Culture

Christians: Stand Your Ground– Guest Post by Ianto Watt

When Then Was Now

Normally we associate the words “Hold you fire” with situations that seems uncertain. When we want to make sure that no one else is unnecessarily hurt. Perhaps when the battle is actually over but no one on the winning side has noticed. Or perhaps when we think someone is about to surrender. Two opposing viewpoints can be contained in this command. The trick is to know which situation confronts us.

I have been amazed with the current situation. Not with the circumstances, although certainly they are rather unique to our day. No, it is the rapidity of the unfolding of events (and the immediate disappearance of all previous matters from the front pages of The Daily Liar) that amazes me.

It has happened before. Once within my lifetime. Another in my grandfather’s time. Both were turning points in the world of revolution, which, if you haven’t noticed, is the time we live in now. I think we need to consider these two events of the past to know which situation confronts us now. And how we will know what the outcome will be.

Here is the salient question: will our military (including our militarized police forces) actually fire upon the people?

Unless we are willing to totally surrender, we are going to get an answer to that question, and rather soon I would guess. No, I am not exaggerating. This is a moment of great historical import. The point of confrontation is upon us. One side or the other will be victorious. The results of either side’s victory will be with us for generations. Ask the older Russians if you doubt this.

Why ask them? Because the first of these two occurrences happened in Russia, in 1917. Not in November of ’17. That was when the axe blade actually fell. And heads began to roll, for 70 years, and more. No, the real action was in March of ’17. Just like now. It occurred in a most curious way. A way that has been mirrored, I believe, by the second occurrence, which happened here, in 1970. At Kent State, for those who still remember.

What happened in Petersburg in ’17 was preceded by the abortive revolution in ’05, in which the military did fire upon the people. This bought 12 more years for the Romanov Dynasty. It would have been more if Stolypin hadn’t been assassinated. The point is that this act of war by the government against its own unarmed civilians produced the antibodies necessary to ensure that it would not happen again. When a seemingly similar event unfolded in early ’17, it was the previous revolt that actually neutralized the Tsar. And then eliminated his dynasty.

Russia was two years deep into WWI and the bulk of her forces were deployed against Germany to the West. The Tsar was Commander in Chief, and as such was situated towards the front, away from the capitals of Petersburg and Moscow.

The people, especially the army, had been rallied to protect the nation against the Huns. Same drill over here, but with no logical reasoning behind it, as we shared no border with Germany (or anyone else at war). But never mind, our glorious leaders found a way, as they always do. Same in Russia. External enemies have a certain charm upon people’s loyalty to the Fatherland, regardless of which tyrant rules.

The problem for Nicholas II was that he was a wimpy tyrant. Only Stolypin had saved him from the carnage in ’05. And he was gone. The remainder of the revolutionaries were still there, and they were definitely not wimps. Cowards, yes, but not wimps. There is a fine line there. Ask your nearest Jihadi about that.

Anyway, most of the people, being fixated upon the need to defend the Fatherland, were not inclined to revolution at the moment. No matter, others were. All those on the Left. And they were many. The crucial result of the abortive ’05 coup was the Tsar’s granting a legitimate existence to a Parliament of sorts. The State Duma. Strictly consultative in nature, it was not a true legislature. Nothing passed without the signature of the Supreme Leader. But this grant of existence was the beginning of the end for the Romanovs, and Russia, as they had known it for 300 years.

The Duma was populated by scads of parties, from the Octobrists (monarchists of a type) on the far right, to the Kadets (constitutional democrats) in the middle, to the Social Democrats and Social Revolutionaries on the left and far left, along with all the brands everyone knows, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. And don’t forget the Jewish Bund, the Trudoviks (labourites), the Inter-District Group, the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers, etc., and many more.

In short, the Duma was chaotic. But, here’s the real point: they had legitimate voices now. They no longer had to hide in their political catacombs, along with their Cro-Magnon ancestors, the Anarchists and the Nihilists. All but these last two were now free to assemble in the light of day, and give voice to their demands. To describe their vision of what Russia should be. And most of them had their beginnings with the Decembrist movement of December 1825, when the death of Alexander I led to the protests that arose when his son Konstantin declined the throne in favor of his younger brother, Nicholas the First.

Konstantin, you see, was perceived as being favorable to freeing the serfs, whereas Nicholas I was not. For those who care, all of 1917 began in 1825, and the revolutionary expectations of (some of) the people began to be unleashed. And by the time Nicholas II took the throne from his hard-ass father, Alexander III in 1894, there had already been a 70 year campaign by the Anarchists and Nihilists to eradicate the monarchy. In favor of…what? Well, that was the question the Duma was to decide, right? But too many cooks spoil the broth, and the pot boiled over in November, 1917.

Russia by 1905 had spent 80 years festering from the ‘stolen election’ of 1825, when the hopes of the serfs were dashed by the accession of Nicholas I. Russia lived through this time replete with assassination attempts against the Tsars and their ministers. Then came the stupid war with the Japanese in ’04. A war that would supposedly only last the six weeks eventually needed to send the fleet east to crush the Nips. A war that would, hopefully, refocus the people outward, against the foreign enemy. A war of convenience that would relieve the internal pressures of labor and ethnic unrest fed by revolutionary attacks against the throne and state.

