Category Archives: American Character

May 1, 2017 · 3:00 pm

When everyone gets a gold star

” In the days when all properly brought up little American girls stitched their samplers, as all little boys did their chores, they wrote verses in each other’s Autograph Albums to record the eternal friendships of first days in school. Their careful Spencerian penmanship is faded now on the brittle pages where you read two verses often repeated, the first usually signed by Abner or Joseph, the second by Eliza or Phoebe:

When Duty whispers low, “Thou must,”

The youth replies, “I can.”

And

Straight is the line of Duty,

Curved is the line of Beauty.”

p. 52, chapter on Cross-Stitch, Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework, by Rose Wilder Lane, published in 1961

The oft repeated line for little boys comes from an 1863 Ralph Waldo Emerson poem titled Voluntaries. Sage Stossel, in a piece in The Atlantic explains that the poem, “paid tribute to those prepared to sacrifice all for the sake of the Union. The final four lines of the stanza below are among Emerson’s most famous, and have been inscribed on veterans’ memorials around the country.” That “Duty” the above verses speak to is a concept America’s founding fathers embraced and which J. Rufus Fears, the late historian and professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, described simply as:

“Civic virtue: The willingness of the individual to subordinate himself to the good of the community.”

In previous posts I’ve expounded on the demise of civic virtue in America and how it all begins in American families and communities, where the seeds of civic virtue must be planted and nurtured. We have child-rearing experts, from child psychologists to educational professionals to celebrity experts and yet in bygone eras, most people, with few resources, managed to train and educate their children to be citizens of good character.

For a needlework book, Rose Wilder Lane, managed to explain a great deal of American history, along with the history of American needlework. In the chapter on Cross-stitch, Lane offered photos of several American samplers, which young girls stitched to both learn how to stitch and as a future reference for various stitches.

Many of the samplers contain the girl’s name, age, and the year the sampler was stitched. Some of the most beautiful samplers were stitched by girls as young as 9 or 10 years old. These girls designed their own samplers and diligently stitched them as Lane describes:

“Dutiful those little girls were required to be, silently repressing their rebellion while they did their daily “stint” of stitching that must be done before they would be allowed to play. And the beauty of their work is in its four-square character, strictly faithful to the straight line Yet, it is a gentle beauty, for in the beholder’s eye the straight line becomes a curve of vines and flowers, of woodland bird and rabbit and deer and of the darling dog and the long-tailed mouser on the hearthrug

So those grim hours of duty unexpectedly produced the deep joy of work well-done, a triumph earned by difficult self-discipline.”

p. 52, chapter on Cross-Stitch, Woman’s Day Book of American Needlework, by Rose Wilder Lane, published in 1961

Lane also describes a sampler completed by a girl, aged 14 and points out how that girl lacked self-discipline and should have been ashamed to produce such shoddy workmanship at her age. Lane dissects how the girl began her sampler using harder stitches and patterns, which she abandoned for simpler stitches and poorly drawn motifs. Lane attributes this to indulgent parenting and that the results show that girl was not required to do her “stint” of stitching daily.

The thing that Lane is referring to is the character-building beliefs and attitudes that created people like our founding fathers.

These beliefs dominated until progressive attitudes in the late 1800s gained a foothold and throughout the 1900s this new belief system trampled civic virtue. The age of “I” took hold, where at every turn the belief, that above all else, “how you feel matters most”. The suggestion, that there is value in self-discipline, self-restraint or self-sacrifice, in anything, will be met with anger and hostility. You will be quickly cast as mean and a hater.

American academia is filled with nostrums to fix the social and political ills, that experts and pundits galore all agree are destroying America. Most fixate on political panaceas rather than address the cultural attitudes and mores that produce our corrupt political morass. It’s politically incorrect to point out the failures in parenting, the failures of individual citizens to learn civic values and live them, and the failures of the American spirit. And into this self-indulgent culture, those who suggest “standards” or behaviors that bolster the values, upon which civic virtue is built, will be attacked immediately as mean-spirited fascists.

In our schools, kids today are taught to care more about their own feelings than about learning to read, think, or acquire knowledge. In the early 90s, our oldest daughter was in elementary school. She wrote an essay and received a 100 as her grade on this pathetic effort. I asked her teacher how on earth this essay deserved a 100 and the teacher acted like I had grown horns. She lectured me about how important it is to encourage “creativity” and how I didn’t understand how fragile children’s emotions are, etc. etc. For the record, children are completely self-centered and need to be taught how to care about other people.

The problem with my daughter’s essay was she used no capitalization and no punctuation and she sure isn’t ee cummings. In addition her spelling was appalling, so it was almost impossible to make sense out of what she had written. I knew my daughter could spell, write and use punctuation much better than her lazy effort. When we got home, I told my daughter that despite what her teacher said, trying to do your best matters and that I knew she could write much better than that effort.

When everyone gets a gold star, a gold star means nothing.

I worked in Walmart almost 15 years, holding several positions, including being the department manager in fabrics and crafts a number of years. Working in Walmart is like a social laboratory of American social pathologies, especially the fixation on “stuff”. Speaking as a hoarder of craft and sewing supplies, I diagnosed my own bad behaviors years ago and am still working on gaining more discipline about my craft and needlework shopping habits. The buying-too-much-stuff problem is a common behavior among way too many needleworkers, hobbyists, computer gamers, sportsmen, outdoorsmen and in every recreational pursuit. Each pastime comes with a lot of “stuff” that we want.

Often, when talking to customers who were new to craft and sewing supplies, I would discuss what they were working on or wanted to work on and direct them to the supplies we carried. I also would often direct them to websites or books where they could learn more about the basics of that particular craft or needlework. There’s a mindset in America that has taken over quilting and needlework, that if you buy the “right” stuff (expensive frames, gadgets, fabric), you will be able to create beautiful work. The entire building blocks, of learning the basics first and taking the time to practice those basics skills, are lost in the mindless pursuit of buying more and more “stuff”.

