Still the "Greatest" Generation

There's been some second-guessing out there among the blogs on this Memorial Day with regard to whether or not we should have bestowed the title "The Greatest Generation" on our WWII veterans and the Americans who grew up during the pre-boomer age. Predictably this is, in large part, coming from the left side of the aisle, or as I prefer to call them, "The Sameness Coalition."  Apparently, our fathers weren't so great or they would have spent more time in therapy after they came back from the war.


"God bless 'em," as our grandmothers used to say before they criticized someone's actions or opinions. The precious snowflake generation learned their craft at the feet of second generation spoiled children of the Greatest Generation. In an effort to rub out the horror and privation of war, the Greatest Generation sought to shield their own children from the ugliness of war. They were, in a couple of words - over-protective and it shows. Their grandchildren are a gang of precious snowflakes who need safe spaces and regular counseling just to deal with the horrors of not always getting their way. 

It's hard to blame our parents for that. War is, as they say, hell and who wants your children to experience the trials the you went through. Their instinct was to protect us from all that. Leftist academics made it worse by telling us not to "stifle" our children's creativity, though Dr. Spock, not the Vulcan one, himself once expressed regret that parents may have taken him too literally after a group of protestors trashed his campus office. Our parents eagerly overprotected their kids on the advice of counsel. They'd seen the worst that man could do. Who wants their children to see that.

In our grandparents' day, one simply did not come home from the war and dump a lot of horrific stuff you experienced in battle on your loved ones. It was thought to be a parent's and especially a father's duty to stand between home and the ravening wolves that circled menacingly out in the darkness. So they took up their posts as human shields as they believed was their duty.

These were tough men and they handled their "angst" the way that American men do (or at least did). They didn't want to dump a bunch of emotional rubbish on their families. Some repressed, which is not good, but many simply handled it alone or with trusted friends. I knew an Air Force colonel who used to land C-47 on jungle strips during the Vietnam war. He said it sounded like a popcorn popper inside the plane with all the small arms fire striking the plane as they came in. He had never told his family about it. He did tell us at the day hab program he went to after his stroke. All we did was let the guys talk and talk they did. We were safe to talk to. We heard some incredible stories and many times these stories had never been heard by the children and families of these brave men.

To lessen the value of their courage simply because they didn't run home after the war looking for safe spaces and counseling is shameful, but that seems to be the direction this argument is taking us. Our fathers weren't great because they didn't express their emotions and visit therapists?  What a flying load of horse manure!
The "Greatest Generation" is not a misnomer. These guys did a hard and ugly job because they had to. They did it without self-pity and whining. They bore the burden of it with dignity.All of them believed that was how it was supposed to be done. They protected their families not only from the enemy but from the horrors of war even after the war was over and done.

I honor them for that.

© 2017 by Tom King

BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW: Irene Morgan Paved the Way for Rosa Parks

Bet You Didn't Know This:

By Source, Fair use,
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31871975

In 1944, A twenty-seven year old Seventh-Day Adventist black woman, Irene Morgan, made the gutsy decision to refuse to leave the "white" section of an Interstate bus and was arrested in Virginia under state segregation laws eleven years before Rosa Parks' famous refusal to give up her seat on an Alabama local bus. She was a little more spirited than Rosa however. She kicked the Sheriff in the groin when he tried to arrest her!

She landed two highly skilled lawyers on her defense team, one of whom was no less than future Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall. Irene won her case before the Supreme Court. In 1946 in a landmark decision, the Court ruled that the Virginia law was unconstitutional, as the Commerce clause protected interstate traffic. 

Irene's stubborn singular defense of her rights strengthened the WWII era U.S. anti-discrimination law prohibiting segregation on all interstate transportation and influenced public opinion against Southern racist segregation laws. Unlike Rosa, whose protest was part of a planned challenge of the segregation laws, Irene simply stood up for herself all on her own. With Irene, the NAACP was running along behind her shouting, "Wait for me I'm your leader!"

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irene_Morgan
2. "Morgan v. Virginia (1946)". www.encyclopediavirginia.org. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
3. Lamb, Yvonne S. "Irene M. Kirkaldy; Case Spurred Freedom Rides," The Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2007: n. pag. Print. 
4. "Morgan v. Commonwealth (June 6, 1945)". www.encyclopediavirginia.org. Retrieved 2015-11-04.

