World is worse off than most realize - Rant 2

Recently in this space it was written that the world is in a dither.

Wrong! It’s worst than in a dither. It’s in a state of uncontrolled chaos. You know, like California, only worse.

Where did we go wrong-headed … as individuals, as a country, as a world? That’s not rhetorical; common sense people demand answers!

Need examples? No problem. The daily news is full of them.

An 18-old-year idiot forced his 18-month-old niece to smoke marijuana … and videotaped himself in the act. Ten years in prison was the sentence. Should have been life with daily beatings with a graphite fly rod. Wielded by a prisoner nicknamed “The Lone Whipper.”

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi gave a 90-minute speech to the United Nations. In the speech, the murderer, terrorist-protector, and dictator backed the United States’ war on terrorism, called the United Nations Security Council “the terror council” and pantomimed tearing up a card containing the UN charter.

In a rambling look-at-how-well-I-come-across-on-the-international-stage speech, Gadhafi called for an “era of engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect” and referred to President Obama as “our son Obama.”

This is the same Gadhafi who last month extended a hero’s welcome to the Lockerbie bomber after his release in Scotland. Why would anyone want to listen to him say anything?

NFL star player Plaxico Burress was sentenced to prison. For once, a football player did not make headlines for shooting someone that mattered. Burress shot himself. In the leg. In a crowded club.

NBA guard Delonte West was arrested for gun possession. At least he wasn’t packing in a game. He was pulled over for speeding and officers found two loaded guns on his person (one strapped to his leg) and a loaded shotgun in a guitar case.

What’s he trying to do? Prove he’s a shooting guard?

Banks have been skewering customers with hefty, and possibly illegal, overdraft fees. After the bankified Ponti scheme was brought to light, three major banks said, “Calf rope!” and promised not to screw customers to the fiscal wall any longer.

Until next time.

Both sides in the political debate on health care reform are lying. Democrats who support the basic administration plan say it’s not Pollyanna to seek utopia in health care; anti-Obamaites claim socialism is the underlying cause of this president’s reform package.

The “for” backers are not looking at the big picture … the overall global economy that is still in recovery. The “aginners” are not looking at the true need for reform, something that has not been addressed in the past 10 years.

Still mired in Afghanistan with no sight of an end to the War That More Than Likely is Not Winnable, the United States military is now calling for even more troops. Why doesn’t someone in power check with Russia on how that worked for them in years past?

Police broke up a dog fighting ring. The big news is not a single NFL player was arrested in connection with the bust, and it was located in an Illinois day care center.

Despite “No Child Left Behind” and federal and state mandates to improve education, it is still, overall, in the throes of “The Sky of Falling” mode. The system is broken, district by district, state by state, and the system has to be changed in order to change the end result.

The public has to demand a system that pays teachers what they are worth, evaluates and gets rid of teachers that can’t teach or motivate students, moves emphasis from athletics to academics, and works to inspire students from the earliest grades to graduate high school and get additional education … college or technical school.

And, how was your day?

World's worse off than most realize-Rant 1

Get out of that dither!

Have you noticed? Everybody is in a dither.

While it seems today as if President Obama is the touchstone for constant controversy and strife and uncivil behavior and heartburn conflict, that’s not the case.

It’s the economy, Stupid!

Obama is president and, for some reason, we tend to blame the president in general – and the whole mass of politicos, in particular -- for everything wrong in our collective and individual lives. If the economy was better, if unemployment was higher, if the stock market was on a steady upturn, everything would be peachy.

Obama can be blamed for a room-sized throw rug of ills, from trying to make too many changes in a short amount of time, to thinking just because he got elected he had a mandate for myriad changes, to having priorities for his administration that might not be in the best interest of the entire country at this particular point in time.

But, he can’t be blamed for the ACORN mess. The problems with that so-called, grassroots activist organization, did not start last January when Obama took office. Those same problems that are the gotcha!-craze of the television journalism set today were going on during the eight years of George W. Bush, and the entire administration years of Bill Clinton … and on backward for the entire 30-plus years of the organization.

Getting its start in Little Rock as an offshoot of the NWRO (National Welfare Rights Organization), ACORN started small with incredibly simple and good goals: Provide clothing and furniture to low-income people.

Know what ACORN stands for? Arkansas Community Organization for Reform Now. The name does not exactly paint the picture of the pious rule-breakers seen on TV, now does it?

Face it, folks, ACORN is no different than other do-gooder organizations in the liberal, middle-of-the-road, or conservative camps. Those types of organizations are set up for a certain agenda and have to, unfortunately, hire people. When people are involved in just about any endeavor, personal agendas, foibles and mental faux pas are introduced.

People plus power plus money. Voila! It’s a recipe for deceit and fraud, a grab for personal gain and accolades, and, while some good comes out of such endeavors, the perception of the good can be washed away in a tide of untidy, tawdry revelations.

ACORN’s good works, like those of the Boy Scouts, Red Cross, United Way and other organizations that have great roots and the occasional rotten branch or two, will be forgotten while those that delight in publicly punishing those whom they declare sinners – especially those of a different political ilk.

For those with a political agenda, it’s never enough to weed out the bad apples at the core of any scandal. They have to turn over the entire barrel.

Politics. What an ugly profession.