A message to the people - and candidates - of Rockingham County, North Carolina

I'm going to come out and say it:

It is absolutely shameful what is happening right now in Rockingham County politics.

Regardless of distance in its various measures, I have still been proud to be a son of Reidsville and the surrounding area.  But what I'm seeing lately from afar is utterly heartbreaking.

Twenty years ago I was a candidate for public office in Rockingham County.  I didn't win my race but it still became one of the greatest experiences of my life.  My campaign was an honest, sincere, and upbeat one.  It was FUN!  When the results came in, there was no bitterness at all for not getting a seat on the school board.  There had been too much enjoyment from coming to meet new people, hearing and talking about ideas, harnessing creativity to make signs and shirts and television ads.  I didn't run against anyone per se.  I merely ran as myself, being completely forthcoming with voters, and let the chips fall where they may.

Why can't it still be that simple?

I'm so damned sick and tired of people lusting for power and influence.  All it does is show that they are the LEAST worthy people to have power at all.

Some are going to interpret this as being a commentary on the state senate race between incumbent Phil Berger and challenger Sam Page.  But I'm not casting blame on anyone in particular.  It's just become a wholesale disgusting situation that is embarrassing even those of us who are expatriates of Rockingham County.  It has actually made the press here in the Upstate of South Carolina.  I remember the county's district attorney race of 2006 and that was disgusting.  What is happening now is far, far worse.  It's going to go down in history as one of the most bitter races in North Carolina history.  EVERYBODY needs to step back and refocus on pitching themselves to the voters, instead of trying to convince their would-be constituents why their opponents *shouldn't* be elected.

See?  THIS is why I'm so effin' SICK AND TIRED of the two-party con job that's been worked on over this country.  It's all about power and control and skimming  off the top whenever the chance comes.  The politics of the county has twisted and distorted real vision and principles.  When I ran I had a rule: I would never go negative.  EVER.  I vowed that I would never do something that I would regret later down the road.  There is nothing wrong with holding to that.  Be the best candidate you can be and be content to let the voters decide.  That's the way it's supposed to be.  But the candidates have become so fixated on destroying each other, they've lost grasp of WHY they're supposed to be running in the first place.  Why SHOULD any sane and rational person want to vote for anyone like THAT?!?  I sure as hell wouldn't.

(Please pardon the profanity.  I NEVER use that unless it's absolutely necessary to getting my point across, when polite language has failed.)

Come on Rockingham.  Do better.

As an entertaining aside, I'll close with this.  One of the candidates in 2006 started turning too negative for my tastes.  This is the ad that I created in response to that.  Not necessarily "against" him but I wanted there to be something happier/feel-good out there as a counterbalance.  Of the three ads that I made, this is my most favorite...

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Why churches using the Nativity to protest immigration enforcement are wrong.

I'm reading a number of stories regarding churches turning their nativity scenes into political statements about immigration agents enforcing the laws.  Namely, these churches are replacing Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus with signs saying "ICE was here".  At least one church went all the way and has ICE agents surrounding the crèche with zip ties and weapons drawn.

Photo credit: Matthew McDonald

I would not want to visit these churches, because they are demonstrating that they have no grasp of scripture at all.

Here's the truth of the matter: Jesus and his parents were never refugees or immigrants.  Joseph took his wife to Bethlehem because that was their hometown, and they had to take part in a census that had been ordered by Caesar.  They may not have been fully citizens of Rome (few in Roman territory were) but they were certainly 100% legal residents of the empire.  There was nothing wrong about that at all.

So already, to depict Mary, Joseph and Jesus hauled off by immigration enforcement is ridiculous.  More  than that, it's blasphemous.

And so far as the holy family being in Egypt to escape from Herod goes, Egypt had fully been a part of the Roman Empire since the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty a few decades earlier.  Joseph brought his family there to escape from Herod, a puppet king ruling Judea on behalf of Rome.  The family of Joseph were escaping a wicked provincial ruler who Rome pretty much let do whatever he wanted so long as he kept the local Jews in line.  But Herod's jurisdiction went no further than that.  People were still free to travel within the empire, across provincial boundaries.  So it is that to go from Judea to Egypt was no more big a deal than if I were to drive a car from the upstate of South Carolina across the border and into Georgia.  To claim that Joseph and his family were going to a foreign land and that made them refugees is... well... dumb.

This hatred of all things Donald Trump is begetting some truly mad behavior.  It says more about the people hating, than it does about the man they are targeting with their spite and bitterness.  For a church to ignore basic scripture, as these places of worship are doing, absolutely reeks of ignorance.  And they need to be called out about it.

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This blog is officially endorsing Kevin Suthard for Rockingingham County Commissioner!

