The unraveling of America's healthcare system

A tragic story here in Ohio that got me to thinking.  God rest that child and her grieving parents.  I don't even like to think about it.  But here's the thing.  

Most who ignore the news media are aware that death from medical malpractice is no small thing, and hasn't been for decades.  Whether it's getting worse proportionately or not, I don't know.  As much as we like to imagine that there is some treasure vault out there with a stat for everything that needs proven, it doesn't always work that way. 

Especially when something, like the medical community, is what I call the Priesthood of Privileged Professions.  Like academia in general, or education (public or higher), or the scientific community at large - at least the scientific community that toes the line.  Ever notice that these are professions or vocations that the news media will promote, but seldom if ever critique, no matter how bad things are or how many failures stack on failures? 

So that there is no small number of Americans who die from medical malpractice each year, though it is seldom mentioned, is not surprising.  Likewise, there are the growing problems with medical care in general.  We've seen it ourselves in recent years.

The last time my mom had a stroke while she was still living with us, my oldest son and I took her to the emergency room.  By then it was not the first stroke she had, and we were fast learning the symptoms.  But you couldn't get anyone there to say she was anything other than just old.  Maybe a UTI.  Both of us fired back and said dig deeper, it's a stroke.  My normally introverted oldest became almost angry, telling them we've seen stroke, we know stroke, this is a stroke.  After about ten minutes of back and forth the ER doctor, she finally agreed to run some tests in that direction and, would you believe it? 

But then a year earlier, she had a stroke, they knew she had a stroke, and she remained in her ER bed for over a day, because there was no room at the inn.  Or the hospital in that case.  And this isn't some Billy Bubba's Hospital and BBQ medical place either.  It's one of the premier hospitals in Ohio.  Yet they just didn't have the beds.  Finally they discharged her because, well, that was that.  They set up some homecare visits instead. There simply were no rooms. 

This is happening more and more as well.  Even critics of America's healthcare who pine for good old socialized medicine have conceded that the one area American healthcare did shine was speed of service.  While the legendary wait times in more socialized environments is a thing, in America it's one problem we didn't have.  Until now.  

My third son had a health emergency a year ago.  He went to the ER, and they patched him up, but told him to call his primary care provider ASAP.  So next day he did.  He explained the problem, what the ER said, and his provider's office said sure, they can get him in.  In about three weeks.  He explained he actually needed seen, you know, now.  But that was that.  They told him to go to a clinic or wait.  It made me think of this scene from Caddyshack: 

Or, are you sick?  I'm afraid we can't see you.  What?  That's what you're there for! 

I've experienced the same thing.  As have others.  I know some who have said it seems like the medical offices are just not invested in things like making you better anymore.  I'm sure it's not all like that. But there comes a time when you start thinking it can't just be our little corner of the world and everything else is just peachy. 

But it's this sort of thing that is under reported, if reported at all, that so many don't want to talk about, that more and more people are seeing and getting fed up with.  I know it's tough to think things are as bad as they seem.  We love the ones who say 'Democracy isn't collapsing, America isn't unraveling, why things always seem that way but it always works out!'.  

Yeah, they often do seem that way in this fallen world.  They always seem to be falling apart, going from bad to catastrophic, or on the edge of collapse.  And often it turns out things finally cross a bridge and pick back up.  But sometimes they don't.  Sometimes those yelling the sky is falling loud enough turn out to be vindicated when, in fact, the sky finally falls.  And we know from history, the sky will fall.  And if the good guys don't admit things are unraveling fast, the bad guys will be happy to step in and do something about it, even if it's all the wrong things. 

Sad but true

 This has been around for several years:

But it continues to be true.  The problems we see today are the result of endless causes.  Figuring out which are the key factors to what we've become is a task unto itself.  Admitting that something went seriously wrong, on the other hand, is simple.  

A quick primer

 Commercialism:

Consumerism:

Corporatism: 

I'll explain later. 

