I realize the font color on my posts is a little too light and can be somewhat difficult to read as a result. Therefore, the blog may be getting a new theme.

We need to expect more out of the President of these United States than personal insults and taunting. If the President says something that we would discipline our kindergartener for saying, conservatives should not fall in line defending him like brainwashed cultists. We have to be better.

David French is right. President Trump needs to grow up. He needs to stop posting personal insults on Twitter, and elected Republicans need to rebuke him for it every time he does it. Sometimes, the rebuke can be in private, and sometimes it needs to be done publicly. Republicans need to grow a spine, stand up to the President and tell him that this behavior is wrong and needs to stop.

It demeans the country and the office of the President for Trump to behave this way. Christians, especially, should not be defending this perverted behavior. We are not to defend immoral behavior simply because someone affiliated with our political party does it. Our loyalty is to Jesus Christ and His moral law, not to any political party or political leader. Hyperpartisanship and tribalism are idolatry.

To anticipate some arguments from Trump apologists:

“Freedom of speech” is not a licence to be a bully or to personally insult people. There are a lot of things that are legal (and even protected by law) and are still immoral. This is a lame defense of Trump’s rage-tweeting.

I do not care that others are “mean” to Trump. That does not excuse the President of these United States acting like a spoiled brat. As the President, Trump needs to hold himself to a higher standard of behavior, rather than sully himself and the office of the President with these petty personal fueds and childish insults.

I understand that Trump is a “counter puncher.” That is a good thing and is something conservatives have wanted to see for a long time. But there is a difference between criticizing someone’s record, rhetoric, policy or moral character and childish personal insults we would not tolerate from a ten year old.

This is not how we win. Do you want to know how we win? We win by attacking the left on their rhetoric, policy and record, as I mentioned above. You point out when they are hypocritical or dishonest. You pass conservative legislation and push conservative ideals in the arena of ideas. Petty, vindictive personal fueds are not the path to political victory.

I understand that President Bill Clinton disgraced himself and his office with his behavior. While it is legitimate to point out the hypocrisy of Leftists who defended Clinton, that does not excuse President Trump.

I am no longer part of the #NeverTrump camp. I am a supporter of this President, and I want President Trump to stop behaving this way because I support his legislative agenda. Trump is harming himself and his party with this childish behavior. He is making it more difficult to “make America great again” by distracting from his agenda. Trump supporters are not helping this President by blindly defending everything he does. Good leaders need people who will tell them when they are wrong.

Note: I sent this letter to the MCCSC School Board.

School Board members,

Thank you for seeking public input on the lunch debt policy, which has been derided as “lunch shaming” over the last few weeks.

I was stunned that a sitting school board member would say that embarrassing a child in front of his peers is a way to teach the child and his parents a lesson about responsibility. I thought this was exaggerated or even made up when I saw it on Facebook, but sadly I was wrong. It is a cruel statement. The student certainly will not get the lesson, especially if he is in lower grades. All he knows is that he is being embarrassed in front of his classmates. Throwing the food away seems like it is done out of spite, because the food cannot be given to anyone else. Why not allow the child to eat it?

While I understand objections that a restaurant would not operate this way, we are not dealing with adults. We are dealing with children who do not have any control over their parents’ failure to pay the bill – whether it is done out of irresponsibility, caused by a family emergency, or due to any number of other factors.

I do not understand why the balance is checked at the end of the line, after the child already has a hot meal. It would be far less wasteful to check the balance at the front of the line. (This is how my elementary school operated in the 1980’s.) This would prevent the practice of taking away a lunch that the child already has and would prevent food from being wasted. The child could be given an alternate lunch immediately, instead of teased with the hot lunch.

Obviously, the debt is a major problem and parents need to be responsible in ensuring their children are fed. But the way this is being done needs to be reformed. Checking the balance at the beginning of the line is an obvious way to mitigate the embarrassment. Having a lot more compassion on the School Board is another.

One of the headlines in a message sent to Rachel Maddow’s e-mail list was this:

“Trump gives win to Putin by granting unearned meeting.”

Oh, good grief. This is silly.

Russia is a world power, and is still the second most powerful nation on the planet (militarily, anyway) behind these United States. They have enormous economic and political power. If Hillary (or Bernie) was President, Maddow would not be whining that the President gave them an “unearned meeting.”

For crying out loud, get off it. Yes, there are concerns with Russian meddling in the campaign* but of course the President is going to meet with Putin. That is his job.

Duh.

*Meddling in the campaign is not the same as meddling in the election, as there is not one single shred of evidence that the election itself was hacked.

We have plenty of real corruption in government without fabricating things that never happened, especially when innocent people have their lives destroyed by lies spread on the Internet. If you do not have the moral decency to refrain from murdering innocent people’s reputations, will you people please stop humiliating yourselves by spreading these lies, and actually fact check things before you share them on social media?

