On Manhood and School Massacres

I notice that all of the school shooters have been male.  Never female.

Two things I can take away from this.  The first is that based on this pattern it can be deduced that indeed there are drastic differences between men and women.

 

The second thing I take from this, is that there is something TERRIBLY wrong with how our society handles its young men.

 

The average boy once had a father, or at least a father figure, to look up to and learn values from.  Values came from a lot of sources actually.  The Boy Scouts, religious institutions, even teachers and principals.  There was some authority figure who young men learned from. Learning everything from simple decency, to how to accord one’s self in honorable fashion with the opposite sex.

 

And then there is the basic psychological needs of young men.  Needs to compete, to “prove himself”.  Needs to achieve.  Needs for wisdom and learning.  The need for self restraint from falling to the lesser aspects of human nature.  These used to be virtues of what was called “chivalry”.

 

From all of these and more, we prepared young men for their roles in the larger world.

 

We used to anyway.

 

Want to know what I blame this latest school shooting on?

 

I blame modern liberalism.

 

Our young men are increasingly without a father figure.  There is rarely anyone to tell them what is right and what is wrong.  The fathers among us should be going to bat for their children’s very souls… and they are failing.

 

Young men are denied the right to explore moral certainties… because in our “modern” world there are no moral absolutes, at all.  How can there be?  When our children grow up being taught that innocent life can be vacuum aspirated out of the womb.

 

Young men today no longer play “cops and robbers”.  The “child experts” took away all of the toy guns.  They apparently never grasped that such childhood playtime was actually instilling the VALUE of good versus bad.

 

All of these have been taken away from young men and instead they are over-medicated, under-educated, and have it constantly drilled into them that their natural hard-wired instincts rather than being benevolently curbed, are instead “toxic masculinity” to be punished.

 

We do all of these and more to our boys and young men.

 

And we dare lay blame on the damned GUN when another massacre happens?

 

We have DESTROYED what it means to be a man of virtue and character, that we were supposed to be teaching our young people.

 

And I can think of no more responsible parties for it, than those who adhere to modern liberalism.

 

Just my .02

 

 

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Chris addresses the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation and declares war against hate at Elon University... with his FIFTH article for American Thinker!

Hmmm... let's see...

This past week has seen the writing of my second-ever work of short story fiction (while stranded in a motel room along with Tammy the Pup during Hurricane Florence) after trying for decades to crack that art, work begun on a one-act play, finally started plotting a children's book(?!?). And now, it's article #5 written for American Thinker!

Has the Muse roared back from her exile, or what? For awhile I thought she had gone sailing off the cliff in a convertible accompanied by Dignity a'la Thelma and Louise, but anyhoo...

"There's Poisoning the Well, and Then There's Borking the Well" is my take on the Brett Kavanaugh nomination for the United States Supreme Court. However, that's just the peripheral matter of a way bigger issue: that for sake of partisan power there are some - and I'm looking at you in particular, Senator Feinstein - who are enthusiastically willing to trample upon a millennia of legal tradition in abandoning the rule of law. And when that is allowed to transpire, all of us as a people suffer its consequences.

From the article:

The machinations currently deployed against Brett Kavanaugh stem from a heart of darkest cowardice. If his detractors cannot prevail on purely rational and intellectual grounds, then they will do so playing to the basest hysteria and hate. There will be no satisfying their bloodlust until Kavanaugh's haggard, weary face is up on the telescreens, accusing himself of crimes against Big Sister that he never committed. So it is that the yet to be substantiated claims of Ford and Ramirez are now enough, we are told, to override fair and due process. Strangely, this principle never seemed applicable to Juanita Broaddrick, but I digress.

But... that's not all, folks! Because something else gets touched on in my new article and this one is much more personal.

It is this: that in the article I'm calling attention to the fact that Elon University - the college I could once be proud to call myself an alumnus of - is now harboring, employing and celebrating someone who has been taking an active part in the harassment of many innocent people, for no reason other than their holding to political beliefs she does not agree with.

Megan Squire, an Elon computer sciences professor, was revealed earlier this year to be an Antifa activist. She is, for all intents and purposes, an enabler of domestic terrorism.

Yeah, I said it. I went there. And from where I'm sitting it's plenty enough cause for myself and other alumni to withhold our contributions to Elon.

Again from the article:

The ol' alma mater already lost my contributions earlier this year – a consequence of Wired revealing that one of Elon's computer professors is Antifa activist who has been compiling a massive database of anyone she deems Lebensunwertes Leben.  That means "Republicans," "conservatives," "Alt-Right," "white supremacists," and pretty much everyone listing starboard of Friedrich Engels.

Megan Squire is not only still employed at Elon, but applauded.  Last week Squire delivered a "Distinguished Scholar Lecture" about her work supplying the Southern Poverty Law Center with information about their common enemies.  This is the same Southern Poverty Law Center whose "hate list" has been used to target innocent people for assassination.  Curiously, Squire's work is totally absent any analogues from the left of the political spectrum.  A "scholarly oversight," no doubt.

Once upon a time, Elon University was a place that encouraged freedom of ideas and vigorous debate. But as ideological homogeneity has prevailed upon "the most beautiful campus in America," that time is now past. The school that welcomed Margaret Thatcher to dedicate its student center in 1995 would probably have the Iron Lady arrested for trespassing were she still with us.

In good conscience, I can no longer contribute to a school that has embraced intellectual intolerance and has abandoned reason for capricious "feelings." Neither can I endorse my college when it continues to have among its staff a gleeful provider of resources for domestic terrorism. But still, I held out hope that sanity there might yet prevail.

