Always a good sign

Russia and Ukraine have sat down for talks while the fighting it ongoing.  

This doesn't mean it's all peace and love today.  But it's a good sign.  If you know nothing about Russia and can't find Ukraine on the map, you can see this has not gone as Russia could ever have hoped.  Like Russia reportedly did after the election of Reagan in 1980, Putin and his cohorts likely saw in Ukraine's Zelensky a half-baked actor who wouldn't know what to do with a little push.  Like Reagan in 1980, they were wrong. 

None of this is to say it's easy to parse the complexities of this situation.  There is blame aplenty, and there are greater issues right now behind all this than Russian tanks in Ukraine.  But right now, things have clearly gone sour for Putin's plans.  While I can't speak to his sanity or mental balance, I can say that anything bringing this to a quick conclusion will be better for everyone.  That is as long as we learn the biggest lesson from this, and it's stop basing our policy on silly progressive modernity narratives.  And for heaven's sake, stop worrying more about pregnant men with nail polish in the military than the actual events and purposes of the real world in these troubled times. 

Pray for Ukraine and those who would exploit its sufferings

I've come to believe that the only thing worse than a true perpetrator of evil is the one who shamelessly exploits the evil for her own good.  Hence my war against the modern media and its almost Pavlovian tendency to not cover or care about true suffering and misery and death unless it can be shoved into the press's pet agenda templates.

The same goes here.  This is actually a war, call it what we will.  Putin has thrown the dice and we'll see what happens.  Whether he succeeds - increasingly unlikely - or doesn't, many innocent people will have to die before we know.  Hence the reason why war should always be dead last in the options category.  That goes for sane people, much less followers of Christ. 

So today and this week, heading into Lent, we should bend our prayers and our thoughts to the Ukraine.  Pray for peace.  Pray that something will stop the madness.  Pray for those trying to stop it, including our president and leaders, NATO, Pope Francis, or what have you.  

Don't be quick to condemn, for this isn't an easy Group A versus Group B.  This is a long time coming, and contrary to our media's slick 'you versus them' narratives, those who are supporting Putin are not simply Hitler worshipers worshipping the first thing they can find.  That doesn't mean they're right.  Nor does it mean we can't call them out.  But logs and splinters as they say. 

Because in our neck of the woods, there are clearly those who appear to see this as just another weapon in their own partisan arsenals.  Far more important than peace or the protection of the innocent is making sure my side gets off the blame hook, and your side is Satan.  If it was confined to a few Catholic bloggers, it wouldn't be more than a shame.  Unfortunately, not a few prominent individuals and institutions seem just as concerned about covering their own side's tails or biting the other side's tails. 

This isn't to say we can't try to get our heads around what happened.  Legitimate questions deserve legitimate answers.  Likewise, credit and blame where due.  I, for one, don't wish to engage in a war in Europe - not with three combat aged sons (who alone can be drafted, feminism hedging inequality when needed).  And I've been pleasantly surprised with President Biden's resolve in this.  I think Putin confused Obama's tomfoolery and ineptitude with Biden who, for all he's bathed in the ludicrous left, was still born out of a different mold. 

So right now, keep it all in our prayers.  Pray for peace.  Pray that the Lord can intervene and soften hearts and convert minds.  Pray that Putin be changed and softened by the Holy Spirit.  Pray for those who see in this only an opportunity to score points for their own particular agendas.  And pray for those standing up to the aggression and courageously risking their own lives to protect the innocent, their home, and stop this war before it becomes far, far worse. 

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God Matthew 5:9

Remembering Dad

c. 1991, how I like to remember them

Yesterday was my late dad's birthday.  I'm not one to dwell on things to be honest.  My sister is, and seldom does she go a day without thinking about Dad and missing him.  I miss him, too.  I just don't dwell.  

He passed away eleven years ago, shortly after we put him in a nursing home.  His Alzheimer's had made it impossible for my mom to take care of him, and we feared it was doing her harm.  So in he went.  Beyond his mental faculties, he was otherwise healthy as healthy could be.

Then, a month later, he was gone.  Neglect was the suspicion, but we couldn't prove it. We found out that in the ER, doctors will tell you how bad the treatment was that led to his death.  If you talk of lawsuits, however, you suddenly find out that the same doctors never even heard of an ER.  So we couldn't do anything about it.  It is why, however, my mom lives with us now and will continue to, no matter what, until it becomes a matter of her health that she must go in a different direction.

Plus, I think ol'Dad would want us to take care of her for him.  My sister's husband died of pancreatic cancer right when Mom was no longer able to care for herself, owing to her own bout with dementia.  That left a nursing home - out of the question - or us.  In an odd twist, I was a department supervisor at a major health care company, yet my health benefits were disastrously bad compared to my wife's benefits through her job.  

That was the tipping point.  Plus we figured Mom would be more receptive to her own son tending to her than my wife, despite them having a close relationship.  So that's why I came home.  It hasn't been easy by a long shot.  Between finances, the tending to a live at home parent, and homeschool, it's more than difficult.  But it's very rewarding as well.

Some day I'm going to write a book titled 'Women in the Workplace: What the Hell Were They Thinking?' I mean, I know it rubs against the grain.  And no matter how present I am in the boys' lives with my wife at work, when they get sick or skin their knee, who do you think they run to? You bet.  They run over their dad to get to their mom every time.  And there's not a darn thing the modern 'science' can do about that.

Nonetheless,  in my own discount stay at home parent role, I can see the vast rewards and self worth that comes with being the one to keep the hearth and family together, to cook the meals (when my oldest is unavailable), to  keep things in order, to be there when needed.  Compared to the rat race, the marathon driving commutes in blizzard conditions, the stress and strain of the corporate (or even pastoral) office, the rewards from even the worst of caring for the family at home exceed by leaps and bounds any rewards from brining home a paycheck.  No matter what the future holds, I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. 

Therefore with the options at hand and our refusal to put mom into a nursing home, however, this is the choice we've made.  My wife has climbed the corporate ladder since and is now VP of her particular piece of the greater corporate pie.  Financially, that makes a difference.

However we pull it, I think it's the least we can do for Dad since the one thing he did in his life was to take care of his family.  Having had a turbulent upbringing, the one thing he did was focus on caring for the family.

