Why I Despise (and Refuse to Use) Hyphenated Titles

Anybody who knows me or who has been following my blog knows that one of the things I hate most in this politically-correct, "don't hurt anyone else's feelings!" world in which we live is the use of hyphenated titles.

I despise them. Period. And I will not use them. Period.

So just what do I have against hyphenated titles and why do I hate them so much, you ask? Well, it's very simple, and I can sum it all up in one word:

LOYALTY.

I'm an American, first and foremost. I put absolutely nothing else in my personal and family history above that. I was born in America, and there is nothing more dear to me, more important to me, and more meangingful to me than being an American above all else. I owe no higher loyalty to anywhere or anyplace else other than America, because this is the land of my birth and the land which has made it possible for me to live the free life that I have.

Sure, I could use a hyphenated term to describe myself like some parts of our society are hell-bent and determined on using. I was born in the South, so I could call myself a Southern-American...but I won't. Both of my parent's families originated in Scotland, so I could call myself a Scottish-American...but I won't. My father's mother's maiden name was Martin, so I could call myself an Irish-American...but I won't.

I won't use any of these self-professed, hyphenated titles for one simple reason: a hyphenated title places a higher importance and therefore a higher loyalty to the first word in the title, and to me there is NOTHING more important than my status as an American, and I have no higher loyalty to anything than that.

To me, somone who uses the title of "African-American" is telling me that they're more loyal to Africa than they are to America. Unless you were born in Africa, you hae no business using that title. (We can already see that you're black, genius. You don't need a title to tell us that.) Same thing with "Hispanic-Americans," "Asian-Americans," "Italian-Americans," "Irish-Americans," "Arab-Americans," or any other damned thing you can think of. If you're so damned proud of being something other than just a plain, old American and hold a higher loyalty to a land which you probably have never even visited much less been born in, then I suggest you jump your ass on an airplane and fly the hell out of America and go live in Africa, or Japan, or Mexico, or Ireland, or Scotland, or Italy, or wherever else you think is more important than America.

As for me, I'm an American, plain and simple.

And that's good enough for me.

IHC

History Repeats Itself: The Great South Carolina Flag Flap

For those of you who may have missed it, once upon a time there were three flags being flown from atop the State House dome in Columbia, SC, those flags being in order the American flag, the South Carolina flag, and the Confederate Battle Flag. From what I've been able to find out about it, the Battle Flag was put up there in 1961 in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the War for Southern Independence, and when the centennial celebration ended five years later, they just left it up there. It quickly grew famous - or infamous, depending on your point of view - and a coordinated, nonstop fight to get the flag removed from the dome was immediately begun by the NAACP.

Personally, I always thought that the Battle Flag had no reason for being up there because the State House represents ALL of the people of South Carolina, and the Battle Flag surely doesn't represent ALL of the people, but I wasn't living there at the time so it really wasn't any of my business. In any event, the NAACP and the black population of South Carolina raised enough hell about it that the House passed a resolution to remove the flag from the dome and place it next to the Confederate Soldier's Monument on the west side of the State House grounds. I think that's a more appropriate place for it anyway, but they really should have put it to a popular vote instead of doing the resolution thing. I think they may have been surprised by the results.

But anyway, before it was voted on by the state House, this move was proposed to the NAACP who agreed with it and said they were fine with it, saying that as long as the flag was removed from the dome they really didn't care where it went. Never mind the fact that the NAACP passed a national resolution in 1999 stating that their goal was to totally eliminate display of the Confederate Battle Flag on all public property, limiting its display to private property only; never mind the fact that at that same convention where this racist, bigoted resolution was passed they also passed a resolution calling for the economic boycott of South Carolina until the flag is gone. Never mind all that; in 2000 the NAACP said they were OK with the actions of the House, yet they kept the boycott in place and started campaigning for the total removal of the flag from the grounds a year later.

Seems they lied out their collective asses about the whole thing, huh?

