https://www.huffpost.com/entry/federal-judge-blocks-montana-tiktok-ban_n_65695c32e4b07b937ff4381a#

As I expected.

When this issue erupted last spring, I posted four articles in rapid succession to my blog on the topic. Start here and follow the links for those previously posted.

Normally, I would not agree with the ACLU and other leftist-oriented groups, but here I came down hard against the “conservative” Republican statist effort to control my freedom to look at what I want, my own right of freedom of speech. Today, the ban is on hold. Again, normally I would not agree with Fed judge Donald Molloy, but I think he made the right call in this instance.

I will continue to champion the free speech rights of people over and against the “interests” of the State. The political leanings do not matter one bit to me as I am far more concerned with advancing freedom and liberty than with which side wins. This attitude allows me to go up against anyone regardless who they are or what they stand for.

Oh, by the way, if you live in Montanan, you are involuntarily paying for these illegitimate shenanigans. Just thought I’d bring that to your attention.

Consider this a blast on my trumpet.

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning, his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, his is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.”

Ezekiel 33:1-6 (NKJV)

The attacks on Israel by Hamas occurred almost three weeks ago and since then it has been a continuously escalating situation in the region. More and more nations and groups are being drawn into the conflict and, unless something is done to defuse the tension and resolve the issue, it may explode into a very dangerous, potentially nuclear, possibly world-ending battle between not just the small regional players, but the major powers as well–the US (which is already engaging), NATO, Russia, and China.

I do not support any of the belligerents. None of them. Not one. They are all part of the same problem–power-hungry men and women who view violence and force as a means of gaining control over their compatriots and, by extension, neighboring peoples up to and including the entire world. Every one of the nations and groups involved in the current struggle, those struggles already past, and those yet to come, are all cut from the same cloth. The war-wagers are all guilty.

Unfortunately, in many of these countries, the citizenry down to the average man on the street, also salivates at the prospect of “going to war” against another group, society, culture, or nation not his own. As soon as the first shot is fired, the first rocket is launched, or the first aircraft carrier is sunk, the fever strikes and from then on, nothing can dissuade the population from “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, until, as Tevye said in Fiddler on the Roof, “…the whole world is blind and toothless.” Or, as we saw at the end of WWII, entire nations (Germany, Japan) are beaten down and destroyed until they have no will nor means to resist and simply give up, taking whatever punishment is handed to them.

How will this current episode play out? I have no idea, but I am certain that it will not be good for an enormous number of people. Already, thousands on both sides have lost their lives. Thousands more, perhaps millions, will before this ends. It could easily escalate to the point of nuclear war in which billions perish. We have the potential to end all life on Earth, that is, entirely, turning the planet into a radioactive cinder endlessly circling the sun. Considering human nature and its propensity to produce the worst possible scenario in the name of profit and power, I have no doubt that someone, somewhere, would push the button if he thought he could benefit from it.

We need to get over it. We need to make an adjustment in our mindset. We need to learn to live peacefully with our neighbors. We need to stop the power tripping. We need to end the wars before the wars end us.

“The biggest fear-mongers were American conservatives. They lived in deep fear of the Reds during the entire 45 years of the Cold War racket. In fact, they were convinced that the communist invasion had already started. That’s why they went after Martin Luther King. They were convinced that he was a Red agent. The same holds true for leftists working in Hollywood. They went after them with a vengeance. Some right-wingers even believed that President Eisenhower was an agent of the Reds as well.”

“There was actually a humorous dimension to this deep right-wing fear. Throughout the Cold War, conservatives argued that socialism was doomed to fail. It was an inherently defective economic system, they pointed out. Socialism would inevitably impoverish countries that embraced this philosophy, such as Russia. Right-wingers would quote free-market economists like Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Milton Friedman to make their case.”

“Yet, despite that insight about socialism, conservatives continued to maintain that Russia was an all-powerful nation that was going to take down America. To this day, I don’t think right-wingers are able to recognize their internal contradiction.”