Peace, Urkaine and America

I'm no expert when it comes to Eastern European political and historical wrangling.  In those years I sojourned with the Orthodox Christians - many from Eastern and Southeastern Europe - I realized just how deficient our modern American understanding of the world has become. I get the impression Americans in the 1910s had a better grasp of the world than we do today.  

The divisions in our country are a big reason.  Among many pundits, this is all about attacking each other.  To he honest, I don't even know what different pundits want to happen.  All I know is that they're attacking the other ones because of course they are.

As best I can tell, non-leftists and conservatives are split into two groups.  One says we must stand up to Putin, and the other says we have no business getting involved in yet another foreign conflict. The left seems content with attacking group number two as traitors and Tokyo Roses for Putin and Satan and Hitler and everything else.  Whether the Left recognizes group number one is unknown to me. 

Meanwhile, I have watched the Biden administration fail repeatedly to stop Putin from doing what Putin clearly intended to do. Those on the Left seem more focused on defending Biden by ignoring the obvious than they are actually helping anything.  In fact, most who blast those conservatives for not wanting to get involved in Ukraine appear to  offer no clear examples of what we should do while making sure blame falls anywhere but with Biden (or Mr. 'Cold War is Calling' Obama). 

So zealous have they been in attacking those who don't want to get involved, in fact, they come off as fanatical warmongers of the type they've long accused conservatives of being.  To hear some of them scream traitor at those who don't want to get involved in a potential land war in Europe, they come across as jockeys for war in a way that would shame the Marx Brothers:

True, they're not committing to any particular course of action, and seem more concerned about scoring points against conservatives than articulating any clear solutions to the crisis.  Therefore they could always insist they don't mean war while meaning nothing else at all.  That's what comes from a divided and dying nation like ours I suppose.

True across the board

Rod Dreher has been following these developments.  His extensive interactions with those east of the Danube have likely given him insights that seem to help frame things realistically.   Based on what I experienced in my few paltry years with Orthodox Christianity listening to immigrants from Eastern Europe, it's also closer to what I heard than the fictional narrative hoisted on us by many of our warring pundits.  He's also honest about the hot mess the West and America is in - something those on the Left wouldn't understand since they fully support the things that are killing the West.

I abhor what Russia has done today. But this did not come from nowhere. Now Europe faces the prospect of a wider war — unlikely, but not at all unthinkable, which explains the anxiety so many Hungarians I meet have — and the opening of a new Cold War with Russia … and China. The historical period that ended last night, when Russian troops crossed the border, began with the US hoping to integrate China and Russia into a liberal democratic world order. It ended with wealthy China the world’s ascendant power; Russia — an historically Christian nation — having abandoned liberal democracy after the shambles that corrupt Russians and US advisors made of the 1990s, pivoting away from the West, and now firmly in the orbit of China; and the United States, a declining empire weakened and humiliated by twenty years of failed Mideast and Asian war, and sharply divided at home by the culture war American elites have waged on half of their own people, left to figure out what the hell to do with itself and its inheritance.

In all of this, one wonders where China, and even India, will fall.  Also the Middle East.  So far in news reports I've seen, those condemning Putin are either European or African reps to the UN.  I've seen very few allusions to ambassadors from the Middle East or China.  Perhaps I just missed it.  But I can't help but think it's where those cultures and nations fall, rather than the dying West, that will make a difference.  For good or ill. 

Nonetheless, I don't see the rulers of the world beating a path to my door and seeking my insights into the problem.  For now, I can do the one thing I can do, and that's pray for peace.  What happens in the weeks and months to come is the guess of others with more insight than I have. So on behalf of my sons, and the wider world, I'll offer prayers that things can be stopped before death and suffering become the norm. 

The English language can't describe how much I hate this

I saw the headline pop up and wondered what it could be.  Some big case everyone is talking about?  A woman assaulted a 10 year old?  Hmmmm.  So I clicked it to see what it was about.

This is what it was about.

I hate that so much.  It wasn't a woman.  It was a man with the troubled idea that he's a woman who assaulted a 10 year old girl and got a slap on the wrist.  To make the pelvic brigade look even worse, he openly mocked the girl over his sentencing as if the joke was on her.  

Remember, societal madness is a gateway drug for tyranny

Now, that's nasty stuff.  And in a sane world that has nothing to do with the Gospel, much less one that has any familiarity with the Gospel, things would be different. 

As it is, notice the headline.  Woman.  No my dude, it's not a woman.  It's a man.  And it was a 10 year old GIRL.  The headline apparently couldn't say that because, well, you don't want to draw attention to an actual girl when you're trying to insist that man in the photo is a woman because he says so. 

That's barking man insanity./  That our multi-billion dollar a year mental health industry continues to laugh all the way to the bank over this is bad enough.  But it's not the MH industry, or rascally liberals, or the godless, or the Marxists, or whoever else you blame, that bothers me the most. 

What bothers me is the army of Christian Court Prophets who are twisting and turning and torturing common sense, the Gospel, and basic human decency in order to accommodate this madness.  Look at my old buddy Russ Moore and how he frames it under the idea that biblical gender is a complex thing.  Oh, boys and girls and all, but violence against transgenderism is out of the question. As if there are only two options - attack transgenders or cozy up to it all.  Unlike with white conservatives and conservative male Trump supporters, we should reach out to the transgender community with love and joy and inclusion.

Court prophets.  They make up the bulk of Christian leaders nowadays, as they often have over the ages. The problem is that now they're sucking up to a movement that seems driven by the goal of taking everything God ever revealed and turning it on its head.  While millions of Christians will gladly toss the old aside and affirm whatever this movement says, it will be the Court Prophets who really mess things up.  

Whether it's because they have lost their faith, or they're cowards, or they don't want to lose their cushy corner offices in Manhattan high rises, I don't know.  I just know they'll appear to be the voices of reason.  But what they are doing is simply putting a down payment on Sunday mornings so the rest of the week can be spent partying with the World like its 2099.  

Then the messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Behold, all the prophets, speaking in one accord, are saying good things to the king. Come now, and let your word be as theirs, and speak good things.”  1 Kings 22.13

The only way John Oliver can disappoint me

 Is if I have any expectations going into his monologues:

As it is, I never do. Like all late night thralls of the liberal state, Oliver is there to attack and defend.  In this case, he no doubt joins the broadening media assault on parents who dare challenge the leftwing indoctrination in our schools. 

