Author Archives: jtjim

Trump v. Kelly (and Everybody Else)

January 27, 2016

Ballot Check Yes No

Once again, almost committing myself to vote for Trump, I pull my mental pencil back from the ballot.

Not again, I cry inwardly. Not again. With all of the talent and knowledge Trump could bring to the presidency, why does he not see the damage he will do with his petulant pettiness and pointless vindictive vendettas?

Did Trump think he could truly make it to the Oval Office without being challenged about his Question Markstatements on women? Kelly did him a favor. And you would think a man ready to “speak his mind” would have thanked her. Her hateful question?

“Mr. Trump, one of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter. However, that is not without its downsides, in particular, when it comes to women. You’ve called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals.’ …

Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks. You once told a contestant on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees.

Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president, and how will you answer the charge from Hillary Clinton, who was likely to be the Democratic nominee, that you are part of the war on women?”

Trump CandidateA truly presidential man would have seen this as the perfect opportunity to set the public straight on his respect for women. A truly prepared presidential candidate would have anticipated this and all other potential challenges to his candidacy. He wouldn’t have been surprised. He would have had his response prepared and delivered it without a single misstep.

If this question is enough to feed Trump’s factory of bile and engender his retaliation, what Trump Meanwill 4 years of his leadership foster in a culture force-fed on Twitter?  Haven’t we suffered enough of 8 years of pique and trivial pursuit?

So, now Trump is ticked. Everyone is supposed to suffer his pain: Fox, Roger Ailes, Megyn Kelly…and most especially…the voters. Trump’s henchman on Laura Ingraham’s show positively celebrated his prediction that no one will watch the debate. Muscle KidTrump, apparently, is THAT big! Wow!

Or…Trump is THAT small? Absolutely! He has had five months to show America what really matters, what REALLY makes him mad. Trump has given us months of calling everyone Stupid. And months of declaring that Mexico and China WILL do what he says. He’s going to be the Global Bigshot. Just trust him.

So a Global Bigshot spends all his ammunition for a World War on a woman who reads a list of his own statements and asks him to explain?

It is getting harder and harder to imagine voting for Trump. A truly presidential man should have better things to do…and better ways to do them!

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*For further information on debate questions for Trump:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/01/26/here-are-the-megyn-kelly-questions-that-donald-trump-is-still-sore-about/

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Copyright 2016. All Rights Reserved

Supreme Court – Death of the Martyrs

June 30, 2014

US Supreme CourtToday is an interesting juxtaposition of the modern effort to “kill” faith fought through the U.S. Supreme Court as compared to a similar first century effort of Nero, Emperor of Rome, to “kill” faith.

“Killing Faith” is always accompanied by victims. Today, June 30, on the Calendar of Saints, is set aside to remember the early Christian martyrs who followed the fate of St. Peter and St. Paul, victims slain under Nero’s command.

Victims in the battle against faith are often beheaded, crucified and burned at the stake.  Joan of Arc

What about the victims of this modern American battle? Liberals maintain that these victims are the more “progressive” people in the country who “deserve their choice” to handle embryos, fetuses and the pre-born “according to their conscience.”

Liberals would have us believe the Supreme Court decisions announced in the past week are a tragic loss for America. Liberals denounce Christian opponents as the radicals…trying to impose their faith on the culture.

If only those pesky, noisy, irritating Christians would go home and pray in their bedrooms! They should consider themselves lucky for being able to wear their silly crosses at work (for the time being). Don’t they realize they could be living under Nero…or Hamas?

Clearly, Christians are a thorn in the side of secular “humanists” who see nothing wrong with partial birth abortion, much less contraception. Up to now, these “humanists” have succeeded in maintaining partial-birth abortion as a “choice.” And if they have to rewrite the American Constitution to achieve this? It seems they consider this a small price to pay.

Ultrasound 32 wkMaybe one day, we will be able to honor the blood of millions of tiny martyrs in the battle to defend the dignity of human life in the Land of the Free. Does anyone remember what was revealed in the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell?

