Taking a poll.
Which sold out faster this month?
Bernie Sanders or Toilet Paper
*.*
Vermont prohibits sale of clothes as non-essential.
It's official: PANTS. OPTIONAL.
*.*
Son: "Daddy, I fell in love and want to date this awesome girl!"
Father: "That's great, son! Who is she?"
Son: "It's Sandra, the neighbor's daughter."
Father: "Ohhh, I wish you hadn't said that. I have to tell you something, son, but you must promise not to tell your mother. Sandra is
actually your sister."
The boy is naturally bummed out, but a couple of months later:
Son: "Daddy, I fell in love again and she is even hotter!"
Father: "That's great, son! Who is she?"
Son: "It's Angela, the other neighbor's daughter."
Father: "Ohhh, I wish you hadn't said that. Angela is also your sister."
This went on a few more times, and finally the son was so mad, he went straight to his mother crying.
Son: "Mom, I am so mad at dad! I fell in love with six girls and I can't date any of them because dad is their father!"
The mother hugs him affectionately and says, "You can date whoever you want. He isn't your father!"
*.*
Two women were having lunch together, and discussing the merits of cosmetic surgery. The first woman says, "I need to be honest with you, I'm getting a boob job."
The second woman says "Oh that's nothing, I'm thinking of having my asshole bleached!"
To which the first replies, "I just can't picture your husband as a blonde!"
*.*
A tiny but dignified old lady was among a group looking at an art exhibition in a newly opened gallery. Suddenly one contemporary painting caught her eye.
"What on earth," she inquired of the artist standing nearby, "is that?"
He smiled condescendingly. "That, my dear lady, is supposed to be a mother and her child."
"Well, then," snapped the little old lady, "why isn't it?"
Quote of the Times;
"Um, you know, there's a uh, during World War... Two, uh, you know, where Roosevelt came up with a thing that uh, you know, was totally different than a, than the, the, it's called, he's called it a, you know, the World War Two, he had the World, the War Production Board.” - Biden
Link of the Times;
https://george.news/#/
Issue of the Times;
Man’s Greatest Invention
The great British biologist J.B.S Haldane said that fanaticism was one of mankind’s greatest inventions. By “fanaticism” he meant the burning desire to save mankind from some imagined evil. The fanatic is not just trying to help his fellow man. He feels as if it is his purpose, his reason to exist. Therefore, he will die in his effort to reach his goal, as to give up on his quest or accept defeat would be no different than denying the reason for his existence. To die trying fulfills his purpose.
Haldane credited this to monotheism. If there is one god, then no people could be favored by one god over another. All men were the creation of one god and therefore of equal importance. This leads to the great battle to decide who has the correct understanding of God’s desire for mankind. The only way to know this is to do whatever is necessary in order to bring your understanding of god’s will into being. Fanaticism therefore was the great molder of human history for the last 5,000 years.
Of course, Haldane was a fanatic himself. He was a foaming at the mouth atheist, as they tend to be, so blaming the belief in God, especially Christianity, was a natural instinct for him. A central tenet of atheism is that if man drops the superstition about invisible men in the sky, they will stop trying to impose their beliefs on one another and thus a new post-God era can begin. Mankind will be driven by reason and the underlying facts of natural reality. Logic will be the religion of man.
This is nonsense, of course, but Haldane was not wrong about fanaticism. It is a great mover of history. Where he got things wrong was in thinking monotheism was the root of human desire to save mankind. Instead it was egalitarianism, the idea that all men are naturally equal and therefore naturally worthy. This did not require the belief in one god, as we see today with our humanistic fanatics. The modern intellectual is as indifferent to God as he is committed to belief that all men are equal.
An example of this comes from the legacy site National Review. This piece (https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/04/coronavirus-pandemic-crisis-thrusts-interdependence-americas-warring-factions/) argues that the coronavirus is the great leveler. Mother nature is reminding the world that all men are equal in her eyes. Because, in theory, rich people can get the virus and die, it proves the fundamental equality of mankind. Time will tell on that score, but most likely the smart and rich will do better in this than the poor and stupid. That’s because Mother Nature does not distribute her gifts equally.
Of course, if this virus turns out to be the scourge of the poor or the great killer of the stupid, the egalitarians will have an answer for that as well. As the author of the piece says, it will be due to the rich and smart taking precautions to insulate themselves from the virus. For the egalitarian fanatic, there is always some behavioral reason to explain why one group does better than another. The equality of man is the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, of their thinking.
A great driver of history is the belief that if only everyone would do things the way they should do them, then the human condition can be overcome. It is not the only driver, for sure, as not everyone has bought into egalitarianism. In fact, egalitarianism was, for the longest time, an exclusive belief. The tribe, nation or people knew they were equal before god, but those other people, well, not so much. Conquering them and taking their stuff was fine, as it was good for your people.
In recent years, this thirst for universal equality has turned into a weird cargo cult, where simply making people appear equal will cause universal equality to spring forth. You see a bit of that in the National Review post. The author seems to be hoping the virus is a great plague that hits the elites as hard as everyone. In the midst of the suffering, so the thinking goes, everyone will suddenly embrace the equality of man. Only a fanatic can believe that he not so subtly hopes for a plague.
In fact, disaster, man-made or natural, is proof that egalitarianism is rooted in our biology, or at least in the biology of some. The great destruction of man’s creation, the bodies stacked upon one another, a scene seen in every age by every generation, has not purged this instinct from our being. There’s no reasoning with a fanatic and there is not reasoning with an egalitarian. They are immune to reality. They see only that which confirms their belief that all men are created equal.
It is why, by the way, Africa is getting a good leaving alone in the pandemic chatter. They were all revved up a month ago to display their sorrow for the poor Africans, who would surely suffer the worst from this virus. This has not happened, so the egalitarians are busy editing on-line maps to remove the whole continent from our vision. Any discussion of why some groups have done better or worse is prohibited, even by the human bio-diversity crowd. Egalitarianism is powerful magic.
It is a good reminder that whatever comes out of the other side of this pandemic, the egalitarian will still be with us. No amount of reality can dissuade him. If he can see a man in a sundress as just another one of the gals, not even the complete failure of the system built on the dream of equality will dissuade him. He will be right back at it, picking through the rubble for signs that all men are equal. Egalitarianism is man’s greatest invention, a doomsday device we cannot disarm.
News of the Times;
https://iotwreport.com/theres-going-to-be-a-dual-reckoning/
https://stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2020/04/saving-crazy-uncle-joe.html
https://bigleaguepolitics.com/twitter-allows-chinese-communist-propaganda-ads-on-platform-while-banning-president-trumps-ads/
https://www.weaselzippers.us/446959-new-data-shows-u-s-companies-are-definitely-leaving-china/
https://summit.news/2020/04/15/who-blocked-doctors-from-urging-border-controls-to-stop-spread-of-coronavirus/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/for_easter_a_federal_judge_wrote_a_luminous_decision_defending_religious_liberty.html
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/13/somali-gang-rapist-whose-deportation-was-blocked-by-air-passengers-to-be-freed/
https://nationalfile.com/alert-democrats-introduce-massive-gun-control-legislation-during-coronavirus/
https://www.newsweek.com/ucla-professor-stole-missile-secrets-china-219-years-prison-espionage-1447286
https://www.infowars.com/police-teen-executes-girlfriends-parents-after-arguing-about-covid-19-social-distancing/
https://www.foxnews.com/media/nick-sandmann-covington-lincoln-memorial-media
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/armys-seattle-field-hospital-closed-after-3-days-without-seeing-single-patient
https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/14/nyc-numbers-coronavirus-death-toll/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/democrat-georgia-state-rep-vernon-jones-breaks-party-endorses-president-trumps-reelection-bid-slams-biden/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/you-should-be-ashamed-critics-unleash-on-pelosi-for-showing-off-freezer-loaded-with-ice-cream
Invention?
Important?
19 days into the lockdown and I'm starting to question whether the Donner party was even hungry.
*.*
The economy has gotten so bad...
My neighbor got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
*.*
At the urging of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Yoko Ono has agreed to sing, to keep residents off of city streets.
Governor Cuomo stated “Yoko will be used strategically wherever and whenever a crowd forms. Just today we deployed Ms. Ono to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where a wedding was taking place. There were 300 guests congregating and within 3 minutes, the streets were completely empty. It was a sight to see, those people were running through the streets and jumping out of windows to escape the horrific screeching.”
No one will know where or when Yoko will pop up and begin her screaming and caterwauling. For extreme cases, Yoko will perform her latest single, “Ear Splitter”. “I call that song the ‘H’ bomb”, said Cuomo. “It’s actually a little cruel, but extreme times call for extreme measures.”
Get Inside Or Listen to Yoko!
Yoko Ono music was used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay until Amnesty International declared it to be a form of war crimes and it was outlawed.
Yoko said she got her sound inspiration when she was a little girl. “I saw a cat get run over by a car once and I just thought it was the most beautiful sound. I have been trying to emulate it ever since.”
Other states will begin using Yoko impersonators or play her recorded music to scare citizens off the streets and back into their houses where they belong.
*.*
Updates:
A nude woman posed for pictures on the Charging Bull statue on Wall Street last Thursday. Police were called... eventually...
Heard on ESPN: It'll be interesting to see in 9 months; which is greater-the birth rate or the divorce rate.
I do have to point out that my daffodils are not practicing floral distancing.
Remember, the key is to stick together while staying apart.
A guy in the Seattle area was pulled over by police after allegedly going over 100 mph. When the officer walked up to the door, the guy claimed he was trying to teach his pitbull how to drive. Everyone knows pit bulls are lousy drivers. It's just that no one has the courage to tell them.
In case you've lost track, today is March 44th.
Breaking; if you keep a glass of wine in each hand, you can't accidentally touch your face.
Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift are having a war of words. Remember back when we cared?
For those who've been cooped up at home for a while and aren't sure, today is Monday. For those really struggling, the year is 2020.
You thought dogs were hard to train. Look at all the humans that can't sit and stay.
Remember last year when the worst thing in the world was the Game of Thrones finale?
*.*
Alexa, homeschool the children.
Quote of the Times;
Viruses come from China like shortstops come from the DR. This isn't about vilifying a culture, it's about facts. If they sell nuclear suitcases at these wet markets, would we be so non-judgmental? – Maher
Link of the Times;
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/april/unleash-privateers
Issue of the Times;
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Is the Most Important Event In History by Tyler O’Neil
This Sunday the world over, Christians will celebrate the holiday of Easter, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the Resurrection is more than just a holiday - Christians believe it was a unique historical event, and some historians argue that it was the turning point in the history of the world, enabling the modern world's prosperity and freedom.
Without the Resurrection, "we would still be in a world of mystery and probably in a world of repressive empires," Rodney Stark, a social sciences professor at Baylor University and author of many books including The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, told PJ Media in an interview.
"Remember, at the dawn of history, people didn't live in really tiny countries — they lived under huge, huge empires, nasty ones," the professor added. He argued that Christianity historically has been the driving force behind limited government, science, capitalism, the abolition of slavery, medicine, organized charities, and more - and that Christianity would have been impossible without the belief in the Resurrection.
