Teaching Socialism in Seattle

A reader tipped me off to this little piece of amusement/horror. The Hilltop Children's Center, essentially a hippy playhouse thinly disguised as a place of "learning," banned Lego blocks as a way to teach kids the evils of the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, or anything else that espouses the dangerous and inhuman notion of "private property rights."

[T]he students had been building an elaborate "Legotown," but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore "the inequities of private ownership." According to the teachers, "Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation."

The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown "their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys." These assumptions "mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society -- a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive."

The article then goes on to describe how the school successfully Marx-ized these budding little robber barons. At least according to the school. What they did is take all the legos away, force the children to play with them in a certain way, and ensuring that (while children are supposedly encouraged to follow their own passions) they could never control their own destinies because The Grownups were in charge, and that was how to run a society. Essentially, they're teaching the children all the benefits of fascist tyranny the Soviet Union once enjoyed, and now serves the people of North Korea and Cuba so well. But at least they have "social justice" in the new, improved People's Republic of Legotown. Ah, the equality of universal poverty! How noble.

What's sad is that these "teachers" are just plain too wilfully dumb to realize that a) humans (including children) are naturally possessive, b) it's both important and natural for kids (especially boys) to stake out their own turf, c) "ownership" and "power" are inherent human traits, irrespective of culture, and d) no matter how many times it's tried, socialism just plain doesn't work alongside freedom, democracy, or prosperity.

Here's the full article the school submitted to "Rethinking Schools," the magazine for all those folks who think kids, like, just need to like, BE, man. MAN! It is priceless. Be careful, though - it is a concentrated and unvarnished look at the socialist mind. It can be painful to those with a pre-existing condition of common sense.

I wonder what John Edwards thinks about all of this...

If I Not Be Winning Suit at Law, I Be Execute

Elections, confirmations, war - all heady and crucial topics we must discuss, solve, and fight for.

But it's time to get back to our roots of our organization, use the knowledge and skills we've acquired in law school to address one of the most important legal questions of our time:

Are frat boys lame for suing Borat?

"Two anonymous plaintiffs are suing 20th Century Fox and One America Productions, claiming members of their college fraternity were interviewed to become part of the smash "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" film.

The plaintiffs -- listed as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 -- were allegedly assured the film would not be shown in the U.S. and their identities would not be revealed.

***

The suit claims both men were then taken to a motor home where they were filmed, all the while "encouraged to continue drinking."

The movie features a scene in a motor home where Cohen gets drunk with three frat boys and the group watches the Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee sex tape while inebriated.

The plaintiffs claim they suffered "humiliation, mental anguish, and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community..." because the movie was indeed released in the U.S.

While I can't imagine suffering "mental anguish" over being the coolest kid in school because I got to drink with Borat and be in a smash hit movie, I can imagine being irritated if I made a boob of myself relying on it only being seen overseas. Now I'm can't wait to see what they did that they would suffer "loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community..."

The complaint itself is really funny - the kind any lawyer would love to write.

This isn't his first run in with the law, either - a German group is suing him for human rights violations because the character refers to being a "Gypsy Catcher." Give those guys a peace prize for going after the real human rights abusers....

One thing's for sure. All of this legal trouble and the publicity that goes with it? We haven't seen the last of that sweet 'stache...

Daily Humor

I've added Chris Muir's "Day by Day" cartoon strip to the "Conservative/Libertarian Humor" section of the blog there in the right hand column. It's good stuff - and a good excuse to visit the blog, even on days when the oppression of actually having to pay attention in class may hinder the writing process...

And the Award For Most Unintentionally Ironic Bumper Sticker Goes To...

...the aged hippy my wife and I saw the other day driving his crappy little hatchback, spewing a dark cloud of sick looking fumes, smoke, and pollution from his tail pipe that any semi would be proud of.

The sticker?

"One Less SUV"

Hitler Cats

This has nothing to do with Federalism, politics, or anything else, but it was too damn funny not to share. And hey - it's summertime!



It's cats. That look like Hitler. Seriously. I don't know why it's so funny, but it just is.

Updated Links

I've updated the links to the right of the blog. I've separated out general links of interest and conservative and libertarian blogs. I've also added a humor section - there's some freakin' hilarious stuff on there. And finally, there's a list of other FedSoc chapters. Some of the sites are blogs like ours, and some of them are just informational sites. A lot of them are pretty out of date, so if any of you folks reading this are from those schools, please let us know.

If you have any good conservative/libertarian blogs or links you think should be on our list, please let me know.

The Orwell Silliness

Every once in awhile, you come across the silly Bush Administration = 1984 references, and they just make you laugh. This one was in the Seattle times the other day, and I found it linked to some left wing blogs that were all e-nodding in solemn agreement.

It's funny that they don't recognize that 1984 was written in 1948 in response to communist oppression, which was starting to make itself known to the rest of the world in 1948. The media wasn't owned by "big corporations" that had to answer to their advertising demographics (aka, "The People"), it was owned by the government which answered to nothing. You couldn't own a business, because the government owned the means of production. You couldn't pick your job. You couldn't save up and buy a nicer house. The government was not going to step down voluntarily just because a 200 year old piece of paper said so. And you certainly couldn't vote against the guy you didn't like, or jump on the internet and inform yourself of actual happenings overseas. 1984 is about the ultimate Big Government.

That was Orwell's vision. But it was more than a vision. It was also descriptive of ACTUAL happenings in real places, like in Iraq and Afghanistan before we went in. And it still is in places like North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia - just not in the USA.

I also note that the author ignores that we really are at war against people who really do want to kill us. That's not a GOP fantasy. That's reality. And that's why these people aren't taken seriously by people who understand the world has real problems in it.

If we actually lived in the world Ryan Blethan or any of the rest of the "Orwellian Scholars" think we do, they would have been disappeared before their article came out, and the Seattle Times office would mysteriously have been burned for endorsing John Kerry. The Daily Kos would be shut down. The internet would be censored, as it is in China. The entire staff of the NYT would be in jail for leaking national security secrets. We would not have a 2008 election. Or any elections.

I understand their feelings, though. People want to be validated for their ideas. And when it becomes abundantly clear that people reject your ideas election after election after election, all you have left is to say, "They WOULD have agreed with me if only we didn't live in Big Brother land and were too dumb/scared/ignorant/hickish/Southern to bow to my wisdom."

In fact, it's almost as if the liberal author is misleading the reader about the current state of affairs to scare people into supporting his position. Hmmmm...

Why, it's almost like George Orwell wrote the script.

LaRouche on Us "Feddies"

Before you use the latest litter strewn about the law school by the "LaRouchePAC" people for its primary purpose of bathroom backup or bird cage lining, check out their take on the Federalist Society on page 14. Now I know how the Freemasons feel when they read a Dan Brown novel. At least Dan Brown acknowledges he's writing fiction...

Bork on Original Intent

In a letter to the WSJ.

Its about time that a voice of authority came out against the hideous abomination that is the chocolate martini. Also reassuring that he draws a bright line between drinks and vegetable snacks ...