Captain Digital

Random musings on politics, society, and pop culture from the Internet's marketing curmudgeon.

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Are Progressives Schizophrenic?

I’m at an age where I value consistency. I view it as the opposite of hypocrisy. Now keep in mind, hypocrisy is an Equal Opportunity Destroyer – it strikes both Liberal and Conservative alike, with an equanimity only dreamt of by the EEOC. For every political scandal on the Left, I can cite you chapter and verse of one on the Right. But there’s one huge difference between the Left and the Right, when dealing with hypocrisy. Those on the Right tend to vilify those on the Left AND the Right, when they are caught, red-handed. Those on the Left seem to excuse the behavior of those on Team Lefty, while excoriating those on the Right. This requires some fairly impressive mental gymnastics on their part, with some contortions that would put Nadia Comaneci in traction. To wit… [Read more…] about Are Progressives Schizophrenic?

Teen Teachable Moments in (Louisiana) History.

Well, we (my 14-year-old daughter) and I just got back from Lake Charles, LA, where she competed in the Louisiana State Social Studies Fair. Well, “competed” isn’t exactly the right word. She entered. She did her best. She excelled. And she did not win. But for her to have “competed” would have required that they actually stage a competition, which, sadly, they did not. What they did do bears some explanation – and analysis. [Read more…] about Teen Teachable Moments in (Louisiana) History.

We’re From the Government…and We’re Here to Help.

Those have GOT to be the nine scariest words in the English language. I don’t know about you, but the less the government helps me, the happier I am. Why? because all that “free help” is never free. There’s a huge difference between “freedom” and “free.” With “Freedom,” I’m free to succeed – or fail. I’m free to decide what’s best for me. And I’m free to make smart choices or dumb ones. But the government is about to change all that. Welcome to the world Aldous Huxley envisioned in 1984 – only just shy of 30 years late.  [Read more…] about We’re From the Government…and We’re Here to Help.

There’s humor in all things. (Unless you’re a Liberal.)

So I’m innocently blogging along over on Facebook (http://facebook.com/captaindigital and http://facebook.com/captaindigitalspeaks) when I happen to post a funny story I heard from a fellow Conservative. Six or so friends of generally right-leaning viewpoints thought it was a howl. But one, ultra-left wing person of my acquaintance unloaded on me like a B-17 Flying Fortress over Dresden – with about as much tact. He resorted to the typical Liberal tactics (name-calling, Judas-goats, hyperbole, and other assorted nonsense) and ranted about how Conservatives are all wingnuts and idiots. (Somebody get this guy a mirror. Please.) But it occurred to me that there’s a fundamental inequality here – Conservatives can find the humor in a Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert (most of the time), even when they poke fun at Conservatives. But Liberals seem uniformly incapable of reciprocity. Why is that?  [Read more…] about There’s humor in all things. (Unless you’re a Liberal.)

Scattershootin’ Fridays…

NEWS ITEM: Keith Olbermann was fired today from his gig with CurrentTV. Yep. AlGore fired the Keithanator. Never heard of CurrentTV? Neither has anybody else other than the half-dozen left-wingnuts that watch it. But don’t feel too badly for them. Gore’s hired Former N.Y. Gov. Elliot Spitzer as his replacement. Rumored first guest: Former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). Lord knows what they’ll talk about…

NEWS ITEM: This week, the Little Rock Airport Authority announced plans to rename their airport to “The Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.” The media immediately nicknamed the airport the “Hill-Billy National.” In other news, the airport announced plans for a walk-in humidor, which is curious, since the airport is a designated no-smoking area.

NEWS ITEM: Vice President Joe Biden today called for a “Global Tax,” since he believes the world just doesn’t pay enough in taxes. In a related item, the stock price of pharmaceutical companies that manufacture anti-psychotic drugs fell today, on reports of lower earnings.

 

How well do YOU know the Constitution?

The Constitution is much in the news lately. And with good reason. It is – or it’s supposed to be – the supreme law of the land. You can’t get more basic around here than the rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. But from laws in Chicago, NYC and D.C. that attempt to abridge our rights to self-defense, to the Congressional overreach that is the “Individual Mandate” of ObamaCare, the Constitution is under attack. From where I sit, there’s a vast majority of Americans that don’t have a clue as to what’s actually IN the Constitution. That’s bad, because you can’t appreciate what you’ve got there – or why it’s so precious to preserve – if you don’t know what’s in it. Hillsdale College is the only 4-year institution of higher learning in the country that takes NO money from the Federal government, and is therefore able to teach without interference from Uncle Sam. They require ALL incoming Freshmen to take a course on the Constitution as a prerequisite for attending the school. They are currently offering a FREE course on the Constitution to the general public. I’m gonna take it, because I believe you can never know too much about our laws. But if you’re not convinced you need to know more about our Constitution yourself, here’s a little quiz they offer to test your knowledge.

