Category: Morality

Mandate

America, Economy, Education, Government, Headlines, History, Media, Morality, Politics, Reason, Society & Culture, Technology, Values

I’ve been saying for some time that the Left will go down in ignominious defeat tomorrow and I stand by that prediction. The American people have had enough of their petulance and histrionics. Social media makes it seem as if the Left represents more of our country than it actually does. Like the screaming and foot-stomping toddler or the obnoxious, rebellious adolescent, the Left begs for attention and ego food.

Have you watched Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at all? Biden is trying to overcome his lack of stamina, energy and mental acuity by yelling, no practically SCREAMING (.sic!) at the cameras in front of him. Wow he’s angry! If that isn’t a reflection of insecurity and resignation I don’t know what is! And Harris’ affected, cackling laugh psychologists will tell you is also a coping method for insecurity and a lack of conviction. That’s not just leading from behind. That’s leading from the behind!

What will the Trump win mean? I believe it will be a final repudiation of the nonsense and drivel that has been coming out of the mouths of the Left for years. It will be nothing less than a MANDATE to reclaim the traditional values and principles upon which this country was founded and built. It will represent the bottom of the slippery slope…the depths to which the Left have dragged us, and the beginning of the long, tough and fraught-with-obstacles climb back up.

For the Left will not die…the main stream media will see to that. They will weep, wail and gnash their teeth, crying foul, repeating their calls for “resistance”. Slowly, but surely, however, when their advertising revenues dwindle to nothing and their wealthy donors decide to stem their losses and start backing the winners, the MSM will retire their puerile talking heads and replace them first, with moderate voices, then patriotic voices as they desperately try to restore their revenues and profits.

We’ve had to endure sharp vicissitudes over the last 100 years: the Great Depression, the encroachment of the government in every aspect of our lives that began with the New Deal, two world wars, fallout from the Civil Rights movement, Watergate, the advent of public sector unions and the impact that had on education and the explosion of the regulatory bureaucracy, the Space Race, the Vietnam War, Rubik’s Cubes and Pacman, Watergate, the Beatles, the Lewinsky affair, 9-11 and the biggest tipping point of all…the advent of the World Wide Web and social media.

What now does this election portend? A new era of stability and prosperity, of peace and self-reliance, an extinguishing of the Leftist flames of hate, violence, division, class warfare, godlessness, nanny-statism, socialist absurdity and globalism…in short, a restoration of Freedom and meritocracy, of TRADITIONALISM!

A “Dark Winter”?? No…

A NEW, BRIGHT DAWN!

Spin vs. Lies

Headlines, Morality, Politics, Religion

As I have often stated, one can find evidence of what I’ll call “bad stuff”: bad rhetoric, bad behavior, on both sides of the political spectrum. However, the AMOUNT of bad stuff rendered by the Left dwarfs by several orders of magnitude the amount from the Right. Often it’s difficult to discern what is “spin” or trying to cast things in the best light, versus falsehood. What’s so extraordinary right now is that the Left doesn’t even try to ‘spin’ anymore. They out and out lie and expect cover from a sycophant main street media.

For instance, let’s take Trump’s spin on not disclosing his income tax returns. Anyone who prepares a long form tax return knows that even if it’s permissible to publish them in the middle of an audit, it’d be completely stupid to do so. Being under audit means there’s a dispute with the IRS and the last thing anyone should do is go public with their numbers…it would obviously prejudice the negotiations against the taxpayer!

Now, could there be other reasons why Trump wouldn’t want to disclose his returns? Yes, because returns require that one disclose assets, under penalty of perjury, and the VALUATION of an asset is always subjective. Trump says he is worth $10 billion. That could be true, if his assets are worth more than the difference between their value and his total debt (that’s the very definition of “worth”). Could the accountants and the IRS disagree on their value? Absolutely, and he may really be worth anywhere from nothing to some amount far greater than $10 billion. It doesn’t matter. He’s obviously rich, made a lot of money as a real estate developer, and paid a LOT in taxes over the years. The $750 canard is an attempt by the Left to suggest he paid little to no tax. Again, anyone with any knowledge of tax return preparation knows that amounts paid and amounts due vary tremendously across multiple years, and it’s entirely possible that Trump would have paid millions one year and not only pay nothing in a subsequent year, but even get a refund! Is he trying to spin this situation to cast things in the best light? Of course he is! But I’ll bet the accountants and tax attorneys working on his returns and negotiating with the IRS are doing everything they can to AVOID taxes, which is perfectly legal and appropriate for ANYONE to do in the U.S., rather than EVADE taxes, which is of course illegal!

