As the Democrats flounder in the polls, with only a couple front runners within the margin of error against Trump, the rest being well behind Trump in the presidential race, the press had to get creative. And so they did. It turns out they found some tapes of Ronald Reagan with then president Richard Nixon. In those tapes, Reagan is heard making racist (or back then known as off color or even racially insensitive) jokes.
They are what they are. It was wrong. He shouldn't have said such things. You wish more would have risen above that level of disrespect and bigotry than did. That's enough to take from this.
Of course that Left loves racism and encourages it, stands by and ignores when it's directed at non-leftist minorities, and goes after it with Salem Inquisitor McCarthy tactics that would bleach the Red Scare when it aids the Left. The purpose is to destroy. No mercy. No forgiveness. No reconciliation. Race, when convenient for the Left, is the unforgivable all defining sin that renders someone no longer truly human. In addition, for the Left, this means 'Reagan the Southern Strategy GOP Racist Hitler' that will then spill onto Trump. Since the sins of one proves everything about anyone remotely connected to the other. Again, when convenient for the Left.
For sane people we look at Reagan as much of a product of his time as are we of ours. We see how far we've come, and yet how far we have to go. We also see the clear and obvious evils being used and exploited by constantly dwelling on the sins of the past. Nothing is allowing the sins of the present, including support for censorship, genocide, bigotry and violence like keeping our eyes constantly in the rear view mirror and the sins of those who came before.
Like everyone, Reagan was a flawed human being who echoed the bigotry of his age, a bigotry once embraced by so much of America's press, media, popular culture, marketers and educators. May we only use this to better avoid being played by the same institutions today and embracing what is evil merely because, as they did in the past, those same institutions would have us do it today.
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Thursday, July 25, 2019
P.T. Barnum's Pandemonium Climate Show
As can be expected, since we've had some flooding, a hurricane of sorts, and a multiple day heat wave, the Climate Change hysterics have reached a fevered pitch. This happens like worms appearing on the sidewalk after a dousing rain. Whenever something that smacks of 'heat wave' happens, we're suddenly hit with multiple stories and articles that appear about how this is it, this proves it, case closed, we're all going to die.
Of course the problem is that this catastrophic heat wave was, in the end, not so bad. Oh, there were some places I'm sure a record was broken. When you call for a heat wave covering 40% of the country, there will probably be some places that break records. Most that I've found, however, didn't.
Each time a story broke about a particular town or city, I would rush to see if that particular day was a record breaker where the story was being reported. At least in the cases I checked, it wasn't. Sometimes it was close. A few times the records were set in the given area within the last 20 years. But the ones I checked were not records themselves on the day of the story.
It was worse in our neck of the woods. We were supposed to have multiple days in the high 90s, with adjusted heat indexes being well into the 100s. The problem? Only two days made it to the mid 90s. The rest of the 'heat wave' was at 90 or 91 degrees. Still hot, don't get me wrong. But nothing close to record breaking. In fact, the two days it made it into the mid-90s were far from records. On one day, the record was 101 degrees about a decade ago. The other was 105 degrees back in the 1940s.
Despite the fact that this has been book-ended by relatively mild temperatures and a much cooler than normal summer, the local media has treated it as if we're now living on the sun side of the planet Mercury. Just yesterday morning they had a segment about how the warming climate is impacting our health in central Ohio. Just what year they're talking about I don't know. In fact, the 'heat wave' was only made bad because we weren't ready for it. Most of the summer has been rather mild to cool compared to most summers, so going into even the low 90s seemed stiflingly hot. The big news for us has been the saturation of rain at the start of the growing season, mixed with milder than normal temperatures.
A couple days ago, one of the meteorologists actually made me laugh. He kept saying that we've been in the 90s since July 13! Wow! A whole week in the middle of summer in the 90s. The average temperature at this time of the year is mid 80s, with highs in the 70s not uncommon, and highs in the 90s not uncommon either. And yet he kept saying, with each weather report, how we've been in the 90s for almost a week! As if that was the clincher for proving this was the heat wave of heat waves.
That, my friends, is called a sales pitch. People often throw back at me that I don't know the science so shut up. That is true. I know nothing about the science. I know nothing about automobiles either, beyond how to drive them. But I can tell a sales pitch when I see one. Same here. It's like the salesman insisting that the rattling sound is no big deal, the car actually runs well.
Again, I'm not denying that the obsession with STEM for the past couple centuries has had a detrimental impact on many things, including the environment. That we keep insisting on obsessing with STEM to the exclusion of any other disciplines suggests lesson not learned. Nonetheless, I also can't muster enough credulity not to see that the modern Global Warming hysteria is a molehill of science upon which a mountain range of political and ideological agendas has been piled.