When these attacks finally led to the abortive first revolution and the troops fired upon unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday in January of ’05, it was put down with hot lead. The nation recoiled in horror. And the antibodies to this horrific act were produced. Unfortunately for the Tsar, he had no medical background. He had no clue as to what this meant. But the revolutionaries did. They realized, far better than the Tsar, what motivated true Russian patriotism. And how to hijack it.

The time for that hijacking finally came in March of ’17 , even as Lenin was still lounging in Switzerland. As the competitive chaos amongst the parties of the Duma increased, the demands of the parties upon the throne increased. That was how you differentiated your party from the others. Demand a bigger and bigger role in running the country, steering harder left to show your woke leadership. Sound familiar?

The Tsar never noticed. He was busy with the current version of a supposedly ‘unifying’ war. And listening to his German wife. Which the revolutionaries never failed to remind the people of.

Here’s the point, Komrade. When the cat’s away, the rats will play. The cat was at HQ, closer to the war front. The rats, as always, stayed to the rear. And the tune the rats played for the people was ‘Demand your rights, Komrades!’ The labor unrest began anew.

But now there was a new ingredient added to the old recipe of ’05. Two ingredients, actually. The first ingredient was the people’s memory of the wide-spread horror of large-scale army-on-civilian brutality carried out by the military. The wanton killing of men, women and children, peacefully led by a priest. Perhaps a thousand or more. In the name of the Christian Tsar. Something totally alien to the memory of every Russian before then.

The second ingredient was also new to the scene. It was the magic of modernity. Electronic communications. We’ll get to that in a moment.

Let’s stir the first new ingredient into the batter. We’ve already prepared the original recipe by infiltrating the factories and sowing the spice of labor discontent. That’s not too hard in an industrial-serf society. Now we add the first new ingredient. Send the revolutionary Komrades into the barracks, and stir in well. Start talking about how all the people need to have solidarity. Sobornost! All of the people must become one. Not just the workers in the factories making the munitions and supplies for the war effort. Start talking about the need for solidarity between the Workers and the Soldiers as well!

After all, the soldiers were Russians too, correct? And they were being sent to their deaths on the Western Front in a senseless war that only served to preserve the Dynasty, dah? In other words, a soldiers’ allegiance should be to his fellow Russians, and not the tyrant. Why? Because the Soldiers were part of the people too! Thus, the birth of the Soviet of Workers and Soldiers. Make your enemy your brother. Unless you want another massacre.

The net effect of this strategy was to break the will of the rear-elements of the army before they could be commanded to suppress the striking workers with a new show of deadly force. Forge a bond between the revolutionary forces that claim to represent the laboring men in the factories as well as the soldiers who will have to die for Dynastic glory. Forge a bond that will supersede the one between soldiers and their officers. So that when the order is given to ‘open fire’, no man will obey.

This idea may seem very simplistic, and it was, in the Russian world before 1917. But the world had changed between ’05 an ’17. Twelve years is a lot of time in modern terms. There’s the key. Russia had progressed, along with the rest of the world, since 1900. It no longer took days, weeks, even months for word (of anything) to spread. The telegraph saw to that. Russia was fully unified in this respect.

Here’s the key to the second ingredient of modern communications. The telegraph was absolutely vital to running the railroads. And the railroads were indispensable to any modern war effort. Like any new industrial nation, Russia was fully integrated in this respect, at least in her non-Siberian parts.

In the old days, when you had labor unrest in a local area, or even a mutinous local garrison, so what? Simply send a troop train from Petersburg or Moscow and you crushed the local rebels with distant troops loyal to the throne. But what if most of your troops (especially the efficient ones) are a little busy at the moment, entertaining Kaiser Bill’s boys on the Western Front? And what if most of your trains are busy transporting men and materiel to them? Who do you send to crush the rebels without disrupting your frontlines and supply lines?

The Tsar made the mistake of going to crush it himself. But he sent his troop trains before him instead of leading them. Trains full of battle-hardened men, loyal to him because they had not been infiltrated and proselytized by the revolutionaries back home. But those troop trains would never get there. And neither would the Tsar. Why? Because of The Bagel.

Now we come to Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bublikov. A member of the Duma. He was the new cook who understood the new recipe. Yes, Bublikov, ‘the bagel’, as his name implied. The man who commandeered the railway/telegraph network in the crucial days of March 12-15, 1917 after the previous Minister had been murdered by the revolutionaries.

Say what you want about who the ‘major players’ were in the Russian Revolution. Lenin (the latecomer), Trotsky, Kerensky, Guchkov, Rodzhyanko, Milyukov, Shulgin, none of them would have gotten to first base without the brilliant moves of Bublikov.

He was now the master of the only national and instantaneous source of news in the Empire. And he fully understood that power. He was the man who sent news of the local labor insurrection in Petersburg throughout the entire Russian Empire. He was the one who maneuvered and trapped the Tsar (and all of his troop trains along the way) at remote railway sidings before they could reach Petersburg to put down the rebellion of the local garrison. It was Bublikov who set all of Russia aflame. Instantly. Hail, modernity! Heil, electrons! Hell, yes!

