Silly Facts

When it comes to current events, it seems we live in a world drawn into three camps: "us", "them", and "not going to talk about anything other than cat videos for fear of being forced into one of the first two camps".   Facts (or at least the notion of an objective reality that may not conform to my preconceived notions/meta-narrative) and the messy nuances of life have no place in this world.

Take the ACA hubbub.  The narrative is Trump is trying to illegally kill the ACA.  Like him or not, this isn't accurate.

By way of explanation, under the ACA people whose household income falls between 100 and 400 percent of the poverty level qualify for two kinds of financial assistance.

The first is a tax credit to reduce insurance premiums, authorized under ACA Section 1401. The ACA supports these premium reductions with a permanent appropriation built into the law.

The second is a reduction in cost-sharing, under ACA Section 1402.  Unlike the premium reductions, these are not funded via tax credits but by direct reimbursements to insurance companies.  Also unlike the premium reductions, Congress did not pass an approprations bill to accompany this article of the ACA.

Why?  Congress didn't want to pass a law that essentially cuts checks to Big Healthcare Companies.  So the Obama administration appropriated the funds.  This isn't legal, as appropration of funds is only allowed by the House of Representatives.

Whether one is for or against the ACA, the reality is Congress needs to act to preserve it due to the fact that they relied on the illegal appropriation of funds by the executive branch to make the ACA viable.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/HofR-challenge-to-ACA-DCt-5-12-16.pdf

Well said Mr. Rowe / Preach it Smokey

From a recent "Mike Rowe's "Off The Wall"" Facebook post:

"Last week, in your comments about the NFL, you made several references to “black people.” As a woman of color, I’ll remind you that the correct term is “African-American,” as I’m sure you know. You do good work with your foundation, but if you want to be heard by everyone, maybe you should speak more respectfully."

Carla Jamison

Hi Carla

If a black person tells me that they would like to be referred to as an “African-American,” I’m happy to address them as such. Doing otherwise would be rude. Likewise, if a white person asks me to call them “Irish-American,” or “Polish-American,” I’ll try to accommodate them as well. However - if someone attempts to enlighten me on the preferences of all black people or all white people, my antenna go up. Why? Because I'm not convinced a person’s true identity has anything to do with the color of their skin, the content of the DNA, or the country of their ancestors.

As a fan of biography, I’m curious to know more about my own history, as well as the history of others. But as a fan of The United States, I place no relevance whatsoever on the amount of German blood coursing through my veins, or the amount of African blood coursing through yours. I'm interested in what you believe, Clara, but I don't consider your ethnicity when evaluating the merits of your arguments. In other words, your heritage is interesting, but knowing where you came from has nothing to do with where you’ll wind up, or what kind of person you really are.

I could write a few thousand words on the evils of the hyphen, and its role in identity-politics. But I doubt I could say it better than Smokey Robinson did in a Def Poetry Jam seven years ago. If I were King of the World, this would be required viewing in every single high-school – starting tomorrow. The language is salty, but the sentiment is precisely what America needs to hear - no matter where you're from...

Have a great weekend.
Mike

https://youtu.be/iIkNsj6cDGc

What am I?

"Aristotle said I am a rational animal. I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer."

Brennan Manning

Terrorism?

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/451098/antifa-terrorism-designation-not-accurate

Couldn't agree more with Mr. Goldberg. A snippet that sums up his thesis:

"The groundswell behind the label “terrorist” for Antifa is a call to blur that distinction. Although treating American radicals and vigilantes the way we treat foreign members of the Islamic State or al-Qaeda might play well in certain corners of the populist Right these days, serious conservatives should be very skeptical about granting the federal government new police powers, which could be used to other ends in future administrations.

Elevating Antifa to the category of terrorist organization would fuel the worst trends in our politics. It would entice President Trump to indulge his strongman shtick, and it would give Antifa the stature it clearly craves. It would also likely accelerate vigilante violence among the white nationalists. Launching a federal crusade against domestic enemies would only fuel the fallacy that anyone Antifa attacks is a fascist. We should fight crime, whatever guise it takes, on the local level — as the founders intended."

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue

Sorry Uncle Milty

Another area where Friedman and I diverge.  I think  his major philosophical blind spot was the existence of human nature, which allowed him to be a proponent of things like this.  I'm tempted by it myself (and would cash any check they sent my way, just like I take my interest deduction), but think it would be a disaster.

https://medium.com/basic-income/why-milton-friedman-supported-a-guaranteed-income-5-reasons-da6e628f6070

Violence generally begets violence

Interesting article.  What's most disturbing is the third paragraph in the snippet below.  I would contend, dear author, that promoting arson is definitely on the "intolerance" side of the "advocacy/intolerance" divide.  Perhaps an emotional college sophomore could be forgiven for not knowing the difference, but a writer for the New York times should.

