Saturday, November 14, 2015

Facts can be so inconvenient at times!

Illustration source

                                      Good Day World!

For some people facts are messy things that tend to explode their crazy universes.

They see facts as unnecessary information that conflicts with their world views. They hide from facts like vampires from sunlight, content to dwell in dark parallel worlds where their twisted ideologies rule.

In our society politicians use fear to motivate would-be voters. When it comes to politicians, truth is the first thing that is hidden behind closed doors…waiting to come out, but never getting the chance.

Lies, like cockroaches, scurry around every promise made by most politicians. When it comes to their personal lives they hide their skeletons deep in an imaginary biography designed to appeal to the masses.

It isn’t just politicians that lie in our society. So-called activists often lie to further their aims. Today, I’ll leave you with three examples to consider:

* Republican presidential contender Ben Carson has maintained a business relationship with a close friend convicted of defrauding insurance companies and testified on his behalf, even as the candidate has called for such crimes to be punished harshly.

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* The Benghazi Committee staffer who says he was fired for resisting participation in what he called a politically motivated probe of Hillary Clinton is not protected under federal whistleblower laws - an exemption that some labor lawyers call "inexcusable."

Advocates say the lack of protection for Congressional staffers effectively silences any House or Senate worker who could otherwise reveal potential corruption in Congress. A perfect example of hiding the truth.

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* Something stinks at the University of Missouri. A reported incident of vandalism at Mizzou sparked university-wide protests, a boycott by the school’s 4-5 football team, and eventually the resignation of the university’s president and chancellor.

There’s only one problem: no evidence of the alleged incident, in which a poop swastika on the wall of a dormitory restroom was reported, has ever been made publicly available. Did this incident occur as reported, or was it an immaculate defecation that formed the foundation of an unimaginable deception?

Related:

1. Is Ben Carson an impostor?

2. Democrats on Benghazi Committee Release Devastating Fact Sheet on Gowdy

3. BLACK UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI STUDENTS HAD SOME GOOD REASONS TO BE UPSET AND ALSO SOME BOGUS ONES

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Friday, November 13, 2015

Yakety yakking about social media for people who want to hide

“You just put on your coat and hat
And walk yourself to the laundromat
And when you finish doin' that
Bring in the dog and put out the cat
Yakety yak (Don't talk back)”

-The Coasters

 

Good Day World!

Facebook. Twitter. Instagram. Yik Yak.

Yik Yak?

I thought I’d heard about all the social media sites there were, but I was wrong.

Until yesterday, when I read about a man who was arrested for making death threats against black students who attended the University of Missouri, I never heard of Yik Yak.

The man used Yik Yak to post threats.

In another case of a Yik Yak threat, a student at Texas A&M was arrested three weeks earlier for making "terroristic threats."

Apparently Yik Yak is a social media app for iOS and Android that has become very popular on college campuses in recent years. Since I haven’t been on a college campus in a couple of decades, I should be excused for this lack of knowledge.

Yik Yak was launched in 2013 and has been involved in some controversies before. The app was initially criticized for being a tool for cyberbullying on high school and middle school campuses.

Yik Yak isn’t my cup of tea, but the social network does provide a place for students to gripe about finals, publicize house parties, and even share inspiring news anonymously.

A lot of Yik Yak messages are simply jokes, like one of the most "upvoted" posts on the network from a University of Southern California student, who wrote, "Shout out to my grandma cause that's the only way she can hear me."

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Promises! Promises! Not One Presidential Wannabe Will Be Able to Keep Them!

                                      Good Day World!

There’s not one presidential wannabe that can fulfill their grand promises.

Republican or Democrat.

Take Donald Trump. He’s largely downplayed policy ideas in his campaign, but the border wall is one of his biggest promises, even though it requires huge spending by the Mexican government (something that would never happen).

Donald Trump's promise to overhaul both foreign and domestic policy through his leadership skills vastly overstates and misunderstands the power he would hold if elected president, according to political scientists and scholars of the presidency.

