So I spent the day doing two things I love the most of all.
1.) Hanging out at my college Alma Mater while I proctored an exam for a friend and professor there.
2.) Hanging out with friends and geeks from all walks of fandom at MegaCon in Orlando Florida.
Note on Number 2: Lar Desouza and Ryan Sohmer and Derrick Fish? Three of the NICEST guys you'll ever meet.
After getting into the convention and heading into the dealer's areas I found Ryan and Lar first, bought a few books from their Least I Could Do strips, which both artists signed, and then found Derrick and purchased a sketchbook, which he promptly did a sketch of two of my favorite characters, Dandy and Bernard from his comic Dandy and Company.
If you're in the Orlando, Tampa, Lakeland or some nearby area? I suggest going over and hanging out with these awesome people as well as the others that are nearby. It's so cool that Chewbacca even decided to show up.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Education or Indoctrination
The difference between Education and Indoctrination is a gray line. It can often be confused, and when that happens? Calamity ensues. What is education? What is indoctrination? What is the difference? These are questions which may have different meanings, but the end result is always the same. Education gives people the facts in an objective manner, allowing them to use reason, logic, and their own God-given intellect to come to moral decisions regarding any given issue. Indoctrination is the opposite. Selectively giving facts, giving half truths you might say, and instead of allowing interpretation, teaching which interpretations are correct and which are incorrect so that the people arrive, through no volition of their own, at the same conclusion you arrive at. The difference? Education gives someone all the facts, and supports the notion of self-determination and free will to allow them to choose their own path, their own judgments. Indoctrination robs the person of their ability to create their own opinions, instead forcing other opinions on people.
This can work both ways. Many forms of abuse, child abuse, spousal abuse, all depend on indoctrination. The hard right can do it. They did it in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The hard left can do it. They did it in Communist Russia, China, and continue to do it today, even here in America.
But where do they do it in America? The only place that they can get away with it. Higher Educational Institutions. Colleges? Universities? Even local Community Colleges are wide open for liberal domination. Professors like this one use the education system to indoctrinate their classes. Does it mean it happens all the time and every professor is a liberal whack job? No. Not at all. But it is a problem.
I find it quite interesting that these professors who teach our future generations about the evils of Nazism, Communism, Fascism, and other absolutist governments where there is only one way to think about any given issue fall victim to the very same sorts of prejudice, closed-mindedness, and hate-mongering that they protest so loudly. Then again, empty cans make the loudest noise. What makes it all the more vexing? The fact that the liberal left are typically the ones fighting to expand Free Speech rights. Apparently that only applies to like minded left wingers.
So what can we students do? Stick to your guns. That is the best thing anyone can do when faced down by liberal professors. Every single college or university in the United States has an appeals process for grades earned unfairly. They have feedback forms for students to speak their minds about professors. All else fails? Find the Dean of Academics or the President of the College and go to their office for an appointment. If all else fails? Just smile and nod. Get through it. Bear it out and stay true to your beliefs, but keep them quiet. Throughout history we see heroes who quietly bore oppression.
The Jews under Greek rule of the Seleucid Empire. The early Church fathers under the Roman Empire. Protestants under Catholic rule in France and Spain. Catholics under Protestant rule in England and Germany. Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and Catholics under Nazi Germany. Jews, Christians, Georgians, and Intellectuals under Communist Russia. Buddhists, Hindus, and others in Communist China. Christians today in many countries of the Arabic world where Christianity is illegal under Theocratic dictatorships in Muslim nations.
So when in doubt? When you feel yourself intellectually repressed by a liberal majority? When you feel your rights in jeopardy because of this 'all or nothing' liberal mentality that abjures truth and ignores history? You're in good company if you choose to just bear it out and continue holding true to your belief.
Freedom, ladies and gentlemen, is not free. It's been bought and paid for by those willing to stand up and die for it. It may not be free, but it is easily misused. The very freedoms we enjoy can be taken away by people using those freedoms as a shield to strip freedom from the rest of us. The cost of freedom besides the blood of those who purchased it, is eternal vigilance against those who would seek to take our liberty away. Our forefathers understood this. Their forefathers understood it in countries throughout the world and nations wherein the laws of the land provide liberty for the people and protection from oppression.
This can work both ways. Many forms of abuse, child abuse, spousal abuse, all depend on indoctrination. The hard right can do it. They did it in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The hard left can do it. They did it in Communist Russia, China, and continue to do it today, even here in America.
