A Hero's Welcome

They say that you should never meet your heroes.  There's some wisdom to this but really it depends on what kind of people your heroes are.  Short post this week, I just want to geek out about an awesome experience I had.  I alluded to this last week but another reason I chose to do a pro-life post was because the next day, July 27, I was to attend the Coalition for Life St. Louis' annual benefit dinner.  Coalition for Life is a great organization in and of itself, but for me the highlight of the evening was the keynote speaker, my personal hero (and, God-willing, the future Mrs. Nicodemus...Crap!  Did I just type that out loud?), Lila Rose.

For those of you who don't know, Lila Rose is the president and founder of Live Action, the pro-life organization she started when she was fifteen.  Live Action is a new media nonprofit dedicated to ending abortion and building a culture of life and is best known for doing undercover video stings inside the abortion industry, catching Planned Parenthood and others in unethical and illegal activity and exposing their dirtiest laundry to the light of day.  Now, Lila Rose was not behind this latest batch of videos, that honor belongs to the Center for Medical Progress, but still, she pioneered this style of undercover pro-life detective work.  As one writer wrote a few years ago (I'd link to the article, but I can't find it), "she like Batman, but with better hair."  So basically, she's like Asami from The Legend of Korra.

So, naturally, when Coalition for Life announced that she would be the featured speaker at their annual benefit dinner, I knew I had to be there.  Just a couple weeks after I had reserved my seat, I learned about the VIP tickets to the reception before the dinner where I could actually meet her.  It took until the very last week and hours of hard work, but I managed to earn and save enough for the minimum donation.

So, yeah, I met Lila Rose last week.  And it.  Was.  Awesome!  She was genuinely sweet and friendly.  I got to tell her she was my hero, that she was alway in my prayers, and even got my picture taken with her.  As if it wasn't amazing enough just talking to her, the benefit happened to fall on her 27th birthday.  Not only did I get to meet my hero, I got to wish her a Happy Golden Birthday in person.

So, yeah, probably not coming down from this high for a while.  Have an awesome week!  (But it won't be as awesome as the one I just had!)

For more information on Lila Rose and Live Action, go here:  http://liveaction.org/lilarose/

7 Unintentionally(?) Pro-Life T.V. Episodes

In light of the recent Planned Parenthood scandal, and other reasons I'll go more into next week, it is only fitting that I talk about abortion this week.  I am pro-life.  Very pro-life.  In fact, this is the big one; the number one issue for me.  Everything else comes second.  Why do I feel this way?  Well, a number of reasons, but the big one is justice.  If we cannot extend the rights and protections outlined in the Constitution to the most innocent and helpless among us, then we deserve neither the prosperity created by the free market system nor the security afforded us by our Second Amendment, strong military, and good foreign policy.  Every time I hear some Republican saying that we need to back-burner the abortion debate in order to fix the economy and save the country, I can't help but think, "if it'll cost 4,000+ innocents a day, is it really worth saving?"  That's not to say that the other issues aren't important, and in a later post I'll get into why many pro-lifers make a mistake by neglecting those issues, but Life issues are the most important.  Without the Right to Life all other rights are meaningless and if we deny that most fundamental of rights to the most innocent, we cannot call ourselves a just society.

In keeping with my tradition of tying conservative issues into geek and pop culture, I'm devoting this post to unintentional(?) pro-life themes in seven different T.V. show episodes.  They are in no particular order other than personal preference, so here they are:

WARNING:  SPOILERS AHEAD!

iZombie;  S1 E2;  "Brother, Can You Spare a Brain?"

The Show:  Warning: Do Not Eat While Watching This Show.  Liv Moore was an ambitious young doctor until she was turned into a zombie.  Now she works in the morgue for access to brains.  If zombies don't eat brains regularly they lose their sapience and revert to the mindless horror movie monsters of traditional zombie fiction.  Eating brains gives zombies flashes of their memories which Liv uses to solve their murders.

The Episode:  Liv investigates the murder of Seattle's most erotic painter.  Also, she encounters the zombie who turned her, a former drug dealer named Blaine.

