It's Reflections on the Ridiculous Thing

Dear America,

"I think it's really tragic 

when people get serious about stuff.  

It's such an absurdity 

to take anything really seriously...

I make an honest attempt  

not to take anything seriously; 

I worked that attitude out

 about the time I was eighteen, 

I mean, what does it all mean 

when you get right down to it, 

what's the story here?  

Being alive is so weird."  

Frank Zappa

seriously.

and for starters, this girl is having such a hard time getting her head around the headlines these days.  It's as if it's all ridiculous; what do we care about Kellyanne Conway's husband opinion about anything?   Like, seriously?  

And for Trump to even respond....it's like, with all due respect, Mr. President -- you are the president of the United States of America!  --  just leave it alone!

And the president gets my same response about all his chatter about John McCain.  Just leave it be; don't feed the fire; don't fight for the last word; don't give the media something to talk about when the subject matter goes petty, or simply trades insults with the dead or his entourage.  That trade war will never be won, as it lives so deep down in the mire, all that survives is a mouth full of muck and a reputation lost in the tangling web of nonsense, barbs and slurs, and suffocating any chance of any good to come of it, and shamefully reducing the statehood of the office to nothing more than tabloid warfare.  

Seriously, this life and these times are just so weird.

We get it, Mr. President; this is how you role; this is how you play the game.

And just maybe, your survival in office to date, has mandated this rapid fire response day in and day out....you know, given your history, your long list of haters, your modus operandi, along with your stubbornness and natural penchant to win at all costs....there is that.

But, seriously, Mr. President -- you no longer have to go there.  In simple terms, the more you choose to take the high road --  above the sea of petty, peaty, marshy, quagmire of all things down and dirty -- the greater the prospect of truly Making America Great Again.  (In everything, it's about America and what is best for her.... and pretty sure, she can take you, so don't even try.)   There is a trade deficit in this country, if not the world, in the nature of kindness, mutual respect, and holding ourselves accountable to everything we say, everything we do, and everything filling up our hearts and minds.

The thing is -- there is opportunity here to lead this campaign from the top down.

“The greatest leader 

is not necessarily the one 

who does the greatest things. 

He is the one 

that gets the people to do 

the greatest things.” 

― Ronald Reagan

The thing is -- you, dear sir, have ample proof now of your administration's successes... Unemployment is at the lowest level in decades, people are seeing wages rise, optimism is making gains; and all the opposition has to combat your accomplishments is denial,  politically motivated smears, and the good favor of an obstructive, biased, mainstream media that feeds irresponsible and reckless ideas into the heads of the American people, headlining candidates selling nothing but snake oil.  

Like, seriously?

These "phenoms and political hacks" monopolize the media with false claims and projections based upon ridiculous socialist policies, when history proves, these illogical attempts to dictate winners and losers through the controls of an elitist government are untenable, defective, and have NEVER worked anywhere around the world, like, ever!  Ultimately, if allowed to take hold, this massive, invasive, root system -- deceptively based upon leveling the hills and valleys of a life sustained in liberty and freedom and opportunity -- will destroy our foundation, squelch ambition, and reduce America to ruins.

Must appreciate the use of the word invasive, right?

By definition -- "An invasive species is an organism that causes ecological or economic harm in a new environment where it is not native. ... Invasive species are capable of causing extinctions of native plants and animals, reducing biodiversity, competing with native organisms for limited resources, and altering habitats."

Need I say more?

Socialist ideas are NOT NATIVE to America!  The harsh truth is, giving breath, life, oxygen to policy rooted in the delusion of equal distribution of wealth, even in part -- even Social Security -- have only adversely effected our way of life, accumulation of wealth, continuing to risk our future health and welfare, as a whole.   

And The Left wants more of this?

Everything can't be free.

Like, seriously, Ms. AOC?

But I digress.

I'm getting lost in the weeds; allow me to detangle and get back on point, if you will.

Mr. President -- Rise and Shine

“There is no limit 

to the amount of good 

you can do if you don't care 

who gets the credit.” 

― Ronald Reagan

Elevate your every move, every word, every deed and don't look back. don't do it.

Lead, by example,Mr. President. 
yes.  it is cliche.  it's just what I do here...shoot me. and on that note, here's more -- 

Mr. President -- You have nothing to lose, nothing; while you have everything to gain -- maybe even another four years.   And, you know, the right wins on ideas and its results every time, because they are anything but ridiculous; let's emphasize our winning ideas and why they work; and while we're at it, let's emphasize rising above the fray (love it). 

Let's give the media nothing to talk about, but the GOOD!

[But what do I know; I'm just a girl, and this is just my day in the life #989]

And isn't "being alive is so weird... 
isn't it?   
Like, seriously, it is.

the end. 

Make it a Good Day, G

It's in the Defense of Pure Liberty Thing

Dear America,

yesteryear...