Isolated and cut off from secure and private communications, the Tsar was browbeaten with continuous telegraphed reports (courtesy of Bublikov) of insurrections. Most of which were false or misleading. Nicholas was seemingly abandoned by his own military leaders (who were suffering the same fate of information control, again, courtesy of Bublikov). No wonder the wimpy Tsar crumpled, and agreed to abdicate. Without a single military shot. Shades of 1905.

Here’s the new cake, as baked with the new recipe. As the Duma was busy producing a Babel of chaotic proposals for the ‘reform’ of the dynasty, the revolutionaries were inciting both the factories and the barracks to destroy it. ‘Spontaneous’ demonstrations arose, of course. Factories went on strike, denying the Western Front of precious war goods. What then is to be done? the local Petersburg commandants asked themselves. Send out the local rear-guard troops, of course!

But wait. What if those troops won’t go? And if they do go, what if they won’t fire on the workers? Why would they refuse to do this? Because Bublikov has told them, on his magic wire, and in the name of the Duma, not to do it. Soon enough, soldiers began to desert the barracks, and to fraternize with civilians and students. Also soon enough, another detachment of troops disarms its own officers. And arrests them. (Bublikov reports this as well, to all of Russia. Along with every other real or imagined subsequent act of rebellion). Arresting officers? Absolute treason! Punishable by death.

The alternative for these reluctant rear-guard soldiers was also death. Death for your Komrades in the factory. Or your civilian relatives at the demonstrations. Now comes the little-man’s dilemma. What should I do, Komrade? I’m just a simple serf sent by my landed master to fulfill his requirement of troops for the Tsar’s wartime needs. Should I kill for the throne? I’m not being ordered to kill Germans, like my brothers at the front. No. Instead, I am being commanded to kill my fellow Russians. What should I do, Komrade? What do I do?

All throughout the Empire this question was immediately raised. And answered, instantaneously, again by Bublikov. ‘In the name of the Duma; hold your fire!

That was Then, This Is Now

That’s the situation the local Russian gendarmerie faced in ’17. It was obviously more fraught than the one their older Russian brothers faced in ’05. Obviously, I want to compare that situation with ours today, drawing certain parallels. Before I do that, remember that survival always depends on our ability to recognize patterns. Something that, at first glance may seem different, may actually be the same pattern, but is simply the mirror-opposite. Don’t let that fool you. It’s still the same pattern.

That needs mentioning because I believe in these two situations, both in Russia in ’17 and in America in the here-and-now, we have mirror-reversed the perspective in one crucial way. That is in the historic mind-set of the people involved.

Russia is, and has always been, a defensive, inward-looking nation. A nation that has always lived in fear. Fear of her invasive neighbors, and in fear of her own rulers. I’m not denying her expansionist tendencies to the East and South from the earliest times. But this was movement into an un-peopled vacuum. A vacuum often traversed by the Eastern Hordes and the Muslim Jihadis from the South. Filling that emptiness was defensive in nature.

America, on the other hand, has been aggressive and outward-looking for a long time. I know, I sound anti-American here. But I’m not against our Nation. I’m against the Empire.

Isn’t that exactly the whole point? If we were still America The Nation, would we even be talking about a governmental situation that could use the slightest pretext to literally imprison almost everyone, overnight? That’s what The Lockdown is, you know. Prison. The Imperial prison, that seeks to keep the power they fear losing in the November of our times.

That’s what we’re all contemplating, isn’t it? A government that can unilaterally remove every right, overnight, based on a Public Health Panic that makes absolutely zero sense. That is, if you bother to look at the normal results of any flu season for the past century or two. Or twenty.

Overnight, Americans who have by their nature always been bold and confident, have suddenly been reduced to the cowering fearful state of the Serfs of Russia. An irrational fear, driven by an instantaneous Bublikovian communications system that has almost unanimously voiced the same message—SUBMIT!

Submit to Medical Islam! After all, these Infection Imams have our best interests at heart, no? No price too great to save a single life! Overnight, we have been reduced to a fearful quivering blob. You may think I am stretching this by comparing the new regime to Islam, but isn’t this what it must be like to live in Mecca? You can’t appear on the streets without facial coverings? And nothing may be done publicly? At least, if you are a woman? So, guess what, Komrade? You’ve been transgendered. And you didn’t even notice.

What’s our way out? How do we break the spell we have fallen under? The first thing is we must realize what has happened. Not just in the last two months, but in the last hundred years. The last century has been a steady drumbeat of the Imperial anthem. It began softly but the volume and cadence has risen with each passing decade. It is now drowning out every other sound. The drumbeat of Caesars, both local and distant, is overwhelming our ability to think. And, more importantly, to remember. To remember a time when we could assess our own risks and make our own decisions.

What has helped to prepare us for this fate? Have you ever noticed that you can’t go anywhere anymore without a steady drum beat of piped-in ‘music’ (or sports/news video) surrounding you? You know the purpose, don’t you? It’s to interrupt your thought process. And to enable others to insert their own messages (usually commercial in nature) to influence our actions.

I’m not saying it’s all bad. I’m just saying it distracts us. Distracts us? From what? FROM THINKING! For ourselves. And acting on our own conclusions. Conclusions reached after actual thought, and not just knee-jerk responses to Pavlovian stimuli. It’s not a coincidence Pavlov was Russian. Guess who’s Pavlov today? The same as Bublikov in 1917? Simple, Komrade. It’s the electronic, instantaneous, ubiquitous and mesmerizing media. More importantly, those who seem to control it with a unified voice. A voice that demands we submit. Is that what you want?

