Opus 2016-351: Middle Class Morality: The Protestant Work Ethic

It is sometimes called “The Protestant Work Ethic”.  When you want to be insulting you call it “The Puritan Work Ethic” because we know what narrow minded haters the Puritans were.  In reality we should call it the Biblical Work Ethic.  The Bible presents work as noble and worthwhile.  It presents sloth as a sin.

Americans tend to work more and vacation less than people in other developed countries.  It is expected, or it used to be.  We are now seeing two extreme.  At one end we have the idle rich.  They live extravagant lives on money made by their parents.  At the other end we see the idle un-rich.  They live in a reliance on welfare and government handouts that have undermined the expectation to work.  That is un-American.  Americans are expected to work and pay their own way, not to be owned by their social worker or local party boss.

The strongest statement on this is

(2 Thessalonians 3:10 KJV)  For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

There is provision for orphans, sick and widows.  There is none for sluggards. 

So get a job.  Be American and also be Biblical

Viva la middle class morality.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-350: Headlines: Not Ready for the Big Time

It is a strange place to be in.  Putin is showing more international class than the President of the United States. 

In his continued attempts to weaken the United States and do as much damage as possible, Barak Obama has decided to expel Russian diplomats over the issue of hacking.  This has been in the news since before the election but now it is an issue.  He is obviously trying to cause an international crisis and show what a big boy he is.  He expected the Russian leader to respond in kind by expelling American diplomats.  This would create a crisis for the new Administration of Donald Trump. 

Surprise!  Surprise!  Putin seems to be a big enough man to say, “I will wait until the adults arrive and deal with them.”

I am thinking that Trump may only need one executive order when he gets in office:  “Everything that came out of this office for the last 30 days is null and void.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-349: Lite Ain’t Right

Some products in the lite version are not worth eating.  I remember diet Italian dressing when it first came out.  It was enough to swear you off salad forever.  Cheap baloney comes to mind.  You know, the kind that has grease dripping off of it while still in the package.  I meet people who eat pop-corn without salt and I ask myself, “Why?” 

Sometimes it does not make any difference.  Of course, that could be because I do not have a discerning palate.  I like broccoli.  I like my meat well done.  I like my cheese cold and my butter room temperature.  In spite of what the haute cuisine people say, I like tomatoes in my chili and on my hamburgers. 

In politics you sometimes have to go with the lite version.  I am a conservative.  I am a conservative because the positions associated with that work for a society that benefits the masses as well as the elites.  I am a conservative because the positions they take on the moral issues are in line with the Bible. 

In my faith there is not real lite version.  When you try to lower the spiritual calorie count you end up with something like instant oatmeal or fat free bacon.  Too many people who will accept the label “Christian” have removed all the vitamin content.  Real Biblical Christianity gives you the framework to live life in a complicated, crazy world.  It doesn’t make you fit in but gives you a rudder or an anchor depending on the need.  It is the difference between being a power boat with a compass and a life raft at the mercy of the current current.

Christmas and Easter.  The incarnation and the resurrection.  Great bookends for life.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-348: Headlines: Using a Baby for a Sneak Attack

Would you recognize Ivanka if she walked by you on the street with a bag of groceries in her arms?  I wouldn’t.  One of the things I have noticed about celebrities and many of the beautiful people is that if you get them out from in front of the camera and take off their makeup, they look like normal people.  They have wrinkles and blemishes.  Their hair sticks out.  Their clothes sag.  You would not look twice.

We recognize people by the frame around them.  I remember when I was in basic training and my family came to visit.  My own mother walked right by me and did not recognize me with a shaved head and ill fitting fatigues.

So how did this guy on the airplane recognize Ivanka?  He had to be looking for her.  He had to have some inside information on where she was and how she was traveling.  If I remember the article she was traveling in coach with her husband and children.  Do you walk down the aisle of an airplane staring at people asking yourself, “I wonder if that is a celebrity?”  I doubt it.  The man was looking for trouble. 

I am impressed at how the Trump offspring was traveling coach.  I doubt if it was a publicity stunt.  If the jerk hadn’t singled her out most of the people on the plane would have taken her as just another women traveling with her family.  This incident may for her to upscale.  It would be wise.  If the left wants to send a gay man holding a child to insult her in public when she is with her children I would say there is little they won’t do to get at the future president. 

