Radical Covidians Seek Meaning In The Self Proclaimed Belief That They Care, and You Don't

 Several days ago, Georgi Boorman wrote a piece at The Federalist entitled Mask Fanatics Have Officially Abandoned Science To Control Your Life. In the article, she makes the point that for many 'Mask Nazis' and petty tyrants, the issue of mask wearing has become an article of faith, and is no longer based on science.

It’s nothing new for political religions to produce radicals that develop their own sects or cults. This time around, rigid devotion to enforcing mask compliance has produced runaway fanaticism based on nothing but blind faith that more mask-wearing is always better. Even the public health experts, whom these followers all promoted as great prophets just months ago, can’t tame their fervor.

That’s a problem, because a return to normalcy will require subduing radical factions that agitate for oppression. Restrictions such as mask mandates are like oxygen to followers of radical fundamentalist Covidianism — the abiding belief that only lockdowns, social distancing, and masks can deliver us from the deadly pandemic. The longer mandates stay in place and experts continue promoting mask use — “My mask protects you! Your mask protects me!” — the stronger and more widespread the extremism will grow, and the less influence experts will have over their behavior.

I started back to work in late July.  Even though I could see that masks had no useful purpose, I like most of those around me tried to keep up appearances.  But, as one goes about one's duties, only to discover that more and more, most of the people you deal with aren't wearing masks, you begin to drop the act.  Governor Cooper may not like it, but out there, in the country side far away from Raleigh, most people do not believe him.  Indeed, it has become something of a tell tale talisman.  Those who religiously wear masks are the Democrat base, those who don't are more inclined to lean Republican.

Here's what I know.  First, the experts told us it was spread though the infected breathing out virus bodies to infect others.  This would be airborne.  But the virus is so small that the pores in either surgical masks or the cloth masks most people wear are too large to filter these viruses.  Scott Morefield has describe it as building a chain link fence to stop mosquitoes

As soon as you point out that their masks are full of holes, the Covidians switch to another argument.  Oh, no, it's not that it is airborne, but if you cough, or sneeze, or spit, that is what causes infection.  And anyway, you don't know if you have it or not.  A mask will stop the droplets.

But, as I point out, I am not coughing, of sneezing, and in any case I am standing a good distance away.  Not good enough, the Covidians say, because...because.  They have gotten the religion, and mean to cram it down everyone's throats.

Georgi Boorman has coined a new term for this strange religion.  She calls it Radical Covidianism.  Covidians seek meaning through the self proclaimed belief that they care more than you.  Instead, they should put their trust in the God of Creation.

Turning Off The Boob Tube

 I have mentioned before the deterioration in the arts that has accompanied the deterioration of the culture.  There has been no great poetry since the 1940s.  The early 20th century was a time of great novelists, but no more.  Movies remain relevant by remaking the old movies.  But the old ones were better because the new ones have inserted leftist messages and politically correct themes.  Music has not been left untouched either.  Pop music, for instance has become bland with very little real musicianship involved.  Indeed, where music is still real seems to be among  often obscure independent musicians playing local venues.

I have mentioned before that I play the organ (badly, I'll admit) and I am studying the guitar with a teacher who has trained in and performed in jazz and classical guitar.  I also played the trumpet until I had a stroke 20 years ago.  I have recently taken it up again, with hopes to improve to where I can play in church again.

Musicianship,  being a performance art, requires attention to detail, to certain practice regimes, to precision in hitting the notes at the right time.  An organ, or a guitar pretty much guarantees that if you strike the right key, or fret the right note, you will hit the note.  But you also have to hit that note at the right time, and with the right force.  Hitting the note in question at mezzo forte when it is supposed to be mezzo piano will make you stand out like a sore thumb.  Trumpet, and other brass instruments however, require a person to hit the correct note by changing the buzz of the lips.  It is possible to bend the notes higher or lower, such that one has to train not only the lip muscles, the breathing muscles, but the ear itself.

Someone who knows a thing or two about what is termed "classical" music, though music composed in the twentieth century can hardly be called "classical," has written a piece at the American Thinker entitled Music On Hold by Anthony J. DeBlasi.  DeBlasi uses the fermata to symbolize the pause in the progression of music that was taking place up until the mid twentieth century. The fermata is that little half circle with the dot in the center of it in the music. The notation indicates that the conductor can hold that note for as long as he wants. A fermata placed at the right spot adds tension and drama to a piece of music.

