Andrew Breitbart: Disruptive Innovator

“He was the least angry guy I’ve ever met, and although he embraced the battle for conservative principles, he did it with joy and humor. Every action, opinion, or motive came from a place of love. He loved his wonderful family, he loved his friends, he loved his crazy life, and he loved America. Everything he did, he did because he thought it was right. For those who didn’t know him – you missed out. Even those who disliked his ideas, within five minutes of meeting him – loved him. He was a big kid who treated his opponents like humans – it was never about people, it was about principles.”

– Greg Gutfeld

In the business world, there’s something we call a “disruptive innovation.” This is when an innovation forces the existing market to change, sometimes causing older products to end. This happened to the cd player when  mp3 players hit the scene. It happened to video tapes when DVDs were invented.

And it’s happening to old-media and news outlets because of Andrew Breitbart. The days of journalists covering up scandals and government failings, when it suits them and their agenda, are coming to an end. The days of the media getting away with subtly insulting people of faith, or marginalizing people who have a different ideology than the New York Times’ editors, are no more. Breitbart invented new-media and opened the doors for citizen journalism.

My heart is hurting. Andrew Breitbart never met me. He didn’t know me. I don’t care. He was a fearless leader and a giant of a warrior. He fought for me. He looked out for me. Many on the left saw him as a propagandist, a right-wing nut, a hatemonger, and many other things I dare not repeat. I’m sure he’d be disappointed about that; he cherished those vile words and loved to retweet many of the 140-character attacks he received. He wore the hatred his detractors had for him on his sleeve like a badge of honor. He would use that famous saying, “If I’m catching flak, I must be over the target.” He went into the lions’ den time and time again, whether it was appearing on Current TV or having dinner with Bill Ayers.

He stood with gay conservatives to have a voice in the conservative world. He revered people of faith and disdained relativism. He provoked dialogue from all who disagreed with him. He was never one for silencing voices. He rose above petty partisan politics and instead focused on the heart of the matter. He was obnoxious and I loved it.

I will miss you, Breitbart. You changed my life. I thank God for shining your light into my life. My prayers go to your wife Susie and your four little ones.

I still can’t believe you’re gone.

Some of my favorite Breitbart moments:

I can’t get the first video to embed, but if you go here, you’ll see it once you scroll down the page a bit. It’s his most famous moment when he hijacked former Congressman Weiner’s press conference.

And most recently:

Oh my goodness, OH my GOODNESS!

I got a 100% on my Statistics exam. Math. 100. Percent.

I honestly don’t think that has ever happened to me in my life. Ever.

Still in shock.

Relativism & Our Military

You really wanna piss me off? Be this guy.

I think it is shameful that it  is perceived [sending care packages] as legitimate to solicit in an  academic institution for support for men and women who have gone overseas to  kill other human beings.

You kidding me? The only thing that’s shameful here, Professor Avery, is you. It is appalling that you dare compare our brave military to common criminals – murderers. Where do you get off? Those heroes have fought, and are fighting, for the very freedoms you trample over. You refer to the hanging of our American flag as “not a politically neutral act.” Patriotism is evil apparently. It’s beneath us elite humans.

Excessive patriotic zeal is a hallmark of national security states. It permits,  indeed encourages, excesses in the name of national security, as we saw during  the Bush administration, and which continue during the Obama administration.

This is what moral relativism looks like. Our soldiers are not protecting and defending this great nation, they are simply killing other human beings. The human beings being killed are just innocent, oppressed victims of tyrannical America. Moral relativists will never call evil out, unless it’s the United States, of course. Don’t call them terrorists – they’re freedom fighters! American soldiers? Mercenaries.

What makes me even more angry is this comes on the heels of our nation remembering those who have bravely gone into battle; those who have survived, and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Some with visible wounds, others with wounds unseen. It’s hard for me not to tear up when I picture those images of courageous men and women coming home, falling into the arms of their loved ones. Or the image of a flag being draped over a coffin of an honored one. A warrior as he sits in his wheel chair, thankful to be alive, and determined to press on towards recovery.

