Commentary on Michael Jackson

This is from Bill Perry, a brilliant world-view analyst:

As the accolades pile up about the "impact" Michael Jackson had on the
world and the "legacy" he left behind, let's keep him in perspective.
First, let's give him credit for being a creatively unorthodox
entertainer, a good singer, an exceptional dancer (he created the "moon
walk") and a personal empire builder. That said, he had major issues in
his life that played out for all to see. So, second, let's not forget
his gender bending, glove wearing, face remaking (distorting), child
dangling, men infantilizing (sorry, got this from an article I read),
spree shopping, crotch grabbing, minors sleeping (with), debt incurring
and drug taking. MJ made Elvis' dark side look like a Sunday school
picnic by comparison. Most wives on the planet would leave their
husbands if they behaved like MJ. But that is how "entertainment" goes.
It breaks the rules, trashes what's good, and chips away at society.

Consider the following statements:

“Worldliness is what any particular culture does to make sin look normal
and righteousness look strange.”

-- David Wells, American missionary

“A culture that does not aspire to the divine becomes obsessed with the
fascination of evil, reveling in the frivolous, the depraved, and the
bestial.”

-- George Gilder, Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute, scholar and author

“The body of a sensualist is the coffin of a dead soul.”

-- Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904), American attorney and writer

Perhaps this commentary can best be summed up by Oscar Wilde:

“The gods had given me almost everything but I let myself be lured into
long spells of senseless and sensual ease . . . tired of being on the
heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search of new sensations.
What the paradox was to me in the sphere of thought, perversity became
to me in the sphere of passion. I grew careless of the lives of others.
I took pleasure where it pleased me and passed on. I forgot that every
little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and
therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to
cry aloud from the rooftop. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no
longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure
to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace.”

-- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), secular Irish poet, dramatist and critic

Obama Supreme Court Nominees: Now With New Racist Flavor!

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

- Judge Sonia Sotomayor, in her Judge Mario G. Olmos Law and Cultural Diversity Lecture at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law in 2001

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/or_20090523_2724.php

Not that I would expect a GOOD pick from a big government relativistic socialist like Obama...

Happy "Health of the State" Day

Ah... Memorial Day. Where we remember the victims that unwitting fought to insure American hegemony and the continued enslavement of our citizenry by the government.

Remember, as Randolph Bourne said, "War is the health of the state."

I mourn for those who killed and were killed in our endless and senseless wars. And for the idiocy the compels people to obey their commanding officers when ordered to do evil.

My heart is with the deserters who resist compulsion and fled tyranny so they could live their lives in peace instead of in the slaughter of others. Those who were not cowards, but instead, realized that individuals answer to God and their own conscience first - not to their masters here on earth. I also mourn those considered "traitors" who were executed for refusing to fight.

For your edification, please enjoy this excerpt from an essay by the brilliant Murray Rothbard:

"The root myth that enables the State to wax fat off war is the canard that war is a defense by the State of its subjects. The facts, of course, are precisely the reverse. For if war is the health of the State, it is also its greatest danger. A State can only "die" by defeat in war or by revolution. In war, therefore, the State frantically mobilizes the people to fight for it against another State, under the pretext that it is fighting for them. But all this should occasion no surprise; we see it in other walks of life. For which categories of crime does the State pursue and punish most intensely – those against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of person and property, but dangers to its own contentment: for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, conspiracy to overthrow the government. Murder is pursued haphazardly unless the victim be a policeman, or Gott soll hüten, an assassinated Chief of State; failure to pay a private debt is, if anything, almost encouraged, but income tax evasion is punished with utmost severity; counterfeiting the State's money is pursued far more relentlessly than forging private checks, etc. All this evidence demonstrates that the State is far more interested in preserving its own power than in defending the rights of private citizens.

A final word about conscription: of all the ways in which war aggrandizes the State, this is perhaps the most flagrant and most despotic. But the most striking fact about conscription is the absurdity of the arguments put forward on its behalf. A man must be conscripted to defend his (or someone else's?) liberty against an evil State beyond the borders. Defend his liberty? How? By being coerced into an army whose very raison d'être is the expunging of liberty, the trampling on all the liberties of the person, the calculated and brutal dehumanization of the soldier and his transformation into an efficient engine of murder at the whim of his "commanding officer"?* Can any conceivable foreign State do anything worse to him than what "his" army is now doing for his alleged benefit? Who is there, 0 Lord, to defend him against his "defenders"?

