When you align with dark powers

Your arguments are going to sound dark, very dark.

Apparently that was on Mark Shea's twitter feed.  But the individual is someone I don't know. Note, though, the preemptive judgmentalism, the assumption that if people defending the statue of St. Louis heard this statue was under attack, they wouldn't care.

How does he know?  If they knew it was supposed to be Jesus, they just might. Heck, if they didn't and heard there was a mob of rioters and iconoclasts and zealots bent on destroying it, they might rise to the occasion and protect it on general principle.  I could see them doing so.

Just why the fellow seems he has to point out St. Louis was on a horse, I don't know.  That would be ... I have no clue.  He seems to feel it's important.

But point is, notice the assumption, the preemptive judgement, the accusation over some hypothetical that isn't happening and likely won't happen.  Personally I had no idea that was supposed to be Jesus.  But even if it wasn't, I wouldn't support it being destroyed.  That's me.  That's most I know who are opposing this violence, destruction, threats, vandalism and killing in the name of the Marxist revolt.

I'll assume - since assumptions are all the rage - none of those are as important to this individual, or Mark Shea, as scoring points against anyone trying to defend the heritage of the Christian West and avoid the modern assumption that we define humans of the past by their sins, their skin color, or their national origins.  That does seem patently clear.

BTW, I wonder if Mr. Ahern and Mark have commented on this:

Since they clearly don't care about the statue of St. Louis coming down, even if he is on a horse.

Again, this is now clearly a revolt of violence, hatred, bigotry, destruction and death.  Marxist inspired, totalitarianism, bigotry and oppression as the goals.  Those who for whatever reason defend and deflect and join the elitist classes who are clearly happy with our country going in this direction, are now the enemies of all that is good, virtuous, holy and right.  Mark them for what they are.  And remember.

Preparing for the Christian Diaspora

The ruins of an iron age temple at 'Ain Dara in Syria

Because it's coming.  In his book The Benedict Option, Rod Dreher argues for a radical rethinking of how Christians approach the Faith.  Correctly reading the tea leaves, he realizes that Christianity is no longer going to be easy.  His approach, one of a new form of communal undertaking in a pseudo-monastic model, can be debated elsewhere.

There is the one thing he doesn't emphasize enough.  The forces we are watching are tapping into the base levels of human emotions: hate, revenge, resentment, envy, pride.  They have formed a loose coalition with anyone and everyone who can claim 'oppressed minority' status throughout the world. Oppressed by the Christian West and the United States that is.

To that end, this coalition has found its numbers bulging, for appeals to the base human emotions are always effective.  Plus, the net is so broad as to what constitutes oppressed, you'd be shocked to see how many find their way into this fold.  Even Catholics and Orthodox have dipped their feet in this coalition, depending on just who is being emphasized at the moment. Catholics grind axes about past discrimination by Protestant America, Orthodox still rise up and shake fists at old crusaders and Western imperialism.  In short, it is so broadly defined, that there are likely no more than a few percentage points of people in the world who aren't part of this 'down with the West movement', at least at one point or another.

Because of that, within another hundred years or so - or perhaps much sooner - expect much of what we've come to see as the Christian West, Christian heritage, residue of Christian culture - to be gone.  Like King David's Jerusalem or Solomon's temple, so the cathedrals, the music, the art, the books and stories, the values and beliefs, will have been torn down.  We're seeing it happen and we've been seeing it happen for some time.  Do we think it will slow down or stop?  There are certainly none trying to make it stop.

Some believe this is just a new development in the 2000 year old history of Christianity. Things change.  The Church changes.  We adapt.  The next step in the development of doctrine.  I don't think so.  This is different.  Up until now, even following the Protestant Reformation, there was an attempt to preserve the parts of the Christian West believed to be worth preserving; if nothing else a Trail of Blood going back to Jesus.  There may have been attempts to spin these things as belonging only to the latest movements, but they were kept.  That's not what we're seeing here.  We're watching a movement, very much akin to some of the communist revolutions of the last century, making sure anything not of the New Way is eradicated and destroyed.  Burning those bridges, rejecting Christ, God, the Bible, freedom, democracy, equality and even life itself.  Given that this movement will gladly side with any other culture or nation if the end result is a destruction of those historical roots, I'm not seeing many rush in to stop the tsunami.

The important thing is who they oppose

When in a high school history class I was teaching, a student asked me why Americans thought they could just go and get slaves from Africa.  I told her because they could, that's why.  Do we think if Africa had the superior culture it would be like the Black Panther movies, and be a land of peace, love, science, kindness and John Lennon songs?  Do we think if American Indians possessed the science and know-how of the West in the 15th century, they wouldn't do just what the West did?  Do we think any of these things have changed in the last several centuries?  Hardly.  Only an ignorant fool would think that.  Nonetheless, it's now the standard assumption in our schools and our popular culture and, yes, in most of our churches.

None of this is to condone or dismiss the worst of Western culture.  But the Coalition has convinced everyone that no matter what happens, the destruction of the Christian tradition and America's heritage will be a net positive since only from that Christian based heritage did true evil really emanate.  There was nothing the Christian West brought that was positive that the rest of the world didn't have, or so they insist.  And almost everything negative in the West was only negative in the West, nowhere else.  That should have been rejected as the pack of foolish lies that it was, but too many Christians accepted it until it was too late to state the obvious.

So there will be a time, perhaps in the not too distant future, where Christians will literally be as Jews in the Middle Ages.  They will be foreigners and aliens, and possibly even ostracized and oppressed.  They will have only memories of a golden age of Christian civilization.  While the age of Solomon was not without its problems, historically Jews often looked back with fondness as they held to their heritage and their people.  So Christians may well merge into 'a people', one which looks back to the best of an age when cathedrals soared, Christian hymns filled the air, and the Gospel, no matter how it was often ignored, still acted as the bedrock of their lands' morals as the ideals of liberty, equality and the dignity of the human person made their way into the world from its roots.

Our aid will come from those who have paved the way, bringing the Gospel into the rest of the world, or believing in Christ in those same areas.  They will welcome the wayfarers with open arms.  And if many I've met are any indication, they will welcome the shards of the culture and heritage we preserve as well.  For most of them aren't idiots and they can see where the ideas of human dignity, equality, democracy, human rights and peace above war emerged from.  They also fear the loss of the Christian West's influence and will sadly join in paying the price once it's gone.  Or, I should say, their grandchildren will join our grandchildren in paying the price.  Given the lack of resistance we're seeing, that appears to be a price us good benefactors of the Christian West are prepared to pay.

So we'll live,

And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh

At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,

Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;

And take upon's the mystery of things,

As if we were God's spies

King Lear, Act 5, Scene III

Wo ist der GOP?

Oh where is the GOP, or any conservative leadership right now?  The Federalist asks the million dollar question.  Or, to be more to the point, where are Americans who love and value America and its traditions and heritage?  Where are the counter protests?  Where are the 'God Bless America' or 'America is Great' protesters? 

