Thoughts at Year's End

My thoughts at the end of the year. I haven’t written since mid-year. I notice when I write so infrequently both my thinking and speaking diminishes in quality. I get wrapped up in video. Good stuff too, mostly. I got Curiosity Steam with endless documentaries. Great way to keep up with science stuff. I read Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, which was, like everything he writes, exceptional. It’s very much a history of science, and I liked going to Curiosity Stream and watching a documentary and see what he was writing about.

My reading this year was light. I finished the year reading Al Michael’s memoir. Great stuff, highly recommended. There were some Kevin Kearny mysteries, a couple religious books. Ivan Doig, one of my all-time favorites; read his last book he wrote before his death, Last Bus to Wisdom. A great finish to a great writing career. The list of my reading is off to the right. Noticing my reduced reading this year, and the lightness of the fare, I recognize the need, indeed the desire, to increase the literary, theological, philosophical stream. I’ve already started reading The Hemlock Cup [Socrates, Athens, and the Search for the Good Life] by Bettany Hughes. It’s not so much a book about Socrates or philosophy, though it’s there, but a history that gives a sense of place. What it was like to live in Athens in those times, and fleshing out some of the main characters. I’ll also be indulging in The Daily Stoic [366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living] by Ryan Holiday.

I have a lot of Cicero and Demosthenes downloaded; been sitting there for a while. Time to follow up on the intention, and actually read them. I’ve read bits and pieces of them, but not gone full in. The idea here is to immerse myself in that time, ancient western civilization. I've done this type of thing before, had a focus for a year. Not exclusively, but mostly. The Stoics very much have my attention. If there was ever a dismissed, overlooked, oversimplified group or philosophy, this is it.

There were no standout movies for me. Maybe "The Intern" with De Niro. It was a surprising and charming movie that actually praises men and the traditional man. I was surprised by it. The Sci-Fi was fun and met expectations, “Ben Hur” and “Risen” were solid religious movies. Movies I’ve seen too, off to the right. Spent a lot of time streaming vids. Binge watching. That’s something that needs to be modified. More time in the Kindle, less on the screen.

Politically the year was exhausting, in case you haven’t noticed. The hatred and violence spinning totally out of control. The vitriol. Who woulda thunk Trump would take it? Clinton, besides not being a likeable person, got buried in all her lies. Trump has hired a lot of good people, but also quite a few Bushies and RINO’s. The prayer is I hope they don’t get Trump to be “sensible and moderate” like them. Leftism. It’s a disease. How many staunch Conservative, TEA Party people, get to Washington and belly up in the Sea of Lies and Cowardice?

Church. Had my struggles this past year plus. As a reminder or to inform you that don’t know me, I’m a member of the First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. The national and regional leadership is all in on Statism, and has put worshiping at the altar of the State ahead of worshipping God, and align themselves with those wishing to destroy the Church and cripple Christianity as much as possible. That’s pretty much a big thing outside of my sphere, so all I can do is pray that God will intercede and they’ll once again put God first, and politics and the State way down where it belongs. I also had some personal confrontations that religiously and emotionally crushed me. There were many that surrounded and showed me true Christian love and support, and buttressed me until I recovered.

Now I’ve been asked, and accepted, to take a major leadership position in the Church at a level I’ve never done. I like being a small occasional voice of influence. This for sure will be different from the leadership positions in my jobs that I’ve had and have.  I’ll have a good mentor, and many have come to me and said to let them know if there’s anything they can do to support me. I have a good pastor, good mentor, and a loving, caring church. How things transpire.

I traveled a lot last year. Trips to Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Colorado River, La Sal Mountains, Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Wind River Mountains, and the topper was the Grand Tetons where I floated down the Snake River. While in the Tetons I saw mileage signs that Yellowstone was only eighteen miles away! Making plans for 2017.  

I won’t be going to so many places this year. Tetons and Yellowstone and some daytrips around here. Nevada has lots of cool places away from the city. This coming year will be my year of being monastic (more than usual), studious (more than this past year) and Stoic (not the wrong way people understand it). And of course, do those things to improve my Christianity. My faith has never waivered. Christ is within me. We all can do better.

