Where the Church Stands After the Gay Marriage Decision

The following is an excerpt from an interview with Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, about the aftermath of the Supreme Court's gay marriage decision. 

LOPEZ: What’s your best advice to pastors? 

MOORE: My advice to pastors is not to panic. They say we’re on the wrong side of history. We’ve been on the wrong side of history since a.d. 33. The future was the Roman Empire. Then the future was the French Revolution. Then the future was scientific materialism. Then the future was the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. And yet here stands the old gospel of Jesus Christ — still saving sinners like us. Pastors must learn to articulate what we previously could assume. We cannot count on the culture to do pre-evangelism for us — teaching people “values” while we taught them the gospel.
Amen. The only thing I would add is that the Church historically has always paid a price. Be prepared.

www.nationalreview.com/article/420475/evangelicals-marriage-russell-moore

My Thoughts Exactly as a Recovering Lawyer

"The ranks of the Right are filled with a splendid array of gifted and erudite lawyers with unshakeable commitment to the rule of law. Many of them are my friends and colleagues. But their arguments always leave me a little bit cold. We can debate all day about how many Angels in America can have their first dance on the head of Anthony Kennedy’s pen, but we know that the Court’s liberals are going to vote one way, that some of its conservatives will probably vote another, and that John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy will, if the goblins in their heads are sufficiently insistent, ratify whatever Starbucks-customer consensus exists for 80 miles on either side of Interstate 95. That the chief justice went one way on health care and another on marriage tells us nothing at all about the law or the Constitution: It tells us about John Roberts."

Neither decision, Obamacare or gay marriage, had much of anything to do with law, much less Constitutional law. They were unambiguous exercises of raw power disguised with the briefest of fig leaves.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420406/john-roberts-decision-kevin-d-williamson

Let No Grass Grow Under Your Feet

Thought I was kidding about the next frontier after the Supremes' gay marriage decision being polygamy? Well, consider the concluding paragraph from a Politico piece dated June 26, 2015 and entitled "It's Time to Legalize Polygamy."

"I suspect that many progressives would recognize, when pushed in this way, that the case against polygamy is incredibly flimsy, almost entirely lacking in rational basis and animated by purely irrational fears and prejudice. What we’re left with is an unsatisfying patchwork of unconvincing arguments and bad ideas, ones embraced for short-term convenience at long-term cost. We must insist that rights cannot be dismissed out of short-term interests of logistics and political pragmatism. The course then, is clear: to look beyond political convenience and conservative intransigence, and begin to make the case for extending legal marriage rights to more loving and committed adults. It’s time."

www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/gay-marriage-decision-polygamy-119469.html#ixzz3eMlRZcd6

From a moral and policy perspective, I could not disagree more with the writer. From a legal perspective, though, the writer is absolutely correct that if you follow Kennedy's core logic in the gay marriage decision, the legal case against polygamy (and a of of other "exotic" relationships) is flimsy to the point of non-existent. Please place your seats and tray tables in an upright position as we prepare for takeoff into a "brave" new world. BTW, you might assume the crash position at the same time. 

Whatever

As I have been considering the wreckage of the Supreme Court's decisions over the last few days, reading articles about essentially unchecked immigration not only here but into the EU from North Africa, and the usual assortment of of commentaries about the direction of the the U.S. and the West, I have to come to the conclusion that the guiding light for liberal policies is very simple: "Whatever." Further, as a society have hit critical mass and become "liberal" regardless of the political name tags we wear.

Essentially the West, now including the U.S., is simply too tired to muster any sustained political will. The reason would be immediately apparent to the Founders (and foreigners like de Tocqueville) if they were here today. The dynamic nature of the West, especially the United States, was established on and refreshed by the Judeo-Christian worldview and the faith behind it. This was the source of Western optimism, modern science, inalienable rights and the sacredness and sanctity of the individual, and so much else. We have now cut ourselves off from this foundational source and are now untethered and beginning to float about freely in whatever political or cultural breeze that is blowing strongest at the moment. 

