Sports Now Defined as GREED

The World Series, like most other professional sports as well as college sports, is now the victim of TV and all the money that drives it. This shows up most graphically in the time now required for a contest to be decided, excluding games with overtime periods. The first game of the current Series required three hours and 32 minutes and the second, three hours and 25 minutes. Another game required four hours.

Granted, there was a lot of scoring in the games but considering the possibilities of home runs and double plays (fast actions) these games were far too long. Each team scored one run in the first inning of game two, which lasted a full 30 minutes, though one of the runs was a home run effected in just seconds. If that factor had prevailed throughout the game, it would have required four hours and 30 minutes to finish, more than a half-day's work. This stuff will kill the sport.

It's unfair to compare this Series with that of 1956, in which Yankee pitcher Don Larson pitched a perfect game on 08 October, the only one in Series history. The Yanks beat Brooklyn (now LA Dodgers) 2-0 in that game, which lasted two hours and six minutes and featured only five hits by the “bums.” But it's worth remembering that there were no conferences by the umpires on-scene conferring electronically with those in New York, who settled all issues, the whole business eating up time.

In the games mentioned above, pitchers and batters strolled, spit, changed their minds or did nothing for periods of differing lengths. Pitchers stared and stared at catchers, shook off sign after sign and finally decided to throw the ball. Batters had to step out of the box and readjust their gloves, many with a stroll around the catcher and umpire, after every pitch. Batters didn't wear gloves in 1956. Fielders wear gloves, then and now. No conferences with New York arbiters took place in 1956 or for all but a few years since. Umpire-mistakes were just part of the game and evened out for the teams.

Ballplayers were adequately paid but not made filthy rich back in the day. Today, long-term mega-million-dollar contracts are handed out routinely and can amount to well over $20 million a year, guaranteed, with enough incentives to sweeten the pot even more. According to the Major League Players Association, the average wage now is $3.39 million per year, or $20,926 per game.

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer helped the Orioles sweep the LA Dodgers in 1966. His player-share of the series proceeds amounted to $11,683.40. His salary for the entire season was $7,500. The winning player-share of the 2013 World Series won by the Red Sox was $307,322.68. Red Sox pitcher John Lackey's salary was $15,950,000 to pitch in about 33 games. The St Louis player's loser-share was a paltry $228,300.17. Highest paid St. Louis player's salary for the year was outfielder Matt Holliday's $16,272,110 for 162 games, $103,000 per game.

The losing players in the league championship series also got well. The Detroit player's share was $129,278.22. The LA Dodger player-share was $108,037,06. The division player-shares averaged about $35,000, so getting into the playoffs means big bucks, win or lose. The fan can be sure of two things: the players are or will be mega-millionaires, depending on longevity, and the national anthem will be tortured unmercifully by the non-singers (celebrity or not) who attempt to sing it. It should be presented by recordings of actual singers.

Besides their salaries, the total amount to the players in the playoffs and World Series came to $62,683,966.80 in 2013. These figures were higher in 2012. For the period 2007-13, the total amounted to $402,940,679.50 or close to half-a-billion. Is it wonder, then, why umpire-conferences were/are held to see if the guy actually was safe at first or home? The thing that saved the umpires on-scene was the fact that the New York-based umps just looking at replays from various angles had the last word, doing away with managers arguing themselves blue in the face and kicking dirt on the umps' shoes before being tossed.

A bad call at third with two out could mean the difference in millions of dollars, so look for more delays. Innumerable replays and extended commercials are killing the NFL, too. But it's all about the money...sport is just as defiled as everything else that greed drives (think steroids and HGH, too), but it certainly will survive...at least until the public gets fed up.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Polling as Data or Propaganda?

The Lexington Herald-Leader, Louisville Courier-Journal and TV stations WKYT (Lexington) and WHAS (Louisville) have combined their efforts for polling purposes this year, having the polling outfit SurveyUSA (called the Bluegrass Poll) conduct a number of polls regarding the Senate race between republican incumbent Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Kentucky State Secretary Alison Grimes, the media's choice. There have been a flurry of polls lately, SurveyUSA's results markedly different from highly acclaimed national polling organizations like the Rasmussen Reports and CBS/New York Times pollsters. A Bluegrass Poll in February showed Grimes ahead.

Another Bluegrass Poll was conducted in late August showing that the media's own poll had McConnell ahead by four points, triggering a Mellman Poll hired by Grimes in early September that showed Grimes was ahead by two points. During that same period, the nationally highly regarded Rasmussen polling had McConnell ahead by five points. Another poll was conducted by Mellman in September, with Grimes beating McConnell one or two points. During a late September poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS (both McConnell haters), McConnell was ahead by six points.

On 20 October, the results of yet another “Bluegrass Poll” were noted in the media with McConnell ahead but by only one point. On 17 October, Rasmussen reported its results, which had McConnell ahead 52%-44%. The inordinate disparity in the polls is obvious. During polling from January through June this year, Gallup discovered citizens leaning republican as opposed to democrat 45%-39%.

Six years ago, McConnell defeated Bruce Lunsford to keep his seat. A look at that race in 2008 is instructive. On 21 October that year, Rasmussen had McConnell ahead 50%-43%, while SurveyUSA (Bluegrass Poll gang?) on 20 October called the race even, 48%-48%. That's a huge differential, well beyond believability.

On 29 October just before the 2008 election, Rasmussen had McConnell ahead by 51%-44% but, strangely, SurveyUSA (Bluegrass Poll?) also had McConnell ahead by an even greater face-saving margin, 53%-45%, indicating an eight-point swing in just nine days, a total departure from reality and reason to wonder how something that unbelievable could happen unless Lunsford maybe robbed a bank. He didn't. McConnell won the election by 53%-47%. Obvious question: Were the Bluegrass and Mellman Polls real, imagined or just plain media propaganda?

Flash forward to 2014. The latest Bluegrass Poll, 31 October, showed McConnell ahead by 48%-43% with a huge margin of error of 4.1 points (only 597 likely voters polled), meaning that McConnell's lead could be 50%-41%. Just 11 days before, the Bluegrass Poll had a differential of only a point. The CBS/New York Times on 26 October—during that period—showed McConnell ahead by 45%-39%. Was the Bluegrass Poll attempting to somehow save face? Were the Mellman Polls rigged?

Should the voter believe the nationally acclaimed polls or polls ginned up by local candidates and institutions having their own agendas? The media instigators of the “Bluegrass Poll” have a long history of McConnell-bashing and have been fervent in their opposition to him, even though he's been a Senate leader for many years and likely will become Majority Leader if republicans win back the Senate.

Using “fixed” polls, besides being dishonest and condescending, may actually help get out the republican vote on the chance that some republicans actually believe them. CNN reported on 21 June that newspapers, TV news outlets and Internet news outlets enjoyed ratings-approvals determined by Gallop at 22%, 18%, and 19% of the population, respectively, for an average of 20%. So, who's gullible—the people or the media?

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Local Polling...Political Propaganda

The Lexington Herald-Leader, Louisville Courier-Journal and TV stations WKYT (Lexington) and WHAS (Louisville) have combined their efforts for polling purposes this year, having the polling outfit SurveyUSA conduct a number of polls regarding the Senate race between republican incumbent Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Kentucky State Secretary Alison Grimes. There have been a flurry of polls lately, SurveyUSA's results markedly different from highly acclaimed national polling organizations like the Rasmussen Reports and CBS/New York Times pollsters.

The media outlets commissioned a SurveyUSA poll (called the “Bluegrass Poll”) in February that showed Grimes ahead but not by much. They commissioned another “Bluegrass Poll” in late August but discovered to their horror that their own poll showed McConnell ahead by four points, at which point a Mellman Poll was hired by Grimes in early September that showed Grimes was ahead by two points. During that same period, the nationally highly regarded Rasmussen polling had McConnell ahead by five points.

Another poll was conducted by Mellman in September, with Grimes beating McConnell one or two points maybe because of one of her ads, as if anyone pays attention to those million-dollar sinkholes. During a late September poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS (both McConnell haters), McConnell was ahead by six points, perhaps pulling away.

At this point, desperation apparently set in at the Lexington and Louisville media-outlets-for-Grimes, so another “Blue Grass” poll was conducted by the same outfit as before, SurveyUSA, and, predictably, Grimes came out ahead by two points, despite the highly respected national polls showing the opposite. The highly respected national polling agencies have the advantage of being entirely objective, whereas local polling is purely subjective, reflecting agendas and not facts.

On 20 October, the results of yet another “Bluegrass Poll” were noted in the media with McConnell ahead but by only a point. On 17 October, Rasmussen reported its results, which had McConnell ahead 52%-44%...an eight-point bulge over the weekend? Of course not! The inordinate disparity in the polls is obvious. During polling from January through June this year, Gallup discovered citizens leaning republican as opposed to democrat 45%-39%. This margin, validating Rasmussen and covering a six-month period, has probably widened greatly.

Six years ago, McConnell defeated Bruce Lunsford to keep his seat. A look at that race in 2008 is instructive. On 21 October that year, Rasmussen had McConnell ahead 50%-43%, while SurveyUSA (Bluegrass Poll gang?) on 20 October called the race even, 48%-48%. That's a huge differential, well beyond believability.

On 29 October just before the 2008 election, Rasmussen had McConnell ahead by 51%-44% but, strangely, SurveyUSA also had McConnell ahead by an even greater face-saving margin, 53%-45%, indicating an eight-point swing in just nine days, a total departure from reality and reason to wonder how something that unbelievable could happen unless Lunsford maybe robbed a bank. He didn't. McConnell won the election by 53%-47%, vindicating Rasmussen but perhaps indicating skulduggery vis-a-vis SurveyUSA.

So...what's a citizen to do? Should the voter believe the nationally acclaimed polls or polls ginned up by local candidates and institutions having their own agendas? The media instigators of the “Bluegrass Poll” have a long history of McConnell-bashing and have been fervent in their opposition to him, even though he's been a Senate leader for many years and likely will become Majority Leader if republicans win back the Senate.

Grimes, apparently dissatisfied with disappointing “Bluegrass Poll” numbers, simply hired her own polling outfit, but what good is polling if it appears to be tainted and entirely bogus, as in this case? Her efforts seem to reek of desperation, but trying to fool the public, whether by polls or anything else, is not the way to go. That's an insult to Kentuckians, an elitist attitude remarking Kentuckians as so dumb they can't see through this subterfuge.