And now, some well-meaning but misguided city councilman from Myrtle Beach by the name of Phil Render is preparing a resolution he plans to introduce to the House calling for the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag from the State House grounds, giving the NAACP exactly what they want. Mr. Render states that he's doing it for economic reasons, that the economic boycott by the NAACP has had a negative effect on Myrtle Beach, and that the only resolution to this is to get rid of the flag.

Hmmm, so Myrtle Beach is strapped for tourist cash, huh? Wonder why that is? Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Render, it's because in January of 2009 your city council passed a whole bunch of new laws on motorcycle operation in your city that were so restrictive that it drove not one, not two, but THREE of the biggest annual motorcycle rallies out of your city? How much money did those new laws cost the city of Myrtle Beach? Well, Mr. Pender, I was there in 2009, and the battle cry of the bikers was, "FU MYRTLE BEACH, WE CAME ANYWAY!" And when we came, we didn't stay in a hotel in Myrtle Beach; we didn't hit the bars in Myrtle Beach; we didn't visit any attractions in Myrtle Beach, which means that we didn't spend our money in Myrtle Beach. We did all of this - including the money spending part - in North Myrtle Beach, Murrell's Inlet, and anyplace else but Myrtle Beach.

So you brought your economic problems on yourself, pal. Don't blame the Confederate flag for your problems. And never mind the fact that on a whole, the NAACP boycott of South Carolina has largely been a resounding failure - tourism as a whole has gone up nearly every year since 1999, the only organization refusing to break the boycott being the NCAA. More on that later. But the tourists are still coming to South Carolina and as long as the state has the beaches, they'll continue to come despite the NAACP boycott.

Mr. Pender says he's not ready to introduce his resolution to the House until he gets "unanimous support" from his colleagues. Good luck with that, Mr. Pender. You'd be better advised to repeal those anti-biker laws you passed last year, although even then that's no guarantee that the bikers would come back. We have long memories, and we don't forgive and forget all that easily.

Personally, I am disgusted at this effort to blame the Confederate Flag and our Confederate heritage and history for a self-imposed problem. Mr. Pender is using the flag as a scapegoat, hoping to ignite the passions of the people and get the biggest racist organization next to the KKK, that being the NAACP, on his side and save his fair city. It absolutely disgusts me.

It also seems that Mr. Pender has forgotten what happened to the mayor and the council members of Myrtle Beach that passed the ordinances driving the bikers out of town. None of them got re-elected.

So, Mr. Pender, when are you up for re-election? And just what did you plan to do after your time on the council was over?

IHC

Your phone can do WHAT?

My wife recently got a new cell phone, a Droid from Verizon Wireless. She's spent the better part of the past week getting to know the phone and all of the things it can do, and what this thing - and any "smart" phone - is capable of just amazes me! For all intents and purposes, this phone is nothing less than a palm-sized computer that has a phone built in!

Which got me to thinking just how far cell phones and modern technology has come in my lifetime, and believe me, it's a long way! For example...

Calculators - I remember when hand-held calculators first came out. They were small enough to fit in your hand (just barely), they did nothing more than simple math, and they were about a hundred bucks a pop. Now you can buy a calculator the size of a credit card which is capable of doing algarythms, square roots, and all that scientific stuff for under five bucks.

Digital Watches - My parents bought me my first digital watch in 1976 for my birthday. It was a large chrome clunky thing with an LED readout, and you had to push a button to get the time to show. If you pushed the button twice, it would show the date. And that's it. Time, day/date. Nothing more. And the LED readout was red and was so weak that in bright sunlight it was impossible to see unless you shaded it with your hand - which was impossible, because when you let go of the button the numbers went dead. Get it wet, and it was sayonara watch. The batteries were five bucks each, and it took two to run it. And the watch set my parents back a hundred bucks. (I still have it, although it stopped working decades ago.) Now, you can go into Kmart or Wally World and buy a digital watch with a light, two time zones, a stopwatch, a timer, two alarms, and a calendar for about ten bucks. And they're made of plastic and nylon, are waterproof down to 30 meters (90 feet for us Americans), and are damned near indestructable. When the batteries die, they cost about a buck to replace.

