A nation run by children

And I do wish it would stop.  More and more I'm convinced that we royally screwed up generations ago as we began throwing away age old wisdom for the latest pop scholar fad.  Add to that a world of endless luxury and leisure, and you have something Rush Limbaugh observed some years ago.  You have the Baby Boomers, the first generation that never had to grow up.  I think we've been getting younger and younger as the generations pass.  Worse, with each generation we discard reality and set up fanciful lies about what the world is really all about. The results, as I often say, speak for themselves. 

FWIW, I hold no brief for Congresswoman Greene.  Nonetheless, I remember years ago when bloggers agreed that if you're reduced to trying to rip someone over a spelling error on Social Media, it's as good as saying you've been owned.   

I have one for Ms. Purvis

 So Gloria Purvis, BLM supporter and CRT narrative advocate for the Catholic Church, posted this:

Now, it could just be she mentioned this during Black History Month.  Perhaps she added the point that he was never recognized, just because.  You know, bit of trivia.  Why do I get the impression, however, that it's supposed to imply he was never recognized ... because he was black?

As the NFL world rebounds from yet another charge of racism from a fired black coach, I thought it might be worth pointing out that not everything that happens to black people is because they are black.  Sometimes it just happens.  Sometimes employees who happen to be no good, black or white, get canned.  Sometimes a talented and celebrated assistant coach craps out in the head position.  Sometimes a veteran is overlooked because that's what happens. 

For instance, my dad's next older brother served in WWII.  He was a medic, as he asked for something where he wouldn't have to hurt anyone.  He served with Patton in the breakout period until the end of the war.  And yes, he was involved in the legendary Battle of the Bulge.

Nonetheless, it wasn't until shortly before his death from cancer in the late 1990s that he received any decorations.  I don't know what they were, and for that matter, neither did he.  He called my dad and asked what this was all about.  Some medal and talk of an Ardennes Offensive in December, '44.  My dad chuckled and said that was the Battle of the Bulge.  He said he didn't know what it was called.  He just remembered that it was freezing and people kept trying to kill him. 

We still laugh at that.  That was my uncle.  But you see Ms. Purvis, my uncle spent most of his life being quite white.  Unless there was some vast anti-white conspiracy, it's likely the failure to recognize his heroism in that legendary battle was anything other than what happens in the bureaucracies of massive countries with the third largest population in history.  No ill will or malice.

This isn't to say no black serviceman was ever overlooked because of race.  Nor is it to say no black was ever fired because of race. That's would be an absurd suggestion.  But there are other forms of prejudice that can enter into play.  And sometimes it has nothing to do with prejudice, bigotry or racism at all. Sometimes it's just that thing Prince called Life.  Common sense should say nothing else.

But how much longer can we keep beating this horse until it is dead?  How much longer can we act as if America and Racism and Race are the only things in its existence, apart from misogyny?  Or is there any intention of not beating it until it is dead?  Who knows?  If we stop attributing everything under the sun to race and race alone, perhaps it might help us look at other reasons there are so many problems in the black community.  You never know! 

Whenever I see something like this:

I think of nothing so much as this:

And this was written almost 30 years ago. It's only gotten worse since.

Yep.  Most of what passes for academia and scholarship today would make Cliff Clavin blush.  Your average Neanderthal would call it out for the stupid crap that it is. But for generations now, the world of intelligentsia has forged its own cant, filled to the brim with jargon, multisyllabic buzzwords, and linguistic codes that only the inner cliques of exclusive same-thinking research clubs can decipher.

In short, acting like snake oil salesmen, they've learned how to hide the fact by sounding like someone wiring the latest space shuttle.  In reality, they're just shoveling manure. 

Yet with a combination of almost mandatory secondary education, and a sympathetic media and Washington sympathizers propping them up as geniuses and sages, they're the prophets proclaiming the laws of the new godless paganism here to drive out the One, True God.  The results of the last fifty years more than speak for themselves. 

