What Works?

Just before 9 AM every seat is taken except for one at the counter. Gilberto turns from the grill when I sit down. “You beat the rush.” I nod with a smile.

Saturday morning. I’m sitting at the counter of a local diner. Across from me is a grill heaped up in the back with a pile of steaming potatoes. Two Hispanics work the orders on the front of the grill. Eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, pancakes, plating. Eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, pancakes, plating.

I order my usual. Before Elena hands him the food order, Gilberto has already started the eggs sausage and potatoes.

Today the diner’s owner Gilberto is one of the guys working the grill. His son David manages the tables and the Hispanic waitstaff of four. Gilberto is training his son to take over the restaurant. I know this, as Gilberto and I have talked when he’s had a moment’s break from the grill.

Gilberto works six days a week keeping the 7 AM to 2 PM diner going. He purchased the grill a few years ago from the previous owner and has since put in countless hours to make his enterprise work. And now he wants to have another day off. So, he’s training the cook working beside him as he had trained his son before him.

Just now I catch his tired eyes looking off somewhere. At a daydream perhaps. Perhaps he’s thinking of life outside the restaurant. Or, of something else he has to do before he goes home.

Three families arrive. Gilberto turns back to the grill. People need to be fed and tables turned. Employees need to be trained and paid. Work needs to be done. Gilberto thrives on that.

*****

“[Work] is about a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”

Stud Terkel, Working

Working : Terkel, Studs, 1912-2008 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

About Studs Terkel | The WFMT Studs Terkel Radio Archive | A Living Celebration

*****

Right before our eyes, America is losing that ability to sustain the complex systems that are the markers of modern civilization. Even more appalling, this transformation is a choice.

America Lost the Hardworking Men Who Held Her Together, and Now She’s Crumbling – Revolver News

America Is Trying to Electrify. There Aren’t Enough Electricians. – WSJ

*****

It’s the work:

Mike Rowe explains why more workers are ‘quietly quitting’.

I’d rather watch Dirty Jobs than play video games, watch movies and waste my time on social media. I’ve done dirty jobs. And I’ve done alright. There is something rewarding and holistic about getting your hands dirty doing things that need to get done and working with people who do the same. Some people wouldn’t understand.

Some think manual labor is beneath them – they’d get their hands dirty, and besides, they were meant for greater things. Some think a degree ups their pay grade and attitude. It is elites like these who run our country and sneer in the direction of the dirty-hands worker while basing all their reckless spending on the full faith and credit of such hard-working Americans.

mikeroweWORKS Foundation

*****

Did school teach you what you do for a living? It didn’t for me.

“… schooling isn’t paying off the dividends the school counselors promised. Do yourself a favor and start asking people if school taught them what they do for a living. Many will attest they learned most of what they know and do outside the classroom. Our instructors desperately want us to believe that learning happens in school, but for most the current industrial (or is it now post-industrial?) model of “schooling” is the impediment to exploration and true learning. Yet we pursue the lie, . . .

Examine today’s heroes and ponder if their schooling taught them how to rebel, invent, podcast, lead, write, speak, or any other of their myriad accomplishments, as they attempt to thwart the globalist’s plot of world destruction. The elites need children in school, where they are trained to obey.”

-Sam Sorbo, guest author – Defending the Dream – by Robert W Malone MD, MS (substack.com)

Home education – Underground Education (samsorbo.com)

*****

Informed Dissent:

FAUCI COVERUP… – CITIZEN FREE PRESS

Are We Medicating Millions of ADHD Children without Scientific Justification? (substack.com)

My recommendation is to discuss this with your doctor or seek a specialist in holistic or naturopathic medicine who is experienced with the safety profile of nattokinase in a range of applications. -Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

Dissolution of Spike Protein by Nattokinase (substack.com)

Dr Robert Malone – mRNA Vaccines, Pfizer & 5th Generation Warfare – London Real

The Big Logic – The Absolute Best Collection of COVID Videos Clips

EXCLUSIVE: Whatever happened to Pfizer’s covid vaccine trial in pregnant women? (substack.com)

12ft | The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned? – DNyuz

New York Times readers confront the manifest failure of masks to do anything, cope and seethe (eugyppius.com)

NFL Star Byron Jones Abruptly Retires at 30 (resistthemainstream.com)

A SafeBlood Donation Foundation Seeks To Provide Unvaccinated Blood To Needy Patients – National File

FDA Reveals Rare, Possibly Fatal Neurological Disorder Is A “Potential Risk” With New Pfizer Vaccine | The Gateway Pundit

What if the largest experiment on human beings in history is a failure? (substack.com)

The Declaration of Helsinki – by Robert W Malone MD, MS (substack.com)

Pfizer and the regulators had data by June 2021 showing a serious safety signal for miscarriage. They not only ignored it but suppressed access to the documents. -Dr. Ah Kahn Syed

The miscarriage of medicine – by Dr Ah Kahn Syed (substack.com)

Availability of Airline Pilots, the Covid Shot and, the Mandate

AMERICA – WE HAVE A PROBLEM – by Robert W Malone MD, MS (substack.com)

Worldwide COVID litigation lawyer directory (substack.com)

SARS- CoV-WIV – by Robert W Malone MD, MS (substack.com)

Far and away the most common question I get from those who took one of the COVID-19 vaccines is: “how do I get this out of my body.