Global Positioning Systems - When these gizmos first came out for the military, they were not all that big by military standards. You could hold the unit in your hand, although only for a couple of minutes because it was pretty heavy. The screen wasn't all that big and was two different shades of green - light green and dark green - but it was amazing because the damned thing would tell you exactly where you were on the map showing on the screen, and you could use it like a big compass to find your way to wherever you needed to go. This was one gadget that as soon as the civilian community got their hands on it, it took off like a rocket to the moon. GPS systems now not only show you where in the world (literally) you are, but you can use them to find where you want to go and have the GPS make out a route for you. The screens are full color, they talk to you, they'll show you where anything you need to know about such as gas staions, restaurants, hospitals, police stations, museums, etc are and will route you to it, and they're small enough to fit into the pocket - the top pocket, that is - of a jeans jacket. I have one that I use for my motorcycle, and I love it. The battery life is about 20 hours, but of course it hooks up to your car for power also through the power port. (They used to call them "cigarette lighter ports," but not since they stopped putting cigarette lighters and ashtrays in cars.) Once a pricey option on only the most expensive cars, in-dash GPS units are now standard equipment on brands such as Kia and Hyundai.

Compact Disc Players - When these first came out in the mid-1980s my first wife wanted one, and I was a little hesitant. I mean, really, two hundred bucks for something that played a compact disc? Just one disc at a time? But she wanted it, I loved her, so she got it. It was outdated and obsolete within a year. Not her fault, to be sure, but the technology advanced that much, that fast. This unit was big, about a foot wide, ten inches deep, and about three inches high, and played one disc; you can now get an in-dash CD player in your car that will hold up to six discs, and you can program it with the push of a single button to play the songs or the discs at random so you don't know what music is coming next. I had one of these in my Saturn, and when I lived in New Jersey I made several trips to my parent's house in North Carolina. I would load the player up with some homemade discs that had about 22 songs each on them, and wouldn't have to change discs until I got to Petersburg, Virginia - 8 hours later!

Cell phones - I saved what I think is the best for last. When cellular phones first came out in the early 1990's they were big, clunky, had crappy battery life, were expensive as hell, and were called "mobile phones." When the first truly hand-held cell phones first came out they were also big and clunky, and had a crappy battery life. And they were expensive as hell. The first cell phone I ever got was a Motorola flip phone, a gray plastic thing that was pretty small for its day. All it did was make calls - that's it. The readout consisted of a window with a monocolor display that showed the number calling you or the number you were calling. Airtime was expensive as hell, and I know of many a young airman in the Air Force that spent their whole paycheck paying their cell phone bill because they talked too much. There were no "plans" back then - you paid .33 cents or better per minute, period, and the longer you yakked the bigger your bill. And all the phones did was make calls - nothing else.

And now? Jeez...I could talk about what a cell phone will do now for an hour and barely cover it all. Like I said, the Droid my wife has is nothing less than a miniature computer/GPS/datebook/planner/web surfer/camera/video camera/phone that is small enough to fit in the top pocket of a jeans jacket, and to see the thing work just amazes me. And I can't wait until it's my turn to get one in November!

All of this makes me think...if these are just some of the advances I've seen in my lifetime, I can hardly imagine what it must be like to be someone my parent's age - 81 and 79 - and to have seen all that they've seen. I mean, they remember when the telephone was a novelty, and not everybody had one! And television? Didn't exist when they were growing up! Blows my mind to think about it...

...and makes me wonder just what marvels my children and their children are going to see.

IHC

A Glimpse Into the Mind of Fred Phelps

Fred Phelps, as you may or may not know, is the insane leader of that group of fanatics called the Westboro Baptists Church. That's the group of assholes that demonstrate at funerals of deceased American soldiers, in case you didn't know.

If you want a truly alarming, startling, and very scary glimpse into how this man's mind works, then you need to read this:

http://natephelps.com/10801.html

It's written by one of his sons, and tells you what life was like growing up with a religious fanatical lunatic, and is enough to turn you off on all kinds of organized religion.

After reading this, the only phrase that ran through my mind about Fred Phelps was the old Southern saying about justice: "Some people just need killin'."

Judge for yourself.

IHC