Intelligent and Informed People Read SnyderTalk!
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Welcome to 21st Century America
A recent Gallup poll revealed that President Obama rates high on foreign affairs and low on the deficit. That he is regarded highly by our fellow citizens on foreign affairs is disconcerting because he’s doing more harm to us and to others than anyone in the “free world” since Neville Chamberlain. I’ll go one step further, by attempting to disarm U.S. citizens at a time when we face greater risks than at any time since World War II, Obama makes Chamberlain look like a hawk.
How can you explain the fact that typical Americans think Obama is doing well on the foreign front? Rush Limbaugh refers to Obama supporters in general as “low information voters.” He’s on the right track, but I’ve seen evidence suggesting that the problem extends beyond Obama’s acolytes. I have a Facebook group for a book that I wrote titled His Name is Yahweh. Members of the group aren’t ordinary readers, but they have a liking for shorter rather than longer pieces, and by longer I don’t mean very long. Even more alarming, they prefer pictures to articles.
For example, a catchy cartoon attracts about ten times as many responses as a meaty article, and a gory picture elicits a deluge of comments and goes viral in a heartbeat. That saddens me, but it’s the truth, and I have roughly 4 years of data to support my conclusion. It reminds me of a clip from the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles starring Steve Martin and John Candy. They are on a bus trip, and Candy encouraged Martin to start a sing-along song. He began singing Three Coins in a Fountain, and the response was stone-cold silence. Recognizing the problem, Candy started singing the theme song from The Flintstones, and he got an enthusiastic response. That’s a depressing but accurate depiction of 21st century America.
Sometimes I wonder if we aren’t making a tragic mistake by packaging our messages in articles that are too long for average readers. In 1982, John Naisbitt wrote a book titled Megatrends. It was on the New York Times Bestseller List for two years. In it, he claimed that you can get a handle on what’s taking place around the world and extrapolate to pinpoint what comes next (i.e., trends) by simply reading the headlines and article titles in major newspapers.
I was associate dean of my school at the time, and my dean asked his administrative team to read the book and prepare to discuss it. I was skeptical about the book’s thesis, so I started doing as Naisbitt suggested. Each day I read the headlines and article titles from a wide variety of highly regarded news sources, and much to my surprise, I discovered that Naisbitt was right.
The model for my blog, SnyderTalk, is based on Naisbitt’s finding. Each day, it includes the titles of articles from around the world with hyperlinks. By reading the article titles and the text of articles of particular interest, readers can keep abreast and become well-informed.
One criticism of SnyderTalk is that I include too many articles each day. That’s probably true, but I prefer to err on the side of providing too much information rather than too little. Still, based on what I see taking place in the U.S., I wonder if my readers wouldn’t be better served if I cut the number of articles to 10 or 20 each day. I haven’t moved in that direction so far because there is a great deal to know, and I don’t want to penalize serious readers. The day may come when I have a change of heart, though.
With that information as backdrop, I believe the only rational way to explain why typical Americans think that President Obama is doing a good job in foreign affairs or any other area is that they are not well-informed. They may be “low information” voters/readers as Rush Limbaugh says; they may be intellectually lazy; or they may not care, but this much is certain: average readers aren’t well-informed and show no desire to overcome the problem. Regrettably, they are probably too unaware to realize that they have a problem.
President Obama understands the situation better than most. He talks incessantly and provides precious little detail on issues, but he does possess a captivating delivery style. Like riders on the bus in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, average Americans sing along with him gleefully even though he is leading us in a dangerous direction toward a precipice while he croons a soothing melody. Some argue that Obama lacks substance. I disagree. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing.
For example, last night in his State of the Union speech, the president conjured up images of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and other atrocities that were perpetrated by crazed lunatics to buttress his message that we need to further restrict guns and magazines at a time when evidence suggests that law-abiding citizens need more and better weapons to defend our families in case the need arises. Unfortunately, he failed to mention Christopher Dorner. He’s a serial killer, an ex-cop, and an embodiment of evil, but he has attracted a cult following among Obama supporters.
Was the president’s omission an oversight? I doubt it. I think he said what he believes people want to hear in hopes of moving his agenda forward regardless of the consequences. He did the same thing where foreign policy issues were concerned hoping to placate his political opponents and maintain his support among the uninformed.
Ironically, following the SOTU speech, Obama plans to visit several cities including Chicago to push his agenda. I say “ironically” because that city, in particular, is a perfect example of what happens when Obama’s policies are fully implemented. The Windy City is a crime ridden and decaying mass of humanity whose future looks bleak, and it’s not for the lack of gun control or federal largess. Some have gone so far as to argue that Chicago is in such dire straits that we should wall it off and turn it into an open-air prison. I won’t go that far, but I will say this: we can’t afford to allow our cities to deteriorate any further.
If we hope to inform our fellow citizens and win their support, we need to do a much better job of packaging our message. That means we need shorter articles with pictures–lots of pictures and the more explicit the better. The old newspaper adage “if it bleeds, it leads” applies here. Another axiom applies as well: KISS–Keep it Simple Stupid.