Let’s revisit Russia for a moment, and the matter of patterns. Here is a nation that for a thousand years had lived in fear of one sort or another. They finally succumbed to the Siren song that said we can overthrow our masters and experience the absolute joy of unlimited freedom. So they did. For three whole days. March 13th thru March 15th, 1917. The people threw off their masters of government, of custom, of respect, of everything Church and State. They became drunk with the liquor of license. Just like at Troy, when those fools thought they had won. And celebrated a bit too early. Idiots.

Then, just like at Troy, the hammer fell and The Revolution began to exact its toll. By November those hung-over Slavs were reduced to a new slavery and fear that made serfdom look absolutely delightful. That fear still haunts them today, another century later.

We, on the other hand, are experiencing just the opposite range of emotions. Mirror-opposite, in my mind. Americans have always, even in times of stress, lived in a state of oblivious revelry. An unexplainable happiness with life, no matter how hard the circumstances were. Sure, there were hard times, but nothing could ever break the people’s faith that we were the chosen ones. Don’t worry, be happy!

But now, in a mirror-like fashion of the Russians of yore, we have instantly traded our euphoric past for a fearful future. Driven insane by the Bublikovian stimulus we have become enslaved to. Will we stay this way forever? Or, like the post-revolutionary Russians, will we revert to our natural state? You do realize, Komrades, that we are living through a revolutionary time? Will this revolution fail? Will we ever regain our admittedly unearned freedoms? If so, how will it be done? How can we re-establish our national pattern?

Before I answer that question, Citizen, let me caution you. Always fight on your own ground. Because that is where you live. And where you will fight the hardest. Never fight the enemy on his ground.

Where is our enemy’s ground? Simple. The Swamp. The land of political power. Isn’t that the lesson of The Donald? That we are powerless in The Swamp? That there are an unfathomable number of swamp creatures that make it nearly impossible to win on their marshy ground? A ground that absorbs all force before it can be projected against it?

That is why the only political strategy that can be successful, from the vantage of America the Nation, is to disperse the centralized power away from The Swamp. Send power back to the local swamps, where oversight (and reaction) is much easier and effective?

What am I saying here? That we need to engage in a re-doubled political effort, one aimed at re-localizing America the Nation? Hell no!

Yes, we need to re-localize power, but you’ll never do it by engaging the enemy on his mushy centralized ground. Instead, we must lure him to our ground. We must get him to fight us where we are strong. On the ground that we hallow. The ground that we know, and he knows not. A firm ground that lies above the waters of the swamp where they hide. And where would that ground be, Christian?

Yes. At your church. The ground The Swamp despise above all others. Don’t believe me? Then why is everything under the sun, from abortion clinics to liquor stores and WalMarts open for business and Churches are not? Get the message, Komrade? God is ‘not essential’.

Here is my hope, fellow Citizen. America recoiled in horror when the National (rear) Guard fired upon the rock-throwers at Kent State in 1970. My hope (and prayer) is that the antibodies this produced in our nation (like in Russia in 1905) still exist. And will keep our men-at-arms from actually firing upon us. No, not when we violate the social distancing at Planned Parenthood. No, I’m talking about when there is a real challenge to their demands that we submit to Medical Islam. A challenge that arises when we reject their religion of control-by-fear in order to keep the faith of our fathers.

How do we do this, Citizen? Simple. We have to do it on a scale that overwhelms their ability to handle the few who would challenge their rule. We have to do it in a way that defies the thought that this was an un-civil political mob. We have to do it in a way that would excite horror even in the minds of the secular fools who would finally see the evil of physically harming peaceful worshipers who present no threat to others in their secular-commercial empire.

We have to do it on our own ground.

Go to your Church this Sunday. If the doors are open, go in and worship. But if they are still locked (as I fear), then stand around. Congregate outside. Ignore their anti-social distancing dictums. Praise God and press the flesh! Then, and only then, will we know their true intent. Then, and only then, will we also know our true selves as well. And only then will we have the opportunity to break their power. On our own terms. On our own ground. For our own true God.

Christian, stand your ground.

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Categories: Culture

45 replies »

  1. The Kent State shootings were entirely justified. I’ve interviewed several people who stood on all sides that day, and that’s the one thing they agree on.

    The setting: The Leftists had been rioting for two days. They announced the evening of day two that the next day, they were going to go burn down the ROTC building. And then they were going to go burn down the munitions plant outside of town. Where quite a few of the ROTC cadets’ parents worked.

    “That night, in downtown Kent, there were reports of violent clashes between students and local police. Police alleged that their cars were hit with bottles, and that students stopped traffic and lit bonfires in the streets.

    Reinforcements were called in from neighboring communities, and Kent Mayor Leroy Satrom declared a state of emergency…” https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/kent-state-shooting

    The morning of day 3, the ROTC cadets (who were most of the local National Guardsmen), formed up and drew arms and ammunition to protect their building, their campus, their parents, their town, and their nation from Leftist traitors who had been rioting, burning and looting for two days. They ultimately failed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN4i7THVh90

    The cadets held a line, until the traitors started pelting them with rocks and bottles. Then the cadet commander stupidly backed them up against a fence, from where they could no longer retreat. The assault with rocks, bottles, and garbage continued. And then someone opened fire with a pistol. Everyone involved agrees that this happened. Please note that the cadets were all, every one of them, armed with rifles, and that there was not a single pistol among them. (Pistol and rifle fire sound distinctly different.)

