I hope you all had as good a weekend as I did.
The Good Friday service at our church was somber, and properly so. The cross draped in black; mostly old, lovely, minor-chord hymns with upbeat titles like “Stricken, Smitten and Afflicted;” the congregation leaving the darkened sanctuary in silence at the end.
But just like a long Illinois winter – early sunsets, dead cornstalks in bare fields, dirty slush and road salt and slate-gray skies – imbues the first day of spring with that much more manic energy, the grim darkness of an appropriately contemplative and sober Tenebrae service evokes that much more exhilaration on Easter.
At the end of the Sunday service the choir sang Handel’s Hallelujah chorus, accompanied by brass and bells, and I left feeling ready to go out and love my neighbors and my enemies, and to fight the good fight.
And, of course, to mock those who are mock-worthy. (Because I’m just as God made me!)
Speaking of which, after a post-church nap I took a quick stroll through some good websites. Of course, top of that list is Cautious Optimism (duh), and I saw CO’s posting of the pic from the 1950s of the NYC skyline with multiple buildings lit up with crosses at Eastertime.
And, because I remember 1970’s tv shows, I found myself singing, “Boy, the way Glen Miller played/ Songs that made the Hit Parade/ Guys like us we had it made/ Those were the days.”
For those of you who remember that nostalgic song, there are several verses in it that weren’t in the shortened intro to “All in the Family,” and my favorites are, “People seemed to be content/ Fifty dollars paid the rent/Freaks were in the circus tent/ Those were the days.”
“$50 paid the rent,” hasn’t held up too well. But “freaks were in the circus tent” is dead-on perfect!
Because now the freaks are in congress, and pitching Bud Light, and on blue-state juries! And don’t we all wish a circus would come through town and take them with it?
Case in point: lefty fossil and amateur theologian Bette Midler had an uplifting Easter message for the nation. If by “uplifting” you mean “exploiting dead children in a cynical attempt to disarm law-abiding citizens who are no threat to anyone except school shooters and other criminals.”
Midler tweeted, “On this most Holy Day in the Christian calendar, remember the slaughter of your own innocents in school shootings across America, and let this #Easter mark a #resurrection, for them and for your commitment to change. It’s your turn. #MomsDemandAction”
Ugh. After reading that, and throwing up in my mouth a little, two appropriate Bible verses came to mind: “Jesus wept.”
And – hat tip to Michaela for reminding me of the Lazarus verse that fits here with just a slight alteration: “She stinketh.”
And if you are a more secular sort who doesn’t need a Bible verse to point out that hypocritical Bette is protected by armed bodyguards while preaching that peons like us shouldn’t be allowed guns to defend ourselves, God bless you, too!
My favorite response to Midler’s obnoxious tweet was from a guy who posted a picture of an AK-47 with the tag, “I find it ironic that democrats hate the only thing socialism ever produced that works…”
Buy that man some non-Anheuser-Busch beer, and some extra ammo!
The aftermath of the Nashville shooting has provided the feckless Dems two more chances to prove what colossal jackasses they are, and they really stuck the landing on both!
First, in a patented leftist cranial-rectal inversion move, they cast their political co-religionist aggressors as the victims of those they’ve been attacking in the recent transgender wars.
Within just the last 10 days, for example, a transgender murderer killed 6 Christians in Nashville, another mob of transgenders and transgender-adjacents assaulted and terrorized swimmer Riley Gaines after a speech at San Francisco State, and ANOTHER transgender was arrested in Colorado for plotting to use guns and bombs to attack three schools along with non-specific churches.
(That’s not to mention the April 6th Symposium in France – meant to “raise awareness of the plight of Afghan and Iranian women” – that had to be canceled after “trans activists threatened to violently ambush the event because of the presence of a gender critical speaker.”) (Because in France, irony is morte.)
Meanwhile, in that same time frame, Christian and non-Christian “transphobes” have murdered zero transgenders, been arrested zero times for plotting zero attacks on transgender gatherings, and have assaulted and held hostage zero transgender swimmers following university speeches.