As ever, in conveying my thoughts for publication I do my best to steer away from partisan labels and identity politics. As I told a colleague today: "I deal in ideas, not ideologies."

But regardless of where you're coming from on the political spectrum, I like to believe that very, very few of us are comfortable with the knowledge that anyone is being targetted for harassment, intimidation and much worse because of their opinions.


Does Megan Squire believe herself justified in painting her enemies in such broad strokes?  Is she a fitting representative of the Elon University community in doing so?

Regardless of whether she does, well... I've no other way to put this. At times I have encountered truly hate-filled people. Like neo-Nazis (got shot at by a gang of them) and the Westboro Baptist Church (had to spent several hours with them one hot summer night in a small television studio).

From where I'm sitting, there is not a shred of difference between the "God Hates Fags" idiots and Megan Squire. One just happens to have a computer science education and a better web page.  And also potentially has had her work lead to the injury of others if not worse.

When the objective is hatred, the semantics matter none. And there can be no excuse or justifying that hatred.


So, President Connie Ledoux Book and the trustees of Elon University: in keeping with the school's expressed beliefs in diversity of ideas and backgrounds and that the school should be a safe environment... when are you going to dismiss Dr. Megan Squire from the computer sciences department?

Because having a hate-filled extremist in your faculty, and one so enthusiastically applying her work toward damaging and destroying the lives of others, is the kind of thing that - not to put too fine a point on it - might dry up the alumni contributions. It sure has mine. Having seen some of Dr. Squire's Twitter account, I cannot understand how anyone's life can contain so much anger and hatred. Much less that of a Ph.D.

As far as Squire's work from a purely academic perspective is concerned: she may be brilliant at Python databases but the bias factor of the data itself is so irredeemably out of whack that it's utterly useless beyond a political agenda. Raw data is supposed to be neutral, impartial, agnostic... and Squire's methodology is a betrayal of all of that and more. In short: she is not a serious scholar. That alone would merit reconsidering her status as a member of the faculty.

Having such a malicious person intent upon causing grief to others certainly does not reflect well at all on whatever vestige of Christian values remain from the college's founding under the oaks in 1889.

Which is more important: the reputation and integrity of an institution that many of us still hold dear in our hearts and memories? Or protecting an enabler of domestic terrorism out of some passing fad of "resistance"?

So... "Long live Elon"?

What is it going to be?

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My new op-ed piece is up at American Thinker (and about Star Wars and Kelly Marie Tran...)

The last time I wrote an op-ed for publishing other than on my own blog was more than ten years ago.  Certainly hasn't been for lack of wanting to.  This is a kind of writing that I first attempted on the cusp of my senior year of high school and it's a craft I devoted myself to developing further in college and beyond.  Then all of the general wackiness of the past decade transpired and that threw everything out of kilter.  Especially being able to engage all the gears required to really feel like I could be the writer that I needed to be to give this my very best.  And now, well... maybe this is an indication that the time for that has come at last.

American Thinker is a commentary site that I've come to appreciate and visit often, and I am very grateful that it has published "The Revolution Will Not Be Finalized".  An excerpt:

Social revolution has no such finite end.  The civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties was not a "social" revolution.  There was no grand upheaval of the common order – only an assertion of what had long been codified in American heart if not law: that all men are created equal.  It began with acts of conscience, and it ended with acts of conscience. 

There are many in our era who speak unceasingly of bringing about "social justice."  They never describe what a "socially justified culture" will look like.  Why should they want to?  Because for big-P Progressivism to be consistent, it must be progressing toward something.  To state conditions for victory?  That would be aborting Progressivism.  That is not part of the plan.

Maybe it's a persistent pattern in my life but this piece does begin with a bit about the state of the Star Wars "social justice" mess going on right now.  That's kind of what precipitated it being written to begin with.  Well, when one is asking the Muse for inspiration then one takes what one can get.  Anyhoo if you want to check it out here's that link again.

Speaking of Star Wars, I've been out of the loop on stuff the past several days but I did hear about what's been going on regarding Kelly Marie Tran.  "Star Wars fandom terrorist organization" is a phrase that I never imagined would telegraph across my synapses no matter how fevered and delirious they might get.  It was easy to sincerely wonder if it was for real or a satire or a covert "false flag operation".  But apparently it's real.  And if you hadn't heard already, the reports are that Tran unhooked herself from Instagram and maybe all the rest of her social media as a result of brutal harassment because some didn't like The Last Jedi or, more darkly, that they think she was cast to fill a "racial quota" or something.

How has this come about?  What has happened to us?  Star Wars fans have been divided on issues before but NEVER like this.  And it is not the result of the 2016 U.S. election (I may forever be shaking my head in disbelief that someone wrote that on a website devoted to this franchise).

I'll try to maintain brevity here.  Personally, I liked The Last Jedi including Tran's character Rose.  There have been a number of "Rose"-es in my life.  That conscientious young lady with spunk and tenacity and she holds everyone around her accountable to themselves whether they want it or not... or realize that they do want it.  There needs to be more like Rose in the real world.  She was a sweet character and Kelly Marie Tran played her wonderfully.

Reiterating what is in the essay on American Thinker, I do believe that Disney and especially Kathleen Kennedy have done a ginormous dis-service and act of destruction against the Star Wars brand by using it as a platform for their own ideologies as opposed to what it's supposed to be: a realm of ideas common to the human condition.  And in the past few days especially we are seeing the horrible fruits of that error in judgment... though obviously Kennedy and her associates are not the ones to be held responsible for the cyber-bullying against Tran.  That's strictly the fault of the "Legends losers" or whatever they're calling themselves.

