Note: Behind the green door, there is a post about David Hogg taking control of the Democratic Party, a post about the younger generation of males, and no Sunday podcast as it was Easter. Subscribe here or here.
One of the amusing sideshows since Trump has taken power is the pearl clutching from the usual suspects about the law and process. The people who sat silent as lawfare was waged against Americans for the crime of holding unapproved opinions are now suddenly concerned with the rule of law. The people who took money from tech companies to remain silent about tech censorship are now carrying on as if they are dissidents because they no longer control the discourse.
Hypocrisy is a feature of man, and it has always had a central role in American politics because America is a nation of moralizers. The one thing we have always overproduced is preachers ready to wag their bony fingers at the people as they lecture them about their many moral failings. The United States is a giant outdoor revival tent where preachers take turns performing for the crowd. When not lecturing the locals, our preachers travel the world to lecture foreigners.
Preachers need to believe they are special, perhaps even called or chosen to lead the sinners out of sin into the land of salvation. You cannot think you are a wretch and at the same time be a preacher. You can be a wretch and confess your wretchedness to the people in the pews as part of your redemption. You can testify about your former wretchedness and how you rejoined the mass of ordinary sinners. You cannot preach unless you are sure you are something special.
After all, the point of preaching is to inform. The preacher not only knows the nature of sin, but he also claims to know the nature of grace. He claims to know the road that leads from sin to salvation and grace. If everyone had this knowledge, then there would be no need for the preacher. Everyone would be free to decide if they want to take the path to salvation or take some other path. This is why every preacher is sure he has been called to lead the sinner down the righteous path.
This is why the fallen preacher is a stock character in our morality tales. In a land full of preachers, we have a superabundance of preachers who turned out to be worse sinners than the people in the pews. Given that democratic politics is just a long running morality play, it is no surprise that our politics features the hypocrite, and the endless cries of hypocrisy are the Greek chorus of our politics. Democracy is a viper’s den of preachers and hypocrites hissing about hypocrisy.
This has been a defining feature of the Trump era. His every utterance seems to draw out the preacher-hypocrite. Here is Jonah Goldberg hilariously claiming he is what stands between the mean orange man and the sacred Constitution. He and his fellow cult members were chanting about the “unitary executive” back in the Bush years, when they intended that phrase to mean, “Ignore the laws.” After all, they preached, the righteous cause of forever war was too important for due process.
Goldberg is typical of the modern preacher. He is a mediocrity’s mediocrity who spends his days smearing people opposed to his cult. In the Bush years, he would preach about the need to rally to a clown like George Bush out of party loyalty. Those questioning this were disloyal deviationists or secretly in league with Old Scratch. When it was his turn to return the favor with Trump, he slanderously claimed Trump and David Duke were buddies in the secret KKK.
The most egregious example of the modern preacher is David French. This chinless weirdo is what not-for-profit politics produces. He imagines himself to be a blend of James Bond, Clarence Darrow, and Jesus Christ. His Twitter feed is dripping with sanctimony as he lectures the world about sin, but it is mostly about the righteousness of David French. It is no surprise that this ridiculous mediocrity is at the New York Times. It is the main chapel of our media.
These two festering lumps of mediocrity are famous examples, but the public square is littered with people who dream of one day standing in front of the masses, lecturing them about their failings. The Covid Karens of a few years ago made clear that behind the pleasant looking face of every stranger could lie the pursed lips of a vinegar drinking scold ready to pounce at your moment of weakness. We are sinners in the hands of an angry God named Karen from Human Resources.
The preacher plays a vital role in human society, but he must be locked up in his church where we can visit him for inspiration. The preacher provides inspiration when inspiration is needed to continue the task of living. In modern America, the preachers have been let out of their churches to run wild in our lives, making sure no one can enjoy the simple act of living. They nose about looking for sin and when none can be found they create chaos that can lead to sin.
The task before the country, if it is to escape this hell of proselytizing, is to herd the preachers back into their churches. Living is about trade-offs, the choice between practical benefits and equally practical costs. For a people to live, they must embrace living, not sit quietly while preached to about the sins of living. That is what we are seeing with the Trump administration. It is the long overdue effort to round up the preachers and put them back in their rightful place.
The price for this freedom will be the endless hypocrisy from the pearl clutchers and bony fingered ministers, now suddenly concerned about law and order. They were silent when the law was ignored but now pretend to care when the law must be ignored to restore order, the only ground in which the law can flourish. That means sidelining the preachers until the coast is clear. Then they can be let loose to preach the gospel of republican virtue to whoever will listen.
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I know I’ve commented this before, but it bears repeating. What we are watching is not hypocrisy, defined as “The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.” What we have today are two completely separate sets of rule books. Lacking a better construct, I call them the Team Blue Rulebook and the Team Red Rulebook. John Roberts can send messages to Trump that “for over 200 years” the appellate process is how we settle disputes last month. Yet on Friday SCOTUS issued an emergency stay on a case that had not been… Read more »
The perfidy of the Trump 45 justices – Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett – their perfidy is simply breathtaking.
Who the hell are these zombies?
I’m starting to think the three + Roberts are solid evidence of a deep strike operation against the Supreme Court & Constitution — the people, or whatever one wants to call it. ”Grow in office?” Maybe not. At the one extreme, one could say that they were chosen for a certain ideological “set”, and husbanded through a career. This pool of potentials would contain those who, while espousing one perspective, would be standing by to put into effect it’s opposite. at the proper moment, they could be tapped to assume the final role for which they were groomed. Paranoia? Or,… Read more »
It’s a lot easier to see a conspiracy of some kind than it is to see what principles or laws they might honestly be trying to uphold. Making the latter case seems a lot more difficult. I couldn’t say whether or not they are being coerced, or they honestly just hate heritage americans and want to see them replaced, or they are vested in clown world somehow, but all of those things appear a lot more probable than them making an honest interpretation of the law.
