My son Danny and I outside Barcelona airport, June, 2019
Dear Ron,
I received your recent email, and although I will eventually respond to its specifics, your missive makes clear that we are fundamentally estranged.
For example, I consider Vladimir Putin not just a bad actor but one of the worst, a guy who is keenly interested in toppling Liberal Democracy, the form of governance - which, for all its faults - is the political philosophy in which I believe.
I am opposed -- tooth and nail -- to the kleptocratic autocracy Putin has put in place and, unless I am very mistaken, I believe you are his ally.
I may have sent you the following link but I stumbled on it just now and find it so fundamentally pertinent to our discussion that its "apparition" strikes me as synchronistic if not "an act of God."
I am opposed -- tooth and nail -- to the kleptocratic autocracy Putin has put in place and, unless I am very mistaken, I believe you are his ally.
Hey, Conspiracists! This Is The Frame Tale In Which You Live And Do Fundamental Damage
In a world where The Social (and political) Contract -- and nearly all other "shared meanings" -- no longer exist, we still understand that married couples (and other partnered people) drift apart.
And when they do, they become estranged, which is to say they "become strangers to one another."
Then, because they no longer perceive sufficient meaning in their relationship to carry on, they typically don't.
In your recent email, you were apparently upset that I did not respond to the information you sent about Dr. E. Michael Jones.
As it happens, I did respond.
But because we have been "walking on eggs" in our relationship, I did not send you that response because it seemed my honesty would be offensive.
Well, be that as it may -- and at your request -- here is my belated reply:
Dear Ron,
Thanks for your recent emails.
I hope you are well.
Have you made a decision about your knee?
***
I do not want to get lost in the weeds but I do want to discuss a few specifics mentioned in your last two emails: 1.) E. Michael Jones, 2.) the prospect of white genocide, and 3.) your concern over recent events in Italian politics.
I watched your recommended video with E. Michael Jones and was intrigued by his presentation.
I was particularly struck by his "summary" sentence: "We are ready to kill meaning to let our guilty conciences off the hook."
As a cradle Catholic who was also educated in Catholic schools from Kindergarten through university I think I understand Jones from the inside out.
As a good, practicing Catholic, Jones is concerned with authority, continuity of apostolic succession and holding a rigid line on sex.
Situated at this "trinitarian" intersection, it is not surprising that he represents (and clings to) a very lofty ideal concerning sex and reproduction.
However, although Jones is a good Catholic, he is not a truly Roman Catholic.
I am a truly Roman Catholic even though I no longer participate in "obligatory" ritual.
To a significant extent, Jones is a Manichaen, unduly (and probably unconsciously) influenced by the theological teachings of a Persian Christian named Mani who, for a century or more, vied for primacy with what we now call Christian "orthodoxy."
In a world where The Social (and political) Contract -- and nearly all other "shared meanings" -- no longer exist, we still understand that married couples (and other partnered people) drift apart.
And when they do, they become estranged, which is to say they "become strangers to one another."
Then, because they no longer perceive sufficient meaning in their relationship to carry on, they typically don't.
In your recent email, you were apparently upset that I did not respond to the information you sent about Dr. E. Michael Jones.
As it happens, I did respond.
But because we have been "walking on eggs" in our relationship, I did not send you that response because it seemed my honesty would be offensive.
Well, be that as it may -- and at your request -- here is my belated reply:
Manichaeism: The Pollution Of Early Christianity By A Radically Dualistic "Iranian" Christian Sect
Returning to my observation that Jones is not "truly Roman Catholic."
Dating back to pre-Christian Rome, we find a trans-millennial cultural tradition that exhibits exceedingly high regard for "the ideal" but is also prone to indulge the inevitability of sinfulness in our "fallen" kind.
It is also true that modern Italian culture, like Catholic culture, experiences - in one of its two chief "mindsets" - persistent attraction to fascist authoritarianism.
Just "lay down the law and toe the line!"
Or, as fundamentalists put it: "God said it. I believe it. That settles it."
An Open Question: Could Satan Himself Destroy As Many Souls As Biblical "Literalism"
Jones' prime directive is NO SEX OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE.
