If you've ever wanted to spend some time learning about economics, history, and the Libertarian ideas, here's a link to a LOT of free books - some relatively current, some older, but something more worthwhile than watching another re-run of a vapid TV show or scrolling on FB.
I'm currently downloading a bunch, and will be transferring them to a storage drive, and reading them off the Kindle. It should make more productive use of my time than moping around about cancelled holiday plans.
[A short story for you today. I was about to start on Part 2 of Resisting the Heist when I stumbled upon an image that inspired what follows. I hope you’ll enjoy it. -- FWP]
“Is that...real?”
The reporter stared up at the mounted grizzly bear as if he expected it to attack at any moment. It was poised in exactly that stance.
Dunlop nodded. “Unfortunately, yes. I had to kill him, but I regretted the necessity. So I wanted a memento of him...of his ferocity in defense of what he thought of as his territory.”
The reporter frowned. “You think an animal can have a sense of property ownership?”
“Oh, beyond all question. For grizzlies out here in the northwest, it’s a matter of survival. A grizzly needs a rather large area, exclusive to him, to hunt and forage if he’s to survive. His dietary requirements are as enormous as he is. They’re the largest land animals in North America, you know.”
“Yeah.” The beast was easily fifteen feet tall on its pedestal. In life it must have weighed over a thousand pounds. Yet it had fallen to a man...the same man who had toppled a government single-handed.
“You were extraordinarily lucky to be armed with a weapon that would stop him, let alone kill him. And to be quick enough to stop him before he could harm you.”
Dunlop shook his head. “Luck had nothing to do with it, sir. I knew I was in grizzly country. I came prepared and I stayed alert. I knew I’d have to establish my claim of these lands against the wildlife, not just at the registry office. That came before the contractors stuck the first shovel into the dirt.”
“And that did it,” the reporter said, still gazing up at the remains of the giant predator.
“For the moment,” Dunlop said. “Not in perpetuity. I’ve had to ward off a number of lesser creatures since then.”
“Did you have to kill any of them?”
“Only one. A wolf. I thought about having him stuffed and mounted, but I decided against it. I don’t want my retirement home to look like a hunter’s trophy room.”
“Retirement home.” The reporter shook his head. “I can see why you’ve been described as fearless.”
Dunlop winced. “I hope that won’t play a part in your story. It’s the furthest thing from the truth. The fearless man is the ultimate fool, and I’d like to think I’m not a fool.”
“Then why did you settle yourself in an area roamed by huge, dangerous land animals, and moreover that’s miles from any sources of assistance?”
“I had reasons,” Dunlop said, “but it certainly wasn’t to prove that I’m fearless.” He rose from his seat. “Let’s go out back. There’s something I’d like to show you.”
Dunlop led the reporter to the back door and out into the expanse surrounding his home. The elevation at which Dunlop had built his home made the distance one could see enormous. Apart from Dunlop’s house few human artifacts were visible, and the scale made them appear insignificant. The view had been high among his reasons for choosing the site for his homestead.
The reporter’s gaze arrowed directly to the glow from the pit.
“You left a fire going?”
Dunlop chuckled. “Not exactly. Come have a look.”
Six large, irregular granite boulders ringed a roughly circular aperture about four feet in diameter. They compelled the reporter to prop himself on the lowest of them, crawl half his body length forward, and stretch to his limit to peer down into the inferno they limned. The fiery glow heated his face considerably for the few seconds he could bear to gaze into it. He pulled back with a mutter and a head shake.
“What is it, Mr. Dunlop?”
“One of my real reasons for planting myself here.” Dunlop indicated a group of Adirondack chairs near the rim of the pit, waved the reporter into one, and seated himself in another. “I ‘left the fire going,’ as you put it, because no man alive could possibly put it out. It’s been going for billions of years. It’s the orifice of a volcano. The smallest one known to exist in North America.”
The reporter paled. “You chose to build your...retirement home within a hundred yards of the open mouth of a volcano? Good God, why?”
Dunlop smiled. “Because it terrifies me.”
The reporter gaped open-mouthed at him.
“We think we’re a really big deal, we humans,” Dunlop said. “We posture as the lords of creation, utterly the masters of the world and all that’s in it. But it’s not so. It’s never been so, and like as not it never will be. Nature contains entities and forces Man cannot possibly control. We can’t do a blessed thing about volcanoes, or earthquakes, or hurricanes—and those are just the really dramatic examples. Do you remember the Maunder Minimum, thirty years back?”
The reporter nodded.
“It killed a lot of people. Americans weren’t prepared for that steep a fall in global temperatures. With all our technology and sources of fuel, we still lost thousands to the cold. The British suffered orders of magnitude worse, because of the quenching of the Gulf Stream and the prevailing northerly winds. It was only good fortune that it was no worse than it was. If it had lasted a couple of years longer, it could have wiped Man and all the other land fauna off the face of the Earth. Yet all that happened was that the Sun chose to go just a little dim for a couple of years...and we could do nothing about it.”
“I’ve planted myself here as a reminder. You can prepare for a lot of things, arm and armor and provision yourself against a large range of threats, but sooner or later something will get you. It might be as dramatic as a volcanic eruption, or as mundane as an infectious disease, or as...stupid as some trivial thing you didn’t prepare for because you thought it couldn’t possibly affect you. That volcano might be the death of me. I’ve prepared for an eruption to the best of my ability, but if it were swift enough and violent enough, it could take my life without my even knowing it had done so.” He smiled without humor. “Call it a reminder to stay humble.”
“You felt you needed it?”
Dunlop nodded. “With all the valorization I received after I took down the Harris Administration, the need was too great not to do something about it.” He swept an arm around him. “I’ve prepared for a lot of things. I’m well supplied with all the necessities. My cellars contain food and clothing enough to sustain me for a century. I have an independent source of heat and electrical power. Civilization could collapse and I’d still be able to totter along for two or three decades. But sooner or later, something will get me. And like as not it will be something I could never have imagined, much less prepared for.”
The reporter’s smile turned ugly. “Or perhaps something you thought you were fully prepared for.” He rose, pulled a handgun from a hip pocket, made to level it at Dunlop—and gasped, eyes wide and mouth slack, and fell prone onto the rocky Wyoming soil.
“Another one-man show,” Dunlop muttered. “They never learn. I suppose I should hope they never will.” He returned the armgun to its place of concealment under his sleeve, rose, and flipped the assassin onto his back with his foot. The dart had struck him in the hollow of his throat just below his Adam’s-apple. The massive dose of curare had paralyzed him instantaneously. Should Dunlop choose to leave him lying there, asphyxiation would claim his life in no more than three minutes.
