Uncommon Commentary #240: The Only Date to Dread Is 15 April

I'll probably have to re-run this posting when we near the Winter Solstice, but, since there's already been plenty of irresponsible eschatological ballyhoo about the "Mayan apocalypse," doubtless motivated by the knowledge that there is money to be made in scaring people:
Unlike the Hebrews, who had an uniquely linear concept of history (viz., they believed that history has both a beginning and an end), the Maya and other ancient peoples held that history unfolds in cycles, one of which, according to the Maya calendar, will end on 21 December of this year.  What will end on the 2012 Winter Solstice according to the Maya is not, therefore, the world (which they thought would never come to an end), but merely a cycle of history (to be followed by another).  Furthermore, Christ (who, in my opinion, has far more credibility than anyone associated with the Mayan religion) informed us that no one will know precisely when His Second Coming, and by extension the other events of the real apocalypse foretold in the Book of Revelation, will take place.
2012 ought not, therefore, to be feared more than any other year.  We ought to live always as if the End Times were upon us, especially because they may well be; we ought to do so, however, because we fear God instead of alarmist assertions.

Miscellaneous Musing #40

False humility, in addition to being hypocritical, is totally unnecessary; anyone with a sense of Christian virtue who examines himself honestly will see that he has ample reason for genuine humility.

Uncommon Commentary #239: A Goofy Guy and His Mickey-Mouse Administration

Emperor Nerobama's staffers must be conspiring to set him up for ridicule by the likes of me.  What else explains his hosting a "town-hall meeting" at Walt Disney World, flanked by Mickey Mouse and Goofy? (That is, I assume that he was the one in the middle.)

Uncommon Commentary #238: Senseless Murder, Senseless Justice

Whenever someone commits any of the seemingly irrational slayings that have helped to make our Depraved New World infamous, there arises a debate over whether he is evil or criminally insane.  Why must these two be considered exclusive of one another?  Has it not occurred to people that someone's psychosis may be a product of his malice rather than an alternative explanation thereof?  Adolf Hitler was unquestionably a paranoiac (as well as, late in life, a schizophrene); would anyone have denied that he was responsible for his crimes, and argued for his confinement to a psychiatric institution?

Uncommon Commentary #237: Is Romney's Win Valid? Don't Take it for Granite

I've just learned that the Republican Party's primary primary, that is, the one in New Hampshire, is "open"; this means that anyone may vote in it, regardless of party affiliation.  Where's the logic in that?  The Granite State might as well not even have a primary.  Whichever granite-head was responsible for this needs to be sent back to primary school.

Uncommon Commentary #236: Those Who Ignore History Are Doomed to Re-Elect Obama

In announcing the first set of deep cuts that he wants to make in the US defense budget, Obombast stated that we cannot afford to repeat past mistakes.  Is this his way of saying that we can afford to make original mistakes?

Uncommon Commentary #235: Demonstrations Against Nuclear Missiles, and of Stupidity

It's an irony, though a welcome one, that the detrimental and idiotic "Ban the Bomb" or "No Nukes" movement collapsed with the USSR (perhaps because at least some of the demonstrations, as declassified documents from the Kremlin revealed, were incited by the KGB); because of acceleration in the spread of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War, the prospect of war using atomic arms is actually more likely now than when the Soviet Union existed.