Life Goes On

It's impossible to comment on all the political and economic actions that have been taken recently, and those that are being contemplated. It boggles the mind.

I think it would be a good thing if every American would read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Federalist Papers. We need to remind ourselves of what America is all about. I have linked to Yale Law School's Avalon Project, but there are a number of good sources for these types of historical documents on the internet.

Now, more than ever, we need a smaller government with much less interference in our lives and businesses. It was government interference that got us into the mess we're in today. It was not capitalism or conservatism or any of the other popular scapegoats. Stop the bailouts, stop high taxes, stop forced charity, stop over-regulation, stop judicial activism, and stop a Congress and an Executive Branch that thinks they can ignore the Constitution.

I need to stop myself--I'm getting into a rant! That brings me to another problem. It is so easy to criticize and rant and otherwise be negative. What we (I) should do instead is discuss positive things that we need to do to preserve and expand the "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" that is America. We can start by becoming familiar with our founding documents, as I noted in the second paragraph above. We also need to learn American history and government. You need to select your reading material carefully in order to get accurate information. Look at older books on American history and government, and look at a variety of books and websites. Variety will at least show you discrepancies which you can research further.

Recently a study was released that showed that Americans in general do not know much about civics and how government is supposed to work. We cannot depend on schools at any level to correct this lack of knowledge, so we need to teach ourselves. That link reports on the study and also contains a link to the 33 questions that were asked so that you can test yourself.

I think that a lot of the problems we have in America are due to lack of knowledge by the American people and by those we elect to represent us. Self-education in civics, government, and history can only help. I know I also have a lot more to learn. A lot of well-meaning folk nevertheless have wrongheaded ideas about solutions, so an openess to learning truth and to thinking things through is also important.

We all need more patience, with ourselves and with others. It's easy to get fired up about something, but we aren't always making ourselves understood when we get carried away. I know I get wound up because America is so very important, not just to those who live here, but to the world. I can't promise I won't get wound up about something again, but I'll try to be calm and clear!

It's difficult to express what I want to say here. There are those who think all things are equal and it is just a matter of voting to do Plan A or Plan B. The thing is that all things are NOT equal. Truth is truth. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. I don't know how people get to the place of thinking that all is equal. I personally blame indoctrination in public schools, but there are other factors as well, such as biased media (and yes, my blog is biased, too, but at least it is biased toward truth, although I am sure there are those who will say that is just my opinion--more of that "all things are equal" stuff). I don't know if we can ever get down to a real discussion of real issues, but I hope we will continue to try.

My Opinions

I am still pondering all the implications of an Obama presidency, coupled with a Democrat majority in Congress. I try to be optimistic and think that things won't be so bad and we'll get through this and be a stronger country for it. It is, however, very difficult to hold on to that viewpoint for very long.

Although Obama, assisted by the mainstream media, tried to keep the American people in the dark as to his real plans for America, enough information slipped out to cause serious concerns for those who care about our country and its Constitution. One issue is Obama's association with radical leftists. Whether we are talking about William Ayers or Rev. Jeremiah Wright or the others whose names you've seen here and there, we are talking about people who hate America and all she stands for. And we're going to let these people run the country?! Where are Obama's more moderate friends? Did he not have any? Let's face it--friends and associates and allies shape one's outlook a great deal.

Another issue is economics. Obama is definitely a taxer and a spender. He has plans for spending a trillion dollars of our (the taxpayers) money on various programs that have as their ultimate objective redistributing wealth. What Obama doesn't understand is that when there are wealthy people, those people invest, start businesses, and otherwise use their money to strengthen the economy and create jobs for others. The left doesn't seem to understand the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. The former is good and right and lets everyone have a chance. The latter is bad and wrong and punishes success while rewarding failure (often brought about by laziness). This applies in all issues, not just economic ones.

There are also issues of life. Obama is one of the most radical supporters of abortion in existence. He not only supports early-term abortion, but also late-term abortion, partial-birth abortion, and allowing babies who survive abortion to die alone without any care at all.

President Ronald Reagan said that government isn't the solution, but rather the problem. Yet Obama supports big government to an extent not before seen. He thinks government should rule every aspect of our lives--what we eat, the media available to us, how our children will be educated and at what age, our religious lives (or lack thereof), what transportation we can use, what products we can purchase (are they "green" enough?), etc.

