'Now', OS asks as he scratches his greying head, 'Why is proposing that all voters present valid photo ID in order to enter the voting booth an evidence of raaaaaacism, when our dear friends SouthOfTheRioGrande insist upon it?'
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Monday, October 23, 2017
Former NP(holy-cow!)R Ken Stern--Epiphany About America Away From The Liberal Bubble
It's a great read, this account of the most protected of the liberals coming face-to-face with a nation he lives in but is only recently getting to know.
He writes frankly about discovering the America that he and his have spent their careers despising; and his friends in the GreatLiberalEchoChamber are stunned that the rest of us despise them back.
A couple of pithy quotes--
I spent many Sundays in evangelical churches and hung out with 15,000 evangelical youth at the Urbana conference. I wasn’t sure what to expect among thousands of college-age evangelicals, but I certainly didn’t expect the intense discussion of racial equity and refugee issues — how to help them, not how to keep them out — but that is what I got.
Hmmm...
He writes frankly about discovering the America that he and his have spent their careers despising; and his friends in the GreatLiberalEchoChamber are stunned that the rest of us despise them back.
A couple of pithy quotes--
I spent many Sundays in evangelical churches and hung out with 15,000 evangelical youth at the Urbana conference. I wasn’t sure what to expect among thousands of college-age evangelicals, but I certainly didn’t expect the intense discussion of racial equity and refugee issues — how to help them, not how to keep them out — but that is what I got.
Hmmm...
At one point during my research, I discovered a video of a would-be robber entering a Houston smoke shop, his purpose conveyed by the pistol that he leveled at the store clerk. But the robber was not the only armed person in the store. The security cameras show Raleigh, the store clerk, walking out from behind the counter, calmly raising his own gun and firing an accurate stream of bullets at the hapless robber. The wounded robber stumbles out, falls over the curb and eventually ends up under arrest.
It is not just the defensive gun use that makes the video remarkable — it is Raleigh himself who evidences such a nonchalance that he never bothers to put down the cigarette that he is smoking. At the end, Raleigh, having protected his store, enthuses “Castle Doctrine, baby” — citing a law that allows a person to use force to defend a legally occupied place.
It is an amazing story, though far from unique, but you simply won’t find many like it in mainstream media (I found it on Reddit).
Well, yes. The media ignore defensive gun use, because it doesn't fit The Narrative--you know, The Narrative: All white Protestants keep sheets in their closets for the Saturday night rallies, they own guns and their knuckles drag the ground, anything they think or might say isn't worth noting....
Except, they can't account for The Cajun Navy loading up their boats onto their trailers, hitching them to their pickups full of chain saws and emergency gear and heading to Texas to rescue strangers trapped by the hurricane. They didn't need direction from duh gubbermint--they saw needs and met them. And, yes, most of them were packing; and no, they didn't shoot anyone. How could that be?
OS is looking forward to reading Mr. Stern's book, Republican Like Me and predicts that Mr. Stern will become an Official Non-Person amongst the Swamp-Dwellers.
He should consider it a badge of honor.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
When General Kelly's Son Died In Action, President Obama Didn't Bother To Call. When President Trump Called A Widow, A Democrat Member of Congress Was Eavesdropping
There is no floor beneath human depravity, as once again we learn from this latest shameful episode.
Listen to General Kelly as he mourns the loss of the sacred in our country. Will his words sink in, anywhere?
Sadly, not with the depraved, such as Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Perhaps, perhaps, with her constituents, but OS holds out little hope.
Listen to General Kelly as he mourns the loss of the sacred in our country. Will his words sink in, anywhere?
Sadly, not with the depraved, such as Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. Perhaps, perhaps, with her constituents, but OS holds out little hope.
Monday, October 16, 2017
Fentanyl: From China To Mexico to Baltimore
We need that wall on the southern border, like yesterday.
A feckless Congress, and amoral executive and judicial officials have made this misery possible.
A feckless Congress, and amoral executive and judicial officials have made this misery possible.
Mass Graves For ISIS Murderers. Thank You, Mr. Trump
From the Jakarta Post:
The Islamic State group once drew recruits from near and far with promises of paradise but now bodies of jihadists lie in mass graves or at the mercy of wild dogs as its "caliphate" collapses.
Flies buzz around human remains poking through the dusty earth in the Iraqi town of Dhuluiyah, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Baghdad, at a hastily-dug pit containing the bodies of dozens of IS fighters killed in 2015.
"They should have ended up in the stomachs of stray dogs," local police officer Mohammed al-Juburi told AFP.
"We buried them here not out of love but because we wanted to avoid diseases."
At one stage, IS ruthlessly wielded power over a vast swathe of territory straddling Iraq and Syria, but a military onslaught on multiple fronts has seen its fiefdom shrink to a last few pockets.
Since the launch in 2014 of air strikes in Iraq and Syria against the group, a US-led coalition says around 80,000 jihadists have been killed.
The overall number of dead is higher if you include those targeted by Russian and Syrian strikes.
Three observations:
- Indonesia, capital Jakarta, is a huge nation, with an enormous Muslim presence. Some editor there felt safe enough to run this story.
- Yes, the efforts to curtail ISIS began in 2014, after they raped and pillaged mercilessly, while President Obama dismissed them as 'junior varsity', not really worth worrying about.
- His successor has taken them very seriously. Every stump speech spoke of 'Radical Islamic Terrorism' and contained the phrase 'Kick the hell out of ISIS'. The Donald, the world is beginning to discover, is a man of his word.
Dead jihadis can't plant car bombs, rape women and children, kidnap innocents, burn prisoners alive, behead victims on camera, run trucks through crowds. The Donald understands something his predecessor never could wrap his head around: The jihadis crossed over into a moral Point of No Return, a place past re-integration into the civilized world. The only sane and moral course of action is to run them to ground, and bury them into the unmarked graves they earned.
It is a horrible thing to have to say this, but this is the path they chose. May Providence grant success to those tasked with hunting the monsters down.
Friday, October 13, 2017
Pastor Peters Asks: When Was This Written?
Truth is truth, regardless of year of publication...
Pastor Peters--ya'll really should check him out--shares along these cogent words, which could have been written this week, but in actuality date from the early 1940's, by Episcopal Bishop Bernard Iddings Bell.
Bell is just getting warmed up with these opening paragraphs--
If man, as envisioned by democrats and totalitarians alike, is for himself a determining end; if he may safely do as he pleases, in such fashion as may from time to time seem to him expedient; if he is able to handle his affairs without redemption from an ingrained folly; if in his own power he can rise above self-seeking and live in a voluntary sociality; if he is able to get along quite nicely without contact with any power not of himself which makes for righteousness—then Christianity is irrelevant to life. In that case the Church is at worst an incubus which ought to be destroyed and from which innocent children should be protected, at best an ivory tower in which peculiar and incompetent people may from time to time be permitted to take refuge from reality—an institution insignificant but relatively harmless.
But wait! There's more!! But you'll need to read for yourself.
One immediate observation: Is there an Episcopal bishop living in the US who would think or dare to write such words? OS has met and known a few of these types, and they are, as Bell predicted 'peculiar and incompetent people', definitely taking refuge from reality. Hey! The music is wonderful, the buildings are old and pretty, the atmosphere is quiet and calm, and the guy (or lady) in the pulpit won't dare say a word that might ruffle your feathers, much less make you quake in your boots.
God is a good idea, Jesus was a nice moral teacher, If we'll be nice to one another and vote the Democrat ticket, all will be well with the world, Please do remember to give generously, There is sherry available in the meeting hall following the service, We'll see you next week.
It is clear, from reading now, that the US and UK assumed they would win the war in the 1940's, and the GreatAndGood were hard at work thinking through what they wished the world to look like in the aftermath of the conflagration. This was before Dresden, Hiroshima, and the freeing of the Nazi and Japanese concentration camps, the Nuremburg trials. The full extent and wickedness of the evil had not yet been revealed, nor the dangers that lay ahead.
