Tagged: family

Self-Imposed Curfew

Just jotting a few thoughts on topic of Minnesota.

  1. For people acclimated to the cold, IE Minnesotans, Dakotans, Montanans, etc, standing outside in the cold is not an indicator of anything. (For Somalis, on the other hand, standing outside in the cold reveals them to be stupid.)
  2. I happen to have watched videos of officer involved shootings before the last couple weeks. They are never “clear cut” or have some obvious flow or escalate linearly. Hollywood et al should not be relied on for how an officer-involved shooting should look or feel. Go look up other videos and see for yourself. They are all utter chaos. That’s why law enforcement exists in the first place.
  3. My visceral reaction to this morning’s shooting is “These dumb motherfuckers (meaning the lefty whites) just normalized ICE-involved shootings. It now feels just like school shootings. ‘Another one? When will people learn?’”
  4. I want the Law (meaning all people who act as our Law, legislature, executives, and enforcement) to know I support them, not the protesters. I think the best way I can do this is stay inside, not counter-protest etc. Let the morons and rabble who only want destruction self-identify and be the only ones out on the streets. That will make it easier for the Law to do their job.

“The Law Must Win”

The law must win.

This is timeless wisdom. This is the proper perspective. This shouldn’t be controversial.

If someone you know, or if you, find this controversial, that does not surprise me. It just means that their (or your) position is anarchy.

Those of us who believe the law must win do not owe the anarchist a Covey-esque attempt to understand or empathize, anymore than we owe thieves or murderers the same.

It should not surprise that criminal behavior and criminal minds exist. It should not be surprising that people disagree that the law must win.

There is no world where we all exist to follow the law. That is the point.

So, the law must win.

Nearly Unremarkable, My Review of “One Battle After Another”, By PTA

Solon’s sentiment (provided by Plutarch, circa 100 AD) is my entire review.

But to add one additional measure to Solon’s opinion, I would say, “The opening scene made me think, ‘I don’t want my kids to know I watched this garbage.’”

I share that not because I am going to fulfill my feeling, but because the only other movie that provokes me so was Babylon and its elephant opening.

PTA has obviously earned a hearing, but, unlike his others, this movie has too many flaws to be anything more than a “sign of the times”.

Your Mission: Help Me Introduce Santa Claus…

…to a mohammaden boy and dad in my daughter’s kindergarten class.

Will you help?

My daughter, A-, came home and told her small brother and I that a her table-mate told her there is no Santa Claus. The trouble is this wasn’t a classic case of some kid seeing his parents wrapping the presents or hearing his older sibling spoil the fun. This was a little jihadist who sees the Great Satan everywhere not covered by bedouin clothes.

After confirming to A- and J- (whose relief was palpable and adorable) that there most definitely is a Santa Claus, I told A- to tell the boy, “If I was you, I wouldn’t be worried about Santa as much as Pedro Negro!”

Then reality hit. I mean, this poor kid is here. And in kindergarten no less. There are even futures which contain him and my daughter being friends—or worse!

What to do?

Here’s my plan. I bought the boy a toy car of the classic ‘57 Chevy Bel Air in Teal. Think Beach Boys Americana.

I bought the dad a book I have read: The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died.

The car is pure assimilation. IE, it’s a beauty—appreciate it or learn to appreciate it. Or leave.

The book is a challenge. “Here’s what we all know. Do you know it, sir?”

I have also printed a three page introduction to Santa Claus from my set of “The Children’s Book of Knowledge”, circa 1950. It is actually internationally flavored, explaining different traditions from different cultures.

Lastly, I will write a note of introduction. As in, I am Santa and want to introduce myself.

What should it say? What feeling will work?

“Work” meaning “move the family away from rigid-mohammedan-anti-assimilation-bullshit and towards the Christmas spirit.”

Comment below with your thoughts and ideas. Any and all are welcome, to include criticism of the plan.

We, The “Idiot Savants”

One delightful aspect that accompanies the hobby of reading that I did not expect when I began to read could best be called “following my whims”. In my case, I wanted to be a bit methodical, so I began with a couple sets of liberal education type books (AKA classical education), filled with essays by great and influential writers. (Keep in mind, this “began with” is after master’s level coursework, age 35ish). The editors of these sets would have pleasant introductions which included “for more on this topic” recommendations. And ebay supplied the steady-stream of follow-on books at minimal cost.

