What We Share With Taiwan

 https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/what-we-share-with-taiwan

An important and short read. 

In sum, despite knowing for decades that in view of America’s policy of strategic ambiguity (read: when push comes to shove, you’re on your own) it must be self-sufficient, Taiwan has failed to defend adequately against an obvious and overwhelming threat. In choosing not to harden itself and not sufficiently to deter, it has been unforgivingly remiss, irresponsible, and self-destructive.

That is exactly what it has in common with the United States, which despite the rise of China, the nuclear militancy of Russia, and the existence and immanence of the nuclear crazy states North Korea and Iran, has steadily disarmed itself since the end of the Cold War. A description of the self-immolation would be book-length, but one example is particularly illuminating, and demonstrates the failure of America’s China strategy. The Biden navy is not even half the size of Reagan’s; the industrial base is kneecapped so that the Pentagon requires six years to replenish even the relatively minor stocks going to Ukraine; and now fewer, unhardened, U.S. Pacific bases are under the shadow of 4,000 Chinese missiles.

A supposedly great nation electing a leader like Biden is like Britain electing  "Peace in our time" Neville Chamberlain in the face of an increasingly dominant NAZI Germany. 

Why not content ourselves with the remains of the day? Why not accept a dark but gentle decline, like Britain’s, as something that can be borne as other nations rise to dominate? Especially given the nature of these nations’ totalitarian and often barbaric political systems and behaviors, a crucial difference, perhaps not sufficiently noted, is that throughout its travails and decline Britain had the U.S. to shield it—from Germany, Germany once again, and the Soviet Union.

We have no such protector, and should we continue on our neglectful course, as hard as it may be to imagine in this “weak piping time of peace,” our denouement will be violent and tragic. It has already begun, as we collapse internally, partially in response to external forces that we have the wit neither to credit nor even to comprehend.

To the extent Biden was actually "elected", or more likely installed, by the dominant Democrat / Administrative State / Big Business / Big Media oligarchy , we can assume that the elite are fine with their connections with the PRC leadership, and assume that they will continue in luxury while the "deplorables" in the US are forced to accept PRC masters as opposed to the current Oligarchy. 

Our heavily armed civilian population, and the likelihood that our military, though overmatched, may be formidable at modern guerilla warfare could provide some surprises. No doubt it won't be pretty. Covid was just a shot across the bow, they have viral weapons that far surpass Covid. They may even be able to only affect Caucasians, which would be an excellent strategy. 

These two links give a nicely dystopian view of what could be in store for the West. 

https://beingbeliefbehavior.blogspot.com/2023/06/why-humans-need-hell.html

https://beingbeliefbehavior.blogspot.com/2020/05/a-viral-fable.html

Samuel Johnson, "The Struggle"

 For a more complete review, see. 

I reviewed a book on Johnson by David Nokes here. For "the basics" looking back at it, it does a decent job of understanding just a bit about a very complex and intellectually famous man ... this book is more detailed. It suffers from some inaccuracy and unwarranted assumptions about possible sexual issues, possibly to increase sales. Johnson indeed very much enjoyed women, but being as unattractive and besieged with physical and mental deficiencies, he was often denied close relationships. 

What he is best known for his his Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755. Given our current cultural inattention to history, he is largely unknown to the general, or even educated public. 

Wikipedia states: 

Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary. According to Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who laboured under anything like the disadvantages in a comparable length of time".[4]

Boswell declares: 

His mind resembled the vast amphitheatre, the Colisæum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgement, which like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drives them back into their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him.

From Clairmont: 

Johnson was born in Lichfield, in England’s West Midlands, in 1709, and grew up to be the dominant literary figure of his day—maybe even the most famous man alive. He did it against tremendous odds. He suffered from a list of physical and psychological maladies straight out of the Book of Job, including tuberculosis of the lymph nodes, asthma, gout, near blindness, strange twitches and spasms, overwhelming depression, and probably Tourette’s Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder to boot. Physicians didn’t think he’d survive infancy.

