Black Lives Matter

Black lives matter. Absolutely they do! The amount of melanin in one’s skin pigmentation does not add nor diminish to the inherent dignity and worth of any human life.  Of course, black lives matter.  The phrase itself is uncontroversial and inarguable to my mind. Every person is a child of God and created in His image.  As such, racism is a sin and a pernicious evil that is not to be tolerated by decent people of any color.

Now, the organization of Black Lives Matter is another thing altogether.  They are founded by self-professed “trained Marxists” who seem bent on destroying capitalism, religion, social mores, the nuclear family, and the very foundation of America.   One prominent Black Lives Matter leader told a news reporter just two weeks ago that the group is willing to embrace violence.  And they have proven this repeatedly in the ensuing weeks.  

Black Lives Matter (the organization) is not about black lives.  They could not care less about the dozens of black people killed every single week in Chicago, Baltimore, Seattle, Minneapolis, New York, Los Angles, and elsewhere in our country at the hands of others that aren’t police officers.  (Every city of which is governed by Democrats, but that is an entirely different matter… or not.)  They certainly don’t do ANYTHING to help improve the lives of Americans of color.  Indeed, if they wanted to help black Americans, they would realize that capitalism, faith, and the rule of law has brought unparalleled prosperity and peace to people of color in this country, especially in the past three years.  But BLM, the organization, only wants to foster hate and division when a black person is killed by a police officer.  It is a pretext for “burning the whole thing down” as one member said.

If a police officer is wrong in using deadly force on ANYONE, I am right there with you in protest and demanding justice --- just like every other decent American is, regardless of color.  What the rioting, burning, looting, shooting, and destruction of property largely by snot-nosed suburban white kids marching under the BLM banner does is to harm this cause for justice.  They are not about justice.  They want an excuse to engage in chaos, anarchy, and mayhem.  That turns the vast silent majority of Americans against them specifically and dilutes a just message by righteous protesters that then becomes lost in the ashes of rioting.

Further, the idiot rioters further prove their ignorance of history, or perhaps just display the fact that they don’t give a damn about it, as they tear down or vandalize statues of Fredrick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Columbus, and even a damned statue of an elk in Portland last week.  A freaking elk!  I was not aware that the elk were the most racist creatures in the forest.  The bottom line is that this not about black lives mattering.  It is about furthering a Marxist, godless agenda.

Teaching our kids that racism is a pernicious evil is the responsibility of all good parents.  Teaching them or allowing them to be taught that Marxist antifa and BLM groups which espouse violence and have very little to do with denouncing actual racism is a gross abrogation of parental duties.

I know this nonsense is commonplace as taught in our schools and colleges by teachers and professors with a militant leftist agenda these days.  America is always bad to these people and they indoctrinate and infect our students with this verifiably false load of crap.  Truth is the very first casualty in this socialist revolution that is bound to fail.

Sadly, there is real racism in America, but it is far more the exception than the rule.  It is NOT systemic, even in nearly all of the police forces throughout our nation.  We should be concentrating on eradicating real racism through an education of actual facts of history and current events instead of made-up and debunked agenda-driven programs like the 1619 project and BLM rhetoric.  How does a nation elect a black president and people of color to all offices throughout this country if it is overwhelmingly racist?  

What happened to George Floyd was horrific.  That said, the officers involved were fired, jailed, and will face punishment for their parts in his murder.  Every single decent person that saw that video agrees with that, regardless of color.  Mr. Floyd did not deserve to die and I fully support the righteous anger of the PEACEFUL protesters to that purpose.  They are preaching to the choir though, as I said, every decent person already agrees with them. 

We achieve nothing when Americans are busy hating America. Further violating the rule of law will only usher in a new Jacobian version of the “French revolution” here on American soil, except the ending for the radicals will be much different here.  Despite what the progressives teach in schools these days, there is a distinct difference between the American Revolution and the French Revolution.  Our revolution led to a representative republic based on the ideal that all men are created equal.  The French revolution, which the mob today is emulating, led to the Reign of Terror.  

It is heart-wrenchingly sad when so many ignorant, arrogant, and thuggish people want to burn down the nation simply so they can “govern” over the ruins.  The overwhelmingly vast majority of Americans are better than that, and while once again we are a sleeping giant, the righteous anger of Americans of all colors will eventually cause us to stand up and protect this divided nation from a small vocal and dangerous minority of anti-American would-be insurrectionists from within.  The first step is for good people to stand up together and say enough.  History has proven in past such incidents that We The People will indeed do so. 

Sooner rather than later would be better.

He's Baaack!

