As IF Times

Source: News from The Associated Press

In the matter of what is proper Catholic doctrine and what isn’t, there is probably no higher authority than the Pope.  Whomever occupies that role has spent their entire life at being a scholar of the history of the teachings of the Church.  If you were on a TV show and a god question was posed of you, it’s likely that the Pope would be one of your lifeline calls.

I cast serious doubts as to whether the topic of global warming ever came up in the scholarly studies that all Catholic priests are required to master.  If it has, then all Popes before this one have been negligent by never having discussed it during their reigns.  While Pope Francis tries to link global warming to the suffering of people in poorer countries, I can think of at least one other cause of mass suffering that he can address; that of the stupidity of the products that come out of the entertainment business.

There’s plenty to address in the matter of human frailties in the world including the classic ones of greed, corruption and general evilness.  Whatever happened to the classic pleas on behalf of global poverty, starving kids and world peace? There’s no shortage of affronts to humanity that he can target with his critical words. The nebulous claims of the global warming crowd should be well down the list of issues facing mankind.  In a quote from his interview, he says,

“Those who deny this must go to the scientists and ask them. They speak very clearly,” he said, referring to experts who blame global warming on man-made activities…”

Which scientists?  When you read that “scientists have all agreed on the science”, it should give pause to anyone, since unlike the god business, science is not about agreement, it’s about empirical evidence that can be measured. In fact, there are plenty of dissenting scientific views on global warming, but somehow, the ‘consensus’ is already in.  Well, I think many will want a recount on that consensus.  As far as speaking clearly, the only common solution that ever arises from the sage scientists are more taxes on western economies.

Imagine if football broadcasters Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth were to comment on the policies of the Catholic Church.  Interesting perhaps, but they don’t have any more credibility than the next guy.  We look to them for football opinions, not for topics clearly out of their lane.

When a figure with the gravitas of The Pope makes a pronouncement on a topic, people pay attention.  It’s not like Jennifer Lawrence or Bill Maher making inane and obtuse comments.  The Pope should be speaking from a position of knowledge and perspective.  Clearly, his expertise is in the saving of souls business, not in the saving the planet racket.  That’s for non god fearing lawyers and politicians.

Source: Prof lets students choose own grades for ‘stress reduction’

Image from Daily Mail

Now we’re getting to the root of all the vapidity that has infected society like cold sores after a party at the Playboy mansion.

The concept of education as a means of acquiring objective knowledge and enlightenment has given way to the new modern idea that it’s instead a journey of self awareness, perception and warm fuzzy feelings.   Sort of like intellectual yoga, but instead of the body being bent into unnatural shapes, it’s logic that comes out in pretzel form.

The classic joke goes that when you ask an accountant how much is the sum of 2 plus 2, a ‘good’ accountant would respond, “how much do you want it to be?”.  This idea seems to have been adopted as the model for much of today’s education as indicated in the attached link.  The notion that education is all about stress reduction and perfect rainbows is of course, personal choice.  With that being the case, the necessity of getting an education moves towards obsolescence since self actualization can be had by watching You Tube videos and segments of The View.  The problem is, these people wind up being able to vote; and when they vote in numbers, they impose their shrill and malleable fuzzy worldview upon others.

Unfortunately, the age at which people are the most impressionable are in their formative school years and during this time, the wackiest notions can be introduced as knowledge and this becomes hard wired into the students’ minds, possibly permanently.  Instead of confronting the realities of life in the search for knowledge through critical examination, a made up reality which is palatable to gentler sensibilities is instead pursued. Of course, this is a vicious cycle, because some of the newly enlightened graduates become teachers themselves; rinse and repeat.

We know instinctively that graduates from the schools of wishful thinking are likely to be only questionably competent at real life.  We can imagine the diagnoses offered by doctors educated in such a fashion.  “You are not ill sir, only bad people get ill.” Or  the work of engineers who want to build bridges spanning the Atlantic because, “it’s our right to cross the ocean by car.”  The absurdity of such examples is obvious, but the absurdity of the distortions of history are not.  There is no instant logic check on the absurdity of much of today’s worldviews as the re-writing of past events and the distortions of others attain truth status among the ‘educated’.  In fact, history is probably the most important of topics to be properly vetted because otherwise, as the saying goes, we are doomed to repeat it.

The events of the past few days in Charlottesville Virginia shows just how far down the road we are in that regard.  The entirety of the popular media has portrayed this incident as incitement by an odious racist element.  While this is notionally correct, the resulting conflagration came from bad actors on both sides of the issue.   It stretches credibility when the media characterizes the demonstrations as peaceful when attendees carried protest signs that looked remarkably like automatic weapons, bludgeons, bottles of urine, pepper spray and gas masks. Not exactly the tools of free speech.

The balkanization of society, especially by race, has been an easy target for political opportunists for a long time.  Objective studies of history will reveal this, including recent examples in Germany and China.  History tells us that statues and monuments are the beginning, not the end of cultural upheaval.  Books that aren’t in compliance with accepted thinking are the next target on the path to upending all established institutions.  When the mob supplants the rule of law, history tells us that the results are not good.  A legitimate education is supposed to move society away from those kinds of tragedies.  The kind of education that’s in vogue now only serves to produce more naïve stooges for the cultural mob.  If you listen to some of the Orwellian rhetoric coming from the product of today’s schools, you hear about immutable rights and freedoms…as long as it’s acceptable rights and freedoms.