Life

Mar252020

Episode 147 Show Notes – Keys to Survival

Couple of stories concerning the Wuhan virus. But this is not going to be about that tonight. And how to survive self-containment.

 

Wuhan Virus News: Some Good, Some Bad, Some Stupid

Here is the news:

  • Democrats have packed so much pork in the recovery bill, set to be $6 trillion. That pork includes
    • Implementing Green New Deal regulations on any company getting bail out money.
    • Funding the John F. Kennedy Center.
    • Funding for Planned Parenthood and government paid abortion.
    • Making paid leave permenant.
  • Needless to say the Senate Republicans blocked this stupid bill that Pelosi came up with. Something better should be voted on tonight.
  • President Trump says he believes we should all be able to go back to work by Easter. Don’t know if that’s true or not but it is an attempt at a timeline. He says the cure for this mess cannot be worse than the mess.
  • With the coming stimulas package and the hope of the President to this thing being over soon, the stock market went nuts on Tuesday, crawling up 2100 point, a record.
  • The Presidents approval rating is also met his highest approval rating. He is holding at 49%. He is at 60% approval for his handling of the Wuhan virus including with independants.

 

That’s bad news for sleepy creepy Joe, who just can’t stay out of his own way.

Now, this wasn’t his fault, per say. The teleprompter didn’t work. But he still looks really old and really incompetant. The problem for Biden is that he has been hiding. Either for fear of the virus or because his advisors are afraid of him talking. Well, I bet it’s the latter. And the more he says, the more incompetant he looks.

An Arizona couple was sent to the hospital after they ingested chloroquine phosphate — a chemical compound used to clean fish aquariums — because they suspected it could help prevent coronavirus infections.

In an interview later that day, the woman told NBC News journalist Vaughn Hillyard that they each took 1 teaspoon of the chemical, mixed with soda, after finding it in their cabinet and coming to believe that it was “the stuff they’re talking about on TV.”

“It feels like, like my heart is broken and it’ll never mend,” said the woman, who blamed President Trump for their believing that chloroquine phosphate was safe to consume.

“Don’t take anything — be so careful and call your doctor. This is a heart ache I’ll never get over,” said the woman.

That’s right! It was Trump who told these people to eat fish bowl cleaner. God, I hope those two didn’t breed.

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/man-dead-wife-hospitalized-after-self-medicating-with-chloroquine-phosphate

 

How to Survive Confinement

I’ve been stuck inside for seven days now. Considering I have a cold, not the flu, I’m probably going to stuck here another two weeks. There are two things I have learned to do to get through my working from home and keeping my sanity.

I need to develop routines and find things to amuse myself as the days come to a close.

A routine brings focus. I hate working from home because there are just so many things I would rather be doing. But if I start my morning the same way every day, sitting down at my computer to work for eight hours doesn’t seem so bad.

So, here’s my routine:

  • I get up at 5:30 AM.
  • I make my bed.
  • I clean my dishes and counter.
  • I get dressed and brush my teeth.
  • I log into my computer and clock in.
  • I say good morning to Josie.
  • I do my security checks, which is the same thing every morning.
  • I review my Emails and check my calendar.
  • I then go make a cup of coffee.
  • We have a meeting every morning at 9:15 AM.
  • I make a second cup of coffee and take a shower.
  • I take my lunch at 11:00 AM.
  • In the afternoon, I work on a project and try to get a part of my project complete before I clock out.

 

That’s my routine and I do it every day. I find I get my work done and have little trouble focusing. It took a week for me to figure that part out but it works for me.

But I also need a way to unwind and keep my mind occupied. So I decided I would take seriously my favorite hobbies:

  • This podcast and my blogging.
  • Watching movies: Netflix and Amazon Prime. Stop with the news.
  • My wood carving. I am actually working from a book now to master it.
  • And when none of the above is in my wheel house, do some light reading.

 

I can’t tell you how relaxing writing this is.

Something I have also started doing is doing push-ups and squats every hour of my work day. I’m getting fat so I thought this would be a perfect way to get some exercise. Eventually, I am going to leave this place and get some running in. I will do that during the work day because it will shorten the day.

 

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Mar242020

Episode 146 Show Notes – It is a Chinese Virus

The news is saturated with the Wuhan Virus. I am not going to bite on it anymore. I’ve been stuck in my place for a week. I’ve heard all the statistics and news. Let’s just talk about it from a real life perspective. And, since we’re all stuck inside, waiting for everyone to die a terrible plague-like death, lets talk about what is happening in the human terms. Not like what we hear on the news. Because what we are hearing on the news and from the government is stupid.

Then, lets talk about what we should be hearing. What we need as a society. What we need to hear from our government. What we regular people may need to do.to get through this.

 

No More News

Well, it seems that life has stopped. There isn’t any news except for this damn virus. I decided it was time to change some of the content of this podcast because there is nothing really in the news. No debates or news outside of this pandemic. Even the Presidential campaign has been put on hold. But is that a surprise? All the candidates are well in the age range for mortality for this virus. Not to mention I’m sure the campaigns don’t want their candidates saying anything because they are so dumb.

I love the politicizing of this virus though. My girlfriend came over one day and called Trump ma racist because he called the virus the Chinese flu. I asked if she was kidding. I then pointed out the different viruses that were named after where the started. That included:

  • Spanish flu
  • Asian Flu
  • Russian flu
  • Hong Kong flu
  • MERS (Middle East)
  • Lyme disease
  • Ebola

 

All of these are named after the place they started. COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China. It’s actually known as the Wuhan virus but got its name because the Chinese government is responsible for causing this pandemic and President Trump doesn’t want you to forget it. I’ll talk about that more a little later.

Here’s the thing, and it’s so simple I won’t waste a lot of time on it: this virus started in Wuhan, China. The Chinese government hid the virus as not to embarrass themselves, which is true of any communist dictatorship. If they had alerted the world of the virus and prevented their people from just doing their thing, including traveling to other countries, this thing would be done already. The virus did start in Wuhan but it is the Chinese government nthat aided in the spread of the disease. Seriously, folks, they killed the doctor who discovered and tried to alert the people about it.

So, it is the Chinese virus.

The second thing I keep hearing is how Trump messed this whole thing up. And, in the beginning, he did. He didn’t take this seriously, didn’t think of the impact and brushed it off.But he’s recovered. He has the best doctors in the country advising him, he place Vice President Pence in charge, distancing himself to allow others to control yet showing the government is involved and taking it seriously.

This is an unprecedented event. Nothing like this has happened since the Spanish Flu in 1918. No one today knows how to deal with this. Denmark decided to perform something called Herd Immunization. What that means is people would go out and do their thing while those who are susceptible to the virus would hide out. The virus would spread, people who can weather it would get sick, develop an immunity and they would live happily ever after.

Nope. Didn’t work out that way. Denmark is now doing what we’re doing. Best laid plans of mice and men, I guess.

The reality is, no one really knows how to deal with this.