The biggest lesson from Ken Burns

Burns reminds me of the adage that history isn't so much written by the winners as it is taught by the winners. Or at least taught by those who want to keep in the good graces of the winners.  Saying in 2025 that we need to focus more on the negative of America's history is like saying McCarthy should have spent more time focused on Communism. At this stage, the negative is all that most, especially the young, ever hear.  From our schools and their curriculums, the media and press, Hollywood, and even churches.  After all, a growing number of such venues as Evangelical churches are led by younger and younger leaders who have, for most of their lives, heard that there is scant difference between the Swastika and the Stars and Stripes.

As my sons said from their time in public school, and that was in the 2000s: Pretty much everything America was a negative.  And what heroism, or 'glorious' chapters as Burns says, was mentioned at all was wrapped in the assumption of malice, bigotry, and ulterior motives.  In other words, we might have beaten the Nazis, but it had nothing to do with anything other than our own lust for power, empire, money for arms manufacturers, or other nefarious reasons.  And that was going on 20 years ago.   

For those who spent years wondering what they would do if a force of tyranny ever rose and sought to destroy our nation, our heritage, our values and our freedoms, now we can see.  Someone like Burns either knows what he is doing, or is so oblivious to his own place in our historical context that it’s no longer profitable to care what he says.

Thanksgiving and why conservatives lose

So it was that time of year again.  Not the time when we're told how racist Thanksgiving is and how the holiday should be abolished while we put our emphasis on Indigenous Peoples Month. Nope.  Truth  be told, I heard and saw little of that this year.  The year 2021 seems to have been the high water mark of the Left's America hate, when that sort of thing was everywhere and around everything American.  This year it's been references to the strategically placed 'Native American Heritage and Indigenous Peoples Day', but not much else.  Which is like those atheists who post 'There is no God' around Christmas.  No clue if the election had anything to do with the dialed down level of such rhetoric this year.

No, I mean from the conservative side.  When I first became Catholic and was frequenting many a Catholic blog, most of which were right of center, I was rather taken by the posting around the first Thanksgiving.  As we went through RCIA, I remember one of the instructors saying that we Americans don't know the real first Thanksgiving, owing to our Protestant bias. Eh.  I though OK, fair call, but the holiday received is the one we received, and that's part of our shared heritage as Americans, so I don't feel I'll make any changes any time soon.  Plus, if most don't know the specifics, they are aware that Spain and Catholicism was here, it's just we became an Anglo-American society owing to the influence of Enlightenment era Protestant England and the victories and accomplishments thereof, so the traditional approach makes sense.

But that first year I realized this is not some off the cuff remark in an RCIA class.  That same approach was - everywhere on St. Blogs.  I lost track of how many blogs that year posted variations on 'The REAL First Thanksgiving' was Catholic.  And it still happens.  I don't think a year has passed that I haven't seen it on at least a couple Catholic blogs  Which, you know, is nothing other than a variant on 'It should really be Indigenous Peoples Day!'  If you think on it.

Oh, quibble all you want about leftwing agendas and the differences here, but ultimately what is being said is that the heritage we have in the Thanksgiving Holiday is flawed, and should be reframed, or rethought, or rebranded.  Which is all the Left is saying, just to other extremes.  

And that's why conservatives lose.  I've often said that at any time of the year, the Left can count on 1/3 of conservatives and those on the right jumping on board and siding with whatever the Left is pushing.  This goes way back.  One of my pet hypotheses is that America began its formal decline when we became convinced that America had no right to have a cultural and ethnic identity. That is, we could not be a WASP nation.  No matter how the nation attempted to allow others in and push equality and make sure everyone is given the same fair shake, we simply could not be a WASP nation by identity and culture and social majority.  

That was driven into me in elementary school, when I first hear the term WASP, and was taught how glorious is was that we were putting that identity behind us.  And first up on the list was not the Civil Rights legislation, or anything to do with Jim Crow.  It was Kennedy becoming the first Catholic president.  That was the wonderful chink in the WASP armor that signaled we were not longer merely a Protestant nation, we were a Christian one.  Much to the delight of Catholics then and now. 