Contrast the example of spin, described above, with Biden’s outright lies, which are deliberate falsehoods meant to deceive and deflect from the truth. These have been documented widely. Rather than reproduce them here, I’ll simply point you to the October 23, 2020 National Review article entitled “Biden Lies Again and Again” available here. Note, by the way, that the National Review is no tabloid.

The Left, as I’ve said before, will do ANYTHING, including outright lie, to achieve power. Biden, the consummate career politician, will do and continues to do the same.

That so many Americans will vote to grant power to the Democrats in this election is evidence of how effective their lying has been and how gullible so many have become. Just about half of the electorate now consists of voters who are either brainwashed, asleep, so anxious to be liked they have become lemmings, following the ‘woke’ celebrities with whom they’d like to identify, or, unfortunately, so lazy they’ll just vote the way they always have, or the way they were raised to vote. Never mind they’re shooting themselves in some vulnerable, private part, it’s more important that they be either anti-Trump or have the same signs as their neighbors than do what’s in their best self-interest, or in the interest of the country.

Optimistically, I don’t think the majority of Americans fall under the above description. Rather, they’re so busy working to take care of themselves and their families they don’t participate in polls, don’t talk about what they think, and don’t care what the ‘woke’ crowd says or does. It’s a small majority, regrettably, but a majority nonetheless. Because of the way the electoral map’s arithmetic works, it’s obvious that having more of the popular vote from New York, California and Illinois can and will still result in a victory for the Right on November 3rd. I’m quietly confident, however, this time the silent majority will speak up and the Right will win the popular vote as well as the electoral vote, resulting in a clear MANDATE (more on this in the future) to continue to reject Leftism.

Some Random Thoughts for the Day – October 15, 2020

America, Economy, Education, Family, Government, Headlines, Health Care, Media, Morality, Politics, Reason, Science, Society & Culture, Technology, Values

There is so much to analyze, so much to comment on, so much to write about, I think today I’ll just list bullet points. Please click below to read them…

  • The chaos being sewn by both parties, but particularly and obviously that by the Left, is deliberate. It makes it difficult for many to sort fact from fiction, to sort honesty from dishonesty. Only clear-headed Americans with open minds and critical thinking skills will be able to discern truth from lies.
  • The Left, and I’ve said this before, will stop at NOTHING to defeat Donald Trump and the Republicans this election cycle. Couched in a wide range of statesman-like rhetoric (e.g. Dick Durbin) to outright obnoxious, poisonous and odious verbal diarrhea (e.g. Kamala Harris) the Left is throwing anything and everything at the wall in hopes something will stick.
  • If you look up “unhinged” in the dictionary, Nancy Pelosi’s picture should be next to the definition. Her performance with Wolf Blitzer on CNN simply says it all. You can’t make this stuff up.
  • As evidence of how on the one hand our country is innovative as hell, and on the other how crazy it’s becoming, I offer the fact that Hormel is now offering face masks with the scent of bacon. ‘Nuff said.
  • New bumper sticker: “My expert/scientist is bigger than your expert/scientist”.
  • Seen on a trail in the middle of nowhere in the High Peaks Wilderness of the Adirondacks a couple of weeks ago: a family, all wearing masks, including the family dog!
  • I predict the barons of Wall Street, in a final attempt to knock Trump down, will tank the market just before the election.
  • There is corruption on both sides of the political swamp, but the Clintons, Bidens, and their ilk truly are the varsity, All-American champions. Tell me how a so-called public servant his entire life, Joe Biden, is fabulously wealthy (and don’t say because Jill Biden is a physician… she didn’t make THAT much over the years). Don’t even try to justify the Biden family’s “business interests” that were implicitly, if not explicitly tied to his government positions as less than major conflicts of interest, whether ‘legal’ or not! As for the Clintons…the $100,000 commodities trading scandal was nothing compared to what they extracted and continue to extract from the Clinton Foundation into which influence buyers poured tens of millions of dollars! Again, legal or not, it stinks to high heaven!
  • Amy Comey Barrett is a superstar, and it’s not because of her technically perfect performance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It’s because she acts, behaves and speaks like a NORMAL PERSON with solid traditional values – a role model if ever there was one.
  • Anybody with half a brain knows how corrupt and biased the so-called mainstream media is. The Twitter and Facebook censorship of the NY Post article on Hunter Biden that was published yesterday underscores just how corrupt and biased Silicon Valley is as well.
  • How any self-respecting citizen of our country could believe the Left’s lies, distortions, deflections, dissembling, denigrating, deceit, whining and histrionics is truly a sad commentary on our society.
  • The Republican outcry against the already evident problems with this election’s ballots may be enough to scare or at least influence ballot counters, poll watchers and voters to be vigilant. Contrary to what’s being trumpeted, I think there’s a good chance we WILL know the outcome of the election the night of November 3rd. The lawsuits and s#$%-show that will inevitably continue (they’ve already started) post November 3rd will not change a clear outcome.
  • Yogi Berra where are you when we need you. Your sayings, “It’s like “déjà vu all over again” and “It ain’t over till it’s over” have never been more apt.
  • Conservatives and Republicans don’t participate in polls and don’t put lawn signs up in Blue and Purple States.
  • “My Doctor is Bigger than Your Doctor” too!
  • School age kids are suffering. The Left doesn’t give a damn…they just want to use their new teaching platform to indoctrinate them through the medium they’re most used to. Teaching has now become a “social media” activity…
  • If you don’t want to be shot by a citizen defending himself or herself or by a law enforcement officer, it’s simple… don’t: a) hang out with the wrong people at the wrong times in the wrong places, b) strictly obey law enforcement’s commands, c) don’t threaten in an attempt to be macho, d) don’t be insolent, condescending…show respect for law enforcement, e) don’t do things that are, simply, ILLEGAL, e.g. riot, loot, destroy property, trespass, physically assault others, carry an unlicensed firearm or other deadly force object and misuse it, etc. etc.!
  • Life begins at conception, period. If you don’t want to have a baby, practice contraception, not infanticide.
  • Labels like socialism, marxism, white supremacy, ‘Karen’, oppressed, victim, racism, white privilege, etc. etc. are empty when not properly and adequately defined and explained. They’re just labels intended to incite positive or negative ‘feelings’ and simply should be ignored!
  • The lines will be long on election day. Try not to be too impatient and plan on going early and staying as long as you have to to make your vote count!

