The Low Road

While coming home from work the other day I noticed the vanity license plate on the car in front of me read "HEATHEN." My first impression was, why would someone broadcast that about himself?  But then I mentally slapped myself upside the head and remembered that we live in a nearly post-Christian culture.  Too many people today are so full of themselves that they actually take pride in such eternal and infernal arrogance.

Let me begin by addressing the heathen; a term which I take to include atheists, Gaiaists (Earth-worshippers/tree-huggers), Wiccans, and communists - by whatever name they identify themselves: socialists, nazis, facists, progressives, Fabians, statists, etc. Essentially, anyone who doesn't have some belief in monotheism (Islam, while monotheistic, is for another discussion). Heathen typically take joy in the belief we're post-Christian partly because the Church - Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc. - has seemingly lost so much influence in today's culture, in their opinion. They also see so much anti-Christian animus - let's call it for what it is: bigotry - that they naturally assume their side is winning. Even if true, it would be a Pyrrhic victory, at best.

The heathen see church leaders and professing Christians taken down for various acts of criminality or generalized decadence (completely missing the difference between people who call themselves Christians, and the actual principles of Christianity - which are a pretty high bar by typical human standards); they see the culture being degraded in every area - and not only do they contribute to that degradation they applaude it, unless it hits home for them, personally. And then they cry "victim."  They see Christianity and the faith belittled, impugned, and held up to ridicule by most of the entertainment media; they hearand repeat unthinking blasphemies every day that has become de facto acceptable speech and never think twice about it. They join in in almost subconsciously, and "post-Christianity" thus becomes self-fulfilling prophecy.

In fact, the general public hears less and less of things favorable to Christianity, precisely because there is an active push to erase that huge portion of our history and heritage. Because the teaching colleges are hostile to the faith, most of those who graduate and take their place in your children's classrooms are also hostile to it or ignorant of it. History books are being rewritten with the intent of marginalizing Christianity (pseudo-historian and textbook author Howard Zinn comes to mind), along with any other positive aspects of our national heritage. It has only recently been "rediscovered" that so much of our history, written and taught by Progressives, has all but removed any positives of Blacks in early America (also here, here, and here) before segregation was reintroduced in the early 20th century by Democrats. Now, for the first time in our history as a nation, we have a man posing as president who has virtually declared war on all things Christian and all things traditionally American, and who has unflinchingly favored a religion adamantly hostile to, and diametrically opposed to all that Christianity stands for.

Christianity in America may be down in some ways, but don't ever count it out. Although church attendance is  down from say, fifty years ago, Christianity is still the major religion in the US even if most of those who claim it know little about it, other than they "believe in God." If anything can be said about the Church in general, it is that so many churches have been infiltrated by agenda-driven marxists determined to undermine their doctrines. But there remain uncountable indications of Christianity's influence on America. From examples of architectural embellishments, to artwork, to literature, there are many examples of the part that faith played in the formation, development and maintenance of the Republic. Perhaps some of the least-recognized examples are organizational in nature. How many hospital names are prefaced by "St." (Saint)? How many people have been helped in times of need by various Christian-founded charities, or spent time at the YMCA or YWCA (guess what the "C" stands for), or been helped by the International Red Cross or the Salvation Army?

If you dig deep enough in our now-biblically-illiterate culture, you might realize that the best features of our national heritage are in fact gleaned from our Christian roots. From the innumerable examples of biblical influence on the language, to our deserved reputation (until the past couple of years) as the most charitable nation in the world, to the influence of the Bible on our early laws and Constitution, it takes nearly conscious effort to not realize that as a culture, we have been benefitting from the residue of our religious heritage even as we drift further and further from it. Of course, the Left and its dedicated "heathen" are trying as hard as they can to remove every vestige of the faith from our memory.