That being said, I have not seen before and I do not see now how having the cast reflect a wider range of ethnic backgrounds is part of that at all.  Indeed, I wish there had been this much variety from the very beginning.  But George Lucas pretty much used what there was to work with on a then-limited budget and an available pool compromised of mostly classical English actors and American expatriates like Phil Brown and William Hootkins.  As far as I'm concerned, those are NOT "whites" or "blacks" or "Asians" or "Aleutian Islanders" or whatever in that galaxy far, far away.  Those are humans and whatever geography their ancestors hailed from is long forgotten about.  It shouldn't matter at ALL who plays the roles in these movies!  Just find whoever is right for the part and trust him or her to do his or her best.

Miss Tran, if you happen to read this, please know that you are a very lovely and talented young lady and that you provided much-appreciated shine and sparkle in The Last Jedi and I hope you have an even bigger role in Episode IX.  So far as I'm concerned, you weren't doing anything other than play a human of good character.  And that's something that none of these real-life trolls can ever claim to be.  Hope you come back, kind miss!

Okay, that's 'nuff for now.  It's Sunday morning.  Go back to sleep or eat your corn flakes and get ready for church or watch your re-runs of Land Of The Lost or whatever.  At least sometime today look at the outside world and hug your loved ones or just stop and smile and say hello to someone you've never met before.

Know what you believe.  Know why you believe it.  Know how to stand for it.  But also know that there's more to life than that.  We are as but a vapor.  Don't let a moment go by looking for reasons to be bitter and filled with rancor.

And to those discovering this blog: greetings!

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The only thing that I can come up with to write at the time being

There is no such thing as either "conservatives" or "liberals", but there are too many imitators of each.

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America: Death by inconsistency

Louisiana College, a private Baptist school, is suing the federal government over the requirement that religious-affiliated hospitals and organizations must fund contraceptives as part of health care, even in spite of strong beliefs against such measures. Louisiana College and other religious organizations are quick to note that Obama's "healthcare" mandate violates their constitutional rights.

Doug Powers notes that the mainstream media is giving President Obama a "free ride" about the ridiculous price of gasoline, when it blamed George W. Bush for it at every opportunity.

(Longtime readers will know that I have never been a fan of either Obama or Bush. They're the two worst Presidents in American history, in my book...)

I juxtapose these two seemingly unrelated items before you, good readers, because I remember plenty of times during Bush's presidency when too many Christians simply "rolled over and took it" when he and his administration violated the Constitution. Not only that, but practically sang praises to the man (and even praying to Bush in at least one instance). So too, do I know fully well how many if not most of the "mainstream press" have a significant bias toward the Democrat party and for what are considered "liberal" causes.

Every day, bit by bit, I watch America die before my eyes because we the people will valiantly fight for what's right when it is in our favor but will feign ignorance and indifference when it is not. Who knows: we may not have this ObamaCare crap if a lot of us had chosen to take a stand against certain politicians during the past decade.

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Chuck Baldwin on the hoax of "liberalism" versus "conservatism"

One of the most defining moments in my life as a thinker came courtesy of Matt Mittan, waaaay back when I first went to work for him at that newspaper in Asheville. Matt proceeded to draw a diagram on a dry-erase board about how most people think of government and politics as being "left versus right". But that's not how it really is at all, he went on. Instead of a horizontal line depicting a tug-of-war between self-proclaimed "liberals" and "conservatives", the line should actually be vertical: between the individual and the collective masses.

It was like an instant of enlightenment for me. Something I had known, but didn't know how to express it, suddenly became crystal clear. Matt didn't have to go any further, I could see it so vividly: the "conflict" between left and right, in reality, always takes away from individual liberty and gives more and more power to the government!! The only thing the "left" and "right" are fighting over is who gets to control the government. Neither "side" will ever admit that what they seriously want is control over We The People.

Chuck Baldwin is a commentator who I have enjoyed reading for quite some time, and in his essay this week he writes about the fraudulent "conservative vs. liberal" paradigm. Here's an excerpt...

There may have been a time when the words “conservative” and “liberal” meant something, but that time is no more. Today, “conservatives” in government are doing as much to promote Big Government, as are “liberals.” In fact, if one were to honestly evaluate the twelve years of the George Herbert Walker Bush and G.W. Bush administrations, one could say that “conservatives” even eclipse “liberals” in promoting Big Government. Under the two Bushes, the federal government expanded (and even exploded) to levels that for-real liberal Democrats could only dream about.

Let’s get realistic. Just because a politico says he or she is “pro-life,” or “pro-family,” or “pro-marriage,” etc., does not mean that they are going to do anything to help save the country. Come on, folks; think! “Conservative” Republican administration appointments have dominated the US Supreme Court since the infamous Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions that effectively legalized abortion-on-demand. And we are no closer to overturning Roe and Doe after almost forty years of electing “pro-life conservatives” than we were the year after the Roe and Doe decisions were rendered. And for the first six years of the 21st Century, “conservative” Republicans dominated the entire federal government, and still the Roe and Doe decisions stand.

(snip)

Both “conservatives” and “liberals” look to the federal government to establish and enforce their parochial agendas. “Liberals” look to Washington for the establishment of “social justice,” while “conservatives” look to Washington for the establishment of “military justice.” The net result is the federal government keeps getting bigger and bigger regardless of who controls the White House, Congress, or Supreme Court.

“Conservatives,” whether Christian or not, are just as culpable in the expansion of Big Government as are “liberals.” In fact, when it comes to the expansion of military adventurism, “conservatives” are the most culpable. And when it comes to the ever-burgeoning police state that is currently taking shape in the United States, “liberals” and “conservatives” are equally to blame. Let’s face it: both “conservatives” and “liberals” are in the midst of an intense and illicit love affair with Washington, D.C...

