26 June 2015

Uncommon Commentary #465: Dunce SCOTUS

(The word “dunce” derives from the name of theologian (John) Duns Scotus, who, however, was far from stupid; “SCOTUS” is an acronym for “Supreme Court of the United States”, “United States” being an inadequate name for the country that is correctly called “United States of America”, or “USA”.)
According to the television listings, C-Span has allotted the entire period today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to President Obama Eulogy for State Senator Clementa Pinckney.  I assume that President Obombast won’t actually fill the entire time slot with his verbiage—Even Bill Clinton has never given a speech that lasted for four hours!—, but, the real question is: Why isn’t he instead giving a eulogy for good sense on the US Supreme Court, which has made a major misruling for the second day in a row?

25 June 2015

Uncommon Commentary #464: Arranged with the Deranged

The pending deal with Iran increasingly seems to resemble the one in the late 1990’s with North Korea, which enabled that country to develop nuclear weaponry.  Here’s my advice to the US negotiators: First demand the release of all political prisoners, then ascertain that they are free, and then don’t sign the agreement.

24 June 2015

Uncommon Commentary #463: Banners of a Banner

In the aftermath of any shooting that occurs during the reign of the “post-partisan unifier” Barack Obama, like the one that happened several days ago in Charleston, South Carolina, I often don’t know whether I’m revolted more by the bloodshed or by the Left’s exploitation of it. (And it is only the Left which is guilty of this politicization; I haven’t heard any rightists allege that racial quotas in hiring and in university admissions drove Dylann [sic] Roof to murder Blacks.) Now, leftists are contending that South Carolina’s use of the Confederate battle flag as its State flag somehow has relevance to the massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and are again demanding that the federal government force that State to replace its allegedly racist pennant.  I formerly thought that everyone learned in high school, as I did, that the so-called US “Civil War”—“War of Southern Secession” and “War for Southern Independence” are more accurate names—was fought over not slavery but sovereignty; see UC #340.  Someone who displays the Confederate battle flag may or may not be a White-supremacist like Roof, but, even if he is, his use of it does not necessarily make this standard an emblem of bigotry.  Ought Buddhists to desist from employing their ancient symbol the swastika, because it was adopted by National Socialists who believed themselves to be descended from the people of Tibet? (One might argue that the very fact that the Stars-and-Bars is regarded by many as hateful, however wrongly, is reason to abandon it.  To a Christian, there may well be justification for this viewpoint; St. Paul instructed followers of Christ to avoid giving scandal to others.  It must be remembered, though, that Paul lived in the First Century AD rather than the Twenty-First; I can’t believe that he would expect us to indulge the hypersensitivity that prevails in our Depraved New World.)
The only thing that I’ll add here, referring to what I wrote in the opening sentence, is that this controversy demonstrates that leftists don’t always oppose capitalism.  No one else capitalizes tragedy as they do!

19 June 2015

Uncommon Commentary #462: UC #451 Follow-Up

Since I wrote UC #451, it has occurred to me that other designations could be applied to the woman presently known as Hillary [sic] (Rodham) Clinton.  For instance, according to my dictionary, the suffix “-ary” can mean “thing belonging to or connected with; esp., place of” or “person belonging to, connected with, or engaged in”.  Why not, then, alter her first name to Hellary?  Furthermore, since “dunghill” can mean “something (as a situation or condition) that is repulsive or degraded”, how about “Dunghillary”?  And because “Sodom” is defined as “a place notorious for vice or corruption”, may I suggest using that as her maiden name instead of Rodham? (Hopefully, there’s one thing that she’ll never be called: “the President”.)

10 June 2015

Uncommon Commentary #461: Hitler Refutes Charge of Anti-Semitism

Obnoxious atheist, Obama supporter, and HBO host Bill Maher has actually denied that there is a left-wing war against religion in general and Christianity in particular, saying “I really want to know: Where is religion belittled in the liberal world?”  Doesn’t that jerk watch his own program?

05 June 2015

Uncommon Commentary #460: Does Being Part of “Pop” Culture Mean that One’s Bubble Will Burst?

One mystery of life is why so many of the people who seem to have everything that a person could want, that is, the popular-culture elite, ruin their apparently enviable lives through substance abuse.  Have they such inflated opinions of themselves that they believe that addiction is a problem that affects no one but those mere mortals who are not “icons”?  Is it because the Betty Ford clinic has, as made evident by the trashion “rehab [sic] chic”, rendered it almost glamorous to be or to have been addicted to something?  There’s probably truth in these possible explanations, but the major reason may be our living in a spiritual vacuum; having all that our debased civilization offers, and realizing that they still don’t have true happiness, celebrities try to fill said vacuum with drugs or alcohol or both.  Whatever is the best explanation, it’s yet another reason to assiduously ignore Hollywood and its ilk.