In 2011, Gosnell and various co-defendant employees were charged with eight counts of murder:

The murder charges [against Gosnell] related to an adult patient, Karnamaya Mongar, who died following an abortion procedure and seven newborns said to have been killed, by having their spinal cord severed with scissors, after being born alive during attempted abortions. In May 2013, Gosnell was convicted of first degree murder in the deaths of three of the infants and he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Karnamaya Mongar….He was sentenced instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

What did the Gosnell trial teach us? How does this illuminate the tremendous victory today at the Supreme Court for Christians who are able to truly live out the foundational truths of their faith? And what does this portend for the future?

  1. Free speech – Yes, even Christians have the right to speak in America. Remember that wonderful liberal “right to choose?” Yes, you can choose to listen…or not. Ear plugs can purchased at your pharmacy even as you pick up your prescription for birth control.
  2. No – According to Webster’s, Christian is not yet synonymous with bomber. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared it legal for Christians to “walk about the country,” you will have to meet them with honest, factual information instead of court orders. We have established…once again…that America is a land where the free can battle freely on the field of ideas.
  3. Yes – Maybe one day Christians…and many other non-Christian people who value life…may convince the culture at large that killing even one little infant in Gosnell’s clinic is evil. If that horrifies a liberal…you can look back to the days when Christians said that owning even one slave was evil. Evil is evil. Evil is not defined as a democratic “choice.”Flag Bible
  4. Finally – Evil…when it is legal…is still evil! Evil…when it is approved by the majority…is still evil! Does anyone remember Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini?

Thanks to the hard work and steadfastness of all the fighters in the battle to defend religious liberty! It is this very liberty that founded our country. And one day, liberals may open their eyes and realize that it is this same religious liberty that can save our country.

Jonah Goldberg – Family Matters

June 27, 2014

FAMILY MATTERS DO MATTER!!!!

Some people are SO DARNED BRILLIANT and TALENTED…

Jonah GoldbergThis is only part of Goldberg’s total column.  He had me laughing all the way down the page…especially in contemplating the various ways of engineering a Democratic presidential bid that has Hillary shooting herself in the foot – a ricochet from her attempt to kill her opposition.Bullseye Arrow

BUT…I just had to risk a call from Goldberg’s attorneys with this post of his comments on FAMILY MATTERS.  Goldberg hits a BULLS-EYE on all of the matters…FAMILY MATTERS… that matter most to us here…FROM THE HOME FRONT.

READ ON…

Nationalreview.com

The Goldberg File
By Jonah Goldberg

June 27, 2014

[DELETED –  matters in Goldberg column not related to the FAMILY or FROM THE HOME FRONT]

Family Matters

While I was in London, I had some really interesting conversations with some British conservatives. It was a disparate bunch, but there was a consistency to a lot of what they had to say. Nearly all the Brits I talked to think their country has lost its cultural confidence. They also think that the U.S. is in the process of doing likewise. That’s a worthy topic for discussion, and I think both contentions are largely true. But I want to talk about something else. When talking about politics, many of the same Brits would cavalierly mention that they don’t care about “social issues” or that social issues aren’t relevant in British politics. As an analytical matter, that seems right. But I couldn’t help but wonder if there’s a connection there.

Now of course, it depends what you mean by social issues. But it seems to me that as a broad generalization, social issues revolve around the role and authority of the family. Arguments about abortion, gay marriage, obscenity, sex ed, etc. all connect to the family directly or indirectly. Even gun rights have a lot to do with the family, and not just because “gun culture” is primarily learned in the home. Guns fit neatly into the conception of the autonomous family and the role of parents as primary protectors of their children.

But the key word is culture. No institution transmits culture more effectively than the family. We learn language, dialect, and accents in the home (we learn grammar at school). We get most of our religion and morality at home. We learn from our parents how citizens behave in a society and what they should expect from society and government. It’s important to keep in mind that while parents teach their kids by telling them things, the real learning comes from watching what parents do or don’t do. Kids are wired to emulate their parents. They see how we divide our time. The habits of the heart are formed in the home.

And this is why progressives of all labels have had their eye on the family. It is the state’s greatest competition. As I’ve written a bunch of times around here, if you listen to Barack Obama’s vision of America, it’s one where there’s the state and the individual and pretty much nothing in between. Civil society, mediating institutions, and other “islands of separateness” are problems in Obama’s eyes. Well, the family is the truest island of separateness.  In the Life of Julia, the state is her family.

