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Greek State of Mind

Guy on MSNBC Goes Crazy – And is Dead Right on the Economy

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Sometimes, the liberal sycophants on MSNBC hit the nail directly on the head. The video below depicts one of those times. I’m not sure what the guy in the video’s name is, but I share every single one of his frustrations. The only place where he and I differ is in wanting this President to stand up and make and lead the Congress and the country. More thoughts after the video…

The reason why I’m not interested in watching Barack Obama continue to be the “leader” of this country is because the man has very poor leadership skills. And don’t think I’m flattered with the Republicans, either. When I look at the national, elected Republican leadership I can’t help but shake my head while thinking, “Mitch McConnell and John Boehner are the best that this party can do?”

The economy is in the dump because, in part, the leadership qualities of our nation’s leaders are even further in the dump.

A Snapshot of What Governor Chris Christie Has Accomplished Thus Far

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The other day I received a really great e-mail that detailed what our Governor Chris Christie has been able to accomplish since he was installed as New Jersey’s lead legislator some nine months ago. I’ve included the entire image below for you guys to take a look at when you have a moment. Frankly, I think it’s pretty damn impressive – especially when you consider that he did all of this and not only didn’t raise taxes, but cut spending at the same time. Remarkable!

The rest of this country needs a leader like Chris Christie, but we’re not giving him up just yet!

One Teacher’s Take on Obama’s “Socialism”

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Every once in a while I receive a forwarded e-mail that either makes me laugh out loud or makes me smile at the overall point of the message. I received one of those e-mails this morning from a friend of mine who happens to be a town councilman. Take a read for yourself:

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan.” All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D!

No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Anyway, I got a kick out of that really direct message on one person’s take of Obama’s economic plan. Enjoy!

100 Hilarious College Courses That Really Exist

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The good folks over at OnlineUniversities.com sent me a link to a page on their site that chronicles hilarious college courses that actually exist. I took a look through some of these courses and it makes you scratch your head. Take a look below at some of the philosophy courses that are on the list…seriously.

44. The Simpsons and Philosophy: While the Simpsons may appear to be just good entertainment, this course shows the deeper philosophical issues under all those “d’ohs.” [UC Berkeley]

45. Philosophy and Star Trek: Students who take this class will not only get to watch Star Trek, but delve into the issues the show discusses like time travel, a sense of reality, free will and more. [Georgetown]

46. Star Trek and Religion: Look at religion through the lens of the Star Trek world, with discussions that address both supporting and criticizing religion. [U of Indiana]

47. Myth and Science Fiction: Star Wars, The Matrix, and Lord of the Rings: Explore larger issues of myth and speculative fiction through these popular movies. [Centre College]

48. Taking Marx Seriously: The oddest thing about this course’s name is that it implies that people haven’t been taking Marx seriously, odd considering the antipathy towards the economist and social theorist since the Cold War. [Amherst]

I was a philosophy minor in college so I absolutely appreciate creating these courses to serve a diverse student population. But Philosophy of the Simpsons? What can one learn in that course?! And isn’t any “Philosophy of [Insert TV Show Name Here]” really just a study of the perspectives on life of the show’s writers? I mean, it’s not like there is an actual Homer Simpson where we can study his life and times.

Anyway, head over to their site to take a look at the entire list. It’s pretty entertaining!

USA Today: Older White Males Not Getting Jobs

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Every once in a while when I get all riled up I go off on a tangent about how – with the current craziness in today’s world – the term “equality” doesn’t apply to young, middle-class, white males. In short, apparently since the western world has been dominated by white men that’s somehow my fault centuries later (*cough* bullshit *cough*), but I don’t want to get into that conversation.

I do, however, want to share a link that I found while looking around USA Today’s website this morning. A review of the numbers shows that older white males are losing their jobs in this recession, but also that they are unable to find new jobs.

Jobless rates for men and women older than 55 are at their highest level since the Great Depression, government data show. White men over 55 had a record 6.5% unemployment rate in the second quarter, far above the previous post-Depression high of 5.4% in 1983. The jobless rate for older black men was higher — 10.5% — but more than a percentage point below its 1983 peak.

