How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back? There are some things that time cannot mend, some hurts that go too deep—that have taken hold.
Frodo, at the end of the movie, “The Lord of the Rings.”
Is there a worldview/religious correlation that might explain a link between LGBTQ+ identity and nonreligious association? Perhaps. Particularly when an LGBTQ+ person strongly adheres to the Gender Marxism branch of the LGBTQ+ wing. It can be said that once a person stumbles into the deeper and darker sides of sexual idolatry — the belief that sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual gratification at all moral costs are the paramount parts of one’s existence — they have essentially declared themselves god and everyone else’s sense of right and wrong is just “their bigoted point of view.”
Emmy Griffin, The Cult of Sexual Idolatry and Religion
[F]reedom is possible only with moral law. Free people must discipline themselves, or they will end up losing their freedom. Why? Because when people do not control themselves, they will end up having others control them. They will either end up in prison or controlled by tyrants. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, societies abhor chaos—and absence of law and order. Therefore, if individuals will not control themselves, others will. Those others will either be foreign tyrants or indigenous tyrants.
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, pg.266
There are few modest talents so richly rewarded…as the ability to portray parasites as victims, and portray demands for preferential treatment as struggles for equal rights.
Thomas Sowell
Virtually nothing is as significant to a good life as gratitude. Gratitude is the mother of both happiness and goodness. The ungrateful can be neither happy nor good. All happy people and all good people are grateful people. Anything that undermines gratitude undermines happiness and goodness. And nothing undermines gratitude as much as taking something or someone for granted.
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, pg.155
Let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you—and why?
Walter Williams
Whether or not we believe in God, we should regard the hardships of our lives as tests of our characters. Though we are not free to choose our hardships, we are free to choose how we react to them.
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, pg.151
Deception is a sort of seduction. In love and war, adultery and espionage, deceit can only succeed if the deceived party is willing, in some way, to be deceived.
Ben Macintyre, Operation Mincemeat, pg.232
It is so injurious to society when children stop honoring their parents that this the only one of the Ten Commandments that states a reward for obeying it: “that you may long endure, and that you may fare well, in the land the the Lord you God is assigning to you.” The warning is clear: if children in your society stop honoring their parents, you will not fare well, and your society will not long endure.
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, pg.98
Emotions neither prove nor disprove facts. There was a time when any rational adult understood this. But years of dumbed-down education and emphasis on how people “feel” have left too many people unable to see through this media gimmick.
Thomas Sowell
It is not the critic who counts. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by…blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short…who spends himself in a worthy cause…daring greatly.
Theodore Roosevelt, 4/23/1910 in Paris, “Citizenship in a Republic.” Cited by Eric Lindner, Tiger in the Sea, pg.319.
With so many global institutions dominating private life, is it any wonder why so many people now behave as if they should be committed to institutions? True meaning — the kind formed through personal struggle, adventure, hard work, religion, community, and family — has been replaced with the incremental oppression of international rule-making. The sanctity of the family home has been bulldozed, so that a global cabal of atheists — whose only real mission is to severely reduce the human population — can poison the natural bonds nurtured between parents and children. The blessings of marriage have been paved over with such vulgar elevation of sin as to condemn human beings, who would otherwise have been made whole through matrimonial commitment, to lonely lives — bereft of hope and adrift in promiscuous isolation.
Culture, marriage, children, and a devotion to God are the bricks that build communities, which in turn fortify nations against the evils propagated by those who lead drab, meaningless lives drenched in self-loathing and hatred for humanity’s existence. The UN and its sister organizations do one thing well: they vanquish cultural bonds and, by doing so, demolish civilizations. And with the wreckage that they reap, they extinguish human happiness.
J.B. Shurk, Globalism Is a Disease That Deprives Life of Meaning
This whole article is thought-provoking so I decided it needed to be posted on this blog. Enjoy!
How to Achieve Tyranny With Mush Words, by Steve Rose at American Thinker.
If you want to become a tyrant and transform your fellow citizens into slaves, all you really need are a few good mush words. “Mush words” are words with vague definitions. They’re slippery, hard to pin down, elusive, ultimately unknowable—and, for budding tyrants, extremely useful.
The word “racist,” for example, is a superb mush word. “Sexist” is outstanding as well, as is “(whatever)-aphobe.” Better yet, accuse someone of being full of “hate.”
But how do they work? Why are mush words powerful enough to achieve tyranny?
First, you don’t need to understand why they work, only that they do. It takes no talent or intelligence to just sling these words around and reap the rewards without understanding the dynamics involved. That said, for those who want to dig deeper, here’s a brief summary:
The two keys to good mush words are 1) unknowability and 2) accusation.
