Speaking of Fred Phelps discussing gay rights

I saw this Twitter thread from Fr. James Martin regarding vaccines:  

You can feel the contempt and refusal to listen.  That Fr. Martin seems to adopt the 'Science is 100% right 100% of the time' principle also appears clear.  Which is odd.  I don't expect science to always be right.  I know it's been shocking for people to watch the scientific community 'make the sausage' when it comes to Covid.  The scientific community has been wrong about many things since this virus first popped on the scene.  Yet our modern sloganeering about science, which is based on anything but science, has given people a false sense of what actual science is all about.  And it ain't about always being 100% right 100% of the time. 

Of course those who choose to be vaccinated, or wear masks, or social distance, or stay home are fine with me. I completely understand and I support their right to take care of themselves as they see fit.  But we now know that you can get Covid even when vaccinated, and you can spread Covid even when vaccinated,  especially with Omicron.  And based upon one report where 167 fully vaccinated and 157 unvaccinated were in the ICU due to Covid, it's appears the old 'plague of the unvaccinated' slogan might be dead on arrival. As have so many claims made since the beginning of the Covid era. 

Therefore the decision to vaccinate is increasingly a decision for yourself and yourself alone.  To deny the obvious means you're only willing to deny the obvious, not 'follow the science'. And that makes me wonder how concerned you really are about the science, or vaccines, or even the people involved. 

Whatever the case, I'm glad he's not our priest.  I don't think I knew a Protestant fundamentalist pastor with such contempt for those in his church who wouldn't agree with him.  I wonder if that's what Pope Francis is thinking when he calls out fundamentalism. Nah. 

On the other hand, there is always hope:

Hardcore vaccine proponent Deacon Greydanus draws the line at dancing on the graves of the unvaccinated.  The call to whip it out and piss all over dead people who dared question the latest infallible science gets a Barthian Nein!  

I would have liked it if Deacon Greydanus actually admitted that some of the advocates for his side can be pretty wretched to the core.  After all, I notice how easy it is for some to find a single case of crazy opposition to the vaccines and use it to paint everyone who questions the vaccines the same color. 

Nonetheless, I'll take it.  Proud of Deacon Greydanus for calling out wretched, especially when it's someone clearly on his side.  Even if he doesn't go to great lengths to portray it that way. 

Like asking Fred Phelps to discuss gay rights

As I've said a thousand times, we Protestants had people like Fred Phelps. Sad but true.  But even the most hardcore fundamentalists I knew wouldn't get near Phelps with a 10' pole. 

Yet Mark is frequently picked as a contributor to, or speaker at, Catholic publications, Catholic podcasts, Catholic seminars, Catholic parishes and Catholic colleges and schools.  See the difference?  That's one point for Protestant discernment. 

UPDATE: As if to demonstrate, I saw this link where Mark goes after his favorite undesirables, the white conservative Christian with white skin, preferably of the male variety.  Nothing really to bother with, any more than I would go to Westboro Baptist and try to reason with them.  It's enough to make people aware and then move on.  There are some people who are beyond reach on this side of heaven.  All that's left to do is prayer and fasting.  

The stories our news media should be covering

 

Yep.  As soon as I saw the headline I knew the story was a must-read.   

Speaking of MLK

I was shown this:

The quotes in question are here:

First, could Deacon Greydanus point me to a recent time in which he's referenced whites as an ethnic group in a non-negative, non-pejorative, non-judgmental way?  I'm not thinking of any, though I don't follow everything he writes.  If he can't, then that, good deacon, is racism.  Even if it's against your own race. 

Anyway, speaking of racism, notice the lead in to the series of quotes.  Us white folks don't ever talk about these quotes because, well, us white folks. So let's unpack them. 

First quote?  I've seen that before.  I can't account for the skin color of those who have quoted it, but I'll assume there's a chance some of them are white. I am, and I've seen it more than once over the years. So nope, that one is known and quoted. 

Second quote? Oh yeah.  I 've seen that many, many times.  Usually it's quoted in the context of "the only thing necessary for evil" discussions.  I've seen it recently, quoted by conservatives watching the modern assault on democracy and freedom and life.  So sorry, that's a common one. 

Third quote? Nope, you got me there.  That's the first time I've heard of the hellhound quote.  So there's one.  Not sure if it's because of white people being white, but haven't heard it until now.  Or if I did read it, it didn't stick.

Fourth quote?  I've heard this one, but not often.  But it's not white people being white.  It's those who have tried to make MLK into the peace loving non-violent love child who Jesus should have been.  Like Attenborough's Gandhi, he was the man who was never about violence.  Violence, after all, was never, ever the answer (pre-2020 America).  And if mister peace, love and John Lennon songs himself was advocating riots (which are essentially using or threatening violence, assaults, destruction and even terror for a cause), this quote doesn't help.  Hence why I've heard it, but not often (until recently, especially after 2020, I should add)

Last quote?  Yeah, I've heard it.  Not often, since 1) it seems to touch on economics, and 2) it could be seen as a somewhat pro-not-Capitalist private ownership quote.  Given the charge that MLK was a communist agent by some detractors back in the day, I can see this one not flying.  Truth be told, I probably heard it more on leftwing Catholic sites than anywhere.

