Miscellaneous Meanderings on the signs of the times
Dr. Mark S. Latkovic
April 1, 2016
{Some of these “Miscellaneous Meanderings” appeared on my Facebook status updates and on Twitter in March 2016, but appear here often in a slightly revised form}
~Many of the terrible trends we see today seem to have longer shelf-lives than the ones of yesteryear, when bad trends would not be, well, trends, for too long. Today’s trends continue to trend no matter how awful, despite your prayers that they become un-trendy. I’m still waiting for rap music to go the way of disco.
~Many won’t vote for Sen. Ted Cruz because, although he looks good on paper, he doesn’t look so good in real life.
~Hillary Clinton was feeling the “Bern” after losing the Michigan primary to the 74-year-old socialist. I never thought I could ever root for a socialist, but I did.
~The term “free-love” has always struck me as ironic: Nothing has been more expensive than the cost of “free-love.”
~The label on the Girl Scouts Cookies said Thin Mints. So, thinking that I could eat the whole box in the hope of them making me thin – I did, but they didn’t.
~Sometimes while watching the presidential debates, I think, “Wait, I must be watching an SNL skit.”
~Some random thoughts on the Donald Trump candidacy for the Republican nomination to run for the most powerful position on earth for the most powerful country on earth: he could easily have run as a Democrat (heck, many of his positions were/are Democrat ones); his one principle is that he has no principles; his run has not only fractured the Republican Party, but has taken the focus off Obama’s outrages & incompetence; and, like a magic act, it has diverted our eyes away from the fact that an elderly liar (age 68) and an old socialist (age 74) are running for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party – both of whom are radically pro-abortion.
~Self-deprecating humor – i.e., the ritual of going on TV to joke about your latest arrest or outrageous behavior – is today’s form of absolution.
~Kim Kardashian West posts a nude selfie on Twitter and then tells those calling her out to stop with the “body-shaming.” Why should she bother? She’s a woman who is incapable of feeling any shame.
~The horror of the Islamic State’s practice of sexual slavery is captured in this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/world/middleeast/to-maintain-supply-of-sex-slaves-isis-pushes-birth-control.html. “Islamic State leaders have made sexual slavery as they believe it was practiced during the Prophet Muhammad’s time integral to the group’s operations, preying on the women and girls the group captured from the Yazidi religious minority almost two years ago. To keep the sex trade running, the fighters have aggressively pushed birth control on their victims so they can continue the abuse unabated while the women are passed among them.” This is what happens when you combine medieval minds with modern technological methods; ah the religion of peace.
~The word empowerment is one of those terms that stifle all debate (e.g., see http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/how-bikini-airline-helped-to-create-vietnams-first-woman-billionaire/ar-BBqQPbU?li=BBnb7Kz). It’s gotten to the point where I think you could justify just about anything by simply saying, “It’s empowering.”
~I read that the Tampa Bay Rays were stranded in Cuba after their baseball game against the Cuban national team during Obama’s visit. Their plane was broken down and the needed part was unavailable in the communist country (see http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/rays/2016/03/23/tampa-bay-rays-cuba-stuck-runway-airport-delay/82154750/). It’s good to know that communism is still working as it’s supposed to work.
~Why would Florida senator Marco Rubio run for president this year of all years? Given his relative youth (age 44) and the fact that his mentor and former Florida governor Jeb Bush was running, why didn’t he wait 4 more years?
~The Detroit Free Press columnist Georgea Kovanis, in “The feminism fissure” (Titled, “Why women can’t get along” in the online edition, http://www.freep.com/story/life/shopping/georgea-kovanis/2016/03/27/new-feminists-vs-old-feminists/82080086/) addresses the apparent generational gap among so-called feminists. But the way she speaks glowingly of how “abortion rights” were won by the older generation of feminists, may tell you all you need to know about the gap: today’s generation of young women tend to be more pro-life than the Gloria Steinem-Hillary Clinton led feminist movement of old.
~Even after ISIS’ terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium, Obama still maintains that they are not an existential threat to the U.S. (See http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/23/obama-on-isis-ive-got-a-lot-on-my-plate-theyre-not-an-existential-threat-video/). He never ceases to amaze me with his refusal to recognize the facts, i.e., reality.
~I saw a prayer list recently that asked people to pray for a couple renewing their marriage “vowels.”
~I wish I could say that Trump’s near-certain nomination was an April Fools’ Day joke.
~Mother Angelica, the founder of EWTN, died in late March at the age of 92. She may not have had an angelic face, but she sure did the work of angels. RIP.
~I’d like to tell the presidential candidates that penis size won’t matter much when a large phallic-shaped nuclear-tipped missile from Iran or North Korea is landing in your backyard.
~Charles Krauthammer has done us all a great service by identifying (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-four-foreign-policies/2016/03/31/bf28a7e6-f764-11e5-a3ce-f06b5ba21f33_story.html) the foreign policy of each of the remaining presidential candidates: Trump (mercantilist), Cruz (unilateralist), Clinton (internationalist), and Sanders (pacifist). By identifying their “doctrine” with a label, we can see more clearly into how they think about foreign affairs.