Category Archives: South Carolina

This Just Doesn’t Make Sense!

Posted on by Standard 1

I live out in the boonies – a rural area in one of the poorest counties in South Carolina. And everywhere I drive out here I see big reels of fiber optic cable waiting for a crew to come along and dig trenches to install it.

Thanks, taxpayers, for ponying up the $50 billion plus to fund this misguided attempt to bring modern life to us hicks in the sticks. But your congressmen should have asked us before they wrote the contracts and checks to their big tech buddies.

When I carved out a spot in the woods for a new house and shop, I pondered how I was going to get internet and television service out here in the middle of nowhere. Satellite TV was and is available, of course, and we had been satellite customers before. But as the satellite carriers lose market share to streaming TV services they raise prices to stay in business, so satellite TV has become crazy expensive.

Unfortunately, the cable companies who pig out on taxpayer broadband funds have not reached our neck of the woods, and would not tell us if, or when, they would get here.

So we put a dish in our yard for TV, and a second dish for HughesNet satellite internet service. At the time HughesNet operated at the speed of dark – barely functional for email and maybe some web surfing, but forget about any kind of streaming. Another option was a cellular network hotspot, but we did not have towers close enough to make that practical either.

Then Elon Musk came to the rescue with his StarLink service – fast, reliable, and affordable. It replaced our cable and internet services with REAL high-speed rural broadband at half the cost of the fiber optic cable service our federal government is subsidizing. (Musk has donated Starlink devices to disaster areas all over the globe, providing free internet service in areas with no functioning infrastructure on the ground.)

SO WHY IS OUR GOVERNMENT STILL SPENDING SO MUCH OF OUR MONEY PUTTING IN OBSOLETE FIBER OPTIC CABLE WHEN STARLINK IS THE PROVEN FAST AND EFFICIENT MODERN WIRELESS INTERNET ALTERNATIVE?

Probably for the same reason they insist on replacing powerful, plentiful, affordable carbon-based energy with solar and wind electricity that can’t possibly meet our needs at any cost. Our government does not run like a business, continually maximizing profit and performance. No, our government officials only seek to pay off their lobbyists and campaign contributors. Once a spending program is approved by Congress, there is no turning back. Those dollars will be spent as allocated, regardless of whether it makes economic sense.

Now, take this senseless $50 billion broadband boondoggle and multiply it. How many more obsolete and nonsensical programs are burning through our limited tax dollars and exploding our debt?

Last year South Carolina’s Republican legislature gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer cash and incentives to VW to build an electric RV plant. The electric vehicle industry is flopping like a dying fish now, as it has become clear that even with taxpayer incentives electric vehicles will never be feasible. As obsolete EV production plants close all over the globe, new tech research shows hydrogen power may be the energy source of the future.

Godspeed to you, President Trump. You are the first president in many generations who looks at government spending from the taxpayer’s viewpoint, seeking real efficiency and transparency. And Elon’s DOGE effort was not wasted. It exposed, but failed to stop, the crazy wastefulness in our government spending.

If only our Republican legislators would see the light.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Well, the blues jumped a rabbit and run him a mile
The rabbit sat down and he cried like a child
The blues said son you got to learn one rule
Don’t place no trust in a educated fool
Educated fool, educated fool
Educated fool, educated fool

EDUCATED FOOL – Boz Skaggs

Draining the Swamp – Trump 2.0

Posted on by Standard Reply

The first few weeks of Trump 2.0 has been exhilarating for long-suffering conservative Americans. Early reports of young brainiacs with their AI algorithms revealing mountains of waste, fraud and inefficiency are music to our ears. Volunteer auditor-in-chief Elon Musk and newly-confirmed director of Office, Management and Budget (OMB) Russ Vought hit the ground running – no, they hit the ground flying at hypersonic speed! They are determined to streamline performance, knock down the debt and deficits, and get rid of federal flab. As Trump would say, they are attacking the Swamp with a speed and ferocity “no one has ever seen before”.

So far, so good. Trump 2.0 has already:

  • eliminated DEI departments, programs and costs
  • attacked woke and politically weaponized practices
  • exposed inappropriate spending, targeting foreign and domestic outlays that taxpayers would never approve
  • required federal employees to show up for work and prove their merit
  • closed the borders to illegal immigration and started deportations
  • negotiated favorable foreign trade arrangements
  • promised to get rid of unnecessary and duplicative departments, unused buildings and unneeded personnel
  • identified opportunities for upgraded technology and efficiency

But all this swamp-draining optimism seems eerily familiar. I recall a similar feeling at the beginning of Trump 1.0, and found an old article I wrote about it eight years ago. My enthusiastic and well-intended predictions turned out to be embarrassingly inaccurate.

