There is a rolling and dreadful (in the original sense of “inspires dread” poetry to the words about the final judgement “when the secrets of every heart shall be laid bare.”
To someone who loves her privacy and who is also very sure she’s not the same twerp she was at say 12 or 14 (but a completely different kind of twerp) and who frankly has forgotten most of her misbegotten growing up years, it would be embarrassing to have the thoughts and deeds of that little twerp not only laid bare but pinned squarely on me.
On the other hand, to someone who loves truth and who in recent years has become very aware of how many of the things that are SUPPOSED to be the truth — news, scientific studies, etc — are in fact packaged narrative manipulated by a small set of people for the purpose of giving themselves power (and quite indifferent to the fact their plans would make it hell on Earth for most people) there is a part of me who hungers and thirsts for that truth to be revealed, for us to see, finally and bare for all how many people and organizations who plume themselves on how just, righteous and CARING they are have been screwing… well…. everyone for decades, intentionally, lying intentionally, trying to destroy what is still the last best place on Earth, intentionally.
There is a cleansing power to the truth. My fourth grade school book, unironically advised that you have a window that opens in the kitchen because sunshine “disinfects.” which is true, I suppose in a mostly humid climate where your greatest danger in the kitchen is mold and mildew.
It is true in the metaphorical sense, too. But more importantly, the lack of sunshine, the lack of truth, slowly corrodes. Because we’re humans. We’re attracted to having our own way, to the things we want to do. I was never particularly interested in power, except to the level of controlling my own surroundings and environment, though there I can be outright demanding. I was never interested in power because the saving grace in my character is its immense laziness. Power over others is a lot of work, and it will take time away from writing.
I’ve long since realized that while I’m not alone in that, neither am I the majority. Most people are more industrious than I, they want to control more. And absent public censure and watching them, they will try it by means fair or foul.
Oh, and the means they’re trying are foul indeed. See Seattle’s Revolt of the Elites, for what they are trying to do to shape opinion. They are planting misinformation in a ton of channels, so they can then point to it when the mess they made with handling the homeless is brought home to bear and maintain that their destructive policies are “good” and “helping.”
At that this very sophisticated lying is a new thing. And, yes, stupid. It can last for a while, but overall, people are going to believe their own eyes/living conditions over what the left tells them, no matter how many times. Even the Russian people, far more heavily propagandized, figured out “there is no truth in Pravda.” The greatest danger from this is that they propagandize JUST ENOUGH that people fleeing Seattle will think the problem was “they didn’t spend enough” and buy more and worse homelessness for their new towns.
Note, btw, this is being done by supposed charitable foundations. Because they don’t actually care that their “solution” is making it worse for everyone, particularly, possibly, the supposed targets of their benevolence. No. They care that it’s done their way and according to their (mostly progressive and “let the good people do it) delusions. They’d rather reign over hell than serve those who need it in heaven, is what it amounts to. “Charity”seems to be other name for “command and control.” As, btw, is everything they touch. And if they went into this — once — which some of them might have with the intention of “doing the best thing to make it better,” it’s now devolved to “we’ll just virtue signal and pretend it’s the best.” Yeah.
But they used to get away with this with far less effort. I realized this when I read this post: The ideologue who wrote the textbook calling Trump and his supporters “racists”.
Advanced students are being taught this insanity as the truth. They will be expected to “answer properly” in order to make it to colleges.
If you think this is recent, I have news for you. It has been going on at least since the early 80s because my history book when I was an exchange student contained whoppers at least that large (if more skillfully disguised and about the more distant past.)
It’s just that in the past if a parent noticed it, what was he going to do? Tell everyone that the school books were left wing biased? And then what?
You couldn’t do that in public. First of all, you thought you were alone, because the control of the media gave the left de-facto control of what “everybody knew” so you’d be outing yourself as a right wing loon and the punishment has always been swift on that. The other part, of course, was that even if you complained, as a parent who read the school books you were a tiny minority, compared to the parents who never read them AND those who had no kids. So everyone would think you were crazy and “denying history.”
Now it can be posted and talked about in public, and no matter what the disinformation campaign, we know we’re not alone and the truth WILL out.
This of course gives the impression that society is on the verge of fracturing and that the left has gone insane. They have, of course, but it’s not recent. As for fracturing…
I’ve known marriages where one side never dared criticize the other. There were several reasons for this, but for whatever reason, one side never said anything the other side did was wrong. The end result was that the person who was never called to reality spun further and further from reality and became more and more addicted to “my way.”
Years ago, a critique group fell apart on this.
Even the best people in the best marriages periodically get way too far up their own backsides, because we’re human and things happen. At that time it’s important — perhaps the most important — function of those close to us to say “Uh… that is not so.” Or “Why on Earth did you do that?”
Years ago, I told a friend that I voted Republican, not because they were that much better than the Democrats, but because the press hated them and would keep an eye on them, while the left got a complete pass, which meant they could get crazier and crazier.
