We are second half of the year types

The football field of my old high school stomping grounds

It's that time of year again!   Football Friday Night kicked off last night, and today was the Ohio State Buckeye Opener!  Weehee!  It can only be our favorite time of year is up and running.

My boys have begun calling the last half of the year "Our Half."  What do they mean?  Starting in January, with MLK day, the emphasis is largely on this or that group - non-white Americans, women, the LGBTQ rights movement - often with heavy emphasis on the sins, evil and wickedness of America, the Christian Faith, the Christian West, and, of course, white American men.  Except for April - which doesn't seem to have such a focus - each month is dedicated to the bigotry and oppression by white American men and the equally deplorable heritage of the overall Christian West aimed at this or that demographic group, each of which exists only to be celebrated and adored.

But beginning with our third - currently injured - son's birthday at the end of June, focus begins to shift.  By then, the flags and bunting and fireworks are coming out as Americans begin turning their thoughts to Independence Day, the blessings of our country, and the good fortunes of those who received the fruit of the Founding Father's efforts.  July is also a time to celebrate our little "Catholic Gift", our youngest son born on the anniversary of the first moon landing.

From there, August is spent wrapping up summer, often with more traditional activities and vacations, and getting ready for the school year.  For us our second oldest celebrates his birthday at the end of August. September is Labor Day, is getting ready for Autumn, and more than anything it is football season, the sport the Left hates, but still much beloved as an American distinctive.

October is kids' time, with football running forward and the World Series on the way.  Halloween is still kids' time and a great precursor for the real Holiday Season coming around the corner.   Our oldest boy (and my Mom's mother, RIP) also have birthdays in mid-October, as did my best friend growing up.  October is still - in our house at least - a chance to celebrate Chris Columbus and what he accomplished and the better parts of what developed from his journeys.

Come November and Veterans day, we have Thanksgiving and more chances to celebrate the bravery and devotion of our forebears.  It's also a chance to gather with family and wax nostalgic, something I don't think is a bad thing. December brings my birthday and my wife's birthday, and of course the holiday of all holidays, which we bring full blown through the twelve days of Christmas.  That was something, BTW, that we got push back from in our Protestant ministry days.  Too Catholic.

We keep the celebrations up through Easter, but then we begin competing with the Marxist Left and its crusade to eradicate the very traditions, beliefs, values and heritage we celebrate.   Of course they also intrude into our months in the second half of the year just the same.  Football kills everyone, Columbus (and all Europeans) was Nazi, a hex on the Founding Fathers, abolish Christmas  by name, Pilgrims as genocidal racist, move Halloween to its pristine pagan origins and way from the date set by the evil Church, and on and on.

Yet for all the pollution by modern culture, many of these fun times still retain some traditional feeling to them.   Despite what much has become, and given the long strides the Marxists have made, the last half of the year belongs to the likes of us.  We try to put Christ first, and encourage those who are seeking God and the common good.  We value the unique contribution to the world that Western Civilization has brought, including ideas of equality, democracy, liberty and the dignity of the human person.

We also appreciate the myriad traditions and cultural trappings that have come our way from a variety of sources.  We love other cultures and their traditions, too.  Recently, we've turned to Indian cooking and have been learning more about the Subcontinent and its long, interesting history. 

But we always go back to our own.  We do so proudly, understanding the sins of the past, cheering our ancestors' struggles and attempts to be better, and making sure our focus on traditions and the past don't blind us to the manifold sins and evils endorsed by our modern age.   We do that easiest when our boy's late June birthday marks a turning point in the year, away from those who despise our traditions and our heritage, and toward that half that still seems to lift those very traditions up, even if somewhat wearily.

That's what I meant by second half of the year types. 

An update on our medical Go Fund Me

First of all, thanks and blessings for all who have so generously contributed to the Go Fund Me for my son.  We've had to increase the amount because it looks like it's going to be a more extensive period of therapy and treatment than we thought.  While it's good news that it looks like there shouldn't be a need for surgery, the treatment and therapy, plus the medical equipment, will likely put the total well beyond the amount we initially imagined.

So please if you've given, spread the word.  Share the link to this or the Go Fund Me page here.  Thanks again so much, you can't know how much each display of generosity has  not only helped our family, but brought encouragement after such a long string of unfortunate occurrences in our life.  Your help and prayers will always be appreciated.

