6/30/24 – Another terrible aspect of the egotistical old men clinging to power pretending our democracy is their kingdom is that it sucks up all of the oxygen in the room. This was religious freedom week. Could we focus on anything but that horrible debate and the glaringly obvious miserable situation? We don’t care about any of these politicians and their precious egos, feelings or ambitions. We care about the things that actually matter to us, which is not them.
God bless the persecuted church and all people who aren’t able to practice their faith, no matter what religion it is, in peace and freedom. We pray for you all the time. Remember: We love you, and God loves you.
6/30/24 – We’re trying very hard to stay calm. Centering, center, center. It’s Sunday, and that’s something.
6/30/24 – It might be hard for the elites to process because they are in rapture with themselves and their feelings of superiority, but much of the country doesn’t really give a s—t about them. We care about our own lives. Hard to believe, we know. The elites think we should be watching them preen in front of the mirror. We’re not interested. The elites don’t think much of us ordinary folk, but we don’t care, and we don’t think much of them. So, either give us candidates that will advance our own lives or, well, f—k off. Thank you.
6/30/24 – There have been so many calls and good arguments for Biden to step down, yet this egotistical degenerate refuses to do so. For example, see the numerous articles and arguments on The Atlantic and The New York Times. Also, don’t pretend the obvious parallels with the right don’t exist. It’s not just an irrational loyalty to Biden even though it’s been obvious for a long time that he wasn’t up to another four years, it’s also the cult of personality that is just as prevalent on the left as it is on the right, only in a different form. AOC, Ilhan Omar, Bernie, all of these people are ridiculous and an embarrassment to our country. They are not politicians. They are personalities. The geriatric problem exists also across both parties. For example, Pelosi should retire. We are a goddamn democracy. The two main parties in our democracy need to start acting like it. The Democratic Party needs to be a role model and break from loyalty to any politician/personality. The person can either win and advance the party’s agenda and the country’s interests, or they can’t. Biden simply can’t. Accept it, and choose a fresh ticket. We have many suitable alternatives. Shapiro, Whitmer though. The blue wall must hold.
6/28/24 – America’s geriatric political class, of both parties, is costing us our democracy. Is the Silent Generation the most selfish generation in American history?
6/28/24 – The donor class needs to force the arrogant, selfish, weak dotard to step down.
6/28/24 – Regarding teaching the Bible in public schools, it likely violates the Constitution. Setting aside the legality, the Bible is arguably the greatest book ever written, but it’s mostly a Jewish religious text, you know, the fat Old Testament part. Given this fact, the “conservative Christians” pushing for this education might want to consider having rabbis instead priests or pastors explain the text. Should students also learn some Hebrew and Jewish history, and the huge impact their religious texts has had on world history and moral and intellectual thought? None of this would be bad, but it’s important to remember to whom the Christian Bible belongs. It mostly belongs to the Jewish people because it’s mostly the Hebrew Bible. Shalom.
6/27/24 – Shapiro, Whitmer. Replace Ruth Bader Biden. Do it now. The only thing that matters is swing voters in swing states. Win the f—king election. Save our democracy. Do it now.
6/27/24 – Let’s do a quick review: “5/7/23 – Does it matter what voters want or just what the Democratic establishment wants? We want a real f—king primary in our f—king democracy. Give it to us! Or are the a—hole elites going to subject us to yet another failure, but this time of a greater threat than 2016? Biden was senator forever, 2 terms as VP, and now 1 as Pres. It’s been a good run. He got a lot done in one term. He’s too old for another term. Move the f—k on! How much clearer can we make this? “His overall approval ratings have slipped to a new low, more Americans than not doubt his mental acuity, and his support against leading Republican challengers is far shakier than at this point four years ago…. 26 percent of independents who support charging Trump in any of the three cases say they would definitely or probably vote for him against Biden, while 48 percent back Biden and the rest would support neither, would not vote or are undecided.” The warning signs are flashing red, and the Democratic establishment ignores them at the country’s peril.
Biden faces broad negative ratings at start of campaign, Post-ABC poll finds
5/8/23 – It’s f—king ridiculous. “Taking questions from the media promotes public accountability. It also shows that the president is willing to defend his positions and instills confidence that he can do the job. It is widely known that Mr. Biden is gaffe-prone and that news conferences are not his forte. But as he runs for a second term, he should be eager to show he can handle all aspects of the job.”
Biden no longer does press conferences. That’s not acceptable.
