Washington Post congratulates China on lasting longer than the Soviet Union

I just thought it interesting.   The way in which the national press treats Communism, for kudos for women's rights to well done USSR for being more diverse in your space program than the always racist US, you just can't miss the love.  Even when some of the uglier points are pointed out, it's always in the wrapping of 'well done, you're better than we were' vibes. 

Update on the Impeachment scandal

OK, so here.

As I see it, so far, we have the accusation that President Trump tried to do something to the Ukrainian president that the Ukrainian president says he didn't do.

And we have accusations that there was a cover up to hide this fact.

We don't know what President Trump did exactly in that call that should warrant impeachment.  We have accusations of his motives, and his intentions, and those look pretty bad.  But we don't really have 'Here is Law X that he broke.'

As for the cover up, we don't even know for sure there was one.  If there was, I would think we need some evidence that President Trump was the one who ordered it in order to convict President Trump.


As I've said over the last three years throughout the myriad stories insisting there was proof Trump needs impeached: if there is proof he did something impeachable, then impeach him.  Otherwise, being someone who didn't give liberals want they want is not a good enough reason to impeach him.  Nor is being a really bad person. 

Right now, there could be enough to look into it.  Hey, investigations are almost 24/7 now, why not have another one?

But as of now, there doesn't look like enough, by my meager understanding, to impeach him for anything other than the high crime of winning the 2016 election and not giving the Left what it wants.  After all, the entire essence of the Left is promising everyone they can have whatever they want, and then tearing down any part of reality that results in bad consequences of everyone trying to get everything they want.

In fact, the Left's growing disdain for antiquated notions like forgiveness, due process, burden of proof and presumption of innocence (not to mention the growing number of young'uns who identity with the Left who are tired of such racist notions as truth, tolerance, math, the Constitution, freedom of speech and religious liberty), I'm pretty sure that at his worst so far, President Trump is the last thing we really need to worry about.

Unless, of course, actual proof can be produced that demonstrates otherwise.

Young Greta Thunberg demonstrates the post-forgiveness Left

I don't want to wade to strongly into the Greta is god movement being pushed by the Left.  It is what it is.  Global Warming is like most things today, a servant of the emergent Left, a new secular paganism that promises the world to me, and assures me that the upcoming gulags and gas chambers will only be for thee. 

As I wrote here, young Ms. Thunberg, daughter of two well to do celebrities, is out pushing for policies and changes that will likely hurt a great many people other than those who live like young Ms. Thunberg and her parents.  That's about par for the course.  After all, we live in a world that proudly says 36 million dead from AIDS is a small price to pay for a better sex life for me.

The interesting thing is how she, like so many of the Parkland gun activists, flaunt such antiquated notions as forgiveness, humility and love.  Forgiveness?  Where does that stand today?  Sex crimes, racism, failing to get in line behind gun control movements, and now failing to do something about Global Warming?  These are the sins Jesus can't forgive, so no sense forgiving them ourselves.

Of course most of the world rejects Jesus and the Gospel.  It shouldn't be surprising that one of the highest distinctives of the Christian Gospel - the mandate of forgiveness - would be so quick to go.  Forgiveness has never been a universal principle.  Now it is something being openly dismissed.

Like Truth, or Good and Evil, or even Math, Forgiveness may well go the way of other things deemed evil constructs of white racist European colonial civilization.  And given the number of Christians who seem fine with Ms. Thunberg with no qualifiers, as well as the other unforgivable sins being piled upon each other,  it's not hard to think forgiveness is something we will see far less of in the years to come.  And like the millions of dead from AIDS, we may well wear it as a badge of heroism that jettisoned such a useless and counterproductive notions as forgiveness in order to make this a better world for me to live in. 

An updated thought on the Ukraine whistle blower scandal

OK, so I have no new news.  I have no clue what is going on.  This thing has changed more in tone and direction than a ping pong ball in a ping pong match.

But here's a hunch.  I think Trump is in trouble.  His 'screw the machine, I'm going rogue' approach may have finally caught up to him.  The reason I think this is because many who typically rally to his defense aren't.  Even some hardcore Trump supporters I know or keep up with are strangely silent.

After the transcript of the phone call was released, many pounced on it since it didn't seem to suggest that Trump had done what the initial media frenzy suggested.  It didn't help that Adam Schiff was out saying Trump admitted he threatened Ukraine if it didn't manufacture evidence against Biden.  Trump said no such thing, and neither did anyone else.

By this morning, even the morning CBS anchors were saying they were confused.  Either it was the scandal of the century or nothing to see. 

But now, I'm seeing more and more come forward and say something seriously went down.  Those who are Trump's most fanatical followers are, at least as of this post, strangely quiet. 

To me, it looks like Trump may have gone too far, unless there is some big hunk of missing evidence, or the accusations turn out - as they admittedly have many times - to be bunk.  At their face value, with what is being said about Trump's actions and the cover up, we have a problem.

Of course we have had problems, and this is the latest development.  We are dealing with a Cold Civil War between those on the Left on one side, who want to burn the Christian Faith, the Christian West and the American Experiment to ashes and rebuild it all in a pseudo-Marxist, Leninist, Socialist dream of a one world, secular order based on material priorities and secular ideals.  They are running the who in our educational institutions, colleges, most of the entertainment and arts community, the press and a sizable portion of our government (not to mention a growing number of religious traditions).  It's also worth noting that the majority of government workers tend to implicitly support this since the GOP and Conservatives have wisely made reducing the government (and hence, laying off or terminating thousands of those same government workers) a major party platform.

So it isn't surprising to notice that we've had serious stories about government workers using their positions to undercut the election or president they don't like.  It's also not surprising that the various institutions like the press have done very little to focus on such infractions.  It is also not surprising that someone like Donald Trump would then see this as validation for his paranoia, and move forward with the notion that since everyone is against him, all bets are off, and he has to fight the civil war alone with any weapons possible.   If it benefits him personally, all the better.

The other side of this Cold Civil War is the ever shrinking group that thinks Christian Western Civilization and America's heritage were great gifts to the long, sad history of humanity.  While there are certainly many evils and sins from these, there are none that are not common in some form or another to the rest of the world.  Therefore, they tend to take a forgive and forget view, learn from the past, but let bygones be bygones approach to the sins and evils of the past. They focus on the fact that we have changed, generally for the positive, and that is more than enough reason to preserve the civilization that brought us here.

They also, however, feel the changes has gone too far, and we are now drifting from the roots and foundations of the civilization at hand.  They believe that there is no reason to think there are other cultures that will rush in to fill the happy void of democracy, liberty, dignity of the human person, equality and freedom that the Christian West brought to the world.  And they are increasingly worried as more and more of our cultural institutions push to all but abolish the foundations of the West, and more and more those who once called themselves conservative join the call to go post-Western and even post-Christian.

They are the ones, by and large, that have stayed with Trump.  Even now, I'm sure they can point out why Trump would do such a thing, assuming the best spin possible.  I just notice they aren't. 

Just a quick ramble and observation, take it for what it's worth.

Allow me to paraphrase

If you don't vote the way I do, you're a sinner.

Sometimes brevity is the soul of truth.

Remember, as I pointed out here, Mark happily joined the Left's ripping of the teenagers from Covington High school, dismissing angst over the death threats and downplaying the accusations of them being racists and Nazis (that were found to have been based on a false accusation by an American Indian activist).

So any other paraphrase doesn't appear to fit, since it's obviously not the trashing of teenagers or comparing them to Nazis that, in itself, sets his teeth on edge.

