Brave New (Progressive) World

By William L. Garvin 

As our culture quickly coarsens and lurches towards its self-proclaimed, progressive utopia, proponents of traditional values see nothing but a contemporary version of hell.  Liberal leaders continually assault faith, family, and self-reliance.  The trinity of faith, hope and charity is “evolving” into indolence, obesity and promiscuity.  Acts and actions that were heretofore unthinkable seem to be all too commonplace in this contemporary secular society. 

Take the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and his “House of Horrors” abortion clinic.  How could any individual possibly conceive of making a living by killing late term babies?  Finally on trial for eight counts of murder, the doctor’s obscene practice and methodology is enough to turn the stomach of any rational member of the human species.  In filthy conditions, using barbaric, outdated, and unsterile equipment, and utilizing unskilled staff, he would induce labor in late term pregnancies, deliver the babies, and then…sever their spines with scissors!  What kind of society would foster such a monster? 

It could only come in a world where the value of life is deemphasized and no longer viewed as sacred.  A perfect example of this “progressive” thought came from Alisa LaPolt Snow of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.  This Planned Parenthood spokeswoman was being questioned about the Florida implementation of the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002.  Florida Representative Jim Boyd asked her “If a baby is born on a table as a result of a botched abortion, what would Planned Parenthood want to have happen to that child that is struggling for life?”  The nonplussed Ms. Snow replied “Well, we believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”  In other words, a living, breathing baby could be left to die by this inhuman proposition and is entitled to neither life, nor liberty, nor the pursuit of happiness!  What morally repugnant blackness of soul could possibly allow this to occur?  Unfortunately, this mirrors the pro-abortion and non-support of “born alive” bills that President Obama exhibited as a state senator in Illinois! 

Abortion is big business in this country and the largest provider of abortion services in the United States is Planned Parenthood.  According to their latest annual report, they “performed” 332,278 abortions in 2009; another 329,445 in 2010; and a record 333,964 in 2011!  There is no question that Gabrielle Giffords, the Newtown school children, and the Aurora theater victims deserve a vote but Mr. President, ONE MILLION babies also deserve a vote! 

Currently, approximately 52% of Americans identify themselves as “pro-life,” but are forced to support Planned Parenthood with their tax dollars.  An analysis by the Susan B. Anthony List states that PP received record taxpayer funding of $542 million dollars via government grants, government contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements this last year.  This is nearly half their annual budget.  However, Planned Parenthood has REDUCED their contraception services by 12% and their prevention services by 29% since 2009.  The way to make money is committing abortions and getting the message out that “there’s nothing wrong with killing your babies.” 

These views are reinforced in tangential fashion by commentators such as MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry’s observation that we must “…break through the private idea that kids belong to their parents.”  As presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton once opined: “It takes a village.”  Even the legal system seems predisposed to assaulting traditional values.  A federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to allow girls under the age of 17 to purchase the “morning after” pill without a prescription or parental notification.  Let’s give them free condoms, free contraception, free abortions, promote promiscuity, and then act shocked when huge numbers of youth are carrying sexual transmitted diseases! 

This tableau requires an extension of government responsibility and a lessening of individual accountability.  It requires Chris Mathews to say only whites can be racists.  It requires the politically correct Associated Press to remove “illegal immigrant” from their style guide.  It requires the election of liberals who think Guam may tip over if too many people are on one side or gun control advocates who don’t know that magazines can be reloaded!  It requires an educational system where students learn how to cheat from their teachers and an “if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t competin’!” mentality.  It requires the elevation of “cool” over “competence” and the worship of style over substance.  Emotions must trump thinking and actions must be divorced from results let alone consequences.  Isn’t that pretty much what we have today?  That’s why we have butchers like Kermit Gosnell who call themselves doctors. 

The Tyranny of a Liberal Education

 

By William L. Garvin 

"Ideally, a liberal education produces persons who are open-minded and free from provincialism, dogma, preconception, and ideology; conscious of their opinions and judgments; reflective of their actions; and aware of their place in the social and natural worlds.  Liberally educated people are skeptical of their own traditions; they are trained to think for themselves rather than defer to authority.”

The American Association for the Advancement of Science 

There was a time when recipients of a liberal education could engage in proper debate and discussion based on facts, logic and reason.  Questions could be formulated, positions established, arguments made, and conclusions drawn.  Those days appear to be dwindling.  Under the combined onslaught of politically liberal education systems, politically liberal Hollywood and pop culture, and agenda-driven politically liberal media, we are faced with a generation of “educated” but brain-dead zombies.  Like their popular walking dead, they are devoid of original insight but continue to lurch forward regurgitating their progressive, politically correct propaganda.  When their orthodoxies are challenged, being unable to intellectually defend their positions, they tend to turn inward to their social peers, where their mocking, name calling, and crude invective is not only tolerated but encouraged, even lauded.

We’ve recently seen a fading comic-actor try to force his way into political relevance by producing a video and mocking a dead actor.  The crude central theme was to pretend Charlton Heston’s support for second amendment rights was because of sexual inadequacy.  Now that’s the liberal fighting spirit…pick on someone who can’t fight back.  The pathetic attempt at satire was neither edgy nor funny.  Slightly below the incredibly low bar that had already been set was another B-list “comic” who tweeted crude, lewd, and unfunny comments about the Pope.  If you really want to be edgy, let’s see these brave new leftists pop off about Mohammed.  Or face off with the violence and misogyny in rap videos…or video games…or horror of horrors, Hollywood movies!

These are the same lib-zoms who rallied to the support of Sandra Fluke and think that other taxpayers should buy their contraceptives.  Of course they blithely ignore the impact of their musical bed lifestyle (modeled by their Hollywood heroes).  First, fifty percent of mothers under thirty are bearing their children out of wedlock.  If they are single moms, look out for the high correlation between single parenthood, poverty, and crime.  Secondly, the Center for Disease Control says in 2008, there were nearly twenty million new venereal infections bringing the total in the United States up to 110,197,000 infected individuals.  Thirdly, maybe that’s part of the reason Planned Parenthood aborted 333,964 babies in the 2011-2012 fiscal year alone.  Good thing there were no scientists who could cure cancer, or Shakespeares, or Beethovens, or Rembrandts in the one million abortions PP “performed” in the last three years!

On the religious front, lib-zoms did lose their battle to exclude the cross-shaped steel beam found in the World Trade Center wreckage from the Memorial and Museum.  Sorry about that American Atheists.  However, the principal of an elementary school in Alabama cancelled the Easter egg hunt for the kids because “the egg hunt is associated with Easter, and Easter may be offensive to some people.”  Then there’s the Florida Atlantic University instructor who told his students to write “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomp on it.  A student who refused to do so was then initially suspended for violations of the student code of conduct.  By the way, Dr. Deandre Poole is not only the instructor in this tawdry scenario, but he is also the vice chairman of the Palm Beach Democrat Party. 

Then there’s the Easter service that the President attended.  "It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back ... for blacks to be back in the back of the bus ... for women to be back in the kitchen ... for immigrants to be back on their side of the border," preached/pontificated Rev. Luis León at St. John's Episcopal Church.  Naturally, no one has challenged Reverend Leon to name one religious right captain who is guilty of any of the scurrilous allegations he made in his ad hominem attack.  Certainly the President didn’t.  Just another hit and run assault by the left that will remain unchallenged.

In today’s brave new world, politically correct lib-zoms will tolerate anything but someone who disagrees with them.  They’re all for free speech unless it’s dissent or opposition based in fact.  Their minds are made up and they won’t be confused with facts!  But as Aldous Huxley noted, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."