7/13/23 – Is Biden exchanging love letters with dictator modi, as the evil one, trump, did with kim jong un? 7/13/23 – The American people deserve better leaders. Biden is a weak dotard, and the evil one, trump, doesn’t even deserve comment. Putin is vulnerable, and Biden still can’t figure out how to take the f—ker out. This is the person who is going to have a rematch with the evil one. This is a miserable situation. 11/7/23 – Biden’s ego might very well cost us our democracy.” You get the idea.
6/27/24 – Just putting this here: Josh Shapiro: ‘We want a leader who loves this country.. Donald Trump is the opposite of that’
6/27/24 – Well, that was pretty much pure torture. Too depressing to go into. That is all.
6/24/24 – An argument could be made that the United States has become the most decadent of western countries. Our economy is good, yet look at the dissatisfaction. Americans live a comfortable life that others, even in other western countries, don’t have. We tend to own our homes, which in and of itself is a big difference from Europe. We have cheaper imports than other western countries, another exorbitant privilege. America has become too decadent, too comfortable, and we’re becoming detached from reality and losing perspective. We are also losing a collective sense of gratitude for our abundance and our responsibility to the rest of the world, in part, in return for it.
Also, perhaps being the lingua franca, also an exorbitant privilege, comes with an exorbitant cost. There is likely more teenage (and adult, by the way) neurotic musings on the internet written in English than in any other language. Thus, that many more opportunities for native English speakers to be drawn into neurotic musings. On the positive side, there is an easy escape out of this trap of our own making: stop thinking about ourselves.
America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety
6/24/24 – The adage goes, “It’s better to give than to receive.” This saying is often associated with Christianity, but its origins are likely with Jewish, perhaps specifically Hasidic, wisdom regarding orienting oneself to God, a devotion to the divine. “‘The reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah itself,’ the rabbis teach.”
The Beatitudes are arguably some of the most inspiring and the most challenging of Jesus’s teachings. They describe a reversal of the world order. There are some related reversals to consider. What if the best self-help is self-transcendence? Instead of neurotically naval-gazing, what if we look up at our creator in gratitude and love for all that is given without being earned, which is everything we have, including our lives themselves?
How Hasidic Wisdom Can Improve Your Life
6/23/24 – Remember no matter how rich or powerful you are, if God so wills it, everything can be taken from you in an instant. Happy Sunday.
6/23/24 – One of the best parts of going to church is you sometimes get dressed down a bit. Sure, you might feel a little uncomfortable, but it’s good. It keeps you humble and focused on the things that matter.
6/21/24 – Get serious, America. Get it together before it’s too late.
6/21/24 – It used to be that children were named after their ancestors. Now, they’re named after trends. Progress.
6/21/24 – On a fundamental level, the brain wants to do one extremely important thing – form connections. A word is formed of one or more morphemes. The words are associated with meanings (semantics). A word with the same sound and spelling (homophones) can be associated with different meanings; thus, the context will determine the meaning. Basically, just like the composition of the human body, you’re building outward from a single cell into a more complex whole through a series of connections.
The goal with learning is to make as many connections as you can. When a person reads an entire book, you have long, connected ideas that can form new connections in the reader’s brain to present and previous knowledge or to generate new ideas. In addition to other reasons, you want kids to engage with the same text from beginning to end to practice attention span, depth and complexity of thought and to engage their imagination. They will also naturally start forming “movies” in their brain of the continuous stream of information, which is the best “storage” for retention and retrieval of information. There are so many good reasons to encourage this activity.
The brain’s fundamental nature does not change based on the color of a person’s skin. What is changing are the expectations and the pedagogical approach. Teaching to a test is not teaching. It is cheating. The responsibility for every administrator and teacher is to help children develop cognitive functions that are connections-oriented, exploiting the natural predisposition of the brain to optimize the student’s faculties. By cheating pedagogically, they are also cheating these kids out of their future and the potential realization of their talents. It’s insulting to them and a disgrace.
6/20/24 – Speaking of choices, American parenting is a disaster. American parents simply do not know how to parent. Gentle parenting is a joke, and no serious country would engage in this absurd experiment. Let’s just let the kids decide. Yes, let’s just abdicate our responsibility as parents. It is definitely related to the balanced literacy approach that went bust. Let’s just let the kids decide. Yes, let’s just abdicate our responsibility as educators. (Note that teachers often don’t make curriculum decisions.) America needs to stop treating children like guinea pigs.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. It doesn’t need reinvention, and letting kids do the work adults should be doing isn’t balanced; it’s lazy and irresponsible. Balanced parenting and schooling is between strict and compassionate. Kids need phonics. Kids also need actual books. Just work backward from what were the highest standards in academia.