Here, Oliver takes on the role of defending Critical Race Theory, which both does and doesn't exist, and must be taught in schools except nobody wants it taught in schools or you're a racist.   Which is about on par for modern liberal reasoning.  

The fact that anyone claiming the title of carbon based would put any value in something like Oliver's opinion shows to what state our society has fallen. 

The press is expanding its role as Secret Police while going after dissenting parents

In what is the latest MSM story meant to besmirch parents questioning liberal activism in our public schools, we're told about shams and cons being used to harass schools and teachers. Really.  Read it here.

As we witnessed the leftwing reaction to the Canadian truck protests, and the January 6th riots, and contrasted it to the universal praise and support of the BLM protests, we can no longer deny the press has moved past its role of journalism.  By now, we realize the press is the propaganda ministry; it is Pravda.  Sometimes it's the not-so Secret Police.  Its purpose is to promote and protect at all costs the global liberal agendas. On the same front, its other job is to smear, attack and ruin any who hinder that same global leftwing movement. 

I expect more of these 'They rape teddy bears man!' stories about deplorable parents who dare to do what educators and child advocates have been telling parents to do for decades.  As teachers' salaries increased and teachers' benefits expanded, increasingly parents were told to take more charge of their children's education.  That is, spend hours each night helping the kids learn the basics. 

It got to the point where my sister complained to her granddaughter's school.  It seemed as if she was doing most of the teaching.  What were the teachers doing throughout the day?  The math and reading and writing was being left to students' families to tend to.  Apparently other priorities were being taken care of between the bells.   We saw the same thing with our sons, but bailing into homeschool got us out of the worst slide into the sludge we see today.  

With Covid, however, we saw an ugly side of our schools.  Viral videos showed teachers caught talking about keeping parents in the dark.  Parents who had only a passing care about their kids' curriculums saw some of what was being taught.  And they suddenly became what the schools had wanted for years -  involved. 

But the involvement included questioning the schools and what they were teaching.  It came in the form of holding schools accountable for questionable activities or even cover-ups. It came in the form of challenging various leftwing agendas being hoisted upon the students.

That's why everything boiled over.  The whole outrage caught the media off guard.  It likewise caught the school boards off guard.  That's why the initial reactions by teachers and school board members - threatening parents, belittling parents, mocking parents and trying to block parents from information - were what they were.  Which only made things worse.

Now the Left has rallied.  There will be more stories like this, meant to degrade and defame any parents who dare rock the boat. Any bad behavior by a potential dissenting parent will be used to blot out all parents who challenge the institution. That is the role of the 'media' today.  To promote the left.  To ignore stories and human suffering that in any way hinders the left.  To attack and eliminate anyone who stands in the way of the left.  And that includes those vaunted parents who only recently were so important to their children's educational formation. 

Back when Truck Protesters were all the rage

You mean truck protests were cool once?

One of the earliest news stories I remember was when our governor - Governor Gilligan - authorized the national guard to break up protests being carried out by truckers in the early 1970s.  I don't mind admitting that one reason the story jumped out at me was because it brought the name of our governor to my attention.  You can bet why his name was something that made an impression on a young kid in those days. 

In addition to the name connection, his actions also angered my dad.  Though the railroad and truckers unions didn't always work and play well, my dad was a union labor man all the way.  Whether it was Reagan with the Air Traffic Controllers, Elizabeth Dole with curtailing a railroad strike, or Gilligan with the truckers, my dad would typically side with labor, especially if it was the little guy. 

In those days, most of our country seemed to side with the little guy as well. Heck, the trucker protests weren't just effective, they actually made truckers into a sort of national cult hero.  Trucker culture became the thing.  All of a sudden CBs and Trucker Movies were everywhere.  We actually had trucker music (an acquired taste for sure).  

But it was good to rage against the machine back then.  Rebels and revolutionaries were always the heroes.  When we learned about early American history, the Founding Fathers were presented as the rebels with a cause, sticking it to the establishment monarchy, and fighting against button down colonial society. 

Ah, seems like old times, don't it.  Now we're seeing a clear line drawn.  If you want to protest in a way that dost glorify the Leftist State, then riot away.  Burn, loot, desecrate, vandalize, assault and even kill - and you're good.  We'll call that peaceful protesting. 

If, however, you dare challenge the Leftist State, then you are now an enemy of said state.  Initially it was through social and cultural mockery and intimidation.  Then it became a matter of corporate intimidation and threats of lawsuits or job loss.  Now it's time to just cut the silliness and get to the point.  If you don't fall in line behind the State, then it's the authorities, including police and even military, who will pay you a visit. 

Justin Trudeau has set the bar.  While we Americans have certain measures of protection in place that Canada doesn't have, I wouldn't count on that too much longer.  I'm reminded of a CBS report on Memorial Day, 2018, that found over 40% of Americans believe it's time to retire that crusty old racist slave document called the Constitution.  That's the point of anti-white racism.  If it's white, it's racist.  And if that includes such notions as equality, liberty and even the Constitution, then it's time for those things to go.  And once gone?  Well, look to the north young man.  

Here we go again

The boys a few years ago - still fun and close

Just when you thought it was safe to use our table downstairs for something else, it was decided to pick sides and relive the Napoleonic Era yet again.  I've written before about this game, and how we packed things up some time ago.  Given the flow of life, I figured certain pastimes would be behind us.

Perhaps it's for one more hurrah before our second oldest walks the aisle and moves on.  They still haven't set a wedding date, but the date will come.  I also have a gut feeling that when they get married and he moves out, the other two oldest will quickly follow.

They've been like that.  As much as they've done yeoman's work making their youngest brother part of the boys, there is no denying the older three developed a certain closeness through their lives that is unique to them.  They may bicker and argue and fight about everything from politics to history to the best Batman director, but they're also fiercely loyal to each other.  

They are very close and often take their cues off one another.  That's a big reason we homeschooled.  For their entire school lives, they were largely successful students, seldom having more than one B between them in a given grading period, the rest  A or better.  But when the district crapped on my second oldest over a trivial bureaucrat matrix, and basically told him his grades were irrelevant next to the all important tests, he stopped caring.  Once he stopped, it was as if the competitiveness between them crashed and they all began to struggle.