Learning about that in fourth grade was, I'll admit, ironic, because by then we were already tossing not only our Christian ideals, but religious ideals in general, into the outer darkness and becoming a secularized, atheist state in all but church attendance.  Yet Catholics then as now cheered the idea of getting rid of that WASP, at least insofar as it meant Protestant, identity. The problem now is clear.  As I said, it didn't stop with erasing the Protestant. Nor did it stop with anything else.

Yet every year, on the Catholic internet, Catholics will join the Left in saying why Thanksgiving as we have it is at least flawed in our understanding. Most, of course, don't go so far as to say throw down the holiday and burn it in the turkey friers.  And there are those least those who are more conservative, who still celebrate and give credit to the traditional holiday and its more Protestant origins.    

But it's there nonetheless.  An 'us v. them' approach to the holiday that I've noticed the Left will always and forever condone and encourage and be grateful for, especially when done among those who otherwise oppose the Left.  Something you never see happen anywhere left of center I might add.  Which is why the Left wins.  Even amidst temporary setbacks.  Because whatever the Left doesn't learn, it will always know that in the future, conservatives will forever be bickering and dividing themselves, and if nothing else, the Left will be able to call that a win. 

Oh, and we won't even get into that odd 'the real lesson of Thanksgiving is that socialism never works.'  Not saying it does or doesn't, but the real lesson I grew up with until the rise of multi-cultural anti-Western dribble was that the Pilgrims put it all on the line and risked everything, even their lives, in this new land all because of their beliefs and convictions.  And when against hope they survived, they joined with the natives of the land and gave glory and thanks to God as the reason they survived.  Even in elementary school, we learned that.  So please stop with the 'enough of the God stuff Dave, it's about the economy stupid.'  Again, the first step in defeating an opponent is to stop helping the opponent.  Because anything that cuts through our side is always a boon for theirs.  

As a general rule

Those upset about this in our schools:

Are fine with this in our schools:

And vice versa. Therein lies the division. 

Mr. Kimmel gets it

It turns out Jimmy Kimmel thinks America (and Europe) is a pretty filthy place.  At least compared to the always awesome Japan. 

You have to have a sense of pride in yourself to strive for the best.  You have to have the same for your country.  The same country Mr. Kimmel and his compatriots have spent years - decades perhaps - trashing, and hashing, and bashing. The same country young ones for three generation have been told is one of the worst ever in history.  The same country filled with people that young ones have been told are, and always have been, the worst: the most stupid, boorish, vulgar, bigoted, arrogant, violent and useless in the world. 

Everything around you sucks.  Everything around you has always sucked.  Perhaps you are a true god who should be worshipped and if you say you're Napoleon then the definition of Napoleon should be changed.  But the fact that it doesn't work that way just shows how bad everything around you does, and always has sucked. 

Loyalty?  Duty? Honor?  Patriotism?  Gold Rule?  Bah.  Insert copious F-Bombs here.  By the time I came along, those were punchlines, not principles.  Everything is subjective, except for everything that objectively sucks.  You owe nothing to anyone, everything owes all to you.  And if you aren't Einstein or the Beatles, it's because everything sucks.  

Oddly, this constant thrice-daily repeated mantra hasn't build back a better country.  Though it hasn't  always been this way, it should be noted.  In high school and early college, I took karate.  The fellow who taught me was pushing for karate to be an Olympic sport, so he couldn't accept fees (we paid for the facilities instead).  He traveled much, however.  He had a love for Japan.  But even then, he admitted traveling abroad was tough because it could be so dirty.  Even in Europe and Japan (we won't discuss what he said about the Middle East).  

I knew students in my graduate days who were from other countries, including the former USSR.  One thing they complained about was America's cleanliness fetish. They said we were almost psychotic about being clean and having everything clean.  That was the 1990s.

