Mutual Respect for Each Other's Custom

A local rajah in India complained that then British Commander-in-Chief for India, Sir Charles Napier, had no right to interfere with their custom of burning widows alive as part of the funeral ritual for their late husbands,  He insisted that the British cease to interfere with widow burnings. Napier replied with classic British understatement.

• "Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs." - Sir Charles Napier

I like that whole idea of mutual respect for each others' customs.

© 2018 by Tom King

According to Socialists, the Collapse of Venezuela is Capitalism's Fault

A Venezuelan socialist goes grocery shopping with cash....
...and leftists are trying to tell us that's capitalism's fault.

The left really does some convoluted reasoning to defend their ideology. In this article, a young progressive tries to figure out how to say America is worse off than if we'd just go ahead and turn major sectors of the economy over to socialism.  It's truly laughable that he cites healthcare as a prime example.  Premiums for health care were shrinking prior to the ACA reforms by 4.6%, and went UP 46% in the four years after. Since 2013, premiums have jumped another 60% from the inflated prices of the the first four years of Obamacare.

I know socialism sounds like such a great idea, but it has such a giant flawed principal behind it that it never works. People aren't basically good. Nor can people be perfected from without. No combination of law or systemic organization or central planning can make people better. There is no record of a successful human created utopia in all of history. No collectivist worker’s paradises exist. The United States’ founders’ scheme of individualism, personal responsibility, limited government, local authority, free market capitalism and personal property has managed to survive 267 years of human frailty, largely because as a Christian nation, we’ve striven for personal goodness rather than collective good. If you make the people better, the government tends to be better. It never works the other way round. You can’t legislate goodness. It just never works. Even God couldn’t do it. That’s the lesson of the Old Testament. You have to start with cleaning yourself up with the help of God. When He puts a new clean heart in you, the rest takes care of itself.

When I see collectivist progressives gather around the altar of government and swear something like, “All that the collective says, we will do,” I am reminded of the Israelites gathered around Mt. Sinai when they altered the deal God was offering.  Instead they told God, “All Thou hast said, we will do.” There was no recognition  then that the law had no power to cleanse them of their sin — only to reveal it. God offered repeatedly to change their hearts, to dwell in them and make them better people, but the Israelites kept coming back with, “That’s alright, God. We’ll do it ourselves. When that didn't work they decided they needed more human effort.  "Only give us a king," they said. "We think a stronger central government is needed.” And four books of the Bible are devoted to explaining what a bad idea that was.

Satan’s old lie goes on — “Thou shalt be like gods.”

No you won't. You’ll only be a better grade of devil.

Tom King

A Working Solution to Illegal Immigration

Colonia living - the reality of unchecked illegal immigration.

I wrote a blog a week or so ago about how Jesus' version of the Golden Rule was more pro-active than any of the earlier versions.  Suddenly, I was getting comments about how I couldn't be in favor of the Golden rule if I didn't criticize Donald Trump for "ripping children from their loving parents" over the illegal immigration thing. 

So how in the world did this get to be about immigration? If they're challenging my view of the Golden Rule, I've been absolutely consistent about that. I have repeatedly stated my position on the immigration issue. And I have expressed my disgust with our leaders and their policy of putting kids in detention facilities behind chain link fences and bars, I actually worked with groups that sought to create safe places for kids separated from incarcerated parents. We wrote grants and created plans for how to handle children when their parents are arrested. 

I might ask my critics, what have they done about the situation?  I actually have long ago expressed my concern about the situation with undocumented children.............way back in 2014 under the previous administration!  It's a shame that we had to get ourselves a TV celebrity president in order to get anything done to correct the problem. My previous comments were likely unsatisfying to my leftist friends. If you guys don't recall my speaking out on the subject, you haven't read much of my stuff. I can appreciate it that I didn't trash the President as my leftist buds wished me to do. I find that even presidents can't wave magic wands to instantly cure every ill of the nation. I do NOT want to have a president who can do that anyway. Too much scope for misuse of power by such a "Dear Leader".  

Compassion of the sort Jesus asks, takes a lot more than the right sort of political rhetoric and unearned moral superiority. It takes time and effort right where you live. I've helped feed the hungry, house the homeless, heal broken spirits of abused and mentally ill children, provide resources for disabled people to live independently, teach children with learning disabilities, care for seniors with age-related disabilities and provide transportation resources for transportation-challenged seniors and low-income families and individuals.  Did that for four decades so far. I don't remember Jesus saying that making rude remarks about any non-progressive/Democrat that gets elected President of the United States was one of His commandments. I think he did the right thing closing off undocumented immigration. It strangles the wage-slavery racket and THAT is a good thing

So, why not go after the farmers and Tyson Chicken and other employers who hire them for cheap wages? Why not correct the Social Security, Drivers License, and other such vetting systems that are already in place in order to better detect forged ID’s? Why not remove the ability to make money if they aren’t in the proper status? Ants don’t come in droves unless you leave the sugar bowl out and open. That is something Trump has been touting since the campaign trail. He knew of this caravan a month before they arrived. What did Trump or Sessions do to fix the systems currently in place....nothing much yet. But if you pay attention, you know that changing government policy and practice moves at a glacial pace so the slowness of change should not be terribly surprising! 

So far, Republicans have talked a lot about border security, but so far not much has been done by the right, except tout a fuzzy idea that Mexico is gonna pay for their wall.  I am disappointed in them for their continued waffling on that. One liberal friend tried to accuse Republicans of being behind the exploitation of illegals, despite their having consistently been in favor of tougher illegal immigration enforcement. Another asked, "Why do you suppose Allis Chalmers or John Deer haven't come out with some kind of celery or strawberry combine by now?" hinting that evil Republicans were suppressing this technology. Baloney! The only reasons a machine pushed around by a tractor can't pick delicate vegetables is because it's not yet cost effective (too much waste of the crop) and the technology for that kind of picking just isn't there yet. We still need human pickers. We just ought to pay them what they are worth for doing it is all I'm saying. 

And the "What would Jesus do?" argument doesn't hold. Christ would definitely NOT continue a policy that results in Hispanic laborers living in squalor and fear and THAT is exactly what "catch and release" policies of the past have done.  We need to close the border hard. Then, and only then we can deal with whatever needs to be done about undocumented workers and refugees so that they are documented and need not live in fear and subjugation on company plantations.  

Okay, NOW YOU TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS ON THE LEFT WOULD DO ABOUT THAT. The president has already addressed the family separation issue. How about closing the border and a decent guest worker program for farm laborers and such. The companies and farmers that need such workers should have to sponsor their guest workers. After all they are the ones making all those vile profits off of undocumented workers. Of course, supporting such a system would likely cost a whole bunch of politicians a whole bunch of campaign funds from those businesses that profit off the illegal immigration status quo.

Now I will close by kindly asking my leftist buddies to stop telling me I never offer any solutions to the problem.  Note:  This is a solution.

Just sayin'

© 2018 by Tom King