Societal Decay – Page 8

Review: Dinesh D’Souza

I knew that Dinesh D’Souza was supposed to be in Stockton last Friday but at $50 per ticket, there was no way I could afford to go let alone take the wife and son. The day of the event, I got an unsolicited text message from the Sith Lord asking if I was interested. It seems the promoters had given the Sith Lord nine tickets for the event. These weren’t just tickets but VIP tickets. I told him that I was interested but could not attend the VIP event prior to the event. After a short phone call with my wife, we decided to go on a road trip to Stockton that evening to see D’Souza.

The only exposure that our family had previously had with D’Souza was via his movie on Hillary Clinton.

For those unfamiliar with D’Souza, he researches history and digs up nuggets of inconvenient truth that have been buried by those in power because their past is often at odds with the narratives that they put forward. Truthfully almost everything you were ever taught in school about history is so incomplete as to be completely untrue.

D’Souza’s appearance was at the Bob Hope Theater in Stockton. The venue can hold up to 2,000 people.

Based on the amount of paid security and other employees, this place cost the promoters a pretty penny. In my opinion, based on the number of comped tickets available the day of the event, many in attendance didn’t actually pay to attend. I think that fiscally this event was unprofitable. I would guess the crowd to be less than 400 souls.

D’Souza was entertaining and spoke at length about the success of President Trump in spite of the relentless and blistering attacks on him. His basic thesis is that Trump’s ego is so big that Trump doesn’t care what people think about him. That coupled with the fact that Trump gives more pushback than he gets allows him not only to survive but thrive. In an era where “politics is perception” Trump is a non sequitur.

D’Souza then went on to talk about his films and presentations on the typical college campus. As is our experience as Conservatives, once you get past the bumper sticker slogan that someone on the Left has memorized, they are out of substance. D’Souza talked about his mission not to convert the hardcore Liberal but reach the person on the fence in order to get them to think. He expressed his mission as to provide irrefutable information that undoes the conventional narrative and hope that causes folks to further challenge their worldview. D’Souza never stated so, but his belief in the Truth prevailing is due in part to his faith in God.

Peppered throughout his discussion, D’Souza also spoke at length about the history of the Democrat Party and the lie of socialism. In light of constant attacks on history and Trump (and I guess a new book that he authored), D’Souza once again put to rest the lie that National Socialism was an ideology of the right. FYI: Socialism, Fascism, and Nazism are all the exclusive purview of the Left. The real zinger to me was the claim from his new book that the Nazi’s rules on the treatment of Jews were a direct rip-off of Southern Jim Crow laws. D’Souza claims to have a written record of this early 1930’s meeting in Germany. I would be skeptical except he wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true; he has too much at stake to be wrong.

D’Souza is not alone in correcting the record by any means but as an immigrant from another country he doesn’t have to deal with the construct placed on us that have gone thru the American educational system. I have found D’Souza correct in his information and analysis. He is only controversial because he is confronting recent history and current events. D’Souza is only controversial because the truth is counter to the prevailing narrative.

This also true with much of what passes as American History. If you want a voice correcting the record for another era of our nation’s history–namely the millennia prior to the Vikings–look up three books by Barry Fell: Saga America, Bronze Age America, and America B.C. Last I checked they are out of print, but the basic point is that everything you think you know about “Native Americans” is wrong. For example, people in the time of heyday of Carthage and Rome travelled here all the time and so did others. Fell documents much that has fallen into obscurity or runs counter to academic dogma.

D’Souza is worth listening to because he has the pulse of what is real in an age of noise and fury. I’m gratful that the Sith Lord made this night possible for my family.

Cold War Tome on Socialism More Relevant Now

If you want a cold, honest assessment of socialism you will not do any better than David Chilton’s forgotten book, Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators. Written at the height of the Cold War (1981), it is more relevant now than it was when he wrote it.

I have owned my copy of the book since I met David back in 1989 but I never read it. Why? Back in 1989 is when the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed. I considered reading it back then, but we thought socialism, like the Soviet Union, had been disgraced and relegated to the scrap heap of failed human experiments. Sadly, like a bad movie or a fatal case of cancer, socialism is back.

One reason that I like reading the book is because Chilton is far removed from the current controversies raging in our country. This makes him a disinterested party free from opinions on Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. He is looking at the facts of socialism from a philosophical and historical perspective.

