A "famous" Japanese comedian made his own che shirt.
Posted on 04/29/2010 6:07:41 AM PDT by Kaslin
I learned long ago that shopping with teenagers requires me to patronize places I would otherwise avoid. The combination of loud, thumpy music, unreasonably priced clothing with manufactured holes in the knees and overly perky salespeople reminds me it is good to be a grown-up.
Recently, however, owing to his incessant habit of rapid growth, my 15-year-old son needed new shoes. Thus, I found myself in the chain store Journeys, where one finds all manner of casual footwear, including styles even a mother can approve.
The Journeys store at my mall is well-managed and well-staffed. The salespeople are truly some of the friendliest, most attentive and most competent I've found in a store that caters to young shoppers.
Still, I can't look these guys in the face. This is because despite their pleasant demeanor, every member of the sales team is pierced and tattooed in the extreme. They even sport "gauged" ear lobes — piercings that stretch the lobe to resemble elephant ears.
So gross.
So I adopt a strategy I have dubbed "Product Scrutiny." Basically, I focus all my attention on the shoes under consideration as though I have never before bought footwear.
On our recent visit to Journeys, it happened they offered a freebie — a hat — for which we qualified by virtue of the size of our purchase. Two pairs of shoes, two packs of socks, tell the folks what they've won.
When the salesman shows us the free hat, I say, "Hmmm, I think the only time this style works is in the Cuban military or with a Che Guevara T-shirt."
My son nods in agreement as we both conclude the hat will go directly to the Halloween closet.
But my comment isn't lost on our salesguy, who offers cheerfully, "We have Che T-shirts!"
I say, "But he was a cold, brutal killer and the chief henchman for Fidel Castro. Why put him on a T-shirt?"
To which the young man responds, "Hey, viva la revolution. I dont like to live in the past."
I can't leave it at that, so I say, "Even in the present, he remains a heinous murderer. Being dead and all, he can't exactly rehabilitate himself."
Transaction complete, my son and I walk to the mall exit, and Jimmy listens to me rant about the magnitude of idiocy and ignorance that seems to permeate an entire generation.
How have we become a culture that thinks it is cool to wear T-shirts and caps glorifying a brutal mass murderer who helped to oppress a society with the scourge of communism? How have our young people adopted a philosophy as vapid and useless as "I don't like to live in the past"?
And what happens to a culture whose youth are so uninformed and uneducated?
Unfortunately, according to a recent study by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, we're going to find out. A few weeks ago it released the results of an annual survey of college freshman and seniors, in which 14,000 incoming and outgoing college students were given a 60-question civics test.
Half of the incoming freshmen failed the test, and worse, only 54 percent of graduating seniors passed. The schools that did the worst — that is, their graduating seniors actually scored worse than they did as freshmen — were among the nation's most elite schools.
Another important finding, though, is that four years of college influences students' opinions on a few popular yet polarizing issues: Abortion, gay marriage, prayer in schools, the divinity of the Bible and the opportunity to succeed in America. That the influence regarding these issues is resoundingly liberal is so obvious as to be a cliche.
So there's the answer to a couple of my questions. We're a culture whose young people think Che is cool because "The Communist Manifesto" is required reading for thousands of college freshmen, but not "The Federalist Papers" or even the U.S. Constitution. They've adopted a vapid "live for today" philosophy because they don't learn the history of our government or anyone else's.
What happens to such a culture?
Only time will tell.
Yuri Besmenov already told us. The demoralization is complete.
If conservatives hope to win against Marxism, they must come up a serious plan to “RE-moralize” the nation.
I would suggest that we start with closing down every socialist-funded, single payer, government K-12 school). Government schools are socialism and socialism can NOT be reformed. And... Conservatives should see that every child in the nation has access to a tuition-free PRIVATE education.
I have never heard a complaint like this from a homeschooling parent who has homeschooled from the beginning.
Laugh every time I see that one.
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You said that on FRee Republic? What is wrong with that statement?
Hint: TAANSTAAFL!!
One too many "A"s in there, FRiend. :-)
Thank you, Bolivia!
There are some very old men who gather every year in Maximo Gomez park in Miami who would, despite their age, beat the sh-t out of anyone wearing a Che shirt.
