All Posts By J.ournal

The Garden Where Good Things Grew

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There was a garden where good things grew
carrots and lettuce and sunflowers to name a few
the sun would shine and the breeze would blow
the best thing was, they were free to grow

at the head of each row stood a cactus
those were good for keeping invaders away
as long they keep their distance
and kept their thorns at bay

about the same time every year
the garden was afflicted
pestilence would pervade
and many of the gardenites became sickened

one year the bugs brought a new virus
that was particularly petulant
and even more noxious
was the onslaught of the many conflicting messages

they must go to great lengths to stop the spread
most all of the gardenites agreed
yet some wondered about the cost
of the freedoms that they would cede

the cactuses took charge
and ordered a tarp to be pulled over the garden
to some, this was reassuring
to some, this was alarming

it kept out some of the bugs
but also blocked all the sunshine
they were told it was temporary
they could survive until… sometime

a few weeks turned into a few months
curves and flowers were flattened
while the gardenites quarreled about graphs and statistics
their stalks and their stems became blackened

strife and suspicion grew wild
branches of truth became twisted
they lost track of time and dignity
until one day the tarp was finally lifted

the garden looked quite different
it was not a pretty sight
countenances were darkened
without nutrients, without light

many were found infected and many had died
some from the bugs that still got in
but many more from the thorns
that were found in their sides

they were shriveled and gaunt
sure signs of famine
wilted and wanting and wishing
that ramifications had been fully examined

was it always for their own good
or more for the good of the whole
was the whole thing good
if it robbed so many of their soul

those that were left
might well have perished too
because growth was no longer a value
under the new form of garden rule

they would no longer debate
the graphs and best practices
because all that was left
were the commands of the cactuses

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Big Brother Tech

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What if big brother tech existed
during the most significant incidents of history?

like when the iron curtain crumbled
and the powers fell
or when our own towers fell

or when we took off from this world
and walked on another one
or speaking of great leaps-
when Chairman Mao was leading his peeps into prosperity
never mind the bleeding and shrieks and the parody
of the “Greater good”
or when Stalin was offering his prospering economy
and sending his favorite patrons
on all expense paid vacations

or when the founders of this great nation authored independence
and made the Declaration
that would change the course of humanity

what if we had this clamor for censoring
when Einstein was pontificating
about the matter of energy
or when we learned that we could fight smallpox with cowpox
what would they say about this new way of
slaying our sicknesses?

what would they say to the dissidents of Hitler
how would they portray the resistance?
just picture…
Dr. King standing in boldness up on those steps
and delivering his magnum opus
only to be tagged with a notice
of misinformation

or when the conductors were planning and abetting passengers on clandestine passages to freedom
from station to liberating station

what steps would they have taken
to silence Shakespeare
would they have shadow-banned Langston Hughes
what would they do with Mozart
what if our purveyors of prudence had painted over
our masterpieces

what then, of prose, and music, and art

this isn’t a first
after Copernicus dared to assert that
the Earth was not the center of the universe
Galileo spent the final 10 years of his life
on house arrest because the fact checkers in the cathedral
didn’t want “misinformation” to make its way
to the people

what would big brother tech have done
if truth Himself stood before them
on the public square

would they allow him the floor
or crown him with thorns

what would have happened if…

listen Winston –
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
Trust us
we are infallible
and all-powerful
we are the ministers of wisdom
the monarchs of morality
we are the czars of correctness
the arbiters of ideology
yes, we just formed this ideology in the past 5 years but we’re absolutely sure it’s perfect
we know what’s best for you

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A final message from Biden/Harris – Communism

Kamala Harris released an animated campaign video yesterday that starts with two men at the bottom of a mountain. One of them is able to reach a rope to start the climb. The other can’t reach it. If you vote for her (through Joe Biden), the ground below the 2nd man will rise up until he can reach the rope. The video ends with the two men sharing the same view of a sunset at the top of the mountain. Thus, the video purports, “equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place”.