So that's that.  Most of those listed are quoted, even by white people who spend most of their days being white.  With the exception of hellhound discrimination, if I haven't heard much of them, there is a reason.  And it isn't because of whites being uncomfortable as much as the quotes being avoided by those trying to present MLK in a prepackaged image of convenience.  

So there you go.  FWIW, aside from a few conservatives and conservative outlets I know, there is one quote that was conspicuously absent yesterday in all the news and social media outlets I saw:

I wonder why. That, to me, is the interesting omission.  It also helps to answer this question:

My third oldest son has an observation that I adore.  If you think you would have been one of the brave heroes of history standing up to the evils of the age, there's a 95% chance you're wrong.  Would I have marched?  Probably not.  I'm not doing much to stop what's happening now.  

But if you embrace the modern racism, the racism against whites, the judging of a 12 year old girl as having privilege because of her skin color no matter her station in life, then there is a 99.99% chance you wouldn't have marched.  In fact, there's an overwhelming chance you would have unleashed the fire hoses if you had the chance. 

I didn't become Catholic for this

My wife's employee diversity training was more religious than this

When we entered the Church in 2006, the torch had already passed to a new generation of Catholics.  As I've said many times, this was not that fundamentalist Scott Hahn's Catholic Church.  These were the Boomers.  The post-Vatican II gang.  Oh, they may have been born before Vatican II, but already the Church was being led by those who would take it through the Vatican II reforms.  

But more than Vatican II Catholics, they're post WWII liberal culture Christians.  That is, Christianity  is a right fine belief, but no better than all the other beliefs.  After all, all religious beliefs were just made up by ancient humans.  As my son's Mythology 222 class demonstrated, the Bible, the Iliad and the Aeneid are about the same in terms of myth and fantasy.  

These Catholics looked at our testimony and more or less scratched their heads.  Sometimes you could almost see the puzzlement in their eyes.  Lost your friends and colleagues, investment accounts and retirement funds, and came into the Church with no professional prospects ... just to become Catholic?  Why that was a strange thing to do!  The welcome mat that awaited the Hahn generation of clergy converts had long gone the way of the dodo bird. 

Shortly after becoming pope, Pope Francis met with Protestant leaders and echoed the same attitude.  Stay where you are and get to God in your own lovely traditions.  That's when my boys concluded ol'Dad had screwed up royally.  There we were, me a pastor, wife a teacher in a private school, kids with one of us at any given time, yearly vacations and time together and a nice close life centered around church and family.  Then BAM!  Out the windows,  after school care, scraping by, ramen noodles and rice for dinner, vacations confined to the local park, picking which bills to pay in a month, and all to enter the Catholic Church.  The same Catholic Church whose members and leaders made it clear that it was the strangest thing we ever could have done.  Clearly dad isn't the one to trust in such things. 

That's when we went to the Orthodox Church.  At least there the Orthodox still subscribe to the idea that Orthodoxy is the true Church, and those who make the journey, if they do for the right reasons, are absolutely right to do so.  Actual sermons on heaven and hell, on sin and holiness, and on the necessity of remaining in God's proper church showed my boys that the "Catholicism is our meat, but any meat is fine" shtick was not a universal attitude in modern Christianity, even if it was the majority opinion they encountered in our parish. 

Because of many reasons, I couldn't reconcile with Orthodoxy as a Christian home, though I appreciate the life preserver they were for us.  Therefore when our old Catholic parish brought a firebrand priest from Africa who was more than prepared to call sin sin, and the Catholic Church the True Church, we returned. 

Sadly, we came back just as Covid hit.  A year later, he was gone.  No clue why.  He showed up one Sunday, said Monday he was no longer our priest, and perhaps he might see some of us in heaven someday.  That was that.  To this day nobody has told us what happened.  I do know his fire and brimstone insistence on the truths of the Catholic Faith rubbed some the wrong way, and he was in for some heavy criticisms in the time we were there.

Be that as it may, we remained because I'm still convinced that the Catholic Church, more than any other tradition, is the right tradition.  Obviously that is minority opinion today, and not one that appears to be held by our bishops, many of our leaders, or even our pope.  It certainly isn't the attitude of many, if not most, modern Catholics.  Some even seem offended at the idea that Catholicism has any unique value that can't be found in a thousand different beliefs. 

Nonetheless, at my age, it's time to settle in for the final curtain.  Our financial fate was sealed when the economy collapsed in 2008 and we found ourselves under a bishop who would rather see the Church sink into the 7th level of Hell than see a former Protestant minister so much as scrub toilets in the diocese. Since then, it's been Indiana Jones one step ahead of the boulder.  As I joke with people we know, my retirement plan is to grab my chest at 65 and do a Fred Sanford. 

But we did all that to become Catholic because, again, I believe it is true. And not just true, but also non-optional. No, I don't think every non-Catholic in the world will burn.  But I don't think the belief that not every non-Catholic will burn means anyone can be anything and not burn.  

