More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
~ Woody Allen.
Apr 20 2022
Pearls of expression.
Apr 19 2022
An Undiscussed Legal Rule
We’ve talked about “the rule of law” here on several occasions. I’ve taken pains to point out implications of that principle that others – some deliberately – tend to miss. But there’s an aspect of it that I don’t think I’ve covered, though it could hardly be more significant.
A law that cannot be enforced, as I’ve written on other occasions, weakens respect for the law in general. This is a badly neglected bit of wisdom. The law books of our nation are heavy with unenforceable laws. Many were passed by legislators who were fully aware that they could not be enforced – or worse, that their enforcement would require the enforcers to break even higher laws (e.g., provisions of the Constitution). Yet there they are. Seldom has any politician admitted those laws’ destructive character.
But two questions arise here:
- What does it mean for “respect for the law in general” to diminish?
- What makes a law unenforceable?
The first of those questions pertains to the effect called moral hazard. An unenforceable law, especially one attached to criminal penalties, creates an opportunity for persons to profit from their willingness to risk detection and capture. This is especially important in discussing laws that outlaw widely disapproved behavior, such as recreational drug use and prostitution. When a law makes it profitable to provide outlawed goods or services, that possibility immediately appears, as do persons willing to gamble on not being caught. Organized crime has grown fat on such opportunities.
When the law-abiding see lawbreakers grow rich from their lawbreaking, the disincentives for the law-abiding:
- To remain within the law;
- To teach respect for the law to their progeny;
…rises in proportion to the perceived advantages that accrue to the lawbreakers. While many succeed in resisting those pressures, significant numbers of persons do not. Some of those who succumb will be law enforcers, with all that implies. Their example will corrupt some fraction of their colleagues. Meanwhile, the merchants of the disapproved will continue to “rake it in.” Few will face the penalties the law has established.
What ultimately suffers is the concept of the law as an organizing and civilizing mechanism, a necessary one that deserves respect and adherence.
The second question has more than one answer. As I suggested above, a law whose enforcement requires the violation of higher laws, such as the protections for individuals’ rights enshrined in the Constitution, is unenforceable for that reason. It endangers the whole structure of law. But a law can appear to conform with those protections and still be unenforceable.
The key is the detectability of offenses.
What cannot be detected cannot be outlawed. That can include an offense alleged by others, for under the rules of evidence, testimony about something someone else has done does not preclude reasonable doubt. There could be many reasons for Smith to lie about what he has seen Jones do, or not do. Were such testimony to be accepted uncritically, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh would not have attained their seats on the Supreme Court.
This goes to the heart of one of the most painful questions we in the Right face today: whether it is possible to outlaw abortion at all phases of gestation without incurring still worse consequences.
Many pro-life campaigners would argue that outlawing abortion at all phases would be worth doing even if it were to prove unenforceable. It would “send a message.” But the consequences for respect for the law, plus the implications for the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship, would be grave. During the earliest weeks of pregnancy, only the woman is aware of the embryo inside her. Moreover, she can request services nominally pertinent to abortion for reasons other than pregnancy. The “D&C” – dilation and curettage – is performed not solely to abort an earliest-stage pregnancy but also to remedy certain menstrual problems.
How is such an abortion to be detected? Wouldn’t it require a violation of the woman’s and doctor’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights? Would accusations and testimony by third parties be admissible in such cases? If so, what would happen to the presumption of innocence?
Earliest-stage abortion isn’t the only case of this kind. Consider an allegation that Smith murdered Jones by “pissing him off:” angering him into a fatal heart attack. Consider an allegation that Jones trespassed upon Davis’s land without leaving any trace of his passage. Consider an allegation that Davis replaced Green’s heirloom with an identical copy, thus depriving Green of its collectible, historical, or sentimental value. There are others, but those will do for a start.
Legislators prefer not to consider such questions. They tend to concentrate on maximizing the “mob appeal” of their proposals while deflecting questions about enforceability. But enough damage to respect for the law, and enough money and power have flowed to the willingly criminal, to make such considerations imperative. A legislator or candidate willing to confront questions about enforceability and answer them candidly is worthy of note.
Apr 18 2022
Day Off
We’re doing a little celebrating at the Fortress today, so I shan’t be posting one of my “traditional” (i.e., interminable) pieces. However, do have a look at this Deanna Fisher piece at Victory Girls. She cites a terrific example of a process that’s been in process for quite some time now, summarized in this tweet from the Dishonorable Pramila Jayapal (D, WA):
Student debt cancellation is racial justice.
Student debt cancellation is gender justice.
Student debt cancellation is economic justice.
— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) April 16, 2022
Do those sentiments attach to any notion of “justice” with which you’re familiar, Gentle Reader?
It has been said, and truly, that “Debts are always paid: if not by the borrower, then by the lender.” There is no escaping payment. This is written into the laws of the universe. The sole question is upon whom the burden will fall. But that’s almost tangential to the larger point.
Two bedrock concepts in American political thought underpin every other idea upon which our nation was based:
- Rights,
- Justice.
Once those two concepts have been destroyed, so has America. The Left has been laboring diligently at their destruction for decades. I trust I need not write another dissertation about this. I’ve already done that several times.
Beware, Gentle Reader. Never let anyone get away with using the word rights to mean anything but the rights to life, liberty, and honestly acquired property. Never let anyone get away with using the word justice to mean anything but the defense of individuals’ rights, whether formal or informal. (“Justice” with a preceding modifier is injustice. Full stop.)
When you witness any misuse of either word, it’s enough to interject loudly, “You don’t understand rights (or justice).” Then walk away in an open show of contempt. There’s no point arguing with a Pramila Jayapal. They just scream “racist!” or some other pejorative, so why bother? Just walk away.
Have a nice day.
Apr 17 2022
A Promise Kept
Many of the promises men make to one another are broken. We have learned, often painfully, that to trust is to gamble – that no man’s word, however solemnly given, is absolutely reliable.
There was, however, one exception:
And in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, to see the sepulchre. And behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. And his countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow. And for fear of him, the guards were struck with terror, and became as dead men.
