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Anthony Bourdain Blasts Bill Maher And Other "Privileged Eastern Liberals"&"Loathsome Trump
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2017 Stock Market Outlook: Not A Pretty Picture
2017 Stock Market Outlook
By Eric Parnell, Chartered Financial Analyst
Summary: The current bull market is long in the tooth; it's overvalued; fundamentals are falling apart; interest rates are rising; and The Fed has no more tricks in its bag.
Gored by a dying bull
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Senior Clinton Aide Addresses "Perfect Storm" And Accusation That Hillary Ignored Rural Voters
White
Ex-Clinton aide: Campaign made mistakes but faced 'perfect storm'
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Is Asimov's Belief In The Power Of Good Writing Still True?
Alan: Is Asimov's insight still true?
Or have we been so dumbed down that bad ideas --- written for angry, ignorant people imprisoned by the invisible fence of social media --- are now more likely to be accepted than well written good ideas?
The Stone Wall
And the closing window...
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"Five Immigration Myths Debunked," CNN
"Five Immigration Myths Debunked"
CNN
Trump's First Political Ad Spotlights "Mexicans" Sneaking Into Morocco
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Trump's Fascism Revisited
Compilation Of Pax Posts On Similarities Between Hitler And Trump
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo t.com/2016/05/compilation-of-p ax-post-on-similarities.html
Hannah Arendt: The Horror Of Normality
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo t.com/2012/12/hannah-arendt-ho rror-of-normality.html
"Kremlin Names Trump Employee Of The Month
The Borowitz Report
http://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2016/12/the- borowitz-report-kremlin-names- trump.html
"Citing Trump's "Fascism" And "Tyranny," Mormon Tabernacle Chorister Resigns," Time Magazine
http://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2016/12/time- magazine-citing-trumps- fascism-and.html
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Reporter Kurt Eichenwald Who Has Held Trump's Feet To The Fire Addresses "The Way Forward"
Kurt Eichenwald
Wikipedia
Kurt Eichenwald Says The First Thing Reporters Need To Do Is "Face Reality" With Regard To Trump
Kurt Eichenwald appeared on MSNBC Saturday. Host Jonathan Capehart asked him about Trump's latest press-conference-by-tweet, wherein Trump complained that son Eric was being abused by not being able to raise money for "kids he loves," via the Trump foundation.
"My wonderful son, Eric, will no longer be allowed to raise money for children with cancer because of a possible conflict of interests. Isn't this a ridiculous shame? He loves these kids, has raised millions of dollars for them and now must stop. Wrong answer!"
Eichenwald responded:
“The first thing we need to do is face reality,” Eichenwald replied. “If Eric Trump is so upset, write a check. We’ve got to stop acting like everything that happens to this guy when they complain about how difficult it is, if they want to give to charity, give to charity. They can write the money themselves, they don’t need to raise it from us.”“Secondly, and this is the most important, we have a president-elect who has been treated completely differently from anybody else,” he continued. “The press has unfortunately gotten into this thing where they’re afraid of propaganda outlets like Fox News coming in and calling them biased. There is no bias here. We have got to grow a backbone. We have got to demand press conferences. We have got to stop covering his tweets like they’re news.”“This man has some very serious questions to answer,” Eichenwald said. “We’re getting to the point we should start to wonder, is the problem he can’t answer? That he doesn’t have the intelligence to answer? That he’s afraid to answer? We have to bear down on him and let the American public know that this is not normal. When the Foxes of the world object to acting like a normal reporter as being biased we should just point them out and say, they’re lying, just ignore them.”
Eichenwald is an ardent critic of Fox News and has been for some time and with ample justification. Eichenwald has kept a running record of inaccuracies and outright falsehoods, some of which he kept in a thick three ring binder labeled in large blue letters, "Tucker Carlson Falsehoods," and offered to give the book to Tucker Carlson, with the proviso that he publish the documentation on the Fox News website. Carlson made no reply but proceeded to insult Eichenwald, demanding to know how Newsweek could hire him as a reporter. In Carlson's "mind" Eichenwald is a mere rabble rouser -- projection? The particular interview where this exchange took place was the one that prompted a disgruntled right wing viewer to lash out at Eichenwald by sending him a strobing gif via his twitter account, which triggered an epileptic seizure in Eichenwald on December 16th.
That awful episode notwithstanding, Eichenwald is back in the saddle. He is right, we do need to bear down on Trump and hold him strictly accountable. As both Kurt Eichenwald and columnist Charles Blow of the New York Times have said repeatedly, we must never normalize Trump. We are living in grossly abnormal times and media coverage as usual will not cut it. There is no "equivalency" to report in a "balanced" fashion. Fox and Breitbart will continue to spin lies, and they would spin straw and tell you it was really gold, if they could manage it; that much is certain. Real journalists need to stop worrying about tweets and presidential access and concentrate instead on reporting cold hard facts. That is the only way that we will get through a Trump regime without Orwellian revisionist history and doublespeak overwhelming us. George Orwell said, "In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." It's time for reporters to become revolutionaries.
