Merry Christmas, to one and all! It's worth remembering that Christmas, although it has plenty of ancient and modern pagan connotations, is first and foremost a holiday celebrating the birth of Christ, who most Americans acknowledge as their Lord and Savior. And the beauty of Christianity, I've always felt, is its message of infinite and inclusive forgiveness: God offers everyone, warts and all, redemption and salvation. That's why we call the message of the New Testament "good news," right? The birth of Christ is just one of many ways that God tells us, "I value you, and I want to know you better." So...give and receive presents this Christmas, sure, but remember that the greatest gift of all has been sitting under your proverbial tree all along: God's love.
In other news, the Newsmaker Show featured a guest even more famous than me last week, if you can believe that: Bill O'Reilly! I've always liked Bill. He's a voice of reason in these dark times of sensational journalism, although the Left certainly doesn't see it that way. They went gunning for old Bill, and to a point they got him. His star has faded, but he's trying to make a comeback, and he's still got plenty of great insights on American politics. You'll find them in the second half of this program:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMWzT41DKrA&feature=youtu.be
Incidentally, I don't agree with 100% of Bill's analysis. I think Donald Trump was won over to conservatism partly because of the opportunism that Bill describes, yes, but I believe that the "push factor" of the Left's disdain (to put it mildly) has to have played a major role too. Trump doesn't like criticism -- that much is clear -- and the relentless and scurrilous attacks on him and his family must have been powerful motivation to break completely with liberals and Democrats. I also disagree with Bill in his assertion that Trump has no core beliefs. Everyone does, to some extent, and it's obvious that his moral and ideological compass is better suited to the Republican Party than it is to the Democrats. Above all, Trump is a nationalist -- and nationalism has no place on the Left, unless it's in knee-jerk Russophobia, and, as I've said before, that's mostly for show, as far as I can tell.
Lastly, if you're looking for the perfect last minute Christmas gift for your favorite conservative commentator of all time, might I suggest this incredibly handsome Trump-Space Force-themed Christmas sweater? I'm usually a medium. Thanks a million! 😉
Dr. Waddy:" T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear and Grace my fears relieved". Its the greatest message of all and you reprised it beautifully.This glowing season,progenitor of some of Western civilization's most redeeming expressions, graces us beyond measure with its yearly transcendent beauty.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: I like O'Reilly too and I hope he will come back.
ReplyDeleteStar Wars: the original movie was classic: when I saw it for the first time in'77 I was reminded of those cavernous theaters we went to in Buffalo in the '50's, with disdainful ushers with flashlights monitoring the amorous goings on in the back rows (of which we elementary school types had no understanding)and of redolent imbibers lurching into temporary refuge just behind us as Van Heflin lead Pugachev's hordes across the steppes in Tempest. We paid 20 cents for tickets and I remember having expended the entire 50 cents my mother gave me on gigantic 10 cent Mars bars. The movies were sometimes preceded by frantic Tarzan serials, which presented me with the dilemma of having to find a means to attend the sequels, which I never found and which has no doubt been the source of many my adult neuroses.
Anyway, the original Star Wars movie faithfully recreated that thrill but I found the succeeding films less inspiring. No knock o n them but they just didn't work for me, except for one of the "prequels"but I've completely completely lost track of them now.
Dr. Waddy: O'Reilly says Lincoln was the most disparaged President; he is probably right but Nixon sure did catch a load and it got personal. The heroic Woodward and Bernstein even speculated on his sex life and that's pretty personal I'd say. But that said, I fully agree that the present MSM motivated and enabled onslaught on President Trump is thoroughly and sans apology, regret or any suggestion of moderation, viciously directed at the President and his family. It defines the attackers.
ReplyDeleteI see an analogy which I would bid the President pursue, between the American left's onslaught on him for denying their darling in 2016 and the slave owners' assault on our national unity in the 1850's and 1860's. The slave owners showed a determination to defend their discredited way of life very much comparable to that displayed by the frantically defensive American left in its final defense of its historically condemned views.
