A little help needed

On my blog, I can see where traffic is coming from.  At least the top ten or twenty sites on a given day.  So if a bunch of people suddenly come over from a given website, I can see it.  If it's one I don't recognize, I click on the link and it takes me to the location.  Sometimes it's some goofy generic place.  But sometimes it's a legit site.

All of a sudden, I'm getting traffic flow from a site that is, well, adult oriented.  That means traffic is coming from there.  It's an intro page (If you are over 18, click here), so I haven't gone in to see why my blog is sending traffic here.

If anyone could help by telling me how to block traffic from this site, or somehow get it cut off from sending things here, I'd appreciate it.  Not only because I don't want the substance of the site coming here, but because I can't help but guess there is more to it than just readers at an adult site suddenly interested in my ramblings about the latest issues or my obsession with fall.

Thanks.  Feel free to email me with suggestions.

BTW, it seems to come over under a variety of names, but they all go to the same location.

It's Michaelmas

For the Catholic still in me, this is a major time in Catholic life, at least in the traditional approach to Catholicism.  The always informative Fish Eaters has the scoop. on some old customs and devotions. 

Here's a post I did on the celebrations some years ago. 

Given the naked assault on goodness, truth, freedom and the innocent by the party dedicated to the Father of Lies, the destruction of non-conformers, and the slaughter of the innocent, the prayer for St. Michael's protection might be in order at this time:

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; 
be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. 
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, 
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, 
cast into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, 
who wander throughout the world, 
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

A warning to high school and college students of America

You are being watched.  Anything you do, anything you say, anything you write, can at any time for the rest of your life be used against you.  Whether college or even back to your youngest high school days (and maybe earlier?), you are under scrutiny.  If you deviate from a path that even Plymouth puritans would find rigid, it will haunt you.  Animal House is dead.  Ridgemont High is destroyed.  Even Plymouth itself can't maintain these standards.  Be perfect as God is perfect, or in America today, and likely for the future, you can be destroyed.  Take that land of the free.

To all the good Christians and Catholics pushing for the destruction of Judge Kavanaugh and his family

Here:

As the Left becomes almost ecstatic at having destroyed the concept of due process and presumption of innocence, it's worth pondering.  Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgement.  Especially when the entire purpose of the judgement is to keep the sacred right to abort babies in our law books.

Of course the same SJW leftists pushing to eliminate our rule of law also know Tolkien was an antisemitic, racist, misogynist, Ethnocentric, xenophobe whose entire body of work was imperialist, racist bilge.  So there you go.  Thus is the 21st century.  Thus is the alliance of the progressive and liberal Christians with the emergent Left, including the vaunted New Prolife Catholics.

The Jesuit Review embraces Group Identity Politics

Yep.  That's the one minute explanation for why it is calling for Kavanaugh's nomination to be withdrawn.  Not even most Democrats have gone there, instead going for the FBI dodge.  But not the Jesuits.  They plunge in headfirst, embracing all of the group identity politics the Left can pray for:

What is different this time is that this nomination battle is no longer purely about predicting the likely outcome of Judge Kavanaugh’s vote on the court. It now involves the symbolic meaning of his nomination and confirmation in the #MeToo era. The hearings and the committee’s deliberations are now also a bellwether of the way the country treats women when their reports of harassment, assault and abuse threaten to derail the careers of powerful men.

You read right.  It's no longer about an individual or even stemming the tide of unlimited abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia.  It's about group identity and guilt based on genitals.  Note it doesn't even pretend to include non-women victims.  It makes you wonder how they venerate Jesus knowing He came as a man. 

It never ceases to amaze me how quick Catholic are to say, "Hey! Is that Satan over there?  Let's go!"  I mean, thank goodness the Left wasn't saying Jews are the group guilty by virtue of their demographic, or we'd have to rewrite our books about WWII.

Remember what I've said.  Any idiot can condemn the sins of the past.  But it takes a special idiot to see them repeated and embrace them the second time around.

BTW, reader Nate pointed out on another blog that it isn't just a case of ignoring the past, but ignoring the future.  How the fools of our nation are not seeing the problem with forgoing presumption of innocence based on demographic and group identity is beyond me.  It's like looking at panzer divisions along the Polish border on August 30, 1939 and saying you don't see a problem.

Where are the conservative protests?

My boys asked that.  They said for all the bravado yesterday, for all the conservatives cheering Lindsey Graham or Judge Kavanaugh, for all those saying we must fear the Left, for our very freedoms and the future of a democratic republic is on the verge of collapse - they're not seeing anything.  There are no marches.  There are not protests.  There are not demonstrations.  There are no coordinated calls to let the GOP know that they have their backs if they stand up to this tyranny.  There are no rallies to reach out to middle of the road Americans in mass demonstration to warn them of what is so painfully obvious.

Why not?  Don't they believe it?  Don't they really care?  My boys noticed a vast gulf between the rhetoric they're seeing on the internet and across social media, and what they're actually seeing.  As they said, the only ones they see fired up are out protesting against Kavanaugh.  That doesn't seem to connect to this great threat to all freedom and liberty.

Food for thought

Yep:

Sex and drink need ritual. They need inherited and formalised restraints. For, as Euripides taught the Athenians in their theatre, Aphrodite and Dionysus are dangerous gods. If you don't believe me, ask Hippolytus or Pentheus. When you fail to treat the divinities with respect, they take you to the cleaners. What is wrong with our society is not that the schools fail adequately to drive home the imperatives of political correctness; it is that members of the cultural elite have in the last generations prided themselves on destroying the restraints and deriding the rituals; and now the gods have descended upon them, as they did upon that Hideous Strength, and, my goodness, with what a vengeance. And those elites don't like it. And the only remedy they seem to be capable of discerning is the ancient mantra: "Doctor says keep on taking the pills". 

It's certainly worth pondering. Here is the link to the actual blog post.

Last night I had a terrible dream

I dreamt I was watching US Senators rip into a Supreme Court nominee over notes from the nominee’s high school yearbook that the he had made when he was an adolescent.  Thinking back, I could barely remember more than a handful of high school classmates who shouldn’t immediately lose their employment under such rigorous standards.  After all, I remember very well some of what passed back then when we were teens.  Then I splashed some cold water on my face and realized it must be a dream.  Nobody with more than two brain cells to rub together would ever be stupid enough to want to live in that kind of a nation, where one off color statement in a yearbook could destroy our reputation, our family and our livelihood.  That was quite a relief.   

Be careful what you wish for

Bwa ha ha!  Sometimes you just have to love Babylon Bee.

I think if we had a little more of that attitude today, we wouldn't be watching the Faith struggle like it is today.

Deacon Steven Greydanus attacks Kavanugh's yearbook

Yeah.  Really.  The low point of American politics in 2018, and the good deacon jumps on board the sham train.  Naturally, being good Catholic that he is, he takes the absolute worst, most leftist partisan interpretation of Kavanaugh's high school yearbook.  That's his high school yearbook.  If I was a Catholic at this point, I would reach out and say how shameful this is from such a well established Catholic deacon.

This as conveyed to me via Mark Shea who, naturally, gushes over all of the accusers - yes, all three of them - and dismisses anything from Kavanaugh.  You really have to see it to believe it.  Oh, and since both have banned me from their accounts for daring to question leftist narratives, I feel no guilt about pointing out their embarrassing devotion to the worst of the Left on my own page.

