Opus 2021-274: Handbasket History

We seem to be in the handbasket.  The big difference is we can see where we are going.  Human beings have been in this handbasket before and the final arrival has varied.

Cities in Bible times did not fare well when the handbasket arrived.  I don’t think the Bible stories are unique.  If you lived in a city and the invaders caught you with your gates open it was all over for you.  If they were strong enough to get over the walls then you would either die or become a slave and there would be a lot of unpleasant experiences on the way.  If you proposed the modern American concept of treating defeated enemies well you would have been considered a fool at best and more likely insane.

As I said, it wasn’t just in Bible lands.  If the Aztec came over the hill you knew it was time to get in the basket.  They generally treated the tribes around them as breeding grounds for needed sacrifices.  They would fight just long enough to capture enough warriors to feed the next round of placating their Gods.  They didn’t kill everyone because they wanted enough people left to resupply with candidates.

Or assume one of the Khan’s came knocking.  The Mongol invasions left no one behind who was free and alive.  If you surrendered at the beginning you might have a chance to live but even then it was iffy.  It didn’t seem to matter in history if you were cultured or a barbarian.  Defeated cities were destroyed along with all the inhabitants.  

Here we are again.  The barbarians are at the gates.  They are determined to destroy the republic and will not be happy until you are living in subjection.  What is different?  What is the same?

Our foundation as a country is radically different.  The nation as a whole has turned away from not only its historic culture but its faith in God.  Whether you were talking about the King Philip’s War or World War II, we were a nation made up of generally two types of people.  You had the devout Christians and you had the ones who agreed with the general values of the devout Christians.  You could not get elected to much of anything if you did not attend a church of some kind.  Now believers are treated as mentally ill.  For those who believe that God has had His hand on the United States the question is are there enough of us left to interest Providence?

Then you have the quality of our leadership.  I hate to tell you but we don’t have any George Washington’s around.  Could you picture any of our current leaders who would turn down a gig as king if it were offered to them?  Compare the Founding Fathers to our current crop of closet Marxists.  

I would submit that the republic as we knew it is over.  The question remains what will come out of the remains.  Will the elites of the Proregressive* Deep State be able to force a police state down our throats?  Will they back off just enough to make us think we are still free?  Will there be separation through state declarations and alliances?  Will there be violence?

Be praying that a George Washington will emerge.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Another word for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-273: Ode to Old: Senior Sloth

Do you remember how getting dressed to go outside was such a problem when you were a kid?  Neither do I.  I may not have wanted to wear what my parents demanded but putting them on was not a problem.  Now I have to debate whether it is worth putting on my shoes.  It really isn’t that hard.  I can do it.  I wonder why I want to.  I find myself going without sox and not retying my shoes.  I worry that the day may soon come when I stop shaving and start saving water by not flushing the toilet.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-272: Thanks Thoughts: Leave the Clock Alone

We keep trying to turn the clock back.  A better metaphor might be to build a worse mousetrap, you know, inventing a digital sun dial.

I got to thinking about this as I was thanking God for the coffee in my cup.  My mind turned to the preppers  and coffee snobs trying to get us to roast our own beans.  Why?  Is my life really so boring that I need to spend the time learning how and actually doing what modern life brings to my kitchen.  I can see grinding my own but buying green beans and perfecting the process seems a bit much.

You could say the same for a lot of the things people are calling for today.  I saw one headline that claimed 80% of Americans were growing some of their own food.  Since 80% of Americans probably live in large cities with small yards and HOA’s, I find that about as convincing as global warming drowning all of us in the near future.  My daughter tried putting some tomato plants in the ground a year or so ago.  We got a few tiny tomatoes but not enough to pay for the water we used to keep them alive.  It isn’t as easy as it sounds.  In addition to not knowing what we were doing there was evidence that some four legged creature was having a bit of a snack on our potential produce.

My daughter is into making bread.  Does she even consider growing the wheat?  Go ahead and laugh.  I will wait.  I asked her about buying the grain and grinding it ourselves and she gave me that look you give parents just before you take them to the nursing home.  My wife is good with a sewing machine but every time she gets the bug she looks at the price of material and the price of clothes on sale and puts it back in the closet.  

