Archive for April 2011
A Favorite Winston Churchill Quote with an Example
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“Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.” ~ Winston Churchill
Ideologues always come from one of two arenas, the anything-goes world of youthful inexperience or the cocoon of lifelong academics. Neither has much if any real world experience, yet if you have the misfortune of sitting next to one on an airplane and striking up a conversation you’ll soon discover they have all the answers. Just don’t ask them to show any practical applications to said answers, that’s a job for someone else.
Liberalism sounds nice. It exudes passion and presents itself as the compassionate choice. It paints a canvas covered with scenes of a utopian paradise where worries fade and troubles disappear, where the collective good is spread around and all are covered in the pleasant glow. It wants you to believe its just like your mom and will love you and take care of you no matter what. It is an attractive presentation I will admit.
Then you grow up, get tossed out of the house and have to fare for yourself. That’s when, as Churchill implies, you get your first dose of reality, aka, conservative principles, work ethic, self reliance. Those who don’t get that “liberating” shot of reality end up on a street corner with a tin cup, on the public dole, or back in their parent’s basement (if they’ll have them) or if they “know” someone perhaps they can slip back into academia to continue filling new heads with the dream, and building the status required to know all the answers.
Conservative media titan Andrew Breitbart explains how he went from liberal ideologue college grad, to conservative media mogul and the bane of the Liberal media‘s existence. He’s a clear example of the wisdom and truth in Churchill’s words.
Related Articles
- Winston Churchill (time.com)
Baseball’s Greatest Play?
Thirty-five years ago yesterday, major-league baseball‘s Rick Monday made what has been called one baseball’s greatest plays.
The Cubs and Dodgers were playing in Los Angeles and with the Dodgers batting in the bottom of the 4th inning, two men ran onto the field, intending to burn an American flag. The men spread the flag on the outfield grass, and one of them soaked it in lighter fluid as the other was about to ignite it.
A quick-thinking Rick Monday ran towards the men, grabbing the flag and preventing the desecration of the Stars and Stripes.
I wonder, if that happened now, would people react the same way?
Related Articles
- Rick Monday Saves The Flag (theundergroundconservative.wordpress.com)
- Baseball’s Greatest Play, 35 Years Later (michellemalkin.com)
Foxes in the Hen House? Yep, dressed like Hens.
‘Forget about the law’:
Union Bosses & White House Advisors Bob Park & Rich Trumka admit they are overriding US law & sovereignty with the International Labor Movement.
Don’t try this at home kids, the law still applies to YOU. But I guess when you’re in the White House regularly and have connections the Law no longer applies to you or your cause.
It’s Time to Sacrifice
Times are tough.
I’ve felt the sting of the economic downturn myself and understand the concept of differentiating between my wants and my needs. In so doing I have had to cut back significantly on my monthly spending. It hasn’t been easy. In fact it’s been pretty damn hard and humbling. But we’ve done it to the best of our ability and are managing to keep afloat even if that means our noses are just above the waterline.
With that in mind it is with great interest that I follow the current furor over the nation’s budget and the proposals to come out of congress and the White House.
The President ordered the cabinet to cut $100 million from the $3.5 trillion federal budget.
Those numbers are so incredibly large they become surreal to most of us average folks making it tough to really wrap one’s head around it. So I decided to do some math and get some comparative figures based on my own budget.
You know, to help bring it down to earth. The one you and I live on at least.
My monthly expenses, prior to my own personal economic downturn, came to about $5000 a month. That includes my mortgage, car payment, utilities, groceries, household expenses, medical needs, child related expenses, credit payments, meals out and entertainment, etc.
If I was to follow the lead of the president, taking the same action he took in the face of reduced revenue and the prospects of financial failure and a bankrupt government, I would have to get out the budget cutting axe and bite the bullet! 100,000,000 dollars is a big number. That has to hurt.
Cutting my spending by exactly the same ratio as the president’s proposal is 1/35,000 of my total budget: 100,000,000 / 3,500,000,000,000 = 1/35,000.
The ultimate burden of sacrifice I would have to ask my family to commit to and share would be…
18 cents.
Kind of puts the whole fiasco in Washington into perspective doesn’t it?
Unfortunately I don’t have a printing press in the basement rolling out sheets of $20’s to supplement my spending habits nor can I vote myself a new debt ceiling to waylay the approaching and open hands of my creditors.