Remember, these are Catholics willing to unpack the adolescent years of a SCOTUS nominee, tearing apart any drinking, spinning any youthful joking, condemning even the slightest teenage indiscretion in a yearbook from high school.  We all know how puritanical Catholics are after all, especially when it comes to language.  But then, we all know how the Left has always championed an Ozzie and Harriet morality.  Here today, gone later today.  The Left's approach to morals.

Again, all of the good deacon's - and by extension, Mark's - take on this relies on accepting the worst possible interpretation of what Kavanaugh did - WHEN HE WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL.  Think on that. The great fear of the Left is that Kavanaugh might curtail unlimited abortion rights.  That's what this is all about, and everyone knows it.  And now you have Catholic apologist Mark Shea and Catholic deacon and movie critic Steven Greydanus jumping on board, accepting guilty until proven innocent, and joining the new puritanism that says anything but the most clean and puritanical behavior from an American adolescent can be grounds for wrecking your life at any point in the future.

Bonus points to Mark for dropping the pejorative 'White' into the mix, reminding us that Mark is also slavishly devoted to the new racism of the Left. Also note that, like Colbert, he doesn't care a whit about any suffering on Kavanaugh's part, or even mention Kavanaugh's family's suffering, choosing to mock and deride Kavanaugh's own pain that even the pagans have admitted was tough to watch. Apparently suffering and death threats only count when they're aimed at those who are useful to the Left.   New prolife.  Ha!

BTW, Catholics.  Stop bellyaching about the priests and leadership and the pope and all.  These two represent what the majority of Catholics are, and where they stand.  They'd rather adopt a puritanical McCarthyism filled with all of the false attacks and destruction of due process rather than take a chance on letting a judge on the court who might roll back abortion rights.  Before you go complaining about the bishops and cardinals, you might want to let that sink in.

Stephen Colbert does the Left's bidding

Here.  After yesterday's hearing, even the most stalwart leftist journalists conceded both witnesses were credible.  Even the most rank partisan commentators I saw and read tipped their hat to both witnesses, as well as the obvious pain this has caused them and their families.  I saw none who did other than say the hurt that the families had been through, and the pain of the witnesses, was moving.

But not Colbert.  He wades in, being more hyper partisan than even some of the Democrats on committee.  He openly mocks Kavanaugh and his pain, deriding his 'well-coiffed head of steam'.  He, good Catholic that he is, ignores any pain of his family's, or his daughters.  What are they to him?  Obstacles to the political Left's power lust I suppose.

Of course he declares Kavanaugh all but guilty, and dutifully repeats the Democrat dodge of FBI!, while not mentioning the Democrats' own complicity in sitting on the information for weeks before releasing it.  Colbert is so doggedly devoted to all, including the worst of the Left's designs, I have no doubt that if the Left started calling for swastika armbands, he'd be first in line to buy one.

Comedian?  Bah.  There is no evil of the Left he doesn't defend or champion; there are no innocent lives hurt by the Left that he doesn't ignore, or mock, or gladly attack himself.  Again, if you ever ponder why we have Donald Trump, you need only watch such a slavish thrall to the worst of the Left do his best to attack any who blaspheme the Left's true gospel.

Also,if anyone ever wondered how Catholics throughout history could do some of the horrendous things they did, one need only watch defender of lynch mob, bigotry, hurting innocent people Colbert.  The only thing missing is the rack and thumb screws, but that's only because they've gone out of style.

UPDATE: I have changed the post title since, in fairness, Colbert is not disgracing the Catholic faith any more than all of the other Catholic leftists who are defecating on Kavanaugh, Kavanaugh's family, the rule of law and the prospect of freedom in order to help the party dedicated to the sacrament of abortion keep control in the courts.  Why single Colbert out?  He's merely one of many.

Senator Lindsey Graham unloads on the Democrats

And well he should.  I'm no big fan of Graham's.  But right now the political Left is the single greatest threat to America, to freedom, to virtue and to basic common decency.  I mean, listening to a sitting senator grill a SCOTUS nominee over allusions from a high school yearbook from when he was an adolescent?  Really?  Are we ashamed yet?   And this from the side with the audacity to be offended by Trump. Well said senator.

Senator Dick Durbin needs our help

You can't send someone off to die on evidence like that!

After the first part of the confirmation hearing with Dr. Ford, he says he has no idea where prosecutor Rachel Mitchel was going with her questioning.

Well, he's probably the only one.  It was pretty simple.  One, she showed that Dr. Ford cannot remember details of significant life events from even weeks ago, much less decades ago. Such as whether she took a lie detector test on the day of her grandmother's funeral or not.  And that was by far not the only case where details of events only weeks old seemed to elude Dr. Ford.

Two, she showed the there were significant holes in Dr. Ford's memory from the alleged assault.  Such as how did she make it home some six miles away after the assault.  Or, for those connecting the dots, if it was a 'quiet' party and low key, then why did nobody notice when the two assailants cranked the music volume in the bedroom to cover up her screams.  If I'm at a quiet party, and suddenly someone cranks the music in another room, I'm going to take notice.  And this doesn't count the witnesses she's named, all of whom deny the event.

Most damning, however, she showed - by Dr. Ford's own testimony - that the Democrats used, exploited and sat on this for weeks, avoided letting Kavanaugh or the GOP know about the accusations, and then failed to take the appropriate course of action for sex assault victims. Meanwhile, it came out that the Democrats were invited to be part of the investigation when the charges did come to light, but they refused.  She also showed - per Dr. Ford's testimony - that this was almost exclusively pushed by the Democrats and the course of action was, including lawyers and what to do and not to do, was advised by the Democrats. 

That is what she was getting at Senator Durbin.

To paraphrase Juror #2, you can't destroy a man's life and career on something like that!  And in a sane country of laws and principles and morals, you can't.

Meanwhile in the soon to be Islamic state of England

The British police are going gaga over arresting people for daring to say offensive things.  Here is the lowdown.  It's not new, but like all tyranny nowadays, is gaining steam. 

The biggest boon to tyranny is always the thought that those lousy bastards have it coming, so it will never happen to me.  We see the same here in the Kavanaugh era of America, with the drive to push justice out into the streets where the accusers need not be shackled by due process, evidence or presumption of innocence.

The twilight of the democracies.  To think after 2500 years, we're the generation that will watch the long march toward freedom die.

Yep

We're witnessing what could very well be the death of the 2500 year march toward freedom, equality and democracy.  It will be some kind of irony if women, who insist the world couldn't survive without them in charge, end up being the ones most complicit in its demise.

The death of Western Civilization by suicide

Here.  Even the BBC admits it.  Europe, like America, has taught its children that there is no more evil place in history than the Christian West and its bastard child America.  There alone did evil dwell.  Once they are off the stage, the world can get back to tolerance, diversity, secular liberalism and open sex.  And if they're wrong?  Eh.  It will be future generations that pay the price, not us.  And that's a sacrifice that post-moderns are always willing to make.

The Handmaid's Revenge does Evangelicalism

So Beth Moore chimed in - in support of the victims in this rather vague development in the already vague #MeToo movement.  She insists she's not siding against Kavanaugh.  Yet her endorsement of the victims sounds more and more like the radical feminism of old that equated all sex with rape.  The same radical feminism that is able to declare Kavanaugh guilty as pointed at, his life to be ruined presently.

