Recently I keep hearing this debate over the controversy of a pro-life commercial that is being produced by Focus on the Family. Tim Tebow and his story of nearly being aborted is the message of the commercial. Only in the United States of hope I don't offend a liberal American is this a story. Yes once again liberal advocacy groups are trying everything they can to not have this commercial shown. Its against my freedom to choose. What freedom to choose? There is nothing in the Constitution about that. There isn't anything in the Constitution about freedom of speech being tampered with either EXCEPT for by congress. The Constitution limits congress' ability to restrict your speech and since the government has absolutely nothing to do with this commercial, only a ignorant historian or Constitutionalists would even bring that up.
CBS can show any commercial they want. I don't remember Focus on the Family coming out and complaining about alcohol commercials. And if A Christian advocacy group did come out about something like that, Outside the Lines and other news sources would not be covering the story. But since liberals feel offended I seriously have to hear about this "controversy".
Sometimes it makes you think that if our nation truly had an open discussion about Abortion that more people might be persuaded to be against it. Maybe these liberals are afraid of that.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Dwight Lewis and Racism
Most of you do not know who Dwight Lewis is and I did not either until 5 minutes ago. He is a writer in The Tennessean newspaper. He recently wrote an article saying that a black person still can not get a job coaching at the University of Tennessee. To be honest it is understandable that people would have these opinions due to the years of government supported racism and prejudice in our country (such as all other countries have experienced at one point). But why can we just not look at the situation itself and put previous feelings aside.
The University of Tennessee has had very few coaches in previous years. Johnny Majors, Philip Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, and now Derek Dooley. Tennessee thus can not be said to have a history of passing over blacks to be their coaches since they have only hired two people outside the Tennessee family in the past 30 some years or more. Most people will say that Mike Hamilton's Athletic Department Director position is on the line with this hiring. Do you think Mike Hamilton cares so little about his job that he would pass over a more highly qualified coach just because he was black when his job is on the line? I would assume he would hire the best possible candidate. Besides reports say he offered Lovie Smith the job. Last time I checked he was black. And he is far more qualified than Derek Dooley or Kippy Brown. But Dooley is more qualified than Brown.
We can accept the fact that Blacks play sports more than whites at the highest of levels. And I have written before about the reasons why. Many blacks pursue individual achievement due to family structures growing up more often than white people. They are not more selfish but they feel better about following individual accomplishment and not depending on others because they have had to do it all their life more often than white people (Divorce Rates, premarital birth rates, etc). Thus they pursue art (music) and basketball/football and they spend far more time working at it. They often play basketball till dark in the playground while whites are playing video games. I don't think the NBA or NFL or NCAA is racist. I think they understand how to run a business and thus recruit the better athletes. More times than not that is a black person. Whites choose occupations more often than not that allow people to work together and pursue occupations that are group oriented such as education, etc. Thus more are prepared to coach. In fact many white people are not as athletic and thus have to use coaching mentalities more often in order to have success against more athletic players. Thus their life prepares them for coaching and they don't even realize it.
Lets stop with the racism thing everytime a white person gets picked over a black person for a coaching job. It might have everything to do with performance and not color. Especially when the decision makers job is on the line. I would assume they would do everything they could to make the right choice.
The University of Tennessee has had very few coaches in previous years. Johnny Majors, Philip Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, and now Derek Dooley. Tennessee thus can not be said to have a history of passing over blacks to be their coaches since they have only hired two people outside the Tennessee family in the past 30 some years or more. Most people will say that Mike Hamilton's Athletic Department Director position is on the line with this hiring. Do you think Mike Hamilton cares so little about his job that he would pass over a more highly qualified coach just because he was black when his job is on the line? I would assume he would hire the best possible candidate. Besides reports say he offered Lovie Smith the job. Last time I checked he was black. And he is far more qualified than Derek Dooley or Kippy Brown. But Dooley is more qualified than Brown.
