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Political Hay
Invisible Gorillas in the Political Mist
From the Super Committee and Occupy to climate change and Penn State.
(Page 3 of 6)
Writes Parker:
Scientific skepticism, the engine that propels intellectual inquiry, has morphed into skepticism of science fueled by religious certitude. In this strange world, it is heresy to express concern about, for example, climate change — or even to suggest that human behavior may be a contributing factor. Jon Huntsman committed blasphemy when he told ABC’s Jake Tapper that he trusts scientists on global warming.
What Huntsman next said, though refreshing and true, ensured that his poll numbers would remain in the basement: “When we take a position that isn’t willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science and, therefore, in a losing position.”
Can you spot the Invisible Gorilla in Huntsman’s quote that Parker uses to make her case that the GOP is being “Palinized” — i.e., dumbed down? Can you name the Invisible Gorilla?
Let’s spot it this way.
Take this statement from Huntsman that Parker favorably cites:
“…when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science and, therefore, in a losing position.”
The white jersey-black jersey distraction here is science. You are supposed to be focused on “what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said.”
To spot the Invisible Gorilla, let’s stick with science and change Governor Huntsman’s words a bit, bolding the word changes so they read this way:
“…when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 earth scientists have said, the scientific fact the earth is round, that the National Academy of Sciences has said the earth is round, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science and, therefore, in a losing position.”
Can you see the Invisible Gorilla yet?
Let’s try and spot it again, same sentence, another bolded word change, sticking with science:
“…when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 solar system scientists have said, the scientific fact the sun, not the earth, is the center of our solar system, that the National Academy of Sciences has said the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science and, therefore, in a losing position.”
Now the Invisible Gorilla comes clearer, no? You may even be able to name this particular Invisible Gorilla.
If in fact you were told in the 21st century that “98 of 100” earth scientists insist the earth is round — you would instantly wonder what is wrong with the other 2?!!! Do they think the earth flat — as was once true in the days of Columbus? Or square? Triangular maybe?
About the Author
Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
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Doorgunner| 11.22.11 @ 6:57AM
Well, isn't "Occupy Under the Bridge" up early this morning!
Jacob| 11.22.11 @ 7:26AM
Shouldn't you be passing out condoms to children in order to save them from responsibility?
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 11.22.11 @ 6:57AM
It's kind of ironic that Rene Portland, who prohibited homosexual activites on her team at Penn State, was forced to resign while Joe Paterno who endorsed it, will retire on $500,000 a year. Now that's some bananas.
Frank Drackman| 11.22.11 @ 6:59AM
Speaking of Gorillas...
and nuthin racial, there's plenty of White Peoples in Congress who resemble Monkeys, Nancy Pelosi(Siamang Gibbon), Babs Mikulski(Orangatang) its just people remember that former Western Lowland Gorilla from South Texas...
and if you know who I'm talkin' bout ' Willis, You Be the Racist...
wouldn't Al Sharpton be the perfect voice for an animated Cartoon Gorilla??
You know, like a "Magilla Gorilla" live action movie....and as great as Allan Melvin was as Alice's sexually frustrated boyfriend on "the Brady Bunch" he didn't have the chops to play a Monkey.
I even voted for Reverrend Al in the 04' Democrat Primary...
Bush had no opposition, so didn't seem right to not suffer-age...
and when I actually looked at the Democrat slate, what with Howard Dean, Kerry, John Edwards, Carol Mostly-Brown, Sharpton was actually the least rotten apple of the barrell...
39,128 other Georgia Democrats agreed with me.
Frank
Kenny| 11.22.11 @ 7:42AM
Yes, and the three Invisible Gorillas overlap. for example, the preversion of homosexuality is highly resentful of normality, and it's protected by political correctness enforced by the Left.
The Left approves of homosexuality becasue it is one of the solvents it uses to dissolve away traditional Judeo-Christian morality which is the glue holding our society together..
Mike Rogers | 11.22.11 @ 8:03AM
"And who running for president will have the nerve to speak up when they spot one?"
Newt and Herman, that's who!
Lawrence of Lutz| 11.22.11 @ 8:09AM
Call it what is: Jerry Sandusky RAPED a young boy (or boys). Stop this nonsense of labeling people "sex offenders" or "sexual preditors", convict them of the crime they committed and put them in JAIL.
