Bits and Pieces for June 2014

Cosmos reincarnation wraps up:  Not to be misunderstood, I thought the Cosmos update series was nicely done, and Dr. Neil deGrasse  Tyson knows how to hold an audience (when UFOs aren't on the agenda).  However, I do think there were some unintentional mixed messages when it comes to science's role in our lives.  To wit, he spent one program attempting to fill in all the holes to conclude that severe climate change mainly results from human activity -- embracing the "science is settled" cult, essentially.  Yet, Dr. Tyson also took great care to weave a balance, making it clear that science is always evolving, and being set in one's ways and unwilling to change as facts change and new evidence emerges is very unscientific.  Well, which is it?  Is science "settled" or in flux?  You get the point . . .

And maybe it's just me, but that end shot of the good doctor's empty chair reminded me, for some reason, of Clint Eastwood's empty "Obama chair."  Is science, as practiced today, sometimes equivalent to Eastwood's empty chair?  I know, I know, the intent was probably to indicate scientific journeys yet unfathomed, routes yet to be pursued in a vast mysterious universe of galaxies and ideas, conducted by faces yet unknown, to go where no man has gone before, etc., etc.  But (sigh. . .) I saw only Obama's empty chair, perched on a spaceship to Hell, nowhere and beyond, all at the same time.  Political season, you know. . .

Still, throughout the series I was hung up on that freaky spaceship.  Yes, some would compare its sleek appearance to a cell phone or camera.  I used to have an electric shaver of similar appearance, though I doubt Dr. Tyson would traverse the -- cosmos -- in a hyper-energized vehicle requiring occasional emptying, cleaning and blade replacement.  Then again, the darned thing looked suspiciously like one of those battery-operated things that women of the "Fifty Shades of Gray" variety might purchase from the local, um, personal appliance store.  Anyway, the new Cosmos probably introduced a lot of people to the joy of science, so  kudos (I suspect that's derived from the rather unfortunate term, cooties, but cooties are the best we have to offer in this cheap, no-frills blog) to Dr. Tyson and all responsible.

He's your "no apologies" guy.  Yeah, interesting when President Obama announced that he offers no apologies for the trade of five terrorists (and who knows what more) for Bowe Bergdahl.  The thing is, this president does whatever the heck he wants all the time and never apologizes for any of it, so what would be different about this event?

Years ago, I taught a business English class to post-high school students, and a dominant theme instructed students that under almost all circumstances, a business or corporation should never respond to an angry customer's letter (you know, back in the Pony Express era when letters were the major form of written peer-to-peer communication) with an apology.  That is, you shouldn't respond with "we're sorry" or "we regret that our product disappointed you."  Instead, the intended reply would immediately mention an action to be taken to satisfy the customer, or in some way be as caring, firm and positive as possible.   But whatever you do, don't make sorrow and heartfelt palpitations your mode of response!  By the way, I did not agree with the never say you're sorry theme, and departed after one semester, nevertheless, as other directions called.

Now, I don't think the president took my class, but because he flat-out admits that he isn't apologizing for a damned thing, maybe he did, and maybe he just learned everything all wrong.  Just because one doesn't apologize, this doesn't simultaneously require one to announce that no apologies shall be forthcoming.

But there's something else Mr. Obama won't apologize for:  The growing horror story at the Southern borders, which we were assured are, what, up to 95 percent secure?  Not. Not.  No brain surgeon need be brought in to answer the question, is the Administration responsible for the expanding thousands of unaccompanied Central American "youth" crashing our borders?  Yes, and now we learn the White House has ordered up a ton of lawyers for them at taxpayer expense to convince "us" that everybody gets to stay.  This is not merely some humanitarian emergency -- it's a well-organized march of never-ending invaders, sent here with the help of Mexico, Obama and most certainly other sources of a similar mind. 