This same attitude prevails in the attention-seeking Reality TV culture and social media culture, where even thousands of cross-stitchers have their own floss tube channels, where they talk about their cross-stitch and offer support and encouragement to each other (mostly to promote mindless acquisition of more “stuff” and starting lots of projects). Although, in the mix there are plenty of amazingly talented needlewomen out there. For the record, I am just a competent cross-stitcher, who works hard to keep my stitches neat on the front and back of my work. I have the build of a PA Dutch farm woman, as befitting my heritage, and I have large hands and wear a ladies size 11 shoe. Mine are not the dainty fingers of a needleworker.

Whenever I learn a new type of needlework, I try to learn the basics first and practice a lot. My mother taught me simple rules about embroidery and I still follow them. These rules are in the instructions in almost every cross-stitch kit and book too. They aren’t my mother’s rules, but the time-tested standards for embroidery, of which cross-stitch is a popular type of embroidery.

Anywhere in social media, I run into issues stating facts or an opinion that offends someone or evokes anger, so it was no surprise to me that on floss tube, I would offend someone. The prevailing attitude is it’s taboo to say anything is wrong, apparently, even when what people are promoting is not only wrong, it’s a recipe for disaster for new stitchers. Some stitchers started a facebook group called “Stitch Maynia”, which began as some event in May, where they focus on starting a new cross-stitch project every day in May. Their focus is all about starting new projects, not about finishing what they start. They believe they are promoting cross-stitching and doing something good.

There’s now also a common attitude among many stitchers that it doesn’t matter how the back of their work looks, it’s all about that stitching makes them happy. If you don’t care that your work is sloppy and a messy back on needlework is sloppiness (that’s a FACT), fine, but once you have a facebook group and a floss tube channel, with thousands of followers, well, you can become a corrupting influence very quickly. This happens with Reality TV stars constantly too.

I tried to point out to a fairly new cross-stitcher that from years of experience with needlework and crafting, that starting too many projects leads to lots of unfinished projects and also added stress. To keep track of this madness, there are floss tubers waxing on about all their “WIPs” (works-in- progress) and the spreadsheets, stitch journals and stitching schedules, they are using to keep track of it all. Into this chaos, they insist they love stitching and starting so many things makes them”happy”. For a new stitcher, this approach assures lots of wasted money, lots of unfinished projects and lots of poor needlework.

There is no foundation, of focused practice and good stitching habits, upon which excellent stitching is built.

One of the ladies who promotes sloppy needlework at Stitch Maynia quickly tried to tell me I was wrong and that it’s all about being happy stitching and that the back doesn’t matter. She also told me she has 20 years experience at cross-stitch. I didn’t even bother to respond, because it’s lost on her. She has no idea how sad it is to smugly state she’s proud of doing sloppy needlework for 20 years. Sadder still is most of these needlewomen, caught up in this “feel-good” ethos will follow her advice and believe I am mean for stating that standards in needlework (just like everything else we take pride in) matter. She proudly told me Stitch Maynia has 9,000 followers.

People of good character, not government programs, build a society based upon civic virtue.

Good work habits matter.

Practice matters.

Lazy, sloppy habits and work should not be cheered on or promoted, in tasks, whether small or large.

Learning self-discipline is the key to building good character.

It really is that simple.

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Filed under American Character, Culture Wars, General Interest, Things That Matter

April 24, 2017 · 4:14 pm

Standards of excellence… or not

Do standards matter and are they worth teaching and preserving?

A month or so ago, I stitched this small American-themed design to add to my “I love America” room, which is the foyer by my front door. That space is approximately 4 feet X 10 feet. I get lots of ideas for this small area, as I mentioned in a previous post: here. The foyer had vinyl flooring when we bought this house in 1994 and although there was a chair rail trim, about halfway up around the walls, above and below the chair rail were an off-white color. It took me a few years to find the wallpaper I wanted, which has an English hunting vibe. Above the chair rail is the animal print and below the chair rail is a coordinating striped-print. My husband hung the wallpaper, but then I decided I wanted hardwood flooring in the foyer. However, after shopping around and asking a lot of questions, I decided I wanted a vinyl flooring that was cut into “planks”, like hardwood floors. The easy maintenance and durability, with having 4 kids and dogs in the house, sold me on the vinyl option. These vinyl look-alike planks were about the same price as going with hardwood flooring. My husband laid these vinyl planks, but in typical LB style, I had looked at hardwood floor designs and decided that I wanted them laid in a herringbone pattern. So, I showed my husband some pictures from a book and he drew it all out on paper with measurements, then installed my herringbone floor.

About 10 years ago, we replaced flooring and carpet in our home and my husband really wanted tile flooring in the kitchen, bathrooms and foyer. I opted for a high-quality vinyl “tile” floor for in my kitchen, because it’s not as hard to stand on cooking and it’s not as cold as tile on concrete-slab homes here in coastal GA. He got his real tiles in the foyer and bathrooms. We had someone install the tiles, because my husband wasn’t in good health, by that point. I missed my herringbone pattern on the floor, but these big tiles are nice too.

My beloved wallpaper should be removed, but I am hanging onto it as long as I can. The above craft project isn’t anything great, but I am satisfied with it. Instead of just framing that little piece, I opted for trying a finishing using a paint canvas. The fabric is a print I love, which I had sewn into a travel-size pillowcase years ago. I used a travel-size pillow on my lap for propping my Q-snap frames or embroidery hoops, when I do needlework. Lucy, my stray-dog rescue, loves to chew holes in the corners of throw cushions and even furniture cushions.

This is partly another “happy hoarding” story, as after she chewed the corners off my travel-size pillowcase and pillow, I washed that damaged pillowcase and kept it with my patriotic fabric. Last night, I cut up the pillowcase and used one side of it to cover this paint canvas, then I added some rickrack trim and the cross-stitch. I am keeping the rest of that pillowcase too, because I can use it for the backs on some small patriotic-themed cross-stitch pillows. I decided to add the pins, which were a set of 6 pins I bought at a yard sale years ago. The hanging ribbon, was just ribbon that I twisted up to look like cording. There are obvious imperfections, but overall I am satisfied with it. It’s a small piece that I can stitch up again, easily and finish it differently or I can take this apart and finish it differently, if later I decide it needs improvement.

