Sticking to What You know Best.

For some time, we heard the opinions of famous people not known for their expertise in the cited issue.

I noticed first with physicists. Albert Einstein, was one of the world's greatest mathematician and scientist. Almost all of his predictions came true. But then he tried his hand at social science. He came out with the now well known statement - "insanity is doing the same thing expecting different results." Nonsense. It's called perseverance. I live in a building with an elevator. I press the button to get the lift but nothing happens. I press it again with no result. I do the very same thing again and I get the elevator.  The same with trying to fix a lens that got knocked out of its position. I tried the same thing for five times with no effect. I tried the same thing a sixth time and was successful. The examples abound, but still some people quote him because he was a great scientist.

When asked whether he believed in reincarnation, he was said to answer that G-d could not be so cruel. Cruel?

Another award winning physicist said that there is no free will except for what others do to us. He gave driving as an example. If someone honks at us we use our non existent free will, not realizing that if we have no free will, everything is predetermined and a part of a larger puzzle, including everything that happens to us.

A brilliant physicist named Stephen Hawkins said that in the beginning there was nothing and nothing precedes nothing. So if I lost everything I ever owned and had nothing, it means I always had nothing. Physicists have come around to the realization that nothing exists before consciousness which is not nothing even though it is not a thing.

Now we have people famous because of their acting skill or sense of humor give their opinion.

One of the greatest actresses who has ever been, is a wonderful person by all accounts. When accepting yet another award for acting, instead of acknowledging all the people who helped her, she made an absurd speech about nominee Trump. It was embarrassing. Whoever wrote that speech should find another line of work.

One of America's greatest actors, came out making insulting remarks about the President, though he did not know what he was talking about. He's a great actor but not a great thinker.

We hear from some "comedians" regarding politics. One held a beheaded Trump. Another spent much of her "comedy" routine at the press dinner, insulting the woman sitting next to her, Sarah Sanders ( no relation to Bernie Sanders).

A few years ago we saw a football player who was in his second season of bench warming, his career was over. He decided to get attention and maybe a chance to play, by kneeling for the National Anthem. Other black players joined the chorus for solidarity with one of their own. They were blaming America for its treatment of fellow blacks. Over the previous few years, several black men were killed by police. What these players did not object to was that the majority of U.S murder victims are black as are 93% of their assailants. They did not decry Chicago inner city dwellers who can kill more fellow blacks in a weekend than are mistakenly killed by cops each year. Remember these are football players who got college for free, and make more than a million dollars a year for playing half of the season's 17 games doing their favorite things. Almost 1,000 NFL players make at least $1million a year.

Now one of our greatest basketball player said that white NFL team owners treat players like slaves. This from a man who makes $80 million a year and is free to go anywhere. He also reminded us that the Nazis built the Berlin Wall, except they didn't. The Soviets built it to keep communist East Germany from capitalist West Germany.

My advice is stick to what you know. If I don't know anything about art, I should not publicly denounce a work of art, unless I mention that it is my opinion alone. I think that each of us is great at something and ignorant about many other pursuits.    

Ugly Americans

This was the title of a best-selling book in the 80s. I always thought it was about how nouveau rich Americans behave as tourists, especially Europe. It was actually a book about the U.S. failure at diplomacy.

Now we have a new kind of ugly American. This has nothing to do with a person's physical beauty or lack of it. This has to do with our behavior.

Most Americans are honest, hard working, self reliant, fair, respectful, law abiding, compassionate, and generous. It is these qualities that made our country great.

The Democratic party stood for these values. But not now.
Lately some Americans have behaved in an ugly manner.

Democrats have moved from center left as were Obama and Clinton, to being extremely liberal, socialist, abandoning our values and disregarding concepts like innocent until proved guilty and due process.

They rallied against names. Certain words can never be spoken. If they are, the speaker is to be ostracized. They started with names of groups. Americans of distant African heritage must be called African Americans. This name would change their lives for the better. Do we call Americans whose parents came here from Europe 60 years ago, European Americans? If they are Jewish should they be called Jewish European Americans?  Isn't this being divisive, with people being identified by their ancestry instead of as Americans, thus creating salad bowl instead a melting pot? 

