Americans orchestrating own doom

Scripps Howard News Service ^ | 10/22/6 | DALE MCFEATTERS

[SmithL]

The dispatches arrived in a bunch and pointed too much to the same conclusion to be coincidence. The conclusion: We're doomed. And it's not al-Qaida doing us in. We're doing it to ourselves.

In what is surely the tip of the social iceberg, a New England grade school has joined schools across the country in prohibiting the kids from playing tag at recess.

Touch football is also banned. The schools are growingly - and legitimately - fearful of lawsuits over playground accidents by litigious parents. Seesaws and jungle gyms have long since disappeared from playgrounds.

But there is probably more at work here than just fear of the courtroom: the kids' feelings. Remember a few years ago when the schools started banning dodge ball? The problem was, dodge ball was exclusionary, the point being to knock people out of the game at great risk to their positive self-image.

The problem of unsupervised games and skinned knees may be self-solving because surveys show recesses are shriveling, with the schools arguing they need that time to prepare their students for the tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.

So how's that working out?

Not so hot, according to a Brookings Institution study. It found that, while American eighth-graders professed enjoyment of math and confidence in their math skills, they didn't perform as well as foreign eighth-graders, who were not so happy and confident.

Summed up one account: "Even the least confident students in Singapore outscored the most confident Americans."

Countries like the United States that teach math by trying to relate it to daily life using real-life examples have the worst scores. There's a two-word explanation for that: binomial theorem. When was the last time you had occasion in daily life to use that basic first step in introductory algebra? The more math you learn, the more remote it is from real life.

The final threads of this tapestry of doom came together when the Associated Press filed a story about an NFL program to help combat the epidemic of childhood obesity, a condition caused in part, the experts say, by a lack of exercise like, oh, say, playing tag or dodge ball.

The program aims to work physical activity into the classroom. Reported the AP:

"New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning dropped by a Manhattan public school this week where he showed eighth-graders how to add some exercise to their math class. He had them perform squats, then count their own heart rates for 15 seconds and multiply by four to calculate their heartbeats per minute."

So here we have eighth-graders - 13-year-olds - being challenged to count into the double digits and then multiply that number by four.

A science lesson would teach the dangers of cholesterol and the importance of healthy hearts by having the kids play - get this - tag. Imagine what it will do to the self-esteem of an eighth-grader who in a classroom game of tag is chosen to be cholesterol, heart-clogging fat.

We will ask ourselves how we got to be so fat and stupid. And the answer will come: Education.

We're doomed.

Indeed, the descendants of the flinty New Englanders who chased the British redcoats from Lexington Green and Concord Bridge back to Boston are prohibited from playing all unsupervised "chasing games."

There is likely some advantage in approaching a difficult task with humility and trepidation, but we do lead the world, however, in instilling self-esteem.

If you're really good, there are only about five other people in the world you can talk to, and none of them, very likely, is a Singaporean eighth-grader.

[Clemenza]

It's funny being a GenXer because we have these Leave It to Beaver early childhoods playing wiffleball in the street and that kind of thing (but with feminist, divorcee moms yelling for us to come home in the evenings) followed quickly by highschool years that included the internet and Bill Clinton. A lot changed between 1979 and 1992 (my school years).

Speaking as someone who was born in 1976, it was almost like we got all of the leftovers from the 1950s! I went to a school on Lawn Guyland that was built in 1947, and most of the teachers there started their careers in the 1950s. Alot of the music we listened to was "classic rock" and most of the movies and tv shows at the time were centered around the baby boom.

Now I am 30, and surrounded by all of these punks in their late teens and early 20s who seem to dominate the culture. It seems as though my generation was one of those "between" generations that got passed over.

[momof9]

"Will you cave in, like you did on flying the Confederate flag? What about the national anthem? Your official language?

Don't laugh. When the "majority" took over in South Africa, the first targets were our national symbols."

This made me shiver.

[Blue Jays]

Hi All-

Actually it is spelled George Thorogood & The Destroyers if you wish to be completely accurate. They ditched the "Delaware" part somewhere along the way. I'm not particularly a fan of the band and just happen to know that factoid.