In the personal economies of my world and yours, sacrifice is real. It can cut deep and be painful. Still, we do what is necessary to provide the needs of our families, we work to improve our situation and over time we hope it gets better. In the meantime we survive, sometimes with a little help from our friends, families, or religious communities.
What our government is doing through its inability to understand the word sacrifice, by not saying no to its wants, by not being fiscally responsible, by printing money that has no foundational backing, spending recklessly over generations of time, over-taxing its citizens, and not seriously considering balancing its books, is making our personal efforts to improve our own personal economies next to impossible.
For me this isn’t about political parties, ideologies, or the power struggles that pervade the beltway of our nation’s capital. It’s about liberty. The freedom to go out and create for myself and my family the means by which we can enjoy the wonderful things and opportunities in our world.
Vote for Liberty in 2012. Change, as we are learning, is simply too ambiguous and too risky.
Related Articles
- Obama off to ‘friend’ Facebook in person (alternet.org)
- Obama: Failure to reduce debt will hurt economy (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Obama’s “Deep” Defense Cuts Won’t Amount To Much – Business in The … (blogs.forbes.com)
S.E. Cupp responds to Keith Olbermann
The Keith Olbermann attack of S.E. Cupp last week via twitter hasn’t cooled down much and a few media outlets, albeit not the big 3 or major cable news channels, have called Keith on the carpet putting Mr. Olbermann in a position he is very unfamiliar with, being on the defensive. Mr. Olbermann is the doberman in most cases, on the attack snarling, barking, and snapping at those he disagrees with.
I think Ms. Cupp would have liked to see the whole thing just go away, but since Olbermann has decided to continue to back peddle and rationalize with non-factual statements about his intent, rather than just apologize, Cupp responded with with this classy retort.
S.E. Cupp Responds to Keith Olbermann
(There will be about a 10 second delay before the video will play – Yes, advertising)
Hey Keith, have you ever heard of Instant Karma?
Related Articles
- Twitter Sub-Moron Keith Olbermann Scrapes Bottom (Again), Suggests S.E. Cupp Should Have Been Aborted (dancleary.typepad.com)
- Fox’s Red Eye Crew Goes After Olbermann’s Twitter Attack On S.E. Cupp (mediaite.com)
- Keith Olbermann’s Return to Form (dailygut.com)
Keith Olbermann, BYU’s Honor Code, and other Friday Foibles
I used to like Keith Olberman. I mean I don’t hate the man or anything, I don’t know him personally, but I don’t care much for him any more. When he was on ESPN he was enjoyable to watch, quick witted, funny, and knowledgeable. Now he just seems angry.
Maybe he’s dealing with regrets about leaving ESPN and the sports gig. Regrets sometimes make us angry. Maybe he’s still mad at losing his deal with MSNBC . Although it could be argued his “release” happened partly due to his anger, so maybe that wasn’t the tipping point. Maybe he’s just frustrated with his growing irrelevance in exile on Current TV, his newest home for political assassination attempts and overall mean spirited dart throwing platform. I don’t know what caused it, but I don’t care for it and it appears a majority of Americans don’t care for it either regardless of their personal world views or ideologies.
The latest example of the angry man syndrome KO exhibits came in a “read between the lines” tweet about S.E. Cupp, conservative columnist for the New York Daily News and radio commentator on Glenn Beck’s syndicated network Mercury Inc. Ms. Cupp expressed her opinion about Planned Parenthood on the Joy Behar show recently and apparently Mr. Olbermann didn’t like her opinion and proceeded to make his feelings known through his twitter feed.
That got the attention of a few more tweeps.
Realizing what he just implied (only he knows if it was intentional or not) he starts to back peddle.
I am actually quite impressed with how fast Keith can run backwards!
I couldn’t help myself and jumped into the tweetness of the moment
No reply from Keith. I guess I just don’t have enough followers…kinda like Keith.
The Brandon Davies saga at BYU may have simmered down a bit now that March Madness is over and Jimmer Fredette is eying the NBA, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t hot topic any more. A sports blog called DeadSpin posted a blog authored by Luke O’Brien and Darron Smith making a case for racism in the BYU Honor Code system and the way its enforced.
The two proceeded to use statistics with little to no citation, quotes from former black athletes (and it should be noted every athlete they interviewed was a disgruntled player who had run into problems with the Honor Code and had an obvious axe to grind), and lots of he said – she said, rumor, and innuendo. They didn’t have a single quote from a black athlete who enjoyed his/her experience at BYU even though many of them have since come forward to speak out against the article and its implications. Ronny Brown, Brian Kehl, Brian Logan, Justin Robinson and Brandon Bradley, all tell a very different tale when you ask them about their experience at BYU.
