In their view, the social forces of bigotry, power, corruption, mass opinion, militarism, and oppression are the constant themes of history. These horrors have a palpable, almost metaphysical presence in the world. And the post-Protestants believe the best way to know themselves as moral is to define themselves in opposition to such bigotry and oppression— understanding good and evil not primarily in terms of personal behavior but as states of mind about the social condition. Sin, in other words, appears as a social fact, and the redeemed personality becomes confident of its own salvation by being aware of that fact. By knowing about, and rejecting, the evil that darkens society.
Bottum, Joseph (2014-02-11). An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America (p. 15). The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
In this Holy Week, it is good to reflect on our fall "You will be as Gods, knowing good and evil". Often we assume that Satan told the truth, that we now DO "know good and evil". I find it to be a dangerous step to take the father of lies at his word.
The modern left, the "post protestant new puritans" believe with their whole heart that they DO know evil ... "bigotry, power, corruption, mass-opinion, militarism and oppression", and their souls, like Michael Bloomberg's, are saved because of their opposition to what they know as evil.
I've been listening to MPR since 1980. They always had a giant soft spot for wonderful Soviet schools, the collective farms, and those wondrous journalists at Pravda "Truth!" ... So very much in common with NPR, but not forced to deal with the lies of commercial media!
I know a number of people on the left that were significantly shaken at the collapse of the USSR ... Damned Reagan! ... And The POPE no less! Why the UN ought to have intervened to prevent religion from interfering in a nice godless state!
So BO's press spokesman likes old USSR propaganda posters and it isn't much of an MSM story ... The world just isn't very surprising I guess.
If only it was the taxes that were low! We see nothing but and endless rise in taxes, but climate? Seems that "Change" without much in the way of "Hope" unless you really like to freeze!
Private property under the Constitution in the days of limited government meant that what you earned was YOURS! YOU! decided how it was spent! There is a GIANT moral difference between you deciding to give part of your money to some person, group or organization, and me coming over, taking that money at gunpoint and giving to them. The fact that I pay a third party (the government) a percentage of your money to execute the transfer makes no change at all in the moral calculus.
Mandatory "charity" is NOT charity! The person doing the GIVING (taxes are NOT "giving") has the right to decide if smart phones, dinners out, flat screen TVs, etc are worthy items for the recipient of the charity to use the funds on!
A quick look at that dollar tells us that defense spending is definitely too high! There isn't anything left to defend! The nation is a giant corrupt mess where 20% of the people are paying 90% of the taxes and their money is being used to buy votes from over 50% of the population! If anyone ought to be paying for our defense, it ought to be the Chinese -- they own our debt, they have a vested interest in there being enough productivity left for our decedents to work for a few generations to pay them off!
God, Gold, Guns and Gardens -- get out of anything approaching an urban center and work to get less than 50% of your assets exposed to bonds, government and wall street.
I'm quite certain that BO is way out ahead of me on this one, after all, he not only cares far more deeply about women, but is a much bigger basketball fan than I am.
Certainly all the events and speeches and the touting of the "77%" number on "Equal Pay Day" -- one of those quasi holidays that THE PARTY runs to get the membership out and keep them touting the "flavor of the day", are going to be aghast at pay discrepancies in the the 200x vicinity!
There can be no question where BO is on this issue! I can't imagine him sitting down and enjoying another basketball game until this grossly unfair situation for women is remedied! Fixing this is simple and straightforward:
Immediately mandate 100% pay parity for all professional basketball players. This is simple and easy and there is no possible justification for allowing this clear case of blatant discrimination to continue An intelligent guy like BO can maybe suggest the proper percentage adjustments, but since male basketball players are obviously horribly overpaid (more than CEOs! and most CEOs "don't even got game!"), something like 80% cut in salaries for the males and then a 50x or so increase for women players should be in the general vicinity of fair. (no doubt BO can appoint a large "blue ribbon commission" meeting in all sorts of nice destinations for a few years to hone the numbers).
Most likely this is still not going to be economically sustainable, so it seems to me that we need "affirmative market action". Perhaps a digital device that tracks basketball viewing could be required, so that in order to watch the NBA, a viewer must first spend an equal time watching the WNBA! I can see this kind of solution providing a huge assist in achieving the kind of results that all right thinking Americans (especially BO) are in favor of!
