Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2009 > March > 05 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USWeekend free-for-all
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pick a topic:
• “Stand by for news!”
• The one argument I don’t believe I’d make for another State Court judge for Clayton County is one made by Chief State Court Judge Harold Benefield. Argues he: The judge and support staff would cost $697,908, but he’d generate $764,994 in fines, producing $67,086 in revenue for Clayton. It should be a misdemeanor for any public official ever to connect any justice or law enforcement decision to revenue generation. In fact, when my band of right-wingers takes over, we’ll issue that as an executive order. No legislation needed.
• Scratch my head and try, but I simply cannot remember the veteran Democrat Keith W. Mason being distraught that ideology had reared its ugly head under the Gold Dome when Democrats were running things. Which tells me he either didn’t recognize it or did, but didn’t think it was a problem. He’s calling on a “new generation of business leaders — regardless of party affiliation” to whip this new crowd into shape. If the business crowd has any energy, clout or money, it had better use it to stop the assault coming from D.C., including the so-called Employee Free Choice Act.
• Cobb, blessed Cobb. When all the world panicked Monday and shut down the schools because of a dusting of snow, Cobb school officials stepped outside, observed, used good judgment — and kept them open.
• Associated Press writer Philip Elliott is of the opinion that President Barack Obama’s decision to sign a $410 billion spending bill loaded with 8,600 earmarks totaling $7.7 billion is the “Washington equivalent of officials pinching their nose and swallowing a bitter pill.” Pardon me, but isn’t the president’s party in power? And isn’t he something more than a bystander or victim of a Congress that just does bad things?
• Liberals levy taxes; they don’t pay them. Another of Obama’s appointees, caught, agrees to pay $10,000. This time it’s former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, nominated to be U.S. trade representative, at the back-tax window. And, had it been done by a rich Wall Streeter, he’d have been skewered, too, for deducting $17,382 for tickets to Dallas Mavericks basketball games without full business substantiation.
• We have Black History Month, followed by Women’s History Month and who knows what in April. Aren’t these you-don’t-know-me months getting a little long in the tooth?
• Who said this? “This government is here to protect the people, not the … rich.” 1) Nancy Pelosi. 2) Barack Obama. 3) Hugo Chavez. All could’a, but Chavez did.
• Whether Georgia Power is allowed to charge customers while nuclear reactors are under construction — a position I support — is neither liberal nor conservative. It’s a matter of guessing about the future, which explains why members of both parties wound up on different sides. The Senate vote was 38-16; the House vote 107-66. It now goes to Gov. Sonny Perdue for his signature.
• In what’s offered as the legislative quote of the week, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Ben Harbin (R-Evans) is quoted as saying, “One of the things I learned is that in a tough economy, everybody wants to cut government. They just don’t want to cut theirs.” My response: “Too many lobbyists, Ben. The majority, the people who don’t have lobbyists, still want cuts.”
• CH2M Hill-OMI, the private-sector company that runs Johns Creek, Milton and Sandy Springs, has some locals demanding to know its profits. Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos offers precisely the correct answer: “I don’t feel it’s necessary to know what their profits are so long as we get good services and that I can compare and see if we have more or less employees than cities of the same size.” If cities are getting good service at a competitive price, its profits are immaterial. It’s liberals who lie awake nights worrying about whether honest profits are “fair.”
• Any “assisted suicide” that involves arm restraint so that a suffocating victim cannot remove a bag from over his head is assisted murder.
• I love John Rosemond’s parenting advice. “Before the psychological parenting revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s,” the guilt was placed on the misbehaving child. After the revolution, it’s on the parent, he writes. The man exudes good, healthy-adult sense.
• “Good day!”
• Jim Wooten is associate editorial page editor. His column appears Friday, Sunday and Tuesday.
Permalink | Comments (71) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Services »
Comments
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 6, 2009 8:03 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. Stylish tribute to Mr. Harvey. I have a Paul Harvey story that I’ll publish at the right time, but I am too wordy today.
Hard to imagine a sober judge making such a claim as Judge Benefield. Perhaps he was on the sauce at the time.
Surely Rep. Mason misspoke. While we see much evidence of partisanship under the Gold Dome, we don’t see nearly enough ideology. I deplore the partisanship – the “rah rah, support our team” stuff – but I am inspired to see true ideological arguments. Of course I would – there is no sound ideological argument available to our leftist friends.
As a resident of Gwinnett, I would be the first to acknowledge that Cobb runs it right, that there are still things we could learn from Cobb.
I’m sure I heard Phillip Elliott and The Empty Suit in duet on the old Louis Jordan song, “Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens.”
One of the benefits of being a leftist overlord is exemption from the laws that they impose on the rabble. Otherwise Chris Dodd would have been punted from the Senate, for knowingly accepting the Country Wide bribe. Far more egregious than anything Ted Stevens ever did. Change we can believe in.
Time for a “Conservative History Month.” I would not so argue but for the historians’s tendency to write out the role of conservatism in the rise of the US as a world-class economy from 1880 – 1900. And the lunatic denial of the consistent economic effects of tax cuts. And of Keynesian policies. And the role of the church in abolition of slavery. The last was not ignored back when some leftists were still religious. Is leftism fundamentally incompatible with acknowledgement of a higher power? If one acknowledges a higher power than man, it is hard to sustain an argument for overlord rule of the masses, save by an anointed priest.
Hugo is a small government guy compared to Nancy and The Empty Suit.
I previously posted my support for the Georgia Power “advance” billing, to pay for the nuclear facility during construction. We don’t have to leave every bill for our children to pay, although that is a leftist preference. Sure it is their preference, otherwise they would agree with the need to sacrifice all unessential, i.e., non-defense, government jobs until the national debt is paid.
Dear Ben Harbin, We understand most politicians are spineless and brainless, and we really don’t expect anyone to do the right thing while serving the public. Signed, Ragnar.