Tomorrow, approximately half of the country is going to vote for a ticket that openly endorses this communistic ideal.

I’ve seen some argue semantics and say that she just means equal opportunity. More on that below, but listen – you can fit a thousand random people with custom hiking shoes, offer them all months of training, give them all the same backpack full of supplies, give them all the same motivational speech, and proclaim to them all the splendor of the view at the summit. They’re not all going to end up there. That’s not how humanity works.

Some will try, but just won’t have the strength or stamina to make it. Some won’t try, because others have told them that the odds are stacked too highly against them. Some will stop along the way to write poetry about the journey and become lost in their thoughts. Some will have eschewed the training for something they deemed more important. Some will say that climbing mountains just isn’t for them. They’re not an expert. They’ll say the reward can’t possibly justify the effort.

If Harris really meant equal opportunity, the video would have ended with the two men equally equipped in the foothills. But since it didn’t we should take a moment to think about what her tagline “There’s a big difference between equality and equity” really means.

Because what this kind of propaganda never shows is the human cost of forced outcomes. History has taught that communist governments never take the shape of benevolent social workers exalting exhausted climbers from below, but rather, they act as vengeful axe murderers wreaking havoc on those leading the way through the forested ascent. Despite its lofty intentions, Communism is not glory at the top – it’s bodies at the bottom.

This life isn’t about equity. It’s about sweetening our strengths and working on our weaknesses. It’s about finding fortitude in our faults and gratitude in our gifts. By doing so we will inevitably lift others around us
and that’s where the catch is –
only fellow climbers can offer a hand
that isn’t a hatchet.

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Trump or Biden? The Future of Freedom in America

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I’m a single issue voter.

That issue isn’t the economy, healthcare, climate change, immigration, education, or gun control. It’s not even abortion.

I’m a registered non-partisan. I never liked the idea of identifying as a member of either party because I’m generally averse to any sort of group identity.

But I do have values. I value individual worth, the equal and full protection of inalienable rights, natural law, free speech, and freedom of worship.

I believe we need voices on both what we call the “left” and the “right”. We’ve got problems. We need creative problem solving, and we need people to fully analyze any proposed solutions before making widespread policy changes that could have unexpected but devastating effects.

We need compassion. We need conversation.
We need progress. We need preservation.

All of these are important.

Now, the far left and the far right – I view these with equal abhorrence. Both are morally bankrupt and supremely dangerous. They claim to be opposites, but the bloodstains they’ve left on human history are indistinguishable.
The corruption, the destruction, the death…
the real question is, which of these two is more of a threat to present day America?

Well, the far right is small in number, power, and influence. White supremacy is not taught in schools or propped up on cable news or pontificated on in our prevailing publications. The far left on the other hand has almost ubiquitous power and is increasing its numbers and influence by the day. By the hour.
on the front lines of the (culture) war
look at the weapons being wielded in all of our universities, our high schools, even our elementary schools, even more
look at how the big tech companies have formed battalions
with the mainstream media
you’ve seen the double standards
the silencing, the shadowbanning
the Orwelian finaggling of language
the skewing of search results
the censorship
the false narratives
the mass manipulation of reality
you’ve seen the madness of the mobs
the captains of corporations with their smoke grenades
flanked by Hollywood and SJWs and their woke brigades

now take all of this power
and add to it control of the White House
the legislature, and the Supreme Court after they pack it
according to the plan
after the last bastions of conservatism and liberalism are slaughtered
what’s left?
what’s right?

“But Joe Biden is not far left” you might say. That may be true in the same way a cocoon is not a moth. We all know what’s waiting to emerge. Even if he weren’t near the end of his career we all understand, he would of course capitulate to every one of their demands.

That brings us to the incumbent.
Do I think that Trump could speak more presidentially and use more unifying rhetoric? Yes. Do I think any of the people that have spent the past 4 years screaming about him would change their mind if he did so? No.

