The terrorist community was exuberant that Obama will be back to provide more weapons-trafficking in the Middle East. Above is a photo of a Libyan militia member flashing the victory signal to the president.

Russian strongman Vladimir Putin wept tears of joy that America’s most flexible president will be returning to compromise on missile defense, unilateral nuclear disarmament, and other international issues.

Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez joined fellow Obama-endorser Vladimir Putin in giving a shout out to President Obama for his victory.

President Obama took a bow before the Saudi Prince for running a brilliant campaign based on Big Bird, Mitt hates cookies, binders full of women, and horses and bayonets.

African Americans for Obama proclaimed the end of racism by tweeting “f*ck white people.”

Key Obama campaigner Beyonce Knowles tweeted out “Take that Mitches.” There’s no word if Jay-Z celebrated with another rendition of “99 Problems and Mitt Ain’t One.”

Bits of protoplasm often mistaken for human beings partied at the idea of re-electing a president who supports their arbitrary termination.

Children cried with joy at the thought of their debt burden skyrocketing over $200,000 per person for their age group.

Mother Gaia gave an official press announcement thanking Obama for restoring rightful control over the earth’s climate to unelected bureaucrats in Washington.

The devil was ecstatic over the election of a party that voted twice to remove God from its platform (before being overruled, of course).

Baby vampire bats smiled approvingly at the Democrat voters who returned Obama to power.

If we want to truly empower our children, we are going to have to elevate the level of discourse beyond the sensationalized talking points of the nightly news. We’re going to have to educate them on the fundamental differences between the parties and candidates. We’re going to have to warn them against the ideologies that threaten prosperity in our great country. And we are going to have to teach them how to wield the power of the ballot box to protect the freedoms granted to them in the very Constitution they are learning about in school. Instead, we are talking about dogs, birthday parties and lawn boys.

And who is dictating the direction of the conversation? The mainstream media is, of course. Operating as an extension of the government-run educational system, the liberal media is but another pawn in the dumbing-down-of-our-nation’s-youth movement. Long have conservatives hammered the liberal media for dumbing down the masses, and most of us have taken to talk-radio to cure this ill. However, efforts of the media to dilute the real election messages are now obstructing the education of the very population that will be most impacted by the next President’s policies: our children.

It amounts to a well-orchestrated effort of mass distraction.

The problem is about more than just sensationalism or, as Ted Koppel said in an interview with Matt Lauer on Today recently, a result of the social media phenomenon. Koppel – a 30-year veteran of the media – didn’t want to shoulder any responsibility for the type of political conversations that are taking place today. Instead, he placed blame on Twitter, dismissing its value in the arena of public discourse by saying, “If it can be reduced to 140 characters, it has legs with the American people, and they run with it.” Even his tone toward the Twitterverse was one of repugnance, like it was only for the Simpletons of the world. Yet for those of us who predominantly follow news sources, pundits, political commentators who are considered leaders in their industry, this statement reeks of ignorance. Talk about out of touch.

Besides, can’t every issue, including the ones that really matter, be discussed in any social setting? If we teach our youth that the real issues like jobs, the economy, healthcare, and education cannot be discussed via social media with any real merit, then we are ultimately teaching them they can’t talk about things that matter in any social environment. As a result, they are reduced to talking about Lindsey Lohan’s latest public meltdown or Brangelina’s engagement. But our children have more valuable ideas and thoughts to contribute, and we must remember that they won’t always be children.

It would be great to live in a world where children could spend time in their own social environments – in the lunchroom, on the playground, on sleepovers, or maybe (GASP!) on a first date – talking about things that really matter. We want our young people to be able to carry on dignified conversations that reflect critical and independent thought, ideas that have been shaped by real education (that is, knowledge acquisition).