“Which is the kinder death, I wonder?” Dunlop muttered. “He probably intended to shoot me in the head. I’d have felt no pain worth mentioning. I suppose I should reciprocate, but it’s a long walk back to the house for a gun.”
He bent, hoisted the assassin into a shoulder carry, toted him to the rim of the fire pit and heaved him in. The glow dimmed only briefly and minutely as the body disappeared into the magma below. Dunlop stood there a moment longer, thinking about the others who had come to avenge President Harris and the enforcers, cat’s-paws, and sycophants who had followed her into a disgraced oblivion.
“I wonder if any of them felt any fear.”
Presently he shrugged and returned to the house.
Copyright © 2020 Francis W. Porretto. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
From Gerard van der Leun - Reason, and its limits.
While I was attending college, I maintained my Christian faith. I was an older student for most of my time, having returned to school after all my children were born.
As a result, I brought in a different perspective. In a class on pre-school education, I brought in my 6 month child to be used as a demonstration of the kinds of things that children might do at such an age. I had a clear sense of what might work to guide children's behavior, and what - despite every book telling you differently - simply did NOT.
In a sociology course on Marriage and the Family, I brought real-life experience in a long-time marriage (not that long - only around 10 years). Many of my classmates were long on theory, but had no personal experience with a working marriage or other relationship lasting longer than a few years, at best, either in their own lives, or their parents.
I was taught by professors who seldom were religious, unless they were one of those women who were consciously 'Pagan' or 'Mother Earth' types. The sole representative teacher of a Christian faith was a Leftist clergyman, who taught his skewed brand of Christianity Lite, with a heavy side of Xtian Socialism/Revolutionary 'kinda Jesus-y' flavoring.
I had been blessed with actual Christian instruction (beginning with grandparents who were hard-core Catholics, followed by the Baltimore Catechism, and continuing with early post-Vatican II instruction by actual nuns). I continued to add to my understanding with regular attendance at more or less traditional churches, self-study via library checkouts, and discussion with my raised-Old-School husband.
So, when teachers mischaracterized Christian thought (not that uncommon), I did not hesitate to step in and provide the correct viewpoint. I didn't do it in an angry way; I simply assumed that they misunderstood, given their lack of knowledge.
I remember discussing the fact that Catholicism is virtually a religion that you are born into, as it uses infant baptism. In that way, I argued, it was, like Judaism or Islam, a religion that was inherent to the tribe. The decision was made for the child, long before they had any input. Technically, you must decide for yourself, but, in reality, you are born into that religion.
Reason and logic only take you so far; what moderns lack is a sense that some things are not rationally knowable. Some life decisions are outside of scientific thinking (which would surprise those I-f***in'-love-science people that keep sending me memes explaining why THEIR viewpoint is superior to that of believers).
One of the more infuriating things about the Left is that they CLAIM to the the 'Science People" - those that understand science (which, mostly, they don't). The parts of science that they are most likely to support are the 'Science Lite' parts, such as environmental science (not a true science, this is often an area best characterized as muddled, more sociology than science, and filled with quasi-sciencey papers and studies).
The tiny steps that lead to depraved ends - from American Digest.
He's the first person to crack the code on how to be innovative AND profitable. His mode of operation is one that future Tech Giants need to pay attention to.
Too many of the New Tech guys burn through huge amounts of money for piddling profits - IF they manage that, at all. Operating at a loss is NOT a long-term viable business strategy.
There's a reason that most of them are allied with the Dems - only that party is open to grabbing huge subsidies for marginally successful ideas that will employ a few decently paid people, and a hell of a lot of peons - both US citizens and foreign - to create an overvalued company that LOSES money.
Neo has a satisfying rant up this morning. The bit that got between my teeth:
Those days are gone. Even in the workplace, which previously was not expected to be the warmest and fuzziest of environments, we often hear of young people (mainly women, but not exclusively women) clamoring for the elimination of any speech that makes them feel “unsafe.” And the definition of what constitutes such speech is left to the offended person, not some objective standard. These days many workplaces seem to have even jettisoned the very concept of an objective standard, in the best postmodern “critical thinking” manner, in which the subjective “narrative” has replaced nearly everything else.
I’ve written about this before, of course. Yet there remain persons in the Right who feel an obligation–perhaps even an enforceable obligation–to refrain from saying anything that someone else might claim “offends” him or makes him feel “unsafe.” And indeed, the Left has made great strides at suppressing the expression of any fact, argument, or opinion to which someone might object in those ways.
To defeat this vile tactic, we must understand why it is so potent. Simply put, victim status is today’s highest denomination of political currency: officially recognized “victims” can buy political privileges with it. Moreover, in our time, owing to the de facto omnipresence and omnipotence of American governments, political currencies are “trumps:” i.e., they outweigh all other negotiable forms, including individual rights. Therefore, anyone who can invent a reason to claim victim status will do so. As we mathematical types like to say, quod erat demonstrandum.
The linguistic front in this battle must be recognized, as well. Political language promotes the concept of rights to the highest echelon of obligation. Rights trump all other political assertions; therefore, the Left has urged all manner of fictitious “rights” upon us for several decades...and has had no small degree of success in worming them into contemporary assumptions about politics and society. Let’s review a few such “rights:”
I’m sure I could come up with others, but it’s 2:30 AM as I write this. Anyway, building on its success at proclaiming such nonsense “rights,” the Left has now latched onto the notions of a “right” not to be offended, and a “right” to “feel safe.” It has promulgated these lunacies through its institutional bastions: the communications, entertainment, and educational establishments. And it has made significant inroads into corporate America by the use of its most malevolent subsector: the “Human Resources” department.
There are only two effective counterstrokes:
One of those paths is more easily trodden than the other.
This is not exactly on-topic, but I hope you’ll bear with me for a few words more. Though I have said what follows before, I feel it needs to be said again.
Groups struggling with / against one another are much like armies in the field. They look for weapons they can use to advance their respective causes. The more powerful the weapon, the more it will be valued. And we must remember always that there are very few weapons which can only be wielded in one direction.
But political weapons are not wielded directly by their possessor; the government wields them as a “service.” In other words, what makes a political weapon valuable is the State’s willingness to wield it in the claimant’s stead. However, when the nation was founded, its federal government (and the great majority of its state governments) were tightly circumscribed by their constitutions and charters. While they recognized and respected individual rights, they also realized that a “right” doesn’t exist simply because someone says so. To qualify as a right, a claim must pass certain tests:
Those questions must be answered: 1. Yes; 2. No; 3. Yes for the claim to qualify as a right. That eliminates all but the Lockean rights to one’s life, liberty, and honestly acquired property. It certainly eliminates the “rights” not to be offended and to feel “safe.”
