“Fire up the omnibus, Ma. We’re headed fer the hills!”

A mini-sorta-roundup of disparate but related bits n pieces from ’round n about…

John Leo beats the obvious about the head and shoulders: The Left promotes assertions that turn out to be false. Oh, and the comments are not to be missed, for example, this snippet from one commenter:

One is tempted to rant about the poor quality of public education in this country, or the cognitive effects of a childhood watching television, or some such. I think our public schools do a rather poor job, and I’m appalled by most television, but I doubt they’re the explanation. [I demur–they are part of the situation–ed.]…

…The voter isn’t being dumb about current events because he is dumb; he’s being dumb about current events because, as one out of 100 million voters, he has made a quite rational (if unconscious) decision that it just isn’t worth making the considerable effort required to be smarter about current events. His vote make so little difference that it doesn’t seem like it’s worth making the effort to use more wisely.

I’m tempted to suggest that this is an argument for federalism. Perhaps voters will take more time to be informed if the important decisions are made closer to home, where an individual voter has more influence… [and where the consequences are much more immediate–ed]

That matches well with my take on a central curative for public education: remove the remote management by educrats and politicians from the picture and see what happens when people are perforce compelled to really manage their own schools.

And more faux liberal betrayal of truth (a VDH gem among other related thoughts) is noted in Alexandra’s own lil differently-themed omnibus post today.

And strangely central to the theme of this post (though it’s perhaps not immediately obvious how it is), Doug Wilson’s “God-centered Worship?” (Hint: we all tend to avoid looking the truth squarely in the eye at times. It’s the human consdition, ya know.) And, Alexandra again, “Does Society Set The Standard For God’s Law” As is often the case, much of the meat is in comments there.

Don Surber (sorry ’bout the earlier typo, Don) notes what happens when The Emperor’s New Clothes becomes public policy.

*sigh*

And from my recommendation for Book of the Month, The Graves of Academe, by Richard Mitchell comes this gem:

The intellectual climate of the public schools, which must inevitably become the intellectual climate of the nation, does not seem to be conducive to the spread of what Jefferson called informed discretion. The intellectual climate of the nation today came from the public schools, where almost every one of us was schooled in the work of the mind. We are a people who imagine that we are weighing important issues when we exchange generalizations and well-known opinions. We decide how to vote or what to buy according to whim or fancied self-interest, either of which is easily engendered in us by the manipulation of language, which we have neither the will nor the ability to analyze. We believe that we can reach conclusions without having the faintest idea of the difference between inferences and statements of fact, often without any suspicions that there are such things and that they are different. We are easily persuaded and repersuaded by what seems authoritative, without any notion of those attributes and abilities that characterize authority. We do not notice elementary fallacies in logic; it doesn’t even occur to us to look for them; few of us are even aware that such things exist. We make no regular distinctions between those kinds of things that can be known and objectively verified and those that can only be believed or not. Nor are we likely to examine, when we believe or not, the induced predispositions that may make us do the one or the other. We are easy prey.

Easy prey? Sheeple to the slaughter.

Oh, the underlying theme of this post? Check the links above then…

Discrimination. No, not the pejorated sense the Mass Media Podpeople’s Army, the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade and the Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries have been pushing for years. That’s definition #2 for its use as the intransitive verb, “discriminate”. Real discrimination (preferred definition still, in spite of MMPA, LLMB and ANFB):

n. The act of discriminating. The ability or power to see or make fine distinctions; discernment.

Or, the verb form:

dis·crim·i·nate
v. dis·crim·i·nat·ed, dis·crim·i·nat·ing, dis·crim·i·nates
v. intr.
To make a clear distinction; distinguish: discriminate among the options available.
To make sensible decisions; judge wisely.

…and, leaving the disreputable meaning out entirely,

v. tr.
To perceive the distinguishing features of; recognize as distinct: discriminate right from wrong.
To distinguish by noting differences; differentiate: unable to discriminate colors.
To make or constitute a distinction in or between: methods that discriminate science from pseudoscience.

What people who have cooperated in their own lobotomies lack is just those qualities mentioned in these definitions of discrimination: the abilities to percieve (real) differences and make wise decisions based on clear distinctions.

UPDATE: Do note Kim’s take on another aspect of discrimination at The Other Side of Kim. Worth thinking about. Freedom has implications most folks just don’t want to think on.

TP-noted at Basil’s Blog and Conservative Cat