Long Absence - Time to Catch Up Some

 It has been a couple of months since last writing anything, and to be honest there is good reason for that - a lot of personal transitions are going on in my life right now, some of which I am not at liberty to chat about at this time but will at a later date.  But, I needed to write in order to assure those who care to read this that I am still alive and well.  That being said, let's talk about some things.

We all can agree that the year 2020 has been probably one of the most bizarre years we have had in a long time.  We have all been affected to some degree - the social distancing measures, the masks, etc.   And, that is just the COVID-19 stuff!  There have also been riots all over the place, instigated by Marxist terrorist organizations such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter, and to top that off it is an election year.  All of these things have impacted us in a lot of ways, and we have been coerced essentially into embracing a new definition of "normal."   However, the good thing about the human race is that God imbued us with a resiliency to adapt and "make do" with the circumstances, and like everyone else I have done that with a significant degree of success.   I do miss some things though - like attending Mass in a regular church, eating Mongolian BBQ at the local Chinese buffet, and actually being able to breathe without a mask over my nose when I go into a supermarket or other public arena.  However, this too shall pass within time - something tells me the Presidential elections may be a key to determining the end of the situation but that is just me.

In addition to experiencing a lot of these things as part of the greater society, I have also been faced with some personal transitions of my own, including the death of my father last month and another big life-changing circumstance that I cannot divulge a lot about at this time.  Additionally, with the acquisition soon of my Maryland driving license and starting my PhD. program in a couple of weeks, it has been a busy summer season for me.  But, again, I am at this point at the threshold of a new chapter in my own life, and it is a chapter that is starting off a bit hectic but will begin to fall into place once the initial dust settles from the transitioning. 

I mentioned my PhD program, and I wanted to talk about that for a bit.  Back in February, I had a huge disappointment when Catholic University of America, where I was hoping to pursue this, turned me down for admission due to the fact I didn't have enough prerequisite coursework for the program, which personally I thought was a bunch of BS but it is what it is.  So, that left me in a bit of limbo as to how to continue to get this terminal degree, and I finally - after a LOT of inner debate! - settled on Liberty University.  Liberty as you know is a large Evangelical Protestant university founded in the early 1970's in Lynchburg, VA, by Baptist evangelist Jerry Falwell.  While a solid bastion of conservative values, I was honestly a bit apprehensive about the whole thing as I am now Catholic and I really wanted Catholic coursework for my doctorate program.  So, I changed my educational goals slightly, and was accepted a couple of months back into Liberty for the PhD in History program, which I think will be compatible both with my career aspirations and my Catholic convictions.  I am now at peace about doing this, and my start date is on August 24th - hard to believe in less than two weeks from when I am writing this I will be embarking on my doctorate, a long time in coming!  I was also blessed with full financial aid to enroll in the program, and I can also graduate from it in 3 years with my doctorate, which is fantastic.  I am a little apprehensive, but the excitement of getting this accomplished far outweighs any apprehensions I have.  It was a bit of a detour I didn't expect, but it will get me to the same destination regardless.

The next part of all this is a bit of inner reassessment with my Catholic faith.  I will remain a Catholic until I die, I know that, and that is not even the issue.  The main thing about that is deciding now, given circumstances, how to remain Catholic in a regular parish where many fellow parishioners often espouse certain spiritual and theological views that are at odds with traditional Catholic doctrine. I will deal with the specifics of that on my other page, as that is an ecclesiastical/theological issue, but I wanted to explore the personal dimension for myself here.  I have always been somewhat more conservative and staunchly a traditionalist as far as my faith is concerned, but often I have had to settle for less than what I really desired.  In recent weeks, I have been doing some inner reflection on that, and have decided that at some point this year I will begin attending a more traditional Latin Mass downtown here at the nearby parish of St. Mary's.  The Ordinary Form of the Mass (or Novus Ordo) is the primary Mass that is celebrated at most Catholic parishes, including at St. Joseph's where we attend now.  This Mass is the product of some post-Vatican II revisions in the Catholic Mass that were instituted beginning around 1969 or so, and it is considered the "regular" Mass of most Catholics.  I am not totally against the Ordinary Form at all, as in the past I have attended some very reverent Ordinary Form Masses, and if done properly, it can be a spiritually fulfilling Mass.  But, the problem for me is some of the "tweaks" that some clergy and lay leaders like to incorporate into the Mass - guitars, and the use of secular songs such as "My Sweet Lord" and "Little Darling" as Communion hymns - that is really taking innovation too far.  Also, the attitudes of some laity in these parishes at times scare me - I mentioned the encounter a couple of months back with a local member and leader in our Knights of Columbus council who was actually defending Saul Alinsky, a notorious Marxist, and also more or less saying his feelings matter more than Church teaching, and yet this guy has parish leadership - I have nicknamed this individual Count Dooku, as like that fictional character from the Star Wars story he is a Sith posing as a Jedi (or to put it in Scriptural terms, a wolf in sheep's clothing).  I have heard other things too, and also have seen it displayed among sixth-graders I have taught who have no idea how to find a verse in the Bible, and lack sufficient knowledge of even basic Catholic devotions such as the Our Father and the Hail Mary.  For a faithful Catholic convert like myself, it puts me in a weird position in that I know the Catholic Faith is of God, but many manifestations of it I am seeing are woefully short and even outright defiant of Magisterial authority.  You even see it now in bishops and hierarchy in the Church also, which is even more alarming.  These observations have led me to pursue a more traditional expression of my faith, and that is why I am now in a position to start attending the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass), which is celebrated only a couple of miles from my house.  I think attending that will probably help me to grow in my faith more, as well as reestablishing faith in my Church for being what Christ called her to be.  As mentioned, a couple of other life changes have also been pivotal in making this decision, and at some point in the near future I will share that as well. 

I am also going to now talk about what is coming in the next couple of months or so, as I do want to get back into my writing and such.  I have explored the Star Wars idea, as I have recently re-watched all the movies, and I have some insights to share.  Due to the COVID-19 issue, I have not been able to be the food critic I normally am in my culinary blog, but hopefully that will change too.  Likewise, I do have some projects in the works for my theological page, and cannot wait to implement those either.  And, I wanted to also do a brief thing on my father who just recently passed away - Dad and I were not that close over the past few years, but he was my father and I did love him, although we had differences.  Dad also had many good attributes as well, and I feel like he needs to be memorialized for those.  I am at present waiting on his estate to be settled, as his executor, a very nice lady named Susan Hickox, is sending me some of his personal effects and I wanted to use those to talk a little more about him.  So, we will wait on those as well.  

I will be back soon to share more, as the proverbial dust settles and I have more focus to talk more, and when I do I will have some interesting stuff to share.  So, stay tuned, and also protect yourselves by observing the proper safety measures as we slog on through this COVID-19 mess.  

Some Reflections

This conversation I am initiating has no real plan - I just wanted to reflect on a few things that I haven't been able to do for a while.  Due to the fact I have limited space to work and a lot of distractions in the house, I haven't been able to write as much although I probably should have.  This sort of makes up for that in regard to the fact that I need to keep things going and active, and this is the way to do it.  Let us begin some small retrospections until my creative juices kick in (along with a cup of Southern Pecan flavored coffee with Italian sweet cream - a good way to start the day, by the way!).

With the whole COVID-19 situation, it has been an interesting couple of months - having to wear masks everywhere you go, the whole social distancing stuff, and the fact that only a couple of weeks ago we were able to attend Mass at our parish church again.  Fortunately, no one in our house caught COVID (at least that we know about!) and for the most part it has been a challenging but somewhat good series of events.  I know, for instance, that there are some who had issues with Trump's generous stimulus plan, and if you do, that is your problem.   Personally, it has been a real blessing for our household, in that we have not only been able to keep up our regular expenses, but we have even managed to get a few things in the house we have been needing for some time - our finches have a new cage, the bunny's new cage is on the way as I write this, and we got our storage shed outside.  The $1200 that our good President gave us each has been a big boost to our personal economy.  In addition, due to being unable to work in my industry, I have a good unemployment package supplemented generously by the stimulus plan passed by our leaders, and that has really helped us out.  A lot of our old debt was eliminated as a result, and we were able to get some stuff done around the house that was long overdue.  Therefore, in many aspects, the current pandemic situation has been a blessing to us, and thanks be to God for that.  Unfortunately, the recent string of riots in response to George Floyd's death at the hands of a bad cop has caused a national stink, and that has me somewhat concerned, so I wanted to very briefly address that as it's an issue I will be dealing with later on in lieu of the overarching picture.

