History as Cynicism

June 28, 2011 Leave a comment

Imagine a popular American history book that never mentions Christianity or conservatism. Pull the lever and out comes the pellet –  Howard Zinn’s  A People’s History of the United States, 1492-Present.

Here is a passage from Michael Kazin’s article in Dissent Magazine, talking about this cynically myopic book:

“(Howard Zinn’s) failure is grounded in a premise better suited to a conspiracy-monger’s Web site than to a work of scholarship. According to Zinn, “99 percent” of Americans share a “commonality” that is profoundly at odds with the interests of their rulers. And knowledge of that awesome fact is “exactly what the governments of the United States, and the wealthy elite allied to them-from the Founding Fathers to now-have tried their best to prevent.”

History for Zinn is thus a painful narrative about ordinary folks who keep struggling to achieve equality, democracy, and a tolerant society, yet somehow are always defeated by a tiny band of rulers whose wiles match their greed. He describes the American Revolution as a clever device to defeat “potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership.” His Civil War was another elaborate confidence game. Soldiers who fought to preserve the Union got duped by “an aura of moral crusade” against slavery that “worked effectively to dim class resentments against the rich and powerful, and turn much of the anger against ‘the enemy.'”

Nothing of consequence, in his view, changed during the industrial era, notwithstanding the growth of cities, railroads, and mass communications. Zinn views the tens of millions of Europeans and Asians who crossed oceans at the turn of the past century as little more than a mass of surplus labor. He details their miserable jobs in factories and mines and their desperate, often violent strikes at the end of the nineteenth century-most of which failed. The doleful narrative makes one wonder why anyone but the wealthy came to the United States at all and, after working for a spell, why anyone wished to stay.”

Filed under History, Politics, Progressivism Tagged with , , , , , ,

“…and yet…”

June 26, 2011 Leave a comment

Click this link for a 2008 essay written by David Mamet for the Village Voice>> Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’

Filed under Conservatism, Politics Tagged with , , , , , , ,

Five-O’Clock World

June 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Listen:
Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft (WLS890 AM, weekends) talk with author David Mamet about his new book, “The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture”

Filed under 2012 election, Culture, Politics Tagged with , , , , , ,

Helter Skelter Democracy

June 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Our country is rapidly becoming a place where each person’s life will be dictated by “Democracy” and not by moral objective Truth and righteousness. A majority of voters (many informed only by a salacious media and junk journalism) will tell you how to live, what’s right and wrong and what’s politically correct.  In other words, a democracy built on sand.

On any given day we are quickly told that fairness should rule the day and that fairness trumps everything. Fairness is the anointing oil used by the social justice market-eers. Yet, fairness is not justice and a majority vote is not fairness. And most important of all, fairness is often a compromise of the Truth.  You should know that Jesus, Truth Incarnate, never talked about fairness or wealth redistribution.  But, his disciple Judas did while pocketing some of the donated money for himself. For Judas, it was only fair. Right?

Fairness as a determiner for social justice quickly leads to a demand for equal outcomes. Who decides what is fair? Who pays for equal outcomes? Remember the wise King Solomon ready to slice a baby in two so that each claimant would receive equal outcomes? A fair decision? Yes. A wise decision? No.

As I see it, the more our “Democratic” system of government supplants individual liberties and moral convictions with fairness forcing its will upon us, the more we stand to lose as individuals. Take a hard look at the seemingly benign entitlement like Obamacare. Soon, we will all become a DMV number on a waiting list waiting for the health care that is prescribed (and voted on) by a majority of amoral people.  Having a health insurance card and having access to health care are two very different things.  Wait and see. Obamacare is a hospital of cards.

Or, see how our government is redefining life as we know it. The sanctity of a man-woman marriage is being mocked by the State’s allowance for gay marriage. We are being told that this is only fair. Is it fair to those in a natural marriage ? I refer you to the second paragraph.

And, the State is the using (and defining) ‘quality of a life’ criteria so that abortions can take place. Is abortion fair to the aborted child? We are lost and we’ve lost a sense of right and wrong, a sense of our true selves. A sense of entitlement (our rights) blurs our vision. We seek to create a sense of self based on what is deemed fair and expedient at the moment and not on Rock solid principles of Truth.

As an outcome, in order to survive our character and our moral foundations will be exchanged for a black market ethos. We will sell, buy and trade ourselves to maintain our selves. We are becoming the animals/machines (the Eloi and Morlocks of H. G. Well’s Time Machine) that proponents of naturalism want us to believe that we are. And, if you are a Naturalist and believe that unabated atheism makes you intellectually fulfilled, then take a look at where you are heading. It’s not up the ladder.

If the whims of fairness are the only deciding principles in any situation, what choices do you really have? Only those who are in power will decide what is fair. Soon, you won’t have the liberty to decide. You will have traded it for a bucket of sand labeled fairness.

You will then have to abdicate your beliefs and convictions to be accepted in the ‘fair’ society as politically correct.  Truth, no longer objective, will become what our ‘friends’ let us get away with saying (the philosophy of Richard Rorty).

