Ay Caramba!  What Happened to The Simpsons?

As an 80s kid, The Simpsons has to be in my top ten TV shows of all time.  We grew up with Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie getting into all sorts of crazy situations.  Who can forget when Bart cut off the head of the Jebediah Springfield statue, or when Bart was being bullied at school by Nelson, and Homer advised him to hit him in the family jewels?  What about when Homer became “Dancing Homer,” the mascot for the Springfield Isotopes baseball team?  Just a few weeks ago, my sister was sitting at the top row of stadium bleachers and was freaked out that she might fall, and I said, “Isn’t that how Maude Flanders died?”  (I was right.  It was.  Check it out here.) 

Many of you probably do not remember that The Simpsons was very controversial and edgy when it started, way back in 1989.  Before that, cartoons were played on Saturday and Sunday mornings, or after school on weekdays.  They had innocent, fun, playful stories, and were geared towards kids.  Then came along a dysfunctional cartoon family with a foul-mouthed, troublemaking son on the airwaves during prime-time television.  Some families at my church would not allow their kids to be exposed to such a show.  Despite the controversy that surrounded The Simpsons, the show was a massive success.  It was too funny not to be.

Surprisingly, The Simpsons remained funny for about 25 years, and even more surprisingly, it is still running today.  It is impossible to keep a show funny forever, and The Simpsons did eventually lose its edge.  The big laughs became chuckles, and then the chuckles started getting fewer and farther apart.  It is rare that I watch anymore, but last Sunday I decided to flip over to The Simpsons.  I was very disappointed.  Unfortunately, it was not because it wasn’t funny.  I expected that.  What I did not expect to see was leftist, anti-religion, anti-charity, big government propaganda.

The episode, titled “Write Off This Episode,” starts with Marge and Lisa starting a charity to help the homeless.  Then, Marge gets sucked into fundraising and “raising awareness” instead of actually helping anybody.  The problem comes at the end of the episode, when the charity is holding a ritzy gala to celebrate the opening of their giant, glamourous, new headquarters.  When Marge sees her folly, she opens up the center to the homeless to come in and eat.  The rich donors are upset, and the villainous Mr. Burns stands up and gives this speech:

Enough of this do-goodery.  Open your eyes, rich people.  We’re not here to help the less fortunate.  We’re here to bask in our fortunateness.  If we really wanted to make a difference, we’d do the one thing we spent our lives avoiding… paying our taxes!  Then, one organization, the government, could tackle all of society’s ills.  Instead of leaving it to 1.5 million separate, ego-driven, micro-bureaucracies called charities, including, get a load of this scam, religions.  But no one here wants the rational way.  We all want the United Way, because that’s the American way.

 

Ay caramba!  Not only was it irrational and not true, but it was unfunny.  Look.  It is OK to make fun of charities and religions. (Or, most religions.  Some may chop off your head.)  Most Christians have a sense of humor.  However, it has to be funny!  The Simpsons, in fact, have done it since the beginning.  One of the most familiar characters is the goody-two-shoes, hyper-religious, next-door-neighbor, Ned Flanders, and he is funny.  There have been many episodes based around church, or Reverend Lovejoy, that are hilarious.  This episode, on the other hand, was not even intended to be funny.  It was just a setup for a government propaganda speech based on a dangerous, flawed premise.

As someone who started and ran a charity to help addicts, I know something about this.  While there are some bad charities and some bad churches, there are some major problems with the message that The Simpsons was clunkily shoving down our throats.  Here are three big ones:

  1. Efficiency – Government is HIGHLY wasteful, inefficient and ineffective.  Bureaucracy is defined by Investopedia as “a complex organization that has multilayered systems and processes.  The systems and processes that are put in place effectively make decision-making slow.  They are designed to maintain uniformity and control within the organization.” The government is slow, and to get anything done, you have to cut through red tape like you were hacking your way through the jungle with a machete.  It is expensive to do this.  Good charities, on the other hand, often only spend 20% or less of their donations on administrative costs, meaning that 80% or more of what you donate is used towards the cause.
  2. Choice – Taxes are coerced, so when the people see how inefficient the government is at solving problems, they cannot withhold their funding.  The government has little reason to be efficient because they can take your money either way.  Since taxes are mandatory and people cannot choose whether to give, the bureaucrats in charge of programs actually have an incentive to make problems worse, so that they can say that they need more funding.  Conversely, charitable giving is voluntary, and people can choose which charities they give to.  This is a massive difference.  As I said, there are some bad charities and some bad churches, but you are not forced to give anything to them!  This makes the charities accountable to their donors and forces them to show results.  If they do not show results, they will lose donors.  If you are looking into donating to a charity, there are watchdog organizations, like Charity Navigator, where you can find out what percentage of their donations are actually used for the cause.
  3. Proximity to the problems – The government, especially the federal government, is far from most of the problems in our country.  This leads to impersonal, cookie-cutter solutions to problems that only work for very few of the people who need assistance.  Churches are, without a doubt, the best, most effective organizations to deal with societal problems.  Contrary to Mr. Burns’ assertion, they are not generally as bureaucratic.  Most have boards of deacons or church elders to run things by, while other churches just have pastors with broad decision-making authority.  After that, the people involved are the members of the church, who live in the affected communities and often know the people who need help.  They are close to the problems and can deal with them in a much more personal way. 

These three things just scratch the surface as to why charities and churches are far superior to the government when it comes to helping people.  When Alexis de Tocqueville traveled through America in 1831, he was impressed by how Americans gathered together in charitable associations to help each other and thought that this was one of the big reasons why the young country was so successful.  He noted, “I have often seen Americans make large and genuine sacrifices to the public good, and I have noted on countless occasions that, when necessary, they almost never fail to lend one another a helping hand.”  He was correct.  If you want to make a difference and help people, give to charities and get involved at your church.  If you want to waste your money, give it to the government.  Actually, you have to.  D’oh!

Taylor Swift:  A Concert Experience

My wife and I have won “aunt and uncle of the year.”  For Christmas last year, we got my three nieces, who live in North Carolina, tickets for the Taylor Swift Eras Tour at Sofi Stadium in Los Angeles with us.  We also took my two sisters.  My oldest niece is 15-years old and a huge Swiftie.  She has seen Taylor Swift twice before and knows all of the inside information that Swifties know.  My other two nieces, who are 12 and 9, are Swifties in training.  As the concert was about to begin, my oldest niece told me that it was going to be more than just a concert.  It was going to be an “experience.”  She was right.

