Some Random Thoughts

(original draft October 3, 2019)

It has been a while since I have posted a lot, as the demands of life warrant making sure the bills are paid, necessitating employment which takes up a lot of time.  I haven't posted one of these "random thoughts" discourses in a while, so figured one was due, therefore here it is.

One of the first thoughts that comes to mind recently is the subject of politics.  The clown show that is the cache of Democrats attempting to defeat President Trump next year is the source of both amusement and alarm.  While much of what that group of fringe-radical nuts say is downright comical due to the outlandish nonsense that makes up much of their rhetoric (coming to mind of late is Julian Castro's push for abortion rights for transgender women - for those not keeping up with this, a transgender woman is a biological male who dresses up in women's clothes due to a psychological disorder called gender dysphoria - that means that such an individual cannot possibly get pregnant to begin with much less consider abortion).   However, the scary aspect of this is that if one of these individuals actually did get elected to the highest office in the country, the consequences would be catastrophic regarding the damage they could do.  The mere thought of people like Corey Booker, Beto O'Rourke (who has dropped out - God does still have mercy upon us!), or Bernie Sanders as President is not a pleasant reflection to be sure, and when a creepy pervert and plagiarist such as Joe Biden is considered a "moderate," it is cause for alarm.  Honestly, for me, it makes me pine for the Reagan years back when I was a teenager - life was better then, and people seemed to be happier.  While many of the Democrats thankfully don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning at this point - a comforting thought, by the way - the fact that they are saying what they are saying should be cause for concern regardless.  However, it is in God's hands ultimately, so we can only just watch and see how it plays out. 

Since my initial draft of this was written, two other political developments have happened worth mentioning.  First, the House of Representatives in October passed the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution with overwhelming bipartisan support.  I was actually pleasantly surprised that even otherwise reprehensible characters in the House (Pelosi, Schiff, Waters, and company) actually supported the measure - oh well; even a broken clock is right twice a day!  A measure was introduced as well to the Senate, with bipartisan sponsorship by Ted Cruz (Republican) and Bob Menendez (Democrat) called SR 150, and for the most part the Senate looks like they would vote for it (surprisingly, even Steve Cohen, a notorious anti-Armenian bigot, supports it), but then a snag happened.  Upon the visit of Turkish tyrant Recip Erdogan to Washington a couple of weeks ago, Senator Lindsay Graham developed a man-crush on the Turkish leader and unfortunately blocked a vote on it.  He was followed by a Georgia Senator who did the same thing - also Republican.  Lindsay Graham, who also is a closet liberal on some other issues, is a walking motivation to impose term limits on Congress - his betrayal of the Armenian-American community has gotten backlash too, and unfortunately it has infuriated some Armenians so much that they are accusing all Republicans (despite the fact that many of the most vocal supporters of recognition, such as Gus Bilirakis and Ted Cruz, are Republicans) and are pushing on social media now for Armenians to vote Democrat in the coming election.   That development is unfortunate, and the reality is that we should never let a single issue define our voting choices.  While many Democrats did vote for the resolution - and I am glad they did something right for once - many of these same people also still push for unlimited abortion on demand, the LGBT agenda, and other things that many Armenian-Americans - many of whom are very traditionally and socially conservative on these issues - would find disagreeable.  Therefore, two things need to happen here -  first, Lindsay Graham needs to either recant or resign, and secondly, some Armenians who are letting emotions get away with them  need to understand that for American voters, Genocide recognition is not the only issue up for grabs in the coming electoral season - there are a lot of things.  Look at the big picture, in other words.  And, this leads to the second issue.

At the time I am writing this, approximately one week ago the fast-food chicken giant Chick-Fil-A noted in the past for being a Christian-influenced voice for traditional values, has seemingly dropped the ball.  In updating their charitable foundation's giving, the fast-food giant dumped the Salvation Army as a beneficiary of its charitable work due to the fact that the Salvation Army is supposedly "anti-LGBT."   Then, word came that Chick-Fil-A also had been giving contributions to both the Southern Poverty Law Center (an anti-Christian activist organization whose claim to fame is the notorious "hate map" they produce that targets conservative groups) as well as Planned Parenthood.  Chick-Fil-A's back-peddling of its original vision is rightly seen as a betrayal of its core principles, as well as a slap in the face against those who have stood with them for many years.  It essentially means that our family will not patronize Chick-Fil-A anymore, and this may be a boon to its competitors, notably Zaxby's and Bojangle's, both of which actually have better food anyway honestly.  Corporate America can be so stupid sometimes, and this illustrates the fact well. It is probably only a matter of time before Chick-Fil-A will be opening its doors on Sundays too, as the almighty dollar has replaced God Almighty as a focal point of worship for the fast-food enterprise.

