Impressive

So I was out walking the other day with my wife.  Our neighborhood has a nice little walk track that meanders through some woods, exits near some open fields, and then around part of our cookie cutter suburb.  While you don't see many kids out nowadays, you sometimes see evidence that they exist.  A tricycle in the yard.  A few toys.  Sometimes sidewalk chalk drawings.  

Now, usually the drawings are cute.  Little stick figures.  Suns with happy faces.  Flowers.  But when we were walking down in front of some of the houses, we came across this:

Wow.  All I could think of was the parent saying 'Would you like to draw some pretty flowers, or our house, or some fluffy clouds?'  And the kids saying 'Nah, I want to do a replica of stained glass window art from a 13th century Gothic Cathedral.' 

It takes a lot to impress me.  And it isn't hard to see how it was done. But you have to admit, that's some pretty darn ambitious sidewalk chalk art.  

Making the Christian Church irrelevant

Ages ago, during my journey into the Catholic Church, I stumbled upon Mark Shea's old blog Catholic and Enjoying It.  Later, I had the chance to meet Mark at the EWTN studios.  We chatted for a while.  He seemed somewhat engaged as we discussed my conversion.  Mostly he rose up and took notice when I mentioned that, before I entered the Church, I spent years looking into the Catholic Faith.  What I found, more often than not, was people who told me that being Catholic means, well, whatever you want it to mean.  Catholics believe all sorts of things really, at least nowadays.  Most seemed to find that refreshing.  Which sounded to me more of a Protestant caricature than most Protestants I knew.

Mark made a quip about Catholics being the biggest obstacle for non-Catholics entering the Church.  Or some such.  He assured me that this was NOT Catholicism.  Catholicism is not a salad bar, where you can pick and choose your beliefs and favorite doctrines.  It isn't Protestantism, where you chase after your own version of the Faith and build a new church based on the latest.  You can't just take parts of the Church's teachings and ditch them because you don't like them.  In answering a question I emailed him requesting more specifics, he made it clear that the Magisterium isn't the latest opinions about Church teaching.  And we can't just go back through church history, find obscure teachings or writings by even the Church Fathers, and then use isolated statements to reject what the Church has universally affirmed and taught through the ages. 

Which is why I link to this.  I mostly ignore Mark at this point.  But this is worth noting.  Mark has linked to Orthodox firebrand David Bentley Hart.  To traditional and little-o Orthodox Christians, Hart is a bit like John Dominic Crossan of the infamous Jesus Seminar (Mark Shea used to eviscerate Crossan for his liberal theological approach to the Faith).  Or John Shelby Spong, who incorporated a liberation emphasis with his already liberal theological approach.  That is, not only can much of the Faith be dismissed as erroneous, but let's not forget the evil sexism, racism and other phobic teachings.  Or, in older days, Hart might be a Moltmann, or a Bultmann figure, or any one of the 20th Century liberal theologians of the Protestant world assuring us that large swaths of Christian teaching must simply be left behind. 

In short, Hart rejects fealty to the historical faith. He has absolutely no problem saying the Church has gotten it wrong for, oh, these last 2000 years.  Like many who tack left, he has a knack for displaying contempt for those yokels who haven't seen the light. An Orthodox writer I followed during my time with the Orthodox Church posted on Hart's book, in which Hart calls for an end to the concept of heresies (smart move), as well as the doctrine of Hell, and an even more extreme form of Theosis, or becoming like God:

Obviously not a fan.  And a bit harsh for my taste. But he's defending the Orthodox Church against the same attacks that liberal theologians have been launching at the Western Church for generations.  Attacks grounded in the same secular and theologically liberal interpretations of the Scriptures and the Church's history.  You know - you can't take the miracles seriously, the prophets were written after the fact, as were Jesus' statements suggesting foreknowledge, that Isaiah or much of the New Testament was written by anyone other than who tradition says, we can't believe there ever existed a Noah, Moses, Abraham, David (or in recent years, the apostles), or that many of the teachings of Scripture and historical Christianity are from a barbaric time of the past to be rejected.  That sort of thing.  

What is noteworthy is how Mark, who once railed against this liberal relativism where the historical Christian Faith is concerned, seems to hang on Hart's every word.  He does say he's not prepared to embrace Hart's certainty that the Church has been full of BS where the doctrine of Hell is concerned.  Nonetheless, he appears to exalt Hart, allow for that particular revised take on Church doctrine, and all while Hart is doing what Mark insisted should never, ever be done.  At least what should never, ever be confused with Catholic teaching. 

