How Dare You Disrupt My Game Of Let's Pretend!

The best take yet on Greta Thunberg came from Gad Saad. The punchline at 0:50 never fails to make me laugh.

Greta came across the sea to bring a message of accusation to the West. When I first saw her video, the way she huskily said, "How dare you!" reminded me of a 1950s drama where the leading lady is haughtily giving some cad a dressing down. I wished Greta had been wearing opera gloves and had some guy on stage with her in a tux to slap. It would have been perfect.

While Greta was sailing across the ocean, her boat loaded to the gunwales with scorn, China brought another coal-fired power plant on line. They're building one every two weeks or so, with predictable results.

Note that the time frame for the growth rates is purposefully chosen to make the US look bad. If they had chosen, say, 2008-2013, we'd have shown a decrease. Mathematically, a 5-year period would have made more sense than a 1-year period, but this isn't about honesty or science at all.

This is cosplay. Her speech and the onanistic gasps of pleasure from the eco-masochists in our Elites was completely detached from reality. As Douglas Murray might say, it was deranged and it was deranging. That is, it's simply insane to castigate the West for carbon emissions because it isn't happening. It's also designed to make you insane as you twist your brain, looking for a way to validate a lie.

All of this is done so that the Social Justice crowd can keep playing Let's Pretend. Every day, they put on their superhero costumes and rush out to battle Hate or White Supremacy or Global Warming Climate Change. None of those things exist in America to any significant extent, at least not in a way they can actually fight. It's all fantasy and if you do or say anything to interrupt their game, you will be silenced or shouted down.

The attacks on dissent are there so that they can keep feeling the joy of fighting enemies that don't exist.

Note: I had to grab the embed code manually off of YouTube to share that video with you. Normally in Blogger, you can search for a video by name or by the YouTube ID in the URL, in this case wn4tEP69N6s. Blogger will then auto-embed the video for you. Well, you can search for them unless YouTube has blacklisted them in an effort to hide them from searches. No, our free speech rights are not being infringed by Megacorp. Not at all.

I've Changed And It's For The Better

Yesterday, I blogged about the (now removed) framed pictures of Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in my garage. As I thought about it, I realized that I had been doing it all wrong all along. I have replaced them with this photo.

"Barack, I heard that KT is drinking a lot, downloading porn and getting fat because he doesn't work out."
"That's no big deal, Ellen, as long as it's not out of alignment with his values."
"And his values can be whatever he wants, right?"
"Right!"

What a difference a day makes! Now when people go grab an adult beverage from the wine cooler or the fridge in the garage, they'll see President Obama placing the Presidential Medal of Face Chafing around the neck of Ellen DeGeneres for carpet eating above and beyond the call of ... whatever calls for that sort of thing.

I'm going to buy an equals sign bumper sticker for my car, too.

I will now have immediate respect from any and all. They will see that I am not full of Hate and how I'm working to raise awareness of how Love Wins. I am now one of the Good People. All that in exchange for a framed photo and a bumper sticker!

We've got a bunch of Crucifixes in the house that we're going to dump as well. All Catholic thingamabobs have got to go, too, because, as Beto "Pancho Villa" O'Rourke says, "We can't allow anyone to make logical connections between Genesis 1:27 and reproductive biology. The best way to do this is to bankrupt the Catholic Church and obfuscate the connection between sex and babies."

Want to know what's best of all?

I won't have to explain how Jackson and Lee inspire me to be a better man which I knew full well always caused my guests to reflect on just how I was doing practicing self-denial and kindness. I change one thing and I don't have to work to live up to my vows. The vows are G-O-N-E gone! It's all gain and no effort!

Jackson and Lee represented objective standards of behavior. Measuring up to their examples was always really, really hard. Barack and Ellen represent getting your rocks off any old way and preening in public. It's trivially easy.

This Social Justice thing is awesome.

Jackson And Lee

I have framed pictures of Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in my garage. I have to explain it from time to time and up to now, I've always been surprised when the question arises and stumble with my response. This is partly because my deep love for the two men has become second nature to me. I'm writing this to codify my thoughts so I can provide a concise answer.

Lee and Jackson make me a better man.

When I ponder some imprudent action or am tempted to give in to vice, I can imagine General Jackson's disappointment in my behaviors. An orphan by age five and a widower early in his adulthood, probably no more than 1% of the population had as rough a life as Thomas John Jackson. Almost no one in American history accomplished as much. Jackson's prodigious feats of self-denial and self-discipline as well as his deep piety led to his successes.

Inspiration from Stonewall Jackson's life makes me want to be more disciplined and have a deeper faith.

When I am unkind or think ill of someone, particularly anyone in my family, I feel the spirit of Robert E. Lee gently remonstrating me to be more charitable. A kind and loving man, utterly devoted to his wife and children, stories of Lee's humility and magnanimity are numerous. I've read most of his letters, kept and published after his death by one of his sons, and his humanity shines through them all.

Inspiration from Robert E. Lee's life makes me a gentler person.

Since all things are viewed these days through the distorting lens of Social Justice, I'll add this quote from another of my inspirations.

Booker T. Washington, America’s great African-American educator, wrote in 1910, “The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.”