Of course the problem is that this catastrophic heat wave was, in the end, not so bad. Oh, there were some places I'm sure a record was broken. When you call for a heat wave covering 40% of the country, there will probably be some places that break records. Most that I've found, however, didn't.
Each time a story broke about a particular town or city, I would rush to see if that particular day was a record breaker where the story was being reported. At least in the cases I checked, it wasn't. Sometimes it was close. A few times the records were set in the given area within the last 20 years. But the ones I checked were not records themselves on the day of the story.
It was worse in our neck of the woods. We were supposed to have multiple days in the high 90s, with adjusted heat indexes being well into the 100s. The problem? Only two days made it to the mid 90s. The rest of the 'heat wave' was at 90 or 91 degrees. Still hot, don't get me wrong. But nothing close to record breaking. In fact, the two days it made it into the mid-90s were far from records. On one day, the record was 101 degrees about a decade ago. The other was 105 degrees back in the 1940s.
Despite the fact that this has been book-ended by relatively mild temperatures and a much cooler than normal summer, the local media has treated it as if we're now living on the sun side of the planet Mercury. Just yesterday morning they had a segment about how the warming climate is impacting our health in central Ohio. Just what year they're talking about I don't know. In fact, the 'heat wave' was only made bad because we weren't ready for it. Most of the summer has been rather mild to cool compared to most summers, so going into even the low 90s seemed stiflingly hot. The big news for us has been the saturation of rain at the start of the growing season, mixed with milder than normal temperatures.
A couple days ago, one of the meteorologists actually made me laugh. He kept saying that we've been in the 90s since July 13! Wow! A whole week in the middle of summer in the 90s. The average temperature at this time of the year is mid 80s, with highs in the 70s not uncommon, and highs in the 90s not uncommon either. And yet he kept saying, with each weather report, how we've been in the 90s for almost a week! As if that was the clincher for proving this was the heat wave of heat waves.
That, my friends, is called a sales pitch. People often throw back at me that I don't know the science so shut up. That is true. I know nothing about the science. I know nothing about automobiles either, beyond how to drive them. But I can tell a sales pitch when I see one. Same here. It's like the salesman insisting that the rattling sound is no big deal, the car actually runs well.
Again, I'm not denying that the obsession with STEM for the past couple centuries has had a detrimental impact on many things, including the environment. That we keep insisting on obsessing with STEM to the exclusion of any other disciplines suggests lesson not learned. Nonetheless, I also can't muster enough credulity not to see that the modern Global Warming hysteria is a molehill of science upon which a mountain range of political and ideological agendas has been piled.
Monday, July 22, 2019
Go Miss Michigan
So young Kathy Zhu, Miss Michigan, has been booted from the Miss World pageant, and now has had her title of Miss Michigan stripped for breaking with Leftist newspeak. She dared to question the consistency in Muslim dress as it is sometimes presented and sometimes not presented. She also bothered to mention that the press's false narrative of millions of Blacks dying at the hands of racist white people is counter to the real problem the Black community faces.
One, of course, is a valid question, but not necessarily a fact. But the tweet about Blacks being the biggest killer of Blacks, well out of proportion to Whites killing Whites, is a fact. In fact, the biggest threat Blacks face today is from other Blacks.
But again, we are already 1/3 Soviet, and with the Press and a growing number of Corporations jumping on board to eradicate freedom, life and God, it might be too late. When the best chance we have is the reelection of a president like Donald Trump, you have to admit things are bleak. And that's not a reflection on Trump as much as the utter impotence and cowardliness of so many who see the problem, but simply won't band together to do anything about it. Unlike Miss Zhu.
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Two days off
But I like the thinking (technically, as of today, it's two days closer):
As I said here, I'm already itching for the rush of Autumn and the holidays that follow - but not too much. After all, I've also learned not to wish your time away, especially where children are concerned. Nonetheless, I can almost smell the apple cinnamon as I write.
As I said here, I'm already itching for the rush of Autumn and the holidays that follow - but not too much. After all, I've also learned not to wish your time away, especially where children are concerned. Nonetheless, I can almost smell the apple cinnamon as I write.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
The big news today
In our house is that we have a birthday boy who has turned ten! Likewise, for the first time in 24 years, we don't have a child whose age is in the single digits. More on that later once festivities have passed.
The rest of the non-Bolshevik Americans, however, are celebrating that other great achievement on this day fifty years ago, and that's the Apollo 11 moon landings. Donald McClarey, as can be expected, has some great posts around this, including this one on the event itself.
I won't pollute the day with the Bolsheviks who have tried to downplay and dismiss this great achievement that should unite us. Instead, we try with hope to bring Americans back from the brink, see the charlatans and frauds for what they are, and remember a time when America literally reached for the stars as one.