In addition, look at the comments.  Notice the casual way that commenters say they used to believe in Hell, but they're felling much better now.  Thanks goodness they threw that doctrine out the window.  See Mark's statement to me about not being able to do that.  

Yet such is post-Christian era neo-Christianity. We can actually say - with a straight face - that the first twenty centuries of Church teaching is not a deal breaker.  In our post-Christian era, it's as if we are prepared to rewrite the entire Christian faith in our image.  Or at least the image demanded by our post-Christian age.  

I can't imagine anything that will render not only the Catholic Church, but the Christian Faith as a whole, more irrelevant than the constant call to reimagine and reject anything and everything from the Faith's first 2000 years.  It doesn't seem to be working, as more and more young people are turning away and outright denouncing everything the biblical witness brought to the world.  Which makes perfect senses.  They've been taught by our society for generations that religion is a lie we tell ourselves anyway.  This merely confirms the lesson.  Plus, who's to say we're right this time?   Certainly it's questionable we're right about some invisible God in an invisible heaven with an invisible Spirit, when the Church can't seem to get a grip on the basics.  Best to use Sunday mornings to sleep in at this point.

BTW, in case you're wondering, for many Orthodox Christians, Hart was a sort of Scott Hahn, or for Protestants, a James Dobson type.  A layperson they admired because he is quite brilliant, a deep thinker, and not afraid to say what he thinks.  And for a long time, his energies were directed at stomping for adherence to the Faith once and for all delivered to the saints.  Somewhere and at some time, however, he turned a hard left, and more than one Orthodox observer has echoed the concerns and anger of the fellow above.  How and why this happened is, I'm sure, a bigger story than this little blog can speak to.  But it has caused as much concern in Orthodox circles as the rise of liberal critical rejection of the historical Faith did to us Westerners.  Or at least concern among those who take the historical teachings of the Faith seriously. 

The prophet Trump

I am no fan of Donald Trump.  I have made that more than clear.  My favorite quip when accused of being some MAGA Trump fanatic is that I was actually ahead of the curve.  I didn't like Trump for all those years that Democrats and Hollywood liberals loved the guy and couldn't wait to party with him and ask him for money.  It didn't take him putting an 'R' in front of his name for him to become StatnHiterlTrump in my world.

Nonetheless, I admit the nation was better off going into the disaster of 2020 than it was in 2016.  There came a time when I couldn't drive to the store for bread and not see a new car sticker on a vehicle.  Wages went up.  ISIS was no longer the new normal.  Personal debt began to drop.  And savings were beginning to rise. 

And, to be honest, he nailed the opposition for what it is.  In the great Charlottesville iconoclast protest, he said then that it has nothing to do with Robert E. Lee.  It is the beginning of a Taliban style assault on our very heritage, history and heroes.  It soon would be Lincoln and Washington and anyone linked to the past the Left would erase from the history books. 

And so it is.  NYC is pondering, beyond paying off African Americans for alone ever having had ancestors who suffered, going St. Stalin on a laundry list of statues dedicated to almost any white person from the past including, but not limited to, George Washington.  Just as Trump said. 

One reason I'm convinced people who otherwise couldn't abide Trump supported him, was because he stated the obvious when no other 'conservatives' would.  The Left is an anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Christian force dedicated to destroying almost everything we have taken for granted.  And it does so by hook or by crook, through mendacity and lies, hypocrisy and utter corruption.  Perhaps he wouldn't say it today.  With Trump, you never know.  But he got it right then, and every day proves Trump right in that matter if nothing else. 

How old am I?

I'm old enough to remember when the Gay Rights Movement insisted nobody would ever be punished for disagreeing with gay marriage.  That was back in the 80s, when the - then - ludicrous notion that we could redefine marriage to include a gay couple was first floated.  As usual, the non liberals saw a clash of interests if gay marriage ever became a thing.  That was certainly an issue when I entered ministry, yet more than one liberal leaning colleague couldn't understand the worries.  Nothing but paranoia (or latent homosexual desires) they insisted.  All they wanted was for two adults to be able to be married and express their love for one another.  At no point would someone who disagrees be punished.  