And the angel answering, said to the women: Fear not you; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, and see the place where the Lord was laid. And going quickly, tell ye his disciples that he is risen: and behold he will go before you into Galilee; there you shall see him. Lo, I have foretold it to you.
And they went out quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, running to tell his disciples.
And behold Jesus met them, saying: All hail. But they came up and took hold of his feet, and adored him. Then Jesus said to them: Fear not. Go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, there they shall see me.
Then just as now, what the worldly powers feared most was the promise. Jesus had foretold His Passion, which was frightening enough, but far worse, He had foretold His Resurrection. They who had contrived His execution, many of whom were already convinced that they had slain the Son of God, were in terror of His return – not because He might choose to exact retribution, but because of the potential wrath of His followers. So they “took steps:”
Who when they were departed, behold some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all things that had been done. And they being assembled together with the ancients, taking counsel, gave a great sum of money to the soldiers, Saying: Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole him away when we were asleep. And if the governor shall hear this, we will persuade him, and secure you.
So they taking the money, did as they were taught: and this word was spread abroad among the Jews even unto this day.[Matthew 28:11-15]
But there was no retribution, only joy that His promise had been kept:
And the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And seeing them they adored: but some doubted.
And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.[Matthew 28:16-20]
Happy Easter, everyone. Know the joy of the Resurrection. For He is risen, just as He said.
Apr 16 2022
The Suburban Horror
Homeowners know it well. At least, they do in the moist and temperate Northeastern United States. Each of us who opts for the privacy, space, and comfort of a single-family home must cope with it. The more spacious your domain, the more burdensome it is.
No, it’s not the traffic, nor the property taxes, nor the door-to-door solicitors. These are all relatively minor incursions upon the serenity of the suburban homeowner. It’s something that originally appears quite innocuous…easily managed…really, no trouble at all. And how appalled the new homeowner is when he discovers the terrible truth about it.
It’s the lawn.
For you see, a single-family detached home will always be clustered with other single-family detached homes. Each of them will have a lawn. And though it defies my ability to penetrate, suburban homeowners can get very competitive about their lawns. Worse, they can be downright hostile toward a neighbor whose lawn is viewed as being “not up to community standards.”
We spend a lot on our lawns. A lot of time. A lot of money. A lot of effort. And if your expenditures on those things fail to yield results the local pecksniffs approve, you can be in for a world of hurt.
I’m one of the disapproved ones. I can’t produce a decent lawn. I’ve tried everything: advanced seed formulations, special fertilizers and growth mixtures, chemical soil quality enhancers, a mechanized sprinkler system, everything but waving a dead chicken over it. Nothing helps.
I asked my pastor if there’s a Patron Saint of Lawns to whom I might address my morning prayers. He said he’d get back to me. That was three years ago. I’m still waiting.
It doesn’t help that I’ve got three huge dogs. They’re not in the least concerned about the lawn. That’s my responsibility. As they see it, once they’ve spread their, ah, products around it as liberally as possible, they’ve done their bit.
This is the ball and chain of the suburbs. It’s a life sentence of bondage to unruly, totally uncooperative vegetation, irregularly stippled with weeds, dandelions, ant hills, mole holes, big BLEEP!ing rocks, and bottles, cans, and assorted detritus tossed over the fence by the teenagers next door, who seem to throw parties every weekend.
When I recently entertained the possibility of relocating, among my priorities for our new abode was no lawn. I wanted a place with a lot so densely populated and overshadowed by huge leafy trees that nothing could grow between them. Failing that, I wanted a back yard, at least, that’s wholly taken up by tennis courts. I wanted the lawn, if any, to be small enough to cut with a cuticle scissors. I looked, and looked, but there was nothing satisfactory in the areas I targeted.
Then just this morning, I stumbled upon the following JPG:
Sadly, I have no idea where that eyot-with-a-house-on-it is, or I’d make an offer. Hell, after the lawn-labors I’ve gone through already this spring, I’d throw in my firstborn and my best pocketknife. But the picture gives no clue about where it was taken.
Yes, I’d have to get a boat, which is its own kettle of perpetual nuisances, but look! Perfect privacy and no lawn! It’s the fulfillment of my dearest dream. (Among other things, imagine a town or county inspector trying to harass the owner of that place for a building code violation.)
I showed it to the C.S.O., of course. She shrugged and passed it back. I didn’t understand her indifference. “Well, what do you think?” I said before walking away. “Do you find it at all appealing?”
“I suppose the privacy would be nice,” she said, “but I doubt I’d be happy there.”
That set me back. You doubt YOU’D be happy there? What about your beloved, worn-down husband?! But I kept my composure and asked, quite calmly, “Why not?”
She shrugged again. “No lawn.”
And I alone am escaped to tell thee.
Apr 16 2022
An Eloquent Yet Melancholy Summary
From the Web’s foremost one-legged blogger:
Outdated, clapped-out concerns such as Constitutions and Founding Fathers and principles and the like hold no sway over such duplicitous frauds, being no more meaningful to them than the oaths they dishonestly swear when they take office—oaths they never had the slightest intention of even attempting to honor, not a one of them. Both the oath of office and the obscene charade of selfless fealty to the Constitution are only ritual now; mere bagatelles, empty words recited because hey, that’s just the way these things are done. Our antiquated ceremonies have no more relevance to the modern Washington professional politician than the knee breeches, silk stockings, and powdered wigs worn by our forgotten predecessors do. They’re historical artifacts, occasionally amusing, occasionally cumbersome and dull, occasionally of some small interest to more bookish types. In the end, though, they count for nothing.
The contemporary American politician regards the Constitution not as a binding contract with the nation, but as an obstacle he must surmount. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the majority of them take their oaths of office with their fingers crossed.
Apr 15 2022
What It Means To Be Ruled By Criminals
The weight of the law is never turned on a member of the ruling elite. Instead, it marshals all the oppressive force it possesses to break anyone who stands in opposition to it.