The Pro-Life Theme:  I picked this episode because it's when Blaine starts his racket of turning rich clients into zombies and charging them exorbitant amounts to provide them brains, but really, any episode from here until the end of the season applies here.  It is eerie how similar Blaine's business model is to Planned Parenthood's.  They both help create their own economy.  Blaine's clientele only need his services because he turned them in the first place.  Planned Parenthood provides cheap, shoddy quality contraceptives and encourages promiscuous behavior among young people knowing they'll be able to sell them abortions soon enough.  They both target underprivileged youth.  Most of the brains Blaine procures came from homeless youth he picks up off the street.  Planned Parenthood routinely targets minorities and impoverished neighborhoods for abortion and markets to young people. Neither tolerates disloyalty.  When two of Blaine's thugs try to steal some of his clients and start their own racket, he shoots them.  When one of his clients loses control and kills the delivery boy, Blaine takes a power drill to her head.  When another client tries to put an end to Blaine and his murderous enterprise, Blaine puts a bullet in his skull.  We don't need to think hard to remember the massive smear campaign Planned Parenthood launched when Susan G. Komen decided to end financial contributions to the abortion giant.  Don't even get me started on the slander and vitriol PP spews at brave ex-clinic workers like Abby Johnson who dare to speak out.  Finally, they both profit off of killing people.

Steven Universe;  S1 E35;  "Lion 3: Straight to Video"

The Show:  Thousands of years ago the planet was invaded by magic sapient gemstones but were repelled by a rebel faction led by Rose Quartz.  Rose and her allies continued to defend the world until she fell in love with a human and gave birth to a son.  However, since gems don't reproduce as humans do, she had to give up her physical form to birth him.  Now, Steven goes on adventures and fights evil alongside his mother's former comrades.

The Episode:  Steven's pet, Lion, keeps sleeping on his face, almost suffocating him in his sleep.  But Steven soon realizes that Lion is trying to show him something.  Inside his mane is a pocket dimension filled with treasures connected to Rose Quartz.  Among these, Steven finds a videotape left for him by his mother.

The Pro-Life Theme:  The message Rose left Steven is absolutely heart wrenching.  In it she explains what is going to happen to her when she gives birth to him.  Much of it is stuff we already knew, but it's the first confirmation that she knew.  She knows what's about to happen and, much like a pregnant cancer patient who delays treatment rather than endanger her child, she is both willing and happy to give her life for her son.  A perfect example of a mother's love for her unborn baby.

Game of Thrones;  S1 E5;  "The Wolf and The Lion"

The Show:  …Uh…okay…didn't really think this through.  How am I supposed to sum up Game of FREAKING Thrones?  More crap goes down in a single season than most shows have in their entire run!  Um…I guess it's a show about political intrigue set in the high fantasy land of Westeros where various houses of nobility vie for control of the Iron Throne and the Seven Kingdoms it represents.  The main houses in season one are Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, and Targaryen.

The Episode:  WHAT THE HELL?!!!  How is it harder to sum up a single episode than an entire series?!  So much happens in this episode!  Screw it, I'm just going to cover the relevant portions.  Word reaches King's Landing that Daenerys Targaryen, a princess in exile, is pregnant and her son will have a claim to the Iron Throne.  King Robert wants her killed, his advisors agree, his right hand and best friend Eddard Stark disagrees and resigns his position of "Hand of the King" over the issue.

The Pro-Life Theme:  Eddard Stark is man who has suffered real loss at the hands of the Targaryens.  Yet, in spite of this, he can see that Daenerys and her unborn child are innocents in this and that it is wrong to kill them for what they might do.  He refuses to order her death even in defiance of his friend and king.  It's nice that there's such a strong pillar of morality in this show.  I sure hope nothing bad happens to him.

Terra Nova;  S1 E1;  "Genesis"

The Show:  In the mid 22nd century the earth has become inhospitable.  Thick layers of smog cover the cities and strict population controls are enforced.  However, science has discovered a way to send people to a distant alternate past.  This show follows the Shannon family of five as they find a new life in the cretaceous period, but the dinosaurs may not be the biggest threat they face.

The Episode:  This pilot episode reveals a dystopian future where the smog is so thick that you can't go outside without a breathing mask and the government enforces a strict 2 child policy (wait, is this the future or China?).  The Shannon family is discovered to have an illegal third child, an altercation ensues, and Jim Shannon ends up with an 8 year prison sentence.  Two years later his wife Elisabeth visits to inform him that she's been offered the chance to go to Terra Nova, but their youngest, Zoe, can't come.  She sneaks him a laser knife and he breaks out to smuggle Zoe and himself through the portal with the rest of their family.

The Pro-Life Theme:  This pilot demonstrates the cruelty of China's One Child policy.  Also, while it is never stated, it seems reasonable to assume that the Shannons had their third child because they had an unplanned pregnancy and were morally opposed to abortion.  So, they chose Life for Zoe.