The “imperfections” are really what this blog post is about, despite it taking over 500 words for me to get to the point. The lack of concern with doing things “right”, maintaining “standards” and the pervasive willingness to heap praise on mediocre work is as destructive to the moral fiber of our society as all the more obvious cultural revolutions in the past century. This attitude, that how you feel about your work matters more than the quality of your workmanship, permeates even into needlework.

The 2016 election, with two venal, lying, corrupt candidates, both running vile scorched earth propaganda campaigns left me wondering how on earth, these two disgusting candidates could be the candidates the two major political parties put forth. More Americans, who voted in the primaries, opted for these two candidates and that speaks volumes about the state of our republic.

As mentioned in a previous blog post, I started watching embroidery videos on YouTube, then discovered “floss tube”, where cross-stitchers post videos about their work. I wrote:

“The usual floss tube video seems to be about an hour, divided into sections of show and tell about finished projects, works-in-progress (WIPs), and “Haul” (more cross-stitch junk purchased). Then there are a few floss tube contributors, like the expert needlewoman , Mary Rose, named after Mary, Queen of Scots, who present much shorter, highly educational and deeply thoughtful videos that deal with much larger life lessons.”

My craft project last night was a technique, covering a paint canvas with fabric, which I saw on a floss tube video by Silvia. Silvia, who posts under the name beckisland, is a sweet, German lady who stitches small cross-stitch pieces and finishes them in creative ways. Silvia is very dedicated to doing the best work she can and often she will dissect an older piece she finished and discuss what she isn’t happy about with her work and how she would do it differently now.

She’s focused on excellence.

Since floss tube is an informal community, people from around the world post their videos, which offers an unfiltered look at the good, the bad and ugly (and not just about cross-stitch).

Last year, I mentioned another YouTube video by Dr. Saul Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair, American History, Fordham University. His video explains the concept of civic virtue. At minute 26:56 Dr. Cornell discusses how after the American Revolution women in America started including elements of American civic values into their needlework samplers:

Listening to people is a lifelong hobby of mine too, so watching these videos, I detected that many of the same attitudes and beliefs that are corroding our social fiber, have had an effect on needlework too.

There are stitchers posting videos in which they declare that they don’t care if the back of their needlework is a knotted up mess. There are plenty of stitchers who make comments that the back of their work isn’t neat and they are embarrassed about it, because they know it’s not up to accepted standards. These younger stitchers, who boldly proclaim those standards don’t matter offer an assortment of rationales… like “my friends love my work and I love my work, so who cares” or “the back of your work only matters if you’re entering your work in needlework competitions” or “no one sees the back, so who cares”.

Keeping the back of your needlework as neat as the front is a standard of excellence in needlework, because the neatness on the back assures the stitches on the front will remain snug and keep their shape. Neatness on the back also assures there are no unsightly lumps on the front from tangled and knotted threads on the back.

I’m trying to use up scraps of Aida cross-stitch fabric, that I’ve had since the 90s, for small projects. I stitched this little piece on an old Aida scrap yesterday. My back is pretty neat, but I need to improve on neatness with my backstitching, where the lettering is. The creases in the fabric are where it was folded in a box for years and then wrinkles from my hoop. With washing and pressing, I will get all of those out. I try to trim loose threads as I stitch, because loose threads are like pythons lying in wait, ready to wrap around other threads and they create tangled nightmares.

This post ran way longer than intended, so in another post, I want to discuss how this disregard for standards of excellence hits you in the face at every turn… even on needlework videos.

It is destroying the American character.

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Filed under American Character, Food for Thought, General Interest

February 21, 2017 · 11:41 am

#NoMoreScorchedEarth

The video above highlights some of Donald Trump’s ways of manipulating people. He is a very talented con man. If he were religious, he could give Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker a run for their money. While the video lays out Trump’s personal talents as a con man, the special sauce for Trump is how he took those talents and applied them to controlling the 24/7 news cycle and manufacturing opinion cascades, using a mass media saturation strategy (information warfare) that the Left originated and controlled for decades. Trump fixates on perpetuating this image that he’s massively popular (crowd size), so expect him to stage more big rally events to bolster his “popular” image. He is running the Reality TV Presidency and it’s as phony as he is.

Every time President Trump launches one of his over the top attacks against the “dishonest media”, I’m torn between cheering that he’s taking on the relentless liberal spin cycle and disgust at his destroying the dignity of the Office of the President.

The mainstream media acts as a propaganda front of the Left and Democratic Party. The mainstream media really did work to legitimize Trump during the GOP primary, to aid in what John Podesta’s leaked email referred to as their Pied Piper strategy. By late February, early March of 2016, the mainstream media flipped to running the Clinton Scorched Earth 2.0 to take down Trump and help Hillary. To see how spin works, Twitter is a good place to see American journalists and news organizations in action. All it takes is a handful of journalists or news organizations colluding with the Dems & Left to create a 24/7 spin cycle, by repeating the same story. Two of the biggest aggregators of “fake news” (or at least numerous stories with many factual errors) are the New York Times and the Washington Post. However, laziness, poor journalistic standards, and liberal hive mentality (groupthink) all play into the 24/7 spin cycle that has allowed the Left’s political messaging to dominate in mainstream media since the early 90s.

The disgusting part of the media collusion with the Left is that the Hollywood crowd jumps in to reinforce the news media spin. Being no fan of Kellyanne Conway and acknowledging that she has played as big a role in her credibility problems as the mainstream media’s hostile treatment of her, here’s what infuriates about how the media sets out to destroy Trump and his inner-circle. Conway misspoke about what happened at Bowling Green, KY. She mentioned a “massacre”. The media pounced to ridicule Conway with relentless repetition of “no massacre at Bowling Green”.

Conway botched the single best case for thorough vetting. What really happened is two Al Qaeda bombmakers from Iraq came to the US as refugees and settled in Bowling Green, KY:

“In that case, the two Iraqi nationals were indicted on federal terrorism charges accusing them, in part, of providing material support to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The Iraqi nationals were Waad Ramadan Alwan, who was 30 at the time of his indictment in 2011, and Mohanad Shareef Hammadi, who was then 23.

