• About
  • Blog (Ext.)
  • Books
  • Contact
  • Education Resources
  • News Links

PERRIN LOVETT

~ Deo Vindice

PERRIN LOVETT

Tag Archives: idiocy

The Corrosive BS of American Academia

21 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes, Other Columns

≈ Comments Off on The Corrosive BS of American Academia

Tags

academia, America, BS, college, decline, education, idiocy

As seen and chronicled by an American academic, Prof. Christian Smith of Notre Dame’s School of Sociology:

I have had nearly enough bullshit. The manure has piled up so deep in the hallways, classrooms, and administration buildings of American higher education that I am not sure how much longer I can wade through it and retain my sanity and integrity.

Even worse, the accumulated effects of all the academic BS are contributing to this country’s disastrous political condition and, ultimately, putting at risk the very viability and character of decent civilization. What do I mean by BS?

BS is the university’s loss of capacity to grapple with life’s Big Questions, because of our crisis of faith in truth, reality, reason, evidence, argument, civility, and our common humanity.

BS is the farce of what are actually “fragmentversities” claiming to be universities, of hyperspecialization and academic disciplines unable to talk with each other about obvious shared concerns.

BS is the expectation that a good education can be provided by institutions modeled organizationally on factories, state bureaucracies, and shopping malls — that is, by enormous universities processing hordes of students as if they were livestock, numbers waiting in line, and shopping consumers.

BS is universities hijacked by the relentless pursuit of money and prestige, including chasing rankings that they know are deeply flawed, at the expense of genuine educational excellence (to be distinguished from the vacuous “excellence” peddled by recruitment and “advancement” offices in every run-of-the-mill university).

BS is the ideologically infused jargon deployed by various fields to stake out in-group self-importance and insulate them from accountability to those not fluent in such solipsistic language games.

…

Read on and on about what BS is in higher “education.” Understand that, “the long-term corrosive effects on politics and culture can also be repaired only over the long term, if ever. There are no quick fixes here. So I do not speak in hyperbole by saying that our accumulated academic BS puts at risk decent civilization itself.”

Hope remains:

… We will need people with the capacity to retrieve and revitalize the best of higher education’s past and restructure it organizationally in ways that are most effective in the future.

History gives us some reason to hope that creative women and men will, over time, develop fruitful experiments and build new institutions that lead to a reblossoming of excellent higher education worthy of the name and help revitalize culture and political life. …

I’d like to help with the retrieval and revitalization. In addition to posts like this, a very few of you know of my ongoing covert work in this area. And, boy, does it need work.

Amazing Amerikan Woman Tries to Change World, Fails Horribly

21 Saturday Apr 2018

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

culture, decline, idiocy, ISIS, society, Syria, The West, women

Horribly. Miserably. This story is beyond sad; simply horrifying:

How this Midwestern mom ended up married to an ISIS sniper

Yahoo! ran a representative picture right up front (but don’t be fooled):

dc12fd5285e6d58aec4f634a0cc09952

A pretty good, almost Madison Avenue worthy start, but … read on:

Samantha Sally spoke to CNN about how her “romantic” second marriage to Moroccan-born husband Moussa Elhassani resulted in an unexpected move to Syria in 2014. Once there, Elhassani became violent and joined ISIS as a sniper.

“Before he would spoil me,” the 32-year-old American said. “We were very much in love. The romance never left. As soon as we came here, it changed. I was a dog. I didn’t have any choice. He was extremely violent. And there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing.”

…

The family ended up settling in Raqqa, Syria, where Sally gave birth to two more children. In addition to Elhassani’s violent behavior, she was subjected to abuse from ISIS leaders, including a three-month stretch in jail while she was pregnant. Sally says that she was tortured, sexually abused, and put in solitary confinement while being accused of espionage on behalf of the U.S.

Their home life eventually included the purchase of three Yazidi slaves — two teenage females and one young boy — captured by ISIS. Both girls were raped by Elhassani, though Sally defends having them stay in her home.

“No one will ever know what it is like to watch their husband rape a 14-year-old girl,” she said. “Ever. And then she comes to you — me — after crying and I hold her and tell her it’s going to be OK. Everything is going to be fine, just be patient.

“I would never apologize for bringing those girls to my house,” she added. “They had me and I had them. And we knew that if we were just patient, we would stick together. You understand? In any other situation, they would be locked in a bedroom and fed tea every day. And the situation I was in with them, we cooked together, we cleaned together. Drank coffee together. Slept in the same room together. I was like their mother.”

Her eldest son, Matthew, was also taken advantage of and was made to appear in videos on behalf of the terrorist group. Sally’s objection to his participation resulted in a beating and two broken ribs.

Things changed when Elhassani was killed in a drone strike in 2017. Sally and her family eventually left Raqqa and were detained soon after. They remain in custody and wait for U.S. officials determine whether her affiliation with ISIS merits jail time.

Sally, meanwhile, is hopeful that she and her four children are able to return to the U.S.

“I will do anything to get my kids back where they belong,” she said. “If I have to spend 15 years in prison, it’s better than anything here.

“Me and my kids, we talk about wanting to eat McDonald’s,” she continued. “We want to live a normal life again.”

So. Did you catch it? This was one of the most vile, racist reads I’ve seen since I don’t know when. It’s like David Duke, Robert E. Lee, and Richard Spencer conspired to write an evil, dystopian fictional plot. But, sadly, this one is all too real.

I’ll never, for the life of me, understand women like this. Living with the slanderous allegations of being a “terrorist” and of “treason” do not justify her. The insult and shame of being expected to apologize for her savage “husband’s” illicit amorous affairs is not an excuse. Nor was seeing her cockroach “husband” squashed like what he was. No excuses. None.