Dr. Peter McCullough On “The Holy Grail Of COVID-19 Vaccine Detoxification” | The Gateway Pundit

why eliminating the FDA and CDC would probably make the public safer (substack.com)

Biden the Destroyer:

Consequences of crime under Democrats . . .

Retail Collapse: Over 800 Big Stores Set to Close Due to Inflation, Crime, Interest Rates | The Gateway Pundit

Equity” is a Neo-Marxist euphemism for resource redistribution to favored racial and ethnic groups. Equity isn’t equality; its meaning and use are deliberately inverted to mislead the gullible and ignorant public. 

12ft | Biden Administration’s New Equity Atlas: An Unconstitutional Equity Redistribution Scheme – American Thinker

BIDEN ECONOMY: Record US Credit Card Debt Nearly $1 Trillion as Americans Struggle to Survive Under Joe Biden | The Gateway Pundit

Biden’s Insane Foreign Policy Actions Drove China and Russia Together – Now the World Is Facing WWIII | The Gateway Pundit

*****

Climate Change Religion = Big Brother Authoritarianism:

12 Year Old Girl Destroys The Climate Change Narrative Of 15 Minute Cities (odysee.com)

Too Much of a Good Thing: Pronatalism Is Killing the Earth | Opinion (msn.com)

Now comes Nandita Bajaj advocating to “save the planet” with fewer life forms. Imagine living a childless life because some climate clown said it would save Mother Earth.

In the end, alarmism about population decline is a distraction from the real crisis demanding attention: the human enterprise in overshoot, overwhelming the natural systems that enable life on Earth. Norms need to shift so that having fewer or no children is understood as a legitimate, positive choice and lower fertility is recognized as a path to a positive future.

When I Covered Climate Change for Reuters I Thought CO2 Was Certainly to Blame for Rising Temperatures. I Was Wrong – The Daily Sceptic

*****

Indiana:

Support SB 480 – Prohibits a physician or other practitioner from knowingly providing gender transition procedures to an individual who is less than 18 years of age (minor) that are intended to alter the gender of the minor or delay puberty. 

SB4 (egregious spending and bureaucracy): “We are disappointed to report that SB4, the expansion of public health bill, passed out of the Senate today 41-7. The bill will now move over to the House for consideration, where we have been working with representatives to prepare amendments to improve the bill or ultimately, defeat it.”

Follow, for your state>>>>> Health Freedom Advocacy Center | Stand For Health Freedom

Prohibits the Indiana public retirement system from investing in certain restricted entities or restricted investment products, including particular investments publicly confirmed to be controlled by the People’s Republic of China or the Chinese Communist Party. 

Senate Bill 268 – Prohibited pension system investments – Indiana General Assembly, 2023 Session

Indiana Governor’s Public Health Commission | Stand for Health Freedom

State Bills to Support or Oppose (substack.com)

Illinois:

Another Democrat & DEI disaster . . .

It’s Worse Than First Reported – Illinois Has 930 Schools Where Only 1 in 10 Children Can Do Math at Grade Level | The Gateway Pundit

Report reveals there are no students proficient in either math or reading at 60 Illinois schools | Daily Mail Online

Democrats Want All-Gender Restrooms in Illinois? (illinoisfamily.org)

Chicago polls close leaving Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s future at risk amid soring crime | Daily Mail Online

California:

Why Woke Nihilism Destroyed California (substack.com)

Nigeria:

Nigeria: Rise of new populist leader has World Economic Forum sweating… – Revolver News

A very dark digital currency experiment is under way in Nigeria, with deadly consequences… – Revolver News

South Africa:

Meltdown in La La Land… CRT/DEI paradise South Africa on the brink… – Revolver News

Climate Derange-ment:

Zelensky threatens unsupportive Americans — RT World News

Before digitalization:

Nothing equitable here. Just more pandering for votes like Black History Month, Gay Pride Month and (soon?) Audit Whitey Month:

Disturbing video from Maine… – CITIZEN FREE PRESS

Tenured Radicals, Circa 1990

HOW to COMMENCE: “Fail Big; Be Grateful, Seek Wisdom, Get On Your Knees…”

Denzel Washington’s remarkable commencement speech points these graduates forward and away from, hopefully, the dead-end route of Marxist black liberation theology.

Denzel speaks of God-given human desire, of aspirations beyond one’s self, of failing big, of seeking wisdom from above out of a heart of gratefulness and a daily dependence on God. All of these characteristics, he concludes, culminate in a life that makes a difference for the good toward the graduate and to the others he or she may encounter.

Here is something else to ruminate on:

“Today, many people, especially academics, assume that intellectual work takes places in the objective world of the hard sciences, and that the more you move in the direction of the so-called arts, especially things like metaphysics and theology, the more you are simply talking nonsense about nothing. This is the function of Epicurean assumptions, not of the hard sciences themselves; many periods and cultures have developed sophisticated scientific work without assuming that you had to split off from other kinds of knowledge.

