Historical Revisionism at Penn State

The recent sanctions levied against Penn State by the NCAA because of the school’s inaction in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal were severe. Fined $60 million, stripped of its football program of 40 scholarships and banned from playing in a bowl game for the next four seasons, Penn State will certainly suffer the economic consequences for many, many years. Other consequences, however, have a much different flavor.

Penn State was also ordered to vacate its 112 football victories from 1998 to 2011, stripping Paterno of being the sport’s all-time winningest coach. Those wins occurred and the players who took part in them do not deserve to suffer collateral damage from Paterno’s actions off the field. This action also reeks of historical revisionism, a once favorite tool of the Soviet Union behind the Iron Curtain. Re-writing history and erasing facts is a bad precedent to set.

Paterno, the man, made a huge mistake and deserves to suffer consequences. Removing his statue from the Penn State campus angered many alumni, but it does remove much of the iconic aura he once had and can be rationalized as a post-mortem punishment for his actions. Paterno, the coach, had achievements that are tied forever with other players and coaches who deserve no punishment. Those achievements are real and pretending they are not is foolish.

Thomas Jefferson’s reputation is currently under siege because he once owned slaves. Historical revisionism could someday erase his name from the Declaration of Independence. Although that may certainly seem extreme, it is not unimaginable. Allowing historical revisionism to occur at any level keeps that seed alive. Erasing Joe Paterno’s football victories only waters the seed. That cannot be a good thing.

David J. Hentosh

Ten Surefire Predictions for 2012

1. Vice President Biden will say something goofy. (This has probably already been proven true.)
2. No matter who gets the GOP nomination, all those running will have self-inflicted gunshot wounds in their feet.
3. Bill Maher will say something dumber than he did last year – and the press will love it.
4. Obama will tell us he created lots of jobs – and then blame the Republicans for the continuing high unemployment.
5. More companies and unions will get wavers from Obamacare.
6. Democrats will blame the public’s poor opinion of Obama on racism.
7. Iran will adamantly claim its nuclear program is only for energy – and many fools will believe it.
8. Riots will occur in England when another government freebie is rescinded.
9. ICE will pretend to enforce immigration laws by ignoring illegal immigrants.
10. The 1%ers will continue to be productive, tax-paying members of society while those who are not will continue to blame them for their own failure.

David J. Hentosh

Shocking News: The Sun Drives Earth’s Climate

According to CERN, one of the world’s most respected centers for scientific research, the sun is the primary driver of climate change on earth. This is sure to shock those who firmly believe man is the most powerful (and most evil) force in our solar system – that is, of course, if this scientific finding gets reported by the mainstream media.

In a project labeled “CLOUD”, scientists demonstrated that cosmic rays grow seed clouds inside earth’s atmosphere and since the sun’s magnetic field shields the earth from cosmic rays, fluctuations in the sun’s magnetic field determines the amount of those cosmic rays and, therefore, heavily influences the temperature of the earth. Perhaps that explains why the earth has had many cooling and heating periods in bygone years long before evil man created the internal combustion engine.

Fearing PC repercussions, the director of CERN, Rolf-Dieter Heuer, said: “I have asked the colleagues to present the results clearly, but not to interpret them,” that would go immediately into the highly political arena of the climate change debate.” It is, of course, a scientist’s job to interpret scientific data, but that would intrude upon Al Gore’s self-imposed duty to force data to conform to his economically advantageous agenda.

The most common retort against anyone refuting man-made climate change is to insult their intelligence and call them “deniers”. It will be interesting to see if the scientists at CERN are called ignorant dummies. Then, again, it is more probable that this scientific finding will be ignored and Al Gore will get more face time on TV to help convince non-believers. After all, who could possibly believe that an enormous hot ball, 109 times the size of the earth, could have any effect on the temperature of the earth?

David J. Hentosh

Americans Worse off than when Obama Inaugurated

From Bloomberg News:

Two years after the official start of the recovery, the American people remain pessimistic about their current economic circumstances and longer-term prospects.

Fewer than a quarter of people see signs of improvement in the economy, and two-thirds say they believe the country is on the wrong track overall, according to a Bloomberg National Poll conducted June 17-20.

“Gas prices are higher, grocery prices are higher, transportation prices are higher,” says poll respondent Ronda Brockway, 54, an insurance company manager and political independent who lives in a suburb of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. “The jobs situation nationwide is very poor.”

By a 44 percent to 34 percent margin, Americans say they believe they are worse off than when President Barack Obama took office in early 2009, when the U.S. was in the depths of a recession compounded by the September 2008 financial crisis and the economy was losing as many as 820,000 jobs a month.

Read the rest here.