But the State has been accommodating to specious “rights” for some time now. Recognizing them has permitted the State to expand the scope of its powers. Power-mongers like that—and power-mongers will inevitably rise to the top of any structure that will give them power. (Cf. Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, “Why The Worst Get On Top.”)
The defining characteristic of the Leftist is his lust for power over others. As my Esteemed Co-Conspirator Dystopic wrote some years ago:
Leftists are not a new phenomenon. We tend to think of them as having originated with Marx, or perhaps the French Revolution. But they have always been with us.They are attracted to complex organizations, like government bureaucracies or industry representation associations (think the SFWA) because within such, they may plot and scheme to gain the power that has been denied them elsewhere. When you or I join a group, it is because we wish for the group to represent us in some fashion. When a Leftist joins a group, it is because he wishes to represent the group.
Of course, the “group” the Leftist most yearns to “represent” is the one where he can wield the greatest and most extensive power over others: the federal government of these United States.
I could go on for many thousands of words more, but I trust the point has been made...again.
Have we learned nothing from Animal House?
Did we not watch them walk out, rather than listen to Dean Wormer disrespect America (from 2:00 on the video)?
I suggest that we plan on a response for the inauguration, should Biden (Pi$$ be Upon Him) be installed in January.
What the Hell! If Biden gets in, America is OVER.
Why the hell not plan on a stupid, probably futile, and absolutely all-out gesture that will be replayed on phones until the end of time?
What do we have to lose?
A country?
If Biden is sworn in, we've already lost that.
There are probably more than a million Good Ol' Boys, Shitkicker Women, Rednecks and Hillbillies, not to mention the younger guys who never did have a chance.
If they can't come up with some non-lethal, showy, and designed-to-make-the-Left-look-asinine stunts, I don't know who can.
Go to Amazon, and watch the documentary The Plot Against the President.
There are some issues with this:
One that inserts itself between a purchase and submitting the order, detailing where the item came from (including components), and suggesting another item of similar kind that is American-made?
Make it as an extension that works with browsers (Chrome, Explorer, and Safari, for starters). Probably too late for this Christmas shopping season, but...
In the absence of that idea, check out purchase alternatives.
76 Quality Products Made in America
Other Links to Buying from America
If you have links to other companies/lists, post them in the comments. Listen to the local talk shows - they often have segments about products made locally.
Also, look around your town, and post a link to the local small shops on Facebook - even if some of their products are not locally sourced, the patronage still keeps the money here.
And, it's not what the medical establishment wants you to know.
The original link was broken - I'm linking directly to the book's Amazon page - you can look inside for more of the story.
The doctor was highly critical of the NHS response. I think it's interesting that, in the USA, most of the stories are focused on how brave and hard-working the staff in hospitals/medical centers are - which, I've no doubt that many worked their tails off during the worst of the crisis.
However, using that experience to completely cobble the rest of us in every aspect of life is simply not justified.
Furthermore, many of the 'last-ditch' procedures that were used turned out to be wrong/futile. It's beginning to be evident that most patients are better off recuperating at home (with some support from tele-medicine and home visits). The family is better situated to assist them in recovery, plus it also reduces the spread of disease.
I posted here about ways you can improve a patient's chances of recovery.
I was a sickly kid - I caught EVERY disease possible, during my early days. My mother had to work to keep me alive.
Which, I could never have re-paid her for - she nursed me through countless infections, communicable diseases, and several major bouts of flu. She also managed to nurse my little sister through a bout of pneumonia without lasting effect.
Here's some info about home nursing skills, and the difference they make to survival. If you haven't developed those skills, read this, and stock up on needed supplies and equipment.
Because it's a core value to Free Societies. Ones that don't want to fossilize their culture, their politics, and their people.
What maddens most of us who lived through the 60s and beyond, is that the same people declaring Some Speech is Just NOT Permissible! - those that USED America's tradition of not censoring people to grab power - are the same that are determinedly working to shut down their opponents' ability to dissent.
Our New Patriots (the ones that will enter the history books/blogs after we re-take our country) are a muddled bunch. They include artists, writers, journalists, actual crusading journalists, ordinary citizens, data analysis geeks, business owners, and everyday workers.
You may be one, yourself.
What is required?
Push back against the Leftists - at work, in public, in dealings with overbearing government. No, don't get yourself killed. But, document everything (if a video might get you assaulted, use the audio recording capability of a cellphone - less visible, and just as effective).
Refuse to automatically comply. Be polite, but firm. They have to give you actual REASONS for their insistence on your compliance with dictates that are not permitted in the Constitution.
Have a copy of it available with you. Make them justify their rules - AND, record their reasoning (such as it is). Have them identify themselves by name and position. Make them state the actual regulation or law that compels you to agree with the dictate.
But, continue to be calm and reasonable. It helps to deliberately lower your voice (hard to do when annoyed/angry, but do it), as it also has them do the same. Trust me on this, I've defused some classroom situations doing just that.
If you have to, comply. But follow that up with a formal written protest, back up by any evidence (paper, audio/video recording, witness statements). Send copies of that evidence to the media (both mainstream and blogs).
Do this EVERY time, and you will begin to see results.
The Supreme Court’s recent 5 to 4 decision upholding the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion saw Chief Justice John Roberts in the minority. That’s right, SCOTUS fans: supposed Catholic and Constitutionalist Roberts voted against the protection of religious freedom. However, owing entirely to the timely nomination and confirmation of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, religious freedom was upheld, albeit narrowly.
This puts me in mind of another recent Supreme Court Chief Justice, one remembered fondly by very few–and no, I’m not one of the few: the late Warren Burger. Have a snippet from Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong’s excellent book on the Burger Court, The Brethren:
The Chief [Justice Warren Burger] spread a large sheet of plain butcher paper in front of him on the desk. Across the top were listed the names of Justices. Down the left side were the names of the cases heard so far that term. The sheet was Burger’s most powerful tool in controlling the Court. It represented the workload of each Justice. By tradition, the senior Justice in the majority at conference selected the Justice who was to write the Court opinion for the majority. Since the Chief was considered senior to all the others, he made the assignments when he was in the majority. Burger was careful, in his first term, to make sure he was in the majority most of the time—even if he had to adjust his views. Leadership in the Court could not be exercised from a minority position, he felt. [Emphasis added by FWP.]