Folks, this one was almost too easy to get behind. Why?  Because I've known Kevin Suthard since we were in seventh grade and he has always been someone who I admire and respect and he's ever abounded in wisdom and vision.  I'll admit, I was a bit shocked around 1994 or so when I heard that Kevin was going into law enforcement.  But he spent thirty years working at the Rockingham County Sheriff's Department and those were decades that were laden in public service.  Kevin has a true heart for the people of the county and that hasn't stopped at all since his retirement.  Now Kevin is moving forward and upward to the next level...

A few days ago Kevin announced that he is running for Rockingham County Board of Commissioners in the 2026 election.  And though I no longer live in Rockingham County, North Carolina, I am declaring for all to see that I am 1000% behind him.  Kevin has spoken up in the past few months about the things that could be better in the county.  Mainly, soaring taxes and the casino in the western part of Rockingham that apparently NOBODY has wanted except for a few interested parties not concerned about the wishes and welfare of their constituents.  Those alone make Kevin an endorsable candidate.  And I can vouch for his character and tell you all now, that Kevin has the drive and fortitude to make good on addressing those concerns.  He's running on a platform of transparent government, and that is what y'all "back home" are going to get with Kevin Suthard as Rockingham County commissioner.

Here is the link to Kevin's official campaign page on Facebook.  And I'm going to be sure to be posting more about his campaign here as things roll along to the primary election this coming March.

Kevin, you've got this.  And Rockingham County is going to be blessed to have you in a leadership role serving it.

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I know why CBS is canceling Stephen Colbert

 

Colbert and Trump in happier times (2015)

Stephen Colbert can stamp his feet all he wants about CBS ending his late-night show.  He can scream and tantrum to his heart's content.  But in the end the loss of The Late Show is squarely on him.  And the rest of the "talent" on late at night would do well to learn from his example.

Here's the secret to success at television after the eleven o'clock news.  Most people do not want the last thing that they allow into their minds before going to bed be unrelenting bitterness.  Late-night hosts like Johnny Carson, and Jay Leno after him, knew that people at that hour wanted one last shot of laughter to end their day on.  And those hosts provided that.  Viewers tuned in, got a good chuckle, and wound up going to sleep feeling that however rotten the day had been, it ended on a somewhat happy note after all.  It's a formula that kept television audiences tuned in for decades to those hosts of times past.

Colbert and the rest of his kind never understood that or ever really cared to.  That kind of "comedy" isn't their forté.  They believe that "humor" is vile and mean-spirited and they went to great lengths to proclaim that they represented "new comedy".

But in the end, their "comedy" for the past decade had only one setting: "Trump Bad And Republicans Evil"(tm).  People got tired of that.  Bitterness can only go so far in a business that is allegedly about entertaining people instead of preaching down to them.  If nothing else, Colbert was doing his best to insult half of his potential audience... and that's never a good practice, either.

No, it wasn't politics that led CBS to can The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.  It was solid numbers that Colbert and his staff weren't justifying having a presence with.  I'm seeing that it cost the network $40 million a year to keep the show running.  What kind of an audience does that kind of money supposed to achieve?  Carson had higher numbers than that during his long tenure on The Tonight Show, with far less a budget.

It wasn't politics.  It certainly wasn't President Donald Trump waving a cloaked sleeve like he's a Dark Lord of the Sith telling his minions to "do it!" to anyone who merits his wrath.  It was nothing but raw hatred and anger, perpetuated long past their expiration dates.  It's kind of ironic: Stephen Colbert liked cancel culture.  Until cancel culture came to cancel him.

Maybe the pendulum will begin to swing the other way now.  I've believed for awhile that the ground is fertile for a late-night host in the tradition of Carson and Leno.  Hosts who devoted at most three jokes a night about the president.  They were men who understood laughter and people's need for it.  Something that Colbert and his sort never did and probably never will.

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About the alleged Obama-led conspiracy against Trump...

Someone asked me what do I think about it now coming out that Barack Obama, in the closing days of his presidency, conspired with several others to sabotage the incoming administration of Donald Trump.  There is a lot of evidence now that this indeed happened and if it did, then a lot of people including Obama deserve to go to jail.

It won't happen.

I'm old enough to recognize a rigged game when I see it.  And that is what the Trump Administration is facing.  Nobody is going to be arrested.  There may be indictments but they won't go anywhere.  And even if they did, there is going to never be a "guilty" verdict from a jury from the District of Columbia.  Washington is a company town, practically everyone there is on the payroll of that company.  The corruption has long taken too much root.

There may be some small-time members of the conspiracy who will be indicted, who will be expected to "fall on their swords", but the bigger names in the scheme?  They will go on as if nothing happened.  They have nothing to fear.  They've been playing the game for so long that they know they're invincible.  And they know that we know it.