David goes further by not just describing the disease but the cure. In his writings, all things are measured by Scripture including governments and their ideas. On its surface, the book is a rebuttal of a “Christian Socialist” named Ron Sider.

I’m not done with the book, but I just had to blog on it after reading the excerpt which I quote below.

Envy is the greatest disease of our age. It is often confused with jealousy and covetousness, which have to do with wanting the possessions and privileges of others. Envy is much more insidious – and deadly. Envy is the feeling that someone else’s having something is to blame for the fact that you do not have it. The principal motive is thus not so much to take, but to destroy. The envier acts against the object of his envy” not to benefit himself, but to cut the other person down to his own level-or below. The American Puritan divine Samuel Willard defined envy as “a man’s repining at his neighbour’s Prosperity, looking upon himself to be Hurt by it.” In his massive study of envy, Helmut Schoeck points up this central factor: “the envious man’s conviction that the envied man’s prosperity, his success and his income are somehow to ‘blame for the subject’s deprivation, for the lack that he feels. ‘ It can be summed up in Pierre-Joseph Proudhon‘s famous epigram: Property is Theft!

This explains why “Envy and Malice are inseparable”; as we can see from the example in Genesis quoted above, the envier’s goal is destruction. Henry Hazlitt writes: “The envious are more likely to·be·mollified by seeing others deprived of some advantage than by getting it for themselves. It is not what they lack that chiefly troubles them, but what others have. The envious are not satisfied with equality; they secretly yearn for superiority and revenge.”

And it is this envious, destructionist mentality, nursing itself on the notion that ”your wealth is the cause of my poverty, “that is the basic ethos of socialism. For socialism does not…..and cannot – build up capital. It seeks only to expropriate or destroy the capital of others. It exalts a malignant, misanthropic disposition into an article of political economy, a machine for tyranny. Socialism is institutionalized envy.
Pages 139-140

David Chilton’s book can be found here

Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators

The PDF file is a free download from the publisher. If, like me, you like the dead tree version try searching Amazon.

David Chilton Wikipedia page

Paid Family Leave: Conservatives Invited to Join the Darkside

Wednesday, I was browsing my email account when this gem from former Pennsylvania US Senator, Rick Santorum, showed up in my IN Box. Folks, when I read it, I had about the same reaction that I do when Chef Gordon Ramsey is pillaging a restaurant’s walk-in refrigerator on Kitchen Nightmares.

I wanted to hurl.

Santorum claims to be a conservative; however, a quick internet search reveals that “These days, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum is a senior analyst on CNN…”

The email in question stated that Santorum has started a campaign to get Conservatives on board with supporting paid family leave. Rick apparently is proud to attach his name to this idea. “Little Marco Rubio” is also attached to this venture. Here is a screenshot of the email from Santorum.

Santorum’s email promoting Paid Family Leave

Santorum, like the Republican Party in California, has jettisoned the old notion of less government and exchanged it for more tyranny. Apparently the old adage “if you can’t beat ‘em…” still rings true. When “conservatives” are offering more government as the solution to the problems created by government, then you know that something is amiss.

Folks the entire concept of paid family leave is nuts. The only reason that women must work is due to the confiscatory taxation of our population. If you added everything up, half of what you earn goes out in taxes of one form or another. If you don’t believe me, just make a list. FYI there are about 30 different taxes on your telephone. I don’t even think the “Sith Lord” could list them all but he’d probably get closer than our average reader.

What real Conservatives believe or at least they used to, is that you should keep more of your money because you can spend it better than someone in Washington or Sacramento.

The idea that a Conservative Political Action Committee (C-PAC) would ever give Santorum, Rubio & Company a place at their event is proof that their values are eroded.

In case you went to public school or weren’t paying attention, we threw the British out of here in 1776 because of a three percent tax! Boston Tea Party ring a bell? The cry was “Taxation without representation.” So how has the “taxation with representation” worked out?

Oh, speaking of three percent tax rates, that was the maximum tax proposed on the very rich in 1917 when the temporary tax called the Federal Income Tax was adopted to pay for our involvement in World War I. Again, how has that taxation with representation worked out?

Many years ago, I did contribute to Santorum’s failed Senate re-election bid. In light of recent events, it’s a good thing he lost. If this is what it takes to stand out in Republican circles these days and gives you the “street cred” to claim the conservative mantle then Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell aren’t the only guys stinking up the once Grand Old Party.

