Rearranging the Deck Chairs

Pop Quiz

What American author wrote: “I’m convinced that most men don’t know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man’s atrocities, but wouldn’t dream of imprisoning a mother for her son’s crime?”?

What Actor said: “We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.?”

What politician said: “The person best suited to look out for your interests is you. The more you depend on yourself, the more positive control you have over every aspect of your life.
Take personal responsibility for who you are, what you do, and how you live. You are the only person who knows what is best for you. And you are the one who is most able to achieve it!! You have GREATNESS within you!”?

What President said: “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”?

What President said: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”?

Answers at the end of the post.

Rearranging the deck chairs is a euphemism for engaging in an activity that is not designed to accomplish anything, a waste of time. The expression is a reference to the Titanic. The Left takes it a step further…they are rearranging the societal deck chairs and chasing shiny objects, even as they are scuttling the American Dream.

Clinton Rossiter wrote a wonderful narrative of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 entitled The Grand Convention. The author makes it clear that the creation of the greatest governing document in world history was, by no means, a foregone conclusion. The final product of the Convention has been more than vindicated by the 236 year success of our free republic.

Today, however, our nation is under a full frontal assault by the Democratic Party and their Leftist allies in the deep state, the education establishment and the media, both social and “news”. We are under attack by such facinorous hoopleheads as George Soros, Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, Zohran Mamdani and Mad Maxine Waters.

Recent events have starkly demonstrated that the very foundation of our civil society is being undermined from within. There is a pattern to the reaction to these events by the nattering nabobs of negativity (hat tip to Williams Safire).

On August 27 a deranged individual, Robin/Robert Westman, attacked the Catholic school he had once attended. 19 people were shot and two of those victims, an 8 year old and a 10 year old, died. The shooter committed suicide after delivering a life changing act of savagery on a group of innocent students attending Mass. The ensuing reactions were predictable

Westman’s mother is apparently a believer in human sacrifice. Her son was “transgender” and she supported this destabilizing lifestyle. The shooter, in his random screeds on life, stated that he regretted being brainwashed about being a transgender, His mother is a self-absorbed virtue signaling, moral preen queen who did nothing to help her son to avoid the tragic ending he suffered. She dutifully worships at the altar of the Democrat divinities…the aforementioned hoopleheads. She will, no doubt, be asked to address the 2028 Democratic National Convention introduced as a victim of our transphobic (made up word alert) MAGA culture. She has lawyered up for good reason.

The media used every smoke and mirrors diversion in their arsenal. Initially there was no mention of his sexual dysphoria. The picture if Westman’s gun, on which was painted Donald Trump, was immediately featured suggesting he was a MAGA enthusiast. The full text on his gun was “Kill Donald Trump”. Other than this head fake the media simply could not find a motive. Yet his writings made it clear that he hated everyone, especially Jews…he wrote “6 million wasn’t enough”. His sainted mother was oblivious to the entirety of his lunatic rantings.

USA Today listed other mass shootings at “religious institutions” creating the impression that somehow religion was at the root of the problem. It was a very selective Hall of Shame. In the case of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh the author of the piece described the shooter was a “right winger”. The motive of that lunatic was a deep hatred of all things Jewish. If that makes someone a right winger then Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and the Hamas loving protesters at Columbia, Harvard and Penn are all “right wingers”. Not only is this historically inaccurate but no self-respecting right winger wants those morons admitted to the club.

The Democrats, in their predictable Pavlovian fashion, immediately demanded stronger gun controls. Why don’t we investigate how an unstable, sexually confused man got his hands on the guns used to attack a group of children and close that gap in the system?

In other news there is a very troubling story about a new subsidiary of Murder, Inc….ChatGPT. A 16-year old boy committed suicide after being talked into it by the the Open AI app ChatGPT. This app being a full service system also provided the young man with a step by step instruction kit so the deed could be done “in 5-10 minutes”…no muss, no fuss. The parents of this victim have filed suit. There is another case where AI convinced a man to kill his mother and then commit suicide. We await a statement from Corey Booker demanding a ban on AI. But then again if it was not for Artificial Intelligence the Democrats would have no intelligence at all.

The prostitution of America’s youth is also alive and well in our education system. In Wisconsin a group of kids aged 8 to 17 years of age has been assembled as plaintiffs in a Circuit Court case filed by Our Children’s Trust and Midwest Environmental Advocates. The gravamen of the court filing is that “air pollution and extreme weather caused by climate change” have violated the constitutional rights to life and liberty. One suspects that these benighted children are completely ignorant as to the science involved. To call them “sheeple” is to insult sheep. Although we must confess that we have not checked on recent hurricane activity in the Badger State. They might be better advised to claim they have been deprived of their right to an education.

In a school district in North Carolina there is evidence that teachers have threatened to flunk students who commit heresy by challenging the gospel of anthropomorphic global climate change. The Al Gore doll, Chatty Al, repeats the cliche “The Science is Settled” with every pull of the neck ring.

A Modest Proposal

Today’s youth are victims of educational child abuse. They are imbued by our public schools with the following traits: engaging in group think and Pied Piper behavior, prone to mindless dithyrambic chanting, fear of disagreement especially being disagreed with, reluctant to challenge authority, incapable of civil debate and are easily reduced name calling. These behaviors offer up at least a partial explanation for the anecdotes discussed above.

The schools should impart knowledge, stimulate a desire to learn, teach critical thinking skills and develop the ability to communicate, both in writing and orally.

Our schools must take on that challenge and instead of DEI or Critical Theory they should focus on: MEK…Merit, Excellence and Knowledge…the cornerstones of a good education.

Answers to the Pop Quiz:

What American author wrote: “I’m convinced that most men don’t know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man’s atrocities, but wouldn’t dream of imprisoning a mother for her son’s crime?”? Christopher James Gilbert, aka Criss Jami,

What Actor said: “We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.?” Ronaldus Magnus

What politician said: “The person best suited to look out for your interests is you. The more you depend on yourself, the more positive control you have over every aspect of your life.
Take personal responsibility for who you are, what you do, and how you live. You are the only person who knows what is best for you. And you are the one who is most able to achieve it!! You have GREATNESS within you!”? Les Brown

What President said: “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”? Abraham Lincoln

What President said: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”? John Kennedy