Using “fixed” polls, besides being dishonest and condescending, actually helps get out the republican vote on the chance that some repubs actually believe them. So, who's being gullible, the media perhaps? The next polls, if carried out, will be INTERESTING!

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Basketball Bacchanalia

Lexington Herald-Leader sportswriter Jerry Tipton (18 October) was underwhelmed (lacked the pizzazz of yesteryears) by this year's annual Midnight Madness event the night before. The effort, like the ones preceding it each year, trivialized the sport and sorta made monkeys out of those who perpetrated and attended it. Assuming the final okay for this coronation of campus royalty came from Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart, one wonders if he needs to step up to the next level of maturity.

The affair cost $300,000, roughly equivalent to a year's tuition and fees for 31 actual students. The basketball players are predominantly part of the minor leagues for the NBA and expect to be gone after one year of non-study unless they aren't judged high draft-picks as freshmen, in which case they stay for a second year of non-study. Their career as UK players, as often noted by Coach Calipari, is a one-shot stab at greatness, thus not an academic endeavor.

The big draw this year was a rapper (more accurately, “gangsta-rapper”) called Drake. According to Tipton, the big disappointment was that Drake didn't rap. Strangely, Rap is usually described as music. It's actually a recitation set to an accompaniment of percussion instruments, mostly drums, that might resemble a dance with grunts, groans and screams in deepest Africa engaged in just before some sort of tribal bloodletting or par-boiling a missionary.

Drake couldn't do his act in the Madness venue, even though the young people there were familiar with his lyrics/performances and were misled into believing he would regurgitate his thing. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been the main-liner. A look at some of his stuff is instructive for sound, fury and “poetry.” Drake's buzz-words are fuckin', nigga, bitch and shit. His masterpiece called “The Catch Up” features two “fuckin' niggas” caught up in a—you guessed it—gun-fight...something not unusual in Lexington these days?

In his classic called “The Motto,” he raps about the fuckin' man, the bitch, the real nigga and shit. This is his phrase in Motto: “almost drowned in her pussy so I swam to her butt.” Another: “I tongue-kiss her other tongue.” Get it? In his classic tune “Light Up,” he uses the term “mother-fucker.” This usage is as sacred to gangsta-rap as Christ's mother Mary is to Christianity. Here's a line: “Wait until the sun goes down and we gon' make this bitch light up.” His conclusion: “fuck niggas, bitches, too, all I got is money, this'll do.”

Contextually, one has to remember that the women's basketball team and women cheerleaders are part of Midnight Madness. In Drake's parlance the “ho” is mentioned, rap-term for whore, and these UK women were exposed to Drake, who sees them not as human beings but objects to use, abuse, discard. Was Drake's background even cursorily examined by Barnhart, Calipari, and—oh yes—Matthew Mitchell, the women's coach?

Mitchell added to the denigration of women by cavorting and aping somebody called Bruno Mars. I don't know what he performed but in Mars' classic “When I Was Your Man,” the singer lamented longingly about the fact that his shack-up partner (ho) is gone. In Mars' number “Locked Out of Heaven” (another masterpiece?), is this line: “Your sex takes me to paradise.” Hopefully, Mitchell didn't writhe that one.

Mars collaborated on this artistry called “Bubble Butt.” His line was one of the mildest: “Turn around, stick it out, show the world you got...”. From Mars' “Like Tonight,” this gem: “You've got your lips along my body And I'm not gonna stop you...”. What was Matthew thinking? He wasn't, obviously!

Yeah...Midnight Madness this year was Basketball Bacchanalia since it mainlined orgy as normal and should have been doubly offensive to the men's and women's teams since about the only players who spend many minutes in at least a men's game are African-American. Drake is black and Mars is Puerto Rican/filipino. The lurid background for this stuff (men sex/rape-crazy and women as chattel) insulted all the players. Spectators who think this was worth their time got what they deserved—TRIPE—in the presence of campus royalty, of course.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Obama, Pentagon & Climate

Participating in a conference call in Washington are President Obama, Defense Department Secretary Hagel, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dempsey, and climate expert Al Gore, hereinafter referenced as O, H, D, and G, respectively.

**O: The Peruvian president...can't think of his name right off, some Latino-sounding thing...just said in that meeting with you in that Chilean SPA, Chuck, that if we didn't change the climate soon nothing will be left – Right?
**H: Right...nothing left, right, left, right...
**O: That was 50 years ago, Chuck, when Kerry said we killed 200,000 Vietnamese a year...remember?
**H: O yeah, I was there...sorry about that...the drill goes through my head once in a while.
**D: Now, about this problem with ISIS, Mr. President, I...
**O: Okay, gotcha there, General, but we need to get on this climate thing...I mean if a guy can be elected president of Peru he's bound to be onto something, so we need to pay attention before he turns the OAS against us for not caring if...
**G: You got that right, Mr. President. The average height of the Andes is just 13,000 feet so you can see what an increase in ocean-depth might do.
**O: Right, Al...I doubt if there's a golf course anywhere near those mountains, which explains, Chuck and Martin, why I invited Al to this meeting. I promised change when I came to Washington and climate-change is part of that and, as you know, Al has a Nobel...
**G: You're too modest, Barry, everyone knows you have that climate Nobel, too, and didn't even have to share it like I did with that IPCC bunch of cutthroats throwing the whole scheme away with their stupid emails admitting to cooking the books.
**O: Yeah...ruined that speech I – or somebody had written one for me...been five years now – had at Copenhagen, all teleprompted and ready. I was all set to apologize to the whole world because we had three times too many cars in this country and...
**H: Let me just mention, Mr. President...about those soldiers we just sent to Liberia...or was it Sierra Leone...well, anyway, some of their folks are complaining about them coming home all infected with that ebola and...
**O: Chuck, if there's one thing I learned in community-organizing it was to establish priorities and stick with them. Now, this meeting's about important things like climate-change so we'll worry about some jayvee infection later. Ebola's been around for years in one form or another.
**D: While we're stopped here sorta, Mr. president, Ms. Rice just announced that Turkey's on board with their airfield but Erdogan has the same as called her a liar, so we need...
**O: That'll do, Martin, I don't ever want that word used in connection with Susan even if she did misspeak on those talk-shows. Just because Fox News made an issue of it doesn't mean...
**H: (nodding up from a doze) Did somebody say Fox News? That reminds me that their guy over there is givin' us hell for not...
**O: Gentlemen, back to the subject! Al, what do you foresee in the near future?
**H: Yeah, all the experts have been agreeing that no global warming has happened in the last 17 years but I took your word, Al, and had a hundred thousand fatigues made in the thinnest cotton around and I got soldiers freezing half-to-death on a short three-mile march.
**G: It's hard to be out front anymore. The Brits won't let my film be shown in schools until the teacher says it's political and not scientific. Everybody knows we're killing the earth, just like that Peruvian guy said...all these typhoons and hailstorms and...
**O: I've done my part with your idea, Al – cap-and-trade...break up these coal-burners, bankrupt 'em...can't get my Senate to go along...my House – bless Pelosi – went along without reading a word of that bill but the Senate...MY Senate has it...
**G: I know the feeling, Barry, but just do what everybody expects...get out that old executive-order pen and kill those climate-killers.
**H: Okay, that's settled...the old executive order thing, the courts and the Congress be damned! Now, are we gonna send the Airborne to...
**O: I will NOT be sidetracked, Chuck. You came awfully close to insubordination there. I need tangible plans for changing the climate and I expect you and Martin to have them on my desk by tomorrow. Valerie Jarrett doesn't like you military types to start with and Michele didn't change her mind about you when she became proud of the U.S. back in 2008, so don't push the envelope...plus...tell your guys to quit saluting me every time I turn around. I'm tired of all the hassle with bothering to return them since Fox News and John McCain watch my every move.
**D: What kind of climate do you have in mind, Mr. President? Hot, cold, medium, rainy, snowy...
**O: Look! I set the policy...you carry it out. Figure it out. Al here will help you, won't you, Al? Al? AL? AL?
**G: A little to the left, honey...now rub around my fifth vertebra in that monster muscle...that's so...z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Poll-Fixing(?) & the Debate

The shenanigans connected to polls regarding elections are well-known, although some pollsters are far more accurate than others. The polls to arouse suspicion are those commissioned by the candidates themselves and are likely to be local in nature. Polls conducted by seasoned professionals on a national scale can be expected to be objective even when they deal with local issues. With no axes to grind or campaigning to do, they can be trusted.

The Lexington Herald-Leader, Louisville Courier-Journal and TV stations WKYT (Lexington) and WHAS (Louisville) have combined this year for polling purposes vis-a-vis the Senate race between Senator McConnell and Kentucky State Secretary Alison Lundergan Grimes, hiring the SurveyUSA outfit, which announced in February that Grimes was ahead by a few points, at least as interpreted by Herald-Leader writer Sam Youngman.

Another SurveyUSA poll was done in August after a presumed stellar performance by Grimes at the Fancy Farm election “stump-day.” The poll showed McConnell ahead by 4 points, about a six-point swing, when it was undoubtedly designed to bury McConnell. Grimes quickly hired the Mellman group to do a poll in September that showed her ahead by two points, or another six-point change.

To sew things up, the Media biggies hired another poll by Survey USA that showed Grimes—yep—ahead by two points, election saved. During that same period, the nationally highly regarded Rasmussen polling had McConnell ahead by five points. During a late September poll conducted by the New York Times/CBS (both McConnell haters), McConnell was ahead by six points, perhaps pulling away.

Get ready for the October polls leading into the election. A look at 2008 is instructive, when McConnell defeated Bruce Lunsford to keep his seat. On 21 October, Rasmussen had McConnell ahead 50%-43%, while Survey USA on 20 October called the race even, 48%-48%. That's a huge differential, well beyond any margin of error.

On 29 October just before the 2008 election, Rasmussen had McConnell ahead by 51%-44% but, strangely, SurveyUSA also had McConnell ahead by an even greater face-saving margin, 53%-45%, indicating an eight-point swing even farther from reality. McConnell won the election by 53%-47%. So, what happened in just ten days? Ever heard of cooking the books? These stats are from Real Clear Politics.