Nevertheless, many leading scientists today were brought up on the split-world viewpoint. Some have even, with unintended irony, made it an article of faith that one should not allow articles of faith into the classroom or laboratory….the mistake… of confusing science with scientism, of placing the proper and wise investigation of the natural world within the worldview of Epicureanism, which itself is unproved and indeed unprovable.

So, what’s the alternative? Here, perhaps to the surprise of some, the Christian worldview has a great deal to offer, when you trace it back to its beginnings in ancient Israel, then to Jesus and the writings of the first two or three Christian centuries. The category that emerges again and again in the scriptures and the great teachers of the faith is wisdom, sophia in Greek, Chokma in Hebrew….Wisdom (being) what you need, according to scripture, to become genuinely, fully human. And genuine, fully rounded humanity is what our culture, with its pretense of religion and its variety of unnamed but powerful gods, has been remarkably short of.” (emphasis mine) N.T. Wright, “Surprised by Scripture.”

Our ability to imagine, to intuit and to be wise has been greatly damaged by education that presupposes a fact/value split.

“What renders man an imaginative and moral being is that in society he gives new aims to his life which could not have existed in solitude: the aims of friendship, religion, science, and art.” George Santayana

Regarding “Epicurean assumptions” see my previous posts:

Aren’t You A Bit Epicurious?

Aren’t You a Bit Solipsistic?

Epicurus “High-Horse” Mal-Ware v. 2.015

One Nation Under Epicurus?

***

This post is dedicated to my nephew Joseph (Joe) who has just graduated from high school. The open house is next Saturday. Congrats Joe!

Joe, I know that you already have God-given desires in your heart. May God grant you the desires of your heart. And don’t forget. Enjoy the ride and “Every girl’s crazy about a sharp dressed” grad.

Income Inequality Anonymous

 “Hello, my name is Sally. I am addicted to income inequality.”

 Group: “Hello Sally.”

 Group Leader: “We’ve asked Sally here tonight to please tell us her story, how she deals with income inequality addiction.”

 “Thank you for the invite Charis and Irene!”

 “Well, my income inequality addiction began at a very early age. At five years of age I saw kids in my neighborhood receiving an allowance from their parents.

 These friends of mine were able to buy gum, baseball cards, dolls, G rated Archie comic books, you name it. They bought it with their 25 cents or with their 50 cents or with their dollar bill right in front of me. I felt deprived, anxious and angry.”

 Group Leader: “You must have felt a tremendous urge to make demands of your parents.”

 “Yes I did. Income inequality anger began to grow deep inside me. I began to covet my friend’s hoard of pennies. “It’s not fair!” I told my parents.

 Well, my parents, good folk that they were, gave me an allowance but only after I had washed the supper dishes, made my bed daily, memorized my Scripture verse for Sunday and completed other value-received chores.

 Still, you must know, my allowance of 25 cents wasn’t enough. I couldn’t buy what my friends could buy. They had bags of marbles. I had a handful. “It’s not fair,” I told my parents again.

 So, I was given the option of washing the family car for two dollars once a week. Cutting the grass was a regular chore so no money was gained from yard work. I had to really think hard as to how to compete for that societal equality that would ultimately, I thought, make me bubble-gum ice cream happy.”

 Group Leader: “What did you do?”

 “Well, nothing for a while. I stewed and, sometimes, I stole candy and small items from the “Five and Dime” stores.” I wanted my fair share.

 As I grew older I did receive COLA allowances but I also received W-O-R-K obligations to match the COLA allowances.

 So, you must know, I began working at age 12. The pastor of our little church must have seen the march for equality goose stepping its way though my nervous system as I sat squirming in the pew every Sunday. One day he recommended me for a job at a local photo shop. The store owner, upon the pastor’s recommendation, hired me for PT work. Every week after that day I received a paycheck.

 With that piece of the monetized industry I began to spend, to save and to tithe. I stopped saying “It’s not fair!” on a regular basis. “Minimum wages”, unheard of in my youth, were what I got for what I agreed to do. I did not complain. In fact, I beamed.

 Still, you must know, that after two years of behind the counter film canister envelope prep and returning unexposed or badly lit pictures to irate customers I was promoted to selling cameras. Nikons, Canons, Hasselblads-the whole gamut of photo gadgetry. I was paid more and beginning to forget about childhood’s income inequality fixation until someone else was hired.

 The addition of the another staff member made me wonder if I was paid more or less than the new hired help. I became anxious, secretly hoping to exercise my detective skills to determine income inequality. My addiction was flaring up once again.

 Group Leader: “Did you ever find out about the other worker’s pay?’

 “No, I didn’t. Circumstances changed: the high school bus started arriving every week day morning. What I hadn’t thought about till then was that the owner of the photo shop had anticipated my leaving for high school and needed to hire a replacement. I kept my anxiety in tact anyway. I wasn’t sure I could trust people to be fair. Nobody else knew how important I was.