Never mind why supposed Constitutionalist Roberts now votes with the Leftists most of the time. Just take it as written that he will continue to do so, whatever the reason. Now that the Barrett confirmation has put him and the “open” Leftists in the minority, Roberts will be tempted—possibly induced by outside pressure—to do as Burger did and “adjust his views” to vote with the five conservatives. That would allow him to assign the opinion in a case with a conservative majority to one of the Leftists, or to himself. That would enable him to vitiate a conservative decision with a Left-leaning opinion. If, as has been suggested elsewhere, Roberts is being controlled from outside the Court by blackmail threats, the addition of Barrett to the Court makes this a possibility to watch for.
My sincerest-sounding apologies for giving you something new to worry about while you’re still digesting your Thanksgiving dinner, Gentle Reader. The stuffing was really good this year, wasn’t it? Just the thing to soothe a troubled stomach. Warm up a little for lunch, maybe with some of the leftover gravy or cranberry sauce. After that it will be time to inventory the ammo once more.
What we have isn't a democracy and it's no longer a representative republic either. It's a nation turning in on itself and worshipping minorities, foreigners, and freaks and destroying its culture and its laws. True story.
Some faceless "vote counters" sitting unsupervised behind a phalanx of arrogant pricks in various urban centers more resembling Hollywood's Ft. Apache than anything remotely civilized will, if unchallenged, help to determine important national electoral results. And their efforts will be supplemented by the "tallies" produced by voting machines with mystery algorithms decipherable only by experts and "just us chickens" data bases of "results" in Spain and Germany controlled by yet more mysterious personages. Mmm mnnh!
The practices integral to our "system" are utterly corrupt. A "do over" would do a lot to settle matters but it would be a hasty, pathetic affair and, of course, of doubtful constitutional foundation. The politicians let decades go by turning a blind eye to voting procedures that are designed to be chaotic, lacking in chains of custody, brimming with opportunities for manipulation, and with procedures for determining simple voter qualification and identification optional, at best. Thus, some kind of jerry-rigged, ad hoc fixerupper of a do-over "solution" would not inspire confidence.
So there's always the unheard of option of depending on state legislatures to cough up a milligram of skepticism and backbone about the blatant scamathon underway. Not like this is a defining election or anything. The courts might also come down decisively on the side of electoral integrity and quaint notions of preserving representative government and not rubber stamping yet another insult to the people coughed up by our sacred plutocracy, Big Brother media, the tech midgets, and Marxist street thugs. It's not what you expect from courts. In the last ten decades or so they’ve served up establishment fare destructive of liberty and the plain language of the Constitution. Our judges have rendered judgments couched in billowing clouds of "maybe this and maybe that" and accompanied by judicious beard stroking and the magic-assisted discovery of emanations from penumbras that serve the interests of the central state and betrayal of the constitutional order.
So it's sorta kinda a defining moment. Perhaps the sheep will be separated from the goats, the wheat from the chaff, and the riff from the raff. But since people usually are the way they usually are we'll no doubt be graced with a resounding "maybe but better nothing too extreme" from the courts or, perhaps, a resolute "practicality requires expeditious resolution" announcement. At which point we're back to the Oriental-person fire drill engineered by decades of expediency, betrayal, and stupidity and the tender ministrations of Mr. Debt Service, Dr. Pension Shortfall, Prof. Soaring Inflation, Officer Sick of Anarchy, Uncle Deportation, Archbishop No More Pointless Wars, and Mrs. Outrage Over Job Loss and Business Destruction.
The iron laws of arithmetic will presently administer a bracing lesson regardless of what we poor players decide for ourselves. With a generous helping of "told you so" for the decades of liberal/progressive/socialist/commie stupidity and malevolence.
CSO: Read this?
FWP: About what?
CSO: Fast-food hamburgers.FWP: For Thanksgiving? At 4:30 AM? Have you gone mad?
CSO: No, it’s just a ranking. But it makes an interesting claim.FWP: What claim?
CSO: That Americans are estimated to eat 50 billion burgers a year, which would circle the Earth 32 times.
FWP: Aha! Another catastrophe averted by public-spirited Americans!CSO: What are you talking about?
FWP: Think about it. Were Americans to stop eating all those hamburgers, where would they be?
CSO: Americans?
FWP: No, no! The hamburgers!CSO: Oh. I get it. Worse than the plastic in the oceans problem, eh?
FWP: Depends. Can fish be trained to eat hamburgers?
CSO: I’ll look into it.
Do you see the gravity of the issues we confront at the Fortress—and before breakfast, at that? Yet people think ours is an extremely silly household. I can’t imagine why.
Happy Thanksgiving, by the way!
The Virginia attorney general’s office has ruled that the Loudoun County school system committed illegal racial discrimination by admitting fairly few black and Hispanic students to its selective schools, the Academies of Loudoun. For reasons that have nothing to do with racism, the Academies of Loudoun are much more heavily Asian than the Loudoun County Public Schools as a whole, and have fewer blacks, Hispanics, and whites than the Loudoun school district as a whole. The finding of “discrimination” against LCPS is wrong because it is based on a concept of discrimination that likely does not apply to school systems and was based on an apples-to-oranges comparison.The finding of discrimination doesn’t claim that individual black and Hispanic students were treated differently in admissions than white or Asian students, or that the admissions process was motivated by racism. Rather, it claims that the school district unintentionally “discriminated” by using racially “neutral,” colorblind selection processes that admitted disproportionately fewer blacks and Hispanics than their share of the school district’s overall population.
Did Virginia’s Attorney-general give:
Of course not. There’s a social obligation to admit dunces, troublemakers, and cut-ups even to the most selective and academically demanding schools, if that’s what it will take to achieve “racial and ethnic balance.” Indeed, if enough such don’t apply, the Academies must go out and find them – offer them scholarships!
Clearly, the mission of an explicitly educational institution is no longer education. That has been abolished by political decree.
Truly, words fail me. Every day that passes, I’m gladder to be called a racist.
Harrison’s PAC launch is one of several Democrat fundraising endeavors zoned in on the consequential Georgia runoff races, which will determine which party next controls the Senate majority. Activist Stacey Abrams, who dropped $10 million at the start of the runoffs through her organization Fair Fight, announced Saturday that Fair Fight will pump $2.7 million into smaller groups intending to strengthen their “get-out-the-vote apparatus.”
Other big names stepping in for the runoffs include Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), former Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D), and “Squad” leader Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
After he loses in GA, he's going to screw up VA for the 2022 mid-terms.
It's not looking good for our side (Americans). Everything we thought we had in our favor is turning to dust.