In the end, violence will be met with violence until an orderly stasis is reached, or violence will lead to order without resistance - a state we will recognize to be tyranny. 

I would encourage everyone one fomenting for violence to read their history (not burn it) to find out what those swept into power through violence do to those who swept them in. They are ALWAYS the first to go because a mindless mob, fueled only by discontent and hate, is a weapon that can be wielded by anyone seeking to oust the current regime.

Meet the New Boss. Same as The Old Boss.

From the Times:

"That can play out in every aspect of student life, as William Gu, an Asian-American who writes for The Claremont Independent, found out after some of his articles showed up on conservative news sites. He received Facebook messages accusing him of “threatening marginalized communities” and was told at a party that “people are uncomfortable with you being here, please leave.”

Mr. Gu, a sophomore, said each incoming class “is getting progressively more radical.” He recalled a panel discussion during orientation at which a student said, “We should burn down Pomona” because “elite colleges represented white supremacist patriarchy.” Mr. Gu found the idea absurd. “You are going to a $60,000-a-year school and you’re either there because your parents are wealthy or the school has given you a full ride and you are saying it’s a dangerous environment for you,” he said. “There is a strange sense of entitlement.”

It can be hard to separate intense advocacy from intolerance, particularly for students who, Dr. Plaza said, arrive “empowered to feel they should have their say.”"

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/education/edlife/protests-claremont-college-student-demands.html?mc=aud_dev&mcid=fb-nytimes&mccr=AugustMC810mcdt%3D2017-08&subid=AugustMC810&ad-keywords=AudDevGate

North Korea

North Korea may gamble incorrectly and provoke a war. Let's hope not. 

That said, the jumbled thinking (ignorance?) of the author is staggering.  Yes - let's apply the template Reagan used to defeat The Soviet Union in the 80's to fight NK/China in the teens. 

Because just like China, the Soviet Union was a major trading partner of America's. And just as with China, we had tremendous cross-national investment in each other's economies. And just like the Soviet Union, China has set up dozens of satellite nations with the express purpose of wiping out the West and completely dominating the world through the global expansion of communism.  Not...

The author's reference to Chinese "adventurism" in the body of water they border reveals the hubristic foundation of his thinking.  How would an American read an article from a Chinese author that referred to "American adventurism in the Gulf of Mexico"? How about if it was literally called " The South US Sea"?

China is indeed our #1 external existential threat, but they are - ironically - winning the same way we beat the Soviets: economically. 

Pulling back in Asia, while not relinquishing our naval, air, or space superiority, would force China to deal with the reality of their aspirations: Increased tensions with their neighbors and shouldering  the cost of mitigating those tensions in a multi-lateral fashion. 

This is not to mention saving the billions spent by Americans subsidizing South Korea and Japan's economies by serving as the guarantors of their freedom (freeing those nation's to subsidize their economies in the form of lower taxes). If one doesn't see how that affects the price of electronics from Asia, U.S. employment in the manufacturing sector, and the Federal Debt, well...

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/10/how-ronald-reagan-would-have-handled-north-korea-commentary.html

Please....

I know this article is supposed to make my blood boil with self righteous indignation, but...please.  Some clerk at an Indiana Walmart put a sign up in the wrong place.  It was clearly a mistake or prank, not some attempt to suggest kids initiate a massacre. 

What is concerning is the fact many folks are quick to interpret such innocuous things through a lens of offense and puff up with outrage.  The truly chilling thing is the underlying belief that they "know what was really meant" by each trigger.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/10/walmart-apologizes-for-own-school-year-like-hero-gun-display-sign.html

Joy

“The pagan set out, with admirable sense, to enjoy himself. By the end of his civilization he had discovered that a man cannot enjoy himself and continue to enjoy anything else.”

G.K. Chesterton

And Yet Someone Saw the Whole

“In the famous story of the blind men and the elephant, so often quoted in the interests of religious agnosticism, the real point of the story is constantly overlooked. The story is told from the point of view of the king and his courtiers, who are not blind but can see that the blind men are unable to grasp the full reality of the elephant and are only able to get hold of part of the truth. The story is constantly told in order to neutralize the affirmation of the great religions, to suggest that they learn humility and recognize that none of them can have more than one aspect of the truth. But, of course, the real point of the story is exactly the opposite. If the king were also blind there would be no story. The story is told by the king, and it is the immensely arrogant claim of one who sees the full truth which all the world’s religions are only groping after. It embodies the claim to know the full reality which relativizes all the claims of the religions and philosophies.”