Jacob Hornberger

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In Montana: The New State of Censorship, I dissected a legislative bill which would forcibly prevent any app provider from downloading TikTok onto any digital device within the state of Montana. I found it wanting and advised the Governor, Greg Gianforte, to refuse his signature as it was an infringement on the right of Montana citizens to access information they wanted. In other words, SB0419 was a mandated limitation on free speech.

In TikTok, Round 2, I explained that TikTok was, in essence, no different than any other medium of communication and, therefore, could not be banned without the understanding that any other medium (or all of them) were also at risk of being shut down because they might disseminate a hated or feared narrative. It all depends on personal perspective. One man’s censorship is another man’s safety measure–all of it neatly provided and buttressed by government’s forceful action.

Respective to this issue, as in so many other instances, inconsistency of thought is a major driver of the effort to outlaw and prohibit anything which we find odious and distasteful. The possibility that it might be dangerous or harmful only adds fuel to the fire. Jacob Hornberger mentioned this in the quote seen above. The conservative right-wingers of that era were terrified that the communists were going to take over and replace them even though they understood that Communism was a defective, destructive system which would eventually fail under its own contradictory, self-defeating principles. They responded reactively in spite of the knowledge that their fears were groundless. It was inevitable that communism would fall eventually under its own weight, yet lives, careers, and liberties were destroyed in the effort to eliminate the threat it represented.

Enter TikTok, the latest iteration in the everlasting battle between evil and good. The current struggle to legislate “protection” in Montana is fundamentally no different than was the struggle between Senator Joseph McCarthy and those he opposed. Along with Hornberger, I find it humorous that so many people, mainly conservatives and right-wing, recognize the inherent self-destructiveness of TikTok, but they are not willing to allow it to die a natural death. Instead, they want to kill it along with anything else which promotes “illicit and immoral” behavior. They want to impose restrictions and limits on everyone (even those who do not use the app) in the vain attempt to prevent damage to any single individual and society. Or more truthfully, to control the flow of information which they deem is not desirable nor necessary. In a comparable analogy, everyone must be forced to wear a seat belt while motoring on the highways because someone might be hurt or killed as a result of not wearing the belt. They can see the harm done because of the non-use of a restraining device, therefore they conclude that everyone MUST be restrained…no matter what. Freedom of choice by consenting adults does not enter into the picture.

It is inevitable that the cosmic battle of Evil vs. Good will produce casualties. Some of them will hit close to home. Some will be extremely personal. That much is true and I accept it. It is what it is. It is part of life. The main question, though, is how far can we go in preventing evil from happening? The Apostle Paul put it this way:

“Shall we do evil so that good may come?” –Romans 3:8

Of course, some will argue that we are not doing evil in the effort to outlaw evil. Our actions are righteous, God bless us! This argument, however, is faulty since it hinges on the prohibition of the inherent, natural right of free people to live without undue interference from others. To tell someone that they are not allowed to possess anything, irrespective of what it is, because harm might come from their possession of it, is to tell them that they cannot be held responsible nor liable for their own actions. They cannot be trusted to do the right thing, therefore, governmental control is required. In fact, if you want to go far enough, it can be claimed that prohibiting anyone’s ability to acquire anything which they wish to have is a form of theft. Legally sanctioned, no doubt, but theft just the same. This is most especially true in the case of a person who has reached the age of legal consent.

(Rabbit Trail: Who decided that the State has the authority to determine when and at what age anyone can be considered adult? This question should more properly be determined by the amount of personal maturity a person exhibits. The hypocrisy and inconsistency in this is that young men can legally kill and destroy “foreigners” in the name of the State at age 18, but they are not allowed to purchase alcohol or tobacco until they are 21.)

Obviously, this brings up the question of what is “right”, the extended answer of which must be deferred to a later article. The short, snappy response is that Might makes Right and that whoever is in power at any given time determines the “rightness” of any action.

Hence, politics, which is nothing more than a socially accepted form of control. This has been ongoing from the very beginning.

For the first time (possibly) in my life, I find myself in complete agreement with CNN and Fareed Zakaria. Montana’s pending prohibition of TikTok is highly unconstitutional and sets a precedent for governmental suppression of any social media platform it finds distasteful. Free speech communication is in a dangerous position because of this bill. It should be shot down by the governor without hesitation. Chances are it won’t be and the lawsuits will fly.