Oh, if you check Rick’s website, they are talking about letting you tap your Social Security Trust Account to pay for this. No, really.

The plan is relatively straightforward — new parents could borrow against their future Social Security benefits by taking up to twelve weeks of payments after the birth of a child.

Link: Rubio’s pro-family, conservative family leave policy promotes stability

Back in the last year of the Bush Administration, I looked up the government’s statistics on unfunded mandates of the Federal Government. Social Security was the lion’s share of underfunded mandates totaling about 55 trillion dollars and now “Little Rubio” wants the snowflakes to tap it? Great idea.

I like President Trump but apparently he supports this idea too.

If this does get implemented, how much will you bet me that the Democrats find a way to take all the credit? This has been one of their pet issues for many years.

Hey Rick, way to throw the next generation under the bus by claiming to save them. Oh wait, I sense another government program on the horizon to fix this mess…

Follow-up: Bruce Jenner Sign

On my old version of my blog, I used to have the following quotation from Martin Luther:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.

If you want to know why the Church in America is so weak and ineffective, just look at the aftermath of the incident that I blogged about a few days ago.

First To Recap

A rural pastor in California put the following on the sign in front of his church:

Bruce Jenner is still a man
Homosexuality is still a sin
The culture may change but the Bible does not

Some local people that were not church members or as best as I can tell, not self-identified Christians, protested.

The pastor responded:

The church has lost its saltiness and I fully expect to get as much or more flack from the visible church as I am getting from the world.

If a conservative mountain farming community is no longer a safe place to call sin, sin, then is anywhere in this country still safe for real Christians?

Follow-up

Little did the pastor know that he had preached him last sermon. You see, his congregation abandoned him and cut him loose for “calling a sin, sin.”

Pastor Justin Hoke posted the following on Facebook on Saturday.

As of today, I am no longer the pastor of Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church.
After much prayer and counsel, I have decided that it is best to briefly communicate what has taken place.
I was informed by our other elder that he felt he could no longer follow my lead as Pastor of TBPC.
I was informed that essentially all but one couple in membership would leave the church if I continued as pastor of TBPC.
Our other elder and the couple felt that those who left would likely return if I would leave.
Our other elder was agreeable to stay and assume the pastoral responsibilities.
Therefore it was determined that it would be in the best interest of the local body for us (TBPC and the Hoke family) to part ways.
Update 1/14/19
I would like to add this, I did not want to leave, I did not quit, and I was willing to stay.

Bottom line was the pastor was faithful, but the flock was not. The clergy would not support him, and the congregation abandoned him.

Please note that he was their pastor for seven years and they kicked him to the curb for being right. Let me emphasize that again:

not for cheating on his wife

not for messing with the altar boys

not for skimming money from the collection

not for buying his wife a Lamborghini

but for BEING RIGHT

He called people to repentance and as a result got the boot. This brings me back to the quote from Luther who said in essence, if you are right about everything except where the devil is attacking at that moment and flinch on that point your faith is worthless.

Sadly, pastor Hoke’s congregation is the rule and not the exception in much of the modern western church. So next time you want to vent about the stupid pagans and what they are doing, remember that they are acting according to their nature—dead in their trespasses and sin—while we that are claiming to be alive in Christ are often the ones to blame.

Sadly, too many Christians read II Chronicles 7:14 like this:

“If those other people, would call on my name, humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Unfortunately for them, this verse in not directed at the pagans in our world and commanding them to repent; instead, it is directed at the Church to repent, humble themselves and pray. Those claiming to be believers have failed in their mission. We need to repent and turn to God and that will heal our nation.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Thanks to, Joe Miller, for making me aware of the update on this tragic situation.

Pastor Loses Job After Church Sign Stating ‘Homosexuality Is Still a Sin’ Causes Uproar

Bruce Jenner Sign, When Proclaiming Truth is Hurtful

Lake Shastina is a little hole in the wall community northeast of Weed, California and south of the Oregon border. The area is full of old hippies from the 1960’s (and their descendants) and also a mix of farmers and people once associated with the logging industry. It is an eclectic mix of folks.