Just because I know not everyone who smokes will die of cancer or heart disease doesn't mean I hand out cigarettes and tell everyone to light up.  Something I don't feel our bishops, leaders or pope think.  I think for them, it's far more important that everyone at the best parties think they're cool for handing out the cigarettes, rather than take a firm stand on the need to stop smoking.  Whatever that might mean in terms of people's health. 

What the heck?

 I mean, this:

Wait.  So a Muslim British national comes to America in December, according to press reports.  He promptly goes within a couple weeks to a local synagogue.  He holds several members of the synagogue hostage.  He does so in order to free another Islamic extremist.  

And this shows anything about anti-Semitism in America how?   I swear if three Mongolians gang raped a Nigerian girl in Argentina, the leftwing press would make it about the history of racism in America.  

It is rage inducing to the extreme.  It doesn't help that the ADL seems to be the one floating this.  There are times when I appreciate the Orthodox for some things I learned while sojourning with them.  One is that owing to the complex history of Christianity in the Middle East, they don't suffer from "Holocaust Guilt" the way we do in the West.   

Believe it or not, there were times when Jewish leaders of various communities conspired to give as good as they got to the Christian population.  Sure, the Christians did the same, and both sadly have blood on their hands.  But through the long centuries, it wasn't always as lopsided as it was in the history of Jewish communities in Western Europe.  

Therefore, if they feel Israel, or Jewish individuals in general, have crossed the line they'll say so.  Yes, they mourn the anti-Semitism in their own past, but because Orthodox Christianity's history is not the same as Western Christianity's (most of it was as second class citizens under Islamic rule), it's different.  They don't forget that more than a few Christian slaves sold to Muslims came by way of Jewish traders.  Something we learned in college, but my sons have never heard about except from the textbooks I possess. 

Here in the West, we may rage against the press.  We may rage against the Left.  But no matter what, we'll shrink and cower and look the other way when anyone Jewish plays the same games.  Guilt can be a cleansing thing.  It can also be an emasculating one. 

And suddenly nobody cares about Martin Luther King

Or so you'd think.  I'd forgotten that this weekend was MLK weekend until it was mentioned on the local weather report.  It's been a long time since I've heard MLK mentioned or quoted.  I know President Biden referenced him in his 'enemies of the state' speech.  But that's one of the few times I've noticed him mentioned in recent months.  Ten years ago I knew three months in advance how many days it was until MLK Day. 

This is quite a development.  It was the late 1970s that schools were compelled to give the day off, even before it became an observed federal holiday.  I remember that well.  States that didn't go along with recognizing the day were protested and boycotted.  Economic boycotts in some cases.  Walk outs by black students.  Until they agreed and recognized it.  

In our school district, they handled it by making us go on Presidents Day and giving MLK off for a couple years until they could adjust the calendars.  My mom, a former Civil Rights Movement supporter, was upset about that, as were others.  But it was part of the movement to make MLK into America's default hero.

By the 1990s, I began to call him our proxy Jesus.  Since by then mentioning Jesus in mixed company was no longer proper, MLK became a fine alternative.  Plus by then you had several books and documentaries lifting him up to almost godlike saint status. 

I remember an episode of The Cosby Show that touched on the holiday.  I forget the storyline.  But the climax of the show centered on the Huxtables watching The Speech on television.  The whole family gathered to watch.  Suddenly halos appeared and a divine light emerged from the television screen as angels gathered to sing holy praises.  I exaggerate of course, but it was that level of hagiographic adoration and worship of the event that was emerging across our country.  The Speech was quickly becoming the single great moment in our nation's history. 

When I entered ministry, it was nothing to hear MLK be the most quoted individual in a given sermon.  That was especially true among my African American colleagues.  But even white ministers could be heard quoting and referencing MLK more than anyone else, save perhaps Jesus.  

When my sons went to public school in the 00s, MLK season was that, a season.  Before the Winter Break, they would begin preparing for the really big celebration of MLK Day.  January was the crescendo, but it extended through February owing to Black History Month.  Plays and programs, special assignments, movies and specials - it was ten times more than Christmas ever was when I was in school.

By the time I was moving to become Catholic, I remember saying not a week went by that I wouldn't hear MLK referenced at least a half dozen times.  You couldn't encounter a news article or editorial, or a sermon or an interview, or a documentary or speech, without hearing MLK both referenced and quoted.  When I was still part of a ministry conference, I said I didn't get into the whole MLK day brouhaha.  You'd think I denied God's existence.  

And then suddenly, BAM!  It started before 2020, but since 2020 he's almost fallen off the edge of the world.  I literally go months now and never hear MLK mentioned.  In fact, the only real mention I've seen of him before last week was when Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of the laughably anti-American 1609 Project, insisted MLK never wanted a nation where we didn't judge based on skin color. 

Which might be the problem. What the Left is doing in its move to destroy the West and America is to reinstate racism and racial discrimination and segregation.  White Privilege, Systemic Racism, BLM rely on the idea that you absolutely should judge based on skin color.  After all, how did we know racism had anything to do with George Floyd but by racially profiling the police officer in question, and judging based on his skin color?  How do we know someone has White Privilege but by judging their skin color? 