As of May 2012, 55.27% of registered voters in Kentucky were democrats; 37.67% were republicans, and others comprised 7.07%. It will be interesting to see the next polling stats leading right up to the election. The New York Times/CBS folks already have McConnell ahead by six points, while Rasmussen has it by five. Wonder if SurveyUSA will come up with un-cooked books as in 2008, an attack of truth.

The Grimes-McConnell “debate” took place on Kentucky Educational Television on the evening of 13 October. I watched the predictable first 20 Minutes, then checked in occasionally while doing other things and watched the final minutes. Actually, it was not a debate. Few of these candidate-billed debates are actual debates, mostly just rehashing campaign bits and pieces and a bit of mudslinging. This one was better than most and was moderated (KET's Bill Goodman) better than most.

Grimes' main theme (besides character-assassination) seemed to be that McConnell had been a senator too long (30 years) and was therefore “out of touch” with Kentuckians. This was an insult to folks who've been in a job for up to 40 years and think they do their work well. But Grimes is 30-something, so give her a pass. Women candidates make it a point these days to voice their motherhood as a proof of superior qualities (or grand-motherhood, like Pelosi) so Grimes (childless) felt compelled to say she hoped to have children.

McConnell mostly stuck to facts, using well-documented stats, and made it a point to mention that he would likely be majority leader if the republicans take the Senate and therefore will set the agenda for legislation, a definite plus for both country and state. He probably overplayed the coal-question (loss of 7,000 well-paid jobs due to Obama's promise to kill coal) but had the answer when Grimes claimed support of the UMW when he mentioned that the current AFL-CIO president was formerly UMWA president—thus a guaranteed 100% vote for democrats in every craft.

There are polls and debates, with ambiguities probably their easiest-identified features.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Educational Flimflam

To see the utter lunacy connected with educational political correctness these days, one has only to notice the 12-step effort by a Nebraska school-district to force the students into believing that either there is no such thing as gender or, assuming there is, that everyone is of the same gender. This is one of the steps in the process: “Look for examples in the media that reinforce gender stereotypes or binary models of gender (it won’t be hard; they’re everywhere!). When with others, call it out and interrogate it.”

Okay...as is the case predictably with documents from departments of education, which seem most often to be dreamed up by people who either can't think or can't write, or both, this makes about as much sense as 5+4=3, which is also okay in politically correct postmodern math education. Exactly what is a gender stereotype? The experts didn't define it, so if it exists it's what anyone says it is.

Stereotype is defined as “something conforming to a fixed or general pattern.” So one should look for examples in the media that reinforce gender conforming to a fixed or general pattern. Would an NFL linebacker, whose agreed-by-everybody's job description (fixed and general pattern) is to give a concussion to the opposing quarterback, qualify? If so, it should be called out and interrogated but only if in the presence of others. However, an “it” can't be interrogated because only people can be interrogated, unless the politically correct folks think a cardboard box is intelligent enough to hold a conversation.

If, however, the linebacker should be the object of interrogation, what would be the questions he should answer? Does he feel he is male or female? No, that won't do because it implies more than one gender, a politically incorrect taboo, and might even invite a chop to the molars. Would he rather shower with his teammates or the cheerleaders, recognizing that there's no such thing as gender? No, that won't do because the linebacker might laugh so hard he would herniate himself and go on the disabled list, though that has the advantage of giving complete attention while on the bench to the cheerleaders instead of watching a boring game in which he is not part of the on-field mayhem.

Would a Miss America contestant be a proper person to be called out and interrogated? She can't be asked if she considers herself neither male nor female, though she might come up with transgender, which seems to be the most popular form of gender/non-gender these days. Perhaps that's the answer the education folks are aiming at, to wit, that everyone is in the process of becoming one gender or another; however, that won't do because the ugly matter of gender-difference rears its evil head. If everyone got caught in the middle of making that determination, what kind of sex, if any, would be in order, and what label would be put on that condition, since it can't be called gender, which is nonexistent to the education folks? We're getting there...be patient.

Binary is defined as “compounded or consisting of or marked by two things or parts.” So, the suggestion becomes “Look for examples in the media that reinforce...compounded or consisting of or marked by two things or parts models of gender.” This is educationese at its most mysterious. It actually calls for a model of gender consisting of two things or parts. So, gender has now been split into two parts instead of gender being eradicated altogether (no such things as boys and girls). It's easy to see where this is going.

Gender is here to stay, notwithstanding the efforts of sophisticated intellectuals in the Nebraska education system to eliminate it. In their effort, they have actually established two male-genders and two female-genders, the original genders being split by their own definition/admonition to get rid of gender. Binary is what binary is. The fact of the matter, of course, is that the intellectuals are so intelligent that they can't write the English language so anything makes sense. No one can figure out this linguistic flimflam to get rid of gender-identification but can identify what's been the objective all along, to wit, UNISEX. This means the same school-toilets for everyone. Hurray...and don't leave the lid up! Egad!

Is it any wonder the U.S. lags behind other nations in overall education?

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Dueling Polls

As predictable as night following day (or vice versa) in any election cycle is the dueling-polls syndrome. This is nowhere better seen than in Kentucky vis-a-vis the McConnell-Grimes senatorial race. The fear of Mitch McConnell by the Kentucky liberal establishment—at least as manipulated by the Lexington Herald-Leader, Louisville Courier-Journal and TV stations WKYT (Lexington) and WHAS (Louisville)—was seen in their partnership-for-polling-purposes- for-early-propagandizing in this election year.

These entities had something called the “Bluegrass Poll” ginned up by an outfit called SurveyUSA that virtually elected democrat Alison Grimes over McConnell in November even though the primary, in which both had competition, wasn't until May. SurveyUSA interviewed 1,200 adults with home phones and cell phones between January 30 and February 4, of whom 1,082 were registered to vote in the state with 404 being registered republicans, but with Primary questions asked only of them. Other questions were asked of all registered voters.

Why no Primary questions of democrats? Answer: these media activists eliminated the other three democrat candidates...the fix was in. Some 118 respondents were not even registered? Twice as many democrats as republicans were polled, the reason being obvious to even a fifth-grader. Kentucky votes republican in national elections even though democrats outnumber republicans in the state by 52%. The media (at least the newspapers) combining for this poll were/are arch-enemies of Mitch McConnell but haven't gotten him defeated since 1984.

Still feeling good after Fancy Farm, the media propagandists commissioned another “Bluegrass Poll” in late August but discovered to their horror that their own poll showed McConnell ahead by four points, at which point the media honchos and Grimes experienced desperation, hence a Mellman Poll hired by Grimes in early September that showed Grimes was ahead by two points—VOILA!—campaign saved, a six-point reversal in just two weeks. Kentucky minds are so changeable. During that same period, the nationally highly regarded Rasmussen polling had McConnell ahead by five points.

So...another poll was conducted by Mellman in September, with Grimes—you guessed it—beating McConnell one or two points maybe because of one of her ads, as if anyone pays attention to those million-dollar sinkholes. During a late September poll conducted by the New York Times and CBS (both McConnell haters), McConnell was ahead by six points, perhaps pulling away.

At this point, desperation set in at the Lexington and Louisville media-outlets-for-McConnell, so—you guessed it—another “Blue Grass” poll was conducted by the same outfit as before, SurveyUSA and—hold tight—Grimes came out ahead by two points, despite the highly respected national polls showing the opposite. This made for front-page banner headlines on 06 October in the Lexington Herald-Leader and rejoicing in TV-world, no doubt.

So, from 28 August until 06 October (about five weeks), Kentuckians, according to the polls (or at least the Bluegrass Poll), those fickle Kentuckians have changed their minds about two or three times, after changing their minds once between February and August. If that's not actually the case, one wonders how the Bluegrass and Mellman polls have been structured, since they differ wildly from the most reputable outfits in the nation, especially since they were hired by both the media-propagandists and Grimes herself, with all that Hollywood money.

Grimes will carry Louisville, Lexington and maybe the northern towns across from Cincinnati. Democrats tend to carry the heavily-populated areas where welfare reigns supreme. Republicans carry the counties between the coastal states but must face the huge differential in electoral votes occasioned by the populations of New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and the like in national elections. Beyond the Bluegrass triangle referenced by Louisville, Lexington and Covington, Grimes is likely already toast. Folks don't change their minds that often, and it's a cinch that 90% of minds are already made up.

Grimes' albatross is Obama, and she's tried to neutralize that by calling herself a “Clinton Democrat.” That won't work, not least because Bill Clinton's reputation is in shreds and Hillary's compulsion to lie (think Benghazi) is a killer. When she said, “What difference does it make now,” she said it all. In addition, Kentuckians just hate being jerked around by such things as obviously bogus polling.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Kerry & Under-the-Bus Gang

It's mid-afternoon in a room over the Anything Goes Bar on a busy street in South Chicago. In attendance are university professors William Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn, the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and State Secretary John Kerry, hereinafter referenced as A, D, W and K, respectively, though perhaps not respectfully.