Still, unfazed, on they went, forming a new order as described above, adhering to it faithfully, oblivious to its consequences. William Buckley, as a young man, described its institutionalization at Yale University in his classic slim volume God and Man at Yale.
(The link takes you to the Amazon listing--a few bucks well spent.) As OS read it a few months ago, it dawned upon him: 'Damn, the culture was screwed to the wall by 1950! The GreatAndGood set about to disassemble our lives, our homes, our mores, our economy, our churches and synagogues, our faith itself. And we paid them to do it!'
It's well worth reading--Buckley shines as a writer, never a wasted word.
Another good, pithy, short read: Solzhenitsyn's Address At Harvard Yard, in which he traveled the journey from cultural icon to non-person in the space of about one hour. It was a record at the time, back in 1978. Any mention of the man's name now is met with a blank stare (Who?), or blocking by moderators in most comment threads. Read his words, and it won't be hard to understand why.
A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.
For those of OS's vast legion of readers (myriads of readers!!) who are in shock about Donald Trump, bear this in mind: He never got the memo from Yale, and he spends every day pushing back against those GreatAndGoods who have so systematically and coldly savaged this country. He's a flawed messenger, to be sure, but he's the guy with the resources and will to lead the push-back. And push back he does, in ways great and small, some unexpected--like the whole NFL player/National Anthem dustup. But he seems to have an instinct for the push-back, and his followers sense it as they push back with him. He's a boxer--he punches back, and sometimes punches first. Thus the drop in NFL viewership, and certainly Major League Baseball owners are holding their breaths this post season. It will only take one wing-nut player at a World Series game to cause America's TV screens to go dark, and sports bars to empty early.
Other push-backs are going on more quietly, especially the one that sees ISIS being driven from the battlefield, with apparently few prisoners taken. Not much publicity, mind you, just a lot of pushback of the lethal variety. And it seems there are fewer car-bombs going off in the markets of Baghdad, Damascus, Tripoli, Beirut, Amman, and Jerusalem. Dead men can't build bombs, it turns out. Push-back works, at least some of the time.
So, back to the original question--Bell penned these words in 1942, when a bishop could still write them, and Atlantic Magazine would deign to publish them.
We are living now in the world created then, and hopefully we will find the courage to continue to push back.
Pastor Peters--ya'll really should check him out--shares along these cogent words, which could have been written this week, but in actuality date from the early 1940's, by Episcopal Bishop Bernard Iddings Bell.
When one examines the blueprints of a post-war Paradise offered for our encouragement or enticement by the spokesmen of the contending nations, one perceives a common denominator in their various plans: a unanimous assumption that the new order is to be an affair of this world only; a taking it for granted that all that men need for security and happiness and peace is an industrial and political setup well conceived; a postulation that man, when he regards himself as an end to be served, is morally competent, of sufficient natural good-will to make his system—whatever it may be—minister to something more satisfactory than a frequently renewed fratricidal conflict.
Against this common assumption which characterizes all the popular post-war hopes—British, American, Russian, German, Japanese, Italian—the teaching of Jesus Christ stands in unqualified opposition; nor can the Christian Church compromise in respect to that opposition without ceasing to be Christian. In that simple fact is the essence of the Church's problem.
Bell is just getting warmed up with these opening paragraphs--
If man, as envisioned by democrats and totalitarians alike, is for himself a determining end; if he may safely do as he pleases, in such fashion as may from time to time seem to him expedient; if he is able to handle his affairs without redemption from an ingrained folly; if in his own power he can rise above self-seeking and live in a voluntary sociality; if he is able to get along quite nicely without contact with any power not of himself which makes for righteousness—then Christianity is irrelevant to life. In that case the Church is at worst an incubus which ought to be destroyed and from which innocent children should be protected, at best an ivory tower in which peculiar and incompetent people may from time to time be permitted to take refuge from reality—an institution insignificant but relatively harmless.
But wait! There's more!! But you'll need to read for yourself.
One immediate observation: Is there an Episcopal bishop living in the US who would think or dare to write such words? OS has met and known a few of these types, and they are, as Bell predicted 'peculiar and incompetent people', definitely taking refuge from reality. Hey! The music is wonderful, the buildings are old and pretty, the atmosphere is quiet and calm, and the guy (or lady) in the pulpit won't dare say a word that might ruffle your feathers, much less make you quake in your boots.
God is a good idea, Jesus was a nice moral teacher, If we'll be nice to one another and vote the Democrat ticket, all will be well with the world, Please do remember to give generously, There is sherry available in the meeting hall following the service, We'll see you next week.
It is clear, from reading now, that the US and UK assumed they would win the war in the 1940's, and the GreatAndGood were hard at work thinking through what they wished the world to look like in the aftermath of the conflagration. This was before Dresden, Hiroshima, and the freeing of the Nazi and Japanese concentration camps, the Nuremburg trials. The full extent and wickedness of the evil had not yet been revealed, nor the dangers that lay ahead.
Still, unfazed, on they went, forming a new order as described above, adhering to it faithfully, oblivious to its consequences. William Buckley, as a young man, described its institutionalization at Yale University in his classic slim volume God and Man at Yale.
(The link takes you to the Amazon listing--a few bucks well spent.) As OS read it a few months ago, it dawned upon him: 'Damn, the culture was screwed to the wall by 1950! The GreatAndGood set about to disassemble our lives, our homes, our mores, our economy, our churches and synagogues, our faith itself. And we paid them to do it!'
It's well worth reading--Buckley shines as a writer, never a wasted word.
Another good, pithy, short read: Solzhenitsyn's Address At Harvard Yard, in which he traveled the journey from cultural icon to non-person in the space of about one hour. It was a record at the time, back in 1978. Any mention of the man's name now is met with a blank stare (Who?), or blocking by moderators in most comment threads. Read his words, and it won't be hard to understand why.
A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside observer notices in the West in our days. The Western world has lost its civil courage, both as a whole and separately, in each country, each government, each political party, and, of course, in the United Nations. Such a decline in courage is particularly noticeable among the ruling groups and the intellectual elite, causing an impression of loss of courage by the entire society. Of course, there are many courageous individuals, but they have no determining influence on public life.
For those of OS's vast legion of readers (myriads of readers!!) who are in shock about Donald Trump, bear this in mind: He never got the memo from Yale, and he spends every day pushing back against those GreatAndGoods who have so systematically and coldly savaged this country. He's a flawed messenger, to be sure, but he's the guy with the resources and will to lead the push-back. And push back he does, in ways great and small, some unexpected--like the whole NFL player/National Anthem dustup. But he seems to have an instinct for the push-back, and his followers sense it as they push back with him. He's a boxer--he punches back, and sometimes punches first. Thus the drop in NFL viewership, and certainly Major League Baseball owners are holding their breaths this post season. It will only take one wing-nut player at a World Series game to cause America's TV screens to go dark, and sports bars to empty early.
Other push-backs are going on more quietly, especially the one that sees ISIS being driven from the battlefield, with apparently few prisoners taken. Not much publicity, mind you, just a lot of pushback of the lethal variety. And it seems there are fewer car-bombs going off in the markets of Baghdad, Damascus, Tripoli, Beirut, Amman, and Jerusalem. Dead men can't build bombs, it turns out. Push-back works, at least some of the time.
So, back to the original question--Bell penned these words in 1942, when a bishop could still write them, and Atlantic Magazine would deign to publish them.
We are living now in the world created then, and hopefully we will find the courage to continue to push back.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Dear Senator Limpenquack--aka Lame Duck Corker--Resign, Now. Time For Tennessee To Have A Grownup In That Seat
It's time, long overdue.
Having seen no way to retain your seat running in a primary against voters who are fed up with you, after jumping on the Left's bandwagon following the events of Charlottsville (characterizing POTUS as unfit to serve, in effect calling for his resignation), you announce that you will not run for re-election.
This announcement following a one-on-one with the President, who, unsurprisingly, declined to endorse you.
