Free Speech for the Dumb: Al Gore

Oh Al Gore haven't you learned yet that all the global warming myths you have been talking about for years now are starting to be debunked? Maybe you have that's why to get some attention back to you, you compare global warming to racism;

“I remember, again going back to my early years in the South, when the Civil Rights revolution was unfolding, there were two things that really made an impression on me,” Gore said. “My generation watched Bull Connor turning the hose on civil rights demonstrators and we went, ‘Whoa! How gross and evil is that?’ My generation asked old people, ‘Explain to me again why it is okay to discriminate against people because their skin color is different?’ And when they couldn’t really answer that question with integrity, the change really started.” 

The former vice president recalled how society succeeded in marginalizing racists and said climate change skeptics must be defeated in the same manner. 

“Secondly, back to this phrase ‘win the conversation,’” he continued. “There came a time when friends or people you work with or people you were in clubs with — you’re much younger than me so you didn’t have to go through this personally — but there came a time when racist comments would come up in the course of the conversation and in years past they were just natural. Then there came a time when people would say, ‘Hey, man why do you talk that way, I mean that is wrong. I don’t go for that so don’t talk that way around me. I just don’t believe that.’ That happened in millions of conversations and slowly the conversation was won.” 

“We have to win the conversation on climate,” Gore added.

Wow...just wow. This man could have been president. How you can compare racism to global warming is beyond me. One is morally wrong. God said to love one another, pretty cut and dry. The other, not so much. It seems like every day now we hear another report that debunks his crazy "end of the world" scenarios.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Rashard Mendenhall

So as the U.S. and the world are celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden, Rashard Mendenhall (a running back for the Steelers) decided to share his views;

What kind of person celebrates death? It's amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We've only heard one side...

Wow...that's pretty amazing. I wonder what bin Laden's side was? Oh yeah...it's because we are Americans. This genius decides to keep on rolling though into Charlie Sheen type territory;

We'll never know what really happened. I just have a hard time believing a plane could take a skyscraper down demolition style

conspiracy theorist!!! I know the NFL is in lock out right now, so maybe if Mendenhall isn't too busy he can go ahead and read this Popular Mechanics article that explains how a plane can "take a skyscraper down".

Free Speech for the Dumb: Arnold Schwarzenegger

The first "two-time" Free Speech for the Dumb award goes to our former governor of CA.

For those who haven't been paying much attention in CA our governor decided to reduce the sentence of a convicted killer right before his term expired. The attention grabbing part was that is was Fabian Nunez's son, Fabian was the former speaker. Schwarzenegger has tried to defend it, but he finally let his true feelings show;

“I feel good about the decision .... I happen to know the kid really well. I don’t apologize about it,” said Schwarzenegger, who noted in his commutation order that Esteban Nuñez, 21, did not deliver the fatal wound that led to Santos’ death. “There’s criticism out there. I think it’s just because of our working relationship and all that. It maybe was kind of saying, ‘That’s why he did it.’ Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend.”

Wow...wow. I got nothing...seriously, this is why CA is messed up and why no one trusts politicians.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Rush Limbaugh

As readers of this blog know, I am a Republican and conservative. I love Rush Limbaugh, he is right about some stuff. But when it comes to categorizing teachers. he's an ass and dead wrong.

"Can we get rid of the myth once and for all that school teachers, anymore, are these average, ordinary, next-door neighbors who are just doing everything they can to further the educational experience of your children? That's not who they are. They are left-wing activists, active members of unions who are oriented first by a political agenda, second by their own well-being, and your kids come last.

Could these people who are making what they're making as a result of state and federal accidents, could they earn that money in the private sector on their own? Do they have the skills? Do they have the talent? Could they? Do they have the ability to even do what they're doing now reasonably well? The whole educational system has been co-opted by people who have found an easy way to a good living, and they realize it and they don't want to give it up without a fight. It's always about the money."

I am not a left-wing activist. My job is not about the money, if that were the case I would still be at UPS. I'm not gonna go point by point, but when a voice as powerful as Rush's attacks us, then the attacks are going to get louder and worse. I love education.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Mohamed Al Fayed

Sports stadiums and player statues go hand in hand. Chicago has a Michael Jordan statue, L.A. has Magic Johnson, Vince Lombardi at Green Bay, and so on. So of course fans were perplexed when their soccer team owner unveiled a statue in front of their stadium...a statue of Michael Jackson! Of course the owner Mohamed Al Fayed just doesn't get it;

"Why is it bizarre?" he said. "Football fans love it. If some stupid fans don't understand and appreciate such a gift, they can go to hell."

Really? I have scored as many goals as Michael Jackson has for Fulham. And he has been to only one more game than I have.