You want to ride a bike?  Good for you, but don’t ask to borrow my truck when you want to move something.  I would be glad to help you but I don’t have a truck and one reason is how people with little cars would always want to borrow it.  I find it entertaining when people want us to go back to an organic vegetarian lifestyle.  I am not sure that worked out too well for the hunter gatherers with a life expectancy of 30 years.  I am not sure there would be enough to go around today.

Home cooking can beat the restaurants but don’t count on it.  I make my own jerky but that is because I can’t find any that I like in the grocery stores and have a hard time paying $38.00 a pound for stuff on line.  

All in all I am all for modern conveniences.  I find life hard enough when I am traveling and need to stay in a small town far from anything.  I am also all for you having the choice of what you want to go without.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-271: Go Ahead, Say it

Have you noticed how all the political correctness is seeping into everything we do and say?  I was recently looking at an article in a site called The Post Millennial.  The main point the author was making is that there are some things in life that you cannot do virtually.  You need to be there in person.  I can buy that theory, so I had no problem with his basic point.

However just before I got bored and stopped reading he made this comment:

“Attending a faith community is one of those things.”

When someone uses terminology like that it tells me one of several things.  It could be that this person is part of a “faith community” that he knows his readers won’t approve of such as a snake handling congregation or the local mosque.  It could be that he is too sophisticated to have any faith and doesn’t want you to know you are being talked down to.  It could be that he considers himself a believer but is afraid to use the word “church.”

Let me go with that last one.  How many terms are we becoming afraid to use?  How often do you find yourself looking around and whispering to the person next to you?

Sometimes the reluctance is because the label or adjective I want to use has been hijacked by the God haters in the crowd.  Church is actually becoming one of those words.  It is used by the world to indicate any building that has a sign out front and wants a tax exemption.  “Christian” is becoming the same.  Most people are Christians because they don’t think they are Buddhists or Muslims.  It is a cultural term.  The examples are legion and I have mentioned some before:  Love now means lust or do what I want.  Discrimination now means you have no taste or sense of proportion, Denny’s is as good as Flemings.  The list goes on.

It is amazing how many churches are afraid to use the term “church” on their signs.  Many will not tell you they are a part of a denomination.  It is based on a desire to appear to be something they are not.  It is a deception.

We need to learn to stand up and speak.  It used to be you could speak your mind and if someone disagreed you would have a spirited discussion without getting nasty.  You could differ without fearing for your physical well-being.  We have lost that in our culture.  The only way we can get it back is to get in the habit of looking for opportunities to speak up.  I am not advocating that you go into a gay bar and read Romans 1.  I am not asking you to go to a group of Democrats and talk logic and common sense.  There will be times to speak up.  We need to look for them.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-270: On the Road: Time

I am on the road again.  As always I never know what to expect.  On this trip I am either getting up before the sun and driving until I can’t see straight or in social situations that give me almost no time to think.  

I am enjoying the trip.  I will keep trying to sneak in times to write and post.  Life is good but there are still only 24 hours in a day.

Grace and peace.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-269: You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet

One of the worries the remaining free and thinking Americans have is that the federal government will mandate everyone be vaccinated.  This, of course, could become a reality by simply having the grocery stores refuse to sell you food unless you had The Passport.  I am sure I am not the only one who has been watching this develop ever since they started requiring masks and the threat that no one should be able to buy or sell if they did not have a mask.  I wrote about it.  Others wrote about it.  This kind of talk brought to mind the Biblical concept of the Mark of the Beast.

Many of you will be familiar with the Bible verse,

(Rev 13:17 KJV)  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Add to that the idea of how the mark will be issued,

(Rev 13:16 KJV)  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Prophecy is funny that way.  It predicts the most unusual things.

For a number of reasons I am not convinced this is the Mark of the Beast.  It could be but there are certain requirements involved.  What is on my mind at this point is the persecution that is coming.

Americans have funny ideas about persecution.  We think we are going through hard times when the power goes out for a day.  We think we are going to die when toilet paper gets cleaned off the shelves.  We wonder if Satan is out to get us when our property taxes are raised.

We have a lot to learn about persecution and I am afraid that the lessons are on the way.  One of the books I am reading is Ecclesiastical History by a man named Eusebius Pamphilus.  He wrote in the fourth Century A.D.  Although the book is not specifically about persecution he cannot tell the history of the early church without talking about the martyrs.  These were Christians who were arrested and persecuted simply because they refused to bow down to Caesar and say a simple prayer to him.  