After experiencing the very best of diversity, an immersion class if you will – the tribal war, idiotic violence, slavery, abuse, child rapes, broken ribs, traitorous behavior, etc. – this bigot had the audacity to contrast the great good of the barbarous stone-age world with “normal life” back in America. Normal. Life. In America…

How can she shun the very cultural enrichment which will surely save Western Civilization by destroying it? It boggles the mind.

She even thinks 15 years in American prison is “better than anything [in the land of greatest pride, strength, and human dignity].”

Leave her in jail where she is. That’s where she belongs. The kids can come back. Maybe they can share with the deplorables all the good lessons they learned living among our betters. Maybe.

We Shall Never Overcome

04 Friday Aug 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ Comments Off on We Shall Never Overcome

Tags

America, culture, history, idiocy, Maryland

Seems the Civil War just won’t go away.

In Maryland the problem isn’t the crime, the unemployment, the illiteracy, the illegitimacy, or the false sense of entitlement. No, it’s a 17th Century Coat of Arms.

“When the General Assembly in 1904 adopted a banner of this design as the state flag, a link was forged between modern-day Maryland and the very earliest chapter of the proprietorship of the Calvert family.”

But the red and white part of the flag, known as the Crossland arms, was also the design flown by Marylanders who sympathized with the South in the Civil War, according to state records.

“During the war, Maryland-born Confederate soldiers used both the red-and-white colors and the cross bottony design from the Crossland quadrants of the Calvert coat of arms as a unique way of identifying their place of birth,” the records say. “Pins in the cross bottony shape were worn on uniforms, and the headquarters flag of the Maryland-born Confederate general Bradley T. Johnson was a red cross bottony on a white field.”

During the slow process of reconciliation after the Civil War ended in Union victory in 1865, a “flag incorporating alternating quadrants of the Calvert and Crossland colors began appearing at public events” in the state.

By extension of this “logic” all state flags are Confederate in nature – all states share the same hemisphere with those former CSA states once in rebellion…

Better tear down some monuments. Riot or something. Blame someone.

nimbus-image-1501775813989

This is “racist.”

Seeing as how so many are obviously unhappy in 21st Century America, maybe it’s time they depart. To anywhere.

Television Jumps the CGI Shark

25 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Other Columns

≈ Comments Off on Television Jumps the CGI Shark

Tags

culture, idiocy, society, television

For the record I did not watch the great Michael Phelps race the fake Great White. Many did – and were not happy about the spectacle.

Remember back in December 2014, when Discovery Channel hyped that a man would be eaten and then regurgitated by a giant snake on a special called “Eaten Alive?” Then that didn’t actually happen, and viewers were furious?

We bring this up because 57 minutes into Discovery’s heavily promoted Sunday night Shark Week program — in which Olympic powerhouse swimmer Michael Phelps was set to race against a great white shark — viewers heard this quote from ecologist Tristan Gutteridge, one the featured scientists:

“Clearly, we can’t put Michael in one lane and a white shark on the far lane. We’re gonna have to do a simulation.”

Hold on. So Phelps wasn’t going to actually race a shark in a TV event titled “Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White”?! Why was the hour-long special billed as such?

While common sense probably could have saved any disappointment — along with preshow interviews where Phelps assured everyone that he wouldn’t really race next to a shark in open water — many viewers were not pleased.

nimbus-image-1500981628643

Yeah, it’s television, it’s all bullshark. Twitter/WP.

I did not watch, and was not disappointed, for two reasons: 1) I don’t waste time on TeeVee, and; 2) I didn’t care. When I first heard of the possibility of Phelps racing a real shark, my initial thought was, “I hope they find a shark named ‘Darwin’.”

Seems Phelps and the producers aren’t entirely stupid. Some viewers are.

I think they could have put in a real shark with a high degree of safety and a very high degree of cost. A net or plexiglass barrier would have sufficed. Such would have been too expensive, costing far more than some creative 1s and 0s in a computer.

You get what you pay for. Or what you watch.

With a very few exceptions television has been intellectually dead for decades. Anyone who spends time staring at Plato’s electronic cave wall deserves to be disappointed. And they almost uniformly are.

Batman, Fonzie, and Phelps. Who’s next?

nimbus-image-1500982171603

Twitter.

And Phelps lost…

 

Congratulations. You Elected Hilary Clinton…

07 Friday Apr 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

America, Donald Trump, idiocy, ISIS, Russia, Syria, terrorism, War

America is completely and utterly out of control. Any hopes that a Trump Presidency would reverse course or hold position have now faded away. Last night the President lobbed nearly 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Syria.

  • The US military fired more than 50 tomahawk missiles at al-Shayrat military airfield at 8.45pm EDT Thursday
  • Moves comes just hours after Trump said ‘something should happen’ following Tuesday’s gas-attack atrocity
  • Trump took action after more than 80 were killed and many more were injured in the Sarin poison gas attack
  • ‘Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack,’ he said after launching the strike
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a furious response calling airstrike an ‘illegal act of aggression’
  • US called ‘a partner of ISIS’ by al-Assad’s spokesman who said missile strikes are ‘reckless and irresponsible’
  • Trump says airfield used to store toxic weapons and was the base for the aircraft involved in the Sarin attack
  • Claims that nine were killed, and more were injured, in the strike which has severely damaged the airbase
  • US told Moscow it was launching an airstrike about 30 minutes in advance – but did not ask for permission

U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea

Bombs away, suckers… Daily Mail.

The public, those few who are somewhat awake, seems elated. As of this writing, 65+% of a Drudge poll see the action as favorable. I ask, “favorable to whom”?

Not everyone is happy. Rand Paul cautiously reminded the President that, per the Constitution, Congress is supposed to approve war. A little too late, Rand. This episode, if worth nothing else, proves definitively that the old Constitution is dead and gone. Cling at your own risk.

Nigel Farage, an early Trump supporter, cautioned:

The MEP hit out by warning that those who voted for the US president would be ‘worried’ by his retaliation.