And if you do fornicate (or even take pleasure in an adolescent hard-on) "Sorry Charly, it's off to hell with you."
An eternity of ever-recurring 3rd degree burns right down to the bone.
And all this torturous affliction takes place while these tormented souls are fully conscious.
But rest assured!
"Jesus loves you."
"God loves you."
It is not coincidental that Hitler and Mussolini were both cradle Catholics as were the most notable fascists in our own lifetime (excepting Trump): in Argentina, Chile and now (carrying on a long authoritarian tradition in Portuguese America) the resurgence of Brasilian fascism under Bolsonaro. (I realize we can quibble over definitions of "fascism.")
One of the differences between you and me Ron is that, despite my fondness for detail, I ultimately incline to "take the grand view" - to back up from the individual trees to see the forest.
I have little interest in microscopic chemical residues; hairsplitting interpretation of photographs to find the hidden meaning of porta-potties suspiciously situated outside police stations; why a bereaved mother is smiling; or spotting deep state revelations in the machinations of ever-corrupt Italian politics.
Such myopia impresses me as an attempt to distract from what is overarchingly important.
Here is a recent post which pits supposed "deep state shenanigans" against the actual, provable shenanigans of the right wing.
Whistleblower Chris Wylie Explains How Cambridge Analytica Helped Fuel U.S. "Insurgency"
As for Salvini...
Initially I intended to "skip over" Salvini as just more flotsam in the incessant whirlpool of Italian politics.
Then I consulted Wikipedia.
Ron, I am not in your political camp.
I am, "by head, heart, loving Christian culture -- and centuries-old family tradition" -- almost always opposed to right-wing politics which, despite the loftiness of right-wing principles, is the locus where I routinely find the seedbed of ethnic-and-racial animus; uncharitableness-if-not-
And always I see bedrock punitiveness.
It is as if merely mouthing the "doctrinally-correct words" is what's REALLY needed for salvation, whereas one's actual volition-and-behavior can (and even should) aspire to harm The Infidels --- a kind of pre-punishment for what our loving God has "in store."
In this hard, brittle, punitive world view, we find that St. Paul's "Big Three" -- Faith, Hope and Charity -- constellate faith as pre-eminent, so pre-eminent that Faith imparts Hope... while Charity always gets short shrift.
Just proclaim that "Jesus Christ is your personal Lord and Savior" and The Pearly Gates swing wide.
In sum, this is the perrennial reappearance of Luther's bedrock belief in Sola Fide. http://paxonbothhouses.
"In The End, We Choose Between Cruelty And Kindness"
"Cruelty Is The Point," An Update On Trump's Policies And His White Christian Base
"Christian Conservatives, The Republican Party, And Deliberate Cruelty As A Source Of Laughter"
"Tennessee Williams' Critique Of Cruelty Should Be Included In The World's Sacred Scripture"
"Family Separation And The Deportation Of Parents Constitute Kidnapping And Human Trafficking"
"New England Journal Of Medicine Determines The Lethality Of Trump's Family Separation Policy"
I am a liberal-radical (with certain conservative tendencies) and I believe that the "inalienable rights of man" ratified by the European Enlightenment (upon which The Founding Fathers launched The American Experiment) are, in the end, commonly sacrificed by fascists and other authoritarian absolutists.
Because of my over-arching observation that authoritarian absolutistism is opposed to the political and personal freedom that informed the Renaissance and the European Enlightnment, I believe Dr. Jones would spend his time more beneficially if he defended those "inalienable rights" rather than make his bedrock stand on a rigid call for sexual suppression.
By the way, young people today -- and I know this from my 22 and 26 year old children -- are quite conservative sexually, with little if any of the formative influence that Jones ascribes to Margaret Mead and others who would "kill meaning." (Like aging military generals, Jones is "fighting the last war.")
My kids and their peers know much more than I did at their age.
They are also committed to peace, justice, creativity, environmental integrity and sex/gender parity in ways that are incalculably more informed-and-impassioned than my political dilettantism back in those simpler, let's-get-high-and-
I do not know to what extent "our generation" of sexual libertines may be responsible for current sexual conservatism, but nowadays even abortion takes place at a lower rate than it did BEFORE Roe v. Wade!
