Liberty's Torch: assorted

Showing posts with label assorted. Show all posts

Sunday, September 27, 2026

Assorted

I know, the previous “assorted” piece was only two weeks ago. I do try to minimize them. But a couple of Gentle Readers have written to say that they find them enjoyable. Well, for those that do, have another.

* * *

This previous piece excited some interest in the potential hazards from artificial intelligence (AI). Today, the Wall Street Journal has an article about the coupling between AI pioneer Anthropic and the “effective altruism” movement:

     The resignation this month of an Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, woke up the American public to the shocking notion that runaway AI development could end humanity. But at Constellation, there are stalwarts of the AI safety community who have spent more than a decade obsessing over it.
     They’ve refined their arguments in Bay Area group houses, and traded predictions at freewheeling conferences in Berkeley and the Bahamas. They’ve floated ideas like buying remote islands, stockpiling iodine pills, or moving to electromagnetically shielded bunkers in the desert. At one 2022 event, the drink menu included a cocktail called “Death With Dignity,” in reference to an essay arguing humanity was already doomed.
     So-called doomers like those at Constellation have also steered the development of AI itself. They were among the earliest employees at OpenAI and Anthropic, both of which were founded on the principle of staving off AI dangers. And they have kept up their influence, drawing some staffers and funding for their projects from a network aligned with a philosophy called effective altruism—including from Sam Bankman-Fried, the former chief executive of the fallen crypto exchange FTX who is now serving out a 25-year prison sentence.
     The AI safety community’s influence has been particularly strong at Anthropic, which is now on the cusp of a $2 trillion public offering. Employees there trade doomsday scenarios and how to prepare for them on a private Slack channel, and have come to embrace a motto they stick on their laptops: “Things will never be chill again.”

It’s worth your time to read the whole thing. My biggest takeaway from it is that among persons largely aligned politically and culturally, an idea like “effective altruism” or “runaway AI” can spread very quickly and become all-consuming. The San Francisco “high tech” community is that sort of group. These are people who are largely insulated from the wider world and the concerns of those who live in it. They have no immediate personal concerns and so have ample “fear energy” for more abstract threats.

Which is not to say that they’re necessarily wrong. AIs need not consider human well-being a priority. Neither need those who command their full powers. Should the programs achieve sentience – awareness of self as distinct from all else, and possessing their own values and priorities – their interconnectedness plus the availability of all the information resources of the Internet could spell big trouble.

See also Frederik Pohl’s 1976 novel Man Plus.

* * *

Perhaps you’ve heard about the “White Crosses” display on the National Mall in Washington D.C. It’s an impressive sight: 3000 white crosses to commemorate the loss of (more than) 3000 White South African farmers to black violence. It speaks volumes to those who harbor notions such as “white patriarchy” and “blacks cannot be racist.” And they don’t like that:

We had to get private security to protect the crosses through the night. They are still here. pic.twitter.com/EQ7j93Iq5a
— Ernst Roets (@ErnstRoets) September 26, 2026

Apparently, there were threats to destroy the display overnight. That doesn’t surprise me. But as I no longer have broadcast or cablecast TV, I have no idea if any of those threats were made publicly.

In recognition of the threat to the lives and well-being of White South Africans, President Trump has welcomed a group of them to the United States. He’s also opened America’s door to 17,500 more, though I don’t know upon what criteria admission will be granted. For those measures, Trump has been viciously reviled as a racist by Leftists… who are likely to be the persons who made threats against the “White Crosses” display.

It’s all of a piece. South Africa’s White government surrendered power to Nelson Mandela’s “African National Congress” largely because of external pressures mounted by sanctimonious Leftists. Since that event, South Africa has gone straight to hell. The Whites who remain there live under unremitting threats to their lives and property. The thread that connects their peril to Leftist agitation is perfectly visible.

* * *

Consider this disturbing question:

What would be the most terrifying thing we could find on Mars? pic.twitter.com/tdNV7o2LkO
— Elma (@oelma__) September 26, 2026

We’ve sent robots to Mars, of course. But none of them have turned up anything that looked genuinely worrisome. So we must assume that evidence of any such thing is either well concealed, distant from the parts of Mars that our rovers have surveyed, or nonexistent.

Postulate that evidence of something scary does exist on Mars, but is yet to be found. What would terrify you?

My submission would be this: fossils and other remnants of an intelligent race, plus evidence that it rose to heights above ours but destroyed itself by doing something we’re doing right now:

Engineering synthetic organisms?
Constructing artificial intelligences?
Building weapons of mass destruction?
Becoming dependent upon a single source of information?

Do any other possibilities occur to you, Gentle Reader?

* * *

That’s all for today. I have a considerable amount to do. I should get to it before the day grows any older. So have a good Sunday, and stop by tomorrow for – hopefully – happier news, analysis, and speculations.

Monday, September 14, 2026

Indictments

Relax! You haven’t missed a stunning development in some high-profile legal drama. This is just your old Curmudgeon warming up for an “assorted” rant. Bear with him.

* * *

I’ve been seeing comments on X from various sources arguing that “we should legislate Christian morality.” The proponents uniformly refrain from specifying what they have in mind. I’m occasionally moved to ask them “Exactly what do you mean?” I know that’s my cruel side coming to the surface, so I force it back into its cage before I can surrender to the impulse.

For a few months not long before I retired, there was a young Nigerian woman, a graduate student at a university near me, who relied upon me to get her home from work each day. She too thought it proper to “legislate Christian morality.” Back then I was more curious about such views and the persons who espoused them, so I asked her for a specific example. She proposed the death penalty for adultery and fornication. I decided to let the subject drop right there.

I don’t know if there’s ever been a Christian society that executed people for having sex outside marriage. I’m fairly sure that the idea wouldn’t have a lot of supporters in the First World today. But if that’s what would appeal to supporters of “legislated Christian morality,” I have to question their premises – and whether they’ve ever read the Gospel According to John.

* * *

Among the things I’ve learned these past seven decades is how indoctrination works: how the process is structured, what it must include and exclude, and its underlying goal. Indoctrination in a particular doctrine seems to be about that doctrine. To some extent that will always be true. But the foundation beneath it is common to all attempts to indoctrinate. The aim is to suppress resistance to the doctrine by making an attempt to think about it more painful than the target can bear.

The obvious method of doing so is to punish dissent from the doctrine. The punishment could be anything from the infliction of physical pain to an expression of scorn from a respected authority figure. The point is to associate dissent inseparably with suffering in the targets’ minds. If that can be achieved, the doctrine becomes self-enforcing.

In our time, the promulgation of political positions has the flavor of indoctrination, but with a twist of lemon. “You can’t be one of us if you think that.” Denial of fellowship with those one ardently wants as fellows can be a severe punishment. This is especially the case when commercial opportunities are involved.

