Father, command me what You will, and make me love your command

 Andrea Widburg, always a thoughtful columnist, has a slightly different take on the China issue in China's disasterous one child policy is finally starting to kick in. Widburg in turn points to a piece by Daniel Greenfield entitled Can Feminism Destroy China?

I've long known that China's one-child policy, which resulted in the abortion of up to 40 million female babies, was going to have far-reaching consequences. My assumption was that women would become more valuable and be better treated, but I didn't realize that their increased value might spell the beginning of the end of the Communist Party.

Greenfield, however, suggests that the massive demographic imbalance, with men far outnumbering women, paired with a rising yuppie class that's materialistic and creates women who have no interest in marriage and children, is causing a slo-mo collapse in China. This is true despite Xi Jinping's bluster and military expenditures.

You will want to read both articles. I still feel that China is dangerous, perhaps more so because the CCP may have trouble holding onto power. Under such conditions, it is not out of the question that China may strike out as a way to distract its people from problems at home. And while China's army may be huge, the fact is that it hasn't actually fought a war against a peer. But the U. S. military is not in great shape either.

One thing that is interesting is that the Chinese middle class has been shorn of faith, leaving them with no real purpose in life.  The same thing however, is happening in the United States.  Christians need to pray every day "Father, command me what You will, and make me love your command."

We Have Been All Too Compliant With Gangster Government

I have been keeping an eye askance at China. China is certainly populous, has a huge army, a navy with growing sophistication, and as we all heard, had recently tested hypersonic missiles. And China's leader, Xi Jinping has lately been rattling sabers. Then there is our own Dear Leader who some believe has been compromised by China. Which makes war with China a possibility.

Interestingly, Uldis Sprogis has an article on China today at the American Thinker entitled China Is In Deep Trouble. According to Sprogis, Xi's need to control everything and everyone is driving money and investment out of China. At the same time, Xi faces competition from inside the CCP.

Xi Jinping’s crackdown on almost everything in China may be a sign of insecurity or tremendous fear of the monied business sector. Tencent and Alibaba were in the 10 topmost valuable tech companies globally in 2020 and today they are no longer on the list. 38% of the apps disappeared from the app market since 2018. China is about to ban offshore trading services, has not only cracked down on big tech but also social media, tuitions, and games. The crackdown was rationalized in the name of common prosperity, but it is more like a vendetta against businesses --which is causing foreign investors to flee China, making Chinese markets lose 1.5 trillion dollars. The crackdown on celebrities resulted in one social media influencer being fined $210 million.

You can read the rest of Sprogis's article for more details. I wanted to point out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) isn't really a legitimate government as we understand what government is supposed to be. They are not about securing the rights of the Chinese people, or making life better. Which is why they have to steal technology and manufacturing methods. If they were about making life better for the Chinese, these things would naturally flow from the process. After all, the Chinese are a very intelligent people, and when left to their own devices, quite enterprising.

What the CCP is really about is power. According to the Epoch Times in an article on China's "Gang Rules,"

According to Lu, many public comments call the internal Party regulations “gang rule” since the CCP is regarded as “a gangster” since it always deems itself as being greater than the country and it places its internal discipline ahead of state law.

It is unfortunate that this "gangster government" has corrupted our own government.  The Founding Fathers understood this possibility, leading George Washington to note that “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”  We have been all too compliant.  But times demand we pay more attention or we may find ourselves again wasting blood and treasure.

The Meaning of Christmas

God entered history as a Jewish child born to a distant decendent of King David with a mission.  That mission had been foretold  by prophet after prophet.  It was to save mankind from the sin of the world by dying on a cross.  Jesus would live the sinless life that men were supposed to have lived, but were unable to do. But it was by dying on that cross that he did what no man could have done.  In the process, he changed men's and women's lives, and they in turn changed the world.  Scott S. Powell provides a few of the details in a piece at the American Thinker entitled The Advent of Christ Changed the World Forever.

The fact is that Christ affected history with such impact that He split time in two, dividing all human activities and events into happening before His coming (called B.C.) or after His coming (called A.D.). No one else in all of human history did this. Christ had to have had a supernatural impact on the world for that to be accepted.

History shows that Christianity and its Church have brought about more changes for the advancement and benefit of people than any other force or movement in history by an immeasurable factor. What is particularly surprising are the myriad achievements made by committed Christians, which nonbelieving secular-minded people also applaud.

Before Christ, human life was cheap and expendable all over the world. In the Americas, the Near East, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East child sacrifice was a common phenomenon. Babies, particularly females -- who were considered inferior -- were regularly abandoned. Author George Grant points out: “Before the explosive and penetrating growth of medieval Christian influence, the primordial evils of abortion, infanticide, abandonment, and exposure were a normal part of everyday life.” That changed in the West with the 6th century Christian Byzantine Roman Emperor Justinian whose Law Code declared child abandonment and abortion a crime.

Please go read the entire article.  But what Powell writes about is a small portion of the effects Christ has had on the world.  We often think that the world has always been this way, but it has not.  As Powell points out, before Christ, life was cheap.  And everywhere that Christ is excluded, it still is.

Christ accomplished the mission for which he came into the world. It may not seem like it when we look around every day. It may seem like Satan is winning, but Satan just doesn't recognize that he has already lost. We need to remain faithful, by asking Him each day what we are to do next.

Suffice it to say that life both at home and around the world would no doubt be qualitatively worse today if Christ had never been born and Christianity had not become the greatest spiritual force ever to inspire creative beauty and advance the care and development of people. Indeed, there is reason to sing “Joy to the World.”

Our Problems Are Spiritual Rather Than Physical

On Christmas Eve 2021, we find ourselves at a crossroads: We will either succumb to totalitarianism or we will have to reassert our God given rights, liberties and freedom. Jennifer Jones explains the stakes in this fight at an article at the American Thinker entitled 'Pandemia' and the Psycology of Fear. Those desiring to impose a totalitarian regime on the American people have pounded the drums of fear using elite experts and the media. At least 15 minutes of a typical 30 minute local news broadcast is devoted to Covid, whether it is cases and hospitalizations or other Covid news. They do this to drive fear and induce people to demand the government "do something."

The 20th century was defined, in significant part, by despotic leaders implementing propaganda campaigns to vilify certain groups of people deemed dirty or diseased. The despots didn’t accomplish these campaigns at once but, instead, did so slowly, by conditioning one group of people to believe their ills were caused by another group of people, while conditioning that second group of people to accept increasing levels of human rights violations. Leaders and governments, often working with the healthcare community, carried out campaigns to divide nations and eradicate those deemed “unclean” for the country’s “welfare” and the “future good.”

Today, the same divisive, unrelenting propaganda tactics that past fascists and tyrants used are producing a divided world and prompting actions by some that border on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). What was once considered hypochondriac behavior—masking, social distancing, and repeated hand washing—has become normalized. It identifies the good citizen, even in the face of a waning, weakened virus, heavily mutated from its original strain and far less deadly.

...snip...

You are the ideal citizen if you avoid others, wear a cloth on your face, and take as many jabs as the government deems necessary. Every citizen’s freedom to make healthy choices has been replaced with a legal obligation to be healthy—an obligation that must be fulfilled at all costs, without considering the individual, and without liability for those pushing these “healthy measures” when they cause harm.

Please read and consider the entire article.

Meanwhile, as Jayanta Battacharya, one of the writers of the Great Barrington Declaration has noted We Can Not Stop the Spread of COVID, But We Can End the Pandemic.

I think though, both articles miss the point. Our problems are not really physical, although COVID does exist. Our problems are spiritual rather than physical. They are a result of our reliance on ourselves rather than on our Creator. We have forgotten God. Of course, God does indeed love us...so much that he is willing to let us go our own way if that is what we want. But when we go our own way, things seem to go wrong, whereas when we rely on God, things work out for the best.   It seems to me that the first thing we need to do is to stop being afraid. 

Tucker Carlson Today with Eric Metaxas

 Just watch this episode of Tucker Carlson Today with Eric Metaxas.

More Proof of the Stolen Election

 You might wonder what is going on with issue of the stolen 2020 election.  Well, little bits and snippets keep coming out.  Today, it was New Video Capturing Pennsylvania Officials Hiding Evidence of Alleged Election Fraud, by Margot Cleveland. It hasn't gotten much play in the MSM, but this is big.

New whistleblower videos capture Delaware County, Pennsylvania officials plotting to recreate missing election data from the November 2020 contest, with one official later bragging that the local Democrat district attorney “owes him.” These recordings represent the latest evidence of the alleged fraud officials in the Pennsylvania county undertook to hide widespread violations of the state’s election laws, according to a source familiar with the recordings.

