Friday, January 17, 2003

Where is Frosty Troy's Head At?

Many are asking what has happened to Frosty Troy, publisher of the Oklahoma Observor, to lead him to support Senator Shurden's attempt to gut the anti-cockfighting legislation the people recently passed by initiative petition. Has he gone off the deep end or is this famously anti-Daily Oklahoma writer mad because the D.O. has weighed in on the anti-cockfighting side? Has Frosty become an anti-intellectual Ludite? A supporter of anti-democratic, backroom power politics? Frosty! Tell us it ain't so!!

Frosty is too smart a fellow to siddle up to Frank Shurden. Too smart to not know that the people have spoken through the initiative petition and election process. Too smart to not know what damage cockfighting does both to the people who participate in it and to Oklahoma's image. Well, maybe not.
Oklahoma Makes Trivial Pursuit!!!

The following appeared in the Tulsa World's reader call-in column today:

Aren't we Oklahomans proud? The 20th anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit finally has a question about Oklahoma. It is on card No. 15, and it wants to know what sport was still legal in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana in 2001. Yes, be proud, Oklahoma! Cockfighting made Trivial Pursuit.
Drew Edmondson hits Nail on Head

In a Tulsa World editorial today they point out that the cockfighter's continuing effort to overturn the results of an election outlawing their cruel activity in Oklahoma is giving the state a poor image. The worsening image is a result not only that we were one of the last states to ban cockfighting but that some of our rural judges have cooperated with the cockfighters to prevent enforcement of the ban. These gamblers, law breakers, and inhumane characters don't give a damn about Oklahoma.

The World offers a great qoute from our state Attorney General, Drew Edmondson:

"My opinion is that the issue is bigger than cockfighting. It is about the validity of the constitional right to engage in the initiative petition process. The power of the people is what is at issue here."
Right on Mr. Edmondson.

Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Update on Lt Gov

As a followup to the blog from last week - word is that the Lt Governor accepted the forced resignations of three of her former staff people. Now lets see if she denies these former employees unemployment benefits. I hope not. That would be dirty, dirty, dirty.

Word is that her chief of staff , Levy, is already out to undermine Governor Brad Henry. The new Governor seems to be serious about bipartisanship though and Levy needs to give him some room and some time.

While I applaud the bipartisanship let's hope Governor Henry doesn't make the mistake of putting his close friends to work for him. Former Governor Bellmon said the worst thing a Governor can do is hire his friends. Especially his old Senator friends. And that goes for both parties. The new Governor doesn't need a corruption scandal to divert him from the business at hand.
Reverse discrimination

The News: President Bush, stepping into a politically charged affirmative action case, asserted Wednesday that a program of racial preferences for minority applicants at the University of Michigan was "divisive, unfair and impossible to square with the Constitution."

Well, I have to agree with the President on this one and applaud him for doing what is right. I was disgusted by the Senator Lott matter but I'm equally disgusted by reverse discrimination. Many universities and government agencies have indulged in reverse discrimination and it is time it stopped. I once had to change my career because I was told that my race and gender was not being hired and that I might as well go somewhere else. Racial discrimination is wrong, no matter who is being discriminated against. Intergenerational bookkeeping doesn't work and isn't right, period.

The Democrats are all over Bush on this one and even Republicans are jumping on the "affirmative action"bandwagon and criticizing Bush for voicing opposition to racial quotas. I don't agree with Bush on much but this is one time I have to hand it to him.

About the time I think I'm edging toward the Democrat side of political life they remind me why I can't be a supporter. Their frenzy to jump on the politically correct side and to deride Bush for being "anti-Civil Rights" is repulsive. Reminds me why I'm an independent.

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Crossing the Oklahoma

Dustbury has a good point about a state legislator's effort to rename the "North Canadian River" the "Oklahoma River". As he points out, it has to be mowed twice a year.
Naive Koreans
Flyovercountry illuminates the naive nature of some South Korean young people:

Some people in South Korea think they don’t need U.S. troops anymore:

"If the United States left, I wouldn't mind," says Kim Young Ran, 29. "If North Korea wants nuclear weapons, I think they should have them. The U.S. and so many other countries have them. There's no way North Korea will attack us with their nuclear weapons. I don't think so. We're the same country. You don't bomb and kill your family. We share the same blood."
posted by Chris at 12:08 PM


Young South Korean college students are among the most naive humans on Earth. I've heard the above sentiment from more than one. If you ask these students "who started the Korean War"? - most of them will say it was started by the United States. By the way, that would be an incorrect answer. Many of them actually believe the kindly North Koreans would never kill their brethren in South Korea. I hope they don't have to find out how wrong they are.
So Who's a Cult?


I watched an NBC Dateline story tonight on the Raelian's claims to have cloned a baby. The interview of the religious group's founder, Rael, was predictably mocking. After all, these people believe that space aliens cloned humanity from themselves. On top of that, Rael has a Jetson idea of fashion and hair style. Their beliefs are so unique that our media refers to the Raelians as a cult. During the Dateline interview Rael's off camera attendant could be heard asking the interviewer to be more respectful of Rael and Rael himself asked if the journalist would be as disrespectful if he was interviewing the Pope or a rabbi. Good question.

Then I surfed on over to TBN and a lady evangelist was in a state of heightened religious frenzy. She was absolutely irrational, frothing, scary. I contrasted this with what I had just seen of the Raelians. At least they seemed composed.

If we step back, and look at these matters from a viewpoint from beyond our own beliefs, can we really afford to ridicule the Raelians? Are their beliefs more bizarre than the beliefs of the major religions? No, I don't think so. No less and no more.




As a footnote to this it is worth noting that the Raelians believe that they must build an embassy called Elohim for our alien ancestors. As many of you will remember, some white supremacist religious group established an encampment near the Oklahoma-Arkansas border in the early 90s and called it Elohim City. There were alledged ties to Elohim City in the investigation of the Oklahoma City bomber/murderer.