Eva Galambos sounds too intelligent to be in politics. Is it too late to run her for Governor next year? Or better yet, Senator? Or better yet, for something really important to the economy, like CEO of either GM or Citicorp?
I think the Gambino family perfected “assisted suicide” – these other groups in the shadows of the culture of death are just using the Gambino intellectual property.
John Rosemond would like me. Mrs. jbmlaw wallows in guilt over the shortcomings and minor miseries of our sons, so I am free to take sole credit for their virtues and successes.
By ron
March 6, 2009 8:08 AM | Link to this
Good morning,Yesterday I received a cease and desist order from the AJC concerning this blog.Seems I post to many times for someone’s liking.Have no fear,AJC,it won’t happen again.Sorry I woke you up.
By Rascal
March 6, 2009 8:41 AM | Link to this
Another quasi-government agency is about to be in receivership. Much like FMae and FMac, the FDIC, another “private” company, told to change it’s rules (increase insurance from $100k to $250k per account) by government loving liberals, with no real understanding of the impact, but more importantly done to purportedly save our banking system from a run on the banks. Well, now that they have done this, they need a little $500,000,000,000 bailout to remain solvent. This is the problem with government run or involved anything.
Just like our public schools, where being there is not a choice but a requirement, the rules have to fill a one solution fits all mandate, so no one really gets what they need, but everyone gets a watered down version of an education, with the “public interest” taking priority over everything else, including good judgment, results, improvement, satisfaction of the customers etc. What if the FDIC were privately run, what if there were 100 FDIC ‘s guaranteeing the funds of bank customers, being monitored, not by government hacks and bureaucrats, but by business people whose very livelihood was determined by the success of the organization? Sure, some of them would have failed and the banks that misjudged them would have suffered and gone out of business and the bankers would have had to consider more seriously the next time they chose a fund guarantor. Instead, we the people, are now bailing out others when we did not cause the problem.
By Rick
March 6, 2009 8:51 AM | Link to this
Jim,
Enjoyed your understated - but very appropriate - tribute to Paul Harvey. He loved to report the news. He wouldn’t have wanted to dominate it.
Paul Harvey……………………………………. Good Day!
By Rick
March 6, 2009 8:53 AM | Link to this
Jim,
Enjoyed your understated - but very appropriate - tribute to Paul Harvey. He loved to report the news. He wouldn’t have wanted to dominate it.
Paul Harvey……………………………………. Good Day!
By Rick
March 6, 2009 8:55 AM | Link to this
Jim,
Enjoyed your understated - but very appropriate - tribute to Paul Harvey. He loved to report the news. He wouldn’t have wanted to dominate it.
Paul Harvey……………………………………. Good Day!
By "Charles", The Original
March 6, 2009 9:05 AM | Link to this
• The one argument I don’t believe I’d make for another State Court judge for Clayton County is one made by Chief State Court Judge Harold Benefield. Argues he: The judge and support staff would cost $697,908, but he’d generate $764,994 in fines, producing $67,086 in revenue for Clayton. It should be a misdemeanor for any public official ever to connect any justice or law enforcement decision to revenue generation. In fact, when my band of right-wingers takes over, we’ll issue that as an executive order. No legislation needed writes Jim Wooten.
I agree with Jim Wooten. I don’t believe I’d make that argument either. Although a question is whether an executive order as opposed to legislation to determine a penalty is lawful… Nevertheless, a misdemeanor, a fine not to exceed $1,000.00 or by confinement in the county or other jail, county correctional institution, or such other places as counties may provide for maintenance of county inmates, for a total term not to exceed 12 months, or both, doesn’t address the gravity (seriousness) of a public official connecting justice to producing revenue. The punishment doesn’t seem to rise to the level of the offense. Whereas a felony, a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than twelve months and fines exceeding $1,000.00 carries a stronger punch. It can also mean a crime punishable by life in prison… This is a stronger deterrent and tend to give white collar criminals pause before they taxi to the dark-side.
My good friend Marcus Williams, owner of the Nubian Bookstore, was a guest on the Alex Jones show. It was refreshing to hear someone in the black community represent the voiceless. Local so-called black radio stations certainly do not… And Williams was right. There are millions of black people who don’t support President Barack Obama and the New World Order agenda. Williams also shot the footage of Professor Griff that appeared in Alex Jones’ latest film, The Obama Deception. If the film is accurate, citizens of every sort may lend support to Jim Wooten’s band of right-wingers in an effort to defeat the satanic globalist agenda elsewhere provided that the right wingers aren’t New World Order devotees themselves.
By Leon
March 6, 2009 9:16 AM | Link to this
Well done J Dub! As a lapdog of your de facto leader Rush Limpbaugh, you have done him proud again. Not accusing Rag of being a lapdog too, but I leave you with a quote from Timothy Egan for him to pontificate on.
” But therein lies the main tactic of Limbaugh, an old demagogue technique: create a straw man, then tear it down. The latest example was Saturday, when Limbaugh presented himself as the defender of capitalism, liberty and unfettered free markets. Obama, he has said since, is waging a “war on capitalism.”
There is a war, all right. We are witnessing the worst debacle of unfettered capitalism in our lifetime brought on by — you got it, capitalism at its worst. It cannibalized itself. Government, sad to say, had nothing to do with it — except for criminal neglect of oversight.”
“Now that government has been forced to the rescue, just who is insisting on taxpayer bailouts? Who is in line for handouts? Who is saying that only government can save capitalism? The very leaders of unregulated markets who injected this poison into the economy, the very plutocrats that Limbaugh celebrates.”
That about sums it up.
By AmVet
March 6, 2009 9:21 AM | Link to this
Good morning Wootenheads.
Long time, no post at the AJC’s uncommonly senseless/yellow journalism blog for non-conservative conservatives.
“Cobb, blessed Cobb.”
Being the intrepid seekers of knowledge and truth that they are, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that they would brave the winds of war, I mean, winter.