Lake Shastina finds itself in the news because the Truth is offensive to those that choose to embrace lies. In this case, a local church has put up a sign that has got a few pagans and Liberals up in arms. The purpose of such signs is twofold, give information about what the church is doing or what they believe—commonly called outreach. In this instance the Church sign reads:

Bruce Jenner is still a man
Homosexuality is still a sin
The culture may change but the Bible does not

The church’s pastor, Justin Hoke, said he expected “flack” regarding the sign’s message, but believes it is poignant because it “rebukes sin” and calls people to repentance.
“It is not possible to preach the gospel in short pithy statements. I have used this sign for seven years now to provoke reflection or make a strong point about a single truth,” Hoke wrote on Facebook. “Such as this one: ‘The culture does not determine truth, God does.’ … The funny thing is, I could have put those words up and no one would have cared. Why? Because it does not rebuke sin or call anyone to repentance. The church has lost its saltiness and I fully expect to get as much or more flack from the visible church as I am getting from the world.”
In that same Facebook thread, Hoke posted, “The response we’re receiving from this sign proves that it was posted way too late. If a conservative mountain farming community is no longer a safe place to call sin, sin, then is anywhere in this country still safe for real Christians?”

Lake Shastina Church Sign Sparks Protest

Three people organized a protest of the sign and now its national news. Why?

California church draws backlash for sign: ‘Bruce Jenner is still a man’

One protester, worried about what the church message conveys to youth, described the sign as “an amplified voice telling [those youth], ‘You’re wrong.’”

All three propositions are true so what’s the issue? Oh yeah, this is California so I guess I do have to defend each just because…

Statement One
Bruce Jenner is still a man. Here’s the offensive part, God made him a man. No manner how much Jenner has paid to have himself mutilated and pumped full of hormones, biologically and genetically he is still male.

That Jenner has mental and spirit problems is tragic. To be human is to be an image bearer of God. Jenner can’t hurt God so he attacks Him by attacking His image bearer, in this case himself. God is the primary victim of this and every crime, Jenner is a secondary victim to this rebellion.

Statement Two
Homosexuality is still a sin. Homosexuality is not only a sin in both the Old and New Testaments, per Romans chapter one, it is a judgement upon men for exchanging the Truth of God for a lie.

Homosexuality was common in the period when the New Testament was written. If you look at Paul’s arguments in Romans, in chapter one he takes the Greco-Roman world to task for rejecting God and then in chapters two and three, he takes on the Jews of his day that think themselves religious and concludes that they too fall short of God’s standard. Toward the end of chapter three he concludes in verse 23:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

As you continue reading, Paul lays out the case that we cannot save ourselves and only Jesus can save us. So while chapter one condemns homosexuality, the rest of the book presents the case that all people are sinners and need Jesus.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6: 9-11, Paul points out “And such were some of you”. His point is God can save and redeem even the worst of us.

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Statement Three
The culture may change but the Bible does not. God doesn’t change. You can look at creation and see that there was a designer (Romans 1) but to have a relationship with Him requires special revelation. God’s special revelation, the Bible, is the standard by which we are measured and as stated above, we all fall short. That doesn’t make His standard wrong, just us.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Hebrews 13:8

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16 -17

The point is not to call everybody wrong but to call people to repentance. Repentance means that you are sorry for your sin; turn around, you’re going the wrong way.

Stop running from God but instead embrace Him. Jesus is the only way to the Father.

The church message is not a message of hate, it is a warning that people that are going the wrong way and that they need to repent.

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
Proverbs 14:12

Which is more loving, seeing someone heading straight to hell and say nothing or warn them to turn around before it’s too late.

Surprise: Boy Scouts of America File Bankruptcy

The Sith Lord–who is a certified Eagle Scout from back in the days when boys aspired to be men—and the rest of us that remember when BSA was America’s premier organization for young boys are not surprised that the Scouts have filed for bankruptcy.

The Scouts’ membership has cratered since it abdicated its founding values to become politically correct. BSA’s corporate leadership can’t admit their recent foray into social engineering is related to their current woes so instead they are saying that the reason for their problems is litigation for sexual abuse claims. Talk about liberals accusing other of what they do!

BSA trashed all moral rules of conduct and turned the Scouts into a safe haven for sexual deviants of all types to prey upon shall children and then blames the heterosexuals for their woes. Talk about irony.

