Waiting For The Ubermensch

Trump Haters Left & Right versus Trump Supporters: Civil War Field Guide | National Review:

A worthy article to read -- a sober and well written categorzation of the feelings of the chattering classes and the electorate in the age of Trump. The haters -- something like a third to a half of "The Party" (TP-D), so something like 20% of the electorate are of course the most visible.

The Trump haters dominate our media and the universities, the entertainment industries, Silicon Valley, the billionaire green classes, the foundations and the brigades of professional foot-soldier activists, identity-politics operatives, and the Bernie Sanders shock troops. They are frenzied because they think their 1,000 cuts have finally hit arteries — only to see Trump revive in Nietzschean fashion, emerging stronger for the wounds. To come so close to ending this nightmare only to realize they are at the alpha and not the omega of their efforts intensifies their hatred.

Most of these people were also Obama Zombies who in their "post god" world saw BO as a Nietzchean "value creator" (ubermensch). In a world without god, the only support for "values" is a "superman", and the left felt certain that "all reasonable people" MUST have been changed to the "values" of BO ... slaughter of millions of unborn, "gay" marriage, unknown genders, disprespect for the flag and the military, snide posuturing against people "bitterly clinging" to the Bible and the 2nd Amendement, etc

Strangely, the screaming and howling of the sheltered elite when 2016 didn't go as they were certain it would is a sound that causes the culture of the old "America" to come together -- at least a little.

Yet Trump hatred only solidifies the Trump base. It also reminds independents and wavering centrist Republicans that in a Manichean fight (and the Trump haters seem to envision the current landscape as just that), one inevitably chooses sides. If the choice is reduced to a crude rant at a public Trump rally or the rioters at Claremont, Berkeley, and Middlebury, a screaming Madonna, the “pigs in blanket” chanters of Black Lives Matter, and the masked marauders of Antifa, the Trump haters probably lose.

The BO and the Trump base are way more similar than either would like to admit. They are BOTH looking for Nietzschean "value creators" who attack their opposition and make them feel justified, moral and powerful. BO did it with snide smoothness, Trump does it with twittering bluster -- the same buttons are being pushed in either case.

Trump’s base is as loyal as was Obama’s. Obama’s puerile cluelessness (the Malvinas are the Falklands, 57 states, corpse-men), his divisiveness (get in their faces, take a gun to a knife fight, punish our enemies), and his venom (high-horse Christians, stereotyping police, bitter clingers, etc.) could never erode the Obama foundation, as long as he offered his faux-southern-accent act, quoted arc-of-history banalities, talked Final Four, and caricatured the rich, the businessman, and the successful. So too the Trump voter will stay to the bitter end with Trump — if he stays with them.

Being a Christian, I'm not very excited about the idea of any human being  (or even human being ... being! ;-) ) a "values creator" -- however, anyone with a marginal education who pays even a tiny bit of attention certainly has to observe the prescience of Nietzsche relative to the "superman" ... Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, and yes, to a much lesser extent, BO and Trump -- "lesser" so far, but without any shared values, morality is purely a matter of POWER, so eventually, one of the tribal groups shorn of Constitutional restraint and any sense of honoring tradition is nearly certain to defeat / gulag / kill the opposing tribe and pay the dues of "killing god" in blood and treasure.

As a Christian, I also believe in the willingness of God to intervene on the side of a people who will seek his will -- "America" could revive and with God's Grace become again "One Nation Under God". I want a leader -- and a people, that kneel humbly before God, and proudly salute the Flag!

As is always the case with man, we await the almighty -- or some mere human that is willing to pretend he is almighty. To date, God has been FAR more merciful than any of the other "strong men" who attempt to create values for the masses!


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A Little Sexual Honesty

Can We Be Honest About Women?:

We live in the age of insanity, so given that we are insane, it is controversial to state that men love beautiful women and women love being desired. A little research will show that the billions of dollars spent on shoes, clothes, jewelry, makeup, breast implants, nails, plastic surgery, etc is not spent by men. Nor do married men regulary say "honey, are you SURE that you have enough shoes?"

The reason we live in the age of insanity is that we have "abandoned the natural for the unnatural" to paraphrase Romans. Our culture glorifies the unnatural -- homosexuality, strange genders without limit, pornography, and even "kink" -- I have to study "cultural awareness" for a certification at work, and "the kink community" was one of those cultures to be aware of -- google was required.

When I was in college, a "dirty book store" was a sign of a blighted area. When I came to Rochester, there were a couple on the southern (seedy) edge of downtown that the city worked hard to get removed. Now there is the "WalMart version" with the GIANT electronic sign for "Pure Pleasure" right off the I-90 / US 63 interchange south of the airport. "Progress'.

The article is worth a read through to get some more data to cover the obvious in this age where reality is the horror that may not be spoken ... "Jerusalem is the Capital of Israel"! It closes with this ...

We can’t expect people to act like machines with one another, disconnected from their own desires. Our bodies, our sexuality, and our physical longing for one another—all of these essential parts of ourselves—are beautiful. We should cultivate those aspects.

"But they are not the most important, and they can’t be acted on unchecked. We are not animals, ruled by appetites. We have deeper aspects of ourselves that need to be nurtured. We have a rational mind and moral conscience to inform us of what is right and what is wrong. We have a spirit that has a beauty all its own, and it’s a beauty that never diminishes, unlike the physical, which passes away too quickly."

I completely agree with what the author wants, however I don't think there is likely to be motion in that direction anytime soon because the spirit that IS, and is meant to be, our "true self" is denied by our modern world and we ARE expected to behave as "machines" -- machines made out of meat. Materialists (and they are a common philosophical branch in these times) believe exactly that -- there is NOTHING more to us than "meat"! We are ONLY organic machines.

The divine intention of our sexuality is to be BOTH spiritual and physical. Our insane materialist world of meat creatures celebrates strange physical sexual pairings, imaginary genders, and most of all the killing of the natural outcome of sex, children. In the insane materialist world, we have become much LESS than animals -- so we no longer understand the natural, as all animals do, and are drawn to the UNnatural.

Why? Because consciousness / spirit is decidedly not "natural" in any way that we can discern save divine intervention -- and the search for the divine, the "higher", delivers  a morality that has little to do with materialist "nature" -- red of tooth and claw. When our spirit looks up to God, we rise, when our spirit looks down to our own flesh, we fall.

Our flight from the embrace of the divine -- the transcendent, has left us to attempt to define moral structures based on power (might is right),  while feeling that the powerful "taking what they want" is somehow "immoral" according to? What? No doubt the "still small voice", but where oh where does our post modern, post truth society think that voice comes from? In confusion, many have decided to put government in the role of "god" as if humans acting in large unionized bureaucracies were somehow likely to be "virtuous".

We looked for "the good" in more government and found nothing but evil.

The "honest about men" version of this article closes with:

Much of the modern moral struggle is the war between entitlement and obligation. Raise a boy to live for himself, with a sense of entitlement, and he will often unleash that enormous inborn energy in the most destructive of ways. Raise a boy to live for others, with a sense of obligation, and that same energy can build a nation and sustain a culture. We can’t make a perfect world, but we do have a choice. Better or worse? It’s time to recognize and respond to human nature, or — despite the best of intentions — we will continue to choose to be worse.

Matt 23:11 "The greatest amoung you will be your servant". These ideas were once well understood. As we watch BOistan tear at itself like a dying animal the the words of Lincoln paraphasing the Psalm 19:9 in his second inagural comes to mind ... "The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether."