The county that gave us:
Kennesaw, which became famous for about 15 minutes in 1982 when it passed an ordinance REQUIRING every householder to own a gun.
(Never mind that the mayor walked around with a gold name tag depicting a brace of pistols or that the pastor of the Gospel light Baptist Church proudly bragged of having five guns himself or that the town’s most thriving business was a shop trafficking in Civil War memorabilia and white supremacist Klan and neo-Nazi literature.)
Or how about this “doozy” in the name of a “fair and balance” edumacation?
“This (public education science) book contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.”
Oh yeah.
Or the county that lost the 1996 Olympic volleyball competition after passing an anti-homosexual resolution that condemned the “gay lifestyle”.
And finally:
It is of course, the home of Marietta bar owner Mike Norman and his Mulligan’s Bar and Grill. You remember this class act, right? He is another intrepid soul selling t-shirts with a picture of Curious Georgie peeling a banana, with the words “Obama ‘08” underneath.
Yep, Jim you should be VERY proud of them.
And some wonder why I refer to Marietta as the very epicenter of the Moron Belt…
By Josh
March 6, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this
What about White History Month? How invented the phone, light bulb? Who founded this great country we live in today? I understand fully the impact MLK, Rosa Parks, etc. had on this country. But why not have a White History Month as well?
While we’re on this subject…what about a WET channel, White Miss America, etc.???
By AmVet
March 6, 2009 9:29 AM | Link to this
Josh, the other eleven months out of the year are White History month…
By hogleg
March 6, 2009 9:48 AM | Link to this
jim -your the best!
By lwwmm7
March 6, 2009 9:50 AM | Link to this
I sorta doubt being Dem or Repub or whatever is likely to matter much when we are standing in a soup line waiting for lunch. The ship is sinking, and we need to start bailing and stop b***.
By professional skeptic
March 6, 2009 9:57 AM | Link to this
Taxpayers deserve the right to scrutinize the finances of their government, regardless of how much of it is outsourced. If left unsupervised and unwatched, C2H2M2Hill2 or whatever they’re called will become as financially corrupt as any other organization, corporate or governmental. Anyone who believes otherwise is a complete idiot, delusional or both.
By luangtom
March 6, 2009 10:02 AM | Link to this
AmVet@ 9:29AM….no, the other 11 months are not White History month. They White Guilt-trip months. For all the ills in the world, lay it on the White man. Unemployed, lay it on the White man. Undereducated, lay it on the White man. Poor, lay it on the White man. It should be able to stop now, as the guilt-vote put B. Hussein Obama into the White House…..
By AmVet
March 6, 2009 10:05 AM | Link to this
luangtom, my comment was decidedly tongue-in-cheek.
I suspect yours is not.
Off to pay for the Iraqi occupation ($14,000,000 per hour) and the bailouts.
Have a good day and great weekend, all…
By lwwmm7
March 6, 2009 10:18 AM | Link to this
Being laid off for a few months now has shown me a whole new side of life— daytime TV. I never knew so many people needed disability benefits or had been injured in an accident or attacked by asbestos. Thank God there are caring lawyers who give their all to fight for the rights of the down-trodden. Kinda restores my faith in mankind to see so many helpful, unselfish people out there fighting for me.
By lwwmm7
March 6, 2009 10:23 AM | Link to this
Forgot to say have a good day and good weekend, all—thanks for reminding me. Me and uncle Red are goin’fishin’ I reckon.
By Redneck Convert
March 6, 2009 10:29 AM | Link to this
Well, old Wooten sure got it right. The only thing a librul Democrat is good for is taxing and spending. Just look at the size of that budget and all the bailout money. With that kind of money we could have a humongous tax cut and maybe run another war. People like Raghead would need to hire a bulldozer guy to pile up the money and maybe a full time finance guy to decide where to invest it. We would be at full employment in no time flat.
But no, we got to waste it on stuff like schools and roads and paying the shiftless people that lost their jobs.
Anyhow, it looks like a nice weekend ahead. I plan to be away from the trailer as much as I can. The missus is on another diet and is bound and determined to fit into a size 28 dress she bought on sale at WalMart. When she’s dieting she’s mean as a two-headed snake. She figures she needs to get down to 300 lbs. and she’s got 40 to go. She keeps eating rice cakes. Trouble is, she eats about three lbs. of them at a time.
Have a good day everybody. I’m awful glad this ron got a letter telling him to shut his trap. He gets on my nerves something awful.
By Rush Limbaugh for President
March 6, 2009 10:34 AM | Link to this
Hello all, this is Rush! Hi Jim, I am glad to see you and Rag are all over the leftist this morning. Rag, I am so glad you haven’t found a job yet because you have so much more time to kill blasting those commie leftist. Oh and I love the empty suite analogy. I want you all to know I am tired of messing around with the wobbly kneed Republicans. I am the leader of the Conservative movement in this country. I truly understand what is good and right (three wives and drug addiction not withstanding).
Therefore I am taking the next step to get this country back on track and duckstepping to the conservative message. I am declaring myself a candidate for President. And Jim you will be glad to know I want you for my Press Secretary. Ann Coulter will be Secretary of State, Sean Hannity will be Vice President. What a line up.
We’ll cut taxes, we’ll throw out all the liberals and Mexicans(homos too), we’ll close the borders and allow no one in except white Anglo Saxon Protestants, we’ll bomb Iran, let GM go bankrupt, we’ll slash entitlements (old people are going to die soon anyway), we’ll make sure all white kids have school vouchers so they won’t have to go to school with black kids (all the hispanics will already be gone)we’ll allow men to have 4 wives (I’ve had three and am ready for another one) and we will make sure every law abiding American has plenty of assualt rifels and ammo in case the homos, liberals and Mexicans try to get back in.
There is so much more on my agenda but I am meeting my Pastor for coffee. Isn’t this exciting. See ya.