Do I think he’s narcissistic and gets the ultimate ego boost from being President? Yes. Do I think he wants to be a dictator and make everyone handmaids and slaves? No.

Do I see both sides making the argument that the other side wants to take away their rights? Yes. Do I see the powers that be in the mainstream press and big social media companies treating these arguments with equal discretion? No.

So, despite his moral missteps, misguided tweets, and off-putting mannerisms
the fact of the matter is
that Trump is the only one defending all of us in the exhausted middle
the only one defending America as we know it
maybe the vitriol that he elicits from all those that wish to control us should tell us something

it’s a dark place we’ve all been in
like you
I’m just trying to find the light in it
in this life
I just want the opportunity to thrive
I just want liberty
I just want the enlightenment to survive

the single issue that I’m voting on is freedom
because without it, none of the others matter
and when this is over
I just hope it still stands
I know, we may disagree
I just want to live in a country where we still can

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Critical Race Theory – Erasing or Rejuvenating Racism?

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In 2020 a virus swept across the Earth
it wasn’t novel
it wasn’t an accident
it put a lot of people in hospitals
but not quite in the way you think
it wasn’t Trump’s fault
it didn’t come from China
it came from a land called “Academia”
when the progeny of a long line of post modernists
stuck a pitchfork into the grave of Marxism
and lightning struck
just our luck
it crawled up out of its resting place
and immediately turned its mutated, murderous eyes on race
this resuscitated cancer began dismantling humanity
disrupting progress
and deconstructing everything it could find

see, this virus
infected minds

it was so insidious
that it took good people and twisted them to its purpose
it took every gesture, every greeting, every glance and insisted that we interpret them in the most hideous way possible
it was all the buzz
it taught that character didn’t count
but that melanin does
it coerced allegiance
to a new religion
where we are created in the image of grievance
original sin is your race
but there’s no grace
no salvation, no savior
it urged the congregation to execute justice now
because there’s no God to do it later
its prophets profited greatly
any apostates who wouldn’t bear false witness
were berated from a preset potpourri of platitudes
you know them well, I’ll spare you

it championed misanthropy
and rebranded any manner of critique as “fragility”
it reinvented the word racism
lest it be condemned by its own rhetoric
this infection
stigmatized freedom

it claimed that there’s no correct way to look at the world
but certainly
the correct way of looking at the world is that all white people are evil
the irony of subjective certainty
the gall of solving systemic racism by being systemically racist

some called themselves anti-racist and tried to escape it
but by definition, they couldn’t
and by deposition, they wouldn’t
it taught that 2+2 is…
just a hegemonic discourse
along with individuality, self-reliance, logic, and science
and made a mockery of hard work, family,
planning for the future, and private property

it flipped a narrative as easily as a coin
heads I win, tails you lose
guilty until proven guilty
it taught that both speech and silence were violence
both resistance and admittance were violations
what were we to make of
a theory so critical that every smile must be scrutinized
a theory so cynical that every conversation must be euthanized
every handshake must harbor hostility
how would this increase the probability of peace?
perhaps peace wasn’t the point

if white people can’t shed their whiteness
and whiteness is irredeemable and must be dismantled then
what exactly are you saying should happen to them?
this malady manufactured the masochism
necessary for the nihilism that it implored
it trumpeted tribalism
and required that we imbibe the only lie large enough to incite a global civil war

and to all of this
it didn’t have to answer
because shrewdly rooted into its nucleus was the tenet
that it can never be questioned
by rejecting introspection
it stressed the projection of evil onto something else
conveniently other than oneself
malevolence disguised as righteousness
it’s no more a mystery
this virus just
plagiarized every other sadly savage story in human history

it’s crazy
this far into this experiment of humankind
we’re still trying to figure out what kind of humans
we are

this skin…
while it’s great for regulating our body temperature
and protecting our insides from threats on our outsides
it was never meant to define us

all the sweat glands and blood vessels and nerve endings in the world
can’t hold a candle to one soul