Unlike many it seems, 2016 was a good year for me. I wish all healthy happy holy 2017.

Leftist "Feelings" vs What Works

When I was way young and liked a book or movie, got all excited about it, I was often stunned that someone didn’t like it. I just couldn’t believe how misguided, uninformed, dumb etc. a person was that didn’t have my taste or belief. “What’s wrong with these people”?

Of course I’ve grown up and out of that. When people ask me about a book, movie, restaurant, I’m reluctant to say they’ll like it. I’ll critique, but not think to push the idea that the person asking will like it. The exception is if it’s a good friend of a long time and I know their tastes.

That’s what I see Leftists as; immature people that don’t understand that others don’t want to live in a Statist world, top down control of economics, class, culture.  They don’t understand or accept there are valid differences of taste and opinion. If one doesn’t think like them there is something wrong with the person that thinks differently.

I get frustrated and sometimes angered when Leftists are presented with cold hard facts and refuse to accept them. Show unemployment stats from the Labor Department that we don’t have 5% unemployment, it’s much higher…well, how can you possibly believe that? Published emails and leaked reports that “global warming” studies were modified to support the idea that we humans are raising the temperature of the planet don’t change their ‘feeling’ that there is global warming. When the false statement that religion is responsible for more deaths than any other entity, and one tallies those slaughtered by governments in just the 20^th century is proof positive of the lie, well, how could one believe that? It just doesn’t feel right.

That slaughter was brought about primarily in Europe. They love Statism there; the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, Napoleonic domination by France, now the European Union. Centralized obedience to self-important knuckleheads that leak out of ivory towers with a lust for power and a rejection of those things that we know work. They reject what works for what makes them and their supporters feel good. So the Left here sees Europe as superior to the US since it ‘feels’ it is enlightened.

What ties that together is conformity. Groupthink. Europe is good despite its bringing us World Wars, Communism, Hitlerism, Nazism, Fascism, Stalinism, Socialism and all the rest of the Statist isms. All these claimed to be for the people, they’ll take care of them with universal health care, family leave, help the poor, and in fact they don’t. Claiming these perverse ideologies are feel good thoughts somehow make them superior to people desiring Liberty of thought and action. It feels good to support, top down, Statist conformity, to have socialized medicine, poverty programs and all the rest. No responsibility there, someone else is legislating that, so nothing personally has to be done.

Part of this is generational too. I came of age in the late 1960’s -1970’s. Marxist ideology ruled the day, along with sex, drugs, rock ‘n’ roll. Protest and speak against cops, corporations, capitalism, religion, and the rest. Most of us still ended up not only working for “the man” but becoming “the man”. That boomer ideology was brought into the institutions, weakening the things that created the most successful civilization in history.

We have ended up crony capitalism as bad as the day when railroads were stretching across America, or JP Morgan essentially bailing out the government…now the government bails out banks and financial institutions. Payoffs and payouts because a rejection of accountability, responsibility, rejection of Christianity and the embracing of Secularism, and the resulting top down Statism. Legislation is being passed, forced upon regular people that actually work and produce something. Legislation now is more about values and attitudes, enforcing intolerance and prejudices that produces conformity, rather than law that keeps people safe, structured and ordered.

Media, entertainment, education, government, business, even Church (both Protestant and Catholic) have devolved and embraced the Leftist “if it feels good do it” uniformity and conformity. Coming back around to my opening, all this conformity lends itself to groupthink, that differences are not to be tolerated, and speech must curtailed to fit the Leftist view of the world, in all human endeavors.

Like the immature young, how can you not like what we like? How can you not believe global warming is real, that Whites are all racist, that White cops are running around killing unarmed black men, that Christianity is evil, that government is good and the solution to the world’s ills? Thus the “safe zones” on university campuses that protect the literally young from any kind of different thought. It doesn’t feel good to have someone express a different idea. It doesn’t feel good to be criticized. It doesn’t feel good take responsibility for a mistake. It doesn’t feel good to be accountable.      