Arguing with Progressives.

I have to confess. I’ve broken one of my Lenten vows. I promised to give up Liberals for Lent. Forgive me, Lord for I have backslid. Tonight, I got into a protracted argument about ObamaCare. It started innocently enough. I made some of what I thought would be helpful suggestions as to where we might move on from here (see my previous post on ObamaCare). It was, apparently, like waving a red flag in front of an entire herd of angry bulls. I use that analogy advisedly, for they had the ability to comprehend points of law analogous to bovines, they were full of the same kind of by-product found in pastures where bulls frolic, and their command of the English language was peppered with invectives that are reminiscent of words beginning with the prefix “bull_.” I got to thinking about how best to deal with them, and I realized it was a fool’s errand. A battle of wits with unarmed combatants. Now normally, that can amuse. Granted, there’s not much more sport in it than you’d find in shooting unarmed ducks in a rather small barrel. Still. But this group was collectively so hidebound by dogma, so blinded to reason, and so damnably dense that it took all the joy out of it. They did not know they’d been beaten.  Nay, in fact, they reveled in their defeat, braying (or mooing, I suppose) as if they’d won some great victory. Their decisive blow? They descended to name-calling. What a victory! But this got me to thinking back to my salad days, when I first became acquainted with the works of one of America’s greatest authors, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his nom de plume, Mark Twain. And it occurred to me that Mr. Twain could explain my situation far better than I. So without his permission (him being long in the grave and all that) and his works thankfully being in the public domain, I present, for your enjoyment, a chapter from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, wherein our hero, Sir Boss, narrates a tale, a chance encounter with an English subject as he tries to explain the concept of relative worth. (After all, if you’re gonna have a guest writer, why not the best, eh?) [Read more…] about Arguing with Progressives.


In this post-April 15th funk in which we find ourselves every year, I think it’s a useful exercise to speculate on not so much on why we are in the fix we’re in, but to focus on what to do to fix it. Instead of admiring the problem, it’s time for bold solutions. And I stumbled on one this evening. It’s radical. It’s fresh. It’s new. It’s never been even so much as proposed before. And it could work. I propose we shut down Washington.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “This guy’s not been paying attention…the [insert name of the opposition party] just threatened to shut down Washington, and they averted that crisis. And everybody agreed, that would be catastrophic! The End Of The World As We Know It! A death-knell to the economy!” Puh-leeze. But that’s NOT what I’m talking about. At all. [Read more…] about

https://captaindigital.net/2011/04/19/end_washington/

Do Vows Matter Anymore?

I’m confused. You see, I grew up in a household where a person’s word was their bond. But apparently, I’m mistaken.

I said that very phrase just the other day, and my daughter asked me “what’s a bond?” I explained it as something of value that you put up as collateral, essentially something that you forfeit if you don’t keep your word. I told her about collateral on loans, and explained that the phrase essentially meant that “my word should be good enough for you, because I’m a man of my word.” I’ve always tried to be VERY careful about that with my daughter. I think as parents, it’s way too easy to promise your child something and then not make good on it, for a variety of reasons. I’ve tried to be up-front with my child, and if I can’t honor my promise when I promised to do so, I’ve always let her know, and then made it up to her as soon as I could. Because of that, she trusts me. She believes I will keep my word, because I always do. [Read more…] about Do Vows Matter Anymore?

Parliament Bunk-adelic.

Recently, a friend of mine (who usually exhibits a much higher degree of common sense) proposed that we stage a Constitutional Convention for the purposes of throwing out our current form of government and replacing it with a Parliamentary system, much as they have in the UK.

Pause with me for a nanosecond, whilst we ponder just how screamingly bad an idea this would be.

For those of you that slept through 8th grade Civics or Freshman History class, let me provide you with a soupcon of background on the way things evolved over the pond, and you’ll see why I hold this idea with the same esteem that I usually reserve for things I scrape off the bottom of my shoe, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi… [Read more…] about Parliament Bunk-adelic.