"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
There are comment threads on social media that seem designed to be proof that Mark Twain was right when he said, “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot,” and that Schiller expressed an eternal truth [via Talbot in “Maid of Orleans”] when he wrote, “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.”
Sadly, more and more, social media seems all too often to reflect the real world society around us. . . *sigh*
1 Corinthians 8-10 offers a pretty wide range of responses to “food sacrificed to idols.” Why am I thinking about this? Well, Amazon engages in a number of shady practices, but perhaps the most concerning is the way it bends the knee to Chicom interests and practices (all forms of idolatry, worshiping at the feet of Mao and his corrupt practices, as it were, corruption as evil as Mohammed’s own). For but one example, if one submits a review of a product that Chinese Communist interests object to, one can be assured of being banned from submitting any further reviews.
So, the 1 Corinthians linkage concerns? If buying from and using a product from a corrupted source offends (lead astray, cause to sin—including oneself *heh*) one who is weaker in the faith, then one should not buy/use such a product from that source. If buying an otherwise useful product from a corrupt source does NOT offend one who is weaker in the faith, then it’s OK.
So, I bought a new, compact Bible that will fit nicely in my ADC vest to sub in for the miniature New Testament I carry in my shirt pocket. . . from Amazon. ¯\_(?)_/¯ Beats driving 80 miles round trip to a bookstore in a dying mall to buy the same product.
Not of the United States. No, the founding principles of the Democratic Party: envy and greed, resulting in covetousness, resulting in the Democratic Party’s first “great work,” the Trail of Tears.
The current Dhimmi-craps have advanced, though. Now, in addition to envy and greed, they have embraced misery. The party creates misery and inflicts it on its constituency. . .with the aid of that constituency, knowing full well the tendency for misery to love company. . . and that the only thing misery loves more than company is creating more misery for others who are not yet among their miserable number.
Easy to rile people up when they are consumed with envy, greed, and misery of their own creation.
Going into 2025, one sentence keeps echoing between my ears: Let hope be not dismayed. It’s not scriptural (and, frankly, I know not whence it comes), but it does remind me of Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Politics. #smh What leftard politicians and Hivemind Media Podpeople simply cannot understand is that their attacks on Trump’s cabinet picks are simply them digging the hole they are already in deeper. Take Kash Patel, for example. They cannot attack his record, because it is sterling. Did I say “sterling”? Nay, solid platinum. So? “Oh, yeh, let’s attack his demeanor and his attitude! That’ll do the trick! He just doesn’t fit with the FBI’s image and ethos.”
What they cannot see (because they are willfully blind) is that no rational, ethical, moral person approves of the ethos and image of the Felonious Barony of Iniquity. It is like Crabby Appleton: rotten to the core, and thus it should either be given an institutional purgative or completely razed to the ground.
The Crosses Grow on Anzio
Oh, gather ’round me, comrades,
and listen while I speak;
Of a war, a war, a war —
where hell is six feet deep.Along the shore, the cannons roar.
Oh how can a soldier sleep?
The going’s slow on Anzio
and hell is six feet deep.Praise be to God for this captured sod
that’s rich where blood does seep;
With yours and mine, like butchered swine;
and hell is six feet deep.That death does wait there’s no debate;
no triumph will we reap
The crosses grow on Anzio,
where hell is six feet deep.~Audie Murphy (age 19).
This, from someone who left school in fifth grade to pick cotton in order to feed his siblings, enlisted in the Army with forged papers (because he was too young), was wounded in battle many times, in the course of a little over a year in theater became the most highly decorated enlisted soldier in US history, and among the honors won through “blood and sweat and toil and tears” was warded the medal of Honor at age 19.
The visceral response to war he penned in response to his experiences speaks to the price all too many have paid, pay today, and will pay in the future to purchase your liberty.
There are many reasons the Founders and Framers eschewed democracy as the framework for a national government and included instead elements of democracy within a republican framework. Still, along with its many flaws, democracy does have its shining golden moments. . .
Looking for the silver lining, I recall Alexis de Tocqueville’s comments on American society depending on voluntary associations and then I see all the VOLUNTEER efforts of private citizens in NC, etc., naturally contrasted with “feddle gummint” incompetence (that looks for all the world more like indifference, that most malicious of hates), and think to myself, “What do we REALLY need government for? Whatever it is, it ain’t this.”
. . .that I can’t quite get behind, IYKWIMAITTYD.
Nah. That’s WAY too friendly, and besides, feds aren’t my type. You know, human. I’m not into bestiality, ya know. (Ya can’t blame me for dehumanizing the feds, because they have done it to themselves.)
College admissions.
Self-anointed “elites” are above the law, don’t you know? After all, the Constitution only applies if they agree with it. Otherwise, it’s just dead words, you know? #gagamaggot
Yeh, 14th Amendment guarantees of equal protection under the law are apparently not recognized by “elite” universities that are nevertheless quite willing to accept federal funds to continue to thumb their collective noses at the Constitution.
There is NOTHING—absolutely NOTHING—good, ethical, virtuous, or societally healthy about “affirmative action.”
OTOH, while not necessarily unlawful, the “good old boy”/nepotistic admissions network is also repugnant. I recall the day when my mom, who was working in the high school supervisors’ offices (large district; half a million pop at the time) came home with an offer from one of the supervisors to gain me admission to an Ivy League school, complete with scholarship aid. I found it. . . distasteful that he would pull strings to get me “in.”
Glad I rejected the offer.