It's been stunning silence  Silence from the GOP.  Silence from Conservative leaders.  Silence from Christians who only in recent years seemed to think God and history and the rise of Democracy and all were things.

True, in the last few days we've begun to hear some talk, mostly from the GOP and President Trump. Talk that is.  I'm sure there have been right wing pundits out there, like Rush Limbaugh, pounding the drums.  I know Tucker Carlson has been calling a spade a spade.   But on the whole, more silence than noise.

What does that mean?  We're wimps?  We're all talk?  We don't really believe it?  By now those who would preserve the nation have had ample time to respond.  So far the response has been tepid at best.

We'll see, but I'm not optimistic.  By now there should have been tremendous push-back from the GOP in those areas where Democrats are seizing on the riots to aid in the destruction of our heritage.  We've had enough time to see organized responses from the street level.  Only a few weeks ago people were protesting in large numbers against the Quarantines.  Where are they now?  All in all, it does not bode well.

Governor Mike DeWine wins one for Religious Liberty

A hateful thought to many 21st Century Americans

By signing a law that will allow religious students in public schools to express their religious beliefs freely.  Naturally that great opponent of non-secular progressive values, the ironically titled ACLU, has fought this like a mad dog.  As have most open minded and tolerant liberal activists.

Their fear is that this will allow students to dismiss science and state their fanatical belief in the world as the great Earth egg goddess.  Which, of course, is ridiculous .  That's simply the same hysterics, stereotyping and fear mongering that progressives always engage in when someone wants to think freely.  Fact is, the law does not allow students to answer the wrong answer in a classroom. If the class taught evolution and evolution is tested, the student must answer what was taught.

No, this will allow students to wear religious symbols, refer to their faith where appropriate in school, stand up for religious perspectives where secular perspectives have alone been given, and generally be free of being barred and banned due to their religious faith.  You know, a freedom of religion thing. 

Which, of course, is anathema to the secular left.  To the left, there is only the freedom to tear down the Christian West and America in deference of a strong Marxist inspired totalitarian state that will shower me with endless free things, including the right to define my gender and abort six million prenatal babies while pursing endless narcissism and decadence. 

That is what the left wants taught in school.  What Mike DeWine did was take an important step in allowing those who don't see such things as the highest values for which to strive a chance to speak out and express themselves accordingly.

A defense of Shaun King

And suddenly, this became  all the rage for good American Leftists

Who goes a long way toward proving that Nazism comes in all colors.   As can be expected, Mark Shea rushes in to mitigate the damage of King's Goebbels-like pronouncement.

I know.  I said I would no longer bother with Mark.  I am focused on Christian things, not Marksist ones (heh).  Nonetheless, when I was notified of this my jaw dropped.  After the shock, I realized this was a good case study in 'Daddy, how come so many Christians ended up goosestepping around Nuremberg with a Bible in one hand and a Nazi flag in the other?'.

Now, in fairness, Mark does somewhat, in a very limp-wristed manner, correct King on the assumption that all European portrayals of Jesus are Nazi and therefore should be gathered together and burned.  Mark even goes on to say it would be a damn crying shame if all European Christian art was destroyed.

The rest, of course, is Mark pouring invective and bigotry on our 400 year old racist state of oppression and genocide filled to the brim with 'know nothing Americans'.  That sort of 'As the Nazis hated Jews, so we hate Americans' attitude is, after all, common with those immersed in the Marxist Left.  It's how the Communists have effectively convinced people living in the freest, most prosperous, one of the most charitable and one of the most penitent nations in history that theirs was the worst country ever and it needs burned to the ground.

We won't even discuss Mark's laughable idea that if you're worried they'll move from "racist statues" to crosses, you're to blame for associating Christianity with racism.  That's so lame and stupid and shows such a deplorable ignorance where history is concerned it's not worth debating (not to mention it's happening even as we're watching).

Nonetheless, the one thing that hit me - and why I'm bothering to post this - is that at no time does Mark really call out Shaun King to ease down and suffer for Jesus. Technically Mr. King is, or at least was, a pastor.  As far as I can tell, he's also a Christian.  Shouldn't Mark tell him - and all BLM - to face the bad times with humility and charity?  Face the trials and injustice?  Take it in the cheek for the team?  Embrace the persecution and suffering for Jesus?  He doesn't.  In fact, quite the opposite. Where the BLM/anti-American riots go, there has Mark been defending and justifying them all the way.

That's because Mark's post has nothing to do with the Gospel.  What Mark has written has the feel of 'Christian teaching' but it isn't.  It's the same type of 'Christian teaching' that defended the slave holders in the South, or defended the new regime in Germany in the 1930s, or joined with the Bolsheviks in Russia.  It literally says that no matter what happens on behalf of these movements or institutions to which I am loyal, the good Christian should hunker down and accept their plight at best, or join in at worst.  The institutions or movements, of course, are justified in everything they do.

That's how you know what is happening and what we're hearing from so many Christian leaders is not of Christ.  If they're only concerned about the inherent racism of white people, but make no noise about problems with the black community otherwise, that's the world talking. If they call acceptable or even good what they once called evil, simply because that's where the world is now headed, that's Satan, not Jesus. In other words, if the leaders merely sound like the world, and alter their message to conform to the latest developments in the world, that's a warning sign.

So apparently as the Left has pushed the line and killed, destroyed, attacked, rioted and looted more and more, as its leaders have called for the purge of American heritage and even the legacy of Christianity, Mark has been seen retreating step by step, defending or deflecting from the lot of it.  Even as Christian monuments and statues to saints and churches have been vandalized, Mark has continually side stepped and aimed elsewhere, though he would have condemned such actions only a few years ago.  Again, as German Christians in the 30s no doubt did, or those Christians living in the South 200 years ago.

This is why Mark is a valuable case study in how such movements of evil and destruction and oppression seize the day; of how people you'd think would never do or condone such things end up doing or condoning such things.   The saddest part is, they are now the majority witness in our nation among Christians and Christian leaders.  Again, any confusion about how that could have happened in Germany in the 1930s should now be cleared up.  Remember kids, it can happen here.

George Floyd and the Twin Towers

Most experts agree that the Islamic terrorists who struck America on 9/11 did not imagine that both of the Twin Towers would fall.  They hoped to kill thousands of innocent people.  They hoped to do unthinkable damage.  But never in their wildest dreams did they imagine both towers would collapse and an icon of American financial might would fade into memory.

The same is true of George Floyd.  Anyone honest and with more than two brain cells knows what happened.  The press seized upon the death of Mr. Floyd in a desperate attempt to divert attention away from Joe Biden's disastrously contemptuous dismissal of black Americans who fail to give him more political power.  Despite trying to downplay his statements, the press was faced with a growing backlash from even liberal black leaders.  Something had to be done.

What happened, however, was more than the Marxists in the propaganda ministry ever dreamed in their wildest of dreams.  All that was supposed to happen by puffing Floyd was the usual: demonstrations, a few riots, accusations of American racism, Trump as Hitler, and enough commotion to take the attention away from Biden.  Yet it ended up far more than anyone predicted.