‘I am very surprised by this. I think a lot of Trump voters will be waking up this morning and scratching their heads and saying “where will it all end?”, he said.

‘As a firm Trump supporter, I say, yes, the pictures were horrible, but I’m surprised. Whatever Assad’s sins, he is secular.’

He added: ‘Previous interventions in the Middle East have made things worse rather than better.’

Current UKIP leader, Paul Nuttal, was a bit more blunt: “The U.S. bombing of Syria last night was rash, trigger happy, nonsensical and will achieve nothing. I hoped for better.”

We all hoped for better. Hope in one hand and ….

Vox Day criticized the move:

That being said, I will certainly be disappointed if the God-Emperor makes regime change in Syria an objective of his administration, and I will continue to oppose any military involvement in the Middle East, Europe, the Ukraine, and any military activity directed against China or Russia.

The Russians are beyond livid:

“That’s it. The last remaining election fog has lifted. Instead of an overworked statement about a joint fight against the biggest enemy, Isis (the Islamic State), the Trump administration proved that it will fiercely fight the legitimate Syrian government, in a tough contradiction with international law and without UN approval, in violation of its own procedures stipulating that the Congress must first be notified of any military operation unrelated to aggression against the US. On the verge of a military clash with Russia.

“Nobody is overestimating the value of pre-election promises but there must be limits of decency.

“Beyond that is absolute mistrust. Which is really sad for our now completely ruined relations. And which is good news for terrorists.

“One more thing. This military action is a clear indication of the US President’s extreme dependency on the opinion of the Washington establishment, the one that the new president strongly criticised in his inauguration speech.

“Soon after his victory, I noted that everything would depend on how soon Trump’s election promises would be broken by the existing power machine. It took only two and a half months.”

-Dmitry Medvedev

Medvedev correctly pointed out the attack was both illegal and came within an inch of initiating a real war with a real and capable enemy.

Where to start with this???

The underlying Sarin gas attack is questionable at best. The U.S. media has taken the government’s word verbatim. Still, there is no definitive proof it happened. And, if it did happen, there’s no proof Assad was behind it. And, even if it happened and Assad is responsible, there is absolutely no American interest in the matter and nothing to be gained from intervention. It is not our damned business.

Is this what you voted for? Trump is now enacting the worst fears associated with the Clinton campaign. He’s running headlong towards war with Syria, North Korea, and maybe even Russia – in addition to ongoing actions in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and God knows where else. Madness. Sheer utter madness. I advised you all to abstain from the election. Hey, voters, this is on you!

The problem, for us, with radical Islamists, has nothing to do with their activities in their home nations. The problem is with their terrorism in our countries, like Sweden, home of the latest predictable attack.

The solution is very simple: 1) stop bothering these people in their countries, and 2) get them out of ours. Damned simple. And obviously not going to happen just yet. There must be a little more money to be given the banksters and the MIC. You voted for this.

You also voted for the jumbled, same-as-always home agenda. Trump, the businessman and outsider, is working hard to surround himself with more insiders and Wall Street criminals. He cannot marshal the idiots in the GOP, even as they hold a complete majority in D.C. No healthcare reform. No tax cuts. The wall may stall. The deportations and travel bans also stall even as easy solutions abound. A “neutral” budget with no redress of the $20 Trillion (on-books) debt nor the Fed’s funny money. Your vote wasted again.

*In fairness, the man is working to create some jobs and cut some regs. There’s that. Small things, mice among the elephants.

As Vox noted, the real war for the West will be fought in the West. The other side has been fighting for some years now, even as you’ve stared at the TeeVee. All the attacks on all the foreign nations are mere distractions. They garner easy support. Yet, few actually want to fight at home – fear of being called “racist” or something. I hear local Muslims are concerned about fictional backlash from tomorrow’s terrorist attack… The media, the SJWs, and the dullards will lend pitiful support. Madness.

None of our interventions in the Middle East and elsewhere over the past 25+ years have done anything except kill people, displace people, overrun the West with “refugees”, break things, empower terrorists, and waste money. We can’t ever win these wars because there is nothing to win or to gain. Syria is no different except that we risk war with Russia. And, that, we certainly cannot win.

All the while a real war (we must win if we are to survive) rages around us.

I love fun and games as much as the next man; I’m having a blast this Masters’s week. Yet, maybe, just maybe, it’s time to wake up and wise up.

Expect nothing but trouble (certainly no help from) the Washington-Wall Street-Fed-globohomo-MIC-media-GOP-DNC-Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Trump cabal.

Nothing. Maybe it’s time to revive that letter to Putin…

The Colossal (Predictable) Failure of the GOP

26 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Congress, Donald Trump, government, idiocy, ObamaCare, Paul Ryan, Republicans, TrumpCare

Glenn Harlan Reynolds accurately details the incomprehensible Republican failure and stupidity last week in D.C.

The plan to replace Obamacare with a new bill crafted by House Speaker Paul Ryan has failed, and embarrassingly so. And that failure is part and parcel of a larger failure of the Republican-led Congress to push an agenda in the new administration.

Talking to a friend at lunch not long ago, he expressed his amazement that the House and Senate leadership didn’t have bills “lined up like airplanes on a runway” ready to take off in the new year. I was surprised, too.

It’s not like the need to do something about Obamacare was a surprise. Republicans have been promising to repeal it for most of a decade. And it’s not like Obamacare was popular or successful. Premiums are rising, providers are dropping out, and costs are going up. It’s true that the Obamacare bill, pushed through on a procedural technicality that avoided a filibuster but left it impossible to fix at the time, was a mess. It’s also true that the legislation was drafted, and the regulations implementing it were designed, in part to make it hard to undo.

