Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Buried With Bush



“Have they buried him yet?” I kept asking last week. Observances of former President George H.W. Bush’s death seemed to go on forever. For a week or more, media were completely dominated by commemorations of his passing. Services held in Maine, Texas, Washington, DC, and elsewhere were extensively covered. Very few stories have that much staying power in America’s public consciousness anymore, so why was it so hard to finally put old George to rest and move on?


It was a combination of factors, I think. He was the last president from the World War II generation, or “The Greatest Generation,” as NBC’s Tom Brokaw called it. When former senator, presidential candidate, and fellow WWII vet Bob Dole paid his respects to Bush, he had to be assisted to stand from his wheelchair in order to salute. Very few of that generation remain with us and soon they will all be gone. Not only will they be put to rest, but so, we fear, will the values by which they lived.


To them, family, church, and country mattered most. Not everyone from that era lived by those values but no one disputed them as ideals. Today there is no general agreement on any of them. Bush was married for more than seventy years. That he loved his wife and was loved back by her no one doubted. Except when he lay in state at the Capitol, most remembrances were held in churches where his extended family — and it is extensive — participated. The final theme dominant in the wall-to-wall coverage was his service to country beginning in WWII and continuing through his presidency.


Five current and former presidents were seated in the front row at Bush’s service in Washington. Of those, all but Trump remain in their original marriages, but lies and coverups of marital infidelities led to the impeachment of President Clinton — and may for President Trump as well. Last week’s release of data from the Mueller investigation prompted soon-to-be US House committee chairmen to salivate over the prospect of impeaching Trump for alleged campaign finance violations in the form of payoffs to two professed mistresses. It’s likely that many presidents have been unfaithful and some biographers have documented their infidelities. The same is true of kings, queens, and other past leaders, but publication was usually delayed until after they died. Not anymore.


Most dictionaries still define family as: “a group consisting of parents and children living in the same household,” but that description is now disputed by many calling themselves “progressives.” They see traditional family as a source of oppression, a haven for “the patriarchy.” Homosexual and transgender activists tend to agree and work to broaden the definition to include almost any grouping of human beings wishing to address themselves as such. If we haven’t reached that point already, most children will soon be born into a collection of people not comprised of a mother, a father, and children.


Churches are in steep decline across America as well with some predicting that soon the majority of us will be “unchurched.” That’s already true in many “progressive” regions. Religions we used to consider “mainstream” have sanctioned marriage between two men or two women. After over two thousand years, even the Roman Catholic Church is making noises in that direction since the election of Pope Francis in 2013. A preliminary statement emerging from a Synod of Bishops on the family in 2014 called “Relatio post disceptationem” hinted at a relaxing of Catholic teachings on homosexuality and divorce. Prominent bishops attending the synod, however, condemned that document and claimed that most bishops wished to preserve traditional teachings. In the four years since divisions within the Catholic Church have only deepened.


As for devotion to country, many Americans calling themselves “progressives” dispute the very concept of the nation-state, of national sovereignty, and of national borders. They support abolishing ICE, which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They marched in Washington, DC recently chanting “No borders! No wall! No USA at all.” Democrat leaders deny they support open borders while consistently blocking serious efforts to control illegal immigration or funding for a wall on our southern border.


Not only is there widening disagreement about family, church, and country, it seems we cannot even agree on who is a man or who is a woman. More and more “progressive” psychologists, clerics, and politicians are insisting that homosexuals are born that way but men and women are not. People who consider such notions crazy place themselves in danger if they voice their opinions. They could lose their jobs, be forced to undergo “sensitivity training” which some would call brainwashing, and they could be charged with a “hate crime.”


Buried along with George H.W. Bush, we fear, were the values of the generation that produced him. What comes next, no one knows.

35 comments:

Marty said...

What can I say, Tom. the whole world is turned upside down, As in the days of Noah Matthew 24, and I suspect it will turn out not much different.

cowboy ted said...