For one thing, my article focused on one of many less-than-stellar Trump cabinet appointees, Mick Mulvaney. Mick was plucked by Trump from his gig as SC legislator to seek and destroy federal waste and corruption via the OMB. It didn’t happen.

When we first met, Mulvaney impressed me. He was very bright, had a real grasp of Tea Party conservative principles, and walked the talk as a founder of the fledgling House Freedom Caucus. And he hired Russ Vought, a friend and mentor from Heritage Action, as his right-hand man. But I got a chill when I asked Mulvaney if he could implement zero-based budgeting to get our spending under control. He said I should forget about reducing spending. “Our budget is so huge and complicated that nobody in government will even try to cut spending – ever.” Mulvaney said that the only way to reduce the debt, which was about $10 trillion at the time, was to outgrow it by revving up the economy and tax revenues. Tax revenues grew rapidly, but spenders gonna spend – and some of them will spend $2 for ever $1 taken in.

Needless to say, Trump’s success at draining the swamp was about as real as my photo-shopped picture of Mick wrestling an alligator. The swamp creatures from the left and right were bigger and badder than Trump 1.0 bargained for, and he got his nose – and ours – bloodied.

But nobody ever said Trump is a quitter. He recognized his errors, he listened to good advice, he meticulously studied and planned, he literally dodged bullets, and he returned victorious to implement Trump 2.0. The stakes are higher this time around as our debt has ballooned to $36.5 trillion and is growing by a trillion bucks every 100 days. We don’t yet know if our Republican Senate and House will support Trump 2.0 or prefer the fetid smell of the swamp.

Last November American voters peered over the edge of a steep cliff. At the bottom we saw the extinction of our freedoms, our prosperous and moral civilization, and the future of our children. We turned away from the edge and now have One More Last Chance before we’re through.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Give me just a one more last chance Before you say we’re through I know I drive you crazy baby It’s the best that I can do We’re just some good ol’ boys, a makin’ noise I ain’t a runnin’ ’round on you Give me just a one more last chance Before you say we’re through

ONE MORE LAST CHANCE – Vince Gill

How Do They Spend ALL THAT MONEY?!!

Posted on by Standard 2

Our annual government spending is $6.5 trillion. Our debt is $34.7 trillion and rapidly growing. CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT THE LIVE DEBT CLOCK. It reveals some eye-popping statistics. Click on the individual fields to get more information. For example our debt is more than double that of China with less than a quarter of their population.

If you wonder why there is so much crazy stuff going on in the government lately, consider how hard it must be to legitimately spend $6.5 trillion dollars. I mean, that’s a humongous number! Our 435 congressmen are only in session for about 150 days a year, so they have to work really hard to get rid all of that money. Each congressman has to spend $100 billion every day they show up to work! Wow, no wonder they are so exhausted they can only work part time.

It is so hard to blow through that much money that, after giving some to foreign oligarchs for their wars and corruption, and taking as much off the top as they can without being obvious, our congressmen have to start passing it down to state governments as “grants”.

But it’s hard for state governments to spend that much money too, because they already have $2 trillion of their own money to get rid of. So the states pass some of their taxpayer money down to the local governments as “grants”.

But the locals already have their own $2 trillion, so it’s hard work for them to spend even more.

Yup, that’s $10.5 trillion of our hard-earned wages going to government at all levels each year. How the heck can we expect our overburdened government employees to keep track of all that money?


The South Carolina state comptroller just discovered $1.8 billion that has been sitting in a “clearance” account on the state’s books for 5 years. And they have no idea where it came from or where it should go!

This from a state legislature that just gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer cash, tax incentives and other spending to a foreign electric vehicle manufacturer while American EV companies are closing plants due to lack of demand and profitability.

Our government is not working the way it was designed. The constitution was set up as a way to keep the government out of our private business as much as possible – to let us make and spend (or keep) our own money without interference. But it wasn’t long before politicians figured out they could buy votes with OPM (other people’s money), and before you knew it half the country was living on OPM without having to make their own. And the government doesn’t even need to collect taxes, they can just print money and build debt indefinitely. Can you say inflation?

