourselves to laws made by elitist, often unelected bureaucrats in another country (e.g. Brussels and the European “Union”). The latter is a philosophy of the “Globalists”, an insidious scheme to force winners to provide for losers, to advance the Marxist philosophy: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.”

Nationalists oppose policies such as open borders, mass migration, and forming international organizations that have as their end goal one-world government. Nationalists thus also support policies such as building border walls and maintaining border security.

Nationalism, or Patriotism therefore, is a sense of pride in one’s country. It’s the father of the phrases “My country do or die” or “America: Love it or Leave It”. It’s what’s behind the chants of “U.S.A., U.S.A.” at rallies. It’s about citizens all over the country flying American flags on their houses. Of course the Left, wanting to “fundamentally transform” America, condemns these expressions and actions as sinister: xenophobic, racist, etc.

Globalism, on the other hand, refers to the authoritarian desire for a “one world” view that rejects the role of sovereign nations in protecting distinctive national values. Globalism is anti-American in encouraging Americans to adopt a “world view” rather than an “American view.” The ultimate goal of globalism is the eventual unification of humanity under a one-world government.

Globalists oppose nationalism, national sovereignty, and self-governance. Instead, they favor open borders, free trade, H-1B visas, interventionism, foreign aid, and changing the U.S. Constitution. They oppose strong border security and the building of border walls.

Leftists support globalism because it leads to centralized power, thereby providing them with an easier way to gain control. Leftists can more easily persuade a handful of people in centralized government to rule in their favor than convince everyone of their agenda in a decentralized form of government.

I recall saying to myself just before the 2016 election when I like so many other traditionalists expected Hillary to win, “Only a cataclysmic event like another 9-11 or a world war, God forbid, will force America to halt its slide down the slippery slope to ruin and turn back to traditional values that would allow us to begin the long and difficult climb back up”. The jury is still out but Trump may have been that cataclysmic event. His views on Nationalism and Patriotism, while crassly rather than inspiringly articulated, reflect what the majority of Americans, I believe, feel and believe about our country.

The shrill and cackling voice of the Left (e.g. Joy Behar) has so polluted the airwaves that it’s sometimes difficult to see the forest, but in my more hopeful moments I sense we might be nearing the bottom of the slippery slope and are poised to start the long climb back up.

[1] This discussion borrows heavily from https://www.conservapedia.com/Nationalism_vs._globalism

Would That Be So Bad?

America, Economy, Family, History, Morality, Politics, Reason, Religion, Society & Culture, Values

With the world falling apart in front of us and Leftists assaulting every sacred and historically treasured traditional value while asserting that the dismantling of our culture is “progressive”, what if we challenged the notion that “there’s no going back”?

What if we were to withdraw our troops from all of our foreign bases and let Russia and China fight it out for hegemony and see what it’s like to be the world’s policeman, getting bogged down in endless wars and, unlike us out of largesse, squandering their resources on attempted world domination?

What if we were to perfect Reagan’s original Star Wars Strategic Defense Initiative, i.e. reproducing the Enterprise’s “shields up”- and photon torpedoes capabilities so as to negate or obliterate anything our adversaries could throw at us?

What if we were to withdraw to secure borders and become completely self-reliant and self-sufficient as we have with oil? Suppress the horror and revulsion that leaps to mind when a 55” flat screen television suddenly but temporarily costs $3,000 again instead of $500. Instead, imagine “Made in the U.S.A.” instead of “China” or “Mexico” on just about everything we buy and consume. And Bass Weejuns were once again made in Maine.

What if we were to withdraw from the United Nations and establish a new organization of free, democratic countries and emerging nations that subscribe to our federalist-constitutional-‘meritocratic’  approach to government and society?

What if we were to roll back the welfare/nanny state and restore an “everybody needs to pull their weight” culture? What if we were to dismantle the safety nets and nanny protections that have made all of us soft-in-the-belly and turned Millennials and Gen Z into snowflakes? How bad would it be if they had to actually work hard and produce things of real value?