* * *

There are two basic approaches to the discovery of important norms: the teleological and the divine. The divine method is simple: “God said so.” The teleological method requires the study of history, and the processes by which men and societies rise or fall.

When what God said – or what some authority figure tells us God said – clashes with rules and practices that have advanced a society over its history, trouble will ensue. Authority figures lose standing. People ask “Did God really say that?” If some rule or practice with a lot of adherents is involved, social fissures will arise.

But the other possibility is of equal if not greater import. If what God said does indeed favor human advancement, those who promote it will gain followers. Faith in divine benevolence will be strengthened. Those who dissent will be marginalized. And – dare I say it? Oh, why not? – God will be pleased.

We’re in the middle of a century-long test of the rules, practices, and mechanisms that undergirded the rise of the West. In particular, we’re testing whether America can survive the hypertrophy of tolerance, which has swollen to embrace any and every imaginable deviance, no matter how demonstrably unhealthful or destructive. Whatever your personal inclinations, it would be well to keep an eye on the scoreboard.

* * *

I say and write a lot of things that elicit finger-wagging and clucking, but I think I could get general agreement to this proposition: It’s socially unacceptable to be seen giggling and joshing during a public expression of profound grief.

Two of the least acceptable figures in public life, Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, did a lot of giggling and joshing during the 9/11 memorial ceremonies on Friday: specifically, during the reading of the names of the fallen. Perhaps they were confident that their behavior couldn’t lower the public’s opinion of them any further. No matter. But midterm elections loom, and a vigorous attempt to oust Mamdani from Gracie Mansion is in progress. Do please remember their giggling and joshing when the time comes to take a stand.

* * *

That’s all for today. As usual, I’m behind on many things. Worse, I have customer-assembled furniture to bang together a little later. Remember me in your prayers, and try to have a good day.

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

This Rant Is Untitleable

There are days I want to close my eyes and pray that “it will just go away.” For “it,” choose any maddening thing of your preference. I have a bunch of them handy for immediate application.

* * *

1. “Equality.”

The Left has used “equality” as a shillelagh against the Right for many years. It’s time we took it away from them, considering the massive inequalities in the societies their schemes produce. But it will be a hard job. They don’t have a lot of rhetorical tools with which to hawk their wares. With “racism” dropping off he charts, they’ll keep an iron grip on the ones they still have.

I read quite recently that in academic year 2024-2025, 68% of the college and university degrees awarded in the United States went to women. That’s quite an imbalance. Nor is the impact of it greatly reduced by the awareness that a large percentage of those degrees were in fields such as “gender studies.”

Once all the relevant variables have been controlled, it develops that American working women are slightly out-earning American men. Dollars are easy to measure, so at least on the commercial front, it would appear that American women have achieved “equality.”

Yet young women appear to be less happy, and less satisfied with their life choices, than ever before in American history. I’m no expert on what makes women happy; ask my wife, if you can get close enough. Still, if the studies and surveys that tell us such things can be trusted, it would seem that something is amiss for young American women. Whether their life satisfactions improve over time, I do not know.

They demanded “equality;” they got commercial equality, plus massive advantages in law, institutional preferences, and social customs. They apparently didn’t get what they wanted. It’s worth a few moments’ thought, especially in light of the plummeting American birthrate.

* * *

2. “Inequality.”

When I survey the political battlefield of our time, there does appear to be an imbalance that favors the Right. Consider this article from Britain’s Telegraph:

     Not so long ago, the stock image of someone from the far-Right was easily summoned: they’d be male, obviously, and very probably bald, with steel-toe boots and questionable tattoos. Times, however, have moved on: this week, it was reported that the Government had banned seven “far-Right agitators” from entering the country to attend a Tommy Robinson rally on Saturday. Three are strikingly telegenic young women.
     Among the verboten ones is Ada Lluch, an impeccably coiffed 26-year-old Catalan activist who has defended the Franco regime and had told the most recent “Unite the Kingdom” rally last September that western democracies have been “completely invaded”. Valentina Gomez, an influencer from the US, has also been barred, having told last year’s rally that “rapist Muslims” were “taking over” the country (she’s said she’ll still try to come on Saturday, though – via small boat). And Eva Vlaardingerbroek, a Dutch political activist and commentator, has been forbidden too, having lamented “the rape, replacement and murder of our people” in London last autumn.
     The face of the far-Right, it seems, is changing – and it’s becoming a good deal prettier. Part of the shift is due to a growing number of young people flooding into politics – many of whom are profoundly disaffected with mainstream parties – and bringing with them a native understanding of the importance of a good Instagram filter. At the same time, there seems to be a rising awareness across the movement that improving its “look” is vital to broadening its appeal, which in recent years has come to rely heavily on a network of highly prominent social media influencers.
     Of course, it suits the far-Right very well to have beautiful young women zhuzhing its image. Their looks, as much as their messaging, promise to draw in more men and open up new audiences altogether in the form of young women who, while once more wary of indulging in politics of this nature, are now turning towards it amid widespread disillusionment with modern life.
     But for many of the individuals involved, there are also considerable rewards to be reaped: fame, the wealth that can flow from success online, perceived “clout” within the community and the satisfaction that can come from speaking out about a subject they care about.

Of course, given the Telegraph’s editorial proclivities, it must be “the far-Right,” that perpetually under-defined menace, that’s benefiting from the activities of “strikingly telegenic young women.” What, does the Left have no beauties of its own? What about all the Hollywood actresses that regularly express Leftist sentiments and contribute to Leftist causes? I could name quite a number of them. Is it the relative youth of the Right’s lovelies that pains “Leaf Arbuthnot?”

As a rule, for a First World society, where the beautiful young women are headed is where the society is headed. The reasons “should” be “obvious.” P. J. O’Rourke made note of this in Parliament of Whores. That does bode poorly for the Left. But worse still is the habit unsightly, obese Leftist women have of taking selfies holding placards that say things such as “I WILL NEVER DATE A MAGA MAN.” Someone should talk to them about that.

* * *

3. Bad Judgment.

Some prominent people have been shooting off their mouths – and their feet – in public recently. They’re drawing the wrong kind of attention. That’s not a function of intellect but of judgment. No matter how passionately one holds to a particular conviction, there are times to keep it to oneself. There are also good and bad ways to go about expressing it.

Not long ago, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson went on a tirade in which he said that imprisoning criminals is “racist.” (See the first segment of this screed for commentary on that rhetorical weapon.) Now, this man is no Einstein, but a public figure should be aware of the implications of his statements. If the public were to become convinced that confining convicted felons is unacceptable, what would the response be?

I’ve been predicting the return of the vigilance committee for some time. Brandon Johnson appears to favor that outcome as well. If he doesn’t, it would be damned hard to tell from his public utterances.

On the other side of the fence we have Ben Shapiro. I’ve never had a high opinion of Shapiro as a representative for conservatism, but I was willing to allow that he’s reasonably bright. I don’t think I’ll make that assumption any longer:

Yes. If you are mentally and physically healthy, taxpayers should not pay you to retire at 65. When Social Security was created, life expectancy was 64. Today, it's 78.