This is the bottom line: we can’t change this nation for the better unless we attract support from average Americans. That’s a simple fact.
This SnyderTalk editorial first appeared in American Thinker.
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Ezekiel 46: 21-24
Then he brought me out into the outer court and led me across to the four corners of the court; and behold, in every corner of the court there was a small court. In the four corners of the court there were enclosed courts, forty cubits long and thirty wide; these four in the corners were the same size. There was a row of masonry round about in them, around the four of them, and boiling places were made under the rows round about. Then he said to me, “These are the boiling places where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifices of the people.”
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His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important. It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.
- God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
- “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
- “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)
- Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” (John 8: 58)
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Yahweh is the Name of God Forever
Click here to download the entire audio presentation for free and with no strings attached.
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Hosea 4: 6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
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Australia seeks explanations over ‘Prisoner X’ affair
ABC report reveals alleged identity of ‘Prisoner X’
Horowitz: I raised prisoner affair with A-G in 2010
Australia Jewish community said mum on Zygier
Comment: The Prisoner X factor
Egypt floods Gaza tunnels, cut Palestinian lifeline
‘Iran installing new-generation centrifuges’
IDF cyber-defense control center goes online
Analysis: Obama unlikely to support Cairo opposition
Agency: Russia to continue supplying arms to Syria
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Report: Israeli Warplanes Soar Through Lebanese Skies
Al Jazeera Hires Lobbying Firm to Bolster Image on Capitol Hill
ADL: Belgian Nazi Parade Makes Mockery of Holocaust
Hackers Broadcast Zombie Apocalypse Alert on US Television
Video: German Politician Caught ‘High-Fiving’ Iranian Ambassador
Home Front Command Drills for Southern Israel
Court Removes Gag Order on Australian Prisoner X
Barak, Panetta Meet at the Pentagon
Abbas Issues ‘Warning’ About Hunger Strikers
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Report: Prisoner who killed himself was Mossad agent
Netanyahu makes ‘respectable’ coalition offer to Bennett
Orthodox rabbi seeks Israeli religious revolution
IDF opens cyber situation room
Terror cell that assaulted a soldier, stole his weapon apprehended
NASA: Alarming water loss in Middle East
‘Jonathan Pollard’s health not stable’
China rebukes North Korea over nuclear test
US Senate panel approves Hagel nomination as Pentagon chief
Syrian rebels advance toward Aleppo airport
Revolutionary bone creation facility to be built in Haifa
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Netanyahu: Israel’s Three External Challenges
Obama to Visit Iron Dome Battery, Rabin’s Tomb While in Israel
Three Days in Jerusalem, Two Hours in Ramallah
Syria’s Rebels Prepare to Take a Province from Assad
Syrian Rebels Capture Largest Dam in Syria
Syria’s Druze Shifting Support to the Opposition
UN: Syrian deaths nearing 70,000
Report: Egypt Blocking Smuggling Routes in Sinai
Saudi Money Shaping U.S. Research
Supporters elevating fugitive ex-cop to hero status
Test ‘isolates North Korea further’
7,000 Hamas Terrorists May Be Propping Up Morsi in Egypt
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Hezi Sternlicht: Some advice: Learn Chinese—It’s official, China is now the largest global commercial power.
Boaz Bismuth: Wake up, before it’s too late— The world’s failure to stop North Korea from going nuclear is something to think about regarding Iran.
Prof. Uzi Even: The N. Korea, Iran, Syria axis— The Middle East will feel the shock of North Korea’s recent nuclear test.
Martin Schubert: European Jewry Shifting Thought/Shifting Action— Over a million Jews in today’s Europe could easily constitute a major new Jewish voice.
Uriel Lynn: Equality of burden strengthens workforce— Instead of creating two separate societies and nurturing them as such, we must create one unified society to carry the burden equally.
Ben Cohen: What (Not) to Expect from Obama’s Visit to Israel—Sometimes you have to give politicians a little credit. If you heard through the grapevine that two of your friends had been discussing you, with one calling you a “liar” and the other one replying, “I have to deal with him even more often than you,” chances are you would cut ties.
Mohshin Habib: Sharia Law Swallowing Indonesia— Although Indonesia, “the world’s largest Muslim country” with an 87% Muslim population, was once considered a moderate Muslim country, day by day it has been leaning more and more towards conservative Islam and Sharia laws. Initiated in 2009, bylaws in the light of Sharia rulings were implemented that conflict with the values of human rights, and are creating a difficult land for minorities to live in.
David P. Goldman: Fertility, Faith, and the Decline of Islam: Strategic Implications—The liberal establishment has finally taken note of the elephant in the Muslim parlor, namely the closing of the Muslim womb. But it does not seem likely that the foreign policy establishment will draw the obvious inference: a society that suddenly stops having children suffers from cultural despair.
