NIGGLING THINGS, 2005

 

 

 

By Paul deParrie
March 20, 2005
NewsWithViews.com

Every once in a while I feel the need to write a piece about what I call �niggling things� � things that sit in the back of my mind and bug me, but are not, by themselves, enough to write into an entire column.

Niggling Thing #1: �Our thoughts and prayers are with them,� the newscaster or public speaker intones. This phrase comes primarily from the mouth of some unbelieving reprobate whenever tragedy strikes somewhere. Now, I understand prayer. Prayer is a great thing when coming from godly, believing men and women, but just what are these �thoughts� that heathen keep promising? What do these �thoughts� do? Do these folks think their �thoughts� have the same effect as prayers? Are the unbelievers promising to do both? (I�m not sure I would like that since God�s Word says the prayer of the wicked is an abomination.) I just wish these people who deny God in every other aspect of their lives would stop trying for the appearance of some kind of spirituality at these times and simply say, �I feel bad for the people involved and their families, but, I guess that�s life, huh?� Maybe that would be �insensitive.�

Niggling Thing #2: �Insensitive,� by the way, is one of those vastly overused and meaningless words people use to denote displeasure with something said or done. Another is �inappropriate.� The first is simply vague. It describes something that may have (or may not have) ruffled someone�s feelings. In the past, insensitive was used for much grander objects like playing the clown at a funeral or making rude remarks about someone�s handicap. The word is now used to describe even the slightest possibility of emotional gaffe. The use of �inappropriate� goes the opposite direction. Where �insensitive� is currently used to enlarge an offense, �inappropriate� diminishes it. It is, for instance, common to hear people refer to molesting a child as �inappropriate touching.� How inappropriate is that? It is like referring to deliberately shooting someone as �inappropriate aiming.� How about some honesty here? Child molesting isn�t �inappropriate,� its evil, perverted, and criminal.

Niggling Thing #3: What�s all the fuss about the Wichita Police finally, after decades of search, discovering the murderer BTK? This city has had the GTK murderer operating in the open for at least that long and they do nothing about him. (GTK = George Tiller the Killer, the world�s best-known, late-term abortionist.)

Niggling Thing #4: Why is it that the same people who cannot trust the System � the government � to provide police protection and national defense against foreign enemies, suddenly have complete faith in that same System to provide health care, schooling to children, and to run utility companies? In the aftermath of the Enron/Arthur Anderson/Merrill Lynch debacles, these folks (at least here in River City) want to turn Enron�s local branch, PGE, into PUD � that is Portland General Electric into Public Utility District. The same city government that the Left always accuses of abuse of power via the police and others, will now get the blessing of the Left to have the power to abuse. Think of it this way: When Enron was exposed, the airwaves bristled with video of high-ranking officials of large corporations being walked out of their offices in handcuffs to face criminal charges over their abuses of power. Now ask yourself: When was the last time there was a government scandal and you watched on TV as high-ranking government officials were doing the �perp walk� outside their offices? What I am saying is that, as uncommon as it may be, a private business official is far more often held accountable for his abuses of power than any government official. So, why do we want to place the power (and the power companies) into the hands of people whose level of accountability is less?

Niggling Thing #5: Speaking of government-run operations, the State of Oregon�s version of socialized (and politicized) medicine, the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) has a �prioritized list� for the medical conditions and treatments it will cover. Number 54 out of about 600 is birth control. Abortion is number 300. Physician-assisted killing of sick people is 265. Consider that replacement of a heart valve is below abortion at 313. So are repairing a deep, open wound (380), treating lightning strikes and burn treatment (365), repair of a cleft palate (383), treating a collapsed lung (320), handling fractured face bones (345), and treatment of at least one admittedly �life-threatening� condition (352). Some priorities. huh?

Niggling Thing #6: There has been a lot of talk about Social Security reform and, without getting into the issue of whether the U.S. Constitution authorizes federally-run Ponzi schemes, one of the items usually brought up is the shrinking number of those paying into the system for every current recipient. I have heard various estimates for how many paid in for every recipient at the start of the program � something like 15 to one � compared to today�s four to one. What accounts for this drop? We keep hearing references to the �Baby Boomers� who are now headed toward retirement. Yet that cannot be the whole explanation. Could it be that the Baby Boomer Generation became the No Baby Generation with massive use of abortion and birth control? Remember that with abortion alone since 1973, one third of all babies died in abortuaries. There is no way to estimate the babies who simply died by the human pesticide we call The Pill. So the baby Boomer Generation cut their own throats in Social Security. I wonder if their children who did survive will have a similar solution for their aging �unwanted� parents as these parents did for their newly-conceived �unwanted� children?

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