Of course being a good old Bible believing Christian, she can't go so far as saying all sex is rape.  But she can insist that all of her sexual experiences that she regrets, consensual though they were, could have been the result of sexual assault, bullying, or sexist men:

Countless women and girls (and boys) consent to sexual advances they do not welcome or want and that scar them for a lifetime. Or sometimes they consent to one thing and get something completely and disturbingly different(*). They do so for the same reason I did. They feel enormously pressured, extremely unprotected, overpowered and, at times, utterly powerless. I well remember feeling something akin to paralysis. The word “no” was not even in my vocabulary. The boundaries around my life were bulldozed early and by a bully, I might add, because, while not all bullies are sexual predators, all sexual predators are, in one way or another, bullies. There was no manual within my reach about how to rebuild those crumbled boundaries. (emphasis mine)

(*) Explanation needed. 

In other words, it wasn't her fault if she said yes. Even though she said yes to the boys (and we'll, for the moment, assume any sexual experience was always and in every way initiated by the boys), it was still sexual assault.  And she was the victim.

Again, this was the wild dream of radical feminism back in the day.  All sex was rape they were reported to have said.  Moore might not be saying that.  She does at least include boys as victims in theory.  But she and a growing number of women - including Christians - are saying any sex they regret is nothing other than sexual assault by the always vile and bullying attacker, and therefore not their fault.

It's also worth noting that when Ms. Moore was called out for appearing to support execution by accusation, she fired back.  She insisted she has no desire to see anyone innocent falsely accused:

"Let me assure you, sir, I have not one whit of desire for anyone to be falsely accused. That is highly counterproductive and would only end up making it harder for victims. I'm advocating for women to be heard, taken seriously and not placed in harm's way for coming forward."

Personally, I would think the reason she doesn't want someone to be falsely accused is that she doesn't want to see an innocent person falsely accused.  Instead, she says she wouldn't want that because it would be highly counterproductive and would only end up making it harder for victims.  Again, call me an old codger, but I think false accusations are bad because they destroy the reputation of an innocent person.  But thus is the #MeToo era, even within Christianity.

BTW, some might say I'm being harsh with this.  That I don't know the details.  No, I don't.  Because women can accuse men in general based on no details or facts.  Moore doesn't name names, or give facts or details.  She isn't giving me the down and dirty about what happened.  All she is saying is that she did things she regretted, until she realized it wasn't her fault; that she was the victim.

If these boys threw her down and assaulted her, or raped her, or in some way physically attacked her against her wishes, then I'm all behind her.  She is certainly a victim of sexual assault.  But she uses words like consent, and agree, and that isn't rape.  That's not sexual assault. Again, even assuming it was only and always the boys initiating the encounter (not always my experiences), she still said yes.

And this idea born of radical feminism that all reality, including consensual sex, is the result of sexist, rapist men is antithetical to not only the Gospel, but also common sense.  Heck, back in the day, mainstream feminists tried to distance themselves from such bilge.  If Christians are now embracing it, we can understand why Christians throughout the ages embraced the things they did.

This also counts, I should add, if she was somehow assaulted when young.  Even if she was a victim when she was young, it does not stand to reason that any further sexual relationships she had were the result of male sexual predators.  That if she said yes, it was only because of her past trauma, and therefore the boys she said 'yes' to should be considered to have sexually intimidated her, and therefore she was devoid of all responsibility for her actions.  Time doesn't permit for how such an approach is antithetical to Christian and common sense thinking.

If anything is to roll back the decades of debauchery and decadence of the sex and drugs generation, it won't be going radical feminist.   I have no doubt that the trail of abuse and assault runs large in the wake of the sexual revolution, as does so many trails of human suffering, death and loss.  I also have no doubt that both men and women have played their own parts in exploiting what they could get out of it.  The fact that some men committed horrid crimes against women does not present a Get Out of Jail Card for personal responsibility for women.  Nor does it wipe away the notion that women are capable of sin.  All this will do is open up new problems without ultimately solving the old ones.

Autumn walks

The boys were all back together this last weekend.  My sister took my Mom for the weekend to visit with her family.  We even chipped in and let the dog stay in a little pet hotel.  That left us a couple days to just hang around.  No big plans.  Though we did learn that you don't plan to go to Amish country on a Sunday.  Darn religious people and honoring the Sabbath.

Other than that, it was the first weekend of Autumn.  The temperatures dropped just in time, and we were able to play games, follow the obligatory OSU game, and watch our annual Halloween kick-off (we do it now when we can, the oldest all working and/or going to college).  We stopped by a local farm for some fresh cider and fresher veggies.  On top of that, the Hunter's Moon was waxing full even as the season begins.  And to top it off, we enjoyed a nice walk through some neighborhood woods just as the sun was going down.

The woods 

The sunset

Fun times, and a nice start to the best season of the year.

BTW, for our Halloween kick-off viewing, it's worth noting that we still play the old Halloween Haunts VCR tape that my wife and I bought our second year of marriage.  I rented it for our first Halloween, then ran out and found it and purchased it.

It must have been some production glitch, but our copy has an opening with the Disney Villains dancing to the song Grim Grinning Ghosts.  We've tried to find other similar copies of the tape, but none open with that song.  My boys have said that if nothing else in their lives heralds the coming of the holiday seasons, it's hearing that opening on the VCR tape.  Without the little Disney flourish at the beginning (all of which they associate with the season), here is the little song and dance that they have spent their entire lives hearing at the kick off of the festivities:

The New York Times as Leftist attack machine

Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist breaks it down.  Basically you ignore all evidence that suggests Kavanaugh isn't a rapist sex pervert.  You then quote anonymous sources that buttress the case of Kavanaugh as rapist sex pervert.  You then refuse to anonymously quote sources that might suggest Kavanaugh isn't a rapist sex pervert.

BTW, could anyone tell me if there is one person who has accused Kavanaugh of being a drunken, rapist sex pervert who isn't a liberal Democrat?

An' the Democrats'll gits you ef you don't watch out

With all due respect to James Whitcomb Riley.  The Democrats are going after adolescents now, reminding even teenagers (boys at least) that someday the slightest deviation from perfection, the slightest joke, the slightest indiscretion, or even a pure life of morality and goodness, may still wind you up in the Left's Soviet gulag dreamscape.  If it takes decades to point the finger of accusation, so be it.

Unlike most totalitarian regimes that feel the need for kangaroo courts and trumped up evidence, the Left is proudly boasting that no evidence is needed.  No courts, kangaroo or otherwise, need be bothered with.  They point a finger, they destroy a life.  They don't even have to be sure of the accused's identity!

From the latest accusation meant to destroy a life that has hindered the political Left.

John Oliver, one of several slavish thralls of the political Left with his lips pressed firmly against the Left's collective buttocks, demonstrates that willingness to hate and destroy all who fail to worship the progressive idol.  This is showing the KGB how it really works.  No need for fake trials or bogus evidence.  The modern Left just destroys with nothing but its pointed finger. 

Reflections on Autumn

Here are several old posts I did singing the glorious praise of Autumn - the most wonderful time of the year.  Here, and here, and here, here and here.   There is plenty of nostalgia, memories, reflections, and good old Riley poems.  Enjoy.

And now back to the fantastic Patheos boycott

Because there are many blogs where I can remember a deceased human being and not be plagued by readers coming in to insult and tarnish the individual for daring to not be liberal.  Yep.  Of the different blogs I saw pay tribute to Zippy, there was only one where readers felt the need to crap on his name for failing to worship at the altar of the political Left. Not all readers there did, and several put up a worthy defense of the deceased Zippy.  Most did the right thing by merely offering prayers and tributes to the man.