Peter Huessy: Nuclear Proliferation Realities – North Korea and Iran Immune to Traditional Arms Control—Since the end of the Cold War, every U.S. administration made deterring, preventing, or eliminating the threat of nuclear terrorism a top priority. Americans are rightly worried that a terror sponsoring state such as Iran or North Korea, in cooperation with a terrorist group, might seek to detonate a nuclear device in an American city.
Jonathan Spyer: Fall of Damascus May Not End Syrian Civil War—The regime of President Bashar Assad is contracting, and seeking to establish new defensive lines. In the capital city Damascus, Assad’s forces are ceding rebel-held eastern suburbs and fiercely defending the remainder. At the same time, Assad is building an additional defensive line in the Orontes River valley, west of the majority Sunni cities of Homs and Hama.
Mitch Ginsburg: Will the Al-Qaeda Affiliates Ousting Assad Turn to Israel Next?—Last week Islamist fighters in Syria released a video showing masked Jabhat al-Nusra fighters saying: “We will put our hands on” Assad’s biological and chemical arsenal. “We will attack and take over those sites and then use them against the Zionists, from Syrian territory, until we reach Jerusalem.”
Herb Keinon: “Turkey Hurting NATO by Undermining Israel Ties”—Turkey continues to undermine Israel-NATO cooperation and this hurts the NATO alliance, the deputy head of Israel’s National Security Council, Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman, told the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in Jerusalem on Monday. Lerman said that Ankara should be told that it was not proper for a member of NATO to undermine the organization’s capacity.
Zvi Mazel: Blaming “El Yahud”—Hassan Banna, who founded the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood in 1928, offered his services to Hitler with the onset of World War II, while asking him to help Egypt in its fight against the British and the Jews. The clandestine terror organization he set up passed along information on the movements of British forces.
Michael Kravshik: The Strategy of Hamas—Since its inception, Hamas has never abandoned its use of ‘flexible rigidity’, the strategy specifically designed to secure its existence and its relevance, while impeding any chance for peace.
Daniel Greenfield: Obama’s Most Dishonest State of the Union Address—More lies and class warfare in a rambling speech than even Castro could deliver in a 7-hour harangue.
Joseph Klein: U.N. Dithers in Response to North Korean Provocation—The communist death cult continues to utter threats with impunity.
Theodore Shoebat:L A Day in the Tortured Life of Christians in the Middle East—How the Left aids and abets Islam’s war on the Church.
Walter Williams: Cultural Deviancy Is the Problem, Not Guns—There’s a story told about a Paris chief of police who was called to a department store to stop a burglary in progress. Upon his arrival, he reconnoitered the situation and ordered his men to surround the entrances of the building next door.
Michelle Malkin: Who Failed Chicago?—On Tuesday, President Obama and the first lady used the State of the Union spotlight to pay tribute to an innocent teenage girl shot and killed by Chicago gang thugs. On Friday, Obama will travel to the Windy City to decry violence and crusade for more gun laws in the town with the strictest gun laws and bloodiest gun-related death tolls in America.
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Blessings in the Book of Revelation is a book that you need to read, especially now. There are blessings throughout the Scriptures but Revelation is the only book in the Bible actually containing a specific blessing for reading it. It’s repeated twice, once at the beginning and again at the end. This is the reason that I believe Revelation should be the first step toward studying biblical prophecy. Though not easy to do, Revelation can be broken down and understood by anyone, not just the academic elite. So, Revelation’s blessings are for everyone. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
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Other Books by Neil Snyder
- Stand! is a suspense novel that exposes the lies, corruption, and greed underlying the theory that man-made CO2 emissions are responsible for global warming. Professor Wes Carlyle and Karen Sterling, his research collaborator, carefully scan the audience for their would-be attacker—a member of the enviro-gestapo who has been following them for days. Wes spots his man in the back of the room leaning against the wall. Suddenly, another man in the audience steps forward and moves toward Karen at a menacing pace. With a vicious stroke, he swings a billy club at her head. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Life? deals with a question that every Christian has to consider: what should I do with my life? Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
- Falsely Accused is a true story about a young woman who was accused of committing a double homicide. It’s about a travesty of justice, and it reveals Yahweh intervening in the life of a believer to rescue her from danger in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Everyone will enjoy the book, but young people in particular need to read it because the mistakes made that led to the problem could have been avoided. They were the kinds of mistakes that young people are prone to make. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. Click here to order the eBook. Click here to order the paperback.
Agree. Low information voter is a piece of the problem. Public education/indoctrination, at all levels, is a major contributor (is actual history (not revisionist history) taught at all in school these days?)). Mark Levine calls them drones. I call them sound byte educated meaning the low information drone digests no more than 15-30 seconds of news/information at a time (or a day). So, the headline, stinger, whatever you want to call it, is the sole source of information that leads the drone/low information voter to their lofty decision making process. Hence, the importance of misleading headlines my creative writing “journalists”. The drone/LIV can recall the last 10 years of winners on American Idol but cannot tell you the name of the vice president. It is a sad state of affairs and sad to say we have not hit rock bottom yet.