It’s true that media is headed in the wrong direction, but social media is far from the sole culprit. The problem we have is a government-induced, main-stream-media-supported effort to dumb down the population and to distract us, so we will lose focus on the fact that our country is falling apart under Obama’s reign. Union-loving teachers, left-wing reporters and liberal politicians (who, let’s face it, get more time on TV to push their agenda) manipulate messages in order to prey on the emotions of our children, rarely tempering these messages or images with logic or data that might provide balance.

As a result, children grow up unable to identify logical fallacies when they see them (trust me, I teach this concept in freshman composition classes), so they become adults who have been hard-wired as unable to think and reason for themselves. They can’t solve their own problems, so they become dependent on government to solve the problems for them. These moochers end up voting for Democrats exclusively, because that’s the party that will keep their entitlement checks coming. Do you see the payoff?

One can’t help but think of Ray Bradbury’s novel, Fahrenheit 451, which speaks of a future America where books are entirely forbidden and any worthwhile conversation or thought is replaced by talking “walls” in a person’s home. These walls are essentially movie theater-sized screens that surround a room, broadcasting nonstop coverage of a soap opera-esque reality TV show. The highest level of engagement one can hope for is being awarded a line of scripted dialogue in the show, which is spoken from the home, directly to the walls. There is no interaction or exchange of ideas.

If we don’t change the course of education, media, and communication in our homes, we are at risk of living out this Bradburian dystopic nightmare. As parents, we must fight vigilantly against the effort to dumb down our children, or we will fall victim to the VLWC that Mitt Romney recently spoke of. We must identify sources that don’t filter real issues or dilute them with Hollywood or sports gossip and make those informative sources daily reading for the whole family. Then, we should do what effective educators do, lead our children to reflect on the issues and discuss them – maybe over dinner or on a walk through the park (yes, a social environment). Through this exercise, we can teach them how to discuss their views freely while still being cognizant of the fact that others might disagree.

The civic education of our children isn’t the responsibility of the government – and they wouldn’t do the job correctly anyway – the duty lies with us, our children’s parents. As we head into election – and mock election season – we need to remember that even though the “votes” of our children don’t technically count yet, their informed opinions do, and that’s the first lesson we need to teach them.

Senators that are retiring

• Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
• Kay Bailey Hitchison (R-TX)
• Joe Lieberman (I-CT)
• Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
• Ben Nelson (D-NE)
• Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
• Kent Conrad (D-ND)
• Jim Webb (D-VA)
• Herb Kohl (D-WI)

Senators Up for Re-Election

• Richard Lugar (R-IN)
• Olympia Snowe (R-MN)
• Scott Brown (R-Mass)
• Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi)
• Dean Heller (R-NV)
• Bob Corker (R-TN)
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
• John Barrasso (R-WY)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
• Tom Carper (D-DE)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Ben Cardin (D-MD)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
• Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn)
• Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri)
• Jon Tester (D-MT)
• Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
• Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
• Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
• Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
• Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
• Joe Manchin (D-WV)

Arthur Demarest got to talk for about 18 seconds, before the news anchor cut him off to cover Barney Frank’s retirement announcement, and that’s just sad.  You can see that he went through a lot of trouble to come on and talk about the Mayan Calendar; it broke my heart.  There’s Arthur, all dressed up in a nice jacket.  He’s got a scenic skyline pictured behind him.  Here he was about to have his big break.  He was going to talk about the Mayan Calendar on America’s largest news channel, and then… BAM.  He gets “Franked”.  Barney Frank pulls the rug right out from under him.

Well, don’t worry, Arthur.  You’re not the first person that Barney’s Franked.  But hopefully, you’ll be the last, now that he’s getting out of Congress.  He’s done enough harm, and at one point or another, Barney’s Franked us all.

What are your thoughts on the distinguished congressmen’s retirement?  And what about poor Arthur?  Should he be invited back on?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.  And as always, gobble gobble.  (or something like that.. this holiday weekend was a bit too long)

Note:  “Franked” refers to Barney’s self-centered and self-serving policies that have harmed our nation over the years, and is not intended as a euphemism.