It's one of the finest pieces that I've read in awhile, anywhere. And I'm gonna tremendously recommend that it's worth your time to read it, too.

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Kermit and Miss Piggy slam Fox News!

The Muppets opened in cinemas domestically on the week of this past Thanksgiving. The ladyfriend and I saw it and loved it!! I keep hoping and praying that somebody will make an '80s Robot toy so I can put it on my desk: 'twould look so nice next to my chunk of the Berlin Wall, my Darth Sidious figure and other stuff.

Okay well anyway, it turns out that back when the movie first came out, Fox News claimed that The Muppets was a front for some devious liberal agenda! Because the film's villain, Tex Richman (played and rapped by Chris Cooper) is an eeeee-vil oil baron out to acquire the Muppets Theater by any means necessary. Seems that Fox News thinks that little kids are going to be turned off from capitalism.

Ehhhhh... whatever. I saw that movie and the only thing "liberal" is a cameo appearance by James Carville (speaking no lines) as one of several celebrities manning the phone banks during the telethon.

So The Muppets is on the eve of its international release and during the press conference the Fox News matter came up. And Kermit and Miss Piggy addressed it brilliantly! Here's the clip!

Might we be seeing a feud soon between Kermit and Bill O'Reilly? Personally, my money's on the frog.

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All that I intend to say about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords

I cannot be convinced otherwise: that America will NEVER grow into her fullest potential until her people GIVE UP and GET OVER this fraudulent divide between "conservatism" and "liberalism".

Seriously. "Democrats" vs. "Republicans"? Don't MOST adults grow up past such childish behavior?

In an honorable nation there would have been NO mention at all of politics or labels in the aftermath of what happened in Tuscon, Arizona this weekend. Instead I have watched TOO MANY of us still fixated on "US vs THEM".

What a crock of crap that is!! Some of us seemed even oblivious to the fact that innocent people DIED in this senseless act. And we're supposed to be the most "enlightened" nation on Earth?!

Like %&@# we are!!

I don't care what the victims believed in. I don't care what the assailant believed in. This was a CRIMINAL ACT. It does not require explanation. It does not require understanding.

And it absolutely does not merit exploitation!

And for those who yet insist upon a reason for the tragedy in Tuscon...

It is the same reason as has existed since the dawn of time: imperfect human nature left to its own devices, given to hate and acts of hate... and all too often, hate without any reason at all.

Thoughts and prayers going out to all of those involved. And by "all", I mean that.

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Southern Poverty Law Center, or: How NOT to respect a news outlet!

I've a number of criteria for judging whether a news agency is reputable or not. Usually it's a long-term process of determination but lately it's become much, much easier for me.

Wanna know why?

It's real simple: any news outlet that cites the Southern Poverty Law Center as a reputable source of information, gets a honkin' HUGE demerit and damn near an unforgivable one.

I first heard of ethnic warfare whore Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center fifteen years ago, in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. Dees was pimpin' himself on most of the news channels, claiming his Southern Poverty Law Center was warning the feds way in advance about "the militias movement". 'Twas enough to make me wonder who this twit was. Since then I've discovered that he's not much more than the worst sort of perpetual pest: the kind that demands everyone see a "crisis" to justify his own pathetic self-imposed purpose. In the case of Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center this entails claiming that everyone who is against their wacko socialist agenda is automatically a racist on par with Hitler himself.

So it is that I have also come to sincerely believe that any so-called "journalist" who even remotely considers Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center to be creditable, should be fired automatically if not outright dragged out into the town square and locked up in the pillory for a well-earned mocking.

But don't take my word for it, dear readers! The Southern Poverty Law Center has just published a "hit list" of forty "patriots" that the organization has deemed to be a threat to American society. On the list are columnist Chuck Baldwin (he ranked #1, and that's his response at the link), Representative Ron Paul of Texas, Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, and Glenn Beck (somebody that I have never listened to and have no plans to, but to the very best of my knowledge has done nothing inordinately wrong). There are also a number of outspoken critics of the federal government, and especially of the income tax and the IRS.

Curiously, there is not one person on the list who could be considered an avowed "liberal". Every person denounced by the Southern Poverty Law Center is regarded by conventional wisdom as being a "conservative" or a "libertarian".

Darn. I wish that I could be on that list! Guess I'm not a big-league enough blogger yet.

Maybe if I pointed out that Morris Dees is a sexual pervert and child molester who was once caught exploiting his step-daughter, and that his Southern "Poverty" Law Center has by many accounts raked in more than a hundred million dollars by scaring the gullible with rumors of the Third Reich rising again, that maybe he would put me on his enemies list?

Or maybe putting it in larger font would mark me as a worthy adversary...

MORRIS DEES
OF THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER

IS A SEXUAL PERVERT, CHILD MOLESTER,

ETHNIC WARFARE WHORE,

PIMP OF THE PERPETUAL CRISIS,

AND MONEY-GRABBING HUCKSTER

OF THE UTMOST DEGREE!!!

Dear Lord, I hope that will do the trick.

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A textbook education in ignorance

A few days ago my friend and fellow blogger Matthew Federico addressed the situation with history education in the state of Texas. In case you missed that bit of news, last week the Texas State Board of Education voted 10 to 5 to make drastic changes to the history, social studies and economics curricula being taught in that state's schools.

The vote occurred along split partisan lines. The ten Republicans on the board voted for the curriculum changes and the five Democrats opposed it. The results have been both hailed and condemned as giving the teaching materials a "conservative" and "right-leaning" slant, as opposed to what some construe is a "liberal" one.