Nonetheless, the Republican inability to deliver a bill that could get a majority in the GOP-led House is a colossal failure, and pretty much undercuts its entire reason for being. For years the congressional GOP leadership failed to deliver on promises to constituents, and offered the excuse that it couldn’t do anything without control of the White House. Well, they’ve got that, so what’s their excuse now? And where are the bills on infrastructure, on tax reform, on free speech?

The congressional GOP’s failure to deliver on its promises is one of the things that led to the election of President Trump. Now they’re still failing. What comes next?

If history has taught us anything about Republicans, then “what comes next” is more failure. The Atlanta Falcons of politics.

Last night I caught a few minutes of Judge Jeanine Pirro of Fox – I could not turn away as she utterly skewered Paul Ryan:

Paul Ryan needs to step down as Speaker of the House.

The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill. The one trumpeted to repeal and replace ObamaCare. The one that he had seven years to work on. The one he hid under lock and key in the basement of Congress. The one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass.

But this bill didn’t just fail — it failed when Republicans had the House, the Senate, the White House.

And the timing? It failed within the first 70 days of President Donald Trump’s administration. A president who made replacement of ObamaCare the hallmark of his campaign. And then used valuable political capital to accomplish it.

Americans elected the one man they believed could do it. A complete outsider. Someone beholden to no one — but them.

And Speaker Ryan, you come in, with all your swagger and experience, and you sell him a bill of goods which ends up a complete and total failure. And you allow our president, in his first one hundred days, to come out of the box like that? Based on what? Your legislative expertise? Your knowledge of the arcane ins and outs of the bill writing process? Your relationships? What? Your drinks at the Hay-Adams with your pals?

Folks, I want to be clear: this is NOT on President Trump. No one expected a businessman to completely understand the nuances, the complicated ins and outs of Washington and its legislative process. How would he know which individuals upon whom he would be able to rely? Many of them, friends and establishment colleagues of Speaker Ryan.

You, on the other hand, Speaker Ryan, know very well who the 15 hard liners, the 10 moderates, and all the other ones.

Amen. No, this one is not on Trump. This one and this one alone. No more passes in the future. He’s a smart enough man to learn how the jellyfish sting. Whether he’s willing to use what he learns and whether that is enough remains to be seen.

The whole 61st (61st!!) failure to repeal ObamaCare boiled down to not getting conservative Republicans on board. Hell, as Pirro says, they were physically locked out of the process. How could anyone have expected their support? The Bill could have been passed with their help and without a single Democrat vote in favor. This is strictly a GOP problem.

Their “solution” is strict GOP stupidity. The conservatives in the “conservative” party were not consulted, then. Now, instead on trying to get them on board, the GOP and Trump are opening to the idea of bringing Democrats into the fold. I wonder what their suggestions might entail?

And the GOP is splintering. Blaming those fellow conservatives who were never invited to participate, Rep. Ted Poe is abandoning the House Freedom Caucus.

nimbus-image-1490576116659

Ted Poe / Twitter.

Despite decades of jading, I had high hopes for Trump’s Presidency. I still do though that old shade of green is creeping back into my views. If he cannot marshal this band of derelicts and losers into a solid party, then there isn’t much faith in his (their?) agenda. If that happens, one can expect similar failures on: the debt ceiling (a given no matter what); tax cuts; immigration; etc.

The whole thing starts to look like the Contract with America. Remember that stellar GOP success? Neither do I.

On that note, I will leave you with Carlin:

Another Defeat: The Elephants Struggle

25 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ Comments Off on Another Defeat: The Elephants Struggle

Tags

Congress, debt, Donald Trump, GOP, idiocy, law, ObamaCare, Republicans

The Republicans are the Atlanta Falcons of politics. Losers from Loserville. Early last month the real Falcons showed the sporting world how to blow a 25-point lead, insurmountable by practical standards, and lose a Super Bowl in spectacular, if typical, Atlanta fashion. Yesterday, not to be out-done, the GOP squandered control of the House, the Senate, and the White House, losing their bid to reform ObamaCare for something like the 60th time.

It’s worse really, and not just because millions actually depend on the outcome. Atlanta lost to the greatest team, coach, and quarterback in history – all striding through the second half like no team has before (or likely will after). Trump, Ryan, and Co. “lost” to a Democrat party with no clear leadership, no agenda, and no motives. Failure to internally think, plan, and communicate led the Speaker to pull the AHCA Bill just prior to a vote.

Republicans abruptly pulled their health care bill from the House floor on Friday, just minutes ahead of a planned vote, dealing a devastating blow to efforts by President Donald Trump and the GOP to repeal and replace Obamacare.

“This is a disappointing day for us,” Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters shortly after the bill was yanked. “Doing big things is hard. All of us, myself included, will need time to reflect how we got to this moment, what we could have done to do it better.”

Ryan said he told Trump around noon the White House that they didn’t have the Republican votes needed to pass the bill. “I told him that the best thing I think to do is to pull this bill and he agreed with that decision,” Ryan said.

Speaking via phone later at 3:00 p.m. EST, Trump said Democrats in the House — all of whom had planned to vote against the bill — shoulder the blame for the defeat. “Obamacare is exploding,” the president said in the Oval Office. “With no Democrat support, we couldn’t quite get there. We were just a very small number of votes short in terms of getting our bill passed.”

“I’m disappointed,” Trump said, adding, “I’m a little surprised to be honest with you.”

Welcome to Washington, Mr. Trump. The irresistible force has met the immovable object. Even the Donald’s charismatic juggernaut has limits.

A friend and I debated whether the circus clown might be a better symbol for the GOP than the noble elephant. I think I’ve found a better. The elephant is large, powerful, dangerous even. And it is a smart animal, as animals go. No relation to the GOP in the 21st Century. No, a better mascot would be the jellyfish: a brainless, spineless creature dedicating to drifting the currents and soaking up nutrients. As seemingly harmless as it is useless, it can still deliver a nasty sting to those foolish enough to associate with it. Trump feels the burning sting this weekend.