I'm not the only one - Ace of Spades is also asking the same questions, and I don't have a ready answer for those.
I'm inclined to work - when I'm not prepping - in my local community, connecting and - most importantly - identifying and classifying people into 3 groups:
Yes, we are not just in a post-Constitutional America but we are on the verge of being in a post-America America. The question therefore is, Trump or no Trump, what are we going to do about it? With virtually every political, legal, academic and cultural institution now thoroughly corrupted, there's nowhere to turn. And as was made abundantly clear three weeks ago, we're not voting our way out of this. I'm sorry if I'm being depressive, especially on the eve of a day when we traditionally give thanks to G-d for both the blessings of our table and for the ability to live in freedom. Well, now that's all shot to hell, isn't it?
As Thomas Paine wrote, "THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.
Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated."
And finally, I'll leave you with Psalm 121: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth."
Stay strong, have faith and never give up hope. We're still here.
There’s a massive eBook promotion going on just now:
Celebrate Thanksgiving Weekend by topping off your library. Select from over eighty titles each priced at $0.99, including more than a dozen that are absolutely free:The selection includes top science fiction, fantasy, and adventure authors like C.J. Carella, Larry Correia, Jon del Arroz, David Drake, Eric Flint, Declan Finn, Amie Gibbons, Sarah Hoyt, Daniel Humphreys, Tom Kratman, Robert Kroese, Phillip Ligon, Jon Mollison, Andre Norton, Richard Paolinelli, John Ringo, Cedar Sanderson, Adam Lane Smith, David Weber, David J. West, Michael Z. Williamson, John C. Wright, and a wide range of other established and emerging talent.
Yes, I have a book in there–my little romance Love in the Time of Cinema —which is why I’m collaborating in the promotion. But to be perfectly candid, that volume is permanently priced at $0.99. Anyway, give the selection a look. You might find some agreeable and inexpensive entertainment for after the indigestion and bloat subside!
Just wait, fellas. It's gonna get a LOT WORSE.
I give it maybe 3-4 months until the Purges begin.
While this tragedy still has a couple of stages to endure, the prospects for using existing, “official” institutions to undo the Left’s theft of the presidency are dimming. NB: I’m not saying “give up.” The fight must go on. Even if the courts find against the Trump campaign, the effect of mobilizing and energizing the Right and making the evidence for the theft of the election available to all are critically important. However, the probability that the Supreme Court, or any lesser federal court, will rule that the election was sufficiently corrupted to be set aside seems low. Courts just don’t like to touch that kind of controversy.
So what now?
There are several things Americans in the Right can do, for themselves and for one another, to resist the usurpers of federal power. Some are generally applicable; others are variably practicable according to one’s station in life and one’s responsibilities. I plan to address certain of them over the course of the next few days.
Today’s topic is essentially psychological: how to orient oneself for a state of affairs in which:
This is an unpleasant prospect, especially given the attitude of the coup engineers toward freedom, property rights, privacy, and free enterprise. But that makes preparing oneself even more important, regardless of the aversion we feel toward it.
A healthy attitude toward anything, pleasant or unpleasant, begins with the acceptance of reality, regardless of any expectations or preconceptions to the contrary.
So: Let us postulate that the electoral coup currently under way will succeed. We must recognize and accept that as fact. NB: That does not mean accepting the usurpers of federal power as “authorities” legitimately entitled to the powers they have seized; quite the contrary. It means only accepting that our fight for our rights as Americans against illegitimate, anti-American “rulers” has entered a new stage.
The first required recognition would be that the federal government is now in the hands of the enemy. I don’t emphasize that it is an ideological enemy, though it is, but rather that it is our enemy: yours and mine, personally and specifically.
The second required recognition would be that the usurpers know that, too. As they are our enemy, we are theirs. They will treat us as enemies in contests a outrance always have and always will—and we must do the same.
Third, and most difficult for many in the Right, is the recognition that collaboration with the enemy makes one a part of the enemy, and therefore equally to be opposed. War has always been hard on personal relations across battle lines. There’s no help for it. Even a beloved relative must be distrusted and kept at a distance, should he league himself with the other side.
Each of us is likely to love and live among persons who applaud the capture of Washington by the corruptocrats. Relatives, friends, neighbors, business partners, and occupational colleagues might be part of that swarm. It becomes massively unwise to give them any insight or intimate knowledge of what you’re doing or planning, or of what you believe. Your prior relations with them must be set aside for the duration of the contest.
This has unpleasant implications. It will intensify the disintegration and atomization of American society, American enterprise, American communities and neighborhoods, and the American family. And there is absolutely no help for it. Someone you’ve loved for decades could be the person who turns you in for your gold, your guns, your group memberships, or your convictions. It’s happened before, including here in America—look into the suppression of anti-war sentiment during the Wilson Administration—and it will happen again.
Fourth and last of the required psychological elements is the need for clarity of intentions and capabilities. You must have a clear, well-formed idea of what you want and what you propose to do to get it. Fantasies about glorious charges against the enemy’s redoubts are all very well for dreams. For your waking life, you must have a realistic grasp of your capabilities. You must also take time to think about two unpleasant subjects: how much risk you can bear, and the limits on your endurance. It’s comparable to the choice of an investment strategy.
In this connection, it’s vital to know what you owe to others, as a matter of simple ethics. Let’s imagine you to be a “normal” American not yet retired from wage labor. You probably feel responsibilities to others: a spouse, children, occupational colleagues, and others. But not every responsibility you feel is a real one.
One of the most pathetic of all contemporary phenomena is the sadly pervasive notion that we remain responsible for our children even after they’ve reached maturity and (should have) become self-responsible adults. Now, not all children manage that transition. Some remain mired in immaturity and dependency lifelong. Worse yet, they expect their parents to collaborate in their protracted infancies: with shelter, with money, and with unfailing emotional support.
That sort of willfully chosen dependency is a major weapon of the Left. If you enable it, you are helping the enemy. As is more were necessary, the resources you put to the succor of your grown children become unavailable for other, more constructive action. It cannot be made plainer than that—and it has analogues in many other venues, including the workplace.
It’s time to decide what your responsibilities really are.
There’s a hard edge to the above. It demands that we see things as they are despite the many unpleasantnesses involved in doing so. It also demands that we be realistic about ourselves, our abilities...and our past mistakes.
But it is the precondition for any degree of success in resisting the all but guaranteed efforts to come of the usurpers to reduce us to Twenty-first Century villeins and serfs.
More anon.
And, I do realize that Math is a Weak Point with the Left.
But, come ON!
