A Nation Of Slobs

That's what America has become, as this author nails it. It's not just that people today are slovenly; they are proud and militant about it, so much so that they instinctively despise anyone who dresses in a modest and presentable manner. This parallels the modern, instinctive hatred for anyone displaying intelligence or decorum, and it sheds light on the advanced stage of barbarism we now inhabit. Ayn Rand would call this "hating the good for being the good," and I am hard pressed to find a more apt description.

More Inconvenient Truths About Climate Change

The United States has been cooling since the 1930s and manipulating data to hide it. Perhaps Obama should declare that we have a moral duty to disregard these findings, or even to silence the people who share them. It never ceases to amaze me how powerful the human mind can be, particularly in its ability to ignore truth and bury itself in lies. If you had to hang a label on this tendency, it would look a lot like "original sin."

"Higher Learning" In America Is A Joke

As confirmed by Barack Obama, who at a college commencement had the audacity to tell his audience to reject critical thought and serve as ideological shock troops to advance the reach of governmental control over the entire planet. No doubt these anti-intellectual sentiments were well received by an audience filled with mindless, unreflective, illiterate, hedonistic, and thoroughly uneducated youths. For the few in the audience who have managed to nurture a spark of intellectual curiosity after almost twenty years of systematic efforts to stamp it out, the man touted as the leader of the "free world" just mocked them and told them it's their patriotic duty to snuff it once and for all.

Any truly educated person with his mind -- and his moral courage -- intact recognizes anthropogenic global warming as an irrational, despicable, anti-human, anti-liberty, anti-scientific, and anti-American fraud. It's even anti-Earth, for as I've explained before, Earth is mortal and will die of natural causes. The only hope of preserving life is transporting it off-world by means of human progress, which history clearly shows to require limited government, the rule of law, free markets, and unhindered intellectual inquiry. Neanderthals such as Obama and his minions are the enemies of all these things and labor to keep life trapped here to die the final death.

Regardless of my position or of the "mainstream" one, it should strike everyone as tragic that college graduates are now being instructed to reject the very intellectual curiosity that once marked them as unique. So apparently it is not enough for Obama to degrade his office; he must also degrade the value of the expensive diplomas these people just acquired.

Disney's Maleficent Shows How Far The Worm Has Turned

Once upon a time, Disney spun tales of dashing princes and beautiful princesses who, when challenged by the forces of evil, overcame all odds through the power of their mutual love. Indeed, to call something "Disneyfied" once signaled an almost naïve purity and innocence that we yearned to keep alive in a cold and hostile world, encapsulating the Christian character of the people who launched that magnificent company.

No longer. Disney now wields its magic on behalf of the post-modern malcontents for whom no idol is too sacred to smash, re-working the story of a "maleficent" fairy to make her into an embattled heroine. This bears obvious parallels to Wicked, the wildly-popular apologetic for the Wicked Witch of the West, which itself is a rip-off of John Gardner's novel from the 1970s, Grendel. I admit that Grendel is one of my favorite novels. After all, it captures the angst of someone who doesn't quite belong anywhere, either among men or animals, and who thus cannot escape his role of villain no matter what he does. Notwithstanding my affinity for tragic heroes such as Grendel, Darth Vader, Faust, or even Macbeth, I find it sad that Disney of all places has succumbed to this alienation and declared war on its own founding principles.

Maleficent is visually pleasing but clubs us over the head with a narrative worthy of any women's studies course. Hollywood sometimes drops all subtlety or pretense in this manner, such as with Thelma & Louise, The American President, In & Out, and various others that now count Maleficent among their number.

The film presents us with two neighboring but diametrically-opposed societies: one is Christian and ruled by a king; the other is pagan and ruled by a queen. Throughout the proceedings the former is portrayed as evil, corrupt, and belligerent; the latter as good, pure, and put-upon. Without giving spoilers (something I've been guilty of before), I can identify the following points that are hammered into young, impressionable minds with all the force Disney can muster:

• Men use and deceive women in order to obtain status.
• There is no true love to be found between men and women, only among women. 
• Daughters must rebel against their fathers in order to blossom.
• Pagan matriarchies are more just and peaceful than Christian patriarchies.

Anyone with a fleeting acquaintance with history -- or even reality -- recognizes these notions as malicious and false. With regard to the last point in particular, what preceded Christianity was unspeakably brutal. We should thank our lucky stars that 1) Christianity arose at all, and 2) that we benefit from its (dwindling) legacy. Disney and its technology are the direct products of a Christian patriarchal civilization, so we are witnessing yet another act of patricide by those who take their blessings for granted and reject any suggestion that they come at a price. But go ahead and keep attacking us evil Christian males; you will sorely miss us when we're not here to prop up this civilization any longer.