We can accept the fact that Blacks play sports more than whites at the highest of levels. And I have written before about the reasons why. Many blacks pursue individual achievement due to family structures growing up more often than white people. They are not more selfish but they feel better about following individual accomplishment and not depending on others because they have had to do it all their life more often than white people (Divorce Rates, premarital birth rates, etc). Thus they pursue art (music) and basketball/football and they spend far more time working at it. They often play basketball till dark in the playground while whites are playing video games. I don't think the NBA or NFL or NCAA is racist. I think they understand how to run a business and thus recruit the better athletes. More times than not that is a black person. Whites choose occupations more often than not that allow people to work together and pursue occupations that are group oriented such as education, etc. Thus more are prepared to coach. In fact many white people are not as athletic and thus have to use coaching mentalities more often in order to have success against more athletic players. Thus their life prepares them for coaching and they don't even realize it.
Lets stop with the racism thing everytime a white person gets picked over a black person for a coaching job. It might have everything to do with performance and not color. Especially when the decision makers job is on the line. I would assume they would do everything they could to make the right choice.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
What a Sad Day
Today the Senate voted 60-39 to pass an overhaul healthcare bill that can and will change healthcare for the worse in our country. This is the first time that such an overhaul has been passed in our nation. Medicare mostly affects older people, Medicaid mostly does poor people, but this will affect us all.
It is sad that the U.S. Legislative Branch can pass such an expensive bill that strengthens the power of government far beyond what the Constitution allows. Now nearly if not more than 70% of what government does in this country is unconstitutional. In other words illegal according to our highest order of law in this country (Constitution). This is a power grab that could put Democrats out of power come mid-term elections. They are hinging their bets on the hope that the population that is helped by this will always vote for them and thus when added with those who are already die hard democrats it could keep them in power for years to come. I'm hoping that an ignorant American population will be more intelligent than I believe and will oust them in less than one year from now.
At a time when Europe is moving towards traditional American ways of life(although a long ways to go) and away from the larger federal government controls of their nations, the United States led by the Obama Administration and his liberal friends are moving America towards what Europe has already discovered to be disasterous.
More details about the bill and what I and others who are far more intelligent than I am later.
It is sad that the U.S. Legislative Branch can pass such an expensive bill that strengthens the power of government far beyond what the Constitution allows. Now nearly if not more than 70% of what government does in this country is unconstitutional. In other words illegal according to our highest order of law in this country (Constitution). This is a power grab that could put Democrats out of power come mid-term elections. They are hinging their bets on the hope that the population that is helped by this will always vote for them and thus when added with those who are already die hard democrats it could keep them in power for years to come. I'm hoping that an ignorant American population will be more intelligent than I believe and will oust them in less than one year from now.
At a time when Europe is moving towards traditional American ways of life(although a long ways to go) and away from the larger federal government controls of their nations, the United States led by the Obama Administration and his liberal friends are moving America towards what Europe has already discovered to be disasterous.
More details about the bill and what I and others who are far more intelligent than I am later.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Random Thougts
I have not blogged as often lately due to my distraction from the political landscape and my position as a head basketball coach which is time consuming and more fatiguing than I thought it would be.
I have read some interesting books of late though. One of these includes: Black Rednecks and White Liberals. The title is a bit misleading until you read the book. It is one of my favorite. I put off reading it due to the cover and title for a couple years. This proves don't judge a book by its cover. I"m reading a book about one of my favorite world leaders ever- Winston Churchill. I'm also reading a book full of letters written by our nation's founding fathers to their wives and friends. Its interesting being in the minds of some of the greatest people in our nation's history. If we all could read their letter we would all be better people and better writers.
I just read and deleted some "notes" that I had written a couple years ago on facebook when I first started the "blog" thing. I look back and realize how little I knew then, although I thought I knew a lot. I now know a lot. But I will only be successful if I can look back in a few years and read my current blog and realize I did not know a lot. (think about it).