Of course, you should go read DeBlasi's article.  What I want to highlight is the relationship between a healthy culture and innovation in the arts.  For example, during the Elizabethan period in England, there was great innovation in both drama and poetry.  In other areas, the defeat of the Spanish Armada cleared the way for England to rule the seas.  The English people were full of confidence, and this showed in their drama and poetry.  Of course, music also flourished during this period. 

I liken the current state of the culture to a person who has a serious disease that causes the person to be depressed.  When a person is depressed, they haven't the energy to engage in strenuous activities such as musical innovation, writing great literature, or painting great works.  As I indicated above, great music requires an athleticism that can not be performed when one is depressed.

The cause of this depression is, of course, the constant drum beat from academics, the media, and politicians that Americans are bad people in every way.  We are racist, xenophobic, intolerant, and indeed every kind of bad there is.  Oh, and we are stinky Walmart shoppers who are deplorable.  Don't forget deplorable. At all levels they are trying to tear down our history, our Constitution, our laws, our religion, even our language.  Oh, and television content has devolved into really horrible "reality" shows and propaganda.  But it is what we tolerate.

If we want change in our culture, we need to shake off the malaise that has infected us.  We are a great people, and we should be doing great things, leading the world in every way.  We are not racist, or xenophobe, or indeed any other phobe.  The saying goes that politics follows culture, but culture itself reflects the confidence of the society.  We need to turn off the boob tube and start making music.  It is both uniquely human and fun..

So It's To Be Amy Coney Barrett

 President Trump just announced the nominee for the vacant RGB seat on the Supreme Court is Amy Coney Barrett.  Kurt Schlichter has a post at Townhall.com telling us that the Democrats Take Aim At Amy Coney Barrett

One thing the elite has never quite gotten a handle on with Trump is how he blends policy and showmanship – he’s the best political communicator since at least Ronald Reagan. Picking the Notorious ACB is not just a policy triumph – she’s going to be great down the line, on guns, religious freedom, and not killing kids – but her appointment is a powerful message to our alleged betters. She’s not some Ivy League doofus mincing about Harvard Yard complaining about how the uppity gardener left grass clippings on the walkway that got on his deck shoes. She’s a married believer from Indiana and is therefore staggeringly normal compared to the coastal elitists who think they rule us. She’s young and bright and looks like she’s happy – which to our elite, mired in perpetual faux angst, is an outrage. She has got a bunch of kids (including one future icon who rocked a pale blue suit with an orange tie like a boss), which the frigid, barren feminists already hate but which normal people will think is kind of nice. People who drive minivans will identify with her; people who drive Volvos will Nadler themselves.

Obviously, Schlichter is high on Barrett, and as a lawyer I assume he has done his research. Personally, I hope he is right. The country has been going leftward for as long as I have been alive. It doesn't matter who we elect, and the Supreme Court is part of the reason. Take healthcare, for example:

They certainly plan to attack her on healthcare, counting on the Democrat-owned teacher’s unions to have done such a garbage job teaching civics that the American people will not know that healthcare should not be a concern of the government or the courts, except to the extent the courts enforce contracts. What they ask her will make no sense, but the media will aid and abet the lies with such headlines as “Racist Nominee Thinks Healthcare Is Unconstitutional Because She Likes Jesus.” Whatever. She needs to be ready for the dumbness.

Every time the subject comes up, I find myself yelling at the TV that healthcare isn't the government's job. Yes, I know it is one of the rights of the people not enumerated. But because that is true does not place a burden on taxpayers to pay for it. Each individual must exercise his rights by paying for his own healthcare. The right to keep and bear arms is an enumerated right, yet the government doesn't purchase a gun for everyone. Instead, to exercise the right, you must purchase your own weapon and ammunition, and train with it on your own. The idea that healthcare is a right and therefore must be paid for by the taxpayer is a fallacy promoted by the Left. The Left wants the taxpayer to pay for it because it gives them more power over the lives of the people.

Let's hope we can see many years of logical, Constitutionally accurate decisions coming from Mrs. Barrett.