Even someone 'educated' in today's schools ought to realize that the number don't add up.
Perhaps I overestimate the extent of the innumeracy.
Paolo Freire is kind of a Leftist Education God. He promoted 'Revolutionary Education' - students going into the oppressed areas of their country, bringing literacy with them.
It's a longterm goal for the South/Central American Left - the idea of bypassing the middle-class education establishment, and sending in poorly trained psuedo-revolutionaries to teach the downtrodden how to read the revolutionary slogans. In Mexico, it was called "Each One, Teach One" - that every person who could read should pass it along. If you understand the appeal of pyramid schemes, you can see how this idea catches fire at random intervals.
But, when you read the memoirs of the actual literacy volunteers, you see that their efforts were largely ignored.
First, the volunteers spoke a different language than many of the masses - Spanish, rather than Native languages and a smidgen of Spanish. So, most of the the revolutionary propaganda was lost on the coerced students.
Second, the culture of the pseudo-revolutionaries was alien to the masses - they were reflexively contemptuous of the Natives, anti-religion (ALL religions, both Catholic and the Native-Catholic mixed practices), and otherwise not able to relate to The People they sought to uplift.
Not unlike today's Woke Warriors.
Third, and probably most importantly, they ignored what the Natives sought - a better understanding of Math, which would help keep them from being cheated by the patrons they worked for. Once the Natives understood that they wouldn't be learning anything of value to them, they smiled and refused to return to school.
Nothing has changed. The Left is still sold on the concept of Teaching Revolution, rather than skills that might help people gain the ability to move out of the lowest classes.
There is nothing magical or hard-coded in the DNA of Black/POC that makes them unable to learn basic skills, like Math. There is nothing in the DNA that says that Asian students are destined to be the overlords by virtue of their superior intellect.
Believe me. I've taught a lot of students, White, Black, Mixed, Asian, Hispanic. The range of really smart to - frankly - a little dull, runs through ALL of the ethnic groups. NO group is incapable of improving.
We need to promote Math skills, the foundational competency, for ALL students. Not "Calculus for kindergartners". Actual Math - taught from the ground up, in a way that maximizes competency of basic skills, before moving on to HOTS (Higher Level Thinking Skills).
Schools could do worse than incorporating Saxon Math - not cheap, but time-tested. It has no magic, just a good program of explicitly teaching math, step by step, making sure that students mastered one step before progressing to the next. And, a lot of practice of prior skills.
Such a program should not be taught by grade/age level, but by mastered skill level. Kids would be free to progress at their OWN pace.
Off Topic - But Timely
I was raised in Yankeeland - The Northern part of Ohio is solidly part of that heritage. See the map below.
No actual New England Yankees, though. Later arrivals.
Anyway, I highly suggest you read the article above, as well as the linked article in it, which refers to The Hartford Convention. We really need to have a History of America, which focuses on the extent to which our Beloved Elite have screwed all of the rest of us over and over again.
Something to think about that just occurred to me.
Remember the Last Time that the Dems won, after taking down a President (mostly with lies and the active help of Deep Staters, The Leftist Media (redundant phrase), and RINO squishes?
Post-Nixon.
Yeah, Ford got in that one term, but he was kind of a compromise, and the Left wasn't fully geared up to eliminate him after they already took down Agnew AND Nixon. So, he finished that term with relatively good press.
Then, got taken down by Carter. Yeah. That was a good choice.
/sarc
Despite Carter's many deficiencies, the Left went all-in for him. The RINOs supported Anderson.
And Ronny Ray-Gun kicked their asses.
And, repeated his feat four years later.
The thing is, when the GOP brings in one of those "acceptable" Republicans to run, they may even get elected - ONCE. Like H. W. Bush did.
The thing is, the Not-Left branch of the GOP wants a candidate who actually believes in the values of the party. Not an "almost-Dem" candidate.
I won't give up until Trump does - officially. At that point, other than hunkering down, and waiting for the inevitable screw-ups, my job will be to work at a local level to shore up our weak spots, lobby the state to tighten up the voting requirements (in SC, we already have Voter ID, which makes us a better reflection of what actual American citizens want), and express out strong opposition to C-Flu lockdowns.
As the Not-Left controls many of the states with Dominion Voting Machines issues, I would expect that a high priority would be getting rid of them, and making the Left cheat the Old-Fashioned Way.
Keep that outreach to on-the-fence voters up. Keep those channels open; we can continue growing our base.
As far as that waiting for the screw-ups - you know they're going to step into a giant pile of $hit, don't you? They can't help it. The Left is ALL Chiefs, and no Indians. They're all ego and supercillious insistence that they are smarter than the rest of us Normals.
Can't prove it by their actions, which seem designed to:
EVEN with rampant cheating, I wouldn't gamble on their chances in 2022.
Just a few squibs before I go back to cleaning and oiling the guns.
1. “Far-right social media”
By way of NC Renegade comes this new attempt to turn law enforcement against the Right.
The federally funded Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center sent an email alert last week to California law enforcement agencies warning them about the growth of alternative social media sites Parler, MeWe and Gab that cater to conservative Americans.The Orange County center quoted from a recent USA Today article critical of Parler, MeWe and Gab for allowing conservatives to communicate and organize on their platforms free of censorship.
In the very same week that the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee was holding hearings to investigate the unfair censorship tactics that Facebook, Google and Twitter wield against conservative voices, elements within the federal law-enforcement bureaucracy were showing they are more worried about the growth of conservative social-media competition from sites like Parler, which honors users’ First Amendment rights.
The article is frightening and should be read in its entirety. The Left is straining to tighten the clamps on freedom of expression. Its attempt to mobilize law enforcement against Gab, Parler, et alii might be a longshot, but it’s indicative nevertheless. Remember that Biden and his ilk have already announced their preference for “curated information” over freedom of speech. If federal authorities can harness local ones to put the screws to the users of no-censorship alternatives to Facebook and Twitter, the vise will have two powerful jaws in which to squeeze us.
Whatever happened to Oliver Wendell Holmes’s explanation that freedom of speech and thought means freedom for the thought we hate?
2. “Stop struggling!”
Much of the effort of the Left has gone into rhetorical sallies designed to get its intended victims to accept defeat...even while the battle rages and the ultimate outcome remains unclear. A passage from Atlas Shrugged comes to mind:
The title on the book’s jacket was Why Do You Think You Think?.....