By Rage Against The Machine
March 6, 2009 10:35 AM | Link to this
Obama = One Big A* Mistake America
By Hillbilly Deluxe
March 6, 2009 10:54 AM | Link to this
The world needs a lot more John Rosemonds.
By DB, Gwinnettian
March 6, 2009 10:57 AM | Link to this
“How invented the phone, light bulb?”
White man also invent good American, English!
Oh, Jim, regarding your defamatory business about how “Liberals levy taxes; they don’t pay them.”
I already vented over at Jay’s about this. But here, I’ll just say this much—
I sure as hell pay my taxes, and I sure as hell am liberal, and I think you owe me and millions other Americans an apology and a retraction for that cheap shot.
By Bart
March 6, 2009 11:01 AM | Link to this
Paul Harvey was a shill and a liar.
By Glenn
March 6, 2009 11:08 AM | Link to this
“Before the psychological parenting revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s,” the guilt was placed on the misbehaving child.
Good morning. What a beautiful day!
The schools of education are rife with a culture of parent-bashing, as the Nanny State seeks increasingly to usurp the perquisites of parenthood. Rosamond is right about the history of liberalized attitudes toward children’s misconduct, but the shift in perceptions, the drive to blame parents rather than children, goes deeper than pyschology and institutional politics; it’s rooted in a spiritual contest: Rousseau versus The Church.
Universal, compulsory, mass schooling was an invention of Protestant churchmen — notably Luther, Calvin and Knox — grounded in the Doctrine of Original Sin. For those men, children are guilty because they’re born that way, such that a process of sanctification is required. Schooling was seen as a form of secularized grace, a path to salvation. It’s primary object was literacy prerequisite to the individual’s mastery of the Divine Word. The principal condition for learning therefore was humility in light of one’s own sinful state. In convocation initiating each school term, pupils were taught to pray for humble submission to masters who would lead them on a path of righteousness.
In the Eighteenth Century, French Romantics turned this ideal on its head, essentially declaring that children are innocents born in a state of Grace — perfect flowers who needed only to be allowed to grow. The 1960s saw the widespread adoption of this fond notion, and as a result the blame game turned against parents rather than children. Today the schools are preeminently concerned with upbuilding the student’s “self-esteem”, a notion that has supplanted humility as the chief prerequisite of all learning.
The schools continue to confer a kind of secularized Grace, but today they confer by fiat, rather than by hard work.
By Prove you like Rosemond
March 6, 2009 11:12 AM | Link to this
Jim says he likes Rosemond, but frankly I don’t believe him. If you really like Rosemond Jim, where is the editorial advocating a return to discipline in the classroom? Where is the support for advocating for teachers having the authority to enforce the consequences that Rosemond so rightfully points out are the single best teacher a child can ever have?
For all your talk of liking Rosemond, I’ve never seen you devote a column to putting his words in action when it comes to supporting teachers and discipline, and thus your words ring hollow until you do so.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 6, 2009 11:38 AM | Link to this
The October 2006 unemployment rate was 4.4%. The American public gave Congress to the democrats that day. Fortunately the republicans left a strong economy to the democrats, and even one year later the October 2007 unemployment rate was still only 4.7%. Today, sixteen months later, the rate has increased 72%, to 8.1%. There is a difference between policies that encourage free enterprise and policies that would enslave it.
By findog
March 6, 2009 11:38 AM | Link to this
Dear Jim,
That judge reminds me of an old college campus police administrator who figured that if there were 4,000 students and only 2,500 registered cars then his officers should be writing 1,500 tickets a month, minimum…
By Dusty
March 6, 2009 11:42 AM | Link to this
Aww Glenn, did you have too much coffee and too many bran muffins this morning? Secularized Grace in schools? Errr what? This sounds like a speech to the Amalgamated Association on Student Supplication (AASS).
You are the professional but I have not seen GRACE in schools except in a few teachers. Their Grace was the love of teaching and they could impart knowledge. The receivers were the products of their home life aka Parents. Even the best of teachers can hardly stimulate a child raised and ruined in a psyhchological dump. That happens in movies but seldom in life.
May the child and the parent recognize Grace in its original form. I think that is what Martin Luther wanted. He knew enough to translate the Bible so people could read and acquire knowledge and faith on their own perogitive. Is that not the best form of teaching for both teachers and students?
By findog
March 6, 2009 11:48 AM | Link to this
I didn’t know there were any liberals in John’s Creek. The real question should be efficiency. What is the actual cost of providing services from private companies as compared to public employees? The Quad Cites of Jefferson out sourced their planning review to a single provider. Then when the cost of services skyrocketed, while service declined, they found themselves stuck with a long-term lemon contract. There is nothing wrong with their review. It actually sounds like smart locally controlled government. Maybe the Mayor will run for governor!
By findog
March 6, 2009 11:53 AM | Link to this
Ragnar @ 8:03, I believe “Conservative history month,” would be an oxymoron. A true conservative could get it done in a week.
By DB, Gwinnettian
March 6, 2009 11:54 AM | Link to this
Oh, dear. Hillbilly Deluxe, you are usually the voice of reason and rationality among online conservatives, but this
“The world needs a lot more John Rosemonds.”
needs work:
I’ve read many, perhaps even most, of his columns in the past half-dozen years. I am more familiar with his schtick than I’d like to be.
first off, I have to think perhaps Jim Wooten is actually not that familiar with Rosemond, because what he’d quoted in his column is what the man says virtually Every. Damn. Time. he prints a column. It’s some variant of “We had it real good here in Leave-it-to-Daddy-knows-best-land America, until the godless longhaired permissive hippie types ruined it and destroyed any notion of parental discipline! but if you’ll order my book/dvd/training program right now, I’ll fix all that for ya!”
Guy carries a huge chip on his shoulder. Strikes me as a guy who got picked on a lot by some coalition of academic types and free-lovin’ hippies during his formative years jeans and, and what he does for a living now is his chance for revenge.