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Bruce Springsteen Interview: Trump Is A "Toxic Narcissist.""I Think He'll Make The Biggest Mess"
Bruce Springsteen questions Donald Trump's competence
Bruce Springsteen has been candid about his dislike for President-elect Donald Trump before, and the “Born to Run” singer talked at length about his feelings on the upcoming presidency on a new episode of Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
“I’ve felt disgust before, but never the kind of fear that you feel now,” he said. “It’s as simple as the fear of, is someone simply competent enough to do this particular job? Do they simply have the pure competence to be put in the position of such responsibility?”
Springsteen previously called Trump a “toxic narcissist” in an October interview with the U.K.’s Channel 4 News, where he noted “he does have a lot of people’s ears, and I don’t think he’s going to go quietly, gently into the good night.”
“I think he’s going to make as big a mess as he can, and I don’t know what that’s going to mean,” he continued, “but we’ll find out shortly.”
He echoed that sentiment on the podcast: “I understand how he got elected,” he said before going on to list some reasons — fear of ISIS, fear of job loss — that could have led Americans to vote for Trump, who has talked about what Springsteen calls “very simplistic, but very powerful ideas” in response to those fears.
“There’s plenty of good, solid folks that voted for Donald Trump,” he said, “as well as people who had other agendas.”
Earlier, he touched on that latter group, expressing his concerns about the future of America. “When you let that genie out of the bottle — bigotry, racism, intolerance… they don’t go back in the bottle that easily if they go back in at all,” he said. “Whether it’s a rise in hate crimes, people feeling they have license to speak and behave in ways that previously were considered un-American and are un-American. That’s what he’s appealing to. My fears are that those things find a place in ordinary, civil society.”
But the Boss is not giving up: “America is still America. I’m still believe in its ideals, and I’m going to do my best to play my very, very small part in maintaining those things.”
Hear Springsteen’s full conversation with Maron here.
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Washington Was Right: Declaring Love For One Country While Running Another Presents Problems
George Washington Was Right: Declaring Love For One Country While Running Another Presents Problems
During the campaign Donald Trump declared his love for Israel, but such sentiments have no place in statecraft
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American Culture Trains Cops To Kill: Revered High School Teacher Shot Dead By Minnesota Cop
Man shot by Mankato police was school teacher, MSU grad
Uncle of deceased man says family yearning for answers
In The United States Of Barbaria, We Train Our Cops To Kill
Americans Are 9 Times More Likely To Be Killed By A Policeman Than A Terrorist
Americans Are 9 Times More Likely To Be Killed By A Policeman Than A Terrorist
American Cops Fire More Bullets At One NYC Man Than All German Cops Fire In A Yearhttp://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2014/09/85-shots- us-cops-use-more-ammo-per-man. html
1 Small Town's Cops Have Killed More People Than Combined Police Of Germany And U.K.
http://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2015/02/1-small- towns-cops-have-killed-more. html
The Caging Of America: Why Do We Lock Up So Many People
http://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2012/04/caging- of-america-why-do-we-lock-up- so.html
There's Never Been A Safer Time For Cops Nor A More Dangerous Time For Criminals
http://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2014/11/theres- never-been-safer-time-to-be- cop.html
Diane Rehm Guest Gets To The Nub Of Police Violence And How Easily It's Prevented
"Is The United States Still A Nation Of Law? Bad Cops And Bad Politicians Walk"U.S. Murder Rate On Track To Be Lowest In A Century
"Is The United States Still A Nation Of Law? Bad Cops And Bad Politicians Walk"
U.S. Murder Rate On Track To Be Lowest In A Century
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"Silence" Is Scorsese's Spiritual Masterpiece. Could It Be His Masterpiece?
SILENCE: SCORSESE’S SPIRITUAL MASTERPIECE
It has taken almost thirty years for Martin Scorsese to film Silence, Shūsaku Endō’s novel about Catholic missionaries in feudal Japan. But the director’s patience has paid off, for Silence is as well-crafted a movie as any he has made, and may well be his masterpiece.
Beautifully filmed and acted, Silence is as powerful as it is ambitious. Like the novel, it explores the nature and inscrutability of God; the passion of missionary endeavor; the depths of faith and despair; martyrdom and apostasy; sin and redemption; mercy and intolerance; and the clash of civilizations.