04fish1-jumbo

Carlos Slim’s Blog.

In fairness, the Repubs have been working on repealing, repealing and replacing, or amending ObamaCare for seven years. Only seven. It took the Democrats over 15 years to craft the law – from Bill and Hillary’s hints in 1992-3 to Obama’s collusion with Big Insurance and the Devil in 2010. But the Dems really are stubborn like donkeys. They bide their time and plan strategically. The predictable failure of ObamaCare even fits their long-term plans for socialism.

The “conservatives” have no plans and no idea how to handle authority. Monday, they’ll be on to a similar debacle with tax cuts. However, then (or now), they will find the debt ceiling looming once again on the D.C. horizon. The debt will rise; it always does. This year promises, perhaps, some extra suspense and entertainment.

Well, as much of those things as a jellyfish can generate.

The Diminishing Value of Degrees

01 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by perrinlovett in News and Notes, Other Columns

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

college, economy, education, idiocy, intelligence, jobs

Over the past few years I have written extensively about the joke that is modern “higher” education. I started with my own experience. The only ideas I learned in college were essentially self-taught lessons in (elective) areas that interested me (philosophy, classics, etc.). Only too late did I realize my mistake with a business major. The only things I remember from business school is that: 1) about 3% of targeted people respond to advertising campaigns, and 2) let the calculator do the amortizations.

Law school was a similar fiasco. “Government good. Government all powerful. Government give some rights. Thanks be to government for government…” Bullsh!t! on that!

Lately I’ve explored the PC circus permanently encamped on our campuses. Outside of the hard sciences there is next to no education, just indoctrination in the wonders of victimhood, white guilt, and socialism. No formal learning. Anything of value actually picked up is done so incidentally and autodidactically. And they pay big money for all this garbage.

This is how it is possible for so many to come out of four, five, seven, and eight+ year programs and know nothing – literally with the experience and mentality of seven-year-olds (along with bad, snooty attitudes and loads of debt).

People outside the ivory towers are beginning to notice the decline. And they’re reacting accordingly:

Ernst & Young, one of the UK’s biggest graduate recruiters, has announced it will be removing the degree classification from its entry criteria, saying there is “no evidence” success at university correlates with achievement in later life.

In an unprecendented move, the accountancy firm is scrapping its policy of requiring a 2:1 and the equivalent of three B grades at A-level in order to open opportunities for talented individuals “regardless of their background”.

In other words, at Ernst, a college degree may be an enhancer for some, but it is no longer a base requirement. Why? Because, as stated, there’s no longer any evidence it means anything. Time was when a degree meant you had a smart, well-read, and hard-working man on your hands. Now, it likely means you’re interviewing an SJW, know-nothing, nitwit and future HR headache, someone who understands little and will accomplish even less. Ernst is not alone in this development.

Martin Armstrong also commented on this story:

The best education has ALWAYS been an apprenticeship – not some university course taught by someone who has never practiced what they teach.
Roman_school

In ancient Rome, at between nine and twelve years of age, boys from affluent families would leave their basic education behind and take up study with a grammaticus, who was a teacher that refined his students’ writing and speaking skills. They would be versed in the art of poetic analysis and taught them Greek if they did not yet know it. They would be taught logic and how to think. By this point, lower class boys would already be working as apprentices. If someone wanted to be a sculptor, he would apply to be an apprentice at a sculptor shop. Girls, both rich and poor, would be focused on making themselves attractive brides and, subsequently, capable mothers. It was the women who often ran the household.

We still have trade schools, which are regarded as less than university. Yet, our education in university was supposed to follow the Roman model of apprentice for the lower class and higher education for the upper class. But somehow, university moved beyond grammaticus and pretended to prepare someone for a skill, which the Roman system did not seek to accomplish – merely refine the character of the student.
Even economics at its beginning under Adam Smith was regarded as part of moral philosophy. Economics was not taught as a subject by itself until 1901.

From Greco-Roman through Victorian times, all trades worked through apprenticeships. All – cobblers, chimney-sweeps, sailors, lawyers, doctors, economists, teachers, masons, carpenters, manufacturers, salesmen, architects, fishermen – all of them offered apprenticeships.

Higher education, elite education, existed all throughout those times. It was intended, for those of given aptitude and circumstance, to gain a level of understanding and intellectual exposure above and beyond the ordinary – and above what was required in their chosen field of employment.

%cf%83%cf%89%ce%ba%cf%81%ce%ac%cf%84%ce%b7%cf%82_%ce%b1%ce%ba%ce%b1%ce%b4%ce%b7%ce%bc%ce%af%ce%b1_%ce%b1%ce%b8%ce%b7%ce%bd%cf%8e%ce%bd_6616

Socrates – no degrees. Leonidas Drosis (Athens) / Wikipedia.

Today, there are a precious few institutions still in business that provide the basics of a real advanced education. Very few and very far between. We’re lucky to have them.

We’re even luckier to have the internet. Essentially 100% of the contents of a good college curriculum are available on-line and mostly for free. Any enterprising person with a basic grasp of reading and math (all that’s afforded by most “lower” schools anyway) can learn anything they like about any given subject.

Share this information with young people you might know and care about. If you, at any age, want an education, then get one. Don’t fall for the modern college/student loan slavery trap. Learn what you like, in your own time, at your own pace. And forget the degrees – there’s “no evidence” they mean anything and they are no longer golden tickets (manacles, maybe; tickets, no).

Cry Me To The Moon: Obama’s Weak, Insidious Gun Grab

06 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

abortion, Amercia, communism, Congress, Constitution, Courts, crime, due process, executive order, firearms, freedom, government, gun control, guns, idiocy, John Boehner, law, Obama, politicians, Putin, Second Amendment, terrorism, The People, tyranny, Washington, weak

As predicted here President Obama yesterday rolled out his “common sense” gun control edict. Edict it was, without any representative pretense. I saw a teary-eyed man surrounded by myrmidons issue a royal proclamation. Since the earliest days of the Old Republic chief executives have crafted executive orders needed to carry out the laws enacted by Congress. But, then, there was a distinction. Laws were debated and passed by the legislature nominally accountable to the people. Presidents issued orders concerning either compliance with those laws or with the very few duties existing in Article Two of the Constitution.