It’s just too hard for our government leaders to actually have to make things work. So our city governments grab grants to buy abandoned properties on Main Street and fund more music and art fairs. Our counties take grants to work on “economic development” by giving tax abatements to speculators as roads and bridges fall apart. And our federal government funds foreign wars and endless caravans of illegal aliens, but our own military can’t keep our ships afloat, our fighter planes flying, or enough trained personnel who are not in gender transition.

It can’t go on much longer. The debt clock says we have $267,000 of government debt per citizen plus another $75,000 of personal debt. We are all already busted!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

My bills are all due and the baby needs shoes and I’m busted
Cotton is down to a quarter a pound, but I’m busted
I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won’t lay
A big stack of bills that gets bigger each day
The county’s gonna haul my belongings away cause I’m busted

BUSTED – Ray Charles

The Green New Deal is Dying

Posted on by Standard 1

Decades ago liberal political and cultural leaders found a topic that would frighten weak-minded people into doing things that are clearly illogical and against their best interests. “Global Warming” became the cause celebre of leftists worldwide, and has been used – often in conjunction with other concocted concerns – to bully people into accepting Marxist control over their lives.

For years we have been warned that the polar ice caps would disappear, the oceans would rise swamping coastal cities, the rain forests of South America would disappear, countless animals would be extinct, the air we breathe would be destroyed all because of fossil fuels or carbon dioxide or cow farts or something . . . it has been utter doom and gloom for all of my life, and I’m no spring chicken.

The goal of the Marxists is to shut down all energy sources that existed before they decided global warming was a thing. Petroleum has got to go, too “dirty”. Hydroelectric? Fish don’t like it. Nuclear power? The Russians melted down a nuke plant once. Coal makes people’s faces dirty. And there must be something wrong with natural gas, there is so much of it and Trump likes it.

Despite technological advances and resource discoveries that turn all of the Marxists’ fears upside down, they have persisted in trying to convert the world to new energy sources, whether they work or not, for the purpose of gaining control over our personal behavior.

Well, the new energy sources don’t work. And the world has begun to figure this out.

At the same time we are discovering that “renewable” electric energy sources are far less efficient and abundant than conventional power, we are converting our energy use to electric only.

Ford Motor Company did more to advance the standard of living for average citizens than perhaps anyone else in history by making gas-powered vehicles affordable for the masses. Then they were pushed by Marxists in government and other institutions to shift production away from internal combustion and toward battery-powered EVs. Now the car companies have announced that they are, again, cutting back on EV (electric vehicle) production, due to lack of demand.

It seems that consumers have figured out that even with huge taxpayer subsidies to both the buyers and the sellers of EVs, battery-powered vehicles are still no bargain. The range of an EV is about 300 miles, more or less, on a battery charge, and electricity is not free or readily available when all the power plants have been replaced by inefficient wind and solar and neighborhood grids can’t support the additional loads required to charge many cars overnight. The batteries must be replaced when worn out (eight to twelve years), at a cost of up to $15,000 plus installation. So the value of a used EV depletes quickly. The old batteries are a landfill disposal nightmare. The batteries require rare earth minerals to produce. Batteries don’t work well in extreme heat or cold. EVs weigh significantly more than gas-powered cars, so they are tough on tires and roads. Car battery fires are daunting for firemen, and EVs are proving much less reliable than gas-powered cars. Let’s not forget the sticker price for EVs is significantly higher than gas burners, and manufacturers are still losing a ton of money.

Any time the government has to bribe producers to make something, and/or consumers to buy something, you can bet it will end up being a bad deal for everybody, except those who take illicit advantage of somebody else’s forced investment. Free market supply and demand is perfect – producers are encouraged to make products that buyers want and can afford.

Last year the South Carolina legislature gave $1.3 billion in taxpayer-funded incentives and cash to Volkswagen/Scout to build a new EV manufacturing plant in the Palmetto State. The spending bill was pushed through rapidly and with little or no transparency and apparently not a lot of critical thought. One year later, car companies are cutting way back on production and plans for battery plants are being scrapped. The failure of South Carolina’s investment in the EV industry is predictable and it will be held against elected officials who voted for it.