"Without the Resurrection, you don't have Christianity, and without Christianity, you don't have any of this," Stark declared.
Indeed, the New Testament says as much. In I Corinthians 15:17, Paul wrote, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." The gospels all agree on one count — that Jesus's disciples scattered, and Peter rejected him, around Jesus' crucifixion. That manner of death, besides being the most painful, was also the most disgraceful, and it stands to reason that Christianity would have died were it not for belief in the Resurrection.
But how exactly did Christianity change the world? Stark considered many aspects of Western civilization, and traced their roots back to a Christian inspiration.
1. Science.
"Science is unique to the West, and it is not only a major factor in producing modernity, but it is an example of it," the sociologist argued. "Why do we have science in the West? It's generally understood that only in the West did we think it was possible."
Here's what Stark means: "In the rest of the world it's thought that the universe is far too mystical to be worth thinking about," much less experimenting on. But "in the West, the universe was created by a rational God, and consequently it runs by rules and therefore it makes sense to try to understand and discover the rules."
It wasn't so much that Westerners or Christians just happened to be smarter than everyone else — they just believed that the universe could be rationally understood, that it was created by a rational God, and that humans being made in God's image could understand His order behind things.
Western medicine and the Western university are also unique contributions of Christianity that tie in with this notion of science, Stark argued.
2. Capitalism.
Capitalism often gets a bad reputation, but Stark has defined it in terms of market complexity — the exact kind of banking and investment that unleashed unprecedented prosperity and technological innovation in recent centuries. While many have argued it came from the "Protestant work ethic," this professor actually traced the phenomenon back to Catholic monasteries in the Middle Ages.
Many things had to happen to make capitalism possible. "One was the notion that commerce itself was legitimate, that it was not indecent," Stark explained. "In almost all known societies at that time commerce was degraded — it was thought to be nothing a gentleman would have any connection to."
"The fact that Christian theologians, who had taken vows of poverty, nevertheless worked out that commerce was legitimate, that it was okay that you could earn interest on money" is fascinating, the sociologist explained. He cited the Catholic Saint Thomas Aquinas as a key example.
3. Limited government.
"The fact is that the church declared itself superior to the state, that God was above the king, and so throughout this whole era of Christendom you have this situation where in a moral sense the king always had this limit of power," Stark explained. In contrast to most kingdoms and empires throughout history, there was a tension between the religious and secular authorities, and the church's claim to be above the state actually helped weaken state control.
Interestingly, the Crusades themselves demonstrate the power of the church over the state. The First Crusade was launched in response to the mistreatment of pilgrims to the Holy Land. But the very reason such pilgrims existed was that members of "the aristocracy of Europe who had done something bad were told by the church, 'Unless you're going to the Holy Land, I won't absolve you.'"
Stark also noted that as democracies developed in the Italian city states, "the bishop was always on the side of freedom."
Contrary to popular belief, "the Catholic Church did not believe in the divine right of kings — that was a Protestant notion in the mid-seventeenth century." Indeed, "St. Augustine went on and on about the fact that the kings were pretty suspect people, pretty close to the moral margin."
While Jesus famously told his disciples to pay taxes to the government, he also drew an enormously important line. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" (Mark 12:17) didn't just mean "pay your taxes." It also meant that Christians — who are made in God's image as coins are made in Caesar's image — owe their ultimate loyalty to God, not to the state.
4. Slavery.
"It was only in the West that a society has ever overcame slavery, except when it's forced by outside forces," Stark explained. Christianity inspired the "only civilization that has ever discovered within itself that slavery is immoral and gotten rid of it."
Indeed, the West abolished slavery twice — once in the Middle Ages and again more famously under the influence of William Wilberforce in the British Empire and many abolitionists in America.
Indeed, the very idea of universal human rights can be traced back to the Spanish Scholastics, late medieval scholars who argued against enslaving Native Americans under Spanish rule.
5. Individualism.
"There is this immense notion of the value of the individual that ultimately seems to me to be extremely Christian" and "the basis of Western civilization," Stark argued. He claimed that the emphasis on individuals is "an extremely Christian notion," because it traces from morality that individuals "are personally responsible for our own salvation and for sin."
While many Christian denominations emphasize the importance of community, the sociologist argued that "ultimately they really all come down to the fact that salvation is individual and salvation depends on the individual's actions" or faith. "The group may sin, but it doesn't matter — your sins are what count in your fate."
6. Organized charities.
Other scholars, like Alvin J. Schmidt in his How Christianity Changed the World, have emphasized Christianity's unique rejection of abortion, and the faith's unique creation of organizations to care for orphans and the sick. Modern orphanages and hospitals would be unthinkable without Christianity's unique emphasis on the value of all human life.
Acts of charity are not unique to Christianity, of course, but Stark argued that the organization of these charities is unique.
"Christianity lent itself to religious organization in important ways," the sociologist explained. "In the pagan world, people patronized temples, they didn't belong to them. When you belong to an organization, that organization is able to have a tremendous amount of energy and create things like hospitals and be able to sustain them."
"It's been enormous how many of our institutions" came from Christian callings, Stark added. "The notion of caring for abandoned infants was certainly a Christian vocation."
Why not the Jews?
The Jewish people have made tremendous contributions to the modern world in science, commerce, and many other endeavors. Their faith is very similar to the Christian faith — after all, Christianity came from Judaism. So why didn't the Jews spearhead these innovations?
"Until modern times, the Jews were a tiny little oppressed minority that could play no role in the rise of science," Stark lamented. He praised their enormous contributions — especially to science — as "astounding," but noted that they "were never in a position to influence history that much" due to their small population.
At the same time, "there are some important parts of Christianity that are not derivative of Judaism," Stark added, like "belief in salvation in the normal Christian sense."
News of the Times;
https://saraacarter.com/who-director-says-politicizing-covid19-leads-to-body-bags-but-he-was-accused-of-covering-up-epidemics-in-ethiopia/
https://pjmedia.com/trending/six-reasons-why-obama-would-have-botched-the-coronavirus-response
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/bernie-sanders%e2%80%99-long-game-is-just-beginning/
https://thepatriotdaily.com/national/twitter-allows-allows-far-left-actor-to-continue-vile-sexual-attacks-on-the-first-lady-but-censors-conservative-for-posting-image-of-dem-politician-passed-out-on-floor-after-hotel-orgy/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/wisconsin-doctor-husband-shot-in-heads-in-brutal-execution-prosecutors-say-2-charged
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/04/finland-muslim-rape-gang-that-repeatedly-sexually-assaulted-12-year-old-girl-gets-short-sentences
https://saraacarter.com/former-flynn-defense-counsel-covington-and-burling-just-now-found-additional-docs-in-flynn-file/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-stockpiled-ventilators-for-pandemic-only-to-later-auction-them-off-report
https://www.dailywire.com/news/ag-barr-the-chinese-are-engaged-in-a-full-court-blitzkrieg-against-the-u-s
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-usa-immigration/trump-u-s-could-impose-visa-sanctions-on-countries-not-accepting-deportees-idUKKCN21T01C
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a32082958/trump-moon-mining-asteroids/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/obama-wants-mail-voting-16-4-million-mail-ballots-went-missing-2016-2018-elections/
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2020/04/113_287707.html
*.*
The economy has gotten so bad...
My neighbor got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
*.*
At the urging of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Yoko Ono has agreed to sing, to keep residents off of city streets.
Governor Cuomo stated “Yoko will be used strategically wherever and whenever a crowd forms. Just today we deployed Ms. Ono to Crown Heights, Brooklyn, where a wedding was taking place. There were 300 guests congregating and within 3 minutes, the streets were completely empty. It was a sight to see, those people were running through the streets and jumping out of windows to escape the horrific screeching.”
No one will know where or when Yoko will pop up and begin her screaming and caterwauling. For extreme cases, Yoko will perform her latest single, “Ear Splitter”. “I call that song the ‘H’ bomb”, said Cuomo. “It’s actually a little cruel, but extreme times call for extreme measures.”
Get Inside Or Listen to Yoko!
Yoko Ono music was used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay until Amnesty International declared it to be a form of war crimes and it was outlawed.
Yoko said she got her sound inspiration when she was a little girl. “I saw a cat get run over by a car once and I just thought it was the most beautiful sound. I have been trying to emulate it ever since.”
Other states will begin using Yoko impersonators or play her recorded music to scare citizens off the streets and back into their houses where they belong.
*.*
Updates:
A nude woman posed for pictures on the Charging Bull statue on Wall Street last Thursday. Police were called... eventually...
Heard on ESPN: It'll be interesting to see in 9 months; which is greater-the birth rate or the divorce rate.
I do have to point out that my daffodils are not practicing floral distancing.
Remember, the key is to stick together while staying apart.
A guy in the Seattle area was pulled over by police after allegedly going over 100 mph. When the officer walked up to the door, the guy claimed he was trying to teach his pitbull how to drive. Everyone knows pit bulls are lousy drivers. It's just that no one has the courage to tell them.
In case you've lost track, today is March 44th.
Breaking; if you keep a glass of wine in each hand, you can't accidentally touch your face.
Kim Kardashian and Taylor Swift are having a war of words. Remember back when we cared?
For those who've been cooped up at home for a while and aren't sure, today is Monday. For those really struggling, the year is 2020.
You thought dogs were hard to train. Look at all the humans that can't sit and stay.
Remember last year when the worst thing in the world was the Game of Thrones finale?
*.*
Alexa, homeschool the children.
Quote of the Times;
Viruses come from China like shortstops come from the DR. This isn't about vilifying a culture, it's about facts. If they sell nuclear suitcases at these wet markets, would we be so non-judgmental? – Maher
Link of the Times;
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2020/april/unleash-privateers
Issue of the Times;
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Is the Most Important Event In History by Tyler O’Neil
This Sunday the world over, Christians will celebrate the holiday of Easter, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the Resurrection is more than just a holiday - Christians believe it was a unique historical event, and some historians argue that it was the turning point in the history of the world, enabling the modern world's prosperity and freedom.
Without the Resurrection, "we would still be in a world of mystery and probably in a world of repressive empires," Rodney Stark, a social sciences professor at Baylor University and author of many books including The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, told PJ Media in an interview.
"Remember, at the dawn of history, people didn't live in really tiny countries — they lived under huge, huge empires, nasty ones," the professor added. He argued that Christianity historically has been the driving force behind limited government, science, capitalism, the abolition of slavery, medicine, organized charities, and more - and that Christianity would have been impossible without the belief in the Resurrection.
"Without the Resurrection, you don't have Christianity, and without Christianity, you don't have any of this," Stark declared.
Indeed, the New Testament says as much. In I Corinthians 15:17, Paul wrote, "And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." The gospels all agree on one count — that Jesus's disciples scattered, and Peter rejected him, around Jesus' crucifixion. That manner of death, besides being the most painful, was also the most disgraceful, and it stands to reason that Christianity would have died were it not for belief in the Resurrection.
But how exactly did Christianity change the world? Stark considered many aspects of Western civilization, and traced their roots back to a Christian inspiration.
1. Science.
"Science is unique to the West, and it is not only a major factor in producing modernity, but it is an example of it," the sociologist argued. "Why do we have science in the West? It's generally understood that only in the West did we think it was possible."