Take up the White Liberal's burden

Take up the White Man’s burden—

Send forth the best ye breed—

Go send your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need
Rudyard Kipling

So Donald McClarey ran with this story.  It's about one of our fine institutions of higher learning making it easier for minorities to succeed.

It dawned on me then what might be happening.  Like most sane people, I've puzzled about this whole 'wokeness' or 'virtue signaling' or whatever for years.  I've puzzled, and puzzled till my puzzler was sore. What is it with white liberals saying whites are ipso facto Nazi racists?  What is it with American liberals saying America is the most vile and racist nation in history?  What is it with liberal men saying women should rule because women are immaculate but men are lower than dirt?  What is it with liberal heterosexuals who insist those in the LGBTQ community are better than heterosexuals in every way?  What is it with liberal Christians who say Christianity alone is the source of all evil thought in the world?

It was a mystery.  Many theories have been floated by people far smarter than me.  But then I read through the article linked to over at The American Catholic.  And that's when it hit me.

The idea of multi-cultural education arose in an attempt to offset the damage done by Western Imperialists who only studied various cultures from their own Western, and often condescending, viewpoints.  Multi-cultural education would make it right. We would learn about all these cultures from their own cultural viewpoints.  After all, one of the signs of Western racism was the contempt for other people as somehow lower than the Western white man.  And that was the justification for things like colonialism, imperialism and slavery.

But if you read that piece and read it again, what do you notice?  Apparently, the school in question takes the same low viewpoint of minorities that the burdened white men did all those years ago.  Apparently, without a helping hand (from a liberal institution), the minorities just can't cut it.  And as I read that, I thought of all the times I hear about how we - our society, schools, institutions, companies, whatever - have to make it easier for the minority, the woman, the LGTBQ individual, and on and on.  They just can't do it without help.  They're inferior alright, but were made that way.  They are inferior, unlike white liberals, of course, who are here to save the day.   The white liberal's burden.

There is a caveat to this.  Unlike the old White Man's Burden, the white liberal man isn't out to save these people from the deplorable barbarism of their own savage cultures, or help them arise from their inherent inferiority.  Nope.  The white liberals are here to save minorities from the barbaric culture of their own white heritage, their own savage male ancestors, their own American culture, that has made the various minority groups into inferior Muggles who need the white liberal man's help.

Likewise, there is a little bit of quid pro quo.  It's still the white, or man, or heterosexual, or Christian who is bestowing this beneficent help by way of destroying their own deplorable heritage, and so there are a few things that these people are going to have to accept.  For instance, abortion, which keeps the much enjoyed sexual revolution on its feet.  Or secularism, which tends to put people's attention on the here and now rather than the hereafter (and by extension, beholden to those who can make the here and now better).  Or sexual openness.  Again, can't have a sexual revolution with sexual restrictions.  No matter what your cultural approach to sex is or religion, you'll need to accept the Western, secular liberal viewpoint. After all, they did save you from the barbarity you were reduced to by the heritage of the White Christian American Male.

This seems to fit.  It just came to me when I read that piece at TAC.  I haven't really fleshed it out yet. But it seems to answer the big questions.  Why?  Because not only is the white, American, heterosexual, male liberal the hero for taking out the worst cause of evil in the world, but those who have been so lifted up from the stereotypes that they were made to be are now beholden to their saviors - the white, American, heterosexual, male liberal.

That could also be why those same white, liberal, heterosexual, Christian men have no problem dumping racist and sexist and otherwise bigoted lingo on those oppressed minorities who don't stay in their appointed path to salvation.  That's why those liberals have no problem browbeating the woman who opposes abortion or  the black who dares vote Republican.    After all, only the white liberal can save them, so they are foolishly severing themselves from their only real hope.

I dunno,  but on first glance, it seems to cover all the bases and answer the questions that have riddled observers for several decades now about woke this and virtue signalling that. Whether this will put the people in the world at the service of the white liberal male once more, or the white liberals in question are merely sawing off the branch they're sitting on remains to be seen.  But I'll have to think more about this. Colonialism redux?  The White Liberal's Burden? I might be onto something.

A Catholic case against an Open Borders immigration policy

Here.  There you go.  Immigration isn't a fight I have much of a dog in.  There are immigrants in the area, and the various Churches I've belonged to - (Conservative) Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox - all have various levels of outreach and aid to help them out.  As for the legal cases, I'm bothered by the idea that laws are made for some people, but not others.  Especially when that distinction is based on where you come from, what you look like, and where you were born.