The rest of the non-Bolshevik Americans, however, are celebrating that other great achievement on this day fifty years ago, and that's the Apollo 11 moon landings. Donald McClarey, as can be expected, has some great posts around this, including this one on the event itself.
I won't pollute the day with the Bolsheviks who have tried to downplay and dismiss this great achievement that should unite us. Instead, we try with hope to bring Americans back from the brink, see the charlatans and frauds for what they are, and remember a time when America literally reached for the stars as one.
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
God talk around the Apollo landings
As a matter of fact, no, I hadn't heard of this. Ever. It has never been played in any history lesson or news cast that I've seen. It has never been mentioned. In fact, so new is this, I'm prepared to think it's a hoax.
Except I realize that even if America on the street level held to a form of Christian religion by the time of the moon landings, most of our elite society had long abandoned the Faith. Knowing also that media bias and educational indoctrination is not something that just happened following the debut of Game of Thrones, I'm inclined to believe the inconvenient part of hyped up stories might have found their way onto the cutting room floor - over and over and over again.
Nonetheless, assuming it isn't a vast Christian right wing conspiracy to make this up, it's interesting that even as late as 1969, God and religious faith still played a prominent part in our cultural soup, even in the hallowed halls of NASA. It's also sad to see how quickly it has been utterly jettisoned and sent to the closet and the catacombs.
But then, how many years ago would we have scoffed at the idea of people going to jail for opposing gay marriage, or being condemned because of scribbling in a high school yearbook, or being called racist merely because of their skin color, or being told their Christian faith should preclude them from public office? Beware of fast societal changes. They seldom turn out well.
Except I realize that even if America on the street level held to a form of Christian religion by the time of the moon landings, most of our elite society had long abandoned the Faith. Knowing also that media bias and educational indoctrination is not something that just happened following the debut of Game of Thrones, I'm inclined to believe the inconvenient part of hyped up stories might have found their way onto the cutting room floor - over and over and over again.
Nonetheless, assuming it isn't a vast Christian right wing conspiracy to make this up, it's interesting that even as late as 1969, God and religious faith still played a prominent part in our cultural soup, even in the hallowed halls of NASA. It's also sad to see how quickly it has been utterly jettisoned and sent to the closet and the catacombs.
But then, how many years ago would we have scoffed at the idea of people going to jail for opposing gay marriage, or being condemned because of scribbling in a high school yearbook, or being called racist merely because of their skin color, or being told their Christian faith should preclude them from public office? Beware of fast societal changes. They seldom turn out well.
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
When my thoughts turn to autumn
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| Photo: Craig Robison/Can Geo Photo Club |
Two things hit at that time. First, my Dad concluded that going into middle school, it was time for me to pack up my toys. I was becoming a man, and didn't need to be playing around like a kid. That next Christmas he bought me a shotgun and had me get my hunting license. Ironically it was something I seemed naturally good at, despite the fact that I never really warmed up to shooting animals.
The other development came as a result of the house's location. Just as I was being told to pack up my toys, I couldn't help notice there was nothing around me. No kids. There was a large factory and some machine shops, a gas station, and a couple houses lived in by older couples with grown kids. But there were no kids anywhere nearby. Since it was on a highway, there was no safe way to ride a bicycle. So I was pretty much landlocked.
Several things came out of that time. First, I learned to like the music my Dad listened to, which included jazz, big band era, classical and Frank Sinatra. Second, I learned to love reading. One of the owners of the house we bought had been a teacher. She left her piano, and her book collection. She had a wide variety, and I always wondered what grade(s) she taught. From a collection of early release Peanuts (Charlie Brown) books and adolescent material, to high brow philosophy, history, biography and literature, I could have spent the next twenty years doing nothing but read and I doubt I would have gotten through everything. It formed the groundwork for my library today.
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| The house my Dad built - almost 50 years later |
But this time, it was the practical sense of being removed from kids I had made friends with and was getting to be close to. The fun we had, the different things we did at different times of the year: Going to the recreation park in summer for baseball, or playing football in open lots during the fall, or building snow forts in the winter (it was the blizzards of 77 and 78 after all), were things that were now long gone. I became involved in school activities just to have kids to hang around. But during the breaks - especially summer - I had little to do. Friends would be dropped off of course, as I would be as well. But that only happened once in a while. Most of the time I was on my own.
So I began looking back somewhat nostalgically, as well as looking forward, especially in the summer, toward the next school year. With that school year came autumn, and fall festivities and football and band and bonfires, then Thanksgiving and family get-togethers and friends visiting, and the Christmas season with all its splendor. By the passing of July 4th, my mind began going there since, on the whole, it had little else to do.
I think I brought that with me over the years. Oddly enough, the older I get, the less nostalgic I am. I still think about olden days, but usually when engaged in a pleasant conversation with family or friends. I don't dwell. Instead, I look forward. I think it has something to do with having kids, seeing them grow, cherishing the times you have and looking forward to what they will become. I don't know.