The whole trick is to use whiteness the same way Germans in the 1930s used Jewishness.  The idea that the white race is a pox on humanity, and anything you don't like or want can be blamed on white racism and dispensed with accordingly (including such laughable ideas as equality, liberty, freedom, sanctity of life, and even democracy), is predicated upon judging and condemning based on skin color and ethnicity.  

And when racial discrimination and prejudice are so essential, you can't be lifting up some crazy looney adulterer (which has been pointed out quite frequently I've noticed) running around saying we need to judge content of character and stop judging based on color of the skin.  Hence why I had forgotten about this weekend until our dear weather person dropped the name.  I've seen a few things mentioned since.  But nothing - not a damn thing close - to what it used to be.  

Welcome to Orwellian America.  Another unperson for your lost files. 

President Biden gives me a choice

Will I consider myself a racist enemy of the State, or will I support President Biden's voting regulations overhaul?  With choices like that, I think I'll take Mussolini.  Whether Trump or Biden or Obama, I have never cared for politicians who give me the choice to be stupid or evil, or give them what they want.  That's too close to dictatorial thinking in my opinion. 

For what it's worth, it appears the President's attempts to act as if the last 100 years of progress for blacks hasn't happened has gone over like a lead balloon.  When you're a Democrat and even Joe Scarborough and - get this - Rev. Al Sharpton say you overplayed your hand where racism is concerned, you stepped in a big pile my friend. 

Why I didn't support Trump

 Very simple:

Of course it's about Trump personally saving the world with the vaccines that he all but singlehandedly invented.  Beautiful vaccines.  Wonderful vaccines.  He did that.  It was all him. And woe betide those who dare to suggest otherwise. 

The good deacon Steven Greydanus is fine with this, since he, too, puts all hope for deliverance in the efficacy and infallibility of the vaccines - despite all failures and shortcomings of the vaccines that he never mentions.  Because Trump's usual over-the-top rhetoric and attacks are aimed at those who disagree with the Vaccine as God narrative, Deacon Greydanus happily gives Trump a thumbs up. 

This is why I had a hard time supporting Trump.  Trump consistently made it clear that there are two kinds of people in the world - those who sit at his feet and sing his praises, and his enemies at the moment.  If I wanted that, I'd vote for Mussolini.  

Yes, Trump made good improvements in America until the pandemic hit  But the pandemic showed what happens when you have a unprincipled leader who happens to be effective, versus an effective and principled leader.  I remember well even his most passionate supporters cringing in 2020 as Trump would decry something like government overreach during the pandemic one day, and the next day act as if we must prepare to submit to government overreach or #stupid people.  

Perhaps things would be better nowadays had Trump won.  I have a hard time believing they could be any worse and America still exist.  Nonetheless, Trump also taught me that things I cherish would be better only so long as being better benefited Trump's demands for eternal obedience and adoration.  Whatever principles he appeared to have today could easily be thrown out the window tomorrow.  And if you failed to turn and go along with him, well, see his contempt for gutless losers who fail to submit themselves to Trump's beautiful vaccine, and the government demands for submission thereof. 

What our doctor's office said

When I was in 8th grade, I had my 'BB Gun' Christmas when I received my much asked for Atari game system with Space Invaders.  My best friend came over, as he did every Christmas until I moved to Florida, to spend hours zapping pixels on a new color television set.  

Shortly before he left, I began to feel a bit off.  Soon I felt hot, and my body was aching.  When he went home, I began to cough and feel sick.  By that Christmas evening, my fever had passed 104 degrees.  All I could do was lay on the couch and hope to die.  My parents, Depression Era though they were, nonetheless felt something should be done.

So my dad called our family doctor.  His call went to the doctor's home since the offices were closed for Christmas - the biggest home in town (a gorgeous Tudor on about a dozen acres of beautiful landscaping).  He answered, and said he would call in a special prescription to our local pharmacy.  Ol'Tom, who owned the pharmacy, would go into the store and fill it for him, and he could  pick it up in about an hour.  Which he did.  Dad got the meds that night and apparently it worked because here I am telling the tale.

I write this to contrast our medical care experience then with what we have experienced since getting hit with Covid.  Like so many things, it's a tale from a world and a nation long since passed.  Here is what has happened to us now.

For two weeks we've not heard back from our doctor.  Our actual doctor is a new dad, and is basking in the light of our modern month long maternity leave for both parents.  Apparently there were no contingencies for the possible loss of one of the doctors in the office.  The office is with OhioHealth.    

The big problem we still have is a lingering cough, which is annoying for those who have it, but worrisome for my mom.  At 91, we don't want a lingering cough to go into bronchitis or worse.  But we can't give her most cough medicines because they appear to cause her blood pressure to spike.  The weaker ones the pharmacist recommended don't seem to help. 

We have messaged and called for almost two weeks asking for advice and if there is possibly a prescription medication that could help her beat this cough, keep it from worsening, but not cause her blood pressure to skyrocket.  After about the seventh call in a week and a half, I received the below message and an explanation from the receptionist that the doctors just don't have time in the day to deal with all the requests.   