The FBI launched its investigation into Alwan in 2009, the year he entered the US. He bragged to an FBI source in 2010 about how he’d “f—ked up” US Hummers in Iraq with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and expressed an interest in providing support to terrorists in Iraq. He eventually recruited his friend Hammadi into his scheme to ship money and weapons (including machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, Stinger missiles, and C4 plastic explosives) to terrorists in Iraq.

The operation was a sting operation — the FBI’s source convinced Alwan and Hammadi that the money and weapons were actually going to terrorists abroad, but they were not.

Alwan and Hammadi entered the US as refugees. They lied about their terrorism ties.”

And the story continues:

“Alwan was sentenced to 40 years in prison and Hammadi was sentenced to life. Both pleaded guilty to the charges against them.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/bowling-green-massacre-2017-2

This story buries the details starting on the fifth paragraph, devoting the first four to Conway stating a terror attack that never happened. Even after stating the facts, this story emphasizes that these two Al Qaeda bombmakers weren’t planning attacks in the US, but were plotting to ship weapons and money to Al Qaeda in Iraq, as if to say they were no threat to America. Hello, their support of Al Qaeda would put US troops in Iraq at risk, but you see what I mean about spinning stories to prop up the Left’s talking points.

Being sick to death of Trump’s theatrics and the media’s total dishonesty and collusion with the Dems & Left, most days I just wonder how far Trump vs. the media will push this never ending scorched earth information warfare, where both sides use any means necessary to discredit the other and where the American people are held captive to this corrupt, demoralizing, destructive Alinkskyite battle. Of course, Trump and his followers embrace using scorched earth against, not only against the Left, but against any Republicans or conservatives who object to “any means necessary” scorched earth information war. Ostensibly, once they annihilate the enemy (Leftists and any who dare object to their behavior), America will be made safe for “normal” Americans… Judging by their tossing out all the rules on public decorum, manners, and leading by example, where Trump lies outrageously and engages in embarrassing name-calling tantrums, it is hard to see how at the end of this “war”, America will have any reputation or values left to defend, but that isn’t stopping those engaged in scorched earth information war.

If you think I exaggerate the scorched earth information war, here’s a piece by Kurt Schlichter, former Army colonel, Trump Twitter commando and senior editor at Townhall.com;

“The Left is getting massively out-Alinskyed, and the hilarious thing is that this band of withered hippies, unemployable millennial safe-space cases, and unlovable + unshaven libfeminists don’t even know it. Oh, their masters sure know it. Soros is bitterly having to ramp up his infusions of blood money to keep his community-organized “grassroots” movements afloat. The less dumb ones among the lying dinosaur media are panicking as their influence fades, and Chuck Schumer is enduring such a non-stop parade of serial humiliations that if the Senate were a penitentiary, he’d be McConnell’s prison Mitch.

The Leftist mafia godmaleidentifyingparents pulling the strings of the Marxist Muppets know the score – they are losing. And it’s awesome. Because, finally, the Right has taken Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and shoved it up where #TheResistance don’t shine.”

Schlichter continues:

“Alinsky’s Rules are relatively simple, and they make sense when you are fighting a conventional opponent with an interest in maintaining the status quo. The Rules are terrific for dealing with an old-school conservative guy who drives a Buick, enjoys gardening, and doesn’t want any trouble. They aren’t so effective against conservative brawlers who like to punch, and who aren’t too fussy about whether it’s with tweets or with fists.

The Rules are not some magic incantation; they are simply some tactical principles that work in certain kinds of fights against certain kinds of opponents – particularly ones willing to unilaterally disarm in the face of an unprincipled enemy. But once the secret is out, it’s relatively easy to turn them around on an enemy that is so stupid it thinks it’s going to gain widespread acceptance among normal Americans by dressing up as genitalia. That’s why the thirteen classic Alinsky Rules are playing out right now in a way the Left did not expect.”

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/02/13/shoving-alinskys-rules-for-radicals-right-back-in-the-lefts-ugly-face-n2284892

Schlichter then lays out the Alinsky rules for radicals. One can easily see how people who believe in “by any means necessary” could fall sway to following a venal, self-absorbed, petty, vindictive, lying bully like Donald Trump, but the cost of falling in with Scorched Earth and Alinsky rules is your conscience and what gets burned to the ground in the process is American values and America’s reputation around the world.

We don’t need to burn America to the ground to save it.

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Filed under American Character, Corrupt Media Collusion, Culture Wars, General Interest, Politics

February 21, 2017 · 12:25 am

Speech by Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster

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Filed under American Character, General Interest, Military, Politics

February 16, 2017 · 12:39 pm

#NeverEndingScorchedEarth

Don’t get suckered into the media’s Russian influence hysteria. Sure, there was Russian influence in the 2016 election, but the real problem is both parties picked totally corrupt candidates in 2016. Both candidates ran extremely corrupt scorched earth campaigns, where both political parties overlooked glaring red flags of wholesale public corruption with Hillary Clinton’s home-brew server/ Clinton Foundation pay-to-play and Trump’s King of Crony Capitalism history. :

Two Corrupt Scorched Earth campaigns;

Trump relied on BILLIONS of dollars in free media to wage his GOP Insurgency.

Hillary relied on media to sit on Trump dirt throughout GOP primary/lob it in general.

Media willingly participated in scorched earth campaigns

Trump benefited from foreign influence with Wikileaks leaks

Hillary benefited from media downplaying her email scandal

Scorched Earth campaigns are dependent on mass media collusion to generate the SPIN. If the mass media didn’t collude with politicians, a politician would have a difficult time waging a scorched earth campaign that could reach enough Americans to impact presidential politics.

Certainly, Congress needs to investigate Russian influence in our elections, but keep in mind they used hacked information that showed corrupt media collusion between the Democrats and the media. President Obama downplayed the Russian cyber threat until Hillary lost the election. Then the Dems latched onto Russian influence as a talking point and Obama finally imposed some long overdue sanctions against Russia.