Today Congress rams through secret spending boondoggles that no one has read and no one outside of Washington and New York needs or wants. Members of the House and Senate live in their own little world far removed from reality. The current crop of pitiful presidents, of whom Barry is merely the latest, fill in the governing gaps with a series of orders which are in effect law. As with the actual legislation from Congress the executive orders are occasionally reviewed by the corrupt, incompetent courts. More often than not the black-robed sorcerers give deference to the political branches by allowing these fascist decrees to stand.

The Constitution slowly rots under glass. The people slowly rot amid their televisions, sports, fast food, and disability applications. Nothing remains of the old America except for old John Wayne movies and the proliferation of private firearms. At any other time in history this latter relic would be of utmost concern to the hellish legions of political scum.

The Second Amendment has been firmly if inexplicably cemented into the legal and political fabric of the nation. And everyone is armed – heavily. Not that it really matters. The most heavily armed people in the world have proven themselves unwilling or incapable of using their vast potential to fight tyranny. Disarmament is the final plank of the Communist manifesto needed to complete the conquest of the United States. However, by dumbing themselves down and by being fervently preoccupied with perpetual nonsense the people have rendered obsolete this otherwise crucial step. It’s as bizarre as any plot from The Twilight Zone.

Bizarre too was Hussein Obama’s Tuesday performance. I’m confident Barry and his clan of leeches and roaches would love to confiscate all private arms. But, again, he doesn’t have to. The people obviously are madly in love with the government and are willing, nay demanding, of any manner of deprivation.

So it was that the Whitehouse debuted some of the weakest gun control every seen. It was introduced in as weak a fashion possible too.

160105122318-obama-crying-gun-executive-action-sot-00004809-large-169

Obama channeled his inner John Boo-Hoo Boenher while a host of unemployable sycophants looked on in vacuous approval. CNN.

All of this was scripted and predictable. A corrupt politician seizes on a non-issue (gun violence). Grown men and women who should otherwise be at work gather in solemn support. The political rodent cries about the deaths of a few children (tragic, yes) but his tears are hypocritical. The same man uses his military to murder other children while signing legislation funding an industry that murders a million more babies each year. The loyal opposition is neither. The comatose people remain unconcerned and uneducated.

And he cried. Tears. A man cried on television while breaking the law. Cried. George Washington never cried that we know of. Putin does not resort to tears. ISIS must have laughed at this pathetic spectacle. The delivery is one reason I say this program is weak. Another is the minimalist, chipping-away nature of the plan.

Some of Obama’s garbage may be dismissed by the courts or over-ridden by Congress. It all should be. It’s all unconstitutional and illegal. However, I imagine some will remain intact and what survives will serve as precedent and a building block for further incremental infringement. This is the insidious side of the fiat decree. What the rats cannot accomplish by a serious ban of guns they will attempt through a series of small reforms.

The Whitehouse claims: “President Obama has a responsibility to do everything in his power to reduce gun violence.” The Constitution gives the President no such power. No mind. This claim is a lie; none of Obama’s proposals will hinder violence – only freedom.

As part of the lie the President uses some numerical smoke and mirrors:

Gun Violence in America: By the Numbers

MORE THAN 4 MILLION
Number of American victims of assaults, robberies, and other crimes involving a gun in the last decade

MORE THAN 30,000
Number of gun deaths in America each year

MORE THAN 20,000
Number of children under 18 killed by firearms over the last decade

MORE THAN 20,000
Number of Americans who commit suicide with a firearm each year

466
Number of law enforcement officers shot and killed by felons over the last decade

3
Number of days after which a gun dealer can sell a gun to an individual if a background check is not yet complete

         Whitehouse lies.

So, based on these one-sided figures, Emperor Obama is taking action! Notice the use of numbers over a decade rather than by the year? Notice the lack of data on lives saved by guns? It’s over a million a year or 10 million each decade. These numbers are equivalent to the number of children killed in abortion clinics or the number of violent jihadis Obama would like to import. Of course presenting all sides of the equation wouldn’t help the agenda. All lies, remember, in order to curtail freedom. Gun control does nothing to stop gun crimes. The government wants more crime so as to justify its continued existence.

If they wanted less crime and less violence they would concentrate on enforcing laws against real crimes (murder, rape, etc.) and not on plants, tax form irregularities and speed limits. They would stop stirring up terrorists only to ship as many as possible to America. They would stop murdering babies. That’s not the plan. The plan is to further burden innocent people.

Here’s how it may work out for us. Currently all gun sales by federally licensed dealers are subject to regulation and background checks. All of this violates the Second Amendment but more on that another day. Private gun sales are subject to nothing. That’s about to change. Obama is intent on unilaterally redefining what or who constitutes a dealer requiring a license and copious red tape. Want to sell or give a gun to your son, friend, or the dude on Craigslist? Just one gun? Congratulations! You are now a gun dealer! Ready your checkbook. The licensing process ain’t cheap.

Obama will also dramatically expand the ranks of those prohibited from owning guns via two steps. First, Obama and his cronies will order doctors to violate federal law (HIPPA) by reporting “mentally ill” patients to the FBI. The definition of mental illness will be left to unelected and unaccountable beaurocrats. Abuse will be rank. The FBI and the ATF will swoop in to seize weapons from those deemed mentally defective.

Certain Social Security recipients will also be stripped of their rights and their guns. The theory is that those deemed incapable of making certain financial decisions should also be deemed too dangerous to own guns. Who does the deeming and under what circumstances remains to be seen. This will address the epidemic of nursing home shootings you’ve heard nothing about.