They were the best generation, old values that stood the test of time. Civil, pro family, preserved families, honored God and religion, and were proud to be Americans. They were children during the Great Depression but remembered the sacrifices that were made. They treasured life. Now, it is becoming ever so clear how wrong-headed the 60's- 70's mentality was and is--instead of questioning, how about obeying? Instead of advocating, how about learning? Instead of moral relativism, how about moral truths? Our so-called leaders run with their tail between their legs to be "diverse" and "politically correct"..well I'm quite done with that, just waiting for the secular nation (self invented, not the words of James Madison) to wake up before our society has not only circled the drain, but is flushed down it. Americans should be proud of our rich Western tradition and boast it--teach it, honor it. The U.S. is the only nation standing in the way of evil, let's just hope the internal commies don't kill it from within first.

KPS said...

Thank God that we are a progressive nation that keeps progressing away from a country of slavery, unequal rights, and male domination, and onward to better things. That is why I am a proud American.

Nick Peace said...

George H. W. Bush (1924-2018). So this essay seems to be lamenting change, the loss of values of an older generation. Well, everything changes. It's good that we abolished slavery, right? Gave women the right to vote? Treat same-sex people like human beings? I think so. But you can't stop change anyway.

As for GWB... I appreciate his humility, military service to the country, lack of personal scandals, lack of tweeting.

But otherwise there is some questionable stuff during his political career. Iran/Contra was a major scandal and he played a part. How much destruction did we do to Central American countries during the Reagan/Bush years? I saw a number that said we spent $1billion and 50,000 lives were lost in Nicaragua alone due to our support of the Contras. (Interesting that much of our current immigration problems stem from the damage done in this period.) Oh, laws were broken too. As president Bush pardoned 6 of the main defendants.

Turning a blind eye to Saddam's use of chemical weapons against the Iranians and the Kurds (but this mainly exposes the selective use of outrage about chemical weapons in Syria today); invading Panama; shooting down an Iranian airliner killing all 290 aboard; a questionable Iraq war given April Gillespie's green lighting of Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. (At least that was better than his son's disastrous 2nd war).

He did stand up to Israel though, denying them loans that were going to be used for settlements, for which he paid a political price.

So let's say a mixed bag. Bush represented old school WASP elites and the Wall St./CIA connection to government.

I will say I think he did what he thought was best for the country.

CaptDMO said...

"Professed mistresses" ? Really?
Well, I suppose, if the piece is to be submitted for publication in the
Daily Sun.
I wonder if "The (Catholic) Church" will lose more members than it gains, with the new tolerance of openly practicing unusually gendered folk, complete with preferred self-described pronouns, as well as those with issues in vows of marriage, DESPITE the really old instruction manual.
A tithe is a tithe, and any Priest in a storm, I guess...
But how does this reflect on the privilege of having a cross-in-an-oval
on ones gravestone in the "Catholic" cemetery?
Where do indulgences fit in NOW as an income source for "The Church"?

Meh, not my circus, not my monkeys.
(Not sure where I'm plagiarizing that from)

P. C. Poppycock said...

Accommodationist theology; the same for social norms of any sort.

We must normalize the deviant so that it is no longer such.

Postmodernism; "your own truth."

When no grounding posts remain, nothing works any longer.

Call it chaos, anarchy, whatever.

Knowledge and behavior builds upon certain axioms on which all else depend.

Scratch the axioms, scratch all built upon them.

Social media is likely the finest lubricant ever created for this destruction.

Mr Ed said...

Always a comedic event when one of our past tyrants die and all the main stream permanent state and media march in lock step to convince us what they opposed or supported at the time.

One thing the MSM does is convince us or try, that we should all forget what was said before and now make the new news of however pushed the regime, like MSM. it's important and how dare you to consider different?

There is the joke, whether Nixon, Ford, Obama, Carter, Obama,it's all the same. They are assholes. The epitome of transparency, as promised by all.

Buy a yellow jacket, as required by law in France.

Tom McLaughlin said...

A thoughtful post, P.C.

beth said...

"He was the last president from the World War II generation..."I guess you forgot that President Jimmy Carter had Navy service from 1943-1953,received the WW II Victory Medal as well as other medals and is still alive so he will be the last; but what do I know you're the"history" teacher.

P. C. Poppycock said...

Beth: Not to put too fine a point on it, but Carter graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946, after WWII ended. So strictly speaking he is no more a WWII veteran than I am for having been born in 1942. Why he received a WW II victory medal, if true, is something I can't explain.