I’m reminded of a passage from Liberal Fascism where I am discussing “children’s rights” — a concept developed precisely to get the state into the home as quickly as possible:

Since Plato’s Republic, politicians, intellectuals, and priests have been fascinated with the idea of “capturing” children for social-engineering purposes. This is why Robespierre advocated that children be raised by the state. Hitler — who understood as well as any the importance of winning the hearts and minds of youth — once remarked, “When an opponent says ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already . . . You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing but this new community.'” Woodrow Wilson candidly observed that the primary mission of the educator was to make children as unlike their parents as possible. Charlotte Perkins Gilman stated it more starkly. “There is no more brilliant hope on earth to-day,” the feminist icon proclaimed, “than this new thought about the child . . . the recognition of ‘the child,’ children as a class, children as citizens with rights to be guaranteed only by the state; instead of our previous attitude toward them of absolute personal [that is, parental] ownership — the unchecked tyranny . . . of the private home.”

James Pethokoukis cites a fascinating passage from George Weigel’s biography of Pope John Paul II:

Perhaps the hardest-fought battle between Church and [Poland’s] regime involved family life, for the Communists understood that men and women secure in the love of their families were a danger. Housing, work schedules, and school hours were all organized by the state to separate parents from their children as frequently as possible. Apartments were constructed to accommodate only small families, so that children would be regarded as a problem. Work was organized in four shifts and families were rarely together. The workday began at 6 or 7 a.m., so children had to be consigned to state-run child-care centers before school. The schools themselves were consolidated, and children were moved out of their local communities for schooling.

Marriage Is Great for Straight People, Too

Now I don’t think today’s progressives (at least not most of them) are consciously at war with the traditional family. But they are certainly not its biggest fans, either. Perhaps the most depressing thing about the Democratic party is that its electoral success hinges on the continuing unraveling of the traditional family. The more Julias, the better. Democrats have a huge advantage among single women. Married women recognize that the government can never be a family.

Getting married was once a celebrated life goal. It still is for millions of people, of course, but it’s less and less celebrated as a cultural priority — at least not for heterosexuals. One of my biggest peeves is that 99 percent of the time you hear a liberal saying anything positive about marriage, it’s about gay marriage. And now that we’re getting gay marriage, some activists don’t feel the need to saying anything nice about it at all.

Think about how often you hear politicians, economists, educators, and journalists talk about the importance of going to college. Now consider that getting married is about as beneficial to your lifetime economic prospects as going to college. And let’s be clear: It is far better for children to grow up with married parents (even if they didn’t go to college!) than it is for them to grow up with a single parent with a degree in gender studies from Princeton.

Charles Murray exposed the ugly secret of the American elite in his book Coming Apart: The rich and successful are closeted traditionalists when it comes to how they raise their own children. They’re just horrible hypocrites when it comes to everyone else’s children. “It is the privileged Americans who are marrying, and marrying helps them stay privileged,” Andrew Cherlin, a sociologist at Johns Hopkins University, told the New York Times.

As Charles puts it, the biggest problem with today’s elite is that they refuse to preach what they practice.

Anyway, I guess my point is that when I hear people say they don’t care about social issues but they worry about a loss of “civilizational confidence,” creeping socialism, and the rest, I just wonder if they’re not part of the problem. I’m not saying that there’s a direct link between, say, being pro-life and supporting laissez-faire capitalism. But I do think that much of what passes for laissez-faire capitalism is an artifact of our cultural heritage, and that cultural heritage is formed and transmitted by cultural institutions. Change those institutions, subvert them to the state by making them dependent on the state, and the culture goes with them.

Not All “Social Engineering” Is the Same

Opponents of child tax credits and the like are shouting “social engineering!” I like and respect some of these critics, but I think that this is an asinine criticism.

Think of it this way. I love artificial reefs. They provide new habitat for all kinds of wildlife. Over time a pile of concrete or a sunken oilrig can turn into a whole vibrant ecosystem. But it is absolutely true that building artificial reefs is a kind of meddling with the natural order. I have no problem with meddling with the natural order if the meddling helps the natural order heal from other negative meddling we do all of the time. The oceans are overfished and too polluted. Why not help counteract that?

As Brad Wilcox, Ramesh Ponnuru, Robert Stein, and other champions of a conservative family policy will tell you, their proposals are aimed at counterbalancing the burdens liberal social policy has put on families. It’s a bit like Bill Buckley’s famous line about moral equivalence. If one man pushes old ladies in front of oncoming buses and another man pushes old ladies out of the way of oncoming buses, you simply cannot describe both men as the sort who push old ladies around.