Would you like a demonstration? Here’s one from the 2020 campaign season:
When [Barack] Obama first ran for the U.S. Senate from Illinois, his initial Republican opponent was Jack Ryan, a man of many achievements and sterling character. However, Ryan had one weak point: he’d once been married to starlet Jeri Ryan, she of the impressive bosom and minimal acting talent. The two had gone through a contentious divorce. The records of that divorce were sealed by mutual consent under a judge’s order, to protect their children from a barrage of innuendo…but Obama’s handmaidens in the Illinois press persuaded a judge to open them. The consequences included Ryan’s withdrawal from the race and the unaccomplished and relatively unknown Obama’s election over emergency replacement Republican candidate Alan Keyes.
Whereas, in contrast:
Joe Biden’s sexual assault accuser, Tara Reade, is calling for the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee and former senator to authorize the University of Delaware to release locked-away staff records pertaining to his 36 years in the Senate.
In interviews this week, she said these records may contain the official complaint form she filed after Biden allegedly sexually assaulted her in 1993.
“I’m calling for the release of the documents being held by the University of Delaware that contain Biden’s staff personnel records because I believe it will have my complaint form, as well as my separation letter and other documents,” she said Tuesday to Fox News.
“Maybe if other staffers that have tried to file complaints would come to light — why are they under seal? And why won’t they be released to the public?”
Why mention this now? Because there’s a case of immediate importance:
Democratic senator Raphael Warnock asked a Georgia judge on Tuesday to seal his contentious child custody dispute from the public, arguing that because he is “currently running for reelection” his opponent could use the case to “gain some political advantage,” according to a court motion obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Warnock made the request in a joint motion with his ex-wife, Oulèye Ndoye, following renewed media attention on their divorce. Warnock and Ndoye said in the filing that there is an “overriding interest that is likely to prejudice the parties and their minor children if hearings relating to modification of custody is not closed.” The motion says Warnock is a “public figure serving in a political office” and “is currently running for reelection for said political office.”
“[Warnock’s] opposition is utilizing the public records in order to gain some political advantage or gain,” said the filing, adding that their children could be “harmed by any unstable person who sympathizes” with his opponent.
If the judge agrees to seal the records, it could allow Warnock to avoid a messy public domestic battle while he is facing one of the most competitive races of the midterm elections.
What do you suppose Jack Ryan would have to say about this?
Isabel Paterson, in her masterwork The God of the Machine, drew a sharp distinction between Societies of Status, in which identity is superior to law, and Societies of Contract, in which law is superior to identity. The United States was conceived as a Society of Contract, where the law ignores assertions of personal status. At least, that’s how it was supposed to be. The reality of today is quite different.
When criminals take command of the State, the law is transformed from a tool of justice to a tool for securing advantages to the criminals. Not all criminals prosper in this fashion; there are “insiders” and “outsiders,” of course. The salient point is that the “justice system” no longer deems justice its highest priority. It becomes at best a secondary consideration, subordinate to protecting the persons, privileges, and prerogatives of the ruling elite.
This provides the analyst with a simple, binary test for the political health of a society. Do accused members of the ruling class get special treatment from prosecutors and courts? If so, you have been informed that the “justice system” no longer serves justice…and there’s only one breed of creature that finds that to be a desirable state of affairs.
Just a few early-morning thoughts, Gentle Reader. As you go through this Good Friday of the Year of Our Lord 2022, keep in mind that Christ was crucified for preaching without a permit.
Reflect, and pray.
Apr 14 2022
He Meant What He Said!
Elon Musk has launched a $41.39 billion hostile takeover of Twitter, the world’s most influential social media platform.
On early Thursday, Musk made his “best and final” offer to buy Twitter Inc., stating that he intends to unlock the company’s “extraordinary potential.” As predicted by Rebel News on Monday, Musk’s rejection of a position on the company’s board of directors unshackled him to purchase more than 14.9% of the stock.
Musk’s current 9.1% stake in the company makes him Twitter’s largest individual shareholder.
“I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” said Musk in a statement.
According to Bloomberg, Musk, who’s the world’s richest man, will pay $54.20 per share in cash, representing a 54% premium over the company’s Jan. 28 closing price. It will cost Musk a cool $41.39 billion – above its current market valuation of $37 billion.
Who would have expected that Americans’ freedom of expression would be best served not by its government, nor by a native-born American steeped from the cradle in our traditions of freedom, but by an immigrant to these shores from South Africa? Yet that is what has come to pass.
Mind you, this is not a “solution” to the encroachments on freedom of expression. Yet it’s more than a ray of light. It’s a powerful beam that simultaneously illuminates one of the chief sources of threat and moves to liberate it. That the man holding the lantern is Elon Musk makes clear that one of our modern merchant princes seriously does appreciate what makes America a desirable place to be. If there were a few others like him in the billionaire class, we would have no need to fear the would-be censors of the Left.
The premium Musk is offering over Twitter’s current share price makes it unlikely to be refused. It’s an occasion to celebrate.
Apr 14 2022
Groomer-Adjacent
This image speaks concisely and clearly of what has been done to normal Americans in the name of “tolerance:”
If it’s normal and wholesome, whatever it is, it’s under attack today. From the Left, of course. The Left must destroy the chief buttresses to our sense of normality before it can remake the nation according to its preferred schematic. The Obamunists tried mightily to do so. They were barely halted short of the finish line by a resurgent Republican wave that deprived Obama of a compliant Congress. The Usurpers don’t think they can be halted. Their successful theft of the 2020 elections has persuaded them that they can no longer be ejected from power…and they could well be right.
How’s your pantry looking, Gentle Reader?
Apr 14 2022
Concerning Grooming
As a follow-on to yesterday’s rant, ponder well this article by Thomas Lifson. It and the other items it links will reinforce your fears.
Yes, it is happening.
Yes, there’s a lot of it.
Yes, it’s across the nation.
If your children are in a government school, they are not safe from it. Do not imagine that any political force, regardless of the label it wears, will protect them. They have a single line of defense: you.
