Right As Usual

Found on Ace of Spades. Check out the comments - the first few are silly (claiming FIRST! if they were the first post - an on-going competition for Ace), but some of the rest are priceless. My favorite? " After whatever reduction occurs at the EPA -- and hopefully it is 100% -- immediately announce that its HQ is moving to the banks of the river in Colorado that their negligence trashed a year or two ago and mandate that their potable water supplyvwill be drawn from that river.   Perhaps if they have a personal stake in the outcome of their incompetence they might take a little more care to see that they actually pay attention to what they're doing." Excellent idea! I hope Trump does just that. Share

Trump's crackdown that stops automatic travel by non-US citizens from 7 countries has infuriated the Seriously Hurt and Unhinged Totally Useless Progressives (SHUT UP, for short). The Washington Post (owned by Jeff Bezos - hey, Jeffy, why don't you stick to a business that you are actually GOOD at - Amazon?) is placing over-the-top personal stories on the front page that are intended to change Trump's mind - or, at least, to demonize him as heartless in the minds of the voting public. Here is one  - the tale of a rich man whose Iranian wife went to visit her parents, who were having trouble getting permission to visit her in the US. Some questions NOT asked in the article: This is being portrayed as a PERMANENT inability to see each other. Why wouldn't she eventually pass muster with the American authorities, and be able to return home? What are her (and her parents) political affiliations? Are they Muslim Brotherhood, or other terrorist-linked groups? Why di...

And, to use the modern phrase, it sucks. Too many kids are exposed to cultural influences that are far too adult and emotionally upsetting for their age. children whose lives resemble the characters in a current young-adult novel probably need professional intervention more than they need a good book. Read more here. I was reading Bastion of Liberty today, and his post caused me to think further about this. Here is a Radical Idea: I keep returning to the idea of Culture - not Fine Arts, but the overall Culture of the Average American - to be the next Big Push by those of us who plan to MAGA. How about a push for the free networks - and the equivalent in the cable world - to return to the idea of Family-Friendly Only during the times when kids might reasonably be around - say, up until 9pm? The paid cable stations can have whatever gross/salacious/vulgar/disturbing things they want to promote, as long as its access is limited to those patrons that PAY for it. Same with ...

I'm going to be leading an Adult Faith group again, starting next Wednesday evening. One of the people we will be looking at in our video series is St. Thomas Aquinas. His thinking about the conflict between Church Teaching and Science/Natural Philosophy formed the basis for much of Western Civ. The dynamics between dogmas of the Church (those teachings held to be authentic and fundamental to the Faith) and Science (which is always open - theoretically - to modification, as data is found that contradicts the previous theories), is one of the big issues of our time. Many moderns use Science as a way of 'proving' that religion and God are hogwash. When faced with contradictory information, moderns choose to dump God, or, at least, organized religion. Many retain some sort of mushy 'spiritual' awareness, without all those yucky rules or structure. Fr. Michael Barrone, a long-time and very popular defender of the Faith, ruminates on the influence of Aquinas: Thoma...

The term "Prepper" is one that has been used to smear The Tech Moguls Turned Preppers. The media "bravely" used their press credentials to shore up their allies? Ooooops! US companies moved their production overseas, and benefited from tax breaks? Not under Trump, apparently - it's in the works, although the exact form is in flux. "Fake News" is, indeed, a problem. Too many people are prone to spread rumors to ALL their email list/Facebook Friends/Twitter Followers, BEFORE taking action to verify the truth of it. The "New Media" can be, at times, the source of these problems. However, so can "activists" who are SURE that EVERY White (except, of course, themselves) is a rabid racist, eager to oppress/kill/torture any random non-White they encounter. So much for the KKK sightings. I can't get too concerned about fears of a Trumpian Facist Takeover. Trump is too much the guy who doesn't think of himself as a...

Compassion is deemed to be, by moderns, the most important quality in a 'good' human being. They talk of how proper Christians must 'show compassion' for the less-fortunate (those that have a troubled life, no matter how they got there - parental neglect, if a child, or conscious choice, if an adult). These moderns demand a PUBLIC expression of that compassion - quiet charity is NOT sufficient. The compassionate must put their charity on display, for all to comment on, critique, and, ultimately, judge. Sound like any group that Jesus Christ roundly condemned? (Cough, Pharisees). Those who go along with the bullying are praised - as long as they are properly grateful to the scolds forcing them to go along. Think of the major pressure in most companies to have ONE HUNDRED PERCENT participation in United Way - executives and administrators will make multiple visits to employees to hector, cajole, and intimidate them into giving at least a minimal amount. Then, the emplo...