~ Blue Jays ~

[GOP_Raider]

no outs recorded...You can be sure Albert Pujos and Alex Rodriquez didn't start there.

No, but I'm almost positive Rick Ankiel started and finished his career recording no outs. :)

[SheLion]

"Will you cave in, like you did on flying the Confederate flag? What about the national anthem? Your official language?

Don't laugh. When the "majority" took over in South Africa, the first targets were our national symbols."

This made me shiver.

Thanks for the ping.  And this article hits the nail right on the head.

Too many groups in America do not like what the rest of us are doing, so they want to ban everything.

Plus, not being able to control our borders is a nightmare!

[Barney59]

Your post is right on the money.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

When was the last time you had occasion in daily life to use that basic first step in introductory algebra? The more math you learn, the more remote it is from real life.

I may not use the theorm, but if it is the first step upon which every other algebraic problem is based, wouldn't a basic understanding be necessary for all of those who work with mathematics and science? Algebra cannot be considered useless.

[PigRigger]

As a right (self-esteem), rather than something that is earned.

Couldn't agree more.

Had the opportunity to talk with my 12 year old daughters 6th grade class the other day....I stressed the importance of setting goals and working hard to achieve them. I told them that life is competition, be prepared to be tested every day....prepare yourself to take advantage of the opportunities that cross the paths you travel in life...there is very little truth in saying someone is lucky, if you look at it closely you will see they were ready when opportunity presented itself...

However, the one point I really tried to put in their minds was that they shouldn't fear failing when challenging themeselves....to fail, and than to overcome, builds character, confidence and self esteem....

Rather conservative principles.....but you are correct....it is earned through dedication and perseverance....it certainly is not a right....

[redgolum]

No issue has a greater influence on determining your social and political views than whether you view human nature as basically good or not. (Praeger's comment in an article which prompted this post)

In my History of Western Civ. class in college, that was the main theme the professor tried to hammer home in class. Most of the students didn't quite get it. I remember when he went to great pains to point out that those who believe man is basically good have caused more harm and death then those pesky Christians who say that man is infected by sin.

[redgolum]

There is no way I want any private religious school to have vouchers. Once a private school accepts state moneys, it has to meet certain standards from the state to keep that money. In the end the state will start dictating what the private school can teach, and you end up with the same problems of a public school.

Remember, you take the kings gold, you play the kings tune.

[redgolum]

LOL!

My first job as an engineer was with a corn processing facility. The engineer on the other shift was a "book" guy, and refused to talk to the guys on the floor.

Being a farm kid, my first instinct was to go talk to the guys working on the job, and then figure out what is going on. The other guy screwed up a lot of things by just reading the books that I had to fix.

[redgolum]

I once heard about a study where it was noted two boys playing in one of those non-violent, no toy weapons type day care environments picked up a couple of Barbie dolls...and immediately began using them as swords to fight with.

My wife used to be the director of a daycare. One of the board members banned "violent" toys. The buys used everything from sticks to Barbie dolls as guns and swords. Made my bride laugh a lot.

[nathanbedford]

Well, if you feel up to the punishment, here is some more thoughts along these lines I posted a while ago:




Posted by nathanbedford to TLBSHOW On News/Activism 06/11/2003 3:16 AM EDT #10 of 51



" Liberals advocate a pagan world view"

Yes, this is true and its truth explains the animus, indeed the malevolence, which animates libdrals' view of Christianity. Now the author reverses the concept and says something really profound, He says, in effect, that liberals are liberals because they are pagans: Furthermore, understanding how political thought grows from religious understanding makes the connections clear. " All individuals develop political thoughts based on a religious worldview. One set of Christian beliefs leads many individuals to social conservative ideas. A different Christian understanding has a direct line to liberalism. The situational ethics of pagan thought takes people to Liberalism. The selfish focus of other pagan ideas makes folks Libertarians."