 

What Can The Government and Trump Do

Why is the stock market flipping out? Why are there no rolls of toilet paper anywhere? Why are there lines of people wrapped around the Costco parking lot? Why can’t I find a loaf of bread for my tuna fish salad sandwich?

Because we are all in a panic.

There have been over one billion references to the Wuhan virus in the news media. That is 10 times more than there was for SARS, MERS, Ebola or H1N1. And those were more serious viruses (that we know of).

The fact is, we don’t know much about this virus. So the government must walk the fine line between we’re all going to die and everything is going to be fine. That’s easier said than done.

The media went far to one direction and told us we are all going to die. Statistics show that is not the case. The virus is more dangerous than the flu and it is showing that young people are susceptible. Italy has shown that.

Trump went the other direction. He minimized the virus. He told us we were all going to be fine, this is no big deal, nothing to see here. That wasn’t true either. This virus does suck. It is more dangerous and contagious than we thought. People will die. And the administration decided this was a serious thing and adjusted. Now, they are doing well.

What do I think? It’s probably kind of in the middle. This is a dangerous virus and I should stay away from my parents and others who are susceptible. But I am not sure it is as bad as the media plays it out. I think the government should overreact because this thing is scaring people and the government needs to take their fear seriously. And we don’t know anything about this virus. So we should think the worst of it and deal with it. If it ends up not being as bad as we thought, no big deal.

We also need to realize what we are doing. We are, justifiably, shutting down the economy. Stores and businesses are shutting down, people are losing the jobs and can’t pay their bills. We’re all stuck at home. This could kill our economy. Everything the government is doing, from ordering businesses to close to giving us a couple of grand a month, is meant to suspend the economy so that it doesn’t crash completely.

Here’s the problem: I don’t trust the government. You’ve heard me say this before. The government sucks at everuything. And I am afraid they are going to do things that help make the government bigger. This week, the Senate refused to pass a $1 trillion package, supported by the President, because some of the provisions would be made permenant. That’s scary. Business cannot support paid sick leave all the time and Universal Basic Income (which is what the Democrats want) is unsustainable. We can’t afford it. And this is not a time to allow a single payer health care system sneak into our lives. This is not the time to implement the Green New Deal, which a lot of Democrats are pushing with this $1 trillion deal.

The only thing the government is suppose to do is suspend the economy for a month, maybe two. Not make the government bigger.

Finally, The last thing the government can do is give us a timeline. I have been stuck in my house for a week and I am going nuts. My girlfriend is going nuts. Her kids are going nuts. My parents are going nuts. My friends are going nuts. We are all going nuts. And if the government thinks we are all going to sit in our homes for two months, they’re stupid.

The American people are too used to freedom. They are not going to last long imprisoned in their homes. We need to know there is light at the end of the tunnel. And we need to be given an idea when we might see that light. I know that the government may not know. That’s fine but tell us what they are thinking. Not just the doom and gloom. Because people are not going to do this forever. Hell, they’re not going to do this for three weeks.

China did not have a problem controlling their population. Anyone did what they did not say, they were killed or imprisoned. This is not that country.

Please, President Trump, come up with a plan and let us know what is going on. We know this is not going to last forever. Tell us how long we are going to have to go through even if it means the bad news of a second wave of an infection.

We are Americans. We can handle it.

 

Week On in Captivity

I have been stuck in my place for six days. and this sucks.

Good news is, after five days of not knowing what to do with myself, I developed a routine. That really helped today. I do work from home and this was the first time I was actually productive from home. I am not going to talk about my routine yet. We’ll save that for tomorrow’s podcast.

But I am watching a lot of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Not much news because the news is the same. So here’s some things you might enjoy too:

  • Read Loserthink by Scott Adams.
  • Watched Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
  • Watch 1917.
  • Watched The Platform on Netflix. Reminds me of The Cube.
  • Binge-watched BloodRide on Netflix.
  • Am binge-watching Frasier from Amazon Prime

 

This week, I’m going to start a new book called You Can’t Lie to Me by Janine Driver. I read this book before but I never annotated it. It is an awesome book so I want to spend sometime with it.

 

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Feb072020

Episode 128 Show Notes – What a Great Week!

On Monday, Iowa held their caucuses and it turned out to be a disaster. Trump holds the State of the Union and some Democrats are having a temper tantrum. President Trump gets acquitted in the  Senate, ending this impeachment sham. At least until the next impeachment.

 

DNC Blows It!

Iowa held its first caucus in Iowa. It didn’t go well.

The process is really weird and it got very confusing.

Communications and the use of a new phone app (that didn’t work) made it impossible to get their votes in or be counted.

Listen to this as a caucus captain in on CNN with Wold Blitzer is waiting on hold for over an hour gets hung up on because he did not answer fast enough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ko69lsKVSo

I love it. In fact, CNN was melting down at the fact they had 62 people on their panel and absolutely no information to report. In fact, it’s been 24 hours and we still only have 62% of the vote.

This is really bad.

The returns relevant to delegate count show Buttigieg with 26.9 percent and Sanders with 25.1 percent. Warren trailed with 18.3 percent and Biden was hovering in fourth with 15.6 percent, just ahead of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Now, this is bad for the candidates, especially for Buttigieg and Bernie. One of the reasons they want to win the first caucus is so they can make a huge victory speech that will give them momentem as they go to New Hampshire. No one really got to make this speech. Or did they?

This is where the idiocy of the Democrats comes into play.

They all declared victory.

Amy Klobachar started it by jumping up and claiming a great win (There were no results).

Mayor Pete jumped in and said he actually won the caucus. This was bad for two reasons: There were no results (so Twitter thought he cheated) and he had to find some black people to be behind him during his victory speech. And he did. And it got out.

Bernie was Bernie. He didn’t claim victory but said he thought he did fine. There’s your Democratic nominee.

Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren both had speeches at the same time. That ended up being a split screen on CNN. Warren exclaimed they did great and were ready for the next caucus. Biden said they did fine and fell asleep. He’s all but done.

But, the big take away, is that we can’t trust these people. The DNC screwed this up for a bunch of candidates who want to take control of all aspects of our lives. That can’t run a caucus without screwing it up.

Also, Dems are in trouble. Turn out was very low. People just not interested. Why? Because their candidates suck.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/iowa-caucuses-currently-a-wide-open-race-with-voting-underway-in-pivotal-contest

 

State of the Union Speech

I hate the State of the Union because…well…it’s boring. But I watched it anyway. Trump did some good things. And there were things he could have done differently. But, I tell you, Trump is an awesome reality television show guy. It actually made the speech entertaining.

The first thing Trump did in his speech is tout his accomplishments. And there were plenty of them:

  • The economy.
  • The jobless rate for all races and genders.
  • The rate of those on food stamps and welfare.
  • The tax cuts.
  • Overall income increases.
  • Suicide and drug related deaths are down.
  • Illegal immigration is down.
  • The killing of three terrorists.
  • Criminal reform.
  • The USMCA and the China Trade Agreement.
  • Respect from other countries like Iran and North Korea.