Nonetheless, I'm not living along the southern border, nor am I immigrating into America from south of the border.  I've grown leery of people dividing the sheep and goats based on lofty geopolitical issues with which they are not personally involved, or are not personally able to participate with beyond yelling on the Internet.

I merely notice that for reasons nobody has adequately explained, Democrats and liberals, many who were opposed to such open border immigration policies years ago, are now firmly behind them.  And let's be honest, when you shoot down any alternative that doesn't end with full amnesty and complete entry into our country no questions asked, that's open borders.

That's the first thing I notice, those clearly advocating something they refuse to admit they're advocating.  To me that is never a good sign.  The second is that many of the reasons liberals did oppose illegal immigration don't seem to have changed, yet the liberal position has.  So why the change?  The thing I notice is the usual tendency of the Left to plant the righteous and holy flag on the summit of their argument, and declare any who disagree to be human excrement scraped from Hitler's rectum.  Strike three in my book.

So read the above take.  It's a different viewpoint than that advocated by Catholic bishops, the pope, the Democrats, our liberal culture, and most socialist governments in Europe.   Therefore, it is rare.  But not necessarily wrong.  I'll leave you to decide.

Former Prime Minister of Canada speaks!

And wishes the approaching hurricane Dorian makes a direct hit on Trump's Mar-a-Lago:

Of course she tells critics to get a grip.  And heck, at least she's being honest by joining the growing number of those on the Left who proudly declare that all bets are off when it comes to defeating opponents of the Left.

Thank goodness it's conservatives who are the thoughtless, mean ones. 

The best observation about the upcoming movie Ad Astra

My second son said it best: "It just looks like that space movie coming out this year."

Yep.  With fealty to the dogmas of liberalism, as all art, film, music, literature and theater today must display.  More on that down the road. 

I just thought his appraisal of the movie as just 'that space movie' was funny.

The only thing more awesome than Sam Elliott

Is Sam Elliott recounting the harrowing tale of a veteran at Normandy on D-Day:

 

I missed that when we watched the event.  It gives me hope when I see people helping people despite race or religion; or showing up at church functions on a sunny Saturday (even if followed by a trip to the doctor's office); or join together to pray and lift our hearts to God; or gather together to celebrate, not damn, our nation or our cultural heritage.  I'm reminded that the vast majority of Americans don't want what the Left (or the extreme of any fringe movement) is selling.

Of course then I remember that the majority of Germans in 1932 likely wouldn't have wanted what was heading down their path either.  So there is that.  Nonetheless, I still prefer to hope and trust in God's ability to move the hearts of men and women of good will.

We need help

I have never done this before, though there have been times when help came our way.  For a long time I kept readers up with the string of ill fortune that continued to plague us as we made our way through conversion to the Catholic Church, even as the economy collapsed around us.  As a general rule, I posted those problems in the most vague manner possible, only a few times specifically saying what this or that problem was.  Over time, we've made progress, albeit at a snail's pace.  But it was enough progress to no longer feel the need to keep up to date with the latest issues.

Over the last few years we have been getting better, and things have improved.  We're slowing coming out of the pit we fell into when the economy collapsed, but only barely.  Enough not to revisit old laments.  But this time we have been hit just as we stood on the brink of almost getting ourselves back in the positive.

Our third son, while playing sports at a church picnic of all things, injured his leg.  Thankfully we don't think it will require surgery, but on top of a string of medical emergencies and household expenses and hospital bills stretching back to last autumn, it has pushed us over and onto the ledge of tumbling back down into the pit. My oldest son decided to put out a Go Fund Me page, and we updated it now since we - pray - that he won't need surgery.  Nonetheless, he's had to have MRIs, X-Rays, medical visits and doctor's visits, and with insurance being what it is, that means thousands of dollars out of pocket already.  Truth be told if he needs any physical therapy at all, the total cost easily will exceed the $5,000.00 mentioned.

So I'm doing what I've never done on this blog and asking for help.  Doesn't have to be much, even a single coin has music in it.  But feel free to share, spread the word, let others know, or whatever, about his Go Fund Me endeavor.  I realize that to some 5,000 just doesn't seem to be that much or worth the fuss.  But given the last ten years or so, it might as well be 5 million.  Plus it is the difference between finally coming out of the long crawl from the pit, and tumbling backwards to start all over again.

Thanks for any help you can.  Prayers are always appreciated, but in this case, financial help is as well. 

