"I suppose we'll just have to abort Jason and Theresa, won't we?"

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The whitsun bride; a procession of children in a village street during Whitsun

Scene
Upscale house on Hamptons estate.
Players: Attractive middle-aged mother and father, parents of six children, having a glass of wine in the solarium.  She dressed in a gossamer silk dressing gown, he in casual dress, with cravat and smoking jacket.
About 8 PM, late spring with light, cool breeze ruffling the curtains.
Resuming an earlier conversation.

Why the Left Hates Trump: He's a MAN

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            Bête Noire

He is also a Christian white man.  But Donald Trump is not an ordinary man.  He's not a metrosexual coastie.  He's not neutered by sensitivity.  He thinks for himself, and if provoked, he's ready to do battle.  To fight.  He is fearless.  He's an individual who doesn't cave to the mob. He's a man of action.  He has not been feminized.  He sees the world as it is and deals with it.  Most unforgivably he is successful, creating a stunning contrast to the performance of his "betters".  He is a man's man; a deplorable's deplorable.  He articulates the thoughts, beliefs and emotions of America's functional and productive core.  He mentions God beyond what is required.

Fisa Judges: Incurious, Incompetent or Bent?

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My confidence in governments' legal goings-on (vis-a-vis private citizens) at the federal, state and local levels had been shaken long before the revelations growing out of the 2016 elections.  Readings I had done [1] over recent years had left me, if not cynical, highly skeptical of America's legal system. That skepticism, ranging from city, county and district courts to state and federal ones to include the U.S. Supreme Court and the often too-cozy collaboration between law enforcement and prosecutors.  In short, the growing political corruption of the justice system now appears to be a given.  Although I have long believed that to some extent justice is the handmaiden of power, I perceive that things worsen over time.  With that context in mind, the reader will understand why I pose the title question along with others.

The F.B.I. Came by Corruption Honestly

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Deval Kulsrestha  Lady Liberty

When I use the word corruption, I am thinking primarily of three elements: dishonesty; incompetence; and perversion of mission.  Ruin and rot.  Not unique among bureaucracies of every kind, corruption in the F.B.I. has been more aggressively concealed than any other I can think of, so that in the minds of most Americans, never having dealt in conflict with the agency, the F.B.I. is thought to be pristine.

Corruption begins with leadership.  If leaders didn't assume their offices already corrupt, then it begins with an organizational shift from mission to survival, self promotion, aggrandizement and growth.  Bureaucracies become paranoid over time, and decay typically begins with leaders who come to reward loyalty over competence.  That paradigm for success inevitably filters downward throughout the organization, excluding (perhaps) only the perennially virtuous and (perhaps) idealistic new-hires who have not yet learned how the game is played.

Thank You, Donald Trump

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Mr. Obama, uncritically supported by the Democrat ship of fools who share his beliefs, regularly trots out some sanctimonious meme of Cultural Marxism, such as, "Americans are a [mindlessly, suicidally] tolerant people; it's WHO WE ARE!"  Despite his assertions, it is rapidly becoming apparent that opposing beliefs articulated by Donald Trump more accurately reflect WHO WE ARE.

Donald Trump: More Balls Than Sense. And That Ain't All Bad

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Photo by Gage Skidmore

Trump's critics tell us a lot more about themselves than the man they criticize.  John McCain and his love child, Lindsay Graham head a long list of pussified Republicrats who see a threat in anyone who dares to commit the heresy of truth-telling in public.  Donald Trump has joined Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and (too few) others.  At least for the moment.

Federal Government Lurches Toward End-State Dysfunction

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Bloat and Mission Creep

End-state bureaucracies eventually crumble when four conditions obtain: 1. confusion about or deliberate perversion of mission (purpose, policy); 2. alienation of markets or constituents; 3. ever-expanding maintenance costs; and 4. institutional arrogance that forecloses adaptive change from within.
But even in a clearly moribund and declining state, inertia of scale may prolong their existence for long periods. In these times they are deceptively fragile and unable to survive crises of their own making.  That would seem to be the condition of several agencies of the federal government -- State, EPA, Justice, BATFE, Agriculture, Education, DHS and, most recently brought to public attention, CDC.

Dance of the Sugar Plum Glocks

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The Left seems to have convinced themselves that firearms have somehow acquired their own agency.  That they have the power to act independently of human beings.  Or, as Bob Owens says, in his entertaining article they are believed to have cargo cult properties that -- via magic -- take possession of persons who touch guns and cause them to make murder and mayhem.  But I find myself wondering if, instead, gun haters don't bring the "possession" to the gun and not the other way round.  Breaking that down, what people often bring to the gun is a combination of fear, hostility and the illusion of superiority.  I'll get to that later, but now I want to discuss the simple fear of guns.