Taylor Swift put on a concert like no other concert I have ever attended, and I am not an amateur concertgoer.  Just in the past year, I have been to two other big concerts at Sofi Stadium; Paul McCartney and Billy Joel, as well as seeing Styx, Cheap Trick, 3 Doors Down, The Doobie Brothers (in Phoenix), Rod Stewart (in Las Vegas), Sting (in Las Vegas), and The Cure (in England).  Here are some of the things that make Taylor Swift stand out.

The Bracelets – The experience actually starts way before the concert.  In one of Taylor’s songs, there is a line about making friendship bracelets.  Her fans took the line as a call to action, and now they make friendship bracelets to wear and trade at her concerts.  My wife and I had heard about the phenomenon, so we bought some bead kits from the local craft store, and when my nieces arrived, we had a bracelet-making party at Grandma’s house.  We listened to Taylor Swift music while we made bracelets that spell out album names, song lyrics, or other Taylor-related tidbits.  When we arrived at the concert, everyone had them.  My wife’s biggest takeaway from the concert was that everyone was so open and friendly.  Nobody was shy, which I love.  From the moment we arrived, complete strangers were walking from person to person trading bracelets, having conversations, and making new friends.  Even celebrities have been spotted participating.  This seemed to be my youngest niece’s favorite part, because we could barely drag her away from trading bracelets to leave at the end of the night.

The Clothing – My wife asked me what to wear to the concert and my response was, “it’s not the theatre, it’s a concert.  I would guess people just dress casually.”  Then, I asked my oldest niece.  I was wrong.  She said a lot of the people dress in outfits from Taylor Swift album covers or performances.  She had already picked out a very sparkly dress that looked kind of like a disco ball, along with disco ball earrings.  When we got to the show, there were thousands more sparkly dresses, along with ringmaster outfits, elegant flowy gowns, and other elaborate getups that I don’t even know how to describe.  My mom dropped us off and picked us up from the stadium because parking was over $200, and she said it was worth the drive just to see all of the outfits.  Then there was the number “13” written on most of the girl’s hands.  That is, as you might guess, because 13 is Taylor’s lucky number. 

The Technology – After seeing the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, I was left pondering if there was ever a show in the past that was even close to comparable visually.  The best comparison that I could think of was KISS, who was famous for elaborate outfits, crazy makeup, and breathtaking pyrotechnics.  Technology from the past could not compete with what they were able to do for Taylor Swift.  There was a huge video screen on the back of the stage.  Since the Eras Tour was over 3 hours long, covering her 17-year career, the videos and images on the massive backdrop denoted which “era” of her career she was on. 

The gigantic stage went out into the crowd about 80 yards for Taylor to dance and sing down with her backup dancers.  It had hydraulic platforms that would lift her up from the stage at different times during the show, as well as trap doors that she could drop down into between songs for costume changes. (She probably changed costumes more than 10 times.)  It was also a video stage, which allowed for cool effects like snakes striking at dancers, bicyclists leaving tracks around the stage, and one point where Taylor Swift dives into a trap door and appears to swim from the front end of the stage all the way to the back.

Finally, the coup de gras.  I remember when I first started going to concerts and a ballad would come on, and people in the crowd would hold up a lighter.  Then a few years later, when they became more common, people started to hold up their glowing cellphone screens.  At the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, as you walk into the stadium, you are handed a wristband.  This wristband has a geolocator inside that knows exactly where in the stadium you are.  Then it lights up and flashes different colors depending on where you are standing.  This allows for some amazing effects.  They can flash with the beat of the music.  They can create waves of light or colors, almost like when people do the wave at a sporting event.  They can also make patterns of light in the crowd.  For example, at one point there are hearts made of light on either side of the crowd.  It was astonishing.

The Music – It is, of course, a concert, so the music is what matters the most.  Now, if you have read some of my other articles where I talk about values, politics, and religion, you may think I am exaggerating when I say this, but I am about to say the most controversial thing I have written yet.  Taylor Swift has songwriting chops in the same league as Lennon and McCartney.  As a huge Beatles fan, that is almost blasphemous to say, but she really is a brilliant songwriter.  Just like Lennon and McCartney were able to churn out catchy hit after catchy hit in the 1960s, Taylor Swift is already able to play an over three-hour concert with songs that people sing along with, and most of them you would recognize even if you are a little older than her target audience.  Not only that, but she is still in her songwriting prime, so I am sure there are more chart-toppers to come. 

Speaking of singing along, before going to her last Taylor Swift concert, my oldest niece wanted to be surprised by the setlist, so she didn’t look it up.  She did, however, want to be able to sing along with anything Taylor played, so she looked up and learned the lyrics to all her songs!  Apparently, that is not uncommon.  At one point, Taylor Swift asked the crowd if anybody did any lyric memorization for the show, and there was a thundering response.

The Excitement – The excitement is palpable.  I had only ever seen anything like it in old film of the Beatles.  There were a group of girls sitting near us who were literally sobbing through most of the show.  People (including men) were screaming “Taylor!” at the top of their lungs.  At one point in the show, she finishes a song on the piano and looks up into the crowd and lets everyone go crazy.  It was possibly the loudest I had heard a crowd since being at the Kirk Gibson game at Dodger Stadium.  My niece looked over at me and said, “Last time this ovation lasted 8 minutes before she started again.”  After 8 minutes this time, the ovation was still going for another minute or two, and might have continued longer had Taylor not started talking.  It certainly was an experience I will never forget. 

A Wartime Consigliere

“I think it’s sad that these are our choices.  It seems like we can do better than Biden or Trump.”  This sentiment was recently overheard at a barbeque I attended, and it is not the first time it has been proclaimed as we lead up to next year’s presidential election. 

With an incumbent president who has given us massive inflation, rampant crime, porous borders, unparalleled corruption, and shown weakness to our enemies worldwide, it seems obvious that he should be replaced in 2024.  The part that is not obvious is who should replace him.  Under normal circumstances, there would be a clear candidate.  We have a former president running with an impressive record on almost all of the important issues.  He was feared by our enemies, leading to unprecedented peace treaties in the middle east, and putting China, North Korea, and Russia in a holding pattern until America became weaker.  He was a great friend to Israel.  He fought to protect our borders.  He lowered the government’s interference in our lives, leading to a booming economy.  He appointed three Supreme Court Justices who make rulings based on the Constitution instead of the political whims of the day.  That person, of course, is Donald Trump.

With all of that in mind, it seems as though the case should be closed.  President Trump should be the easy pick.  Unfortunately, there are obstacles that come with President Trump.  He has an unpolished image and often says things that turn off large swaths of the population, including many conservatives.  He has been attacked by the media and entertainment industry obsessively for 7 years, and some of it has poisoned the opinions of many people who agree with almost all of his policy decisions. 

