- More on Political Dog Whistles.
- The ancient Republican who built something great by himself.
- Rare credit to the Netherlands.
- Could we pass RFRA again today?
- One of our preeminent modern myths.
- “Central heat”?
- On the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.
For some reason, only the GOP is thought by the press to have dog whistles.
“Welfare,” of course, is a racist dog whistle. A claim to have slashed welfare roles by 80% and promoting the dignity of work is as offensive as you can get.
Oops. It’s Barack Obama who said that in an ad. Never mind.
In fact, starting soon after 1972, the Democrats have been whistling at 30kHz a little ditty titled “The Great Whore of Babylon is Trying to Tell You How To Run Your Life!” Lately, they’ve added another verse: “And She’s Sleeping with the GOP, too!” Considering the extent to which ethnic Catholics were a key part of the Democrat base pre-1972, they must have counted on a strong current of anticlericalism to more than offset the departure of the magisterium-minded for the GOP.
I and others consider it a small sign of hope that they may have been manipulated into a gesture that will force them to drop that second verse, and perhaps even reappear someday clothed and sane.
Did you know that King Nebuchadnezzar was a Republican? Yup. He was very proud that he built Babylon all by himself. It didn’t turn out all that well for a while.
It astonishes me that the Netherlands, which so recently produced Christian heros and heroines like Corrie ten Boom, so quickly became secular, libertine and enamored of euthanasia.
But I’m happy to give them credit for Hogewey, an innovative community of “residents” with dementia. I’ll give even more credit to the person who figures out how those with dementia can live among us, in multigenerational settings, as happily as they seem to be living at Hogewey.
More (in English) here.
Almost immediately after Employment Division v. Smith (Antonin Scalia’s nadir), Congress overwhelmingly passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).
Whatever happened to the RFRA coalition? Could we pass it again today? Quite possibly, no.
Why? George Weigel explores answer(s) with a little help from his friends.
“One of the great myths of our day is that money produces food.” (Wendell Berry, I believe, quoted by Norman Wirzba on Mars Hill Audio Journal Volume 113)
Why do they call it “central heating” when it encourages the family to scatter all over the house? (H/T Arthur Boers on Mars Hill Audio Journal Volume 113) So another technology plays out its hand.
Were most people in the Protestant South in which I live asked what is the “pillar and ground of the truth,” they would answer, “the Bible.” And they would be wrong.
(On the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets)
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Tipsy Teetotaler ن 