Likewise, while they were in little league soccer together, none expressed much interest in being in school sports.  Until one went out for track in the spring.  Then all three went out for sports in school.  Same with working.  The older two had more or less dragged their feet getting a job.  When our third son landed a job at a local grocery store at fourteen years old, within days the other two had jobs as well. 

So they've been very close over the years, and competitive. As they decided it was wise to hunker down among our modern upheaval and crazy and economic floundering, they all three sort of made the decision apart and yet together.  I figure, therefore, once one moves on, it won't be long before the other two, wherever they are, will move on as well.  The only thing they've insisted is to do so incrementally, in order to mitigate the impact on their youngest. 

I imagine that's why they're bringing out the big guns.  Which is fine by old dad.   If the worst thing a father deals with is his sons wanting to spend time with each other and the parents, I'd call that a net positive. 

Upset that Spain has allied with England, my third oldest
is taking his usual measures 

To trust Google

Consider this.  I was checking the definition of 'grifter', just to make sure.  It's one of those words you know, but when I saw it used in a comment on another website, I wanted to make sure it was used appropriately before I responded.  You know, make sure there was no nuance or alternate definition running about. 

Anyway, I put grifter in Google.  The word immediately popped up.  I was going to type in 'definition' just to get the proper entry when, lo and behold, what to my wondering eyes did appear but this:

See that?  That pop up came out of nowhere showing four images related to grifter. Elizabeth Holmes was charged with major fraud.  The show and movie that showed up both involve plots or characters described as dishonest or actually as a grifter.  

Put Candace Owens?  How did she come up in the sidebar with just the word 'Grifter' in the search engine? I tried to find any case where some list of articles labeled her a grifter, or something in her biography where she says she was once a professional grifter.  

I was unable to locate anything.  Maybe I'm missing something.  Maybe others who know more about Ms. Owens know exactly why she considers herself a grifter, or there is some official title of grifter that has been given to her.  Otherwise, I'm at a loss.  That is, I'm at a loss if I ignore the likely reason. 

Joe Rogan, Spotify, and life in a post-American leftist paradise

 Here:

That's the message sent from Spotify's CEO.  That Rogan has buckled and apologized is about par for the course.  One reason we had Trump was less an indictment on leftists, or liberals, or Democrats, as much a call out against the Conservative Establishment Resistance - of which there was little to none.  

Nonetheless, since Trump I fear we've seen the rise of a new brand of 'bold warriors against the darkness' who are doing so because, well, that's where the money is.  Like FOX News was merely a business venture exploiting the concerns of the day, so these brave and bold pundits will charge forth into the ratings, only to do what Rogan has done, and that's buckle, surrender or grovel at the first push-back.  

Now, I know little to nothing about Rogan. I've seen a few clips, generally when someone sends me a link.  It's not my cup of tea to begin with, and part of my disdain for his actions could be from my general dislike of that sort of format.  Bias acknowledged. 

But notice what we see with Spotify.  That is a CEO who knows we already are living the Twilight Zone episode The Obsolete Man.  The Left - secular, tyrannical, duplicitous and void of principles or morals - will stamp you out in a fast heartbeat.  That he must feel some obligation to allow Rogan to continue (perhaps ratings from the millions of followers Rogan has?), speaks to his lofty standards as much as Rogan's light speed groveling says about his. 

How is it we can't win against a thrall of tyranny like Spotify's CEO?  A big problem conservatives have today is a lack of leadership and representation.  In the GOP, there are some who fight the good fight, but they are rare.  In journalism and other punditry, it is all over the place.  Some spend more time being Never Trumpers than caring about the good fight.  Others bravely step up to the fray with all the courage of the Cowardly Lion.  In such a time as this, that's about on par with having nothing at all on your side. 

There are two kinds of people in the world

There are sawdust for brains partisan hacks who believe only the other party ever does anything wrong.  And then there are those who know it takes a sawdust for brains partisan hack to believe only one party ever does anything wrong.

This isn't to say some parties aren't worse than others.  But to assume one party is uniquely defined by something like putting political interests above the common good is right up there with being a Moon is Made of Cheese conspiracy theorist. 

Tyranny in two images

 Liberalism wants this to work:

In order to achieve this result:

Yep.  Liberalism wants to outlaw non-liberalism, it's as simple as that.  Of course we often use the word 'Left' to distinguish between the Left and its tyranny and wickedness, and those good hearted liberals of old who may have been naïve, but were generally good people

Well, the heck with it. It's what liberalism always was.  It was always a lie.  Hindsight and common sense should see that clearly. Heck, common sense then should have seen that.  When Christians were told to stop telling people their religion is wrong because that's evil, it should have dawned on us.  

Nonetheless, it's now crystal clear.  So haggle over words if we want, but it's the same.  An emerging world order that seeks to destroy all ability to resist. 

I'm shocked

According to this story, one of the accused associates of Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead in his prison cell from suicide.   May God have mercy on his soul. 

I'm still wondering why the only person I've seen the press really go after in the whole Epstein drama is Prince Andrew.  They've been all over him like a bad suit.   But he's been it.  I've seen nothing else about any of Mr. Epstein's other big name pals and buddies and associates.  I hadn't heard of this fellow until now.  

Why do I get the feeling that if most of his associates were big name conservatives and Republicans and MAGA types, we would be hearing more.  Maybe I'm being judgmental, but it's the hunch I have. 

Do you know what this proves about liberals?

 This open laughing at the death of Rush Limbaugh:

It proves nothing about liberals, that's what.  I know when Limbaugh died there were plenty of charitable souls on the Left who broke out and danced on his grave.  That happens.  But it doesn't stand to reason that all liberals are therefore reprehensible zealots who rejoice in the death of any nonconformists.   It just goes to show you all groups have their bad apples. 

Just a public service announcement.  Especially since it's common to take this or that bad behavior on that moral petri dish of bad behavior called the Internet, and use it to smear entire demographic groups we don't like.

Anti-Racism is about exploiting racism and injecting it into everything

 It's also a quick way for blacks to deflect from personal responsibility. So I saw this:

To be black in America? It's one of many posts and stories that have erupted ever since Ms. Richardson cried racism after the young Russian phenom Kamila Valieva was reinstated after initial disciplinary actions over a failed drug test. 