Since I wrote and published my first article on this matter, I have received some feedback, primarily with the admonition that I should download and experience TikTok before I ventured any further opinions on it. After all, I did say that,

“For the record, I have never been on TikTok. I have never seen it. I do not know what it looks like. It is nearly certain that I will never use it.”

Well, all right, I understand the argument of those who say that lack of knowledge causes people to form detrimental beliefs and opinions. Sometimes these can be hazardous, which is, of course, true. However, lack of knowledge should not hinder anyone from forming an opinion which can always be modified at some future time. I remember an argument I had with my own father a long time ago about some long-forgotten issue. He made the statement that he could not develop an opinion because he did not know all the facts. My answer to him was that he would never know ALL the facts and that he had to take what he did know and develop a position.

I still stand by that. I do not need to know everything (or anything) about TikTok to believe that its prohibition would be disastrous for the concept of free speech and human liberty. There are sufficient examples from history which show that tyrannical crackdowns on communication between people results in tragedy. If we do not want to travel down that road again, having to repeat the class because we have not learned the lesson, then we must refuse to allow this restriction and regulation to occur. Even if someone, somewhere, is influenced by the content on TikTok to take personally destructive action, we must understand the greater danger and resist the impulse to simply disallow it in society.

Do we have free will, or what?

So, what is my opinion of TikTok? From things I have read, conversations I have had, discussions I have listened to, etc., I understand that TikTok is a dangerous channel through which all sorts of poisonous, hazardous, even deadly thoughts can be transmitted to anyone who has access to it. Its content can and probably does influence some vulnerable, impressionable, gullible, and impulsive people, especially young people, to commit some really stupid, dangerous, hazardous actions which can result in injury, harm, and even death. Suicides have been attributed to it and no doubt it has the potential to inflict great harm on society. Does that mean it must be verboten and taboo under a blanket ban which cannot be enforced effectively and will cost great sums of money to prosecute.

Put that way, it almost sounds like The Wars on Drugs, Poverty, and Terror, all of which have come about because government bigshots decided that “we” needed to exercise “our” power to protect “us” from those “existential threats” which would overcome and destroy America–if they were not stopped. All of which have contributed greatly to the infringement of our individual rights and liberties.

TikTok is the medium, the conduit, through which the content flows. It is not the content. It makes the content available to anyone who wants to view it. In a similar fashion, a television, newspaper, or magazine allows anyone to access information, beneficial or detrimental, who can then use that information to act on in any way chosen. To hold that TikTok must be banned because of its content is to argue that television is fair game for the same treatment. From a consistently logical perspective, if we should ban TikTok because some dangerous, poisonous content flows through it causing some people harm, then we should outlaw hypodermic syringes because some people use them to inject dangerous, poisonous substances into themselves or others.

Does that ring a bell? Jog your memory? For those who have not forgotten the chaos and pandemonium of the last three years due to “Covid”, it should cause a connection. How many “conservative” voices were shut out, shut down, or shut up because they tried to talk about a different viewpoint which did not toe the narrative line? My guess is that most of the readers of this article have, at least, a vague recollection of those events which are still ongoing. Yet, now that the focus of attention has been shifted from Covid, Fauci, Moderna, Pfizer, and Bill Gates onto TikTok, the cry of the madding crowd is the same as that portrayed in so many two-bit, B-grade Westerns–“Lynch him! Damn justice! String him up!”

TikTok and other media (whatever form they might take, including this blog) exist for only one reason–to inform and influence viewers according to a specific point of view, a narrative, a dogma. Every way in which any medium operates has this as its raison d’etre. Anything which detracts from that is minimized, excluded, and worked around. Arguing that TikTok MUST be banned because it is an evil influence opens the door to the logical conclusion that all other media must also be circumscribed because, at some point or another, someone will be upset, outraged, or harmed by the content within. Furthermore, in similar manner, if TikTok is liable because someone acted on its “product”, then Remington can be held liable because someone used one of its firearms to shoot another person.