So Mr. Kimmel, what you are lamenting is what America has become under your watch.  You can't be a willing partner with a media culture that has promoted the worst, the ugliest, the dirtiest, the most judgmental and most critical of everything that was ever seen as good and then be shocked with the results.  You can't tell kids for generations that their society is garbage and then be shocked when things begin to smell.  

It takes effort to be good, never bad.  When was the last time anyone said 'You know, all my life I wanted to be a lazy couch potato, but I couldn't overcome the temptation to eat right and exercise'?  Probably never.  In this world, goodness, virtue, beauty and maturity take effort.  They have to be practiced and worked for. But we went on the cheap and aimed lower than dirt, and now we're seeing the results.  Thank you Mr. Kimmel for admitting the obvious.  Now, if you could admit why it is.  

Reflections on the Worst Generation

We've all heard the phrase 'The Greatest Generation'.  That was popularized by Tom Brokaw by way of his book titled The Greatest Generation.  It applied to the generation that fought in World War II.  It specifically applied to the men in the trenches, more than the older generations who were the high ranking officers, commanders and world leaders of the war.  Though I don't recall actual WW2 veterans referring to themselves that way, the phrase took off and was elevated by Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and that brief wave of patriotism following the 9/11 attacks. 

But I'd like us to consider the Worst Generation.  If we have the greatest, then we must have the worst.  And I don't mean those rascally Baby Boomers who get blamed for everything.  Or Generation X, Y, Z, or whatever.   

By Worst Generation I mean - you probably guessed it - the WW2 Generation.  Yep, the same one labeled the Greatest and cheered by many, including most to the right of center, has some explaining to do, as far as I'm concerned.  Oh sure, they won the battle of WW2.  Even the most sympathetic appraisal, however, suggests they turned right around and lost the war for the civilization that they fought WW2 to preserve. 

Why?  What went wrong?  How could such a storied, celebrated, successful, courageous, and beloved generation fail so miserably after winning so decisively?  I don't know.  I'm sure it would take more than a blog post or even entire blog to unpack what went so horribly wrong.  But it is impossible not to see that, within their lifetime and under their watch, the civilization they inherited is well on its way to oblivion, thanks in part to the time under their watch. 

Again, I have my hunches.  But it would take a book at least, not merely a post or two.  Nonetheless, it's time to be honest.  They failed and failed miserably at the main task of any generation, and that's preserving their inheritance to be passed on to their posterity.  Long before those eager Boomers took over in the 80s (and have yet to let go), you could see the foundations crumbling and the barbarians climbing the gates. 

I'm certainly open to suggestion about how and why they dropped the ball.  But it's time to admit these problems didn't just begin with Vatican II, or the arrival of The Beatles, or even those rascally Marxist Communists  In the latter case, their goals were merely aided by what developed in the years and decades following the WWII generation's greatest, yet brief, accomplishment. 

What happened?

When we lost corporate America, we lost the West

As I muse on this year's Columbus Day and/or Indigenous Peoples Day, I have to ask what happened and when did it happen?   In 1992, down in Florida, there was a big Columbus celebration marking the 500th Anniversary of his sailing that famous ocean blue.  There were replicas of the three ships. There was an exhibit in a nearby building.  Lots of information, I purchased some books and paraphernalia I still have.  Dad was with me at that time, so good memories. 

I realize that, by then, Columbus was already a lightning rod for debate.  In fifth grade, the first time I remember learning anything past that little ditty about 1492, we learned Columbus more or less died a broken man and a failure.  We also learned that if he didn't personally do everything evil in the world, his journey did unleash what would be the end of the peoples native to the Americas.  By then that was mostly a negative thing, but we still believed he brought some positives as well. 

In high school it was more of the same.  He did some impressive things, but was also a failure in the end.  The slave trade and the overall persecution of native populations was becoming more and more the focus.  But we still believed the West brought some positives to the world, so it balanced out to a net positive, if we could just find ways to right the wrongs of the past.

