You Just Can't Fight Some Things

My 10 year old son came home from Sunday School a few weeks ago and told me that they discussed "taking care of the environment" in their class.  I gave up on fighting such things a good while back.

It is difficult to fight some things, like the mixing of the religion of environmentalism with the religion of Christianity.  I can imagine it now.  "What's wrong with conserving resources?" Or: "Are you FOR polluting the planet?"  Can you see how easy it is to create a strawman out my unwillingness to turn Sunday School classes into another venue for anti-Christian Environmentalism?

That's why I love this commercial.  It portrays a warm pro-life theme that the most caustic and murderous abortion advocate of them all would not dare challenge.  (though I would be surprised if the management of Publix are anything but pro-abort liberals)



Hat tip Neil

You Must Connect The Dots. Here, I'll Help

Who is the left?  Put simply, it is a conglomerate of groups of people who have coalesced around one grievance or another.  "Everyone has a grievance", you say.  Well, true, but not everyone internalizes their grievance and turns it into a religion. Those who have, however, join with others and then become a giant conglomerate of victims that we call leftists, or Democrats.  Since left means more government control, it is only natural that leftist would love government, for government is the one entity that can make everything right.

There's only one problem.  Man's existence is imperfect.  He is fallen. He has been evicted from Eden.  That's why leftist are so angry.  They are not OK with it.  Their ultimate grievance, therefore, is with God.  That might explain why they never see an anti-God bandwagon that they're not willing to jump on.  See?  Connecting the dots.  Let's look at the prominent grievances of our day:

Environmentalism?  Did you ever wonder why so many rich people jump onto the we're-the-party-for-the-poor Democrat bandwagon?  Are there any multi-millionaire Hollywood types not riding this one?  They're as close to paradise as anyone's going to get, and yet, they look around and see all us nasty plebes messing it up.  Government to the rescue!  Connect the dots my friend.  Your job could be the next one that falls prey to the government's onerous EPA regulations.  And if you think that that rich millionaire gives a rip, I have a great paying job as a servant for you. The only catch is that you'll have to wait for a few years to get paid, though I can't say exactly when.

Abortion?  Why did God make it so that women have to bear the burden of the gestation phase of sex?  Why, in fact, does there even have to be a gestation phase to sex?  Why can't we just do it with whomever whenever we we want and not be "punished" with babies?  Government can fix that too... for free now.  So have fun you sexy thing you.

Social Justice?  This one will throw you a little if you're not careful.  It pretends to be for the downtrodden among us.  But if you look close, those who advocate the loudest for it don't practice what they preach.  So something else must be going on, right?  So, connect the dots.  Us plebes love a man of the people to administer our grievances.  So what better man of the people than one who promises us plebes that we can live as if we were in Eden again off the backs of the rich... someday.  But be patient please.  It's hard work fighting all those rich and powerful forces (who fill my campaign coffers with money ha ha) and it ain't gonna happen over night.

Meanwhile, those rich people we hate so much--you know, the ones who are living it up off our backs--keep getting richer, and we keep getting poorer.  What's up with that?  Oh, I know, we need to give that "man of the people" a little more power... then he'll fix it for us.  He'll fix it real good.

Homosexual marriage?  Marriage period, Pfft!  But what is a world without love... and sex?  Lots of sex?  Damn the children, we want sex with whomever and whenever... right?  Oh, but there's one more ever: how-ever.  But that "however" introduces a grievance doesn't it?  Shame.  Government to the rescue!  Government can legitimize whatever urges suit your fancy.  That's easy.  Just teach it in the schools and much to our surprise--but not theirs--wha-la!  Suddenly what was once shameful is not.  So, message to you Moms and Dads.  If you put your children into a mad-scientist's petri-dish, don't be surprised if they don't turn out quite like you had expected.  Best connect the dots on that one.

"Gun Control" Was Going On Long Before Gunpowder

Following is an excerpt from the Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire.  Of interest, and in bold, is a reference to the Roman government's outlawing of armes for its citizens.

To set it up, in this passage Gibbons is in the midst of explaining the relationship between the Hun and their slaves; some, evidently, of which are Romans.  In explaining this relationship he is citing the historian Priscus, who had by chance encountered an expatriate in the camp of the Hun.  A discussion ensues in which the once Roman, then slave, then freedman gives an overview of his experience as a Roman during the fall.

The historian Priscus, whose embassy is a source of curious instruction, was accosted in the camp of Attila by a stranger, who saluted him in the Greek language, but whose dress and figure displayed the appearance of a wealthy Scythian. In the siege of Viminiacum, he had lost, according to his own account, his fortune and liberty; he became the slave of Onegesius; but his faithful services, against the Romans and the Acatzires, had gradually raised him to the rank of the native Huns; to whom he was attached by the domestic pledges of a new wife and several children. The spoils of war had restored and improved his private property; he was admitted to the table of his former lord; and the apostate Greek blessed the hour of his captivity, since it had been the introduction to a happy and independent state; which he held by the honorable tenure of military service. This reflection naturally produced a dispute on the advantages and defects of the Roman government, which was severely arraigned by the apostate, and defended by Priscus in a prolix and feeble declamation. The freedman of Onegesius exposed, in true and lively colors, the vices of a declining empire, of which he had so long been the victim; the cruel absurdity of the Roman princes, unable to protect their subjects against the public enemy, unwilling to trust them with arms for their own defence; the intolerable weight of taxes, rendered still more oppressive by the intricate or arbitrary modes of collection; the obscurity of numerous and contradictory laws; the tedious and expensive forms of judicial proceedings; the partial administration of justice; and the universal corruption, which increased the influence of the rich, and aggravated the misfortunes of the poor.¹

One of the first things that presses itself upon the modern mind as it encounters this work of history is the civility to which the modern western mindset has grown accustomed.  There seem to have been almost constant raids conducted by the "barbarians" into the provinces of Rome, as well as from the provinces into the barbarian villages.  These raids involved sieges of walled cities, rape, murder, pillage rapine and captivity.  Modern Western civilization is simply not faced with the same problems in terms of the mere violence.  But there are many parallels still, once the savagery is set aside. As the expat describes his experience, the parallels hit much too close to home... in fact.

Notes                                              
1. Gibbon, Edward (2008-07-24). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Kindle Locations 19451-19463).  . Kindle Edition.