Western civilization had these answers solidly understood -- and now we are lost. 

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A Secular Age: Charles W Taylor

https://www.amazon.com/Secular-Age-Charles-Taylor/dp/0674026764/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

As I traversed this massive nearly 900 page work, I sometimes wondered; "Why does one undertake such a thing?". I had previously read "How to Not Be Secular", a "cliff notes summary", so I had the general ideas:

• 500 years ago we lived in an enchanted, embedded, hierarchical world, while today we live in a disenchanted, disembedded, flat world.
• The "standard story" of the secularists is a "subtraction story" -- "science" made it "impossible to believe" in more than matter. Taylor finds the "subtraction story" utterly lacking -- we still believe in love, beauty, justice, consciousness (spirit), and "good" ... none of which can be measured, so therefore do not exist to science. There are lots of other reasons that "subtraction" falls short.
• We live as a "Buffered Self" that is cut off from God, family, other people, the past, having "a place" ... again, a LONG list. However we are "buffeted" or "haunted" by our mortality and a sense of "something more" ... "fullness" that tugs at our hearts / souls ????
• Many are radically unhappy in this world to the point of suicide. They have FAR more "stuff" than even the kings, lords and popes of 500 years ago, yet their lives are arid -- often to the point of not being worth living. "Stuff" does not seem to be enough. 

I'll call those "the biggies" for now. My sense is that the reading of such a book vs "reviews" ... by me or others,  is a bit like the difference between being told of mountains, the ocean, falling in love, having children, grandchildren, etc and of EXPERIENCING those things. Certainly, good wordsmiths, poets, musicians, movie makers, etc can all convey significant parts of those experiences, however I doubt that any person that has experienced one of those or thousands of other things would say "I wish that I never did the real thing, I liked the descriptions of it much better"! 

Late in the millenium prior to Christ, there were a number of "higher religions" that began to replace paganism -- this is sometimes referred to as "The Axial Age" (Karl Jaspers) meaning "pivital age" because the idea of transcendence was so important to changing human thought. "More than mere matter". 

It is tempting for me to head off to read 5-10 referenced works that put even more flesh on the bones of how we have returned to essentially a pre-axial pagan view -- to make the obvious Lennon modification ... "nothing to live or die for, and no religion too ..." 

In the words of Evelyn Waugh quoted in the book ....

I think one has to look deeper before one will find the reason why in England today the Roman Church is recruiting so many men and women who are not notably gullible, dim-witted or eccentric.

It seems to me that in the present phase of European history the essential issue is no longer between Catholicism, on one side, and Protestantism, on the other, but between Christianity and Chaos… 

Today we can see [the loss of Christian faith]…as the active negation of all that western culture has stood for. Civilization – and by this I do not mean talking cinemas and tinned food, nor even surgery and hygienic houses, but the whole moral and artistic organization of Europe – has not in itself the power of survival. It came into being through Christianity, and without it has no significance or power to command allegiance. The loss of faith in Christianity and the consequential lack of confidence in moral and social standards have become embodied in the ideal of a materialistic, mechanized state… It is no longer possible, as it was in the time of Gibbon, to accept the benefits of civilization and at the same time deny the supernatural basis upon which it rests… 

That is the first discovery, that Christianity is essential to civilization and that it is in greater need of combative strength than it has been for centuries.

Christianity held out in the US for longer than it did in Europe, but we have descended into chaos as well -- pick what date you want, but few deny it today. Yes, the dominant culture still believes that the chaos of Obama was better than the chaos of Trump, however in a world driven only by raw power with no controlling theological, philosophical, constitutional or legal authority, secular life is  just a constant scrum for power by any means possible.

My purpose in reading works like this is to "experience the ocean" of a great mind creating a great work. The experience is one of being made both smaller and larger -- like seeing the ocean or the mountains. It isn't really about snapping a few pictures and putting down a few words. There is some minor similarity of why it is critical for a Christian to daily read their Bible -- cover to cover, then maybe just start again, or give the New Testament a second pass before going back to Genesis -- it becomes the constant EXPERIENCE of the Bible. Not "a text", but a connection to the vastness of God much larger than mere text.

Certainly, "Secular Age" pales in comparison, it is but a "shadow" as compared to the Bible -- like comparing going to Lake Mille Lacs with going to see the Pacific Ocean.

The link to "How to Not Be Secular" above, or another highly rated review of "Secular Age" will give you the "talking points", but in my view, not the "gestalt". Secular Age is clearly a labor of love for Taylor to create -- and at least a labor of "deep like" to read. It was worth it for me, and I hesitate to advise anyone else, other than to say that I would expect that anyone will be changed by the experience.

Massive Call For Moore Prosecution Today!

I assume that all BOistanis except a cynical few are rising up today in unison to call for the prosecution of failed Senate candidate Roy Moore! Clearly a ton of people found the evidence amassed against him to be terribly damning to the extent that he has been referred to as a pedophile by many mainstream media outlets and high minded social media posters (poseurs?).

I took the position that their charges were "all about political gain", which certainly many on FB found to be "cynical" as they virtue signaled their high minded morals on Moore's "crimes". Unless they were and are in fact the cynical ones,  I would expect a massive wave of demands from media outlets, Democrats and easily led Republicans alike for immediate prosecution! We all know that child molesters are nearly always repeat offenders, so there is little doubt that the prosecution will find a seamy string of sad victims over the past 40 years according to those who only did this for "justice".

OTOH, if there is no outcry -- or even a complete lack of concern for any investigation after this supposed awful man who many said would be "impossible for a Christian to support" just because the election is over,  what would that mean? Why would sane people virtue signal about how "good" they were to come out against Moore, even to the point of questioning others religious beliefs if they did not sign on to what they saw as the completely damning nature of these 40 year old charges?

My belief is that we live in an amoral age where actual standards are becoming exceedingly rare. Today's world is ruled by the left wing "Scribes and Pharisees" who are ALL about judgment and virtue signalling, however are in fact "whitewashed sepulchers" -- their only goal is POWER, political and otherwise, and they seek to make their idea of power synonymous with "virtue".

If all those who wasted time virtue signalling on FB and in the media do NOT seek to put this known (to them) child molester behind bars, I think we have pretty solid evidence what BOistan is REALLY about! Same thing with all the fake virtue signalling relative to Trump -- as the link I put above (repeat) makes very clear in the linked Village Voice article, the supposed virtuous elites are anything but!

The BEGINNING of wisdom is the fear of God! Only by constant devotion to Bible, prayer, sacraments, etc, can any of us hope to escape the snare of "the wide road" of being in agreement with the MSM, elites, "the popular ones" through the constant bombarding of media manipulation from all corners.

Perhaps I will be proven wrong and a huge outcry for Moore's prosecution is about to rise. If I'm correct however that it is not happening, do we not all KNOW that the charges were actually just a political smear job? How could they NOT be if the supposedly sanctimonious believers in those charges don't even have a twinge of thought about all the children that they MUST believe that Moore molested over 40 years, and is no doubt molesting today?

Search your heart, you KNOW it to be true at a visceral level that if denied puts your soul in eternal peril!

Intersectional Feminism, New Peak Smug

10 Things Every Intersectional Feminist Should Ask On a First Date - Everyday Feminism:

First of all, it is time to introduce "intersectionality". The link takes you to the wikipedia discussion -- the quick definition is "grievance bundling", with a special need to make sure that white women are dutifully sorry for their "white privilege" before they are really accepted by "the sisterhood".