Despite the fact that there is no factual evidence to support the Black Lives Matter mantra, and that the condemnation of Mr. Floyd's killer was based purely on the skin color of the police officer in question, religious leaders pounced.  They didn't even stop when it came to condemning not just the police officer for his skin color, but the officer's entire ethnic group and the officer's entire nation.  Imagine condemning an entire nation and ethnic group based on the skin color of one person.  That's exactly what Protestant, Catholic and - yes - Orthodox leaders did with zeal.  From Pope Francis to the Southern Baptist Convention, BLM had become the gospel.

Furthermore, only days after religious leaders reaffirmed their commitments to the most restricted gatherings for worshiping God to minimize Covid-19, news cameras found many marching elbow to elbow with Black Lives Matter protesters.  Those who weren't marching were giving a hearty thumbs up to the protests and rallies.  At the same time, medical professionals who had spent weeks weeping and crying for their plight and begging all to refrain from any large gatherings, suddenly marched in large gatherings for Black Lives Matter and even cheered the protests while at the same time expressing concern about the obvious spikes in C19 that would occur.

And that was just the beginning.  Riots and destruction and violence erupted.  People were killed, black businesses destroyed.  Fires and vandalism and assaults abounded.  People like Mark Shea rushed out to excuse the violence, him being only one example of the growing voices that fully supported whatever was needed to tear down our Nazi society.  Even the press seemed reluctant to do anything but excuse the damage and the violence, picking only cases where injury resulted from police action to express concern.

Those who early on spoke out against  BLM, echoing the ancient notion that perhaps all lives mattered, were threatened with financial ruin and the elimination of their situations.  Like dominoes falling fast, prominent voices caved, repented of their white skin, called down hellfire on our Nazi nation, and donned the BLM logo.

And even that wasn't enough.  In line with these events, the pro-communist, anti-religious, anti-American hate group called Antifa arrived and all but seized the momentum.  Almost immediately it ran amok, destroying memorials and monuments to America's past, targeting Christians, presidents, any figure of America's heritage as any good Stalinist would do.  Day after day was met with new stories of statues, war memorials, grave stones, Christian establishments being vandalized.  What made it worse wasn't the obvious tactics one expects from a communist revolutionary, but that nobody - not religious leaders, political leaders, the press, business leaders - stood up to stop them.

Democrat governors and mayors began to join in, calling for statues of American heroes to be pulled down, entertainment outlets began banning or repacking material deemed unacceptable, businesses began lamenting the inherent racism of whites and Americans, while erasing all images deemed offensive to those who consider all lives mattering to be an evil sentiment.   On top of this, a growing shout to erase the names and references to presidents, Founding Fathers, or anyone of European decent almost drowned out any other discourse.

And now, even at this point, there is no end in sight.  More and more corporations are joining the revolution, threatening employees who would speak out, and using their vast economic power to silence any dissent.  Democrats call for the end of police departments, and police involved in violent crime shootings are charged with murder overnight, to the chants for the death penalty from a growing chorus of revolutionaries.   Democrats also stand by and let the vandalism and destruction and the violence go on unimpeded.  No matter how many police or military officials take a knee to  protest the banner of our racist nation, it seems to do nothing to engender love from the Marxist momentum.

And in all of this - silence. Silence from the GOP.  Silence from churches and synagogues and mosques.  Silence from the Black Community regarding all the blacks who have been hurt in this.  And undying support from corporate America which has emerged as the communist revolt's chiefest ally.  Only President Trump, interspersed within a two hour series of rambling stories, bothered to point out the obvious, and yet we'll see if he actually does anything about it.

So you might say, not bad.  Not bad at all.  Terrorists from 9/11, you don't hold a candle to the good fortune America's Marxists have just experienced.  In just three weeks, all to cover up the latest Biden gaffe, we have almost all of our major institutions agreeing that its time to condemn the white race for its inherent racism, eradicate America's heritage, embrace punishment of art and speech deemed offensive by those who matter, begin reframing our commitment to equality and law and order, and put an end to condemnation based on anything but labels applied by the Leftist state.  Take that terrorists!  You don't even know what icing on a cake looks like.

A lesson in racism 1010

Kicked around when I saw this article about the inherent racism of all white people.

If you’re trying to understand how ignorant people in the past could be so racist, consider this:  A hundred years ago, the innate inferiority of blacks was as accepted and universally taught as the inherent racism of whites is today.  Hope that helps.

Adios JC Penney

Like Sears before it, Penney's (as we always called it) is near it's last, dying breath.  I'm sure there are many reasons for this.  Things change.  Markets change.  In both cases, poor decisions and, quite frankly, lousy service and sales finally caught up with them.

Growing up, JC Penney, Sears and Montgomery Ward were the three goto stores I knew.  We went to some others.  O'Neils employed an aunt who was especially close to my Mom.  I believe that must have been centered around Akron, because I always had the impression my aunt was near to the corporate offices.  There were others.  I remember Service Merchandise, with its snazzy conveyor belt that brought the items you just ordered out to be handed to you.  Neat stuff that.  Sort of a stone age Amazon.com.

But it was Penney's and Sears that dominated.  Sears was my Dad's default when it came to all things hardware, automotive and household appliances.  He was a Craftsman man all the way.  JC Penney was the other one for whatever remained.  And on rare occasions, we went to Monkey Ward since there was only one near us, and it was almost an hour away.

These three also contributed to that annual ritual known as The Christmas Wishbook.  Technically I think the term Wishbook was copyrighted by Sears.  But we called all the Christmas catalogs that name.  We waited, and waited, and waited to get our hands on those, and pour over the color photos of all those juicy, savory toys and games.  They usually came around August or September, and were a crucial part in adding to the joy of the season and the anticipation gearing up for Christmas.

My interest in the Wishbooks didn't take off until I became enamored with a line of toys called The Micronauts, around 1978.  I would spend hours on the couch, ogling those pictures of all the expanded toy line for that brand.  I sometimes noticed things like Star Wars toys as well, though, oddly enough, I was never into the Star Wars toys that much.

I think I kept on caring about the Wishbooks until late middle or early high school.  The last year I remember caring was because I wanted to order a little diorama model of The Battle of Hoth in 1981 (the actual page from the catalog here, the wonder of the Internet!):

I saved my meager earnings (I was just coming out of 8th Grade) and finally had my Mom order it for me (today worth about 25.00).  I was disappointed.  The thing was only a foot by a foot and a half.  You could barely see some of the smaller components.  I realize it gave the dimensions on the page, but dumb kid that I was, it never clicked.  So I had my Mom take it back.  The only thing I ever personally ordered from a Wishbook and I sent it back!

Oh well.  By then I must admit my interests were moving onto other things.  It's worth noting that on the same page as the Hoth model was the Dungeons and Dragons section, which was all the rage and fad at that point.  Nonetheless, being in a small country village, I hadn't heard of it before.  I can still remember looking at it puzzled about how one can have a game with no game board or game box visible.  And what in the world was a bugbear?