Now, that is something which conservative Montanans can (should) get fired up about!

This is the fine line which is drawn. At what point do we prevent open communication between individuals? At what point does an authority have to step in and arbitrarily define something as off-limits, never to be spoken of again? Who will that authority be? Who makes the decision to appoint (anoint?) that authority? What line of reasoning, what philosophy, what belief will be the underlying principle for making those decisions? Does the “greater good” theory apply only when progressives and liberals advocate for it or is it acceptable when conservatives want to put it to use?

These are questions which must be answered and which will be debated until we, as a society, nation, and world, come to grips with the inconsistency and hypocrisy raging within our own individual souls. “One rule for thee, another for me.”

Oh, what the heck. I have gone this far. I might as well jump off the cliff and make everyone angry. If you do not like the message, shoot the messenger. In this case, that would be Moses.

“You shall have the same law for the stranger and for one from your own country; for I am the LORD your God.”

Leviticus 24:22, NKJV

I don’t claim to be perfect. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life and I know where my weaknesses are. There have been more than a few times where my actions have been in stark, vivid contrast to what I said I believed. However, over the last few years, I have been working on this and now make the self-conscious effort to operate under the principle that I should live in conformity to my stated philosophy, worldview, and creed. There are still times I slip, but they are fewer, farther apart, and easier to recover from.

Any American who can read the signs knows that this country is in some serious doo-doo. It would be easy to start listing the reasons why, but I really don’t have the time or space to hit every one. Besides, it’s a lot easier to hit a far-distant target with a rifle than it is with a shotgun. Therefore, I’m going to focus on one target and fire one bullet.

Can anyone say Republicans?

Before you start attacking me for being un-American, charging me with treason, or questioning my salvation, let me say that I don’t have any love for the Democrat Party. Or the Libertarian, Green, Communist, Nazi, and People’s. All of them are full of people who espouse one set of beliefs, but act another way when it’s convenient. And beneficial to them, I might add. For the record, my political views are most closely aligned with the libertarian viewpoint, but even within this so-called bastion of liberty and freedom, there is what I can honestly call rot. But that’s for another time.

Let’s get back to the Republicans. We are told over and over again that Republicans are the party of fiscal conservatism. They are the ones who are most concerned about government spending, the deficit, American debt, etc. We hear that they will restore the country to financial sanity if we just vote them into office and give them the power to work it out. Election cycle after election cycle, ad infinitum, until it makes us sick to hear about it one more time.

Right! And pigs fly too!!

There was a time where the acronym NIMBY (not in my back yard) was used frequently, most commonly with reference to building nuclear power plants. We don’t hear it much anymore, but the spirit of NIMBY is alive and well. This fits in well with the dominant attitude so prevalent in America today. Cut! Cut the deficit! Cut government spending! Don’t, however, even think about cutting my own special interest. Go ahead and cut somewhere else, but not in my back yard. You can protest as loudly as you want, but with respect to this topic, the Republicans are as bad as the Democrats.

Consider Chris Christie, for instance. Governor of New Jersey. Conservative. Republican. Sweet Darling of the Right. Presumed shoo-in for the Republican Party presidential nominee in 2016, 2020, or beyond if he should decide to run. Yet, how fiscally conservative is he anyway? Think about what he said and the way he acted because John Boehner (another fiscally conservative Republican) failed to expropriate sixty billion dollars to bailout all of the “victims” of Hurricane Sandy. You can read his comments here.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57561665/christie-blasts-boehner-on-sandy-bill-shame-on-congress/

Let’s think about this for a moment. This country is in the worst financial position that most of us have ever seen, up to our eyeballs in debt with no end in sight. The deficit grows larger every minute. So does government spending. Economically speaking, any sane person would say that we really need to call a halt to it before it destroys us. Supposedly, the Republicans represent sanity, but that’s not what is being manifested. We have a “fiscal cliff” to avoid, yet one of the leaders of the Party of Fiscal Prudence and Budget Restraint screams bloody murder when his ox is gored. Surely, Mr. Christie, you can see the light here, can’t you? Or are you listening to your constituents who scream bloody murder because their ox has been gored. Perhaps Christie is looking ahead to the next election where he can “honestly” say that he brought home the pork, $60, 000, 000, 000 worth, to be exact. Perhaps the voters of New Jersey will be so grateful they will put him back into office for another term. Perhaps the country will be so enamored of his generosity that he will be compelled to run for President next time and save us all from our own disasters.