**W: Welcome, Secretary Kerry, to the Union to Negate Demeaning of Erudite Realists, Theologians and Honest Educators Basic to the United States.
**K: Uh…the what?
**W: You mean you don’t know what the…in fact, I figured you’re here to join, now that you right soon might be rode out of that Washington nuthouse, no matter whatever happens in that pit of vipers. You ain't got Assad assassinated yet.
**A: Maybe you’ve heard of it by its acronym, John, Under the Bus. It’s made up of the people who’ve been…
**W: kicked off the team because they stood up for…
**D: Oh…don’t be so whiny, Rev. Just because Barry had to disown you after that awful performance at the National Press Club…after all, you got your reparations in the 1960s and…
**W: We ain’t got no reparations yet Bernardine, and I’ll thank you again to call me Doctor, not Rev.
**A: What brings you to this exclusive club, John? By the way, we aren’t the only members. I guess you remember Tom Daschle, for instance, and Richardson and Lerner and Petraeus and...
**D: I bet Barry needs someone sorta...you know...outta sight...get it...oh ha ha ha...Manson rides again.
**A: Stop it Bernardine! (turns to Kerry) Ever since those be-headings over there and the one in Oklahoma the other day, she's been on a tear...caught a mouse last night and cut off its head with the scissors...gory. I stopped her from sticking a fork in the cat this morning.
**D: Reminds me of the old days...bombs away...whee...
**A: Yeah blowin' in the wind...blowin' up everything...the old underground...those were the days...
**W: Knock it off, Bill. You can sing them Vietnam folk songs on your own time.
**A: Oh...sorry about that...we do get carried away once in a while. Teaching in the universities is s-o-o-o boring these days, even though they espouse our causes, mainly soak the rich...get 'em on their knees...make love not war, or is that make war now...whatever. So, what's up, John, the prez in a bind or something?
**K: Oh no...he's not ever in a bind...he's Teflon. The newsies—except for that evil Fox bunch—give him a pass on everything. What he needs is...uh...just a sec (whips out his ipod)...oh yeah, that's today...or was it yesterday...or did I say...don't raise your voice, I remember. The president is getting a lot of flak over the ISIS thing, not that he considers it serious, of course...just some Muslims having a fight. Whoa, strike that...never mention that I said Muslim. A bunch of gang-bangers are taking over Iraq and Syria and...
**W: Gang-bangers!!!! Oh...hoo hah...ha ha ha...gang-bangers! That's what we have right outside this door here. That ISIS bunch is driving tanks and taking over whole...
**K: Okay, okay! There IS a slight problem and the president believes his closest advisers—besides Valerie Jarrett, of course, and CBS—need to think over this problem and come up with a solution since he's never going to put troops over there again. That's my mission here.
**D: Simple...simple...simple! Just drop the big one over there and...oh...hoo hah ha ha ha...instant incineration, another Hiroshima...I'm talking about Israel, of course...wipe out all those kites and all those peaceful Muslims will cut off hands, stone some folks, party all night and pray five times a...
**A: Stop it, Bernardine! We have a real problem here and Barry's up the well-known creek.
**W: Yeah...I tried to tell him the chickens would come home to roost when he bombed those helpless Libyans back to the Stone Age, like they came back after Nagasaki back in the day. You know what I say...
**D: Everybody knows what you'd say, Rev, God damn America...right? Well...maybe Allah is damning God...oh hoo hah, damning God...
**K: And some nutcase just walked into the White House the other day and...
**D: Oh wow...with some of that fertilizer stuff he could have pulled off...hey, surely not an inside job...I never trusted that Jarrett woman...or even Michelle...she'd already gone on her own little helicopter flight that day—right—and left the door wide open, the floozy.
**A: You might tell Barry to borrow a few trillion from China and hire an army from Siberia or Burma, or whatever it's called now...those guys will...naw, it's too hot for them in the Middle east now, temps in the 100s.
**K: Actually, the president was wondering, Bill, if you could figure a way to terrorize the fat Saudi king and the other countries bordering Syria—about 1.3 million troops altogether—to just go in and smash ISIS and save their own oil...er...that is, skin. They got all kinds of jet-fighters and missiles, the whole nine yards.
**A: Not to put too fine a point it, John, I don't like the word terrorize...I'm not a terrorist. I'm a freedom fighter...
**D: That's right...bombs away...it's blowin' in the wind...stick a grenade in Abdullah's Gatorade...oh...hoo...hahahaha. Freedom fighters in the marketplace!
**A: That's enough, Bernardine. Timeout for you! (turns to Kerry) I'm serious about the army and Barry might be right about the gang-bangers. Tell him to get his community organizers in place, then organize Chicago's murderous jailbirds and jail-bait and that oughtta be enough to scare Baghdadi and his gang back into Libya where they might starve, and good riddance.
**K: Hey, you might have something there, and the president could organize in no time with his experience...have it all done by noon and then off for 18 holes. Thanks, guys...gotta go.
**W: By the way, John, did you ever find those medals you threw...
**K: A-A-R-R-G-G-H-H!!!!!!

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Let Muslims Finish It

The much ballyhooed coalition that has been formed to fight what Obama calls ISIL (and others, ISIS) has strange features. State Secretary Kerry will take credit for whatever grouping takes place, but he is less an active player than his predecessors, not least because U.S. credibility has slipped and the fact that regional players in the Middle East have finally figured out that ISIL will take them over as soon as possible if they don't take action—survival of the fittest.

King Abdullah has finally understood that his 229 fighter-jets had better take to the skies, else he and the fat princes will be driven into the Red Sea. Other Middle East nations such as Qatar and the UAE, flush with enough cash to buy out ISIL if possible, have caught on. So...the bombing has started, never mind the fanatical religious considerations vis-a-vis Sunnis killing Sunnis (a no-no). Precious oil-wells are at stake, with all those greenbacks needed to buy girls from India to work as slaves and concubines.

Leading the bomb-fest is President Obama, knocking the bejesus out of Syrian targets. This is an act of war and governed by the U.S. Constitution, but he has no use for that anachronistic document, which plainly disallows him the privilege of serendipitously attacking anywhere, such as in Libya in 2011, without even a consultation with Congress, much less a debate. The ISIL thugs ravaged Libya in the total governmental vacuum left by Obama and are now in Syria and Iraq, where there's lots of oil for good fighting-income and plenty of women to ravage according to Sharia law.

Of course, the English will bomb only Iraq and no one knows exactly what the Mid-East gangs might blast, but one thing is certain, to wit, no one plans to put soldiers on the ground. Iraq's troop-strength stood at 271,400 boots this year, but ISIL dispatched it in short order, the U.S.-trained soldiers running for dear life and turning over their U.S.-built armor to the butchers, with probably a huge segment of the Iraqi soldiers joining ISIL.

Saudi troop-strength stands at 233,500 boots that can be on the ground in Iraq in a matter of hours. The Saudi capital, Riyadh, is only some 300 miles from the Iraqi border and ISIL strength is said to number only about 35,000 fighters, giving the king an advantage of about 7-to-one. The king also has 1,095 tanks; 7,202 armored fighting vehicles; multiple rocket-launch systems and 652 military aircraft, 229 of which are deadly, modern jet-fighters secured from the U.S. and Europe. Syria has borders with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan and Iran, which have troops numbering respectively, 233,500; 510,600; 100,500; and 523,000...for a total of 1,367,600 boots that can be put on the ground immediately to stop evil ISIL.

In other words, now is the time for the U.S. to pull out of this quagmire and let the Muslims settle the affair themselves. They have inordinately more than necessary in both air- and land-fighting capability to throw ISIL off the planet. Obama is spending $10 million a day at last count after squandering $1.1 BILLION on Libya with nothing to show for it but a devastated Libya and the ISIL butchers, who must laugh themselves silly in pondering how Obama helped them.

Obama can be glad he didn't bomb Syria in trying to dislodge Bashir Assad back in the day when he ordered Assad to step down. If he had, as Senator McCain would have had it, ISIL would have been in Damascus now as it will be in Baghdad soon unless the Mid-East leaders send in their troops. As for the threat of ISIL representing damage in the U.S. unless stopped, forget it. That threat will always be operative as long as Muslims are ordered to kill and /or enslave the infidels. They will train anywhere and everywhere when driven from one place to another.

As long as Muslims are fighting Muslims, they're leaving the rest of the world alone, so the rest of the world should leave them alone. When one faction or the other (Sunni, Shi'ite, Alewite, Wahabi, for instance) gets the upper hand, the other factions can combine to start the carnage all over, since Sunnis and Shi'ites (the main groups) hate each other. Think of the decade of the 1980s when Sunni Saddam (Iraq) gassed the Kurds and ravaged the Shi'ites in his own country and fought the Iranian Shi'ites to a bloody draw. The U.S. has lost enough blood and treasure.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Obama Cons the USA/UN...Again

All one need do to understand President Obama's disdain for white people is to read his book, Dreams from My Father (1995). In 2008, he referred to the grandmother who raised him as the “typical white person,” i.e., persons uncomfortable being in the presence of folks like him. His angst may derive from the fact that his mother was white, even though his Kenyan (black) father deserted both him and his mother.

In his United Nations “ISIL Speech,” Obama said on 24 September, “In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri -- where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. … So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. And like every country, we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.”

At least he didn't compare the U.S. to Nazi Germany and the republicans to the SS troopers or the Gestapo, Hitler's secret police. After six years he's still apologizing to the world for the evil United States but to mention Ferguson in the same breath as ISIL, where beheading people is an afternoon's entertainment, pushes the envelope too far and displays an attitude of hate for his own country that's palpable.

The jury is out on Ferguson. In fact, the grand jury involved in the Michael Brown death may not even bring the matter to trial. Brown, a black two-bit thief and pot-head who had just committed some petty thievery was gunned down as he apparently tried to finish off a white police officer he had already attacked in the policeman's patrol-car. The president and the attorney general played the race-card right after that happened, with neither of them knowing the facts. They had appointed themselves jury and judge and made it plain that Brown was murdered (another policeman acting stupidly?).

They fueled tension in Ferguson, and neither should have said anything, at least until the judicial system had done its work. Obama didn't mention this at the UN. Instead, he blamed the “problem” on vast global changes and the “greater diversity with the traditions that we hold dear.” What global change caused Brown's death in Missouri? Maybe it was Putin's rape of Crimea. The goons in Ferguson might have been traumatized by that and made looting and burning buildings a sort of therapy.

Should comparing Ferguson with the butchers of ISIL or any recent global “event” make one wonder if the president needs to see a shrink? Or...is he just mean-spirited? Could he possibly just be stupid or have stupid speechwriters? His racism is especially toxic because it's so transparent, and the knowledgeable folks at the UN must be wondering how someone so disdainful of his own country could ever be elected president.

In the Middle East, Muslims are killing Muslims by the thousands. If the president wanted to draw a “global” perspective he would have used his hometown—Chicago—where 1,224 murders have occurred in 2012 plus 2013 plus through 24 September of this year, nearly all of them as blacks killing blacks (well over one per day). Instead, he picked on Ferguson because of the difference in races of the main players. That's racism in action, and “greater diversity with the traditions” has not been an issue for the obvious reason.

In Dreams from My Father, Obama mentioned Marxist professors, structural feminists (whoever they were), and punk-rock performance poets as friends he chose carefully (pg. 100). On pg. 101, he wrote regarding campus life, “No, it remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.” Is that “hate-speech?”

In his UN speech, Obama said: “Islam teaches peace. Muslims the world over aspire to live with dignity and a sense of justice. ... No God condones this [Muslim-activated] terror. … it is time for the world – especially Muslim communities – to explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al Qaeda and ISIL.” Islam is Obama's blind spot. Reared as Muslim in his childhood, he in those brief statements contradicted his own insistence that Islam means good for the world, knowing that a main premise of the Koran/Haditha (Muslim “holy” books) is that the infidel must be killed or enslaved.

