More and more as time goes by, it seems evident that there is a competition among a certain class of politician to say something memorable even thought it is profoundly stupid. Maybe, it is the need for clickbait, something to wake up your supporters so they will click, read and maybe even cough up so dough?

The latest example: https://www.yahoo.com/news/michigan-gop-congressman-suggests-using-015528159.html

Tim Walberg, a Republican Representative from Michigan, suggests with all seriousness that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza “should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima,” Asked to comment, he suggested that he was merely referring to the need to get this conflict with quickly. I think I will do him the honor of respecting his words and seeing the clear implication of his desire to see massive casualties. Armchair warriors at safe distances from conflicts are often quite savage in their opinions.

And I understand that if he had said “There is a bitter war going on in Israel. We should pray for a quick end to the conflict and hope and work toward justice for both sides,” he probably wouldn’t have made the news cycle. Not that there is any real danger of him saying something like that. You see when asked about our food aid to the suffering Palestinians, he said this, “We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid.”

Being a fierce verbal warrior in a town hall in Dundee Village in Michigan gives one a certain distance from bomb craters and corpses. It is easy to be complacent and cruel with other people’s lives. And he is both. Nuclear weapons are a last resort and a very cruel and not a very targeted killer. It kills the earthworms, the grass as well as vaporizing, cauterizing and fragmenting human beings.

I maintain that eloquence should return to American discourse and the bombastic lunacy of verbal violence on those we dislike discarded. We should be trying to end the conflict and save as many people as possible. That is what decent ladies and gentlemen do.

Let’s do decency even if it doesn’t draw the much attention to us.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/felicity-huffman-breaks-silence-on-varsity-blues-college-admission-scandal-arrest/ar-AA1kQHxc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varsity_Blues_scandal

Here is what Felicity Huffman had to say about buying her child a SAT score:

“It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future,” Huffman said. “And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/felicity-huffman-breaks-silence-on-varsity-blues-college-admission-scandal-arrest/ar-AA1kQHxc

This is complete nonsense. I have been involved in colleges and universities for decades. There are a myriad of college and university choices if you don’t get your first pick and doing poorly on an admissions test like the SAT and ACT does not automatically doom you to a life in salt mine. It is very common for students to study guide books and take classes to improve their test taking and then re-take the test. That is exactly what a good mother would have recommended to her daughter. Maybe stay out a year, work and accumulate some hours at a local college while prepping for a second test score.

Just to test the water on SAT remedies, I ran a search for SAT test preparation and got 719,000 hits. There are alternatives to cheating.

I entitled this “A Truly Bad Mother.” What did I mean? Instead of teaching her daughter to compete successfully or do what was right, she taught her that money and privilege rule – that if the subject if important enough breaking the law is okay. She taught her that working hard for your goals is unnecessary and that the hard work and achievements of those outside their class matter not at all. That’s a bad mother.

The “Varsity Blues” scandal demonstrates a moral vacuity and ethical stupidity among many in American’s ruling class. Thirty three sets of parents were involved in this particular atrocity. But that raises the question of how many parents are out there paying to cheat their children’s way into college? And don’t get me started about the hideously evil practice of legacy admissions where ability and achievements aren’t even considered. Admitting students to an ivy league school solely because one of their parents attended is more like the divine right of kings as opposed to any form of democratic merit. No school that commits this horror should get a dime of taxpayers money. But this is just another way the game is rigged in favor of the wealthy and well placed.

If you look at Felicity Huffman’s wikipedia page, you will discover a life of incredible privilege, the very finest schools and a solid and secure membership in America’s elite families dating back generations. We like to pretend we live in a classless society but that is not true. As of this writing, I am researching for an article on the hubris of Stockton Rush, another member of America’s elite ruling families. So, it is here.

I call them the no-fault class because while they can fail, they can commit crimes, (lots of crimes and very serious ones), be incredibly drug addicted, be obviously stupid or mentally challenged and yet there is always a second chance, another nice place for them to live, another source of money for them to use and an almost infinite supply of family friends and rescuers. Their mistakes are not important. When I was a young man, one of the members of this class, murdered his girl friend in a fit of rage beating her skull in with a hammer. But never fear, he had many powerful friends and under the battle cry (I kid you not) of “Let’s not destroy two lives here,” he did not go to prison and after he did a stint of probation I found an article about him living on a tropical island with a local girlfriend.