We all know how nasty leftists are in ordinary interactions, where the stakes are very small. Think of how they are OK with using violence and intimidation when they don’t get their way. As we have seen with the DOGE revelations, there is good money to be had being a leftist – this is highly motivating to useless people, who will get very nasty at the idea of having to do honest work. Now think about how they would interact with someone who has actual power. They have a way of ganging up, of infiltrating and subverting every normal societal… Read more »
Our pastor this Easter called them “walking dead” during his sermon.
And that’s why you got to get the hell out of that place, @redbeard
Ah, interesting, ours, Homily, mentioned “Zombies” wandering in the dark.
Somebody at VDare was ecstatic about Gorsuch because he had an English surname. This should have been a warning “for God is no respecter of persons but in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by him.”
Somebody needs to learn that nowadays, an English name just means your ancestors were some kind of wretched Anglicans who were probably gung-ho for the Yankee side in the War of Northern Aggression. Give me a mobbed-up Italian or solid Nazi Austrian any day over that.
I knew Amy Comey Barrett was going to be dreadful when I found out she had Haitian pet ethnics that she “raised” as her adopted children. The problem is the partisan vs. objectivist. The conservatives see the Supreme Court as a real court of law that interprets the law and settles disputes. The Left sees the court as a supralegislature with lifetime terms. The GOP says they appoint “constitutional conservative” justices who interpret the law. The Democrats just appoint left-wing cranks who always rule the way the progressive psychopaths want. I call them “Blue Team” judges. You ALWAYS know which… Read more »
Or think of Stalin, “how many divisions does the Pope have…?”
They probably just know the “six ways from Sunday” isn’t hyperbole and they don’t have the fortitude, the dumb luck, and/or the favor that Trump has. But who does?! It really is amazing.
Those two sets of rules look like two chapters of a single rulebook. Team Blue Rule Chapter is a favorite part of the go fast team. Team Red Rule Chapter is the favorite part of the go slow team. They’re running out of ways to fool us into believing that they are reading from different Bibles. It’s all in one Bible.
This needs to be understood. People might be looking at this deportation thing and be furious the GOP does not have Trump’s back. Trump is arguing the facts here, that it’s basically impossible to get rid of these people even though it’s so easy to let them in. Well, that is because the GOP wanted the 8+ million illegals in this country as much as the Democrats did. They don’t want these people gone. Their “bipartisan border bill” was designed to permanently keep the border open for millions of illegals a year. If anything it took power away from the… Read more »
Everyone needs to admit that the USA is a great mistake, maybe even the Great Mistake, one worse than Luther’s rebellion against his priesthood of thirsty cryptosecularists. (Faith in a god is no evidence that one rejects secularism.) The experiment, as some like to call it, is an abomination, and this because of its hideous, intrinsic, foundational defects. So today’s today’s situation and the Columbians’ one party system is not an aberration contrary to the founding principles but a milestone on the way to the annihilation entailed by the founders’ crazy merchants’ morality. So, like the Phonecians among us, American… Read more »
Agree totally. What precious little legitimacy the Supreme Court retained was set on fire. It joined basically every American institution on the ash heap of lost respectability. Where are the preachers to give us eulogies? That’s right, pretending the dead are alive, no resurrection necessary. Arguing About fairness and hypocrisy with the delusional is pointless.
Team Blue rides the bus of “democracy,” the “rule of law” and “free speech” until it isn’t convenient. Then it’s time for them to squelch dissent, the reasoning being that we can’t even tolerate a shred of evil, lest it cast people into sin. I used to think the opposition was just stupid, but I came to realize that they were nothing of the sort and just playing their part as the “principled opposition” in the great Kabuki theater of politics in the U.S. Boil it down even further and it’s the old saw of “heads, we win, tails we… Read more »
It’s beginning to look like Trump 2nd Verse same as the 1st. He cannot, or is unwilling, to take on the Deep State/Judicial Leviathan.
Yes, every pundit has been opining on how strongman Trump is going to destroy our system of government and “democracy”…whatever that might be with millions of fake mail-in ballots…The reality seems to be that he’s quite the opposite, weak and unwilling to take on our fake legal system, and nominations like Amy are a big part of the problem…Presidents Jackson, Lincoln, and even Clinton ignored SCOTUS decisions when inconvenient, and Washington would likely have had judges like Boasburg shot, which is why we didn’t have such judges…
Right. Can we ever get enough of ‘Ivanka’ and her surgically altered self being ‘real’ on a surfboard?
Or, he is, but the system has become “self aware” and knows how to combat reform. Notice how DOGE seems to have peaked in March, and the government is talking about “when” not “if” the hiring freeze gets lifted.
Trump is a realtor. Not a warrior.
He is an entertainer, not a Sicilian hell bent on VENDETTA.
So how many Sicilians are standing up, hell bent on VENDETTA?
In fairness, it’s been “Who/Whom” from the beginning. The great Yankee Moralizer John Adams set the tone. He defended the British in the Boston Massacre (“muh due process”, admittedly pre-Revolution but it shows his mindset) and then passed the Alien and Sedition Acts (“I decide who stays or goes”). Here we are many years later retracing the same well-worn trail of the Founders.
