David Gelernter – America Lite – How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered in the Obamacrats) (Encounter Books)

As a country and a culture, over the past 40 to 50 years the United States has gone through a seismic cultural shift. The rumble has been long and low; steady and slow, but devastating to our society and our country.

It is that cultural shift that is the basis for David Gelernter’s new book; America Lite - How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered in the Obamacrats).  Gerlernter makes the case that that academia has inculcated and indoctrinated our children; starting with teaching theories of history rather than actual history.

Gerlernter details the depreciation of the study of not only history, but also religion and literacy; replaced liberal, left ideology, secular humanism that sprung up in the post war era. 

America Lite, gets you to ponder things like political correctness run amok, the victim mentality, the over-lawyered lawsuit culture, everybody gets a turn/trophy and we can’t keep score mentality. The shift has turned success into greed and a need to tear down what was once revered and aspired to.

The result of this educational fifth column has culminated in the election to the Presidency of Barack Obama; the poster child for this vein of twisted thinking. Given the results thus far, it’s easy to see that the election of Obama wasn’t so much that we were enamored with his policies, but with the idea of electing the first African American.

Clearly those results now add up to dismal failure; the question is will we recognize it, or make an excuse for it.

The Mainstream Media Wouldn’t Know a Gaffe if it Bit Them on the Butt

If you are among the deluded who still believe what the mainstream media serves up, then Republican presumptive Presidential nominee, Mitt Romney’s oversees jaunt was a gaffe-fiesta and the candidate is a bungler who can’t seem to manage to avoid stepping on his own manhood.

But it’s my contention that the mainstream media wouldn’t recognize an actual gaffe if it walked up a bit it on their collective ass!

Romney has been excoriated by the Palestinian toady’s in the press for his comment about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel. This despite the fact in 1995 the 104^th  U.S. Congress passed into law the Jerusalem Embassy Act (Senate 95-3 and House 374-37) which initiated the funding and process of moving the U.S. Embassy to the capital of Israel, Jerusalem.

Despite the fact that Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have ignored the law, it still exists! The most amazing thing is that the press ignores the FACT that then candidate Obama, while speaking to the pro-Israel group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said basically the same thing:

"[A]ny agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized, and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

Olympics Gaffe

The media also took Romney to task over his comments in London about the preparedness of the Olympic committee for the then forthcoming  Summer games. Oddly enough, a week prior to Romney’s comments the British press was delivering front page stories saying exactly the same thing!

The Brit press reported that nearly half of those polled believed that the security of the games was a still unanswered question! The mainstream media is so in the tank for the Obama reelection campaign, desperately seeking anything to prop this clown up.

Equally the handful of conservative media outlets are misguided when they continue to label Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment as a gaffe. That was no gaffe, that was how this guy actually feels about business and business owners.

The Community Organizer in Chief thinks that business owners didn’t really work hard to build their success, they were simply the winners of a government infrastructure lottery. This thought process is so specious and the media’s attempt to spin this as Obama referring to roads and bridges, it’s laughable! If success was dependent upon roads and bridges, then way do businesses fail? Unfortunately more often than not the culprit is faulty business plans or government regulatory over-reach that dooms business…not a pothole in the road!

The Communist – Paul Kengor, Ph.D. (Mercury Ink)

“You may know a man by the company he keeps” – Proverb

There have been many variations of this proverb…you may have heard it as “judge a man by the company he keeps.”

Best-selling author/scholar Dr. Paul Kengor really makes no judgments in his new book The Communist, an accounting of self-proclaimed communist Frank Marshall Davis and his mentoring of a young, would be President, Barack Obama.

When you stack this carefully researched, detailed and notated book alongside the President’s relationship with domestic terrorist turned college professor Bill Ayers and his wife, fellow Weather Underground terrorist, Bernadine Dohrn and the Reverend Jerimiah “God Damn America” Wright it makes for a thought provoking portrait of those who influenced the development of President Obama’s political mindset.