The reason this is going to be a big deal for the rest of the country is because Texas is one of the biggest consumers in the highly lucrative business of school textbooks. So if textbook publishers have to produce for the Texas market, those same learning materials will likely be adopted in other states.

Matthew wrote on his blog about how this smacks too much of political propaganda. And, he would be correct.

But what troubles me especially about this - and it's taken me a few days to really feel ready to articulate my thoughts on it - is that the Texas State Board of Education is perpetuating a terrible ignorance... and it has nothing to do with the ideological flavor of the textbooks that they will be using. I would be just as bothered by the board's actions if it had purposefully chosen an admittedly left-leaning curriculum.

The ten members of the board who voted for these changes demonstrated no wisdom or foresight by wielding their power in order to literally ensconce Newt Gingrich and the Moral Majority in the history books, or to remove entirely any mention of Thomas Jefferson as a leading intellectual guiding light of early America (huh?!). And it's even troubling that the board deliberately chose to remove Ross Perot's 1992 run for President from historical discussion (the 1994 "Contract with America" however did make it in).

Is it Republican/"conservative" propaganda? Hell yes it is. And it would be just as wrong if it were Democrat/"liberal" propaganda. The examination and deliberation of history should never be defined by and along partisan lines. History is a broad tapestry, and to selectively pull this thread or that one out of it is to cheapen and make worthless the work entire.

But that still isn't what is particularly frustrating me about what the Texas State Board of Education has chosen to do. No, what irks me the most is that in spite of its sworn duty and very title, the board has chosen not to educate young minds, but to rather instill unquestioning obedience to the status quo and a paradigm fast approaching obsolescence.

Education is supposed to be a thing that transforms a person into an enlightened individual. The intended result of education should be a person capable of wise choice, rational mind, and liberty to pursue the exercise of personal conscience. In short: education is that which most empowers one to be free... including the freedom to question The Way Things Are.

The Texas State Board of Education, however, has chosen to compel the millions of children in its charge to accept The Way Things Are without question. And I would say that regardless of which ideology the curricula was being slanted toward. The Texas State Board of Education however has taken an education of ignorance to an entire new level of brazenness. The board - along with all other school boards in the United States - should be doing its damndest to encourage its students to not think in terms of "conservative and liberal". That is a dichotomy as false as anything could possibly be. It is also one that I am increasingly seeing is being challenged and questioned by a growing number of people.

But it's not freedom of mind that the Republicans of Texas' state school board have shown they are interested in by this course of action. Rather, they have demonstrated that they want, in their own way, to continue propping up the two-party puppet show that is destroying America.

Well, America isn't going to be saved for our children by the party faithful of either the Democrats or the Republicans. If America is going to have any future at all, it's going to come by the hard work, tireless efforts and even sacrifice of those who refused to abide by The Way Things Are.

The Texas State Board of Education had an opportunity to lead the way in this country by an infusion of fresh blood. Instead it chose to continue a condition of terminal anemia.

Perhaps there is a country in history that has thrived on a determined education in ignorance and apathy. But if there is one, it's not coming to the mind of this writer. And I doubt that Texas, as a state, is going to prove to be any different.

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A more realistic political spectrum

One of the people that in the long run has most influenced and impacted my political beliefs is, without a doubt, Matt Mittan: host of the extremely popular show Take A Stand! on the radio and streaming on the Internet every Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. I count myself as a very fortunate person for getting to work under Matt when he was the editor of The Asheville Tribune. And I'll never forget the first time I came into his office and he showed me what his weekly newsmagazine was all about...

"Most people think of the political spectrum like this," he said, drawing a horizontal line on a dry erase board and labeling the ends "liberal" and "conservative". "But that's wrong," Matt went on. "It's really like this!" And he then drew another line: this one going up and down, with the state/government at the top and the individual at the bottom.

"It's really about the state having the power versus the one person having the power." And Matt continued to talk about how at one far end there is totalitarianism and fascism, and at the other wild extreme there is total anarchy.

And that's when I realized, for the very first time in my life, that the whole "conservative and liberal" thing is a con job. It's a fraud, that regardless of which "party" is in control of Washington or the states its only real purpose is to give more and more power to government. I don't want a totalitarian state and neither do I desire a completely lawless land. But in between, Matt suggested, there can indeed be a "happy medium" that upholds personal liberty while avoiding reckless abandon.

That's never going to be a cut-and-dried thing. But ever since then I have come to still believe in it enough to pursue it, with whatever talents and devices I might ever have on hand. Matt opened my eyes wider than he ever knew that day, and I've been praying since that others might come to realize it as well on their own.

Maybe that's starting to finally happen. David G. Muller Jr. has written an article for American Thinker called Rethinking the Political Spectrum, in which he also argues that the traditional "conservative versus liberal" paradigm is outdated and horribly flawed. And while he doesn't abandon the "left/right" model, Muller's model is quite similar to what Matt Mittan showed me in 2000...

Personally, I think this is a much greater and more accurate take on modern politics. It squarely places both liberalism and conservatism as less free mindsets than libertarianism: a school of thought which is enjoying considerable growth even if the party bearing its name has not of late. However, I would extend this range a bit further to the right and put "anarchy" on that fringe. In my mind, that is the ideal: personal liberty that stops short of all-out chaos. "Voluntary order", as V puts it in the graphic novel V for Vendetta.

Regardless of minor details, this is still a much better portrait of political reality than is the tired and obsolete version that most of our politicians and media and too many businesses (and more than a few religious folks) expect us to buy into.

But then: most of them have a vested interest in keeping the status quo going, aye?

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I have an idea...

It came to me when I happened to catch tonight's CBS Evening News (which I don't usually watch at all).

Want to know how to economically revitalize the newspaper and television news industries, and increase enlightenment among the general public in one fell swoop?

