Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

February 7, 2004

Conformity

Filed under: Bunker's Favorites,Politics,Society-Culture — Bunker @ 2:35 pm

Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. You’ve heard that before. Unfortunately, most people take that to mean that habits are bad. But if you were to read Emerson, you might see this misquote in a different light:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. ? ‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’ ? Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

In other words, people who say the same thing day-in-day-out simply to be consistent are oxygen thieves. What Ralph Waldo Emerson is saying in Self-Reliance is that events change, situations evolve. So should your view of the world.

I get a grin any time I hear Democratic zealots claim to be “progressive” or “non-conformist.” Nobody on the face of this Earth, except maybe bin Laden, is more conformity-conscious than operatives in the Democratic Party.

Diversity is one of their favorite words. But their definition applies only to skin color or sexual preference. And within those parameters, everyone is expected to act and believe the same. I believe I could fill a room full of white males or Asian females and have Terry McAuliff fill another room with what he terms a diverse group. Mine would be made up of people from a wide variety of economic and intellectual backgrounds, with people who worked in the home, in offices, and digging ditches. His would include whites, blacks, hispanics, males, females, old, and young–all would be lawyers. Which would really be more diverse?

Bogey is a great guitarist, and has become a first-rate mandolin player. About once a month he meets to jam with a group of musicians in Austin. They are all white males. But you won’t find a more diverse group anywhere. There are truckers, cowboys (the real kind), college students, old men with no teeth, bikers, and professionals. They get together to play music, the only thing they really have in common except skin color. By Democratic definition, they are not a diverse group because they do not include “people of color.” If they did, it wouldn’t be a valid diversity because the black would be playing “white” music, and therefore be an Uncle Tom. Kinda like Colin Powell.

Think of any program initiated by the Federal Government which has not accomplished what it was supposed to do. Any. Head Start? Well, it was a good concept, supposed to help those kids whose parents were of no help to them educationally. The idea was to have them get six months of class work to catch up with other, more fortunate, children prior to starting school. It became a year. Then two. It is now not much more than a baby-sitting service–child care for the poor. Is there something wrong with the program? Not according to “progressives”, unless you think “inadequate funding” is the problem. The program is more than 20 tears old, and the education level of that group continues to fall rather than rise.

How about welfare? The intent was to give someone down on their luck the chance to lift himself up. Great idea. It hasn’t worked.

Job training? There is virtually unlimited opportunity for education and training. High schools offer traditional coursework in preparation for college, and technical/vocational courses leading to real skills. Free. Community colleges abound, and offer the full range at very limited cost. Those who cannot pay even this small amount are eligible for financial aid. The drawback is they’ll probably have to work at least parttime to pay for school. “Damn! I wanted to go to college at Big School U and major in partying! How can I do that if I stay home and go to the local community college?” We continue to fund job training for people, but there is a void in technical jobs–ones that require math and science skills. Job training won’t fill those, only someone willing to make the effort on their own can succeed. You can lead a horse to water….

Yet all these programs are deemed essential, regardless of success. “If even one person has been helped it is worth it.” A wonderful sentiment, but not valid logic. How about trying something different which might help three? Progressives don’t believe in progress, and don’t tolerate non-conformists.

Liberals once decried the desire of conservatives to return to the values of the 1950s. Liberals are stuck in the 1960s, and conservatives and libertarians have passed them by.

February 6, 2004

Discrimination

Filed under: Society-Culture — Bunker @ 10:31 am

Here we go again. “Miramax Films co-chairman Harvey Weinstein said Thursday he believes the low Oscar-nomination count for “Cold Mountain” was due in part to stories in the U.S. press attacking the moviemakers’ decision to shoot the U.S. Civil War drama in Europe and not America.” He goes on to cite “American discrimination.”

Damn. I keep forgetting that in Hollywood, the only Americans are those in the film industry. You know, the ones always telling us how xenophobic and jingoistic we are.

Funny how these are the people who won’t nominate or vote for blacks to receive Oscars, and now didn’t nominate a movie filmed overseas. Yet they consider the rest of us to be bigots. They are also the ones telling us how wonderful Europe is, and how everyone there is smarter than we are.

Any bets on them changing?