I find it bizarre they’re furious at the leaks of Hillary’s malfeasance because it “gave Trump the victory” which is somehow “cheating.”
I don’t think they’re right about giving Trump the victory. I think enough of us just wanted the Clintons to eff off, and when they got there eff off from there, and when they got there–
BUT EVEN IF THEY WERE, this amounts to “we’re furious because we couldn’t hide our candidate’s iffy and outright criminal behavior, and so she didn’t win.” Come again? Why do you want someone who is AT BEST a careless loon and at WORST (and more likely) a (indicted) criminal in power over anything? How is it “cheating” to tell the truth?
It is cheating, in their minds, because it never happened before. The electorate should always, ever, think any corruption is on the right. They should be fed outright laws about the left so they think they’re Simon Pure and give them more power. Why? Well, because “they’re the good guys” who want “the best for everybody.”
Only they don’t. The stories are too numerous to share, but the corruption runs deep in the Democrats. Arguably deeper than among Republicans.
The difference? The left has no checks. No one calls them on their sh*t. If the governor of Virginia were a republican photographed in black face/KKK robes? He’d be out of office. He wouldn’t be able to get a job as a dog catcher. But he’s a Democrat, so most people have never even heard of it.
However, some have. Which is a beginning.
The window is cracked. The sun is starting to shine in. What it illuminates ain’t pretty, but being seen is the first step to dealing with it.
So are we close to a national divorce? I don’t think it’s possible. Not for a couple of generations of selective separation, at least. Though I’ll note most of the marriages I know where one side cannot be wrong, ever, end in divorce, if they don’t end in death first. Some hold on, but… I’m not sure they’re good for both parts.
Perhaps this correction, this ability to see things, comes too late for a course check. Perhaps not. The beauty of the world is that it’s born again, every generation. I know younger conservatives don’t know and can’t comprehend that sense of “I must be wrong, because everyone else thinks this other thing” that the lot of us had growing up.
Perhaps it’s a matter of time. Perhaps sunlight truly will disinfect the national kitchen and the sausage made there will be cleaner.
Until then, remember the words of power “I see you.”
The deeds done in dark? Shout them from the rooftops. Do not give the left their presumption of good, or even of good intentions.
Be not afraid. In the end we win, they lose. Because we fight under the banner of truth, a close cousin of reality. And reality is that which doesn’t go away no matter how much you ignore it.
According To Hoyt 
I think I began to see the cracks in the great media edifice when I was in college – and got involved with a local effort to sponsor and resettle Vietnamese refugees, who escaped by the skin of their teeth in 1975.
Most of the Vietnamese people that I met through this – were decent, middle-class, hard-working people, deeply devoted to their families, and proud of their culture. And just about all the people that I met working to help those Vietnamese in my home town were … middle and working class, very far from liberal. Small-town people, in blue-collar jobs, many veterans, a few who had been refugees themselves, from Poland or Hungary years before. Not a college student among them, save for me.
And I had been told for years that the Vietnamese really wanted Communism, and that people like Jane Fonda and other anti-war protesters only wanted what was best for the ordinary Vietnamese, and that we should just leave them all alone.
Screw that, and the horse it rode in on.
After hearing of how some of our sponsorees escaped, some of them literally with only the clothes on their backs – I never wanted to see anyone I cared for become a refugee, to leave everything behind — including family members, to go to a foreign country and put all your trust in some strangers’ good will and charity.
(And one of the reasons I despise Ilhan Omar, who doesn’t even have the decency to be grateful for the refuge,)
Over the years I’ve been involved in a number of local charitable efforts supported by a host of regular middle class folks. Generally highly successful.
Until the efforts got serious attention from the media. At that point the “right” people invariably step in because of course they have the administrative skills to run things properly. And in very short order something that was actually helping people gets turned into nothing more than a love fest for those same “right” people to tell each other how totally wonderful they are while actual good works go begging.
My Uncle used to do carpentry work for “The General” who got all his family onto something to escape Saigon. Some were singleton, some were pairs, groups etc, but he got them all out.
He didn’t get out then.
He hid, and for the most part, walked, while avoiding capture, from Saigon to Thailand.
Once he got here he then spent years finding all his family.
Once that was done he had a few businesses and a restaurant in a bit over a years time.
Later I did work for an old man who had a son being kept as hostage by the Viet Gov’t until he managed to bribe the right people enough money (ever notice how the commies lust love them some American Dollars?) to get his son sent here. He did drywall work and had an old near dead Ford truck.
A week ofter seeing his son for the first time, both had brand new Fords and were buying high dollar bicycle stuff from me. Son also had his own work crew, and went through Tulane’s (maybe it was Loyola’s) Intensive English class, speaking fluently N’awlins English in weeks.
Then I had a customer who got here and saved all his money by living 3 to a room in a boarding house and wearing his work uniforms only (provided free by Firestone) to bribe out his wife. He was also a survivor of the Reeducation Camps Kerry assures us were small potatoes and no bad thing. For some reason this man was NOT a Kerry fan nor a Fonda fan.
