Category: No More Bullshit!

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*See TWC’s Corollary to Santayana’s Axiom

Another thought-provoking comment by Joe Sobran

“…the whole history of Western Civilization is rooted in religion. Unless you understand Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism, along with the rise of Islam, you don’t understand the events that shaped the modern world. The issues of the Reformation were still alive when the United States was founded, when slavery was debated, when the Civil War tore the country apart, when Prohibition was adopted, when Joe McCarthy assailed “godless Communism,” when John Kennedy became the first Catholic American president.

“The Christian Right is closer to its own historic roots than most Americans, yet the media and the history textbooks treat it as a marginal, virtually un-American movement. This isn’t “multicultural”; it’s anti-cultural. It refuses to take America’s real origins seriously, adopting the Supreme Court’s shallow and ahistorical interpretation of the separation of church and state.”

Indeed. And that’s why my proposed corollary to Santayana’s Axiom is important in today’s cultural and political debates.

Santayana’s Axiom:

“Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

And for those very, very few who cannot locate third world county’s corollary to Santayana’s Axion in the blog header,

“In a democracy (’rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history are in the majority and dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance.”

I must confess that although I was blessed in my youth with literate parents and grandparents (and aunts and uncles) who were constantly discussing (often times arguing) historical and biblical (extended family gatherings included biblical and theological scholars among its numbers) context of current events at family gatherings, and my early public school years featured much, much more in the way of instruction in history than I’ve seen become the norm in the past 30 years or so, it wasn’t until college that I realized the huge gap in pubschool education that Sobran highlights above. Indeed, it wasn’t until one year in grad school when I was reading (for pleasure reading, not coursework) Jan de Hartog’s novelization of Quaker history, The Peaceable Kingdom, that I began to think seriously about just how large that knowledge gap loomed in public discourse.

But it’s even worse nowadays than I had ever thought in previous decades. Heck, in a time when more Americans can associate Paula Abdul with American Idol than can associate, “…a government of the people, by the people, for the people…” with Lincoln, let along The Gettysburg Address (something we were required to be able to recite from memory when I was a lad), it’s hardly any wonder that almost no one–it seems–is aware of the deep roots our own Constitution has in Christian thought and history.

And no one who is ignorant of The Battle of Tours (also called The Battle of Poitiers, 732), The Battle of Lepanto, The Battle of Vienna and other hugely important turning points in the 1,500-year-long conflict between Western Civilization and Islamic barbarity really has any business opening their mouths concerning today’s war for survival between the tattered remains of Western Civilization and Islam.

Sidebar: Oh, you noticed “Islamic barbarity”? Anyone who’s not read the Koran and familiarized themselves with the history of Islam denuded of Islamic disinformation and self-hating multi-culti lies from surrenderist leftards can feel free to argue with me about that characterization, but expect to be refuted with facts and roundly mocked for cultural and historical illiteracy.

I agree with Perri Nelson that the first task facing us in warding off the collapse of our own country that’s being engendered by leftard traitors and faux “conservative” Dhimmis and dimwits on the putative “Right” is that,

“…we need to be ever vigilant, and do what we can to preserve the ideals that they [The Founders] handed down to us.”

But more–and Perri makes this point many times on his blog–we need to engage everyone we interact with in dialog on the events of the day and we also need to inject historical context into our every interaction concerning current events. To do that, we need to be as fully informed about historical precedents and influences as we can be. With modern barbarians holding power in the White House and Congress, the only means we have left to us to preserve what little remains of the republic bequeathed us by our progenitors is to build up strong walls at the local level and then extend those walls further and further into the public arena.

And that means we need to become ever more aware of the genuine, valuable and significant influence of religious history on our current situation. Absent that awareness, our understanding of where we are will be deeply flawed.

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A Time for Choosing

Ronald Reagan’s 1964 speech, A Time for Choosing,” in support of Barry Goldwater, where he speaks of a rendezvous with destiny.

And, from the 1980 Carter-Reagan Debate:

And just for perspective, how different to most politicians was Reagan’s response to sly, underhanded attempts to insert stealth personal attacks:

Gotta love him. Even Mondale appreciated the comeback.

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About that Swine Flu “National Emergency”

The 0! has declared that we have a swine flu emergency. How sincere is he about the dangers of swine flu?

October 8, 2009
First Daughters Not Vaccinated Against H1N1

President Obama’s school age daughters have not been vaccinated against the H1N1 flu virus. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the vaccine is not available to them based on their risk.