Oh, and the fact that he’s a child psychologist who really hates psychologists and, well, children too, far as I can tell. That’s problematic for me. The guy can barely contain his dislike for the little “no neck monsters”, although he’d never own up to it.
But otherwise, Rosemond can be ok in small doses; he has some clever-sounding solutions for simple problems that kids might develop, and I can’t argue with the KISS approach. Whatever works, works. I just can’t stand his stupid culture-war whining that he inserts into so many of his columns.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 6, 2009 11:59 AM | Link to this
The Dow Jones on election day 2006 stood at 12,156.77. The American public gave Congress to the democrats that day. Fortunately the republicans left a strong economy to the democrats, and one year later the Dow stood at 13,300.02. Today, sixteen months later, the Dow has fallen 50.6%, and stands at 6,566.17. There is a difference between policies that encourage free enterprise and policies that would enslave it.
By Chris Broe
March 6, 2009 12:01 PM | Link to this
We need not make any more of an irreverent scoundrel out of Wooten now than we made out of him as the Conservative Writer for the AJC. Nor is it necessary to find highest yardarm in all of effigy from which to hang him and his idle entourage of idol-worshipping right wing deconstructionists if they ever did try to take over. To their demands I answer: Nuts!
Wooten’s omnidirectional failure as a conservative has implications that tack away from his bailed-out, yet still floundering vessel. He defends conservatism’s domestic and foreign policies under some tent revival of patriotism. He betrays liberal trust by draping the presumption of guilt from the eaves of his own glass house. He insists on adjudicating double jeopardy against any American he sees as both traitor and sinner.
It is not without growing a pair that we hereby dissolve the ties that bound Wooten to this blog. Financially awash, we now navigate free from his vision’s big-brass blindness. Buoyed by the certainty of our mandate, we resolve to etch future stones of progress as human beings, for which Wooten rightfully finds himself without license, mallet or chisel.
Jklol
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 6, 2009 12:03 PM | Link to this
Dear findog @ 11:53, good afternoon, funny line. I’d settle for “Conservative Day.”
By findog
March 6, 2009 12:06 PM | Link to this
Josh @ 9:24,
I refer you to the federal government that only recognizes seven minority categories; Caucasian is not one unless you are also: handicapped, non-Christian, trans-gender, or gay. P.S. Stupid doesn’t count.
By findog
March 6, 2009 12:16 PM | Link to this
Glenn @ 11:08 Wasn’t public education in the US was created, and then made compulsory, to keep the rabble off the streets? BTW - thanks for the brief history, maybe we need history education month…
By Hillbilly Deluxe
March 6, 2009 12:36 PM | Link to this
To DB @ 11:54
I guess my post was too brief. In real life I’m a man of few words. People who know me sort of learn to read between the lines which isn’t really practical in this forum.
I agree with Rosemond that in general parents are too lenient with children. This happens for a variety of reasons. Often times it’s as simple as parents are so busy trying to make a living they can’t spend enough time with the kids. Of course they feel guilty about this and sometimes over compensate.
So my point was parents should be the parents and run the household and not let the kids run it. And I’ve seen this in households that run the gamut of the political spectrum. Children look to adults for guidance and they need boundaries and limits.
Being born in the 50’s I came up in a time of do as you are told. In the long run that worked pretty well for us.
I do disagree with Rosemond on his “the Doctor said so” strategy. My parents would never have done this. They were always very clear in that it was their decision and that’s the way it was.
Maybe that clarifies my position. If you disagree at least you’ll know where I’m coming from.
By Dusty
March 6, 2009 12:38 PM | Link to this
Chris Broe aka PoFo,
If I were not ready for lunch I’d tell you how tiresome you are getting. Now that you have been abolished at Bookman’s and lost your bid to be the new AJC (counterfeit) conservative, you have nothing to do but complain.
May I make a suggestion? If you do not like the writings of Jim Wooten, do not read him. You will miss out on some good thoughts but we won’t have to read your superficial suggestions. So there! Go eat your lunch.
By "Charles", The Original
March 6, 2009 12:49 PM | Link to this
Some black people just don’t get it. They suggest under no circumstances should a man strike a woman. I hope Negroes are just pandering to black women for political purposes… African Americans seem to accept the reality of women entering the military. They are expected to kill or be killed. And if a woman is combative with police officers, we expect her to be tasered, clubbed, or shot depending on her level of force. But should a woman attack her husband, notwithstanding the level of violence, it’s considered by some people to be hands off. By some weird twist of fate, she is now considered most sacred. I think that kind of thinking is a result of the slave mind. Somewhere in the black subconscious mind, it’s understood that a black man has no right to self preservation; his life is worthless.
A woman should be physically attacked by a man only if she leaves him no other avenue to self defense or escape.
By AmVet
March 6, 2009 12:52 PM | Link to this
Back for a minute.
Conservative Day???
Methinks you “faithful” are selling yourselves short!
C’mon. Howzbout Conservative Week?
The biggest question being, would it be seven days long or 4.5 billion years?
By Jackie
March 6, 2009 1:04 PM | Link to this
@Charles The Original
As usual, you acumen and eloquence are exemplary. If one looks at your prose carefully, you are full of it, as usual.
By Chris Broe
March 6, 2009 1:20 PM | Link to this
Edited version.
We must not deduce that Wooten is any more of an irrelevant scoundrel now than we had a right to when he was Conservative Writer for the AJC. Nor is it necessary to find highest yardarm in all of effigy from which to hang him and his idle entourage of idol-worshipping right wing deconstructionists if they ever did try to take over. To their demands I answer: Nuts!
Wooten’s omnidirectional failure as a conservative has implications that tack away from his bailed-out, yet still floundering vessel. He defends conservatism’s domestic and foreign policies under some tent revival of patriotism. He betrays liberal trust by draping the presumption of guilt from the eaves of his own glass house. He insists on adjudicating double jeopardy against any American he sees as both traitor and sinner.