Though it's worth noting that at no time did the blog host step in to set the record straight.  Which is consistent.  There is no blaspheme, heresy, mortal sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance, intrinsic evil, bigotry, debauchery, slaughter of innocents or anti-Christian tyranny that can't be advocated at CAEI with impunity as long as you pay the fee of hating on Trump, the GOP and all American religious conservatives.  And the ones trashing Zippy the loudest are some of the most vocal advocates of the new Communism and all its glorious hatred of the historical Christian world.  Thank goodness I won't have to go there again.

Marc Thiessen asks the billion dollar question

Exactly how much evidence do we need to destroy someone's life?  The Left has given the answer loud and clear: Not a damn bit.  It depends on who and what you are.  White skin?  Male?  Non-liberal?  I think we can assume you are a racist, rapist xenophobe by nature.  Guilty as charged!  You don't even have to remember the year or place.  Guilty!

Bonus points for liberalism turning the whole 'precious juveniles' syndrome on its head.  For decades, we were told that no matter what a juvenile did - even multiple murderers - he must never be charged or treated like an adult, and when he became an adult his record washed clean as the wind-driven snow.

Nice play there liberals.  Now we can go back and, even  if that seventeen year old from decades ago is guilty of only trying to do something bad, his arse is toast.  Once again, liberalism of old declared a grave evil that liberalism now embraces a thousand times over. 

The whole thing reminds me of the trial from this Disney classic, except it doesn't have the same level of feline fairness:

Who the hell needs Hell?

"Rudolf, Rudolf
You have shown us
Heaven here on Earth must dwell
Purgatory's gone to Limbo
Rudolf where the hell is Hell?"
(Sung to the tune of Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus)

We used to sing that (and more choruses, too!) back in Seminary. An ode to Rudolf Bultmann, the grandpappy of demythologizing the New Testament.  He wasn't the first to ditch the supernatural part of the Christian Faith, but he was one of the most influential in the 20th century.

His view was simple.  We live in the age of science and technology, and there is no place left for silly fairy tales and nursery rhymes about miracles and demons and angels and heaven and hell and all that rubbish.  Well maybe not heaven.  But the rest could, and should, go.

I thought of that as I read this piece in The Wall Street Journal.  Should Hell be thrown out the window? No, not now, according to Scott Bruce, professor of history at Fordham University.  Humanity's not ready.  As a doctrine, will it go the way of the dodo someday?  Yeah, why not.  By that word doctrine, BTW, apparently we mean a completely fabricated nursery rhyme that's good for keeping people in line for the time being.

Perhaps that isn't his point.  It seemed it on a first reading the piece.  Nonetheless, to me, the shocking part is that he apparently sees the abolishing of Hell as nothing other than the logical progression of modern Catholic theological evolution.  If Pope Francis did do away with the fire and brimstone, it's just the latest in a logical progression of where the Church has been going for some time.

Think on that appraisal of things for a minute.  Someone has looked at where the Catholic Church has been going in recent years, and concluded that ditching hell would merely be the obvious step in a long march toward its inevitable conclusion.  Might that say something about the Church's troubles?  It makes you wonder.  Don't think I don't.

I break my ban of Patheos to post this sad news

It's being reported that Zippy Catholic has died.  Killed, apparently, in a bicycling accident.  That is devastatingly sad.  Zippy was a big name in the Catholic blogosphere when I first entered the realm.  He could be snarky, and at times cold.  But that was his approach to debate.  He was also honest and fair, and though willing to call out the sins of the past, never used this to hide the sins of the present.  Beyond that, he had a heart of gold, and a charity that went beyond how one voted, to how one actually lived.

Once, Zippy was made aware of our dire straights in terms of finances.  Our van had just gone out the window (again), and we had no way of getting it fixed.  We had exhausted every charitable act by that time, and were running on fumes.  With no van, we would have no way for our whole family to go anywhere together.

In stepped Zippy.  Without so much as a backward glance, he raised a stunning amount that all but fixed it up for the last time, and with so much money, that it was completely repaired and is still chugging along even today, almost ten years later.  That's what being a good Christian is all about.

Beyond what Mark points out about Zippy's opposition to torture, he was also a staunch critic of the modern Left, including stopping by to criticize certain instances of Mark's obvious move in that direction.  That often resulted in Zippy being the brunt of slander and accusations all too common in Mark's comments section.  So it wasn't just torture that he stood against.  His final foray I saw was in defense of Christendom College, which was under assault for being a wicked, sexist, male dominated culture of misogyny and rape.  He rightly saw the same evils in such a witch hunt mentality that he saw in the acceptance of torture as a valid form of defense.

Truly he was one who didn't simply flow with the prevailing currents, or merely oppose them because they were the prevailing currents.  He tried, from all I could see, to apply the teachings of the Faith to the new and the old as he saw it.

Prayers for him and his family.  God's peace and strength during this time.  Peace to his friends, including Mark, and all who somehow benefited from his wisdom and insights.

Bwa ha ha ha

So true.  Like most of the output in our modern pop culture, so sad, but so true.

Brett Kavanaugh, the Handmaid's Revenge, and the death of Western Civilization

Is all here in this ABC piece, where a classmate of Dr. Ford - Kavanaugh's accuser - steps forward with 900 former classmate signatures, saying it's impossible for Dr. Ford to ever be wrong.  Since all men are rapist scum, it's enough to know we don't need burden of proof, evidence, or even details where an accused man is concerned.  It's enough that Dr. Ford lacks the organ Kavanaugh possesses.  She is therefore infallible, her accusation true, and sentencing must begin immediately.

Thus is the world we are leaving our children.  A weary reflection of the tyrannies of the 20th century, gift wrapped by Americans tired of living with the burdens of freedom and democracy.  There is likely no hope in curbing this, as the one guard against tyranny - a free press - is one of the most important instruments the Left now possesses in stripping all liberty away from us.

BTW, it doesn't matter if Kavanaugh is confirmed of found guilty at this point.  We've already laid the groundwork for the eradication of due process and presumption of innocence based on how you were born and what you look like.

And I'll say that given what men stand to lose by standing up to this radical anti-male feminism, I'm not holding my breath that they will do so.  After all, the libido is mightier than the liberty.

If you defend racism against whites today

Or insist you can be racists against white today because they deserve it, then there's a good chance you would have said the same against blacks a hundred years ago.  Same with Jews in Germany in the 1930s.  There's no reason to believe you would have stood against it.  After all, just like much of the justification for stereotyping all white Americans today, much of it was from on high back in the day.  Whether the news media, theater and film, government, business - all were party to advocating racist attitudes and stereotypes.  If you are embracing racism against white Americans just because those same institutions are doing so today, there's no reason to think you wouldn't have done the same back then.

The problem with history is that we have to wait for it to happen in order to study it.  Likewise, it's easy to sit around and condemn the sins of the past and the people who committed them.  I think that's why we spend so much time doing so nowadays.  Plus it keeps our eyes off the current sins we're seeing grow around us. Sins that are merely taking seed, but haven't grown to full fruition yet.

The solution to the racism of the past is not to replace it with a new racism for the future.  The same with sexism.  If we feel women were treated poorly just because they were women, the solution isn't to turn and treat men the same way.  All that says is that we adore sexism and racism,  we just want to make sure we get the right demographics this time.  That, of course, makes you no different than the sexists and racists of old, who thought the same thing.

