BreakPoint on a Roll

It would probably be in my interest to avoid the BreakPoint website or listening to its radio commentaries. I'm afraid I could work full time simply refuting and deconstructing Stonestreet and company. Like his mentor Charles Colson he's almost always wrong, stunningly so – and even when he's right on something, it's for the wrong reasons and often the given justifications are confused and ultimately undermine his position.

Sometimes it's too much, day after day. That's how it was in late May when I encountered these three commentaries.

A Couple of Quick Reflections on the Death of a Rock Singer

In the grand scheme of things the death of rock singer Meat Loaf (Marvin Aday) is hardly important. The news brought back some memories of school years and learning he was an anti-vax proponent I immediately thought of the joke that is certain to circulate – that he would do anything for love but he wouldn't do that (get a vaccine).

On a more serious note, a couple of quick reflections...

Suspicious Suicides

Was Epstein murdered or perhaps allowed to commit suicide? There's a great deal of circumstantial evidence to suggest either of these scenarios. The media has waged a very aggressive campaign to shut down any such notion and interestingly the many popular conspiracy sites seem to have taken the discussion into a rather bizarre direction suggesting that Epstein is in fact still alive. The waters are muddied and one is left wondering if some of them don't exist for that very purpose.

Confronting War Mythology

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/06/laurence-m-vance/the-greatest-generation-of-whoremongers/

Reading this also reminded me of Keith Lowe's Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II. It can be safely said that war foments and breeds evil. It is a case of Providential restraint being withdrawn and depravity is put on display, even unleashed.

The Den of Iniquity

Recently I encountered an episode of The Wonder Years, a television show that was on in the late 1980's and early 1990's. To be honest I didn't watch it much at the time and in subsequent years my feelings about it are mixed. On the one hand it is both a humorous and reflective period piece that has some occasional value. On the other hand its humour is often out of bounds and reveling in Middle Class Americana is not exactly my cup of tea.

That said what struck me the other night was a shift in culture and a profound one at that. In the episode the Arnold family's daughter Karen has (while away at college) moved in with a boyfriend and the episode is about how this comes to light and the reaction on the part of the family.