Then take into account that it's only the "alternative" media - something that is fast becoming THE establishment press, traditional journalism has fallen so hard - that is really reporting this.  The legacy media isn't covering it.  To them it's as if there is no story.  Which in my mind demonstrates why they have lost all credibility about being trusted at all.  More people than ever are tuning into the podcasts and the blogs for their sources of information, but those aren't the ones that "the firm" is influenced by.  "The firm" still operates based on what CNN and the New York Times chooses to publicize.  Trump's win in November was a defeat for "the firm" but it can't be the only one, not if there is to be sustained progress.

If Obama headed up an engineered plot against Trump during his first four years of being president, then Obama and those who conspired with him ought to go to prison.  This is far worse than Watergate ever was.  Come to think of it, a LOT of things are worse than Watergate.  But for some reason we're still expected to tolerate those.  In saner times the citizens would be stomping toward Washington D.C. and demanding heads on pikes, if not decorating the lampposts Mussolini-style.  Figuratively, of course.  I don't want to see ANYBODY get hurt.  Not even the ones who have destroyed much of this country.  That can't be said for a lot of other people though who have been drained of compunction.

I hate to be a "downer" about this.  I really do.  But I've watched politics for awhile and I know something about the corruption of unchecked human nature.  And I really don't think anything is going to come of this.

But I would like to be proven wrong.

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"The earth isn't going to produce justice."

 Something I read on a news/politics discussion forum last night that has stuck with me almost 24 hours later:

"The earth isn't going to produce justice."

Isn't that the truth?

As much as things are wrong and we want to make them right, the sad fact is that this is a fallen and corrupted world.  No matter how much we long for it and try to bring it about, there is no lasting good.  There might be some temporary reprieve, it seems.  But it never lasts.  Wickedness will always prevail, at least until such time as Providence sees fit to directly intervene in our affairs.  Indeed, it seems that the more we strive for good, the more that effort is corrupted and brought to ruin.

What do we do, then?

Do the best we can.  Accepting that that's the best we can do.  Deceive none.  Let your "yes" be yes and "no" be no.  Seek wisdom and discernment.  Bind not yourself to the spirit of party, which is invariably reduced to collective foolishness.  Do not trust in governments of men: however well-meaning their beginning, though it may take centuries they will always let us down.  Don't trust in men.  Trust in God instead.  We should dedicate our efforts to Him. The good work is ours, but the results are forever His.

Those of wicked device in this world seem to be all powerful.  But they are as mortal as any of us.  They will pass in time.  Their realms will pass with them.  And in due time, a better world will be brought forth, wrought from holy Hands.

The earth isn't going to produce justice.  That is true.  But we can do what is within our power to seek justice.  Knowing that we will fail but having satisfaction in knowing that we at least tried.

It's how I try to live, anyway.

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Dear people of New York City: Why are you doing this to yourselves??? (Zohran Mamdani)

To be honest, I had never heard of Zohran Mamdani until this week.  But what I've learned in the past few days scares me and it should scare you too.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know yet, Mamdani just became the Democratic nominee for the office of mayor of New York City.

Here is what Zohran Mamdani is about (partial listing)...

- He is openly Marxist

- He hates Jews

- He sympathizes with the same mentality that brought about 9/11 and a lot of other acts of terrorism

- He wants to fund illegal aliens and provide them with sanctuary (as if that's not bad enough already)

- He wants a $30 minimum wage by 2030 (which would DESTROY many if not most small businesses)

- He wants to channel funding that SHOULD go to the police department and instead pay for "social workers", the result of which will only be more skyrocketing crime

- He wants city-owned grocery stores (ask your local typical "Russian of a certain age" about what it was like to wait in line for ten hours at the Moscow GUM store just to buy toilet paper)

- He wants a freeze on rent and more government housing (which will also makes things worse)

- He wants to DRASTICALLY increase taxes in order to pay for his wild wacko schemes

Those are just some of the policies that Mamdani wants to implement.

To think that New York City has gone almost a quarter century from being strong and indomitable under Rudolph Giuliani, to possibly being run by someone who has only been a United State citizen since 2018.

What is it about voters in urban areas, especially places like New York City and Chicago and Los Angeles, that they continually elect people who only make things WORSE?

Why are the Democrats doing this to themselves?  Do they have America's best interests at heart when they nominate extreme socialists to represent the people of their city, or state, or nation?

A good friend said something earlier today: that Jewish people in New York City would overwhelmingly vote for Adolf Hitler if he were to run as a Democrat.  He said that party loyalty is all that matters to them.

Oh yeah, my good friend is also a Jewish man living in New York City.  He has witnessed firsthand the constant betrayal of that town by his kindred.

Why would ANYONE commit to electing people who have demonstrated time and time again that that they cannot govern wisely?

Well, Mamdani so far is just the Democrat's chosen candidate for the job.  He doesn't have the position yet.  But if he should win, well...

