Growing Old Ain't For Sissies

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED TWELVE
Blessing

Next week we will be off for a five-week drive through the West. We will be visiting our children and grandchildren and a few other lovely spots along the way. Here in Lexington Our Lady of La Habra, with a little help from our daughter Carrie, will be keeping an eye on the garden.

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift his countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”

Numbers 6.24-26

See you all in October!

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN
Critocracy

A few years ago I was particularly interested in communications and the media. I came across a big, glossy magazine called Brill’s Content. The subscription was cheap so I bought a year. I did find something worth reading occasionally but it was generally a disappointment. Others must have felt the same—it went belly-up before my subscription ran out.

To avoid giving me money back they gave the balance of my subscription to Mother Jones, a rag written for and by aging hippies. Mother Jones was leg hair and Birkenstocks and vintage Volvos. It was save the whales, the snails and the Redwoods—it was PETA and ACLU and NARAL everything liberal--everything “progressive” Democrats thought a magazine of the people should be.

Mother Jones came regularly for the rest of that year and at least two years more before they decided I would never become a paid subscriber. When they cut me off they also cut their losses by selling my name to the ACLU. For the last three years I have been getting weekly pleas from the ACLU to help them deliver the country from President Bush--to help them preserve the hard won liberties that the President and his lackeys are determined to take away. I have sent back a variety of negative responses but they continue to hope this name sold them by Mother Jones may eventually see the light and send some money.

What are some of the “hard won liberties and rights” that the ACLU wants my help to preserve?

1. FREEDOM FROM THE LAWS ENACTED BY THE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE.

The Greek word "kritikos" means “able to discern or judge.” A kritikos is someone who expresses a reasoned opinion on any matter esp. involving a judgment of its value, truth, righteousness, etc. A democracy is a political community ruled by the majority through its elected representatives. A critocracy is a political community ruled by judges, usually unelected and not responsible to the people. For the last 70 years a Critocracy has been taking over our democracy. The lawyers of the ACLU are desperately fearful of a change in the Supreme Court that might upset this cozy little arrangement.

2. FREEDOM TO MARRY OR DIVORCE WHOEVER OR WHATEVER OR HOW MANY I CHOOSE.

The distinctiveness of marriage has been abolished (Baird v. Eisenstadt). We are on a slippery slope. Soon someone will claim the right to marry her cat so that the cat will get her Social Security when she dies. The current court system could not be counted on to deny such a claim.

3. A FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION WITHOUT THE MENTION OF THE “THE LAWS OF NATURE AND OF NATURE’S GOD.”

Prayer and Bible reading in school have been stamped out (Abington, Schemp, et al.). Stories abound of the ludicrous lengths school boards and educators are going on to be sure there is no mention of “God” or of “the Laws of Nature’s God” anywhere within the hallowed halls of education. There are no absolutes and no objective truth in public education anymore—only relativism rooted in feelings.

4. FREEDOM TO HAVE MY BABY MURDERED IN THE WOMB AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON.

The mother’s womb has become the most dangerous place for a baby (Roe v. Wade, et al.). The Supreme Court decisions on abortion have made the right to a dead baby an absolute, inviolable right. The blood of over 40,000,000 dead babies cries out from the ground bearing eloquent witness to the popularity of this “freedom.”

5. FREEDOM OF MINOR GIRLS TO DO AS THEY PLEASE WITHOUT INTERFERENCE FROM THEIR PARENTS.

The rights (but not the duties) of fathers and parents of minor girls have been voided (Planned Parenthood v. Danforth). Minor girls must have parental permission to get their ears pierced, but not to get birth control pills or an abortion to solve the problems generated by giving birth control pills to minor girls.

6. FREEDOM TO GO TO PUBLIC PLACES WITHOUT HAVING TO SEE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

Supreme Court decisions have been slap-dash strange in this area but the general trend is to eliminate any mention of the Laws of God on public property. Wesley Pruden has suggested that placing “You shall not steal, lie, or commit adultery” on courthouse walls would create a “hostile work environment” in a place crowded with lawyers, politicians, and judges.

