If You Want Me to Be Civil, You Should Be, Too

This is David Frum, the man who came up with the term “Axis of Evil.” For years, he has led the charge against Donald Trump based on the latter’s lack of civility. Well, if all civility gets us is a bunch of pointless, endless wars, no social safety net, and a stolen Supreme Court seat, Frum can stick his precious civility up his holly jolly butt. Image via Flickr by Policy Exchange. Some rights reserved.

Over the past week, talk of being “civil” exploded after Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Red Hen restaurant in Virginia and Rep. Maxine Waters told her constituents in Los Angeles to “harass” other officials in Trump’s cabinet. These events follow a month that included the controversy that arose after Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a naughty word, Roseanne Barr created a new controversy over Twitter, and a controversy brewed over Michelle Wolf’s set at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. (I talked about the latter in May.)

I must say that the responses to all of these events have been interesting, to say the least, but the ongoing discussion of civility has revealed a whole host of double standards. As a result, we are just now questioning the purpose of and the agendas behind the push for civility. Thus, it is time to talk about when we need to be civil and why civility alone means very little, especially when it is one-sided.

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Famous Sayings #110 — ‘The Definition of Insanity…’

June 24, 2018

The definition of insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expecting a different result.

Photo via Flickr by Adobe of Chaos. Some rights reserved.

I’m not sure when I first heard this saying, but it is a very common one, particularly in American media. Every now and then, I might hear some character uttering these words or something similar. For those who read a lot of opinion pieces, you might be quite familiar with this phrase, too. You might say it’s overused (D’Addario).

Famous Sayings #109 — ‘Old Man’

June 17, 2018

Come on, don’t you want to play some hoops with your old man?

It’s still Father’s Day where I am so I couldn’t let the night pass without discussing a familiar term that has to deal with fathers.

Famous Sayings #108 — ‘Better Late Than Never’

June 11, 2018

Jim, you’re finally here! This meeting started 10 minutes ago, but better late than never.

Here is a scene from the NBC hit show, Better Late Than Never. (From left) Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman, and Henry Winkler can be seen in Berlin as Bradshaw reads a letter written for Winkler. Taken via screenshot. (Video)

I’m trying my best to get these famous sayings posts on Sundays, but like last week, I’m a day behind. Better late than never.

While doing the research for this post, I discovered that there is a show with that title that airs on NBC. Better Late Than Never is an American reality-travel show that was based on a South Korean show entitled Grandpas Over Flowers. Each episode sees the cast traveling to foreign locations without luxuries and checking off items on their bucket lists. The American show stars Terry Bradshaw, George Foreman, William Shatner, and Henry Winkler (who serves as one of the series’ executive producers). Comedian Jeff Dye serves as their younger companion.

Better Late than Never is produced by Universal Television and it airs on NBC. The network bought the rights for the remake in 2014, the show began production in August 2015, and it first aired on August 23, 2016. The show is still running, and it was picked up for its second season on September 22, 2016.

I haven’t watched this show because I haven’t watched much television — beyond sporting events and select programs — for years. Perhaps I should watch this program, although I am a bit late to the party. Better late than never.

Famous Sayings #107 — ‘New World Order’

June 4, 2018

We must prepare for the coming new world order.

The Gomberg map envisioned a new world moral order after World War II.  By Maurice Gomberg [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Earlier this year, I talked about conspiracy theories. In that post, I discussed where the phrase “conspiracy theory” came from, how it was first used, and what some prevalent conspiracy theories were. One type of theory I left out concerns a new world order because that phrase is famous saying, too.

When searching for this topic, there was relatively sparse information about the history of the phrase New World Order, although there were plenty of articles and pages that used the phrase, so my search first took me to Wikipedia to find other leads and sourcing material. As it turns out, this is an extensive topic, but I will have to focus on certain aspects so this post won’t be too long.

Why Did Kneeling Become So Controversial?

Kneeling in the NFL became controversial since 2016 because instead of being associated with prayer (like Tebowing), it became associated with the protest of oppression. Image of Tim Tebow by Ed Clemente Photography (CC BY-SA 3.0), from Wikimedia Commons. Image of Eric Reid and Colin Kaepernick taken via screenshot (video).

We are still talking about kneeling. The last time I wrote about the topic of National Football League protests, it was September, but much has happened since and culture warriors have done all they could to keep the topic of kneeling in the NFL relevant. In this post, I want to talk about a new rule the NFL has approved regarding anthem protests, how the anthem protests began in the first place*, and what I think about it all.