Returning The Favor

I recently bought a candle with one of those exaggerated Catholic icons on it. Mine is the Virgin Mary with a big heart on her chest. The heart is surrounded by a crown of thorns and has a gold crown on top of it. It's the sort of thing you seen in Mexican markets down here in San Diego. It's really cheesy and I love it.

Most mornings, I get my coffee ere the sun is up and before I go clicky-click through the Interweb Tubes, I sit in silent meditation and prayer. Since Adoration is still closed locally, it's my chance to listen to The Big Guy.

I was musing over recurring fights I have with my favorite sins and the fact that I keep fighting even after I fail when it hit me that this is my repayment for the crucifixion. Christ was crucified for our sins which means that when I sin, the game isn't over. I can get back up and try again. Trying again is my act of love to Him.

In the above paragraph, I was going to write that it was my "tiny" repayment, but it isn't tiny, is it? I'm human, He wasn't. Well, not completely. He doesn't expect divinity from me, so why should I? When I plan and scheme ways to avoid temptation and sin, it's not tiny at all. It's a nonzero effort on my part. Why demean it?

Anywho, that's where my thoughts took me today. He loved me through the cross. I love Him by refusing to surrender to my weaknesses. Seems like a good relationship to me.

Welfare And Failure

Tim left this link in a comment on my Theory of Everything post. Here's a snippet.

(W)elfare, on paper, penalizes both biological parents living with their children, married or not. But in practice, welfare uniquely penalizes marriage and incentivizes cohabitation. Yet cohabitating relationships are uniquely unstable, and thus not ideal for children.

About half of non-marital births are to cohabitating parents, and an even greater share are to parents who view themselves as being in a long-term relationship. These cohabiting couples are most vulnerable to feel, or substantially perceive, marriage penalties at the point of having a child. While they may continue to cohabit after their child is born, they often eventually separate.

Ultimately, about two-in-three cohabiting couples with children will break up by the time their child turns 12 years old, compared to only one-quarter of children with married parents. By encouraging cohabitation, government policy is tilting the scales toward unstable families.

So we know that traditional, nuclear families produce superior results. We just don't say it because ... what? That's what's been driving me crazy all this time. When I used to do Science!, it would have been inconceivable to see an adaptive digital filter do one thing and then act like it did something completely different. It would never have even occurred to me to dismiss my data.

Dismissing data isn't the act of a scientist, it's the act of a zealot. When you dismiss data, you're telling us that you've lied about your motives.

Chasing The Laser Pointer 

Powerline has this blog post about Nazi Race Theory making it's way into one of their neighborhood schools.

Examples of other unacceptable covert “white supremacy” include thinking “but we’re just one human family,” “colorblindness,” “cultural appropriation,” “celebration of Columbus Day,” “police murdering POC [people of color],” and “bootstrap theory.”

Blah blah blah. Whatever.

The race crazies haven't laid out a path to success or even provided an achievable definition of success. They're just flashing a laser pointer around the room and yelling at us to "do better."

Nah. I'm done with that.

Do better, Kitty!
Do better, Kitty!
Do better, Kitty!
Do better, Kitty!
Do better, Kitty!