 

He also pushed for more things he wanted to accomplish:

  • Space force.
  • School choice.
  • No hidden healthcare fees.
  • Drug education.
  • The need to end illegal immigration and building of the wall.
  • Calls for more cancer research and vowed to end AIDS by the end of the decade.
  • Develop extending Family Leave bill.
  • Extend funding for child care so less children have to be on waiting lists.

 

His guests and surprises:

  • Rush Limbaugh, who he awarded the Medal of Freedom.
  • President Guido of Venezuela.
  • One of the remaining Tuskegee Airmen who he promoted to General.
  • He reunited a a soldier with his family.
  • He announced a scholarship to a charter school for a little girl,

Things I wish he had done but don’t blame him for:

  • He uses”me,” “my,” and “I” a lot. He seems self-aggrandized.
  • This  was not a real come-together speech. I thought he would reach out to the Democrats a bit more.
  • He could have spread the accomplishments a bit more. Not all the laws were just by him (though they were his ideas).
  • She should have shook Nancy Pelosi’s hand though this might have been an accident. He didn’t shake Mike Pence’s hand either.

 

He never mentioned impeachment, but one could tell he was ticked.

The Democrats acted like…well…Democrats.

  • A bunch of people did not show up including AOC. It was pretty smart that she didn’t go.
  • The Democrats looked bad.
  • The Democrats did not applause for anything including: Unemployment being at record lows for all races, circumstances and ages, incomes going up, dead terrorists, a strong military, the the Tesegee airman or his belief that the country is exceptional and great even though we have made mistakes.
  • A bunch of Democrats walked out of the speech.
  • Tliab and Omar were on their phone Tweeting during the speech.
  • Sometime, in the middle of the speech, some stood up raised their arms and started chanting something. I have no idea what they said.

 

But Nancy Pelosi was the worst.

  • Yes, Trump did not shake her hand. He also did not shake Mike Pence’s hand and seemed to be turning away when she stuck her hand out. Even if he did, who cares.
  • She never stood up, even for things she should have like the Tesegee Airman. She seemed to figure out what was happening later and started standing.
  • She was making faces the whole time. Maybe she was angry, maybe her dentures were bothering her, who knows.
  • She seemed to keep communicating with someone on her side of the aisle. It was very disrespectful.
  • At the end of the speech, obviously very angry, she tore up her copy of the speech. Stood up tall, grabbed some of the speech and tore it up. She then took the pieces and laid them by the gavel so Trump could see it if he turned around.

 

This is the Democratic party: small, petty, mean, disrespectful and incompetent.

All this time they have been talking about how Donald Trump was all these things. Well, the mask is off. Not only did Donald Trump give a powerful speech, the Democrats made him look better by their behavior.

Now, if Trump could just shut up.

 

Sad News

Rush Limbaugh, father of Conservative radio and podcasts, made the following announcement on his radio show:

I never got into Rush though I listened to him when I was younger because my dad loved him.

During the State of the Union address, the President awarded him the Medal of Freedom. It was given to him by Ivanka Trump because he was in the First Lady’s box. He was touched.

We’ll pray for youRush. God bless.

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/conservatives-tulsi-offer-prayers-well-wishes-for-rush-limbaugh-following-cancer-announcement

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Jan132020

Episode 117 – Representative Cardi?

Iran is falling apart. Democrats, searching for a new narrative, are being called out for supporting the despotic regime. This leads us to the big question: How stable is Iran and what does that mean to us? Supposedly, the articles of impeachment should be heading to the Senate but the House still wants to interview John Bolton. Is this garbage ever going to end? And, try this on for size: Rep. Cardi B.

Oh, by the way, Cory Booker just dropped out of the Democratic Presidential race.

 

It’s Falling Apart in Iran

Let’s see, what has been happening in Iran:

  • Their economy has been trashed because of sanctions and the proxy wars they are participating in.
  • They shut off all social media.
  • They are jailing women who refuse to wear a hijab.
  • They have killed between 1500-2000 protesters.
  • There was an earthquake on top of their nuclear facility (which they can’t afford).
  • The second in charge of the government, Soleimani, was killed in the middle of a terrorist attack against the United States.
  • They had a weak response against the United States after Soleimani was killed, making them look weak.
  • More sanctions have been placed on them by the United States.
  • And they accidentally shoot down a Ukrainian passenger plane with 176 people, mostly Iranian students.

 

Is it a wonder that the Iranian citizens are getting ticked.

Thousands of protesters, mostly students have taken to the streets. Their messages are not to the liking of the Mullahs. They including:

  • Shouting “Death to Islamic Republic dictatorship”
  • Calls for the Ayatollah to resign.
  • Tearing the pictures honoring Soleimani off the walls.
  • Women refuse to wear their hijabs
  • The refusal of Iranians to trample over giant flags of the United States and Israel and booing those who do.

 

The Iranian government did its best to try to get its unhappy citizens to love them again. By shooting them with tear gas and, allegedly, live rounds. Once again, am Iranian protest will lead to the deaths of its citizens by a brutal dictatorship.

President Trump, who openly supports the protesters, released the following Tweet after it was reported that the conflicts had turned violent:

Then, just to add oil to the fire, the lone female Olympic medalist, Kimia Alizadeh, decided to defect to Europe, protesting the treatment of women by the government.

The 2016 bronze medalist in tae kwon do stated that she hopes to find herself in the United States one day. Ouch!

The Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) are struggling to find a new narrative to make Trump the villain in all this. It’s not going well for them.

Nancy Pelosi, this weekend was asked a simple question about whether or not it was a good thing that protesters were calling for the end of the Mullahs in Iran. She tip-toed around the question like a ballerina. Listen:

Of course, she never answered the question. If she said, “yes,” that would go against the appeasement that the Iranian Nuclear Deal the Obama administration still say is working.

If she said, “no,” she would look like she was supporting a terrorist, oppressive, dictatorial regime. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

But noticed she almost said what she was thinking: if Soleimani wouldn’t have been killed, tensions wouldn’t have escalated, Iran wouldn’t have needed air defense and that plane wouldn’t have been shot down.

In other words: Orange Man Bad.

Democrats are struggling to find a narrative that makes this a loss for Trump even if it means defending a tyrannical, terrorist regime.

I’m finishing an audio book now called Debunking Howard Zinn by Mary Graber. The book talking about revisionist history and how it is used to change the way people see the United States. We’ll spend a Sunday on that book and how we see history in day-to-day life.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-iranian-protesters-refuse-to-walk-on-u-s-israel-flags-attack-soleimani-posters
https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-pelosi-asked-would-it-be-a-good-thing-if-iranian-protesters-brought-down-regime-after-showdown-with-trump-gets-ripped-for-response
https://www.dailywire.com/news/iran-opens-fire-on-demonstrators-protesters-chant-our-enemy-is-here-they-lie-to-us-that-its-america
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iran-only-female-olympic-medalist-defect_n_5e1b9593c5b6640ec3d63ea5
https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-muslim-scholar-on-iran-this-regime-for-the-first-time-ever-is-seriously-threatened

 

Is This Thing Ever Going to Go Away

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/pelosi-threatens-to-call-john-bolton-to-testify-in-house-even-as-dems-vote-to-send-impeachment-articles-to-senate

 

Congresswoman Cardi?