Apparently the doctors practice medicine during banking hours.  Five o'clock, time to go.  We'll see if we'll get around to you in the morning.  Or not.  I pointed out to the receptionist that the benefit of being a doctor is living a life of luxury and wealth, living in nice homes, sending your kids to the best universities, taking trips to Europe for fun.  The pay back is that doctors are supposed to be there 24/7 for our health's sake, since most people don't have the good sense to only need medical care M-F, 9-5.  If they haven't gotten to all the urgent health concerns of their patients by 5:00, then they need to stay until 5:30, 6:00, 9:00 or whenever is needed.   

Well, it's been two more days and still nothing.  No televisit options, prescription advice, or anything.   FWIW, below is the message we were sent in response to our pleas for guidance and assistance.  For our part we're improvising the best we can with lots of prayer.  Thank goodness our country isn't what it was when I had the flu in 1980.  

"We can't do this without you.

Our staff works hard to make sure you and your family receive the quality care you've

come to expect from OhioHealth. But COVID-19 makes that mission a lot more difficult,

and we need your support.

We are caring for more people and have more staff shortages than ever before. Please

be patient and understand that you will experience longer wait times, delays with

prescription requests and responding to messages. Calling multiple times or sending

multiple messages on the same request increases delays.

Please help prevent the spread of any illness and do not come into our office with any

cold-like symptoms. Our staff and providers are being exposed and out sick for several

days making our delays even longer. We offer telehealth and e-visits so we can

continue to care for you virtually.

If you are having significant or acute symptoms, please call our office and do not send a

MyChart message as we may not be able to address that message right away.

If you are scheduled for a physical or wellness visit, we may be contacting you to

reschedule to a later date to provide appointments for our sickest patients to be seen as

soon as possible.

We know you are frustrated, and we are too. But with your cooperation, we can protect

the health of our patients and the well-being of our staff.

Thank you for your understanding during this challenging time."

Covid update

So we've had Covid in the house this Christmas.  In terms of holiday celebrations, this particular season was - wanting.  But we'll get around to that some other time.

For now, an update.  It appears that most of us are more or less coming near the end of the tunnel.  A lingering cough and some congestion appears to be the main culprit in shaking the thing altogether.  For my mom and my third son, as well as me, that's the one thing that hasn't quite broken.  It's much better than it was even a couple days ago.  But it's still hanging around.  My wife seems overall better, but the limitations on what meds she can take, due to her heart condition, has made fighting the symptoms a bit tricky. 

Three of the boys appear to have moved on, with only a bit of congestion, and then only in small amounts.  There's still enough to warrant medicating, but the medications are dwindling in frequency.    A good thing, given the spike in medication prices. 

My second son has almost been asymptomatic the whole time.  He was mildly fatigued with a slight body ache for a couple days, but that's been about it.  Which makes us wonder.  Two years ago, he went to the doctor with flu like symptoms, especially fatigue he just couldn't shake.  He even missed work - something he almost never does.  They did a flu test, but it came up negative.  Nonetheless, they insisted he had some viral infection, they simply couldn't identify it. 

Given that he's the one in the family who has had few to no symptoms, even while testing positive for Covid, it makes us wonder if what he had two years ago was Covid.  It also makes us wonder about getting infected again.  I mean, if it doesn't keep you from not getting it, but it does keep you from getting it bad, then it might be worth our while to rethink our strategies.  But then, I'm no doctor.

So we're almost out of the woods it appears.  We're cautious, since Covid has the reputation of being rather wile.  As I said before, it's not like any virus I've ever seen.  My son said it's like a virus with AI.   As long as we have any symptoms, we'll be slow to celebrate.  Still, compared to a week ago, we're all about 80% healthy to almost 100% back to normal, and that's a massive improvement.

With that said, we're almost two weeks behind on everything.  Weeks of work and school have been missed and lost, and there is much to do around the old hobbit hole.  Therefore things will still be a bit sparse around here, even assuming we continue to improve and put it behind us.  Pray that we do.  If so, then hopefully by next week I'll be able to take a look at the crazy in the world and see what's been going on.  

Covid liviing

So here's an update.  You know how you get the flu, and you can tell you're getting the flu?   I remember when I got the flu the year I was in the fifth grade.  I was with my sister's then-boyfriend at a car wash.  It was in February.  He was washing his truck while I was out playing on the mounds of snow that had been piled up in the parking lot, owing to the blizzard of '78. 

Nothing unusual, but all of a sudden - and I can still remember it - I began to feel bad.  Body ache and then sore throat in quick order.  By the time I got home, I had a massive fever.  I missed almost a week of school then.  The worst day I had chills and body aches, cough and sore throat, and high fever.  That was the flu.  It was bad for a few days, and eventually it broke and I got back to normal. 

Covid hasn't worked like that.  You know that laundry list of Covid symptoms everyone talks about?  Well, you seem to get them, but not all at once.  It's like a roller coaster.  Each day it's a new symptom, or a repeat.  And then by midday you're feeling well.  Most symptoms are gone, the cough and congestion being the lingering symptoms.  But the others?  

They come and go.  One day or two it's fatigue.  Then that passes, only to be replaced by loss of appetite.  Then comes sore throat, and then sore throat is out the window.  Body aches tomorrow, and chills the next day.  Mornings are pretty miserable, , though not always, with nights alternating between worse or better, depending on the symptom du jour. 