Unknowability (#1) is the magic ingredient that gives mush words their mushiness. The essential element is slipperiness. A mush word is like a verbal greased pig, or Proteus, the shapeshifting Greek god who could change forms at will. Vagueness is critical. Clarity is the enemy.
It’s interesting to notice that hardly anyone accuses anyone else of having six fingers or being nine feet tall.
Why is that? Because those can be easily verified. They’re clear, objective, and open to the public. There’s no uncertainty, no controversy—a complete lack of drama. For budding tyrants, they’re useless.
Good mush words, on the other hand, point to things that are impossible to quantify, measure, see, hear, know objectively, or disprove. While nearly everyone can easily verify six fingers or measure height, no one can conclusively “see” that you’re “racist” or harbor “hate” in your heart.
These can be argued about, of course. But arguing requires effort, which creates opportunity. As Bertrand Russell said, “The most savage controversies are those matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.”
Since there’s no objective, public, scientific way to verify mush word accusations one way or another, these areas are beyond the reach of fair-minded, reasonable people. This sets the stage for a confidence game, which allows anyone to bluff their way in. Whoever can pretend to have certainty on the matter wins.
If you can pretend to be certain of something ultimately unknowable, chances are the other person won’t be certain precisely because it is unknowable. It isn’t hard. Just pretend to be psychic and act confident about it. If the other person even seems less confident, the battle is essentially won.
The trick is to weaponize uncertainty.
If it’s done properly, it creates a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose, house-always-wins scenario. If anyone gets close to clarifying things, the mush word changes definitions, escapes into vagueness, and the game can continue.
The best mush words are so slippery they can be applied to practically anything. Math, for example, could be described as racist—or pancake syrup, coffee, golf, sleep, grades, “assault weapons,” or wanting honest elections. It’s the mark of a great mush word: anything and anyone can become “wrong.” To some, this might make the word meaningless. But with proper salesmanship and coercion, it becomes all-powerful.
But that requires the second ingredient.
Accusation (#2) makes mush words truly lethal.
Publicly blaming someone for doing something “wrong” is powerful because we all want to be “right.” (Even the rebellious and humble—both of whom describe themselves as wrong—do that because they think it’s “right” in a bigger sense). The ethical framework involved might be real or imaginary. It doesn’t matter, so long as the target believes it.
Use a mush word to accuse anyone of doing something “wrong,” and they’ll panic and scramble around like terrified children, trying desperately to prove that they aren’t whatever you accuse them of being. They’ll fail, of course—which means they’ve fallen right into your trap.
Take, for example, accusing someone of being “racist” (or whatever-aphobic, hateful, etc.) They’ll likely—and desperately—start naming dear friends and family members of different races. Whatever they do, you can laugh at them and mention how ridiculous—and racist—they look, even in their attempts to deny it. The more they try to escape your spell, the more they’ll often find themselves enmeshed. Informally, they’re guilty until proven innocent unless they can definitively clear their name—which is usually difficult, if not impossible because the burden of proof is on them.
It’s all-powerfully effective and often hilarious to watch.
But is that person actually racist? That brings us right back to slippery definitions (“What is a “racist”?) More importantly, it’s irrelevant. The aim isn’t to discern truth but to eliminate political enemies, create an outlet for real hatred, or cow people into submission.
Once a person has been accused and is squirming, offer a way out. People will often do anything to “prove” that they aren’t whatever you accuse them of being. So, you can point them in any direction, such as telling them to donate money to your pet organization, make public declarations, join a cause, etc. To the degree that your ploy has been effective, you own them, and can point them wherever you want.
Why does this work?
Deep down, many of us carry around a secret sense of guilt or shame, as if we’ve done something wrong in the past (even if we aren’t clear what that was, exactly). That guilt can come to the surface and get activated quite easily. Tyrants exploit this. Those who constantly accuse others of racism have essentially rediscovered “sin” (something Judeo-Christianity and other religions described thousands of years ago, now dressed up to look secular and therefore socially acceptable).
That’s how this con game hijacks human nature. We often don’t know ourselves. Human motives can run deep and are often mysterious. So, when someone loudly accuses us of having a specific motive—especially if they seem confident or have a clever argument to back it up—many of us will collapse into gullible puddles of goo. “That person accused me of being (insert mush word)? Maybe it’s true! I should do some introspecting and try to better myself so I don’t get accused of being (insert mush word here) again.”
The Salem Witch Trials demonstrated this well. The formula was simple. Accuse someone of being a witch. What’s a “witch,” exactly? Nobody knew. (They pretended to know, but their answers were absurdly tragicomic.) Ultimately, “witch” was simply a mush word. Today’s witch trials work the same way.
The process is like casting a magic spell. A dark sorcerer chooses a mush word, picks a target, accuses them of being guilty in some mushy way, and then watches them squirm and scramble. Unless they can break the spell, they’re yours.