For our daily dose of double standards

 Exhibit A:

Because there is nothing that says terrorist more than calling people racist and encouraging protests in major US cities when things don't go your way.  Apparently Sean P. Dailey approves this message. 

When China became America's master

When our Speaker of the House told our Olympic athletes to avoid angering China.  Really.  I looked it up to make sure it wasn't some right wing lie.  She actually told them to avoid angering China.  And she's one of the most powerful politicians in Washington.

I know.  It's smart, it's logical.  And it's the 21st Century.  If did speak out and they got swept away by China, what could America do?  America is close to becoming a 2nd World country.  I think we know it. I think the World knows it.  This is why Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Hollywood, the NBA, and not a few other industries and interests are embracing the anti-Westernism of the Left, while sucking up to .  

As my oldest son said, and it was true: We grew up in the Age of Democracy because the people with the wealth and power in the 18th Century felt it was in their best interest to build a world striving for freedom, democracy and equality.  Now, the people with the wealth and power no longer see value in a world striving for freedom, democracy and equality. In fact, as they see the billions that countries antithetical to such principles are enjoying, it might just be that our best and brightest see such things as freedom, democracy and equality as obstacles to their best interests. 

She forgot to mention left of liberal

 

Speaking of self-awareness:

This sort of thing makes me itch.  As if she's giving some unbiased, neutral appraisal.  A quick glance at her Twitter feed shows the typical leftwing templates: 

• Non-left equals white supremacist
• Non-left equals racist
• Non-left equals oppression
• Get the vaccine no matter what we've discovered

And on and on.  The usual assumption that it's impossible to be a non-leftist and not be a stupid white racist.  Therefore you can guess how she portrays those trucker protests, as so many immediately have done - including the good political leaders in Canada. 

It's fine that someone is left of Lenin liberal. That's on them.  But to leave that out of the supposedly qualifying post, as if what we're about to hear is the unvarnished, unbiased truth, smacks of either a lack of self-awareness on this young lady's part, or duplicity of the highest order. 

The only thing worse is how many apparently lapped up everything she said like a thirsty dog. 

Black is beautiful baby

I remember that line from the famous All in the Family episode "Everybody Tells the Truth."  A classic, it's been copied many times over the years in a variety of shows and series. 

The premise is simple: the Bunker family is eating out tonight.  Archie screwed up the refrigerator and blew the power in their apartment.  What follows are three accounts of what happened. 

Meathead Mike and Archive give their take on the events, which center around a refrigerator repairman and his African American apprentice.  When hyper liberal Mike tells the tale, Archie is the undisputed villain.  The repairman is a beat down, good natured blue collar guy, and his apprentice is a meek and cowering 'Uncle Tom', browbeat by Archie's bigotry and fire breathing racism.

Then Archie gives his side.  In his version, the repairman looks like someone eloped from the set of The Godfather.  And his apprentice is right out of the Black Panthers.  Sporting an afro that could fit on a dump truck's axle, a Woodstock shawl, and a switchblade the size of a medieval lance, he waves the knife in the face of a humble and kindly Archie and growls, "Black is beautiful baby." 

Edith finally steps in and sets the record straight (we're expected to trust her view as she is not the other two - which speaks toward reputation I should add).  Two guys came to their apartment and tried to fix the fridge.  While spewing his bigotry, Archive got reprimanded by the apprentice.  Then Archie shooed them out the door and tried to save money by fixing it himself, having used them to learn of the problem.  But Archie is no repairmen, and the Bunkers find themselves eating out.

Anyway, I thought of that glorious episode when I saw this:

I've seen the story several times now.  I have no clue who or what they are, other than obviously something that caters to the homeless, which is fine.  

But note the tale told.  Everything about those trucker protesters is - horrible.  Their trucks block things (you know, like BLM shutting down highways, overpasses and neighborhoods).  They honk their horns.  I guess that would be annoying.  They abuse the staff and demand unwarranted food.  They bark racist slurs at a security guard (a security guard at a soup kitchen?). 