Math History is my main “whim” of late. This is because I have a belief that “there is no math in the Bible” and want to be able to explain the importance of my claim eloquently.

After you read Math History for long enough, to the point of being half-way through the first of four volumes of The World of Mathematics, you find essays on “Idiot Savants”.

Here I want to say I have provided enough information to not need to explain what “Idiot Savants” are, but to be clear, we are talking about people—a very, very few in number—who can perform, say, 10 digit by 10 digit multiplication problems in their head. The interesting part is that this ability has no apparent correlation to life skills or general wisdom or even other talents, professional or otherwise. IE, most jarring, even these “Idiot Savants” can be not good at math in the complete sense. In a word, to modern man, they are perplexing. Just what exactly is their “skill” or “talent”?

The above picture of the plate is something I took in a downtown toy store, one of the last holdouts of its kind, in my city. There are a couple of problems with it; can you spot them?

  1. If a kid can’t eat, a kid can’t read.
  2. If a kid can’t put food in his mouth, a kid isn’t hungry.
  3. Eating does not require plates.
  4. If a kid can’t distinguish plate from table (as manifested by their inability to keep the food on the plate and off the table), then they certainly aren’t able to distinguish individual sections within one (1) plate.
  5. Some forks, especially kid-sized, have three prongs.
  6. Lastly, and this may be picky, but if you’re going to put dinosaurs on a baby plate, I think the least you could do is label them with their names, followed by phonetic spelling. How else will the child learn?!

Faithful Readers, there is a big world out there. If your world is small, in other words, if you feel like you’re really close to finally being fully tooled and comfortable at, this, our problem-riddled life, then I challenge you to consider if you are, in fact, an idiot.

On Somalis

The best thing, if you ask me, about what’s happening in Minnesota regarding the Somalis is, wait for it, the Somalis have literally no idea what is happening!

They don’t know what Minnesota is. They don’t know what America is. They wouldn’t care if they woke up back in Somalia. They, by every measure, are utterly ignorant people who also are illiterate. Their only path in life is following the herd. Can they even commit fraud if they don’t know how to commit fraud?

It’s great to actually ponder these facts at the deepest level and significance.

What is man?

One (Actually) Interesting Question For Your Bible Study Group

I find professionally procured Bible Study questions to be, in a word, terrible.

Questions developed on the spot by well-meaning Bible Study leaders are, to be blunt, worse.

Why is it so difficult to ask meaningful questions of fellow Christians? I do not know. I think it has something to do with the idea that “no Christian should feel stupid or challenged in their faith”. (This sentiment, of course, being found nowhere in scripture or defensible as the cornerstone of strong faith.)

The following is one good question. Try it out, if you dare.

“In Aristotle’s The Athenian Constitution we find,

The earliest of these offices was that of the King, which existed from ancestral antiquity. To this was added, secondly, the office of Polemarch, on account of some of the kings being feeble in war.

(Italics mine.)

“In Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, we find,

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord…But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable.
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭4‬-‭5‬, ‭7‬ ‭LSB‬‬

Are these two ideas reconcilable? If so, how? If not, what is the difference?”

Happy studying!

It’s Not “Happy Veterans Day” Anymore

I say this because of two reasons. First, I saw a headline about a British, 100 yr old Vet who said plainly that his brother’s-in-arms sacrifices (WWII) were not worth it, looking back. I’m only 44 and I agree.

I didn’t see anything I would classify as true combat. I only knew about a few AF pilots and crew from my squadron that lost their lives or were injured while in OIF/OEF. But, if they ever were sound in theory, the whole “fight them now rather than later” or “fight them over there rather than back at home” concepts have been blown to shit now. I see now that the only defensible reason to fight and sacrifice has to be in the framework and timeline of “now”. “These people must be killed now.” “These buildings and capabilities must be destroyed now.” Put another way, the main feeling I had when I got back from Iraq remains: While I was over there trying to stop them, y’all let them in the back door here? WTF, Over?