Current illegal law restricts those convicted of felonies or adjudicated by a court to be psychotic. These restrictions are based on laws passed by the legislature not by one sick, crying man’s order. I say they are illegal because they are. They came about in the 20th Century in violation of the Second Amendment. If someone is so dangerous due to illness, defect, or criminal predilection, then they should be locked away somewhere. If released into free society, they should be free.

As problematic as the current law is at least it was passed through the legal process. It also requires Due Process. A felon must be convicted. The deranged must be legally declared so. It requires a trial or a hearing. It depends on legal representation, confrontation of witnesses, evidence, and an appeals process. Law and order stuff. The coming program will be based on whim.

Some pencil pusher will decide who is unfit to bear arms based on whatever factors the pusher sees as appropriate. Stormtroopers will be dispatched to forcibly disarm the victims or kill them if they “resist.” Should a victim survive it will be incumbent upon him to appeal the beaurocrat’s decision. He will bear all the costs and burdens of proof in this uphill battle. He, presumed innocent until proven guilty, will have to prove his innocence to a degenerate system.

This will all start small and slow. Tyranny usually does so begin. Some provisions may fall in court. However, if these reforms are tolerated, more and more will follow. Beaurocratic expansion is a constant.

Will this be tolerated? The NRA and the State of Texas have already murmured against the plan. Yet, I suspect the majority of our citizens will do nothing because they know nothing. Legal reality interferes with the fun of reality television and other trappings of modern stupidity.

The government and political establishment are counting on you to be complacent. The control freaks on the left will expect your appreciation for being shielded from nothing. The charlatans on the right will expect your votes so they can “fix” things. If placated, both will get what they want and collectively do nothing except more of the same.

A brave few will resist. A few more will cheer what they wrongly perceive as protection from the violent. Most will remain blissfully ignorant. Where do you fall?

Law Schools: Deans, Dunces, and Degeneracy

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by perrinlovett in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

abortion, Amercia, attorneys, children, Christians, communism, education, First Amendment, free thought, free-speech, hero, Hobos, idiocy, law school, Madison Gesiotto, Miss Ohio, Moritz College of Law, Natural Law, Nazis, Planned Parenthood, Political correctnous, socialism, students, THE Ohio State University, univerity, writing

This week I protested the wholesale stupidity and cowardice of high school administrators in Massachusetts. Sadly, I now have bigger fish to fry. Fry them I shall. Last night I read about the utter demise of the Moritz College of Law at THE (they put emphasis on that word) Ohio State University.

You may recall my reflections on my own Legal “Education” – a process which bears little resemblance to the legal profession and none to the actual law. Law schools obsess over “positive law,” meaning statutes and court decisions (particularly the courts). There the Natural Law is a heresy.

In general law schools are not worth attending. They offer three years of state worship, communism and idiocy in exchange for entry into a failed and depressing career. THE Ohio State law school provides an excellent example.

Until about 40 or 50 years ago American universities were places where ideas were exchanged and cultivated. Law schools were supposedly high bastions of legal theory. I say supposedly because they also served as gatekeepers for the attorneys’ professional monopoly. Many of our best lawyers – Jefferson, Adams, Spooner, etc. – did not attend law schools – they “read” or self studied the law while apprenticed to a practicing attorney. I digress…

Elementary and high schools provided the base education. They made sure graduates could read, write, add and think for themselves. They also instilled a sense of history and scientific wonder and civic appreciation. Colleges were where serious scholars furthered their learning. Graduate schools were reserved for the elite.

Everything has changed now. Grade schools today serve as temporary detention centers where the inmates are indoctrinated as they await entry into either real prisons, menial employment (becoming rarer), or college admissions. The colleges serve as hosts for semi-professional football teams, sex and drug parties, and havens for the mentally defective, otherwise unemployable people known as “academics.”

Colleges, to include law schools, babysit a generation of uneducated, uninterested, uninteresting weaklings. The students demand “safe spaces.” They obsess over trivial or purely imaginary sufferings of which they have no understanding. They are unfamiliar with free thought or the value of a question. The staff and professors, still mourning the loss of the Soviet Union, cater to this legion of wusses in a desperate bid to keep their own irrelevant jobs. They cater and coddle so long as the little snowflakes are politically correct. The free-thinker, the libertarian, the conservative, the proudly Caucasian and the Christian are considered enemies within.

Madison Gesiotto found out about the deplorable intellectual dishonesty and spinelessness of the Moritz College of Law the hard way. The stunning beauty queen (Miss Ohio USA) came to Moritz for the stunning purpose of furthering her education. A pro-life Catholic and an accomplished writer, she penned a story about the devastating effects of the abortion industry on the black community.

This was a triple sin. First, Christians are supposed to be silent should they even be allowed inside the temples of government worship. Second, abortion is a sacrament to the cult and never to be questioned. Third, and a recent development, the black community is not to be mentioned outside of glowing support for the black lives matter bullshit and other small sects of discontent.

A reasonable, thoughtful person would glean from Madison’s article her concern for black children, all children, murdered by the Satanic likes of Planned Parenthood. The American abortion trade was born of racist Nazi origin. One would think liberals and the modern race hustlers would declare war on rather than fully defend such an institution. Those black lives must not matter.

For her sincere concern and honest scholarship Madison received scorn and even a threat. “The government cannot take action against you for your offensive and racist article. But your colleagues can,” wrote some idiot on Madison’s Facebook page. Madison does not know the fool who posted this statement (smart enough not to be criminal but dumb enough for national condemnation) though she knows or suspects he is a student at Moritz.

I wrote to Madison too, informing her that her online stalker is a wuss and not to be feared. I can almost guarantee he sleeps with a nightlight – the kind who flits about in skinny jeans – the kind just brave enough to threaten a girl on the internet – the kind that finds girls “icky.”