Silence brings to the screen the story of the brutal persecution of Christian missionaries and converts in seventeenth-century Japan. Endo was himself a Japanese Catholic convert, and cared deeply about the history of his people. Scorsese—who was raised Catholic and once aspired to become a missionary—yearned to tell their story. His film does full justice to Endō’s novel, and will likely surpass its cultural impact.
The movie begins with stark images of the anti-Christian persecutions, reminding us of the tragic situation Japanese Christianity had fallen into by the 1630s. The scene then quickly shifts back West, where word has reached Rome that one of the Church’s premier Jesuit missionaries, Father Cristovao Ferreira of Portugal (Liam Neeson), has “apostatized.”
A Jesuit superior, Father Valignano (Ciaran Hinds), informs two young Portuguese Jesuits, Fathers Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver), of what has happened to their former instructor. “Ferreira is lost to us,” says Valignano, sadly, with resignation in his voice. “He denounced God in public and surrendered the faith.”
“That’s not possible,” says Father Garrpe, shaking his head incredulously. “Father Ferreira risked his life to spread our faith all over Japan.” Rodrigues seconds this sentiment, and asserts, “It seems to me that our mission here is more urgent than ever. We must go and find Father Ferreira.”
After Valignano tries to talk Rodrigues and Garrpe out of their venture, they depart for Japan, determined to find Ferreira and bring him back to God, if necessary—but not before being told, “The moment you set foot in that country, you step into high danger.” Even with that warning, the two Jesuit priests are unprepared for what awaits them.
After making their way to Japan by way of China, they receive help from an exiled Japanese guide, Kichijiro, who the priests discover is actually a secret Christian—like many in Japan, living undercover, now seeking forgiveness for an act of apostasy that has caused him to leave his homeland.
The group eventually reaches Japan’s shores, and Kichijiro leads the Jesuits to an enclave of hidden Christians, overjoyed finally to have priests who can minister to their persecuted community. Rodrigues and Garrpe celebrate Mass, baptize infants, and hear confessions, all in secret. But the priests are soon discovered by the authorities, including a ruthless inquisitor named Inoue, who is determined to stamp out Christianity in Japan. Christians in the village are ordered to reveal themselves, and repudiate their faith by stepping on a fumie—an icon bearing the image of Christ—which many refuse to do, leading to their executions. Rodrigues and Garrpe, forced to witness this horror, become only more determined to find Ferreira, hoping that he hasn’t really apostatized and can somehow help.
The two priests decide to separate as they search for Ferreira, who is believed to be living near Nagasaki. The story then focuses on Father Rodrigues, and his trials and tribulations, which turn into a searing passion play. Betrayed by the fragile Kichijiro, just as Christ was sold out by Judas, Father Rodrigues is captured and jailed with a group of fellow Christians, who he is told will be tortured unless he, too, tramples upon the fumie and apostatizes. Evil thoughts now enter his mind: Rodrigues begins to question God, and why He is silent, with all this unspeakable suffering going on. Father Rodrigues is willing to die for Christianity, but to be forced to choose between upholding his faith and seeing fellow Christians tortured and killed becomes unbearable for him.
The climax of the movie comes when Ferreira is finally brought to Rodriguez’s cell and tries to talk him into abandoning his faith, just as Ferreira did, years before, under torture, to save other Christians from death. Ferreira argues that Christianity can never take root in the “swamp” of Japan, and that, besides, the converts in the country do not actually believe in the Son of God, but rather in a pagan sun god: The Christian missions there are all fruitless delusion.
Rodrigues knows these arguments are false, since Christianity flourished in Japan after St. Francis Xavier entered the land in 1549, leading to 300,000 Christian converts. The faith diminished only because it was forcibly repressed; further, Rodrigues had seen with his own eyes the authenticity of Japan’s Christian faithful. But the crisis of conscience he undergoes because of the threats being made against them—with their lives contingent on him renouncing his faith—leads to a wrenching decision. The choice Rodrigues makes is heartbreaking, and will doubtless be seen as forsaking his Cross by some, while others will just as strongly consider it a supreme act of Christian love.
Garfield does an extraordinary job of conveying Rodrigues’s alternating states of idealism, shock, doubt, and anguish, as he struggles to maintain his beliefs. Driver is equally memorable in his supporting role—never more so than when he dives into the ocean, desperately trying to save a group of Christians who are being mercilessly thrown into the sea, bound tight with bamboo vests, for refusing to renounce Christ. And, doing some of his finest acting since Schindler’s List, Liam Neeson is amazing as the defeated Ferreira, a shadow of the man he used to be, even as he still exhibits signs that his apostasy may not fully have taken hold.
What makes Silence soar, however, is the excellence of the ensemble Japanese cast. Yosuke Kubozuka is haunting as the conflicted sinner Kichijiro, who keeps betraying his fellow Christians for greed, only to seek absolution repeatedly from Rodrigues. Issei Ogata is towering as the lead Japanese inquisitor, who torments Rodrigues with his verbal taunts as much as with his threats of violence. Tadanobu Asano is outstanding as the interpreter.