For me, Johnson is not only interesting historically but personally.  My psychological problems pale in significance next to Johnson, as so do any contribution my life or writings do. Much as the proverbial man throwing a few starfish back into the sea being admonished by a passerby; "You can't help all of them", with the response being "I helped that one". Perhaps something I write will help a person, or maybe even two. 

Depression, procrastination, sloth, concerns about eternity, being too prone to moving an argument to a fight, but loving the chance to discuss especially those with opposing views are traits I share to a lesser extent. 

He is fascinating for his persistence against his many struggles, and the majesty of what he was able to accomplish in the face of those. Today, given the largesse of government for those with his type of conditions, and available drugs and counselling, he may well have been a largely isolated figure watching various media and doing essentially nothing. 

How much somewhat tortured genius have we forgone through well intentioned, but possibly disabling "kindness"? 

Administrative Power, A Nice Summary

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/07/is-administrative-law-unlawful.php

Readers of this blog know that I consider the Administrative State to be by far the greatest danger to the liberty we have remaining. A little encouragement to read at least the linked post: 

The first step is simply to understand administrative power–to recognize that it is extralegal and absolute power. Once this is understood, the rest will follow. This is why I wrote my book and why I close with a plea for more accurate language about administrative power.

I review the book here if you are a glutton for a bit more punishment.  

A Purpose Driven Life

 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7008

As an LCMS "Reformed Catholic", which I somewhat tongue in cheek define as "Catholic with no pope, no worship of Mary or saints, no purgatory, no works righteousness. Yes, that is an oversimplification. 

Being "saved" as a too young child praying the "sinner's prayer" that Warren has distilled to "Jesus, I believe in you, and I receive you". Mine was a little longer because I had been traumatized by chalkboard visions of hell at multiple "Special Meetings", and I was in terror of Hell ... so it involved a lot of crying, pleading for Christ to save me me from Hell, admitting that I was a really bad boy, etc, etc. So I definitely feared God! 

Then I was Baptized as a "too old" teen, to "follow Christ" with no idea of the saving power of Baptism. 

1 Peter 3;20 "to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.[e] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ"

Thankfully, I was Baptized "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit". Baptism is God's work, not ours, so even though neither I or the pastor understood the sacramental power of Baptism, I became a child of God. 

Being genetically prone to anxiety and depression, I often doubted if I was REALLY sincere when *I* gave my life to Christ. So through multiple "re-dedications", massive guilt over a lot of lusting after beautiful girls in short skirts in the '70s,  I "got smart" in college being at best an agnostic, at worst an atheist. Naturally, given my psychological makeup, Hell kept cropping up in the dark of night very frequently, so at least the Holy Spirit was working on me. 

LOTS of reading, study, prayer, conversations with various Christian believers in largely Lutheran, Evangelical (often Baptist), Catholic, etc,  I arrived at Lutheran ... ELCA, moving to LCMS when celebration of gay "marriage" became an important part of "faith". 

While Warren proclaims the book to NOT be a "self help" book, it is. Yes, certainly it is Bible based, and other than the difficult problem of "decision theology" which casts the "God needs you", "worship makes God happy" sort of thinking throughout, the focus is on what you decide/do vs Grace and God's gifts. As with any attempt to create a "process" for Christian life outside of a confessional liturgical church, most everything is "in there",  it just doesn't have 2000 years of interaction between Christ and his Bride, the Church. 

For anyone reading this that is secular but questioning, I recommend "The Reason For God". 

For someone who is struggling to meet some standard of "a Christian life" without the Sacraments, I would suggest "Has American Christianity Failed". 

On page 101 Warren tellingly says "you are a spirit that resides in a body".  The old Cartesian duality. 

Jesus always was and is fully God. In the Incarnation he became fully man as well. When we are Baptized we receive the Holy Spirit. We are flesh and spirit united, which is why we need the physical sacraments, confession/absolution, and holy preaching to grow in Christ. Exactly how our body and spirit are separated at death and reunited at the Resurrection is a mystery, like the "how" of the Trinity. We know through the gift of faith. 

John 14:26 "But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you."

Can sinful man without the Holy Spirit "decide" to "believe"? That is the foundational belief of Anabaptists, of which Rick Warren is one. 

