WISDOM FROM C.S. LEWIS

From Eastern Right (emphases mine) come these wise words from the past:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."

-- God in the Dock, 1948

Power grabbers, Nann who put themselves on the moral high road are always dangerous, insidiously so.

RACE, RACE, RACE

From this article at U.S. News & World Report:

...President-elect Obama sees his administration continuing the Clinton years, which may include Clinton's call for a national conversation on race. We need more than another conversation; we need a "teach-in."...

[...]

Rather than unite the nation by putting our racial past and present aside, we can unite around a common commitment to end racial inequality.... Imagine a plan to rebuild and revitalize our inner cities that is based not on gentrification and displacement, but on people of all backgrounds living together, expanding our civic culture in communities that care for one another....

Utopianism! It's never worked in the past and will never work in the future.

The article also mentions relocat[ing] firms that fled to industrial suburbs back to cities.

Pardon me, but many of those firms that "fled" had reasons for doing so - reasons having nothing to do with race. For example, a coin shop in Washington, D.C., left the inner city because (1) the tax rates were prohibitive and (2) the shop was robbed a gunpoint three times, the last time locking inside the walk-in safe a sales clerk who had terminal cancer and was undergoing hellacious chemotherapy. Take my word for it: none of those who worked at the coin shop was a racist.

Yet in these post-election days prior to the coronation of King Obama, all I hear on my local news is statements such as "Now is the time to end all racism in America."

I think I'm going to stop watching my local news. The blah-blah-blah is unbearable.

Mandated Philanthropy

The title here, a break from politics, does not refer to the recently enacted bailout bill. Rather this title refers to a court ruling ordering the Washington Redskins to have captions for the hearing impaired available for all the games at FedEx Field. Excerpt from this October 3, 2008 article in the Washington Post:

A federal judge in Greenbelt has ruled that the Redskins must continue to run captioned play-by-play at FedEx Field and begin showing the lyrics of songs played in the stadium to offer deaf and hard-of-hearing fans the full game experience.

The decision mandates that the team do much of what it began doing voluntarily after being sued. The ruling appears to be the first of its kind in the country, and advocates for the deaf and hard-of-hearing said it could lead to challenges at sporting venues around the country....

[...]

The ruling requires that deaf fans also be treated to the lyrics, spelled out on the screens, of such tunes as "Who Let the Dogs Out" in all its repetitive resonance.

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. ruled Tuesday that under the Americans With Disabilities Act the Redskins captioning was not optional but required. He said the team had made "what appears to be have been reasonable efforts" to accommodate the hearing-impaired but that the additional steps were needed....

[...]

The judge did not say precisely how equal access should be provided at FedEx Field but noted that the plaintiffs would not be aided by the assisted listening devices the stadium has long provided to patrons who request one.

[...]

In an interview, Redskins General Counsel David Donovan said the team would begin looking for ways to address the judge's remaining concern that deaf fans be able to read the lyrics of music used during cheerleader dance routines....

Because my husband is hard of hearing, completely deaf in one ear and substantially compromised in the other, I pay attention to stories related to deafness and accommodations for those hard of hearing. No doubt, compromised hearing does reduce one's ability to function and to enjoy certain activities. Indeed, my husband's handicap automatically precludes his enjoyment of crowded parties. Must the hosts of the parties we attend also provide captioning? Give me a break!

In my view, the Americans With Disabilities Act is being carried too far. The judge's ruling in the above case is but one example of how ludicrous our courts have become.

THE LEFT: WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING

MUST SEE TV: 47 MINUTES OF A LONGER SPEECH BY EVAN SAYET.

HE'S A HOLLYWOOD HUMORIST/WRITER/PRODUCER WHO WAS A NY LEFTIE UNTIL 9/13/01.

IT'S A BREEZY/FUNNY INCISIVE 47 MINUTES WHICH FLIES BY. WTWT.

(VIA THE AMERICAN THINKER.)