The supporters of President Trump try to use logic to point to all of the great accomplishments that he had in office.  Then, they are frustrated that logic does not make much of an impact.  Those on the left simply hate his guts.  They will never change their minds, but they will feel the same way about Ron DeSantis or any other conservative candidate, so their opinion should be irrelevant. 

The problem is the many otherwise conservative people who cannot stomach his antics.  Their concerns are not imaginary.  His unpolished persona and sometimes outlandish rhetoric contribute to his unlikability in some circles.   These are the ones who prefer candidates like former Vice President Mike Pence.  Many Trump supporters are incensed by Pence and call him a RINO (Republican in Name Only).  He is not.  Mike Pence holds conservative positions and is a very nice Christian man.  This is what those conservatives long for.  They want a candidate who is nice.  The problem is, nice only works with a nice opposition party and an honest media.  The United States today has neither of those things.

Our opposition party, the Democrats, is relentless in its dishonest attacks.  Our media is their propaganda wing, and will stop at nothing to destroy anybody with an R after their name, or who espouses traditional Judeo-Christian values.  They vilified President George W. Bush as a far-right monster, and he was a moderate, and a nice man.  They even crucified candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney as extremists, and they are not even close to conservative.  The media will cover for Democrats who do unethical things.  Then they will dig and dig and dig to find the smallest piece of dirt, real or imagined, on Republicans, and never let it go.  They are at war with us and they fight to win.

A nice candidate has not, and will not work in this climate.  I recently rewatched one of the greatest films of all time, The Godfather, and there is a scene that seems relevant to the situation we are in now.  After things have gotten out of hand and the five families are at war, Michael Corleone returns from hiding in Italy and becomes the leader of the family.  He gathers together all of his top men and lays out his plan for the future of the Corleone family.  During the meeting, he does something that always seemed a little unfair to me.  He tells the consigliere (the top advisor in the family), Tom Hagen, played by Robert Duvall, that he is no longer the consigliere.  Tom Hagen was Vito Corleone’s adopted son, a savvy lawyer, extremely smart, and very loyal.  Tom protests.  Then Michael says, “You’re not a wartime consigliere, Tom.”  I did not understand it until recently.  I thought Tom was cunning and completely trustworthy, so why would you want to demote him?  Then I realized what Michael meant.  Tom is a pretty strait-laced guy, who likes to work within the system and avoid getting dirty.  As the narcotics trafficking Virgil Sollozzo says earlier in the film, “I know you’re not in the muscle end of the family, Tom.”  As much as you can be in a movie about mobsters, Tom Hagen is the nice guy.  This is what my conservative friends who wish we can do better than President Trump remind me of.

This is not an endorsement of President Trump.  I have still not decided who I am going to support.  It is, however, a defense of his tenacity and combativeness.  He calls out the left for their lunacy and he calls out the media for their hypocrisy and bias.  At this moment in time, those qualities are a necessity.  Maybe DeSantis, Larry Elder or some other candidate has that fight.  Hopefully, they do.  We need a lot of fighters.  The people who are hoping for a better candidate are looking for an unrealistic candidate.  They want someone with the looks of Brad Pitt, the kindness of Mr. Rogers, and the magical ability to unite people who hold biblical values with people who think that men can get pregnant.  That person does not exist.

If we try to play nice against people who are playing dirty and playing for keeps, we will continue to get used as a punching bag, and we will lose.  In the past, both sides shared Judeo-Christian values and wanted America to prosper and lead.  Now, the Democrat party stands for the destruction of Judeo-Christian values and no longer wants a prosperous, powerful United States.  This is not the time for compromise.  We need to utterly defeat the left and we need a leader who will push on without regard for what the left thinks.  For those of you who want a nice president, instead, let’s make them an offer they can’t refuse. *

*My proofreader suggested I change the last line because the left might accuse me of making a threat and use it to attack me.  While I think it is naïve to think that the left needs a reason more than that I disagree with them to attack me and try to silence me, I will clarify.  That line is not a threat or a call for any horse head shenanigans.  It is just a tie-in to The Godfather, and it means that we should support a candidate who will be uncompromising on any issue of importance.

In Defense of Rainbows

If leprechauns really hid gold at the end of rainbows, June would be the month to search.  There seem to be rainbows everywhere.  It used to be that everyone loved rainbows, but now they are divisive and provoke a negative reaction in a large segment of the population.  This is, of course, because our culture has changed the symbolism of the rainbow.  The rainbow is now seen as the symbol for pride.  Not pride in some great accomplishment, but instead, pride in choosing to have sex with people of the same sex, or pride in thinking you are a different gender than you are. 

This new rainbow symbol has caused a lot of controversy.  Target stores have been the subject of boycotts because they are featuring pride displays with LGBTQ+ geared products.  I walked into the Target by my house to see for myself, and sure enough, right near the front was the pride section, with rainbow clothing, dresses for men, and lots of pride slogans.  I was even more surprised when I walked around the store and saw a pride pet supply section with rainbow frisbees, chew toys, and bones.  Presumably, this is for your boy dogs who think they are girl dogs.

Major League Baseball has also made headlines recently.  Last season, five Tampa Bay Rays players caused a stir when they declined to wear rainbow pride logos on their jerseys.  Then, this season, the Los Angeles Dodgers took criticism for celebrating a pride night where they honored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, an organization that mocks Catholicism in the name of pride in their sins.  (Their motto is “Go forth and sin some more!”)  Now, to avoid further divisiveness and controversy, Major League Baseball has quietly instructed teams to eliminate rainbow pride logos from their Pride Day uniforms. 

While it is frustrating that the meaning of rainbows has been twisted in that way, they should still bring joy and hope.  Rainbows, along with being beautiful, have a very specific meaning.  When we see all of these rainbows, it should be looked at as an opportunity to tell people what they really mean.  The true meaning is found in Genesis 9:8-17.  After a time similar to the times we live in now, where people did what was right in their own eyes, God punished the world with a flood, saving only Noah and his family.  Then God made a promise to Noah that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood.  He set a rainbow in the cloud as a sign of that promise.  That is what rainbows really mean.

This is amazing news for so many reasons!  This not only shows God’s love and mercy, but it gives us a great chance to steer the LGBTQ propaganda back to God.  Not only that, but it destroys another political attack that is being used against us to crush our way of life.  All of you who have heard about “The Great Reset” know that it would ruin our economy and our culture, and the cornerstone of it working is the “climate change” agenda.  They try to scare children that rising temperatures will melt the ice caps, and the oceans will rise and wipe out the planet with a flood.  Since we know about the rainbow and God’s promise that it represents, we also know that there is no chance that this will ever happen.  There is literally a greater chance that the Oakland A’s will win the World Series this year than of rising sea levels causing a global flood.  Paulie Shore has a better chance of being appointed to the Supreme Court than there is of global warming flooding the earth.  I would gladly bet everything I own on this; because God does not break His promises!