The Choice

 I have been reading other blogs than those on this site, that have warned for years that we are heading for a civil war.  The American Partisan in particular has bee at pains to provide information that will help a person prepare. In particular, besides securing a supply line and hardening your abode, one must harden one's heart. Note, though, that hardening one's heart does not mean jettisoning one's compassion. Rather, it means adopting a flint eyed view of strangers, because unless you know a person, they could be out to take stuff, your life, and the lives of your family and friends. 

But of late I am seeing more and more talk of civil war in more mainstream publications. At the American Thinker yesterday, E.M. Cadwaladr had a pretty explicit article entitled The Battle of November 3 Is Coming. Cadwaladr discusses a colleague who is a typical "low information voter" who doesn't like Trump's tweets. But does a dislike of hes tweets justify a vote in favor of the Socialists?

My associate said he hadn't seen Biden lately and that he'd go look at a few interviews. To be fair, Creepy Joe has become less attracted to the light of day than Dracula with a case of the measles. Could I have pushed my case for Trump a little harder? Sure. But my coworker is a director, corporations don't like boat-rockers, and I'm strongly inclined to keep my job. Put a million votes in the balance, and perhaps I'll pull the pin on that grenade. I am not quite willing to chance my career on one.

I'm sure there are millions of people in the country like my coworker — people who, believe it or not, still haven't noticed. They believe that the stability of their lives is something they can take for granted. That politics is still a mild nudge in this direction or that, which they can easily ignore. Man's capacity to rationalize is strong. People can, through blind hope and active imagination, still convince themselves that the election is merely a protracted personality contest in which the nicest smile wins. They can believe that the decent person's duty is to think and say Trump is a vulgar and offensive pig. What they will actually do when they stand in the illusory privacy of a poll booth is unknown. I wince to think about it. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..."

Whether Trump wins or loses, these people are going to have a shock in store when they wake up on November 4. A civil war now stares us in the face. You don't have to be a kook to see it coming anymore.

Please go read the entire article. Next, WAKE UP. I have colleagues like Cadwaladr who believe this is just another election. To be fair, they have been told that every election is life and death for decades. With so much crying of "wolf!", people tend to ignore when they are told that THIS time, it really is. I believe it is. Please make up your own minds.  The choice is between fundamentally transforming America, of restoring the Constitutional republic of the United States.

No Mercy For a Left That Has Been Ruthless Toward Conservatives

Last night, on the way home from a meeting with a friend from out of town, we heard that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died at 87.  Of course, I can not support her politics.  Indeed, some of them, such as support for abortion are positively barbaric, and in true upside down fashion, are designed to eliminate "undesirable" people.  These are not my words, but Ginsburg's.  From the Captain's Journal:

 Q: “Are you talking about the distances women have to travel because in parts of the country, abortion is essentially unavailable, because there are so few doctors and clinics that do the procedure? And also, the lack of Medicaid abortions for poor women?”

 Justice Ginsburg: “Yes, the ruling about that surprised me. [Harris v. McRae — in 1980 the court upheld the Hyde Amendment, which forbids the use of Medicaid for abortions.] Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion.”

That someone on the Supreme Court has a moral compass 180 degrees away from God's commandments is telling. And her thoughts on the Second Amendment are equally bizarre. Go read the Captain's Journal.

Meanwhile, over at the American Thinker Bode Lang has a post advocating that Republicans show No Mercy For Leftists and instead appoint and confirm a conservative justice to fill the seat left vacant by Ginsburg's death.  Lang points out that Trump has nothing to lose and everything to gain by appointing a successor as soon as possible.  I suspect Lang is correct.  After all, by putting his list of potential Supreme Court nominees out before the 2016 elections, they essentially have been voted on by the people.  In any case, anyone who thinks Ginsburg belonged on the Supreme Court isn't a Trump voter in any case.  So, what does he have to lose?

Then there is this point, made by Ted Cruz, and reported by Matt Vespa over at  Townhall.com in a post entitled Ted Cruz Offers a Solid Reasom for Filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Vacancy Now. Cruz believes that this election may well be decided by the Supreme Court, and as it stands now, that is 8 members, meaning a potential deadlock.  We should avoid a Constitutional crisis if that happens.

Leftists are already trying to convince Republicans that there exists some sort of Merrick Garland precedent that they must not break.  I call male bovine excrement on that.  If the shoe were on the other foot, the Democrats would definitely appoint a replacement and sleep very well at night.  In fact, there is no such precedent, and Republicans should go ahead and appoint and confirm a Supreme Court Justice. 