The biggies are "racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia (country having borders in their parlance) and honoring all other religions except Christianity, with SPECIAL honor to Islam.

Think of an "Intersectional Feminist" as the opposite of a deplorable -- "secular sainthood"! I will tend to refer to them as "IFs" ... seems about right.

The other aspect that you pick up from their writing is yet another new height in arrogant smugness. To the article. I'm guessing that some readers of this blog will assume it HAS to be satire, however I looked around a bit just to be sure -- though a Christian that fears for mens (and even IFs souls), wishes it were --  it's not. No "fear of God" for these women ... er, "things"!

The imaginary vignette of this column is that a "cis male" (identifying as birth gender male) has taken an IF out for a date (hey, men think with the wrong organ sometimes!).

The list of "ten" is largely a misrepresentation ... it links off to specific grievances, each of which has their own lists of many grievances ... patriarchy, rape culture, prison-industrial complex, etc. I'll just include #8 as a representative.

We live on a tiny planet, with land and water within a galaxy surrounded by a universe with an inconceivable number of other galaxies and planets. Yet here we dictate where we are and who is allowed to be where we are. It’s mind-boggling that borders are even a thing, so to call people “aliens” or “illegal immigrants” is so inhumane and despicable.

White Americans stole this land, colonized this land, created so many borders, pushed out, killed and enslaved people of color and somehow they have the audacity to claim that this land is theirs and that black and brown immigrants are stealing their jobs, land, and homes? Miss me with that bullshit.

Well, actually they defeated their opposition by force, which in a world without transcendence is the most morality you ever get. Read the entire list of 10 -- as an IF, you DO have the right to not date anyone who doesn't agree with your opinions because there are a bunch of people that could kick your ass that will defend that right -- including me, who disagrees with pretty much everything you stand for, however still sees your right to make a dating decision without coercion of any sort as being "endowed by your and my Creator".

Transcendence was the idea that there were values beyond force -- "endowed by the Creator". For the general population, that idea is dead, therefore IFs need to find some way to defeat their opposition by force in order to get their ideas to hold sway. The traditional alternative to God is the all powerful state -- set up a bunch of secret police, military, tribunals, gulags, etc, and "re-educate" or kill people that don't bow to your "list of 10". Given the 2nd Amendment still existing even in BOistan, I'd guess the IFs are going to need A LOT of range time to have "a shot" at making much of their list of 10 a reality.

Without transcendence, ideas of "right / wrong / good / evil / better / worse ... etc" come down to might makes right. The issue of who can kick whose ass.`

The physically, intellectually, financially, etc less capable need some method to "incent / coerce / create compassion within" those with more power to protect them. In Western Culture for 2K years, that was Christian Morals -- be kind to even those who hate you, care for those that are weaker, etc -- it worked quite well in general terms.

Women got the right to vote, the lame, the sick, the mentally less abled, etc were cared for, most often in religiously based hospitals. The whole ethic that got Western civilization to the spot where a woman (or what she wants to be called ???) could have a platform to write this was Christianity -- those that lack understanding of human nature might assume that a really big "Thank You!" to Christianity and Western civilization would be in order.

Lose the battle of Poitiers (Tours)  in 732, and this woman and billions more might well be wearing burkas, not voting, not driving, not going to school, etc.

Nietzsche hated Christianity as well, especially the idea of "care of the weak".

Christianity is called the religion of pity. Pity stands opposed to the tonic emotions which heighten our vitality: it has a depressing effect. We are deprived of strength when we feel pity. That loss of strength which suffering as such inflicts on life is still further increased and multiplied by pity. Pity makes suffering contagious.

Clearly the writer of the list has FAR abandoned any concept of Christianity, so who is it that will stand up for her against those stronger than her, and WHY will they desire to do this?

Perhaps there are deeper questions for her to ponder. 

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Living In A Rape Culture

I’m a feminist. I study rape culture. And I don’t want Al Franken to resign. - The Washington Post:

The column is a worthy read for understanding how minds in power based culture that can't conceive of an alternative MUST operate.

Isn’t that hypocritical? I hear you asking, Because Republicans won’t do the right thing, we shouldn’t, either? But if the short-term “right thing” leads to long-term political catastrophe for American women, I think we need to reconsider our definition of the right thing. I am in no way suggesting that we decline to hold Franken accountable for his offenses — only that we think in terms of consequences that might actually improve women’s lives going forward.

Sentient people in such a culture MUST use the calculus that "sure they are evil terrible guys, BUT there are evil terrible guys on OUR side!".  When POWER is the only thing that counts, that is the tribal calculus that operated for thousands of years prior to the rise of religion, and will continue to operate for pagans now unless religion revives. WE MUST PROTECT OUR TRIBE AND **W I N** THAT IS THE ONLY "MORALITY" THAT MATTERS!

Naturally, this woman is not going to accept Chrisitanity as a source of morals -- her reference to "Atwoodian Dystopia" would be to the show "The Handmaid's Tale" of a sort of Old Testament takeover of "America" by "Christians". Both the fact that this show is on current media, and that this column is being published in the WaPo would give sane people solid information that BOistan is FAR from such a portrayal. The rest of the column makes the author's limited connection with reality even more plain.

Without reference to a transcendent power however, one view is as good as another -- what differentiates them is how much power one can garner in support of your view. By argument, force, subterfuge, mass murder, sexual favors, or any means you can successfully gain power with. You might even want to claim your point of view is "good" and try to be "nice" ... whatever that means in a godless universe.

The author is correct on one thing however; we no longer live in a remotely Chrisitan Culture, so "Rape Culture" is as good a designation as any for BOistan. The Administrative State and media like the WaPo hold the bulk of the power, and they "have their way with" all who fail to kneel to their power. Sexual rape is just one use of power. In a godless world, there are no morals or meaning, so "rape" is simply what one without power might decide happened in a sex act -- the label is up to them, however their power will determine if they can speak it.

In Godly universe, such as the one which created the civilization that preceeded BOistan, discussions of things like "morals, consistency, hypocrisy, right/wrong, good/evil, purpose, calling, honor, agape, family, etc" are all topics which are reified ("made real") by the Grace of God and people living in his service.

Those of us who remember the last days of an America under God have that rememberance. Accepting the rape culture of BOistan has been difficult for us. however one wonders what the author of the column believes will happen, since men actually DO have more physical power than women.

I'd argue that a "Hugh Heffner Culture" is likely the best that women can hope for in BOistan, and I'd also argue that I have FAR more reality evidence on my side that the author does for her "Atwoodian Dystopia".  (see Hugh Heffner, Ted Kennedy, Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken ... they are all actual people, Handmaiden's Tale? Not so much)

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The Limits of Sexual Consent

Sex, Consent & Morality -- Culture Ruined by Sexual Revolution | National Review:

The modern pagans continue their hard work of pulling man up by his moral bootstraps. The technique works no better for morality than it does for flying.

The following from a tweet in the attached article ...

So much cultural & personal hurt due to sexual sin. Maybe the church should see its sexual ethics as a gift of common grace to the world.

There is nothing common about Grace -- it cost divine suffering beyond imagination, and yes, Grace and God's morality are a HUGE gift!

The article is short and worth the read --  mutual desire is not morality no matter how much lipstick one puts on it.