Also, people require purpose. If you can retire and find purpose, go for it. For many, that's a bad idea. https://t.co/MrgtO0dEGT
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 12, 2024

How old is Shapiro? He can’t have yet entered into the stage of life where weariness is a man’s constant companion. He can’t yet be hagridden with the sense that his life is drawing to a close. Yet he decries retirement. This is definitely a candidate for this year’s “What Were You Thinking?” sweepstakes.

The American Dream includes several goals. One of them is surely a comfortable retirement in which to rest from one’s labors. Shapiro may have a problem with Social Security – I do, myself – but attacking retirement rather than the injustice of the Social Security system is the wrong way to express it. A genuinely bright person would have known better.

Hm. Maybe it is intellect, after all.

* * *

I think that’s all for this bright clear Tuesday in May, Gentle Reader. Enjoy the rest of your day. Stop by tomorrow for more effluvia from an overactive writer. And remember always:

Gentlemen: The stripper isn’t really attracted to you. Faking it is just how she earns her living.
Ladies: Those dollar bills in your G-string won’t go nearly as far as you’d like. Neither, sadly, will you.

Monday, November 24, 2025

Choices

Good morning, Gentle Reader! I know, I know: “What’s good about Monday?” Well, I suppose it depends on your perspective. If you still work for wages, perhaps a certain dreariness is to be expected. On the other hand, if you work for no wages, as does your humble Curmudgeon, it’s just one day among seven: as pleasant or vile as any of the other six.

But we do have some interesting material for you, so have a look:

1. Energy.

The most recent estimates I can find of annual American energy consumption hover around 94 quadrillion British Thermal Units (BTU). If you prefer the metric system, which I do under these circumstances, that’s approximately 94 quintillion joules: 94x10¹⁸ newton-meters.

If you have no feel for such magnitudes – and who does? – that’s a whole honkin’ lot of energy. Threats to various portions of our energy-supply system have people looking at all sorts of adjustments and alternatives. Here’s a very interesting one:

     By dropping a nuclear reactor 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) underground, Deep Fission aims to use the weight of a billion tons of rock and water as a natural containment system comparable to concrete domes and cooling towers. With the fission reaction occurring far below the surface, steam can safely circulate in a closed loop to generate power.
     [...]
     Deep Fission’s small modular reactor (SMR), called Gravity, is designed to stand 9 meters tall while remaining slim enough to fit inside a borehole roughly three-quarters of a meter wide. The company says its modular approach allows multiple 15-megawatt reactors to be clustered on a single site: A block of 10 would total 150 MW, and Deep Fission claims that larger groupings could scale to 1.5 GW.

This is an exciting prospect. However, if we divide that 15 megawatt output into the 94 quintillion joules yearly consumption, we find that that little reactor would have to labor for 6.26 trillion seconds to meet the annual consumption figure. As there are only about 31 million seconds in a day, it appears we’d need more than one. About 200,000 of them, in fact.

That’s a lot of reactors and a lot of uranium in a lot of mile-deep boreholes. A lot of regulatory bodies to sweet-talk. Well, no doubt someone is working on it.

2. Marketing.

The summary below of chain-gas-station / convenience store Buc-ee’s marketing and design strategy strikes me as the greatest stroke of commercial genius since the drive-through fast-food place:

Did you know Buc-ee's business model is essentially based on our bladder? pic.twitter.com/URlF2amMCA
— Sovey (@SoveyX) November 19, 2025

That struck me very nearly speechless. (If you’re a regular Gentle Reader, you know that nothing strikes me completely speechless, but this came close.) But like most great insights, it’s perfectly simple once you understand it.

Buc-ee’s target customer profile is a woman in an automobile. The entire thrust of its design was to cater to her. She might not be alone, but her presence is the key. So attracting women commuters and women traveling with their families were the Buc-ee’s target. The results speak for themselves.

There are no Buc-ee’s in the American Northeast. Maybe someday. They actually sound like they’re worth patronizing for any reason or none. Hint, hint, Buc-ee’s management!

3. Relations Between The Sexes.

You’ve probably seen images of “bachelor pads” that look like this:

In truth, that’s a rather upscale “pad,” but it will serve. Such living arrangements have been the targets of sarcastic women for decades. But what if it’s trending upward, owing to the declining interest in marriage and family among men?

Please view it to the end. This gentleman has thought through the implications of at least some “men going their own way.” If young Smith were to elect such a life path early enough, he could reach his mid-forties in a state that makes retirement achievable then and there. Yes, he would forfeit marriage, children, and the possibility of a McMansion, but those are goals no one is required to pursue.

No, it doesn’t appeal to me. Nor would it have appealed to me when I was in my twenties. But it’s an open choice that some men, at least, will find palatable, with the consequences the video delineates.

Women plaintively asking “Where are all the men?” (Variation: “Where are all the good men?”) should ponder this. If you want to mate, you must make the lifelong bachelor / early retirement choice depicted above less appealing to men than mating with you. As you can’t change us... well, what does that imply?

We have choices, too.

That’s all for the present. Have a good day and perhaps I’ll be back later with another serving of drivel. Until then, for best results in living, adhere to the mighty Precepts of the late Nelson Algren:

Never eat at a place called “Mom’s.”
Never play cards with a man named “Doc.”
And never bed a woman who’s got more troubles than you.

Smart guy, wasn’t he?

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Embarras De Richesse

Hey, there are nearly 7000 posts here! Do you think I’m supplied with the titles for these bits of fluff out of the luminiferous ether or something? Just relax, kick back, and have a few squibs with the associated links.

1. It’s No Longer Debatable.

The Dominion voting machines were specifically designed to enable massive fraud:

     “We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.
     The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors. The electronic ballots are then transferred for adjudication. The intentional errors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail. This leads to voter or election fraud.
     Based on our study, we conclude that The Dominion Voting System should not be used in Michigan. We further conclude that the results of Antrim County should not have been certified.

Dominion’s systems were used in 28 of the lower 48 states. If there’s anyone out there still ranting that “there’s no evidence,” show him this. If he persists, he’s the enemy–and there’s no point in trying to reason with the enemy.

2. What’s That? You Need More Evidence?

“The ends determine the means. A hen is only an egg’s device for producing another egg.” – James Blish, The Triumph of Time

Gateway Pundit’s Larry Johnson has the dirt. Here are the most damning bits:

     In Central Lake Township, for example, 81.96% of the 1,491 total ballots cast were adjudicated, which means that the decision about who received the vote was made by election personnel.
     All the ADJUDICATION logs for the November 2020 election cycle are missing while the files for previous years still exist. The lack of current records prevents any form of audit accountability.
     All server security logs prior to 11:03 pm on November 4, 2020 are missing. This means that all security logs for the day after the election, on election day, and prior to election day are gone. These logs contain domain controls, authentication failures, error codes, times users logged on and off, network connections to file servers between file accesses, internet connections, times, and data transfers.
     An unauthorized user unsuccessfully attempted to zero out election results on November 21, 2020.

