stupid is as stupid does – Page 80

July 29, 2006July 29, 2006

“Gay” Fraud

Below, a revision and expansion of a comment I made on Bloggin’ Outloud in a short response to Lyn’s post, Current Argument: Gay Marriage, Part 1. Talk amongst yourselves… *heh*

I don’t have any animus toward gay people, but I do very much resent homosexuals attempting to co-opt gaity as their own exclusive province. I am about as completely heterosexual as can be imagined (and I have a very vivid and fecund imagination), yet I have moments, days, even weeks of experience being truly gay. Not homosexual, but gay.

Indeed, I have known very few homosexual individuals who have been gay. Most I have known are–on various three-dimensional axes–as far from being gay as could be imagined. In fact, the homosexual activists often in the news are angry, strident, whiners and moaners and shouters-down of opposing views and altogether unpleasant individuals. That’s about as far from gaity as can be imagined.

That lil idiocy of homosexual activism dispensed with, what about the silliness of homosexual “marriage”?

Oh. Yes. That.

At best it’s an oxymoron.

Optimally, it’s just another way for a miniscule portion of society to blow itself up in importance and whine and moan and shout its way into manufacturing a “right” that makes no sense.

It’s silliness puffed up large. All sizzle, no steak. All hat, no cattle. etc. As ideas go, it’s as profound and worthy of discussion in the marketplace of ideas as the meritorious idea of tainted marshmallows as a steady diet is profound and worthy of debate in the marketplace of ideas.

If homosexuals want to harm themselves by their deviant behavior (and a 2%-4% group deviating from the norm is just that: a deviation), they have that right, but to ask society to place a stamp of approval on it is assinine.

Arguments about genetic disposition toward deviant behaviorâ€”even if trueâ€”are spurious, as are arguments about equal rights for homosexuals (re: marriage, etc.). Were I to have a “genetic predisposition” toward violent resolution of conflict (and some people do, you know), society would still be justified in censoring my behavior were I to engage in deviant behavior and punch out everyone I disagreed with, no matter how much I whined, bitched and moaned about “equal rights” for a violence-prone minority group.

In fact, what about that hugely-discrinminated-against minority group, cannibals? Where are their equal rights?

Bah. Behavior has always been and always will be moderated, circumscribed and censored or allowed by societies. Civilized society (there has really only been one for the past 1,000 years or so, you know) has always denotedâ€”rightlyâ€”that marriage is between some number of men and women (various sorts of polygamous/polyandrous arrangements have been accepted, although monogomy has been the norm for civil acceptance). Changing that for a 2%-4% portion of society is truly allowing the gnats to bridle the horse.

It’s silly, and when society allows the silly to drive public discourse, it’s in serious trouble.

Put the homosexual marriage silliness back in the closet with the other silly season arguments and issues and get on with real issues that affect ALL of society, including the other 96%-98%.

Stuffing the closet at The Random Yak

July 28, 2006September 28, 2011

Mending Walls: “…holes and gaps, lacks and losses…”

Note” Open Trackbacks to this post Friday, Saturday and Sunday (28-30). Link to this post and track back. More below the post body.

I made allusion (allusion, heck: I linked the thing) to the (musical) Principles of Classicism in “Seven”, earlier this week both here and at The Wide Awakes. Since then, I’ve had a productive email exchange with a commenter at the TWA posting. But first, for those who will not click the link, an excerpt from Principles of Classicism *heh*

One of the primary reasons I am a fan of Classical (and even much classical) music is not just because the music is complex, beautiful and compelling but because it is the expression of a particular ethos which our society sorely lacks.

Aside from technical matters of form, the principles of Classicism as found in Classical Music were

balance

clarity

accessibility

expressiveness

edification

Although two of these principles are still found in abundance in contemporary music (though not in contemporary “serious” or “academic” music, IMO) it is the lack of the others, especially the last, that has seriously harmful effects upon our society.