-Lesslie Newbigin

You Know

You know my heart
Have mercy on me

You know my heart
Its need to be free

You know my heart
For You truly see

You know my heart
Its desire to be

You know my heart
Have mercy on me

Redemption

From the hands it came down 
From the side it came down 
From the feet it came down 
And ran to the ground 
Between heaven and hell 
A teardrop fell In the deep crimson dew 
The tree of life grew

And the blood gave life 
To the branches of the tree 
And the blood was the price 
That set the captives free 
And the numbers that came 
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree 
And were redeemed by the blood

From the tree streamed a light 
That started the fight 'Round the tree grew a vine 
On whose fruit I could dine 
My old friend Lucifer came 
Fought to keep me in chains 
But I saw through the tricks 
Of six-sixty-six

And the blood gave life 
To the branches of the tree 
And the blood was the price 
That set the captives free 
And the numbers that came 
Through the fire and the flood Clung to the tree 
And were redeemed by the blood

From his hands it came down 
From his side it came down 
From his feet it came down 
And ran to the ground 
And a small inner voice Said "You do have a choice." 
The vine engrafted me 
And I clung to the tree

-Johnny Cash

Rome and America

A loooong article, but informative wrt Rome's decline.  The author misses a clear opportunity to draw parallels between Roman "mos maiorum" and American Judeo-Christian values, but the tie seems obvious to me.

America's current crisis isn't one of politics or economics, but culture.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/like-rome-america-could-be-ripe-for-tyranny/

Poem by David Solway

A lot happens in that dark place,
the annex to the glittering edifice
where the clients sit
passing the time of day
ordering drinks and trying their luck.
The important work gets done
in that pokey, smoke-filled vault
at the back of the casino
where the real players
chomp on cigars, trade off-color jokes,
shuffle cards, raise the ante,
recount their manifold exploits
in the politics of the underworld,
listening to a blaring radio
while casting an attentive eye on the rigged slots
rolling their fruit on the TV monitors.
Of course, fortunate dupes of the turbulent underlords,
we’re not aware of what goes on
in the room at the back of our innocence,
dingy and apsidal,
home to the clergy of unshaven misfits
where the progress of the game is determined,
where the deck we’re issued is already marked
and where the music and the poetry come from.
There is no reason to complain,
no reason to cleanse the chamber
and expose the racket.
If we only continue playing,
no way we can lose.

- David Solway

Pride

Pride has good and bad connotations, but this is the best positive definition I've heard of it:

“Pride is faith in the idea that God had when God made us.”

- Karen Blixen

Reagan on Healthcare

Good article which challenges some of the mythology of both the Right and Left wrt to Reagan, and sketches out aspects of an approach to health care reform that doesn't fit neatly within the talking points of either party.

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/07/learning-from-reagan-on-healthcare

Life

The point is not that all such situations end this positively, but that we should always err on the side of life and hope.

https://aleteia.org/2017/02/19/little-boy-born-without-a-brain-can-now-speak-count-and-attend-school/

Legalization

I'm ambivalent about legalization: parents need to raise their kids to not choose drugs. But the demographic analysis of policing in the accompanying bill will lead to more crime.  It's been demonstrated that pouncing on smaller crimes like vandalism and littering discourages bigger crimes - it's called community policing.  But if you have an ethnic gang dominating a neighborhood, well...tough luck for that community. If the police are going to be hit with claims of profiling, they will just make fewer arrests of the 'wrong kind', or possibly begin arbitrarily stopping the 'right' colored people to make sure their numbers balance out. These perverse incentives will lead to upwardly mobile flight from the city center and turn Portland 2020 into NYC 1970.

http://herb.co/2017/07/11/oregon-decriminalize-drugs/

X-Rays are there even if I cant see them

The True, the Good, and the Beautiful are objective realities but my comprehension of them are subject to the limits of my senses, perception, and intellect.

Crunchy Conservatism

Reposting something from Rod Dreher that helped crystallize several strains of thought for me about 10 years ago.

A Crunchy Con Manifesto
By Rod Dreher

We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly.

Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character.

Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government.

Culture is more important than politics and economics.

A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative.

Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract.Beauty is more important than efficiency.

The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom.

We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.“

Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives.

(Super)naturally

"... only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little way away from her, and then turn round, and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature’s current. To treat her as God, or as Everything, is to lose the whole pith and pleasure of her. Come out, look back, and then you will see ... this astonishing cataract of bears, babies, and bananas: this immoderate deluge of atoms, orchids, oranges, cancers, canaries, fleas, gases, tornadoes and toads. How could you ever have thought that this was the ultimate reality? How could you ever have thought that it was merely a stage-set for the moral drama of men and women? She is herself. Offer her neither worship nor contempt. Meet her and know her. If we are immortal, and if she is doomed (as the scientists tell us) to run down and die, we shall miss this half-shy and half-flamboyant creature, this ogress, this hoyden, this incorrigible fairy, this dumb witch. But the theologians tell us that she, like ourselves, is to be redeemed. The ‘vanity’ to which she was subjected was her disease, not her essence. She will be cured in character: not tamed (Heaven forbid) nor sterilised. We shall still be able to recognise our old enemy, friend, playfellow and foster-mother, so perfected as to be not less, but more, herself. And that will be a merry meeting."