Whistleblower Regina Miller, who worked as a contract employee for Delaware County, secretly recorded the behind-the-scenes videos of election officials after witnessing concerning conduct, according to sources with knowledge of a fraud lawsuit filed last month against county election officials, based in part on the recordings. That lawsuit alleged county election officials destroyed election data in response to a May 21, 2021 Right to Know Request filed with Delaware County that requested the final certified return sheets from the Nov. 3, 2020 general election for all Delaware County precincts, as well as the tapes from the voting machines.

You need to go read the entire article, and watch the videos. The election was stolen, and it will be stolen again unless we do something about it.

To Become Like A Child

 I am now 69 and a half years old, and until today I didn't really understand the saying of Jesus in Matthew 18:

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

After all, reason tells you that becoming again like a child is impossible. You have lived too long, seen too much, and all that you have seen, and maybe done, can not be forgotten. And didn't Jesus also say:

Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

But then, that seems to be the point of Anthony J. DeBlasi's article at the American Thinker today entitled Transcendent Truth. In thinking about God and His work in the world, "reason" only takes you so far. The mind of God is so vastly beyond us, that our ony response is to accept that God loves us and what he commands is for our own good.

Truth, in its meaning as ultimate knowledge of reality and human life, does not conform to the restrictions of rational thought. Rational thought (frequently and loosely referred to as “reasoning”) serves best where it operates within a set of unyielding givens. This is not possible where every critical given is open to endless modification, in any search for ultimate Truth. In short, putting what is all-encompassing within an enclosing mental frame is an exercise in futility. Deliberators on ultimate truth waste their time (and ours) when they fail to see that it does not – can not – proceed from the human mind, a reality confirmed by centuries of consistent failure to succeed. Smart as we are, try as we may, the Truth remains beyond the grasp of philosophy, beyond science, beyond politics, beyond opinion and, face it, beyond argument. What is left for mortals, concerning ultimate knowledge of reality and human life, is to concede that it must come from the mind of God. For it is simply not something we can originate or, what is laughable, establish by consensus.

Which leads to the second question, “Why must we search for the Truth, why don’t we have it?” Well, the answer is, we do have it. The Truth is present in us as a reflection from our Source of Being, something that Plato elaborates on in his “Allegory of the Cave” [The Republic] and mystics have sensed throughout history. That reflection – faint in some, stronger in others – is the inspiration for action tending toward a more fulfilling, happier life than otherwise possible. This “bridge” to our Source, sensed intuitively (not rationalized), is manifest in God-centered religion that, when unadulterated by politics, provides the best available guide to a good life.

...snip...

It is just so for anyone who can sense transcendent truth, even if unable to “reach it” in a purely mental way, which is where faith takes over and the need arises for God-oriented doctrine if the means to best guidance is to resonate with our Source of Being. Reaching for certainty, fulfillment, wellbeing ought to lead to an adaptation to life that draws from our Source, universally acknowledge as the Creator, God. Without a serious effort toward that end, there is stumbling from crisis to crisis with misery for the many.

This is extremely sad, considering the fact that the consciousness of the Creator entered the consciousness of humanity in the event we celebrate as Christmas. Via the birth and life of Christ it became abundantly clear to all what the portal is to “the truth, the way, and the life” [John 14:6] – true happiness, in other words. Yet this divine light on human wellbeing continues to be rejected and reviled wherever it conflicts with selfish gain or unbridled ambition to power. The latest result stares us in the face: a world with no moral anchor, beset with endless confusion, finger-pointing, back-stabbing, suffering and bloodshed.

And this is where becoming like children comes in. Children can accept things that defy logic, like bread and wine being flesh and blood when done in remembrance of Him. Logic says that bread is bread, wine is wine. Jesus says it is His body and blood. To accept that this is Truth is to become like children, or at least to begin to approach that state.

We must fight for life, because the Left will not stop fighting for death

 I was cautiously optimistic that abortion, if not ended in this coutry, would at least be relegated to the states, where some of then would limit the slaughter of unborn babies.  But Christopher Bedford at the The Federalist throws cold water any feeling of optimism that we may have taken from the oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. You can find Bedford's article here.

It’s always cryptic, reading too far into oral arguments. Everything seemed to go well – Justice Brett Kavanaugh (a worry to many pro-lifers) seemed deeply skeptical of the left’s arguments; Chief Justice John Roberts, always cautiously liberal, correctly compared America’s abortion laws to those of China and North Korea.

By the end of the afternoon, folks from NBC News’s legal correspondent Pete King all the way back to our own Mollie Hemingway figured the old ways were DOA.

But things change. In March of 2012, the court heard three days of arguments in a case called National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius – the first major case on the constitutionality of Obamacare. During those six hours of arguments, Roberts was engaged; fired up even. The Affordable Care Act looked to be in trouble.

Three months later, Roberts twisted the Senate’s own words and promises to write a tortured majority opinion upholding President Barack Obama’s signature achievement on absurd legal grounds.

As Bedford notes, we must keep fighting for life, because the Left will not stop fighting for death.

O Come O Come Emmanuel

I was meditating on a hymn that we are going to play at tonight's prayer service.  The hymn is O Come O Come Emmanuel. "O Come O Come Emmanuel (which means God with us) and ransom captive Israel." The first thing is that Israel is a real place, and a real people. But every Christian believer is an Israelite. Now, ancient Isreal was held captive by Babylon and Assyria. But we are held captive still by Satan himself. We can do nothing good unless God does it through us.

Now, in ancient Israel, they sacrificed an unblemished animal as a way to atone for their sins. But one must understand that this was only symbolically. For an animal, no matter how perfect, can not pay for our sins, which is what ransom means. And it is no wonder that God became disgusted with the mass slaughter of animals in His name in His house. The ransom, the price of our sin is our very life, but no one is unblemished. As Paul said, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So, even if everyone were to be killed, that wouldn't save us.

What to do, what to do?

Well, God had already figured it out. When Abraham went up to sacrifice his son Isaac, God provided the sacrifice to Abraham. This was a forshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice of His Son. He would enter history as a child born to a virgin, live a sinless life, and be executed, pouring out His blood as ransom for mankind.

Our response? We can only be grateful. Hallelujah.

Biden isn't the first leader to start a war to distract from falling poll numbers

 So much news that deserves commentary.  There is the so called pandemic, which has always been a pseudo-event,  That fact is becoming obvious even to some Democrats like the Governor of Colorado.  There is the on going speculation that the Supremes will cave and find the Mississipi abortion law unconstitutional.  And what is going on in the Ghislaine Maxwell case?  Why no reporting on that trial?  Or what about the inflation that is impoverishing America's middle class?  Most of those impoverished earned their money by working hard 40-50 hours a week, unlike the Biden family who made their millions through...other means.

Oh, and the Democrats are still holding people that have been charged with such dangerous terroristic things as trespassing in jail under horrendous conditions.  When Russia does that we call them political prisoners.  Does that make the Democrats as bad as the Russians?  

But what I find even more urgent, from an existential threat perspective, is the growing call for the United States to go to war to stop Russia from invading Ukraine.  Like Tucker Carlson and Kurt Schlichter, I think it is important to Tell the Establishment 'No Intervention in Ukraine.' I can see no American interests being threatened in the Ukraine. More to the point, shouldn't those proposing that we go to war with Russia tell us just how many dead kids they think Ukraine is worth?

I’m at a loss as to the concrete American objective in Ukraine. When you ask the question – or the reasonable follow-up of, “Fine, and how many Americans dead or maimed is achieving that objective worth to you?” – the best you get is a blank stare. Usually, you get told you love Putin, as if protecting American lives from being wasted on another impulsive crusade is playing into his bloodstained hands. But we must break this cycle of tragic failure by asking these questions, and demanding the answers.

...snip...

These questions are not unfair or unreasonable, and they are certainly not unpatriotic. But the Beltway brigadiers sure get huffy when you dare pose them. And they positively freak out when you suggest that if America is going to commit itself to the defense of another country that we should go through the process of declaring war to do so. But declaring war means having a debate, and the last thing they want is a debate because, as we all know, there is no critical American objective to be achieved by sending our forces to fight Russia over this border dispute.

Of course the hypocrisy of defending Ukraines border but not defending our own is mind blowing. And by no means is it certain we could win this intervention, what with the current incompetence of our military and their political leaders.  But realize that Biden wouldn't be the first leader to start a war to distract from falling poll numbers.

Please go read the whole article.

