Could This Soon Be a City Near You?

 Yesterday's news video of the debacle in Kabul brought back so many memories from a similar situation in Vietnam, oh so long ago. Americans literally turning their tails and running.  For their lives. 

It isn't the fault of the thousands of Americans working in Afghanistan, nor the military who kept the Taliban at bay nor the rank and file of the Afghanis themselves.  It is the fault of self-serving, naive and perhaps even stupid leadership - people we've put in power to lead us.  It turns my stomach.

What makes it even worse is those among us who bow to their dictates because we are too lazy to dig beneath the surface to find truth. I think of the children of Afghanistan - both boys, who are subjected to a demented form of homosexuality, and girls who are sometimes not even in their teens spirited off to be the "wife" of some warrior. And more girls and women who are going to lose their opportunities for an education that can so vastly improve their lives.

Well, you might say, that's far away and it doesn't really affect us.  Doesn't it? The illustration above could soon be Chicago or Portland or Seattle or New York if we don't soon get a handle on our own country.

I see hope, I hear people speaking who are angry.  Really angry about what's happening be it CRT or mask mandates or defunding the police. The one thing that's lacking, however, is a lack of cohesiveness.  Someone who is willing to pick up the reins and get a movement organized.  A Tea Party movement without the capitulation to the Republican Party who are just as complicit in our current mess as the Democrats.

The ones I envision pulling it together are parents, no matter their politics. For those who are suffering the most are the children and don't get between a child and its parent. Mother or Father. Kids have lost far too much in the way of schooling during the lockdowns which have proven to be ineffectual at best. This applies to kids up to and including college.  They're not getting the education we expect them to get nor the one they deserve.

A lot of atonement needs to take place. First with our feckless politicians, then to those who have hijacked higher education, to the teachers union and school boards to health care officials who have suddenly turned into petty dictators.

They say they are following the science. How can the science be so different in so many places if that's true? Truth.  That's all we ask. Is that too much?  Apparently so.

President Who?

I was listening to the radio this morning where a study about the abysmal lack of civics knowledge today's college graduates have was being discussed. Consider nearly 10% of them think "Judge Judy" is a member of the Supreme Court.  That was a jaw dropper.

I felt pretty good knowing that my generation is far more knowledgeable about such.  But then we had civics courses in high school and college, if we went, as part of a core curriculum.

Some other shockers were many did not know the terms of either House or Senate members whats more able to name them.  It didn't say but I wager they don't know the same about the President and the Vice President.  They didn't know presidential impeachments are tried before the Senate nor that Congress has the power to declare war.

We've probably all heard "man on the street" interviews that show how many can't even name the Vice President and other pertinent questions but I always thought it to be a matter of selective editing depending on what I heard where.  Apparently that deserves a rethink.

It got me wondering if in order to vote one should have to pass some sort of a proficiency test; perhaps the same one people take before becoming a citizen.  They at least have a rudimentary knowledge of what makes this country tick, why and who the players are.

They don't have to go to college to learn that information, but they have classes and they do learn.  Colleges today are over priced with little substance to rationalize the cost.  We should put as much into education as we to sports programs.  Professors should be required to teach, not have surrogates do so for them.  It might even help to discourage over indulgence among the students.  There would be fewer students falling from balconies or out windows while in a stupor.

I know, fraternities and such are trying to curb drinking and drugs but if the same effort was put into the classroom environment it would be better.  Get rid of the classes to nowhere because there's little if any demand for some knowledge.  Go back to the basics.

Of course secondary education and parents have some responsibility too. Give the kids the basics before anything else. After all these young people are the ones who will be leading us in the future.  Near future, not distant.

I'd like to think the names on the ballot have some meaning to them.  That of course means they have to vote.  Maybe apathy on their part isn't all bad.  If they continue sending bad choices to Washington because we didn't instill in them the knowledge not to do so it won't be an outside force that brings us down.  It will come from within.

Just look at us now.

Martin Luther Who?

 I love man on the street interviews.  At least I would if I knew the people answering the questions would never be allowed near a ballot box.

Take MLK for starters.  An article on Inforwars.com  is enough to make you wonder if we educate people at all in this country.  Some thought he just died, another thought he died at the ripe old age of 93.  At least they knew he was dead.  It gets worse.  One thought he was the first African American to walk on the moon. Another, the first African American on Mt. Rushmore. Oh, of course not! That would be Obama.  How dumb are they?


I have to give credit where credit is due.  Those questioned seemed to know he was African American but were a little fuzzy in the history department when suggesting he was a popular general in the confederate army and gave the Gettysburg Address.  Rest in peace Reverend King. We're still trying to over come.  Just not the same things.

Here are a few other gems that this particular interviewer came up with.  Obamacare supporters signed petitions to support post birth abortions up to age 3 and making the euthanasia of senior citizens mandatory.  You can imagine how much I loved that one!

Some supported Karl Marx to be the next President and agreed not liking Mexican food was a "racist form of bigotry".

I know when people are on camera they don't want to look foolish and these interviewers love 'gottcha' questions, but really. Unfortunately it isn't laughable; it's downright frightening!

Just when I think it couldn't get any sillier, I guess this final one takes the cake.  Many signed a petition to grant Obama immunity for all crimes he commits while in office. Since so many of the targeted were Obama supporters it makes me wonder just what it is about him they support.

They obviously think he has committed crimes.  I wonder if it's the idea of putting drugs into fruit drinks and calling it 'abortion in a can' or adding birth control drugs to our drinking water.

