Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
5 Facts About Patrick, the Indiana Jones of Saints ~ Highlights from the legendary life of St. Patrick

 
Obama Uses Army To Attack “White Privilege” ~ Social engineering on steroids; destroying the military by manufacturing division and derision ~

The U.S. Army subjected 400 soldiers in Georgia to a “white privilege” indoctrination session last year, lecturing the troops on how our society supposedly systematically lavishes unearned benefits on those who are white, male, and heterosexual, a watchdog group reports […]

Who needs an enemy? Progressives are turning our troops against each other.

 
Socialism’s Bloody History Shows Millennials Should Think Twice Before Supporting It ~ A timely lesson from the past for those who have been woefully mis-educated. Share this one! ~

Socialism demands that we place blind trust in whoever takes the power to distribute society’s goods and services. History shows those who have this power abuse it in horrific ways.

Furthermore,

Once socialism is entrenched, it is tailor-made to separate human beings and stand in the way of intimacy. Indeed, its general premise is that the good of the collective trumps the good of the individual, which means it is actually invested in wreaking havoc on family relationships and loyalties.

What John Adams Knew; Our Government Was Designed to Protect Us from the Trumps of the World ~ Either party’s leading candidate of the moment will spell the eventual end of our Constitutional Republic ~

Our law is a law of property, commerce, trade, and individual rights. The democratic passion — which informs the campaign of Bernie Sanders as much as it does that of Donald Trump — rejects those things. It would see unpopular points of view quashed, First Amendment be damned, a project already well under way among Democrats seeking to criminalize dissenting views on global warming. The democratic passion demands the expropriation of Apple and Goldman Sachs, projects Trump considers with some glee. It demands a central-planning regime in place of the free flow of goods and capital, not because that’s good economics — it isn’t — but because such a regime would constitute an act of economic and political violence against Them.

 
The Secret to Ending Euthanasia: Valuing the Elderly ~ Each life has inherent worth – in God’s eyes ~

In a culture of life, no person is viewed as a burden, no matter how much care and attention they need. Senior citizens are some of the wisest members of our society, and they deserve to be treated with honor and respect. As elderly persons slow down in life, they are blessed with an opportunity to share their wisdom and teach the younger generations that every moment is a gift from a loving Creator and an opportunity to choose to love those around us.

 
A Vote For Trump Is A Vote Against American Consumers ~ We’re not going to #makeAmericagreatagain by listening to Trump on trade ~

Rather than arguing abstract truths, concentrate on the pain Americans will feel if Donald Trump gets his way.

 
How Gardens Cultivate American Independence ~ Just in time for spring, at the Federalist celebrates our gardening tradition; harvesting happy memories and cherished American values ~

Since the earliest days of America, our gardens have illustrated and refined our national character.

 

As raising children does on a much deeper scale, gardening and farming makes you daily responsible to someone or something outside of yourself. Tomatoes get eaten by rats and insects, crowded out by weeds. To thrive, they need care. In providing that care, we become the kind of people who give the gift of ourselves. That kind of person is different from the person who spends his time thinking about satisfying chiefly himself and his own desires. To make a garden produce what you need, you have to give it what it needs. It’s a reciprocal relationship on a more personal scale than merely visiting a grocery store.
 

That commitment to something other than one’s self pulls out of a person other virtues, such as a work ethic, and humility before this world that… recognizes it is imbued with great, untamable mysteries still.