Improving cyber-security is a national security imperative. Imposing stringent cyber-safe practices, for all government officials and employees to follow should be defensive measure #1. This is why Hillary should never have access to classified information again. The Obama administration, to include President Obama, used private unsecure email to conduct government business (FBI Notes state an Obama gmail, pertaining to government business, was shown to Abedin, who was sure that email had to be classified). Time for everyone in the federal government to up their game on safer cyber practices.

If you thought the 2016 Presidential election was over, you were wrong. Trust me, the scorched earth campaigns march on. Yes, that’s true. America is now entering a #NeverEndingScorchedEarth political war between the Dems/Clinton machines vs. President Donald Trump.

On my home page there’s a heading #NeverTrup&NeverHillary, where I chronicled the Scorched Earth campaigns of 2016. I wrote extensively about scorched earth and information warfare.

This media-generated takedown of General Mike Flynn is part of the same 2016 scorched earth. The Clinton/Dem machines are reigniting the Russian influence hysteria to try and takedown President Trump – that is part and parcel what these latest leaks to the media are all about. They want to create public support to impeach President Trump.

If all these breathless revelations the media dishes out, that are 99.9% innuendo, with no concrete conclusions of wrongdoing, were such a threat to the national security of America, why haven’t the FBI and intelligence officials been rushing to Congress to apprise them of this crisis?

Answer: It’s another Dem SPIN scorched earth attack in collusion with the media and not a crisis at all.

The Left wants to take down President Trump by any means necessary.

So, what is the Russian connection to Trump’s campaign, well, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect the most concerning connection is Trump and possible financing by Russian mob/oligarchs. We need to know if President Trump owes money to Russian mobsters.

We need the Clinton Foundation corruption exposed.

Both parties need to do some serious housecleaning, so let’s start with airing the wholesale public corruption on both sides, so we can begin to rebuild an America based on shared American values.

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Filed under American Character, Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Hillary's Email Scandal, Politics, Public Corruption

February 12, 2017 · 12:13 pm

Sewing that does change lives

Here’s an inspirational story about a young woman in Detroit, who started a non-profit that hires homeless people to manufacture multi-functional coats. She designed this coat, which converts into a sleeping bag, for homeless people.

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Filed under American Character, Inspirations, Making a Difference

February 11, 2017 · 6:05 pm

Nasty Women on the march…

Thursday evening, February 9, 2017, the 9th Circuit Court upheld the stay on President Trump’s immigration executive order. Hillary Clinton (or her aides) jumped on Twitter and tweeted “3-0”. Kellyanne Conway retweeted Hillary tweet with the comment: “PA, WI, MI.”

Conway won that round in the catty career women, “thems some bitches”, battle. If you scratch beneath the surface, both Hillary and Conway are feminists, who not only live and breathe politics, but both use similar deflections to “stand by their man”, even when that involves shredding every sense of self-respect and dignity.

During impeachment, Hillary and feminists, whose lifeblood was fighting against the evil patriarchy, demeaned themselves propping up President Bill Clinton’s sleazy conduct. Gloria Steinem’s linguistic contortions, basically giving Bill Clinton a pass, because he groped and stopped when told his advances weren’t welcome, became the political lipstick on a pig, dubbed the “one free grope rule”.

With Donald Trump’s “grabbing them by the pu**y” behavior, Conway and many other Republicans, even professed Evangelical Christians, have opted to pretend none of that matters, using the same political reasoning as Gloria Steinem, that amounts to : “the other side excuses even worse and my candidate is doing all these great things”. The excusing inexcusable personal conduct based on political calculations is not only short-sighted politically, it’s poisoning our national character.

I ordered a book, World Without Men, from amazon a couple weeks ago, which I wanted to read before diving into the feminism issue, but I’m still waiting on the book to include in blog posts on feminism. The amazon book blurb for World Without Men states:

“2012 Reprint of 1958 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The blurb on the thirty-five cent Ace paperback likens Charles Eric Maine’s 1958 novel “World Without Men” to George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” Ordinarily one would regard such a comparison skeptically. Nevertheless, while not rising to the artistic level of the Orwell and Huxley masterpieces, “World Without Men” merits being rescued from the large catalogue of 1950s paperback throwaways. Maine’s bases his vision of an ideological dystopia not on criticism of socialism or communism per se, nor of technocracy per se, but rather of feminism. Maine saw in the nascent feminism of his day (the immediate postwar period) a dehumanizing and destructive force, tending towards totalitarianism, which had the potential to deform society in radical, unnatural ways. Maine believed that feminism, as he understood it, derived its fundamental premises from hatred of, not respect for, the natural order. He also believed that feminism entailed a rebellion against sexual dimorphism.”

Maine wrote this dystopian novel in 1958, before Betty Friedan’s, The Female Mystique, feminist manifesto was published in 1963. Assuredly, modern feminism, in whatever “wave”, is not only a rebellion demanding “equality”, but is in fact, a rebellion against sexual dimorphism. In less than half a century of modern feminism, American society is littered with the carnage, not only of collapsing traditional families, but against human nature itself, as strident totalitarians on the political Left demand acceptance of their ever-increasing demands that we reject reality and live in their alternative reality, where males and females are not distinct sexes, but an ever fluid mix of “gender identities”.

Sadly, most American women, even “conservative” women buy into much of the feminist social dogma, as more and more women define themselves in terms of their careers and homemakers as useless, lazy, ignorant, living in bondage to men, clueless idiots. Growing up in the midst of the sexual revolution/women’s movement, I read my fair share of feminist literature when I was young. I rejected most of it before I left my teens. While I have written several blog posts in the past about feminism, in light of the #Women’s March and this new movement, more will be forthcoming.

The media and liberal pundits are churning out “BIG SCARE” pieces on 1984 in the past few weeks, as flashing warnings about the dangers of President Trump and his “strong-man” tendencies, while the Left is engaging in big street theater efforts and scare pieces in the media, like the 1984 scare. 1984 was about socialism run amok resulting in a frightening totalitarian state, where independent thought is not tolerated. It was not about a Hitler seizing control.