I like to think of this disaster (for us) as Obama's human trafficking outreach, and this one threatens to take this country (and his presidency, in a fair world) down beyond repair.  Do any solid U.S. citizens of African American, Hispanic or any minority heritage think this illegal conquest using alien children will help produce good jobs in any way?  No, but it will draw us closer to becoming Third World vintage, all of us thrust into The New Slavery as socialist ideals take hold -- all the while strangled by multi-thousands of new people who can't speak English, bring no particular talents other than ignorance to the nation and obviously won't be paying their way because they have no money.  More crime, more drugs, more degradation and continuing societal deterioration.  Who will be happy with this arrangement?  Probably the Catholic Church, whose gatherings will swell as members of its own foreign Faithful storm the borders, though wrecking our country in the process.   

We simply cannot afford to take on a new calamity within our borders. How anxious are we to foul our own nest?  Well, Obama's getting away with it, isn't he?  He and the radicals who have surrounded him since day one of his presidency.  Our solution?  Speak out, complain to members of Congress relentlessly and hope for election miracles in November.   And someday -- prison for the political criminals, believing themselves untouchable, who openly and knowingly reinterpret established laws to their own individual liking of the moment. 

We've reached the point of pondering compassion vs. country, and I'm afraid we'll have to choose the latter or perish.  It's them -- it's that -- or us.  Right, and now I'm a racist, right?

So just who is Slender Man?  I think SM might lurk in the White House, when he isn't golfing, frequently vacationing, misinterpreting the Constitution or eating taxpayers in the woods.  Word has it that Slender Man is sometimes accompanied by his friend, AG Man, who routinely overlooks Slender Man's -- and his own -- violations of law.  Yes, horror incarnate.

Hillary TV, morning, noon and night.  Critics seem to have formed a consensus indicating Hillary Clinton's new book a snooze enabler.  But have no fear -- the usual TV networks, right on schedule, have begun a love-fest 24 / 7 with their own hand-picked president for 2016.  Like human-caused climate change, apparently the politics have been settled for those distant presidential elections, because, by George, Hillary Clinton is entitled, darn it.  It's her turn.  You may not accept this, but the TV networks surely do, and by whatever means between now and then they will impress upon our minds that there simply is no other candidate.  Unfortunately, however, at some point Hillary will need to debate other candidates on TV, as she has before, and based on past experience she may not come off looking well at all.  But that's okay, the mainstream media will prop up what televised debates cannot.  That's show biz.

When Alien Youth can Topple a Nation

(First. . .the breaking news about the release of American serviceman Bowe Bergdahl. . .nice we got him back, and Obama did manage to take the heat off HIS own VA disgrace in the meantime by negotiating with terrorists instead of locating and killing them, but how many soldiers did we lose originally when they searched for Bergdahl, after he decided to walk away from his mission in an alleged case of desertion?  Six, we are told.  Five superbly dirtbag radical Muslim flea-infested rat-bastards were traded for his release, and now we wait and wonder how many other American lives will be lost and military personnel kidnapped for ransom, once the Taliban and their even crazier and calculating Al Qaeda buddies regroup.  Mr. Obama, of course, disregarded firmly established law in making the trade, and again we ask -- when are illegal White House actions going to be rewarded with articles of impeachment, a trial and prison? Why do congressional spines continue to atrophy whilst soaked nonstop with Administration urine?  And finally -- some two months have elapsed since the apprehension, torture and imprisonment of U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi in a Mexican high-security prison -- and our shameful U.S. president has done and directed nothing to gain the release of a serviceman who simply took a wrong turn and had no idea he was in Mexico.  I was taught to respect the Office of the President, but the frauds and slimy bastards who yet lord over this White House deserve nobody's respect -- a fact hardly lost upon even the worst of the international community, which dismissed or laughed away America's domestic would-be dictator even before some among the rest of us caught on.)

In one or two past blog entries, I made statements to the effect that babies aren't cute anymore -- your babies, their babies, anybody's babies.


Why would I say something so utterly reprehensible?  Is it because I'm a child hater, or potential real-life candidate for a position as the irascible Mr. Bumble in the musical, Oliver?  Not at all.  What I meant is that we humans are too many, having multiplied and morphed ourselves into an overpopulating civilization of something increasingly destructive, redundant and ripe for self-annihilation, possessing the inauspicious resources to take a wealth of species into oblivion with us.  The climate change thing?  I still await the cherished "consensus," which continues to be elusive, as scientists of impressively alternative views and agencies come forward to cast doubt on the "settled" science of human-caused climate change.  Green?  Sure, absolutely -- but not insane green.