Is there anything worse than the modern Left?

The Huffpost demonstrates.   It's a hit piece.  It's incredibly lame.  I mean, it's embarrassingly lame.  I mean, it is worse than one would expect to hear on a kindergarten playground lame.

Apparently, an anonymous source has said she was told that Bret Kavanaugh likes women 'a certain way.'  It can only mean he's a rapist of course.  That's the headline's hoped for conclusion.

Until you read through, and find out that the 'way he likes' is women who are outgoing.  Exactly what that means is up for grabs.  In a sane world it likely means he likes women who are outgoing. 

But he's a man, and we all know that all men are whatever Senator Hirono thinks.  Therefore guilty.  It must mean he's a rapist.  That a growing number of Americans are fine with this reasoning doesn't bode well for the future of freedom or democracy.

The fact that many are hoping that there will be backlash against the GOP if Kavanaugh isn't promptly destroyed based upon nothing but a pointed finger shows how close to teetering on tyranny we've come.

This is the country the Left wants.  Like most leftist revolutions, it wants an end game where only the pigs play cards with the men at the end of the day; the yokels and morons who helped put them in power are left outside looking in, wondering when it will be their time to head to the glue factory.

There is only one sane, moral, American and Christian response to the Kavanaugh saga

Dr. Ford must step forward and produce actual evidence to support her claim.  Period.  Kavanaugh needs to do nothing until then.  If she doesn't, or can't, we move on.  Period.

That's it.  Anything else and we might as well take the last 2500 year march toward freedom, equality, democracy, the rule of law, and all common decency and flush it down the toilet.

I thought of that as I read this, which does everything but address the point that the accuser in this case has yet to provide anything close to evidence.  At least anything that would be considered evidence outside of a German concentration camp.  That does not count former classmates insisting they know it happened through second hand conversations about things nobody knows the details about because nobody said names or specifics at the time.   Geesh.

Who out there could withstand this new standard the left is hoisting on America?  Not a standard of having to be perfect lest someone come forward decades later about some past wrongdoing.  But a standard that says you can be assumed guilty because someone says you did something at any point of your life, with or without evidence.

For what it's worth, the problem isn't the emergent Left.  That the Left wishes an end to the Christian West, the American experiment and all the freedoms and liberties that go with it is well known, and easily observed.  That it peddles in racism and sexism and all manner of hypocrisy and lies and bigotry and hate is plain to see by anyone with the stones to do so.

The problem is the weak willed, limp-wristed non-liberals who cower about saying 'well, we need to hear both sides'.  No we the hell don't.  She is the accuser.  He has, at this point, done nothing wrong.  She hasn't produced an iota of evidence beyond pointing a finger and saying he tried to do something some time in the past at some place she can't pinpoint.  We won't even discuss those madmen gestapo wannabes who are saying even if Dr. Ford isn't telling the truth, Kavanaugh needs to go, simply by virtue of his skin color or genitalia.

No.  I'm talking about the biggest threat to our democraty and liberty: Those not on the Left who are somehow accepting that, to some degree, we can assume by virtue of Kavanaugh's skin color, his gender, or his politics, or whatever, that he could be guilty.  Therefore, it's up to him to somehow prove anything, every bit if not more than it's up to Dr. Ford.  That's one small step backward toward tyranny, one giant leap toward the ideological dictatorship the Left now openly craves.

Senator Mazie Hirono appears tired of the burden of proof

She's also tired of presumption of innocence.  She knows guilt based on demographic when she sees it. Like most leftists, her vision of America has more to do with gulags and reeducation camps than anything we grew up believing about America.

Remember, in a fallen world civilizations founded on slavery, oppression, tyranny, conquest and persecution are the rule, not the exception.   Food for thought.

Bonus insight from my eldest son: For the Democrats being so terrified of Putin, every day they sound more and more like him.

Today begins Michaelmas Embertide

What?  Here's the always informative Fish Eaters to explain.  Before becoming Catholic, it was a Christian world in which the community truly revolved around such holy seasons that I craved.  In many ways, I still do.   That's why I keep up with these things.

As a bonus, here is a page explaining the whole concept of ember days and their connection between the Faith and a world the faithful seem increasingly content to leave behind.

The worst argument in the age of feminism and gay rights

Bad arguments are a major characteristic of modern, liberal ideals.  But one of the worst is the one we've all heard a million times over: why would X do Z when bad would come of it?  Why would a person be gay in a world where anyone who doesn't venerate non-heterosexuals is brutally persecuted?  No, that's not it.  It's 'why would anyone be gay when it's considered so bad to be gay?'

Likewise, as Rod Dreher shows, why would a woman ever make a false accusation about rape?  As Rod Dreher seems to agree with, I should say. 

Think on that.  First, the gay version.  Why would anyone do anything that is considered inappropriate or taboo within a society?  Why would they rob banks, molest children, wear Vulcan ears, openly believe in Jesus?  Why would anyone ever do what a society says not to do?  It's as if the argument hopes nobody has paid attention to the world.  Ever.

Likewise, consider the notion of 'why would a woman ever do something wrong when it comes to rape?'  Duke LaCrosse scandal anyone?  Heck, it's just s stupid premise, but shows the power of the #MeToo feminism, that seems to have resurrected all of what used to be called radical feminism and suddenly made it mainstream.  So mainstream, even conservative and traditional Christians are embracing its premises, such as women being incapable of wrong doing.

These are stupid arguments by any measure.  And yet, in a sign of the times demonstration, they are endorsed and embraced by a growing number of Americans.  Obviously gays must be born that way, made that way by God Himself. After all, nobody ever chooses to do what society says is bad!  And clearly women would never, ever lie about something like rape.  We have to assume honesty.  Heck, we just ignore the cases we know for a fact women have lied over the years about rape!  It's that easy.

None of this means Kavanaugh is innocent, or shouldn't be ruined for something he did 36 years ago as a teenager.  I think the consensus is that anyone should be held accountable without mercy for anything they ever did at any time in their lives.  We are an enlightened and liberal society after all. But it is to say that the arguments often used in these cases are, in the end, lousy and demonstrably false, even if they are accepted by a growing portion of our population.

Why the Catholic abuse scandal will likely continue

Because of this:

I no longer visit Patheos or that cesspool of hypocrisy and sin that is CAEI, and the sun shines all the brighter because of it.  But I saw this referenced.  CAEI is a bastion of modern Leftist propaganda, falsehoods, misrepresentations, character assassination, calumny, personal attacks and rank partisanship in defense of political and moral forces diametrically opposed to the Christian Faith.

In its comments section, all manner of mortal sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance and intrinsic evils are openly advocated: late term abortion, assisted suicide, homosexuality, anti-Catholicism, anti-Christianity, blasphemy, Marxism, euthanasia - why the list is endless.  The only coinage required on the ferryman's toll is that you hate traditional Christians, the USA, and all conservatives who still blaspheme the true saving gospel of liberalism.

As long as that sort of thing continues to find acceptance and affirmation among Catholic schools, parishes, clergy, and Catholic ministries, it shows something about the greater culture of Catholicism.  It shows a willingness to turn a blind eye to sin within the ranks since, well, let's raise a beer and celebrate because - Catholic!  And if it is done in this case, it will likely be done in others, up to and including sexual abuse and sexual immorality.

