When the Left became all about loving Corporate Interests

So the big story isn't that obviously anyone who doesn't vote the Biden/Harris ticket is both a racist and sexist.  Nor is it the stories of left wing outlets preemptively saying the only redemption for America as a sexist, racist genocidal Nazi state is to vote Biden/Harris.  It isn't even that Biden picked a woman who painted Biden as a racist during the primaries.  

The big story is that Corporate America and multi-zillion dollar tech mega-opolies are rejoicing with great joy that Harris is the pick, since she's a sure bet to glad-hand the billionaire interests that, well, apparently the New Left loves so well. 

Here the left of Lenin outlet Vox gushes over how Harris and Silicon Valley are a love story made in liberal heaven.  Of course Tech Companies have been in the front lines of turning America into that communist inspired socialist state the Left has dreamed about.  Using the 'fake news' template, they are free to shut down any and all speech and expression tied to anything not left of center.  And don't try to scream censorship.  Once again. the Left changes the rules per convenience.  When a record store owner didn't want to carry a Madonna album, that was censorship.  When billion dollar communications industries want to ban non-leftist speech, that's never censorship.  Remember, the left cheats. 

So now we know.  The Left loves those multi-billion dollar corporate interests, and rejoices that left wing politicians will be in power to ensure those multi-billion dollar corporate interests continue to do what they've done so well - and that's help push America into that Lenin paradise they've been desiring for so many years. 

Happy VJ Day!

Yep, it's almost forgotten.  Liberals, being a Western focused brood, tend to dismiss the War in the Pacific part of WWII.  I actually have history texts on World War II that confine the entire Pacific War into a single chapter.   To us, WWII is all about the Nazi menace, because that's so easily blamed on the West, and America.  Even Pope Francis has embraced this idea that the Western Allies could have bombed a few rail lines and ended the Holocaust, but chose not to because of our racist ways.  Therefore since we can call Nazis evil, and use Nazi evil to condemn all of the West, we like the European conflict.  Heck, we even give a nod to Normandy once a year or so. 

But the Pacific War?  That gets sticky.  We all know that the US, being racist, all but forced Japan (who we grossly underestimated because racism) into attacking us, which was part of FDR's plans.  We then decided to invent the Atomic Bombs in order to kill as many Japanese babies and Japanese Catholics as we could.  Beyond that there were some aircraft carriers or something, and that's about it.  By 1945, Japan was clearly a broken and penitent nation wanting only peace, love and John Lennon songs.   But us racist Americans would have none of it.  We already had our eyes on world domination and oppression by way of our mighty Military Industrial Complex.   Using Japanese babies as guinea pigs for a show of power is just what our old American racists craved.

Or so the gist of my boys' history books seem to suggest.  All of this ignores those inconvenient non-whites who are always pests when their lived experiences don't jive with Leftist propaganda.  The fact is, one of the strange benefits we've received from China - and other Asian and Pacific Rim nations - emerging and trying to assert themselves is hearing their perspectives.

Remember, after WWII, Japan emerged as our prime, and just about only, ally in the Orient.  Never ones to spend too much time in humility and repentance, Japan was more than happy to ride the crestwave of American guilt and shame that was emerging during the Civil Rights era, and stoked by all those Soviet bots who were seeing post-war era America as their chance. 

Since Truman had plenty of enemies in our own ranks, not the least of which were Eisenhower (political) and MacArthur (personal), we seemed to have ample evidence that Japan was truly a place of peace loving humble penitents when the US decided to nuke them a couple cities.  Popular portrayals of hayseed Americans loving the fact that Truman showed them Japs a thing or two only solidified the idea that this horrible thing happened in a vacuum for no discernable reason.  

It didn't help that there really is no way to square Christian ethics with dropping a meg-bomb on a city filled with the elderly, women, children and infants.  The verdict was in, and America emerged as the bad guy, second only to those Nazis whose defeat we prefer to focus upon.

But yet, you have those emerging voices as other nations, such as Korea, Vietnam, Burma (now Myanmar), and China began to tell a different tale.  The really big break with the Japanese narrative was the emergence of the Korean Women.  At a time when feminism was riding high, their stories of systematic rape camps built by the Japanese for the sole purpose of using them as sex slaves for their soldiers sent shockwaves.  That hurt.  

That didn't only hurt, but it inspired younger Japanese to start rethinking what they had been told about the war.  I know from a girl I dated in college, who was from Japan, that Japan's take on historical events and our take were quite different.  Much of what she heard here in the States she had never heard before in Japan.  Plus, beyond such young Japanese seeking truth, the other Asian countries began to tell their tales.