By college the debates were clearly swinging more and more to the negative.  The West was still seen as a net boon for the world, and despite increasing focus on the sins, the evils, the slavery, the genocide even, it was capped off with a generic 'but there were still some good things.'  I'd say by college, the appraisal of Columbus was as a man overrated, who unleashed horrible things on a beautiful civilization.  Nonetheless, the courage was still there, and the general benefits of the Western tradition.  So despite the increasing focus on the bad, there was still a thumbs up at the end of the day. 

That was certainly true by 1992.  Partly this was because we were still awash in 'thou shalt not ever judge', and presentism was always a no-no.  Yet now, consider it.  Columbus is not even mentioned in most cases.  Here in Columbus, it's officially Indigenous Peoples Day.  When Columbus is mentioned at all, it is in the same manner in which one speaks of Hitler, or Himmler, or Thomas Jefferson.  Naturally we're also reminded of the growing push to rename our state's capital. 

So what happened?  And when did it happen?  When we first moved to Ohio, there was a replica of the Santa Maria in the Scioto River in downtown Columbus.  I took the three older boys and the family there a few times.  It was a pretty impressive exhibit.  It was there until the later part of the 2000s.  Then it was removed, ostensibly for repairs and improvements.  But it was never seen again.  That reminds me of the statues of Columbus that have been removed, supposedly to be relocated to museums or educational venues. Last I heard they've been disassembled and the parts are in a warehouse.  Or the statues of Robert E Lee that were supposed to be relocated but some say have been destroyed. 

When did we turn that corner of no going back?  Because what is happening to Columbus is merely a small example of what is being done to the West as a whole.  In 1993, Columbus, for all his criticisms, was still seen as a hero to be admired.  A man who did great things and was courageous and bold and took the world to the next chapter in its history, in an overall positive way.  That was 1993.  By 2023, Columbus, when mentioned at all, is spoken of as an irredeemable villain to be eliminated; to be erased from history. So what happened?    

The seasonal GOP clown show

Have you ever seen a bad movie - I mean really bad - and then you see that an actor or actress you admire is in it?  Has that happened, and then you become embarrassed for the individual for being in such a rotten picture?  That's the feeling I had for the few minutes of the GOP debate I was able to stomach last night. 

Whew.  How far we have fallen as a country.  If my boys acted like that when they were young I would have punished them. I tried to watch it, but I literally became embarrassed.  Embarrassed for them on the stage, for the GOP, for our nation, and sorrowful for our children. 

I fear it has been a long time coming.  Probably when Richard Nixon appeared on Laugh In, the barrier between the stupid and the serious was forever shattered.  If it was already getting there, after that it was a fast dash to Clinton playing his sax and joking about pot smoking on Arsenio.  And from there the teenage level snark of Obama or the locker room adolescent behavior of 2016. 

But this is the age we live in now.  These are the leaders, who only look good when juxtaposed to the experts who will deride them.  I hate it for our kids.  As my son quipped after the disastrous police response to the Uvalde school shooting:  Great nations produce great men.   End statement. 

From a saner age:

Duh

It turns out that brave corporations cheering on Pride Month, aren't doing so in places like the Middle East.  Can we say 'not surprised'? 

My eldest son, who possesses a good historian's head on his shoulders if I may say so, has a pretty solid theory for what we're seeing.  Long and short, we all grew up in the 'Age of Democracy' because, for over two hundred years, the individuals with all the wealth and power believed democracy, liberty and equality were part of the magic formula for ever more wealth and power.

After all, combined with a robust and free market, and some lag-over Christian ideals, that formula brought the West from a world of horses and buggies, candlelight and log cabins to a world of planes, trains, automobiles, television, computers, space travel, medical breakthroughs, agricultural breakthroughs, and unparalleled wealth, leisure and luxury.  And all within a half dozen or so generations.  Obviously, those factors in the formula had to be defended.

But they no longer believe that.  China, in some ways, changed all that.  Like Jeopardy James, they broke the game and showed the world you don't need those things to rake in the big bucks, at least for those on top.  In fact, you might do better avoiding those things.  After all, in our world today there are billions of potential costumers in nations and societies that have decidedly undemocratic, unfree and unequal laws and values.  But that's still billions of potential customers.