Not all in the homestead have had it the same.  Some have only had a couple symptoms.  I've had the gamut.  My wife also is struggling with many of the symptoms, and we watch her owing to her heart condition.  The boys have been between several symptoms hitting hard, and a few symptoms with little or no impact.  Our third oldest, who we believe brought it home, was hit hardest of the four.  Our youngest seems to have been hit the least.  My mom, of course, is the other big concern and right now with her it's mostly the congestion and coughing. None have lost taste or smell. I feel that is noteworthy. 

But all in all, it's not like anything I've ever run into.  It's clearly a virus apart.  It feels as if it's attacking the defensive positions, trying to find any way in.  Hence the constant rise of new symptoms.  It hits here, the body responds, a new symptom.  The virus backs off, circles the fences, strikes again.  Another symptom.  The virus backs off - feeling better - then attack the flanks!  Only to have another symptom pop up as a result, or perhaps a symptom you thought you were over makes a comeback.  It's like Bastogne surrounded by viral divisions trying to break through some part of the parameter. 

I'm not one who gets sick often.  I've only had the flu a couple times in my life.  I often go years without even a head cold.  Nevertheless, I have been sick over the years, even if rarely.  Plus, I've been around my fair share of others who have had the flu or have been sick in other ways.  Four kids after all.  

Yet none have been like this.  Each time in my life that I or others got sick, it was a  set of symptoms that came and went.  They got infected.  Things got worse. Then they got better.  Then everyone went on with life.  But this is wholly different.  In fact, the virus feels like those Velociraptors in Jurassic Park who kept attacking different parts of the electric fences - it's learning. 

Hopefully we're nearing the peak, and perhaps even on the downward slope. Those who were hit earliest seem to be best off.  Again, it's an up and down roller-coaster experience.  The three who tested last are hitting the high marks and the misery index is pretty high, though not consistent for all three.  My mom, being a WWII generation child, won't complain if her arm dropped off and fell on the floor.  So we'll keep doing what we can as we try to figure it out.  

So on this, my mom's birthday, I would ask for continued prayers.  It is appreciated.  I'll report next when things seem somewhere close to sane.  

Covid prayers for our family

I suppose it was inevitable, but two of my sons have tested positive for Covid.  So far cold like symptoms, congestion and coughing, soar throat and occasional body aches.  I had the same, but tested negative, as has everyone else in the homestead.  

Being a family in close quarters, and two individuals with high risk medical conditions, we're being as cautious as possible.  Everyone knows that we haven't been vaccinated.  Given our record with vaccinations, and the ever evolving story of their efficacy versus side effects, we just didn't feel safe going that direction.

So we'll see.  We'll have to do our best to get everyone through this.  Naturally we're concerned.  As I've said, it isn't as if Covid is no big deal.  But we'll try to use common sense and follow the best advice about tackling this as is available, against that which makes common sense.  

Prayers would be appreciated during this time.  I'll post updates as they occur.  

UPDATE: Two more have tested positive, my youngest and me.  The others appear OK.  We'll keep praying and doing what we can. 

UPDATE II:  We have no way of knowing exactly when we got this.  My two sons tested positive on Tuesday, and my youngest and I yesterday.  It's very much like a worse than normal cold with congestion, annoying coughing and sore throats being the common symptoms.  My wife and mom are living in the west side of the house, and my second oldest staying with his girlfriend's family.  His workplace starts a policy on January that if anyone misses past sick day limits to Covid and hasn't been vaccinated, they'll be fired.  So he must stay away.  We figure it will give them a nice preview of being together in a controlled environment.  Overall things are slightly better today, but only on some averaging out of the symptoms. That is, in a couple certain symptoms are worse.  Other symptoms are better.  I'm probably the worst of the bunch, with a lingering fatigue, but then I'm the oldest.  Oddly the doctor responded with a pretty low key list of suggestion on how to deal with this.  

UPDATE III: Well our second youngest just tested positive, so he'll be coming back.  His girlfriend's family have all been vaccinated, so we'll see there.  I fear this is just going to go through our whole house.  My wife and mom are in isolation, but it isn't as if we're living in a castle or anything.  So we'll see. My mom and wife are the ones we're most concerned about for obvious reasons.  

UPDATE IV: It's official, everyone has it.  Well, we haven't tested my mom.  At her age, we fear the nasal test would play havoc on her and likely not get a good read after several tries.  Given the first signs that the rest of us have had, we'll assume.  So that's that.  The whole household.  Things are ebbing and flowing with us, and those who have had it the longest are sort of on a two steps forward and one step back trajectory.  So prayers will be appreciated, especially for my wife and mom, but really for us all.  Thanks. 

WaPo columnist Kate Cohen would have been happy to be aborted for her mother's freedom

Says so right here.  I chalk this up to the multibillionaire who was born into wealth and privilege saying he wishes he didn't have all that money.  It's easy to say when you have all that money.  Likewise, Ms. Cohen can only make the claim that she would happily be aborted for her mother's freedom for the sole reason that her mother chose not to abort her.  