We used to have blue book exams until the education got so bad that students couldn’t actually pass them. As someone who’s done them and done well, you need the actual books. It’s part of how your brain keeps track of the material, so you’ll know where you’re at in the book even if you’re not consciously aware of it. A packet is not a book. (Also, there is the cover art and other such artistic elements that matter to developing refined sensibilities.)
You also need phonics. For many people, myself included, their parents taught them how to read when they were young. They pointed to words and sounded them out, and kids’ brains are wired to connect sounds to meaning. With the added visual information, they’ll connect the written word to the spoken one and as always to the meaning.
It doesn’t need reinvention. The human brain has been wired for language in the same way from the beginning. It just needs the same execution that worked for generations upon generations. America’s addiction to the new is costing younger generations greatly, everything from discipline, attention span, range and depth of thought, personal responsibility, and on and on. New isn’t always better, and sometimes, it’s quite bad. Stop with the experimentation. Do what previous generations did. It works.
The Gentle Parenting Bust
The Schools That Are No Longer Teaching Kids to Read Books
6/17/24 – Every Sunday, practicing Catholics perform the sacrament of communion. “You just eat the wafer thingy.” Well, it’s a little more poetic and spiritual than that. But exactly what is it? Cannibalism? No. But everything we eat becomes a part of us. It literally forms our cells. All that said, your cells are still your own. If we eat our little chicken friend (can we eat our chicken once we’ve become friends?) or the eggs our hens produce (perhaps easier to do, but the egg is supposed to become a little baby chicken), do we become connected to them in some special way?
There is some place of overlap with the Hasidic wisdom as described below, the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist and, perhaps rather oddly, veganism. Fundamentally, they all seem to be particularly aware of something along the lines of: You are what you eat.
Add to this some other truths: You are what you consume (more generally). You are what you believe. You are what you love. Etc. Yet, we spend very little time thinking along these lines with any spiritual clarity or mindfulness. Every choice we make makes us.
6/17/24 – Word to the wise: we get it. You really want to kiss your backyard chickens because they are so darn cute. Don’t. It’s not healthy for you or the bird.
6/17/24 – What should humans’ relationship with animals be? “Having thus dismantled the strict hierarchy between man and nature, we might then forge an environmental awareness built around the simple yet audacious notion that we are deeply a part of the world rather than lords over it.” Obviously, we are considerably different from insects and many other, actually, all other animals. Given the choice, most of us would save a human over a cockroach. So, we have in mind some sort of hierarchy even if we think we don’t. Would the planet be better off if we thought about ourselves as equal to animals or if we actually practiced being good stewards in a hierarchical relationship with humans being a creation apart? Also, what is truer: hierarchy or no hierarchy? Maybe it’s a bit of both, or is that contradictory? It’s a lot to think about.
How Hasidic Wisdom Can Change Your Relationship to the Natural World
6/15/24 – And yes, the evil one is also a f—king idiot. You got to feel sorry for the people who have to try to keep a straight face listening to his s—t. One of the most loathsome people in human history.
The 7 DUMBEST Trump Statements
6/15/24 – “Modi seemed to have been carried away by a God complex. During one interview, he claimed to be not biologically born, but instead an incarnation of divinity sent to Earth to do the Lord’s work. At other times, he spoke of a 1,000-year vision for the nation. Like many autocrats and would-be autocrats, Modi appeared to have lost touch with reality and become a prisoner of his own myth.” There was someone else…. Who was that again? Oh yes, this: “I am the chosen one”
The sycophants of the evil one, the felon, the loser, who will go down in infamy as the most treasonous traitor in American history, will get slapped too. It’s a just a matter of time. Their reputations will be forever stained. Justice will come. Know it now.
The Humbling of Narendra Modi
6/14/24 – Our indigenous people were the first “Americans.” It’s appropriate that Flag Day began in a city named after a native chief. “There is no politics in Flag Day…. All are welcome.”
The kids get it. “The Stars and Stripes ‘represent a nation where immigrants like my grandparents are welcomed, where diversity is celebrated and where justice is present for all,’ wrote Neel Sood, a 4th grader from Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Adell, Wisconsin 7th grader Ryan Spang wrote that ‘the American flag represents unity. We are one nation, united by our similarities and differences. We support people in our communities in times of need and we cheer them on in times of achievement.’”
Americans celebrate their flag every year, and the holiday was born in Wisconsin
Waubeka, Wisconsin — the ‘Birthplace of Flag Day’ — celebrates the Stars and Stripes with passion
6/14/24 – One of the dangers to any society is when its people make what should be thoughtful assessments and decisions on baseless associations. Both the left and the right are guilty of this. The evil one, the felon, the loser, trump does not own the American flag. In fact, he is the antithesis of a patriot. He is a treasonous traitor. Never forget it, and let’s all remember it today, Flag Day. Let’s also remember what the flag represents. It represents the freedom that men and women pay for with their lives. It is a priceless freedom.