Sorry, but something about that seems, well, Archie.  I see them looking at those protesters through the same lenses that Archie saw the repairman and his black apprentice.  There's just too much 'check the box' in the description.  

Disregard for people?  Check. 

Abusive?  Check.  

Threatening the wellbeing of the community?   Check.  

Greedy and disinterested in others?  Check.  

Racist?  Check. 

That just seems a bit slanted for me.  If they had been a little more low key in their description of the event, perhaps I'd more easily take it at face value. . Something like this perhaps: 'A couple protesters, no doubt not representative of the majority, came in here and wanted meals even though they didn't appear to be at the level of need we cater to.  We explained this, but they became abusive, and we had to ask for security to help deescalate the situation.'  Leave it at that, and it's more believable. 

Had what they said not echoed what I've heard critics of the protesters accuse them of since the news first broke of their protests, would also help.  Had it not appeared like an attempt to paint the whole protest in a negative light, just maybe. 

But my verdict?  A couple protesters may have done what the accusation says.  Furthermore, the protests as a whole, like BLM in 2020, can sometimes cause inconveniences.  And while I'm not saying the people at Shepherds of Good Hope are outright lying, I'm saying their way of seeing the events might have been tainted by their own biases about the greater issues in question. 

The trick isn't to deny your biases, but be aware of how they inform your appraisal of the world

How many fingers, Winston?

"Four.'

The needle went up to sixty.

'How many fingers, Winston?'

'Four! Four! What else can I say? Four!'

The needle must have risen again, but he did not look at it. The heavy, stern face and the four fingers filled his vision. The fingers stood up before his eyes like pillars, enormous, blurry, and seeming to vibrate, but unmistakably four.

'How many fingers, Winston?'

'Four! Stop it, stop it! How can you go on? Four! Four!'

'How many fingers, Winston?'

'Five! Five! Five!'

'No, Winston, that is no use. You are lying. You still think there are four. How many fingers, please?'

'Four! five! Four! Anything you like. Only stop it, stop the pain!'

I thought of this section from 1984 when I saw this:

Note, pregnant person, and pregnant man.  Women, in this case, are erased, to be mentioned again when convenient.

When it comes to being told you must say men can have babies, the question isn't how much longer before we loose our freedom.  The point is, we lost it long, long ago.  Now we're trudging along like those in Orwell's dystopia.  

My sons noticed when they read the novel, the point wasn't that most people lived in misery and terror of the Party.  That everyone was like Winston trying to work out what to do.  The point was they had grown used to it and accepted it and went along with it because it was the way it was.  I see America descending into the pit, and so many appear willing to go with whatever because they've already been conditioned to trudge along and go with whatever. 

Call me a bigot or phobic or whatever name you want, but I now draw the line.  I will no longer degrade myself with lies of tolerance and diversity that merely mean I must say squares are round when the Party says so.  I will not bequeath that legacy to my children. Furthermore, I will see those who try to make me do so as my enemies.  

Because remember, while I might be called upon to love, pray for, and forgive my enemies, at no point did Jesus ever say that in doing so, they will cease to be my enemies. 

Mark Shea spent most of March for Life weekend trashing the March for Life

New Prolife Catholic activist Mark Shea spent much time during the March for Life ripping into the March for Life this year.  Why?  Because of the vaccines of course.  If you ignore last year, it's obvious that if we get the shot, we stop the spread. That's what they said last year.  Nothing has happened to call that into question.  Various statistics continually taken out of context prove this is correct.  If you disagree, how can you be pro-life?  Right?  Right?  Anyone?  

Of course not.  By now, insisting that the current vaccines will Stop the Spread or End Covid is like insisting the moon is made of cheese.  As I said here, when more people in the ICU with Covid have been vaccinated than are unvaccinated, it's time to pull the ripcord on the sales pitch.  That is true even if they manage to find just the right stat that keeps the narrative alive.  

By now medical pros are admitting there needs to be a different approach to the vaccines than the current one, along with reports showing that other measures for fighting Covid may have done more harm than good. You just can't keep screaming 'GET THE SHOT NOW!' and not sound like Trelane at the end of The Squire of Gothos.  