George Floyd's death frankly should not have happened.  Yes, the guy was a lowlife and a criminal, but he did nothing deserving of death - a lengthy prison sentence would have been sufficive enough for him.  And, the cop who did the killing, Derek Chauvin, is as big of a lowlife as Floyd was, and his conviction for possible first-degree murder is a just conviction. We all agree that Chauvin was a dirtbag cop, and that Floyd was unjustly murdered, and I don't think anyone would dispute that.  But, here is where the issue got a bit touchy - Floyd's murder at the hands of a dirtbag cop caused a more violent reaction when a group of thugs, radicals, and anarchists - we call them Black Lives Matter and Antifa - started a series of riots beginning in Minneapolis, where the incident took place, and then spreading to cities around the country.  Antifa, frankly, is a terrorist organization, and its partner in crime, BLM, is equally suspect in that - the President rightly called Antifa a domestic terrorist group, and he made a good call on that.  As of late, they have taken to vandalizing statues and monuments (even Gandhi and MLK have suffered desecration at the hands of these terrorists), and in an ultimate act of insanity, they recently cordoned off a section of Seattle and declared their own "nation" called the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone (or CHAZ for short), and are seeking to colonize other cities with CHAZ outposts.  I won't get into all the details of this now, but to summarize these are terrorists - many of whom are Marxists - who are causing a lot of chaos in our nation, and I am in favor of brute force to bring them down.  In my personal opinion, if they want an independent "nation," let them have it - I say good riddance to that riff-raff.  Like I said, those are my basic thoughts on the issue, although I have more to elaborate on at another time.  For now, that gives at least an idea of my feelings on the subject.

Moving onto lighter subject matter, I wanted to reflect on a few things I have come across in the past couple of months, in that they are some personal revelation concerning my path forward.  Being 50 years old now is still a bit to grasp - I now have AARP membership, for crying out loud!  And, although I say "lighter" in comparison to the COVID-19 issue and the whole Antifa/CHAZ thing, it is actually quite serious.  We are in the process of stepping out onto a new threshold in our lives, as Barb and I have come to some important decisions together.   One of those is finally getting my mother out of our house.  For those that know me, I didn't have one of the best childhoods, and the story of that is best left for another day as well, but my mother was not the model parent and she has never been all that supportive of me either.  Yet, six years ago she managed to end up living with us (against my better judgment honestly), and lately she has been causing some major problems.   I will not go into the detail of that, but essentially those things led to her move out of our home.  It is time Barbara and I claimed our lives back and my mother was a suppressive force in us doing that, so she needed to go.  Thankfully, she is a veteran, so the VA has her covered for most of her needs, meaning she will be fine and probably in better condition.  Also, the move may benefit her as well - she needs a level of independence for herself she can't have here, and for all of us it is the best solution.  I only pray it goes smoothly, as she didn't receive the news well when we gave it to her, but there are no regrets.  At some point, I will share some insights in regard to that, as I know others have similar issues with "problem parents," and it is something I feel I could hopefully be an encouragement to others in sharing my story at the appropriate time.  For those reading this, I ask for your prayers, and if you are reading this in the future when all the details have played out, thank you for your prayers and support and encouragement.

Many factors have compelled me to reassess my life recently - the issues with my mother, our accident back in 2016 which almost took our lives, and many other things - and it has compelled me as well to start reflecting on many things.  At a half-century of life now, I am at a new place - although many memories of my younger days seem fresh, it is shocking to think how long ago most of it really was.  It seems like only yesterday, for instance, that Barb and I got married (in reality it has been 28 years!), and it also seems like yesterday that I was still a struggling college student working on my Bachelor's (which I earned in 1996, 24 years ago).  I also just passed my 31st anniversary of graduating high school, and have been doing administrative office work for the better of 22 years.  More of a shock is how many people I knew who are now gone onto their eternal reward - at age 50, I only have one grandparent left, that being my 95-year-old grandfather.  As overall healthy as he is, he may make it to 100 - time will tell.  Then, as I was reflecting on my journal entries that led to these blogs, I have been doing a consistent journal now for just under 24 years.  Then, there is my music collection - on October 1st, I will have been collecting vintage big band records for 38 years!  It has also been 20 years now since I became Catholic, and 34 since becoming a Christian as a whole - 34 years on February 9th that has passed since I was baptized.  Many things that I used to think were a milestone for only being a couple of years have now landmarked at over 20 - where has the time gone??   Stuff like that is what I have been thinking of as of late. 

In moving back to this area only 3 years ago, we have also been able to explore some old places over the past couple of years, and the change is evident.  Kirby, WV, where I spent a large part of my childhood, is now a ghost town practically, as the old Grassy Lick School where I went to elementary school is now closed and in its location a local community center has opened, maintained by local volunteers.  Our old trailer from those years, which was a 5-minute walk from the school, is no longer there, and Cox's Store has closed down.  We have made many trips over to Hampshire County in the past couple of years, and many things there have indeed changed, but much has remained the same - the backroads still look pretty much like they did 40 years ago, and some landmarks such as the Rio Mall (where I began my record collection back in 1982) are still there as well.  The Rio Mall outlasted many of the people we used to know there years back.  Also, a major benefit of moving back here - although we live in Hagerstown, MD, a good hour and a half from Hampshire County - is enjoying old culinary favorites - longhorn cheese and stick pepperoni from the general stores, Utz Chips, Frozen Run birch beer, and Fox's Pizza.  It is also good to travel on those roads - in particular US 50 - that we had been on for many years, and I missed a lot of those old towns such as Mount Storm, Scherr, Aurora, Red House, Gorman, and the various communities in my home counties of Preston and Tucker such as Thomas, Davis, Silver Lake, Rowlesburg, Terra Alta, Kingwood, etc., as well as the place of my birth, Parsons, and my hometown of Hendricks.  I actually have a lot of personal history in the four hours between Morgantown, WV, and Baltimore, and I live right in the middle of everything here.  And, not all the bad from our 27 years of Florida exile is lost either - within a couple of hours of us are Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC.  In those places are the specialty shops I identify with on a lot of my cuisine - there are Indian stores, Italian delis, Middle Eastern groceries, and Ethiopian markets within a 70-mile distance, and Philly even has Georgian cuisine readily available.  And the Amish markets - we are within a short distance of Lancaster here, so visiting "Amish Country" is relatively easy to do now, not to mention large Amish markets here in Hagerstown and elsewhere in the region.  We live as well within a reasonable distance of four states 0 Virginia is only 25 miles south of us, my native West Virginia is only a few miles away, and if you go an equally short few miles out of town, you are in Pennsylvania - a couple of more hours out, you have Delaware and the beach, and also those succulent Chesapeake Bay oysters!  Despite some challenges, life is good here, and I have no regrets moving back except for maybe the job commute - the job market in Hagerstown is not the best, and many of my work projects have actually been in Frederick, some 25 miles away.  But, that too can change thankfully.  This gives you an idea of how life is now, and how in many ways it is a revisitation of my past - I fondly remember the good aspects of my past, but also it has been somewhat difficult to face some painful things as well, but also vital.  We are beginning though to establish roots, and that leads to some other aspects of my discussion now.

Last year, the leasing office in our park we live in extended to us an opportunity to purchase this home we live in now, and enthusiastically we began pursuing it.  We are in the process of completing the paperwork now, and will submit it once Mother is moved out and we can more actively plan.  Home ownership has eluded us for many years - along with other things that have eluded us - and this is something we cannot pass up.  It is a nice place too, and we have much potential for really developing it into the home we desire, especially with the dead-weight of Mother out of the picture.  Home ownership also means permanent roots now, as we are here to stay - those big moves, including the monumental one that got us here, are becoming too much of a challenge for us, and I don't think we could make another large move like that honestly.  In addition to home ownership, we are also sending out other roots now too - I am a commissioned Maryland Notary Public now, as well as recently being made a 4th-Degree Knight of Columbus, and we also are an active part of our parish church, St. Joseph in Hagerstown, where we are involved in a variety of capacities.  Additionally, I have a Master's degree now, and am starting a doctorate in less than two months, which I want to now devote some discussion to.

