Universities and the attack on religion

The primary purpose of university presidents is to raise funds for the university.  The university boards select the person that can best relate to the hot buttons of the potential donor base.

In the case of Ivy League institutions (not to be confused with “mental institutions”, although I understand the confusion), the most lucrative potential donor base is comprised of leftist, mostly atheist, woke, white rich people who feel guilt about slavery. 

Who better to fit that role than a black, female leftist whose academic specialty is the advance of globalism and increasing diversity, except for Jews.  Enter Claudine Gay of Hahvid.

Over the past several years there have been numerous instances of conservative speakers being banned from university campuses.  The reasons given focused around other students feeling “threatened” or concerns about violence from leftists who objected to free speech, although the excuses were never quite that transparent.  Free speech was taboo for conservatives on campus.

But when it comes to promoting the extermination of Jews (or probably any religious group except Islam) free speech is protected and condoned.

Going to the nub of the matter, universities have a strong bias against religion.  They believe they take the high moral road by defining the group they believe are “oppressed” (blacks, Muslims, Palestinians) and tailoring their warped sense of morality and fairness to defend and promote those groups, no matter what crimes or atrocities they commit.  US urban riots, George Floyd and October 7th come to mind.

The consequence of this warped mindset is that the rule of law and traditional morality go out the window.  Rioting, acts of terror, and atrocities become justifiable because they are committed by the “oppressed.”

Most religions have a set of immutable moral standards.  These absolutes get in the way of the leftist mindset.  The leftist college president, university donors and professors, and most students don’t tolerate any constraint on addressing their version of the “oppressed.”  Religious people are in their way because morality is in their way.  So they create their own morality:  Extremism in defense of liberation is no vice, to mangle the words that Goldwater was condemned for.

Even plagiarism by a university president has been declared A OK by the university that alleges such high standards. That is just another instance of a corrupt system not wanting to be shackled by old fashioned rules so they can promote their own agenda of “liberation.”

“Proportionality” in the Israel/Hamas war…

 When a military/terrorist force whose Islamic ideology for decades has vowed the elimination of your nation and your race, and then slaughters 1,400 or your civilian women, children, and men, what does “proportionality” mean?

Here are several possible meanings of that term, with only one that fits the situation.

Definition #1:

Respond by killing only the number of people who were killed.  This definition is the limitation that Palestinians and US leftists would like to impose on Israel.  Anything beyond that is called “ethnic cleansing.”  That is rather strange since that is exactly what the initial attacks against Israel intended to carry out.

Definition #2:

Respond by eliminating ONLY the Hamas leadership or planners who carried out the attack.  This is similar in effect to the first definition.  It stops way short of addressing the perpetual threat to Israel.

Definition #3:

Give Hamas a stern warning that if they dare attack Israel again, they will be sorry.  This is the “proportionality” preferred by Hamas, the Palestinians, and the Islamic nations as a whole.  It is also the proportionality practiced by the Biden administration when US interests are attacked by Iranian, Syrian, or Yemen missiles.

Definition #4:

Base “proportionality” on intent as well as current and historical actions. 

For example, if an individual announced his hatred of you and expressed his intent to kill you, and over several years actually attempted to do so on numerous occasions, and no legal entity was available to stop his repeated attempts, what would be an appropriate action on your part?  Warn him?  Cut off his right thumb?  Or more?

This is the situation Israel finds itself in.  Hamas, and the Islamic doctrine and Ummah [Islamic community] generally,  have for decades declared their hatred of Israel and vow to wipe Israel and Jews off the face of the earth.  And on numerous occasions since Israel’s founding in 1948 has attempted to do so through several wars that Israel won.

And over the last several years there have been thousands of rocket attacks coming off of Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon against Israel.  The October 7th attack is when Israel's restraint was finally broken.

Given that backdrop, here is the required definition of “proportionality”:

The elimination of all who planned, financed, equipped, carried out, and supported or continue to support the attacks against Israel , along with their sustaining infrastructure.