Given that many in my family share that belief, as well as many I consider as fellow Christians, I sincerely hope so.  One of my many failings is "worship of knowledge". As I have matured I realize there is grave peril there, especially the thought that given what I see as "correct knowledge", I can judge. 

I can't! I believe that Christ is merciful, and although he declares the gate is narrow, he does not say HOW narrow. All earthly churches are flawed, and Warren is clear on that truth. 

A lot of the book is really about "building numbers" which he clearly has in his Saddleback church, recently thrown out of the Southern Baptist denomination for ordaining women. (I'm with the Baptists on that).

Our world is sorely in need of a "second Reformation" where THE CHURCH can have a third millennium "Council of Nicea".  Although America deserves to be treated as Sodom and Gomorrah,  or worse, I pray: 

Lord, Have Mercy

Christ, Have Mercy

Lord, Have Mercy

Will The SCOTUS Dismantle The Administrative State?

 https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/07/will-the-supreme-court-dismantle-the-administrative-state.php

One can only hope!

As I have written more than once, the government we live under is not the one described in the Constitution. The ubiquitous and powerful arm of our government, found nowhere in the Constitution, is the Fourth Branch, the plethora of federal agencies, the administrative state. The administrative state has assumed much of the power that the Constitution assigns to the legislative and executive branches, a development that has progressed now for more than a century without serious challenge. Do we finally have a Supreme Court willing to take on the unelected Fourth Branch and restore a government that looks more like the one that is outlined in the Constitution?

Actually returning to being a republic, after lying anytime we do the pledge would be great. It isn't healthy to lie, maybe especially when you are so bamboozled you don't even have the merest clue of what "the republic for which we stane" would be ... if we had managed to keep it.  

The linked points to the excellent book, "Is the Administrative State Unlawful?" (spoiler, it is). 

Here is my review of that fine book. 

How Sleepy Joe Got Rich

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/once-the-poorest-senator-middle-class-joe-biden-has-reaped-millions-in-income-since-leaving-the-vice-presidency/2019/06/25/931458a8-938d-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c811d0d72813

This was originally posted in December of 2019, but it is nice information from no less than the far left WaPo. 

Biden seems to have gotten rich as a politician -- and of course his son Hunter has gotten rich as well on foreign influence. Hunter has also distinguished himself by having an affair with his dying brothers wife, as well as fathering a love child.

No problemo ... he is a Democrat in good standing. "Morals" are something Republicans are supposed to be concerned with.

Wealth? As a "D" you can even be an avowed socialist like Bernie, complain vehemently about "the rich" and be a millionaire yourself!

When are the Deplorables going to figure it out that when you bow to the D, you are above such petty criticisms!

Mayo Enforces The Narrative

 https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/16/health/mayo-clinic-physician-suspended/index.html

Mayo gets federal funding, and certainly needs a lot of approvals from federal agencies (new drugs, new treatments, etc). 

In a Totalitarian State, you follow the narrative, or you are punished. 

In a January CNN story, Dr. Michael Joyner, who is principal investigator on a government-funded study on convalescent plasma, said he was “frustrated” with the National Institutes of Health’s “bureaucratic rope-a-dope,” calling the agency’s Covid-19 treatment guidelines a “wet blanket” that discouraged doctors from giving what he considered a promising treatment to their patients.

Two months later, Mayo suspended Joyner for a week without pay, instructing him, in part, to “discuss approved topics only” with reporters and to “stick to prescribed messaging.” The letter warned him that a prescribed set of “behavior changes must be immediate and sustained” and that failure to comply would result in termination of his employment – as would any additional “validated complaints” from the staff, even if unrelated to the issues outlined in the letter.

The narrative is a story.  "Trust the science" really means "trust the narrative" ... or else. 

Drug Induced Utopia, MDMA

 https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230614-how-a-dose-of-mdma-transformed-a-white-supremacist

As soon as I started reading the linked, "soma" from Huxley's "Brave New World" popped into my head. Wow! A drug that makes people feel more "connected", less anxious, more tolerant, less prejudiced, less rigid! 