It was approximately 22 years between the time I got my Bachelor's (1996) and the time I earned my Master's (2018), and honestly, I am coming to the terminal degree, my Ph.D., almost too late.  The road to getting my Ph.D. was a somewhat bumpy one, in that originally the plan was to attend Catholic University of America.  Unfortunately, I didn't get in, and it was a huge and disappointing blow to me when I got the rejection letter in February.  However, upon careful research and counsel from my parish priest and others, I decided to give Liberty University a try, and I was accepted into their Ph.D. in History program a couple of months back.  Liberty was not my first choice to wrap up almost 50 years of formal education, but it ended up being the best option.  And, the process went amazingly smooth - I was accepted quite quickly, and I got full financial aid to start, and on August 24th I begin my first term.   A Ph.D. in History will more or less give me a broad diversity in my training which consists of an undergraduate specialty in Church Ministries, a graduate specialization in Catechetics, and now a doctoral emphasis in the field of History.  I still could use some more specific Catholic training in some areas I know, but all in good time - I have a breaking decision I will talk about at a later date in regard to that.   Any rate, it is still somewhat surreal to grasp that I am officially beginning doctoral work after all these years, and it promises to be a busy time the next 3 years or so.  But, we can do it, and I have an anticipation about getting started.

That pretty much reflects on what has been happening in my life as of late, and hopefully I didn't lose you reading this as I rambled about mentally in my thoughts while writing this.  I will be attempting to catch up on some projects as I have research to do for some important insights I want to share in the coming months, so bear with me.  Thanks again for visiting, and we will be back to chat again soon.

PSA on the Coronavirus Crisis - Just a Few Thoughts

In the past couple of weeks, most of us have seen a very abrupt and fundamental shift in our normal routines due to a recent outbreak of a strain of influenza called the Coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19.  For many, a situation of this magnitude is a new thing, and it has resulted in some very bizarre reactions - notably, hoarding toilet paper from practically every supermarket in business right now.  So, how are we to respond?  I can't say personally, as at this point most of us are still trying to figure out the answer to that.  All I am going to do here is just offer a few observations, and you are welcome to take or leave them as you will.

First, I want to make something very clear - it is in no way "racist" to refer to this virus as a Chinese virus, as that is where it comes from.  Our friends on the political Left are making a huge stink about calling it a Chinese virus, and to be honest, their reasoning is ridiculous.  The virus started in China, it spread from China, and every indication is that certain factors endemic to the region of China it came from (Wuhan) is why it made such an impact, but more on that later as there are a couple of cultural issues I want to tackle.  Some people, rightly seeing how ridiculous it is to accuse people of racism for stating the obvious, are having some fun with the whole thing, and I have to admit I am enjoying it too - this is displayed primarily in some of the slang names for the epidemic, such as "KungFlu", "WuFlu," "Flu-Ahh-Choo," and other creative and humorous descriptions some have come up with.  I cannot fault anyone for that, as we have to make something good out of the situation, and often the realm of jocularity is a good way to do it.  Plus, it ruffles the feathers of the Left, who set this double-standard of demonizing White people, or even making fun of whole regions of the country, yet they get upset when someone states the obvious fact.  Political correctness can be defined, honestly, as the lack of common sense as expressed in language, and it is a bigger pandemic than Coronavirus will ever be.  That being said, let's move on.

The response to this issue is something I have mixed feelings on.  First, it is imperative that preventative measures be taken, which is something no one of any good mind would dispute.  However, there are two areas I would like more clarification on, and they are important.  First, is there a chance of overreaction?  The risk of that needs to be always kept in mind, and it is easy for mass hysteria to overwhelm rational thinking.  I believe the best way to take preventative action is quite simple - use common sense.  Things such as washing one's hands, not sneezing or coughing on people (cover your mouth and nose, in other words), and the proper "social distancing" are all good measures.  However, with "social distancing," we need to be careful there too - none of us are islands unto ourselves, and a minimal amount of human interaction is necessary for our own wellbeing too, so hopefully people won't go overboard with it.  Secondly, what of government involvement?  Many rightly have observed that the current lockdown measures taken by many local and state governments are a bit draconian, and the question we need to ask is one I heard conservative commentator Ben Shapiro note on his "Daily Wire" broadcast on Friday - the governments need to have a solid plan in place, and any measures that are taken in necessary context cannot be codified into permanent legislation.  In other words, the government is not to be relied on to be our go-to place for all answers, as it can open the door to socialism, or worse - a crisis is an ideal incubator for totalitarianism to cultivate, so let's be mindful of that as well.  Although government has a vital role to play, let's not give them more than they need as far as authority is concerned, or we will pay the price for it later (ask Germans after 1933 when Hitler came to power, or Russians in 1918 after Lenin).  The responsibility to address the crisis begins first with us as individuals, and the government has the role of making it possible for us to take the appropriate action.  Once the crisis is over, then the government's job is finished as far as those measures are concerned and it can then go back to doing what it needs to do.  As long as we keep this in mind, I think we will be fine.

Also, for those who are bewailing this situation, let me assure you it is nothing compared to worse things that have happened.  In 1985, for instance, when I was only a freshman in high school, my home state of West Virginia was hit with one of the most catastrophic floods that it had experienced in its history, and the level of damage from that flood was so severe that it altered people's lives for almost 3 years after it happened.  Towns were leveled to nothing, lives and homes were lost, and the economic toll was around (if I recall it) $40 billion.  At that time, I lived in one of those towns impacted heavily by the flooding, and I remember having to use water delivered in six-packs of aluminum cans donated by the Anheuser-Busch Corporation.  My whole freshman year of high school was spent in a partitioned fire hall in the county seat, and many people went for weeks without running water or other amenities we take for granted.  I also recall the roads - the swollen rivers devoured chunks of major highways, forcing people to detour miles just to get to work or school.  The demand for toilet paper and Wonder Bread now pales in comparison to that, but many people now don't know those types of disasters.  But, the good news is that many of those little mountain towns rebounded, rebuilt, and today they are vibrant communities.  I wonder if many will fare as well in a situation like this which is much less severe?

Let's now talk about cultural practices that made coronavirus possible.  It is of no consequence that some of the culinary and other habits of people in Wuhan had some part to play in the rise of this pandemic, and one culinary practice that has garnered some attention recently is a delicacy enjoyed by people in that region called bat soup.  To make this stuff, a live, screaming bat is deep-fried alive in a vat of boiling sesame oil, and then is scooped up and plopped into a bowl of soup stock.  While the fraculated bat is morbidly grinning at you in the bowl of broth, it is consumed whole - fur, everything! - as a meal, and the whole thing is just, well, disgusting.  People who have pointed these practices out have been labeled as "racists" naturally, despite proof that the species of bat being used in this "gourmet delicacy" has been tested and confirmed to carry a strain of coronavirus.  The problem here is not that people who do find this repugnant are "racist," but rather that there are factors that necessitated the Chinese people in a particular location to eat bats in the first place.  Bat soup, along with other weird stuff (dog meat, roasted elephant trunk, birds-nest soup, etc.) has been a delicacy in China for thousands of years, but that is the thing - it was a delicacy.  It is not traditionally normal for most people of that region to eat bats as an everyday cuisine like we do fried chicken or pot roast here, and only with an intense social engineering program which can be attributed to Mao Tse-Tung (a vicious tyrant and murderer), some 70 years ago, did it prove necessary to eat what was once considered a delicacy as an essential survival food - bats and anything else for that matter that creeps and crawls.   While maybe indulging in a weird delicacy on occasion may not hurt you, a steady diet of such things heightens the risks dramatically, and hence the incubation of potential pandemics like coronavirus.  It is also not something stereotypical of Chinese cuisine either - I don't think that the vast majority of Chinese people eat weird stuff, and therefore it is not necessary to avoid Chinese buffets here in the US (many of which are actually owned and operated by Koreans and Vietnamese anyway) - the likelihood of bat soup being on a menu here is negligible.  As a matter of fact, I personally like Chinese cuisine and have a particular affinity for the Mongolian grills many Chinese eateries feature.  So, it is OK to eat Chinese food, and that plate of sweet-and-sour chicken with fried rice will NOT give you coronavirus.  That being said, another point to be made as well as this - no one is blaming the Chinese people for this (at least, not anyone with any brains), but it is the blame of the Chinese government for its handling of the situation - the Chinese people are victims of their own repressive Marxist/socialist government, and the Chinese leadership has a lot to answer for.  The way the Communist Party leadership in China has handled this has been sloppy at best, and deliberately calculated at best, yet Bernie Sanders and other idiots who want socialism in the US still sing the praises of these monsters.  If anything, the coronavirus is a wakeup call to us to take China more seriously for the threat it is, thanks in part to self-serving tyrannical leadership there.  Another lie of the Left in relation to this is the following - by calling the coronavirus "Chinese," it will encourage "hate crimes" against Asian-Americans.  Honestly, there is not a shred of evidence that this is even happening, and it is one of the stupidest arguments I have heard yet.  This time in our nation's history is not one where "political correctness" and idiotic virtue-signaling are warranted, and it needs to stop.   The Left needs to be red-pilled to reality, in other words, and stop trying to push agendas by taking advantage of a national issue.