A further consequence is that the political class is almost entirely populated by "men with hollow chests" - women too - no sexist views here. Doesn't matter which political party. They are totally cynical. They will say and do whatever they need to stay in power, while working toward the eliminating the need to bother with such nuisances as elections altogether so they can have their self-professed brilliance reign unhindered. Thus when they come up against die-hard proponents of issues like gay marriage, polygamy (coming soon to a neighborhood near you!), "free" goodies for everybody, and other issues which are a primal rebellion against limits of any kind, the political class has neither the inclination or resources to know or do what is "good." Instead it panders, dithers, puts lipstick on pigs, and finally shrugs its collective shoulders and says, "Whatever." It is, after all, good for them. 

The real problem occurs when this tired, listless, unprincipled political system comes up against another culture with a different dynamic. The most jarring at the moment is Radical Islam. This culture is connected to a religious root, albeit a nasty one, but connected it is. The West's political class does not understand this, having lost its understanding of its own religious roots long ago, and persists in thinking you can make some kind of a deal with its radical leaders. You can't. When they continue on their jihad (think ISIS, think Iran) about all the West can muster is a desultory response that gives the appearance of action but is worthless from a military standpoint - like shooting an alligator with a BB gun while it eats the family dog. There are other alligators out there too.

And so we do Rome, deja vu. People are always surprised how quickly the barbarians are at the gates. They shouldn't be. Barbarians are ever present and like sharks can sense even minute amounts of blood in the water. They are on the way or even already here and the best we can do is bluster, posture, but ultimately, as the barbarians can already sense, the West will say, "Whatever." Oh, a decreasing minority in the U.S. will fight a rearguard action for some time with occasional successes, but short of a true miracle, the ennui at the center of our societal soul will set in and then the fun begins. 

The Snake That Ate Us

The administrative bureaucracy has been expanding geometrically in the U.S. since FDR in the 1930s and it has now eaten the American body politic. We kid ourselves that we are still a government of laws and not men. Dealing with government anymore is like fighting with fog - you are subject to the interpretative whim of a bureaucrat and can never find where the buck stops and get a real decision based on a clearly stated law. Yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court decision on Obamacare eliminated any doubt of this when it ratified the IRS making it up out of whole cloth when the law, as written by Congress, was plain but stood in the way of where Obama and the army of bureaucrats wanted to go. 

The evolution of English and American law has been a long struggle against the law being whatever the king said it was. That objective was realized in the Constitution that talked about such noble ideas as due process, equal protection, and a host of other foundational rights. An independent judiciary was instituted to foil a grasping Executive Branch seeking to establish it's right to do whatever it pleased. A thoughtful piece by John Davidson looks at the impact of yesterday's Court decision from this perspective and says that the modern fight has been against bureaucratic prerogative and it is now lost.

Davidson summarizes the thesis of a book by Columbia Law School professor Philip Hamburger on this theme and says:


" ... the American founding was the culmination of centuries of struggle against prerogative. A large part of this struggle was not only the development of legislative bodies but also of an independent judiciary, both of which achieved full realization in the U.S. Constitution. The lurch back toward prerogative and away from these institutions began with theories about administration at the turn of the last century, many of which were put into practice by Wilson and his progressive heirs. And now here we are. The Supreme Court has upheld an IRS rule that blatantly rewrites a section of poorly designed law in order to achieve a policy outcome desired by the administration. We overcame royal prerogative in the late 18th century only to replace it, in modern times, with administrative prerogative."

"No longer must elected representatives of the people hammer out compromises and pass actual laws. It’s enough, now, for Congress to express a desire for a policy outcome and leave the details to a vast unelected bureaucracy — even when those details involve billions of dollars in taxes and spending, strict mandates and penalties, and government control over vast swaths of the economy."