Another issue is energy. Obama has sent signals that he wants to reinstitute bans on drilling, building coal plants and nuclear plants, and other necessary items that will allow America to become energy independent (at least as much as possible) and keep energy available while the various other energy sources (wind, solar, etc.) are developed and experimented with to see if they can become viable (they are not viable now) replacements for fossil fuels.

There are national security issues. Obama thinks he can talk our enemies into being our friends. He seems very concerned with dismantling our military as much as possible. Common sense says that a strong military is the best advocate for peace, but Obama would take that away from us. He wants to prevent our military personnel from being able to do their jobs fully and freely--something that is necessary for success. There has also been talk of his wanting to create some sort of civilian force, ostensibly to do community service, but how long before they would become enforcers of politically correct behavior in ordinary citizens? Obama wants them to be as well-funded as the military is now. What will that mean?

Obama seems to have some dreamy idea of utopia. This is not grounded in reality. If he studied history and economics, he would soon see the massive failures that ideas like his have inflicted on people in the past. Obama also seems to have the idea that once he is inaugurated, he will be the absolute ruler, that everyone will do whatever he wants them to do. If they don't, he thinks he will be justified in suppressing them and silencing their voices. He has already tried this during the campaign.

At his inauguration, Obama will take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. He has already taken this oath when he has been sworn in to the public offices he has held to this point. He has done nothing to show me that he has any intention of taking this oath seriously. He has, in fact, stated that he wants to break free of the restraints put on us by the Founders in the Constitution. This is not the type of person who should be President (or a Senator, for that matter).

This all sounds extreme, but it is not my opinions that are extreme. It is Obama who is extreme.

So how did this man get elected? I suppose his charisma had something to do with it, although as the campaign progressed and he had to do interviews and not just give teleprompted speeches, it became clear that he was not a particularly good speaker without a prepared text and no interruptions for questions or comments. Frankly, I think a good part of the problem has come from education--from the public schools to colleges and universities. These sources of education have steadily drifted to the left, embracing baseless self-esteem and teaching tolerance of all things leftist--socialism, Marxism, communism, secularism, multiculturalism, and any other -ism you can think of (as long as it is a leftist -ism). Now we have a population who doesn't know much accurate history or civics and has had it drummed into their minds that there is nothing wrong with those leftist -isms. So when anyone tried to warn of Obama's socialist tendencies, they were greeted with a collective yawn and a "So what?"

The left has also been waging a battle for a long time now to eliminate religion from the public square. When religion goes, so do morals and common sense and the realization that there is right and wrong, good and evil. Everything is relative, according to these secular leftists. They have also been fighting free speech, defined by them as anything said that doesn't agree with their views. They are all for free speech and tolerance as long as it supports leftist views. If it disagrees, it has to go. For one example, take Prop 8 in California. It passed and its opponents are acting in very ugly ways. They are also being quite dramatic in discussing their pain at the defeat of Prop 8, but let one person try to inject a little reason into the conversation and the left shouts them down and accuses them of bigotry and hate. If Prop 8 had been defeated, you'd better believe the left would be gloating and would be quite hateful toward anyone who expressed even a little sorrow at its defeat. Yet said leftists don't even seem to be aware of their hypocrisy--they are too busy denouncing those who disagree with them to stop and consider their own viewpoints and those of others and think about whether they might be wrong. Nor can they seem to understand that some things are just plain wrong, no matter how sugar-coated they might be. Those on the left do not seem capable of debating the actual issues. They seem only capable of shouting down the opposition with name-calling.

For too long now, America has been dumbed down. Even those whose values and beliefs are conservative are gullible to the leftist propaganda. Many do not have the discipline or even the interest in educating themselves to correct what they learned in school or see in the mainstream media. Many have just bought into whatever they have been told. To be fair, I believe a lot of ordinary citizens who buy into leftist propaganda are well-meaning people who want to be fair and compassionate toward others. I just think that they aren't thinking the issues through and seeing the problems that will arise down the road.

The whole situation we are in makes me sad and a little frightened. Yes, we have survived many hard times before, but it hasn't been easy, and we were a stronger people then. Are we strong enough now to understand what is right and what is wrong and to fight for the right? Certainly, there are individuals who are strong enough, but are we, collectively, strong enough? I hope so, but I'm not sure. It just seems that there are many people who either don't think at all or at least don't think for themselves--they just buy into whatever the intellectual elite says they must think. This is so ironic because one thing leftists accuse conservatives of is marching in lockstep with their leaders. Yet it is leftists who are the real conformists. It is leftists who would squelch freedom and liberty.