But if there are two characters who represent the heart of this film, and convey Christian martyrdom better than any, they are the converted village elders, Ichizo and Mokichi, played by Yoshi Oida and Shinya Tsukamato. The scene in which they are hung on a cross and staked in the ocean until waves gradually overwhelm them is unforgettable, especially because the younger of the two survives this agony for several days, singing beautiful songs of Christian hope and peace. It is in this scene, more than any other, that we realize the Christian martyrs of Japan didn’t die for some imaginary pagan sun god, but for their real, flesh-and-blood Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
As acclaimed as the film is, it has not been uncontroversial. Both secularists and believers have taken issue with it. Some of the former are upset that the film depicts Christians too sympathetically, and does not condemn Christianity enough for trying to impose its imperialistic designs on Japan. But this is to fall into a crude cultural relativism, which attacks both universal truth and the essence of Christianity.
From a different angle, certain Christians are equally upset that Endo and Scorsese emphasize the confusion and apostasy of some Christian missionaries, rather than the stoicism and heroism of the martyrs. But these criticisms ignore Catholic teaching on apostasy, and assume too much about the ultimate fate of these “apostates.”
In order for apostasy to be genuine, it must be voluntary and not announced under duress. Furthermore, Father Giuseppe Chiara, the missionary priest on whom Endo based Father Rodrigues, “died some forty years after his apostasy, stating that he was still a Christian,” as Father William Johnston notes in the preface to the new edition of Silence. There is compelling, if inconclusive, textual evidence that Ferreira likewise recovered his faith, ending his life “courageously for Christ.” All of which underscores C. R. Boxer’s important point, in The Christian Century in Japan: 1549-1650—namely, that “the majority, if not all of these spiritual outcasts, revoked their apostasy in the end and returned to the faith in the evening of their days.” Little wonder, then, that the Catholic Encyclopedia comments: “There is not in the whole history of the Church a single people who can offer the admiration of the Christian world annals as glorious, and a martyrology as lengthy, as those of the people of Japan.”
The final scene in Silence is as moving as anything that has gone before it. For the film makes clear that Japanese Christianity did not die in a lifeless “swamp,” but survived—against all odds, miraculously—holding on to its sacred beliefs, and preserving a radiant vision of eternal life.
William Doino Jr. is a contributor to Inside the Vatican magazine.
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Whoa! No Need For A Glass Belly Button!" Advisor Contradicts Trump: Russians Hacked The U.S."
Cyrillic Keyboard Leaves Telltale Traces
"Advisor Contradicts Trump: Russians Hacked The U.S."
CNN
Watch the video
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"House GOP Guts Ethics Panel." Let The Plutocratic Putresence Begin!
"House GOP Guts Ethics Panel"
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/02/politics/office-of-congressional-ethics-oversight-of-ethics-committee-amendment/
England's "The Guardian" Contemplates The Dismantlement Of Congressional Ethics Panel
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/03/outcry-after-republicans-vote-to-dismantle-independent-ethics-body
England's "The Guardian" Contemplates The Dismantlement Of Congressional Ethics Panel
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/03/outcry-after-republicans-vote-to-dismantle-independent-ethics-body
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L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Disciplined After Horrific Torture Death Of 8-Year-Old Boy
Gabriel Fernandez, the 8-year-old Palmdale boy who was allegedly murdered by his mother and her boyfriend in 2013, is shown here in an undated family photograph.
L.A. Sheriff's Deputies Disciplined After Horrific Torture Death Of 8-Year-Old Boy
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America Is Not Just Ignorant
People Want To Be Lied To: The Convergent Horror Of Faithful Falsehood And Aggressive Ignorance
American Conservatives And Aggressive Ignorance
Donald Trump And The Culmination Of The American Dream
Tyranny's Best Kept Secret: It's ALL About Epistemology
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Donald Trump
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo
Isaac Asimov Explains Trump's Victory
Compilation Of Pax Posts On Similarities Between Hitler And Trump
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo t.com/2016/05/compilation-of-p ax-post-on-similarities.html
"There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: 'It's a pound.' Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is the criterion of the true which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control. And little by little you will forget that you are cheating."