How Can We Ever Be Discouraged

 Today is the third Sunday of the Advent season.  Our church of course makes a big celebration out of it.  I have been extremely busy this year so I haven't really sat down to think about it much.  Fortunately, at The Federalist Elly Reynolds has an excellent meditation on the meaning of Advent at Bad News In The World Reminds Us We Still Await a Second Advent. 

As Christians, anticipating the Second Coming of Christ, we are to be in the world, but not of it. We are also to model Christ, which means feeding the hungry, comforting the downtrodden, advocating for those who can't speak, but mostly to hope for the Eternal.  Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, we are and always have been in a war of Good versus evil.  Christ came into the world, took the sin of the world on himself, then rose and ascended to be seated at the right hand of God.  And guess what?  He invites us to be sons and daughters of God with him.

That candid recognition of our world’s imperfection often leaves us discouraged. We are frustrated that so many naively buy the blatant lies of the corporate press and corrupt politicians, and that even basic truths like “don’t kill babies” and “boys and girls are different” meet vicious opposition.

Yet, unlike the utopian dreams of the globalist left, our goal is not and has never been the perfection of the system. Conservatives should not hope to “fix” the world — nor be despondent when it proves unfixable. While we should seek to cultivate and steward our culture and our communities, our inability to shut off the fire hose of foolishness, evil, and sin in our world today should remind us we await another one.

We Are Made to Long for the Eternal

The Advent season is a time to recall the ancient posture of a world awaiting its savior. We recall the longing of a people who had waited 400 years for the voice of God and millennia for his promised salvation.

But there is another Advent, or arrival, to which we look. We long for the day in which we will surrender our earthly failures and enjoy the presence of a heavenly God. Far from discouraging us, the shortcomings of Earth should embolden our hope. If men were angels, neither heaven nor salvation would be necessary.

What with work, with the giving of gifts, with all the terrible news that comes flooding into our houses, it is easy to become distracted. For this reason, one of my favorite advent hymns is Savior of the Nations Come or you can hear the music and see the lyrics here. Thirty-three years after the events of that first Christmas day, with His death on the cross, and subsequent resurrection, He secured a victory for God in this war. The devil doesn't know it yet, but he has already lost. It is this victory that every Christian celebreates at this time of each year. How can we ever be discouraged?

Unless we turn things around, it will only get worse.

J. B Shurk at the American Thinker today entitled The Opposite of Tyranny Is Not Democracy. Shurk is correct. It seems every member of the ruling class and their pupets in the media talks endlessly about "our democracy," which causes me to yell at the TV screen "It's a republic, not a democracy!" As Shurk points out, a democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner:

There will be a lot of discussion in the future about how formerly "free" countries became so totalitarian in their outlooks. By and large, they did so through a quiet linguistic sleight of hand that replaced the language of freedom with the language of democracy. For several hundred years, Westerners have fought first and foremost for freedom while pushing democratic forms of government as procedural mechanisms for keeping power in check. But freedom is not democracy, and until quite recently, most people understood this obvious truth. If you take a hundred people, and fifty-one of them can vote to close your business, how free can you possibly feel? What if they decree that you must pray each day to a framed picture of the "Great Fauci" hanging on the wall? How about if that slim majority decides you shouldn't be allowed to speak your mind and chooses to cut out your tongue instead? What happens when they vote to take away your property, burn your Bible, or chop off your head for backing the wrong leader? At some point, let's hope, even the most ardent defenders of "democracy" might come to the correct conclusion just before the guillotine's blade comes crashing down that inalienable rights and liberties are the true cornerstones of any free society. Without those, a simple majority can be every bit as bloody and unjust as even the worst tyrant. And when it's your head about to fall into the basket, you might very well prefer the benevolent dictator to the authoritarian democracy cheering on your demise.

With the administration keeping political prisoners of the January 6 political rally in solitary confinemnent in very bad conditions, one wonders how they can condemn Communist China or the Iranian regime? Where is their moral authority?  When people's livelyhoods, and thus their lives, are threatened because they refused to be injected with a substance, is there really any difference between the United States and any other tyranny? Once we could condemn the actions of tyrants as we did with the Nuremburg trials.  Could we do this today and not have the world laugh in our faces?

While our "elites" would deny it, our rights are actually inalienable, having been granted to us by our Creator, and no government has the right to deny them for any reason, even a pandemic. But the fact that new variants keep popping up just in time to extend the "pandemic" shows us that COVID has been blown out of proportion for the express purpose of restricting our rights and giving the elites more power. 

Of course, Shurk says all this and more much better than I can, so go read the whole article. And note well that unless we turn things around, it will only get worse.

Trusting in Princes

 According to Tristan Justice at The Federalist, Scared People (Should) Stay Home And Leave Life To The Rest Of Us. I do become weary with this. Why can't the scared simply hide in their homes, and leave the rest of us alone. Why is it always and everywhere the lowest common denominator that determines policies for everyone. Of course I do know why that is. It's all about power. The ruling class gets enough people to cry for the elites to say them, and of course, the elites are only too happy to take more power and claim to save them.

The problem is that the more power the government has, the less freedom we individuals have. Worse, you are putting your faith in princes, instead of trusting in God. But God is your best bet.

Taking Off The Stupid Face Diaper At The Grocery Store

 At the Epoch Times today, there is an article claiming that COVID-19 A Pandemic of Fear 'Manufactured' by Authorities: Yale Epidemiologist by Isabel van Brugen and Jan Jekielek. The epidemiologist in question is Dr. Harvey Risch. Risch of course risks his career not to mention any grants he may otherwise get by speaking out. Is it any wonder that so few tell the public the truth?

In an appearance on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program, Risch, an epidemiology professor at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, argued that by and large, what has characterized the entire CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic has been a “degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.”

“Overall, I’d say that we’ve had a pandemic of fear. And fear has affected almost everybody, whereas the infection has affected relatively few,” said Risch.

“By and large, it’s been a very selected pandemic, and predictable. It was very distinguished between young versus old, healthy versus chronic disease people. So we quickly learned who was at risk for the pandemic and who wasn’t,” he added.

“However, the fear was manufactured for everybody. And that’s what’s characterized the whole pandemic is that degree of fear and people’s response to the fear.”

Please to read the article, and watch the embedded video. Various doctors are now speaking out, including Risch and Dr. Scott Atlas among others. Perhaps you might consider taking their words to heart and taking off the stupid face diaper at the grocery store?

The Left Shows Its Demonic Nature in Kyle Rittenhouse Case

 Why did the District Attorney in Kenosha, Wisconsin insist on charging Kyle Rittenhouse?  The videos were available for the entire nation to see almost immediately.  What were they thinking?  According to Steve McCann The Rittenhouse Trial Underscores the Left's Determination to Eliminate the Natural Right of Self Defense.

The American left’s determination to conduct a media-inspired political trial of Kyle Rittenhouse had as its objective the ultimate disarming of Americans and the elimination of the Second Amendment. While Kyle Rittenhouse was listed as the defendant, it was the right of self-defense that was on trial.

The United States is a unique nation in the world on a number of counts, and most of these make us also an exceptional nation. One of the ways we are unique among the nations is that we have the Second Amendment that acknowledges our right, as given by God to all men, to defend ourselves against those who would attack us and take our lives and our property. Indeed, the defense of your life and the lives of those under your care is a duty placed on people by God.

But, you may be thinking, self defense doesn't include 'stuff.'  But actually, it does. Here's why: property is purchased by the sweat of a person's brow. Since most of us work on an hourly basis, the price of that property determines how many hours of your life you must work to acquire it. Those hours of toil represent a substantial part of your life.  So to take your 'stuff' is to take a piece of your life.  And while men do not have to work as hard as they once did, there was a time when to steal a man's "stuff" meant his death.  Sometimes it still does.

The Founders held that property rights encompass not just physical property but also one’s life, labor, speech, and livelihood, as individuals own their own lives; therefore, they must own the products of that life which can be traded in free exchange with others. Further, as there is a natural right of self-preservation, man has the right and duty to defend himself against transgressors, including the state, that would deny, abrogate, or unlawfully seize his property.

However, over the past 160 years, the statists, including the current iteration of the American left, have marched in lock step to what Karl Marx espoused in his Communist Manifesto -- “The Theory of Communism may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.” He contended that one’s labor or livelihood (and by extension one’s life) is not private property and is thus subordinate to the common good as determined by the state. Therefore, the individual has no God-given and unconstrained right of self-defense against an individual or government, as that right can be utilized to counter or oppose the common good.