As he did in completely destroying Libya without even consulting Congress, much less debating, Obama has begun another war, this time in Syria. But, of course, it's all the fault of George Bush.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

The NFL Soap-opera & Female Victim-hood

The soap-opera called the National Football League still commands the media, with the world going to hell in a hand-basket and foreign-country reporters shunted aside to get at the juicy stuff, not tame things like genocide and beheading. Since the ladies got into the act big-time—National Organization for Women and multitudes of media gals, for instance—the plot has thickened to the point of no ignoring.

Ray Rice and his significant other got roaring drunk the other week, slapped each other around a bit and he whacked her after she spit in his face, all caught on tape. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Rice for two games, costing the player a cool $500,000 of a $4 million contract. Case closed! Well...not exactly. The NOW gang demanded that Goodell resign immediately even though he had nothing to do with the Rice mess, and the TV gals waxed eloquently sadistic vis-a-vis poor Ray...not exactly that he be shot at sunrise but maybe at least water-boarded, the cad.

Upon further reflection occasioned by the ladies' outrage, Goodell suspended Rice indefinitely. Over in St. Louis (NFL Cardinals), Daryl Washington is serving a year of probation for his domestic violence peccadilloes and the other day Jonathan Dwyer head-butted his wife into a broken nose after she bit his lip in a discussion about having sex or not. So, he is now suspended. Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings more recently managed to beat his four-year-old with some kind of switch or branch...needless to say, in excess. He's now on the bench, though the ladies think he should be in jail.

The women don't seem to understand that this stuff is logically handled by law enforcement and not a sports organization, though when law enforcement officers came to the Dwyer's house to rescue the wife, she said her husband, who was hiding in the bathroom, was not at home. The next day, he beat her again, something that might have been avoided if she had been truthful.

The nation has entered the “women's century,” and the ladies are playing it to the hilt, not least because they're in the majority and thus control the vote. As a result, normally reasonable military leaders are placing them in combat where they drain the attention of soldiers from killing the enemy to protecting the ladies. The president is not a reasonable commander-in-chief, has zilch military smarts, and sees this matter as sociological rather than logical.

The women have misjudged themselves both physically and mentally. The ladies involved with NFL or any pro-sport athletes claim victim-hood but rarely mention their willingness to be live-in tramps for professional players, sometimes even marrying them and then screaming bloody-murder when their own stupidity has placed them in “inconvenient” circumstances. The good times with millionaire athletes can turn ugly, but harlotry beckons...and then there's always the protective orders and courts, now being taken over by women. Proceeds from a divorce or “domestic-split” can fix a gal for life if she's smart. Think Tiger Woods, for instance.

Because of female pressure, Pentagon pooh-bahs—with straight faces—claim there were 26,000 unreported rapes in the military in 2012 and—coincidentally—26,000 unreported rapes in 2013. There will probably be another 26,000 in 2014, especially since things that are unreported can be reported as anything. The current figure for coed rapes stands at one-in-five over a student's college years, though not because of bad guys jumping from behind bushes but by those evil boyfriends. According to the ACLU (February 2010), 95% of college rapes are not reported. Does anyone actually believe this stuff?

Remedies to female victim-hood are so obvious as to be insulting to be mentioned to a rational person. Start with the girls not getting drunk or high, not frequenting sex cesspools like frat houses and sleazy bars, and not being sex-obsessive (merrily leading on the guy, then screaming NO and then turning him in, especially if he's not particularly appreciative or pliable). Segregate college dormitories and military facilities gender-wise. Use plain common sense, like not wandering around drunk at three a.m. So Simple!

As for the gals who go for the NFL hunks, it's put up and shut up. A gaggle of these guys have wrecked their bodies and minds with steroids, HGH and other stuff. They aren't rational much of the time, not least because their brains are scrambled routinely. Women with any sense know this but for the love of money, both sexes sell their bodies. At NFL games the nearly-nude cheerleaders are examples of this. NOW probably thinks they're great (or maybe victims...who knows?) but they just look like hookers/groupies.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Washington Insanity

Now...let me get this straight. Congress has voted to have the prez select 5,000 “moderate” insurrectionists in Syria, transport them to Saudi Arabia and require U.S. troops on the ground to train them for a year, give them lots of hardware, and transport them back to Syria (or what's left of it) to take down ISIS. These “moderate rebels” (quintessential oxymorons) will promise not to use their new mean machine against Syrian President Bashir Assad, whom they've been battling since the Arab Spring blood-lettings of 2011 in order to take over the country.

BUT, the ISIS meat-cutters (Sunni by persuasion) in Iraq are an immediate threat...or so the propaganda says. One supposes the Iraqi army, trained for years by U.S. troops into a vaunted “formidable fighting force” before Obama's grand pullout of 2011, could easily have taken care of the be-headers, who take especial delight in also bodily dismembering Muslims of the wrong persuasion (Shi'tes) or—even more fun—Christians, Jews, and homosexuals with or without religion. Unfortunately/predictably, the Iraqi troops have taken a pass and even handed over their weapons (American issue) to their “brothers” in ISIS. Since virtually all international leaders are shocked and appalled at this outrageous conduct, gathering a large force should be easy.

Naturally—and because he claims George Bush started the whole mess back in 2003 anyway—Obama, as commander-in-chief (never lets anyone forget it, either), would be expected to already have troops on the way while State Secretary Kerry signs up the rest of the world. Fuggedaboutit! Both Prexy and Kerry have stated constantly and unequivocally that U.S. boots will not tread Iraqi soil, though U.S. planes and drones have been ordered to bomb ISIS back to its historical time-frame, the Stone Age.

Both Joint Chiefs Chairman Dempsey and VPOTUS Biden haven't caught that nuance, Dempsey claiming before a Senate committee that he would recommend sending American GIs in the event ISIS can't be annihilated. Biden agreed, saying in Des Moines recently that the decision would be based on how things go. Whether or not he meant that depends on his potential 2016 presidential aspirations, especially if he says the Benghazi massacre, refuting Queen Hillary, DOES make a difference and promises not to lie and be ready for a 3:00 a.m. international 911-call.

Since Assad is fighting both the “moderate rebels” and ISIS in Syria, this puts Obama on the spot. Obama told Assad in 2011 to “get outta Dodge” and turn Syria over to whichever “moderate rebels” could grab it and set up a government. Ergo, POTUS may be pulling a fast one. Since Assad told Obama to take a hike in 2011, the newly U.S.-trained-moderate-revolutionaries may have an understanding that its fight a year or so from now will not be against ISIS until it has upended Assad, though if it's trained like the Iraqi army, it will turn its weapons over to Assad or ISIS at the first scent of blood and run for the desert, leaving POTUS reconsidering red-lines.

Saddam was Sunni and kicked the Shi'ites whenever and wherever. The Shi'ites own the government (such as it is) now and have kicked out the Sunnis while totally degrading the Iraqi army. The largest Shi'ite population in the world is in Iran. Sunnis and Shi'ites have been killing each other for 14 or so centuries, so Iran would likely be Iraq's only ally, with its active troop-strength of 523,000, the largest military in the Middle East.

Syria has borders with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan and Iran, which have troops numbering respectively, 233,500; 510,600; 100,500; and 523,000...for a total of 1,367,600 boots that can be put on the ground immediately to stop evil ISIS. But ISIS is Sunni, so the first three are not about to kill their Sharia buddies and Iran might incur the wrath of the first three if it got in the fight and risk being whacked by them. So...what to do? Just as the Saudi king said recently—make the Americans do the dirty work.

The Congressional insanity is pathetic. ISIS, contrary to the “line,” is no immediate threat to this country and not one American should be put in harm's way by either training the non-trainable Muslim cowards or actually fighting in somebody else's civil/religious war. U.S. citizens are being jerked around. Let the Muslims settle each other's hash, and stay clear.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Jobs & National Defense

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in August 2008 the non-farming civilian labor force (workers age 16 and older) numbered 154,641,000. In August 2014, it numbered 155,959,000, for an increase in six years of less than one percent while the population grew about four percent. If it had grown at the rate of population growth, the work force would number about 163,000,000, or about 7 million more taxpayers than contribute now, especially important since nearly half of all households pay no taxes.

In August 2008, the unemployed workers numbered 9,438,000. In August 2014, that number was 9,591,000, or an increase in the unemployed of 1.6%. The officially announced unemployment rate in August of both 2008 and 2014 was the same, 6.1%. Obviously, the facts give the lie to the current unemployment rate claimed by the administration unless, of course, either the books have been cooked or there are mitigating circumstances.

There are circumstances alright, but aggravating rather than mitigating. According to the BLS, in August there were 2,141,000 workers marginally attached to the work force, i.e., they want to work, are available and classified as looking for work for at least a year, but not for the last four weeks. There are 775,000 who are absolutely discouraged. So, the unemployment figure actually is not 9,591,000 but 11,732,000 (not counting the discouraged), or 25% greater than the unemployment number in August 2008. The official unemployment rate of 6.1% is fiction. It's at least 8%, probably much higher.

The constant drumbeat by the administration about all the jobs that have been “created” in any period since 2008 is ill advised in light of the figures. The practical concern has to do with job-loss as well as job-creation. The impact of job-loss since 2008 far outweighs that of job-creation. The bottom line has to do with with the net job-outcome. According to Bloomberg of 02 May 2014, only 62.8% of the eligible work-force is at work, with that rate matching the lowest since March 1978.

According to PBS of 21 February 2014, the BLS has determined that only 27% of jobs in the U.S. economy currently require a college degree (associate degree or higher). By comparison, the Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of 60,000 households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, showed that 47 percent of workers have an associate degree or higher. This amounts to huge personal education-debt for no financial reason.

According to Pew Research (Dec. 2010), 10,000 people turn age 65 every day and this phenomenon will obtain through 2029 (baby-boomers). According to Pew, the typical boomer considers old age to be 72, thus a reluctance by many to retire. There are roughly 3.1 million high-school graduates per year. The National Center for Education Statistics projected 1.6 million college graduates in 2014. According to ACURA, just under 66% of high-school grads enrolled in college in 2013, leaving 2 million to enter the work force. This means a total of abut 3.6 million young people chasing jobs currently.

In 2014, there's been an average increase of 215,000 jobs per month. If this is maintained, about 2.6 million new jobs could be expected this year, with at least 3.6 million young people people chasing them in addition to the 11.7 million unemployed. Even if the boomers all quit at age 65, that would present only 3.7 million additional job openings.