"I disapprove of what you say, 

but I will defend to the death

 your right to say it." 

today...

"I disapprove of what you say, 

thereby you have no right to say it,

 and I will shut you down."

The Left's dictate speaks for itself.

For starters, you should read February's Imprimis, 'Shall We Defend Our Common History?' -- an adaptation of a presentation for Hillsdale College, by Roger Kimball; it's my muse on the day.

The thing is, we are presently erasing history -- in art, statues, books -- through censorship.

Why?  Because some of it, if not most of it, is offensive to some of us, if not all of us.  Some of it hurts to see it; some of it makes us emotional; some of it makes us question our humanity -- or at the very least, the humans who came before us.

To his credit, Trump has thrown out the question, where does it stop?  

Indeed, where does it stop?

But it doesn't stop there, does it?  What about the blatant censorship of the present?

Case in point, Apple deciding to block an app -- that was just approved only a couple of weeks ago --  simply because it doesn't align with its science?

Taking a signal from The Daily Signal's post, 

Geologist Accuses Apple of Political Bias in Removing App Countering Climate Alarmism

There seems to be so many inconvenient facts about the truth surrounding global warming, and someone, a Gregory Whitestone, thought it to be prudent, and perhaps his civic duty, to alarm the public....as in, not so fast Al Gore, et. al... 

and this is interesting, going to the link of Whitestone's book: Inconvenient Facts: The science that Al Gore doesn't want you to know, you come to find out, it's currently out of stock.  right.  Did Amazon just block the book, too?

as the Signal duly notes, wonder if the app was blocked had anything to do with Al Gore being a member of the board, Apple's board?

Guts vs. Gore -- understandably, this girl's on the side of guts.

[And don't be shy, you, too, can join in on the discussion, here.]

Returning to the good read from Roger Kimball in Imprimis, he says, "the more expensive education becomes the more it seems to lead, not to broader understanding, but to narrower horizons."

And isn't that the truth?   

[And on a side-note, 

this is shocking; 

granted, we have only seen 

the tip of the iceberg 

as far as the ramifications 

are concerned on this fraud. 

It's gonna get ugly,  

just sayin']

We are being so politically correct these days, that in an arena once all about questioning bloody everything, partaking in fierce debate,  and open, mindful, critical study, has grown to be nothing more than liberal petri dishes, producing droves of rather hostile, ignorant, political activists hellbent on destroying any and all opposition, like a bad plague.  Shameful.  And pretty sure this nonsense is the cause of a whole lot of global warming. tee hee

but seriously, since when did censorship become cool?

“How do you tell a Communist? 

Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. 

And how do you tell an anti-Communist? 

It’s someone who understands

 Marx and Lenin.”  

Ronald Reagan

As Kimball says, "welcome to the new Orwellian world where censorship is free speech and we respect the past by attempting to elide it."

exactly.

The thing is, we should all know by now, that as controls creep in, as opposing opinion is vilified and even restricted, as government expands,  -- liberty contracts; eventually, liberty ceases to exist and the lights never come on again.  (See Venezuela) 

It's just more evidence of how the Law of Cause and Effect, in governance, works (or doesn't work); it happens whether or not you agree with it or not.  It's kinda, like, totally natural, if you think about it, similar to climate change.

Even some on the left can grasp the gravity of our decisions --

from The Washington Examiner: 

The "Green New Deal" is “not achievable or realistic," read a letter from AFL-CIO energy committee heads Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, and Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. 

"We will not accept proposals that could cause immediate harm to millions of our members and their families," the union bosses wrote.

indeed; thank God someone on their side is keeping their wits about them.

Unlike these stupid girls.

Civilization ends due to global warming vs. civilization ends due to the extinction of procreation.

hilarious.  And if you read that post, linked to stupid, you will find findings from a study that says,

"even imposing one-child policies worldwide and 'catastrophic mortality events' would not significantly reduce the global population by 2100. It proposes instead that 'more immediate results for sustainability would emerge from policies and technologies that reverse rising consumption of natural resources'. 

'Even with drastic, draconian, eugenic policies of population reduction – which are completely immoral,' says Pepino, 'we wouldn’t save ourselves. We have to change the way we live'."

and we're baaaaack.

Cue Whitestone: 

—Inconvenient Fact No. 12: “Modern warming began long before SUVs or coal-fired plants.”

— Inconvenient Fact No. 21: “The current warming trend is neither unusual nor unprecedented.”

It's not about the facts.

It never is.

Just look at the Mueller investigation.

“Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them.” 

― Ronald Reagan

There is a political agenda, with fresh rhetoric applied liberally, literally, day in and day out, and it spans decades.

Here's a clip of one more good read for today:  It comes from The Patriot Post, Jordan Candler:  Debunking Decades of Climate Alarmism:

In June 1989, the Associated Press stated, “A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000. … He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.” Today, it’s Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s turn to wave the dozen-years-left-to-live placard.