Starting to achieve a truce in this ghastly WoW in some relatively simple areas like sport that while popular, are not cornerstones of the economy is a great way to make real progress in an obviously important area of the push to fairness!
W-NASCAR, W-MLB, W-NFL -- the future looks bright for equality in American sport!
I've often commented on the irony of those who believe the most strongly in the forces of natural selection doing all they can to insure that their constituency minimizes chances of offspring through birth control, abortion, gay marriage and other means.
Similarly, when you believe that the pie is a fixed size and the job of government is to fight over the pieces, then as you gain more and more power:
There is no way out of this for Democrats. Once you believe that the pie is fixed and has to be divvied up by the state, eventually you’ll have to turn on one another.
The force of Life or the force of Death?
"Our party seeks to constantly reduce the number of offspring each family has, and to do our best to insure that children grow to revere the government but hate the history of their own country, as well as the beliefs of their parents and ancestors. Our bright shining promised future is what is ONLY to be revered!"
"We are the party of not working. We see Robin Hood as our patron saint, and we seek to follow the maxim of Jesse Jackson and "Take from the greedUH and give to the needUH!"
"There is only so much to go around and every policy we espouse that there will be less overall and that a greater percentage of the shrinking pie will go to an ever larger group of our party members that are well paid to oversee the public gulag".
... and on it goes. The slide into totalitarian hell seems so obvious, but like lemmings, most of humanity is wired to follow the crowd.
Deciding on ones world view used to involved understanding the sum total of mankinds history to the best of your ability. One wants to base big personal and certainly cultural decisions on thousands of years of available track record in that model. The following paragraph gives excellent insight into the "progressive" view:
As a proud, openly gay man, I am disappointed that anyone contributed to an effort to strip away the rights of any other citizen, especially the important, fundamental human right to marry the one you love. Eich and I would certainly disagree on that point (assuming he, along with so many other Americans, hasn’t changed his mind in the intervening six years). If indeed he valued me as a second-class citizen, or continued to advocate against my civil rights, I suspect we wouldn’t chat for long at a cocktail party. I would not be his friend.
"gay man"?? Who cares? Maybe I like tall skinny blonde women ... I don't happen to, but who the hell cares? How beastial must one be to willingly state that any sexual proclivity defines you? Perhaps, "I'm a proud owner of a strip club that believes that men are naturally wired to like looking at women's bodies, and women are naturally wired to want to show them their bodies"? At least that man is only saying that "liking to look at naked women" is "natural", even though he makes it his business (by choice I assume), he doesn't claim that the enjoyment of unclothed female form defines him as a person.
"Strip away the rights"? "Marriage" actually ISN'T a right! There are not likely to soon be "marriage stamps" available like "food stamps". Forgetting that fact for a moment, wasn't the issue about a POLITICAL CONTRIBUTION relative to ADDING or NOT ADDING state recognition of a relationship that some want to enter into? Eich made a political contribution in the path of the PREVENTION of a NEW recognition. No "stripping", no "right" involved at all.
"I would not be his friend". I continue to work on the maxims of the liberal mind. ( "We HAVE to DO something!", usually followed by "It's NOT our fault!") I'm thinking "I won't be your friend" is now in the running, it just sounds so much like true liberalism. Christianity requires the acceptance of the Truth (Christ) "like a child". Liberalism requires raising the impulses of a child to ultimate wisdom, as in, you damned well better agree with me or "I won't be your friend". Marvelous.
I would be happy to do all I could to be Gene Robinson's friend (the guy that wrote the article). My religious beliefs demand it of me in peril of my immortal soul for starters, but even though Robinson and I obviously disagree extensively, I find that to be a basic GOOD, in fact CRITICAL aspect of an actual pluralistic society!
Robinson OTOH is certain that his side is winning, so he is hoping that they will not show their hand with quite so much force, and potentially scare the marks. He sees a brave new world founded on the wisdom of institutions like "gay marriage" that are barely over a decade old. By making his new culture ever more oppressive (but quietly, PLEASE!), he sees some version of heaven on earth where individual lust is virtue, and the vast cultural wisdom of millennia is vice.