Here's what Stark means: "In the rest of the world it's thought that the universe is far too mystical to be worth thinking about," much less experimenting on. But "in the West, the universe was created by a rational God, and consequently it runs by rules and therefore it makes sense to try to understand and discover the rules."
It wasn't so much that Westerners or Christians just happened to be smarter than everyone else — they just believed that the universe could be rationally understood, that it was created by a rational God, and that humans being made in God's image could understand His order behind things.
Western medicine and the Western university are also unique contributions of Christianity that tie in with this notion of science, Stark argued.
2. Capitalism.
Capitalism often gets a bad reputation, but Stark has defined it in terms of market complexity — the exact kind of banking and investment that unleashed unprecedented prosperity and technological innovation in recent centuries. While many have argued it came from the "Protestant work ethic," this professor actually traced the phenomenon back to Catholic monasteries in the Middle Ages.
Many things had to happen to make capitalism possible. "One was the notion that commerce itself was legitimate, that it was not indecent," Stark explained. "In almost all known societies at that time commerce was degraded — it was thought to be nothing a gentleman would have any connection to."
"The fact that Christian theologians, who had taken vows of poverty, nevertheless worked out that commerce was legitimate, that it was okay that you could earn interest on money" is fascinating, the sociologist explained. He cited the Catholic Saint Thomas Aquinas as a key example.
3. Limited government.
"The fact is that the church declared itself superior to the state, that God was above the king, and so throughout this whole era of Christendom you have this situation where in a moral sense the king always had this limit of power," Stark explained. In contrast to most kingdoms and empires throughout history, there was a tension between the religious and secular authorities, and the church's claim to be above the state actually helped weaken state control.
Interestingly, the Crusades themselves demonstrate the power of the church over the state. The First Crusade was launched in response to the mistreatment of pilgrims to the Holy Land. But the very reason such pilgrims existed was that members of "the aristocracy of Europe who had done something bad were told by the church, 'Unless you're going to the Holy Land, I won't absolve you.'"
Stark also noted that as democracies developed in the Italian city states, "the bishop was always on the side of freedom."
Contrary to popular belief, "the Catholic Church did not believe in the divine right of kings — that was a Protestant notion in the mid-seventeenth century." Indeed, "St. Augustine went on and on about the fact that the kings were pretty suspect people, pretty close to the moral margin."
While Jesus famously told his disciples to pay taxes to the government, he also drew an enormously important line. "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's" (Mark 12:17) didn't just mean "pay your taxes." It also meant that Christians — who are made in God's image as coins are made in Caesar's image — owe their ultimate loyalty to God, not to the state.
4. Slavery.
"It was only in the West that a society has ever overcame slavery, except when it's forced by outside forces," Stark explained. Christianity inspired the "only civilization that has ever discovered within itself that slavery is immoral and gotten rid of it."
Indeed, the West abolished slavery twice — once in the Middle Ages and again more famously under the influence of William Wilberforce in the British Empire and many abolitionists in America.
Indeed, the very idea of universal human rights can be traced back to the Spanish Scholastics, late medieval scholars who argued against enslaving Native Americans under Spanish rule.
5. Individualism.
"There is this immense notion of the value of the individual that ultimately seems to me to be extremely Christian" and "the basis of Western civilization," Stark argued. He claimed that the emphasis on individuals is "an extremely Christian notion," because it traces from morality that individuals "are personally responsible for our own salvation and for sin."
While many Christian denominations emphasize the importance of community, the sociologist argued that "ultimately they really all come down to the fact that salvation is individual and salvation depends on the individual's actions" or faith. "The group may sin, but it doesn't matter — your sins are what count in your fate."
6. Organized charities.
Other scholars, like Alvin J. Schmidt in his How Christianity Changed the World, have emphasized Christianity's unique rejection of abortion, and the faith's unique creation of organizations to care for orphans and the sick. Modern orphanages and hospitals would be unthinkable without Christianity's unique emphasis on the value of all human life.
Acts of charity are not unique to Christianity, of course, but Stark argued that the organization of these charities is unique.
"Christianity lent itself to religious organization in important ways," the sociologist explained. "In the pagan world, people patronized temples, they didn't belong to them. When you belong to an organization, that organization is able to have a tremendous amount of energy and create things like hospitals and be able to sustain them."
"It's been enormous how many of our institutions" came from Christian callings, Stark added. "The notion of caring for abandoned infants was certainly a Christian vocation."
Why not the Jews?
The Jewish people have made tremendous contributions to the modern world in science, commerce, and many other endeavors. Their faith is very similar to the Christian faith — after all, Christianity came from Judaism. So why didn't the Jews spearhead these innovations?
"Until modern times, the Jews were a tiny little oppressed minority that could play no role in the rise of science," Stark lamented. He praised their enormous contributions — especially to science — as "astounding," but noted that they "were never in a position to influence history that much" due to their small population.
At the same time, "there are some important parts of Christianity that are not derivative of Judaism," Stark added, like "belief in salvation in the normal Christian sense."
News of the Times;
https://saraacarter.com/who-director-says-politicizing-covid19-leads-to-body-bags-but-he-was-accused-of-covering-up-epidemics-in-ethiopia/
https://pjmedia.com/trending/six-reasons-why-obama-would-have-botched-the-coronavirus-response
https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/bernie-sanders%e2%80%99-long-game-is-just-beginning/
https://thepatriotdaily.com/national/twitter-allows-allows-far-left-actor-to-continue-vile-sexual-attacks-on-the-first-lady-but-censors-conservative-for-posting-image-of-dem-politician-passed-out-on-floor-after-hotel-orgy/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/wisconsin-doctor-husband-shot-in-heads-in-brutal-execution-prosecutors-say-2-charged
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/04/finland-muslim-rape-gang-that-repeatedly-sexually-assaulted-12-year-old-girl-gets-short-sentences
https://saraacarter.com/former-flynn-defense-counsel-covington-and-burling-just-now-found-additional-docs-in-flynn-file/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-york-stockpiled-ventilators-for-pandemic-only-to-later-auction-them-off-report
https://www.dailywire.com/news/ag-barr-the-chinese-are-engaged-in-a-full-court-blitzkrieg-against-the-u-s
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-usa-immigration/trump-u-s-could-impose-visa-sanctions-on-countries-not-accepting-deportees-idUKKCN21T01C
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a32082958/trump-moon-mining-asteroids/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/obama-wants-mail-voting-16-4-million-mail-ballots-went-missing-2016-2018-elections/
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2020/04/113_287707.html
Examples?
Coronavirus isn't Trumps Fault. Ebola wasn't Obama's Fault. SARS wasn't Bush's fault.
And only a handful of cases of herpes were Clinton's fault.
*.*
Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, "Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?"
"Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest psychological techniques, like visualization, association, and so on. It was great. I haven't had a problem since."
"Sounds like something I could use. What was the name of the clinic?"
Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but couldn't remember.
Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, "What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?"
"You mean a rose?"
"Yes, that's it!"
He turned to his wife, "Hey Rose, what was the name of that memory clinic?"
*.*
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Joe Biden has committed to wearing a mask in public to be a good example and to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Aides were disappointed and a little frightened, however, when Biden immediately cut a large hole in the middle of the mask so he could continue to invade people's personal space and sniff their hair, necks, and faces.
Staffers usually don't let Biden play with sharp objects, but he managed to find some safety scissors stashed behind the Metamucil in his campaign bus. Using the purple plastic scissors, he cut a large hole and then fitted the mask to his face, confident that he was protecting himself and others from the virus.
"That's better," he said as he cut a big hole for his schnoz. "Now I'm protecting against infection and I'm still able to give the ladies a good sniff. You know, in my day, I wore a mask just like this, as was the fashion at the time. All the kids at the pool would ask to play with the mask, and they'd run their fingers through it. In fact, one time, a gangster named CornPop was about to go cause some trouble at the sock hop, and I put some rocks in my mask and started swinging it around like a sling. You know, real Daniel and Goliath type stuff. He looked at me, tears in his eyes, and promised never again to go out and cause a ruckus."
"Anyway, that's why I'm your best choice for senator of the Roman Empire. Vote for Joe!" Biden said suddenly coming to and realized he was standing in a Walmart parking lot talking to a hobo.
*.*
What do Green Eggs and Ham and Fifty Shades of Grey have in common?
They both encourage people who can barely read to try new things.
*.*
My grandfather’s last wish was that we convert his ashes into a diamond.
That’s a lot of pressure.
Quote of the Times;
The debate over immigration is over: restriction wins. The debate over borders is over: they are needed. The debate over globalization is over: the era of autarky begins. The debate over Europe is over: it is a geographic expression, not a polity. The debate over global warming is over: it is irrelevant. The debate over international institutions is over: only nations matter. The debate over the People’s Republic of China is over: it is a menace to the community of nations, not a member in good standing. Crisis is clarity. This has been an era of clarification.
Link of the Times;
https://conservativebase.com/600-million-terrorist-money-trail-that-leads-straight-to-barack-obama
Issue of the Times;
Team Trump to Jim Acosta: Here’s Your Examples of Mail-In Voter Fraud by Charlie Spierling
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign on Wednesday responded to CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who demanded evidence of the president’s claims of voter fraud.
“You’ve been talking about voter fraud since the beginning of this administration and where is the evidence of it?” Acosta asked during the White House press briefing, insisting that “all the experts say voter fraud is rare.”
Trump replied, “I think there’s a lot of evidence, but we’ll provide you with some, okay?”
The president’s re-election campaign responded quickly to Acosta’s request, noting there were nine people charged in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas with “vote harvesting” and mail ballots, a political operative in New York stealing and submitting absentee ballots, and a resident in Pennsylvania receiving seven separate ballots in the mail.
The campaign also shared a Heritage Foundation document of over 1,000 proven cases of vote fraud.
“Democrats and the mainstream media always scoff at claims of voter fraud, but then completely ignore evidence from across the country,” Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “The obvious reason is that Democrats are just fine with the possibility of voter fraud. And many in the media just see the world their way.”
The Trump campaign also quoted an election expert in the New York Times who said although election fraud was rare, “the most common type of such fraud in the United States involves absentee ballots” through the mail.
President Trump cited ongoing legal action from Judicial Watch forcing states to clear millions of ineligible voter registrations within 90 days as proof of voter fraud.
The White House also shared details of 2005 commission led by President Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush’s secretary of state James A. Baker III that concluded mail-in ballots “remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”
“Outside those in the establishment media who are more interested in attacking the President than the facts, there’s a clear consensus that universal mail-in voting would be vulnerable to fraud,” a White House source told Breitbart News in a statement.