Excellent article—too bad there are not more with this theme. When the counter-culture is not challenged, it becomes engrained.
That sales guy could have subsequently re-thought his lunacy—he just hadn’t been challenged before (a culture of herd nerds). Action...action...action...
There's a special 2-for-one deal on "A"s today... <LOL!!!>
Thanks for the catch, FRiend!
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Hint: TANSTAAFL!!
A bunch of Communist sympathizers put Obama in the White House and he put Communist sympathizers in his administration and then acted "surprised" when they were exposed on the record.
People who "don't like to live in the past" are perfectly willing to forgo our Constitutional form of government for America 2.0.
What “counter-culture”?
It’s like when the big name rock acts try to usurp labels like “alternative”. To what? REAL rock artists who are writing and recording new albums today?
They are the mainstream.
The “counter-culture” of days old became the NEW establishment. Clinton, Kerry, and Obama ALL protested against government and now that they are charge seek to stifle all dissent.
There is no major city in the world without a "Che Cafe" or "Red Star Cafe".
So now that Obama’s been in office for over a year, has Time-Lies-Warner-DC-Mad bothered to run a “10 Pulitzer-Winning Cartoonitst Take On Obama” issue yet?
Marxism and Communism and Socialism must be cast onto the same junk heap of bad ideas as Nazism lies on.
Our Constitution needs to be preserved instead of “neglected” and told that it doesn’t mean what it used to mean as a way of limiting the power of government in our lives.
At least if they are going to wear a Gacy shirt, they could get Jimmy Carter's wife in it...
**Tuition-free** is what's wrong with the statement.
But...Please think about this for a moment. What are government schools charging parents? The fee to parents for our **price-fixed** government monopoly schools is tuition-free.
Therefore...Until conservatives can shut down and close the doors on our price-fixed government schools, they will need to match this tuition-free price. If they don't, parents will continue to send their kids to the government schools and we will never get rid of them.
Once government schooling is completely shut down, parents should be expected to take on the cost of educating their own children with charity paying for the poor.
And...please think about one more thing:
Harvard has an endowment of 35 BILLION! If Harvard wanted, it could fund its operations on its endowment alone without ever charging students a penny in tuition. Americans are very very generous, and are very committed to education. Isn't Harvard's endowment, and the endowments ( in the BILLIONS) of universities and colleges across this nation, proof of that?
Personally, I believe it is possible for K-12 education foundations to eventually be so well endowed that no parent in the U.S. would ever again need to pay a penny in K-12 tuition. In fact, if government hadn't distorted the market by opening government owned and run, socialist-funded, single payer, schools in the mid-1800s to early 1900s, perhaps today we would have PRIVATE K-12 educational foundations that were so well endowed that our nation's children would be attending well-endowed tuition-free **private** schools today.
When government dispenses free stuff, the people receiving it develop a sense of entitlement.
If privately endowed education foundations were dispensing private vouchers for private schools the lesson learned would be gratitude, and it would be an object lesson in learning to be generous themselves to those who come after them.
I **know** that there are many Catholics alive today, who attended tuition-free Catholic parochial schools, who are very **grateful** that generous parishioners and volunteers made their private Catholic education possible. My husband, his and my cousins, and our parents are among those who attended tuition-free parochial schools.
Also...Were you aware that **today** every Catholic child in Wichita Kansas, has access to a tuition-free Catholic education.
Finally,...Is it possible to shut down government schooling and provide all the nation's children with a private conservative education? Yes, I believe it is.
How?
Private education foundations would award grants to individual teachers who would open small one-room schools ( homeschools) in their own homes or small rented spaces. The foundations would certify the teacher, approve the curriculum, test the students, and run community-wide sports, theater, science, arts, and music programs. By avoiding the Prussian-model, prison-like school, many of the expenses of building and maintaining a large infrastructure is avoided, and we know from the homeschoolers that it is possible to have an excellent education at the kitchen table.
They'll learn one way or another. They can learn by studying history.
Or, they can have the lesson tanned into their hides. There are some who can't believe the sign that says, "wet paint."
Unfortunately, we'll all have to pay the price of their education.
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