The practical result of consent-focused morality is the sexualization of everything. With the line drawn at desire alone, there is no longer any space that’s sex-free. Work meetings or restaurants can be creative locations for steamy liaisons. Not even marriage or existing relationships stand as a firewall against potential hookups.

Morality transcends -- or it isn't morality, it is just applied power. Without a transcendent standard, "morality" comes down to "might is right". At this moment, The #METOO movement has some power because of the political calculus of the left having sudden "morality" because they would like to remove Trump from power.

Transcendent morality is eternal, power faux "morality" is situational, political and transitory.


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Google "Diversity"

Google Fires Author Of "Outrageous" Memo Slamming Company's Anti-Conservative Culture | Zero Hedge:

Why do cultures die? Because "diversity" of race, gender, ??? gender uncertainty ???, and sexual preferance become mandatory "values", and diversity of thought is prohibited!!!

Man can neither live by bread alone, nor by his gonads alone. The essence of humanity is somewhere in the region of the soul, consciousness and intellect, not between the legs or painted on the skin. Is it really important if there are 58 "genders", or 5800? There are really only two and we all actually know it. If one has to swear fealty to some other nunber in order to work, the shallow basis for a grasp of reality slips even more. People forced to ascribe to nonsense become more and more able to live with nonsense rather than reality. (a potential degree change in temprature in 100 years is a greater crisis than $20 T debt, $ 150T unfunded liabilites TODAY!)

I'll go read what the guy wrote eventually, but seriously, if he can do his job well, is it not remotely possible that he could be allowed to believe that other people as well would be better served in doing their jobs rather than being "stylish"?

Have we come to the point where saying "women better suited for conceiving and bearing children than men" is "inappropriate? Note, I DID NOT say ONLY having children!

BOistan is certainly not a very factually oriented place.

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Catholic Wisdom, Truth; Perspective For Our Time And God's

What’s next: Catholics, America and a world made new – Catholic Philly:

If you have ANY time and inclination, BYPASS ME and just GO READ THIS! It may well be the best reading of this length that I've read this year, and as you know, I read a lot. 

I grew up in a church that thought Catholics were devil worshipers -- joined with the Harlot. I've come to believe that they are "THE Church". As a Lutheran, I'm still staking my faith that they are not the ONLY church.

What I love about the Catholic Church is HISTORY and PERSPECTIVE -- and the linked article is a great example of both. A huge failing of Protestants is that our churches are all certain that Christ is returning "soon", which is certainly true in God's time. After over two thousand years however, the Catholic Church well understands that God's time is not our time (which is also true). One would hope that in this 500th year anniversay of the Reformation, perhaps Protestants could begin to fathom this other important truth. 

The Protestant failing that is destroying Western civilization is the idea that everyone deserves and can fashion their own god. Sure, they may often do it in a myriad of sects, splits and schizms, but at base it comes down to what I see as a heresy -- although Jesus saves each of us personally, God the Father is ONE GOD, eternal and unchanging -- we do not get to make him, and futhermore, fear of him as the **I AM** is the beginning of wisdom.

Thus ends my short paen to the Cathoic Church. The linked column is WAY too deep and rich for me to summarize. I see it as nothing short of basic blueprint of what is required for Christians to save the remnant of a tattered and bleeding Western civilization, as well as the realization that it is ONLY Christ and his followers that can save it if that is Gods plan. If we want to recover, have to find a foundation of meaning to build on, and it is not "information" or even knowledge.

Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom, not knowledge, is the framework of a fully human life; the architecture of interior peace. Scripture is the Word of God, and Ecclesiastes tells us that “the words of the wise in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools.” Wisdom is more powerful than might and better than the weapons of war (Eccles. 9:16-18). Wisdom is more precious than jewels, and once we have it, then knowledge becomes pleasant to the soul (Prov. 8:11; 2:10).

I VERY grudgingly select this 7th point to share -- I want you to READ IT ALL, because this point is in no way a summary.

Here’s a seventh point: Democracy advances equality by flattening out injustices and social inequities. But it goes much further than that. It also tends to flatten out distinctions and hierarchies of every kind. Unguided by religious faith, democracy flattens out even the human spirit because any kind of divine transcendence or human excellence also implies a kind of inequality. This is why Alexis de Tocqueville said that democracy creates not just a new and different kind of political order, but a new and different kind of humanity.

Much of our people and culture are like a cartoon person flattened by a cartoon steamroller. God's universe is infinitely dimensional, hierarchical, celebratory of TRUE diversity -- diversity of spirit, gifts, thought, experience, blessing. Spirit can't be manifest in a flattened cartoon projection of being human, and so very many of the people in our age have been totally and tragically flattened.

I can't resist one last quote, however, please realize that overall, the column is POSITIVE, unlike what my quotes might lead you to believe.

If you want to see the face of Europe in 100 years, barring a miracle, look to the faces of young Muslim immigrants. Islam has a future because Islam believes in children. Without a transcendent faith that makes life worth living, there’s no reason to bear children. And where there are no children, there’s no imagination, no reason to sacrifice, and no future.

Read the linked and ponder the richness of Grace and possibility that God wants us to live!

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Defending Civilization

The Racial and Religious Paranoia of Trump's Poland Speech - The Atlantic:

I'll start out with two quotes from the linked article:

"The West is a racial and religious term. To be considered Western, a country must be largely Christian (preferably Protestant or Catholic) and largely white. "

The most shocking sentence in Trump’s speech—perhaps the most shocking sentence in any presidential speech delivered on foreign soil in my lifetime—was his claim that “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.”

This is the Atlantic, so naturally the conclusion is that Trump is a racist using religion to increase paranoia. If you want that view, go read the article.

First, what is "Western"? At one time we would have all agreed it was "Western Civilization" ... Judeao-Christian, Greek, Roman, Enlightenment, England followed by the US as leadership in it's latter centuries. Now? Well, we will get to that, but "the modern enlightened" ("liberal", "progressive", etc)  know they hate it. This is from this excellent article, "Yes They Really DO Despise Their Civilization".

I mean, really, how ignorant and provincial do you have to be, Messrs. Beinart and Bouie, to hear Trump’s speech and think of it as a #MAGA version of a Nuremberg Rally Address? Is the degree of self-hatred of the West required to be a virtuous, woke person such that you cannot tell the difference between Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and the Horst Wessel Song? Do they really think Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation (all of which is available on YouTube, starting here) is a plummy version of Triumph of the Will? If standing against this kind of liberal insanity means I have to stand with Donald Trump, well, okay, I’ll stand with Donald Trump. I won’t like it, but at least Donald Trump doesn’t hate his own civilization.

So if you hate your own civilization,  where do you go? We need a cartoon reminder:

What "other civilization" are they after? One without Trump and his "supporters"? They make it pretty clear that it IS NOT "Western Civilization", because that is "Christian and white". So what is it? Islam? Marxism? Black Lives Matter? I suspect they would vaguely say it is "A new fully tolerant, equal, secure, well educated (with progressive education), environmentally friendly, gender free, priviledge free, moral judgement free, etc ... culture/civilization".

I've not really heard them say in any detail though, and certainly not with any discussion of "how" -- essentially, the message of the left continues to be "pull the trigger, we will figure something out on our descent into the abyss" ... trust us. The police are playing the role of Western Civilization, the Terminator is "progressivism" ... they don't tend to honor their "promises", and they have some BAD feelings about Western Civilization!

As the quoted paragraph says -- it is pretty damned easy to support Trump as opposed to people that hate their own civilization, and maybe worse, consider civilization to be their enemy, and VERY disposeable in  order to reach their goals.