Again, if I had three nickels for every time a progressive activist insisted they won't do something, only to watch them do it a few years later, I could buy Twitter.  It happens so regularly that, by now, we realize it isn't a coincidence or some strange development that occasionally happens.  It is part of the strategy, and has been all along. 

Oh, and that goes for the liberal objection that Kim Davis broke the law.  Yeah.  That's what comes from doing what those liberals I grew up with said is a no-no: legislating morality to impose your values on others.  You can never impose your values on others, so I was told a million times.  Again, here today, gone yesterday.  That is the modernist approach to principles. 

Pope Francis and those rascally Mongolians

So everyone was buzzing about Pope Francis' usual off the cuff remarks.  In this case, praising the history of Imperial Russia, giving high fives to China without qualifiers and, in a shock to many, praising the glories of the Mongol Empire.  

Now, this is standard leftwing boilerplate.  If it's west of the Danube or from North America, then it's a watermarked Swastika.  Otherwise, eh.  It's generally pretty awesome.  In this Washington Post piece, we learn just how cool the Mongols were, as oppose to those backward Europeans and Christians who were all about thinking on how cool the Mongols were. 

When I was in high school and college in the 1980s, the uber-narrative of history was that the world still owed the Western Tradition big time.  Though you could find glimmers of good things here and there throughout the ages, the whole package came together in the West like no other time or place in human history.  The wealth and luxury, the medical and technological breakthroughs, the basic creature comforts we take for granted that would have been science fiction a century before.  Not to mention the full package deal of democracy, equality, human rights, and rule of law. All came together in the West and culminated in the American Experiment like never before.

With that said, in the post-60s and 70s, we were also being called on to revisit the sins of our past.  It wasn't enough to say it was bad we used to own slaves, but isn't it awesome we stopped?  We had to bring back the sins and repent, repent and repent again.  We also had to admit that, at our worst, we were just as bad as any other culture in history.  Likewise, in different ways, those cultures could at times be as good as us.  OK, fair enough.

But by the time my boys entered public school in the 2000s, that narrative was gone. Two decades of a corrupted view of multi-culturalism, injected with leftwing and Marxist sympathies, threw that narrative out the window.  By the time my sons came along, we had long proved the Mormons had to be wrong.  Jesus never came to the New World.  He wasn't good enough.  The Americas, like anywhere outside of Europe/ North America, were perfect and beautiful and filled with perfect and beautiful people.  Think Dances With Wolves.  

The rest of the world was the same.  I recall seeing a children's book about the Aztecs in a children's book section.  Beautiful people those Aztecs.  Peace loving, gentle, innovative, hard working.  A virtual paradise.  Back in 2011, I posted on a book pitched on CNN about how awesome was the Mongol Empire.  When I read my son's high school world history book, it was pretty much that.  Beautiful empires in beautiful cultures and beautiful societies with beautiful people.  Except the West.  That's where the racism, sexism, phobias and bigotry ran rampant, usually with a boorish and backward people who ate dirt and never bathed.  The only bright spot in the West being shout outs to figures like Lenin, Mao, and Marx. 

So not really sure why the shock here. As typical, Pope Francis is simply repeating leftwing narratives and templates since that's where he abides.  Just like his dig early on in his pontificate about America and the Holocaust.  He apparently accepted the old canard about how we could have stopped the Holocaust by bombing a couple rail lines. Easy-peasy.  But no.  Not America. You know us and our racism.  Which is why he has hated January 6th, but has loved BLM. 

One of the core messages of the Left is that the world was nearly a perfect paradise, especially where knowing the importance of population control and animal pleasures are concerned.  But then came the vile Western Tradition, which visited all the evils of the world upon humanity.  So bad is it presented now, that anything associated with white, European and American Christians can and should be reimagined or outright rejected.  Among such things are ideals like forgiveness, reconciliation, equality and liberties traditionally understood. I expect more will be added to the list at the rate we're going.  And I seriously doubt Pope Francis will stand in the way. 

Remember?

 I'd like to forget. 

We didn't realize that as went the towers, so would go the country

9/11 was what Imperial Japan had hoped Pearl Harbor would be, but wasn't.  Within weeks we were beginning to turn on one another.  I had OSU Football tickets for September 15 that year.  Of course I did.  The game was postponed and moved to October, OSU's bye week that year.  My wife and I went to that game in October, warry of any airplanes that might be overhead.  On the way, we heard on the radio news (I always listen to the game news when I go to a game) a story about some pushback against the late Rush Limbaugh.  Apparently he said something about the Democrats going after Bush and it had everyone upset.  That was in October.  A little over a month after the attacks.  The threads were already beginning to fray.

