Category: Politics Page 1 of 5

Kelly got me this book for Christmas. I have read up to page 119 so far. I like it. At the same time, the book features what seem to be unsupported assertions that might not have stood the test of time. Maybe they are valid assertions, but we cannot know that from what was written as far as I can tell. The cited McCarthy example is a case in point. I would venture to guess that most are in agreement with the assertion, but I know that it is an ongoing discussion. It is irritating because I think I am learning a lot from the book, but I cannot be exactly sure because of these unsupported viewpoints. Browsing the citations in the end notes for the chapters did not mitigate my uneasiness.

McCarthy threatened the entire edifice of anticommunism by associating it with crackpot theories and embarrassing theatrics.

Continetti, M. (2022). The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism. Basic Books. Page 110

Maybe I should not have started this post with a diatribe on my reservations about this book because I am enjoying it immensely. It was a spectacular gift. At the same time, an analysis of conservatism associated with both the New York Times, National Review, and Bill Kristol with the bulk of the author’s life lived in the Northeast with twenty years in Washington, D.C. gives me great pause. It reinforces my decision to not characterize myself as conservative nor of the right, but as a follower of Jesus. It is hard for me to imagine that someone of this pedigree has any real sense of what people think in fly-over country which makes up the vast bulk of those who make up “the right.”

That the author is characterized as an intellectual in this podcast, also gives me pause.

I deleted my twitter account today. The next step is to start moving from gmail and outlook email to ProtonMail.com. They are untrustworthy. After that, I will be leaving instagram. I have been using duckduckgo for search but have recently switch to swisscows. Same for WhatsApp and Hangouts–I have mostly made the stitch to Signal. The funny deal is that all the new ones actually work better for me than the ones they replaced.

I was a little discouraged watching the election returns last night, but then I read these verses and got some perspective.

Luke 17:20-21 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

It reminded me of when I first heard the saying, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” My sister, Aunt Julia, told us that when some kids were acting up. Precisely right. In the end, the election was not all bad from my perspective, but this is definitively not my kingdom and not my king. Still, render to Caesar…

Kelly voted today and had some nice and interesting things to be about it. Here is what she had to say:

Dad texted me today to inform me that Susan B. Anthony was the first woman in the US to cast a vote (this is a lie, it was someone else) which I thought was VERY inspirational and anyway I looked it up and even if she wasn’t the very first, she definitely got arrested for voting illegally in 1872 and if *that* story (on top of modern events if you’re a well adjusted & morally sensitive person unlike myself!) doesn’t stir up the flames of righteous feminine patriotism within your heart I don’t know what will! What a country we live in that even my contemptible, procrastinating tush is allowed to fill out a ballot online, print it, and drop it off in the ballot box up until 8pm on election day! Apathy is for spineless chumps and I know my Rosie the Riveter kitchen plaque would say the same!! Get out there & vote your conscience!.
.
.
(this is a picture i took of myself when i felt cute but also had to hide from employees in an anthropologie downtown bc i was using a hidden outlet to charge my phone at 2%, which is as good of a depiction of my political life as any I think).

Enough said. Vote pro-life.

My cousin, Trisha, attended the Donald Trump rally in Elko, Nevada yesterday. She lives only a mile from the venue. She said it was amazing about every school bus and piece of heavy equipment in the county was used as crowd control and security barriers. The crowd was huge and 6000-7000 people were turned away because they ran out of room. It sounds like it was very high energy and consisted of the standard stump speech kind of stuff. What was the best was the Trump did not use a teleprompter. Everything he said was from him. He might not be the most polished orator, but much better than the previous occupant of his office who read in monotone from a script in front of him.

The whole valley behind the house is obscured by smoke from forest fires. It is kind of crazy how often this happens and it is because logging does not occur as it did when I was growing up in Oregon. Because of that the snags and underbrush do not get cleaned up and thinning does not occur so there is just massive amounts of fuel ripe for these big fires. This is our second summer in this house and it happened last year, too. We hope someone comes to their senses and the forests get opened up again so this does not happen so much in the future. It would be good for the economy, too.