 Still, you must know, I was at financial odds with my generation. People I knew were going to Woodstock or to San Francisco or to Paris. The unlucky went to Vietnam-no envy was elicited from me on that matter.

 And, you must know, that in high school, I wasn’t equal with a good friend who got a car from his parents. It was a car with an eight-track player! “It’s not fair,” I revved up again.

 Well, my dad-he worked two jobs-let me use the family car. I became somewhat mollified. I could then at least listen to WLS with Larry Lujack, “Little Tommy” and “Animal Stories” on the punch dial radio. Not only that, the Top Forty Countdown aired between a dozen or so commercials. I sat in the family car or drove the car just for the existential experience of radio “ON” and windows open. Music helped soothe the savage inequality beast.

 High school was a challenge for me. I was too busy with band, orchestra, track, tennis, honors math, boyfriends, etc. to worry out loud about income inequality. But, I did want the same clothes, the same shoes, the same pink troll pen tops-you know, the essentials.

 Group Leader: “How did you manage without money during high school?”

 “It wasn’t easy. My dad worked two jobs and my mom worked a night shift. They were both tapped out. I babysat my younger siblings gratis, biting my nails and watching “Father Knows Best.” I had to wait till summer to abate my income inequality anxiety.

 Every summer between my high school years I worked my butt off. Each job was different and demanding. I gained knowledge quicker than I gained income, but again, I would leave my envy intact as a backup. There was always something I felt that was missing, something that I thought I needed to have even when I couldn’t picture it in my mind or on the TV.

 Group Leader: “What happened after high school?”

 “My father and mother gave me $750.00 and sent me off to Moody Bible Institute, a tuition-free school. That was all the money I ever received for my college education. I worked PT at Garrett’s Popcorn shop and did janitorial work for Moody to cover room and board.

 After Moody I began working in the only jobs that I could find-industrial jobs. It had become clear to me that childhood had run its course and that now I must provide for myself. This was scary anxiety driving stuff. Envy was still waiting in the wings hoping that I would rejoin her party.

While I worked different shifts I began studying correspondence courses from Moody-New Testament Koine Greek, New Testament Survey and other courses.

 Later, working at various day jobs I made myself learn what I needed to increase my income. So, at night and the weekends I went to a community college.

 There, I studied sundry subjects: computer programming, trigonometry, physics, macro and micro economics, accounting, business, and welding! I could stick weld, MIG weld, TIG weld, flame weld, use a blow torch, calculate rates of acceleration, balance your books and code Programmable Logic Controllers. This unique skill set paid more, much more. I found that if I made myself indispensable to my employer I earned more and was kept on staff when there were layoffs. And there were layoffs.

 Group Leader: “It sounds like you began making personal decisions that turned your life around.”

 “Yes, I forced myself to grow. I am inquisitive by nature so most learning comes naturally. Some learning comes the hard way-through stupid stuff and not paying attention to detail.

 At one point after I had worked as electrical panel builder I taught myself how to use CAD software. After that I began doing design work. I then became a designer of electrical automation schematics. I enjoyed the creative aspect of engineering. Income inequality became less of an issue because I felt I was in the game. Then I had a family.

 Little materialists popped onto the scene and like the rest of us they were contentment challenged.

 Being a Tiger That-Eats-Ones’-Self Parent that I am I put more pressure on myself when I decided to become a partner in a newly formed corporation.

 To make a long story short, three of us, two guys and me as Tiger Parent, started a manufacturing business. Each of us brought a different set of skills accrued over time. We felt we could make it happen and we did. The company became a worldwide multimillion dollar company. It also became a 24/7 job in my role a VP of Engineering. So, after fifteen years and thousands of miles of air travel I sold my shares and quit. A little late, but family needed to come first.

As a business owner I certainly had plenty of income as well as other perks. Income inequality addiction was no longer a driving force of my life. In fact a quest for learning had replaced it.

 My life’s paradigm shift occurred somewhere along the path of pages and paychecks.

 And, as a parent I wanted to make sure my kids knew God and they understood how the world works from God’s perspective.

 Group Leader: “”Can you tell us how you came to that perspective?”

 “Sure. As I mentioned I studied Scripture. Three verses stand out: “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added.” and “Godliness with contentment” and w/o The Real Housewives of Orange County” “is great gain.” Also, “To whom much is given, much is required.”

 My addiction to income inequality began to erode when I chose to cling to those things which are eternal above me, in me and in my children. Then, I was able to love others and rejoice when they gained. I did not need to be equal. I needed to be thankful.

I had finally realized that income inequality addiction is a character flaw. I had used my envy like a baseball bat. I beat the air hoping to smash open the paper mache piñata that held the material goodies I felt should rain down on me.

“I dropped the bat and put away childish things. Thanks for having me here tonight.”

The Binary That Binds?