The next time you are walking around and see rainbow flags, instead of getting upset, use that opportunity to tell someone about the true symbolism of rainbows.  Remember, we already have the book.  The good guys win in the end.  Stay positive!

I See London, I See France

Hello and bonjour!  As many of you who follow me on social media know, I recently took my first trip to Europe, and I promised to share my observations from overseas.  It actually started in an Italian restaurant on a baseball trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, in October.  After some wine, my girlfriend (now fiancé) asked me if I like the 80s band, The Cure, and if we should go see them in concert.  I said, “yeah,” and she preceded to go on her phone and get us tickets.  After she bought the tickets, she told me that the show was on December 12 in LONDON! 

When booking flights, she decided that we should go across the channel to Paris for a few days after the concert.  Here are highlights from the trip, with some observations, pictures, and recommendations!

  • We arrived in London on Friday afternoon after a redeye flight from LAX.  We stayed at the “Grand Royale London Hyde Park,” which was built by King Edward VII for his mistress, actress Lillie Langtry.  My favorite part about the hotel was the full English breakfast each morning, which ranged from normal stuff like eggs, bacon, and sausage, to things like sauteed mushrooms, marmalade, baked beans, and of course, many kinds of English teas. 
  • We went on a Paddington Bear-themed double-decker bus tour of the city, which included English high tea with sandwiches, scones, cookies, cheeses, and marmalade. 
  • After getting mulled wine in Trafalgar Square, we wandered the wrong direction back to the hotel, leading to a six-mile walking tour through the streets of London.
  • Saturday night was the World Cup soccer match between England and France.  While I am not a soccer fan, I thought it would be a fun atmosphere to sit in a pub and watch with the English fans.  Unfortunately, the pubs were so crowded that many of them would not let anybody else in, and the ones that did were so packed that we could not even move.
  • Since we were there on a Sunday, we decided it would be cool to attend the church service at Westminster Abbey.  The service had a solemn feel to it, with an organ and a boys choir that sounded eerie and echoey because of the giant building and very high ceiling, combined with being otherwise quiet.  The most interesting part was the markers for all of the people buried in Westminster Abbey, from kings and queens, to scientists like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, to writers like Rudyard Kipling and Charles Dickens, to politicians like Neville Chamberlain, who is off to a side, and Winston Churchill, who is actually buried elsewhere, but has a large memorial marker right in the middle near the entrance.  I would like to go back when services are not going to read the markers.
  • The Tower of London was recommended by a friend and I also highly recommend it.  I know a ton about U.S. history, but my European history is a little lacking, so I learned a lot.  The tower is a castle that was built in 1078 and has been vital to the defense of the city for centuries because of its location along the Thames River.  It has been used as a royal residence, an armory, a mint, and a prison, among other things.  It now houses the Crown Jewels of England, which you can look at.  There are old weapons and armor on display in the White Tower, which is the oldest section of the castle.  There are also old torture devices, like the rack, that look horribly painful.   You can also see ravens that are kept at the tower because as legend has it, if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, the Crown will fall and Britain will be lost.
  • It snowed!  We were inside a pub when it started, so we went outside and played in the falling snow, making snowballs and taking plenty of pictures.  It was beautiful!  For a guy from near the beach in California, it was definitely quite a memorable experience.

  • One of the other recommendations given to me was the Churchill War Rooms, and it may be my favorite thing we saw on the trip.  During World War II, Winston Churchill had a complex of rooms and tunnels built and reinforced under a building in London.  Since the Germans were dropping bombs on the city, the allied war effort was orchestrated from the bunker, which included meeting rooms, sleeping quarters, a room for the typists and secretaries, and the map room, which has been preserved in the condition it was in 1945 when they left it, with the original maps up on the walls.  It now also includes the Winston Churchill Museum, where you can get a very good look at one of the greatest men in history.
  • The concert was at Wembley Arena.  The Cure frontman, Robert Smith, was quite an interesting looking guy in the ‘80s, and he still dresses in the same style, making him look a little like if my dad dressed in Goth.  The set list was strange, because although The Cure has enough hits to spread them around, they saved almost all of them until the very end.  In fact, they left, came back for an encore, still did not play hits, left again, and came back for a second encore where they played a bunch of hits in a row.  They sounded good, and when they finally did play Just Like Heaven and Boys Don’t Cry, the crowd ate it up and sang along.
  • Abbey Road!  As a huge Beatles fan, I had to go see Abbey Road and get a picture in the famous crosswalk from the cover of The Beatles final album.  As Paul McCartney found out, you have to be careful, because you have to dodge traffic to snap your picture!

After London, we got on the Eurostar train under the channel to Paris.  My guess was that I would like London better, mostly because they speak English there.  I had also heard from quite a few people that Paris is overrated and dangerous.  Besides that, I had many assumptions about France being full of rude, snooty people, and of course that the French are wimps and ultra-woke leftists.   Here are the highlights from the City of Light.

  • Pay to pee?  When I got off the train, I went to the restroom.  There were turnstiles at the entrance and it cost a Euro to go in!  How does the whole city not smell like urine?
  • Here is where my assumptions started to fall apart.  We took an Uber to our hotel.  The driver seemed like a standoffish grump at first, but then he started using a translation app on his phone.  He was a really nice guy, who pointed out sights and gave us some recommendations for places to go.  In fact, none of the people we met were rude to us.
  • Statues!  The next assumption that turned out to be incorrect was that the French would be ultra-woke whiners.  Sadly, Americans are in many ways far worse.  One example is that Paris is blanketed in monuments commemorating their history and the men who were a part of it.  Nearly every block has a memorial to Napoleon, de Gaulle, or some other French historical figure.  In the United States, we tear down our statues.  Point for France!
  • Street cafes!  When I thought about going to Paris, I wanted to sit in a street café, eat, and drink wine.  We walked from our hotel to “Le Campanella,” and had a fantastic meal of French stew and a lot of wine.  Magnifique!
  • Museums.  I am not a big art museum guy, but everybody who goes to France wants to see the Louvre.  The most famous art museum in the world holds many renowned paintings and sculptures, including the most well-known painting of them all, the Mona Lisa.  While I enjoyed the Louvre, I surprisingly was more impressed with another art museum in Paris, The Musee d’Orsay.  This museum holds paintings by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and many more.  It was interesting to see how different each artist’s style was. 
  • My last assumption that was shattered was that the French are wimpier than Americans.  When we went to the Champs-Elysees on the night of the World Cup soccer match between France and Morocco, there were literally thousands of armed police officers, police cars, and armored vehicles lining the street and blocking shop windows.  Apparently, Moroccan fans had gotten out of control the last time they played, so the French put out such a police presence that nobody would dare cause any trouble.  In America, we let lawless BLM thugs run amok in our cities for much of 2020, breaking windows, burning buildings, and looting.  France for the win!
  • The Eiffel Tower is obviously a must-see.  We had tickets to the top of the tower, but because of weather, the highest platform was closed.  We were able to go up to the second observation deck, which is still quite impressive.  My girlfriend was a little disappointed because she had hopes of a proposal.  That seemed too obvious, though.  My proposal came two weeks later and was a complete surprise!
  • We took a riverboat tour on the Seine, which was beautiful, although very cold!
  • Moulin Rouge!  We got tickets to the famous cabaret theatre where the can-can was born.  The show was very entertaining, with strong-man acts, acrobats on roller skates, gymnasts, and a girl who swam with very large pythons.