Perhaps it really won’t make any difference. After all, with budgets running four trillion dollars plus and growing, deficits in the range of sixteen trillion plus and growing, long-term entitlement commitments (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) estimated to range from $100- 200 trillion dollars, 60 billion is a drop in the bucket. The question is, however, where will it end and who (or what) will put an end to it? Certainly, if Chris Christie has anything to say about it, the end won’t come on his watch.

This reminds me of King Hezekiah. You can get the full story in Second Kings 20, but for our topic, the following quote is sufficient.

“Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord. The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.”
“The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?”

Ah, yes, now we’re getting somewhere. Peace and security in my lifetime. Prosperity too. Who really cares what will happen when I’m dead. What difference does it make if my grandchildren have to pay through their noses so long as I get what I want? Life is too short to be painful. After all, as John Maynard Keynes so famously put it, “In the long run, we’re all dead.” For those who aren’t familiar with Keynes, he’s the fellow who convinced governments everywhere to start deficit spending. Today, he’s dead, but his legacy lives on, like the Hydra which can’t be killed and we’re all paying for it. Unfortunately, not all of us are going to die before the Babylonians roll into town.

I’m realistic enough to know that I’m not going to change Gov. Christie’s mind. I won’t be able to convince John Boehner to stand firm and refuse to write any more bad checks. I can’t persuade Paul Ryan to start producing budgets which actually work. But I can change how I think about the way I live and I can stand on my own feet without expecting that the taxpayers and citizens of this country will bail me out as soon as it gets uncomfortable. Furthermore, if I pull back my outstretched hand and convince enough others to do the same, it might be sufficient to make a difference. In the long run. In the short run, we’ve already gone off the “fiscal cliff.” That little blip of a show the other day was simply an outcrop we smashed into on the way down.

Whether we want to or not, we’re going to learn what it’s like to be taken off the teat. It’s past time to be weaned. It’s time to grow up.

It used to be that people spoke to each other respectfully and graciously, more or less. To be sure, there were times when the conversation reached lows which could only be considered repugnant and unworthy according to the moral character of the day, but they were not common nor preferred.

How far we have fallen!

If you follow blogs or news sites which promote any type of opinion, you will almost always find comments from followers which do not even attempt to debate the issue. Instead, these commentors post words which would have been considered off-limits only a few years ago. Maliciousness, name-calling, slander, and libel are now allowed as acceptable behavior, even on blogs which protest that, according to their Posting Policy, such things are not to be tolerated.

Below is a definition from Wikipedia (edited very slightly) which I think is a good description. I am posting it so that no one can mistake my intent when I declare that I will enforce my own posting policy on this blog. See the Comment Policy tab at the top of the page.

“Defamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander (for transitory statements), and libel (for written, broadcast, or otherwise published words)—is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, religion, or nation a negative or inferior image. This can be also any disparaging statement made by one person about another, which is communicated or published, whether true or false, depending on legal state. In Common Law it is usually a requirement that this claim be false and that the publication is communicated to someone other than the person defamed (the claimant).

In common law jurisdictions, slander refers to a malicious, false, and defamatory spoken statement or report, while libel refers to any other form of communication such as written words or images. Most jurisdictions allow legal actions, civil and/or criminal, to deter various kinds of defamation and retaliate against groundless criticism.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slander)

What bothers me about this whole affair is that people who claim and profess to be disciples of Jesus (Christians, in other words) engage in this exercise as much as those who are not Christian. (Don’t belive me? Go to any blog which is “conservative” and/or Republican in nature, pick an article, scroll down to the comments, and see for yourself. If you have trouble locating these, let me know. I will give you specific links.)

