Author: Prof. Ornery

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Fix It…

A pile of buttons that say vote and 2024

Kamala Harris’ campaign slogan is “A New Way Forward.” I find this fascinating because it implies that the last almost four years are NOT the correct “way forward.” And that’s not even getting into how much that slogan matches the slogans put out by the Soviets and the Chinese Communist Party (that’s a story for another post). Harris and her campaign are trying to convince voters that the problems of the last four years are… checks notes… Trump’s fault. Yes, they are trying to blame a man who hasn’t been in office since January of 2021, for everything that has happened since he left office.

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Censorship, Speech, and Calling the Cops

Man holding newspaper with headline the world is changing. A red censored stamp is over the newspaper.

I am very aware that people who believe they will disagree with my comments/statements/arguments will most likely not read my posts because they already know they won’t like them. However, I will continue to write posts with the aim of trying to persuade someone to rethink their political beliefs or stances. I know that many people find politics to be extremely stressful and disconnected from their day-to-day lives. However, if you do not pay attention to politics, at some point politics will start to pay attention to you, and I can guaran-damn-tee you won’t like what it does next to you, your family, and your day-to-day life. Especially in times like what we are currently experiencing.

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Arguing vs. Venting Emotions

silhouettes of people talking

Screaming your emotions at somebody is NOT arguing. How many times have you found yourself in an argument or discussion and realized that either the other person, or you, are arguing/commenting from a place of fact-free, analysis-free, and logic-free emotion? I know I’ve done it, and I catch myself doing it still (less often, but it creeps in there). You’d think I’d know better by now, but emotions can overtake before you really realize what’s going on. Emotions are also the strings activists and politicians pull or pluck to get you to fall in line with their side of the issue.

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Freedom of Speech and “Misinformation”

The U.S. Constitution

Recently, I’ve been thinking about the First Amendment and its relationship to the idea of “misinformation.” There’s a reason the Anti-Federalists put it at the top of their list of amendments to the original U.S. Constitution. When the Founders wrote the constitution, they left out specifics in a number of areas. They reasoned that restrictions on government action in certain areas should be obvious, and didn’t need to be spelled out. The Anti-Federalists (so named by Madison because they objected to an overarching federal government – they felt it could be used to put undesirable restrictions on individual liberties) insisted on including the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments, because they wanted the inalienable rights to be in writing and thus beyond questioning. Well before Louis B. Mayer, the Anti-Federalists knew that an oral agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

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A Weird and Changing Presidential Race

Biden and Harris at 2020 primary campaign debates

Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday. The first snarky question I heard was “How did they get Jill to agree to that?” Right now, some people are getting up in arms at the suggestion that the woman in the equation is against that simply because she wants to live in the White House for another four years and that she truly dislikes Harris. I’d argue that the question assumes Jill is in charge. Aren’t strong, feminists supposed to be in charge? Of course a question like that also assumes that given Biden’s obvious problems, which many of us have seen for four freaking years, Jill has no regard for the health and well-being of her husband. Anyway, I digress. This announcement significantly changes the tenor and character of the 2024 race. And I don’t just mean because there’s going to be a new Democratic candidate.

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Assassination Attempts and “Disastrous” Candidates

This is going to be a sort of combo post covering two issues that have come up. The first is obviously the assassination attempt on former President (and current candidate) Trump. The second is the thought/idea that both candidates are “disastrous” choices and either will harm the country irreparably. The TL/DR for this post: 1) Had the assassination attempt succeeded we all would be in a world of hurt right now. More than you can possibly imagine. 2) No, the candidate choices are not both disastrous for the country. Only the choice of Biden or any other Dem candidate will be disastrous at this point. You have an obligation to pay attention whether you like it or not.

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1968 All Over Again?

Person dressed as Statue of Liberty holding American flag

The 2024 Democratic Convention will be held in Chicago in August. And it’s shaping up to be a doozy of a show. Everyone on the left – media, DNC, governors, House reps, Senators – have been sounding the “please don’t run” horn to Biden. The only people not joining in the newly arising chorus are the White House staff and Biden aides. Oh, and Everybody-Must-Call-Me-DOCTOR Jill, of course. (I have a Ph.D., and yes, I told my students that they would be calling me Dr. Jones or Prof. Jones. I most emphatically did not tell the rest of the world to call me that. That’s a level of insecurity even I don’t possess.)

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From the River to the Sea?

Protest in front of building.

“From the river to the sea…” is a phrase chanted and screamed by the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic fools running around college campuses and elsewhere protesting everything in the name of their “humanitarian” cause. In case you can’t tell, I think the people screaming this phrase are at best useful idiots and at worst truly evil Nazis. Let’s unpack this phrase and some of the history and current context behind it.

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