On the day of the attacks I recall the late Peter Jennings slamming George Bush for his absence and apparent inaction.  A criticism that picked up speed in the weeks following.  I also remember race peddler Al Sharpton being interviewed and accusing us of racism for assuming that the attackers were Muslim.  Even though by then much of the information was being driven by what we knew.  Clearly this was going to be what Japan wanted Pearl Harbor to be, not what Pearl Harbor became.

A big problem was that our president was an empty suite.  A man over his head.  When he arrived at Ground Zero and gave a rousing pep rally speech, that ended his positive contributions to the cause.  His 'Our civilization is under attack, quick!  Go shopping!' call muddled the response and confused a nation.  He was clearly not prepared for an opposition party that was immediately more concerned about making sure he didn't benefit politically from the attacks than actually fighting the ones who attacked us.  Recall that, until the attacks, our nation was still wracked with protests, charges of an illegal election, and calls to have his presidency scrubbed since he was not a valid president.  It wouldn't take long for his opponents to recover that priority.  Not to mention his 'It's the Religion of Peace!' moment, which played into the post-9/11 theme that the attacks were horrible, so what did we do to make them hate us?  After all, we had met the enemy, and it was us. 

Within months, it was easy to see things begin to fall apart.  From the AP musing on whether it's appropriate to call the attackers terrorists (a problem we apparently resolved on January 6th, 2021), to reports that the Flight 93 passengers maybe weren't so heroic, or nobody said 'Let's Roll!', it was easy to see the writing on the wall.  American liberalism was clearly more concerned with continuing the post-Cold War deconstruction of our nation than fighting to preserve it. 

Of course the fabled 'New Atheists' made bank on the attacks, being able to be interviewed by journalists with a straight face as they insisted the problems of the world were always because of religion.  Seeing our general appraisal of religion, especially among younger Americans, after the attacks compared to before was like night and day.  

When professor and scholar Ward Churchill made his hateful '3000 Eichmanns' statement about the 9/11 victims, he eventually lost his job.  Which was fine by me.  But I was stunned by the debate in the media.  It was reported as '9/11 victims as Eichmanns who got what they had coming - a polite discussion tonight on the evening news.'  Again, no 'we vow to remember the 7th of December' there.  

Now I don't pretend that this all began with 9/11.  I recall Max Lucado, that smooth Christian writer who rose to prominence with books that presented the Gospel message in very vanilla terms.  When everyone was rushing about saying 'Don't let this change us!  That will let the attackers win!', he had a different take.  He wrote an editorial that said he hopes it does change us.  Our nation's only hope is if it does.  He pointed out that , if we were honest, we shouldn't want things going in the direction they were going on September 10th, 2001.  In hindsight, and with an honest appraisal of all those years ago, he was clearly correct.  By 2023, a growing number of Americans are committed to nothing other than continuing the vision and the goal of those hijackers on that bright Tuesday morning. 

Sorry to be a David downer.  I know this is a time when everyone remembers, and rightly pays tribute to those who lost their lives and those who gave the last full measure of devotion. Nonetheless, this seldom comes up anymore.  It's as good a time as any to state the obvious.  Unless things turn radically and quickly, the epitaph for that day will not be 'a day of infamy'.  It will be 'and that's all she wrote'. 

Nope

Apparently here in Ohio is the longest haunted house tour in the country.  An abandoned mine in Lewisburg, outside of Dayton, is said to be some 800 feet long.   Now that isn't going to be on my itinerary any time soon.  Not because of the haunted house part.  I'm not much of a haunted house fan.   I find them gaudy and predictable and usually rather dull.  But because it's in an abandoned mine.  Underground.  Like a cave.  And that's all you have to say to get from me a fast exit, stage right.  

Claustrophobia is my one bona fide phobia.  I'm not a fan of spiders, though I feared them more when I was young. As I got older, I came to appreciate the work they do in keeping out the insect riffraff.  I have a rule of thumb with spiders.  Any spiders smaller than my thumbnail and I let them go - within reason.   

Heights are also a thing, but only  on shaky ladders and precarious landings.  I could go to the edge of the Grand Canyon or look out from the Empire State Building and it wouldn't bother me.  Just don't put me on an unbalanced step ladder.  But I don't consider that a phobia as much as common sense.