What if we were to reduce the size of the Federal government by half? Would we miss having six different departments massaging the same numbers and producing meaningless (and misleading) reports that cast them in 6 x 6 different ways?

What if we were to eliminate abortion-on-demand, restore marriage to what it is and has been for thousands of years, and truly “eliminate welfare as we know it”? Would families matter again? Would “taking care of one’s own” be so bad as they, and their communities, came together to help one another out of necessity because the government handout offices would be closed?

What if continence and self-control, a restored respect for one another in male-female relationships were restored. What if the natural consequences, including stigma attached to divorce, abortion, broken families, of immorality were to come back? Would these constraints on our “anything goes so long as it feels good or doesn’t interfere with what I want at the moment” approach toward life be destructive or beneficial?

What if were to eliminate tenure and “retire-after-twenty-years-with-rest-of-life pensions-and-100%-healthcare-benefits-coverage” and restore the teaching profession to the noble one it once was? What if we taught kids to read using common sense phonics instead of “whole word” recognition. What if we went back to teaching arithmetic and insist there are right and wrong answers rather than “good tries”? What if we only gave real winners trophies? And what if we could once again celebrate victories instead of falling over backwards to ensure that losers’ feelings weren’t hurt? What if we were to show the movie “Rudy” to kids instead of some documentary on turning algae into fuel?

What if we once again started the school day with the Pledge of Allegiance, and allowed assemblies and the start of sporting events to be opened with prayer? And allowed the Star Spangled Banner to be sung at public events?

What if we didn’t reprimand kids for sitting “indian style” on the floor instead of “criss cross applesauce”?

What if we were to celebrate nuclear families again instead of “non-traditional” families? And what if we were to put the “boys” and “girls” or “men” and “women” signs back on bathroom doors?

Would that be so bad?

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts numerous times, our society seems so hell bent on meeting the needs of the few that we overlook, neglect and harm the many.

Real Men Don’t Eat Kale

Family, Society & Culture

As the barbs, insults, name-calling and bitter incivility continue to spiral out of control today, I continue to predict that ultimately the conflict will not be between Left and Right, not between Liberals and Conservatives, not between Democrats and Republicans, not even between Secular Progressives and Traditionalists, but between Mars and Venus, i.e. men and women.

With apologies to Bruce Feirstein, whose 1982 best selling book, “Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche” sold several million copies, I submit an update…

I can’t pinpoint when it all started, but I think it was about the time that men started wearing cologne. Not Old Spice after shave, mind you, but Hai Karate, Brut, English Leather and other scents to cover up how we smell. Gone was spray Right Guard; in came a million varieties of anti-perspirant/odor eliminating sprays, gels, powders, roll-ons…all guaranteed to turn the armpits of your white tee-shirts into a brownish/aluminum-ish mess. I guess that was back in the late 50’s or early 60’s.

Today, there are men who actually utter the words “duvet”. No self-respecting man should EVER use that word!

And no Real Man eats avocado toast…

Or kale…no kale…

Or orders vegetables on his pizza, except bell peppers, onions or garlic.

Or drinks blush/rosé wine…

And Real Men don’t get caught dead buying scented soap in a dispenser! Give me a bar of LAVA or lye soap I can roll around in my hands!

Navy blue sweaters are ok. So help me…if I hear a man say he has bought or says he’s wearing a periwinkle sweater, I’ll barf.

Real men actually set the thermostats in their homes using the interval timers. Women, whose body thermostats are fundamentally deficient, must have up or down control…

Real Men grill, they do not sautée.

Real men eat steak, burgers, fries, and drink beer. Fine wine, red or white, bourbon or scotch whether single malt or blends are just fine. Real Men do NOT drink apple-tinis!

Real men do not drive hybrids or all-electric cars.

Real men do not own dogs that hop when they bark (those aren’t dogs, they’re hors d-oeuvres). Real men own Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, Labradors, Bernese Mountain Dogs, German Shorthairs… and for Pete’s sake, Real Men refuse to acquire or own designer dogs (which are basically mutts) like Maltie Poos, and Lhasa Poos, Sheltie Poos…as far as I’m concerned, they’re all poo!