superimposing a superficial coating on divinity
is like stuffing infinity into a shoebox
such a disservice
to find the line between good and evil you’re going to need to dig a lot deeper than the epidermis
whatever kind of humans we are
we are not mere avatars of our accumulated ancestry
we are not oppressed or oppressor
each one of us is a genetically and spiritually unique being
never before seen in the history of the world
each one of us is responsible exclusively for what we’ve done
and for what we become

my argument is not that no wrongs have ever been wrought
nor that we should ignore them
but some ideologies are wrong too
and it just doesn’t behoove us to absorb them
instead of forming our identities from the intersection of our oppressions
what if they were borne out of the intersection of our compassions?
I’m just asking
what if instead of presuming that “racism is present everywhere and always”
we presumed that graciousness is present everywhere and always
and did our part to make it so

what if instead of investing in new methods of systemic failure
we aimed for systemic amelioration
and instead of assessing collective blame we recognized individual worth
looking for the best in someone is so much better than looking for the worst
there’s a reason you’ve never shopped for a box of 64 same colors
we are beautiful, diverse
sticks of pigmented wax
begging to make masterpieces
that
is the significance of what we learn when
instead of scrutinizing smiles, we return them

my argument is not that racism doesn’t exist
but that truth does

I’ve learned truth from black men and black women
and from West Europeans and East Indians and North Canadians and South Africans
and from every letter of the acronym
because truth is independent from the minds that decipher it
and the lips that deliver it
we must be willing to live for it

we must remain liberal enough to conserve the rights of free speech, free ideas, and freedom to criticize those ideas in the pursuit of progress, equality, justice, mercy, and goodness

as the human race
we need to understand how much we really have to lose
the good news about THIS pandemic is that
we know the cause
and we know the cure
we just have to choose

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Free Stuff vs. Freedom

I wrote this back when Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were climbing in the polls. They lost steam and COVID hit, so this went on the back burner. But I think the message is still relevant and always will be, because “free stuff vs freedom” is a fundamental human dichotomy.

To tackle it we have to deal in both reality and ideology. The reality is that people need help, and regardless of how they got into the circumstance of needing help, it’s our duty to help if we can. We should also continuously teach the value of work and the principles of self-sufficiency. Government dependence is a last resort to be avoided if at all possible. The drain it puts on the human spirit is far worse than the drain it puts on taxpayers. So much more meaning and growth await us through our endeavors of effort, independence, and responsibility.

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it’s that time again
when politicians are admonishing us
with all the promises of free stuff
“relieving” us of our burdens
meanwhile burdening us with the belief
that our debts are theirs to levy
as if the purchasing of votes with the assurance of unearned benefits hasn’t collapsed enough empires already
as if it hasn’t robbed countless millions of their earnings
and countless millions more of their dignity
as if it hasn’t continuously crushed what was once honorable independence
into despondent pieces of groveling acquiescence
history can’t even count the abuses
perhaps it’s counterintuitive
that when you relieve someone of responsibility
you’re really just relieving them of self-respect
keeping them reliant on checks
from a government that just wants to keep them in check

it’s how the handouts on the clockwork
the saddest day of a person’s life is when he or she sits down to
figure out how to not work
how to turn potential into procrastination
how to turn ambition into ambivalence
it’s a principle that’s as old as time, or at least as old as fish
and those who fish for them
what’s better than granting free fish of course
is fashioning a fisherman
what’s better than welfare
is well-being
what’s better than well-meaning
is empowering by the ethos of self-achieving
and self-care

we don’t start equal in assets or advantages
but work is where the great equalizer of circumstances is
therein lies the therapy for our troubles
the antidote for our anguish
the fortitude that forges our families

only in the crucibles of pursuit can we cook up character
and the sweat of our brow is the sweetest ingredient
never let them lead you into believing that
pandering under the pretense of philanthropy
isn’t actually advocating for the eradication of your freedom
don’t ever settle for mediocrity
no champion of sport or business or science or humanities has ever made it
by languishing in the belly of bureaucracy
no dormancy has ever bolstered performance, see
no idleness has ever triumphed
no stupor of soul has ever won a super bowl
no slothfulness has ever begotten thoughtfulness
I could go on but just
let me say this to close