Yes, people have wised up and the Green New Deal is now old news. It has been replaced by the Next New Pandemic.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Well you could search the whole world over
And never find another like it
It's got a built in lifetime guarantee
It's a one time only offer
And darling once you've tried it
You're gonna fall in love with it you'll see

Have I Got A Deal For You - Reba McEntire

Hypocricy, South Carolina Style

Posted on by Standard 3

You may have heard that our South Carolina governor recently signed legislation that authorizes $1.3 billion of Palmetto State taxpayer cash, infrastructure spending, and tax incentives to Volkswagen/Scout for the construction of a new electric vehicle manufacturing plant near Columbia that might employ 4,000 workers and perhaps 4,000 more later if the new company survives.

Many of us are scratching our heads over the implications of this bill.  Most baffling is that while this legislation was under consideration our legislators promoted several bills that would prevent the encroachment of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) precepts into our state.  ESG may be the biggest threat to freedom in our time – when fully implemented, it will give government full control over all personal and commercial activity by assigning “social scores” based on which transactions are deemed environmentally and/or socially acceptable.  ESG is enforced by manipulating our funds via digital currency.  If that sounds familiar, it’s because communist China is well down that path, using social scores to influence spending, income, and activities. Thanks to state-controlled electronic banking, the CCP can track the activities of any person or company and stop any transaction or confiscate funds at any time.  Here in the USA, companies are already being refused bank loans and services because of the nature of their business.  Gun manufacturers and oil-related companies are the among the first targets. South Carolina bill H3564, introduced by my representative Doug Gilliam along with reps Burns and Leber, would prevent our state government from doing business with companies that discriminate or operate under the cloud of ESG.  Well done!

But at the same time, many SC congressmen who staunchly oppose ESG voted to support the gargantuan handout to Volkswagen, who state Senator Shane Martin called on the Senate floor “the poster child for ESG”.  At a recent local meeting Representative Gilliam said he can’t find any indication that Volkswagen will engage in ESG or require its local vendors and suppliers to do so.  But the VW website features a large segment on “supplier sustainability” which requires vendors to comply with their directives for “sustainability management, environment, human rights and working conditions, ethics and compliance, as well as responsible sourcing of raw materials.”  Any South Carolina vendors who don’t measure up will presumably not make the cut.

Senator Martin also pointed out that the cost per new job is roughly $350,000 and articulated how many other critical state programs could make good use of those funds.  I submit that if the goal of our legislature is to create new jobs, and incentives to employers is their method of choice, why not just offer a calculated tax credit to loyal, existing SC employers for every new job they add?  Isn’t a new job at the local retailer or construction site just as valuable as a VW job?  Our home-grown companies would love to be able to afford the $58k annual earnings for hourly jobs touted by VW and subsidized by taxpayers.  It would be less disruptive to existing companies who don’t need new competitors taking away their trained employees.  It would be quicker, and less costly – no new interstate ramps or infrastructure needed.  Not to mention the taxpayers would not be saddled with the risk of bankrolling a foreign-owned, China-dependent “woke” company in an industry that, to date, has not been able to operate profitably without heavy government subsidies and that causes more environmental damage with open-pit mining and disposal of heavy-metal components in batteries than it can ever offset. Even Ford, despite Herculian effort, has not been able to build EVs profitably and announced new plans to double-down on high-tech carbon-fueled vehicles.  Volkswagen’s CEO has admitted that the company is being politically forced into its ESG position both by European interests and heavy-handed Chinese influence.

South Carolina taxpayers are fronting $400 million in cash to VW.   SC legislators justified most of the other $900 million as permanent infrastructure which will serve the area in the future, plus tax incentives. To their credit, lawmakers did put in “clawback” provisions which would require VW to pay us back in case something goes wrong.  Hopefully we won’t have a Solyndra-type situation to deal with.  In the end, the VW proposal was, on the surface, just too sexy for 96 of our 108 voting legislators to resist.

Still, the dichotomy between VW and ESG doesn’t go away.  If VW follows through with their ESG plans and ideology, both internally and to associated entities (including the state), how will South Carolina actually enforce our new anti-ESG laws?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Money changes everything
I said money, money changes everything
We think we know what we’re doin’
That don’t mean a thing
It’s all in the past now
Money changes everything

MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING – Cyndi Lauper

America, You Need a 12-Step Program

Posted on by Standard 1

We have a problem. We are addicted to spending.

I’m not talking about your family budget, although 64% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.

No, I’m talking about our elected officials and the $31.4 trillion debt they have accumulated. The number is so mind-numbing, so incomprehensible, one must ask “how the hell did that happen?”