Why does the NBA call down hellfire on the USA as the four hundred year old racist Nazi state that we are, while turning a blind eye to China?  Because in China basketball is now the one of the most popular sports, and it's estimated that the NBA has hundreds of millions of bona fide fans in China - more fans than the United States has citizens.  Same with Disney.  Disney now makes more in China than it does America. 

Heck, America is now practically a 2.5 world country.  Not quite 2nd World.  America's standard of living, its wealth and leisure were so astronomically high compared to the rest of the world, that we could fall a thousand miles and still be at a higher standard that most of the world.  But not for much longer.  When was the last time America wowed the world?  When was the last time we built something that left the world in awe?  Today, you have to go to other parts of the world for that.  Heck, earlier in the year the world had to step in and bail us out when we couldn't produce enough formula for America's babies.  Remember when it was America that would step in when the world couldn't do those things? 

I think my son is correct.  In the end, the United States, and the West in general, simply isn't that important anymore.  The lofty values we took for granted aren't needed and, in some cases, might be obstacles for the emerging global ruling classes.  China, like some Middle Eastern countries, has learned if they just make deals with the big corporate interests, those interests will happily turn a blind eye to other problems. In fact, those corporate entities might find it in their best interest to shame the West and United States so they will shut up and stay out of the way.  That way those corporations can more easily roll in the money given them by countries that are the antithesis of the old life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness principle. 

Hence Pride month.  Corporations will gladly peddle that here.  It keeps America a godless, sexed up, drugged up customer base unlikely to resist any tearing away at its moral or even legal foundations.  But no way do those corporate interests really give two swigs about anything remotely gay.  Those same LGBTQ folks could be tossed off buildings in  other parts of the world for all those companies care.  Same with women and blacks or anyone.  As far as our global rulers care, whatever the countries and cultures with the billions of customers want, will eventually be what the rest of the world gets.  

Which is why charging into battle with Republicans

Is a lot like charging into battle with an accordion.  Here.  

Yep. Very few Republicans put traditional Christian values as their top priority.  I know that they'll invoke the old 'our country can't impose Christiaan values on a pluralistic nation' bilge without once acknowledging the secular left's willingness to brutally impose its godless, leftwing ideological values on our 'pluralistic' country.  

Like most things said by those left of center or surrendering to the same, it's a dodge.  By now, the old sales pitch of 'America has no right be a country based on one set of values from one civilization' should be taken as seriously as the tooth fairy.  The ones who said that did so to emasculate opposition.  Now, with a zeal that a fundamentalist Protestant in WASP America could never fathom, that same movement is seeking to convert America to its vision, and woe betide those who fail to conform. 

Again, I realize Neville Chamberlain famously received a fair amount of criticism for the Munich Conference, and rightly so.  But how much more would we shower endless contempt on him if he kept going back every year after and trying the same thing?   As we keep on accepting the same lame excuse making and mendacious justifications for surrendering to this emerging shadow, ponder that fact. 

The Father of lies smiles

And Jesus weeps

Really:

Police chief says no evidence Nashville shooter had specific problems or issues with school

Uh huh.  Thus the warnings about a 'hate crime' mentality turn out to be true.  

Imagine if a shooter went into a transgender event with no manifesto and opened fire.  Imagine saying the shooter had no known issues with transgenders at this time. 

Imagine a white shooter going into a black church with no manifesto and opening fire.  Imagine saying the shooter had no known issues with blacks at this time.

Imagine a shooter going into a gay bar with no manifesto and opening fire.  Imagine saying the shooter had no known issues with the LGBTQ community at this time.

Imagine a shooter going into a synagogue with no manifesto and opening fire.  Imagine saying the shoot had no known issues with the Jewish community at this time. 

Imagine a shooter going into a mosque with no manifesto and opening fire.  Imagine saying the shooter had no known issues with the Muslim community at this time. 