But claustrophobia?  You bet.  Years ago, before our oldest was born, we went with my wife's family to Disney World in Florida.  They talked me into getting on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride.  Now I knew I wasn't in a real submarine, nor was I a million feet under the water.  I got that it was all an illusion.  Nonetheless, my wife's niece was sitting beside me and for the entire *blinking* time she rattled on about how it was really like being stuck in a closed in submarine, far under water, with no escape.  I finally told her if she didn't stop she'd be going out the torpedo tubes even if there weren't any. 

While I'm not fan of haunted houses, I do appreciate spooky locations. And if someone ever came up with some understated, subtle form of a haunted house I might just go and check it out.  But an 800 foot tour through an underground mine?  You, my friends, can count me out. 

Uh-uh

Sometimes you can't figure people

For the last couple days, I've seen news stories pondering why, despite such overwhelmingly positive economic news, Americans don't think Biden is doing a good job.  Some polls suggest Americans think he is doing a dismal job. 

The reason, of course, is that things are pretty miserable and we are a diminishing and crumbling society.  Part of that trend is watching a growing number of Americans unable to afford the basics.  The news keeps saying spending is strong.  Yeah.  Because the things people need to survive are off the scale expensive, and people are going into historically unprecedented levels of personal debt to keep up with just surviving.  Yesterday we had to buy laundry soap, toilet paper and dryer sheets.  We bought the smallest packages and got generic brands.  The total was almost $19.00.  That is unsustainable.  

Funny thing people.  You can tell them everything is peachy about vague things, but you can't tell people who can barely afford groceries that everything is awesome.  They won't believe you.  They may just resent you.

In 2016, after the conventions, I caught Fareed Zakaria on CNN.  He gave an editorial that had one clear message: The world was officially better than any time in history, and we owe it all to President Obama and his administration (read: Hillary Clinton).  The problem?  Things weren't great at all.  The post-2008 recovery was anemic at best.  ISIS was on the rampage and all we were told was to accept the new normal.  The African American community had all but been thrown under the bus.  And I could drive for weeks, if not months, without seeing a newly purchased car on the road. 

You can talk until you're blue in the face, but you can't tell people they never had it so good when they remember not so long ago when they had it so good, if not better.  The press made a huge mistake with that in 2016, believing that no matter what, a few propaganda nudges like Zakaria's screed would seal the deal and convince Americans to vote Hillary.  After all, Clinton was running against Trump for crying out loud.  Yet we saw how that turned out. 

You'd think they wouldn't repeat the same mistake again.  Fact is, except for hardcore leftwing thralls, most Americans can see the obvious.  As much as the press tries to make it about just hating the right groups of those people over there, most are increasingly bothered that things are getting worse and not better.  The press trying every other day to run stories about how great the economy is, how Bidenomics is doing a wonderful job, and how the future looks rosy and cheerful will at best not convince people who can't afford food without going into debt.  At worst, it will chase them away from the polls come November, or into the arms of you-know-who.

Dawn Eden and what Catholics told me

When I was going through RCIA, I was told that the Catholic Church - apparently unlike Protestants - doesn't elevate our religious leaders to celebrity status.  We don't make it about them. We make it about God.  And that's how we like it.  No spotlight ministries or rock star pastors.  Catholics always point to Christ, not ordained celebrities. 

I thought of that when I saw this:

We'll set aside Ms. Eden's ongoing crusade to perpetually condemn the sins of Catholics where antisemitism is concerned.  That's what comes from swinging left of center.  As one of my boys has said, when your resume of generational accomplishments is as blank as ours, condemning the sins of those who came before is about all you have left. 

But the 'Pope Francis Generation' caught my attention.  Sorry, but that seems very celebrity-spotlight-rock star-ordained minister to my eyes.  We're not the Catholic, the faithful, or even the 21st Century Catholic generation.  We're the Pope Francis Generation!  I'm trying to recall any Protestants I remember saying that we were the Billy Graham generation or the Rick Warren generation.  Nope.  Not remembering it. 

But these are the values inspired by Pope Francis. Not only are we at our best when we perpetually call out the sins of those not-me Catholics-who-lived-before-me.  But the rules, like not celebrating the priesthood as rock stars the way Protestant do, can change to keep up with the always improving times.  Which might be the true legacy of Pope Francis.  In the end, there is nothing that can't be changed when it comes to changing what can't be changed. 