A final thing I wanted to mention is this - we will get through this one way or another.  Although for a season our normal flow of life may be interrupted, it would be wise for us to use that to our advantage and constructively.  This is not the time for mass hysteria or craziness, and only with level heads can we ride this crisis out and it will make better people and a better nation of us all.  Realizing that should bring us all hope.   Thank you for allowing me to share, and will see you soon - stay safe, and also take the proper precautions to protect yourself and your family.

Addressing Some Issues

I have to be honest with you as I write this - the modern political scene sickens me, and more so I am sickened by the lack of decent manners.   This came to light recently when a good friend of mine who is a minister in a Pentecostal denomination was viciously attacked for her posting on some things on social media, and the assailant was her own daughter.  I know the daughter of this friend well too - when she was but a little tyke, my wife babysat her back in the day, and at that time she was an adorable little thing.  As she grew into early adulthood though - notably in the past ten or so years - this kid moved to a major city on the West Coast and really became radicalized in her thinking.  As of now, this young girl - who was raised in church by her pastor parents - now has turned her back on the faith of her family, and has embraced both occultism and socialist politics (she is a very open "Bernie Bro," as a matter of fact).  As a result of this radicalization on her part, she has become increasingly combative and hostile toward her mother and literally anyone who disagrees with her, and to be quite honest, she has become a hateful, obnoxious, and vitriolic little brat.  Noting what I have witnessed on this the past few days, I wanted to comment some on these attitudes on the part of young people now, including a new insult that is flung indiscriminately at older folks consisting of the words "OK, Boomer!"  Some of the targets of that insult are not technically "Baby-Boomers," but are rather like myself Gen-Xers, but those of us who grew up as teens in the 1980's are now the "old geezers" I guess.   That is still something to get used to, being I have myself just turned 50 this past November.   Summarily at this point, this is not going to be one of my usually light-hearted posts about retrospection and reflection (more of those are coming though, which is the good news!) but rather this is a bit of a social rant today.  So, let me begin.

In the exchange between my friend and her oppositional (to use the psychological term for it, although I am by no means a psychological professional but my friend is) offspring, I noted several things about the discussion that just beg to be addressed in an appropriate way.  So, I want to take those one at a time and deal with them.

Like many spoiled brats under the age of 30, this kid was going off on her mother about how "respect has to be earned," but on this she failed to understand something that many of her generation are also guilty of ignoring.  Parental respect is not earned, but rather it is commanded of a child.  Kids like her need to understand that without their parents, they would not exist, and in that regard the parent has already earned the respect.  Even if you have conflict or issues with your parents (and some of us do even as adults), you still owe them a certain level of respect regardless.  Parenthood is not a merit-based position - it is a result of natural law.  If a male creature and his female mate join in some sort of conjugal union, biology dictates that offspring will more than likely result - it is the natural order of things.  Now, it is a fact that some biological parents really suck at their duties, and that often leads to abuse and neglect of their responsibilities to their offspring.  In that case, the biological parent should relinquish responsibility to someone who can fill the role, and also in this case biology may not necessarily define parenthood.  However, in the case of my friend and her daughter, this is not the situation - my friend doesn't claim to be a perfect parent, but at the same time I know for a fact she was a good parent to her children, including this obstinate daughter.  In examining this, I note what author John Horvat says in his text Return to Order (Hanover, PA:  York Press, 2013) when he writes on page 181 about the human family and the importance of preserving continuity.  He writes:

"Family members became trustees who shared not only a common blood of heredity, but a common spiritual and material inheritance that each generation must hold as a sacred trust to be safeguarded and increased."

We also note that a missing dimension in the American family today is the absence of faith.  As the late Russian Orthodox theologian, Fr. Alexander Schmemann, in his seminal text on the theology of the Eucharist entitled For the Life of the World (Crestwood, NY:  St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 2004) defines it, the rising tide of secularism that fuels such disconnection between the younger generation and their elders is "the negation of man as a worshipping being" (p. 118).  When society divorces God from the picture, and secularism becomes the rule of the day, it only follows based on Thomistic principle that natural law is also defied and ignored because to acknowledge God as the author of Nature (as both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure defines it) would be to deny one's base selfishness (called in so many terms by Horvat as frenetic intemperance) and thus would have to acknowledge that there is something (or someone) beyond the self who keeps order and balance.  In his seminal text Revolution and Counter-Revolution, the late Brazilian Catholic thinker Plinio Correa de Oliviera notes that this mindset we see displayed in my friend's daughter - the "Revolution," as he terms it - is like a parasitic fig that grows in the Amazon jungle (noted by de Oliviera as the species Urostigma oleara, known as the strangler fig) that wraps itself around an unsuspecting tree, eventually growing and overtaking it until it kills it (Plinio Correa de Oliviera, Revolution and Counter-Revolution.  Spring Grove, PA:  American TFP, 1993. p. 78).  Like this parasitic fig, the forces of the "Revolution," embodied in much of what we see with many Democratic Presidential candidates running in 2020, are choking out many defining principles of Western civilization by either re-defining them or destroying them totally.   At the root of this is a selfishness that is secular in nature and definitely not atheistic, and I will now explain why.

Atheism is defined as not worshipping any deity of any sort, and if one is a true atheist, that means nothing is worthy of worship or of the voluntary subservience of the worshipper.  Although Schemann defines secularism as the "negation of man as a worshipping being," it must be understood this way - it is the negation of man as worshipping the true source of his being.  I have argued for years and will continue to do so, that actual atheism cannot exist, and I will tell you why.  It is hard-wired into the human soul to look at something as a focus of devotion, and the problem is not necessarily an absence of devotion in many cases, but rather a misplaced devotion.  To put it this way, everyone has to worship something, as it is a necessity.  That being said, many self-described atheists are not, in reality, true atheists, because often they satisfy that need for worship by worshipping themselves (which is actually a self-directed form of humanism if anything).  God's original plan, by creating man in his image, was for us to see him as the ultimate focus of our worship and devotion, and indeed that is how it should be.  But, human nature is corrupt, thanks in part to the Fall, and thus man now seeks other things because God is not considered to be real or necessary to many of these people.   In today's society, often the political ideology of a person becomes a god to them, and hence the rise of flawed ideologies like socialism.  Also, the propensity for man to sin by fulfilling what appeals to his base passions (called concupiscence in theological terms) makes God an enemy, since to serve God means to establish boundaries and self-control.   The problem here though is that often new boundaries (and bad ones) are established by devotion to an ideology which causes problems for others who don't conform, and thus in today's secularist, socialist-leaning mindset, it has resulted in the cult of political correctness.  While there are no boundaries in regard to how one self-defines (the fact that now we have "preferred pronouns" for people who are creating new gender identities with every selfish whim exists), there are boundaries that are set up against people who believe in traditional boundaries (very tolerant of them, isn't it?) and the result of that is the rise of domestic and violent terrorists such as Antifa and others who now even want to shut down free speech in the name of "progress" and "inclusivity."   So, for those who want to be "free" of traditional moral constraints, the answer is to institute radically different constraints against those who don't comply to the groupthink they propose.  And, we see that in my friend's daughter, whom I will now discuss.

My friend's rather immature and volatile daughter identifies herself as a "witch" (meaning involvement in occultism) and a "democratic socialist" (meaning she is a cleaned-up Marxist in her political ideology).  As such, she also now thinks that a contrary opinion to her own constitutes "hate" and should not be tolerated.  This is an example of a boundary the girl has set up for herself.  Ironically, while such a person preaches that "love is love" in regard to moral perversity, the same person is often very combative, hateful, and nasty towards those who don't see things the way they think everyone should.  And, it gets worse - these same people are now on a crusade to make people stop eating meat, practicing their religious convictions, and even owning and managing their own homes and businesses due to an eschatological dimension to their ideology which one of their "leading thinkers," Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (real intellectual giant there - NOT!) has invented by saying that if cows don't stop farting the earth will blow up in 12 years (that number has changed - I believe she is saying 10 now).  This was carried on even further by the new superstar of the Left, a rather obnoxious Swedish brat by the name of Greta Thunberg, who actually was spreading this malarkey and then in a fit of rage said "how dare you!" at the UN to older folks who just want to live their lives in peace because apparently the rest of us are "destroying her future."  Really??  It gets even more bizarre because Ms. Thunberg has now decided to boycott school in protest of people like you and me supposedly "destroying the earth" - yes, in protest make yourself dumber by not allowing yourself to get a decent education (or, in their vernacular, "OK, Doomer!").  My friend's daughter actually accused her of much of the same thing, by basically saying that by her mother's support of President Trump she doesn't "give a damn" about her daughter's future, and that apparently constitutes "abuse."  Again, OK Doomer.  It is time to give a little reality check to these spoiled brats, and I want to mention a few facts.