I would add that the author does not reintroduce here his original point which is that one's cosmic views about moral choice, or the power of the individual to exercise free will in the moral sense determine whether you are a conservative or a liberal, whether you condemn or condone homosexuality, whether you oppose abortion or define it away with euphemisms. The very idea that abortion is allowed to legally flourish and flourish at a profit demonstrates the awesome power of relativism. The killing of the most innocent and helpless among us can only be justified if there is no fixed external value system; if the keeper and the arranger of the order of values is the individual who can shuffle them at will.

There is a name for this: Playing God. In this context the author again says something profound: "Abortion denies the sovereignty of God and the sanctity of life for the weakest humans. Euthanasia denies the sovereignty of God and sanctity at the end of life for the second frailest. Homosexuality denies God's sovereign rules for sexual behavior and promotes disobedience throughout the life in between."

The denial "of the sovergeinity of God" is, bottom line a flat out violation of the First Commandment. The arrogation of the "sovereignity of God," relativism in modern jargon, is the root of liberalism and explains why liberals must literally hate those who call them on it because the First Commandment is literally the first step in the fork in the road. One cannot thereafter change lanes. All things flow from this choice. That is why it is the "First" Commandment.

The pagan liberal foolishly believes that he is retaining the power of chice by denying the sovereignity of God. In realilty he sells that choice every day to another diety. It must be that somehow in the dark of night the liberal pagan realizes that his power of choice is illusory (ie Bill Clinton cannot control his sexual predations no matter how hard he tries). So he says that man is not responsible for exercising wrong choices because he was the prisoner of his enviroment. So the solution is to rectify the enviroment by trying harder to make criminals sing Kumbaya or define away the sin (eg sexual predation, abortion) with euphemism.

The Christian has learned the mystical lesson of Christ's promise of real power: That he gains real power of choice in his life (control of his behavior) if he makes the correct first choice.

I think this is one of the most insightful articles I have seen posted on this wonderful forum.

---

Once again Praeger presents us with another excellent piece in a developing series of thoughtful essays on how the way man sees God determines the way he sees himself and his fellows and, ultimately, how he orders his political world.

In a piece entitled, "If you believe that people are basically good?", he postulates that the core decision about the soverneity God which all of us are destined to make, determines one’s politics. Deny the idea of God as supreme and you are destined to become a liberal. As part of that denial, man sees himself as good. I added in comments that it is the concept of submission to the supremacy of God which ultimately distinguishes those who become believers and conservative from those who become antagonistic to the concept of God and therefore hostile to religion, and ultimately, liberty. It is my belief that the modern Devil might be more accurately described not with horns and tail but in the modern metaphor of the ego, like unto a parasite which will do anything to protect its free lunch even as it destroys the host upon which it feeds.

Indulge a digression which should illustrate in microcosm the God and Man part of the equasion before before returning to Praeger’s macro analysis of the political implications of these concepts.

Since Christianity calls for the ultimate sacrifice, the suicide of the EGO, the parasite resists with all the cunning the Devil can muster. The drug addict, the alcoholic, the compulsive gambler, the neurotic, the sexual deviant all have one thing in common: They are all at war against God. The concept of surrender to God is anathema to them. The parasite is the compulsion for that very behavior which ultimately will destroy the host. The liberals’ solution is to enlighten man about the self-destructive dangers of his compulsive behavior and to manage it by passing out condoms or clean needles. Educate the compulsive, they obdurately believe in the face of a mountain of human misery to the contrary, and he will utilize his intellect to make the right choice and avoid his self-destructive, anti-social behavior.

The failure rate of this approach exceeds even that of the Great Society.

Success against this parasite, the modern Devil, has however been achieved by 12 step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous, upon which the others have been predicated. These programs do not abjure the compulsive to invoke his intellect or will power to abstain from the compulsion. But they do urge him to surrender his ego to God who will in turn empower him to avoid the destructive compulsion so long as they remain submitted. In classical Christian terms the sinner is asked to die so that he can be born again. The addict is not weakened by his surrender, but empowered. The repentant sinner does not lose his freedom as the atheist believes, but gains it on the cross. The parasite and the Devil are slain and the host survives and flourishes.