what we earn is so much more valuable than what we think we are owed
those politicians
they’ll be long gone by the time entitlement takes its toll
don’t let them take your mind, your muscle, your spirit
don’t let them curtail your capacity
don’t let them demean you
never let them deceive you into believing that anything is free
what they’re taking will always be greater than what they’re giving
yeah you better believe – the government owes you life and liberty
but it does not owe you a living

thank goodness

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#Not My President-ial Debate

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a “hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck”
bemoaned CNN after the latest election campaign debacle
they couldn’t believe the disrespect and incivility
so much misinformation
so much hate

#notmypresident-ial debate

but was it really so bizarre?

does the fabrication of facts, the talking over each other
and past each other, trying to miscast each other
really only happen on the national debate stage?
or did it all look eerily familiar to your facebook page?

are Donald Trump and Joe Biden
the only two characters in this comedy of caricatures?
are we appalled by our choices for this election
or are we appalled because our choices look like our reflection?

it’s like we’ve gathered to repair a beloved but battered
and broken-down house
one side’s got the hammers
the other’s got the nails
but we’re too busy arguing over which is better suited for the job
or pointing out that hammers were once used incorrectly
or that nails are appalling because they could possibly be stepped on
cable news steps in and says
“wait a minute – you know
those hammers, those nails
those could really do some damage
you could use them to impale…
each other”

The New York Times steps in and says you know…
that old house isn’t worth saving anyway

Twitter and YouTube step in
and show the people with the hammers more stories about the nastiness of nails
and shows those with the nails the ghastliness of hammers

and now both sides stammer
and doubt what they’re made for
and made of
they hesitate to not only to build
but to denounce the carnage that they’re capable of

and we just stand here face to face
with our blunt and pointy weapons
that were supposed to be tools
threatening each other’s destruction
neglecting the construction that we came here for
in the first place

we the people are an eagle
navigating the fragile flight of humanity
with a noble and distinguished head of freedom
and a body of inalienable rights

the problem is not which wing you’re on
it’s how far out there you are
the further we go from the body
is the further we get from empathy
and peace and equality
as the feathers get thinner we become more and more tribal
the solutions we see become more and more genocidal

the far left is no less dangerous than the far right
too much chaos is no better than too much order
too much night is no more bearable than too much day
if you cut off one wing
you veer straight into a mountain of tyranny
either way

for every Hitler there’s a Stalin
that’s why every picture from where freedom has fallen
looks exactly the same

I know we have different ideas about what this house should look like
but without an agreed upon foundation and people willing work on it
it’s just a mansion in our imagination
unattached to a body, the wings of an eagle are just hollow bones in a free fall
and the sky is just a hopeless hallucination
without compromise
we are broken birds
hapless hammers
and good for nothing nails

I know I’ve mixed my metaphors here
what I’m trying to make clear
is that all supposedly invincible
civilizations have fallen for a lot less
I hope this train wreck lights a dumpster fire under us
that scorches all the pre-programmed proclivities
that’ve been stuck in our underbrush
and we can finally see clearly enough
to find our way out
of this hot mess

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The Eye of the Thunderstorms

I need three hands to count how many years I lived in California. I only need one to count how many thunderstorms I experienced while I was there.

The other night I was out for a walk on an empty Texas road. In every direction there were dark skies and frantic streaks of lightning. Thunder grumbled ominously off in the distance.

But where I was walking, it was calm. I could see stars above me. There was no commotion, no wind, no rain.

If we named the storms of 2020 like they do hurricanes, we’d have exhausted the alphabet many times over. I don’t need to list them. They’re stamped into our skin like a reckless night at a tattoo parlor.

Sometimes, the smoke from the fires is so thick that it’s as if the sun slept through its morning alarm and just said “forget it”. And we go whole days
with no light.