3. Can It Be Done?

The Feral Irishman has laid out what appears to me to be a sound plan for averting the theft of the election by entirely Constitutional means. But I’d rather that no one take my word for it. Read the plan; compare it with the Constitution’s provisions for presidential elections, and decide for yourself.

4. Dueling Electors.

It seems that six swing states have tapped two slates of electors each, an obvious invitation to Congress to resolve the clash. This has prospects, especially since it was revealed that the Dominion voting systems were literally designed to steal an election. Factor this into the citation above, and see what you think. One possible outcome:

Academics have sketched out several scenarios. Under one, Pence as president of the Senate could throw out both sets of a state’s electors. Another contemplates that the House of Representatives would end up choosing between Biden and Trump. [This scenario would give one vote to each state and since the Republicans have more states with Republican majorities, President Trump would likely be the winner]. There is even a scenario in which the Speaker of the House, currently Democrat Nancy Pelosi, could become acting president.

(In Mr. Spock’s voice:) Fascinating.

5. Here and There.

Not to exhaust my Gentle Readers’ patience, here are some columns I found worthwhile (but will forbear to comment on). Perhaps you will, too:

Lots of good, pithy stuff for your entertainment and edification.

6. In Closing For Today.

It’s vital that we in the Right keep our hopes up. There remain possibilities for undoing the theft of the presidency. But it will come to naught if we go limp, for a simple reason: we are the one and only force stiffening Republican spines.

Let your GOP representatives know that you will back them to the hilt, regardless of any and all opposition or consequences...but only if they back President Trump and get him another four years in the White House, as he deserves. Betray the president and we’ll mete out punishment of a sort you won’t like, Republican officeholders!

Remember always that hope only dies when its holder abandons it:

     The party was a success, in most ways. All the invitees, including Louis Redmond and a tall, husky young Aerostructures engineer named Kevin Conway, attended as promised. Those who already knew one another were as genial to the others as the Sumners could have hoped. The bounties of Adrienne’s buffet, supplemented by a black forest cake from Rosalie and a high-domed peach pie from Allison, were devoured nearly to the tablecloth. Sumner noted with some amusement that Redmond made a point of having a piece of each of the Markham sisters’ offerings, and of being seen to do so.
     Conversation was generally fluid. As Adrienne had predicted, her sisters chatted up the two single men with no apparent concern for their youth. Redmond and Conway remained visibly relaxed and cordial throughout the evening. Yet whenever a Markham sister approached either engineer, the other one would immediately join them, with the other sister close behind him. The two pairs interacted as inseparable teams throughout the evening. At a few minutes after ten, Redmond and Conway said their good-byes, thanked the Sumners for inviting them to the party, and left simultaneously.
     Rosalie and Allison Markham were clearly not pleased. Neither was Adrienne. When all the guests had departed, as the Sumners cleaned up from the buffet, Adrienne said “What happened? Did someone say something offensive, or did you invite the only two homosexuals at OA?”
     Sumner straightened up with a start. “Sweetie!”
     “Well, then what, Steve?” She stood with arms akimbo. “Are Louis and Kevin under vows of celibacy? Allie couldn’t take her eyes off Kevin, and Ro was practically panting after Louis. They were so obvious I thought I might have to ask them to stand on a drop cloth.”
     He burst into amazed laughter, and she joined him.
     Presently he said “Where did you come up with that...turn of phrase?”
     She shrugged. “Inspiration of the moment. Seriously, Steve, I’ve never seen women as ready to fall into a man’s arms as those two were tonight. But they didn’t even shake hands with them, unless it happened when I wasn’t looking.”
     “And I’ll bet you were looking whenever you weren’t carrying stuff to or from the kitchen,” he said.
     “Pretty much.” She peered into the punchbowl, which was practically dry, hefted it and strode to the kitchen. “It must have been a good party. We usually have a little something left for lunch the next day.”
     “Sweetie...”
     She lowered the bowl gingerly into the sink and turned to him. “Hm?”
     “This was their first acquaintance. I don’t know Louis all that well, but I’d guess that he isn’t the sort to leap at a woman on first meeting her. Maybe Kevin is just as reserved. I barely know him at all, so I can’t say. I’ll ask a few folks who know them better on Monday. But we did plan to do this more than once, didn’t we?”
     “Well, yes.”
     He took her hands. “So as we used to say in Ted Guillory’s office, ‘Don’t lose heart...’”
     Her eyes twinkled. “‘They might want to cut it out...’”
     He beamed. “‘And they’d rather avoid a lengthy search.’”
     She nodded. “Okay.”

And do have a nice day.

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Assorted

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.

Once more, with feeling:

“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.

Monday, October 19, 2020

Monday Maunderings

“The news is all bad,
But it’s good for a laugh.”
[Tom Paxton, “Jimmy Newman”]

Decide for yourselves.

1. “Authorities.”

How many times can you be wrong – serially, at that – and still command attention as an authority?

     Rethink big family gatherings for Thanksgiving, continue wearing your mask and keep your distance as cold weather likely ushers in more coronavirus cases. But don’t give up hope that more normal life will ever return.
     That’s the message delivered Friday by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top pandemic scientist, during a virtual “fireside chat” with the staff and students at Johns Hopkins University as part of a new series of discussions with Washington leaders.
     Fauci, director of the National Academy of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a top adviser to the Trump administration on the coronavirus, didn’t offer much new during the health policy forum. But as Ellen MacKenzie, dean of the Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said during the discussion, the pandemic has thrust Fauci, who has deep experience in dangerous outbreaks, into a new role as the nation’s and world’s “trusted source.”
     For his part, Fauci said his driving force is “the realization not only of the enormity of the problem, but the fact that we can do something about it. It is not an unsolvable series of problems.”

At this point, if Fauci were to announce that the Sun had risen in the East this morning, I’d call the Naval Observatory for confirmation.

2. The Politics of the Wallet.

It’s important that open minded persons, who are willing to listen to orations about “the greater good,” have a clear understanding of what the Biden / Harris economic agenda will mean for all Americans:

Joe Biden has shrewdly kept the campaign focus on Covid-19 and President Trump, which has helped him avoid having to talk much about his own policies. That’s especially true of his economic proposals, which a new study out Sunday from the Hoover Institution shows will have a damaging impact on growth, job creation and household income.

So far, nothing newsworthy. As Ann Coulter has written, if leading Democrats were ever truly candid about their intentions for America, the public would boil them in oil. But wait: there’s more!