Some of you will scratch your heads politically at the mere mention of overpopulation, but I consider that about as "conservative" a statement as one can make.  Yes, in parts of the world human numbers continue on the decline, but really, how many is enough?  The cheapest and easiest thing in the world to produce is us.   Yeah, a nice dinner and wine, a little romance, sometimes  a little unintended or unexpected violence, then somebody inserts a ***** into a ****** and nine months later there's your bundle of joy.  Easy to accomplish -- but now, far more consequential.

Across the U.S., public schools, now saddled with the nonsensical hell that is Common Core, already have enough trouble attempting to educate children who neither can, nor wish to speak English, and who, frankly, often come from homes whose family occupants had neither the education, background -- or desire -- to teach their growing offspring a damned thing.  However, public schools make one  heck of a great taxpayer-funded babysitting service.  And common sense?  Good luck inculcating common sense into the evolving brain pathways of kids who barely matured beyond the process of toilet-training (and Third World denizens brought to the USA who can't quite make sense out of toilets at all).  Can America survive when pure education is faced with so many new obstacles?  When so many good teachers are forbidden to teach the important stuff?  When teachers' unions become accomplished thugs, pulling the strings to perform shakedowns on taxpayers, all nice and legal?

I don't know.  But things are about to get a lot worse, unless Congress takes quick-action spine growth supplements.

Our borders, pummeled with illegal immigrants for years, costing American workers -- with no voice in the situation beyond do-nothing legislators -- millions of dollars and tons of jobs, have suddenly become the emergency key to either the survival or destruction of American society as we know it. 

As Reuters and other sources have reported, thousands and thousands of children -- unaccompanied by no family members -- are illegally cascading across the Southern U.S. border, not from Mexico as much as from Central America.  While it is hardly comforting to learn that perhaps 60,000 children will invade this year (up from 6,000 in 2011), estimates of 130,000 more in 2015 is  beyond devastating.  Costs are expected to exceed two billion dollars as we reach that number.

And it is time to categorically say no.  Get out, keep out, stay out.  My government is all in a frenzy and a sweat about the "humanitarian" costs that Americans are expected to bear.  What?  No, what you do is tell these kids, look, you found your way here and you can find your way back.  If things go poorly on the return trip, I guess it sucks to be you.  We must be firm.  "But they're only children," we will be told, and I will respond, yes they are, and they are here because the Great Obama, Pied Piper of American Decline, put out the clarion call, as if by dog whistle, that young invaders should come here and soak up the riches paid for by America's taxpayers, entitling them to free food, free education and no responsibilities whatsoever.

Unless some tough love and kick-you-out activity is swiftly directed toward the quickly expanding criminal alien youth element, whose mere presence will decimate what little remains of solid public education and society, we'll lose our country.  This is the kind of thing to which I refer when throwing out overpopulation.  It's terrible, it's poisonous, it's deadly.  The whole world will come crashing across our borders if we continue to allow it, and we must not.  Even European nations are waking up to the fact that not all immigration is good immigration, and countries are saying enough is enough.  When will we smarten up?  This is a crisis which need not be, and we can make it all go away overnight -- just by allowing immigration personnel to do their work and enforce the laws we're supposed to enforce.   Trouble is, when a devious dictatorial Administration supports lawlessness or self-invents new laws with no opposition, one gets what one receives.

Unless we want a steroid-pumped Dream Act for illegal masses of  wandering criminal youth, causing your legal kids to become irrelevant and liable for their expenses, these folks need to go away.  Our social structure basks in extreme jeopardy otherwise.

Obama makes promises to protect Poland, but he wouldn't have to do so, had he not killed off the missile defense system ready for deployment in that part of the world when he assumed the presidency.  Now, to use those all-inclusive words of the street, it's complicated.