Anyway, it's a reminder that things of this world are fleeting.  I would have assumed Sears and JC Penney would remain in our country as long as Mount Rushmore.  But there it is.  I also would have imagined statues of Christopher Columbus would be around for years to come.  It reminds us that nothing in this country or this world is permanent.  Heck, from the looks of it, you could be forgiven for assuming our country won't be close behind these esteemed retailers in terms of years remaining.  You never know.

So sayonara Penney's.  You join Sears and a growing number of childhood memories that will have to remain memories, since there won't be anything else left to see.

Great tribute

To a great actor:

Nothing else to add. 

Adrianna San Marco is more proof that we are in an Orwell paradise

So back in the day of post-war liberalism, I was in college at The Ohio State University (and yes, you capitalize the definite article).  The Lantern was the school newspaper.  At the point I was at the main campus - roughly 1987 on - one of the big discussions was the complete freedom needed in our social discourse. Time and again staff of The Lantern posted editorials insisting we needed to loosen the bonds of our old puritanical restrictions and allow true freedom of speech to flourish.  Whatever someone wanted to say, however controversial, however 'off color', however vulgar - these must be allowed.  We must be able to use graphic language for sex and body parts and body functions (I remember a specific editorial about that).  We must be able to challenge people, even offend people.  Only in this way can we be an enlightened and free society.  That was the 'All Animals are Equal' pledge.

Fast forward, and we have young Adrianna San Marco who was fired from her post at a university paper.  Not because she dared challenge a leftist narrative within the column of the newspaper itself.  But because she posted her opinion on a conservative website.  She didn't even post it in the newspaper.  She merely expressed her opinion on her own time that the leftist narrative is wrong.  And for that she has been canned.  That is the 'We're sorry, it turns out Some Animals are More Equal Than Others' delivery.

Before I left his site for good, I saw Mark Shea was mocking the idea that banning Gone With the Wind, or pulling down statues, or punishing public figures for speaking out against or failing to align with the leftist party, was anything close to 1984.  That might be true.  Perhaps you can't find a direct parallel in Orwell's dystopian novel to what HBO did or what Mayor Ginther of Columbus, Ohio has done.  But if you trace the arc of post-war communist inspired liberalism, it's not difficult to draw an almost step by step parallel between it and Orwell's cautionary allegory Animal Farm.  In fact, given what we're witnessing occur before our very eyes, it's almost impossible not to.

Happy Juneteenth

OK, I'll admit, I hadn't heard of this holiday until fairly recently.  I don't think it was a purposeful slight. It's simply one of those things.  Perhaps less time trying to shove Kwanzaa down our throats and focusing on this could have made a difference.

True, right now the emphasis is almost exclusively on the plight of black Americans, and not the work and sacrifice of white Americans who made the holiday possible in the first place.  That would be because acknowledging that some Americans who were white might possibly have been good is anathema for many today.

Nonetheless, Alveda King gives a nice boost to the day and why it wouldn't be a bad national holiday.  That is, as long as the work and sacrifice of everyone is included in the focus.

RIP Ian Holm

As the conniving Zerah in 1977's Jesus of Nazareth

Sir Ian Holm, one of the greatest and most versatile actors of his generation, has died.  You don't get more flexible than Mr. Holm.  Light-hearted comedy, action and adventure, high drama, science fiction - he could do it all.

Whether in Alien, or the token 'bad Sanhedrin composite character' in Jesus of Nazareth, or his turn as an aging Bilbo Baggins, to his Oscar nominated performance in Chariots of Fire, Holm could stick any theatrical landing.  And not just do it, but melt into the parts.  Sometimes it's difficult to believe the same man playing Zerah and staring down Jesus is Ash on the Nostromo.

The thing about Holm was the subtlety of his performance.  With a slight twist of smile or smirk or side glance, he could say more than many actors could with eight pages of dialogue.  He understood the difference between stage and film as well as any.  And yet when over the top scene chewing was called for, he could gorge with the best of them.

For one who could have stayed in the more artsy side of movie making, or even remained on stage, he had a knack for being in the right part at the right time.  If it was high camp or heavy drama, he could deliver the part to any but the harshest critic's satisfaction.  And he was one of those actors gifted to make even the worst movies he appeared in just a little better for him being in them.

Since I grew up seeing him here and there pop up, even when I least expected it, he became part of that 'cultural tapestry' in the world I knew that is now passing.  For that reason, as well as many others, blessings on him and may God receive him into His loving arms, strength and peace to his loved ones, and lamentations for an industry all the emptier for the loss.

Chick fil A surrenders again

Dan Cathy know that my son's skin color proves he's a racist

After coincidentally severing ties to charities targeted by the LGBTQ community, CfA's CEO Dan Cathy said it's time for people who look like my 10 year old son (pictured to the left smiling because he's not aware of the guilt he bears for everyone who looks like him) to repent of the vile racism of those who have looked like him through the ages. The finger in the air for moral guidance continues apace.

Chick fil A is as good example as any when it comes to the mistaken loyalty placed by Christians, Americans, and people of common sense to the efficacy of the Free Market.  At least where being a stalwart defense of anything important is concerned.

I think if the prevailing winds said it's time for Gulags, then most companies today would begin donating the tools and materials to build them.  And with the power of multi-billion dollar influence and intimidation, there isn't much the average schmuck on Main Street can do about it.

And yes, I resent Mr. Cathy saying my 10 year old son must apologize due to his skin color.  The growing idea that Jim Crow was the most awesome thing in the world, it merely had the wrong ethnic group, is one of the most stupid developments in an era of stupidity.  That so many corporate interests are endorsing it should explain those racist advertisements and product placements from old.

Again, lesson learned.  Capitalism without Christ is no better than Communism.  In fact, as we're seeing, Capitalism without Christ could become one of Communism's greatest and most powerful allies.

Oh, and no more chicken sandwiches from Chick fil A.  They're no doubt betting on the usual 'non-leftists are loser dolts who will still make us rich no matter how much we crap on them' principle.  Let's prove them wrong.

Mayor Ginther of Columbus removes Columbus from in front of Mayor Ginther

Yep.  The Marxist revolution continues apace. Because apparently the people who matter have spoken. 

Taking a lesson from military history, the Left has learned that sometimes it's better to attack along all fronts.  Don't show up to a statue here, a memorial there, or take on a topic over here.  Hit them all at once.  Destroy and tear down, attack and wreck and ban and silence.  Across the lines, along the flanks, from behind, any way possible and as often as possible. 

It's certainly worked, as any resistance has apparently collapsed.  Conservatives are running like scared rabbits.  The GOP is stone silent.  Religious conservatives are collapsing and joining the uprising.  And anyone with even the slightest ax to grind is jumping on the bandwagon.