It is not without growing a pair that we hereby dissolve the ties that bound Wooten to this blog. Our hands are now free to keep our powder dry and navigate apart from both his vision’s war-induced nearsightedness and it’s knee-kerk, jock-itched reaction to Iraqi’s own hands-off Foreign Policy. Buoyed by the certainty of our mandate, we resolve to etch future stones of progress as we scratch-a-living in this woolly world Wooten helped create. As we sculpt a new life for ourselves and our 8 children, so Wooten rightfully finds himself without license, mallet or chisel.
By AmVet
March 6, 2009 1:24 PM | Link to this
“Fortunately the republicans left a strong economy to the democrats..”
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Modern America. Where lies are truth, up is down and the weak are vilified and the wicked glorified.
Toodles. Headin’ back out to keep this strong economy humming…
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
March 6, 2009 1:38 PM | Link to this
Dear Amvet, I remember that analytical thinking is outside the ambit of your skills portfolio, but surely you do not acknowledge that democrats were worthlessly dithering in the year after they took over? A responsble analysis would note that every step the democrats have taken was to constrain business. We now see the fruit of their policies. But denial is more than a long river.
By DB, Gwinnettian
March 6, 2009 1:41 PM | Link to this
HD, thanks for the illumination @ 12.36.
I rarely disagree with you on the important stuff. You and I probably find merit in the surface of Rosemond’s advice for similar, practical reasons.
As for reminding parents that it is they, not the kids, who run the home, that’s kind of a “well duh” for me. If people need to have that hammered home to them, then Rosemond might be a genius, I just think it’s something that’s already understood.
Funny enough, I might consider trying his “pretend doc said so” business with a very young child, although I gather you find such dishonesty distasteful, and on big-picture principle I’m with you there too. But the occasional little-white-lie to a kid, to ensure domestic peace, and get past a problem? Hey, if it works…
But go beneath that, and consider what seems (to me) to be motivating Rosemond’s constant harping on the evil ol’ 60s and 70s, and it’s troubling. Thing is, you gotta take the whole package, so I go on reading the dang thing!
By Chris Broe
March 6, 2009 1:42 PM | Link to this
Final edit:
We must not deduce that Wooten is any more of an irreverent scoundrel now than we had a right to when he was Conservative Writer for the AJC. Nor is it necessary to find highest yardarm in all of effigy from which to hang him and his idle entourage of idol-worshipping right wing deconstructionists if they ever did try to take over. To their demands I answer: Nuts!
Wooten’s omnidirectional failure as a conservative has implications that tack away from his bailed-out, yet still floundering support for the GOP. He defends conservatism’s domestic and foreign policies under some tent revival of patriotism. He betrays bipartisan trust by draping the presumption of guilt from the eaves of his own glass house. He insists on adjudicating double jeopardy against any American he sees as both traitor and sinner.
It is not without growing a pair that we hereby dissolve the ties that bound Wooten to this blog. Our hands are now free to keep our powder dry and navigate apart from his knee-jerk reaction to Iraqi’s own hands-off Foreign Policy. Buoyed by the certainty of our mandate, we resolve to etch future stones of progress as we wade into this woolly world Wooten wove, (the dirty rat). As we sculpt a new life for ourselves and our 8 children, so Wooten rightfully finds himself without license, mallet or chisel.
By Leon
March 6, 2009 1:47 PM | Link to this
Rag @ 11:38 & 11:59. By that time that trap had already sprung, the horse was out of the barn, the wheels had been set in motion etc…….. Go back and re-read the history of the CDS from 2000 forward. Then come back and explain to everyone how pure unadulterated greed got us here. Do it man! GO!
By Chris Broe
March 6, 2009 2:37 PM | Link to this
We must not deduce that Wooten is any more of an irreverent scoundrel now than we had a right to when he was Conservative Writer for the AJC. Nor is it necessary to find highest yardarm in all of effigy from which to hang him and his idle entourage of idol-worshipping right wing deconstructionists if they ever did try to take over. To their demands I answer: Nuts!
Wooten’s omnidirectional failure as a conservative has implications that tack away from his bailed-out, yet still floundering support for the GOP. He defends conservatism’s domestic and foreign policies under some tented revival of patriotism. He betrays our red, white and blue trust by draping the presumption of guilt from the eaves of his own stained-glass house, proving he’s as adept at cloaking himself as he is at obscuring those who gave their last full measure in Iraq.
It is not without growing a pair that we hereby dissolve the ties that bound Wooten to this blog. Our hands are now free to keep our powder dry and navigate apart from his knee-jerk reaction to Iraqi’s own hands-off Foreign Policy. Buoyed by the certainty of our mandate, we resolve to etch future stones of progress as we wade into this woolly world Wooten wove, (the dirty wat). As we sculpt a new life for ourselves and our 8 children, so Wooten rightfully finds himself without license, mallet or chisel.
By songbird
March 6, 2009 2:49 PM | Link to this
Ragnar,
The Republicans left the Democrats a strong economy in 2006. LMAO. The housing bubble was already starting to crash. The house of cards economy that Bush, et al, created was already starting to fall.
Ragnar in Danish must mean “full of sh!t!
By songbird
March 6, 2009 2:52 PM | Link to this
Ragnar,
The Republicans left the Democrats a strong economy in 2006. LMAO. The housing bubble was already starting to crash. The house of cards economy that Bush, et al, created was already starting to fall.
Ragnar in Danish must mean “full of sh!t!
By Jake
March 6, 2009 3:03 PM | Link to this
Leon and Songbird - Rag’s ‘thinking’ is limited to spewing, spinning, and justifying the party line. So the weakness of Clinton forced Bush to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, Cyndy Sheehan cost American lives, and Barney Frank and Chis Dodd created the entire current financial crisis. Leon, of course, is right. It was pure greed unchecked by Bush/Repub toadies that should have been watching the store, Greenspan, Dugan, Bernake.