But Trump, these scholars argue, is promoting an idea of the presidency sometimes referred to as the Green Lantern theory, named after the Green Lantern Corps, a fictional police force in DC Comics whose members wear all-powerful rings.

The idea that we just need a president who will get things done is much simpler and more appealing than the complex realities of our political system.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is promising to lead a political revolution that will bring out millions of new voters, resulting in Democrats winning control of both the House and Senate and pushing through his very liberal agenda.

Scholars shake their heads at this promise.

Jeb Bush has said his presidency will result in the U.S. economy growing by 4 percent.

Hillary Clinton has promised she would issue executive orders to implement her proposals if Republicans remain in control of the House or Senate and block them.

Scholars are very skeptical either Bush or Sanders could achieve their goals, because they are largely out of a president's hands.

And the executive orders that Clinton wants to implement could be rejected by courts, which have struck down a number of Obama's executive actions.

I just wanted you to know that none of these presidential wannabes will be able to keep their promises because of that inconvenient thing called reality which will get in their way.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Missouri Activists: ‘White Media Doesn’t Understand Black Spaces’

Good Day World!

What a difference a day, or two, makes.

Activists at the University of Missouri celebrated the resignation of the school's president on Monday after forcing him to quit.

When members of the media attempted to cover their victory celebration they were met with outright hostility and aggression! Watch this video.

After weeks of protests, activists with the Concerned Student 1950 group had turned their complaints of racism into a national story. But instead of welcoming the continued coverage, they acted like mindless morons with bad intentions.

Even faculty members were not above the madness. One member, identified by the Columbia Missourian as Greek Life and Leadership Assistant Director Janna Basler, blocked a student reporter and told him to leave.

Students and faculty were chanting “You don’t have the right to take our photos.” Excuse me? This is America and the media is allowed to take photos of public events.

As a retired journalist (newspaper editor), I was really offended by Melissa Click (see photo on top of page), an assistant professor of mass media (a courtesy title as it turns out), who joined the crazies in driving reporters away from the university quad.

On Tuesday, Click apologized for her actions in a statement issued by the Missouri Department of Communication. Shortly thereafter she resigned.

What really gets me is the hypocrisy: 

The activists defended their actions, saying on Twitter that "it's typically white media who don't understand the importance of respecting black spaces."

Black spaces?

I wasn’t aware there were “black places” at a public university where whites shouldn’t tread. Ironically, the protestors black space was supposed to be a time for “fellowshipping for white, black, and other minorities(!)

Apparently some sanity returned Tuesday and the protestors welcomed reporters after Monday’s madness.

Activists removed yard signs warning the media to stay away from their black space. The group who started the protests put out fliers saying it was a “teachable moment” and to welcome the media.

Imagine.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

A Sad Day When Mob Rule Took Over Missouri University

Our so-called institutes of higher learning are caving in to students.

If we learned anything about the University of Missouri’s protests where students forced the president to leave by blackmailing the system – as in the football team threatening not to play (which would cost the university a couple of million dollars) it’s politically correctness has gone mad again.

Now the new normal will be students going on strike if they don't like their professors, or their grades, or don't get free unearned degrees.

Since so much money is involved for colleges and the NCAA, university staff will have to jump if football players collectively have demands, even if they’re ridiculous.

It is a sad day for institutions of higher learning when MOB RULE wins.

 

 

Group Says ‘Hell No’ To Doll Having a Voice

Image: Hello Barbie

Hello Barbie is displayed at the Mattel showroom at the North American International Toy Fair in New York. Mark Lennihan / AP

                                        Good Day World!

The first talking doll was introduced 125 years ago to the amazement and delight of parents everywhere. Today the idea of a talking doll is controversial. 

The doll in question is Barbie, an iconic doll who made her debut 56 years ago. By the end of this month Mattel plans on introducing the first Hello Barbie.