Suggestions for youth who are panicking about Global Warming

Yep.  And I could add more.  I've often told my sons about going to school without air conditioning, or not having it as I grew up.  Heck, my parents wouldn't use air-conditioning even if the house we moved into had it, unless the temps got up to bright side of Mercury level heat.   All in all, with few exceptions, we had no more in terms of electronics and pollution than my parents did in the 30s.  We had TV, and they didn't.  We had cassette players and they had only record players.  They had electric stoves and refrigerators and washers and driers as we did.  I don't think we had a dish washer until I was out of college.  We did have a microwave.  That's about it.

Now, of course, most of what we have is plugged into something.  We have phones - needing electricity and hence power, and computers or laptops or tablets - needing electricity and hence power; we have televisions as always, and multiple electronic devices.  I know of no modern buildings that don't have air conditioning and that don't use it.  I see lighting for decorations, massive lighting displays on a variety of holidays, not to mention the sheer size and volume of electronic everything today.  Of course this doesn't include video games and computer games and other electronic equipment that chew up far more carbon than our old ball bats and footballs from back in the day (it's worth noting I saw a story on the decline of interest among up and coming generations in things like sports).

I've said a thousand times that I absolutely believe it when scientists say STEM has caused climate change.  Every day I become more and more convinced that the way in which we approached the scientific revolution and subsequent industrial and technological revolutions reminds me of a couple kids finding the keys to their parents' liquor cabinet while the parents are away.

Sure, at first, it looked all peaches and cream.  Everything could be solved by science and math, and industry and technology will fix all the problems.  Give it all a blank check and we'll fix the world.  Though even at the beginning, there were those who expressed concern about either the physical changes, or at least the social ones.

But now, after the last century, after a growing list of problems attributed to various forms of the STEM family, at seeing the limits of science, and how often the scientists and experts and researchers of the past ended up being wrong, you'd think we'd be rethinking the whole thing.

Instead, it's as if those kids with the keys to the liquor cabinet woke up with a horrible hangover from drinking too much whisky, admitted it was the whisky, and are now hellbent on drinking yet more whiskey to make them feel better.

As it is, if we are really serious about his being the crisis of all history and the world will be destroyed by 2100, then we would be making serious, radical and all-bets-are-off changes - including changes that impact ourselves.  Instead, we are seeing people who want others to do the suffering so they can go on living a life that has brought us - per the science - to the very crisis they're panicking about.

Pope Francis calls for an end to the word Rigid to describe Christians

Yep, says so right here in this story.  Apparently Pope Francis, who is no stranger to letting zingers fly at those he considers to be the cause of problems in the world, has called on us to stop using so many zingers to describe people.  He calls them adjectives, and says they are not useful for naming people. 

I get the point.  Adjectives wrongly used can be a backhanded way of condemning or judging people.  Nonetheless, it would be nice if he would lead by example.  No world religious leader in my lifetime has ever existed so strongly in the 'do as I preach, not as I do' plane of ministry as I've seen in Pope Francis.

In fact, that is one of my biggest beef with the man. I'll let sharper minds than mine hash out how much he is  or isn't changing Catholic teaching, or if Catholic teaching can ever be changed or if it's always just developing doctrine.  But by my eyes, I've seen few outside of some fundamentalist and hardcore liberal camps as quick to judge as the pope who became famous for asking who he is to judge.

I get pope and all, but I'm not aware that being pope means never having to live by the standards he, or God, expects of others.

The thing about young Greta Thunberg

Stop insulting her.  You can take on the content of what she is saying.  You can take on, as I did, the Fortunate Son vibe of wealthy celebrities and their children flying around the world demanding change that will increase the burden and likely harm the lower middle class and working blue collar types already slipping down the economic ladder.

But don't make fun.  Don't insult.  Yes, I get the frustration. It's a tactic hardly unique to the Left, but like all things, because the Left and the media are one and the same, the obvious isn't critiqued like it is if the same tactic is used by the Right.  Let someone on the Right bring out some kid, some handicapped individual, some grieving parent, and who cares?  At best what they are advocating (non liberal ideals) will still be attacked.  At worst, they will be, or at least the Right (or non-liberal cause) will be attacked for exploiting people like kids or grieving parents.

Let those on the Left do the same, however, and the mass media culture will weep and rejoice and celebrate and make heroes out of whoever is advocating the leftist cause of the day.  I get how frustrating it is.

I also get how horrible it is to watch a generation of children terrorized by these wealthy activists who have presented no intention of giving up anything significant for the cause.  These kids are being told from every side that they are about to die.  They are going to die horribly and bloody.  And they are hearing it from movies, television, music, awards shows, schools, college professors, scientists, politicians, religious leaders, even the pope.

I remember being told if you had made it through puberty, then you had best get laid fast since Reagan was in the White House and nuclear annihilation of humanity was inevitable.  Really.  The television movie The Day After was simply a large scale propaganda piece meant to scare the bejeezus out of a generation of youngsters who were convinced nuclear war was months, weeks or even days away.  So I know how it feels to have everywhere you look be a giant sign saying 'You're going to die! (now quick, give us power and more grant money!)'

Nonetheless, the way to answer this isn't to insult her, no matter how light hearted you think your'e being.  This is the Left.  They can spit on, mock, attack, insult, blaspheme  or crap on whatever they want and if you don't like it then screw you.  But let someone throw out a light hearetd dig at her appearance looking like a movie character, and it's the Holocaust all over (or the usual barrage of homophobe, sexist, racist, Nazi accusations that we're used to from the Left).  As my sons said, arguing with liberals is like playing a game of Monopoly with someone who keeps throwing pots and pans at you.

So just don't lower yourself to any level, theirs or otherwise.  It won't help, it will become a distraction, and it will be used by the Left to take an entirely unwarranted moral high ground since now you've made fun of a sweet, innocent girl who is only in fear of her very life.

Oh, and just to clarify.  I don't think it is appropriate to simply insult the girl or tear her down personally.  Nor should we dismiss her concerns if she has received death threats or any such things (at least on a credible level).  There is enough substance to go after, and that includes the substance of her testimony and her lifestyle versus the sacrifice she demands of others.  It also includes her boast to never forgive.  But making fun of her looks or trashing her personally as some horrible minion this or that?  No.  Keep it on the substance of the topic at hand.

UPDATE: Once again, as if on cue.  Mark is, of course, a radical Leftist partisan who divides the world between the sheep and the goats based upon how one votes.  Hence my point.  Greta deserves a Nobel Prize, and all who have blasted her call for policies that will hurt the poor so she can remind us that with the emergent Left, there is only F**k forgiveness, are worse than the worst.  Yes, he and his readers will let fly on every level at those who dare disagree.  Those advocating the heresies for blasphemous debauchery and narcissism in the hopes of a secular police state dedicating to eradicating freedoms and liberties must play fast and loose with fair play.  Hence my point above.  In Mark's case, once again he's merely a freakishly radical version of what you will see across the Left.  Sometimes when dealing with children, remaining the adult in the room can be the only hope for moving forward.

UPDATE II: Hypocrisy alert:

Yep.  When good Whole Life Christians joined in and ripped the young teenager to shreds, trashing him and even standing by when he received death threats because his skin color made his guilt clear (it was later shown that all accusations against him and the other students were false).  Again, trouble figuring out how Christians could fall into line with the powers that be in Germany, c. 1930s?  Look no further than the euphemistically titled 'New Prolife Christians.'

Fighting to reclaim the family

So a suit has been filed against the constitutionality of No Fault Divorce.  In the annals of history, NFD will go down as one of the sledgehammers that crushed the Christian West and brought forth the misery and suffering we are witnessing.  

Sadly, Christians went along with the trend, and by the time I was in ministry, most had conceded that marriage is about good sex and focusing on what I can get out of it as a first priority.  After all, Oprah Winfrey said so, and Dr. Phil agreed, so it must be true.