Well, it just slipped up on us, bit by bit. We kept electing sweet-talking, career-building big spenders to political office. We were seduced. Democrat or Republican, even if they meant well going in, it was just a matter of weeks before they were swallowed up by the swampers and lobbyists. They quickly learned to play by the club rules to get re-elected, and getting re-elected is the key to stratospheric income potential. They got high on spending, so they did more. And more. And we were enablers.

Some politicians were wealthy before they were elected. And some of these are among the best representatives we have, because they didn’t go to DC to get rich. They don’t need to sell their souls to lobbyists for campaign funds. But too many candidates are elected by spending butt-loads of our money on campaigns, only to become stupid-rich a few years later by getting paid off to spend more butt-loads of our money.

Then there is the lack of transparency by our federal government and their propaganda division (news and social media). We never hear about their drunken spending on a detail basis. If we did, we would have a mass aneurism. Follow this link – it is enough to give you at least a headache.

But back to “how the hell . . .”

My small town received $3.8 million in American Rescue Plan “Covid” relief funds. Not one dollar was spent on Covid. Covid was just an excuse for federal officials to throw money at us to look like heroes and get re-elected. It’s not tax money – they just printed $1.9 trillion and our kids and grandkids will have to pay it back when the Chinese take over. Imagine how easy it is to pinch a little money off the top of each local grant? And I sure don’t get the “Rescue” part. If you were on a rooftop floating down a flooding river, would you want somebody to swoop in, take your money, spend it at the local brothel, and call it a rescue?

The feds said ARP funds could be used for whatever purpose local officials wanted, as long as it could be loosely categorized to one of the leftist priorities. So you folks in Alaska and Montana bought my town a new street sweeper, some city vehicles, some raises for city employees, and some new sewer lines, plus you paid off some past-due utility bills for our residents and businesses. And we here in South Carolina paid for new turf on a recreational football field in Ohio and a weird “public art display” in New Jersey. But don’t worry, it’s all “free” because it came from the feds, not our own local taxes. If we were asked to buy $200k of plastic “art” for a library in New Jersey, it wouldn’t go over well.

“COVID” emergency fund spending in New Jersey – photo courtesy MyCentralJersey.com

Meanwhile, spending addicts from both parties fall all over each other to funnel war money and equipment to Ukraine, depleting our own defense resources, but can’t find the money to harden our electrical grid, protect our internet, or seal our border from fentanyl traffic.

Ask any addict – step one toward recovery is recognizing that you have a problem. We have to convince our officials that we can’t keep supporting their spending habit.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You like to think that
You’re immune to the stuff, oh yeah
It’s closer to the truth to say
You can’t get enough

ADDICTED TO LOVE – Robert Palmer



Love those Palmer girls!

EBT Card? Dollar General? Let’s PARTY!

Posted on by Standard 4

There are so many crazy things going on these days it’s hard to focus on any one of them. Global warming? Supply chain? Inflation? Gas prices? Drag queens in grade schools? It’s all just mind numbing.

That said, I have had a couple of recent shopping experiences that I just have to share.

I have always been an economic hawk but have never really lashed out at welfare and social benefits. My thinking has been: “Hey, there will always be people who are unable or unwilling to work, and the cost of our welfare and food stamp programs is not that big compared to the ridiculous spending on so many other outrageously costly and corrupt spending programs.”

My thinking has changed in the past couple of weeks. It started with a trip to Dollar General.

Maybe you have never been in a Dollar General store. I live in the middle of nowhere in South Carolina. The nearest town to me has two gas stations and a Dollar General. Here in the South, there are Dollar General stores all over the place. They serve an important purpose and market for those of us who are not within convenient distance of supermarkets and other stores. Dollar General stores are cookie-cutter 6000 square foot units offering a lot of snacks, some groceries (frozen and refrigerated, nothing fresh), some hardware and household items, some drug store stuff – chances are if you need something in a pinch, Dollar General will have it, at a fairly reasonable price. It is the 21st century version of the small-town “general store”.

I admit I had always looked down my nose at Dollar General stores and made assumptions about anyone who might shop in one. But now I that I live in the “sticks” I find occasional need to go there.

