Herod, the Christ Child, a President, and Brothers and Sisters in Christ

[Note: Updated and revised since 2018.
As Christians, we should still be ashamed.]


 

The message seems so clear.

Why are so many fervent believers in the Christmas message unable to apply it to today’s world and much of the leadership of our own nation?

Continue reading “Herod, the Christ Child, a President, and Brothers and Sisters in Christ”

Monday Blog Choices: Gaza, Trump, Rudy, Abortion Rights, Stern Holiday

A few more blog posts that caught my interest.
 
Personal progress:
My medical condition continues to improve. My twice-a-week physical therapist pushes and measures and offers encouragement.
 
I’m meeting the surgeon again tomorrow.

  • My long time personal friend, the very conservative Darrell Michaels back (Yay!) at Unabashedly American, makes a cogent case for abandoning the goal of a two-state solution in the Middle East.
     
    Darrell does tend toward rhetorical excess:

    • Palestinians become “Palestinians” with scare quotes
    • Protestors are now “protestors”
    • Michael uncritically accepts the stated Israeli government goal of destroying Hamas from the top down to the ground.
       

      • Says my friend:
      Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is correct and thoroughly justified in destroying every last Hamas militant still alive.
       
      While useful as an aspirational slogan, it is unlikely as a practical matter. Destroying every vestige of Hamas leadership is a more realistic necessity.
       
      Those of us who have not given up on a two-state solution should acknowledge that Oct. 7 pushed much further into the future that eventual hope for a secure peace.
       
      Darrell’s argument is worth the investment of a click and a read.
       
      A couple of my own thoughts:


    • The Palmer Report has a plausible theory on why mr Trump so frequently encounters breathlessly uncritical media coverage.
       
    • Rudy Giuliani triumphantly bullied two unsuspecting good citizen type election workers in Georgia, making their lives miserable for three years.
       
      Now Rudy is paying a high price.
       
      PZ Myers seems notably unsympathetic.
       
    • Disaffected and it Feels So Good goes to abortion rights, celebrating two women who declined to be victims, taking on the entire Republican Party.
       
    • Clickbait satirist Reductress warns that making fun of your millennial sibling may be all fun and games until you need help writing an email.
       
    • Mark Waulberg > No, not Mark Wahlberg, the other Mark, brings us Jim Carrey as a graduate of the William Shatner School of Overacting:
       
    • Sorry I missed this, although I have a great excuse. Margaret and Helen are back, with Helen inviting the family to a wonderful Thanksgiving, seasoned with a stern warning.
       
      Key warning:
      We might have had our differences in the past, but intolerance won’t be tolerated.

Found Wisdom on Trump, Impeachers, The Honorable Lauren Boebert

Still a little painful, but the physical therapist says I’m good to type with the replaced arm until it hurts enough to stop.
 
Main ethic:
It would be unfriendly to wake the neighbors with screams of agony.
 
So here are a few, too few, of the many insights I have enjoyed since the assault. I’ll try for more later.

  • It’s always just below the surface, isn’t it?
     
    Tommy Christopher reports as Trump gets sandblasted for attacking “liberal Jews” for not supporting him.
     
    My reaction:

  • Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged, is incandescently brilliant in her scathing reviews. Please read as she takes on NBC for the soft interview of mr Trump, with the faint gesture of a little after-the-fact fact-checking. The headline is a good intro: NBC Cleaning the Augean Stables with a Squirt Gun.
     
    Key free sample:
    He is a man I’m almost certain who watches himself with the sound turned off because the bare fact of his fame is enough for him. What he says hardly matters. He doesn’t want to be loved so much as he wants to be inescapable. Omnipresent.
     
    If I ever become a public figure and manage to tick off Vixen Strangely,
    all I want is a chance to apologize.
     
    Is that too much to ask?
     
  • At The Moderate Voice, Donald Trump acknowledges that he intends to become a dictator, but only for one day. Retired U.S. Air Force Major Dorian de Wind says Hold on a damn minute, Sparky. Okay, those are my words, summarizing his message.
     
  • When you’ve lost Newsmax…
     
    News Corpse watches and reports as Republican Impeachment chair James Comer barely survives the CNN interview as Jake Tapper makes fun of his logic. Then Newsmax (Newsmax?) tells him his investigation looks like a joke.
     
  • Dave Columbo has a suggestion for news media, especially when interviewing Donald Trump: good old boring on air FACT checking, with a highly entertaining, high ratings follow up:
     
  • The back and forth goes on. Lauren Boebert goes to sex acts, of a sort, during a family theatre production, and gets caught on tape.
     
    Shock jock radio personality Howard Stern criticizes her as a disgrace to this country
     
    Conservative writer Joseph Massey isn’t having it. He makes an interesting point on hypocrisy: applying a different standard to someone else than to yourself.
     
    I’m old enough to remember when Howard Stern sent an intoxicated dwarf to urinate on a large block of ice in Times Square that contained the magician David Blaine. The dwarf exposed himself in public. But Lauren Boebert is a “disgrace.”
     
    Sadly, Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez deconstructs Joseph’s entire point in just a few words:
     
    Almost like different standards apply to a radio shock jock and and a member of Congress. So weird.
     
  • Immigration and border control are current hot topics, especially for conservatives. driftglass helpfully reviews recent Republican votes on actual funding.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit notes that, along with widespread starvation in North Korea, there has been a marked increase in suicide. So Dear Leader is secretly warning suicide will be regarded as treason.
     
  • Senator J.D. Vance has a plan for peace with Russia. Just have Ukraine negotiate away whatever part of itself Putin wants. M. Bouffant at Web of Evil considers the plan for peace in our time, seems skeptical.
     