Obama Recovery Still Feeble After Two Years

From Investors Business Daily:

Without a lot of fanfare, the Obama economic recovery officially turned 2 this month. Anyone think we’re better off than we were two years ago?

On Tuesday, a trio of reports gave fresh evidence that the answer to this question is no.

Single family home prices dropped in March to their lowest level since April 2009; the consumer Confidence Index tumbled to a six-month low of 60.8; and regional manufacturing is slowing. In the Chicago area, it fell to its lowest level since November 2009.

Yet if you listened to President Obama and his cheerleaders in the press over the past two years, the answer should have been a resounding yes.

Obama promised way back in February 2009 that his $830 billion stimulus plan would unleash “a new wave of innovation, activity and construction” and “ignite spending by businesses and consumers.”

In June 2010, he announced that the recovery was “well under way” and that it “is getting stronger by the day.” A couple months later, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner penned a New York Times op-ed headlined “Welcome to the Recovery.”

Read the rest here.

Ack! A New Terrorist Group

This is great! From Gather:

A public school math teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule, and a calculator.  At a morning press conference, Attorney General Eric Holder said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement.  He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.

Read the rest here.

State Bill Falls Short of True Voucher Plan

From the Courier Times by TJC Member Carlo Grilletto:

First, I would like to define “failing schools”; the term should be “failing students.”

There are two main components contributing to scholastic failure. The first is the quality of the educational institution itself. The second, of equal importance, is the student’s parental guidance, including moral and social values. Here lies a major problem: when schools are expected to fill in for the latter.

Read the rest here.

Wow! Donald Trump Lays it on the Line

If you missed Donald Trump’s interview with Meredith Vieira on the Today show (and who didn’t? Does anyone even watch that show?) you missed a great interview with Donald Trump.

Take a look at Trump’s interview. No one is going to accuse him of waffling.

Check it out here.

 

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The New Power of a Latino-Jewish Coalition in LA

Israel has all but halted immigration and is building a state of the art wall to stop illegal immigration and ensure the identity of the Jewish nation.  However, the The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angles boasts of major left-wing organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the American Jewish Committee of aiding illegal immigration into the United States by supporting “comprehensive immigration reform” (eg, AMNESTY), support of the DREAM Act of 2010, etc., all supposedly to generate support for Israel in the Latino community.

From JewishJournal.com:

On a Shabbat afternoon in February, state Sen. Alex Padilla spoke on a panel at Young Israel of Century City (YICC), a large Modern Orthodox synagogue in Pico-Robertson. The event was co-organized by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and Padilla knew what message he was expected to deliver. The panel’s trilingual title — “Israel at lo levad! Israel ¡No estas solo! Israel, you are not alone!” — made that clear.

Padilla, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley in California’s state Senate, talked mostly about his two trips to Israel. He first traveled there in 2003 when he was president of the Los Angeles City Council on a trip sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. His went again on an AIPAC trip for Latino leaders in December 2009.

When it came time for questions, a white-haired man in a gray suit raised his hand. “How can we make sure that Latino youth don’t get incorrect information about Israel?” the man asked. A second man wanted to know why Israel isn’t more widely recognized — in all communities — as a democratic society that upholds liberal values.

Read the rest here.

Playing the “Kid Card” in Wisconsin

When teachers or their unions (the distinction has become blurred) decide to make demands or take a stand, they always tell us that it isn’t about money, advancement, or personal issues – it’s all about the kids. Playing the “kid card” has worked many times over the years, but the “kid card” cannot not trump the facts in Wisconsin.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently. Wisconsin spends more money per pupil than any other Midwest state, yet the kids don’t seem to be getting the better education promised by spending more money.

From 1998 to 2008, Wisconsin increased its per-pupil expenditure by $4,245. During that same period, 8^th grade students’ average scores on the NAEP reading test remained exactly the same. More money “for the kids” has not increased test scores or other measures of education received.

Teachers in Wisconsin taking students to protests is just another “kid card”. It has not brought sympathy for teachers’ plight; it has brought disgust. Teachers doing this are abusing the respect and trust their students have in them as much as they are abusing paid sick days (with doctors illegally handing out excuses for them at protests). Teachers are not helping their cause with this type of behavior and it will not give them immunity from the hard decisions bad economic times demand.

One has to wonder how forcing the schools to close is for “the kids”, or what lesson the kids will learn from their teachers’ comparison of Governor Walker to Hitler and Wisconsin to Egypt. Musician Tom Morello, former member of Rage Against The Machine, visited Wisconsin with another lesson “for the kids”, issuing a resurrected 60’s Hippie warning: “The Whole World Is Watching”.

A more appropriate warning would be: “The Kids are Watching”. Sadly, that card doesn’t seem to be in their kid-stacked deck.

David J. Hentosh