Selective Thoughts

Selective Thoughts
By Bruce Bialosky
3/28/2011

Gadhafi’s departure has now gone from a want to a need. There is no turning back and no leaving this madman in power to breed terrorism around the world.

President Obama needs to coordinate policy with his wife. While Mrs. Obama is out toting eating vegetables, her husband’s policies have driven vegetables to such astronomical prices that restaurants have either taken them off the menu or are surcharging for switching to them. Welcome stagflation. Welcome back President Carter.

I met David Brooks when he was working with Bill Kristol at the Weekly Standard and preparing to make the transition to his current role as a columnist for the New York Times. I read his first two books, both of which express a thoughtful perspective about life in America. I’m sure his new book also contains some excellent insights.

But even reasonable people are allowed the occasional brain fart. His recent assertion that a taxpayer-funded, highly-partisan news operation should be retained because small-market Americans need educational programming and a centralized source of news only confirms what we all suspected: Working at the New York Times will melt anyone’s mind.

There is absolutely no rationale for the American people to fund either NPR or PBS. In fact, for the federal government to lubricate news organizations with borrowed cash is downright un-American. Out of respect for Mr. Brooks, I will forgive him this mistake. To err, after all, is human.

Many of us think that a huge part of our tax dollars is wasted on overpaid government workers and misguided programs. Nevertheless, there are certain aspects of government that we should all endorse.

It is always a proud moment when the first response to a major disaster – anywhere in the world – is the American military, usually followed by search and rescue teams from cities across the United States. These are expenditures I gladly support – brave Americans helping both friend and foe during an international crisis. This is the true heart of America.

Bill Maher is usually so spiteful and nasty that he makes the odious Michael Moore seem like a likable fellow. On top of that, he is generally not funny.

His interview of Congressman Keith Ellison put him in an entirely different class. Mr. Maher told the Congressman that “the Qur’an is a hate filled book.” Unfortunately, Ellison is a lousy defender of Islam, and should have asked Maher whether he had ever read the Qur’an. From this discourse, the answer is obviously no. Maher quoted his guru of atheism, Sam Harris, claiming that there was hate toward non-believers on almost every page of the Qur’an. Maher railed against the Qur’an not to advance peace or dialogue among people of different beliefs, but to fulfill his own hateful feelings toward religion of any stripe, and to promote his desire to rid the world of belief in God.

Sometimes politicians inadvertently prove what their opponents say about them.

Martin O’Malley is the Governor of Maryland, a state in serious financial trouble whose largest city, Baltimore, is in constant decline. Maryland instituted a millionaire’s tax a couple of years back only to find that one-third of the targets had left the state by the time the next returns were filed. If it weren’t for the fact that its southern portion is inhabited by an ever-growing population of federal government workers, the state would be in total free fall. Yet it continues to elect Democrats regularly.

O’Malley, who needs to balance a state budget that’s way out of whack, proposed minor increases in government worker contributions to their benefit programs. The “public servants” immediately started protesting, and held a large rally led by Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO. At the rally – which was against O’Malley’s proposals – O’Malley himself jumped onto the stage and blathered about his solidarity with the union workers then demonized Scott Walker and his “Midwestern values”.

If you ever needed proof that these politicians do not negotiate on our behalf with government unions, and that we need to immediately decertify government worker unions and stop the automatic payroll deduction of dues that feeds this hideous process, you have it with O’Malley – who, incidentally, is the leader of the Democratic Governors Association.

One thing that American Jews have always sought is acceptance by the non-Jewish majority. Well, worry no more, because the Democratic Party has selected Senator Chuck Schumer as its spokesman. If a whiny, annoying New York Jew can become the voice of one of the two major political parties in America, than we don’t have any worry about being accepted any more.

Nobody favors bullies. That being said, raising this to a national issue shows you why the federal government needs to be defunded. On the heels of Obama having a conference at the White House, the Congress swings into action by proposing schools comply with a national program and report to the Department of Education.

More resources out of the classroom and dedicated to paperwork. Is there any wonder why student performance keeps sinking?

How do you think the world has been doing since President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize?
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To read another article by Bruce Bialosky, click here.