    The cadet guardsmen opened fire to defend themselves, as any sane person would. Most fired into the ground or into the air. Thus, they were accused of “firing indiscriminately”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmd6CHah7Wg

  2. Excellent. Agree 100%. Go counter cultural all the way. Come out as Christians whether you believe it or not.

  3. Here is the salient question: will our military (including our militarized police forces) actually fire upon the people?

    ABS worked with a gentleman who was also a weekend warrior. We discussed a possible future in which he was asked to put on his uniform and help enforce a curfew in Cape Elizabeth, Maine (A tiny very rich town)

    Asked if he would shoot ABS if he saw him outside after curfew, the gentleman did not hesitate to say, Yes.

    The military is sent all over hell and creation to participate in unjust wars and do some killing of innocents for some multinational corporations and they do it without any noticeable objections and one suspects they will continue to do so

  4. McChuck: Thank you for that account. I am of that time and remember what was SAID! Your observations coupled with the work of Dr. David Grossman, M.D., a Psychiatrist, in his book, On Killing, discusses at length issues about how we, as Homo sapiens, feel and act when confronted with killing our fellow humans. The Military has spent much time and effort in determining how to increase effectiveness in combat. (I would like to be clear on one issue, I would have stood WITH those ROTC members that day). So the observation that many/most shot into the air or ground makes perfect sense. However, the ability to provoke in a crowd as we have seen the ANTIFA, Marxists do is significant. Our current history suggests that “We the People” are much more tolerant until pushed too far. God help the Marxists if they manage to provoke the “Fly Over” population in this day. There will be no space small enough in which to hide, if that day arrives (this was a comment made by a friend that was a navigator in a B17 in WWII, and he said “you know that space under a ‘rivet’ head, it is too large, under these circumstances).

  5. I suggest ABS read Grossman’s book, On Killing. He suggests why you may have come in contact with an individual that was on the far slope of the Gaussian Distribution and got more “enjoyment” out of what he was trained to do. Dave Grossman got me to think about almost all matters in life and experience relative to the “Bell Shaped Curve”. This has been a very interesting and revealing way to see why, as a GROUP, we are so different and conflicted.

  6. New study in New York confirms Santa Clara results: Chinese flu numbers in line with regular season flu. The scamdemic is over. Unlock now, and hang the perps.

  7. ABS: I guess the need to thank goes full circle. Rappoport’s narrative is so precient. I had the experience more than 30 years ago with a patient that, by the end of the conversation, was comparing my ability to dx and tx a problem with that of an actor on the series, E.R.. I was compared to “Dr. Green” and with question. This told me of the power of the medium. There is a power to “down play” as well. I have commented on several Med Blog sites that having “anecdotal evidence” the potential use of Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine as a prophylaxis for this particular virus, having communicated with several that are on those meds for RA(Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus). They had stated that they had not given it any thought but realized they had not had the usual colds or the flu over the 5 years of that treatment. The arguments against are specious. Prophylactic use of this class of meds was tested in the Vietnam War on approx. 500,000 USofA citizens. The CDC has a protocol for this use if you are travelling to the Philippines to visit relatives, 500 mg of the salt once/week starting a week before and during your stay followed by 4 weeks following return. The discussion becomes too lengthily but I couldn’t even get anyone to “push back” on the topic until I heard “Hannity” suggest that Dr. Oz was looking at asking patients if they had such an experience. That was from a TV Dr. and low and behold, I have not heard the topic broached since. We have a serious “lack of critical thinking” going on in my profession and throughout our society. The “take over” of the Educational System seems to hold some responsibility. There are other issues consistent with the “Invasion of a Country by an Aggressor”. 1) take over communication and information dissemination, 2) Burn the books and kill the professors, 3) Remove the children from the home and parents, the only ones that truly care about them. 4) Institute a separation of the population from each other (divide and conquer). Is this not what today’s article relates and what We the People need to be concerned about?

  8. Dear Dr. Wineman. That is an interesting read and you are right about my putative pal being excited about the possibility of shooting ABS.

    However, Until the studies of human sexuality by Sigmund Freud and researchers of this century we had not even begun to really understand the role that sex played in our lives is not a defensible claim.

    Long before Freud’s theories (which was a systematised intellectual attempt to distance himself from his culpability in his sins) man knew plenty about sex and such things as some of The Ten Commandments The New Testament, the Catholic Moral tradition etc etc give the lie to that claim.

    As Dr Jones observed about Freud, Would we belief them if Bonnie and Clyde claimed there was a universal desire to rob banks?

    http://kropfpolisci.com/cognitive.grossman.pdf

  9. ABS: We should not be surprised that “sex” is an issue we all must address. I am sure we all realize that there are things that are absolutely necessary. 1) find food, 2) find shelter, 3) procreate. Without those we cease to exist, Please, anyone, correct me if I am wrong!