On the other hand, what do the "heathen" and "pagans" offer? Unbridled self-interest, unrestrained hedonism, the worship of wildlife and plants over human life, the skewering of all traditional values and virtues (such as earning what you get instead of being "entitled" to something at the expense of someone else's efforts).  Generation "gimme" is about to take center-stage; but when entitlement becomes the majority view, who will do the labor? The one thing that seems to escape the ravenous appetites of the welfare mentality is that eternal truism: there's no such thing as a free lunch. Yeah; there have been dark episodes under misguided Christians or outright charlatans who misused scripture to justify their particular aims, but generally, these have been corrected over time. Even amid the slavery tragedy of this nation, Christians were instrumental in eliminating it, even in drafting the Constitution. There will always be a slave class under socialism because it cannot survive otherwise.

Of course, any mention of religion in American life has to be tempered by the reality that there has always been dissent and opposition; between denominations, congregations, and atheists. And each person should have freedom of conscience insofar as it doesn't willfully impose itself on another who isn't interested. But on the whole, much of the American fabric of life is tightly interwoven with the faith that preaches and promises salvation and eternal life through belief in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's so much more than the promise of the nilhilist non-believers, and those who think they'll be reincarnated as bugs or other critters.

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Coming at the speed of night

Has anyone else noticed how little America today resembles America of say, 40 years ago? 

Oh, I realize that the vast majority of young people won't know what I mean. After all, they've grown up with cellphones, cable TV, the internet, high prices for everything (if you think they're high now, just wait a short while), and America being the world's boogey-man.  They won't recognize how foreign it is having to parse your words for fear of the PC-police (I'm talking to the saner people, of course; the nitwits, half-wits and "sue-its" never get bothered by them). But I and my fellow codgers (and our elders moreso) can recall a time when a person could speak their mind, could speak to their religious values without persecution or fear of lawsuit, could start a business and have a fair chance at success, and could buy a gun to defend themselves, hunt or go target-shooting without fear of police harrassment or arrest. We could board a plane without having to become a virtually stripper or street frisk. Oh, and our nation had plenty of energy because we provided most of our own (nuclear, coal and oil), we helped feed and clothe half the world, other people loved and envied Americans, our allies trusted us and our enemies at least respected us.

Well; we've certainly fallen through the wormhole now. This is not your grandfather's America. Even though things may look rosy if you pin it down to what you see from where you are standing, a closer look at the things going on behind the scenes points to what appear to be a coalescing into a major paradigm shift. In simpler terms, our world is about to be "rocked" in a way most of us won't like.

I have come to believe we have all but passed the 'tipping point.'  Our culture has been turned into a 21st-century version of ancient Rome's 'bread and circuses.' Between the faux-machismo of ESPN, the shallowness of all the "Idol" clones, and the downright psycho-political manipulation of "Glee," Americans have become high on the list among the most ignorant societies on Earth - and that is saying something. But the facts bear me out; most college-level Americans have virtually no knowledge of even fairly recent important history, they don't know even the most basic geography, have no real conception of the various political and religious systems that influence the affairs of men, many are marginal readers, and most haven't even the interest to watch or read a news report, let alone objectively look at both sides of the issues. We cannot trust what our leaders tell us, because they are politicians instead of statesmen, and their stories change with the political winds.

We weren't pushed into ignorance; we were led there by the Pied-Pipers of Fabian Socialism and their Marxist cousins.  They have followed a clear agenda for the better part of a century; slowly,  incrementally robbing us of our heritage, our values (including our Judeo-Christian respect for human life, our collective wisdom, our faith, our soviergnty, our resources, and of course, our liberties. They have done all this with all the subtlety of the proverbial frog in the pot. And each successive generation gets dumber, on every appreciable level.

Some presumeably wise leaders thought they had a valid reason for committing this monumental crime against this nation and its people. They thought by exposing us to a "thousand points of light" and introducing us to a New World Order through which they were preparing us for the needs of an advanced, (post-?)industrial society; producing a society of worker drones with just enough intelligence to operate the machines of production, while keeping them ignorant and entertained enough to deter them from concerning themselves with politics and upsetting the delicate status quo. 