Yard Sign Pollution

Morality, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

Is any one else as disgusted by the virtue-signalling lawn signs that pollute my neighborhood as I am? The self-righteousness that drips off these eyesores actually angers me. It makes me want to rub the noses of these bleeding-heart hypocrites into these signs like a puppy dog’s into the mess on the living room rug!

Sometimes others say it so well that it’s just best to bring their writing to the attention of our readers giving them full credit and applause. Such is the case with this topic and the work of Christopher Skeet, whose September 8th article in American Thinker entitled “Ascent of the Yard Sign Prophets” is spot on.

Here are, however, some choice excerpts:

“Shortly after Trump was elected president, “HATE HAS NO HOME HERE” (HHNHH) yard signs began adorning the minority-manicured lawns of white-collar, white-skinned liberals.  You’ve seen the sign.  Its message is translated into multiple languages, which is meant to broadcast a globalist diversity of sorts by those who speak not only just English, but that sniffy dialect molded within the narrow confines of a university pedigree loftier than junior college but conspicuously short of Ivy League.  You can all but hear them finish their Starbucks order with that irritating raised inflection on the last syllable.”

“The underlying message of the HHNHH yard sign is two-fold.  First, it’s virtue signaling in its most tawdry form.  Yard signs announcing “POVERTY IS BAD” and “I SUPPORT CURING CANCER” would ring just as hollow.  Sorry, but you don’t get a cookie for broadcasting to the world that you oppose hate.  Most people do, and their daily actions are sufficient proof thereof.  A lion doesn’t need to convince people it’s a lion.”

“Second, the HHNHH yard sign alludes that a home which opposes President Trump is axiomatically hate-free, and, by deductive logic, a home which supports President Trump categorically welcomes hate with open arms.  The sign smugly implies, “I’m a good person, and it’s a shame that you’re not.”  This insinuation might not rise to the level of hate, but it certainly sinks to the level of arrogance, condescension, and sweeping judgment.”

“But over time the HHNHH yard signs faded along with the “I’m With Her” bumper stickers.  The yard sign prophets needed something new, something snarkier, with which to impress their woke comrades and irritate the handyman who lives on the street’s only single story home.  So a new yard sign was handed out that reads like a manifesto.”  

“They really upped the ante, didn’t they? The first thought conservatives have looking at this sign is that they agree with every statement on it.  But the purpose of the sign is not to find common ground across the political spectrum, but to further drive a wedge.  The purpose of the sign is to insist that these statements are true only within the narrow ideological limits of the sign owner’s worldview.  If you disagree with the yard sign prophets on any policy point, then, in their minds, you disagree with the statements themselves.”

“Like its HHNHH predecessor, the WE BELIEVE yard sign isn’t an argument, an ideology, or a philosophy.  It isn’t a set of principles or tenets of a faith.  It has no depth, no complexity, and no animation.  It’s a regurgitation of drive-by gotcha-isms, dutifully parroted with overconfident arrogance and unearned righteousness by those who haven’t thought to the next sentence.”