This is probably the best explanation of the phenomenon that I've ever read. Share

i'm working on improving my non-necessary reading, with a focus on the Classics. I decided to work on Catholic Classics, and will be posting here on my progress. The first long-neglected book I decided to tackle is Mere Christianity. The C. S. Lewis Society has a reading and discussion guide , which might be helpful. I'm going to try to be consistent about posting on my progress about once a week. I'll start next Sunday. Share

UPDATE: The crowds are not that big - it looks like they've been cropped to make them look bigger. The protests, so far, do not seem to be as large as anticipated. Some updates on the antics. I tried to watch the actual inauguration today on my lunch time, but was blocked from access by the school. Not sure whether it was filtering (unlikely) or just too much traffic (likelier). Share

Barring a major catastrophe, Trump will be officially inaugurated today at noon. And, the Democrats are pouting and dramatically vowing to boycott.  Not that most of them will be missed. And, the RINOs are gnashing their teeth and wailing.  (Read the comments on this one, they are priceless). A fantasy about what Trump will say, and how Liberals/Progressives/Leftists will interpret it. And, finally, what is wrong about soon-to-be-former President Obama's statement that his was a scandal-free Presidency. Reality-based community, my a$$. Share

This process will not be just a simple matter of diving into the politics, or making/removing laws. Those things are what we hired Trump for - to reduce the size of the federal government, and to take our country back to its Constitutional roots. No, the real challenge in re-building our country will be to change the culture. That process will be multi-generational, expensive, and time-consuming. And, it will be viciously opposed by the Left. About the only advantage we have is that the Left so far over-stepped the boundaries, that they caused the average person to say "WT-?" That point may have been when they: Made normal male-female relations a trap to catch unwary men, and criminalized the normal interactions between men and women. Criminalized failure for MEN to pay for the care of their children, and excused WOMEN from any responsibility to contribute. Men will always owe money, even when unemployed. Women on welfare don't have to pay it back when they begi...

One of the toughest things for beginning Stats courses to teach is the idea that: Correlation does NOT mean Causation What does that mean? Just because two things are often found in common, does NOT mean that one caused the other. A prime example is religion. Families that raise kids who succeed often are regular church goers. However, going to church, by itself, is NOT necessarily connected with successful kids. That distinction is not shown in this article. Even the religious gap between the rich and the poor—traditionally rather narrow—is widening. These days, Mr. Putnam laments, ‘poor families are generally less involved in religious communities than affluent families,’ which is unfortunate, he notes, given that churchgoing is associated with better performance in school, less drinking and drug use, and less delinquency. In my early teaching career, I taught at a VERY tough school in Cleveland. In one of my classes, there was a kid who was gang-connected (both by his own...

Marxism is not well understood. Part of the reason is that students and the general public are only exposed to the individual tenets of such Marxist philosophers such are Fanon, Gramsci, and other staunch Communists. Here is a quick breakdown of how that influence is working to destroy our America. Apparently, some organizers of the Milo upcoming event at UCLA-Berkeley have experienced doxxing (release of personal information - name, address, phone, workplace, etc. - designed to make it easy for the opposition to open up a $hit-$torm against their opponents). I commented, suggesting it was time for dox-in-response to that crappy tactic. Repeat after me - your enemy is NOT Hitler. You will not go down in history as the Brave Opposition to the Nazis of Your Time. You will go down as The Intolerant Nut Who Suppressed Those Who Disagreed With Him/Her/Zher. WHY are the Leftists seemingly so Triumphant, since no sensible person you know agrees with their nutty thinking? Was this ...

The always bitter, mean-spirited Left is working furiously to gin up "protests" against Trump on Inauguration Day - next Friday, January 20th. Activists are charging the government with restricting their Free Speech Rights. Nope, honey. Haven't you ever heard of the concept of Security? Trumps - oops, there's that word! - your Constitutional Rights in the event of a credible threat. Which, there has been a plethora of. As far as I can determine, this Mass Action is destined to be a Big Bust (kind of like those beauty pageant participants have). Too many venues, too few people in Washington - the coverage of the actual inauguration should overshadow the Bitter Soros Clingers. Will Women make the difference? Not likely   The unity they would need to succeed is unraveling, as we watch. The number of bus permits has exceeded previous inaugural events, so the media is dutifully reporting that the protesters will outnumber the celebrants. Eh. The cost of applyi...