And one last thing...telling your fans to "go to hell" might not be the smartest thing in the world.

Thoughts Without Words: This is how parents think now...

Let me start off by saying this could have been posted under Free Speech for the Dumb or Inside Four Walls because it deals with parents, but I went generic.

A couple days ago I posted the video of a bully getting slammed by the kid he was picking on. Most would say justice was served. I say most because the bully's mom? Well, she sees it differently.

"We don't need this posted everywhere," she told Australia's Seven Network on Wednesday. "I would like him to apologize."

That's right. Her kid is the one picking on another student and starts hitting him, yet it's the victim who needs to apologize. This is what we see more and more in education. Call it deflecting, not accepting responsibility, or whatever you want, but this is what society has become. It's always someone else's fault.

Now she did say this;

Tina said she while was "shocked" at Ritchard's behavior, she didn't think he deserved to be slammed to the ground. Neither boy suffered serious injuries in the fight.

Hmmm shocked? No apology there. Oh and I like the "didn't deserved to be slammed to the ground" part too. What did she expect the kid to do? He doesn't provoke the bully. He just wants to be left alone. It's the bully that seems to have brought the slamming upon himself. But why would I expect a parent to do their job and parent their child. It is becoming more and more rare to see a parent actually parent their child. Unfortunately, parents are getting to be like the kids and make excuses and avoiding accountability.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Adrian Peterson

It's been awhile since I had a Free Speech for the Dumb story, but this one was too good to pass up.

The NFL owners are locking out the players until a new CBA can be reached. What does star NFL running back Adrian Peterson think about it?

If they have nothing to hide, just give us the information. Why not? Obviously, there’s a lot to hide — these guys are professionals, and they’re maximizing what they do. But they know that if all this information comes out, the information the players want, it’ll be right out there for everyone to see. It’s a rip-off — not just for the players, but for the people who work at the concession stands and at the stadiums.

It’s modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money . . . the owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money

Wow. Really? A didn't know slaves made $10.72 million a year. Heck that's not even a full year, maybe 7 months. Where do I sign up to be that kind of slave? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be willing to sign up.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Governor Chris Christie

Now I like a leader that's not afraid to stick his head out and come up with some "out of the box" thinking. With that said, I hope that after the facts are presented logic will prevail. Unfortunately, it looks like NJ Gov. Chris Christie hasn't had that "a-ha" moment. From his state of the state speech;

The time for a national conversation on tenure is long past due. Teaching can no longer be the only profession where you have no rewards for excellence and no consequences for failure to perform. Let New Jersey lead the way again. The time to eliminate teacher tenure is now.

Does anyone realize that all tenure gives a teacher is due process. This whole argument about "a guaranteed job for life" is just nonsense. Is the process to fire a teacher lengthy? Yes, but there is a process in place to fire a teacher. At my school a teacher should have been fired, the union rep told the administrators go ahead, we can't stop you. What happened? Nothing, they didn't fire him. Is that tenure's fault or the administration.

People want to run schools like business. Well if that's the case let me do the following;

• be able to pick my students (employees)
• no special ed students either, they usually don't perform well on standardized tests
• be able to "fire" my students within the first 6 weeks of a semester
• for tardies/absences
• for failing to do homework
• for failing to participate
• for failing a test

Sounds kind of "out there"? It's not. I worked as a supervisor at UPS (a real life private business) for 5 years and we were able to pick and choose who we wanted and fire those that couldn't perform. And because of that we ran a smooth operation. If we had to take anyone who came through that door, UPS would not be successful.

People who aren't in education, don't get it. They don't. Where there is a bad student, chances are there is a bad home life. We see these students 55 minutes a day. What are they doing the other 23 hours? Drinking/drugs? Staying up late? Not doing any homework? Watching over their siblings? Working? Playing sports? Community service for college?

There is a lot of problems wrong with education, but I would say most start in the homes because the parents want to push all their problems onto the schools.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Michael Moore

I can't believe there was a time when I actually liked Michael Moore. I saw a film of his in high school and it was like he was looking out for the good of America. Then he went nuts. He went off the deep end and really start becoming radical in his views.

So what did he do on 9-11 this year? Well he chimed in on the mosque in New York, just 2 blocks away from Ground Zero. So what did he say?

I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero.

I want it built on Ground Zero.

Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice.

On 9-11 he basically spit on the graves of those victims. You believe in an America that protects victims of hate and prejudice? How about the innocent victims that were killed for no reason, but they were Americans or just at work? This just goes to show the disrespect he has for America and the real victims of the mosque, the survivors and families of the victims of 9-11.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt. Most woman think he's hot and most men want to be like him. Well maybe he should just keep his mouth shut and look pretty. Because when discussing the BP oil spill he said this;

"I was never for the death penalty before - I am willing to look at it again," the 46-year-old said when asked about the situation.