Child Molestors

Filed under: General Rants — Bunker @ 8:46 am

“He’s such a good boy.”
“He’s always been so good with children.”
“I cannot imagine him ever doing something like that.”
“He even put up a sign in the neighborhood that says ‘Watch out for children playing’.”

An 11-year-old girl has been found dead. She was abducted and murdered. Now, the man in custody is remembered by family and neighbors with the same lines we’ve all heard many times before. Every defendant in a case such as this has similar things said about him/her.

Are people in total denial, or is someone like this simply smart enough to play the game before hand so people will say such things about him? We like to think the best of people, but there comes a time when it just isn’t right. Nobody wants to believe their neighbor is capable of such actions, but sometimes they are. Was he really turning his life around as some have said, or just waiting for an opportunity?

In cases like this, I believe there needs to be immediate justice. If found guilty, he needs to be executed soon after. Let the appeals process last no more than a month or two, then be done with it.

February 5, 2004

American Education

Filed under: Education — Bunker @ 4:53 pm

Education in this country is one of my main interests. Nobody can make it in this world without it. Yes, there have been some entrepreneurs who had success without formal education (Bill Lear and Tom Edison come to mind), but theirs are percentages of success so small as to be almost unmeasureable.

I worked as Commandant at a small private military school for a couple of years. We had grades 7-12, and junior college. Many of the high school kids were intelligent, but had no self-discipline. On the other hand, the junior college students were primarily Proposition 48 football and basketball players. That is, they were talented enough to play at a major NCAA Division I school, but didn’t have the grades and SAT/ACT scores to qualify. They had no self-discipline, either. And they had never been required by their school system to accomplish anything academically. Bad grades meant no sports.

The liberal answer to this quandry might be, “getting an athletic scholarship may be his only chance to get a college education.” My response is that they have no chance of getting a college education unless they first receive a high school education.

Most of these young men failed to finish their first year. As soon as their season was over, they had no interest in attending class. I taught a study skills class, and was amazed at how little most of them knew. As it became apparent their grades would be failing, they began to ask if they could do some extra credit work to bring them up.

It hit me–So, that’s how they made it through high school. They would go to the teacher, who would give them some simple tasks to accomplish, and that extra credit would get their grade high enough to allow them to play.

When they asked if they could do extra credit work, I agreed. I told them that as soon as they completed the work originally assigned, I’d be happy to give them extra work for extra credit. I generally got a look of disbelief. I’m sorry to say, they really didn’t disappoint me. Instead of doing the work they had, then asking for extra, they simply quit doing anything.

Some people may say I failed these students. Maybe they’re right. I don’t agree. The failure took place years before when these boys were allowed to progress (not a very good word for this) through school without having learned anything.

I had two offers to teach in high schools. The administrations of both schools wanted me for my knowledge, but also for my demeanor–you know, the mean old retired GI who could intimidate any high-schooler. There was one catch: I had to get my teaching certificate within three years. I told myself “no sweat”, and submitted my transcripts and resume to the local college that had a teacher program.

They required me to take another 22 hours of credit, including Speech 101. On top of that, I needed to pass the high school exit exam. I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering, and an MS in International Relations. I have taught as a military instructor both in the classroom and in flight. I have built entire curricula from scratch. I taught for two years at the Air Force Academy. I have coached kids from age 5 to college in baseball and football, including two years at one of these high schools. I have no doubt that there would be some piece of information in each of those eight classes they wanted me to take. But I just couldn’t see that the sum of what I would learn could fill even a single semester.

I’m not teaching.

I don’t think public school teachers are evil. You don’t go into that kind of job without caring. But a terrible lack of world vision hampers their personal education. Most graduate from high school, graduate from college, and begin teaching. It is hard for them to relate real-life issues, but they try. Most get some experience in the “outside world” working summer jobs, which puts them ahead of their counterparts at colleges.

It falls to them to give students an education many do not want. As a high school coach, I saw many athletes who thought colleges would just come looking for them. Their future was assured when some college coach recognized their talent. Every school in this country has twenty or thirty athletes who think they’ll get a full scholarship. The truth is, maybe one at each (on average) will. And the percentages are even smaller for being selected by the pros, let alone making a career as a pro.

I can’t criticize teachers too much because they deal with these realities.