Imagine a shooter going into a massage parlor owned by Asians with no manifesto and opening fire.  Imagine saying the shooter had no known issues with the Asian community at this time.

Imagine a Muslim going into a gay bar and opening fire because he is retaliating against the US due to our policies in the Middle East.  Imagine saying that goes to show you the problem with Christian homophobia. 

Well, that last one you don't have to imagine.  It happened.  But imagine the others.  We are a nation of lies. We love lies.  We cherish lies.  We worship lies.  We rejoice in our lies.  We live our lies.  We are our lies.  And we don't care who lives or dies because we know those lies are the capstone of our entire modern age.  

The mendacity is enough to choke a person of good will.  Bonus points for them emphasizing that no motive can be known since it doesn't appear any of the victims were specifically targeted.  As if in other cases of 'hate' crimes, it is only hate if particular individuals were known and targeted.  Again, lies.  Pure, unadulterated, sing it from the rooftops lies.  That is our most cherished value in the 21st Century. 

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  John 8.44

UPDATE: 

In case you're wondering about this just being a typical procedural approach or if it is part of a larger attempt to throw pixie dust on a story that can't go away fast enough, I give you my latest News search results:

In fairness, when I expand the results the story is there - though dropping on the listing fast.  Tell me, did the Buffalo market shooting, or the New Zealand mosque shooting, or the Charleston church shooting fall of the top of the list within a few days?  I didn't think so.  

It does no good to deny the obvious.  If we continue to do so, nothing at all will keep this from moving fast in the direction it is obviously going. 

Actually it's a stupid point Mr. Annett

 So:

The fact is, what Stein said had nothing to do with Annett's point.  Stein is trying to deconstruct the positive influence of the Gospel, as well as using the sins of Christians to dismiss the historical contributions of the Christian Faith. Contributions that were still taught as late as the 1980s when I attended a state university and learned from decidedly not-Christian professors.  That Christians may have raped teddy bears is irrelevant to the role that the Christian Gospel had in revolutionizing the world's attitude about a host of issues, including the worth of the poor, the meek and the sanctity of human life.  Mr. Annett should have reiterated that valid point. 

Instead, Mr. Annett reminds me of the type of person I don't want by my side if I have to charge into battle.  Children of the Christian West have made acquiescence, surrender, compromise, and cowering before opposition our generational trademark.  We have focused so much on the sins of our ancestors, we'd rather let Moloch eat our children than take the chance on being as horrible as those reprehensible old timers in their defense.  We see that in the tens of millions of aborted pregnancies.  We see it in the staggering suicide, homicide and drug overdose rates among our youth.  We see it as our society goes from 'nobody will ever change a minor's body' to proudly declaring the goal of changing our children's bodies - consequences be damned - and parents can head to the cornfield if they don't like it.  

All of these developments are the result of those like Mr. Annett who, when met with a clear attack on the unique heritage of our Faith and the positives of its inheritance, is happy to charge forth with white flag waving.  I don't know if it's cowardice or a lack of belief.  I just know there comes a time when what we call virtue is merely cowardice with a Jesus mask.  

It finally happened

I saw a news article about Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday events being held on Monday.  It took this long.  Well, technically, I saw it referenced yesterday on a local news show.  It was an 'about town' segment, where the energetic young reporter was showing what parents could do in the area with their kids on Monday.   He mentioned they would be out of school due to MLK Day.  Until then I forgot the day was around the corner.  

I wrote about this development last year here.  It is no accident of course.  It never was.  I don't mean it was some vast conspiracy.  I merely mean MLK in one context was used for decades in order to drive home one form of the agenda.  Now that is no longer convenient.  Therefore, we're seeing the dawn of a new narrative.

I'm not saying it hasn't been mentioned anywhere.  I can't read every article and watch ever newscast.  I'm sure it has been mentioned before now.  As I said in last year's post, however, it could have been the middle of August 20 years ago, and I would have heard MLK referenced and quoted at least three times in a week.  By December I would hear almost daily countdowns to the holiday.  Now?  I think I've heard more references to Arbor Day over the last year. 