It turns out, WWII begins in 1931, not 1939 like the press always says.  WWII was already going strong, and atrocities piling up, before Hitler came to power or Mussolini was humiliated in Ethiopia.  And the atrocities continued.  Well beyond the infamous Rape of Nanking, Japan's atrocities rival that of Nazi Germany, if even a restrained acceptance of the various Asian nations' perspectives is taken.  

We don't know how many millions were killed.  Japan is not nearly as repentant as Germany.  Plus, many of the places in which the atrocities happened were not occupied as Germany and its conquered territories were by the Allies.  In addition, it's tough to figure just who killed who.  Like Germany's clash with the Soviets, sometimes we have a hard time figuring out if China caused the death of so many of the millions, or if they were all Japan.

In any event, we now have a much different picture of Japan in August, 1945 than that which was promoted by Japan or critics of Truman's decision to drop the nuclear bombs.  We know that it was a terror state on par with Nazi Germany, and thousands suffering and dying daily under Japan continued to do so up until its surrender.  We also know, thanks to a robust inquiry from within its own borders, that the Japanese high command was in no way prepared to go down quietly.  An invasion and conquest and nothing less is what they were planning.  And given the horror of Okinawa, that invasion would have been one of the worst in all of human history. 

Meanwhile, just waiting Japan out or starving it out would have consigned endless tens of thousands of Japan's victims to torture and death.  Not to mention that the American presence in the area that would have been needed to starve Japan out would have stood exposed to Japan's suicide bomber mentality.  

No, from a Christian point of view, it's tough to reconcile the decision to drop atomic bombs on cities filled with children and the innocent.  Even dropped on purely military targets would be hell and gone from chivalry.  But it was hardly an evil in a vacuum.  If anything, America stands guilty, as the Christian West usually does, of sinking to the level of the world around it.  Already the death toll of World War II averaged in the hundreds upon hundreds of thousands a month.  As many died on average in a month during that conflict as were killed by both atomic bombs.  And one of the biggest causes of that death toll was not the relatively small percentage drawn from the Strategic Bombing operations, but from the Holocausts, the Eastern Front, and Japans's own reign of slaughter and terror.

It shows what happens when good people get pulled into bad things.  At some point, in this present darkness, the only way to realistically stop the bad is by joining the bad.  Perhaps the lesson isn't to condemn the US but to learn the best way to beat evil isn't to join it.  Yet despite America's slip into that, it nonetheless managed to stand higher than many countries in an age where killing by the tens of millions had become the norm. 

If nothing else, for a moment at least, that was certainly worth celebrating. 

Because Priorities

 At the end of the day, this is of little importance to our progressive society:

As opposed to controlling opposition to the Leftist state.  Now that is important.  

Plus it brings about the ugly conversation regarding sex and the fact that not all things sex are necessarily good.  And with the Sexual Revolution being the linchpin of modern liberalism, we can't have that, can we?  

Some elementary lessons on Catholic Social Teaching

If you are on record saying this: 

Then you have no business in the universe saying this: 

There are several things wrong here. A few should be obvious. But there one issue that is crucial for the Church today. 

The pro-Trump tweet is obviously being facetious and hyperbolic (the pirate part is the big giveaway).  Mark Shea, on the other hand, makes it clear that it's better to support Biden in the real life scenario where Biden actually sexually assaulted a woman.  Not got flirty or just got a bit naughty, but full blown sexual assault. 

Beyond its obvious 'here today - gone later today' approach to principles, the modern Left operates best in the abstract and the generic.  It almost breaths in the world of sweeping generalities and cliches and soundbites and bumper sticker slogans.  Much of what it says means something else, and the rest means nothing at all.  And heaven forbid you try to pin someone down.   If you cling to such a movement, you'll begin seeing the figurative as the real sin, and the real intrinsic evil and mortal sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance as a minor point of disagreement.

When it comes to a Catholic - or any Christian - approach to social teaching, such turning morality on its head and slick, serpentine cleverness has no place.  Ours is a 'let your yes be yes and no be no' Faith.  Not an 'Honest Larry the Used Car Salesman' religion. 

God bless Cannon Hinnant

Who?  Yeah, that's right.  Search vainly for a national press story covering the murder of a beautiful five year old child.   

Right now, that's the heartbreaking story.   I realize it is no problem to drive this home to its logical and evil political conclusion.  I know if unfolding events are true what can be said, what should be said, and what should be called out as the evil it is.

But that misses the point.  The point is a child is dead.  We see the side of the culture of death and its exploitation and dismissal of human suffering - even the suffering of children - according to convenience.  Le'ts not us fall into that trap.  Even now, I've said more than needs said about that subject.