Conservatives are not perfect. Still, conservatives recognize that there is such a thing as good and evil, right and wrong. They recognize that equality of opportunity is not the same thing as equality of outcome. The former can and should be supported, the latter should not be. Conservatives tend to be interested in thinking through the issues. Conservatives tend to be more mature in their outlook on life, recognizing that good needs to be fought for, defended, even sacrificed for. They recognize that life is not easy and it is not about getting whatever we want to satisfy our selfish desires. It is about caring for and about others and being of service and allowing others to be free, as well as themselves. Conservatives are not afraid of change. They just believe in considering the changes carefully and don't get caught up in thinking that change for its own sake is a good thing.

I have not linked to articles supporting my opinions in this post. I have been doing that repeatedly in previous posts. This post is just to express my concerns and the concerns of many other Americans as we face some potentially disasterous changes in our way of life, and to give my readers some things to consider.

Thinking About the New Year

2007 is almost over. Time to make New Year's Resolutions. Or not. I like to make them, but I'm not so great at keeping them. Still, I persist, trying to refine my methods. I haven't chosen any resolutions yet, but I'm thinking about what I'd like to do this coming year.

It's always good to set at least one resolution for physical health and another for spiritual health. Since I have a tendency to be a hermit, a social resolution would be useful, too. I just need to not get carried away and set too many!

This coming year will bring us a presidential election, so a resolve to read up on the candidates and to vote is important. Then there is learning about what is going on in the world and in our country so that I can decide what would be good to do or not do, whether it is in personal choices or in voting for president.

I also want to pick a subject that I would like to study more in-depth this year. Good thing I like to read and write!

Whatever I choose for my resolutions, I want them to guide me to a better life. I want to develop talents and improve knowledge. I also want to improve my health, character, and finances. Spiritual development is first on my list, although the other things are a part of that. So those thoughts will guide me in resolving to improve this year. What are your thoughts about resolutions?

World View

I have been thinking about how each person has a world view, or perspective, on life. Where does this come from? How do we know whether our world view is a good one or not?

I think that beginning in childhood, we accumulate various influences that affect how we see life and the world. It begins with being influenced by (or rebelling against) our parents. We see their example in word and deed and form opinions about that. Once we start church attendance and school attendance, we are influenced by the various teachers we have, as well as our peers. This continues through high school and college. We begin to be influenced by media, whether it is newspapers, television, magazines, etc. Particularly persuasive speakers or writers may sway us more than we realize. We end up with a world view created by a hodge-podge of influences, some of which were accepted without any real thought.

Now that we are mature adults, it seems to me a good idea to reconsider our opinions and ideas and try to trace where they came from and if they are any good. This can be difficult, but it is better than drifting along without thought.

In my opinion, God and the scriptures are the best source for learning what life is about and what we should do with the life we've been given. Of course, our world view can influence how we interpret scriptures and what course we follow in choosing a religion or choosing to reject religion.

Other sources for learning are history and literature. If we read widely in these areas, we will get a more accurate picture of what works and what doesn't than we would if we restrict our reading to only those authors we know already agree with our perspective and opinions. Even the most objective of writers will be somewhat biased because of his world view. It's the same with teachers. Anyone who is in a position to select what material is presented and how it is presented allows at least some subconscious decisions to enter into the mix. That is why we should look to more than one source to educate ourselves.

As for choosing what to believe, that becomes an individual choice. The hope would be that we would do our best to choose based on facts rather than persuasive writing/teaching or what sounds good on the surface. We should learn to think things through and consider the consequences of whatever choice we are thinking about. Does it bring good into our lives and the lives of others, or does it bring bad?

Sometimes facts aren't enough. Faith enters into our choices, too. We think of faith as a religious term, but everyone has faith in whatever they choose to believe--evolution, atheism, Marxism, feminism, and other "isms" require faith from their followers. They require faith that the propositions are correct and good, whether they are or not. So it is actually a mix of facts and faith that form our world views.