Over the Garden Wall;  Chapter 10;  "The Unknown"

The Show:  This show was a miniseries of ten eleven-minute episodes and if you haven't seen it yet watch it right now.  Seriously, it'll take less than two hours.  Go on.  I'll wait.  Okay, for those of you who ignored my advice, "Over the Garden Wall" follows two brothers, Wirt and Greg, traveling through the woods of The Unknown where they meet a mysterious Woodsman, a talking bluebird, and all manner of strange characters while being stalked by a dark entity known simply as "The Beast."

The Episode:  The final installment in the series.  Greg has just traded himself to the Beast to save Wirt and now Wirt must rescue his brother from the Beast's clutches.  The Beast presents the Woodsman with a sinister offer: Greg half-turned into an Edelwood.

The Pro-Life Theme:  For years the Woodsman has been chopping down Edelwoods to keep his daughter's flame lit, but upon seeing the humanity of the Beast's latest victim refuses.  This prompts the Beast to inform him that he's "been grinding up lost souls for years," to which the horrified Woodsman replies "I didn't know!  I didn't know that this is where the Edelwoods came from!"  There's a parallel here with those who support and perform abortions who say they are doing good, noble, and necessary work and may even believe it until they are confronted with the truth and can no long deny the humanity of the unborn or the reality of what they are doing.  The Woodsman realizes that his daughter would not want to be saved if it meant killing another innocent child.

Gargoyles;  S2 E9,10,11,12;  "City of Stone"

The Show:  Stone by day, warriors by night.  Goliath and his clan of gargoyles were betrayed by the humans they were sworn to protect and frozen in stone by a magic spell.  A thousand years later they awaken in modern day Manhattan where they meet new friends…and new enemies.

The Episode:  In this four part "tentpole" episode the backstories of two of the show's most compelling antagonists,  the human-hating gargoyle Demona and her nemesis Macbeth, are finally revealed.  When Demona broadcasts a spell turning all who see and hear it to stone throughout the night, the gargoyles must ally with their nemesis, Xanatos, to break the spell and defeat her.  Meanwhile, in both flashback and present, Demona is pursued by the Hunter, a foe from her past.  All of this is observed by the mysterious Weird Sisters.

The Pro-Life Theme:  A phrase that pops up repeatedly in this episode is "Every life is precious."  The Weird Sisters say it to Goliath after he takes down a group of terrorists in the opening.  Later, Goliath repeats the line when he comes across the shattered remains of Demona's victims.  Finally, when Macbeth is about to kill Demona (and himself for that matter), Goliath tells him, "Death is never the answer.  Life is."

Avatar: The Last Airbender;  B3 C18,19,20,21;  "Sozin's Comet"

The Show:  My all time favorite T.V. show, "Avatar" is set in a high fantasy world where there are four nations, each associated with one of the Hellenistic elements: water, earth, fire, and air.  Within these nations certain individuals are born with the ability to manipulate or "bend" their national element.  Peace and balance between the nations and the Spirit World is kept by the Avatar, the one person who can master all four elements.  When the Avatar dies he or she is reborn into the next nation in the cycle. The four nations lived in peace until the Fire Nation launched a massive campaign to conquer the world starting by wiping out the peaceful Air Nomad civilization, since the next Avatar is to be an Air Nomad.  However, the Avatar, a boy named Aang, had run away from home and got frozen in an iceberg before the attack occurred.  A hundred years later Aang awakens and must master the other three elements in order to defeat the Fire Lord and restore balance to the world.

The Episode:  A hundred years ago Fire Lord Sozin harnessed the power of a comet in order to wipe out the Air Nomads.  Now, the comet is returning and Fire Lord Ozai intends to use it to wipe out the Earth Kingdom as well.  In this epic four part series finale Aang must finally face the Fire Lord in order to save the world, but he faces another conflict as well, a moral conflict.  Aang, a pacifist, abhors the idea of taking a life but it seems that killing the Fire Lord may the only way to end the war and save the world.

The Pro-Life Theme:  This episode raises some compelling thoughts regarding the sanctity of Life.  Pro-aborts love to throw issues like the death penalty in our faces in an attempt to paint pro-lifers as hypocrites.  However, not only is this point based on an erroneous assumption (increasing numbers of pro-lifers oppose the death penalty), but it really serves to expose their own hypocrisy.  If a convicted murderer, who has taken the life of fellow human beings, deserves their right to life, how can you possibly deny it to a child whose only crime was being in the wrong person at the wrong time?  Which leads me to my ultimate point:  If even the life of a monster like Ozai is sacred, then surely the lives of the innocents in the womb are sacred.