Participation in the organization’s programs has fallen in recent years, though the group opened some of its programs to girls and transgender boys. The Boy Scouts currently have more than 2.3 million youth members. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, formerly one of the group’s largest sponsors, has said it will withdraw from Boy Scout programs. The church said it would develop its own program for young men.

The Boy Scouts group has drawn scrutiny over its slow pace to become more inclusive, including by lifting a ban in 2015 on gay men and lesbians serving in leadership roles.

The group has also dealt with fallout from its decision last year to expand its recruitment of girls, putting it in competition with the Girl Scouts of the USA, a separate group that offer ssimilar programming and has also seen membership fall.
Boy Scouts of America Considers Bankruptcy Filing Amid Sex-Abuse Lawsuits

This story is spin at its best. Membership fell because BSA allowed these other groups in. Sure many youth pursue sports over Scouting butthings have cratered not just in membership but financial support as well.Please note that the article makes no mention of declining financial support. Also no mention is made of rural verses urban membership in Scouts.

Like the Liberal churches that have abandoned Christianity—Episcopal, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.— surviving on trusts left to the Church back when they were faithful to their values, BSA is in the same boat. They have vast assets deeded to them when they stood for traditional America and Judeo-Christian values. Scouts could not continue to exist without the generosity of past generations.

Liberals want to control the things that they hate and if they can’t control them then kill them. In this case they have done both. They killed Scouting as it was and replaced it with something else. Sadly the only thing that was allowed to survive is the name. It is only a matter of time before Boy Scouts of America is relegated to the dung heap of Liberal victories in their war against Western Culture.

Addendum: In a rare public appearance, the Sith Lord has the following observation concerning the Scouts:

Here is an interesting statistic, of the reported 2.3 million Boy Scouts today, a third are registered to LDS chartered units leaving the BSA at the end of 2019 for their own newly created LDS program.

Additionally, I checked out the websites of the two BSA councils that I have been a member and found something interesting. There has been a significant reduction in the number of Boy Scout camps listed. The BSA councils have closed several summer camps that were leased from the National Forest Service and have sold other camps and properties. Some of these facilities have been used by the BSA for over 75 years.

God, Europe, and Law

Last week while we were all distracted by the fake bombs sent via snail mail to various Democrat leaders, other things more significant were afoot elsewhere in the world.

Blasphemy is defined as “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God”

It is part of the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7

There is a little known movie about a man that is transported from 1890 to the present (ok 2002) and is shocked at what he sees. On the one hand, marvels of technology and on the other the decay in societal values. At one point he goes into a movie theater and hears God’s name used in vain. Shocked he runs out and complains to the first theater employee that he encounters. The guy selling soda and popcorn looks at him with a blank stare trying to figure out first what using the Lord’s name in vain even means and secondly why this guy is upset when people talk like that all the time.

Time Changer (2002)

The Irish constitution’s preamble still begins “in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity” and acknowledges “all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial.” Its text continues to read “the State acknowledges that the homage of public worship is due to Almighty God. It shall hold His Name in reverence, and shall respect and honor religion.”

While 20th century Ireland was a strongly Catholic society where lay political leaders implemented Catholic faith and morals as they perceived them, sometimes in close cooperation with Church leaders and other Catholic institutions, in recent decades the country has secularized.

While Ireland has higher Mass attendance rates than many traditionally Catholic countries in Europe, vocation numbers have plummeted and self-identified Catholics have dropped to 78 percent, according to the 2016 census, and almost one in ten now identify as having no religion.

The secularizing changes are attributed to scandals involving clergy sex abuse, other abuse in other Catholic-run institutions, as well as increasing affluence and influence from international corporations and NGOs.

Ireland’s long-standing pro-life constitutional protections were repealed in a May 2018 vote with over 66 percent voting in favor. In May 2015 Ireland became the first country to implement gay marriage by a popular vote, with 62 percent of voters backing the change.

Ireland is one of 71 countries where blasphemy is illegal.

Irish voters remove blasphemy punishment from constitution

After this weekend, now blasphemy is illegal in 70 countries because Ireland voted overwhelmingly to drop the prohibition from their constitution.

DUBLIN, Ireland – Exit polls indicated Irish voters were expected to repeal the Republic of Ireland’s constitutional prohibition against blasphemy, with close to 70 percent of voters backing the change in a Friday vote, the Irish Times has reported.