In fairness, by the time I left ministry to enter the Catholic Church in 2005, there was some grumbling in the Protestant world that we had dropped the ball where divorce is concerned.  Given the overwhelming evidence demonstrating the problems that divorce imposes on children and, hence, society, perhaps Christians were too quick to accept it as just the natural development of an ever evolving enlightenment. 

Gay marriage activists are quick to point out the divorce rates among traditional marriage.  What they fail to grasp is that it was the Church that fought against divorce, and turned out to be correct in doing so.  It's just that by the time it was fighting divorce, it had already conceded so much of an atheist universe with material problems and material solutions.  Except you shouldn't be divorced.

It didn't work.  Whether this lawsuit will work I don't know.  But we had best start walking it backward and trying to find out when the Church went off the rails with the world.  It wasn't when we threw in the towel on no fault divorce.  It wasn't when we conceded that sex should be whatever two consenting adults want.  It wasn't even when we said women should put their interests first and build the family around it later.  Somewhere before all that, the Church was bedazzled by the railroads and medicines and bridges and  factories and concluded that's where the answers are.  As we're watching it collapse, it might be time to admit where we were wrong, and remind the world of where Christianity was so right. 

Dies Irae is everywhere

An interesting video from none other than Vox:

Proving that even a broken clock is right twice a day.  I've heard variations on this point before, and I remember a fellow who was a music theory wiz explaining a similar point some years ago.  Interesting stuff.  A reminder of just how much the Christian Creation undergirds the world we've inherited.  For now.

A joke courtesy of our youngest

Q: "What split Rome in half?"

A: "A pair of Caesars." 


Not bad. Shows some basic subject knowledge and the ability to play on words (he's actually quite good at the old word play).  Won't say it's because of homeschooling, but it looks like homeschooling hasn't hurt.

The student climate change protests in a nutshell

Yep:

It may be the end of the planet, but don't expect us to give up a good weekend.  The whole Global Warming movement is becoming the farce of the ages.  Not that there isn't truth to the fact that STEM has harmed the environment.  But that's hell and gone from the lesson we're taking away from this.

Nope.  As I said here, it's yet one more 'please make changes that will hurt other people in order to make this a better place for me to live' cause of the ages.  This is accomplished by some of the most glaring hypocrisy and stupid assumptions imaginable.  Remember, one of the key mantras of the Global Warming movement is that it's true because the majority of scientists who are good people say so.  The ones who disagree are the bad people.

Think on that.  How stupid would you have to be to believe that?  And yet from the pope to presidents and world leaders to celebrities and even delivery truck drivers, it is as true as boys will be girls.  Such is the most educated and scientifically advanced generation in history.

The Left's Twitter lynch mob and Tim Tebow

So the big debate is over whether or not to pay college athletes.  True, it's a big business, as is college in general, and the main concern is money, money, money.  But many feel there are still some values in sports and college that don't have to do with getting the all glorious dollar bill for me, myself and I.

Naturally, Tim Tebow - considered by some to be one of the greatest college football players of all time - is against this idea of paying athletes.  And as can be expected, he feels it is due to the many ways sports can build you as a person and that college benefits you that could be lost if it's all about getting a paycheck.

So just as naturally, the witch hunting lynch mob of the Left descended on him en masse and accused him of being a racist.  What?  Nobody is saying only black athletes ... but wait.  We live in one of the most stupid and unhinged eras in human history.  It took the most educated generation of all time to achieve this goal.  What is actually true and factual is hardly the point. One need only read the rants and ramblings of someone like Mark Shea to realize we have long left the world of Truth, and rest instead on rage, being offended, more rage, insults and accusations, followed by rage and unhinged rants as the way to deal with almost anything.

Some, of course, threw in other insults, like Tebow being a professed virgin, or that he, I don't know, gives money to help poor and homeless people and children?  I'm not sure anything matters or anything counts.  We've raised a generation that makes the Hitler Youth seem balanced and restrained by comparison.  There is no need for logic or truth or facts, there is only rage and being triggered.  It's goal is the destruction of Christianity, the Christian West and the American Experiment.  That is all you need.  God help us.

Americans need to get over forgiving people

Mark Shea explains.  Once again Mark makes it clear that old, antiquated Christian morals have no place in the new era of the Leftist State.  Forgiveness is for white racists, apparently as is reconciliation, humility and redemption.  So people want descendants of slaves to 'get over it' (that is, move on and understand all peoples have their skeletons and their victims, so forgiveness is a very proper approach to the past).  Well, sucks to that.  Germany trashes the Nazis, we need to do the same with America!  For one who insists the Confederacy is not Nazism, BTW, I can't help but notice that those pushing to wipe out the history of the South compare it a lot to Nazism

Yes, Germany came down like a ton of bricks on the Nazi era.  Because they understood that the Nazi era was not the same as the universally accepted institution of slavery back in the day.  Nazis were a blight on a world that was supposed to have gotten over the very things the Nazis were doing.  The  Confederacy was, unfortunately, standing firm on the ages old institution of slavery, an institution at that time still accepted by most cultures (as it would be well into the 20th Century outside the Western world), and only being challenged by the movements emerging in the Christian West.  .

There is something to be said about blanket celebrations of the Confederacy, over and against individuals from the Confederacy who sane people could celebrate.  The Confederacy did represent something purposefully wrong.  Like the blanket celebration of 'Indigenous Peoples Day', that could be too broad.  I wouldn't want to celebrate a day that could include ritual torture, matricide, patricide, infanticide and human sacrifice, and celebrating something that included fighting to preserve human slavery could fit into that category.

Of course we see where this is heading.  Germany renounces the Nazis, but celebrates its overall past, at least as much as any progressive, secular multi-cultural state in Europe does these days.  Those wishing to eradicate any memory of the Confederacy, however, are making it clear that their goal is to do the same with all of American history.  Already people are removing the names of the Founding Fathers, or calling for their statues to be removed, or even petitioning to change the name of our nation's capital.  This doesn't count the growing number of young Americans who are convinced that it's time for the racist documents known as the Constitution and Bill of Rights to go.  What they want to replace it with is pretty obvious.

Nonetheless, I found it interesting to see the speed with which Mark, once again, is willing to toss out clear Christian principles, doctrines and the teachings of the Catholic Church and Jesus Himself in order to stay in lockstep with the ever unfolding designs of the secular Left.  But then, why should he be any different than the growing number of Christian leaders in the dying West?

Forgiveness is awesome sometimes, based on ethnicity and nationality that is.  Good, white Leftists need blacks to understand their forgiveness should only be divvied out when good, white Leftists say so.  And that is never in a way that will uplift the heritage of the United States or the Christian West.

Hmmm.  One way to recognize Satan in the mix is that he uses Christian truth (the goodness of fessing up to sin) in order to advocate sin (screw forgiveness, destroy, blood guilt!).   He did it with Jesus, he has had little trouble doing it with us.

And the Devil took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,“‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’and“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 

 Luke 4.9-12

UPDATE: It's been pointed out to me that Mark has apparently joined the 'First 400 Years of Nazi America' meme of the Left.  That would certainly explain things.  The Left makes it clear that forgiveness and mercy are for the weak.  As one of Mark's frequent readers says, the leaders from the South - including the once beloved Lee - should have been hanged (because the Death Penalty apparently rocks it in some cases - a rebuttal from Mark is still pending).  Such is the modern Left and those Christians who would bow before it. 

Words fail me

William Shatner made a Christmas album with Henry Rollins and Iggy Pop.  I can say no more.

The latest on the Kavanaugh disaster

To paraphrase the old paraphrase, when you're on the Left and you've lost the Washington Post, you've lost.   Of course some of this is just old competition within the ranks.  The Post is taking a shot at a competitor.