And real men support the 2nd Amendment whether or not they own guns themselves.

There’s only one convention of modern man that I’ll allow…it’s ok to put the toilet seat back down in a public, (say restaurant) restroom if it’s also used by women. But if it’s a guys only toilet (to the extent they still exist..groan…), leave the damn seat up ok?

All that said, there’s nothing wrong with being a GENTLEMAN. Be prepared to be scowled at if you hold a door open for a femi-nazi, but do it anyway. And yes, you should give up your seat to an elderly man or woman on the bus. You know, all the rules we were taught growing up. Real Men still follow them.

One of the best quotes I’ve ever read on manhood comes from Garrett J. White:

“A man who is more concerned with being a good man than being good at being a man makes a very well behaved slave!”

Fist bump Garrett…

Lies and Damned Lies

Morality, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

Failing to convince half the country that its ideology is replete with “progressive” truth and right, the Left now bypass nuance or even lip-service to honesty and just outright lie to our faces.

I’ve previously railed against economists and statisticians, so I’ll leave off the last third of Mark Twain’s famous statement: “There are three kinds of lies in the world: lies, damned lies and statistics.” I’m going to focus on the first two, which are rampantly manifest in virtually every form of media: print, radio, video and social medium.

It used to be called “spin”. In business schools around the country is was called “creative misrepresentation”. In its most benign form, it was called “casting the facts in the best light”.

Today it’s unvarnished, unsubtle lies.

The Left, masters of form over function, appearance versus reality and impression-creation, use media to touch the heartstrings and sensibilities of “root for the underdog” -fundamentally-good-people, convincing them that their causes and crusades are fair and just, and anything that opposes them are immoral.

It’s not just political theater. It’s mass manipulation.

With great drama and conviction, the Left proclaims as facts things they themselves know are false.

By repeating the lies over and over again, progressively (.sic) increasing the volume level and saturating the media with them, the Left seeks to steamroller their ideology over truth. Even truths that would be obvious and clear to any thinking human being are crushed by the onslaught.

I’m not going to a provide a laundry list of examples…to anyone reading this who has half a brain, the lies are obvious. Rather, I’m going to suggest two approaches for dealing with them depending on whether a) one just wants to be left alone to do what he or she knows is right or b) be an aggressive defender of and fighter for the truth.

For those of us who are simply too busy working hard, raising our families, supporting our neighbors and communities, and who aren’t news junkies suffering continuous blood pressure spikes, here’s my simple advice. IGNORE it all! Just keep doing what’s right, teaching your children the real truth, gently (if possible) correcting the nonsense they’re being taught at school, keep the tv turned off, and to the extent possible, ban all forms of social media from cell phones, tablets, laptops and other conduits to the superhighway of falsehoods called the internet.

For those of us who want to fight…put on the strongest psychological armor you possess, arm yourself with anecdotes, quips, one-liners and witty rejoinders (remember, facts will get you nowhere), and learn how to manipulate THEIR sensibilities and tug on THEIR heart strings. Take acting lessons if you have to, because you’re going to have to clothe yourself in sheep’s clothing while masking the disposition and determination of a wolf. Better yet, become strong enough to be a lion, afraid of no-one, impervious to the slings and arrows that will come at you from a hundred directions. Be prepared to see friends turn into enemies, family members shun you.

Join with others of like mind. There are closet conservatives and traditionalists everywhere…you just have to seek them out. Avoid the temptation to participate in rant sessions. Although the therapeutic value and catharsis of being able to speak freely, condemning with gusto what you know to be Leftist drivel, is great, it doesn’t get us anywhere.

Rather, by word and example cling to, espouse, demonstrate and exude traditional values and principles. Tell the truth. Mind your manners. Speak softly but carry a big stick (something like the guy called Negan had in The Walking Dead) in case you need it. Dress not to impress or to draw attention to yourself (that’s what the Left in its desperation for attention does) but in such a way as to say, “I’m not a fashion hound, I don’t care what the latest and greatest label is”. I also urge you to flee from the slavery of tech…pull out your handheld device only when absolutely necessary, and insist that your kids put a governor on their use as well.