Different people have different issues that concern them, so they look to different sources for answers. What concerns me is that sometimes people come to see problems where there are none simply because whatever world view they have arrived at conditions them to see things from a narrow perspective--if they are oriented to look for oppression everywhere, they will see oppression everywhere because that is what they have trained their minds to conclude upon viewing just about anything. So then we need to ask ourselves if we are being realistic or if we have bought into one philosophy to such an extent that we no longer see things as they really are. That can be difficult to sort out because we will have a tendancy to think that we are seeing reality, even when we are not.

I don't know the best way to evalute our world view and see whether it is good or not. The only thing I know to do is to consider the sources of our viewpoints and also to think through the consequences of having those viewpoints. It would also help to know what other viewpoints there are out in the world--that's where reading widely comes into play--so that we can consider those as well.

I said I didn't know the best way, but actually I do. It's just that it won't be acceptable to some. My best way is to consider all things in light of the scriptures and to pray about them, and to listen to God's prophets and apostles, found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those who don't turn to religion, well, you can still read widely and think things through and do the best you can to sort out whether your views are reasonable or not.

One reason I have been thinking about all this today is the presidential election coming up in 2008 and all the candidates with all their ideas about how the United States of America should be run. We voters have a responsibility to make the best choice possible when we cast our votes in the primaries and in the general election. Some candidates have ideas that sound good on the surface, but when thought through, one realizes that those ideas will mean very high taxes, government interference, and/or wrecking the economy. They might mean loss of freedoms. So we need to consider things carefully and not cast our votes for reasons that won't lead this country and its people where they should go.

It's complicated, but giving conscious thought to our beliefs and opinions and ideas can make a big difference in how much good can come from our lives. I haven't covered nearly all that can go into this type of thinking and considering and each person will have his own ideas about it, but I hope that I have given you something to ponder.

Musings (or Rantings, Depending on Your Point of View)

Global warming, or climate change, is still making headlines. It gets blamed for everything and mankind gets blamed for global warming, even though there is evidence out there that man does not have that big an effect on the environment. There are ways, of course, that people can be better stewards of the earth, but those ways are best implemented on a local, personal level. Scientists can help, if they will actually follow the scientific method and not get into politics and personal agendas. Real information will help real people make real decisions about their personal stewardship responsibilities.

Education is a major concern, too, because it shapes the thinking of the rising generation. It seems that only liberal ideas and propaganda are welcome in schools these days. A true education comes with looking at all sides of an issue and thinking clearly and critically about them all. It also comes from an honest survey of the past in history and other writings to learn lessons that only history and the past can teach us about what works and what doesn't. Rewriting history or editing some of it out doesn't help anyone--it only hurts us all. Then there is this whole self-esteem thing. What good does it do a child to be praised or rewarded for doing things wrong? Does it really prevent hurt feelings? No. A child knows when he doesn't deserve praise or a reward. And as far as trying to prevent hurt feelings--well, that doesn't do much to prepare someone for real life, does it?

Feminism strikes me as being selective for liberal causes. It also strikes me as training women to see oppression everywhere, even when it isn't there in reality. And what about the oppression of women in the Middle East? That is a real, honest-to-goodness problem and yet feminists remain strangely silent on the subject. I can only presume that it is because supporting change in the Middle East doesn't fit the liberal agenda. It is a larger and more important example of what feminists did with Bill Clinton--sexual harassment was bad unless it was perpetrated by Mr. Clinton. I am sure there are consistant feminists out there somewhere, but I haven't been hearing from them. Certainly they aren't making the news.

Immigration is a tough problem. Yes, we all want to be charitable, but in my view, when someone commits a crime (coming the the United States illegally) and benefits from that crime, then things are seriously out of whack. It's frustrating, too, when some play the race card and accuse those of us who want the laws enforced of being racist. It isn't true and surely they know it, but it gets attention and stops any honest debate on the subject. It's the same with accusing people falsely of being homophobic because they believe that marriage is only for one man and one woman, and that school children shouldn't be subjected to all sorts of indoctrination about what constitutes a family and about what sexual behavior is acceptable.

There are so many ways that we allow government to intrude into our lives and go well beyond what they are constitutionally permitted to do and yet so many don't seem to realize that our freedom and liberty is at stake. Taxes leap to mind. So do things like hate-crimes legislation, laws to ban transfats and other things that someone has decided are bad for us (they may be bad for us, but it is not government's place to decide).