The Politics of The X-Men: How They Got It Backwards

Who doesn't love the X-Men?  Nobody, that's who.  Prior to the Marvel Cinematic Universe popularizing the Avengers, the X-Men were probably the most well known and beloved superhero team out there.  And what's not to love?  They're a team of scrappy super-powered underdogs and misfits fighting to protect those who fear and hate them.  I'm not even a big comic book fan and one of my favorite shows is X-Men: Evolution.  For over fifty years they've been a staple of the superhero genre.  They've had numerous adaptations in film, comics, and television.  Why have they endured so well?  A number of reasons, actually.
First, they're admirable.  Much like the military men and women who risk life and limb to defend the leftists and hippies that disparage, spit on, and curse at them, the X-Men fight to defend humanity, even those who fear and hate them for being mutants.  Few things could be more noble.
Secondly, they're relatable.  Who hasn't at one time or another felt like an outcast?  Like the world had rejected them for being different?  Certainly many in the geek community have felt that way and many more wish they could just wake up with superhuman abilities.
However, perhaps the greatest strength of the X-Men is their relevance.  Since their first issue was released in 1963, their story has been riddled with social commentary.  In the 60's the plight of mutants  often paralleled the Civil Rights movement with Professor X being compared to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Magneto to Malcolm X.  These days, mutant rights are most often compared to the LGBT movement.  So, naturally, whenever political parties come into play the anti-mutant bigots are always evil Republicans while the tolerant, open-minded Democrats are the party of mutant equality.  Let's discuss why this representation is utter garbage, shall we?

Now, I could cite the Democrat party's long history of institutionalized racism; how they fought to defend slavery in the Civil War, how they founded the KKK and implemented the Jim Crow laws, how they fought tooth and nail against Civi Rights, but Bill Whittle and Alfonzo Rachel explain that far better than I could.  I could also point out that social conservative at most oppose gay marriage and adoption.  To my knowledge, they haven't pushing for a "Homosexual Registration Act" or calling for the construction of giant sentinel robots to combat the "gay menace."

"Queer life-sign detected..." 

But that's beside the point.  The real issue here is not with what mutants represent, but if, hypothetically, mutants existed in the real world, which side would be pro-mutant and which side would be anti-mutant.  Once you look at the facts, the answer might surprise the writers of X-Men.

While there is little risk of the Right imposing on the gay community the same oppressive measures the mutants have suffered, there is a class of people that the Left wants registered and catalogued in government databases and ultimately neutralized.  I am speaking, of course, about gun owners.  Seriously, progressives do not believe that honest citizens can be trusted with their own firearms.  Do you really think they'd be okay with people with destructive eye blasts, telekinesis, or the ability to turn ordinary objects like playing cards into explosives just walking around freely?

Or to control the weather?

Or to knock people out with a touch?

No, they'd want the government to keep tabs on these people so they could be taken away and locked up if deemed necessary.  Whenever Magneto or one of his disciples or just an unaffiliated mutant who finally snapped went on a killing spree, progressives would be calling for stricter mutant laws.  True conservatives would see these people as individuals not responsible for the actions of anyone else and as American citizens afforded all the rights and protections guaranteed by the Constitution.

Furthermore, when you really listen to liberal rhetoric, they talk more about "equality" than "liberty."  The fact is that mutants would have a distinct physical advantage over others and liberals would never tolerate that.  They'd call for mutants to pay a higher tax rate in order to level the playing field, require businesses to hire at least as many non mutants as mutants, and ban mutants from using their powers in public.

Leftist policies are often the policies of fear and envy.  They fear guns, so they want guns taken away from honest American citizens.  They envy the wealthy, so they use the tax system to take what they could never earn themselves.  I know I'd be envious if I lived in a world where some people were born with super powers and I wasn't, but I don't want to punish those more blest than I, so I know I'd be pro-mutant like most conservatives.  On the other hand, the anti-mutant movement would read like a Venn Diagram of those who fear mutants, those who envy mutants, and liberals.  It would pretty much look like this:

The Left would call upon Planned Parenthood to target mutant communities and families that might be carrying a recessive X gene in order to abort as many mutant babies as possible.  And of course, as public opinion starts shifting in favor of mutant rights, they'll call upon their lackeys in Media and Entertainment to pin their long history of anti-mutant bigotry on the Right.  Planned Parenthood will still target mutants for abortion, of course, while accusing Right-to-Lifers of attacking mutants' reproductive freedoms.  There may even be a liberal president who signs a Mutant Rights bill into law, saying "I'll have those muties voting Democratic for the next two hundred years."