When I see the world lead the modern Church around on a leash

 It brings to mind this old Looney Tunes cartoon from back in the day:

I'll leave you to figure which dog reminds me of the world, and which one reminds me of the Christian Church today. 

Was a time when the Church was about converting the world to Christ.  But for too long the world has been converting the Church to secularism, and I'm not sure we realized it.  

Pope Francis and ideological commodities

I don't hate Pope Francis.  I don't think he is the Antichrist.  I don't think he sneaks around and throws banana peels in front of nursing homes just for fun.  I don't  go home every night and stick pins in my little Pope Francis doll.  

True, I don't care for how he conducts himself.  I don't like his 'do as I say, not as I do' schtick.  I don't care for his inconsistencies and at times incoherent ramblings.  I disagree with his political liberalism and nakedly Marxist based Liberation Theology.  I don't like the priorities he has established, where fealty to various leftwing (let's be honest) political agendas are the deal breakers versus fealty to the Gospel, the teachings of the Church, and the virtues of Christian living.

With that said, he has pointed out things I do agree with. One has been calling out the practice of seeing human beings as nothing but commodities. I don't think there is an issue with commodities per se.  But humans are not a commodity.  And he is correct in pointing that out.

But there are many ways to turn humans into a commodity.  One way that has become almost universal in our modern media culture is humans as ideological commodities.  That is, humans, human lives, human suffering, and human death matter only insofar as they can be shamelessly exploited to defend established narratives or advance political and social activism and agendas. 

This is most flagrantly demonstrated by the modern news media not giving two damns or a hell about human misery, struggles, pain or even death unless they can be used to further the press's pet objectives.  For instance, the killing of three black victims by an avowed white racist.  

There are literally dozens of Americans murdered in the country every day.  Most go unreported beyond a local news story.  Many are all but ignored even then.  Then why this?  We've had killings of multiple people in our neck of the woods over the last few weeks.  Why haven't they made the national news?  Earlier in the year a young newlywed who was not black was hacked to death by a black man with a machete.  Why didn't CNN or ABC or the NYT or other outlets rush out here and make that front page news?  Why is this killing of three people suddenly round the clock, top of the hour, international front page news?  Why is it still making news a week later? 

For obvious reasons, that's why.  I won't belabor the point or insult your intelligence by writing it all out as if you're too dense to know why.  This is a grave sin and intrinsic  evil, to so use and exploit, or ignore and dismiss, human death and misery simply based on ideological convenience. I'd like to think when Pope Francis calls hellfire down on the idea of making human beings into commodities, at the front of his mind is the modern media's flagrant exploitation of human beings for the sole purpose of advancing an agenda.  For using human beings as nothing more than ideological commodities. I'd really like to think that's on his mind when he speaks of such sins. 

Pope Francis is the pope the World has been hoping for

Because of the example he sets: 

                          

This is what I expect on Social Media. Or a middle school locker room. Or an elementary school playground.  Not from the spiritual leader of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. 

Note there is no humility.  No concern.  No caring about those who might have been hurt by what he said.  He clearly doesn't care.  And there's nothing our modern age loves more than someone who affirms our right to care or not care based on expediency. 

Rolling Stone: this time being prophetic

2SLGBTQI+?

I remember when writing something like 2SLGBTQI+ was a joke, a slight.  An insult.  It was a way of digging the LGBT community back in the day.  The community that, instead of confronting the question of just what makes a bi-sexual person only bi-sexual if a gay person is a matter of birth, simply added bi-sexual to the list of 'born that way.'  Because of course it did. 

Most non-conformists saw the problem, and stupidity. At that point, however, we should have realized the precarious position we were in for having allowed a generation of barn bat crazy kvetches ascend to the level of 'authoritative expert'.  We should have done something about it while there was still time. 

Many leftists blast Babylon Bee for not being funny.  In fairness, they are correct.  I seldom find BB to be terribly amusing.  That's because its sympathies swing toward conservative, and thus it spends its time trying mock and lampoon liberalism.  But when you see what liberalism has become, that's a mighty tall order.  How does one mock such a thing that is well beyond mockery?  Except to remember this is an official release from a Western government in the 21st Century world. 

I've quoted my son before but it bears repeating.  With each passing day the Left drags the world into this pit of madness and duplicitous turpitude, it becomes easier to sympathize with the Germans who lived in the 1930s.  