I believe most think World War II generation refers to those that fought in the war.

Tom McLaughlin said...

Bush was the last president with WWII service to serve in the White House.

Jay said...

I found it very disrespectful to the office that Clinton and Obama both appeared on TV shows. I doubt Reagan or either of the Bush’s would want to appear with the “O” or other such TV tripe. I just couldn’t grasp why the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, would want to be on one of those shows. It seemed to me to demean the office and make the President little more then an entertainer.

Brian said...

Really Jay? You are offended how communicating with the people through popular outlets is demeaning? Yet spewing out diatribes through Twitter is not demeaning? Even when used to make childish taunts? You are appalled that politicians come off as an entertainers, yet you have no problem with the limelight seeking, reality television star Trump desperately wants to be? Yup, the same old attention seeking, cheap performer who retweeted himself performing at a WWF event? I guess that elevated the office of president instead of demeaning it? You can't "grasp" this stuff? I guess that explains why you also don't seem to grasp that your posts are simply laughable.

Brian said...

Tom, if you want to equate Antifa with liberals and Democrats then you need to also equate neo-Nazi groups and the KKK with conservatives and Republicans.

Tom McLaughlin said...

Must I?

So far, I know of two Antifa figures who have been unmasked and identified after being arrested. One was a professor or instructor for the University of California system. The other was the son of US Senator and Democrat candidate for Vice President -- Tim Kaine.

I don't know of any prominent conservatives or Republicans associated with the KKK or neo-Nazi groups. The only one I can think of is prominent Democrat Senator Robert Byrd who Hillary Clinton said was her mentor in the Senate and had been a high official in the KKK. Virtually the entire membership of the KKK has been Democrat.

Can you identify any KKK members who were Republican, Brian?

Brian said...

How about David Duke who, once the Republican party turned from respectable people to what they are now, switched from Democrat to Republican. Yes Tom, we all know that in the old days Republicans had values, and that Lincoln was a Republican. Times have changed. Now we have the Crusader, the most prominent newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan, endorsing Trump.

And the Neo-Nazi's, Tom? Who is it that they are killing? Progressive demonstrators. How about Russell Walker, a white supremacist who thankfully lost the race for the state House of Representatives. Arthur Jones, who boasted of his membership in the American Nazi Party? John Fitzgerald, who ran in California as a holocaust-denier, promoting his campaign on neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic podcasts? Paul Nehlen, the self-described “pro-White” congressional candidate who has palled around with ex-KKK Grand Wizard David Duke?

And the Antifa people? You cite NO members who have run as Democrats. One member was a professor?? So?? One had a Democrat father? Ooooh!

Face it Tom, only a hypocrite would claim that Antifa represented Democrats more than racists and Neo-Nazis represented Republicans.

Jay said...

Oh good lord I thought Brian had been on a liberal retreat somewhere hugging a tree. The hate and propaganda machine is back.

Brian said...

Yes, I noticed your hate and propaganda and had to comment on it. Sorry to disturb you in your safe-place bubble. Carry on with your group-wanking about how Republicans can do no wrong and goofy, crooked Trump is actually a golden idol of perfection! I feel absolutely no hate towards him or his cult members, simply pity and disgust.

P. C. Poppycock said...

The Law of the Infinite Cornucopia, put forth by Polish philosopher Leszek Kołakowski suggests that for any given doctrine one wants to believe, there is never a shortage of arguments by which one can support it.

I read the word "doctrine" in the above case in a much broader sense, to include assertion, argument, and the like.

Jay said...

Hey Brian, here’s what I posted:

“I found it very disrespectful to the office that Clinton and Obama both appeared on TV shows. I doubt Reagan or either of the Bush’s would want to appear with the “O” or other such TV tripe. I just couldn’t grasp why the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, would want to be on one of those shows. It seemed to me to demean the office and make the President little more then an entertainer.”

I’m having a problem figuring out how this is “hate”. Perhaps you thought it was great that Clinton and Obama did these things. Perhaps any opinion differing from yours, you consider hate speech.

Brian said...