Proxy martyrdom has become the lifeblood of the modern Left.  The idea that there is no end to the suffering and death of millions of others I'm willing to tolerate for my righteousness is almost a motto of modern liberalism.  The growing push for women to celebrate and rejoice in abortion as the most defining privilege of womanhood thrives on this form of crusading.  

I thought this would be a relevant post for this, the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  Massacring the most innocent of humans in one form or another has been almost as human as free will through the ages.  It was a strange and freakishly odd revelation among the ancient Hebrews that this First Cause we'll know as God would not wish us to sacrifice these most precious of all human lives on an altar.  

Nonetheless, humans have fought against that revelation for eons, and have won significant victories over it in recent generations.  Hence why it's easy to condemn the Christian Europeans for their sins and embrace the pagan civilizations that Europeans wronged.  For all its faults, sanctity of life was a Christian cultural mandate, even if those Christians often failed to live up to the ideal.

For most other cultures and civilizations, on the other hand, the ideal was that human life is generally cheap and easily discarded when it failed to serve the tribe or empire.  Something our modern Left seems to prefer.  Thus the ease with which they openly and broadly celebrate various 'Indigenous Peoples', even if those peoples practiced matricide, patricide, infanticide and even human sacrifice as a matter of course.  

When our civilization is pushing to do the same, we find a common bond with those old displaced cultures.  We don't celebrate them despite their practice of human sacrifice or infanticide.  It's increasingly obvious that we celebrate them precisely because of their practice of human sacrifice or infanticide.  God save us. 

The story of King Wenceslas

And that Feast of Stephen we hear so much about.  Donald McClarey does the heavy lifting so we don't have to.  If I was only allowed to visit five websites, I would make sure The American Catholic was one of them. 

Not that he is writing full historical texts on the subject.  But compared to what passes as historical studies today, his posts about various historical figures and events is practically on the level of doctoral dissertations.  It reminds me of the history as it was commonly presented even when I was a young fellow.  

So enjoy the read and learn a little about someone who comes up in our yearly stock of Christmas carols, but who was so much more. 

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shown the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gathering winter fuel.

Hither, page, and stand by me.
If thou know it telling:
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?
Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes fountain.

Bring me flesh, and bring me wine.
Bring me pine logs hither.
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear the thither.
Page and monarch, forth they went,
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather.

Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger.
Fails my heart, I know not how.
I can go no longer.
Ark my footsteps my good page,
Tread thou in them boldly:
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.

In his master's step he trod,
Where the snow lay dented.
Heat was in the very sod
Which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing

Merry Christmas!

While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.  Luke 2.6-7

A perfect Christmas Eve panel

 From simply the best comic strip of all time, Calvin and Hobbes:

No other Christmas panel ever evoked like that.  True, it's not religious in any way.  The strip usually wasn't, and avoided taking sides when religion was mentioned at all.  But it captured perfectly the sentiment of children everywhere the night before the big Day.

I've never felt that it's wrong to have worldly customs or attempt to enjoy life in this world wrapped around the Sacred. Ours is an earthy faith, and as long as things are kept in perspective, I've always thought the natural bonds of human interaction and the traditions they bear have never in themselves offended the Almighty.

Nonetheless, it wasn't difficult to see we did lose perspective as a nation, a society, a civilization.  The panel above would have come out in the late 80s to early 1990s.  By then we were already mighty secularized, but the move had not gone from non-Christian to post-Christian yet.  Links to the past were still in our cultural bloodstream.  You could expect most commercials of the day to look like they were produced at any time in the previous eighty years. Not by the end of the 90s.  By then we were clearly moving from post-Christian into the early stages of anti-Christian.  I can see why some began to think that anything secular was some intrusion upon the sacredness of the season. 

As I've said before, my dad was a railroad engineer.  As such, his schedule was pretty random and at no point in the year could we expect him to be home at any given time.  Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day cookouts were whenever he was available.  Only Christmas, by the later years when he had seniority and seniority mattered, was available to be planned around.

That's likely why of all times of the year, we cram as many traditions into this season as we can.  In fact, the whole of Fall until the end of February (our anniversary) is our family's big scene, with Christmas as the crescendo of activities. 

So speaking of all this time to do things, I'll be scarce in the coming days, owing to those activities.  The boys are still at home, but my one son's relationship with his girlfriend has begun to include whispers of long term commitments.  My oldest is eying graduate school.  Whether it will be online, nearby or somewhere else remains to be seen.  I think he's warming to online schooling, we'll see.  Meanwhile, my other son is bucking for a promotion and will take and go where it takes him if the opportunity arises.  Our youngest, of course, is here for the next few years in any event. As is, God willing, my mom. 

Perhaps one or more will have moved out by the end of the upcoming year. Perhaps they won't. But we all know when it comes to our little family homestead, the evening is near and the days are nearly over. So that precious commodity of time will be spent with the gang as we enjoy the old traditions, do so with new friends and relationships, and even add a couple new to the batch.

So have a blessed and merry Christmas.  I'll pop in and out throughout the twelve days.  TTFN, and God bless!