  10. Bagel what a great pun, tell me did they too have Wall Street’s ‘just in time
    supply chains’ circa 1917 or is that some new convention?

  11. Watt says:
    ‘Never fight the enemy on their ground – always fight the enemy on your ground’

    Imagine we did that after Pearl Harbor was bombed … or the ongoing global war on terror…

    To create a mob confrontation at a church under misperceived religious persecution.

    Barking mad, both those.

    Mark Levin had a monologue this week about Govt overreach preventing people from living life in public, focusing on business vs bankruptcy, but inclusive enough to include religious freedom — via Constitutionally-based legal challenges. The system has its avenues for restitution—force, revolution on even a tiny scale as IW’s idea, is to be tried only as a last resort. Not step one.

    Provoking a mob confrontation is dumb. And seeing the need for that as based on perceived religious persecution even dumber in the current reality. Especially when an invalid “apples to oranges” basis of comparison is given – horrid logic there.

    How many readers observed the highly selective cherry picking of businesses that maintain distancing as the point of comparison with a church service with clustered congregation – ignoring appropriately valid comparisons like sporting events, concerts, plays, theaters that are also curtailed like church services?

    Good example of how folks with a strong belief (religion here) will see things that are not there (religious persecution) and concur with acting on Watt’s nutty scheme (provocative confrontational response even to the point of provoking gunfire).

    The Proffered scheme is the (unnecessary) politicization of religion.

    Recall:
    Matt 18:20 ‘where two or three are gathered in My name I am there also’

    Why not let charity and worship start in the home? Nobody is stopping that exercise of one’s religion. Online Skype sessions are one freely permissible alternative.

    Why make a public spectacle…like those hypocrite Pharisees that Jesus pointed out. If you are truly a Christian, you know you have all you need to freely practice your faith is your family at home – zero need for militancy.

    Not so for those other passionate groups of sports fans – they could use similar logic to claim discrimination against baseball, football, etc.

    What about age discrimination?! Bingo parlors are likewise prohibited…are bingoists being persecuted? Watt’s “logic” says yes.

    A rational argument for why church congregations are different from other congregations if/when they congregate in a time of Covid-19 would be interesting. Given that social clustering is comparable in church service to attendance at sporting events and so forth, a good part of that argument would have to explain why “social clustering” differs in risk of infection based on what the attendees are focused upon (mass vs balls&strikes or touchdowns & field goals). Good luck with that. *

    A blog espousing logic and objective analysis sure peaked the hypocrisy meter today …
    Briggs, did you delegate blog site maintenance to some underling?

    * one cannot help but note the sporting event comparison includes a bit of the sweeping generalization fallacy: Some teams lack loyal fan bases and are in slumps—games played on those team’s home fields, ice, courts, etc . could easily be held with those few fans bothering to show up never coming near each other.

  12. Ken, that’s not such a bad critique. It has a certain logic. The revolutionists, globalists, or pandemicists, if you will, could deploy it with effect. But it is wrong. We Christians are bound to resist the prince of this world, and Americans generally must resist the worldly totalitarians. Mr. Watt has suggested a reasonable, and modest, way. There was a woman in Idaho recently, who refused to leave a playground with her children. She was arrested. Courageous woman was right. This fake plague panic is a vehicle for the wicked. Resist. I would go on, but dinner calls.

  13. “Briggs, did you delegate blog site maintenance to some underling?“

    Snarky, Ken. Try not to be a jerk.

  14. jay, the virus isn’t a hoax, it’s a real disease. But the wildly panicked response is driven by a hidden, and destructive, political agenda. Look for it, and don’t be fooled by emotion and surface appearance.

  15. So Mr Watt
    Let me see if I have this straight.
    The gummint was right to kill protesters likely to be conscripted into an ill-considered colonial war that claimed 50,000+ of their peer group’s lives.

    But The New World Order ™ has concocted a mult-national conspiracy including gummints communist, socialist, liberal, populist & tyrannical that have decided to murder 100,00 plus in order to agree on what? Freeing the world from the vernacular mass? And Trump is involved somehow..on which side I’m not sure.
    The cognitive dissonance must be overwhelming.

  16. The people who work in ICUs daily disagree with. Unanimously as far as I can tell.
    You didn’t watch the video. Confirmation bias?

  17. Malcolm..
    I get it.

    It’s just Briggs’ site. So much of it sounds like self-satire it’s sometimes hard to tell “normies” from people who think they can prove the metaphysical at the same time running scared that the League of Nations is going to employ 21st century epidemiology to reduce deaths from a newly introduced highly infectious disease to which we don’t have resistance.

  18. Iaffo,

    Ah, you’re one of those folks.

    The problem is, Briggs is completely 100% correct, has been all along, but for some reason you still comment here to cattily snark at him.

    None of this is a joke.

    My comment was sarcasm, because your comment was pointless and adds nothing to the discussion. You just snipe, you’re a troll and nothing more.

  19. Every single time I’ve seen someone say that Christians shouldn’t complain about not being able to worship, it always comes with an argument that there are perfectly acceptable substitutes to public worship. That is, the argument isn’t “this is a great sacrifice but the disease is so deadly that we must be willing to give up everything and anything temporarily” but rather “you are selfish if you want to worship in a public place because there is no value in doing so, so all you are doing is endangering others for no benefit.” If any benefit is according to the mass at all it is purely psychological, i.e. that it makes people feel good.