I just know that, as we wrapped up our annual Independence Day festivities this year, setting aside the clear schism within our nation and those who would minimized the blessings of our country, I can't help but feel the first twangs of pining for the change in seasons, cider, the crisp cool days, the foliage, the harvests and all that remind me of the times when I knew my purgatory was about to end, and I'd be back with friends and classmates on a regular basis. Only this time, it's my sons and family with whom I look forward to making the memories.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run.
Thursday, July 11, 2019
David Frume does Trump's 4th of July Speech
So I've seen this making the rounds. Frum is, of course, what's known as a Never Trumper. That is largely those Republicans, conservatives, or others who are not to the left or Democrats who nonetheless fully oppose Donald Trump.
It's possible that more than Democrats, Never Trumpers invest almost everything they have in criticizing and attacking Trump no matter what. Some have become more or less liberal Democrats, leading you to think that's where they wanted to go all along, and Trump is merely their excuse. John Kasich, for example, was swinging to the left long before Trump jumped into the 2016 campaign.
Frum is in that group who isn't a Democrat yet, but finds nothing good in Trump. It's been said that if Trump cured cancer, Never Trumpers would complain he's threatened the job prospects of cancer researchers.
Nonetheless, I didn't watch or read the speech, and Frum did. So I wonder if it's a fair take. That it would be a disjointed speech, or not particularly well written, I can believe. Trump does not give great speech. Neither did GW Bush. For that matter, neither did Obama. In fact, Obama was far worse at extemporaneous speech than either Bush or Trump. His endless 'ums' and 'uhs' (which his supporters insisted was the result of his superior intellect being slowed down by an obligation to consider the weak minded masses), was grating to the point of distraction. Obama also became dull and dour by the end. It's one of the 'Emperor's New Clothes' moments that everyone praised Obama as the Great Orator no matter how bad he was. Compared to Bush? Trump? Yeah he was better. But only by comparing him to the worst, not the best.
Still, the content of his Trump's speech as some Napoleon as Hitler imperialist conqueror is something I wonder about. Is that a fair critique? Was it too much power not enough virtue? I can see that as a possibility in just the snippets I did read. Or is it fair to say it balances the Lefts 'America as Nazi genocidal racist nation of evil and failure and ineptness'? Is it fair to consider apart from eight years of Obama's 'no matter how bad the world is, America is always as bad if not worse'? For that matter, Clinton also peddled that notion. On a Christian level, Pope Francis seems content to assure the word that we have seen evil, and it's usually in the pews of Christian churches - especially in the Western democracies.
So just curious.
It's possible that more than Democrats, Never Trumpers invest almost everything they have in criticizing and attacking Trump no matter what. Some have become more or less liberal Democrats, leading you to think that's where they wanted to go all along, and Trump is merely their excuse. John Kasich, for example, was swinging to the left long before Trump jumped into the 2016 campaign.
Frum is in that group who isn't a Democrat yet, but finds nothing good in Trump. It's been said that if Trump cured cancer, Never Trumpers would complain he's threatened the job prospects of cancer researchers.
Nonetheless, I didn't watch or read the speech, and Frum did. So I wonder if it's a fair take. That it would be a disjointed speech, or not particularly well written, I can believe. Trump does not give great speech. Neither did GW Bush. For that matter, neither did Obama. In fact, Obama was far worse at extemporaneous speech than either Bush or Trump. His endless 'ums' and 'uhs' (which his supporters insisted was the result of his superior intellect being slowed down by an obligation to consider the weak minded masses), was grating to the point of distraction. Obama also became dull and dour by the end. It's one of the 'Emperor's New Clothes' moments that everyone praised Obama as the Great Orator no matter how bad he was. Compared to Bush? Trump? Yeah he was better. But only by comparing him to the worst, not the best.
Still, the content of his Trump's speech as some Napoleon as Hitler imperialist conqueror is something I wonder about. Is that a fair critique? Was it too much power not enough virtue? I can see that as a possibility in just the snippets I did read. Or is it fair to say it balances the Lefts 'America as Nazi genocidal racist nation of evil and failure and ineptness'? Is it fair to consider apart from eight years of Obama's 'no matter how bad the world is, America is always as bad if not worse'? For that matter, Clinton also peddled that notion. On a Christian level, Pope Francis seems content to assure the word that we have seen evil, and it's usually in the pews of Christian churches - especially in the Western democracies.
So just curious.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
What is wrong with Mitch McConnell's Statement?
So there's this uproar about Mitch McConnell. Senator Cory Booker has jumped in on it, saying something to the effect of 'that's horrible!' without any real details that I've found.