The Centers for Disease Control recommend that children ages 6 months through 18 years of age receive a vaccination against the H1N1 flu virus. At this time only children with chronic medical conditions are receiving the vaccination because their immune system is not strong enough to fight off the strain. The CDC also says a regular seasonal flu shot does not protect against the virus.

How about a more common sense approach to H1N1 than running around crying that the sky is falling?

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps not fully highlighted in most official communications – can be practiced:

*Frequent hand-washing.
*“Hands-off-the-face” approach except to eat, bathe, etc.
*Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected person. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.
*Clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water, swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population.
*Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C, or Vitamin C tablets that contain Zinc to boost absorption.
*Drink as much of warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive.
…
Dr. Vinay Goyal is an MBBS,DRM,DNB (Intensivist and Thyroid specialist) having clinical experience of over 20 years. He has worked in institutions like Hinduja Hospital, Bombay Hospital, Saifee Hospital, Tata Memorial etc. Presently, he is heading our Nuclear Medicine Department and Thyroid clinic at Riddhivinayak Cardiac and Critical Centre, Malad (W).

Nah. All that is just too much work. Better to stand in line for a few hours waiting to (maybe) get a flu shot that has a chance of suffering Guillain-Barre syndrome or other side effects, right?

I’ll go with the salt water and Vitamin C, thank you. (Add D3 and even crock-fermented saurkraut for even more protection).

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Shocker! “Fake But Accurate” CBS News Rediscovers Some Degree of Journalistic Integrity

Swine Flu Cases Overestimated?
CBS News Exclusive: Study Of State Results Finds H1N1 Not As Prevalent As Feared

Well, duh! CBS investigates to discover that dogs still bite and governments still lie through their sharp, pointy, cannibalistic teeth.

(CBS) If you’ve been diagnosed “probable” or “presumed” 2009 H1N1 or “swine flu” in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.

In fact, you probably didn’t have flu at all. That’s according to state-by-state test results obtained in a three-month-long CBS News investigation…

…In late July, the CDC abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1 flu, and stopped counting individual cases. The rationale given for the CDC guidance to forego testing and tracking individual cases was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there’s an epidemic?

Anyone who’s been following the blatant pattern of mendacious effluent issuing from government orifices concerning swine flu is unsurprised by this. My severe cold this week actually met most of the clinical diagnostic criteria for flu, but seeking a doctor’s help, perhaps resulting in a Tamiflu prescription to do what nasal rinses and gargling with salt water could do just about as well, was just silly. The course of the thing–whatever it was–would run about the same no matter what: sick for about a week and then recovery. Well, recovery’s started, although it seems I’ll need some serious but slow reconditioning to regain some stamina. Par for the course, though.

So? Was it “swine flu”? Who flippin’ cares? I was (still am a bit) sick and I’ll either recover or not. Either way is pretty much fine by me.

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Clash of Civilizations?

This is another re-post, this one from November of 2006, recalled for service as a result of the comment in a post earlier today, “Of course, the largest part of the problem is the way Islam has codified the savage tribalism and bent toward irrationality that is endemic in the region.”

Just a few off-the-cuff thoughts on the putative “clash of civilizations” between the West and Islamic societies.

First, let me define what may be an idiosyncratic view of civilization that may find echoes of sentiment in some folks, at least. I recognize that “civilization” (a rather recent word in the English language, as such things go) was coined to refer to a society of “city dwellers,” and that’s about it. But I would submit to you that any society that is truly civilized must recognize and embody certain fundamental principles. Leading those principles are:

1. Private property rights.
2. Rights of persons to life, liberty and the pursuit of their own goals, insofar as those goals do not infringe on the rights and property of others.
3. A government concerned with protecting these rights against outlaws–both within and without the society.

By any measure, especially the principles noted above, one can see that if Muslims can be said to be civilized at all, it is a most crude, rudimentary and severely flawed “civilization” they own, indeed. Property rights? Islam is clear that property rights are first and foremost for Islamic men, almost to exclusion. Oh, dhimmis can own things in Islamic countries… as long as some greedy Muslim man doesn’t decide they want it instead (following Mohammed’s treachery, rape, pillage, butchery and enslavement of the Jews at Medina, et al.). In Islamic society, regardless the false protestations of “moderate” Muslims, it’s essentially a pack mentality where top dogs rule.

Of course, given human nature, Western societies have a degree of that sort of thing, as well, but property rights (well, until Kelo) were at least protected with a fair degree of evenhandedness under the law for most of the history of Western civilization. In fact, the progress of true liberalism in Western civilization can be fairly traced largely in the restriction of the greed of the powerful to legally “steal” from the weak. Continue reading “Clash of Civilizations?”

