Thoughts and observations

Friends, many of my comments below were in last week’s blog but, they didn’t make it into the Vail Daily, so, I’ve repeated some of them here since this is what appears in today’s Vail Daily.

• The reason socialism has never worked anywhere it’s been tried is because in socialist economies there are no mechanisms to flush out inefficiency like the red ink on a business’ P&L statement or a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• It’s a given that the kids attending inner city schools are not receiving the same quality of education as say the kids here in Eagle County. Yet due to affirmative action, after being denied the opportunity receive a quality education in both grade and high school, inner city kids are being given preferential treatment for admissions into colleges and universities where they are ill-equipped to take advantage of that opportunity.
• Life never asks what we want; instead, it presents us with options.
• Did you know that a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats in both Houses of Congress voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act?
• When schools focus on teaching self-esteem instead of a curriculum that requires actual study, kids only learn to vent their ignorance with confidence.
• Climate activists were pleased when President Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline, yet they were strangely silent when he green-lighted the Russian owned Nord Stream 2 pipeline before the recent G-7 summit.
• We can measure the greatness of a society by looking at the way it treats and cares for its more unfortunate. And while “safety nets” are important, we must guard against them becoming hammocks.
• As education in our public schools gets watered down has anyone noticed how graduation ceremonies and proms get more elaborate?
• The two leaders of the Democrat party, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have been in public office for a combined 80 years; what have either done to improve race relations in this country?
• Institutions that force-feed the new trinity of race, class and gender victimhood are usually the same institutions that are unwilling to allow a lecture by someone with opposing views.
• When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.
• A mentor plays a significant role in a person’s life, i.e., a mentor is teacher, a friend, an advocate, and a coach.  Mentors provide guidance, motivation, and frequently serve as role models. So, while the president intones how America systemic racism is a stain on the nation’s soul, he also refers to former Ku Klux Klan organizer Senator Robert Byrd as his onetime Senate mentor.
• Has anyone ever heard a clear explanation of why the Marxist Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation very silently removed the language from its webpage calling for the disruption of the Western ideal of the nuclear family?
• It’s a common sight for oppressed peoples in places like Iran, Hong Kong and now Cuba to risk arrest by waving Old Glory in their quest for freedom, yet our ungrateful millionaire athletes kneel and refuse to face our flag during the anthem.
• Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has, if you called the tail a leg. When a member of the audience said “five,” Lincoln corrected him, saying the answer is four.  The fact that you call a tail a leg does not make it so.  The same holds true of systemic racism – saying it’s so, doesn’t make it so.
• The only instances of systemic racism in this country occur in our public education system—if you doubt that, compare the graduation rates and SAT scores for the black kids who attend those inner-city schools with those of whites and Asians who attend schools in the suburbs.
• I fail to see how my whiteness has anything to do with the fact that Americans of Asian descent have twice the annual income of black Americans.
• In “woke” society, the term equity has come to mean equating achievement with privilege.
• Preferential public policy creates a playing field tilted in favor of those who performance would be inadequate on a level playing field.
• Why are the nation’s highest crime rates in democrat run cities?
• If the purpose of gun control is to reduce crime, then we should expect the most zealous gun control advocates to be just as zealous about other aspect of crime fighting, such as reinstituting bail in our most crime-ridden cities.
• Every time a male-bodied athlete wins in a women’s competition it robs a girl or a young woman of a victory. And every time a male-bodied athlete competes on a women’s sports team it displaces a female from that team.  What effect do you think that might have on girls contemplating trying out for their school’s track, tennis or basketball teams?
• And lastly, is it still OK for public address announcement to begin with “Ladies and Gentlemen?”