He's too busy cleaning up the Iran Mess you worked so hard to create.
Resign. Now. Go home. Get a head start on appointments to all those corporate boards, university boards, real estate deals, etc etc etc. Take time to work on your golf game.
Let someone serve who won't do bonehead deals like the Iran Mess you helped broker. Remember those pallets of cash that were shipped to the mullahs? You may as well have been piloting the plane.
Do you doubt, once the Mullahs have a nuke on a missile, that they won't threaten Israel and the remainder of the Middle East? These are the folks that keep sending boatloads of materiel to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Really?
Go home. Now. Before you endanger all of us all the more.
Having seen no way to retain your seat running in a primary against voters who are fed up with you, after jumping on the Left's bandwagon following the events of Charlottsville (characterizing POTUS as unfit to serve, in effect calling for his resignation), you announce that you will not run for re-election.
This announcement following a one-on-one with the President, who, unsurprisingly, declined to endorse you.
He's too busy cleaning up the Iran Mess you worked so hard to create.
Resign. Now. Go home. Get a head start on appointments to all those corporate boards, university boards, real estate deals, etc etc etc. Take time to work on your golf game.
Let someone serve who won't do bonehead deals like the Iran Mess you helped broker. Remember those pallets of cash that were shipped to the mullahs? You may as well have been piloting the plane.
Do you doubt, once the Mullahs have a nuke on a missile, that they won't threaten Israel and the remainder of the Middle East? These are the folks that keep sending boatloads of materiel to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Really?
Go home. Now. Before you endanger all of us all the more.
Monday, October 9, 2017
Why, Meryl Streep, Naomi Judd And Hundreds Of Others In Hollywood And The Left Are Just Shocked (Yea, Stunned!!) To Learn About Harvey Weinstein...
Really, they are!
All that righteous chest-pounding about The Donald's (undeniably rude) locker room talk from over a decade ago, and stone silence about this gent's well-known perverse proclivities and abuse of multiple women in his world.
Hmmm...add in Miz Hillary's silence (Well, she's had a lot of practice), Huma's hubby Anthony's Twitter habits and laptop full of confidential emails, stir gently...
Ends up smelling like a week-old fish left in the trash in a sunny location.
Folks, this is not a call for a boycott of Hollywood. It is a suggestion that we simply rethink where we generally spend time, money and attention. How about books, learning to play a musical instrument, or golf, or museum visits, or attending the symphony (or all those free recitals at your local university), or joining a softball team, or finding a good church to support, or singing in the local choral society, or volunteering for a local charity, or, or, or...
People like Streep, Weinstein, Clooney, Miz Hillary, Oprah, NBA and NFL players, corrupt college coaches, et al, all operate from the assumption that they are indispensable parts of our lives.
They aren't.
We don't need them. They, in the end, do need us. We get to walk away from them, and they will never be missed by those who replace them with their own list of alternatives.
All that righteous chest-pounding about The Donald's (undeniably rude) locker room talk from over a decade ago, and stone silence about this gent's well-known perverse proclivities and abuse of multiple women in his world.
Hmmm...add in Miz Hillary's silence (Well, she's had a lot of practice), Huma's hubby Anthony's Twitter habits and laptop full of confidential emails, stir gently...
Ends up smelling like a week-old fish left in the trash in a sunny location.
Folks, this is not a call for a boycott of Hollywood. It is a suggestion that we simply rethink where we generally spend time, money and attention. How about books, learning to play a musical instrument, or golf, or museum visits, or attending the symphony (or all those free recitals at your local university), or joining a softball team, or finding a good church to support, or singing in the local choral society, or volunteering for a local charity, or, or, or...
People like Streep, Weinstein, Clooney, Miz Hillary, Oprah, NBA and NFL players, corrupt college coaches, et al, all operate from the assumption that they are indispensable parts of our lives.
They aren't.
We don't need them. They, in the end, do need us. We get to walk away from them, and they will never be missed by those who replace them with their own list of alternatives.
Monday, September 18, 2017
We Have Arrived At The Future...And Need A Map To Retrace Our Steps
To the point that the Prayer Book Society has taken publishing a glossary for C of E ordinands, who cannot comprehend the language of the Book Of Common Prayer.
OS remembers clearly when our betters imposed their bright/shiny new modern language liturgies upon all congregations and denominations. They were 'inclusive' of everything and everybody, save the majesty, beauty and transcendence of the Almighty...Himself. The hymnals were sanitized, the great poems of the Wesleys, Cowper, Newton, and Crosby (to name just a few) were gutted, to keep the sensitive souls who-just-had-to-be-catered-to...comfortable. Offenses like 'Time, like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away' were just toooooo offensive! So, over time, 'Oh, God Our Help In Ages Past' simply fades from memories and hymbooks. In many cases, the hymnbooks themselves have disappeared, replaced by screens, and the voice of the congregation has been silenced by bands and performers singing to them--endless reptitions of 'I just wanna....' (repeat four times) modulate up one-half step and play louder 'I just wanna...' Rinse and repeat four more times.
So, now, we have an illiterate clergy and silent and diminishing congregations. Wow!! Great Job, you guys!! Between the clerical elites, the press and the 'Christian Music Business' and 'Christian Publishing Business', ya'll have damn near killed off any voice the Church had in the culture.
So, the Prayer Book Society is publishing a glossary for the illiterate clergy, and LifeWay Christian Resources of Nashville TN (formerly the Baptist Sunday School Board) is hosting themselves a conference dedicated to reteaching congregations how to sing. What. A. Concept.
Here's the 'vision' (don'tcha just love that word 'Vision', so under-used in our day...)
It begins as a book and a conference in September, launching a two-year focus on congregational singing. We are hoping and praying that the conference is the most significant event our organization has ever had the privilege to initiate.
The project also ties in with the 500th anniversary of the Reformation set in motion by Martin Luther whose vision for congregational singing, theology and music and the arts was utterly revolutionary in church history and more needed today than any time since.
There are five urgent goals with the project:
It amazes OS that, after thirty years dedicated to turning church congregations into passive consumers of whatever crap they think up to dish to them, LifeWay has experienced its own epiphany--Let's return to hymnody!! Theology matters!!
They even offer a pdf download of the hymns they are now peddling to the newly-revived faithful--in lead sheet form, since who can read four parts anymore? Hell, who can read music anymore? An entire generation, deprived of hymnbooks, can't make their way through even basic music notation.
The 'epiphany' was born of necessity--the firm, once taken over by the pedders of crap, has continued to shrink, and shrink, and shrink. They ended up selling off all their prime downtown Nashville real-estate, after decades of capital investment into office and warehouse facilities, since the land was worth much more than any multiple of earnings they could otherwise generate. They sold a huge conference center near Santa Fe (Santa-byGod-Fe, the refuge of the moneyed) for one American dollar. One dollar, because it had become such a money pit, because their customers realized that they were being peddled crap, and stopped attending conferences. Amazing what happens to a firm that chases off at least half of its customer base, yelling 'Good riddance!' at them as they depart...
In all this, OS is reminded of an old Appalachian Presbyterian preacher who spoke to a small gathering of church refugees, huddled at a state park for a weekend of respite and encouragement. Seeing their demoralization (and this twenty-something years ago) he reminded them of three basic ideas:
And, sure enough, #3 on the list comes strolling up: The evensong services in the UK are filling up again, with many of the congregants being young people. Young people, hungry for authenticity, beauty, transcendence--hungry for Christ Himself, if truth be told.
Those things--beauty, authenticity, transcedence--require a deep attachment to the long rich history of Christendom, which attachment the GreatAndGood of all stripes in the leadership of church life in America have spent their careers denigrating and destroying. Now, finally, watching their worlds come unwound, they begin checking the map for the road back home.
OS wishes them every success in that journey. And if they can't read the map, they just need to go away, and leave the job to those who can.