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Oh. Wow. Will the Idiocy Never Cease?

Anti-“blasphemy” regs trump the First Amendment. What part of “shall make no law” is unclear to The 0!? Just more “Sit down and shut up” from The 0!’s White House.

While attracting surprisingly little attention, the Obama administration supported the effort of largely Muslim nations in the U.N. Human Rights Council to recognize exceptions to free speech for any “negative racial and religious stereotyping.” The exception was made as part of a resolution supporting free speech that passed this month, but it is the exception, not the rule that worries civil libertarians. Though the resolution was passed unanimously, European and developing countries made it clear that they remain at odds on the issue of protecting religions from criticism. It is viewed as a transparent bid to appeal to the “Muslim street” and our Arab allies, with the administration seeking greater coexistence through the curtailment of objectionable speech. Though it has no direct enforcement (and is weaker than earlier versions), it is still viewed as a victory for those who sought to juxtapose and balance the rights of speech and religion.

Hmmm, if The 0! is serious about pushing this, expect an effective nullification coming here in the U.S. of

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Coming soon to a court room near you:

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Differing Point of View

The Founders viewed government as a necessary evil that needed to be hedged and curbed with great barriers to restrain its encroachment into the liberties of the People. Our current “feddle gummint” views the liberties of the People as a great danger to be hedged and curbed with great barriers to restrain the People’s encroachment into its power.

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From the Mouths of Androids…

…when it is not dreaming of electric sheep, the Mitt Romney android is getting some decent programming:

“I’ll bet you never dreamed you’d look back at Jimmy Carter as the good old days.”–Mitt Romney

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Re-Post: Prescription for What Ails US: Hope and Change

This was originally posted here April 21, 2008: a prescription for real hope and real change for the better, as opposed to the toxic “hopenchange” offered by The 0!

Yes, both “us” and “US”. This will be short (relatively), and I will provide zero supporting elements. Any comments resulting from readers doing their own homework on the elements below are welcome. Comments that demonstrate absolutely no knowledge of the elements below will be mocked. Do your own homework. I will NOT provide links here. You can type “google.com” as easily as I can.

Barry Hussein Obama-Winfrey floats a lot of hot air about “hope” and “change” (yeh, he hopes to change the US into a completely socialist society filled with grievance groups of “victims” leeching off producers–and he has a good chance of success). Well, unless we, as an electorate, take steps to knock a few politicians *spit*, bureaucraps and assorted other leeches on the head (metaphorically, you understand) in order to change the direction our coutry is headed, I hold out little hope for a future U.S. with any resemblance to the City Set on a Hill envisioned by the Founders.

What must be done (apart from throwing the bums out of office–darned near every elected official we can find)? Several things would stem the tide–perhaps even roll it back.

1. Don’t take this lightly. Every person I’ve presented this to so far (and I’ve been talking this up in the RW for years *sigh* so far w/o much movement) has expressed a positive response–even those who view themselves as “lefties”:

Each State of the Union needs an amendment to its State constitution providing that
a. every elective position on each ballot include “none of the
above” as a choice on the ballot
b. if “none of the above” recieves a plurality of votes, then ALL
candidates listed for that ballot position are disqualified from
seeking that office in the future and
c. a new election must be held for that position with new
candidates.

Frankly, I could see “none of the above” winning in a landslide in the upcoming presidential election…

2. Get the feds OUT of public education, at ALL levels. Out. No influence, no monies, no diktats. Nada, zilch, a big zero with the rim kicked off. Then work on reducing State influence on local schools. Make local school boards and parents completely responsible for their children’s education. With around 2/3 of recent college graduates functional illiterates, largely as a result of early intervention by “feddle gummint” busybodies’ stupid policies, we need to get the fedgov out of education.

It’d be a start.

3. Do some commonsense things to get our economy back on track. No, I’m not talking here about the recent Chicken Little wails about recession. I’m talking here about the fact that we’ve been strongly encouraged (in large part by stupid fedgov meddling) to become a nation of consumers surrendering more and more of our nation’s producing capabilities. “Line jobs”–factory work, even low-to-medium skill work–is dropping off, and this suits socialists just fine (more dependents for government handouts) but does nothing for a republic of free folk. Look, by definition, half our population is “below average” in intellectual potential. What are you going to do for productive, meaningful work for thse folks as more and more real goods manufacturing is moved offshore? Put ’em all in call centers making telemarketing annoyances of themselves?

