The Level of Current Political Discourse

Unhinged. And you thought things were bad when W was President? It was just a cake walk compared to the Left's reaction to Trump. Their frustration has totally unhinged them and they are Looney Toons frothing-at-the mouth crazy bit when they think about Trump, which is pretty much all the time. Since all their schemes to oust him from office have fallen flat, Victor Davis Hanson points out that they have resorted to this:

Are we reaching a point in the so-far-failed Resistance where little is left except abject violence in the manner of the Roman or French Revolution? The problem for Trump’s pop-culture foes is not whether to imagine or advocate killing the president. That’s a given. They just need to agree on the means of doing so: decapitation (Kathy Griffin), incineration (David Crosby), stabbing (the Shakespeare in the Park troupe), shooting (Snoop Dogg), explosives (Madonna), old-fashioned, Lincoln-style assassination (Johnny Depp), death by elevator (Kamala Harris), hanging (a CSU professor), or simple generic assassination (a Missouri state legislator).

Even Joe Biden wants to take Trump out back and give him a knuckle sandwich. Of course that assumes Joe can stop fondling the woman nearest him at the moment to do so. 

In the meantime, for those of us who still work, the economy is doing well - unemployment is down, household income is up, consumer confidence is up, the stock market is up - what's not too like! Even in foreign affairs, his unorthodx style looks like it may be resulting in some reorientation of nations in a way that benefits the U.S. And therein lies the problem for the Left. As uncouth and at times just plain rude as Trump can be, what he is doing works and they come across as the little kid in the grocery store throwing a major tantrum in the aisle because his mommy won't buy him the Super Sugar Globs cereal. Which, come to think of it, is what their behavior actually is. Time to go to your room until you calm down. No soup for you!

www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/trump-resistance-democratic-party-revolutionary-times/

Singing the Post Tax Day Blues

Now that we have finished the annual day of giving blood to the Federal and state governments, I am starting to read how we need to give even more of our money to "invest" in our country. Well, leaving aside that it's actually just investing in politicians spending more pork to assure their reelection, for those of you who feel strongly about this, pull out your checkbook, put your money where your mouth is - and write a big one to:

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Funds Management Branch
P.O. Box 1328
                                                 Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328

They will gratefully accept your gift and even allow a tax deduction if it's for a public purpose. There, I feel better and I'm sure you will too.

Misplaced Priorities in Mental Health

American society is suffering from a seemingly unending series of violent incidents, which makes this piece by D.J. Jaffe very pertinent. Mentally ill individuals account for 25-40% of all police calls and a whopping 64% of public mass shootings, yet there is a great divide in how those who treat the mentally ill and those who have to deal with them on the street (e.g. - the police) see their primary goals. Jaffe focuses on a crucial dissonance and spells it out thusly:

Having been to both police conferences and mental-health conferences, I am astounded by how differently they look at the problem. Mental-health advocates tend to look at stigma as the biggest problem facing the mentally ill, while police and the public look at violence as being more important. But mental-health advocates believe acknowledging violence creates stigma and therefore refuse to do it.

Obviously, how you see the problem directly influences the outcome and taking the hot-button issue of public mass shooting, and this difference is illustrated by the past president of the American Psychiatric Association who wrote a rebuttal to an op-ed piece opposing better and earlier mental health treatment for these individuals because, "... attributing mass violence to untreated serious mental illness stigmatizes." 

Perhaps, but I suspect that most of us are more concerned about preventing mass killings than the possible stigmitization of an individual. In fact, don't such actions of untreated individuals increase rather decrease the stigma of mental illness? Certainly police are firmly in the early treatment camp as they would rather see these people treated and not have to shoot them, especially after they respond to another scene of carnage where multiple innocent victims lie dead and dying because the shooter was not effectively treated or treated at all. It's time for all to get on the same page. 

www.nationalreview.com/2018/04/criminal-justice-officials-should-stand-up-to-mental-health-officials/

Christian Privilege

Long time, no talk to. It's been a busy travel schedule and I finally have a little down time. An article caught my eye this morning by Micah Rate in National Review about George Washington University holding a seminar on "Christian Privilege." That's right, the "privilege" of being the butt of seminars like these on university campuses, the butt of Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert jokes, pilloried on Facebook and social media elsewhere, and if you're really lucky, beat up by Antifa thugs. In other countries, it's even worse - Christian brothers and sisters get the "privilege" of being jailed, tortured, maimed and even killed. Heckuva deal, but no mind little facts like these when the seminar planners have an ideological or, dare I say, spiritual ax to grind. 

Which brings us to the student Christians that showed up for this GWU little lynching, not to shut it down but to have a discourse on the subject. They kept raising inconvenient facts like the ones above and pointing out the obvious that being a Christian is not something that is an inherited genetic trait but is open to everyone, regardless of race, color, ethnicity, etc. Unsurprisingly, the instructor who had arranged this little Nero-themed tete-a-tete could not rebut these arguments, so he simply tried to continuously brush them off and get on with the main event, burning them and others like them at the stake.

Well done GWU Christian students! In fact, it is a privilege to be treated the same way as Jesus. He promised us trials and tribulations in this life, just like He experienced, because the world didn't much like Him either. Press on because those who finish the race well in this life are promised an astounding time in the next. Blessings.

townhall.com/notebook/micahrate/2018/04/06/christian-privilege-event-at-gwu-does-not-go-as-planned-n2468517