Finally, I urge you to pray to whichever God you know for guidance, wisdom, strength and the ability to fight.

One step at a time…it’s a long way back up the slippery slope.

Sparring with Mutants

America, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

I live in a community filled with limousine liberals. Many do take limousines, around here referred to euphemistically as “cars”, but mostly they just drive themselves around in $80,000 Land Rovers and Mercedes AMG’s.

Their hypocrisy knows no bounds. But it’s ok because they donate to the kids who ring our doorbells in the summer representing so-called Public Interest Research Groups or “PIRGs”, another euphemism for enviro-fascist shake down artists advocating the banning of fracking (which causes, you know, the water from your faucet to ignite) and the banishment of gas pipelines (which, after all, disturb chipmunk and snail darter migrations and can EXPLODE!). And they also have hybrids sitting in their garages which offset the use of the Land Rovers.

Sometimes I want to run screaming for the hills, away from these incredibly shallow, self-absorbed and condescending people who get their out-of-gym exercise by patting themselves on the back for all their wealth and accomplishments. 

I’m tired of having to collect, memorize and arm myself with the facts necessary to defend traditional values, economics, etc. And I’m tired and getting more and more tired of trying to have discussions with these Leftists to whom the rules don’t apply and facts are relative.

Facts simply don’t matter to them. It is impossible to have a rational discussion with a Leftist because all they do is repeat the drivel they hear. Pointing out facts and using logic is pointless. They merely say stupid things like “You have your truth and I have my truth.” It’s like trying to nail jello to a wall, like pushing on a string. Neither reason nor any attempt to explore the disastrous consequences or history of their ideology or the fallacy of their positions resonates.

The image that comes to mind is from a Will Smith movie called “I am Legend”. It’s the post-apocalyptic story of the sole survivor of a plague that transforms humans into bloodthirsty mutants. He wanders alone through New York City, calling out for other possible survivors, and works on finding a cure for the plague using his own immune blood. He is badly outnumbered and the odds are against him, and all the while, the infected wait for him to make a mistake that will deliver him into their hands. They huddle in packs in dark places like subterranean parking lots always facing inwards, shaking and panting. A sound or smell of an uninfected animal or human alerts them at which point they suddenly and viciously turn towards and run at full tilt boogie to brutally assault it.

Today’s Leftists are like those mutants. They wait for a normal, traditional human being to expose themselves and then pounce, spouting nonsense and catch-phrases with one, shrieking voice that seeks to drown out and overwhelm them.

Which reminds me of another movie called Invasion of the Body Snatchers where aliens take over the souls of normal humans and then intermingle with them. To survive, the normal humans mimic the body language and behaviors of the mutants. Should a normal human slip up, all of a sudden there will be a blood curdling shriek from the mutant who identifies the normal person, and then all the mutants will turn and scream and with outstretched arms point to the normal human being.

What we witnessed at the Kavanaugh hearings was a perfect example of body snatchers in unison pointing their fingers at a normal human being and shrieking.

They will stop at nothing to destroy the innocent. Again, facts don’t matter. The consequences of the personal destruction they inflict don’t matter. Lies and hypocrisy are ok because in their minds they are means to an end. All the care about is power and control so they can pursue and achieve their absurd utopian fantasy.

There, I’ve gotten that off my chest. Now I’ll take a deep breath and rejoin the fight to restore sanity to our country and communities.

Considering Homeschooling

America, Education, Family, Government, Society & Culture

The Leftist indoctrination and brainwashing of our children has intensified to the point where parents who love them and care about our Nation’s future should seriously consider homeschooling, private or parochial schools. Not every family can afford private or parochial schools, however, so homeschooling may be the only realistic alternative.

Making the decision and committing to homeschooling would represent a tectonic shift in a family’s life to say the least. Dual incomes and $1000 iPhones has replaced living within our means, the traditional norm of father providing for the family, mother tending the hearth and nurturing the children, and the schools educating and preparing our youth to become productive achievers in our society.