-CS Lewis

Uncles

The drive back from Twain Harte was difficult.  The reality of Uncle Dick's passing, even though it's been over a month ago, was heavy on, and deeply unsettling to, my heart. 

When I got home last night I wrote down the following words and felt much lighter even amidst tears.

Uncles

I hope you know how much you've meant
the gratitude I have for time spent

talking together, or just hanging out
showing me what manhood was about

And now one's gone and one remains
And I know it won't be the same

Even though we were together less than apart
you both occupy so much of my heart

For since I was a little boy
you've been a comfort; a source of joy

And while it could perhaps be worse
you must forgive my uneven verse

It's just my strange way of confessing
the admiration I wasn't always expressing

And so with this thought, I will close
and hope it's not too 'on the nose'

I give thanks for each to God above
for your displays of fatherly love

Wonder

"...we all like astonishing tales because they touch the nerve of the ancient instinct of astonishment. This is proved by the fact that when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: We only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough . . . . These tales say that apples were golden only to refresh the forgotten moment when we found that they were green. They make rivers run with wine only to make us remember, for one wild moment, that they run with water."

G.K. Chesterton

Religion vs. Relationship

"Religion is not the place where the problem of man's egotism is automatically solved. Rather, it is there that the ultimate battle between human pride and God's grace takes place. Human pride may win the battle, and then religion can and does become one more instrument of human sin. But if there the self does meet God and His grace, and so surrenders to something beyond its self-interest, then Christian faith can prove to be the needed and rare release from human self-concern."

Langdon Brown Gilkey

Sad

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/448385/americans-left-right-liberal-conservative-democrats-republicans-blue-red-states-cultural-segregate

Frightening

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/bernie-sanders-chris-van-hollen-russell-vought/529614/

Michael Crichton on Scientism

Reposting a quote shared by my friend, Matt:
 

“The ultimate lesson is that science isn’t special – at least not anymore. Maybe back when Einstein talked to Niels Bohr, and there were only a few dozen important workers in every field. But there are now three million researchers in America. It’s no longer a calling, it’s a career. Science is as corruptible a human activity as any other. Its practitioners aren’t saints, they’re human beings, and they do what human beings do – lie, cheat, steal from one another, sue, hide data, fake data, overstate their own importance and denigrate opposing views unfairly. That’s human nature. It isn’t going to change”

― Michael Crichton, Next

At what cost order?

Our collective refusal to acknowledge the need for the governance and control of the flow of individuals across borders will lead, inexorably, to the governance and control of the flow of thoughts and words between individuals.

The Centrality of the Gospel

My Tim Keller kick continues....

http://pca.st/lALS

Motivation

Sometimes I like to sum up my "good" deeds and view them as the cause of my blessings.  This is folly. Even my best actions are marked with a tinge of selfishness.  If it's good, it's grace, and my motivation to do good should be gratitude towards Him, not pride.

History and Eternity

“What shall pass from history into eternity? The human person with all its relations, such as friendship and love.”

-George Florovsky

Net Neutrality

Was talking with my cousin about this the other day.  I understand the threat posed by giant corporations, but agree with the FCC Chairman that “The entire predicate of government regulation should be that there is, or is highly likely to be, a fundamental market failure that warrants pre-emptive regulation...But there was no evidence of that in 2015. The hypothetical harms that were discussed were exactly that: hypothetical.”  And as the video notes, which set of giant corporations do you side with?  The ones for or against net neutrality?

Scare tactics intended to prompt us into supporting a larger government don't go with representative democracy.  If abuses happen (open to hearing of any that actually occurred prior to 27 months ago), we have the recourse of engaging the problem via the courts and our legislatures (i.e. the folks we vote in to pass laws, not the unelected administrators of the FCC). And the executive branch retains its ability to step in the event of sudden, acute abuses of the environment of 1993-2015.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154722841689117&id=17548474116

Human Capital

I don't buy all of the author's thesis, but this is an interesting and thought-provoking read nonetheless...

https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-cold-war-led-the-cia-to-promote-human-capital-theory

Slow Withdrawal

This article makes an important point about the dangers of attempting to slash Federal spending rather than slowly reversing it with an eye towards rebuilding the local associations that have been withered by the encroaching state. Namely, cutting too quickly will create political backlash that results in further expansion of the government to "remedy" the impact of the hasty slashing​.  Some withdrawals cannot be done cold turkey...

To those who would say we can't afford to wait and that slashing is better than nothing,  I say: I may not have a better idea immediately at hand, but that doesn't make the anvil strapped to your back a good parachute.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-danger-with-trumps-budget/

Don't give them the attention...