Personally, I will credit our generation with immeasurably better social and cultural outcomes than throw-back Trump and his typically right-wing cultists whom I see as genuine barbarians --- "in it" for themselves and eager to destroy (or as Steve Bannon euphemistically puts it "to deconstruct") The Common Good, The General Welfare and anything like a Social Contract.
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin quipped: "The motto of the Republican Party is: 'We're all in this.... alone.'"
I once read the following revelatory definition: "Evil takes delight in deliberate destruction."
I can think of no better categorization of Trump and his DF shills who cling to their cruel vision of Christianity as if "mouthing the right credal formulas" will save them from the horrifying epiphany they will confront at "The Pearly Gates."
Whether they know it or not, they are singlemindedly committed to the deconstruction (aka destruction) of The American Experiment with its deep root in the Enlightenment "Trinity" of Deism, Science and a bedrock belief in inalienable human rights.
"Family Separation And The Deportation Of Parents Constitute Kidnapping And Human Trafficking"
"New England Journal Of Medicine Determines The Lethality Of Trump's Family Separation Policy"
Liberal Democracy: Born In The 18th Century "Enlightenment"; Not What The Uneducated Think
But back to Salvini...
Salvini's comments on Roma people turned my stomach.
I also find his zealous opposition to Pope Francis repulsive.
Profoundly repellent.
Ineffably odious.
And although the following positions are not as offensive to me, I also oppose his proscriptive position on same-sex marriage; detest his advocacy on behald of looser gun laws; and -- since I am a rational scientist -- I heartily favor mandatory vaccination which he considers an impingement on real freedom.
Salvini also endorsed the Republican candidate in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump, whom he met in April 2016 in Philadelphia.[195] Multiple news agencies have compared him and his views to those of Trump.[196][197] In September 2018, Salvini pledged his support for The Movement, a European populist group being founded by Trump's former chief strategist, Steve Bannon.[198]
In 2016, Salvini used his personal Twitter account to re-tweet a call to murder an Italian judge. He later described that as a "mistake".[199]
In September 2018, Salvini endorsed conservative nationalist candidate Jair Bolsonaro in the Brazilian presidential election that year.[200]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I believe Salvini, Trump and Bolsonaro are essentially fascist and I am emphatically opposed to fascism.
All three of these mofos are shittily educated assholes dedicated to underming the aspirations-and-pillars of civilization as set forth by 18th century democrats rooted in the European Enlightenment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
All three of these mofos are shittily educated assholes dedicated to underming the aspirations-and-pillars of civilization as set forth by 18th century democrats rooted in the European Enlightenment.
In my mind, the only important conspiracy is taking place ALL THE TIME on the other side of the plutocratic one-way mirrored glass ceiling.
ALL other conspiracies I consider distractions from everything that is essentially important.
Everything.
"Deep State Plutocracy" Is The Enduring Conspiracy. Warfare And Racial Animus Are The Decoys
"The forest" (as opposed to "the trees") which I perceive in Dr. Jones' creed is his overarching (and subtending) insistence that absolutes exist and they must be respected with unbending rigidity.
Consequently, Jones strikes me as an authoritarian absolutist.
And even if "God" is, in some fashion, an "authoritarian absolutist," I do not see how we sexually-driven mammals are going to do any good in this world by setting aside mercy and compassion in order to promote the dry bones of absolutism and the perrennial killing fields of authoritarianism.
Consequently, Jones strikes me as an authoritarian absolutist.
And even if "God" is, in some fashion, an "authoritarian absolutist," I do not see how we sexually-driven mammals are going to do any good in this world by setting aside mercy and compassion in order to promote the dry bones of absolutism and the perrennial killing fields of authoritarianism.
James' Epistle: "Judgment Without Mercy Will Be Shown To Anyone Who Has Not Shown Mercy"
Even so, I am aligned with Jones to the extent that he may share the Roman Catholic sense of absolutism tempered by indulgence, compassion and ready forgiveness.