Instead, let's focus on the death of a child, and hearken to a time when the nation would mourn together, the national press would tell us about this wonderful child and the life so brutally taken away.  We pray for the poor, grieving family.  We weep with them.  And we weep for ourselves, for young Cannon is safe in the lovely arms of the Holy and Loving God we know. 

May the peace of God cover the hearts and minds of his parents, family, friends and all whose lives were no doubt touched by their blessing of having Cannon for these five special years.  May the Lord lift them up, as He no doubt lifted up Cannon from this vale of tears and brought him to a more perfect place.  

There will be time to seek the truth, to seek justice, and to find out what needs said and what needs repented of.  For now, let's let our prayer rise up to the Lord and surround those who need them so much.  

God bless and keep young Cannon in your loving embrace, and let perpetual light shine upon him. 

UPDATE:  There is a funeral and vigil planed for Cannon.  This, no thanks to the national press that has almost entirely ignored his life and murder.  Some day the spirits of Germans from the 1930s will rise up and condemn our generation. 

The NFL continues to flip off its fans and America

Believing it knows the way the wind is blowing, the NFL's branch of  the new oligarchy has decided to continue flipping the bird to its base and the country in which it exists.  It can tell a dying giant when it sees one.  

The hilarious part is that it won't allow performances of the National Anthem due to Covid-19.  I have no clue what that means.  In college football, the National Anthem is typically performed by marching bands.  OK, close quarters I guess.  But in the NFL, it's typically a lone singer or performer.  How does a single performer singing in an almost empty football stadium spread Covid? 

Answer: it doesn't.  America's capitalist oligarchy has fulfilled the ancient prophecy that capitalism without Christ is no better than communism.  In fact, our beloved corporate world is becoming one of the biggest boons for America's communist inspired revolution.  And I don't just mean those rascally zillion dollar corporations either.  All around us, businesses big and small are pledging fealty to BLM, decrying our genocidal racist state and its repulsive Christian values, supporting the eradication of the Christian West, and anything not in line with the emerging Leftist State.  

I used to say you don't need to ban freedom of the press when the press willingly jumps on board with the power of the State.  Same here.  The Free Market and Capitalism cease having meaning when the benefactors of those very principles become the biggest threats to those same principles.  Who needs socialism, after all, if corporate America willingly declares itself the fourth branch of a totalitarian government? 

When will John Kasich make it official?

And join the Democrats.  Like many RINOs, he wears the robes of the GOP, but dines, parties, sleeps, baths, weeps and laughs in the home that the Donkey built.  

I've noticed when this clear and obvious point has been brought up, many point to the only clear reason for such a shift: TRUMP!  The same reason is given when others who have cleaved unto the modern/progressive way while still holding a conservative name tag are explained.  In religious circles, you might think of Southern Baptist ethics guru Russell Moore.

Here's the thing.  In many cases, their swings to the left began long before Donald Trump even threw his hat in the ring.  Moore had dumped the conservative way when the winds swung against Bush and the Conservative Coalition all but disintegrated in the disastrous 00s.  Already, by 2010, he was mocking those tired old culture warriors and their obsession with Christmas scenes.  At the same time, he was an honored guest at the Obama White House and had every reason to believe that invitation would extend to the inevitable Clinton Administration as well.

The same is true for John Kasich.  Kasich was, in fairness, known for his ability to reach across the aisle.  Plus, he's from Ohio.  Despite our zeal for the now canceled sport of football, Ohioans are generally a moderate lot.  We don't like too much fanaticism.  Kasich fit that mold well.  A conservative, he was one who helped forge that budget plan so often handed to Bill Clinton in terms of credit. 

But his swing to embrace the political left, while obvious and visible from Pluto, has nothing to do with Trump.  It has to do with his failed attempt to be a mini-me version of Scott Walker.  I think we can remember when Scott Walker stood up to the Unions back in the day, and incurred - and survived - the collective wrath of the nation's Leftist juggernaut.  

Seeing that and being a good old conservative, John Kasich tried to do the same thing here in the Buckeye State.  And it didn't work.  I don't know why and can't comment about the reasons, but when the dust settled, Kasich had a loss in his column, and was sent scurrying home with tail tucked firmly between his legs. 

Again, I don't know why he failed.  I don't know why it didn't work out with him emerging as Walker did as the great Conservative Hero.  But he didn't.  And it was shortly after that he began to swing ever so gingerly to the left of center.  From softening up and eventually supporting Gay Marriage, to beginning to critique Conservative approaches to government spending, to reaching out with a greater sympathy for a centralized welfare state as the solution to our problems, and the occasional dig at those hardcore right wing types and their obvious nastiness, Kasich was sounding more like a mini-me McCain before Trump ever went down the escalator.

