The Tradeoff

July 28, 2016 Leave a comment

 

Ezra grabbed his pipe and headed out the door. He walked behind the garage and out of the wind.  Holding the bowl of the briar pipe, he filled it with Cavendish from a pouch. The flame of his lighter bent into the bowl as he inhaled in short gasps. The glowing tobacco soon released a familiar otherworld aroma that pleased Ezra at times like this.

Only moments before Delores had been yelling, nose to nose, at Ezra, her white spittle flecking his face.  “You’re a mealy-mouth pea brain,” she told him.

Now no matter how he figured, Ezra was never sure about what it was that added up to make Delores so furious almost every night. She did find him once looking at a woman posed in a two-piece bathing suit on the internet.  And that night she accused him of adultery. And after that night Ezra wouldn’t be allowed to ever to forget the error of his way. Delores’ slurred ‘reminders’ of that day were so often and so vivid that Ezra became a serial “adulterer” by proxy.

But Ezra was sure that the Margaritas and wine Delores had been drinking before he came home from work had taken possession of her. There would be no reasoning with Delores that night. Time and a safe distance would be required to maintain Ezra’s sanity, but face to face rebukes and then a full-throated rejection would have to come first.

Burning with alcohol fueled anger Delores would declare, on more than one occasion, “I am going to my mother’s house for the night!”

And so off she went. And each time she did Ezra wanted to call the police and tell them that Delores had been drinking and shouldn’t be driving. But he did not call. What if she accused Ezra of abuse or something else just as crazy as what he was hearing night after night? Her amplified “righteous” indignation seemed to know no bounds. And though he hated himself for not calling the police he also wanted to be rid of the madness for a few hours. In the still house Ezra thought of his kids, asleep in the car, and cried.

Though Ezra couldn’t define what ignited Delores’ anger for days on end, he did know what irked him. When asked by a marriage counselor what each of them wanted from the other, Delores said “words of affirmation.” Ezra took this to mean “show Delores that he loved her.”  And though he awoke early and had taken her coffee and chocolates to her bed in the morning before going to work and had often given her flowers, he wasn’t verbal to the extent Delores was. He had to work out the words of love.

In the same counseling session, Ezra had asked Delores to have coffee with him in the morning before he left for work. The afternoon return home would be filled with the kids and Delores wanting attention from him. But time spent with Ezra in the morning would never happen. Delores’ late night wine drinking and movie habit had her sleeping in past the time Ezra went off to work. Ezra never did work out the words to say what bothered him, though each day came and went as before. But Ezra didn’t need words for a pipe in his hand and the smell of pipe tobacco in the air. On his fiftieth birthday he had bought a pipe.

Reflecting night after night with pipe and a briar of glowing Cavendish and at a distance from the incendiary, Ezra soon came to realize that his fallible existence was Delores’ problem.  Delores had come into the marriage hoping that Ezra would make all things new. She wanted someone to take her in, to cover her mortality with a cloak of look-the-other-way love and be the transcendent one – a kinsman redeemer. But the Fallible One turned out to be a “mealy-mouth pea brain” that could do no right. The Fallible was to be put out, the embers dumped and scattered. After a year of paralyzing quarrels and unrelenting verbal abuse, Delores told Ezra that she wanted a separation. “Get out or I will force you out!”

Upon hearing these words, Ezra grabbed his pipe and headed out the door. He walked behind the garage and out of the wind. Holding the bowl of the briar pipe, he filled it with Cavendish from a pouch. The flame of his lighter bent into the bowl as he inhaled in short gasps. The glowing tobacco soon released a familiar otherworld aroma that pleased Ezra at times like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

© Sally Paradise, 2016, All Rights Reserved

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The Clash of the Tribalists

July 27, 2016 Leave a comment

 

