Lena Dunham Apology Unacceptable

After receiving much criticism for saying “Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had” in a podcast, Lena Dunham offered an apology: “My words were spoken from a sort of ‘delusional girl’ persona I often inhabit”. Remove the word “often” from that statement and it nails Dunham well.

Recognizing that many do not like anything she says, she added: “…this apology is for the women who have placed their trust in me”. This, too, is delusional since it is doubtful many women really place much “trust” in her. She is, after all, just another celebrity pontificating on political issues and only extremely ardent fans are gullible enough to treat a celebrity as being infallible.

Far too often the adulation celebrities receive from fans convinces them that everything they do or say is exceptional. Dunham is fully engaged with taking herself too seriously, believing everyone holds her in as high esteem as she holds herself. She has become “elite”. Because she speaks before thinking far too often, her apology for this latest distasteful and offensive comment lacks credibility and, therefore, is unacceptable.

Dunham is a hardcore feminist who proudly takes her feminism to foolishly unacceptable levels, often with man-hating and racist comments. She then finds it expedient to apologize afterwards but that has become very stale. There was no regard for the emotional upheaval abortion can cause or for the life that is snuffed out in her comment. There was only anger, insensitivity, and self-righteousness.

Until Dunham learns to contain her feminist-based anger and think before speaking, her apologies will remain meaningless. So, too, will much of what she spews.

David J. Hentosh

Trauma at Rutgers

After a speech at Rutgers University by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, some students and faculty members felt so “traumatized” that they held a group therapy session afterward to soothe their sensitive psyches. Yiannopoulos talked about “How the Progressive Left Is Destroying Education”, an opinion exemplified by protesting students.

The speech drew a huge crowd of students wanting to hear what Milo had to say but that only enraged some feminists and Black Lives Matter protesters further. Intent on disrupting the event because it does not follow the only agenda they believe should be allowed on campus, they smeared blood on their faces, screamed slogans, and vandalized before finally being forced to leave.

The fake blood, screaming, and vandalism caused no trauma; simply allowing the speech to occur did. Those “traumatized” did not even hear the speech but some needed group therapy because their ideas were being challenged, exactly what should occur in a healthy academic environment. Expecting everyone to think the same is foolishly immature. Demanding it is arrogantly asinine.

It is a failure of our education system to allow faculty members to advocate and participate in student demands to suppress differing ideas. Progressive faculties have taken over the education system from grade school to college, indoctrinating students with an agenda that now has students feeling “traumatized” by the very existence of a different point of view. That agenda has become more important than education.

If encouraged, the next step will be to make differing views illegal, something already beginning to materialize in schools through various restrictive speech codes. It is ironic that an agenda advocating diversity in all things demands total conformity of ideas – and it is as dangerous as it is foolish.

It is refreshing that at least at Rutgers, many more students were interested in hearing differing views than suppressing them. That could certainly change, and if schools do not stop faculties from indoctrinating students with a progressive agenda, it will.

David J. Hentosh

‘Free’ Bernie Sanders

It is not surprising that aging Hillary Clinton is having trouble getting the youth vote but young Democrat voters overwhelmingly supporting the even more aging Bernie Sanders has surprised many. However, when you consider what Bernie stands for, the reasons become obvious.

Bernie Sanders is strongly pushing for a “free” college education. That is, of course, attractive to anyone facing the rising cost of a college education and the ensuing burden of a student loan. It certainly speaks to today’s youth who have been thoroughly indoctrinated by a liberal education system advocating the socialistic ideal of cradle-to-grave government care. How we are to pay for that “free” education is not clear but it is also not relevant to those wanting and expecting freebies.

Sanders calls himself a “democratic socialist” but that distinction is not understood by most and it is certainly lost on today’s youth. The failure of our education system is responsible for the lack of knowledge concerning socialism’s failure throughout history and, consequently, today’s youth are gravitating towards socialism’s vacuous promise of a utopian society. The “Occupy” movement and unrealistic demands heard on college campuses are a product of this ignorance of socialism.

Sanders takes advantage of this ignorance with his socialistic promises of a “free” college education, guaranteed health care, and $15 an hour minimum wage – in other words, freebies. He demonizes corporations and the rich and rails against income inequality, an easy sell to young workers starting at low salaries. His 90% tax rate for the rich sounds fine to those far from the top but it is not enough and the middle class will have to reach further into their pockets to help pay for all the “free” stuff.