You’d think parents would be delighted with this new version of Barbie, but that hasn’t been the case thus far.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), a group opposed to marketing aimed at children, launched a campaign to discourage parents from buying Hello Barbie (#HellnoBarbie).

So what happened in the last 125 years that makes a talking doll so sinister? Simply put, the first talking doll could not record anything like the new Talking Barbie does.

She is the first Internet-connected doll that can carry on a seemingly real conversation by recording what the child says and sending it via Wi-Fi to the cloud for Barbie's computer-generated response.

Here’s the rub: these conversations are stored and analyzed by ToyTalk, the San Francisco software company that makes this interaction possible.

Here’s where the controversy really gets interesting:

Mattel released a Thomas and Friends Talk to You app in 2014, based on the popular Thomas the Train character, that uses the same voice-recognition technology to communicate with children and it was a big hit with parents!

Mattel basically took that app and put it into Hello Barbie. Hmmmmm…

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, November 9, 2015

If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen!

Good Day World!

Presidential candidates have never been thrilled with the vetting process. Most would just as soon skip sharing their personal history.

Their whining over public scrutiny has become a rite of passage in primaries. Take Ben Carson for example.

He claims the media are on a “witch hunt” because their delving into his past and pulling out nuggets that would make any sane person pause before voting for him. 

School children across America were stunned to hear their history books were wrong about what the Egyptian pyramids were used for, according to Big Ben. He’s on video claiming Joseph (see The Bible) built the pyramids to store grain.

Scientists and archeologists be damned.

Benny’s ties to a fraudulent product are no longer hidden because of the so-called witch hunt.

Ben Carson caught on video claiming Mannatech supplement magically cured his prostate cancer

Ben Carson has a decade long financial relationship with cancer-scam supplement company

And the nuggets keep turning up:

Ben Carson faked his story about protecting white students on the day MLK died

Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point 'scholarship' but never applied

FACT

Carson recalled in “Gifted Hands,” a story involving his psychology class at Yale University, called Perceptions 301. He described the professor’s conducting an honesty experiment on the class and wrote that he was the only one who passed, prompting The Yale Daily News to take his picture.

Oops! There he goes again! There was no photo identifying Carson as a student in the newspaper’s archives, The Journal reported, and a Yale librarian told the newspaper that there was no psychology course by that name or class number during Carson’s years at Yale.

I could go on. But I think you get the point. Anyone wanting to be the President of the United States has to be thoroughly vetted or millions will pay.

Cry babies, like Carson, who can’t stand the heat need to get out of the kitchen!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Teacher claims renowned poet was Jack the Ripper

Good Day World!

I’ve read a lot of theories on who Jack the Ripper was, but a recent theory by an Australian English teacher seems to pinpoint the most likely perpetrator.

Richard Patterson believes Jack the Ripper, who killed five London prostitutes over 10 weeks in 1888, was actually the renowned poet Francis Thompson.

HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES - English poet Francis Thompson (1859 - 1907) wrote "The Hound of Heaven" and other works.

According to the Mirror, Patterson read a book of Thompson's poetry in 1997 and became convinced he was the legendary killer. He's spent the years since attempting to prove his theory.

"Soon before and soon after the murders, he wrote about killing female prostitutes with knives," Patterson says. And the Daily News quotes a graphic short story by Thompson about a woman being stabbed to death.

In addition to Thompson's grisly writings, Patterson points to his experience as a surgeon and his troubled relationship with a local prostitute, the Mirror reports. Patterson says Thompson kept a dissecting knife under his coat and knew a rare surgical procedure that was used to mutilate some of the victims.

In the years since the slayings, scholars, amateur sleuths, and others have identified 100 suspects. I suppose we’ll never really know.

Make that 101 suspects.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

It's Time to Pay Up Donnie!

It's looks like there will be some prime real estate going on the market soon in New York City. Convicted rapist and former president ...