Imagine what Pope Francis could accomplish

If he spent half as much time encouraging people to be faithful Catholics as he does disparaging people who try to be faithful Catholics.  

Fact

I have said before that a big - and I mean BIG - reason liberalism wins is that those who resist it are often all talk.  I know, we hear 'but conservatives have day jobs' or 'but conservatives are the adults in the room' or 'liberals have unfair advantages because the news media' and such.  

But as often as not, conservatives are big on talk, itty-bitty on actions.  Oh, they may rush out and make a fuss for a day or two.  But at the end of the day, it will be business as usual.  Thus:

Yep.  And that's just one.  Consider the ever present mantra that 'middle America won't sit still for this.'  Sit still for what?  Our FBI has been caught read handed spying on Churches to see what their religious practices and beliefs are.  They are pushing to mutilate the bodes of youth at the hands of state operatives while boldly declaring their aim of blocking parents from stopping them.  They are erasing our heritage and destroying the memorials to those who built our nation. They are openly advocating racial discrimination based on group and ethnic identity.  What exactly is it 'those right wing American rednecks' won't sit still for?   

Whatever it is, apparently it doesn't include ditching a beer brand to make a point.  When you have that lack of conviction and passion, don't expect to win against those who have both. 

Revealing to say the least

And worth pondering when we consider the state of affairs today with our modern corporate media. 

So a visitor here linked to this old weather broadcast from 1973:

The key takeaway?  The forecast calls for high temps at 97 degrees for the next day.  And apparently that's just hunky-dory.  In fact, he says it will be a great day to get out and go on a picnic or enjoy outdoors because there won't be any rain if the forecast goes according to plan.

I've written how, over the previous weeks, we've had ginned up hysterics about heat waves and heat advisories when the temps have at times stalled in the high 70s.  Or at best, they've made it to the high 80s.  Yet not only do they issue advisories and warn of extreme heat, they get the reaction from the people accordingly.

On the day it only topped off at 77 I didn't see any interviews of the 'man on the street.'  When it hit high 80s here (and 91 in Columbus), I saw them interview some folks who bemoaned the heat, the misery, and struggles with such debilitatingly hot temps.  They needed the guy from the clip above to cheer them up, since to him at least, in 1973, a 97 degree day was just awesome for being outdoors. 

Of course, as I mentioned to the individual who posted the link, it might have been because in the 1970s - when I was in elementary school - the buzz was about the impending ice age just around the corner. I've heard some Global Warming activists insist there was no such thing back then, that nobody was talking about an forthcoming ice age.  That, like so many things that advance modern progressive agendas, is false.  I remember sitting in Mrs. Griffith's 5th Grade homeroom class and being told we were heading into a new ice age at the rate we were going.  With all of the attached upheaval and horrors that such a development would incur.  

So obviously what we're seeing isn't new.  I don't think most sane people think it is.  But unlike then, when the narrative changed pretty quickly by the time I was in high school, this narrative isn't going away.  And a generation of young radicals and fanatics, convinced the world will soon explode and anyone who doesn't think so is an enemy of their survival to be dispatched accordingly, is on the rise. 

When I think of the effectivness of our modern Expert class

 I think of this:

My sons call our modern society a Theoriocracy.  We live in a world based upon theories, founded upon theories, derived from theories, centered on theories, and planted on ideas that are often nothing more than wild guesses, dead end suggestions and outright idiocy.  

In addition, our experts don't necessarily have to actually, you know, produce anything.  There is no accountability.  They don't have to fix a problem.  Heck, the problems can get worse under their guidance and nobody ever seems to bother asking if we've been listening to the wrong experts give us the wrong advice.   Yet this idea of a loftier than Babel expert class that knows better because it always right, is peddled by our media, and not really challenged by - anyone.  

This came to my mind as I listen to the endless news stories interviewing experts on what to do about kids going back to school now that it's that time of year.  Experts tell us how to dress them.  Experts tell us how to get their bedtimes ready for a new year.  Experts tell us how to help the kids overcome nerves.  Experts tell us how to plan for healthy lunches. Experts tell them how to deal with new kids they meet.  Experts tell us how to prepare them for possible mass shootings.   Though that last one is fair, since I recall no such concern growing up, therefore there is no wisdom passed down through the ages where school safety in the face of mass shootings is concerned.

But you get the point.  