In Scott Morefield's article at Townhall.com entitled Kyle Rittenhouse's Victory is a Victory for Us All, he points to a Tucker Carlson opening monologue:

"So no one with a concealed carry permit is allowed to defend himself? What’s the point of having a gun if you can't save your own life with it? Well, that’s exactly what they’re telling you. They’re telling you you don't have that right. You have no right to resist. That’s the whole point of this whole proceeding. So the next time BLM sweeps into your town, your neighborhood, your house to burn and loot and brandish weapons, you had better not try to protect yourself or your family. Try to protect yourself or your family and we will charge you with murder, and while we’re at it we’ll have the national media call you racist."

So, why would the Left be so focused on eliminating the Second Amendment, or make it a meaningless right? Why would they want to make self defense illegal?  As has been pointed out in these pages before, the Left wants to push its agenda down your throat, and they don't want you to to be able to resist.  They want to enslave you, and they are attempting to do it every day.  They want to put a boot on your face and keep it there.

Go read both articles, and of course, Kurt Schlichter's article while your at it.

Do Church Leaders Lack the Courage of Their Convictions?

 There is more at work in the vaccine mandates, the mask mandates, and the desire to vaccinate every single person in the world.  And while certain people with certain ideologies perceive that they will gain power, it is not them that we resist. What Michael C. Hurley points out in COVID-19 and the Smoke of Satan, we fight against powers and principalities of evil.

For several years until only recently, I resided in the great city of London. I was there when Imperial College terrorized the world with a projected 3.5-percent infection fatality rate for COVID-19, after which the British prime minister, followed by a hapless American president and leaders around the world, decided to lock healthy people in their homes indefinitely. I was there when the archbishop of Canterbury and the Catholic bishops of Britain pleaded with the government to close the churches. I was there when the Church of England forbade its priests to answer the urgent call of the NHS for additional volunteer chaplains to minister to the sick and dying, for fear that soothing and saving those dying souls might endanger the mortal lives of those priests. It was then that I knew that this was no ordinary crisis, nor was it "about a virus."

...snip...

For starters, there is the never-before-in-history decision of the worldwide Catholic Church, to say nothing of the worldwide Anglican communion, to shut its doors and abandon the flock out of the fear of mortal death, which the Bible plainly tells us is Satan's stock in trade.

There is no possible explanation for a decision by prelates of the Church to refuse Christ's injunction to Peter, "feed my sheep," that does not end in abject disobedience. There is no benign explanation for the willful decision to deny a starving world the imperishable bread of heaven, which is the Eucharist, and exchange it for the perishable bread of this world, which is the fleeting illusion of physical health and material comfort that the bishops sought to purchase by closing the churches. It was an astonishing, utter, and total abdication of the most obvious and fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. If we cannot recognize Satan in a conspicuous, unapologetic, worldwide abdication of the Faith by the princes of the Church, we have no hope of recognizing him in our own lives.

But there is more. There is a kind of spiritual blindness that has descended over the Church and the world that is eerily apocalyptic in its own right. Not only have the prelates of the Church abdicated the Christian faith, but they appear to be unaware that they have done so. They now cheerily pass the collection plate and propose to carry on as though what has just happened was perfectly normal, necessary, and done out of their "love" for their fellow man. Other bishops demonstrate an even more profound blindness, now proposing to withhold the sacraments of eternal life from those who cannot produce proof of having received a vaccine to protect their mortal lives. What hope of salvation would the leper, whom Jesus touched with his bare hands in violation of Jewish law, have had in the hands of these frightened hirelings?

When I was a child, there was a radio program called "The World Tomorrow" with Herbert W. Armstrong that attempted to use the Bible to scare the bejesus out of listeners, and of course ask for donations so they could continue to scare the bejesus out of listeners. I fell for Armstrong's schtick for a while, but eventually outgrew it. But like Hurley I do wonder if we are seeing the end times.

Understand that Jesus never promised to save your physical life. Indeed, he promised that his Apostles would suffer for their faith and die, but would live in heaven with Him.  But what we should understand is that we all deserve to go to hell.  But by his great grace, we may be saved.  Halleluiah.  But what the prelates of the Church have done is shown the Devil, by this fear, is an extreme lack of faith.  They lack the courage of their convictions.

Fear Is Driving Policy...It Needs To Stop

Dennis Prager has an excellent video Fireside Chat on the fear that is driving the continued mask mandates and the desire to force vaccination on those who do not want it.

There are people who are literally afraid to leave their homes. I see people coming into grocery stores and sanitizing the carts before they use them, even though Covid doesn't survive on surfaces. It's because of fear. Companies who fear they will lose customers have enforced maske mandates on their employees. But wearing a piece of cloth over one's face is dehumanizing. Fear is driving driving policies in this country, and it needs to stop.

Go listen to Dennis Prager's Fireside Chat.

It's not their fault for attacking Rittenhouse. No, No! It's Rittenhouse's fault for being there.

 The closing statements of the prosecutors makes the piece by John F. Di Leo at the American Thinker on target. In Doubling Down on Victim Blaming Di Leo argues that the true purpose is to get a court to agree that one does not have the right to self-defense.

The murder trial of young Kyle Rittenhouse, the only noteworthy prosecution to come out of the 2020 Kenosha riots, has become a surrogate for a war that the American Left has long tried to keep under the radar: the war against the concept of self-defense.

The Left finds itself in a quandary. They cannot say “you have no right to self-defense” in so many words. They must get there in another way, a roundabout way, but one in keeping with their longstanding effort to defang America’s police departments. Create technicality acquittals, and erect restrictive rules of engagement for police. Build red-tape barriers to keep private security guards from being armed and trained. Overrule the castle doctrine in the courtroom. Build in so many restrictions to self-defense that it becomes a toothless defense.

Like so much that the Left gets wrong, the right to defend yourself against an imminent attack is a God given right, and a duty for all people. What is not a right, is vengeance. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. But the Left continually conflates self-defense with vengeance and vigilantism. They are not the same thing. In the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, video shows that Rittenhouse was acting entirely within the relm of self-defense, and he should be acquitted on those grounds.

You can read the rest of Di Leo's article, which expands on the theme of turning a case of self-defense into a case of "if he hadn't been there, this wouldn't have happened."  But that isn't entirely true either.  While the Left may yet achieve its goal, as they have in England, the right remains with people.  The fact is that the three men shot were the ones looking for trouble, and they would have found another individual had Rittenhouse not been there.  The same trial would have happened with different defendants.

Meanwhile, Scott Morefield at Townhall.com had an article entitled Tucker Carlson Described The 'Whole Point' of the Kyle Rittenhouse Prosecution, And It's Horrifying. Again, what Tucker Carlson noted is that the point of trying Kyle Rittenhouse is to discredit self-defense against imminent bodily harm or death.

It will be interesting to see how the jury finds.  There have already been some threats against the jury.  How brave will these people be?

Martin Luther King Would Be Rolling in His Grave

 Critical Race Theory, or CRT is racist.  We know this instinctively, because just as racism in the past divided mankind by skin color, and discriminated against those with darker skin colors, so too does CRT, only in reverse.Truth be told, that simple formula is at the heart of all the fine sounding words used to try and convince us that CRT is correct.  But like much of Leftist theory, it is not:

This is seen by some Critical Race Theorists as only just turn around, as fair play. What was done to those with brown or black skins must now be done to those deemed without color in order to balance the scales of justice. It is now just to tell little girls (and little boys, too) that they are inherently bad because their skin is seen as colorless.

At the American Thinker today, Fay Voshell has an excellent piece on the truth of CRT in an article entitled Persons Of No Color. She starts with a description of two manakins, one male and one female, with clear skin to show the inner workings of the male and female body.

The Smithsonian Museum, the American Louvre of unusual artifacts, has a collection of toys. One is a transparent plastic figure called "The Visible Woman." She has as her companion "The Visible Man." The see-through educational toys were designed to teach children about human anatomy.

Her point is that God does not see skin color, and in imitation of Him, neither should we. Martin Luther King had it right when he said that he hoped that one day we would judge each other not by the color of our skin, but be the content of our character. King would be rolling in his grave.

The Left's Political Prisoners

 I have restrained myself from commenting on the January 6 prisoners, believing that justice would eventually take place.  I have grown weary of hoping for justice, and, in truth, the information coming out of the D. C. jail are appalling.  And then, there is the fact that justice delayed is justice denied.

At the American Thinker today, Andrea Widburg has a post entitled January 5 Prisoners Evacuated on Stretchers After Guards Gas Them.

Go read the whole post. This is reminiscent of the type of justice one received in the old Soviet Union. Joe Biden and the Left have adopted the same tactics they condemned when done by Stalin. But it makes sense that the philosophy of the Left, which is the same Marxism as what governed the Soviet Union, would eventually lead to similar actions. Here's the other thing, that is also reminiscent of the Soviet Union. 