But where do they do it in America? The only place that they can get away with it. Higher Educational Institutions. Colleges? Universities? Even local Community Colleges are wide open for liberal domination. Professors like this one use the education system to indoctrinate their classes. Does it mean it happens all the time and every professor is a liberal whack job? No. Not at all. But it is a problem.
I find it quite interesting that these professors who teach our future generations about the evils of Nazism, Communism, Fascism, and other absolutist governments where there is only one way to think about any given issue fall victim to the very same sorts of prejudice, closed-mindedness, and hate-mongering that they protest so loudly. Then again, empty cans make the loudest noise. What makes it all the more vexing? The fact that the liberal left are typically the ones fighting to expand Free Speech rights. Apparently that only applies to like minded left wingers.
So what can we students do? Stick to your guns. That is the best thing anyone can do when faced down by liberal professors. Every single college or university in the United States has an appeals process for grades earned unfairly. They have feedback forms for students to speak their minds about professors. All else fails? Find the Dean of Academics or the President of the College and go to their office for an appointment. If all else fails? Just smile and nod. Get through it. Bear it out and stay true to your beliefs, but keep them quiet. Throughout history we see heroes who quietly bore oppression.
The Jews under Greek rule of the Seleucid Empire. The early Church fathers under the Roman Empire. Protestants under Catholic rule in France and Spain. Catholics under Protestant rule in England and Germany. Jews, Gypsies, Gays, and Catholics under Nazi Germany. Jews, Christians, Georgians, and Intellectuals under Communist Russia. Buddhists, Hindus, and others in Communist China. Christians today in many countries of the Arabic world where Christianity is illegal under Theocratic dictatorships in Muslim nations.
So when in doubt? When you feel yourself intellectually repressed by a liberal majority? When you feel your rights in jeopardy because of this 'all or nothing' liberal mentality that abjures truth and ignores history? You're in good company if you choose to just bear it out and continue holding true to your belief.
Freedom, ladies and gentlemen, is not free. It's been bought and paid for by those willing to stand up and die for it. It may not be free, but it is easily misused. The very freedoms we enjoy can be taken away by people using those freedoms as a shield to strip freedom from the rest of us. The cost of freedom besides the blood of those who purchased it, is eternal vigilance against those who would seek to take our liberty away. Our forefathers understood this. Their forefathers understood it in countries throughout the world and nations wherein the laws of the land provide liberty for the people and protection from oppression.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
State and Federal Dope
So as I was taking a break from reading a fascinating archaeological book about the Athlit naval ram dating from the 2nd Century BC, I decided to check the headlines and see what was up. And that was when I came across this. This wonderful little article has President Obama giving in to the marijuana lobby. But even more than giving up to illegal drugs and laying down to a tiny minority lobby, President Obama is disrespecting the past. That's right. He's flouting history and legality.
The year? 1830. Congress passes a bill with a 103 - 87 vote to spend Federal dollars for internal improvement of a road located entirely in the State of Kentucky. President Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, vetos the bill. It was nothing against the road being built. It was nothing against the State of Kentucky. It was over the federal submission of money to the State of Kentucky for road improvements located wholly and entirely within 1 State. Had the road moved outside of Kentucky? It would have been approved most likely. But the fact remained that it was declared unconstitutional for Federal authority to bend to the will of a State.
The year? 1860. Abraham Lincoln is elected as our 16th President of the United States. Slavery is a main forefront issue of politics in the time period. Southern States advocate new territories being made into states be allowed to choose between Slavery and Abolition, with hundreds upon thousands of people leaving Slave states in the south to go to these new territories, like Kansas, to vote on the issue, insuring Slavery in the new territories. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican controlled Congress declare the Missouri Compromise. It isn't enough. Various causes surrounding slavery lead many of the Southern States to declare secession from the Union of the United States of America. The belief of this being, that the States as individual bodies ratified the US Constitution, and therefore, since they voluntarily joined it, a similar vote could be held to voluntarily leave it. This fundamental idea of State empowerment and determination over Federal power and authority causes the Civil War. Over a million lives lost and a dozen years later through Reconstruction, Federal authority is finally assured by 1877. Three Civil Rights Acts, 3 Constitutional Amendments all supercede State authority, demanding that blacks be given the rights to vote, to due process of law, to a fair trial, and freedom from slavery and terrorism by the emergence of White Pride groups.
The year? 1920. The 19th Amendment supercedes State Laws in many states, demanding that Gender qualifications for voting be abolished. Women are given suffrage and allowed to vote. Minorities across the board are now enfranchised in the American political system. "Freedom and Justice for all." Finally rings true.