Certainly conservatives aren't perfect, either. The thing is, though, that most conservatives look at the big picture and see the problems that will arise when "feel-good" legislation is proposed and when education is one-sided and when those opposing them indulge in name-calling instead of addressing the actual issues and debating ideas honestly.

I understand that there are those opposed to my viewpoint and that is their privilege. What I can't understand is why they won't even consider that they might be thinking about some things in the wrong way--or, worse, not thinking at all, just blindly following the liberal agenda. Well, I suppose that is what they think about me. I just want people to be more objective and to think things through in a more complete way. I want to see real, honest debate in the presidential campaigns instead of candidates who tailor what they say to fit a poll they've seen or an audience they are speaking to.

Mid-Summer Thoughts

It is mid-July already. Where does the time go?

It isn't raining today in Oklahoma City. A few days ago, we surpassed our normal yearly average rainfall. Needless to say, there are flooding problems here and there around the state. I feel sorry about that--it can be really hard on people, whether their home is flooded or the road to their home is washed out. Some of the campgrounds around lakes had to be closed because they are flooded. It's a mess in places, but we did need to recover from drought. Nothing is ever easy, is it?

I have been reading an assortment of books--mostly about nature and about writing--lately. I expect to get my book for the next insurance class next week and will have less time for other reading for awhile once it arrives. I hadn't taken a class/test for quite awhile, so this last class was a bit of a warm-up for me--thankfully, it covered a lot of material that I was already somewhat familiar with.

I still feel like my self-education is somewhat scattered. I need to set some priorities, but everything is so interesting to me!

Reflections

I just wrote an email to a friend and have decided to post some of the thoughts that the email stirred up in me.

I never meant for Scholar to be only a political blog. I want to write about many other subjects, too, without leaving politics out. But I also find myself discouraged by the negatives in the political arena. It seems like so many are headed Left toward policies that history tells us won't work. I know that not everyone is an extremist, but it sure seems like those in prominent positions of leadership are making some major mistakes and that they have plenty of supporters.

I also get discouraged that so many seem to speak out against patriotism, America, the military, and religion. Too many are in favor of abortion and socialism and peace at any cost. I'm for peace, but not at the cost of freedom and liberty. There are prices to pay for those good things. There are prices to pay for the bad things, too. I would rather pay for the good things.

I also am a Christian--a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints--and I believe in God and in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost. I believe what They teach us through the scriptures. So I find myself wanting to be kind, tender-hearted, and forgiving, and yet I feel that God expects us to stand up strongly for what is right and true. If we have to fight for right, so be it. Surrender to wrong is not an option.

I feel strongly, too, that people are more important than plants and animals, and yet I believe that God expects us to treat His gifts to us (the earth and all her resources for one) with respect and to be good stewards of those things. I love and appreciate nature and its wonders. I do not believe, however, that it is necessary to trash capitalism and confiscate private property in order to be good stewards of nature.

I feel sad for the people of the earth who live under oppressive governments and who live in poverty. However, I believe they should stay in their countries and fight for freedom and rights rather than becoming jihadists or illegal immigrants. I believe that we should welcome immigrants from anywhere and everywhere who come here legally and who come here with the intent of becoming Americans. Multiculturalism and diversity are overrated and taken to extremes. People should be free to practice their religion as they see fit and to keep alive their language and culture--to a point. But if they wish to settle in the United States of America, they need to also embrace our language and culture. They need to obey our laws. They need to live up to our ideals. And they should not come here with the idea of living on welfare and social security and using our schools and hospitals and so forth without contributing by working and paying taxes and becoming Americans. It is to their own benefit to do things the right way.

I feel, too, that we Americans need to put a stop to government growth and the Nanny State. We need to stop the dumbing down of our public education. We need to stop letting the Leftists in academia indoctrinate our children with wrong ideas and radical views. We need to wake up and stop expecting things to be easy and non-competitive. Work is essential for us. Developing our talents and abilities and increasing our knowledge are essential for us. We can't do those things if we put the government in charge of our lives from cradle to grave. We can't do those things if we give up our freedoms and if we don't stand up for truth and right.

America has so much, not only for itself, but to offer the world. Let's not throw it away.

Perspectives

I imagine that readers of this blog at least sometimes think I am being mean and selfish. "Mean-spirited" is, I believe, the popular word these days. I want to help others as much as anyone, but America simply cannot help everyone all the time.