So, last week, after Qessem Soleimani was killed, Cardi B, the former stripper and prostitute, decided to leave this country for Nigeria because Trump is a bad man. They were willing to take her.

She must have heard that Nigeria has high crime, poverty, oppresses women, high pollution and constant war (in other words, it’s a crap hole) decided to step back from leaving the United States.

Instead, she decided that with her vast experience as a stripper, hooker and rapper, she should consider a run for Congress. She Tweeted:

But she does have one problem that she needs to resolve before her run. She Tweeted:

She may be lacking an edu-ma-cation and, like, don’t speak no good, like, but she knows how to ax questions good.

She supports Bernie Sander (what a shock such a mental giant supports him). Of course, Bernie embraced it so much, he held an interview with it:

Unfortunately, she is acting like a typical politician and flip-flopping. Listen to her go off on the government and where her taxes are going:

Genius. And she’s voting for Bernie Sanders who wants to raise taxes from 60% to 90%.

You know what’s sad? After she gets her 8th grade diploma, she’ll run and probably win. She still will be smarter than AOC.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/cardi-b-reverses-course-on-wanting-to-move-to-nigeria-now-wants-to-run-for-congress

 

 

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Dec192019

Plato’s Republic Book I

 

Book I Summary

In this book, Socrates is in a small town outside of Athens for a religious festival. Just as the festival is concluding and he is about to leave, he is stopped by the sons of an acquaintance of Socrates. As they are traveling the subject of justice came up.  

This turns out to be what the entire chapter is about. Each person gives their opinion on what justice is. In this chapter, Socrates does not actually define what justice is. He just argues against the other opinions of what justice and injustice is. One thing I want to point out is that I will not use names or summarize the chapter. I won’t mention that Cephalus thinks one thing and Polemarchus want to beat Socrates up. The reason is because trying to grasp 2400-year-old Greek names is difficult and the actual story is irrelevant to the ideas though it is interesting to see that people get pissed off when they lose an argument.  

The first idea is that justice is one who follows his legal obligations, pays his debts and is honest. So if you owe a man money, it is just to pay the money back and injustice not to do so. But Socrates thinks this is wrong. He points out that some men are fools and will waste what he gets. Sometimes it might be better to keep the money until he is better able to deal with it. Another example would be borrowing a weapon from an insane man. Would it be prudent and just to give a mad man a weapon? Because it would endanger the lives of others, it would not be justice to return the weapon to its rightful owner. 

Let’s say my friend loans me a shotgun so I can go hunting. I come back from my trip and find out he had a horrible fight with his girlfriend and they break up. When I talk to him, I find that he is angry, hurt and depressed. Would it be a good idea that I give him his shotgun back when he is in such a fragile state? Because I would be giving him a tool that could hurt him, his girlfriend or both, Socrates says it would be unjust to give him his property. 

The second attempt at defining justice is from a young man (the son of Socrates’ friend). Justice is bringing friends help and causing harm to enemies. This argument shows the differences between the generations which is the goal of Plato. Though the two arguments may seem completely different, they aren’t. The first argument is made my an old, established and successful man. It is passive. This argument is made by a younger man who is trying to establish himself and is preparing for conflict. The younger man’s response is more aggressive. 

Socrates has little problem blowing this argument out of the water. He says that human beings are not infallible. We may befriend bad people and have enemies that are virtuous. It is not just by helping a person without virtue yet attack those that are virtuous. He also says that friends and enemies change. Socrates also points out that it is hard to seeing causing harm, no matter to who, is justice in any way. 

Then the discussion gets interesting. Enter Thrasymachus. Thrasymachus is a Sophist. A Sophist is a Greek teacher in philosophy. They are known to embrace human reason and be very skeptical of any moral standards, including that of justice.  

Thrasymachus angrily enters the conversation. He states that justice is nothing more than the advantage of the strong. Thrasymachus doesn’t believe in moral concepts like justice and doesn’t really define it so much as he is delegitimizes it. He believes that concepts like justice are imposed on society by the strong and the desire to be just is unnatural. He believes it restrains us and we should ignore it entirely.  

Life just got tough for Socrates. Before, all the discussions involved finding a definition for justice. Now he has to show that it has value and do it in front of someone who is hostile enough to want to fight him. This is the long part of the chapter. 

The first thing Socrates does is to force Thrasymachus is to admit that he is promoting injustice as a virtue, not justice. He does this by pointing out that the only point, according to him, to life is to gather as much money and power as possible. The person with the most is considered the most virtuous. Socrates points out that injustice cannot be a virtue because it counters wisdom. The example he uses is one who has a skill that is virtuous like medicine, art and mathematics. The artist create art for the art itself and does not try to compete with other artists. For that, he’s paid for his art. A doctor does not compete with other doctors. He uses his wisdom for the benefit of the of the patient’s well-being and does not compete with any other doctors.  

In short, justice is selfless and injustice is selfish.  

Socrates points out that justice must exist even by the unjust. He uses the example of a gang of thieves. There must be justice, even among thieves, because if they followed Thrasymachus’ theory, the thieves would constantly be stealing from themselves and no one would trust or work with each other. 

Thrasymachus is thoroughly beaten and knows it. The last point that Socrates bring is that justice is important to the health of the soul. Thrasymachus believed that justice is unnecessary and serves no point. Socrates points out that wisdom is a virtue of the soul. Since wisdom and justice are interrelated, justice must also be a virtue of the soul. Like good food and medicine makes a healthy body, virtues like wisdom and justice make for a healthy soul. 

 

What Did We Learn

This chapter was just introducing us to justice and the subject. It also looked at the base philosophies on what justice is from the Hesiodic and the Sophist philosophy. Hesiodic philosophy studies a wide variety of philosophies from nature to divine justice. Unlike Sophist philosophy, morality and justice are embraced and debated. Plato’s goal was to have Socrates destroy the different takes on justice so that a new definition can be defined. Though justice is never defined in this first book, we see the direction Socrates is heading.

One of the best reasons to actually read the text as opposed to reading external resources suck as Spark Notes is to read how Socrates argues. He does not put words into the mouths of those he debates. He picks at their argument until the conclusion is undoubtedly what Socrates wants.

Because of some of the complicated explanations and lack of punctuation (quotes are not used) reading and understanding the debates can be very challenging. I had to read chapter 1 twice with outside resources. I am happy to say that chapter 2 is a lot easier to read and the the discoveries are really interesting.

What is really great is watching how Socrates debates. He doesn’t try to convince anyone of anything but uses the words of his adversary against him. He uses reason and his opponents own words against the argument. I have found that I have always done the same thing when I debate. I learned how to do this in a college speech and debate class. Now I know where the style came from.

And that is Book I of Plato’s Republic in a nutshell.