“So you think you’re sure of your opinions? You cannot be sure of anything. Are you going to endanger the harmony of your community, your fellowship with your neighbors, your standing, reputation, good name and financial security—for the sake of an illusion? For the sake of the mirage of thinking that you think? Are you going to run risks and court disasters—at a precarious time like ours—by opposing the existing social order in the name of those imaginary notions of yours which you call your convictions? You say that you’re sure you’re right? Nobody is right, or ever can be. You feel that the world around you is wrong? You have no means to know it. Everything is wrong in human eyes—so why fight it? Don’t argue. Accept. Adjust yourself. Obey.”
Yes, Atlas Shrugged is fiction...at least, it was. But the concerted, relentless efforts of the mass media to browbeat us out of seeing the clear signs of a stolen election suggest that the time is nearing when we will regard it as prophecy. Apropos of which, remember when we in the Right warned that the acceptance of euthanasia meant that a day would come when it would be involuntary?
The Left really does want us to stop struggling.
3. The anti-space-explorationists inside NASA.
I wrote about this a few days ago. Today, our favorite Graybeard adds some significant observations:
The video makes some points I've never heard of, including that the Viking missions in 1976 was the last Mars mission with experiments on it to search for life because of the actions of this group under the name of the Planetary Protection Office. A strange name because it implies protection of this planet and they apparently have nothing to do with that. Exobiologists are not allowed to search for life on another planet until they can prove there is no life there. Excuse me? How is that even remotely logical?No missions to planets that might have microbes on them - think Mars because it might harm microbial life on the planet. What about a sterile body like Earth's moon? Can't go there either because it might harm microbes that could eventually evolve! (I'm not making this up) Can't mine asteroids, also sterile bodies, because that's extractive capitalism. Can't do anything.
Freezing us in place is the point. Indeed, this is a special case of the Left’s enveloping strategy, which is summed up by the three last of Graybeard’s words above: Can’t do anything.
As I’ve written in the past, every cause has more than one effect, and it is guaranteed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics that at least one of those effects will be deemed undesirable. The impossibility of avoiding all undesired consequences – to say nothing of the unintended and unexpected ones – when added to the enviro-Nazis’ beloved Precautionary Principle, is its argument for sitting perfectly still, breathing shallowly (if at all), and waiting passively for death. It’s a prescription they won’t take for themselves, but that won’t keep them from hectoring the rest of us.
4. A Time For Rebellion.
You may have read about the group of inland New York businesses who told the COVID compliance enforcers to go sit on a railroad spike. I thrilled to the news...and I wondered whether their rear-up-on-your-hind-legs attitude would ever reach Long Island. It hasn’t yet.
The time is here for massive civil disobedience. There can be no further delay. The measures imposed on us to separate us, limit our interactions, and impede our commerce have already brought much of America to the brink of social and economic collapse. To tolerate it any longer would be to normalize it – in effect, to create enduring assumptions that staying away from others, going perpetually masked, and arranging our affairs to prioritize the prevention of infection has become our default condition. It would lead to the belief that to do otherwise is unacceptable – possibly legally actionable.
“When man believed that happiness was dependent upon God, he killed for religious reasons. When he believed that happiness was dependent upon the form of government, he killed for political reasons….After dreams that were too long, true nightmares…we arrived at the present period of history. Man woke up, discovered that which we always knew, that happiness is dependent upon health, and began to kill for therapeutic reasons….It is medicine that has come to replace both religion and politics in our time.” – Adolfo Bioy Casares
Take off the face diaper. Shake people’s hands and refuse to “sanitize,” before or after. Tell the COVIDiots to go get a warrant. And have a nice American day.
I'm seeing too many IT types discussing this to completely discredit the story. FWIW, I have some knowledge of programming/security/networks, and the idea that some relatively low-level 'fiddling' changed things, rather than a deliberate coding decision that enabled the affected precincts to make the changes when needed, is not only NOT impossible, but likelier than the idea that this was baked into the machine and autonomous.
The 'guys on the ground' would see the need. In consultation with national/state leadership, they would make adjustments, as directed. The people who actually made the adjustments may not fully understand their culpability in the process. They could easily think it routine maintenance.
The real question is:
If the states refuse to act, will the Supreme Court step in? Will their decision punt any action to a future time? Will the Left give up?
I think the answers are: No, Yes, and No.
It’s just a mask.
I have to be honest, it's not looking good for our side.
As the Officially-Not-Fraud seems to hit some in the GOP, apparently Trump has been pressured to concede. Probably they've promised him some protection against indictment for himself and his family, which the Left would hold out as a credible threat.
He's (up until January 20th) the oldest man ever elected. I don't doubt he is tired. I don't doubt that the Left (and their chosen representatives to deliver the bad news, the RINO 'right') have made it clear that they will exact physical, mental, and financial retribution on EVERY person he holds dear - FOREVER.
So, the fraud is going to be buried. The Left will have 2 years to improve their use of various techniques - fraudulent registration, no voter ID, mail-in for ALL (no in-person permitted), uniparty counting, banning observers from ANY part of the process (probably citing fear of disease, violence, and just general ickiness of the NLDs), and - their best shot - massive voting machine tinkering.
Don't worry, the process will be "proven" to be safe, efficient, and COMPLETELY un-tamperable.
They probably will make an effort to make it LOOK less suspicious. Or, at least, hide it better.
We've hit John Wilder's 12:00 - that point on the Civil War Weather Report that is past the Save the Republic point.
Will Americans pledge their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor, once again?
Don't count on it.
I fear we're in for a LONG, Dark Time.
Keep Hammering Down on the Dominion Machine Fraud. It's harder for people to understand, but the evidence is not as easy to hide.
” What if a small group of world leaders were to conclude that the principal risk to the Earth comes from the actions of the rich countries? And if the world is to survive, those rich countries would have to sign an agreement reducing their impact on the environment. Will they do it? The group’s conclusion is ‘no’. The rich countries won’t do it. They won’t change. So, in order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”[1]~ Maurice Strong, a “primary figure in the oligarchy’s tool box of sociopathic agents who shaped this program for zero sum thinking over the years.”
Mr. Ehret’s article is illuminating for what it reveals about the Agenda21 crowd, environmental zealots, and the seemingly inexplicable globalist agenda of Western national suicide, cultural collapse, and economic obstructionism. Strong’s words quoted above reveal that the West’s difficulties are probably not a result of mismanagement or bad luck.
Notes
[1] "Why has the West destroyed its own Industrial Base? The Case of Maurice Strong Revisited." By Matthew J.L. Ehret, The Canadian Patriot, 2/22/19.
No, not that Trump will prevail (I still hope, but am preparing like it's not gonna happen).
But, that The People are taking back control of their lives as a Free People.
