"If a man is to live, he must be all alive, body, soul, mind, heart, spirit." - Thomas Merton

Q. 45. Which is the first commandment? A. The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Ex. 20:3

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.” Lord Acton

"A ship in harbor is safe--but that's not what ships are for." - John A. Shedd

"We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." – Benjamin Franklin

Texas Scorecard

E Pluribus Unum

Strength is found not in diversity, but in unity.

E Pluribus Unum by Michael Quinn Sullivan “E pluribus unum.” No concept has been more uniquely American than the national motto first suggested in 1776 by our founding fathers. It is rooted deeply in a Christian view of our culture that has, sadly, been shoved aside in favor of the European tribalism favored by tyrants. There is a reason 20th-century dictators ranging from Adolf Hitler to Joseph Stalin railed against “the others” in their societies. By creating division, it is easier to exercise dictatorial control. In our American culture of the 21st Century, the same dictatorial impulses have done the same thing but with a twist. With a faux fervor that belies history and reality, we’ve become fixated on hyphens and modifiers in a way that would have baffled our founding fathers. Consider men like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush. They could not have been more different in their views of the world and even what motivated their participation in the cause of independence. In writing to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul emphasized the need for unity in the faith. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Just as the early church was built by a wildly diverse people who came together under Christ, so too was our nation built by people whose differences were unified in political liberty and self-governance. Such notions are antithetical to the whims of the ruling elite. They need us to be divided against ourselves. This is why we are told to celebrate that which makes us different. We must make ourselves the “other,” who is opposed, hated, or feared… And we must view all the others likewise. Our culture encourages dressing this up in that most delicious of self-centered sins. The algorithms of modern life have us find what most differentiates us from our neighbors, and wave it as a point of “pride.” Not coincidentally, Holy Scripture has a lot to say about the results of pride… and none of it is good. “Pride goes before destruction,” begins the line from Proverbs 16. It is so much easier, the tyrants know, to control people who have destroyed themselves. Strength is found not in diversity. Strength is found in unity. If we are to reclaim our republic, we must rejuvenate a culture that celebrates our founding principles. From many, we can be one people when we are united in liberty. E pluribus unum.

"If you thought the battles over social media “misinformation” were intense, just wait for the A.I. era. Lots of failed experts are engaged in a tactical retreat, regrouping for the coming battles. They passively admit “mistakes were made” but dodge specific accountability and refuse to acknowledge those who got the big questions right. At the same time, they are busy establishing new gatekeepers, taboos, and approved voices. The very people who got so many giant questions so very wrong over the last two decades are attempting to build a new information fortress for the next 20 years."

Brownstone Institute

To Outrun the Complacent Class ⋆ Brownstone Institute

Communications bandwidth and data transparency empowered regular people and helped expose dysfunction among many existing “experts.”

Q. 44. What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us? A. The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us, that because God is the Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments. Luke 1:74-75; 1 Pet. 1:15-19.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein

"To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." - Oscar Wilde

"The criterion of truth is that it works even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it." – Ludwig von Mises​

Never forget what they tried to do to us, "So obviously, the Biden administration had no choice but to demonize any and all Covid critics. A confidential 2022 Department of Homeland Security report detailed pending crackdowns on “inaccurate” information on “the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines,” among other targets. A few months earlier, Jen Easterly, the chief of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, declared: “We live in a world where people talk about alternative facts, post-truth, which I think is really, really dangerous if people get to pick their own facts.” Plenty of Biden administration officials considered it “really dangerous” to permit people to assert that Covid vaccines were failing. "

Brownstone Institute

Did the Feds Label You a Covid "Violent Extremist?" ⋆ Brownstone Institute

The House Weaponization Subcommittee warned that “FBI appears to be complicit in artificially supporting Administration’s narrative.”

"Men do not quit playing because they grow old. They grow old because they quit playing." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Q. 43. What is the preface to the ten commandments? A. The preface to the ten commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Ex. 20:2

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence." – John Adams​, 2nd U.S. President, 1797 to 1801

Today in History  On June 4, 1989, the Chinese Communist Party's troops—the People's Liberation Army—murdered protesters in Tiananmen Square. The number of individuals killed, wounded, and taken prisoner by the CCP remains unknown.