Apparently Senator McConnell, who is about as interesting as dry air, pointed out that it's a special form of blood guilt to suggest that white people today owe anything to do with slavery just because they are white. He even seems to suggest that paying ages old reparations based on sins long ago committed isn't right either.
He then went on to point out that both he and former president Barrack Obama are descended from slave owners. The last part being based on a report that found slave owners in the ancestry of then President Obama.
From there, all hell has broken loose, but I don't know why. It's just reports of outrage, but no clear details about why he is wrong. If the story about Obama's ancestors is false, then that needs pointed out. If he isn't descended from slave owners, then McConnell would need to retract his initial statement. But nobody is saying it is wrong.
They're just outraged. Why? Are they saying slavery is no big deal if you have certain skin colors? Are they saying only some skin colors are guilty for all sins by others of those skin colors, while others are not? Do they say Obama is guilty in the same way as whites, and nobody ever denied it, so McConnell is merely making a big issue out of nothing? What are they saying? Every story I've seen so far just says everyone is outraged, and quotes people who are upset. Absolutely nothing about why they are upset.
So if I could be educated about this, I would appreciate it.
Apparently Senator McConnell, who is about as interesting as dry air, pointed out that it's a special form of blood guilt to suggest that white people today owe anything to do with slavery just because they are white. He even seems to suggest that paying ages old reparations based on sins long ago committed isn't right either.
He then went on to point out that both he and former president Barrack Obama are descended from slave owners. The last part being based on a report that found slave owners in the ancestry of then President Obama.
From there, all hell has broken loose, but I don't know why. It's just reports of outrage, but no clear details about why he is wrong. If the story about Obama's ancestors is false, then that needs pointed out. If he isn't descended from slave owners, then McConnell would need to retract his initial statement. But nobody is saying it is wrong.
They're just outraged. Why? Are they saying slavery is no big deal if you have certain skin colors? Are they saying only some skin colors are guilty for all sins by others of those skin colors, while others are not? Do they say Obama is guilty in the same way as whites, and nobody ever denied it, so McConnell is merely making a big issue out of nothing? What are they saying? Every story I've seen so far just says everyone is outraged, and quotes people who are upset. Absolutely nothing about why they are upset.
So if I could be educated about this, I would appreciate it.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
If you remember that the Left is now the enemy America
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| It's all ... part of the plan. |
It's doing this by a brilliant sleight of hand where it delivers a nation of law and standards based on socially constructed demographic identities, in the name of diversity. There is a pyramid of demographic groups being built, and you don't want to be anywhere but the top. Exactly who will be at the top remains to be seen - which is what keeps us off balance. Right now those identifying as transgender/LGBTQ are certainly close, since it's the LGBTQ movement that has effectively gotten Americans to reconsider such notions as freedom of speech, thought or religious liberty.
It's like that scene in The Dark Knight. A rather chilling scene if you think about it. The Joker has dispensed with one of the crime bosses who was most antagonistic to the Joker's designs. While the crime boss is being 'dealt with', his body guards are held at gunpoint by the Joker's own thugs. After killing the boss, the Joker then grabs a cue stick and tells the body guards that he is offering tryouts for an opening in his organization. There is, however, only one opening, and there are three bodyguards. At that point, the Joker snaps the cue stick in two, looks at it a minute, and then throws one of the roughly broken pieces in front of the body guards. He walks away, and coldly says to make it fast.
It's rather cruel if you think on it. These bodyguards who, only moments before, were relishing in their positions, living among luxury, yucking it up with each other and their boss, must now fight to grab the broken cue stick and use it to kill their former friends and colleagues in order to stay alive.
Well kids, that's what the Left is essentially doing to Americans. That's what totalitarian regimes often do, they just usually have to wait to get complete control to make it work. It's not done for the cowards, the Quislings, the 'New Prolife Christians' willing to look away from the screams of a million slaughtered innocents because the Left says so. It's for those who do feel something is amiss, and might actually do something about it if pushed too far.
In our case, the Left has made it clear it wants a McCarthy-like Orwellian state that rolls out new 'truths' on a daily basis, demands instant fealty to these malleable standards, and reserves the right to retroactively punish anyone who listened to the Left's truths of yesterday. In addition, with the full blessings of our press, educators and cultural elites, it reserves the right to use any means necessary to eradicate opposition: Digging into our pasts, finding old letters, emails, yearbooks, conversations or pictures with which to ruin us. If you fail to conform, you might be banned from the marketplace, or fined, fired, or physically assaulted. Someday it may even be jail, you just never know.
But the biggie is that, in addition to this, we're finding out that how we are treated may well depend on what demographic group we're in. Can you say this or that word? Depends. Does it depend on a common standard applied to all Americans? No. It depends on what your demographic identity is. Should you be believed, or should we accept your accusations at face value? Again, it doesn't depend on a universal standard, or even evidence, but on what demographic you belong to. Can we assume guilt, or assume the worst of your ulterior motives without evidence? Why, that also depends on what demographic group you're part of and where you are on this ever shirting pyramid. 'All _______ are obliviously __________' has become the officially sanctioned mantra of the Left.
