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I'm not wading into the memorializing of Nelson Mandela, there are plenty of place where people can experience the good and the contradictions of his life (he was human, after all), but this image that Yahoo chose to use cracked me up:

Here, that shirt's notion is called racist and an effort to disenfranchise the black vote by lefty/progressive/democrat loonies.

Is Civics A Lost Discipline?

I can't believe the level of stupid being exhibited all over the internet and the country over the Zimmerman/Martin case. Locally, I just saw a former teacher on the news totally misrepresent the situation and she probably believes what she said is true. The era of the Low Information Voter is a real thing.

I am sad that so many are participating in, even calling for Mob Rule, and they don't even understand.

I am sad that when presented with the same set of facts, that so many people, some apparently well educated, can't seem to understand how our justice system works and reach a conclusion that is not just wrong, it's stupid.

I am sad that a kid got killed, and that a guy shot him because he thought it was his only choice.

I am ANGRY that our media is this screwed up, that they used this story to create a furor, that they manipulated tapes and created a narrative that barely resembles reality, and angry that they got away with it.

Weiner, again?

Here's what I had to say last time.

What. A. Dbag.

Rhetoric

Wow. It never ceases to amaze me how people will fall for rhetorical tricks and manipulations as long as it's used by someone they already agree with. Are there so very few folks that can listen to all sides in our political cultural landscape and use the skills they were taught to decode? Oh, wait, that's right, RHETORIC ISN'T TAUGHT.

What am I talking about?

Well, how about the President saying the trite, tired line "if we save even one life,.. blah blah blah?" Pretty much every speech he has made about this is so filled with junk that any 9th grader should be able to catch, but we live in the age of the "low information voter."

A friend on Facebook shared this WSJ article about Lincoln's use of rhetoric. When will someone decode Obama's? Oh wait, it happens all the time. Unfortunately, my Facebook friends that think he's so wonderful don't read those stories.

Also, two separate posts over on that social network really got my hackles up: one was based on the premise that if a bunch of slave owning, women-right-denying white founders said we should have guns, well, obviously they were wrong. The other was crap history that the 2nd amendment was all about keeping slaves and protecting the slave patrols' status as "militia." I couldn't even compose a sentence in reply, nor would I, because if you believe that, you are beyond reason.