That Mark chose not to pray with the marchers despite disagreements, but attack them with unchristian vitriol and character assassination, along with his his usual broadsides against his typical bogeyman villains, is a shame.  Such is "apologetics" in the Internet age I suppose. 

Mark's version of being authentically New Prolife: 

Mark is, sadly, not alone.  Echoing the Left's general premise that it's impossible not to be a leftist and not be a stupid racist, one of Mark's old Patheos mentors chimes in with similar thoughts:

Note the condemnation of someone daring to suggest Catholics should not be partisan thralls.  Heh.  That's always made me laugh, the old 'Stop being divisive and conform to my party!'. Note also that there is nothing Ms. Keating said that that suggests she claims Pro-Life means pure and sinless living.  Putting words into people's mouths being another old favorite.  I'll assume that he also sees no racism, impoverishment or oppression on his particular side of the tracks?  Hard to say.  I doubt saying it would do any good anyway. 

FWIW, I was sent this picture while getting ready to post this:

It's our former priest, braving wind chills in the single digits to pray for an end the extermination of unborn babies by the tens of millions to slake our lust for an endless drugs and sex culture in the age of AIDS.  I don't normally post pics of non-family who we know, just because.  But it was a wonderful shot of devotion to God's abiding care for the least of these.  As for me and my house, we'll gladly side with our former priest's Catholicism rather than that thing Conway and Shea call Catholicism. 

Top EU cardinal says it's time to change Catholicism

Because if we change the Church's teachings on our core natures as human beings, you can just open the lid and flush.  That's what liberal Protestant denominations have continually refused to discover. 

It's very simple.  If the Church continues to insist the first 2000 years were no doubt wrong, but now science is showing how right we can be, it plays right into the hands of the World.  Young people today, already evangelized by secularism in our cultures, schools, and media, have learned that religion was just made up by ancient humans anyway.  It's just institutions with rules made up by people as they go.

Every time we try to change our teachings to keep up with the latest, it goes nowhere but down.  It reinforces what people my age have been taught our whole lives - that when push comes to shove, religion is no different than a club or a sports franchise.  You adapt, you change, you make it up as you go.  That's because you know it was never real to begin with. 

Obviously the World is setting up for the other part of the trap: To deny the 90 ft. idol of the Left is to be Nazi in need of eradication.  To stand up against the World will mean persecution and oppression and torture and death.  It's not there yet.  Heck, it doesn't have to be.  By just threatening bad jokes from late night pundits and not getting invited to the best parties at Harvard, we're seeing boat loads of religious leaders jump ship.  Already vast numbers of people in the pews have likely done so as well.

After all, we've all been evangelized by the secular for generations now.  It has to be taking its toll.  But the cardinal's solution is simply suicide for the Church, if that matters at all.  It accomplishes nothing to continue to act as if they Church could be wrong about anything.  On the other hand, if it wasn't wrong, and the pre-modern Faith was true, such naked accommodation of sin and evil will not just result in nog temporal benefits. It will also result in terrible eternal consequences. 

I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

A warning for the modern Church. 

There might still be hope for Americans

Hope for America?  Maybe not.  But when the time comes, perhaps more Americans will remain faithful than we sometimes believe.

So 76% don't want the president to automatically exclude all candidates who are men, and any women who don't have black skin, just because they are men or don't have black skin.  Imagine that.  When we've officially been taught for two years that we must embrace equity and reject equality (that is, treat people differently based on group label rather than everyone the same), that's amazing. 

The Left wishes for racial segregation and political oppression.  Right now, it's had its way, at least among the elites, leaders and institutions and corporations of our nation.  Nonetheless, perhaps America has not forsaken wisdom, even if so many in our seats of leadership have buckled and given up and embraced the bigotry.  It's not a war won, or even a battle.  But it's at least a small bright spot in the darkness. 