EWTN as the font of all evil

Well, not really.  But ETWN has certainly become the target of the Internet Catholic Apologists devoted to Pope Francis.

Funny.  Mark Shea was the first Catholic blog - the first blog - I ever visited or commented on.  My first comment was actually a dig at Fox News and the idea that Fox was some conservative bastion.  I think I wrote something to the effect of 'everything I ever wanted to know about porn stars, I learned on Fox News.'  I got my first push back on the Internet with that. Such was Mark's blog back then.

A few months after that, I remember Mark and some readers trashing the website called Fish Eaters.  That website was my online door into the Catholic Church.  It was laid out well, and had many links explaining the various parts of Catholic belief and living that, if you weren't raised in it, can be mighty overwhelming and confusing.  Since the parish we were entering had a sort of 'that went out with Vatican II' attitude, many of those little Catholic bells and whistles - like salvation through Jesus - were tough to come by.

Fish Eaters filled the gap nicely, though even I was able to tell the publishers of the website were not fans of the post-Vatican II Church.  Nonetheless, I remember being quite gobsmacked when Mark and his readers let loose a volley against the site, smacking it down with insults and accusations.  I came to its defense, rather poorly I'd imagine.  Not much came of my protests.

That brings me around to the observation that EWTN is now receiving far worse from this strange circle of Catholic Apologists that have coalesced under the pontificate of Pope Francis.  I notice that as more and more claim fealty to the current papacy, it gets meaner and less tolerant, more judgmental and, quite frankly, more like the tactics we hear in our modern culture as whole.  So Dawn Eden, who reaped the rewards of conversion as a former journalist turned Catholic, tweeted this:

Note the word 'Empire.'  That's a scare word.  We used words like that to describe things we don't like.  In this case, it suggests Darth Vader, ancient empires of conquest and slaughter, torchlight processionals in devotion to cults of personality.  It conjures images that are supposed to be bad.  It's often used by the modern Left and its media outlets, using words like 'nationalist', or 'empire', or 'hate', or 'big', or even 'white' as words meant to conjure one - exclusively bad - image.

That struck me.  This is EWTN.  I was down there once, when I worked for Coming Home Network.  Seemed like nice people to me.   Seemed pretty Catholic too, if not a bit on the pep rally side for Mother Angelica as if she was Bill Gates to Microsoft.  But a nice place altogether, whether you like food or sleep or just sitting around and thinking. 😉

I get that things change.  Look at Disney as megacorp devoted to the dogmas of the Leftist State.  Look at a growing number of megacorps using their financial power to crush America's heritage and even throw out feelers to America's opponents, not to mention the values opposed by those conservatives who have so long fought for Corporate interests.  That sort of thing happens.

But I can't help but notice those attacking ETWN sound so much like the mainstream Left when it attacks free thinkers who refuse to conform.  I think of how many of these Catholic apologist devotees use banning and censoring as a matter of course when people call them out.  I notice how many never did such things on a regular basis until they felt the need to become totally obedient to Pope Francis.  I mean, Dawn Eden was never like that in her discourse back in the day, nor was Deacon Greydanus quick to ban over disagreement. Dave Armstrong could be pretty high wired, but usually not against people who still clung to basic, orthodox Catholic teachings.  We won't even discuss some others.

More than that, however, I also notice how many of them simply act as if they are clearly the Catholics in the right, and the Catholics they are blasting are clearly the problem ones who simply aren't as spiritual or Christian or Catholic as they are.   But then, I remember Pope Francis himself isn't above such dividing of the Catholic sheep and goats, with him ever on the side of the sheep, so I wonder how strange it should be.

Good for Bernie Sanders

So David Koch, of the infamous Koch Brothers, died.  I'll be honest, I don't know much of him.  I know he is infamous because, despite being a multi-billionaire, he spent most of his time supporting the GOP and opposing Democrats.  Most big name billionaires today, of course, are hardcore Democrats all the way.  So naturally he had a very controversial reputation.

When news came that he died, there were several instances where people said what you can expect to be said nowadays, that they were glad he was dead.  Some rejoiced.  Some cast heaps of insults on him and laughed at the fact that the first of these two wretches would rot in the soil.

This is because, to them, he blasphemed the only god and gospel worth following.  By doing so, he showed himself to be a murderer and killer, a rapist and thief, a man who caused disease, famine, poverty, depression, suicide, and just about anything else bad.  How could he not?  Only the god of the Leftist State can bring hope and salvation, fix our problems and make right the world.  Knowing this, and refusing to follow the Left, he therefore could be called out as the evil killer of babies and the innocent that he was.