If only I could do more to help them remember they are not forgotten. I thank God that I am reminded everyday of the sacrifices made just so I can live freely. I go to church, I speak my mind, I choose what I want to eat, I choose what I want to wear, I have the freedom to choose and LIVE! Freedom will never come without a price. Some, like this fool of a professor, forget that. They don’t want to think about, or acknowledge the fact the very people they defend would kill them without a moment’s hesitation. Professor Avery attacks the very people who step in front of the bullet – meant for him – time and time again.

To our men and women out there, both home and abroad, veterans and the currently enlisted, thank you! Thank you for doing what most of us are too scared or weak to do. I recently told a friend whose husband has served in Afghanistan, that he willingly goes into the battlefield while the rest of us shake in our boots. For any families who have lost, your loved one did not die in vain. They are our nation’s most precious ones.

I will continue to pray for our military and their families. Without you, there’d be no America.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

#PSU

What is with society? Let’s have heaps of compassion for the negligent, but hardly an ounce of sympathy for the victim. Let’s protest the fact that a pedophile was ALLOWED to continue his disgusting abuse over many years. When someone knows abuse is going on and does nothing about it, that person is just as guilty as the abuser. The student reaction to Paterno’s ousting is reflective of the complete selfishness and ignorance that saturates many young Americans today. Way to represent young America, students of Penn State! You are the future!

I think Andy Levy puts it best:

In Local We Trust

Gallup did a recent survey asking Americans who they trust the most when it comes to creating jobs.

Americans Trust Small-Business Owners Most on Job Creation.

Here was the main analysis:

Americans put the most trust in the ideas and opinions of small-business owners and local business leaders on how best to create jobs. Americans have progressively lower levels of trust in the opinions of President Obama, economists, major-corporation executives, congressional leaders, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Translation: Americans trust their  local gov’t and small businesses…and no one else. National gov’t is not exactly the place Americans are running to for aid in this current crisis. I guess it’s fair to say there’s some trust in the president, but Congress is a dud. Bernanke! That man is running the Fed and he’s at the bottom of the list!

What it comes down to is it’s much easier to hold your local leadership accountable than the massive overreach of the federal government and corporations.

Despite all of the job creation talk and activity at the national level, Americans are most likely to trust the views and opinions of individuals who operate at a more local level — small-business owners and local business leaders. Americans also have higher levels of trust in the views of state governors and mayors and other local officials than in the views of national leaders.

Just this past week my state of Colorado voted on whether or not to raise taxes for more funding of public education. While there was some guilt pressure of “you hate kids if you don’t vote for this proposition!”, the outcome came down to 64% against, 36% for. I myself did not support this measure because I didn’t see how throwing more money at a system clogged with wasteful and irresponsible budgeting is going to fix anything. And I’m a student! It felt good to have the power to stop a local measure from intruding into my life. We were the only state to have a statewide vote on a tax increase, which was very telling. The truth is this tax wouldn’t have just affected my wallet, but also local businesses.

Obama has made about a dozen stops to Colorado over the last month (I exaggerate) campaigning to college students about helping out with student loans. Mr. President, I admire your hope, but even if you were to plummet the deficit another trillion dollars and pay off every single student loan, there would still be no jobs!

Taking more money away from local businesses will only continue to hurt job creation, and who cares about student debt when there are no jobs out there anyway! Actually, there are job openings, but not many of them are looking for people who’ve majored in ethnic studies or fashion design. With Congress wasting time passing resolutions about our national motto (noble, but pointless), President Obama campaigning, corporations dodging taxes, and big banks not lending, it really is no wonder why our trust goes to the people within arm’s reach.

A couple other things caught my attention:

Americans’ trust in the opinions of “economists at major universities” on how to create jobs is only mid-range, an interesting finding given that those in this group dedicate their professional lives to studying the intricacies of the economy.