It's very simple: ban the words "conservative" and "liberal" from usage by professional journalists.

Those words are worse than useless. They are woefully outdated terminology. The only function of "liberalism" and "conservatism" is to excuse one's own intellectual laziness.

(And truth be known, I'm seeing a lot of laziness in CBS's reporting tonight... but not really more than one would expect from CNN or Fox News either.)

That's no doubt a big reason why television and print journalism is suffering a slow and lingering death. The alternatives on the Internet - which are not confining themselves to a paradigm that was faulty well before it was obsolete - are attracting a vast audience wanting and demanding a fresh look at things replete with new ideas. Dumbed-down "debate" along the conservative/liberal lines is horridly boring... and doesn't represent reality at all.

People are getting tired of fakery and illusion. There is a dire and growing hunger for truth that we haven't known very much in living memory. And if the traditional media has any desire at all to survive, it's left with no choice but to commit to the higher standard of ideas, and abandon adherence to the lowest common denominator of cheap ideologies.

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Baptist preacher on WPIP "conservative Christian" radio claims Obama is "Antichrist" and going to Hell

I've a nasty suspicion that this is only a taste of what's barreling toward us...

So I was headed west down I-40 from a day trip to Raleigh (which I'll be posting about tomorrow) this afternoon and around Burlington, I started flicking through radio stations.

And as I was going across the AM dial just after 5 p.m. I happened to catch some pastor preaching with all due exuberance and conviction that Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama is "the Antichrist". This pastor also added that just as the Antichrist does not have "a single Christian ounce in his body" that Obama is going to Hell.

I checked the frequency. It was 880 AM. Which means it was a broadcast of WPIP, a radio ministry out of Berean Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.

Not that this really surprises me.

Apart from sporadic music, from sunrise to sunset WPIP's broadcasting is pretty much wall-to-wall a network of "good ol' boys" who like to preach variations on (1) the King James Version is the only Bible and any other translation is a work of Satan, (2) independent fundamentalist conservative Baptist churches are the only real churches (similar to the local "Church Of Christ In Name Only" that's been talked about here lately) and (3) Democrats and "liberals" are evil and are all Hell-bound sinners.

You can get a sense of what WPIP stands for just from its bumpers. WPIP's staff likes to call it the "conservative Christian radio voice". Berean Baptist's head pastor Ron Baity is often heard proclaiming that WPIP is "the way radio ought to be": apparently holding to the notion that to contend for the faith means aping Rush Limbaugh. And then sometimes I hear this station boast that it sticks to the "old paths".

Yeah, they're "old paths" all right: as old as Babylon.

Any Christians that obsess on the American flag, American military might, love of George W. Bush, hatred toward "liberals", and electing Republican candidates far more than they do with serving Christ in love and humility, are not Christians that God can possibly bless the work of. I'm hard-pressed to believe that these "Christians" worship anything but power.

And part of me has to wonder how many of these preachers have truly experienced the salvation that can only come with the grace of God. Think about it: How can so many professed "Christians" in America be free from sin if they can't even be free from the Republican Party?

But then, any "Christian radio station" that sincerely believes the world needs to listen to a cult leader like the late Lester Roloff is hard to take seriously, anyway.

According to WPIP's program log for Monday through Friday, this would make the program that I heard this afternoon that of Meadowview Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. I found the church's website. If this is indeed the same show that I heard this afternoon - although this being AM radio and how lax WPIP seems to be in maintaining its website, this is not a confirmed certainty - then its pastor Robert Hutchens is apparently the one who's already consigning Barack Obama to Hell.

If you're a longtime reader of this blog, then you know where I'm coming from. I don't call myself a "liberal" any more than I call myself a "conservative". I don't profess to being an active supporter of any political party. I'm just a guy trying to do what's right and what God would have me to do. So nobody can claim that I'm trying to pursue a "political agenda" by taking these supposedly "God-called pastors" to task for their un-Christlike motives and methods.

First of all, it's not this preacher's place to already condemn someone to Hell. As long as anyone... any person... has breath in his or her lungs, he or she is free to call upon God for forgiveness. In rashly stating that Obama deserves Hell, this minister is forgetting that he himself deserves Hell also, just as we all do.

And it's a much worse thing to practically be gloating about Obama or anyone else going to Hell. Especially if the basis of that condemnation is something so silly as a political dispute.

But what bothered me especially is that this preacher, whoever he is, is way too consumed with the patterns and politics of this world. Now, I do believe that we as Christians should be fully active wherever it is that God puts us, and that if they happen to live in America then this means living up to the stewardship that God has charged us with over this land. But that means taking our roles as citizens seriously... and that's not something that's possible by blindly following a political party! And these "men of God" are trying to goad us into doing just that, when they seek to rile up our emotions.

For someone who claims to be a "man of God", this kind of vitriol is symptomatic of an unregenerate mind. A mind that is yet carnal and has not been transformed like unto that of Christ.

It's a shame that these "conservative Christians" are scouring the gutter. As it is, they show nothing in their actions that could convince the lost of the existence of a real and loving God. Not when they focus more on this world than they do on Heaven.

And I think we can expect worse from some of them as the months progress.

Maybe if they would repent of their own arrogance, their prayers that America as a nation might repent could come true.

Will that happen? Could these people do that?

Let's put it this way: I have faith in God. I do not have faith in too many of my fellow Christians.

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Does America deserve to survive?

I've never understood why most churches in this country put an American flag in the sanctuary, practically on par with the cross. As if the apostle Paul had the believers in Corinth prop up a Roman standard emblazoned with S.P.Q.R. in the corner of their meeting place.