“The WE BELIEVE statements are easily dissectible, and should never be allowed to fester unchallenged for the sake of avoiding unpleasant conversation.  The yard sign is designed to elicit shame in its opponents, but there is nothing shameful and everything noble in resisting what Solzhenitsyn called “the mechanical propaganda of dead ideas”.  You won’t make a dent, but they should know that neither did they.”

Thank you Mr. Skeet…could not have said it better myself!

 

I Have a Dream

America, Economy, Education, Family, Government, History, Morality, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Technology, Values

With credit and apologies to Martin Luther King, I have my own dream of what could be. In a sense, what follows is MY version of a Utopian society…not the Dystopian society the Left is pushing.

I dream of an America that stands together, (including for our National Anthem!) as it once did during the Second World War. People from all walks of life, from every background, color, creed, faith, national origin are ALL proud to be American, grateful for the opportunity and freedom we have, bonded together through citizenship in a democratic republic we all believe in and cherish, and where educated, grammatically proper and syntactically correct American English is the national language.

I watched the movie “Miracle” the other night, the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s beating of the unbeatable Russian hockey team and our gold medal win. The period leading up to that triumph was a time of great trouble: the winding up of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iranian hostage crisis, the welfare state was growing like gangbusters, the rapid breakdown of traditional families and a continuation of what occurred in the 60’s – a growing fracture between Left and Right.

At that moment, in that hockey rink in Lake Placid, NY, all of America was united irrespective of where we stood on the ideological, political, or societal spectra. Oh that we could bottle and distribute that patriotism and pride today! The same pride we all felt as we heard the words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

I dream of an America with leaders who uplift, who inspire, who seek the betterment of all our citizens and who assert with dignity and nobility America’s rightful role in the world as the “beacon on the hill”. In my lifetime, I’ve watched and listened to a slew of presidents, political, religious, academic, military and business “leaders” pontificate and (with apologies now to Shakespeare) “strut and fret their hour upon the stage” telling tales like idiots, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Sometimes the rhetoric resonated with enough people that it became, (to use a modern term), a “meme”, and our nation’s course was altered accordingly. Sometimes it just drifted away on the wind and was “heard no more.” Today our politics is more than ever gutter politics. Both the Left and the Right are talking down and at one another rather than with one another. The public, at least those who bother, are watching this “s-show” and shaking their heads, rolling their eyes and asking themselves, “can’t we do better than this?” I hasten to add, as I often do, however, that while both sides participate in these deplorable political antics, you’d have to be willfully blind or just plain stupid to not see that the Left has deepened and putrefied the gutter beyond anything the Right or any grade-school educated person could ever have imagined!

I dream of an America where children are once again taught about its greatness, about its Judeo-Christian roots and underpinnings, about the sacrifices and struggles of those who, imperfect though they were, united together to build this nation and establish it as the greatest engine of freedom, peace and prosperity the world has ever known. Those lessons we learned in grade school about the founding and early history of America, about 2+2 being 4, not 5 (“but Johnny, that was a good try and I’m so glad you feel empowered to give that answer”), those trophies that we received because we WON, not because we showed up, are not QUAINT! They’re an accounting of what made America great (.sic) not to be trampled upon with New Math, 1619 projects, multicultural and globalist, anti-national revisions to history, and poisonous, Leftist, “nobody should have any more than anyone else”, dystopian idiocy.

I dream of an America where traditional views of right and wrong are once again firmly established in our practices, laws, regulations and politics, where principles of equal opportunity rather than equal outcomes are engendered and manifest, where we don’t compromise, alter or eliminate these principles and harm and offend the vast majority of our people because some minority professes to be victimized by their application. One can argue that there is no black and white, but the Leftists would have you believe that there are no standards…that each and every one of us ought to be the arbiter of what is good, what is evil, what is right and what is wrong. Peaceful marches and protests (ones that don’t disrupt commerce, travel and the lives of those who are not involved) are RIGHT. Riots, looting, assault, battery, disturbance of the peace even… are WRONG. The taking of responsibility, restraint and continence are RIGHT. Infanticide and abortion as contraception is WRONG! Practicing and exhibiting manners is RIGHT. Anything goes is WRONG.

I dream of an America where our legal system is purged of distortion and justice is meted out with equanimity and without political bias, where laws are respected, and people understand and expect to abide by them not from fear of judgement and penalty, but because they’re just and benefit all of us. We were taught as kids to respect police officers, firemen, heck, even “our elders”! Today the Left wishes to destroy respect for just about anything! Weaponized law, weaponized politics, weaponized regulations…all these were started and have been fomented by the “it’s all about me” Leftists who were the hippies of the 60’s, the losers who sought to “tune in, turn on and drop out” and who now form the core of what is known as “the Deep State”. How could the Left use the law to persecute (some might say destroy the lives of) its opponents while allowing its own scandalous, obvious and disgusting violations of law go unpunished?