News of the Times;
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/consider-possibility-trump-right-china/609493/
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/04/03/additional-evidence-coronavirus-accidentally-released-chinese-lab/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/06/gop-gears-up-for-next-relief-fight-democrats-want-the-federal-government-to-take-over-elections/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-floods-europe-defective-covid-19-fighting-medical-equipment
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/04/03/venezuelan-naval-vessel-sank-picking-fight-cruise-ship/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/31/the-real-coronavirus-chronology-shows-trump-was-on-top-of-it-while-biden-was-mocking-the-danger/
https://www.redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2020/04/06/in-which-new-york-times-morphs-into-a-total-propaganda-tool-for-chinas-communist-government/
https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/06/trump-china-phoenix-tv-reporter-hong-kong/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/theres_another_side_to_the_story_of_the_fired_navy_captain.html
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/04/09/cbs-news-caught-broadcasting-fake-hospital-footage-second-time/
https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/jussie-smollett-in-scrubs-cbs-story-of-crying-nurse-who-claimed-no-covid-19-protection-just-crumbled/
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/three-jailed-enfield-rape-imprisonment-wood-green-crown-court-a4406911.html
https://www.unz.com/sbpdl/her-name-is-emily-jones-white-seven-year-old-brutally-stabbed-to-death-by-somalian-immigrant-in-british-park/
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/04/06/home-depot-co-founder-congress-should-have-been-investigating-the-pandemic-not-impeaching-trump/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/due-process-alyssa-milano-uses-conservative-argument-from-kavanaugh-hearings-to-defend-joe-biden
And only a handful of cases of herpes were Clinton's fault.
*.*
Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, "Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?"
"Outstanding," Fred replied. "They taught us all the latest psychological techniques, like visualization, association, and so on. It was great. I haven't had a problem since."
"Sounds like something I could use. What was the name of the clinic?"
Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but couldn't remember.
Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, "What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?"
"You mean a rose?"
"Yes, that's it!"
He turned to his wife, "Hey Rose, what was the name of that memory clinic?"
*.*
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Joe Biden has committed to wearing a mask in public to be a good example and to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Aides were disappointed and a little frightened, however, when Biden immediately cut a large hole in the middle of the mask so he could continue to invade people's personal space and sniff their hair, necks, and faces.
Staffers usually don't let Biden play with sharp objects, but he managed to find some safety scissors stashed behind the Metamucil in his campaign bus. Using the purple plastic scissors, he cut a large hole and then fitted the mask to his face, confident that he was protecting himself and others from the virus.
"That's better," he said as he cut a big hole for his schnoz. "Now I'm protecting against infection and I'm still able to give the ladies a good sniff. You know, in my day, I wore a mask just like this, as was the fashion at the time. All the kids at the pool would ask to play with the mask, and they'd run their fingers through it. In fact, one time, a gangster named CornPop was about to go cause some trouble at the sock hop, and I put some rocks in my mask and started swinging it around like a sling. You know, real Daniel and Goliath type stuff. He looked at me, tears in his eyes, and promised never again to go out and cause a ruckus."
"Anyway, that's why I'm your best choice for senator of the Roman Empire. Vote for Joe!" Biden said suddenly coming to and realized he was standing in a Walmart parking lot talking to a hobo.
*.*
What do Green Eggs and Ham and Fifty Shades of Grey have in common?
They both encourage people who can barely read to try new things.
*.*
My grandfather’s last wish was that we convert his ashes into a diamond.
That’s a lot of pressure.
Quote of the Times;
The debate over immigration is over: restriction wins. The debate over borders is over: they are needed. The debate over globalization is over: the era of autarky begins. The debate over Europe is over: it is a geographic expression, not a polity. The debate over global warming is over: it is irrelevant. The debate over international institutions is over: only nations matter. The debate over the People’s Republic of China is over: it is a menace to the community of nations, not a member in good standing. Crisis is clarity. This has been an era of clarification.
Link of the Times;
https://conservativebase.com/600-million-terrorist-money-trail-that-leads-straight-to-barack-obama
Issue of the Times;
Team Trump to Jim Acosta: Here’s Your Examples of Mail-In Voter Fraud by Charlie Spierling
President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign on Wednesday responded to CNN reporter Jim Acosta, who demanded evidence of the president’s claims of voter fraud.
“You’ve been talking about voter fraud since the beginning of this administration and where is the evidence of it?” Acosta asked during the White House press briefing, insisting that “all the experts say voter fraud is rare.”
Trump replied, “I think there’s a lot of evidence, but we’ll provide you with some, okay?”
The president’s re-election campaign responded quickly to Acosta’s request, noting there were nine people charged in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas with “vote harvesting” and mail ballots, a political operative in New York stealing and submitting absentee ballots, and a resident in Pennsylvania receiving seven separate ballots in the mail.
The campaign also shared a Heritage Foundation document of over 1,000 proven cases of vote fraud.
“Democrats and the mainstream media always scoff at claims of voter fraud, but then completely ignore evidence from across the country,” Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement. “The obvious reason is that Democrats are just fine with the possibility of voter fraud. And many in the media just see the world their way.”
The Trump campaign also quoted an election expert in the New York Times who said although election fraud was rare, “the most common type of such fraud in the United States involves absentee ballots” through the mail.
President Trump cited ongoing legal action from Judicial Watch forcing states to clear millions of ineligible voter registrations within 90 days as proof of voter fraud.
The White House also shared details of 2005 commission led by President Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush’s secretary of state James A. Baker III that concluded mail-in ballots “remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”
“Outside those in the establishment media who are more interested in attacking the President than the facts, there’s a clear consensus that universal mail-in voting would be vulnerable to fraud,” a White House source told Breitbart News in a statement.
News of the Times;
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/consider-possibility-trump-right-china/609493/
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/04/03/additional-evidence-coronavirus-accidentally-released-chinese-lab/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/06/gop-gears-up-for-next-relief-fight-democrats-want-the-federal-government-to-take-over-elections/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-floods-europe-defective-covid-19-fighting-medical-equipment
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2020/04/03/venezuelan-naval-vessel-sank-picking-fight-cruise-ship/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/03/31/the-real-coronavirus-chronology-shows-trump-was-on-top-of-it-while-biden-was-mocking-the-danger/
https://www.redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2020/04/06/in-which-new-york-times-morphs-into-a-total-propaganda-tool-for-chinas-communist-government/
https://dailycaller.com/2020/04/06/trump-china-phoenix-tv-reporter-hong-kong/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/04/theres_another_side_to_the_story_of_the_fired_navy_captain.html
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2020/04/09/cbs-news-caught-broadcasting-fake-hospital-footage-second-time/
https://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/jussie-smollett-in-scrubs-cbs-story-of-crying-nurse-who-claimed-no-covid-19-protection-just-crumbled/
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/three-jailed-enfield-rape-imprisonment-wood-green-crown-court-a4406911.html
https://www.unz.com/sbpdl/her-name-is-emily-jones-white-seven-year-old-brutally-stabbed-to-death-by-somalian-immigrant-in-british-park/
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/04/06/home-depot-co-founder-congress-should-have-been-investigating-the-pandemic-not-impeaching-trump/
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/due-process-alyssa-milano-uses-conservative-argument-from-kavanaugh-hearings-to-defend-joe-biden
Could?
After the COVID-19 pandemic winds down, we should honor truck drivers with a national holiday on October 4th.
A big 10-4, if you will.
*.*
After a long, dry sermon, the minister announced that he wished to meet with the church board following the close of the service. However, the first man to arrive was a total stranger.
"You misunderstood my announcement. This is a meeting of the board," said the minister.
"I know," said the man, "but if there is anyone here more bored than I am, I'd like to meet him."
*.*
Man wakes up in a slum with no memory of how he got there.
He wanders around aimlessly before he finds even one person who will talk to him. Some ratty beggar on the street turns out to be nice enough to explain where he is.
"You're in the afterlife!" he tells the man, "But you must have been a real shithead when you were alive, because this is the fourth ring, and only the worst people come here."
All of a sudden, a siren goes off, one of those air-raid things. The man is terrified but the beggar gets up calmly and leads him to a big, dilapidated warehouse where thousands of other similarly unkempt souls are gathering. When the man asks why they're all here, the beggar points to a line of folding tables against the wall. Each table has some moldy bread, cups of dingy water, and some bowls of broth so thin they could have just run out of cups. Only then does the man realize how hungry he is. A guard in heavy body armor blows a whistle and all the people arrange themselves into three lines.
The beggar is helpful enough to explain them for the man. "That one's the bread line, that's the broth line, and that's the water line. All the food here is free, but if you want to get out of this maggot hole, you've got to work, because the gate guards into the third ring ask five hundred dollars to get through. I've heard the food is better there."
So the man gets his food. It's abominable, and right then and there, he vows to make five hundred dollars and get into the third ring. Unfortunately for him, very few people need work in the afterlife, especially when all of them are saving up to emigrate. Even still, after ten years of hard work, eating the moldy bread and indistinguishable soup and water, he finally saves up enough money. The guards let him through and he finds himself in the third ring. It's nothing too fancy, if anything, it's a bit below average for a real city, but to his eyes it is paradise. All the guards look much friendlier, and the houses and buildings, while not spacious or lavish, are at least up to code. And to his surprise, he runs right into a familiar former beggar as he crosses the street.
"What are the odds?" they both ask and they get to conversing. The beggar, it turns out, only managed to make it in himself a few months back. Their conversation is interrupted, however, by what sounds like a school bell. When the man seems confused, the beggar leads him to what looks like a giant gymnasium. Here, people are gathering once again, and the man begins to understand. On a line of folding tables against one wall are stacks of hot dogs, big bowls of salad, and solo cups full of fresh lemonade. A cop shouts for everyone's attention and directs them all to stand in three lines. The beggar smiles at the man's wonder and points to each line in turn. "That's the hot dog line, that's the salad line, and that's the lemonade line." The man gets in each line in turn and gets himself his lunch.
While he's eating, basking in joy at not being stuck with old bread and water, the beggar encourages him, "The best part is, halfway through the year, they switch from hot dogs, salad, and lemonade to chicken, chili, and hot chocolate. You can never get tired of it!"
Sadly, this proved not to be true. After only a few days, the man did again get tired of the same meal every day. But he knew firsthand that he could change his lot, so one day he went up to the wall of the second circle. This time the guards were asking for ten thousand dollars. Well, the man didn't like it, but he figured he had his whole afterlife ahead of him now that he was out of the fourth circle, and he could certainly take some time to save up. After ten years of hard work, it wasn't too difficult for him to keep up the work ethic, and only twenty years later, he went back to the guards of the second ring with the money in hand. He went through the gate and found himself in a glittering, clean city full of glass and steel.
And wouldn't you know it, but there, standing across the street was the same beggar, only now he was wearing a well-fitted suit. The man greeted the beggar as an old friend and they started talking again. Once again, their conversation was interrupted, only this time it was by beautiful church bells. "Come," the beggar told him, "I'll take you to the evening meal." So the man followed and they entered a glamorous ballroom filled with beautiful attendees. Even the cops here looked good, dressed in suits and sunglasses like bodyguards. And sure enough, piled onto platters on huge mahogany tables against the far wall were plates of steak, bowls of the most delicious seafood soups, and glasses of champagne. One of the bodyguards cleared his throat loudly and politely requested that the attendees line up. Three lines were formed and the beggar pointed each line out in turn. "That's the steak line, that's the soup line, and that's the champagne line," and then he added, "and apparently here, they change the meals FOUR times a year!"