The president's energy policy, to be administered via EPA thuggery:   There's nothing wrong with protecting air, water and land, but there's everything wrong when an agency becomes an oppressive billy club, administered with SWAT teams and the ability to level extraordinary fines and other forms of punishment, striking fear and hatred into the hearts of Americans still suffering under the illusion that government serves, not rules, us.  The just-announced warnings and regulations, which could only have been whipped up by Pol Pot-style university intellectuals and credentialed nearsighted dolts who possess absolutely no concept of-- or maybe the words are concern for -- what they wrought, will devastate.  What rational minds would deprive a society, already teetering on the economic edge, of sufficient, reasonably priced energy before there exists enough of some other form of energy to replace it right away?  Because labor unions and political winds of change are already starting to question this monumental fraud, perpetrated by the even more monumental fraud in the White House, I wouldn't be surprised to find a major portion, if not all, of  this brainless scheme replaced by something akin to common sense via Congress or the courts.  Nevertheless, keep in mind Obama's original promise that under his plan energy prices would "necessarily skyrocket," though he neglected to add that even having access to required energy amounts may present a frightening downside.

The Veterans Administration:  Hey, if you can't even get your own medical records after having a close-range UFO experience (per the Rendlesham mystery), and not even Sen. John  McCain can get full cooperation on one's behalf, what is one to expect?  And when it happens to more than one airman who was present for some strange UFO-related doings, it's not merely a case of records lost in the bureaucracy -- it's a matter of extreme importance to somebody who won't share with the rest of us. 

Is there some federal agency out there responsible for telling us, by the way, when it will be time to panic in the streets?  Would there be a tweet or e-mail or something?  Actually, I'd prefer a letter, stamped and mailed.  Utter horror is so much more palatable and enjoyable when you can hold a paper in your hands, actually proclaiming the doom of civilization.  So, how about you keep watching the skies, and I'll continue watching the mailbox?

The Trouble with Virgins

California:  Throughout history civilizations around the globe thought it essential to sacrifice virgins for one reason or another.  Now?  A self-proclaimed virgin and non-proclaimed psycho in California puts a new spin on tradition during his murderous turn-the-tables rampage.  A male virgin yet!  My, how times have changed.  Who knew?  Thing is, dude, you killed, you injured, you videoed, you turned out a manifesto, you psyched out -- and you still went out in a blaze of virginity. Elliot Rodger's problems with women may have been less about women and more about some hidden malevolent gay component and/or the man he thought he should be, but couldn't satisfy with any amount of money -- and this guy was apparently awash in funds and privilege. Not to mention material things such as an expensive car and sunglasses, which he assumed were female attractants, like something one buys in a tackle shop to bait a fishhook.  Women's intuition, however, would probably have seen this pampered little twerp's faults and danger a mile away. One suspects a major issue was -- and I'll coin this word here and now, if you don't mind, all rights reserved -- disturbation.  (Are you listening, Charlie Fort?)

But putting that aside, my first thought was, how many "professionals" and what kinds of drugs was this guy exposed to along the way?  Supposedly, he wasn’t taking prescribed medications recently, but what about years past?  He had been "in counseling," since the age of eight or nine, news reports advised.  Yeah?  Well, that did a lot of good, didn't it?  Aren't a few refunds in order?   Revelations about professional attempts at procuring good mental health will most assuredly not be of much comfort for victims' families.  Perhaps mental hospitals should become as common as fast-food establishments (the caveat being that progressives will unfairly attempt to fill institution treatment wings with conservatives, of course).  Is there a lesson here?  Yes -- don't tell every kid he or she is special and don't give everybody a trophy at children's sporting events.  Rodger seems to have believed fervently, in a crazy sort of way, that he was more special than other specials.

During the first day or so after the tragedy came to light, one predictably nasty, yet foreseeable  little detail popped up amongst panting members of the national media:  A concentration upon Elliot's guns and his gunshot victims.  However, far less attention was paid to the three men beaten and sliced to death by the killer in his apartment complex -- in fact, some news sources failed to mention the tools used at all.  Instead, early emphasis was upon guns, guns and more guns.