It’s simpler than that. It’s partisan politics, and the left is much better at it than the right. They will do whatever moves their side forward. If the truth helps them, they tell the truth. If lies help them, they lie. It’s the old quote about lawyers, “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.” Team blue understands this. They don’t care about the errant calls of the other side calling them hypocrites. It’s… Read more »
Yep. ‘cept the truth never helps Team Blue. It’s why Team Blue goes with whatever falsehood most closely aligns. They prefer to appeal to the Marshall Court, since that was the rubber stamp that was applied to any federal excesses, but they often have to appeal to Globalism, as not even Marshall was that pro-tyranny.
There are a whole lot of “preachers” in this choir…Sci-fi great Roger Zelazny wrote that 70% of the public are “trimmers”, whose beliefs change with every change in the wind….,.
Close to the same number who took the jab. The 80/20 rule shows up everywhere
Lately I’ve taken to wondering whether Vilfredo Pareto’s 80/20 distributions amount to some sort of an abstract sociological Egregore; a phenomenon so powerful that it almost kinda sorta becomes sentient in its own right.
And it gets truly horrifying if its sentience has a distinctively feminine quality to it…
[NO OFFENSE INTENDED TO 3G4ME]
I first came across that picture in college more than 45 years ago. It’s how I’ve always visualized a nightmare since.
In terms of worrying about insulting female persons, I met my bride when she was just out of her teens, swinging hammers with her blue collar dad, while brothers were too busy. Decades later, same girl was out fertilizing the lawn while I was away on business. We dig fence post holes together. It does not get better. Much older now, her face is a smile, laughter every day. Am I supposed to think she is even the same species as ‘Instragram/Onlyfanz’ woman? Did I err teaching my daughters how to change their own oil? Of course not …. but… Read more »
The law is whatever they say the law is. Shockingly, they almost always find the law supports whatever it is they want to do.
The problem is that there has been no accountability for anyone in the managerial class for a very long time. Official accountability is entirely off the table….we need an unofficial accountability or they will keep doing it. Few people will stop doing what they want to do by appealing to their alleged principles. They need to face consequences like prison or being ruined financially.
Tars Tarkas: “we need an unofficial accountability or they will keep doing it“ Classically, about once every century, the Peasants would stage a revolt, replete with scythes & axes & pitchforks & torches, and the Landed Gentry would flee in terror. Our fundamental sociological problem at the moment is that the peasants are far too satisfied. Their bellies are too full. Their houses are too warm in the winter. Their infant mortality rates are too low. And the SSRIs certainly aren’t helping matters. It’s very difficult to stage a proper rebellion if you’re narked up on SSRIs. Which, come to… Read more »
Popular refrain, but not a lot of empirical evidence to support it. If anything, the opposite. It’s when people are suffering that the demogogues strike, not only by stressing that the current population are the only ones in history who could have pulled through such hard times, but pointing out a convenient scapegoat for their troubles.
Sorry, but history itself is a pretty strong indicator that the demogogues cause the suffering, and use it to create a more unified populace, one supporting the current Dear Leader.
Still, they are not going to change because we ask them to change or vote for them to change or appeal to their supposed principles or an appeal to a dusty old piece of paper safely locked away in a museum. The only way they will change is if that change is forced upon them. Ordinarily, this used be done by either social pressure or enforcing the laws and norms or some other formal mechanism. These no longer work. Furthermore, they are aping the old process and using it as a rationalization for them doing what they want to do.… Read more »
Agreed. Not sure how you are disagreeing here. Are you saying that they do not create and use times of hardship for their ends, like WWII rationing?
I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just pointing out that however the masses are used or manipulated or taken advantage of, nothing is going to change until it is forced upon the managerial class/elite.
Yes. In the meantime The Chinese Communist Party, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the UN are still preparing to destroy America by invasion. The camps in Panama are still there though the volume of invaders is currently way down. This happened for a time during COVID as well. HIAS is still manning their offices in the area. Mayorkas himself actually visited these camps. Note that the CCP and HIAS work together for similar interests. If the Trump administration was serious about stopping the invasion he would destroy these camps. He would also require employers to use the real ID… Read more »
Good points in general. But the CCP is almost exclusively an instrument of internal control and repression. Unlike the HIAS with its tribal fear of Europeans, the CCP looks inwardly for its preservation (something Zionism laid claim to but has never quite achieved). To China, America is just a source of technology and consumers for manufactured goods. They would likely prefer to maintain the status quo of a hollowed-out U.S. empire pretending to run the rest of the world were it not for the determination of the anti-China hawks in successive U.S. administrations to challenge them directly.
Nevertheless, numerous Chinese nationals, most of which are military age males, have been delivered to and have used the same staging camps that are administered by HIAS and the UN. After departure from the camps the invaders, Chinese among them, are delivered to the U.S. Border and then taken to America.
We always look at the U.S., Mexico Border, however in the last few years the Canadian Border is producing larger and larger numbers of illegal entries as well. That Border will become a huge problem in a short few years.
The CCP isn’t behind this. The Chinese nationals in question are as likely as not to become anti-CCP (or anti-White) with the encouragement of the usual suspects. DRs need to be able to distinguish between such golem and our actual sworn enemies. The CCP isn’t our friend, but that doesn’t mean we should be anti-China—which could be suicidal—just because our enemies say “Sick!”
Already a problem and has been for at least a decade, just not reported on. As Trudeau opened Canada’s borders, he also began a cascade of subcon aliens coming south to AINO in search of more money to fleece from foolish Whites. Over 150k from dozens of countries apprehended since 2021 alone.