Do you find it ironic that the two major political candidates and their parties each rail against and denounce a “rigged system” but went ahead and rigged their own respective conventions for a certain outcome?

~~~

When someone cuts in front of you in the grocery store line (as happened to me this past weekend) and then looks the other way pretending that no such thing ever happened, well, that is pretty much what happened at the Republican National Convention. Conservatives were approaching their turn to speak during regular order and in come Trump supporters and the RNC Rules Committee between them and order.

Dissenting Conservative voices were kept from speaking while those who got their “way“ looked the other way as if nothing happened. This type of strong arm bullying tactic, often used by supporters of banana republic dictators, is being employed to “Make America Great Again!”

The Rep party has become diluted with a Victim Tribe so large that it will never be the same. This tribe includes the likes of the KKK’s former leader David Duke because Duke agrees with Trump or, better, Trump thinking matches Duke’s thinking.

The GOP, in forcing the nomination of a reality TV persona, could have just as well nominated Kim Kardashian. Kardashian has been successful at what she does and she knows how to market her herself just like Trump Towers. And Kim Kardashian also knows how to negotiate a deal to get what she wants.   And Trump is only a hair to the right of her politically, if one were ever able to put a fork in Trump’s waffling values.

Trump’s The Art of the Deal is effectively about getting what you want at any cost to others. And that is exactly what America’s victim tribes are all about. So enter Trump, the “negotiator” who gets what he wants. This time he is saying, in effect, that American values are negotiable in order to “win.”

“I would renegotiate so much of everything.” — Donald Trump

With the convention of the New Progressive Right (fka, the Republican Party) mercifully behind us now and the Democratic National Convention upon us we can clearly see that both 2016 Presidential Campaigns offerings are bestial bones thrown out to the Victim Tribes who stand barking before the altar of government.

Who are the Victim Tribes? Those who have a certain grievance, who are hashtag myopic; those who demand attention and some form of protection provided by government. The Victim Tribes gather around the Twitter trough and feed off of each other’s misery. Daily we are inundated with their melodrama.

Briefly, The Victim Tribes:

The middle-class-blue-collar-folks-who-hate-change-and-the “rigged system”-and-demand-a-rigged-system-of-their-own tribe.

The OWS-anti-Capitalism-$-pro-Socialism-$-college-is-my-right-so-pay-$ tribe.

The Black Lives Matter-except-when-aborted-or-murdered-by-another-black tribe.

The LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ1234-narcissism-is-an equal-right-and-is-to-be-normalized tribe.

The Feminist-we want-whatever-men-must-have-to-succeed tribe.

The environment-and-climate-change- “settled science”-Inquisition-and-apocalypse-now tribe.

The “I am an Illegal Immigrant and America is all about me” tribe.

Added 7-28-2016: Here is a recent example of the Tribalist’s Litany of Demands. It is delivered using the Rhetoric of the Perennially Aggrieved and Ungrateful and of the SJW Flag-wavers in the Long March of Cultural Marxism. These are the ones who are held “hostage” to “all forms” of injustice within the world’s freest nation:

Presumptive Green party presidential nominee Jill Stein appeared at the Occupy DNC rally across from CIty Hall in Philadelphia today (or at the “Bernie Sanders rally” as one cop put it) to speak before a cheering crowd full of Bernie Sanders supporters and other activists.

“Power concedes nothing without a demand,” Stein said, quoting Frederick Douglass, “and we are that demand.”

Stein told the crowd that they stood for “economic justice, for racial justice, for workers justice, for climate justice, for indigenous justice, for women’s justice, for LGBTQ justice.”

“We will be a unified movement, an unstoppable movement,” she said, “because we are for all the forms of justice.” She criticized the mainstream for trying to divide and conquer the crowd. “They would like us to be a movement to stop fracking over there, and a movement to stop police violence over there, a movement to stop deportation over there,” Stein told the crowd. “We need to be all of those movements, all together, that’s how we’ll stop the unstoppable.”

…

Stein also called for an “emergency jobs program to end the crisis of climate change,” healthcare as a human right, a “welcoming path to citizenship,” and an end to police violence and student debt. (emphasis added)

-Jill Stein Addresses Disenchanted Sanders Supporters at Occupy DNC Rally

~~~

Long before the petty over-leveraged and unhinged jejune shtick of a life Trump received a majority popular vote during the primaries for saying nothing of import I left the Republican Party. I could see that the RNC was no longer a party for conservatives and certainly not for Christians. As a Christian who is politically a self-governing classical liberal, I cannot align myself with the Moral Relativism Platforms of either the DNC or the RNC.