UPDATE:  As if to illustrate my point about the true darkness of CAEI, I was given this:

Yep, that's a reader saying the solution to the scandal is to return to the whole of the Church's teaching.  Mark responds by falsely accusing him and standing firmly on the pro-choice movement's narrative and modern liberal deflection from personal responsibility.  When a paid apologist attacks people for invoking Church teaching to solve a problem in deference to the heresies of a movement based on abortion rights, it's probably time to pull the ripcord. 

Why I wouldn't read anything posted there now if I had to.  Though notice he will continue to be lauded and praised by Catholic clergy, ministries, publications and institutions.  My point.

In world where 28 trombones play Bohemian Rhapsody

You know there is still hope:

Idolizing the intellect and the Tower of Babel

Jordan Peterson explains, courtesy of the National Catholic Register.

BTW, still no sign of Peterson being invited to the usual news shows that often feature best selling authors.  Heck, I don't think he's even been on Ellen.  No doubt an unintentional slight. 

Is Amber Guyger a victim of racial profiling?

OK, I've followed this story off and on.  What struck me was the assumption that Ms. Guyger could have killed Botham Jean because he was black. One of the  of Jean's family's representatives, the first night the story broke, asked if that could be the actual reason she shot him.

And then I got to thinking, as I am wont to do.  Is the only reason we ask about the killing's racial motivation is because Officer Guygar is white?  Upon what other basis would we make that assumption?  Are we saying it's safe to assume that if a white person commits a crime, it could be racially based simply because the accused is white?

Isn't that a form of racial profiling?  Aren't we saying that, solely on the basis of her skin color, it's fair to assume she could be racist, and therefore the crime racially motivated?  Are we therefore saying racial profiling is, in principle, correct?  I'm not saying she didn't do it because he was black.  But if the only reason we assume she might have is because she's white, isn't that the same as assuming someone else might do something else based on a different skin color?

Maybe the Gulags weren't so bad after all

So says Trans activists at London's Goldsmiths University.  Well, at least they're honest.  That's where those who reject non-heterosexual normality should be sent because apparently those Gulags were just so compassionate and educational.  Higher education in the West at work.

The good news is that the group has been sent packing by the University.  I'd expect the same for a group that said the gas chambers had a certain positive cleansing effect.  The bad news is, as the post about Laura Ingraham yesterday demonstrates, it's far from unique in modern discourse. 

When caught holding a can of beer in your hand

Just deny you're holding a can of beer in your hand.  That seems to be Google's response to the not too shocking video of key Google employees bemoaning the horror and evil of Trump's election and the losers who elected him (aka, Google consumers).  Nowadays, I'd say the strategy has a chance.  The MSM will give it scant coverage if at all possible.  Partisans won't care about the facts anyway.  So insisting that the endless rants against Trump, and all who dared not support the candidate they clearly wanted (and some would say, propped up via selective programming), shows nothing at all about bias might just be the smart move, c. 2018. 

I'll give Archbishop Vigano this

At least he said who he is and what his accusations are.  In an age where 'a person has accused so and so' is enough to get you fired, it's nice to see names and specifics.  Just last week we had an op-ed by a brave anonymous individual taking it upon himself to thwart the results of a democratic election.  Now we have Diane Feinstein insisting an anonymous letter regarding an unspecific claim is something or another important regarding the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. 

I mean, are we ready to start saying 'destroy that life right now!' without even needing to form an accusation?  Seems we're going there.  I suppose we've already done away with due process, presumption of innocence and burden of proof in this #MeToo/BLM era. We shouldn't be surprised that other tidbits, like the right to face one's accuser, would be the next to go.

Thanks to Abp. Vigano for defying modern norms by actually saying what and who he is accusing and putting his name on it for all to see.  Seems like a blast from the past. 

A world in which liberals on the Splinter website hope Laura Ingharam dies of breast cancer

Here:

Almost makes comparing border detention centers to summer camps look like a dozen roses, don't it.

Laura Ingharam, herself a breast cancer survivor, is the subject of the comments.  Here is the link. The opinion piece itself is by one Katherine Krueger.  As the link shows, with people only criticizing the call for her to get breast cancer by saying pancreatic cancer would be better, all sides have their Satanic evil. 

The point isn't to say 'See, look how horrible liberals are!'.  That's ridiculous of course.   Trying to find this or that isolated example to tarnish the whole group is a fool's exercise.  Especially after the last century.  The point is that it's SOP for the Left, with the help of the press and popular culture, which is telling.  Apparently they do quite a bit of keeping their heads in the sand to miss things like this, which showed up on the Google News feed between Hurricane Florence stories no less:

Remember

Autumn clouds that way

On the way home from a doctor's appointment

There's something about those big, gray billowy clouds always make me think of fall.  Yes, it's easier when it's heading into mid-September and the temperature is a balmy 66 degrees.  But I still can't help but start wanting a little of the old apple cider, pumpkin donuts and spook movies.  Good thing we already had our first round last night.

FWIW, one of my earlier posts was reflecting on such cloud formations in the fall.  I've seen my friend a couple times since then. I still remember that Friday evening all those years ago.

Science will always be on your side

If you rush to censor, ban or have eradicated any scientific research that doesn't conform to your agenda.  It's not surprising that almost all science proves liberalism is always true when any that doesn't is confined to the intellectual ghettos and catacombs of thought control.

For the record, the general gist of actual science regarding most human behavior, particularly sexuality, is variations on 'it's complicated, we don't know for sure.'  Let that sink in before we take scissors and liquid paper to our Bibles when the world says it won't tolerate our doctrine anymore.

What happens in Ohio

Only makes sense to people who live in Ohio:

If Cory Booker was a Republican

He'd be the joke of the century.  Just ask Dan Quayle.  Sarah Palin.  Or George W. Bush for that matter.   

But he's a Democrat.  So while his 'Spartacus' moment is pure comedy gold, don't expect the Late Night Comedians to pounce, and you can bet the MSM will sweep it under the rug fast. 

Well, no.  They've already done it.  How much did you hear about it last week?  How much have you heard about the entire hearings?  We watched the Sunday morning news and, until I had to leave, I hadn't seen them cover the hearings.  If they did, it was on the last back burners.  Odd for a SCOTUS hearing, if you think on it.  I'll bet it's because the press knows darn well who came out looking like jackasses, and who didn't.

Remember, the thing formerly known as the US New Media is now the propaganda organ for the Political Left.  Accept that, and everything we hear today suddenly makes sense.

That about sums it up

The long suffering Dog Pound.  It's worth noting that, with tying their season opener, it's officially their best start in 14 years. 

Who knows?  Perhaps things are about to change.

Nike, Neil Armstrong, and Jonah Goldberg

It has become fashionable in post-conservative circles to poo-poo the notion of 'culture wars', or 'culture warriors.'  When those terms are used, they are typically meant to denote people who don't have their heads on right; sad little busy bodies who are likely bigots and idiots and don't care about the really big (read: progressive) issues that are out there.  They describe people or issues that are missing the point, are obsessed with trivial things, or are making mountains out of molehills.  So no doubt many are saying the whole Nike controversy is just a bunch of whinny 'Culture Warriors' bellyaching about nothing important rather than looking at what really matters.

