News Weakly - 1/29/2022

Communists on Communism
China sent 39 warplanes toward Taiwan this week. That message was clear. NATO has put forces on standby and the U.S. and UK have withdrawn families from Ukraine embassies while Biden discussed options for sending troops to the Baltics because Russia continues to crowd the Ukrainian border. And North Korea is launching cruise missiles with sufficient furor that they stopped air travel on the U.S. West Coast for a time. Now Russia is planning military exercises off the coast of Ireland? Tell me again how communism is either "friendly" or "dead."

Unintended Consequences?
They weren't first, but now France has banned "gay conversion therapy." Voting unanimously, they passed legislation that makes it a crime to "convert" LGBTQ people to either heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations. Any attempt to "modify or reprimand" sexual orientation or gender identity is punishable by jail time and fines (up to $34,000). That goes up if it's a minor. Parents and pastors are on the edge. God, of course, will have to leave the country, what with that "male and female He created them" (Gen 1:27) and calling homosexual sex "unnatural" (Rom 1:26-27) kind of talk. And parents and pastors ... don't you go quoting those texts or praying for those people. That kind of stuff is no longer disbelieved; it's criminalized.

"What do we want?"
On March 25 they plan to walk out again. It's the annual "Strike for Climate Reparations and Justice," started by Greta. They want to force the end of climate crisis. What are they teaching these kids? "Climate struggle is class struggle," going on to explain that "affluent, white, heterosexual cis-males" and capitalism are the primary problem. To fix the climate problem, they demand reparations to "Indigenous, Black, anti-patriarchal, and diverse marginalized communities" and an end to capitalism, a "flawed socio-economic model which urgently needs to be replaced." I wonder if they'd be willing to lead the charge on the "redistribution of wealth" they're demanding. I wonder how many of these kids will grow up to be "affluent, white, heterosexual cis-males." I wonder how these kids would fare if we gave them what they wanted ... a return to an agrarian, technophobic society. Capitalism, after all, gave them the means to do this strike.

Pay No Attention to Those Lies Behind the Curtain
President Biden is calling on Congress to enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. And why not? It was first introduced in 1923, reissued in 1972 and just got approved by the 38th legislature ... but the thing had timed out. Too late. So why not? I mean, aren't we all in favor of equal rights? Well, as it turns out, the amendment we'd be adding is not the amendment that was approved in 1972. That one called for equal rights without regard to "sex," and we here in the 21st century have revised the definition of "sex" until it is practically meaningless. It's essentially "whatever you want it to mean." And we'd be voting in rights based on a concept that no legislator in the 20th century ever even considered. But, please, don't bother looking. Just do what we say and move on.

Truth in Satire
I had to laugh and then nod when I read the story in the Bee about the atheist struggling in his atheist faith because he can't figure out why anything good ever happens. If we are "a random collection of atoms and chemical reactions," the question is "Why has a single good thing happened in anyone's life—much less on a daily basis?" Good question. Next, with the train robberies dogging California along with their push to all electric vehicles while they eliminate electricity, it seems as if they should rebrand as "the Old West." Then, of course, there is the ridiculous idea that Biden would consider starting World War III against Russia to distract from his domestic failures. He appears to be a domestic failure, but nothing in our history with our president would suggest he has anything like that level of ... awareness.