 © 2017 by Tom King

Taking Prophecy Seriously

 

Saw an article today warning Christians not to take Bible Prophecy too seriously lest we stop trying to fix the problems we have in this world. The writer worries we'll just all sit on our duffs and wait for Jesus to come and let the world go to hell in a handbasket.

I sharply disagree with the author on this one. While we're convinced the world IS going to hell in a handbasket and very soon, that only makes us work that much harder to do good in the world.

For instance, my own church, which includes the Second Coming in its very name, at the same time has the second largest parochial school system in the world, one of the largest mission programs of any church, and a first rate hospital system and medical university. We were the fastest growing denomination last year and are growing faster out in the third world than we are in the States. 

Seems to me that people who believe Jesus is coming are busily trying to make the world a better place AND they aren't just sitting around talking about how we should take rich people's money, give it to the government and hope they'll do a good job taking care of the poor (the never do).

Those who believe Jesus is coming soon are the very ones showing up at disasters, digging wells for third world villages, teaching nurses, doctors and teachers, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, healing the sick, clothing the naked and lifting up the lost and downtrodden, and even more so as we see the end approaching.

So "NO!" Let's by all means take the Bible prophecy seriously. It means we only have a short time to save as many souls as we possibly can before He gets here and we personally do the work. The closer it gets, the harder we will work. That may not be how it's done in "higher" social churches or among progressive socialists, but it's how God's children do it.

by Tom King

That Awkward Moment......

Ariana Grande discovered that loudly proclaiming "I hate America," doesn't protect you from people who really do hate America. Sadly for the left, appeasement is truly like feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last only to discover that he tends to bite off the hand that feeds him.

© 2017 by Tom King

DNC Proposes New Cheese Labeling Standards

Proposed New Labels to Prevent Cheesy Micro-Aggressions*

Washington, DC, May 13: Democrat minority leader Nancy Pelosi proposed a House bill today that would address micro-aggressive labeling by American cheese-makers. The specific type of cheese targeted bears the label "White American Cheese Slices".  Under the new law, this product would be labeled "International Cheese with Pigmentation Impairment."  This new labeling would address the America-centric micro-aggressions that non-Americans might experience as well as the Caucasian-specific racial overtones engendered by the product label. LGBTQ Advocates have also requested a rider removing the term "Singles" due to the hetero-sexual micro-aggressions engendered by the sexist term "single" which implies a difference between unmarried and married persons, especially between hetero-normal individuals and non-traditional gender embracing persons. The LGBTQ Alliance further seeks a ban on the term hetero-normal, though for the life of them, they couldn't think of another word to use for straight people (other than "straight" which is also a micro-aggression to gender creative individuals.

Former speaker Pelosi further proposed a ban on the term "Pigs in a blanket" when referring to a popular U.S breakfast food. The DNC has petitioned the food and drug administration and the Federal Communications Commission to purge all such references from Internet food websites, recipe books, product labeling and school lunchroom menus, replacing the term with the more educational and progressive term, "white cops in a straight jacket" in order to promote awareness of the need to rein in our out of control law enforcement officers, and in particular, white officers. The petition is also supported by the National Organization of Women, The Service Employees International Union, The National Education Agency, Black Lives Matter, the International Communist Party and the former Pope Benedict.

© 2017 by Tom King

 * Just a reminder for those of you in Rio Linda, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. This post is satire. It's meant to be funny, not truth. Please do not pass this news item to your friends and fellow social justice warriors. I made it all up to make fun of you. I'm sorry, but when I was making breakfast and saw the White Cheese slices sitting there, my twisted mind was off to the races (which PETA would not have approved of, but hey). Please accept this in the spirit in which it was intended. Or better yet, you could sit on your sofa, watch old episodes of The West Wing and Madam Secretary and wallow in self-pity till your fingers get all pruney. whichever makes you feel better (or worse if that's what you are going for). Enjoy! And leave a nasty comment below if that will help. I can take it.

Filmmaking as Confused Propaganda

We get all sorts of dystopian and post-apocalyptic movies aimed at teenagers these days. They all have a theme - an oppressive large government controls everyone's life either before the apocalypse or after it. Either way, the brave young post pubescent teens run away or starts guerrilla warfare against the repressive government. Somehow the filmmakers throw in little suggestions that the evil central government is somehow Republican or conservative.