If one political party wants to engineer family formation and another political party is invested in engineering the destruction of families, you simply can’t denounce both approaches as “social engineering.” Or I guess you can, but doing so is dumb.

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Jonah Goldberg’s BIO.

The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Pt 2

June 11, 2014

Sitting on the plane, waiting for takeoff, I opened the newspaper in my lap. I couldn’t believe my Condom Pkgseyes!

Finally! Finally, the truth about condoms was coming out. In the newspaper. Everyone would finally hear the truth about condoms.

This meant I could get my life back. I could quit researching and writing about condoms and sex education. I could return to my garden and plant flowers instead.

For the past five years, I had spent hours in the library and at the keyboard. On the telephone, I interviewed sex educators from all parts of the country. Interviews were transcribed, and information was organized into file folders. And I was on the plane, now, headed for a Miami conference on sex education.

Condoms were the culprit. At the time, with HIV/AIDS taking hold in our culture, we had very little knowledge about the disease. People were dying, and we still didn’t have the whole story about how they contracted HIV or when we might have a cure.

Condoms were our only ally. Condoms protect. Use a condom. Use a condom consistently and correctly…every time…everywhere…put a basket of condoms in the bathroom, in the school office…everywhere! Now! Use a condom!

Condoms made us feel safe. We could still have all the sex we wanted…with whomever we wanted…as long as we used a condom…consistently and correctly. Our sex was safe. Protected. We were protected…and safe!

CDC Logo StethAfter all…the Centers for Disease Control, CDC, was looking after us.

Linking arms with Planned Parenthood, SIECUS and state health departments, the CDC gave its nod to wrapping the United States up in one giant condom campaign for “SAFE SEX”:

  • 2000, Planned Parenthood Ohio held a condom giveaway – a bright yellow coupon redeemable for free condoms and a MacDonald’s gift certificate.Condom MacD
  • 2000, Planned Parenthood Southern Arizona spent $100,000 on “Use Condom Sense” campaign that featured billboards on buses showing a 13-year-old girl holding up a condom. Included in the campaign, 19 condom machines were placed in teen hang-outs, including the Tucson Parks and Recreation Department.
  • 2002, Planned Parenthood celebrated the introduction of The Planned Parenthood Condom with a coupon for a free condom – or – four free condoms if you paid for STD and/or HIV testing.
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood sponsored a condom art contest.Condom Lollipop
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood offered condoms packaged like lollipops and promoted condom key chains.
  • 2006, Planned Parenthood Michigan’s teen program held condom art workshops. “Make a beautiful creation out of condoms, find out all the facts on using condoms correctly, and get a free gift.”

Where was the CDC?  CDC Logo  Nodding, winking…and sleeping.     Sleeping Boy

Promoting condoms came at a price…paid by the US taxpayers…a staggering sum of dollars handed out through government grants. One report documented over $2,000,000 divided Dollar Signbetween Planned Parenthood ($991,109) and four other organizations. Grabbing every dollar possible, the ACLU, SIECUS and 32 groups held a press conference designed to stop funding of abstinence programs.

Promoting condoms, finally a national pastime, left little money or incentive for the government to deliver another message to teens…abstain from sex. In fact, messages that encouraged sexual abstinence for teens were mocked. In extreme outbursts of hostility, legislators even accused abstinence programs of “killing teens.”

The CDC?  CDC Logo  Nodding, winking…and sleeping.        Sleeping Boy

Ironically, as king of the SAFE SEX condom campaign, Planned Parenthood failed the condom tests performed by Consumer Reports Magazine. Of the 23 condoms tested, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Honeydew and Assorted Colors condoms scored the worst. Not taking this lying down, Planned Parenthood submitted their condoms to “independent testing.” Anyone surprised that Planned Parenthood then proclaimed their condoms “excellent”?

Condoms made us feel safe. Our sex was safe. Protected. We were protected…and safe!Heart Flying

At a college presentation on Valentine’s Day, a young man stood at the front of the crowded auditorium, raised his right hand and spoke for all Americans, “I pledge allegiance to the condom.”

