The Trump vs Musk fight

Yesterday was tumultuous for Republicans and gleeful for Democrats who 2 minutes ago hated Musk for turning Twitter into an advocate for free speech and tackling the waste, fraud and abuse in the federal financial system. That really hurt the corrupt NGOs, the DEI crowd, the child abusing educators and their unions and the Climate gangsters sucking the federal teat for their existence. That's where Dems have their power.

 
Republicans loved Musk's help and even his joyful silliness, but his complaints about the BBB made no sense to Trump's base, those who had followed Trump during his campaign. Trump has been delivering on his promises to the voters. It was a plus, sure, but all candidates say they will stop waste. Why not have the smartest man in the world tackle it? No one I know who voted for Trump thinks Musk affected the outcome in November. If money talked, Kamala would be president and Beyonce would be secretary of state.

 
Now the fight is getting personal. Truly, I felt like a 5 year old watching a divorce of my parents--hopeless and helpless--tugging at their knees saying, "Please stop!". Or being asked to take sides in a girls' middle school clique fight when you like them all. The smartest man in the world was spitting in the eye of the most powerful man in the world, one who values loyalty almost more than anything else,
When I saw that "good-bye" in the oval office a few days ago and Trump gave him that odd gift, I was watching Musk's face and it was obvious he was not happy. He's on the autism spectrum (I've heard) and it's hard to know. I thought he might break his teeth from clenching. Trump looked the same--everything's great until it isn't.

Today I was reading Acts 25. It's all about massive power and wealth (Festus, Drusilla, Agrippa and Bernice) coming up against the gospel preached on the world stage by the greatest missionary for Jesus Christ. Wow. What a battle. No one in this week's cat fight can compare to that, but we know God was in charge then and still is.

Money can't fix everything

We sold our home of 34 years in 2001 and the new owners installed a professional kitchen, spending ca. $50,000 ($80,000 in today's dollars), and then got a divorce. The three signs of a marriage in trouble are 1) a new sports car for the husband, 2) an expensive get-away vacation, and/or 3) a ridiculous remodeling project for the wife. Or, maybe money just doesn't fix what's wrong.

Divorce statistics from divorce lawyers

 I was looking for an update on some 2005 divorce statistics from my blog and came across a website for divorce lawyers and these interesting tidbits.  These three professions have the highest rate of divorce, dancers (43), bartenders (38.4) and massage therapists (38.2). These three professions have the lowest rate, clergy (5.61), optometrists (4.01) and agricultural engineers (1.78).

The groups with the most divorces are downscale adults (adults making less than $20,000 (annually)  (39 percent), Baby Boomers (38 percent), those aligned with a non-Christian faith (38 percent), African-Americans (36 percent), and people who consider themselves to be liberal on social and political matters (37 percent).

Among the population segments with the lowest likelihood of having been divorced subsequent to marriage are Catholics (28 percent), evangelicals (26 percent), upscale adults (adults making more than $75000 annually) (22 percent), Asians (20 percent) and those who deem themselves to be conservative on social and political matters (28%).

A lot of other statistics that might surprise you--or not.  https://www.wf-lawyers.com/divorce-statistics-and-facts/

Sunday musings on the Trump critics

I've noticed some strange behavior among the Trump haters.

In addition to calling me names like stupid Fox News watcher or Trump cult member, they ridicule Trump's appearance, his 3 marriages, his children, his speech and his Christian faith.

Odd. With a 50% divorce rate among Americans, how many divorces are OK with these folks? Did his critics just shack up or sleep around and not bother with legalities? Is that wagging finger pointing back at the speaker with a tinge of guilt?

And his appearance? 69% of women are either overweight or obese and 75% of men. How slim are his critics? Could the critics keep up his schedule?

His children? Have you checked out the Kennedy genealogy and Roosevelt kids lately? Didn't Cuomo and Schwarzenegger both marry into the Kennedy clan and then dump their wives, one for a cook the other for a maid?

The way Trump talks? It was OK with Trump critics that both H. Clinton and B. Obama would change their speech patterns with their clothing to try to ingratiate themselves with certain ethnic groups or income levels. But Trump never changes. He tweets, he talks, and he jokes, but it always drives the left crazy that he doesn't change to suit them. They don't want him to talk like a deal making businessman--they want him to sound like a washed up, has-been politician who has been failing for 40 years in government.

Christian faith? With 35,000 different denominations, independents, and Bible churches among Christians who can't even agree on how to baptize or when Jesus is coming back, just which group is OK with his critics? The one they belong to? The one they don't honor with their presence or tithe?

It's puzzling.

Celeb breakups, 2019

I managed to look through the 2019 breakups and knew only 3 people, William Shatner, Ron Perlman and Rosie O’Donnell, then the screen bled out from too much overload of ads after Rosie and it died, and I do not know the rest of the story.