But it's a shot that makes Kavanaugh, and hence Trump, look good.  And that means what the NYT did is beyond flagrant.  As I realized here, by the end, only the most fanatical and blind thralls of the Left haven't recanted and admitted the story was false.  For some who are sane and seeking good will, hopefully, this is a wake-up call for what type of country, and world, the Left wants.

Nothing else needs said

A lesbian is suing a sperm bank after learning why both her kids are autistic.  Such is the world the Left has built.

Remember when Christians were told that converting people from other religions was evil?

Yeah, so do I.  I remember it well, because it was one of the Uber-issues when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, and even into the 90s.  Almost every other movie, at least one episode in a television show, and not a few pundits, journalists, professors and most moderate and liberal Christians made it clear that evangelizing other people, pushing your religion onto others, and getting them to convert to your own religion was like saying they were wrong - and that's EVIL!

Well, in #89057889437593879 of cases where the modern Left is what old post-war liberalism said was evil, we have the religion of atheism boasting on helping pastors renounce the faith and join in with the belief of atheism.  They're quite proud, too.  In short, they're doing what Christian evangelists and missionaries used to do back in the day.  Actually, they're doing what they themselves said was evil and wrong when religious people (esp. Christians) did it.  They are proselytizing believers into the faith of atheism.

Of course like most things, we should see now that liberalism was a scam.  It was never true then.  Asd I told a Jewish friend once - who echoed the idea that telling people their religion is wrong is bad - the idea that a religion telling other religions they are wrong is bad is essentially telling that religion it is wrong. Which, if I'm following you, is bad. That led to a pretty intense discussion let me tell you.

Same with freedom of speech except that which offends feminism, or never imposing your values on others, except where homosexuality is concerned.  The list is endless, including being upset that people wouldn't support pop star Madonna using a microphone like a sex toy on national television since that's censorship now insisting we need to have the government step in and censor offensive ideas and speech.

Nope, liberalism was a hot lie. And a disastrous one.  It has reinvigorated old racism and bigotry for new people groups, convinced people tyranny and oppression will be good because it will only be those people over there who get it in the neck, and is pushing the boundaries of the genocidal attitudes of the last century, not to mention the carnage of the sexual revolution and destruction of the Christian West at the hands of other societies almost itching to step in and take over. 

And yet Pope Francis insists that trying to proselytize people to Christianity is a bad thing, and joins most Christians today who believe the same thing.  Dumb.  Either that or cowards who are going to go along with whatever to stay in the good graces of the majority currents.  That's the only way you can insist that following the dictates of the modern left is the only way to live out the Christian life as it should be.  If not, then it's time we reclaim so much of what of the Gospel of Christ has been lost over the last several generations.

Rest in Peace Cokie Roberts

Cokie Roberts, who was a staple on the national press as I was entering adulthood, and was one of the foundation stones of the media as I began to become more and more aware of our nation's current events and our world, has died.  Rest in peace.

I remember her coming into  her own on ABC's World News Tonight.  She was of the Woodward/Bernstein generation that no longer saw its job as reporting the facts, but rather creating a narrative.  They saw journalism as a missionary movement, a vocation that was here to right the wrongs, and fix the problems, and call out injustices.  Sometimes, of course, that meant choosing sides, and increasingly the side that the majority of national journalists were choosing by the mid 1990s was becoming crystal clear.

This opened up a marketing opportunity for the new FOX News Network.  Ostensibly a fair and balanced network, it wasn't hard to see its own bias.  And it seldom bent over backwards to hide the fact that it favored a more conservative, or at least libertarian, viewpoint.  This was done to corner the market of the growing number of Americans - including liberals and Democrats back in the day - who were uneasy with a national press willing to accept at face value the punditry and policy agendas of only one side of the political aisle.

Ms. Roberts, along with her peers Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Sam Donaldson and Ted Koppel, as well as many others, began changing the press nonetheless, and making it clear that the news will always be about reporting when man bites dog.  If, however, we conclude that men always should have bitten dogs as the actual normal, then we will no longer report that, but rather focus on the outrageous prospect of dogs biting men.  Or at least humans.

Nonetheless, compared to today, Ms. Roberts was a bastion of class and dignity and maturity, as were most of her peers of the day.  Compared to today, be it the mainline publications like the Washington Post or New York Times, or the less savory television news, that generation of reporters does come off as almost unbiased and impartial, reporting only facts and allowing the reader or viewer to decide.  It didn't look like that then, and perhaps it's their doing that it looks so different now.

Still, she was a part of the world into which I entered adulthood, and like Ric Ocasek or anyone of that time, she is part of my life's memories.  She was good at her craft, and she no doubt had a positive impact on many people.  I pray peace be with her loved ones and strength as well, and eternal peace be granted unto her.  RIP.

Salem's Lot and the epidemic growth of the Left

So we've started our seasonal binging, as I said, with the usual harvest vittles and a showing of the 1970s television special Salem's Lot.  Based on Stephen King's novel, it's one of the better adaptations that still tries to stick somewhat close to the source material.  Generally King's works and subsequent films go a long way toward proving that old adage that great literature makes sub-par movies, but sub-par literature makes for great movies.

The plot is fairly well known, and the allegory behind King's vision about the story is also known.  Vampires come in to infect the small, homogeneous Maine town of Jerusalem's Lot.  The good and the bad get taken down.  That is something King forgot in his 2000s remake, where he decided that almost everything has to have something to do with sex, PC categories must be maintained, and everyone has to more or less be a lousy person or a jerk.  In the book, and the original miniseries, there are actually good people who are victims along with the bad.

Anyhoo, I got to thinking as we watched the second night about this plague of vampires taking out this small New England town.  I thought of what we're watching with the encroachment of the Left.  Every day you see more of the crazy.  Every day some person is blasted for being white, or male, or heterosexual.  Every day we're told Christianity is a hate crime, or believing that there are boys and girls is a punishable offense.  Every day I see more stories about someone's name erased from the records for living in the past with white skin, or a black artist refusing to play classical music written by white racist composers.  Every day I see cases of people being punished for suggesting boys and girls exist, or all of the dogmas of the sexual revolution might not be a good thing.  Every day you see more and more cases of schools, businesses, groups and institutions banning, censoring, punishing based on what the skin color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, sexual desire or religion one happens to be.

And you sit back, jaw agape, and wonder how this could happen.  How, so quickly, have we turned a corner?  It came to me when my sons pointed out that in the movie, as well as the book, it was still a cross that the vampires feared.  They asked if Christianity was still popular back in the 70s.  I said we were pretty secular, but Christianity was sort of the default.  If we didn't believe most of it, it was still the God and general world view of Christianity that we turned to in a pinch.  They pointed out that now, in only the last decade or so, that is no longer the case.  If we need a default spiritual answer in a movie, it's some Eastern mystic, an Islamic imam, perhaps a rabbi, but no longer a Christian.  If the Christian is there, he's most likely the token bad guy; a racist, zealot, bigot, homophobe, science opponent, sexist, child rapist or simply non-existent.  If it's mentioned at all because of source material (Capt. America), then penance is done later by making sure Capt. America affirms the glories of gay marriage or something post-modern.

How did this happen?  How did the most prosperous and free civilization in history decide it's time to throw it all away?  I'm reminded of those from both Nazi Germany and the former USSR who spoke of one big similarity: They never imagined everything could happen as quickly as it did.  By 1930, the Russians were stunned at the speed with which everything collapsed.  By 1936 or so, most Germans felt there was nothing they could do, everything had changed overnight and now there was no stopping it.