As someone who is currently in her second economics course of her entire life, this opinion is easy to understand. Economists LOVE theories, graphs, hypotheticals, what have you. It’s really a blast to learn about, but when applying these theories to the real world? Not so much a blast. Hello, stimulus packages!

Gallup’s annual update on confidence in institutions shows that Americans have more confidence in small business than in any institution tested except the military, and have low levels of confidence in big business. Gallup’s annual Governance survey released in September shows that Americans have more trust and confidence in their local and state governments than in either the presidency or the legislative branch of the federal government.

I have a theory that most people are libertarians at heart. But…it is just a theory. ;)

I Love Taking Tests…

Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t
vote.

~ William E. Simon

As I continue writing into the never-ending ocean of the “internets” (see what I did? I’m mocking anyone 60+), I thought it necessary to introduce where I stand on politic schtuff. I take online political tests every once in a while to get a reading on how I relate to others. As usual the one I took today shows I’m quite boring:

Graph Analysis: No extremes. :( I suppose I’m what you’d call a “center-right” person. In person, I describe myself as a borderline conservative/libertarian.

Often times my struggle between the two philosophies depends on the circumstance or my mood that day. I have a hard time agreeing with a lot of the liberal stances on things, but I do empathize with them. Any time someone trys to make a stance on a topic sound simple, that’s a huge red flag. Even taking tests such as the one I took can over-simplify a person’s opinions. For instance, while I’m not gung-ho about capital punishment – in fact it makes me queasy – I wouldn’t mind having it around only for purely evil individuals. You’d have to really earn the right to die! Hello, Charles Manson. I hate entitlement programs, but I do think a society as large as America’s needs some kind of safety net. As Dennis Miller would say, help the helpless, not the clueless. The only area where I cannot compromise is abortion. The only time the state should back off is when the mother’s life is at risk; otherwise, the state needs to protect the life of the unborn. I suppose I am extreme in this case; I see no difference between regulating abortion (murder of the unborn) with regulating killers-for-hire (murder of the born).

Speaking of capital punishment & abortion, these are areas I always find inconsistent with both Democrats and Republicans. If the Dems are so eager to protect convicted murderers from a sentence of death, how can they be so willing to allow an innocent life* to be ended? If Republicans are so big about being pro-life, how can they be obstinate over having the death penalty so readily available?

Just sayin’.

* At the moment of conception, human DNA is present. Ask any geneticist.

Life After Death

From Mona Simpson’s eulogy of her brother, Steve Jobs:

Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve’s final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.

To any atheists who may find this post – if any – please tell me, what was it Jobs was looking at? What could possibly distract his last gaze away from his loved ones? What could have brought on such a reaction if death is no different than an off-switch? Please, tell me.

Found In Translation

See what I did there? I did a play-on-words!

I found a brilliantly hilarious posting from a Huffington Post blogger, John Hawkins: “How to Speak Liberal“. He wrote it in response to a previous posting by Jonathan Bines titled: “How to Speak Republican“. Personally, I found Hawkins’ post to be funnier. As a disclaimer, I am one to agree with Hawkins’ POV more than Bines’, but that shouldn’t discredit good writing/humor [Hawkins]. I think everyone can connect with having encountered information being spun to favor a certain belief system, from all sides.

Here are Hawkins’ translations:

Compassion: Feeling good about yourself for wanting to give away money you didn’t earn to people you hope will vote for your side.

“Conscience of the Senate”: KKK member.

Flag: Something to be burned and walked on at protests or alternately, waved close to election time.

Greed: Wanting to keep money you’ve earned instead of having it spent on Bridges to Nowhere and government loans to people who’ve contributed to Obama’s campaign.

Guns: Vicious weapons that force people to kill each other.

He’s in the pocket of big oil: He was once seen filling up the tank of his car with gas.

Jesus: Someone who shouldn’t ever be brought up in schools, other government buildings, or politics in general unless you’re claiming he was really a liberal who’d be in favor of gay marriage and abortion.

Minorities: People who are too dumb and incompetent to make it without liberal help.

Morals: Things you should avoid having so you can’t be accused of hypocrisy if you don’t live up to your own standards.