I will have absolutely no compassion for the people who voted for him.   They should have known what they were getting into.

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Joe Biden is gone today (thank the Lord!)

The infamous "red speech" in Philadelphia, September 2022

Before I render a final grade for Joseph Robinette Biden's term as president, let's wind the clock back four years ago on this blog.  I predicted then that come January 2025 the United States of America would be in the worst condition it had been in, in half a century.

A bold forecast.  I swore then that if I was wrong, I would eat my fedora.  And I would have.  With A1 steak sauce.

I knew there was no chance of me getting it wrong.  Biden has certainly not let me down in that regard.

To everyone who voted for this fool: please don't do that again.  Because of Biden and his disastrous policies I had to leave a job that I loved.  That's my own particular tale of woe that came about.

And a few hours ago Biden "pre-emptively pardoned" Anthony Fauci, Mark Miley, and the members of the "January 6 committee".  Stevie Wonder could have seen that coming.

Joe Biden is leaving politics as he has always lived it for more than fifty years: corrupt, craven, and criminal-minded.

So how does Biden rate with his peers, in the estimation of this trained historian?

In keeping with my history education, I am thus grading most of the Presidents of my lifetime...

Reagan: A

GHW Bush: C

Clinton: D

GW Bush: D-

Obama: F

Trump: B+

Biden: F

Indeed, Joe Biden is the F-iest president I've ever studied.  Not even James Buchanan caused as much destruction to America as Biden and Harris did.

Reagan is the gold standard by which I measure the presidents of my lifetime, but he wasn't perfect.  The first Bush never really wanted to be president but even if he did, reneging on his "no new taxes" promise consigned him to being just average.  Clinton damaged the rule of law in this country, immeasurably.  The second Bush was a terrible little man who made the rest of us suffer for his personal frailties (while also exploding the size and power of government).  Obama was truly "One Big A-- Mistake America", he vowed to change the country and that's what he did in all the wrong ways.  Trump's first term was the most proactive and positive since Reagan, but it suffered from a poor choice of staff and also the incessant chicanery and "lawfare" by Trump's opponents.  Perhaps he will have learned from this and his second administration will be far better.

As for Biden, there is no redeeming the past four years.  This very incompetent and corrupt man, who has done absolutely nothing virtuous in his half a century of political life, is leaving America in a MUCH worse place than when he became president.  I don't even know if it can honestly be said that we've had a president these last four years at all.

Biden and Harris and everyone associated with them will be remembered only for being the worst gang of freaks and thugs and criminals in the history of American politics.  May we NEVER tolerate such immaturity and fraud and corruption again!

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My first op-ed in two years is live at The Federalist!

I'm going to preface the remainder of this post by saying something which I probably didn't do my best to get across in this piece.  Mainly, that what I've written about is a tragedy.  When any one person has wasted more of a lifetime than too many good people ever get to have, only to wind down his or her time on this earth with naught but pain and hurt inflicted upon others, that is not a thing to gloat about.  That is a very sad thing, indeed.

Time keeps on slipping into the future.  And for all his schemes and plans and plots over five decades, they have ultimately earned Joseph Robinette Biden not an iota of esteem or honor.  He had it all, and it has now come to nothing.

No, there will be no crowds waiting to enter the Joe Biden Presidential Library...

And that is what the first op-ed piece that I've written in more than two years is about.  It just went live on The Federalist.  The title is "No One Wants To Visit A Biden Presidential Library", it says what it means and it means what it says.  When I was traveling across America with my dog a few years ago I was able to make stops at the libraries of Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.  Each of them had throngs of admirers there to remember those men and their times.

I really, seriously can't imagine that happening at the future Biden Presidential Library.

Well, there it is.  Feel free to read it and leave a comment here if you're so led.  And to everyone visiting this blog today, greetings!  Thank you for stopping by here.  It's not a presidential library but I like to think there's a little something interesting for everyone :-)

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Donald Trump: Greatest comeback in American history

 

Well, I'll be darned.

After months of believing that the election would go otherwise, Donald Trump has won indeed.

I've rarely been so glad to have been so wrong.  Harris would have been an unprecedented disaster for America.  There would have been no end to inflation.  In fact, her policies would have made it much worse.  She didn't see that.  She basically ran on one issue only - abortion, which is ridiculous to believe Trump is going to pass a law banning it nationwide - and that wasn't enough to persuade enough Americans that she was going to be a competent leader.

Congratulations, Mr. Trump.  You and Melania are headed to the White House, again!  Just try to pick a better staff this time, 'kay?

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My final election prediction

 

People will vote their appetites. They will vote for whoever scratches their itching ears. They will vote for the person who promises to protect their debaucheries.

 

I've lived long enough, have studied plenty of history, to know that our society is getting worse, not better. Because people will almost always choose what is convenient over what is right.