Don’t let organizations like Red Cross, World Council of Churches, Lutheran Social Services and Catholic Charities USA skate.
It’s way too commonplace to finger some convenient Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG), and completely ignore the fact that we are surrounded by BBEGs . They are in front of us, behind us, and we are flanked on both sides by an enemy that outnumbers us 29:1. They can’t get away now! Call it a target-rich environment.
Yes. If Trump was serious about addressing the problem he would start prosecuting these organizations. The main point is, like most things Trump, it is all just a talking point and misdirection. Their will be no prosecutions or mass deportations and Trump knew that all along.
The Supreme Court just officially sealed our fate and without mass deportations this country is done. You could completely seal the Borders and it is still too late. The invaders will out breed us easily. So it will come down to the cartridge box or oblivion. I would bet against the cartridge box.
“ …he would start prosecuting these organizations.”
Not my downvote, but what would you suggest they be prosecuted for? Accepting a legitimate government contract and fulfilling it?
We can certainly hate them for being the immoral or amoral bastards at the sharp end of the spear, which they are, but so long as Congress and the Deep State keep letting those contracts, at best you have a game of musical chairs with new players joining all the time to get some of that sweet, sweet graft.
To be precise, Jonah Goldberg is more “rabbi” than “preacher” …
My, how inconvenient for the faithful. We’ve got to vote harder because . . . trust in the process because . . . the system will work because . . . The Court. Just pick the correct magic lawyers and voila! We are saved! How many years have I heard that refrain? How many even here waxed rhapsodic about this or that court pick? We had a bunch of preachers here the other day warning us that if we didn’t toe the line, the left would do unto us when it was their turn again. Seems I saw Jamie Raskin… Read more »
Brett’s a chick-name, no? :O) Brett-of-the-daughters. Brett the girls’ soccer coach, Brett with the gaggle of female law clerks ever around him. Not sure what exactly folks expected from this overgrown boy. Ah yes Brett. He wept bitterly when the Mean Girls in Congress ganged up on him, and showed the nation — and world — how easy it is for some random skank somewhere to take down a man. Jam him up. Get him fired. Jailed. Even an appeals court justice is not off-limits. When expressing my disgust with this human cheese puff on ‘conservative’ sites, I was met… Read more »
Same goes for all of them “This one” is a ‘constitutionalist.’ “That one” is a devout ‘x’ and will stop abortion. “The other one” will get us back on track. Election after election – vote because of the court picks. Because we all know the courts were always intended to be the final arbiter of ‘our democracy.’
Sadly, since the demise of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolves, this is true. Those interpretations were soundly defeated. I don’t know what it would take to unseat this doctrine, but from that moment (1798, and arguably before) GAE was set in stone.
“We are sinners in the hands of an angry God named Karen from Human Resources.”
Brilliant, Z. That line’s a classic…
I wonder how AI reacted to that line by Zman 🙂
I imagine a spring shot out of his personal computer and a plume of black smoke issued from his monitor.
Here is what chatgpt did to zman’s text – “These two festering lumps of mediocrity are well-known examples, but the public square is crowded with aspirants—people who dream of one day ascending the soapbox to lecture the masses on their moral failings. The Covid Karens of recent memory made one thing clear: behind the smiling facade of any stranger might lurk the sour-mouthed scold, lips puckered from a lifetime of sipping vinegar, just waiting for a moment of weakness to strike. We are all sinners now, dangling in the grip of an angry god named Karen from Human Resources. The… Read more »
Except that it should be goddess rather than god.
Isn’t Goldberg still mad that Trump walloped Jeb! and prevented his wife from getting a sinecure in a 3rd Bush administration? Had the pleasure of living across an alley from the national HQ of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (yes they still exist) for three years in college. These people all remind me of the weaned-on-a-pickle types you saw shuffling in and out of there every day. Also meant the town was still “dry” despite being the immediate north suburb of Chicago. Our revenge was going out on the fire escape at 2am and hurling empty Hamms bottles onto the… Read more »
Yes, Goldberg’s still butt-hurt over Jeb! That said, we owe a big debt to Jeb! He really sent me across the divide and I’m guessing I’m not alone in this regard. He spoke during lunch at a big financial conference I attended during the first campaign. We hadn’t finished dessert yet and he was already at war with three countries. It was an epiphany for me and I never took the GOP seriously after. My buddy asked me what I thought about Jeb! and I said: “he’s Hillary, but with bigger t*ts”.
Definitely not any Catholics in that organization LOL
The cucks and scolds of Evanston installed an idol to worship at the corner of Church and Orrington. It’s supposed to be Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable even though there’s no drawing or portrait of him which was made during his lifetime. The alleged founder of Chicago left the area in 1800, aged a little more than 50 years.
Well it’s Evanston, which could give Oak Park, IL a run for it’s money as a “Town run completely by Leftist Loons”.
And I’m sure that has absolutely nothing to do with the presence of Northwestern University.
Didn’t use to be, but then became infested, originally by the types that vote like Trotsky but want to live like a KKK member. And Northwestern, was still the “normal” school in that tier–went there on the advice of my uncle who’d gotten his BA & PhD there but taught at one of the Ivies which had all gone to sh*t much earlier. Now it’s no different. Stopped giving them money years ago.
Seems like some extra artistic license was taken with the hair. Why would people who are celebrating a negro put in that kind of effort to make him look more white? There aren’t any innocent answers.
That thing is an abomination. Lived right across from the Orrington…until the university took the dorm and converted it to luxury housing for Kellogg students.
