Paradocracy

Over the course of President Trump’s two terms, there has been much talk around the matter of tariffs — taxes on imported goods. However, much of the talk seems to miss the point. After all, for those of us who seek the truth, it’s not really a question of whether tariffs are ‘good’ but whether they are preferable to other kinds of taxes — assuming, of course, that taxes are the rule, as certain as the eventuality of death. First, let’s establish the theory: the advantage through tariffs is believed to be in the ‘protection’ of jobs and strategically-important industries: industries significant to domestic defense (or, more accurately, the war agenda) and industries on which the people must be able to depend without question for their survival, and for the general stability of the economy — of course, the latter introduces some measure of subjectivity, especially in an economy whose measured output is largely “based” on consumption, services, and government spending. Where too much for...

Tools enhanced through artificial intelligence equip charlatans and sophists, and laymen alike, with the occasional talking points to sound compelling and impressive (and maybe even erudite or scientific), to the extent that opportunists and useful idiots are likely to grow ever more certain of themselves and ever more capable of refining and expanding their cons; and, through these kinds of technological advances aiding their schemes, they will continue to take advantage of their contemporaries (in the relative minority) more predisposed to integrity, and others (in the majority) more predisposed to indolence or plain obedience.  However, only so much can be done to continue the charade by those lacking enough nuance and perspective to elaborate on each point, let alone to coherently stitch together the information in a way that actually consistently makes sense, reconciles contradictions, admits any unknowns (or unknowables), and acknowledges any plausible counterarguments or cri...

The American flag — proudly known as the Stars and Stripes — is more than a banner of colors stitched together. It is a living symbol of rebellion, unity, and the sovereignty of the people. It was never originally the flag of a government, but of a movement; not a mark of officialdom, but of revolution.  Having evolved from the Continental Union Flag, its stripes — with their roots in the "rebellious stripes" of the Sons of Liberty — represent resistance to abusive power, a stand against imperial overreach, and a declaration that legitimate authority flows from the consent of the governed. In this light, the proliferation of the “Thin Blue Line” version of the American flag is not merely a modification of a unique American symbol; it is a mutilation of the flag’s fabric and its meaning. It transforms a people’s flag into a government’s flag, in direct contradiction to its foundational ethos. The Stars and Stripes emerged during the crucible of the American Revolution. Designe...

Forgiveness is often hailed as the ultimate moral virtue — a cleansing of the soul, a sign of spiritual maturity, and the first step toward healing fractured relationships. But in modern discourse, particularly in religious and pop-psychological circles, “forgiveness” has extended beyond the sensible, beyond etiquette, and beyond justice and useful application. The concept of “forgiveness” has been stretched far outside of the realms of that which is easy to “forgive”, that which is merely inconvenient or annoying, or relatively innocuous or insignificant, where “forgiveness” is merely part of tolerating people’s human shortcomings, their mistakes and  their accidents , or extending ‘mercy’ to those who’ve disrespected or “trespassed against us” (and have since offered sincere apologies and the necessary restitution). This reimagined kind of “forgiveness” has taken on a dangerously idealized form ignorant to or dismissive of the laws and limits of human nature and the potential imp...

It  is claimed by many that Peter (formerly Simon) was the first Pope, but it is stated plainly in the Bible (Mark 1:30) that he had a mother-in-law, and that he had (per 1 Corinthians 9:5) spoken of a “believing wife”; so it would then have been impossible for him, as a married man, to have been the first Pope, given the prohibitions within the Catholic Church forbidding its leaders to marry.   It is also important to note that, when Jesus said that He was to build His Church upon “this rock,” this translation of “rock” (“Petra”) appears throughout the Bible expressly where He is referring to Himself — using distinctly different language (“Petra,” meaning “large foundational rock”) from the name Peter (“Petros,” meaning “small stone”). As it is written in Ephesians 2:20, “Jesus Christ Himself [is the] chief cornerstone.” Additionally, in Luke 6:48, Jesus describes a wise man who, while building a house, “dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock [petra],” enabling the hous...

The Left has the cities, the colleges and the universities, the K-12 public schools, the police departments and the military, and they have the ‘scientists’, the academics, and the financiers in their pockets; they have the bulk of publishers, movie makers, and media outlets, the political privileges and ‘affirmative actions’ enumerated for and enjoyed by those of their ‘protected’ class. They have the ‘justification’ of ‘social justice’ for acts of vandalism, theft, assault and murder, the claim of ‘tolerance’ where they cancel, harass and doxx. And yet, despite all of this, they claim that it’s not enough, that they’re under  attack,  and that they are doomed by ‘the right’.  The truth is that what passes as ‘the right’ today is a fabricated fiction, a convenient enemy. The arc of history for Western society has, in its clear and definitive departure from classical liberalism, demonstrated a secular shift to the radical left, with ‘the right’ (in its true form) a dista...

A despicably insensitive comment is making its rounds on social media, so ignorant and disrespectful that I hesitate to even share it here. Let it stand here as still further evidence of the evils on display in Leftist echo chambers: “If Charlie Kirk were a first grader at school America would have moved on by now.” Statistically speaking, more than one hundred and fifty thousand people died the day Charlie Kirk was assassinated: among those, at least 70 people were killed in Gaza by Israeli attacks, 35 died in Yemen due to Israeli bombings; 29 civilians died after Russian attacks around the Donetsk Oblast area, and Russian forces suffered 890 casualties, while Ukrainian military casualties also measured in the hundreds, all in the same twenty-four-hour period.  Death is all around us.  It is a constant, a sad reality of daily life and a consequence of lots of different forces and factors.  As human beings, we mourn the losses in our own ways, some more publicly than othe...

Almost immediately in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, there have been religious and spiritual types calling on their followers and fellow ‘believers’ to offer ‘grace’ and ‘forgiveness’, to pray for those who have committed acts of evil; to offer these, they say, just as Jesus Christ would do the same — as if any fallible human being possesses the slightest idea of what the Omniscient thinks or knows, as if any mere mortal is remotely capable of imitating the Omnipotent in the betrayal of human emotions or visceral instincts or Earthy concepts of justice, and despite the fact that Judgment on High is separate from Justice on Earth. Scripture’s warnings about judgment are not a call to moral passivity. They are a warning against hypocrisy, not against clarity or conviction. Human beings do judge, must judge, and are right to judge; not out of divine pretense, but out of necessity — for protection, for justice, for truth.  Judgment on High may belong to God alone, ...