Homeschooling would decidedly alter the current paradigm. Your taxes would still be paying for those teacher retirement benefits (largely), your income would drop and costs will rise, but it may be the only way to counteract the destructive ideology that has infused the curriculum and that is the real driving force tearing our country apart and causing our country’s decline.

I’ve only begun to research this topic, but virtually everything I read about the practice, in terms of preparing children for the world they face and equipping them with the tools they will need to survive in their future, is positive, even laudatory.

Mom usually takes on the homeschooling challenge and not all of our daughters and daughters-in-law are either educationally or emotionally able to do so. But for those who are, though it may mean abandoning or putting their careers on hold and running a different race than the one called “keeping up with the Jones”, it could be the most rewarding and fulfilling occupation of their lives. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to suggest that a generation of well-taught-through-homeschooling or private schooled kids could save the future of America.

One of the websites I found to be a useful introduction and guide to homeschooling is Mary Ann Kelley’s The Home School Mom. It lists many of the benefits of homeschooling, among them:

Academic flexibility. Homeschooling can work whether a child is ahead, behind, strong-willed, creative, challenging, quiet, gifted, or active.

Meeting current needs now. You can prioritize a child’s mental, emotional, behavioral, and physical health.

Meaningful learning. Avoid teaching to the test, testing mania in general, and arbitrary minimal standards.

Foster less peer dependence. Less early exposure to drugs, alcohol, sexual activity, and bullying.

Build a sense of safety. Parents can take their own steps to keep their children physically safe, and children can feel secure. (Grumps note: this also means safety from indoctrination and brainwashing!)

The full description of benefits can be found here.

I might add that taking on the responsibility for educating one’s children would of course force parents to become more educated themselves, and lifelong learning for us adults is a good thing too!

The education lobby will weep, wail and gnash their teeth, of course, and as the homeschooling trend continues to accelerate the assault by the Leftist-infused teacher’s unions will be ferocious. But consider these facts taken from research done by Brian D. Ray, Ph.D of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) and published in January of this year:

  • “There are over 2.3 million homeschool students in the United States. That is, there were an estimated 2.3 million in spring 2016, and this was up from one estimate of about 2 million home-educated children (in grades K to 12) during the spring of 2010 in the United States. It appears the homeschool population is continuing to grow at an estimated 2% to 8% per annum over the past few years.”
  • “The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public school students on standardized academic achievement tests.”

As I wrote earlier, I’ve barely scratched the surface of this subject, but as a grandfather increasingly worried about my kids’ and grandkids’ future, as well as the future of America , I urge everyone to seriously consider abandoning the current educational rat race and provide the second most important thing (love comes first!) parents can provide their children: a sound education.

Bot-Speak

Family, Society & Culture, Technology

We’ve gone from handwritten invitations on personalized stationary to “I’ll have my people call your people so we can do lunch,” to “I’ll have my bot sync with your bot and we can Facetime.”

Emails, and now texting, have replaced real interpersonal communication with what I call bot-speak. For the uninitiated, bots, short for robots, are bits of software that perform automated tasks across the internet, including sending messages meant to sound and act like humans. Bot-speak has warped relationships, particularly among Gen Z, into superficial digital encounters.

A sign of the decline of a great civilization is a breakdown in language leading to a breakdown in meaningful communication leading to miscommunication leading to misunderstanding leading to conflict. The ambiguity of message frequently created by the abbreviated/truncated language of texting has caused countless avoidable arguments, hurt feelings and destroyed relationships.

Texting has become a shield or filter for real communication.

Here’s a typical exchange.

Guy: Wanna get together?
Gal: R u asking me out?
Guy: Y let’s meet at Starbucks
Gal: Dunno, time?
Guy: 10
Gal: 10 mins or 10 o clock?
Guy: 10 o clock
Gal: AM or PM?
Guy: AM
Gal: K.
Guy: look fwd c u there

What’s really going on here is the guy doesn’t have the courage to actually speak to the gal face to face. Texting allows him to be arms-length removed from the interaction and shields him from having to make eye contact or risk bumbling his words when he asks her out. Result? Superficiality: increased depersonalization, reduced interpersonal communication, increased isolation and distance between people.