Oh, for those who say But Reagan!  Yes, Reagan made the pledge that he would nominate a women to the SCOTUS.  This was because no woman had ever been a Supreme Court justice.  It was a nomination that would often haunt conservatives in the years go come.  In hindsight, I think Reagan was as wrong then, even if it would have been a major breakthrough (we have, in fact, had women and black justices before Biden's pledge).  Given the track record, it appears posturing like this eventually seems to set up more bad than good.  

Great idea!

 

Pope Francis embraces one of the Left's most important weapons

The weapon of division.  The perpetual 'us vs. them' or 'me vs. you' mentality.  It is part of the anti-Western revolution's primary strategy.  First learn to hate America and the West.  Then learn to hate yourselves.  Finally learn to hate each other. 

I've said many times that I've seldom known a religious figure to spend so much time constantly calling out the sins of 'those believer over there.'  He has practically based his papacy on that. 

More than that, he has encouraged a generation of Catholics to continually thank God, or at least Pope Francis, that they aren't a bunch of rigid reprobates like those Catholics over there.  Almost as if on cue, when Pope Francis blasts some other Catholics, these Francis Catholics will take to the digital world and rejoice that he has once again called out those other sinful slops who are the problem. 

Thus once again, Pope Francis embraces the 'you ladies and them men fight' call of old feminism and tells nuns to fight when treated unfairly by 'men' of the Church.  Not unfairly by the Church.  But specifically 'men' of the Church.  Those dirty, nasty men.  And the world rejoices there's a pope like Pope Francis. 

Group A vs. Group B is key of course.  Today the number of groups who must be at each others' throats is legion, for they are many.  Pope Francis either misses this fact, or rejoices in it.  And always knowing, apparently, that wherever the groups fall, he will always be among the groups with a star on their bellies. I wager this because he so seldom bothers with the first person plural in his appraisal of the Church's problems, but almost always uses the third person plural. 

Heh

 Anyone who struggles to maintain a steady exercise regiment gets it:

I keep weight down by one way and one way only: exercise.  I could eat grass my whole life and I'd still gain weight.  I have to exercise.  Generally about an hour's worth, with at least half being jogging.  As long as I do that, I'm OK.

For me, however, I'm also a creature of habit.  When I worked at a massive mega-bank years ago, I was able to exercise in the mornings and then do stairs during my breaks at the company.  That's because the building was over a quarter of a mile long, and had about a half dozen stairwells that were five stories high.  Starting at one end and walking  and running the stairs five days a week, along with my morning workouts, I was about where I needed to be.  For a fifty year old, I was in fairly good shape. 

Leaving there, it took a while to get back into a routine.  And at this stage in life, going a week without exercise is like Tim Allen in The Santa Clause.  But I finally found a good routine with a walk path through some nearby woods that, so far at least, are right by our house.  A couple times thorough those in the morning and afternoon and it works about the same.  

Since my wife's heart attack, however, we've not been able to get back into things.  Starting with Covid, we began exercising together as we were both home.  Which was nice.  But since then she's been in therapy and that's left me high and dry.  Call me a creature of habit, but having gotten used to having her with me made it tough to go back out on my own.  Plus bad weather and then getting Covid didn't help.

Nonetheless, as Covid wanes and hopefully the weather turns a bit, we should be back soon. She's almost done with her therapy, and the goal is to have her back where we were when this all happened.  It can't happen too soon. I feel the several months off of exercising.  The only good news was the loss of appetite from Covid.  Though, as I said, even grazing on grass has its limits for helping where weight is concerned. 

Laura Klassen fights fire with fire

Laura Klassen is an underappreciated gem in the fight for life.  Brash and sassy, she's willing to say what no man could say, and what few people in general are willing to say.  Thank you Christian leadership. 

Initially she made a splash with several videos mocking the pro-abortion rights talking points we've come to accept as gospel truth.  \

Ouch.  

But she's moved on by making sure time and effort goes to helping expectant mothers and new mothers and their babies.  Of course it's a lie that pro-life advocates don't care about the mom or child after birth.  Are there any stats or research to suggest this is true?  It doesn't matter.  It's something pro-abortion rights activists say as if it's a mantra. 