A little less than two years ago, I decided to mothball my blog, Saving Common Sense.  I had enjoyed writing and conversing for over nine years over the interwebs via that blog with many fine people of all faiths, colors, creeds, sexual orientations, and political persuasions.  Indeed, I met many good people, some of which I consider friends to this day because of that blog.  And yes, some of those friends are left-leaning in contrast to my own unabashedly conservative, God-fearing, pro-American views.

While I always support the right of people to disagree with me and express their thoughts or feelings on any given subject, in line with our first amendment rights, it grew wearisome as the precursors to today’s cancel culture were already being exhibited on the very pages of my own blog by some commenters.  It was because of the hate and unadulterated anti-American vitriol that was being lobbed daily on these very pages in the comment sections that I decided to shut down activity on my beloved blog on 9/11/2018.

Over the course of the last two years there have been many times when I thought to myself regarding some current event or happening in life that I should return to blogging once again.  Lately with the ever-increasing wellspring of militant leftist hate and destruction and the direct effects of it on my own family, I thought now is the time to return to blogging.  If nothing else, I figure it will be cathartic for me to put my thoughts to printed word.  As such, rather than simply start a new blog, I figured I would re-imagine my old blog and build upon it, just as we do throughout all of the junctions and turning points in our own lives by building on past experiences with new growth and realizations throughout life.

But what to call the new blog?  I have always been a proud American and student of American history.  I realize that America is not without its flaws, just like every last single country on this earth.  The difference is America has always championed the ideal that all men are created equal, even if this was not realized for all Americans from the beginning.  That said, America does always try to right its wrongs, and because of that, it is the beacon of prosperity and liberty that it is today for a vast majority of Americans.  I have traveled to many countries during my life and have seen some wondrous sights, experienced amazing cultures, and met fantastic people, but I have come to realize that I far prefer the liberties and freedoms that have made America that shining city on a hill to so many people in the world, which given the chance, they would flock.  In light of that, I thought that I am indeed unabashedly American; hence the name of the new blog.

It is my intention to keep things a little different this time though.  I am not going to allow the high-jacking of my own site by leftist trolls who insist upon ideological purity and agreement with their manifesto or otherwise branding dissenters as “enemies” to be attacked or destroyed.  In the past, I tried to let a free flow of comments without moderation rule the day; that will not be the case in the new iteration of my blog. 

As always, I am not afraid of contrary or dissenting opinions.  Indeed, I am human and fallible.  If you can make a cogent argument supported by actual facts, perhaps I may be convinced of the error of my ways.  If you make comments that are intentionally bombastic, inflammatory, and hateful, then I will put your comment in the dustbin where it belongs so that it never sees the light of day on my blog.  You can post that drivel on your own site, thank you very much.

I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you and hopefully hearing yours in return, again even if they are contrary to my own.  I hope to have a thoughtful discussion on current events, politics, faith, life, and hopefully on more light-hearted fare such as joyful life events and travel.  I hope all people of good will shall join me on this latest journey.  Cheers!

All Good Things...

It was perhaps a dozen years ago when I first really started frequenting various blogs on the internet on a regular basis, with most of them being of a political or religious nature.  On one site that I frequented fairly regularly, the host of the blog stated that I seemed to have a lot to say and perhaps I should get my own blog accordingly.  I am relatively certain that he was not being complimentary towards me, but nonetheless, I took up his suggestion and nine years ago today Saving Common Sense was born.

Early on I had some very supportive readers of all political stripes.  Indeed, even those followers with whom my opinions on politics did not match ended up being thoughtful folks with which to debate and share ideas.  Oh, there was always the occasional troll, but by and large I found blogging to be stimulating and interesting as I shared my opinions, thoughts, and ideas with my fellow brothers and sisters in the blogosphere.  Further, based on the feedback I would receive, it appeared that many of my readers felt similarly.

I went through some years where a busy work schedule or my late wife’s illnesses kept me from blogging very much, but I always found my way back to the key board eventually.

I have made some pretty good on-line friends over the years that I would not have met otherwise.  I am grateful that these good folks came into my life accordingly, even if some of these friends are absolute nut jobs when it comes to their politics or world views.  I am sure they chuckle as they are saying the same thing about me.  And that is okay.  With them, we can still agree to disagree and still be friends.  That is as it should be and what I had always intended.