  • On our last night, we decided to get a closer look at the Arc de Triomphe.  We did not realize that it closes, and we also did not realize that there is an underground tunnel that takes you across the 6-lane, busy traffic circle to get there.  We, of course, ran across the road like crazy people.  Once we were there, we looked around and read the inscriptions, until a French police officer came out from said underground tunnel and asked what we were doing there after closing.  We told him that we didn’t know it closed, and asked if we could use the tunnel to get back across.  He said the tunnel is closed, too, and when my girlfriend asked how to get back, he smiled and said, “run.”

How Democrats Have Ruined Election Day

On election day, 1980, my dad took me at 2 years old to walk a precinct to get out the vote for Ronald Reagan.  In the first 7 presidential elections of my life, I continued the tradition and volunteered to go door-to-door, asking Republican households to go vote.  Afterward, I would go home and eagerly watch the returns come in and races get called. Election day in the United States used to be fun.  It was an event.  To political nerds, it was like Super Bowl Sunday.

Unfortunately, election day is no fun anymore.  Democrats have ruined it, like so many other things in America.  This is not because the results of the midterm elections were disappointing.  It has little to do with who wins or loses.  It is about the mechanics of the election itself.  There are four main reasons why that special Tuesday in November no longer holds the magic that it once did.

  1. We don’t get results. –  Back when there were VCRs, my parents tried to record the Alfred Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest.  The only problem was that the tape cut off with Cary Grant hanging from Mount Rushmore, a literal cliffhanger.  We had to wait until we could go to the video store and rent it to find out what happened.  Nobody wants things left up in the air without a resolution.  This is, sadly, how election day is now.  We go to bed without knowing who won.  It took a few days to find out who had won the Senate, and it took 10 days before we finally found out that Republicans had taken control of the House in last month’s midterms.  That is partly because, after the 2000 election, nobody wants to call a race incorrectly and have to pull it back.  However, the bigger culprit is that there has been an assault by the Democrats on election day itself for years.  Now, there are mail-in ballots and ballots dropped off anonymously at drop-boxes, with at best, questionable authenticity, that take days to count.  There is no good reason for this.  For most of my lifetime, people voted in person on election day, and we had far more trustworthy and reliable results, and knew most of them on election night.
  • Early voting. – In many states, there is early voting for weeks prior to election day, before the campaigning is done.  This means that if somebody is persuaded in the final weeks of the campaign after they cast a vote, they are out of luck.  This also eliminates the ability of voters to take into account some late-discovered information about a candidate.  For example, some people believe that the FBI’s reopening its investigation into Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton’s staff and their use of a private email server swung the election to President Donald Trump.  Now, many people have already voted, so late-breaking information is too late. 
  • News coverage is terrible. –  Years ago, the media was biased in favor of the Democrats, but they generally tried not to turn off half of the country by openly and obviously attacking Republicans and rooting for the Democrats.  Now, most of the television news coverage is so bad that it is unwatchable.  On an election day when the Democrats had destroyed the economy, leading us to a plummeting stock market, massive inflation, and small businesses struggling to survive, the news coverage steered the conversation away from that and towards whatever sideshow they could come up with.  One example was an interview by ABC news anchor David Muir with a moderate Republican, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, at his victory party after he won re-election.  While Governor Sununu tried to focus on his supporters and his vision for New Hampshire and our country, Muir kept trying to segway into irrelevant things, like the 2020 election, and the media’s favorite target of hatred and vitriol, President Trump.  It was uncomfortable to watch.  The media will bend over backward to avoid any subject that will be damaging to Democrats, no matter how obvious.  This election, the crumbling economy was the elephant in the room, but what you heard on election day was, “yeah, yeah, inflation, but what about so-and-so?”  Every single one of you, whatever your political leanings, know that if the Republicans were in power with a bad economy, the media would be laser-focused on it.  The last time the news was fun to watch on election day was in 2016, and not because the coverage was good, but because most of the “journalists” looked like they were about to burst into tears.
  • Distrust of the results and fear of cheating. – Whichever side you are on, you cannot deny that a large portion of the country does not trust our elections right now.  This is a problem.  When things are going poorly, people need to be able to vote out those in power.  If they distrust our elections and feel like no matter how they vote, the elections are rigged, it leaves them backed into a corner with no other recourse except to fight in other, possibly less peaceful, ways.  We need to restore accountability and faith in our elections.  When I see a close race on election night, I get a sinking feeling, because I know that they will find enough ballots, however they do it, to make the Democrat win. I don’t trust the results, along with a whole lot of other people, and while there is an easy fix, Democrats refuse to do it because they don’t care if people have faith in our elections as long as they stay in power.  If anybody honestly cares about preserving our democracy, they would want to alleviate these fears.  Calling people “election deniers” and trying to vilify them does not work.  Neither does saying, “you can’t prove fraud.”  That is the point.  Due to mail-in ballots and a refusal to verify voters with ID at polling places, there is nearly no way to prove fraud.  That does not prove that cheating is not rampant.  It just proves that we have no way of knowing how much cheating is happening.  Instead of gaslighting people who have concerns about our election security, just prove to them that our elections are secure.  It is actually very easy to do.  Simply require voters to show ID when they cast their ballots, in person, on election day.  If we do this, it makes it very difficult to cheat. 

Election day can be fun again if we fix these four things.  Hopefully, we can do it.  If not, what is left for Democrats to try to ruin?  Groundhog’s Day?