Denis de Rougemont
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British Politician George Galloway Made This Documentary Film Titled "The Killing$ Of Tony Blair"
The Killing$ Of Tony Blair
"Bush's Toxic Legacy In Iraq"
Hans Blix' Fruitless Search For WMD And Bush/Cheney's Rush To War In Iraq
Cheney's Lucid 1994 Rationale For NOT Invading Iraq. Conservatives "Must" See This
"Bush's Toxic Legacy In Iraq"
Hans Blix' Fruitless Search For WMD And Bush/Cheney's Rush To War In Iraq
Cheney's Lucid 1994 Rationale For NOT Invading Iraq. Conservatives "Must" See This
"The Fall Of Iraq. Jawdropping Video Footage Of Cheney, Albright, Gen Clarke & Others"
"Israeli War Historian, Martin van Creveld's Startling Commentary On The Iraq War"http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/israeli-war-historian-martin-van.htmlExcerpt: "For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins." War historian Martin van Creveld is the only non-U.S. author whose writings are obligatory reading by America's Officer Corps."
George Will: "The 2003 Invasion Of Iraq Was The Worst Foreign Policy Decision In U.S. History"
"Israeli War Historian, Martin van Creveld's Startling Commentary On The Iraq War"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/israeli-war-historian-martin-van.html
Excerpt: "For misleading the American people, and launching the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 B.C sent his legions into Germany and lost them, Bush deserves to be impeached and, once he has been removed from office, put on trial along with the rest of the president’s men. If convicted, they’ll have plenty of time to mull over their sins." War historian Martin van Creveld is the only non-U.S. author whose writings are obligatory reading by America's Officer Corps."
George Will: "The 2003 Invasion Of Iraq Was The Worst Foreign Policy Decision In U.S. History"
"Terrorism And The Other Religions"
"Terrorism And The Other Religions"
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Conservative Christianity: Reality As Parody
"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"
Republican Lawmaker From Nevada Sends Christmas Card Featuring Fully Armed Family
Australian Comedian Nails 2nd Amendment Evangelists
http://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2015/03/ australian-comedian-nails-2nd- amendment.html
http://paxonbothhouses.
The Number Of People Who Use Guns In Self-Defense Is Negligible
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Donald Trump's Collision Course With Biblical Prophecy
"There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: 'It's a pound.' Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is the criterion of the true which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control. And little by little you will forget that you are cheating."
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Donald Trump
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo t.com/2016/06/compendium-of-pa x-posts-about-donald.html
That's The "First Lady" On The Right, Trophy Wife #3
Brought To You By "The Party Of Family Values"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo
That's The "First Lady" On The Right, Trophy Wife #3
Brought To You By "The Party Of Family Values"
Foul Audio Tape: Trump Encourages His Fellows To Just "Grab Them By The Pussy"
Trump's First Wife Ivana, Talks About His Raping Her
Audio Tape: Trump Brags About Trying To "Fuck" A "Married Woman"
Audio Tape: Trump Says On Hot Mic: "When You're A Star... You Can Do Anything" To Women
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Donald Trump
If Trump Wins And Your Kids Google "First Lady," Here's What They'll Get
Vulgarian Donald Trump Brags About His Penis Size During Republican National Debate
To Expose Our Children To Donald Trump Is Not Just Child Abuse, But Egregious Child Abuse
Hillary's Ad About Donald Trump As Role Medel: "Our Children Are Watching"
Donald Trump Reverses His Position Within The Same Speech! What's To Prevent His Reversal On Anything?
George Lakoff: How Trump Uses Your Brain Against You And Why His Policy Details Don't Matter
Keith Olbermann's 176 Reasons Trump Shouldn't Be President(Yes, It's All Here And Worth Hearing In One Relentless Torrent)
Post-Truth Trump: Devious Donald Suddenly"Grows An Inch" And No One "Gives A Trump"
Best Trump Memes From Pax On Both Houses
Are Republicans Insane? Best Pax Posts
There Are Two Ways Of Lying..." Denis de Rougemont And Donald Trumphttp://paxonbothhouses.blogspo t.com/2015/12/donald-trump-and -denise-de-rougemont.html
If Trump Wins And Your Kids Google "First Lady," Here's What They'll GetYeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"
Vulgarian Donald Trump Brags About His Penis Size During Republican National Debate
To Expose Our Children To Donald Trump Is Not Just Child Abuse, But Egregious Child Abuse
Hillary's Ad About Donald Trump As Role Medel: "Our Children Are Watching"
Donald Trump Reverses His Position Within The Same Speech!
What's To Prevent His Reversal On Anything?
George Lakoff: How Trump Uses Your Brain Against You And Why His Policy Details Don't Matter
Keith Olbermann's 176 Reasons Trump Shouldn't Be President
(Yes, It's All Here And Worth Hearing In One Relentless Torrent)
Post-Truth Trump: Devious Donald Suddenly
"Grows An Inch" And No One "Gives A Trump"
Best Trump Memes From Pax On Both Houses
Are Republicans Insane? Best Pax Posts
There Are Two Ways Of Lying..." Denis de Rougemont And Donald Trump
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspo t.com/2015/12/donald-trump-and -denise-de-rougemont.html
If Trump Wins And Your Kids Google "First Lady," Here's What They'll Get
Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"
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"Frog Hospital" And "Pax" Discuss Rednecks, Ignorance And Conservative Christianity
Dear Fred,
Thanks for your email.