Aside from not reading the book, slinging the usual mud and name-calling, Kengor’s detractors will undoubtedly try to minimize the level of influence that Davis had on the young Obama, and will shout about the dangers of “guilt by association.” Those complaints don’t stand up to scrutiny, when you know that Obama himself regularly referenced the influence “Frank” had in his life in his autobiographical memoir “Dreams From My Father”.

So who was Frank Marshall Davis? Kengor details Davis’ life from a youth growing up in racially constricted Kansas, to his becoming (literally) a card-carrying member of the Communist Party USA (#47544 based on his FBI file) a Communist sympathizing columnist and mentor to Barack Obama. In the prophetic final line Kengor rightly proclaims; “The people who influence our Presidents matter.”

Kengor extensively details the brutal racism that Davis was subjected to and speculates that it may have moved Davis to the dark side and a ripe candidate to be attracted to communism. Davis became a community activist, not only through his columns for the Chicago Red Star newspaper, but also as a labor movement activist.

Davis Influencing Obama

The most striking part of The Communist is what I can only describe as the constricting, concentric circles that seem to surround President Obama; the incredible “coincidences” and crossing of paths between Davis and those who continue to influence the President and his decision making process. The Valarie Jarrett’s and David Axelrod’s of the world.

Davis’ influence is clear.

What would motivate a newly elected President, in one of his first acts in office, to return a bust of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; a gift from one of our staunchest allies, that held a place of honor in the George W. Bush Oval Office? A quick read of Davis’ scathing writings on Churchill might be a good indication to the cause of this bizarre move.

Davis’ formula for economic recovery in the 1940s may seem familiar with his Qbama-esque “public works projects” (shovel ready jobs), anti-Wall Street “big business” and “wealth redistribution” writings.

While Obama decries “tax cuts for the rich”, Frank Marshall Davis decried “GOP would spare the rich with (a)20 percent tax cut plan”…January 11, 1947! Is it any wonder that Conservatives say that the Democrat party have no new ideas?! Davis and the Red Star regularly accused Republicans of wanting to “hurt the poor and pad the wallets of the rich…with phony tax cuts that only benefit the rich and corporations.” Sound familiar?

One of Davis’ favorite target of scorn was General Motors. He regularly derided GM’s wealth and referred to GM leadership as “General Motors Hitlers.” Obama “saved GM” by nationally the company and seizing control with the government bailout. Davis favored redistribution of wealth to have “healthcare for everybody.” The crippling financial and healthcare meltdown we face due to Obamacare is still to come.

Is Barack Obama a Communist? I will suggest you follow Kengor’s advice; read the book and decide for yourself. Is he misguided politically and has he been negatively influenced by the company he keeps?  In my opinion…without question.   

The NCAA’s Counterintuitive Leadership

The much anticipated announcement by the NCAA’s sanctions against Penn State University in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse conviction and the report by Louis Freeh regarding the cover up, resulted in prime example of counterintuitive leadership.

During the announcement, NCAA President Mark Emhert boldly proclaimed, “Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing, and protecting young people.”

Yet the sanctions he went on to announce do exactly that!

The sanctions include: a $60 million fine, equal to one year’s revenue from the football program, which will be placed in a fund to aide victims of sexual abuse nationally. Penn State will be banned from Bowl appearances for four years and will have their football scholarships reduced from 25 to 15. There are a number of compliance agreements and oversight stipulations as well.

Where it gets interesting is the fact that the NCAA will vacate all of Penn State’s football wins from 1998 – 2011. I get the fine and bowl and scholarship stuff, but why the collective punishment of the student athletes who earned the victories on the field in those games? What does that do to educate, nurture and protect those people who worked hard to earn those victories? Those students had nothing to do with the cover up, perpetrated by the University’s leadership, of the sexual abuse perpetrated by Sandusky, yet the NCAA has seen fit to penalize them.