THAT is the only rational definition of “proportionality” that Israel should apply and appears to be applying to the current situation. This proportionality is based on a combination of both intent and repeated and ongoing actions of the adversary.

The apologists for Islam, Hamas, Gazans and Palestinians are wailing, gnashing their teeth and ripping their shirts over such Israeli audacity.  This includes most of the media, leftist politicians along with ignorant college students who are doing the same via protests and incendiary propaganda.

The October 31 Israel bombing of the location of known terror leaders north of Gaza City is a case in point.  It just so happened to have also been a refugee center occupied by several thousand Gazans who ignored Israel’s warning to move south out of the northern Gaza war zone. Those who remain were appropriately assumed to be either Hamas fighters or willing human shields. Twenty some were killed and a hundred or more injured.

Again we hear wailing, gnashing of teeth and ripping of shirts with cries of “ethnic cleansing” and “war crimes.”

War is hell.  Justified proportionality is a bitch. Israel is attempting to finish what Hamas started and intended for Israel.

__________________

As an aside, the Houthis, who control Yemen, have today declared war on Israel.  Their motto:

“Allahu akbar, death to the United States, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory for Islam"

Hamas believes exactly the same.

Who are the "citizens" of Gaza?  They are described HERE.

The "Citizens of Gaza"

 President Biden proclaims that Israel has every right to go after Hamas, but Israel must protect and provide aid to the citizens of Gaza.

Why is this such insanely bad advice? Let’s explore who the “citizens of Gaza” really are, what they believe and what they want.

Their religion

Sunni Muslim is the religion of 98 to 99% of the population based on a 2012 estimate reported by Wikiwand:   https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Demographics_of_the_State_of_Palestine

The historic and current doctrine of Islam is to subdue or eliminate the Jews.  This is a belief held by the vast majority of Islamic leaders in the world.  The US government has not yet publicly accepted this fact.

It therefore makes sense that nearly all the citizens of Gaza endorse this belief to a significant degree – many rabidly.  Appeasement toward Islam has been the policy of the US government since well before 9-11.  Throwing billions of dollars at hostile Islamic nations in the hopes that they will hate us less has been the US practice for decades.  The US continues to insist this practice should be applied to “the citizens of Gaza.”

Their government

From Wikipedia: 

“The governance of the Gaza Strip since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 has been carried out by Hamas, which is often referred to as the Hamas government in Gaza.”

From the CIA Factbook: 

“The Gaza Strip has been under the de facto governing authority of the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) since 2007…”

Hamas came to power through intifada, aka “uprising.”  Uprisings typically occur through “popular revolt”. From this fact, it is easy to conclude that “the citizens of Gaza” support Hamas, their governing authority.

Their goals

The goal of Hamas and “the citizens of Gaza” are the same as the goals of what the Western media calls “radical Islam”:  To subdue or eliminate “infidels”, aka, those who do not follow strict tenants of Islam.  “Radical Islam” is the main body of Islamic doctrine both historically and currently in the Middle East. In the West, the goals are more subdued or hidden, thus the media refers to the Muslim majority in the West as “moderate Muslims.” 

Their morality

Islamic morality differs significantly from that of Jews and Christians – from that in the West, generally.  Lying and deceit to protect oneself or defend beliefs, referred to as taqiyya, is predominant and accepted practice in Islamic culture, while it is frowned upon in Judeo-Christian/Western culture.  The West tends to apply our expectations of morality to Muslims usually with unexpected and devastating results.

Case study:  The ‘Hospital Incident’

The missile that hit the parking lot of the Al-Ahli hospital in north Gaza in the early morning of October 18th provides a stark example of Islamic morality.

Islamic Jihad, one of many militant/terror groups in Gaza, fired a barrage of rockets toward Israel. One rocket veered off course and landed in the hospital parking lot two miles from the launch site, spewing and igniting volatile rocket accelerant through the immediate area. The hospital building was not significantly damaged.  There is overwhelming evidence that the rocket was fired from Gaza, did not destroy the hospital, and few were killed.