A great day for justice

Back in the pre-Covid days of BLM, when the Left/Press was trying to lay down the battle lines in which any white can only act due to racism, and anything that impacts any African American is due to racism, young Shannon Phillips became a media target.  She was a Starbucks manager who did what most I've known who work in such establishments do, and that's ask two non-paying customers who were using the facilities to pay or leave.  Problem?  The two were black.

Of course charges of Nazi collaboration and KKK membership immediately flew like starlings.  Starbucks acted like they never heard of such a policy. The press dove into Ms. Phillips' life and found any and all dirt they could to paint her as the discount Goebbels she was. 

Eventually, a year or so later, I saw on a small story behind the grocery ads that Starbucks finally admitted she merely followed store policy.  A policy they proudly announced would be eliminated.  Were there any major nationwide apologies for the false accusations based on her skin color? 

Eh.  She was white.  Who cares.  You'd think then Starbucks would have rushed in and tried to make amends.  Apparently it didn't. She sued.  I'm not a fan of frivolous lawsuits.  But if she was any color and fired for her color, I'd support the lawsuit.  Including her being white.

Turns out, a jury agreed. Starbucks canned her because she was white.  Her settlement, at least at this point, is in the millions.  How that will work I don't know.  It's just nice to see we live in a country where, even when racism is promoted by our best and brightest, the law sometimes kicks in and makes it right. It makes me think of an old political science professor I had in college.  He said the Founding Fathers never promised a country that would never do wrong.  They promised a nation that would be able to fix the wrongs when they were done.  

One more weather report just for fun, and a fair question

So these are screenshots from two different weather apps from my neck of the woods yesterday.  The first at 4.48 PM (Right), the second at 4.51 PM (Left).  It was at the height of the Heat Advisory, an advisory that led to some schools releasing their students early.  Warnings were everywhere.  And the local news gave updates through the day regarding the rising temperatures.

Granted, we are a bit north of Columbus, and it may have made it to the low 90s down there.  But I'm old enough to remember when a single day in the low 90s did not constitute a heat warning.  Typically, advisories came with heat waves, which were several days in a row of 90s, preferably mid to upper 90s.  

Nonetheless, the advisory covered our area, too.  And the highest temp of the day, based on one of the weather apps, was 89 degrees.  It's not as funny as the Heat Advisory the other day that had the high temp only make it to 77.  But again, 89 degrees in our part of the country, in late August, is not unusual.  And until recently, not particularly noteworthy.  Hence, this is propaganda, not science, not meteorology, not weather reporting. 

BTW, I noticed the difference in the two temps.  I wondered about that.  One is from my phone, and I don't know its source.  The other app is from the Weather Channel I believe.  But 5 degrees difference is significant.  It made me wonder, as I am wont to do.  If the all time high that day was 88 degrees, did we set a record?  And is there a definitive source for temperatures that is always appealed to when we hear them talk of records breaking?  Sort of an atomic clock for thermometers?  If not, how do we know they're all keying off the same source for determining daily temperatures when we hear talk of daily records? 

Plus, note the one on the right.  It was the cooler temperature, but the higher 'feels like' (at 93 degrees).  The other had the higher temp, but the lower 'feels like' (at 91 degrees).  Is it me, or is that too subjective to warrant 'thus the records are broken, thus Global Warming, thus we're  going to die, thus we must overhaul the world no questions asked!'?  I'd like things to look a little more, shall we say, consistent before we charge forth and obediently find new ways for corporate interests to line their pockets and politicians to stack their votes. 

Kudos to Senator Vance

Once again, we have American Indian activists trying to erase the name of a memorial to a white American of European descent.  Naturally the political Left would be tickled pink to see this happen as often as possible. And perhaps it may have had some traction in another age.  After all, I saw plenty of Republicans express outrage when statues of Christopher Columbus came toppling down here in thee Buckeye State.  Yet I saw none of them actually stop it or do anything to rectify it.  Big talk being a core Republican virtue.

But J.D. Vance - a politician I didn't care for - has stepped up and said no way.  He has gone further by saying it's time to ditch all of these renaming committees that only seem to exist for the purpose of going Taliban on America's heritage and Western history. Good for him I say. 

I am never one to deny when a person I thought was the bee's knees has gone off the rails and lost my respect (I'm looking at you Dr. David Gushee and John Kasich).  But I'm equally prepared to reconsider a negative appraisal if I see the individual in question do the right thing, especially against a powerful opponent and amidst limp-wristed allies.