Thank you, Sir! My Yankee-descended grandmother was a member or that organization, as well as descendant of Republican party founders in Wisconsin. She was also, God bless her, a suffragette who moved to Mississippi to teach black elementary children for a number of years and later traveled to Los Angeles to connect with the religious nuts of the era. She idolized Cary Nation who demolished taverns throughout my home state. Several times as a child I, with my siblings, had to publicly recite at her church the “Temperance Pledge” to never drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. If there had been… Read more »
I’m sure that stayed with those little black children, those enduring lessons about the ebils of Colt 45 and Cool cigarettes, plus it had the added cachet of coming out of the sainted lips of an old white lady from Wisconsin.
Well, it didn’t work on me. I do wonder how the movement got the name “Temperance” when it really advocated Prohibition. I was definitely primed for the explanation by Zman and others that the modern American left traces its beginnings to the Puritans and other Northern low church religious types.
Bratwurst grease on her frock, Cheddar on her breath.
“Aw cri-mo-ny, ya don’t wanna smoke and drink kiddos.”
‘She was also, God bless her, a suffragette’
God does not bless rebels against Him. And organized rebels? A double curse.
The Women’s Temperance Movement slingshotted the Feminist Movement that rules over your nation today.
I appreciate your fervor, but I’ll stick by invoking God’s blessing on my grandmother. It’s a Catholic thing, you wouldn’t understand.
It’s not just Catholic.
‘She was also, God bless her, a suffragette who moved to Mississippi….’
These are your words. The ‘bless’ is right there next to ‘suffragette’ and you are quite proud. Well, offended now that you’ve been called on it.
God does not bless feminists, especially proto-feminists. No, not even YOUR feminist.
I don’t know whether that’s true. Certainly ancient Hebrews believed that, but you (mostly) reject the OT. Paul, the “reformed” Pharisee (or whomever impersonated Paul) believed it. Is it True? Did He ever say anything to that effect?
I mostly reject the OT? Where is that said?
To be fair, I don’t really remember who said what. As a general rule, I’m one of the handful who object when the OT is referred to as some jewish (or proto-jewish) propaganda. If I missed your comment in support, I apologize.
It’s just that while there was widespread agreement that, for example, Genesis was correct when talking about separating the races after the Tower of Babel, there was a whole lot less about current day Israel being given over to Abraham and his decendants.
It’s almost like it’s true if we want it to be true…
Is being gracious prohibited somewhere in the Bible? Or, do you just like throwing elbows/ insults at people on your side? Tone it down a bit, brother
Truth. I know lots of Catholics who preach we should be gracious towards Francis. We do not have to be in agreement to wish that those who disagree with us might be forgiven.
Indeed, that’s the whole point of forgiveness. It’s nonsensical to pray for those who are right for having been right, particularly when it’s a consequence of your circumstances…
Look, you bless your suffragette whatever, and I told you God does not look fondly on suffragettes.
You didn’t like that. I will speak as I wish in pointing out the truth, including the truth about suffragettes. Brother.
Look, you blessed your suffragette whatever, and I told you God does not look fondly on suffragettes. Period. Not debatable before any actual Christian.
You didn’t like that and got cranky. Now you want to churchscold me and tell me what tone to take.
I will speak as I wish in pointing out the truth, including the truth about suffragettes. Brother.
This transcends Christianity and definitely denominations: Don’t speak harshly about others’ family members. One can tell a story about a family member’s faults in the company of friends, but it’s very rude to come back with an amplification of that. The “brother” was meant sincerely and as an olive branch because I appreciate this company and you specifically at times whatever our differences. Enough. Have a joyous Easter week
I remember people making fun of Jonah Goldberg twenty years ago, for being an idiot chickenhawk coward who got to where he was because of his shyster mother. I mean, this has been going on for a LONG time. But he has served his masters well and has been rewarded with earthly riches for it. He’s never had to be right and never been accountable for anything he has said in his career. Yet, these people don’t control the narrative anymore… and they know it. Look at how Douglas Murray got laughed off the Joe Rogan show and then he… Read more »
Somehow they have managed to keep George Will on life support. I’m not sure which is more comical, that people actually bought his books, or that people actually didn’t.
Like Z once said on a podcast, more or less, these guys are making $500,000 a year when they aren’t qualified to sell cars in their hometown. It’s a great gig if you have neither principles, skills, nor talents, but this also makes you intensely loyal to the system that is enriching you for no real reason other than to defend it.
George Will. Speaking of Con, Inc creatures I hadn’t thought of in years…
If the GOP ever did anything (by accident, obviously) that actually benefitted normal Americans, George Will and his ilk would be righteously indignant. BTW, he should ditch the wig and shave his head. It works for Rogan.
Goldberg did important missionary work for the religion of antifascism, habituating American conservatives and Republican partisans—people who, the story goes, would become fascists (actual) if the possibility were made available to them—to attach “fascist” to whatever and whomever they don’t like, to hate it and yell it at all the other guys, from antifa to us. The weakness of on-the-ground MAGA/Trumpism, normal voters’ misunderstanding of what they’re up against, may be more Goldberg’s responsibility than any other living person’s. Every “They call us fascists, but…” from a confused patriot is at least partly his work. Yeah, he’s some dumb schlub,… Read more »
Despite the historical failings of Roman Catholicism, at least it had very few religious Entrepreneurs. The ones who did feature took huge risks – Savanarola, Luther – and even in post-Henry VIII England, plenty got roasted or exiled. America has grown them like corn, to the point where we have post-Jesus types like Joel Osteen. And now in post-God America, we have the political Entrepreneur. He or she worships the State and talks about “due process” and “norms” like Cardinals used to talk about doctrine. The J6ers committed modern blasphemy, hence the reaction. Trump is a convenient Lucifer.