There is a qualitative difference between "being ignorant" (a widespread affliction of humankind) and being aggressively ignorant.
Boastfully ignorant.
Proudly ignorant.
Evangelically ignorant. (In both the "sacred" and "secular" sense of "evangelical.")
During my youth -- and I imagine it was the same for you -- adults with little formal education took for granted that well-educated people actually knew things about science, humanities and "the arts" which they themselves did not know and that such knowledge generally elevated people.
On balance, "the uneducated" looked upon "the educated" as cultural beacons. Teachers were revered and, overwhelming, people understood that learning was a good thing.
On balance, "the uneducated" looked upon "the educated" as cultural beacons. Teachers were revered and, overwhelming, people understood that learning was a good thing.
In this Time of Untruth, people who do not like the "findings of science" (or any other inconvenient truth) just make s___ up, or dive headlong into conspiracy theories that "prove" the rudiments of X, Y and Z are not true.
As you know, "The Thinking Housewife" -- alongside legions of seemingly intelligent people -- assert that Sandy Hook never took place but was "staged" by Homeland Security's theater troop to turn people against The Second Amendment. (And pigs fly... all the way to The Oval Office.)
As you know, "The Thinking Housewife" -- alongside legions of seemingly intelligent people -- assert that Sandy Hook never took place but was "staged" by Homeland Security's theater troop to turn people against The Second Amendment. (And pigs fly... all the way to The Oval Office.)
Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting Conspiracy Theories
"Quos deus vult perdere prius dementat.""Whom God would destroy, he first makes mad."
The transition from widespread admiration-for-education to the angry, arrogant, avaricious, lustful vulgarianism of Donald J. Trump, has been described luminously in a book I consider the most overlooked tome of the 20th century, Jose Ortega y Gassett's "The Rebellion of The Masses."
In some ways "The Rebellion of The Masses" is a subtle work wherein liberals and conservatives both find what they want.
But the conclusion is clear: once industrialism put an end to the patronage system, "workers" no longer needed a patron/overlord to provide "protection" in exchange for the labor they could sell nowhere else.
And so, the masses were liberated economically as a side effect of large-scale, capital-driven industry.
Once liberated, uneducated workers turned their backs (unwittingly) on the hierarchical social system that had always guaranteed a stable social order.
In this Boisterous New World any uneducated worker confronting an abusive patron-employer (or simply a patron-employer s/he did not like) could tell patron-boss to "take his job and shove it."
It must also be pointed out that this unprecedented liberation of "the masses" also liberated women... and for the first time.
(By way of disclaimer I should add that while the central meaning of "The Revolution Of The Masses" is evident to me, I have also considered Chesterton a left-leaning revolutionary whereas most people consider him an exemplary conservative. http://paxonbothhouses. blogspot.com/2014/10/pax-on- both-houses-gk-chesterton- posts.html)
But the conclusion is clear: once industrialism put an end to the patronage system, "workers" no longer needed a patron/overlord to provide "protection" in exchange for the labor they could sell nowhere else.
And so, the masses were liberated economically as a side effect of large-scale, capital-driven industry.
Once liberated, uneducated workers turned their backs (unwittingly) on the hierarchical social system that had always guaranteed a stable social order.
In this Boisterous New World any uneducated worker confronting an abusive patron-employer (or simply a patron-employer s/he did not like) could tell patron-boss to "take his job and shove it."
It must also be pointed out that this unprecedented liberation of "the masses" also liberated women... and for the first time.
(By way of disclaimer I should add that while the central meaning of "The Revolution Of The Masses" is evident to me, I have also considered Chesterton a left-leaning revolutionary whereas most people consider him an exemplary conservative. http://paxonbothhouses.
Once freed from the socio-economic bonds of a hierarchical patronage system, workers no longer paid respect -- nor did they feign respect -- for their "betters." (While acknowledging that there will always be disparity in workplace recompense, throughout my life I have believed that tradesmen should be paid as much as professional people. In general I have higher regard for plumbers than I do for most professionals although I still have high regard for the latter.)
The crux of Ortega y Gasset's "Rebellion Of The Masses" is this...
As long as un-formed - and largely uninformed - workers admired and honored education, the social order was safe.
And time-out-of-mind most "poor" workers have honored the uplifting qualities of education.
And time-out-of-mind most "poor" workers have honored the uplifting qualities of education.