First, for all their "care" about the environment and their lamenting over the earth blowing up in a matter of a few years because cows fart too much, many of these spoiled and entitled brats live in cities on the West Coast that speak of contradiction.  Cities such as Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are literally littered with the needles of drug addicts and the fecal deposits of innumerable homeless derelicts on the streets, yet they are trying to say that eating a New York strip or using a plastic straw to drink a Big Gulp (which billionaire Mike Bloomberg banned in NYC) is somehow "destroying the planet."   Here's an idea if they are so concerned - take a bag and some rubber gloves, and start cleaning the crap and needles off the streets of the cities you all live in, you morons.  Being a good steward of the environment is important, I will grant you - God gave us this earth and we need to take care of it, and no one disputes this.  But, instead of moaning and groaning about cow farts polluting the ozone, why don't you just pick up after yourself, plant some trees, and just better the area you live in?   Oddly, for all this "Green New Deal" claptrap of AOC's, I have yet to see the return of those Adopt-a-Highway programs that used to be out there years ago - those really had an impact, and it was Democrats through over-regulation and high taxes that ended these good programs, the same Democrats who often holler about cow farts and plastic straws ironically.   If I were my friend, I would tell the daughter to get off her butt, grab a large Glad Bag, and start cleaning up the piles of human feces and discarded drug paraphernalia in the major West Coast city she lives in where this stuff is prevalent.  She might be a happier person too if she puts her money where her mouth is instead of acting like a spoiled brat.  Of course, the ultimate goal of the Leftist is not to better their environment or do anything productive - their self-worship demands that they control others and force them into servitude, and thus nothing productive is accomplished.  This is true of every Left-leaning politician in our government.  Once people wake up to that fact, I think perspectives would change drastically.

The second thing this kid is harassing her mother about is that she somehow is "deprived," yet I know how this kid grew up as my wife used to babysit her.  She had a beautiful home - it looked like a dollhouse actually - and was granted a lot of advantages others her age didn't have.  I definitely didn't have those advantages when I was her age, and although I have more justification to bemoan them I also learned that sometimes adversity brings out a person's resourcefulness and creativity, while the frenetic intemperance of getting everything handed to you often makes one lazy, disrespectful, and ungrateful.  The parents of this particular child worked hard to provide a good life for her and her siblings, and I think her mother even had to resort to selling tropical fish or something to get her some cheerleading uniform or something like that.   Yet, now the ungrateful little brat treats her mother disrespectfully, and it is a scandal.  However, in all fairness the daughter is not the only one this day and age - there are way too many kids like that, especially those under 30, and it is becoming a problem.  So, when a socialist loser like Bernie Sanders comes along and tries to woo them, they fall for it.  Bernie extolls dictatorships like Castro's in Cuba and even Stalin's, and it is easy for him to do because he is what is called a "limousine liberal," meaning he thinks socialist policies should be forced on everyone except himself.  Many of these kids act the same way, and it is interesting how rich White kids are all of a sudden spouting Bernie's and Ocasio-Cortez's rhetoric when their lives have been extremely comfortable.   Many of these spoiled brats need to visit Miami or Tampa and talk to some of the Cuban-American immigrants that live there - they are the ones who could give them the real story of what living under Castro was like, and why they live here.   It is also time for Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago is made required reading in schools - after reading that and seeing what so many have suffered under socialism, I think some people would change their tune quickly.  Of course, many of the brats in question don't know how to read anymore anyway - they are too busy with all the gadgetry that they possess to pay attention and exercise their God-given brains, and thus the problem.  Phil Robertson, of Duck Dynasty fame, spelled out some of this in his book The Theft of America's Soul (Nashville:  Nelson Books, 2019) when he writes on page 97 of that book the following:

"This same incivility spills into our streets too.  Protest after protest makes the news, and I watch as men and women of all colors and creeds take to the streets.  During the writing of this book, a group of neo-Nazis took to the streets of Charlottesville for the express purpose of raising a racist ruckus.  Their sin opened the door to a group of counterprotesters, folks from the surrounding area who wanted the neo-Nazis run out of town on a rail (as all neo-Nazis should be).  Some of those counterprotesters also turned to violence and incivility.  The result?  A young woman - a peaceful protester by all accounts - was mowed down in the streets by one of those neo-Nazi types in an act of pure evil.  This is the result of incivility: death.

(p. 98) If we only noticed a lack of virtue in our politics, protests, and on the internet, that'd be enough.  But hasn't virtue all but left American culture?  Haven't so many in America become lazy, slothful, overweight people addicted to entertainment?  Hasn't our society been plagued by addiction, by drunkenness and pill-popping?  Aren't we a nation of overconsumers, people in debt up to our eyeballs? Haven't we lost sight of justice and the rule of law?  In short, haven't we lost sight of virtue?  And haven't a bunch of folks who'd identify as Christians been guilty of this same loss of virtue?  

God was declared dead, and in came the enemy with a new lie - virtue died with the God you killed."

Phil essentially defined what John Horvat calls in his writing frenetic intemperance, and over 40 years ago another noted celebrity, late bandleader Lawrence Welk, noted a similar thing in his book This I Believe (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:  Prentice-Hall, 1979).  I am a collector of vintage big band records, as everyone that knows me can attest, and therefore I have always loved Lawrence Welk's music (I used to watch his TV program religiously years ago when we could get it on PBS).  However, what many people didn't know about Welk was that he was a devoutly Catholic Christian who also had a very conservative and common-sense worldview that he annunciated in a series of books he wrote a few years before his retirement from the music industry in 1982.  On pages 172-173 of This I Believe, he has some good wisdom for this generation to follow, and they would do well to pay attention.  He writes:

"I'm not pointing the finger at anyone.  I'm just stating the case as I see it today.  We simply must take steps to reduce our government to a size where it can operate with more competence.  And we must return to the people the right to participate more fully in the decisions which affect them on a daily, personal level.

But it's the plight of our young people that concerns me the most.  Our youngsters are so fine, so full of promise.  And yet somehow, they have become one of the most neglected segments of our society.

My recommendations for helping our younger generation are all based on the experiences of my own life.  When I suggest that "work" may be a better choice for some youngsters than years of formal schooling, it's because that has been so effective in my own life. 

When I say that removing the restrictions that keep our young people from working will open up their lives for them, it's because I've seen it happen time and again in our orchestra or other enterprises.

I don't want to make our youngsters work and I want to make that very, very clear.  I just want to give them the opportunity."

What Mr. Welk is saying here is this - give the younger generation some purpose and direction, and encourage them to productively channel that so that it shapes their characters and makes them better participants in our society.  He's right too - many kids are so coddled, spoiled, and entitled that they have no incentive to do anything better, and with all that wasted time on their hands, they end up getting involved in things they shouldn't.  And, it has created a nasty monster that I don't think Mr. Welk could have seen coming, but Phil Robertson definitely has witnessed, as have many of us.  Putting this on a more philosophical level, we now turn to noted Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, who in his book Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992) notes on page 47 that the true enrichment of man comes not in the technical exploitation of nature's wealth, but rather a purely theoretical cognition of reality.  Pieper further asserts that man's existence becomes more fulfilled as he further explores and understands reality.   True knowledge, then, as Pieper would conclude, leads to true freedom.  Much of what goes on today in the name of "knowledge" is a redefinition of reality based on the feelings of the individual rather than upon objective truth, and thus now it has become commonplace to "feel" one's gender, or to "relativize" one's perception of truth (thus making it subjective) rather than understanding natural law or objective truth as has been understood and observed throughout much of human history.  So, if as Welk proposes, a person is compelled to work to develop oneself, that is seen by the postmodernist-minded Millenial now as being "icky" or "oppressive," because now truth is the subjective whim of the individual rather than universally understood and observed fact.  This then makes biology and other observable phenomena subject to language rather than science, and thus it creates the confusion (in this instance anyway) of an infinite number of fictional "genders" which are real because the possessor of said "gender" feels that way.  It is ludicrous at best, but also dangerous when implemented on a societal scale as some are attempting to do.  Fact is still fact however, and despite how the facts of a matter may "hurt someone's feelings" who doesn't like it, the objective and observable fact still exists.  That is a true fact many of these whiny Millenials need to understand.