Again, it is no accident. 

So where have I been?

Obviously blogging has dropped significantly over the last few weeks, as I said it would.  And for the reasons I said.  There are simply more things on the plate than there used to be.  That's because of changing demands of the day, growing and aging family members, and the general shifts in life.  

My wife's promotion is great, but also demands much from her.  And funny thing, but homeschooling one student, even in middle school, is tougher than homeschooling several.  I suppose because when the three were together, they could sometimes turn to each other for help or questions before appealing to mom or dad.  Now, it's him.  It's us.  Usually it's me. 

In addition to that, we're now and only now starting to work to push back the mess that came from the big 2020 floods.  Hard to believe over two years later, but with everything we were hit with over 2021 and into 2022, only now are we beginning to sort things out.  Which is odd, given everything else going on right now.  But then, that is part of what is adding to the list!  It's crazy.

Anyhoo, it will be a few before I can make too much time for the blog.  Even the fun and family posts are sitting on deck waiting to get written.  Hopefully things slow down, but even then, I'm sure they'll be filled with other projects that are also on deck.  So we'll see how things go in the near future.  Again, it's a matter of time.  It's finite.   Therefore it's a case of getting some spare time back when there is little time to spare, and then I can muse and noodle things.  

In the meantime, think The Benedict Option. I don't think Dreher's solutions are altogether spot on, but he sees the problems coming our way, more clearly than most I think.  It may not be new Benedictine communities that are the upcoming model for the remnant.  Instead, it might be the faithful as English separatists for those who aren't willing to throw the heritage of our Faith under the bus to keep up with the latest. We'll see.  Till then, God bless and TTFN. 

Gratuitous Autumn picture, just to set the mood

A one party nation

Is the goal, and there are plenty bureaucrats and ex-bureaucrats who are about making it happen:

From the files of 'Making our goals nakedly obvious.'  Just a quick post from something passed my way. 

The Left and the ruination of everything

Some say the Left ruins everything.  When I think of what it has done to the Boy Scouts, to sports, to the military, to churches, I'm inclined to agree.   But what do we expect?  Increasingly those on the Left are opening up with their Marxist, pseudo-communist leanings.  They fully reject God and the Gospel and Jesus Christ.  They declare their opposition to the Bible and the Christian values and teachings of the Faith. They make plain their desire to throw down the Christian West and the American experiment. Therefore, those who see value in the heritage of Western Christian civilization can't help but see the destruction and damage done to all areas of life this movement touches, including art and our basic values and cherished principles. 

The above clip looks to be in response to calls for the removal of Gone With the Wind that happened a couple years ago.  His dig about the hallowing and sanctifying of Presentism as the Left's prime approach to history was nice to see.  An approach universally condemned in my undergrad and graduate days, it has become the exclusive approach to studying the Western tradition over the last two decades.  I'll leave you to figure if this approach has helped or hindered the quality of our cultural output.  

Reading the signs of the times

So a school board in the Buckeye State, just down the road, has officially decided to recognize the Muslim holiday Eid.  I know this district because I taught there for my one year of teaching high school social studies. If you look on its calendar, you will see no mention of Christmas, certainly no Easter or Good Friday, or anything Christian. But recognizing an Islamic holy day by name?  You bet ya. 

Again, from the top: The Left is the enemy of God, Man, Freedom and Democracy.  It hates and seeks to destroy the heritage and values of the Christian Faith, the Christian West and the American Experiment.  To that end, anything willing to join the Left and seek the demise of its enemies is its friend. 

Likewise, any who oppose the goal - including Muslims, blacks, American Indians, women, Jews - become the enemy just the same.  No amount of ethnic slurs, racist attacks, anti-Semitic dog whistles, sexist or misogynistic attacks is too much for them.  

One of my favorite scenes

 From a movie that would never be made today:

How far we've come and how low we've sunk.  Remember, it won't be us who pay the price.  It will be the grandchildren of our grandchildren who will receive the full brunt of everything we deserve.