Oh, and the fecklessness and the cowardice of the politicians is amazing, given their relatively protected status:

When the American people entered Congress, not a single politician had the courage to go out and face them. Every politician ran away and hid. Even now, Marjorie Taylor Greene is the only politician with the courage to force her way into the prison to speak with the captives. What a pathetic bunch of poltroons we have placed in a government that was created by great men and once was home to them too.

'What they can where they are and with what they have.'

 I had planned to do a book report on Dwight Longenecker's book Beheading The Hydra: A Radical Plan For Christians in an Atheistic Age. But then I read this article at The Federalist by Louis Markos entitled How To Preserve A Moral Culture Through 'Creative Subversion.' It is better than anything I could have written, so I encourage gentle readers to go read it. It pretty well sums up Longenecker's thesis. After explaining the philosophical changes that led to modern society, he tells us what the Bible says we should do to counter the "isms" that has ruined our culture.

Such is Longenecker’s diagnosis of a dying world infected to the core by the venom of the multi-headed hydra. But does he offer a cure?

Interestingly, rather than propose a right-leaning program of direct confrontation with the heads of the hydra or a left-leaning policy of accommodating their subtle poison, he offers something approximating Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option. We must change ourselves, he argues, and live out that change in such a way that we will simultaneously expose the lies of the hydra and incarnate an alternative way of living.

Longenecker refers to this inner change as “creative subversion.” Here is how it works. Rather than fight materialism in the academy or embrace Christian consumerism, we must demonstrate to the world our refusal to absorb and imitate its cupidity by tithing generously to our church and other charities. Likewise, rather than debate atheists on television or construct our own modern versions of Deism, we must show forth our belief in an active Creator God by living lives of continuous praise and intercessory prayer.

In other words, Longenecker argues that the way to change the culture is to live as if we really believe what we profess to believe. Lead by example. Or, in Longenecker's words Christians are to do 'what they can where they are and with what they have.'

Standing Our Ground and Speaking The Truth

 Over at Crisis Magazine, Ron McNamara has an excellent article entitled Creeping Authoritarianism in America. Of course, Crisis is a Catholic publication, but we won't hold that against the publication.

For nearly three decades I devoted myself to upholding the dignity of individuals in far off lands who were denied freedoms most Americans routinely took for granted. Never could I have imagined that our God-given rights, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, would be threatened on our own shores as we see today. A lesson I learned while confronting authoritarian and dictatorial regimes on behalf of the repressed was the importance of speaking out clearly, publicly, and early on. We remain silent at our own peril.

I have said before that speaking out the turth often and loudly is our biggest contribution. By speaking out to counter the lies, we give courage to others to do the same. One of the things that is being foisted on the American people is the idea of masking. People reason that if doctors mask, doesn't that point to them believing in the efficacy of masks? But doctors, like many professionals, must have a government issued license, and serve at the pleasure of that government:

Fear is a powerful weapon typically used by authoritarians to coerce the masses into compliance. I have seen all too often during the course of my career what happens when the powers that be bring to bear the levers of state force and control against individuals and groups who fail to toe the party line.

Anyone subject to state or federal certification or licensure—doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, lawyers, teachers and other educators, social workers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, architects and engineers, transportation workers, food service employees, carpenters, plumbers and other tradesmen, and many more—are particularly vulnerable.

McNamara goes on to cite a number of instances of the recent authoritarianism that tend to provide proof of his thesis. Then there is this:

As some scientists are suggesting that the ChiComm virus is likely to be with us for the foreseeable future, attempts to curtail our fundamental freedoms as Americans should be met with strong, public opposition. The stakes are tremendously high for us, for our children, and for our children’s children. Left unchecked, the creeping authoritarianism we are witnessing before our eyes will spread, robbing us of the freedoms we have for too long taken for granted.

The Left Has Nothing But Fear

Without False Claims About The Risk Of Concealed Handgun Permit Holders, The Left Has Nothing claims John Lott at Townhall.com

New York is one of seven “May-Issue” states where officials can turn down carry permit requests for any reason (or no reason) at all. The Court is considering replacing this discretionary process with objective “Shall-Issue” rules. That way, people can get a permit as long as they reach a certain age, have no criminal background, pay the fees, and complete any required training.

Since 1976, 18 states eliminated “proper cause” requirements, and gun control advocates have consistently predicted disaster. But in state after state, concealed handgun permit holders have proved to be extremely law-abiding, and Right-to-Carry states have never even held a legislative hearing to consider moving back to “proper cause.”

Lott goes on to present statistics that show permit holders to be more law abiding than police officers. While that is good news, it still is a utilitarian arguement, and doesn't address the underlying principle. Whether or not permit holders we more law abiding than police, we would still have a right, a God given right at that, to defend ourselves with the most effective tool at hand. At this stage of technology, that would usually be a hand gun. In the future it may be 'phasers.' Who knows. I applaud the current case, and I look forward to the Srpreme Court's ruling. But technically, we should not need a permit to carry a gun anywhere, either open or concealed.

Tyranny Pops Up in the Most Unlikely Places

Joy Pullman, at The Federalist has an article entitled Lawmakers Demand U. S. Punish Finland For Criminalizing Christianity As A 'Hate Crime', that makes the point that tyrrany and authoritarianism can pop up in any society. The hate crime laws that no doubt were passed in good faith have not ben turned against the Christian faith, which I doubt were the intended targets. But it shows the horrors that can arise with so called 'hate crimes'. Not only are these people facing charges for being Christians, but the law is one of those retroactive laws that supposedly can not happen here.

Bishop Juhana Pohjola and Parliament member Paivi Rasanen face fines and up to two years in prison under “hate crimes” laws that effectively criminalize speech and set the government up as the arbiter of what religious beliefs are legal in Finland. One of the charges against Rasanen is the alleged crime of posting a Bible verse on Twitter.

“Free people should not have to violate and recant their deepest convictions to remain part of a free society,” the U.S. lawmakers write in response to this situation. “True religious liberty both protects an individual’s right both to hold beliefs that are unpopular with the prevailing cultural winds of the world, but also their right to live out authentically and profess the truths they hold dear without fear of government interference. Those rights are fundamental and unalienable to the whole human race, and it is critical to the flourishing of both the human soul and civil society.”

...snip...

Pohjola is the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland. His alleged hate crime is publishing a 2004 booklet written by Rasanen about the Bible’s teachings about sex and marriage. Years after the publication of that booklet, Finland passed laws creating legal privileges for LGBT citizens, under which the two Christians are now being accused of “incitement against a group of people.”

Back around 2000, Mrs. PolyKahr and I, along with my parents, took a Church trip to Scandinavia to look at, and worship in, the wooden church buildings there. Scandinavia has unique church structures. In addition, most of the Christians in Scandinavia are Lutherans. While the state supports the Lutheran church there, it leads to a lot of atheism. We noted that the churches were not well attended. Perhaps this is why the Finns felt it save to target Christians with their hate crimes laws.

Science Leads Towards Truth and God. Scientism Leads Away From God

Fr. Dwight Longenecker has written a book entitled Beheading the Hydra in which he points to a number of "isms" that inevitably lead us away from God, the source of Truth. One of the "isms" he points to is Scientism. He makes clear that Science and Scientism are two different things. Science is the discovery of the world around us using the scientific method: observations, developing a hypothesis, and designing experiments to prove your hypothesis wrong. Science thus seeks to find truth and thus is akin to the Truth. Scientism is the hijacking and cherry picking of some facts to construct something that has no basis in science, or even common sense.

Renee Parsons over at the American Thinker has a perfect example of Scientism in her article entitled Faux Science Dictates CDCs Covid Directives. What's more, she seems at times to be channeling Longenecker in calling out scientism as a false idol leading us away from God.

The mandatory COVID lockdown and vaccine requirements are sold to the public as a legitimate scientism perpetuated by a longtime government health institution once considered an independent watchdog. Instead, the CDC has a long history of offering politically inspired evidence as a facsimile for real science where the dilemma may rarely be settled. Thankfully, many medical professionals have stepped forward to pursue real science: an ongoing inquiry that raises doubt as it is tested with precise application, seeking analysis that develops through a rational examination of the facts based on reason, evidence, hypothesis, or collective investigation.

Today's scientism has become a world of political regimentation and medical tyranny based on "trust the experts" as it shuts down debate and threatens those professionals who dare question government sanctions. In addition, the CDC has deceitfully appropriated itself as the official legal enforcer of arbitrary unscientific principles as if Americans were required to unquestioningly obey its every directive, with no validating justification. At the same time, scientism allows local dictatorial health departments to overstep their authority as the State concedes its legal influence to unelected bureaucrats.