I could go into more details of what the actual issues were specifically between my friend and her daughter were, but time doesn't allow.   I will say this however - if you are going to grouse and gripe about "exploitation of indigenous land," then perhaps you need to pack up your stuff and move, because you may be now occupying a piece of ground that once belonged to some Cherokee, Seminole, or Tlingit tribesman somewhere.  That is what is called "virtue-signaling," when a person with no stake in the conversation all of a sudden starts yelling "racism" or something else moronic at people who disagree with them.  Take this whole thing about slave reparations as an example.   The majority of Americans are of some immigrant heritage, and many these days have ancestors who moved here after the Civil War.  So, does that mean an Italian-American pizzeria owner in New York "owes" reparations to the Black community?   No, it doesn't.  Also, what if some Blacks have slaveholders as ancestors (and it does happen!)?  Do they pay reparations to themselves?   Just some things to think about regarding the absurdity of some of this garbage floating around.  In truth, the majority of White people in the US (even in the South) have little or no connection to actual slaveholders in the antebellum South, so the issue of reparations is not even applicable to the overwhelming majority of Americans honestly.  If it were, I could claim reparations based on a variety of things myself just due to the complexity of my own heritage - I have Indian ancestry (Mvskoke Creek specifically) so maybe I should tell some Leftists in southern Alabama hollering about reparations that they need to pay me for occupying my ancestor's homes there.  Or, perhaps I should submit a complaint to the government of France for chasing my Huguenot ancestors out of their homes, or to Spain for their treatment of my Converso forebears - see where this can go?   Fortunately, I have little desire to pursue any of that, because frankly I have more important things to do with my time.   Too bad some of the younger crowd doesn't feel the same way, as America would be a more productive country if they did. 

I have ranted enough for today, but no doubt I will be revisiting this issue soon.  If you are one of those Leftist Millenial "Bernie Bros" reading this, I have this to say - suck it up if it offends you.  Maybe you should listen to what is being said instead of being "triggered," and perhaps you might learn something in the process.  Thank you for allowing me to share, and will have more pearls of wisdom to share later.

Going Retro

Back in 1997, a movie called Blast From the Past was released.  The movie was a rather good romantic comedy involving an eccentric but brilliant professor named Dr. Calvin Webber (played by Christopher Walken) and his wife, played by Cissy Spacek, in the early 1960s.  The professor is a bit of a paranoid conspiracy nut, and he thinks the Soviets are going to drop a bomb on America at any time (the setting of this movie was at the height of the Cuban missile crisis), and during a party, there is a special report on the TV that abruptly ends the party, and the professor and his wife, who is 9 months pregnant, flee to a bomb shelter accessed from a work shed in the back yard.  At around the same time, a plane crashes into the Webber's house, and naturally, Dr. Webber thinks the worst and the underground bomb shelter is sealed for 35 years.  Mrs. Webber gives birth to a son they name Adam, and he spends his life in that shelter immersed in a 1950's culture.  When the adult Adam (played by Brendan Fraser) finally surfaces, he is in for quite the culture shock, but then meets the love of his life, Eve (played by Alicia Silverstone).  Ultimately, the parents find out that no bomb had been dropped, and that the USSR finally fell, and they make the adjustment to life in the 1990s.   The retro vibe of this movie resonated with me and many others at the time, and it was indicative of a greater reality - like we were starting to lose something about who we are.  This movie prefaces something I have been dying to discuss for some time, and recently a couple of things sparked my interest again in the subject.  It is that we want to talk about today.

I am probably one of the most retro people around - I have always dressed differently, listened to different music, and had a different personal life code I lived by than many of my peers growing up.  Most of that is still an integral part of my identity.  Therefore, when I hear of even younger people who are essentially doing what I used to do, I am curious.   Two of those came to light recently, and I want to discuss them a little first before giving some more of my own commentary.

The above two pictures are of 30-year-old Katrina Holte and her husband Lars.  They live in Hillsboro, Oregon (also the home of the Roloffs of Little People Big World fame), and cannot be described as the typical 2020 American household.  As a matter of fact, if you were to visit them, it would be like stepping back in time honestly.  In 2018, Katrina gave up a stressful job in the corporate world to pursue being a full-time housewife, but not just any housewife - she was essentially going to re-create the 1950's for herself and her husband, and she noted in an interview that it was her lifelong dream.  So, of a day after a set routine of making herself up, doing her morning calesthetic exercises, and doing a number of chores to make her home a spotless shrine to the past, she works at a cottage industry of sewing and designing vintage dresses while vinyl LP's of Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, and other period music plays in the background.  Her ethic for doing all this is also admirable - in the same interview, she said "When I look at everything that is happening in the world now, I feel like I belong in a nicer, more old-fashioned time.  I agree with old fashioned values, like being a housewife, taking care of your family, nurturing the people in it and keeping your house in excellent condition, so everyone feels relaxed."  She also expresses some good insights as to why she is doing what she does, and the article itself is worth a read to find out more about Katrina.  She also operates a web site where she sells her vintage clothing (www.edelweisspatterns.com) and by the looks of things she is actually very content with where she is and what she does (information for this taken from Rob Bailey-Millado, "Woman Quits Job to "Spoil Husband' Like a 1950's Housewife," published originally on September 30, 2019, at  https://nypost.com/2019/09/30/woman-quits-job-to-spoil-husband-like-a-1950s-housewife/ - accessed 1/20/2020).

We now go across the Atlantic to London, where a 24-year-old artist by the name of Michael Koropisz lives.

Michael shares a lot in common with Katrina in that he has taken a retro lifestyle and made it his own, but his affinity goes back to a much earlier time than the 1950's - he is a fan of the Victorian era.  He only dresses in Victorian clothing, writes with a quill and ink, does not watch television at all, and he says "I dedicate my life to the era and have spent tens of thousands of pounds on clothing and furnishings - I don't have a budget for my passion for history."  He states further, "I adore everything from the era:  the fashion, the morals, the aesthetics of furniture and even the music."  He says he will spend an entire week's wage on a coat, and he has spared no expense in remodeling his own home.  And, to see him on the street, one would think he was a character out of a Dickens novel.  But, like Katrina, Michael seems very happy, and the expense he has invested seems to be worth it.  (Information is taken from Ellen Scott, "Millenial Man Who Lives His Life in the Victorian Era Never Swears and Wants a Date Who Wears a Bustle," originally published December 4, 2019, at https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/04/millennial-man-lives-life-victorian-era-painting-portraits-instead-taking-selfies-11268664/ - Accessed 1/20/2020).  

Michael and Katrina represent something, although they have different approaches.  Much of what they perceive in modern society has disillusioned them, and they chose their lifestyles in order to live out something better.  That is something I can definitely both admire and relate to, as I have done sort of the same thing most of my life but to a lesser extent.  Also, despite their embrace of earlier eras of fashion and life, neither would be considered Luddite in their approach - both utilize modern technologies in their professional lives, and neither has ignored the outside world to the extent that there is a denial of existence.  If they were completely Luddite, they would essentially by definition be opposed to and reject modern technology in all its forms, much as the old-order Amish communities do.  And, that leads now to some important thoughts I want to express in regard to this.

When one embraces something that is more old-fashioned or traditional by definition, it should never mean a complete rejection of innovation and progress at all.  If I were to hypothesize, I would bet that if the Victorians or 1950's housewives had computers, cellphones, and the internet, they would have utilized them in a way that would have enhanced the lifestyle rather than nullify or reject it.  Despite how nostalgic and old-fashioned we would like to be, change does happen, but how we embrace the change will determine a lot also.  For instance, Benny Goodman sounds much better on remastered CD recordings than he probably does on shellac 78 rpm records, and CD's tend to take up a lot less space and are also easier to handle - in that instance, technology is being used as it should be.   The problem with technology, however, is not so much in its use as it is in its abuse - if you spend your day just in front of a computer screen, and if the only workout your body gets is moving your thumbs around the keypads of a smartphone, you are probably lacking in quality of life.  Technology should never be worshipped as an end unto itself, but rather utilized responsibly as a tool.  If that balance can be reached, technological advances can do wonders for anyone's life.  That is why Michael, for instance, can live almost an entire Victorian existence yet still appreciate utilizing a laptop for his work and daily affairs.  It is also why Katrina can sell her quality fashions through a website, as it does increase the marketability of her wares.  A Luddite interpretation of technology would, in reality, do more harm than good, and that is why with the exception of maybe the Amish and similar communities, Luddism is not practical.  Some change and progress are inevitable and even necessary, but here's where the difference is - if change and progress seek to build upon the solid foundation that is already there, then it is good.  However, if it seeks to revise or eliminate the past - especially good aspects of the past - then it does more harm than good.  And, that leads to something else I wanted to touch on before concluding. 