Tina B| 11.22.11 @ 9:39AM
It occurs to me that if the victim in the shower (slap, slap, slap) had been a 10 to 12 yr old girl, the grad student (28 yrs old and ex-QB 240 lbs at 6'4") who walked in on it would have seen it as a rape, and put a stop do it.
But after remembering the late 90s cultural climate, the Harry Hay parade and the Harvey Milk era, the start of NAMBLA and the creds it seems to have had from the start, I wonder if it wasn't thought of as rape because of those exact factors.
If it had been a 60 yr male old coach and a 12 year old girl, naked in the shower and up against the tiles, we would all have called it what it was. A rape. The intruding grad student/coach's boy would have reacted as anyone would have to a rape.
But it was late 90s early 2000s and it wasn't necessarily a rape. . . it was the newly legitimized man-boy love. . . Oh. My. God.
There's the elephant right there, I can see it now. It was just man-boy love. The Korean War vet who walked in wasn't adjusted to the new way of seeing it. He was sickened, nauseous, his body reacted as if recoiled by shock. But his buddies convinced him it was just man-boy love he had seen and it was the latest thing. Who knows?
Maybe that even entered the conversations in the ivory tower with Joepa and the pres and the AD and the rest. They were just confronting something new, a new trend maybe? NAMBLA says it's cool, the media had NO PROBLEM with that? Right?
Oh gosh how devious is Satan. It was rape then and it is rape now, boy or girl victims. That's the name of at least one elephant in the room. Child Rape. Say what, NAMBLA?
Stefan Kristen| 11.22.11 @ 8:15AM
Just ask the Boy Scouts about that gorilla.
VBMax| 11.22.11 @ 8:18AM
It still boils down to this: It's a crime if it's not between consenting adults. And I'm not that certain that anyone now running for president "will have the nerve to speak up when they spot one".
Timothy L. Pennell| 11.22.11 @ 8:57AM
Make no mistake. There is only 1 Gorilla, that can Hide in plain sight. The African/Indonesian Species: Barack Hussein Obama. He's there, and then he isn't, depending on the Polls.
He's been in power for 3 Years. But it's "George Bush' Fault". We are DYING under his Socialist/3rd World Economic Policies. Yet, it's not his fault. His EPA has made it impossible to retrieve the Oceans of Oil and Natural Gas, beneath our feet, under the Ocean Floor, and through a Pipeline that Canada wishes to build from the top of this Country, to the bottom. His Interior Dept. is strangling the Fishing Industry and Refusing to allow FARMERS to Water their Crops. His NLRB demands Union Jobs Only! Yet he claims that: "It's not that. That's not why we don't have jobs. It's that America has gotten LAZY."
It's not because of HIS endless Regulations and all of the Environmental Impasses, put in place by HIM, that: "We can't get Big Projects done, anymore". It's because of the Republicans.
And, it's not because of HIM, that we've added 6 TRILLION in DEBT, and a Deficit over 1.000,000,ooo,000 every year since he took over. It's because the Republicans won't raise Taxes on Millionaires and Billionaires.
It's not because of HIM, that we have Record Numbers of Foreclosures. It's not HIS FAULT that there's Record Unemployment or Record Bankruptcies or Record Homelessness or a Record number of Americans at the Poverty Level, and on Food Stamps. No. That's ridiculous. Everybody knows that Dick Cheney and Haliburton, are to blame. And to even suggest it, is to reveal the deep seated RACISM, that is ANOTHER REASON that we are, where we are.
It's not HIM! Just pick up the TIMES or the POST. Go to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR. Do you see ANYONE at these "News" Establishments, pointing the finger toward HIM?
No. That's because he's Invisible. He's the Gorilla, hiding behind his Bow Legged, WOOKIE looking Wife, in plain sight. He's the one with all of the "JournOlists" kneeling in front of him, anxiously awaiting their turn at Lewinski.
As for Kathleen Parker? This "Conservative" skank, just can't get over Sarah Palin. Is it because Sarah has so much, and she has so little? Is it because Sarah has a Loving Family, and she has no one? Is it because Sarah's husband loves her, and no-one loves her. Is it because Sarah can fill a Great Hall with Admirers and Well Wishers, while Kathleen can only get positions at Left Wing RAGS, that nobody reads, and a spot on a Show, that nobody watched, sitting next to Client #9, and being treated like one his Whores?
Either get over it, Kathy, or try a hand full of PILLS with your double shot of Booze, before bed. Get a Banana, or put a GUN in your mouth. Just quit b*tching about Sarah Palin. Your tired shtick is getting tired and old.