Verbum sat sapienti.
Apr 14 2022
I Know, I Know
I really shouldn’t…but it got me laughing so hard I hurt myself:
Applause to Kenny “Wirecutter” Lane.
Apr 13 2022
Groomers And Their Agendas
Considering the imperative nature of this subject, it surprises me that it took so long to become a subject of national discussion. But perhaps it shouldn’t. We dislike to discuss our own failures, and the explosion of groomers and grooming in our schools constitutes a failure of our responsibilities toward the weakest and most vulnerable persons in our care.
Let’s start with this article by Natalie Argyle:
In an effort to educate the public on the signs of sexual grooming of children, RAINN, or the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, explains that while “grooming can take many different forms, it often follows a similar pattern.” Some of those identifiable patterns are:
- Groomers selecting targets who are emotionally and socially vulnerable.
- Groomers seeking out positions which give them easy access to and contact with potential targets.
- Groomers building trust with targets through special attention and shared secrets.
- Groomers desensitizing targets through discussion of and engagement in age-inappropriate sexual content.
- Groomers attempting to normalize the above behaviors to avoid suspicion.
Terrifyingly, every single one of these is rampant in schools and classrooms today.
There’s a “red thread” running through those behaviors. Each of them has the effect of creating a quasi-parental relationship between the groomer and his victim. The matter of “shared secrets” is particularly significant, as those secrets tend to separate and distance the victim from his parents. That separation is critically important to the grooming process for reasons I’m sure require no explanation by me.
It should be equally evident why groomers target schools. Who is more emotionally and socially vulnerable than a child? And who has more situational authority over children than a teacher, whom the law invests with in loco parentis status?
The discussion of grooming and groomers has focused on preadolescent children, and on sexual vulnerability and perversion. As important as those things are, if we ponder the critical separation-from-parents aspect for a while, it becomes plain that the groomer opens his victim to an enormous range of deviances. Among those is the inculcation of hatred as a dominant force in the victim’s psyche. In consequence, hatred and the actions it fuels have become threats to virtually everyone and everything in our nation.
Many of us who’ve raised children through adolescence and sent them off to college will know the terror that comes from having sent a child away to school and getting back a virtual stranger. In many cases, the parent isn’t able to cope. The changes in his child are so great, and so savage, that there’s no possibility of them conversing normally. It’s baffling as well as enraging – and it’s a consequence of a grooming process.
Have you wondered why America’s colleges and universities have turned into cesspools of anti-Americanism? Given that groomers in our children’s early years have been at work for longer than we were aware, our “institutions of higher learning” have turned into finishing schools. They complete the process of detachment from American values that the primary and secondary schools began.
The process was already at work decades ago, when Boomer children went away to college. However, back then our primary and secondary schools hadn’t yet been completely conquered by the Left’s groomers. American kids still received a substantial education before going off to college. Collegiate groomers had a tougher row to hoe. In consequence, their results were spotty.
It was not until the “colleges of education” had been thoroughly corrupted that the extension of grooming-as-schooling to the lower grades began. That appears to have occurred some time in the Sixties, when unprecedented numbers of college graduates started hunting for jobs. A significant fraction thereof became teachers. For many, it was a “least bad choice,” rather than a deep desire to educate the young.
Thomas Sowell has noted that it is the bottom twenty percent of college graduates who go on to become “educators.” These are not typically persons who admire intellect, initiative, or the fruits of serious effort. Many of them are beset by envy and resentment of more able others, and of a society whose rewards flow heavily toward the able and energetic. That renders them susceptible to anti-American propagandization. They bring those attitudes to the classrooms they later rule…and they pass them on to students bound for college in due course.
Thus have America’s colleges produced the bumper crop of groomers that now infest the lower grades.
A diffuse and inchoate hatred tends naturally to target those things that express normality. Normality is an aggregate of customs, conventions, traditions, and patterns, each one of which is largely independent of other “normal” things. Yet together they constitute a culture, which unites those who ascribe to it into a cohesive polity: a nation. When a significant fraction of those within its nominal bounds disaffiliate from normality, the nation becomes unstable. While such instability manifests in many ways, the most prominent manifestation is violence.
I posit that the mushrooming violence that’s disassembled our great cities these past few years requires little other explanation. Had it not been “the environment,” “inequality,” or “black lives matter,” the tides of thoroughly groomed young adults pouring out of American colleges would have latched onto some other rationale. The absurd “Occupy” demonstrations during Michael Bloomberg’s mayoralty make that clear.
The sexual aspects of grooming are vitally important, doubt it not. My aim today was to widen the discussion, such that the grooming dynamic’s application to other social abnormalities might become more visible. I hope the above has provided a start, though I haven’t exhausted the subject.
Keep the central element of the grooming phenomenon – separation of young people from their parents’ norms and values — at the front of the discussion. It will prove applicable far more often than we’d like to think.
Apr 12 2022
Holy Week Starts With A Bang!
Yes, it’s another of those dreaded “Assorted” columns. Keep the groaning down.
I found this at Ace’s place:
Plastic Martyr
@plasticmartyrI wonder how these conservatives would feel if we passed a law making it illegal to teach your kids about religion until they were adults.
The “Don’t Say Bible” bill
This is a perfect illustration of how utterly clueless the Left’s allegiants are. The author of the above tweet seems unaware that public-school teachers are forbidden to introduce religious topics in the classroom, other than in a passing mention while discussing some historical atrocity. Citing the Bible in a government-school classroom will, quite predictably, cost a teacher his job. The excellent movie God’s Not Dead 2, which stars Pat Boone and Melissa Joan Hart, is based on an actual case on that subject – an unusual case in which the teacher did not lose her job.
But that’s the Left. That’s what they do. And it is why there can be no compromise with them – on any subject.
Mathematician / philosopher Raymond Smullyan once presented a parable that runs something like this:
Two boys, John and Steve, are ambling about when they come upon a luscious looking cake. Steve smiles brightly and says, “I shall now eat the cake.” John protests, saying that as they both found it, they should share it equally, half the cake to each of them. Steve is adamant that the cake is his alone, and a struggle begins, when a mediation-minded adult happens by. “Gentlemen!” the adult says. “You shouldn’t argue and fight; you should compromise.” He turns to John and says “Give Steve three-quarters of the cake.”