In similar fashion, Al Gore in 2009 prophesied, “Some of the models suggest … that there is a 75% chance that the entire polar ice cap during some of summer months could be completely ice free within five to seven years.” As Stepman notes, “In 2014, the ice caps were still there. In fact, it’s 2019 and the ice caps are still there.”

Encore:  Gore vs Guts:

—Inconvenient Fact No. 53: “There are more polar bears now than we’ve had for 50 years.”

and moreover, ice caps are not static!  They move, grow, alter shape and size; it's almost like they evolve.  And that's not rocket science, it's just called common sense.  According to google and people who appreciate history, did you know that the earth was once covered in water!?  Say it isn't so.

We used to teach common sense; we used to teach history, science, literature,  from all points of view.

It's called discussion; nobody gets shushed and everybody gets a chance to speak.  What a concept.  More important, what is Apple so afraid of, for example, when shutting down a silly little app?

I am in favor of everyone having a voice and I will defend, to the death, your right to say it

These days, this great and wondrous liberty is becoming more and more a freedom and luxury of the select Left, while at the same time, imprisoning any, and all, opposition; and everybody should be raising an eyeball questioning the logic back behind the flawed, pseudo-intellectual, elitist, cultural scientific experiment afoot. 

onemorereaganquote!

“They tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where — because of our past excesses — it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true. I don't believe that. And, I don't believe you do either. That is why I am seeking the presidency. I cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself. Our leaders attempt to blame their failures on circumstances beyond their control, on false estimates by unknown, unidentifiable experts who rewrite modern history in an attempt to convince us our high standard of living, the result of thrift and hard work, is somehow selfish extravagance which we must renounce as we join in sharing scarcity. I don't agree that our nation must resign itself to inevitable decline, yielding its proud position to other hands. I am totally unwilling to see this country fail in its obligation to itself and to the other free peoples of the world.” 

― Ronald Reagan

amen to that, amen to that.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's a Day We Will Become All One Thing or All the Other ...Thing

Dear America,

So, here we are, seven score and a decade later, we, the people, commune on a moment:

The Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

If you can trust an Associated Press story about an Associated Press journalist -- a young Joseph Ignatius Gilbert -- assigned to make a record on the day, then feel free to jump into this wonderful backstory, here, as featured on The Washington Post.

But let's go back a wee bit further, shall we?

Here's a sign of things to come -- from 1858 -- when Abraham Lincoln was running for State Senator, against Douglas, having just received the Illinois Republican Party nomination...

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.

It would seem America is divided once more; it's only a matter of time before we decide our fate, of our own choosing, of becoming "all one thing or all the other."

Which brings me to a quote widely misattributed to be a Lincoln-ism, but isn't, and fully worthy of a repeat and creator correction; so without futher adieu, let's go to wise words of The Ten Cannots from Reverend William John Henry Boetcker (1873-1962):

You cannot bring about prosperity

by discouraging thrift.

You cannot strengthen the weak

by weakening the strong.

You cannot help little men

by tearing down big men.

You cannot help the wage earner

by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man

by encouraging class hatred.

You cannot help the poor

by destroying the rich.

You cannot establish sound security

on borrowed money.

You cannot keep out of trouble

by spending more than you earn.

You cannot build character and courage

by taking away man's initiative and independence.

You cannot help men permanently

by doing for them

what they should do for themselves.



But perhaps Boetcker was inspired by these words from the man of the hour, Abraham Lincoln:

"Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."  Abraham Lincoln, March 21, 1864, in remarks made to the New York Democratic Republican Association  [thank you Dictionary.com]

In any event, in the search to gather all things G today, I happened to come upon a journalistic masterpiece from PBS NEWSHOUR, intent on clearing up quotes and misquotes, while compiling a library of reference material revolving around the age-old divide between the haves and the have-nots and chronicled for quite some time on PBS, and thus titled, The Inequality Dilemma, by Paul Solman. [click it if you want]

The ideas are nothing new.

Who really cares who said what, right?

But for good measure, here's another good one, from Dr. Adrian Rogers, swiped from a page on goodreads.com:

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

With a nation half full and half empty, the fiasco known as Obamacare has told us what we have not learned.  So the real question remains, what have we learned in the last seven score and a decade, added to the four score and seven years ago, and what are we prepared to do about it?


From Saint Paul to the Thessalonians,  "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." [love love love BibleHub]

In the beginning, America understood this basic principle; it's translation never denied, nor  had to be explained.   It's a new day.    Real FREEDOM for all requires the all to be responsible.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they should be doing for themselves...You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred...You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong....You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence...You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money...You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.....You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn...You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer....You cannot help little men by tearing down the big men...You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift....You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it....Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built...

A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.


It's just another day when America will decide to become all one thing or all the other.

Make it a Good Day, G