Second Time Round

I was born in 1966.  When I recollect my youth, I feel as though I had two very different and distinct childhoods - one in the 70's and another in the 80's.  The one in the 70's was not great.  In fact, I struggle to recall much of anything that was good - from polyester clothes to disco music, it was actually awful.

My parents watched the evening news religiously and I would often join them.  It left me with the memory of George Wallace being shot, people trying to grab on to helicopters as they lifted off the roof of the American embassy in Saigon, a subcommittee in the House voting to impeach Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter saying we need to lower our expectations and blindfolded American hostages being led out of a building in Tehran.  I remember the 70's as chaos.  Business people were the bad guys.  Corporations were evil.  Profit was a dirty word.  It wasn't "if" one day the US would be a socialist country, it was "when" that would happen. 

My 80's childhood was very different from that of the 70's.  It was just more ... optimistic.  There were no shortage of tragedies - Berlin and Beirut bombings, Challenger disaster, etc.  But, for some reason, that decade was better.  It was focused.  I think a lot of people associate the optimism with the election of Reagan, but I think it went beyond politics.  People wanted to be busy.  They came to believe that striving to be successful was a good thing.  Maybe it was the demographics - the baby boomers were hitting their 30's and addressing the challenges of family and career. 

Nowadays, it seems as though we have returned to the 70's.  Success and accomplishment are not viewed as worthy of praise.  Rather, they are derided.  This is exemplified in President Obama's "You didn't build that speech".  Everyone focuses on the "you didn't build that" part, which is ghastly.  But I think the more damning part of this speech is the contempt shown of successful people as thinking they're smarter than others or work harder than others (see 1.17 in the speech).  I think, in general, successful people are smarter and work harder than the average person.  It's not luck.  Sure, some may have hit life's lottery.  The vast majority, though, didn't. 

I wonder how my kids will look back at this part of their childhood - will they view this time as their "70's"?  How do we get to the "80's"?  I know this much, it's 3 years away - minimum.  Because when you're President derides productive people, there will be fewer of them.  You'd think we would have learned this lesson already.  Hang in there, kids.

Silly Season

My hat is off to the people who blog on a regular basis.  Damn if finding time isn't nearly impossible.  On to my second opinion ...

In the future, when historian review and analyze the events of 2012, they will likely scratch their heads because this year common sense seems to have become the world's scarcest resource.  Following the news, you're left with the feeling that the world is running more on emotion than intelligence.  Maybe it's the media.  They don't strike me as too bright.  It's as though the news is one endless projection of what journalists want it to be v. what it is.  Some stellar examples:

1. Treyvon Martin.  As a father of three, the thought of burying one of my kids is incomprehensible.  I cannot even begin to express my sympathy to his parents.  But I also cannot condemn George Zimmerman carte blanche.  Obviously, I wasn't there.  I don't know him or his motives.  I hope the truth can be discovered at his trial.  However, this is not truth.  It is what happens when journalists want to push an agenda.  I see no evidence that race relations should be impacted, influenced or even reflected by this sad event ... unless that's the narrative you want to push.
2. The rich don't pay their fair share.  The beauty of this argument is that no one defines "fair".  Here is data compiled by Citizens for Tax Justice (care of Erza Klein).  According to this chart, for all taxes paid (not just income taxes), the top 5% income earners in the US are paying about 30% of those earnings in taxes.  It equates to about 44% of the tax burden.  Is that not "fair"?  What would be "fair"?  I have yet to see that defined.  It's the equivalent of "hope and change" ... it means whatever you want it to.
3. Mitt Romney is a technological goof.  At least, that's what Andrea Mitchell wanted you to believe.   While I'm not a fan of Newsbusters per se, they nailed this.  Just watch the video.  Mitchell should have been fired.  But, apparently, these kind of falsehoods are just BAU for MSNBC.   

We should expect more from journalists.  If they can't just give us the news, thanks to the internet, we can now get it from other sources.  And that's what people are doing.  They should get what they deserve ... unemployment.

Why? ... Why not?!

I decided to create this blog because I wanted a venue to say what I wanted to say.  Maybe it's vanity.  Maybe it's therapy.  I'm not sure.  I read a lot and often find myself agreeing or disagreeing with various pundits, columnists or authors about their points of view.  I want to add my thoughts to theirs - hence, (My) Second Opinion. 

Should someone else read my material one day, all I can say is, "God, luv ya."  Such a person would likely be one of my kids to which I just want to say ... think for yourself.   Don't buy into labels, especially political ones - conservative, liberal, moderate, progressive, etc. are all shorthand for people too lazy to do their own critical thinking.  It's safer to bucket ideas so they can be easily dismissed.  You'll frequently hear people casually disregard ideas or positions because of who they came from ("Oh, he's just a conservative nut." or "I'm not going to listen to that liberal kook.").  This is my attempt to highlight what I consider to be good thinking, be it on social or political issues, and ridicule those who contort themselves to keep from violating the labels.

Thanks to Google and Al Gore (because he invented the internet) for giving me this venue.