Give me a break. I understand the ADL's mission, and Cernovich is... well, if you don't  have anything nice to say.....  

My point is, it's called an "OK" sign. This hypersensitivity and speech policing is insane, and plays right into the hands of fringe-types:

Step 1: Be racist/sexist jerks.
Step 2: Frequently use some otherwise benign symbol.
Step 3: Wait for folks on the other end of the spectrum to react to what appears to 85% of people to be completely harmless.
Step 4: Watch the media pick it up as a "story".
Step 5: Enjoy the backlash created as those who value free speech point out the absurdity of the symbol interpretation and the danger posed by policing speech.

Free publicity is free publicity.  I thought last year's election cycle (in which the loser spent a quarter of a billion dollars more than the winners) taught all of us that lesson.

And yes, I realize blogging about it sort of undermines my point of not giving these people attention, but only to the extent my blog is actually read.  :)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/white-power-hand-symbol-cassandra-fairbanks-mike-cernovich-alt-right-white-house-a7709446.html

Freedom and Virtue

Good article from First Things.  Beyond believing the snippet below succinctly captures the results of the Talk-radio-ification of the Conservative movement, I also found the article convicting.  Not because I have any, uh, "tastes" similar to the Drupal guy who was fired, but because it exposes my tendency to value personal liberty over the virtuous or good.  This usually takes the form of my saying/posting/IMing something I find hilarious, though base or crass, or saying something not because I truly feel/believe a particular thing but because my speech represents a sort of rebellion or exercise-of-freedom-for-freedom's-sake.   "Ha! I'm going to say this just because I know it's politically incorrect!". 

Anyway - here's the snippet I mentioned and a link to the article.

"If third-wave feminists and social media leftists announce the sky is blue, then we know it must be green. This kind of pathetic pseudo-solidarity amongst some conservatives is precisely why the movement finds itself ruthlessly hijacked by blowhards and hucksters, some of whom are valorized on the right even as they reject principles like the personhood of the unborn. Why? Because they’re good at ridiculing the enemy. This is not conservatism; it’s right-wing identity politics."

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/04/kink-is-not-conscience

Friendship

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

- C. S. Lewis

Tyranny

I used to think the primary driver of tyranny was deliberate malice.  While that's a factor, it occurred to me that a better predictor of tyranny is the gap between an individual's lust for power and their competency to wield power, multiplied by their access to power. T=(L-C)*A

Especially on Mondays...

"Each day new widows howl, new orphans cry, and new sorrows slap heaven in the face..."

Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 3

Paging Dr. Moreau

There's​ absolutely no way this isn't abused in the future.  The concern is not with the advancement or research and and knowledge, per se, but with the dissolution of absolute moral boundaries that is continuing in parallel.  We are increasingly a world where "might makes right", and in which the only constraint on our action is the imposed will of others.

This combination does not bode well for the reduced suffering and increased flourishing of humanity.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/03/16/chinese-researchers-announce-designer-baby-breakthrough.html

I really like this song...

Oh great mammon of form and function
Careless consumerist consumption
Dangerous dysfunction
Described as expensive taste

I’m a people disgraced
By what I claim I need
And what I want to waste
I take no account for nothing
If it’s not mine

It’s a misappropriation of funds
Protect my ninety percent with my guns
Whose side am I on?
Well who’s winning?

My kingdom’s built with the blood of slaves
Orphans, widows, and homeless graves
I sold their souls just to build my private mansion

Some people say that my time is coming
Kingdom come is the justice running
Down, down, down on me

I’m a poor child, I’m a lost son
I refuse to give my love to anyone
Fight for the truth
Or help the weaker ones
Because I love my Babylon

I am a slave, I was never free
I betrayed you for blood money
Oh I bought the world, all is vanity
Oh my Lord I’m your enemy

Come to me, and find your life
Children sing, Zion’s in sight

I said don’t trade your name for a serial number
Priceless lives were born from under graves
Where I found you

Say, my name ain’t yours and yours is not mine
Mine is the Lord, and yours is my child
That’s how it’s always been

Time to make a change
Leave your home
Give to the poor all that you own
Lose your life, so that you could find it

First will be last when the true world comes
Livin’ like a humble fool to overcome
The upside-down wisdom
Of a dying world

Zion’s not built with hands
And in this place God will dwell with man
Sick be healed and cripples stand
Sing Allelu

My kingdom’s built with the blood of my son
Selfless sacrifice for everyone
Faith, hope, love, and harmony

I said let this world know me by your love
By your love

Oh my child, daughters and sons
I made you in love to overcome
Free as a bird, my flowers in the sun
On your way to Mount Zion

All you slaves, be set free
Come on out child and come on home to me
We will dance, we will rejoice
If you can hear me then follow my voice

-Josh Garrels

They're reporting from the wrong angle...