I kid you not… 

Gender inclusive ‘school district says drop ‘boys and girls,’call kids’purple penguins’

 In its quest for “welcomeness” the Lincoln, Nebraska school system, under the guidance of individuals with superior ‘intellect’ and with visions of sugar plum equality fairies dancing in their heads have told their teaching staff to not use the appellation “Boy” or “Girl “ when referring to boys and girls. Instead “purple penguin” is to be considered an appropriate designation for your son or daughter. They kid you not.

 This humanistic-nihilistic-equality worshiping social engineering didn’t start here, in Lincoln Nebraska. It began years ago in the hearts and minds of those who abandoned natural law and the God who structured it.

 These wizards conjured philosophies, via God-abhorring human-craft, that were to magically create a more perfect world via perfected institutions, institutions that would lift mankind (Now, penguin-kind) from its savagery to its wunderkind apotheosis.

 Consider the words from the 1700s of French Enlightenment thinker Marie Jean Antoine Nicholas Caritat, marquis de Cordocet written in his “Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind.” Per Condorcet, “a real equality” demands that “even the natural differences between men will be mitigated by social policy.”

 The Condorcet webpage reminds us that what humanists seek is nothing short of god-like omniscience and sovereignty:

 “Our hopes for the future condition of the human race can be subsumed under three important heads:

The abolition of inequality between nations,

The progress of equality within each nation,

The true perfection of mankind.”

 

I do not think for a minute that what Condorcet wrote long ago implied that our identities should be wiped clean and that “purple penguin” be written on our name tag. But, once the pathogen of humanism is left to mutate within isolated ivory tower minds we end up with the dementia found in Lincoln, Nebraska.

 The Lincoln, Nebraska school system has taken humanist thinking and extrapolated it to the extreme. The Lincoln, Nebraska school system is playing god with the lives of our little ones and they are doing so to facilitate “gender inclusiveness”-titillating words that send chills down the legs of people with frozen brains.

 Of course, the gods of political correctness (the coercive inclusive-for-few-ejective-of-all-others LGBT mob) must be satisfied. Anything and everything that is natural-the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God-including marriage and, now, your child’s human identity is to be sacrificed by Hegelian Progressives on the altar of identity politics. Child sacrifice has returned. Yin and yang are bad. Synthesis and Kumbaya are good little penguins.

 From the ‘gender inclusive’ Lincoln, Nebraska school system’s dehumanization of children we are to understand that binary is bad: 0 and 1, 1 and 0 are out.

 Binary gender does not reflect, we are told by effete ‘educators,’ the true nature of an all important aspect of education: ‘gender fluidity.’

 ‘Gender fluidity,’ is now to be considered a necessary Common Core-ish foundation for a good public education. And, like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, these school administrators have no use for the U.S. Constitution. It is too natural law abiding, too structured, too not with it!

 But wait! Even more important than the dismantling of young minds and rebuilding them with the sands of ‘gender fluidity’ is that life will become ever more ‘perfect’ for that loveable LGBT crowd.

 The imposition of “Gender Identity Fluidity’ teaching, a narcissistic precondition for a teeny tiny minority, is now going to open the flood gates of raw sewage that will pour right into our child’s classroom.

 Calling children “purple penguins” negates the binary and we are left with nil. Welcome to Disneyland humanism and hell on earth.

 

 

 Wisdom is known by her children, a tree by its fruit.

 

 

BTW: here is the Lincoln, Nebraska handout in PDF format:

 

12 easy steps on the way to gender inclusivenessGender-inclusive-training-handouts

 

Read it and weep.

 

Extrapolation Endnote:  The Lincoln, Nebraska school system now must require the purple penguins to call the teacher Buttercream Buffoon instead of Mr./Mrs./Ms Johnson!!

Seen-this-before Endnote:  If someone points their finger into a shape of a pistol then the purple penguin will be called “Boy.”

If Its True Its Not New OR Don’t Stick Your Head in the Oven

Following on the heels of my previous post “The Vision of the Anointed is Our Nightmare; Ivy league Progressives and Their Creeping Racism” I offer the following video discussion. And, once again real adults are involved. No trigger warnings or pacifiers issued here.

 The discussion led by Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institute centers on the current state of liberal arts education. Joseph Epstein and Andrew Ferguson both share from their extensive experience. The participant’s credentials, included in the video, won’t be repeated here.

 “We may fairly ask, could any field other than liberal arts yield as broad and as significant an introduction to life’s comparisons and choices; could any other provide a more vital classroom experience for the development of men who are free not primarily because of birth, but because they have learned to use their birthright to chose a way of life? Quoting from Dartmouth College President John Sloan Dickey’s Convocation Address,1954, as recorded in the Dartmouth Review, March 13, 2013, page 11

Considering my birthright to be that of an autodidact liberal arts student, I look at the world from both ends of a telescope. And, though my pay-the-bills ‘FT’ job is in the field of engineering I seek out all manner of wonderful going beyond the rote of everyday life. From my posts you’ll see that this includes and is not limited to quantum physics, genetics, theistic “old earth” evolution, philosophy, psychotherapy, Christianity, music, art, poetry and both non-fiction and fiction literature including Shakespeare. I say this not out of braggadocio but to let you know that I was taught early on to seek wisdom, knowledge and a good understanding. I have an insatiable appetite to learn.  I need clarion answers and I also need a universe full of space, time and matter to ponder.