But on that quiet road I remembered.

About two thousand years ago there was a whole night
with no darkness.

That stuck with me, because I’ve been searching for light
in what seems to be only darkness.

I’ve been searching for truce
in what feels like a war of the worlds.

I’ve been searching for truth
in a raucous cacophony of ideologies, so many to choose from.

I’ve been searching for a way, like an x-ray
to see through the confusion.

But on that quiet road I remembered.

What better way to find the truth
than through God’s spoken word?

What better way to find light
than by He who created it?

I can’t always find the why of the storms
but I’m thankful
that I can always find the eye.

The calm. The comfort.
The correctness.

Even with the all hardship, harshness,
and thunder in all directions
if we follow Him
we will not walk in darkness.

He didn’t say when, or even if
these tempests would cease
but that He would walk with us
and in Him, we could still find peace.

On that quiet road
He remembered me.

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In Offense to Looting

People should be treated equally, but ideas should not.


Recently NPR published an article featuring the author of a book called “In Defense of Looting”. I’ll put aside the question of whether or not our tax dollars should be used to publicize such anti-American ideologies for now, but I’ll return to that later.


It’s important to understand where this worldview comes from and why many people (including high-level politicians and most of the mainstream media) have defended it. So let’s dig in.


Rioting does a number of important things. It gets people what they need for free immediately, which means that they are capable of living and reproducing their lives without having to rely on jobs or a wage.


Clearly the first untruth here is that people loot stores for things that they “need”. TVs, designer handbags, and liquor are not essential items for sustaining human life. You could perhaps still make a point though if you stopped there – most people are sympathetic to the plight of the less fortunate. But the second half of that statement is the kicker:

Without having to rely on jobs or a wage


So other people should work to produce the goods that you are entitled to, but you yourself should be free of such a burden. I think I see where this is going.


Looting, by the author’s definition, is “taking those things that would otherwise be commodified and controlled and sharing them for free.”
Notice here how she uses the words “commodified and controlled” instead of “produced by someone else”. Using subversive language is a common tactic to justify a position that would otherwise be shunned if the speaker stated it in plain terms. Claiming that consumer goods are “commodified and controlled” is supposed to justify her position that stealing is a good thing. It works the other way too. You can veil your true intentions by calling your organization “Black Lives Matter” and be given free rein to wreak whatever kind of havoc you desire.


But I’m getting ahead of myself.


Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police. It gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected. And also it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be. And I think that’s a part of it that doesn’t really get talked about — that riots and looting are experienced as sort of joyous and liberatory.


It should be becoming clear now. It doesn’t matter if you loot or burn down a black person’s business. It’s not about black lives mattering. It’s about the hatred of property, police, and white people, because these are the three things that stand in the way of a magical world where no one has to work and everything is free. Who produces the goods after everything is joyously burned down and the producers of all the goods are jailed or killed is not specified. But I’ll specify it for her: government-run labor camps. Gulags.


Without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free.


It would be insulting to assume that anyone needs any sort explanation for why this statement is wrong on every conceivable level, so, moving on…


Riots are a space in which a mass of people has produced a situation in which the general laws that govern society no longer function, and people can act in different ways in the street and in public.


In other words, lawlessness. People can “act in different ways” without that bothersome law and order stuff. It’s not clear if she understands that those ways can and inevitably would include assault, rape, and murder. But it is clear that she doesn’t want cops around to defend against any such acts.


She also believes that Martin Luther King Jr. was weak for his non-violent approach, that looting is just “proletarian shopping”, that it’s a “right wing myth” that small-business owners create jobs and improve the fabric of a community, and of course, that the U.S. was founded by “cisheteropatriarchal racist capitalists”, which justifies any and all forms of rioting and looting. She has zero remorse for any lives or livelihoods lost, the destruction of dreams, the countless hours of rebuilding, or the cost to the community.


Do you still have any questions about what these people stand for?