OS remembers clearly when our betters imposed their bright/shiny new modern language liturgies upon all congregations and denominations. They were 'inclusive' of everything and everybody, save the majesty, beauty and transcendence of the Almighty...Himself. The hymnals were sanitized, the great poems of the Wesleys, Cowper, Newton, and Crosby (to name just a few) were gutted, to keep the sensitive souls who-just-had-to-be-catered-to...comfortable. Offenses like 'Time, like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away' were just toooooo offensive! So, over time, 'Oh, God Our Help In Ages Past' simply fades from memories and hymbooks. In many cases, the hymnbooks themselves have disappeared, replaced by screens, and the voice of the congregation has been silenced by bands and performers singing to them--endless reptitions of 'I just wanna....' (repeat four times) modulate up one-half step and play louder 'I just wanna...' Rinse and repeat four more times.
So, now, we have an illiterate clergy and silent and diminishing congregations. Wow!! Great Job, you guys!! Between the clerical elites, the press and the 'Christian Music Business' and 'Christian Publishing Business', ya'll have damn near killed off any voice the Church had in the culture.
So, the Prayer Book Society is publishing a glossary for the illiterate clergy, and LifeWay Christian Resources of Nashville TN (formerly the Baptist Sunday School Board) is hosting themselves a conference dedicated to reteaching congregations how to sing. What. A. Concept.
Here's the 'vision' (don'tcha just love that word 'Vision', so under-used in our day...)
It begins as a book and a conference in September, launching a two-year focus on congregational singing. We are hoping and praying that the conference is the most significant event our organization has ever had the privilege to initiate.
The project also ties in with the 500th anniversary of the Reformation set in motion by Martin Luther whose vision for congregational singing, theology and music and the arts was utterly revolutionary in church history and more needed today than any time since.
There are five urgent goals with the project:
- Teach everyone why and how we sing.
- Build deep believers through what we sing.
- Strengthen and encourage families to sing together.
- Build churches by singing together and to each other.
- Witness to our wider communities by our singing.
It amazes OS that, after thirty years dedicated to turning church congregations into passive consumers of whatever crap they think up to dish to them, LifeWay has experienced its own epiphany--Let's return to hymnody!! Theology matters!!
They even offer a pdf download of the hymns they are now peddling to the newly-revived faithful--in lead sheet form, since who can read four parts anymore? Hell, who can read music anymore? An entire generation, deprived of hymnbooks, can't make their way through even basic music notation.
The 'epiphany' was born of necessity--the firm, once taken over by the pedders of crap, has continued to shrink, and shrink, and shrink. They ended up selling off all their prime downtown Nashville real-estate, after decades of capital investment into office and warehouse facilities, since the land was worth much more than any multiple of earnings they could otherwise generate. They sold a huge conference center near Santa Fe (Santa-byGod-Fe, the refuge of the moneyed) for one American dollar. One dollar, because it had become such a money pit, because their customers realized that they were being peddled crap, and stopped attending conferences. Amazing what happens to a firm that chases off at least half of its customer base, yelling 'Good riddance!' at them as they depart...
In all this, OS is reminded of an old Appalachian Presbyterian preacher who spoke to a small gathering of church refugees, huddled at a state park for a weekend of respite and encouragement. Seeing their demoralization (and this twenty-something years ago) he reminded them of three basic ideas:
- God's in charge.
- He always finishes what be begins.
- He never leaves himself without a witness.
And, sure enough, #3 on the list comes strolling up: The evensong services in the UK are filling up again, with many of the congregants being young people. Young people, hungry for authenticity, beauty, transcendence--hungry for Christ Himself, if truth be told.
Those things--beauty, authenticity, transcedence--require a deep attachment to the long rich history of Christendom, which attachment the GreatAndGood of all stripes in the leadership of church life in America have spent their careers denigrating and destroying. Now, finally, watching their worlds come unwound, they begin checking the map for the road back home.
OS wishes them every success in that journey. And if they can't read the map, they just need to go away, and leave the job to those who can.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Hitchens Nails It Again
http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2017/09/our-drug-addled-louts-are-the-real-reason-we-need-migrants.html
Friday, September 1, 2017
Sometimes, CNN, When A Reporter Shoves A Mic Into The Face Of A Traumatized Mom (great ratings!) She'll Tell You What She Thinks
Quote of the day:
"We walked through four feet of water to get food on the first day. Yeah, that’s a lot of shit.”
“But y’all sit here, y’all trying to interview people during their worst times — like that’s not the smartest thing to do. Like people are really breaking down and y’all sitting here with cameras and microphones trying to ask us what the fuck is wrong with us."
"And you really trying to understand with the microphone still in my face? With me shivering cold, with my kids wet, and you still putting the microphone in my face."
OS is tempted to set it to music--or better yet, we need a savvy rapper/mixologist to do his/her mashup magic with this moment.
Anyway, ya'll--this is priceless:
Thursday, August 31, 2017
American Presidents, Slavery, and the Confederacy--Which Monuments Should Remain Standing?
It's a fascinating question, when viewed in perspective.
Clyde Wilson of the Abbeville Institute offers that perspective, to wit---only one...all the others have their hands stained (if our politically correct friends are to be trusted).
One wonders, in the end, if all this hysterical semi-historicity has been undertaken to set the stage for an assault on the existence of the Constitution itself...just...sayin'...
In any case, Dr. Wilson's insights follow.
The current pogrom against Southern history and symbols ignores the influence the South and the institution of slavery had on most American presidents. American history would not be the same without it. If the current goal is to purge any reminder of slavery and the Confederacy from the public sphere, then nearly every American president would have to be withdrawn from our historical consciousness. Nineteen presidents either were slaveholders, from slaveholding families, or were married into slaveholding families:
1. George Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. James Madison
4. James Monroe
5. Andrew Jackson
6. Martin Van Buren
7. William Henry Harrison
8. John Tyler
9. James K. Polk
10. Zachary Taylor
11. Abraham Lincoln
12. Andrew Johnson
13. U.S. Grant
14. Benjamin Harrison
15. Theodore Roosevelt
16. Woodrow Wilson
17. Franklin D. Roosevelt
18. Jimmy Carter
19. Barack Hussein Obama
Of these nineteen, thirteen had family members who fought for the Confederacy: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Lincoln, A. Johnson, T. Roosevelt, Wilson, and Carter, while Presidents Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton all had Confederate ancestors as well. The Clinton campaign crafted Confederate Battle Flag “Clinton/Gore” pins in 1992.
George H.W. and George W. Bush hail from the New England slave trading Walker family.
Barack Obama’s Kenyan family, as part of the Luo tribe, most certainly engaged in the East African slave trade selling Africans to Muslims. This trade was older and more pervasive than the more famous West African trade.
Several presidents were either sympathetic to the South, opposed the War at some point between 1861 and 1865, or had favorable opinions of the South and Southerners in general:
1. Millard Fillmore was sympathetic to Southern slaveholders, favored colonization, and sought peace in 1864. For that, he was labeled a traitor and a Copperhead.
2. Franklin Pierce was sympathetic to the South through close friendships with leading Confederate officials including Jefferson Davis and opposed the War.
3. James Buchanan was sympathetic to Southern slaveholders. His “close friend,” William King of Alabama, influenced his views.
4. Grover Cleveland opposed Lincoln’s war and honoured ex-Confederates by appointing them to high offices, including a Supreme Court Justice.
5. William McKinley used the first “Southern strategy” in American history during the 1896 presidential campaign. His Southern tour led many Southerners to support him over the much more leftist William Jennings Bryan in the election. McKinley spoke of his admiration for Confederate soldiers.
6. William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, and Calvin Coolidge all presided over events honouring Confederate soldiers (with Confederate Battle Flags), with Taft speaking directly to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
7. Dwight D. Eisenhower defended General Lee and Confederate motives during both his administration and his time as a United States General Officer.
8. John F. Kennedy admired John C. Calhoun by classifying him as one of the greatest United States Senators and freely spoke in front of Confederate Battle Flags. He received one as a gift from Senator Fritz Hollings.