Last week I made two trips to my local DG. On the first trip, I watched a dad with three small boys on a shopping spree that was nothing short of bizarre. Dad was a piece of work: he had thousands of dollars of tattoos all over his arms, neck, and face; a $100 Lakers jersey; and a bunch of body jewelry. The “family” entered the store after me and proceeded to fill two carts with reckless abandon. Chips, candy, ice cream, candy, snacks, chips, candy, pop, beef sticks, candy. They ran the aisles like wild animals, throwing stuff into the carts without any consideration of what an item costs, whether it is nutritious, whether it fits their budget. You know how you shop, making each purchase decision based on value, need, and priority? This was not happening.

They pulled up to the checkout and the total was about $175. No worries, Dad whipped out the EBT card! I was looking for something that would nourish those boys, but the only item with any protein was a frozen pizza.

A few days later, my wife and I were in line at the same Dollar General behind a mom who had filled three big baskets in pretty much the same manner. She had no concern about the cost of anything, or of running out of funds, because she too had a magic EBT card.

From all appearances, the welfare crowd has more EBT funds than they can spend. They are wild-eyed in their pursuit of comfort food – in fact, it seems to me that this might explain the preponderance of 300 lb. single moms on the streets of America. Dollar General, and many other retailers, have built a wildly profitable industry on the EBT gravy train.

How is it a good thing to provide unmotivated, unemployed people more junk food than they and their children can possibly consume? The damage to their health is only exceeded by the damage to their work ethic. Do these kids have a snowball’s chance in hell of ever becoming productive citizens?

I am not opposed to providing a safety net for those who can’t take care of themselves. My fear is that we are creating a class of welfare zombies who will never even consider working for a living.

Actually, it’s not just my fear. It is an intentional strategy by our liberal government whose world-view is premised on a dependent class of mindless slugs who will vote for anybody offering a limitless supply of Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Now me and my baby we talked late last night
And we talked for another hour
She wanted me to go down to the welfare sto'
And get a sack a-that welfare flour

But I told her, 'No'
'Baby and I sho' don't wanna go'
I said, 'I'll do anything in the world for you
I don't wanna go down to that welfare sto'

Now, you need to go get you some real, white man
You know, to sign yo' little note
They give ya a pair of them king-toed shoes
I want no a-them pleat-back, soldier coat
But I told 'er, 'No'
'Baby and I sho' don't wanna go
I say, 'I'll do anything in the world for ya
'But I don't wanna go down to that welfare sto'

President Roosevelt said, on welfare people
They gonna treat everyone right
Said, they give ya a can of them beans
And a can or two of them old tripe

But I told 'er, 'No'
'Baby, and I sho' don't wanna go
I say, 'I'll do anything in the world for ya
'But I don't wanna go down to that welfare sto', now

Well now, me and my baby we talked yesterday
And we talked in my backyard
She said, 'I'll take care-a you, Sonny Boy
Just as long as these times stay hard'
And I told her, 'Yeah, baby and I sho' won't have to go'

I said, 'If you do that for me
I won't have to go down to that welfare sto'

Welfare Store Blues - Sonny Boy Williamson (1940)

Is Your Kid Learning Human Geography?

Posted on by Standard Reply

Mr. Wilson was the cranky history teacher in our small town high school. We were required to take at least three history courses over four years, and he taught all of them. As freshmen, we were told to study maps in the library on our own and learn all of the mountain ranges, rivers, nations, cities, oceans and seas, peninsulas and other topographical features of the entire globe. He never formally taught geography as part of our history classes. But if any student misbehaved in any history class, Mr. Wilson’s punishment of choice would be to stop everything and make the whole class take a 10-question pop quiz on geography. And if he was really cranky, he would whip out his “you’ll never get this one” list.

Of course, he used the same list of questions for decades. Fortunately I have an older sister who gave me her hard-earned “secret geography list” when she graduated. I think somebody had temporarily swiped the list from Mr. Wilson’s desk some years earlier and he never caught on. My sister admonished me to keep the secret.

Once I had the list, I misbehaved plenty, baiting Mr. Wilson into yet another geography quiz, and almost always scoring 100%. Over four years of high school, this became a personal feud between me and Mr. Wilson, and it made me somewhat unpopular with my classmates.

“Question number 7: What is the body of water southwest of the Philippines and northeast of Borneo?” Ha! Gotcha, Mr. Wilson. The Sulu Sea! I can still see his bald head turning red.

Last week I learned about another kind of geography. A young friend at my gym told me he would soon be starting his first teaching job at a local school. I asked him who and what he would be teaching. “Freshman Human Geography” was his answer. I had never heard of this course, but fearing the worst, I dug for more information.

“What the heck is human geography?”

