Tag Archives: Prager

Jul27

Things I Just Don’t Understand…

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Every once in a while I have to do a “politics dump,” a commentary of current political events, with back up from some of my favorite Conservative or Libertarian thinkers. On Facebook I would have just posted link after link, day after day, but in the blogging world, I prefer this format as I find it to be more productive, constructive, and concise.

In this post I have chosen a few quotes from Victor Davis Hansen and Jonah Goldberg to punctuate my thoughts. The articles from which the quotes were drawn are linked somewhere below.

  • Yup, it’s ALL about “Choice.” Well, maybe for some, but obviously not the abortion industry. Could we PLEASE have a real, honest discussion about what abortion is after 20 weeks? It is murder, pure and simple. How is it I’m supposed to fret over the owls, whales, caribou, snail darters, dogs, cats, and tree frogs, but human babies are verboten, or at least passè? How can people that are often SO adamant about animals and trees care so very little for their own kind?

It’s Time to Defund Planned Parenthood;Shameful: Planned Parenthood’s Weak Response; The Nazis, Medical Research and Planned Parenthood

The recent disclosures about Planned Parenthood likewise infuriated the fed-up base. Again, they were not incensed just at the callous and sick way supposed humanitarians at Planned Parenthood talked of slicing up fetal tissue and selling organs, but at the hypocrisy of it all. At a time liberals are Trotskyzing our past to damn to memory any ancient historical figure who owned slaves or practiced racism, how does Planned Parenthood’s godhead Margaret Sanger, the racist eugenicist and promoter of abortion to curb minority populations, get a pass?

Liberals lecture about “set457181-222196tled science” and adherence to logic instead of myth and folklore. But they also insist on talking of fetuses as non-human organisms, even as they concede both that fetuses in the womb possess viable — and marketable — human tissues and that developing babies at 22 months are now viable outside the womb.

For those who bandy about words like troglodyte, it is quite Neanderthal, in the scientific sense, to believe that a baby is not a living, viable organism until it emerges from the birth canal. For a movement that talks of caring and compassion, it is hard to write a script more cruel and callous than that of the Planned Parenthood talking heads referencing a Lamborghini or a “less crunchy” abortion technique or the macabre house of horrors of the abortionist and convicted murderer Dr. Gosnell. As for the supposed questionable ethics of catching Planned Parenthood with ruse and stealthy tape, no one seemed to object over secretly taping at a private gathering Mitt Romney’s unfortunate quip about the “47 percent,” much less did liberals object to four decades of 60 Minutes ambush-style, secret-video reporting.- VDH

So: We live in a world where Bobby Jindal is a fake Indian, but it’s racist to say an older white woman isn’t a real one (the correct term being “Native American,” of course). Nimages (7)ikki Haley is a villain for “suppressing” her Indian roots, but Senator Ted Cruz is a fraud for touting his Cuban roots. (Cruz was recently grilled by Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin about how authentically Cuban he really is. At least Halperin later apologized.)  -JG

  • When the Catholic leader goes Hitler on Catholicism (do some research on how Hitler perverted the Lutheran church in the run up to WWII)…
What the....?!

What the….?!

The Pope and the Hammer and Sickle
So….Jesus was a Communist now? How do these leftists, including this pope, turn a blind eye to the butchery that has occurred at the hands of Communists since 1917? Che, Mao, Castro, Mao, Stalin- great heroes and humanitarians we should all look up to, but Capitalism is evil? Can one simply compare the economies and standard of living between the people of North and South Korea, not to mention the way each government treats its own people, to debunk this blind ideology? Makes me very glad I’m not Catholic these days. I’d have a hard time taking this pope as God’s mouthpiece.

  • I’m never ceased to be amazed by the hypocrisy of the media and the Democrats and all they have infiltrated. Why does High Faulutin’ Person X (R) get so much media and is often forced into hiding, resignation or prison, but High Faulutin’ Person Y (D) get invites to the White House?

    Once upon a time my husband was an FBI agent. He went through Quantico in 1995 with this guy. He wasn’t terribly impressed with him then and has no use for him now; he seems to be quite a scumbag.

    Dennis Hastert is being targeted for suspect withdraws, but my husband can’t get prosecutors to touch cases this small when it is TAX PAYER money being wasted or stolen? Priorities, priorities…

    Ted Stevens gets taken down, only later the injustice comes out. Harry Reid brags about being a lying scumbag.

    Yet… Al Sharpton? Charlie Rangel? Obamacare lies? Planned Parenthood (see above)? Hillary Clinton? Just to point out a few….

We’re actually making a deal with these crazies, not requiring the return of hostages, and giving them a butt load of money? Oh, yeah, and essentially telling the American people they (through their representatives) have no say so because the approval of the U.N. means more to this president than we do. How long until the election? Can any of this damage be undone?