The man rejoiced, ate, and was happy, and for once felt that nothing was lacking. Four changes a year was enough for him. But one day, out of curiosity, he went up to the bodyguards that guarded the gate into the first and final ring of the afterlife and found they were asking for a million dollars to pass. Well the man was a bit disturbed by this, after all, the second ring seemed perfect to him. "What is it," he thought, "that could possibly be more wonderful than what I have here?" That question haunted him for weeks until he came to a conclusion. He was used to working hard and he had all of eternity to save up, so he wanted, just once to see what he could possibly be missing in the first ring.
Fifty years later, he returned to the guards with a million dollars. When he stepped into the first ring he fell to his knees. The architecture was glorious and inhuman, and the bodyguard had turned into shining angels. To his surprise, someone helped him up off the street and when he looked, he realized he recognized who it was--it was the beggar he met in the fourth ring, adorned in a golden robe and glowing, and when he looked down at himself he realized he looked much the same.
The beggar laughed jovially. "I got here only three years ago myself, but somehow I knew you would be right here behind me. I've come back to this gate every day waiting for you to make it in!" Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of angelic choirs and the beggar led the man off to a gigantic palace made of crystal and cloud. The room was filled with radiant citizens of the first circle and angels prepared everything. Sure enough, there was a line of massive altars against one wall, spilling over with glistening golden dragon meat, a pudding refined from clouds and dew and silk, and an ice cold tub of ambrosia and nectar ladled out individually into blindingly beautiful crystalline chalices. An angel fluttered from the ceiling and bowed silently to the assembled mass, who bowed respectfully back and then broke themselves into their lines on their own.
Smiling at the tradition, the beggar pointed to the first line. "That's the line for the dragon meat," he said before turning to the next line, "and that's the line for angeldust stew," then he paused, confused.
"What is it?" the man asked his old friend.
The beggar replied, "There appears to be no punch line."
*.*
Back in the U.S.S.R.
An old Jew is on his deathbed. With weak voice he asks to call for a partorg because before his death he wants to join the Communist Party. A happy partorg rushes to him with filled out membership form to sign and a ready Party membership card. As the Jew signs the form he carefully takes the membership card and presses it against his heart.
In a peaceful and happy voice he whispers: "Today one more communist will die"
*.*
Yesterday I watched a match of women's volleyball, and 10 minutes into the game there was a wrist injury.
But by tomorrow I should be fine.
Quote of the Times;
“In just ten days, we discovered that neither the tampon issue, nor the participation of transsexuals in the Olympic Games, nor the climate emergency were real problems, nor emergencies, nor anything of the sort. They were just fictitious problems, the pastimes of a generation that hadn’t known tragedy.” - Diaz
Link of the Times;
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/29/the_medias_top_lies_and_spins_about_covid-19.html
Issue of the Times;
Spygate Could Make Watergate Look Like A Third-Rate Burglary by Chris Farell
The Spygate scandal is shaping up to be the most significant political abuse of government power in history. And it may be even larger than people expect.
The investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham into the origins of the FBI’s Russian collusion investigation – or as President Trump prefers to call it, the witch hunt – continues to expand. Durham reportedly opened criminal investigations last fall. And unlike the narrow Justice Department Inspector General’s review of the abuse of the FISA process, Durham is looking into the questionable activities of other government agencies, in particular the CIA and its former director John Brennan.
The widening scope involves not only the agencies being investigated, but who was being targeted and why. Earlier last week Sharyl Attkisson reported that, based on her sources in the intelligence and law enforcement communities, the authorizations to spy on Trump functionaries such as Carter Page or former campaign manager Paul Manafort were actually pretexts for a much more expansive web of surveillance that could include anyone in contact with Page, or even anyone twice removed from the ostensible target. Hence, thousands of people could have been unknowingly caught up in the Spygate web and are still unaware that their privacy had been violated under the severely compromised FISA process.
This ties into the whirlwind of “unmaskings” during the 2016-17 transition period. Names of people inadvertently caught up in this expansive web, which ordinarily would be classified and their privacy interests protected, were revealed and information sent to Democratic allies in Capitol Hill for “safe keeping.” Judicial Watch has chronicled how Obama’s United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, among others, colluded in this effort to bolster the “insurance policy” to hobble the Trump presidency.
There is also the matter of President Obama finalizing rules in the closing days of his administration that opened the raw, unedited information feeds collected by the National Security Agency to all of the 16 other agencies in the Intelligence Community before any privacy protections are implemented. This ill-considered and unnecessary rule change vastly expanded the potential for abuse in the system and was a curious move for Obama to make in the waning days of his presidency.
However, it makes perfect sense if you believe that Obama officials were doing their utmost to put in place a bureaucratic infrastructure seeking to undermine the Trump administration before it began. Also, factor in the distrust of NSA head Admiral Michael S. Rogers, who met with President-elect Trump in November 2016 and allegedly blew the whistle on the Trump Tower wiretapping.
Essentially, Obama’s rule change took Rogers out of the equation and gave other agency heads like Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper the freedom to spread around whatever information the NSA was scooping up, whether relevant to Russia or not.
Thus, the people peripheral to Donald Trump who were the initial targets served principally as gateways to justify a massive domestic spying operation. And the ultimate target of this illicit activity was clearly Trump himself. It says a lot that given this unprecedented abuse of domestic spying, with the coup cabal having unfettered access to the virtually unlimited information collected by the Intelligence Community, and after two years of brutal investigation by the Mueller team, the effort to show ties between Trump and Russia came up empty. But the insurance policy at least achieved part of its objective in severely damaging the Trump administration in its first years.
Hopefully the Durham investigation will reveal the true extent of the spying operation, and how many innocent Americans had their rights violated and their privacy compromised. Another important question yet to be resolved is when Spygate started. For example, George Papadopoulos was being targeted by foreign intelligence services like Australia, perhaps at Brennan’s behest, months before Donald Trump was the Republican nominee. This raises the question, were members of other then-still active Republican campaigns being targeted in this time frame as well? Was this part of a general push to begin weaving the Russian collusion story against any potential GOP 2016 nominee, and not just Trump? If the answer to that question is yes, then it will be clear that the entire enterprise was not an intelligence operation at all but a criminal political conspiracy of unprecedented scope and impact. It would indeed make Watergate look like a third-rate burglary.
Chris Farrell is director of investigations and research for Judicial Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog. Chris is a former military intelligence officer who specialized in human intelligence.
News of the Times;
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-3-28-china-makes-itself-a-laughingstock
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/outrageous-dr-birx-went-bill-gates-funded-coronavirus-model-sits-gates-funded-foundation-board/
https://spectator.org/the-orange-man-bad-disease/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/new-revelations-about-woman-who-accidentally-poisoned-her-husband-to-death-with-fish-tank-cleaner-raises-eyebrows/
https://americanmind.org/features/the-coronacrisis-and-our-future-discontents/make-america-autarkic-again/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/goldman-sachs-buys-2-luxury-private-jets-main-street-verge-collapse
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/flashback-former-joe-biden-secret-service-agent-we-had-to-protect-women-from-him-weinstein-level-stuff/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/03/donald-trump-i-think-a-lot-of-people-cheat-with-mail-in-voting/
https://gizmodo.com/man-tries-to-ram-train-into-u-s-navy-hospital-ship-do-1842645529?utm_source=digg
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2020/04/02/gov-andrew-cuomo-has-not-accepted-remingtons-offer-ppe-ventilators-n2566211
https://pjmedia.com/trending/report-mueller-hid-evidence-exonerating-don-jr-over-infamous-trump-tower-meeting/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/cdc-tells-hospitals-list-covid-19-cause-death-even-assumed-caused-contributed-death-lab-tests-not-required/
https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/04/03/michigans-governor-tries-to-troll-trump-with-a-t-shirt/
https://www.wnd.com/2020/04/fellow-wh-correspondent-slams-acostas-style-not-opposition-party/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/revealed-areas-hit-hardest-coronavirus-voted-trump-helps-anyways/
A big 10-4, if you will.
*.*
After a long, dry sermon, the minister announced that he wished to meet with the church board following the close of the service. However, the first man to arrive was a total stranger.
"You misunderstood my announcement. This is a meeting of the board," said the minister.
"I know," said the man, "but if there is anyone here more bored than I am, I'd like to meet him."
*.*
Man wakes up in a slum with no memory of how he got there.
He wanders around aimlessly before he finds even one person who will talk to him. Some ratty beggar on the street turns out to be nice enough to explain where he is.
"You're in the afterlife!" he tells the man, "But you must have been a real shithead when you were alive, because this is the fourth ring, and only the worst people come here."
All of a sudden, a siren goes off, one of those air-raid things. The man is terrified but the beggar gets up calmly and leads him to a big, dilapidated warehouse where thousands of other similarly unkempt souls are gathering. When the man asks why they're all here, the beggar points to a line of folding tables against the wall. Each table has some moldy bread, cups of dingy water, and some bowls of broth so thin they could have just run out of cups. Only then does the man realize how hungry he is. A guard in heavy body armor blows a whistle and all the people arrange themselves into three lines.
The beggar is helpful enough to explain them for the man. "That one's the bread line, that's the broth line, and that's the water line. All the food here is free, but if you want to get out of this maggot hole, you've got to work, because the gate guards into the third ring ask five hundred dollars to get through. I've heard the food is better there."
So the man gets his food. It's abominable, and right then and there, he vows to make five hundred dollars and get into the third ring. Unfortunately for him, very few people need work in the afterlife, especially when all of them are saving up to emigrate. Even still, after ten years of hard work, eating the moldy bread and indistinguishable soup and water, he finally saves up enough money. The guards let him through and he finds himself in the third ring. It's nothing too fancy, if anything, it's a bit below average for a real city, but to his eyes it is paradise. All the guards look much friendlier, and the houses and buildings, while not spacious or lavish, are at least up to code. And to his surprise, he runs right into a familiar former beggar as he crosses the street.
"What are the odds?" they both ask and they get to conversing. The beggar, it turns out, only managed to make it in himself a few months back. Their conversation is interrupted, however, by what sounds like a school bell. When the man seems confused, the beggar leads him to what looks like a giant gymnasium. Here, people are gathering once again, and the man begins to understand. On a line of folding tables against one wall are stacks of hot dogs, big bowls of salad, and solo cups full of fresh lemonade. A cop shouts for everyone's attention and directs them all to stand in three lines. The beggar smiles at the man's wonder and points to each line in turn. "That's the hot dog line, that's the salad line, and that's the lemonade line." The man gets in each line in turn and gets himself his lunch.
While he's eating, basking in joy at not being stuck with old bread and water, the beggar encourages him, "The best part is, halfway through the year, they switch from hot dogs, salad, and lemonade to chicken, chili, and hot chocolate. You can never get tired of it!"
Sadly, this proved not to be true. After only a few days, the man did again get tired of the same meal every day. But he knew firsthand that he could change his lot, so one day he went up to the wall of the second circle. This time the guards were asking for ten thousand dollars. Well, the man didn't like it, but he figured he had his whole afterlife ahead of him now that he was out of the fourth circle, and he could certainly take some time to save up. After ten years of hard work, it wasn't too difficult for him to keep up the work ethic, and only twenty years later, he went back to the guards of the second ring with the money in hand. He went through the gate and found himself in a glittering, clean city full of glass and steel.