Just like YOU.
Seek| 11.22.11 @ 4:32PM
Sarah Palin is a deeply ignorant, arrogant, wrathful and frankly sociopathic individual. Too many accounts, none of them "smears," paint a clear and consistent picture. Even her fellow Alaskans despised her -- she had an almost preternatural gift for making enemies. It was THE main reason for her abrupt and unexplained departure from the governor's office in 2009.
I'm glad Kathleen Parker called her number back in 2008. Sarah Palin is no Ronald Reagan, not even a Dan Quayle. And neither are her rabid supporters.
James Solbakken | 11.22.11 @ 5:25PM
"Barak Obama is a deeply ignorant, arrogant, wrathful and frankly sociopathic individual. Too many accounts, none of them "smears," paint a clear and consistent picture. Even his fellow Americans despised him -- he had an almost preternatural gift for making enemies. It was THE main reason for his abrupt and unexplained departure from the president's office in 2012.
I'm glad Sarah Palin called his number back in 2008. Barak Obama is no Ronald Reagan, not even a Jimmy Carter. And neither are his rabid supporters." There, fixed it for you.
DJuan| 11.23.11 @ 7:12PM
Of course living in Wasilla Alaska and hunting moose and caribu is the height of arrogance. And of course only a true wrathful and sociopathic individual would defend herself, her family and her record against a daily onslaught of insults, lies and smears orchestrated by the MSM (mouth organ of the democrat party). And of course despite the fact she had the highest popularity ratings of any sitting governor she left because she was unpopular. ( Your words not mine).
Vern Crisler| 11.22.11 @ 9:20AM
Of course, we're in what's known as an "interglacial" -- a warming phase, and 100 percent of scientists therefore agree that there's global warming, almost by definition. Of course, anyone with any intelligence -- and I'm not referring to Kathleen Parker -- knows that the real issue is MAN MADE global warming, not global warming per se.
Bob S| 11.22.11 @ 10:42AM
Exactly. That's why those of us with intelligence are waiting to see the evidence and the discussions of how the short-term observations fit the limited long-term data. That's why we wait for hypothesis and subsequent verification.
TrueBlue| 11.22.11 @ 6:01PM
Even if we believed in man-made global warming, and even if every country in the world went along with the Kyoto Accords, by their own models the temperature difference would only be 0.05 degrees Celsius. Sounds like something worth trashing the global economy to me... /sarcasm
PattyMor| 11.22.11 @ 9:38AM
Its apparent that 70 years of our slouch toward (now sprint) to communism is killing the economy, killing families, killing responsibility, killed the housing market, and is killing education.
The only question is will people come to their senses and vote them out or take the complete dive over the cliff?
Stoking up greed, resentment, envy, and tribalism may be winning political strategies, but what does it say about the people who use these strategies?
Appleby| 11.22.11 @ 9:40AM
This article was stupefyingly overwritten and I wonder what audience would need to be led through six pages of forest to see what, to anyone who majored in classical liberal arts and not math or computer games, is simply the central premise of several different arguments. The major skill one learns when pursuing a classical liberal arts degree is CRITICAL THINKING, and the way we learned it at the small liberal arts church-related Bible college I attended for 3 years in the Sixties was called Spot The Authors Message, or What Do We Mean By That. This was a school with about 750 students, in a rural area of Tennessee, but 80% of the students were from the New York Metropolitan Area (okay, they were hiding from the Draft Board) and we all knew each other by our Sophomore year -- so we didnt get ponderous and pretentious, but boisterous and straight to the point. When one spotted the Central Theme of whatever we were studying, be it an Old Testament prophecy or an Ingmar Bergman film, one shouted *Authors Message! Blink Blink Blink!* Later in life when I attended an SF Symposium called Eight Weeks Down the Rabbit Hole, in whicheight different Science Fiction writers took the same outline and turned it into a story, Barry Malzberg (whose work I intensely dislike) confessed in a rather startled way that in his case the author had put that message into his ouvre without being consciously aware of it, which was news to many people besides the author, but which made perfect sense -- I analyzed my own writing and discovered an uncompormising law-and-order message that in adulthood made me wince.
What this six page bowl of watery soup is trying to say is that when a lot of people are talking at once, look where they dont want you to look and listen to what they dont want you to hear.