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Nov282019

Episode 101 Show Notes – What a Great Week!

You know, it’s the week of Thanksgiving which starts a wonderful season for all religious people. That’s a double-edged sword because the secular and the Left try to make this season into proof that our country and the religious are evil. But I don’t care about that today.

Let’s do some news and hope for the best. But let’s talk about Thanksgiving and happy things. Something we can talk about at the dinner table. Things that are political but not.

 

News

I need to hit on some news.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg has been hospitalized again with flu-like symptoms. This is after she missed a session of the Supreme Court last week. She stayed, got some liquids and was released. I am not a fan of the 87-year-old and I do want her to retire. But not die. I wish her the best and hope she is feeling better.

The impeachment thing moves on to the second phase. The House Judiciary Committee under Jerry Nadler, will hold public hearings next week.Some Democrats from purple states are getting nervous about voting for impeachment so I think that a vote may not be as much a slam dunk as they thought.

We finally know why Trump withheld aid: Because Trump was ticked that no one else was paying aid to Ukraine. This came from close-door testimony from Mark Sandy, an official from the White House Office of Management and Budget. This probably should have been brought up in the first place.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-supreme-court-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-again-admitted-to-hospital
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-democrats-announce-new-impeachment-moves-on-trump
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-impeachment-witness-deposition-reveals-why-they-were-told-to-hold-ukraine-aid

 

Animals are Great, Animal are Great!

Here are some great stories.

Conan, the dog that chased al-Baghdadi has finally made it to the White House. There, he was awarded a medal and a plaque and was then brought out to the Rose Garden for a quick press conference.

Conan, who is a five-year-old male Belgian Malinois, seemed very sweet. Vice President Pence couldn’t keep his hands off of her and she seems to love it. He is going to go back to the Middle East right after his visit to the White House.

Many say that the dog should be able to receive a Purple Heart because he was injured. The government banned dogs getting any official medal back in the 1940s. I think is would be awesome if President Trump would sign an Executive Order allowing animals to get medals.I’d love to see the Resistance take that Executive Order to court.

President Trump also pardoned two turkeys for Thanksgiving. The turkeys’ names are Bread and Butter. Cute, huh? During his speech, he needed to take a swipe at Democrats and the impeachment hearings.

The two turkeys will be taken to the University of Virginia where they will be retired and cared for. Those birds are going to have a better life than me.

 

Great Advice!

I usually go to the Huffington Post to get stories that are so woke their stupid. But I found this article and it actually changed the tone of this podcast today. It is a great article and I’ll probably spend most of the article. The article by Lindsay Holmes is titled 10 Things Grateful People Do Differently. Let’s go over those ten steps.

  1. Write in a journal.
  2. Don’t avoid the negative.
  3. Spend time with loved ones.
  4. Tell your loved ones you love them.
  5. Use social media mindfully.
  6. Know the value of the little things.
  7. Help people know the value of the little things.
  8. Volunteer.
  9. Get moving (exercise).
  10. Love Yourself.

 

Ten Things I’m Grateful For

It’s been a really hard couple of years for me. But, the reality is, I have a great life and I have a lot to be grateful for. Here are some things I am going to be talking about and celebrating on Thursday.

  1. God.
  2. My family.
  3. Josie.
  4. My friends- Dave, Chad, Nick, Dean, Nate, Yesenia, Lissette, Teresa just to name a few.
  5. My career and the employers.
  6. My health.
  7. My God-given drive to try new things.
  8. A roof over me head.
  9. My country.
  10. The next day.

 

Even the bad things are good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/habits-of-grateful-people_n_565352a6e4b0d4093a588538
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/food-shame-overeating-holidays_l_5dd2d19be4b01f982f06847e
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hong-kong-democrats-landslide-victory-local-elections_n_5ddb08ece4b0913e6f6e53b2

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Oct072019

We Need A Little More of This

The whole “Trump is corrupt” garbage in this “impeachment inquiry” is falling apart. Looks like the democrats are the ones guilty of corruption. Is it possible Michelle or Hilary? I don’t know. There was one of the most epic court I have ever seen. It made the judge cry and the baliffs smile warmly. And this was for a murder trial. But leave it to a left wing organization to mess it up. And the movie Joker is being released tonight and I might  not have time to talk about it.

I’m not even going to be able to talk about Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Cortez. Looks like I might be doing a podcast Saturday or Sunday.

 

We Need More of This

In September of 2018, Amber Guyger was coming home after her shift as a Dallas police officer. She walked into what she thought was her apartment and saw a Black man lying on the couch with a some ice cream. She thought the man was an intruder and shot him. When she realized she was not in her apartment but in the one above her apartment and that she had just killed an innocent man, she immediately called her partner.

The man turned out to be an accountant named Botham Jean. He was just in his apartment, eating ice cream and watching television. Guyger was arrested and charged with murder. She looking at 2-99 years in prison. Of course, there was the race thing being played. But, it turned out, she did get convicted of murder and was sentenced to ten years in prison. Well under the max and what the prosecuter wanted which was 28 years (which is the age of Jean).

I never talked about the case for a few reasons. First, it was murder and she was going to get convicted. I had absolutely no doubt about this. Second, this was just a tragedy because I’m sure it was an accident. She had just gotten home from a 12-hour shift, there were no drugs in her system and I have missed a floor n my apartment building. This does not excuse what she did but it looks like an accident. Finally, this story became big because a white officer “breaks” into a black man’s house and this proves systemic racism in our police agencies. And I don’t believe that all. So I do not believe the controversy that made this a national story.

Where this became a story for me was when the younger brother of Jean made is statement after Guyger was sentenced. Listen to what Brandt Jean says to Guyger:

We seriously need more of this in the world. Jean had no idea what the reaction to his proclaiming forgiveness would create, not even from his family. The bravery and faith in his convictions. We can all learn from this act that is Christ-like. Even the judge was crying. The judge, Judge Tammy Kemp, left the courtroom, brought back her Bible and read the verse from John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Kemp then walked from her perch and also hugged Guyger. It was unprecedented and moving though I am sure the bailiffs were probably flipping out.

Of course, we can’t have beautiful moments like this. The Freedom from Religion Foundation, an atheist group filed a complaint against Judge Tammy Kemp.

“This is wrong on several levels, not the least of which is using a public office to promote her personal religion to someone who she is sentencing,” complained Freedom From Religion Foundation attorney Andrew Seidel. “It’s unconstitutional and wildly inappropriate for a judge. She should know better. And all that’s only one level.”

“[Freedom From Religion Foundation] is filing a judicial complaint about this unconstitutional proselytizing,” he added. “We need more compassion in our criminal justice system, but here, compassion crossed the line into coercion. Judges cannot impose their personal religion on others.”

“FFRF is urging the commission to investigate Kemp’s actions at the close of the trial: gifting a bible, instructing a convicted criminal on how to read the bible and which passages to pay attention to, and proselytizing and witnessing to that convicted murderer. These judicial actions were inappropriate and unconstitutional, FFRF contends.”