Instead the authors focused on Thomas Stancil, Ray Hudson and Tico Pringle all players who despite their talents could never break into the starting lineup and ultimately got into trouble with the Honor Code resulting in their dismissal from BYU.
The bottom line here is the article was severely one sided, with apparently little or no attempts to bring any balance to the story. That under any circumstance is at the least poor journalism and at worst a hatchet job.
Some light may be shed on that theory by considering who wrote the article. I had a hard time finding out who Luke O’Brien is but I found a website that said he was an award winning journalist, but didn’t mention what awards or from what sources. It said he has had articles published by the Atlantic, Fortune, Details, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, The New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, Boston Magazine and Slate and that he’s a graduate of Harvard and Columbia. Seems if all that was true he’d know better than to publish such a one sided story seriously lacking in adequate attribution and citation.
Darron Smith is a former BYU Professor of Sociology who was dismissed from the school after writing a book critical of the LDS faith for its handling of black members and its priesthood throughout its history. Smith is a Mormon himself, but is very vocal about his belief that the LDS Church should do more to right the wrongs of racism in the early days of the church. His dismissal from BYU however, could lead one to believe this is a bit of payback. I’m not saying that is the case because no one knows his motivation but him.
In a recent radio interview, Smith said he held no animosity toward BYU or the church but felt there were inequities and racism being exhibited in the way the BYU Honor Code is enforced particularly when it comes to black athletes, who according to the numbers cited in the article, represent a disproportionate percentage of students dismissed for Honor Code violations. He also seemed to balk a bit when asked why he didn’t include any positive experiences by athletes like those mentioned here.
I don’t doubt Smith’s sincerity or passion about the subject of race at BYU and if there is racism involved it needs to be exposed and rooted out. I don’t believe it is institutionalized or widespread, and those coming out in opposition to this article agree. Deadspin doesn’t have all the details of each case either, just the comments of some former players who got kicked out or left BYU who happen to be black.
There are two sides to every story. This could have been an informative and thought provoking article had it been balanced, but as written, its nothing more than a fire starter.
This is just too good to pass up. Conservatives certainly have their flaws and imperfections but when placed side by side with Liberals and Progressives the principles of conservatism shine brightly.
Case in Point: Financial Guru Neil Cavuto goes head to head with Democrat Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. Its almost mean to let this woman speak on national television with no handlers there to protect her. Texas must be so proud.
Open Letter to Congress
Dear Congress,
Last year I mismanaged my funds and this year I cannot decide on a budget. Until I come to a decision that fits my needs and interests, I will have to shut down my checkbook and will no longer be able to pay my taxes.
I’m sure you’ll understand.
Thank you very much for setting an example we can all follow.
Sincerely,
TheLongVersion
Related Articles
- Lawmakers May Forego Pay – But Don’t Have to (foxnews.com)
- Who gets paid in a shutdown? Congress! (money.cnn.com)
Brandon Davies: Is BYU’s Premarital Sex Controversy Good For College Sports?
Back in March I wrote about Jimmer Fredette and BYU’s run to the NCAA tournament. In that post I mentioned the situation with Brandon Davies, the 6’9″ power forward/center, suspended for the remainder of the season due to an honor code violation. We later learned that violation had to do with the provision of the BYU honor code referring to living a “chaste and virtuous life”. Brandon admitted to having sexual relations with his girlfriend.
What followed is, in my mind, a proud moment for BYU and for Brandon Davies. I could opine about that for pages but I’d rather share an article in Time magazine published on March 4th by a disinterested 3rd party that closely follows my own thoughts and feelings on the situation. The author, Sean Gregory, articulates well the magnitude of the decision by BYU and the possible ripples that decision could have in college sports in general in the future.
It’s a great read, so I decided to re-post it here with attribution.
Brandon Davies: Is BYU’s Premarital Sex Controversy Good For College Sports?
These days, bad behavior among college athletes is a fact of campus life. Beat up a freshman in a barroom one night and you can be back on the court three days later. Just this week, a Sports Illustrated and CBS News investigation found that more than 200 players on the rosters of 25 major college football teams have run afoul of the law. Nearly a quarter of scholarship athletes on the University of Pittsburgh squad have criminal records.
College athletics is a multibillion-dollar enterprise, and the pressure to win at any cost — including turning a blind eye to player misbehavior — can be overwhelming. That’s why the news this week that Brigham Young University (BYU) would force starting center Brandon Davies to miss the rest of the season for violating the school’s honor code was so surprising.