The Trump Warsaw speech is WELL worth reading the whole thing -- here is my take on it (Hint, think Reagan at Brandenburg gate!)

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The Dark Rigidity of Tribes

An Insider's View: The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural America | Alternet:

Way too loing for the point it makes -- the red state fundamentalist tribe isn't going to change it's views, even though from a coastal elite's views, everything it believes is wrong.

Naturally the coastal elites views are all "scientific,  correct, etc" -- so there is no need to "understand anyone" -- coastal elites right, red states wrong, poor, racist etc. "Deplorable" summarizes it pretty well.

I'm wondering if food and fuel transfers from red states to blue states suddenly stopped, and all the red oriented "stupid" (from the column authors POV) truckers stopped moving stuff around, how long Mr "correct" would need to be without food and power before being smart was deemed less important than being fed?

I found this to be a pretty good summary of the whole deal ...

When a 2,700-year-old book that was written by uneducated, pre-scientific people, subject to translation innumerable times, and edited with political and economic pressures from popes and kings, is given higher intellectual authority than facts arrived at from a rigorous, self-critical, constantly re-evaluating system that can and does correct mistakes, no amount of understanding, respect or evidence is going to change their minds and assuage their fears.

Yes indeed. That "2700 year old book" along with some Greek philosophy that is a mere 2,350 or so old, plus a few other pieces of wisdom that are centures old built the civilization that was once smart enough to know that without transcendent values, humans return to fundamentalist tribal factions that are so rigid that there is no ground for discussion -- the author of the column seems to grasp the sound of his left tribe "clapping" quite well.

If there are no transcendent values, then obviously might is right. No doubt Mr elite is confident in his team / tribe. They are "right" after all!

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Our Current Civil War

American Culture – New Civil War | National Review:

For those of us in the Christian Right, we have known this since at least 2008, if not 1999 when we failed to impeach Clinton for perjury and the crime of sexual harassment that would have gotten any kids having sex at McDonalds fired. We could even go back to 1973 and say that when a nation embarks on a holocaust that quickly surpassed that of Germany, any person who still has a moral compass knows that war will eventually result.

There are those on both the left and the right who call for American “unity.” But these calls are either naïve or disingenuous. Unity was possible between the Right and liberals, but not between the Right and the Left.

How does one make "peace" with those who will kill 60 million innocents as has happened with abortion? By winning.

Liberalism – which was anti-Left, pro-American, and deeply committed to the Judeo-Christian foundations of America, regarded the melting pot as the American ideal, fought for free speech for its opponents, regarded Western civilization as the greatest moral and artistic human achievement, and viewed the celebration of racial identity as racism – is now affirmed almost exclusively on the right and among a handful of people who don’t call themselves conservative.

I think Praeger is a bit of a Pollyanna as he looks at "liberals of old". Certainly there WERE many such liberals, but even at the time of Buckley writing "God and Man at Yale", it was clear that belief in God was becoming unacceptable at "liberal institutions", and Marxism was considered the winning hand over Capitalism. He is certainly correct however that the modern US and European Left is against every one of those values in the paragraph above at this point.

As long as conservatism was losing, the war was covert -- but with the Trump win, we see it heating up. Can conservatism win without firing a shot as Reagan did against the USSR? I doubt it, but we can always hope. Apparently Praeger doesn't agree with me that the elected government of BOistan has become a SERVANT of the Administrative State and the courts. We shall see.


The article is not that long, highly recommend reading it all. This is how he closes.

With the defeat of the Left in the last presidential election, the defeat of the Left in two-thirds of the gubernatorial elections and in a majority of House and Senate elections, this is likely the last chance liberals, conservatives, and the Right have to defeat the American Left. But it will not happen until these groups understand that we are fighting for the survival of America no less than the Union troops were in the First Civil War.

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Living "As If", Socrates, Plato, Sinatra, Shirley

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/435638/transgender-identity-biology-gender-social-construct-anatomy-binary

The article is on transgender and the basic conclusion is that there are tremendous conflicts about what the whole political transgender movement is, or even wants to be. That isn't what this post is about, the following paragraph struck me:

Maybe, however, this transgender person means that he wishes to live as if he were a woman, rather than to be a woman. Nonetheless, living as if one is a woman is not the same as being a woman, which is what gender identity is taken to mean. Living “as if” one is a woman appears to conflict with the idea that one’s gender is determined by one’s deepest self-perception. Surely the very concept of identity is what one is, not what one pretends or wishes to be.

The core of religions, cultures,  gangs, cults, groups, marriages, etc is simply "living as if" much of the time at least. If we take that paragraph as gospel, we are doomed to forever be completely disconnected "identities", fated to be alone.

Animals are driven by instinct to perform instinctual behaviors. Man is blessed and cursed with consciousness, reason and will, which allows us to CHOOSE what emotions, impulses, stimulus, etc we will seek and how we will react to what happens in our lives. For animals, doing and being are always one.

The base of this question is one of the oldest of religion and philosophy, What is man?  What does it mean to be human? The old joke that Socrates said "To be is to do", Plato said, "To do is to be", but Sinatra is the greatest philosopher, "To, be, do be, do!"

Grace or commitment? Are you saved by Grace, or are you saved by "giving your life to God"?

I'm not attempting to answer these questions today -- nor at the moment am I even searching my blog and linking to some of my and others opinions on them. What I AM doing is pointing out that simply stating that "Surely the very concept of identity is what one is, not what one pretends or wishes to be" is no reason to call someone Shirley! (and YES, I understand that "fixed gender" is the conservative position and variable gender is the liberal position ... this is about thought, not gender other than a jumping off point).

"We are what we are" vs "You can be whatever you want to be"! To a large extent, that is the greatest personal question and drives pretty much all political thought. Any person of thought knows that there are elements of both in all our lives.  As a Christian, we are what God created us to be  (male or female being part of that), and if we submit to his will, we will perfectly fit with and DO what is his will is for our lives, and therefore be temporally and eternally divinely fulfilled.

To be "liberal" means that there is no created order and personal choices about "being and doing" are completely open to individual and state interpretations defined by power. Might is right, because there is no higher authority. There is no fixed reality, and "we" are only temporary physical creatures, nothing else.

To be "conservative" means that the universe is ordered and intelligible. Man and everything else is here for a transcendent reason. The problem of life and culture is accepting (through revelation), or searching for that reason and then conforming our "lower selves" (the animal part) to that purpose. Each person is eternally "more than this world", and we live by transcendent values above the physical and animal world.

"Being fruitful and multiplying" is a core purpose in religion, as well as in a naturalistic / deistic evolutionary view. I find it is no accident that abortion, gay issues and transgender are at the forefront of the "culture wars". Although our current overlords try to prevent even the most cursory of thought beyond the mere nominalist, the "there, there", the spiritual, keeps showing through.

Without the perspective of the eternal, even laughter becomes difficult. Without light there is no dark, and without the serious and ultimate, there is no true humor.

The very least the liberals could do is to stop calling us Shirley!

Prager, Name The Enemy, Soaking In It

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0516/prager051716.php3#2gE0J3QSLYRYlRrC.99

A column in which Prager points out the obvious fact conservatives, Republicans, etc pretty much never state the name of THE PROBLEM that is killing us.

