Mitt has a point here. I guess his domestic policy is where he really shines.
Really, it’s soooo tranquil here, except for the hate, the killings, the Nazis, the looting, (more…)
Weirdest? Sure, before January of 2017, this would have been weird beyond belief.
In those days, the only way a politician could earn the trust and respect of voters was to impress them with things like the speaker’s intelligence, honesty, compassion, and commitment to the well-being of all Americans. Now, 42% of voters have no interest in or understanding of anything but whatever object of hate is headlining the news. (more…)
Yes, Trump, with his dishonest and self-interested botching of the COVID-19 response, restaurants have been hurt very badly. But think of how few industries haven’t felt pain. I suppose delivery services, e-retailers, manufacturers of face masks and toilet paper have done well, but it’s really hard to think of many business sectors that haven’t suffered a terrible shot to the gut.
As you look at the words at left, can you imagine?
I can’t, though I can imagine Biden’s winning, thus putting an end to this attempt to convert the United States into an authoritarian regime. What America is likely to look like three months hence will likely be a lot like what it looked like before Trump took office. In fact, the most probable state of affairs is as follows: (more…)
There’s a lot to love about Poland. The land of Frederik Chopin, great vodka, awe-inspiring architecture, and a rich history of scientific breakthroughs that includes the work of Nicolas Copernicus and Marie Curie. (Pictured: Warsaw’s Belvedere Restaurant, IMO one of the world’s very best.) (more…)
From this article:
A federal judge dismisses the defamation case against Tucker Carlson, concluding that he is not a provider of “the news” as we know it, or “facts” as we commonly understand them, and his audience knows this. (more…)
There really have been some terrific improvements in toilets recently, as the world comes to terms with the finite nature of the planet’s resources, potable water in particular.
Here’s a product that 2GreenEnergy super-supporter Gary Tulie is representing in the UK. It uses compressed air to complete a flush using just 1.5 liters of water (compared with 8 liters in conventional toilets).
Called “Propelair,” it seals while flushing, reducing the spread of germs as well. Impressive stuff.
Further conversation:
Gary: The toilets need the following 1. A standard plumbing connection to a foul drain. 2. An electrical connection 230V on a fused spur feeding 24V power supplies for compressors (below 1 bar) toilet pressurises to 1.2 PSI during flushing. 3. The foul drain needs a vent pipe / soil stack so that air pushed into the foul pipe can escape rather than causing back pressure in the pipe – don’t want anything coming up through shower drains or the like!
Here’s a bit of further conversation on Trump’s top-list candidate to replace Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Amy Coney Barrett. It’s based on my post: Shall Christianity Be Enshrined as the U.S. State Religion? In it, I reacted with some level of concern about her saying: “(A) legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is building the Kingdom of God.”
Is rebuilding the United States as a Kingdom of God a good, or even legitimate idea?
Lot of truth in the meme here, and it forms the basis for my belief that the polls are going to hold truer to reality this year than they did in 2016. Voters on both sides are fierce.
In a post from yesterday, Shall Christianity Be Enshrined as the U.S. State Religion?, I pointed out that Trump’s top-list candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett, is living a life dedicated to transforming the United States into a “Kingdom of God.” I base that not on some unsupported inference, but on something she said, i.e., “(A) legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is building the Kingdom of God.”
I went on to explain why I believe this to be dangerous in the extreme, i.e., that we live in a constitutionally guided federal republic that is extremely clear about the separation of church and state. It’s probably the single most important precept that informs our law-making and our society at large.
Here’s a subsequent conversation with a reader who commented:
Reader: It’s my impression that our country was founded on Christian principles. I hope you are not suggesting that all references to God be abolished in federal business. If so I think you have many many people who would disagree.
Craig: Let me begin by saying that your impression is incorrect. From this document:
The U.S. Constitution is a wholly secular document. It contains no mention of Christianity or Jesus Christ. In fact, the Constitution refers to religion only twice in the First Amendment, which bars laws “respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and in Article VI, which prohibits “religious tests” for public office. Both of these provisions are evidence that the country was not founded as officially Christian.
The Founding Fathers did not create a secular government because they were well aware of the dangers of church-state union. They had studied and even seen first-hand the difficulties that church-state partnerships spawned in Europe. During the American colonial period, alliances between religion and government produced oppression and tyranny on our own shores.
Respect for religious pluralism gradually became the norm. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, for example, he spoke of “unalienable rights endowed by our Creator.” He used generic religious language that all religious groups of the day would respond to, not narrowly Christian language traditionally employed by nations with state churches.
…. Washington’s administration negotiated a treaty with the Muslim rulers of north Africa that stated explicitly that the United States was not founded on Christianity. The pact, known as the Treaty with Tripoli, was approved unanimously by the Senate in 1797, under the administration of John Adams. Article 11 of the treaty states, “[T]he government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion….”
I would also argue that there is a difference between being committed to a faith, and working to refashion this country according to that faith, i.e., theocracy.
This, btw, is the principal difference between the Western and Middle Eastern world. In the 18th Century Europe and the United States went through the Age of Reason, aka the Enlightenment, under the influence of John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith and Jean Jacquez Rousseau. The key result here was that religion was separated from government, setting the stage for the French Revolution, the U.S. Constitution, and the positioning of science above superstition, which led to later progress in the form of women’s suffrage, civil rights, etc. The Islamic world had no such event, and that’s the basis on which women in Iran are flogged for attending birthday parties without authorization, and punishments including amputation and blinding are commonplace.