Hamas immediately spread the lie that an Israeli rocket destroyed the hospital killing 500 innocents. This incited mobs in a dozen Islamic nations to mass demonstrations and attacks on Israeli and Western embassies.

Even in the US, Muslim Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar aka AOC, instigated mob demonstrations throughout Washington DC resulting in over 500 arrests. Even a full 24 hours after indisputable facts debunked their rabid erroneous accusations, they persisted.

For people such as these, it is moral and proper for white to be called black in defense of their beliefs.

Here is much more concerning worldwide Islamic fabrication of the hospital incident:

https://gellerreport.com/2023/10/hamas-hospital-bombing-voice-recording-released-of-hamas-operatives-admitting-to-it-muslim-u-s-congresswomen-incite-to-jewish-genocide-latest-updates.html/

So, these are “the citizens of Gaza” that our government wants to protect and provide $100,000,000 to “help.”  How has that “help” to Iran and other Islamic nations, winning their "hearts and minds" worked out for us so far?  US advice/warning to Israel to play nice with “the citizens of Gaza” is of no help at all to Israel.

__________________________

As an aside, I was wondering why this hospital was initially reported as “Baptist Hospital.”  Here is the reason:

The hospital has been in operation since 1882. It was founded by the Church of England’s Church Mission Society and was later run as a medical mission by the Southern Baptist Conference between 1954 and 1982. It returned to the Anglican Church in the 1980s.

The irony never ceases to amaze.

Israel Versus World Opinion

 There are several common themes lodged against Israel by Palestinian promoters around the world:

1. Israel is not protecting “Gaza citizens.”  Many “innocent Gazans” are getting killed by Israeli bombing.

2. Israel is not supplying resources to Gaza citizens. They’re without food, water and medical treatment.

3. Israel won’t allow Gaza “citizens” out of Gaza.

4. The mother of all complaints:  Palestinians, not Jews, have the right to land “occupied” by Israel.

So, let’s flesh out the illogic of these complaints.

1. Israel is not protecting “Gaza citizens.”  

Who are the Gaza “citizens” that Biden and the other enemies of Israel want to protect? The following is from https://gellerreport.com/2023/10/most-recent-palestinian-poll-over-half-would-vote-for-hamas.html/

Most recent Palestinian polling data show overwhelming preference for the Hamas terror organization.  1270 adults face-face interviews, 6/7-11/23, confirm public preference for Hamas over Fatah: Hamas +10% over Fatah in “deserving to represent the people”; Hamas leader Haniyeh +23% over Fatah’s Abbas to be President.

When asked about the best thing that happened to the ‘Palestinians’ since the establishment of Israel,  a quarter believed that the formation of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and their entry into armed struggle.

When asked about the recent armed confrontations between the Gaza Strip and Israel…..Hamas’s popularity was not damaged in either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

The ever elusive “innocent civilian” in Gaza appears harder and harder to find.

Conclusion:  At a minimum, a majority of Palestinian citizens (inclusive of Gazans) support Hamas.

Further, 99% of Gazans are Muslim.  Islamic doctrine, both historic and current, promote a Palestinian state and the elimination of Jews, generally, and Israel specifically. Since Gazans are Muslim, it is easy to conclude that nearly 100% of Gazan “citizens” supported the actions of the Hamas terror raid.

2. Israel is not supplying resources to Gaza citizens.

Why should Israel supply resources to the “citizens” of Gaza?  Hugh Fitzgerald, a writer on Jihad Watch, gives a rational answer.

https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/10/sadiq-khan-makes-clear-which-side-he-is-on

The Jewish state is under no obligation to supply anything at all to the people of Gaza, who have produced Hamas, who join Hamas, who support Hamas even if they are not members. 

Why should Israel be expected to supply its enemies with any resources? Would the Americans have delivered food and water to Nazi Germany, or to militarist Japan, during World War II? Would we have supplied electricity, food, or fuel to those living in the Islamic State? Gaza has the coastal aquifer to supply some water, and it is not completely, as Sadiq Khan claims, “without water.” Gaza’s chronic lack of water is a result of three things: weak resource management, rapid population growth, and a failure to pay for WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) infrastructure.