And wouldn't you know it, but there, standing across the street was the same beggar, only now he was wearing a well-fitted suit. The man greeted the beggar as an old friend and they started talking again. Once again, their conversation was interrupted, only this time it was by beautiful church bells. "Come," the beggar told him, "I'll take you to the evening meal." So the man followed and they entered a glamorous ballroom filled with beautiful attendees. Even the cops here looked good, dressed in suits and sunglasses like bodyguards. And sure enough, piled onto platters on huge mahogany tables against the far wall were plates of steak, bowls of the most delicious seafood soups, and glasses of champagne. One of the bodyguards cleared his throat loudly and politely requested that the attendees line up. Three lines were formed and the beggar pointed each line out in turn. "That's the steak line, that's the soup line, and that's the champagne line," and then he added, "and apparently here, they change the meals FOUR times a year!"
The man rejoiced, ate, and was happy, and for once felt that nothing was lacking. Four changes a year was enough for him. But one day, out of curiosity, he went up to the bodyguards that guarded the gate into the first and final ring of the afterlife and found they were asking for a million dollars to pass. Well the man was a bit disturbed by this, after all, the second ring seemed perfect to him. "What is it," he thought, "that could possibly be more wonderful than what I have here?" That question haunted him for weeks until he came to a conclusion. He was used to working hard and he had all of eternity to save up, so he wanted, just once to see what he could possibly be missing in the first ring.
Fifty years later, he returned to the guards with a million dollars. When he stepped into the first ring he fell to his knees. The architecture was glorious and inhuman, and the bodyguard had turned into shining angels. To his surprise, someone helped him up off the street and when he looked, he realized he recognized who it was--it was the beggar he met in the fourth ring, adorned in a golden robe and glowing, and when he looked down at himself he realized he looked much the same.
The beggar laughed jovially. "I got here only three years ago myself, but somehow I knew you would be right here behind me. I've come back to this gate every day waiting for you to make it in!" Suddenly, the air was filled with the sound of angelic choirs and the beggar led the man off to a gigantic palace made of crystal and cloud. The room was filled with radiant citizens of the first circle and angels prepared everything. Sure enough, there was a line of massive altars against one wall, spilling over with glistening golden dragon meat, a pudding refined from clouds and dew and silk, and an ice cold tub of ambrosia and nectar ladled out individually into blindingly beautiful crystalline chalices. An angel fluttered from the ceiling and bowed silently to the assembled mass, who bowed respectfully back and then broke themselves into their lines on their own.
Smiling at the tradition, the beggar pointed to the first line. "That's the line for the dragon meat," he said before turning to the next line, "and that's the line for angeldust stew," then he paused, confused.
"What is it?" the man asked his old friend.
The beggar replied, "There appears to be no punch line."
*.*
Back in the U.S.S.R.
An old Jew is on his deathbed. With weak voice he asks to call for a partorg because before his death he wants to join the Communist Party. A happy partorg rushes to him with filled out membership form to sign and a ready Party membership card. As the Jew signs the form he carefully takes the membership card and presses it against his heart.
In a peaceful and happy voice he whispers: "Today one more communist will die"
*.*
Yesterday I watched a match of women's volleyball, and 10 minutes into the game there was a wrist injury.
But by tomorrow I should be fine.
Quote of the Times;
“In just ten days, we discovered that neither the tampon issue, nor the participation of transsexuals in the Olympic Games, nor the climate emergency were real problems, nor emergencies, nor anything of the sort. They were just fictitious problems, the pastimes of a generation that hadn’t known tragedy.” - Diaz
Link of the Times;
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/29/the_medias_top_lies_and_spins_about_covid-19.html
Issue of the Times;
Spygate Could Make Watergate Look Like A Third-Rate Burglary by Chris Farell
The Spygate scandal is shaping up to be the most significant political abuse of government power in history. And it may be even larger than people expect.
The investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham into the origins of the FBI’s Russian collusion investigation – or as President Trump prefers to call it, the witch hunt – continues to expand. Durham reportedly opened criminal investigations last fall. And unlike the narrow Justice Department Inspector General’s review of the abuse of the FISA process, Durham is looking into the questionable activities of other government agencies, in particular the CIA and its former director John Brennan.
The widening scope involves not only the agencies being investigated, but who was being targeted and why. Earlier last week Sharyl Attkisson reported that, based on her sources in the intelligence and law enforcement communities, the authorizations to spy on Trump functionaries such as Carter Page or former campaign manager Paul Manafort were actually pretexts for a much more expansive web of surveillance that could include anyone in contact with Page, or even anyone twice removed from the ostensible target. Hence, thousands of people could have been unknowingly caught up in the Spygate web and are still unaware that their privacy had been violated under the severely compromised FISA process.
This ties into the whirlwind of “unmaskings” during the 2016-17 transition period. Names of people inadvertently caught up in this expansive web, which ordinarily would be classified and their privacy interests protected, were revealed and information sent to Democratic allies in Capitol Hill for “safe keeping.” Judicial Watch has chronicled how Obama’s United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and National Security Adviser Susan Rice, among others, colluded in this effort to bolster the “insurance policy” to hobble the Trump presidency.
There is also the matter of President Obama finalizing rules in the closing days of his administration that opened the raw, unedited information feeds collected by the National Security Agency to all of the 16 other agencies in the Intelligence Community before any privacy protections are implemented. This ill-considered and unnecessary rule change vastly expanded the potential for abuse in the system and was a curious move for Obama to make in the waning days of his presidency.
However, it makes perfect sense if you believe that Obama officials were doing their utmost to put in place a bureaucratic infrastructure seeking to undermine the Trump administration before it began. Also, factor in the distrust of NSA head Admiral Michael S. Rogers, who met with President-elect Trump in November 2016 and allegedly blew the whistle on the Trump Tower wiretapping.
Essentially, Obama’s rule change took Rogers out of the equation and gave other agency heads like Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper the freedom to spread around whatever information the NSA was scooping up, whether relevant to Russia or not.
Thus, the people peripheral to Donald Trump who were the initial targets served principally as gateways to justify a massive domestic spying operation. And the ultimate target of this illicit activity was clearly Trump himself. It says a lot that given this unprecedented abuse of domestic spying, with the coup cabal having unfettered access to the virtually unlimited information collected by the Intelligence Community, and after two years of brutal investigation by the Mueller team, the effort to show ties between Trump and Russia came up empty. But the insurance policy at least achieved part of its objective in severely damaging the Trump administration in its first years.
Hopefully the Durham investigation will reveal the true extent of the spying operation, and how many innocent Americans had their rights violated and their privacy compromised. Another important question yet to be resolved is when Spygate started. For example, George Papadopoulos was being targeted by foreign intelligence services like Australia, perhaps at Brennan’s behest, months before Donald Trump was the Republican nominee. This raises the question, were members of other then-still active Republican campaigns being targeted in this time frame as well? Was this part of a general push to begin weaving the Russian collusion story against any potential GOP 2016 nominee, and not just Trump? If the answer to that question is yes, then it will be clear that the entire enterprise was not an intelligence operation at all but a criminal political conspiracy of unprecedented scope and impact. It would indeed make Watergate look like a third-rate burglary.
Chris Farrell is director of investigations and research for Judicial Watch, a nonprofit government watchdog. Chris is a former military intelligence officer who specialized in human intelligence.
News of the Times;
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2020-3-28-china-makes-itself-a-laughingstock
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/outrageous-dr-birx-went-bill-gates-funded-coronavirus-model-sits-gates-funded-foundation-board/
https://spectator.org/the-orange-man-bad-disease/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/new-revelations-about-woman-who-accidentally-poisoned-her-husband-to-death-with-fish-tank-cleaner-raises-eyebrows/
https://americanmind.org/features/the-coronacrisis-and-our-future-discontents/make-america-autarkic-again/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/goldman-sachs-buys-2-luxury-private-jets-main-street-verge-collapse
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/flashback-former-joe-biden-secret-service-agent-we-had-to-protect-women-from-him-weinstein-level-stuff/
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/03/donald-trump-i-think-a-lot-of-people-cheat-with-mail-in-voting/
https://gizmodo.com/man-tries-to-ram-train-into-u-s-navy-hospital-ship-do-1842645529?utm_source=digg
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2020/04/02/gov-andrew-cuomo-has-not-accepted-remingtons-offer-ppe-ventilators-n2566211
https://pjmedia.com/trending/report-mueller-hid-evidence-exonerating-don-jr-over-infamous-trump-tower-meeting/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/cdc-tells-hospitals-list-covid-19-cause-death-even-assumed-caused-contributed-death-lab-tests-not-required/
https://www.redstate.com/bonchie/2020/04/03/michigans-governor-tries-to-troll-trump-with-a-t-shirt/
https://www.wnd.com/2020/04/fellow-wh-correspondent-slams-acostas-style-not-opposition-party/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/revealed-areas-hit-hardest-coronavirus-voted-trump-helps-anyways/
Dakota?
Imagine if Americans switched from pounds to kilograms overnight.
There would be mass confusion.
*.*
Lines:
I'm not addicted to coffee, it's more of a committed relationship.
I run like the winded.
Scientists are warning AI superintelligence is on the verge of "destroying civilization." I'm looking around at what's going on in the world right now and the words, "too late?" pop into my mind.
Joe Coulombe, the founder of Trader Joe's, has died at the age of 89. So much for healthy eating.
Matthew Stafford and his wife are expecting their 4th child together. Yes, another completed pass.
Woody Allen has an autobiography coming out titled, "Apropos of Nothing" because the title "Not without my daughter" was taken.
A group of scientists are predicting that, due to climate change, half of the world's beaches will disappear by the year 2100. Then again, that means that half of the world's beaches will be new!
I'm trying to be positive about this whole coronavirus thing. I suppose we should be grateful it's not the corona-extra-virus.
China is cracking down on "sexual innuendo" and "celebrity gossip" under new censorship rules: Hey, "Nice set"… of regulations.
Iran has temporarily freed 54,000 prisoners to combat coronavirus. I'm trying to figure out how you ‘temporarily free' prisoners. "OK, you guys, I want you back here a week from Thursday!"
364 pound lineman Mekhi Becton ran a 5.10 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. However, we're not sure where he is now as he was unable to stop.
*.*
Two engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking at its top. A blonde walked by and asked what they were doing.
"We're supposed to find the height of this flagpole," said Sven, "but we don't have a ladder."
The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground. Then she took a tape measure from her handbag, took a measurement and announced, "Twenty one feet, six inches," and walked away.
One engineer shook his head and laughed, "Typical blonde! We ask for the height and she gives us the length!"
*.*
More lines:
Little League teams across the country are dropping the name Astro's because of the cheating scandal. In a related story, the Jetsons have dropped their dog off at the shelter.
Cleveland Browns tackle Greg Robinson was arrested with 156 pounds of pot in his vehicle. In his defense, he plays for the Cleveland Browns.
Roger Federer will miss the French Open after knee surgery, eliminating one of the easiest names to pronounce in the tournament.
The world's oldest man has died at the age of 112. I tell you, that title is cursed.
Former presidential candidate and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson is endorsing Bernie Sanders. The guy just can't get a break.