For those of you who still are comfortable in the Democratic party or just in the masses this needs to be a wake up call for you.  You keep hearing about how violent and full of hate Donald Trump is and yet it was the progressives and democrats who paid all the trouble makers at his rallies.  It is the left that marched violently in the streets when they could not steal an election.  It is the gay and lesbian community that attacked a woman going about her business.

We need to make America great again not continue in the divisive tactics of the current elites.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-347: Are You Impressed?

Whose approval is important?  Whom do you want to impress?

When I think of Barak Obama I see a man pandering to the socialist elites.  He may like to play the race card and race bate but he isn’t really doing this because he wants the black masses to love him.  He is doing it because he wants the George Soros’s and the Muslim oil barons to pat him on the head and say, “Good boy.” 

To Trump it is the masses, the ones the elites are trying to disenfranchise.  Yes, he is a populist.  Yes, he knows how to talk Locker Room.  Yes, he can be vindictive.  But he really doesn’t care what the New York Times says about him or what the media pool thinks about him.  It is kind of like the experience of being a teacher.  If you goal is to be liked by the students you are putty in their hands.  They only like you when you are giving them candy or a free period.  You know when you have crossed a line and you go into reverse immediately.  On the other hand, when a student tells me, “I hate you,”  I tell them, “You’ll get over it.”  Of course I use the same line when they say, “I love you.” 

Trump really doesn’t care what the elites think.  He is wealthy.  He can buy and sell many of them.  He has been to their parties and bought their influence.  He is not impressed.  Of course everyone wants to be liked but not at the price of kissing lower dorsal body parts.

That is what makes Trump scary to the left.  It should also be a bit frightening to those on the right.  He will do what he thinks needs to be done.  Currently he seems to be on the side of the Constitution and conservative values.  Since those positions are based on facts and have been demonstrated to work I am hopeful that he will remain with us.  We cannot get complacent.  We need to keep encouraging the right people to have their influence on him.

Will he make mistakes from our point of view.  Count on it, but I am hoping that they will be honest mistakes of the moment that can be corrected with reason and facts.

It is going to be a wild ride for all of us.  If you ever get upset about something he does then you might need to get an arm band like the ones that were popular saying WWJD (What would Jesus do?) only the one you will have is WWHHD, (What would Hillary have done?)  I guarantee the contrast will make you feel better than a double dose of Vicodin.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-346: On the First Day of Christmas, My True Love...

Farewell Christmas Music.  I put it away on December 26.  On occasion a family member will protest and I will bring it out again but for me it is time to move on, at least until Thanksgiving.  When I was directing music in a church I used to bring out “Joy to the World” in the middle of the summer but that is a personal issue.

Technically we have now entered into the Christmas season, not left it.  The song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” covers the time between what we call Christmas on December 25 to what we call Epiphany on January 6.  Since I have spent Advent focused on Christmas I will spend Christmas focusing on the new year.  Since all of the labels and dates are arbitrary choices, I feel free to do that.

So happy new year.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-345: Birchers out of the Closet

I have not heard much about the John Birch Society lately.  With the current actions of President Obama regarding the anti-Semitic UN vote against Israel I am thinking he may be a secret recruiter for that organization.  They were a group that stood strong against Communism but the one image that comes to my mind are posters saying, “Get us out of the United Nations”.  When I Googled I came up with that image at the top of the screen.  That was a theme they had although a  quick look at their website didn’t have it highlighted. 

I never spent much time on the Birch Society.  At the time they were vilified by the press as right wing wacko types.  That was before I began understanding how biased the media was.  They might be poised for a new growth in membership.

One of my first thoughts when I heard what Obama did in refusing to veto the UN vote was that it was time to get out of the UN.  It has become an international joke.  I often wonder why we continue to let this organization that actively works against the interests of the United States to have their headquarters in New York.  Others around me spontaneously came up with the same idea.  They suggested moving the headquarters to Siberia.  I could live with that.  As I read posts on the web I see this is a recurring theme.  You have my vote.

So check out the John Birch Society.  Maybe we could start putting up those posters again and get some traction this time.

homo unius libri