But money is not the answer. What got me going on this is a post discussing education budgets. And there are links to stories similar to mine regarding teacher certification, as well as Professor Caroline Hoxby’s Papers on the Web which detail research into education.

In constant dollars, American school budgets have increased 300% since the 1960s. Where has that taken our education system? Down. In my ever-so-humble opinion, much of it has to do with the education level of teachers and administrators.

Teachers don’t earn a lot, but they are paid for nine months of work rather than twelve. On that basis, they are paid a fairly equitable salary. I will also say that it still isn’t enough. To progress on the pay scale, they must get continuing education credits and graduate degrees. They must move from teaching to administration. At schools of any size, the principal has a doctorate. The superintendent definitely does.

Dissertations must be based on original work. That means a doctoral candidate must find something obscure which hasn’t been done before. Once he/she does all that work, it would be a tremendous waste to not implement the results. And that’s where many new educational programs come from. And they displace solid academic effort which used to give students a basic, and useful, education.

Schools also continue to increase the number of “soft” courses with the admirable intent of broadening student interests. This would be a wonderful thing if the basic requirements of reading, writing, science, and arithmetic were being met. Apparently, they are not.

I have no silver bullet to slay this monster. But the gunpowder is certainly available: return to the core educational requirements defined in the 1950s and 1960s when students walked out of high school with a diploma that actually meant something.

Art

Filed under: Society-Culture — Bunker @ 11:30 am

It’s official: Janet Jackson is a performer who simply “pushed the envelope.”

Now I have a little issue with that. It seems to me that creativity isn’t doing something bizarre. Hell, anyone can do something out of the ordinary for the environment they’re in. What she and Justin Timberlake did (I wouldn’t even know his name except for the news coverage) required absolutely no creativity. It “pushed the envelope” of decency, and nothing more. It is no more artistic than grandpa making funny noises when you pull on his finger. Pushing the envelope is not creativity. Doing something new within the envelope is.

Artists, and I use that term very loosely, abound because it takes no talent to be one. A true artist makes us see things (visually or mentally) through impression that we might not see otherwise. It requires true creativity to put together the same eight musical notes as everyone else in a way that inspires the listener. Art is now self-defined. And there are plenty of high-brow folks looking down their noses at people who “don’t understand.” Let me give them a clue: Art is not about what an artist was feeling when he created it. Art is what feeling his work creates. If it creates a sense of “garbage”, it is garbage.

February 4, 2004

Texas Monthly

Filed under: Politics — Bunker @ 1:40 pm

Texas monthly is a very good magazine. I had a subscription, but it lapsed during my move two years ago. I still pick it up on the newsstand when I see it, though.

This month has two articles of real interest to me. One is by Paul Burka, a longtime writer for the magazine. He talks about how the George W. Bush he sees in Washington is different from the one he knew as Governor, and it isn’t complimentary in its comparison. Burka isn’t your basic far-left journalist, either. Well, compared to most Texans, perhaps he is a bit leftish. But nothing in comparison to someone like Molly Ivans.

I have to differ with Burka regarding when the “change” in Bush’s approach took place. Understand, Burka believes Bush has been hijacked by the right-wing Republicans. He sets the time of change during the 2000 campaign when Bush spoke at Bob Jones University. From that point on, he believes Bush has strayed to the right and abandoned the “peacemaker” role he filled here.

I believe Bush has gone the other way. He made a strong effort at unification. He closed down access to all White House records to de facto end inquiries into Clinton decisions. He ignored calls for investigations into allegations Clinton staffers had trashed the White House. He worked with Ted Kennedy–most liberal of liberals–to get an education program both sides could agree to. He got nothing in return from Democrats. If any change in Dubya’s persona occurred, this is when it happened.

The lack of non-partisanship (more accurate than saying bi-partisanship) on his part comes from Democrats angry over the election. In fact, Burka even implies Bush didn’t win, but was selected. The big split came on September 11, 2001. Bush displayed strong leadership. The country rallied around him–until Democrats realized if his support stayed strong, they’d be out of the White House until 2009. Then is when they really began to howl. He didn’t respond, and that made them even madder. Success in Afghanistan and Iraq irked them further.

Burka still admires Bush, but isn’t sure he’ll vote for him again. I think if he looked at things through a little different prism, he might.