The most remarkable change is in the unemployment rate for black women: 12.2%, far below the historic peak of 20% in 1983. Hispanic unemployment is about 6 percentage points below historic highs, too.

A cursory review of those numbers shows that older white males, as a population, are still doing much better than the rest of the populations out there. However, I notice that they don’t breakout the age ranges for the black women or any additional demographic information for the Hispanic population.

What I like about the article is that it talks in detail about three older white guys who lost their job and details what’s going on in their lives. USA Today is good at writing these types of stories so if you have some time, give it a whirl.

Ethnic and Race-Based Purchases Experiment

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Earlier last month, I ran across an article on FOXNews.com that covered how a Chicago family’s experiment to “buy black” was spreading to other parts of the nation. The point of the experiment should be pretty clear – if you’re a black family, then you should be supporting (to the extent that you can do so) only black businesses. That would include black-owned grocery stores, movie theaters, doctors, dentists, lawyers, etc. The article suggests:

Maggie and John Anderson of Chicago vowed four months ago that for one year, they would try to patronize only black-owned businesses. The “Empowerment Experiment” is the reason John had to suffer for hours with a stomach ache and Maggie no longer gets that brand-name lather when she washes her hair. A grocery trip is a 14-mile odyssey.

“We kind of enjoy the sacrifice because we get to make the point … but I am going without stuff and I am frustrated on a daily basis,” Maggie Anderson said. “It’s like, my people have been here 400 years and we don’t even have a Walgreens to show for it.”

You know, this is a pretty interesting commentary on some of the larger market forces at work right now. If you can look past the purpose for which the article was written (one ethnic group supporting itself through commerce), then you have a larger story about how commerce, itself, needs to change.

Does it need to revert to an ethnicity-based economy? No, not at all. I don’t think that path is the right one by any means. However, I think the story in the article is showing how the economy needs to become more locally-based – especially in the food industry. In essence, the experiment to buy from those of a single race should spread outside of ethnicity and race and become a larger push for consumers to consume only foods that are grown locally, to use doctors and other professionals who are locally based, and to move purchases away from what might always be a convenient option (going to the local big box store to buy grapes imported from Ecuador) to what might be a better option for your health and the fragile local economy.

Anyway, I think that this is an interesting concept and while I wouldn’t support expanding this idea in a race-based format, I would support a larger push for supporting local businesses. Something to think about.

Documentary Review: Media Malpractice

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Can anyone honestly review the media’s coverage of the 2008 Presidential election and say that the media wasn’t completely in the tank for then-Senator Barack Obama? Didn’t think so. To that end, libertarian filmmaker John Ziegler put together his documentary/expose, Media Malpractice, to give evidence to the former statement. And after watching this documentary, I would suggest that it is required viewing for those who study the media or have an interest in how the American media has fallen apart.

As I looked at some reviews of this documentary on the web, I was shocked by the amount of detractors who suggested that Ziegler was your typical, aggravated conservative who was frustrated with his party’s candidate and is now lashing out. Well, that’s a ton of a bullshit if there ever was some! Ziegler is a committed libertarian and has only ever donated money to democratic politicians. Sounds like a regular Rush Limbaugh, right?

Thought not.

From my view, the documentary really dives into two major issues in the 2008 campaign. First, it looks at how the media deliberately paid no serious attention to the various three alarm fires associated with Senator Obama. For example, the audiotape that came out a few days before the election where Obama specifically cited that previous supposedly-liberal Supreme Courts had not gone far enough into redistributing wealth and addressing issues of economic justice. Second, the documentary looks at how the media absolutely destroyed Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. When you watch the various attacks played in succession, it’s enough to turn your stomach.

People like Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric twisted and bent Palin’s previous statements and then asked her to respond. And when Palin questioned their phrasing of the questions, they lashed out at her like she was a dummy! The thing that always got me about Palin is that she’s just a regular Mom who rose up the political ranks. When she suggested that she was your typical “hockey Mom,” I can see that being true! And it shows you the vast disconnect between the media and regular Americans that they didn’t “get it.”