Just like the vampire plague.  At one point Ben Mears, the protagonist, explains that it is a fast sweeping epidemic of vampires.  One bites another, and they each bite another, and now it's four.  And those four each bite another and it's eight.  And on and on it goes.  Until in only a matter of days, dozens, and then hundreds, will be infected.

That's what's happening in America and the fading West.  The two pronged assault of the Left - mythologizing the rest of the world while destroying the heritage of the Christian West - is bearing fruit exponentially. More than enough non-white, non-Europeans and non-European Americans and  non-Christians are happy to join in the trash-fest along with white liberals, so that now on a daily basis we see more and more tearing away at the foundations of all truth and assaulting anyone in their way.

If you would have told me ten years ago that someone could be fired or thrown out of a class for saying there is such a thing as boys and girls I wouldn't have known what to say.  No joke would be that stupid.  You could have said the world would prove to be square and I'd have believed you more than that.  Likewise if you told me that a growing number of people would see the rule of law, presumption of innocence, equality of justice and even Democracy are vile white nationalist tools for oppression that need to be eliminated, I'd have blown beer out my nose in laughter.  But now look at it.  That is an epidemic.  That is a viral infection.

Already it seems bleak.  A great many are going along with it.  We've seen the post-conservatives, the "New Pro-life" types, those who are trying to straddle one foot in the church and the other with the vampires.  People who, only a half dozen years ago, you'd bet would never accept what they are now accepting. And in all cases, the line gets drawn closer and closer to the coffins, and farther and farther from the crosses.

Will we be able to stop it?  Is it already past time to hope for a turnaround?  I don't know.  It just came to me watching that old 70s miniseries.  I wondered if anyone in the production of that 70s miniseries would guess that in only a few decades, they would be judged guilty because of their skin color, their national origin, perhaps their religion, or the fact that they had the temerity to be born then instead of the pure infallibility of 'now.'  My guess is not. What will it be thirty years from  now?

It wasn't only Orwell's 1984

The year was 1984.  It was the year I came out of my shell and entered the mainstream of my peers.  Fresh with a drivers licence, I was now free to travel away from our isolated house.  I was entering my senior year of high school, though I would miss the presidential election that year by one month. That summer ranks as one of the most enjoyable and beloved times in my memory.

Reagan won in one of the greatest landslide victories of all time when people saw the economy booming and realized that, contrary to the Left's hysterics, he was not going to nuke the world.   At the same time, the blame for the Ethiopian famine was laid squarely at the West's feet, even as the tragic McDonald's shooting in California began an all too often reported way for people to deal with problems.

In lighter areas, and those that dominate the mind of a teenager, Joe Montana would take the 49ers to the Superbowl in the 84 season, during one of his four dominating performances that helped make him one of the most beloved athletes of his era.  In basketball, Larry Bird's Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers, with Jack Nicholson right at court side, in a part of one of sport's most enduring rivalries.  Of course the USA swept the gold in the 84 Los Angeles Olympics.

Ghostbusters was the movie of the year, followed fast by Beverly Hills Cop, with Amadeus sweeping he Oscars.  In music,  Madonna was the breakout artist of the year, along with Wham!, while Van Halen's aptly titled 1984 bridged the gap between hard rock and pop rock, opening the gates for artists such as Bon Jovi.  Michael Jackon's Thriller was still rolling strong, dominating the charts and chewing up the media, even as Prince emerged with his rock film Purple Rain. MTV was coming into its own, breaking from mere repetitious video playlists by launching its first real 'network' event, the famous 'Lost Weekend with Van Halen' contest.

On television, Hill Street Blues was still a forces to be reckoned with, as was the more light hearted (but sometimes more topical) Magnum P.I., with the era's sop sex symbol Tom Selleck dominating the water cooler talk.  The Cosby Show was getting started, as Michael J. Fox overshadowed Meredith Baxter Bernie's vehicle Family Ties.  Dallas was still vying with Knots Landing and Falcon Crest in the night time soap department, and the sci-fi miniseries V was the miniseries everyone was talking about.

And of course, Orwell was everywhere.  Anytime anyone bucked the liberalizing trends of the day, we heard charges of Fascism, Orwell or Big Brother fly like crows.  Big Brother, in the popular mindset, was the GOP, Reagan and those Social Conservatives on the 700 Club trying to impose their values on others, legislate morality, and shut down free speech and artistic freedom, not to mention curtailing all things sexual freedom.  True, whispers of some disease associated with the gay community, and perhaps entering into the general public, was starting to percolate.  Likewise, the death of John Belushi had put a damper on the whole 'smoke it, snort it, shoot it up' attitude toward drugs.  Nonetheless, things were still pretty loose and free where personal behavior was concerned, which we imagined was good.  That freedom was what set us against those Nazi types who were clearly inspired by Orwell's vision of the world.

So what's all this about?  Just remembering.  Among many other things, MTV had reached probably its most creative high point, as well as finally becoming common in most regional cable networks, allowing more and more kids to see artists they had only seen in pictures.  I first saw MTV at my grandma's during a visit that summer.  It was a time when many acts that had hovered near the top ten of the charts, but never really broke through, were finally able to break through due to the exposure they were getting.

Just as top name artists initially avoided MTV because of its camp factor (not because of racism), but later came around when they saw unknown acts suddenly make it big because of the video exposure, so now lesser known groups were becoming known and making it to the top of the charts.  Some of these were ZZ Top, Huey Lewis and the News, and The Cars.  And herein lies the point.  I just saw that Ric Ocasek, the lead singer of The Cars, was found dead.

That just got me to thinking.  He was 75 years old.  Meaning he was already around 40 when I discovered him.  Already halfway through life, he had a chance to enjoy the limelight while I was just starting to care about limelights and those in them.  It's amazing how someone can sort of slip through your life and leave an impression.  That was a pleasant time for me, albeit a bit confusing as I emerged from my long exile in the country and was able to roam with my friends once again.  There would be other fine times: autumn quarter my freshman year of college, the summer of graduation, my first quarter at the main campus of Ohio State, my times with my wife and children, older memories.  But that particular year, especially that summer, ranks high.  And one of the endearing imprints on my memory is of Mr. Ocasek, walking on water, singing a clever tune, and joining the whole host of those who would be part of that brief moment in my pilgrimage.

RIP Mr. Ocasek, one of the many things that made 1984 a year for me to remember.

The Kavanaugh saga continues - Updated

So a guy said he saw Kavanaugh do something sexual at a party back in college that others might have pushed him into doing and it involved a woman.  According to CBS, the woman so named has stated she doesn't recall the event.  Therefore Democrats are calling for impeachment while declaring the entire confirmation hearings a sham.

We'll see.  It's the 21st Century, so old notions of burden of proof, presumption of innocence, equality before the law and due process don't necessarily apply.  More and more Americans, apparently, approve these developments.  I think I can agree with Senator Lindsey Graham when he said God help us if the Democrats ever get power again.

UPDATE: The NYT, making the National Enquirer seem like quality journalism by comparison, has revised its story (this time not at the demand of Democrats) and admitted the woman in question does not recall the event in the accusation.  At this point, according to reports, no other evidence or documents but the former Yale student's accusation has been produced.  Again, like Agent K, I'm beginning to think we're better off perusing the publications along the checkout lane at the grocery store than reading anything we used to consider actual journalism.

UPDATE II: Bwa ha ha ha!  So it looks like the fellow making the accusation was none other than Hillary Clinton's lawyer during the (Bill) Clinton Impeachment scandal.  No bias there!  This is just gossip at this point. The good news is that even the most fanatical leftists apparently withheld jumping on this bandwagon.  Perhaps they've been burnt by 'Yesterday Trump nuked the world!' headlines once too many times.