When there really is no basis for determining something in a factual way, consensus becomes important - even more important than the truth. There are times when consensus makes sense: A time standard - the atomic clock - is agreed to be the "official" time. The French - who invented it - define SI - the international system (better known in America as Metric Measurement). Pantone sets the standard for color, and all other methods of identifying color agree to follow its color shadings standard. If there is disagreement in a family about where to go on vacation, they may decide to vote, and accept the consensus of the majority. They might agree, by consensus, to cede that decision to a single person. Where consensus cannot be the basis for determining things is in fields, such as science, where the data, and analysis of it, are critical. No matter how many scientists agree, if the data can be shown not to back up their consensus, they must give way. Share

I tell you, even the Elites can learn, if you believe this article. Long article about the fact that - amazing as it seems - people are more likely to move to parts of the city/region that are lower in crime. I know, who would have thought that? In a side note, if you scroll down to the end of this article, the writers/publishers acknowledge that Donald Trump - after being criticized about not correctly citing facts - is found to have been correct, after all. Correction: January 7, 2017   An earlier version of this article misstated that Donald J. Trump was inaccurate in citing a statistic for rising homicides in Washington, D.C. Appearing to cite the 2015 statistics for the city, he was correct in saying that homicides rose by about 50 percent that year. Imagine that - a man who made a living understanding numerical data actually might know more than the Liberal Arts types! Share

First, something sly and snarky.  Yes, Obama - the man that said walls don't work - is building a wall around HIS new home. This article quotes Senator Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, as to some ideas about the eventual wall's construction. Share

I was reading something on Sarah Hoyt's site, According to Hoyt, and it triggered some thoughts about smartness. Now, you would think that, as I'm a teacher, I would look upon the book-smart (those who do well in school) as the top of the line in Smartness. You would be wrong. I'm of the belief that many people are smart, some are as dumb as a box of rocks (maybe even dumber), but that it all had very little to do with school. Or smart parents, in general. Or social class. What, to me distinguishes the Smart from the Not-So is not the degrees awarded, nor the tests passed with stratospherically high scores, nor even an official designation of Gifted & Talented. It's the desire to know more. Years ago, I read about a bus driver, who started attending college in his spare time, eventually graduating at the top of his class, and winning a scholarship for further study. He'd grown up in a poor family, with few prospects for more education after high school...

I ran across this when clearing out some old draft posts on this site - it's still worth reading, no matter what your political/cultural leanings. Nock on the Remnant

I highly recommend this article - it's by a former supporter, who has come to evolve her thinking. It's hard for today's citizens to believe, but there was a time when the mere thought of abortion was enough to horrify the majority of Americans.  Women, in particular, were vehemently against the killing.  Even the movies were reflexively pro-life.  Some examples: Love With the Proper Stranger - a young woman gets pregnant as a result of a one-night stand with someone she barely knows.  She initially just wants the money to end the pregnancy.  After scraping up the cash, she and the father go to the abortionist, but she can't go through with it, and confronts her family with the truth. A Place in the Sun - not technically an abortion movie, the film is of the murder of the pregnant mother committed by the father of the child, in order to facilitate his marriage to the rich girl. Georgie Girl - a party girl becomes pregnant, her roommate and the boyfri...

That's the situation in too many colleges and universities. Here is a thoughtful take from a moderately conservative professor, who did NOT vote for Trump, but has friends and relatives who did. Why Thought Diversity may be MORE important than Ethnic Diversity . Share

I'd hate to see it - I've long enjoyed wandering around unescorted. However, the New Reality in the EU is that women's freedoms may continue to be restricted, to allow the Elites to pump up their Progressive (Regressive) Self-Esteem. Do not let his Hispanic name lull you into complacency. The FL airport Jihadi's background. Christians, both in public and in their churches, need to make protection of their fellow Christians a priority. I'm hoping that Trump will put some muscle into assisting Christians get out of danger zones around the world - NOT necessarily bringing them to America, but helping use our influence, and TARGETED money to help them re-settle. I'd not thought of this before, but it does make some sense. Send these refugees from tropical countries to Puerto Rico. DO NOT give them the right to travel to the rest of the USA. This fake "Born in America" scam needs to be shut down - NOW.  Perhaps we could present them with a bill ...

The Holman Rule has some real potential for helping the new administration do just that. Share

I'm not posing a rhetorical question - I'm asking those with military experience to add their expertise to the comments. ALL carriers are in their home ports, or sitting waiting for repairs/maintenance. I could easily be wrong, but this doesn't sound normal or like a good idea. Share

Yes, I'm a little late with this. Finish reading the Bible this year. I started it MANY years ago, always got bogged down at some point. I'm going to find a good online guide, and spend about 1/2 hour a day on this project. Read the Federalist Papers - right now, they are so often being referenced, I feel at a loss for full participation in the conversations. There's 85, so if I shoot for 2 every week, I should be able to complete this one in a year. Organize. I mean it this time. Stop laughing - I said, STOP laughing. Oh, go ahead, I'm kind of giggly myself. Eat healthier. Plan meals. Stop posting and commenting in a heat - cool off first. If I still feel strongly about it, then OK. That's it. I'm going to post these where I'll be reminded every now and then. Share