Sep 03 2023

Self-Denial And All That

     Today’s Gospel reading includes one of the most disturbing, even ominous, of all Jesus’s statements:

     “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

     This passage resonates with particular power in the aftermath of viewing Nefarious. For in that remarkable movie, the demon made its meaning plain by asserting the contrary:

     “My master designed every tool imaginable to destroy every facet of creation. We failed because of the Carpenter. He was the thorn in our side, our greatest threat. We thought if we could eliminate Him, the world will be ours forever. We had no idea of the consequences. The Cross was our greatest mistake. And we thought we’d lost, James, until my master realized that Man still wants to be his own god, and to worship no one but himself.”

     Christ’s crucifixion was the inescapable price of His mission. For all good things have a price, and the price is usually proportional to the benefit conveyed.

     Keep that in mind for a few words more.

***

     “To deny oneself” does not mean negating one’s own existence. It means denying the animal impulses that contradict the teachings of Christ, particularly the First Great Commandment:

     Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. [Matthew 22:37]

     But to love God that wholly is necessarily to accord Him His place as the Supreme Being, above whom there can be no one else. Our natural human vanity recoils from this, for each of us sees himself as the center of the universe. It is that facet of our animal selves that each of us must tame to domesticate ourselves to our true and proper Master.

     You don’t have to deny all of what the world offers. You certainly don’t have to kill yourself. You merely have to give God His proper place: in your words, your thoughts, and your deeds.

***

     “To take up one’s cross” sounds both more threatening and more unlikely. These days, crucifixion seldom appears on a death certificate. But we do incur suffering. Each man’s suffering is his own, an inescapable concomitant of the gift of life. While we naturally strive to eliminate or minimize our suffering, there are aspects to it that are necessary, and therefore necessary to accept gracefully:

  • Our labors;
  • Our dissatisfactions with our state in life;
  • The pains that accompany aging and unusual effort;
  • The unexpected, sometimes unsought, weariness attendant to the acceptance of responsibility.

     No one, regardless of his level of wealth, health, or privilege, can escape those things. That which can’t be cured must be endured: gracefully, with a minimum of grumbling, and without the complaint characteristic of the disappointed toddler: “It’s not fair!”

     It is through our sufferings that we actualize the virtues of perseverance, fortitude, and hope.

***

     “Following Christ” is the simplest of His dictates: learn, internalize, and remain faithful to His teachings. They aren’t arduous; His yoke and burden really are easy to bear, light to carry. The two Great Commandments express by far the greater part of it:

     “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” [Matthew 22:39]

     The difficulty arises from our human reluctance to see others as our brothers in Him. For if we are brothers, we owe one another our good will: never to wish that our brother should suffer harm, nor that he should fall to the blow of fate, nor that he should lose his immortal soul. But the many enmities that can arise from human friction, even among the very best of us, tempt us to set the Second Great Commandment aside for a bit of schadenfreude.

     There are powerful reasons why the Church has returned to emphasizing the Great Commandments as the heart of Christian morality.

***

     Such a simple explication! Yet priests, ministers, and lay preachers seldom give it the airing it deserves. Far too many of them are intent on promulgating their own gospel: prescriptions and proscriptions that proceed from their personal preferences. But as always, the Redeemer is the true source. Recourse to His words will always wash away the confusions and misdirections men are prone to creating.

     Enjoy your Labor Day celebration. Should a drone intrude on it uninvited, set down your beer, make the Sign of the Cross, blast it out the sky – twelve gauge is recommended, though twenty gauge will do in a pinch – and return to your festivities untroubled. And may God bless and keep you all.

Sep 03 2023

Skip The Talking-Head Shows

     This is all you need to see or hear:

     Applause to Hans G. Schantz for unearthing this gem.

Sep 03 2023

The Drones Of Labor Day: An Unpacking

     This tidbit should be inspiring more questions than it is at present:

     The New York Police Department will dispatch drones to monitor backyard parties and private social gatherings over Labor Day weekend in response to any complaints. However, some are saying that drone surveillance by police would be an invasion of privacy.

     During a press conference on Thursday, NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said of unmanned aerial vehicle surveillance, “If a caller states there is a large crowd, a large party in a backyard, we’re going to be utilizing our assets to go up and check on the party.”

     This is a blatant Fourth Amendment violation, but don’t expect anything to be done about that. All the same, a few questions should be asked:

  • Monitor backyard parties and private social gatherings for what?
  • Complaints about what?
  • Complaints from whom?
  • How large is a “large crowd?”
  • And what’s so terrible about that?

     Has anyone in our glorious mainstream media asked any of those questions of anyone in Big Apple officialdom? Was he answered clearly and specifically? I haven’t heard about any such inquiries being placed, much less answered.

     I have a suspicion: it’s about meat. Eric Adams, who really deserves to be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of the country on a rail, has committed New York City to a “Zero meat, dairy, and private cars by 2030” goal. Why? You hardly need me to tell you, but I will anyway.

     The overt rationale is “climate change.” The real reason is the same as it was for the COVID lockdowns: extending and intensifying government control of all Americans. This intrusion-by-drone into “large backyard parties” is a trial balloon to see just how much surveillance New Yorkers will tolerate. Pervasive surveillance would be key to enforcing such lifestyle changes on the plebes.

     Will it work as the totalitarians hope? Unclear. It’s not working for Sadiq Khan and his ilk, but Americans have accepted ever greater intrusions and restrictions for quite some time.

     Have New Yorkers been more successfully subjugated than Londoners? We shall soon see.

Sep 02 2023

The Chronicle of the DC, 2Sep23: Orwellian Concei[l]ts

Sorry for the partial portmanteau. But today I’ve got an example for you of both concealment and conceits by the Death Cults. The title was my attempt to announce it in short.

However you would never guess either of those from the FNC headline:

UK court rules teen with rare disorder incapable of making decisions about care despite begging to live

‘I want to die trying to live’ the 19-year-old told doctors

No, you would have to read most of the story first. Even then there may be some among you who would not be as inclined as I to call attention to the disingenuous language.

First of all, the judge ruling to end this teen’s life runs the “Protection” court. Just exactly who is he protecting. The been counters at the NIH? The Chancellor of the Exchequer? The story doesn’t say, but in this Postmodern, utilitarian universe, it’s best you know what the odds are for you or a loved one once the states’ finances are a consideration.

Secondly, there was the matter of a court order not to identify the patient by name, as demanded by the “transparency order” requested by the hospital. She and her family wanted to raise funds to help her access extra care, but the order makes it near impossible due to ID requirements designed to protect donors from unscrupulous fund raisers.

Thirdly is the conceit that court presumes to know best, viewing patient’s wishes to seek second opinions as delusional, and judging her incompetent simply because she doesn’t want to give up based on the fatalist opinion of two “experts.”

Speaking of Orwellian terms, this would be a good time to remind readers of my warning about “Living” Wills from almost twenty years ago.

What I discovered in the proforma version of Living Wills, of just about every state in the union, were words that would put the unwary signer in the same place this young woman found herself. They declare the opinion of the attending physician and one colleague as sufficient to put any second opinion out of bounds, no matter who makes the appeal for the incapacitated patient.

And let us put aside the NIH bean counter’s worries that are likely core to today’s tragic story. There are worse devils to contend with. In this day and age of lucrative organ harvesting, the forces pressuring physicians to make such pronouncements are far greater than one’s wish to live — guaranteed!

Let that serve as a word to the wise.

Sep 02 2023

As an add on to my post from yesterday

Found that an Ann Barnhardt’s place.

Sep 02 2023

Percentages And Concentrations

     There have been several posts by other bloggers that address what happens to a society when Muslims reach various percentages of the population. History confirms the dangers such accumulations of Muslims present to a previously free and peaceful society. Moreover, Muslims’ reproduction rate far exceeds that of Western non-Muslim whites, which puts time on their side. It’s not a pleasant prospect.

     But what is achieved gradually, over generations, by reproduction can be achieved more swiftly by concentration. We have examples of that in various European nations, which are afflicted by Muslim-heavy districts deemed “no-go zones” for non-Muslims…including armed police. Muslim-heavy districts are slowly multiplying in this country as well. Hamtramck, Michigan may well become one.

     Concentration has been a method by which immigrant communities have preserved elements of their cultural practices from “the old country.” In New York City the Italians have a “little Italy,” and the Chinese have “Chinatown.” Out here on Long Island, there are recognized Polish and Portuguese ethnic enclaves. Historically, that sort of community hasn’t been a problem for American law enforcement.

     But another sort of concentration is making headlines – embarrassing headlines for the Left-inclined media, which can’t quite conceal what’s happening in the afflicted regions.

     Herewith, a few links:

     Those things took place in areas with a high concentration of one of America’s minority groups. I don’t have to tell you which one, do I? In such places, visibly being not a member of said minority marks you as a candidate-victim. Yes, attacks on members of the minority group occur as well – consider Chicago and Baltimore – but the hostility of those places to whites and Asians is beyond dispute.

     Blacks are only 13% of the population of the United States. Yet in those places where they’ve concentrated, there’s practically no law other than the law of the jungle. Violence and theft are rampant. The police largely stand aside, owing to the social and political realities in such places. Whites and Asians must tread very carefully…and often even that isn’t enough.

     Concentration is the key.

     The cities were at one time the centers of American industry and culture. People flocked to them for the opportunities on offer there. Immigrants, too. Though it might seem incredible today, Detroit Michigan, known today for poverty, crime, decay, and almost nothing else, was considered one of the most beautiful cities on Earth. It was called “the City of Cathedrals,” and justly so. The influx of blacks to Detroit steadily eroded its distinctions. Today it’s America’s chief hellhole.

     Chicago was once a place of similar repute: a major center for Fortune 1000 corporations, for cultural institutions, and for gracious living. Today’s Chicago is virtually unsurvivable. Marvel at its black mayor, straining all credulity to claim that car thefts are the fault of car manufacturers,

     The concentration of a non-law-abiding minority to a level that effectively nullifies the law has given us such places and the phenomena that attend them. Add the claims from the political class and the media that “American blacks are oppressed” and “systemic racism is everywhere,” and you have a recipe for urban disaster.

     Under current political, legal, and social conditions, there’s no help for it. However, you individually can stay clear of it simply by avoiding black-concentration zones. If you have a family, it’s morally imperative that you stay out of the cities – essentially all of the ones over half a million in population – regardless of any inducements or incentives to remain.

     But apparently, that’s racist too:

     Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is appointing a group of “leading experts” to advise him on “transportation equity,” including several who argue that cars cause climate change and promote racism and therefore should be phased out.
     Buttigieg earlier this month appointed 24 new members to his Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, an Obama-era body that Buttigieg is reviving after the Trump administration scrapped it. Included on the committee is Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, a “spatial policy scholar” who says “ALL CARS ARE BAD” given that they cause “a myriad of environmental issues and conditions.” Another Buttigieg appointee, self-described “transportation nerd” Veronica Davis, argued in an August essay that cars perpetuate “systemic racism” and are therefore “the problem” in America’s transportation system.
     Buttigieg’s appointments—and his decision to revive the equity advisory committee—reflect the Biden administration’s whole-of-government emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion. President Joe Biden shortly after taking office in 2021 issued an executive order that called on federal agencies to “pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all.” Under the order, agency heads must conduct an “equity assessment” to identify policies that create “systemic barriers” in minority communities.

     The privately owned automobile is what makes life outside the cities pleasant. Without it, people must depend on “public transportation,” which is relatively convenient in cities but essentially unworkable outside them. The agenda of the Left is to cram us all into cities, as tightly as possible to maximize “efficiency:” their efficiency in limiting and controlling us. (Cf. “15-minute cities”) And of course, under urban conditions, predators of all sorts, not merely the political kind, will thrive best: “We know from historical data that predators of all sorts will concentrate where the prey is fattest.”

     Ol’ Remus’s advice has never been more imperative:

Stay Away From Crowds.

     Crowds have always been ominous. Crowds today are reliable harbingers of danger. Crowds high in blacks are the most dangerous sort of crowd. Cities produce such crowds reliably.

     The rest is for you to ponder and evaluate.

Sep 01 2023

Conversations, Unfunny Category

     There are a number of news and opinion sites that put a paywall between the reader and “premium content.” It’s their perfect right, of course; how could one who sells his fiction claim otherwise? Among those sites are several I’d like to patronize, both because I deem the site worthy of reader support and because I want access to the hidden content. But I’m reluctant to provide my credit card details to organizations that will “resubscribe” me automatically after a certain interval. I can’t be sure I’ll notice in time to make an active decision whether to continue with them, and besides, what with all the credit card fraud going on today, I’d rather not incur any greater vulnerability than I have from shopping at Amazon.

     The following is as close as I can get to a word-for-word transcription of the conversation I just had with one site’s “customer service representative:”

CSR: How can I help you?
FWP: I need a mailing address to which to send a check.
CSR: Why do you need to send us a check?
FWP: To pay for a one-year subscription to your site.

[Brief pause]

CSR: Why not pay by credit card?
FWP: I’d rather not.
CSR: The transaction is perfectly secure.
FWP: I’m sure it is.
CSR: We also accept PayPal.
FWP: I don’t do business with PayPal. I dislike their assertion of the power to fine me if I say or write something they disapprove.

[Here I think the CSR paused to confer with a supervisor.]

CSR: We have no mechanism for subscribing by check.
FWP: No bank account?
CSR: That’s not what I meant.
FWP: Well, if you won’t take a check, I shan’t subscribe. But thank you for your time.

     I have no idea whether the CSR replied to my last statement, as I closed the chat window on his fingers.

     Perhaps I’m being unduly cautious, but an old man living on his savings is well advised to be cautious. Any thoughts, Gentle Reader?

Sep 01 2023

Why are Americans so unhealthy?

Rather than rail against those silly Americans and their horrible diets, let’s ask why their diets are so poor? Tim Pool has mentioned more than once on his broadcast that he and many of his friends, when traveling in Europe, eat the same things they eat here in the states, and they lose weight. When they return, they gain weight and feel bloated, even though they make the same dietary choices they were making in Europe.

Let’s do a little picture reference, shall we? The other day I was making a ham/egg/cheese sandwich for my sainted mother and I. we have a few laying hens here in the homestead, but due to family being here, we had to purchase some eggs from the store to meet the increased demand. Below is a picture of three eggs. Two of those eggs came from our hens, who roam the homestead and eat bugs as well as whatever vegetation catches their fancy. One egg is from the store. Tell me which is which.

Pretty easy to tell, isn’t it? And I should point out that these were the “organic, free range” eggs from the store, so we paid a premium for them. The yoke is smaller. It’s even a lighter color.

Now multiply that across your food supply. Most kids that I know of in town think that egg yolks are yellow. Because they’ve never seen an egg that didn’t come from a mass-production farm. Egg yolks are supposed to be orange.

Now look at whatever food labels you have sitting around. Potassium Sorbate. Sodium Nitrate/Nitrite. The various sulfates/sulfites used to cure meats. Potassium Metabisulfite. Most of your dried fruits have massive amounts of sulfites in them to “preserve their color”.

Most wheat farmers spray their fields with RoundUp two days before harvest. It kills the weeds and helps dry out the wheat. Do you really think there’s no RoundUp left on the wheat as it’s being processed and baked into the bread you’re making a sandwich with?

“Processed Cheese Food Product”. As if that even needs to be a thing. Would you like to know how to make Mac and Cheese from scratch? It’s simple. Take one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of flour. Start with medium-high heat. Melt the butter, add the flour and stir until it smells like popcorn. Remove from the heat, let it cool a bit and then add two cups of milk. Return to the heat. Stir until there’s no lumps from the flour. Add in handfuls of whatever shredded cheese you like (I love Cheddar, Mozzarella and Asiago), mix it, and then add your cooked pasta. Salt and Pepper to taste. Bingo, mac and cheese. You want to church it up a bit? Add in garlic, mustard powder, onions, mushrooms and some smoked paprika. Top with some sort of meat. That’s dinner right there, and it’ll take you just as much time as opening a box and dumping that radioactive orange powder into a pot.

But boxed mac and cheese dominates on the grocery store shelves. “Processed Cheese Food Product”.

Maybe the problem is not that we’re overeating, although in many cases that’s true. Maybe it’s not that we’re lazy and sedentary, although again, that’s often true.

Maybe the problem is that the food we’re eating is poisoning us slowly. Maybe what we’re eating is giving us an inflammation response.

Given that the medical institutions in this country have been corrupted and can no longer be trusted with YOUR health, you need to start looking at what you’re putting in your body. Many problems can be avoided by not eating crap. When everything collapses, will you be able to take care of yourself and your family or will you be partially crippled from poor nutrition due to the American diet?

Just a random thought from the back of my brain.

Sep 01 2023

Are you ready to shoot them yet?

If you have kids, and if the government/medical quacks/petty tyrants are demanding that your kids get the jab, what are you going to do? Especially given what we know from the past, and what we’re constantly learning?

Berenson’s report is based on a peer-reviewed study of the effects of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines on the immune systems of children. The study focused on the Pfizer vaccine in particular.The results were troubling. Quite troubling, actually.

What the research found in their small cohort of participants is that children who were administered the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine saw their immune response to bacteria and viruses drop dramatically, and while the response to bacteria rebounded after 6 months, the response to viruses had not yet rebounded by the end of the study at 6 months.

Not only does the jab NOT protect you from the Kung Flu, but it hurts your body’s ability to defend itself against other viruses.

Oh, and this crap was MANDATED BY THE GOVERNMENT.

Now you and I know that there won’t be any more studies. Nothing that can hurt the narrative shall be permitted by the corrupt, evil tyrants that infest our government. Just like when the pharma companies found out that their jab was causing miscarriages and stillbirths, they didn’t bother to find out the cause they just stopped counting the numbers. There can’t be any bad information in the news if you don’t report it in the first place, right? This is what happens when you don’t stop evil the first time around. The sadistic evil gnome Fauci should have been hung from a lamp-post years ago, and yet he’s still walking around breathing and lying his ass off as usual, although he’s finally getting paid less to do so. The mask mandates, who have been proven to be detrimental in every aspect, are being pushed once again by the same tyrannical fraudsters who pushed it the first time. Drooling Joe the Chinese Hand Puppet mumbled incoherently about some new vaccine that he was going to force everyone to get this time around. It’s the same game played by the same people. That includes the same rhetoric. How long until some politician in a white coat demands once again that you allow a needle filled with God-knows-what to be jammed into your child’s arm?

Every promise made to push the jab was a lie. Every claim about it’s safety was a lie. Every claim about it’s efficacy was a lie. Every claim about the risk that the Kung Flu presented was a lie. And now the government is back pushing the same lies.

Act accordingly.

Sep 01 2023

The Vilest Slanders

     He who dares to tell the exact truth about some popular fraud will always be reviled: as a hysteric, a liar, a troublemaker, perhaps as a fraudster himself. The reason is simple: people prefer comforting lies to upsetting truths. They don’t want their illusions shattered. They will cling to those illusions even as the disaster that reliably follows pervasive self-deceit looms above them, moments before it crushes them.

     If you aspire to be a speaker of truth, remember this. Not to do so will imperil your sanity, your health, and possibly your life.

     The worst slanders are both vicious and intimately personal. They attack the whole person: motives, methods, history, associations, and current course. Yet they are also a sound guide to where your attention should go. Mind you, that’s not the same as saying that the slandered one is correct on all counts. But if he’s agitating the barons of the status quo into aiming their biggest guns at him, listening to him is imperative. It’s always vital to know what upsets those who hold the levers of power in our society.

     I expect that Tucker Carlson will soon be the target of such slanders. Since his departure from FOX News, he’s dared to speak the unspeakable: about war, about several recent controversies, and about major figures in the political elite. The elite want him silenced, but to this point they’ve been unable to do so. To attack his credibility by attacking his motives, methods, and character must come very soon.

     Mike Miles has found a short video clip of Carlson talking about some recent revelations and allegations about Barack Obama. Please watch it, not because every assertion in it is provably true, but because of the likely reaction from the Left. They already hate him; this will move his name to the top of their target list.

     Just a quick thought before Mass.

Sep 01 2023

Money And The Processes At Work

     Bustednuckles deposeth and sayeth:

     One of the things that is amazing to me is the gamble the people in charge of the money supply system are taking. They are deliberately killing the dollar as they have run it as far as it will go before it becomes completely worthless, while thinking that they have it all figured out with this Electronic system they are rolling out. They have all of their eggs in that basket and the handle is loose.
     The rest of the world has had enough of being beaten about the head and shoulders with the constant economic warfare that has been going on since Bretton-Woods and now they have just dealt a severe body blow with the addition of six new countries to their alternate BRICS system.
     The way I see it, this Digital Dollar scheme is going to be dead before it gets completely unveiled.

     The infamous Bretton Woods agreement just might go down in history as the biggest con job / Ponzi scheme ever conceived. From this vantage point, I can’t imagine how the nations that agreed to it – other than the United States, of course – could have done so voluntarily and in their right minds. FDR’s negotiators must have held a huge club over their heads…probably access to American credit markets.

     Today’s dollar is approaching complete worthlessness. If we use the price of gold as a measure, the dollar’s purchasing power is less than 2% of what it was in 1944, when the Bretton Woods meetings took place. This correlates well with other, more “relatable” commodities such as food, clothing, and automobiles. If we use single-family houses as the measure, the picture is even worse, though that’s partly because of the deductibility of mortgage interest and property taxes in one’s income tax calculations.

     Bustednuckles sees the rampant inflation as a precursor to the “digital dollar,” which is likely to be correct. The masters of the Federal Reserve system are pushing hard for that change, and for the concomitant elimination of physical cash. No one I’ve spoken to is enthused about that, for a variety of reasons I need not repeat here. But whether or not the Federal Reserve manages to impose it on us, it’s likely to come up hard against a vital fact that overshadows everything else about money, currency, and banking:


People
— Not central bankers nor politicians —
Decide what is (and is not) money.

     If Americans decide, as the BRICS countries appear to have done, that the dollar is no longer a reliable “medium of exchange and store of value,” they will abandon it in favor of something more trustworthy. The process has occurred many times in history. It can be slow or very, very fast, according to the need. And it cannot be halted or prevented by any exertion of political power.

     There are already indications of a change in progress. One that should not be overlooked is the increasing propensity of ordinary Americans to stockpile physical goods. That’s been accelerating for more than thirty years. Why should anyone have expected otherwise? He who sees that the necessities of life have risen steadily in price and appear likely to continue to do so will naturally shift his priorities away from his bank balance and toward his pantry. It’s the opening response to the dominant currency’s loss of purchasing power.

     Note also the proliferation of services that aid the ordinary citizen in acquiring precious metals. That’s not a fad; it’s the expression of a desire for stability and security that the magnetic domains on banks’ servers cannot provide. Expect it to continue.

     There will be some retarding influences, of course. People are used to pricing, buying, and selling in dollars. Most of Americans’ savings – especially their 401(k) and IRA accounts – are denominated in dollars and redeemable only in that form. The popularity of electronic funds transfer (EFT) must be considered as well. But as the dollar asymptotically approaches worthlessness, those factors will dwindle in importance, especially if convenient facilities should arise, as I expect they will, for dealing in precious metals or the steadily growing alternative currencies.

     Change is coming. It won’t be entirely pleasant, nor will it be “fair” in any popular sense. As always, those who are better prepared will better weather the storms to come. But it will result in gains in two vital commodities whose overwhelming importance is impossible to conceal.

     The first of those commodities is wisdom founded upon personal experience. Americans are again learning, albeit slowly and painfully, not to trust the State. The phrases “hard money” and “real money” will re-enter our lexicon. Appreciation for personal dealing and financial privacy will follow in tandem. We might even relearn the importance of the virtues of temperance and frugality.

     The second commodity is one that’s been on the wane for a long time now. We traded it away in slices for illusory goods: mostly convenience and “security.” Today only thin vestiges remain to us. It’s called “freedom.”

     You know what I’m trying to tell you. Don’t make me go all Francisco d’Anconia on you, right out in front of God and everybody. What’s that? You insist? Oh, all right:

     “Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men’s protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked: ‘Account overdrawn.’”

     But do have a nice day.

Aug 31 2023

Another politician learns his lesson too late

“I made a mistake; it was a big mistake, and you have to acknowledge your mistake,” Canepa confessed. “By doing this, what we’ve done is we’re letting people take thousands and thousands of dollars. And why should people be subjugated?”

Canepa acknowledged that the only way to combat the problem is to hold criminals responsible by adjusting state law. 

Decades ago I was reading an essay written by a Democrat politician who served in the 80’s, in the Reagan era. This Democrat was one of the leading voices in doing away with the insane asylums and other mental health institutions that we used to have. “Nobody should have their freedom taken away!” Blah blah blah, ignore the screaming lunatic on the streetcorner shitting on the sidewalk, he should be free to do so because otherwise we’re no better than Hitler and stuff.

They wrote the bill doing away with the mental institutions in America. Reagan signed it.

And then, about five years later in the early 90’s, this Democrat’s son was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Despite the help that was available, his son spiraled down, down, down. Not taking his meds. Doing drugs to cope with the voices in his head. Becoming homeless, sleeping on the street.

And the Democrat tried to find any help for his son. What father would do different? And what he found was that all the various institutions that had existed to help people like this Democrat’s son, people with mental illnesses, had been done away with. Legislatively erased from the health care infrastructure. Wiped away by this Democrat, and every other person who voted for his legislation.

We couldn’t rebuild the mental institutions in this country. There isn’t the willpower. There isn’t any politician willing to step up and admit the blunt truth.

I’m willing to bet that there isn’t any political will to redo California’s criminal code, holding criminals accountable, and making it once again a felony to steal from the law-abiding. Once again making it a felony to have thousands of dollars of drugs on your person.

This person learned their lesson too late. The rest of the state will not learn anything, because they refuse to learn anything. They will simply pick up and move to where YOU live and attempt to recreate what they did in the shithole they just left.

Act accordingly.

Aug 31 2023

Actualizing Their Fear

     In the usual case, making them fear us takes a show of defiance and a demonstration that you mean to stand your ground. Bureaucrats hate that; it means they’ll be forced to deal with you…and they cannot know in advance what kind of forces you command. The power of stubborn defiance has recently been illustrated well in contretemps with the “public” schools.

     Consider Jaiden. This twelve-year-old was booted out of his “public” school because of the Gadsden Flag patch on his backpack. School officials tried their best to claim that it was “disruptive,” but could not articulate a defensible reason. Jaiden’s parents summoned legal assistance. Once the story had gone viral, the school officials realized it was time to “quit while they were behind.” Jaiden won a complete victory.

     Perhaps this atrocity will be resolved similarly, once the story gets around. The plaintiffs have to get it circulating, as did Jaiden’s family and legal team. It looks to be an easier victory despite the early setback, because the judge who ruled against the plaintiffs said something stupid:

     To the extent the parents’ substantive due process claims are premised on a secular liberty interest, they do not assert a fundamental right, and their claims are subject to rational basis review.

     If the right to direct the religious upbringing of one’s children is not a “fundamental right,” what’s the point of the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise clauses?

     Finally, this story has advice for us:

     O’Keefe Media Group on Wednesday released 20 minutes of police bodycam footage showing New Jersey school board officials calling the police on citizens they don’t recognize who look “Trumpish.”
     “The police colluded with school officials to scan license plates of school board meeting attendees who looked different,” James O’Keefe said.
[…]
     On August 8, Livingston school board officials called the police on citizens because they didn’t recognize them.
     “They’re different looking. Um, they look Trumpish. They look a little scary,” Toni McLaughlin, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent told the police officer.
     McLaughlin and the police officer compared journalists with O’Keefe Media Group to Antifa.
     James O’Keefe confronted Toni McLaughlin in the parking lot after he reviewed the bodycam footage.
     “You said that there’s “Trumpish” people. What did you mean by “Trumpish” at the school board meetings?” O’Keefe asked her.
     McLaughlin briskly walked away and avoided answering all of James O’Keefe’s questions.

     A pity that the topics before the board on that occasion aren’t mentioned in the article. However, O’Keefe is relentless. He will see to it that word gets around about this. When the school board realizes this, the winds will shift.

     Never back down.

Aug 31 2023

Symptoms Of The Disease

     Man, proud man, drest in a little brief authority, most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d, glassy essence, like an angry ape, plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven, as make the angels weep. – Shakespeare, Measure for Measure

     Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it. – Montesquieu

     Power is always right, weakness always wrong. Power is always insolent and despotic. – Noah Webster

     Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation. – Charles Colton

     The craving for power which characterizes the governing class in every nation is hostile to any limitation of the national sovereignty. – Albert Einstein

     The possession of power over others is inherently destructive both to the possessor of power and to those over whom it is exercised. – George Herron

     Apologies, Gentle Reader. Now and then the quotes I’ve collected over the years get the better of me and…well, you’ve seen the consequences. But they do serve a purpose.

     It’s been my unsought experience to have encounters with a number of persons “dressed in a little brief authority,” who were determined to show me “who’s the boss.” Some of those encounters didn’t eventuate the way the “authority figure” expected. That’s partly because I’m a feisty sort, and partly because of my secret weapon: the ability to produce a roar like a whole herd of rutting bull elephants, while speaking with maximum clarity even so.

     I don’t look like one who commands such a voice. And most of the time I’m as courteous toward others, including petty officials, as anyone else. But there have been times – several such – when the circumstances demanded it. And each of them has revealed something that the petty official dreads to have revealed: his fear of the public, and his uber-fear of having it put on display.

     That’s their secret weakness: their fear of us. In truth, it’s the fear that we’ll realize their uselessness. The thought calls to mind a snippet from Atlas Shrugged:

     He was seeing the enormity of the smallness of the enemy who was destroying the world. He felt as if, after a journey of years through a landscape of devastation, past the ruins of great factories, the wrecks of powerful engines, the bodies of invincible men, he had come upon the despoiler, expecting to find a giant—and had found a rat eager to scurry for cover at the first sound of a human step. If this is what has beaten us, he thought, the guilt is ours.

     Their “authority” is their only asset. They must make you fear them to earn their daily bread. Strip the cover from it, and they stand naked before the world as what they really are: persons who have nothing of substance to offer anyone. No matter how numerous they become, or how formidable-sounding their titles, they are nothing. Their chief dread is that you’ll show them to be such.

     Ponder that for a bit. I’ll be back with more later.

Aug 30 2023

Once In A Great While…

     …the true battleground of our time is made plain. Consider the following snatch of dialogue from a recent, brilliant movie:

     “Do you believe I’m evil, James?”
     “Evil isn’t a clinical diagnosis….good and evil are societal constructs, effectively subjective value statements.”
     “I think I love you.”

     Ponder that for a moment. Ponder whether you believe it. Because your answer will determine on which side you stand in the greatest war ever fought, and ever to be fought. Add in the following admittedly fictional statement from a committed Communist:

    “Your certainty is impressive,” Ryan said. “It allows you to justify your faith in mass murder.”
“It’s not murder,” she said, “when the violence is justified by the revolution. The bourgeois regime being attacked is criminal and inhuman and all who are obedient to it are complicit in its interminable violence. In acts of revolutionary violence against the enemy anyone complicit with the enemy who is killed is guilty of the crime of the enemy. It is not murder.”
    “So riding a subway train to work,” Ryan said, “is a criminal act punishable by death?”
    “When seen in its true historical context, it certainly is,” she said confidently.
    “Everyone on the subway is equally guilty,” Ryan suggested.
    “No, not if you go person by person, a maid or janitor is not carrying the same level of guilt as a stockbroker or corporate executive, but revolutionary violence sweeps with an inclusive broom. The statement it makes is bold and absolute and is a warning to all….”
    “And what do you believe in, soldier boy? Gawd?”
    “In the individual and his liberty,” Ryan said, rising to the bait.”
    “Oh dear, an American. You people are so charming, so quaint,” she said, “always the perpetual football players running onto the field to the roar of the crowd and the bouncing breasts of the cheerleaders.”
    “You’re an American, aren’t you, Ms. Garvin?” he asked.
    “Ah, no,” she said. “I stopped thinking of myself as that, as an American when I was a teenager. That’s what we call ‘the normal maturation process’ these days, soldier boy. Sorry you missed it.”
    “So you’re not an American,” Ryan said. “What are you?”
    “I’m a citizen of the world,” she said.
    “That’s a big concept,” Ryan said.
    “It’s basic,” she said. “You must have missed it while you were attending your ROTC meetings.”
    “I guess I did,” Ryan said. “That would explain why I’m still just an American with a silly belief in freedom.”
    Garvin laughed.
    “Freedom? You think this America is free? You’ve got ninety percent of the people glued to their couches gazing like zombies into their televisions and eating non-stop. And then they jump off their couches for five minutes of history when a couple of tall buildings are knocked down in New York. That’s the America I see. That’s the America the revolution sees. This freedom thing you believe in, soldier boy, is a fairy tale, just like Gawd. History is unfolding right before your eyes and you’re running in the opposite direction after the fairies of freedom and the goblins of terrorism. You should run in the direction of revolutionary violence, all of you should, get out in front of it, get off this America thing, because it is dead, a thing of the past. America no longer exists. You just haven’t realized it. None of you have….
    “What you people refuse to understand,” Garvin said, jumping into the silence that had fallen over the room, “is that this freedom of yours is no more than pitiful self-indulgence at the expense of others. What the revolution does is take the anger and frustration of those who hunger for justice in the world and shape that into purposeful violence. You try to deny that by calling it ‘senseless violence’ and “mass murder,’ but I’m looking at your faces now and I can see those old defenses and the lies that support them draining out of you. You all look like children who have just been told that there is no Santa Claus, and you had really known that all along. You just needed an adult to make it official for you. Well, here I am, kids, giving it to you straight, what you already knew.”

[From Martin McPhillips’s extraordinary thriller Corpse In Armor.]

     Apologies…no, strike that: if the above disturbs your sleep, I’ve done what I set out to do. Have a nice evening.

Aug 30 2023

A Must-Watch

     Tucker Carlson has distinguished himself as one of the bravest media figures of our time. Perhaps in times past he was inhibited against speaking his mind by the attitudes and dictates of his employers at FOX news. No longer. The two-minute video below is an example of what he’s willing to say now:

     “Graph it out, man!” It doesn’t look good to me either, Tucker. But thanks for saying so; people listen to you.

Aug 30 2023

Crisis by Design

Apparently, Biden’s puppetmasters are allowing over 7,000 illegal aliens to come into this country every day. That’s 210,000 illegal aliens a month. 2,520,000 illegal aliens a year. Apparently there was an ISIS person smuggling people into the USA at some point. I’m just certain the people that ISIS smuggled into this country are all peace-loving Quakers, right?

And this has been going on since Drooling Joe and his puppetmasters ended any kind of border security on his installation day. I refuse to use the word “Inauguration” as Drooling Joe was installed, not elected.

So now we have millions upon millions of illegal aliens flooding into the country. One of the jobs of the government, one of their actual responsibilities, is to secure the border and protect the country from invasion. As Mr. Porretto points out below, the government is force. That force is supposed to stop people from flooding across the border.

Instead, that force is directed at people who are trying to stop the flow of illegal aliens and other assorted criminals.

The government is protecting Epstein’s client list while killing vets with PTSD in early-morning raids for no good reason.

The government is protecting Hunter Biden, and was protecting him long before Drooling Joe was installed, while framing Donald Trump and lying (both TO and ABOUT) LTG Michael Flynn.

The government, that force, is actively working against you, the Constitution and anyone who wants a strong America, while joining forces with people who want to bring this country down

This is not a mistake. It’s enemy action. It’s the Cloward-Piven strategy being enforced. I don’t think there’s anything that one man, or even a large group of men could do to stop it at this point. All we can do is direct the damage towards Democrat controlled territory. They voted for this. They voted for millions of illegal aliens to come in, so let’s give them what they voted for. Send them all to the sanctuary cities. Send them to D.C. and New York and Chicongo and Lost Angeles and Scat Francisco.

Whatever you do, how ever you do it, just remember that the US Government is totally in control of the Domestic Enemies of the USA. Their actions are not stupid. They are evil and malicious. They hate you, and they want to see you enslaved or destroyed.

Act accordingly.

Aug 30 2023

The Need For Clarity, Part 1

     As attached as I am to it, I must nevertheless allow that Curmudgeonry is not enough. There must be clarity. We must say what we mean distinctly, openly, and fearlessly. I try to be as clear as possible…but others devote their efforts to muddying the waters, and it’s unclear which way the battle is going.

     WARNING: What follows will disturb many. It attacks an assumption that’s widely shared and seldom questioned. Indeed, you might be one of those who will recoil from the notion. But if clarity is the goal, confronting that assumption is imperative.

     We begin.

***

     What defines a government? That is: what distinguishes governments – States – from all other kinds of human organizations?

     Aristotle called such a distinction the differentia: the critical characteristic in a definition that separates the category being defined from others in its genus, or supercategory. The genus of governments is stated above: “human organizations.” Clearly, a government is one such. But what characteristic do governments possess that differentiate it from human organizations that are not governments?

     Take your time over it. There are a lot of false trails. Many of them are highly seductive. Governments’ cheerleaders – i.e., those who think the whole idea is just dandy and want you not to think too deeply about it – try their best to mislead you about it, each and every day. So think hard.

     Let’s have a few quotes on the subject. First, one that George Washington the “Father of Our Country,” did not say but is nevertheless revealing:

     Government is not reason, it is not eloquence; it is force.

     Now some observations from later thinkers and writers:

     Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us…. In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it. Thus the effort to get it is not likely to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities of pride, craft, and cruelty. – Leo Tolstoy

     I was never molested by any person but those who represented the State. – Henry David Thoreau

     The State represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul, but as the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from the violence to which it owes its very existence. – Mahatma Gandhi

     Hint, hint. Perhaps we can proceed to the next part of this diatribe.

***

     The sole characteristic that differentiates governments from other kinds of human organizations – book clubs, corporations, regular Dungeons & Dragons get-togethers – is its assertion that a government may use coercive force against others without penalty. That’s the reality behind George Washington’s non-quote. If you’re an agent of the State, you get to bully people – e.g., point guns at them; slap manacles on them; drag them off to wherever – who aren’t agents of the State. Sometimes (cf. Ruby Ridge and Waco, Texas) you even get to kill them. However, they have no such privilege over you.

     Every government asserts exactly that privilege. Constitutions, charters, bills of rights, and so on do not contradict that assumption. They can’t, for the privilege is essential to the State. Without it, it’s just another salon. But the danger involved to Us the People cannot be gainsaid.

     Isabel Paterson’s landmark book The God of the Machine attempted to rationalize government as potentially domesticable by the method of the Constitution. She analyzed it as an engineering document for the specific purpose of chartering a government that could be trusted not to violate the rights of its subjects. And to be fair, it was a valiant attempt to do exactly that. That it took more than two centuries to fail of its purpose testifies to its brilliance.

     Nevertheless, it has failed. That raises the question whether it’s possible to tame the State by any means. I’ve been straining to find the answer for forty years.

***

     Let’s retreat, albeit briefly, from the consideration of governments to the consideration of individuals. We know a few things about Mankind at this point:

  1. Each man possesses self-awareness and purposiveness, at least in potential.
  2. Despite his consciousness of being an individual – i.e., a separate creature from others of his kind – he participates voluntarily in society. That is: he willingly interacts with others some of the time.
  3. He recognizes, and is capable of, both good and evil in the pursuit of his objectives.
  4. He is capable of overriding his instincts, even the instinct for self-preservation, by an act of will.

     No individual man lacks any of those characteristics, except perhaps the demonically possessed. And despite the objections of “thinkers” who claim that good and evil are “socially constructed,” the concurrence on their nature is overwhelming. Evil actions have a common characteristic of their own: they treat another, or others, as things without rights, things to be used.

     That is the eternal and immutable cleavage: what separates good from evil; what has always separated them; and what always will. Tolkien said it quite clearly:

     ‘It is hard to be sure of anything among so many marvels. The world is all grown strange. Elf and Dwarf in company walk in our daily fields; and folk speak with the Lady of the Wood and yet live; and the Sword comes back to war that was broken in the long ages ere the fathers of our fathers rode into the Mark! How shall a man judge what to do in such times?’
     ‘As he ever has judged,’ said Aragorn. ‘Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.’

     But governments don’t recognize that distinction. The only thing governments respect is government itself: power over others. To work in or for a government requires that you accept government uber alles as your credo. If you don’t – even if you make exceptions – you will be driven out of the State’s legions. That’s why every government, no matter how constituted, eventually goes bad.

***

     If you’re wondering why I’m nattering on about this crap, the reason is simple: The time has come to consider seriously whether there’s a viable alternative to government. The mass murders of the century behind us, and the looming mass murders of the years immediately ahead of us, make it morally obligatory.

     You don’t think so? Then how do you rationalize the deaths of approximately 160 million people at the hands of governments? What is your moral defense for permitting entities culpable in such things to continue to exist? If we permit them to continue, how can we prevent them from killing more? It’s only what they’ve already done. From the historical record and recent events, it’s a solid bet that they enjoy it.

     More anon.

Aug 29 2023

What I have to say is unprintable

They knew that the jab would do this, and they forced our military to take it anyway. Anyone associated with forcing the jab on our military should, at the very least, be confined to the Ft. Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks, reduced in rank to Private, with forfeiture of all pay and benefits. That’s the LEAST that needs to happen. My baser instincts want to see a short drop and a quick stop for them instead of confinement. Or perhaps a wall, a blindfold and a cigarette.

Oh, and if you think that the military only has 23 cases of myocarditis, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that I’d love to sell you. Cash only, but it’s a heck of a good deal. I personally know of at least three people who suffered neurological effects from the jab, one who’s physical health is slowly being destroyed by the neurological damage that was done by the jab, and others who had at the very least temporary paralysis and unknown long-term effects. None of those people are recorded as a vax injury, because the military has no interest in accurately recording the damage caused by the jab. Anything that would cause the “leadership” to be held accountable is suppressed. Trust me, it’s a large part of why I retired when I did. The people up top have no accountability to the people they supposedly lead, and Milley and Austin are so pathetic and corrupt that they couldn’t lead a platoon of infantry into a strip club that was serving free beer at this point. Warriors can tell when the people up top are worthless. Hell, why do you think the Army is suffering a recruiting crisis? Because the warriors, who are instrumental in getting MORE warriors to join, are telling people to hold off and choose a different path.

And let’s not forget that the lying liars who lie, aka the media, refused to admit that there was any danger to the jab. “Safe and effective” was repeated ad nauseum on a daily basis. It was the largest psy-op campaign in history, directed at the civilian population. And the pharma companies knew that the jab would kill people. They knew it would screw with pregnant women and cause miscarriages and stillbirths. They knew it would cause heart issues.

The vax is quite possibly one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated on humanity, because we still don’t know what’s going to happen to people in the future. But based on what we’ve seen in the past few years, it ain’t gonna be good. We’re seeing a large amount of excess deaths, many from “suddenly” or “coincidence”. My sainted mother, who spent decades in health care, is seeing a huge increase in cases of cancer, especially reoccurrences of cancer, and it’s like the cancer is on warp speed when it comes back. There were plenty of medical staff warning people when the jab first came out that the jab prevents your immune system from creating the required defense against cancerous cells. They were silenced, of course, because the government and that evil gnome Fauci couldn’t have THAT information getting loose in the wild.

The fact that the lying liars who lie are now being forced to cover the fact that the jab causes myocarditis tells me that the problem is far, far greater than what they’re actually reporting. This isn’t a news article, this is a CYA story, probably designed to limit the damage that the information will cause. “See, we covered the news! It’s not that bad! Ignore your lying eyes!”

Remember that the media is the enemy of the people. WHY would this story be out now? What purpose does it serve the people who forced the jab on this country?

Act accordingly.

Aug 29 2023

Upsetting, Terrifying, And Vital

     You can approach a movie many ways. Directors view it as a kind of statement. Cinematographers and set designers view it as a kind of visual art. Actors view it as a demonstration of their skills. And producers – mustn’t forget them! – view it as a kind of muscle-flexing: “See what I can do?”

     All of them, without exception, hope you’ll see their movie their way, if not exactly through their eyes. Whatever message they embed in it is the one they’d like you to come away with as you leave the theater. But if the movie really “comes together,” the viewer will get more than that. The impact on him will go beyond statements, artistry, craft, and the rest. As the saying goes, the whole will be more than merely the sum of its parts.

     Nefarious is all that, and more.

     This movie is upsetting. If you’re easily upset, it will get you in a very tender place. In that way, it parallels another movie that many found supremely upsetting. The two would make quite a double feature.

     This movie is also terrifying. Sean Patrick Flanery gives a performance that’s beyond praise. From his lips comes the voice of evil: genuine and unadulterated. While he’s on-screen as Edward Wayne Brady / the demon Nefarious, you hear, as closely as a human is capable of producing it, the anti-gospel of Satan. Unless, that is, there’s something about him that I don’t know and he’d rather we not find out.

     Jordan Belfi is also impressive as psychiatrist James Martin, brought in to certify Brady’s mental competence for execution. He plays Martin’s part straight: as an admitted, “devout” atheist at the start, but one who is ever more persuaded by the evidence Brady / Nefarious gives him, that the condemned man is possessed by a demon. The counterpoint between the two, written with exquisite attention to rhythm and timing, is seductive in the best sense. You can feel Nefarious’s evil gradually overcoming Martin’s stubborn insistence upon rejecting the supernatural.

     But central to the movie is the question Why? It’s been said many times that “The devil’s greatest achievement is convincing us that he doesn’t exist.” C. S. Lewis laid emphasis on this in The Screwtape Letters:

     I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us by the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves. Of course this has not always been so. We are really faced with a cruel dilemma. When the humans disbelieve in our existence we lose all the pleasing results of direct terrorism and we make no magicians. On the other hand, when they believe in us, we cannot make them materialists and sceptics. At least, not yet. I have great hopes that we shall learn in due time how to emotionalise and mythologise their science to such an extent that what is, in effect, belief in us, (though not under that name) will creep in while the human mind remains closed to belief in the Enemy. The “Life Force”, the worship of sex, and some aspects of Psychoanalysis, may here prove useful. If once we can produce our perfect work—the Materialist Magician, the man, not using, but veritably worshipping, what he vaguely calls “Forces” while denying the existence of “spirits”—then the end of the war will be in sight. But in the meantime we must obey our orders.

     He underlined that concept in That Hideous Strength: one of the reasons I hold that novel in such high regard.

     That is why I find Why? to be the question most urgently pressed upon us by the movie. Why would a demon be so eager to convince an atheist psychiatrist – one, moreover, who has unwittingly been doing Satan’s work – that the supernatural is real, that demons and possession exist, and that Hell has a specific plan of campaign? Possible answers abound, yet none are conclusive. The one Nefarious urges upon Martin is explicit: he wants Martin to write a “dark gospel,” the better to accelerate Mankind’s damnation and self-destruction. But he can’t do so without first getting the psychiatrist to damn himself…and as matters proceed, it proves to be a very close call.

     There’s one questionable note in the movie: the portrayal of Father Louis, a Roman Catholic priest who serves as the prison chaplain, as himself a disbeliever in demonic possession. He also misrepresents Catholic teaching about such things. That would make him a deviate from Catholic doctrine. But perhaps there are reasons such a priest would be sought for that position by prison authorities.

     Please, Gentle Reader: see this movie if you haven’t already. But be prepared. Whether you’re a believer or not, it will affect you. The C.S.O., an agnostic Jew, couldn’t endure it. I can’t guarantee that you’ll do any better than she did.

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