There is so much happening at the moment in U.S. news... and yet my trip to South Africa is just three days away. I think I'm going to have to shift into South Africa mode in fairly short order.
Today I'm returning from a very interesting speaking journey to the Bay Area, where I addressed Republicans in Pleasanton. Speaking to Republican audiences in the midst of the pandemic is always interesting. People don't like masks or social distancing; handshakes are the norm. I don't think I've shaken more than half a dozen hands in two years; I've gone full fist-bump. There is a cultural rejection of the pandemic conventions among conservative audiences. Just interesting.
People are fired-up. I haven't seen Republicans this energized about an election since the 2010 Tea Party -- and people are savvier now than they were then. The "resistance," as such, feels more focused. I will also say this: the anti-tax movement is much stronger among Republicans than even the establishment media understands. You don't have to pander to it, but people are not interested in being lectured to about the vaccine. The safe ground is to oppose mandates -- though, when asked, I talk freely about my own choice to be vaccinated.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