Trump’s lack of respect or rather, lack of interest might be more accurate, in The Constitution and his infatuation with “tough” talk and being “strong” are worrisome. However, the Left’s surrender to the far-left extremes in their party, taking to the streets to demand #Resist, a movement to overthrow a duly elected president, by any means possible, worries me more. These people have no respect for The Constitution, only on using any means necessary to oust Trump. Rosie O’Donnell and some other celebrities even tweeted about the imposition of marital law to prevent Trump from being sworn in as President and they worked to damage his image and strong-arm any celebrities from participating in his inauguration. The news media, while touting their journalistic ethics, have far too many top names retweeting news stories and Trump dirt that is false.

Since this new movement, #Resist, has a large female face to it, many women are being sucked into this on feminist terms that Trump is a misogynistic pig and must be stopped.

I was all for impeaching President Clinton for lying under oath and I do believe the other charges in the impeachment, like intimidating witnesses and obstruction of justice, although the House only voted in favor of two out of the 12 charges. I will support impeachment of Donald Trump if the FBI or some other investigative body produces evidence and/or grounds for impeachment are presented, following the formal legal process

What I don’t believe in is trying to scream loud enough to force actions outside The Constitution.

Too many on the Left, and even many policy “experts”, who should know better, get caught up in the media-generated hysteria machine and abandon constitutional principles reacting to media generated fear-mongering.

All that said, trying to make sense of the foaming at the mouth feminists, who led the #Women’s March reinforced my belief that feminism is an abhorrent ideology and under the guise of “equal rights for women”, which sounds fair and just, lies dangerous extremists, just as dedicated to destroying western civilization as full-throated communists, marxists, islamists or fascists. In fact, in the #Women’s March it looks like all of these rabid ideologies merged, where strident American feminists, communists like Angela Davis, and islamofascists like Linda Sarsour, who champions sharia law in America, melded with Hollywood celeb kooks, like Madonna, “thinking about blowing up the White House” or Ashley Judd’s bizarre poetry reading:

All of which brings me to pink pussy hats and the “lady parts” costumes, that were not only “nasty”, vulgar, and tasteless, but serve as a perfect example of the shallowness of modern feminism.

I am not a feminist. I am an American citizen and I am a lady. That’s how I choose to live my life and I think America would be much better, all around, if more women defined themselves by dedicating themselves to civility, treating all people with respect, dedication to their families and communities and most all placing caring for children, the elderly, the disabled and the weakest among us as the highest priority in our lives.

Civil society depends on civil behavior.

Caring for our families, our neighbors, our communities determines if the American dream is even attainable for all Americans. Screaming, “I am a nasty woman” and marching around in vagina costumes or pink, pussy hats was just more hollow screeching, tasteless, pointless exhibitionism, from brainless bimbos, who are intent on destroying the “evil male patriarchy”, which is code for destroying western civilization. What they intend to replace it with, I’m not sure, but I do know it’s not The Constitution. Their every action is dedicated to using street protests and hyping “crowd size” to force politicians to abandon The Constitution and submit to their demands.

Really, there are several youtube videos on how to knit a pussy hat… I am also a needlewoman and the first thought that struck me seeing the vagina costumes and pink, pussy hats, was how so much energy went into something so pointless. I thought about how much real, tangible good could have been accomplished if these women put that pink yarn to knitting hats and scarves for needy girls in poor neighborhoods or baby caps. I thought about what if women who could sew vagina costumes put that effort toward making quilts or stuffed animals for kids with cancer in hospitals or for police to give to children in traumatic situations.

And, here’s a message to screeching feminist harpies everywhere: wearing a vagina costume turns you into a pathetic joke, not a serious person with a serious statement. Try for some dignity, try for forming some coherent arguments rather than protest signs with ridiculous slogans and most of all try acting like adults.

I will never be a “nasty woman”… my mother taught me manners and I am sorry so many other American mothers are falling down on the job or too busy crafting “vagina costumes”…

Grow up – every neighborhood in America has children and families in crisis.

Do something constructive that matters.

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Filed under American Character, Civility, Corrupt Media Collusion, General Interest, Nasty Women, The Constitution

February 5, 2017 · 8:37 pm

Definitely on the wrong road

Last week a video posted to social media of a vehicle in U.S. Navy convoy on a Ky interstate, with a Trump flag flying in the back, caused a buzz. Flying a partisan flag on a U.S. Armed Forces vehicle should cause a ripple of unease, even if those service members meant no harm. It is against military regulations, but aside from that it speaks to several alarming trends in recent years.

The crazy partisanship in America has reached boiling over point. Without a doubt there are politicians and big money behind the effort to delegitimize Trump, without a doubt the news media have many opportunities to improve not only accurate reporting, but to address the liberal bias in much of the coverage, their being willing conduits for Dem. talking points, and an opportunity to break the spin cycle. However, at the end of the day, each American needs to calmly reflect on what he/she believes and where his/her moral compass lies. The scorched earth campaigns on the Left and Right are escalating, not abating since the November election of President Donald Trump.

Back in October 2016, I wrote a post The GOP’s moral collapse, delving into how many Republican politicians and mouthpieces waffled back and forth, as Trump’s erratic behavior, past bad behavior and totally unacceptable behavior ebbed and flowed. Many elected Republican officials supported, then withdrew support, then went back to supporting Donald Trump. Even many of the #NeverTrump pundits, who banded together for the February 2016, National Review, Against Trump, issue explaining in clear language why Trump’s character made him unfit to be president, eventually caved and supported him. Neither Trump’s behavior nor his character changed, only partisan political calculations changed. Few people remained resolute in their convictions. Here’s what I wrote:

“Last week’s video of Trump talking about sexually predatory behavior, a behavior that certainly falls into the category of sexual assault, gave Republican leaders a clear warning, that Trump likely engaged in predatory sexual conduct. Now, if he actually did grab women by their private parts without their consent, well that is sexual assault – END OF CONVERSATION! That Republican officials are quibbling over semantics or making all sorts of qualifiers out of political-posturing to prop up Trump, shows the complete collapse of their moral character. The moral dissonance for Republican officials to denounce, un-endorse, re-endorse Trump speaks to a lack of sound moral principles – sorry that’s the truth. If you need to couch everything, due to political calculations, you’ve lost you way on moral clarity.