These discouraging statistics come at a time when the administration is actively, as promised, regulating many enterprises into downsizing, bankruptcy or otherwise going out of business, thus enhancing stagnation/regression at a time when a vibrant economy is urgently required and the nation plods (but for how long?) on borrowed/printed money.

The U.S. must have the financial resources to support both a civil and a military establishment—the latter now being dangerously depleted—that can protect the nation, especially in light of the Islamic jihad-threat. This means it must maintain a huge work-force turning out goods and services and thus earning wages to be taxed sufficiently to maintain national defense but not to the extent of killing incentive. The so-called middle class (if there is one anymore) will bear the brunt.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

L'affaire de Rice

Has anyone besides me grown sick and tired of the Ray/Janay Rice brouhaha, which is sensationalized in the media—print and broadcast—on practically a 24/7 basis? Apparently not, at least not with the National Organization of Women, which has just called for National Football League head honcho Roger Goodell to resign immediately or—if possible—retroactively.

Now...let me get this straight. Ray and Janay, his significant other at the time, got drunk, got into a fight, made a terrible scene, with poor Janay out like a light from probably hitting her head on an elevator rail after Ray backhanded her after she spit in his face. This means that Goodell should resign? What could he have done to stop that from happening short of chaperoning the 20-somethings when they party?

I watched the tape. On their way walking (staggering) to the elevator, Janay seemed to hit Ray in the head (or tried, in her shape). In the elevator, she came at him but couldn't have harmed a hair of his head. If sober, he probably would have laughed it off. Instead, he introduced her to unconsciousness for a short time and handled her like a sack of feed. In doing this, he was dead wrong and there is no excuse for his striking her. Most fathers teach their sons that it's always wrong to strike a female.

So...there are civil laws to deal with assault and battery and Ray should probably have been arrested. As it was, he had to weasel out of some kind of legal problem. Rice copped a plea bargain, with the condition that he participate in some kind of anger-management thingy. He and Janay decided to get married (they already had a child, presumably his), so why not?

Goodell, soon after the mess happened, suspended Rice for two games, which meant the forfeiture of some $500,000, leaving him with only $3,500,000 of a $4 million contract to live on this season. The marriage was a big deal for Janay since if the marriage breaks up and she hires one of those tough female divorce lawyers she stands to collect more than “her part.” However, all the income is gone now account Rice's indefinite suspension.

Shepard Smith of Fox News wondered the other afternoon if the spat wasn't a reflection of some sort of cultural change...I'm not kidding but still laughing. This stuff goes on every day and has for centuries, the culture notwithstanding. And...since when does a third party like the NFL have to do what law enforcement is mandated to do, i.e., handle assault and domestic-violence cases? Goodell is no more responsible for Rice's behavior than the man in the moon.

It's not disputed that Janay was beating up on poor Ray (or trying, in her shape) but somehow the NOW nags consider that to be her right. Anyway, the president and the Pentagon directed last year that women are to be placed in combat now, another way of saying that they are fair game for violence from any quarter and should be able to protect themselves, notwithstanding that this directive represents stupidity of the nth degree. Poor Janay furnished the proof.

The NFL as well as other sports conglomerates like the NBA and major-league baseball are known for their extensive corruption. Expecting them to ride herd on their athletes is the same as expecting the Mafia to discipline its “soldiers” in the area of domestic problems or crime. Assault, rape and everything in between are fairly common in professional sports. The leagues are interested in handling high-profile abuses just like the Catholic hierarchy tries. First, sweep them under the rug. If that fails, make a big deal of punishment, real or imagined.

NY Jets backup quarterback Michael Vick spent nearly two years in the Big House account conviction on federal charges of conducting dog-fighting. He's back in the game. Again...it's wrong for a man to strike a woman. But if he should strike a dog...

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

DNC Memorandum #16

From the office of the chairWOMAN, 05 September 2014

***Listen up! There are no apologies offered for the absence of memos since last fall. This has been a terribly busy time for the chairWOMAN account having to further deal with the IRS scandals, the Benghazi slaughter, Fast-and-Furious, Syria, ISIS, executive orders and Hillary Clinton since she’s connected to all of them and has told me she’s mad as hell, had nothing to do with them, and won’t take it anymore, especially in her run for Air Force One, speaking of which Hillary will be pushing 70 in 2017 while the chairWOMAN will only be late-fortyish. Both Biden and Kerry will be mid-seventyish, and Biden overdid it when he said he would chase ISIS to hell the other day. He's lucky to get out of bed. The wag who posted on the Bush dart-board that Obama will issue an executive order nullifying elections in 2016 will be shunted off to the Durbin Re-indoctrination Center & Gulag, with its particular emphasis on how to lie believably.

***There has been unjustified (and unforgivable) backlash to the chairWOMAN's public remark the other day that Wisconsin Governor Walker has given the back-of-his-hand to women and that he's been pulling them around by their hair. The chairWOMAN has applied for a restraining order disallowing him any entry to Florida and has suggested to the Congressional women's caucus that all members do the same for their states. It's high-time that the tea-party recognizes that balancing a state's budget and non-unionizing decent state employees to save money and make them actually work is not enough to give the governor the right to abuse women. The insensitive staffer who posted that note on the Obama golf-swing picture that the chairWOMAN's hair proves her point will be assigned to an Everglades precinct.

***POTUS is still considering instituting a Department of Gender and has requested another yellow/black/white/red paper on how to do this while still awaiting word from the LBGTQ group as to how many genders there are. This hasn’t been settled yet mainly because the American Conference of Transitioning and Ultimate Personhood (known for short as ACT-UP) still threatens to sue something or somebody if not included in the gender-count, but certainly not in the Q group. Also, a complaint from something called the Platonic Education Department Of Pleasing Habituations in Loving Eroticism (PEDOPHILE, for short) has been lodged with AG Holder, claiming gender-status and threatening action from some Catholic priests account violation of First Amendment rights. The DNC is preparing a summary of Plato's Symposium for all staffers in readiness for any sign that POTUS has evolved on this matter as he did regarding same-sex marriage.

***There is reason to celebrate the fact that women are gradually taking over both the reporting responsibilities and anchor chairs in TV-world. This means that evil misogynists (mostly republican peeping-toms) are losing their grip on the levers of power. The nasty rumor that women have resorted to flagrant exhibitionism in their effort to take over TV is unfounded although the girls on FoxNews are up for an award from the Harvard Glee Club on the amount of cleavage and thigh exposed. Everything off-the-shoulder is tour de force and everything off-most everything is seen as a possibility by MSNBC, taking into account the person involved. While men are still required to be covered from Adam's-Apple-to-toe, CNN is studying the possibility that Wolf Blitzer might appear soon in only boxer-briefs and beard. Fox may require O'Reilly, for obvious reasons, to interview his girls while using eye-patches in order to help him stay focused. Stay tuned.

***The DNC personnel committee is structuring a new program called the Society for Obviating Bonehead Erratic Rants (SOBER, for short) designed to help agency spokespersons refrain from misspeaking (euphemism for ignorance and/or lying), such as when the State Department spokesperson said recently that the FBI would chase down the ISIS be-headers or when POTUS spoke of red-lines and later compared ISIS to a terrorism junior-varsity. VPOTUS was accused of inebriation recently when he said he would leave the be-headers in hell (obviously Satan's purview) so an important part of SOBER will handle the drug situation. All staffers, as well as teleprompter-guys, will be required to attend a consequent seminar conducted by the Harvard English and Psychology departments. Rehab may be required for some.

***A DNC red/yellow/black/white paper is being prepared to debunk the new book 13 HOURS: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, as well as the program based on the book that aired on Fox-TV on 05 September, featuring the contractors employed to protect the CIA annex at Benghazi and allegedly (insisted by them) told to stand down in protecting the consulate when they almost certainly could have prevented the massacre of four Americans. A preview of the paper indicates an insistence that the men are all suffering from PTSD, amnesia, dementia, Freudian-slips, hallucinations, drug-use, STDs and greed. POTUS-friend Bill Ayers of Weather Underground fame and now a distinguished professor in Chicago (otherwise known as the Illinois killing-field – little joke there) will edit the paper.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

King Abdullah, the Hypocrite

The height of hypocrisy was reached the other day when Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz lectured the U.S. and European nations on the (gasp) ghastly impending threat to them of ISIS, the terroristic jihad mongers now ravaging much if not most of Iraq and Syria. The major thrust of the threat involves homegrown U.S. and European Muslims or converted Muslims joining ISIS and after bloodletting enough to establish the grand Islamic caliphate “over there” returning home to terrorize civilized Caucasians into submission.

The fat king's nation shares a 600-mile border with Iraq but has no stomach for battling the butchers. Instead, he attempts through scare tactics to goad the West into fighting a war to protect his oil, similar to the gulf-war of 1991, in which President Bush 41 managed a UN-sanctioned 100-hour war to save his bacon, throwing Saddam out of Kuwait, who actually was just testing the waters for taking over the entire Arabian peninsula, using his 400,000-man army to throw the fat princes into the Red Sea.

Save the tears! The Saudi troop-strength stands at 233,500 boots that can be on the ground in Iraq in a matter of hours. The Saudi capital, Riyadh, is only some 300 miles from the Iraqi border and ISIS strength is said to number only about 10,000 fighters, giving the king an advantage of 23 to one. The king also has 1,095 tanks; 7,202 armored fighting vehicles; multiple rocket-launch systems and 652 military aircraft, 229 of which are deadly, modern jet-fighters secured from the U.S. and Europe.

The king has a defense budget of 56.7 BILLION dollars and has just given Lebanon a cool billion to help the Lebanese with their Syria problem. In 2011, he sent Saudi troops into neighboring Bahrain to keep the minority Sunnis in power over the majority Shi'ites and maintains 1,000 troops there now to save that monarchy in a nation with a population of only 1.3 million.

So...why doesn't the king use his overwhelming military might to completely destroy ISIS, which will soon run out of military hardware as its vehicles and arms originating in the U.S. and seized from the cowardly Iraqi army degrades and disappears? ISIS is Sunni-dominated as is Saudi Arabia, so the king may not want to “offend” his brothers...much better to let the U.S. do that and be blamed anew for meddling.