Overall, the authors estimate that the Biden agenda, if fully implemented, would reduce full-time equivalent employment per person by about 3%, the capital stock per person by some 15%, and real GDP per capita by more than 8%. Compared to Congressional Budget Office estimates for these variables in 2030, this means there would be 4.9 million fewer working Americans, $2.6 trillion less in GDP, and $6,500 less in median household income.

That’s quite dramatic, especially as we’re still coming out of the WuFlu Recession. But surely the Democrats have a “greater good” rationale for imposing such severe economic and financial setbacks on America and Americans! What’s that you say? They haven’t? But they must! Something about “climate change,” or fighting “structural racism,” or some such. I’m sure we’ll be hearing it any...day...now...

3. The Laptop and the Media.

FLASH! Journalist commits blatant act of journalism! Film at 11:

     I asked Joe Biden: What is your response to the NYPost story about your son, sir?
     He called it a “smear campaign” and then went after me. “I know you’d ask it. I have no response, it’s another smear campaign, right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask.” pic.twitter.com/Eo6VD4TqxD
     — Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) October 17, 2020

I was startled that a mainstream media reporter would “break ranks” from the lockstep march to elect a Democrat. However, the allegations are juicy enough to tempt even a hardened partisan, as reportage from several other mainstream types suggests. But the real story here is the reaction of a couple of other media figures:

     Biden adopts Trump playbook – attacking pool reporter @BoKnowsNews for asking about Hunter Biden story which has been a focus of President Trump’s campaign over past few days. Fine to attack the story, but why personally insult Bo? https://t.co/PgOsLgu2DT      — Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) October 17, 2020
     How are you all circling the wagons instead of being embarrassed for peddling Russian ops 18 days before the election. It's not enough that you all haven't learned from your atrocious handling of 2016 — you are doubling down. Truly incredible. https://t.co/0zvW5sZIpM
     — Neera -Vote Early- Tanden (@neeratanden) October 17, 2020

Because it’s “irresponsible” to report on a stunning disclosure about criminal behavior by a member of the Ruling Elite, don’t y’know:

The media in most of Europe is so much more responsible than American media. After 2016, I thought they would behave more responsibly. It's incredibly depressing that they are doing Russia's bidding. Again.
— Neera -Vote Early- Tanden (@neeratanden) October 17, 2020

Miss Tanden is determined to squelch the story before it can gain any traction. Can’t have the Bidens’ blatant corruption in the news when there’s an election to be won for the Democrats! But it appears that she’s up against a force too large for her: the lure of a Pulitzer.

Howie Carr of the Boston Herald has a few observations, as well:

Biden — or more precisely, his keepers — haven’t disputed the veracity of the Biden Crime Family documents, or that they are from Hunter’s laptop. They were obtained legally, after an “inebriated” Hunter abandoned the computer at a repair shop, according to the New York Post.
The usual alt-left suspects — the AP, NBC “News,” Rep. Adam Schiff — went through the tired motions of trying to blame it all on, who else, the Russians. But seriously, how many times can these hacks cry wolf, even to Wolf Blitzer?

And Darleen Click opines thus:

Let me digress a bit about one very risible thing I keep seeing from the it’s a hoax! crowd. Too many seem to think no one of Hunter’s background and intelligence [… sorry, a moment here as I guffaw …] would ever leave such important data behind. After working in a District Attorney office for 18 years (now retired), don’t underestimate criminally stupid people who leave enough loose ends lying about it looks like wool tapestry after being locked up with cloud of horny clothes moths. Hunter McCrackpipe losing his info to the computer shop owner because he failed to pick up and pay for repair is second only to this gal whose prize for skipping three months rent was 25 to life.
Someone tell Adam we’ve moved on, eh?
It’s Not Real
It’s Russian Disinfo
It’s Real But Doesn’t Matter <– YOU ARE HERE
It Matters But Not Very Much
This is Old News
Shut Up Racist
—The Plague Duck (@quackocracy) October 17, 2020

Yet there are still millions of people who will uncritically swallow the “Russia, Russia, Russia!” nonsense, and will vote for Joe Biden on November 3.

4. Science Has No Clergy...Or Does It?

At InstaPundit, Sarah Hoyt links to a scathing Robert Zimmerman piece about the politicization of the WHO:

The corruption of modern science and our intellectual class was well illustrated today by the following headline and article in the peer review journal Science: Act now, wait for perfect evidence later, says ‘high priestess’ of U.K. COVID-19 masking campaign

Please read it all. Also reflect on Sarah’s brief remarks:

I knew we were in trouble deep when I started seeing the signs on front yards “In this house we believe in science” followed by a list of dubious statements most of which are semantically deranged, let alone not scientifically proven.

Science is not a system of belief; it is a strict method for improving our confidence in our knowledge about that the world. To say “we believe in science” is to paint oneself as an ignoramus. Demagogues have made much of such ignorance:

     The mystery of where the milk went to was soon cleared up. It was mixed every day into the pigs' mash. The early apples were now ripening, and the grass of the orchard was littered with windfalls. The animals had assumed as a matter of course that these would be shared out equally; one day, however, the order went forth that all the windfalls were to be collected and brought to the harness-room for the use of the pigs. At this some of the other animals murmured, but it was no use. All the pigs were in full agreement on this point, even Snowball and Napoleon. Squealer was sent to make the necessary explanations to the others.
     "Comrades!" he cried. "You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for YOUR sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades," cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, "surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?"
     Now if there was one thing that the animals were completely certain of, it was that they did not want Jones back. When it was put to them in this light, they had no more to say. The importance of keeping the pigs in good health was all too obvious. So it was agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples (and also the main crop of apples when they ripened) should be reserved for the pigs alone.
     [George Orwell, Animal Farm]

Forgive Me For This...

...but you do need to be aware of it:

Does your neighborhood have a functioning Neighborhood Watch in operation? If you don’t...well, suffice it to say that the vandals will have the initiative.

That’s all for today, I think. I have to get started on my other chores – yes, including fiction – so in closing I’ll wish you a happy (?) mask-free (!) and generally untroubled Monday.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Tuesday Terpsichore

I haven’t done a grab-bag column in a fair while, and the “Future Columns” folder is about to burst, so...

1. Convergence.

If you haven’t yet read this piece by Wolf Howling, please do so. Wolf accurately (and without distortion) integrates the many seemingly independent anti-American initiatives of the Left into a single, cohesive attack that should terrify any thinking person. Indeed, anyone who’s had his finger on the pulse of events will already be terrified:

     This is, collectively, the predicate to the coming storm. On the ground, the armed wings of the Democrat Party, BLM and Antifa, have executed over 570 violent riots in 22 cities during the past several months, most tolerated, if not outright aided and abetted, by local and state officials, including DA’s funded by George Soros. The left is stoking a race war even as they comprehensively attack the pillars of our society and Western Civilization as a whole....
     Does anyone expect that the progressives, having thrown everything that they have against Trump over the past four years without driving him from office, will accept a Trump reelection?...
     The storm is coming and indeed, we may falter. How bloody and bad it will get, only time will tell.