Unfortunately, the elites who changed the culture weren't watching the 'other hand,' which was slowly moving production overseas because the unions had destroyed the competitive edge of American industry in our own country. That left us with tens of millions of purposely under-educated people (and I'll go so far as to include myself in that group) ill-equipped to go toe-to-toe with the bureaucratic interference with the formerly-free enterprise system that had made America the industrial giant that once amazed the world. The 'great unwashed' masses' primary source of (mis)information about the world comes in the form of carefully-edited sound-bites that are typically light on actual information and heavy on propaganda.

Where is all this leading? The future, of course. Start looking around you with open eyes and an open mind. The most obvious perception may not be the truth. Leave the slogans and party line statements behind, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

The End Is Near!!!

I've been rightly accused of being a depressing individual to hang around over the past few years (not many people actually dig for my "fun" side. Go figure). I've been watching the news most folks don't watch, and just as importantly, watching the cultural trends that guide society. We have all been the rhetorical "frogs in the pot," and most of us have been too focussed on ourselves or our pet interests (a/k/a, 'work') to pay much attention to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, what happens in the rest of the world eventually trickles down into our own lives.

America has been through a lot over the past 230 years or so, but I believe we may be at the beginning of "the worst of times" for us so far. Yes, we've been in tough times; droughts, depressions, crime waves, natural disasters, and wars; but this time we're getting hit with all of them pretty much at once. And while the wars so far are on other soils, I have a bad feeling war may be coming home soon; and unlike the Civil War, we probably won't have the luxury of uniforms to tell each side apart and state lines to divide the sides and to provide refuge or support. Or then again, maybe we will.

The truth is, there is already a literal (and littering) army of occupation rapidly growing and spreading  in our streets and around the world, stirring up old hatreds, causing chaos, trying to further divide us, and ultimately to destroy our way of life. By looking at which groups are supporting Occupy Wall Street, we get an idea of the forces arrayed against our liberties. The amount of social corrosion that is taking place within our country by our own citizens is appalling and frightening, not so much for their numbers as for their power within virtually every social institution, major corporation (including the media corporate giants - which the protesters never seem to complain about), educational establishment, and government agency.

What is ironic about this war is that one side (conservatives) doesn't want to fight it, because they (we) recognize the pain and suffering that will affect us for years to come, no matter which way it turns out. The aggressors, however, really don't have a solid idea of what they are trying to bring about, because they have been lied to most of their lives.  The Bible tells us, "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he grow older he will not depart from it." This is a time-tested truism, because the earliest lessons form a nearly unbreakable pattern of behavior in each of us, for better or for worse. What the 'revolutionaries' don't realize is that even if they completely subdue us, they will then eat each other.

The Real 'Culture of Death'.  The Left is often led to accuse conservatives of wanting to kill jobs (usually by opposing union thuggery), kill freedom (by requiring a degree of personal responsibility), start wars (generally in an attempt to free other people), and ruin the economy (by preferring creation of jobs at home instead of internationally, anf by limiting taxation and the growth of government). But a closer look at the facts tells the tale: it is the radical Left that far and away has a greater propensity for death and destruction. From abortion, to euthanasia, to outright slavery unto death, it is the Left that has pushed love and respect for human life out the back door and into the trash bin.

The Obama malAdministration, in particular, seems to lean heavily toward generating grim statistics, and feeding the Grim Reaper. Take, for example, a current plan to inject American children with Anthrax in an experiment to find a proper vaccine and dosage rate for kids in the event of a major outbreak. Keep in mind that anthrax was virtually stamped out years ago, except small batches used for germ warfare by the US, Russia, and probably Britain, China, North Korea, Iraq and other military powers.

What national leadership would jeopadize its citizens in an experiment like that? Apparently, the same sort that would promote the vaccination of other youngsters - girls and boys as young as 9 - with the Gardasil vaccine that has resulted so far in thousands of adverse affects within a population dosage of more than 40 million. It would be nice if parents could choose whether to play those odds, but the government is pushing for mandatory inoculations. And I would bet that the Obama daughters and other elite offspring will not be part of the Anthrax experiment, other than as a  (non-innoculated) control.