However, over the course of a century in which American industrial workers did not need to educate themselves in order to earn a good middle-class wage, they degenerated into couch-potato, beer-swilling vidiots who (at least implicitly) held the "educated" social order in contempt.
Suddenly, yahoo ignorance was just as good as educated people's knowledge. By God, the yahoos would "go it alone" denying any need for taxation or other contribution to a system that kept "elites" in power.
Suddenly, yahoo ignorance was just as good as educated people's knowledge. By God, the yahoos would "go it alone" denying any need for taxation or other contribution to a system that kept "elites" in power.
Lacking education themselves, the working class began to revere greedy self-aggrandizement whose "fruits" would enable them to purchase ceaseless pleasure while ignoring the essential social virtues of The Common Good. In the process, "workers" replaced social value with "everything money can buy," including "the government."
The transition from democracy-to-plutocracy is now baked in the cake and, in a twinkle, Trump has morphed from a vile human being to the savior of White Christianity.
Although there have always been wealthy people, it has also been true that, until recently (when "The Wolves of Wall Street" replaced traditionally wealthy people), a "critical mass" of rich folk was imbued with noblesse oblige which prevented the exhaustion of "social capital" and the dependable social order that has always been grounded in "social capital."
"Back in the day," the wealthiest man on earth, Andrew Carnegie, said:
Nowadays, lower class "sheeple" make common cause with upper class "wolves" in dimwitted opposition to all taxes (blithely unaware that "taxes are the price we pay for civilization."
Be they capitalist wolves or meth-shooting "workers" whom the wolves have created, this new generation of uneducated boors takes special pride-and-pleasure in trying to eliminate "the death tax" to make sure "ungodly rich people" spoil their children just as their top-heavy wealth has spoiled them.
Ben Franklin On "No New Taxes"
1910 Income Tax Promised To Never Shift Burden From Richest 1 - 4%
Instruction And Education Aim At Antipodes
And so we come to this linchpin moment ---with Yahoo Número Uno at the top of the heap modeling the virtues of vulgarianism for the wide spectrum of underlings whose detachment from -- and non-participation in -- any orderly social system first coarsened them, then seduced them into alliance with their oppressors.
"La Rebelión de las Masas": https://es.wikipedia.o rg/wiki/La_rebeli%C3%B3n_de_la s_masas
"The Revolt of The Masses": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Revolt_of_the_Masses
Free online English language version of "The Revolt of The Masses": http://pinkmonkey.com /dl/library1/revolt.pdf
Free online Spanish language version of "La Rebelión de las Masas": https://filosofiauacm. files.wordpress.com/2010/02/jo se_ortega_y_gasset_-_la_rebeli on_de_las_masas.pdf
- "As they say in the United States: “to be different is to be indecent.” The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this “everybody” is not “everybody.” “Everybody” was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialised minorities. Nowadays, “everybody” is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features." (Chapter 1: The Coming of the Masses)
- "The Fascist and Syndicalist species were characterized by the first appearance of a type of man who did not care to give reasons or even to be right, but who was simply resolved to impose his opinions. That was the novelty: the right not to be right, not to be reasonable: 'the reason of unreason.'" (Chapter 8: Why the Masses Intervene in Everything and Why They Always Intervene Violently)
- It does not often occur to "the masses" that creating self-employment is often more ennobling than being "a wage slave." An so we witness the modern world's worship of "jobs" - and Donald Trump who promises to "bring them back."
- Alan: Ortega y Gasset's insight into America's ongoing cultural collapse is downright prophetic, setting him alongside Isaiah and Jeremiah. White "Christians" will rankle at this suggestion, but it was white "Christians" who elected The Thug.
- Within four years, "The Saved" will emerge from The Horror they have concocted, their religion tarnished, their savior revealed as The Prince of Darkness, and --- stunned by their satanic self-deception --- their personal faith threadbare or gone.
"There are two ways of lying, as there are two ways of deceiving customers. If the scale registers 15 ounces, you can say: 'It's a pound.' Your lie will remain relative to an invariable measure of the true. If customers check it, they can see that they are being robbed, and you know by how much you are robbing them: a truth remains as a judge between you. But if the demon induces you to tamper with the scale itself, it is the criterion of the true which is denatured, there is no longer any possible control. And little by little you will forget that you are cheating."
Compendium Of Pax Posts About Donald Trumphttp://paxonbothhouses.blogspo t.com/2016/06/compendium-of-pa x-posts-about-donald.html
Compilation Of Pax Posts On Similarities Between Hitler And Trump
I defined redneck as being a man who takes pride in his ignorance.Azimov says we have a cult of ignorance in out country. Immediately I wonder -- isn't this true in every country?
On Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 10:55 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
Isaac Asimov Explains Trump's Victory
Hannah Arendt: The Horror Of NormalityCaro Giovanni,
Happy New Year to you and yours!