A flag is a symbol of temporal power and authority. It has no place in a house of worship... unless what the flag symbolizes IS a focus of worship.

And if it is, then there is a problem.

Jesus called His followers the "salt of the earth". Only a little salt will preserve the meat. But if the salt loses its saltiness, as Jesus said, then it is worthless. And it does nothing. The meat will deteriorate.

That's what Christianity in America has become: it's lost its salt. Because too many of those who boast of Judeo-Christian morals don't realize the damage they have done by confusing lust for power with love of God.

And everything around us is rotting because of it.

Let's start with the most obvious thing: common courtesy and respect in America is dead.

America is now a Schadenfreude culture: everything from our moral character to our entertainment to our economy has become dependent on taking joy at the suffering of others. The "SCREW YOU I GOT MINE JACK!" mentality dominates this land. We aren't a happy people unless we are being vicious and cruel to someone else. I see it everyday, cropping up in things ranging from mundane conversation to the Internet (why does the web seem to magnify the animosity of most people?).

You see it in our political system and how it's reported on Fox News and CNN. We barely even pretend anymore that our actions are done for the greater good: "Let's hear it for the power!" as Nancy Pelosi shouted on the day she became House Speaker.

We've let people like Ann Coulter on "the right" and websites like Democratic Underground on "the left" make hating others not only something that's morally acceptable, but fashionable. Too many of us have eagerly followed their lead.

A people that have divided themselves between "conservatives" and "liberals" are shallow and ignorant. Those who insist that the world is divided into "red state and blue state" do so because they have not matured past the childish instinct to hate someone. Show me a man who rails against "liberals" or "conservatives", and I will show you a man who is unhappy unless he has someone to thoroughly despise.

Partly because of our willingness to hate, we largely don't think for ourselves anymore. The two most recent presidential administrations have proven that much. We've shown that we're all too willing to swallow any lie that is presented us. And we have readily demonstrated that we will eagerly fall into line behind whatever pretty face the powers-that-be decree we are to follow. Americans by and large don't vote for the most qualified person, or for someone who puts principles ahead of everything else. Today they vote for someone who is "electable". That is to say, someone who is handsome enough or is better known for being an actor than being a statesman. Our system of government has devolved into a high school popularity campaign.

It's come to the point where those who do dare question the qualifications and motives of these "leaders" are openly accused of "aiding and abetting the enemy". And look at what that has brought us to: government monitoring of our phone conversations and e-mails, the veritable suspension of Habeas Corpus, warrant-less searches, a "no-fly" list that apparently targets some for nothing more than stating political beliefs, forthcoming national ID cards...

Why is it again that America was a better country than the Soviet Union?

The rule of law in America is almost completely dead. Government does what it wants without restraint. Our representatives are installed by a political machine and with rare exception have any connect with the American people.

But we don't dare protest. We not only nod our heads and meekly accept this as "the way things are". Then we commence to buy things fast and loose on credit so that we can watch the Super Bowl on a plasma-screen TV, or get something else that we really don’t need and can't afford. Instead of confronting the problem we drink ourselves into numbness and hope that it will "just go away".

God bless America.

Right now two former Border Patrol agents are sitting in prison, with one already brutalized by fellow inmates. Their crime? They opened fire on a Mexican drug lord who went north of the border to conduct his "business". The U.S. government gave the foreign criminal legal immunity in exchange for testifying against two Americans who were doing their best to protect national sovereignty. They were doing a lot more than how most politicians in Washington are inclined to act.

If we can't appreciate the value of a strong border, then we might as well admit that there is no more United States at all. I'm sure the people of Mexico have their problems... but the good and proper thing for us to do as their neighbor is to tell them to clean up their own house, instead of foisting their miseries on us. Because the simple fact of the matter is: we can't take their population, and we shouldn't be expected to.

Why do I mention our border problem? Because it demonstrates how we've allowed these same politicians – egged-on by wealthy patrons – to sell out our nation's economy.

America used to be a country of manufacturing and production. We could feed ourselves, and the rest of the world. We made good products: American denim jeans helped to bring down the Iron Curtain. Today those same jeans are made cheaper in factories overseas, along with a lot of other items. They're even being made in a country that would rather America not exist at all. Now we're becoming a service economy and a lot of big business wants that as cheap as they can get it, too. Hence, the sly winking by even President Bush at the millions of illegals who are overrunning our borders.

I think this is the most material example of how God has given us something in America... and how we have abandoned it in the pursuit of worldly riches. But sadly, there are others.

Abortion is the most evil act that this country has let happen: even more so than slavery. But there are very few in either elected office or among the "activist groups" that seriously want to see abortion ended. There is too much money to be made in support of it...

...and there is even more money to be made in opposing it. If abortion were ended, James Dobson would have far fewer millions of dollars from "the faithful" rolling into his coffers. The GOP would also have lost its biggest reason to compel the "evangelicals" to keep voting straight Republican (I could also say that anyone who votes straight ticket doesn't deserve to vote at all, but I digress...).

No, abortion is going to remain nicely legal for many more years to come: both "sides" in the debate have too much to lose if it were to suddenly go away.

The same holds true for many of those claiming to oppose "gay marriage". There is no need for a "traditional family" amendment or law that "protects" marriage. Because "homosexual marriage" is a spiritual paradox: it cannot exist. Homosexuality is the pursuit of a carnal pleasure and true marriage is about something much deeper than satisfying the flesh. Marriage is something instituted by God that exists above man's law: we cannot either diminish it or endorse it.

Like I said, "gay marriage" can't really exist. But there is lots of money and power to be gained – and voters to be persuaded – by opposing it.

