I had a dream the other night that I went to Target and bought a “Make America Great Again” hat. I realized in the dream that it is very strange that Target would ever carry that item.
So I was once again nitpicking the plot of my own dream, while dreaming.
After every mass shooting, we hear about how video games are contributing to such horrifying events. But violent crime has fallen dramatically since the mid 1990’s, while violent video games have gotten more common and graphics have allowed more detailed depictions of killings in the games. The trend lines have gone in opposite directions.
Since I might get heat for what I said here on video games specifically, the point I am making here is the same point I have made many times before: That we need to have some perspective about violent crime. Continue reading
Throwback Thursday post:
Now that the man who wrote “I kissed dating goodbye” and jump-started the “purity culture” movement in Christianity has become an apostate, it has become fashionable for Christians to bash purity culture as legalistic and oppressive, and even as heretical. Any good thing can be twisted, of course, but there are many good things about purity culture and Christians are fools to toss it aside.
Obviously God expects sexual purity. Chapter 6 of the Apostle Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians tells us to “flee fornication” and the New Testament is filled with exhortations to keep ourselves sexually pure. We are to save the sex act for the lifelong, monogamous union of one man and one woman. We must continue to submit to this commandment while we also avoid legalism and self-righteousness.
Back in 2006, an eighth grader at Warren Township Schools in Indianapolis accidentally brought a pocket knife to school. As soon as he realized his mistake, he did the honest and honorable thing and turned the tool into the principal… and was then suspended for ten days. This model student even faced expulsion from school. In addition to being absurdly excessive, this behavior encourages dishonesty.
This is why, unlike David French, I am very skeptical of so-called “red flag” laws where someone can have his guns taken away if he is seen as a threat. But that is not the only potential problem with these laws.
I looked at Twitter the morning of August 3 to see someone complaining that he had been suspended from Twitter for 12 hours for posting a meme about voter ID. The meme included a picture of former (current?) KGB thug Vladimir Putin with the text “Don’t Let Russia Interfere in 2020. #DemandVoterID.” I tend to be skeptical of these claims. Surely this is an exaggeration, I thought, and the people who were suspended had previously posted content that had caught the attention of the Twitter moderation team. So I saved the meme, uploaded it, and… was instantaneously suspended for 12 hours.
No moderator looked at the meme and determined it was objectionable. Twitter immediately suspended my account for 12 hours with no due process whatsoever. I appealed the decision and was informed that I was suspended because the meme was “providing false information about voting or registering to vote.”
When notorious sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, #ClintonBodyCount immediately started trending on Twitter. Epstein had already “attempted suicide” once, though that may have been more of a plea for attention. Regardless, he should have been under 24/7 suicide watch.
But before we go crazy… OK, too late. We have already gone crazy with the Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories. But here is some perspective anyway: Do not assume a conspiracy when incompetence is a more likely explanation for the death of a high-profile prisoner.
Let’s be brutally honest: While the “Men Going Their Own Way” (MGTOW) movement is wrong in its abandonment of romantic connections with women, MGTOW and the broader “manosphere” does make some reasonable points. The family court system is biased against men in terms of child custody. There are plenty of men who have been “divorce-raped” by their ex-wives – losing their children, their home, and so forth. From a human standpoint, avoiding the risk that comes with marriage is understandable.
With that said, we should not pretend that this risk is a one-sided proposition. There are women who have been violently abused and cheated on, and have had their children taken away and turned against them when they finally leave an abusive husband. Just as many men have been surprised to be victimized by a vengeful ex-wife, many women have been victimized by bad men too. There is as much reason for a WGTOW movement as for a MGTOW movement.
Here is a classic post from 2010:
Gun rights vs. private property rights
While I strongly support gun rights, I support private property rights just as strongly.
The President of these United States is a racist, and he does not care about the suffering of black people. He plays to racist elements in his party. He is is very dim-witted, far below the standards needed for the oval office. He is a rampant misogynist and his policies do severe harm to women. He is a serial liar who has overseen multiple very serious scandals. He was elected despite losing the popular vote to a much more qualified candidate and stole the presidency. I am of course, talking about George W. Bush.
Note: I don’t actually believe in anything I wrote in the opening paragraph. I cannot believe I have to actually be this explicit, but sarcasm is pretty much dead in our politics today.
