Conservatives are busy trying to save the world. The world is going to heck in a handbasket, and liberals are trying to figure out whether to hold angry peace rallies or celebrate the environment by leaving their signs on the grass for productive people to clean up. If only they knew how many trees and bunny rabbits were murdered on 9/11 by people unconcerned with carbon emissions. Liberals like to declare every conservative on the planet to be either evil or stupid. Ideological Idiocy is about their declaration of our being unenlightened dolts. This is ideological idiocy. Having liberals declare the author stupid is like listening to members of the KKK call him insensitive. Conservatives must remember that our critics do not matter. Nobody listens to these crying children. For those that do not have a blunt instrument nearby, or are looking for a solution that avoids jail, humor is a powerful weapon. Use it against the left every moment they breathe. They may get offended, but that is the point. The only thing that the author wants to communicate in this book is that without love and laughter, there is no life. Nothing he does will change the world, but if it gets a stiff person to lighten up and smile, he is pleased.
Why do well-educated antiwar activists call the president of the United States “the new Hitler” and argue that the U.S. government orchestrated the September 11 attacks? Why does Al Gore believe that cars pose “a mortal threat to the security of every nation”? Why does the Princeton professor known as the father of the animal rights movement object to humans eating animals but not to humans having sex with them—and why does PETA defend that position? In other words, why do smart people fall for stupid ideas? The answer, Daniel J. Flynn reveals in Intellectual Morons, is ideology. Flynn, the author of Why the Left Hates America, shows how people can be so blinded to reality by the causes they serve that they espouse bizarre, sometimes ridiculous, and often dangerous positions. The most influential social movements have spawned ideologues who do not care whether an idea is good or bad, true or false, but only whether it can serve their cause. It is startling how many Americans—and particularly how many media, academic, and political elites—fall for bad ideas. The trouble is, their lies become institutionalized as truth, and we all suffer as a result. In Intellectual Morons, Flynn reveals: •How rabid anti-Americans simply parrot the delusional claims of a few gurus •How the environmental movement, spawned by a “scientist” whose doomsday predictions are almost always wrong, has bred fanaticism, stupidity, and dishonesty •How the hero of the animal rights crowd is a crank who promotes infanticide and euthanasia •How a scientific fraud—and pervert—launched the sexual revolution •How abortion rights activists ignore (or cover up) the fact that their matron saint advocated eugenics and concentration camps •How our universities have become hothouses of leftist ideology •How historians and journalists have airbrushed history to turn a racial separatist into a civil rights icon Filled with jaw-dropping lapses in common sense from even our most celebrated opinion leaders, Intellectual Morons is a welcome reality check for the glaring excesses of today’s political and cultural debates. "This is a sophisticated pile driver of a book, guiding us through the wiles of great luminaries of the netherworld. And such liveliness in the writing, and such erudition. I was quite fascinated by Intellectual Morons."—William F. Buckley, Jr. "Intellectual Morons is exceptionally aptly named. The thought of all that brainpower going down the intellectual drain is sad, but Daniel Flynn's description of it is hilariously on point. This is must reading."—G. Gordon Liddy "Intellectual Morons is a delight—a wonderful intellectual history of the past hundred years. Flynn ably describes the purveyors of the bad ideas that have undermined our free society."—Burton W. Folsom, Jr., professor of history, Hillsdale College "A famous bit of folk wisdom says, 'You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.' Some of the crackpot notions now fashionable in academic circles, as here documented by Daniel Flynn, suggest that saying is an understatement. If you want to know how crazy, and scairy, intellectual morons can get, you have to read this book."—M. Stanton Evans, author of The Theme Is Freedom, contributing editor to Human Events
In ancient Athens, “idiots” were those selfish citizens who dishonorably declined to participate in the life of the polis, and whose disavowal of the public interest was seen as poor taste and an indication of judgment. Over time, however, the term idiot has shifted from that philosophically uncomplicated definition to an ever-changing sociological signifier, encompassing a wide range of meanings and beliefs for those concerned with intellectual and cognitive disability. Idiocy: A Cultural History offers for the first time a analysis of the concept, drawing on cultural, sociological, scientific, and popular representations ranging from Wordsworth’s “Idiot Boy” and Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge to Down’s “Ethnic classification of idiots.” It tracks how our changing definition of idiocy intersects with demography, political movements, philosophical traditions, economic concerns, and the growth of the medical profession.