I knew another old Vietnamese guy, but he refused to talk about the place.
“I here now. All that matter”
Clearly more of that white privilege at work.
Much like my former co-worker who’s parents escaped Pol Pot when he was a babe. Or the Cuban I knew who escaped in a boat his dad clandestinely fixed
(And one of the reasons I despise Ilhan Omar, who doesn’t even have the decency to be grateful for the refuge,)
We had someone similar here, who got called out by good ol’ Imam Tawhidi. She supposedly ‘fled the country’ to England, but still occasionally pops up in the news.
…I voted Republican, not because they were that much better than the Democrats, but because the press hated them and would keep an eye on them
I used to think this, and yea it’s probably still mostly true, but I’ve been feeling lately that the Media is even screwing this up. They are so clouded by TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) that they pounce on and screech about every tiny little thing. Trump could probably put out a couple of his signature disgruntled tweets, maybe make up a name to call someone (Yea… that’s always popular), and the media would be so distracted, they’re likely to miss anything.
True, but he is really exposing the press for what they are.
Give him that. He has always had a dislike of the press, and tends to play them , though the campaign leveled that up quite a lot
At the rate they’re going, they’re exposing themselves.
Perhaps someone could make a spoof song about it using “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival”. (sadly, not me. I only WISH I had talent).
Ray Stevens. When he’s mediocre, he’s pretty cheesy, but when he’s GOOD, oh boy!
THE STREAK is a spot on sewering on one of the silliest fads of my youth. And SITTIN’ UP WITH THE DEAD is hysterical.
Skewering? Or did you mean to take it… lower?
*starts passing out cheese head hats and number one hands*
Careful or things might start looking like Lambeau.
Thank you for that indelible mental image. I will now have to buy a truckload of brain bleach.
FWIW, I pointed $HOUSEMATE at this subthread and got the reply, “Bad ox.”
so now we know why the old press stereotypes wore trench coats . . .
“We see you says the King”
Which can be good or bad.
Good because the King acknowledges you being there and is willing to let you speak.
Bad because there are times when the King is “bad” and you don’t want him to be aware of you.
Oh, I remember the “blessing of the Tzar” in “Fiddler On The Roof”.
IE “May the Lord keep the Tzar … far away from us”. 😈
I’ll (loosely) quote the second Chinese curse: “May you come to the attention of a powerful person.”
Got too close to that a couple of times, but it’s possible to survive with your self respect intact.
Been there.
I’m a bit more, circumspect, with my commentary nowadays.
I’ve also seen the downside of being favored by TPTB, particularly when one has to deal with problems created by TPDB. I managed to avoid retribution. One case could have been nastier.
As I may have posted elsewhere, many of these people should be met with unrelenting derision and mocking. Like when Jon Stewart wants to take the clown nose off so we can take him ‘seriously’, jam it right back on.
The illustrious AOC, the gift that keeps on giving for her Republican opponents, waxed poetic the other day over how evil Trump was for wanting to reform the VA system. Her words something to the effect of it ain’t broke so why fix it.
The April 24th episode of Seals on CBS focused on the experience two injured soldiers had trying to navigate the VA system. It did not attribute to malice what was obviously simply what you have to expect from a government run bureaucracy. Everyone was just “following the rules and regulations” don’t you know. It’s how things are, can’t be helped.
To give the ending away, one of the vets, having been denied the care he was convinced he needed to recover, told his friend he would wait in the truck while he got a prescription filled, remarking as he left YODO.
When his buddy reached the vehicle he found his friend dead from a self inflicted gunshot.
Was it fiction, well of course, but based on far too many real cases stemming from any government program focused more on costs and efficiency than on service to their supposed customers.
And it’s exactly what AOC and all her fellow travelers want for we common people, while she and the rest of our betters get premium care because of course they are so much more deserving.
I used to laugh at AOCs antics, but I’ve stopped now. My only consolation is that she is so clueless and incompetent that she will crash and burn all on her own self without help from us.
But, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help her crash & burn if we can.
She’s emblematically a cancerous ignorance on the body politic of our Republic.
most of the leftoids don’t think there is anything wrong with the VA. They will act like the bad doesn’t happen, but really they see the bad as a feature, not a bug.
and those that don’t get it, don’t realize that all ‘government run health care’ in the US will be just like it.L.A. county has already copied it.
My now dead aunt wanted single payer because she hated going to the state run clinics. My uncle (her husband and my mom’s brother), also now passed, wanted it as well, but refused to use the VA.
They both got more and better care without insurance than they would have gotten under Canuckstani style care system.
“most of the leftoids don’t think there is anything wrong with the VA. ”
I think it’s more like “can’t admit there is anything wrong” since they want to push government-bureaucrats-playing-god on the entire nation.
some
too many are as Mike describes below
Well, most leftoids assume they will be in the nomenklatura or better and thus get the special government healthcare.