Hey Jay, I'm having a problem figuring our how what I posted is "hate". Perhaps you thought it isgreat that Trump makes childish taunts on Twitter and retweets himself demeaning the office of president at WWF events. Perhaps any opinion differing from yours, you consider hate speech. Perhaps the hate shown by you was in the form of you projecting hate onto others that disagree with you with your "The hate and propaganda machine is back." statement.

Jay said...

Perhaps you should go back and read your own posts.

Jay said...

Here Brian, is what you posted earlier:

“Really Jay? You are offended how communicating with the people through popular outlets is demeaning? Yet spewing out diatribes through Twitter is not demeaning? Even when used to make childish taunts? You are appalled that politicians come off as an entertainers, yet you have no problem with the limelight seeking, reality television star Trump desperately wants to be? Yup, the same old attention seeking, cheap performer who retweeted himself performing at a WWF event? I guess that elevated the office of president instead of demeaning it? You can't "grasp" this stuff? I guess that explains why you also don't seem to grasp that your posts are simply laughable.”

Brian said...

And why are you reposting this? What part isn't true? "Cheap performer"? OK, how about rich, spoiled, pampered performer....better? Or maybe it was hateful that I said your posts are laughable? Sorry, I didn't realize you were such a snowflake. Relax, it doesn't mean I hate you. Was anything I said really worse than Trump's tweets, like "Rand Paul of Kentucky reminds me of a spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain."? Nah, that's not demeaning the office of president like being on a TV show, right?

Jay said...

No.it just means you are intellectually stunted. I don’t say that with hate. Nope, not at all.
Sometimes it’s comforting to know things don’t change. Some people still believe the world is flat. Some think we never went to the moon.
And then there’s Brian B/S.

Brian said...

Some people still believe the world is flat. Some think we never went to the moon. You forgot a few that are just as obvious. Some people think that humans are not contributing to climate change. Some people think that Antifa somehow represents Democrats more than the KKK and neo-Nazis represent Republicans. Take a clue from Tom who quit arguing about this after being pointed out some facts.

Jay said...

I think the reason Tom stopped arguing with you is because he doesn’t wish to waste his time. Me? I just enjoy seeing the next thing you’ll come up with.
Like for instance, man made global warming. Some people believe it’s a settled science. I don’t. You obviously do. I’ve seen data to support both points. The man made global warming alarmist theories don’t make any sense to me. The science I’ve seen to dispel that makes far more sense to me. The KKK WAS the democrat party till they tried to tone down their image. Antifa is an offshoot of socialism, which the democrat party now openly touts. Neo Nazis? Anything with the word Nazi in it is socialist. Today socialism equals the modern day democrat party. If Hitler were alive today and lived in the United States he would be a democrat.
Plain and simple.
And I love your characterization of our President. Very humorous. Very wrong, but very humorous. The massive venomous barrels of hatred the main stream media pours over this land tends to fill up the empty cups of folks who wish to hate and poisons them from the inside out. Objectivity is replaced by hate and reason is squashed at the bottom of the cup of vile hate. Unfortunately many people drink the cup down never knowing they are being poisoned.

Jay said...

I’m not sure how some entity or person endorsing Trump stains Trump. What the KKK represents has nothing at all to do with the Republican Party.
Rush Limbaugh is a big fan of Apple products. Should liberals stop buying Apple now?
I disagree that our President has turned the GOP into a party of “hate and ignorance”. To the contrary, he is fighting back and not allowing the increasingly liberal main stream media and liberal socialist democrats to steamroll over him. I think it’s about time for that. The liberal media has been smearing the GOP for the last 50 years. Time to fight back. And it’s working. In spite of 97% of negative coverage by the liberal media Donald Trump is still holding his own.
The cycle of liberal media negativity toward the GOP has to stop. The media no longer report the news. They report the spin. Thanks to our President the word is getting out to people who were unaware of this. Thanks to our President a veil of lies is slowly being revealed for what it is and people are responding to it. It’s a good thing that the democrat party is now being shown in the light of reality. People are leaving the democrat party in droves. Most Americans want smaller government, strong military and border security. Democrats talk a good game but their actions prove they are against these things, America is waking up and it took a man like Donald Trump to nudge them out of their slumber. More and more people are seeing the truth about the media and the hypocrisy of the democrat party.
So if that makes Donald Trump and the GOP a party of “hate and ignorancel, then I guess I’m a hat filled ignorant guy. I’ll take it. Call me anything you want as long as steps are being taken to make this country great again. After 8 years of Obama it is going to take a lot of work to fix the damage he and his fellow democrats did to this country.

