Archive for the ‘culture’ Category

“F*ck the Fourth” among many pro-abortion protests planned for Independence Day

Posted: July 3, 2022 by John Ruberry in abortion, culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

While I was a child at the time, I don’t recall much during the politically turbulent 1960s and early 1970s in regard to protests of July 4th, that is, America’s Independence Day. 

But of course, 21st-century leftists will take things too far. And the progressives never seem to be at a loss for anger. The most egregious attack on the 4th, and to be fair, America, comes from Tucson, Arizona and in a since-deleted Tweet, captured by Libs of Tik Tok, the Pima County Democratic Party wrote, “F*ck the Fourth,” along with a graphic that included this message for the Tucson Women’s Network, “Bring comfortable shoes, water, lawn chairs, posters, and your anger.” The other group’s graphic, as you can see, doesn’t use an asterisk in the F-word.

https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1542994095001325569?cxt=HHwWgsCisYm96OkqAAAA

The “F*ck the 4th” protest is in response to last month’s US Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson case, in an expected ruling–courtesy of a leaked draft opinion–which overruled Roe v. Wade and returns the abortion ruling to the states. 

And in those states, besides Arizona, there are pro-abortion protests planned in conjunction with Independence Day. There’s a call to wear black, instead of red, white, and blue on July 4th, which is not a particularly wise idea if you plan to be outdoors a lot on the holiday. The high temperature where I live is expected to be 91 degrees on the 4th. 

Bans Off Our Bodies Florida is now in the middle of a weekend boycott on retail spending to protest Dobbs v. Jackson. Also in Florida, on the Space Coast, there’s a pro-abortion protest there, Gannett’s Florida Today reports. Here’s some irony: To reach the story I had to click through a July 4th subscription special pop-up ad, as I did for another Gannett publication, the MetroWest Daily News, to learn about a Framingham, Massachusetts anti-Dobbs protest. “Fourth of July is cancelled,” one of the organizers says.

I don’t feel compelled to mention each protest, you get the point. But here’s one more. Leave it to my state, goofy Illinois, to take thing a step farther. The owner of a Chicago children’s boutique is organizing, along with the Chicago Abortion Fund, a “Families for Abortion Access” march.

Of course, the right to free speech, which of course includes unpopular speech, doesn’t go away on July 4th, once again the far-left is being offensive and angering the persuadable center by calling for “F*ck the Fourth” and more.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit. He plans to spend part of the 4th at the Morton Grove Days festival, watching fireworks there, wearing red, white, and blue.

“What Identify Do You Choose?”

Posted: June 21, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine, culture
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Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours-and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here,

C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters #7

The story concerning Bishop McManus decree that Nativity School in Worcester MA may no longer identify as Catholic has gone national and international.

I suspect that McManus who I know and is the Bishop of my diocese will get a lot of pushback from Massachusetts “Catholics” whose primary allegiance is to the left but there are two bits of the story that are rather significant that deserve to be amplified.

The first was this line which might seem throw away but I think is pretty big:

In March, Bishop McManus was made aware of the flags being flown over the Roman Catholic affiliated school and, according to the school, asked them to remove the flags.

He issued a public statement, and later a letter regarding the flags, after private talks with the school were reported on by the media.

In other words he was willing to deal with this privately. I suspect flags that said: “End Racism” and/or “God Loves Everyone” would have been perfectly acceptable, conveying the messages the Jesuit school wanted to advance without adding political context contrary to church teachings

But the “private” talks became public, almost as if someone decided to leak them in order to put pressure on the Bishop.

Remind you of anything?

The second came from the public statement Bishop made in his open letter to the community last month as he explained church teaching:

We believe we are created by God at the moment of conception, something science supports by the presence of a unique DNA distinct from the mother. We believe that we are all loved into existence by God and redeemed by the Christ’s dying on the cross and rising from the dead to make it possible to enjoy eternal life with God in heaven. We call that the “Good News.” We are stewards of our bodies but not owners to do with it as we please. So, while I must love my neighbor regardless of what they consider their gender to be, no one, including individual popes, bishops, or Catholic school teachers, can say that Catholic teaching can condone transgenderism, since that gender is a gift from God.


Which brings us to the issue of the flags at Nativity School. These symbols which embody specific agendas or ideologies contradict Catholic social and moral teaching. Gay pride flags not only represent support for gay marriage, but also promote actively living an LGBTQ+ lifestyle.  Others in society may say that is fine. Such people may be doing wonderful humanitarian work. But an institution that calls itself Catholic cannot condone that behavior, even though the Catholic Church will “go to the mat” in teaching we must love those with whom we disagree.


The same is true for Black Lives Matter as a logo. Because every human life is sacred, the Church is 100% behind the phrase “black lives matter.” However, a specific movement with a wider agenda has co-opted the phrase and promotes a 13-principle agenda for schools, which, I daresay, most people do not know about but is easily available on the internet. Similar to the gay pride movement, those principles include, in their own words, to be “queer affirming” and “trans affirming.”