The conservative base is tired of illegal immigration. Their furor peaked with the horrific killing of Kate Steinle by a seven-time convicted felon and five-time deported illegal alien.  They are baffled that one apparently exempt and privileged ethnic group can arbitrarily decide to ignore federal law. They are irate that they are lectured about their supposed racism from an open-borders movement predicated on La Raza-like ethnic chauvinism. They do not want to hear about nativism from a lobby that so often at rallies waves the flag of the country that none of the protesters seems to wish to return to, a country whose authoritarianism is romanticized as much as their host country is faulted for its magnanimity. Call this what you will, but emotion over neglecting federal law is much less worrisome than cool calculation over violating it.- VDH

  • I grew up in Texas, but have NEVER liked the Confederate flag. In my memory, I never saw anything positive about it, didn’t romanticize the antebellum era, didn’t think blacks should be kept “in their place.” However, when a white guy goes bonkers in South Carolina, ostensibly because hated blacks (and had more than a few screws lose), it’s necessary to question everything about him, dig up a few choice tid-bits that “prove” how racist America is today (not a single change in 50 years!? Really?), seek to destroy any symbol that he may have wrapped himself in…oh, yeah, and cry about a lack of gun control?  But when Muslims commit murder on U.S. soil or kill people over seas, CLEARLY because of their twisted, butcher-the-infidels mindset, we are supposed to delve into their backgrounds to discover what great people they “really” were, find ways to blame ourselves, boost them up, and cover their sins with in a thick veil flag-salute-silhouetteof political correctness? Wow, talk about a screwed up set of priorities. Ditto goes for crimes committed by illegals. Could we please focus on cutting the heart out of radical Islam and facing up to the fact that some people who shouldn’t be here in the first place do bad things and should be held responsible for their actions before we fret over a piece of cloth from a by-gone era? For all of their harping on the beauty of “diversity,” all I see is division in the ranks and making excuses for evil…well, for some…as long as they aren’t white!Honor Heritage with the RIGHT Flag; America, NOT Dylann Roof Should be Forgiven; Do the Right Thing, Mr. President — Lower the Flag (Why did this actually take more time to decide to do than lighting up the White House like a rainbow?); The President’s Looking Glass Islamic World; America, One Nation Indivisible ; Why Does the Left Treat Islamic Terrorism with More Nuance Than the Confederate Flag?

In the last half-century, Americans have increasingly tended to emphasize race and tribe in promoting “diversity,” rather than seeking to strengthen the more tenuous notion of unity with their fellow citizens. We have forgotten that human nature is fond of division and must work at setting aside superficial tribal affinities to unite on the basis of core values and ideas.

Symbols, flags, organizations, and phrases that emphasize racial difference and ethnic pride are no longer just fossilized notions from the 1960s; they are growing fissures in the American mosaic that now threaten to split the country apart — fueling the suspicion of less liberal and more homogeneous nations that the great American experiment will finally unwind as expected.- VDH

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May30

Reflections on Being Facebook-less: Revisiting My First Day Blogging

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As I commented in my opening post, Facebook had become a real problem for me. I use the past tense ‘had’ because I put my account to sleep on Monday, May 18, at 12:09 a.m. My original intention was to spend the summer in hiatus, then reassess in the fall. Now, almost two weeks later, I’m not so sure that I’ll be going back on social media of any sort come September.

In recent months my political opinions, which I stand by firmly, in regards to gay marriage an2e6f1350447ee76343c375ce4c7aa894d whether or not business owners in the traditional wedding industries should be forced to provide services to gay couples tying the knot, had come under fire by a few friends who see these 8908ed4c064bef60733ef20387437751issues differently. I am perfectly happy to allow that on many topics people may amiably “agree to disagree.” Alas, I have found that is not enough for some on certain subjects. No, no, it is all or none. And in this case, the leftist consensus seems to be all who believe in traditional marriage and the Constitutional right to Freedom of Religion and Association, let alone Freedom of Conscience and the belief that the Market can decide such issues better than Big Government, must be forced into reeducation camps until we give up our convictions at the altar of Political Correctness and sell out our God. Or at least remake Him in the image of modern society.

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.   —George Orwell, 1984

Yeah, that would be acceptable. For now. The arguments back and forth become of the circle jerk variety, and hardly worth the time for either party to continue. Still, for my part, as far as Facebook is concerned, I reserve the right to post what I want on my page, and happily allow that others have the same freedom. Discussions are fine, but harassment? Ugliness? Well, feel free to find another target.

Besides, the politics, these terrific graphics, memes, whatever you want to call them, pop up all the time. And I love them. I love humor, in most every form, and I love to laugh. But like Uncle Albert in Disney’s Mary Poppins, we can spend our time being tickled to death but accomplishing nothing, gaining, growing not at all. We post funny pics (and they ARE funny!) of our kids, our cats, our dogs, our Pinterest fails. And others laugh. It’s kind of like we’ve all become class clowns, vying for attention. Our friends and our “friends” post back, “LOL,” “LMAO,” “ROFL” and “:)” because we want to let our buddies know their comedic efforts were received as such on our end. No one wants to post into an echoless wilderness. We want to laugh with others, and we gain pleasure in making others smile. And that’s okay.