The most absurd pronouncements are those who refuse to endorse Trump, but say they will still vote for him. Saying you will vote for him is endorsing him. So many Republicans are exposing their weak characters by this back and forth, endorsing, un-endorsing, re-endorsing sad spectacle.

Trump’s vetting should have occurred during the primary, but the Republican Party failed to vet him at all. Each bombshell that these Trump leaks detonates should be destroying not just Trump, but the Republican leadership, who failed to properly vet their own candidate.”

https://libertybellediaries.com/2016/10/12/the-gops-moral-collapse/

Yesterday, President Trump continued with his controversial tweeting and then by evening FOX News released a small excerpt of Trump’s pre-Superbowl interview with Bill O’Reilly, where President Trump appears to be equating America’s moral character with Putin’s thugocracy:

“O’Reilly asked Trump whether he “respects” the former KGB agent:

“I do respect him, but I respect a lot of people,” Trump said, “That doesn’t mean I’m going to get along with him.”

Trump said he would appreciate any assistance from Russia in the fight against ISIS terrorists, adding that he would rather get along with the former Cold War-era foe than otherwise.

“But, [Putin] is a killer,” O’Reilly said.

“There are a lot of killers,” Trump responded, “We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?””

http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/02/04/preview-bill-oreilly-donald-trump-super-bowl-interview

Trump’s comment, “What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?” is a standard Russian “whataboutism” propaganda and Trump using this tact rather than condemn Putin is alarming. Trump is a con man, so perhaps using that tactic is par for the course with him. Trump bends over backwards to not offend Putin, that is how I viewed Trump’s outrageous comment.

Certainly, what else Trump said in this interview matters, but the excerpt, on its face, deserves to be denounced and rejected. So, here are three top GOP responses this morning:

Vice President Mike Pence: “Pence on MTP about Trump’s Putin comments: “What you have in President Trump is someone who is not going to look in the rear view mirror” – Brad Jaffy at NBC News

Governor Chris Christie: “Christie explains President Trump’s comments on respecting Putin: “[Trump] believes leaders of countries deserve respect around the world”- Face the Nation

Senator Ben Sasse: “There is no moral equivalency” between the U.S.—and Putin’s “murderous thugs,” Ben Sasse says of Trump’s comments” – Brad Jaffy at NBC News

Only Senator Sasse speaks with moral clarity.

I decided I would never support Trump back in August 2015, when he had his spat with Megyn Kelly. He used his celebrity and following as the GOP Insurgent to try to harm Megyn Kelly’s job. Then I read his book, Trump: How To Get Rich, which I bought at an antique/junk store for a couple of dollars. Watching Trump’s behavior, listening to Roger Stone’s comments, then reading this book convinced me Donald Trump is an extreme sociopath:

“Last week I bought one of Trump’s books, as I mentioned before, and I read it. Assuredly, Trump offered many interesting insights into, as the book’s title stated, “TRUMP: How to Get Rich”. The pride he takes in his children comes across and he offers some worthwhile advice on investing and negotiating, but trying to get to the character of who exactly is Donald Trump, well, he’s a man who has chapters in his book like “Be Strategically Dramatic”, “Sometimes You Still Have To Screw Them”, and “Sometimes You Have To Hold a Grudge”, replete with examples from his life and his guiding principles. Here are some quotes (page 138):

“When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can. Like it says in the Bible, an eye for an eye.”

Be paranoid. I know this observation doesn’t make any of us sound very good, but let’s face the fact that it’s possible that even your best friend wants to steal your spouse and your money.”

The chapter on holding a grudge is even more interesting, because Trump relates how for years he had donated huge amounts of money to NY governor, Mario Cuomo and when he called Cuomo to ask for a favor from Cuomo’s son, Andrew, who was running the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mario Cuomo refused to do the favor (which Trump doesn’t explain in detail other than to say it was an appropriate favor involving attention to a detail). Trump blew up and for any who are confused with Trump’s vendetta against Megyn Kelly on Twitter, calling her a bimbo last night or his refusing to entertain a question by Jorge Ramos from Univision this evening, well, this chapter on holding a grudge (page 142) explains it.

https://libertybellediaries.com/2015/08/25/trumps-his-own-bimbo-eruption/

The Navy vehicle with a Trump flag disturbed me, by jarring me into thinking about how politicized even our national security services have become. Retired generals signing letters to support political candidates, rally at national party conventions, become vocal spokespeople on campaigns, all feeds to politicize the military. President Trump does have support from many service-members, he even has generals on board. He is the man who said he would order U.S troops to murder ISIS family members to scare ISIS terrorists into submission, yet he was not roundly condemned by Republicans and his big name mouthpieces did damage control glossing over his lawless and immoral strategy, plus constantly pointing out how Hillary was worse.

As with everything about President Trump, his closest supporters will say just about anything to deflect, so with the Left fueling more hysteria and street violence, I worry about Trump’s “strong-man” impulses and overreaction. I worry about people around him and their motivations to foment chaos. I worry about what happens when the military and intelligence agencies lose their moral compass as apolitical professionals dedicated to keeping all Americans safe and defending The Constitution.

Are we at the crisis point where we need to worry about 1984? I hope not. The past two weeks of constant drama, hysterics and extreme partisan fighting do worry me and the Trump flag on a U.S military vehicle was definitely on the wrong road. Let’s hope some principled leaders emerge to guide us back to safer middle ground, eschewing the partisan extremes.

Senator Sasse politely, but firmly stood his ground against boarding the Trump train. He is emerging as a portrait of moral courage and clarity. Let’s hope more politicians in Washington follow his example

It’s time for America to get off of the extreme partisan highway and make some “extreme” efforts to pull Americans back to being Americans first, last, always.

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Filed under American Character, General Interest, Military, Politics, The Constitution

February 5, 2017 · 2:28 pm

On-ramp to a dangerous road

Three more plastic canvas needlepoint tissue box covers I finished. The one in the middle is the same size as the other two – bad photography perhaps accounts for it looking so much smaller.

In light of the breakneck speed of the partisan and news media spin cycle, I’m slowing down on writing blog posts about each new hysterical headline. My focus centers on timelines and trying to analyze, not just the little picture immediate headline, but instead trying to discern bigger picture patterns and trends.