Flag Day is also the birthday of the US Army, which reflects our military’s sacrifice. Our military keeps us free. They are heroes. They are not saints. They don’t need to be saints to be heroes. Our military has had individuals who do wrong things, as does every institution, but our military is the most important one we have. Without a strong military, our people would long ago have been made slaves of by another country with a powerful military. The left with its cheap idealism would do well to remember this today and every day.
Old Glory, our stars and our stripes, represents our past, the 13 colonies with the stripes, our present with the 50 united stars, and our future. It is laden with symbolism and meaning, its colors representing our nation’s values. Fly it high and proud. We’re Americans, after all. We have a creed that is written into our sacred Constitution that gives people their God-given freedom, rights and dignity, and our flag reflects it to the world. It’s the beacon for our Constitution, our country, and the best of our people.
We also hold holy the sacred ground on which American patriots, such as the Marines who gave their lives in World War I and the Americans who died at Normandy during World War II, who saved Europe from fascism, are buried. We remember them. We honor them. We love them. We weep for them still. Why? Because they deserve it.
The evil one, the wannabe fascist dictator, is incapable of understanding these feelings, our devotion and our gratitude to them. In his narcissistic, transactional framework: why would one do something for a cause or for someone else, especially sacrificing their own life? They must be suckers and losers. Why would Jesus Christ sacrifice his life to save others? To the evil one, trump, Jesus was also a sucker and a loser.
“For days after his death, the table he frequented remained empty out of respect:” Jamal Mitchell, the hero, who was recently slain in Minneapolis, the same city in which George Floyd was murdered by a policeman, was honored for this courage, compassion and sacrifice. We wept for both of them, and we will continue to remember both of them. We also honored the First Responders who were killed or injured in the line of duty in Burnsville for the same reasons. To their parents, especially their mothers, you raised good men; you gave the world a gift. Nothing about their identity matters except that they died while serving us and the communities we live in. They lost their lives to help others. They didn’t have to enter into service. They chose to do so.
We come together as a community in times of need and of sorrow and to honor our fallen American patriots and heroes because that’s what good people do. We lay flowers for them, continue to remember them, and cry when we think of them. The reason why we don’t think of the people who sacrifice for as suckers and losers is because we have a soul.
We also don’t treat the flag or the Bible as cheap props to sell something that we don’t actually practice or believe. The flag, the Bible, these people mean something profound to us. We wouldn’t disrespect them by using them to serve our selfish ends. When we hold them high, we do so as a beacon to the world of what they represent. Our fallen heroes represent the greatness of Americans at our best. Fly proud Old Glory: remind the world of our best people and our values. To our patriots and heroes, we don’t deserve you, yet you gave us yourselves anyway. Thank you.
Since When Does Donald Trump Own the American Flag
Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’
Trump Is Lying to the U.S. Military
6/11/24 – Old Glory flies high and proud, as it should. Remember our ancestors who sacrificed so much, sometimes their lives, for us to have our freedom and our rights. Teamwork makes the dream work, and America is a glorious mess. We can do this, America. We can listen to the better angels of our nature. We can create new music, new dance, new art. We can be gloriously weird, genuine and creative. We can get along, respect our differences and build a country worthy of ourselves and the patriots who came before us. All American, but human first. Be proud. Be united.
The Next Great American Mega-Genre
6/11/24 – Indians figured out that they’re stronger together and that other little thing, their Constitution protects them. Will Americans figure it out? All Desi, but human first. Be proud. Be united.
“Customers from both India and Pakistan attend biryani-loaded cricket screenings at both the Royale and Spice & Curry. While the Indo-Pak banter prevails, there’s no trace of any hostility. ‘It’s all politics. In Nassau County, there’s a big population of Indians and Pakistanis. And they get along,’ Haroon says…. While the customers might have their preferred cricket team or biryani, they are bound by the love for both. ‘The food is going to unite the love. No matter what kind of rivalry they have on the field, when they’ll be back, they’ll enjoy the food,’ Singh says.”
Cricket and biryani go together like baseball and hot dogs
6/11/24 – You are what you believe. Believe wisely.
6/10/24 – What’s is the difference between a lie and willful self-deception?
6/10/24 – The other thing that happens is, well, living in one’s own fiction. “Now the producer’s public apology has made clear that the film was based on misleading data and false claims…. Earlier this week, Weidong ‘Bill’ Guan, the chief financial officer of the company, was arrested and charged with involvement in a multiyear, $67 million money-laundering scheme…. The setbacks for Salem and The Epoch Times are just the latest glitches in the alternative-reality universe.”
