Rod Dreher: My Dad Went to College and Look at How That Turned Out

Anybody think that Tom and Ray Magliozzi, auto mechanics and hosts of Car Talk, wasted their MIT educations? Rod Dreher does.

Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rod Dreher has never met a Conservative talking point he did not like. His latest belabored rant, The soft bigotry of high expectations, plays out his latest obsession, that some people should not be encouraged to go to college.

Some folks are better off pursuing a trade job, he argues. His father went to college and spent his life in an office instead of working with his hands which was his passion. Dreher writes:

...end up like my father, who is now a retiree. He's a mechanical genius who once wanted above all things to work with his hands. But in the 1950s, his working-class parents pushed him hard to go to college, to become upwardly mobile. Dad earned his degree, then spent decades stuck in a desk job he despised. On the weekends, he came alive, sweating and hustling, building, welding, repairing – and in one case, using his innate engineering intelligence to invent a hydraulic woodsplitter. This – not a desk jockey – is who my father really was and was meant to be.

Dreher can't imagine somebody pursuing an engineering degree. Dreher must think that surgeons and archeologists and landscape architects don't do manual labor. Those astronauts who repaired the Hubble Space Telescope must not have worked with their hands. If Dreher's dad was as smart as purported, why didn't Dreher's dad start a company that made hydraulic woodspliters?

All jobs come and go. I had a couple of great uncles, one who delivered ice and another who delivered milk Not much call for those trades now. You can lose a job, but nobody can take away your education.

As for Dreher's argument that some people simply cannot benefit from a college education, I am reminded of the story of Rabbi Akiva, a shepherd who became a great Talmudic scholar after 40 in order to win the love of the beautiful Rachel.

One day as Akiva sadly sat beside a brook while tending his sheep, he noticed a large stone with a deep hole in it. What had formed the hole in the rock, he wondered. He looked closely and saw that the hole in the rock was in a spot where the water from the brook ran over it. He realized that the constant pressure of the water was what had worn away part of the rock. Amazing, he thought to himself, that something as soft as water could make a hole in something as hard as stone. And all it took was time a great deal of time.

And then Akiva realized that even though he was no longer a child, and had no formal education, that if he devoted himself to the study of Torah he would be able to learn. All he needed was the time to study.

Some people like President Obama place a high value on education. Then there's Rod Dreher....

Rush Limbaugh Must Die

Got a scanner for my birthday. From November 1993:

Sarah Palin Leaks DoD Secrets

Steven Colbert has been talking up his taking The Colbert Report on the road and taping shows for our troops in the Middle East. Because the DoD has asked that the details of the trip be kept secret for security purposes, Colbert has had a lot of fun promoting his visit to an undisclosed military base at an undetermined time in the future on his show.

Now it seems that Governor Sarah Palin is going to be a guest on one of these shows for the troops. She tweets:

Getting ready to tape shout-out for our awesome US troops serving overseas! Will be on ‘Colbert Report’ next month, broadcast from Iraq…

Has Sarah Palin endangered the lives of these brave Comedy Central entertainers with her irresponsible tweets? I believe that Republicans Twittering are a much greater danger to the public than all the kids sexting in the world.

'Black helicopter' Republicans

The wingnuts have taken over the GOP. Everyday the circular firing squad purges another RINO (Republican In Name Only). Rational Conservatives are rather alarmed by the Yahoos who are leading the party into irrelevance. DMN editor Micheal Landauer calls them Black Helicopter Republicans.

I've never ceased to be amazed by how quickly Republicans have stopped being a political force and are fading into the background

Potatohead People

Lebanese artist Ginou Choueir likes to paint potatoes

Old Jews Telling Jokes

From the great web site, OldJewsTellingJokes.com

Gotta Dance!

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D-Minor on the FAO Schwartz piano

Leading Question

When Rod Dreher calls himself a "Crunchy Con" does that mean he's a burnt out former felon?


I get whiplash just from reading his abrupt about faces. Yesterday he wrote Sotomayor: The trouble with white men. Today he admits everything he wrote yesterday was wrong! He was suckered into believing the right wing talking points, I was wrong about Sotomayor speech.

Mark Davis doesn't belong in Dallas Morning News, says big melvin

The sub-head on the print edition of today's Mark Davis column reads, "Sotomayor doesn't belong on court, says Mark Davis."

Empathy - Its What Sociopaths Lack!

It seems that our Department of Homeland Security is enlisting Science Fiction writers to come up with ideas to fight terrorism. As someone who reads sci-fi compulsively, I can see pros and cons to this approach. Many science fiction stories are cautionary tales about the effects of technology on the human condition. As we begin the vetting process for Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor, I'm sure we're going to hear a lot about empathy and how that's a bad thing for a judge to have.