This flies not only in the face of common sense, but the statement made by Ehmert. This amounts to the NCAA aiding Sandusky and Penn State to once again screw young people! The focus and blame should be placed on Sandusky who committed these perverse crimes and those in leadership positions who made the choice to cover up those crimes. Until that happens, untold damage will continue to be done to the value of the education and degrees being EARNED by students of the University.

Missa...Misses the Point

Call me a political geek, but I love wandering around political candidate websites and dissecting their stances and positions. So recently I found my way to Democrat Congessional candidate Missa Eaton’s campaign site and checked out her “Five Point Plan”. Seems like every candidate feels the need to have a “five point plan”. I’m just not sure exactly what Ms. Eaton’s “plan” really is...sounds like more platitudes than plan.

So here is Missa’s message...that seems to missa the point. My responses appear in RED.

Missa's Message (Not sure what the actual message is here…other than muddled.)

Job Creation & Economic Development

·         Encourage Public/Private Partnerships (We’ll even say pretty please!)

·         Incentivize Private Job Creation (You mean we haven’t tried this already?)

·         Focus Public Re-investment for Local projects (A…okay…what exactly does that mean?)

·         Create Incubator Programs to Put Local Residents to Work (been there done that…)

·         Establish Retraining Programs for Unemployed & Underemployed    Residents to Prepare Workforce for New Businesses & Industries (Here’s a news flash…we already spend billions on these programs…yet we still have unemployment above 8%)

Social Security and Medicare Protection

·         Strengthen Social Security Trust Fund (WOW…That sounds great! What exactly is your Plan?!)

·         Eliminate the Income Cap for Individuals (We need more redistribution of wealth!)

·         Fight Against the Privatization of Social Security (Another shocker from the Democrat playbook…yes we wouldn’t want people to have control over their own money…)

·         Fight Against the Medicare Voucher Program (Yes by keeping Obamacare alive so we can continue to drain money away from Medicare)

·         Ensure the Solvency of Social Security & Medicare for Everyone (Again…SOUNDS GREAT!..What’s your plan??)

Investment In Our Future: Education Initiatives

·         Establish Early Childhood Education Guarantees (What are you going to guarantee? The funding of the program or the that kids actually learn something?)

·         Create Smaller Class Sizes (Is it really the job of the Federal govt to fund schools/teachers?)

·         Revise "No Child Left Behind" (To say what?)

·         Support Higher Education Including Trade Schools & Community Colleges (Now there is a bold concept!)

·         Address Student Debt Crisis (Really…what isn’t a crisis these days? Okay…your Plan?)

Access To Affordable Healthcare

·         Safe-Guard Small Businesses and Nonprofits From Rising Insurance Premiums (Exactly how do you do that? Do you support Tort Reform? Injecting marketplace into healthcare?)

·         Protect Patient's Rights (Now there is a bold concept!)

·         Allow Medicare & Medicaid to Negotiate Pharmaceutical Rates

·         Protect Women's Health Care (Now there is a bold concept! What exactly do you mean when you say Women’s healthcare? Sorry but abortion does not equal healthcare.)

·         Promote Cost Savings & Efficiency In The Health Care System (Now there is a bold concept! Now what’s your plan??)

American Energy Sustainability

·         Eliminate the $41 Billion Oil & Gas Industry Subsidy (and how will we search for our own energy resources? You might as well just tie us to high oil and gas prices from unstable middle east countries!)

·         Invest in Research for Alternative Energy Sources (One word…Solyndra. If that’s not enough I could add all of the other failed companies who recieved Obama subsidies)

·         Institute the Sustainable Communities Initiative

·         Protect Water Sources & Wild Lands Especially in Shale Areas (God forbid we tap into our on energy resources and create jobs in PA)

·         Reduce America's Carbon Footprint (Now there is a bold concept! What’s your plan??)

If you feel the need to run for public office and you feel the need to release a “five point plan” it might help if you actually had…A PLAN.

A Failure to Lead…not a Failure of Leadership

The headlines speak volumes; Fox News; Report by former FBI director finds Penn State concealed child sex abuse, ABC News Report: Paterno Concealed Sandusky Abuse, and CNN (with bad choice of lead) Probe: Penn State Showed ‘total disregard’ for victims.