    If you are making this argument, you do not know what worship really means. You see no value to it, so you throw it out without a thought.

    Know that those of us who do know the true value of worship will never be swayed by your arguments, any more than you would agree to cut yourself off from all food to avoid even the slightest risk to those involved in the preparation of it.

  20. @Richard Hill
    I too noticed the use of “Western Front”. However I suspect this is one of Mr Watts little jokelets because after all to Russians the eastern front was their western front. Far more interesting is his refusal to refer to the capital as St Petersburg and calling it Petersburg. I anticipate another encyclopedic length post featuring the usual suspects (Vladimir, the Orthodox Church, et al) shedding light on this and other idiosyncrasies…but not too much light those expecting straight talk will wait in vain.

    I am curious as to why the Europeanization policies of Peter the Great, and the reforms of Alexander II are not even mentioned. The anticipation of further modern reforms played as large a roll as the reactionary policies of Nicholas I, Alexander III, and Stolypin in the drift towards the confrontations of 1917. Alexander II freeing of the serfs was, of course, hugely problematic in the way it was implemented, but his legal, educational, and some social policies certainly pointed a different way forward, one which the revolutionaries could not afford to succeed. Alexander II was, by some accounts, about to create an elected Parliament at the time of his murder.

  21. Here is the salient question: will our military (including our militarized police forces) actually fire upon the people?

    Of course they will. The United States Military, including our militarized police forces, are a mercenary conglomeration of peoples from virtually every nation on Earth. For them, by and large, American History is not only ancient history, it’s somebody else’s ancient history.

    The actual American Nation, the “posterity” spoken of in the preamble to our constitution, is now an endangered species. Indeed, the USA is no longer even a country. For God’s sake, we have to have the Supreme Court decide whether or not people can invade us further just to live off the dole.

    The USA is an economic zone filled with fungible assets otherwise known as human beings. And if you don’t tout the Narrative, you’re not even that.

  22. ABS: We should not be surprised that “sex” is an issue we all must address. I am sure we all realize that there are things that are absolutely necessary. 1) find food, 2) find shelter, 3) procreate. Without those we cease to exist, Please, anyone, correct me if I am wrong!

    Well, not all need procreate as the existence of celibate/continent clergy confirms.

    But, back to Freud for a second. In addition to being a sex addict, he was also a cocaine addict and he used it in imitation of Faust and he did it on Walpurgisnacht, which is prolly the same day (from memory) that Hitler committed suicide (prolly thinking he would magically be reincarnated?)

    In any event, Doctor, the essence of your observation is true

  23. ABS: I had no doubt that what I said was true. Should ALL be celibate, it would be a short time to extinction. Those that are have sacrificed for a religion or other reasons of their own giving the responsibility of continuation of the species to others, like their parents… Ken: I have a question concerning the aforementioned presentation. I have noted that the Freedom of Religion was mentioned in the Bill of Rights as well as that of Assembly. Religion was specific, however and other assemblies (football games, baseball, hockey, etc were not). The Constitution was carefully crafted over several years (a long time for a very short document, making it all the more a well thought out document) that defined what the Government COULD do and it addressed a very important aspect of the citizens. This document addressed “Human Nature” which from my observation has not changed over millennia. Can you help me clear some of this up? The things you say are a bit “disconnected” for my brain.

  24. Dear Malcolm..
    Yes, I’m one of “those folks” – 15 years of good Catholic education including 8 years of Jesuits. Who taught me how to think.
    And when I see these pages of self-pity without a trace of charity or humility, it makes me lose faith, not to mention hope.
    Margaret Clitherow was a martyr. You lot are a collection of semi-intellectuals searching for “persecution” to make your lives important while excoriating HIV sufferers (as but one example.)
    Oh for a Franciscan here like Mychal Judge.
    I came here because Briggs’ statistical analysis of CAGW makes sense.
    I’m leaving here because of the Pharisees and whited sepulchres who follow the Anti-Christ in the People’s House.
    I’ll see myself out.

  25. Iaffo-

    ‘The People’s House’??? Really? I think you may have confused the owner and the occupants, who are simply guests. But then again, that’s a typical Jesuit error.

  26. There are several questions which surround our behavior as believers, and which do not pertain only to our understanding and actions in times of crisis.

    First, as created beings we have an obligation to obey our omnipotent and loving creator. This is not only right, it is logical. However, as an entirely fallen race, we don’t understand that as true, much less actually obey, honor or glorify him.

    As believers, we have had our eyes opened and have been made new. Our fallen will has been unchained from darkness and moved into his ‘thaumaston to phos’ (wonderful, marvelous, remarkable) light (1 Peter 2:9). We are now able to see, and respond correctly to, the logical and deontological component of our position, but primarily our attitudes and behaviors come from our willing desire – with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength (Mark 12:30).

    Peter and the apostles made clear that their mandate to obey God rather than man precluded their obedience to the authorities when they were specifically forbidden from preaching the gospel (Acts 5:29). Although we are not apostles, we can apply this principle carefully within the framework Jesus laid down in his paradigm shattering statement, “Apididomi (repay, pay, render) to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s (Mark 12:17).