I don't know tech stuff, and can't link to her Facebook page but by this.  I don't  know if it will get you there or not.  But you can get to her FB page and go from there.  Click the links and you'll see a way to help these, and other, babies and moms. It's not just giving money, but purchasing needed items for the individuals in question.   From what I can tell, in this case the only thing needed that hasn't been taken care of is a small freezer.  

This isn't being done just to stick it in the eye of abortion rights allies.  After all, most post-orthodox Christians allying with pro-abortion activists thrive on simply ignoring inconvenient people like Ms. Klassen anyway.  I've gone to several New Prolife Catholic sites to see how they address Ms. Klassen's work, and have yet to find a single reference. 

This is just about helping if you can.  It's what we should do.  And that's why we do it, as well as fight for life. 

Johns Hopkins and the Covid Lockdowns

A study published this January, 2022. 

Here's the juicy parts (you can read the whole for yourself if that's your choosing);

This study employed a systematic search and screening procedure in which 18,590 studies are identified that could potentially address the belief posed. After three levels of screening, 34 studies ultimately qualified. Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis. They were separated into three groups: lockdown stringency index studies, shelter-in-placeorder (SIPO) studies, and specific NPI studies. An analysis of each of these three groups support the conclusion that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. More specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. SIPOs were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average. Specific NPI studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality. 

    *** 

The use of lockdowns is a unique feature of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdowns have not been used to such a large extent during any of the pandemics of the past century. However, lockdowns during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic have had devastating effects. They have contributed to reducing economic activity, raising unemployment, reducing schooling, causing political unrest, contributing to domestic violence, and undermining liberal democracy. These costs to society must be compared to the benefits of lockdowns, which our meta-analysis has shown are marginal at best. Such a standard benefit-cost calculation leads to a strong conclusion: lockdowns should be rejected out of hand as a pandemic policy instrument. 

How about that.  Once more, not only were the "Experts" wrong, but they were wrong in what they tried to accomplish, while devastating people and society in the process. 

We're the most educated and informed generation in the history of humanity.  Yet our media corps have proven that no amount of education or access to information can withstand imposed propaganda.  As I've said, propaganda is for both the weak and the willing minded.  

I have no clue what this means

 

I've seen the initial post eviscerated by more than one tolerant and compassionate Catholic.

I don't know exactly what Mr. Sammons meant about men leading the Church.  It's been a long lament since I became Christian that men hold the 'formal and technical' leadership in various (but not all) Christian traditions.  They sure don't live it, however.  Perhaps that's what he means.  Maybe he means men need to stop leaving church to hit the links and watch the games and making women do everything but lead in name. 

Whatever he meant, whether something common sense, or a secret code for society to revert to the Handmaid's Tale, I don't know.  One thing I do know is that I have absolutely no clue what Alt's response is about.  I get the feeling he thinks it's really one golly gee of a zinger.  Or he maybe he just wrote words because jargon words.  It's anyone's guess I suppose.   

The most useless headline in history

As if they wouldn't.  When wouldn't they support a Dem Pres?  That's like saying Ohio State Buckeye fans rooted for the Buckeyes yesterday. 

FWIW, note the wording.  "Late Night reflects..."   Not Late Night Comedians.  That's about the fifth time now I've seen them referred to that way, including by the morning network news shows.

It's as if even the press can't bring itself to continue the charade.  They're not comedians.  They're leftwing thralls, hacks and activists who exist to bow before the Left and attack its enemies.  Followed by the obligatory flashing signs [LAUGH]/[APPLAUSE]

Another example of the NYT being honest: 

When you've become such partisan hacks that the propaganda press can't bring itself to continue the act, it's time to come out of the closet. 

Media conditioning and the Pavlovian Left

So news outlets erupted over the story that a Tennessee Board has banned a Holocaust Book.

To give credit where it is due, the BBC provided a link to the actual school board minutes.  Which was good. I actually read them and, you know what?  It's about whether a book like that is appropriate for the particular age group.  