The email exchange that led to this post included an excerpt from William Blake’s Laocoön that I think points up several “holes and gaps, lacks and losses” in our society today:

A Poet a Painter a Musician an Architect: the Man Or Woman who is not one of these is not a Christian

Caveat: Blake’s view of Christianity was idiosyncratic. If we take not only the rest of his Laocoön inscriptions but the whole of his body of work into account, what Blake seems to mean when he refers non-ironically to a “Christian” is more in line with his thinking on “true” or “whole, complete, authentic” man (which to Blake in. this sort of context meant simply human, male and female).

Strangely, for Blake, his thought in this and other of his Laocoön inscriptions (viz., “The Unproductive Man is not a Christian, much less the Destroyer” et al) are quite closely aligned with traditional Christian theology as it relates to the imago dei.

Think for a few secs: the traditional Christian view of the imago dei (loosely, the image of God in man) includes the expression of God’s eternally creative nature in mankind. Thus in this model, all human acts of creative nature are indicative of God’s continuing creation… and all destructive or harmful acts are indicative of a marred, damaged, imperfect mankind.

Understanding this fundamental principle as embedded in Western Civilization (and lacking almost entirely in other so-called civilizations–and I use “so-called” in a deliberately challenging tone) leads us to see some of the critical elements that are fading from today’s society, elements we sorely need in abundance to prevail in The War Against the West being waged on many fronts both at home and abroad.

Look, folks, once the fides covenant meme began to fade in our society, many of the other foundation stones supporting our society began to crumble as well. The idea that creation is better than destruction came under assault as soon as good and evil were dismissed as culturally relativistic phenomena. I’ll not continue the litany of woes perpetrated by postmodernism and post-postmodernism and their progeny in the multiculturalists and others. Dig for a few on your own.

Suffice it for this relatively short post to simply point out: absent the values derived from just the Creator/imago dei meme, we have scant chance of turning the tide of barbarism that has resulted in the Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries, the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind and the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade steadily chipping away at our society’s foundations.

Continue reading “Mending Walls: “…holes and gaps, lacks and losses…””

July 26, 2006August 3, 2006

Seven

Note: I am NOT going to be very specific in this post. Folks who are able to do their own homework can easily fill in specific examples and many, many more issues than I list below. This is, as I say below, an opportunity to engage in a very simplified, but potentially useful, thought experiment.

Each of the critical issues facing us as a society today are… moral issues. It’s just that the idea of virtue and sin have been denigrated (and pejorated) so long and folks who ought to know better have allowed the enemies of virtue to redefine the topic so narrowly (and wrongly) that we rarely think in those terms.

As a starting point, try this lil thought experiment: take the classic “Cardinal Virtues”â€”Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance, Faith, Hope, Loveâ€”and “Deadly Sins”â€”Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, Lust; although older lists include despair or “accedie”â€”and try matching up the “Deadly Sins” with difficulties facing Western Civ… and the “Cardinal Virtues” with the solutions to those difficulties…

You can easily page through backposts here at twc for critical issues to apply these to, but I’ll go ahead and list just a few for starters:

Democratic rule is arguably greatest achievemant of Western Civilization, and democratic government “of the people, by the people” is under assault both by those who claim greatest alliegiance to it and by those alien invaders to whom it is a… foreign concept. Think: the Eurabianization of France, Italy, et al; the anti-democratic urm, “Democratic Party,” and the political elite as a whole, to mention just a few obvious examples.

What deadly sins appear to be the favorites of the politcal elites, Academia Nut Fruitcakes, Mass Media Podpeople and their ilk who commit open acts of treason, encourage invasion and weaken the very fabric of a democratic society by their open acts of defiance of that society’s fundamental principles of governance and responsible citizenship? What virtues do these folk demonstrate that they lack?

Apply that line of thought to

Education…

The Arts…

Taxes…

Religion…

You get the idea? A growing number of the “products” of so-called public education end up graduating from college unable to read and understand a newspaper editorial or the instructions on a prescription med bottleâ€”apparently only about 31% of recent college grads can manage those great intellectual feats. Are sad facts like this the result of a virtuous approach to educating our future citizens or an example of how greed, sloth, pride and envy lead educrats, a growing (sadly) number of teachers and pubschool administrators *spit* to join with slothful parents in lobotomizing future citizens?