So now marriage itself has become a temporal weapon. We've taken something created by God and befouled it with political purpose. How can we possibly hold human life as sacred if we whore our principles so cheaply?

We see this callous disregard for the sanctity of the human soul in the most ill-conceived conflict in American history. Those who continue to support it love to cite that "only" thirty-eight hundred have died in Iraq, and they'll compare that to the number that were lost in one day at Antietam, or Iwo Jima.

But if even one soldier dies in an immoral war that we started, then that is one life too many. And we should be ashamed of ourselves that we have become so stone-hearted as to believe that the loss of one person in this situation is somehow "acceptable".

Don't tell me that those young men and women are over there serving and protecting this country. The only reason they are in Iraq is because corrupt – and I'll even say evil – politicians who have never seen combat sent them to exploit a situation... and again, for money and power. These people don't see members of the armed forces as unique and precious individuals. All they see is collective might that begs for the will to wield it without apology. The men and women who volunteered to serve did so in the good faith that their efforts would be used wisely. Yet I hear some proffer that because they did volunteer, that they can be used however their "leaders" see fit.

This government is not America. America is what we the people make of her. America is what we desire her to be. America is a reflection of who we are.

Patriotism for sake of patriotism is worthless. Patriotism has value only if there is something inherently good in a nation to be proud of.

What is there left in America for us to boast that we are blessed with?

If America is a land where her people cannot practice simple kindness, if we have made the desire for "things" our greatest priority, if we think nothing of exploiting our fellow man… then what good is there left in America at all?

When you think about how this nation was founded and the tenets it once held precious and how we are today, it makes you wonder if we in the modern day really ever wanted that America to begin with.

So I am compelled to ask: is America worth defending anymore? Does America deserve to still stand?

If we can again be a people that put ideas before ideologies, that can be courteous to others even when we disagree with their beliefs, and that can resolve to do what is right before doing what is convenient... then yes, America is still worth fighting for.

But if it has become that America and God are just convenient tools in the pursuit of avarice, then America does not deserve to persist. And we might as well admit that we do not desire God.

Indeed, if it's no longer possible that we can be kind to one another, then America does not deserve to stand at all.

"God bless America"? Why should He?

If America is no longer worth defending, it is because we who profess the Judeo-Christian ethic, having failed to seek God's will, have sought to impose our own. The Christians of this land should have long ago crucified their lust for power. Rather they ran and hid it within their hearts. In the name of collective might, we have turned our hearts away from the God of Heaven and toward a god of fortresses.

But instead of repenting and turning back from this idolatry, we dare ask God for His seal of approval.

We decided that we wanted an easy life on earth instead of righteousness before God. And the rest of the country naturally followed our lead.

These things didn't have to happen. But we let them happen all the same: because we've chosen the pursuit of power over the pursuit of good.

This was a good country once, because for the most part it was generally held that there was something higher than ourselves to which we would be held accountable.

Is America worth defending now? I don't believe so.

Could it be made worthy of honor again? Yes, definitely.

But we – all of us – are going to have to come to understand something first...

It doesn't take "the right man" being elected to Congress or the White House, or a mass rally by thousands in Washington, to change things for the better.

God doesn't act through governments or politicians who think they are "anointed". God doesn't act through the Republican Party, or the Democrat Party for that matter. God doesn't act through the 700 Club or Focus on the Family. God doesn't act through any denomination. God certainly doesn't act through the latest "church growth" fads.

God acts through that most despised of minorities: the individual.

If America deserves to be lost, it is because ordinary men and women knew that something was wrong but did nothing. Because they were too cowered by "the system": they felt they didn't have enough strength or wealth or political pull.

Without true and sincere acknowledgment of God for nothing less than its own sake, we are fast descending into a race of barbarians. It happened to Germany. There's no reason to believe it won't happen here also.

I'm amazed at the number of professing Christians who show more zeal and delight in attacking their "political enemies" than they do in preaching the kingdom of Christ. It only signifies that their primary interest is gaining favor and power in the eyes of the world, instead of being separate and looking toward something beyond this realm.

There is a spiritual decline in America's character because we as Christians let it happen: we became too fixated on acquiring power. It corrupted us and it went on to corrupt the nation around us.

There needs to be a nationwide repentance and contrition on the part of this nation's Christians, if they truly desire a country worth being thankful for again. And not repentance for sake of the America's well-being, but repentance solely for the sake of how far we have drifted from where we are supposed to be in the sight of God.

But we can't wait for a "movement" to germinate dedicated to "fix" these things. Indeed, something organized toward this goal with a "leadership" would be counter-productive. It is impossible for collective will to save us.

Whether America lives or dies depends on the individual.

Think that one person can't make a difference? Think of Gandhi. Think of Rosa Parks. It only takes a single person possessing the will to do what is right to make an empire tremble.

I don't know if that will ever happen. Pride is too much our master. We have become like the rich young ruler who could not follow Christ because of his wealth.

But if we can choose in our hearts that America and what is good about it is still something worth passing down to our children, then it seems that each of us would be willing to sacrifice some temporary luxury – and to begin to think for ourselves instead of letting others think for us – in order to give that to them.

We can decide that we want to leave this country – and this world – a little better than how it was that we found it. Or we can let it be lost forever: if not this year or the next, then assuredly at some point in most of our lifetimes.

We can opt to live for ourselves and let it all be lost, or surrender our lust for power and seek righteousness... and give America a chance to endure.

Don't wait for your government, or for Pat Robertson or Jesse Jackson or George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton or anyone else of that kind to tell you how to save this country. We know what they're really after now. They had their chance and they blew it.

If America deserves to survive for our grandchildren, then it's going to be up to you and me to make that happen.

Just as it should be.

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