Catholic bishops did not put forward a defense of the law, though one Muslim leader spoke in its favor.

“The publication or utterance of blasphemous, seditious, or indecent matter is an offence which shall be punishable in accordance with law,” said the constitutional passage in question, which dates back to 1937.

As passed, the referendum would remove blasphemy from this list of offenses, and allow the Irish parliament to change laws penalizing blasphemy.

This continues a trend that Europe is moving away from any pretense of holding to its very deep rooted Christianity. However, this is not the end of blasphemy news last week. While Christianity has been further diminished, Islam has been elevated throughout the European Union by the European Court of Human Rights.

Europe’s ever-steady march towards illiberal, totalitarian nonsense continues apace. The European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that defaming the Prophet Muhammad is not protected speech. More specifically, the court said an “Austrian woman’s conviction for calling the prophet of Islam a pedophile didn’t breach her freedom of speech,” the Associated Press reported.

The ECHR explained in its ruling that Austrian courts had “carefully balanced her right to freedom of expression with the right of others to have their religious feelings protected.” The woman explained in 2009 during a seminar discussion that the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to a six-year-old girl was basically “pedophilia.”

“A 56-year-old and a 6-year-old? What do you call that? Give me an example? What do we call it, if it is not pedophilia?” she said.

The woman was charged and convicted by a Vienna court in 2011 of “disparaging religious doctrines.” The woman was ordered to pay a $547 fine, plus costs, the AP notes. An Austrian appeals court upheld the 2011 ruling.

On Thursday, the ECHR explained in its ruling that the Austrian court’s decision “served the legitimate aim of preserving religious peace.”

The seven-judge panel also argued in its ruling that there’s a difference between child marriage and pedophilia:

[B]y accusing Muhammad of paedophilia, the applicant had merely sought to defame him, without providing evidence that his primary sexual interest in Aisha had been her not yet having reached puberty or that his other wives or concubines had been similarly young. In particular, the applicant had disregarded the fact that the marriage with Aisha had continued until the Prophet’s death, when she had already turned eighteen and had therefore passed the age of puberty.

European Court of Human Rights: Sorry, Charlie Hebdo, but you had it coming

The recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (henceforth ‘the Court’), upholding Austria’s decision to charge somebody for insulting Islam, poses an interesting quandary to its regular critics.

On the one hand, it has upheld what a great many liberals and conservatives alike consider to be an absurdly restrictive judgement. It may not (quite, yet) have imposed an Europe-wide blasphemy law, as sometimes suggested, but it has upheld Austria’s.

But on the other, those whose overweening concern is with democratic accountability and national sovereignty, and therefore oppose the imposition of law by a transnational judiciary, cannot without great care demand that the Court ought to strike down Austria’s laws when we don’t like them.

Moreover, Scott argues that the Court is actually suggesting – at a time when blasphemy legislation is falling across the continent, most recently in Ireland – that signatories of the Charter have a duty to “criminalise “improper and abusive attacks” on objects of veneration”.

But in justifying their ruling the judges appear, if I read Scott’s analysis correctly, to be setting precedents which could well lead to impositions on other nations at a later date. If it becomes established that religious persons have a right not to be offended, it will fall on other states to uphold that right. Where Austria leads, other may have to follow.

Of course, Theresa May has backed away from her earlier enthusiasm for withdrawing from the authority of the European Court of Human Rights. But incidents such as this, where rights law starts metastasising and threatening to impose fresh obligations on democratic governments without any popular mandate, remind us why our relationship with it is something which future, post-Brexit governments may need to revisit.

The European Court of Human Rights has set a problematic precedent on religious freedom

Given the above events, when in Europe, you can blaspheme Jesus all you wish but to treat Mohammed the same way is to incur the wrath of the secular elites. Sadly, Mark Stein is vindicated once again in his prediction that it is an actuarial certainty that Europe will be Islamic in a few short decades.

To quote to pop song of a few decades ago,

All in all it’s just another brick in the wall.

— Pink Floyd 1979

Trump Administration to Base Gender on Biology

Why is this even a headline? Because in a world where common sense is not common, people are dumb. The New York Times wrote this yesterday:

Now the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive government financial assistance, according to a memo obtained by The New York Times.

The department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.” The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing.