Likewise, in this piece, Goldberg looks at the kerfuffle about the upcoming Neil Armstrong biopic in which we're told Mr. Armstrong was all about the human race, not so much this America stuff.  Goldberg rightly points out that the Left, as usual, only dismisses 'America's greatness' when it can't link America's accomplishments to Democratic presidents.  So obviously it isn't that liberals never think on American nationalistic pride as a good thing.  As usual, they do so when convenient to liberalism.

He admits there are bigger ramifications for this, but only after suggesting that it's likely one of those molehills that became a mountain.  Fact is, it is important.  Little things usually are.  In fact, it's the little things that typically become big things if you don't stop them in time.

So decades ago, largely to appease Jewish sensitivities, the ideas of not flaunting Jesus, saying Merry Christmas, and even adopting B.C.E./C.E. (that's Before Common Era/Common Era) for designating the roll of years were adopted by Christians in America in the name of sensitivity.  It came out in the 70s when a heightened awareness of the terrors of the Holocaust was coming into play alongside the renewed emphasis on America's history of racism and slavery and discrimination.

At first it was merely politeness on the part of American Christians, often of a more progressive or moderate bent.  I can remember hearing discussions in college by Christians at the time.  It wasn't shouted from the rooftops.  It was just done.  Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings will do.  We can always say Merry Christmas, or pray in Jesus name, when not in mixed company.

The problem?  By about the 1990s, we began to see it assumed that Christians would no longer publicly say things like Christmas, Jesus, Christ and other such monikers.  By the late 90s/early 00s, we actually began hearing stories about department stores forbidding the use of the term Merry Christmas.  That allowed outlets like FOX News to pounce.

As the Bush years trudged along, and the conservative movement fragmented, it became common for those who would distance themselves from conservatism and traditional ideals to mock and deride such silliness.  So what?  Boohoo.  It's not like Christians are dying in labor camps or anything.  Save your energies for the big fights.  This was true even of those, like Russell Moore, who once pounded the desk and insisted we must win the culture wars at all cost.

And yet, nothing ever works that way in the world.  No coach ever said 'don't worry about the little things, just show up on game day and play your heart out!'   No military training ever consisted of 'don't worry about the trivial things, let's just grab a gun and charge!'  The little things, accumulated, practiced, rehearsed and drilled, eventually come together to be the groundwork upon which the big things are built.  The same is true of history.

So in 2017, Bernie Sanders, a radical socialist, culture of death proponent, stated that Christians who believe that Jesus is necessary for salvation have no business holding high office in the United States.  CAIR, one of America's highest profile Islamic relations organizations, jumped up and agreed.  Go back to the 1960s, or heck, even the 1980s, and say there would be a time when Christians who believe that salvation is through Jesus alone would be told by politicians and Muslim activists to stay out of government positions.  We would have laughed our arses off.

But then, at the same time in the 1980s, when people suspected that gay marriage could lead to compromising the rights of religious individuals who wouldn't accept gay marriage, the same laughter occurred.  Gay rights advocates assured us that only homophobic bigots worry about such things.  Nobody would ever be punished over opposing gay marriage!

See how that works?  If you're just waiting around for the big battles, you'll loose the war every time. Goldberg rightly notes that there is something important in rewriting the history to eliminate the emphasis on America's greatness.  He also catches the obvious, and typical, hypocrisy among the Left.  But he seems to diminish the overall story as if it's merely another tempest in a teapot. It isn't.  Because it reflects an overarching design by the Left to essentially eliminate the nation in favor of a One World Government, one that will have no place for a traditional Gospel proclamation.  Likewise, Nike's choice makes clear it fully supports the Kaepernick protest of our racist, murderous, unjust nation (who doesn't seem the least interested in the biggest killer of black people in America).  Even when the stats belie the narrative.

Just as calls for understanding from Christians had Christians politely downplaying the public proclamation of Jesus, so downplaying the accomplishments of our very country will eventually lead to the same we witnessed from Bernie Sanders and CAIR last year.  In history, there are no 'trivial events.'  All of history is the result of all of history.

So next time a Leftist, or a post-conservative compromiser, invokes 'there are bigger issues to worry about', try this.  Respond by saying yes, there are bigger issues to worry about.  Across the Islamic world, minorities continue to be openly oppressed and persecuted.  Violence continues to take our brothers and sisters in Christ.  China continues to oppress.  In South Africa, white farmers are being tossed off their land, if not killed, out of retribution.  In America, youth are being raised who wish to abolish the Bill or Rights and free speech and religious liberty.  Human slavery continues to run amok in the world, feeding not just sweat shops, but the multi-billion dollar sex industries.  Chief Muslim organization CAIR supported Bernie Sanders' call for orthodox Christians who believe in salvation through Jesus to be excluded from holding high office.  AIDS continues to kill thousands in America alone, while other STDs are exploding across the spectrum.  Groups pushing the open and enthusiastic embrace of abortion, suicide and euthanasia are taking hold in Europe and America.  And every year, blacks continue to kill themselves disproportionately compared to virtually any other demographic in the US, contributing nightly to the gun violence stats every year.

They are right, there are bigger immediate issues.  But that doesn't mean we should ignore the small issues.  Only a fool says ignore the little things, since they never matter.  You'd have to have your head in the sand not to see where that has gotten us.  Or, quite frankly, you are happy because it has gotten us just where you want us to be.  In which case, your viewpoint and opinion are anathema to me, as you've revealed your true hand.

One autumn evening

Well, it technically was summer, even though it's the first of September.  But I thought it evoked that sort of 'autumnal' feeling, with the defined lines of clouds, the gloom, the glow of streetlamps and house lights.  Fall - you can't beat it, even when it's still summer.

In the barking mad dodo land of 21st Century America

Where proposing for marriage* and the old OK sign are racist symbols, I'm reminded of what the Left wants.   Essentially, it wants this:

Brain-dead, moronic, lobotomized masses who are told to get high, get laid, and wait for the next smartphone upgrade and otherwise shut up and obey.  Given the stellar lunacy we're seeing on an almost daily basis, the strategy seems to be working.

Axel Foley - Stealth White Supremacist 

*I know.  The wokie wasn't saying proposals are racist.  The predictable charge of racism was made because the store owner failed to conform 100% to Leftist same-think.  Remember, 100% Leftist everyday, or 100% irredeemable deplorable. 

When I read about Obama's latest speech

And the times in which he referenced himself, I'm reminded of this:

Heh.  For a nation upset about Trump's obvious narcissism, we seem to forget we've had doses of it for some time.  GW Bush, if nothing else, wasn't stuck on himself.  The same cannot be said for the other two presidents who flanked him. 

Stop calling the Alamo defenders heroic

Pleads the Texas State Board of Education.  The rationale is that words like 'heroic' are values charged. We wouldn't want that.  Well, except for things like gay rights, feminism, the Civil Rights Movement, Rosa Parks, MLK, and a host of others that textbooks describe with flowery, celebratory, 'values charged' language.* 

We all know what's happening.  We can remain silent and watch our posterity face the consequences, since we can already see what this new society will be. Or we can do something about it.  Those who go along with it are just putting a down-payment on a plot of land outside of the barbed wire fences.  The rest should stop denying the obvious or it will be our posterity that pays the price.

*While never using terms like 'heroic', it's worth noting that my oldest son's World History textbook from high school had much high praise for Mao Zedong, Karl Marx and Michael Gorbachev and their accomplishments, with each having a full page write-up celebrating their accomplishments and influences. 