Think of your personal life. You cannot spend all of your money and all of your time helping others. The well would soon run dry and you would be needing help yourself. You have to set priorities. It is necessary to provide for yourself first so that you do not become dependent on others. You have to provide food, clothing, shelter, education, and so forth for yourself and your family, then make decisions as to where you want your charity dollars and time to go. We all recognize the need to spend some time on ourselves in order to have something to give to others.

Think, too, of how you have to manage your money. You have to have a budget and stick to it. If you spend more than you have income, you go into debt and that curtails your ability to buy necessities and to give to charity. Why is running our country any different? Whether it is an individual, a family, a city, a state, or a nation, it is foolish to spend more than we have income.

What about security? You realize the need to keep your home and car locked and protected. This doesn't preclude you from giving someone a ride or inviting them over for a meal, but it does protect you and your assets so that you can continue to be generous.

Our country also needs to protect itself and budget its spending and take care of its own. If we do this, we then have the resources to help at least some others around the world. If we overspend and allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by immigrants coming in too many, too fast, our resources will be depleted and we will soon not be able to help anyone. In addition, if we do not set limits, it becomes more likely that terrorists of various kinds, or criminals fleeing justice, will enter our country and destroy it from within, again with the result that we can no longer help anyone, not even ourselves.

Common sense tells us that we have to set priorities and we have to set limits. We have to enforce laws that are already on the books. We also have to stand strongly against terrorism, not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of others around the world who would soon be oppressed if we did not fight back.

We also need to limit government. Somehow, we have lost our way and the federal government is taking over many functions that belong to the states or to individuals. Then the government needs more and more in taxes to fund all these programs--programs that we either don't need or that we could better provide at a local or state level with the money we would not have to send to the federal government in taxes. If we don't limit government, we lose the ability to make choices and decide for ourselves where our money and time should go.

Think about it.

Memorial Day

We are in the midst of our Memorial Day weekend. May we all remember what it is about--remembering those who have and are serving our country in the Armed Forces and remembering those who died that we might be free. May we remember what makes America great--the freedoms and the opportunities, the prosperity and the generosity.

For one Memorial Day essay, see Fred Thompson's blog post, "I Remember". (This is also available as a podcast.)

Thank you to our soldiers, past and present, who appreciate our country enough to fight for her. Thank you to those who support our troops--really support them.

Thoughts on the Past Week

There have been a number of events this past week that have touched us in some way. I hardly know where to begin.

The Virginia Tech murders last Monday broke our hearts. I grieve for those who were killed and all their families and friends. I also feel sad for the family of Cho Seung-Hui. I don't know what to think about Cho himself. Just going off newspaper reports, it sounds like he had serious mental issues, but how much those affected the evil choices he made, I don't pretend to know. So I am left simply grieving for the tragedy of it all.

There were anniversaries for three past tragedies this past week, too. The Branch Davidian compound in Waco (14 years), the Oklahoma City bombing (12 years), and the Columbine murders (8 years). Even though I was about 3 miles north of the OKC bombing site, I still remember clearly walking across the office and feeling the ground shake beneath my feet.

On Wednesday the US Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the national ban on partial-birth abortion. I am thankful for that--that's a barbaric practice that shouldn't even exist. However, the whole abortion issue belongs to the states, not the Federal Government. Doesn't anyone ever read the Constitution anymore?

Abortion brings feminism to mind. I just do not understand feminists in general. I can understand a few basics, like being able to vote and own property, for example. What I don't understand is abortion, tearing men down in an attempt to build women up, and expecting men to become like women in their viewpoints. Men and women are different. We have marvelous freedom and equality in the USA. Yet our culture is permeated with accusations of sexism and oppression (among other things). I am constantly amazed at the contorted lengths feminists go to in order to show that everything is sexist and oppressive to women. The Middle East is one example of a place where it really is difficult to be a woman. We aren't living in those conditions. And I suspect that even there, most men love their wives and treat them well. I wonder--how respectful of their husbands and sons are feminists? Or do they consider that a one way street--in their own direction, of course.

I continue to ponder the issues of the day and try to think things through. Sometimes it is hard to sort it all out. I will keep working at untangling the threads.

Political Reflections

I often link to and quote from conservative political articles in my posts here at Scholar. I suppose that I come off as agitating for war instead of peace. Believe me, that is not my intent! However, there are times when we need to stand up for what is right and oppose what is wrong, even if that does mean going to war. When you think about the repressive regime the jihadists wish to force upon the entire world, you understand why they must be stopped.