Like many 'get me out of here and off to the liberal parties' brand of Never-Trumpers, I've often had the hunch Trump was merely his excuse.  But then, again, he had already begun the shift before Trump.  Trump just allowed him to make it official and wear on all sleeves his disdain for the Right, Conservatives, and all they value while cheering and celebrating almost everything left of center.  Therefore, his honored position at the DNC is about as shocking as OSU throwing football under the bus in the days of Covid-19. 

The Jesuits put out a Social Justice viewing list

Here.  'Nuff said.  

If America does become the next socialist totalitarian terror state of gulags and/or gas chambers, its flag will have a footnote at the bottom saying, "The Jesuits approved this message". 

Whenever Joe Biden talks about black Americans

 I think of nothing so much as this:

One of the Left's most brilliant coups has been to convince Americans that it's not if you work to help black Americans, or whether you love black Americans, or whatever you even think about black Americans, but it's if you vote Democrat or not that determines your racism. Sadly, many Christians and even Christian leaders appear to agree. 

RIP to my Aunt Dorth

That's short for Dorothy, obviously.  I was notified that she passed away yesterday.  I typically don't post this sort of thing because, well, I am not usually so touched by the death of a relative.  Not that it doesn't bother me when it happens, and I'm obviously sad, but most of my relatives were not known to me on more than a distant basis. 

You see, I was born over eight years after my sister.  She was the same age as, or slightly younger than, most of her cousins.  Most of my parents' families were of the WWII/Depression era.  I, on the other hand, grew up with kids whose parents were, on the whole, Baby Boomers.  I was a late arrival.

Not that I was a surprise package.  On the contrary.  My parents went eight years before they had my sister. And then my Mom lost the next child about four years later.  They desperately wanted another child and had to wait four more years.  That was great for me, not so great for my sister (who spent eight years being an only child), and more or less passed with little fanfare from the rest of the family, since most of them by that time had older children to tend to. 

As it was, I came in on the twilight of our family's heyday.  Though I can remember some instances, mostly I had to listen to stories about the glory days of all those family get-togethers, the parties into the night, the streets lined with cars, the people gathered around in standing room only festivities.  By the time I came along, the older kids were teens or moving out, my parents's and their siblings approaching their fifties or even nearing retirement.  

That's why I must admit my Aunt Dorth's death has touched me a little more than most.  Because though being eight years older than my Mom (who was the youngest in her family), they were the closest.  Mom's other sisters and brothers were much older and had their own established lives and families.  In an odd twist, Aunt Dorth had the oldest of the cousins on Mom's side, her son Randy.   Randy was as much older than the others as I was younger.  A Vietnam War vet and a marine, I think that's why we got along.  We were both on the outside of the cluster of cousins looking in. 

But beyond that, it was my Aunt Dorth who I first remember in life.  She would visit with my Grandma about once a year when I was young.  Though I knew the other relatives, she was the one who visited on a regular basis.  Partly because her marriage didn't last and it left her with time aplenty.  Plus, her and my Mom were just that close.

It was her who introduced us to 'Tacos' (that's Doritos, but back then, what did we know?).  She used to bring red, cherry flavored cough drops down by the truck load and we would eat them as if they were peanuts.  She loved cats.  And she had a goofy humor about her; an ability to break down laughing with my Mom over the craziest things.   Heck, she was so cool that she was the only one who bought me two Star Wars action figures when that was all the rage.  Despite my preference for other toy lines, I always cherished those because she bought them for me.  It being a gift, I was still as excited as any kid getting a gift from a visiting relative. 

Even though as a youngster I didn't spent much time hanging around the old folks when she and Grandma visited, it was always a fun time.  Perhaps because family didn't visit much, I enjoyed the buzz that came with them stopping by.   There was always fun and laughing and good food and good times around the corner.  

So because she is the earliest non-Mom and Dad relative I remember (beyond my late Grandma), and because she was so close to us over the years, I send this unusual post out to her.  It marks the end of an era, my Mom now being the only one left of both side of my family from her generation.  Though dementia is having its way, a good doctor and good care has slowed the progress, and we believe her being in the midst of our usual family crazy keeps her on her toes.  

But for Aunt Dorth, my prayers for her, and for my Mom, and for the rest of us who are still stuck here in this vale of tears.  Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord, and let perpetual light thine upon her.  

My youngest met her once in the nursing home, and we have a picture
But I think she would prefer this from a bygone time

The New York Times does Catholicism and Racism

And shows just how perilous the situation is for Catholics.  Once again a clear and obvious evil has risen its head, and once again Catholics flock to embrace it.  Or at least they're told they should.