Brian said...

"What the KKK represents has nothing at all to do with the Republican Party."

Huh? Then why are they endorsing them? Look at the hysterics the right wing got into over who Obama hung out with. But not a peep when Republicans chum around with White Supremists and neo-Nazis. A bit hypocritical.

If Apple started chumming around with the dispicable likes of Limbough, yeah, I would probably stop buying their products.

97% negative coverage seems generous towards Trump. Negative acts bring negative coverage. Was negative press towards Nixon, or Madoff, or Hitler "biased"?

The spin comes from Faux News.

More and more people are seeing your so-called "truth"?? Have you seen recent polls? Did you grasp the beat-down they took in the mid-terms?

Steps are indeed being taken to improve our country, some important ones by Mueller.

Might the dopey "Lock her up" chants come back to bite tub-o-lard rich boy on his fat ass?

I'm loving it!

Jay said...

Love it while you can.
The GOP “chumming around with white supremists and neo Nazis?? More lame stream liberal media fake news. Negative coverage by the MSM and only negative coverage. Again, the msm does not cover the news. They only report what they want. Fox reports ALL the news. I have seen the recent polls. Pretty good, I’d say. And what “beat down” are you talking about. Traditionally there are loses at mid term. Traditionally the loses are much higher.
Hopefully the corrupt Meuller will be gone soon. Then the witch hunt will stop and we can actually lock up Hillary for crimes that folks like you and I would already be in jail for.
I suspect that if the GOP goes after the next democrat president, if there ever is another one, like the dems have gone after the Trump administration, the dems would be screaming holy hell. This witch hunt is nasty business and setting very bad Precedent. Is this crap what you really want our government to be spending our tax dollars on? Two years and no evidence of Russian Collusion so now the idiot underhanded fools are going after anyone and anybody they can to take down the admin person by person. It is a shameless and highly illegal game that is costing us plenty while nothing is getting done.
Democrats still haven’t gotten over 2016 and they are truly spoiled little brats who will do anything to get their way. Disgusting.
Me? I’m just glad Trump defeated Hillary. As each day goes by the corruption in government perpetrated by the democrat party is more and more exposed. It is deep and vile and Trump is doing something about it.
Had Hillary won this world and this country would be consigned to business as usuall and the democrat crime machine would roll on until this country turned into a socialist Mecca.

Brian said...



Your bubble is really so protected against the truth that you doubt the Republican connection with racist hate mongers? Let me enlighten you so you don't appear so ignorant as to believe these facts are simply "lame stream liberal media fake news."

FACT: Arthur Jones, A neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier garnered more than 20,000 votes and won the Republican primary in the 3rd Congressional District of Illinois.

FACT: Paul Nehlen, who ran against Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has indeed chummed around with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, even appearing on a radio show hosted by Duke in which Nehlen insisted that it is "right and righteous" to advocate for maintaining a white majority in the US.

FACT: In Montana, former KKK organiser John Abarr ran as a Republican for the House of Representatives.  Fields has been photographed marching with a neo-Nazi group.

FACT: David Duke had more than 58,000 people in Louisiana vote for Duke to be their senator in 2016.

FACT: The KKK endorsed Trump.

I too am glad Hillary did not win. Not only because I am not a big fan of hers, but in the grand scheme of things I think it is good that this racism and hatred that Trump has brought to the surface is revealed and lanced as the infested boil it is.

Jay said...