If You Hate Politics, You Should Vote Conservative.

Hello world, you can call me Nicodemus.  This is my first blog, so I'm a little new at this, but let me start by addressing the elephant in the room.  I'm a nerd.  Or a geek.  I never really cared much about the supposed difference between the two but apparently some people do.

But yeah, I play Magic:  The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh and have passionate opinions on the Anime series and the four spinoffs on which the latter was based.  I love reading fantasy books and watching fantasy movies and television.  I'm 28 and my favorite show of all time has a target audience of less than half that.  My favorite movie is an Anime.

I am also a conservative.  I believe in the rights to Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  I believe in the Constitution, the free market system, and how they make life better for everyone.

I'm something of a rarity in that way.  Most self-proclaimed geeks/nerds tend to vote liberal, but why is an interesting question.  You see, most of them if asked will say they hate or don't care about politics.  I'm kind of the same way.  I don't care for politics or politicians or the entire political class.  But that is precisely one of the main reasons why I vote conservative and why, if you hate politics, you should too.  Conservatism is all about limiting the power of the government.  The Founding Fathers knew too well what kind of person goes into politics.  The Constitution was written specifically to limit the amount of power those people could accrue.  However, for more than a century progressives have undermined, eroded, changed, and flat out ignored the Constitution in order to gain more power.  Conservatives want to conserve and restore the Constitution.  Conservatives, not moderate or establishment republicans mind you, but the real, true conservatives whom you're always told are evil extremists want to reduce the power of the political class and limit the impact they'll have on our lives.  So why do most geeks vote liberal?  I've already told you.

While part of it is that the conservative movement has done a poor job of reaching out to geek culture (something I'm hoping to change with this blog), the main reason geeks tend to vote liberal is because they don't care about politics.  They simply do not care enough to do the research and learn about the issues or what each candidate stands for.  What they do care about is pop culture.  We geeks live and breathe pop culture.  Unfortunately, however, the pop culture is almost entirely controlled by leftists.  For several decades they've been telling us that conservatives and republicans are evil, racist, sexist, greedy, evil, homophobic, evil, old, white, male, and evil.  So, geeks and nerds alike (still don't care about the difference) vote for the party and policies of big government, big bureaucracy, and big politics simply for being anti-conservative.  The people who claim to hate politics are consistently voting more power, more control, and more influence to the politicians.

There is a reason why I chose "Nicodemus" as my screen name.  Nicodemus was a character from Don Bluth's masterpiece, The Secret of Nimh.  It follows the story of Mrs. Brisby, a scared little mouse on a dangerous quest to save her sick son and seeks help from the rats of the rosebush.  The rats, along with Mrs. Brisby's late husband Jonathan, had escaped from a lab where they were given human level intelligence and have now split into two factions.  Let's call these factions "Conservatives" and "Liberals."  The Liberals are led by the conniving Jenner who wants to continue living parasitically off the farmer, stealing electricity and resources even as it puts their society in jeopardy.

The Conservatives, led by wise Nicodemus, believe they need to leave the farm, produce their own energy, and build a society where they can be independent and self-sufficient.  Perhaps the most profound quote of the film is when Nicodemus says:  "We can no longer live as rats.  We know too much."

Knowledge demands responsibility and action.  If you say you don't care about politics, I both sympathize with and envy you.  I wish I could not care about politics.  I would be much happier if I could just enjoy a story without worrying about the political agenda of its creators, but blissful ignorance is not a luxury I have.  I am too aware of how politics directly affects me and the world around me.  I can no longer live as a rat.  I know too much.

Now for some good news.  As the brilliant Bill Whittle pointed out, story is inherently conservative.  For all the effort leftists put into using the pop culture to spread progressive ideology, unintentional conservative themes continuously show up in liberal productions.  That's why I'm writing this blog.  I want bring these accidental nuggets of conservative wisdom to the light of day so that maybe, just maybe, a few more of my people, be they geek or nerd, will come to realize that the things they love about these stories are in fact conservative ideals, not liberal ones.