New Job Butterflies

After an exceptionally long, weird, and stressful out of work period, I start my new iteration of my career this morning.  It is coincidental that it is occurring during the traditional back-to-school period, as that is pretty much exactly how it feels to me.  It's equal parts worry, excitement, anxiety, joy, and impatience.  I'm worried about crap like what I'm going to wear, who I'll be meeting and if people are going to like me.

Thorough it all, it has not been lost on me how incredibly lucky I've been, and how so many prayers have been answered in such an amazing way.

No matter how old we get, we still look forward to the start of something new with hopes that we do well, and hopes that people like us.

Want to End the 2nd Amendment? Have At It, Already

With the on-air murder of two individuals last week, again the cry has gone up to eliminate guns from our culture.  In fact, the reporter's father has committed himself and his life to doing so, and just based on the amount of nearly instantaneous airtime he's acquired on CNN, he appears serious.

But, beyond just the simple demagoguery and the grandiose goals that were born of horrific pain, does anyone really understand what that means?

Charles C. W. Cooke of the National Review writes, in the most clear terms ever, what it will take to remove the second amendment, and asks its opponents to finally stop talking about it and get on with its repeal.  There are, of course, a number of things to address.  Here's just one example:

And when you’ve done all that and your vision is inked onto parchment, you’ll need to enforce it. No, not in the namby-pamby, eh-we-don’t-really-want-to-fund-it way that Prohibition was enforced. I mean enforce it — with force. When Australia took its decision to Do Something, the Australian citizenry owned between 2 and 3 million guns. Despite the compliance of the people and the lack of an entrenched gun culture, the government got maybe three-quarters of a million of them — somewhere between a fifth and a third of the total. That wouldn’t be good enough here, of course. There are around 350 million privately owned guns in America, which means that if you picked up one in three, you’d only be returning the stock to where it was in 1994. 

Does that sound difficult? Sure! After all, this is a country of 330 million people spread out across 3.8 million square miles, and if we know one thing about the American people, it’s that they do not go quietly into the night. But the government has to have their guns. It has to. The Second Amendment has to go. 

You’re going to need a plan. A state-by-state, county-by-county, street-by-street, door-to door plan. A detailed roadmap to abolition that involves the military and the police and a whole host of informants — and, probably, a hell of a lot of blood, too. Sure, the ACLU won’t like it, especially when you start going around poorer neighborhoods. Sure, there are probably between 20 and 30 million Americans who would rather fight a civil war than let you into their houses. Sure, there is no historical precedent in America for the mass confiscation of a commonly owned item — let alone one that was until recently constitutionally protected. Sure, it’s slightly odd that you think that we can’t deport 11 million people but we can search 123 million homes. But that’s just the price we have to pay. Times have changed. It has to be done: For the children; for America; for the future. 

Read the whole thing here.

Saturday Song Share: Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

This is the 90's version of Floyd, minus Roger Waters.  They don't miss him:

St. Francis and Religion as Action

My brother-in-law has turned me onto a daily meditation penned by Richard Rohr, and in between than and Fr. Don Talaphous' Daily Reflection, it is a great way to start the day in a prayerful and mindful way.

Yesterday's post by Rohr was an interesting analysis of the writings of St. Francis.  I'll let Rohr break it down for you:

Those who have analyzed the writings of Francis have noted that he uses the word doing rather than understanding at a ratio of 175 times to 5. Heart is used 42 times to 1 use of mind. Love is used 23 times as opposed to 12 uses of truth. Mercy is used 26 times while intellect is used only 1 time. This is a very new perspective that is clearly different from (and an antidote to) the verbally argumentative Christianity of his time, and from the highly academic theology that would hold sway from then on. Francis took prayer on the road and into the activity of life itself, which is why the Franciscans popularized the portable, small psalter that we still call the breviary (brevis or short handbook).

The take-away is how St. Francis view faith as action, and not merely as a mental exercise.

There is a lot for us to take away from that perspective (hey, yet another action!)

Virginia Murders Just Chickens Coming Home to Roost

America was shocked yesterday with the senseless murder of a news reporter and her cameraman while they were broadcasting on live TV.  Not wanting to waste an opportunity, immediately the White House and liberal talking heads used the graphic murders to push an anti-gun agenda.

Somebody should have told the killer that it was his easy access to guns that caused this.

You see, via his suicide note manifesto, his reason for the murders was racial pay-back.  What caused this level of grievance to be delivered in such a graphic and horrific fashion?  Let us count the ways:

1. #blacklivesmatter
2. Treyvon Martin and the President's grotesque involvement
3. The call for reparations
4. Michael Brown
5. "Hands Up, Don't Shoot"
6. The Gentle Giant
7. The concept of White Privilege
8. Rev. Wright and "God Damn America"

I could go on, but you know the drill.

The media has been running with the meme that white power is killing black people for years now.  Now black people are acting upon that meme.  

It is ironic that the group that has so robustly fanned the flames of hatred is the one that is also one of the first victims of that fire.

What Happens When a Muslim Woman is Beaten in Public?

Here is an interesting study in how we Westerners treat the Muslim culture differently:


Why don't people help that poor woman?  In my analysis, it is just a simple continuation of the West's acceptance of Islam's subjugation of their women.  Forced covering, genital mutilation, honor killings, rape, slavery (sexual and otherwise) is business as usual in the Islamic world.  We all know it is happening, and we let it happen (all while complaining about a "war on women" where US women are forced - FORCED - to pay for their own contraceptives).

When we see it in person, we know what it means - Islam treats their women with abject brutality.  We're not surprised, and we're sensitive to accept "cultural differences," regardless of how brutal those "differences" are to the women of their society.

I firmly believe that one day history will look back at the West's failure to do anything for women in Muslim countries in the same what that we look back at slavery in this date and age.

With abject shame.  As it should be. 

Madden NFL '16 Trailer

For a long-established franchise like Madden NFL, this is pretty darned good:

Marines Save Countless Lives. Again.

In a story that has been woefully under-reported, two US Marines were on a passenger train travelling to France, when they noticed an individual acting strangely.  The individual went into the toilet on the train, and the unmistakable sound of an assault weapon being loaded (at least unmistakable to a Marine) was noted by the two servicemen.  Sure enough, the subject burst from the toilet armed with a Kalashnikov, an automatic pistol, and enough ammunition to meet out death to at least 100 innocent victims on the train.

Fortunately for all of those potential victims, there were those two Marines aboard the train.  The heroes immediately engaged the shooter, and using their bare hands, subdued him before too much mayhem and carnage could ensue.  Unfortunately for one Marine, he took a round to the neck, and is in guarded condition.

You can read a nice recap on the story here.

This brings to mind a very famous quote:

 "The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of Marines. 
Lord, how they could fight!"
-MGen. Frank E. Lowe, US Army; Korea, 26 January 1952.  

I think if you asked the folks on that train, they'd suggest that the safest place for them was right behind those two Marines.

Now, the real question: Why in the world is this not a front page story?  Think about that.