    The instruction, “We should not ‘egkataleipontes’ (stay away from, forsake, abandon, desert) our assembly, as is the custom of some, but encourage one another, and this all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Heb 10:25), seems to have more in common with the all-to-human lackadaisical tenor of our attitude ‘parappuomen’ (be carried away, be washed away, drift away) regarding God’s Word in Hebrews 2:1, and stands in stark contrast with what God will not and cannot do: “I will never forsake you or ‘enkatalipo’ (same root word – abandon, desert) you” in Hebrews 13:5.

    I would suggest, based on these passages, that our desire to assemble in order to worship God, study his word and encourage and build up one another, should be primarily motivated by our love for God, for our fellow believers and a humble and grateful desire to glorify him in obediently proclaiming the gospel and making disciples (Matthew 28:18–20).

  27. Iaffo,

    Affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, and that He is present actually and substantially in the Bread and Wine of the Holy Eucharist.

  28. “Affirm that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, and that He is present actually and substantially in the Bread and Wine of the Holy Eucharist.”

    Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. He is present metaphysically in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. He died for our sins, and was risen on the third day. Let all tremble at the Lord’s terrible majesty, and rejoice at his mercy.

    The Pope is just a man. The current office holder is more openly wicked than the average. (Karol Józef Wojty?a rightfully earned his canonization.)

  29. Oh please, McChuck. Most fired into the ground or into the air

    except for the ones who fired into the crowd of unarmed students:

    Twenty-eight National Guard soldiers fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

    A pistol shot? Fascist propaganda. Justified massacre? I think not.

    If the armory was in danger miles away, why weren’t the soldiers there defending it, instead of on campus? Was the ROTC building worth a massacre?

    I wasn’t there; I was in Isla Vista at UC Santa Barbara. Nixon had just announced the bombing of Cambodia. Students protested across the country. Where I was cops armed with shotguns went door-to-door beating up whomever was inside. I was thrown against the wall by LA County Sheriffs (Santa Barbara is NOT LA County) who broke the door open. My roomate was maced in the face. We were not outside protesting — we were inside in our apartment. It was 11PM. We were not “Leftist traitors”. The cops went to every apartment and house in town. They had no idea who was living there.

    Cops killed one student at UCSB. Shot him with a rifle from 100 yards away. He was unarmed. More were killed elsewhere.

    The protestors were protesting a useless stupid imperialist war fought by conscript draftees, which included many of my friends and nearly me. And we stopped that war by refusing to fight, PEACE marching, not by taking up arms in revolution.

    Today you and your neighbors are under house arrest and your economy has been devastated. But you don’t even protest. You are the coward. You don’t have the guts to stand up unarmed against the commie-fascist thugs whose boot heels are on your neck. What a patriot! Are you flying a flag? Or huddled in your hovel in abject fear?

    The press lied in 1970. The government lied, too. They haven’t stopped lying for 50 years. They are lying now, today. I hope for your sake that someday you realize what a pawn you are, and how you believed authoritarian lies, and what that pathetic acquiescence got you.

    And you, too, Doctor. So you study “military effectiveness”. What a great healer! And you would have fired into the crowd that day, killing unarmed students. Proudly. Slaughtering protesters. Not much of a doctor if you ask me. More of a thug tool authoritarian murderer wannabe. And what is your contribution to the demise of your freedoms and liberties today? Sheer cowardice. Big talk no action. We the People of Flyover Country will save the day? Not with you — you are a rodent.

    I have lost hope for this country. Whatever the “new normal” turns out to be, it won’t be a nation of free and brave people. That is not going to happen ever again.

  30. @ Dr B Wineman

    Paraphrasing – Freedom of religion is a Constitutionally protected right, unlike sporting events

    No right is absolute – if one is interpreting any right as absolute one is probably wrong — we cannot falsely shout “Fire!” In a theater and cause panic, for example.

    Social distancing is not targeting religious practice, and that’s key. It targets viral transmission risk behavior independent of the affected activity. And it is a transient imposition. The practice of Christianity does not mandate close proximity; it also accommodates special circumstances and adjusts accordingly/sensibly ( e.g., Isolated confined prisoners, soldiers in 24/7 duties, etc.). Govt is not curtailing congregating by social media, for example.

    Check the “General Welfare” clause in the Constitution.

    Also, check the “Golden Rule” — do unto others …. Striving to engage in transient risky behavior (congregating now vs waiting) — is that under the circumstances something you want, perhaps some exposure to illness by someone with different values toward virus avoidance than you (maybe they don’t hand wash, etc as you). That such inconsistent interactions would occur is certain: while you or I would do unto others as we would to to ourselves, another’s “do unto” values might be offensive to us within a congregation if allowed to congregate.

    Not to mention some minority WILL infiltrate such congregations with malicious intent to infect as many as possible (happened with aids, herpes, etc). Govt prohibition against congregating protects naive trusting believers from that.

    My personal experience is that the worst sinners, if not evil, are avid churchgoers. Blending in and overtly posturing, wolves in sheep’s clothing opportunistically ever on the hunt…and often getting away with it (see Scott Peck’s People of the Lie).. That last bit about malice within the ranks is from lessons learned. Govt distancing req’s impact their mischief, have no doubt about it.

  31. Ken, you’ve adequately established that you think that Christians are both evil and stupid.

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