When they find out they were just useful idiots and will be peasants like the rest of us, but worse distrusted peasants because they are known to be willing to be a revolutionary vanguard, it will be too late.
The worst is at least half the bastards will then collect our samizdat and turn it over to the authorities to buy favor. They already are via social media-brigading and reporting.
there is a reason history is glossed over in leftoid run systems
Sure. Fewer crippled or injured or sick GIs to treat means they can divert funds to their own use. Just like they’ve been treating the military as their very own social experiment instead of a tool for protection of the nation. Granted, there have been a couple of goods come out of that, but not as many as the failures.
Dad would prefer to live up here instead of Memphis, in large part due to the VA up here being so much better.
When they traveled after retiring, they wintered where the VA had an at least decent clinic nearby.
“Was it fiction, well of course, but based on far too many real cases stemming from any government program focused more on costs and efficiency than on service to their supposed customers.”
Fiction only because somebody got hold of a case-study and filed the numbers off. I have some experience of the VA from the provider side. My advice to vets is to get thee to a county or private hospital ASAP. Crawl if necessary.
Much of the problems with the VA are bureaucracy based, but it is also swimming with corruption. When you see something that is so messed up you question how the place can function, follow the money and you’ll find somebody stealing it.
Don’t forget, health care is not the business the VA is in. They are in the NUMBERS business. If they put the right numbers in, they get a raise/promotion/budget increase. They -will- let you die to make their numbers look better.
Canadians, please be aware that the horrifying and corrupt Veterans Administration hospitals everyone bitches about have a higher standard of care and better patient service than any Toronto hospital. Say what you want about how bad the VA is, they don’t have emergency patients waiting to be seen in the waiting rooms, the hallways, and in ambulances idling in the parking lot.
Toronto hospitals have tape outlines and numbers in the hallways for people lying on gurneys. The tape outline counts as a “room.”
From some of the stories I’ve read, there are people in the VA who also absolutely hate soldiers, so there will be cases of malice involved there.
Thanks for your perspective, I share so very much of it and love it when I see my thinking is solid. That makes you solid, which means there are more true Patriots than I think. Thank God our Father. I found your opinion by burning up about AOC’s comment regarding VA not needing fixing. It is broken and a disgrace.
AOC, doesn’t phase me, she a naive short timer, but she has planted a seed of narcissism that worries me. Question: Who the hell is going to fight for the younger generation?’ I’m a military mom and short of exploding with pride, I know my sons dedication is really rare and given by grace – I know the best way I can support him is to fight here at home. He and his brothers and sisters face a world that few in “the civilian world can really understand. These soldiers and their families are simply the best of this world, in my humble opinion. I don’t think I have to explain further.
Jump to Seal Team episode, my only method for desensitizing myself is to dive into this series. It’s so close to truth, I’m able to watch it. I was both surprised and deeply grateful that they covered suicide and VA shortfall along with NEVER LEAVING A MAN BEHIND. It’s real and I’m all in on fighting for change by staying in my Senator’s email weekly, calling Washington and every other method that I deem is viable, there are so many black holes that are a waste of time.
Our veterans deserve the very best. Folds of Honor is my primary charity, but I look to focus on the living too, by trying to shove ideas and the like at my Senators weekly, as stated.
Please write your congress man or woman, bang on the 2 tiered justice system as hard as you can for their sake.
Our future depends on us making sure that those that answer the call to service are cared for fully and completely. That they have opportunity at jobs that align to their expertise and need for brotherhood, discipline, that they are both honored and admired their remaining days, by our treatment of them.
Otherwise, again…”Who the hell will want to train and fight for this country” Fight for those that fight for us as hard as you can, they are not going to ask us to.
The Democratic mentality you described seem akin to the Catholic mentality that hides priestly rape to protect the good name of the church. As the founder said, “Every one that does evil hates the light.”
And now the Boy Scouts. SMH
Which I don’t understand. I can’t speak for other areas or before we started with our 6 year old in 1995 (Tiger to Eagle ’05). We stayed registered as adult volunteers through 2012.
Very specific. Every rank has age appropriate “What is appropriate. What is not. What to do.” Leadership has “If anyone comes to you, this is what you do. Does not matter if youth or another adult.” Which is: 1) Call the police. You do not determine credibility. Call the police. Period. 2) Contact the Council office. Give them the contact from item #1. Depending on whether incident occurred because of scouts involvement in Scouts, will depend on how much further it goes, within scouting organization. This is all beyond how to protect youth (and yourself honestly) from this from happening, at least within the bounds of Scouting. Plus this is Annual training that is required of all adult volunteers, no matter the level of participation.
There have been 2 instances in the local council, in that time frame. Both were turned in by Scouts. The scouts involved were only approached. One was a leader, the other was a foster parent of a scout. Approach was done to scouts outside of scouting. Protocol was followed both times. Found out both through involvement with council announcement to scouting leaders AND local authorities.
Was it announced and released nationally? Don’t remember. It was on the news. Just don’t remember if it was on the national news.