Powerline still harbors hope that we live in a country where the minority party is legitimate and has the potential to wield political power. We shall see, but I believe it is time to consider that we have crossed a rubicon where "The Party", meaning the Democratic Party is equivalent to what the Communist Party once was in the USSR. The "Party of Government", where the government workers, teachers, mainline media people, captains of industry and even entertainers are required to either be members in good standing or to "shut the F*#K Up!". Case in recent point, Brendan Eich, short term CEO of Mozilla.
Remember that during the W administration, Patrick Fitzgerald, the Democrats and the MSM hunted the modern White Whale named Scooter Libby -- with sincere condolences to Moby Dick. Remember, as recently as 2007 the pursuit of a "leak" that supposedly "outed" a CIA "secret agent" that cleverly maintained cover by driving into her office at Langley every day was a constant top news story!
In the current case, the IRS admitted and tried to "head off controversy" by saying that they were sorry that yes, some conservative groups were targeted and private information was released, etc, When brought up for hearings, the ostensibly responsible Party Apparatchik, Lois Lerner, took the 5th twice.
And that is really that. The MSM and The Party have enough power, to simply declare that to be "the end of the story". The american public has no inclination to mistrust the party powers that be --- they know which side their bread is currently buttered on, and aside from the IRS, the NSA and the "PC Police", all is that is required is even the SUGGESTION that you may have stepped out of the party doctrine.
So far, the idea of a "Minority Power", even ostensively having the power of one of the houses of congress is still legally allowed, although increasingly sanctioned. The Senate Majority leader stands on the floor of the Senate and threatens the Koch brothers for speaking out, and the New York Times as well as other large media and party outlets pick up the attack. "Free Speech" in BOistan is saying what "The Party" wants you to say!
There is no question that the IRS actions demand some form of "Independent" or "Special" Prosecutor, but don't hold your breath. Prosecution is reserved for the Minority Party -- for now, still legal, but teetering. How dare people hold views that do not agree with the Will of The Party? The Party works for the good of the people! To oppose The Party is a luxury that is teetering on oblivion in this totalitarian state.
I may have overdone it a bit. Finally getting this done Wednesday AM after my 3-day burst home from LA ... 2K miles over 3 days. I pulled in Monday evening at 9PM. I'm very stiff this AM.
After 5K miles in 8 days, the Wing is now officially Wendy ... and on this trip often WINDY! Her navigation skills are questionable ... she didn't know about hwy 20 being 4-lane across most of IA, so was blissfully navigating through space after valiantly trying to navigate us to Ft Dodge. Maybe she just wanted to help get over 5K! Oh well, my "jump on the bike and punch in a city" approach to trip planning could use a little work too. She was reliable smooth and powerful through snow, rain and hail (just a little), plus a lot of cold and wind.
I launched out of Gallup NM Sunday AM at 7ish with 30 degrees on the temp, about 20 mi later I was freezing and checked it again ... 25 degrees, I was going UP! It turns out that while I need 45 to be "reasonably comfortable", this trip forced me to discover that the "UNcomfortable" doesn't get too much worse at least down to that 25 or so ... the combination of the heat exchange with the engine being "open", the grip heaters, the "hand wings" deflectors off the bottom of the mirrors, and just the general excellent wind control make it it "survivable". Future spring trips will have better planning on long range weather / altitude !!
Going through Albuquerque NM the drink holder on my right bar loaded with my trusty Dew, departed. Must have just loosened up and there it went ... ought to be an easy fix, but it was sorely missed for the rest of the trip. Somewhere like 30mi past Albuquerque it hit my "minimum desired" 45 degrees. I rode 40 over to Tucumcari NM and then retraced my steps out up to Liberal KS, then turning N for Great Bend where I spent Sunday night. 740 windy and chilly miles. I kind of like the great plains two lanes. Seeing the farming, huge cattle lots, the change or that area to what must already be closing on a Hispanic majority.
The descendants of the European explorers that "conquered" North America came to the conclusion that having children wasn't important, nor was having borders, nor was having European descent offspring do "low income" jobs -- meaning jobs / lifestyles that would have made royalty jealous in the 16th to even 19th centuries. Queen Isabella could not have believed a flat screen TV, internet, let alone a low-rider with fuzzy dice! Civilizations rise and fall, but I think the plains ... and solo riders on horses, motorcycles and ??? will survive.