Or, for the math majors and softwear designers among us, I will summarize by quoting Ralph Waldo Emersons well-known observation on the subject:
*The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882) *
Consertive View| 11.22.11 @ 10:15AM
THE UNCRITICAL THINKING IN TODAYS EDUCATION.
Unfortunatly, the last thing taught in college today is critical thinking. I'm retired, over sixty. I went back to college just to keep my mind sharp. What I got was not an education, but rather a shock. The very last thing the history professors wanted was someone asking questions, someone actually thinking in class.
Critical thinking is NOT taught, at least in my expierence, in college today. If it were, the OWS people would stop, scratch their heads, and actually think. They would realize that yelling at bankers is wrong headed. They would realize that how they behave counts. And they would realize that Newt is actually right. But they don't question a thing, and like lemmings follow each other over the cliff.
No a liberal arts degree is meaningless when it comes to critical thinking. Look at all those liberal arts majors that believe socialism will work. Look at all those liberal arts majors that honestly believe that our country has inexhaustable wealth and can help the "needy" through everything forever. At some point one really wishes they would grow a brain.
calvin | 11.22.11 @ 10:34AM
Yes Appleby, but for those of us burdened with an Ivy education, there was no attention paid to the real source of truth that you and I now take for granted. Mr. Lord does go on, and maybe he charges by the page, but his is the first statement I recall of the hypocrisy of the media attempting to sacrifice honorable (and conservative) men's reputations while arguing on the other hand that homosexuality is some form of protected speech.
It galls me that sportscasters were so quick to pile on, as if this was an opportunity for everyone to excuse his own fornication, idolatry,adultery, tax evasion, and general lack of charity.
Anthony| 11.22.11 @ 9:45AM
I guess I flunked the test. I thought the gorilla would distract the participants such that they would lose count of the white team's passes.
It would make equal sense, quite honestly, as politicians and elites are always pulling a 3 card monte on the public with their slight of hands, so that we don't pay attention to what they are actually doing or saying.
However, with gorillas such as uber rich John Kerry pretending to champion the "middle class", when not at one of his 6 luxury homes, or at a skybox watching the Redskins , and Kathleen Parker pretending not to envy Sarah Palin for all the things Parker is not, I can see the point of this exercise.
I wish we could ignore all these gorillas that are thumping their chests, or better yet, round them all up and confine them to a game preserve where they can do no further damage to America.
Besides, John Kerry was a phony warrior before he was a jungle fighter in Viet Nam, he'll fit right in. And maybe Ms. Parker can form a gorilla book group, as they sit in a circle preening themselves, bitching about Sarah Palin.
Tina B| 11.22.11 @ 9:45AM
You can get pretty long winded too, Appleby, as can I. But I always enjoy reading your posts, smile, and I enjoyed the rabbit hole of Mr. Lords article, some parts especially.
In Him <<br /> Carry on.
Tina B| 11.22.11 @ 9:47AM
That was supposed to be a fish symbol, a la ictheus. Those symbols translated incorrectly.
Wee Willie| 11.22.11 @ 9:54AM
Society discourages smoking because it is unhealthy.
Greek passive homosexual acts are quite unhealthy. Many times sexual orientation is fluid. Statistically, heterosexuals have better health than homosexuals. A gorilla is that teenagers with homosexual tendencies should receive counseling to discourage the homosexual tendencies, in the same manner that smoking is discouraged
albert constantine jr| 11.22.11 @ 8:28PM
In a Constantine Administration, I would select you to run the CDC (until we shut it down).
Louis Jenkins| 11.22.11 @ 10:05AM
The schtick in the MSM is simple. Run as many Republicans for president as possible, allow each one to ascend and then crash, and sort out the last weakest RINO standing. Then decide on the candidate for the Conservatives. Just like the last election. MSM, Obama and Co., the Liberal Lip Machine, Move On, etc., are all in on this, so don't worry people, they have our best interests in mind.
Petronius| 11.22.11 @ 10:05AM
The Supreme Court legalized sodomy the same way they legalized abortion. Their friends wanted it done. What does the age of consent matter when the will of the People does not?
This country is finished.
cicero| 11.22.11 @ 10:47AM
Several years ago, I was listening to a radio interview with the late historian, Will Durant. I, like many others, had a set of his history tomes in my library. As a result, I was interested in what he would have to say. The interview was pretty stock until the interviewer asked him what seemed to be an innocuous question: What common thread runs through all civilization causing them to collapse? Without hesitation, he responded: When they accepted homosexuality as just another alternatived lifestyle.