“Well, it’s not like ordinary geography,” he explained. “We don’t teach about physical places. Instead we analyze the differences between people and cultures and how governments and societies can address and solve the problems that result.”

Gulp. My worst fear realized. He is teaching CRT – Critical Race Theory.

I live in an affluent South Carolina community with a highly-regarded school system. Our residents vote solidly Republican and we are in Ralph Norman’s (Freedom Caucus) congressional district. But I would bet not one in ten residents of my town has ever even heard of CRT. And if I explained that Critical Race Theory is part of the Marxist platform aimed at indoctrinating kids with the racist notion that all whites are oppressors and all non-whites are victims, they would gasp and deny that any such thing is possible in our vaunted school district.

I’ll also bet that my young teacher friend has never heard of CRT. He was just another skull full of mush who swallowed the leftist kool-aid he was handed for four years at his college, and he is happy to be serving kool-aid to kids for a living now.

I have never met any American, in my school district or not, who doesn’t fully subscribe to the Dr. Martin Luther King philosophy that we should judge each other based on the content of our characters rather than the color of our skin. It’s a universal American value, and revered as absolute truth. But today’s Democrat Party has thrown MLK, and pretty much all Americans, under the school bus in their frantic push for absolute one-party rule.

There has been a good deal of pushback against the CRT blitz the last few weeks, led by Heritage Action for America, and the Center for Renewing America. Parents are now confronting school boards and even state legislatures, demanding CRT be removed and precluded from K-12 curricula.

Meanwhile the complicit news media brushes off the protests as much ado about nothing, with liberal talking heads claiming CRT is not being taught in K-12 schools.

Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action, embarrassed the NEA by showing recent screen grabs of their website before they scrubbed sections about their plans to universally embed CRT in our K-12 curriculums. But that doesn’t mean our kids will escape the indoctrination. Driven by liberal Democrats at the federal level, our school boards, school administrations, and teacher ranks will continue to obfuscate and disguise their CRT ambitions under other names, like Human Geography. And it’s not the kind of geography we learned from Mr. Wilson.

The Marxist CRT movement is just one of a thousand poisoned arrows aimed at the heads of American families by the Democrats. Parents, do whatever you must to shield your kids and grandkids.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher, leave them kids alone

Another Brick in the Wall – Pink Floyd

https://youtu.be/gYWjl4I2C2Y

I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Take This Any More!

Posted on by Standard 4

Today I had an appointment for a physical therapy consultation. My neurologist recommended I get some PT for minor symptoms related to my benign brain tumor after surgery and more recent radiation treatments.

Now for some context. I am fed up to here with the political correctness, identity politics, science denial, lockdowns, and all the other nonsense thrown at us since the election by the overzealous leftists in power and the flock of sheep that follow them like lemmings. Put me in the category of “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more!” Here’s that classic scene from the 1976 movie “Network” to place (or refresh) in your memory banks:

Back to the physical therapist. They required me to fill out an elaborate set of online records before arriving. I spent about an hour this morning listing details about a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with physical therapy. I had to choose one of 12 gender identities and one of 300 races/ethnicities – “prefer not to answer” was not an option. I selected “Siberian Eskimo” for my ethnicity and “other” for sexual orientation. I couldn’t wait for someone to ask me about either of those answers.

So I was a little bit short of patience already when I entered the office. One step inside the door, Caitlin, the receptionist, asked me to put on a mask, and I refused. “I will not wear a mask,” I said. “We are in the free state of South Carolina”. She started spouting their “corporate policy”. After an awkward stare-down, I allowed her to give me a mask. Then as she talked with another customer, I glanced across the room and saw the therapist talking to a patient and, you guessed it, the therapist was not wearing a face diaper.

“Caitlin,” I interrupted. “Look down there!”

She saw the maskless guy and blushed (sorry if that reveals her ethnicity). She blurted, “Well, he’s a therapist and he’s vaccinated!” She had not asked me if I was a medical professional, was vaccinated or had immunity by recovering from COVID-19.

I took off my mask, threw it on her desk, and said, “Bye bye!” Caitlin and her other customer both gasped wide-eyed as I turned and stomped out.

By the time I got home, fuming the entire way, my cell phone rang. The owner of the company had her script out, ready to defend her company’s unscientific, discriminatory policies. Needless to say I knocked each of her lame pitches out of the park. To her credit, she did make the call, and we had a long discussion. I asked her why her company cares about sexual orientation (unless they are bigots) and ethnicity (unless they are racists). I asked how, if everyone in her office is vaccinated, do I pose a threat to any of them, or them to me? She had no coherent, scientific answers, but was not deterred from her “policies”.