Most people have heard about Nero feeding Christians to the lions.  I have seen it dealt with in movies and there are a lot of political cartoons that follow the meme.  As many popular ideas about history, this picture comes far from the whole truth.  It seems that the encounters with the lions were after assorted other tortures and that often the animals were not fatal so there was more that came after.  One victim, Blandina, went through this,

“And thus, after scourging, after exposure to the beasts, after roasting, she was finally thrown into a net and cast before a bull, and when she had been well tossed by the animal and had now no longer any sense of what was done to her by reason of her firm hope, confidence, faith and her communion with Christ, she too was dispatched.” p. 179

And this was after she watched her two children tortured and killed.  

You say this could not happen to us today.  Really?  I think you have a higher opinion of your fellow man than is being demonstrated by the videos on You Tube.  The mob had a place then.  Take the case of Pothinus who was over 90 and sickly.  I won’t go through the torture aspect, but get a feel for the mob.

“After this, he was unmercifully dragged away and endured many stripes, whilst those that were near abused him with their hands and feet in every possible way, not even regarding his age.  But those at a distance, whatsoever they had at hand, every one hurled at him, all thinking it would be a great sin and impiety if they fell short of wanton abuse against him.  For they supposed they would thus avenge their own gods.” p. 174

Here was an old man, being manhandled by the police, already beaten and the mob was getting their jollies by kicking, slapping and throwing things.  If you can’t see that happening in modern America then you have not been watching.  Notice that they were avenging their gods.  Christians today are at odds with the gods of our culture, so expect the worst.

Two outcomes I wish for.  First, that the violence and persecution that seem to be coming would not happen, and second, that when it does I would stand tall for truth and righteousness.  Both are tall orders.

Eusebius.  Ecclesiastical History.  Grand Rapids:  Baker Book House, Reprinted 1989.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-268: Cornerstone Considerations: CUSA, Impeachment Limits and Potential

I keep hearing Republicans shooting off their mouths calling for impeachment of Joe Biden.  Since we are approaching Constitution Day it might be a good time to review impeachment.  First let’s review what the Constitution says.  

Article I deals with the powers and responsibilities of the Senate and House of Representatives.  In there you find Section II which states,

“The House of Representatives shall choose the Speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.”

Impeachment starts in the House.  Senators and state officials can talk all they want but unless you can get the House to start the ball rolling, you are wasting your breath.  Since the Democrats are in charge of that body we could stop right here, but we will keep going.

Section III moves to the other legislative body.

“The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.  When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation.  When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present.”

If you know anything about the make-up of the Senate you know that this is strike two and three for impeaching Joe Biden.

Article II is concerned with the Executive.  Section 4 says,

“The president, vice-president and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Although this sounds like it is limiting removal to a few causes, in reality this opens the door quite wide.  You can impeach for “other high crimes and misdemeanors.”  We tend to think of misdemeanors as minor crimes.  In reality most presidents have probably done something they could be impeached for if there was the political will.  I think it goes without say that the Republicans don’t have that will.  I will say it anyway, the Republicans don’t have that kind of will.

There is another aspect here that is overlooked.  “All civil officers of the United States” can be impeached.  Here is where the lack of will really shows up.  This phrase only excludes the military.  Any other employee of the Federal Government can be removed by impeachment.  We could transform the country, assuming the Democrats lose the House and Senate in 2022, by going after judges who betray their oath to the Constitution.  We could also go after all the employees of the alphabet agencies who think they have the right to dismantle the country and make us a socialist state.

That would be a great way to celebrate Constitution Day in 2023.  If we can’t terminate because of Civil Service protection we can put them in jail for treason.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-267: Define “Americans”

I always like it when someone with a following expresses what I have been saying to the few ears I touch.  One of the questions I have been asking people is, “How many of the ‘Americans’ that are trapped in Afghanistan are patriotic Americans and how many are people who were born in that country and still consider it home?”  It makes a difference.  An article at American Greatness goes into it a bit deeper.