Almost overnight, Racism has become the only true sin.  It would be better to rape thirty babies and not be a white racist than to save thirty babies from a burning building and it be discovered that you once dropped the N-Word in college.  I kid you not.  An exaggeration perhaps, but only an exaggeration.  Of that we can all agree.

More than that, a newly endorsed racism has qualified this as a sin applicable only to one ethnic group: Caucasians.  In a manner of saying we don't hate Jews, it's Sons of Abraham we hate, most qualify this new racism by saying it isn't Caucasians we're talking about, but Whites.  And in the usage of that term, the word White is now used entirely in a negative, pejorative manner.  

It is only Whites who can be racist, or so the modern social order insists.  A black man who pledged to murder white Americans and proceeded to kill five police officers in cold blood is not to be condoned.  But he wasn't called racist, either.  In fact, while nobody explicitly excused his cold blooded murders, they nonetheless qualified them as the result of one who has lived in this racist state filled with genetic racists who can be identified by their skin color. 

Already, Caucasian Americans are being sent to ethnic reeducation seminars, as this example from a Seattle diversity training document shows:

I ask you, does that seem to be the way Nazis talked about Jews in the 1930s?  If you say you bet it does, then you've studied your history.  The study of history, by the way, is something at least some are now beginning to question.  In fact, in a brilliant maneuver, there is a growing consensus that almost everything we ever imagined was right or true or good is, in fact, wrong.  Almost anything we can appeal to in order to suggest something isn't right about this development can be turned on its head and accused of merely being the result of "Whiteness" (think, the "Jewish problem"). 

This is far and beyond a new Jim Crow mentality or Dred Scott thinking.  This is the threshold of Nuremberg Laws mentality, almost overnight embraced and endorsed by a growing swath of our society.  It took centuries to reach the doorposts of Auschwitz.  The idea of the Whiteness Problem has emerged in merely a couple generations. 

The real spin on all of this?  It's largely being driven by good, white liberal Americans.  Though it should be noticed ethnic minorities in America, as well as nations around the world, seem to be warming up to this idea that the whole of European and Anglo-American Caucasian civilization is a blight upon the world needing eradicated, or at least beat down to where it belongs. 

How is it white American liberals can do this and yet not be culpable in their blanket condemnations?  How can they almost embrace their inherent, genetic racism and yet not suffer the logical consequences in terms of shame and guilt?  I don't know.  It's almost as if the political Left has become their god, and the gospel of liberalism that which alone can save.  Having been cleansed by the one, true saving gospel of liberalism, they can now proclaim the inherent evil of their own demographic knowing that whatever ramifications come of their guilt, those ramifications will not impact them. I"m just not sure.  One thing is for sure, it's certainly not belief and trust in Jesus Christ that cleanses you.  I know that from the easy assumption that Caucasian Christians who fail to see the issue in the leftist way are racist, their relationship to Christ being entirely irrelevant. 

Nonetheless, whatever the reasons or causes, it's racism, evil, unchristian, ungodly, and altogether so flagrantly the stuff of Satan that you wouldn't think we'd fall for it again a mere century after the last time.  And yet, look how many are stumbling over themselves to say this is the only way to address the broad and universal problems of humanity that have at times manifested themselves in the form of racism, prejudice, discrimination and even slavery.   Look how many Catholic leaders are falling over themselves to put a stamp of approval on this.  Look how many Chieftains in general. 

It's as if overnight the new Chancellor was selected and everyone realized resistance was futile.  Sure, racism exists in America, and has been a problem, as it does exist around the world and always has.  You need only see how some young black Americans speak about white Americans to realize it's an attitude that goes beyond ethnic boundaries.  Heck, listen to how some blacks speak about Muslims, or Hispanics, or how some Hispanics speak of black Americans or Asians.  There are always problems in the human race to fix, and racism and discrimination are hardly unique among them.

We've simply allowed the rules of human history to be rewritten, however, and the very laws of God to be jettisoned and thrown out the window in order to take this worst of all responses to the sin of racism and sanctify it by our lack of vision.  Will the Catholic leadership pull out of this one and bail out in time?  Or will future generations look back when even Catholic clergy admitted that Jesus was far happier to see people with some skin colors as opposed to other skin colors?  Who knows.  We'll have to see I guess. 

Senator Cruz is right about Oprah's racism

In which a multi-billionaire tries to convince us the real disparity in our country is between us little people and our skin colors, and not us little people and certain millionaires and billionaires.  

If you’re speaking of an ethnicity with the same attitude that Germans displayed toward Jews in the 1930s, that’s racist plain and simple.