The report in question is the one released today by former FBI Director, Louis Freeh, outlining his investigation into Penn State University’s mishandling of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal.

In short the report concluded: “In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the university – Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley – repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse.”

In an amazingly dead on comment, a janitor at the University concluded that ‘the University will close ranks to protect the football program” after another janitor witnessed Sandusky sexually assaulting one of his victims.

I previously wrote a piece that hinted at this conclusion; that the University was more concerned about their public image and protecting their crown jewel, the Football Program. How many historic examples can we point to that show the cover up is always worse than the crime. For what would have amounted to a short term hit, that could have been easily remedied with a strong public relations campaign and community outreach; the alleged leadership of the University created an in-excusable firestorm that will likely do damage to the University as a whole and the football program in particular.

While Sandusky is an undeniable jizz who should spend the remainder of his miserable life in the worst hellhole of a prison, I think the case could easily be made that former University president Graham Spanier, former VP Gary Schultz, athletic director, Tim Curley and yes even Joe Paterno are deserving of a cell down the hall. Their utterly repulsive lack of action turned them into pimps for Sandusky serial child rape.

How those who directly witnessed Sandusky rapes and those who chose to cover them up didn’t call the police, let alone commit blunt force trauma on Sandusky is beyond comprehension. The fact that this cadre of despicable scumbags could feel so little for the victims is almost beyond explanation.

I originally called this a failure of leadership, but the University’s desire to cover up is so pervasive that it really amounts to a failure to lead. Think about how deep mindset extended for this cover up to remain so bullet proof for so long. The fact that no one cracked!  is astounding. No one stepped out of line and did the right thing, all in a effort to protect the mighty blue and white.

Despite the fact that I have a child finishing a degree at the University, I don’t feel sorry for the University when it comes to the all out legal onslaught that they will face from Sandusky victims; you reap what you sow.   

Debbie Does Stupid!

It’s become such a regular occurrence that DNC Chairperson Debbie Wasserman Shultz, opens her mouth and stupid comments seem to jump out and mingle with hypocracy, that you have to ask yourself…”is she really that stupid?”

Good old Debbie Dumb-as-dirt has been making the rounds touting the Obama campaign’s latest talking points about evil rich guy Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his allegedly mysterious “off shore accounts.”

Chatting with fellow Mensa member Alex Wagner at MSNBC Shultz uttered the following talking point, “It would be nice if we had a candidate for president who was committed to America. Mitt Romney is committed to making sure that either he makes the most money as humanly possible, or his investors do. And that's evidenced by his track record in shipping jobs overseas and making sure that he has investments that we don't know why he invested in offshore accounts. But most folks that I know, they make their investments in a bank in America, most American business men invest here and if you're running for president, that certainly should be your commitment.”

At another media stop, Shultz dropped this cliffhanger; "Americans need to ask themselves, why does an American businessman need a Swiss bank account and secretive investments like that? Just something, a thought, that I'd like to leave folks with."

One small problem for Ms. Shultz; The Weekly Standard is reporting that financial disclosure forms from 2010 show that Wasserman Schultz invested between $1,001-$15,000 in a 401k retirement fund run by Davis Financial Fund. The fund has investments in the Julius Baer Group Ltd., a Swiss investment firm, nd the State Bank of India GDR Ltd., as well as other financial, insurance, bank institutions. Other investments show she had funds with holdings in foreign drug makers and auto companies.

The Weekly Standard points out there is nothing illegal in holding such assets…something that the Dumbocraps aren’t saying about Romney.

This one ranks right up there with Shultz’s criticism of former Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s purchase of a foreign made Audi automobile as not being supportive of the U.S. auto industry, when she drives a 2010 Infiniti X35…yep you guessed it…Infiniti’s parent company is the Japan based Nissan corporation. Just more liberal do as I say not as I do stupidity.