What sort of monster would argue against putting this into the water supply, or just making injections mandatory to move around or engage in commerce, have a job, etc in a "civil" society? It seems like it would be better than the Covid jab. Or maybe it already was one of the "features" of the original jab or some of the boosters? It does seem that the population at large is more "laid back", not concerned about suich mundane things like working, inflation, possible nuclear war in Europe, high inflation, a senile president, or a host of other things. 

Perhaps, like LSD, we can just "Turn on, Tune in, and Drop Out". Groovy man! Even easier if we never know what happened to us. "Consent" seems to be a tired old concept these days anyway. 

The article focuses on a dangerous White Supremacist (Brendan) who was transformed by a single treatment with MDMA: 

Brendan grew up in an affluent Chicago suburb in an Irish Catholic family. He leaned liberal in high school but got sucked into white nationalism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he joined a fraternity mostly composed of conservative Republican men, began reading anti semitic conspiracy books, and fell down a rabbit hole of racist, sexist content online. Brendan was further emboldened by the populist rhetoric of Donald Trump during his presidential campaign. "His speech talking about Mexicans being rapists, the fixation on the border wall and deporting everyone, the Muslim ban – I didn't really get white nationalism until Trump started running for president," Brendan said.

Wow, after such a troubled childhood with affluence and Catholicism, he appropriately "leaned liberal". It shows he had to be basically good inside ... I would not be surprised to find he was saddled with a two parent family that had arcane things like rules and discipline!  Tragically, he got "sucked in" by Republicans in college (a rare breed), obviously the screening of students needs to be more rigid. Exposing immature college kids to dangerous ideas of the Republican sort needs to be prevented!

But then he was totally corrupted by the evil orange man Trump!  Perhaps "Let's go Brendan" will replace "Let's go Brandon"? Young people need to get a lot of exposure to drag queens, gay sex, explicit porrnographic books, transgender, etc so they can make their own decisions. However, unless we suppress extremist ideas coming from people like Republicans/Trump for the entire population, people will succumb. We can't trust adults to just decide for themselves! It is just common sense. 

MDMA seems too "good" to be true, as always, depending on what is good? 

Anecdotally, some members of the Taliban, for example, use MDMA to channel a connection to the divine during prayer chants, according to a drug activist based in Kabul who I interviewed for my book. In the West, plenty of members of right-wing authoritarian political movements, including neo-Nazi groups, also have track records of taking MDMA and other psychedelics. This suggests, researchers write, that psychedelics are nonspecific, "politically pluripotent" amplifiers of whatever is going on in somebody's head, with no particular directional leaning "on the axes of conservatism-liberalism or authoritarianism-egalitarianism."

Hmm, so it seems like the drug MAY amplify whatever way you are leaning ... although that does not seem to really fit with Brendan's case. 

Over at Scientific American, we find: 

Although its precise therapeutic mechanisms remain unclear, clinically relevant doses of psilocybin can induce powerful mystical experiences more commonly associated with extended periods of fasting, prayer or meditation. Arguably, then, it is unsurprising that it can generate long-lasting changes in patients: studies report increased prosociality and aesthetic appreciation, plus robust shifts in personality, values and attitudes to life, even leading some atheists to find God. What’s more, these experiences appear to be a feature, rather than a bug, of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, with the intensity of the mystical experience correlating with the extent of clinical benefit.

The "god" that drugs often lead one to tends to be more like the Buddhist sort of "god is everything, you are part of god, everything is good". Like a few million being killed in Mao's "Cultural Revolution". 

Like "Brave New World", it would seem that whatever "vales" can be induced in people (possibly through education, or REeducation) we will all have a shot a utopia -- possibly against our will, but if "the science" and "the narrative" has declared it as "good", isn't it the duty of the elite make utopia happen? 

Bob And Ray, Keener Than Most Persons

 A book lent to me by a friend who I would guess was quite familiar with the duo. Me on the other hand, had "probably heard of them", but was totally unfamiliar. 

Since my family didn't have TV until '68 or '69 ( I know we had it in '69, because I watched the moon landing) my media awareness was minimal. Relatives had TV. and since I lived in the country, times spent with kids in town were minimal. The folks left us at grandma's house on Sunday nights as they went to evening church services, so Bonanza was a show that I was familiar with. 