That’s the consequence of a “compromise is always best” attitude on one side of a dispute when the other side is implacable and will say and do anything to get its way. When you face an enemy of that sort, you must either pull your own guns and fight a outrance, or resign yourself to defeat by the death of a thousand compromises. These past few decades, the Republican Party has repeatedly chosen the latter course.
Got that? Now read these thoughts from John Hayward (“Doc_Zero”) and the mighty Ace of Spades. Which explanation rings truer: timidity or collaboration disguised as timidity? There’s a case to be made either way.
Back to religion-related subjects for a moment: Mike Miles of 90 Miles From Tyranny has a gift for unearthing excellent graphics of every sort. Here’s one from his labors of yesterday:
As of the 2016 survey (the most recent I could find), there are 37,192 Catholic priests in the United States. So the abuse rate per capita for Catholic priests is about 1 in 185. That year there were about 3.5 million public school teachers, full or part time. That makes their abuse rate 1 in 120, which is significantly worse than that for Catholic clerics. So what would account for the disproportionate focus on Catholic clerics? That priests lack a wealthy and protective union with its own Cabinet department, perhaps?
Now, let’s breathe a little fire on today’s most conspicuously rampant madness:
Finally, one of his teammates has dared to speak about this openly. That would be Riley Gaines, who had to accept her trophy for sixth place despite having tied for fifth with Lia. Lia was given pride of place over Gaines, nevertheless. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, she said: “I went behind the podium to collect my fifth place trophy and they kind of blatantly told me that Lia would hold the fifth place trophy and that I could pose with the sixth place trophy for photos and I would be mailed a fifth place trophy.”
“When I kind of questioned it, you know, I asked (the official) ‘is there a reason why you’re giving Lia the trophy?’ he just explained to me that, ‘we’re giving it in chronological order,’ and I questioned him again, what does that mean? What are we being chronological about? We tied. And he kind of blatantly said, ‘we’re just gonna give the trophy to Lia, we respect and admire your swim but Lia needs to hold the trophy.’”
Can you feel the creeping madness?
He needs to hold the trophy.
In order to make the point. No—in order to rub it in the face of women like Riley Gaines that men now own their sport.
This was inevitable. It started, not with transgenderism, but with Rachel Dolezal and Shaun King, who, despite having two Caucasian parents each, were allowed to get away with claiming to be Negroes. Dolezal’s “I identify as black” is only a few years old. I don’t know whether Shaun King said anything similar, but his attitude is identical with Dolezal’s.
Yet it’s lunacy, and it’s undisguised…so why aren’t we calling it that?
Why aren’t we treating the lunatics with compassion and therapy, as lunatics deserve?
Why does this species of insanity rate a completely different, contradictory standard of “tolerance?” Because it’s got a major political party behind it?
Have we become so timid, so completely confrontation-averse, that we cannot protect young women – athletes and non-athletes alike – from having their sex stolen from them? (Not their “gender.” Gender is for nouns and connectors. People have a sex.)
Or is it something else? Are we now forbidden to say that women, young and old, need and deserve protection from predatory men? That when men are permitted to prey upon them, women are at a severe disadvantage that can only be redressed by decent men?
I hope that when “transgender-rights activists” and “public-school teachers” are at last publicly hanged for defiling our children with such madness, I’ll still be around to say “This was inevitable, too.” Because it most certainly is.
Because someone is bound to bring it up, I shall pre-empt: Yes! I wrote a simpatico transwoman into the Futanari Saga. I did so for a compelling reason: to create an example of good sense in one who chooses to present as the opposite sex.
My character Holly Martinowski chooses to present as a woman despite having a Y chromosome in every cell and the genital equipment that goes along with said chromosomes. She’s an important contrast to my futanari characters, whose condition is unchosen and immutable. Neither Holly nor my futanari asked to be born as they were. However, Holly’s presentation is volitional, arising from other aspects of her anatomy and physiognomy. She is not mentally ill, nor does she claim to be anything she is not:
Ray had only just donned his stole and murmured a prayer for God’s guidance when a penitent entered the face-to-face booth and knelt. He donned a formally grave expression, looked up at his visitor, and swallowed an oath.
“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen,” Holly Martinowski intoned. “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” She smiled wanly. “I’m not really sure how long it’s been since my last confession. More than fifteen years, anyway.”
“Bless you, Holly,” Ray said. “May the Lord be in your heart and help you to confess your sins sincerely and with true contrition. What are your sins, dear?”
“Father,” she said in a gradually strengthening voice, “I’ve been bitter and resentful. I estranged myself from my parents because they mocked me as I was and could not accept me as I am today. My bitterness has led me to resent them and wish them ill, even though none of them ever did me any injustice that went beyond a few harsh words.
“And I may have been less than honest. Since I endeavored to transition, I’ve let everyone I met believe that I’m female. I know I have only the appearance and not the essence. I know that no surgery could make me other than cosmetically female. But I’ve chosen to live as a woman, rather than as the pitifully unmanly man I would otherwise have been. And I am happy this way. I don’t regard my masquerade as a sin, though not being candid about my origins might strike you as sinful.”
She bowed her head over her folded hands.
“Other than that, I’ve missed a lot of Sunday Masses. But I have not worshipped any other god. I have not blasphemed. I have not made any idols. I haven’t killed or harmed anyone, or committed adultery, or theft or fraud. I haven’t borne false witness against others. I’ve envied naturally born women their state, but only in a wistful way. And I’ve tried most sincerely, Father, to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. I love God and delight in all His works. I strive to love my neighbor as myself. And with that I subject myself to your judgment and to the mercy of God.”
Ray was momentarily thrown out of his orbit.
“Have you examined your conscience closely, Holly?”
“I have, Father.”
“And you find no other blemishes there?”
“I have confessed all that I’ve found, Father.”
“You don’t think it a deception to wear a female guise?”
“I wear it for its own sake, Father. I don’t use it to deceive or defraud others. I never have.”
“And you never will, dear?”
That brought Holly’s head back up.
“Only God can know the future, Father. But it’s not my intention ever to do so. What could I gain that I couldn’t get some other way?”
Ray breathed deeply and strove to steady himself.
“It’s not the gain or loss that matters but the intention, dear. Are you firm in your resolve?”
“I am, Father.”
“And truly sorry for your sins?”
“O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishment, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and worthy of all my love. I humbly resolve with the help of Thy Grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen.”
He grinned despite himself. “You boned up before you came here, didn’t you?”
She returned the grin. “A little cramming is acceptable before an exam, isn’t it, Father?”
He chuckled. “Let’s hope so, dear, because it was one of my most regular practices back in seminary. Your penance is five Our Fathers, five Hail Marys, and five Glory Bes interleaved, to be performed in a spirit of contrition immediately upon leaving the confessional. Go to the front of the church and kneel at the old communion rail. Look upon the Presence lamp as you pray, and give thanks for the love and mercy of God.”
“I shall, Father.”
He raised his right hand. “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace. I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
“Amen,” she whispered.
“Now go and sin no more.”
She exited the confessional.[From Experiences. See also this essay.]
Holly’s attitude is the acceptable “middle ground” of transgenderism:
That stance is acceptable because, properly practiced, it does no harm. Indeed, at its best it can’t even be detected. But it excludes the “Lia” Thomases of the world, and those who seek to preach “gender fluidity” to impressionable children – as it should.
That’s all for today, Gentle Reader. Until whenever. Have a nice day.
Apr 12 2022
Another load of Weather Channel climate change hysteria.
4/8/22 — “Gallup Poll: 1 in 3 Americans Impacted by Extreme Weather in Last 2 Years.” “The survey also found that people who are victims of extreme weather were more likely to be worried about climate change and to believe that we’re already seeing its impact.” [They may also be worried about climate change because you guys harp on it incessantly.] The Gallup Poll “comes after two years in a row of a record number of billion dollar weather and climate disasters in the U.S.”
4/6/22 — “Tropical Birds Disappearing.” “Climate change may be to blame.”
4/6/22 — “Climate-Fueled Disasters Impacting Power Grid.” “Experts say the country’s power grid woes are an early warning sign that climate change is here and we’re feeling its effect.” And: “People across the country are facing more power outages as climate-fueled disasters batter the country’s aging electrical grid.”
3/31/22 — “Air-Choking Pollution From Wildfires Could Get Even Worse.” Could “double in the next 30 years and triple by the end of the century according to new research. That’s even worse than previous studies have shown meaning the potential for even more impact on people’s health. . . .” Seen it increase in recent years “at the same time that warmer, drier weather fueled by climate change is pushing fire season to last longer and be more intense.
3/22/21 — “Freak Heat in Antarctica: Temperatures 70 Degrees Above Normal.” From -60 to 10 deg. Apparently centigrade. Warm, moist winds from the Pacific. Experts say it’s difficult to attribute it to climate change” but The Weather Channel will give it its best shot: “[B]ut as the world warms events like this will be more likely.”
3/18/22 — “Shorter Winters Challenge Wildfire Prevention Efforts.” Global warming making control efforts more difficult.
3/18/22 — “Coastal Erosion Could Release Toxic Waste.” And “if climate change supercharges storms and raises sea levels the problem will only get worse.”
3/18/22 — “Great Barrier Reef Suffers Another Episode of Widespread Bleaching.” No mention of climate change but reef said to be experiencing widespread bleaching because of “weeks of unusual heat.” Another “severe bleaching episode two years ago.” Environmental “activists” say Australian government actions “not enough in this era of climate change and warming temperatures.” Actual science: “Sea Temperatures at the Great Barrier Reef Haven’t Increased in 150 Years, Newly Uncovered Data Show.” By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, 2/14/22.
3/12/22 — “UN: IPCC Report ‘Atlas of Human Suffering’.” “A new report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds the window is quickly closing to avoid catastrophic and irreversible effects of climate change.”
3/8/22 — “People Are Less Able to Cope With Temperature Extremes.” ” A new study finds that humans are less able to handle extremes of heat and humidity than has been thought, findings that have implications for heat waves that may be coming from climate change.” Who knew?
3/8/22 — “Amazon Nearing a ‘Tipping Point’ of Irreversible Decline, New Report Finds.” Could “dramatically accelerate climate change and imperil many species.”
3/4/22 — “Warming Climate Making More People Sick.” “Warmer temperatures fuel the spread of things like Lyme disease, dengue fever and cholera, according to the UN’s most recent climate report.” Danielle Banks, Atlanta Meterologist, hittin’ it hard, hard, hard as usual. 200 actual scientists. Warmer temps mean more insects and heavy rainfall and flooding events — connected to climate change — fuel the spread of water-borne disease like cholera. Also a link between respiratory disease and wild fires “which scientists say are becoming more intense.” These kinds of “climate-change events have come sooner than expected and the panel projects they’ll only get worse.”
3/4/22 — “Thousands of Hazardous Chemical Sites at Risk From Flooding, Wildfires.” In areas at risk for flooding, wild fires, and other weather and climate change-related hazards. Risk is “only expected to rise in the future.”
2/25/22 — “ER Visits for Mental Health Issues Spike on Hot Days, Study Finds.” Mental health problems as temperatures get warm and extreme heat increases. That would be “extreme” heat. “Last July was the planet’s hottest month on record. And rising temperatures due to climate change are well documented.” Hospitals need to be prepared for “increased mental health visits related to heat.”
2/24/22 — “Governments Worldwide Not Prepared for Rising Wildfire Threat, UN Says.” “Catastrophic wild fires are expected to become more common as the planet warms and governments around the world are not prepared for the fallout.” Report: climate change and changes in land use could increase likelihood of devastating fires by 30% in the next 30 years. More smoke and pollution and health problems.