The arts… *sigh* Dominated by two extremes with trash on both ends. “High art” dominated by crucifixes suspended in jars of urine. Pop art dominated by misogynistic rap “music” and worse. What virtue is there in,

“You say you a dime, you a measly penny. She say she’s a dime, she’s a measly penny. She say she’s a dime, she’s a measly penny. Stop trying to get with me. You say you a dime, you’s a measly penny.”

And that’s some of the cleanest of rap lyrics, far better than the norm, both in “lyric” quality and in moral tone. I won’t reprint the crap that falls within the norm. Take a few minutes and rate ANY pop music today with the Principles of Classicism, then ask yourself, “How would society improve if more music today employed those musical principles?”

Of course, most folks today, after lobotomization via pubschool and mass media, won’t even notice the religious, social and philosophical underpinnings of those principles, because Western Civilization itself has been under such prolonged assault by both mass media and academia.

*sigh*

Dare I mention the huge evil that our current tax structure IS (let alone the greed that is its essential underpinning)? What virtue can answer this evil?

And religion… *sigh* Christianity and Judaism both devolving (in this country) to the social clubs they have long since even ceased being in other Western nations? I wonder what virtues are lacking there?

I just mention these general areas of concern, because this sort of approach to understanding many, many issues could quite likely be useful in doing something that is the anathema of anti-democratic, anti-western civ folk: making clear distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil.

Sometimes the issues really are clearcut black and white.

Obviously, the traditional “Cardinal Virtues” listed above aren’t the only virtues needed to combat the further erosion of Western Civilization. And there are other traditional lists of “Cardinal Virtues”. And the “Seven Deadly Sins” are joined by a host of others in the camps of both those who seek the end of democratic and other Western Civilization values and those who defend them.

But those two lists of seven do provide a useful toolset for approaching issues.

July 25, 2006

Guard the Borders

This blogburst post is a day late because… well, it just is. I let myself get jammed up on time yesterday and just didn’t get it posted. Nathan’s done his typically good job of addressing issues with this one, though, and it’s worth your time to read.

by Nathan Bradfield at Church and State

Groups such as the 21st Century Paul Revere Ride and “You Don’t SPEAK For Me” are taking a stand against illegal immigration and trying to push the issue back to the forefront so Americans can hold their elected officials accountable at the polls.

Via The Montgomery Advertiser:

Election day is more than three months away, but a group of border state residents wants to push the issue of illegal immigration to the forefront of campaign issues.

The six men, members of the 21st Century Paul Revere Ride, stopped Friday morning in Montgomery to speak to local residents at the state Capitol. The men are touring the country on motorcycles, stopping in each state capital.

“We are facing a human tsunami of population,” said Frosty Wooldridge, a retired schoolteacher and leader of the 54-city motorcyle tour. “If we don’t put a stop to illegal immigration and limit legal immigration, we’re turning America into a Third-World country.”

Speaking to a small crowd gathered at the base of the Capitol steps, Wooldridge said his message is neither racist nor classist, but is an answer to “a human dilemma.”

Wooldridge said the message engraved on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty has no bearing on the 21st century. “‘Give me your sick, your poor,’ those are 19th- and 20th-century ideals,” Wooldridge said. “We’re in a different era, with different problems.”

Along with advocating construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, members of the Ride are offering the issue of illegal immigration as a litmus test for congressional candidates.

“Find out who is for keeping illegal immigrants out of this country,” Wooldridge said. “If they’re for it, keep ’em in. If they’re against it, kick ’em out.”

The ride is more than half over, but Ride member Rick Chiesa said his message isn’t reaching enough people. “We can only do so much,” Chiesa said to the crowd. “Our message won’t get to Washington without your help.” Chiesa, along with the five other members of the Ride, advocates limiting immigration and ending illegal immigration altogether.

Randall Kirkland, who listened to Wooldridge from the shade of the Capitol, said he agreed with the message of the Ride. “I see it everyday where I’m from,” said Kirkland, of Prattville. “My friends or family try to get work at a construction site and it’s full, there’s always people there working for less.”

I attended the rally and enjoyed seeing Americans taking proactive action in their beliefs.

The group also has a blog and their FAQ section addresses their stance on the issues.

Do immigrants benefit the US economy by performing work no one else will?