B&R began in radio on the East coast. Since pretty much the only radio I heard was in the cow barn as we were milking, if it wasn't on WCCO at milking times, I didn't hear it. 

I was surprised that they were on Carson multiple times, but just realized that I didn't see all that many "Tonight Shows". On reflection, I probably watched more with Jay Leno than with Carson, and zero since. 

Thanks to YouTube, I watched a couple of their appearances. From that small sampling, and how the the book portrayed them, I would guess that fans of Seinfeld would generally like them,. It seemed that the key to their humor was their deadpan style and light hearted parodies about essentially nothing.  

As far as the book goes, the audience that would appreciate it these days would mostly be my age or older. Without significant knowledge of the golden age of radio giving way to television with all the stars of that age, the name dropping connections were often unclear to me. 

I remember that the Tonight Show was once hosted by Steve Allen, but again, I'd have to go to YouTube to see that. Tons of names that I sort of recollect in different contexts  ... Harry Morgan being familiar from MASH, and a little bit from Dragnet, but no contact with previous work. Most of the names I had a vague recollection of, probably from Carson, or picked up from infrequent snippets from shows like "The Hollywood Squares". Paul Lynde for one. 

Lots of name dropping, probably interesting to those much more familiar with media from that era.

That Ray could keep performing by precise scheduling for dialysis for a decade after kidney failure in the late '70s is quite amazing. 

The Cafe des Artistes in Manhattan (now closed) was mentioned as one of their old haunts. My wife and I dined there on and extravagant trip awarded by IBM in the early '90s. Odd connections are always fun.

The book made me think about how the progression of entertainment from Radio, to TV, to the Internet made our lives more and more shallow and isolated. Technology is a tool ... how it is used can have profound effects on our lives. In her later years my moms schedule was wedded to being able to see "Wheel of Fortune". As a child we were on a telephone party line and two neighbor ladies (that lived a mile apart) would spend about and hour discussing that days episode of "Days of Our Lives".  

We have only a short time on this earth, and eternity is forever. The "stars" of media, unlike Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, will not be long remembered. I'm reading "Samuel Johnson, The Struggle" about the author of the first dictionary of the English language,  living from 1709 to 1784. He was friends with Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon and many others that I wish I was more familiar with. 

How should we spend our short time on this earth? A topic that many historical figures have pondered. I'm suspicious that few of us will comment on our deathbeds; "I wish I had watched more TV". 

Explaining the Equality Act

 https://www.heritage.org/gender/heritage-explains/the-equality-act

It is a good fairly short description of what will likely become law if Democrats get full control of  Congress and the Presidency in 2025 (which, I sadly expect given the insecurity of our "elections"). 

If you read this blog or keep in touch with some media that has conservative reality based reporting base, you already know what happens when we have a new "protected class". 

Anyone can identify as whatever "gender" they want, however, they stay the same sex unless we change some laws. 

Were I to propose a law on this subject, (which I don't think should have standing under the law at all) I would propose: 

• Any "gender" selection "treatment" be strictly prohibited until the victim of ths mental illness reaches 21. 
  
  
• If  a male decides to identify as female, he would be required to have all genitalia surgically removed, including the prostate, and the most effective means to purge testosterone from the body be initiated. In this manner, if he chooses to use women's restrooms and locker rooms he would not be capable of rape. Likewise, if the testosterone can be removed. his advantage in women's sports will be curtailed. 
  
  
• Females would receive a hysterectomy, and a radical mastectomy of their breasts if they desire to identify as males. Issues such as construction of a penis or giving testosterone are more problematic. Since creation is best left to God, destruction and mutilation are (as would be required with males) are more predictable. The man made "woman" is a mentally damaged and unpredictably likely a danger to others. 

The main point of this post is awareness. The population needs to be aware of what a vote for Democrats is likely to mean ... their law will look nothing like my proposal, and your children and grandchildren can be forcibly removed from their parents under their laws and the biological men will remain able to molest women and children, the true goal of their "transition".