The hardest thing to do is teach kids something that they don't learn as quickly as you learned it. We tend to judge people by our own achievements and strengths. If we judged people with our weaknesses in mind, oh how much we would love one another.
I thought John Wooden was wrong when he said he never spoke about winning and losing and only playing your best and if you do that then your always a winner. I always valued winning over everything. I hate losing. But so did John Wooden. He just viewed it from a different perspective. I coach a boys basketball team that has played about 10 games against teams that have starting lineups that average a combined 25 inches and 150 pounds in size advantage. That is like Bryan College against Duke every game. We have only played 2 games that our team could have a legit chance of winning if we had played our best. I now understand why John Wooden viewed it they way he did.
I have read some interesting books of late though. One of these includes: Black Rednecks and White Liberals. The title is a bit misleading until you read the book. It is one of my favorite. I put off reading it due to the cover and title for a couple years. This proves don't judge a book by its cover. I"m reading a book about one of my favorite world leaders ever- Winston Churchill. I'm also reading a book full of letters written by our nation's founding fathers to their wives and friends. Its interesting being in the minds of some of the greatest people in our nation's history. If we all could read their letter we would all be better people and better writers.
I just read and deleted some "notes" that I had written a couple years ago on facebook when I first started the "blog" thing. I look back and realize how little I knew then, although I thought I knew a lot. I now know a lot. But I will only be successful if I can look back in a few years and read my current blog and realize I did not know a lot. (think about it).
The hardest thing to do is teach kids something that they don't learn as quickly as you learned it. We tend to judge people by our own achievements and strengths. If we judged people with our weaknesses in mind, oh how much we would love one another.
I thought John Wooden was wrong when he said he never spoke about winning and losing and only playing your best and if you do that then your always a winner. I always valued winning over everything. I hate losing. But so did John Wooden. He just viewed it from a different perspective. I coach a boys basketball team that has played about 10 games against teams that have starting lineups that average a combined 25 inches and 150 pounds in size advantage. That is like Bryan College against Duke every game. We have only played 2 games that our team could have a legit chance of winning if we had played our best. I now understand why John Wooden viewed it they way he did.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Making the right argument
It bugs me to hear some people that I agree with on an issue debate using certain arguments. Even if they are right in their thinking and even if they have a good argument lets use the best argument possible to defeat something we do not like. Lets not argue that the new healthcare bill will drop or deplete some of the current benefits of Senior Citizens. Lets talk about the effects of healthcare on all of society in terms of rationing care and the effects on the production of new drugs and medicines. We know the rationing and lessening of production can be traced back to socialized government ran healthcare systems which do not motivate innovation of new drugs. Lets argue whether it is constitutional for the federal government to even take on such a task instead of talking about the deficit although that is a very important problem.
When arguing against gay marriage lets not only argue about the morality, but the Constitution. Does the Constitution of the U.S. say anything about marriage? No. So lets leave it up to the states. Do the state constitutions say anything about it? if not lets put it to a vote. If it is not in a constitution of any sort then judges should have zero say so. Lets not just talk about rights and equal rights and blah blah blah this is evil sin and so forth. Good argument. I believe homosexuality is not right in the eyes of God. But that argument does not work with all people. So lets educate ourselves better so that people don't close off their ears to us immediately. Lets try to debate them over on the obvious issues of Constitutions and what "rights" are truly granted in any constitution (most rights are protected and not granted since our founders believed our rights were 'inalienable' meaning cannot be created nor destroyed). Then when we have shown ourselves to not me radical theocratic then we can witness and maybe when them over on the morality issue. I'm not talking about the pulpit either. I'm all about preaching right and wrong from there. But in the public forum lets try to win as many on the issues as possible and not shun anyone out by jumping straight to the Christianity argument although I totally agree with it.
I'm just saying as Christians lets show that we love our country that God has blessed so much with and because we love it we know more about it and as Christians we read more than just the Bible because we are well rounded individuals. How many of us really do this?
