My Quote of the Day

“We need serious reform!”

I love this quote; it is simple, direct, and totally useful for everyone.  It states a need, implies its importance, and although it does nothing to make the argument, it attempts to legitimize whatever preceded it or will come next.  This line is perfect for conservatives and liberals alike, unfortunately even if it were true, it appeals not to logic, but to emotion, which seems the foundation for most social discussion these days.

For example:  We need serious reform! the top 1% are polluting this planet and need to be stopped!  Or, The people who are protesting the top 1% are leaving too much garbage behind them, we need serious reform.  Or, We need Serious Reform!  Corporations are corrupting the political process!  Or, We need serious reform!  I can’t get the lumps out of my oatmeal.

The use for this phase is endless.

What is the Role of College?

I’ve come to believe the free exchange of ideas, and dissenting views, are frowned on by an increasing number of colleges and college professors.  If you are not part of their idea of correct thinking than you are obviously some sort of racist, Zionist, or religious zealot.

We see colleges clamping down on speech, bowing to the pressures of those who would control the dialogue and shape the society, as they believe it should be. 

There was a time where college was a place to expand your mind, not just be shaped into the image of the professor.  Alas, it appears that is no longer the case.  College now has become a thought control factory where young people go to become indentured servants working to pay back the government.

Desensitizing America

It is naïve thinking, but there are times I wish back to the pre-information age.  A time when, if you lived near enough to the big city, there were only a handful of channels on the TV.  A time when radio and television were geared toward entertainment, when things like the news came in measured douses, and you had time to digest the events.  If you were interested you would read multiple newspapers to gain a wider understanding of the events you saw snippets of on the television.  

This all started to change in the 1960’s with the war coverage from Vietnam and the domestic coverage of the antiwar and civil rights movements.  We were shown the graphic images of firefights, protests, riots.  The competition to bring the most graphic images to the viewer took off.  Now I know there is some age bias in these observations, and it was probably an evolutionary process, but as we’ve seen the acceleration of change is on a logarithmic scale and it continues to accelerate.

In 1991 we took the war to the home screens with the images of the bombs going through the windows, into the bunkers and spans of the bridges with only a few hours delay. 

Now -- I routinely see imagery on the Internet and television of Hellfire, small diameter bombs, and other missiles terminating their targets in what seems a sanitary manner.  

Knowing what I do, it is only a matter of time until we see these scenes in high definition.  Don’t mistake my concern.  I believe those being killed would do us harm if they are allowed to live.  I don’t have a problem with us ending a threat, but I wonder what damage we do to ourselves as we share these executions with the general population and the rest of the world?   

As a Home Comes to Life

There is a real difference between a house and a home. For me it is most evident in the mornings, as a home comes to life with the noises of its family. They may be simple -- like a faucet opening, a bed creaking, or the floorboards protesting a new weight, or human -- like a loud yawn, or baby's cry.

A house sits silent, waiting to become a home.