Then there is the government plan - Project Gunrunner - to sell American guns to Mexican cartels, which in turn have been used to kill at least one American border patrolman and possibly one or more US citizens. It is widely believed among conservatives (with good reason) that despite denials from DoJ leadership, the real objective was to spur more draconian anti-gun legislation here in the US.
And of course there are the military ventures, which are suprising for a purportedly anti-military civilian leadership (but perhaps that only applies to Republican administrations). Apart from planning "contingency" deployments within the US, Obama has pushed us (without congressional approval) into action in Libya and Somalia, among other places.

As noted earlier, we can't leave out the Left's undying (sarcasm) support for abortion, eugenics and euthenasia.  As the world population hits 7 billion, let's not forget that the world's elites and many of their mindless followers are dedicated to population reduction on a massive scale. Never mind that wars, disease and natural disasters take a huge toll on human lives, those that know so much better are looking to speed up the process through abortion, starvation campaigns, rather than intelligently scale back population growth through more humane and consistent means. And, as previously noted in this tacky little blog, the 60s radicals who are now in charge of virtually everything had planned long ago to "dispose" of millions of people (i.e., conservatives) who wouldn't bow down to their collectivist, repressive regime.

With all this negative energy directed towards all of us (except for the aforementioned elites, of course), is it any wonder they are also trying to stamp out the comfort, support and hope offered by our Christian faith as well?  Is that brimstone I smell?

Bellringer's lament

Believe it or not, I hate being the bearer of bad tidings (to those subjected to public schools, that means I don't like bringing bad news all the time). I'd much rather be the guy that comes in with a big smile and says, "Guess what, everyone; happy days are here again!"  Unfortunately, that would be a lie, and a dangerous one.Besides, there are plenty of people already doing that. Truth is, the world has changed radically within the past few years, and the bad news is ramping up like a brakeless steamroller running down the mountain toward a ski lodge during the New Year's Eve party. And like the party, most of the folks inside are too drunk or wrapped up in who they're gaming to take a look out the window, even when someone is yelling, "There's a steam-roller coming at us, run for your lives!"

I've been trying to get people's attention for years; to warn them of what could be (there's less mystery now if you pay attention) coming, but most just laugh or shrug it off. It's not as though I'm speaking down from on high, with all the physical and economic security one could desire. In fact, I'm just the depth of a shadow away from complete poverty, but I don't consider myself poor. God has blessed me so much more than I deserve, and He doles those blessings out daily in one form or another. So, I feel my obligation and duty is to serve, and to try and tell others of coming danger and Judgment. Like others who try to ring the warning bell, it can be lonely and frustrating to realize most people - including those you care about - don't believe you and couldn't care less.

While we're on the topic...  Since we're dwelling on bad news here (as opposed to..??), you may as well join me for a run-down of just a couple of examples of the latest social detritus, and see which ones you can check off your "already knew that" list.

We learned from that right-wing (not) news organ Reuters that the Obama malAdministration has a secret panel in the National Security Council that conducts virtual 'Star Chamber' hearings to decide which American citizens to put on a literal 'hit' list. The most prominent victim so far to make this extinguished list is US-born al-Qaeda mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki.  I'm torn on this, because on the one hand I believe our government shouldn't be targeting us for elimination for political reasons. But on the other hand, I believe that the government wields the 'sword of justice' and has a responsibility to punish murderers and those complicit in such crimes. For me, it comes down to the morality of the government wielding that 'sword', and I don't think the present one is the right one to do so. Besides, they claim to "follow international law" while prosecuting their list. So that means it is internationally acceptable to knock off one's citizens? Globalism rules! And that's a scary thought.

We're discovering more about the American educational system that has been systematically poisoning minds for nearly a century.  The mechanism for this dissemination of anti-American values is locked up in the teachers' union, but at its core is the corrupting philosophy of socialists (OK; let's call them what they actually are...communists).  While many are frothing-at-the-mouth commies, most are simply ignorant of the goals and background of the educational elites who influence their own education, and in turn influence their students. As computer geeks say, garbage in, garbage out.