OMG, what r u talking about?

Aside from depersonalization and isolation, Bot-speak can test intergenerational relationships. One example:

Grandma: How’s that new munchkin of yours doing?
Gen Z Daughter: She’s the bomb
Grandma: I don’t understand. The bomb?
Gen Z Daughter (already impatient): She’s fine grandma.
Grandma: Is she sleeping through the night yet?
Gen Z Daughter: GTG
Grandma: GTG?
Gen Z Daughter: Good to go.
Grandma: Good to go?
Gen Z Daughter (now really impatient): Yes, she’s sleeping through the night.
Grandma: And eating well?
Gen Z Daughter: G2G
Grandma: You mean GTG?
Gen Z Daughter: No, G2G, got to go g-ma (grandma) have doc appt shortly
Grandma: Oh, ok, LOL.
Gen Z Daughter: What’s funny about a doctor’s appointment?
Grandma: I was just wishing you the best. Doesn’t LOL mean Lots of love?
Gen Z Daughter: ROFL No. It means Laughing out Loud.
Grandma: What does ROFL mean?
Gen Z Daughter (now exasperated): Rolling on the floor laughing
Grandma: You or the baby?
Gen Z Daughter: Really G2G g-ma TTYL
Grandma: Let me guess, talk to you later?
Gen Z Daughter: Y XXOO
Grandma: Now XXOO I understand!

Walking down memory lane a bit, I remember when we all were convinced word processing would make us more efficient, save us time, improve productivity. Wrong. The ability to easily correct typographical and grammatical errors caused us to spend inordinate amounts of time re-writing. Spell checkers and grammar checkers often caused confusion rather than correction.

We were also taught that email would improve our lives. Wrong. It allowed us to transfer responsibility for a task to someone else while thinking we’ve “dealt with the problem”. Recycled problems have only made us less efficient.

The result of all this communications technology, including Bot-speak, is sloppy and lazy language, an inability to write coherently, or even SPEAK coherently. Nevertheless, it’s here to stay. I don’t see a return to correct grammar and diction anytime soon. But I’m going to keep trying to help my children and grandchildren actually answer their phones and listen to their voice mail messages, eliminate Bot-speak except for the most informal communication, and banish “like” from their vocabulary unless it’s used as a simile.

My dad used to say, “Engage brain, open mouth, speak.” He constantly warned against both speaking before opening my mouth (i.e. mumbling) or opening my mouth and speaking before engaging my brain. He was also fond of quoting, “It is better to keep silent and be considered a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Both are wise sayings today.

PS, here’s a dictionary you might find useful, culled from the website of a young girl who, thankfully, is speaking up against Bot-speak to her own generation. I’ve edited the list, including adding some abbreviations I’ve encountered that she hasn’t!

AFK = Away From Keyboard
ASAP = As Soon As Possible
ASL = Age, Sex, Location (also, American Sign Language)

BRB = Be Right Back
FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out
GG = Good Game
GJ = Good Job
GREE = I Agree
GTG = Good To Go
HMU = Hit Me Up
I’d’v’e = I Would Have
JOMO = Joy Of Missing Out
K = Ok
KK = oKay, cool
LMAO = Laughing My A** Off
LOL = Laughing Out Loud
NCD = No Can Do
NP = No Problem
OMG = Oh My God
OTP = One True Pair
ROFL = Rolling On Floor Laughing
TTYL = Talk To You Later
TTYT = Talk To You Tomorrow
TY = Thank You
TYVM = Thank You Very Much
Y = Yes
YW = You’re Welcome
WTG = Way To Go

Common Slang Expressions
A Stan = Stalker or fan
Bomb = Awesome
Bye Felicia = Bye forever (from the film “Friday”)
Ditto = Me too
Dope = Cool
Extra = Trying too hard
High Key = Loud and proud (opposite of low key)
Lit = Cool
Ship = Belong with each other (as in relationship)
Wack = Lame (e.g. a lame excuse)
Woke = A reference to how people should be aware of current affairs
Yass = Yes

Social Score Manipulation

Education, Family, Reason, Society & Culture, Technology, Values

I was alarmed by an article I saw recently regarding how Silicon Valley, i.e. the tech companies, are trying to build a social scoring system similar to the one created by the Chinese to control their population. A social “score” would, essentially,  label you on how well you adhere to political correctness.