How we know we're getting old; we're just one away from going from The Monkees to The Monkee.
Supervisor: Why do I always have to come looking for you? Me: Because a good employee is hard to find.
I don't really mind getting older, but my body seems to mind.
The only thing Flat-Earthers fear is Sphere itself!
*.*
I went a wise man the other day for advice, and he said, "He who knows and knows he knows, knows not. He who knows not and knows he knows not, knows."
I don't know who's going to do my taxes next year, but I know it won't be him again.
Quote of the Times;
When a man is in a healthy state, his life is a constant creative process. He is inundated by feelings of love, of oneness with other human beings. The oneness is the awareness that he is not different from others. He wants to help them; he identifies with them; he senses that anything that is happening to them is happening to himself. A healthy person has a positive direction in his life. He wills his life in a positive direction, and he is successful – in business, in this thinking, in his feelings of contentment with himself. In that state there is little or no sickness and no evil. – Pierrakos
Link of the Times;
https://summit.news/2020/04/03/who-director-was-top-member-of-violent-ethiopian-communist-party/
Issue of the Times;
A Victory for Intellectual Diversity in South Dakota by Jon Schaff
South Dakota’s experience with intellectual diversity legislation is a case study for the nation.
During its 2019 session the South Dakota legislature passed H.B. 1087, a bill intended to promote intellectual diversity on the state’s six public university campuses. As signed by Gov. Kristi Noem, the bill accomplishes various goods. It ensures the right of controversial speakers to access campus space, protects the free speech rights of student groups, and sets up various reporting requirements intended to monitor intellectual diversity on campuses. An earlier version of the bill contained a curriculum requirement mandating that all South Dakota university students take at least one course in American History and one course in American Government. (Sadly, this provision was stricken from the final bill.)
Unsurprisingly, the state’s Board of Regents, the body that governs the six institutions, opposed the bill. Defense of the status quo and bureaucratic independence from political control typify the Board’s activity. The claims made by the Board included complaints about unfunded mandates and overly vague language regarding what counts as speech. While I would contend that these were weak arguments, the Board’s opposition was nearly successful. H.B. 1087 looked to be going down in defeat when near the end of session a group at the University of South Dakota sponsored a Hawaiian Day festivity as a way of breaking South Dakota’s winter monotony. University bureaucrats, though, determined “Hawaiian Day” potentially offensive, leading to the renaming of the event as “Beach Day.”
This bureaucratic silliness rekindled legislative debate and put wind in the sails of H.B. 1087’s supporters, as one of their complaints had been the metastasizing of university “diversity” bureaucracy. The bill ultimately passed. The state then held hearings in June of 2019 to gain input on how to implement some of the law’s provisions. I was pleased to work with Heterodox Academy in offering some suggestions. As of this writing, compliance is largely through reporting requirements on any infractions against free speech and cataloging outside speakers who come to campus.
A Stacked Deck
South Dakota’s experience with intellectual diversity legislation is a case study for the nation. We are in a position similar to those of many other states. South Dakota is a deep “red” state. Its entire congressional delegation (one House member, two Senators) is Republican. Republicans dominate the state legislature, outnumbering Democrats by a six to one margin. There has not been a Democratic governor since the 1970s, and the last time the state voted Democrat for president was the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964.
Yet, as is the case in the rest of the country, the universities are deeply “blue.” While it is fair to say that the worst of campus radicalism has not hit South Dakota, still the academic left is far overrepresented at the state’s institutions of higher education. A recent report from the National Association of Scholars notes that at the state’s two largest institutions of higher education, the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University, the ratio of Democrat to Republican registration among faculty is about 5:1 and 3:1 respectively.
While party registration is an imperfect measure of faculty ideology, and South Dakota fares better than the national average (about 8:1), this is still far from parity. And the figures do not get to the power of administration and “diversity” bureaucracy to skew the university’s agenda. One is left wondering why the state’s conservative majority should shovel millions of taxpayer dollars to institutions that hold the majority’s beliefs in contempt.
South Dakota’s legislature, then, is to be commended for taking a proactive rather than reactive response to campus radicalism. H.B. 1087 was meant to be a prophylactic, not a corrective. While it is a shame that legislative action is required on these matters, the lack of intellectual diversity comes from within higher education, so it is hard to believe that the solution will also come from within. South Dakota is a microcosm of issues that have arisen all over the country, often in more serious form. Note the power of “diversity” staff, especially those on the student affairs side of the university.
One also cannot discount the nefarious influence of accrediting bodies. The Higher Learning Commission chided the University of South Dakota for its lack of attention to “diversity.” This accrediting wrist-slap explains in part the rise of “diversity” infrastructure within the state. Of course, for HLC “diversity” means everything but intellectual diversity. As in university assessment and accreditation, the way to appease complaints is to create offices with budgets and staff to show you are “addressing the problem.” The federally protected cartel which is university accreditation gives enormous power to these unaccountable bureaucratic forces that, like most of higher education, have drunk deeply from the draught of identity and diversity politics. The growing power of “diversity” officers has not been lost on the South Dakota legislature.
The original instincts of H.B. 1087’s sponsors were sound. The way to increase intellectual diversity is primarily through the curriculum, although the other provisions of the bill are laudable. I testified in favor of H.B. 1087 in front of the House Education committee, obviously speaking only for myself. There I noted that over the last two decades the state university system has gone through various curricular reforms, virtually all of them dumbing down the curriculum. For example, Western Civilization, once required of all students, is now simply one of a smorgasbord of courses that fulfill a humanities requirement. At this point, most South Dakota university students can graduate without taking a single course in history, government, economics, philosophy, or literature.
True Learning
To be sure, most students actually take courses in one or more of these fields. But this is by happy accident. We do not praise the blind man for inadvertently choosing the right road. Also, given recent changes to K-12 curriculum, the last time the State of South Dakota requires its students to take a history course on the American Founding is in the eighth grade when, as a friend notes, students are not far beyond the “draw a turkey with your hand” stage. So one can graduate from a South Dakota high school and then a South Dakota university without taking a single American history course beyond the age of twelve. We will call this person “educated” and then wonder why our populace is so civically illiterate.
The response to H.B. 1087 by South Dakota education bureaucrats has been to slow-walk compliance. It is an ill-concealed strategy by the Board of Regents and member schools to do as little as possible, trusting that other matters will inevitably distract our part-time legislature. The permanent executive branch generally exerts little control over the Board of Regents, which is nominally responsible to the governor but in practice tends to operate as an independent agency. Without pressure, it is difficult to see the system and individual institutions who opposed H.B. 1087 complying in anything but the most perfunctory manner.
One notes that of the six public four-year institutions in the state, only one (Dakota State University) names academic freedom or intellectual diversity as part of its mission. Only one (University of South Dakota) expresses a commitment to liberal education. It is a fair summary of the six university mission statements that vague references to “diversity” and “inclusion” dominate over any idea of academic excellence, preserving our civilization’s heritage, or placing intellectual diversity at the heart of the academic experience.
Those who wish for more ideological diversity on campus and a defense of the study of Western Civilization should avoid the temptation to bean counting. The point is not how many speakers hold what views or the ratio of right-leaning faculty to left-leaning faculty, although we could improve on these matters. The goal is to create a place where those who wish to challenge academia’s left-wing orthodoxies can do so with without fear of repercussion.
The Campus Expression Survey created by Heterodox Academy may be useful to this end. As NAS suggested in its own recommendations to South Dakota, intellectual diversity and “diversity offices” are often at odds. This may require minimizing if not eliminating offices and academic departments whose very reason for existence is ideological. In addition, students who wish to study the foundations of their civilization in a traditional manner need to have a place where they can do so.
This might mean curricular adjustments, namely requiring rather than suggesting certain fundamental courses. Universities can create centers like the Kinder Institute at University of Missouri, the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization at Colgate, the School for Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State, or the Center for American Founding Principles at Mercer. These are safe havens, so to speak, where students, parents, and funders (including legislatures) can be assured that the Western and American tradition is studied free of the ideological biases that dominate higher education.
South Dakota is in the process of implementing its legislation. In doing so, it just may set a model for the nation. But this will only happen if those who care about these matters remain vigilant.
News of the Times;
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/29/the_medias_top_lies_and_spins_about_covid-19.html
https://www.infowars.com/media-bleating-about-muslim-rape-gangs-takes-focus-away-from-islamophobia/
https://pjmedia.com/trending/what-the-media-isnt-telling-you-about-the-united-states-coronavirus-case-numbers
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/venezuelan-general-is-extradited-to-us-second-general-surrenders-after-us-puts-bounty-on-leaders-of-criminal-socialist-maduro-regime/
https://greenworldtips.com/tucker-carlson-savagely-obliterates-ilhan-omar-suggests-she-should-never-have-been-granted-citizenship/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/good-guy-with-a-gun-stops-woman-who-allegedly-opened-fire-on-customers-at-tulsa-shopping-plaza/
https://jcpa.org/palestinian-authority-still-insists-on-paying-salaries-to-terrorists/
https://unclevladdi.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/moslem-criminal-appoints-ontarios-judges/
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-biden-believe-all-women-except-one-accusing-me-sexual-assault
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/how-bill-de-blasio-botched-nycs-response-covid-19
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/28/you-will-see-darkness-meltdown-of-rep-haley-stevens-shows-how-hysteria-can-be-fueled-by-politicians/
https://economicprism.com/boeings-bean-counter-culture-and-mass-financialization/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/cdc-is-now-tracking-millions-of-americans-by-using-cell-phone-data-but-dont-worry-because-you-can-trust-the-govt-to-not-spy-on-innocent-americans/
https://hbg100.com/2020/03/29/city-councilman-incites-blm-riot-during-covid-19-shutdown-in-newburgh-n-y-after-police-shooting/
https://breaking911.com/over-a-dozen-child-predators-nabbed-in-undercover-sting-in-florida/
There would be mass confusion.
*.*
Lines:
I'm not addicted to coffee, it's more of a committed relationship.
I run like the winded.
Scientists are warning AI superintelligence is on the verge of "destroying civilization." I'm looking around at what's going on in the world right now and the words, "too late?" pop into my mind.
Joe Coulombe, the founder of Trader Joe's, has died at the age of 89. So much for healthy eating.
Matthew Stafford and his wife are expecting their 4th child together. Yes, another completed pass.
Woody Allen has an autobiography coming out titled, "Apropos of Nothing" because the title "Not without my daughter" was taken.
A group of scientists are predicting that, due to climate change, half of the world's beaches will disappear by the year 2100. Then again, that means that half of the world's beaches will be new!
I'm trying to be positive about this whole coronavirus thing. I suppose we should be grateful it's not the corona-extra-virus.
China is cracking down on "sexual innuendo" and "celebrity gossip" under new censorship rules: Hey, "Nice set"… of regulations.
Iran has temporarily freed 54,000 prisoners to combat coronavirus. I'm trying to figure out how you ‘temporarily free' prisoners. "OK, you guys, I want you back here a week from Thursday!"
364 pound lineman Mekhi Becton ran a 5.10 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. However, we're not sure where he is now as he was unable to stop.
*.*
Two engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking at its top. A blonde walked by and asked what they were doing.