Why is the statue of Columbus being removed?  Well, for one of any reasons, take your pick: It's racist, hate, sexist, patriarchal, misogynist, homophobic, imperialist, colonial, Islamophobic, bigoted, antisemitic, transphobic, and any other reasons. I thought of that because he said it represented, among other leftist jargon, patriarchy. No clue what he means by that, except to just throw in a few more leftist buzzwords of division.  Or statues of men are bad.  I'm not sure.

It's also worth noting that there is a growing movement to have the city of Columbus change its name.  I can't imagine how difficult that would be, but then I thought it would be difficult to convince Americans to throw out America's heritage, declare its heroes Nazis, and invoke the destruction and banning of any unclean thing deemed so by a flagrantly Marxist inspired movement.  So apparently I suffer from a deplorable lack of ability to see the future.

I shall not return

So here's the scoop.  Mark Shea announced a couple weeks ago that he was finally closing down the ironically titled Catholic and Enjoying It.  That had been Mark's blog since the beginning, long before it moved to the secular progressive Patheos site.  The problems with Mark's blog and online presence were well known and don't need repeated.

In his announcement, Mark said he would change the focus of his new blog, with more emphasis on spiritual journeys and basic Christian stuff.   This would be in stark contrast to what his blog (and his other social media outlets) were; that is basic leftist political rags with only the thinnest veneer of Christianity to give them heft.

Many were skeptical.  Some told me flat out they didn't believe it.  Nonetheless, I'm an eternal optimist at heart, for where God is, all things are possible.  Or so they say.  I decided to visit and give it a chance.  Well, bad news.  It's already fast becoming nothing more than CAEI redux with a new title.  Yes, it seems a little extra care is taken to put a bit more Christian spin on his political opinions and liberal stances, but it's still basically the same leftwing ramblings based on leftist narratives and propaganda.

Many of his readers from CAEI have already flocked there.  Some took a polite and mature tone as they disagreed with me, and I'm fine with that. In our era devoid of Truth and Principles and Consistency, I'd rather someone consistently and maturely disagree with me about everything than inconsistently and childishly agree with me about anything.

Sadly, some of the worst elements also followed him over and brought all their worst bilge with them. Apparently they are bent on keeping the slander, lies, personal attacks, blasphemies, heresies, defense of intrinsic evils and sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance the defining staples of the new blog address.

So, I won't go back, lest I encourage sin and evil by increasing visits.  I gave it a chance.  I'll say no more about Mark or his blog since he didn't ban me.  When he did ban me in the past, sometimes after a round of false accusations or personal attacks, I felt more than at liberty to respond one of the only ways I could, with my blog.  He did, sadly, launch the usual false and slanderous accusations at me, suggesting strongly that reasoned debate will be all but impossible.  But since he didn't ban me  I won't be piling on in the future.

Just an update for those curious.  If you want what CAEI became over the years, then by all means go on over to Mark's new blog.  It looks like it's going to be the same old, same old - a progressive political blog wrapped in selectively chosen Christian garb to buttress leftist dogma.  In fact, you might say it's a case study of those Americans who are willing to throw down and destroy anything that the Left demands, and defend or advocate whatever the Left mandates.  In fact, Mark has most recently gone 180 and now condones destroying statues of that white genocidal racist Christopher Columbus, only a couple years after defending the same as a Catholic hero.  Today, he defends banning Gone With the Wind due to its content, something that was anathema to liberalism when I was growing up.  As a case study in 'how the West was killed and freedoms died', it could be of value.

If that's not what you're looking for, however, and you were hoping for a Catholic or even Christian outlet, then consider yourself warned.  Rather, if you're looking for something in the Catholic neighborhood you might want to stop by here, an actual Catholic site focused on actual Catholic devotions and reflections.  Or you could swing by Fish Eaters, and oldie but goodie when it comes to Catholic resources (warning: they are not fans of Vatican II).  Those and other such outlets will be me.  I have  the news media, Antifa, and American communists to keep informed about where we're headed.  I don't need Rolf to put a dot on it all.  I'll stay rooted in Christ and the Faith in the face of the coming storm, rather than get my blood up reading those who are egging the storm onward.

Columbus State Community College falls to the Left's demands

Buckling to the communists.  Or Marxists, if you prefer to strike a compromise.  Whatever, it is the revolution rising in our midst that wishes to throw down the Christian West and the American experience and replace it with who knows what.  Well, let me restate that.  We do know what.  We're seeing it: group identity, abolition of free speech, eradication of religious liberty, broadened elimination of unwanted humans, debauchery and decadence in the era of 36 million dead from AIDS and millions more ruined by drugs, more group identity and bigotry, the elimination of due process and equality before the law, and on and on.  

It's hard not to worry about the victories this movement is enjoying.  Much of why it is enjoying this string of victories is because we Americans 1) imagined it would never happen here, and 2) if it did our leaders and institutions would rise up and withstand the storm. 

We're seeing both are wrong.  It is happening here, as it has been for generations.  And we're watching our leaders and our institutions collapse and unconditionally surrender.  Police and military kneel and protest the flag.  Religious leaders jeopardize thousands through Covid-19 to join a factually flawed protest movement, even as they gladly ban people from gathering to worship the Almighty.  Celebrities and sports teams and businesses throw anything and everything traditional out the window and embrace whatever racism or bigotry is being peddled. Colleges and universities rewrite history and censor thought crimes.  Cities and states destroy our heritage and eradicate monuments to the heroes of our past.  Politicians - including the always stalwart Republicans - stand silent or join in. 

It's always been easy to watch old movies about the prewar gobbling up of Europe by Hitler's machinations.  We shake our heads at all those characters who joined the Nazi cause and wonder, and even sneer at their weakness and lack of character or vision.  Well, we no more need to consult the classic movie section that will soon be shredded and banned.  We can look out our windows or watch our propaganda ministry and see the same thing happening today. 

Me when I was my ten year old’s age in 1975:

“I wonder if someday they’ll say I and my entire nation will be guilty of all the sins ever committed by every European and European American, and I’ll be expected to grovel and beg forgiveness because of the non-Indian part of my ethnic heritage …  nah, we  would never be that stupid.”

Me looking at my ten year old’s country in 2020:

When American Marxists learned a new trick

I don't mind saying American Marxists since, well, it's more or less out of the bag.  I mean, when you see a growing number of people moving past mere Socialism and going full-blown for Communism, I think it's fair to call a spade a spade, or at least meet them in the middle and say Marxist.

So what was this new trick?  Well, since post-Reagan, the Marxists ensconced in their news rooms and university halls and behind the cameras in Hollywood have known the best way to cow Republicans was to attack them.  Set the rules, seize the initiative.  If they question anything Left, they're Hitler.  And from GHW Bush to 2016, most more or less showed that tactic was one that would work like a charm.

Then came Trump.  Trump was a flaming leftist for most of his life, and a darling of the liberal establishment.  Oh, he was bit of a bad boy 'love to hate' fellow, but his money and his fame made him the one any good liberal wanted to party with like it was 1999.  Until, of course, he committed the unforgivable sin of putting an (R) in front of his name.