When the apostle Peter says "love covers a multitude of sins" he notes that our sinfulness never goes away, that our penchant for wrongdoing is always there, that we always fall short, and that brittle absolutes are absolutely unachievable.
However, love "covers them all."
This "coverage" is a kind of divine, love-driven "cover-up" to make it "totally okay that we are NOT okay."
But when Jones says that we are ready "to kill meaning to let our guilty consciences off the hook," I think he is grinding an axe - that he is inappropriately harsh, unloving and unforgiving - not to mention his implicit hostility to indulgence if not mercy itself
Johann Tetzel is a minor hero of mine.
Despite Tetzel's objectionable profiteering from the sale of indulgences, he nevertheless embodied the persistent Catholic desire to "admit people to heaven" even if inconceivable "amounts" of transcendent Mercy -- completely apart from our "just desserts" -- are required to leap over The Wall of authoritarian-absolutist judgmentalism which I see as essentially pharisaic. (In the mid-Fifties when I was a student at St. Thomas the Apostle grammar school in Irondequoit, New York, the Mercy Sisters taught us that "There is no doctrinal reason why Catholics need to believe that a single soul is in Hell. In fact, it is our obligation to pray for the salvation of everyone, including Adolf Hitler.")
The Pharisees Are Always With Us: Here's What They "Look Like" Today
http://paxonbothhouses.
Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"
The Pharisees... And What Became Of The Thirty Pieces Of Silver
In my view, Pope Francis is very good about prioritizing mercy over justice which, revealingly, represent the two "value poles" featured in the most problematic Myers-Briggs question: "Do you value justice or mercy more?"
Note that the very insolubility of this question points to the fact that we live along a dialectical spectrum, and that -- ultimately -- there are good arguments on "both" sides just as there are for any polar, and therefore polarizing, issue. (Fortunately, love can "cover" it all.)
However -- and this is a HUGE "however" -- to acknowledge that there are always two valid poles in Life is a position that fundamentally opposes the mono-polarity or monopoly-of-values that absolutist-authoritarians INSIST upon.
I say that absolutist-authoritarians are essentially out-of-touch with Reality... which may be why so many American "conservatives" have taken leave of their senses.
"Postive/negative" (whether in the human psyche or in electrical current or across earth's magnetic field); "conservatism and liberalism"; "goodness and badness" co-exist.
The essentially right-wing passion to eliminate one of these everlasting poles - "the left" - is not only crazy but apocalyptically whacked-out.
Conservative Christianity, Armageddon As Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, And Return To The Neolithic
"Mercy makes the world... more just."
Brilliant dialectical resolution!
"Mercy makes the world... more just."
Brilliant dialectical resolution!
Admittedly, Jones is well-grounded in his value system and raises genuinely provocative questions.
And so, I do not argue directly against him, but would rather contextualize what I see as The Larger Meaning.
And that "Larger Meaning" -- like Love itself -- "covers a multitude of sins."
Paul Schulte comes to mind. "Right wing. Left wing. Who ever saw a bird fly with just one wing?"
Like other bright conservatives, Jones says many things that ring true.
But he says them in a way that reminds me of the saying "It's too true to be good."
I repeat: "Too true to be good." (My psychologist friends seem to moving toward experiential consensus: "We can either be right or we can be happy.)
I will also spotlight Chinese sage Lao Tzu reminder (in Lionel Giles' 1903 translation of the Tao Te Ching) that "The profoundest truths are paradoxical."
Like many authoritarian-absolutists, Jones is straightforwardly intense -- the kind of intensity Chesterton perceived in Islam's ferociously monopolar belief in Allah, a "unitarian" God who seems to invest his believers with the power-and-the-authority to use their slashing scimitars to slaughter infidels.
The godly elimination of Evil is as impossible -- and as ill-informed -- as the godly elimination of polarity.
We must "give the devil his due." And if we don't, the chances increase that we are ourselves will become diabolical.
Alternatively, Chesterton's view of Christianity's trinitarian God was that the Godhead itself embodies a community -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit - so that there was alway need for conviviality and harmonization among the disparate "persons" of this "society."
