Mom, That’s Not Fair!

Posted on May 29, 2025 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

I watched several videos today of new secretary of state Marco Rubio at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing. His rebuttals to the pompous senators’ whining complaints were replete with delicious smack-backs. But more importantly, Rubio countered their childish posturing with adult thought process.

I have never understood liberals. Their worldview, positions on issues, and attempts at logic leave me shaking my head. While watching the dim-witted Democrat senators volley with intellectual powerhouse Rubio, I may have figured out what’s wrong with these airheads: they just never grew up.

Their moms raised them to believe that everything must be “fair”. If you get five M&Ms, your sister and your brother must also get five. Want to see a 7-year old have an instant sobbing hissy-fit? Just tell him his sibling gets to stay up another half-hour but he has to go to bed now.

Sadly, our culture has elevated the importance of “fairness” to ridiculous heights, seeking equality of outcomes instead of merit-based reward. Tee-ball teams often don’t keep score at all and some allow batters to run the bases even after they have been put out. We allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports because it wouldn’t be fair to exclude boys who think they are girls. Schools no longer hold back under-performing students. After all, it’s only fair to promote and graduate every kid who is breathing.

In the noble attempt to make life “fair”, we subsidize new apartment complexes in ritzy neighborhoods so the “poor” have a nice place to live. We give illegal immigrants free health care, food, and shelter. We turn repeat criminal offenders back out on the streets. We accept students who can’t read and write into top-tier universities based on their physical characteristics.

All of this is in the name of “fairness”, but without questioning whether it is fair to take money from a person who earned it and give it to someone who chose to not work. Or to give a job, promotion, or access to education to an unqualified person while denying it to one who deserves it. Allie Beth Stuckey digs deeper, diagnosing this irrational view of fairness as “toxic empathy”.

But back to Rubio.

Senator Tim Kaine smirked as he blasted the secretary of state for the new special refugee program that allows white South Afrikaner farmers, who are being murdered as their land is confiscated by gangs of black marauders, to immigrate to the US.

Kaine’s kill shot at Rubio: “Are you aware ever, during the apartheid era in South Africa, did the United States establish a special program to allow South African blacks, who were treated as second-class citizens, so that they could claim refugee status in the United States?”

Rubio: “No, because I was in the eighth grade at the time.” (Mom! Timmy got a popsicle 30 years ago and I didn’t!)

Kaine: “. . . should [we] try to do that in an even-handed way?” (Do you mean in a racist way?)

Rubio: “I think we should try to do what is in the national interest of the United States.”

What a refreshingly adult answer. Rubio pointed out that the big problem is numbers. We can’t continue to allow millions and millions of unvetted “refugees” from all over the world to move here. It is unsustainable economically, culturally, and from a security standpoint. But why not accept a small group of truly threatened, well-vetted people who would bring value to our society and assimilate well?

Senator Airhead says we should also be letting the black murderers of the white farmers in South Africa into our country because that would be “fair”.

I can’t help it, my head is still shaking.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

And life ain’t fair to me
But that don’t mean I ain’t ready for eternity
My mind weigh heavy, but the spirits still sing
And I might not get this lucky again

Life Isn’t Fair – Smooth Hound Smith

Liberals Must Hate Children

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

referee-clipart-as0968 Here we go again. Another example of how liberals hurt our kids.

My daughter and I have played, coached and officiated sports for many years. We love working with kids and we see the positive effects of organized sports on their growth and development. Coaching is fun and rewarding. But it’s not easy these days.

A while back I wrote about coaching my grandson’s first baseball season. Here’s a recap: First inning of the first game of the season. The batter hits a ground ball to our pitcher, who makes the catch and easily throws him out at first. Instead of returning the batter to the dugout, the coach holds him on first base. “Hey!” several people yelled. “That batter was out!” But the coach kept him on first base, saying, “We don’t put kids out in this league. Everybody gets to run the bases.” There are no umpires for the 5 -year old beginners league, so the coaches are in charge.

None of our coaches saw anything like that in the rules we had received before the season, but being new to the league, and not wanting to make a scene in front of the kids, we didn’t put up a fight. Over the rest of the game, only one of our players actually got put out, and we returned him to the bench, but the nine batters our team put out still ran the bases. No score was kept. The game was weird, and our players, who were being taught to play by the rules and are naturally competitive, were confused and upset. Why are we trying to put players out when they still get to run and score?

We called the league manager to express our concern about trying to teach baseball with no rules. His reply was, “We just want the kids to feel successful and have fun. Besides, five-year olds never put anybody out anyway,” which sent my daughter/coach into orbit! So we had all the parents call the league manager, and they let him know what they thought of his “no winners and losers” version of baseball. He relented, and for the rest of the season an out was an out, the kids learned how to play by the rules, and everybody had fun.

Fast forward to my grandson’s first basketball game, almost two years later.

Again, our players had been taught the rules and were expected to abide by them. First game of the season, our team gets the ball, dribbles to their basket, and my boy made the first basket of the season. Yay! The other team throws the ball in, and their guard dribbles and stops. Dribbles and stops. Again. And again. And again. After 13 double-dribbles he tucked the ball like a running back, ran all the way across the court, and took his shot.

Our coaches asked the referee why he didn’t call double-dribble or travelling. “Oh, we don’t have any infractions in this league. We just want them to have fun.”