More than that, it continues to validate my second son's theory that we are engaged in a class war disguised as a race war. 

The Biden problem for Democrats

Is Biden.  His latest gaffe is one in a long line of statements that lends credibility to the growing belief that Democrats take black Americans for granted.  Worse, it could make people wonder if Democrats as much (if not more) than anyone have truly racist attitudes toward the black community. 

Biden's statements that embrace sweeping stereotypes of the black community have been unpacked before.  We needn't rehash those.  In fact, the only thing shocking about his latest statement regarding the supposed lack of diversity within the black community is that it isn't really shocking.  Not to anyone who has watched Biden over the years. 

In the 1960s, after failing to stop the Civil Rights movement, the Democratic party adopted a new strategy.  The WASP strategy.  That is, take those old attitudes about black America and replace them with 'WASP' (that's White Anglo Saxon Protestant) America.  I remember well sitting in fourth grade social studies and learning about those dark days in American history when our country was dominated by those rascally WASPs. That would have been around 1976/1977.  So already, in barely a decade, we had adopted the idea of who it is Americans should really despise.  And it was a broad enough umbrella that all types of Americans could fit under the 'oppressed by WASPs' label (I'm looking at you Catholics).

Meanwhile, almost overnight the entire black community jumped on board the Democrat bandwagon.  By the end of the 1970s, the black community could be counted on to almost always support the Democrats.  When I was majoring in Political Science in 1986, it was so flagrant that a Democratic candidate whose campaign I was working with quipped that if the Democrats nominated Hitler, 90% of blacks would refuse to vote, since they would never vote for Hitler.  That is, no matter what, they still wouldn't vote for a GOP candidate.  And that was about two decades after the Democratic Party's failed attempts to stop the Civil Rights movement.

Nonetheless, in recent years some black Americans have begun to wonder just what their investment in total fealty to the Democratic Party has yielded.  They've noticed that most of these horrible cases of cops killing unarmed blacks happen in Democratic regions.  They've noticed that the ongoing squalor, poverty, drugs, crime and dependency typically exists within cities that have been held by Democrats for generations.  They've noticed, like some religious conservatives noticed about establishment Republicans, that there is a lot of talk about what the  Democrats will do for blacks, usually around election time, but years later little has changed.  And worse, they've begun to wonder if the Democrats are just taking them for granted. 

That's why Biden's continued 'you see one black, you've seen them all' flubs are so devastating.  Clearly there is something in the back of Biden's mind that he can't help but let slip.  It's not hard to imagine that if he was a Republican, the universal consensus would be that these statements prove his racism, and his taking the black community for granted.  He can only continue to clarify what he consistently says for so long before even those who are most passionately sympathetic to his campaign begin to wonder.   And worse, it could start getting people to begin wondering about not just Biden, but about Democrats in general, and all those good, white liberals who insist they're the brave heroes rushing in to save the hapless black Americans from their real enemies over there.  

Another reason to hate cheerleaders

For a position every girl was always measured against, there have been few things you could do that brought more ridicule and lampooning than being a cheerleader.  How many movies and television shows have mocked and laughed at cheerleaders for being vain, shallow, stupid and pompous over the years?

Well, happy is it to live in American in the 21st Century!  We have a new reason to hate on cheerleaders!  At least cheerleaders in the South.  At least white cheerleaders in the South.  At least white Cheerleaders in the South who took a picture saying they loved Redneck boys with a confederate flag.  I mean, outrage has already ensued over the school not promptly throwing them off the team like they deserve.

That's called a tolerant, diverse and enlightened society by the way.

On that train of thought, has anyone noticed that the national press has not even bothered to analyze the Black Lives Movement and its claims?   Has anyone else noticed that the press in almost 100% agreement, has promoted, lauded, praised and endorsed the whole BLM and its claims?  I mean, they aren't even trying to be unbiased in this.  They are almost the marketing agency for the Left at this point.  They aren't even pretending to look into its claims.  As far as I know, there hasn't been a single news outlet to even bother with an alternative viewpoint.  

You'd have been better off celebrating communism in the 1950s than saying Black Lives Matter isn't truer than the Gospel.  And with that angular mandate, almost everyone - entertainment, sports, businesses, education, religion, even people's homes - are increasingly called upon to approach the altar and lay down the appropriate sacrifice. 

BTW the offending picture and the BLM agent seeking their eradication from the sporting program:

Not to nitpick, but I count at least six cheerleaders.  Is it only four because it is four who touched the unclean thing, or is there another reason only four are being singled out?  Curiosity on my part. 

The Feast of the Transfiguration

A nice reflection from Frank Sheed's To Know Christ Jesus, courtesy of The Catholic World Report. 

