Oct 15 2023

The Chronicle of The DC, 15Oct23: Shameless, Merciless, Godless

The story below is bad enough. That it occurred in a Jewish state that has become as secularized as any ostensibly Christian one is what prompted my choice of title.

Israeli boy featured in COVID vaccine campaign dies of heart attack at age 8

The Death Cultists are shameless, merciless and Godless with clear consciences because they believe they are saving the world from overpopulation.

So don’t ask for mercy in the traditional sense. They believe they are being merciful: for those who survive because of their (monstrous) efforts. It the future humans they claim to be saving. The current billions who are their targets — well that’s just too bad.

The Jewish belief is there is still hope for them if they repent of their evil and strive to make some recompense for their past misdeeds. But they rather simply believe that Christianity is nonsense and they won’t suffer Hell in eternity, so forget trying to get them to repent — even those who are allegedly still Jewish.

And there is something that else that really roasts my hide. This allegedly “Life Site” publication chose to highlight this one criticism:

‘How many more children will die on the golden altar?’

That is more a socialist complaint about profit motive than one about the sanctity of human life that Judaism pioneered and that Christianity, being easier to live with, increased the notion of more universally. So this publication is no better than the rest who refuse to concede that God said DO NOT HARM THE CHILDREN! beginning in Genesis 22 at the very peak of mount Zion.

I cannot begin to tell you how sickening the behavior of major clerics of all the religions have become. In the United States the number who have been cowed by the qualifications “requested” by IRS code 501(c)1 in order to keep donations and properties tax free are the real golden altar that keeps them silent.

It is the lay individuals, mostly Christian, who fight the sacrifice of children. They have earned my praise.

Oct 15 2023

The Battle For Your Soul

     What’s that you say? You don’t feel as if you’re being fought over? Well, I’m not one to argue feelz. However, the objective evidence is as plain as a fart. Would you like some?

     Please read all five of those articles. I’d expect any Gentle Reader of Liberty’s Torch to see the relevance.

     If you are not permitted to defend yourself when attacked, you have no rights whatsoever. If you are not permitted to speak your mind, you are disarmed when facing those who seek to program you. If the major institutions of the nation are steadily turning hostile to you, such that you must create alternatives specific to your convictions, you are under siege. Finally, if virulent, hatred-soaked hostility is permeating even the rituals by which we form our marital unions, what will become of us?

     This is not about any particular set of beliefs, religious, political, or otherwise. Rather, it’s about the multi-front attack on freedom of conscience.

     Sometimes an attacker isn’t identifiable. For example, Co-Conspirator Ragin’ Dave received this “comment” to this piece:

     Says the Judeo Christian Boomers. When the Jihad or whatever it will be called breaks out in America your asses are done. The younger generations have had enough of your postulations to last a lifetime. Nobody likes Judeo Christian Boomers. The only thing standing in the way of all of you getting your asses kicked up and down the street daily is the law and God’s threat of Hell for taking your sorry asses out. Make no mistakes, your on the list.

     Charming, eh? I trashed it, of course. But the point is clear: the “commenter,” too much a coward to post under his actual name, hates Dave for daring to speak his mind, and wants to let Dave know it. Were enough such haters to register their “opinions” in concert, a weaker man than Dave might be cowed out of expressing his opinions.

     Of course the attacker was identifiable in the case of Nathan Perry. The bullhorn-toting villain who had him charged with assault has many confreres. All of them have the same agenda: to silence their opponents by any means necessary. They often infest pro-free-speech rallies and pro-life demonstrations. They’ve even attacked those rallying for the incarcerated January 6 protestors.

     I’d say the pattern is “obvious,” but, well, you know.

***

     Once more, with feeling:

     [C]ourage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky. [C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters]

     A time is upon us when the courage of one’s convictions is one of the most important virtues one can possess. Indeed, it may be the most important. Concerning the “whistleblower” whom Divemedic cited, a fainting-flower type tried to argue that under those conditions, no counteraction is possible because “it’s all videotaped” and “the police are against us.” I argued to the contrary, in response to which he accused me of spouting “noble words” – “Please have a name tag on so we know you actually acted on your fine words.” – i.e., being a poseur. But cowards are like that; for anyone near to them, even on the Web, to express more courage than they possess is intolerable to them.

     The Left has been capitalizing on our reluctance to “go to the mattresses” for quite some time. Consider the 2017 inauguration ceremony for Donald Trump. Consider what went on in Washington that day. It might not be the first time persons in the Right were physically attacked for daring to be in the Right, but it was a dramatic demonstration of where matters stood that day…and since then.

     God will not easily forgive those who refuse to stand to their tack when assailed or threatened.

Oct 15 2023

Marital Matters

     This might become an occasional feature at Liberty’s Torch. There are few things that interest me more than the pressures on marriage and families today. The rise of militant feminism has exacerbated the natural tensions that will always exist between men and women. Yea verily, even when he’s an actual man and she’s an actual woman. Nowhere have those tensions produced funnier / sadder stories than in the last moments before the supposedly happy couple tie the knot.

     In all probability, as few of my Gentle Readers live in an unelectrified cave, you’ve heard the term “Bridezilla” and have read a few tales about such. A “Bridezilla” story that amuses you will seldom be about someone you’re fond of. That would make it too painful. But some such tales are instructive, and deserve to be propagated. The following is one such, shamelessly stolen from the frugal-living publication Money Awaits:

     The bride was always complaining about how the groom was “wishy-washy” with picking a date, while he was always silent. The mother of the bride was your stereotypical Brooklyn Jewish Mother and had her hand in EVERYTHING to make sure things were perfect for her little princess.

     Well, the engagement party starts, and everyone except for the couple seem to be having a great time.

     Then, halfway through the party, we suddenly heard the girl scream at her fiancé “WE WILL NEVER HAVE A CHRISTMAS TREE IN MY HOUSE, SO YOU CAN GET OVER IT!!!!” And from there it devolved into a shouting match between the couple, who moved from the banquet room to the lobby so their “guests” couldn’t hear the argument.

     (Didn’t work. They heard everything).

     Apparently, she was Jewish and he was Protestant and not once in their relationship had they discussed religion. They went at it on and off for two hours.

     She was screaming at the top of her lungs about how their (non-existent) children would be raised Jewish, and how his traditions didn’t matter. Her mother was standing at her side, nodding in agreement, and interjecting occasionally with a “that’s right” or “you tell him.”

     The groom was pleading for her to at least compromise to let him at least invite his pastor from his hometown for the wedding, and said that their (non-existent) children could possibly do things with his parents for Christmas, even if they didn’t celebrate.

     The guests just kept partying, pretending nothing was happening, but you could see on all of their faces that they wanted to leave.

     Only, well, they couldn’t since they would have to pass by the couple to get to the only exit. Only after two hours and the argument eventually devolving into her INSISTING her children would never see a Christmas tree in their whole lives, the groom finally dejectedly said, “Well then maybe this isn’t going to work.”