Attempts by the coaches to get rules enforced in that game, and the next, were unsuccessful. It wasn’t long before the players who had been taught how to play by the rules abandoned them. I was appalled when I saw my grandson start double-dribbling and travelling like the other kids. Why should he play by the rules when nobody else has to? He’s not dumb! To make matters worse, it wasn’t long before the kids figured out that fouls weren’t called, and the game became a bloody free-for-all. My kid has a beauty of a shiner.

liberal (lib • er • al)

ADJECTIVE

open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values

(especially of an interpretation of a law) broadly construed or understood; not strictly literal or exact

NOUN

a person of liberal views.

I know they mean well, but liberals should be kept away from impressionable children. Kids need structure. They want to know the rules. They grow by experiencing the rewards of hard work, the thrill of fair competition, and the joy of winning. Building character includes losing with dignity, and learning from one’s mistakes.

One thing I know about children: nothing hurts them more than being treated unfairly. And nothing is more unfair than letting some kids break the rules while others abide by them. The same holds true for adults, but it’s larger than life for children. What happens if you give one sibling candy, but not the other?

This is not just about sports and kids. It’s about life, and it’s about the moral decay we see all around us. Some are expected to work while others don’t. Some follow the laws while others flaunt them – or political leaders decide to not enforce them. Some put their shopping carts in the rack at Costco. Others just leave them in the parking lot, for somebody else to take care of.

And it seems like the people who complain loudest about being treated unfairly are the ones who don’t respect the rules. The liberals.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ on the Right Side

When I fight authority, authority always wins
When I fight authority, authority always wins!
I been doing it, since I was a young kid and
I’ve come out grinnin’.
I fight authority, authority always wins!

John Cougar Mellencamp – the Authority Song

Take a minute to enjoy a young John Cougar Mellencamp – kid had some moves!

Liberals, Please Don’t Ruin Sports For Our Kids

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Tom Balek Standard 2

Conrads first baseball game 7 My grandson just turned five, and that entitles me to coach his little league baseball team. It’s Grandpa Heaven. Our first game was last Saturday.

At this age, the coach pitches to his own players and if they can’t hit it after five good pitches, they hit from a tee. My grandson smashed my first pitch into deep center field, but I digress . . .

I didn’t expect a baseball game for five-year-olds to have a political slant. But it sure did.

Our team took the field first, and the other team sent up their first batter. He hit a grounder to our first baseman, who stepped on the bag for the first out. But instead of returning to the dugout, the batter stood on first base, held there by his coach. My other coaches and I looked at each other, confused. Our players looked at us wondering what was going on. We told the opposing coach, “Hey! That kid is out!” (There are no umpires for T-ball.)

“No, we are going to let all the kids run the bases,” he said. “Nobody goes out.”

The second batter hit a grounder to our pitcher, who tossed the ball to first base. Out number two. But no, the coach left both runners on the bases. We didn’t put up a fight at the time, because it was our first year coaching in this league, and the other team’s coaches seemed to be veterans with authority. “This is the way we play in this league,” they barked. We had been given the leagues “rules” before the season started, stating, “There will be a maximum of 5 runs or 3 outs per inning, whichever comes first,” and “An out is an out. Player must leave the field of play.” Apparently rules mean as much to these dads as the Constitution does to President Obama.

This morning I wrote a note to the coach of our opposing team next week, asking him to agree that “an out is an out” in our upcoming game. I explained that the kids were confused because rules weren’t enforced, and many of them were getting really bored because every play had the same outcome. I copied my email to the league’s director.

That started a flurry of emails. Turns out the league director is a knuckle-headed liberal who thinks that it is more “fun” for the kids to never fail than it is for them to actually succeed. I pointed out that kids, especially at that age, need order and structure. They want to know what they are supposed to do. What’s the point of throwing the ball to first base if the runner is always safe? And why bother to run hard to beat the throw if you will be safe anyway? The “putout” is fundamental to baseball. There is no game without it. And besides, what is more fun than getting a legitimate base hit, or a putout?

The director, of course, launched into the predictable liberal tirade about the evils of competition. “Besides, kids at this age never put anybody out anyway,” he claimed. That got my daughter (assistant coach) into the fray. “Our team made five putouts in the first inning, three in the second, and two in the third!” she countered. She was a very competitive athlete in younger years, and was obviously keeping score, mentally. “The other team got several putouts too. So did the teams that played after us.” She, too, pointed out that the players were getting bored because every play had the same outcome.

The director said he would think about it. But I’m not optimistic that the integrity of our T-ball league will be saved from a liberal fate.

Why do liberals think they have the only correct understanding of fairness? How fair is it when you put a kid out at first base and he gets to stay there anyway? A “game”, by definition, is a competition with a winner and a loser. Results. Consequences. Reality. No consequences, no game.

Imagine the NCAA championship game coming up in a couple of weeks. Every player gets to take the same number of shots. Every shot is good for two points, whether it goes in the basket or not. But nobody keeps score anyway, because it might make somebody feel bad. Do you think anybody would pay to watch? Or want to play? Even a five-year-old knows that’s just plain stupid.

** UPDATE 3/28/15 – our little “protest” worked – with support from other parents and coaches, we got the league director to enforce the rule. Starting today, in our little kids baseball league, “an out is an out.” Victory!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Just to hit the ball, and touch ’em all
A moment in the sun
It’s a-gone and you can tell that one good-bye!

Center Field – John Fogerty

check out Fogerty’s “baseball bat” guitar!