Generally speaking, the people who follow and subscribe to conservative, Republican blogs and news sites confess to be Christian. Many of these are proud to admit that they have been “disciples” for 20, 30, 40 years or more, yet they attack someone who shares an opinion which doesn’t fit well with their worldview and/or offends their sensiblilities. Why? Why do so many think that they have the freedom or right to air the vicious, mean, unloving comments they post? Do they talk this way to each other face to face? What do they hope to gain by this conduct? How do they think they are honoring and lifting up the Name of Jesus by the way they carry on?

Apparently, these people have never learned what the Bible has to say about this. Let me quote various scriptures.
1. Colossians 4:6–“Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.” (New American Standard Bible (©1995))
2. Proverbs 15:1–“A gentle response diverts anger, but a harsh statement incites fury.” (International Standard Version)
3. Proverbs 15:28–“The heart of the righteous weighs its answers,
but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.” (NIV)
4. Ephesians 6:12–“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (English Standard Version)
5. Luke 6:45–“The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Amplified Bible)

Did you hear that? Out of the evil that a man stores up in his heart will come words from his mouth. There is only one logical conclusion to this–those who speak nasty, foul, demeaning words to others have evil stored up in their own hearts. It is inevitable that the people who think this way will speak in the same manner.

What will it take to raise the tenor of the conversation? It’s quite simple, actually. As individuals, we have to admit that we are sinners and that we sometimes we say things we shouldn’t. In that case, we have to confess the sin and stop repeating it. Also, we must realize that we are representatives of Jesus the Christ and that, when we use derogatory, hurtful, unloving words against someone else, it is His Name, reputation, and kingdom which suffers. In addition, we need to come to the understanding that, again from the mouth of the Master, “…as you give, you will receive.” If we don’t want someone else speaking that way to us, we need to stop speaking that way to them.

There are laws which prohibit such speech and which have penalties against it. However, I am under no illusions as to the effectiveness of these laws. The legal system would be completely swamped if it started enforcing them. What would be far more effective is for the various blogs/news/Internet sites to police their own policies and simply refuse to post such comments. This probably won’t happen on a large scale, because a blog which did this would probably lose readership and revenue. The Almighty Dollar wins again!

No, the only way this is going to be substantially effected is for individuals to know what is right to say and to refuse to say anything that is wrong. Individual responsiblity before God is still the primary vehicle for positive change in society. I have committed to this course and am looking for others to follow suit. Are you in or out?

In the post below, In the Wake of Massacre, I made certain predictions about what this country would not be facing as we move forward in our national grief. I must admit, with great pleasure, that I have been completely wrong about at least two of those–our insatiable appetite for violence and the heinous crime of abortion.

I said that we would probably not hear much about the pervasive and murderous violence in our society, especially that which emanates from Hollywood in the form of movies and TV shows, and video game producers. I also said that we would probably not discuss the violent horror known as abortion on demand in connection with the mindless violence of the Newtown shootings. I was wrong on both counts. In fact, from what I have seen on the Internet and (sparsely) on the broadcast news, these issues have been brought up and are being vigorously debated. This makes me quite happy about the future of our country.

I am not alone. Many others are thinking along the same lines. Like Elijah, I realize that there are others “out there somewhere” who hold to the same beliefs and convictions as I do and that God has not left me alone or without support. I will never know how many others of like-mind there are, it is enough to know that they are there and working for the same God and cause as I am. May His Will prevail!

This would be an appropriate time to quote Tiny Tim. “God bless us, every one!” And a very blessed Christmas to all of you.

P.S. I have included a link to an article, “Guns, Mental Illness, and Newtown”, in the Wall Street Journal which I recommend. Check it out. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323723104578185271857424036.html

In the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, CT, where 27 people (20 of them between the ages of 5 and 10) were killed, there is one prominent question. Why? Why did this happen? It seems that no one has any answers except the same old tried and truly failed, but they are easy to find if you look in the right place.

It is certain that there will be an immediate increase in the clamor over incidents of this nature. President Obama has said that there will be “meaningful action”; presumably he meant tighter and more restrictive gun control. Many other leaders have also joined in, with the consensus seeming to be that we can’t avoid talking about it anymore, but have to come to grips with the issue.