In other words, the Marxists continue to depend on a fabricated scientific worldview that supports their denial of religious or spiritual values, relying on state rhetoric with an embedded fixation. The CDC became bedrock for a delusional belief system as the fabric of reality unraveled into a materialist worldview where there is no God, which, in turn, stifles and inhibits free inquiry, once the very essence of science.

As Parsons points out, when scientism replaces science, people lose faith in the entire endeavor. Because scientism is not truth, but is also resistant to challenge, the discerning person is quickly turned off. This has been the record with the whole climate change regime. People claim a "consensus of scientists" for its authority. But of course true science doesn't rely on consensus, but on experiment and observation. But anyone who brings up these ideas is quickly denounced in the media as a crank. The same thing has been happening around the Covid pandemic. The media has tried to scare the public into believing that Covid is the most deadly virus in history. So far, observation tells us it is not. This is not science, and neither is scientism.

Of course go read the whole article. And consider getting a copy of Longeneckers book.

Fear and Loathing in Washington D.C.

 Andrea Widburg had a post the American Thinker entitled Must See Tucker Carlson Video About the Cause of America's Woes. If you didn't tape Tucker Carlson Tonight, you can find it here.

Widburg points out that the ever insightful Carlson has once again hit the X in the middle of the target

People are beginning to realize that something is wrong with America's ruling class, and by "people," I don't mean people like you, who are actively engaged in politics. I'm talking about people who want nothing to do with politics or people living in prosperous leftist enclaves who haven't been forced to think about what's happening to less affluent Americans. To the extent they're sitting up and taking notice, Tucker Carlson's monologue perfectly explains what's going on at the upper reaches of American government. The bottom line is that Biden knows he's out of control, and, in his fear, he cedes his power to dangerous ideologues.

Fear. It is the fundamental driver of much of what is both the good and the bad in human nature. It drives us to work for fear of starving. It drives us to be wary of the other. And it plagues everybody. We must fight it constantly. And Carlson has seen it in the President of the United States. Go read Widburg's post, then watch the video if you haven't already.

Why Should I Vote Republican?

 W. D. Bert Newman asks a question today at the American Thinker which has been troubling my own thoughts for a while now: Tell me again why I should vote Republican? As he points out:

Really? Not so fast, Bucko. A mere two days after this great political victory that was supposed to signal a profound change of direction in the body politic -- one that would send a message to everyone that taxation, regulation, border anarchy, racism and authoritarian mandates were given a resounding rejection -- thirteen Republican House members voted to support the President’s “infrastructure” spending plan that would all but guarantee the continuation of everything that we thought we opposed. (Nineteen Republican Senators also voted for this bill.) So what is the point in continuing to elect Republicans when they sell out principles so easily?

Of course, this is only the latest example of “moderate” and “centrist” GOP pols assisting the Dems to further their growth policies in the areas of government debt, deficit, regulation, taxation, and control. Debt and deficits grew alarmingly under both Presidents Trump and Biden. Both Republican and Democratic congresses pass new legislation that alarmingly increases the size, scope and expense of government. Both parties vote to raise the debt limit without much thought to repayment. Both parties accept without question the right of the Federal Reserve to artificially suppress interest rates, and to continue bond purchases, “quantitative easing” and other measures that result in a bloated balance sheet, asset inflation and destruction of the dollar’s purchasing power. So what is the point in electing Republicans?

So often, whether they are in control or in opposition, Republicans do not really stand for anything. They may at times oppose the size or expense of legislation proposed by Democrat administrations, but they do not lead. They do not defend any consistent positions. They are almost always on defense, and overly sensitive to media criticism. They apologetically play by the rules (even when in a street fight). They attempt to piously uphold congressional institutional traditions (often to their disadvantage) but they are, for the most part, ineffectual. None of these traits plague Democrats who consistently and doggedly push forward their radical agenda, unconcerned about appearances or opinion.

I am appalled that so many GOP Congressmen and Senators would vote for the opposite party's agenda.  There is a saying that there are no DINOs, Democrats In Name Only, but there are lots of RINOs, and we talk about them all the time.  Why is that?  And no, I do not see voting for a Democrat, but I can see little value in voting for a Republican either.  Just look at the Supreme Court where we now have two new Catholic members, and we are wondering how they will vote on abortion.  Really?

Many who read this blog may know that I have voted Republican at the state level because the Republicans have been the most supportive of my right to keep and bear arms.  But here too, while the campaign on upholding gun rights, they tend to do nothing about them unless we prod and pry, and even then they are likely to send gun rights bills to a committee to die.

So, like Newman, I have to wonder why should I vote Republican?  Does my vote count at all?

Pray for Binniyat

 You are probably aware that Christians are being persecuted around the world.  What happens in other countries makes what happens here seem like small beer.  At The Epoch Times today Douglas Burton reports that an Epoch Times Reporter Was Jailed In Nigeria for reporting on abuses of Christians there.

Religious freedom advocates in Washington are protesting the Nov. 4 jailing of Epoch Times reporter Luka Binniyat, who has been at the forefront of reporting the atrocities against Nigerian Christians.

“This is an alarming development. If a journalist, reporting on the government’s refusal to prosecute those engaged in religious-motivated atrocities, has been arrested for his [reporting], this would be further evidence that the government of Nigeria is complicit in the ongoing egregious and systematic religious persecution in Nigeria,” Tony Perkins, a commissioner serving on the U.S. Council on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), told The Epoch Times.

Pray for Binniyat and all persecuted Christians around the world.

Wokeism Is Marxism Masquerading As Manners

 Following on to yesterday's post, the American Thinker has an article today by Steve Rose entitled The Fatal Flaw At The Core of Wokeism. While Archbishop Gomez points out the pseudo-religions of the Left, including Wokeism, Rose points to the logical errors that underpin it.

Wokeism is fatally flawed at the core. It pretends to be a road to universal harmony. But it will never deliver. Wokeism might seem intimidating at first but, like the Death Star, critical weaknesses make it vulnerable.

The most obvious flaw is that certain individuals claim to be oppressed while simultaneously enjoying support from the government, the media, academia, the entire entertainment industry, Big Business, and Big Tech. You can either be a marginalized victim or enjoy the support of the most powerful institutions in existence but not both.

...snip...

Why does Wokeism encourage victimhood for those with power, pretend to aim for harmony while stoking division, and elevate superficiality? Looking at how wokeism works helps explain.

Wokeism lives and breathes through criticism and accusation. The strategy of “let’s all criticize each other’s flaws until we all love each other” creates mutual implosion. It weaponizes human imperfection. But even more: Wokeism is impossible. It’s why even Hollywood, with its wealthy fanatics, fails at Wokeness. It’s not that “there’s a lot of work to do.” The core ideas of the entire operation are flawed, top to bottom. No matter how much “work” we do, it will never be enough.

Wokeism assumes that criticizing people who do things wrong will make things right. It offers cheap, fast-food-style Instant Moral Superiority for Dummies. But these efforts to solve certain problems only create new, worse problems.

Criticism assumes something to criticize. It parallels socialism’s focus on wealth redistribution, assuming that wealth will always be there to distribute. Both relationships are parasitic. And every hungry parasite requires a host.

This is why when they can’t find enough actual racism Wokeists invent race hoaxes. It’s why Wokeolites have to retreat to subconscious racism and micro-aggressions and “silence is violence”—because conscious racism, actual aggressions, and actual violence are rare. There isn’t enough food for the parasite. The old host was already sucked mostly dry.

Go read the whole article. Essentially, what Rose is getting act here is that Wokeism is a pseudo-religious cult that is immune to counter arguments. It is just another form of Marxism:

George Carlin spotted the fraud decades ago: “Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners.” He saw more clearly then than many today.

Wokeism is intellectual herpes disguised as tolerance. It’s a mind-virus deliberately engineered to enslave humanity by hijacking the ideals of good people and turning those ideals against them.

It was invented by people who want more power over the rest of us. They’ve fooled many into cruising around, gleefully correcting everyone according to rules they just made up, declaring this racist, that sexist, this offensive, etc. But these nags aren’t the morally superior crusaders they pretend to be. They’re suckers. They’re moral fast-food junkies. They’ve been tricked by deceptive tactics into joining a political-religious cult that persecutes outsiders.

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez calls out the Pseudo-Religions of the Left

 The president of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gave a scathing speech in Madrid, Spain, in which he called out such Left wing attributes as "wokeness" as "social justice" are in fact pseudo-religions:

However, Gomez might argue the “devout Catholic” president is in a different kind of secular communion with members of a “pseudo-religion,” one which just so happens to have infected his own party.