Monday I took off and headed cross country up to 80, then over to Omaha, then up 30 and eventually to 20 and on home via interstate. Just into IA on 30 I had the treat of watching a jet ranger chopper "surveying something" ... I'm guessing it was power lines from the height and position, but he was going down the road a little higher than the power lines at something like "30 MPH", usually sideways to the road. The moose "limited good judgement in very tough for moose attention control situation indicator" was flashing orange-red. Having a few miles to watch a chopper right in front of me was GREAT, but of course I knew that the chopper was a huge distraction not just for me, but for oncoming traffic as well. Although the thought crossed my mind that 99% of the oncoming found it to be WAY less interesting than I, but anyway ...
I got a couple miles in before a truck came up behind me and I took off. I'm guessing the pilot had done that before ... it was pretty windy, but I could actually see him operating things ... he WAS swiveling his head a lot, which seems like a good idea about 50' up moving in a sideways direction! I know, the SMART thing to do would have been just "take note and go, or pull over and watch for a bit" ... and then skipping Prescott, Pagoda Springs and probably the whole trip would also have been the most "prudent".
Lots of time alone on a bike for 5K miles, lots of it on flat or mildly undulating roads where the road and the telephone poles recede into the horizon like grade school drawing class. They must have been driving in New Mexico when they made up those classes. The decision to get married, settle down and have kids -- and how MUCH one makes that an "all the way" thing. 34 years at IBM, giving up the motorcycle to "be responsible" and a few other such decisions were likely over on the personal side of "nuts" in the same way as a solo 5K ride in the mostly cold.
But then what is wisdom? One can't really get the summary of a 34 year career or 26 years of having been a parent from reading books and thinking about it. Sometimes you just have to ride.
"I Hold On" (very hot current country song that will likely always bring this trip back to my mind), is who we are something we are wired with, decisions we make, character we develop, or a gift from God?
Took off early from San Bernadino. Very pretty views of Mt San Jacinto with the sun coming up and a cloud deck partially obscuring the mountain. Made great time on I10 and then veered off on 60 and wound my way up to 89 in the "Congress" area.
Shortly after Congress there is a section of 89 where the lanes are split so there is no oncoming traffic. I had a Ferrari ahead of me with a bunch of local Harley's ahead of him that knew how to ride the road. Not having oncoming traffic was a HUGE help for me ... one of my biggest weaknesses cornering is backing off the throttle as soon as oncoming traffic shows up (my snake brain isn't very trusting of oncoming drivers!).
The ferrari had to be a V12, it had an unearthly screaming howl like a pack of wounded coyotes on rock concert amplification. I saw like "20ish" different exotic cars, mostly high end Porche, but I definitely IDed the Ferrari symbol on the one that was ahead of me ... and then let me by. In Prescott I pulled up next to a Lamborghini, but I'm too bummed after the WI loss to keep trying to figure which one it was. In the early stages of that lane split section out of Congress a cop had what I'm pretty sure was a Countach pulled over -- I bet that was a nice conversation!
I'm too conservative to really enjoy going fast on curves ... but with the front suspension work on the wing and just Harleys rather than crotch rockets ahead holding back the Ferrari, I was fine ... did a little grinding on the bottoms of the boards a few times, and since I could keep up, I did. I'd say that run from Congress to Prescott has to be way up there in the world for corner speed daemons.
Somewhere in that section before Prescott I went by Yarnell ... here the group of top notch firefighters died a year or two ago.
89a up to and beyond Sedona was a lot more sightseeing ... I had traffic ahead of me for most of both. WOW, the Jerome mining town hacked out of the side of the mountain would be a geat place to spend some time in!
I think I was in a bad mood the only previous time I was in Sedona since I was driving a chevy pickup with a camper on and sick of "rocks". It was damned pretty this time. Would be nice to come out and spend some time there with the bikes.
Me and Flagstaff just don't get along! The temp dropped back down to 48 as I went up there from Sedona, and there were some flakes of snow in the air! THIS TIME though the bad stuff looked to be JUST to the NW and I scooted to the east on 40, making it here to Gallup NM, 600+ mi for the day, 1500 miles or so from home ... a hard day and an easy one to go the way I look at it!