Here's the thing.  The two casers are as different as night and apples.  Far be it for me to think a Russian athlete is incapable of using banned substances, or that Russia could never be behind an athlete doing so.  But it still remains to be seen what will happen here.  As of now she was allowed back because of claims the substances and the situation did not rise to the occasion of punishing her.  We'll see.  If it comes around she did wrong, they can always remove her medals, which they sometimes do. 

Ms. Richardson, on the other hand, admitted to using marijuana, which has been a no-no since I was in sports back when MTV still played videos. I get that we're trying to legalize drugs, since nothing will help a dying nation more than getting as many people high as possible.  I also get that punishing someone over this flies in the face of our 'no rules, just right - especially if it feels good' post-war morality.

Nonetheless, she broke the rules.  She paid the price.  She admitted she had done so to cope with the pressures.  It had nothing to do with her being black.  Other athletes have faced the same penalties when it comes to banned substances - white, black, or whatever.  Lance Armstrong anyone? 

The fact that Ms. Richardson jumped on this to make it about race was bad enough.  Again, if you give people an easy out - no matter how wrong or destructive it is - they'll often take it.  Especially if doing so will put you back into the 15 minutes of fame cycle. 

But note how it has become an attack - on America!  I hope they do know this is being done by the Olympic committee, not the Republican Party.  That it involves a Russian athlete, not a white American.  That it's at the Olympics in China, not Alabama.  That this decision has bupkis to do with America, which would be happy to see Ms. Valiena removed from the competition, if Machiavellian sportsmanship is in play. 

Personally I'm more inclined to see a Russian athlete given a pass in the Chinese Olympics as a factor of China pressuring for the Russians in light of growing tensions with Russia and NATO.  That's just me.  Not saying that's the case, but if I had to choose. 

But the current doctrine of Anti-Racism insists we see as ever and always American racism and skin color as race skin color and color skin race - and that's all.  There simply can be no other explanations, because there is no other aspect of human existence worth acknowledging but race/skin color in America.  Therefore if three Mongolians rape and murder a Nigerian in Bolivia, it must prove the Founding Fathers were white supremacists because of course it does. The essence of anti-racist doctrine in the 21st Century. 

USA Today Fact Checkers as modern snake oil saleswomen

Heh.  I mean this was funny.  Stop where you are.  Go pop some popcorn and get a box of candy or two.  When you do, come back and click on this link right here. 

I won't say much.  I laughed out loud at the Partly False rating after USA Today admitted it couldn't find proof the claims were false.  

The Claims: 100K trucker protesters and no burning builds or injuries.

USA TODAY: Unable to verify numbers, but doesn't look like 100K.  And some arrest were made and a police car rammed, with armed people showing up.

Conclusion: Partly False

Bwa ha ha ha ha!  

The worst thing, though?  There are actual people who cling to these "Fact Checkers" as if they're gospel evangelists.  

Every now and then The Guardian is worth a read

Usually when it has a scrumptious European recipe in its culinary section.  Otherwise?  I'll stick to supermarket tabloids for a more accurate take on current events. 

For instance, right here. Here is the ominous headline:

Heh.  Because the lack of stories about actual violence and destruction proves this warning needs to be published. 

And here is my favorite part in the whole darn so called "article": 

An early report, dated 27 January, Itac concluded that “a coordinated, complex terrorist attack or planned storming Parliament or other federal locations is unlikely”.

But it concludes that the potential for violence remained very real.

I loved that.  The report concludes a coordinated, complex terrorist attack is unlikely.  But then the Guardian "article" adds that the potential for violence remained very real.  

This is more fun than Pippi Longstocking.  Again, the only problem is that people lap this up like a thirsty dog.  Not because they're stupid enough to believe this bilge.  It's because they don't care. As long as their enemies are crushed, any means possible -  true, false or stupid - will do. 

UPDATE: Yet it works:

Mark accepts that narrative to give himself a blank check to simply ignore what he doesn't want to deal with.  An old trick to be sure. 

As I've said, propaganda works on both the weak and the willing minded.  Often the two being the same.  I know.  It's Mark.  But still, Mark's belief that the Left's enemies must be destroyed is just what this sort of drumbeat propaganda is meant to achieve.  And it isn't just Mark.  If it was, it would be funny.  But throughout history, there are plenty of Marks who will show up to fill the boxcars when the call goes forth that it's time. 

Alessandra Harris gets it wrong

 

People aren't mad that black people had the nerve to proclaim their lives matter.  Most I know wouldn't have said otherwise.  They simply point out the problem with the usual leftwing duplicity behind it all. That is, insisting they aren't saying only black lives matter, and then watching them suggest anyone who says all lives matter is a racist.  

The Left's favorite tactic of denying having stated the implicit truth they just used to separate the sheep from the greatest of all time, is the problem. And pardon me for noticing, but the only one who seems mad about any of this is Ms. Harris. 

Call me skeptical

But when I see things like this in the context in which it is reported, I'm betting forgery:

Not that it isn't real and wasn't sent.  But how do we know it wasn't sent by someone wanting to make the parents upset with progressive school tactics look bad?   After all, that's exactly how it's being reported, as if it is somehow par for the course among parents upset with various liberal policies in schools. 

I know, that's often the reaction.  The old 'it's all a fake to set us up.'  Nonetheless I think it.  Because when I look at this, I wonder what parent educated enough to write English would do this thinking it would accomplish anything positive for the cause?  

It makes me remember a tight political race in Kentucky back in the 90s.  It was close and abortion was a big topic.  Only a few days before the election, abortion clinics in the district received anonymous letters with white powder in them.  News broke that abortion providers were being targeted by terrorist tactics.  Such tactics were used to paint anyone opposed to abortion into the same corner. 

The election swung to the Democrat at the last minute.  A week or so later it was revealed that the powder was harmless in every case.  I wondered then who would do something so stupid that clearly helped the side they opposed?  Wouldn't someone crazy enough to do something that stupid and self-defeating at least use a harmful substance? 

I'm not saying there aren't crazies out there.  Lord knows that isn't the case.  But in a situation like this, I'm trying to think of which parent would threaten to murder a child before murdering the parent, send the handwritten threat so that it could be put on public display, and think that will do any good at all.  If it is authentic, then clearly it's a case of mental health problems, and should not represent the bulk of the parents who have concerns. At least if those engaged in the debate do so in good will. 