Why? Because they assiduously avoid identifying who or what acts are causing our universities to mimic fascist institutions, namely: ruining dissenters' careers; penalizing dissenting students; not hiring dissenting professors; disinviting the few invited speakers with whom the majority differs; shouting down dissenting speakers; students and faculty occupying and taking over college administrators' offices, etc. 

The Bloomberg-Koch column is like going to your doctor and getting back a fully accurate report that you are dying that doesn't even hint at why you are dying. 

Why don't Bloomberg and Koch mention the words "left" or "progressive" or "liberal" even once? The entire deterioration of the American university (and high school and elementary school) is the result of leftist influence. How could they not mention this?

The simple answer they don't name it is because they don't want to be called idiots. There is a whole book that covers a lot of this, Roger Scruton, "Thinkers of the New Left". The left already took over the university, and if Prager hasn't noticed, the entire Federal / State and Educational bureaucracy, as well as most of media and entertainment, law and a few other major parts of our world.

I enjoy a lot of Prager's thinking, but I really think this is one he knows. Calling the left out is like calling out Godzilla, or going for a stroll in Iran with a funny picture of Mohammad on your shirt.

No, if you are in the public eye like Bloomberg-Koch, you better try to pussyfoot around like mammals hiding out from T-rex. Also, since Bloomberg is a lefty and Koch is a libertarian,  it really would not do for Koch to say that "Bloomberg is the problem" if they want to write a column together.


The BIG reason for not naming the left as the problem though? Like fish in water, or Madge and Palmolive, "We're Soaking In IT!".

The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom

I'm thinking that I'll occasionally link to an "alternate review" for those that want more detail than I provide so here is an alternate view.

"Evil (Lucifer) is a by-product, a component, of creation. In a world evolving into ever higher forms, hatred, violence, aggression, and war are a part of the evolutionary plan." 

Plan? Higher forms? Bloom is an atheist, so he needs to realize the fact that his faith REQUIRES that there IS NO PLAN! There are also no "higher forms". A godless universe has no "preferences" -- slime mold is just as "good" as Einstein, and there IS NOT such a thing as "good / evil / Lucifer / etc" in such a universe. So his premise is completely flawed -- if there is no god, there is NO DIRECTOR FOR EVOLUTION ... it is RANDOM! What survives and breeds survives and breeds, and what doesn't, doesn't. No planner, no plan.

"Lucifer is the dark side of cosmic fecundity, the cutting blade of the sculptor's knife. Nature does not abhor evil, she embraces it."  

Again, no god, no plan, no "sculptor". Whatever form breeds best is just fine with the blind watchmaker. No consciousness in "nature", so no "abhor or embrace" -- it just "is".

The conclusion of the book is this:

Super-organisms, ideas [memes],  and the pecking order, these are the primary forces behind much of human creativity and earthly good. They are the holy trinity of the Lucifer Principle. 

Super-organisms are societies / groups -- the United States, Exxon, The NFL. The assertion is that each individual is like a "cell" in the super-organism in which they live.

Ideas / memes are things like Christianity, evolution, free speech, money -- ideas, beliefs, ideology, religion. The book espouses the theory that these "memes" compete for "the fittest" like genes -- memes are the "genes" of the super-organisms.

Pecking order -- goes back to chickens / barnyard. Dominance hierarchies of people and super-organisms. He goes over the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the British Empire, and the US Empire along with the rise of Islam as a "killer meme / super-organism". The book was published in 1995, his predictions on the rise of Islamic violence were right on.

The far left hated the book thinking it sounds "Fascist" as in "fittest survive, violence is part of nature / unavoidable / etc". It debunks the "nobel savage" in a number of ways -- one of the most colorful is the !Kung of the Kalahari desert -- very primitive, very warlike, lots of killing, lots of violence. No connection to "corruption" by the west -- they just naturally like to kill each other!

The book would really love to come up with some hopeful note. One example:

It is important that the societies which cherish pluralism survive. It is critical that they spread their values. It is vital that they not mistakenly imagine all other societies to be equal and their own inferior. It is imperative that they not allow their position in the pecking order of nations to slip and that they not cave to the onrush of the barbarians. 

Hmm. That is a very nice sentiment -- he likes "pluralism". Does he "like it" even if it isn't adaptive? I mean, what basis does he like it on? It feels good? He believes there is no god, so the ONLY standard is "what works" -- in evolution, what breeds. As I've pointed out, current "pluralistic", "relativistic", "post-modern" western society DOES NOT BREED! Islam does. Mormons do. Primitive backward groups in Africa do.

In the absence of a "divine meme" that is BELIEVED, then all civilizations really are "equal", because the universe has no order. At a number of places in the book, the above being one, Bloom clearly realizes at some level that "no rules means no rules", which means that the Western "pluralistic" societies may well lose out to societies of "true believers" that are interested in conquest while we are interested in getting men wearing dresses into the ladies room.

Gender uncertainty, homosexuality, abortion and birth control are not really the stuff of "healthy super-organisms" -- in fact, they are a pretty solid indication of a near death super-organism. Organisms that stop replacing their "cells" (eg stop having children), and spend their energy killing off unborn children and encouraging same sex unions really don't play in the godless naturalistic universe. "Pluralism" might feel nice to some authors, but it doesn't play well in the model universe he imagines we live in!

It is hard to recommend this book. There IS a lot of "interesting stuff" in it, some of which was new to me, but given it's flawed premises and rather dark with some "wishful hope" conclusions, it can pretty safely be bypassed for better fare. "Sapiens" would be a great example of that fare, along with "Darwin's Cathedral" to round out the "meme" part a bit.

Bloom manages to criticize "Closing of the American Mind" as "blaming our problems on progress". As you can see in my critique above, I think Bloom fails to understand the results of his own world view, so is casting around for whom he can blame -- "Closing" is just a random target.

I'm just going to stop here -- one can't love every book you read! I think the core issue is really just another attempt to get "Science" to carry the load of philosophy and theology.

Impunity In An Amoral World, Shocking!

The age of impunity - The Boston Globe:

Impunity is epidemic in America. The rich and powerful get away with their heists in broad daylight. When a politician like Bernie Sanders calls out the corruption, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal double down with their mockery over such a foolish “dreamer.” The Journal recently opposed the corruption sentence of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell for taking large gifts and bestowing official favors — because everybody does it. And one of its columnists praised Panama for facilitating the ability of wealthy individuals to hide their income from “predatory governments” trying to collect taxes. No kidding. 

So we live in a world that has no fixed transcendent morals and the Boston Globe is SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you! that people try to avoid paying taxes.

You see, in gambling, it is always clear who "the house" is. In a world where morality is no more, "the house" is the government, and while the Boston Globe may be "shocked", the fact that all real morals and obligations have been abandoned and supposedly "replaced" the the "sacred obligation" to pay exorbitant tax rates at the point of a gun, some people still try to avoid paying those rates.

Impunity is not an accidental or incidental defect of American society. It is a system foisted on us by the rich and powerful, and it continues to work its magic. It has enabled Hillary Clinton to come within reach of the presidential nomination without releasing the transcripts of her highly paid speeches to Wall Street banks. The Clintons long ago perfected the art of impunity, becoming rich and powerful by blurring the lines between their campaign fund-raising, public policies in office, Clinton Foundation work, big-money speeches, and off-the-record favors for foreign governments.

The Boston Globe believes that separating people from their money at gunpoint ought to be as easy as killing a fetus in it's mothers womb, taking somebodies property by "eminent domain" under Kelo or changing the timeless meaning of "marriage" at the stroke of a pen.