This November I will vote down ticket. I will not vote for Trump or Hillary. I will vote down ticket for the Conservatives who are still left out there, any who are like Ted Cruz.   By all accounts Ted Cruz is a Conservative and one who will keep his word while seeking to honor God and our country’s Constitution. It was Cruz who stood before the RNC barbarians and told those who had ears to hear, “Vote your conscience.”

Sadly, the conscience of the many has become calcified due to persistent media inflammation and a lack of Living Water.

~~~

Christian Libertarianism

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What If He’s a Girl?

July 25, 2016 Leave a comment

Musicals, and especially the lyrics and melodies of certain songs, have, since my earliest childhood days, enriched my life with the harmony of playful idealization and “swooning” romanticism. I will post more on this later. For now, here is one incredible piece sung by America’s leading baritone.

From Oscar and Hammerstein’s Carousel, Act I – Soliloquy sung by Thomas Hampson as Billy Bigelow, a barker for a carousel (and his future child):

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It’s Not Easy Being CO2

July 17, 2016 Leave a comment

 

We learned this week that a truck driver, one who was so deeply affected by devastating climate change, drove a semi-trailer into a large crowd gathered in Nice France thereby demonstrating for all the world to see the efficacy of and need for climate alarmism. And while the truck driver was a humanity-challenged Muslim, it was the unstable climate in Nice France that had him so detached from reality.

The gods of egalitarianism will rejoice though.  There were equal outcomes for the eighty-four slaughtered by the climate change driven fanatic, a fanatic who, we are told by our “betters,” does not represent the religion that posits “Death to Infidels” as one of its core tenets. CO2 is the real killer here and it is an egalitarian killer!

Our “betters” have touted Scripture and “settled science” and scenarios of doom.  They tell us that the greatest threat to mankind is climate change.  After this past week, I guess they were right all along. What happened in Nice fits their CO2 narrative:

Making terrorism link, Obama says climate instability can lead to ‘dangerous’ ideology

Sanders doubles down: Climate change causes terrorism

If only we could gain control of our out-of-control climate. Then mankind wouldn’t be so unruly!

And here I thought climate forecasting is unreliable. Why just this morning the Weather Channel told me that there would be no rain in my area until later tonight. And lo and behold I look out my window and I see rain pouring down.  It is still raining as I write this. But, my “betters” must know something I don’t.  My eyes can deceive me. And my thoughts can be even worse than what my eyes perceive!  Under the effects of climate instability – OMG! – any type of thinking could lead to terrorism!

 

Hold on.  What’s this? Climate skepticism?

 

Let’s give CO2 its due:  CO2 Coalition

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Fundamental Metanoia Without Regret

July 10, 2016 Leave a comment

 

“…God’s way of sadness is designed to produce a repentance which leads to salvation.”  The Apostle Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, 7:10

 

One day after the Fourth of July, America’s day of Independence from arbitrary laws and rules we learn that FBI Director James Comey, after laying out the extensive criminals acts of one Hillary Clinton involving “classified emails”, decided to NOT recommend prosecution for such acts. Director Comey stated that no “reasonable prosecutor” would bring such a case because there was no bad intent on Hillary Clinton’s part (only reams of black and white evidence!)

Then we learned of a police (self-defense?) shooting in Louisiana and Minnesota.  Those who do not watch “The First 48” remain clueless or in denial about black violence and criminality.  Some will even pander to #BlackLivesMatter activists, i.e., Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton, who can also read minds and intents like FBI Director James Comey.

I live in Chicago surrounded by a liberal Democrat elite who believe that the intentions of the criminal element, the black criminal element are good, just misdirected. “If only we had more jobs and more education and less of the white “man’s” justice, is the cri de Progressivism coming out of the coalition of unicorns and rainbows spread across the “Welcoming” Welfare city of Chicago.”

As I reflected and grieved over the events of this past week – the breakdown of the rule of law and the anarchy and lawlessness becoming acute in America, several words came to me over and over: “fundamental transformation”, repentance and fasting.

