The Morning Plow

I don't even know where to begin...Someone once said, "A good place to start, is where you begin." I still don't know where that is...These riots have left me disheartened and discouraged.  Let's start there... What I see on Twitter and in the media is an out of control mob with a thirst  to inflict damage, promote and engage in violence, destroy property, and rage against some conceived bogeyman with a sense of self-righteous indignation, arrogant certitude of their moral high ground, and no fear of any accountability for their actions.  Of course, that is the single most compelling reason to be in a mob.  Mob riots appeal to a certain kind of individual who see these events as an opportunity to throw off their inhibitions and fully engage their id.  It is even more intoxicating when one feels they are doing this for a just and moral cause.  It appears to me that many of the rioters have little else in mind except for displays of rage, malice, and violence...

We had church this Sunday.  Albeit at home with a few others.  It wasn't the same, but was definitely better than watching it via live stream.  We spent most of our time talking about how Christians and the Church should respond to this "crisis".  Yes I used quotation marks to point out my cynical and growing suspicious view of the lock down.  I didn't begin so suspicious, but there are so many aspects of this "crisis" that just don't make much sense.  Our church, like most others, have obediently went along with the lock down and followed orders from public health officials.  We did not want to harm any congregants or our community.  But now, the feelings are starting to change and many are wanting to open Church for services once again.  Not in the rebellious, "you are not the boss of me" kind of way.  More like, "we miss our brothers and sisters and the spiritual, soul feeding" kind of way.  But, I get the sense it may morph into...

My sophomore year in college I was enrolled in a Critical Reading and Writing class.  The class was structured to analyze one particular topic throughout the term by reading and writing about the various viewpoints on the subject.  Our topic for the term happened to be affirmative action.  I can't remember all of the books and articles we read, but one author stood out: Dinesh D'Souza.  We read his book Illiberal Education  and an excerpt of a speech (I think) titled "Visigoths in Tweed".  It was the latter that left an impression on me, and more importantly, an eventful moment in my academic life some years later. Fast forward six or seven years (I won't bore you with my life details) and I was finishing up my teaching credential program at a California State University.  It was my last term before becoming a fully employed teacher.  One of the classes I was enrolled was a content specific course designed to help prepare social science teachers....

Nature abhors a vacuum. Similarly, progressives hate liberty. Not their liberty, but yours.  Your liberty is a constant threat to their ability to construct a more "just" and perfect society.  Your liberty elicits uncomfortable outcomes. Your liberty leads to inequalities, makes winners, and also losers. Your liberty is dangerous, too dangerous. Your liberty is the cause of oppression and injustice.  Their liberty is just...right...sacred.  They will gladly and self righteously exchange your liberty and property to make themselves feel morally and intellectually superior. They are content to live in their nearly all white enclaves, with similar thinking neighbors, and send their kids to the most exclusive private schools.  But you dare think to home school your kid, and they see it as an affront to their liberal indoctrination factories known as public schools.  They can own multiple homes, own private jets, and leave a carbon foot print as large as Sasqu...

When you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail.   When you are a liberal, everything is about race.  The truth is for most left leaning, liberal, progressives, everything is about race.  Consequently, because most media institutions and academic institutions are also of the progressive persuasion, they also have a race-centric narrative of almost all issues.  Ironically, this view seems to increase the importance of race as a characteristic of both an individual and member of a group, while simultaneously lamenting race is an important factor in our society.   By constantly making every issue about race, race becomes the focal point of every issue. It seems the goal would be to make race less of a factor.  I can already hear the left bemoaning such an idea and rightly pointing out that race has been a factor since the beginning of the US (I would argue since the beginning of humanity...Humans are wired to have an "us" and "them" perspective o...

The COVID-19 pandemic and attempts by the federal and state governments to limit its spread and destruction have come under more scrutiny as we head into eight weeks of some sort of shelter-in-place policies.  People are beginning to question the wisdom of nearly shutting down the entire US economy and many echo the cliche that the cure seems worse than the disease.  With over 30 million unemployed Americans and no clear end in sight, there may be some truth to their concern.  Also, it appears that many state and local governments are making decisions regarding stay at home orders in a very haphazard and illogical manner. There are areas with very few cases or deaths, yet some draconian measures remain.  Many other places allow certain types activity but not others, and the lines of distinction seem to be based on arbitrary reasons more than a well thought out, logical line of thinking.   As people's anxiety, concern, and frustration build, some are taking ...

Nostalgia is an oasis in the desert of the drudge and difficulties of the present state.  The refreshment afforded by remembering details of time in one's life that didn't seem monumental at the time, but now elicits goosebumps and smiles. ESPN's The Last Dance  has been an intriguing sentimental journey to some fond memories of my youth and the great decade of the 90's.  Matthew Continetti has a great article  in National Review regarding the series that expresses much of my thoughts, but only better.  I forgot how much I enjoyed NBA during the 90's.  I am not exactly sure why I stopped watching the NBA.  It wasn't that I stopped liking it, well at least not entirely.  I think there are many reasons and perhaps the biggest was my willingness and ability to devote time to it.  Cable TV, adulthood, and parenthood all took its toll.  Over the last 20 years, there have been a handful of NBA post seasons that I watched with great interest, b...

One of the interesting aspects (interesting may not be the right word) of the COVID-19 pandemic, but not real surprising, is how the pandemic and its response (good or bad) has further exposed the huge ideological division in the US.  One might think that a situations such as this would lead to some sort of bipartisan, "we are all Americans", "better together" sentiment that has historically happened when the US is facing a national crisis.  Former President George W. Bush was calling for this patriotic camaraderie reminiscent of days following 9/11.  Ironically, there was a good number of people on Twitter calling him a war criminal after he posted his video.  Some will say, at least many on the Left, "Welcome to the age of Trump" blaming the acrimonious discord on the President.  But our retreat to tribal warfare started well before Trump.  I personally think he is a symptom and not the disease.  But still, I am fascinated that there are two distin...