It was (and is) woefully insufficient to try to annihilate any innate tendencies just because they seem to rival THE ONE.
That God needs knocking down a notch.
On this earth, polar tendencies are eternally melded - just like the exceedingly problematic relationship between justice and mercy.
If you have not read Eric Hoffer's hundred page book, "The True Believer," it is brilliant. http://
In similar vein, one of my top five quotations (which also include Lao Tzu's citation above) is the following passage from Thomas Merton:
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.” "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
Imagine.
The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.
The best becomes evil.
Again we see the unspeakably benighted ruthlessness of insisting on the normalization of unbending ideals... which, in turn, pre-empt the need to incarnate love in our own lives.
Just say "the magic formula": "I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior!"
"Voilà!"
More Merton Quotes
You also link to Paul Craig Roberts who is such an interesting fellow that I always glance at his writing whenever it "crosses my desk."
However, over the last decade I have come to realize that Roberts is adept at "making mountains out of mole hills" - the only way he can continue promoting consistently contrarian views. Absent exaggeration there is just not enough good evidence to inform a weekly column
To illustrate Roberts' penchant for "making mountains out of mole hills," I direct you to his review of the movie "The Hunt" in which sporting liberals hunt "Trumpistas."
To create a "sellable story" Roberts converts a two-star movie into "The Foundational Template" that construes liberals and progressives in common cause with Satan himself.
Imagine.
The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.
The best becomes evil.
The best becomes evil.
Again we see the unspeakably benighted ruthlessness of insisting on the normalization of unbending ideals... which, in turn, pre-empt the need to incarnate love in our own lives.
Just say "the magic formula": "I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior!"
More Merton Quotes
How Conservatives Use Decontextualized Shards Of Truth To Tell HUGE Lies
http://paxonbothhouses.
It is incalculably more likely that right-wing militias will come after me than any imaginable scenario in which liberals sould hunt down Trumpistas.
"Who Gets The Political Support Of 892 Certifiable U.S. Hate Groups?"
If Trump cultists win next November -- and then finish their fascist destructuring of The American Experiment -- I will head for the native American hills "south of the border" where -- whether or not I have valid residence papers -- native friends will welcome me and integrate me into peaceful community.
Craig is a white guy who -- akin to other white guys -- became too wealthy and, no longer needing the economic collaboration of others to survive in the world, many of his kind stopped reproducing, and, as a lock-step result, we now import dark-skinned laborers to help us age and die.
How could we even think it might be otherwise?
Are we white people THAT stupid?
Are we so self-centered and "supremacist" to think we're entitled to have it both ways?
No children. AND no "darkies" to help us "get by."
I am not surprised to learn that Roberts' "singular zealousness for supply-side economics provoked ire in some quarters within the government, with Larry Kudlow – then an official in the Office of Management and Budget – saying that "Craig saw himself as the keeper of the Reagan flame. Only Craig knew what was right. No one else knew what was right".[1]
In the above passage, Pascal describes the intrinsic inclination of religiosity as practiced by authoritarian, absolutist people who believe themselves unimpeachably righteous, people who are typically rigid, brittle, unbending, unmerciful and given to finger-wagging.
"Only Craig knew what was right. No one else knew what was right"
"From Jesus to Christ: The Early Christians"
PBS
"Dead-End Conspiracism" And "The REAL Thing"... Hidden In Plain Sight
The Sutherland, Texas, Baptist Church Massacre
My friend Elaine K --- Fred Owen's former editor at Wilson County News (the county where the Sutherland Baptist Church massacre took place) --- knows that those 26 congregants are dead and that 20 more were wounded.
Elaine also knows that every slaughtered individual was killed with a firearm.
What I believe you need to do Ron --- if you are to claw your way back from the right-wing Bamboozle that has overtaken you --- is to prove to yourself that one of your foundational falsehoods is, in fact, a lie.
You are lying to yourself -- and to the world -- when you reflexively claim that "all" mass carnage involving firearms is attributable to "crisis actors," who routinely fool "the rest of us" by "disappearing" every theatrically-murdered person for the rest of their lives, and in the process cause permanent family separation.