ISIS would gobble up the king and the princes if allowed to win in Iraq and Syria, just as Saddam would have but for the actions of President G.H.W. Bush in 1991, so the king would be forced to either stand and fight on his own soil or make a losing deal with the devil. ISIS has no air capability, while King Abdullah could fill the air 24/7 with both missiles and planes to wreck ISIS now, and it's a better now then when ISIS butchers invade his paradise and start their animalistic stonings, amputations, beheadings and rampant rape.

Meanwhile, the warmongers in this country like Senators McCain and Graham should shut up. The king can put tens of thousands of boots on the ground in Iraq to wipe out ISIS by just ordering them to get in their tanks and armored vehicles and take an afternoon drive across the border toward Baghdad. The notion that U.S. blood and treasure should be expended in that benighted country is ludicrous.

President Obama is right in not extending the Iraq affair. This might not be the case (considering all that oil) if Saudi Arabia were weak, but the Saudis (furnished 9/11 hijackers) are strong enough to defeat any nation in the Middle East with the exception of Israel and possibly Iran.

The king's stakes are high and when the West's leaders have their imminent meeting, they should get on his case big-time. The Saudis produce 9.9 million barrels of oil a day and sell about 73% of it to the world at enormous profit. Their oil reserves amount to 268 TRILLION barrels. Obama, British PM Cameron, and the European leaders, instead of wringing their hands, should tell the king to shape up or be shipped out.

Cameron mentioned in his speech to Parliament on 01 September, that Britain has lost about 500 of its young Muslims to ISIS, with France and Germany contributing 700 and 400 more, respectively, as well as contingents from other European countries. All of these nations have tried to quell the jihad threat. Now is the time for the king to step up.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Elected Officials Glorify Stupidity

I told my children back in the day that they must never refer to anyone as stupid. I considered that an insult of the highest (or lowest) magnitude. Stupid is defined (Merriam-Webster, 11th edition) as: slow of mind; OBTUSE; given to unintelligent decisions or acts; acting in an unintelligent or careless manner; lacking intelligence or reason; BRUTISH.

President Obama said publicly and without knowing any facts in 2009 that a white policeman in Cambridge, Massachusetts, acted stupidly, so this definition explains what the president meant. It developed that the policeman was simply doing his duty according to law-enforcement protocols, so the president acted stupidly in letting the clutch out on his tongue before his brain put it in gear.

Since that time long ago, I've had reason to question my injunction to my children as I've watched elected officials and government bureaucrats, one conclusion being that they can act stupidly, sometimes exponentially as in the case just mentioned, especially since the president owned a law degree. Roland Burris, former Illinois attorney general, was appointed by the Illinois governor in 2009 to Obama's vacated Senate seat, according to the state constitution's requirement, but Obama, Majority Leader Reid and Illinois Senator Durbin—all of them lawyers—stupidly decided that Burris would not get the seat.

Reid even stupidly disallowed Burris on the floor of the Senate and stupidly made him conduct his press conference in the rain. With the nation still laughing at this stupidity—excellent example of unchaperoned ninnies—Burris was sworn in, with his detractors suffering a ton of egg-on-their-faces. Besides their stupidity, the “politically terroristic trio” evinced the nth degree of corruptibility.

Stupidity ran amok during the days after Michael Brown, a black, was killed by a white policeman on 09 August within minutes after he had been caught on surveillance camera in Ferguson, Missouri, assaulting a store-clerk and then robbing him. The policeman, Darren Wilson, simply asked Brown, who was high on marijuana, and his friend to stop walking in the middle of a two-lane street, so Brown allegedly assaulted the policeman inside the police-car, necessitating treatment for Wilson in the nearby hospital emergency room but not until after he had shot Brown, who probably thought Wilson knew about the robbery and may have tried to take him down outside the car.

The facts have not been made public by law-enforcement or other agency, so no one knows yet precisely what happened. The affair is being examined by a grand jury, meaning that responsible (not stupid) officials should wait until this examination is complete before saying or doing anything. The key witness, Brown's friend, lied to police in 2011 in Jefferson City (gave wrong name and age), when he was arrested for alleged theft, didn't show up in court and is now under an outstanding arrest warrant, so his already expressed account is worth zilch.

Stupidity on a grand scale! U.S. Attorney General Holder stupidly sent at least 40 FBI agents to push out the locals in a garden variety death-by-cop episode handled every day in courthouses across the nation. He had already established Wilson's guilt and stupidly meant to prove it. The Missouri governor stupidly got in on the act by calling for a thorough prosecution, certainly not of Brown. Later, President Obama directed the Department of Justice (Holder again) to whip up a separate federal civil rights investigation, all of this without any actionable information about what happened! That will come from the grand jury while all the legal eagles chill out, maybe by October.

It was obvious that a marvelous excuse for looting and burning buildings had fallen into the laps of the New Black Panther ilk—all in the form of protests, of course. Rabble-rousing outfits invaded from all over the country and cowed the the town. The governor called out the state police, then stupidly called out the National Guard, a stupid bit of overkill, and declared an ignored curfew, all while stupid pundits and officials were screaming about an overkill-military-police-presence, stupidly expecting the law-guys to be Molotov-cocktail-bombed to death without raising even a pea-shooter.

Stupidity grew incomprehensibly when Obama appointed Al Sharpton as liaison between the White House and Ferguson, reporting to White House hack Valerie Jarrett (taking the sun in New England with the prez). Sharpton, best known for the Tawana Brawley fraud, for which he was convicted, owes New York state $806,875 in back-taxes, but that's chump change to what he owes the U.S. government in unpaid personal income taxes, a cool $2.6 million.

The epitome of stupidity was reached when Obama sent a delegation from the White House to the Brown funeral, sort of like his “selfie” trip to Mandela's funeral in South Africa. During this time-frame, there was no delegation (certainly not the president or vice president) just across the river in Arlington at the funeral of Major General Green, killed in action in Afghanistan (shot four times in the back and once in the leg by a “friendly Afghan policeman”). Obama was in golfing-mode and Biden might have had trouble finding Arlington anyway.

Naw...stupidity is too nice. The definition of idiocy is extreme mental retardation: something notably stupid or foolish. The administration is a mental hospital run by the idiots.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

The Ransom/Hostage Question

Especially in light of the beheading of Global Post reporter James Foley by an ISIS Muslim butcher in Syria a few days ago, the question of ransoms-for-cash (or anything else) deserves attention. Some believe the U.S. government should have made an effort, and, indeed, the ISIS gang had offered Foley up for $132.5 million, according to reports (probably untrue). The Global Post was in the process of trying to come up with $5 million, sort of the going rate for ransoms these days but ISIS is said to be loaded with cash and probably meant to kill Foley anyway.

President Obama had no problem giving up five Muslim butchers from Gitmo earlier this year for the freedom of Bowe Bergdahl, promoted to sergeant while in “captivity” (or whatever his status was) accruing to his connection with Afghan rebels for five years or so. Bergdahl, according to reports, shipped his personal stuff home, dumped his military gear in his living facility and in front of witnesses simply walked away from camp with no obvious intent to return to the U.S. Army. Either that, or he was dumb as a gourd to take a solo walk downtown, or down-village, armed or unarmed.

Concerning army regulations, Bergdahl committed desertion but was heartily welcomed home by Obama and is treated royally in Texas. Reportedly, six fellow GIs were killed in the search for Bergdahl in Afghanistan. He's been considered a prisoner-of-war by some though he was not taken prisoner in any action and, anyway, the U.S. is not in a declared war. If it were and Bergdahl judged to be a deserter, he would be subject to the death penalty.

At least two desertion protocols that apply to Bergdahl are, (1) If a member deserted, but voluntarily returned to military control: Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to the lowest enlisted grade, and confinement for two years. (2) If the member deserted with the intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service (an example of this would be a member ordered to deploy to Iraq and then deserts to avoid the deployment): Dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, reduction to the lowest enlisted grade, and confinement for 5 years.

In the warm-fuzzy political-correctness atmosphere of today, Bergdahl, deserter or not, will probably escape unharmed and may even get his back pay ($200,000) plus appropriate perks such as housing allowances amounting to some $150,000 or so—total: around $350,000. According to fellow soldiers, Bergdahl deserted; however, he returned voluntarily (or was he even asked?) in taking part in the Gitmo swap. That would seem to accrue to (1) above.

If he actually deserted account dodging his duty and showed up back home due to the U.S. grabbing him (actually bartering for him), Number (2) would seem to apply, though Bergdahl is reportedly looking forward to an imminent discharge anyway and “getting on with his life.” It remains to be seen whether that happens or he winds up penniless in the stockade or some federal prison for five years.

His legal eagles (available in military, also) may take the PTSD route for him or simply try to prove he was insane when he walked out of camp. He had joined the Coast Guard previously but left after only 26 days of boot camp and was given an “uncharacterized discharge” with no specifics. He may come clean strictly on the basis of the fact that he should never have been in the army in the first place...with $350,000 in the bargain.

If he was unfit and improperly vetted (both possible), the government may owe him because it owns him. If he was just clever, the same applies and rescue was appropriate. This is not the case with Foley, for whom the Global Post, if any entity other than himself, was responsible, and not the government.

CBS reporter Lara Logan claimed she was gang-raped during the celebrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square in early 2011 but she didn't have to be there, just as Foley didn't have to be in Syria. The president authorized an unsuccessful operation to rescue Foley and some others but in doing so he merely put the safety of civilians above that of American GIs. They could all have been killed.

Civilians entering danger-zones on their own, especially after being warned away, should not be eligible for always-risky rescue-by-government. This is the difference between the Foley case and President Carter's failed attempt to rescue U.S.-embassy personnel in Teheran in 1979.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

A RACIST Attorney General

In invading Ferguson, Mo., on 20 August, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has joined Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the usual generic provocateurs like the New Black Panthers in not wasting a chance for inciting (and profiting from) racially-fueled issues (euphemism for riots), especially during the sweaty dog-days of August. A black thief high on marijuana, Michael Brown, who had assaulted and robbed a store-clerk just minutes before, was killed by a white policeman, Darren Wilson, on 09 August, so, ipso facto, the policeman is guilty of murder, never mind making that determination before any of the facts are made public by law-enforcement and judicial operatives.

