Indian Americans

The Loony Politics Of South Carolina

Ronald Leave a comment

South Carolina, the “Rebel” state which started the Civil War at Fort Sumter in 1861, has become one of the looniest states in American politics!

Not only is it the state of Congressman Joe Wilson, who yelled out that President Barack Obama was lying, during a State of the Union Address.

Not only is it the state of Governor Nikki Haley, hailed because she is the second Indian American Governor, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, but who has the most extremist views on many topics, similar to Jindal.

Not only is it the state of Jim DeMint, the leader of the Tea Party Senators, who now is leaving the Senate to join the Heritage Foundation, a right wing think thank.

Not only is it the state of newly appointed Senator Tim Scott, the first African American Republican Senator since Edward Brooke of Massachusetts in the 1960s and 1970s—a man nothing like Brooke, but rather closer in extremist views to fellow African American Republican Congressman Allen West of Florida, who lost his reelection to the House this November. Scott favors cuts in food stamps, HIV AIDS support; called for the impeachment of President Obama over the debt limit; and wants billions of dollars in aid to the oil industry, among other crazy, extremist ideas.

This is also the state of Senator Lindsey Graham, who has tied himself to Senator John McCain in going after Susan Rice, United Nations Ambassador, over the Benghazi, Libya incident, for which she had no blame, and therefore negating her chance to be Secretary of State in tne next term of Barack Obama.

But now to top it off, former Governor Mark Sanford, who resigned over his love affair with a woman in Argentina, and whose wife divorced him, has decided to run for Congressman Scott’s seat in the House of Representatives, a seat he once held before becoming Governor, as a way to revive his flagging political career.

Oh, and by the way, Scott’s House seat, once held by Sanford, and maybe again, is in Charleston, where the Civil War began at Fort Sumter!

So has anything changed in South Carolina since 1861? One has to wonder!

The National Geographic Bee: What It Tells Us!

Ronald Leave a comment

Today, the National Geographic Channel had the finals of the National Geographic Bee, one of the scholarly competitions that need to be promoted much more than they are.

The ten finalists, nine males and one female, comported themselves extremely well, and made anyone proud that we have some extremely brilliant students of 13 and 14 years of age to give us hope for the future.

But when one saw people on the streets who were asked very basic questions on American geography and history, the response was absolutely pitiful, as compared to the difficult questions on World Geography, which required sophisticated knowledge by these young scholars.

And also noticed was that the vast majority of the ten finalists were of Asian heritage, with most from Indian heritage, and one of Chinese heritage. Only two of the ten were so called Anglo Americans!

This tells us that Asian Americans far outshine the average young person of any other ethnicity or race, and this is clearly due to the parental influence in Asian American families, over whites, African Americans, and Hispanic and Latino Americans.

This should be a clarion call for parents of all backgrounds to get to work, promote learning, and stop blaming teachers and schools for the failures of their children to excel, as the best educators are really parents, who are motivated to promote their children’s intellectual ability!

If only as much attention was paid to academic pursuits as to sports, this would be a far better nation!

Meanwhile, let everyone salute these ten very outstanding young people who make their families and themselves proud!