7. FREEDOM TO CHOOSE MY GENDER AND CHANGE IT AT WILL.

The natural distinction between male and female is well on the way to being abolished (Goodridge, Lawrence, et al.) What used to be male or female is now a continuum of about 10 categories, all with legal standing and specific special rights.

8. FREEDOM TO CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS WITHOUT HAVING TO LISTEN TO CHRISTMAS CAROLS OR SEE PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF THE BABY WHO’S BIRTHDAY IS BEING CELEBRATED.

9. FREEDOM TO RECEIVE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT IN EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT BASED ON MY GENDER OR SKIN COLOR.

Affirmative action is so deeply embedded in our laws and our habits it will take generations of careful surgery to remove it. The ACLU is sure that such surgery will kill the patient.

10. FREEDOM TO PURCHASE AND CONSUME PORNOGRAPHY AT ANY TIME IN ANY PLACE.

Pornography is legal and ubiquitous. The same judges who would take “Under God” out of the pledge of allegiance, find that the vilest, most obscene trash since Caligula and Nero is nothing but “free speech” that is protected by the Constitution.

Brick by brick the ACLU and the secular-humanist courts are busy demolishing the foundations and essential structure of the great American experiment. What started out as a republic of sovereign states has turned into a Federal oligarchy of “Supreme Judges.”

Unfortunately we have mostly ourselves to blame. Fred Reed has a somewhat jaundiced view of “the people,” but he is pretty accurate when he observes:

“The people lack the intelligence to govern any entity larger than a very small town. Particularly in the United States they read little, think less, know almost nothing of history, geography, the nature and politics of the world beyond the borders. They are thus easily swayed, frightened, enraged, gulled, and led into dog-pack patriotism by those, far smarter and more aware, who understand the levers of power. They so quickly give up liberty to those who offer to protect them. They are eager to do it. Look around you.”
Fred On Everything, 4.7.2005

Actually, this could be a pretty good summary of the thinking of the Blue State Elite who have found it easier to enact their secular humanist agenda through a corrupt judiciary than through frightening or gulling the man on the street at the ballot box. To call the rights listed above “liberties” is to indulge in Orwellian newspeak. The liberties the ACLU is promoting and trying to preserve are nothing more than bondage to the selfish whims autonomous man, fallen man at that.

The ability of our judges to “discern or judge” is highly questionable. The best example of their utter failure in this regard is their ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (1992), 851. The Supremes here announced they had discovered a new right in the Constitution the "right to define one's own personal concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

To find such a right in the Constitution, written by the same men who signed the Declaration of Independence, is ludicrous. In the Declaration, these men spoke of the "laws of nature and of Nature's God," regarding an equality given to all men by "their Creator."

In this decision the Court was propounding a universal moral right not to recognize the universal moral laws on which all rights depend. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that if they are right about this, they can never be considered right about anything else. They have destroyed the foundation of moral truth that all men know and replaced it with opinions by men who feel, but do not know.

As the flap goes ballistic on the appointment of a judge to replace Sandra Day O’Connor, we can only pray for those involved. It is possible that the next two appointments could begin to move the wayward “Supremes” off their thrones and back into the place the Founding Fathers designed for them. That would not solve all our problems, but would be a long step in the right direction.

+++++++

"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt." --Samuel Adams

+++++++

“Woe unto those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight.”
Isaiah 5.20-21

NUMBER ONE HUNDRED TEN
From Whence A Poem?


"The essence of a poem is
that one thing in it requires another."
John Ciardi


From out the black
The first line comes:
The second rolls
Like jungle drums:
From that point on
The track feeds back
To drums and black,
Or else, anon,
The poem's gone.


"They wanted to come in...explained Pooh,
so I let them. It is the best way to write poetry,
letting things come in."
The House at Pooh Corner

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