The team looked like a title contender. BYU is ranked third in the country, and Davies, who averages 11.1 points and 6.2 rebounds, is a key player; in their first game without him, the Cougars were trounced by the University of New Mexico, 82-64.
But the most surprising fact of the story is that Davies got booted for behavior that wasn’t criminal. What he did takes place, to put it mildly, every day in colleges across the country: Davies had sex with his girlfriend.
BYU is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which frowns on premarital relations. Davis, like 98% of BYU students, is a Mormon. Upon entering the school, students vow to abide by its honor code, which prohibits premarital sex as well as indulging in alcohol or coffee. “The honor code is an essential part of your recruitment to BYU,” says Hall of Fame quarterback and ESPN analyst Steve Young, who played at BYU from 1981 to ’83. “It’s not like you find out later — ‘Oh, you didn’t tell me! I didn’t know that!’ But there’s a spirit on campus that is just, ‘O.K., fine, now let’s now go have a good time.'”
The judgment on Davies doesn’t come without costs to the school. If BYU fails to advance in the upcoming NCAA tournament without its star center, the rest of the team — young men who worked hard, obeyed the rules and did nothing wrong — miss out on a life experience they may never recapture.
But you have to admire an institution that sticks by its principles. “The expression of love between a man and a woman is sacred, valued at the highest level,” says Shawn Bradley, the 7-ft. 6-in. former NBA player who spent a year at BYU and spent two years on a mission in Australia before entering the 1993 draft. Indeed, many BYU alums say they support the school’s decision. “Sorry, I’m choking up a bit here,” says Philadelphia sportscaster Vai Sikahema, a former NFL return specialist who played for BYU in the mid-1980s. “It’s just hard for me to express just how immensely proud I am of my university.”
He should be. When it comes to athletes and sex, the easy call is to let the jocks slip. On any campus, athletes are visible, and popular, especially when a team is winning. And though it’s probably easier for a student to squelch his or her desires at a place where all 30,000 undergrads are also trying to stay chaste, suppression is still a challenge. “It was difficult for me,” says Bradley, a devout Mormon. “We all have those urges. You’re dealing with hormones, which are out in full force. But you have to stay focused, and put yourself in the right places to protect yourself.”
The willingness of BYU to police poor conduct is sharply at odds with other college programs. At Seton Hall University last season, for example, a basketball player who caused an accident while driving under the influence, causing an injury to the other driver, was suspended for only eight games. This year, a top player from Robert Morris University got a four-game penalty after a drunk-driving incident. In February, two players from Marshall University were charged with battery over a bar fight; they played in a game the next evening. Schools often let athletes off easy for on-field transgressions too. Two seasons ago, a University of Florida football player intentionally gouged an opponent’s eyes. He was suspended for a half.
BYU has every incentive to just slap Davies on the wrist for his transgression. A successful run at the Final Four could generate millions of dollars in television revenues and alumni donations for the school, and the added exposure and prestige can increase applications.
BYU boosters, however, believe the Davies incident could be a selling point on its own, by broadcasting the school’s principled stand on honesty and taking responsibility. 
Davies himself has apologized to his teammates and took his punishment without complaining. And despite the stiff penalty it levied, BYU also teaches forgiveness. “It’s really a pretty compassionate place,” says Young, a great-great-great grandson of Brigham Young himself. “I guarantee you there’s a huge outreach to make sure that he’s O.K. If I could talk to him, I’d put my arm around him and say, ‘Hang in there, get back on the court when you can, and make it right.'”
Davies may learn a great deal from this experience. “This could be a seminal moment in this young man’s life,” says Sikahema. “Better that it happens at 20, rather than 50, with four kids. He’ll probably be a better man, and that’s ultimately what BYU is about, building leaders, building men. If that means missing out a chance at the Final Four, well, that’s what happens.”
Would any other school pay that price? More than likely, too few would pass the Brandon Davies test.
Gregory is a staff writer at TIME. Keeping Score, his sports column for TIME.com, appears every Friday. Follow him on Twitter at @seanmgregory
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2057184,00.html#ixzz1IaX6AvX9
Related Articles
- Brandon Davies and BYU: What About the Past? (bleacherreport.com)
- Why BYU’s Brandon Davies Suspension May Help College Sport (time.com)
- Brandon Davies decision: BYU not at fault for upholding honor code (aol.sportingnews.com)
The Long Version 