The Death of Our Culture & Common Sense

Earlier this week there was a report that someone ordered "all the black people" out of a Wal Mart store in New Jersey.

Naturally everyone was up in arms about it. Boycotts have ensued. Lawsuits have been threatened.

But it turns out that it was a customer who was responsible for "borrowing" one of the intercom phones and making the announcement. An arrest reportedly has been made.

Of course, now Wal Mart is taking heat for having its intercom phones "too accessible."

For crying out loud, is common sense completely dead? Under the social compact which has governed our society for, oh, the last hundred years or so, it was understood that non-employees keep their grubby little hands off store equipment. It was assumed that people were civilized enough to obey this little rule, and if anyone did violate it, the general assumption is that the individual would pay the consequences, not the store!

Anyone attempting the argument that Wal Mart should hide its intercom phones, or put security codes on them so that they cannot be used by any passing nitwit, is admitting that we now live in a culture so debased, so wantonly criminal and stupid, that everything must be child-proofed for ages one through 99.

That may be true, but a little tough love would cure it.

The Supreme Court Strikes a Modest Blow for Common Sense

Good news for common sense.

Bad news, potentially, for Sonia Sotomayor.

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed Sotomayor's appellate court decision in Ricci vs DeStafano, the New Haven firefighters exam case.

The Supreme Court today narrowly ruled in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor and others that had come to play a large role in the consideration of her nomination for the high court.

The city had thrown out the results of a promotion test because no African Americans and only two Hispanics would have qualified for promotions. It said it feared a lawsuit from minorities under federal laws that said such "disparate impacts" on test results could be used to show discrimination.

In effect, the court was deciding when avoiding potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another.

The court's conservative majority said in a 5 to 4 vote that is what happened in New Haven.

"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the liberals on the court and said the decision knocks the pegs from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

She read her dissent from the bench for emphasis. "Congress endeavored to promote equal opportunity in fact, and not simply in form," she said. "The damage today's decision does to that objective is untold."

Notice how Justice Ginsberg attempts to justify Congress from a political point of view, and not based on case law or the Constitution.

Martin Luther King Jr. said we needed to become a nation where people were not judged based upon skin color but upon the content of their character. In other words, on the merits of their actions and skills.

Do you want the best qualified firefighters coming to your rescue when your house is on fire and your family is threatened? Or would you rather that some arbitrary formula, based on race, means that you may have a would-be rescuer who does not have adequate skills? But at least you can feel good about equal opportunity as your life goes up in smoke, right?

It was a narrow decision, 5 to 4, but the Supreme Court says you can't use race to discriminate against those who otherwise would be better qualified.

As for Sotomayor's nomination, in a rationale universe the U.S. Senate would note that she has a very poor track record with her opinions getting tossed by the Supreme Court. The solution is not to promote her to her ultimate level of incompetence where there will be no one to undo her mistakes.

But as we have seen lately, this isn't a rationale universe at the moment. At least not in Washington, D.C.

A New 'Common Sense' is Here

In the 1770s, a pamphleteer named Thomas Paine awakened the citizens of the 13 American colonies by giving them a hard dose of "Common Sense." The government, he argued, has over-stepped the Laws of Nature and is trampling on your liberties.

Two centuries and a handful of years later, another "Common Sense" is on the bookshelves. I got my copy this morning and am already convinced, after the introduction and first chapter, that it is the wake up call for a new generation of Americans.

The official title is "Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out of Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine." It includes Thomas Paine's version. It's in paperback, it's not expensive, and I believe that it is a must read for anyone who, as Beck would say, "knows in their gut" that someone is dreadfully wrong with our country.

I don't care if you consider yourself a liberal or a conservative, libertarian or free spirit of nature. It doesn't matter whether you believe in global warming or not. What should matter is whether your ability to make free life choices will remain much longer. That's what this well-researched book details. You owe it to yourself to obtain a copy and read it carefully.

A government powerful enough to "give" you everything you think you need is also powerful enough to take everything from you that you enjoy. A government aiming to take care of your every need must also be governed by angels, not human beings. For human beings inevitably will succumb to the temptations of power and greed.

Our founding fathers knew this only too well. I believe they would be appalled at what has happened to their experiment in the application of limited government of, by and for the people.

So should we.

It is not too late to peacefully reclaim our birthright through the constitutional mechanisms the founders put into place. Yet that time is limited, as the headlines of the day point out only too clearly.

Please get a copy, read it, and pass it along. If not for yourselves, then for your children and grandchildren. Give them a chance to live in a country where liberty is preserved, not mourned.