Another good set of readings from the always conveniently designed website for all things Catholic, Fish Eaters.  

Prayers for the victims of the Beirut explosion

By now, you've probably heard of the horrific explosion in Beirut.  It seems as though already a hundred victims have died, and hundreds more have been injured.  Some of those injuries are probably life threatening.  

The cause of the explosion is up for grabs, but it doesn't matter now.  This is when the humanity side of us kicks in and we offer prayers and thoughts and anything we could do on this level, simply that God will reach down and comfort those who are mourning, and embrace those who have lost everything this day. 

It's also a reminder of just how fragile we are.  No matter what the cause, nobody there imagined this would be their last day.  Nobody left home today imagining this.  Are days are like the grass after all.  We are dust.  We are here on borrowed time, and it's only God who knows when we will take our last breath.  

So God grant that peace that surpasses all understanding to those lost, those suffering, and those who will live with the grief and horror of what has passed.  And help us all not to squander a moment of the life you have given. 

The Health and Wealth gospel, Liberal style

Ah yes, the Health and Wealth gospel.  We know it well.  And sometimes we know it by other names too.  You've heard them: Health and Wealth, or Name It and Claim It, or Blab It and Grab It.   The style is well known, and generally exists within Protestant circles, off the branch loosely designated Evangelicalism.  It's characteristics are a somewhat fundamentalist, literalist interpretation of the Scriptures, with a healthy dose of modern worldly priorities, like money, wealth, success, big cars, bigger houses, or smaller houses but a life fulfilled by being fulfilled and thinking well of yourself for having a fulfilled life.  To that end, God exists to make sure this happens.   In some ways, Rick Warren't A Purpose Driven Life was simply a more theologically grounded example of this, whereby the star of the book is still me, and the end result of things is my life having purpose.

Which is really the big heresy of the movement. God is reduced to more or less a grand, cosmic Santa Clause, who wants us to be really super-happy, and will do whatever it takes for us to be happy.  Oh to be sure, no H&W preacher would condone greed or corruption or narcissism or selfishness.  Not that they will call out such things by name (unless socially acceptable to do so).  They will simply insist that our fulfillment it best served by a happy, feel good life, and God's just the god to make it happen.  Think Smilin' Joel Olsteen.

Now, anyone who had more than basic Christian Theology 101 can see the glaring flaws in this.  This is a not an approach to Christianity that works well with Matthew 9.23-24.  Not that they would deny that.  They would, again, merely see taking up one's cross as a means to an end, and that end being a happy and fulfilled life now.

Because of its popularity, especially in America, this approach has come under some  heavy fire.  I had people in my churches that lapped this sort of thing up with a spoon.  They didn't always take kindly to those who suggested that God didn't create everything in order for me to have an awesome life defined by the latest definitions of awesome.  Many more conservative and traditional - and in recent years, post-conservative - Evangelicals and Protestants spent more than a few trees writing screeds against this perversion of the Gospel of the poor and meek.   We won't even get into how those more liberal and progressive Christians have manhandled the H&W approach to Jesus.

But here's another consideration to kick around.  In looking back at my sojourn with Protestantism, and the fairly large number of progressive minded Christian leaders I rubbed shoulders with, it dawned on me that, in many ways, most of liberal Christianity is simply a variation on the H&W mindset, from a  different angle.

Years ago I served as an associate on the staff of a large, flagship church within the state convention (that's like an Evangelical diocese).   The senior pastor was someone I did admire.   He was no friend of the Al Mohler revolution.  It was also clear that his political leanings swerved left of the center lane.  Nonetheless, I found him insightful, honest and generally a good guy.

So it came as a shock when the subject of abortion came about in a class he was teaching. Since he was the father of two daughters (or was it three?), someone brought the issue of abortion up to him and where he would stand as a dad.  He answered truthfully, as he was wont to do.  He said that if one of his daughters got pregnant, he would support - perhaps even encourage - an abortion since why should she have her life and all its plans and potential derailed by an unwanted pregnancy?

Wow.  I mean, wow.  Note there was no poor, starving girl driven to abortion for food in the equation.  There was no talk of rape or anything where sexist, abusive misogynists were concerned.  His answer echoed what most girls I knew in college said about abortion: I want to be able to jump on any Tom and Harry's you-know-what and still have what I want in life, and that's success, career and a life of happy fulfillment. He didn't even pretend to wrap it up in that small percentage of abortion cases that dominate 99% of the abortion debate.  He said why should anything stand in the way of his daughters having the good life as they define it?

