A Stupid Made-for-TV Controversy

This has to be the most stupid, inane idiocy that I've heard: The President wants to encourage children to stay in school and study hard -- and this is supposed to be "indocrination" and "liberal lies???!!!"

Pray tell me, what should the President say to the children? "Stay home, remain ignorant, don't study or learn at all." I suppose that this would be the message the folks like Jim Greer would prefer to impart.

I just returned from my trip to Japan, where they recently had an election. And I come home to this nonsense? It makes me almost ashamed of my country, almost tempted to get back on the plane and return to some sanity. What is wrong with these people??

Fortunately, we do still have freedom of speech in my country. Greer has the constitutional right to tell school children to stay home and remain ignorant. And I have the same constitutional right to say that Greer is talking like an idiot (NOTE: I said "Greer is talking like an idiot;" I didn't say that "Greer is an idiot"). I just wonder what people in other countries think about this sort of thing. Not that Greer and his colleagues would care about the rest of the world; they probably don't. I don't blame Joe Scarborough at all for being embarrassed.

Okay, this makes five articles on Sojo that criticize conservatives over the school speech flap. Five articles, several of which cite conservatives who themselves think this issue has been overdone.

Number of Sojo articles criticizing Van Jones and his loopy 9-11 conspiracy theorizing? None.

Look, I don't seriously expect a political movement to stop criticizing its opponents. We don't. Nor do I expect Sojo to go after lefty cranks with as much gusto as it goes after righty cranks. We don't really go that far either.

But it would be nice if -- just once -- Sojo could summon up the courage to tell some fringe-left whack job to knock it off. For the sake of community or bipartisanship or even Christian neighborliness. Or how 'bout just the truth? I mean, do you really think 9-11 was an inside job?

After all, as you yourselves acknowledge, we conservatives police our own. Why can't Sojo do the same on the left?

LV

I agree LV. To add to that, and I could be wrong here because I don't see every article written so feel free to correct me, but with so many posters on sojo who are anti-war (I am as well), where are the articles criticizing or challenging President Obama's troop increase in Afghanistan or other issues relating to the war? Oh I forgot, Obama only gets praise on this site (I had to get a little sarcasm out). Just to clarify, I claim no allegiance to any political party, my beef is with Sojo when they claim not to heavily favor the left. It makes me laugh just as much as when Bill O'Reilly claims not to heavily lean to the right. C'mon, can't we just call a spade a spade, in love of course :) lol.

Thank God there are some Republicans that are worthy of the party! Thanks Joe Scarborough for injecting a bit of common sense into the extremists who are determined to make President Obama dammed if he does and dammned if he doesn't! It's about time Republicans start taking their party back from the thoughtless individuals who are refusing to accept the reality that we all have a right to our opinions and that in a democracy we respect the appropriate efforts of leaders whatever their political affiliation.

Given the fact that recently approximately 45% of Americans have some questions about the veracity of the official story of 9/11 having another in-depth investigation hardly seems loopy. We need this investigation if only to answer these questions. Calling for an investigation does not presuppose there was criminal action (beyond the obvious neglect) it only presuppose there are questions that still need answers. Hardly Loopy LV. IMHO.

I've looked at much of the "Truther" materials and most of the issues are nonsense. Nonetheless, I still remain confused how Kerosene (aka Jet Fuel A) burning in pools at around 800 degrees could cause the collapse of structural steel with a melting point of 2700 degrees and within a few hours. As a Professional Engineer I can state this seems somewhat unlikely pending additional information. Without further investigation it remains a nagging question. Was there something about the Steel or the Structure or had someone done something sinister to the building as the Truthers claim. We just don't know. By code these Buildings were designed to withstand the impact of a 707 which is of comparable size to the planes that hit on 9/11.

Historical Note: By 1949 there had been EIGHT different investigations of what went wrong leading up to Pearl Harbor.

Hey, WT, I hope you had a great time in Japan and I hope you brought back some information about their health care system.
Do they pay as much as Americans do for health care?
How come Japanese are healthier and live longer than Americans?
After all, they lost the war.
And, are there any libertarians in Japan?

OK, you won't, but I will call Jim Greer an idiotic, petty, vindictive nutjob Republican.
All he wanted to do was harass President Obama and get his own name reverberating around the media circus.
And, just because there are so many idiotic, petty, vindictive nutjobs who can't think for themselves, it worked.

All Jim Greer wanted to do was harass President Obama and have his name reverberating around the media circus.
Jim Greer is an idiotic, petty, vindictive Republican with a ready made audience of nutjobs who can't think for themselves.

Maybe you need to hear the speech backwards for the supposed socialist propaganda.

My class (5th grade, mostly Latino and Black) and I heard the speech. What's ironic is that conservatives should have hailed much of the contents of the talk -- personal responsibility, control over one's destiny -- etc. It was sort of a "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" kind of speech that, if had a conservative given it, would have been criticized by liberals. What Obama said today is no different than what Bill Cosby and a few others in the Black community have been saying for years, only to be skewed by those on the Left. It truly is ironic.

Rothgar:

If you were a professional engineer you'd know that steel doesn't need to be completely melted to be weakened.

