Opus 2019-225: Then There Were Three

We have always had lots of liberals and Calvinists.  Often the only thing they have in common is denial.  It is almost impossible to get people to admit they are liberals.  They are sometimes so isolated that they call themselves moderates.  The ones who know they are liberal are going with Progressive now.  The same type of behavior is found in Calvinists.  They like to call themselves Reformed now.  Visit a church where it is clear that you cannot fall from grace and the will deny they are Calvinists.  The pastor will make all kind of statements about how you had no choice in being saved and deny he is a Calvinist.  It is kind of like the person who keeps telling you they lost three pounds but doesn’t tell you they gained five the week before.  There are still a lot of liberals and Calvinists.

Now we can add the Never Trump crowd.  They don’t seem to exist either.  A few might admit it but there are large numbers of people who see every imagined flaw in Donald Trump and believe it no matter how much he does that agrees with where they claim to stand.  They may even act like they are being positive about him but the “but’s” overwhelm the narrative.  I recently wrote a comment about a mistake I felt Trump made.  You might miss it because it was a simple opinion, not a major indictment.

I can think of others that might never admit to what they are.  RINOs come to mind.  We might add reporters to the list.  How about scientists?  I better stop there or my title will become meaningless.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-224: Baby Talk: Curiosity

Curiosity does not denote intelligence.  We think so in a child.  When they are always sticking their nose, fingers and entire body in places where they do not belong we talk about how they are curious and learning about their world.  I know it is true of my granddaughter but I am not sure about yours.  Being curious does not mean you learn anything.

Take the cat for instance.  It is always getting into every opening and gap.  It does things over and over and, to be honest, never seems to learn a thing.  It certainly does not get more intelligent.  Of course this could just be the fact that I am not a cat lover but how many times does a cat have to jump on my feet in bed before it learns it cannot fly?

Intelligence is what makes it possible to learn from experience.  My hope is that someday I will learn not to walk through the house in the dark.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-223: Vigilante Horizon

Is the day of the vigilante scheduled for a rerun?

Vigilantism is a scary prospect.  What often starts off as citizens trying to subdue crime and violence has a tendency to segue into kangaroo courts and personal vengeance. 

The problem we are facing is that much of our justice system is turning into a long running joke.  “Lawmakers” seem to be in competition to find reasons to let convicted criminals out on the streets again.  Even President Trump has bought into the concept.  Federal judges are ordering people released.  Daily we see headlines about murders committed by illegals who are out on bail or released for humanitarian purposes.  What it does is put violent criminals back on the street. 

What are law abiding people to do?  We have depended on the police and other law enforcement to protect us.  We have expected the courts to deal with criminals.  We build jails to keep them away from the general population.  Yet here they are out on the streets.

Why are left wing mobs like Antifa allowed to continue their reign of terror?  Why are so many Trump supporters worried about being vandalized if they put up a yard sign or a bumper sticker?  Why do liberals feel free to attack anyone wearing a MAGA hat?

My fear is that people will begin to take the law into their own hands.  I am not worried about criminals and corrupt officials being killed.  What I worry about is the fact that there is rarely any happy ending to such violence.  If it were an irate father who gives the murderer of his child their just reward and fades into the neighborhood, then civilization will resume.  If it is someone defending themselves and their family from home invaders, by them some more ammo.  If it is large crowds pushing what borders on revolution, then everyone loses.  Revolution and civil war usually destroy more than they remedy.

There is a reason why laws are to be enforced by a duly established government with due process and checks and balances.  There is a reason why the wheels of justice grind slowly.  It keeps the balance and allows justice to be done without destroying the weak.  Our problem is that so many of the people in positions of punishing evil have become evil themselves.

I hope the judges, clerks, police officers, politicians and anyone else with a responsibility to serve the public and advance justice wake up before we see vigilantes again because street justice will not stop with the rioters.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-222: Headlines: The Star Chamber

I saw it again today, a reference to “Star Chambers”.  Those of you who are lacking in a sense of history may think this has to do with Luke and the force.  No.  It is also not that dome in the observatory where you go to watch the show about the planets.  It actually goes way back in our struggle against the forces of fiat power.