 

The candidate who I believe will win tomorrow, will cause more harm to be wrought upon the United States than any individual in her almost two and a half centuries of existence.

 

But that doesn't matter. Only that this candidate "wins". And that's what's most important, right?

 

I am almost tempted to say "damn the fools who would choose such evil." But as a Christian I am cautioned against calling anyone "fool".

 

Maybe, someday, if we survive what's coming, some people will remember that I and others warned about this. We saw it coming. We did our best to alert our neighbors. But it was all in vain.

 

"Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it," indeed.

 

 

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Dear J.D. Vance: There are no second-class citizens

Something that bothers me about vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance...

He seems to insinuate in statements both past and recent that only people who are married and/or have children should be involved in this country's politics.  They're the ones who most have stakes in America's future, he apparently believes.

Well, what about those of us who for some reason or another never got to have that kind of lasting happiness?  Do WE get afforded a say in the matter?

I've been as loyal a citizen of this country as one could probably be, without going into the military.  I came up with American values of honesty, hard work, being the best you could be... values that made this country great.  They're values that culminated in my earning Eagle Scout and I made a commitment long ago to live my life in accordance with those virtues.

Some might call me a conservative for that, and a very strong one.  If they do, that's for them to decide.  As I've tried to convey many times however I am a man of ideas, and not ideologies.  But I digress...

I have as much a stake in wanting America to be secured and prosperous for future generations as anyone else has.  I am invested as a citizen, as a Christian, as a historian with no small grasp of the issue.  I have recently begun working with others toward putting a Trail Life troop together, mostly because I believe in transmitting American ideals to the next generation of young men so that they become the leaders God intends for them to be.

Is all of that invalidated because I have no children?  Does "Make America Great Again" have any room under its tent for those of us who life was not so kind toward?

It's almost like Vance is suggesting that there are second-class citizens in America.  And that is wrong.

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"The Dukes of MAGA" (and who I am supporting in this election... for now)

I spotted this clip yesterday and it is definitely one of the better pro-candidate videos that I've ever come across.  This is the kind of thing that the more creative types of candidates' supporters should aspire toward.  For a lot of reasons I really like this one.

Behold "The Dukes of MAGA":

So, about who I'm supporting in this election.  Something I've very rarely tipped my hand about throughout the history of this blog...

As many readers know, I have a rule.  It's one that I initiated after my own run for public office years ago, and the TV ads I made for that campaign.  Here it is: I do not vote for a candidate if he or she runs a negative campaign commercial targeting an opponent.  I made three commercials and each of them was positive, upbeat, humorous at times and serious when need be.  There was another candidate in that race who went negative and I did NOT want to be like that.  I went full-throttle the opposite direction.  And I discovered something: when you're positive, you find creativity that you never knew existed.  If I'm going to vote for someone, that person has to demonstrate that not only is he or she not in the race for the power, but also that he or she has vision and imagination.

That being said, at the moment I plan to be casting my vote, for the very first time, for Donald Trump.

If Trump runs a negative television commercial, he's lost my vote.  So far though, he hasn't done that.

For now I intend to vote for Trump, and his running mate J.D. Vance.  In my sincerely held belief, Trump was the most effective and proactive president that the United States has had since Ronald Reagan.  His first term was an astounding success and I believe his second will be even better.  He made some mistakes, especially with the people he chose to be on his staff and appointments.  I like to believe that Trump has learned better.  You won't find me wearing a red "MAGA" hat, but my heart is definitely inclined toward that direction.  "Make America Great Again": what is wrong with that?  Trump in 2017 began doing just that and I believe he stands to be an even better statesman in 2025.

As for the opposition: Joe Biden has been the worst president in any living memory.  For all intents and purposes there has been no competent leadership in the White House for the past three and a half years.  Kamala Harris however would be even WORSE.

In case anyone's curious, I'm independent.  Have been for a very long time now.  I don't fit in the political parties' scheme of things.  That kind of thing never really had any appeal for me.  It means that I'm an outsider more often than not but I get to live with my conscience that much more.  I'm unaffiliated with any party.  And right now, even if I don't vote for Donald Trump, he certainly has my support.

Who knows.  Maybe I'll end up making a pro-Trump video too.

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Power or Wisdom? Stop asking God to interfere with politics

In searching around for churches in this area, obviously I'm looking at their websites.  I'm studying a few things, particularly their various statements of belief.  In that regard I'll simply say this: there are already a number of places of worship which I regrettably cannot enter.  It would be like bringing a blowtorch aboard the Hindenburg.

No disrespect to those places is meant.  I believe they and I worship the same God.  We differ however in aspects of that which while ultimately meaningless, are as unavoidable in this carnal realm as they are indicative of the imperfect nature of the church as the body of Christ upon this earth.