Speaking of new traditions, we had our go at a gingerbread house, at the request of our youngest.  We cheated, it was a ready-made kit.  We tried doing it from scratch, and the lesson of the house built on the sand came to mind.  

Not only mom and my wife, but even the dog got into the act!

Laura Klassen contuinues to be a bright star in the pro-life movement

And more courageous than most who wear the label 'pro-life advocate.' 

The Pro-Life movement, which is not a heresy, has certainly got its work cut out.  We live in an age where old understandings of human life and its value are being overturned by forces with no concern about human life or its value at all, unless it befits the individual in question.  Hence the nations banning capital punishment are generally the same ones falling over themselves to broaden abortion rights, suicide rights, and flirting with euthanasia for the worst of these. Those who align with this modern culture of death are left with repeating the lies and slanders used by pro-abortion activists against those who would protect the least of these.

One lie is that pro-lifers don't give a rip about poor mothers or starving babies.  As much as I've asked for stats to back up that claim, I've never had anyone provide me with the data to prove it.  And as if to make sure that lie is shown for the BS it is, Ms. Klassen does yeoman's work making sure mothers-to-be of any stripe are taken care of and new mothers and new babies are cared for to the best of our abilities.  

So for instance:

I don't know how to link to the Amazon page.  Here is a link to her Facebook account, and perhaps you can go from there.  It might be a widow's mite.  But it's nice for Christian allies of the pro-abortion movement to remember Christ was rather silent on Rome's various measures used to maintain the Pax Romana.  He did, on the other hand, have great praise for that widow who gave what she could to the cause. So as we celebrate that birth of births, here's a chance to help other births that are precious in the eyes of God, even if they rank lower in our modern godless nation. 

And just because these little gems say what most religious leaders are scared to say, here's another reminder of Ms. Klassen's fine (and witty) work for life: 

I hate this so much

 But he's right, as far as his being right goes:

True, Mark seems to ignore the myriad cases of leftwing assaults on the meaning of Christmas.  But in this case, he's correct.  This is every bit as bad as any commercial or worldly exploitation of Christmas.  It's as bad as a series of commercials some years ago that featured a guy in a Santa Clause outfit pushing male enhancement paraphernalia.  

I'm quite the fan of President Reagan.  I don't think he was always right, but I think he was a great president.  Likewise I absolutely support the 2nd Amendment and the right to defend ourselves.  But I would never say 'God, Guns, and Reagan. THAT'S what Christmas is all about'. I wouldn't have said that before I became a Christian!  I certainly wouldn't condone it today.

Let's try to be more careful if we are serious about stopping the waves of crazy that are covering our modern world.  Things like this aren't just bad because they give ammo to those pushing the crazy.  They're bad because they're wrong.  And being on the side of right doesn't give us the right to do wrong.

Using your children as liberal lab rats is all the rage

 Even at Christmastime, per this gut wrenching article at Today.

Wow.  In their Holiday card no less!  Because a child too young to use a public bathroom alone can decide she's opposite of her body's gender and it's gospel truth.  This is a demonic madness driven by Hell, and the children being dissected and mutilated to slake our sense of pride are the victims.

Note, by the way, the sleight of hand.  When I was growing up (1970s), we were taught that girls wearing skirts and boys playing with toy soldiers were all due to subjective gender role conditioning.  There was no objective reason for women to wear skirts or boys wear pants.  That was all because of social conditioning.  Note in the story that it was the girl not wanting to wear a skirt that started this.  Not that the skirt was a culturally conditioned expectation that could be solved by wearing pants.  Nope.  It can only mean that not wanting to wear a skirt must mean you're really a man.   We will deserve everything future generations say about us.

It's not enough that we've aborted babies by the hundreds of millions in order to sustain a world of sexual decadence and drug use even as tens of millions have died of AIDS and drugs.  It's not enough that the entire family structure has gone off the rails even as depression, drug addiction, drug dependency and suicide among our youngest generations is off the scale.  It's not enough that we've lived long enough to see the failed theories and ideas about how to really raise children in affirmation and positive reinforcement bear the fruit of massacre and death and misery. 

Nope.  We have to play Frankenstein with an entire generation.  Will there be generations as horribly stupid and evil as ours in the future?  I hope not.  We're fast on track of surpassing everything that ever came before us when it comes to terrible.  

Tell me we're the generation with the right to condemn anyone  in the past.  At times I almost feel bad trashing Nazis.  Unlike them, we have them as our examples to learn from, and look what's happening.  It all makes me remember that the first Christmas was not a Hallmark movie.  It was a sad and insignificant event in a wide world of war, killing, oppression, slavery, corruption, and hopelessness.  We merely learned that out of the world in that day with all its problems, that one small event was the one that mattered. 

Grumpy Note:  It was maddening to read the article because the parents insist on referring to their child in the 3rd Person Plural.  It took me a few to figure it out.  I kept having to go back and reread what I read thinking I missed something.   Well done mental health industry.  Make reality a state of mind and day to day living an insurmountable obstacle achieved only by counseling at 80.00/hour or prescription medications.   All while suicide, drugs and depression continue to go off the scale.  Someone, some day will have the guts to call out this farce for what it is.  Sadly for these children, today is not that day.