According to the Washington Examiner, in a speech delivered to virtually to the Congress of Catholics and Public Life in Madrid on Thursday, Gomez — the archbishop of Los Angeles — argued “America’s new political religions” like “social justice,” “wokeness,” “identity politics” and “intersectionality” had “come to fill the space that Christian belief and practice once occupied.”

...snip...

“With the breakdown of the Judeo-Christian worldview and the rise of secularism, political belief systems based on social justice or personal identity have come to fill the space that Christian belief and practice once occupied,” Gomez said.

“Whatever we call these movements — ‘social justice,’ ‘wokeness,’ ‘identity politics,’ ‘intersectionality,’ ‘successor ideology’ — they claim to offer what religion provides.”

And yet, while these pseudo-religions appear to provide the same things that true religion offers, as Gomez notes:

“In denying God, these new movements have lost the truth about the human person. This explains their extremism and their harsh, uncompromising, and unforgiving approach to politics,” he continued, urging the church “to understand and engage these new movements — not on social or political terms, but as dangerous substitutes for true religion.”

Go read the whole article at the Western Journal

Cry Racism, and let loose the dogs of nuisance lawsuits

So, the Republican led legislature has come up with the new maps for Congressional districts, State Senate districts, and of course Legilative districts. The reason for the new maps is because as a result of the 2020 Census, North Carolina added a Congressional seat. Well, hip hip horray. However, even before they had seen the new maps, the State NAACP, a group that has lost is signature purpose (the advancement of colored people) and has instead become yet another Leftist activist group, sued the state claiming Racism.

These suits have plagued the voter identification efforts, as well as the previous district maps for a decade. Here's why. The Left sues the state. The Attorney General of the state is a Democrat, and is in league with the group suing the state. The state judges are, of course, Democrats as well, so they are also sympathetic. The only people not in sympathy with or in league with these suits is We the People. The entire process is a joke.

Can nothing be done to limit theses suits? Perhaps they could remove the maps from judicial review?  The Republicans are certainly within their rights to set the maps to favor Republicans. After all, Democrats did it for 100 years, and the Republicans didn't complain.  But Democrats are sore losers, and like little children, change the rules to ensure they always win.

Why Do Our "Conservative" Justices Show No Courage?

 Rachel Bovard has a excellent think piece over at The Federalist

entitled If Kavanaugh and Barrett Betray Pro-Lifers, We Must Blow Up The Conservative Legal Movement. She notes that conservatives always get surprised by our supposedly "conservative" justices siding with the Left to approve Unconstitutional rulings. Kennedy and his Obergefell ruling, or Roberts ruling on Obamacare are typical examples. As Bovard notes:

It is not an understatement to say this is the case pro-life conservatives have been waiting for. It’s why many in our movement willingly shed blood in the vicious fight for the confirmations of Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Gorsuch. The prospect of a majority conservative court was a key reason millions of Republicans turned out to vote for Donald Trump.

So the trepidation conservatives now feel about where Kavanaugh and Barrett may end up on Dobbs is both unexpected and unwelcome. There is a distinct possibility that Barrett, Kavanaugh, and possibly the George W. Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts will find a way to hedge; to “both sides” their way into a narrow and distorted opinion in a case that, as Mississippi’s Attorney General Lynn Fitch has laid out, demands a clear imperative with regard to the dubious constitutional standing of Roe and Casey.

To be clear, with a 6-3 allegedly conservative court, anything less than a decision ringing with clarity on the dismissal of Roe and Casey should be viewed as a failure. Despite the goal-post-shifting going on in establishment Republican legal circles, there is no “long game” here. Although some will argue that any ruling that chips away at Casey is good enough, Roe is the case that created the constitutional entitlement. It is the architecture upon which the legal abortion structure is built. Both Roe and Casey must go.

It is hard to imagine a clearer majority that should overturn Roe on both legal and religious grounds. Roe was built on and entirely imagined right to privacy, a right not mentioned in the Constitution. In fact, legally, the issue of abortion should reside with the 50 states, and not the Federal government.

Beyond the legal issue, however, both Kavanaugh and Barrett are Christians, indeed Catholic. As such, each should find abortion in all cases repugnant. And yet, how they will vote on an issue that should be obvious is in doubt. Yet our conservative, Catholic jurists show no courage. It is bad enough that our Republican politicians show no courage, but the Justices have been given lifeime appointments so that the will show courage to do the right thing. Why don't they? Does this betray a lack of faith?

Which brings up the main point of Bovard's article:

If the outcome of Dobbs is indeed a hedge that splits the court’s conservatives — or, to put it more bluntly, if the conservative legal movement has failed to produce Supreme Court justices who are comfortable overturning two outrageously constitutionally defective rulings on abortion — we will be left to justifiably wonder what the whole project has been for.

That we are even in the position to openly speculate where Kavanaugh, Barrett, and Roberts might end up on such a foundational conservative legal question should itself prompt reflection, not only about the expanded role the court now plays in our self-government, but also about how we select our judicial masters.

Bovard is right. We need to change the way we choose and vet judges. We must insist they tell us how they will vote on issues of interest to the people. As I recall, the confirmation of both candidates was in doubt because the Left feared they would overturn Roe. So far, it looks like they needn't have been concerned.

"Here I Stand"

 Today is Reformation Sunday, when the Lutheran church "celebrates" the date in 1517 when Martin Luther kicked off the Reformation by posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenburg, Germany.  I don't know if Jeff M. Lewis is a Lutheran or not, but his article today at the American Thinker today entitled Is Nothing Sacred Anymore could have been written by a devout Lutheran.

I doubt that Luther would be pleased to see his flock celebrating the breakup of the Church universal. Indeed, we call it the Reformation because Luther, a doctor of the Church, intended to bring the Church back to being Biblically based, not to split the Church. He intended the 95 Theses as talking points for a debate. The Church excommunicated Luther after all, Luther didn't run away from the Church. But once it was clear the Church had split, he wanted to call his church Evangelical Catholic, and I suspect died hoping for reconciliation with the Church at Rome.

I have been reading a book by Father Dwight Longenecker entitled Beheading The Hydra: A Radical Plan For Christians in an Atheistic Age. In his book, Fr. Longenecker takes several swipes at Luther for breaking up the church and unspecified theological errors. Unfortunately, Longenecker has some errors of his own. I would cite the whole "Mariology" thing.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Mary was a permanent virgin. Yes, before the birth of Jesus, she was a virgin. But Jesus had brothers and sisters, and all of them were not immaculately born. Then there is the idea of praying to Mary to intercede for us with Jesus. Where does this idea come from? Certainly not the Bible. In the 6th Chapter of Matthew, Jesus offers the perfect prayer, and it doesn't mention Mary. Indeed, we are to pray to God, through Jesus Christ. Christ as our intercessor. There is no need to pray to the various saints, or to have so called "priests." Priests sacrificed animals for the people of Israel. But Jesus became the Sacrifice for all mankind by dying on the Cross. He is our Priest, Prophet, and King, which is why our clergy are called "pastors."

Of course, Longenecker's book, outside of his short sightedness on Luther, is spot on.  And it is the same message as Lewis presents in the the article Is Nothing Sacred. Evil stalks the world, and too many people have succumbed. As Paul wrote, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  What Longenecker proposes is that faithful Christians might try following God's word.  What can it hurt, after all.  We've been doing our own "thing" and it hasn't been working for us.  Maybe we should try doing God's will for us instead?  Would that we had the faith of Martin Luther, who stood before the Pope and could say:

“My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other, so help me God.”

How the Democrats Rigged Our Elections

Joy Pullman has a sort of book report on Mollie Hemingway's new book Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections. Pullman's article can be found at The Federalist entitled 7 Insane Things I Just Learned About How U.S. Elections Are 'Rigged'. And what Joy Pullman read shocks even her! Here's an example:

1. The DNC Controlled All Poll Watchers for 40 Years

What?? How can this be? Pullman goes on to explain:

I had to read this section of the book two or three times to absorb what it was saying. I couldn’t believe it could possibly be true. Yet it is: “Shockingly, the 2020 contest was the first presidential election since Reagan’s first successful run in 1980 in which the Republican National Committee could play any role whatsoever in Election Day operations.”

What? Next sentence: “For nearly 40 years, the Democratic National Committee had a massive systemic advantage over its Republican counterpart: the Republican National Committee had been prohibited by law from helping out with poll watcher efforts or nearly any litigation related to how voting is being conducted.”

This section in chapter 1 goes on to explain how such an insane thing could be real. Essentially, after Democrats accused Republicans of cheating in a New Jersey race in 1981, a judge banned the RNC from poll-watching and voting litigation everywhere in the country, then kept re-upping the order until 2018, when it finally expired three years after he died.