"We're supposed to find the height of this flagpole," said Sven, "but we don't have a ladder."
The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple of bolts, and laid the pole down on the ground. Then she took a tape measure from her handbag, took a measurement and announced, "Twenty one feet, six inches," and walked away.
One engineer shook his head and laughed, "Typical blonde! We ask for the height and she gives us the length!"
*.*
More lines:
Little League teams across the country are dropping the name Astro's because of the cheating scandal. In a related story, the Jetsons have dropped their dog off at the shelter.
Cleveland Browns tackle Greg Robinson was arrested with 156 pounds of pot in his vehicle. In his defense, he plays for the Cleveland Browns.
Roger Federer will miss the French Open after knee surgery, eliminating one of the easiest names to pronounce in the tournament.
The world's oldest man has died at the age of 112. I tell you, that title is cursed.
Former presidential candidate and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson is endorsing Bernie Sanders. The guy just can't get a break.
How we know we're getting old; we're just one away from going from The Monkees to The Monkee.
Supervisor: Why do I always have to come looking for you? Me: Because a good employee is hard to find.
I don't really mind getting older, but my body seems to mind.
The only thing Flat-Earthers fear is Sphere itself!
*.*
I went a wise man the other day for advice, and he said, "He who knows and knows he knows, knows not. He who knows not and knows he knows not, knows."
I don't know who's going to do my taxes next year, but I know it won't be him again.
Quote of the Times;
When a man is in a healthy state, his life is a constant creative process. He is inundated by feelings of love, of oneness with other human beings. The oneness is the awareness that he is not different from others. He wants to help them; he identifies with them; he senses that anything that is happening to them is happening to himself. A healthy person has a positive direction in his life. He wills his life in a positive direction, and he is successful – in business, in this thinking, in his feelings of contentment with himself. In that state there is little or no sickness and no evil. – Pierrakos
Link of the Times;
https://summit.news/2020/04/03/who-director-was-top-member-of-violent-ethiopian-communist-party/
Issue of the Times;
A Victory for Intellectual Diversity in South Dakota by Jon Schaff
South Dakota’s experience with intellectual diversity legislation is a case study for the nation.
During its 2019 session the South Dakota legislature passed H.B. 1087, a bill intended to promote intellectual diversity on the state’s six public university campuses. As signed by Gov. Kristi Noem, the bill accomplishes various goods. It ensures the right of controversial speakers to access campus space, protects the free speech rights of student groups, and sets up various reporting requirements intended to monitor intellectual diversity on campuses. An earlier version of the bill contained a curriculum requirement mandating that all South Dakota university students take at least one course in American History and one course in American Government. (Sadly, this provision was stricken from the final bill.)
Unsurprisingly, the state’s Board of Regents, the body that governs the six institutions, opposed the bill. Defense of the status quo and bureaucratic independence from political control typify the Board’s activity. The claims made by the Board included complaints about unfunded mandates and overly vague language regarding what counts as speech. While I would contend that these were weak arguments, the Board’s opposition was nearly successful. H.B. 1087 looked to be going down in defeat when near the end of session a group at the University of South Dakota sponsored a Hawaiian Day festivity as a way of breaking South Dakota’s winter monotony. University bureaucrats, though, determined “Hawaiian Day” potentially offensive, leading to the renaming of the event as “Beach Day.”
This bureaucratic silliness rekindled legislative debate and put wind in the sails of H.B. 1087’s supporters, as one of their complaints had been the metastasizing of university “diversity” bureaucracy. The bill ultimately passed. The state then held hearings in June of 2019 to gain input on how to implement some of the law’s provisions. I was pleased to work with Heterodox Academy in offering some suggestions. As of this writing, compliance is largely through reporting requirements on any infractions against free speech and cataloging outside speakers who come to campus.
A Stacked Deck
South Dakota’s experience with intellectual diversity legislation is a case study for the nation. We are in a position similar to those of many other states. South Dakota is a deep “red” state. Its entire congressional delegation (one House member, two Senators) is Republican. Republicans dominate the state legislature, outnumbering Democrats by a six to one margin. There has not been a Democratic governor since the 1970s, and the last time the state voted Democrat for president was the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964.
Yet, as is the case in the rest of the country, the universities are deeply “blue.” While it is fair to say that the worst of campus radicalism has not hit South Dakota, still the academic left is far overrepresented at the state’s institutions of higher education. A recent report from the National Association of Scholars notes that at the state’s two largest institutions of higher education, the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University, the ratio of Democrat to Republican registration among faculty is about 5:1 and 3:1 respectively.
While party registration is an imperfect measure of faculty ideology, and South Dakota fares better than the national average (about 8:1), this is still far from parity. And the figures do not get to the power of administration and “diversity” bureaucracy to skew the university’s agenda. One is left wondering why the state’s conservative majority should shovel millions of taxpayer dollars to institutions that hold the majority’s beliefs in contempt.
South Dakota’s legislature, then, is to be commended for taking a proactive rather than reactive response to campus radicalism. H.B. 1087 was meant to be a prophylactic, not a corrective. While it is a shame that legislative action is required on these matters, the lack of intellectual diversity comes from within higher education, so it is hard to believe that the solution will also come from within. South Dakota is a microcosm of issues that have arisen all over the country, often in more serious form. Note the power of “diversity” staff, especially those on the student affairs side of the university.
One also cannot discount the nefarious influence of accrediting bodies. The Higher Learning Commission chided the University of South Dakota for its lack of attention to “diversity.” This accrediting wrist-slap explains in part the rise of “diversity” infrastructure within the state. Of course, for HLC “diversity” means everything but intellectual diversity. As in university assessment and accreditation, the way to appease complaints is to create offices with budgets and staff to show you are “addressing the problem.” The federally protected cartel which is university accreditation gives enormous power to these unaccountable bureaucratic forces that, like most of higher education, have drunk deeply from the draught of identity and diversity politics. The growing power of “diversity” officers has not been lost on the South Dakota legislature.
The original instincts of H.B. 1087’s sponsors were sound. The way to increase intellectual diversity is primarily through the curriculum, although the other provisions of the bill are laudable. I testified in favor of H.B. 1087 in front of the House Education committee, obviously speaking only for myself. There I noted that over the last two decades the state university system has gone through various curricular reforms, virtually all of them dumbing down the curriculum. For example, Western Civilization, once required of all students, is now simply one of a smorgasbord of courses that fulfill a humanities requirement. At this point, most South Dakota university students can graduate without taking a single course in history, government, economics, philosophy, or literature.
True Learning
To be sure, most students actually take courses in one or more of these fields. But this is by happy accident. We do not praise the blind man for inadvertently choosing the right road. Also, given recent changes to K-12 curriculum, the last time the State of South Dakota requires its students to take a history course on the American Founding is in the eighth grade when, as a friend notes, students are not far beyond the “draw a turkey with your hand” stage. So one can graduate from a South Dakota high school and then a South Dakota university without taking a single American history course beyond the age of twelve. We will call this person “educated” and then wonder why our populace is so civically illiterate.
The response to H.B. 1087 by South Dakota education bureaucrats has been to slow-walk compliance. It is an ill-concealed strategy by the Board of Regents and member schools to do as little as possible, trusting that other matters will inevitably distract our part-time legislature. The permanent executive branch generally exerts little control over the Board of Regents, which is nominally responsible to the governor but in practice tends to operate as an independent agency. Without pressure, it is difficult to see the system and individual institutions who opposed H.B. 1087 complying in anything but the most perfunctory manner.
One notes that of the six public four-year institutions in the state, only one (Dakota State University) names academic freedom or intellectual diversity as part of its mission. Only one (University of South Dakota) expresses a commitment to liberal education. It is a fair summary of the six university mission statements that vague references to “diversity” and “inclusion” dominate over any idea of academic excellence, preserving our civilization’s heritage, or placing intellectual diversity at the heart of the academic experience.
Those who wish for more ideological diversity on campus and a defense of the study of Western Civilization should avoid the temptation to bean counting. The point is not how many speakers hold what views or the ratio of right-leaning faculty to left-leaning faculty, although we could improve on these matters. The goal is to create a place where those who wish to challenge academia’s left-wing orthodoxies can do so with without fear of repercussion.
The Campus Expression Survey created by Heterodox Academy may be useful to this end. As NAS suggested in its own recommendations to South Dakota, intellectual diversity and “diversity offices” are often at odds. This may require minimizing if not eliminating offices and academic departments whose very reason for existence is ideological. In addition, students who wish to study the foundations of their civilization in a traditional manner need to have a place where they can do so.
This might mean curricular adjustments, namely requiring rather than suggesting certain fundamental courses. Universities can create centers like the Kinder Institute at University of Missouri, the Center for Freedom and Western Civilization at Colgate, the School for Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State, or the Center for American Founding Principles at Mercer. These are safe havens, so to speak, where students, parents, and funders (including legislatures) can be assured that the Western and American tradition is studied free of the ideological biases that dominate higher education.
South Dakota is in the process of implementing its legislation. In doing so, it just may set a model for the nation. But this will only happen if those who care about these matters remain vigilant.
News of the Times;
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/29/the_medias_top_lies_and_spins_about_covid-19.html
https://www.infowars.com/media-bleating-about-muslim-rape-gangs-takes-focus-away-from-islamophobia/
https://pjmedia.com/trending/what-the-media-isnt-telling-you-about-the-united-states-coronavirus-case-numbers
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/venezuelan-general-is-extradited-to-us-second-general-surrenders-after-us-puts-bounty-on-leaders-of-criminal-socialist-maduro-regime/
https://greenworldtips.com/tucker-carlson-savagely-obliterates-ilhan-omar-suggests-she-should-never-have-been-granted-citizenship/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/good-guy-with-a-gun-stops-woman-who-allegedly-opened-fire-on-customers-at-tulsa-shopping-plaza/
https://jcpa.org/palestinian-authority-still-insists-on-paying-salaries-to-terrorists/
https://unclevladdi.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/moslem-criminal-appoints-ontarios-judges/
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-biden-believe-all-women-except-one-accusing-me-sexual-assault
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/how-bill-de-blasio-botched-nycs-response-covid-19
https://jonathanturley.org/2020/03/28/you-will-see-darkness-meltdown-of-rep-haley-stevens-shows-how-hysteria-can-be-fueled-by-politicians/
https://economicprism.com/boeings-bean-counter-culture-and-mass-financialization/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/cdc-is-now-tracking-millions-of-americans-by-using-cell-phone-data-but-dont-worry-because-you-can-trust-the-govt-to-not-spy-on-innocent-americans/
https://hbg100.com/2020/03/29/city-councilman-incites-blm-riot-during-covid-19-shutdown-in-newburgh-n-y-after-police-shooting/
https://breaking911.com/over-a-dozen-child-predators-nabbed-in-undercover-sting-in-florida/
Several animals were savagely beaten in the making of this page, including but not limited to; kittens, rabbits, zebu, skunks, puppies, and platypus. Also several monkeys where force fed crack to improve their typing skills.
And someone shot a duck.
An Images & Ideas, Inc. Service.
No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.
And someone shot a duck.
An Images & Ideas, Inc. Service.
No Vegans were harmed in the making of this site. We're looking for a new provider.