Columbia's Recent "Protest"

I guess there are protests and then there are protests. In one, you respect the rights of those that you disagree with. In the other, you behave like an immature, oafish weenie.

The recent protest at Columbia in NYC falls into the second category. Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minutemen, was invited to speak on campus by the college Republican party. While he was at the podium, students rushed the stage, kicked and threw punches at him, and shut down his speech by their general hooliganism.

It doesn't matter if you disagree with Gilchrist's philosophy, that kind of reaction is wrong. An essential part of democracy is freedom of speech, and our democracy allows many ways to disagree with the results of freedom of speech in order to leaven that particular freedom.

Behaving like immature, oafish weenies (that subsequently shouldn't be qualified to scoop up duck poop once they graduate with their worthless Columbia degrees) is not one of those ways.

If you're interested in watching video of the event, here it is.

Hastert Should Resign...They Should All Resign

I think we have two parties in Congress: the Dumb Party and the Stupid Party. The recent behavior of Rep Foley is sickening and intensely disturbing, but what's new in terms of stupid, idiotic behavior?

A great deal of those Representatives and Senators consistently behave in stupid and idiotic ways. Case in point, they spend other people's money like there's no tomorrow, like rabid ladies out on shopping sprees, clutching their fistfuls of credit cards in their sweaty hands.

My wife and I are attending a Crown Ministries Bible Study, which is all about financial stewardship. One of the basic ideas in the course is that how you relate to and deal with money indicates a lot about you and your relationship with God (or lack thereof). If you can't spend ten bucks wisely (or not spend it), then you have some serious issues. We're talking ten bucks, not ten billion.

As I said, the Dumb Party and the Stupid Party...

The Kids From Brazil

My brother and his family are up visiting from the Amazon. He works down there as a bush-pilot. Floatplane. His children, who range in age from three to thirteen, are equally comfortable in the jungle as they are in plain old California. Very interesting kids. Very interesting perspective on life.

I think more Americans should go live in third-world countries for a spell. It would make us all more grateful for the cereal aisle in our grocery stores.