Or maybe they can all go to work for McDonalds. Ya want fries with that?

To stem the tide of manufacturing jobs bleeding from our society (mixing metaphors is what metas are for, IMO :-)), two simple things would make a huge difference. (Do remember Clausewitz’s admonition that “everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult” and remember that we The People must recognize that we are in a sort of war with our political buffoons *cough* leaders.)

a. despite the opposition of politicians who do NOT want to
reliquish the power over your life that the IRS and the income
tax gives them, we must press for The Fair Tax.

Do your own homework. I’ve posted enough FACTS here at twc in the past to demolish most of the disingenuous arguments against the plan, so any comments demonstrating you have not done your homewoprk will be roundly raspberried. Rational argument demonstrating you’ve done your homework will be welcome, though. (*crickets chirping*)

b. a 10% accross-the-board tarrif on ALL imports from
EVERYWHERE, no exceptions whatsoever. Period.

These two things alone would do much to restore America’s competitiveness in manufacturing, create more jobs for the average joe (and josephine :-)), strengthen the dollar and encourage thrift (more investment capital–of the right kind).

4. Get a handle on illegal immigrants who are stealing American jobs, stressing American health and social services, Close our borders. Period. Make sure we facilitate LEGAL immigration, but close our borders, seriously police them–like Mexico does its Southern border (complete with shoot to kill orders, exactly as Mexico does). And aggressively go after ALL employers of illegal aliens (are you listening, Tyson?). Shut down the jobs and social services (all social services except for legitimate health emergencies–provide emergency health care and then a free ride to the border) and watch the flood of illegals make their way to the borders. And make no mistake, of the 20,000,000 or more ilegals in this country, much more than 75% of them will head south… Eisenhower accomplished similar results in the 1950s, and what man has done, man can aspire to do… It ain’t rocket science.

Reminder: any arguments with assertions made above should show you’ve done your homework.

5. Make some commonsense decisions about energy policy. Right now, energy policy is being made by stupid, short-sighted politicians who’re either afraid of their shadows (eco-whackos) or bought and paid for lackeys of oil companies, OR by greedy, short-sighted energy company execs who just want to cash in now without serious thought for the future.

a. eliminate our need for fossil fuels for electricity production.
E-lim-in-ate.

MIT has put plans for a modular pebble bed reactor in the public domain. China likes it. Although China is now leading the world in oil imports (actually, energy imports of all kinds), it plans on being a net exporter of energy within the next decade, relying largely on pebble bed reactors. Now, admittedly, PBRs are not the most technically advanced possibilities for nuclear energy production, but the technology is here, now, and is safer than any other energy production method, save possibly hydro-generation, that can approach its ability to provide large-scale electricity production. Safe. (Do your homework. Oh, and include readings on radioactivity, hormesis and what actually happens when Cobalt60 is accidentally introduced into the building materials for a large apartment complex… yeh, you get one link from me to start you off. It’s a PDF file. :-).) And please, no cries of “What to do with nuclear waste?” That problem’s been solved, solved and solved again. Take your pick of safe, efficient and easy methods. Safe handling of nuclear “waste” is 19th Century engineering.

But oil for other uses? Why the heck is the U.S. importing oil at all? We already have enough reserves for short-to-medium term oil production. If the fedgov would get out of the way, that is. And technologies like thermal depolymnerization manufacturing of oil are proven technologies. Heck, if every lil burg simply contracted with a TDP company to process its raw sewage, the lil burgs would have their clean water as a “by-product” and the contracting company could sell the oil. Everybody wins. And the odor some folks complain about from TDP plants? Not any worse than raw sewage, my friends, and the odor from TDP plants has this advantage: it smells like money. Talk about win-win-win-win: lower costs could be assessed on citizens for water treatment, city has a new business to tax (*feh*), the Saudis and Hugo Chavez take it on the chin, and the TDP business makes money.

And nuclear energy, available proven reserves and TDP plants are just three of many things we could be doing right now to wean ourselves of foreign oil. No pie in the sky technology leaps necessary, just political will.

There you have it: the twc five-point plan. It’s not exhaustive (I’ve not mentioned, for example, annual meetings of Mass Media Podpeople with Dr. Tarr and Mr. Fether or many of the other things that would benefit our society), but you get the picture.

Argument welcome, but remember the warning above: comments that demonstrate the commenter hasn’t bothered to do his/her homework will be mocked.