Post-America deserves it.
John Knox died penniless.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox
I love a happy ending.
Righto. The J6ers transgressed a religious shrine, not kidding, can go into detail if necessary but yep, the Capitol Building is a temple, cloaked with the trappings of modern secularism and statism. Just one example: the Capitol is topped, or presided over, by a female figure decked out for combat, variously identified as goddess Libertas, Columbia, Minerva, Athena et al. It ain’t Jesus, put it like that. The Capitol Shrine was installed in 1863. Think of the character of the nation since that time. Is it not a feminist nation of extraordinary warlike nature? An Empowered Shrew of a Nation?… Read more »
Vicky Nuland statue atop the Capitol– great visual. Even this papist will gladly join you in toppling that statue.
“Vicky Nuland statue atop the Capitol– great visual.”
You just want to be able to look up her dress.
Not such a great visual…
The majority of brave and penniless “heretics” who were killed in England were Protestant…
Regarding profiting from religion you might want to read about Indulgences,Simony,Nepotism and how that degrading process led to Protestantism in the more advanced parts of Europe.
Why don’t you re-read my post FFS? I made your first point and obviously I wouldn’t know about Savanarola without understanding your second point.
The worst side effect of prolonged affluence is the growth of deadweight in society. These are people with no motivation to be productive, so they must find another means of sustenance and typically migrate toward busybody occupations. Their stock in trade is talk, but in reality they are lazy. In a perfect world, they would be cast into the void in search of motivation and the imperative to be truly productive. Methinks free-riding is about to become much harder to get away with the coming recession. A necessary cure.
I remember people making fun of Goldberg for being lazy, too. This was years ago when he was writing “Liberal Fascism.” This guy really just says what he is told to say and rakes in the money. Compare him to Ben Shapiro, who got started around the same time, is younger than Goldberg, also said what he was told to say, and started writing at roughly the same time, and is younger. Look how much farther Ben has gotten, just because unlike Jonah he has a work ethic.
“motivation and the imperative to be truly productive”
Tom, do you grant that there a significant number of people who, due to their poor genetics or old age, will never be truly productive, no matter how hard they try?
This problem will become increasingly pressing as automation makes the labor of many unnecessary. These people will be willing to sell their labor but no one will want to buy it.
In your vision, what becomes of them?
Visit Germany sometime and you will see the elderly out sweeping public walks on Saturday morning. This is the spirit of those who would do good no matter their age or disability or employment status. Serving the community is productive, even when the contribution is minor. Its the mindset that counts.
“These people will be willing to sell their labor but no one will want to buy it.” So far, that’s never happened and I see no reason to think it will any time soon. It’s not just Boomers that have lawn services. In fact, it’s mostly not Boomers anymore. And if you wake up and the neighbor’s poop is in your shower, you just want the poop gone and some kind of a guarantee it won’t happen again. Look at the number of young’uns who can’t or won’t change the oil on their own car, or won’t even pull up… Read more »
In the era of fake jobs and free money that is all true, but that era won’t last forever, and someday (near or far) people will either have to do it themselves or hire on to do it for others, because they won’t be able to afford to have it done. And the negros who will swamp the world are not trainable.
“someday (near or far) people will either have to do it themselves or hire on to do it for others…”
Oh, man, from your lips…
I’m not a huge fan of the fact I’ve had to teach my daughter how to do home and car repairs, but I’m a friggin’ realist — NO ONE (for almost all values of “NO”) has taught their sons do do it. How is it possible that almost everyone takes their car to the Rapid Oil Change, where they are subject to whatever ROC does to them?
Respectable conservatives are guided by a set of high-minded principles. The fact that the Left doesn’t adhere to those principles or that they result in Leftist outcomes 99.9999% of the time will not cause them to waver. Ben Sasse 2028!
Oh, I should add that the fact that Conservative Principles just always happen to align with the donor agenda — pure coincidence.
Surely it is a miracle.
How could it not? With the extant incentive structure, what other outcome is possible?
Rather than just “noticing”, or even changing small things at the margin, unless the incentive structure is radically reconsidered, nothing changes.
Herding preachers/hypocrites is like herding cats.
The one thing preachers/hypocrites can’t stand and will send them scurrying back to cover is ridicule. Make fun of them at every turn. Ask them the right questions to their face and sit back and watch them cover up like a cat covering poo in the litter box. It’s worth the price of listening to them in the first place.
I just have to make sure I check the mirror every morning to make sure I haven’t also put on the robes of preacher/hypo!
I give you Letitia James!
Back in my UMC-going days the Praise Band played The Stones Can’t get No Satisfaction so preacher could riff a sermon off it. On the way out I just asked if he was going to cover Brown Sugar next week. At least he grinned a little.
Pretty sure UMC is a lost cause. Maybe since Wesley started the whole “social justice” thing, but definitely by ’65 when the UMC decided it applies to people who didn’t want to rent to nogs because of their credit records…
Will the op-ed pages survive the passing of the boomers and the end of USAID? (if it stays ended). Does anyone under 50 read them? What will become of the preachers then? Preachers who are reduced to making tweets on Bluesky don’t carry quite the same gravitas that they did on the editorial page in the pre internet world.
The Trump Administration this time around has done a decent job of having back up plans. I wonder what the back up plan could be for a hostile Supreme Court and Federal Reserve?
Perhaps a papal type visit by JD Vance?