Putting aside the argument that the lack of empathy is the classic symptom of a sociopath, the fact that Constitutional literalists would be forced to make slavery legal again and women would lose the right to vote, this empathy free future would play out like Mike Judge's 2006 movie, Idiocracy.

In the movie, a slightly below average intelligence couple from the present wake up 500 years in the future. Since dumb people have more babies than smart people, the future is populated by stupid, mindless consumers. So our visitors from the past, a hooker (Maya Rudolph) and average Joe (Luke Wilson) become the smartest people in the world. This future world is running out of food. Luke Wilson discovers that the crops are all being watered by the future version of Gatorade. When Wilson suggests that they try using water for irrigation, our future descendants are aghast. The Gatorade has "electrolytes-- It's what plants crave," according to the constant advertisements. They laugh at Wilson because he wants to use water ("You mean like outta the toilet?")

Conservatives who will oppose President Obama's Supreme Court nominations on the basis of their empathy, are simply revealing themselves as sociopathic individuals who lack the emotions that make us human. They are the people who laugh at putting toilet water on plants because they have not the ability to think for themselves and accept the lies they hear on TV.

Science Fiction can have a extreme right wing philosophy such as in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers, which takes place in a war torn society where military service is required to earn the right to vote. Or science fiction can celebrate liberal values like in the recent Neal Stephenson novel, Anathem. In Anathem, a group of monk like scientist philosophers manage to defeat the trans dimensional invaders in a spaceship full of atomic bombs armed with only a protractor and logic. The non-scientists in this society subsist on a diet of sugary drinks and plants that have soporific effects.

While certain macho impulses might make using powered amour and ray guns against the giant alien Bugs seem like fun, the ability to deter conflict and find peaceful solutions are the values I teach my children. The future I want to live in is like Star Trek's.

I want to live in a future where Man's greatest ambition is to "to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before." But I'm afraid that Conservatives desire a future of endless war, cheerfully blasting the big bad aliens, who due to their green blood and insect like bodies, deserve no human sympathy.

If we chose to consider empathy a weakness, a forever war is our only future.

Lynn Woolley and the Fairness Doctrine Straw Man

Lynn Woolley is a local Dallas talk radio host on a third string AM station. He wrote a book about how liberal are trying to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Since I have never listened to his show, I must assume that there are other issues he must talk about. But since he wrote this, I had to let him know just how weak his talking points are. Here is my email correspondence with the illustrious Mr. Woolley:

Lynn,
Conservative arguments have much more resonance when there is some small smattering of truth in them. The Teabaggers failed because they were protesting tax increases 2 weeks after 95% of Americans got tax reductions. Besides the fact that there is no legislation pending or suggested to control of content on talk radio in Congress, your "Talk Radio is Under Assault" meme also fails because nobody can turn on the radio without hearing right wing rants.

But we can all remember when Clear Channel automated its small market radio stations and local communities were not warned of deadly weather moving into their areas and lives were lost. To try and turn a public safety issue into an assault on your ability to attract an audience is laughable. I'm surprised that the DMN buys these silly straw man columns, but the content on AM radio only moves me to stop using AM radio as a source for information.

The last real content battle on radio forced Howard Stern to satellite radio. No government agency was able to silence him. I've never listened to your program but if you have a large audience, I'm sure they will follow you to your next soapbox.

America has enough real problems right now without having to worry about imaginary threats to fear mongers like you.

So Lynn replied:

The facts in my column came directly from an FCC commissioner. can you read, Mark?

Questioning my reading comprehension pisses me off so I replied:

Sure I can read-- what you interpret as an assault on what you say on the radio, I interpret as a public safety issue. To me, local content includes weather alerts to save lives in the event of deadly storms. We can disagree on the pluses and minuses of consolidation of radio ownership into the hands of a few large corporations, but the lack of local weather reports in small markets due to automated program formats is a serious public safety issue. Spin the issue if you like, but it does not change the fact that in some small markets, nobody can get early warnings on deadly weather heading their way. And that's the real issue about local programming.

I remember the good old days when Morton Downey Jr. was the leading voice of conservative talkers. Once he called you a pablum puking liberal he was out of ammo. If your only argument opposing group ownership of radio stations is content, you lose the public safety issue. Your argument is that Conservative radio listeners are so wimpy that if local stations were forced to broadcast severe weather warnings they would cease listening. I laugh at your fear mongering.

Are you saying that there will be no outlet for your thoughts if your ratings tank and you are replaced by a nationally syndicated program? The facts show that Howard Stern is a much more fearless broadcaster than you are. When he was under assault for the content of his program, he moved beyond the reaches of the FCC.

