I had a couple of beers one night last week with a general contractor friend. He told me the story of an older client of his that had him fix a couple of things in his house. While he was there, the older gentleman drew his attention to a grape-sized bubble sticking out of an otherwise perfectly normal and healthy looking inside wall. Joe asked his client for permission to stick his finger through the bubble…and just like that, a minor cosmetic repair turned into a major reconstruction project! Behind the near perfect facade was a nightmare of widespread rot and decay. Note– The integrity of the structure had been breached, through a design flaw in the roofing that allowed ice-dammed water access.
I cannot begin to tell you how many of my liberal friends have retrofitted their already rose-colored glasses with two lenses:
- The Record High Stock Market
- The Housing Recovery
The Stock Market and Housing Recovery are the same exact Dry Wall and Paint Facade covering an even more deadly and devastating mass of rot and decay than Joe’s older client suffered with one major difference. Neither Joe nor his client wears rose-colored glasses! They tore out the rot, re-framed dry-walled and painted…preventing further spread of decay and possible health issues from microbial mold spores, etc.! AND, they probably saved a very expensive bay window in the process!
The liberals on the other hand, will blame the bubble on George Bush and have the media white-wash over the real problems with a fresh new coat of paint (or flat screen television!)…leaving the underlying sea of slime unimpeded to spread the corruption, rot and decay necessary to sustain the 535 very hungry Capitol Hill Termites and their Corporate & Special Interest Cronies! Note- The Integrity of the structure has been breached by the total removal of all morality from the structure. God has been evicted, his shepherds silenced, and his flocks persecuted!
We now know because we’ve found their 5 point “Transformational” reconstruction plans:
- Undermine the footings & foundation (The Constitution)!
- Replace the solid Conservative frame (Rule of Law) with Liberal Rot (Termite Feast)!
- Legislate Legitimate Contractors out of the business through taxes, mandates & regulations!
- Register>Control>Confiscate ALL hammers & nails (2nd Amendment)
- Central Control of ALL Housing (Tyranny)!
Check out what’s lurking behind the wall of yesterday’s 266 point sell-off. Scroll down to Reposts I & II! http://barnhardt.biz/ Do NOT give up your hammers and stock up on nails…while you can! 🙂
Standupnsing 
Metaphorically speaking, of course, I enjoyed my repast at Murray’s Cafe this morning. As usual, it was well prepared and delicious. 😉
I particularly enjoyed one tasty morsel on the menu, which I had somehow failed to notice before, and found it mischievously delectable. How could I have forgotten the significance of the 23rd Psalm, when I just discovered I can still recite it verbatim, after nearly 50 years of not having the slightest reason to do so?
I use the term ‘sheeple’ frequently, and have done so for over twenty years. I can’t recall where I first encountered it; but for many years, readers would think I coined it, because they first heard this instantly grasped, one-word, metaphor from me. It has been interesting to notice it becoming increasingly common in conservative rhetoric.
Naturally, I also employ the metaphors of shepherds, bellwethers, flocks, sheepdogs, and wolves when deriding their usually somnolent herd mentality. Yet, until now, it somehow had not risen to the level of my consciousness, that Christians frequently self-identify as sheeple. It is not hard to predict that this new insight may appear in future rants, about the Piously Correct authoritarians crippling conservative politics. 🙂
I find it interesting that you intercede the clergy as the actual shepherds, in the employ of God to lead His flocks, Chip. From the perspective of the Psalmist, I would have probably left God as the shepherd, and assigned the clergy to the role of ‘bellwethers’; but I suppose most readers have never bothered to learn the original proper meaning of that term (a castrated sheep with a bell around it’s neck that the others tend to follow), oft-used as a metaphor itself for a ‘trendsetter.’
Your construct is probably the more accurate, especially for a Catholic. A bellwether simply leads, and has no responsibility to gather strays or tend to their needs. Besides, this arrangement permits the owner to remain enigmatic, while leaving it to staff to convince the flocks of the value in belonging to His collective. 😉 ◄Dave►
The pathetic ranks of today’s clergy would LOVE your bellwether description. Leadership without accountability…right up their ally!
Cool, Chip… Let’s castrate them. They aren’t supposed to have any need of the equipment anyway. 😉 ◄Dave►