Trump, Scary, Trump, Spicy, Hot, Trump, Truth, Christianity

  • Is there a way to defend Trump from criminal charges? nojo at Stinque thinks that, when it comes to the wrongdoing going on around him, you would have to be totally adorable to think that President Trump could not be stupidly unaware.
     
  • On the other hand, Green Eagle has watched The Godfather, has read this week’s papers, and has determined that, one night, my President placed the bloody head of a horse in Michael Flynn’s bed.
     
  • Michael John Scott suggests national Republicans are becoming increasingly unnerved by President Trump.
     
  • John Scalzi at Whatever writes about why, as a practical matter, it’s hard to write about our national Trump trip.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony has a way to predict President Trump’s behavior. Just look to internet tweets from years ago and find what he accused others of doing.
     
  • driftglass finds it hard to blame Democrats for Donald Trump, difficult to sympathize with those who voted for him, and impossible to find any patience with those who do both.
     
  • Dave Dubya sees a failure of our system of electoral college Russian roulette as a candidate is imposed upon us after being rejected on election day by the American people. Dave wonders if our system of laws will deter further destruction. Dave does not seem fully confident.
     
  • Jonathan Bernstein is okay with a special counsel, but argues the move doesn’t go far enough.
     
  • Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass watches as Attorney General Jeff Sessions is uninterested in a police shooting of a black man while he is held down on the ground but decides to prosecute a protester for laughing at … well … Jeff Sessions. Yellow dog suggests a disparity in … you know … justice.
     
  • Last Of The Millenniums has a way guaranteed to get Mexico to pay after all.
     
  • Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post names names and amounts in his analysis of the flow of political money and has conclusions about whom representative government represents.
     
  • Wow. You think national Republicans are bad? David Robertson at The Moderate Voice takes us to the GOP horror show in Oklahoma.
     
  • The Journal of Improbable Research finds a study, conducted jointly by the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India, and the University of Texas at Austin, on whether hot and spicy food leads to political anger.
     
  • Michael A. LaFerrara at Principled Perspectives uses a letter written in support of health care as a jumping off point in his support of the libertarian ideal. As Michael sees it, forcing anyone to pay for bridges, sidewalks, libraries, flowers, parks, or art that person chooses not to drive on, walk on, read, smell, or view is immoral. Classic Ayn Rand stuff. I don’t know if police, fire departments or anti-ballistic missiles are included in his formulation. That depends on which strain of objectivism is followed.
     
  • We’ve been concerned at his health problems, but Vincent returns this week to A Wayfarer’s Notes. He conducts an exploration of happiness, a sort of living in the moment, not needing anything to change, a bit of deliberate aimlessness. He takes a look at the ancient Tao Te Ching for the associated art of not doing. He seems to have the not needing change part down, but still has trouble with not doing.
     
  • In The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser, former pastor and current atheist Bruce hits hard, discussing the difficulty confronted by thoughtful people of faith: hardship inflicted on innocents.
     
  • My friend T. Paine, at Saving Common Sense, argues that non-Christians must necessarily embrace moral relativism. My friend defines this as 9.5 billion people acknowledging 9.5 billion separate, equally valid, truths.
     
    I dunno. I expect a lot of those 9.5 billion folks would disagree. And many of my brothers and sisters in Christ see Truth as: Jesus loves you and shares your hatred of Obama, Hillary, Gays, and Muslims.
     
    Still, it is good finally to see my friend turn away, however unconsciously, from the Fox News we-report-you-decide inclusion of rumor and spin, explaining to conservatives that truth is whatever they want it to be.
     
  • This Week In Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’, The Washington Post helpfully compiles 586 false and misleading claims Donald Trump has made in 17 weeks as President. That assumes, of course, that we don’t just make up our own factual truth. See my friend, Mr. Paine, for guidance.
     

5 thoughts on “Trump, Scary, Trump, Spicy, Hot, Trump, Truth, Christianity”

  1. “…that truth is whatever they want it to be”.
    That statement is certainly a Trumpian belief.

  2. First, just to be nitpicky, I wrote 6.5 billion, as in the human population of the earth. I know some estimates state it is 7 billion or 7.5 billion, but certainly not 9.5 billion.

    Second, I did not say that non-Christians must necessarily embrace moral relativism. I wrote that those that don’t believe in God are more prone to do so. Indeed, if there is no higher authority than yourself and your own ego, then anything is permissible, right?

    Third, I am sad to admit that there are many of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that mistakenly hate Obama, Hillary, Gays, and Muslims because they think Jesus does. I would say that their faith is uninformed. Christ loves all of us. It is our sinful actions that He despises as those sins turn us away from Him.

    I will leave you and your weekly roundup to describe all the reasons why we should hate Trump, conservatives, Republicans, Americans, and so forth in the militant leftists’ attempts to find or create a new truth, my friend.

  3. Indeed, if there is no higher authority than yourself and your own ego, then anything is permissible, right?

    This sounds like one of those “new truths”.

    Conservatives create their new truths all the time, from “liberal media” to climate change denial, to Birtherism to Trump the “liberal democrat”. They are so full of “new truths”, aka alternative facts, that their eyeballs are turning brown.

    I would ask why are so many atheists kinder and more loving than many Christians? We all know this is true.

    TP’s assertion ignores our better natures, the accepted rules of civil society, basic decency and the rule of law.

    I think the point worth considering is how unhinged and evil “Christians” would become if they didn’t have their religion holding back their base instincts and hate for others. By Mr. Paine’s thinking this is how they would behave.

    And yes, prisons are full of Christians. Christians do bad things all the time.

    Look at the Trumpists and Republicans pushing their agenda to cut taxes for the rich, cut safety regulations, and do everything they can to assure the wealthy get everything they demand, while gutting health care and aid to the poor. How Christian is that?

    “…militant leftists’ attempts to find or create a new truth”

    See above for irony and projection.

    Every damn Trump voter, Republican, and conservative who abets Trump and accepts his lies has compromised his moral convictions and sense of decency. They are either not Christian at all, don’t really get it, or are flaming hypocrites.

    How’s that for a “new truth”?

  4. Here, T. Paine neglects to establish that his own moral beliefs are true, but feels comfortable with patronizing atheists who believe that they can. Naturally, he engages with the atheists in his head rather than any intelligent ones who might challenge his perspective with arguments beyond those of a middle school level. His own childish perspective on moral reasoning, secular or otherwise, prevents him from making any profound or otherwise engaging points, while his self-satisfaction blinds him to the fact that, no matter how much evidence he believes he has for his god, it remains utterly impossible to prove that his *moral* beliefs are true in the way that he thinks they are.

    As an atheist who has challenged him on these matters over the years, I am disappointed to see absolutely no growth in his arguments and self-awareness, regardless of his religious beliefs. I regret wasting my time.

  5. TP – ” It is our sinful actions that He despises as those sins turn us away from Him.”

    Really? It is not because sinful actions are immoral in his eyes? It is more important that we believe in him than act morally? Seems a bit egotistical, doesn’t it?

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