The radio went silent. The interviewer quickly changed the subject. Shortly thereafter, not too long after Mr. Durant's death, I began reading articles calling into question his experetise and analytical prowess. Interesting. . .
While no one advocates discrimination against anyone based on sexual orientation, addvocating homosexuality as just another alternative lifestyle acceptable to society, in Durant's estimation, puts us in an unenviable class. Big gorilla.
SGT Baker (Native Coloradean)| 11.23.11 @ 6:45AM
Another interesting quote by Durant.
A certain tension between religion and society marks the highest stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past. For as knowledge grows or alters continually, it clashes with mythology and theology, which change with geological leisureliness. Priestly control of arts and letters is then felt as a galling shackle or hateful barrier, and intellectual history takes on the character of a "conflict between science and religion" Institutions which were at first in the hands of the clergy, like law and punishment, education and morals, marriage and divorce, tend to escape from ecclesiastical control and become secular, perhaps profane. The intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology and -- after some hesitation -- the moral code allied with it; literature and philosophy become anticlerical. The movement of liberation rises to an exuberant worship of reason, and falls to a paralyzing disillusionment with every dogma and every idea. Conduct, deprived of its religious supports, deteriorates into epicurean chaos; and life itself, shorn of consoling faith, becomes a burden alike, to conscious poverty and to weary wealth. In the end, a society and its religion tend to fall together, like body and soul, in a harmonious death. Meanwhile, among the oppressed, another myth arises, gives new form to human hope, new courage to human effort, and after centuries of chaos builds another civilization.
Who Knows?| 11.22.11 @ 11:15AM
Thanks for another effort to bring into awareness more of the hidden insanity permeating our human comedy---see William Saroyan.
Also, remember “The Hidden Persuaders” by Vance Packard, a now long forgotten expose of advertising published in the 60’s, which, of course, didn’t make any difference---advertising STILL uses hidden “persuaders”, which work.
A philosopher once proclaimed, “To the things, themselves! (Zu dem sache, selbst!)”
And, Wittgenstein forever served mankind with his pithy saying, “Those who know, don’t say. Those who say, don’t know”. Oh, wait---that was someone else. What he actually gave us was---
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
(Here’s another one to apply to Newt---
“Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.”?
Now, old Ludwig, who died in 1951 England, had a “challenging” personal life as a homosexual, when it was a crime to be out of the closet. So, when he was dying, as I recall, he let fly a seemingly false statement---
“I’ve lived a wonderful life.”
Talk about HIDDEN meaning!
As a matter of fact, he was simply expressing his most basic realization, which infused his philosophical life—life was always full of WONDER for him. Another quote---
“Man has to awaken to wonder- and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again.” (Ah so—see Global Warming scare.)
Finally, for today, the “Gorilla” hook in the title of this piece instantly plucked the title of a classic tome about right diet, by Bubba Free John, from 1979---
“The Eating Gorilla Comes In Peace---The transcendental principle of life applied to diet and the regenerative discipline of true health”
In the “Fattening of Americans”, circa 2011, as more and more people continue on their unconscious “hidden gorilla” path of consuming killer “foods”, who can expect any other outcome than the election of an Obama, and all that implies?
Life IS a wonder!
From when we each mysteriously pop out of the “oven” of mother earth, commonly named our “mother”, despite the best attempts to know it all, to name it all, to order it all, the born mystery survives---albeit seemingly more and more hidden as we appear to endure passing time until death.
All the rest of it all is---details.
The call is to—
Observe.
Understand.
Transcend.
Yes, to get OUT of confusion, or delusion, or even wild madness---like what’s going on these dark days---that’s the ticket!
Ah---“HIDDEN” also strikes another hidden memory---
Read David Bohm, a brilliant physicist, who wrote about the implicate realm---or, the hidden reality. See, even quantum mechanics, which he mastered, can serve us, since we CAN observe, understand, and transcend.
nohussein| 11.22.11 @ 11:41AM
I see you have a picture of some of the husseins relatives.
The Big E| 11.22.11 @ 12:07PM
Mr. Lord,
You almost got it right. Almost. You went through three scenarios (four if we include OWS) and picked out the invisible gorillas in each, but you failed to recognize all three are really the same gorilla with a different expression on its face in each scenario.
The true hidden gorilla in each is the deceitful lie that Man is God.