In the article that Ellen Scott did on Michael, toward the end she made a rather stupid and very inappropriate observation that bears a response - in the article she just had to say this: "Michael hasn't commented on whether he also holds to the Victorian view of medicine, racism, and sexuality, and he doesn't appear to have yet been struck down by smallpox."   Honestly, where in the hell is Ms. Scott getting this from??  I mean, really - does there have to be some sort of stupid virtue-signaling in every piece a journalist writes??   Let's talk about the modern equivalents of these things, shall we?   First, medicine - sure, medical technology has improved in some areas, but at a price.  Victorian-era people, for instance, didn't have to deal with politicized crap like Obamacare, the extreme corporatism of pharmaceutical companies, nor did they have to worry about considering the murder of babies and sex-change operations as "healthcare rights" either.  Instead, they had doctors who were more committed to their profession than to the almighty dollar, and many hospitals at the time were also charitable organizations and not corporate monsters like they are today.  Had the Victorian-era people had the knowledge in some areas we have today as far as medical advances, I think they would have utilized them.  Then there is the charge of racism - the virtue-signaling leftist hacks today think that anything "too White" or reminiscent of "colonialism" is "racist," yet today we have a lot worse racism in our society than the Victorians actually did.  Things probably could have been better at the time, granted, but I don't see no one today correcting the violence, drugs, and other crap that goes on in our streets.  Now, about sexuality - at least Victorian-era people knew the difference between male and female sexual organs, and they could easily figure out who was a man and who was a woman.  Today, by contrast, we have Jessica Yaniv, Kaitlyn Jenner, and Zoey Tur, not to mention that thing that was destroying a video store and screaming "It's Ma'am!!" at a poor cashier.  And, Victorians rightly understood biology better - two genders instead of the increasing number we see almost every day as anyone can now proclaim themselves anything.   Sounds to be like the Victorians may have had a little more sense than some people running around today, so maybe it would not be a bad idea to hold to some of those convictions.  Were the Victorians perfect?  Not by a long shot - they were still fallible human beings with their own issues then, and we have no right to point fingers at them because in many cases we may actually be worse today.  So, my word to Ms. Scott is this - stick to reporting and stick the virtue-signaling up your jaxie, lady.  

Mr. Bailey-Millado was a lot more objective with his article on Katrina, and I found his writing to be more balanced and fair - perhaps Ms. Scott could take some lessons in journalism from him, no?   He stuck to the facts and didn't act like Brian Stelter on CNN in evaluating her lifestyle and making snarky virtue-signaling BS comments about her choice to live as she is living.  As a matter of fact, it is as if Mr. Bailey-Millado was somewhat fascinated with what Katrina and her husband were doing, whereas Ms. Scott treated Michael almost like a circus freak in her article.  The fact is, individuals like Katrina and Michael - among others I am sure - are seeing the futility of the path Western society is taking, and they have taken it upon themselves to be beacons of solid conviction and sanity in a culture that is increasingly more unbalanced and insane.  I applaud them for it, and also resonate in many ways because I also know what it is like to "go against the grain" in society, as I have been always a person who does that.   In grade school, I didn't wear jeans and sneakers like the other kids, and I was told when I was in my high school years I looked like Ward Cleaver or something - I took that as a compliment.  I also couldn't stand much of the popular music of my generation - frankly, for me, it sucked.  When my peers were listening to the Bee Gees or Michael Jackson, I was listening to Guy Lombardo and Freddy Martin.  I didn't even eat the same way - while I like things like pizzas, I still don't eat hamburgers, hot dogs, or other stuff like that even today.  And, rather than sports and pop culture, when I was younger my past time was reading - I was reading some heady stuff in my 6th-grade year, such as William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, or Vicent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter about the Manson murders that happened the year I was born (1969).  This is why when I see younger people like Katrina and Michael, I see a reflection of myself in them, as they are what I once was.  Of course, over the years I have softened in some areas, but at my core, I am still that old-fashioned traditionalist I always was - I dig wild garlic out of my front yard to season my soups and roasts, I can make my own pizza crusts, I can also read Latin and understand it too.  I am proud to be different in that regard, and don't apologize for it at all - luckily, I also have a good spouse in Barbara who encourages it too. 

It is my hope and prayer that there be more Michaels and Katrinas out there, as we need them - the best of the past needs to be preserved, not destroyed, and it needs to be done with the best of up-to-date technology and other tools available.  If more people are like those of us who love and cherish aspects of the past, we have hope in preserving the best of Western Civilization, and indeed the Judeo-Christian foundations of it.  Thank you for allowing me to share, and I will see you soon. 

Year-End Wrap-up - Ten Year Anniversary

Introduction

It is hard to believe that 2019 is wrapping up so fast, and also equally unbelievable that I have been doing these articles for ten years.  We are on the verge of wrapping up the year, and also beginning a new ten-year run on these articles to see what and how they impact you, the reader.  Let us now do the year-end perspective, as well as giving a glimpse into what I plan to do in the coming year as well.

On the Home Front

2019 has been one of those years that has been both good in many aspects but also extremely challenging in others.  A lot of important events happened this year that need to be recapped, and they entail a lot of areas. 

First, after many years of struggling with credit issues, I have finally resolved and settled many past bills that had been hanging over my head for at least the past 5 to 6 years.  It is good to have that mess cleaned up, and it has opened other doors.  With revamped credit and a relatively good financial outlook, things are taking shape that have been needed for some time.  And, that has opened doors to other things as well, including a very important one that I will now talk about.

Earlier in the year, we got a letter from the park we live in that offered us a buying option for our place, and it was a nice one.  We were offered downpayment credit based on what we have been paying into our place the past couple of years, and at the present time, we are still in the process of completing the paperwork.  The implications of this are that we now have a place of our own, and are able to get some nice roots established.  I will probably elaborate more on that in the coming year.

This has also been a year of medical challenges as well, especially for Barbara.  In April and May, she had two consecutive procedures for cataract removal on her eyes, and she has now gotten completely improved eyesight save for a small complication with a "floater."  My year medically has been fairly good as well - I only had one incident just the past weekend with esophagitis, which essentially means that I got irritation on my esophageal lining due to swallowing a piece of extremely hot potato on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.  Although I spent an unpleasant 8 hours in the emergency room due to difficulty swallowing, everything checked out fine.  However, as I write this I do have an appointment with my new doctor in regards to my blood pressure, which was somewhat high and caused the ER physician some concern - I was actually diagnosed with hypertension back in 2010, and at one time was on lisinopril, an ACE inhibitor derived from the venom of a Central American species of viper that helps regulate blood pressure.  Lisinopril is a tricky medication though, as some people (particularly women) develop reactive side effects to it - Barbara was on it for a long time and developed a nasty, lingering cough.  However, when I took it I was never adversely affected by it.  Whether or not I will be given a prescription for that or for another type of blood pressure medication remains to be seen, but getting my elevated blood pressure under control is definitely important.  And, that leads to the next major thing.

In November, I reached the half-century mark of my personal existence, as I turned 50.   Reaching that milestone is still something hard for me to comprehend, as it only seems like yesterday that I was a 20-something college kid (in reality, it has been 23 years since I received my Bachelor's).   Being 50 does have its advantages though, in particular, the AARP membership I now have, and that I guess is a perk that comes with age.  There have also been a couple of more milestones I have reached this year, so we'll visit those now too.

In September, I officially received my 3rd Degree as a Knight of Columbus.   The ceremony took place over near Mount Airy just this side of Baltimore, and it was a neat ceremony to be part of.  Granted, I was way underdressed for it - Knights generally are somewhat formal in their ceremonies, and I was supposed to wear a shirt and tie but didn't, as I went straight from work to the ceremony itself.  This means I stood out like a sore thumb, but thankfully my brother Knights didn't make an issue of it, and our Council Grand Knight Fred Nugent didn't even mention it.  However, I am learning from it and next year for my 4th Degree I will have the suit ready for the ceremony, which more than likely will be in Baltimore.  Being part of the Knights of Columbus for the past couple of years has been a good thing, and although there is some controversy about the new regalia, I am still glad to be part of this great organization. 

The other major step I took was becoming a Maryland Notary Public just last month.  For many years, I was a Florida Notary, and therefore am familiar with the responsibilities.   My swearing-in was on November 15th at the courthouse here in Hagerstown, and I have a four-year commission.  I don't recall it being that formal in Florida when I was commissioned there back in 2005, but I kind of appreciate a little more formality - it gives a bit more authority to the office. 