What I wrote about seems to be happening in real time - namely, the distribution of the vaccines. With that in process, the Left will have to look for another excuse to keep us confined and helpless.
Consider dipping into your own pocket (use that money you've saved from cutting the cord) to help support the Dissident Press - blogs, podcasts, and video. We need to make it financially possible for them to continue getting news out there. The alternative is the status quo - a Chinese Bought & Paid For Media. It's not just the Big Media - it's the Soros Project of putting 'reporters' into local and regional papers/media.
Pay for a subscription, toss independents a PayPal donation (1-time, or ongoing), and be sure to buy the books of the Dissident Press.
Trump is still fighting for an American America - he's working on blacklisting the Government-connected Chinese companies.
Are you involved with Air BnB? Either as a customer/temporary landlord? You may want to back out of that service.
I enjoy Kurt Schlichter's feisty spirit. His Town Hall column today really perked me up.
We’re not going anywhere. We’re not retreating. We’re not hiding. We’re not pulling into our conservative shell like some right-wing tortoise. This is our country.
We built it. We feed it. We fuel it. We defend it. And we’re not giving away any of it or ceding a single inch to a bunch of corrupt incompetents with delusions of dictatorship.
Live Free and Die HARD!
My attention this morning was drawn to two brief essays by Angelo Codevilla:
Both essays make important points. The first of them dovetails with a conversation I had only yesterday, with longtime reader and friend Pascal. The meat of it was that what we call the Establishment / Political Elite is morphing steadily into an American aristocracy. Pascal cited an occurrence that should have had any decent American reaching for his musket—a deliberate act of deceit amounting to malfeasance by the Secretary of State of the State of Michigan, a Democrat colluding in the attempt to steal that state’s electoral college votes for Joe Biden—yet we have yet to hear any prominent Republican condemn it. Such Republicans are too narrowly focused on preserving their positions within the Establishment, even as members of a largely defanged minority.
The second Codevilla essay addresses the use of the FBI as a suppressive force dedicated to quelling those it deems “dangerous.” In this fashion the FBI has become an enforcement apparatus for the protected privileges of the Political Elite. It takes little interest in anything non-political, and is absolutely opposed to investigations of misbehavior among Establishment figures. Thus the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become something akin to a secret police force whose ambit is the suppression of dissent from and opposition to the Elite’s agenda.
I don’t think Codevilla has overstated the case. There are many bits of evidence that support his contentions. The next question, in Theodore Sturgeon’s terms, is what can be done about it–and by whom.
The institutions we have trusted to maintain Constitutional order and the integrity of our legal and political processes have failed us. Their manner of failure indicates that they have sloughed any wholesome purpose. They no longer guard anything we would recognize as American.
The appropriate conclusions are left to you to draw, Gentle Reader. For my part, I’m still waiting for a convenient planetoid.
Because, as long as Trump delays, he can push through some actions that enhance the chances that that vaccine will be released ASAP (not when our New Overlords permit it). The minute he concedes, he gives the DS an excuse to slow-walk all orders.
I like John Wilder. He's often funny, always worth reading, and, this post - well, it's needed, at this time.
The Election Fraud cannot be ignored (except in the minds of Leftists - I REFUSE to call them either "Progressive" or "Democratic" anymore). Even Dems are agreeing - approximately 30% agree that there was substantial fraud in this election. The Saner/More Honest People (NLDs - Non-Leftist Dissidents) support the idea that the election was stolen by around 60% or MORE.
That's a huge number that, at least, QUESTION the results.
And, yet, for the Media - crickets.
Other than falling all over themselves to tout Biden/Harris as President-Elect and Official Backup. NO hesitation in crowning the pair Officially Next in Line.
They ridicule claims of fraud, refuse to actually commit journalism, and insist on claiming that Trump is acting like a tyrant, merely for refusing to concede.
The mobs are out for Trump's scalp. The collaborators at the state level are falling into line, proclaiming that they WILL certify Biden/Harris as the winner, without waiting for any court decision or public investigation.
We're fast approaching the time for the Fourth Box to be used.
Those who would be our All-But-Crowned Rulers seem to have forgotten the essential nature of Americans. We're not noted for hanging around, waiting to be given PERMISSION by our rulers.
One of the strange blessings of being effectively unable to write about politics and current events at the moment is the availability of extra time to speculate. That’s a writer’s fuel, and not to be skimped or sloughed even at the busiest times. So I’ve been doing a lot of daydreaming about “the next book,” and what sort of story it should tell.
I like heroes and happy endings, as any Gentle Reader familiar with my fiction will already know. I also like substantial themes, so the reader can feel he got more out of the story than a few hours of entertainment. But I appreciate that the entertainment must come first and be unflagging – that the storyteller fails when he allows message to eclipse enjoyment.
So the other day, when I set fingers to keys, I started from a premise that’s not perfectly original: the counter-colonization of a depopulated Earth. A similar idea was employed some years ago: specifically, in Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown’s novel Earthblood. My backstory conception differs from theirs, in that I postulate that Earth had been depopulated by genocidal yet entirely human wars and their aftermaths.
The Counter-Hegira from Cetia, Mankind’s sole colony world, is motivated by the steady intensification of the same sort of international, interracial, and inter-creedal animosities that gave rise to the wars that exterminated Man upon Terra. People are people, I reasoned, and the enmities they bear toward one another will go with them wherever they roam. Still, some Cetians are anxious to get away from the strife, even if it means an interstellar trek that will take eleven objective years (four months subjective at 99.95% of lightspeed).
The first question is: What will the 30,000 Counter-Hegirans do when they get to Earth?
My supposition is that the population of Cetia would be distributed into races, creeds, and philosophies roughly the same way as that of Earth today. If that distribution is reproduced among the Counter-Hegirans, the history of Earth Renewed would tend to resemble that of our era. However, the history of our time, and of course of the Cetian milieu they fled, would be known to the Counter-Hegirans. Would they learn anything from it, or would implacable economic, sociological, religious, and philosophical forces result in the same sort of tensions, strife, and internecine warfare that we suffer today?
The story I think I’ll tell will be of one society on Earth Renewed that’s far more successful than the others, because of the insight and foresight of a lone genius. America had a gaggle of geniuses at her birth – a small but adequate gaggle – which resulted in a nation that bestrides the world. Could one man of sufficient brilliance, insight, and determination “pull off the trick” a second time? What would happen to the nation he founds over the centuries after his death?
And what will our hero-to-be, four centuries after the death of the Founder, need to do to preserve “the blessings of liberty” against the forces that seek to destroy them? Will he resemble anyone we know of today?
Stay tuned.