Given the circumstances, I could think of a few petitions of my own I'd like them to sign.  One would be anyone participating in a man on the street interview of this sort must first surrender their voter i.d. card.  If in fact they have one. Oops. That would be racist wouldn't it.

If I Were An Alarmist...

This is one I would watch. We know the Iraqi government has made demands of our military to which I would never have agreed. Like making them subject to Iraqi law and disallowing them to take any action without Iraqi approval beforehand.

Yesterday they really threw it in our face. While Secretary of Defense Gates was in country Iraqi forces stormed a camp sheltering Iranian members of an opposition group who had been instrumental in supplying us with intelligence.

It was alleged to be a brutal attack with American forces present. If true, due to Iraqi dictates they had no authority to intervene.

Do I trust the Iraqi government? Not on your sweet life.

What really alarms me is what Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes about the vision Maliki presented while on his recent U.S. visit. The Iraq Education Initiative. On the surface it sounds wonderful. After all education on any level is an American hot button.

What is proposed is the goal of introducing qualified Iraqi students to the ways of the western world and in turn bring what they learn back to their homeland. Maybe.

The plan is to send 10,000 students over the next five years to the US and other English speaking countries on Iraqi scholarships. American institutions will streamline admissions to accommodate these "students" and an English Language Institute in Baghdad will bolster their language skills.

This bothers me on a number of levels. One, our Universities are so strapped they can not even accommodate our own students and two, we haven't seen fit to help those English speaking Iraqis that served as translators for us by giving them entrance into this country.

I hate to dampen enthusiasm for such a program but when the prime minister says,

"We want and seek a strong and solid relationship which is open with the Americans and there are no internal politics of Iraq that prohibit us from having such a relationship with a great country like the United States,"

I balk.

When the Iraqis talk about "a great country like the United States" I'm immediately suspicious. I don't believe for one minute they like us at all.

And what a way to get their people into this country, with polished language skills to boot!

Since I'm really not an alarmist , and if you believe that..., I'll take all this at face value and consider how wonderful it is they want to learn all about us. Maybe they'll even learn how to quit hating each other just like we have.

We're Shortchanging Our Students!

Just this past week there was news that the University of Idaho sweetened the pot to finally be able to hire a new President. His salary will be $337,000 dollars a year. The football coach at Boise State earns $806,998. What's wrong with this picture?

Universities are raising tuition and cutting budgets and programs to the bone but to what end? And how many athletic programs have been cut in concert with educational cuts? Not nearly enough and not only do the students lose, we, as a nation also lose.

I was stunned to read in this morning's Spokesman Review that Idaho State was cutting four language courses. I was especially shocked to learn which languages were involved: Chinese, Arabic, Russian and Latin. Okay. Latin is hardly a necessity in today's world, but the other three are vital. That there aren't enough students to justify these courses is also distressing.

While French, German and Spanish are also vital, I'll question why only a minor in Japanese is available? Shoshone? In lieu of one of the others? I can only ask why?

Okay, in the interests of local culture, I can tolerate Shoshone. For a University, however, that offers a curriculum in International Studies, exclusion of the others is derelict.

From the University's own web site, I quote:

"We find it too easy to stay in familiar environs and too easy not to sample other cultures, languages, and politics." and "The world is truly an independent place. What happens in any part of the world impacts the lives of people in every other part of the world."

The powers that be need to remind themselves of their own propaganda. As anyone who travels the world knows, once off the beaten path, finding English speaking natives can become difficult if not impossible. China and Saudi hold tremendous amounts of our debt. Who doesn't have an electronic device and/or a car made in Japan? How many opportunities does one have to speak Shoshone?

If I were an employer looking at graduates for jobs in the international arena, I'd not give Idaho State even a passing glance. If they're shortchanging language, I'd suspect other areas of the curriculum may also be lacking.

I've always felt you cannot know a people without understanding their culture. You also cannot know a people if you can't communicate with them. Even "football" means different games in different countries!

Bonuses As A Way Of Life

The big complaint about the AIG bonuses was that they were supposedly rewarding failure. If the government hadn't stepped in, would anything have been said? No. It's a way of life that reaches far beyond top executives!

In a time of economic stress at all levels, how about signing bonuses for coaches at a time when university budgets are being cut to the bone, teachers are facing either pay cuts or job loss, and fewer students are being accepted? Take for example Washington State's basketball coach Tony Bennett jumping ship for the University of Virginia. His total package is around $1.7 million a year plus a $500,000 signing bonus! That would provide a lot of faculty pay and tuition for a lot of students! What's even more questionable is the fact he's an unproven entity considering the differences between a Washington State and a Virginia! Failure isn't even an issue here. It's for signing on with high hopes. Heck of a deal.

Even harder to swallow for a lot of students, I should think, is John Calipari's deal with Kentucky. His eight year deal will bring him some $31.65 million plus a $2.5 million signing bonus. Please don't tell me it's worth that kind of money because of what the program brings in for the school. If it was all that successful, why are the budgets being cut?

It goes even further. Let's go back to tax payer money. The Wall Steet Journal tells us of the practice of Congress giving sometimes substantial bonuses to aides - with tax payer dollars.

We're told that last year more than $9.1 million was awarded to over 22,000 staffers. These discretionary bonuses went to staff earning more than $100,000, as merit bonuses.

To repeat a theme I harp on often, Congress gives itself automatic pay raises and gives out staff bonuses. Coaches are receiving huge signing bonuses while their schools flounder. Meanwhile Social Security cost of living increases are going to be frozen for the next three years, if not longer.

Does anyone besides me see the hypocrisy in all this?