I do not know what good it does to sign online petitions but this one does have the virtue of strengthening our resolve to oppose a monstrous sociopath. http://paxonbothhou ses.blogspot.com/2016/07/is- donald-trump-sociopath-taking- his.html
Follow the Money!
Here are some more "solidarity enhancers." (The Mormon Tabernacle Chorister is my choice for 2017's Person Of The Year.)
I defined redneck as being a man who takes pride in his ignorance.Azimov says we have a cult of ignorance in out country. Immediately I wonder -- isn't this true in every country?On Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 10:55 AM, Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com> wrote:Isaac Asimov Explains Trump's VictoryHannah Arendt: The Horror Of NormalityCaro Giovanni,Happy New Year to you and yours!I do not know what good it does to sign online petitions but this one does have the virtue of strengthening our resolve to oppose a monstrous sociopath. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2016/07/is- donald-trump-sociopath-taking- his.html Follow the Money!Here are some more "solidarity enhancers." (The Mormon Tabernacle Chorister is my choice for 2017's Person Of The Year.)
Citing Trump's "Fascism" And "Tyranny," Mormon Tabernacle Chorister Resigns
Time Magazine
"Kremlin Names Trump Employee Of The Month
Love
Alan
---------- Forwarded message ----------From: JSDate: Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 11:24 AMSubject: I just signed this petition -- will you?To: Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>
I just took action to tell Congress to investigate Trump's potential corruption and foreign entanglements, and I think you should too: https://act.credoaction.com/si gn/trump_cummings_corruption_2 ?sp_ref=256192904.4.177232.e.0 .2&referring_akid=.11260903.2P yAvp&source=mailto_sp
--
Time Magazine"Kremlin Names Trump Employee Of The MonthLoveAlan---------- Forwarded message ----------From: JSDate: Sun, Jan 1, 2017 at 11:24 AMSubject: I just signed this petition -- will you?To: Alan Archibald <alanarchibaldo@gmail.com>I just took action to tell Congress to investigate Trump's potential corruption and foreign entanglements, and I think you should too: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_cummings_corruption_2 ?sp_ref=256192904.4.177232.e.0 .2&referring_akid=.11260903.2P yAvp&source=mailto_sp --
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Thomas Aquinas, The Scientific Method And How To Know God
Where Conservative Christians Go Wrong
Dear Fred,
Almost always, we believe what we believe.
And the more a person becomes convinced of his beliefs the more intransigent s/he become.
The only hope in all this is science.
Friend Byron likes to say: "The Scientific Method is the only mechanism humans have which reveals truth by trying to prove that postulates -- and preliminary findings -- are wrong."
Utilitarians that gringos are, we tend to think of Science narrowly: it is "the motherlode" from which we "mine" techonology.
In this view, Science is The Source of Gizmos.
In the American mind, science is ultimately about practicality, not theology... and n'er the twain shall meet.
"Better living through chemistry!"
However, as I see it, the scientific method is an exquisite epistemological device adumbrated by Thomas Aquinas who (as you may tire of hearing) said we must take sensory evidence as far as we can and -- at that point -- faith begins.
I think Aquinas would have changed his theological mind about female fetuses being "en-souled" later than males during the embryological process because contemporary science would have persuaded him of what his senses could not see in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
Ensoulment
Wikipedia
Did St. Thomas Aquinas believe ensoulment occurred 40 or 80 days after conception, making abortion permissible until then?
Even more importantly, Aquinas said sensory knowledge and divine knowledge cannot be in conflict because God-Summum-Bonum-Truth is the orgin of both and since God is good, what emerges from God is good.
Compendium Of Pax Posts On Thomas Aquinas
Arguing against those who said that natural philosophy was contrary to the Christian faith, (Aquinas) writes in his treatise "Faith, Reason and Theology that "even though the natural light of the human mind is inadequate to make known what is revealed by faith, nevertheless what is divinely taught to us by faith cannot be contrary to what we are endowed with by nature. One or the other would have to be false, and since we have both of them from God, he would be the cause of our error, which is impossible."
"Aladdin's Lamp: How Greek Science Came to Europe Through the Islamic World" by John Freely
Notably, in Aquinas' view, The Natural Order is the touchstone to which our understanding of The Divine must correspond.
In effect, our understanding of The Divine is backchecked by comparing it with what we DO know -- sensorially -- about The Natural Order.
Most Christians -- and probably most believers in any faith system -- put it the other way around, positing theological premises "out of the blue," then making phenomenal reality correspond to that sheer conjecture.
Pax tecum
Alan
On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 1:21 PM, Fred Owens <froghospital911@gmail.com> wrote:
RF and Laura Wood need to talk to each other about Sandy Hook --- too strange for me
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