Secondly, over the past couple of years, as covid restrictions and pandemic mentality lifted, my Ethiopian wife has seen more instances than she ever did between 2011 and now (met me in 2018) of me standing and receiving applause (and me applauding) upon being asked to stand at certain events which take a moment to honor Veterans or First Responders. As I learn more about my wife, which includes learning more and more about how little she knows or understands about America*, I can’t help but wonder (I will laugh in your face if you think there is value in me asking her directly) what goes on in her mind when she sees this exercise of up-and-down, wack-a-mole. If I was to give it my best shot, I’ll be damned if her thoughts go beyond, “Oh look! People are happy and clapping!” while her face uncontrollably forms a smile to match the group’s mood. I ask you to likewise look around America at the first-generation immigrants’ faces during these moments and see if they have a clue.

What to do? Who knows.

——

*Keep in mind, this is despite being married to yours truly. It is a significant feature of the uneducated to hold strongly to their uninformed beliefs through the barrage of all contrary experience.

Everyone Who “Knew This Would Happen”…

…now owes the rest of people, those without the gift of foresight, what happens next.

Predicting moohammedans’ boom in America is now merely part of history. There is no rhetorical power in claiming, “I told you so.” The rhetorical power now in great demand is, “What happens next, Oh, Great, Divinely-Touched, and Accurate Doom-Foreteller?”

This isn’t a “you show me yours, I’ll show you mine” taunt.

My foresight says two, and only two, options remain available.

  1. Insufferable mediocrity until America is a caliphate.
  2. Actual religious war, which results in everyone losing, except “hope”.

How’s that for Negative Nancy, on this Happy Hump Day?

The Final Paragraph of 11th Edition Encyclopedia Britannica’s Entry “Gunpowder Plot”

(For purists, this is also the infamous 10th Edition’s entry; the 11th is the 10th with three extra volumes.)

Just now I was catching up on my CBS Psalms study from last week, where I date the Psalms as I read them—a new habit to illustrate to myself and others how much of the Bible is actually ever read—when I saw the date and mechanically uttered V for Vendetta’s, “Remember, remember the fifth of November.”

I then moved to teach my 3 yr old, J-, the poem. During this, my conscience showed its face and I thought, “What even was the big deal? And was it successful or not? And did V really like the plot?” Etc.

Here’s the aforementioned conclusion (keep in mind the “Brit” of “Britannica” were the victims of the plot).

So ended the strange and famous capital Gunpowder Plot. However, atrocious its conception and its aims, it is impossible not to feel, together with horror for the deed, some pity and admiration for the guilty persons who took part in it. “Theirs was a crime which it would never have entered into the heart of any man to commit who was not raised above the lowness of the ordinary criminal.” They sinned not against the light but in the dark. They erred from ignorance, from a perverted moral sense rather than from any mean or selfish motive, and exhibited extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice in the pursuit of what seemed to them the cause of God and of their country. Their punishment was terrible. Not only had they risked and lost all in the attempt and drawn upon themselves the frightful vengeance of the state, but they saw themselves the means of injuring irretrievably the cause for which they felt such devotion. Nothing could have been more disastrous to the cause of the Roman Catholics than their crime. The laws against them were immediately increased in severity, and the gradual advance towards religious toleration was put back for centuries. In addition a new, increased and long-enduring hostility was aroused in the country against the adherents of the old faith, not unnatural in the circumstances, but unjust and undiscriminating, because while some of the Jesuits were no doubt implicated, the secular priests and Roman Catholic laity as a whole had taken no part in the conspiracy. (Philip Chesney York, an Oxford man.)

****

A post-script for my dad who says he struggles to connect what I see as the “obvious” connection within my posts.

Beyond the bald facts (as presented here), the following questions remains, “What particular training did the Britannica author have which allowed him to make his claim? Was it secular? Or support of some branch of Christianity? And how does the Bible study I am engaged in influence me? Towards sinning ‘against the light” or “in the dark’? By what measure can that be answered?”

For me, the true “Christianity” prevails. “Nothing could have been more disastrous to the cause of the Roman Catholics than their crime,” being the key notion. Fighting may be part of the road to prevailing. But if the fighting causes Christianity to lose, the sin was designed in the dark.