I was once a Marxist that actually read and wrote about Marxism, was a political and cultural Leftist, and believed in my mind of minds, heart of hearts, this was Truth. I was a practicing, church going Christian from childhood through teenage years. I left that, then I thought I was a free thinker. Then I realized that I only knew the world based on what people that thought like I did said. I knew politics only by what fellow Leftists said and wrote. I knew the “news” only by what Leftist journalists wrote. I knew Christianity only by what Leftist/Secularists said and wrote. I returned to Christianity in my 40’s, began to understand what works, and now because of that, I’m a free thinker. It set me free. Set my soul free, my heart and my mind free.

At this point I understand Leftists/contemporary Liberals can’t be convinced of anything, regardless of the realities of our world, with provable evidence and facts. They don’t believe in a free society, a people based republic, free thought, free expression. Liberalism is a secular religion that is being offered and accepted as a replacement for traditions that work, Christianity and the personal discipline, sacrifice and personal responsibility that comes with it.

With Liberalism/Leftists it’s what feels good, not what is real and works, that passes for thought.

How Republicans Can Win Back the Culture and Political Seats

Giving a leg up, not a hand out.

The last presidential election was won by the Democrats by their campaigning on the ideas of envy and empathy. It was Bill Clinton's "I feel your pain" writ large. It was the tipping point where feeling trumped information, knowledge, and from that, who was most likely able to address those issues effectively, was tossed out.

This nation rejected a man with a proven track record of personal and business financial success, of organizational success, to a man-child with a knack of getting others covering for him even with a record of failure. This nation decided to go with the guy who says he cares about people when he's never done anything to show that. We rejected the guy who through his actions, personally and professionally, has helped thousands, if not millions of people.

In my job, mostly customer service, the idea of "empathy" for the customer is emphasized; not sympathy. This is a huge misuse of the word, and irritates me to no end. It's become a double down term for sympathy. Empathy is the complete substitution of one's emotions\feelings into another. The idea comes from the German "einfuhlund", where one projects one's own feelings onto inanimate objects, i.e., how a painting or sculpture makes you feel. That grew into the usage of entering into another's experience to understand them, which is okay, but now it has become a political tool.

By using it, the Democrats portray themselves as the party of compassion, even though their policies create more poor, more dependence on the State, and diminishes liberty. George Bush II created the term "compassionate conservatism" to counter that notion, and it became something to be mocked by the Left, and refuted by Conservatives.

Making people dependant is not compassionate. It's the old saw about teaching a person to fish rather than giving him fish. What Obama is doing reflects what Libertarian Harry Browne has said, "Government is good at one thing: It knows how to break your legs, hand you a crutch, and say, 'See, if it weren't for government you wouldn't be able to walk'."

Conservatives must continue to guide the RINO controlled Republican Party to the original ideas of sympathy and compassion.  Earl of Shaftesbury [18th century] on compassion:  “To compassionate, i.e., to join with in passion,” ...  “ .  .  . to commiserate, i.e., to join with in misery. .  .  . This in one order of life is right and good; nothing more harmonious; and to be without this, or not to feel this, is unnatural, horrid, immane [inhuman].” Adam Smith pointed out what we all have in common, rich and poor alike, is “the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange”; and through that better themselves.

The earliest charities, a Christian, not government or pagan idea, were based on the idea both the provider and the recipient of help benefitted. There were a lot of "societies"  and "associations" to help the poor, most notably in England. The poor, abandoned children, the sick and dispossessed, the invalids. There were corruption and exploitation to be sure, but overall many were helped, and both the givers and receivers benefited.

Then governments decided to offer insurances against hardship, usurping the helping hand and replacing it with the giving hand. Welcome to Marxism, where the State, not caring people help each other; the Christian ideal where both bodies and souls benefit. It all becomes about things, the material. Obama and the Democrats can claim they "empathize" so they give people in trouble stuff.  Republicans must re-present themselves as the Party that can show people how to get stuff for themselves, and from that help others to do the same, and their spirits are better for it too.