No longer are Americans free men and captains of their own destiny, but rather we exist for the feeding and amusement of the gigantic bureaucratic snake. Just practice saying, "Yes, your Majesty!" and all will be well with you.
www.nationalreview.com/article/420337/king-v-burwell-and-triumph-administrative-state

President Pinocchio at It Again

In commenting on the tragedy in Charleston, SC, President Obama told this whopper:

“At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”

As Breitbart details, even PolitiFact, which is anything but a conservative mainstay, gagged on that one and published this to correct the record:

Over the decade and a half studied, the researchers found 23 incidents of mass shootings in the other 10 countries, resulting in 200 dead and 231 wounded. In the United States over the same period, there were 133 incidents that left 487 dead and 505 wounded. …

[T]he U.S. doesn’t rank No. 1. At 0.15 mass shooting fatalities per 100,000 people, the U.S. had a lower rate than Norway (1.3 per 100,000), Finland (0.34 per 100,000) and Switzerland (1.7 per 100,000). …

Still, while the United States did rank in the top one-third of the list, the fact that three other countries exceeded the United States using the fairest method of comparison available does weaken Obama’s claim that “it doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency.” In at least three countries, the data shows, it does.

As Hillary is fond of saying, whatever difference does it make now? Yeah, truth never matters when a lie will suit your purpose so much better. 

www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/06/22/serial-lies-politifact-blasts-obama-over-claim-about-mass-killings-in-other-countries/

Observation Point

"God," Friedrich Nietzsche famously declared, "is dead."

God, it has been noted, made a similar yet more lasting pronouncement about Nietzsche.

Jonah Goldberg

townhall.com/columnists/jonahgoldberg/2015/06/19/nietzsches-ressentiment-alive-and-well-today-n2014601

The Big Wheel of Fortune

An excerpt from an excellent Victor Davis Hanson piece today:

Is this 1939 or 2015?

Well before World War II, Great Britain and France allowed Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese to acquire what they pleased. The Western European democracies were terrified of confrontation and mired in economic crises. They had their own long-standing empires to worry about.

The United States — struggling with the Great Depression, squabbling over the New Deal, and bitter over its prior intervention in World War I and the failure to achieve European stability — also kept quiet.

Nothing much has changed 75 years later. Western Europe is terrified of Putin and mostly disarmed. The European Union is awash with debt.

Meanwhile, Japan rearms and is trying in vain to forge a common anti-Chinese front with the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea.

As in the 1930s, an isolationist United States is again watching the new map unfold from the sidelines. President Obama assumes Americans are tired of the Middle East and want to be left alone. Afghanistan is a quagmire. Iraq collapsed once the administration pulled out all U.S. troops. The bombing of Libya proved a disaster.

In 1945, after some 60 million had perished in World War II, the Western democracies blamed themselves for having appeased and empowered fascist empires. That sadder but wiser generation taught us two lessons: Small sacrifices now can avoid catastrophic ones later on, and dictatorial regimes on a roll never voluntarily quit playing geostrategic poker.

Boys have bigger toys today. The world lost 100 million people in WW II. We can only guess at how many will be lost this time around. The wheels on the bus go round and round.

townhall.com/columnists/victordavishanson/2015/06/18/draft-n2013813

We Want a Free Lunch!

Oh good - look what the cat brought in:

"... a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows a majority of Americans want Obamacare subsidies mandated in all 50 states if current federal subsidies are struck down in King v. Burwell. In other words, the majority of country wants healthcare plans paid for (aka subsidized) by someone else."

Of course! Any guesses who the "someone else" is? I'll take a stab - those of us still working! If there isn't enough money left there, the politicians will just up the deficit, put it on the company credit card! We are becoming Greece and don't know it. 

townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2015/06/16/end-game-majority-of-americans-want-their-healthcare-paid-for-by-taxpayers-n2013320

What Really Makes a Democracy Work

Over the Falls

Dear Greek People:

I see that the EU talks with Greece have apparently failed. Sad. Germany says to prepare for a "state of emergency." I'd go with the Krauts on this one if I were you. Buckle up! And -

Bon Chance!