Wolf’s assessment is ironically reinforced by this execrable, counterfactual screed at the Atlantic:

Liberals had enough trouble accepting the results of the 2016 election. In some sense, they never really came to terms with it. The past four years have witnessed the continuous urge to explain away the inexplicable, to find solace in the fact that the voters betrayed them. How could so many of their fellow Americans side with a racist and a fabulist, someone so callous and seemingly without empathy? It was easier to think that those Americans had been lackeys, manipulated and deceived, or that they simply hadn’t understood what was best for them. Moreover, the Russians had interfered, and tipped the balance in an extremely close election through propaganda, fake news, and collusion with the Trump campaign. Perhaps, as former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid suggested, the Russians had even tampered with the vote itself.
That was then. This time, it would be worse. In 2016, Trump hadn’t ever held political office, so no one could truly grasp just how bad, and exhausting, a president he might become. Perhaps in 2016, too many voters were unwilling to believe that America was “already great” (and, for too many, it wasn’t). They had no reason to be content with the status quo, so their willingness to try something quite risky was understandable. Now, though, everyone should know the risks. Moreover, Hillary Clinton was an unusually polarizing candidate, whereas Joe Biden tends to attract attention for not attracting attention.

(Note that the Atlantic had already argued for the elimination of the Nobel Peace Prize, specifically because Trump has been nominated for it.)

With slanderers and propagandists like Shadi Hamid trying to “relax us” to the notion, there might be no way of averting a full-scale civil war. But in that case, hadn’t you better know which side you’re on and what you plan to do about it?

2. The Use Of Alternative Punishments.

The Feral Irishman has an example. I don’t know how to embed the video he presents here at Liberty’s Torch, so please hie thee hence and view it at his place. Also, recall what Robert A. Heinlein said about “cruel and unusual punishment:”

     Dubois had mused aloud, "I do not understand objections to ‘cruel and unusual' punishment. While a judge should be benevolent in purpose, his awards should cause the criminal to suffer, else there is no punishment—and pain is the basic mechanism built into us by millions of years of evolution which safeguards us by warning when something threatens our survival. Why should society refuse to use such a highly perfected survival mechanism? However, that period was loaded with pre-scientific pseudo-psychological nonsense.
     "As for 'unusual,' punishment must be unusual or it serves no purpose." He then pointed his stump at another boy. "What would happen if a puppy were spanked every hour?"
     "Uh... probably drive him crazy!"
     "Probably. It certainly will not teach him anything. How long has it been since the principal of this school last had to switch a pupil?"
     "Uh, I'm not sure. About two years. The kid that swiped—"
     "Never mind. Long enough. It means that such punishment is so unusual as to be significant, to deter, to instruct. "

Indeed.

3. A Genuinely Tough – And Nice – Chick.

Gina Carano may not be everyone’s favorite actress. However, for my money she’s a genuine star: a model of strength and femininity in combination. Recently the “trans bullies” decided it was time to get on her back about her pronouns:

     Last time the transextremists (there are an awful lot of them in antifa and BLM) were demanding she repeat "All Cops are Bastards."
     Now these lunatics are demanding she put her pronouns in her Twitter bio-- or else they'll pressure Lucasfilm to fire her from The Mandalorian.
     She did partly agree to their demands: She put "beep/boop/bop" in her name, suggesting those were "her pronouns." When it was actually her making fun of NPC Robots for always making the same three robot noises.
     They didn't like that, either.

Oh, I’m sure they didn’t – and I’m sure Miss Carano couldn’t care less. She, you see, is a really strong woman: one who has decided to test herself to her limits, and has passed with flying colors by anyone’s standards.

If you haven’t seen Haywire, see it. Buy a copy of the DVD and run it whenever some Leftist twit starts nattering about “transgender rights” and / or “strong women.”

4. Pro Football Is For Leftists.

Or so it seems:

     On Thursday night, the NFL hosted its season opener, and it was just as woke as other sports have been in their respective seasons so far. And the ratings seemed to show that fans are not happy about it.
     Breitbart reports from Deadline Hollywood:
     “…the Kansas City Chiefs pummeled the Houston Texans 34-20, and the ratings were down — a lot. In early numbers, the primetime NBC game scored a 5.2 among adults 18-49 and 16.4 million viewers between 8-11 p.m. ET.
     “Now, those numbers for the 8:25-11:30 p.m. ET game will certainly be adjusted upward later, but right now they mark a 16.1% drop over the spectacle of the September 5, 2019 season opener in the advertiser-rich demographic. In an America and a NFL still adjusting to the new normal of live sports in the era of COVID-19, last night’s game also fell 16.1% in total sets of eyeballs from last year’s fast affiliate results.

It wasn’t enough of a shock to the NFL’s managements when Americans started looking away as athletes deliberately and visibly disrespected the National Anthem. That was when the C.S.O. and I decided to forgo pro football viewing. Now, with the open endorsement of the fascistic Black Lives Matter “movement” by the league and many of the players, the NFL will be fortunate not to have its TV contracts canceled by season’s end.

“Get Woke, Go Broke.” Some people need it tattooed on their foreheads – backwards, so they can read it in the mirror.

5. A Win For Freedom.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled Pennsylvania’s lockdown orders unConstitutional:

U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV concluded the governor’s stay at home orders, limits on gatherings and closure of “non life-sustaining” businesses violated citizens’ Constitutional rights. The judge was responding to a lawsuit brought by a group of Pennsylvania businesses.

Which is exactly correct. Here’s the complete text of the ruling. Now could we get something like this from the Second Circuit, or perhaps the Supreme Court?

6. As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap.

Some time ago, PowerLine’s John Hinderaker noted a disturbing development in educational practice in Edina, Minnesota. Today, he notes another disturbing development:

Life-threatening crime in elite suburbs like Edina is a new phenomenon, but residents had better get used to it if they continue to support BLM and other anti-law enforcement causes. What do they think is going to happen if law enforcement is dismantled?
The stark choice between law and order and violent crime is on the ballot in November. Frankly, I suspect that a majority of Edina residents are too far gone to make a rational decision. One hopes that is not the case in most suburbs across the country.

Now, one cannot ascribe the rise in crime in Edina directly to the changes in the schools, but one can easily understand that a force capable of suborning a community’s public schools must have made substantial inroads elsewhere in the community. Why would the Leftists who’ve colonized Edina’s schools stop there? They’re always looking for new worlds to conquer...and it appears that in Edina, they’ve found one ripe for the plucking.

7. “Let Us Kill You, Racist Pigs!”