Note, however, the headlines:

Even The Grey Lady has jumped on the bandwagon:

Barely a mention about why.  

Instead, note the heavy emphasis on Holocaust novel, book, what have you.  In fairness, a couple of the headlines point out it has nothing to do with the subject in question.  Something everyone in the board meeting agreed needs taught.  It has to do with the appropriateness of the approach for that age group, as well as concern over the language and general presentation.  A common topic over the years.  In a sane age, this barely makes it out of the board meeting, it being a local discussion. 

But ours is not a sane age in the least.  Ours is an age where the emerging plutocracy knows it has friends in our cultural outlets who know how to condition and train people to respond to trigger words like 'ban, Holocaust, Tennessee (Americans, southern state), white', and so on  The facts or context of the discussion are of no particular concern.  When you're whipping people into a frenzy, the less obsession about such technicalities the better. 

The funny thing about this frenzy is the subtle assumption that banning a book is bad in and of itself.  We live in an age of endless book, movie, television show, art, and speech banning and punishing.  Ray Bradbury never envisioned a world like ours.  I don't go a week without hearing something being banned, pulled or outright censored.   It's just you typically don't hear it from the MSM.  For instance, a school board in Washington has voted to ban To Kill a Mockingbird.  The reason?  Racially insensitive and 'White Saviorhood.'  That is, a white person somehow helped a black person and that's so racist.  

Note the media outlets covering this.  Except for Newsweek, they are largely local or conservative leaning outlets.  No MSM.  No BBC.  No international outcry.  No media feeding frenzy.  Why?  Because this is the good censorship.  It helps reinforce the anti-white, anti-western, anti-liberty and democracy agenda the Left is clearly pushing.  If it's white - like Democracy or freedom of speech - it's bad.  That's the ultimate Pavlovian response they are striving for. 

Nonetheless, the national press wouldn't want to draw attention to that sort of censorship and thought control now would it?  After all, it's the Left's censorship and thought control.  Plus by not reporting the almost weekly list of banned and censored materials by the Left, it can appear all that more appalling when the global press draws attention to a similar action taken by the not-Left. 

Is it working? Well, the results speak for themselves. 

Note how he frames it.  Exclusively as Republicans when we have no clue about the politics of all those involved in the meeting.   But does Mark care about facts?  Apparently not, since he frames it as a vote on Holocaust Remembrance Day in some horrible breach of decency, driven exclusively by its lust for white supremacist Nazi racism.  

 

The fact that the board meeting, and the vote, took place on January 10 doesn't appear to bother Mark. My guess is that the press had the story in their pockets all along and purposefully held it for that day just to get such Markresponse.  It wouldn't surprise me.  

Nonetheless, there are people who quickly abandon concern for facts, data, truth, reality or other such formalities.  Point them to the enemy and attack.  That's all that's needed when dealing with conditioned attack dogs.  That's why attempts to reason or negotiate with them is hopeless.  

It's a bit like this old Far Side cartoon (ah, I do miss the old Far Side):

Judging from various posts on Social Media, as well as the MSM coverage itself, it's quite effective.  Even as Mockingbird gets banned, the fact is that 'blah,blah,blah,blah Holocaust book blah,blah,blah,blah banned, blah,blah,blah,balh Tennessee school board' is all that's needed.  The conclusion can only be Republicans who are white supremacists are censoring history.

For people radical fanatics and zealous activists, the Left merely needs to say stuff and white and stuff and right and that's it.  The Leftwing Party's dutiful will fill in the details right or wrong.  Facts are entirely irrelevant.  The only thing that matters is obedience to the Left and destruction of its enemies.  I'll leave it to others to reflect on the irony of this deliberate frenzy centered around Holocaust Remembrance Day.

