Opus 2022-231: One Small Step for Privilege

As I walked this morning I was reminiscing on my “white privilege.”  

My parents were  both products of the Great Depression, but lets go back a little further than that.  My dad had polio as a kid.  Because of the generosity of non-government charities he was given the latest treatments and surgery.  He came out able to walk but had a severe limp all his life.  If he had been through this today he would have had social workers and counselors who would have messed him up and turned him into a victim.  Since he lived in a different time he buckled down and went back to work.  He would definitely qualify as handicapped.  

He also qualified as a role model.  We never had much money but we were not deprived.  My white privilege included patches on the knees of my non-Levi denims.  They were ironed on to cover the holes, not as a fashion statement.  I remember the Christmas my brother and I got one toy between us.  I assume my parents had a little talk with my older brother because it seemed to automatically become mine.  It was used but who cared.  One of the big menu items at our house was bread and gravy.  I thought it was because we liked it.  In reality it was because it was cheap.

Just a small window but a record of the blessings and opportunities that are available to anyone who wants them.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-230: On the Street: Enjoying My Freedom

As I have been reading and studying I found myself wondering how life would be different if our overlords of the Progressive Left ever get their wish.  I began to reflect on my typical morning:  I get up, spend time in worship and study, have breakfast, walk, do a bit of work and take a shower.

Sounds okay.  How would that change if the Biden controllers get their way?

Let’s start at the beginning.  Under the socialist regime I would not wake up in my own home.  I never read or watched Doctor Zhivago but one of the vignettes that I have heard describes how he returned to his large home after the Communists were in charge.  Instead of the house he left he is assigned one room.  The rest is given out to the proletariat.  Goodby home.

I would also be up and out on the governments schedule, probably eating at a common table out of a common pot.  There would be none of this worship nonsense and instead of a retirement check I would be assigned a place to contribute my work to the people.  Also, you can forget the air conditioning.  

I would not be able to walk safely.  Not only would the thieves and murders be running loose but the Gestapo thugs would feel free to stop me, ask for my papers and haul me to jail because I did not button my shirt all the way, or because I didn’t have a shirt with buttons.  I would not have a hot shower.  I would be totally stifled.  

Welcome to Utopia, or at least Utopia for the leaders of the party.

Keep in mind that the center concept of Communism is to get it for yourself at the expense of everyone else.  I know that is not how they market it but inside every Marxist mind there is this little voice that says, “I am one of the special ones.  Everyone else is below me.  In the end I will emerge with all the toys.”

What these precious special people don’t understand that under Communism they are always expendable.  The execution of previous bright lights was a regular occurrence in the Soviet Union.  Make note,

“And the first detachment of killers, those Chekists and convoy guards and also some thieves, who had participated in the ‘Kashketin executions,’ were also shot soon afterwards as witnesses.
    “In 1938 Kashketin himself was awarded the Order of Lenin ‘for special services to the Party and the government.’  And one year later he was shot in Lefortovo.” page 390

You don’t read that in the Communist Manifesto.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.  Translated by Thomas P. Whitney.  The Gulag Archipelago, Vol 2.  New York:  Harper & Row, Publishers, 1973.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-229: Not Even Ken Is Good Enough

I am fighting a losing battle.  There is nothing I can do to overcome the “composite husband.”  I am sure you have met him or at least parts of him.  He is made up of the most admirable attributes of all the men my wife knows.  Some are good people.  Some she has written off.  They all have something to add.

One guy takes his wife out to eat all the time.  The same guy never buys presents for any occasion.  Another one is great at working in the yard.  The problem is he won’t take a stand on any issue.  Then there is the handy man who fixes everything before it knows it needs fixing.  Of course he also spends money like he wishes he had it.  

One consolation is that I will never really have to compete because old Mr. Composite, if he ever shows up, will already be married.  Of course his wife might be nagging him with my sterling qualities.  We don’t have time to list them all today.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-228: Headlines: Monkeypox Manipulation

I saw an interesting bit of click bait at Instapundit.  It seemed to maintain that the new celebrity pandemic on the block, monkeypox, can be treated by the same vaccine that is used for smallpox.

Have you heard that anywhere?  I haven’t.  All I have heard are attempts to resurrect the panic generated by the Covid manipulation.  The fact that it can already be treated doesn’t seem to get much press.

But there is still a problem.  According to the article, which seems to come from the N.Y. Times, we don’t have the 20 million doses that we had ten years ago.  We are now down to 2,400.  Of course, coming from the Times the accuracy is doubtful.

So maybe we should panic.  According to the article the science community has known about monkeypox since 1958.  Now it is a problem that should not be a problem.  Like smallpox, it can be treated.  Unlike smallpox it does not seem to be spread by casual contact.  Maybe we have another disease that will develop a civil right.