Don’t Be Shy

Have you ever taken one of those Myers-Briggs Personality tests?  It asks you a bunch of questions and gives you a four-letter categorization of your personality based on four different characteristics.  The first trait it attempts to evaluate is whether you are an introvert (I) or an extrovert (E). The letters are not supposed to mean that one or the other is necessarily better or worse.  It is just supposed to tell people which way their personality leans.  There is, by the way, some difference between introverted and shy.  A shy person fears negative judgment by others and feels anxious in social situations, so they tend to avoid them.  An introvert is usually introspective and feels overstimulated by social situations.  They often prefer quiet, alone time to think instead of being around people.  While they are not the same, there is some overlap between shy and introverted, namely, that both will often avoid social situations.  For this reason, I believe that one possibility actually is better than the other.  I encourage you to act like an extrovert.

If you are shy, or an introvert (which I will use interchangeably from now on), please do not get defensive.  This is not an attack or even a criticism of you.  In fact, when I take the Myers-Briggs test, I am an INTP.  There is nothing wrong with being introverted.  By that, I mean that there is nothing immoral about being shy.  Someone is not a bad person because they are shy.  This is entirely a qualitative assessment, not a moral one.  I want all of us to have a higher quality of life.

What led me to this thought was a friend on social media.  You probably have some friends online whose posts make you think.  This particular friend of mine often posts stories and memes about being an introvert and trying to avoid going out and spending time with others.  They are amusing and good-natured posts, but whenever I see them, it makes me feel bad for her.  She is missing out on so much in life!

Don’t get me wrong.  Sometimes spending a night alone at home watching TV is great.  That being said, almost all of the most memorable moments in life are spent with other people.  Let’s be honest, people are interesting, and the only way to meet them is by putting yourself in a position to.  My suggestion is to seek out opportunities to go interact with people.  Join a club.  Join a team or go to sporting events.  Go to parties.  Travel and mingle with the locals.  Sing karaoke.  Don’t worry about what people might think.  Most people are too worried about what others think of them to be too critical of you.

Another great idea is to get a social job.  Many of the articles about introverts suggest that they get jobs that do not require much interaction with other people, like computer jobs or cubicle jobs.  Those articles imply that these jobs are a good idea because it fits the personality of the introvert.  The better idea is to do the opposite.  I once dated a girl who was bartending when I met her, but I soon realized was pretty shy.  She said that she got the bartending job to force herself out of her comfort zone and meet new people.  It worked, and her life was richer for doing it.  Heck, she met me.

As I said, I lean towards introversion.  It is all right if you think quietly at times.  Occasionally, someone will notice I am not being talkative and will ask what is wrong.  Most of the time, nothing is wrong and I am contemplating some deep issue of life, or some idea for an article for this blog.  Being contemplative is perfectly fine.  I am not suggesting you have to constantly be the loud, crazy, life of the party.  Thinking before you speak or act is usually a good idea.  People see the strong, silent type in a positive way for good reason.  That being said, never let your feelings stop you from fully experiencing life.

The movie Yes Man with Jim Carrey is a fun, silly film, but it helped me to this realization.  In the movie, Jim Carrey hears a motivational speaker who tells him to say “yes” to every opportunity that presents itself.  When he does, he begins to thrive and succeed in many areas of life because he is putting himself in the position to do so, when previously he never would have had those chances.  Of course, you can’t say “yes” to everything, and eventually, he figures that out, but the principle of being open to more opportunities is a good one. 

My general rule is that if somebody suggests that we do something or go somewhere, as long as it is not immoral, I will say yes.  If a friend calls and wants to go out, say yes.  If somebody invites you on a trip, go.  If you don’t feel like going, ignore that feeling!  It will make your life fuller.

Now, I am going to follow my own advice.  Instead of watching the rest of the baseball playoff games here in my hotel room, I am going to head out to a sports bar in Phoenix to watch.  Maybe I will meet some new people and some fun adventures will ensue!

Elvis: Pushing the Envelope

The new Elvis Presley biopic made me think.  Early in the movie, Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks, says that the acts that made the most money were ones “that gave the audience feelings they weren’t sure they should enjoy, but they do.”  Then the film focuses on the controversial gyrations that drove the girls crazy and made many people upset and uncomfortable as “The King” began his rise to stardom.  Now we laugh because those dance moves that seemed so edgy in the 1950s seem so tame by today’s standards.  This is not a new phenomenon.

Every generation, you hear the older people complaining that the younger generation is worse than theirs was.  “Kids today,” they often grumble.  The popular culture explains this by saying that old people are stuck in their ways and overly critical of the younger generation.  The media may say that the younger generations are not really that rebellious or bad, because the older generation was also seen as rebellious and bad by the generation before them.  Have you ever considered that maybe, instead of each generation being old, stodgy, and self-absorbed, that actually they are right?  Each generation really is worse than the last, because they have to one-up the previous generation by pushing the envelope further than their parents.  Yes, no generation is perfect and they all have a rebellious streak, but that does not mean that younger generations are morally equivalent to older ones.  Just because Elvis shaking his hips on stage was rebellious and controversial in the 50s, that does not mean that it is morally equivalent to Cardi B singing “Wet Ass Pussy” today.  Can we please bring back the innocence of generations past?

The worrisome part about this is that the envelope has already been pushed so far that it is hard to imagine what somebody can do next that will actually shock anybody.  The Beatles’ long hair is certainly not controversial anymore.  Drug references in lyrics that shocked people in the 60s and 70s are old news.  Maybe it would take it to a higher level if someone bit the head off of a bat onstage?  Nope.  Ozzy Osbourne already did that in 1982.  Remember when Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s breast in front of over 100 million viewers on live television at Super Bowl XXXVIII?  That was way back in 2004.  I fear that celebrities will become so desperate for attention in the coming years that we will see some disgusting acts being done to gain notoriety.