From Augustine's (The City of God, Book XIV, Chapter 28):

[Hat tip to The Windrose Hotel]

Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, You are my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all. The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers; the other says to its God, I will love You, O Lord, my strength. And therefore the wise men of the one city, living according to man, have sought for profit to their own bodies or souls, or both, and those who have known God glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise,— that is, glorying in their own wisdom, and being possessed by pride—they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. For they were either leaders or followers of the people in adoring images, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. [Romans 1:21-25] But in the other city there is no human wisdom, but only godliness, which offers due worship to the true God, and looks for its reward in the society of the saints, of holy angels as well as holy men, that God may be all in all. [1 Corinthians 15:28]

I'm convinced this country is degrading and becoming increasingly uncivil and barbaric because, like ancient Israel, we've turned our back on God.

And in the Literal Commentary on Genesis (XI, 15,20) Augustine writes:

These are the two loves: the first is holy, the second foul; the first is social, the second selfish; the first consults the common welfare for the sake of a celestial society, the second grasps at a selfish control of social affairs for the sake of arrogant domination; the first is submissive to God, the second tries to rival God; the first is quiet, the second restless; the first is peaceful, the second trouble-making; the first prefers truth to the praises of those who are in error, the second is greedy for praise, however it may be obtained; the first is friendly, the second envious; the first desires for its neighbor what it wishes for itself, the second desires to subjugate its neighbor; the first rules its neighbor for the good of its neighbor, the second for its own advantage; and these two loves produce a distinction among the angels: the first love belongs to the good angels, the second to the bad angels; and they also separate the two cities founded among the race of men, under the wonderful and ineffable Providence of God, administering and ordering all things that have been created: the first city is that of the just, the second is that of the wicked. Although they are now, during the course of time, intermingled, they shall be divided at the last judgment; the first, being joined by the good angels under its King, shall attain eternal life; the second, in union with the bad angels under its king, shall be sent into eternal fire. Perhaps, we shall treat, God willing, of these two cities more fully in another place.

 Obviously the second city are the Leftist\Democrats of the second love. Conservatives and Christians must talk about and show they are for the common welfare, to provide peacefulness and truthfulness, to offer those things that are important to them, to others. This is politics too, and there must be some hard hitting at the same time. 

Conservatives and Republicans must talk about what caring and charity are, what empathy and sympathy are, invoke those Christian values, while at the same time avoid directly mentioning them. Look at what Leftists/Democrats have done by changing the language and using that as the foundation for creating a mindset for a majority of citizens that being dependant on the State is not only a good thing, but something desirable. Under the guise of Empathy they demean the human spirit and create dependency and a majority are okay with that. That, without once mentioning their totalitarian intent.

If those that put self above others, exploit them, diminish them, enslave them and convince citizens this is a good thing for them, why can't those that put the common good first, convince citizens that helping themselves and others is to their benefit?  Christians and Conservatives, by putting God first, will have the winning hand again.

Democrat Conspiracy Theories About Those Evil Republicans

All Leftists Believe This

You know those Republicans, they just don't have a different economic and political viewpoint. They're evil. This vid summarizes their pathological hatred of Conservatives and Republicans. So here are the three prongs Republicans are using to win the White House. Those damn rich racists anyway. Yep, still doing the race thing. If you oppose Obama's communism, you're a racist.




http://youtu.be/a0ccPh3YYH4

1. Sabotage the economy and blame it on Obama

2. Use rich peoples’ money to spread lies about Obama

3. Suppress minority voters using Voter ID laws

This is vile and malevolent stuff, but Democrats/Leftists actually believe it. To Koch brothers I say Soros. To using rich people's money to spread lies, 

University of California          $1,648,685

Goldman Sachs           $1,013,091

Harvard University     $878,164

Microsoft Corp           $852,167

Google Inc      $814,540

JPMorgan Chase & Co           $808,799

Citigroup Inc   $736,771

Time Warner   $624,618 ...............all Obama donors. 

Plus how many hundreds of fundraisers from rich Hollywood types, media moguls, and industry tycoons?

$135,000 a plate dinners?

