Some Thoughts On Penn State And All That It Still Represents

It's really hard to describe how I feel right now. I'm not nearly as angry as I am disturbed, sickened, and saddened for these children. I really just want for this story to not be true. But it is.

I visited the Penn State campus a couple of months ago, and I remember thinking how awesome it was to finally see a Joe Paterno coached team in one of the most tradition rich stadiums in college football. I remember how nice the people were there in central Pennsylvania, how they shared their food and made us feel welcome. I remember how proud they were of their University, football program, and coach.

I can't imagine how they feel right now. The most important concern should, of course, be the victims of Jerry Sandusky's crimes. But in our condemnation and calls for justice, we should remember that the people in the stands, and the young men in uniform, didn't have anything to do with what happened. Cancelling the rest of the season would not be fair to them, and it wouldn't undo anything.

We love our heroes and we hate it when they let us down. We also love our myths. Does this mean that everything Penn State supposedly stood for is a myth? If we're talking about the administration and it's coach, then yes. But if we're talking about the fans and alumni, I don't think so. The Penn State family is bigger than Jerry Sandusky, and yes it is even bigger than Joe Paterno.

Maureen Dowd Doesn't Get It.....at all

She just doesn't get it.

In Maureen Dowd's intellectual "mind" Rick Perry, who is smart enough to have won three statewide elections in Texas, is stupid. Why, well because he made bad grades in college. I personally know many smart people who never went to college, some smarter people that were college dropouts. I bet Maureen Dowd doesn't, that is unless she has used her position at the New York Times to mingle with the likes of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. Maybe, by Ms. Dowd's standards, Harry Truman should also be considered an idiot? On that, perhaps we agree.

But why was Truman successful with voters and why is Rick Perry? This is something that people like Maureen Dowd and the ruling class will never understand. In America, we don't have titles of nobility, but we still have a ruling class that considers themselves to be above the "little people", as the ruling class sometimes calls them. Having been "ruled" rather than governed, from time to time the "little people" rally behind one of their own. That is why Rick Perry and others like him connect with the average voter.

We don't dislike the Harvard faculty that currently occupy the Executive Branch because we think they are smart. Quite the contrary, the "little people", of which I am one, actually believe these people are stupid. You see, when someone supports policies that do not work, or lead to destruction, and then continue to double down on those bad ideas, we call those people stupid. And yes, there are many really stupid people out there with Ivy League degrees.

On the flip side, we consider people that support good ideas to be "smart". I've met many people that work in foundry's, factories, warehouses, etc that I would consider to be much smarter than the idiots occupying the White House right now.

But you know, Ms. Dowd's snobbery is much more than that, isn't it? Articles like hers do not have the effect of "waking up" people like me to the geniuses that should have the right to run my life. No actually, columns like the ones she writes, embolden us. We don't like to be looked down upon, and we don't like to be told we are stupid. When you insult Palin or Perry, you insult us, because they are one of us. They, like us, were not born with the advantages of your average Harvard and Yale legacy. They had to get an education at (gasp!) state schools.

If you are a "little person", and you still vote Democrat, may I ask why? Do you not understand how little the ruling class thinks of you? Do you not get it? They look down on you folks. They think they are better than you. Yet you still vote Democrat, election after election. You still vote for people who have the same opinion of you that Ms. Dowd has. I will never get it. If Harry Truman were here today, he likely would not either.

They "Declared" Independence

I wonder sometimes how many Americans understand why we celebrate "the fourth of July". According to at least one reputable poll, almost a quarter of Americans do not even know what country we declared independence from. I would guess that even less understand the significance of this particular day. Well let me tell you.

Today is not the day our nation won independence. Today is the day we declared it, when several brave men risked their lives to sign a document called the Declaration of Independence. You often hear commentators use the term "our founding documents". Well actually there are no founding documents. There is only one. The Declaration is the founding document.

And what about that Declaration? Some today, like Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, want to diminish the importance of this document. That is either a huge mistake, or the purposeful act of a statist. You see, the Declaration of Independence should be considered equal to the Constitution. The ideals put forth in the Declaration, are why this nation exists and why it was formed the way it was. The Declaration is a radical document, because it recognized the fact that our rights come from God, not man, and that if a government violates those rights then the people have the right to disconnect from that government.