On a lighter note now, recently I decided to binge-watch some old Paul Henning classics notably Petticoat Junction and Green Acres.   There is something endearing about shows like those, and in the future, I plan on actually exploring the so-called "rural purge" of network television that occurred in 1971, in which these and many other shows like them got the ax from networks such as CBS.  The "rural purge," much like James Caesar Petrillo's recording ban in the early 1940s, had a momentous impact on things, and not in a good way.  Both Petrillo and the CBS corporate hacks were out of touch with what the public wanted, and both enacted disastrous and stupid measures that contributed to the diminished quality of popular entertainment for decades after the fact.  And, as entertainment goes, so goes the culture.  There was a reason why so many Americans liked The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres, and that fact drives the emphasis of my next point.

Corporate executives and union bosses, I have learned, are actually very out-of-touch people when it comes to public sentiment.  However, the tragic thing about that is the disproportionate amount of control and influence such individuals have over consumer markets.   Recently, Barbara had a dream in which she was fired from a job for being too good at what she did, and in a sense what she saw n that dream was the very thing that characterized the "rural purge" of television that happened in 1971.  Entertainment has a primary and necessary purpose for us - it provides a diversion from much of the pressures and crap we face in life on a daily basis.   Entertainment and other forms of recreation are actually essential to our personal well-being, as leisure helps us to recharge our batteries if it is treated as it should be.  Once in awhile, in other words, we just need a break.  A show like Green Acres provided that, and people loved it.  But, then the corporate hacks had to get in there and decided to implement their own "bright ideas" - for them, TV programs (many of which these individuals didn't watch or have no interest in) had to be "more relevant" and they also all of a sudden had to address social issues of the day.  These "social issues" were inserted between the laugh tracks of the sitcoms in question, and the problem was a basic one - is this really what the public wanted??  Honestly, in my own opinion, it would say it wasn't at all.  The truth is one cannot honestly unwind from the pressures of the day while watching a fictional character like Mike "the Meathead" Stivic (played by real-life obnoxious meathead Rob Reiner) spouting socialist BS to intentionally rile his fictional father-in-law Archie Bunker into a lather.  It just does not fly.  There are instances, to be fair, where this sort of comedy is good (I call to mind 1999's Office Space, for instance - many of us can really relate to both the fictional Peter Gibbons and Milton Waddams, and I have even used micro-managing executive Lumbergh's name as a verb when some jackass in my workplace annoys me - I call that activity "Lumberghing."), but for the most part, these celebrities and their puppet-masters who are the producers and network executives need to leave politics out of sitcoms, sports, and cartoons (and I would add movies, although in some instances there are good movies that tackle real issues, so that is a different playing-field).   And, while they are at it, leave out the sex, and artificially produced "music," and other such crap out of radio too - it must be understood that there are more instruments out there than a guitar that some moron can learn three chords on to play some stupid lyrics, and also the old "doghouse" has a much better sound than the electric bass guitar, as the latter sounds more like someone with a bad case of the farts after eating a box of X-Lax anyway.  In short, the only good thing a show like All in the Family contained were the lyrics to its theme, which you remember are these:

Boy, the way Glenn Miller played,

Songs that made the Hit Parade

Guys like us we had it made,

Those were the days.

When the opening theme of a sitcom expresses a better sentiment than its plot, it speaks volumes.  I'll save more of that thunder for a later discourse.  But, to summarize, modern entertainment has been sliding down a slippery slope for decades.  Oh, it has occasional glimmers of hope - Duck Dynasty and The Waltons come to mind - but honestly, most of what is on network TV is inferior crap these days, and I don't actually watch regular TV anymore.   I am very thankful for services like Roku, where the stuff is still readily available on demand. 