Is Israel at fault if Gazans have so many children, and that staggering increase in population requires more water? Is Israel to blame for the mismanagement of water resources by Hamas, including its allowing raw sewage to flow, untreated, into the sea? Or should we blame Israel for the billions of dollars in aid siphoned off by a handful of Hamas leaders, with five billion dollars being stolen by just two of them, Khaled Meshaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk? Did Israel force Hamas to spend so much money on war-making rather than on the husbanding and production of water?

One item Hugh left out of his analysis:  Hamas (Gaza citizens) dug up many hundreds of feet of water pipe to build missiles air mailed to Israel.

3. Israel won’t allow Gaza “citizens” out of Gaza.

This claim is bogus on several levels.

First, the definition of “citizen” includes Hamas soldiers and sympathizers, the legitimate target of Israel.

Second, and more significantly, virtually NONE of the Islamic nations in the neighborhood will accept Gazan refugees.  Why not?  Two reasons:

1) They want to be able to blame Israel for any harm that befalls them for propaganda purposes, and

2) They want the Gazan population to remain in Gaza to bolster the efforts of Islam to establish a Palestinian state to further their goal of eliminating Israel.

Here is a typical pro-Palestinian AP headline that demonstrates this tactic:

Israel bombs Gaza region where civilians were told to seek refuge

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-war-biden-rafah-e062825a375d9eb62e95509cab95b80c

4. “Palestinians”, not Jews, have the right to land “occupied” by Israel.

By this logic, Florida should go back to Spain, the US southwest ought to return to Mexico, and Alaska should be returned to Russia.

And this fully ignores ancient history where Jews have occupied the lands of present day Israel for millennia.

So pick a date, any date, and one can argue that anyone standing on any given parcel for more than five minutes has perpetual rights to it.

Here is Wikipedia’s tortured and convoluted description of the origins of “Palestine’: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Origin_of_the_Palestinians

No doubt Wikipedia/al Jazeera will promote origins different from that explained by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, which makes a lot more sense as follows:

• What is the source of the name “Palestine?” It is not Arab; it is derived from the name “Palestina,” by which the Roman Emperor Hadrian chose to call the land after the defeat of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in 135 CE. His aim was to erase “Judea.”

• According to Palestinian historian Muhammad Y. Muslih, during the entire 400 year period of Ottoman rule (1517-1918), before the British set up the 30-year-long Palestine Mandate, “There was no political unit known as Palestine.” In Arabic, the area was known as al-Ard al-Muqadassa (the holy land), or Surya al-Janubiyya (southern Syria), but not Palestine.

• Not a single Palestinian tribe identifies its roots in Canaan; instead, they all see themselves as proud Arabs descended from the most notable Arab tribes of the Hejaz, today’s Iraq, or Yemen. Even the Kanaan family of Nablus locates its origins in Syria. Some Palestinian clans are Kurdish or Egyptian in origin, and in Mount Hebron, there are traditions of Jewish origins.

• This study does not deny the right of the Palestinian clans as a whole to define themselves as a Palestinian people. It would be better, however, if the Palestinian leadership were to choose a positive and constructive narrative and not a baseless one that is intended to negate that of the Jews of Israel.

https://jcpa.org/article/who-are-the-palestinians/

The common denominator of Israel’s current and perpetual problem is Islam; the Islamic doctrine and practice of Jew hatred.

Bottom line:  This is not so much about real estate as it is about the Islamic doctrine and strong aspiration to eliminate Jews.  Islam:  The anti-Semitic contagion of the world.

What is Hamas End Game?

 First, quit calling the occupants of Gaza “Arabs” or “Palestinians.”  They are Muslims.  True to the core practitioners of Islam, the ideology of Muhammad, the murdering pervert.