Now, finally, twenty years after HIV struck America…

Finally, sitting on the plane bound for Miami, I read the national story on condoms again and closed my eyes in gratitude. “Finally,” I told myself, “someone is paying attention to the truth Alarm Clockabout condoms. The press is finally reporting on the medical truths about condoms.”

The CDC?  CDC Logo  It blinked, shook its head…and woke up. Finally.

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NEXT WEEK:  The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Part 3, The Truth about Condoms…Finally!

LAST WEEK:  The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Part 1

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Copyright 2004-2014. All Rights Reserved

The CDC: Dereliction of Duty, Pt 1

June 5, 2014

CDC LogoWe have much to thank the CDC for!  It is on the forefront of many health battles.  CDC medical teams even risk their own lives, rushing to the aid of victims around the world, most recently fighting the Ebola virus.

But…there is one health threat that suffers from the failure of the CDC to be truthful with the American people.  We are suffering.  And the CDC is worse than silent…the CDC ignores and silences expert voices and research that could protect us.

It is hard to imagine the CDC Ostrich Runactually putting the health of people at risk.    For years, we watched the CDC run from one threat to the next:  drugs, tobacco, polio, small pox.  We learned to trust the CDC.  That was before the sexual revolution and…

…the discovery of AIDS.  The AIDS epidemic officially began on June 5, 1981, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report newsletter reported unusual clusters of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in five homosexual men in Los Angeles.  Over the next 18 months, more PCP clusters were discovered among otherwise healthy men in cities throughout the country.

Ostrich HaltThe CDC was stopped dead in its tracks.  It scrambled to identify the HIV/AIDS connection and its methods of transmission and treatment, as people worried about “catching” the HIV virus.  Every human activity was originally suspect:  drinking cups, sharing straws, kissing, open cuts, mosquito bites, injections…and of course…sexual activity.  Without the Internet, information followed slowly on the trail blazed by gossip and greased by fear.

Ryan WhitePerhaps no one more clearly tells the story of AIDS in the early days than Ryan White, an engaging, fun-loving young teen who eventually died of AIDS.  In December, 1984, over four years after the first American incidence of AIDS came to light, Ryan White was diagnosed with AIDS.  Up to this point, the disease had largely been associated with the male gay community.  White suffered from hemophilia, and was infected with HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion.

White became an instant poster child for AIDS.  Clearly, he was an innocent victim.  Nevertheless, he was expelled from his middle school, triggering a lengthy court battle and thrusting him into the international spotlight.  Through the courage of White and his family, America and the world began to sift through all of the fears about AIDS and separate fact from fiction.

CDC Logo StethBy now, the CDC had lost its grip on the messaging for AIDS.  Ostrich RunRunning from one public relations crisis to the next, the CDC forgot its ultimate foundational role as the defender of public health.  Instead of demanding that public bath houses, a known haven for promiscuous gay sex, the CDC decided to make certain they focused on reassuring the American people that they were not in danger of infection.  The key to health, according to the CDC, was protection.  Protect Yourself!  Wrestling coaches were told to stop the match if a student got cut.  They were given medical latex gloves to wipe blood off the wrestling mat.  Meanwhile, parents were reassured…yes…the family could safely share eating utensils.

Everything was spelled out by the CDC:  clean needles for drug users, latex gloves for classroom teachers, face masks for dentists.  Quit worrying about the mosquitoes.  Every area of life was managed for protecting the public from HIV…every area but one.   What is missing from this discussion?  Sex Logo Chalkboard

One can almost feel sorry for the CDC.  CDC  The sexual revolution had been in full swing for more than twenty years, reinforced with birth control, drugs and alcohol.  Sex was everywhere…because it was FREE.  Sex Gender Logos

Americans had grown used to their FREE SEX.  The CDC was caught in a social trap.  AIDS was clearly driven by sexual activity.  They could tell Americans to give up their free “right” to have sex with whomever and whenever.  Or they could…

Well, … options were slim.  One thing was certain.  We had an AIDS epidemic on our hands.AIDS Stop Hand  The CDC squinted its eyes and surveyed the American scene.  People expected them to do one thing…above all…Stop Aids.  How could the CDC stop AIDS without having to stop sex?

NEXT WEEK…CDC: DERELICTION of DUTY, Pt. 2

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Copyright 2004-2014. All Rights Reserved