An old preacher once told me, “If it’s new it’s not true.  If it’s true it’s not new.”  This adage applies especially to a liberal arts education wherein one can unearth ancient wisdom, dust off traditional values and compare them to today’s instantly gratifying, mostly politicized and ‘Democratic-ized” popular icons of ‘knowledge” (e.g., global warming is a man-made crisis, crime originates from poverty and poor government institutions, etc.). This adage aptly applies to the physical sciences as well since what is being discovered has been around since the beginning of time

 Knowledge-wise I cut my teeth, so to speak, sans ‘higher education’ when I began questioning common knowledge, spitting out popular ‘wisdom’ and seeking to rid myself of the scourge of acid-like sentimentality that eats away at the protective enamel of wisdom. The dentist told me to floss every day. And, Socrates told me that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” They share the same Hippocratic Office, I think.

 Some of my liberal arts ‘findings’ are presented in my posts. I write the posts to remind myself of what I have read, to reinforce the content in my mind and to learn to parse, focusing only on what is true, good and worthy. And, then, there is also this reason… 

And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
– William Shakespeare (from A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

 Some thoughts on the most important aspect of a liberal arts education-gaining wisdom:

Hopefully by now you have noticed that science’s data collection and life’s growing empiricism do not counterbalance the super-sized questions of life weighing you down. Please don’t “scien-tize” your life as Joseph Epstein coined in the video or meta-data yourself into boredom. Wise-up your life.

 And, even though the wisest, most circumspect and ‘experienced’ man in history, King Solomon, writes his direst thoughts in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, telling us that life is …

 

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.

Everything is meaningless!”

 

…we are reminded that Solomon asked God for the gift of wisdom yet Solomon did not use all of the wisdom given to him. That led him to…

 

The Conclusion of the Matter

 

Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs.  The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.

 

The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.

 

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments,

for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.

 