Next, understand the core of Islam:  To subdue non-believers while striving to eradicate Jews first, then Christians next.

Islam is comprised of both radicals and moderates.  Radicals are the most devout among Islam. They are the ones with guns, knives, and bombs, plus those who plan the schemes for their use against infidels.  Moderates are the balance of Muslims who support the radicals through finance, legal, logistic and social means.  Sure, some are “go along to get along” types, but most believe in their cause.

Here is an NPR (Islamic apologist) major headline from the internet:

Palestinians grow frustrated with militants in Gaza, and a rift could ...

Aug 26, 2022 GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — When fighting erupted between Israel and the hard-line Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, here earlier this month, the battle lasted just three days but it took a ...

Don’t believe any of that crap for a second.

Gaza is comprised of both radical and moderate Muslims.  It is one compact organic killing machine governed by Hamas.

Hamas is a proxy (tool) of Iran.  Hamas is funded and coordinated by Iranian leadership.

Now, Hamas either decided to go on this killing spree alone, or it is part of a larger plan. I personally don’t believe they decided to massacre on the scale they did as a solo, one off event.

So, the other, more likely, option is the Hamas massacre is part of Iran’s larger operation.  It won’t end with Hamas.  Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria, and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank are all primed by Iran to join the fray.

Islamic Jihad in West Bank vows to join Al-Aqsa Storm op.

Today Islamic Jihad in West Bank vows to join Al-Aqsa Storm op. TEHRAN, Oct. 12 (MNA) - Abu Hamza, the spokesman of Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, announced early Thursday that the battle with the occupiers is no longer limited to the Gaza Strip.

It is also quite likely that Russia and ally Iran have joined together to instigate this upheaval as a distraction for the US in its support of Ukraine.

Unless Iran has a change of heart (unlikely) expect Israel’s (and US) challenges to multiply in the region in the coming days and weeks.

Iran, Russia and Islamic mania (a shared beneficial partnership) are the perfect combination to bring havoc to any region of the world.

Double standard against Israel

 We often hear from the left, America haters, and Israel haters the complaint of “Israeli apartheid.”

I’ll say it up front:  Those “folk” either have "mush" for brains (I preferred to use the "s" word) or have an agenda that is both deceived and seditious.

The great majority of the 50+ Islamic nations around the world, and the dozen or so in the immediate neighborhood of Israel are 98+ % Muslim,  Those nations, and their heavily enforced Islamic doctrine, do not tolerate other beliefs.  They simply don’t put up with other religions.  The punishment for exposing their un-Islamic preferences is typically well beyond western sensibilities.  That is the essence of hyper-bigoted, intolerant and religious xenophobia's – pick a word.

Yet what do we have in Israel? (https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Religion_in_Israel)

Judaism–Hiloni (33.1%)

Judaism–Masorti (24.3%)

Judaism–Dati (8.8%)

Judaism–Haredi (7.3%)

Islam (18.1%)

Christianity (1.9%)

Druze (1.6%)

Others and unclassified (4.8%)

Over 25% of Israel’s population is non-Jewish.  Over 18% are Islamic.

And why doesn’t Israel have the right to have a 98+% Jewish nation?  Not many seem to complain about the Islamic exclusivity of the ~50 super-majority Islamic nations of the world.

There is ONLY ONE majority Jewish nation:  Israel.  And the leftists, America haters, and Israel haters complain.  That is the definition of anti-Semite aka, “mush for brains.”

Logic tells us Israel should go one step further.

Since the mix of religions in Israel has created so much havoc over the past decades, it seems that their current demographic mix does not work well.

They need to follow the lead of their Islamic cohorts.  Muslims are the least compatible in a Jewish state.  Every single one, no matter how deceptively “moderate” they may seem, should be deported to one of their super-majority Islamic nations where they can feel at home.

Further, the terrorist strongholds and terror launching grounds of Gaza and the West Bank should become part of Israel.  The “two state” solution is all one sided BS.  The “one state” solution is a fair exchange for Islam's 50 Muslim majority nations.