I recently came across a video that claimed a Hollywood actor confirmed the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory in his testimony to Congress. If course, this did not happen. Nothing he said confirmed “Pizzagate” in any way. (I am not linking the video here because it is trash.) In fact, it has long been documented that “Pizzagate” is a complete fabrication.

It does not help children who have been sexually abused to spread debunked conspiracy theories like “Pizzagate.” It actually harms them because it creates cynicism. Obviously, sex trafficking is real, and real children (mostly teenagers) are victims of it. But to libel and slander innocent people who have nothing to do with it is pure evil. Innocent people should not have their lives ruined, businesses destroyed, and be subjected to a torrent of death threats and attempted vigilantism by this filth.

The national panic over sex trafficking (to the point that people are paranoid that fellow customers in an Ikea store are trying to kidnap their children for sex trafficking) reminds me of Fran and Dan Keller, who were victims of the satanic sexual abuse panic in the 1980s and 1990s. Lurid and horrific stories were spread about them, including one where they amputated the arm of a gorilla.

Honestly, how stupid did the police and prosecutors have to be to actually believe that? Lest you think I am being mean, stupidity is the charitable interpretation. A more realistic interpretation is that the police and prosecutors are liars and intentionally ruined innocent people’s lives to get a notch on their belt.

When I see this crap spread around the web by people who claim to be “conservatives,” it makes me ashamed to be a Republican and ashamed to be a conservative. It is humiliating to be associated with these people, even tangentially. We need to do better. We need to verify what we share on social media. We need to not feed wacko conspiracy theories that ruin innocent people’s lives, and we need to call out these lies when we see them on social media. This shameful behavior needs to stop.

The author of a recent letter to the editor is upset that pro-life activists showed up to oppose the city council’s decision to give thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood and All Options Pregnancy Resource Center, but the attack misses the mark by misrepresenting the arguments that were made against that funding.

Yes, we “opposed providing funding for diapers for poor mothers’ babies.” But it is dishonest to leave out the reason why. The reason we opposed that funding is because All Options has a fund to pay for abortions – a fund to pay for the killing of innocent babies. We are not and have never been opposed to providing diapers. In fact, diapers are collected for the Hannah Center every January at the Rally for Life. Diapers can be provided without forcing pro-life taxpayers to fund an organization we find morally abominable.

The other issues are red herrings that have nothing at all to do with local government funding Planned Parenthood. That is the issue here: Whether city government should force everyone to fund Planned Parenthood and All Options. It is the same issue that many of those who support funding PP and AOPRC have with having their tax dollars used to pay for private school vouchers.

Planned Parenthood would easily survive not getting a few thousand dollars a year from city government. There is more than enough money floating around Planned Parenthood to pay for the Women’s Health Fund in Bloomington, and diapers can be provided by other means – perhaps a city department.

It has been clear for many years now that Planned Parenthood is not applying for funding it “needs.” This is about seeking a political endorsement from city government, and the Democrats are more than happy to waste thousands upon thousands of dollars every year to make tat political endorsement at the expense of organizations that actually need the money. It is shameful.

I face more than enough opposition as a conservative without my own side undermining and sabotaging me. Conservatives need to stop supporting and strengthening the Leftist agenda, even if it brings a very short term political advantage. We have to be devoted to our principles first, foremost and always.

After a deranged Bernie Sanders volunteer opened fire on Republican members of Congress, I said on Twitter that “I hope conservatives realize how dangerous it is to free speech to link words to violent actions. Leftists do this to us all the time.” We are playing a very dangerous game, and advancing the Leftist narrative.

I am especially aware of this because of my anti-abortion stance and rhetoric. I have been told I have blood on my hands more times than I can count, especially after the assassination of George Tiller in 2009. No matter how many times I repeat my belief that abortion must end through peaceful, legal means, I am lumped in with the tiny number of fanatics who resort to violence.

Look at what we are seeing on college campuses. Leftist radicals claim that speech they dislike is actually “violence” against one oppressed group or another, and they are therefore allowed to use violence to suppress that speech. Therefore, riots are actually self-defense. Blaming the Left’s rhetoric for the shooting rampage is just one step removed from that depravity.

There is exactly one person (and only one person) who is guilty of the attack on the Republican members of Congress on that baseball field: The shooter himself. He planned the rampage and he pulled the trigger. Despicable rhetoric should be condemned, but it should not be connected to violence. Above all else, we must guard freedom of speech from efforts to censor it using fraudulent claims of “safety.” You better believe conservative speech will be the first to be silenced under such a regime.

I am not a fan of the picture cards in CandyLand. It is a cheap way to move ahead or be knocked back. It does balance itself out in the long run, but it is still cheap.‬

‪Yes, I am nitpicking a game I play with my five year old. I nitpick everything to death. Imagine what it must be like to watch a movie with me.‬

Rape is not a joke. It is a crime.

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