UPDATE III: Of course:

I wasn't going to bother when I was shown this, but then I noticed the time of the tweet.  That's well after the NYT revised its story, and the bulk of the press dropped it like a hot potato.  After all, the woman named in the accusation has denied it happened.  I mean, hello.  If the person who is the supposed victim says it didn't happen, it's difficult to move forward with the lynch mob.  

Nonetheless, this is Mark.  In my defense, it doesn't disprove what I said about most pundits showing restraint on this.  I don't consider Mark anything sane or balanced, nor would I compare leftist pundits to him.  That wouldn't be fair to leftist pundits.  Mark exists on a different plane at this point, and I don't use him to judge leftist Catholics, or leftists, or anything.  That would be like using Jim Jones to judge Protestant ministers.  His clear lack of concern over the truth of a life destroying accusation is enough to know that the Truth and facts are far from things he cares about.  

Oh, and I did hold my nose and go to his Twitter feed to make sure he hadn't posted a correction or removed the tweet.  Just to cover my bases and extend to him the same consideration he doesn't give to others.   As of this update, he hadn't.  FWIW, it was a dirty business.  I thought of the old Laverne and Shirley TV show when one of the girls would have to go into Lenny and Squiggy's bathroom.  They would run in screaming, get what they had to get, then run out screaming until they had to take deep breaths.  That was me going to Mark's Twitter feed.  Hopefully I'll never go there and have to see that again. 

Screen Rant demonstrates why most movies today are stink piles

Failing to conform is the greatest sin

So one Angelo Delos Trinos wrote over at Screen Rant why Raiders of the Lost Ark has not aged well.  Not because of quality or directing or effects.  In a nutshell, because it wasn't made in conformity to the superior and infallible intellectual and morally superior standards of modern politically correct sensitivities. The end.

Yep. That, to me, is a best part of the movie.  Unlike most of the cinematic bilge coming out today, which is in full service and thralldom to the political Left and the rigorous demands of political correct categories, Raiders was a film when film was still an art wrapped in an industry.  Today, it's an industry in slavish devotion to a political movement with art barely making the list.

And it shows.  Today the heroes must conform to PC categories.  Oh they might have this or that doubt or this or that emotional struggle.  But if they're good they're good  because of their socially assigned categorical identity.  Likewise the bad guys will be bad in conformity to PC demands, being religious, conservative, white, masculine men, capitalists, and on and on.  No code of the 1930s was more unwavering in its demand that all film conform to its standards than the Left today.  And more to the point, most filmmakers today are happy to be slavish thralls to the demands of today's leftist state.

Basically the point of the piece at Screen Rant is that Raiders should have been a one dimensional movie with superficial ingredients taken from the multi-cultural, politically correct cereal box.  The story should have been vapid and predictable, with lame and rehashed plot points that have been rehashed a thousand times.  The characters should have been thin and hollow caricatures based on the ingredients list from politically correct categories.  And all must have been in conformity to these things 100%, or they would be condemned outright.  See filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino today, almost bowing before the modern Left and nonetheless blasted for not keeping in line 100% when he does deviate.

That would have been the movie if Raiders was made today.  I'm thankful that Angelo Delos Trinos and the requisite demands were not around in 1981 to pollute such a wonderful movie.   Because, if you read it again, you realize that the rants are based purely on the film's failure to conform to the left's PC dictates.  No concern withe quality of story, or direction, or acting, or production.  In fact, quality seems to mean nothing at all.  Only conformity to the latest now.  Because, if you haven't noticed, there is nothing as intolerant, judgmental and close-minded as the modern left.

BTW, I grow tired of the idea that anything a white European or American does is default evil.  The problem with an actor from Europe playing an Egyptian misses old 60s and 70s Japanese television where Japanese actors play Arabic characters, or Middle Eastern actors portraying Europeans in movies about the Crusades.  That's what actors were assumed to do, before the dark days of the Politically Correct Empire.  Now, as I see black musicians refusing to play Mozart because white, and white musicians refusing to play any composer because white, and any white authors decried because of their whiteness, or any white actor or male actor or heterosexual actor told to stay in a PC mandated box and don't dare come out, I'm reminded how books like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, despite their over the top predictions, can still end up falling far short of the eventual reality.

A Friday 13th Harvest Moon

So this is what our neighborhood looked like under an unusual Friday 13th Harvest Moon.  

Creepy, huh? Well, check this out:

In what looks like a photoshopped picture of my youngest, he is actually there, looking at our normally tranquil neighborhood, made all the spookier by the moon and some strange (and unintentional) camera effects.

Naturally we couldn't let a night like that slip by.  Our sons were all there last night, owing to days off, or recuperating from sports injuries, or simply having time between jobs and school.

In a nod to olden times, we got some apple cider, pumpkin donuts and even some pumpkin snickerdoodles, and plopped in our DVD of the 1970s miniseries Salem's Lot, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name.

It's one of many we will watch over the course of the harvest seasons up through Halloween.  Better than the 2000s remake, it lacks the jaded cynicism and 'everyone basically stinks' attitude behind the remake overseen by King.  It also has James Mason, and that's always a plus.  After viewing the first half, we went outside for picks and gawking at the moon which my youngest was sure would be passed over by a witch.

But overall a fun time.  We don't have as many times like this since the boys have grown, but they live at home to cut expenses and avoid crushing debt for college.  When they do have time, and aren't out with friends or dates or whatever they do, they will still hang with us (or, in my second son's case, even schedule a date earlier in the day so he could be with the family last night, since we all knew about the cool moon which he wanted to enjoy with our youngest).  Fun stuff to be sure. 

A history of War Gaming in video form

Interesting tale:

I've known about the history of War Gamin only in the vaguest sense.  I'm sure there is far more than this video shows.  Nonetheless, it was an interesting intro to the subject, especially when you consider the long shadow it, and some of its progeny, casts over much of our modern  pastimes and entertainment.

What a night for a witching hour!

So it’s the Harvest moon, on Friday 13^th, and the 50^th anniversary of the debut of Scooby-Doo.  How fun is that?  I’m not too old to appreciate the collision of fun that it will bring.

Good for the Texans

So some residents in Texas are filing a lawsuit against the San Antonio airport for banning Chick-fil-A.  This banishment was because of the it's charity work and religious beliefs about gay marriage.

Once again, from the top: Tolerance and diversity have as much to do with the LGBTQ community as ham does with kosher food.  To attempt any other spin is to be a fool or a liar.

Over at Rod Dreher's site, he picked up on a comment I made about the Orthodox and the gay rights movement.  While homosexuality is in the Orthodox Church like everywhere else, and there are those Orthodox who are pushing modernity like everywhere else, there is also strong push back against the gay rights movement (among other things).  This is, of course, seen as hate by gay activists.

I pointed out that it's tough to get too mad at those who might be overstepping the bounds on opposing the LGBTQ movement given what they are seeing happen in the West.  After all, they aren't stupid.  They see people arrested, fired, fined, threatened, and generally punished for doing anything other than bow before and worship at the altar of gay sex, and they see the writing on the wall if their country goes the same direction.

Several took issue with me, since in my comment I mentioned the companies my wife and I have worked for that made acquiescence and full support for the LGBTQ movement a mandatory part of keeping our jobs.   Different ones wondered what the fuss was.  Why should people bring up controversial subjects at work?  Shouldn't a company be able to keep employees from causing divisions?  Can't companies impose their values on their employees?

Finally, I had to ask if the LGBTQ community should be tolerant of those who disagree with it?  That, of course, isn't even a possibility.  Like all things to do with the Left, it is not about tolerance, or diversity.  The Left is a new political religion, a secular paganism, and it sees the old Christian Faith the way the old Christian Faith once saw pagans.  Though in fairness, Christians were more willing to see what good could be gleaned from pagan cultures than the Left - heavily influenced by Communist roots - sees in the Christian heritage.