There is no Serious Problem -- Social, Political or Economic -- that is not Either Caused by or Made Worse by Big Government

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The Course of Empire Destruction (Thos. Cole, 1836)

For a number of years now I have been posing the title statement as a question.  In print and in conversation.  Crickets and bullfrogs; the query might just as well have been rhetorical.  Few have responded, and no one has ever offered an apposite answer. Big-government types occasionally make an attempt, but only after they've changed the question to suit a prepared answer. The most common response, for example, is to reply that government does some things right, which I've never denied and which is entirely outside the scope of the question.

He's a Lying Son-of-a Bitch: Rotting the Soul of a Nation

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Pinocchio

The casual reader, seeing the title of this essay, will probably (and in short order) supply one or more names to fit the specification.  He may also expect the writer to name the best-known offender and his acolytes; he'd be wrong. In this essay I set out illustrate the general and alarming erosion of American civil society's moral and ethical standards.  Particularly in regard to the virtue of honesty in civil society, and by extension, government..

What Is An Assault Weapon?

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Simple answer: it is a totalitarian term of art.  But the skewing of the language by the Left to serve their purposes of aggression and control should neither surprise nor trouble us; it's who they are and what they do.  What is troubling is that conservatives uncritically accede to the terminology and thus to the premises of our enemies.   We should immediately and instinctively correct the usage to "defense weapons" (better still, "defensive firearms"), and when there is a mass killing simply point out that a defensive firearm fell into the wrong hands -- most often the hands of persons who are mentally ill.

Voter ID is Clearly Discriminatory

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Karl Marx

Laws that require careful verification of a voter's identity discriminate not so much against blacks, Hispanics or other ethnic groups and the poor as against an entire political class -- cheaters.  Known also as Democrats. [1]  Polls indicate that as many as 80% of the American public (including many of those said to be injured) favor stringent voter ID laws.  The Marxist-Progressive Left, however, behind lamentations and crocodile tears, stands in utter contempt of the righteous public will.  Citing a litany of imagined (and therefore real) abuses of helpless 'victims', they howl with feigned outrage.  If strawmen, in company with the dead, could vote, Marxists would never lose another election.

Human Nature

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Utopia

Human nature is imperfect, and it is unchangeable.  The failure of the naive to acknowledge and accept those two simple, yet elemental facts leads inevitably to grief.

But grief does not discourage idealists; when their schemes fail they see only error in planning and execution, never questioning the possibility of -- nor their own faith in -- achieving a perfect end-state.
 
Utopian Dreams
The belief that men are capable of creating a perfect society is an old one, attested in Biblical writings and in Plato's vision, articulated in his Republic.
That vision echoed through the Middle Ages and persisted, with growing momentum, into the current era.  Along the way it found expression in Thomas Moore's Utopia (most famously), in the writings of Rousseau and in the early codification of communist socialism by Marx and Engels in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism. [1]

Tea Party Metaphor and the Clueless Left

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The Left [1] doesn't like the Tea Party; not one little bit.  No sirree bob!  They're, by God, extreme ultra right-wing fascists; violence waiting to happen.  They're a hate group.  And racists to boot.
The list goes on. [2]

APS Cheating Scandal: In No Way Excusable; In Every Way Predictable

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The Atlanta Public School (-teacher) cheating scandal, and similar reflections in other cities, points to the systemic corruption of the K-12 educational establishment.  That corruption is especially prevalent in major metropolitan areas where affirmative action priorities [1] have reduced the level of competence and judgment of "educators" [2].  Crony Socialism (a redundant phrase) invites collusion between city  bureaucracies with oversight and those overseen.  To offer cash incentives for teaching and administrative performance within a system where incompetence has become the accepted standard, is to ask for trouble.  Moral hazards and predictable outcomes.

What is the Vital Nexus Between Progressives and Islam?

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After puzzling for some time about the strong affinity between the Left and Muslims, [1] I think I have finally sorted it out.

The answer to the title question is a brief one, and for that reason, this promises to be a short essay.  It is simply this: the two groups share a culture of entitlement and a conviction of their own innate superiority, on the one hand, and of right of dominion on the other.  In a word, Progressives and Muslims have much in common.