Lies like Romney hasn't paid taxes for 10 years, he's a felon, he's a murderer, he's a bully (when he was 16!), and they're still doing the dog on the car thing. Really and truly? Ryan wants to kill old people? Really and truly? 

Plus they get free campaign messaging from the Re-elect Obama Press.

Mitch McConnell is Senate Minority Leader, not Majority by the way. No one making this vid knows this?

And of course, nothing that's gone wrong in the last three and a half years plus has anything to do with Obama's policies. It's the Evil Bush! And Congress that was controlled for more than half this administration by Democrats.

Democrats have become a vile and pathetic group of pathological liars. A symptom of that is not knowing you're telling lies, you believe them yourself.

The Late Great Democrat Party. Hopefully after November we can say RIP. Of course they are a violent group, and they could well be rioting in the streets, like Leftists do when they don't get their way.  

The Evil Foundation of the Republican Party

This is a great explanation of the foundation of Republicans' socio-economic-political world view, based on greed, fascism, and racism. This shows just how evil Republicans are.

http://youtu.be/x-oS4WLui3Q

Article: "Random Thoughts" by Thomas Sowell

Random thoughts on the passing scene: Link here.

Upon learning that the Constitution requires a president to be a natural born citizen, a college student said: "What makes a natural born citizen any more qualified than one born by C-section?"

Airlines that keep passengers trapped for hours in planes sitting on the runway should be prosecuted for unlawful imprisonment.

When politicians propose some hugely expensive new program and are asked how the government is going to pay for it, a standard ploy over the years has been to claim that they will pay for it by eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse." At a recent town hall meeting, a citizen raised the obvious question: If you can do that, why haven't you done it already?

Marxism is an ism that has become a wasm.

What is called "universal health care" can turn out to be universal "don't care" medical treatment, when Washington bureaucrats can over-rule what you and your doctor want to do.

Whatever happened to Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel? Could she have met with foul play? Where is the FBI when we need them?

The older I get, the more I learn to tolerate human shortcomings-- and the less I tolerate bad attitudes.

After political crusades for "affordable housing" ended up ruining the housing market and much of the economy with it, many of the same politicians are now carrying on a crusade for "affordable health care." But what you can afford has absolutely nothing to do with the cost of producing anything. Refusing to pay those costs means that you are just not going to continue getting the same quantity and quality-- regardless of what any politician says or how well he says it.

Want to win an easy bet? Bet someone that Babe Ruth had a lower lifetime earned run average than Cy Young, Whitey Ford or Sandy Koufax. During his early years with the Red Sox, Ruth pitched nine shutouts in a season, which is still the American League record for a left-handed pitcher. He would have made the baseball hall of fame, even if he had never hit a home run.

Congressman Joe Wilson got into more trouble for telling the truth than President Barack Obama got into by telling a demonstrable lie about adding millions of people to the insurance rolls without adding a dime to the deficit. As regards providing medical insurance for illegal immigrants, I doubt that the president will do that. More likely, he will legalize them first and then give them medical insurance.

The way Hollywood elites have sprung to the defense of Roman Polanski to keep him from being extradited to the United States, despite the heinous crime he is accused of, suggests that-- like other egalitarians-- they consider those who are "one of us" to be more equal than others.

When I contemplate the direction in which this government and this society are moving, my biggest consolation is that economists' predictions are often wrong. I can only hope that my expectations are wrong by miles.

What is most frightening about the political left is that they seem to have no sense of the tragedy of the human condition. All problems seem to them to be due to other people not being as wise or as noble as they are.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Think things, not words." In words, many see a need for "social justice" to override "the dictates of the market." In reality, what is called "the market" consists of human beings making their own choices at their own cost. What is called "social justice" is government imposition of the notions of third parties, who pay no price for being wrong.

Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Qaddafi and Vladimir Putin have all praised Barack Obama. When enemies of freedom and democracy praise your president, what are you to think? When you add to this Barack Obama's many previous years of associations and alliances with people who hate America-- Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfleger, etc.-- at what point do you stop denying the obvious and start to connect the dots?