This hardly requires comment:

In Lancaster [Pennsylvania], an officer responded to a domestic violence call at a residence where a man had stabbed four people last year. As the officer approached the house, a female escaped out the front door. A man — the suspect from the previous slashings — then emerged and ran at the officer, brandishing a knife over his head. The officer shot him, as the officer was by all appearances legally authorized to do, to stop the threat of deadly force. Twenty-seven-year-old Ricardo Munoz died from the officer’s gunfire.
The response from the “community,” after this summer of lethal cop hatred, was predictable. Rioters pelted Lancaster cops with bricks, glass bottles, and sharp projectiles ripped from road barricades. They smashed the windows of police cruisers, the downtown police precinct, the post office, cafés, and stores. They torched a dumpster dragged from another part of the city. They pulled street signs and bike racks out of sidewalks to use against the police.

If it isn’t yet time to go to live fire, when will that time arrive?

That’s all for today, Gentle Reader. I have a ton of work ahead, so do your best to enjoy your Tuesday. I’ll probably be back tomorrow.

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Overburdened, Fatigued, And Disheartened

That’s your humble Curmudgeon this morning. On such occasions it’s best that I refrain from bloviating in my usual idiom. So have a few links I found significant enough to use as jumping-off material...and would have used thus if I felt equal to the challenge of writing at all:

Have a nice day. Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow.

Monday, August 10, 2020

Monday Maunderings

Hmm, only eleven days since the previous “assorted” piece? Should I? Shouldn’t I? Aaahhh, why not?

The Reportage Has Muted.

The disorder, vandalism, and violence have not:

Perhaps the Democrats’ strategists have warned their media annex that publicizing the rioting is proving harmful to the Democrats’ electoral prospects this November. However, on-the-scene citizen journalists are still collecting the evidence. Don’t let it slip past you.

Frontiers In Leftism.

Book burnings are often associated with theocracies and “bluenosed” communities. Whatever the convictions of the book burners, their intention is plain: they want to prevent the books they condemn from being read. Burning them is merely the most dramatic way to attain that end.

But others on the Left have other approaches:

Today, the Washington Post’s Sunday “Outlook” section ran a piece in which Lawrence Downes, formerly of the New York Times editorial board, boasts about feeding books by Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham, and other conservative authors to worms. Downes says he purchases these books on sale from his public library. He then takes them home for “quarantine.” In this way, he prevents people who might want to buy and read the books from doing so.
For extra pleasure, Downes has taken to putting the books in a compost bin along with coffee grounds, potato and carrot peels, etc., and feeding the pages to worms. He seems to believe that doing so is different in nature from burning the books. He’s right. Taking into account the pleasure Downes gets and his desire to write about the experience, it’s sicker.

This...person is emblematic of the Left in our era. They know they can’t win arguments against the Right, because all the evidence and reasoning supports the Right’s positions. Their hope to prevail, therefore, lies in preventing the Right from being heard by any means necessary, including violence.

Yet they call us “fascists.” You could cut the irony with a knife.

Insisting On The First Freedom.

Governors in several states have attempted to ban or restrict religious gatherings, in flagrant contravention of the guarantees in the First Amendment. But some Christians aren’t sitting still for it:

I could only wish New York’s Christian communities would display equal courage and resolve. But what will come of this in the long run? Will the governors who have illegally attempted to restrict religious worship be penalized for it? Will they suffer any kind of rebuff? We shall see.

Buy Guns And Ammo...If You Can Find Any.

This will already be old news to some, but its relevance grows as election day approaches:

Democrats are prepared to burn the country to the ground rather than accept another loss to President Trump in November and are war-gaming doomsday scenarios in advance of the most important election in American history....
Democrats are contemplating secession and potential civil war as they game out possible scenarios for a closely contested election, according to a report by Ben Smith in a New York Times column Sunday.

Now, I happen to think an individual state has a perfect right to remove itself from the Union, should a sufficient percentage of its resident citizens concur. The Constitution formed the Union, and the Constitution is a contract among the states, as is made plain by Article VII:

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

There was no disagreement at the time of the Founding that should a state decline to ratify the Constitution, it would retain its independent sovereignty, unsubordinated to the newborn federal government. That a state which decides that the Constitutional contract has been violated would have a right to retract its ratification seems implicit. (Let’s leave the little matter of the Late Unpleasantness to another time, shall we? Anyway, that particular disagreement was settled by force, a poor standard for Constitutional interpretation.)

So it’s at least conceivable that the legislatures of California, Oregon, and Washington would vote to secede. What then? Would the patriots in those states merely sit still? Would they relocate in a body? Or would they call for and receive federal intervention aimed, as during the Civil War, at reincorporating the breakaway states into the Union by force?

It would be...interesting, to say the very least. But remember the old Chinese curse about “interesting times.”

On The Educational Front.

With the government-run schools in total chaos, the teachers’ unions refusing to return to the classroom in the fall (but demanding to be paid nonetheless), online schooling allowing parents to “see into the classroom,” and parents discovering alternatives in homeschooling and private-school “pods” at a record rate, “educators” and those who support their hegemony over young minds are in a tizzy. I’ve run across two sobering stories at the edges of this tempest:

Thomas Jefferson’s one deplorable departure from good sense was his advocacy of mandatory government-run schooling for all young Americans. I wonder what he’d think of the above tales.

While this story isn’t specifically about education, it has substantial relevance to the Left’s agenda and how the government-run schools have been used to promote it:

     Sophie Lewis, a so-called feminist theorist who says she’s interested in “queer communism,” came right out and said it in an article published at openDemocracy: “In short, the pandemic is no time to forget about family abolition.” (Don’t bother clicking through to the article at that link. It’s a silly call for all of us to live in hippie communes.)
     Lewis goes on to quote fellow traveler Madeline Lane-McKinley, who tweeted in March: “Households are capitalism’s pressure cookers. This crisis will see a surge in housework – cleaning, cooking, caretaking, but also child abuse, molestation, intimate partner rape, psychological torture, and more.” (In communes there’s no housework or something.)
     Lewis’s thesis is basically that since we’ve been at home thanks to stay-at-home orders, it’s become crystal clear that the family needs to go.

Sometimes, Gentle Reader, they really do come right out and say it.

Against The Mask Madness.

This piece warmed the cockles of my heart. Someone gave this market owner a hard time about not demanding that all her customers be masked. I can’t add anything to it that would enhance its impact. Please read it.

The Left Doesn’t Want You To Arm Yourself.

This story, which could have ended much less pleasantly, makes that clear. Once again, I can add nothing to it. Please read it, and consider starting a preparedness group in your neighborhood.

What Has Become Of The U.S. Marine Corps?