What, are you really tired of winning?  Think again about the utter ruthlessness of the Left towards people on the right.  They are willing to go right up to murder to get their way.  That fact alone tells you everything you need to know about them.  Sorry, no mercy.

To Save America, First We Have To Win

Rich Logis has an article up at the American Thinker entitled The Extortionist Democrat Media Industrial Complex that makes the claim that this election will tell us whether America may have a chance, or if the forces of socialism and anarchy will prevail.

November will be the most revelatory moment in world history, because it is going to be a moment to decide whether sensible American adults abdicate all that is good about our country to hysterical, The View–worshipping, adult-aged Democrat children.

One of the revelatory moments will be whether enough Americans understand that when Democrats talk about "fundamental transformation," that's just code for tyranny, enacted by first-world capitalists who want all the First World spoils for themselves.

Another revelatory moment will be whether enough Americans grasp that most of our legacy press has long conspired with the Democratic Party. The DMIC exists solely to protect and elect Democrats — no exceptions.

Another revelatory moment will be whether enough Americans comprehend that anywhere the voters of Biden and Harris are the majority or super-majority, unaffordability, unnecessary loss of life, suffering, and squalor always follow — no exceptions.

None of the above is a worthless opinion; all of it is affirmed by tens of thousands of days of history — both domestic and abroad — and data.

The solution now is what it's always been — or, more specifically, who it's always been: We the People.

It will be a hard road back. Some say it will be a bloody one as well. Look, a whole generation of young people has been deliberately infantalized, at taxpayer expense, by our public education system. They can not be changed.

We will have to educate a new generation that there is no such thing as white privilege, no such thing as systemic racism, and that each of us, individually, is entirely responsible for every action and inaction that we takes. What each makes of himself is entirely within his own hands. No one is holding anyone back.  We will also have to teach them our true history, the good, the bad and the shady.  And there is much that is good.  

The Democrat plan for November is the plan they had in 2016: to own the United States — forever. Trump — and all of us — temporarily stymied that. We won't get this opportunity again to politically pummel the Democrats. And when we win, we will then begin replacing our national Republican Party, which will be extinct come the new year. Our GOP lives in fear of the Democrats and the DMIC; freedom will never be preserved and expanded by a group who cowers in fear.

It is true that the Republicans have largely either lived in fear, or else they basically agree with the Democrats.  They have betrayed conservatives and their constituents.  Either way, most of them will have to go. We need people who believe in the Constitution, in small "r" republicanism, and are unafraid.

But first we have to win in November.

Two Posts

Two posts today, neither one related to the other.  I have been busy today, with the decent weather taking place for the first time in months, and recognizing that it will last for....well....today.  So, here you go.

First up is a post at the American Thinker by Andrea Widburg entitled The CDC Blatantly Violates A Trump Order Regarding Critical Race Theory, that calls out the CDC's blatant insubordination.

At the beginning of September, the director of the Office of Management and Budget announced that, at President Trump's direction, all federal agencies would be banned from imposing Critical Race Theory (CRT) on their employees. This was the right thing to do. CRT is pure racism. While the KKK was obsessed with blacks and the Nazis were obsessed with Jews, CRT is obsessed with white people. Teaching it at federal agencies is a shocking violation of the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Despite its unconstitutionality and the president's order, though, the CDC is planning to continue CRT training.

Christopher Rufo, who has become the point man for all of these stories about CRT training in the federal government, discovered what he aptly called a "BOMBSHELL." The CDC is going ahead with its plan — paid for with your money — to impose a thirteen-week-long CRT training program on its employees.

Clearly, if the head of the CDC does not renounce this training and stop this, he should be fired for insubordination. Anyone else who did such a thing would be fired.

Next, is a piece at The American Partisan entitled Epidemic of Fear, in which the Guest Author (GA) points out that there is plenty of evidence that the lockdowns and the mask requirements are ineffective, and there is some evidence that masks do a positive harm.  GA is not the first I have noticed that have notice the fear I first spoke about several weeks ago.  You see people out there who don't wear masks unless forced to by business policy.  We all need to by groceries, after all.  They don''t make a big deal about it.  Perhaps they should.  Maybe file a lawsuit?