Why do crisis actors -- collaborately with people who live in "target" communites -- do this?
According to "The Official Conspiracist Story" they do this to sour popular opinion on Second Amendment Rights.
I not only suggest Ron that you go to Sutherland, Texas, I say that your responsibility to Truth requires that you go to Sutherland.
And, in addition to poking around Suthermoan for at least a week, I believe you need to interview my devout Catholic friend Elaine, who, like "everyone" else in her community is a staunch defender of three things: God, Trump and The Second Amendment.
Elaine is the LAST person in the known Universe who would participate in a cover-up to advance the cause of gun regulation.
Do you know any parent -- just one parent in The Whole World -- who would agree to have their child torn from the bosom of their families and their home communities -- FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES -- in order to collaborate with Homeland Security to turn popular opinion against The Second Amendment?
I know no parent who would do this - or even ponder the possibility.
Furthermore, every person I know would consider the idea of parents agreeing to such "family separation" as equivalent to promoting legislation to revoke The Law of Gravity, or the make Caligula's horse emperor.
Just to get a feeling for Elaine, here is her Christmas letter which arrived yesterday:
Happiness is a new toy, and Al proudly shows off his new monster Kubota tractor, complete with an air conditioned cab — and a sun roof! (Not that I’m jealous, but he had to one up me because I was excited about the sunroof in my Edge!)
Seriously, Al and Chester continue to farm their combined 70 acres in Sutherland Springs. Karl does most of the work cutting and baling hay, so the tractor met with his approval. Speaking of the farm, they have quite a herd, with six baby calves and counting. Meanwhile, we need rain at the farm ‘cause we’re gonna have to feed a lot of cattle!
This year didn’t begin all that good, though, as last Dec. 15, Al broke his hip. My Christmas letters had already gone out, but suf- fice it to say that things were in an upheaval after that. That happened on a Saturday, and fortu- nately, there was a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Wayne Lee, who was willing to do surgery the next day. On Sunday, Al had a partial hip replacement, and on Tuesday, he was transferred to rehab in Flores- ville. Several months of therapy followed.
I can finally say, we survived. There re- ally isn’t much else to say about 2019. As we haul out the Christmas decorations once again, I’m trying not to be premature, but it looks like it’s going to be a good one!
I feel like I want to make up for what I couldn’t do last year, so December is filled with activities. We’ll do the best we can to keep up. Julia and Jacob both play in the County Line Community Band, so we have their concerts to attend in addition to the school band concerts.
James Paul, in the 7th grade, is proving to have some of the same musical talent as his sister. He plays the trombone and is in the top tier of the three middle school bands.
Jude, in the third grade, is showing signs of being a politician. He is quite the talker and a little social bug.
Julia will graduate in May and she and Kristen have been scoping out several nearby colleges to which she has been accepted. They are still deciding on the best one.
At the newspaper, we are operating very lean so that means there is more for me to do, trying to pick up the pieces and keep things together. Under Kristen’s guidance, we have expanded our online
presence and added a phone app. With additional efforts to diversify, we are experimenting with more retail in our front office while Julia works on building an online store. These are just ways to involve the community and increase our visibility and the amount of foot traffic.
I’m still as much of a political junkie as ever, but must admit that, with the current circus in Washington, I sometimes have to change the channel to a Hallmark movie for some comedic relief.
To be sure, at Christmas, we celebrate the love of the Christ Child by attending Holy Mass as a family, followed by a family dinner with everyone present. True to our human nature, though, we observe the spiritual through material celebrations. We decorate, prepare foods, and find ways to share with family and friends.
We exchange gifts with each other as we remember the greatest gift of all ... for God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.
*****
Pax tecum
Alan
My friend Elaine K --- Fred Owen's former editor at Wilson County News (the county where the Sutherland Baptist Church massacre took place) --- knows that those 26 congregants are dead and that 20 more were wounded.
Elaine also knows that every slaughtered individual was killed with a firearm.
