News Weakly - 1/9/21

Where Governing and Logic Don't Mix
Follow the logic. "Gender-inclusive language" is language that excludes gender. And that's a good thing ... right? The House of Representatives is trying to say it is. They intend to eliminate all gendered language. Pelosi calls it "bold reforms" while House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy calls it "stupid." The House hopes to eliminate "father," "mother," "he," "she," and anything else that carries a hint of gender in it to be "more inclusive," along with the establishment of an Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Because if there's anything we know, it's that the Congress knows best about these things and if they can't monitor their own "diversity and inclusion," how can they pass laws? Apparently the government's inability to govern has been due to "he" and "she" pronouns. This is just for their use -- they're not planning to make it national law -- but I am a father, a husband, a brother, and a son -- and, most importantly, the son of my Father -- and I have no intention of giving up my identity in order to include someone else's exclusive inclusivity. On the upside, Biden was planning to mandate masks for all, but can't now because there is no gender-neutral term for "mandate."

Sense of Humor
One may be forgiven for wondering whatever happened to the concepts of "common sense" or the "sense of humor" these days. Evidence an ad in Australia for an outdoor equipment store. The story says, "In it, a man jokes that the pandemic was caused by someone eating a bat." It's humor. Indeed, it's humor aimed at the conspiracy theorists and not bats or China. But people are complaining and the Ad Standards department is assessing the complaints. The ad encourages people to stay home and explore their own backyard (like any good COVID ad would), but you cannot do that with humor anymore. Laughter, they say, is the best medicine. No longer, I guess.

Ruling against the God, Science
They're concerned about this new EPA rule. "They're limiting the use of science!" they're saying. Well, not really. The EPA has instituted a rule that limits the types of studies the agency can use when crafting policies. Excluded are studies that won't give you their data. And this is bad. Because we all know that scientists don't lie. Much. Well, they don't get caught. I don't see an issue. Share the data and get heard; hide the data and don't. Or is that too much like "science"?

The Mirror
In Venezuela things are going from bad to worse. In 2013 Nicolás Maduro was elected president. He has remained since, often by means of power or subterfuge. Venzuela's government has been flooded with accusations of violence, corruption, and scarcity of basic goods even after the National Assembly was taken by the opposition. In 2018 Maduro "won" the election again, but much of the world's governments called it fraudulent and recognized Juan Guaidó as the rightful president. Now Maduro allies have seized the National Assembly. Analysts expect a purge including Guaidó and those who oppose Maduro. "Socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello rejected criticisms that they’d been elected in a fraudulent election." Man, oh, man, all this "election fraud" and "no it's not" and taking over the National Assembly (the equivalent of our Congress) and Socialism over Democracy all sounds like something familiar. I just can't seem to place it ...

Not a First
The election is officially over. The Electoral College vote is finalized and certified and verified or whatever other terms you'd like to use. If there was voter fraud, it's moot now.

Interestingly it was the Republicans that held on to the very end, fighting the legitimacy of the Electoral College vote on the basis of voting irregularities. I say "interestingly" because the first time the system was challenged was in 1969 when two Democrats raised questions. The next time it was the Democrats again with George W. Bush's win in 2004. In that instance Senator Barbara Boxer cited "voting irregularities" without offering evidence and suggested possible illegal disqualification of provisional ballots and voting machine problems. And it has been largely been the Democrats in other races, such as Stacey Abrams's refusal to concede in 2018 for unfair election proceedings. Oddly, no one accused them of being "anti-democratic." So if Trump and company simply took a page from the Democrat playbook, it might be understandable.

Nor is it really surprising (saddening and maddening, but not surprising) that pro-Trump protesters would engage in a "mostly peaceful" protest which resulted in deaths (1 shooting and 3 medical emergencies) and arrests (mostly curfew violations), taking their cue from antifa and other liberal protesters over the last year. Violent protest seems to me to be deplorable by default, Left or Right. Of course, in these cases the Left violence is Trump's fault and Right violence is Trump's fault. Hey, wait ... oh, yeah ... double standard. "The rioting from the Left was caused by Trump ... but in a good way." The Right mimicking the Left is absolutely not laudable from my perspective, but also not surprising. (Note: The way to avoid the "double standard" charge is simple. Did you protest the violence of BLM, etc. from 2020? Did you protest the protests of 1969 or 2004, etc.? Then you can rightly protest the violence of January 6 and the protests of the Right against the election. If you did not protest the violence of 2020 or the earlier election protests, you have no standing to protest these current events.) Just a question: Is the attempt to eliminate the president two weeks before we legally eliminate this president not an attempt to circumvent democracy?

Are You Kidding?
Democrats are calling for the vice president to remove Trump and assume the presidency because of the riot in Washington D.C. Yeah, right, got it. That shouldn't take more than, say, 2 weeks to accomplish. So, by 1/21/21 Pence should have relieved Trump and taken ... oh ... wait ... that will be a bit too late, won't it? Ilhan Omar is drawing up impeachment articles. Apparently the Dems aren't aware than in less than 2 weeks they will own the U.S. government. Trump told his supporters they had been cheated. Some of them protested angrily. It's Trump's fault. Now, no one is blaming the massive riots in Portland (Democrat Land) or Minneapolis (Democrat Land) or the others on the people in charge in those places who agreed with the violent protesters that they had been cheated out of something. The timing is stupid and the double standard reeks to high heaven.

Sidenote
Normally I try to insert some humor here. Not this time. Looking over the news, I am reminded of an important thing to remember. Yes, we are living in an insane world where gender is irrational. Yes, people seem to have lost common sense. Yes, the god Science is always challenging the God YHWH even while the challengers challenge their own god. Yes, concerns about the government in the U.S. and elsewhere look bleak. Yes, we're living in a world of double standards encouraged by evil people ... on both sides. Yes, things look bad. But God works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11). God always accomplishes whatever He plans to accomplish regardless of what is going on around us or what it looks like ("all things"). Just offering a bit of stability in turbulent times.