Sincerely,


www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/15/us-eurozone-greece-idUSKBN0OS0E020150615

A Tom Clancy Scenario

Capt. Dan Gordon is on an Israeli Defense Force sniper team and has been involved in six wars. His most terrifying experience was the most recent one he says with heavily-armed Hamas' fighters popping up out of the ground from major tunnels like Day of the Dead. Because Israel had major anti-terror military units living in these areas with air cover on demand, they were able to turn back the threat, but he said it was a close thing and could have been catastrophic. He now says it could be coming to a U.S. city near you.

Gordon says it is suicide to underestimate your enemy and he is very concerned that we are doing just that. He correctly points out that ISIS has undoubtedly carefully studied what Hamas did and may even now be planning an attack using it along our relatively undefended Southern border. They don't have to build the tunnels - they can just rent them from the cartels. Imagine them assembling 1,000 fighters with heavy automatic weapons, grenades, RPGs, etc. emerging from multiple tunnels all over the U.S. side of the border simultaneously. The California State Police and San Diego Police Department would not be much of a challenge to them. In San Diego we have innumerable major targets like the home of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the SEAL base at Coronado, or if on a Sunday, a major sporting event like an NFL football game. As Gordon says, the harm they could do and therefore the "credibility" they could gain would be enormous.

Gordon thinks we are snoring soundly and ignoring this potentially huge threat. I think he's probably right. We totally missed 9/11 and out of PC and dodging the bullet literally since then, we seem to have dozed off. Certainly the Southern border is a joke with many people seriously arguing that it's just a line on a map and spending about that much time and money defending it. Time will tell, but if he is right, some of our worst days as a nation are ahead. These guys aren't kidding.
www.wnd.com/2015/06/u-s-vulnerable-to-most-terrifying-isis-tactic/

Bernie Sanders v. Hillary

Let's talk turkey: the Democratic Party should nominate Bernie Sanders as their Presidential candidate in 2016. Objectively, it's who they really are. Hillary is a poseur. In reality, she is a rich, cold-blooded plutocrat who will put on whatever camouflage is necessary to win the election and then she and Bill will continue fleecing the country with total abandon. Say what you will about Bernie, he really believes the stuff he is saying. If the Republicans will put up someone of similar (albeit very different) conviction, then the 2016 election will really mean something. It's time for both sides to drop politics as usual and really get down to it. 

Somebody Say Amen!

Jonah Goldberg succinctly lays out the problem with liberalism/progressivism:

"The progressive vision sees all of mankind as clay to be molded, sheep to be herded, a third-grade diorama to be diorama’d. There are no safe harbors from politics because the personal is political.

The problem with saying “the personal is political” is twofold: You politicize what is personal (“Everyone must celebrate my lifestyle!”) and you personalize the political (“Your opposition to the minimum wage hurts my feelings!”).

This is how you un-think yourself out of a civilization; When politics becomes a fashion choice and fashion becomes political. If you wear your politics on your sleeve, it usually means you don’t keep them in your brain where they belong."

A conservative knows that there is more to life than politics; a liberal/progressive knows no such bounds. Father forgive them for most of them know not what they do. The other couple of percent - well let me move over there before you get down to business. 

www.nationalreview.com/article/419714/americas-progressive-autoimmune-crisis-continues-apace-jonah-goldberg

Gotcha!

Actually, got me. Al Lyons kindly pointed out that the source for my last blog is a military satire site. Although I am at the point with the Obama Administration where anything is within the realm of possibility, this was isn't true. Yet. Apologies. 

Pretty Please?

You just can't make this stuff up!

"Seeking to honor a retired congresswoman and 2011 shooting victim in the most considerate and respectful way possible, the Navy today christened the future USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10), a first-of-its-kind, gun-free warship.

Designed to hold a core crew of 40 sailors, the Independence-class littoral combat ship has been stripped bare of its Mk 110 57-millimeter gun, all four of its Mk2 .50-cal machine guns, its Evolved SeaRAM 11 cell missile launcher, and its entire cache of small arms, which are typically issued to boarding teams and watch standers.