As I was saying, I'm perusing the websites of places of worship.  Looking for certain qualities.  And with the advent of streaming video I'm now able to watch and listen to recent sermons.  Sort-of like the Esper machine: getting to search a place without actually being there.

(Wait, did I just make a Blade Runner reference...?!?)

So a few nights ago, with nothing else to do (because of tech issues keeping me from my AI work, grrrr...) I was back at ogling church websites.  I literally have told Google to search for "churches near me" and it produces a map with every place of worship and, if available, their website addresses.  How convenient!

There is one church a few miles away from here that I didn't know anything about, other than it's a Baptist congregation unaffiliated with any larger contingent of the faithful.  I read over the site, and didn't find anything that would be objectionable.  It went down on my list of possible places to visit.  And it would have likely stayed there until I got around to checking it out in person...

Then I watched this past Sunday's worship service and listened to the message being preached.

Folks, there are very few things that will have me more walking out, however impolite it may seem, than a sermon that turns blatantly political.

Especially as "conservative" as the message I listened to.  Because conscientious conservatives really ought to know better.

The entirety of the pastor's message was about the evils of liberalism.  I don't mean liberalism in the spiritual sense, which would have been fine and even expected to be touched upon at various times.  No, I mean liberalism as in the temporal notion.

It was using the authority of the pastor to abuse the name of God for the furtherance of a political ideology.  Something I have LONG believed is wrong.

So it is that this church gets a hard pass from me.

It's like this: I believe that each of us as citizens has the responsibility to choose our leaders in representative government.  But it is WRONG for those with spiritual responsibility to decree who it is that his congregants should vote for.  And that is what I saw in this message.

What should a pastor or other minister preach about politics, then?  I do not believe the issue is completely off the table.  I don't believe that the elders of yore would have thought so, either.

I also don't believe that it makes a difference to God as to who we ask Him to favor in our elections.  Asking Him to please let Donald Trump win in November is going to mean as much to God as is asking Him to let the Patriots win another Super Bowl.  Indeed it's even more ridiculous to ask Him to favor some candidates over others.  Doing so would violate the concepts of free will and choice.  God has given us choice all along.  He has also given those of us in the free world the right to choose our leaders.

For good or ill, the onus is upon us, and not God, to well pick our representatives and executives.

So, if a minister has some authority to expound upon political matters, what is left if the endorsement of candidates is wildly inappropriate?

How about this instead: rather than trying to sway his listeners to vote either this way or that, a minister instead leads his flock in seeking WISDOM toward making their choices at the ballot box.

Isn't that what we as Christians should be seeking in all of our matters?  That God might liberally (pun shamelessly intended) pour upon us the capacity to discern wisely and to act upon that wisdom with a resolute mind and determined will. 

Should not that be what we are to pray for, instead of for our favorite candidates winning at the polls?

We can choose to have wisdom.  Or we can choose to crave power.  We have been doing the latter for so long that we've practically forgotten about wisdom at all.  And we have suffered for that.

It is not God who has inflicted the metaphorical poxes upon our land.  He is merely letting us have what we vote for.  Free choice, remember?

I would posit that it has been a lack of lusting for wisdom which has brought America to the brink of calamity.  And it has been many if not most of her Christians who have greatly encouraged that folly.  It is the Christians of this land who should have been the very first to appeal to Heaven for wisdom and discernment.  That is the vessel of true power.  Not power itself, which we have deluded ourselves into believing we must wield.

Because in America at least, God has already granted her people all the power that they could possibly require.  But how to exercise that power?  That is something that we should have been petitioning God for all along.

Would it at all hurt us to start fervently oraying for change of hearts and minds instead of obsessively praying for change in Washington?

I know what is that I am praying for.  And it is not for a candidate to win.

I will pray, that the people of this land lay aside their appetites for force and power.  And instead that they would use the authority granted them with discernment and wisdom.

God WILL grant us those things, if we ask Him.

But He is not going to be moved when we ask Him to interfere directly with the politicks of these United States.

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The Only Hope For America: A video commentary by Yours Truly

Have had a lot of thoughts over the past few days and weeks about the upcoming presidential election, and the general state of America.

If you've ever read "Isaiah's Job" by Alfred Jay Nock, and you found it resonated with you, then this video may interest you too.

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Commentary: The Boredom Machine

Ruins of the Capitol
from the video game Fallout 3

It's been several hours since some semblance of a historical event transpired here in America: Kevin McCarthy was ousted from being Speaker of the House in the House of Representatives.  It's the first time that's ever happened.  McCarthy is now third place in being shortest term of office for a speaker.

I've taken a peak at some of the more prominent online news and politics forums.  And this has obviously been an event arousing considerable discussion, anger, and triumph.

But the best I've been able muster up is an indifferent shrug. 