Now, I ask you.  How is that less "Health and Wealth" than anything Creflo Dollar would preach?  How is that any less 'it's all about your life being awesome based on your own desires' than anything Tammy Faye would say to the cameras?  Why is that any different than Joel Olsteen celebrating the Babe born in a manger from his yacht and upper class life style?

Indeed, how many progressive Christians - even Catholics - echo the same thing, but from a different vantage point?  You've heard them.  Why shouldn't people on food stamps, even if it's because of the life they have chosen, not be able to have their share of steak and caviar?  Why shouldn't I be able to have sex with who I desire?   If a woman gets pregnant, and given the horrible injustices and sexism of our patriarchal, misogynist culture, why shouldn't we assume they make the unfortunate, but completely logical, choice of aborting their babies rather than not have sex?  Heck, why shouldn't women be able to put themselves and their interests first above all other priorities?  In short, why shouldn't I be able to have my cake, eat it to, and let others do the dishes?  In other words, a life of awesome fulfillment based upon my particular definition of worldly awesome. 

How are any of those any less 'Name it and Claim It' than that old H&W gospel we all love to hate?  In fact, so many of those on the Left who are quick to blast someone like Jim Baker, or modern Smilin' Joel, stand idly by when Christians on the left side of the aisle convey the same message where sex, narcissism, abortion, and other more fleshly pursuits reign supreme.  They might miss the fact that the same mentality - it's really about the here and now more than the hereafter - pervades progressive Christianity every bit as much, if not more, than it does those limo riding, yacht sailing H&W ministers and their flocks.

It should also help us realize that for all the contempt and loathing those on the Left have for Olsteenanity, much - if not most - of modern, liberal Christianity is based on the idea that my life is what it's about, and we'll merely have to modify the Gospel to make sure it happens my way.   Because, in the end, for all of its posturing, liberal Christianity is no better suited to Matthew 9.23-24 than their more flagrant, and noticeable, Health and Wealth counterparts at a mega-church.

Yep

Why anyone would vote for Donald Trump

This:

Yep. Add to that gathering in large numbers for funerals and protesting in vast numbers when the end goal is glorification of the Leftist State.  

We live in an age where there is a flagrant hypocrisy and almost open contempt for millions of American serfs that is being displayed by our upper classes.  Trump has exposed some of it, though he himself exists among it.  Just what it will lead to is beyond my guessing.  But unless we want to go the way of the 20th century totalitarian states, we had best think about what we'er going to do and do it pronto. 

The face of the modern abortion movement

Here:

God bless and save her.  This is the side that New Prolife Catholics and Christians have all but allied with.  This is the side they say has no choice but to make the unfortunate, but completely understandable, decision to have an abortion,  Since, apparently, they accept the modern Sexual Revolution dogma that, unlike oxygen, food and water, people must have sex to live.  After all, suggesting women not indulge in the Sex culture seems never to be an option.  Plus, like anything today, depending on who you are, your sins are most definitely the fault of others who made you sin.  So the modern confessional will hear variations on 'bless me Father, for those reprehensible reprobates and evil economic policies made me sin.'

Additionally, most New Prolife Christians accept as near dogma the talking points of pro-abortion activists.  They regurgitate such slanders as pro-life advocates not caring about the poor, or doing nothing to help young mothers, or pro-life activists providing no support for expecting women.  All of which are false accusations.  I've seen nothing to suggest people opposed to abortion are any less inclined to do those things than those who support abortion.  The same goes for charity among conservatives versus liberals, but that's for another post.

In addition to these capitulations, another common narrative for the good New Prolife Christian (or Seamless Garment Catholic) is that women do not desire abortion.  They don't want it.  In fact, they'll go so far as to talk in absolutes and say no woman would ever want an abortion.  This is denial almost to the 'what camps in the German woods?' level.

The culture of death is a hungry god, and seeks more sacrifices on its altar, and we're serving them up in ways that would shame the Aztecs on a good day.  To that end, it has successfully met the growing skittishness toward abortion that younger Americans are developing with encouraging others to celebrate and praise the glories of aborted babies and all things abortion.  Be proud of your abortion!  Or so goes the new marketing campaign for Murder, Inc, as it was once referred to by Catholics across the Catholic blogosphere.

So while there is good news - though scant and heavily qualified - on the war against the modern infanticide that STEM built, there is heavy push back.  Those New Prolife Catholics and Christians aligned with this heresy, wrapped in a blasphemy, promising slaughter for debauchery, and delivering only tyranny and the outward persecution of Christ's Church, cannot continue to don blinders for the cause.  Continuing to say no woman wants abortions or celebrates an abortion culture isn't just denying camps in the German woods.  It's denying the camps five years after they were liberated.