As to other developments I want to discuss, we now turn our attention to other major political news, which is mainly the attempts by the media to obliterate President Trump.  Donald Trump is not our greatest President, and honestly, there are things I have an issue with him concerning certain things in particular related to foreign policy.  He and his lapdog Lindsay Graham have already been discussed in regard to the Armenian Genocide resolution, and Trump has no clue as to what he is doing when it comes to empowering madmen like Erdogan to continue their crimes against humanity.   For the most part, however, I have stayed pretty quiet in regard to President Trump, as I do have mixed perceptions of him.  Essentially, I have taken the personal policy of supporting Trump where he does good and disagreeing with him when he doesn't, and this leads to a couple of things I should make clear to many.  First, I am a traditional Catholic Monarchist in my political leanings, which means I, by and large, would be considered also a paleoconservative.   Secondly, I am not a Republican, nor did I actually vote for Trump in the last election.   Those facts established, here is what I need folks to understand - not every conservative does - nor should they - give blanket support to any politician, regardless whether or not they identify as Republican or not.  Republican does not equate with conservative, and many Republicans currently holding office are far from being true conservatives.  Being I hold that position, I am not registered Republican, nor did I vote for Trump in 2016, it must be understood first and foremost I am not a "Trump shill."   I appreciate the good he has done, and that deserves credit where credit is due, but Trump is not a reincarnated savior for anyone. A second thing I need to clarify is this - I do not currently, and have not in a long time, watched Fox News, so I cannot be accused of being "indoctrinated" with "right-wing propaganda" from Fox News either.  I have come to my own convictions by observing and drawing my own conclusions on the issues, and based on what I observe, that determines my support.  I am not 100% aboard the Republican platform (or even the majority conservative one for that matter) on a number of things, but that means little to the individuals on the radical Left - those individuals feel that anyone who tends to be conservative - either socially or economically for that matter - must be so because somehow Fox News or even Trump himself must have indoctrinated them.  That is actually insulting, as it presupposes that a conservative cannot think for themselves and thus must tow the "party line."  The fact is, however, conservatives have a wide diversity of opinions on things, and not every intelligent conservative will agree 100% on everything.  On social media, I have actually went after people for those stereotypes, but if they see the facts and own up to their own presumptions and apologize, I can easily let it go and life goes on.  Still, however, people need to understand that not every conservative is a card-carrying Republican who voted for Trump without question and lets Fox News feed them opinions.  Give us some credit - some of us just know how to be smart enough to think for ourselves, and at times when that happens one ends up with views that could tick off both fellow conservatives and Leftists.  That then leads to this - not every conservative talking-point is universally correct or espoused by every self-identified conservative, and not every talking point is wrong either - some are and some aren't.  It just means we need to return to the value of thinking critically in order to embrace what is right and discard what is wrong.  That concludes my political soapbox in the discussion.

Moving on, I wanted to sort of recollect a couple of things now, although I will save most of that for my year-end retrospection in a couple of weeks.  However, one thing comes up that does fit in, and that is the feeling that it's been so good to be back home after 27 years in exile in Florida.  Granted, moving back here has had its challenges - many challenges actually! - but I have no regrets regarding the big decision to move back.  The location we live in now is actually at the center of my greater domain, which stretches roughly from Clarksburg, WV in the west to Baltimore in the east, and from Pittsburgh in the north to Marlinton, WV, in the south.  This essentially encompasses the area where most of my life, my legacy, and my heritage is found.  It is familiar, comfortable, and well, just home.  The thought of even moving anywhere else now is out of the question, as now we are actually getting ready to buy our current place and re-establish roots again.  It is good for Mom as well, as she is in her twilight years and she'll at least die on home turf when her time comes as well.  I just wanted to spend some time on that.  

Moving onto other thoughts, I have a bit of faith perspective now.  If you have seen Fiddler on the Roof, you will recall in the beginning scenes of the movie that a group of villagers was either getting out of Shabbat services at the local village synagogue, or they were having a town meeting.  One villager then asks the rabbi if it is proper to pray for the Czar (the film is set during a time of pograms in Russia just prior to the 1917 Revolution, and although the Czar was not directly responsible for these atrocities, Jews were targeted by their Slav neighbors at times).  The rabbi replies with this - "God bless and keep the Czar - far away from us!"   I may expand on that for a future SPT article, but a couple of things did spurn this discussion.   A couple of days ago (prior to writing this original draft), the notorious and openly socialist Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was hospitalized for what essentially was a heart attack.  Bernie is 78 years old, so, to be honest, he's a bit old anyway for the activity he is doing.  Further, due to his very anti-Christian rhetoric and associations, Bernie is rightly an enemy to those of us of Christian faith.  There are many layers to this, but for sake of time the essential point is this - we can, in good faith and correct conviction, both pray for our enemies as well as praying for protection from them.  Bernie's situation could be an answer to both types of prayers - he didn't die, which is good, but at the same time, or could have used this to restrain him from doing anything further to jeopardize his people.  Even though for all practicality Bernie is more like Lenin than the Czar, I think the fictional rabbi in Fiddler says something that could equally apply in both situations.  As mentioned, this is a potential SPT article for later, as it warrants more in-depth study.  

So, there they are - some good random thoughts for the time being.  I may have more later, so stay tuned.   Otherwise, the best to all who chose to read these eccentric and eclectic ramblings.