From there, the Marxists assumed the usual would work.  Sure, they hoisted Trump in the 2016 primaries in order to wreck the GOP field of candidates.  But once that was finished, they assumed they could go after Trump the way they had every GOP candidate since 1986:  Either accuse him of being Hitler, dig up a scandal, or a combination of both.

And what did they get for their efforts?  A climatic end to three years of the most sustained coalition against a sitting president in our history, with Trump emerging with higher poll numbers than ever before.  I'll leave others to figure out how this could happen, but happen it did.  And all of this while the field of Democratic contenders was being engulfed in flames of idiocy, incompetence, hubris, elitism, and one spinning love yarns to communist dictators.  Trump emerges from being impeached on top of the polls?  The Democratic candidates are imploding?  What to do?  Attack Trump some more?

And that must be when it hit them. If you want to take out Trump, you don't attack Trump.  Trump just fires back at you with both barrels.  Trump, rightly or wrongly, subscribes to the idea of 'a nuclear missile for an eye.'  Because there is enough falling apart in our world and the Left, largely holding dominance in our country and much of the West for decades, was having a tough time always blaming everyone else, a new strategy had to emerge.

That strategy?  Attack America.  Do whatever it takes to create the worst imaginable crises or catastrophes it can, encourage Americans to hate each other and turn on each other.  Get the government to wreck the economy.  Get people to fear WWIII, billions dead from a global pandemic, the local police, your next door neighbor, whatever.  There is no amount of body bags, burned buildings, dead business owners, murdered children that aren't worth it when they know they can put 100% of the blame on Trump since they're all more or less on the same page, and they set the narrative.

Essentially, if Trump is standing there between you and the hostages and every shot fired at Trump has bounced off, then start shooting the hostages.  And then insist it isn't anyone's fault but Trump's for not defending the hostages.

That seems to have done the trick.  Trump is good at defending himself, even his supporters.  Defending the entire nation against relentless attacks forged upon lies and falsehoods?  Not so much. He's seemed bewildered, confused, inconsistent and, for the first time ever, helpless.  As politicians  move to abolish police forces, Trump responds to no avail.  As church leaders gather to increase Covid-19 cases to protests America as a Nazi state, Trump just shows up and hopes they'll like him.  As more and more of our leaders support the protests and demonstrations that left dozens killed or injured, and many more with their livelihoods destroyed, Trump appeared to know nothing other than send in the army - and then recall it when the heat got turned on, while his generals and servicemen in general turn on him.

This has left many of his most stalwart supporters scratching their heads.  It has buttressed Trump's opposition, who will support anything evil and false and destructive under normal conditions, with increasing confidence that this new approach is working.  And it's left that broad area in-between with the notion of a collapsing nation that is falling apart due to an already suspect president whose incompetence is finally beginning to show.

So from now on, I'll wager that if the Marxists experience a political setback, they may initially try the old attack and destroy method against the victor in question.  But soon otherwise, if that doesn't work, they will turn their guns on America, or anyone in the world for that matter, in the hopes that whatever death and destruction emerges, they can then blame the one who dared deny them of their rightful place on the top of the hill.

Dan Abrams learns a valuable lesson

Few journalists were more pre-woke woked than Dan Abrams.  On one CNN round table discussion, I remember hearing him pontificate about the innate superiority of gays over heterosexuals.  Then he wrote a humorous book, Man Down, that nonetheless prompted him to gush over the innate superiority of women over men in every conceivable category of life.

So the man is a woke genius.  But the thing about the Marxist revolt?  It's Marxist.  It's got communism in its veins.  That means, at any given moment today's ally is tomorrow's corpse.  So Dan Abram's law enforcement themed show Live PD has been pulled owing to the Red Scare BLM and its demands for conformity to the latest leftist same-think.

That is one of the things that separated the communists, especially under Stalin, from the Nazis.  In a strange, weird way, once the Nazis consolidated power, Hitler could be counted on to maintain a certain loyalty to those who were loyal to him.   He kept people like Goebbels and Goering nearby even when it was clear they had passed their usefulness to him.  It took him believing that you were out to get him to be turned upon.

With Stalin, and in some ways communism in general, there is a fickleness to the slaughter.  While Hitler maintained a loyalty to some of his most zealous fanatics, the same was not true for Stalin.  It was nothing to see a picture of Stalin as pallbearer for one of his dear friends and loyal comrades he had executed - just because.  For all the evils of the Nazism, there was a cultic, mythical air to it that kept them grounded in their horrific evils.

With communism, on the other hand, it always seems to be grasping for grasping.  Today's truth may become tomorrow's idea punishable by death.  Today's friend, tomorrow's corpse.  Or it may just be random for random horror's sake.  We often say that's what makes the Holocaust so evil.  It was deliberate, planned, organized and aimed at certain people for evil reasons.  The communists, on the other hand, could kill anyone at any moment for any reason.  Therefore not as evil.

Or was it?  Even today, the wokest wokiest wokesters of wokedom are finding out that with American Marxism, you just can't be woke enough. At any moment, the things mandated by the Marxists today could result in you being destroyed by the Marxists tomorrow.  Very much like life in good old Uncle Joe's Soviet paradise.  The same paradise America's liberalism, now revealed as Marxism at best, seems to be aiming at.

Those who have died for the memory of George Floyd

It is a Fox News article.  I generally avoid Fox simply because I don't go there often.  Nonetheless, mainstream outlets seem to have been very coy about emphasizing those killed or otherwise seriously harmed or injured by the riots and destruction that erupted in the days following the media's puffing of Mr. Floyd's death.

The article admits details are fuzzy, and perhaps not all of the seventeen listed can be blamed only on the protests and riots.  It's worth noting, however, that per the stats, those killed are typically around the number of unarmed black men killed by police of all skin colors.

Let that sink in.

Credit where it is due

So I stopped going to Rod Dreher's blog when he had his meltdown and called upon the state authorities to haul away Christian ministers daring to violate social distancing in order to gather their flocks to worship God.  I said for a man who has made religious liberty the premier issue of our day, that went down sour.

Nonetheless, I see that he has also called down hellfire on everyone running around embracing the death of thousands from Covid-19 in order to decry our genocidal racist Nazi state of America.  Most Christian leaders, as well as a growing number of law enforcement and military leaders, are falling into line and accepting the need to kill Americans for the greater good of tearing down our racist state, per the media's orders. If, that is, the hype about C19 and social distancing was accurate and not piles of BS.

A reminder: we often imagine it won't happen here.  We're not that stupid, we're Americans, the military or police would never let it happen.  Consider both the police and military who pledged to protect and serve our nation who are now 'taking a knee' (meaning, refusing allegiance to our nation - the original purpose of the knee gesture popularized by Colin Kaepernick).  These are not ones who will stand up to the state should the state ever turn against the people.  The ones bowing, taking knees, washing feet and laying prostrate on the ground will be the ones kicking in doors and dragging people off to Gulags on orders by the powers that be.