I dream of an America:

                Where the rights and thoughtful, not shrill views of all are tolerated but where unlawful and aberrant behavior is not!

                Where ALL lives matter!

                Where faith is restored in FAITH!

                Where we can earn an honest day’s wage for an honest day’s work.

                Where government isn’t the source of philanthropy but individuals, families and communities look after one another.

                Where technology, systems and artificial intelligence don’t substitute for people communicating directly with one another, where human beings answer the customer service 800 number, speak English and are empowered to solve problems rather than belch canned scripts like “I’m sorry you’re having a problem with…I’m here to help with that.” And where REAL intelligence in REAL humans deliver REAL results, and where parents “just say no” to 10 year olds demanding their own iPhones.

                Where drugs, alcohol, pornography, social media and other addictions are dealt with head-on, not excused, tolerated and talked about endlessly.

                Where the real racism and bias inherent in the hypocritical Left’s actions are exposed and expunged so that real fairness of opportunity can prevail.

                Where men can once again be men and are not automatically accused of being misogynists; where women don’t feel they have to act like men (and behave like misandrists!) and where it’s ok for traditional roles of bread-winning and child-rearing to prevail again.

                Where shame is felt for shameful behavior.

                Where government no longer tries to engineer social justice through housing mandates, but allows communities to form freely and the pick-winners-and-losers-robin-hood-taking-from-Peter-to-buy-the-vote-of-Paul no longer takes place.

                Where the rights of those who seek to obey the laws, focus on caring for themselves and their families, and work hard to be contributing members of society are not permitted to be trampled by the obnoxious, repugnant behavior or those who break the laws and seek to impinge on or take from others what is not rightfully theirs, and who do so with impunity.

                Where honest capitalism is not denigrated but celebrated, but where crony capitalism is rooted out, exposed and eliminated.

                Where limousine liberals and people who have no idea of what real suffering is remove their hypocritical, self-righteous, virtue-signaling signs from their lawns and instead, take a weed whacker to the overgrown grass and mess by the side of the road.

                Where our schools teach kids reading, writing and arithmetic again instead of indoctrinating them in multicultural, gender-confused, anti-American drivel.

                Where the term “marriage” is returned to its religious definition, but where the ability of same-sex partners to enjoy the same legal rights as married couples is codified in our laws and where LGBTQ militants no longer try to shove their preferences and ideology down others’ throats.

                Where our military and law enforcement, as well as all other public service occupations are purged of incompetents and bad apples, our churches and the Boy Scouts are purged of pedophiles, our colleges are purged of socialists and marxists.

                Where we can calm down, lower the speed and decibel level of our lives, aspire to be good and do good, do what is right, and actually “all get along”.

Prejudice and Discrimination

America, Morality, Politics, Reason, Society & Culture

I admit it. I am guilty of prejudice and discrimination. I am prejudiced against a whole host of things. And yes, I discriminate. I am discriminating in my choices of many things. Neither makes me a racist, a white supremacist, a misogynist, a warmonger or any of a range of other labels the Left would love nothing more than to attach to me.

I am prejudiced against uncivilized behavior. Growing up in Europe in the 60’s I cringed at the often loud, madras-clad American tourists who would act as if they owned the world, and I was embarassed by them. Today I’m equally repulsed by the barbaric behavior of so-called “protesters” rioting in so many cities across the country. I am put off by people in restaurants who speak loudly and laugh uproariously as if they were the only patrons in the establishment. People who walk through public places with boomboxes blaring on their shoulders are equally odious.

I’m also prejudiced against the abuse of the English language that violates my eardrums every time I venture into a public space and can make out the mumbling emerging from behind what are now affectionately referred to as face-diapers. It’s not just the prevalence of foul and profane diction – it’s also the incessant misuse of the simile “like”, and both “upticks” and “vocal fry!

Hypocrisy stirs up my resentment juices too. We’re all guilty of some hypocrisy of course. But that of the Left dwarfs by a thousand-fold that which is exhibited by the Right. I am prejudiced against people who pollute my neighborhood with Leftist slogans on lawn signs. Though I find the placement of arrows on the aisles of my local supermarket ridiculous, I am prejudiced against those who wantonly ignore them. And while I am yet to be convinced that wearing masks does anything more than fog up my glasses and make me uncomfortable and difficult to understand unless I yell, I am even more prejudiced against those who try to shame anyone who refuses to wear them!

And I’m prejudiced against megalomaniacal politicians or anyone else who deliberately deceives, prevaricates, dissembles, misrepresents or outright lies to gain power or recognition. It doesn’t matter what their skin color is, their heritage, their religion, their sex…it is their attempt to impose their warped and often evil ideology as well as the assault on my freedom and my principles that I find so abhorrent.