So you can kill people and it's ok? But if you spill some oil into the ocean it's worthy of death? Seems a little unbalanced. Why do people value nature over human life?

Brad Pitt has always done a nice job of giving back and helping those in need, but this seems a little off.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg

So it's early this morning and I just ran across this article from the Sacremento Bee about Darrell Steinberg's plans to raise income taxes in CA and cut sales taxes. Makes sense for the Dems because since we are being hit with furlough days and losing jobs still no one is buying anything, so there is no revenue being generated by the high sales tax. So there plan? Increase income tax because that's a guaranteed thing.

No one likes taxes, especially nowadays. They increased taxes two years ago and they took it to the voters to decided to keep the tax increase for two more years (about $16 billion) with a spending cap or let them expire after 2 years (instead the four total they wanted). This became propostion 1A. So let's here what Darrell Steinberg said about it;

But the other side would say that voters last May said they did not want to extend the current higher level of taxes beyond next year by rejecting Proposition 1A.

Then that gets to a different argument, because I don't think voters rejected 1A because of the taxes. The Democratic constituencies opposed it because it had a rainy-day fund and what they considered a spending cap.

This shows how out of touch liberals are with people. This thing was voted down 65% to 35%. And yet according to him, it didn't have to do with taxes it was about a spending cap. I would love to see some of his constituents call him out on this one.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Keith Halloran

Wow two Free Speech for the Dumb tags in one day... liberals must be busy today.

So by now you have probably heard of the plane crash in Alaska that took the life of former Senator Ted Stevens and four others. What you might not of heard is what Keith Halloran ( who is running for a NH state house) said just hours after the crash.

“Just wish Sarah and Levy (sic) were on board,”

Nice one. Once again, what is going to happen here? Nothing. Liberals are so hypocritical when it comes to things like this. When they do it, it's free speech. When conservatives or anyone else does it, it's racist or homophobic or hate speech.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Sen. Harry Reid

I can't believe Senator Reid hasn't made this tag before, but oh well.

Senators are supposed to be the smart ones in the political world. There are only 2 per state, it's a prestigious seat. So how can Senator Reid say something like this?

"I don't know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, OK?" Reid said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

"Do I need to say more?" he asked.

Really? That is one huge racist comment. Are you saying any Hispanics that are Republican are stupid?

Worst part is that besides Fox, I doubt this will make news anywhere. Imagine the uproar that would be caused if a Republican came out and said he couldn't understand how any African Americans could be a democrat because of the loss of jobs, high rate of poverty, and poor education? Do you think anyone would pick that story up?

Free Speech for the Dumb: Shirley Sherrod

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the NAACP is going after the Tea Party full force about the racist tendencies within the movement. They talk about signs that show up, yet no one can produce pictures of them. Sometimes it feels that if you are black or a minority then you can't be racist. Enter Shirley Sherrod.

Sherrod is was the Agricultural Department's Georgia director of Rural Development. Well seems that she didn't help out the white farmers enough;

"He had to come to me for help. What he didn't know while he was taking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him," she said. "I was struggling with the fact that so many black people have lost their farmland and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land -- so I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I did enough."

Better yet... to show how good of a job she did;

"I figured if I took him to one of them his own kind, [they] would take care of him,"

The sad part is that she works for the government. People need to realize that racism doesn't exist. What you have is rich people screwing over poor people. Greed is color blind.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Rev. Jesse Jackson

So I think unless you have been living under a rock, you know that Lebron James basically held the basketball world hostage for a week as he contemplated where he would play next year. He then decided to have a one hour live special to announce where he would play.

Spoiler alert...it wasn't in Cleveland. So Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was upset. I think in part that they were kept out of the dark as to what he wanted to do. He felt hurt because Lebron did a lot for his team and vice versa. Then all of a sudden Lebron just left without saying anything to the owner. So you can see his frustrations.

After the announcement, Gilbert put out a pretty intense letter. Some highlights;

"This was announced with a several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up culminating with a national TV special of his "decision" unlike anything ever "witnessed" in the history of sports and probably the history of entertainment."

"You simply don't deserve this kind of cowardly betrayal."

"This shocking act of disloyalty from our home grown "chosen one" sends the exact opposite lesson of what we would want our children to learn. And "who" we would want them to grow-up to become.

But the good news is that this heartless and callous action can only serve as the antidote to the so-called "curse" on Cleveland, Ohio.