For further confirmation of the double standard against Israel, here is a list of Muslim majority countries: 

https://mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AI6b2pkKAyu_ZSP66gT1iIGal2U

Country	Muslim Majority Countries _pew2020
Morocco	99.9
Afghanistan	99.7
Somalia	99.7
Iran	99.5
Tunisia	99.5
Western Sahara	99.4
Iraq	99.1
Yemen	99.1
Mauritania	99.1
Mayotte	98.6
Maldives	98.4
Niger	98.3
Comoros	98.3
Turkey	98
Algeria	97.9
Palestine	97.9
Azerbaijan	97.3
Uzbekistan	97.1
Jordan	97.1
Djibouti	96.9
Senegal	96.6
Libya	96.6
Pakistan	96.5
Tajikistan	96.4
Egypt	95.3
Gambia	95.3
Mali	94.6
Turkmenistan	93
Syria	92.8
Saudi Arabia	92.7
Bangladesh	90.8
Sudan	90.7
Kyrgyzstan	89.4
Indonesia	87
Oman	85.9
Guinea	84.6
Albania	82.1
Sierra Leone	78.5
Brunei	75.1
United Arab Emirates	75
Kazakhstan	72
Kuwait	70.7
Bahrain	69.7
Malaysia	66.1
Qatar	65.2
Burkina Faso	62.7
Lebanon	61.2
Chad	55.1
Bosnia and Herzegovina	46.5

Shallow-thinking of the highly educated

If you have been known by a leftist as a Trump supporter, chances are the economic and social positions you have held since waaaay before Trump came down the escalator are ridiculed as "blindly following Trump."

This is the essence of the "Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)", a mental disorder that has not yet made its way (and never will) into the lexicon of the "feel good" leftist psychiatric profession.

Those with TDS dismiss the simple things, like the importance of secure national borders to maintain national security and reduce the flow of drugs and crime into our country.

Like not invoking price and wage controls that distort and disrupt the marketplace.

Like the great benefits of being energy independent, using the energy resources we already have to the fullest to keep us competitive.

Like not wasting billions of dollars to subsidize the EV industry decades before our electric infrastructure can handle it, and before ALL the true life cycle costs of battery technology are understood.  

Like not falling all over ourselves believing humans impact climate change more than a fluttering gnats whisker while spending billions trying to reverse what our solar system was designed to do.

Like the fad of sexual perversion, believing sex change and deviance have better outcomes than the status quo, attempting to reinvent biology and thousands of years of universal morality.

Nope.  99% of Trump, Desantis, and Haley supporters held to these ideas well before any of these candidates even thought of running for president.  These candidates have merely tapped into the sentiments of these previously ignored common sense principles.

Common sense is offhandedly dismissed by those stricken with TDS. 

Are morality and Christianity blamed for triggering killers?

We’ve all heard of “safe spaces” set aside by educators and employees to protect college students and employees of woke corporations from the thoughts of evil conservatives. Those are places where those easily offended by the realities of life, like traditional morality, can go so they won’t be stressed, or worse, triggered to do something they may or may not regret.

Those nasty conservatives, those who promote patriotism and traditional morality, and, God-forbid, those who practice Bibilical Christian doctrine, are the evil provocateurs – bigots and worse:  Haters.

Is it any wonder why a perfectly normal 28-year-old transgender would be upset.  She had no “safe space.”  Her Christian parents possibly sent her over the edge. She had to vent somewhere. Her former Christian school was the place to take her stand.

This latest Nashville school shooting reveals the culprit.  The word on the leftist street is that morality is to blame, especially European based, white male controlled Christian morality is to blame for provoking mass shootings and urban riots.

The culprits?  Morality and laws.  Laws lead to discrimination against law breakers.  Morality, even apart from laws, leads to some people choosing to be immoral.  Immorality leads to discrimination.  Both lawbreaking and immorality result in discrimination, incarceration, shunning, and becoming social outcasts.  Criminals and the amoral are stressed by that.  They often become triggered and do even worse things.  And who’s to blame?  The “sanctimonious” culture:  The folks who have the uncaring audacity to promote moral standards and laws that are intended to do the most good for the greatest number.