The Star Chamber was one of those political ideas that started for a useful purpose and became a tool of tyranny.  It started in the late 1400s as an assist for a king who felt he was overloaded with all the appeals to justice.  It was a council that could hear cases when he was not available.  It ended in 1641 because of the abuses of James I and Charles I of England.  The reason those names are significant is that they were the monarchs that drove the English people into civil war.  Think of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Roundheads opposing the Cavaliers of the soon-to-be-beheaded Charles I. 

The Star Chamber became a secret court with no checks or balances.  They would drag people in and proceed to railroad them.  If you are familiar with the concept of Kangaroo Court then imagine one with absolute power, meeting in private with no responsibility to report to anyone except the king.  People would just disappear into the night.

The term is now coming up with regard to the Democrats impeachment proceedings.  They are being held in secret with arbitrary rules.  In this case Nancy Pelosi replaces the king.  The reason we should worry about this is because it sets aside all of the checks and balances that we fought the American Revolution to establish and puts an unelected aristocracy in power. 

Fear the Star Court of Impeachment.  Keep in mind that today they come for the president.  If they can destroy him in secret just imagine what they can do to you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-221: Baby Talk: Squirrel

Baby watching fills a lot of cracks in the day.  Maybe it should be called “Toddler Watching”.  Her attention span reminds me of a lot of adults I know.

Baby’s are easy to distract.  That is one of the great points when it comes to dealing with a tired toddler throwing a grump.  We get her to look for her kitty.  We ask her where her baby is.  She totes a doll around with her all the time.  She rocks it, wraps it, pats it and does everything to it that has been done to her in her 18 months.  Recently we got her going to get baby and suddenly, “Squirrel”, she saw something shiny and forgot all about baby.  You could see the transformation of focus.

We see this in our adult world.  Remember the movie “Wag the Dog”?  The idea was to distract the public from a presidential scandal by faking a disaster or military attack.  If you notice, every time the Democrats are faced with any kind of scandal that the news can’t ignore there is a new announcement that tells us Donald Trump is meeting his downfall.  And the general public looks.  They forget about baby and focus on shiny.

I have hopes that the toddler will develop a longer attention span.  I am not sure about the general public.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-220: Reform Illusion

I love it when famous people agree with me.  Jonah Goldberg writes (before he became a Never Trumper),

“Those yearning for a ‘Muslim Martin Luther’ don’t realize there are Muslim Martin Luthers all over the place, and they’ve been fomenting religious oppression and cruelty in the Middle East and terrorism abroad for generations now.”  p. 238

I have always been mystified by people who call Islam a religion of peace.  They obviously have only read the Readers’ Digest translation of the Koran which was prepared by undercover Muslims for gullible snowflakes.  The only peace that Islam offers to the world is a peace based on submitting to slavery or accepting death.  The idea is that the grave is very peaceful. 

And I have wondered what carousel people fell off of when they claim that Islam needs to be reformed.  That is what the “kill the infidel” of jihad is all about.  Those involved in the violence are the reformers.  They feel that Islam has drifted into the state that Christians feel about the United Methodist Church.  They think the average Muslim is a Muslim in name only and a clone of the dominant culture.

So don’t root for the reformers of Islam.  They want sharia to be your next experience in law.

Goldberg, Jonah.  The Tyranny of Cliches.  New York:  Sentinel, 2012.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-219: Baby Talk: Monkey See...

It is amazing how much children see and how much they mimic our actions.  Our granddaughter sees us taking a tissue and blowing our nose.  She grabs anything including the hem of our clothing and makes the noise with her mouth.  She then will wad up the receptor and throw it on the ground. 

The one that got me yesterday had to do with the dishwasher.  When I am through putting things in I will use my foot to raise the door up to old man stoop level.  As I was pushing in the racks and getting help from the toddler I was ready to close the door when she raised up her foot under the edge.  She didn’t catch the entire effect so she did not move the door but she was obviously doing what she had seen the monkey do.

Children watch us.  I don’t think it ever stops even when they grow up.  People watch us.  We need to live like it makes a difference because it does.

homo unius libri