Trust the science but only when it is science.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-227: In a Bubble

I have vague memories of the media lampooning one of the Bush’s because they did not know how the scanners at the grocery store worked.  That is really a window into the world of the elites.  They don’t have any idea how our daily lives function.  They don’t need to.  I am guessing that if you are elected president or are CEO of a major corporation you never touch cash and possibly don’t even carry any credit cards.  You have “people” to do those mundane things for you.  

It is possible that these people really believe the mantra that there is no recession and inflation is not a problem.  When you have a chauffeur and a team of body guards and the armored limousine arrives at your portico washed and fueled whenever you walk out the door then the cost of gasoline is not really an issue.  You probably even have someone who informs your driver to be at the door.  

They do not understand our world.

They do not care about our world.

We are the peasants to plow their fields, the chattel that scrubs their floors and the chambermaids that pick up their underwear.

Don’t expect that to change.

Prices will keep going up.  Liberty will continue to be eroded.  Eventually there we be a correction but there is no telling how long that will take and how much damage will be done to your life and mine.  There is also the possibility that the Elites will get what they want:  violence.  Keep in mind they want to win but if they cannot win they will settle for destroying the prosperity and self determination of the masses.

But in their hearts they think they know what is best for all of us and someday we will thank them.  If we don’t then a pox upon us all.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-226: Headlines: Swell

As I said before, I pray more for the people who took the vaccines and boosters than I do for people who might be sick at the moment but were not vaccinated.  One of the images I see that almost turns my stomach is a mother holding her child while they get stuck with a needle.  I find it hard to believe anyone is so blind.  

Recently in the Daily Wire there was a link to an article about one of the many side effects that are running rampant in children and young adults.  Evidently there is a problem with the brain swelling.  You can read the article if you want but I found one quotation interesting.

“'Based on the currently available evidence ‘encouraging mastectomy, ovariectomy, uterine extirpation, penile disablement, tracheal shave, the prescription of hormones which are out of line with the genetic make-up of the child, or puberty blockers, are all clinical practices which run an unacceptably high risk of doing harm,' Florida’s Department of Health wrote in a memo."

Notice it is Florida speaking up.  

I can’t comprehend how the parents of the Thalidomide babies felt when their children were born deformed.  At least they had no warning.  They trusted the science.  That is not true for the parents that are subjecting their children to these experimental drugs that are nothing but bad news.

I am glad that many of my friends are on the same page as I am.  I fear for those who have refused to think.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-225: Nice and Good

Allow me to make a statement that sounds heretical.

Teachers are basically nice people.

Notice that I did not say “good”.  I said “nice”.

If you are one of those people that think the two words are synonyms then I would have to pick a different word on one side or the other.  Nice people don’t litter.  Nice people don’t play their music too loud after 10:00.  Nice people tip the waitress.  Nice people try not to hurt your feelings.  I could go on forever.  Teachers are nice people.  Nice is, well, nice, but it is not necessarily good.  In our culture nice people can also commit adultery, do drugs, lie and cheat and we even have nice parents taking their children in to be mutilated by sex change operations.  They are all probably wonderful neighbors.

Good can simply mean that the center fielder made a good catch.  Someone said a good landing is any that you can walk away from.  I am using it in the moral sense.  When I say teachers are not necessarily good I mean that they have no objective morals.  Yes, they do have a sense of right and wrong but it is subject to change based on the winds of culture.  Think of the topic of “climate change”.  When the wind blows one way they are concerned about global warming.  When the cultural winds change they become concerned about global cooling.  Or look at the American Communist Party.  When Hitler and Stalin were making like brothers from a different mother they proclaimed that war against Germany was evil.  When Hitler invaded Russia they produced an immediate about face.  Now war was good.  The difference had nothing to do with Hitler being bad but that Stalin and Communism were their gods.

Teachers are nice people.  Many like children.  Many work very hard.  Many care.  They are still at the core of what is wrong with the country because they have no moral compass.  In one sense they are just a part of the herd.  In a more real sense they are in the role of Judas Goat.  That is a goat that is trained to lead other animals places including the slaughter house.

When you see all the headlines about the brainwashing and grooming going on, most of it is done in a subtle way.  There are a few really bad actors, true, but most of the teachers taking the baby steps of indoctrination don’t know what you are getting upset about.  They don’t put the picture together.  To them morals and ethics are a fluid field and as long as everybody feels good about themselves then they are doing their job.

I retired from teaching five years ago.  If I had not done so I am sure I would have been fired by now.  I know that the administration breathed a big sigh of relief when I walked off campus.  

If you have a family member that feels called to be a teacher then pray for them and try to make sure that they have enough of a foundation to get in trouble for the right reasons.

Make them good, not just nice.

homo unius libri