The solution of the left?  Change the culture.  Ignore morality.  Outlaw morality if possible.  Eliminate law enforcement. Eliminate laws altogether if possible.

What sick, demented thinking.

Conservatives are conservative for a reason.  As Eric Utter wrote in the American Thinker:

Conservatives, on the other hand, wish to conserve the best of the past, and pass on the accrued wisdom and best practices of millennia past.

Millenia-old morality has a purpose.  Good laws have a purpose.  They stand the test of time in preserving both culture and nation.

Do those who hate morality and laws do so because they hate our culture and nation?  Or do those who hate our culture and nation do so because they hate morality and laws?

It probably doesn’t matter.  They both go hand in hand.

Here is a thought provoking article from American Thinker on this topic titled “Belief in traditional American values plummeting…”

By Eric Utter

According to a depressing new poll from The Wall Street Journal, belief in the importance of traditional American values has plummeted in the United States in recent decades.

The poll queried U.S. respondents about the importance of patriotism, religious faith, having children, and other traditionally American values in their lives.  Only 39% of Americans surveyed said their religious faith is very important to them, and just 38% said patriotism is very important.

The Journal compared those numbers to the results from the first time it ran the poll in 1998…when 62% of Americans said religion was very important to them, and 70% said patriotism was.  And that was during the Clinton administration!

So, apparently, a majority of Americans no longer believe that either religion or patriotism is important.

If that is the case, Democrats will never be out of power again.  They never tire of dissing the country, its founders…and the concept of objective truth, morality…and God.  ("Male and female He made them?  Screw that, I decide if I am male or female…or any other gender, including ones I make up out of whole cloth!")

Remarkably, the survey also purported to find that a plurality of Americans believe that the U.S. has not gone far enough in promoting equality between men and women; accepting people who are gay, lesbian, or bisexual; or promoting racial and ethnic diversity in business and universities.  If we go any farther down that road, no one but members of the BIPOC LGBTQ Community will ever again be allowed to head a company or attend college.

The results of this poll, if they are reasonably accurate depictions of Americans' values, or lack thereof, are disheartening to say the least.  If, essentially, 23% of Americans lost their belief in a higher power, and 32% lost their belief in the goodness of their country in just the past 25 years…it is time to turn out the lights, as the party is unquestionably over.

The founders knew that this was a distinct possibility at some point.  John Adams famously observed, "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  This is one reason "progressives" disdain them so.  They disdain the very concepts of morality and religion, as they tend to put boundaries on people's behavior.  A God would be competition for them, and that they cannot countenance.

Conservatives, on the other hand, wish to conserve the best of the past and pass on the accrued wisdom and best practices of millennia past.  (We are not reflexively against change, such as voting Democrats out of office, potentially eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, defunding National Public Radio, proposing school choice and voucher initiatives, or re-funding the police.)

It is no coincidence that testosterone and sperm levels have fallen during this same period.  Or that I.Q.s have declined, too. It all ties together.  As Andrew Breitbart averred, it is true that politics is downstream from culture.  And the current cultural cesspool feeds the stream that flows through — and poisons — our political class.

Objectively, this leads to one inescapable conclusion: sickeningly, the incessant lies that "progressive" Democrats — and their sycophantic lapdogs in the mainstream media — have told the American people…have been effective.  Indoctrination works.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/03/belief_in_traditional_american_values_plummeting_new_wall_street_journal_poll_shows.html

*****

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. 

It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Thomas Jefferson

Public/private partnerships are a tool of Wokeism

During my three decades as a City Planner, the concept of Public/Private Partnerships was a vaunted tool for getting things done.  That concept has gone awry on several levels.

First, it has been misused to promote private interests over public interests in the area of eminent domain.  Sure, sometimes private and public interests coincide.  But too often those responsible for public governance are too heavily influenced by private interests and the outcome is lucrative for the private sector and sketchy for the public.