That's how the Left is getting a nation founded on the goal of freedom, equality and establishing a more perfect union to throw them all away. By dispensing with the Christian roots of our culture, it is free to foster arrogance and narcissism, resentment and vindictiveness, inquisitor like judgmentalism and hatred of those who fail to affirm the rightful place that our demographic identity has assured us. No need to even feign mercy or letting bygones be bygones. Forgiveness if for the weak, and the non-leftist.
Beyond this, your place might shift on any given day. A woman accusing a man can be believed by virtue of her gender, unless her protests run afoul of transgender sensitivities. Or a black man can be assumed to be honest as the day is long when accusing a white man of racism, until accused by a woman. Then see gender trumping gender above. Or maybe tomorrow it's different. Who knows? With the Left, it's here today, gone later today where principles and morals are concerned.
The end goal is to take over the country and eliminate its morals, its freedoms, its possibilities by keeping everyone off balance. So far, it's done a bang-up job. Already minorities have been told to resent and hate, and young people have learned that our nation is among the most evil of in history, and it's foundations must be eliminated.
Just in case anyone wonders if this is the prudent way, however, or feels inclined to object, that ever shifting demographic pyramid keeps us guessing. As fewer and fewer of us have access to that coveted cue stick, you can bet more and more will just turn a blind eye, or even support whatever forces can assure us that, in the end, we're the last ones holding that stick at the top of the pyramid. No matter what the cost.
Friday, July 5, 2019
Trump said airports!
There are two ways to approach this. One way is as Americans would, laughing at the obvious flub, and smiling, knowing that Trump fully realizes there were no airports in the 1700s.
Then there are partisan hacks (who apparently have never made a mistake). The same thing happened with Dan Quayle's great Potato Misspelling Disaster back when I was in college. I remember it well, because even though it was before cable news and the Internet, the press/entertainment industry kept pounding and pounding and pounding Quayle over it. My roommates and I - non-religious, Democrat and liberal all - finally said enough. The guy goofed, big deal. We don't need to call the United Nations because of it.
Contrast that with how the press covered Biden, who only now, as the press considered going full blown socialist/Marxist in a candidate, has ceased leaving him alone, despite years of having a shoe dangling out of his mouth as if it was grafted there.
Of course to circle the tribal wagons, the really lame partisans will suggest that pointing out Obama's 57 states is some sort of 'oh yeah!' trick. Fact is, I hardly ever hear anyone bring that up, unless it's to counter something like this that tries to suggest Trump is a moron and idiot and dolt and stupid because he - made a mistake! It points out Obama and others make mistakes, too, and we don't call them morons.
As one who used to speak publicly for a living, I can tell you that you eventually make a gaffe. It happens. Sometimes you have to back and correct yourself, sometimes you do try to explain what happened, sometimes you just smile and move on. But if a person tried to suggest the mistake proves something about your person - which they almost never did, being sane people - you obviously would try to set the record straight.
Then there are partisan hacks (who apparently have never made a mistake). The same thing happened with Dan Quayle's great Potato Misspelling Disaster back when I was in college. I remember it well, because even though it was before cable news and the Internet, the press/entertainment industry kept pounding and pounding and pounding Quayle over it. My roommates and I - non-religious, Democrat and liberal all - finally said enough. The guy goofed, big deal. We don't need to call the United Nations because of it.
Contrast that with how the press covered Biden, who only now, as the press considered going full blown socialist/Marxist in a candidate, has ceased leaving him alone, despite years of having a shoe dangling out of his mouth as if it was grafted there.
Of course to circle the tribal wagons, the really lame partisans will suggest that pointing out Obama's 57 states is some sort of 'oh yeah!' trick. Fact is, I hardly ever hear anyone bring that up, unless it's to counter something like this that tries to suggest Trump is a moron and idiot and dolt and stupid because he - made a mistake! It points out Obama and others make mistakes, too, and we don't call them morons.
As one who used to speak publicly for a living, I can tell you that you eventually make a gaffe. It happens. Sometimes you have to back and correct yourself, sometimes you do try to explain what happened, sometimes you just smile and move on. But if a person tried to suggest the mistake proves something about your person - which they almost never did, being sane people - you obviously would try to set the record straight.
On our Independence Day celebration I wondered how much longer will America be free
I wondered, as I looked in vain to find media reports condemning the Antifa assault on a conservative journalist. So far, the press has done everything from ignore Antifa to endorse it. And right now, it seems to be taking it's famous 'let's not judge, let's just report' approach to things when the news doesn't aid the Left's agenda, such as a left wing group resorting to physical violence against non-leftists.