BONUS UPDATE:  NBC swoops in with a scare story about all those books on race and sexuality being banned in Texas.  Of course not a week goes by that movies, books, shows, art, poems, historical figures and names and a host of links to Western Tradition aren't banned, pulled, abolished, eliminated or removed by everyone from Amazon to museums, schools, universities or even churches.  But where is NBC, other than cheering when it's one more step toward eliminating all of that pesky Western Democracy stuff?  Let books showing children explicit sexuality or suggesting that some ethnic groups should be judged based on skin color, however, and you'd think Hitler was in Texas.  

Did I mention only fools and hacks would ever believe the modern news media at this point? 

UPDATE: Speaking of who would ever believe the modern news media, we see another example of its effectivenss on the post-truth partisanship in the modern world:

Yep.  Facts are no more relevant than snipe hunting.  That Mark is wrong is as much beside the point as any other facts that don't buttress the media's agenda.  And the press knows there are people like that out there, hence why they continue doing what they do.  Remember what I've said, propaganda is not only for the weak minded, but also for the willing minded.  

Pope Francis asks believers to take off the armor of God

Yep. In even more Pope Francis news.  Read it here. 

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Pope Francis apparently approves this modification to Scripture. 

I've never seen in my lifetime a prominent religious leader like Pope Francis.  His entire pontificate seems wrapped in the call to do as he says, not as he does.  As one writer said, he loves nothing more than telling us not to apply adjectives to people like those rigid believers over there. And for a pope made famous by his catchphrase 'who am I to judge', he sure spends a monster crap ton of his time judging.  

He judges - but not the sins of the Left.  When he condemns the sins of the Left, he never judges the sinners.  He's made it clear that while abortion might be murdering babies and homosexuality incompatible with marriage, he nonetheless would consider you a faithful Catholic if you advocate and indulge in both.  Not so for those who choose to serve and love Jesus in the context of the Latin Mass.  It's for believers who don't see an easy alliance between leftwing and Marxist politics and the Faith who Pope Francis reserves his fiery judgmentalism. 

Of course the biggest and best thing Pope Francis has taught his flock is to thank God they aren't like those believers over there, clinging to the Truth.  The not-Francis type of Catholics.  

One of the most common responses to Pope Francis's latest rants is Catholics rejoicing that Pope Francis has unloaded yet again on those other Catholics over there.  Take this example. Note well, Mark doesn't seem to stop for even a nanosecond and wonder if Pope Francis is talking about him.  According to the Reuters piece, Pope Francis mentions nobody by name, but like so many Catholics in the Francis era, Mark knows exactly who Pope Francis is challenging, and it ain't him.  Nope.  It's all those rigid Not-Mark Catholics.  The group Pope Francis has taught Catholics, and the world, to condemn and judge with impunity. 

Because it isn't only Catholics who know Pope Francis is always talking about those other Catholics over there.  The press knows it.  Note the Reuters story.  It knows exactly who Pope Francis is condemning.  The press knows it's people serious about their faith who Pope Francis seems to judge and condemn, while it's those who wallow in death, slaughter for sex and drug, hedonism and secularism that he loves.  As long as they align with politics. And the press, as well as modern godless paganism in general, absolutely approve of this Pope Francis message. 

Somewhere Pope Francis seems to have forgotten the punch line of one of liberalism's favorite passages:

Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him.

Note well, they get into the kingdom of God because they believed.  They don't get into heaven because they are tax collectors and sinners.   The Pharisees and scribes miss out because they impose their religion on others, but fail to live the heart of the law themselves.  Like labeling people and then accusing people of labeling people, they have a religion built for their convenience but burdensome for others.  Imagining themselves above it all, they condemned those sinners over there but failed to repent themselves. 

But the sinners don't just get to heaven because they're sinners.  It's because they meet Jesus (or before Him, John the Baptist), and believe.  I'd like to see the numbers for Pope Francis.  How is he doing actually getting people to convert ot the Gospel and believe?   Or does he even think that's important?  That's a question I've asked, and I see no clear answer other than he doesn't, as long as I conform to his politics and align with various leftwing agendas and narratives.  

And that's not a Catholicism worth caring about.  I could get that belonging to the latest leftwing political action committee. Plus, I'd have Sundays off and could sleep in.