What I found interesting is when you go through the instances and co-defendants of the lawsuits is the large percentage of incidents are from the chartering agency who insisted on “assigning, vetting, and background check” their troop and pack leadership (not naming names.) Other charters are suppose to vet the leaders who volunteer, but background checks go through national; not that they can be caught unless they have already been reported or charged.
But, no matter what, national scouting can point this out, till the second coming, and they will be accused of “cover up.” Of coarse they maintained a list. How else could they double vet against a background check?
I don’t know enough about this to make a judgment call. In the 50’s, Dad was part of the adult leadership in Eldest Brother’s troop, Mid Brother was a cub, and I was too young.
When we moved, family activity in scouting dropped a lot. EB finished some merit badges (no idea how far he got), Mid brother left or never rejoined a new pack, and I lasted a year or two. (Being the only identifiable Odd in a den was not fun.) Dad was up to his eyeballs in work, both at Job and in getting the house serviceable. It wasn’t an area good for Boy scouting, though the girls fared better, at least through elementary school.
Would media/legal teams grossly overstate a situation to destroy a group? Yep.
And. Based on our area anyway. Not particularly conservative. Oh, the hard core Baptist (split sometime ago) or LDS charters (gone effective 2020) might have been, but not the remaining charter types. Not conservative politically anyway, even the church types mentioned. Not in our area.
Take the most recent “changes”.
Never has any application for youth or adult asked your, uh, “personal preference” status. Adult volunteer application does (did) ask for emergency contact. Hey, could be financial roommate … Heck, it was inappropriate to discuss personal “traditional” experiences. Someone having an affair and discussing it was just as out of line. There are units locally where husband and wife didn’t share a tent when in Scouting environment when both are registered leaders (not one of the prior mentioned chartered type units either.) Trust me, that was a HUGE discussion where the result was “we’ll agree to disagree.” I personally know of units who, way before it was acceptable, that had single gender parents registered as adult volunteers. Nobody cared at the local level.
A lot of units, at least troop level, if not cub level, partnered* with Girl Scout units, all the time at the local level. Fastest growing Scouting unit type was the “new” (1998) Venturing program – Girl Scout Troops co-registering as girl only Venturing Crew. Some partnered with boy only scouting units to create three units between them. Might have been some Campfire groups too. Reason. Immediate access to Phillmont, Northern Reaches, and Florida Seabase, high adventure, to name a few.
* Heck this was happening 50 years ago, when I was 12. As far as I’m concerned the only problem with the most recent change is they were a 109 years too late. Personally 50 years too late.
Honestly, 7,000 over seventy years, when stacked up against how many volunteers they have–better than average.
Which says less good about Scouting and more bad about everyone else.
Add the fact that Scouting pulls from “everybody else”. That says something too. Scouts gets the publicity and the beating, and the other major organizations gets a skate; organizations known to hide their problems … In the past Scouting has relied on charter organization to properly vet the leaders in the chartered scout unit that – They. Own. Not anymore. Not, at least in the last 25 or 30 years.
Take foster care parent locally who was “outed” because of scouts. Foster parent got foster son involved in scout troop to get access to other boys; foster parent was NOT a leader, thus not vetted through scouts. Scouts called scouting leader to report; and it went from there. You’d think foster parent would have been “safe” … But, *one line in the news, then rest spent beating up on Scouting because this guy tried to get access to scouts …
FWIW, news didn’t id the scouts (as a rule they wouldn’t) it could have been the foster son, now a scout, who turned in the foster parent. I do know the first rank required, requires a scoutmaster conference that covers this topic. I can’t vouch for other units, but our unit the scoutmaster put his name and phone number in the scouts book with statement, “you can call at anytime if you ever need help because of this. You can also call (list of other adults), ask them for the phone #’s.”
* Yes. I do pick up on one line, discrepancies, easily.
Ask Peter Grant about a textbook’s description of post-colonial Africa. Make sure that all small children and delicate maiden aunts are outside of ear-shot, though. When even I know the book is blowing smoke, just based on what I remember from the time… It’s pretty dang bad.
We see them . . . even when we wish we couldn’t.
You’d better bet that Tommy sees.
c4c
They need to remember if we can see them we can call in fire for effect (metaphorical and otherwise).
All my aware life I have read/listened to Teh Narrative…and found it to be dung. I have asked what exactly is the difference between the 19th Century buttinski Christians and the 20th Century buttinski Liberals, and heard crickets chirping.
(The major difference is that much that the buttinski Christians did, worked. Not all of it. Not even the majority. But what the buttinski Liberals touch turns into despair.)
I have asked, “If Nike paying foreign workers $1 a day to make shoes is so awful, what are the alternatives, such that people VOLUNTEERED for those jobs?”. And the answer, if you dig enough, is working in rice paddies, up to their knees in water and human excrement, for not enough rice and a place on a dirt floor to sleep.
All my aware life, I have watched Liberal/Progressive policies fail, and Conservative policies (whenever actually tried) work.
I enjoy watching the Left lose it. They worked hard for it, they earned it, and they deserve to get it sans lubrication…unless somebody has some jalapeño lube….
Is this poison really new, or just new to our civilization? Is it the return of an age-old evil that we have forgotten how to deal with?
What poison? Getting an exemption from morality?
Of course it’s not. It’s the exemption of the nobleman. You can sing the next few decades to the tune of ca ira. Madame Guillotine is always hungry. Let’s hope this time it’s metaphorical.
From your lips to God’s ears.
The Oregon legislature seems bound and determined to stick a finger in ordinary people’s eyes. Now they want to undo a criminal sentencing initiative (written into the state constitution) to protect the poor, dear juvenile inmates, particularly including a mass murderer. So far the only barrier is the survival instinct of some rural Democrat politicians. (I think I’m referring to political survival, but this one is bad…)
.
The history of Leftists realizing in time that they are about to induce trouble for themselves would be a short book.
“The history of Leftists realizing in time that they are about to induce trouble for themselves would be a short book.”
They often don’t glom onto that fact even as the firing squad (of their own guys) pulls the trigger. It must be some sort of mistake! They’re supposed to be shooting the reactionaries! If only Stalin knew!
“But I supported the Revolution” have been and will be the last words of many a leftist.
If they get their revolution here, hearing such from my cell will be a major solace in the decade before I am released (and I will be because in the end a Stalin knows I am less a threat than a Trotskist holdover)
Well, the choice of it being metaphorical or real isn’t really up to us. It is up to the left and can only be avoided by them displaying some sense.
In the end they will wish it was up to us, because people like us would have stepped in long ago. Nor will we be the ones to start the guillotining. We will be the ones who have the authority to step in after sufficient bloodletting (what is sufficient will again be determined by the left…stepping before the mob feels they have paid the bill will only get us guillotined as well) and restore order.
Assuming a Napoleon does not arrive first (if you want my real worry of Trump it is he exposed how primed the left has made their enemies for a Napoleon to lead him…that is a more apt comparison than their favorites IMHO).
I asked a question of another blog hostess today: What age were you when you first realized Democrats routinely both lie AND accuse opponents of doing what they are doing? Two other commenters have so far answered. So people are beginning to see- but they have to have their eyes open to do so.
As far as textbooks and idiocies- science texts are far from immune. Several years ago I pointed out to my kid’s science teacher a really bad error in a science textbook. Said a vertical axis windmill was inherently more efficient than a horizontal windmill because the blades weren’t going up and down…. Uhhh… Rotational energy and inertia don’t work like that. And in a vertical axis wind turbine for half the spin the blade is going INTO the wind. But- it was an approved textbook, approved, apparently, by educators and not engineers or scientists.
A large part of our parenting has been to teach our children to think. Whereas school seems to teach them how to parrot.
Yup. Factual errors in textbooks are not uncommon – especially in the lower grades.
One of the things on my “To do once I retire, if I resist the temptation to make money as a consultant” list is writing a book on Post-World-War-2 American History.
I keep threatening to write a World History textbook. And then remembering the research costs involved…
What research? Just get the info from think progress and kos and you’re done.
well if you want one that’s accepted, maybe . . . but if you want one with a passing semblance of reality, you gotta use CNN and MSNBC .
Ouch,
that hurt to type
Since when has that been a requirement. The more absurd the better. Don’t you love big brother?
Not just textbooks: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromosome#History_of_discovery
It took from 1923 to 1956 to get the number of chromosomes in human cells correct.
Michael Crichton noted this as a rule of thumb in The Andromeda Strain “All scientists are blind”.
Scientists as a whole have a serious problem with group think. Peer review ultimately means, “Fit in and don’t rock the boat too hard, lest those who are supposed to review you stop liking you.” There are a number of areas where science has slowly inched up on the correct values for things because no one was willing to publish anything too far from the accepted numbers no matter what the data said.
And no, this isn’t in politically charged areas like climate science. This is in things like the charge on an electron or the number of genes in the human genome, things where no one’s funding depends on the exact value.
One other scientific oopsie: the revolution rate of Mercury. Made a bit of SF quite obsolete when that got unscrewed.
I’m in the process of writing a book for noobs, called Leftism for Beginners. The focus is on explaining where the hell all these nutty ideas came from, and how connected the philosophers were to the Hard Left. So far, I’ve finished Gramsci, and am about 1/2 way through Marcuse.
Paulo Freire is on the list for a later chapter. I’m putting them up on Bastion of Liberty as I write them.
This search brings up the first two chapters (and a few other things):
https://bastionofliberty.blogspot.com/search?q=gramsci
For relief you might dip into C. Northcote Parkinson’s LEFT LUGGAGE.
Will this book be print only, or available on ebook? Because I’d like a copy ^_^
Read Dr. Feynnman’s take on his time as a textbook reviewer for the state of California back in the 60’s sometime.
It appears things have not changed for the better.
I thought of mentioning that. Second the recommendation.