9. Richard M. Nixon swept to victory in 1972 with his “Southern strategy” that including Confederate Battle Flag campaign pins.
10. Gerald R. Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee in 1975, an act that would be nearly impossible today.
11. Ronald W. Reagan portrayed sympathetic Confederates in movies as a leading American actor in the 1950s.
12. Donald Trump donated $25,000 to help rebuild Jefferson Davis’s Beauvoir after Hurricane Katrina.
All told, thirty-eight of the forty-three men who have occupied the executive office had ties to slavery, the slave trade, the Confederacy, or held positive views of the South, including the first African-American president, Barack Obama.
Ostensibly, that would leave five Presidents–John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, and Herbert Hoover–worthy of emulation according to the acceptable narrative outlined by the modern social justice warriors.
But not so fast.
John Adams was friends with several large slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson, and tolerated the institution for the good of the Union.
Rutherford Hayes appointed Southerners to cabinet positions, supported reconciliation, and removed federal troops from the South to end Reconstruction.
James Garfield said that racial equality gave him “a strong feeling of repugnance” and supported colonization of free blacks in Africa.
Chester Arthur dedicated the Washington Monument (a shining example of slavery) and heaped praise upon Confederate veteran John W. Daniel during the ceremony.
And while Hoover was a champion of civil rights and supported federal aid for Southern blacks during the terrible flooding of the Mississippi in the early 1920s, he also (supposedly) opposed the New Deal and an enlarged general government with “safety net” authority. In other words, he hated the poor, black Americans among them.
As a result, J.Q. Adams should be honoured around the United States as the only true American free from the stains of slavery, the Confederacy, Southern sympathies, or racism, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created “Equal.”
Of course, he served only one term, did not receive a majority in the popular vote, and won in 1824 through the “corrupt bargain” in the House of Representatives. Perhaps that is because no one could stand the man. Seems the Yankee “Treasury of Counterfeit Virtue” only goes so far toward American political success.
Or better yet, most American presidents have realized that the South, as real America, is key to winning elections.
Clyde Wilson of the Abbeville Institute offers that perspective, to wit---only one...all the others have their hands stained (if our politically correct friends are to be trusted).
One wonders, in the end, if all this hysterical semi-historicity has been undertaken to set the stage for an assault on the existence of the Constitution itself...just...sayin'...
In any case, Dr. Wilson's insights follow.
The current pogrom against Southern history and symbols ignores the influence the South and the institution of slavery had on most American presidents. American history would not be the same without it. If the current goal is to purge any reminder of slavery and the Confederacy from the public sphere, then nearly every American president would have to be withdrawn from our historical consciousness. Nineteen presidents either were slaveholders, from slaveholding families, or were married into slaveholding families:
1. George Washington
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. James Madison
4. James Monroe
5. Andrew Jackson
6. Martin Van Buren
7. William Henry Harrison
8. John Tyler
9. James K. Polk
10. Zachary Taylor
11. Abraham Lincoln
12. Andrew Johnson
13. U.S. Grant
14. Benjamin Harrison
15. Theodore Roosevelt
16. Woodrow Wilson
17. Franklin D. Roosevelt
18. Jimmy Carter
19. Barack Hussein Obama
Of these nineteen, thirteen had family members who fought for the Confederacy: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Lincoln, A. Johnson, T. Roosevelt, Wilson, and Carter, while Presidents Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton all had Confederate ancestors as well. The Clinton campaign crafted Confederate Battle Flag “Clinton/Gore” pins in 1992.
George H.W. and George W. Bush hail from the New England slave trading Walker family.
Barack Obama’s Kenyan family, as part of the Luo tribe, most certainly engaged in the East African slave trade selling Africans to Muslims. This trade was older and more pervasive than the more famous West African trade.
Several presidents were either sympathetic to the South, opposed the War at some point between 1861 and 1865, or had favorable opinions of the South and Southerners in general:
1. Millard Fillmore was sympathetic to Southern slaveholders, favored colonization, and sought peace in 1864. For that, he was labeled a traitor and a Copperhead.
2. Franklin Pierce was sympathetic to the South through close friendships with leading Confederate officials including Jefferson Davis and opposed the War.
3. James Buchanan was sympathetic to Southern slaveholders. His “close friend,” William King of Alabama, influenced his views.
4. Grover Cleveland opposed Lincoln’s war and honoured ex-Confederates by appointing them to high offices, including a Supreme Court Justice.
5. William McKinley used the first “Southern strategy” in American history during the 1896 presidential campaign. His Southern tour led many Southerners to support him over the much more leftist William Jennings Bryan in the election. McKinley spoke of his admiration for Confederate soldiers.
6. William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, and Calvin Coolidge all presided over events honouring Confederate soldiers (with Confederate Battle Flags), with Taft speaking directly to members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
7. Dwight D. Eisenhower defended General Lee and Confederate motives during both his administration and his time as a United States General Officer.
8. John F. Kennedy admired John C. Calhoun by classifying him as one of the greatest United States Senators and freely spoke in front of Confederate Battle Flags. He received one as a gift from Senator Fritz Hollings.
9. Richard M. Nixon swept to victory in 1972 with his “Southern strategy” that including Confederate Battle Flag campaign pins.
10. Gerald R. Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee in 1975, an act that would be nearly impossible today.
11. Ronald W. Reagan portrayed sympathetic Confederates in movies as a leading American actor in the 1950s.
12. Donald Trump donated $25,000 to help rebuild Jefferson Davis’s Beauvoir after Hurricane Katrina.
All told, thirty-eight of the forty-three men who have occupied the executive office had ties to slavery, the slave trade, the Confederacy, or held positive views of the South, including the first African-American president, Barack Obama.
Ostensibly, that would leave five Presidents–John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, and Herbert Hoover–worthy of emulation according to the acceptable narrative outlined by the modern social justice warriors.
But not so fast.
John Adams was friends with several large slaveholders, including Thomas Jefferson, and tolerated the institution for the good of the Union.
Rutherford Hayes appointed Southerners to cabinet positions, supported reconciliation, and removed federal troops from the South to end Reconstruction.
James Garfield said that racial equality gave him “a strong feeling of repugnance” and supported colonization of free blacks in Africa.
Chester Arthur dedicated the Washington Monument (a shining example of slavery) and heaped praise upon Confederate veteran John W. Daniel during the ceremony.
And while Hoover was a champion of civil rights and supported federal aid for Southern blacks during the terrible flooding of the Mississippi in the early 1920s, he also (supposedly) opposed the New Deal and an enlarged general government with “safety net” authority. In other words, he hated the poor, black Americans among them.
As a result, J.Q. Adams should be honoured around the United States as the only true American free from the stains of slavery, the Confederacy, Southern sympathies, or racism, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created “Equal.”
Of course, he served only one term, did not receive a majority in the popular vote, and won in 1824 through the “corrupt bargain” in the House of Representatives. Perhaps that is because no one could stand the man. Seems the Yankee “Treasury of Counterfeit Virtue” only goes so far toward American political success.
Or better yet, most American presidents have realized that the South, as real America, is key to winning elections.
Saturday, August 26, 2017
O Canada! Justin Trudeau Reminds Illegals That Canada Enforces Strict Immigration Laws...Strictly
Therefore, according to TheGreatAndGood of the politically correct universes of academia, press, entertainment, and Beltway--Trudeau is an irredeemable raaaaaaacist!
Sound the alarm!!! Are there any monuments in Canada that bear the name 'Trudeau' for any purpose? It must be torn down forthwith! Is there any news anchor or sportscaster or hockey player who shares that shameful name? Kick him/her off the air, immmmmeeeeediately if not sooner.
Hate speech cannot be tolerated!
To wit...
“Canada is an opening and welcoming society,” he told reporters in Montreal following talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “But let me be clear. We are also a country of laws. Entering Canada irregularly is not an advantage. There are rigorous immigration and customs rules that will be followed. Make no mistake.”