“Having this mighty warship be 100% gun-free not only helps to honor its heroic namesake, Gabby Giffords, but it also helps the Navy to steer clear of promoting a culture of violence,” said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, who reportedly lobbied hard to get Congress and the Secretary of Defense on board with leaving the Navy’s newest addition to the fleet completely defenseless.

'Once commissioned and put into service,” Mabus continued, “this vessel will truly embody the Navy’s new motto of Semper Modestis— always considerate.' ”

Did I miss something or don't Navy ships go in harm's way anymore? Be sure and tell its lovely pedigree to the Russian or Chinese aircraft that has just launched a bevy of sea-skimming anti-ship missiles against the Giffords. Unfrigging believable.

www.duffelblog.com/2015/06/uss-gabrielle-giffords-christened-gun-free/#ixzz3cz3FUt8MS

Gotta Get Better at These Controls

Ha! Some lovely wedding photography with a surprise ending.  

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/12/beautiful-aerial-wedding-video-ends-with-a-bang/

Sell Out Averted

The trade deal is at least down for the moment, perhaps for good. Bueno! Generally I favor free trade policies but this thing was a monstrosity favored by crony capitalists and Big Business and both are decidedly anti-American in the sense that they don't give fig about anybody or anything other than themselves. 

I was talking to someone the other day who is considerably left of me politically and much to the surprise of both of us we agreed on this issue. Michelle Malkin puts it well:

"The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out our immigration priorities. Both parties have put cheap labor from illegal immigrants before American workers. Both parties support massive increases in foreign temporary worker programs that favor cheap tech workers from India and China over highly educated, highly skilled American workers who are forced to train their replacements. Both parties back fraud-plagued green card giveaway programs for wealthy immigrant investors that amount to a crony "economic development" racket."

townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2015/06/12/why-america-hates-the-gopobamatrade-deal-n2011516

All of us, Right and Left can see this and it's refreshing to agree on something. 

We have allowed a Ruling Elite to become entrenched that is composed of members of both parties that are in it for the money and support their crony capitalist.Big Business friends slavishly to the exclusion of the American people. It's time to throw the bums out. We thought we did it in 2014 with the massive Republican electoral sweep. We were wrong. It's time they all go and we start over with new "inexperienced" faces and term limits. They can't do any worse than current leaders are doing and I suspect they will do a lot better.

Let's Talk

CNN is not one of my favorite news sources and Don Lemon is not one of my favorite commentators, but he got this one right. The openly gay host of a CNN opinion program was commenting on comedian Jerry Seinfeld's recent interview where he said that the PC atmosphere on college campuses has gotten so crazy that he and other comedians won't play them anymore. Said Lemon:

“After almost 25 years in the news business, you know who is the most easily offended and the least tolerant: Liberals and progressives, because many of them don’t really want to hear anyone else’s opinion but their own,” Lemon wrote. “Here’s a tip. if you only agree with people who hold your same political affiliation or who are of your particular race, gender or ethnicity, you are part of the political correctness run amuck problem. You are actually thwarting progress instead of advancing.”

He's right. I will talk with almost anyone about their convictions and both try to educate and look for common interests, but when all one gets is a steady stream of personal invective it is futile because they don't want a conversation, they want a zombie disciple and I have always had a dislike for zombies, especially when someone wants me to be one.

www.wnd.com/2015/06/black-cnn-talker-admits-left-too-p-c/#ElxwhHAv0JgIVZbb.99

President Pinocchio at It Again

The UN - no kidding, the UN - has accused the Obama Administration of covering up violations of UN sanctions by Iran. Sonuvagun! Almost spilled my coffee. And the "why":

"This is a clear political decision not to publicize these examples of sanctions evasion in order to ensure that public reporting on this doesn’t in any way jeopardize the talks or harden congressional resolve….The Obama administration has bent over backwards to try and whitewash Iranian violations both on the nuclear side and also on the sanction-busting side.”