Movie night

We don’t see a lot of movies.  The last time we went to a theater, it was sold out on-line, not only for that showing, but the next.  But our daughter recommended a movie when we went out for dinner Friday night, and since I was picking up some books at the library yesterday, I looked for it.

So last night we watched the movie, "Chef," which although it has an awful lot of food prep and f-words in it, is a wonderful story about a boy and his relationship with his divorced dad. Well worth your time. Also a lot about social media, which the son knows how to do, and dad doesn’t.  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883512/videoplayer/vi3075386649?ref_=tt_ov_vi

More and more research is showing how important it is for children to have a relationship with their fathers.  It’s best if they can be in the home, but even ordinary things like rough housing with kids can help their experience later in life, and cut down on crime and improve school performance. And of course, single parent households are more likely to be poor which affects even longevity. https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2019/03/07/why-growing-up-poor-could-hurt-your-brain-in-old-age/?

Children need fathers—especially boys

“Telomeres are caps of DNA on the tips of our chromosomes. Think of them like the cap on a bicycle tire or the plastic tips of shoelaces that prevent the laces from fraying. Certain things cause our telomeres to shorten, and when that happens we experience cell dysfunction leading to various health problems.

In the case of boys, nine-year-olds who had no father in the home had telomeres that were 14 percent shorter than those with fathers. When broken down by reason for the loss of the father, the effect was greatest , 16 percent,  in children whose fathers were dead. For children whose fathers were incarcerated, the reduction in telomeres averaged 10 percent; for those whose parents were divorced or separated, it was 6 percent.”

https://www1.cbn.com/healthyliving/archive/2017/07/21/boys-who-grow-up-without-a-father-suffer-greater-health-problems-nbsp

Jordan Peterson and the author of The Boy Crisis, Warren Farrel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akXr2R_l1Wc

Should the minority tyrannize the majority?

I'm old enough to remember when divorce brought shame to the whole family. Even the extended family. Even marrying a divorced person was not acceptable. I was very young--but I remember. There are still people who don't believe in divorce, who would shun a relative, or stay in a miserable relationship just to avoid it. Could be religion, could just be obstinance. There may even be more of them than there are LGBTQ.

So what if an anti-divorce party grabbed political power and could have a career ruined or a business closed or involve one in a law suit because of divorce, or belief in divorce for others even though not even married? That's what we as a nation are being forced to confront with the power of LGBTQ. We have to accept men on the women's track team even though they are clearly men; a CEO can't eat a Chick-fil-a without apologizing because he is attacked on social media; we have to accept men in the ladies' restroom endangering women; we have to accept 5 year olds wanting to be called by a different pronoun encouraged by their wacko parents; we have to accept same sex marriage, not just as a legal entity, but socially and privately; we have to accept fostering and adopting as what's best for the adult couple, not the young child. If we don't accept this tyranny from a tiny minority we are the bigots.

Shocking Facts from the book, Don't Divorce by Diane Medved

Don’t Divorce: Powerful Arguments for Saving and Revitalizing Your Marriage
By Diane Medved, Ph.D.

Statistics show that 30 percent of first marriages, 69 percent of second marriages and 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce.

Forty percent of marriages in 2013 included a remarrying partner (in 20 percent it was one of the parties, and in 20 percent it was both).

A survey of thirty-one thousand persons on “office sex and romance,” found that 62 percent have admitted to at least one office affair—and 41 percent had sex on the job, with 16 percent using a boss’s office to do so.

According to a study from McGill University, divorced people had a 30 percent higher chance of dying (from all causes) than their married or single counterparts.

A 2015 study from Duke University reveals that once-divorced women had a 24 percent higher risk of heart of attack than the never-divorced. And twice-divorced women had a 77 percent higher risk of heart attack than the continuously married. Men divorced once had the same risk as their married counterparts, but with a second divorce, their risk was 30 percent greater.

The vast majority of divorces (two-thirds) dissolve “low-conflict” marriages, in which children usually don’t even realize there’s a problem. Children from low-conflict homes are actually more at risk of serious problems than even those who escaped high-conflict situations.

Almost two-thirds of children of divorce who stay in contact with both parents say they felt like they grew up in two families, not one.

AMORIS LAETITIA (The Joy of Love)

 It seems I've read every imaginable explanation--and no one is happy with this document.  Could Pope Francis have been more vague and unclear? Can the church no longer use the word adultery because it would hurt someone's feelings?  World Over, April 4, 2016, with Raymond Arroyo, Father Gerald Murray and Robert Royal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee8f6IuWCZE


 

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2016/04/23/reflections-on-amoris-laetitia/

 http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/amoris-laetitia-and-the-constant-teaching-and-practice-of-the-church/

http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otn.cfm?ID=1147

 http://www.onepeterfive.com/the-bishop-schneider-intervention-distilled/