Sound the alarm!!! Are there any monuments in Canada that bear the name 'Trudeau' for any purpose? It must be torn down forthwith! Is there any news anchor or sportscaster or hockey player who shares that shameful name? Kick him/her off the air, immmmmeeeeediately if not sooner.
Hate speech cannot be tolerated!
To wit...
“Canada is an opening and welcoming society,” he told reporters in Montreal following talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “But let me be clear. We are also a country of laws. Entering Canada irregularly is not an advantage. There are rigorous immigration and customs rules that will be followed. Make no mistake.”
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Sarah Palin Sues The New York Times, Because Enough Is Enough Is Enough Is Enough
The Times repeated, once again, the clearly proven lie that Governor Palin's exercise of free speech resulted in the horrific mass shooting in Arizona that left Congresswoman Gabby Gifford terribly injured, and eleven dead.
A few hours later, they kinda-sorta-maybe retracted the assertion, while pointedly not naming Mrs. Palin as the target of their earlier viciousness, and issuing no apology.
Yesterday, she struck back. A copy of the lawsuit filed may be found here.
OS wishes her every good fortune, and hopes that she gets her day in court, gets her verdict, and gets a jury that sends a painful painful (as in sell bunches of real estate, fire bunches of responsible execs, bleed cash for years paying it all off) judgement against these horrible, horrible people.
A few hours later, they kinda-sorta-maybe retracted the assertion, while pointedly not naming Mrs. Palin as the target of their earlier viciousness, and issuing no apology.
Yesterday, she struck back. A copy of the lawsuit filed may be found here.
OS wishes her every good fortune, and hopes that she gets her day in court, gets her verdict, and gets a jury that sends a painful painful (as in sell bunches of real estate, fire bunches of responsible execs, bleed cash for years paying it all off) judgement against these horrible, horrible people.
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Why OS Feels No Sympathy For Kathy Griffin--In Her Own Words
What would have happened if, in December 2008, an actor/TV host/presenter/comedian called Mr. Obama a 'POS' (OS won't quote the phrase exactly), and vowed to 'go after' his minor children.
Outrage would have erupted. Justifiable outrage. Whatever we may think of a person in the public eye, his/her 10-year old children are off limits. They are unwitting participants due to circumstances of birth.
Thus, when Kathy Griffin spouted her nonsense at a December 2016 interview, all the rest of us heard in reaction was the sound of crickets chirping.
OS will even spare his legions of readers the labor of clicking through. This is Mzzzzz Griffin, in her own words.
Outrage would have erupted. Justifiable outrage. Whatever we may think of a person in the public eye, his/her 10-year old children are off limits. They are unwitting participants due to circumstances of birth.
Thus, when Kathy Griffin spouted her nonsense at a December 2016 interview, all the rest of us heard in reaction was the sound of crickets chirping.
OS will even spare his legions of readers the labor of clicking through. This is Mzzzzz Griffin, in her own words.
It’s
a question a lot of comedians are asking themselves lately: What should
comedy look like during the Trump presidency? “Now more than ever we
must absolutely go for all the absurdities,” Kathy Griffin told Vulture
at the Equality Now Gala Tuesday night. “For me, that’s Trump and all
things Trump. It’s not about trying to be an equal-opportunity offender
anymore because Hillary got such a beat down. It’s his turn. So I’m
happy to deliver beat down to Donald Trump — and also to Barron. You
know a lot of comics are going to go hard for Donald, my edge is that
I’ll go direct for Barron. I’m going to get in ahead of the game.”
So, of course, Griffin supported Rosie O’Donnell when she tweeted a video
asking if Barron Trump, 10-year-old son of Donald and Melania, was on
the autism spectrum. “After the beat down he gave her, she can say
whatever she wants to say to that piece of shit,” Griffin said before
correcting herself. “Oh, that’s President Piece of Shit.”
OS is curious--Did Mzzzzz Griffin ever have children herself? Perhaps nieces and nephews in her life? People who have some positive role in some child's life don't act like this.
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Don't Mess With Melania: Daily Mail Issues Formal Apology, Pays Damages And Expenses In Libel Suit
Words have meaning, and publishing defamatory false words carries consequences.
The UK's Daily Mail published scurrilous allegations about Melania Trump last summer, which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Mrs. Trump took them to court, and today....
The UK's Daily Mail published scurrilous allegations about Melania Trump last summer, which turned out to be blatantly untrue. Mrs. Trump took them to court, and today....
The Mail Online website and the Daily Mail
newspaper published an article on 20th August 2016 about Melania Trump
which questioned the nature of her work as a professional model, and
republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply
modelling. The article included statements that Mrs. Trump denied the
allegations and Paulo Zampolli, who ran the modelling agency, also
denied the allegations, and the article also stated that there was no
evidence to support the allegations. The article also claimed that Mr
and Mrs Trump may have met three years before they actually met, and
"staged" their actual meeting as a "ruse."
We
accept that these allegations about Mrs Trump are not true and we
retract and withdraw them. We apologise to Mrs Trump for any distress
that our publication caused her. To settle Mrs Trump's two lawsuits
against us, we have agreed to pay her damages and costs.
A fair observation to note that this retraction was probably written by lawyers, and probably is verbatim part of the settlement between the parties.
Congratulations, Mrs. Trump. Here's hoping your pushback will have a settling effect upon the press here in the colonies as well.
Sunday, April 9, 2017
The Ongoing Trainwreck Of Venezuela/The Tale of Joseph
A nation with every, and OS means every possible reason to succeed, is melting down on the far side of the Gulf of Mexico.
Venezuela has a great location in the world, great tropical coastlines and islands, incredibly rich natural resources, including oil reserves, universities, businesses, a large slice of the population that is educated and productive, etc. etc.
And, it has blown sky-high, as in 'Looosy--Wha' Happened' sky-high. A wealthy country suffering shortages of food and medicine. A government that thinks it will solve all problems by jailing the opposition and neutering the legislative branch.
A banana republic.
The wonderful blogger who (for obvious reasons) writes under a pseudonym at The Devil's Excrement has for years done a marvelous job recording this slow death spiral for the world to read and understand.
So, Loooosy. Wha' actually happened?
In brief, Hugo Chavez happened. He rode the spike in oil prices like a rented mule, spent the nation's wealth like a drunken sailor. Chaos ensued, and he loved it. Some leaders actually thrive on chaos.
Then he died, having believed he would live forever, which he didn't. Nor did he create anything resembling a plan for what should happen after he died, since of course he assumed he was immortal.
Then the price of oil died. And all the unspent money, grafted off, never spent on maintaining the oil fields, came back to haunt. Production dropped, so Venezuela was well and truly....screwed. No one will sell them anything except for hard currency, and no one will lend them money. And their government has managed to piss off the entire world. It's a recipe for failure, plain and simple.
The Biblical tale of Joseph comes to mind. The Pharaoh had disturbing dreams, and heard that one of the Deplorables in his dungeon had the gift of interpretation. Joseph was hauled up before him and stated the obvious: 'Timez is goood your Pharoahness. Let's store grain and wealth now while we can, because famines happen, and you want to keep your head unseparated from your royal shoulders. Hungry populations get pissed off and take to the streets, and not even you can survive that.' So the Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the project. Sure as shootin' seven years of plenty were followed by seven years of drought (must have been global warming, right?). Egypt was sitting pretty, with grain to sell to the world, and prospered through the hard times. Joseph ended up as Prime Minister, because he exercised simple common sense, and he was by all accounts basically self-effacing.
So what happened to Venezuela? It was the abandonment of common sense, and the embrace of a charismatic leader who told people what they wished to hear. Now they are headed over the cliff.
It's what is known as a Cautionary Tale.
The book of Genesis ends with the Joseph story. The next book, Exodus, opens with the words to this effect: 'There arose in Egypt a generation that knew not Joseph'. The tale that follows recounts the wheels coming off one of the ancient world's most powerful civilizations.
It, too, is a Cautionary Tale.
