Momday Open Post. Link to this post and track back. More below the post body.
…winning the CNN narrative seems more important to many of the “statesmen” who are making these decisions than actually winning something important. I am reminded of Pareto’s Foxes and Lions and what happens when Foxes rule… 1
Repetition is said to aid learning, so here ya go: When a society elevates silly issues to importance, and spends a lot of social capital on them to the detriment of addressing serious issues, that society is in serious trouble. “That society” is us.
Homosexual “marriage”–a silly, time-wasting issue. We’ve better things to spend ourselves on. Not even worth this sentence saying it’s not worth the time wasted on it.
Snail darters et al. Really, now: the survival of certain species (especially when more than a few times “endangered” species have proven to, urm, NOT be) should be left to good old darwinian natural selection. *heh*
Speaking of which: arguing over which religion is taught in schools, Neodarwiinism or Creationism… while the pubschoools in this country are flushing the minds of yet another generation down the toilet. Priorities, folks! College grads can’t read. What difference does it make how they think we got here as a species if they can’t even read? (And the real question is how the hell did they get outa high school and into college as illiterates?)
TSA. Need I say more? Is there a better single example of a public policy/debate/issue that’s skewed by dangerous silliness than the Thousands Standing Around? Attempt to confiscate the Medal of Honor from a real American hero on the way to speak at West Point; make a mother drink her own breast milk (expressed and bottled for her baby’s use in flight); grope, harass and steal from average citizens day in and day out… rather than do what’s rational and focus on security risks according to a reasonable profiling system (as the safest airline in the world—El Al—does). Typical of the dangerous silliness driving American security, border and foreign policy.
What do all these silly things have in common? Yeh, a gimme question not even rising to the level of a rhetorical device. You’d already answered it before I asked it, unless you are an integral, driving part of the problem.
Every single silly (but dangerous) issue distracting from dealing with real, serious issues are driven by the anti-democratic, anti-Western, anti-American, anti-free speech faux liberals on the left and lent impetus by stupid faux conservatives in the right who let the faux liberals frame the issues and circumsribe the arena of discussion.
And every single solitary social issue that is harming our society today, whether a silly issue detracting from the level of public debate or genuinely serious issue, is exacerbated by the ever-increasing anti-federalism of the Federal government.
The Republic has one foot (some would say both feet and digging itself deeper) in the grave, already, and most folks waste all too much time arguing about silly things.
I guess that’s just what happens when a society is rich enough to squander its wealth on siliness. And when its “leaders” are more concerned with preening for an audience (or simply stroking their own… egos) than doing essential work to insure the society’s security and future.
But there’s a danger sneaking in under our radar (many, in fact) that will one day reveal all these to be silliness writ large enough to kill. And it’s not just that our so-called “education system” is steadily churning out citizens who are dumber than a bag of hammers. No! We cannot be satisfied with that level of moron production! No, our society (via its chosen political masters) must INSURE that its population is ever dumber:
“Cognitive Decline: The Irreducible Legacy of Open Borders”
But let’s all talk about how to accomodate non-English-speaking children in our schools and about how two daddys is oh-so-good for kids (instead of sealing our borders, fixing our schools and making divorce difficult to obtain).
Bah.
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re: “divorce difficult to obtain”
As I recall SC was the last state to allow divorce. It still takes a year in SC for a divorce to be complete legally. Whereas, in AL an uncontested divorce only takes two months. Don’t know the time limits for other states, but perhaps that’s a “good” for SC. However, with adultery so rampant the year wait doesn’t seem to make much difference.
I was too young to understand/know what was happening in the late ’40s when my uncle obtained his first divorce, but I know the family history version. He (& apparently others) simply crossed into GA to the closest town, rented the cheapest apartment he could find to establish GA residency and obtained a GA divorce.
Perhaps it’s my libertarian bent, but what business is it of the state to be involved in marriage, licensing, and divorce?
If there’s a need for written documentation, then use a standard type civil contract to delineate the specifics of the “union” and the appropriate penalties if any part of the contract is broken. If the contract is broken, the offended party would then deal with it through standard civil court proceedings. Of course it could be handled as a simple administrative matter without court involvement when both parties decide to end the contract per stipulations in the contract.
In a sense I suppose we have that now with pre-nuptial agreements. When I first heard of pre-nupts, I was opposed to them. Primary reason: “If we really love each other we don’t need a ‘paper’ like that.” Now, I don’t think I’ll marry again without a pre-nupt.
It may be that I’m too much a skeptic, but apparently “marriage” anymore is simply legal monogamous prostitution until one party gets tired of the other. It also appears that we (as a society) stomp our feet, have a little tantrum and demand, “I want what I want and I want it right now.”
RE: The Florida Masochist
“For if it shouldn?t (minimum wage) be increased, I?d argue it should then be (eliminated).”
My vote is to ELIMINATE!
Nice post. Not necessarily the one you were looking for comment on but this was the one that inspired an immediate response over on my side of the mountain. Figures, eh?