The final thing on the "home front" is some new additions to our household.  In July, we went to visit my sister-in-law Sue's place in Indiana, as Barbara's cousin was getting married in Milwaukee at around the same time.  Barbara's sister Sue has a lot of challenges right now, as she took on a huge responsibility with a fixer-upper farmhouse, and she also has limited funds.  But, while we were out there, she gave us something that has provided some joy to us, and also a little more responsibility.  Back when I was a teenager, my mom worked for an old lady who had a pet zebra finch, and to be honest I really became enamored with that little bird.  A zebra finch is a tiny bird with a sound reminiscent of a squeak toy, and they are actually adorable little birds.  Returning from Indiana, we ended up bringing five of them back with us, and even as I write this now, they are sitting next to the desk chattering like a bunch of little monkeys.  All five are males, and they are the cutest little stinkers honestly.  We look forward to being blessed with many years of enjoyment from those little birds. 

Calling and Vocation

As far as my church work this year, it has been very limited to teaching a group of sixth-graders at our parish, St. Joseph's in Hagerstown, on Sunday mornings during the school year.  As my Master's is in Catechetics, I am putting my degree essentially to work by teaching the faith to kids, and this is now my third year doing so.  The class that started in September is a somewhat smaller group this year, as I only have seven total, but they are a sharp and well-behaved group.  My current class is also very diverse, as it includes a girl whose folks were from El Salvador, a Filipino, two Sri Lankans, a young lady whose father is Kenyan, and two regular American boys.  I love diversity though, as I learn a lot about them as well, and that is one of the rewards of the calling.  At this point, I am debating about continuing a fourth year, so we'll see what happens.

As for my own faith, I have found myself leaning more in a traditionalist direction, although I want to address some concerns.  I have always been fairly conservative in my faith, and as a Catholic, it is no different honestly.  I am not anti-Vatican II like some fellow Trads are, as I understand that there are good things that have come from the Council, but at the same time, I see issues with implementation.  As I have mentioned, I am not technically part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, as instead I am part of the Personal Ordinariate of St. Peter, a diocesan structure that is comprised of former Anglicans like myself who have retained what is called patrimony, meaning that those distinctly Anglican traits of our faith that don't conflict with Magisterial teaching are allowed and encouraged.  As such, I am more traditionalist than many people at our current parish, which is a regular Roman Catholic congregation, and I have felt the conviction to do some things differently.  For one, I have begun taking Communion on the tongue rather than in the hand, and I also say the parts of the traditional Mass that coincide with the Novus Ordo Mass the parish we attend uses.  However, I am a little different than most Trads because simply I cannot fathom being anti-this or anti-that when there is no reason to be anti-whatever in those cases.  For one thing, the abundant amount of anti-semitism I have noted among Trads hinges on a hatred of Jewish people, and that is not something I will tolerate or condone - I have pulled out of a number of Trad groups on social media over that one, as some of these individuals are even engaging in Holocaust denial conspiracies and even glorifying Hitler, whom they forgot was as much anti-Christian as he was anti-Jewish.  I am also not totally on-board with even a lot of the anti-Protestant rhetoric that some Trads spew, as it is hateful as well.  It is one thing to have a disagreement with Protestants and to even pray for their eventual reconciliation with the Church, but it is quite another to spout some of the hateful vitriol against Protestants I hear from some self-professed Trads.   As for the Jews, it is also one thing to pray for their conversion and to even criticize some of their resistance to Christianity, but it is quite another thing to harbor a blanket hatred for them as a people.  Trads need to get their stuff together, and until they do, there are just some of them I would prefer not to be associated with.   Anyway, that has been my spiritual journey this year.

Other News

In recent years, I have made it a regular objective to check hometown obituaries, and I have an archive of obituaries of people I have known over the years, as well as family members who have passed on.  This year, I lost an aunt who passed away earlier in November, and it is almost surreal as she was an aunt I had known most of my life.  Angie McDaniel (1939-2019) was the middle half-sister of my maternal grandfather Dave Strahin.  When my great-grandfather, Charles Judson Strahin, passed on sometime around the year 1932, a couple of years later my great-grandmother remarried to a man named Delbert "Mose" Turner, and with him, she had five children.  The oldest, Ruth, passed away back in 1976 I believe - she had multiple sclerosis and was largely incapacitated.   The next one to pass on was my uncle Robert "Bonzo" Turner, who was the second-youngest.  He passed away in 1977 from a diabetic coma.  The third to go in this line was my Uncle Delbert Jr. "Teak" Turner, who was the second-oldest of this family - he was found dead in his apartment in Parsons in 1995 or 1996.  The youngest of the five, my uncle Joe Garland Turner Sr., died in 2005 from cancer.  Aunt Angie was the last of my grandfather's five Turner siblings, and she had been in declining health for a number of years, as her weight kept plummeting so much that she barely weighed anything.  Fortunately, in October I was able to see her one last time and to be honest, she looked bad - she was not the same lady I remembered from years ago, the aunt who bought me Goldfish crackers when I was a kid and also made so many delicious homemade items, including peanut butter cups, at Christmas.  I have a lot of fond memories of her from when I was little, as she always treated me well despite the fact that over the years a sort of feud has existed between Mom and the rest of the family, so I haven't seen as much of her.  Her passing still has me in some shock, as it is hard to believe she is gone.  But, at least the memories are eternal, and she will live on there. 

My Expectations for the Coming Year

As I have reached the 50 mark agewise and am now also looking at the end of the second decade of the 21st century, a lot of things cross my mind. What do I hope to accomplish this coming year?  I am going to briefly set out some objectives now.

First, as for writing.   My articles for next year are going to more or less continue in a sort of vein that I am currently in, that being in-depth theological discourses on SPT, reviewing more restaurants and also posting new recipes on "David's Culinary Page," and here I want to begin some more insights regarding past memories and such.   Some of the issues I want to take on concerning SPT, in particular, include some analysis of Frank Peretti's two books, This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness, both of which I have read several times over the past 25 or so years.   Those two books, published respectively in 1986 and 1988, are two of the most riveting and engaging pieces of Christian fictional writing to have been published in years, and well over 30 years after their initial publication, they are still avidly read.  I personally try to read those at least every couple of years and am in the process of doing that now.  I want to do an article about them analyzing both the strengths and weaknesses of the books, and I may do that in January if circumstance allows.  Another area I want to tackle next year is regarding traditionalist Catholics, as an evaluation needs to be done as well as maybe some historical background on them.  Dr. Taylor Marshall has done some work in that area, as has Fr. Dwight Longenecker and I will be using their material for some inspiration and to provide a framework to work from.  I may also do a nice ten-year perspective on DMM as well regarding our ten years of writing, and that will probably happen in April or sometime as it is the mid-point of my anniversaries for all three blogs.  Therefore, I encourage you to stay tuned.

Our home is also going to be getting some makeover and restructuring, as we do need a utility shed outside to house our lawnmower and also a lot of stuff we have piled up in the house now.  Even after 3 years of living here, we still are getting situated, and Barbara and I want to accelerate that a bit this year.  We need quite a bit in the house - a washer and dryer, some work inside the house, and also we need to upgrade our furniture somewhat.  This is now more important with buying the place being a reality, as we need to now step up and take more responsibility for our home, as we'll more than likely be here for many years to come.  Talking about this now does have its exhilaration for sure, as homeownership is definitely a big step for us.

The culinary page will also receive some new attention, as I want to begin to focus not only on restaurant reviews and recipes, but also some good articles about foraging for wild edibles and a few agricultural things - we now have raspberry plants outside, and those will be providing us with berries and other things for culinary experiments.  Also, I have discovered a source of pawpaws, and will be attempting to grow those this year - I will be starting the seeds in the spring and will see how they turn out.  I may venture as well into doing some hunting and fishing and would like to showcase more wild game in my recipes and other endeavors.  And, we still have new recipes to try, and new restaurants to visit, and I want to begin doing more of the latter in my home state of West Virginia.  This gives an idea of what we will be up to this year as far as culinary arts are concerned.

My music collection will also be focusing mainly on obtaining rare vinyl LP's of stuff I once had, and that includes both my vintage big band collection as well as my gospel music library.  I also will be looking into a couple of monumental CD collections, one of Stravinsky's works and the other the 24-disc centennial collection of Duke Ellington's recordings.    My music collection, however, has grown to about where it needs to be, so less emphasis will be directed to it than has been in the past.

Now that I have given some basic objectives for the coming year, let us now wrap up.

Conclusion

2019 has been a year of challenges - I have had good things happen, and also some really rough points.  In summary, it was not the best year on record, but thankfully it was also far from being the worst also.  As we enter 2020, I wish everyone reading this a blessed holiday season, and may 2020 be a great year for you as well as me.  Thank you, and will see you next year!

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.