The “energy makes it go!” textbook he mentioned – I was incarcerated in the California school system at the time, and I had that textbook.
Ah, yes! The inevitable ‘Approval Committee’. My late Father was on one. ONCE. They were to sign off on the plans for a new dorm for engineering students. To facilitate the studies of said students, each apartment was to have (in addition to more mundane amenities) access to direct current, oxygen, and illuminating gas.
Father declined to sign off on plans for a crater. He was never invited to sit on another such committee.
Paraphrasing the crux of his experience:
“Can I read Volume 2 so that I can decide if it’s any good?”
“Oh, it’s not going to be published for another few months?”
“Then how do you expect me to approve it or not?”
“No one else on your committee had a problem giving it the thumbs up without seeing it.”
18. I came to the US and heard Jimmy Carter give word per word a speech I’d heard a socialist give in Portugal the week before. Other than Soviet collusion/puppeting, what explanation makes sense?
Idiot speechwriters. Took Carter awhile to finally twig to what was going on, but he did eventually.
A retired highway engineer held a very low opinion on Carter’s abilities, especially when Carter unilaterally declared interstate bridges to be good for 100K pound trucks. IIRC, before that, they were designed for 80K, except in Oregon, where the early interstate bridges were close to 60K.
Mea Culpa: I voted for the guy twice, then wised up.
I was born about six weeks before Reagan was elected, so I can’t speak to how it was with Carter as President. I will say only that he was a nuke, and the phrase “stop nuking it” exists for a reason.
Yeah, he was one of us and by what little accounts I got, fair dinktum at it. If he had stuck to it, or peanut farming, he’d be unknown by most but quite possibly well respected by those who knew him as an honest and competent man.
I think there is a huge life lesson there.
Maybe I also should have stuck to peanut farming.
Never knew you did it 🙂
Any you have a reputation with people who know you for being a moral and competent person.
Metaphorically.
To avoid confusion, by “one of us”, I mean Navy Nuclear power and submariner, not Hun or anything political.
The Peter Principle – a person rises to their level of incompetence. Carter certainly did that.
I have a thought about that;
Against The Man Who Pardoned Nixon, the Democrats KNEW they could elect a talking dog. While it isn’t part of Teh Official History, I expect there was a knock-down drag-out fight among the Party factions as to who got the nomination, and if no single faction or coalition could settle the matter, Carter would have been a compromise. Nobody much wanted him, but nobody loathed him enough to support an ‘enemy’.
If that were the case, Carter would be perceived by his own Party as a placeholder, Somebody to warm the chair until the REAL Democrat President could be nominated in four years. He would arrive in Washington with no allies IN HIS OWN PARTY. Everything he tried to do would cost too much in political capitol, even though his Party held Congress.
I don’t insist on it, but it would explain much.
I didn’t like the man, and nothing he’s done since leaving office has improved my opinion of him, but he certainly caught very few breaks. Think of two incidents that people still talk about; the return of The Canal to Panama and the Rabbit.
People carry on as if the return of the Panama Canal to Panama was some great diplomatic blunder. The cold facts are that A) our lease was up and B) the Canal had not been anywhere near as strategic an possession since the advent of Aircraft Carriers, which are too big to pass through it. Retaining the Canal would have meant either a fight or a bargain, and either one would have cost more than the Canal was worth. Or at least, that’s a completely defensible argument. One the public didn’t hear. As for the Rabbit; an animal displaying odd, aggressive behavior is very likely rabid. A farmer is not going to want to be bitten, or to allow the animal to bite valuable livestock. Now, Wikipedia informs me (or informed me some years ago, when I looked) that rabbits do not get rabies. But I’m willing to be that no farmer is going to take the chance that The Received Wisdom is wrong on that.
Still one of our more awful Presidents.
There was a comment a long time ago on the blog DiploMad (which is run by a long-retired foreign service guy, who was in many interesting places during his career). I don’t remember what the initial post was about, but the discussion eventually wandered into a reminiscence from one or more other former FS people, about how suddenly after Carter’s election – the push was in for the Shah being The Worst Baddie of All Time.
Which was what the commenter thought was curious, because it seemed to come out of nowhere. The Shah, and Iran were intensely pro-American, and so OK, his police force were perhaps the teensyist brutal, and perhaps our own Human Rights professionals wouldn’t precisely approve of their methods … but really – the Middle East?
What the commenter and others in the thread speculated upon — was the possibility that Carter deliberately destabilized Iran, at the bidding of Saudi Arabia, in service for their own ends. All the sh*t which has come from Iran since then, could be laid at the door of Jimmy Carter betraying the USA’s strongest ally in the Middle East, at the behest of the Saudis.
Food for thought, eh?
I’m sure of it. Not to mention Africa, including the portions that belonged to Portugal.
History’s greatest monster? His hands are dripping.
To quote the Simpsons:
“Jimmy Carter? He’s history’s greatest monster!”