But the bigger question is, how long oh Lord? How much longer will this capstone of the 2500 year march toward concepts like equality, freedom and democracy last? Clearly the Left has every intention of tearing it down. It hates Christianity and the gospel of Christ; it hates America and its heritage; it is making it clear that Stalin, McCarthy, and Orwell are the architects of the type of society it craves; it is fully endorsing hatred and condemnation of people based on skin color and ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and religious doctrine; and it's doing so to broaden the state sponsored elimination of unwanted human beings on genocidal levels in the promise of drugs and debauchery even as people continue to die by the hundreds of thousands from our sex and drugs obsessed era. In addition, it's making it clear that it will destroy, or advocate the destruction of, anyone who stands in the way of the designs of this rising leftist state and progressive religious revolution.
It's already teetering on too late, as increasingly those who try to resist end up like this journalist, or an employee terminated, or a public figure doxxed (new word I learned - it means digging into someone's past all the way to their childhood to find something to destroy them with, ala McCarthyism and the Red Scare). Apparently this is all the rage, and is fully endorsed by the same institutions that once condemned the same approach all those years ago.
What it will be like in another half dozen years remains to be seen, but it likely won't be good. Much of this has occurred in just the last decade or so. The last half dozen years have seen an almost 180 turn by so much of our nation willing to let America and the Christian West, if not the historical Christian Faith in general, die.
Can it be stopped? Should it be stopped? Has God taken His hand off of this ages old march toward where we were because we've been bad stewards of the freedoms and bountiful blessings we received? I don't know. I just know it is foolish to think this won't go down bad when it does go down. To think it's no big deal is to forget that in 1933, most Germans probably thought the latest chancellor election was no big deal; or those in Russia or Ukraine imagined that all the unrest in Red Square was no big deal. The problem with history is that you have to wait for it to happen to study it. And then, of course, it's too late.
But the bigger question is, how long oh Lord? How much longer will this capstone of the 2500 year march toward concepts like equality, freedom and democracy last? Clearly the Left has every intention of tearing it down. It hates Christianity and the gospel of Christ; it hates America and its heritage; it is making it clear that Stalin, McCarthy, and Orwell are the architects of the type of society it craves; it is fully endorsing hatred and condemnation of people based on skin color and ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and religious doctrine; and it's doing so to broaden the state sponsored elimination of unwanted human beings on genocidal levels in the promise of drugs and debauchery even as people continue to die by the hundreds of thousands from our sex and drugs obsessed era. In addition, it's making it clear that it will destroy, or advocate the destruction of, anyone who stands in the way of the designs of this rising leftist state and progressive religious revolution.
It's already teetering on too late, as increasingly those who try to resist end up like this journalist, or an employee terminated, or a public figure doxxed (new word I learned - it means digging into someone's past all the way to their childhood to find something to destroy them with, ala McCarthyism and the Red Scare). Apparently this is all the rage, and is fully endorsed by the same institutions that once condemned the same approach all those years ago.
What it will be like in another half dozen years remains to be seen, but it likely won't be good. Much of this has occurred in just the last decade or so. The last half dozen years have seen an almost 180 turn by so much of our nation willing to let America and the Christian West, if not the historical Christian Faith in general, die.
Can it be stopped? Should it be stopped? Has God taken His hand off of this ages old march toward where we were because we've been bad stewards of the freedoms and bountiful blessings we received? I don't know. I just know it is foolish to think this won't go down bad when it does go down. To think it's no big deal is to forget that in 1933, most Germans probably thought the latest chancellor election was no big deal; or those in Russia or Ukraine imagined that all the unrest in Red Square was no big deal. The problem with history is that you have to wait for it to happen to study it. And then, of course, it's too late.
Thursday, July 4, 2019
Why we celebrate Independence Day
Donald McClarey has it in a nutshell. There is much to mourn and lament in our nation today, and many who would profess Christ are selling their birthrights for a bowl of stew, whether for expediency's sake or cowardliness, I don't know.
But today is a day when we remember the hope and optimism and joy that came with a new human experiment; the best that's ever been tried in the long, sad history of human social development. I'd like to think we're not the generation that will see it die, but we might be. Nonetheless, education does wonders, and perhaps despite us being in the age of the information highway, people might start being educated once again.
They've always said there is more that unites us than divides us. I fear that is no longer true. Nonetheless, there is always hope. Not that the United States is the Kingdom of God, but neither is the planet. If we can care about global warming, we can care about the best shot humanity has ever had at making a nation come anywhere close to what might be best for as many souls as possible.
But today is a day when we remember the hope and optimism and joy that came with a new human experiment; the best that's ever been tried in the long, sad history of human social development. I'd like to think we're not the generation that will see it die, but we might be. Nonetheless, education does wonders, and perhaps despite us being in the age of the information highway, people might start being educated once again.