If we have people who are American citizens and believe in the principles of the Constitution who just happened to be in Afghanistan at the wrong time, they deserve to be rescued.  If it is someone who is in an unending visit with family, not so much.  I don’t think we should be risking the lives of our soldiers for people who hate America.

There are many issues involved in this fiasco.  I am with the many voices saying that this was planned out to happen this way.  

The adventure continues.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-266: Click Bait: I Can’t Help Myself

One of my morning frolics is through Instapundit.  I am looking for news rather than novelty so I skip over much of the click bait, but when I saw “The Kardashian Butt Must Die” it was almost as if my mouse took on a life of its own.  This I had to investigate.

The link took me to some site called T-Nation.  I have no idea what they do when they are not talking about the Kardashians and I didn’t look.  One article was enough.  I was aware that giant rear-ends were a “big thing” in some groups.  Years ago I somehow ended up on a site that was dedicated to just that.  Not my dog.  Not my race.  This article told me more than I ever wanted to know but I read the whole thing.  One reason was I had a hard time believing it wasn’t the Babylon Bee and satire.  The author claimed that there is a Greek word that actually means “lard butt.”  I can’t find it in my Bible software so I will take his word for it.  And did you know that in 2015 there were 4,800 butt lifts.  I assume the number is approximate.

If you are tired of worrying about the political future of our country then you might want to take a break and see what some people are spending their time thinking about.  I am guessing that the author and the people who frequent this site are all Biden voters.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-265: Conservative Cannibals

The conservatives are circling the wagons.  That might be good if we didn’t have a tendency to go outside the circle and shoot back across at each other.  We are famous for eating our own.  

What is on the menu?  Or should I say, “Whom?”  The list includes anyone who makes the slightest stumble, those who are too strong for another faction, those that the left is trying to get us to drive out and anyone who gets on your nerves that day.

Kristi Noem has had a few bad days.  Ted Cruz has people wondering what he is doing when he doesn’t show up at everything they think he should do.  Greg Abbot has been seduced by the China Virus panic.  I will vote against him in the primary but I need to be careful that I am positive about the other candidates not just negative about him.  I heard someone firing on Candice Owens recently.  I am sure you can name more or might have some of your own to try to roast.

Who should be on the menu?  The list is long.

Elizabeth Cheney
Bill Barr
The other guy who voted with Cheney
John McCain.  Yes, I know he is dead but he represents what is wrong with “conservatives.”
Mitt Romney.  Can he be redeemed?  I guess it is possible but we don’t have time for it.
That Alaska Senator with the name that is hard to spell.
Every Rino that voted with the Democrats and against Trump
Every Rino that voted to pass the bloated spending bill

We do need to go after this second list.  Why is it important to deal strongly with the true RINO’s?  So that the others will get the message.  There are a lot who have a tendency to stray.  They need to be reminded that there are consequences.  

We also need to be very careful about what the Communist mini-Manifestos put out in their lies and distortions.  You have seen the way they have been going after Governor Desantos.  So far he has called their bluff.  “News” agencies have had to back down.  The CDC has been forced to admit their false statistics.  Don’t believe anything they tell you.  In the event that they actually tell the truth about something, don’t worry about it.  You will hear it from someone you trust.

So go ahead and circle the wagons, just make sure you are shooting at the real enemy.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-264: We Are Not Alone

Americans tend to be self-centered when it comes to world events.  Part of that is our ethos but a bigger part is the refusal of the so-called news media to keep us up to date on the world.  We hear about concerns over the feds printing money to solve our problems.  What makes this a bigger coming catastrophe is that we are not alone.  From the City Journal, linked from Instapundit, we read,

“The economy continues to chug along, as the money printer in Canberra churns out tens of billions in handouts. The open federal money tap has allowed state governments, mostly in the hands of the opposition center-Left, to go to extremes;...”

So Australia is going down the same path we follow.  They are destined for the effects of extreme inflation not only because of what we are doing but also because they have joined in the chorus.  It makes me wonder how many other countries are singing the siren song of the printing press.  We will never know until it is too late.

As the people searching for extra-terrestrial life say, “We are not alone.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-263: Headlines: The Dangers of “Over the River and Through the Woods...”

I heard about the 14 students from the San Diego area that were stuck in Afghanistan and then I heard that they had made it out.  I was a bit mystified when my wife told me there were 30 students still stuck in the land of the Taliban.  Something was not adding up.  Today I saw some click bait that referred to the 30 students so I decided to fall for it.