There will also be a renewed focus on the “mental” condition of the people who commit these types of criminal acts. We will probably be subjected to scores of “experts” who will expound their favorite theories as to why someone acts this way and what we must do to serve as a counterbalance to their unsocial behavior.

My guess is that the “culprits” in this act of violent barbarity will be these two strawmen. They are convenient and many people will use the emotion of the moment to try to get what they want from the situation. Besides, if we can make these the scapegoats, then we have no real incentive to explore the deeper causes of violent behavior. Oh, yes, there are deeper causes and we must face them squarely.

First, I predict there will be very little discussion about violent and murderous video games, television shows, and movies to which young men are subjected to from the very beginning of their lives. We will not talk about how someone growing up with digital murder finally decides to try it out in real life to see how it feels or to vent a lifetime of built-up rage. After all, there is no proof that playing with matches ever causes someone to light a forest fire or burn a house down. Besides, we all like to indulge. Don’t we?

Second, there will be no connection between this shooting and the undisputed fact that every year millions upon millions of small, helpless children under the age of nine months are legally killed before they are born. Some will protest that these are two completely separate issues and that it is unfair to even try to pair them. Violence is as violence does, however, and a young man who hears about women regularly ripping their unborn children out of their wombs might very well think that he should be excused if he joined in the carnage.

Third, there will be absolutely no mention made about the way that our young men and women go overseas into small towns and cities and slaughter hundreds and thousands of innocents. Absolutely none! If there is one sacred cow which cannot be sacrificed on the altar of Exceptional Americanism in the name of maintaining our lifestyle and making some people fantastically rich, it is our military, the most powerful killing machine in the history of the world. Why is it perfectly acceptable to shoot, bomb, and incinerate millions upon millions of innocents abroad, yet be completely repelled and outraged when it happens here?

America has become a violent place. Violence permeates every seam, nook, and cranny of our culture. It is everywhere and there is virtually no escape from it. We watch it on TV or the movie screen, play games with it on X-Box, practice it during abortions, promote it with our political views, cheer and applaud our military or the men and women who perform on WWE,  and myriad other ways. We are America and we are violent. We love violence. We thrive on violence. We are to blame. We are all guilty. Our society is made up of individuals and a very large part of those individuals, a very large part indeed, are violent. It is time for us to admit that “we have met the enemy and he is us.”

What are solutions to prevent school shootings like this one? Longer prison terms for violent offenders? Tighter restrictions on gun ownership? Turning legitimate gun owners into pariahs and criminals? Blaming someone’s mental condition because he broke? Blaming society? These will probably be tried and will not work any better than they did in the past. What, then? I can think of three answers, one which will be rejected outright, one which is actually happening now behind the scenes, and one which must happen but will be resisted as long as possible. Respectively, they are:

This will go nowhere. Every school district in the country ought to purchase a high-powered, high-quality pistol for all of its teachers and administration, teach them how to use the firearms, and require them to be carried while on school property. They ought to issue body armor for all their personnel. Armed, trained, and ready educators could have easily shot this young man right at the start and eliminated virtually all of the heartache he caused. Instead they cowered in closets and under desks. It would have been so easy. It will not happen.

The one solution which has some legs would be for parents to realize that the government can’t protect their children any better than they can educate them. Parents should take the initiative in this and immediately pull their children out of these “indoctrination centers” and put the responsibility for the education of their children squarely where it belongs—on their own shoulders. There is serious movement in this direction.

What must be done is to admit as a nation that we have failed, that we have sinned before God Almighty, and that we need to make a change of direction away from the appalling nightmare we are in. We need to start, as a nation and society, to become outraged by violence, any kind of violence, and start demanding that perpetrators, whoever they might be, are severely punished. We need to start asking forgiveness from God and allow His Holy Spirit to begin working in our own hearts, our hearts first of all, and then those of the people around us. We need to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace and that we must submit our murderous desires to His rule in every area of our lives. This, too, will not happen, at least on an official level, but it should. There is no better answer.