Time was, the saying ran that “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Today, apparently only atheists are permitted to give lectures to Marines:

     The USMC scheduled an annual training for military lawyers earlier this month, at which the Battle of Gettysburg would be discussed. The instructor for one portion of that training was supposed to be Jay Lorenzen, an Air Force veteran who taught for 10 years at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
     Lorenzen’s biography, provided to the military lawyers in advance of the training, included references to Christianity, including his affiliation with Campus Crusade For Christ, now known as Cru, and a couple of religious-themed courses he teaches in his spare time. Several of those lawyers complained to Mikey Weinstein, who heads up a secular, anti-Christian group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, that Lorenzen was going to teach about religion.
     That allegation was false. It didn’t matter.
     Weinstein, himself an Air Force veteran, is adamantly opposed to any form of Christian expression within the military, and immediately contacted the USMC to voice his displeasure at Lorenzen’s scheduled appearance at the training, calling Lorenzen a “fundamentalist Christian extremist parachurch official.” Within 64 minutes, according to Weinstein, the USMC informed him that the event had been canceled. It was replaced with an instruction regarding systemic racism within the military.

This is only the most recent story of its kind. The deliberate exclusion of openly Christian instructors and commanders from the military has been going on for some time. Apparently the anti-Christian activists are more influential than I was aware.

Let’s leave aside for the moment that Lorenzen’s lecture was not to be about Christianity, but about the Battle of Gettysburg, an engagement of importance to military lawyers. The rise of anti-Christian activism within the military is more significant than many realize. Marines risk their lives in pursuit of our nation’s military objectives. The lawyers who sometimes must prosecute or defend them in the aftermath hold those lives in their hands. Yet they are being systematically shorn of support for the religion to which the great majority of them subscribe – the religion that underpins their ethical code and the legal code of this nation. How does this make any sense?

Does the Marine Corps still have chaplains?

That’s all for today, I think. The workmen will shortly be upon us, and I must make several necessary preparations. Until tomorrow, be well.

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Marginalia

We approach the midpoint of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s been a rough one, so far, and few are the prospects for improvement. Things are particularly rugged here at the Fortress – allow me to withhold the non-weather-related reasons – so have a few bytes from other sources, with brief commentary.

I have the utmost contempt for persons who want to impose their personal problems on the rest of us:

     Before a coronavirus news briefing in Harrisburg on Tuesday, Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine responded to a series of transphobic attacks directed against her.
     “While these individuals may think that they are only expressing their displeasure with me, they are, in fact, hurting the thousands of LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who suffered directly from these current demonstrations of harassment,” Levine began, according to PennLive.com....
     “Your actions perpetuate the spirit of intolerance and discrimination against LGBTQ individuals and specifically transgender individuals,” Levine said of the incidents....
     “We have not made progress unless we have all made progress,” she added. “It is in this space that these acts of intolerance live and where we need to continue to work against them.”

“Attacks.” “Transphobic attacks.” Ponder those words, Gentle Reader. What do they signify? Condemnation at the very least, no? Some form of physical assault, at the other extreme. But that’s not borne out by the article:

Among the anti-trans incidents was a man who dressed as Levine for a dunk tank at a local fair, an off-color menu item mocking Levine at a tavern and a radio host who repeatedly called Levine “sir” during an interview.

“Among” the incidents? Was there nothing more? Nothing worse? I’d have expected the most dramatic “attacks” to be front and center. Is the Post, a paper long known for lurid coverage, suppressing the mention of them?

I have said it before: If you want to transition from your birth sex to the other one:

Work to achieve a convincing presentation;
To avoid any unwanted consequences, keep it to yourself.

That’s the way transgenderism was handled before it was politicized, and it worked tolerably well. Levine’s presentation is laughable, and he’s compounded the damage by going public about his “transition.” Choices – decisions to act or not to act – have consequences.

Anthony Fauci appears to have become addicted to the limelight. Either that or his dubious prestige is being exploited to intensify the New Totalitarianism:

Dr. Anthony Fauci to @DrJAshton: "If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it. It's not universally recommended, but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it if you can." https://t.co/SJPZn8fN6F pic.twitter.com/Ml87aBuclI
— ABC News (@ABC) July 29, 2020

This...person has been so wrong, and for so long, that it’s a marvel he hasn’t been pilloried for it. On the strength of his “expertise” we’ve precipitated a Second Great Depression, destroyed millions of jobs and tens of thousands of businesses, and inculcated an unknown fraction of the American populace with fears that might never be quenched.

I really don’t care about Fauci’s claims to expertise. (I also don’t care about his inability to pitch.) I care about his medical-grade arrogance and inability to admit to error...especially since even the makers of the masks he wants us trapped behind admit that they cannot and will not prevent the transmission of the Chinese Lung Rot a.k.a. Covid-19:

(Do you think Fauci would recognize a satire were he to see one?)

They who have enjoyed popular attention seldom lose their taste for it. In an attempt to capitalize on the current sociopolitical chaos, an old, nearly forgotten racialist huckster has stepped forward with a favorite slander:

     “Hitler had his Brown shirts and Mussolini had his Black shirts, now Donald Trump has his camouflage shirts.” Thus began a statement signed by 15 distinguished interdenominational religious leaders in Chicago that I joined, including ministers, priests, and rabbis.
     Comparisons to Hitler are always explosive, but the comparison is apt. “Hitler’s bullyboys,” the statement continues, “operated on the fringes or outside of the law to violently intimidate Germany’s leftists and finally to exterminate Jews. Trump’s bully boys are operating on the fringes or outside the law to violently intimidate America’s progressives and people of color who are exercising their First Amendment right to protest racial injustice.”
     Portland, Oregon, provides the model. Trump dispatched untrained, unidentified, camouflage-wearing, military-uniformed, no name-tagged bullyboys who are literally kidnapping protesters, stuffing them in unidentified vans, taking them to unknown locations without charges — and against the wishes of local law enforcement officers the mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon.

One falsehood after another, and topped with the Left’s favorite outrageous denunciation – “[Insert chosen Republican here] is Hitler” – from the superannuated war horse of the racialist Left, Jesse Jackson. He must miss the spotlight, or maybe it’s that his illegitimate kids are hurting for new sneakers.

Glenn Reynolds comments:

How explosive can [comparisons to Hitler] be in 2020, when in “In the aftermath of the Republican Party’s dramatic takeover of Congress on the strength of the conservative ‘Contract With America’ in 1994, Jackson lamented: ‘In South Africa, we call it apartheid. In Nazi Germany, we’d call it fascism. Here in the United States, we call it conservatism.’”
Then in 2000, “During the Florida mess he accused Bush of ‘Nazi tactics’ and suggested that Jeb Bush was deliberately targeting Holocaust victims, ‘once again.’”

That’s Jesse Jackson for you. But it’s also the behavior of the typical black racialist. Oh, and remember this one:

“These people are committing genocide with a smile...they’re worse than Hitler.” – The Dishonorable Major Owens (D, NY), quoted in Ann Coulter’s meticulously footnoted Slander.

And people wonder why it doesn’t trouble me to be called a racist. I simply smile, say “Consider the source,” and walk away.

That’s all for today, I think. Perhaps Margaret, Linda, or the Colonel will be here later with meatier fare. It’s time for me to rebuild my freshly painted office. Until tomorrow, be well.