At the age of 74, Bernie Sanders is not considered too old for Democrats who expressed concern about John McCain’s age (71) in 2008 and Ronald Reagan’s age (69) in 1980. JFK was 43–yrs-old when he took office and Obama, 47-years-old in 2008, was touted as a youthful and energetic change much needed for the country. Meanwhile, Democrats accuse Marco Rubio (44) and Ted Cruz (45) of being much too young to be president.

What is most certainly getting old is the hypocrisy – along with Sanders (74) and Hillary (68).

David J. Hentosh

WTF??

Black Lives Matter protesters disrupted students studying in the library at Dartmouth University by screaming obscene and racist remarks such as “F**k you, you filthy white f**ks” and “F**k you, you racist shits” and getting into physical altercations with the students. Dartmouth’s Vice Provost for student affairs, Inge-Lise Ameer, apologized…to the BLM protesters for the negative responses and media coverage that they received. WTF??

While French President Francois Hollande labeled the Paris attacks an act of war, President Obama called them a “setback” and Secretary of State John Kerry expressed surprise that the Paris attacks lacked the “rationale” of the Charlie Hebdo murders. WTF??

Bloomberg columnist Margaret Carlson minimized the dangers of illegal immigration and Syrian refugees arguing that “maybe” terrorists sneaking into the US would become patriotically Americanized and their anger would go away because we have a history of successfully integrating immigrants. WTF??

In Lowell, Mass., Lindsay Miller has been allowed to wear a pasta strainer on her head in her driver’s license photo because she is a religious member, a “Pastafarian”, of “The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster”, officially recognized as a religion in Poland. WTF??

Colorado’s State Legislature will hold a vote in June on whether or not to legalize the purchasing, selling, and distributing, of hard drugs including heroin, meth, cocaine, and peyote. According to State Senator John Perry Barlow, legalizing these drugs will “empty out the dregs of our prisons and bring in millions of dollars in tax revenues for our state” and “make drug abuse treatment a more viable option for addicts and doctors alike”. WTF??

Princeton students are demanding the university “acknowledge the racist legacy of Woodrow Wilson”; University of Texas students are demanding a tuition-free education and cancellation of student debts; and Occidental College students are demanding campus safety officers stop wearing bullet-proof vests. WTF??

David J. Hentosh

Black Lies Matter

Regardless of one’s opinion concerning the Black Lives Matter movement, disgraceful actions taken by members taints the entire movement and elicits scorn rather than respect. The movement’s intended message has been totally lost in a sea of ignorant acts.

The trampling and burning of the American flag outside the Republican debates is the latest example of such acts coming from movement members. Adding to their ignorance, some BLM protesters circulated rumors that police deployed tear gas on them when, in fact, the police were only using a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Black lies matter, too, and they certainly don’t help credibility.

These acts cannot be passed off as exuberance or mere exaggeration on the part of the protesters. They come from a misguided hatred of the country instilled by lies and distortions from so-called “leaders” using victimization as a tool to advance their personal agenda. This victimization has been kept alive over the years by shifting blame from slavery to “whitey” to the government to the police and to the entire county. It now drives the BLM movement and valid complaints have been lost in the hatred.

This movement has tacitly and often vocally encouraged the killing of police officers and that encouragement has resulted in the murder of several police officers, the same officers who put their lives on the line to protect the community where the protesters live. They also protect the right of protesters to protest but that doesn’t “matter”.

The level this has reached is astounding and the consequences are frightening. Yet, it continues with no regard or respect for anything outside the narrow point-of-view dictated by “leaders”. Anyone daring to state the obvious, that all lives matter, is labeled a racist as is anyone who does not blindly follow the “leader”.

This is part of the far-left’s “transformation of America” and it has turned into the desecration of America, but maybe that was the intention all along. America-bashing has always been a favorite far-left pastime and, unfortunately, it is has now become part of the BLM movement.

David J. Hentosh

Athletic Blackmail

When the University of Missouri’s football team joined student protesters and threatened not to play a scheduled game against BYU at Arrowhead stadium in Kansas City, school president Tim Wolfe’s resignation was signed, sealed, and delivered before he even had a chance to consider it. The moneymaking power of college athletics was the driver.