The second example is the coalescence of the private social media conglomerates and the federal government.  If the federal government was communist, like China (which we are not supposed to be), the influence of social media by that government would be legitimate.  But we’re not supposed to have a communist government, defined as having one set of top-down values imposed on everyone.  We have a government that has a wide variety of diverse views.  It is wildly improper for the federal government to “partner” with corporations to promote a singular viewpoint the conflicts with strong views of at least half the nation.

Then there is the idea of “government policy.”  Shouldn’t the federal government encourage the private sector to promote “government policy?”  No.  Not when said “government policy” is considered by at least half the nation to be destructive to our culture, values, economy, morals, and the strength and global standing of our nation.

The Federal Government has adopted government policies that promote and enforce the values of “wokeism.”  Wokeism is comprised of the following distortions of traditional values, truths, and common sense:

* Our nation’s founding was based primarily on greed and prejudice.  History needs to be rewritten to reflect that evil.

* White’s, and male whites in particular, are racist and evil. “People of color” (except the “white” color) are incapable of being equally racist.

* Laws are based on the white European culture and should not be imposed on people of color. Institutions that enforce these laws are evil and should be eliminated or severely downsized.

* The concept of “sin”, traditional “morality” and binary gender identity are relics of outmoded religion and should be suppressed.  Tolerance for any preference and any behavior needs to be promoted and enforced.

* Only speech that is offensive to NO ONE should be allowed.  Speech that violates the above principles should be prohibited.

Wokeism is our new religion.  Tolerance for everything is its primary dogma. 

While the Federal government does not yet promote or enforce all of the above, there are substantial portions of it that we call “the deep state” that either enforce some of these things, have aspirations to do so, or who partner with corporations to pave the way toward enforcement.

Enough from me.  Below is a link to a current article from Imprimis titled “The Twitter Files Reveal an Existential Threat”.  Worth your five minutes.

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/the-twitter-files-reveal-an-existential-threat/

Leftist mindset: The cause

I came across this blog on the topic of “The Leftist Mindset.. A Theory.” It attempts to answer the question: “Why do leftists prefer or ignore corruption?”

The theory, in part, is this:

I think the reason that the left ignores legitimate accusations against left leaning politicians/institutions is that the only thing that is 'true', the only thing that is 'honest', according to them, is corruption - and anyone or anything being raised up as an example of or in support of the existence of genuine morality is a liar.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politicsdebate/comments/958vqt/the_leftist_mindset_a_theory/

I have an alternate theory. The left's preference for corruption is a symptom, not a cause. They don't view their behaviors as corrupt; they view their behavior as casting off the "old ways."

Here are a few of the left’s priorities that lead to their practice of corruption as the rest of moral humanity sees them:

1) They consider themselves "liberal" for a reason. Liberal in the sense that the old ways are outmoded and useless. Several of the old ways include "religion", "the Bible", and "traditional morality." Other old ways, offshoots of traditional morality, include the sense of family, physical gender, and the concept of "nation", e.g. "no borders." In the leftist/liberal mind, those factors are merely a constraint on freedom.

2) Once they jettison these "old ways", they are free to do whatever. There is no longer the concept of "sin", "corruption", or "immorality", unless you try to impinge on their liberality by attempting to impose your "old ways" onto them.

3) Looking deeper, the question is "why do leftists jettison the “old ways?'" We have to look at human nature for that answer. There is always, always, always some segment of society that insists on rebelling against commonly accepted beliefs, culture, laws, and tradition. People who rebel in this manner consider themselves as progressing, thus the label "progressive." Sometimes it seems that good results; more often it results in disaster, especially in the longer term.

4) Then we have to ask how this happened to us in the US? Again, turning to human nature, we conclude "complacency", "self-satisfaction", "greed" to varying degrees by the majority. Ignoring these things and we have what we've got.  We’ve grown fat and lazy, both literally and figuratively. 

And yes, I need to lose 30 pounds.