UPDATE: As if to reinforce my suspicions, I saw a thread unpacking multiple Twitter posts insisting white conservatives are saturating school boards with death threats.  

Uh huh.  As I said, not that there aren't crazies.  But I doubt it's only on one side if there are such examples of nuttiness.  This doesn't take into account the times in which school board members have been caught trying to attack or punish parents for daring to do what parents have been told to do for decades.  

Plus note the typical leftwing emphasis on 'White '.  Yep.  It's always white people, ain't it?  Donald McClarey catches another example of those evil white racists who dare criticize CRT, which both does and doesn't exist and nobody wants it taught but if you disagree with it being taught you're a racist.  

Forgotten memories

The only searching was for this image

My father in law says that the reason we remember less as we get older is that we have more to remember.  That's probably true.  I find there are many things I didn't think I'd ever forget that I find myself forgetting. 

Sometimes there were important things.  Most often they are details of things I remember, but the details are slipping.  Many are just the things I somehow knew or heard or experienced but that never really rose to the occasion of focus in my life.  Those things that are just part of the zillion things you'll come across in a few decades of living.

That came to my mind when my son came home after a day out on business.  He was with his fiancée, and they were meeting with people about business ventures they are investing in. While out, they visited a record store and picked up a couple of used vinyls .  My boys have learned that old vinyl records bring a richness to the sound that neither CDs nor digital can equal (I have the same opinion about film versus digital, but that's another story). 

I looked to see what they purchased and I saw a record by Emerson, Like & Palmer.  Now I'd lie if I said I knew more about them than their names.  I might know some of their songs.  It wouldn't surprise me if I heard a couple and recognized them.  But fact is, I just remember the name.  

But what a memory rush it was.  I couldn't put my finger on the time in my life, but I feel their name must have been connected to my younger days in elementary school, c. early 1970s.  I don't know.  I didn't want to look or Google or anything.  No cheating.  I just let my memories do the job. 

A group I knew of but couldn't tell you anything about.  A group's name I  haven't heard uttered in possibly forty years.  But what memories it brought.  If I can't tell you much about EL&P, I could spend the next hour talking about all the accompanying memories that came back with that one group's name. 

That, I think, is a pretty awesome part of the human capacity for memory.  

Shameless boast of my son and his lovely fiancée for their 1st Valentine's

Black Catholics and the rising white hate

 So I saw this:

Here's my thing.  I've been Catholic since 2005, and I have yet to hear the word homosexuality spoken.  Not in RCIA. Never in a homily.  On occasion I've heard marriage spoken about in where it's framed as a bond is between a man and woman, but that's it. Yet to hear gay activists, you'd think every parish is a gas chamber in which the LGBTQ community is routinely assaulted and terrorized and singled out for suffering and ultimate extermination. 

That's one of the modern world's neatest tricks.  If you don't worship me as god of my reality, it's the same as saying you want Hitler to come back from the dead and murder me in a gas chamber.  With that standard established, how much worse is it if you actually say something, like I'm wrong? 

I see black Americans going this way now.  I've already written about the dearth of 'Righteous Gentiles of the Civil Rights era' in the black community. That is, no real emphasis given to whites who gave it all for the sake of black liberation.  Sometimes I've heard black activists insist no white was ever anything but a racist at heart, no matter what they did.  

This sentiment is being fostered today by the Left, and increasingly accepted by the Church.  So it shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm seeing black Catholics speak as if every parish is a cotton field existing for the sole purpose of pissing on and oppressing black Catholics.  Despite the fact that I have yet to ever come close to experiencing this, and those Catholics I know who are black are as confused about such a sentiment as I am. 

The sad fact is, people can be swayed to see the world a certain way, whether it is the correct way or not.  It's easier if you are asked to see it in a convenient way. A way that sets you against them. A way that sets you over them.  A way in which they are to blame, not you.  A way in which, quite frankly, you're the one with a star on your belly and not them.  It should come as no surprise to anyone that black Catholics would be among those warming up to the idea of seeing the enemy, and realizing it's all those other Catholics over there. It's the slick and easy way to go in our world today.  As it always has been. 

One of the best things about being a New Prolife Catholic

Is the joy that comes with the Left's assurance we need only care about human suffering when it doesn't hinder the leftwing narrative.  Any calls for unconditional love or empathy for our neighbors are subordinate to the opportunity to exploit their suffering to validate a particular leftwing agenda.  See how fun it is:

Yep.  The story is old, last year I believe. It was a survey that found unusually high numbers of white college students were lying about their ethnicity.  Odd, if you accept various leftwing talking points like White Privilege, Systemic Racism, and the 1619 Project spin on American history.  After all, if white Americans are wallowing in white privilege, why would so many lie about not being white?  

As can be expected, the story itself was swept under the carpet by the Praetorian Press in no time flat.  And that was by those few outlets that bothered to carry it at all.  Nonetheless, the story seems plausible.  When my oldest - a straight A college student - was given a website for scholarships and grants, there were thousands available.  After he entered gender (male) and race (white), however, the options dropped to only a few hundred or so.  

Mark happily spews contempt on the possible injustices with the usual false accusation of racism and bigotry as the motivation behind any concern  After all, what's false accusation and character assassination for a New Prolife Catholic? That there could be suffering or unfair treatment of young white Americans doesn't appear to get near Mark's radar.   

Why? Because the Left has perfected the call to ignore human suffering and misery, even death, unless it can be exploited to buttress the pertinent leftwing narrative. And if the suffering challenges a leftwing narrative?  Hell.  That's not even worth discussing. 

White principal sent to reeducation camp

This story popped up here in the Buckeye State.  Two principals were suddenly put on leave.  No other information.  Nothing was said.  No reason given.  In Central Ohio, that got people talking.  What happened?  What did they do?  Was it connected?  Was it sordid?  Inquiring minds wanted to know. 

We still don't know everything.  But later last week, local stories broke that one of the principals was going back to work.  There was still going to be an investigation, but she would be able to return to the school.

An investigation of what?  Don't know.  All that has been said is an investigation into 'potentially culturally insensitive' remarks.  Note just how vague that is.  Remember what I said about being in a public position.  You will say things wrong.  In a sane age of values and principles, that wouldn't hurt very often beyond a slap on the wrist at best.