     She threw her ring at him and said, I swear to god, “THEN WHY DID YOU LET ME MAKE YOU PROPOSE?!?!?!?!?!?!” She then changed her mind, picked up the ring, and said, “Whatever. I’m keeping this.” Then she stormed off. Her mother looked at her ex-potential-son-in-law, told him he was an idiot for letting her baby go, and went after her.

     I’ve NEVER seen a banquet room clear out so fast. Within 15 minutes, everyone was gone and it was a ghost town. From the looks of it, everyone took their “gifts” with them, too.

     I hope Money Awaits won’t be too ticked off at me for lifting that tale wholesale from its pages. It’s one vignette in a much longer article. While the other Bridezilla incidents it recounts are amusing in the horrifying way that characterizes the genre, the one I filched speaks volumes. It asks questions that every man must ask his beloved before they “get serious:”

  • What are your religious beliefs?
  • Do you have an aversion to any other religious beliefs or practices?
  • If we have children, in what religion will we raise them?

     Moreover, he must be satisfied with nothing less than absolutely clear answers, and he must be convinced that they will not change.

     Clearly, the groom-to-be in the above story never made such a demand of his intended. He probably lacked the courage. The consequences speak for themselves.

Oct 14 2023

Ah, the joys of country living

So, my sainted mother had some work done to the barn. That work necessitated the removal of a portion of the fence line, and so now I get to rebuild a new fence line to replace the one that came down.

In order to support the end of the fenceline, as well as add a new gate into the pasture, you need to sink some pretty large supports into the ground. Around here we typically use old railroad ties that you can purchase at stores such as North 40 for exactly that purpose.

Slinging around 250 pound railroad ties isn’t very fun, but hey, I have a tractor. Digging the holes to put the ties into is a whole ‘nother world of suckitude. I spent the first hour of the day putting the auger onto the back of the tractor. I don’t think it had been used in years, so you had to grease up all the joints, find the pins, hook up the attachments, hook the drive shaft up to the powertrain, and then it was off to the races. Or so I thought. The soil in this part of the country is trash. Garbage. It’s clay. And we have a layer called “hardpan”, which sits just under the topsoil. Sometimes it’s a foot down, sometimes it’s a couple inches. And that auger just sat on top of the hardpan and spun. And spun. And didn’t move one damn inch of dirt. I put the bucket down and then used the hydraulic system to lift the front of the tractor UP so that I could put some force on the auger.

Didn’t budge the hardpan. Ho. Lee. Crap.

So myself and two other fine gentlemen spent all morning and a goodly portion of the afternoon taking a pick and a cheater bar to the hardpan, breaking it up so we could shovel it out. I haven’t done crap like that since I left home the first time. My shoulders are screaming at me right now. I’m too damn old for this shit. That’s why I have a tractor in the first place! Turns out I should have purchased a jackhammer. But we got the supports in, cemented and packed with gravel. I’ll be pounding T-posts into the ground starting on Monday, and hopefully by the end of next week I’ll be stretching wire and getting the pasture ready for the horses again.

Damn, I thought I was done with this kind of stuff.

Oct 14 2023

Complexities And Human Capability

     Today, over at Cold Fury, there’s an excellent and thought-provoking essay by co-contributor SteveF that explores one of the funnier fallacies commonly advanced as an aphorism:

     (NB: I have no idea who Hanlon is or was and bear him no ill will, but I will say that as a vendor of rose-colored glasses, he has few equals.)

     Robert A. Heinlein, no slouch in the intellect department, added this codicil:

“But don’t exclude malice.”

     From here we delve into the real meat of Steve’s essay: system complexity and what its emergence presages.

***

     Steve cites several cases of seemingly inexplicable functional incompetence and addresses them as an engineer would. (Rather than force myself to steal big honking pieces of his essay, I implore you to read the whole thing. It’s worth your time and your full attention, as few of my dollops of crap are.) Here’s his conclusion, as narrowly as I can grab it:

     Many systems today are too complex for anyone but a genius to fully understand. Engineered systems, business systems, economic systems, organizational systems. Most systems start simple but as needs change or problems are found they gradually increased in complexity, from something comprehensible by an bright but not outstanding man to a Gordian knot of relationships and dependencies and “don’t change this section; we don’t know why but if you touch it the whole thing breaks”. Others were complex from the start, set up by a genius and then put into the hands of the only-slightly-above-average to operate.

     I wouldn’t expect to understand many of those systems in their entirety myself. But I do know how to analyze and explain a failure in a complex system. It nearly always starts with the principles of feedback.

     Feedback is the most important principle in practical design. No matter how complex the whole, each of the active or reactive parts must be balanced by a source of feedback that will correct its deviations from planned behavior. A simple example of this arises from the steam engine.

     A steam engine will always embed the possibility of a “runaway:” i.e., the rising of the pressure in its boiler to a point that will cause it to explode. Early steam engines lacked a provision for this hazard. The explosions that resulted caused their designers to incorporate what was called a governor: a device that would sense that the pressure of the boiler was rising to a dangerous height and had to be released. Here’s an abstract design for one such:

     The pressure generated by the fire in the engine’s boiler rotates the top of the governor assembly. When that rotation reaches a certain speed, the balls pictured will spin fast enough to pull the bottom part of the assembly upward. That uncovers an opening in the pipe through which steam will escape, lowering the boiler pressure. Thus, the source of the potential explosion is used to provide negative feedback that will restrain its behavior to within an acceptable limit.

     Systems composed of people must incorporate the same sort of mechanism. Individuals who under-perform, mis-perform, or mal-perform must incur correction in some fashion. The usual problem is that they simply…don’t. When a system combines fallible people with under-designed components of other kinds, the ramifications can exceed even a good designer’s ability to incorporate the necessary feedback mechanisms.

     So by looking for the points where the necessary negative feedback was absent, it’s usually possible to figure out what went wrong: why this bridge wasn’t inspected, or that hospital didn’t receive the drugs it needs, or this other bureaucracy didn’t catch on to the fact that Smith had his hand in the till until the scoundrel had fled to Argentina. The great problem is at the design stage…and sad to say, no system can be designed ab initio in such a fashion that later, a posteriori changes – expansion of personnel or accretion of functions not originally intended (a.k.a. “mission creep”) – can’t screw it up beyond recognition.

     Bureaucratic systems experience such expansions and accretions with near-perfect predictability. Examples of bureaucracies that haven’t suffered such things are so rare that I can’t name one.

     And as usual, that’s not the end of the tale.

***

     Systems of every sort will tend to expand: to acquire more parts and more functions over time. Engineers usually call this retrofitting, when they’re not calling it something profane or obscene. It happens because of the human tendency to avert labor and expense. Doing a whole new design that provides for the “omitted” parts or functions is almost always much more laborious and expensive than jiggering it “just a little bit.” There are other factors, of course, especially in governments. For the analysis of such cases, please refer to the wisdom – really! – of the Great Lawgiver, Cyril Northcote Parkinson.