After all, one can't very well join the crowds, rabidly pumped up with outrage over gun control, when there's a bloody blade and a hammer thrown atop the pile of firearms.  Cutlery and other dreadful unanticipated devices sort of ruin the place card arrangements, you understand?  Yes, blaming gun owners when there's a hammer banging your skull and a blade redecorating your throat kinda deflates the anti-gun movement.  Didn't matter -- the three initial brutal non-gun deaths didn't fit in with the progressive mantra, so less emphasis appeared almost strategically in the media until such details could no longer be set aside in favor of shock over guns and bullets.  Why?  Because it's easier to blame the NRA than to confiscate your grandma's hammer, machete and set of steak and butter knives.  Nevertheless, Blumenthal and the rest of the usual gang of ban this-ers and regulate that-ers slithered out and recited their well-practiced gun control screed for news at eleven.  More will follow, to be sure. 

Yes, another tragedy, and on this occasion Mr. Crazyman arrived with a partner. This time, it was a damned upside-down virgin sacrifice, wherein we witness the ultimate climax of a virgin sacrificing himself.  With a little help from the police, fortunately.

But if you think you're safer with robots than with creepy 22 year old male virgins, better think again.  From Defense One's writer Patrick Tucker comes an article dated April 17 entitled, "Why There Will be a Robot Uprising."  Tucker interviews computer scientist Steven Omohundro, who clearly warns "that 'anti-social' artificial intelligence in the future is not only possible, but probable, unless we start designing AI systems very differently today."   Why?  Because as computers consistently increase their speed and abilities, they'll be primed to create ever more success and speed in their chores -- and, if we understand correctly, any human standing in their way  becomes expendable unless safeguards are implemented sooner, rather than later.  Tucker's article explores this issue in detail, and it is available online.

Did you catch the Rasmussen report of April 18?   Polls indicate that at least 37 percent of Americans fear the federal government.  The word was once respect, not fear, and unless folks quit being sheep, and instead speak out instead of cowering in anxiety-ridden silence and exhibiting blind obedience to every dictum pooped out by legislators at all levels, nothing will change. 

Remember to chew before you swallow.  Stanford University biologist Paul Ehrlich advises that we eat the bodies of our own dead because bad times are coming and normal food resources will run out.  Perhaps we should first saute' hundreds of thousands of copies of his book, The Population Bomb, published some 46 years ago, and ultimately a bomb itself because its contents turned out to be fantasy.  Anyway, I'm not eating anybody, and certainly not somebody cooked by a complete stranger, of whom I'd have to eventually inquire, "Say, that was delicious -- who was in it?

"Bring Back Our Girls."  Too bad, Nigeria, and too bad, world, but I hope we lose no American military lives in some rescue plan.  Until the world openly and loudly ridicules and rejects the well-funded barbarism embraced by so many mental defectives attached to Islamic terrorism, women will continue to bear the brunt of men whose brains remain stuck in the evil, brutality and quest to dominate of centuries past.

Fraudzilla's USA Invasion

If I somehow lapsed into a drug-induced stupor tomorrow, I'm sure my views on President Obama would alter considerably.  Years after he leaves Office, for instance, when surviving presidential papers see release publicly, we'd discover that Obama took actions to save the country and performed heroic maneuvers of which we had no concept during his two terms.  Then. . .

Yeah, but then I'd wake up and return to reality, wishing instead that the day would come, sometime after a gaggle of lowlife frauds among the Obama bunch retire on huge government pensions and write truth-distorting books and lie-lecture around the country, when cooler heads of refreshing integrity find a way to indict, fine and imprison these folks as appropriate for crimes against the nation.  When one takes an oath, but then deviates from established promises to a degree bordering upon or encompassing criminality, there is no other solution, no matter how much time elapses.

Funny, too, isn't it, how we're JUST getting around to charging named Chinese commie military members for hacking into corporate and U.S. government computers to steal secrets?  Why now?  Maybe because elections are coming up soon, and the Administration, like clockwork, wants to put on a happy face proclaiming we're on the job?  By the way, assuming (assuming?) the Chinese are guilty of said crimes, let's take the appropriate action and, hmm, say, demand they cut at least half our "debt" to them -- and later we can cut the other half based just upon the crappy  toxic "treats" they export which reportedly continue to poison our dogs and other pets.

As we still scratch our heads over ongoing mega-purchases by the Obama Admin of ammunition outlawed for international -- but apparently not domestic -- conflicts, why are federal agencies such as the Dept. of Education, Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management and others being infused with their own SWAT teams?  Near as I can figure, the only agencies requiring such extra man/firepower -- and all those acquired military tanks -- are those charged with protecting national borders.  Yeah, as if. 