A Bad Week for Backers of the Big Lie
6/10/24 – After reflecting over several days on the conviction and courage of the Greatest Generation, our present culture stands in stark contrast. It might not be apparent, but both the right and the left do this: blaming others for their own inadequacies. This happens all the time in an educational system gone awry, and, of course, there is the perfect example of it, the evil one, the felon, the loser, trump.
“As we saw, the big problem with self-enhancement is being confronted with the painful reality of your imperfections in the long run. That is the moment when we note cognitive dissonance, in which two beliefs—I am excellent; I am not excellent—are in incompatible tension. This tension can stimulate an external explanation: that I am naturally excellent, for instance, but being thwarted in my efforts by outside forces or people. This can be true, but it tends to be simply another form of self-deception, one that leads to a lot of misery. Scholars have shown that people with a weak capacity for emotional self-regulation tend to blame others for their poor choices. This form of delusion can dispel bad feelings about oneself in the short term, but scholars recommend that owning one’s decisions is a better long-term strategy to manage negative emotions.”
You’re Not Perfect
6/6/24 – “D-Day comes down to individuals…. Small numbers of individuals can make a massive difference.” Such a wonderful remembrance of The Greatest Generation on the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the incredible sacrifices they made to save Europe and the grace they showed working with our former colonizer, the British. We will rightly honor them hopefully forever. We are so proud of them, and they make us proud to be Americans. May God bless them.
Special talk on the 80th anniversary of D-Day with Alex Kershaw
6/5/24 – To the rich: Economists like to say that time is money. Time is actually divine, priceless, and life. No matter how rich you are, time is not for sale. It belongs to God and God alone. How are you spending your time, your life? Chasing money, fame and/or power? That’s no way to live a life.
6/5/24 – To the poor and marginalized Hindus and other Indians: You are more than touchable. God loves you with a deep and abiding love. To our Christian God, you are equal to everyone else. You are not a slave, an indentured servant or inferior to anyone. You are a child of God, made in his image. Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.
6/5/24 – Poor and “low-caste” Indians figured out that they were getting played. They were being tricked into hating their compatriots, fellow Indians, who just happen to practice a different religion (so what?) so that the rich and powerful can keep them down. Will Americans figure it out also?
6/2/24 – There is a textile waste problem in the United States, which is causing environmental problems in some parts of the Global South, but that doesn’t mean one should stop donating their clothes. One should try to recycle as much as possible, and donating is one form of it. Donating clothing and other items also helps many people. In addition, people often donate good-quality clothing. If you can, try to have your clothes or shoes mended by a tailor or cobbler, respectively, before donating them. Also, usually when you consign your quality clothes, if they don’t sell, they go to charitable organizations, such as the Goodwill.
However, textile waste is a real problem that requires all stakeholders and a global approach. Also, water consumption, environmentally harmful processing and other production problems, such as forced or child labor and poor working conditions, in the fashion industry need to be fixed.
It’s also true that many countries in the Global South make much higher quality clothing than what Americans in the United States tend to wear. This might seem paradoxical since the United States is considerably wealthier. Many countries in the Global South have artisans creating the fabrics. The tailoring is good, and the designs are innovative and beautiful.
The west, including, perhaps especially Europe, is fixated on brands, les marques. It’s mainly because consumers have a hard time assessing quality without it. Europeans, however, tend to buy fewer but higher quality items. Many of us have been too busy or cheap to put too much energy into our purchases at some point or another, but one will save money, time and the environment by doing so.
Another more recent factor is that Americans’ tastes and trends have gone markedly downhill. The fast fashion nightmare is ruining the planet and is an eyesore. Please try to develop your own sense of style.
Also, Americans don’t have good habits when it comes to taking care of their clothes. Even if you buy inexpensive ones, they can last a long time if the material is good and if you follow the care instructions. All clothing should be required to have tags that give consumers information on the composition of the fabric and how to best clean it. (Recently, clothing is being sold without information on the composition of the fabric.) Some people have sensitive skin and need particular fabric, and knowing how to care for clothing helps us care for our planet.
In general, try to take the time to consider what you’re purchasing, if you really need to buy it, and if there are better alternatives. Don’t chase trends or buy based on brand names/expensive clothes. There are three key elements to look for to find quality clothes: fabric, tailoring and design. Try to make what you purchase last. It’s good for your wallet and the planet.
6/2/24 – You are what you consume. Consume wisely. Happy Sunday!