The headline at Legal Insurrection clarified some of the mystery.  

“Almost 30 Students From Sacramento Remain Trapped in Afghanistan”

This was a different group of students.  As I kept reading I found that they were not your typical group of students.  

“With about 1,400 students of Afghan origin within the district, Bassanelli said it’s normal for these students to go visit their home country every summer.”

Okay.  It seems that we already have a large group of emigrants who have settled in the Sacramento area.  A bunch of them decided to go home to visit granny.  Since they are public school inmates they probably paid no attention to what was going on in the world around them and are now finding it hard to get a ride home.  Or not.  

Then we have this,

“‘We realized that we had about 144 students of Afghan origin who were not presently in our schools but yet enrolled,” Bassanelli explained…’”

It seems there are 144 students unaccounted for, not just 30.  Since I taught in Southern California I am used to the idea of large blocks of students going home to Mexico for the Christmas/New Years holidays.  It is an annual event.  You learn to roll with it and never did we blame the President of the United States for their absence.  I would wonder how they know that 30 are in Afghanistan.  Is that an actual count or a reasonable guess?  From the information that we seem to be given it sounds to me like they are spread all over the country with relatives.  That means they may be in no danger, or at least no more danger than anyone is that cesspool of violence is facing.

I think this is a lot of hysteria about what may be no problem.  I grant it might be.  It is possible that they will be used as hostages or the targets of political murder.  It is hard to tell at this point.  It is also a bit late to say, “What were they thinking?”  There biggest sin is that they believed what the Biden administration was telling them about conditions in Afghanistan.

In any event I don’t think this is any reason to be sending in the troops.  These may be American citizens because they were born here after their parents arrived or they may have actually been born in Afghanistan.  Either way I doubt if their hearts are in America and their values are rooted in the Constitution.  I wish for them the same safety I would wish for any other human being.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-262: Salad on My Chest

If I were General Milley I would have earned another ribbon to wear on my uniform.  It might be called the National Geek Citation.  I fixed the internet.

Well, not the entire internet.  Just the part in our house.  And I didn’t actually fix it myself.  My son looked at the screen over a Face Time connection and told me what to do.  But I was the one who moved the mouse and clicked the button.  I deserve a medal.  I do.  I do.

Now I wonder who is telling the General where to move his cursor and when to click his mouse?

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-261: Bell Bottoms and Tattoos

The mask was bad enough but the jab is a real disaster.  The difference is the same as between bell bottoms and tattoos.

I never did hate bell bottoms.  I thought they were cool even if I didn’t have the body type that made them look good.  The closest I came to wearing them was the slightly flared styles that were all you could get in my price range and waist size.  For the purposes of discussion let me hypothesize that I had a closet full of the various degrees of bell.  Suddenly style change.  I can’t remember what came next but if I want to be cool all I have to do is empty my closet and hit the mall.

Tattoos are a little different.  Although I understand there are ways to remove them I have not heard a lot of rave reviews of the results.  Tattoos are forever.  Let’s say you have your current girlfriend’s name, Sophia, tattooed across your chest.  Sophia finally wises up and moves on to someone with a real job.  After you get over the heartbreak you start dating Angela.  Now you have a problem.  Sophia is forever.  Or assume you stay with Sophia but after a few years your manly chest starts to sag.  Not a pretty sight.

So.  A mask you can put on and take off.  When I went to the doctor the other day I had to get one to get through the obstacles.  When I started to leave I whipped it off and went about my business.  Not so with the experimental chemicals they want to inject in your body.  This is a total experiment.  The drug messes with your DNA and the changes won’t just go away.  At this point we know there are problems with the heart and with blood clots.  We have miscarriages and who knows how many other complications.  I think that everyone admits the heart problems that develop in young men, and from what I read the effects stay with you the rest of your life.

In the midst of all this keep in mind that we are dealing with nothing more than a different version of the flu.  They say that people die.  True.  They also die of the annual flu.  I urge you before you surrender to your millennial children urging you to be immunized that you think seriously about the long term effects.  And keep in mind that if the cure kills you they stand to inherit your estate, not that I am implying ulterior motives.

homo unius libri