But some still struggle -- and unsurprisingly, in a country where "money" has become the major substitute for "meaning", the wealthy fight hardest of all. They especially have put the meaning of their whole lives in acquisition of more wealth, so they hold it dear -- as obviously does the government and the Boston Globe.

And they are SHOCKED that when the meaning of life for millions has been reduced to money -- and political power, the politically powerful fight to keep their money (and power), and many seek to convert parts of their power into wealth -- as the Clintons have done.

We have replaced values and truth with money and power -- and we are SHOCKED!

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Responding To Senator Ben Sasse's Open Letter

Ben Sasse - AN OPEN LETTER TO MAJORITY AMERICA TO: Those who...:

Senator Sasse,

First of all, thanks for writing the letter. As we see in the protestors at Trump rallies, in Black Lives Matter, and many other places in this country, we are approaching the time of violence being seen as a solution. If we don't start talking, violence will almost certainly be one of the answers to our crisis.

I'm a 59 year old Christian father of two boys, blessed grandfather of one beautiful granddaughter, married for 31 years, 34 year career in computer software, raised on a dairy farm, now retired and trying hard to write about what I believe matters in my blog and pieces of a book.

You mention the political parties, Washington DC, and what a third party candidate might look like. I believe that American problems always start with IDEAS. We are a country based on ideas, not territory, race, or cultural origin.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I believe the origin of our current problems are in that sentence:

These truths -- What is truth? Possibly the majority of people today think of "truth" as either empirical, the scientific "truth" of numbers and experiment, or as power. The "might is right" of the ballot box or bullet. Many believe that there is no such thing as truth.

created equal -- Our founders thought equality of OPPORTUNITY was the obvious meaning of that term. Today, possibly more than half our nation thinks it is equality of OUTCOME, and even believes that it is the responsibility of government to define and insure that equality of outcome.

endowed by their Creator -- We were founded on TRANSCENDENT values. Not "situational", not "whatever polls say".  "Ideas Have Consequences"  is a book that every educated American ought to understand, because it provides the definition of transcendent truth and the consequences of not having it. The phrase makes clear what our founders knew about our nation, best stated by John Adams: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other".

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness -- A nation that has slaughtered 60 million babies in their mothers wombs has certainly abandoned the protection of life. We could talk of the loss of liberty forever, but the simple fact that everyone talks about "what is happening in DC" vs what THEY are doing in their families, community, churches and states tells the tale.

Sadly, I believe that our founders made a grave mistake in adding "the pursuit of Happiness" to the Declaration. Happiness is a side effect of meaning, and without maturity and meaning, it is not possible. As with most of "my thoughts", this too is stolen, the book that makes it most clear and concise in my experience is "Happiness Is a Serious Problem"

Our nation lost it's way long ago. In recent times, the failure to remove Bill Clinton from office showed that the presidency could be held by a person of no moral character. The election of Barak Obama showed that the office could be held by someone who had no demonstrated competence in leadership or executive function. Being able to campaign and win became the only qualification for leading the area of North America founded on ideas that are no longer known or understood.

George W Bush was the last president of "The United States of America". What we are now is unknown -- and either Trump or Hillary clearly meet the "standard" of "no standards".

We don't need a "candidate to campaign 24/7", we need A NATION! Right now, we don't have one, because the one we had was founded on IDEAS, which our people no longer understand, let alone believe, and a Constitution, which apparently we will demonstrate yet again that we do not follow, with the case of the North Carolina law that specifies males and females using the proper bathroom.

We need a "Movement", a "Revival", a return of the spirit that was America to sweep the land and restore the bulk of our heritage, and yes, maybe correct a few glaring errors like "pursuing happiness". I fervently believe that such a revival may happen -- it may well form a new nation rather than the old one. It may well be that the coasts demand a centralized government, massive dependency, open borders, the exclusion of God from the public square -- in short what is seen as "progressive" by many today.

Most of all, we need to understand what it is that we once were, and what it is that we are seeking to be! Protecting this broken immoral shell of a once great nation from Jihad, getting the books balanced, restoring education, and putting fresh politicians in DC seems a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I have made a personal shot on arriving at what an agenda for restoration might look like here.

Again, thank you for the seed of dialogue. Somehow, we must save at least a remnant of the light that was America, even if it is a new nation made up of what is today "Red America". We need humble ourselves and pray mightily while following the words of Churchill in England's finest hour and Never, Never, Never giving up!

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Degree, Ideas, Shakespeare

The included quotation is from one of my most favorite books -- reviewed multiple times in the Blog, "Ideas Have Consequences",  it is an quotation from Shakespeare as you can see. I've gotten back into trying to understand the bard, with the help of Issac Asimov's Guide To Shakespeare. The reason I'm using that book is because it is very clear to me (and Asimov) that the only people in the modern world that can understand Shakespeare are those that study him AND have a reasonable understanding the historical, legendary, and mythological underpinnings of the works.

Other than the Bible, Shakespeare is one of the biggest creators / interpreters of the meaning that made Western civilization work. His work was intended to appeal to both the common man of his day ("1600 England"),  AND to the aristocracy that funded him. Our problem is that even our (largely technically) "educated" have LESS understanding of Classical Greek and Roman literature than his lower class audience in 1600.

The following quote is included as an "artful means" to make the argument that the chapter it is in opens with ...

"... those who seek to do things in the name of mass are the destroyers in our midst. If society is something that can be understood, it must have structure; if it has structure, it must have hierarchy; against this metaphysical truth, the declamations of the Jacobins break in vain". 

(The Jacobins are the radical reformers of the French Revolution -- the folks with the guillotines) 

Troilus and Cressida, Act I Scene II
O! when degree is shak’d,
Which is the ladder to all high designs,
The enterprise is sick. How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhoods in cities,
Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And, hark! what discord follows; each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
And make a sop of all this solid globe:
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead:
Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong—
Between whose endless jar justice resides—
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
Then every thing includes itself in power,
Power into will, will into appetite;
And appetite, a universal wolf,
So doubly seconded with will and power,
Must make perforce a universal prey,
And last eat up himself. 

The play Troilus and Cressida was written about 1600 but set against the Trojan war (1200 BC) with all the heroes of Homer (850 BC oral, 500 BC written) -- Ulysses, Achilles, Helen of Troy, Agamemnon and sundry references to gods and goddesses and historical references both real and legendary.  Prior to the late 1800's when a German named Heinrich Schliemann went a digging, Troy and the whole story was assumed to be a myth -- but he found it, so historians are sure it is based on history rather than pure mythology.

As you read the Shakespeare and the Greek and Roman mythology for that matter, you see timeless human questions played out -- "the Gods", fate, chance,  betrayal, friendship, love, honor and hatred of parents, children, peoples, order, disorder, etc.

In 1600, they considered the BASICS of a "Classical Education" to know the time of Troy -- 2500 years removed from their time, to be REQUIRED if one was to consider themselves "educated". Even the "peasants" knew more of ancient history than the typical college educated science, humanities, etc "educated person" today.

From the Shakespeare:

"Degree' -- Difference, distinction. Fair lady vs worthless harlot. Immortals vs mortals, etc. Today much of our society screams that "there are no degrees or distinctions" -- all supposed "merit" is "privilege". All outcomes are to be made the same ... "inequality" is the 2nd biggest issue of our time (Climate Change the first).  The Golden State Warriors may as well replace Stephan Curry with any old college player -- there is no such thing as "degree" -- your "betters" have told you so! Fortunately, they have told you there is no such thing as TRUTH either.