This handicapped Republicans for almost 40 years while Democrats were free to do things Republicans couldn’t, like give boosts to their voters all along the voting process and track them extensively, challenge ballots, document irregularities, and sue over election disputes.

And how did the Republican National Committee allow something so obviously partisan to stand...for 40 years? They couldn't have appealed it? Couldn't have made a stink over it? We all know that the Democrats always accuse their opposition of what they are doing themselves. It's a way of distracting attention from their own misdeeds.  Do the Republicans like losing?

But, as they say on TV commercials, there's more!  Go read Pullman's article, and get Hemingway's book.

What To Do About Election Officials Who Ignore the Law

 Margot Cleveland of The Federalist tells us What To Do When Election Officials Keep Ingnoring Voting Laws and when the courts won't do anything about it. She has several suggestions though:

Earlier this month, Fairfax County, Virginia — a locale that broke 70-30 for President Joe Biden and Democrat Sen. Mark Warner in 2020 — previewed the attacks on election integrity likely planned for the midterm cycle of 2022 and beyond. There, election officials in the deep-blue county approved absentee and mail-in ballot applications lacking the statutorily mandated last four digits of the voter’s Social Security number, then promptly mailed these unauthenticated individuals ballots for next Tuesday’s election.

While last week the Virginia Institute for Public Policy (VIPP), a public policy organization dedicated to election integrity, filed suit against the county registrar and the three members of the Fairfax County Electoral Board responsible for flouting state election law, a hearing on the case is not scheduled until Friday. By then, the election will be only days away and a court is unlikely to order ballots returned by the deadline discarded.

Because, of course, too many judges have become partisan hacks and don't care about the law at all.  And even if the legislatures make each element of the law criminally liable for either fines or imprisonment or both if disregarded, there is no guarantee officials will be found guilty by courts willing to overlook the crimes in the first place.

State legislators have few options available to confront this scenario, making the Supreme Court’s refusal last term to address the problem in the Pennsylvania case all the more disappointing. One possible option, though, would be to remove jurisdiction, i.e., take away their power to hear cases, from state courts on challenges to “the time, place and manner” for the election of senators, representatives, or electors, established by the state legislature.

Of course, such challenges could still be brought in the federal court system, but this approach would limit the mischief being done by state court judges.

The truth is that while Democrats keep harping on "our democracy," they don't care about either "our democracy" or our democratically elected representative Republic. What they care about is power, by any means necessary.

The Fires of Moloch

 J. B. Shurk asked How Many People Must Be Thrown into the Volcano Before the Left is Happy?

It's been my experience that modern leftists have the disposition of Stalin, the demeanor of a middle school bully, and the temperament of a two-year-old. When they're not outright trying to kill you, they're either calling you names or crying about not getting their way. It's deeply disappointing to realize how effective these bad behaviors have been in bringing the West to heel. It has to be my way!-red-diaper babies deserved a good spanking this last century; instead, they learned that when you whine and stomp your feet long enough, you can poke someone else in the eyes, steal their lunch money, and call yourself the victim.

They preached "tolerance." We "tolerated" their bad ideas. Those bad ideas germinated into the evil we see today. And evil repaid our "tolerance" by setting to work slitting our throats. What's the lesson? Evil will always use good people's virtue against them, and truly good people must find the courage to slam the door on evil before it weasels inside and destroys everything.

Shurk answers his own question. There are never enough victims of Leftist hatred. Witness the hundreds of millions of people fed into the furnaces of Moloch in the twentieth century Please go read the whole article.

You mustn't demoralize yourself

 Vasko Kohlmayer has an article that claims that Male Pregnancy: The Greatest Miracle of All

By now you may have heard of the left’s latest insistence that we drop the expression “pregnant women” in favor of “pregnant people.” By using this phrase, they wish to emphasize that it is not only women who can conceive and carry children. According to the woke, men can now also partake in the joys of pregnancy.

This is surely a remarkable position to take by those who routinely mock the virgin birth of Jesus as narrated by the New Testament.

As you may know, most of our science-oriented woksters think the notion of a woman conceiving by divine intervention is a completely ridiculous idea that could only be believed by a backward ancient culture. And yet, these very same people have apparently no problem believing that a biological male can become pregnant.

If you ask this writer, the latter is a much greater miracle.

Of course, we all know that men can not become "pregnant" because they simply do not the requisite equipment. This is simply part of the Left's strategy to demoralize people, quite literally. By forcing you to speak a lie, they cause you to lose your moral authority, literally "demoralize" you.  This is why you must not participate in demoralizing yourself.  

Who's not paying their fair share again?

 Eric Utter points out that 61% Of Americans paid no taxes in 2020. Who's greedy.

Incredibly, in 2020, approximately 61% of Americans paid no federal income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center. Therefore, approximately 39% of Americans paid all federal income taxes. They are rewarded for this staggering largess by being told they need to "pay their fair share." Their "fair share," one might logically surmise, would be around 39% of the federal income taxes paid, not 100%. The top 20% of income earners pay about 67% of federal taxes. "Progressive," you know. They should be lauded as pillars of the community, as not only the most productive, but the most charitable folks in society. (Whether they wanted to be or not.) Instead, they are called "greedy" by the self-same people who receive the benefits of this mass income redistribution.

Literally stupefying.

Alec Baldwin Doesn't Deserve The Benefit Of The Doubt

J. R. Dunn has a post at the American Thinker in which he says that No, let's not be kind to Alec Baldwin, not least because the incident is looking more like a crime instead of an "accident." I have to agree with Dunn. Baldwin doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt or our pity.  He has been an arrogant loud mouth on a subject about which he knows next to nothing.

Sorry.

Defund The FBI

 Time to Defund The FBI? Kurt Schlichter thinks so, and you should read his article to find out why. Meanwhile, I am out of pocket for a few days.

Sinister is the word for it

 I recently visited the doctor for one of my two visits a year.  During his examination he asked me whether I had gotten the third shot, meaning the booster.  I said that I did see any point to a booster, since the need for a booster indicated the vaccine didn't work in the first place, and thus I questioned the effectiveness of the booster.  I also indicated that the insistence that everyone get the shot suggested to me some possible sinister motives.  As it turns out, I may have been right.

Andrea Widburg has a post at the American Thinker entitled Did the World Economic Forum admit something very unnerving? I have repeatedly asked what is driving the vehement insistence that everyone must get vaccinated, despite the loss of Americans' constitutional rights, and at the cost of so many people being forced out of important jobs.

There’s a saying that even paranoid people have enemies. Sometimes, you’re right to be suspicious—and when it comes to the vaccines, a lot of people have been very suspicious. Some of these concerns have been about the vaccine’s efficacy, some of them have been about the side effects and risks, and some have been about the specific risks of forcing vaccines on people who are already immune because they’ve had COVID. Then there is a much deeper concern that the vaccines are injecting permanent substances in the body that support a “transhumanist” agenda. The newest video from the World Economic Forum (“WEF”) isn’t going to put that last concern to rest.

Say, what? Transhumanism? So, as it turns out there IS an unspoken sinister agenda.

As for that last point, those who worry about the vaccines may be on to something. At The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance reports on a new WEF video celebrating a universal COVID pass that would allow people to travel anywhere around the globe and go into any facility anywhere with this single pass proving their vaccination status.

Never mind, for now, the fact that the vaccines’ efficacy is proving to be minimal, at best. (The J&J vaccine is now down to 3% efficacy.) The point is that, in this brave new world, unless you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be allowed to go anywhere or do anything. You won’t just be a second-class citizen. You’ll have no life at all—something that’s already started here in America, with leftist policies leading to thousands of firings across the country.

...snip...

Currently, proof of vaccine status is dependent on paperwork and registration in computer systems. If for some reason you got the shot on the sly without that paper proof or being entered in the system, it would be as if you never got the vaccine. Sure, a blood test may prove that you’re immune, but it’s impossible to tell if that’s from natural immunity (which Joe Biden and everyone on his side of the aisle says doesn’t count) or from getting a vaccine (which is the cattle chute into which we’re being herded, whether we’re on our way to a glorious future or the abattoir.)

If a blood test cannot prove whether we’ve been vaccinated, what the heck is the WEF? talking about?

The suspicion is that the vaccine may place a permanent marker of sorts in the blood. And if the vaccines place a marker in the blood, what else may they be placing in the blood, and what do these other things actually do? Certainly no one who has gotten the jab has been informed about this, if true.  But given the WEF globalist goals, sinister seems to be an appropriate word.