*To the old militarist taunt hurled against the pacifist: "Would you use force to prevent the rape of your sister?" the proper retort is: "Would you rape your sister if ordered to do so by your commanding officer?"

(Complete essay online here)

Weird

Rachel has some tea called "Mother's Milk." It's supposed to be good for nursing mothers. Though I think she may have talked a little too much about it around the kids.

Today the three oldest were playing by their kiddie pool (it's now a muck pit), pretending to make tea.

I overheard my oldest son say to his younger sister, "Here, drink this! It will increase your milk supply!"

Oooookay...

-DG

Pride?

A local arts organization is having a "Nashville Pride" exhibition.

For some strange reason, they're linking "gay pride" with "Nashville pride."

How does having pride in your home city have anything to do with pride over the fact that you're living a perverted lifestyle?

I don't have any personal vendetta against people who life the "gay lifestyle", but I do have a hard time understanding how they can be "proud" about that lifestyle. I totally understand the pull to do something wrong... but to live in it... and to rejoice in it? That's a different thing entirely.

We all screw up. I've made so many mistakes that there's NO WAY I can condemn someone who's living a sinful life. That's not my job.

But there's a difference between recognizing that you're wrong... and trying to change... and reveling in your sin.

Committing homosexual acts is a shameful thing. It's like lying, or committing adultery or stealing. Even if you feel like doing it... don't! The sin is not in the temptation... it's in the consummation. There's nothing to be proud about in the fact that you've given in to sin. Any sexual act with someone outside of the bounds of marriage (a man and a woman, in case you're wondering) is wrong.

Celebrating the "gay" life isn't helping anyone. As a matter of fact, it's just perpetuating the pain and shame that go along with living a life of homosexuality.

I would love to see people break free of that bondage. To live as men and women who aren't stuck in sin... who aren't happy with just settling in and living a life that is against God's design... and especially who aren't "proud" of their deviation.

Heck, pride itself is a sin. Probably worse than the sin of sodomy.

So if I ever start thinking I'm great... kick me.

And I'll be proud of the fact that I have a friend that's keeping me from being an ass.

-DG

Good Cigar/Nice Dreams

I was sitting in my studio the other day, smoking a huge churchill cigar.

Being a poor artist, yet still loving my tobacco, it was one of the least expensive handmade Dominicans I could find. I bought a bundle quite a while ago from famous-smoke.com, my favorite online purveyor.

I was so into my painting that the cigar burned away between my lips, hardly noticed.

Then it started to taste REALLY good, all of a sudden. The flavor had become richer and much tastier.

Startled from my reverie, I looked down at it, only to find that I had smoked it down to the plastic and paper wrapper, which was half burned through. Yum.

Maybe I need to start rolling junk mail into sticks and smoking that?

* * *

In other news, I took part in the annual Springfield "Walk Through the Arts" event, organized by the most excellent Kevin Rogers. Five of my paintings were on display there and I brought the whole family along. At one point, I noticed a little girl of about eight with a violin case smiling and obviously enjoying my black and white pulp art paintings.

I leaned down and said "Hi! Do you like my paintings?"

She nodded yes.

I told her "Great! I like to paint silly stuff, you know, funny but not too scary."

She nodded. Then her mother saw her looking at my art and said "Okay now... let's go look at some paintings that will give you NICE dreams."

Quickly, my little fan was whisked away by Mrs. Overprotective Psycho Mom.

Come on? Would this scare YOUR kids?



Who knows?

I must say, I love chatting with kids about art. SHE got it, even if her mom didn't.

Oh well. Can't win 'em all!

I'll bet the little violinist grows up and gets a tattoo.

-DG

Zombified!

I am now a zombie. Here's what I look like these days:



This self-portrait is for the Night of the Living Dead Re-Animated project. Check it out HERE!

-DG