One of the great things about the health summit was getting to witness certain members’ rhetorical skills and getting to hear how they think about things. One of the most revealing comments was made by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who lamented that people whose medical bills are higher have to pay more, as this constitutes “segregating people on the basis of health.” He added, “It’s time to stop that kind of segregation in our country.”
Surely we can all unite in opposition to the injustice that Sen. Harkin so mercifully highlights. I mean, what’s next? People whose housing bills are higher could have to pay more, which would segregate them on the basis of how nice their house is (although they’d still get to live in the same neighborhood). People whose food bills are higher could have to pay more, which would segregate them on the basis of their appetite.
In all seriousness, Harkin’s remarks say a lot about the liberal mindset. Having people pay their own way is apparently an injustice akin to segregating them by race or creed. Well, as Harry Reid said to Lamar Alexander, “You’re entitled to your opinions….”
Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
My Review
I found it ironic that on the same day that political leaders are dealing with the insightful idiocy that was Harry Reid’s “Negro dialect” comments recorded in Mark Halperin’s new book Game Change,I finished reading the memoir of a dark-skinned black Republican who grew up with bellbottoms and an afro; I’m pretty sure there’s some “Negro dialect” in his background. That Republican is former Oklahoma Congressman J. C. Watts.
To this point I’ve only known Watts as, essentially, Sean Hannity’s favorite black guy. He is usually referring to him when people talk about President Obama being the first black president. “Why not J. C. Watts?” Aside from that I knew nothing, so I was interested to pick up the book.
Sean Hannity was busy this afternoon comparing the public responsibility of Tiger Woods to that of elected officials. They’re the same, he says, because when you become a “public figure” your private life is no longer private. So people like Tiger are wrong when they say that their’ private indiscretions shouldn’t require public confessions. They are examples and role models, whether they want to be or not.
In this line of reasoning, Tiger’s infidelity is as significant to the public (and as much of a violation of trust) as those of Bill Clinton and Mark Sanford. These men all “became” public figures, making them responsible for being morally trustworthy and confessing their mistakes to the country.
D.C. Councilman Michael Brown
I’m getting tired of hearing African American leaders toss the Three-Fifths Compromise into discussions about discrimination in America.
Yesterday on Laura Ingraham Washington, D.C. Councilman Michael Brown was on with a local bishop discussing a same-sex marriage initiative in the District. He views it as a civil rights issue. I (emphatically) do not. It’s definitely a rights issue, but not one about equality. We’re not talking about creating “marriage equity”, we’re talking about changing the definition of marriage, which has been the same since it started. As it is, everyone (including homosexuals) can marry whoever they want, as long as they are (1) of legal age, (2) not currently married to someone else, and (3) of the opposite gender. There are no rights being denied to anyone. This is an issue of creating rights, not restoring or honoring them. Anyway, that’s beside the point.
Brown, who is in favor of the initiative, based his whole argument on the civil rights issue, frequently mentioning drinking fountains, colored restrooms, and segregated schools. It was silly. I’m surprised he didn’t mention people getting firehoses and dogs turned on them. That’s really similar to a bumper sticker that says, “It’s not Adam and Steve.” (those stickers are also idiotic, BTW)
But at one point Laura was talking about the Constitution, and he says, “In the Constitution an African American is 3/5 of a person!” He was, of course, trying to argue that the constitution is not a good measuring stick for civil rights. He doesn’t seem to know much about the purpose of the compromise, or the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
I’ve used this quote more than once here:
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Sometimes people manipulate statistics to deceive. Statistics are used to get you to give money to shady charities, invest in faulty opportunities, or convince you that what you’re fighting for is wrong. But sometimes, people take statistics and just miss the point completely.
In Cultural Literacy, E.D. Hirsch talks about the Coleman Report, released in 1966, which showed that socioeconomic status was the most prominent determiner of student success, despite the best efforts of schools. Most educational leaders seemed to take that to mean that no matter what schools did, poor kids were going to perform well below wealthy kids. It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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