So, what breaks this spell?
The game collapses when someone assertively stands up against mush words. If people insist on being judged by clear, objective, publicly available measures—or if they simply know themselves well—then they’ll see through it all. (Or worse, they might go on offense and accuse the accuser of slander). When that happens, the gig is up. The spell will be broken. It’s time to find a new mush word and an easier target and start over.
Luckily, few do this. Laws, cultures, and even entire societies are built around mush words. People are imprisoned, impoverished, and executed based on mush words. The fact that it’s based on a kind of verbal sorcery made up of senseless, hysterical, impossible-to-verify accusations is beside the point. For most humans, mush words rule.
And that’s why they’re so easy to enslave.
Steve Rose is a pseudonym.
The media is full of talk of “radical Islamists” or “Islamicists” or “terrorists.” To those who studied Islam and talked to the followers this is all foolish. I call all these people “Muslims.” Why? Because their prophet - Muhammed, who had an entire male population of a Jewish village beheaded, who owned many slaves including what we commonly refer to as sex slaves, who married a six-year-old girl, molested her for three years and then had sexual intercourse with her at 9 and so on. How do I know this? I know this because of the Muslim “holy books”— the Quran (recitation), Hadiths (stories about Muhammed and his early followers), and Sir (biographies). I don’t need to make this stuff up, nor am I just throwing rocks. I can still read (barely) and I know what Muslims are called to do—submit to the will of Allah as revealed and exemplified by their prophet Muhammed. Terrorism is just a tool of the true believer. Rape and torture are part of the package of the jihad (war) against the kafir or non-believer in Islam.
Bill Honsberger, Haven Ministries Newsletter, December 2023.
The purpose of public education has changed over the last 200 years in this country, but, fundamentally, the public school system was meant to come alongside parents and teach young citizens to think critically, solve problems, communicate effectively, express creativity, and pursue truth—all with the ultimate purpose of helping to create well-rounded citizens who could participate in civic life.
This is not what’s happening today. Instead, many public schools have settled for teaching your students what to think, not how to think. In the process, the pursuit of truth is abandoned for an ideology, and any speech against that ideology is stifled.
It is not the public school’s responsibility to teach our children about sex and sexuality. That’s the parents’ responsibility. However, as we’ve handed the education of our kids over to the state, we’re seeing the results. Indoctrination is the right word here. Our public school system has become a way for the government to indoctrinate your children according to a highly divisive view of sex and sexuality. And it is not right.
Jonathan Noyes, Do You Know What Your Child Is Being Taught about Sex?
The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, but it is also a reflection on us. When people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy them, and only in the short run.
Thomas Sowell
In the modern era, American and other Western children study neither the Bible nor the literature of the great classic minds. The result is more and more well-educated people who are devoid of wisdom. This why universities became centers of foolishness. The great American thinker William F. Buckley famously said, “I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.”
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, pg.81-82
Ironically, in the Scopes trial, Clarence Darrow argued that it would be sheer bigotry to teach only one view of origins—ironic in light of the fact that Darwinists today demand we only teach one view of origins: theirs.
A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and His Cultic Teachings, by Don and Joy Veinot and Ron Henzel, p. 38
When you have a child, you decide to have your heart living a lifetime outside your body.
Unknown
Each generation must pass on the appreciation for the wisdom of the U.S. Constitution and the liberties it protects. Today, while too many seek to cancel out Founding Fathers, we celebrate them.
Senator Tim Scott
College, the public knew, has certainly eroded from our cherished idea of a four-year idealized respite from adult employment. It once was intended to be a place where youth learned to be open-minded, tolerant, skilled, and eager to learn the nature and traditions of Western civilization, art, literature, languages, philosophy, and history.
Instead, all too often “college” has now descended into a six-to-seven-year misadventure that nationwide often results in only half those enrolled ever receiving degrees. Nearly all sink deeply in student debt. And yet for all the borrowed tuition money, few prove capable of writing analytically, speaking articulately, or knowing the general referents, past and present, of their very civilization.
Students, especially at the elite campuses, learn to mouth monotonously accusations of “genocide.” “apartheid,” “colonialism,” or “imperialism.” But they lack the ability to define these nouns. As a result, they so often name drop empty slogans in the context of supposed Western sins.
Victor Davis Hanson, Can We Save our Universities?
In 1853, there was an anti-God group who sought to have God removed from government much like we see being pushed today. They wanted references to God removed from government documents, sought to remove chaplains from the military, etc. Their vision was a religiously neutral Government. But the problem with their vision, and with those who espouse similar views today, is that neutrality is a myth, a point which will be addressed below.