Understanding Palin boils down to one of the major issues that Bill O’Reilly has been going on about for years now – class warfare; the “elites” versus regular citizens. I put “elite” in quotations because most of the people who fall into this category may not even realize it. For example, I have friends (conservative, liberal, and independent) who have no idea that think in terms of class warfare and their “class” being better than those “below” them. It’s frustrating and a topic for another entry at another time.

There were some portions of Ziegler’s that will stick with me. Maybe the most glaring is how completely biased Katie Couric was in her interview with Palin. And, specifically, how Katie took Senator John McCain’s two major regulatory battles in the realm of the housing meltdown (his relentless pursuit of tighter oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) off of the table when she asked Palin to explain what McCain had done to help stave off the mortgage meltdown. That’s the equivalent of asking someone, “Other than red, white, and blue, what other colors are there on the flag of the United States of America?”

What?

And the documentary also does a good job of talking about how certain issues were blown up to mean much more than they actually did (i.e. race). If you look at the exit polls, race meant nothing to the voters. By and large, the voters went for Obama because they found what the media suggested that he stood for as a good thing (the nebulous concept of “change”). I have no issues with the voters voting anyway they choose, but to constantly use race as a battering ram against anyone who would even think to mention it (such as former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro) is absurd. Sure, if a pundit tried to use it as a negative, then they should have been criticized, but over and again that was not the case.

Watching Media Malpractice gives you a plethora of such aggravating and disgusting examples of the media’s bias. But, as has been reported on this blog by both my entries and my readers via their comments – the American mass media is a complete joke. It is an empire that has forgotten what unbiased reporting is supposed to be about and is, instead, dominated by profits and ratings. Just like now is the perfect time for a third party to rise at the national level, now is the perfect time for us as a nation to turn our backs on the biased media and support independent sources of news and citizen-led media.

In any event, if you have an interest in this stuff, then I suggest that you check out Media Malpractice. You’ll be as disgusted with the mainstream media as I am.

Benefit Dinners are Becoming Scarce

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Another side effect of the current recession? The dwindling number of charity benefit galas with exorbitant prices per seat/table. The New York Times ran an article about this the other day which gave a small insight as to the reasons why these benefit galas are going the way of the dinosaur (for now).
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Ugh… None of These Media Types “Get It”

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What does “middle of the road” mean in today’s mainstream media? Are we still stuck in the 1980’s and early 1990’s time warp when it was okay for the mainstream media to openly bash conservatives and Republicans while fawning over liberals and Democrats? Is it still okay for a news organization to call a sitting President of the United States “stupid” on an on-screen graphic because they fundamentally disagree with his economic policies? The New York Times printed an interesting story on this subject just the other day.

And in their article they made the following suggestion:

Since the beginning of March, CNN has fallen behind both the longtime ratings leader, Fox News Channel, which, as the voice of disaffected conservatives, again has an imposing lead, and the upstart MSNBC, which has tried to mirror Fox’s success by steering to the left.

CNN has even dipped behind its sister network HLN (formerly Headline News) on many occasions. Since the beginning of 2009, CNN has finished fourth in prime time among the cable news networks on 35 out of 84 weeknights.

The development raises an obvious question: With its rivals stoking prime time with high-octane political opinion and rant, can CNN compete effectively with a formula of news delivered more or less straight?

Alright, there are a couple of things here that need to be addressed and I’m annoyed that they need to be addressed because I’d prefer to comment on the actual article’s content, not the worldview of The New York Times. First of all, FOX News is not in the lead because it is the voice of disaffected conservatives (in fact, most studies show that more than half of their viewership consists of independent and democratic voters). It is in the lead for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which is that they’ve managed to successfully marry entertainment and news as well as entertainment and commentary.

No one can watch Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, or Greta Van Susteren and suggest that they are not in the midst of some type of performance. O’Reilly has the American Culture quiz, for Pete’s sake! Hannity has the Great American Panel which introduces an X-Factor (usually an entertainer) into the show plus he’s got that Liberal Translator thing which is clearly a form of entertainment. And Van Susteren is constantly jumping out of planes or throwing out first pitches, plus she’s put together two new segments at the end of her show called “Best of the Rest” and “Last Call” to get people staying tuned. And I’m fine with all of this stuff because these shows are commentary and should show some personality. Nothing wrong with that on FOX or any other cable news channel.

