Into the west

For your enjoyment: His Work In Middle-Earth Finished, Trump Arrives At Grey Havens To Sail Into The West

Impeachment?

Since it’s apparently the grounds for impeaching him again, I read Trump’s speech from Wednesday’s rally. While I certainly don’t agree with everything he said (for example, much of what he said about Pence was unfair and inappropriate) there really wasn’t anything in there I’d consider inciting insurrection or, especially, violence. For example:

I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.

The whole argument blaming Trump for what happened at the Capitol seems to be a classic case of post hoc ergo propter hoc. By impeaching him with so little time remaining in his term his opponents are revealing their pettiness, vindictiveness, and small-mindedness.

Fortunately, we have the Babylon Bee to show the impeachment the respect it deserves.

Democracy

I saw this on Instapundit this morning and thought it worth sharing: Peace Is a Miracle.

Both groups who committed recent violence in America – BLM in dozens of American cities in 2020; Trump supporters at the Capitol on January 6 – happen to have acted for the same reasons. They both stopped believing the very thing we ought never to have taken for granted: that our system of democratic government still functions. They both stopped taking for granted that our democracy is worth keeping. In 2020, these people on the left half of America told us that, for them, the Miracle of 1800 was dead. And on January 6, 2021, these people on the right half of America told us that the Miracle of 1800 was dead for them, too.

That, my friends, is a serious problem. These BLM supporters and Trump supporters were not attacking democracy. Their violence was not a threat to democracy. For these people, democracy was already dead. The violence we witnessed was the violence our democracy, during its miraculous existence, had kept at bay. As our democracy continues, in the eyes of growing numbers of Americans, to die, I am afraid we will see the ancient violence fill its place. Not something new, as though from the outside, but something that has always been, covered over by the thin veneer of our democracy. Our democracy is an artwork, painted over a bloody canvas.

As the saying goes, read the whole thing.

I’m amazed at the number of people who seem to think the way to stop “fascists” is to try to shut them up. That’s the sort of thing that, well, a fascist would do. And if they think preventing people from being heard is going to prevent more violence, they really don’t understand human nature or history.

Orcs and trolls beware

Whenever it’s my birthday or Christmas my wife, and sometimes my children, ask me for a wish list. A few years ago, in order to have something other than books on the list, I put “a sword”, never expecting to get one. But yesterday Julia was shopping at the Antique Mall in Round Rock and found a good deal.

My new sword

So now I’m prepared.