I’m short on time so I’m ignoring the ongoing Obamacare hysteria, except to recommend this article by Jonathan Bernstein.
Instead, I want to write about this 74-year-old retired teacher who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting several female students under the age of 14. A whole lot of powerful people rushed to his defense, including (get this) Ken Starr. Yes, that Ken Starr.
Granted, all of the incidents we know about took place before 1986. And he’s 74 now. But having read what he admitted to have done, I wouldn’t trust him with so much as a potted cactus. The investigation was kicked off when one of his former victims found out he was substitute teaching at her daughter’s grade school.
And because he used to teach at some exclusive elite school he knows a lot of influential people, and they just can’t believe he deserves to be punished. They not only want his sentence commuted, but they want him to continue his community work, which includes working with children. As the article says, he is “liked by the parents of the children he didn’t sexually abuse.”
You’d think that the parents of this upscale children would be alarmed. However, it may be that they assume a real sexual predator would be some shifty-eyed lowlife in shiny polyester suits, not this perfectly respectable man they all know. Cognitive dissonance at its finest.
Appreciate the article by Bernstein. re ObamaCare – it’s truly amazing how the monkey brigade has gone over-top-excited about it, filling up comment threads with massive amounts of flying excrement. It’s all about destroying Obama, and they can hardly wait.
“Cognitive dissonance at its finest.”
No, it’s beyond that.
It’s dissonant cognition – completely bass-ackwards not-thinking.
To whoever supported this guy, I say we need to make it mandatory that in the next few months you have some child or grandchild, or other relative of yours who is under the age of 14, taught or supervised by this guy.
OK, but I just saw where Bela Lugosi Krauthammer has announced that if ObamaCare fails (and it will), it will forever discredit not only Barack Obama but liberalism itself. So that’s encouraging, because Krauthammer is of those people who are reliably wrong about everything.
OT & LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:
Stacey Keach, reading questions sent to JP Morgan’s in its epically disastrous attempt to reach out to victi… people, with Twitter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5lMJkw8Bv8&feature=player_embedded
“He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” Matthew 3:12
That’s the problem expressed in scripture. Liberals refer to it as dualism Those who have their heads wrapped in the bible believe, absolutely believe, there are good people and bad people with no neutral ground – and crossover to being a ‘good’ person is only possible thru God. “Bad” people who commit crimes should be locked up for a long time. Good people who make mistakes should be forgiven by society and the justice system.
I don’t give a rat’s fuzzy behind what these people think and practice in their homes and in their churches. We come to grief when they want to apply their superstition to the public arena – to people who who have not joined their club, or church. This molester whether active or retired, is obviously held in esteem by the righteous – he’s one of them. It’s inconceivable that he’s chaff and not wheat.
All reality can be twisted out of shape to accommodate this perception. Otherwise, a different set of values which allows a third category between the what and the chaff – between good guys and bad guys, between saved and damned, has to be created in their ethical framework.
There are ‘bad’ people who care nothing for others. There are ‘good’ people who sincerely care about strangers and want to make this a better world. In my real experiences, a lot of ‘good’ people are conservative. Their value system is skewed but their empathy for people they know (but less so for strangers) is heartwarming.
The vast majority are somewhere between ‘good and ‘bad’. As a matter of civic principle, the notion of dualism has to be discredited. If there is a God and judgement, it will require Divine wisdom to sort folks into two (and only two) categories. Humans should resist the temptation to play God.
Re the Obamacare fiasco…. Think of a roller coaster – one of the steel modern ones that goes every direction except inside-out. A disaster would be if it filed, fell and killed everybody. What would you call it if no one could get on the ride?
No one is ‘missing out’ on health care because of Obamacare. The cancelled policies should (and will) be replaced by quality ones that actually offer coverage. In most cases, the cancelled policies, which are substandard, cost MORE than what real coverage will cost under Obamcare when you crank in the subsidies.
The ‘tragedy’ is that, for a time, people can’t get on the ride. But no one has been killed, and there was no wreck. Just frustrated people standing in line.
It’s a shame that the damage Mr. Kloman caused in the lives of these young girls isn’t as visible as the good deeds that his friends think should offset the damage that he’s done. Those girls (now women) will carry the emotional scars and the ramifications of them that were inflicted by Mr kloman to their graves and beyond.
Whether they ever have an awareness of it or not, it will effect their relationships with other people in the areas of trust and intimacy that are imperceptible. The damage is done.
Jesus can wash away Mr. Kloman sins all he wants, after all , he’s gonna have 43 years in which to do it.
I’ve got no sympathy for the guy. Serve your time well, Mr. Kloman…. and don’t drop the soap!
Steve Kornacki’s MSNBC show is on, and they’re talking about the JFK assassination.
This Friday is the 50th anniversary of that horribly sad and tragic event.
I was 5 years old.
I remember the moment that I heard the news, to this day.
Ironically, my toy gun had broken the day before, and, after that morning’s Kindergarten class, my Grandmother (father’s side) took me to the Macy’s on Queens Boulevard, to get a new one.
We were on the escalator going home after getting me a new toy gun, when the announcement was made.
People were in some sort of tragic trance when they heard. When they reached the bottom of the escalator, they just stood there, causing the folks behind them to either push slowly, or to walk “backwards” on the ever receding steps.
My Mom rushed home from work, called my father at his job, and took me, my father’s mother, and my 4 year-old sister to her parent’s house in Brooklyn, via the subway.
I remember all of that.
What I don’t remember is what happened for the next few days after that. I DO remember EVERY adult in my world being traumatized – Liberals AND Conservatives! And we had plenty of both of those in my family.
I remember that that weekend, my favorite cartoon shows were cancelled for the news, and the President’s funeral, and I was not a happy-camper!
But I do remember the funeral coverage.
I will never forget seeing that rider-less horse on my TV screen, with it’s empty boots pointing backwards, and the President’s son, who was my age, saluting his father’s casket as it passed by him.
Sweet Jesus, I’m weeping as I write this.
This country kills its best.
And almost always, with a gun.
Doug, I want to borrow your analogy. May I?
Lynne, Any Time. I’m in this to help out in what small way I can. Anytime a thought or idea.. or analogy can further the cause, run with it.