Is being "moral" old fashioned ?

So I'm surfing over at iOwntheworld.com, and I come across an article about teenage girls exposing themselves, excuse me, flashing in public and a 30 something male is arrested for taking pictures of them. The question posed by an admin was: what's your opinion of this?
The arguments get hot and heavy concerning the law, whether 15 year olds are really children, etc. About 100 comments in I'm wondering why the idea of morality and "common" decency hasn't been brought up?
I made this comment:

We started this country as a nation of laws. But there was also an unwritten, but generally agreed upon standard of decency and moral obligation. For better or for worse, the laws have become relaxed, and decency and morality have been relegated to the ash-heap in favor of modernity.
Am I some kind of standard bearer for this decency?
Nope. I was a child of the 60's, and I stood warming my hands at the bonfire of "old fashioned values" like so many others.
But I think we lost something in our rush to free ourselves from antiquated notions like God, and shame, and modesty. We "progressed". We progressed to talking about 15 year old girls baring themselves in public. We're smarter, more hip, more sophisticated. We are a progressive nation.
And we are a poorer country for it.


I got mainly favorable votes for the comment, but this morning I had to ask myself: Did I come off as being a pompous ass? Am I just a kill-joy?

But I was truly bothered by the fact that no one seemed to think that this was unusual, and that no one seemed concerned about the very act of these girls, or the 30 something's response. Most were just concerned with whether the man should be charged as a sex offender. (And whether the girls had nice boobs.) Not whether the whole incident should be thought of as shameful and indecent.

I'm really feeling old today. Like a man who's time has passed...

Missouri is my home...

I’m from Missouri, and this morning to paraphrase the FLOTUS: “For the first time in my adult life I am proud of my state, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.”

You can quote me on that.

"Missouri voters reject key provision of ObamaCare in ballot measure..." 

"We did it before, and we can do it again..."

Big hattip to BigFurHat and Iowntheworld.com

Well, I just found my new theme song...

Ruminations on an Independence Day

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." Matthew 5:14



So last night I was watching "Ice Station Zebra".
Yeah, I know - not exactly an Independence Day film.
But I'm a fan of John Sturges, Alistair Maclean, and the Cold War genre in general, so this movie gives me a 3 for 1.
But I digress, and this isn't a review of the film anyway.

Watching the film got me to thinking about the Cold War with the USSR.
The Cold War got me to thinking about the Reagan era and the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Pretty convoluted, eh? Try and stick with me - I ain't done yet...

That got me wondering: what was it like for people of the satellite countries, and Mother Russia herself, AFTER it all came down.
Sure, from our point of view (the USA, that is), we were happy that it was all over. Our greatest enemy had been defeated without any big mushroom clouds sprouting, no need to see if those "Duck and Cover" videos would really, really work.
Dad could turn the bomb shelter out in the back yard into a wine cellar / cigar humidor and have the boys over on the weekend so they could smoke and joke and laugh about how silly they all felt now for building one in the first place.

But what must it have been like for the average citizen of some of those little eastern European nations that were told that the new order of the day was "Root Hog, or Die"?
No more military protection from Big Momma - Momma had problems of her own. No more subsidies, no more grain shipments, and don't try to cash that check from home - insufficient funds.

Security is, to paraphrase our current VP, a "big f-ing deal". Knowing that you have a roof over your head, the ability to feed you and yours, and that you have the means to do it again tomorrow is something that for the majority of us in the USA, taken completely for granted. And I thank G-d for it.
Even if I loose my job tomorrow, I have an excellent chance of finding another one. Sure, if worse comes to worse, I may have to switch from a cushy desk job, to flipping burgers, but I have a fighting chance to not only continue, but with the proper application of "skull sweat" and "elbow grease", I can not only survive, but maybe, just maybe, I can exceed.

But what about some of those little former satellite nations? To some, no doubt, The Bombs might as well have fallen in Moscow. They were suddenly cut off from the socialist teat that they had been originally forced to feed from, and later grew to expect and depend on.
The thought of me being trapped in that situation sends my mind into panic attack mode. G-d knows what it must have been like for them...


So what does all of that have to do with me watching a cold war thriller last night?
Well, my mind is full of nasty, tricksy hobbitses sneaking their way to Mordor, and they finally led me to that dark, spider filled cave of "What If ?"

Could something happen here in the United States?
Something that could crack the very foundation of this bright and "Shining City on a Hill"?