Meanwhile, the "totally (non-)spontaneous" mobs of the ignorant, indolent, insolent and unwashed continue their live-out in the streets of the Big Apple, Washington DC, and other cities.  And although they would probably count me among the "99%" (actually, I'm solidly in the 43%) I think these self-absorbed smellitists are woefully - and purposely - misled.

At the core of the chaos is a statist, collectivist, communist ideology, conveniently wrapped up in phony feel-goodism and globaloneyism. What these overly-impressionable Young Turks don't realize is that they are being used (as in useful idiots) as cannon fodder.

The financial elites who bankroll these events, the planners who formulate and instigate them, and the political elites who set the stage are all using these gullible meatheads (or veg-heads, as the case may be) to provoke the authorities into an action that will ignite a maelstrom of violence, which in turn would cause the authorities to stomp them into submission, which would fan the flames of revolution, which would help collapse the system, which would provide the excuse for the elites to roll in and crush the revolt (which they financially backed in the first place) and restore 'peace'. (Yes, it's a massive run-on sentence, but I'm trying to make a point.) 

This would put them in position to create a new system, the same as the old system that has caused the misery and deaths of millions of people everywhere it is tried. And if you think I'm crazy to talk about the deaths of millions, keep in mind that this brain-trust firmly believes in massive population control, just so long as it happens to any other portion of the population except their own. They have admitted and discussed as much, it's just that so few are listening, and fewer are willing to believe it.

We also learned that the Boy Scouts have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (Say it isn't so!). The fact is that radical Islamicists have - much like the communists/progressives - infiltrated virtually every aspect of society; every political party and institution, nearly every media outlet, university, union, and government agency. Since they, like the communists, understand that the simplest way to conquer a nation or culture is to capture or influence its children, it shouldn't come as a surprise that these malevolencies would worm their way into organizations like the Scouts that center around the young.  This includes the churches of America as well.  But that is a tale for another time.

Changing the rules

Happy Labor Day! Yes; I'm being sarcastic. As President Obama spends the day pumping up union workers in Detroit with the illusion that his job creation plans are nothing more than strategies for failure, Americans celebrate a day that salutes the very unions which have helped to humble us and drive us into depression, psychologically and economically. And while I too appreciate a day off from the grindstone, I cannot help feeling betrayed yet again by people with fat wallets and fatter egos who gather together in closed rooms and determine what is best for everyone else, even knowing that what they plan is just the opposite. In one sense, we are all celebrating the demise of our liberty, but few seem to notice, and even fewer seem to even care. We've been conned on a grand scale by the collatoration of unions and big government (even while that government works with big business on the other side), and they've convinced us to love it so much we kick back and party hardy.

While unions were begun with the best of intentions - at least by the rank-and-file, the end game of organized labor since the beginning has been the ruthless accumulation of power. And while union workers by and large have made out very well, the cost has been an exodus of millions of American jobs out to other countries [According to a 2004 Cornell University report, 39% of the jobs lost overseas were union jobs. Congrats, union bosses!]. The intransegence of the unions - always seeking more benefits and protection for workers without considering the long-term effects of crippling competitiveness and protecting bad workers - has had the inevitable effect of shooting the workers themselves in both feet. After all, a golden contract is no good if there is no production line to support it.  And while this pathetic short-sightedness is bad enough among industries, it is downright deplorable among civil servants, who seem to have forgotten the "servant" part of their job description.

With cities' and states' governments threatening to save themselves by throwing the most essential workers (police, firefighters, water, sanitation and others) under the collectivist bus, it is truly ironic that the police, who are the hammer that pounds the populace on the anvil of government regulations, is so often first on the chopping block. Of course, as the enforcement role is assumed by a generation not versed in rights and responsibilities, the incidence of storm-trooper personality types is increasing exponentially, so we might be able to spare a few of those people, for the general welfare of citizens, if not economic stability.