The real story is the effect this will have on those "in the system".  Social workers, fearing potential criminal liability will undoubtedly opt to break up families more quickly and otherwise err on the side of protecting themselves. 

If these individuals actually falsified records or otherwise lied to protect the murderous parents, then the social workers should be prosecuted.  What this may be, however, is prosecutorial and judicial overreach and Monday morning quarterbacking. 

Regardless, faced with the choice between potential criminal prosecution at the hands of District Attorneys with near limitless resources and civil suits from resourceless parents at or below the poverty line, many social workers will understandably act to protect themselves from the former knowing the latter just isn't going to happen...

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-social-worker-charges-20170320-story.html

Troubling on Two Fronts

1) The Alt-Right is the logical result of extracting Judeo-Christian virtues from conservativism.

2) The strengthening "we know what those words really mean, and they are not acceptable and must be silenced" movement on the Left is particularly disturbing.  This is also the logical result of the Left's ascendancy in cultural, social,  media, and intellectual circles; Free Speech is always viewed as a problem by those in power.

http://www.vox.com/2016/11/23/13659634/alt-right-trolling

Easier Grasped than Embodied

"..the golden mean between prudery and permissiveness...is discipline."

- Graeme Hunter

The Deep State

Looking past the smoke billowing from the Right and Left, it would seem the real cause for alarm is the fact that our intelligence agencies can, and do, falsify forensic evidence.  This should be what shakes every American (and beyond) to the core: unelected - unknown even - members of the government can, without an iota of legitimate oversight, fabricate evidence that could be used to threaten, abuse, or even imprison an innocent person. 

Mix in "well-intentioned" motives such as "defending freedom by making sure that senator doesn't scuttle this defense bill" or "helping the poor by making sure the Speaker of the House helps benefit program X get expanded", and...

It feels like the Left and Right are Liberty's ungrateful children, arguing over her estate at her hospital bedside, ignoring the implorations of the doctors to start treatment, while the the monitor starts to flatline in the background.

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/wikileaks-cia-dump-gives-russian-hacking-deniers-perfect-ammo/?mbid=social_fb_onsiteshare

Peter Singer

Peter Singer's philosophy is vile, and an example of what generates so much mistrust of our higher educational systems.  He's brilliant, intellectually speaking, and his logic is sound.  It's his presuppositions that lead to his monstrous conclusions. 

In this article he notes that, "There have been many critics of my views about euthanasia for severely disabled infants."

Yes, Mr. Singer there are and always will be.

http://www.jpe.ox.ac.uk/papers/twenty-questions/

Nationalism

Good article. 

One of the area where I would disagree with the authors is in my belief that some amount of what they would deem "economic protectionism" is needed.  To be free, a nation must produce its own food and energy supplies and have the industrial and technological base required to ensure its independence from other nations.  In fact, to the extent that certain nations lack these capabilities, one would expect their support of transnational and globalist policies to be stronger than that of nations which do have these capacities (i.e. for true independence).

A second observation would be that it is likely Americans' increased willingness to identify as "global citizens" is tied to the breakdown of both the nuclear and extended family.  If the nation itself represents an extension of familial bonds, and an increasing number of people come from non-nuclear and/or dysfunctional families it would follow that nationalist sentiment would wane as a result.

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017-02-20-0000/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-and-nationalism

Hope

Another item for future comment...

https://thepointmag.com/2017/politics/the-substance-of-things-hoped-for

Madness, Genesis 3, and Pogo

The madness of attempting to make sense of the world lies in the fact that much of the world does not "make sense". 

That is to say, less tautologically, that the world is broken and unless one's view accounts for this, the world will not make sense.  This is why economic theories from the left and right collapse when translated from theory to practice; why political systems fail to fulfill their promises of security and prosperity; why religion does not bring internal or relational peace; why mutually beneficial relationships dissolve; and why even ambitions completely within the apparent ability, power, and means of an individual go unfulfilled.

Will comment on this one later...but it's excellent.

http://pca.st/iyo7Om

Monkey's Uncle

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/pacific-islanders-ancestor

Tedious.  All humans have a common ancestor. 

It's interesting researching our genetic past, but declaring one group of people as being from a different species is... Specious.  Especially since we know modern humans have both Homo Sapiens Sapiens and Neanderthal DNA.  Human beings are human beings, and some of this talk fuels true racism by giving it a "scientific" basis.

It's Settled

A new discovery about the fundamental complexity of water?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/scientists-have-discovered-new-state-matter-water-180961546/

On the one hand, very cool.

On the other hand, this is what makes me a skeptic of scientific determinism. "The Science is Settled!"... "Uh, no, wait a sec, you know that sort of fundamental substance that we've known everything about for, like, well, all of your life? Turns out..."