The BLM movement also contradicts Catholic social teaching on the role of the family. To Catholics, the Holy Family is not just a quaint image. God the Son chose to enter the world as a child and be raised by a mother and a father (the Nativity). The BLM movement in its own words is “committed to disrupting the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement,” which is another clear example of an ideological principle that conflicts with Catholic teaching.

He ended this phrase with the key question to the Jesuits at Nativist school:

So to the Board of Nativity School, the question is simply this: Which identity do you choose? 

emphasis mine

You would think Jesuits would know this stuff and believe it but apparently not as the Jesuits choose the world and will be lauded by the world for it.

Bishop McManus is going to get a lot of grief over this decision in this bluest of cities in this bluest of states but apparently he knows his Gospel realizes that grief from the world is part of the job description for a prince of the church.

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you.

Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates my Father.

John 15:18-23

It’s nice to have a bishop who believes, but it’s sad to reach the point in the church where such a Bishop is a novelty and a sign of courage rather than the rule.

Privilege Theory vs Actual Reality at a Bar in Leominster

Posted: June 19, 2022 by datechguy in culture

Yesterday after opening day in my face to face Tabletop league (My Nationals took 2 of 3 from the world champion Rockies) and an unexpected nap I found myself alone in the house with a couple of hours to go before my wife got home. Normally I’d head to Happy Jacks but their surprise closing drove me a bit farther down route 12 to Longhorn Steakhouse home of the Spicy Chicken Bites, the Best Appetizer for the price in town.

There was a woman behind the bar. When I sat down she was in the process of reconciling her drawer but recognized me from visits with DaWife for dinner and knew what I wanted. I watched her between pitches and it brought to mind my mother watching bartenders and being able to tell who was stealing and who was not (she wasn’t btw). She was rather busy as a good bartender is, constantly washing glasses, busing the bar, fixing drinks for customers in the primary restaurant. I’ve always enjoyed watching a person do a job well and like the late Mike Romano who cut meat like the pro he was, this Bartender knew her craft and was able to keep all of us taken care of while still cashing out for her replacement.

Farther down the bar there was a thin fellow whose arms suggested he did some weightlifting. We struck up a conversation and it turned out he was formally employed at the same Market Basket as my son and a friend now working at one closer to his home.

He talked about working six days a week, about trying to keep up with his department, how hard it was to get help and the extra time that meant for him, but he also talked about his granddaughter and how he made it a point to put away money from those all those six day weeks so that when she was 18 and he was about to retire he could give her some cash to get herself started.

Noticing the time I headed home as DaWife was at work and was scheduled to get out at 10 PM. I got in at 9:35 and did some picking up so the place would be more presentable when she got home, but she didn’t get home at 10:15 as expected. It was past eleven when she walked in the door. She was the only nurse on duty at her place and there was work that had to be done which kept her for an extra hour. This was something that was not unusual on days when she was alone and she was happy to finally be off her feet and only deal with the aches and pains that are standard as you prepare to complete a sixth decade of life.

As I watched her go to the recliner I thought about the fellow working six days a week and the bartender who was busting her ass at her job and realized that based on the materials I had been given which I wrote about yesterday children all over the country are being taught how these three hard working people are members of a privileged class of oppressors who are keeping others down and that moreover there are people making a fortune off of selling this lie and shaking down corporations, perhaps even the ones these three are working for, to help finance this lie to not only school kids but to the public at large.

This is how you create division and how you bring down a republic.

The GOP Leadership, Still Playing the Old Game

Posted: June 15, 2022 by datechguy in culture
Tags: ,

He said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance; and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God can raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Luke 3:7-9

Yesterday I talked about how foolish it was to trust the Democrats on the gun bill. Today at Instapundit my point is made even clearer:

Several Republican senators pressed for a hearing on President Joe Biden’s “Truth Ministry” on Tuesday after new documents revealed that it planned to spy on the public and even included a “domestic terrorism branch” to look into election “misinformation.”

The leadership of the GOP doesn’t seem to understand the people they are dealing with. They still seem to think they are dealing with people from the same culture with the same values who wish to co-exist as equals with whom you can negotiate with in good faith

The evidence of the last few years suggests this is not the case. We are no longer a single culture, we are two cultures and the 2nd culture does not believe in the love of enemies or the idea that the ends do nut justify any means. Furthermore the evidence suggests that while the majority of the those who vote for the left have not reached this point, the activist class, the donor class do and most importantly the “civil servant” bureaucrats either do or are unwilling to oppose them and are willing to destroy any who do and “destroy” also includes the use of violence.

Do you really think people who were unwilling to object to the attempted assassination of a Supreme Court Justice to stand up to these guys?

This isn’t the 1920’s or the 40’s or even 2005. These people have been telling us who they are for a decade. That the leadership in the Senate does not see this is astounding.

Should we give the a chance to as John puts it: “Produce good fruits as evidence of your repentance“. Absolutely. They are still our countrymen, and we still need to live with them.

But until we see concrete evidence of their good faith no deal of any type should go forward.

Closing thought: It is possible that McConnell is playing the Johnson 5D chess agreeing to a “framework” or a “basis” of a deal which will never take place. I am willing to consider this possibility but I’d not bet my rights or the rights of any other American on it.

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