Two words for these bozos: Fuck you! The judge never imporsed her religion on anyone until after she sentenced Guyger. Same with Jean’s speech. Everything was finished. And a real judge is supposed to feel compassion and she did. Compassion is part of her job!

Religion is not unconstitutional. The First Amendment says you have the freedom of religion, not the freedom from religion. And that crap they like to throw out, “the separation of church and state,” is not in the Constitution. That was in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Baptists in Connecticut explaining why the federal government could not stop the state of Connecticut from establishing an official religion. In other words, according to Jefferson’s letter, California could declare their official religion to be devil worship and the state (which is the federal government) can do nothing about it! It is one of the most midread quotes in United States history.

I just want to say to the Freedom from Religion Foundation: You folks better hope you’re right and the only thing you guys are going to do when you die is end up a worm feast. If you’re wrong and there is a Hell (I don’t believe that, by the way), I hear it really sucks this time of year. Which is every day of the year.

Hmm, maybe Hell is where global warming really hooked?

https://www.dailywire.com/news/must-watch-brother-of-man-killed-by-female-cop-gives-shattering-speech-of-forgiveness
https://www.dailywire.com/news/atheist-group-files-complaint-against-judge-in-amber-guyger-case-for-talking-to-her-about-redemption

 

Fun

It’s nice to see Saturday Night Live be a little bit more even

Last Saturday, they held a skit about the impeachment opinions in the format of a Town Hall debate. It was pretty funny.

Just thought we should end the podcast on something fun.

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Sep212019

Podcast #69 Show Notes:

Justin Trudeau has some splaining to do. Sean Spicer, the former Press Secretary under Donald Trump, committed the mortal sin of being on Dancing of the Stars. And his dancing sucked too. And Merrium Websters gets woke and changes the meaning of the word, “they.”

 

Oh, Canada

Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, has gotten himself into some trouble. He went to an Arabian Nights costume event in 2001 a dressed in brown face. Even his hands were painted. This is a real problem for Trudeau because he is up for reelection and the race is tight. When the picture hit the news, Trudeau offered an apology:

During the interview, he was asked if that was the only instance of him wearing black face. He never answered. If that’s not a red flag I don’t know what is. Sure enough, two more photos were dug up.

I find this hysterical because it shows the hypocrisy of the woke left. This is a guy is constantly looking down at the little people from his perch. Telling us how we should act and how we should speak. He is part of the reason Canada is such a mess and people like Jessica Yaniv, the trans woman who is a lesbian (which means he’s a man), are able to raise such havoc through the legal system. He is responsible for promoting the change of language that could ultimately destroy Western Civilization. Listen to this clip of him admonishing a young lady asking him a question just because she did not use the right wording.

Isn’t he man-splainiing?

Wearing black face at that time was not a big deal and I do not think Justin Trudeau is a racist or should lose his job. But I also think the right would be making a mistake by not pointing out the hypocrasy. We should point it out and keep pointing it out because the left wing media will just try to let it go like they did with Ralph Northam.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/justin-trudeau-blackface-video-photo_n_5d83856de4b0849d4724d2af

 

He”s Just Dancing…

There has been tons of controversy about Sean Spicer being accepted into the Dancing with the Stars competition on Fox. Sean Spicer was Trump’s Press Secretary for less than a year at the beginning of his tenure.  Let’s take a look at his performance.

https://youtu.be/7YBEceR7oeM

Oh, God it hurts to watch. But he was having fun and that’s all that counts. He ended up with a score of 12 out of 30 which is the second worst score of the competition. But one thing people should have gotten out of this, just like with all of Trump’s appearances over the decades, is that Sean Spicer is just a human being who likes the same things as regular people.

Yes he can’t dance and he wasn’t a great Press Secretary. But he’s a nice guy and completely likable.

Vox, a far left website, published a three thousand word essay about the evils of Sean Spicer, why there is so much contraversy about him being on Dancing with the Stars and of course, how the orange man is bad. They published Tweets from all the celebrities complaining about Spicer as a Trump Press Secretary, not about whether the guy cold dance or not. There were two paragraphs about his performance and about twenty-five about how bad he is, how bad the Trump administration and how they needed to win the culture war.

This bring us two things we need to talk about: the culture war and cancel culture.

Things we will talk about with the culture war is how anyone on the right, even moderate conservatives, are being pushed out of culture by the left. Things like Dancing with the Stars actually makes conservatives look human. The left can’t have that. The want demonization of the right at all times. At one point I didn’t care about the culture war. That’s why conservatives are pushed out of Hollywood and blacklisted. That’s because the purpose of Hollywood is to bring an emotional perspective to the narrative that is indoctrinated through the education system and “confirmed” through the left wing media.

The culture war also fosters extremists groups like Black Lives Matter, Antifa, The Women’s March and the Proud Boys. This is really the scary part about the war because there is no dialog or debate with these groups. There is only violence.

Cancel culture means we must eliminate the “evil” of culture through boycotts and harrassment. I hate this. I think Nike and Apple are not only unethical companies but also immoral. I won’t boycott or try to have those companies destroyed. I just won’t buy their shoes or phones. Individuals have power. The collective doesn’t. How do I prove that? Boycotts never work.

https://www.vox.com/2019/9/19/20870373/sean-spicer-dancing-with-the-stars-controversy

 

Ain’t Buying It

Merriam Webster has decided to get woke. They have decided to add a definition to the word “they.” That other definition is:

—used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary (see NONBINARY sense c)I knew certain things about … the person I was interviewing.… They had adopted their gender-neutral name a few years ago, when they began to consciously identify as nonbinary — that is, neither male nor female. They were in their late 20s, working as an event planner, applying to graduate school.— Amy Harmon

No, no, no.

I am not going to change the English language because some idiot has decided to appease some people. There are several reasons for my stand.

  1. When we start changing the language, we create confusion. “They went to the beach,” suddenly take two meaning. Did an individual go or did a group go to the beach? This is an effort to muddle language and English is a very exact language which already makes it hard. Don’t even get me started when someone ends his sentence with a preposition like, “Where are you at?”
  2. Once we start normalizing bad or illogical language, we make great writing of the past bad language and therefore irrelevant. Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Aqineas, the Bible, Shakespeare, The Constitution and a plethora of other great works become irrelevent because the saw “they” as a genderless plural pronoun. And that leads us to the third point:
  3. This attack on the English language needs to be seen for what it is: an attack on the English language. This is a militant take over. It is an acceptance that language is violence. And it will get worse. It’s already happening in Europe and Canada. We are a step from being fined, sued, jailed simply for not using someone’s subjective view of their pronoun. I fear I will lose my job because I say, “he” to a man when he identifies of a woman. Then I go to court and sue the company that fired me only to lose because Merriam Webster got woke and decided to change the language.