LV

"Thanks Joe Scarborough for injecting a bit of common sense into the extremists who are determined to make President Obama dammed if he does and dammned if he doesn't! "

Grandmas I like Joe too , I work swing so I usually am sleeping when is on though . I know many of the lefts fringe which seems to be louder since our President has been loosing popularity do not want him on their TV station . But I think it helps , would be good if they allowed a Joe type write here also . Great interview of Joe Scarborough by Penny Noonan on C-SPAN. Scarborough' s assessment is correct in my opinion : The United States has always been a center-right country. George Bush and the GOP Congress claimed to be conservatives, but they were not, implementing foreign intervention and huge budget deficits. A small majority elected Obama over McCain because Obama appeared to be the most sensible/least radical. The GOP does not need to "move to the center" to win the next election cycle. The party needs to return to the true Burke conservatism.
Bless you , Mick

Justy - tell us what you think of Jim Greer!

"Not that Greer and his colleagues would care about the rest of the world; they probably don't" - Actually, WaveTossed, it's more like "Not that the rest of the world would care about Greer and his colleagues, we certainly don't" and sad to say, I've heard more jokes on the Canadian air waves recently about the sandbox slinging that's now passing as U.S. politics than I heard even during Watergate; you guys need help down there as is quite obvious by Jim's quote from Okie from Muskogee - that's the kind of talk that's making you the laughingstock of the world

"that's the kind of talk that's making you the laughingstock of the world"

Yikes the last President is said to have caused that also . Actually I think the President is doing a good job in as far of maintaining American Dignity and Respect abroad . But will take your onservation from up abroad . Interesting we hardly hear anything about the winter olympics down here ? Whats up with that ?

. This was pretty much a non issue except the responce to the anti Obam no matter what folks was larger then the noise the anti anything Obama folks had made . For all the anti Fox remarks you hear you would think the lefties would quit watching it so much .

Don't let kids hear a pep talk , yikes they might get motivated ????
The political left were the ones that got mad , it showed. The right showed stupidity. .They should have left it alone . Look how many essays have been written on what to most Americans was a non issue .

I am glad I am not a republican , but I would be super frustrated to be a democrat . They seem to be imploding . As my wife told me many a time , skip the minors and concentrate on the majors with the kids growing up . .
This was a non issue . The left taking it on was like me getting ticked about the kids rooms not being clean .

My two unpolitical cents ,

Mick

The Japanese have a health care system that is part public and part private, and it works a lot better than the one we have here.

I'm not sure why most Japanese live longer than we do in the U.S. Though I don't think that people are dying there, as they are here, because they don't have access to health care. Maybe they live longer because they don't engage in screaming and name-calling. They were having their elections and there were people on the street corners, some with loud speakers, campaigning for their candidates. But none of the vitriol that I've witnessed here.

As for libertarians in Japan: I don't know. It's a different sort of society in many ways. But in many ways, they seem to be able to have more of a "live and let live" attitude toward others. They don't feel as if they need to go out around the world and change everyone (using force if needed) and everything according to their own image.

I do know that the Christians in Japan are far different from many of the so-called "Christians" here in the U.S. They actually believe in Jesus' message of love and they practice it. Christianity is a minority religion in Japan; most are Buddhists. There was a time about 600 years ago when Christians were persecuted, but those times are long gone.

What more can I say?

"Greer said yesterday that it was a pretty good speech after all:"

Watch them backpedal! John, I'm surprised you didn't add the latest right-wing talking point. You and your ilk MADE HIM CHANGE his speech. That's right. He was going to try to convert little kids to Marxism, but you foiled him. Give yourselves a big pat on the back.

I was just pointing out that Wallis had not given a complete picture.

Personally, I was agnostic on the whole speech thing. My only concern was
that I thought we had banned god from the public schools. /sarc

As someone who lived in Japan and taught there, and agree with the depth of your statements. I would add that their overall health is better because they take responsibility for their own health. They understand their actions affect all. It would be disrespectful to purposely mistreat oneself, then expect the whole of society to foot the bill.

I understand why Greer was afraid of the speech. If kids do take President Obama to heart and work hard, study and achieve, then the Greers of the world would have to answer to these kids. Greer is right. Educated thinking kids are his biggest enemy. Hey, Greer if you get fired, you could always flip burgers. Why yes, Mr. Greer, I would like fries with your humble pie.

I really like and can relate to your comments, although I am not a long timer here. But I keep seeing this demonizing of the "religious right" by Christians here who claim to be these loving people. How can one be truly loving and yet condemn someone in the same breathe because their political views are different than theirs? I was told by one poster that I sound like a puppet for the "right" and another asked me if I work for a health insurance company... all because I am against the current health bill.

And one of these posters has admittidly not even read the bill and yet fully supports and advocates it... and I like your quote: "to the uncritical, lapdog, syrupy, acceptance of virtually any and everything that the President (Obama) proposes" because I see that too, and I find it to be very disturbing.

I really like and can relate to your comments, although I am not a long timer here. But I keep seeing this demonizing of the "religious right" by Christians here who claim to be these loving people. How can one be truly loving and yet condemn someone in the same breathe because their political views are different than theirs? I was told by one poster that I sound like a puppet for the "right" and another asked me if I work for a health insurance company... all because I am against the current health bill.

And one of these posters has admittidly not even read the bill and yet fully supports and advocates it... and I like your quote: "to the uncritical, lapdog, syrupy, acceptance of virtually any and everything that the President (Obama) proposes" because I see that too, and I find it to be very disturbing.