The anti-God proposal was submitted in the U.S. Congress to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees for deliberation. They deliberated for several months and, in 1854, came back with the following report:
"Had the people, during the Revolution, had a suspicion of any attempt to war against Christianity, that Revolution would have been strangled in its cradle. At the time of the adoption of the Constitution and the amendments, the universal sentiment was that Christianity should be encouraged, but not any one sect … In this age, there can be no substitute for Christianity … That was the religion of the founders of the republic, and they expected it to remain the religion of their descendants.”
Brad Sherman, Iowa State Representative for District 91, The Sherman Liberty Letter 12/19/23
If crime is a product of poverty and discrimination as they say endlessly, why was there so much less of it when poverty and discrimination were much worse than today? If massive programs are the only hope to reduce violence in the ghetto, why was there so much less violence long before anyone ever thought of these programs?
Thomas Sowell
A person of average intelligence can have a great deal of wisdom; many do. A person of high intelligence can be a fool; many are. Given how much more important wisdom is than intelligence in leading both a moral and happy life, wisdom is far more important than intelligence. Yet precisely because people so value intelligence, wisdom has become less valued.
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, pg.81
At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child — miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied, demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless. Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats.
P.J. O'Rourke
Anyone who studies the history of ideas should notice how much more often people on the political left denigrate and demonize those who disagree with them—instead of answering their arguments.
Thomas Sowell
[M]any people act as if intelligence is the most important quality in a human being. With regard to children, for example, middle- and upper-middle-class parents usually boast most about their intelligence: how “bright” they are, how well they do in school, and what university they attended. Few parents say to their child, “I care more about your character than about your grades.” Nor do most parents teach their children that clear thinking and common sense are more important than brains.
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, pg.80.
Unfairly promoting a less talented person over a more talented person because of his respective skin colors is celebrated as a victory for “diversity” — a reminder that in the twenty-first century, racists are still obsessed with how a person looks at the expense of what thoughts occupy his mind. Without any public debates or votes, governments have replaced “equal treatment under the law” with “equitable” redistribution — or, in layman’s terms, “special treatment under the law” — so that certain classes of people can benefit at the expense of others.
In an amazing instance of Orwellian “doublespeak,” the State categorizes those classes that are unfairly rewarded as “underprivileged” and the people against whom it discriminates as “privileged.” Never in human history have people with “privilege” felt so marginalized. All this cheating is done for the stated purpose of “including” many different kinds of people, but it depends entirely on “excluding” people to obtain fraudulently manufactured and prejudiced results.
None of this is fair. Stealing the earned successes of some, so that others may benefit without sacrifice, has a tendency to permanently scar both the victim of the theft and the supposed beneficiary. When hard work and dedication are spurned, a seed of dejection is planted that can spoil an otherwise promising life. When unearned rewards become expected entitlements, the enriching pursuit of human excellence withers and often dies.
J.B. Shurk, The Catastrophic Death of Fairness
No matter how advanced trans pharmaceuticals and surgeries become, the biological reality of man and woman cannot be abolished; the natural limitations of God’s Creation cannot be transcended. The attempt to do so will elicit the same heartbreak and alienation captured in the final scene of Mary Shelley’s novel: the hulking monster, shunned by society and betrayed by his father, filled with despair and drifting off into the ice floes—a symbol of the consequence of Promethean hubris.
Christopher F. Rufo, Inside the Transgender Empire
According to survey data, up to 80 percent of trans individuals suffer from serious psychopathologies and one-quarter of black trans youth attempt suicide each year. “Gender-affirming care” largely fails to solve these problems, yet the doctors use these failures to justify even more extreme interventions up to the final one: genital reconstruction.
Christopher F. Rufo, Inside the Transgender Empire
This is the great project of the transgender movement: to abolish the distinctions of man and woman, to transcend the limitations established by God and nature, and to connect the personal struggle of trans individuals to the political struggle to transform society in a radical way.
Christopher F. Rufo, Inside the Transgender Empire
There is…a level of cruelty and evil that transcends the word “sin.” All evil is sin, but not all sin merits the word “evil.” Where exactly that line is crossed cannot be defined. But to deny it exists is to declare all sins equal and all sinners evil, which empties the word “evil” of its horror and renders it superfluous.
Dennis Prager, The Rational Bible, Deuteronomy: God, Blessings, and Curses, p.78
A healthy and happy marriage is not about the self. At the heart of the happiest marriages is the principle of selflessness. This means denying yourself for the purpose of serving the other person. It means giving when you’ve already “given.” According to a study in 2006, the most happily married couples are ones who express altruistic love for one another. Altruism is defined by Merriam-Webster as “unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others.” It is the truest form of love — giving without expecting anything in return.
Abi Dills, The Wonderful Thing About Marriage That ‘Love Is Blind’s’ Stacy Snyder Gets Wrong.