By Glenn
March 6, 2009 3:21 PM | Link to this
Dusty,
I too concur with Luther, even if he did once remark, with characteristically caustic wit, that plaintive children are demonic changelings who should be put to the sword. (I wonder what Rosemond would have to say about that.)
In my opinion modern mass schooling is a ritual expression of civil religion, a Mass for the masses.
findog,
In the U.S., public schooling was conceived as prep ffor democracy, a radical experiment in a form of governance that places extraordinary demands upon its citizens. Jefferson believed that it was a necessary pact with the devil, however, and he feared that the State would overwean were it to compel children to attend more than three years. More than that, he said, would constitute “asportation”, a legal archaism for kidnapping.
Through the years many codicils have been added to this democratic mission, including the aim you state: keeping the rabble off the streets (and out of the job market for a time). Other stated aims have included general economic development through vocational preparation; the social mobility of the child, to release the pupil from his or her inherited caste; socialization, a sort of national unit cohesion; cultural assimilation and cultural transmission; generational secularization, a feature of social modernization; and even erudition for its own sake. The similarity in all of these aims is that each presumes that the schooling process is rightly viewed as an instrumentality of social control in which masses of other people’s children are rendered instruments or tools, the means to an end. This is social instrumentalism. Since the 1950s it has taken on the pretentious mantle of “The Systems Approach”, according to which each of us is a replaceable part of a larger machine.
The irony of this is that it renders collective child-rearing a profoundly anti-humanistic exercise. Quite the opposite of schooling’s originary intent. The founding schoolmen were a Protestant rabbinate preeminently concerned with the welfare of the child’s immortal soul.
By Nugget
March 6, 2009 3:23 PM | Link to this
In other words, never wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty, and the pig likes it.
By @@
March 6, 2009 3:35 PM | Link to this
Jim, I could tell you things about Judge Benefield that would make your hair stand on end. The guy is a sanctimonious, pompous, egomaniacal judicial bureaucrat as is his ex-wife, Deborah. One thing you may not know is that he will go after dead-beat Dad’s with a vengeance in his courtroom. And no, I have no personal experience, just testimonials.
Dead-beat dads hate the guy.
I don’t know whether his tactics of public humiliation offer results, but he puts on a good show nonetheless. His personal humiliation came at a pool party where an unnamed blogger had the great pleasure of jamming a wiffle ball down his throat off a “bad pitch” he lobbed at “her”. No names, please.
Whenever Black History Month rolls around, I can’t help but think of George Washington Carver, a brilliant man who sought to strengthen the south’s economy through his agricultural expertise. As I see it, Carver’s only failing was his unforeseen launching of “The Georgia Peanut” onto the national stage. Shoul’da left it alone……PLAIN and SIMPLE.
How can you improve on A Peanut? You can’t, that’s why Obama’s not even trying. Obama is carrying through Carter’s “legumeacy” in a Jiffy.
I will side with the environmentalists and willingly donate to the cause of alternative energy. Go nuclear, Georgia.
Jim, I don’t know who this Rosemond guy is but there are two basic principles to controlling a child’s behavior.
Never ask an open-ended question. The answer may put the adult in a corner from which they can’t escape.
Give the child choices —make that two options of the parent’s/teacher’s choosing, not the kid’s. Fools ‘em into thinking they actually had choices to begin with.
Just a note! I read an article yesterday regarding Obama’s favorite charter school initiative (Oct. 2008 but likely still going on.) Seems there’s millions in taxpayer’s dollars being wasted. Attendance don’t jive with government funding and we’re just now finding it out?
By Rush Limbaugh for President
March 6, 2009 3:41 PM | Link to this
Hey everyone I’m back. Had a real fine meeting with my Pastor Ted Haggard. He is in full support of me running for President. Oh and I forgot to mention it but I want to announce that I’d like Ragnar to be my Treasury Secretary. He is a genius you know and I think he would have us out of this recession created by the liberal spindthrifts in no time.
Rag is a master at knowing who caused all the economic problems so I’ll have him make a list of all the liberal commies who bullied President Bush into starting a Trillion dollar 7 year war and then mismanaged it for him. Those unpatriotic SOBs. Those same a*@#*&s made wall street overleverage with CDSs and CDOs and that’s what took down Bear Sterns and Leaman Bros. It wasn’t their fault. Then all the homos and Mexicans and poor people bought houses they couldn’t afford and Barney Frank made Bank Of America and J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo and Wa Mu give’em loans they knew they couldn’t pay back. And you know this only happened since the liberals took the country over. So once Rag has his list we’ll deport their a*. If only far right wingers run the economy then we will be in great shape.
I get more excited every day about this. I gotta call Sean and see if Ann Coulter or Dick Morris are on his show tonight. I am going to recommend he invite Ragnar. I think he’d make a great guest.
By Glenn
March 6, 2009 4:02 PM | Link to this
Nice going, @@.
I might just add, always leave ‘em laughing when you go.
By deegee
March 6, 2009 4:08 PM | Link to this
Jon Stewart did some homework and put together a hilarious montage. After watching this I am reminded of why I really don’t give a rat’s azz right now about what Wall Street thinks. It also reminds me of an old adage, “when the rich are unhappy they have no one to blame but themselves.”
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220252&title=CNBC-Gives-Financial-Advice
By @@
March 6, 2009 4:26 PM | Link to this
Glenn:
Might I ask, laughing at what…….the choices? One is always slightly more pleasant than the other. Still, it serves to meet my intended goal. It’s a win/win for me and what I like to call a half/win for them.