How is it that the Most Powerful Man In The World has allowed a PTSD-ridden ex-active duty U.S. Marine to languish in a Mexican prison after taking a wrong turn and ending up in Mexico?  This disgrace has gone on for some 55 days now, and the Marine has been chained, his life threatened (causing him to attempt an escape) and he faces years of prison time.  He did have his legally acquired firearms in his car when he mistakenly drove into Mexico through an area not known for suitable or abundant signage warnings.  Still --  seems all Mr. Obama needs to do is make a phone call to retrieve our Marine from a country all too willing to export its own prisoners across our own borders with our president's blessings.  Why hasn't he ended this?  Sorry, either they return the Marine at once, in good health, or a little drone action might be in order.  One must ask in such instances, how much of a friend is Mexico?  Sure, make me a diplomat. . .

The Southern border situation itself has worsened with a weekly influx of thousands of young people, mostly boys, now making their way through Mexico from Central and Southern American countries, determined to invade our country with "Dreamer" expectations of free education and amnesty.  Housed temporarily at U.S. Air Force bases, these people need to exit the USA quickly and firmly and the message returned with them must be keep out, otherwise the world's masses will continue to engulf and then rot the nation's beauty and resources, uninvited, from within without limitations.  This concept is an emergency, not rocket science.

Why are  "stars" of the Democrat Party throwing the issue of race into graduation ceremony speeches at high schools and colleges this month?  Race-baiting by re-invoking injustices of the fifties and sixties serves what purpose in the minds of young people now?  Graduation speeches used to be about the future and opportunity.  Obviously, with nothing to offer young minds but promises of high taxes, horrible debt and the new slavery, it was inevitable that Democrat speakers needed to fire up the way-back machine to blame the past for their own current policies. 

Maybe these folks should be forced to attend endless classes in sensitivity training, otherwise known as mind control indoctrination, concocted by the most evil people in the country.

Ringing hollow:   Obama proclaims his love for the military veterans, etc., blah, blah, blah.  Psst, hey America -- The worst qualities of VA medical care will be the best qualities of Obamacare.  You're getting a preview that money can't buy, right now.  Isn't it a knee-slapper that both Obama and the VA chief said they were "mad as hell" about the VA situation?  What, is there a script out there that these folks read from?  Mr. Prez knew of VA problems when he assumed Office, so let's not give him a pass on the VA "death panels" now.  He only learned about the VA trouble from news reports, he says?  Wow, every time there's a problem this liar and/or total incompetent claims he knew nothing until a news report passed his way. 

It so happens that I'm personally aware of VA corruption, a story that I won't explore here because it wouldn't be appropriate for me to take advantage of this personal issue in a blog -- but I will say that it wasn't uncommon in the past for VA directors, the people at the very top of a VA medical center, to be brought up on federal charges, and sometimes they exited their huge medical facilities in handcuffs.  ABC News did an excellent report on VA corruption many years ago, frightening to say the least.  Ultimately, the VA medical system may be scrapped in exchange for something better and more efficient, but that depends upon whether veterans' groups wish to loosen their grip on an antiquated entity intended originally to support WW II and Korean vets who returned in huge numbers.

Congratulations Republican primary voters for your stupidity in choosing the standbys instead of Tea Party members with integrity.  Truth is, every senator and congressman of any political party should get out of the way after a maximum of two terms and give fresh brain matter a chance to solve national problems.  Voters have only served to give Washington an endlessly contaminated cocktail party of deals and dealers out for their own interests.  Nice work, fools.

Obama meets with TV meteorologists about climate change:  Oh, that's a comfort.  You know what?  My local TV meteorologists, starting in February, promised every few days that the bitter cold spell was ending at last, and then temperatures would plummet again and again, each time as bad or worse than the last.  Now, Mr. President, just what do you and the TV weather celebrity dolts have to say to say to one another about the future, when they can't even get the local forecasts down within reason despite all the fancy special video effects? 