Finally, a Democracy with moral turpitude won’t get my vote. There’s already a drainage sewer called Europe.

There can be no true enduring Democracy in our land without Objective Truth as the Head Cornerstone and a foundation which is built on the Solid Rock.

******
On another but similar note:

The courageous “Don’t Tread On Me” is becoming the whiny “It’s Not Fair”; Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, is quickly becoming the Land of Lottery.

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Vivian Maier – Street Photographer

June 25, 2011 2 Comments


You have to check out this extraordinary street photographer Vivian Maier
– a nanny with a Rolflex camera.

Filed under Art, Photographers I Like, photographs Tagged with , ,

Rotation

June 24, 2011 Leave a comment

It’s early Friday morning and my two feet are now shuffling along on the circumference of the earth moving at a tortoise’s pace even though I am told that my land speed is actually the product of the cosine of my latitude times the earth’s equator’s circumference speed of just over 1000 MPH – not as fast as High Speed Internet but faster than the speed of sound. And speaking of sound, I woke up early and shut off the alarm clock before its due diligence was required.  Hiding under the covers I was moving less than a centimeter an hour but thinking about work. OK, I had to get up.

After the morning ritual of making coffee, feeding Henry my Parrolet, feeding myself, showering and listening to the weather lottery numbers I head to the train. (If the train heads east at 40 MPH and the earth is rotating east at 1000 MPH will my accumulated speed be 1040 MPH and why are the trains always late?)

I stand behind the yellow line waiting for the train. Today the commuters are standing waiting at the south side track.  The train traffic lights indicate this but there has been no announcement. Headlights appear around the bend.  Everyone around me starts running around the gate to the north track.  I stay put with this super good looking guy who is not married and standing right next to me.

I tell him that it looks like the train is on the south tracks.  He says, “Yeah it is.”  Then someone yells “There’s a freight coming”. We run and catch up with the others and we meet up on the other side. The freight finally passes and the guy says, “Watch, the train will probably come on the south track.”  I say, “Yeah, right”, wanting to agree with anything he said.  At this point I didn’t care which track the train came on. I just wanted to stand waiting with him thinking that if he and I were polar opposites we would be virtually standing still, moving only centimeters an hour, very slowly, taking our time…

I had this all the physics worked out but then the train arrived.  We boarded the train and I walk to my seat in the front car and mystery man heads off to his usual seat in the next car. (Love and Schrödinger’s cat:  dead or alive?).  We reach the train station and I start walking the six blocks to my office.

It’s chilly this morning.  I’m glad I wore a jacket. This summer’s been in the cooler but at least today the wind off the lake is giving me a break. Good. I won’t have a ratted hair style by the time I get to work.

Then I see them – red and tan men in white tee shirts and blue jeans walking with red and white lunch buckets, pulling red hand-trucks loaded with tool boxes.  We pass each other on the sidewalk with knowing glances:  me – the good ones aren’t gay; them – she’s no teenage dream.

I walk past Polish cleaning women holding cigarettes at clichéd angles and large peg-legged women getting out of taxis.  Homeless men say ‘Good morning.”  They offer me StreetWise and the SunTimes.  I say, “Good morning” and smile. I always buy the SunTimes from the guy outside the Corner Bakery who says “Good Morning, Lovely” every time when I walk up.

Along the way there are whiffs of sewer gas mixed with the aroma of fresh baked bread and the homey smell of the daily brew. I see young girls behind counters busy filling cupcake display cases. I see lettuce being chopped, bacon being crisped, deliveries being made and bums waking up. I finally get to work.

At noon I will go to the Taste of Chicago with my friend Deon.  I’ll find the Billy Goat’s Tavern booth and order my usual: “Cheezborger with no fries, cheeps! No Pepsi, Coke!”  She’ll order her usual: cheesecake with Caramel Pecan sauce.   We’ll come back to work smoky, smelling like Robinson’s No. 1 barbeque rib pit. I’ll be sleepy, too.

But tonight is Friday Night and in my head the dance mix is just revving up.  Later, its rhythm will move to my feet and I’ll be moving and dancing with a speed that is the product of the cosine of my latitude times the earth’s equator’s circumference speed of just over 1000 MPH.  Rocket girl.

They also say… love makes the world go ‘round.

I’ll let you know.

 

Filed under Life As I See It Tagged with ,

Father’s Day Under Wraps

June 20, 2011 Leave a comment

Sunday morning: My lunch plans with my two youngest, R18 and R14, changed to breakfast plans. My daughter’s new place of employment asked her to work from noon to five.

I am happy for my daughter. She has just graduated from high school and has now landed a job in a matter of days – a job which pays $10.00 an hour in a workplace surrounded by cool knickknacks and fun art objects. It is one of her favorite stores.  R18 is a graphic artist (designed her senior year high school yearbook cover) and she may soon get an internship with a local graphics arts company. She wants to learn the business side of things, she told me. She’s just like her dad.

I made breakfast for my two youngest: pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon. R14, my youngest son, doesn’t do well in the morning. He’s slow to come around but he did find the orange pop hiding in the fridge. I wanted him to drink the orange juice that I bought for our breakfast but then I conceded, as fathers do when confronted by the magnanimity of Father’s day.