Sadly, in the last few years, things seemed to change and the internet became a far darker and less friendly place.  With it, my tolerance for some of the over-the-top nastiness and hatred has become very thin, to say the least.  It is amazing the “courage” some people find to write the most atrocious things about others when they can do so from the anonymity of the internet.  It is those certain folks that refuse to debate or offer opinions on the issues without conflating it with their political adversaries and making it personal to which I rapidly grew weary.  It is this ugliness and hatred that ultimately made me decide it was time to move on as Saving Common Sense was no longer the forum that I had once intended it to be.

I relished the past days when brilliant, humorous, and never nasty folks such as John Myste would stop by, offer his unique and always interesting insights, and then make me laugh even when poking fun at me.  We have now unfortunately morphed into a place where ugliness grows.  No longer can we good naturedly jibe with our friends and political opposites, it seems.  Now we have to dehumanize, marginalize, and act hatefully in the worst ways towards each other.  Sadly, I have even caught myself falling into this trap on occasion.  I have seen this vileness in some take the forms of questioning another’s faith and salvation to “hoping” that a person’s disease would hurry up and take its course.  I am disgusted by this and the people that think this is okay.  I am trying be a better Christian than I really am, and will continue to pray for these folks.

All of that said, there are still some good folks that don’t share most of my views that still come by and offer their thoughts.  For the Woodenman's and TB3's and a few others out there, I am sorry.  I will miss their viewpoints and conversation.

So it is with regret and a little sadness that I must bring to a close this blog.  As of now, I will leave it up and may or may not allow further comments to be posted, but I will no longer actively be monitoring the site.  Nine years is a good run, but the time has come to move on to better and more fruitful and uplifting projects.  I’ll be sure to post here when the new site is up and running. 

Good wishes and Godspeed to you all!

Hating America as it Becomes Great Again

Over the past nine years of writing this blog I have pointed out on certain occasions when some of our leftist brothers and sisters in our country have seemingly gone to great lengths to make sure the rest of the nation knows that we are NOT a great nation, in their estimations.  Of course, my pointing this out, using their own words and actions as evidence, has often been met with defensiveness at best and derision and hate at worst.  None of this changes the fact that quite sadly there are far too many Americans that simply despise our country – despite often prospering from the very fruits, protections, and constitutional rights that they are decrying as not existing in practice.

I suspect there has always been a miniscule contingent of such folks in America since our founding, but the numbers of such seem to have increased steadily and more drastically in my life time.  I think the Vietnam war was the catalyst for many counter-culture Americans to find fault and begin loathing our nation.  A case can even be made for some of their arguments regarding this, although I personally disagree with most of those points of contention.

Jump forward to the restoration of American prosperity and strength in the Reagan years and one will find many of the same naysayers grumbling, protesting, and hating America as it stood up against the horrors of Communism, particularly as embodied by the evil empire of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic.  To these disgruntled Americans, it was our nation that was provoking war and committing human atrocities; not Soviet Russia that killed or imprisoned millions in their gulags in Siberia and in puppet satellite states throughout the world.

The same tired folks and their rhetoric reappeared during Operation Desert Storm and then with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11.  To some of them, it was not vile and evil Islamic militants that killed 3000 of our civilians, attacked our pentagon, and brought down the world trade center, but rather it was an inside job done by, or at least with the knowledge of, President Bush. 

Sad.

Fast forward to the Obama years when socialism, class-warfare, racial divisions and strife, and bureaucratic regulation all expanded exponentially, and we saw the heat from the leftists wane and their hatred was temporarily satiated.  Michelle Obama, for the “first time in her adult life” was finally “proud of her country”.  Her husband worked mightily to fulfill his campaign promise to “fundamentally transform America”, since the America he received to govern was deeply and egregiously flawed in his opinion.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Hillary actually lost the presidential election in 2016!  The arrogant and bombastic Donald Trump became president instead of the arrogant, bombastic, and seemingly congenitally corrupt Hillary.

Once again many on the left came out of the woodwork with their pitchforks as the economy has taken off, employment has soared to its highest point in generations, and there are dramatically fewer people needing to rely on welfare.  Well that simply will not do as our deeply flawed president (and he is indeed deeply flawed in some areas in my opinion) tries to desperately do as he promised in his campaign.  He is indeed restoring America.  His efforts are succeeding in many regards to making America great again.

But not according to New York Governor and potential 2020 presidential aspirant Andrew Cuomo.  Speaking at an event for women and girls in the state a few short weeks back, the far left-Democrat said, “We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great.” 

Even some of the leftwing New York crowd to whom he spoke were surprised at the statement as some laughed nervously while a few hooted and hollered in agreement.  Governor Cuomo had the courage and audacity to speak out and say what some among them actually were thinking.  But they knew that wouldn’t play well with us hicks and rubes in flyover country.