In our bat crazy nation of tyranny and post-liberty prejudice endorsed, it can be lethal.  With all of this,  hwoever, what really jumped out at me was a paragraph a little way down in the story:

“Regardless of the outcome of the independent investigation and the subsequent decisions to be made by the Superintendent and the Board of Education, Mrs. Tennebaum will receive additional cultural sensitivity training and has expressed her commitment to further atone for her actions.”

You see that?  Regardless of the outcome, she will have to undergo additional reeducation and brainwashing.  Regardless of outcome.  That is, whether she is guilty or not, she will have to be reeducated.  Because of what?  If she is innocent, she didn't do anything wrong, correct?  Why send her to the reeducation camp? 

In this case, they've all but said guilty or innocent, she's guilty and must be taken down a notch.  Guilty of what?  Only her skin color, unless it's her gender, which I doubt.  This is a warning shot to all who would disobey.  You may be deemed guilty because of what you see in the mirror, much less your actions, so you had best walk on egg shells.  After all, if innocence gets you punished, how much more will any perceived slight of the Party's dictates?  

It puts me in mind of the Kavanaugh hearings.  Remember when Senator Cory Booker utter the immortal phrase that it wasn't a matter of guilt or innocence?  Remember when the very Jesuit rag America withdrew its support of Kavanaugh, whether he was guilty or not?  

Again, America and the age of democracy died years ago.  It was already in hospice, but the plug was pulled during the Obama years.  We just missed it.  Trump was the cremation when, using Trump as SatanHitler incarnate, the plutocracy convinced enough Americans that all of America and its ideals of equality, liberty and democracy needs burned to save the world from Trump.  And it's likely we won't go back.  

If this doesn't encourage a Russian invasion of Ukraine

 Nothing will:

America is already a 2nd World nation.  Our economy is sort running on momentum.  Most of what we produce today is garbagio, as my sons call it.  Like they also say, they've never known a time in their life when their peers didn't consider the phrase 'good old American craftsmanship' to be a punch line.

Our military and law enforcement are following suit.  That's a big reason my third oldest decided not to go into law enforcement.  He decided to follow a different path when one of his trainers said they had to be taught stupid things that could endanger their lives because they have to suck up to the Party. 

As the above image shows, the military is the same.  I don't know how it has been recently, but for a few years - those years when my sons were considering the possibility of joining the military - there was a spate of accidents, disasters, and deaths that seemed to be wrapped around a lack of concern about such things as quality of training. But the importance of white hate and abstract genital identities is clearly being emphasized. 

No.  We're watching the old girl die.  Or, more likely, we're realizing now that the old girl died some time ago.  What things will look like in the future, I don't know.  

The powers of the coming dark ages (R) confront the brave leaders of the dead West (L)

A wonderful story of life

 Here, at the hard working Laura Klassen's page:

I read that and thought just how many miserable failures those who have stood on the side of Life and Truth have endured. When did we allow the world the upper hand in the abortion debate?  When did we allow the pro-abortion activists to frame the narrative so that the above story seems like some freakish exception to the rule, rather than the decent, common sense choice it was? 

This weird idea that if we give people more money, they'll stop sinning, is one of the most stupid in our world today.  And that's a world we're people insist men can have babies. 

You don't need more money, you need to do the right thing.  Poor or rich.  Nothing wrong with helping people and finding ways to reach out a charitable hand.  But believing that she had every right to abort her child because she was poor, or excusing such an act because she was poor, is propaganda from the pits of Hell.  That so many Church leaders appear to accept the premise is why her story comes off as some oddity, rather than run of the mill common goodness. 

God bless this young woman.  Note how God was able to work through her choices to elevate her and bless her.  If she would have accepted the New Prolife Catholic idea that her finances and situation in life make aborting her child completely understandable, how different would her life - and the world - be for it?

Petty hypocrisy works

As long as you have the press in your pocket. 

So this:

OK, she misspoke.  In a sane world, it's funny.  But as usual, outlets like the above leftwing rag use it to tar her as an idiot.  That way they can avoid the substance of her point. 

As one who spent a good part of my adult life in a fishbowl, where regular public speaking was part of the gig, I sympathize.  Try as you might, you'll eventually botch things.  More than once I misspoke or said something in a way I regretted. 

On the other hand, sometimes it was pettiness on the part of the listeners.  I remember once a fellow in our congregation emailed me after the morning services.  He was a bit shocked and disappointed that I split an infinitive in my sermon. I kid you not.  I wanted to respond and ask if he bothered to pay attention to anything else in the sermon, like the point of the message.  But I smiled and went on with life. 

So my sympathies are usually for those doing the speaking - Democrat, Republican, Druid or otherwise.  Nonetheless, it's not hard to see the naked hypocrisy, pettiness and lunacy that often accompanies the Left in exploiting such things.  

I remember in my younger years during the 1992 presidential campaign. We called it the great Potato Crisis.  Others called it Potatogate.  That's when VP Dan Quayle misspelled the word potato during an elementary school spelling bee.  For weeks it was hammered on by comedians, in the press, among pundits.  This was before the Internet or Cable News or Talk Radio had truly taken off.  I remember many I knew, Democrat and Republican, said let it die. Yet you'd think Quayle had declared the world to be flat. 

So I sympathize with the odd mistake, and typically don't exploit it for anything other than a chuckle.  Unless, of course, there appears to be something underneath suggesting an inner motive not intended to be revealed.  I also don't go crazy when it's clear that someone has misspoken (for instance, I knew President Obama knows how many states there are in the Union).  Otherwise making more of it than it is comes off as petty, childish, and more an indictment on those trying to make a mountain out of a molehill than the gaffe maker in question. 

BTW, as if to illustrate the press's help in the childish hypocrisy, behold a sampling of the results from Googling 'M. Greene' when this story broke:

On the other hand

As a woman, if most of your jokes or taste in humor is rooted in bashing or making fun of men, then you need to look within.  lol  

Just saying, since there's a strange idea out there that, like the modern enslavement of African Americans in our current slave state, ours is a country on par with The Handmaid's Tale where women are concerned. 

Someday men might stand up to this, but I'm not holding my breath. As I've said before, for men in the centuries to come, men today will not be held up as the ideal model. 