I can’t emphasize this enough: this is dangerous territory. These kind of changes lead to tyranny. We’ve seen it before in China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and now, Canada and all of Europe.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/they
https://www.theroot.com/inclusive-language-merriam-webster-gives-new-and-non-1838236565

 

Follow me on Twitter @RunninFewl
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Sep132019

I Know I Will Never Forget

It is the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Every year I blog about this and I am going to do it again. Let’s talk about what I was doing that day. Let’s talk about other major events I had the honor and horror to experience in my lifetime and the disturbing trends I see with our kids today. And finally, as 9/11 becomes a historical event for our youth is it possible we could actually forget?

Where Was I?

It is six in the morning west coast time. I am a computer networking instructor that starts his class at 8 AM. I like to get to my classroom 30 to 45 minutes early just to check on things before the class starts.  It only takes me twenty minutes to get ready and be on the road. I lived in Thousand Oaks, California at the time with my ex-wife and three children and I worked in Oxnard, which was about thirty minutes away.

During the drive, there is a very steep grade that can be a tad dangerous. It is very easy to go from 55 Miles an hour to 90 without even touching the accelerator. So you can imagine I really paid attention to my driving. It was at the bottom of that hill that I received a call from my ex-wife.

“A plane flew into the World Trade Center!” she said breathlessly.

“What?”

“The building is on fire!”

I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t even formulate a question. How could a plane run into a building? It didn’t make sense.

“Oh my God!” my ex-wife screamed. “Another plane just crashed into the other building!”

“What? When?”

“Now! Just now!”

“Both buildings are on fire?”

“Yes…”

I don’t know what she said then. I had goose bumps and really could not understand what was happening at the time. The United States had not really gone through a serious terror attack so that was the furthest from my mind at the moment. In fact, I’m not really sure when I did realize this was an attack.

Timeline for me gets really fuzzy. I got to work and was sitting in front of my computer, reading through the story on CNN.com. Now, mind you, the Internet then was not the Internet today. There was no YouTube and streaming video was very difficult. All I could do was refresh the web page and see if there was any more news.

That’s when the phone rang again.

“They’re gone. They fell,” my ex-wife says without so much as a greeting.

“What do you mean?” I ask her, not understanding.

“The buildings fell. They’re gone.”

I had a training in Philadelphia a few years before. When we completed, our training, my partner and I had a full day before our light. We decided to drive to New York because we’ve never been there before. We stopped off in Atlantic City and played a couple of games in Trump’s hotel. Weird how things change. We got to New York and parked on the edge of Manhattan. Parking and traffic were horrid. We took the subway to the edge of Manhattan. We were greeted by the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (I didn’t know, at the time, that there was more to the Center than those two buildings.

They were huge. One building must have taken up ten square blocks. I practically put a crick in my neck looking at how tall they were. They were amazing. I could not conceive of what my ex-wife was telling me. They were way too big.

“How much of them fell?”

Looking back at the destruction, I must have sounded like an idiot.

“They are gone. Completely gone.”

I hung up. He words were confirmed when I refreshed the CNN page and a picture on the home page showed that iconic image of the rickety skeleton of what was left of the World Trade Center.

 

It Was Just One

The September 11th attack was a turning point in life. It was a realization that life as we know it had changed. After the terrorist attack, I knew we were in a world of terrorism and were going to be in a war that would probably last my entire lifetime, whether we had boots on the ground in a foreign country or just needing to protect our borders. But this wasn’t the only epic event through my life that made me. I wasn’t sentient during the moon landing or the Watergate scandal. But there were some heavy things that changed the direction of my life. Let’s talk about that.

The release of Star Wars. I know it sounds kind of dumb but Star Wars made me understand the core meaning of life: good vs. evil. Things are that simple. One can either be on the good side or bad side of life. I learned that controlling fear and anger are very important and I have been fighting that till this day.

The United States hockey team winning the 1980 Olympics and the election of Ronald Reagan. Those are the moments I became a patriot. I remember the U.S. beating the heavily favored Soviets and I could not keep my feet on the ground. And it wasn’t just me. Funny: I saw the game on a ten inch, black and white television in the kitchen of our house. I don’t even know who they beat to actually win the gold (the Soviet game was the semi-final) but I do remember the countdown. I’m getting chills just thinking about it.

Ronald Reagan was such a powerful figure. All he talked about was how great our country is. He did something no one did much at the time. When he won, I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt pride about being an American.

Ronald Reagan getting shot. I was at school when we heard the Reagan was shot and it was on video. This was when I learned that our President was no more than a human being. I also learned how people can be so hateful of others simply because of their politics. See, Donald Trump wasn’t the first who was hated by democrats and the media. They hated Reagan too. A lot of people don’t realize that the same things they say about Trump, they said about Reagan.

The breakup of the Challenger Space Shuttle. To that point, the space shuttle program was just going. It wasn’t even something exciting anymore. The shuttle launched, flew around the earth a few hundred times and landed. In short, no one cared. When that ship blew up, I realized how dangerous space travel is. I also realized why we stopped going to the moon. It is way too expensive and way too dangerous. I’ve come to realize that danger comes with the territory and there are always heroes. We should honor their bravery and continue moving forward. I prayed our space program would continue and advance. It did and is.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. For me, this is sad. People today don’t realize what we went through during the Cold War. There was always the threat of nuclear war. I even had to have a debate as to why the United States should continue its nuclear build up during the Cold War. What did I learn? The power of capitalism, the vulnerabilities of socialism and communism and what “mutual assured destruction” is.

The Rodney King Riots in Los Angeles. This was my first real view of racism. At the time I didn’t know what happened. But I did learn. And I was concerned and angry because things didn’t seem to be covered correctly by the media.

The Northridge Earthquake. I had been through several earthquakes in the past. None ever scared me like that one. Heck, I was 200 miles away when it hit. But it changed my view on survival. No matter how much fun I make of my friend from Tennessee, whose scared of earthquakes, he’s right. I have ten gallons of water, dry goods, guns, a medical kit and a survival kit. The next big one is coming.

The OJ Simpson Trial. It became very clear to me that race was more important than a horrific crime. Even when reason and evidence left no doubt. I heard the verdict at Cal State Northridge while in class. The reaction was disgusting. All the black student yelled in joy and everyone else just looked in shock. We thought (and I talked with people about it) being black was more important than justice. Forget that his wife was white. Forget the huge amount of evidence. Racism is back.

The election of Barack Obama. I didn’t want him to win. But he did. He was my President and I supported him. He, needless to say, disappointed me. I knew, with him being elected twice, racism was a talking point. There was no “systemic racism,” I started thinking for myself.

Last, but not least: the Iran-Contra Scandal and The Monica Lewinsky Scandal. I simply learned that our politicians are corrupt. I trust non of them now.

There’s been a lot of stuff that’s happened during my life that made me what I am today. The September 11th attacks were huge but it was only a drop in the bucket.

I do want to point one thing out. The U.S. hockey team winning the gold medal in the Olympics and the election of Ronald Reagan really shifted me to be a patriot. Ask yourself something: What have the millennial and Gen-Z had that shifted their beliefs to being patriotic? I had some great things. Things I didn’t even mention here. That included the first launch of the space shuttle Columbia (forgot about that one).