Venezuela has a great location in the world, great tropical coastlines and islands, incredibly rich natural resources, including oil reserves, universities, businesses, a large slice of the population that is educated and productive, etc. etc.
And, it has blown sky-high, as in 'Looosy--Wha' Happened' sky-high. A wealthy country suffering shortages of food and medicine. A government that thinks it will solve all problems by jailing the opposition and neutering the legislative branch.
A banana republic.
The wonderful blogger who (for obvious reasons) writes under a pseudonym at The Devil's Excrement has for years done a marvelous job recording this slow death spiral for the world to read and understand.
So, Loooosy. Wha' actually happened?
In brief, Hugo Chavez happened. He rode the spike in oil prices like a rented mule, spent the nation's wealth like a drunken sailor. Chaos ensued, and he loved it. Some leaders actually thrive on chaos.
Then he died, having believed he would live forever, which he didn't. Nor did he create anything resembling a plan for what should happen after he died, since of course he assumed he was immortal.
Then the price of oil died. And all the unspent money, grafted off, never spent on maintaining the oil fields, came back to haunt. Production dropped, so Venezuela was well and truly....screwed. No one will sell them anything except for hard currency, and no one will lend them money. And their government has managed to piss off the entire world. It's a recipe for failure, plain and simple.
The Biblical tale of Joseph comes to mind. The Pharaoh had disturbing dreams, and heard that one of the Deplorables in his dungeon had the gift of interpretation. Joseph was hauled up before him and stated the obvious: 'Timez is goood your Pharoahness. Let's store grain and wealth now while we can, because famines happen, and you want to keep your head unseparated from your royal shoulders. Hungry populations get pissed off and take to the streets, and not even you can survive that.' So the Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the project. Sure as shootin' seven years of plenty were followed by seven years of drought (must have been global warming, right?). Egypt was sitting pretty, with grain to sell to the world, and prospered through the hard times. Joseph ended up as Prime Minister, because he exercised simple common sense, and he was by all accounts basically self-effacing.
So what happened to Venezuela? It was the abandonment of common sense, and the embrace of a charismatic leader who told people what they wished to hear. Now they are headed over the cliff.
It's what is known as a Cautionary Tale.
The book of Genesis ends with the Joseph story. The next book, Exodus, opens with the words to this effect: 'There arose in Egypt a generation that knew not Joseph'. The tale that follows recounts the wheels coming off one of the ancient world's most powerful civilizations.
It, too, is a Cautionary Tale.
Friday, March 31, 2017
Saturday, March 18, 2017
What Have We Here? Obama And The Judge, One Day Before The Judge Enjoins The Second Travel Restriction Executive Order
OS does not generally pay attention to conspiracy theories...they tend to not hold water. Conspiracies require the cooperation of a number of parties, and in any group of evil-doers, someone will spill the beans, even if over beers at the local tavern.
So, when the chatter about Mr. Obama's visit to Hawaii and subsequent injunction against the second travel ban issued by a federal judge (appointed by Obama) began to rumble, OS ignored it. He does not look good in any sort of tin-foil hat.
But this time, OS has been proven wrong.
What have we here?
Indeed that is The Wan, with The Judge, enjoying dinner the day before the ruling.
And, ZeroHedge shares this tidbit with us:
Hmmmm?
And, while Facebook Snowflakes are whining endlessly about the costs of securing Mrs. Trump and little son Trump vis-a-vis spending on National Endowment for the Arts: How much in travel and security costs did that shrimp pad-thai set the taxpayer back?
Hmmmm?
Time for some brave soul in the House of Representatives to drop a Bill of Impeachment of Judge Watson into the hopper, perhaps?
So, when the chatter about Mr. Obama's visit to Hawaii and subsequent injunction against the second travel ban issued by a federal judge (appointed by Obama) began to rumble, OS ignored it. He does not look good in any sort of tin-foil hat.
But this time, OS has been proven wrong.
What have we here?
Indeed that is The Wan, with The Judge, enjoying dinner the day before the ruling.
And, ZeroHedge shares this tidbit with us:
The day after Obama's Tuesday dinner in Honolulu, Derrick Watson issued a ruling which
effectively stopped President Donald Trump's executive order on
immigration from taking effect hours later. Observers immediately
protested the ruling, noting that not only was Watson appointed to his
position by Obama in 2014, they had both graduated from Harvard Law School in 1991.
Judge Watson's 43-page ruling was
issued a mere two hours after hearing arguments on whether or not the
immigration ban should be blocked. This would have required Watson to
write a page roughly every three minutes, raising questions about
whether or not the judge had already made a decision before even hearing
arguments from attorneys and had already drafted a ruling. The
proximity of the judge to Obama on his vacation just days before the
consequential hearing, their lengthy history together and facts
indicating that the judge had prepared a ruling before the case even
began raise questions about whether or not the former President
exercised improper influence in the judge's decision. Barack Obama's
representatives have yet to issue any comment on the matter.
Read the bits in red again... Forty-three pages of legal ruling written, edited and printed within two hours? Holy Workaholic, Batman!! That's just plain miraculous, an historic moment in the history of jurispudence!
OS asks his legion of followers--Had that been either of the Bushes in their post-White House years, appearing to influence a matter before a federal court, what would the reaction in the press have been?Hmmmm?
And, while Facebook Snowflakes are whining endlessly about the costs of securing Mrs. Trump and little son Trump vis-a-vis spending on National Endowment for the Arts: How much in travel and security costs did that shrimp pad-thai set the taxpayer back?
Hmmmm?
Time for some brave soul in the House of Representatives to drop a Bill of Impeachment of Judge Watson into the hopper, perhaps?
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Peronistas and Trump's Brigades in Nashville 15 March 2017
David Warren is a quiet, thoughtful, devastatingly good Canadian essayist, and
OS enjoys his Essays in Idleness.
This week's post, 'Justicialismo', is especially on-point.
Warren notes that Peronism, which destroyed Argentina, is not simply an Argentine phenomenon. It is a perverse approach to existence that has taken hold in many lands (including ours). It's difficult to disagree with his reasoning.
Moral, intellectual, and material squalour is their chief legacy to a country which was once among the world’s most prosperous and most free. The spiritual equivalent has now migrated to Rome.
This, at least, is the impression I have formed from afar. “Justicialism,” so far as one can read, embodies every sort of rhetorical populism, across the political spectrum, but with a heavy and perfectly consistent bias towards centralized power. It stands for “social justice” — an absolutely imaginary and therefore unattainable ideal. It is on the side of labour and of management, it is Catholic and anti-Catholic, racist and anti-racist, isolationist and aggressive, leftist and rightist and dogmatically nationalist with all the contradictions nationalism entails. Yet it is not unique.
Socialism is leftwing Fascism; Fascism is rightwing Socialism. Other than that, they are the same. They vie for the same voters, and politicians may move comfortably back and forth between their symmetrical (i.e. identical) extremes. The principle underlying both is that the government should control everything, for the government’s idea of the common good. Whether the government technically owns everything is neither here nor there. Indeed, Socialism/Fascism works better, for the government, if private actors can be made to take the blame and the losses for all of the government’s goon-show mistakes. Any “excess” income on which they fall in their government-assigned monopolist stations can then be impounded.
Warren does not counsel despair, rather a creative approach to battling the disease--live like Christians.
This week's post, 'Justicialismo', is especially on-point.
Warren notes that Peronism, which destroyed Argentina, is not simply an Argentine phenomenon. It is a perverse approach to existence that has taken hold in many lands (including ours). It's difficult to disagree with his reasoning.
Moral, intellectual, and material squalour is their chief legacy to a country which was once among the world’s most prosperous and most free. The spiritual equivalent has now migrated to Rome.
This, at least, is the impression I have formed from afar. “Justicialism,” so far as one can read, embodies every sort of rhetorical populism, across the political spectrum, but with a heavy and perfectly consistent bias towards centralized power. It stands for “social justice” — an absolutely imaginary and therefore unattainable ideal. It is on the side of labour and of management, it is Catholic and anti-Catholic, racist and anti-racist, isolationist and aggressive, leftist and rightist and dogmatically nationalist with all the contradictions nationalism entails. Yet it is not unique.