That idea is the basis of each "hidden gorilla" that you found. It is at the heart of the philosophies which drive the modern left, whether socialism/communism, nihilism, environmentalism, what have you. It is the foundation upon which the Democrat Party, as envisioned and run by Barack Obama is based.
It is the REAL gorilla in our midst, and we will not be freed from its predations until we deal with it one way or another.
Kingofthenet| 11.22.11 @ 1:26PM
About the test, I don't believe anyone who didn't see the Gorilla failed anything, it wasn't the POINT of the exercise, it was a trick. I've seen similar other ones were they try to focus attention on some aspect only to change everything else, like they will tell you to remember a clerks tie, meanwhile he ducks under a partition and when he reappears it is a completely different person, but still wearing the same tie.Another one is they give you a test with like 20 questions and tell you you have one minute to do it, they tell you to READ the instructions carefully then precede , the first few lines of the instructions blathers on about obvious things so many just skip to the questions since you only have a minute, had you read them the last line of the instructions informs you to just put your pencil down and answer none of the questions.
Kingofthenet| 11.22.11 @ 1:48PM
The idea that IF Global Warming were science FACT it would have 100% support is a straw man. There are MANY things in science that have a HUGE following but not 100%, it also presupposes those 2% will NEVER change their mind. That may or may not happen, evolution is in the same boat, so is stem cells. These issues go up against religion which is a powerful force and to some extent 'world views'. IF a treatment for spinal cord injuries which are currently untreatable were to come from say stem cells, one can still argue whether it's killing fetuses, but NOT that it doesn't work, it would be ipso facto. Likewise Democrat insistence that the Rich share the 'pain' and not have ALL the misery felt by the poor, is not Envy, it's called being fair.
DJuan| 11.23.11 @ 7:33PM
If I keep my money and invest it in creating a job for a poor man, does that not relieve his "pain" and at least some of his misery? Isn't it better to teach a man to fish rather than just give him a fish to eat? A rising tide lifts all boats, no?
gary siebel| 11.22.11 @ 2:44PM
There you go again --with the class warfare thing THAT YOU STARTED ( Reagan, et al) and have yet to let up. That's YOUR invisible gorilla --- the exporting of manufacturing, the endless layoffs, the outsourcing, relentless attacks on unions and teachers. No concern about the middle and lower classes as they have steadily slid further down the scale since Reagan was elected; the only concern is for the wealthy -- just keep their taxes low and everything will be alright we have been told, but it hasn't turned out that way, now has it? Instead it has turned into a competition to see who can die with the most money unspent? Do your kids go to private school?
Resentment -- damn straight. Repubs resent Obama so much they are willing to tank the economy in hopes he will be the one blamed.
Sandusky is a separate issue that the Repubs have not figured out how to exploit properly yet. What's really interesting about it is the silence from the homosexual community in regards to the matter. His behavior was homosexual -- a girl could not have even gotten into the locker room in the first place (unless she was a sports reporter), so speculation about that is just a diversion from the fact both heterosexuals and homosexuals will do youth if given the opportunity.
Ever seen how gangstas dress when they are on trial in court? They cut their hair and wear clothes that wouldn't be caught dead in when on the street. That's the homosexual community presenting it's smiling face to society, but complete silence about the realities like Sandusky, who presents a grand opportunity for a non-religious based attack against the tenets of modern homosexuality.
Conservatism does not have to be based upon, or even include, religion.
Kingofthenet| 11.22.11 @ 2:59PM
It's not homo sexuality, it's Pedophilia, unless you tell me that because you like women you ALSO like to rape little girls? Jerry was MARRIED with children as most of the sickos are.
VBMax| 11.22.11 @ 4:10PM
In this case it's both!
Dick Nome| 11.22.11 @ 4:26PM
So if Sandusky had been doing the players it would have been OK?? I think not. As part of the PC and the Homosexual gorillas, we redefine marriage and destroy a foundation of the civil society.
Mike| 11.22.11 @ 6:22PM
The quote in the sixth paragraph nails AmSpec perfectly.
Tony in Central PA| 11.22.11 @ 9:37PM
With regard to the PSU scandal, another invisible gorilla is the " anything goes " celebration of every conceivable form of sexual behavior on college campuses. A few years ago, PSU hosted a sex - themed conference with an infamous " tent of consent ".
It was probably hard for a lot of the allegedly outraged people to work up the outrage over Sandusky's behavior. Twenty years from now, its likely that most of them will wonder what the fuss was all about.
