Secular Reasons for Spiritual Success

Posted July 8, 2024 By John C Wright

The core secular reason for the success of Christianity can only be that Christianity portrays and accurate model, and accurate account, an accurate representation, of human life and its place in the universe.

The Gnostic model, like the Marxist model, portrays all life as a darwinian struggle between the enlightened and the benighted. There is nothing but a struggle for power. There’s no love between husband and wife, no mutual self-interest between employer and employee, no possibility of Amity between the races. There’s no justice between high and low, rich and poor. That’s not accurate.

Gnosticism says truth as a private matter, esoteric, not open to public debate or verification. That’s not accurate.

Marxism portrays man as collective. That’s not accurate.

Christianity says the first she’ll be last and the last shall be first. In other words the humble view is the wise and honest view. That is accurate. Read any history book.

Christianity says self-sacrificing love is more satisfying than selfishness. That is accurate. Read any primer on psychology.

Christianity says that what the world calls torture, death, defeat is glory and triumph. That is accurate. Read any dialogue of philosophy. And so on and so on.

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Reminder

Posted July 7, 2024 By John C Wright

List taken from Darwin-to-Jesus, like myself, a recovering atheist. 

1. North Korea: Christians face extreme persecution, including imprisonment in labor camps, torture, and execution if discovered practicing their faith. The regime has intensified measures to prevent Christians from escaping to China.

2. Afghanistan: Christians must practice their faith in complete secrecy. Discovery can lead to execution by the Taliban, who view conversion from Islam as a betrayal.

3. Somalia: The small Christian community in Somalia faces severe persecution from al-Shabaab militants and societal pressure. Being a Christian is seen as a betrayal to family and community, often resulting in death.

4. Libya: Christians, particularly converts from Islam, face intense persecution from Islamic militant groups and are at risk of abduction, torture, and murder.

5. Pakistan: Blasphemy laws are often misused to target Christians, leading to imprisonment or mob violence. Christian communities face social discrimination and violence.

6. Nigeria: Islamist militant groups like Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen frequently attack Christian villages, resulting in mass killings, abductions, and the destruction of churches and homes.

7. India: Hindu nationalist groups frequently attack Christians, and new anti-conversion laws in several states have increased the persecution of Christians, leading to violence and harassment.

8. China: The government has intensified its crackdown on Christianity, including the demolition of churches, arrests of church leaders, and increased surveillance and control over religious activities.

9. Iran: Christians, especially converts from Islam, face harsh treatment, including arrest, imprisonment, and torture. House churches are frequently raided, and members are detained.

10. Eritrea: Christians face imprisonment in inhumane conditions, with many held indefinitely without trial. The government heavily restricts religious practice, targeting evangelical and Pentecostal communities.

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This is the most interesting and even moving interview this year.

Public figures speaking honestly in public is as rare as a two-tailed comet in Aquarius. Men willing to admit past wrongs, confess the sin of having been deceived, even moreso.

And to let a man speak without interruption? This is like something from long ago, from long lost Atlantis, when newsmen did things called interviews, or had shows that were not scripted and fake.

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Hating Uppity Serfs

Posted July 5, 2024 By John C Wright

Part of an ongoing discussion.

Rudolph Harrier remarks:

The left views the default state of affairs as being that dems will never be prosecuted for anything. There doesn’t need to be a decision to keep Hillary or Biden from being prosecuted for misuse of classified information, or to keep Biden from being impeached for his blatantly corrupt political dealings. They are on the left, so the law of the universe is that they will not be prosecuted. Therefore any decision that keeps someone from being punished can only benefit the Republicans, since laws are only meant to punish Republicans.

My Comment:

The single most disorienting and disturbing interview I ever witnessed was one where Michael Knowles of DailyWire and Sen Ted Cruz interviewed podcaster Eric Weinstein.

I am not familiar with the man, but judging from the comments left in the comments box, Weinstein has impressive credentials, and a reputation for genius level intellect among Leftists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CCde6TAKdw&ab_channel=VerdictwithTedCruz
See at about 27.10

During the discussion, genius Weinstein expressed the opinion that the Left could afford to allow democracy to operate, and let the right gain control over the congress and White House for short periods, as long as the Left retained control over the courts.

He described this as a “balance of power” and a “Mexican stand off.” The courts were to be an “upper class, cerebral thing, counter to our populist instincts.”

He then said the nasty personal attacks — to this day still called Borking — against conservative candidate for Justice were the Left’s reaction to this, and, from his tone, a rightful reaction.

I do not recall if he said so directly, but the gist of his comments was this, or, at least, this is what I took away from his comments:

There is an unwritten social contract between the enlightened elite and the unwashed masses in our democracy. The unwashed masses were allowed to vote for representatives and leaders, using their mob powers to seek out their own self interest, and maintain a social order that they were too unwise to see benefitted the rich.

The enlightened elite were to control the court system, especially the High Court, and use its constitutional authority to overrule representatives and leaders whenever the unwise mob ventured into areas that were self destructive or destructive of the rights of minorities.