Will we soon see live sex acts on stage?  Will our entertainment revert back to feeding Christians to lions in front of cheering audiences?  Are we going to see The Hunger Games play out in real life?  We seem to be heading in that direction.  The good news is that there is now another way to cause controversy and gain attention.  Simply do and say good things that were once considered normal and mainstream.  As the Bible says, when people rebel from God, they begin to call evil good, and good evil.  It is definitely happening.  Think about the things that actually are considered shocking and controversial today: 

  • In June, five Tampa Bay Rays pitchers were attacked by the mainstream press and “woke” social media pundits for opting not to wear rainbow “Pride Night” logos on their uniforms.  You do not even have to go back to my parents’ generation for when this stance would have been applauded.  Now it is counter-culture. 
  • Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling started a firestorm of controversy when she criticized the use of the term “people who menstruate” instead of women.  She also committed the unforgivable sin of tweeting her support for a woman who had been fired for saying that “men cannot change into women.”  I am pretty sure that Elvis could have said that without causing a stir.
  • Actor Chris Pratt (Jurassic World, The Terminal List) has been disparaged as “the worst Chris in Hollywood” for his public professions of Christian faith.  What a Hollywood bad boy, huh?  Personally, I think being a Christian is the best way to be a rebel because it also gets you into Heaven.
  • If you really want to be an outcast, choose not to get what is called a Covid-19 vaccine, even though it does not prevent you from getting or spreading Covid-19.  This is the most discriminated against group in America for the past couple of years (with one possible exception).  They have been banned from many places, and some have even lost their jobs.  They are controversial not for anything they did, but instead for not subjugating themselves to their overlords.
  • When it comes to controversial athletes, former baseball star Curt Schilling is near the top of the list.  He was fired from ESPN in 2015 for tweeting “A man is a man regardless of what they name themselves.  Male bathrooms were created with the penis in mind; female bathrooms were not.  Is it now necessary to have laws to teach us otherwise?  Pathetic.”  To any previous generation, that comment would not only be acceptable, but obvious.  Now it is a fireable offense and has even been used to keep Schilling out of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
  • Actress Gina Carano was famously fired from Disney’s, The Mandalorian, for taking the provocative position that she should not have to ask to be called “she,” since she is obviously a woman.  Apparently, calling a boy “he,” or a girl “she,” is now edgy.  Charlie Sheen had to work a lot harder than that to get fired from a hit show.
  • The one possible exception mentioned above as the most discriminated group in America are supporters of President Trump.  The backlash that Elvis got for dancing is nothing compared to what you can expect if you say you agree with President Trump.  If you support his policies that brought us a booming economy, less government interference in our lives, and four years of peace (including unprecedented peace agreements in the Middle East), you can expect to be attacked more viciously than an opposing sports star in Philadelphia. 

It is terrible that these things are now controversial, but there is one positive thing about it.  Entertainers want attention.  In the past, they had to come up with more and more outlandish and crazy gimmicks than we had previously seen to get that attention.  Now, all they have to do is espouse solid, traditional values, and wait for the media firestorm.

Again, this is not new.  When reading the Bible straight through, the Old Testament prophets were the hardest parts to get through because they were so repetitive that it got boring.  They were all the same thing.  Israel would turn from God and pull further and further away from Him.  He would warn them through prophets, and most of the time they would ignore the warnings and push His patience even more.  Eventually, God said that enough was enough and allowed Israel to be defeated and the people to be scattered into exile.  We are in that same spiral of self-destruction that the Israelites were in.  Each generation seems to push their rebellion a little further than the last.  We have had our modern-day prophets warning us to turn back to our morals and values of the past.  Dennis Prager, Rush Limbaugh, William F. Buckley, and others have warned us about the decay of our values and societal norms of earlier generations.  If America does not heed these warnings and keeps pushing the boundaries, we will soon run out of room to push and we will end up as Israel did. 

There is one last thing I should do before I close out.  To all the old people out there, I apologize for my generation.  You were right.

Why Abortion is Hard to Talk About

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion is on everybody’s minds.  While those on the left fret that there will now be a plague of babies across the land, many on the right celebrate that our nation’s greatest evil has ended.  Neither, of course, is what the Supreme Court decided.  The decision simply says that the Constitution does not guarantee the right to an abortion, which is obviously correct.  That does not, however, outlaw abortion.  What it does is allows the states to decide their own rules on abortion.  This means that open discussion and persuading people actually matters again.  The question now is, how do we do that?

To many pro-life people, it seems so simple and obviously wrong that they forget to look at the discussion from a pro-abortion person’s worldview.  It is very difficult not to be disgusted and angry with people who think it is alright to murder a baby, but pro-lifers have to remind themselves that without God, murder is not wrong.  People who are pro-abortion do not share biblical values, and without God, those people are logical to think the way that they do.  Trying to convince them is futile because they do not believe there is a God to tell them that murder is wrong.  They do not believe there is a God who will judge them for their murders in the future.  Murder is a perfectly logical thing for them to do if they think it will make their lives better.  If a baby seems like it would be inconvenient, killing the baby makes perfect sense.  In fact, if a neighbor plays their stereo too loud at night, murdering that neighbor makes perfect sense.  If someone is competing for a job you want, murdering that person is logical.  If you find yourself in a love triangle, murdering your romantic competition is rational. 

Without God, people are just animals.  Many on the left will openly push this idea.  You see PETA equating animals with people all the time.  They have equated KFC cooking chickens to the Nazis murdering Jews in the Holocaust.  With that in mind, is it wrong if a lion kills an antelope?  Of course not.  That is just a lion trying to improve its life.  If there is no God, a human killing to improve their life is no different from a lion killing to improve theirs.  Without the shared viewpoint that human life is intrinsically more valuable than an animal’s, attempts to persuade non-believers that abortion is wrong will likely be futile.

Does this mean that we should give up on persuading people that abortion is wrong?  Not at all!  It just means that we must start with the deeper issue of what makes something right or wrong in the first place.  The first chapter of my book, The God Bet, goes into this very issue in depth.  It makes the point that if we do not start from the same foundation of morality, it is very unlikely that we will ever agree on much more than that ice cream is delicious.  There is little chance of convincing someone that abortion is wrong because it is murder if that person has no basis for believing that murder is wrong.  For this reason, the most important and effective way to convince people that abortion is wrong is if we first convince them that God is real and that He created people in His image, with a purpose higher than their own personal pleasure.

Our top priority should be showing God’s love to people so that they want to follow Him, too.  If we successfully do that, we could alleviate most of the problems in our country.  It is obvious to anybody who is honest.  I would wager that weekly church attendees are underrepresented in our criminal population.  When we hear about a string of 7-11 robberies and murders like those that happened here in Southern California last month, a deacon from the local church is probably not the most likely suspect.

This does not, of course, mean that people who believe in God are perfect.  They certainly still do bad things, because by nature everyone wants to do what they feel like doing.  The difference is that people who believe in God have a reason to try to not give in to those urges.  Without God, there is not even a reason to hold back.

This is why when the topic of abortion comes up, we should not automatically jump into the immorality of the practice.  They will see it as pushing our religion on them.  They do not realize that laws against rape, theft, perjury, slander, and murder outside the womb, among others, are also pushing religious values on them.  In fact, this is why we see all these things increasing.  Without the base of our values, God, people have started to decide their own right and wrong.  For example, the rise in violence across the country is not because of guns.  It is due to the weakening of religious values in America.

