Speaking of Being Hated by All the Right People

The first thing I saw this morning was that George H. W. Bush plans to vote for Clinton.  I suppose that is meant to be discouraging, but I noted John's comment on the previous post and realized why I was not terribly bothered.  I mean, after all, she is the next best thing to Jeb.

I try not to be anti-elite or anti-science, but it is getting harder.  Most of these people are really not that smart.  They have connections.  They speak well.  They have, through their connections, accumulated a lot of money, but, as Reagan once said, so much of what these people know is wrong.

I do worry about those Trump voters who think Cheeto-man is some kind of savior, and his election will usher in a newer, sleeker version of the 1950s.  They are mostly good people, and they, like me, are hated by the elites who have decided that the voters do not know what is good for them.

And that is what irritates me.  I do not care if a bureaucrat or an elected lawyer in Washington doesn't like what my neighbor does or what I do.  It is none of his or her business.  I don't care what the people in San Francisco, Chicago or New York think or do as long as they don't bother me.  I have no idea what it is like to live in those rat-infested hellholes, and I don't want to find out.  I would not presume to tell them how to live, and they should not presume to tell me.

They have no idea what it is like to live out here in the boonies.  They cannot imagine based on a trip through some tourist attractions.  I have a pretty good idea of what I don't know, which is a lot, and I am more than happy to stick to what I do know.  That's why I am a small 'l' libertarian.  Outside of family and close friends, no one knows what is best for an individual -- certainly not some government expert.

Now, old GWHB has every right to vote for Hillary Clinton and to be best buds with Slick Willy.  He even has a right to let that be known.  I am glad he did because the GOP that he represents needs to die.  

I Am Deplorable

• I am deplorable because I believe people have a right to their own property, to use it, and abuse it as they see fit.
• I am deplorable because I believe the Constitution restrains the government, not individuals.
• I am deplorable because I believe when the Declaration said, “all men are created equal”, it means before God and before the law. 
• I am deplorable because I do not believe all cultures or all religions are of equal value.
• I am deplorable because I agree with the Apostle Paul who said, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10).
• I am deplorable because I believe I did build this.
• I am deplorable because I believe government is both necessary to some extent yet parasitic and, thus, must be carefully limited so as not to destroy the host.
• I am deplorable because I believe a 20 trillion dollar debt means we have not balanced the budget.
• I am deplorable because I believe law enforcement should have to obtain warrants to monitor any level of private communication and that property seizures should not occur without due process.
• I am deplorable because I believe the greatest threat to freedom is government.
• I am deplorable because I am a nationalist not a globalist.
• I am deplorable because I think refugees are mostly invaders and colonizers.
• I am deplorable because I think people like me have a right to our own cultures, identities, communities, and nations.
• I am deplorable because I believe in the rule of law.
• I am deplorable because I do not believe those living inside the Beltway are a law unto themselves.
• I am deplorable because I am tired of paying for the armed security of people who wish to disarm me.

I could go on and on.  I accept the fact that I am deplorable to people like Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, George Will, and Jeb Bush.  The truth is that it makes me smirk just a little, just as I do when Obama says that I’m angry because I’m stressed or calls me a racist or a homophobe or an islamophobe or accuses me of being “lazy”

I did more work before I was ten years old than Obama, Clinton or any of the rest did in their entire lives.  

 What do I ask for in return for all the work I have done throughout my life?

This only:  to be left alone with what I have and, most of all, with the God, family, and friends that I love.  

I know, it's deplorable.

Tear the Labels Off Your Cans

Some kind of religious group -- possibly Islamic -- thinks Oswego, NY, is encouraging hatred toward Muslims by a word on a monument.

Their monument says the Islamic terrorists carried out the 9/11/2001 attacks on the United States, and memorializes those first responders who sacrificed their lives for the sake of others.

I'm a simple guy, and this complaint raises questions.  On December 29, 1890, elements of the United States Seventh Cavalry surrounded an encampment of Sioux Indians at a place called Wounded Knee.  Through misunderstandng, fear, ignorance and/or hatred, between 150 and 300 of the Sioux, mostly women and children, were killed, along with 25 white soldiers.  Should the memorials to Wounded Knee not mention the specifics of who was involved in that massacre?

The Catholic Church had a lot of bad press because of a number of Catholic priests who took advantage of their positions and molested children.  Should we not say those were Catholic priests?  Should we call them confirmed bachelors who serve wine and bread?

My opinion is that those pedophiles be identified with the priesthood and the Catholic Church, not because I think all Christians or all Catholics or all priests are perverts, but because Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular bears some blame for those evil actions.  It is  a call for us to be aware and on guard against such evil.  It is our responsibility to denounce it and make sure it never happens again.

The same is true of the atrocity carried out by U.S. government troops at Wounded Knee.  We take responsibility and do our best to prevent such events from ever occurring again.

Not Islam, though.  Islam wants to deny that Muslims who commit horrific acts of violence are really Muslims.  I understand.  I don't think a pedophile priest is a Christian.  I don't think he really grasps what his so-called faith is supposed to do.  But I do accept that he claimed to be a Christian, and I do know that, regardless of his standing in the Church or even before God, what he did was wicked and sinful.

As a Christian and an American, I am never going to suggest that history be whitewashed to avoid offending me.  The facts are the facts.  The men who got on board those planes were Muslims.  I recognize that some in Islam will say they were not "good" Muslims, that they were perverting their faith, or that they couldn't have been true Muslims at all.

Yet, strangely enough, people who identify as Muslim continue to commit vile and despicable acts on a regular, if not daily basis, around the world.

Like an addict, Islam cannot fix its problem until it admits it has a problem, until it faces up to the fact that, as a religion, it is mainly a political system, that it is rife with corrupted beliefs and harboring within its pale a blood-thirsty cult of those who would happily extend Islam and its call for submission by any means including violence and terror.  This cult is, effectively, a criminal enterprise.

Muslims have to face that cult.  Muslims have to confront that mind-set.  And Muslims have to fix it.  Until they do, we are not going to be able to get along.