Our President? Naw! Say it ain't so Joe.
www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/06/09/whitewash-un-accuses-obama-of-covering-up-iran-sanctions-violations/

Garbage Hauler

I'm not sure when the New York Times went into the trash business but it is dumping garbage with gusto on Republican Presidential aspirants and Marco Rubio in particular. 

The second hit piece from the Times centers on Rubio's alleged financial irresponsibility. One purported illustration is the "extravagant" boat that he bought. One's mind immediately is brought to Monaco and the bevy of sleek 100' + yachts anchored there with bikini-clad young ladies waving smilingly from their decks. Well folks, to the left is a picture of Rubio's "yacht." It's a nice boat but a yacht - not so much. Anyone who knows anything about venturing out on the ocean also knows that you don't do it on a 14' skiff and survive very long. 

I knew there was a stink coming from the offices of the Times which I now presume is from all the garbage piling up there. Truth in labeling - they need to quit calling themselves a newspaper and maybe something like NYT Sanitary Service Co. 

Turkey is Not Just for Thanksgiving

Turkey, not as in sandwich but the country, has recently undergone a change that will be good for it and good for the West and NATO. In recent years Turkey has been drifting into the Islamist camp with its President, Tayyip Erdogan, having delusions of being the new Sultan of the Middle East. Turkish policy has become increasingly friendly to outfits like ISIS and hostile to Israel and the West. Well hold the phone and ring one up for democracy!

Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, envisioned a modern, secular Islamic state when he overthrew the remnants of the Ottoman Empire in 1923. Democracy gradually took hold and Turkey became a strong ally of the U.S. and was generally a friend we could count on against the Russians and the craziness of the rest of the Middle East. All that was at risk under Erdogan, but in a stunning and unexpected election result on June 7, Turkish voters threw the bums out and thereby affirmed Ataturk's original vision for the country. Barring an attempted coup by Erdogan, we can again hopefully look forward to a renewed and mutually rewarding relationship with Turkey that will bring some stability to what is a wildly spinning and unstable part of the world.

townhall.com/columnists/austinbay/2015/06/10/turkish-election-a-model-for-secular-arab-spring-revolutionaries-n2010439

Who's Who in the Culture Wars

Jonah Goldberg sets the record straight on who is the aggressor in The Great Culture War:

"Liberals are the aggressors in the culture war. The only shocking thing about that statement is that it ever shocks liberals. On their own terms, they take pride in being “change agents” and “forces of progress.” But the moment anyone attempts to defend themselves against the social-justice warriors, they are treated as the aggressors in the culture war. 'Don’t impose your values on me!” should be translated as, “Stop trying to defend yourself as we impose our values on you!' "

No kidding. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419416/gender-fluidity-industrys-magical-thinking-jonah-goldberg

The Definition of Insanity

I don't get it. Democrats don't help blacks, it's that simple. Despite literally trillions of dollars poured into black communities since the start of the "Great Society" in 1964, the Afro-American community has lost ground, not gained it. Now another telling statistic is quickly emerging: a huge crime wave is sweeping Democrat-run cities that haven't seen a Republican mayor in years and the greatest victims - yup, the black community itself. Baltimore gun violence is up 60%, St. Louis - 39%, and in predominantly black areas East Harlem (NYC) up 500%, South Central LA - 100%. Insanity! Despite this, blacks block vote for Democrat candidates on the order of 90+% time and time again. It's time for a change. I don't get it. 

www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/02/ferguson-effect-new-crime-wave-hits-democrat-run-cities/

No Fault in This San Andreas

I like The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson. Doesn't take himself too seriously and can speak sensitively while pummeling a legion of bad guys. He has a new movie out entitled San Andreas which I just added to my summer movie list based on this review:

"Heroic, protective masculinity and strong, resourceful femininity take on natural disaster of epic proportions, boosted by dazzling camera work and special effects. Boo-yah! Pass the popcorn."

Drew Zahn, movie critic, WND

www.wnd.com/2015/05/disaster-movie-called-most-fun-ive-had-in-months/?cat_orig=diversions

Definitely my kind of movie. Hey - keep the popcorn going!