One can hope, but my suspicion was from the get go that Trump is betting the farm on the SCOTUS. His executive orders and the ignoring of the lower courts is a major gamble to (re)establish Executive authority, which is the only possible way to right the ship of state—Congress proven to be a hopeless recourse in the past. Could it really be that the Constitution really is a “mutual death pact”?
“Could it really be that the Constitution really is a ‘mutual death pact’?” The Z man remains unconvinced, which is sad. (He’s also still confusing nation and union, as in paragraph 2 above.) It’s stunningly obvious that the preamble is a big lie, one of the most influential in human history. It points the way to absurd developments, too. Why, for instance, do some crazies want children to vote? How could anyone hold so moronic an idea? Read the Columbians’ preamble. We have to admit that children are “People”, and the text claims a unanimity which was not and could… Read more »
It could have made sense, in theory, since he picked the judges
He did it without the wisdom that doing favors for non-friends makes them hate you.
Yes, I always thought that was the plan, and he felt like he had a solid enough majority and reasonableness and the plain language of Article II would carry the day. It wasn’t a bad bet, but we can see that #theresistance is spinning up again and Roberts, Comey-Barrett, and even Gorsuch are squishes. It was predictable, I suppose, but I also don’t know what other options Trump had.
If the SCOTUS can’t wrangle in the deep state, then we truly have no hope.
It was that liberal feminist, Donald J. Trump, who nominated Coney-Barrett under the absurd supposition that she is, wait for it now, a conservative.
Donald also was under pressure to nominate a female, the apparent plan being put a chick in it and watch it bank Leftwards into hell.
This is the same president who sells Make America Great tickets.
Interesting observation Ray. Yep, since the first female Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, has any of them—Dem or Rep—proved to be conservative in the likeness of some of the greats like Scalia? Not to mention the current three Dem (all women) picks sitting on the SCOTUS.
Well, no. So the question arises, why the hell does any Rep president consider a women at all—if he truly wants the best chance of picking a conservative justice?
“why the hell does any Rep president consider a women at all?”
They can’t all suck. In fact, from what I hear, most don’t…
From a common-sense standpoint, it’s a good question, but I think you know the answer to it.
Socio-political and familial pressure. The GOP and Right are feminists and egalitarians too.
Women have dragged the nation ever Leftward since even BEFORE the Nineteenth Amendment. Presidents (and others) ignore that because even they can’t speak the truth about the ruinous nature of collective female power.
It is a feminist nation, and even ‘conservative’ presidents operate under that rubric. Not outside of it, where the cold winds of the void blow.
Well a backup plan might be to continue the summary deportations under one of the many other applicable laws, most passed in the post 9/11 hysteria, and thereby force a restart of the judicial process. Tom Holman can quote these chapter and verse. Most just need the Sec of States OK and Rubio has been one of the pleasant surprises. Also: the Constitution need not be a suicide pact. That position is rather new. It came, big surprise, from William O. Douglas in one of his first forays into judicial idiocy, Terminiello v. City of Chicago, 1949. The lengthy and… Read more »
Leonard Downie, the Post’s executive editor, has killed several of Mr. Hart’s cartoons (the cartoon “B.C.”)because, he says, “We don’t promote individual religions anywhere in the paper. We let people discuss religion as an issue, but we don’t advocate a particular religion.”Well now, that’s swell, isn’t it? “We”—the Post, the other papers, the Anti-Defamation League, and everybody else apparently except the millions of American newspaper readers who actually do advocate particular religions—decide what gets promoted and what doesn’t. Religion, for them, is in the same category—maybe even in a somewhat more taboo category—as outright obscenity and explicit racial epithets. Advocating a specific religious… Read more »
“Jonah Goldberg”
Wow, now that’s a trip down Memory Lane.
It’s been well over a decade since I’ve seen that name, “Jonah Goldberg”.
It brings back the memories of the existential treason of William F Buckley, and his worthless son, Christopher.
Boy I would love to see the true flow chart of the income into the Buckley family, to include the true origins of that income.
I have no problem with those who preach against actual sin but I have no patience for the DEI preachers.
It’s interesting that both churches preach some doctrine of original sin. Your problem is a matter of subjective tastes and preferences. You want vanilla ice cream, not chocolate. Wine, not beer. Roasted corn on a cob, not creamed corn out of a can.
This bit about original sin is true. And probably True. Since Easter is recently passed, it’s worth considering His words in Gethsemane — not that they were flawed humans, tainted by Original Sin, rather that the spirit was willing but the flesh weak. Not the worthless pathetic sinners that many denominations preach, but rather that they were inherently weak, and in need of help.
They had their first round pick, #1 champion of DEI ‘preachers’ scold Trump and Melania. Another poorly thought-out scheme, or else they fell into a trap, because it was a bad look. That old lesbian scold using the Church as a skinsuit. Getting paid for it too, with tax payers money to boot.
I noticed that for a few months before and after the election zman blog used to come at the top in Google search. Now itis pushed back by the algo to 7th place again. Does that mean the tech compao are back to max censorship again?
Google never changed much. Everyone who was banned in the great purge still is. Ben Shapiro just got a video suppressed for talking about British tranny news in it. Sam Hyde’s editor still has to bleep out “covid” to dodge the censorship bot (one of the many censorship bots, one that’s permanently attached to him). A wave of demonetization recently hit thousands of the marginally “based,” from Carl Benjamin to Japanese cartoon girls, for, the accusations say, fraud. What fraud? No response. The electronic jeet (“AI”) has no idea. It knows to say you did it. Also, 4chan is kill—finally,… Read more »
May have something to do with AI. I’ve noticed that, since the AI explosion, whenever I do a search on DuckDuckGo, the first three pages (at minimum) are chock-a-block full of corporate links. I mean, the same dam’ corporations over and over. Prior to AI, smaller fry routinely populated the first page of the search results. Now to find those results, I have to cycle through page after page.