Think of the consequences of the following:  Some twenty something kid develops a computer program that collects every bit of data on you from the internet, including privacy-invading captures of emails, texts, voice mail messages, credit reports, and of course Facebook and Instagram posts. An algorithm (basically, a complex series of equations and instructions) then decides whether the dossier it has compiled on you adheres to the social orthodoxy prescribed by its mostly Leftist creators. You are assigned a score which, if insufficiently high, could prevent you from obtaining insurance, a mortgage, a car loan, weapons to defend yourself and your family (nor just firearms but think, pepper spray!). Continue down this path and medical care could be rationed based on your score. Your ability to obtain a drivers license, or fly on an airplane could all be impacted by your ‘score’. So too could your ability to check into a hotel, or get your kids into a private school, camp or music program.  How about your internet speed being throttled up or down based on your number?

This is Silicon Valley tyranny of the highest order.

Artificial intelligence…what the computer geeks call computer programs that mimic human thought processes through complex “if-then” rules, is just that…ARTIFICIAL. It’s not REAL intelligence! It’s data manipulation, whether the data is valid or not, whether it’s true or not, whether it represents reality or not, whether it is complete or not. While the geeks would argue its totality represents who you are, I submit individual human beings cannot be represented by a set of numbers.

Instead of real human beings using real intelligence, computer programs are making assessments based on monte carlo simulations of the propensity of an individual to be or do certain things. It’s unadulterated nonsense. People aren’t average. People are individuals, but the Leftist gurus of Silicon Valley would have you believe they can categorize you and collect people into pens like livestock. They use terms like “community” and “social justice” to connote egalitarianism, but it’s really manipulation, brainwashing and population control to achieve the Leftist utopian dream.

And we’re letting it happen. The fact that I’m typing this on a laptop and that I’ll use an intenet connection to first save it in a cloud repository, then publish it on this website in the hope that people, especially my family, will read it some day and be positively influenced by it…is a trade-off. I have no illusions that there are computer algorithms that are mining my posts for key words and phrases that already categorize me at least as a neanderthal but at worst, as a old white guy white supremacist. And the thought that the government and commercial institutions would ever adopt policies to allow or deny me freedoms or products and services based on where I fall on this social scoring spectrum, is unsettling to say the least.

It used to be we’d gather our families together for Sunday dinner and at that table learn the wisdom of our elders. The patriarchs and matriarchs would instruct and seek to influence us, and by example, teach us about the world, right and wrong, how to conduct ourselves, how to find happiness in our lives.

Today, we write blogs, and emails, and texts. Our conversations are about movies and sports…in some families politics is no longer an acceptable subject, and if one member of the family is either agnostic or atheist, religion too is a subject off the table.

We are so paranoid about offending even our own family members that in a sense, the Left has won. My children can’t discipline their kids for fear some social worker will show up their door and haul them into some judicial hearing on child abuse! Have the thought police so intimidated us that we have abrogated our responsibility to impart our values to our children and grandchildren to Sesame Street, the Leftist indoctrinators in their schools and colleges?

Some of us “old people” say, “It’s their world, and their problem.” I, on the other hand, ask, “Will we stand by and watch our kids’ world devolve into an immoral and totalitarian cesspool without speaking up, without using every opportunity to point out the craziness, the manipulations and fallacies of the demagogues and those who seek to impose their will on and exercise power over us?”

We can either choose to be silenced and cower, or stand and fight for the traditional values that have proven throughout history to be the greatest driving force of mankind’s prosperity.

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