Nonetheless, all is not lost.  While many Americans are going along with the move toward a Soviet America, and post-Conservatives are the worst of the lot, even as others put their heads in the sand and hope for the best, there are signs of resistance.  I don't know if it's too late.  But it's never too late to stand up and try.  This lawsuit is one small light of hope for freedom and religious liberty.  We'll see where it goes.

Conservatives are speaking out against Euthanasia

And are about the only ones doing so. 

I stopped visiting Mark Shea's outlets at the beginning of the year.  Since then, I've had some I know send me examples of the unhinged rage and hatred that defines his ministry, though their numbers are dwindling.  I've typically avoided posting anything of his since I don't want to give him anymore exposure than he already has.  Though it's worth noting that the worse he gets, the higher his profile seems to go, so what I do or don't do doesn't seem to matter.   Such is Catholic apologetics in the modern Church.

Nonetheless, I felt this post warranted some attention.  The headline suggests there is euthanasia in the air, and Trump supporters who are pro-life are ignoring it.  Presumably because it is euthanasia ordered by Trump and, for political purposes, they are burying their heads in devotion to Trump.

This is not the case.  Mark's screed, which is barely worth the read, simply lashes out at Trump's policy regarding immigration that is, according to reports, causing some immigrants who are receiving medical care in the US to face deportation.  I don't know the details, because for two or three days it was all I heard about, and then suddenly the stories vanished.  Was it another 'Trump nukes Earth' story line?  Were they really removed?  If so, was it as simple as the news reports made it?

I do know that when this was reported, I noticed some Trump supporters express concern and say they did oppose something that could cause harm to people needing medical help.  But again, the story came and went so quickly (don't know why), it didn't seem to get steam in the debate forums.  I'd guess if it still is an issue, or actually is happening as the news reports say, then at least some I saw would not be happy.  And that includes decidedly pro-life conservatives who otherwise support Trump.

Nonetheless, as much as it's a policy that needs dealt with and addressed if it is true, it is not euthanasia.  Euthanasia is garnering more and more support in America, and that is disturbing.  While the definitions can sometimes be slippery on the popular level, the 2018 Gallup Poll found far too many Americans - conservative and liberal - warming up to the idea.  Again, at least warming up based on their understanding of the topic.

It's worth noting, however, that Mark's liberal allies and the Democratic party he now votes for along party-lines are much higher in support for actual euthanasia than Americans in general.  Those most opposed are those rascally conservative Christian Republican types.

Which is why I post this. Mark is clever enough, of course, not to box himself in with specifics.  Terms like 'Trump cult' or 'Gun cult' are Mark's inventions, and he freely applies them or not based upon the moment at hand.  Bring up an example or a hundred examples of people who don't fit what he is saying or show that his characterization is wrong, and he'll merely say they're not who he means.  Who he does mean is in his own head, and open to broad interpretation.

But his post headline was misleading and false enough to debunk.  I suspect I will see less and less of Mark's output as the last couple faithful who do the dirty work and keep me up with his trajectory follow the rest of us and stop polluting their eyes and minds.  But with this I thought it needed corrected and the actual truth pointed out.  Euthanasia and its growing acceptance is a major problem.  But the ones speaking out are almost always - almost mind you - those who are conservative pro-life advocates, Trump supporters or otherwise. Don't be fooled by the false headline.

The New York skyline as I remember it

True, the Twin Towers were built after I was born.  But I was so young that for my life they symbolized America as the economic center of the world.  Along with the United Nations they showed us as the captains of the Free World, and a hub of activity around which the world rotated.

That is no more.  The terrorist attacks were devastating, and exposed a cancerous growth in the world; an alliance between the emergent Left and any other country that would see America brought down from its perch, if not eliminated altogether.

It's no surprise that the political Left, within weeks of the attacks, began turning their attention, not toward fighting the terrorists, but making sure GW Bush didn't capitalize politically on the obvious boost the attacks would bring him.

Since then, it's been an eclipse of the American Experiment, as the whole of the Christian West is put under the test and declared guilty with no hope of redemption.  In that, the terrorists made a brilliant stroke against their adversary, the United States.  So far, it's been they who have been the victors - at least in the long term.

Nonetheless, as we awoke on this date 18 years ago, despite the uproar from the 2000 election, and charges of stolen elections and calls to eliminate the Electoral College, and accusations of political corruption as always, most imagined that the Towers would continue to symbolize America's unique place in the world for generations to come.  Who would have known then that we would be looking at the call to end nations in general, led by celebrities, politicians and popes, including the end to the American Experiment?   I know I didn't.

Pope Francis and the Pharisee's prayer

So he really said it.  I started to post on this when I saw the first story, but then I thought charity demands I wait to verify.  After all, something so arrogant and divisive and Pharisaical as this should be verified before commenting.

Well, the secular press is loving it,  left leaning pro-life Catholics are ecstatic, and I've seen nobody invoke the Francis-Era "it's a problem with the translation!' qualifier.  Nope.  It seems he said it, and the majority of people, Christian or otherwise, are thrilled.  That's because they assume he means 'those American Christians over there.'  Or if you're not American, you're off the hook altogether.

But this is par for the course for Pope Francis. There are three basic themes of the pope's entire ministry: The political and social theories of the Marxist Left are where we need to look to fix the world's problems; one's relationship to Christ is only incidental to the righteousness gained by cleaving unto the aforesaid political and social theories of the Marxist Left: and we have seen the enemy, and it's those traditionalist Christians, mostly in the Western Democracies, clinging to their Truth and their rigidness.

Never one to drop the first person plural, Pope Francis has told the world that their contempt for the Gospel is understood, because of those believers over there. As far as I know, he has never spent much time including himself in that category.  Naturally, his devoted followers are more than happy to cheer and rejoice with the knowledge that Pope Francis obviously does not mean them. Apart from a few hardcore fundamentalists I knew back in my ministry days, he's the only major Christian leader in my time who has made dividing the flock between us awesome sheep and those rotten goats a crux of his ministry.

Perhaps it might be time for the pope to peruse the Gospel of Luke, maybe even chapter 18.  As much as the World loves how he seems to be twisting and turning the Gospel to fit its secular culture of death designs, and how it bestows much praise and adoration on him, it might be worth thinking twice before standing up in front of the microphones again and saying that it's a great thing to know God did't make him like them believers over there.

Here, let me help:

Also Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”   Luke 18.9-14

As if on cue

Mark Shea provides an example for 'who in the name of sanity would want our government to label an entire swath of our fellow citizens as domestic terrorists just because they oppose those politicians' policies?':

Yep.  That's right. Of course this is nothing new.  When Facebook (or was it YouTube?) announced it would proudly ban white supremacists, Nazis, white nationalists and other far right extremists, Mark was among the first to cheer.

I remember seeing a screenshot of a conversation with one of his readers who advised caution.  After all, see here. It could set a bad precedent.  No problem, retorted Mark.  They'll only go for those evil types over there!

You can't make this up. I've said for some time that you have to accept a large amount of BS, lies and idiocy to follow the modern Left.  And you must do so mindlessly, and blindly. Sadly, it's not just Mark.  From movements calling to abolish democracy as a tool of white nationalist imperialism, to college students convinced free speech and religious liberties were just sleight of hand instruments for white racism, to the popular push against due process, presumption of innocence and burden of proof in the name of condemning based on socially assigned group labels, there is much to be concerned about.

People, it seems, are just what Tommy said they are.  They've been that way for eons.  After billions spent on education and expanding access to information, they still are.   Somewhere Mark stopped being person, and became people.  It can happen to the best of us.  It has already happened to so many.