My next problem with the view presented by The New York Times is the idea that MSNBC is an upstart company. Are you kidding me? They were a failed cable news outlet before FOX News was even an idea! The biggest problem on MSNBC right now is the unchecked hatred that they allow to spew on their airwaves, not that they have competition from CNN or FOX News. The difference between CNN and FOX News and the folks over at MSNBC is that they allow completely absurd statements to be made without a strong counterpoint. You absolutely will not find that on O’Reilly’s FOX News show, political leanings aside.

The other problem at MSNBC is talent. Who the hell wants to watch Keith Olberman? The man is a failed ESPN broadcaster and MSNBC gives him his own show? What’s next? The Money Hour with Bernie Madoff? Give me a break.

And the problem with CNN is that they cannot fathom that their opinions are anything other than 100% correct and middle of the road. Look, CNN leans left; not hard-left or hateful like MSNBC, but they do lean left. And the thing is – they don’t get it. For example, I posted a few days ago about that crazy woman reporter from CNN that attended one of the tea parties and was so self-centered that she claimed the tea parties were anti-CNN! Ha! Can you imagine that?!

I’ve seen FOX News reporters go into rallies that truly WERE anti-FOX News and present a set of fair questions to the protesters. Maybe the best thing for CNN, MSNBC, and even The New York Times to do is sit down and actually watch a few hours of FOX News for a change.

Update: The real, straight shooting numbers on who is really winning (“hammering the competition” is more like it) in the ratings war are available at NewsMax.com.

Will the Economic Crisis Affect Fraternity Membership?

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Back when I was the advisor for my local chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity, I signed up to be on a listserv for fraternity and sorority news. Every once in a while I get an e-mail with an article attached to it talking about something in the fraternity world (and since the media is sensationalistic these days, the articles are generally filled with bad news).

A few weeks ago, though, an article was sent out that talked about why some students are choosing to go Greek these days and why others aren’t. One paragraph, in particular, stuck with me:

The current economic crisis has changed the way students think about money, and Fouts acknowledges that perceptions about fraternity and sorority dues are no different. Chapters and student affairs offices, she said, will have to be “line-item specific” as to what these dues are for and how they will be spent to the benefit of the student. She argued that interested students should not be brought to think of their funds as “paying for friends,” as many an old cliché of fraternity life states.

Let me offer some comments. First, joining a fraternity is not paying for your friends any more than paying to go away to college is paying for a new social network or that joining any other organization that requires annual dues is paying for your friends. That’s a tired ass old argument that is so fundamentally flawed in both its view and application that it’s not even worth getting into extreme details here.

Second, I hope that students WILL begin to question where their dues are being applied – both locally and nationally. When I became the President of my local chapter many, many years ago one of the first things that I did was review where our money was flowing…and it wasn’t pretty. We were robbing one group of guys to pay for the next group of guys and creating a ridiculous cycle while accruing a massive amount of debt (it peaked at $9,000+ at one point). It was horrible. The guys who came before me either knew about the problem and didn’t fix it or didn’t know how to dig our chapter out of the hole.

To make a long story short, in the two years that I was in charge, we paid off the entire debt and reorganized our accounts in a more professional manner. Things went from very bad to very good (a little self-promotion, why not?).

When I began as a volunteer and began to dig more into where the money was going at the national level, while I understood the immediate needs and uses of the funds (which were all being used in a responsible manner), I began to worry about the future. My main concern was not with today’s financial issues, but with the financial issues of 2020 and 2050. With that in mind, I changed my main set of volunteer activities from assisting undergraduates (which is a lot of fun and the most rewarding experience in the fraternity) to focusing on how to build the financial future of our fraternity.

Can fraternities and sororities survive the current economic crisis? Yes – if they prove their worth. Fraternities and sororities need to be prepared to show the value that a new member gets for their dollars. If that “benefit” or value is the ability to attend fraternity-only parties, then the fraternity which is selling that product is likely going to find itself in dire straits. Any college student knows that there is always a party if they know where to look. Fraternity and sorority membership should provide lifelong benefits such as a built-in professional network and a built-in emotional support system.

Those fraternities that can prove their worth in the current economic climate will not only survive, but I expect them to thrive.