One of the saddest aspects of the affair—whether or not the policeman is guilty of anything—is the ignorance of the people concerning a matter such as this. The protocol is to put the policeman on administrative leave, gather the facts, turn them over to the prosecutor, who will take the case to a grand jury for a determination as to trial or not. The grand jury will make a decision and the matter will be settled. If the case goes to trial, charges will be brought and the judicial system will be engaged to discover guilt or innocence. Simple.

The so-called protesters in Ferguson demanded that the policeman be arrested and jailed, virtually within minutes of the shooting. He will be arrested if the grand jury determines the possibility of guilt and be given the opportunity to make bail like any other arrested person. This process could take months or even years as in the notorious Trayvon Martin case in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, in which the accused (not a policeman) was found innocent.

On 19 August in St. Louis about 2-3 miles from Ferguson, another black man who had made two trips into a store to steal things was accosted by the police and killed after he had threatened them with a knife. He was acting erratically at the time, according to media accounts, and may have been high on something or other. There was a fairly large gathering at that location of “protesters,” also, but there was no violence and none reported since then. The professional troublemakers like Jackson and Sharpton may show up for their photo-op, but St. Louis is not like the suburb of tiny Ferguson of 21,000 population, so inciting mischief may not be as attractive there.

Ironically, Holder added to the divisiveness already in place on the day a “leak” from the prosecutor's office (or somewhere) noted that Brown managed to break one of the eye-socket bones in Wilson's face and severely beat him before disobeying an order to “freeze” before lunging toward the officer and inviting the shots that killed him, none in his back. Holder, the country's top law-officer, did not visit with Wilson (total lack of support), but visited Brown's family. He and Obama both got in on the “outraged act” in the Trayvon Martin case in Sanford, Florida, in 2012, leading the public to believe that Martin's killer was white when he was actually a Latino.

The tragedy lies in the fact that Obama was supposed to “bring the country together,” a foolish mechanism used by most politicians out of power; however, Obama was in power when reelected in 2012. During the Obama/Holder era, the country has become so divided along racial lines that one wonders if this has been the plan of the two men all along. If so, they have succeeded, and Holder's trip having to do with a generic local murder case to which he's assigned at least 40 FBI agents is proof.

In a recent speech, Holder whined that Americans are cowards of some kind, perhaps not having the guts to face their racism. He was referencing only whites, of course, since racism does not exist in the black community. In another recent performance, he claimed that Obama's political opponents (especially evil republicans) operated on racist principles (or non-principles), not on the basis of statehood. It's this kind of garbage (hate-speech) that actually fuels racial hostilities across-the-board and is beneath contempt.

The looters made out in Ferguson (the main reason for the protesting), ruining, burning businesses and otherwise robbing store-owners of their sustenance. In this, they emulated Brown. What goes around comes around.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Cartoonist Stumbles into Truth

The Missouri governor has been foolishly claiming on TV that the eyes of the world are on Ferguson, Missouri, where a white policeman, Darren Wilson, shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed African American, on 09 August. Brown, who apparently had just assaulted a clerk in a robbery only minutes before, and a friend were walking down the middle of a street and were told by Wilson to remove themselves account hindering traffic.

Wilson didn't know about the robbery but Brown did, of course, and a violent exchange took place between him and the officer, perhaps because Brown thought he was about to be arrested for the crime (petty theft). The facts are not known at this point but a protest was mounted in the community, 65% black, with the inevitable looting, rioting and burning of properties virtually every night since then. The governor announced a state-of-emergency, called in the State Police, instituted a curfew, which meant nothing, and finally deployed the National Guard to a town of 21,000 inhabitants.

In the Lexington Herald-Leader of 17 August, editorial cartoonist Joel Pett established the fact that Brown might have amounted to “anything” but for his demise, and devoted a panel to the fact that President Obama and Attorney General Holder have been unfairly demonized, the connection to Brown being a mystery. Bringing up the subject, however, provides a construct vis-a-vis the Brown matter.

Some black youths (and whites, too) hate the police, seldom justifiably. If Brown's killing is proved to be murder, Wilson should be held accountable...and he will be. Holder has dispatched 40 FBI agents to what amounts to a local case to handle an event of minutes that took place in broad daylight about lunch-hour. The robbery was caught on store-surveillance tape and indicated Brown, tagged by his uncle as a “gentle giant,” to be a thug who shoved, towered over and intimidated the small store-clerk.

Young blacks conceive of Obama and Holder as role models and thus reflect the thinking of the two men. Neither man ever loses the opportunity to play the race-card. In March 2008, Obama attempted in a Philadelphia “race speech” to lionize the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah (God damn America) Wright. Wright took exception and publicly expressed his hate for the U.S. at the Washington Press Club shortly after. In July 2008, Obama made clear in a Berlin, Germany, speech that he was “different,” dealing the race-card.

In July 2009, Obama, without knowing the facts, said a white policeman acted stupidly in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The policeman arrested an Obama-friend for apparently trying to break in a house that turned out to belong to the man, who had locked himself out. The policeman didn't know that, of course, and simply did his duty. In March 2012 without knowing the facts, Obama referred to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, by a Hispanic civilian (found innocent), indicating that if he had a son, the boy would resemble Martin. He hasn't said that about Brown...yet.

Soon after taking office in 2009, Obama and wife used three Air Force planes and a multitude of operatives to virtually shut down the city so they could have a date in New York. An insensitive, excessive display of tax-waste, this was an in-your-face-whitey act that says something to the young black man, so walking down the middle of a street is okay – in-your-face-whitey-policeman. A shameless liar (Obamacare, Benghazi, Libya, Syria, Crimea), Obama toys with the presidency and said to his Hollywood crowd about the Pennsylvania whiteys that they grasp their Bibles and guns and go looking for illegals...the race card.

Holder is suing the state of Arizona for attempting to enforce FEDERAL laws regarding illegal immigrants. Last year, Holder sued Texas over a voter ID-law, something legal in Kentucky. He used a government plane to treat his family members and guests to a day at the Belmont a few weeks ago. Government's cost – $14,440; paid by Holder – $955, an in-your-face-taxpayer insult.

This conduct by O&H is picked up by young black men, only 52% of whom finish high school in four years (MSNBC, Sept. 2012). The vast majority of policemen in most police forces such as Ferguson's is white partly because a high school diploma is necessary for even applying for a law-enforcement job. The screamers like Jackson and Sharpton never mention this.

During August 1-5, nine blacks and one Hispanic were gunned down in Chicago, Obama's home town. For the last three years, the gunshot murder rate there is well over one a day, or about half of the U.S. deaths in Afghanistan in the last 13 years of actual fighting. Obama has not sent the Guard there to establish order, but he un-complimentarily tagged his own (white) grandmother, who raised him, as the “typical white person,” dealing the race-card in his own family.

Brown might have taken his cue from Obama, who with a stroke of the pen lawlessly changes or nullifies laws when it suits him (in-your-face-Congress-whiteys), and took over the street. If he hadn't done that, he would be alive today...in jail or out on bail.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

World Ruler

In an op-ed piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader of 02 August, Baptist pastor Joe Phelps wrote of a “hopeful trajectory of the world,” presumably indicating a world becoming better. He then presented a long catalog of current happenings that indicate the trajectory to be off-target and writes, “Sadly, more frequent are scenes bereft of any sense of the sacred trajectory to this world,” equating “hope” with “sacred.”

Phelps wrote, “Could our common horror to bleak headlines be an indication that we know intuitively how our humanity is intertwined, and that we are all being drawn to a more harmonious and hopeful future?” The answer is No. Mankind has been spiraling toward disaster ever since the beginning and will continue on that hopeless trajectory probably at ever increasing speed.

Pastors and other religionists have consistently given the impression that man (generic for everyone) is inherently good and left to his own devices will do what Phelps mentioned...create a harmonious future. According to scripture, this will never happen. If it were a possibility, the ministry of Christ would have been unnecessary.

The reason is simple, to wit, that the mover and shaker of the world is not God, though he can intervene in the world's affairs. The primary power governing the globe is Satan, the personification of Evil. In fact, Jesus made it clear on more than one occasion that Satan is the “ruler of the world.” The apostle Paul also made that fact clear more than once, in one writing referencing Satan as the “evil god of this world.”

Virtually from beginning to end, the scripture points toward the inevitability of catastrophes in real time and a final destruction, its most vivid accounts being in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, which most notably describes such things as the “Battle of Armageddon,” about which theologians argue incessantly and self-styled prophets make erroneous projections as to timing, participants and outcomes.

Inherent in misunderstandings of what scriptures indicate is the strange practice of preachers in constantly emphasizing “love” as the great unifier (harmonizer) of people. It isn't. Perhaps the greatest unifier is fear, which unmistakably is the case today. NATO, formed to forever stop the Soviet Union from conquering the world after World War II, is a good example.

Jesus did say to “love your enemy,” but there's such a thing as “tough love,” which is the kind of love accruing to the ilk of bin Laden, Saddam or, during WWII, Hitler. Preachers notoriously neglect to mention that Jesus, at his last meal with the disciples before the crucifixion, told them to purchase swords even if clothing had to be sold for funds. He explained that they were for defense, not aggression. He was talking about the exercise of “tough love.”

On another occasion, Jesus made a whip and administered corporal punishment to defilers of the temple – tough love. On another occasion, he called church leaders whitewashed tombs and vipers – tough love. He endured the crucifixion – tough love. In a world he acknowledged was/is ruled by Evil, Jesus was no wimp, but he recognized the enemy.

In 1983, President Reagan fingered the Soviet Union as an “evil empire.” In 2002, President Bush 43 labeled Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as the “axis evil.” Communism, undergirded by atheism, is an example of Evil ruling entire countries such as China and Russia, in both of which their leaders killed mega-millions of their own citizens – cannibalism, the opposite of love.

The “hopeful trajectory of the world” is an illusion...doesn't exist and never has. The world, as judged by Jesus Christ, is on a trajectory of evil that will never be interdicted, no matter how hard many good people try...and there are millions of good people. Collectively, however, the human race is inherently evil, notwithstanding the contradictions by the self-righteous. Satan rules.

The current moral trajectory in this country is evil, not least because of the inordinate emphasis on “diversity/political-correctness,” which insists on the “anything goes” philosophy, no matter how seamy or perverted or protected. The paradigm for Evil expressed by Jesus was Sodom (Matthew 11). So, the business at hand for the folks who try to “harmonize” accrues to making life as bearable as possible for as many people as possible, i.e., fighting Evil.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark