Build a Wall? -- Or Tear Walls Down?

This "build a wall" meme seems to be producing results.

Plastic Jesus's wall around the Donald's Hollywood star is a bright spot.

I was shining it all on, but the meme has entered the Japanese press. My wife was commenting on it while reading the Yomiuri Shinbun. And I looked it up to see how serious people are about it.

The Donald seems to be treating it seriously. I say "seems", because his whole campaign is at best a joke gone awry. (Either that or my assertion of Democrat Complicity is dead-on target. Probably both.)

Anyway, I looked up "wall around US" on the web, and found this url:

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/pay-for-the-wall

(No I'm not making that into a link. If you want to go there, plug it into your browser yourself.)

But, if you play with the url, you find that the link

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/

seems to be a cgi or other active web page that pushes you through a capcha and insists that you must be supporting the Donald if you are visiting it.

If you are really adventurous, or just curious, try

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/stuff_yourself

It goes through the same "Thank you for your support!" page with the capcha check, although it naturally 404s out if you click the capcha.

Don't bother. I'm sure he'll never publish the number of clicks on sub-urls that insult him or question his politics.

He's a decoy, a 'bot. You can't talk to him.

If you elect him president, there may be a human in there somewhere. I don't want to find out.

Vote the third party candidate of your choice and let the party-hardy boys know they've jumped the shark.

Hmmm. There is the possibility that he is actually deliberately saying stupid things to get the people of the US to start questioning the factory-farmed politics that we are being fed. If he really is deliberately trying to provoke well thought-out conversation, I'd like to hear him say so before the election.

While reading some of the punditry (It's hard to think of a job I'd hate worse.), I wandered onto the news about Qandeel Baloch. "Honor killing." Her brother, out of the shame that he thought she brought on his family (meaning, on him, himself, I'm guessing) brought further shame on both himself and his family by trying to get rid of the problem through an act of deliberate, planned out homicide.

Hopefully, he'll figure out just what he let his pride, and his slavish acceptance of dogma, cost him.

Family should be family. Maybe you can't support what they do or say. But you love them anyway, because they are family.

If you love your sister, you set a good example for her.

Instead of letting your buddies bully you into violence against her because she has gone too far, you stand up to them. Tell them that what they are saying is as much against the scripture as anything she is doing, and if she deserves silencing, so do they.

And if they don't, neither did she.

Why do I wander off to the subject of "honor killing"?

It's the same kind of mentality as that which seriously considers building a wall between Mexico and the US as an attempt to fix the problems that everyone says is coming from across the border.

The problem is not that women want a voice in Pakistan. It is that too many men in Pakistan are willing to buy the cheap religion substitute of painted-over intolerance.

Here is what that false Islam preaches:

• Don't change yourself!
• It's too hard to be a better person, yourself! 
• Force the non-conformists to change, even your own family!
• If you can't get them to quit making your feel embarrassed about your own imperfections, get rid of them!
• They are the problem, not you! 

Here is what the false protectionism preaches:

• Don't change yourself!
• It's too hard to be a better person, yourself! 
• Force the non-conformists to change, even your own family!
• If you can't get them to quit making your feel embarrassed about your own imperfections, get rid of them!
• They are the problem, not you! 

Here is what the true Islam preaches:

• Change yourself! (This is the real Jihad: change others by changing yourself first.)
• It's not too hard to be a better person, yourself. In fact, life is better when you try to be a better person, yourself!
• Learn not to conform to false norms. Celebrate what is special about you and your family!
• Choose not to feel embarrassed when idiots make fun about what is special about you and your family. And love your idiot friends, anyway! (Okay, loving your idiot friends can be moderately difficult when they are trying to get you to get rid of what is special about you and your family. But it's better than hating them, in the end. Love doesn't mean going along with what they say.)
• Everyone has problems! Let's help each other instead of fighting each other!

Is there a true protectionism?

Well, that false protectionism that says "Build the wall!" does not protect anything. If you want to protect the "good" life you have, they only way is to share it. Sharing it rejuvenates the value of things. Turning stingy makes the value evaporate.

If you want the drugs, violence, and sexual immorality to go away, help make a world in which fewer people feel like they have to resort to drugs, violence, and sexual immorality.

Help make a world where even people south of the border can get a job if they want one, and even people north of the same border can live off the grid if they prefer.

Help make a world in which people can have fun without resorting to artificial stimulants.

Help make a world where people can love and be loved without the love substitute of fake sexuality.

Real happiness helps others be happy. If it doesn't really make you happy, leave it alone.

Tear down the walls. Let's all work together.