This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. One of the first books to put memory at the centre of analysis when exploring the relationship between film culture and the past. Provides a sustained, interdisciplinary perspective on memory and film from early cinema to the present, drawing from film studies, American studies and cultural studies. Adopts a resolutely cultural perspective and unlike psychoanalytic or formalist approaches to memory, explores questions of culture, power and identity. Contributes to the growing debate about the status and function of the past in cultural life and discourse, discussing issues of memory in film, and of film as memory. Considers such well known films as Forrest Gump, Pleasantville, and Jackie Brown.
ASDF MPE represents a roadmap in addressing the multiple issues facing Autism, Psychopaths, Pedophiles and COVID. Autism can be a scary word, and any misdiagnosis can be catastrophic to your child's cognitive or learning ability. What is Autism, when your child can't read, or has behavioral issues? Climbing the autistic ladder from Sensory, to Creative and finally Cognitive depends on your child's particular birth defect. Yes, a birth defect could be hormonal, biochemical, sensory, attitude or cognitive. Autism may not reveal itself until the second grade, where learning becomes a monumental stumbling block. How you approach your child's education often requires specialized medical or psychological care. Psychological Care attempts to understand how your child's brain works, because Autism is a broad spectrum of Sensory, Creative and Cognitive roadblocks. i've included several examples, charts to fill out, case studies, my own personal experiences and what strategies work best. Autism consists of 11 senses, where most normal people have 5. These 11 senses often branch off into Psychopaths and Pedophiles, which I explain in great detail. Recognizing each of these 11 senses offers a better understanding of your child's character, behavior, interests or personality. Autism is a birth defect, afflicting the Endocrine system, brain and many sensory receptors within the nervous system. Being a birth defect, Parents and School Administrators must documented and design your child's educational curriculum, so to better accommodate a successful learning experience.
Jewish Lunacy looks back on six millennia of Jewish history, presenting it as the history of a family by telling it through the reminiscences of Eric, who calls himself the Tygrrrr Express. He grew up hearing stories of heartbreaking pain, insightful wisdom, and sidesplitting humor from Jewish relatives and the elders in Long Island, where he grew up. Drawing upon his familys rich oral traditions, the author explores the deeply serious and humorously welcoming history of the Jewish people. Organized by topics, the book explores the lunacy of the authors growing up and uncovers the strange elements in topics as varied as sex, sports, philosophy, politics, pacifism, conspiracy theories, and religion. If you find yourself bemoaning the bleak landscape of the days news and would like a refreshing approach in reading stories that take seriously the truly significant realities of lifeGod, family, and relationshipswhile finding in them reasons and occasions for laughter, then Jewish Lunacy will take you on a journey through history and entertain you with such stories. As its subtitle promises, Jewish Lunacy tells the stories that 6000 years full of tradition and pride have given as gifts to be passed on to others.
One-hundred forty-three generally philosophical essays written by Gary C. Gibson. The journal of philosophy presents the author's eclectic interest in string theory, renewable resource economics, U.S. politics, neo-Platonism, Christianity, cosmology, genesology, epistemology and metaphysics. The readings in works by W.V.O. Quine, Kripke, Gasperini, Plotinus and Biblical cosmology, along with much contemporary event analysis, comprised construction element-points of several of the philosophical essays written here.
One day in 1957, in the third-grade classroom of St. Brigid’s parochial school, an exasperated Sister Mary Lurana bent over a restless young William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir. In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from working-class kid to immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his numerous fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly.
As in so many other areas of American society, the political legacy of Ronald Reagan had an imposing presence in many contemporary American films, particularly between 1980 and 2000. Six films, which collectively represent the spectrum of Reaganism’s most popular tropes, demonstrate quite compellingly that in celebrating nostalgically the blissful pleasantries of family stability and social order so essential to Reagan’s political philosophy, an unsettling and unsatisfying mythology has been created about a period in which many Americans were acutely aware that something was missing, even if they could not pinpoint it at the time. This leads the critical viewer to largely unacknowledged subtexts in all six films that begin to reveal the contradictions, incoherencies, and paradoxes rooted in popular Reaganesque portrayals. Utilising a detailed qualitative case study methodology, this book incorporates theoretical foundations that expand upon Fairclough’s path-breaking research on media discourse and Todorov’s broadly articulated framework of fantasy in order to explore: 1) Which elements of Fairclough’s framework for critical discourse analysis can be applied to explore the discursive structures within these American fantasy films? 2) How far do the films follow Reaganist concepts of a “new” American society? 3) How far do notions of the “fantastic” and postmodern concepts break with common patterns of Reaganism reflected in these films? While many critics rightly cite the numerous elements in these films that appear to reinforce fundamental message points underlying Reaganism, this study demonstrates how the films’ characters and plot lines also serve to reveal the inherent and irreconcilable incoherence of the sociopolitical and sociocultural tenets of Reaganism.