No justice, no peace: Give us money and we’ll find someone else to bother.

Our opponents refuse to compromise on this issue: The Republicans refuse to do everything we want.

Racism: A word you cry when you’re losing an argument with a conservative.

Reality-based community: People who believe that Communism could work if the right people were in charge and that George W. Bush was behind 9/11 — or the Jews, either/or.

Taxes: A limitless supply of free money to be given away to liberal special interests in return for votes.

Tolerance: Something that justifies going on hate filled rants against people who don’t share your view of the world.

That charge is outrageous: That charge is true, but it’s embarrassing that you brought it up in public.

Unfair attack: They quoted me.

USA: Ever heard the phrase “The devil made me do it?” Replace “The devil” with “The USA” and you’ll understand every bad thing that happens in the world.

Violent rhetoric: Words like “crossfire,” “job killing,” and “crosshairs,” when used by non-liberals.

We must address the root causes of this problem: We must not do anything to effectively address this problem. Instead we must raise taxes and pour dump trucks worth of money into whatever unrelated issue we have decided is the cause of the problem.

I do recommend you check out Jonathan Bines’ posting. It’s wicked long, so I didn’t feel like posting the whole thing; however, here are some examples of his translations:

Bible:  A sacred text that provides incontestable answers when thumped.

Capitalism:  A system of economic organization that has never been attempted

Communism:  The belief that the government should ever do anything.

Jesus:  Charismatic religious leader and son of God; born in Bethlehem in the year 0; beliefs include love, charity, enhanced interrogation, privatized healthcare, elimination of the estate tax, and the right to carry concealed semiautomatic weapons.

Wealthy (the):  People who earned every penny.

Unbiased:  Giving equal weight to both sides of the looking glass.

I have to agree with some of what Bines wrote, don’t get me wrong! But, in my opinion, Hawkins wins based on wit and cleverness.

Snow Day

Foot of snow. Broken branches. Sufjan Stevens’s “The Friendly Beasts”. Hot cocoa. You’d think it was Christmas. I wish it was, though Halloween has yet to arrive.

I realize I haven’t posted anything to this blog for more than ten days. That seems a bit negligent. I think my dog is neglected too. She often stares at me from outside as if trying to tell me how much she wants to be inside. She’s one of those dogs that I so wish could speak. I don’t think she’d use proper grammar. She’d only speak in abrupt, loud words like, “Food!” or “Hungry!” or “Poop!” Not very conversational, but very entertaining.

My Christmas music playlist is now on The Nutcracker Suite.

The thing is would we really want animals to speak? That means we’d have to answer back. They would answer back too. Isn’t one of the joys of pets is we can behave any way we want and they can’t give us any lip? No nagging (unless you count constant barking as such), no trying to read between the lines, no having to figure out what mood they’re in. It’s a pleasure! Unless you have a cat.

I had a moment in my economics class yesterday. Without getting into the details of it, we are currently learning about how to fix a recessionary GDP gap. (For more information, please use Google or Wikipedia.) My instructor and the book teach that unless money is injected into an economy under recession, it will ever reach the desired equilibrium from before. My instructor likes to use government spending as an example of such injections. He claims it’s harder to reach the previous levels unless the government injects more money than was lost. Simply put: The more money artificially pumped into the economy by the government, the more unemployment will go down. That’s when he lost me. I proceeded to ask a very simple, pointed question:

“In terms of current events, with all the injections being made, why has unemployment risen?”

He brilliantly responded with a brilliant non-answer about how the steeper the slope of the curve, the harder it is to climb back up. Oh! Of course! So, to the 9.1% of the people without jobs, it’s simply because the slope is too steep! ……. At least he complimented me with saying it was a good question. Wish I could say the same about the response.

Moral of the story? Life doesn’t always follow textbook theories.

Now listening to Amy Grant’s “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

Quote…

“You guys, I don’t want to brag, but I think I totally figured
out Herman Cain’s debit card PIN.”

– Andy Levy