As Cuomo and his staff begin considering the ramifications of what he just said, a mere few hours later his staff came out in full spin mode to try and mitigate the damage and salvage a presidential run that will absolutely be haunted by the video clip of this asinine statement of his.

“Governor Cuomo disagrees with the president,” his office said in a statement clarifying his remarks. “The governor believes America is great and that her full greatness will be fully realized when every man, woman, and child has full equality. America has not yet reached its maximum potential.”

Sadly, this mentality of decrying that America is a racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, patriarchal, greedy and corporatist society has taken over the mindset of some of our leftist brothers and sisters.  It has definitely infected our colleges and universities and in recent years is filtering down to our secondary and primary schools.  The future generations are being indoctrinated with willful ignorance against the liberties, opportunities, and exceptionalism of our great nation.

A recent case in point came about when the Washington Post back in May reported that 11-year-old Mariana Taylor, whom is a student at Catonsville Middle School in Baltimore County, Maryland, was inspired by the actions of former failed NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and thus decided she should kneel during her class’s recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

According to the report, Mariana’s teacher said that she should stand to honor the positivity of America and told the child that she had family overseas serving in the military, noting that the student was being disrespectful.

Mariana reported that, “I left the classroom in tears… It is in my rights that I am allowed to kneel.”  She continued, “I kind of wanted to show people that what’s going on is not okay,”

Once again a teachable moment is lost as another child falls to leftist rhetoric instead of being taught the truth.  Sad.

Of course, not to let an opportunity go to waste, Hillary Clinton shared the clip on her Twitter account and tweeted, “It takes courage to exercise your right to protest injustice, especially when you’re 11! Keep up the good work Mariana.”  What is good is that America didn’t get back to back presidents that apparently do not like America.

Now the former quarterback, with a career losing-record, had the right to protest and speak out as he saw fit, assuming his former employer allowed his workplace to be such a platform for his hate-America diatribe, but he is hardly courageous in doing so.  He lost nothing because of his stance.  His 1-11 performance in his last season dictated the outcome of his career; not NFL collusion because of his outspoken 1^st amendment speech rights.  Good luck with your lawsuit against the NFL accordingly, Mr. Kaepernick.

Through all of this -- the heated rhetoric, the antifa violence, the pro-abortion marches, the crying of snowflakes about their “rights” being violated when they cannot even tell you what their constitutional right are is enough to begin to think that maybe they are right.  Maybe America isn’t that great. 

And then one takes a step back and puts the Obamas, Clintons, New York Times, CNN, college students and professors, and the talking-head pundits on the left aside and looks at what America has accomplished in its short time on earth by providing for the greatest freedoms and prosperity for more of its citizens than any other nation throughout world history and we are able to once again put things back into proper context.

No, we don’t need to necessarily make America great again.  It still is great already.

Fixing what is broken and extra- or un-constitutional though would go along ways towards ensuring that we remain the greatest nation in human history.  Now, if we can just teach Governor Cuomo, Colin Kaepernick, and our youth this same lesson perhaps we will be able to hold on to that mantle of greatness for many generations to follow!

Cleaning House

I guess when I am busy, some of the kids tend to get a little unruly when they aren't supervised.

I deleted the entire last post for several reasons.  The first is that the post was simply a joke and not that important for the archives of theis blog. The comments underneath it that numbered into the hundreds were the typical nonsense that the internet has become when conservatives and leftists converge.

That said, the second reason is that one of our long time commenters inadvertently and then purposefully by his political adversaries have his real name divulged.  If someone wants to use his real name, then great.  If someone wishes to comment or write under a nom de plume, then basic decency says we should respect that right.  Sadly decency is in short supply these days... on both sides of the political spectrum.

Be forewarned, going forward I will delete comments divulging personal information such as one's actual name, address, etc. unless the subject of that information consents to it.

Next, have we really become such a divided nation in the rank and file that we can relish the thought of the passing of our political adversaries?  Hope springs eternal, right?  YOU should be ashamed of yourself!  You know who you are!  One wonders what kind of karma that will bring in one's next life.

My disgust and revulsion with this hatred is the very reason I have had enough and am discontinuing the updating on this blog in only a few remaining days.

Have fun with your hatred and vileness towards each other whilst you can, but really don't you all have something useful, productive, and uplifting to do?  Or is hate, foolishness, and "resistance" all you have to cling to these days?  Believe me... I survived Obama's administration.  You all will similarly survive Trump's.  Further, the country will be far better off after the latter leaves office than it was after the former.

Cheers!