We are reaping, on the streets and in the homes of out of work America, the almost eight years of the “fundamental transformation of America,” the agenda sown by our Muslim President Barack Obama, a disciple of “Rev.” Jeremiah Wright, and by Obama’s rubber stamp justice department led by AG Eric Holder and AG Loretta Lynch.  Under these locusts, blind justice has come to mean look the other way unless, of course, you are singled out as a “bitter clinger” of your Bible, guns and science. Then your intentions are considered no good.  Enough about the Iman Obama and his Progressive caliphate.

If you have studied Scripture and the historical Gospel account of Jesus Christ and the beginnings of his Kingdom on earth, then you have come across the word “repentance.” It is throughout the New Testament. It is an imperative directed at the will of an individual. “You” must decide which way to go.

Of course, there is a way that seems right to a man and to a protestor and to a populace of men. But…

“Go in by the narrow gate.  The gate that leads to destruction, you see, is nice and wide, and the road going there has plenty of room. Lot of people go that way.  But the gate leads to life is narrow, and the road going there is a tight squeeze.  Not many people will find their way through.” Jesus, Sermon on the Mount.

 

Recalling my study of Koine Greek from my days studying at Moody Bible institute, the word “repentance” is the Greek work μετάνοια (transliteration:  metanoia) defined as “repentance, a change of mind, change in the inner man.”

One could easily recall the word “repentance” being used in the book of Acts by the apostles when evangelizing.  Yet consider that Jesus taught a fundamental change of mind.  In the Sermon of the Mount Jesus started several teachings with “You heard that it was said to the ancient people…but I tell you…

…that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgement…”

…everyone who gazes at a woman in order to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

…don’t use violence to resist evil! Instead, when someone hits you on the right cheek, turn the other one towards him.”

…love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!  That way you will be children of your father in heaven.”

Here Jesus is speaking of the change required in one’s thinking to be a part of His Kingdom. Status quo “tit for tat” thinking was out.

Lastly, the word “fasting” permeated my thoughts this past week. And, yes, it is a personal call for me to fast.

Briefly, fasting is me throttling me getting my way.  I suppose it could be considered a self-inflicted “sadness” that leads to more repentance in my life.

Fasting is a change of the inner me which leads to a metanoia I won’t regret. The nation should try it.

And, BTW: only God can read the thoughts and intentions of hearts and minds. This thought alone should lead one to fasting.

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Murdered because #BlackLivesMatter to Allah

July 10, 2016 Leave a comment

dallas police officers

…

Roots…

The “Hate your white neighbor, love your black heart” religion:

“Jeremiah Wright declares that the God he worships is the same as Allah, the God of the Muslims. At the same time, Wright is preaching that the God of the “slaver” and “oppressor” (read white society collectively) is a “different” God. That is, implying that white America and the white race collectively worship Satan, which is a tenet of Black Liberation Theology.

It is a theology which confronts white society as the racist Antichrist, communicating to the oppressor that nothing will be spared in the fight for freedom.”, quoted from “Black Theology and Black Power” by James H. Cone (1969), page 135.

Black Liberation Theology teaches the genocidal Black Nationalist cult concept that white society, America and the traditional Christian church are all part of the Antichrist system and the black man is the “manifestation of God on earth.” The uniqueness of the divinity of Jesus is denied. Jesus is a prototype that any man can potentially achieve. A revolutionary black messiah or messiahs will led the destruction of the Antichrist and his tool, the American constitutional republican system, in their scenario of the imminent end times and create a Utopia on earth, the biblical millennial kingdom on earth, which will be a physical kingdom, not a spiritual kingdom. This could be seen as the same, then, as the Muslim Caliphate, the earthly kingdom that the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda seek to establish.” (emphasis added)

 

Muslim Brotherhood – Jeremiah Wright Declares that Yahweh is Allah

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When stars go out each night…

July 8, 2016 Leave a comment

#Dallas #PrayForAmerica

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By Dawn’s Early Light…