The biggest problem with the Kaepernick deal

Per my sons: He's not that good.  There are hundreds of football players better than him, with more inspiring stories.  There are thousands of athletes who are better and more effective than him in their respective sports, with more inspiring stories.

He was given this because he has accepted the leftist, anti-American narrative based on a lie. A lie, criminally false though it is, that is fully endorsed by our popular culture, educational establishments, media and a great many political and religious leaders. 

Therefore, it's irrelevant how good he is.  It's irrelevant the type of person he is.  It's irrelevant that he has or hasn't accomplished anything.  It's irrelevant if he is even correct or is advocating a lie.  What is relevant - what alone matters - is that he speaks the Leftist doctrine.  That is what defines a person in America today.  Not who or what you are, but what you say. 

That was my boys' take on it.  I'd say they're not far from the sad truth.

Compromise as defined by the Left

So CBS ran a follow up to this story.  It was a classic example of compromise as understood by the Left.  Basically, compromise means you renounce everything the Left condemns, and completely bow before the Leftist dogmas.  Which is what happened.

The follow up was a feel-good follow up showing how everyone is now happy.  The blacks who had built walls around her house to block the confederate flag came out last month and took it down.  All were happy.  Of course, the woman got nothing.  She essentially renounced everything, threw everything she valued under the bus, and gave the neighbors everything.

In return, they took down the wall they had built around her house.  CBS said this shows America loves tearing down walls.  Well yeah, when you win.  You get everything.  Then you tear down the wall.  Which is what happened. 

My wife said it would have been compromise if the neighborhood presented the woman with some small confederate flag, maybe even to put inside her house.  She doesn't understand. The Left is not about compromise.  It is about destroying the societies out of which it emerges, and anyone and anything that stands in the way.  In a few generations, there will likely be no memorials, not just to the confederacy, but to a growing list of anything American, Christian, or Western.  That, to the Left, will be compromise.

I don't care about this

Really.  Anonymous op-ed says blah, blah, blah.  Given the track record of the press since Trump was elected, where even the press admitted it's dropped the ball dozens and dozens of times where facts and truth are concerned, I'm not putting much on this. 

At best, it's true, and represents the downward spiral we've been in, where people increasingly think the law or the Constitution or anything else is irrelevant if we didn't get our way.  I heard it in 2000, I heard it again in 2004 - charges of stolon elections, corruption, voter fraud, illegal presidents and calls to overturn election results.  Oddly, I didn't hear it in 2008 or 2012 nearly as much.  Cosmic coincidence, no doubt.

But the thought - assuming this is true - that a person working in the government has taken it upon himself to undermine an elected president through any means possible, just because he says so, reminds me of an age old principle: In America, we don't have coups.  We have the peaceful and democratic transfer of power.  I'd like to keep it that way. 

Global Warming and when propaganda becomes brainwashing

So we were watching the season openers for college football last weekend.  Ohio State, eh.  We had to chuckle watching Michigan implode (it's a Buckeye thing).  But during the Michigan game, they had an interesting segment.  During the game, they showed several players being fawned over with drinks and moisture and cool downs.  The reason?  The reporter said there were fears of heat related problems, dehydration, and fear of overheating.

Now, the temperature by that point was in the 70s  It was an evening game for crying out loud.  And yet, according to the reporter on the field, there were reports of problems and everyone was treating it as a serious health threat.

Evening game.  Temperatures in the 70s (the high in South Bend earlier that day, where the game was played, was only 84 degrees).  Meanwhile here in central Ohio, schools are closing because the temperatures might - might mind you - make it into the low 90s.  I never once got out of school for heat - and we went to some pretty old, 1800s era schools without air conditioning.  I remember being miserable.  But then, that was when the US was still among the top nations in terms of education, so there you go.

Turns out, upon checking, some of those years when I was in the non-climate controlled schools, such as 1977, 1978, and around there, would have seen temps near, if not in, the high 80s or low 90s.  And guess what?  We lived.  In fact, we didn't think of it.  We just got on.  But then, back in those days, we were being warned of an impending global freeze, so overheating wasn't the latest scientific buzz. 

No wonder everyone hates the 1950s

Today, we have athletes in the greatest sports programs in the country fearing heat related problems in an evening game while the temps hover in the 70s.  Were we better than them?  Are they wimps?  Or is this the result of propaganda becoming brainwashing.  The power of suggestion.  Schools close even when the temps are in the 80s.  Heat waves are called 'deadly' even when the only fatality mentioned was a child sadly left in a vehicle.  It's amazing what mass propaganda repeated daily, both subtly and directly, can accomplish.

I wrote about this at Patheos: The subtle propaganda of accentuating anything heat-wise, while downplaying weather that doesn't fit 'the Global Warming mold.'  Of course I can prove nothing, as several readers pointed out.  That's the beauty of propaganda.  Much of it relies on merging truth with lies on behalf of ulterior motives.  But whatever, it seems to have convinced a growing number of people that humans just weren't meant to exert themselves in 70 degree temperatures once the sun goes down.  I wonder what else it will convince us of.

RIP Burt Reynolds

OK, I was never a fan.  Like many my age, however, Smokey and the Bandit was one of the first 'adult' movies we saw, with adult themes, adult humor and, thanks to Sheriff Buford T. Justice, adult language.  Reynolds was in a string of movies in the 70s, had his own short lived television show for a while, dated Loni Anderson, married the same, divorced the same, declared bankruptcy, and had a bit of a rebirth in the 90s and 00s. 

Nonetheless, he hit it big at that time in my life when time itself seems relative.  At that age, something grabs hold of the culture and you'd swear it had been going on since the beginning of time.  At that age, Steve Martin had been saying 'Excuuuuuuuuuse ME!' for centuries.  Disco had been around forever (yuck).  And it seemed as if there was never a time in modern history where Burt Reynolds wasn't the sex symbol against which all sex symbols were ever measured.

Of course as you get older, you realize these huge, media and pop culture generated phenomena were really just flashes in the pan.  You look back, do a little research, and realize just how fast they came and went.  Perhaps in today's Internet and Social Media world, it's different for youngsters. I duuno.

Nevertheless, back then, in the mid to late 1970s, when I was approaching my teenage years and moving away from kiddom, it seemed as if Burt Reynolds had always been a mega star, and there was never a time when he would fade away.

But fade away he has.  As we all eventually do.  Peace and God's grace to him and his loved ones.  My God give them love and that peace that surpasses all understanding.  He was a part of the fabric that makes up the whole of my childhood memories, and for that I thank him.

The proper perspective on the whole Nike uproar

Here.  Because Truth should be the basis of our values, not inflamed rhetoric and media narratives.  Money quote from the post:

Burning sportswear might be a dumb thing to do, but continuing to believe the false narrative of widespread police brutality against blacks is even dumber. It amounts to sacrificing everything we have learned by looking at the evidence.

Not just dumb of course, but criminally false.  In the last year of Obama's presidency, violence against police spiked, as multiple cases of assassinations swept the country, many done as a result of this pandemic of police violence against blacks that really wasn't.  More police were gunned down than unarmed black men. 

It would push beyond the boundaries of all credulity to think it wasn't linked to the Propaganda Ministry's constant drumbeat of 'racist, murdering cops; Racist, Murdering Cops; RACIST, MURDERING COPS!'.  Those Christians who conveniently keep their head in the sand rather than admit the obvious are as guilty as the press.  Whether they do it in Nikes or not.