When They Lie about History, Don't Nod Your Head Like a Bobblehead Doll!

Mary Tudor, Queen of England 1553-1558

I'm not sure how I got on Factinate's list, but I get a daily email with "fun facts about everything." If you think historical myths and disinformation are fun, Factinate is the site for you.

Are Your Sources Trustworthy? Remember, The Winners Write History...

...at least in the short term. Things generally begin to be sorted out looking backwards several generations later. 

That is certainly the case with the Lincoln cult, i.e. the "church of Lincoln." He was a great man in many ways. He was also a self-serving pragmatist, the highest paid lawyer in the country who argued for "Massah" in his one and only case involving slavery. Thomas DiLorenzo has several books showing the other side of Lincoln which is not a pretty picture.

I was a Lincoln worshiper as a teenager and still have the report I did in high school. But I no longer look at him as a secular saint who "ended slavery" with his Emancipation Proclamation. He did no such thing. The only slaves freed by that document were those in the South, slaves over which Lincoln had no control. He simply, in pragmatic fashion, hoped to stir up a slave insurrection. In view of the bloody revolts in Haiti and Ned Turner's Rebellion, where entire families were wiped out like the genocide in Rwanda, Lincoln apparently had no concern about the possibility he would stir up genocide against southern families. 

On Critical Thinking, the McCarrick Report, and Archbishop Vigano

People like to label things. In a complicated world it's a kind of shorthand. For example, in religious terms we may label our affiliation saying:

"I'm a Catholic."

"I'm a Jew."

The Left Will Call All These Voters "Uncle Tom," I Call Them Independent Thinkers!

What have liberals done for the black (or the white) community?

Always Read with your Critical Thinking Scan in the On Position!

Just because a man wears a roman collar
doesn't mean he's telling the truth.

I picked up a book of Easter season daily readings written in 1980 and I'd say it shows all the
evidence of post Vatican II...mmm...for want of a better word...confusion. Today, for Friday of the 2nd week of Easter I read this:

...we have the assurance -- if a work is of God, it cannot be destroyed. To fight it is to fight against God....And as we look about us at people who have survived heroic tests of endurance or at institutions that have continued to exist over the centuries, we ought to be convinced that such expressions are godly. Otherwise, they would have died a long time ago. There are many such institutions which deserve much more respect than we often give them. They must have proven not only that they are from  God but also that their motivation is divinely inspired.

Curiosity and Critical Thinking

Critical thinking often requires looking at a thing from more than one vantage point. I thought about that while visiting our daughter recently. Hanging in the bathroom is this saying: "Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures." It immediately brought to mind Bilbo Baggins setting off on his adventure with Gandalf and the dwarves. I remember, however, that his first reaction to the idea was more in line with the saying, "Curiosity killed the cat." No thank you, no adventures for me!