I knew that about Jackson, but I did not know that about Lee. In fact, while in the field with the Confederate Army, Jackson made sure that a portion of his pay was sent to maintain the Bible school he and his second wife had established and led for local slaves. Working through his own metanoia on the subject, Jackson figured that while slavery would always be with us, he would do what he could to see that the black slaves would be his equals in paradise.

Yes, I could have chosen other inspirations, but then I'd be a different person. Jackson and Lee work perfectly for me. Maybe someday, I'll take down those "problematic" photos and put up pictures of Barack Obama and Ellen DeGeneres. Everyone will then agree that I am filled with virtue.

And on that day, I'll chuck the whole self-improvement thing. After all, that's the chief benefit of being Socially Conscious - the ability to fantasize about what a great person you are while not actually doing a blasted thing.

"I'm so disappointed in KT, Thomas. He was unkind to his wife."
"Indeed, Robert. He also blew off the gym this morning."

Getting Out Of A Shoebox

... can be more difficult than it sounds.

Over the stress of the last two months, my world has shrunk to about the size of a shoebox. I might be working overtime taking care of others, but my thoughts are mostly about me, how hard it's been, how it's constricting my life and how much longer it's going to last.

On retreat this weekend, at Mass this morning, I listened to our excellent music team. One of the guys plays the mandolin and he's very, very good.

I wondered about his life. What got him here? How did he decide to get started and what were his first guitar lessons like?

In that moment, the shoebox broke. Thinking of someone else's life, really wanting to know about them takes the focus off of yourself and your anxieties.

Before the weekend is over, I'm going to try chat with him.

Taking The Weekend Off

I'm heading off to work a men's retreat weekend this afternoon and won't be back until late on Sunday. When I've done these in the past, I've always managed to schedule a post or two and then blog from my phone while on retreat. I have a bunch of posts queued up in my head, but truth be told, I'm exhausted and a bit depressed from being sick, working extra hours, taking care of my mom who is very ill and getting ready for the weekend. I just don't have it in me to rightly write right now.

I hope you guys have a great weekend and I'll catch you on the flip side. In the meantime, this is what the tobacco crop looked like yesterday. Enjoy!

They haven't started to bloom. The flower you see is from another plant that shares the raised bed with the tobacco.

Aside: I'll probably get an idea and post something short while I'm gone. No points deducted for brief thoughts, OK? :-)

From MLK To Julius Caesar In One Ruling

Genesis 1:27 is the foundation of modern Western civilization. It's what differentiated us from the slave-trading African tribes, the mass-murdering Aztecs and the rapacious Roman Empire. It says:

So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

That sentence says that we are all equal in the eyes of God, no matter what. A British court has now ruled the following:

“Belief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others, specifically here, transgender individuals ... (I)n so far as those beliefs form part of (a) wider faith, (that) wider faith also does not satisfy the requirement of being worthy of respect in a democratic society, not incompatible with human dignity and not in conflict with the fundamental rights of others.”

Well, OK then. Looks like we can get back to the fun stuff. Imperialism, slavery, mass slaughter, pillaging, looting and anything else we want. After all, that dork next to you is not your equal. He's just some dork who might have something you'd like to take.

If you listen to MLK speeches, removing Genesis 1:27 removes the first principle upon which his Civil Rights movement was based. MLK pointed out the hypocrisy of Christians professing Genesis 1:27 and then practicing racism. That contradiction permeated the debates over slavery in Britain and America throughout the centuries and led to its abolition.

Without that single verse in the Bible, we can, perhaps fall back on evolution and Charles Darwin.

Whoops!

Darwin penned plenty of material suggesting that natural selection would apply to human races as well as animals. Oh well. I'm sure we'll find something to replace it. In the meantime, it might be a good idea to find a strong group to join, if only for protection.

Is it too late to reconstitute the Roman legions?

Where Is The Wehrmacht?

So the Trumpster is bailing out of Syria and the Turks are coming in with unclear purpose. All kinds of howls are arising from our idiot pundits about deserting allies like the Kurds. Fair enough. We are indeed doing just that.

What's the alternative and why is it up to us?

Last I looked, Germany, France and Italy had the most to lose from another major conflict in and around Syria. It hardly matters to us at all in the most selfish sense, but it's a pretty big deal to them. Syria is also a lot closer to them so logistical support for any intervention would be way easier for them. If Turkey goes in with, say, 50,000 or 100,000 troops, you're going to have to send in a comparable number and then supply those units.

If we're dealing with truculent Turks, the whole affair could last a long, long time. After all, Turkish supply lines are quite direct, so supporting their army in the field isn't nearly as complicated. I get that the Kurds helped us and are fine fellows and all, but why is it up to us to defend them?

And then there's Congress. They're all up in arms about Trump's proposed withdrawal of forces, but are they willing to declare war? If so, on whom? Without bipartisan support for a major engagement, who's left holding the bag for taking on several Turkish divisions in Syria?

Finally, Turkey is a member of NATO. Exactly what is the appropriate response when opposing an "ally?" NATO is a big organization with lots of voting members. What do the rest of them have to say about this?

I've seen a lot of gnashing of teeth and finger-pointing on Twitter, but no one is discussing the EU Army, such as there is of it. It seems to me like this is their ballgame, not ours. Besides, aren't the Euros flush with cash because they do such a good job with free college and free healthcare and stuff? This ought to be a slam dunk for them.

Or maybe not.