He did not say so directly, but I assume here he means, for example, outlawing Jim Crow laws, enacting forced bussing, outlawing contraception, outlawing abortion, or outlawing traditional marriage (which does not allow sodomites to wed each other), all were said to be against Constitutional principles which the unwashed mob was not trustworthy to protect.

The genius further implied (or so I interpreted him) that the appointment of conservative justices by the GOP violated the unspoken agreement ruling the nation since FDR’s administration.

The compromise was broken: Trump, by carrying out the will of the people who elected him (some of which voted GOP solely and only in hope of having a conservative majority on the bench) had betrayed the agreement between Dem and GOP, and undid the harmony between elite and unwashed.

The genius explained the most smug and unfair idea imaginable: that the Supreme Court belonged to the Left as their exclusive and rightful possession and property, and the Trump was a trespasser and thief for daring to rob the Left of the justices to which the social contract entitled them.

Got that? The legal and constitutional process to which all parties were avowed to uphold and obey, and which the GOP follows religiously, the Left regards as not applying to them, not even remotely, not even as a hypothetical.

It literally would never occur to the Left that the laws which require the Right to treat Leftist candidates with respect, not to commit fraud and perjury to unseat them, do not apply to the Left.

When Knowles and Cruz ignored and dismissed this absurd argument, the man’s face grew haughty and sullen like a spoiled child. It was pathetic to see. He was not willing to admit that Borking only ever occurred on the Left. The GOP denial of hearings to confirm Garland, for example, involved no personal attacks.

I was truly aghast at the sullen pride sinking into the man’s pudgy features. It was the face of a slaveowner offended and an uppity slave.

He thought he owned us, owned our laws, and that we had no right to vote for leaders who would appoint justices to uphold the Constitution. He thought we have no right to rule ourselves. The elite are meant to rule us.

It was a sick thing to see, and I felt beslimed and disgusted to have seen it.

If you saw the same video, no doubt this man would not look any worse to you than Peter Strzok, Peter Strzok, or Nancy Pelosi. They clearly have demons behind their eyes.

But to me, he looked worse than they. They do not say aloud they thing they own us.

Weinstein did.

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America! F Yeah!

Posted July 4, 2024 By John C Wright

This was too crude and rude to download, but too funny not to link to.

Language warning. Bad language.  Southpark levels of TEAM AMERICA WORLD POLICE language.

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Required Reading from Larry Correia

Posted July 3, 2024 By John C Wright

Assuredly, everyone and his cousin wants to hear what legal scholar, failed lawyer, and intellectual bigwig John C Wright has to say about the constitutional and philosophical nuances of the recent Loper decision overturning Chevron Deference. 

Naw. No one want to hear that. We want to hear the profanity laced screed by the Mountain Who Writes, the Lord of Sad Puppies, the monster of Monster Hunter himself, Larry “International Lord of Hate” Corriea.

https://monsterhunternation.com/2024/07/03/chevron/ 

(and leave thanks and comments at his site.) 

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Cargo Cult Remake

Posted July 3, 2024 By John C Wright

This was remarkably insightful from the immortal Sargon of Akkad:

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The Phoenix Exultant Ep. 16: The Fire

Posted July 3, 2024 By John C Wright

From THE PHOENIX EXULTANT, vol. II of my debut trilogy. 

In the far future, where men are as gods, living lives of perfect peace and prosperity, Phaethon of Rhadamanthus discovers all memory of his lifework has been hidden from him. For he is the engineer of the sole starship his civilization has ever produced: the mighty, majestic, and immense Phoenix Exultant. She is a ship to conquer the stars.

But such ambition is outlawed in utopia. Phaethon is a pariah, exiled mentally and physically, denuded of possessions, and cast down among outcasts. His life is sought by sinister agents of the Silent Oecumene: an apocalyptic menace none but he dares see. For in a world where mind or memory can be edited at will, what is truth?

The Phoenix Exultant Ep. 16: The Fire

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Not Tired of Winning Yet CLXX

Posted July 1, 2024 By John C Wright

In Trump v. United States, the court holds that a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers.

The High Court language is clear enough to speak for itself. Allow me simply to quote:

A federal grand jury indicted former President Donald J. Trump on four counts for conduct that occurred during his Presidency following the November 2020 election. The indictment alleged that after losing that election, Trump conspired to overturn it by spreading knowingly false claims of election fraud to obstruct the collecting, counting, and certifying of the election results. Trump moved to dismiss the indictment based on Presidential immunity, arguing that a President has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions performed within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities, and that the indictment’s allegations fell within the core of his official duties. The District Court denied Trump’s motion to dismiss, holding that former Presidents do not possess federal criminal immunity for any acts. The D. C. Circuit affirmed. Both the District Court and the D. C. Circuit declined to decide whether the indicted conduct involved official acts.

Held: Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts. Pp. 5–43. (a) This case is the first criminal prosecution in our Nation’s history of a former President for actions taken during his Presidency. Determining whether and under what circumstances such a prosecution may proceed requires careful assessment of the scope of Presidential power under the Constitution. The nature of that power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity. Pp. 5–15.

The whole opinion is available behind the link above.