The success rate of this approach has been demonstrated literally millions of times. Why then the Liberals visceral opposition to faith based programs?

Well, obviously, I intend the reader to see that the answer is contained in the hypothesis. The Liberal is in bondage to the self but perversely believes himself to be free. Worse, he sees himself as God – although he doesn’t know it and would indignantly deny the charge. He might self- righteously insist that he is in not in need of a self-help program because his life is in order. But bondage to the self inevitably exacts a terrible forfeit from those in thrall. The Devil will have his due; the parasite will feed. In Praeger’s Torah this means that this individual rejects the first two commandments: He denies God and at the same time he would be God.

Any thing, repeat, anything which potentially threatens his would – be – god-ness must be killed.

Let us get back to Praeger and his insights on the macro level by digressing further with Ann Coulter, always a delightful prospect. In the last two paragraphs of her book TREASON, Coulter demonstrates that she gets it:

"The fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives is: Conservatives believe man was created in God’s image; liberals believe they are God. All their other behavioral tics proceed from this one irreducible minimum. Liberals believe they can murder the unborn because they are gods. They try to forcibly create “equality” through affirmative action and wealth redistribution because the are gods. They can lie, with no higher power to constrain them, because thy are gods. They adore pornography and the mechanization of sex because man is just an animal, and they are gods. They revere the U.N. and not the U.S. because they aren’t Americans – they are gods."

Now Coulter makes the macro application:

" Americans cannot comprehend how their fellow countrymen could not love their country. But the left’s anti-Americanism is intrinsic to their entire worldview. Liberals promote the rights of Islamic fanatics for the same reason they promote the rights of adulterers, pornographers, abortionists, criminals, and Communists. They instinctively root for anarchy against civilization. The inevitable logic of the liberal position is to be for treason."

It is a pity that Ann Coulter chose to end her book with these words rather than further exegete the proposition. But now, at last, we can return to Praeger:

"But in the modern West, hundreds of millions of people have no such faith in anything. They do not passionately believe in their country or in religion. Their highest values are tolerance, health, pleasure, and not judging good and evil. They are deeply afraid of fervent believers in anything. And they especially fear American believers -- i.e., believers in the Bible and in America. That is why they commonly equate fundamentalist Christians with fundamentalist Muslims and that is why they so hate George W. Bush, the believer in the biblical God and in an American mission."

I would, of course, amend that statement to read, “ Their highest values are the survival of the self.”

Patriotism, even the patriotism of the agnostic, carries implicit within it the concept that the preservation of the nation state might at times be more worthy than the preservation of the self. Praeger says:

"That is why this battle is a battle of civilizations. One civilization believes in liberty and one does not. The problem is that the civilization that has liberty has not produced anywhere the depth of belief in liberty that the opponents of liberty have produced. That is why most Europeans (and their supporters in America on the Left) see dying or killing for almost anything as pointless. When you don't believe in anything except not dying, you don't really believe in anything. For this reason, European civilization is in peril."

The one and only thing that animates the parasite, apart from feeding, is survival.

[nmh]

There is no way I want any private religious school to have vouchers. Once a private school accepts state moneys, it has to meet certain standards from the state to keep that money. In the end the state will start dictating what the private school can teach, and you end up with the same problems of a public school.

Remember, you take the kings gold, you play the kings tune.

---

I know ... that's the down side ... as it is now, they have room to maneuver and actually educate rather than indoctrinate with liberal nonsense. Still, they need the money too ... . Maybe vouchers isn't the way ... .

[redgolum]

Good points, but I digress on one issue. Liberals aren't parasites, they are nihilists. Parasites at least want to survive and reproduce, and will go to great lengths to do so. Many today would rather choose a quick death than anything that interferes with their self destructive pleasure.

I have more respect for parasites, as at least they want to live.

[potlatch]

Thank you for the ping FARS.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thank you for reminding me to check the Antimullah.com site, I will try to capture the good information that is found there more often on the WT thread.

Keep trying and we may win, freedom for some in the world.

[nw_arizona_granny]

ing.