I discriminate daily…in my choice of which channel I watch on television, which websites I visit, which coffee or bread I buy at the market. I discriminate in what I read, what form of exercise I choose, what wine I serve at dinner, what soap I prefer in the shower. I will continue to eschew places and people I find offensive, will judiciously avoid vacation destinations where I’m made to feel uncomfortable as I seek to enjoy the finest things I can afford…things I worked so hard at for so long and deserve.

Keep it up Leftists and you’ll be able to apply even more labels to me. Soon you’ll pejoratively label me a “worshipper”. Perhaps you’ll even accuse me of being “a man”.

My Dad, as he saw what my generation did to the America his (The Greatest Generation) fought so hard for, used to quote the title of the 60’s Musical, “Stop the world I want to get off.” I’m close to begin repeating that quip as well.

Tactics of the Left

America, Economy, Education, Government, Headlines, History, Morality, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Values

John Hawkins is one of my favorite conservative authors. In an essay penned back in October 2017 he listed, presciently, how the Left was then destroying and would in the future destroy our culture. With full credit and attribution to Hawkins, who’s full essay is available on Town Hall, here’s a summary:

First, to quote his introduction (Note: I’ve replaced the term “Liberalism with “Leftism, “Liberals” with “Leftists”:

“There was a time when we used to be a nation that pushed freedom, responsibility, decency, patriotism and hard work. Some of us still believe in those things, but because of Leftism, much more destructive values have seeped into our culture like toxic waste. There are many ways that Leftists have degraded our culture, but these are the worst of the worst.”

And here’s his list:

1.            The Politicization of Everything.

2.            Political Correctness.

3.            Victimhood.

4.            Leftist Feminism.

5.            Tribalism.

6.            “Non-Judgmentalism”.

Today, one has only to open one’s eyes and ears to see these weapons on display. I would add to his list:

7.            Atheism. While I believe that the only Being in the universe who can prove to you whether He exists or not is God, faith is a very individual thing. By way of contrast, Atheism is a collective imposition of an ideology that doesn’t just eschew faith, but condemns and seeks to eradicate it. It’s obvious that the Left, by seeking to destroy faith, is seeking to replace God with its own brand of religion.

8.            Saturation. The Left seeks to dominate the airwaves in every form and in every medium so as to crowd out, squash, eradicate any dissent.

9.            Falsehood. “Creative Misrepresentation” is the euphemism that Leftist intellectuals use to describe the outright lying and deception used to advance their poisonous ideology. This should be obvious to any paying-attention individual.

10.          Projection. Have you ever noticed that the Left screams at the top of their lungs accusations at the Right that represent precisely what the Left is doing? There is no end to the hypocrisy and deceit they will use to achieve their ends.

11.          Hijacking the Vocabulary. “Choice”, “Social Justice”, “Democratic Socialism”, “Extremism”, “Investment (a.k.a. ‘taxation and spending’), “Science”, “Fair Share”, “The Wealthy”, “Balance”, “Liberal”, “Progressive”, “Racist”, “Undocumented Immigrant”, “Domestic Terrorist”, “Universal Background Checks”, “Assault Rifle”, “Diversity”, “Inclusion”, “Affirmative Action”, “Globalism”, “Climate Change”, “Resistance”, “Human Rights”, “Tolerance”, etc. All of these terms and countless others have been utilized, twisted, turned into Orwell’s Doublespeak, used as euphemisms or been completely destroyed and replaced by the Left.

12.          Revising History. The 1619 Project, the tearing down of historical figure statues, Howard Zinn, the vilification and attempted discrediting of historical leaders like the Founding Fathers…need I say more?

I expect if I thought about it long enough I could expand this list considerably. No matter. My readers know exactly what I’m talking about anyway, and could similarly add to it. The key is to fight, advance and not retreat in the face of these Leftist tactics.

We must pick our battles, yes, but not shun the fight.

I’m At a Loss for Words

America, Economy, Education, Family, Morality, Politics, Religion, Society & Culture, Values

Dear Readers and Patrons of Grumps Report,

I truly am at a loss for words. The emotions coursing through me at this moment are so powerful that I expect anything I write might not reflect what I think and feel even a couple of weeks from now. I’ve run out of adjectives and adverbs to describe the emotions: sadness, fear, disgust, hopefulness, resolve, patience and impatience, anger, compassion, hate and love, just to name a few.

Physically, I’m fine. I had a routine medical procedure last week that required me to visit my doctor. I thus had a COVID test and am negative. I don’t know whether I’ve got antibodies. I’ve stopped watching and reading the news on this topic because my economist/banker/businessman’s critical thinking training has me so put off by the so-called experts, even many whom I’ve trusted and relied on in the past, that I’ve shut them all out.