There is just too much of life to be taken in to ever be bored with life or to find time to despair. No head in the oven for me.

~~~

Allan Bloom, American philosopher, classicist, and academician, in his 1987 book “The Closing of the American Mind How Higher Education Has failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students” writes about how liberal arts education became impoverished and the consequential effects.

 Here is a previous post with quotes from Allan Bloom: Fear and Loathing In America

The Vision of the Anointed is Our Nightmare; Ivy League Progressives and Creeping Racism

Ferguson, Missouri; Michael Brown; the race industry’s huckster’s ‘Reverends’ Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson; “No Justice, No Peace”.

 Should we listen to and embrace the inflammatory NeveReverending racial rhetoric that bellows out from under a sheep skin, rhetoric that leads to societal schism? OR, should we listen to and follow the wise words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s niece Dr. Alveda King as she says: “Know peace and you’ll know justice”? You tell me.

 And, should Obama be just as arrogant as President Lyndon Johnson?

 Since the earliest days of my youth I have been seeking wisdom, knowledge and a good understanding. This pervasive endeavor was birthed in me as my mother read from the book of Proverbs at the dinner table each night after dinner.

 Please, please, please sit down with your coffee and listen to the wisdom, clarity and common sense that Thomas Sowell brings to the issues of race, affirmative action, minimum wage, the negative effects of today’s intellectualism, multiculteralism, social justice, environmentalism, political correctness, diversity and a host of other hot-button cultural and economic topics. You will be doing yourself a favor – wisdom is like that. 

 

Wisdom’s, Rebuke (Proverbs Chapter One)

 

Out in the open wisdom calls aloud
she raises her voice in the public square;
on top of the wall she cries out,
at the city gate she makes her speech:

 

“How long will you who are simple love your simple ways?
How long will mockers delight in mockery
and fools hate knowledge?
Repent at my rebuke!
Then I will pour out my thoughts to you,
will make known to you my teachings.
But since you refuse to listen when I call
and no one pays attention when I stretch out my hand,
since you disregard all my advice
and do not accept my rebuke,
I in turn will laugh when disaster strikes you;
I will mock when calamity overtakes you—
when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
when distress and trouble overwhelm you.

 

“Then they will call to me but I will not answer;
they will look for me but will not find me,
since they hated knowledge
and did not choose to fear the Lord.
Since they would not accept my advice
and spurned my rebuke,
they will eat the fruit of their ways
and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.
For the waywardness of the simple will kill them,
and the complacency of fools will destroy them;
but whoever listens to me will live in safety
and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Worker Bees, Outcome Based Education and Our Little Ones

The US education reform system creates…”Worker bees—cooperative, collaborative, team players, not too well educated but willing to work for a pittance for the good of the collective whole (ie, the state). Knowledge is power! A culturally illiterate nation will not long remain free. William Pearson Tolley, Chancelor of Syracuse University, wrote, in 1943,

“In a slave state, vocational training may be education enough. For the education of free men, much more is required. “”

As parents look at education reform, little do they realize that education and the purpose of education are being transformed. No longer is education to produce an innovative, creative, intelligent child, who has a broad but intensive liberal arts background such that he or she can reach for the star of stars of his or her choice. The purpose of education, under this transformation, this paradigm shift, is to mold the child to meet the needs of the global economy of the 21st Century, to produce a world class worker with the attitudes, values and beliefs wanted by big business.” Lynn Stuter (emphasis mine)

Above quotes from: http://www.learn-usa.com/education_transformation/~education.htm

The following quotes are from Lynn M. Stuter’s The Psychology of Becoming:

Some might look at this title and think, “This sounds like something from Abraham Maslow or Carl Rogers.”

The world view of systems governance is humanism, a religion immersed in the concept that “no deity will save us, we must save ourselves” (Humanist Manifesto, 1973). To that end, systems governance has been developed and fine tuned over a period of several decades, the purpose being to “create the future;” to decide what the world is to look like at a designated future time, then design and align everything to achieve that vision. The ultimate goal is to attain and maintain the global sustainable environment.

The concept that we must save ourselves finds basis in the humanist principle that man has no spirituality or self-determinism, that man is merely a product of his environment and must, therefore, be “conditioned” to the perceived environment of the “created future” as one system of many systems.

Conditioning necessarily requires the change of one’s existing world view — one’s existing attitudes, values, and beliefs, one’s existing behaviors. In book after book written by those advocating systems education, that it is the behavior of the individual that must be changed is apparent:

“… a large part of what we call ‘good teaching’ is the teacher’s ability to attain affective objectives through challenging the students’ fixed beliefs and getting them to discuss issues.” (Bloom, 1964)

“The individual acts consistently in accordance with the values he has internalized at this level, and our concern is to indicate two things: (a) the generalization of this control to so much of the individual’s behavior that he is described and characterized as a person by these pervasive controlling tendencies, and (b) the integration of these beliefs, ideas, and attitudes into a total philosophy or world view.” (Bloom, 1964)

“Since the real purpose of education is not to have the instructor perform certain activities but to bring about significant changes in the students’ patterns of behavior, it becomes important to recognize that any statement of the objectives … should be a statement of changes to take place in the student.” (Tyler, 1949)

“… education, as now conceived, leads to demonstrable changes in student behaviors, changes that can be assessed using agreed-upon standards.” (Conley, 1993)
The question becomes how to achieve the change in behaviors … world view … attitudes, values and beliefs.

George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel developed a process known as the Hegelian Dialectic in which opposites (thesis and antithesis) are brought together in compromise (synthesis) to form a new thesis which becomes the view of the group participants, individually and as a whole. Hegel theorized that through a continual use of this process, small groups would evolve to a “higher plane” signified by their becoming part of an ever larger group, until “oneness of mind” in a society theoretically would occur.

Today, this process is known by at least three other names: the Delphi Technique, the Alinsky Method, and the facilitated process of consensus building. It is also the process of the “guide on the side, not the sage on the stage” ~ the teacher (now called a facilitator) in the classroom. It is the process of critical thinking, conflict resolution, peer mediation, focus groups, consensus circles … The process has the effect of forcing the individual, in order to be a member of the group (which is aggressively encouraged and pursued), to give up his individual beliefs for the beliefs of the group.

Building on Hegel’s theory, Marx came to the conclusion that religion, with its authoritarian principles and higher authority, caused alienation of the individual from the group. As such, Marx wrote, religion is antithetical to the cohesion of the group and must be eradicated.