Oh, and the Christian leaders approving the deaths of thousands to Covid-19, who only a month ago kept people barred from gathering to worship God to save thousands, will also be the ones putting a Jesus stamp of approval on whatever torchlight processionals emerge in Washington or, perhaps, Nuremberg.

Make a note Twiddle; don't trust in institutions and leaders.  They are typically only as good as the heart and soul of the society in question.  Having jettisoned the values and beliefs that got us to a nation of freedom, equality, charity, self-reflection and prosperity, don't imagine those same leaders and institutions will stand firm against the replacement that has the powers that be at its back.  Just because they seem good when compared to the worst bilge into which modernity has transformed our country only means they are good in comparison.  If your standard is remaining three yards back from a movment plowing a hundred miles an hour away from the Gospel, you'll still end up hundreds of miles away from the Gospel.

So kudos to Mr. Dreher.  He may have gone over the edge with the Covid-19, but at least he is consistent.  And one of the great casualties of our age has been a consistent and principled ethic and moral based for our society.  We operate on a here today, gone later today approach of  truth whenever convenient.   That so many leaders have embraced this is one of the things that has weakened our nation and set us up for a fall.  So when someone like Dreher breaks ranks and is consistent, even if I disagree, I tip my hat because that is the only hope for anyone in today's world, the hope of actual Truth, not truth until inconvenient.

It's not easy being Southern Baptist

When yours is the denomination founded during the split over slavery in which yours sided with slavery, in today's world you're going to have some splanin' to do.  Racism and slavery are now officially the all-defining,  unforgivable sins. Cure cancer, rescue 50 children from a burning building, but if it's discovered you once made a racially insensitive joke 20 years ago when you were in school, you're now defined by your vile and unforgivable racism - only for White Americans and Europeans that is, since apparently those are the only places where racism or bad slavery happened.

In that environment, what are Southern Baptists to do?  Well, what most Christian leaders and traditions are doing now, and that's crumble, cave, grovel, throw out anything and everything that can be thrown, and hope they'll still be able to sail to the world's best parties with all the money and T&A.

That seems harsh, but these are harsh times.  Like many Christians in the dying West, there's a good chance much of what they said they believed they didn't, and hadn't for some time; the assault of secularism taking its toll over the years.  Nonetheless, it was a great way to kill a Sunday, gave some semblance of purpose to purposeless lives, and Christian leaders could straddled the fence with all the boons of our affluent and free society on one side, while popping six figures for Jesus each Sunday on the other.

Unfortunately now the Marxist cat is out of the bag, and there's a good chance we're watching the collapse of all that affluence and freedom stuff, at least if you fail to bow to your Marxist masters.  So expect to see more of what we're only now beginning to see, and that's a complete jettison of anything and everything as dictated by the Leftist state from those institutions we once imagined were set firm and secure.

Signing off for a few days

From everything.  We are going offline for a few days or a week or thereabouts.  Maybe next week or so we'll be back.  I don't know. 

Why?  Because we saw our hometown announce it is suspending all July 4th celebrations indefinitely.  Due, or course, to the threat that large gatherings in open spaces pose to thousands of Americans.  Our hometown does, however, fully support protesters calling out America as an evil and oppressive racist state filled to the brim with racists being racist.  The deaths of thousands of innocent Americans are worth the price for that one.  So, gather to celebrate America?  I'm afraid not.  Risk the lives of thousands to damn America?  Welcome aboard!

So, before this is eventually pulled (we have DVD copies, thank you), one last round from the top:

Meanwhile, a former classmate of mine just posted a tearful post on FB.  I knew her Dad died a couple weeks ago. He was a veteran.  But she was unable to attend his funeral and he was denied a military funeral with full honors because - you guessed it - social distancing.  They were allowed to wait in the cars, but only ten were able to attend.  Now, of course, hundreds if not thousands are protesting, and it looks like George Floyd's funeral (who I still know nothing about) will be the mass gathering event of the year!  Thousands infected and thousands dead!  But for the right reason this time!  Woohoo!

My boys said something interesting.  There was an interview with some young girl who was protesting.  She said she is part of the new rebellion.  My boys said that if your cause is backed by the overwhelming power  of America's multi-zillion dollar corporate structure, the vast majority of those in political power, the wealthiest and most powerful celebrities and cultural icons, the news media, almost all  religious traditions and religious leaders, the national press, and a growing number of law enforcement and military individuals and leaders, you are not part of a bold rebellion.  You are the establishment.  You are the power.

Think on that and what that power is now proclaiming and endorsing.  I've talked and posted on the spate of editorials and articles I saw last year calling on America to consider, if not fully embrace, it's inner Communism.  Not Socialism mind you, the actual C-Word.  Now I've just seen multiple posts and articles on a variety of sources saying that monuments of not only Confederates, but all Americans and all war memorials deserve to be defaced or removed.  Whose dream does that sound like?

And this almost overnight, fast on the heals of when the vast majority of Americans happily said they would sell all freedoms and cut all liberties to defeat Covid-19.  Except, of course, to prevent protests aimed at destroying the American experiment and casting down the United States.  Apparently thousands can happily die for that cause.  Likewise religious leaders - Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and non-Christian - who only a week ago insisted we take it slow and easy when it comes to church stuff, are now out arm in arm with protesters by the thousands, risking lives for what is better - the casting down of America, rather than all that worship God and Sacraments rubbish.

I'm reminded of all the history books and biographies I've read over the years. There was one common trend you always saw when it came to those in Germany and Russia in the last century.  When asked how the respective citizens could allow such horrors as we saw from the Nazis and the Bolsheviks, the response was almost always the same:  It all happened so fast, they never saw it coming.

At the end of Obama's presidency, when the Left clearly tasted blood, I said I wondered if I would live to see us become a Communist inspired totalitarian state.  I now wonder if my youngest son will learn to drive before it happens.

So I'll be off social media, the Internet (for news or current topics) and away from any talk radio (not that I hear it much) or any news shows.  I'll seek weather and traffic other ways. I'll hunker down, spend time with the family, and pray, pray, pray.  If it's anything, it will be hobbies, cooking sites, static religious sites, or other things. And I might even post about an all important game!  When I come back, I'll see if I am any more optimistic.  At least I will have had a bit of a break from the obvious.

Modern Christainity desperately needs a massive dose of Viagra

So we’re seeing people, like the director of the CDC, warn that these protests will lead to spikes in Covid-19 and at the same time continue to support these protests.  That same assessment is being echoed by the press, medical community, politicians, business leaders and our all-important celebrities.  All because the national news media, which usually generates less trust among Americans than gas station sushi, has said we’re a four hundred year old racist state brimming to the top with racism, and the actions of this one police officer is all we need to see why causing these spikes will be worth it.   

And in this all, our religious leadership - Catholic, Orthodox and otherwise - have joined in and agreed.  In fact, after only two weeks ago saying we must continue to take things slow and easy since it's only worship and the Sacraments, they are now out marching elbow to elbow with protesters over what is really important. 

I've never seen the Christian church look so much like a desperate yap dog begging for scraps from the table of relevancy as it does today.  

