28 February 2014

Uncommon Commentary #395: Tyranny of the Majority (Leader)

It's bad enough that Harry Reid is a slanderous jerk, as he is demonstrating by again making a baseless accusation against those who don't see things his way; this time, he's calumniating Americans for Prosperity as having hired actors to tell invented stories about their suffering because of ObamaCareless.  Reid is not alone in maligning anyone who makes the Democratic Party look bad, but he also abuses his position as US Senate Majority Leader by refusing to bring bills to the floor for a vote if he simply doesn't want them to become law.  It is long past the time for this congressional disgrace to be relegated to the status of Minority Leader (as well as for his being ousted from public office altogether!); the voters muffed their chance in 2012, but perhaps they'll get it right in this year's elections.

25 February 2014

Uncommon Commentary #394: Vice Isn't Nice

Known homosexual athletes (like the NFL draftee whom First _ Michelle Obombast calls an "inspiration") ought not to share locker rooms with heterosexuals, any more than heterosexuals ought to share them with the opposite sex.  This isn't "homophobia"; it's common sense.

18 February 2014

Uncommon Commentary #393: A "Pen" Is Where Obama Belongs

On several occasions, I have written about Emperor Nerobama's abuse of his power in issuing executive orders.  This issue is now receiving wider attention, thanks to his imprudent "I've got [sic] a pen" boast and his latest State of the Union address.  Released this past week were the pertinent, alarming results of a public-opinion survey taken under the joint direction of two polling companies, one Democratic and one Republican.  Question number four read: "Barack Obama said he will take action to advance his policy goals with or without Congress, and that he'll use executive orders to get around Congress.  Do you think this is the way our government is supposed to work, or not?"  74 percent of the respondents correctly answered "no", but 23 percent said yes, even though one of the first things that we are taught about the US government is that it operates on the principle of "separation of powers", i.e., legislative powers are reserved for the legislative branch, executive powers for the independently elected executive, and judicial powers for the judiciary.  Among Dumbocrats it was 40 percent "yes" and 54 percent "no"; among Blacks, 54 yes and only 42 no; and, astonishingly, respondents with a college degree were less likely (26 percent "yes", 73 percent "no") to get this right than those without such a degree (20-75)!  Even more disturbing is the response to question number five ("Regardless of what you think about how things are supposed to work, do you approve or disapprove of Barack Obama going around Congress and using executive orders?"): the percentage that replies positively rises to 37 percent, against 60 percent disapproving.  This means that, in addition to the 23 percent who think that Obama's promise to subvert the will of Congress is constitutional, 14 percent (nearly one in seven) acknowledge that the President's behavior is unconstitutional but agree with it anyway.  Among members of his party the percentages are 66 percent approval versus 31 percent disapproval; among members of the only race to which he admits he belongs—as I've noted previously on the Doman Domain, Obama is just as much White as he is Black, but his mother's side of the family doesn't seem to count—, it's an appalling 81 percent approval and only 16 percent disapproval.
I've said it before, and, at the risk of being thought a dangerous radical, I'll say it again: The US form of government is viable only if the average voter is astute enough to choose his leaders wisely.  When two-thirds of the chief executive's party is either so obtuse or so mindlessly partisan as to commend his despotism, what we call "democracy" is obsolete.

12 February 2014

Uncommon Commentary #392: Massacring St. Valentine's Day

In referring to Saint Valentine’s Day simply as "Valentine's Day", we—that is, you; I don't do it—contribute to the super-secularization of what could once have been called our "culture".  St. Valentine's Day was associated with romantic love as long ago as the age of Chaucer, but until fairly recently it was remembered that the real meaning of this true holiday, i.e., holy day, is that it is the feast of at least one saint named Valentine.  Calling it "Valentine's Day" helps to sustain the impression that "Valentine" refers not to a person who dedicated his life to God but to our practice of giving one another "valentines".

07 February 2014

Miscellaneous Musing #61

There have been television programs about attempts to find the Ark of the Covenant; one (Ancient X-Files) aired two days ago on some cable channel, and concerned the quest of one archaeologist who speculates that the artifact is to be located in tunnels that underlie the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  The Ethiopian Orthodox Church holds that the ark is not lost at all, but, rather, is kept inside a church in the ancient city Axum.  And then, of course, there was the ludicrously overrated feature film Raiders of the Lost Ark, which placed the Biblical treasure in Egypt but offered no explanation as to how it got there.  According to documents alluded to in 2 Maccabees 2:4-8, on the other hand, the prophet Jeremiah had the ark sealed within a cave on what is now called Mount Pisgah, and declared that it would not need to be rediscovered but would someday be revealed by God.  The Second Book of the Maccabees is considered apocryphal by many Christians, and so this account perhaps need not be taken as authoritative; if one is to search for the Ark of the Covenant, though, doesn't it make sense to start by looking in a place that has actually been named as its repository?