What should we do? First we should have a national, an American standard for admission to colleges and universities. Merit should be the first consideration. After merit we should consider other factors. But merit must be first. And while that would be good and important, it is not enough.

The practice in the United States of local financing for schools mean that many students are disadvantaged simply by geography. Where you live should not be a determinate of academic success any more than it determines the quality of air, food and water. But that is the case all over the United States. We can do better than this.

In our current political system, reining in the unfair advantages of wealth and privilege is simply not going to happen. They own most of this place. So, work hard, follow the rules and live as a good citizen of the United States. This nation has a culture that very often rewards work and achievement. But even if work and achievement are not fairly rewarded, that is the way good Americans live their lives.

James Alan Pilant

A 5,000-ton cargo ship crashed into a Scottish island while the officer on watch was ‘snoring loudly’ after a night of drinking, report finds (msn.com)

The Marmara a German owned vessel flying the Portuguese flag was peacefully sailing along when suddenly and without any provocation whatever, Scotland loomed in front of it, striking the bow with considerable force.

In a world where most cargo ships, the vast majority, in fact, manage to stay in shipping channels, avoid reefs and shallow water, this one ran directly into Scotland.

Many times discussing business ethics, you have to weigh the arguments for one side against those of the other side. In this case, three hours of drinking and then falling asleep at the wheel of a five thousand ton cargo ship must be weighed against Scottish unwillingness to move their nation. In my wise and seasoned judgment, the drunk helmsman is to blame. Not a difficult analysis.

According to news reports, the ship’s warning system went off fifteen times apparently indicating that Scotland was at hand. The crew drunk and happy slept on, and in consideration of their fellow crew men, should have slept on their sides because they were snoring loudly according to the ship’s black box recording of the ship’s abrupt arrival at the minor obstruction of a 30,414 square mile semi-independent nation.

I am very pleased that while the ship was seriously damaged, no lives were lost either on board or in Scotland. It does not take much reflection to conclude, that this could have been a much more serious tragedy but huge amounts of sheer luck were on the side of the ship (and Scotland).

James Pilant

The picture of Scotland above is from wikipedia and this is the attribute they asked me to copy. By Users Angusmclellan, Angusmclellan, Angusmclellan on en.wikipedia – Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is (was) here, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=714472

My sincere thanks to Wikipedia!!

I believe this film is in the public domain but since I am editorializing based on it – I only intend fair use. JP

Business trends can be tricky. Right now, virtually every business in the world is thinking of jumping on the bandwagon of AI which is undoubtedly right for some and wrong for many others. I consider John Wayne’s foray into the genre of the singing cowboy, a cautionary tale. Not every business trend suits every business.

In the years of the 1930’s, the Western was already well established as a genre. The advent of sound had changed the stories only a little, and they were looking for some new angle to bring people into the theatre. Bob Steele and Ken Maynard had starting singing in their roles as cowboy heroes as early as 1930 and by the year 1933, the trend was well established.

Wayne’s career was deep in the doldrums in ’33. He had starred in Raoul Walsh’s “The Big Trail” in 1930. It was supposed to be his big break but the film was made to be seen in a new broad screen format and the Depression made theatres reluctant to make the investment. So the film’s failure had nothing to do with his performance but nevertheless it put his career back into b-movies until his next big break, “Stagecoach.”

So, in 1933, we have John Wayne embarking on a role as the character, “Singin’ Sandy Saunders,” in a series of eight motion pictures. His take on the genre was more pessimistic than the others. He wore dark clothing and sang songs with serious undertones. Wayne was unhappy in the genre and decided not to renew his contract when it expired. He continued making b-films until “Stagecoach” which re-defined his career.

I have added a link to the first of his singing cowboy films, “Riders of Destiny.” I enjoyed it. It was much better than I expected considering the low budget and high speed at which the film was made.

But if you don’t mind my suggestion, whenever you think of going with the latest business fad or any other fad, you might think about “Singin Sandy” and re-consider.

James Pilant