Wednesday -- January 26, 2005
THE LAST RHETORICAL REFUGE You've heard it in the hate-emails I love to read to you on my program. Leftists who can't cogently argue for their policy positions, or against those of conservatives or liberals, will resort to the "N" word. "N" for Nazi. In my 36 years of talk radio I have never heard one single person, prominent politician or regular citizen, use the "Nazi" word if they had any real ability to express their philosophical beliefs and differences in an understandable way. Just yesterday I read to you some emails from listeners and Nuze readers who don't appreciate my position on employers being free to either refuse to hire or to fire drug addicts --- addicts addicted to the drug nicotine. Here's an email I received from one Steve Benton, who, by the way, has an aol.com email address. "That's it. You're a complete idiot. You are using the same arguments that the Third Reich used when they banned smoking. So, it's OK to fire a smoker because they're 'stupid'. And they hate themselves. You are no Libertarian -- you are a closet nazi."
Steve wasn't done. Steve went on to make some rather negative observations about my romantic relationship with my wife, and to tell me that I was "effiminate" (sic) and had "girl lips." Yowie! Girl lips! Now .. go back to the archives and read yesterday's Nuze. What I said was that an employer should have the right to refuse to hire someone who will drive up health care costs for the rest of his employees. I also said that an employer has every right and reason not to hire someone whom he has reason to expect might not make an ideal employee. Common sense would tell you that a person who continuously engages in self-destructive behavior just might not make the best possible employee. Oops ... there I go sounding like a Nazi again! Then there's Ted Turner. Ted Turner is not what you might called thrilled with the surge of Fox News Channel in the cable television ratings. After all, CNN is Ted's baby. I can remember many, many moons ago sitting with Ted Turner at a private lunch at the Commerce Club in downtown Atlanta. At that time, the early 70's I think, I was hosting a television show on Turner's WTBS. Turner sat there at lunch and told me of his plans for a cable television news service. I nodded politely and tried to keep my elbows off the table. Little did I know the level of success that Turner would achieve with his dream. Now that success is sullied by the growing popularity of Fox News Channel ... and Ted is torqued, and Ted felt the need to go on the attack against Fox News. So, attack Ted did ... at the National Association for Television Programming Executives meeting in Las Vegas.
In attacking Fox News I suspect Ted is faced with the same problem that my more liberal listeners have faced for the entirety of 2004. In January of 2004 I challenged my listeners to watch Fox News carefully and to call my show with any evidence of any right-wing bias in the presentation of news stories on any Fox News program. Obviously you will find bias on the opinion programs, that's to be expected. But my challenge dealt with the presentation of actual news stories. Well, the entire year went by with repeated goading from me, and not one listener ever made one phone call or sent one email which illustrated even one instance of right wing bias in the presentation of news stories on the Fox News Channel. Not one. Turner faces a similar dilemma. He has no examples either, so what does he do? He does exactly what our friend Steve did! He goes the "Nazi" route! Yesterday Ted Turner was out there in front of God and all those people comparing the Fox News Channel, and it's superior ratings, to Hitler! Yeah, Ted says, Hitler was popular with the people too! So, Ted Turner is comparing people who watch Fox News Channel instead of CNN to the people who put Hitler in power in Germany! I particularly like the response to Ted's tirade from the Fox News Channel spokesman: "Ted Turner is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind. We wish him well." So do I, Ted. Enjoyed the lunch. Oh .. one more thing. "Nazi" is actually an acronym for the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Ted Turner has publicly stated that he is a socialist. Hmmmmmm. Nazis were socialists ... Ted Turner is a socialist ....... Oh well, never mind. PARANOIA REIGNS
Oregon State University and the Rand Corporation have conducted a study on blacks and AIDS. Get this: Fifty-three percent of black Americans think that a cure for the AIDS virus has been found, but that it is being deliberately withheld from the poor. What's more, 48% of blacks think that the virus is man-made. Of that 48% who believe the AIDS virus is man-made, 27% think it was created in a government laboratory; 16% believe the virus was created to control the black population; 15% think it's a form of black genocide, and 12% think it was created and spread by the CIA. BOYCOTTING MCGRAW HILL
You have heard this one, haven't you? We have more than 100 professors at colleges and universities across the country who are boycotting McGraw Hill textbooks. They have an online petition somewhere. Yes, I'm looking for it, but haven't found it just yet. Petition. So, what has these professor's beards in a knot? They say that McGraw Hill has been "demonstrating a willingness to sacrifice the well-being of youth for profit and further ingraining oppressive beliefs." Well now. That seems pretty serious, doesn't it? I wonder what the evil textbook writers at McGraw Hill have done to create such a reaction? It seems that the McGraw Hill textbooks have made the grievous error of defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman. I don't really think I need to say any more here either. Just remember ... these are the people who are preparing your children for their careers. ANOTHER BLACK EYE
 Maggie Gallagher | Remember the Armstrong Williams flap earlier this month? In simple terms, we learned that the Bush Administration paid a company controlled by Armstrong Williams about $250,000 so that Williams would promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act in his columns and on his television show. Not good. Williams has apologized .. and has lost his syndicated column. Well ... it's happened again. Drudge is reporting this morning that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher signed a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to promote Bush's $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families. (Do we really need to spend $300 million to promote this?) Gallagher says that it never occurred to her that she should disclose the payment when she wrote in favor of Bush's policy objective. Sad ... really sad. We'll let you know when Gallagher regains her credibility. RECORD DEFICIT? HARDLY
The mainstream media and the Democrats have now set into motion their latest cause: the rising budget deficit. Their position, either implied or stated outright, is that President George W. Bush has personally led the United States into fiscal ruin. Apparently they believe, had Al Gore won in 2000, we wouldn't have such a large deficit.