So obviously you sat around and searched the web for this kind of thing. Interesting. Even more sad that you think that the few names that you have brought forth here actually mean that those names represent the GOP. Very sad that someone who’s been educated enough to put a few sentences together is not educated enough to use common sense and actually make sense out of what’s happening in the world. I really can’t say it any better then that. I’m just kind of stunned thinking about someone actually spending the time to look up these names and post them here and conclude that these names mean something about the GOP.
There is not enough server space on this blog site to list all of the names of people who have been in the democrat party with disgusting ties to disgusting groups. Down through history the democrat party is repleat with them. Your poor attempt to somehow link the GOP to various hate groups is abysmal, but not totally surprising, given your desperation.
B/S, sometimes I have to wonder if you really believe the stuff you post. It’s pretty far fetched from reality.
How sad it must be for you, if you actually believe your posts, to see your party falling apart. To see your representatives lie and cheat and lie. To see your representatives advocating for useless BS and non secquiturs that succeed only in wasting our money and moving this country back step by liberal step. It must be extremely sad for you to see a president that you’ve been taught to hate who seems to be even more Teflon then Slick Willy. Every time the democrats think they have a ‘Gotcha’ on Trump, his poll numbers either don’t slip or they actually go up. Sad for you to see a President who, unlike any democrat ever, who actually is trying to fulfill his campaign promises.
I think that this explains your desperation and willingness to take time to scour the web in the vain hope of finding something that will just make me shut the hell up. With every post you think you’ve nailed it. With every post you prove your lack of real understanding of the world. Sad.
But hey, don’t stop on my account. Throughout my busy day I get to take respite and enjoy these exchanges. Again, these exchanges help me to understand the mind of a liberal and further help me convert more and more folks to conservatism. Thank you for the help!

Brian said...

Wake up jay, you don't have to "search the web" to find out information like this unless you keep yourself cocooned in a safety bubble. It is not some dark, hidden secret that many White Supremists and neo-Nazis have been running as Republicans. They publicly ran for office.

I tried to hold in my laughter over your ramblings, but you got me with the "teflon" thing! Trump is the very opposite, attracting everything imaginable, ever bit of his pampered, crooked life is under serious investigation....private life, business, inauguration, Russian election attack, PAC, etc, etc...the man is a pathetic, clownish mess on the way to the Laughingstock Hall of Fame!

I love the fact that you pretend to "convert more and more folks to conservatism"!!!! The perfect, clueless, delusional statement that Trump would make, expecting people to believe outright fantasies! I truly wonder if you are delusional in the rest of your life, or just when it comes to politics. Do you function in society?

Anyway, answer if you must, but I'll not see what goofy things you say until another thread! Cheers!


Jay said...

Always the best answers from you B/S. You have a propensity to cast your own foibles onto other people. Priceless. Classic.
That is, if you actually believe the stuff you post.
It truly is remarkable. It reminds me of the way a kitten might come across his own image in a mirror and start fighting it. It’s fun to watch and we all laugh at it. It’s funny and harmless.
Someone like you, if you truly believe your posts, is the same thing for me. Now if you had real power, like if you were another one of the corrupt democrat politicians, (is there any other kind?), that might worry me a little. As long as it’s just you spending hours combing through the web for ways to show us how smart you and your fellow democrats are, it’s just like watching a kitten fight himself in a mirror. As long as you stay busy ‘battling the evil Republicans”, you’re no threat anyone. It provides entertainment, at least to me, during a busy day, and helps me understand liberals so that I can better convert them, open their eyes, and let them see truth again while removing the veil of hate perpetrated by the main stream media.
Again, thanks for the help.

Jay said...

One more thing B/S;
Through out many of your posts you recite the standard rally cry of liberal socialist democrats when confronted with facts. You and your liberal democrat socialist friends always say that Fox News lies. Or Rush Limbaugh is a liar. It’s a standard retort from liberal socialists. A conservative will say that Trump is doing a good job. The socialist liberal democrat will say something like, “yeah....did you hear that on lying Fox News?” You ALL say it at some point.
I usually ask for examples of these lies. I believe I have asked you as well.
To date, not one person has been able to come up with a specific lie told by Fox or Rush. Not one. In fact, you guys usually just ignore the question.
I would suggest that in your quest to shame all of us conservatives and demonstrate how truly superior your liberal intellect is over us lowly rubes, you find some examples, real examples of Rush or Fox News lying. In this way the cat might fight the mirror a little better. I mean, if we’re going to have this little fun battle, at least bring some real ammo to the OK Corral.
Again, thanks for the help.