“Sex means a person’s status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth,” the department proposed in the memo, which was drafted and has been circulating since last spring. “The sex listed on a person’s birth certificate, as originally issued, shall constitute definitive proof of a person’s sex unless rebutted by reliable genetic evidence.”

‘Transgender’ Could Be Defined Out of Existence Under Trump Administration

Thank God Trump is President.

Those of you that disagree with the above policy have a problem with God not Donald J Trump. Oh, and just so you know, God made you and is the same yesterday, today, and forever so He won’t be changing His mind just because you don’t like it.

Saturday Quick Hits

The Blog Father okayed overtime for The Chief, mostly because he needs more money to support his family. Here are some quick hitters in the news from the past 24 hours:

The Las Vegas/Oakland/Reno/Henderson/Los Angeles well anyway the Raiders traded their only good player on defense for a couple first round picks. How did the last time you traded for two first round picks end up? Oh wait… The Chief’s favorite team the Buccaneers beat you in the Super Bowl…so betting advice, take “Da Bears” to win it all. Glad you guys are paying coach Jon Gruden like a billion million dollars over 10 years man….because you traded your only defensive player that could play for like nothing man. Why am I saying man, all the time man? Because that’s how Gruden talks man. Also you guys y=traded for AJ McCarron man…he’s got a hot wife according to Brent Musberger man…….he even ogled her during the national championship game man! Rumor has it you cut back-up quarterback Connor Cook because he never understood the only play in the Gruden playbook of “spider 2 Y banana.” I should probably say man….man. In reality I heard McCarron can inhale a 50 piece at Hooters in about 4.42 seconds ….man!

By the way Mark Davis still looks like Jon Gruden microwaved leftovers…..man!

In addition I heard the Oakland/Vegas Raiders cut weed aficionado Martavis Bryant, rumors leaked to “The Chief” say he failed another drug test…personally I would blame it on the CA wildfires….man! Or maybe because you are in Oakland, blame it on second hand weed….man!

In other non-sports news…we have William Jefferson Clinton….experiencing high levels of excitement!

Clinton; spotted sans Hillary (which is normal for him, when excited)…and again we aren’t sure they have slept in the same bed more than once btw!

Wow…Bill I’ve gotta hand it to you, not needing to pull a Bob Dole, you are always game for a cute chick.

Hopefully you “enjoyed” Ariana Grande….or were you jealous of this move made by a bishop?

Note Jesse Jackson on the left in this photo

Anyway enjoy these photos folks.

“The Chief”

Editor Note: I did get this on Saturday but was out of town when The Chief sent it; thus it wasn’t posted until Sunday.

Catholics Demand Pope Resign

The Catholic Church is suffering from a self-inflicted wound that it can’t cure. The peasants with pitchforks appear to have had enough. Here is one proposed solution.

The sex abuse scandal and its cover-up within the Catholic Church require solutions that the institutional Church will be incapable of achieving on its own.

But the more serious problem is that since Vatican II the Church has been AWOL on Biblically based Christian moral issues affecting the core family and its relationship to God. From marriage, divorce, same-sex relations, sex outside marriage, and the love respect between men and women according to God’s laws, the Church has abandoned its role of moral teacher and spiritual guide telling people where the ‘guardrails’ are.

The Church’s abandonment of focus on the central and natural institution of the family has been accentuated by Pope Francis’ attention to socialist, earthly issues. His progressive politics-overfamily approach is a symptom of the larger problems within the Church and its hierarchy.

No institution that is sick can cure itself, and the Catholic Church is grievously ill. Like any patient, the institutional Church must be a willing participant in the cure. But it will be up to the Catholic laity to administer the necessary fixes.

We join others who have already made the call for Pope Francis to resign, and ask you to do the same by clicking and signing this petition, which will be widely circulated to thousands of Catholic leaders including clergy, laity, and the media. While the Pope’s failures have been many, the flashpoint may be that he chose to ignore the warning issued by Apostolic Nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò about the pattern of sexual abuse under Archbishop McCarrick of Washington, D.C. Pope Benedict had demoted McCarrick. Ignoring the warning, Pope Francis chose to promote and insulate McCarrick, leaving the inescapable conclusion that the current Pope’s resignation is the only acceptable beginning of both the legal and spiritual remedies.

Pope Francis: Resign, and Let Pope Benedict Return from Retirement