The other article of interest is about freedom of the press, and how officials in Washington don’t share info with the press like they should. It hearkens back to the days after Watergate, when every reporter was trying to be the next Bob Woodward. Apparently it was a happy-go-lucky time in reporting, when the mission was to shed light on all the goings-on in DC for the general public. The article bemoans limited access, especially from the White House. The message is pretty clear: “How can we find and report anything bad about you if you don’t tell us what you’ve been doing wrong?”

I think the press has a sincere obligation to do some detective work and expose things that are wrong in our government. The problem is that they are selective. John Stossel found this out when he began investigating government corruption. People at ABC, he said, use the word “conservative” in much the same way as they say “child molestor.” When he attacked Republicans, all was right with the world. But pointing fingers at Democrats or liberal pet issues was forbidden.

Unfortunately, I think most journalists are sincere when they say they have no bias one way or another. There is no way to reach them and make them see quirks in a story which draw shaded judgements because these are truisms in their own minds. They believe they have delivered facts impartially. And, face it: Most journalists begin their education with a liberal frame of mind, and their education does little, if anything, to change it. Only if they are willing to confront contradictions in their experiences will they grow to see the other side clearly. That’s hard to do when you are surrounded by people of like mind. Peer pressure is tough.

Texas Monthly is online. The current month’s articles aren’t available, but past issues are. There are good reasons for reading it, regardless, because they have additional writing which illuminates some of the thoughts that go into putting the publication together.

If you’ve not read this magazine, and have any interest in Texas at all, I recommend you take a look (you must register).

Air Travel and the TSA

Filed under: General Rants — Bunker @ 8:12 am

My experience this weekend with the TSA airport screeners wasn’t nearly as bad as I’ve had in the past. There is little consistency in their operation. I have to admit, as a security measure, inconsistency can be a good thing.

The problem I have with them, as I guess just about everyone has, is that they are like our public school administrators–zero tolerance. The book says this, and they will do nothing that deviates from it, regardless of logic. Deviation would require judgement and decision-making.

My sister-in-law wanted to sit with us and have breakfast before departing from San Jose. We flew American and she was on Alaskan Air, which departed from a different terminal. She was a ticketed passenger, but couldn’t go through the checkpoint at our terminal. And, there was nowhere to eat at the airport outside the security area. So, she was turned away. The rules allow only ticketed passengers, but the TSA employees had difficulty with the concept that she had a boarding pass for a different terminal, so they made the safe choice–safe in terms of decision-making, not security. No amount of logical discussion would change their minds.

When I fly, I wear nothing with any metal at all. I don’t wear a belt, and wear slip-on shoes. This time I had on a windshirt which has tiny metal snaps on the sleeves. These have set off metal detectors before. Going through one detector, I crossed my arms to keep the ends as far from the detector as possible. The screener laughed when I showed him why. Going through another, I had my hands in my pockets. The screener chided me to take them out. So, I did and put them up to my face as in prayer. “Arms down to your sides!” I did, and explained about the snaps. “Then you’d have to take it off and go back through again!” Excellent people skills, and certainly security conscious.

I’ve gone through metal detectors set so sensitively that I set it off even though I had absolutely no metal on my person at all! At Hartford, I went through the shakedown after that, and the screener kept rubbing me with the wand and checking it against his watch because nothing was setting it off. All the time, my wallet and computer were sitting at the conveyor 20 feet away, and they wouldn’t allow me to retrieve them. I was getting belligerant, and a cop nearby snickered knowingly. When they finally asked me to roll the front of my pants over to check inside the waistband, I simply undid the plastic button, pulled down the nylon zipper, and opened wide. I was then released, but not allowed to get my personal items until I got my shoes back on. Fortunately, nobody else was getting through cleanly, so there was a pile of things untouched.

I find it true that the amount of authority a person will exercise is inversely proprtional to the amount he has. That is, people with little authority most relish its use. People with great authority seldom feel the need. This is certainly true of TSA employees. And that is the real danger. Using skill and experience to improve security is not part of their mindset. Judgement and personal evaluation of each situation is beyond the capability of many. But they know you are hostage, and enjoy the power.

Update: James Bovard has even more to say about this in Reason.

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