Robin Hood and William Tell and Ivanhoe and Lancelot
They don't envy me, (Electric Light Orchestra)

Don't worry.  I doubt they envy most men of the late 20th, early 21ast Century.  

All that needs said

 In 1987, right or wrong, this was a career killer:

In 2022, this is a resume enhancer:

Rod Dreher has the sordid details. 

There was a time when Caligula's Court was a cautionary tale.  Today, it's the prize at the end of the race. 

By now I hope we realize that the West and historical United States died some decades or even generations ago.  It's just that now we're finally beginning to see the decomposition and rot before our eyes. . 

What the Trucker Protests would look like if Kubrick was here

 

:) 

What strikes me about this US Government post?

Is the emphasis on discourse, especially online: 

I've underlined the sentences that leapt out at me.  False and misleading narratives?  Narratives?  I found that choice of words interesting, but I can't quite put my finger on why. 

Also undermining trust in Government institutions is somehow a fast track to being a terrorist threat.  All my life I've heard nothing but challenges to faith in our government.  But now it's a potential threat? 

I love the inclusion of conspiracy theories as terrorist threat.  I notice that's a big thing now.  Any challenge of an official narrative - Covid measures, BLM, voting legislation, or what have you - is dismissed as racist, bigoted, or similar.  If you provide some amount of data or facts, you're told it's all part of a vast conspiracy.  Naturally the conspiracy is driven by racism, bigotry, or similar. 

It almost sounds like we're being told to sit down and shut up.  Any questions or challenges to the official narrative will mark you as an enemy of Caesar. 

I don't know if it's in bad taste or not

 But it made me chuckle:

Stepping back

What it feels like blogging about the West's crazy suicide

There comes a time.  I've posted a few times before that I was setting aside the blog.  Yet as soon as I did, some bat nuts crazy thing happened and brought me back to the keyboard.   

I think the last time was the Kavanaugh hearings.  Right about that time I chose to step away.  It was around that time I heard Trump had nominated a fellow many conservatives were none too happy about.

Then came the lynch mob.  The idea that the Dems would try to destroy someone over such allegations was nothing new.  But the accusations themselves were so threadbare it was stunning.  The obvious fact that they had been held in reserve to be exploited on cue was also appalling.

What was most shocking, however, was that for the first time in my adult life, politicians, media pundits and even religious leaders appeared fine with saying it isn't a case of guilt or innocence.  It's about not offending pro-abortion women.  If an innocent man and his reputation must be destroyed, so be it.  Furthermore, we need to stop thinking that worn out concepts like burden of proof, presumption of innocence and due process apply to anything but old, dusty courtrooms.  In the new world, your guilt or innocence is based purely on group identity and the group identity of the accuser. 

That was an eye opener, make no mistake.  It was also a realization that America had already died, we just missed the funeral. Since then, I've kept a fairly consistent blogging schedule, trying to keep up with the crazy and the shadows. That so many conservatives and even conservative Christian leaders threw in the towel and joined the rise of Mordor kept me here.  I watched as our pope and Church leadership made it clear there was a new power in the East, and if we have to burn authentic Christianity to the ground to keep getting high fives at the best parties, so be it. The true enemies will be those who still think Christ has some bearing on the World's salvation and that Christian morality is a thing.

That kept many people paying attention, as it did me.  Nonetheless, times change. At this point it's clear the battle is over.  I've said before that you can tell the emerging order sees the battle won, and is more or less engaging in mop up operations.  The GOP is generally useless.  And those who cling to the historical Christian Faith and the belief that God was working through the course of Western Civilization will increasingly find themselves in the role of a Christian diaspora. 

Nonetheless, I still might have kept chasing cars and yelling at trees if life itself wasn't changing.  As I said, my second youngest is engaged to a right fine young woman - the wedding date being forthcoming.  Likewise, my wife recently got a long deserved promotion to VP at her company.  A nice bump in pay, but with extra cash comes extra obligations.  As my mom needs more direct care, and the boys are moving up and beginning to move on, it's demanding more and more of my time. That's time we want to spend with each other before the long awaited empty nest begins to emerge.  Plus, I'm always in the market for anything I can do to bring in a few dollars here and there while watching over the homestead, and that also puts demands on time.

All of that means I won't be able to keep up the pace I've been running on since the days of the Kavanaugh lynch mob crazy.  Not that it does much good, and I wonder if those who would resist the new world order need to pull away from Social Media since it doesn't seem to work for us as much as for those in alliance with this new order.  The real resistance might need to be outside the modern world of digital and Internet madness.  I don't know.  

I just know it will be tough for me to keep up with things.  If my writing merely consists of typing off the top of my head and hitting spell check, I do spend quite a lot of time reading and researching to find out about what's happening and what to comment on.  I try not to be the type who comments on an article that I clearly haven't read.  Or wade into a topic I've not looked into beyond a FB headline.  But reading and scouring for stories takes time.  It's likely why I've recently settled more and more on just commenting on Twitter posts and FB posts that people bring to my attention.  Which is fine as far as it goes.  But it doesn't really do much but become part of the problem, if you think on it. 

So instead of announcing some big retirement from the blog, I'm merely backing off.  A couple times a week perhaps.  Monday and Friday?  Wednesday and Tuesday?  Once a week?  Or just when I can get to it?  I dunno. Beginning this week I'll will drop the daily output to more manageable levels in order to devote more to the demands of family and changing fortunes. 

I'll still keep up with things to a degree, especially those things which reinforce my gnawing suspicion that our Catholic leadership desperately wants to go the way of Mainline Protestants denominations and ditch this silly old fairy tale of Gods born in mangers and get back to partying with the secular pagan Joneses.  I might try to think on the overall trends, rather than just chase the latest headline or FB post.  Of course I reserve the right to post fun things dealing with the family, friends and other parts of life that make it worth the living.

Unlike those times in the past, this isn't a decision I've made just because I'm tired of the blogging world. This time it's a case of being unable to keep up as life changes.  Again, I'll try to post somewhat , be it once or twice a week, just to encourage myself to keep up with what's happening in the world.  If nothing else, blogging on issues does demand following the news, FWIW.  But that will be that.  As I see so many have backed off from their output from days of yore, I can see why.  So I'll be around, just not as often as before.  I'll see everyone in the meantime.