And now there exists new satellite data indicating that "global warning" hasn't occurred for the last 18 years?  The science is most definitely not settled, as political morons and the United Nations continue to insist in order to control us all, and the "consensus" of international scientists is not there -- unless one means a consensus of dunces.  Yes, the climate changes, for better or worse, and I'm kinda thinking it will persist in doing so even after our bodies are as dead as a goodly proportion of our brains apparently seem already.

Our Children are the (Clueless) Future

Aside from some outstanding UFO reports offered up in, particularly, the seventies, the "old" National Enquirer could be pretty novel and sometimes adept about forecasting things to come.

Across the nation public schools often fail to educate, and children fail to learn, either with or without "legally" prescribed or illegally acquired drugs intended to put their minds on temporary life support.  Meanwhile, Obama's fellow fascist wannabes at the Dept. of Education continue to push "Common Core," holding state funding for ransom as teachers are forced to submit or perish professionally, hating every minute of the federal usurpation strangling their classroom hours with some bizarre leftist agenda which is no friend to the educational system in the USA.

But, hey, at least we have the computer to inform, educate and allow every human kid to push buttons and administer mouse clicks on the road to success.  Unless -- could this digital miracle be our undoing? 

 

Yes, according to prognosticators of that ancient year, 1980.

The National Enquirer of April 29, 1980 enlisted the views of several professional educators regarding the burgeoning computer era, and what was their consensus of thought 34 years ago?  Beware.

The late Dr. Max Rafferty, whom we've quoted on previous occasions, put it bluntly:  "The human brain is endangered. Our powers of thought and creativity could shrivel up through sheer mental laziness if we allow our own machines to dominate us further."   Was Rafferty correct?  Just take a gander at high school students with zero ability for critical thinking.

Education professor Dr. Gerald Boardman at the University of Nebraska warned, "We may be producing a generation who views math as simply a process of pushing buttons on a little black box."

Dr. James Shields, Jr.,  professor of education at the City University of New York believed we would end up as a nation of "intellectual cripples" as we turn to machines to make decisions for us, giving up our own human intuition as computers tell us what to do. Even back in 1980, Shields realized and warned that people in executive positions were becoming fearful of making decisions on their own, preferring instead to put their faith in the electronic digital judge.  "We must guard against this," he continues, "or we'll end up as a bunch of simpleminded zombies."

We suspect, Dr. Shields, that many of us have become simpleminded zombies -- even TV shows honor the zombie now.  Why not?  Zombies don't need math classes, they invent nothing and they get all the brainpower they desire merely by eating the brains -- or make that intellectual property -- of others.  We've gone from bite to byte and back to bite in just a few years.  Which came first, the chicken or the egg?  Which came first, the computer or the digital zombie?

Then, four years later, this from a Chicago Tribune article in late July, 1984:  "Mankind Evolving Backward, Theorist Says."  Biochemist Allan Wilson, of the University of California at Berkeley, speaking at a symposium in Maine, asserts, "I'm afraid we've reached a plateau and that Homo Sapiens is in a nose dive."  Wilson believed that our abilities to invent and adapt using our own ingenuity instead of awaiting the agonizingly slow process of natural selection and genetic evolution has put us on the fast track to waving goodbye as a species. 

Having taken about 400 million years for brains to become their largest -- in humans -- Wilson concedes ". . .the size of the human brain stopped increasing about 30,000 years ago, primarily because of 'cultural' behavior. . ."  He, along with other scientists, accepts that brain growth occurs because of a need to gather information about coping with the environment, and the pure need for innovation caused an expansion of the human brain.  Alas, according to the article, humans eventually learned to imitate the behavior of others rather than innovate -- thus providing no reason for the brain to grow larger.

If you bet all your money on Pac-Man, Pac-Man is all you're going to get.  Education in days of old at least taught subjects one could use as a backup plan in case of something unanticipated.  Pixels, on the other hand, are one-trick ponies of momentary pleasure.

Taken together, the warnings in these two old articles don't bode well for Our Wonderful Age of Computers, and we won't even bother to comment further on the status of human brains currently.  But just look around, from the White House to Congress, to the Supreme Court, to TV, to hand-held devices, down to a measured flow in the fetid undercurrents of national, state and local political sewers.