At breakfast, R18 & R14 gave me a $50.00 gift card to Barnes & Noble. This was totally unexpected: my kids get money from me. R18‘s first paycheck must have covered the cost. I was completely wowed by such generosity. I didn’t cry till later, another father’s day concession.

I told my kids that I had been coveting a book at B & N: David McCullough’s The Greater Journey, Americans in Paris. The book was priced at $37.98 less 30%. The reduced price was still too much for me to pay during this Obamic depression so I kept saying No, hoping the price would descend to a pauper’s price. The gift card covered the reduced cost of McCullough’s book plus Mario Livio’s The Golden Ratio and Mario Vargas Llosa’s Death in the Andes. The unexpected gift told me that I was loved.

On Sunday afternoon I purchased these books. The day before, Saturday, I had been at B & N browsing as I always do after a weekend breakfast. I ended up purchasing an inexpensive CD: Joe Cocker: Icon. I brought the CD to the counter to pay for it and the short grey-haired woman behind the counter said that she had just purchased Mad Dogs and Englishmen. I said, Lot of memories there. She said, Yeah that’s why I bought it. Our smiles said the rest.

After B & N I went to a local Mexican restaurant, a new place founded by a chef who had worked with Rick Bayless. The restaurant is only three blocks from my place so I figured margaritas could have their way with me (while I stimulated the economy). I ordered a Mora-rita and Blue Marlin Ceviche. Authentic Mexican food is great. I am not crazy about Tex-Mex.

After finishing another Mora-rita I felt pleasantly pacified so I took my order of De Panza tacos home and situated myself in front of the TV. I had hoped there would be something of value on the tube. As it turned out Life With Father was on TCM and Steven King’s (Rita Hayworth and the) Shawshank Redemption was on another channel.

Feet went up, food went down. I settled into the end of Father’s Day 2011 believing that love and redemption go a long way, from one year to the next.

Filed under Life As I See It, short piece Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Dad

June 18, 2011 Leave a comment

Dad,
Masquerading man –
Provider, Decider, Chronicler,
Motivator and Love’s unlikely dance Partner,
A mischievous Mirth-er who’s my mother’s lover
(Confused by Eve but not alone),
A baseball phenom:
Always at bat for me;
Always fielding my bloopers;
Always never keeping score,
A figurine in flannel wearing
Camouflaged feelings in the blind
Savior of children’s happiness with
Strength born of recycled weakness –
Dad,
A Giver given.

© Sally Paradise, 2011, All Rights Reserved

Filed under family, Father's Day, Holiday, Poems, Poetry, poetry Tagged with , , , , , , ,

One Very Good Reason Why I Like Texas Gov. Rick Perry

June 12, 2011 Leave a comment

BTW: The separation of church and state effectively means that the state cannot control the church. Separation of church and state does not mean that we the people cannot voice our faith in Almighty God while serving our government. The wrong definition came directly from Bill Ayers, a known radical terrorist.

***You have to listen to these guys:  Bruce Wolf and Dan Proft. They are a riot. Tell them Sally Paradise sent you.
http://wlsam.com/sectional.asp?id=37837

Filed under Christian character, Christianity, Politics Tagged with , , , , , , ,

The Psuedo-Rainbow’s Bully Pulpit

June 12, 2011 Leave a comment

As I have posted before, those with a homosexual life style addiction will often project their own feelings onto others. They will say that people are bullies with regard to their homosexual feelings while the exact opposite is true: The homosexual activist is ever the bully.

Recently I talked with two different people on two different occasions. In each case the other person turned the discussion to political matters. And, in each case I knew the person to be a Democrat. Each person stated unequivocally that they were fiscal conservatives but…they “could not understand why people would hate someone else.” Such is the spin, the projection, that homosexual ‘terrorists’ have put on to people who disagree with their homosexual lifestyle – they are called haters. Sadly, even religious groups like the Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Lutherans are buying into this propaganda for the sake of looking tolerant and accepting. I would guess , too, that these denominations need the financial support. Holiness is what they should be going after.

The homosexual turns to calling what he does a “right” to ensure that this particular kind of madness lies with in the purview of Democracy. For them, morality, the arbiter of a Democracy, is another thing all together. For the homosexual morality is not to be taken seriously.  Morality becomes “intolerance” in their milieu of permissiveness.

The supreme irony is that homosexual can readily judge, denounce and bully another person who disagrees with the lifestyle the homosexual embraces but the homosexual will never embrace the other person. This is because the other person embodies the truth – the light – that the homosexual does not want to be near. The homosexual will hide behind the taffeta skirts of political correctness language – the one-sided lingo of intolerance.

Homophobia: The homosexual’s fear of facing the truth about his lifestyle; the fear of an examined life.

Homo-lifers will bully you and be in your face until you throw up your hands and you say “OK”. They will not stop until you surrender on their terms. Blood-bank on it.

The bullies in black robes dept (click here>):  Did Judge’s Sexual Orientation Affect Ruling?

Filed under GLBT, Homosexuality, LGBT Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

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