Spiritually and emotionally I’m sickened by what I see happening to our country. Having grown up in the 60’s witnessing all the rebellion and profligacy of that decade, I never saw anything like the soul-crushing necrosis I’m seeing today. I’m of course referring to the rioting, looting and what’s almost worse, the cowardice, demagoguery and genuflection on the part of Leftist politicians to what truly is domestic terrorism. In the 60’s it was easy to write off the chaos and attribute it to fringe lunacy. The great majority of Americans, while silent, appreciated what we had and were mostly bystanders to what was generally accepted to be foolishness or youthful exuberance. The vast majority of us still cherished and appreciated all that was good about America.

Today we’re seeing the fruits of the dark underbelly of the 60’s, amplified and expanded thanks to the internet and decades of indoctrination by the same losers who lacked self-control and self-discipline then. They now populate academia, law, and above all, government. Even the military and law enforcement haven’t been spared. There are neurotic, unproductive or barely productive adult children in virtually all our institutions.

I’ve already said too much. I will now go back to my bucket-list pursuit of reading all the Great Books. In them I find refuge, wisdom and truth that transcends all the nonsense bombarding me from all directions every minute of every day (were I to allow it).

Keep your seat belts fastened and your seat backs and tray tables in their full upright position. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for some time to come.

But this too shall pass.

The Death of Quality

America, Economy, Morality, Reason, Society & Culture, Values

I used to be able to pick up the phone sitting on my desk and 99.9% of the time I’d get a dial tone and be able to call out. Today about three quarters of the time I use my cell phone the call either gets dropped, I can hear him but he can’t hear me (I feel like the guy in the commercial, “Can you hear me now???”), or I get one bar or no bars from the start.

Technology has delivered many conveniences to be sure. But personal attention is certainly not one of them. And reliability (a.k.a. quality) has been a casualty as well. So help me, if I here the words, “It’s software, what do you expect?” one more time I’m liable to scream “arrrrrggggghhhh!” right in the face of whomever uses those words with me!

What happened to craftsmanship? What happened to companies who’d boast about the quality of their products and due to real competition, didn’t charge a highway robber’s take for it?

Technology is what happened. Benefits gave way to features. Reliability gave way to creature comforts. Stuff that would last forever gave way to planned obsolescence. In short, an honest profit gave way to greed and Good Housekeeping seals of approval gave way to “5 Star Comments” on Amazon, honest or not!

I have a personal example. About 30 years ago I bought a Black and Decker Workmate portable workbench. It folds up nicely, flexibly adjusts, and is made of solid steel and wood, the screw mechanism that adjusts the vice having many threads. It still serves me as well today as the day I bought it.

Wandering around Home Depot the other day, I saw my Workmate’s 2020 version. It was, to put it succinctly, a piece of, well you know what, compared to mine and cost in today’s dollars, roughly twice as much.

Another example. Over 40 (yes 40) years ago I bought a fun kid’s sled made by a Norwegian company called a Sno-kart for my own children. It was made of steel tubing and high density polyethylene plastic with strongly welded joints. My grandchildren still gleefully use it today.

I checked, and the company still exists but their sleds now are made of cheap plastic throughout. I can’t imagine they’d survive my grandson’s first run down the hill!

Another thing that technology has caused is a decline in honesty. Doctors will tell you, “Everybody lies about their health.” That may be true, but the phenomenon was, until the last twenty years or so ago, largely restricted to the medical field. Today, it seems everybody lies about everything! I don’t just mean blatant, with a straight face bald-faced lying. I also mean lying by omission, lying by “creative misrepresentation”, or “lying for the greater good.”

In other words, there has been a serious decline in the quality of truthfulness, of probity, of ethics, of morals…one could even say a decline in the quality of reality!

Quality being almost completely dead, a renaissance is needed.

I have re-committed myself to giving 100% to everything I do, of restoring quality to my everyday tasks and professional endeavors. I have also re-committed myself to be not just truthful and honest, but to being forthright as well.

The other side of this coin is that I will continue to throw the yellow or red BS flags on the field whenever I see they’re warranted. I will refuse to abide or tolerate dishonesty of all kinds in my interactions with vendors, agents, advisors and most definitely with politicians!

I sincerely hope and pray I’ll be successful and may be able to influence others to join in the fight to restore quality to everything we have and do.

Faith and the Easter Bunny

America, Morality, Politics, Reason, Religion, Science, Society & Culture, Uncategorized

Easter Sunday, 2020. The pews are empty. This is our first “video celebration” streamed through thousands of digital mechanisms across the world. Earlier in the week Passover seders were celebrated similarly. A juxtaposition of the technological and the divine.

How one marks the day depends on one’s belief or lack thereof. There are, in my opinion, as regards religion, three states: either we are atheists, believers or agnostics. And, I hasten to point out, we may be one or the other at different points in our lives.