But that topic is for another podcast.

 

Are We Forgetting?

I will never forget. Probably anyone my age or older won’t forget either.

I’m not going to harsh your mellow here but for millennial and Gen-Z folk, this is history. They only know of 9/11 based off the teachings in school (and we know how the education system works). I have tons of sound clips that came out today to prove this event was not that important. I won’t play them because I want to keep this positive.

What’s important is that we teach it. Everything about the terrorist attacks even if that means  contradicting the twenty-something teachers that are educating out kids.

Do not forget and make it your responsibility that your kids don’t forget.

 

https://www.dailywire.com/news/51650/shapiro-did-we-learn-lesson-911-ben-shapiro

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Aug102019

And the Pendulum Swings

I read an article today. It discussed the Pillars of Society and how they are being controlled by a certain political group of people (conservative or liberal in ideology. I will not say which). He believed that if these pillars were controlled by that group of people, it could mean the end of our democratic society (we are actually a democratic republic, which kind of protects us from what he is talking about, but it does not matter. His article was a little off, as far as I am concerned).

Now, I did not agree with this guy. I thought his hypothesis was right on but his argument was way off. I will not say where he leans and where I lean. I just hope that this article will make you think. I want you to determine where you society is swinging, if it is swinging at all. My opinion is set and does not really matter.

I heard about the Pillars of Society in college. I cannot remember the origins but I believe it was a philosophy from way back. The Pillars are the buttresses that determine our morality and how we interact and behave with others through day to day life. Though they are absolute, their importance and meaning can be influenced, weakening or strengthening their influence. To create a visualization, imagine a pillar that is embedded into the ground. The pillar may be on hard, solid ground, easily able to hold up the roof of the structure. But, on the other hand, it might be built on sand, making it sink and unable to hold the roof. Eventually, the roof collapses.

Time to complete the image. The ground represents the the belief system of the people. How the people feel about the importance of the pillar (I know, the ground does not have a belief system. Just go with it). The roof represents society.

Society being the roof is an important metaphor. Dictionary.com defines society as “an organized group of persons associated together for religious,benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes”. The purpose people live together is to feel safe much in the same way that a roof protects you from the elements. The larger the society, the safer the group of people feel. Protected from other societies and from the rogue element within their own society (crime). 

But the strength of society depends on the strength of those pillars. If (I should say “when” as all societies eventually decline) those pillars deteriorate either through a breakdown in the pillar or a rejection of that system all together, it can make one see the decline of that particular society (or civilization).

As an example, the family is considered a pillar. At one point in our civilization, the family unit was very important (that does not mean there was no dysfunction). If you got pregnant, you got married. Families rarely divorced. There was a patriarch who was responsible for bringing home the money and there was a homemaker who took care of the children and home. Today, most children are born out of wedlock. Divorce is common and an absent father is not unheard of. Some see this as the destruction of the family unit and a collapse of the family pillar.

Again, I am not going to give my opinion. My goal is only to inform you of the major aspects of a society. It is up to you to determine how those pillars are being effected by the things that are happening. In my next article I will write about the Pillars of Society: Government, Family, Business, Media, Education, Religion and Arts & Entertainment.

As I have brought up in my last post, there are seven pillars for society. Every news story you hear (true or not) effects one or more of those pillars. When the influence of politics becomes corrupted or unbalanced that is when the pillars weaken.

Again, I am not here to tell you what is happening to them. You want to know, ask in the comments. The reality is that the political affiliation you hold may make you see the corruption or strengthening of the pillars whereas someone of the opposite affiliation may see something completely different. The fact is, we really will not know what the future holds. But, be aware, someone is right. If I believe that the pillars are weakening and you believe they are strengthening because you hold different political beliefs, one of us is right.

Also, issues that arise may effect multiple pillars, not just one. For example, the separation of church and state (one of the most misread quotes in history. It is not in the Constitution) effects multiple pillars.

So here we go.

Government

Government is also known as the Law. Government is commonly used because it creates the law. Our government is easy. According to the Constitution, states have precedence over federal law. The only time federal law overrides is in times of war and interstate disputes. Law should not be confused with morality. The law states what is acceptable for our society, not what is moral. The big questions when it comes to government is the amount of participation (or interference) the federal government should have over state rights? Also, who should create law or regulation (congress or bureaucratic agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency)? The Affordable Care Act and Common Core are typically seen as governmental issues.

Family

Family is defined as “a group consisting of parent(s) and children living together in a household” (Google dictionary). The family’s main purpose is to have children and raise them to be able to fit in to society. The family is also a moral compass. It is suppose to teach the children how, not only to live according to society’s rules, but also to learn right from wrong. Political issues effecting the family would be crime, abortion, drug abuse, child abuse and gay marriage.

Business

Business is also known as the economy. Economy is defined as “the production, distribution, or trade, and consumption of goods and services by different agents in a given geographical location” (Google dictionary). This determines how much money we earn and from where (work or social programs) and where our jobs come from (service or manufacturing). Issues regarding business include environmental protection and regulation, tax reform, welfare reform, trade deals, the decline of the middle class, unemployment, the Affordable Care Act and illegal immigration.

Media

Media has become far more complicated. It used to be where we got our news. In the old days, this came from television and radio news, newspapers and magazines. But now it comes from social media sites, cable news, main stream web sites and fringe websites. In the old days, news was neutral (this happen to who and when). Not so much anymore. News of both sides has become very partisan and is used to bring people to a particular political conclusion (MSNBC and Fox News are examples). The media effects all of the pillars depending on that source’s political agenda. I feel this is a scary pillar.

Education

Education is “the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university” (Google dictionary). When we send our kids to school, we expect our kids to learn the basics (at least I do) such as math, reading and science. But we also expect our children to develop their belief systems and. preferably, with their own thoughts through the process of reasoning. Education is also suppose to make our children productive members of society who also understand how to meld into society. Issues Common Core, Charter Schools, voucher programs, crime, drug use, race, poverty and partisan (union or tenured) teachers.

Religion

Karl Marx said of religion:

“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”

But, in society, it is the moral compass. Murder is wrong. Adultery is wrong. Children are the reason of marriage and they must be raised with the same belief system. Law is what is socially acceptable in society. Religion is what is morally acceptable to be a human being. Religion touches all the pillars. Issues involving religion include “separation of church and state,” abortion and gay marriage.

 Arts & Entertainment

Arts and entertainment is also known as the culture of the society. That includes art, literature, music, stage, movies and television shows. Though most stories you may hear do not involve the Arts and Entertainment pillar, this pillar has become very influential and there are not many actors that so not use their celebrity to express their opinions. With a lot of the population embracing Pop Culture (especially in the cities), this pillar has become very influential (and you really see that during the elections). This pillar can effect all of the other pillars through influence.

 When watching the news or thinking about the direction of our civilization, think about these pillars. News stories can can confusing and random and their effects may not be clear. That goes also for the true state of our society. With this model, one can actually see how and what part of society is effected  and reason can be used to come up with a conclusion

 

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