http://waltbennett.com/wordpress Defending The Right To Think And Speak Freely Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:45:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 en http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1283 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1283#comments Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:38:08 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1283 In 1978 or thereabouts, when my album collection numbered around 25, I polled a few friends, my brother and my sister and asked them to pick the “best records” in that collection. I assigned point values to all the entries and discovered, to my mild surprise, that the winner was Elton John’s sprawling double album, [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1283 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1279 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1279#comments Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:34:42 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1279 Let me cross three ideas in your head, and see what we can come up with. 1. Charlie Wilson’s War 2. 9/11 3. Viet Nam Item 1, Charlie Wilson’s War, is the story of how a U.S. Congressman combined with a single CIA operative to fund and arm the freedom fighters of Afghanistan who held off the mighty Soviet [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1279 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1273 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1273#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:25:46 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1273 A little over 24 hours ago, I sat transfixed by the image on my PC screen. I was at MLB.com, watching a replay of what was supposed to have been the final out of a perfect game. The headline that had drawn me there was this: “Galarraga loses perfect game on blown call”. A blown call. On [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1273 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1268 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1268#comments Sun, 30 May 2010 02:24:57 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1268 This post will be difficult to write, and it will be intentionally vague. If the principals in this vignette ever read this post, they will know who they are. The title of this post is not new. It’s been said in therapy rooms for years. Another variation: “What you do here, what you see here, what [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1268 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1265 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1265#comments Fri, 28 May 2010 18:43:38 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1265 Today’s lesson in how banks can screw you is called “Right of set off”. Remember that account you had with Commerce Bank a few years ago? Remember when somebody was taking money from your account in violation of your agreement with them, and you went to Commerce, YOUR bank, the protector of YOUR money, and told [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1265 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1262 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1262#comments Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:28:59 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1262 Hello, and welcome to my world, a world where I do bring the muscle and nobody notices. So I keep bringing the muscle. It’s funny, because I consider myself a humble guy, but I bet that exactly nobody would back me up on that. People that have known me a few years or all my life, they [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1262 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1259 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1259#comments Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:36:30 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1259 Fear is not racism. So we start there. Fear is not hatred. Hatred is not racism. So there’s that. Racism, by the way, is not necessarily permanent. It’s simply a misguided world-view which can be corrected. So even racism is nothing to fear. It is, rather, a very long, wide and deep “teachable moment.” Certainly institutionalized bias, certainly gangs of thugs, [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1259 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1252 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1252#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:26:16 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1252 Who am I without principles? And how do I defend those principles without judging others? I’ve always been as open-minded and fair-minded as a human could possibly be. I go to extreme lengths to be honest, accessible and flexible. I never shut off discussion, never dismiss another’s point of view, never play games with other people’s passions. I’m [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1252 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1249 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1249#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:13:15 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1249 You won’t find a sharper tack than Dwayne T. Hodges. His only problem is that he doesn’t write enough, not to suit me anyway. As soon as I read the following, which he sent to me as an email today, I knew I had to post it. Dwayne graciously agreed, and here it is, unedited [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1249 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1246 http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1246#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:04:50 +0000 Walt Bennett http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?p=1246 What are the three existential struggles? Man versus nature, man versus man, man versus himself? Something like that. I never went to college. That’s my fallback excuse when I don’t know stuff as precisely as others do. “Well, he probably went to college.” As if I’m asking for extra credit for knowing stuff even though I [...]]]> http://waltbennett.com/wordpress/?feed=rss2&p=1246