Some still remember

D-Day

And not just the event, but the America it represented, flaws and all.  We even celebrate that generation landing on the beaches even though they parented the generation now dedicated to destroying everything they fought for. 

Joe Biden claims 34 million Americans are not very good people.

Yep, so said mister unify Americans himself.  Or possibly as high as 51 million.  That's tens of millions of Americans Biden - presumptive nominee for president  - has said are 'not very good people.'  Now, personally, I would have estimated higher.  But that's because I'm not running for president and my opinions and a couple bucks will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. 

But think of this.  Twenty years ago something half this stupidly egregious would be the end of any candidate's career.  Why is it not?  Because the press isn't covering it, that's why.  Why are we now willing to kill thousands with Covid-19 (accepted rhetoric two weeks ago)  in mass gatherings to call out America as a racist nation?  Because the press wants it.  It could be that the press agrees with Biden's assessment.  It's hard to say.

But think on all of this.  This is how revolutions gain ground, and one of the main promoters of the move to throw down the United States is the national press.  The national press is one of the most universally anti-American institutions in our country today.  If you don't like that and where the press is leading us, then I suggest we start doing something about it before it is too late.

A world in which Tucker Carlson is the voice of reason

Has to make you wonder.  Here is the link to the story and Mr. Carlson's long spiel.

As a disclaimer, I'm no fan of Mr. Carlson.  That's why I almost never reference him.  To be honest, I seldom watch FOX at all, so know little of his work there.  But I happened to see this, and decided to listen to the whole thing.

He's spot on.  We are seeing a concerted effort to destroy the United States and the Western Christian tradition (what little is left of it).  To that end, lies and falsehoods, evil and violence, racism to replace racism, blood guilt and things unimaginable in America 20 years ago are openly advocated and promoted by our leaders: politicians, religious, celebrities, and those in various forms of authority.  Ans most of all our national news media.  Even police and military officials are starting to sound a lot like racist cops, just ones finding new races to hate.

It's stunning and terrifying.  And those who see it for what it is - let's say conservatives, traditional Christian, or simply sane people of good will - would do well to rethink their faith in various leaders they imagine would stand up to this.  Most Republicans, most Christian leaders, most Conservatives - I heard Limbaugh himself repeating some of the talking points - have joined the fray.

It's all about racism because the cop was white, and what are we but a racist nation filled with vile white racists?  Clearly this cannot be denied; you can always tell a racist by the color of his skin.  This is the greatest commandment of the 21st Century America.  And almost everyone on all sides concedes its truth.  That America is defined by its racism, is nothing but a racist nation state of discrimination, slavery and genocide can and should be admitted by all.  So says almost everyone I've heard or read in the last few days.

Kudos to Carlson for calling out this nakedly racist blood guilt ideal.  The thought that my boys, scraping by to put themselves through college, have privilege and deserve nothing as opposed to a suffering man like Colin Kaepernick, shows the level of idiocy and evil that is taking over our social discourse.  The idea that America and all Americans, as oppose to all Chinese or Africans or Muslims, can be accused and condemned is as bad as if it was aimed at those other peoples.  The fact that I'm told I should suffer pain because I'm white and deserve to pay for the sins of other whites is straight out of the blood-guilt playbook. And again, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox!, lay and clergy, conservative politicians and activists, all but endorse these views.   Showing the utter pointlessness in trusting them for guidance and guardianship against the coming storm.

Again, no Carlson fan.  But credit where it is due.

Well done Tiger Woods and company

A man once revered and respected who fell from grace.  Now he's making his way back, and showing that he has developed grit and a sense of perspective with maturity.  To that end, he calls out the obvious.  The killing of George Floyd was horrific.  Police, of course, are generally great individuals who we look to for help.  Except for a few radical libertarians I unfriended who were into the whole 'all authority is Hitler' shtick.

Anyhoo, he calls for the better way, the way of goodness and light.  As does, in his own strange way, Dennis Rodman.  Go figure.

In addition, our local Catholic priest also called out the evils surrounding George Floyd's death.  He specifically, however, said it was not about racism.  It's about the evil of our hearts.  And likewise, the reactions that have erupted, the worst of them, have also been the result of the evil of our hearts.  Basically it's a spiritual problem, an evil in our hearts, our broken relationship to God.  Rodman and Tiger both get the goodness and evil part.  Our priest - straight in from Africa - gets the evil and spiritual connection to God part.

Would that more of our courageous religious and national leaders hear this, and not piddle in their pants and embrace all manner of anti-American, racist, bigoted, ignorant and false narratives just to keep their jobs.  When a priest from Africa, a golfer and a dyed hair, tattoo emblazoned basketball star say it better than our political and religious leaders, we've got some serious praying to do.

Words fail me

Alice Cooper and Colonel (Harland) Sanders from the decade that taste forgot

I was going to post something witty, but I just couldn't come up with something that outdid the picture itself.  I thought and thought - Alice Cooper and Col. Sanders, Alice Cooper and Col. Sanders.  But nothing came to mind that wasn't said in the picture.  A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words.  In this case, those thousand words still didn't do it justice. 

How do we know that George Floyd was killed because of racism?

I mean this.  I've asked it in dozens of forums and places I don't usually even post, and have yet to get an answer.  I'm not saying it wasn't gut wrenching to watch. And unless there is one big, massive missing piece to the puzzle, the police officers in question must be tried for his death and, if found guilty (important piece here), prosecuted within the limits.  And perhaps it was because of racism on the part of the accused police officer.

But with that said, how do we know it was racist?  Everyone - Conservatives, Liberals, Republicans, Democrats, journalists, Christians, Christian leaders, Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant, clergy, celebrities, friends and coworkers - have all said this is linked to racism in America, America as racist nation, American racists, white racists, and all that jazz.

But how do we know it was racist?  I'm not getting any answers.  I have people say black Americans live in terror, and racism is systemic, and discrimination and all.  But I've heard nobody say 'this is exactly how we know that George Floyd was killed because of racism.' 

The only reason I can figure is the one reason nobody will say even though they all seem to mean it: Derek Chauvin, the police officer who killed George Floyd, is white.   That nobody comes out and says this suggests, at least to me, they know deep down (or not so deep) that this doesn't sound nice.  Saying it had to be racist because he's white just goes down sour.  Even though the entire current debate is based solely on the fact that the killing was racist, and the only reason we could assume that is because of the skin color of Mr. Chauvin, nobody will just say so.

Which, by my lights, suggests this is bad because we're all - including Conservatives, Christians, and those who say they know better - jumping on something for reasons we know to be wrong, but doing it anyway.  That is never a good sign in a nation, or in anything. 

It reminds me of what a friend of mine I knew in graduate school used to say about growing up in the former Soviet Union.  There was always this moment when they were forced to confess something they knew to be wrong.  Sometimes stupid, flagrantly false.  Because if you can get people to fall in line behind something they know to be wrong, you'll have no problem getting them to get behind more nuanced movements.  I can't help but think I'm seeing a bit of this now.