The sad truth is: Yes.

Even this brilliant invention created by the true geniuses of our Founding Fathers is neither invulnerable or eternal.
Is it strong? Absolutely.
I think history has shown and will continue to show that this "Grand Experiment" is the closest example to a perfect society that has ever been, and ever will be created by men.

But the sad truth is that our Republic's greatest strengths have also become our greatest weakness.
That of freedom itself.
The same freedoms that made us what we are, are being used against us today.
Freedom of thought, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression have been slowly twisted into a perverse mirror of it's original intent.

Can we fix it before it's too late?
Absolutely.
But it's not going to be easy, and it's going to take strong measures to reverse the damage done.
Vigilance is hard. 


Today we celebrate Independence Day.

But the War for Independence didn't end with the defeat of the British in 1783.
It was fought then, and we continue to fight now for our Liberty every day.

May G-d grant us many, many more.


July 4, 2010


Post Script: Maybe for today, I'll sit back, give my fevered brain a rest, and just watch the musical "1776"
That ought to get my mind off this stuff...

Should McChrystal run for President?

Soon after the Rolling Stone article on General McChrystal caused the resignation/retirement/firing of the same, I was asked, "Should McChrystal run for President?"

After the inner monologue of snarky Obama jokes subsided in my head, I considered an honest answer to that question.
For better or worse, this was the answer I gave:




Bottom line. EVERY soldier, from newly enlisted on up take an oath:

“I, (MY NAME), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

That’s a hard pill to swallow.

But notice that the President is SECONDARY to the Constitution.
If there is a conflict of the two, a soldier’s PRIMARY mission is to defend the Constitution over the orders of the POTUS.

Now, that having been said, should McChrystal have said the things he said? Yes – right AFTER he resigned his commission – not before. As citizen McChrystal – not as a general under the President’s command.

Would I vote for him if he ran for President?
Hell no.

Being a general is HARD.
But if he can’t do that properly and by the book, how could he properly run this country?
Being the President is HARDER.

But hey, that’s just me…

Endeavor to persevere

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Tennyson

Memorial Day

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

General George S. Patton

Lest I forget...

The Necessity of Force

When I was teenager, I was a liberal.
Actually, I was a pot smoking, foul mouthed, Marxist spouting little twerp of a hippy.
I got better.

Not all at once, but gradually, I found myself at odds with everything I had once put my secular "faith" in.
My new faith was in Someone and something outside of myself.
But along side of that, I found a world that was full of real heroes.
Those men and women who put their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor above their personal comfort.
When talks broke down, when reason was scorned, when pleas of mercy fell on deaf ears, these heroes sought freedom from oppression with that final choice left to people desperate to choose their own destiny.
Some would call it applied force.
Others, physical resistance.
Or more honestly: violence.

We hear that word today, and many cringe at the term.
But ask any soldier that has met the enemy on the field of battle, and they will tell you that you can use those earlier, prettier terms for it, but violence is still it's name.
And many have paid the ultimate price in it's application.



An excerpt from Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein:

History and Moral Philosophy.
H. & M. P. was different from other courses in that everybody had to take it but nobody had to pass it – and Mr. Dubois never seemed to care whether he got through to us or not. He would just point at you with the stump of his left arm (he never bothered with names) and snap a question. Then the argument would start.
But on the last day he seemed to be trying to find out what we had learned. One girl told him bluntly: “My mother says that violence never settles anything.”
“So?” Mr. Dubois looked at her bleakly. “I'm sure the city fathers of Carthage would be glad to know that. Why doesn't your mother tell them so? Or why don't you?”
They had tangled before – since you couldn't flunk the course, it wasn't necessary to keep Mr. Dubois buttered up. She said shrilly, “You're making fun of me! Everybody knows that Carthage was destroyed!”
“You seemed to be unaware of it,” he said grimly. “Since you do know it, wouldn't you say that violence had settled their destinies rather thoroughly? However, I was not making fun of you personally; I was heaping scorn on an inexcusably silly idea – a practice I shall always follow. Anyone who clings to the historically untrue – and thoroughly immoral – doctrine that `violence never settles anything' I would advise to conjure up the ghosts of Napoleon Bonaparte and of the Duke of Wellington and let them debate it. The ghost of Hitler could referee, and the jury might well be the Dodo, the Great Auk, and the Passenger Pigeon. Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.”

Lest I forget...

"I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did." 

Benjamin Harrison