July 4, 2016 Leave a comment

Our Banner by Frederich Edwin Church

Our Banner by Frederich Edwin Church

 

 

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light…

The seismic change in constitutional order taking place in the world…

That the U.S. (and Britain) is changing from an industrial nation-state to a market state…

That the growth of the informational market state is due to

-a global system of communications,

-international trade and finance,

-international human rights laws,

-Borderless threats like AIDS and SARS and now Zika, of Islamic terrorism and even the intimidation of the non-existential threat of climate change by flat earth “settled science” Inquisitors,

-Existential threats posed by weapons of mass destruction easily obtained in the world market (see Obama’s Iran Policy)

That the decentralized market state appeals to individualism and local governance as opposed to centralized representative government and at the same time requires an allegiance to multiculturalism, UNism and One World ism to establish trade…

A growing disdain and rejection of the Ruling Class – the “Experts” – governance (see Brexit) …

That the current presumed nominees for POTUS are both unworthy of a vote…

That nation-states, whether the U.S. or in Europe cannot return to the past when exiting the present…

That the American Dream, fostered by hard work, thrift and hope for a prosperous future, will be now redefined by the Information Economy of the market state, requiring individuals to adapt or wither away…

That continuing income inequality in the world is due to one’s geography, to one’s resistance to the market state, to overbearing government regulations (see the EU) and, primarily, the nation-state’s mismanagement of its currency…

That middle class Americans cannot save because the FED has kept interest rates near zero, thereby blessing investors and the stock market with growing income gains, creating further income inequality.

That the human capacity to invent and innovate and thrive will never be diminished but will only be rechanneled from out under odious nation-state regulations into market state space.

That though Keynesian economists see aggregate demand as the motivator of the economy and therefore in need of stimulation (even though their premise is an unacknowledged tribute to envy and its propensity for the inflation of greed), human flourishing is, by nature, enterprising innovation coupled with drive and determination and, finally, consumption to stay alive and fight another day.

That Keynesian economists strong-arm with their economic policies when they bind human hands with government debt and the taxation they require to overcome their mistakes (a minimum wage is a form of sales tax meant to fix an unyielding Keynesian economy).

That a nation-state’s monetary policy has the ability to determine incentives and growth – human flourishing…

That social justice means coercive, as opposed to voluntary and Christ-like, redistribution of your personal property (including your identity) to create an “equal” ability to consume relevant to a populist index of envy…

That the jack boots from Long March of Cultural Marxism have crushed values underfoot…

That college professors raise the banners of Marxism, of communitarianism, of moral relativism in their class room and in their cocktail table books…

That anthropocentricity is all the rage; God is sidelined by the need for “diversity” …

That the perennial Epicurean desire for sensate pleasure and security from judgement and from a knowing conscience is the basis of currently renamed hedonism: “Progressivism.”  Progressivism gives license only to unbridled sexual desire and to nothing else. Oh, and to this…

That the “right” to abort a human being (who is not “human” until anthropocentricism deems him or her so) is now held as inalienable while the right to protect yourself is assailed with every new gun law…

…

That the Kingdom of God is very much in place…

That the number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America…

That the numbers of persecutions and martyrdoms of Christ followers will grow exponentially…

That a Christian’s allegiance is to the Kingdom of God no matter what state, nation or market, free or slave, he or she find themselves in? (I am fixed to the Rock of my Salvation.)

 

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light…

That Rider on a white horse?  Marantha.

 

 

 

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The Patriots

July 3, 2016 Leave a comment

Father and son, Cantigny Park, Fourth of July

Father and son, Cantigny Park, Fourth of July

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Turn, Come Round Right America

July 3, 2016 Leave a comment

 

…Simple Gifts

 

 

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