Case in Point:  The Thinning

This progressive filmmaker attempts to sell the idea that Texas has submitted to a United Nations demand that it reduce it's population by 5%. Really? Texas submits to a UN mandate? Then, the Texas governor institutes a system of culling through testing in schools. Low-scoring kids are killed (thinned). Everyone (in Texas mind you) goes along with the idea without a lot of fuss. Before the test, kids are shown a propaganda film (the sort liberals like to use to explain why capitalism is bad to school children).  Kids who fail are carried out of the test center by people in black wearing hockey masks.

They may have actually filmed it in Austin. After all, Austin is one of the cities where we store out liberals in Texas where we can keep an eye on them. But the idea that Texas has somehow disarmed its citizens and convinced them to quietly accept the systematic slaughter of their children is probably the most ludicrous premise for a film ever.  Eugenics is NOT a popular idea in Texas. Hell, we don't like abortion. The idea that anytime in the next 50 years Texas is going to go full eugenics under a conservative Texas governor is incredibly stupid. And to think the conservatives in Texas would put supposedly thinned kids into some corporate work program or organ harvesting program is ludicrous, though this is what the ending led us to believe.

I don't get it. The very people that make these types of films are the first to go out and vote for progressive Democrats, the same people who want bigger government, more population controls, and a more powerful regulations. Progressives have long been believers in "improving" the human race. The "message" in these kinds of films is so screwed up. F. Scott Fitzgerald, a progressive if there ever was one stated that it was a sign of intelligence to be able to hold two opposing ideas in one's mind at the same time and believe both. If that's true these rudderless filmmakers are freakin' geniuses.

Myself, I suspect these college brain-washed children have some vague idea that some smart people in government will take care of all their needs so they can indulge in sex, drugs and rock n' roll without having to take any real responsibility for anything. In such a world, anyone who advocates for a world that requires some kind of serious work for your reward is anathema. While such folks themselves put in an incredible amount of work it's true, they also see themselves as part of the privileged elite who will manipulate the dim-witted masses to keep them content and obedient. Like I said, I don't get it.

© 2017 by Tom King

 

A New Twist on the Facebook Con

And now we have a new modern twist on the Miss Lonelyhearts con, using low tech, easily learned skills and Facebook.  The trick works like this.

1. The con artist (male or female) creates a brand new new Facebook account.  The con selects a person with a Facebook account who looks the part they wish to play. Usually they pick some mature looking guy in uniform if they are going after women. If they are going after men, it will be some busty young woman.
2. The con artist makes up a name that is similar to the person whose account is being cloned. Then the con person steals candid photos from the target person's photo album and posts the pictures as their own. 
3. Once the account is set up, the con artist friends a person who does a lot of cutting and pasting and other things that require extra steps. They particularly go after people who pass along posts that they have been bullied or made to feel guilty for not posting. These they mark as easy targets or "marks".

They particularly like playing older military guys, contractors particularly in the oil business or pilots when going after women. They like to play successful attract women when going after older men (the sort with disposable income).  

This kind of fake account is most effectively used to roll widows and lonely-hearted women and widowed or shy men. Inevitably the con artist flatters them and portray themselves as well off potential romantic partners. Then one day the con tells them they are stuck somewhere without a credit card and they ask the mark to wire them money, promising to pay them back when some money gets transferred to their account until they get their replacement credit card. 

When they get the money they disappear.  That's why they need a fake account. They disappear once they get the money. They need to steal your pictures so they look authentic with lots of friendly pictures. Most of the time they don't choose any pictures with a spouse. If they do, they tell the target that their spouse has recently died and they are so terribly lonely.

If you do get approached by one of these people, watch for these signs:

1. They will be overly familiar, calling you pet names and telling you how handsome or beautiful you are.
2. They will seek to become more intimate relatively quickly.
3. They will tell you how well off they are and how much money they make. It will be rather a lot.
4. They will tell you how much you mean to them and ask you for small favors at first.
5. They will offer to give you money or some kind of help.
6. THEN they will ask for money from you.

These people are truly despicable. Don't let them in. Be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.

© 2017 by Tom King