"Force should be right, or rather right and wrong" ... might is right. TP has the votes to repeal gender, marriage even life itself for the 60 million unborn dead so far. The gods have spoken!

"Power into will" -- or in Nietzsche, "Will to Power".  All of life CAN be reduced to abolition of degree between "mortals" through will and power. See North Korea today. Remember the USSR or National Socialist Germany. Shakespeare knew all about POWER. Shakespeare had been sponsored by and was friends with Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southhampton, who was aligned with Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex who ended up being executed by Elizabeth I -- in fact, Cressida going bad may have been an allusion to Elizabeth I.

As I now try to parse through Shakespeare I realize yet again the inadequacy of my own knowledge and the height I need to climb to recover even tiny pieces of the wisdom of the ancients. We once KNEW THIS! It was "so simple a child could do it". We had a much greater grasp on what it meant to create and operate a working personal character, family, church, community, culture and nation, but we lost it ... here is a little metaphor from one of the cheesier original Star Treks -- at about 2:30 McCoy has encountered "the teacher" and returning Spock's brain is suddenly doable.

  I covered a bit about our shared plight of having lost the owners manual to the starship of western civilization, grabbed a bottle of pure grain alcohol (we didn't want to try to identify "degree" between beverages), and turned the controls of the starship over to natives from the jungles of the Amazon -- why not? Everyone is equal!

What could go wrong? ... hey, I just met this girl named Pandora. She has a box that seems interesting, so we are going to crack it open tonight and see what is in it. I hope it is "new stuff", new stuff is ALWAYS better -- "progress" you know.

They Fear Critical Thinking, Ayaan Hirsi Ali i

Why Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Criticism of Islam Angers Western Liberals | Observer:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is hated by both Muslims and the Western left wing. I think the following paragraph sums it up completely why that is for BOTH parties.

“They want everyone to get out of their way,” she says. “They fear critical thinking. Anyone in the Islamic world with intelligence who takes a minute to think will not like what they see.”

They want all opposition out of their way and they fear critical thinking. Islam, the Western left,"The Party", students on American college campuses or the liberal relative or associate you deal with. They brook no opposition -- they fear it and they DON'T WANT IT TO EXIST!

But as Ms. Hirsi Ali works to combat those challenges, she finds herself battling the stubborn, unrelenting forces that would have her censored. The efforts to tar her with the tried-and-true epithet of “Islamophobic” come both from powerful Muslim enterprises that would like to squash her like a bug and some on the left, for whom a narrative of the Muslim world as victims and the West as victimizers is precious and comfortable. They regard Ms. Hirsi Ali as trouble. She is, after all, a Muslim-born woman who personally experienced the very abuse that she criticizes. The 46-year-old is also a superb writer, a winning speaker, inarguably courageous and telegenic to boot. She is an atheist as well. For those who wish to suppress criticism of the plight of women under Islam, she is, in short, a disaster.

If the left cared at all about the rights of women, they would never take the side of Islam. If they cared for the rights of gays, they would never take the side of Islam. They "care" for neither, what they care about is the destruction of Western civilization and POWER.

” She countered: “I embrace Muslims but I reject Islamic law … because it’s totalitarian, because it’s bigoted and especially bigoted against women.” The anger she stirs on the left confounds her. “You have to ask yourself why anyone would align with proponents of Islamic law,” she says with wonder. 

Ms. Hirsi Ali has no good answer to this question, and she is not the only one. “How do I get liberals to understand that we are the liberals in this debate?” television host Bill Maher asked her about the subjugation of women in Muslim communities around the world and the indulgence in violence that is taught there. Ms. Hirsi Ali is doing her best. What is terribly unclear is whether the left is prepared to listen.

Why is this answer hard for her and Bill Maher? If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, swims like a duck, flies like a duck, etc, are you going to believe it if it tells you it's an elephant???? "Liberals" stole the name "liberal", they are no more liberal than a duck is an elephant. Fascists, totalitarians, Statists, zealots, fundamentalists, etc -- THOSE are all worthy names for them, and for most Muslims as well!

For the left, it isn't just science that is "settled", IT'S EVERYTHING! -- and people that don't know that are just poorly informed or too stupid to understand it.


'via Blog this'

Liberal Judgement

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434549/left-western-civilization-case-hatred

An excellent article by Dennis Prager (he pretty much only does excellent!), highly recommended to read the entire thing.

His point is that the left loathes all standards and judgement save their own.

Bible-based religions affirm a morally judging God. For the Left, that is anathema. For the Left, the only judging allowed is Leftist judging of others. No one judges the Left. Neither man nor God.

Since Western civilization was founded on Bible-based religion (Judaism and Christianity), the left hates Western civilization, so therefore the enemy of Western civilization is their friend.

The Left similarly describes any suggestion that anything Western is superior to anything non-Western. Likewise, the Left dismisses virtually all Western achievements, but regards criticism of anything non-Western as racist, chauvinistic, imperialist, colonialist, xenophobic, etc.

That is why the Left is so protective of Islam. America’s first left-wing president, Barack Obama, will not use, or allow the government to use, the words “Islamic terrorism”; and all criticism of Islam is labeled “Islamophobic,” thereby morally equating any such criticism with racism. It is not that the Left is sympathetic to Islam; the Left has contempt for all religions. It is that many Muslims loathe the West, and the enemies of my enemy (the West) must be protected.

Prager is smarter and more rational than I, so he doesn't take the next step. Revelation 12:10 "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."

Job is also an excellent source to see Satan the accuser in action. As Luther said, "Man is an ass, he is ridden by God or by Satan." As Christ says in Matt 11:30 "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Christ seeks to give those under his care peace, Satan seeks to make sure they are FULLY occupied! Satan WILL be cast down, but for some reason (my guess is that it is the price for "free will", he is still accusing today) 

So we see the left -- screaming, yelling, marching, demonstrating. Constantly angry, offended, outraged, oppressed, burdened with horrid unfairness -- all the while, seeking to "remove the burden of having standards"! 

Of course what is really meant is "no standards but theirs" -- Thou shalt bow before the altar of Global Warming, Gay Rights, Transexual Rights, support of ISLAM, women's rights, BLM, income equality. Gods standards are known and unchanging, and his Grace is freely available.  The "standards" (accusations) of Satan are explicitly designed to be a constant thorn, and there is no grace -- only constant accusation and ever greater demands for sin and depravity. 

You think you would draw the line and infant sacrifice to Baal? Try 60 million dead to the Baal of abortion already in what was once a great nation while Satan cackles and the flames rise. 

God is a just judge that judges from the standard of Truth, yet another name for Christ. If you are in Christ, you will be judged from the standard of God looking at Christ and imputing his righteousness to you . Satan is a capricious and evil judge -- he enjoys sentencing souls and whole nations to eternal damnation. Eternal misery loves eternal company. 

The power of Satan grows each day in the US. When someone loses their employment for saying that men and women need to use the bathrooms which align with their genitals, and you see the mass of the left leering with delight at their "moral" power, we are allowed a vision of Hell right here on earth. The evil schadenfreude false joy of casting your enemies down as you shift standards on a daily basis is palpable as the next barrier of common decency is breached and the noose of totalitarian enforcement of even the tiniest infraction of "The Party's" rules tightens. 

People are losing their jobs over men not using the women's bathroom -- how long before our currency reads "In Satan we trust"?