I don't know.  Maybe he was all those things.  Maybe in his spare time he raped women and murdered babies.  Maybe he was some crazy rare billionaire who made money by screwing the little guy and pocketing the extra money for himself.  Hard to believe, but it could be true. 

Nonetheless, as the Left becomes increasingly open in its hatred of those who fail to worship at the altar of its god, and increasingly brazen about calling for the eradication of rights, liberties and even lives of those who dare question the efficacy of the left's economy of salvation, it's been a bit chilling hearing the cheers and celebrations that were once reserved for the death of an Osama bin Laden or Adolf Hitler.  In fact, I remember a time when people chastised those who cheered the death of Osama bin Laden.  We are supposed to be past that; too civilized to cheer the death of a fellow human being no matter what he did.  Ah, another case of here today, gone later today ethics that we've come to expect in our post-modern world.

So kudos to Bernie Sanders who, as a crowd at one of his events broke into cheers and great rejoicing over the death of that murderous bastard Koch, told them to cease and desist.  Maybe it's his age, or maybe as fanatical a socialist leftist he is, he still draws a line between his left-wing politics and the new god of the Left, but he did right by my book.  And when someone is in the right, he deserves a thumbs up.  Something apparently Koch never was, given how few of those on the Left - Christian or otherwise - seem to have even a scrap of good to say about him.

Making antisemitism big again

So Trump is Hitler once more.  And Messiah.  I thought I'd start with the above graphic to remind us of a time when 'Chosen One' lingo was all the rage.   I know, I know.  Obama never said it about himself.  He didn't have to.  He had the press and pop culture venues to say it for him.  In another example of the 'good cop/bad cop' the media culture have played with the Democrats for several decades now, Obama (who did little to thwart the Messiah worship) could sit back and let the pundits, the press, and the performers declare him the man Jesus had hoped to be.

In fairness, Mark Shea made much mockery of it back in the day, as did I.  I bring up Mark, because he has jumped on the Trump as Hitler and Nazi racists on the march! hysteria that erupted since Trump's statements in the wake of the whole Israel travel ban kerfuffle.  Apparently it's because the word disloyal is an old code word used against Jews from time immemorial. 

For the record, I don't care for this new 'dog whistle words and phrases' fad that is all the rage.  The idea that if you use a word or phrase once used by evil people to promote evil, you must be Hitler, seems to be trouble in the making.  Every day a new group of words and phrases are dumped on the pile that, if used by people of a particular ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or religion, can only mean 'Hitler!'.  From the words 'Owner', 'Radical', 'Thug', 'Rebel', and 'Disloyalty', to miners and chimney sweeps with ash on their faces, to suggesting women coworkers smile, to green frogs, there seems to be no end to the things that will mark you with the Irredeemable Deplorable label.

Not only is this a good way of shutting down free speech without officially doing so, its application is also radically inconsistent.  And that brings us to the real Devil in the details.  So Mark posted this giant 'Trump as Antichrist Hitler, Nazis are everywhere!' post again, highlighting Trump's Chosen One comments and his 'Disloyalty' statement.  Hitler no doubt.  Heck, Dan Rather say so, it must be true!

And yet, where was Mark's blog post blasting Ilhan Omar's nakedly antisemitic rhetoric that was never officially condemned by the Democrats (or Rather's for that matter)?  It wasn't like it was just Fox News that fussed.  Jewish groups and activists, including the vaunted Anti-Defamation League, called out her statements as racist.  And yet from so much of the press, the punditry, and Mark, we had - silence, or limp-wristed debates about her statements at best.  The only blog post I found on Mark's site about Omar, in fact, praised her stance on the Death Penalty.

You see, that's one of the great evils of our age; a truly Satanic contribution to the ailments of modernity.  Granted, it isn't anything new.  Nor is it something uniquely to the left of the political center.  We all have that tendency to yell loudest when the bad call goes against our team.  Sometimes we are happy to ignore the bad calls when they help our team.  Unfortunately, that tribalist partisanship can seep like sewage into the heart and soul of a nation, especially one as divided as ours.  It becomes even worse when it is not some one-off pundit, but the whole of the national press, popular culture, and political establishment supporting this trend.