    Sometimes it’s useful to point out the obvious:
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors has news from Florida as voters put abortion rights on the ballot.
     
    Well, maybe.
    The Florida Supreme Court could still take it away from voters.
     
  • Katie Cox, the hopeful mother suddenly faced with the near certainty of a stillborn pregnancy, finally fled Texas to some location where she can get a legal abortion. Infidel753 writes about the danger to her, the escape, and the moral and political dilemma now faced by Republicans.
     
    Key take:
    If Cox had stayed, she would have ended up as a human sacrifice offered up by ignorant barbarians lost in the darkness of medieval taboo and superstition.
     
  • Most of those who read Nan’s Notebook are, as she points out, non-believers/atheists. When Nan asks those readers for “their personal ‘deconversion’ experiences”, many are thoughtful and provocative. Worth a look for those of us in the faith.
     
  • Vagabond Scholar considers the original name and meaning Armistice Day and how it applies to a recent US war-not-war.
     

Age and Performance

Reductio:

Antonio Stradivari
In 2009, Barack Obama had just become President. My loved one and I were excited about the televised ceremony. The new President had specifically invited Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman to play after the oath. Perlman famously was to play his Stradivarius violin.

I had to leave the room. Itzhak Perlman is one of the most acclaimed violinists in the world, and the few surviving Stradivarius violins are considered by many to be the absolute finest.

But Perlman’s violin was carefully constructed in 1737. Antonio Stradivari was born in 1644. See the problem?

Antonio was 93 when he made that violin. No matter how wonderful the final product, he was too damn old.

Keith Richards
The Rolling Stones broke every Rock and Roll mold. The energy was everlasting. They could do no musical wrong.

But now I refuse to listen to any of the songs I love.

You see, Keith Richards was born in 1943, which makes him too old.

Joe Biden
As President, Joe Biden has managed a host of accomplishments that are hard to argue with. The economy has revived and roared. Unemployment is at 3.9%. Prices are too damn high, but inflation has at least stalled. Child poverty has dropped.

International respect for Biden helped him rally a unified world to back Ukraine against Putin aggression.

Important steps are in effect to slow climate catastrophe, while boosting employment.

President Biden is making all the right moves.
He represents us well, better than anyone expected.

But if history has taught us anything, it is that performance doesn’t matter.
All that should matter to us is his age.

Medical Recovery Continues

Healing seems to be going well.

My new physical therapist is a young man. His wheelchair has a sticker “Don’t Stare”. He’s been there just 4 months, right out of graduate school. So he’s super diligent.

He laughs at my lame jokes.
A gentleman.

A couple of visits so far.
He put me through several tests and precisely measured range of motion.
Told me progress looks good.

We have scheduled 2 sessions a week through December.

Best news, I can take the sling off in the house during waking hours as long as I don’t do anything strenuous with that arm.

I have limited use of my wrist and fingers. I have begun some interaction with social media. I am up to expressing occasional opinions here.

In a few weeks, I hope to be able to resume reviews of the blogs I admire and enjoy.

Life is good and improving.

To catch up with this adventure:

Post-Attack Recovery

Still typing left handed, right arm in a perpetual sling.
It’s slow and awkward and I’m prone to mistakes.

But, as someone on social media has pointed out,
Moist people aren’t bothered by the occasional typo.

(Oh come on! I’m often considered elderly, perhaps because of age,
and I’m taking up to three types of pain medication as needed – Wheeee.
Besides, attempts at dad humor serve as a distraction.)
So gimme a break! (See there?)

First post-surgery follow-up with another surgeon is set for Monday.
Removal (or replacement?) of staples is to be done then.
I intend to post more, if I can, right after the surgical review.

About the attack:
The assigned police detective is careful not to give me much information on the identity of the attacker, the reason for the attack (except that they are sure they know what it was), or when an arrest is expected.
And he really shouldn’t tell me more just yet.

About comments wishing me well:
Thank you.
Seriously.
I am more than grateful.

If I’m up to it during the next several weeks of recovery, I’ll try writing a few short opinions, depending on energy level and, you know, pain.
Mustn’t wake the neighbors.

For anyone wanting to catch up:

Recovering from Random Violence

A little more on the violent parking lot attack.

We’re exchanging phone calls at the invitation of the Orthopedic folks whenever we have questions. And we do have a few, mainly confirming what we’re doing at home and reporting changes in condition.

Mostly, I’m getting sleepy more quickly, like almost right away.

Still doing pretty much everything left-handed, which makes for slow typing.

A follow up appointment is set for next week.

So far, things look good.
Maybe FEEL good will come soon.

More Details on Parking Lot Attack

Let’s bring this up-to-date.

Posting is somewhat hard to do left-handed while screaming.
Pain medications work pretty well until they don’t.

But good news: Shoulder surgery scheduled Monday afternoon here in St. Louis. Some sort of orientation set for Friday. Recovery 6 to 8 weeks, possibly more.

Back in Maryland, detectives say they know who the attacker is.
They should have enough to press charges next week. So things are looking up.

Attacked – Burr is a Victim of Violence

This is actually Burr’s friend Ray.

Burr was the target of a violent attack on Tuesday. The attack occurred on a public parking lot in Maryland. The perpetrator is, as yet, unidentified. Detectives are working on it.

Burr’s right arm was broken in several places. A recommendation of complicated surgery is under medical review.

Burr is in extravagant pain, but is in relatively good spirits.

A family member remarked that on his last visit he caught COVID and now this. Wondered what curse will come on his next visit.

Burr’s answer:
Frogs.

More information as it becomes available.