Slavery was obviously a black eye on America's founding. That can not be denied. However, it was the language of the Declaration that held this nation accountable to the values and ideals expressed in it. Sure there would have been an abolition movement without the Declaration, as there was in Europe. But in America, the abolition movement continually referred to the Declaration. The Declaration, in fact, laid the foundation for that movement. Lincoln referenced it quite often.

The Declaration is everything, and it should be taught as equal to the Constitution. The belief that all men are equal, and that our rights come from God, not governments, is central to understanding why this country exists. If you do not understand those things, then you can not understand this experiment called America.

No, July 4th is not the day we won independence. Independence Day, or the fourth of July, is the day we declared it, the day we told King George that our rights do not come from him, but from Him. Perhaps today's "rulers" have forgotten this. May they be reminded.

Free Speech Applies To All, Even The Phelps Family

This is one of those posts that put me at odds with many of my friends who call themselves "conservative". These are individuals I agree with most of time.

I totally understand why people feel the way they do. In fact, as far as the emotion is concerned, I'm right there with them. My reaction to this behavior, or my reaction to something like a flag burning, is just like most people's. I'm angered.

As disgusting as their behavior is though, the Phelps family did not violate state laws. They did not come within a thousand feet of the funeral. They were never even actually seen by the father of the heroic soldier. They did not come in contact with the funeral or disrupt it in any way.

What they did was exercise their Constitutional right to protest in the most unpopular way imaginable. Sometimes we, as a Constitutional republic, are tested. We are tested by Klansman, Neo-Nazis, Communists, Anarchists, and all types of fringe groups, organizations like the Phelps family.

But our Constitution, our republic, must be bigger than this. In America, we respect the right to protest, and our soldiers fight to uphold that right. I once read somewhere, that if we are not able to burn our flag, then it stands for nothing. The same goes, I believe, for free speech. If unpopular speech is not protected, then we don't have a First Amendment. Why would popular speech ever need protection?

Folks, we should not allow people like this to trick us into trampling on our Constitution. America, the one Matthew Snyder gave his life for, is bigger, much bigger than this.

The Federal Government Should Have Nothing To Do With Education

"No matter what anyone says, the Department of Education will not just write checks to local school boards. They will meddle in everything. I do not want that."-Representative Pat Schroeder (D-CO)

Once the federal government gets it's foot in the door, you can be 100% sure that eventually, that threshold will be swung wide open. Government is never happy with just a little bit of liberty, with just a little bit of state's rights. No, Washington never shrinks it's power, it only grows it.

Sadly, most people walking around today are not aware that the Department of Education has only been around since 1980. If you mention getting rid of this massive and quite useless bureaucracy, many will accuse you of not caring about education. I even had one gentleman claim that getting rid of the DOE would prevent Alabama from having any black football players. Amazing!

Most though, just do not want to discuss the issue. They have other things on their mind. I understand that. But tyranny does not always come by way of revolution. No the worst kind, the kind we have in this country today, creeps along while nobody is paying attention. It is what Hayak called a soft tyranny.

The establishment of the Department of Education in 1980, was, along with HealthCare reform, one of the federal government's most massive power grabs. Teachers and public school administrators love those federal dollars, but they fail to understand that money isn't free. Parents love regulation like No Child Left Behind, but they fail to see the future, which is nationalization of education.

Even though No Child Left Behind had good intentions, I opposed it. Even if President Obama's administration has equally good intentions with their proposal to test teachers, I oppose it. Education has always been and should remain the job of the states. Taking that away, or nationalizing it, while still forcing the states to fund it, is a huge mistake, and a huge infringement on the sovereignty of state governments. It is just one more way to increase the power of Washington.

Somebody, some politician, has to say these things. Somebody has to educate the public on why the federal Department of Education should be done away with. At some point, the federal government has to stop growing. We have to stop looking to Washington to solve our problems. These people can't even administer Social Security or Medicare, yet many want to allow them to run education? Seriously folks, it is way past time to get rid of the Department of Education.