When arguing against gay marriage lets not only argue about the morality, but the Constitution. Does the Constitution of the U.S. say anything about marriage? No. So lets leave it up to the states. Do the state constitutions say anything about it? if not lets put it to a vote. If it is not in a constitution of any sort then judges should have zero say so. Lets not just talk about rights and equal rights and blah blah blah this is evil sin and so forth. Good argument. I believe homosexuality is not right in the eyes of God. But that argument does not work with all people. So lets educate ourselves better so that people don't close off their ears to us immediately. Lets try to debate them over on the obvious issues of Constitutions and what "rights" are truly granted in any constitution (most rights are protected and not granted since our founders believed our rights were 'inalienable' meaning cannot be created nor destroyed). Then when we have shown ourselves to not me radical theocratic then we can witness and maybe when them over on the morality issue. I'm not talking about the pulpit either. I'm all about preaching right and wrong from there. But in the public forum lets try to win as many on the issues as possible and not shun anyone out by jumping straight to the Christianity argument although I totally agree with it.
I'm just saying as Christians lets show that we love our country that God has blessed so much with and because we love it we know more about it and as Christians we read more than just the Bible because we are well rounded individuals. How many of us really do this?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Learning on the job something I already believed...
I have had the impression that if you teach kids and expect a lot and quite frankly demand a lot, you will get a lot out of the kids as long as you explain why you expect a lot. Today's education "experts" would disagree with that notion and thus one education "expert" at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga told me to find a new hobby and give up being a teacher. I told her off and told her I disagree with the liberal mindset of teaching and we'll see how I do. Now I lost my first teaching job but the reports were that my kids liked me and well they scored higher on the standardized test than the other social studies teachers at my school and to be honest... I thought a lot of my social studies department there. So I am proud of that. I lost my job because I was tough on basketball kids most people believe. I said I would not change my mentality although I will continue to try and improve my coaching methods.
And now I have a bunch of middle school basketball players. They have not won a game in over a year and only won one or two a couple years before and have not won more than one or two for a few years now. We still have not won a game (of course we have only played three legit games). But I came down hard on these guys. I demand a lot. Throughout practice I just send the guys running all the time because they are not being productive at that time. I'm not punishing them I'm "disciplining" them. And our practices are physical now. I yell a lot. I encourage too but there is not a lot of that going on because we have not been executing what I want. But our boys are practicing and playing hard. I asked them today if they have liked recent practices because I have picked it up a notch and have gotten that much tougher. They said yes we love it.
Don't tell me today's kids are different. Don't tell me you have to be soft on these kids and can't expect a lot. That is insulting to them and I have told them that. In fact I tell them the more I yell at them the more they should feel flattered. Because that means I expect a lot from them... And lately and I believe in the future... I will be getting a lot..
And now I have a bunch of middle school basketball players. They have not won a game in over a year and only won one or two a couple years before and have not won more than one or two for a few years now. We still have not won a game (of course we have only played three legit games). But I came down hard on these guys. I demand a lot. Throughout practice I just send the guys running all the time because they are not being productive at that time. I'm not punishing them I'm "disciplining" them. And our practices are physical now. I yell a lot. I encourage too but there is not a lot of that going on because we have not been executing what I want. But our boys are practicing and playing hard. I asked them today if they have liked recent practices because I have picked it up a notch and have gotten that much tougher. They said yes we love it.
Don't tell me today's kids are different. Don't tell me you have to be soft on these kids and can't expect a lot. That is insulting to them and I have told them that. In fact I tell them the more I yell at them the more they should feel flattered. Because that means I expect a lot from them... And lately and I believe in the future... I will be getting a lot..
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Quiet Majority
Today nearly nothing makes me more angry than to hear someone say that their voice means nothing. Now this statement can be true in many instances. But when that voice is part of a major majority group who is afraid to speak up, than that "quiet majority" appears to be a minority and people in charge making decisions may decide to make the "loud minority" that appears to be the majority happy. I have explained this effect on my life just a year ago.