Suddenly, it's not just yellow flags we're being inconsistent with, but human life, evil, suffering, death.  We hear kids are being teargassed along the border, but suddenly drop it if we can  no longer exploit it.  News breaks that a little black girl has been killed by a white man in a pickup truck, and we spend days contemplating Trump's nation of racism.  When we find out the girl was actually killed by two black men in a drug deal gone sour, however, we drop her like a hot potato as if she never existed.  Or we become outraged as words or phrases are used that we insist are really code words for Nazi white supremacy - when it's the other team using them. When it's ours, or the wrong ethnicity?  Well, a slap on the wrist, perhaps a debate, it's all too complex, isn't bigotry everywhere, America is a racist nation, and so on, and so on, and scooby dooby doo.

That's the great evil here.  Flagrant partisan politics is always a problem, and those dropping a load over  Trump's Chosen One comments need to wonder where their outrage was when Obama lapped up the God-worship he received.  That's just politics.

But when we begin not caring about human suffering, evil, and the bedrock of future atrocities simply because it isn't convenient, then we are laying the ground work for a major societal train wreck heading our way.  If we insist something like antisemitism is the crisis of our age, and yet do almost nothing about it when it comes  from the side we promote or align with, then there's fair reason to think we don't really care about antisemitism at all.  And that is far worse, and far more evil, than any rambling incoherence from the Tweets of Donald Trump, however antisemitic they happen to be.

FWIW, we won't even discuss pouring Jesus on it all in the hopes that we learn Jesus, too, would first ask what skin color is involved or which political party benefits before assigning sheep or goat status. That's for another post on recognizing heresy when you see it.

In honor of National Banana Split Day

It was a strange show, but I remember watching it as a kid. 

Young Turks and the Hitler Youth of tomorrow

It's been said that today's radical Alt-Left youth bear striking resemblances to the Hitler Youth of the 30s.  They've been told who to hate.  They've been told their own moral and intellectual superiority is unquestionable.  They've been taught contempt and loathing for those who dare question their rightful place in society's highest chambers from which to rule on high.  They've been assured that the world exists merely to bow before their unparalleled awesomeness.  And they're being taught that things like liberty, freedom and even life are only worth anything when it serves their superior interests.

Few mainstream - if you can call it that - outlets exemplify these attitudes more than the network called Young Turks.  It's a far left, radical pseudo-Bolshevik, anti-American sounding board designed to sway youth into the above way of thinking.

Many, such as I, became aware of them by their legendary meltdown after Trump's victory in 2016.  It's hilarious viewing to be sure.  Watching people so assured of their moral and intellectual superiority and the debt the world owes their awesomeness have a complete collapse when things don't go their way has a certain schadenfreude quality all its own.

Yet in that video there are also signs of the Left's pure evil, most notably in the ease with which they speak of and condemn people based on categories of race, gender and political identity.  Without a sense of irony, they speak of the groups they despise in ways that Hess or Goebbels spoke of Jews.

So when a story like this comes by, I have no problem believing it is true.  I am not shocked when, upon researching, I discover it it true and more than true, even if most MSM outlets are avoiding it like the plague.  After all, this 'network' is a group teaching young people to hate.  To be arrogant and prideful.  To mock, if not rejoice in, the suffering and pain and even death of the ever growing number of assigned demographic categories they are learning to despise.

They also remind us that for many on the Left, there is little doubt that the only reason they hate Trump and condemn the things they accuse Trump of saying is because he has an (R) rather than a (D) in front of his name.  Based on how they, and a growing number of leftist partisans, behave and react, it's impossible to think they really despise Trump on anything close to a principle.

FWIW, it looks like Crenshaw responded.  While politics is not religion, and the State is not the Church, I ask you: who would you side with?  A foul mouthed, hateful person spewing contempt on the dead and mocking the wounded, or someone who replies with grace, dignity and restraint?  Whoever the New Prolife Christian would side with, I know who I will side with.  Oh, and spare me the old 'I'm just a comedian' dodge.  If you spew hatred, have the guts to rise up and stand with it.  After all, Hess and Goebbels did.

One victory for the Constitution

Against the forces of the Left. 

One of the most laughable outrages aimed at Trump is that he's a threat to the Constitution.  This outrage is from the same Left peddling the NYT's The 1619 Project, meant to portray the entire American experiment as a giant, racist, genocidal slave holding corporation.   That approach has yielded the growing number of young'uns who think it's time to ditch the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all that pesky freedom, liberty, due process and presumption of innocence rubbish.  That they somehow are outraged that Trump is a threat to the very thing they're encouraging people to dismantle is one of the most hilariously twisted and moronic developments in the modern era.  And that's saying something.