The self-declared former "King" will be taking the "curse" with him down south. And until he does "right" by Cleveland and Ohio, James (and the town where he plays) will unfortunately own this dreaded spell and bad karma."

For an owner to say these things...pretty shocking. But as I read it, he seemed pissed at the way Lebron treated the fans and the team. Well, not according to Jesse Jackson. He sees it a bit differently;

"He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers," the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. "His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship -- between business partners -- and LeBron honored his contract."

Of course Dan Gilbert has a slave master mentality. That explains it all. How about the fact that the "runaway slave" didn't have the common courtesy to tell the team ahead of time he was leaving instead of turning it into a spectacle? Why does everything have to be about race? And show me where Gilbert says Lebron had no right to leave. I think he had a problem with the way he did it.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Peggy West

I love how the Arizona law has fired up the nation and exposed all the liberals who want open borders. And then there are those like Peggy West, Milwaukee County Board Supervisor, who wants to boycott Arizona because they aren't a border state like Texas;

“If this was Texas, which is a state that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they have a major issue with, you know, undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say, I would have to look twice at this, but this is a state that’s a ways removed from the border…”

How do people like this get elected into office? Seriously...what an idiot.

Free Speech for the Dumb: BP executives

I let the first one sort of slip by, but after the second "foot in mouth" incident, I couldn't resist.

Obviously, everyone knows about the oil spill in the gulf. Well a couple weeks back British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward really knew how to let everyone know how sorry he was and how he could sympathize with the people of the gulf coast when he said;

"We’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused their lives. There’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back."

Nice huh? His rig is putting hundreds if not thousands of people out of work due to the effects of the spill, yet he would like his life back.

So when it was time for the next big "I'm sorry speech" BP put forth BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg to reassure everyone that BP is behind them. I mean he cares about everyone...right?

"I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don't care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people."

Really? You couldn't have someone check those comments first? The people of the gulf already think there is a conspiracy going on and you just added some fuel to the fire. Good one BP.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Stephen Ross

Finally a Free Speech for the Dumb, that isn't related to illegal immigration.

This one has a sports flare to it. Seems that the Miami Dolphins owner, Stephen Ross, thinks that he has one special quarterback in Chad Henne. In fact, he might think he has the best QB in the history of the franchise;

"Chad has been the greatest quarterback the University of Michigan has had," Ross told a crowd of several hundred kids and football coaches, "and I'm sure that I’m hoping, as is everyone else, that he goes down as the greatest quarterback in Miami Dolphins history –- and you know what that will mean."

Nothing too bad with that right? Uh no, because you have this one quarterback named Dan Marino who is regarded as one of the top 5 QB's of all time. He might not have won a Superbowl, but he did get there. And if that's not enough there is always Bob Griese, who led the Dolphins to the only perfect season in NFL history. Yeah this guy has a great chance to be the greatest QB in the history of the Miami Dolphins.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Rep. Linda Sanchez

Seriously how do people like this get elected. Seems that Rep. Linda Sanchez thinks that (shocker...) the Arizona law will lead to racial profiling. Because she knows it will because it hasn't started yet, but it will.

Not only does she go the typical route, she also one-ups everyone before her by saying this as well;

"They're not accidental or one person's crazy idea.". "There's a concerted effort behind promoting these kinds of laws on a state-by-state basis by people who have ties to white supremacy groups," Sanchez said.

"It's been documented. It's not mainstream politics. (Legislators) are being approached by folks, who are front organizations who are white supremacist hate groups. They propose the language of these bills and get people to carry these bills in the state legislatures," she said.

That's right, according to this ELECTED official, laws like this are hammered out behind closed doors by white supremacist hate groups. I say behind closed doors because even though it is "documented" no one has ever heard of it before. Hey Sanchez, why don't you realize people don't want illegals here...bottom line.

Free Speech for the Dumb: Woody Allen

Woody Allen, he is supposed to be this great director/actor, but I never saw it. He's a weird one though, having a relationship with his wife's adopted teenage daughter. Then he ended up marrying her. Not weird enough? He is defending Roman Polanski for having sex with a 13 by saying;

“He’s an artist, he’s a nice person, he did something wrong and he paid for it,” Allen continued. “They (his critics) are not happy unless he pays the rest of his life. They would be happy if they could execute him in a firing squad.”

Really? He paid for it? How? He hasn't spent a day in jail for the crime...yet somehow he has paid for it.

But believe it or not, that's not the quote that is getting Mr. Allen here today. It is his view on the president and how he should run things;

In an interview published by Spanish language newspaper La Vanguardia (that we translated), Allen says “I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him." The director said "it would be good…if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly."

Wow...just wow. I got nothing.