2/15/22 — “What a Town Consumed By Erosion Looks Like.” Ocean is eroding coast at this Brazillian town. 500 homes already gone. It’s at the mouth of a river that’s shrinking and so is not depositing enough sand aaannnd climate change. Rising waters devouring coastlines. Half of the world’s coastline communities could be extinct by 2100 but cutting greenhouse gas emissions, even moderately, could prevent a significant amount of that loss.
Apr 11 2022
Faith Among The Faithless
Relax, this won’t be a religious piece. Rather, it’s about one’s reluctance to award credence to persons who’ve already proved unreliable.
We start from this story:
Nearly 100 House Republicans are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, saying they had the hallmarks of an influence peddling scandal.
The letter led by Reps. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the chair of the House GOP Study Committee, comes as the U.S. attorney in Delaware enters his third year investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes, foreign lobbying and money movements.
In all, 95 House GOP members signed the letter.
“It is increasingly clear that Hunter Biden took advantage of his father’s position as Vice President to develop business relationships with clients in Ukraine, China, and Kazakhstan,” the lawmakers wrote. “Hunter Biden likely facilitated lobbying for foreign entities through third-party channels without registering for the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
“It appears that Hunter Biden used his position as son of then-Vice President Biden to gain wealth and influence in foreign countries, using questionably sourced money to pay tax liabilities, and lobbying on behalf of foreign entities without proceeding through the proper channels.”
So ninety-five Republican Congressmen signed the letter, eh? How many Republican Congressmen are there in toto? It says here that two hundred eleven Congressmen are members of the Grand Old Party. So one hundred sixteen GOP Congressmen have not signed it. Why not? Do they disagree with its allegations, or do they have some political reason for not joining the petition?
Later on in the article, we have this:
While support for a special counsel has been growing, some Republicans like Sen. Ron Johnson argue it isn’t necessary and would only further delay an already slow moving investigation.
“I won’t have any faith in him,” Johnson said of a special counsel.
The “isn’t necessary” part is a matter of political judgment with which I’m indisposed to argue. The “no faith” part is a different matter. It’s been unwise to put one’s faith in the ethics of politicians since before World War II. Politicians are even more aware of that than are We the Unwashed. Attorney-General Merrick Garland, whatever else he may be, is a politician – and a Democrat.
While we’re on the subject of faith in others, have Congressional Republicans proved themselves trustworthy and reliable? The record of the Republican-dominated Congresses during Donald Trump’s presidency was not inspiring. They often seemed determined to thwart him rather than support him. Because of Congressional balkiness, President Trump had to use executive orders far more often than was desirable. It’s a great part of the reason the Usurpers have had so little difficulty reversing the course he set. While “past performance is no guarantee of future returns,” were Trump to be returned to the Oval Office, would he be wise to place his faith in the Republican caucuses on Capitol Hill?
Trump’s no dummy. In his business dealings, he often relied on the trustworthiness of others – and he never allowed anyone to abuse him twice. The American electorate, on the other hand…
We have a serious political problem. Both major parties have proved themselves unworthy of trust. The evolution of political ethics has been steadily downward. To expect deceit and venality is far more sensible than to expect fidelity and honesty.
However, as matters stand, the major parties have a lock on federal offices, and on most state and local offices as well. We have nowhere to turn for an alternative that might prove more faithful.
It’s time to revive an old proposal:
On Every Ballot For Public Office.
NOTA, as it was once called, has several variations. My favorite not only refrains from seating anyone in an office where “None Of The Above” has garnered a plurality; it also suspends all powers associated with that office until the next general election. No one may exercise a power delegated to an office left empty by a NOTA result.
NOTA is not popular with politicians, of course. But isn’t that just another reason to talk it up, see if we can get it into the national conversation? Think about it.
Apr 11 2022
Poisonous French politics.
Despite Le Pen’s success [in Sunday’s election], all the other establishment parties, from Republicans to Communists, have urged their supporters to vote for Macron in the second round, closing ranks around the former Rothschild banker and Socialist technocrat.[1]
So . . . French politics are poisonous because they cannot budge the nation off the status quo dead center. In the second round of voting, the rats and snakes gang up on the candidate who wants to alter the status quo. This two-tiered electoral system is positively locked in stone and accepted by the French as divinely prescribed.
But it operates to keep the nation on a course that can NOT be changed unless the non-status quo candidate is able to pull off an astonishing electoral upset. Which upset is almost impossible given the timorousness and stupidity of the left and sort-of “right” in their historic willingness to reject the slightest course alteration. There is always the second-round pile on.
Even with the nation riven with rejectionist Muslims and Africans who both bring with them their third-world ways the French system works in favor of the people who have worked hard to bring about the end of France as a white country. And who are not the slightest bit interested in changing the destructive course of the nation. Didn’t France have an earlier experience with an ossified, privileged, unresponsive elite? Seems to me it did and the results were unpleasant. If only incremental adjustment had been possible.
France is locked into a Thelma and Louise moment. It can’t change and it won’t change. Hello Notre Dame as a mosque and Muslim asses uplifted in city streets to show their contempt for infidels. Done deal. Guaranteed. The way it is.
Pray for Western economic collapse. The only thing that will focus Westerners’ attention on anything remotely real.
Notes
[1] “Antifa Riots In French Cities Because They Didn’t Like The Election Result.” By Paul Joseph Watson, ZeroHedge, 4/11/22.
Apr 10 2022
The Message
These days, virtually no one in the public eye speaks plainly and clearly. How long has it been since you last heard a politician answer a direct question with a direct answer – especially an answer of “yes” or “no?” Come to think of it, how long has it been since the last time a politician was asked a direct question, instead of a compound of an inquiry with hypothesis plus disputable tendentious assertion? My memory suggests no instances of either phenomenon these past twenty years.
Speaking plainly and clearly is the practice of one resolved to be understood. Loading statements with periphrases, conditional clauses, asides, and irrelevancies is the practice of one desperate to leave himself wiggle room, so he can back away from whatever interpretation of his words We the Unwashed might have reached. Politicians, almost all of whom are inherently dishonest, prefer the latter sort of speech.