First they came for the NRA

So San Francisco, quite possibly the true vision of the radical Marxist pagan police state the Left wants, has declared the NRA - that's the National Rifle Association - a domestic terrorist group.  The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is urging other cities, and the federal government, to do the same.

This is, of course, what the Left wants.  Children of the Cold War Soviet Bots, their goal is a Soviet styled global state of oppression, poverty, and slavish devotion to the elites who will rise above it all.   Keeping Americans divided, and assuring them that's it's just those other bad Americans who will have to surrender their freedoms, et al., the Left is making great strides among the hopelessly naive and ignorant.

Much of the modern Left relies on the notion of martyrdom by proxy: as long as other dumb schmucks do the suffering and dying, it's the sacrifice I'm willing to make.  Be it AIDS, drug overdose, crippling regulations to stop Global Warming, or the destruction of liberties and freedoms, there is no end to the suffering and oppression of others that young leftists are willing to tolerate.

This is because they've been taught in our fine public school system, and further reinforced by our genius researches and pop culture, that they are the pinnacle of awesome, therefore clearly it will only be everyone else who dies, suffers or pays the price.  It will never be them.

The foolish and ignorant and arrogant will cheer what the Golden Gate City is doing.  Either because they are sure their own supreme intellectual and moral superiority will forever except them from such a thing. Or they will cheer because they actually believe it is only ever the really bad guys that leftist go after since, by definition, those on the left are the beautiful people.  Or they're cowards hoping that when this finally does go down, it will be after they're dead and gone since, really, nobody can be so stupid as to look at this, look at where other liberal rights movement like gay rights have gone, and conclude it's only going to be this inch, and they'll never take a mile.

But then, history is filled with the ignorant masses who later generations look back on and ponder, "What the hell were they thinking?"  We're now in one of those times that future generations will look back on and wonder the same thing.

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

But then they left everyone else along because they were like me —
     You know - awesome! 

So that is what the Popeye's chicken sandwich frenzy is all about

OK, for the last few weeks I have heard more about Popeye's chicken sandwich than Americans heard about the Beatles when they first came to America.  It's been everywhere.  I've seen segments on the news, I've seen news articles, I've seen social media - every day something about that chicken sandwich.

All I could think was, am I missing something?  It's a chicken place.  I assumed it had a chicken sandwich.  Even if it didn't and this is new, how does it warrant such attention?  Granted, increasingly beyond ideological and political activism, media outlets are becoming a marketing platform for various corporate interests as well.  But this was strange because all they did was talk about the chicken sandwich as if it was the Second Coming, and compare it to the Chick fil A chicken sandwich.  That was all.

And then I saw this, how Popeye's is all the chicken sandwich you need, without the Homophobia. And then it hit me:  That's why.  True, I didn't see any news stories that brought this up.  But do I believe nobody else in the entire American press thought of this angle?  That would be beyond ridiculous to think they weren't aware of this.

Of course Chick fil A has nothing at all to do with homophobia, except it donates to unclean charities deemed to be enemies of the Leftist State.  The chain itself has nothing different about the LGBTQ community than anyone else. But its founder didn't have his mind right.

Once again, the attitude that for years the Left spent attacking is the attitude the Left now embraces.

The founder of Chick fil A dared defy a dogma of the Left.  And that, in the United Soviet States of America, is a sin worth defeating. Don't think for a minute it isn't.  America is entering into a time unlike any it has ever entered.  Everything liberalism once said was an evil needing overcome is now what defines the Left.  Think on that.

Greta Thunburg and the new fortunate sons

Blessed are the poor...

It ain't me, it ain't me.  I ain't no millionaire's son, no.
It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, no
Creedence Clearwater Revival 

What was a fortunate son?  That was the name given to those wealthy young men back during the Vietnam era whose wealth and privilege helped them dodge the draft.  That left the bulk of soldiers slugging it through the rice fields coming from America's lower classes.  Or at least that was how the concept was presented to me when I was growing up.

So Ms. Thunburg is a young 16 year old who has become an international rock star.  She recently sailed in a specially fitted yacht that was solar paneled and had nothing else in it for the crew, like kitchens, bathrooms and the like.  She already made the news before, being a very vocal advocate leading school children to strike for climate change action.  From there, she has been praised by world leaders, celebrities, millionaire activists, and even met the pope.

I know little about her.  Stories said her parents are both successful entertainers in Sweden, but I don't know what that means.  Is a successful opera singer and actor in Sweden on the same level of success and wealth as the same in America?  No clue.  Though given the speed with which they travel and their availability to fly to link up with her suggests they're not hurting.

And that brings us to the problem.  This Daily Wire piece goes into the obvious fact that the whole yacht sailing thing was more symbolic than anything.  Much time, money and carbon went into it, as it will the subsequent travel and follow up expenses.  Naturally, those who criticize her will be attacked on personal levels and accused of sexism and any other label the Left can come up with.   It's the Left, and by now we shouldn't expect better.

But here's the thing.  However successful her family is, I'll wager they don't qualify as poor.  Probably not middle class, at least from the few domestic pictures I found.  And that's what Climate Change has become.  An alarm bell sounded by very wealthy individuals demanding solutions that will likely hurt a great many people other than those wealthy individuals sounding the alarm bell.

The extra regulations and costs will be passed down to the blue collar worker, the lower middle class, and the working class. Those on the bottom rungs of the world will see what they can afford sliced and diced, and likely will experience hardships in the industries targeted by the regulations meant to save the world.  Those industries will chug along, keeping their profits, and serving their leaders who will rub shoulders with the millionaire activists untouched by the same heroic solutions to climate change they demand.  And those activists will continue on in their limos, their private jets, their yachts, and their mansions that will chew up more carbon in a week than many lower class neighborhoods will in a month.

FWIW, I don't typically go after youngsters who are out fighting for a cause.  I might support them if I agree with their cause, but usually follow the Thumper rule if I don't because, well, they're kids.  I went after David Hogg and the Parkland radicals because of their collective 'F-You, we hope you die if you get in our way to save the world' attitude, and the subsequent praise and free passes they've received from the leftist state as a result.

In young Ms. Thunburg's case, her middle finger to President Trump was a sign of disrespect that took away the shield in my opinion.  If people are going to flip the bird to those who aren't in the peanut gallery, then they open themselves up for scrutiny, even if as young as sixteen.

Nonetheless, I wonder just who will be the fortunate sons in the great war against climate change.  My guess is that they will be the ones born to wealthy parents, given passes into Ivy League schools, and apprenticeships into the halls of power.  They will devote small portions of their abundant wealth and privilege to causes meant to save the world, but whose solutions will only bring harm to the riff-raff, the lower class, the blue collar worker, and of course, the struggling minority.  Consider that when they insist it is the very world at stake if we don't take extreme actions immediately.  Ask just what those saying this are planning to sacrifice.  And what sacrifice those with no say will be expected to make.

Oh, and to show it's not some grudge I bear young activists, here is a story that really does deserve praise and attention.  A young boy hits the pavement and rolls up his sleeves and hands out bags of blessings - as he calls them - to the homeless.  It's a few pennies of thought, and will not end the problem of poverty or save the planet. But it's just the sort of widow's mite that God loves. Because he's out their sacrificing, not on yachts from the piles in his bank account, but by being on the street, in the trenches, with the people he helps face to face.

Nor is it that I reject the idea that our overemphasis on STEM has brought harm to many things in the world including, but not limited to, the environment.   But right now those wealthy activists,  celebrities and even well paid scientists are insisting radical measures must be taken, even if it harms the lower classes.  When I see them act like things are that desperate, and they're willing to do anything to save their lives, including flying coach, taking public transportation and even selling their mansions and penthouses, then I'll think the actual threat matches their demands for others.