I think that change occured several years before the AI deouge. Your Google results in 2017 bore no resemblance to what you would have had in, say, 2006.
I don’t know anything about Google. Haven’t used them in a coon’s age. But I do know there’s been a clear change with DDG, and it’s happened within the last year, two years max.
Search engine “optimization” predates AI by a bit and isn’t directly related. That was just the next step in pay to play and executive censorship the capital ‘N’ Net Neutrality folks were all worried about in 2010 and then pretended wasn’t happening in 2015 when it was people they liked doing it in spite of the rules they wanted being in force. All pretense was dropped after that got repealed, and the AI component was grafted on later, after which what workarounds I’d discovered stopped working pretty rapidly.
The Americas were conquered by pirates and preachers. It has always been a yin and yang between the two. At the moment, we need more of the former.
Roll up your sleeves, raise the black flag…you know the rest.
Pro tip: when spitting on one’s hands, make sure not to hack up a loogie…
Bootleggers and Baptists. Yandle, IIRC. Any time I end up thinking something that one of my foes thinks, I go back and check my math. Occasionally there is a true common cause, but mostly, it’s that it’s simply a common direction, and they intend to stab me in the back before we get where I want to be.
I love the idea of locking preachers up in their churches. They used to do that in the Middle Ages — it worked ok for someone like Julian of Norwich. Make Anchoresses Great Again!
Let us also take a moment to pay tribute to the inestimable Earl of Sandwich. Mama was lazy so this man took ACTION.
Without this great white male heh the world would never have had sammiches. We’d look at the bread and the meat, the bread and the meat, but never put them together.
Props.
It’s the damnedest thing, isn’t it? A couple years back we had this guest speecher from down in the States visit our little chapel out in the country and he was to do the honors one Sunday. Cool, I thought, our regular elders do a good job of preaching and it might be interesting to listen to a new voice. Well this little prick gets up there, starts waving his fat little fists around, shouting admonishments and accusations at us and lecturing us like we were all disobedient 9 year olds. Within 5 minutes I was gritting my teeth, listening… Read more »
“People WANT…scolds.”
No, abusers and masochists want scolds, though surely for different reasons. You showed up for service that day to be scolded, same as any pious, orthodox triadolater ever has. You rebelled bc the denigration was stronger than you prefer. It was a matter of flavor intensity, or you were put off by the sweetness or sourness of the beverage served. The Elders had you and your religion figured out better than you understand.
Really.
I don’t think you have any idea of what a real preacher is or why a Christian would listen to them. I’ll chalk that up to the fact that you are obviously a product of a world that is fake and gay.
That was a more polite response than I could have managed.
Stories like this, Filthie make me feel so fortunate that we have found a good Christian, Bible based church led by a wise Pastor with his head on straight. Praise the Lord!
I see “preachers” as children who have stayed up too late and need to be sent to bed. Some need to be sent to bed without their supper.
I do not thing that what we are dealing with are neo Great Awakening cult leaders out in the middle of nowhere taking advantage of near total geographic isolation absent of most civilizational, (Old World), amenities herding people into their quackery. On the one hand we have a bunch of Friar Savonarolas in pink hair and draped in foreign flags. On the other we have people like Goldberg who isn’t a preacher. He is a liar. He is paid to say anything, no matter how untrue, to get the empire to do the bidding of those who pay him to… Read more »
Erick Erickson another one of those creatures on the cuck right. Don’t forget to single him out as one of the more annoying of that breed.
Is Glen Beck still a thing now? I never see anything from him or about him and don’t look either.
There is a video clip floating around of Beck claiming his personal allegiance to Our Greatest Ally in terms that are so over the top that you’d think Julius Streicher wrote it as a spoof. Surreal.
“on the cuck right”
Is there any other right in the USA?
Afaik, there are no so-called dissidents hiding out in the legislatures, keeping their heads down, subverting the Great Mistake and its fake “supreme Law”. If you have no representation in their evil system, you’re not even on the pitifully narrow, one-dimensional axis labeled left, right, and center. Instead, you’re another one of the losers being deleted, like that kid who was beaten recently near Frisco, Texas.
“subverting the Great Mistake and its fake “supreme Law”.”
Thing is, they don’t need to, nor would it be to their advantage. Doing so would at least turn them into “Common Causers” Democrats. Who won’t reward them with cash and prizes for siding with them.
There is just no reason for them to stick their heads up to get chopped off. I doubt you are offering them a comfortable sinecure if they stink up the Capitol, are you?
It seems like the Trump administration needs to basically ignore the law – or at the very least, these jackoff judges, many of whom aren’t even real Americans. Further, the proselytizing and hypocritical preachers need to be rounded up and sent someplace worse than their “churches”.
Agreed. How?
Ah come on Z, the Protestants aren’t that bad! ….well maybe they are actually.
Very astute observation:
We are sinners in the hands of an angry God named Karen from Human Resources.
Have you ever tried drinking shots of white vinegar? It produces an intriguing sensation, akin to stabbing a syringe loaded with ice water into the middle of one’s forehead.
Is that actually true, or is it just what TV and film have taught us?
FTFY.
surprised you didn’t anchor things to the Salem Witch Trials episode.
Boudica?
That is extremely unfair to the real life Boudica.