But I’m not here to talk about politics or its practitioners. Not today.
The crowd assembled to greet the famous preacher upon his entrance to the city. Many were tremendously excited, not because of the preacher’s message, but because they believed him to be something he was not. Indeed, only a few in that throng had the faintest idea what the preacher had preached. Nevertheless, many hundreds assembled to witness his arrival. They carpeted his path with palm fronds, as if a king or a great noble had come to their city.
Over the week that followed, the preacher preached his message to all who would hear him. Some were uplifted by it, but many others were dismayed. The preacher was plainly not what they had expected…what they had hoped for. Disappointment made them bitter. They sought an outlet for their frustration…and what better outlet could there be than the preacher himself?
Those dismayed by the preacher’s message included some of the most powerful men in the city: its religious authorities. They pondered the swelling resentment of the crowds and decided to make use of it. They arrested the preacher on the pretext that he had set himself above the authorities of that place. They maneuvered the highest temporal official of the district into sentencing the preacher to death.
And so it was done.
But what was the message? Who heard it plainly and accepted it, other than the rag-tag band of disciples that accompanied the preacher into the city?
The message was clarity itself. It could not be misinterpreted, hedged, or distorted. Indeed, it could be summarized in a single word: Repent.
The people had lost their way. They’d done so by elevating ritual and trivia above the most fundamental of all things. Their religious leaders had encouraged them in this by multiplying and ramifying the “laws” until not even the most studious of the scholars could remember them all. Castes formed, and social strata arose, over who could remember and observe the greatest number of them. The highly placed abused the less elevated, while the lowest abused one another. A much later secular leader told us that “If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law,” and so it was in that time and place.
But no one likes to be chastised. No one likes to be told that he’s discarded the wheat and kept the chaff. And the religious leaders, who had “done a corner” in the creed they promulgated and the social divisions that resulted, were most displeased of all. So they engineered the preacher’s downfall. They breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that he had been put to death. A threat to their positions had been eliminated.
Fortunately, it didn’t “take.” But I’m jumping ahead to the end.
Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of the Christian Holy Week. As my Gentle Readers are surely aware, it culminates in the Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God Incarnate in human flesh. Jesus’s execution was the direct consequence of his message, the most important message ever pronounced to men:
“Here’s where the chili meets the cheese, my friend. One of my heroes was C. S. Lewis, a man who began as a skeptic, much like yourself. At the end of his journey, you know what he said? If Christianity is false, it’s of zero importance. But if it’s true, there’s nothing more important in the entire universe.” [From the recent movie The Case for Christ]
His message raised the love of God and neighbor above the pronouncements of “religious authorities.” They whose status rested upon the pronouncements of those “authorities” could not let it stand:
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.
That message got the Redeemer, who had entered Jerusalem to the cheers of a multitude, denounced, tortured, and executed…for preaching without a permit.
Enjoy your Palm Sunday.
Apr 09 2022
Depressing Or Uplifting?
Once in a great while, and usually through the assistance of another blogger – usually Gerard Van der Leun — I’ll stumble on a piece that “splits the uprights.” This is one such: a tirade that ruptures the categories and makes the reader ask himself, “What now? Do I unpack the Barrett .50 and the emergency box of Oreo DoubleStufs, or do I undress, fill the tub with warm water, and grab a fresh razor blade?”
The whole thing is worthy of your reading time and consideration, but Gerard excerpts the Sunday punch, which I shall reproduce here:
“These people are playing with matches… I don’t think they understand the scope and scale of the wildfire they are flirting with. They are fucking around with a civil war that could last a decade and cause millions of deaths… and the sad truth is that 95% of the problems we have in this country could be solved tomorrow, by noon… simply by dragging 100 people out in the street and shooting them in the fucking head.”
Of course it was that which got my immediate attention. The utterer, according to the proprietor of Taxicab Depressions, is a former Marine who’s “obviously thought about this to some degree already.” While he doesn’t provide a list of names for to Madame De Farge to knit into her vengeance shawl, I find “Mr. Wheeler’s” thesis appealing. There are surely more than 100 people involved in the ongoing tyrannization of this once-free country, but were we to string up the most prominent hundred, the majority of the rest would choose to retire to some remote locale.
Uplifting…because it would be so cheap and simple. Depressing…because the probability of its implementation is infinitesimally more than zero.
That’s all for the moment, Gentle Reader. If you haven’t yet set to work on your preparations for the Big Day, here’s the list again:
- Buy gold and silver, and tell no one that you have it.
- Fill your pantry to bursting and keep it full.
- Advance anticipated purchases of clothing. Emphasize practicality.
- Keep your oil, gasoline, and propane tanks full.
- Deal in cash, exclusively if possible.
- Know the leanings of those you do business with.
- Be armed. Be well armed. Before all else, be armed! (With copious thanks to the spirit of Niccolo de Machiavelli.)
Apr 08 2022
Some Fiction News
While I’ve had my novels at Amazon in the “KDP select” system for some time, it hasn’t done anything for the expansion of my readership. Therefore, I’ve decided to slough “KDP Select” status, so I can distribute more widely than just through Amazon.
I’ve just resubmitted all 19 of my novels to Smashwords:
Chosen One
On Broken Wings
Shadow of a Sword
Polymath
Statesman
The Spooner Federation Saga:
Which Art In Hope
Freedom’s Scion
Freedom’s Fury
The Futanari Saga:
The Athene Academy Collection
Innocents
Experiences
The Wise and the Mad
In Vino
The Aeolian Fantasies:
The Warm Lands
Other Novels:
The Sledgehammer Concerto
Priestesses
Love in the Time of Cinema
Antiquities
The Discovery Phase
They should appear at Barnes & Noble and other ebook retailers as Smashwords clears them for Premium status. I’ll release all my future novels both at Smashwords and Amazon. I hope this is good news to those of you who avoid Amazon, whatever your reasons.
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