American Indians who have been severely mistreated by our government, were to be called Native Americans. Every person born in a America is a native American. 

Then there was the baseball team which has been called the Redskins for 81 years had to change their name they were told. They didn't and in a survey, 90% of American Indians don't care about it. 

Then the far left decided to limit any free speech that they don't agree with. At the U.C. Berkeley, a Republican campus group invited two conservatives to speak on two separate occasions. One was a best selling author, the other was a far out Britisher who was gay and married to a black man. They both challeged some liberal maxims and suggested some of their own. No one was forced to hear them talk. But the far left would not allow it. They rioted and damaged campus buildings. The chancellor had police stay away. Berkeley academic standing declined, it is no longer the number one public university. It has gone from the free speech movement of the 60s to not allowing contrary opinions - not allowing free speech, if they disagree with it.   

Some wanted to not have Bill Maher, the liberal's liberal, do a comedy routine at their college. He had said something disparaging about Islam. He came anyway but many comedians are not going to campuses because the extreme political correctness makes many funny routines possibly offensive to someone. No one should ever be offended!

When a deranged racist murdered people at a church service in South Carolina, we saw pictures of him with the confederate flag. The left suddenly wanted all such flags taken down. Then it was 100 year old statues of leaders of the Confederacy. They not only petitioned government officials to take them all down, they started taking them down themselves. It proved that they were against history, racism and law and order.

Then it was on college campuses. Someone wore a costume of an American Indian for Halloween. This was strongly objected to by the extreme left wingers on campus because it might offend Indians.

On another campus, Princeton, some wanted the name of a past president of the university and the nation removed from campus buildings. He was a liberal president but it was thought that the did not have a positive opinion of blacks.  The school administration refused to comply.

Next it was all famous Americans who owned slaves and/or did not consider blacks equal. Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt and Wilson were all found guilty. The extremists then wanted all names of these great men removed from all states, towns, schools and/or  street names or anything else that bore their name. Even our capital would have had to change its name. Some went so far as to want their images on Mount Rushmore erased.

Some students at a prestigious university wanted the name "dorm master" changed because it might remind students of African heritage that some of their distant ancestors were slaves. The school complied. But they didn't go far enough. They shouldn't have master's degrees, masterpieces or call someone a master at what he does or that a student has mastered the language or algebra.

When Trump was elected many already didn't like him. His electoral opponent labeled him a misogynist, racist, xenophobic, dishonest, and anti immigrant, saying that half of his supporters were deplorable. The mainstream media echoed this sentiment making attacking him fair game. A failing comedian held what looked like a beheaded Trump. Another celebrity encouraged us to do things to his son. A Democratic Congresswoman who represents a poor district though she lives in an affluent one, called on fellow liberals to harass anyone in the administration. One said that Trump's son should be put in prison with pedophiles. The response was "no, we don't want him going to Hollywood."  

At the White house dinner for the press, a so-called comedian used the platform to attack Sarah Sanders, who was sitting right next to her. From now on White House dinners will have no "comedians."

Sarah and her family were harassed and chased out of a restaurant and across the street. No Democrat criticized the protest. The town and their customers did and stayed away from the place. The restaurant had to close for a time, perhaps hoping that people would forget. There was similar behavior to a cabinet secretary and the Vice President. Those protesters were arrested.

The latest is this claim that a juror got drunk at a party 36 years ago when he was 17. It is not likely to have ever happened, and it is clearly unimportant. What a teen did does not determine what he is 36 years later. Everyone knew this. The left tried to then claim that even though the judge was innocent, he behaved badly at his hearing. But that wasn't enough. Some ugly Americans, not caring that the event never happened, still say that he is a rapist and should not be on the Supreme Court. Translation, "we don't want a conservative Catholic on the high court."

We have ugly Americans among us.