Forfeiting that game would have cost the university the million dollars it already guaranteed BYU for agreeing to play. Added to that would be millions lost from renting Arrowhead stadium and all the subsequent revenue from tickets, concessions, parking, and TV broadcasting. When you compare that with the university president’s salary of approximately $459k, forcing Wolfe’s resignation seems like a sound economic decision, but it will have consequences.

The protesters will treat this as a victory from “speaking truth to power”, but it was blackmail by the football team that did the talking and now, a dangerous precedent has been set. Would the university have caved if the football team threatened to forfeit a game unless Republican speakers were banned from the campus? What if the demand was to provide refuge and scholarships to illegal immigrants? How about a demand to replace every white administrator with an African-American or fire teachers who do not toe the PC line?

Some will argue that this is different because it was about the serious issue of racism but there really is such a thing as a “slippery slope”, and the unleashed economic power of a football team can become very slippery, indeed. Wolfe’s resignation will not solve any racial problems the university may be experiencing and it was forced before allegations, circumstances, or culpability could be fully determined. It was, simply, knee-jerk blackmail – and it worked all too well.

Students and student athletes taking control of a university does not bode well. Holding a school hostage for any reason is just another form of the anarchy we see rising in the streets. Allowing it could prove to be much more costly in the long run than the loss of a football game. We can only hope this is an isolated incident but power corrupts and college athletes across the country are now fully aware of the power they have. Call it “higher learning”, cross your fingers, and hope for the best.

 

David J. Hentosh

Far Left = Far Out

It gets nuttier and nuttier. The far Left sifts everything through a PC/racist filter that transforms reality into a fantasy world that would be laughable if it wasn’t taken so seriously. Unfortunately, it is taken seriously and that sucks the humor out, making it simply pathetic.

MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry scolded a guest on her show for using the word “hard-worker”, explaining: “I want us to be super careful when we use the language ‘hard worker,’ because I actually keep an image of folks working in cotton fields on my office wall, because it is a reminder about what hard work looks like”. Thank you, Melissa, for reminding us about slavery because we often forget to be obsessed with it in our daily routines and language.

She did, however, further define a hard-worker “in the context of relative privilege” (because that is the only context we should be concerned about) as “moms who don’t have health care”. It is a wonder that her “privileged” guest, Latino activist Alfonso Aguilar, didn’t break down in tears and apologize for his callous misuse of the English language – or just break down laughing.

Attempting to re-define words and ways of speaking to advance the far-left agenda has become ridiculous, especially in colleges. The University of Tennessee, bowing to the LGBT community, recently published guidelines for replacing common pronouns such as ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘him’ and ‘her’ with the strange terms ‘xe’, ‘zir’ and ‘xyr’ in order to “make the university ‘welcoming and inclusive’ and stop people feeling marginalized”.

Staff members at the school were also advised to eliminate roll calls (which somehow marginalize students) and greet each student separately, asking them to “announce their name and pronoun of preference” to be used when addressing them. With several pronouns to choose from, it seems students would have to take notes to keep it all straight lest they offend someone during the semester.

Luckily for students, there was a backlash calling these proposals ridiculous and absurd, forcing the university to “clarify” that nobody would be forced to use them. A university spokesman (spokesperson?) said, “we do not dictate speech”, but that seems to be exactly what the university’s “inclusive practices” are attempting to do. We all know that “practice makes perfect”, so it’s just a matter of time before they become mandatory.

David J. Hentosh

The Demise of Greatness

Is it really surprising that a recent poll showed 72% of Americans believe this country is not as great as it once was? Greatness requires great leaders and our political atmosphere is not attracting our best.

Our brightest and most competent leaders are far too wise to subject themselves and their families to the mud slinging, dirty tricks, and media bashing that has taken over politics. Furthermore, experience and competence mean little to one-issue voters far more concerned with social issues than the country’s wellbeing.

The election of Obama, an inexperienced community organizer, for the sake of “making history” is a result, not the cause, of our declining greatness, but it has accelerated the decline. Obama caters to a society shunning the common good in favor of the individual; a society obsessed with the emotional satisfaction of legislating fairness for all, an unrealistic goal. His election legitimized political correctness, encouraging a denial of reality.