But this is at least a momentary victory against crybaby Democrats and progressives who will insist the rules need changed or thrown out the window when they don't get their way. What do you expect from a movement that watched the following clip and must have concluded that the little boy with the bicycle was the hero:

You have to admit this is cool

House Democrats most certainly won’t want to give the President a political win going into the election year

That is a quote from NBC this morning, talking about Trump's musing on more tax cuts and the looming recession. 

I think we can safely say that, like the 2000s and the Bush years, the president's critics are pining for an economic collapse.  If what NBC said is true, then it's only because it might help beat Trump. 

I personally think anyone stupid or dishonest enough to say that Trump's critics - including "conservative" Never-Trumpers - aren't hoping and praying for economic ruin in order to take down Trump isn't someone worth listening to. 

I'll say no more.  The obvious should speak for itself.

Why sane people don't trust the Gun Control movement

Exhibit A.  A law that would add a financial burden on gun ownership meant merely to add a financial burden on gun ownership.  Of course the good news is that such measures meant to make gun ownership too expensive will ensure that only the wealthiest Americans on the coasts who get invited to the best parties in Manhattan and Hollywood will be able to afford guns.  Those rejoicing in this as a way to make gun ownership all but impossible (for anyone but the wealthy) are letting their ulterior motive slips show.

Reminds me of this scene (language warning):

Right.  We're not going to take your guns away!  You didn't let us finish our sentence.  We said we're not going to take your guns away ...

In addition to so much BS behind the gun control hysteria, the fact that our politicians are being compelled to ramrod gun policies of questionable effectiveness based on false premises, contradictory promises and conflicting data is troubling enough.  Add to it the obvious lie of 'nobody wants to take away your guns' and only a fool would fail to question their motives.

Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential candidates stumble over each other to figure out who can do more to tear down the whole American system so that they can go after the bad guys.  Kirsten Gillibrand makes it clear the Supreme Court could be rebuilt in the Left's image, while others are offering their own takes on just how much America we need to keep in order to put an end to all this dissension.

So I'm sorry.  We'll put 'nobody wants to take away your guns' right up with 'we'll only censor those evil Nazis over there', 'we want a non-politicized court' and 'nobody will be punished for opposing gay marriage' on the growing list of lies spewed by the Left.

Delusional racism of the modern Left

As I've said, White is the new Jew for the Left.  Just take Nazi speeches from the 1930s, scratch out 'Jew' wherever it appears, and replace it with 'White', and you'll barely miss a syllable.  For whites, it is the ultimate penance, to agree that their white skin is the source of their evil, like a disease or an infection cured only through repentance and obeisance before the Leftist State.

So this is the poor woman who's daughter was killed in the Charlottesville riots a couple years ago.  A tragedy to be sure, but not the discount Holocaust that the leftist propaganda ministry has made it.  Nonetheless, it is one of those landmarks in the Left's trail of blood that traces the suffering of humanity through the bilge of the evil Christian West and its bastard child America.

The mother is interviewed and you know what?  She says she still gets support after all this time.  The problem?  Instead of just being thankful that people care, she turns it into an indictment on her own skin color, saying the only reason people care like this is because she is white.  She lists Trayvon Martin (who I just saw a story about a few weeks ago), and Eric Garner's family (who was in the news recently and featured much support for justice for him and his family) as examples of people who likely don't have the kind of support she has.  Once again, the leftist narrative runs smack into the facts and truth of the real world. 

Sure, my heart breaks for her.  No mother should go through what she has gone through. And I cut her some slack.  I don't know how balanced I would be after losing a child under any circumstances. But I don't care if a grand dragon of the KKK lost a child or a Nazi death camp guard had a terminally ill spouse.  Evil is still evil.  And she has completely embraced a form of racism that is barely two generations old, but as evil as any that is centuries old.

Think on that. Those who hate blacks and embrace racist attitudes toward blacks inherited centuries of racist ideals and perspectives.  Those who hated Jews were building upon a form of bigotry measured in the thousands of years.  But those embracing this latest form of racism have no such excuse.  It simply didn't exist until recently.  Many of the older Americans embracing this would have been alive when there was no such attitude.  So they are without excuse. 