It appears that many Americans have grown impatient. They want instant solutions rather than long term corrections that will genuinely solve problems. If a war takes longer than a couple of months, they want out. If tax cuts take awhile to work, they want to repeal them. If immigration problems take time to solve, they want to just leave them be. People seem to have lost sight of the fact that problems don't develop overnight and cannot be solved overnight. You have to think deeply and consider all the possible consequences of any course of action. Then you choose the best long-term solution and began, knowing that it will take time--sometimes a lot of time--but that in the end, the problem will be truly solved.

Education in government schools is at least a part of the problem. Our children aren't taught in depth like they were in the first half of the twentieth century (and earlier). Now it seems that they are skimming along on the surface of subjects, not learning the patience and persistence it takes to study something thoroughly. Everyone is praised for everything and no one wants to get into anything too difficult because it might injure somebody's self-esteem or offend them in some way. I imagine the real world is something of a shock to today's young people, a real world in which there is competition and there are difficult problems that render a surface knowledge of subjects useless. This is a real world where there is right and wrong--truth isn't relative like they were taught in school. There really are values and virtues, evils and vices, and they must be sorted out. Some things are of great importance and must be defended. Other things are trivial and time-wasting and need to be let go.

If people don't know how to think things through, they fall victim to every scheme and scam that comes along. They believe everything they are told. They think you can throw money at a problem and solve it. They even think that empty-headed celebrities and politicians always know what they are talking about. Where are people who are able to think carefully and read up on different points of view and consider the ramifications of various proposals? Where are people who have values and standards and understand that liberty, freedom, virtue, morality, marriage, family, religion, and other such things are essential to the development of real civilization? Where are respect and honor? Where are truly good role models?

Being human, none of us are perfect. We make mistakes. We fall short. My concern is that we lack the depth necessary to overcome our imperfections and to correct our mistakes. We are too short-sighted, too impatient. We are too concerned with the politically correct and not concerned enough with what is the truth.

One solution is to teach truth, values, virtue, and morality. If it isn't taught in schools, it should be taught at home and in the community. It can be taught through various forms of media. It can be taught through churches, private schools, and home schools. And there are always some people of depth who survive their public schooling and exposure to mainstream media and learn on their own to study subjects in depth and think things through and consider consequences.

We shall just have to continue to do the best we can in whatever circumstances we find ourselves and be good examples that will reach at least a few people, eventually spreading through society. It would be easy to become pessimistic and give up. That we must never do.

First Post of the New Year

What with the holidays and various minor illnesses that have left me not feeling up to par, I haven't made a brilliant first-of-the-year post yet. Nor will I today.

Be that as it may, I have a new toy. It's called LibraryThing and on it you can catalog all your books. You can list up to 200 books for free, then after that you can pay $10 a year, or $25 for a lifetime membership and list all the books you want. I have 190 up--and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I have also rigged it to display random books in my sidebar on each of my blogs. You can click on "my library" in the phrase "Random Books from my library" in the sidebar and look at my catalog of books at LibraryThing. Cool, eh?!

Better posts to come in the future.

Merry Christmas!

I'm taking time out from my usual posts to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

May you enjoy all the fun of the holidays, but always keep Christ in your hearts and remember what Christmas is really all about--the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

God bless you all!

Taking a Step Back

Don't today's political goings-on make your head spin? They do mine and I've had to take a breather from thinking politics.

So what's on my mind today? Reformation--of myself. After a dry and hot summer, I am feeling much better now that autumn's cooler temperatures and occasional rain are here. I feel more like doing things now.

Like everyone else, I have lists and lists of self-improvement projects, things to do, etc. I have to remind myself to take these projects in bite-sized pieces so that I can manage them without feeling overwhelmed.

"How do you eat an elephant?"

"One bite at a time."

Whatever your self-improvement project might be, you can search on Google or one of the other search engines and find websites filled with articles to give you some guidance. Some are selling something, of course, but still might have useful information. Search the blogs, too. You're sure to run across some kindred spirit who will provide some inspiration and motivation, not to mention practical how-to's.

Don't wait until your New Year's Resolutions--pick something now and start working on it, whether it is an exercise program or developing a talent or trying out a new hobby. It'll refresh your soul!