The Obama administration’s ineffective and unrealistic foreign policies produced a vacuum of leadership in the world and a loss of international respect. The White House, once a symbol of our greatness, has become a bully pulpit of pettiness and self-aggrandizement where sniping at critics and casting blame is commonplace. Social engineering is a priority and instead of sound economic policies, our floundering economy is being dealt with by rhetoric filled with a pretense of achievement. Nothing is real; nothing is true.

The building block of our nation, the family unit, is fractured and an agenda under the guise of “progress” is eradicating morality and common decency. Under this agenda, anything goes – but everything is going away. The mainstream media actively promotes this agenda, swaying public opinion toward accepting it by deceivingly “reporting” on its goodness.

If the 72% who see greatness dissolving vote wisely, this can change. Otherwise, this country’s greatness will exist only in history books – if “progress” allows history to remember it.

David J. Hentosh

Black Like Her

In 1959, John Howard Griffin used makeup and medication to alter his appearance enough to pass as a black man in order to understand what it was like being black in America. He then wrote about his experience in his highly acclaimed book, “Black Like Me”, initiating a much needed dialogue on racial conditions in America.

Today, we find Rachel Dolezal passing herself off as a black woman in order to…well…nobody really knows why but she has initiated a much different dialogue. Masquerading as a black woman, Dolezal ended up president of the NAACP chapter in Spokane, Washington and says that her being “transracial” (whatever that means) became obvious at a very young age when she naturally preferred using brown crayons instead of peach crayons for skin color.

The national president of the NAACP says “The NAACP is not concerned with the racial identity of our leadership” but it is highly doubtful Dolezal would have become a chapter president had her true race been known. She has been identifying herself as black since 2007, five years after graduating from historically black Howard University. Ironically, she filed suit against the school while attending, claiming she was being racially discriminated against because she was white. Perhaps losing that suit traumatized her into becoming “transracial”.

It is more likely that Rachel Dolezal is just infected by the progressive PC madness sweeping the country, the same PC madness that compelled MSNBC’s ultra-progressive host Melissa Harris-Perry’s foolish attempt to legitimize Dolezal’s fantasy. Melissa seriously asked if “there is actually a different category of blackness” or if someone could be “trans-black”, much like her progressive hero Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner is trans-sexual.

No, there is no different category of blackness, there is no such thing as being “trans-black”, and “transracial” is a manufactured, meaningless term. What we have here is a mentally disturbed woman; a PC agenda favoring individuals over the common good; and an irrational MSNBC host.

David J. Hentosh

An Ugly American

Hating America is so prevalent among far-left progressives that it seems to have become a requirement. The younger they are, the more vehemently they hate America because their schools were filled with America-bashing academics. Although Harlem-born Azealia Banks never finished high school, she still over-achieved in America-bashing.

In an interview with Playboy, rapper Azealia Banks proudly stated: “I hate everything about this country”. After reading more of her 23-yr-old “wisdom”, it becomes easy to hate everything about her and see her as the epitome of the “Ugly American” many have come to loathe.

She is a young, angry, bisexual, black woman spewing racist remarks while bemoaning racism in society. The hypocrisy eludes her because she is blinded by hatred and a twisted interpretation of…well…of almost everything. “I hate fat white Americans” doesn’t come across to her as anything but a proud, personal indictment of America nurtured in childhood by a mother who taught her that “white people are the devil”.

When declaring “Those little teenage girls who work at Kmart and have a racist grandma — that’s really America”, she reveals deep personal animosity and ignorance. She stereotypes her white fans “who got handed down your grandfather’s estate and you got to keep your grandmother’s diamonds and pearls” and claims she suffers from the “generational effects of Jim Crow”, but it is doubtful she understands the history of Jim Crow.

She says her anger comes from the discrimination she’s felt all her life in this country, but physical and verbal abuse from her mother that forced her to leave home at the age of 14 may be the real culprit. One could almost feel sorry for her but it is hard to do so when she gladly wallows in her ignorance and spits rage in your face gleefully. She only wants to piss you off and in that, she is highly successful.

She angrily declares “As long as I have my money, I’m getting the f— out of here” but, unfortunately, she is still here – just like all the far-left liberals who were going to leave if Bush got elected. Maybe if we all chipped in for plane tickets…

David J. Hentosh