Once upon a time, I would be following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy with intense interest.  It IS the very first time in American history that a House speaker has been tossed out of the position, after all.  In days past my eyes and ears would be absorbing every scrap of information about what is now happening, collating it all in my brain as fast as it could possibly be done.

But I'm older now.  Presumably wiser.  And definitely more world-weary than three decades ago.  I've seen "leaders" and their parties swept into and out of power for so long, with very little lasting good for the nation, that I'm just plain bored with it all.

Heh.  "I'm so bored with it all."  Those were the final words of Winston Churchill, you might be enlightened to know.

It's much worse now.  The utter mundanity of modern politics.  Especially modern American politics.

I think Donald Trump was the first really brilliant flash of invigoration since Ronald Reagan.  But Trump ultimately failed to counter and rein in the overly-burdensome entrenched institutionalized wickedness that our government has become.  He accomplished some good - the border wall is, or would be anyway, one example - but he surrounded himself with people whose allegiances were with "the machine".  They were not loyal to the American people and their republic.

And now we see "the machine" bearing down on Trump, doing its damndest to squash any possibility of his re-election and retribution.  Take heed, friends and neighbors!  This is what "the machine" can do and will do to any and all challengers to its power and influence.  It will quash its dissidents like vermin... because that's all that we are to them.  Trump?  He's just the biggest person to make an example of.  I can tick off many others who have been besieged and destroyed by the machine for their insolence.

Don't think I'm a Trump uberfan.  You'll never catch me dead in a "Make America Great Again" cap.  I don't have political idols to follow.  But I damn well know what an all-out war to destroy an individual in almost every conceivable way looks like.  If it can happen to one person, it can happen to anyone at all.

This is what modern American politics is not just becoming, it already is.  It has turned into the very thing that our fathers and grandfathers for over two hundred years have fought to keep our country from becoming.

We all know it, even if we refuse to admit it.

This country has wound up with a lifelong chronic liar and a political prostitute in its two highest offices.  And we are supposed to applaud that?

There is now much more spying on regular citizens than the Stasi ever were capable of.  The propaganda of "the machine" has powers that Goebbels never imagined.  Silencing dissent has become a science to the priests of power.

The Internet?  I would tell you to search Google for evidence that its algorithms are biased against all but leftist people and policies, but it's algorithms don't allow for that.  Only a token few results are let slip by.  The machine controls the search engines.  Right now only Twitter is an isle of freedom of ideas and information... but God only knows how long that will last.  Social media?  The day will soon come when I and multitudes of others won't be allowed to post these things.  We'll probably have our accounts deleted.  Made unpersons.  As if we never existed on the Internet at all.  I genuinely wonder if the blog I've maintained for almost twenty years will one day be deleted.  Just one reason why I keep regular backups of it.

Entertainment?  Let's just say I am not a Disney+ subscriber.  I doubt I ever will be.  And I genuinely hate to say that.

All of this and more... much, much more... have turned America into a dreary landscape of tedium and turmoil, populated with spineless thralls.  There is no more vigor on display in this land.  Only the machine and its attendants and the ashen waste they continue to make of our nation.

McCarthy?  His ouster is just one minor episode in the scheme of things.  Nothing substantial will change.  Nothing will be allowed to change.  Not with the machine in control of very nearly everything.

I'm bored with the machine and everything about it.

You want vigor again?  You want real excitement?  You want serious change?

Be of good cheer then.  It is coming, sooner or later.  It is inevitable.  The machine can not survive forever.  It will eventually run out of willing slaves.

And then the blood will flow.  As high as the horses' bridles.

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Thoughts about this Tuesday's elections

So... what's my take on what will happen two days from now at the polls here in the United States?

The Democrats are going to get pounded.  They have basically become the party of three things: Hate Trump, wasteful spending, and promoting what can only be described as child pornography (especially the "transgender" madness).  They believe that anger over Roe v. Wade getting overturned is going to be enough to energize whatever base they still have.  That's not going to work.  Except in places that are so outrageously blue that they are hopeless (helpless?).

So the Republicans are going to win and maybe become a hindrance for the next two years to Joe Biden, AKA the WORST president in history.

(How anyone could still support a dementia-ridden compulsive lying pedophile is beyond me.)

Yes, the Republicans are going to take the House and the Senate, I perceive.  And that's going to be the beginning of the end of our problems, right?

WRONG!

Because the Republicans will likely do what they have always done whenever they get hold of the Hill.  They capitulate.  They turn over.  They "play nice".  They "go along to get along".

That has been how they have behaved with people like Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy leading their party in the Senate and House, respectively.  Republicans have "leadership" that is more interested in maintaining their hold on power, however much or little it may be.

The incoming Republican tsunami will be all for nothing if the new conservatives in Congress don't kick the tired old leadership to the curb and take NO prisoners.  There should be NO compromising with the opposition.  Democrats in the House and Senate haven't shown the GOP any mercy these past several years, why should mercy be shown them?

