Posted on June 28, 2021 by abyssum
Random Thoughts on Issues of Current Interest

 Or Should I Say “Spit-Balling,”To Strike An Avant-Garde Not 

By Pem Schaeffer

June 22, 2021 

pemster4062@yahoo.com

Hat Tip: Rip MacIntosh


 Here I sit again with lots of loosely organized thoughts and observations floating around in the old noggin, threatening to become gremlins when I doff the old nightcap. That can be a “life-affirming” experience for those of us with active minds, but sometimes you’ve just got to pull the trigger and commit them to print.
Herewith the latest collection. (I hope at least some of you see them as blinding flashes of the obvious.) On Root CausesThose who follow the political funnies know that VP Chuckles Harris, palsy-walsy to P Bumbles Biden, has been assigned responsibility to deal with the border situation, as Harris-Biden fans call it, or the border crisis, as everyone else calls it. It’s hard not to believe that this was done to make Chuckles the designated loser in the administration and to drive her to reveal the rich trove of annoying traits in her public persona at the same time.
She took on the role by immediately announcing her main task was to determine “the root causes” in the countries sending illegals off by the tens of thousands to make cartel coyotes rich, while hammering the southern border enforcement apparatus into virtual TKO mode. No need to mention why neither Chuckles or Bumbles will visit the border to see things for themselves. The term “optics” was coined for situations like this, and horrible optics barely hints at what would happen.
So, back to “root causes.” I began my mulling by surmising that everything reduces to simple principles of human nature. And then I realized that you don’t have to talk about humans to illustrate “root causes;” nature itself, in the form of animals, provides the necessary insight.
So here is one of the primary tenets of root cause in the political domain: If you feed the pigeons, you get more pigeons. Said another way, you get the behavior you reward and/or tolerate. This holds for pets, children, employees, and just about anything else that fits the model. You pay (feed) people to not work, and you get more people to not work.
I submit that this is all you need to know about the root cause of the flood of illegals surging our southern border and overwhelming all aspects of so-called “enforcement.” If you prefer a more “nuanced” explanation, try this: root causes always boil down to three things: 1) policy, 2) humans pursuing their own self-interests, and 3) reality on the ground (not dreams). 
As this observer sees it, the Law of Pigeon Behavior captures the essence of the three pretty damn well. 
So, Chuckles, you can get someone on your staff to write up a one-pager on Root Causes and deliver it to the Oval Office staff. And then schedule your visit to the border, and invite the Good Humor Man to go along with you. On Critical Gender TheoryIbram X. Kendi has become the guru of our era on matters of race relations and is doing his level best to make them worse in every regard. By now, you should realize that the dream of Rev. Martin Luther King has been canceled, and you have to wonder why the National Holiday honoring him hasn’t been canceled as well.
Kendi’s basic view of race relations is that all white people are racist. Further, if said white person protests that they are not racist, it just proves Kendi’s assertion. According to Professor Ibram, it is not feasible to be “not racist.” You must be “anti-racist” instead. So if you are not actively anti-racist, you are in fact racist. Game, set, match. You could say that to Kendi, race is a “black and white” issue.
Kind of reminds me of the period when President Bush 43 proclaimed “you are either for us or against us” following the 9-11 attacks. Learned minds everywhere got the vapors.
It occurred to me that this kind of thinking can be applied in the area of gender, which until recent years, had been a pretty simple issue. With very rare exceptions, when you came out of the womb on your first day of life, you were identified as male (boy) or female (girl) by noting the abundantly obvious difference between the two genders, and the attending professional making the call.
Now, compare that to Kendi’s pronouncement that you are either racist or anti-racist; those are the only two rational choices in this era of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Oh, and unity coming our way from the Harris-Biden Administration.
If we follow Kendi’s thought pattern, when it comes to gender, there ain’t no middle ground of confusion, subtle variation, “choice,” fluidity, transitions, or that catch-all – “non-binary.” You are a male or an anti-male. Those are your only two choices. No waffling, no double talk, no woke babbling. No in-betweens. You are a male, or you are an anti-male.
Or if you prefer, you are a female or an anti-female in Kendi’s way of thinking.
I choose to designate an anti-male a female, and an anti-female a male. It sort of boils down to apple and orange thinking if you follow the exalted guru’s manner of thinking.
I wonder when he’ll come out with a new book on this revolutionary thinking that is a logical spin-off of his breakthrough theory of racism. On The Shooting Crime ExplosionIn the last two years, the statistics for shooting crimes, and related deaths, have exploded in a truly worrisome way. The coverage on a weekly basis is tragic, and sadly, has the effect of numbing us to the realities.
Inevitably, the talking heads and everyone on the left who can find a camera to talk to (or social media) screams out in anguish that we have to do something about the huge increase in gun sales and ownership in the population at large.
Allow me, if you will, to suggest what “we can do.“The key factor, of course, is naming the “we”, and slapping them upside the head with a 2 x 4.1.     Stop talking about repealing the Second Amendment and/or tightening the laws of gun ownership for law-abiding, mentally competent citizens.
2.     Stop threatening to confiscate lawfully owned firearms and searching personal premises to do so.
3.     Stop promoting “Defund the Police.“
4.     Stop appointing District Attorneys who don’t believe in prosecuting criminals, and who oppose cash bail.
5.     Get rid of Judges who believe in rehabilitation and early release of violent criminals.
6.     Stop allowing rampaging looters and rioters to destroy whatever private and public property they want for whatever purpose they want, without any serious consequences. Stop telling us what our eyes see is not what is happening.
7.     Stop defining law enforcement personnel as the problem and perpetrators as the oppressed.
In other words, those of you who make and enforce the rules that are supposed to create law and order and safety for all, stop doing all the things that run counter to those very concepts. Stop motivating concerned citizens to load up on firearms because they can no longer depend on Public Safety Departments and the Criminal Justice system to protect their very lives.
Really, this is not that hard. Just stop drinking the woke kool-aid cocktails, do your jobs, and follow the law. And if you choose to do just the opposite so you can get re-elected, or be praised in the right social and political settings, might I suggest you go straight to the Ninth Circle described in Dante’s Inferno.
The WrapThis seems like a fine time to close with a pithy and brilliant quote:As T.S. Eliot said, more than fifty years ago, “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm — but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”

About abyssum

I am a retired Roman Catholic Bishop, Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Texas
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