The average immigrant according to the Center for Immigration Studies costs the US taxpayer $55,000.00 over a lifetime in social services over and above what that immigrant earned. Net drain annually for all immigrants is $70 billion to US taxpayers. Bear-Sterns Report shows $301 billion in uncollected IRS taxes from illegal aliens working under the table.

Immigrants don’t take jobs from Americans; they create jobs don’t they?

According to Professor Borjas at Harvard, they cost $200 billion annually in lost wages to American workers. They comprise the second largest underground economy in the world costing US taxpayers a loss of $301 billion in income taxes not collected according to Bear-Sterns Report.

Don’t immigrants catch up quickly economically and culturally, blending into society within a generation?

Today’s illegal aliens are not blending, not melting into society, not speaking English and not assimilating. Rather, they are separating into enclaves and creating apartheid within the USA. As former Colorado Governor Lamm said, “My sixth plan for America’s downfall would include dual citizenship and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each otherâ€”that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together.”

The ride will end August 12 with finale in Washington, DC.

Fortunately, both Alabama senators are opposed to the Senate Immigration Bill.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL):

“The American people were counting on us to secure our borders and restore the rule of law to our immigration system,” Sessions said. “Unfortunately, the United States Senate today let the American people down by passing a deeply flawed bill that gives the illegal alien population every benefit this nation can bestow, and increases future legal immigration levels by three to five times the current level. Additionally, the immigration levels for the future ensure that 70 percent of the large influx will be admitted without having to meet any educational, skill or language requirements.”

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL):

“I am extremely concerned about the details of President Bush’s plan. I believe that it diminishes the notion of citizenship and undermines the foundation of law on which our country is built. I have long believed that our nation must have strong controls on the continual influx of immigrants. This proposal rewards those who have broken the laws to get to this country by allowing them to stay. In addition to being wrong in principle, the plan should also offend the legal immigrants who have stood in line and played by the rules to enter this country, as well as those still waiting to legally enter.”

But we’ll need more this fall at the polls.

The group “You Don’t SPEAK For Me”, of hispanic decent, is speaking out against other hispanics who have no place demanding rights and they refuse to support any amnesty plan.

Their website has links for the following:

The U.S. Constitution
The Democratic Process
U.S. History
English Language Training
Pledge of Allegiance
Care and Handling of the U.S. Flag

How refreshing!

Their five guiding principles are one that all American citizens and politicians should embrace.

All immigration should be legal
Illegal immigration hurts everyone, while carefully planned legal immigration helps. We believe in stopping illegal immigration and securing the national and economic future of our nation.

Illegal aliens from any country should never be rewarded with benefits or privileges
Becoming an American citizen is a unique and wonderful privilege. The legal route to becoming a citizen is not easy and requires patience and hard work. Those who break the law and come illegally should not be granted any benefits or privileges. No driver’s license, no welfare benefits, no free health care, no in-state tuition – simply put . . . no state or federal benefits!

No amnesty – no way!
Amnesty is rewarding people who break the law. From past experience we have learned that granting amnesty only leads to increased illegal immigration. Those here illegally are taking advantage of our compassion. We say No Amnesty-No Way!

Secure our borders now and fully enforce immigration laws
The best way to stop the flow of illegal immigration coming across our borders is to build a high security fence along the length of our southern border where the majority of illegal traffic takes place. We must also vigorously enforce our existing immigration laws. Local and state law enforcement should be free to enforce immigration laws. Employers who hire illegal workers should be heavily fined and if a pattern of practice is established their owners/corporate officers should be fined and jailed for the offenses and the corporate charter revoked. Identification documents must be limited and strong security measures like biometrics applied to documents of foreign workers. American citizens driver’s licenses are now secured by the Real ID Act, non-citizens should be required to present documents not susceptible to fraud and counterfeit, and include biometric security measures – especially for work purposes.

Learn and speak English
Learning the language of this country is the very least an immigrant can do. Learn and speak English. Learn the history of this country. Learn the Constitution and civics. Learn and practice the principles that make America the greatest country in the world.

Amen brothers!

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It is syndicated by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration in our country, join the Blogburst! Send an email with your blog name and url to euphoricrealitynet at gmail dot com.