It was a bit disconcerting when the article first appeared on NPR, which is state-run media, because the author of the article (i.e. the interviewer) was clearly promoting these ideas as well. Due to pushback it has since been edited to sound more neutral and just put forth the ideology espoused by the book’s author. So in its current form, yes, I’m in favor of this type of journalism. I’m in favor of the free speech that allows someone to think and write these things. I’m glad she puts it so blatantly. It’s out there. We’re not making this stuff up. We know exactly what’s going on here. Burning down businesses is what’s currently feasible, but the real goal is to procure enough power to burn down Western Civilization.


Systemic racism is real and we still have work to do. Those people and organizations that are using social justice as a cloak for 21st century Marxism are not helping us in that work. In fact they’re doing much more harm than good. They have their own agenda, which I hope has been made clear here and in so many other ways. I plead with you to search out the difference. Look beyond language. Be discerning with your heart, mind, money, and actions. Think long and hard about supporting politicians that not only don’t condemn rioting and looting, but have condoned it. Think about what ideology they’re supporting, whether they realize it or not.


All people are created equal and deserve to be treated as such. Ideas are not created equal. We need to have the wisdom to recognize when an idea is not only destructive to our country, but fatal to our humanity and place it where it belongs – on the trash heap of history next to the many failed, murderous incarnations of its ancestors.

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When does a person become a person?

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I’ve been hearing a lot of conversing
and a lot of cursing
about when a person becomes a person
they say personhood is determined by what state you were conceived in
and which constituents think you’re an inconvenience
but I suppose it’s not surprising
we can’t expect to know when it’s alright to take humans out of this world
because we don’t take seriously enough how they get into it

how did we get here
how were these embryos of ethics envisaged
in health class they teach that life can be discarded
as if you accidentally took a piece of fruit
that you didn’t like in the lunch line
curriculums consist of permissions and condoms
sexting, positions, and bondage
abstinence is maybe a footnote
more likely just a punchline
we learn the rules of sexual engagement
from porn, Netflix, and
our most esteemed singers and rappers competing to see who can be the nastiest
we chastise chastity at the altars of Hugh Heffner
and for anyone to offer any objection to this perspective is preposterous
you’re probably already typing a patronizing response to this
it’s okay – I already lost my spot at the cool kids table

look, for just some clumps of cells that have grown
we’re sure good at protecting our cell phones
I guess what we save is what we hold the most precious

sex out of the proper context is just taking from each other
what you can never get back
mutually abusing souls
reducing it to just “consent”
making it so small, so meaningless
treating it like a squeaky swing set
instead of saving up for Disneyland
how much more incredible the reward
to give someone something you can’t register for at Target
you shouldn’t wait because sex is bad
but because it’s the best thing ever

the most momentous transcendentially beautiful thing
two people could ever do
boys I’m talking to you too
conquests of the flesh do not make you more of a man
they just make you another one
don’t tell me it’s impossible
hashtag sexstrike
and don’t tell me about society’s ill-fated quest
to spread the deception that
having a family is an outdated fate worse than death man
it’s been twisted long enough

marriage is not a curse word
marriage is a merger
of hearts and hope
lives and love
faith in the future
a proposal of providence
a pledge and a promise
with proximity and permanence
and a prominence of purpose that you cannot fake, imitate, or simulate

that’s why counterfeit unions will always fall short
we’re not just messing with flesh here
we’re messing with what’s meant to be
a heavenly meshing of body, mind, and spirit

I’m not telling anyone how to live
I’m just telling you what I wish someone would have told me
I’m telling you the lessons they teach you in health class are far less than the whole story
you should question the source
and the conclusions they’ve come to
and as for the wisdom of pop princesses…
well, let’s just say
the promises of promiscuity have never come true
and no contraceptive has ever protected a heart
there’s only one truth

in the end
our reverence for sustaining life
our honor for the womb
what will determine our version
of when a person becomes a person
will be our reverence for how, why, when, and with whom
we create life

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