Who's in charge?  When I was growing up, there were rules that most people took for granted. Marriage meant one man and one woman. You could do pretty much what you wanted - especially with your own property - as long as it didn't affect someone else in a substantially negative way (which meant you could fly the American flag from your front porch with nary a whimper from the neighbors). Children, while not as pampered as they often are now, were loved, and the children generally knew it because they saw both parents every day.  If need be, you could defend yourself and your property without fear of persecution (yes, I meant persecution,in the sense of a common understanding that person and property are sacrosanct). Ideally (if not practically) you didn't lie to people, you didn't cheat, you didn't steal, you didn't murder, and you respected the God of the Bible and His Church.  Leaders were expected to set the example for ethics and personal behavior. Of course, almost everyone screwed up at least one of those at some point in their lives (and some more than others), but you assumed everyone at least knew the rules and would be held to them. They were the  standards you could point to and defend the social fabric with.

My, how far we have fallen. It's getting increasingly difficult to find more than a relative handful of people who even recognize those social boundaries anymore. And with each passing generation, our hold on the wholesome gets more tenuous.  Holy matrimony is being trampled in the name of political correctness as as another direct affront to God. Private property is being swallowed up by the State, and privacy is all but lost to an ever-intrusive government and corporate behemoth that respects nothing but its own power. Children are being pampered to spiritual death; provided with more wants than they can handle responsibly, yet their real needs (the actual presence and involvment of loving parents [plural] and a quality education that reinforces both rights and responsibilities) are relegated to the not-so-tender mercies of the daycare provider, the sickening agenda of the education establishment and the self-centered goals of the teachers' union. Lying, cheating and stealing are not only acceptable but fashionable by many social institutions and groups including the halls of academe and government. Murder has even become legal, as long as the victims are the absolutely most defenseless segments of society. And as predicted, one of the latest pushes on the homosexual front is an attempt to normalize pedophelia via the faux-science of the psychological' community'.

As for leaders...where do I begin?  After thirty-plus years as a Republican, I switched a couple of years ago to the Conservative party (here in New York State), simply to avoid the ambiguity of where I stand, so I don't think it would be fair to lable me as a party hack, although the GOP still has a few good minds in its ranks; however, those folks too often get pushed aside by the party leadership. As someone else once said, "I didn't leave the party, the party left me." And to be honest, I've come to the point where I reluctantly agree that both parties, at the 'establishment' level, are simply two wings of the same agenda.

Then there is the media, some members of which are so far in the bag for the Left they no longer even register on the 'sense' scale, and whose major goal seems to be as water-carriers for the radical Demoncrats of this malAdministration.

Flipping to the other side of the media coin; Glenn Beck's Restoring Courage rally in Jerusalem was held a couple of weeks ago without any of the incidents predicted by his critics who were trying to dissuade him and scare attendees away. It was a series of events intended to reassure Israelis in particular and Jews in general that there are many people around the world who do not agree with the emnity displayed by so many nations, organizations and individuals, including our own current malAdministration.

In addition to his passionate defense of Israel's right to exist, Glenn called for a new paradigm - one that defines human rights but also restores the responsibilities that are the necessary counterbalance to those rights - is a refreshing change from the 'gimme' brand of faux rights put forth by the Left. Besides, if the Left (or the extreme Right) ever achieves total global domination, there will be no such thing as rights for anyone except the most powerful elites. It has become a trusim that our most dangerous enemy is the enemy within.

Just another day of "fundamental transformation."  The Obama malAdministration continues - in line with the sickening agenda of the global elites - its relentless persuit of "nudging" us into total Mao-style communism. From continuous little insults (such as having China provide a 30-foot-tall statue of Martin Luther King and a 2,050 ft bridge spanning San Francisco Bay), to increasing pressure against our national defense, China is demonstrating that they are not content to merely sit back and fix their own country; they want to 'fix' ours and the rest of the world as well, and they are proceding headlong on that course.  Now, imagine how well that will go for all of us once they totally suceed.