What I believe you need to do Ron --- if you are to claw your way back from the right-wing Bamboozle that has overtaken you --- is to prove to yourself that one of your foundational falsehoods is, in fact, a lie.
You are lying to yourself -- and to the world -- when you reflexively claim that "all" mass carnage involving firearms is attributable to "crisis actors," who routinely fool "the rest of us" by "disappearing" every theatrically-murdered person for the rest of their lives, and in the process cause permanent family separation.
Why do crisis actors -- collaborately with people who live in "target" communites -- do this?
According to "The Official Conspiracist Story" they do this to sour popular opinion on Second Amendment Rights.
I not only suggest Ron that you go to Sutherland, Texas, I say that your responsibility to Truth requires that you go to Sutherland.
And, in addition to poking around Suthermoan for at least a week, I believe you need to interview my devout Catholic friend Elaine, who, like "everyone" else in her community is a staunch defender of three things: God, Trump and The Second Amendment.
Elaine is the LAST person in the known Universe who would participate in a cover-up to advance the cause of gun regulation.
Do you know any parent -- just one parent in The Whole World -- who would agree to have their child torn from the bosom of their families and their home communities -- FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES -- in order to collaborate with Homeland Security to turn popular opinion against The Second Amendment?
I know no parent who would do this - or even ponder the possibility.
Furthermore, every person I know would consider the idea of parents agreeing to such "family separation" as equivalent to promoting legislation to revoke The Law of Gravity, or the make Caligula's horse emperor.
Just to get a feeling for Elaine, here is her Christmas letter which arrived yesterday:
Happiness is a new toy, and Al proudly shows off his new monster Kubota tractor, complete with an air conditioned cab — and a sun roof! (Not that I’m jealous, but he had to one up me because I was excited about the sunroof in my Edge!)
Seriously, Al and Chester continue to farm their combined 70 acres in Sutherland Springs. Karl does most of the work cutting and baling hay, so the tractor met with his approval. Speaking of the farm, they have quite a herd, with six baby calves and counting. Meanwhile, we need rain at the farm ‘cause we’re gonna have to feed a lot of cattle!
This year didn’t begin all that good, though, as last Dec. 15, Al broke his hip. My Christmas letters had already gone out, but suf- fice it to say that things were in an upheaval after that. That happened on a Saturday, and fortu- nately, there was a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Wayne Lee, who was willing to do surgery the next day. On Sunday, Al had a partial hip replacement, and on Tuesday, he was transferred to rehab in Flores- ville. Several months of therapy followed.
I can finally say, we survived. There re- ally isn’t much else to say about 2019. As we haul out the Christmas decorations once again, I’m trying not to be premature, but it looks like it’s going to be a good one!
I feel like I want to make up for what I couldn’t do last year, so December is filled with activities. We’ll do the best we can to keep up. Julia and Jacob both play in the County Line Community Band, so we have their concerts to attend in addition to the school band concerts.
James Paul, in the 7th grade, is proving to have some of the same musical talent as his sister. He plays the trombone and is in the top tier of the three middle school bands.
Jude, in the third grade, is showing signs of being a politician. He is quite the talker and a little social bug.
Julia will graduate in May and she and Kristen have been scoping out several nearby colleges to which she has been accepted. They are still deciding on the best one.
At the newspaper, we are operating very lean so that means there is more for me to do, trying to pick up the pieces and keep things together. Under Kristen’s guidance, we have expanded our online
presence and added a phone app. With additional efforts to diversify, we are experimenting with more retail in our front office while Julia works on building an online store. These are just ways to involve the community and increase our visibility and the amount of foot traffic.
I’m still as much of a political junkie as ever, but must admit that, with the current circus in Washington, I sometimes have to change the channel to a Hallmark movie for some comedic relief.
To be sure, at Christmas, we celebrate the love of the Christ Child by attending Holy Mass as a family, followed by a family dinner with everyone present. True to our human nature, though, we observe the spiritual through material celebrations. We decorate, prepare foods, and find ways to share with family and friends.
We exchange gifts with each other as we remember the greatest gift of all ... for God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son.
*****
Alan
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