Dr. Waddy: I agree that the MSM has a personal beef with President Trump. " I mean, Trump just doesn't know his place; sure, he made useable news in his way back in the day but he had no business getting in the way when we were about to seal the deal".
ReplyDeleteLike most bullies, the MSM cannot believe that there are people just as nasty as they are and in Trump's case, alot smarter.Their frantic scramble to regain their accustomed upper hand is fraught with real panic and dread.
Trump violates DC's standards of facile civility. Good! Its been a cover for consummate viciousness and he sees it for what it is.
O'Reilly's view that the Dems see their candidates as so un promising as to necessitate a preventative all out strike on the President right now, is fascinating. It follows that if they fail in this they may have shot the bolt. That could make for a truly bizarre choice at their convention, say, Bernie?
I do believe the President to be a genuine conservative now and it is very reasonable to think that a standup guy like him might have his views much reinforced by the flak he's had thrown at him. These leftists, with all their political correctness and "sensitivity" and concern about highly subjective"microaggressions", cannot gainsay him just a little payback.
Well said Jack!
ReplyDeleteLove, love, love the Christmas sweater, Dr. Waddy.
Hope you both had a great Christmas. smiles
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Jack and Linda! Linda, maybe we should all buy the same sweater and appear "in uniform" in public together -- with the trademark MAGA hats, of course... We'll either be applauded or assaulted. Maybe a little of both?
ReplyDeleteJack, I feel much the same about Star Wars. The original three movies were cinematic classics and great yarns. I remember seeing Return of the Jedi six times as a tyke. Subsequent Star Wars movies never recaptured the magic of the originals, however. The last three have been action-packed, but the new characters don't move me. I liked "Rogue One" and "The Mandalorian", though. The Star Wars universe still has legs. Right now I'm enjoying "For All Mankind". It's an alternative history of the space race. You would eat it up!
I once read a "psycho-history" of Nixon. It wasn't flattering! The 70s represented the last gasp of Freudianism, and you can just imagine the field day the smug Freudians had with poor Nixon... It's impossible to compare the media's grudge against Nixon with the vendetta against Trump, though. So much has changed, first and foremost the professional standards and pretensions to objectivity of the media itself. Despite a lot of hostility in the press, after all, Nixon won in '72 by 23 points. The media would never allow Trump to romp home in that fashion. They will be kicking him in the shins all the way to Nov. 2020.
I rather doubt that the Dems regard their own cause as hopeless in 2020. Sure, they'd like to dispose of Trump before then, or at least soften him up, but it seems more in keeping with their messiah complex that they would assume that Trump is doomed in 2020, not that they are. Many Dems are turned off by their field of candidates, true, but I count more on their over-confidence as a potential resource in 2020, and less so on their despair.
Dr. Waddy and Linda: I would commend to you a Dec. 26 article in American Thinker by Chet Richards entitled Deplorables vs the Ruling Class: A Global Struggle. His theme is that the "deplorables" have had it and that the day of the presumptuous left is over. I look forward to the day when Hillary is remembered mostly for having coined the term deplorable (it no longer needs quotation marks, its understood now in the sense she intended, which increases the hilarious irony of it having been significant in her undoing. Just think, a year from now we could be seeing the left in full retreat.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that, Jack! I wonder whether there's been a similar process of demonization of the "deplorables" in the UK? Surely there has. The Brexit debate got very nasty. I assume there are left-wing academics (and maybe a few Labour politicians) opining that Britain voted for Boris because it's dumb and racist... Anyway, I agree with you, Jack: anytime we can draw attention to the snobbishness, the intolerance, and the self-righteousness of the Left, it's a good day for America and for the world!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy: They are so ineluctably presumptuous, so very convinced that they are just. To them ALL of their "truths" are self evident simply for their having expressed them!. Far be it for them to ascribe them to a higher power.I have always thought this era of leftist haught to be a bizarre interlude in the progress of humanity.n
ReplyDeleteBizarre is right! How any rational person can believe that anyone who fails to endorse their OPINIONS is a dullard is beyond me. The conceit involved is...prodigious! I assume the ideology of the Left has already been analyzed by someone as an analogue of religious fundamentalism. The comparison is apt as well as ironic.
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