The year? 1954. Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Topeka Kansas wants to segregate schools between white and colored. Under the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, this is perfectly legal. By 1954? The Earl Warren Supreme Court says 'no'. The Kansas law violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Segregation is overturned.
The year? 1957-1968. Jim Crow is rampant in the South, and in this 11 year stretch, 4 Civil Rights Acts are passed through Congress. 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968. These Civil Rights Acts are Federally Authorized packs of laws that destroy many of the local and state segregation laws. It is important to note that the only reason President Obama was even allowed to run, much less be elected, is because of this Federal superceding of State authority.
The year? Now. DEA agents raid California businesses selling Marijuana for 'medicinal use' to just about anyone who knows how to forge a doctor's note, thereby enforcing Federal drug statutes. President Obama undermines 179 years of legal and historic precedent which demands Federal authority to supercede State authority in EVERY instance by declaring that the DEA can no longer enforce Federal drug laws prohibiting Marijuana in the State of California. Effectively? President Obama has come out and said that California's laws dictate on a higher legal plane than Federal laws.
Congratulations Mister Obama. You've dishonored millions of people who have fought, bled, and died for Federal authority over State authority. You've flouted 179 years of legal precedents in the annals of US History. And you've done so on one of the most dangerous topics of our time: Drugs.
The year? 1830. Congress passes a bill with a 103 - 87 vote to spend Federal dollars for internal improvement of a road located entirely in the State of Kentucky. President Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, vetos the bill. It was nothing against the road being built. It was nothing against the State of Kentucky. It was over the federal submission of money to the State of Kentucky for road improvements located wholly and entirely within 1 State. Had the road moved outside of Kentucky? It would have been approved most likely. But the fact remained that it was declared unconstitutional for Federal authority to bend to the will of a State.
The year? 1860. Abraham Lincoln is elected as our 16th President of the United States. Slavery is a main forefront issue of politics in the time period. Southern States advocate new territories being made into states be allowed to choose between Slavery and Abolition, with hundreds upon thousands of people leaving Slave states in the south to go to these new territories, like Kansas, to vote on the issue, insuring Slavery in the new territories. Abraham Lincoln and the Republican controlled Congress declare the Missouri Compromise. It isn't enough. Various causes surrounding slavery lead many of the Southern States to declare secession from the Union of the United States of America. The belief of this being, that the States as individual bodies ratified the US Constitution, and therefore, since they voluntarily joined it, a similar vote could be held to voluntarily leave it. This fundamental idea of State empowerment and determination over Federal power and authority causes the Civil War. Over a million lives lost and a dozen years later through Reconstruction, Federal authority is finally assured by 1877. Three Civil Rights Acts, 3 Constitutional Amendments all supercede State authority, demanding that blacks be given the rights to vote, to due process of law, to a fair trial, and freedom from slavery and terrorism by the emergence of White Pride groups.
The year? 1920. The 19th Amendment supercedes State Laws in many states, demanding that Gender qualifications for voting be abolished. Women are given suffrage and allowed to vote. Minorities across the board are now enfranchised in the American political system. "Freedom and Justice for all." Finally rings true.
The year? 1954. Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Topeka Kansas wants to segregate schools between white and colored. Under the Plessy v. Ferguson decision in 1896, this is perfectly legal. By 1954? The Earl Warren Supreme Court says 'no'. The Kansas law violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Segregation is overturned.
The year? 1957-1968. Jim Crow is rampant in the South, and in this 11 year stretch, 4 Civil Rights Acts are passed through Congress. 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968. These Civil Rights Acts are Federally Authorized packs of laws that destroy many of the local and state segregation laws. It is important to note that the only reason President Obama was even allowed to run, much less be elected, is because of this Federal superceding of State authority.
The year? Now. DEA agents raid California businesses selling Marijuana for 'medicinal use' to just about anyone who knows how to forge a doctor's note, thereby enforcing Federal drug statutes. President Obama undermines 179 years of legal and historic precedent which demands Federal authority to supercede State authority in EVERY instance by declaring that the DEA can no longer enforce Federal drug laws prohibiting Marijuana in the State of California. Effectively? President Obama has come out and said that California's laws dictate on a higher legal plane than Federal laws.
Congratulations Mister Obama. You've dishonored millions of people who have fought, bled, and died for Federal authority over State authority. You've flouted 179 years of legal precedents in the annals of US History. And you've done so on one of the most dangerous topics of our time: Drugs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)