So naturally, the intrepid LGBTQ army (not the cool, “Let’s Get Biden To Quit” one) has zeroed in on the real problem: imaginary violent transphobes who are threatening pacifist transgenders with genocide.
Brilliant!
Second, in the aftermath of the Nashville shooting, three Tennessee Democrat state representatives insisted that the legislature pass new gun control laws that wouldn’t have affected the Nashville shooting anyway. Inconveniently for them, a large majority of TN voters and legislators disagree with them, and out-voted them.
So the “Nashville Three” (the “Stooges” on the end is understood) led a bunch of chanting, misbehaving, adult children into the state Capitol. One of the reps smuggled in a bullhorn, and the two of the three took turns using it to amplify their screamed slogans and chants.
For a while they were able to stop the chamber from doing its business, and many of the protestors jostled some law makers. Finally they were removed for breaking long-standing and well-known Capitol rules, and days later the GOP-led chamber voted to expel two of them. (The other’s lawyer argued that she had never used the bullhorn, and kept herself separate from other protestors.)
A responsible, sane Democrat party would have chastised their misbehaving members, reminding them that they have been ranting for two years about an “insurrection” in DC, most of which was no more violent than what they just did in TN.
In fact, the TN “coup attempt” was actually much closer to a coup attempt than the events of January 6th, since actual legislators were present when the mob was stomping around and screaming. And no cops were allowing this mob inside, and voluntarily opening doors for them and giving them tours.
Again, a responsible, sane Democrat party would have felt mortified and sheepish, and would have punished their own morons. I’m not sure how a responsible, sane party of sentient fungi would have reacted.
I only say that because we are as likely to find a responsible, sane party of sentient fungi as we are to find a responsible, sane party of Democrats in 2023.
Therefore, the party fell back on its most reliable strategy: Cry havoc, and let slip the charges of racism! (The two expelled idiots were black, while the other, bullhorn-less idiot was white. But just to be safe, the TN GOP should expel her sorry butt, too!)
Many top Dems – the same dullards who have been howling that January 6th was worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and the Jussie Smollett pseudo-lynching, all rolled into one! – now shamelessly reversed themselves.
Remember when being inside a government building without permission was a grave threat to democracy? Well now, it turns out, STOPPING people from being inside a government building without permission is a grave threat to democracy.
AOC – proving yet again that she is all juicy booty (her words, not mine) and no brains – claimed that the GOP insistence on following government rules and decorum was “stoking fascism.” She also promised more bad behavior in the future, because asking those Dems to follow the rules “is only further radicalizing and awakening an earthquake of young people.”
(As a writer who appreciates a good analogy, must I point out that an earthquake can neither sleep nor awake, and it cannot serve as a collective noun consisting of many people?)
She finished with a flourish: “If you thought youth organizing was strong, just wait for what’s coming. Gen Z don’t play.”
First, great impression of a spoiled 12-year-old girl threatening to hold her breath if she doesn’t get her way.
Second, as a factual matter, Gen Z DOES play. It plays “dress up as a girl when you’re a boy,” and it plays soccer.
Neither of which we find as scary as you seem to think we do.
Since AOC’s antics apparently weren’t embarrassing enough – I swear, if she was a cartoon character, all of the thought bubbles above her head would be empty – the dynamic duo of Joey Gaffes and his vapid VP got involved.
Que Mala jetted into town to meet with “the Tennessee Three,” and then went to a church, where she tried out an angry preacher voice and waved her arms in almost human-like gestures as she screamed things like, “You don’t silence people! You don’t stifle people!”
She didn’t say, “You don’t arm your mentally-ill self and go into a Christian school and murder 6 innocent people!” I guess there wasn’t time for that, when a-holes with bullhorns were being kept from disrupting the democratic process.
I never thought I’d say this, but I found myself wishing that she would pull out that unhinged Joker cackle of hers instead.
Not to be outdone, our Cadaver-in-Chief invited the TN3 to meet with him at the White House. He hasn’t yet had time to meet with the loved ones of the 6 murdered people in Nashville.
And for that, I’m sure they’re grateful.
“Dr.” Jill Biden/Sentient Fungi, 2024!
Martin Simpson 