“We have offices all over the country, and we treat all of our customers exactly the same,” she said.

My reply: “Well, you have one fewer now! Do not bill me, Medicare, or my insurer!”

My friends, if we are going to take our country back, we have to put up a fight every time one of these sanctimonious little minions threatens our freedoms. We have to be mad as hell, and not take this any more.

Tom Balek, Rockin’ On the Right Side

Oh you’re so condescending
Your call is never ending
We don’t want nothin’, not a thing from you
Your life is trite and jaded
Boring and confiscated
If that’s your best, your best won’t do!

We’re not gonna take it
No, we ain’t gonna take it
We’re not gonna take it anymore!

WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT – Twisted Sister


Fast Food Burgers on the Endangered Species List

Posted on by Standard 5

Yesterday we pulled into a burger joint drive-through. We were in kind of a hurry. “Good,” I told my son. “There’s only one car in line ahead of us.” It was before fast food rush hour, so we expected to sail right through and be on our way.

We pulled up behind the first car, and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, the guy in front of us got to place his order through the speaker box, and pulled forward. We got up to the speaker, and waited. And waited. And waited. The drive-through kid finally got on the speaker box and took our order – no explanation or apology. But the guy in front had not received his order, so we waited. And waited. And waited.

Cars were piling up behind us, half way around the block. After fifteen minutes, several drivers behind us gave up, pulled out of line and drove away. Five minutes later, we got to pull up to the window. “This is not my idea of fast food,” I complained to the window kid. “Do you know we waited 20 minutes?”

“I’m the only one here,” was his defense (meaning it was just him and the cook in the kitchen). Still, he was clearly operating in slow motion – it appeared to be a “slow-down” strike.

I wish this was just a one-time anomaly, but sadly, it isn’t. This same drama has been playing out for months in our neck of the woods, at every fast food drive-through. And don’t even think about eating inside, because almost none of the restaurants with drive-throughs still provide inside dining.

This seems to be a permanent and unwelcome change in the restaurant business model. We may never again be able to enjoy little things like fast, courteous service, napkins and condiments cheerfully provided, free self-served soft drink and coffee refills, and indoor seating.

Why?

China Virus • After nearly two years of hysteria by the government, the media, the schools, and the rest of the “establishment”, customers are still willing to trade comfort, fun, and value for a false sense of security. Many businesses use the China Virus as an excuse for everything they don’t want to do. The fast food guys sell as many burgers as they did before the pandemic (maybe more), but without the cost of cleaning tables and restrooms and providing free condiments and refills. Plus they can significantly reduce staffing.

Like the government mandates, their China Virus “safety” practices are hilariously unscientific. My favorite local Chinese food joint, for instance, changed from full-service to carry-out only, keeping ten feet of separation between the customers and the cashier. Rather than take cash or credit card from your hand, she pushes a “tray” across a long table for you to drop your payment. When she retrieves your money, she places your order in the tray and pushes it back to you. The tray, like the door, the table, the pen, and most of the restaurant, has not been cleaned once in the two years it has been in use! Not to mention the cash and cards that are home to billions of bacteria.

Endless Unemployment and Stimulus Checks • Businesses, especially those in lower-paid service industries like fast food, find it impossible to get and keep employees at any rate of pay. Every single fast food restaurant around here has a “help wanted” sign, and the going rate at the more successful ones is $16 per hour – that’s $33k per year, plus benefits, not exactly an after-school gig. Many former restaurant employees are using the same China Virus excuse to stay home and receive government funds. Our current administration promises more of the same on a massive scale, in a naked attempt to buy votes from laborers, entice illegal immigrants, and cause an economic crisis that ostensibly only their brand of fundamental societal change can solve.

Sneak preview: expect shortages and big prices for Biden-gas this summer as the gas truck driver shortage hits. They went on unemployment when the China Virus tanked the economy, and they ain’t coming back any time soon. Biden’s abandonment of pipeline construction and energy production won’t help either, long-term.

I’m going to save my gas, stay home and barbecue my own burgers. Without major pushback, we won’t stop the slow freight-train of woke fundamental change.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

No song today, I just had to give you this clip from the classic movie “Good Burger”.