How most Trump supporters really see Trump

And his conflict with the the Left:

Yep.   Most see the Left playing with a stacked deck; a rigged game.  The press and the Left is, to them, one and the same, like Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  They see the duplicity, collusion, dishonesty, arrogance verging on hubris, and the naked propaganda and lies dedicated to tearing down what they value and replacing it with tyranny, nihilism, debauchery, bigotry and a wanton disregard for the consequences of its own ideals.  They see the grandstanding and falsehoods, the BS and idiocy, and those foolishness of those on the Left as they sit around and congratulate themselves for their unwarranted moral and intellectual infallibility and superiority.

They see in Trump someone willing to play as down and dirty and mean as they've watched progressives and the Left play for decades.  It may take a few beatings.  It may take a few punches.  But they see Trump come back swinging and, in many cases, winning.  And like Elmer in the cartoon, they're hoping when it's all over, he will win and put the grand conspiracy against the Christian West in its place.  Given what's at stake, at least on this side of heaven, that's not bad considering the opposition to God, life and liberty that this emergent Left represents.

The era of post-Christian secular pelagianism

On display:

Yep.  When a paid Catholic apologist mocks the idea that the core of our problems is our relationship to God (in part by accepting ludicrous partisan bilge that ignores facts and human suffering around the world when not convenient), then it's time to consider plumbing for a career.

But then, in fairness, how is he different than most voices in the Faith today - Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox?  How many would stick to this claim, preferring more scientific, cultural, sociological, psychological, political, or other material causes and effects and (of course) solutions?  You can't blame one apologist when he merely echoes the overwhelming majority of voices that pine for the world's horses and chariots to fix our problems.

Bonus: Is there something particularly wrong about referring to traditional orthodox Christian understandings of the world's problems and our relationship to God as 'mystical mumbo jumbo'?

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.  
Psalm 20.7

Ohio Republican Party Chairwoman Jane Murphy Timken throws truth under the bus

Why I don't support the GOP in a nutshell.  This woman, Candice Keller, said what is obvious to sane people - that the moral collapse of our nation is at least a major factor in the rise of the violent acts we're seeing.  She also said what many Republicans and conservatives are more than happy to say behind the scenes.  But let the cameras roll, and what do 70% of Republicans do?  Just what Jane Murphy Timken is doing, and that's turn on their fellows so that the Progressives won't say mean things to them.  Embarrassingly pathetic.

My thoughts on the shootings this weekend

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, c wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, d unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.  Romans 1: 28-32

Someday the Church will wake up and stop being everything it can be but the Church.  Right now, we have a Church of the subjective opinion.  One religion is as good as another.  Ours might have a little more, but it's hardly worth dwelling on.  Be a swell person, do good things, and apparently focus on our own individual awesomeness, and we're pretty much to go.  After all, God's the happy God of love and wouldn't have us do things like offend others with notions of exclusive revelations of eternal truths.  And that's a more mainline view of our Faith nowadays.  We won't get into those traditions and groups that have all but abandoned the historical Faith while still calling themselves Christian. 

No.  It's time we reclaim our truth claims.  That doesn't mean everyone outside of the fence will burn. It does mean everyone outside the fence is wrong.  A nation or people taking great pride in jettisoning the truth of God's revelation can expect nothing more than what we saw this weekend.  In fact, it's a miracle of God's divine spark within us that we so seldom witness such things.  

The World will be scurrying about for the next few days, making hay from this, advancing agendas, insisting their horses and chariots are the only hope for our salvation.  And in some cases, an idea or a proposal might do some good.  But it will be a bandage on an amputation at best.  It might momentarily stop a few things that lead to the bodily death of the innocent.  But it won't stem the tidal wave of death encroaching on the world, nor will it help the souls of the innocent.  

I realize that Christian societies at their best have never been equal to God's Kingdom.  I get that the Christian tradition has been honored as much in the ignoring as in the practice.  But it's one thing to have the ideal and fail to grasp it, it's quite another to altogether jettison the ideal.  We live in an age where the World would have us abandon our truth claims, and other religions would do the same.  So far, we've been happy to oblige, no matter what the visible cost. 

Whenever the Church has lived out its commission in an imperfect way, we can look back and see the results.  How much more disastrous will it be when the Faith has abandoned its charge altogether for the sake of getting along with others who have no intention of abandoning their own erroneous beliefs?  After all, it's not just our biological lives that matter.  I wonder if sometimes we forget that.  It's about the whole person: mind, heart, body and soul.  If we really believe that, then we'll get back to the foundation of the only thing that can save us in the way we need wholly saved.

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Matthew 10.28