Wrong on both counts. First of all, while the president does propose budgets, Congress authorizes and spends every penny. Second, George Bush is not responsible for the recession he inherited, nor is he responsible for the Islamic terror attack on 9/11 that started the war on terror. In both cases, those situations developed on Bill Clinton's watch. So it's important to put the blame where it lies.
It's also important to note that as a percentage of GDP, the deficit is still not as large as it has been in the past. It is not the "largest deficit ever," as the media wants you to believe. By the way, for the benefit of those of you educated in government schools, GDP means gross domestic product, or the total value of goods and services produced in the United States in a given year. In 1946 the deficit was 7.2% of GDP, while today's deficit is about half that. Hardly a record. Not even close.
So do the president and the Congress bear responsibility for the overspending that leads to budget deficits? Absolutely. But here's where the difference lies. Democrats will jump up and down and scream about the deficit, but they never say what they'll do to reduce government spending. Their one and only solution to deficit spending is to raise taxes. Democrats worship at the alter of high taxes. Nothing has changed there. Whenever you hear a politician talking about the problems of the deficit, grab your wallet and run. Because it means one thing and one thing only: they want to raise your taxes to "pay for" their overspending, rather than reign it in. Of course, the media never calls them on it.
They're too busy Bush-bashing to bring up any facts. Anyway, now you know the skinny on this deficit business.
ISLAMIC MURDERERS THREATEN HOSTAGE
So you've been sitting in front of your TV for the past 2 years since the United States invaded Iraq and you may be having second thoughts. You might think things aren't going so well. Perhaps this war wasn't worth fighting. Maybe it's time to cut and run. Just pull the plug and take a walk.
The latest hostage video should give you pause. Fifty-six-year-old Roy Hallums was shown in a video released yesterday with the barrel of a gun pointed at his head. He was pleading for his life. On the other end of that gun was an Islamic terrorist, our sworn enemy in the War on Terror. Unfortunately, if recent history is any guide, Mr. Hallums won't make it.
One of these thugs will tie him up, thrown him to the ground, hold him down with their foot and cut his head off. All of this will happen while the camera rolls and Mr. Hallums screams.
Now think about what we're fighting over there and realize that we have no choice but to defeat the evil that Islamic terrorism represents. There is no other choice. Retreat will be seen as weakness ... and weakness will bring a reign of death at the hands of these Islamic goons.
WHAT WE NEED IS MORE BLACK ADVISORY BOARDS
Lee County, Florida has a Black Advisory Board. I haven't checked, but I'll wager that there is no White Advisory Board in Lee County. The Black Advisory Board had a meeting, and have now come up with a nifty little idea that will make life better for blacks in Lee County. Just change Lee County's name to something else. Lee County, you see, was named after Robert E. Lee. That particular Lee was a Confederate General. The Lee County Black Advisory Board probably believes, as most Americans incorrectly believe, that the war between the states was fought to free slaves. So .. if you can just get Robert E. Lee's name off the county letterhead life will improve for Lee County blacks almost instantly. As soon as the Lee County Black Advisory Board gets the name changed, they can concentrate on looking for anything else in Lee County that was named after a Confederate officer or a slave holder. Ft. Myers is in Lee County. Was Ft. Myers used by Confederate troops? If so .. maybe another name change there. READING ASSIGNMENTS
I love bringing you stories like this ... so it's the lead in our reading assignments. Two teenagers walk into a grocery store. They pulled out a gun to rob the store. Both of these teenagers have been removed from the gene pool. The perfect ending. The remembrance of the Holocaust at the UN this week strikes columnist Mark Steyn as a bit disingenuous. He calls the whole thing an act.
Attorney General-designate Alberto Gonzales is supremely qualified for the position, but unfortunately, says Senator John Cornyn, the Bush-haters on the left are choosing the play politics.
Some may think the administration is back-pedaling on President Bush's freedom inaugural speech, but James Pinkerton says don't believe any of it. Bush is going full-speed ahead.
There have been two big breakthroughs leading up to the elections in Iraq. Ralph Peters tells us what they are, and explains their significance.
A columnist with the London Times wrote that "America's might is draining away." Nonsense, says Victor Davis Hanson who explains that we've heard it all before.
In speaking about freedom and democracy, was George Bush proposing that the United States invade every non-free country? Not at all, says John O'Sullivan, who explains that the speech wasn't any sort of threat of force.
The media continues to ignore the successes of the United States in Iraq. First up, ABC. The Media Research Center reports.
You often hear politicians talk about creating and saving jobs. But Walter Williams describes how doing any such thing is a recipe for disaster. A little economics lesson coming your way from the good Dr.
Liberals love to say that Islamic terrorists hate us because of our foreign policy. Jonah Goldberg has a better idea: how about taking Musab Al-Zarqawi at his word when he says it's because he hates democracy?
Think the Department of Homeland Security has improved its immigration policies since 9/11? Not a chance, as Michelle Malkin recounts another recent blunder. |