Dehumanizing Our Enemies

A Facebook friend (the childhood friend of a cousin) posted something that, for the last 85 days or so, is easy to find on one's FB feed: a 25 word-or-less rant condemning Trump and calling anyone who voted for him an idiot.  Again, nothing that all forms of media haven't been saturated with since the election.

I either accidentally or absent mindedly expanded the post and read the comments. Mostly a chorus of vulgar "amens", but one lady made a comment about Trump only being in office 9 days and cutting the guy some slack.  Now I understand that it's precisely what Trump has done in those first days that has many upset.  "Let's wait and see" isn't going to be an acceptable strategy to those who think the man is burning down the country.

Did anyone respond with that sort of information? I.e.  "Hey, we're upset exactly because this guy has done so many things we oppose in such a short time." No.

Instead the woman was vulgarly insulted multiple times and one of the posters hoped for this lady to be sexually assaulted.  I don't know if these people knew each other or were simply connected through our mutual 'friend'. 

I post items that could be deemed controversial at times, but I stay away from online sparring because it's generally fruitless.  But I couldn't help coming to the defense of this woman.  In an exchange of comments, mostly questions for my part, I tried to call attention to the inconsistency of calling a person (Trump) out for his behavior while emulating it and calling for others to be assaulted. 

After a few exchanges, one of the people on the thread calmed down and admitted that she had gotten carried away by her emotions and the group's shared upset.  She IM'd me directly and we talked a little about who we voted for in the past. She even sent me a friend request (which I turned down - I don't really know this person yet). In any event, we listened to each other without changing any minds.

But the rest of the thread continued on, culminating in the commentor who had advocated for the assault of the woman who didn't agree with the group, commenting that he hoped I had a daughter and that she was also assaulted.

This is the mindset that many, many people are in, and it does not appear to be abating.  This is indeed a frightening time to live in this country.

How now shall I live? Or... What's the point again?

I became acutely aware of the inevitability of death in my 20s, during a flight from San Jose to Austin.  The plane made a weird noise when the landing gear came up, and inexplicably,  it filled me with existential anxiety.  "This whole scenario is wrong!", I thought. "I'm in a multi-ton aluminum tube going hundreds of miles an hour, five plus miles high in the sky."

Obviously a panic attack, which I had experienced before, but it awoke something deeper in me.  It didn't just panic my mind, it opened up a vein of thought: My mortality was real.

Busyness was my ally in the battle to ignore my existential angst.  Wife, kids, work, and school ate up all my time for reflection.  But I finished school and landed a good job towards the end of my 20's that slowed the pace of life such that I could reflect more.  And my anxiety grew...

Long story short, in the end, this drew me to a closer relationship with God (and the realization of my own lack of righteousness, specifically, to Christ).

I'm mentioning this because I was prompted to think of these things hearing the following quote from Leo Tolstoy.  It's definitely a downer if one has a strictly materialist/scientific determinism world view, but I think it beautifully describes the  overwhelming anxiety that can grip the human heart when reflecting upon the inevitability of our own end.

There is an Eastern fable, told long ago, of a traveller overtaken on a plain by an enraged beast. Escaping from the beast he gets into a dry well, but sees at the bottom of the well a dragon that has opened its jaws to swallow him. And the unfortunate man, not daring to climb out lest he should be destroyed by the enraged beast, and not daring to leap to the bottom of the well lest he should be eaten by the dragon, seizes s twig growing in a crack in the well and clings to it. His hands are growing weaker and he feels he will soon have to resign himself to the destruction that awaits him above or below, but still he clings on. Then he sees that two mice, a black one and a white one, go regularly round and round the stem of the twig to which he is clinging and gnaw at it. And soon the twig itself will snap and he will fall into the dragon's jaws. The traveller sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish; but while still hanging he looks around, sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the twig, reaches them with his tongue and licks them. So I too clung to the twig of life, knowing that the dragon of death was inevitably awaiting me, ready to tear me to pieces; and I could not understand why I had fallen into such torment. I tried to lick the honey which formerly consoled me, but the honey no longer gave me pleasure, and the white and black mice of day and night gnawed at the branch by which I hung. I saw the dragon clearly and the honey no longer tasted sweet. I only saw the unescapable dragon and the mice, and I could not tear my gaze from them. and this is not a fable but the real unanswerable truth intelligible to all.

The deception of the joys of life which formerly allayed my terror of the dragon now no longer deceived me. No matter how often I may be told, "You cannot understand the meaning of life so do not think about it, but live," I can no longer do it: I have already done it too long. I cannot now help seeing day and night going round and bringing me to death. That is all I see, for that alone is true. All else is false.

The two drops of honey which diverted my eyes from the cruel truth longer than the rest: my love of family, and of writing - art as I called it - were no longer sweet to me.