They've always said there is more that unites us than divides us. I fear that is no longer true. Nonetheless, there is always hope. Not that the United States is the Kingdom of God, but neither is the planet. If we can care about global warming, we can care about the best shot humanity has ever had at making a nation come anywhere close to what might be best for as many souls as possible.
Monday, July 1, 2019
Nike to the American consumer
Screw you and screw your American flag. Mr. Kaepernick says so, and that's the law. Corporate America, becoming as bad as Communism in three, two... .
A word about Patheos
Those who endure the slings and arrows of following my ramblings will remember that I was at the website Patheos for about a year. It was - an experience. It mostly consisted of those to the Left descending on a non-leftist thinker with scorn and ridicule, some trolling, and a few wanting mature discourse and debate. I'll admit I dropped the ball in not regulating the comments better, something not a few pointed out during my time there, and it ended up costing me readers. Strangely enough, people got tired of seeing the same old trolls chewing up the comments section, and I suppose that was one of the goals of the trolls in question.
Nonetheless, on the topic of readers, I want to correct something. I just saw another Catholic who blogs on Patheos mock the idea that they're making any money by doing so. I've seen that a hundred times from different individuals on Patheos if I've seen it once. It's an often repeated claim, that it's stupid to think they're in it for the money.
This is true, to a point. Yes, you get paid on Patheos based on how many hits each post receives. Likewise, Patheos benefits by how many hits all of its contributors receive. My guess is that's why I was allowed to blog there, since they figured someone who wasn't a progressive conformist might generate quite a reaction. And I did. Even though much of it was trolling, it wasn't anything for my throw away posts to generate dozens of comments, not to mention the endless visits to each that came from such attention. Sometimes the comments soared into the hundreds.
Whether trolls or not, it was the goal to get more visits to the page nonetheless. While the main contributors could have made a pretty penny if they had visitors and readers by the millions, most were nowhere close to getting that much money. The money I got would have brought me an extra order of nuggets with that happy meal. Once a month.
So those contributors - Catholics included - who mock the idea that they're in the money are right then? Well, not so much. You see, the main reason to be on Patheos isn't the money, it's the exposure. And there are some there who are nowhere near the biggest contributors who, nonetheless, have expanded their horizons and aided their own vocations and careers by being on Patheos. The main way to do that, of course, is generating viewership on your blog. You do that by getting people to read your posts.
I just wanted to throw that out there. I've seen it posted so many times, those mocking the idea that Patheos gets you anything. True, it might not give you cash, but if you play your cards right, it can get you into a position where you'll not just get greater exposure, but exposure in such a way that the cash will follow. And the way you do that? Getting visits to your posts. I doubt that is a fact missed by so many who say such things.
Next time you see someone downplay making money at Patheos, remember that. Remind them that they no doubt don't make much money on Patheos, but it's also likely that money isn't the goal in the first place.
Nonetheless, on the topic of readers, I want to correct something. I just saw another Catholic who blogs on Patheos mock the idea that they're making any money by doing so. I've seen that a hundred times from different individuals on Patheos if I've seen it once. It's an often repeated claim, that it's stupid to think they're in it for the money.
This is true, to a point. Yes, you get paid on Patheos based on how many hits each post receives. Likewise, Patheos benefits by how many hits all of its contributors receive. My guess is that's why I was allowed to blog there, since they figured someone who wasn't a progressive conformist might generate quite a reaction. And I did. Even though much of it was trolling, it wasn't anything for my throw away posts to generate dozens of comments, not to mention the endless visits to each that came from such attention. Sometimes the comments soared into the hundreds.
Whether trolls or not, it was the goal to get more visits to the page nonetheless. While the main contributors could have made a pretty penny if they had visitors and readers by the millions, most were nowhere close to getting that much money. The money I got would have brought me an extra order of nuggets with that happy meal. Once a month.
So those contributors - Catholics included - who mock the idea that they're in the money are right then? Well, not so much. You see, the main reason to be on Patheos isn't the money, it's the exposure. And there are some there who are nowhere near the biggest contributors who, nonetheless, have expanded their horizons and aided their own vocations and careers by being on Patheos. The main way to do that, of course, is generating viewership on your blog. You do that by getting people to read your posts.
I just wanted to throw that out there. I've seen it posted so many times, those mocking the idea that Patheos gets you anything. True, it might not give you cash, but if you play your cards right, it can get you into a position where you'll not just get greater exposure, but exposure in such a way that the cash will follow. And the way you do that? Getting visits to your posts. I doubt that is a fact missed by so many who say such things.
Next time you see someone downplay making money at Patheos, remember that. Remind them that they no doubt don't make much money on Patheos, but it's also likely that money isn't the goal in the first place.
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