Dan McKay| 11.22.11 @ 10:02PM
And you know who you were then, girls were girls and men were men. / Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
Appleby| 11.23.11 @ 9:46PM
Didnt have no Welfare State
Everybody pulled his weight
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great!
Those were the days.
POST American| 11.22.11 @ 10:43PM
----Great piece.
NOW, beneath our CHEM-trailed
and FUKISHIMA fallout saturated skies
---as those sleeper viruses in those SALK
POLIO shots stir
-----as we try to digest those organ destroying,
cancer engendering, and inter-generationally
sterilizing GMO foods
-------could we get that FIRST piece on
the world TREASON OP that's heading
into its FINAL CON-solidation?
Marc Jeric| 11.24.11 @ 10:07PM
The global warming conspiracy needs to be put in perspective to be properly understood. This far-left attack by government-paid drones started in the 1970′s with the global cooling scam: we should disarm our nuclear bombers and fill them with soot to be spread over the poles and so prevent those new glaciers from descending south and crushing the New York skyscrapers to dust. When that did not work the same fakers invented the global warming hoax in the 1990′s; we should nationalize all industries and organize a UN-sponsored world socialist government based on “social justice” with the fakers in charge. What with 12 years of substantial cooling the fakers switched to the climate change flimflam in the 2000′s; so whatever happens we should…see above under the global warming hoax. And now we are faced with the cap & trade power grab – but the aim is the same as above. Our socialists, Marxists, communists, Hollywood stars, university professors in social and political “sciences”, and environmentalists are all clamoring for action while spurring President Obama ("Tomorrow the oceans will stop rising and the planet will start healing") and his 35 czars/commissars to undertake immediate measures to save the planet – with the same aims as described above. It is evident from the above quote that our President believes himself to be either Jesus come back to Earth, or at least the 13th Imam so ardently desired by that jihadist terrorist Ahmadinejad. Like to the Pinocchio in the fable, Obama’s nose grows longer with every lie he pronounces, while jumping up the steps to his teleprompter like a marionette.
In the meantime our Main Stream Media are unanimous in spreading this criminal propaganda daily; the ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, NPR, NY Times, Washington Post, not forgetting our own Las Vegas Sun, etc. drive this drivel constantly. What is totally ignored are the detailed descriptions of faked data, skewed computer programs, politically revised conclusions by the UN-sponsored far-left clique of biased non-scientists – all government-paid drones that no private enterprise would hire. Another thing ignored is the “Global Warming Petition” (see Internet) where 31,487 independent US scientists (including 9,029 of them with PhD degrees) dispute decisively the findings of the UN-sponsored panel; also ignored is the “Manhattan Declaration on Climate Change” (see also Internet) where a smaller number of competent world scientists, about 712, including 142 pure climatologists, state the same – i.e., that the man-caused catastrophic global warming is a farce. The books by Christopher Horner, Robert Carter, and AW Montford describing the lies, fakes, phony data, opposite conclusions, redacting by UN political hacks, reverse graphs, etc., have exposed this far-left propaganda in painful detail.In the case of the above mentioned Petition, several "environmentalists" had submitted phony names with phony credentials in order to sabotage that effort. It took several years of painstaking and expensive effort (we contributed private money for that) to clean up the list from those saboteurs and verify all academic and professional data of the signatories. To put this whole conspiracy in terms of numbers, let me say that the projected world-threatening increase of carbon dioxide of 100 ppm (parts per million) by the end of this century would increase thermal absorptivity of the atmosphere by one-eighth of one percent; that is the definition of something totally negligible. On the other hand the sun cycles of cooling and heating are thousands of times more powerful with regard to the carbon dioxide in the air; when the sun is cold the oceans absorb many millions of tons of it; and when the sun heats up the oceans release the carbon dioxide in quantities thousands of times bigger than anything the mankind could produce. To illustrate this point in more accessible terms to somebody who is not a climatologist or a scientist or an engineer; the argument of catastrophic anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming issued by our panic driven socialist/marxist government-paid hacks is like saying that a burp of a lonely wolf in Alaska will transform Florida into a Sahara-like desert - tomorrow! As for that bloviating gasbag and “climatologist” Al Gore as well as for Dr. Mann who inverted cause and effect in his "studies" - they should be brought to the International Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity.
Marc Jeric (MS, PhD, Engineering, UCLA)