Feminists finally get what they want and are angry

I find the world a bit strange at times. As I look about me and see the signs of 'progress' and can't help but shake my head sometimes. I look at a world (the West at least) that looks to abandon Christianity but can't handle its loss. It seems that much of the world is running, straining forward towards an abyss of its own making but has blinded itself to its own inconsistencies and their resultant consequences.

Perhaps I simply misunderstand but it is my understanding that the purported aims of feminism is equality. To have men and women viewed as equals regardless of the arena in which they find themselves. We are, after all, all human beings. But then you come up against something like this:

As she waited for a flight home from Rome, grandmother Sandra Rogers, 62, told the Daily Mail: ‘There was no “women and children first” policy. There were big men, crew members, pushing their way past us to get into the lifeboats. It was disgusting.’

Now, I don't know Mrs. Rogers and so I can't say whether or not she is a feminist, but shouldn't feminists around the world be celebrating the actions of these men? Is this not victory?

I'm in no way trying to make light of the tragedy or of the loss of life that occurred, but is this action not exactly what progressives and feminists have been fighting for? Everyone looking out for number one. 

The naturalist viewpoint that many have adopted in a rush to abandon Christianity does not see everyone as equal. That was a Christian idea. The idea of women and children first, was a Christian idea. So as they have fought long and hard to divest the world of its Christian shackles and to have everyone viewed as equal, should we not herald this moment as a triumph for modernity?

Should not those men who, seeing everyone as equal, themselves included, did not look down on women as weak or inferior but rather as just as capable as they of ensuring their own survival be seen as feminist heroes? Should not these men that Mrs. Rogers condemns be seen as heroes of the naturalist cause which holds to evolutionary principles, that the strong shall survive? Is this not victory?

As one blogger has already commented, perhaps it would only have been fitting if each of these men were wearing this shirt:

Merry Christmas

I wrote previously concerning (indirectly) Steve Jobs and the cult of personality that seems to (have) surround(ed) him. I thought it amazing that people were able to look past his faults as a human being all because he gave them something shiny. Then I came across this post from a Christian blogger titled "What Steve Jobs Can Teach The Church." Now he admits that as a person, he can't teach it much, but he looks at one aspect of the way that Steve ran Apple.

Another reason that Apple eschews market research is that in Steve’s opinion, “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” This to me is a much more telling reason and one that can help inform how the church “does business.” While it may strike some people as elitist, the message of the Christian gospel is exactly the kind of thing that “people don’t know they want until you show it to them.” Perhaps they may feel that something is missing in life, but apart for divine intervention, non-Christians aren’t specifically looking for the truth of the gospel. The gospel simultaneously tells people they are far worse off than they think they are and yet the grace of God is far better than they could ever imagine. It’s just not the kind of message you could “guess” or that any kind of market research would reveal people are looking for.

It is presently three days before Christmas. A time when people look to spend copious amounts of money that they don't have on gifts for the people in their life. Its a time when people look to celebrate by going to as many parties as they can and drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Its also a time when many people are hit by bouts depression the most and suicide rates rise. Christmas, or at least how we in the modern western world have taken to celebrating Christmas, is rather a sad time. We talk a good game about love, joy and peace towards our fellow man, but don't get in the way of that frantic shopper on the hunt for the last 'toy of the year' or the person who's had a bit too much egg nog but still decides to drive.

I have no problem with wanting to share things with your loved ones. I have no problem with the idea of having a drink or two while celebrating Christmas. But Christmas is not about shopping, the headaches of overspending or to focus on what we don't have. These are the things that the world tries to shame us with, to make us feel inadequate and incomplete.

No, Christmas is (supposed) to be about celebrating the fact that God loved mankind so much that he sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to live as a man and then to die for the sins of the world. This is the time when we can remember and rejoice knowing that God has intervened, that he has acted on our behalf and that we are loved by our creator. Christmas is a celebration of Christ and because“people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” I want to show you the Gospel of Christ Jesus, for as the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16).

To serve and protect who?

It wasn't surprising to me when the various levels of government in the US and other countries moved in to forcibly remove OWS protesters from the camps that they had established in many major cities. The individual's right to assemble and to speak was little more than a puff of air in the face of armed and armored riot police wielding truncheons and pepper spray.

Government oppression, massive bank fraud - 5
People - 0

After the various bailouts that the people opposed but were forced to pay for, the government's lack of willingness to protect homeowners from illegal foreclosure, the government's complicity in the mass fraud perpetrated by the various TBTF banks by not enforcing regulations or punishing those guilty of crimes and the recent repression of the people, it is nice to see that the people haven't given up. Of course I don't expect a different result.

The Occupy Wall Street protests are moving on to a new target. 

Protesters across the United States are reclaiming foreclosed homes and boarded-up properties, signalling a tactical shift for the movement against wealth inequality. Groups in more than 25 cities held protests Tuesday on behalf of homeowners facing evictions.

It is in no way surprising to see the following response from those on the front lines of the police state:

In Portland, Ore., police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said he's aware the movement called for people to make a political statement by occupying foreclosed homes, but said police will "treat them all as trespassers." 

In Seattle, police spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said his department sees squatting in private properties as the same violation of trespassing Occupy Seattle made when it camped in a downtown park. 

"It's no different than when people were trespassing [in the park]," Whitcomb said. "We went nights and days, letting people camp in the park. We relied on education and outreach, rather than enforcing the law to the letter."

So when the banks were illegally forcing people from their homes through faulty foreclosures, the police were there to force people from their homes on behalf of the banks. Now that the people want to reclaim what is theirs, the police will be there to arrest them in order to protect the sanctity of the bank's property.

Its unfortunate that this is what things have come to, but it has been long said that people get the government that they deserve and when people continue to empower a increasingly centralized government, one shouldn't be surprised when it begins to flex its muscle for its own purposes rather than those of the people they are supposed to serve.