"Want a Quickie"?

I like to do quick takes every so often on current events. Things that interest me or bug me but don't want to devote an entire piece to.

Here are 4 quickies What is your opinion? Am I wrong?

 #1: “I Have a Dream Speech”

2013 is the 50^th anniversary of the famous August 1963 Martin Luther King speech delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in DC. I had just finished 10^th grade and my family had gone back to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit my Aunt Donna and Uncle Jerry. I watched King's speech on my aunt and uncle’s black and white TV in their basement. I didn't know it would be a famous speech but I knew his “I have a dream” line would be famous (when he said it) just like I knew Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” line would be.  You could tell King spoke from his heart. Unlike those two opportunistic vultures today: Reverend Al Sharpton and Reverend Jesse Jackson who make their considerable living off the misery of african Americans. Blowing into town with their "It's an outrage...." photo op speech and then when they've sucked all the attention out of the situation they can, slip town quietly.  Martin Luther King (by comparison) show Sharpton and Jackson to be nothing but huckstering carpetbaggers. Am I wrong?

#2: Middle East Democracy

So now Egypt is in turmoil again. Mayhem rules there, just like it did a year and a half ago when they threw out Mubarek. Syria is another sinkhole of madness. Would you really be surprised if you read that another Middle Eastern country was starting to implode? The United States should stop trying to turn the Middle East into “America East”. They don't want to be like us, they just want our cool stuff.  They have centuries of doing things the way they want. Look, they want our jeans, cell phone, computer technology and Vin Diesel DVD’s. In exchange we want their oil and are willing to gouge American drivers to pay for it. DONE! 

Oh, we also don't want them to create nuclear weapons. That would be akin to letting your 14 year old move the gun collection from the house to the garage. We are at least smart enough not to do that.

Am I wrong?

#3: More money for education

The NY Times recently reported that per pupil spending in this country is at an all-time high. Really? As long as this profession is clogged with layers upon layers of redundent bureaucratic bull shit,  it will be the mule stuck in the mud. No Child Left Behind and standards testing was going to save education. Well it didn't and now we have a new fix all: Common Core. You want COMMON CORE; I’ll give you “the common core”: As long the fantasy persists that every kid will graduate from college, reality will be the shrouded lone figure sitting at the back of the antiquated cheese wagon. You can give education all the money you want but unless educational “leaders” begin to use some common sense, American education is doomed to continue to be the 21^st Century version of the 8 track player. Am I wrong?

Outtake #4: Instant Replay in Baseball

Oh boy, the headlines are blazing with the big news. Major League Baseball will go to a full instant replay plan for the 2014 season. They've joined their sports brethren the NBA and NFL with officials and referees huddled around a TV monitor wanting to “get it right”. Who the hell cares? Christ it’s just a game. Oh yeah I forgot it’s the fantasy players and the gamblers that care very much about “getting it right”. To them it’s life and death. They want every last frame scrutinized but soon that won't be enough, we'll have to have the “blow up frame” so we can get what’s right a little righter. Upon further review the call on the field stands: people will fucking cave in to money every time. Am I wrong?