Most people in the country would not mind if Rush Limbaugh had owned just some 5% of the St. Louis Rams. But because that was a quiet majority and the loud minority said "NO!" the NFL pressured the other people in the group to get rid of Rush. I was watching a NFL program the other day and the music they played, licensed by the NFL, was a song from Marylin Manson. So it is ok to have a man who publicly urinates on the Bible, a book that a large majority in America form their religion from not to mention our laws are in large part based from, to have his music used for the NFL but someone who vocalizes something that many people were debating next to the water cooler can not own just 5% of one franchise?
Most people in America are against Gay marriage and recently that was proven on the Ballot in Maine a state that is not necessarily one of the more conservative states. In fact I don't know of one state where "marriage" has been allowed when put up for a vote. But in states where they allow judges and legislatures vote they often choose the side of the minority. This because that minority is the loudest.
I doubt most Americans would care if we stereotyped people at airports when checking baggage. In other words for those people who are much like the groups who have committed terrorist attacks against our nation, maybe pay closer attention to them. Most do this anyways. In fact I believe it was Jesse Jackson who has said that he is nervous walking on the side of a street in a city at night when he hears footsteps behind him... until he turns around and sees that it is a group of "white" people and he is relieved that is was not "black" people. That might sound racist but Jackson was stereotyping the situation but since he is Black himself he is not portrayed racist.
Most would not have mind if a member of the U.S. military would have reported that the recent man who murdered over a dozen people and injured nearly three dozen had said controversial statements. But many would be afraid since the man is Muslim that they would be shun down for being "racist" and those in charge are probably hesitant to investigate the situation due to the same charges. In fact there was an investigation that was going on. I wonder if that investigation was ever at all held up in delay due to not wanting to offend someone due to their religion or ethnicity? Either way I doubt the majority of Americans would have mind. But since us majority of conservative Christians choose to be silent... we look like a minority. So speak up!
Most people in the country would not mind if Rush Limbaugh had owned just some 5% of the St. Louis Rams. But because that was a quiet majority and the loud minority said "NO!" the NFL pressured the other people in the group to get rid of Rush. I was watching a NFL program the other day and the music they played, licensed by the NFL, was a song from Marylin Manson. So it is ok to have a man who publicly urinates on the Bible, a book that a large majority in America form their religion from not to mention our laws are in large part based from, to have his music used for the NFL but someone who vocalizes something that many people were debating next to the water cooler can not own just 5% of one franchise?
Most people in America are against Gay marriage and recently that was proven on the Ballot in Maine a state that is not necessarily one of the more conservative states. In fact I don't know of one state where "marriage" has been allowed when put up for a vote. But in states where they allow judges and legislatures vote they often choose the side of the minority. This because that minority is the loudest.
I doubt most Americans would care if we stereotyped people at airports when checking baggage. In other words for those people who are much like the groups who have committed terrorist attacks against our nation, maybe pay closer attention to them. Most do this anyways. In fact I believe it was Jesse Jackson who has said that he is nervous walking on the side of a street in a city at night when he hears footsteps behind him... until he turns around and sees that it is a group of "white" people and he is relieved that is was not "black" people. That might sound racist but Jackson was stereotyping the situation but since he is Black himself he is not portrayed racist.
Most would not have mind if a member of the U.S. military would have reported that the recent man who murdered over a dozen people and injured nearly three dozen had said controversial statements. But many would be afraid since the man is Muslim that they would be shun down for being "racist" and those in charge are probably hesitant to investigate the situation due to the same charges. In fact there was an investigation that was going on. I wonder if that investigation was ever at all held up in delay due to not wanting to offend someone due to their religion or ethnicity? Either way I doubt the majority of Americans would have mind. But since us majority of conservative Christians choose to be silent... we look like a minority. So speak up!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