We can tell a good bit about our e-vilgilante by his choice of words. He starts: “The government cannot take action against you …” He really wishes it could. He’s a socialist or Nazi at heart. Anything he deems inappropriate should be a crime. The government should take action.

“…for your offensive and racist article.” Up is down and black is white to these itty bitty babys. An article condemning the murder of several hundred thousand black children each year is racist. Does the bedwetter want them killed? Why? Perhaps his cry is a transferring admission of a conscious he is personally afraid of. And “offensive.” Lefties love nothing more than to be offended by something. Rather than threaten Madison they should thank her for giving them something to cry about.

“But your colleagues can.” Can what? Take what action? Whatcha pansies gonna do? They’ve done it. They sent a Facebook message. They have now exhausted their powers. One would hope they are now safely back in the safe room being safe. You can’t help but feel sorry for them. It’s like coming across a terminally injured rabbit (except the bunny thinks a bit more and isn’t afraid of girl bunnies).

Using this dork as a benchmark Madison has no colleagues at Moritz. She must stand out like a tree among weeds. That last line – the threat – was a subtle warning that politically incorrect thought and expression will be punished by the legal community. The sentiment was echoed by the school itself as I will note shortly.

So what? Madison can’t be kicked out for free speech (though that would rid her of all this stupidity). Perhaps the Ohio Bar will frown on her application. Odds are the review personnel are not smart enough or industrious enough to connect these dots. Even if they did, they can be sued just like a law school. Maybe Madison won’t have the luxury of slaving away 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for years at a big “prestigious” law firm. The kind of firm where, if you survive, they come to you one day and tell you you’re not moving up so it’s time to move out.  Horrors!

No, Madison’s future is secure. She was bright enough to make it on her own anyway. Now, as a victim of statist discrimination, she is a national sweetheart. People (most of us) still love real women and real Americans. She’s probably already had job offers. Maybe book offers. She will be on national television this weekend to explain her experience.

Now, let us look at the school itself. Feeling threatened Madison did what she was supposed to. She contacted the school and arranged a meeting with the dean. At the meeting she found herself confronted by three deans. They blew off her concerns for her safety and freedom and immediately attacked her and her article.

“This is a flawed article, it’s not a good legal piece, it’s not a good journalistic piece, either,” snorted her trio of over(tax)paid assailants. Like the Facebook bully these “academics” revealed a bit of their psyche and lack of mental horsepower. Their statement revealed a lack of understanding of journalism, legal or otherwise.

Dean Alan C. Michaels said he “takes any alleged threat against its students very seriously.” The thought bubble over his head continued, “except in this case. We’re going to abuse the victim here.”

Alan, who graduated from Harvard and Columbia, can be reached at (614) 292-0574. He’s a former prosecutor and criminal law specialist. Criminal. You know. Like threatening remarks criminal. Criminal negligence in refusing to investigate threats. Pitiful. If the roles were reversed, Madison would be in a holding cell somewhere. Pathetic.

Dean Kathy Seward Northern ((614) 292- 7750) alerted Madison she had reached out to the Moritz’s Black Law Students Association and found them not a threat to Madison. This was pointless as Northern knew the stalker was white and likely not a member of the BLSA. Her real intent was probably to fan emotions in the BLSA against Madison’s raaaaaaacism (defending black babies and all that). Her specialty is “environmental racism” whatever the hell that is.

The hidden agenda worked. The BLSA said they were OFFENDED by the racist article. Again, she made their day, showering them with glorious offense. Not mine. All this offense taking is beginning to offend me.

Northern told Madison (probably while looking down her nose) “that in her mind this article could be taken various ways and left questions to be answered.” Yeah, idiot, that’s what good journalism does. It provokes questions. Thoughts. Discussion.

The deans did recommend a “facilitated discussion” between Madison and her intellectual and emotional inferiors. She wisely refused. Such a session would have consisted of lowbrow freaks taunting the young woman (while maybe also flinging poo at her) while the deans looked on in smug approval.

A third dean was mentioned but remains unidentified. It’s as likely as not it was a homeless person pulled in off the street by Michaels and Northern. Hobos look and act much like law school deans. He obviously added nothing memorable to the conversation.

The Moritz website touts its faculty: “Brilliant scholars and devoted teachers, our professors are passionate about making lasting contributions in their fields of expertise and in the lives of their students.” I ponder their lasting contributions to Madison. Maybe they did teach her something – personal fortitude in the face of socialism.

Like a champion, Madison remains undeterred. She wrote another excellent article in her own defense. 

I am Catholic, I am conservative, I am an American, I am a woman, I am a millennial, I am a law student and I am proud.

I am not afraid to voice my opinions and refuse to be stifled by the unwillingness of others to accept views, beliefs or behaviors different from their own.

Madison, Washington Times.

You. Go. Girl.

Concerned Women for America and other groups have come to her defense. Not that she needs it. She has single-handedly defeated the fascists of Moritz. She did it by merely standing up to them. They have no power over her and will fear her going forward. They also have nothing to teach her though this incident has given her an education of sorts.

Madison is beautiful, brave, talented and a winner. She can’t be alone in academia. If there remain even a few like her, then the institution is not completely lost.

northern_kathyHobo-Costume1

The dynamic deanery.

 

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Perrin Lovett

From Green Altar Books, an imprint of Shotwell Publishing

From Green Altar Books, an imprint of Shotwell Publishing

Perrin Lovett at:

Perrin on Geopolitical Affairs:

Archives

  • February 2026
  • January 2026
  • December 2025
  • November 2025
  • October 2025
  • September 2025
  • August 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • June 2012

Prepper Post News Podcast by Freedom Prepper (sadly concluded, but still archived!)

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • PERRIN LOVETT
    • Join 42 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • PERRIN LOVETT
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.