Socialism is leftwing Fascism; Fascism is rightwing Socialism. Other than that, they are the same. They vie for the same voters, and politicians may move comfortably back and forth between their symmetrical (i.e. identical) extremes. The principle underlying both is that the government should control everything, for the government’s idea of the common good. Whether the government technically owns everything is neither here nor there. Indeed, Socialism/Fascism works better, for the government, if private actors can be made to take the blame and the losses for all of the government’s goon-show mistakes. Any “excess” income on which they fall in their government-assigned monopolist stations can then be impounded.
Warren does not counsel despair, rather a creative approach to battling the disease--live like Christians.
How to resist? Not by “proposing alternatives,” which can only be
implemented from the top down, through participation in the established
political order. That has been tried, repeatedly, and has anyone noticed
it has repeatedly failed?
Rather, I think, one resists by creative personal non-cooperation: rendering justice not “socially” to the abstract mass, but individually to your neighbours. With love.
That was from the beginning the “political” genius of Christianity, which undermined dirigiste authority simply by ducking under its radar sweeps; emerging when, under its manifest contradictions, it finally and totally collapsed. Casualties — martyrdoms — must sometimes be taken, but to the ends of Heaven they are all good. Live a free Christian life, in defiance of the modernists, but without telling them.
Spread it by example.
So, OS's legions of readers ask--what does this have to do with The Donald in Nashville?
A lot, actually.
OS reserved tickets for the rally, but life intervened, and he had to offer his spots to others. It was for the best, as the lines for the 6:30 pm rally began to form before dawn outside Nashville's Municipal Auditorium. Thousands stood in blustery winds in 35 degree temps all day for the opportunity to enter for the rally, and cheer for Their President.
OS is not in good enough shape for that--getting there, but not yet--and Mrs. OS does not deserve a sick husband. But he watched the RSBN feed of the cheerful crowds, and then the breathless coverage by local CBS affiliate WTVF of the group of a hundred or so angry protestors, manipulated to appear much larger than reality. The constant attempt to paint Trump's Deplorables as an angry rabble just do not pass the laugh test. These folks are, in their own quiet cheerful way, following Warren's advice--living their lives caring for one another, staying as far below the radar as possible, and when given the opportunity, cheering their lungs out for a President who declares he has their back.
The Donald's visit to Andrew Jackson's grave was a Big Deal, as Jackson has become the target of much vitriol from Duh' Left. By publicly embracing Jackson, while acknowledging he had some genuine shortcomings (which are undeniable), he signaled that he does not believe that we must be perfect in order to be effective and good; that Jackson did much that makes our life possible today, and he was willing to be wrong at times to make this happen. Just like The Donald. He endorsed Jackson (aka Old Hickory) as a model to emulate, in the good ways, and also an example to avoid in the bad. Of course, the local leftist press was Not Happy, attempting to blunt the effect of the event before it occurred. The thousands waiting in the cold were the best response, as always, to the warm/insured/comfortable/arrogant Great and Good Who Know Better Than All Those Little People.
A final anecdote: Nashville/Davidson county is ringed by a road known as Old Hickory Boulevard--which creates no end of confusion for newcomers, but that's another tale. OS treated Mrs. OS to Thai food at one of their favorite haunts on the western leg of OHB. OS noticed another couple at a nearby table--assumption of husband and wife here--and the lovely lady was dressed in layers with a Trump-Pence shirt visible. OS asked--did you attend the rally? Both answered 'Yes! Why didn't you go? We had such fun!' Chattered on a bit, and then OS posed the question, as the wife was a beautiful black lady, and the adoring husband a white guy, both in their early 30's: It's obvious that it may be a bit of a surprise to see a black lady dressed up like you are. She laughed, and husband chimed in--'It gets better'! Lady beams--'I am an immigrant from Kenya on the path toward citizenship, and I love Donald Trump!' OS sez--you are a legal immigrant, then? 'Yes!' she replies, and beams again. OS recounts that his family and circle of friends are replete with legal immigrants, shakes her hand, and blurts out: 'Welcome to America, ma'am!'
The Peronistas of America simply are wrong, dead wrong, about the culture and nation they attempt to manage, by hook or crook. There is great hope out there, embodied in those folks waiting on the sidewalk, in that couple at the table.
Andy Jackson, Old Hickory, warts and all, would be happy to see this day.
Rather, I think, one resists by creative personal non-cooperation: rendering justice not “socially” to the abstract mass, but individually to your neighbours. With love.
That was from the beginning the “political” genius of Christianity, which undermined dirigiste authority simply by ducking under its radar sweeps; emerging when, under its manifest contradictions, it finally and totally collapsed. Casualties — martyrdoms — must sometimes be taken, but to the ends of Heaven they are all good. Live a free Christian life, in defiance of the modernists, but without telling them.
Spread it by example.
So, OS's legions of readers ask--what does this have to do with The Donald in Nashville?
A lot, actually.
OS reserved tickets for the rally, but life intervened, and he had to offer his spots to others. It was for the best, as the lines for the 6:30 pm rally began to form before dawn outside Nashville's Municipal Auditorium. Thousands stood in blustery winds in 35 degree temps all day for the opportunity to enter for the rally, and cheer for Their President.
OS is not in good enough shape for that--getting there, but not yet--and Mrs. OS does not deserve a sick husband. But he watched the RSBN feed of the cheerful crowds, and then the breathless coverage by local CBS affiliate WTVF of the group of a hundred or so angry protestors, manipulated to appear much larger than reality. The constant attempt to paint Trump's Deplorables as an angry rabble just do not pass the laugh test. These folks are, in their own quiet cheerful way, following Warren's advice--living their lives caring for one another, staying as far below the radar as possible, and when given the opportunity, cheering their lungs out for a President who declares he has their back.
The Donald's visit to Andrew Jackson's grave was a Big Deal, as Jackson has become the target of much vitriol from Duh' Left. By publicly embracing Jackson, while acknowledging he had some genuine shortcomings (which are undeniable), he signaled that he does not believe that we must be perfect in order to be effective and good; that Jackson did much that makes our life possible today, and he was willing to be wrong at times to make this happen. Just like The Donald. He endorsed Jackson (aka Old Hickory) as a model to emulate, in the good ways, and also an example to avoid in the bad. Of course, the local leftist press was Not Happy, attempting to blunt the effect of the event before it occurred. The thousands waiting in the cold were the best response, as always, to the warm/insured/comfortable/arrogant Great and Good Who Know Better Than All Those Little People.
A final anecdote: Nashville/Davidson county is ringed by a road known as Old Hickory Boulevard--which creates no end of confusion for newcomers, but that's another tale. OS treated Mrs. OS to Thai food at one of their favorite haunts on the western leg of OHB. OS noticed another couple at a nearby table--assumption of husband and wife here--and the lovely lady was dressed in layers with a Trump-Pence shirt visible. OS asked--did you attend the rally? Both answered 'Yes! Why didn't you go? We had such fun!' Chattered on a bit, and then OS posed the question, as the wife was a beautiful black lady, and the adoring husband a white guy, both in their early 30's: It's obvious that it may be a bit of a surprise to see a black lady dressed up like you are. She laughed, and husband chimed in--'It gets better'! Lady beams--'I am an immigrant from Kenya on the path toward citizenship, and I love Donald Trump!' OS sez--you are a legal immigrant, then? 'Yes!' she replies, and beams again. OS recounts that his family and circle of friends are replete with legal immigrants, shakes her hand, and blurts out: 'Welcome to America, ma'am!'
The Peronistas of America simply are wrong, dead wrong, about the culture and nation they attempt to manage, by hook or crook. There is great hope out there, embodied in those folks waiting on the sidewalk, in that couple at the table.
Andy Jackson, Old Hickory, warts and all, would be happy to see this day.
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