Thinking back over the 2016 election, one of the most interesting aspects of the election was not Trump or Hillary or anything they said or did, but to watch people who identified as “principled conservatives” (people who claim to value good personal character as a prerequisite for good leadership) waffle back and forth on whether to support Trump, a man bereft of good character, or even basic manners and civility, for that matter.

I’m going to write this in two blog posts, first from a personal micro-perspective, which is going to be a personal story and then the second post will be a wider perspective.

Discussions about President Trump have fueled angry outbursts in my family, just like many others. Regular readers already know, that I am a 56 year-old homemaker, at home taking care of my disabled husband, who is a retired Army sergeant major, veteran of Grenada and Desert Storm. My husband suffers from normal pressure hydrocephalus, an adult onset type of hydrocephalus, which affected his ability to walk and especially impaired his short-term memory. He also gets confused easily if several people are involved in a conversation and he struggles to keep reading, because if he puts his book down for a while, when he goes back to reading, he can’t remember what he had read previously. He also gets lost following TV shows and movies on TV, with the commercial breaks interfering with his concentration. He can remember things that happened years ago, with more clarity than I can, and he often mentions things I had forgotten about, but everyday living for him is filled with frustrations over physical limitations and short-term memory struggles.

My husband doesn’t like politics, but he greatly admired President Reagan, he admired President Bush, and he greatly disliked President Clinton. Being a career soldier, my husband views presidents based on national security. President Clinton’s finger-to-the-wind foreign policy upset my husband, but the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 turned my husband into loathing President Clinton, to the point he refused to even watch President Clinton on TV. My husband admired GWB, believing he is honest and sincere. With President Obama, the initial apology tour, where President Obama traveled around the world apologizing for America, infuriated my husband and he spent the rest of President Obama’s presidency fuming about everything President Obama said and did. I also did plenty of fuming about President Obama’s policies, especially his foreign policy. Likewise, Michelle Obama made a comment about for the first time in her life, she was proud to be an American, which infuriated my husband, so he never wanted to listen to anything she said.

People on the Left react like this too and in fact, most of us form, all or nothing opinions about politicians and political issues. This tribalism in America, where Americans live in partisan camps, viewing those in another political tribe as “enemies” has escalated to the point, just about everything is hyper-politicized, even children. I am a recovering Republican-partisan, where I try to catch myself from the endless rationalizing Trump’s bad behavior by pointing out what Hillary or Obama did.

Since my husband’s illness, he spends a lot of time watching TV, especially FOX News and that is his only news source. There are rabid Leftists, who only watch MSNBC or CNN too, where during the 2016 general election, a full-court press went into aiding the “dump on Trump” scorched earth Clinton campaign effort.

During the GOP primary, my husband complained constantly that he couldn’t wait until the primary was over, so he wouldn’t have to listen to “this loudmouth, jackass”, referring to Donald Trump. My husband told me he voted for John Kasich in the GOP primary, because Kasich is sensible and talks reasonable.

Along came the general election, with the relentless spin on both sides, but my husband only watches FOX News, so he gradually went from being a John Kasich supporter to now sounding like Sean Hannity some days. He bought into the “ABC – Anyone But Clinton” line of reasoning, that Trump was the lesser of two evils. Of course, my husband would insist he isn’t influenced by propaganda, but the truth is we are all influenced by propaganda, just like we all react to advertising. FOX News is a potent agitation propaganda front for Trump, just like it promoted the Tea Party, which was designed to fracture the GOP. Steve Bannon, btw, was a big player producing Tea Party propaganda too.

Often, I try to talk to my husband calmly and point out something a Trump propagandist, like Jeanine Pirro or Sean Hannity, is saying is morally bankrupt, but my husband sees the far-Left protests and that reinforces his willingness to listen to the Trump train morally bankrupt propaganda and excusing Trump’s erratic, corrupt behavior.

Trump followers have bought into “don’t take what Trump says literally, but take him seriously”, which serves as a flimsy deflection to manipulate people into not holding Trump accountable for his words. A president’s word is his bond with the American people, so if his words aren’t literal or not to be taken literally, he can never be pinned down as to what he meant. This tactic was used by President Bill Clinton in a less overt and way more sophisticated manner. This is the same as the Trump train sales pitch during the campaign that “Trump doesn’t play by the rules” as a good thing. Trump and his propagandists keep working to chip away at the moral character of Republicans and conservatives, with morally bankrupt propaganda. They’ve even recruited leaders in the Christian-right community to assist in spreading this morally bankrupt propaganda.

Many liberal journalists and pundits have run Trump scare pieces on authoritarianism and 1984. About a week ago, CNN and others in the media reported amazon.com was sold out of copies of 1984. This announcement followed a week of media hype about 1984. I checked amazon and they were sold out of the cheapest paperback version, but they had other editions and a kindle format version. They didn’t report how many copies amazon actually sold, but implied this “concern” about Trump was widespread. I’m concerned about Trump, but I’m concerned about the Left and Dem/Clinton machines too.

The hyper-partisan propaganda used to fuel anger, hate and to keep Americans raging against fellow Americans should worry every American. Even more alarming is the relentless manipulation of words and situations to create hysteria, anxiety, fear, rage and endless chaos. The 1984 scare tactics are bad enough, but the moves from Clinton spin, to Obama narratives, to Trump “alternative facts”, leaves us in uncharted territory. Confusing the meanings of words is part of the information war both sides waged in the 2016 scorched earth presidential campaigns, but even more alarming is the moral wasteland this campaign has left in its wake.

We’ve gotten on the on-ramp to a dangerous road.

The extreme partisans, driving the Trump train on the right and the street rage/media hysteria on the left, don’t care about ordinary Americans, but only about advancing their political agendas and power. However, when even children are engaged in this extreme partisan flame-throwing, it’s time for adults to restore some civility to the American political order and it all starts with each one of us committing to stopping this extreme, divisive partisan fighting.

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Filed under American Character, General Interest, Politics, The Media

January 19, 2017 · 9:37 pm