The Republicans have an opportunity to shut down Biden's insane agenda and they MUST take it.  The American people are not about to sweep them into office just to maintain the status quo.

I'm saying this as someone who has become disgusted with partisan politics.  Actually, with politics in general.  I've done my part as a responsible citizen.  I registered to vote the day after I turned 18.  Have participated in most of the elections since then, including the primaries.  I even ran for office once.  It can't be said that I haven't upheld my end of the bargain as a citizen of this land.

I'm only calling it as I see it.

So in a nutshell: the Republicans are set to give Biden a good hard kick in the @$$.  But it will be for naught if they don't shake up their own house first.  Starting with rebelling against their corrupt longtime leadership.

Just my .02

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My first op-ed piece was about abortion. This is what happened...

During the four years I spent (of my seven year undergraduate career... ehh, family tradition you might say) at Elon, I was on the staff of the student newspaper The Pendulum.  First as a reporter but mostly as an op-ed writer.  It was a continuation of all the letters to the editor I had been sending the bigger newspapers.  I figured that being an essayist for my school's paper would provide for constructive feedback.  Well, that and also having a more captive audience.

 

My first column was published in March of 1996.  And for the subject I chose abortion. Mainly, why it was destroying our capacity for the value of the human soul.  The heartmeat of the argument was that we were numbing ourselves to the sanctity of human life, and I kicked the piece off with a quote from Mother Teresa.  It was, I thought, a solid essay.

 

Naturally, it touched some nerves. This being a fairly liberal private school (albeit one with a sizable evangelical Christian presence).  A number of people contacted me and said they were glad somebody was standing up for the unborn.

 

But there was hate also.  By the end of that weekend I think three or four death threats had come my way.  I took it all in stride.  To me, it only meant that three or four additional people had read my essay and took it seriously.

 

But then, there's what happened the week after that issue ran.

 

I had come down with the flu, with a 102 degree fever and of course like an idiot, I was walking around campus.  I was with two friends that day, and we were going into the library.  The original building that is, before Elon's new one a few years later.

 

Two people were coming out of the building and, to this day I can still hear the voice of one of them as she got into my face and said:

 

"You stupid pro-life fucking piece of shit."

 

I was so feverish that it took several seconds for what she said to fully impact me.  I asked one of my friends if he heard that and he said yes.  Our other friend hadn't been able to make out what she had said, so we told him.  He immediately wanted to go and confront her, but we dissuaded him.

 

Here it is twenty-six years later, and I still see the face of that young woman, warped with anger and hatred.

 

If she had only kept her thoughts to herself, I would likely not be as I am today: someone who sees the pro-abortion movement as one composed of some very ugly people.  Ugly in heart, ugly in thought, and ugly in face.

 

Have you ever looked at pro-abortion protestors?  They don't smile.  Not smile like normal people do.  Their faces aren't filled with love and light as are the faces of pro-lifers.  Instead the pro-abortion protestors are angry, dour, mean and filled with hatred.  The two could not be more unlike each another.

 

If only that fellow student (no, I don't know her name and don't really care to either) had not confronted me as she did, I might be able to give the pro-abortion side the courtesy of hearing them out.  But that possibility has long passed.  There is no courting civility with people so dark and rife with rancor.

 

A quarter century later, and I am no closer to communion with people who so blatantly advocate terminating the life of an unborn child for "convenience" sake.

 

Be mindful of the impression you make.  It persists, and maybe longer than you ever mean for it to.

 

 

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My most serious prediction ever

Make a note of this.  January the Sixth, Two Thousand and Twenty-One.  Just before 1 p.m. EST.

If I'm wrong about this I'll eat my fedora.  No really, I will.

Here it is:

I do declare that four years from today, the United States will be in the WORST condition it has been in, in at least the past fifty years.

Hold me to this.  Do it.

I am dead-#@%$ serious.

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New article at American Thinker: respect for a fraudulent president

American Thinker this morning published my latest article.  "Must We Respect a Fraudulent President" says what it means and means what it says: in light of the significant amount of evidence that chicanery most foul took place during the November 3rd election, how can anyone in Joseph Biden's position claim to have a mandate to be the leader of the free world?

Here's a clip:

The matter of unjust measures is brought up at least nine times in the Old Testament. “Divers weights are an abomination unto the Lord; and a false balance is not good,” reads Proverbs 20:23. Absent reverence for holy writings, it still is to be noted: the ballot box is sacred. To violate it is to breach the contract that countless Americans have fought and suffered and died for.

And so circumstance not seen for a century and more has come about. We are faced with someone who will be sworn in as President of the United States… but has not earned true authority.

As always, this blog and its eccentric master welcomes any and all newcomers.  And thank you for choosing to read my humble essay.  It means a lot to me :-)

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