The Hegelian Dialectic is about compromise ~ the bringing together of opposites, and from those opposites, theoretically, a new truth emerges. In this environment, there is no right or wrong answer, only differences of opinion ~ how people “feel” about an issue. In this setting right and wrong stand on equal footing.

What happens when you synthesize right (good) and wrong (evil)? Which will prevail, right or wrong?

If you believe that man is inherently good (humanist world view), you will say that man will choose right over wrong, good over evil. But if you believe that man has a sin nature (Christian world view), then you will say that man will, unless he has been instilled with a moral compass of right and wrong in obedience to the teachings of a higher authority, choose wrong or evil.

 

So it is, in consensus building, that right does not prevail, but wrong does prevail in the name of synthesis. As stated in one conflict resolution curriculum, “conflict resolution is rarely about honesty or establishing truth~it is more about unifying perceptions.” (Bodine, 1994) If you have a bully and his victim in conflict resolution or peer mediation to achieve consensus (compromise), who will prevail in such an environment? Obviously, the bully will prevail.

Returning to the concept that man must be conditioned to the perceived environment, one proponent of the New Age world view wrote:
“You can only have a new society, the visionaries have said, if you change the education of the younger generation. … Of the Aquarian Conspirators surveyed, more were involved in education than in any other single category of work. … Marion Fantini, former Ford consultant on education, now at the State University of New York, said bluntly, ‘The psychology of becoming has to be smuggled into the schools.'”

At this point, it is imperative that we remember what the new basics are: “team work, critical thinking, making decisions, communication, adapting to change and understanding whole systems” (WTECB, 1994)
As noted above, in book after book, advocating systems education, it is made very clear that behavior must be changed to achieve the wanted outcomes or exit outcomes defined at the state level, benchmarked to the national goals for workforce development, and implemented at the local level. Assessments are the tool used to determine if the wanted behaviors are being achieved.

This is occurring in the classroom via teachers (facilitators) and paraprofessionals (facilitator aides); in the counselor’s office; in the school psychologist’s office; on the playground and in the hallways via social workers who watch students and note their observations (called “profiling”).

 

What is happening in the classroom, in the name of education reform, amounts to medical malpractice. What is even worse is that the created future cannot be achieved unless a majority of children in the government school acquire the wanted belief system. That psychological manipulation is the only route (because the philosophy is not normal or natural to the human condition) from present to future should serve as a wake-up call to parents and citizens.

But many parents are going along with this, believing their child(ren) actually needs psychological help. Very few children really need psychological help, and those who do certainly do not need the type of psychological help they are getting in the government school.

The name that has been given this non-directive, feelings based education system is “psycho-education.” Psycho is right. It is destroying or badly damaging young lives and leaving children ill-equipped to meet the realities of the world beyond the classroom.

Some Christian parents send their child(ren) to the government schools, believing that in so doing, they are following the commandment of God to “go forth and witness.” The bible also says, in three consecutive chapters;
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin … to stumble … to be offended, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung about his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (KJV)
Can we surmise that Christ commanded us to protect these “little ones” from harms way? Most adults could not withstand what these children are being subjected to on a daily basis in the closed environment of the government school. How could any Christian parent believe their child(ren) could withstand the same?

Quotes from Lynn M. Stuter – The Psychology of Becoming (February 26, 2003!!!)

Now a few chilling words from Cynthia Weatherly:

 

 

 Education:

Logocentrism

A Landscape With Dragons; Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture

The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself

The Higher Education Bubble (Encounter Broadsides)

 

Educators:

The People of the “White Privilege” Lie

Boy, Are You in Trouble!

Let it be known that I am a Christian & a handgun owner. The handgun is for my protection and it’s fun to shoot at a target.  Now…

No doubt you’ve heard reports across the country concerning certain school teachers and school administrators suspending, expelling, punishing, guilt-shaming, tyrannizing and otherwise verbally torturing young boys just for being boys.

This extreme behavior has been formed in college, where the ‘educators’ are taught, indirectly, to dismiss males as being off point and always domineering, with way too much get up and go and not enough “sit there and listen to me.”

In other words, guys are a pain in their collective ass, even for the male ‘educators’.

Often, at elementary schools where these ‘educators’ are unleashed to vent their disrespect and begin their over lording of young males the teachers submit to a form of groupthink which easily takes over.

Like the gun free zones stickers which serve no purpose other than to disarm law-abiding citizens so that they are now totally dependent on a 911 call made hopefully by someone who is not shot dead by a criminal who could care less about the sign, a boy’s signed ‘civility pledge’ is most likely meant to inform him of the ‘order’ he is supposed to keep and the consequences of his failure to rightly align his behavior with Teacher’s emotional mood-at-the-moment code of conduct – it basically informs the boy that a teacher can freak-out at will and there will be swift ‘justice’ and without due process. More importantly, though, it is meant to cover asses in the future.

These ‘educators’ prefer the student who hangs on their every spoken word, who does their assignments in perfect cursive and also languishes after class to see if the teacher approves of their work.

Are there kids who do bad things? Absolutely. A small percentage of a school’s population are kids who do ‘bad’ things. Girls will bully other girls verbally. Teachers will bully students verbally (as witnessed by the overreaction of now, nationally known ‘educators’ who have placed themselves on the cusp of being all- wise in the eyes of their pay grade.

Boys will bully other boys physically. But a picture, drawn by a boy, of a handgun, is not a felony, a misdemeanor or a crime. It is boyishness played out on paper. No one and I mean no one has been bullied or hurt by such a drawing.

It was the teacher, in fact, who gave the boy a loaded pencil. But, the pen being mightier than the sword, a chestnut well-known to the ‘cultured’ ‘educators’, the teacher should have known: boys will be boys and the hand drawn gun was not loaded except with a teacher’s perverse ‘educated’ angst.

A drawn picture of a gun or a cracker bitten into a shape of a gun absolutely destroys a teacher’s female Victorian sensitivities. Immediately, they flip out and go way over the top in their reaction to the ‘militant’ boy. The boy is to be wounded emotionally, scared to within an inch of his life. This is purposefully done by the Gestapo school Admins.

As ‘educators, they are clueless as to HOW to teach boys. They were taught that female learning is the best way to learn – via emo.

I have Zero Tolerance for these ‘educators’!!!!

It is time, RIGHT NOW, to end the War on Boys!!!!!!

Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship And The End Of the American Debate by First Amendment lawyer Greg Lukianoff

More at Legal Insurrection:

Forecast: Cloudy, with a certainty of Zero Tolerance Insanity

A commencement speaker with a difference: Robert Frost, 1956

A commencement speaker with a difference: Robert Frost, 1956.