"Family"...said I to myself. But my family - wife and children - are also human. They are placed just as I am: they must either live in a lie or see the terrible truth. Why should they live? Why should I love them, guard them, bring them up, or watch them? That they may come to the despair that I feel, or else be stupid? Loving them, I cannot hide the truth from them: each step in knowledge leads them to the truth. And the truth is death"

Unhealthy Skepticism

"But the new rebel is a skeptic, and will not entirely trust anything. He has no loyalty; therefore he can never be really a revolutionist. And the fact that he doubts everything really gets in his way when he wants to denounce anything. For all denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind; and the modern revolutionist doubts not only the institution he denounces, but the doctrine by which he denounces it. . . . As a politician, he will cry out that war is a waste of life, and then, as a philosopher, that all life is waste of time. A Russian pessimist will denounce a policeman for killing a peasant, and then prove by the highest philosophical principles that the peasant ought to have killed himself. . . . The man of this school goes first to a political meeting, where he complains that savages are treated as if they were beasts; then he takes his hat and umbrella and goes on to a scientific meeting, where he proves that they practically are beasts. In short, the modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is always engaged in undermining his own mines. In his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt has become practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything. "

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Free Speech

There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Fake News

This is an example of the reactionary histrionics that are destroying intelligent political dialogue in America:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/20/donald_trump_puts_black_lives_matter_osu

The author contends the Administration is targeting Black Lives Matter (BLM), yet provides no references to BLM from the White House website.

Instead, the author claims the reference is implicit in the statement, "The Trump Administration will be a law and order administration."

Should the Administration be *against* law and order?

The author then calls out the following text from the White House website: "The dangerous anti-police atmosphere in America is wrong."

Seems innocuous enough, but for the insight provided by the author.  You see, the White House website goes on to indicate who is responsible for this atmosphere:  “Our job is not to make life more comfortable for the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter.”

"OK?...So what?", says the unenlightened reader.

Don't you see? the author effectively asks, directly tying "the rioter, the looter, or the violent disrupter" to BLM: "it was chilling to see such unambiguous evidence of his contempt for those who've protested against police violence."

Again, nowhere is BLM mentioned on the website and nowhere is peaceful protest condemned.  Rather the author equates rioting, looting, and violent disruption to protests against police violence and, Q.E.D, BLM. 

Apparently the author has never ventured to the BLM website, where the following snippets of the movement's platform can be gleaned:

"We are committed to embodying and practicing justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another."

And:

"We are committed to collectively, lovingly and courageously working vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension all people. As we forge our path, we intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative, not depleting."

Rather, the author equates BLM to rioters, looters, and violent disruptors before harkening back to a false example of police brutality in Ferguson ( "Hands up, don't shoot" was proven to be false, but not until the community had been devastated by riots, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/03/19/hands-up-dont-shoot-did-not-happen-in-ferguson/?utm_term=.8764bdeae70f ).

It's not that I think Trump is a good man.  He's repeatedly demonstrated his boorish character.  It's that examples of that specific behavior should be the subject of criticism.  There's no need to read between the lines with this guy - 140 characters don't allow for many lines to begin with.

It's not that I oppose protesting police brutality.  I've witnessed it with my own eyes, and not through an out of context youtube clip.   Police brutality is an issue that needs to be addressed (there's probably not a career that involves more psychological and physical stress so it should not be a surprise that some police go off the rails).  

It's that failing to distinguish between Selma and Ferguson, and between a statement supporting law enforcement and a message targeting a specific political group can only be the result of crowd-induced mania, extreme ignorance, or blatant disingenuousness. None of these alternatives bodes well for the future of political debate in America.

Hey look over there!

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-employers-rushing-offer-unlimited-vacation-kathleen-christensen

It sounds good on the surface, and the intentions of some organizations may be good, but my understanding is that this approach both eliminates the guarantee of vacation and the associated financial liability.  From an article in Time: "Wiping away the average vacation liability saves companies $1,898 per employee, according to research from Project:Time Off. That quickly adds up: U.S. companies carried forward $65.6 billion in accrued paid time off costs last year." See http://time.com/money/4070275/unlimited-vacation-policy/

Profoundly Sad - The Rev. Katherine Ragsdale's "Abortion is a Blessing" Speech

It seems that the Episcopal Church's leadership, among others, do not want Katherine Hancock Ragsdale's view on abortion to be widely known now that they have unanimously appointed her to the presidency of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. Most of the links to her sermon to a group in Alabama have been pulled, so I've included the following links, in case the main link of this post gets axed.

From Ms. Ragsdale's blog: http://katherineragsdale.blogspot.com/2009/04/about-time.html.

From a site promoting traditional Anglicanism in America: http://www.standfirminfaith.com/index.php/site/article/21537

I won't comment on the sermon itself; David J. Sanders does a nice job:
http://arkansasnews.com/2009/04/08/episcopal-official-abortionists-%e2%80%98saints%e2%80%99