Atheists, a.k.a. secularists, non-believers or those who worship things other than a deity, make up a significant and growing percentage of the world’s population. While there are countless “studies” marking this growth, one has only to look around at the opposite phenomenon, the decline in congregations, to acknowledge this trend.

Aside from the numbers, there are also countless “studies” that seek to explain why religion is on the wane. Could it be that the rapid advancement of technology has simply made us “full of ourselves”? What need have we of a God when we can summon knowledge, convenience and even virtual human interaction instantaneously and effortlessly from the electronic gadget in our hands? Millennials (Gen Y) and Gen Z seem to be the most secular and least religious of any generation. They are, of course, those who grew up with this technology and don’t even recall much of what I call the Analog World (a separate article forthcoming on that subject).

And who among the political divides in America are the atheists? Exactly whom you’d think: the Democrats. On August 24, 2019 the Democratic National Committee passed a resolution recognizing the “value” of religiously unaffiliated Americans and describing them as the “largest religious group in the Democratic party “. (https://secular.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/DNC-Resolution-on-the-Nonreligious-Demographic.pdf) And here’s some Pew Research Center data that corroborates that boast: (https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-family/atheist/party-affiliation/)

Forget about broad trends for a moment, however, and examine what this means for our families, our local communities and our Country. What happens to a people when they get too full of themselves?

You’ll recall when Moses descended from Mt. Sinai he found this exact circumstance. Not a good scene. The party animals had taken over, they no longer had any need for God, faith or religion and things didn’t turn out well. Isn’t it obvious we’re duplicating that scene at the base of Mt. Sinai right now? What does the future hold if we keep this up?

The battle we as a nation are fighting is a civil war. It is a battle for its soul. I’ve often referred to Bill O’ Reilly’s contention that the fight is between Traditionalists and Secular Progressives. Will we follow a course plotted by a rudderless ship piloted by secularist atheists, or by a people who, irrespective of their denomination, subscribe to traditional principles of right and wrong stemming from a belief in God that have survived the vicissitudes of mankind since the Garden of Eden?

As regards my own views on God and religion. As I begin to think more and more about the subject I’ve yet to codify my beliefs. But here are some thoughts.

Thomas Aquinas tried to “prove” the existence of God in his book Summa Theologica. I’m reasonably well read and educated and no matter how hard I tried, I found it incomprehensible and far more confusing and doubt-provoking than enlightening. The proof can’t be conjured up from within ourselves or “proven” in some way. Whether or not to believe in God has to be an individual determination. Anything else but a personal conviction withers under fire or rusts with disuse. Thus, in thinking and talking to others about God I have often asked others the question: “Who is the only person in the universe who can prove to you whether God exists?” Frequently, the reply has been, “Me.””No,” I submit, “the only person in the universe who can prove to you whether God exists, is God.” Again, it is for each of us to come to our own conclusion.

As humans who reside on an earth that turns, causing sunrise and sunset; as fragile beings who are born and who eventually die, we think in terms of beginnings and endings. Thus, evidence of an expanding universe leads us to conclude that there was a Big Bang that started it all. But that begs the question, “What was there before the Big Bang?”

My suggestion is that if we eliminate the construct of beginnings and endings and assume that there never was either a beginning or end to the universe…that the universe is, in fact, infinite; that it has always existed and will always exist, it becomes a little more logical to think of man’s life as a very very small segment of time within that continuum stretching endlessly (literally, not figuratively) in all directions. It also makes it easier for me to comprehend that there is a being, God, who exists within this infinite continuum and, though I may not comprehend how, also has always existed and will always exist. Similarly, this Easter morning, I can accept that a man name Jesus died and three days later rose from the dead by means that I cannot understand, but which are based on principles and truths that are immutable and exist whether or not either I or anyone else believes them or not. And if the Atonement and Resurrection, and more importantly the purposes and reasons for them made it possible for me to wake up somehow after I die and transform into something else – a different life as wonderful or even better than this one has been, I’m thrilled it occurred.

This morning, thousands of children will go on Easter Egg Hunts. Many will receive gifts from the Easter Bunny. How many will have even an inkling of what Easter Sunday is all about? It has become another so-called Hallmark Holiday for many.

As for me, I pause this morning to reflect on my choice to believe in God. I will seek to do right rather than wrong. I believe in good and evil and hope to embrace the Good and eschew Evil. I believe there are many truths and eternal principles we have not yet uncovered and learned…things that logically explain what we presently see as miracles and the unexplainable. And I choose not to forget that Someone guiding us and worthy of our worship exists and through some truly extraordinary technology, is able to know and communicate and guide each and every one of us.

Happy Easter!

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