No comment is needed from me. The case is self explanatory to anyone familiar with even the basic principles of constitutional law, or, for that matter, basic common sense. That is had to go all the way to the Supreme Court when any District Court  or even any 1st year Law Student could have reached this result is a sad sign of the sick corruption rotting the minds and souls of our society.

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Knights and Knaves

Posted July 1, 2024 By John C Wright

The most recent talking point from the Enemy is to say that, while Biden was unable to speak, think or function on the debate stage, at least he told the truth, while everything Trump said was lies.

Everything? I watched the whole debate. Trump is not an articulate speaker, and at times he is vague, but I heard not a single lie from him.

The problem I have is this:

Anyone debunk Biden’s lies quite easily, and quote sources. Even Snopes, of all places, lists the “Fine People on Both Sides” hoax as a lie. Shame on them for not being man enough to do the same for the  “Trump said Injecting Bleach cures COVID” hoax, nor the “Losers and Suckers” hoax. )

But I can find no definitive list supporting the claims of Trump lying which quote sources.  I cannot even find a good list of what the lies are alleged to be.

Boasts are not lies, nor is speaking off the cuff, nor are jokes, nor are exaggerations, since none of theses are meant to deceive, nor have the power to deceive anyone but a child.

The  following list is the closest I can find:

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Not Tired of Winning Yet CLXIX

Posted June 29, 2024 By John C Wright

The Supreme Court this very day in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. ___ (2024) together with a companion case, Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, rescinded the nigh unbridled power of the Administrative State to interpret their own laws for themselves, called the Chevron doctrine.

The Loper and Relentless ruling today held that The Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority. The courts may not defer to an agency interpretation of the law simply because a statute is silent or ambiguous; Chevron is overruled.

Justice Neil Gorsuch in the concurring opinion writes “…today, the Court places a tombstone on Chevron no one can miss. In doing so, the Court returns judges to interpretative rules that have guided federal courts since the Nation’s founding.”

This ruling is a significant and far-reaching as the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) overruling Roe v. Wade (1973).

The case being overruled is Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, (467 U.S. 837, 104 S. Ct. 2778 (1984)) which established the Chevron doctrine. At first Chevron was a minor case, but, as with Roe v Wade,  successive layers of reinterpretation expanded its meaning far beyond the original holding, and made it the single most cited case in administrative law.

The Chevron doctrine held that if Congress has not directly said otherwise in the authorizing statue, a court must defer the agency’s own interpretation of the statute authorizing the agency, provided it was reasonable. In other words, Federal Agencies merely decided for themselves what their own powers were, and what they were authorized to do.

Vacated and remanded, 6-2, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts on June 28, 2024. Justices Thomas and Gorsuch concurred. Justice Kagan filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Sotomayor joined. Justice Jackson recused herself. However, Jackson joined the dissent in the Relentless case.

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CNN Defeats Biden

Posted June 28, 2024 By John C Wright

I saw the strange spectacle of the Trump-Biden debate on CNN last night, and while I am happy that Trump has now has no foreseeable chance of being defeated by Biden, I am unhappy that neither I, nor any political commentator whom I noticed, foresaw that CNN and the cabal directing the DNC would undermine and backstab Biden.

The moderators of the debate, Trump-haters suffering terminal stage-four Trump Derangement Syndrome, maintained evenhanded decorum, ask balanced questions of both sides, and, more to the point, neither fake-factchecked Trump nor favored Biden. It was literally the last thing I expected.

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Review: Disney’s THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE

Posted June 27, 2024 By John C Wright

Watching or rewatching all the Disney full length animated features in order is fascinating, as it puts each work in historical perspective.

With Disney’s THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE (1986), we near the end of the Disney’s Dry Spell of inferior offerings and see hints of the renaissance to come. As with all Disney films, childhood memories make objectivity nigh impossible, but, in my particular case, I had never seen this film before, no heard any review of it, so my first viewing is as a graybeard of many winters.

And yet I was delighted.

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The Phoenix Exultant Ep. 15: A Civilized Man

Posted June 26, 2024 By John C Wright

From THE PHOENIX EXULTANT, vol. II of my debut trilogy. 

In the far future, where men are as gods, living lives of perfect peace and prosperity, Phaethon of Rhadamanthus discovers all memory of his lifework has been hidden from him. For he is the engineer of the sole starship his civilization has ever produced: the mighty, majestic, and immense Phoenix Exultant. She is a ship to conquer the stars.

But such ambition is outlawed in utopia. Phaethon is a pariah, exiled mentally and physically, denuded of possessions, and cast down among outcasts. His life is sought by sinister agents of the Silent Oecumene: an apocalyptic menace none but he dares see. For in a world where mind or memory can be edited at will, what is truth?

The Phoenix Exultant Ep. 15: A Civilized Man

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Rockets Landing on Tailfins

Posted June 26, 2024 By John C Wright

Here in the far future year of AD 2024, rockets land on their tailfins as God and Robert Heinlein intended.

Elon Musk, the D.D. Harriman of our timeline, posted this on the worldwide computerized Telstar-linked visiphone system we use.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1805804111037919520

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