We need to persuade two groups that abortion is wrong.  The first is the general public, which is necessary to get laws changed to protect the unborn.  For that, I honestly believe that religious revival is the only way to do it.  Arguing that something is wrong with people who decide their own right from wrong is a waste of time. 

Since abortion will still be legal in many places, like where I live, in California, the other group that we need to persuade is women who are pregnant and considering abortion.  This is more immediate because it can directly save lives in the moment, even if it is only one at a time.  Obviously, the best way is again to point that woman to God, but because of the urgency in the situation, where a life is on the line right then, we may have to persuade someone who does not yet believe in God.  Without that belief in God, there is only one other possible way to convince people of something.  You have to appeal to their own self-interest.  I truly believe that God tells us right from wrong not to control us, but because He loves us and doing what He says is ultimately in our own self-interest.  It will make our lives better whether we can see how or not.  Therefore, to convince somebody, we must figure out how making the correct moral decision will also be better for them intrinsically.  When looking at pregnancy, this is easy to see.  I asked on social media if any woman out there regretted their decision not to have an abortion.  Of the over 500 comments, not a single woman regretted having their baby.  So, leaving out the morality issue, we can pretty much guarantee that a woman who has a baby will be glad she did, even on a selfish level.

Remember that we Christians are not of this world.  We do have to live in it.  When we live in a pagan society, we have to keep in mind that other people do not share our values.  When the apostle Paul lived, the society was worse than it is now.  He did not conform to it, but he also did not give up on it.  He did not simply address the symptoms of sin, although he did not shy away from those topics.  He focused on sharing Jesus, because that is how the other problems can be fixed. We should try not to get overly upset with pro-abortion people, because they don’t know any better.  They decide their own right and wrong.  We are on a higher level than them, so expecting them to live at our level is unrealistic.  By all means, keep trying to change the laws, because lives are at stake.  The way to do it is by showing that we have a God who loves us.  Once more people realize that, the rest can be more easily remedied.

We cannot bring people to God by fixing our nation’s problems.  We must fix our nation’s problems by bringing people to God.

Beware of the Police

“You can’t handle the truth!”  That famous line was delivered by Colonel Nathan Jessep, played by legendary actor Jack Nicholson in the 1992 film, A Few Good Men.  Most of you probably remember the line, but many likely do not remember that A Few Good Men had an important moral to the story. 

(Spoiler alert) In the film, two young Marines are accused of murdering another Marine.  In the climactic scene, Col. Jessep is put on the witness stand and delivers that line before admitting that he actually ordered the attack on the Marine who was killed.  At that point viewers think that the bad guy got caught and the two Marines who carried out the order will be acquitted, but that is not what happens.  While they are cleared of murder and conspiracy charges, they are found guilty of “conduct unbecoming a United States Marine.”  In other words, “I was just following orders” is not a good excuse for doing the wrong thing.

This leads to my plea to the police in our country.  I have always been very supportive of law enforcement and we should all appreciate what they do.  They put their lives on the line to fight crime and keep us safe.  They are often frustrated to see the criminals that they apprehend get away with their crimes or get weak consequences because of pro-criminal Democrat district attorneys and judges.  They are also slandered as racists by obsolete race-baiters trying to stay relevant and a media that loves to stoke conflict and anger.  These officers deserve our respect, gratitude, and support. 

This should not, however, be blind support.  In fact, we need to beware of the police.  Most of you are probably surprised to hear that from me.  It is certainly not for the reasons that the left tells us to beware when they claim that the police are racists who are out hunting black people.  That is a lie.  The police are not likely to do evil things because they are terrible people who plan to do them.  The danger is that they will do evil for the same reason that the two Marines did in A Few Good Men. They will do it because they are following orders.

It is already starting to happen.  We saw the Canadian Mounted Police cracking down on truckers who just wanted to do their jobs.  We saw the Australian police beating down people in the streets for disobeying ineffective, unnecessary lockdown and mask orders.  Police have even been used in some places to shut down churches.  Governments around the world are testing not only if their citizens will obey ridiculous, overbearing, and inhumane decrees, but whether the police in their countries will put following orders ahead of morality and carry them out. 

This is not a new phenomenon.  Tyrannical, totalitarian governments need a way to enforce their edicts and make sure the people do as they’re told.  This requires a police force that will robotically follow orders.  The Gestapo, the SS, and the KGB probably come to mind first, but every brutal dictatorship or despotic regime in history has had an enforcement arm to keep the people in line.  Without it, governments do not have the power to oppress their people. 

This is why I am warning you to beware of the police.  The left is getting bold and is already trying to take more control over our lives.  They will eventually need to rely more and more on force to crack down on innocent citizens who are simply trying to live their lives and support their families.  Authoritarian governments will need to use police, along with massive economic pressure, to enforce overbearing rules on businesses, guns, “climate change,” and speech codes to silence opposing voices, among other things.

Does that mean we should defund the police?  Of course not.  It just means that we should remind them why they chose to become police officers in the first place; to help people.  To the police officers reading this, here is my plea to you:  Please do not let corrupt politicians use you to do their bidding.  In the past couple of years, some of you may have been asked to use force to shut down businesses that were not obediently closing or that were not requiring customers to wear masks.  If you took part in that, you engaged in “conduct unbecoming a police officer.”  You are probably not cut out for that job and should find a new career.  Might I suggest opening your own restaurant and not allowing people to go there? 

Am I saying that police should disregard orders as a general rule?  No.  There certainly has to be a chain of command.  Just laws need to be enforced.  If laws are enforced inconsistently then criminals will run wild on our streets like is happening in Democrat-run cities all around the country as we speak.  So, where is the line police officers should use to determine if they should follow orders without it becoming a slippery slope into lawlessness?  The long answer is a little more difficult and requires some biblical wisdom and discernment.  On the bright side, there is a cheat that you can use to illuminate that line.  It is similar to a cheat my wise father told me about voting.  He said, “If you look at the Los Angeles Times endorsements and vote the opposite, you will almost always be voting correctly.”  Likewise, right now, Democrats and the media demonize the police.  You may soon hear Democrats and the media coming out in support of the police and saying that law enforcement should be taking a larger role in enforcing certain rules (especially new rules).  At that moment you will know the police are being used for evil.  It is then that officers should start to question their orders, and also when the citizens should beware of the police.

Always remember, Germans who put Jews on trains to Auschwitz were just following orders.  Russians who sent “political dissidents” to the Gulag were just following orders.  Officers, if you are ordered to close businesses for “climate” violations, instead defend the business.  If you are told to crack down on “hate speech” or to arrest “political dissidents” in a country where our Constitution protects the God-given right to free speech, you are obligated to refuse.  You are the good guys.  Please stay that way.