The problem is going on to Facebook JUST to be amused. Trolling for a laugh, if you will. We get so addicted to the fun stuff that we end up being “in” there for hours…all while the dishes pile up, the kids whine for dinne6004272faa7609420f2e740af4630af9r, your spouse begs for attention, your budget goes unbalanced for yet another day, and if someone were to sneak a candid shot of you, your head would be turned downward, staring at some device. Interaction with others? Unnecessary. We all have our electronic pacifiers to keep us happy instead.

And don’t give me the “All things in moderation” line. How good are you at moderation, really? For so many of us, not all, but many, moderation just doesn’t happen. Time wasters easily get out of hand, particularly for the easily distracted and addictive types. We struggle with attention as it is to the point that self-regulating on social media is almost laughable. We’re like rats at a sugar water dispenser! Like the poor Christian in C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters. Like the busy people being plagued by the Devil’s little minions! Only now, we’re simply “busy” being distracted!

Sadly, even many who didn’t used to be plagued by short attention spans are now. I was listening to one of my favorite talk radio shows the day that I went “off-air.” The host, law professor Hugh Hewitt, was interviewing (somewhat) Conservative New York Time’s columnist David Brooks about his new book The Road to Character. Hugh was asking him about a few of the issues David sees with social media (which Hugh loves!). The first problem Hugh suggested to Mr. Brooks is “amplification of the self,” which is a topic for another post; and the second is the destruction of our attention spans.

DB: …The [problem with social media] I actually worry about the most now in myself is my attention span is just shot. I just can’t go a few pages without wanting to check my phone or something. And so I do think it’s having a big effect on attention spans.

HH: When I prepare for interviews like this and I read a book, I often read a chapter and then check social media and read a chapter, and then check social media. Or if I grade exams, I grade five, and then I check social media. It is integrated, but not overwhelming. I wonder if younger people have those discipline sets left over, which I’m banking on, right? I banked the discipline set 30 years ago before social media came along. I don’t know if they ever get one.

Seriously, folks! I have enough problems concentrating, and these two highly educated, highly accomplished men have just admitted on a national radio program that they can’t go more than a few minutes without twitching like drug addicts for want of checking their social media accounts. I DON’T WANT TO BE LIKE THAT ANYMORE!

When I first got a Kindle, I used it only for reading; and I read A LOT! Then I got an android phone and used my Kindle app for reading, and my Facebook app for Facebooking, and my browser for looking up every incidental fact under the sun- just because I could! It got to where I hardly touched my Kindle app anymore, and instead of reading five-hundred page books, I was reading three page articles on the Wall Street Journal. einstein

When I realized my attention span, small as it was to begin with, was suffering (and my phone wouldn’t even work as a phone half the time), I went back to a flip phone and got a Kindle Fire, sans the 4G connectivity. That helped a good deal—except then I became pretty adept at finding Wi-Fi hotspots with which to connect—to Facebook. At home, I was rarely without my Kindle. My husband and kids commented on my continually glowing face. I laughed, they laughed, then they got out their little screens, too. Suddenly, one day I looked up to see we had all started watching T.V. as a family, with our laptops, Kindles, and DSi’s in hand!  Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Again, I don’t want to be like that anymore.

In the twelve days since I’ve been off of Facebook, I’ve researched and made homemade lotion bars, soaps, and moisturizer, started a cross stitch I bought at least 10 years ago, started reading (and am making good progress in) two books, created a family budget, updated our budgeting software, cleaned my kitchen, made multiple batches of water kefir, bought new carpet for our home (YEAH!!), prepared a two week dinner menu, and will be doing lunch menus for the summer today (I am so tired of hearing that we have nothing to eat in a kitchen stuffed with food!). Oh, and I’m working on walking again, too. Not for fitness, not yet, but simply for ambulatory purposes. Go, me!

Granted, not all of the above accomplishments are attributable to simply going off of Facebook. The physical “I’m at home” time to put in to these tasks has come about largely due to the fact that after a grueling nine months, my sixteen year old’s dual credit college classes are on hiatus. BUT, the fact that I’m using my at home time to be productive, time that I would otherwise, in all likelihood, be wasting sitting on Facebook for one “purpose” or another, is huge! I feel like I’ve broken lose of the addiction I had to “Facebook Think.” You know, where you go about your daily activities thinking of what to post, how to respond, how many ‘likes’ such and such post might garner, how cute that picture would be-on Facebook, etc.  It’s been very freeing. As much as I miss some of my contacts on there, It’s been very, very freeing.

I will say, too, as both a positive and a negative, I’ve become terribly disconnected to the world and national news and politics that I “love.” My Facebook news feed kept me up to date on such things-minute by minute. We only have satellite in the man cave up stairs, and I rarely bother to go up there simply to watch the news. Additionally, since I’m not in the car very much these days, I miss listening to my Prager–Medved–Hewitt talk radio programs. Seriously, I feel as clueless about the world as the typical college Democrat! On the positive side, however, I’m less stressed, happier (ignorance IS bliss!), and more focused on what’s mine, i.e. what I have control over. And that really is all for the best.

 

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