     Every such expansion will multiply the niches in which an opportunist with low motives can cause trouble:

  • He might be bent on sabotage,
  • Or perhaps peculation,
  • And in every case has no real interest in the functions assigned to his position, nor in the system of which he’s a part.

     Complexity always favors the machinations of such men. Unfortunately, the dynamic of power, which operates in all bureaucracies, will privilege him above even his superiors in the bureaucracy. They will never possess enough corrective feedback mechanisms or enforcement power to thwart him. Indeed, the odds favor the superiors being denied any information that might evoke corrective reaction. This hearkens back to the SNAFU Principle. In the classic trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, Illuminatus, Hagbard Celine expresses it most memorably: “A man with a gun is told only that which people assume will not provoke him to pull the trigger.”

     And so an important theorem is revealed:

Complexity privileges layabouts and villains.
Therefore, layabouts and villains will seek complexity.
If they can’t find it, they’ll attempt to create it.

     I’d call that the FUBAR Theorem, but I’m not sure that epithet hasn’t already been assigned to other uses.

***

     Heady stuff for a Saturday, eh, Gentle Reader? I hate it, myself, as it offers no recipe for corrective action once a bureaucracy is in place. But it’s important information even so. It guides the man who merely wants a place to work at what he does best, unhampered by his surroundings and those who inhabit them.

     A coda with which to close: the late, much lamented Ol’ Remus advised us all to stay away from crowds. This is advice of the first water. Crowds are themselves complex entities that facilitate the actions of villains. It hardly matters what particular variety of villainy he intends; whatever it is, a crowd will surely be more favorable for what he intends, and will provide a higher chance for a clean getaway, than a sparse district.

     Verbum sat sapienti. And make sure you have enough ammo.

Oct 14 2023

Why?

     Some recent stories are enough to enrage a saint:

     …and I’m no saint.

     I never expected to see anything like the degree of malice and arrogant self-protection exhibited by “our” “government” concerning the dangerous pseudo-vaccines for COVID-19. Nevertheless, it fits the character of the locusts who’ve swarmed into it. Owing to their positions and their anonymity, there is no compelling them, and no trusting them. They are the lowest of the low.

     This is the dynamic of power in a font too large and too bold to be denied or ignored. Further comment is unnecessary. (If you believe otherwise, see your brain-care specialist at once.)

Oct 13 2023

Let There Be No Mistake

     I stand with Israel. Faiths don’t matter. Locale doesn’t matter. This is a war between civilization and Seventh-Century barbarism. Israel is civilization. Work out the rest for yourself, if you must.

     And now we have proof:

     A member of the Palestine Scholars Association in the Diaspora, Mahmoud Al-Shajrawi, is on video boasting about a new “fatwa” issued by his organization that allows the murders of Israelis “wherever they may be.”

     The stunning claim was captured by the Middle East Media Research Institute:

     Dr. Mahmoud Al-Shajrawi of the Palestine Scholars Association in the Diaspora: A “Wonderful” New Fatwa Permits Killing Israelis Wherever They May Be – in Palestine, Israel, or Abroad

     That organization explained, “Mahmoud Al-Shajrawi of the Palestine Scholars Association in the Diaspora said on an October 9, 2023 show on Al-Quds Al-Youm TV (Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Gaza) that his organization issued a ‘wonderful’ fatwa stating that it is permissible to kill Israelis wherever they may be, whether it is in the West Bank, within Israel’s 1948 border, or in the Arab countries that have normalized relations with Israel.”

     His comments, translated, were, “A wonderful fatwa was issued by the Palestine Scholars Association in the Diaspora yesterday. The fatwa permits killing Israelis wherever they may be – in Palestine, in the West Bank, inside the 1948 [borders], or outside Palestine, even in [Arab] countries that normalized their relations [with Israel], that a large number of so-called ‘Israeli tourists’ visit. Most of them are soldiers or conscripts in the occupation army, and when they return [to Israel], they take part in killing us and our sons.”

     Do you understand, Gentle Reader? How about you, Chicolini? Well, do you?

     They have made their aims perfectly clear. It’s time to show them exactly what that will get them: death, in wholesale quantities.

     If civilization is to survive, there can be no compromise with savages – nor with anyone who takes their side. Ponder well.

Oct 13 2023

Events To Commemorate

     If you’re not a devotee of unusual holidays, you might not know that today is National M&M Day. The M&M, one of America’s iconic candies, is exceptionally versatile. Not only can you eat them “raw” or bake them into cookies and brownies, you can also play Go with them. The rules differ only slightly from “classical” Go:

  • Each player chooses one color of M&Ms for his pieces.
  • Captured pieces become the capturer’s property to do with as he likes.
  • At the end of the game, whatever pieces are still on the board are eaten by the winner.

     I suggest purchasing the pound bag to supply an M&M Go game.

     But enough of that. One hundred six years ago today, the most famous Marian apparition of modern times occurred in Fatima, Portugal. Our Lady appeared to a huge crowd – estimated at 75,000 souls – and produced a miracle, as she had promised Lucia Dos Santos, Jacinta and Francisco Marto: The Miracle of the Sun.

     Aleteia reports an account of the miracle from a professor of natural sciences who witnessed it:

     According to various sources, Dr. Gonçalo de Almeida Garrett, Professor of Natural Sciences at Coimbra University, was there and later recalled what occurred. (As a note, some claim the account was actually given by Dr. Garrett’s son, Dr. José Almeida Garrett.)

     Dr. Garrett explains in his account that at first nothing extraordinary occurred.

     I was looking at the place of the apparitions, in a serene, if cold, expectation of something happening, and with diminishing curiosity, because a long time had passed without anything to excite my attention. Then I heard a shout from thousands of voices and saw the multitude suddenly turn its back and shoulders away from the point toward which up to now it had directed its attention, and turn to look at the sky on the opposite side.

     What happened next defied all scientific reasoning.

     It must have been nearly two o’clock by the legal time, and about midday by the sun. The sun, a few moments before, had broken through the thick layer of clouds which hid it, and shone clearly and intensely. I veered to the magnet which seemed to be drawing all eyes, and saw it as a disc with a clean-cut rim, luminous and shining, but which did not hurt the eyes. I do not agree with the comparison which I have heard made in Fátima—that of a dull silver disc. It was a clearer, richer, brighter color, having something of the luster of a pearl. It did not in the least resemble the moon on a clear night because one saw it and felt it to be a living body. It was not spheric like the moon, nor did it have the same color, tone, or shading. It looked like a glazed wheel made of mother-of-pearl. It could not be confused, either, with the sun seen through fog (for there was no fog at the time), because it was not opaque, diffused or veiled. In Fátima it gave light and heat and appeared clear-cut with a well-defined rim.

     At first he feared what was happening and tried to turn away.

     During the solar phenomenon, which I have just described in detail, there were changes of color in the atmosphere. Looking at the sun, I noticed that everything around was becoming darkened. I looked first at the nearest objects and then extended my glance further afield as far as the horizon. I saw everything an amethyst color. Objects around me, the sky and the atmosphere, were of the same color. An oak tree nearby threw a shadow of this color on the ground.

     Fearing that I was suffering from an affection of the retina, an improbable explanation because in that case one could not see things purple-colored, I turned away and shut my eyes, keeping my hands before them to intercept the light. With my back still turned, I opened my eyes and saw that the landscape was the same purple color as before.

     At the end of it, Dr. Garrett affirmed that he was in his right mind and was not suffering from a hallucination.

     And in fact everything, both near and far, had changed, taking on the color of old yellow damask. People looked as if they were suffering from jaundice, and I recall a sensation of amusement at seeing them look so ugly and unattractive. My own hand was the same color. All the phenomena which I have described were observed by me in a calm and serene state of mind, and without any emotional disturbance. It is for others to interpret and explain them.

     Catholics venerate Our Lady not as divine, but as the highest of the saints, who has her divine Son’s ear.

     A beautiful dramatic story of the apparitions, which occurred from May 13 to October 13, 1917, is available in the movie The 13th Day. I recommend it highly.

Oct 13 2023

Just a reminder: Nobody likes the Palestinians

Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, is smartly refusing to allow any of those sub-human barbarians across their shared border.

Don’t be fooled by the news agencies or by whatever platitudes other mooslim nations might utter. Not a single raghead nation wants to bring in the Palestinians, and they never have.

Egypt has discussed plans with the United States and others to provide humanitarian aid through its border with Gaza Strip but rejects any move to set up safe corridors for refugees fleeing the enclave, Egyptian security sources said on Wednesday.

Gaza, a tiny coastal strip of land wedged between Israel in the north and east and Egypt to the southwest, is home to some 2.3 million people who have been living under a blockade since Palestinian Islamist group Hamas took control there in 2007.

Egypt has long restricted the flow of Gazans on to its territory, even during the fiercest conflicts.

Every other splodydope understands that allowing millions of radical muslim barbarians into your country would be like injecting cancer cells into your bloodstream. These people have been radicalized and used by other jihadi savages to attack the Jews, but they’ll turn around and attack other splodydopes at a moment’s notice. They’ll happily blow up some Egyptian family for not worshipping the same way as Hamas does because they’ve had decades of hatred and bloodlust trained into them BY THE OTHER RAGHEADS. They’re like a dog that’s been beaten and trained to attack anything that moves. No other raghead country is going to allow them in. No other raghead country is going to bring them anywhere near their own cities and towns. Oh, they’ll toss money at them because they kill Jews, but they won’t lift a finger to save them. Because they don’t want to. Sometimes, dogs just have to be put down.

It should be apparent that a group of people who murder women, children and grandparents, backed by more of the same people who dance in celebration at their murders, are unfit for human civilization. And even the other towelheads know it.

Oct 13 2023

Is It April 1 Already?

That’s the kind of news I would expect on that day.

Whatever the reason – and, I’m not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth – the clampdown on the money passing into Iran’s hands is welcome. Wish I didn’t know that – if they haven’t already set up the process – The Left WILL find a way to funnel money to Iran/Hamas.

But not on my dime.

Oct 13 2023

Investigate Where Your Donations Are Going

Humanitarian Aid is NOT what you might expect.

Yes, the Hamas organization DUG UP PIPELINES MEANT TO GIVE THEM FRESH WATER.

That’s what ‘cha might call a Hyew-manitarian Goal. The Sons of Dog-F**kers (SDF) took advantage of that charity to build WEAPONS. So, screw that – PVC lines ONLY, in the future.

[NOTE: I cannot get the Quote Block function to work correctly. Therefore I will use BOLD and old-time ” “ to indicate I’m quoting another source.]

“The EU participated in a number of initiatives between 2015 and 2022 to ensure Palestinians have fresh water, including working alongside UNICEF to install an 11-mile pipeline to Khan Yunus and Raha in southern Gaza.

Footage emerged, in 2021, of Hamas fighters digging up the pipes and fashioning them into rockets to launch over the border into Israel. Despite this, the EU bankrolled another 10 miles of pipelines in 2022.

The main missile used by Hamas – an internationally recognized “terrorist organization” – is the Qassam rocket, which is assembled using industrial piping along with chemicals and explosives.”

Hmmm. Wonder if that pipeline was deliberately designed to provide them with the ability to make weapons? Wonder if someone on the staff of that “charity” was well aware that the metal could be re-purposed for that aim?

We’ll probably never know. The Media and The State is wedded to the concept that no one – outside of the Privileged Elite – needs to have that information.

It is because I distrust MANY so-called charities that I have stopped my donations to such organizations as Catholic Charities and Catholic Relief Services. I cannot trust that the money will not be used to fund invasion of the USA by completely unvetted aliens, who – with the assistance of Taxpayer-Funded NGOs – will hand over massive amounts of cash with absolutely no accountability.

I still give – locally, to targeted organizations with limited goals. But, that’s it.

The charities have only themselves to blame for that. They squandered their good names and good will toadying up to Leftists.

On to “Deprogramming MAGA” – Hillary’s latest scheme to bring opponents to their knees. Unsurprisingly, the Mainstream News is largely ignoring the open declaration of war on the Not-Left. Those that are ‘sharing’ their real feels about it include Salon Magazine.

“Predictably, Donald Trump and the other leaders, spokespeople, and propagandists on the right and those sympathetic to them, were enraged by Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that the MAGA movement is a cult whose members will require some type of mass psychological intervention and deprogramming.

But there is a very important difference between Hillary Clinton’s prescient warnings in 2016 and her recent warnings about the Trump MAGA cult. Now the American people and the world have more than seven years of experience with Trumpism and American neofascism and the horror, tumult, death, and other great troubles that such forces and leaders have empowered and unleashed. The question is now, will enough Americans listen to Hillary Clinton’s warnings and then vote against Trump and his MAGA movement in 2024? The future of the country and its democracy greatly depends on it.”

Salon continues their search for supporters of the Deprogramming Gulag. Go here to read the rest, including some choice quotes from predictably Leftist stooges who think that Hill’s idea is Just Peachy.

Oct 13 2023

Compare And Contrast

     The mysteries of the Future Columns folder continue to ramify. When there are a lot of entries in it, I have trouble selecting one to write about. But when there are only a few…I still have trouble selecting one to write about. Probably incipient Alzheimer’s Disease or something. What did you say my name was, again? Oh, never mind.

     Just a minute ago, the following two stories struck me oddly and with power:

     Both spoke to me in a poignant way. The second one is considerably more recent, but both are relevant to our time and circumstances.

     I know it’s somewhat fashionable in the Right to “back the blue.” Time was, I’d have signed on to that position. I can’t do that today. Police forces in our time have become useless for the function they once purported to fulfill. Apart from killing a hero every so often for daring to make them look like what they are – the useless and increasingly dangerous remnants of a bygone civilization – I couldn’t say what purpose they serve.

     I know nothing about Kat Von D other than that she is or was a tattoo mogul. You don’t often hear about people in that line of work being baptized into a Christian faith. I’m not sure why that is; Christianity doesn’t explicitly condemn tattooing or tattooists. Quite a lot of the soldiers who fought in the World Wars bore tattoos, and they were predominantly Christian. It’s still relatively popular among men in the armed forces today.

     The first story depicts a force that endangers and harms; the second speaks of a force that protects and heals. If faced with those alternatives, which would you choose?

     Is that just a bit too pointed a question, Gentle Reader?

***

     I’ve been buying guns and ammo rather rapidly. Three days ago I purchased a beautiful bolt-action rifle with a nifty high-power scope on it. I’ll be picking it up a little later today. I’m not a hunter, and in recent years I haven’t done much target shooting either. But things have been changing around here. I want to be ready for what’s coming…and what’s coming does not look good.

     I don’t trust the police. They’re clearly more interested in revenue than in serving any protective function. As far as I know, no Long Island policeman has killed an innocent bystander much less a heroic private citizen, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to count on them for any useful action. With mosques proliferating throughout the Tri-State area, I want to be ready for what frequently follows them. Besides, a certain Son of God told His followers “He that hath no sword, let him sell his cloak and buy one.”

     To cut to the chase: In temporal matters, we’re on our own, Gentle Reader. You can count on yourself, and maybe on your loved ones and nearby neighbors. But it would be unwise to assume any greater or more extended group of allies. It would be madness to count on “police protection.”

     In matters of the spirit, we have Christ. He refuses no one who will come to Him sincerely, contrite and repentant for his sins. His willingness to forgive is boundless; His succor is eternal. Kat Von D found and embraced Him. Do you really think He would spurn you?

     The Church has recently returned to emphasizing the Two Great Commandments:

     But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
     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. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. [Matthew 22:34-40]

     That final sentence is the Sunday punch. The Ten Commandments of the Decalogue are merely the major implications of the Two Great Commandments. He who embraces them has nothing to fear in the afterlife. Indeed, considering how positively even case-hardened atheists respond to benevolence, they’ll give you a strong “leg up” in this life as well. Americans generally (though not without occasional exceptions) return good for good and evil for evil.

     The power of the State, symbolized by the Badge…or Christ. Choose according to your tastes.

***

     I shan’t beat this into the magma. However, I have a story for you – if you were a patron of Liberty’s Torch V1.0, you may have seen it before – that addresses the question “a certain lawyer” put to Christ: “But who is my neighbor?” [Luke 10:29] Enjoy.

Neighbors

     Smith hobbled rather than walked from his car to the church doors. To walk as able-bodied others did had been taken from him years before by diabetes, gout, and sedentary habits he lacked the willpower to break. It was all he could do to shuffle forward, one minuscule step after another, as he maneuvered his ungainly bulk forward on his two canes and his two disobedient feet. Each Sunday the journey seemed longer than the last.
     He refused to surrender. It was beneath what little dignity he retained. He would not add to the parish’s burdens by subscribing to Eucharist for the Homebound. Already the parish’s eucharistic ministers strained to provide for the sacramental needs of its aged and infirm. While he could still walk, however slowly and painfully, he would attend Sunday Mass in the flesh as well as in the spirit.
     He was reaching for the door when a hand snaked around him to open it and hold it open. Because the early Mass was seldom well attended and he was usually the first to arrive, it was a charity he seldom received. He turned, started to thank his benefactor for the small mercy, and halted.
     It was the newcomer.
     Those who sat near him had remarked on the new arrival, and on how far he stood from the norm for the early Mass. He was middle-aged, no more than fifty. He drove a large black Mercedes that suggested greater wealth than anyone else in the parish. He dressed severely, in dark, forbidding colors. He walked swiftly, in quick, staccato steps, as if he disdained to waste a second. He’d yet to speak to anyone. He carried himself with an air of reserve, even authority, that rendered others reluctant to approach and welcome him. But for the past two Sundays he’d come to the early Mass, had genuflected and made the Sign of the Cross at the entrance to the nave, had seated himself in a pew apart from the rest of the congregation, and at the Mass’s end had departed as silently as a wraith.
     “Thank you,” Smith said.
     The newcomer smiled and nodded.
     Smith eased himself into the rearmost pew, laid his canes alongside him, and strove to compose his mind to gratitude to God. His disabilities and near-total isolation made it a greater challenge than the trip from the parking lot to the church entrance.
     The isolation was not accidental. Suffering had turned him inward. His interactions with others were distracted at best, bitterly envious at worst. Those he’d once deemed friends had gradually stepped away to become remote, inaccessible. He bore the weight upon his soul with no better grace than his physical infirmities. Even his most fervent prayers were stippled with frustration and resentment.
     A hand landed upon his shoulder. Startled, he looked up to find the newcomer gazing down at him. The man’s expression was unreadable.
     “You’re alone again,” the newcomer said.
     Smith snorted. “You don’t miss much, do you.”
     The newcomer’s expression was unchanged. “Three weeks in a row.” He glanced at the two canes. “Do you live alone?”
     Smith grunted assent.
     “How do you get your necessities?”
     “When possible and with difficulty.”
     “Hm.” The newcomer straightened, reached into his inside jacket pocket, and brought out his wallet. For a moment Smith thought he was about to be offered money, as if he were a mendicant. He bridled. “I don’t need—”
     The newcomer held up a hand, and Smith fell silent. He took a pen from the same pocket, pulled a small white card from his wallet, wrote on it briefly, and handed it to Smith.
     Smith eyed it dubiously. It was blank except for what the man had just written on it. “What’s this for?”
     “For when you need it,” the newcomer said. “If you need to get around and aren’t up to it, or need anything else you can’t do for yourself, call me. I’ll take care of it.”
     Smith peered at him. “Why?”
     “Neighbors.”
     “Hm?”
     “We’re neighbors,” the newcomer said.
     Smith snorted. “Get off it. I know the names and faces of everyone within ten miles.” He shook his head. “My real neighbors don’t want anything to do with me. If you were one of them, you’d feel the same.”
     “Maybe,” the newcomer murmured. “But neighbor means one who has been brought near. Here I am and here you are.” A trickle of other parishioners walked past him, each one glancing at him, lifting an eyebrow or two, and passing on to their accustomed seats. He took no notice, merely nodded at the card, and said “Hold on to it.” As Smith slipped the card into his back pocket, the newcomer turned toward the tabernacle, genuflected and made the Sign of the Cross, and seated himself in the pew at the right edge of the nave, the one he’d occupied in his previous attendances.
     Smith stared at him for a long while afterward. His ponderings ended only with the arrival of the celebrant. When the priest turned to the congregation and said “The Lord be with you,” he forced himself erect and strove to concentrate on the ritual.

#

     Smith was unlocking his car when a pair of other parishioners passed him, conversing in animated voices.
     “That’s Evan Conklin,” one said, nodding toward the newcomer as the man headed toward his Mercedes. “Major venture capitalist.”
     Smith straightened and stood utterly still.
     “Hah!” said another. “We haven’t had one of those around here before. I can’t imagine what need we’d have for one.”
     “He won’t be here long,” replied the first. “He came to settle his son’s affairs. The boy died in a car crash about three weeks ago. Conklin’s daughter-in-law is unable to cope.”
     “Excuse me!” Smith called out. The two turned toward him, frowning. “Where does he hail from?”
     “Onteora County,” the first one said. “About a hundred fifty miles east.”
     “Oh.”
     Smith watched as Conklin’s Mercedes threaded its way out of the lot. When the black car was out of sight, he eased himself into his car, waited until the press of departures had slackened, and drove home.

#

     Smith’s impediments to motion increased as the week passed. When he woke on Sunday morning, he found that he could not lever himself out of bed. An hour’s careful stretching and wiggling of extremities enabled him to rise, but the improvement was insufficient to make it safe for him to drive. It was plain that he would not be attending the early Mass.
     He remembered the card.
     The card was still in the pocket of his jeans. He picked up his cell phone and dialed the number. Two rings. Three.
     “Evan Conklin.”
     “Good morning, Mr. Conklin. This is Darren Smith.”
     “Hm?”
     “The cripple you gave your card last week, in Chemung.”
     “Oh. Good morning. What do you need?”
     “Eucharist. I can’t leave the house.”
     “Ah. What’s your address?”
     Smith gave it, heard the sound of a pencil scratching paper.
     “Are you okay otherwise?”
     “I’ll manage.”
     “Very good. Hang on.”
     The connection broke. Smith hobbled to his front door, unlocked it, and seated himself in his recliner to wait.

#

     Two and a half hours had elapsed with no sign of a Eucharist-bearing Samaritan when there came a knock at the door. He called out “It’s open, come on in.”
     Evan Conklin entered and closed the door quietly behind him. “Excuse me for not getting up,” Smith said.
     “It’s okay,” Conklin said. He proffered his right hand. It held a mini-ciborium of the sort Smith knew well.
     “Are you prepared to receive the Body of Christ?” Conklin murmured.
     “I am,” Smith replied. He held out his hand, and Conklin put the consecrated wafer in it. Smith put it in his mouth, bowed his head, and prayed briefly. Afterward he looked up at Conklin and said “Thank you.”
     “Would you like some coffee?” Conklin said.
     “Very much, thanks.” Smith started to lever himself out of his chair.
     Conklin smiled and waved him back into his seat. “I’ll take care of it.” He went to Smith’s little kitchen and saw to it. Fifteen minutes later each of them had a mug before him.
     “Difficult morning?” Conklin said.
     “I have them now and then,” Smith said. “Thanks for helping me out. I hate to miss Sunday Mass, but as you can see…”
     Conklin nodded.
     “I’m not on the parish’s list of homebounds,” Smith said. “I’m fortunate you’re still in town.”
     “Hm?”
     “One of the others said you’re only in Chemung to settle some stuff for your late son and his widow.”
     “I was,” Conklin said. “But I’ve been back in Onteora since Tuesday evening.”

==<O>==

     Copyright (C) 2016 Francis W. Porretto. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Oct 12 2023

Post Partum

     Finishing a novel is a serious event for me. It drains me, leaving me essentially empty of words no matter what other things there may be to write about. So I hope you’ll allow me another day off to recover. The agony of awaiting my beta-readers’ opinions is severe enough.

     To quote the poet Robinson Jeffers:

“The world’s in a bad way, my man,
And bound to be worse before it mends;
Better lie up in the mountain here
Four or five centuries,
While the stars go over the lonely ocean,”
The old father of wild pigs,
Plowing the fallow on Mal Paso Mountain.

     But it will continue to be in that “bad way” for a while longer without requiring my raving to help it along. Enjoy the contributions of Linda, Dave, the Colonel, and the rest for today. And contemplate a bit of wisdom provided me by an old friend, three decades ago:

“Smile,” they said. “Things could be worse.”
So I smiled…and they got worse.

Oct 11 2023

This is a test post

Mind the audio. The whine of first gear is somewhat annoying.

Oct 11 2023

Self Destructive

One of the tidbits of knowledge that I’ve gained recently is that Israel, for all you see their Soldiers walking around with guns at the beach, or at a pizza joint, has severe gun control throughout the country. That actually made me stop and scratch my head.

A country of millions, surrounded by BILLIONS of people who want to kill them, refuses to allow it’s citizens to protect themselves with firearms? I wonder how many of the people murdered by Hamas last week would have been alive if they had guns in their homes? “Oh look darling, terrorists are going door to door and killing women and children. Let’s get our AR15 and show them the error of their ways.”

Instead they huddled in their homes listening to the gunshots get closer and closer until their door was kicked in and it was there turn.

Any government that refuses the right of self defense to it’s citizens is complicit with the murder of said citizens.

I wonder if that’s going to change any time soon after the latest development.

Oct 11 2023

The Needs Of The Times

     “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” – C. S. Lewis

     If you’ve seen the delightful movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you’ll surely remember Toula’s father, played by Michael Constantine, touting Windex as the panacea of all panaceas. It’s a cute motif, invoked with brilliant comedic timing at the very end when Toula’s new husband Ian, played by John Corbett, tells her that he banished a pimple by putting Windex on it. Toula’s bridesmaids had labored over her with all manner of things to hide the zit that had appeared overnight, just before her wedding.

     Panaceas! Cures for what ails you no matter what it is! How many have been promoted to us? The old phrase “snake oil” (and its salesmen) make plain the skepticism most folks have toward such claims. And let there be no mistake about it: skepticism is the appropriate attitude to take toward panaceas, no matter how widely or loudly touted. As the late P. J. O’Rourke wrote, “Show me the logic and the lab equipment.”

     Panaceas come in several varieties. We have innumerable examples of the sort proposed for bodily ailments, of course. Then there are the political panaceas, put forth as the solution to every sort of “problem” or transient dissatisfaction. Economic panaceas? There’s socialism, fascism, mercantilism, Georgism, Keynesianism, corporatism, and more I refuse to tabulate lest this piece grow swollen with terms virtually no one understands any longer. And of course there are panaceas suggested for the sort of tribalism, particularism, separatism, and so on that are currently fragmenting our society. The celebrated Man in the Street looks upon all such things with a smirk, and he’s right to do so.

     Funny how seldom any promoter of such things admits to fallibility, isn’t it? But I digress.

     The matter of importance before us is not what could solve everyone’s problems. It’s what could solve your problems. Isn’t it, Gentle Reader? Wouldn’t your ears prick up upon hearing a plausible approach to your particular basket of woes? I know mine would.

     But skepticism remains the first-order prescription. If someone were to come to you with an unguent he swears will clear up your miseries specifically – only $9.95 per pint bottle; get yours while supplies last! – wouldn’t you want to read the fine print? The “return unused portion for a full refund” guarantee or lack thereof? I’d whip out my reading glasses first thing.

     Thus it must be. Yet the value of opening with skepticism in defense of one’s integument and one’s wallet cannot and does not eliminate the possibility that this time around…it’s for real.

***

     It was a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, “Go away, I’m looking for the truth,” and so it goes away. Puzzling.

     [Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]

     Approximately two millennia ago, the following exchange occurred between an itinerant preacher and his detractors:

     But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
     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. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

     [Matthew 22:34-40]

     Ignore the setting. Ignore the players’ motivations. Ignore the reference to God, if you must! Concentrate on the Second Great Commandment. Can you come up with a categorical imperative – you have studied Kant, haven’t you? – that would do more to quiet the turmoil that roils our nation and our world?

     Love is, of course, an overloaded word. It has more meanings than Carter has Little Liver Pills. The Jews of First-Century Judea overloaded it, too. That’s part of the problem with contemporary understandings of the Great Commandments. But reflecting on how people who sincerely love one another treat one another can clear it up.

     All meanings of love, regardless of object or context, include not to mistreat the beloved. Mistreatment gives the lie to a claim of love. This is the case even when the beloved is an inanimate object. If you “love” cherry pie – I do – you won’t deliberately pour kerosene on it, or trample it before eating it. If you “love” the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, you won’t adulterate it by playing the television over it.

     That was the itinerant preacher’s prescription for social harmony.

***

     Believe it or not, I began this screed while thinking about the Middle East, specifically the carnage currently occurring in Israel. As I wrote yesterday, the pattern of Islamic aggression has a long history and cannot be wished away:

  1. Initiate hostilities;
  2. Kill indiscriminately and take hostages;
  3. Cry “Peace! Peace! We are for peace!”
  4. Blame their victims for “escalating;”
  5. Rally “international opinion” behind a cease-fire.

     And the makers and shapers of “international opinion,” being cowards in terror of their own nations’ Islamic fractions, go along with it.

     It “should” be “obvious” that Muslims, who openly disavow the Law of General Benevolence, don’t wish non-Muslims well. They want us conquered and subjugated. Their creed permanently excludes “peaceful coexistence” with other creeds. It also permanently excludes accepting political structures that aren’t thoroughly Islamic. Any “truce” to which they agree is because they’re on the defensive, being pummeled unmercifully, and need a break to rest and rearm.

     Don’t take my word for it. It’s in the Koran, in the various ahadith, and is imbedded in the Islamic attitude toward everything non-Islamic: what they call the Dar al-Harb, the “House of War.” You can find it for yourself.

     Muslim hatred for the Jews is as virulent as it is because of all the peoples of the Middle East, the Jews are the most successful. They took an arid wasteland and made it bloom. They did it without natural resources that are plentiful in other lands. Their success, when contrasted with the savagery and poverty of the surrounding Islamic nations, presents an unbearable humiliation to the Islamic states. And for that reason, Israel can never be truly at peace with its neighbors, no matter how ardently Israelis might wish it so.

     Of course, you can find any number of commentators who’ll defame Israel as “an apartheid state,” and the Israelis as “oppressors.” Funny how those “oppressed” Muslims have a substantial representation in the Knesset. Funny how the “refugees” in Gaza and the West Bank get nearly all the supports of life from Israel, on the sole condition that they not attack Israel or Israelis. And funny how after 75 years, those “refugees” haven’t been able to raise their own lot as the Jews of Israel have raised theirs.

     There are a couple of Jew-haters who occasionally comment here. They try their damnedest to defame Israel’s attempts to defend itself against the ceaseless aggressions against it. I rather wish they’d grow up, but for some that’s too steep a gravity well to climb out of. They simply must have a Devil figure – the real one won’t satisfy them – and the Jews, one might say, are the “traditional” ones.

     It’s all of a piece. Either you learn to love your neighbor as yourself, or you remain an immature, perpetually whining victim. That a billion-plus persons worldwide seem unable to grasp the thing constitutes a tragedy for which I have no words, only a label. But once again, I digress.

     To close, have a few links, just suggested reading:

     And reflect on the Second Great Commandment. Might it not cure a few of your personal ills? And how much does it ask of you, really?

Oct 11 2023

A Few Pleasant Thoughts With Which To Begin Your Day

     Cruelty, beheading, burning to death, torturing and mutilating are the essence of Islam. — Daniel Greenfield

     Savages have no rights. – Ayn Rand.

     And a little more from your humble Curmudgeon:

     No scheme of objective analysis can deal with the suppression of self-interest characteristic of love, or with the inclusive nihilism of violent predation. The possibility of averting a war, or ending a war already in progress, by negotiation rests on the premise that the potential combatants want something for which they’d be willing to put up their swords, if they could get it some less costly way.

     It’s a knowledge suffused with sorrow, for it implies that there can be no peace with the Islamist radicals, nor with the Palestinian irredentists whose terror campaign seeks the destruction of Israel. There can only be victory or death.

     But do have a nice day. Please!

Oct 10 2023

Well, Well!

     Get a load of this:

     A senior Hamas official said the group is open to discussions over a possible truce with Israel, having “achieved its targets.”

     Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera in a phone interview that Hamas was open to “something of that sort” and “all political dialogues” when asked whether the Islamist group is willing to discuss a possible ceasefire.

     It seems the Islamists don’t like Israel’s return of service. I wonder why? But then, it’s part of the Islamic pattern:

  1. Initiate hostilities;
  2. Kill indiscriminately and take hostages;
  3. Cry “Peace! Peace! We are for peace!”
  4. Blame their victims for “escalating;”
  5. Rally “international opinion” behind a cease-fire.

     And the makers and shapers of “international opinion,” being cowards in terror of their own nations’ Islamic fractions, go along with it.

     Not this time, HAMAS. Your pattern is well established and if Benjamin Netanyahu is the man I take him to be, he’s not going to let you get away with it.

     Here’s Robert Spencer on the matter:

     For Hamas to be asking for a truce on Monday evening Gaza time, it must have had an extremely bad Sunday and Monday. For Islamic law only allows for a truce if Muslims are weak and need to gather strength to fight later more effectively, or if they’re fighting non-Muslims whom they think may accept Islam. “If Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud…Interests that justify making a truce are such things as Muslim weakness because of lack of numbers or materiel, or the hope of an enemy becoming Muslim…” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.16). This idea is founded on the Qur’an itself: “So do not falter and cry out for peace when you have the upper hand…” (47:35).

     That is, indeed, Islamic doctrine. It’s point-for-point an echo of Leninist doctrine:

     “Probe with the bayonet. When you come to steel, halt. When you come to mush, advance.”

     Below is an essay I wrote long ago on this very subject. It’s as relevant today as it was in September 2007.

The “Peace Process,” Eternal And Unchanging

     Courtesy of Jay Tea at Wizbang, we have this bit of studiedly precious mock-puzzlement from the Arab News:

     IT is hardly surprising that Israel should declare that the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip is an “enemy entity.” Indeed, it is not something the Palestinians in the enclave would deny. If anything, it is a badge they, particularly Hamas and its supporters, will wear with pride….

     The Israelis have declared Gaza hostile before but why again now, just at the start of Rice’s visit when the emphasis is supposed to be on getting the peace talks restarted? It speaks volumes about Israeli bad intentions. A blockade would be a disaster — for the Gazans, for President Mahmoud Abbas and the government he recently appointed and for the peace process. It would play straight into the hands of Hamas, who cares little about the lives of ordinary Gazans, doing nothing to control the militants whose rockets trigger such deadly retaliation. When Palestinians in the West Bank see their fellows in the beleaguered strip suffering as a result of the restrictions, they will not blame Hamas for reaping the whirlwind of Israeli fury, they will blame the Israelis, they will blame the Americans and they will blame Abbas for talking to the Israelis. But maybe that is what the Israelis want — a spanner in the works, and the peace process again off the rails.

     Your Curmudgeon is eternally amused by the term “peace process,” inseparable from the Middle Eastern drama, and always used to the detriment of the one peaceably inclined population in that area: the Israelis. The “peace process,” from the Muslim perspective, is not about the attainment of peace; it’s about the incremental destruction of Israel.

     Ever since the Camp David Accords in 1978, the Islamic states in the Middle East have bent their efforts toward undoing any emerging basis for peace in the region. No armies have attacked Israel, but apart from that the Islamic powers have done everything imaginable to weaken the Jewish state, to undermine its critical alliance with the United States, and to erode the resolve of its people to remain where they are. The principal bludgeon in their hands has been the Palestinian irredentists, now concentrated along the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, whom they’ve supplied with money, weapons, and endless encouragement to assault Israel with every means available. By 2000, the death toll from Palestinian terrorism against Israel was into the thousands.

     After Yasser Arafat’s proclamation of a second Intifada, the Israelis wearied of it all. Ariel Sharon, perhaps the clearest-sighted premier that nation has had since Golda Meir, commenced the construction of the security barrier along the West Bank. The success of that barrier at limiting Palestinian terror assaults and suicide bombings has been considerable. But of course, the Israelis’ right to defend themselves, even by the use of a passive object like the security fence, has never been conceded by any Islamic state. Israel, they maintain, is stolen land, rightfully an Islamic waqf, and therefore cannot be under the authority of non-Muslims. The HAMAS Charter, the animating statement of the group now in political control of the Palestinian zones, makes it plain that no cessation of hostilities against Israel can be anything other than temporary.

     How does one arrange “peace” with an enemy dedicated to one’s destruction at any price? One does not. Against such a foe, it’s victory or death. Such has always been the character of wars powered by religious animosity; God, after all, cannot be expected to accept anything short of complete and final victory over an enemy He has commanded His faithful to conquer.

     How, then, should Israel strive for peace with the Muslim Middle East, a collection of satrapies so depraved and hatred-soaked that by comparison the Third Reich deserves a retrial? Isn’t it just a bit unbalanced to postulate that it’s Israel’s sacred duty to negotiate until eternity, making one concession after another and utterly refraining from defending itself, when its “negotiating partner” is religiously dedicated to its destruction?

     In point of fact, the easiest route toward peace would be for Israel to take Middle Eastern Muslims at their word and respond in kind:

  • Expel or exterminate the entire population of the Palestinian zones;
  • Destroy every structure therein;
  • Chemically or radiologically render those areas uninhabitable for a minimum of two decades;
  • Complete the security fence along its entire national border and man it with troops permanently authorized to shoot to kill.

     What would follow?

  • The surrounding Muslim states, recognizing that their hand has been called, might do nothing but wail in protest. Ergo, peace.
  • Alternately, the surrounding Muslim states might declare war on Israel, which would then be forced — hopefully in collaboration with the United States — to eliminate the militaries of all those nations with tactical nuclear warheads. The Muslim Middle East would be deprived of the capacity to cause Israel any further harm for many generations. Ergo, peace.

     What definitely wouldn’t happen is the continuation of the low-intensity “deniable” warfare characterized by Qassam rockets and occasional suicide bombers. Such a demonstration of Israeli resolve would even daunt Iran and Syria. But the Israelis are too civilized for that, aren’t they? So the clearest and simplest route toward peace will remain untraveled.

     So much for the Middle Eastern “peace process.”

Oct 09 2023

On Israel

If you haven’t seen the news by now, then I’m sorry, but go back to sleep.

For those who HAVE seen the news, we all know that this is the continuation of the genocidal war that Islam constantly wages against Judaism. Mark Steyn put up a good number of links, including videos. If you want to know what kind of barbarians you’re dealing with, just watch them in their own words and actions. Look at the videos they put up themselves, dancing around corpses, spitting on and desecrating the dead. See the women get gang-raped. Watch as they storm civilian homes, shooting women and children. See what they do when they have the time and the money to do so.

Oh yes, the money to do so. Maybe if Drooling Joe’s puppet masters hadn’t started payments to Hamas again after Donald Trump shut them down, Hamas wouldn’t have had the money to do what they did. But the Left has always hated Israel. I can remember the protests against Bush back in 2002, 2003, that showed Israel as a blood-sucking vampire wearing a Nazi swastika. Truly, an inspired piece of art. And perfectly representative of what the Left thinks.

And of course the SIX BILLION DOLLARS that Drooling Joe and his puppet masters gave Iran had nothing to do with any of this. Nah, of course not. Drooling Joe was just following Bathhouse Barry Obumblefuck’s lead in dropping pallets of cash off to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. Nothing to see here, folks! There’s absolutely no connection between Drooling Joe giving billions away to Iran, and the Iranian-funded Hamas having electrified paragliders that the used to invade Israel!

You want to have a real mental clarity moment? Go to that Steyn link, and watch the videos towards the bottom of the page. Go watch the muslims dancing and celebrating as Hamas rapes and murders women and children. Those parties aren’t in Gaza.

They’re in Canada. And the E.U. They’re in the USA. We have imported the barbarian followers of a satanic pedophile prophet, and we will eventually have to deal with that.

I don’t know what the end result of this is going to be. Were I in charge, I would start carpet-bombing the Gaza Strip until there was nothing left standing over an inch tall, and then I would bomb it again to make the rubble bounce. And once I was assured that the only life left on that ground was microscopic, I would cleanse it with fire. Burn everything. Leave nothing. Then, and only then, would I turn around to the world and ask if anybody had anything to say.

All we can do for now is sit back and watch. Other than flap our gums, there’s not really any actions that we can take personally that would make a lick of difference. But for Israel’s sake, I hope they finally wake the hell up and deal with the demonic barbarians that they have allowed to live next to them for far too long.

Oct 09 2023

Happy Che Guevara Day

Yes, today is the anniversary of the day that Che Guevara assumed ambient temperature and became a Good Communist. I like to remind many of the people who I see wearing his visage on a shirt that Che Guevara would have most likely put them up against a wall and shot them if he was still living today.

Why do I celebrate his death? Because he was an enemy of civilization, and it pisses off all the right people.

No description available.

I hope he’s enjoying his time in hell.

Load more