By Glenn
March 6, 2009 4:45 PM | Link to this
@@,
I meant merely that we ought to leaving laughing at life itself, laughing with joy in the pleasure of learning. Perhaps I’m overly influenced by my recent reading of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
I like your pedagogical sleight of hand, and would choose to emphasize the half of it that enobles children by granting them choices. I’ve no quibble with educators — teachers or parents — narrowing the menu of choices; on the contrary, that’s our duty. To do otherwise entails no rearing; it’s mere custodianship. The children require, and even crave, our gentle guidance, and I appreciate the firm gentleness of your approach. Presumably Dr. Rosemond would appreciate it too.
Moreover, it’s nice to hear children laugh.
By Rosemond knows, even if you don't
March 6, 2009 4:57 PM | Link to this
If you don’t think John Rosemond is spot on in his analysis of the malaise of permissive parenting, you need but step into a classroom to be instantly, and permanently, cured of such a notion.
By @@
March 6, 2009 5:00 PM | Link to this
Glenn:
I never underestimate the intelligence of a child, typical or otherwise. It’s always been a game with me to beat ‘em at their own. It ends in a mutual respect. Me for them and them for me or “All for one and one for all.
When I can wrestle with an autistic child who has completely lost control over his behavior and we both rise, sweaty and winded but in the end laugh at the absurdity of what we just went through, it is indeed, a good day.
Laughter is the shock absorber that eases the blows of life.
I probably laugh more in one day than most people laugh in a week…..six months…..a year.
I love my kids!
I love my job!
I love myself!
….in that order.
By Glenn
March 6, 2009 5:14 PM | Link to this
You’re a born teacher, @@.
One of the things I like about this blog is that people of diverse opinions share a respect for good teachers.
Well, except for Redneck, who obviously never met one. Poor thing.
By Dusty
March 6, 2009 5:15 PM | Link to this
Dear Glenn,
On Luther’s behalf I might mention that ritalin was not prescribed nor present in his day. The poor guy probably had a bad day teaching some demonic changelings. That was probably the first day also that parents organized a PTA and the lawyers discovered a fresh field for recompense. Luther was very good at getting things started.
By Dusty
March 6, 2009 5:22 PM | Link to this
Well, it sounds like Republicans have finally thrown a monkey wrench into the fast moving drown-in-debt program in Congress. They may have just thrown thmeselves under the train but they are desperately trying to bar-b-que some of the pork. I hope they keep things cookin’ ‘cause the homefront is burning over these escesses during hard times. Go Republicans!!
By Redneck Convert
March 6, 2009 5:31 PM | Link to this
Well, this Glenn can just kiss my You Know What. I already wrote about how hard Mrs. Hayshock tried to teach me about multiplying. It just never made sense to me, saying something times something else is something else. It don’t mean I didn’t like her. Course, she never offered to wrestle with me the way @@ says she wrestles with her kids. Maybe because I was 6 foot tall when I was in my senior year, which was my fifth try in the 5th grade.
Have a good weekend everybody.
By @@
March 6, 2009 5:49 PM | Link to this
I don’t know Redneck, the kid I was wrestling with was a hefty 84 lbs. give or take. I don’t weigh much more than that.
I’d never go to the mat with a senior in high school. Doesn’t take much to outsmart ‘em though. Many a boyfriend of my daughter’s choosing thought they were smarter than me. They quickly learned otherwise and without any hard feelings between me and my prodigy.
Sometimes they just disappeared leaving me to put the blame on them.
She thinks the guy she’s with now is perfect for her and I tend to agree. He feels likewise about her.
We’ll see. Never let be said I would interfere in the relationship of two young but wiser infatuees.
By Glenn
March 6, 2009 5:58 PM | Link to this
Redneck it’s like this:
Sometimes a standard hex nut is the same as a metric, only you got to know the difference. Does that he’p?
If it’s any consolation, should I happen to see you up at the racetrack this sunny weekend, I’ll be sure to buy you a chili corndog with all the fixin’s.
Dusty,
You got it, girl. That basically was the context of Luther’s remark. He — and also later on the Catholic side, represented by More and Loyola — was actually scandalously appreciative of children, especially of, in Luther’s and More’s cases, their daughters and wives. Everyone knew this about Luther, so his joke was taken, at the time, in good jest.
That’s shrewd, what you said about Luther as a builder. He also was, perhaps in equal part, a destroyer. Never been anyone like that. Maybe Lenin, frankly. They both must’ve had two brains.
In keeping with this send-up of good teaching, probably I should send my thanks to the late teacher Lewis Spitz, who taught me about Luther, and to Dumas Malone, who very kindly taught me about Jefferson’s views on education. Both were lovely gentlemen, and patient.
What a spectacular weekend this shall be…
By SaveOurRepublic
March 6, 2009 6:14 PM | Link to this
“Charles”, The Original @ 9:05 AM - As I’m sure you’re well aware, Alex Jones is a great American, paleoconservative, Constitutionalist patriot! Via his radio show, websites & documentaries, he does an outstanding job of exposing the Globalist Elite…their (many) pawns & agenda.
[Alex Jones](http://www.infowars.com]
By Glenn
March 7, 2009 8:31 AM | Link to this
Good morning. Enough with the foundations of education.
On to the foundations of children. Yesterday I watched for more than an hour C-Span’s coverage of Thursday’s oral arguments, before the California Supreme Court, in support of and opposition to that state’s Proposition 8, which seeks (with the Court’s, not the People’s, permission) to ban homosexual marriage by way of prohibitting the application of the [religious] word to the civil unions of gays and lesbians.
In San Francisco on Thursday it was a circus. A circus In Camera, in the very chambers, of that state’s highest court. Gloria Allred was there. I rest my casement.
The decision will go either 6-1 or 5-2 to uphold the ban, but in either case the dissent will be led by California’s Chief Justice, Ron George, a deeply corrupt and profoundly confused man.
You heard it here first, so sue me, Kakamame — to praphrase Sid Caesar.
By Glenn
March 7, 2009 8:41 AM | Link to this
Ahem: “the word”, meaning the word “marriage”.