You want me to be afraid of little men who hide in caves and make conspiracies. You want me to fear the President who has sworn to protect the United States. You preach fear of everything that does not conform to your narrow view of reality that is still based on the problems that faced the nation 30 years ago. You've cried wolf too often. Real Americans aren't afraid of anything! Especially whining from guys like you who have cushy radio jobs...

If I might make a suggestion, if you frame a positive message about how consolidation of radio station ownership has benefited the nation, I might not be so inclined to laugh at you.

Still thinking that this was his radio show and he could get the last word, Woolley replied:

Almost no one who works (toils) in this industry is thrilled with consolidation and the thousands of jobs it destroyed. But it was brought on by government incompetence. So many stations were approved, and (on the AM band) so many had weak signals that it became necessary for a company to own "clusters" to survive. But I don't think that's where Obama's mind is. I think he wants to be rid of Rush. It you disagree, that's just fine. Think whatever you like.

Woolley agrues against free enterprise and competition. My reply?

The FCC could not silence Howard Stern-- are conservative talkers weaker than him?

Woolley could not stop himself:

He went to a subscription service that is not content-controlled by the FCC.

Falling into a rhetorical trap of his own making, I answered:

Exactly-- there are many outlets for your voice and opinion. If you do not enjoy working in an industry segment that is regulated by the government, go someplace beyond government control. Start a pirate radio station in your bedroom if its really that important to you. The problem in the newspaper business is not too many newspapers. The problems of broadcast radio (and broadcast television) are not too many stations. That's another straw man unless you do not believe in free market capitalism. If there is an audience for what you're peddling, somebody will buy it. I do not subscribe to satellite radio, but I believe that there are conservative talk show channels there. Fox News is on cable, beyond FCC control. Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. Buy your own station or launch your own satellite and program with whatever you like. If you attract an audience that is desirable to advertisers, you will be successful. If the audience is not there, you business will not succeed. Just because the public airwaves belong to all Americans and is regulated by the FCC does not mean that AM radio is the only medium available to you. Stop complaining and build a better mousetrap. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and stop playing the refs. Its a loser of an argument. It sounds like whining to me...

He had no answer to this...

Liberals are really aliens from outer space who want to give you free health care

Back in 1983 there was this science fiction TV series, V. It was a Nazi allegory about how the Visitors, with their swastika like emblems, persecuted our scientist and anybody else who questioned their motives, so the lizard men (the Visitors without their disguises) could eat us up.

Now ABC is remaking the old miniseries for the Fall season. This time out the Visitors are offering Free Universal Health Care while preaching a message of "Hope" and "Change." They're still man eating lizards under their human disguises. So I guess this time out V will be an allegory about the dangers of President Obama and liberalism.

What we know

1. CIA contractors at secret prisons in Thailand were conducting torture sessions to extract false confessions to bolster the Bush administration's claims of a connection between Al Qadea and Saddam Hussein (source: McClatchy News)
2. There was no ticking time bomb scenario
   
3. Nancy Pelosi must be punished
   

How to Answer Conservatives who Live In Fear

I do not fear little men in caves making conspiracies against the United States. I know that our armed forces and anti-terrorism efforts will keep us safe. In the event of another terrorist attack on our soil, I've got your back and I trust that my fellow citizens have mine.

Everyone knows that Americans are the bravest, most freedom loving people on Earth and can never be defeated. I know that this country can overcome any obstacle, defeat any enemy and carry our unique values around the world by the power of example. The way America behaves should be the standard by which we judge the world.

Those who tell us to be afraid, who do not believe that we can defend ourselves without sacrificing our principals are sadly mistaken and cannot be considered in any way patriotic. If you do not love this country and its laws and traditions, if you do not believe that America should always strive to be a better place than any other nation, then please excuse yourself from the conversation. And kindly stop telling the bravest people in the history of mankind to be fearful of a bunch of religious nuts with no army or safe haven.

Rather than fearing what these people may do, our enemies should fear our might and indomitable will. Anybody whose message is that that Americans should live in fear from these highly destructive punks must have slept through the many examples of what it really means to be a courageous, patriotic American.

Rod Dreher is a Moron

A hypothetical question:

Does saving lives really justify torture? Imagine, on the eve of an American attack on a Al Qaeda terrorist camp in the remote mountains of Afghanistan, a small troop of American Green Berets are waylaid by an IED. The Al Qaeda capture a young Green Beret Lieutenant, wounded but still alive. If that courageous US soldier was tortured by those evil Al Qaeda terrorists in order to learn the details of the coming raid against them, could the terrorists' use of enhanced interrogation techniques be considered not criminal? Because the Green Berets want to kill them and if they knew when the attack would come they could to save the lives of many Al Qaeda? Does not the Al Qaeda commander have the same moral duty to protect the lives of his people that US officers have? Remember, the Al Qaeda commander, if captured and tried, will testify that he only tortured the Green Beret to save lives...