Honestly, he isn’t even the most monstrous US president (Woodrow Wilson gets that honor in my opinion). He was, however, incapable of recognizing and rejecting a monster when one walked up to him.
I remember the Carter malaise from when i was a kid and then things getting worse in the early 80s (we were in ohio) and it taking me a very long time to learn that Reagan was fixing things not making them worse. For a lot of my childhood i thought the malaise was normal because Ohio took so long to get out of it.
After Reagan got elected, I thought WE WERE DOOOOOOOMED!!!1!!!eleventy(tm). After four years (and California trying to take Evil Firearms away), I’d switched to the Stupid Party, and agreed that not only was I not doomed, but a lot better off.
Of course, living in the SF Bay area, being an R voter meant you had damn little say in local politics. It’s a bit better up here in the flyover portion of Oregon.
I am amazed there was anyone left to elect Clinton given how many times Reagan killed us all.
Kind of like Trump has.
Truth!
I had a lot of people ask if I was a nuke…. but the Nukes thought I was too much not-fun to be a nuke (anytime it came to theira ttenetion, I was I spoiling fun!). I’ll take it!
This is why the centralization of education, from the ‘70’s onward, was always a bad idea. When local school boards made mistakes they only screwed up local schools, and local parents at least had some say in what unmitigated hogwash their children were taught.
Heck, my high school science text book had “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” as the pretty picture example/evidence for macro evolution! It actually said that the human’s voice box was developed gills!
Double golden opportunity jackup!
Husband just asked “what’s up?” because I’m typing furiously. (Only way I type, but after a dozen years he still….)
Me: “When text books are wrong.”
Him: “All the time?”
Is that like “Someone is wrong on the Internet” (no links to the comic after they openly supported depersoning).
yeah. unfortunate, but i knew early on whose side he was on.
I gave him a pass for a while, but he lost me for good with the H comic. The only comic I read with a political bent is Chris Muir’s Day by Day. Freefall is almost apolitical, and Sluggy Freelance is just Odd.
Yeah, but it is a classic example of I am willing to engage quality material even if the creator disagrees with me.
Then he pretty brutally fired anyone who disagrees with him. There was no other way to interpret the closing the door comic about Mozilla’s actions.
And that’s fine. He creates a stick figure webcomic. My life can survive without it.
There’s a meme here somewhere….
It sounds like I learned to type on a typewriter.
Guess why. 😉
Proponents of Darwin’s theory were/are determined to enshrine it as fact including, but not limited to, the gluing of moths onto tree trunks to support its assertions, as well as the debunked illustration you reference. Even Stephen Jay Gould was aware of the problems with evolution and remained silent about them, preferring to promote it as “settled science.”
Yeah, I use to have no issue with macro-evolution, even with so little evidence.
It’s the way that the folks who know it more intimately, who are experts in the matter, kept doing shady stuff to support it.
Micro evolution is well supported, it’s testable, it’s good science with a strong predictive value.
I don’t have a problem with macro-evolution, but I wish folks would treat it more like science than a religion….
c4c
Something I learned very early in my flight test career is to trust no-one and nothing. Check it. Double-check it. Assume something will go wrong. At the worst moment, and in the worst way. Controlled paranoia is a necessity.
On the other hand, I’m still working.
knew of a test pilot who slipped in that, and it cost him his life.
Hell, it’s dangerous enough when you do everything RIGHT. Sometimes the Valkyries want a man…and will put in overtime to get him.
It’s something we don’t talk about much.
just because it’s there, doesn’t mean it’s talked about
Sounds like me trying (multiple times) to get the calculation right for taxes on Social Security income. I seem to have a hard time reading numbers now, and the $%^%^ instruction writers don’t put any explanation of what Row NN is supposed to represent. At least one of my errors was confusing row 11 with row 1.
Murphy was an optimist.
And. TurboTax or equivalent for the win. Doesn’t mean you don’t go through their numbers to check it, but at least it is on paper. Also doesn’t mean they cover everything to make it easy. I know we ended up paying taxes that we shouldn’t have because the 529 moneys pulled for kids college expenses and tuition weren’t done right (by us) at lest the first year. Subsequent years, before the money was gone (didn’t take long, the 529 Oregon crash was not good for us), we wised up and directly deposited the money in HIS account from the 529 instead of ours then transferring it; the latter changed how the paperwork showed up at the IRS, so at minimum all we got was “don’t owe any taxes or penalties but you did this wrong” letter.
Our current challenge. Two SS with no taxes withheld, first year. Normally we have been having taxes withheld as money was pulled from tax deferred savings. But that is going to be a minimal to nothing monthly draw for another 4 years. We might be figuring how to file quarterly.
I switched the working computers to Linux, and the last time I searched, everything was Windows or Mac only. Quicken used to be runnable on Linux with Wine, but Quicken, Inc. “fixed” that several years ago. I don’t know if TT ever had a Linux solution. No other Linux tax packages show up more current than 2012.)
No, I’m not bringing up the sole Win 7 machine (if it works) or getting a Win 10 just for that.
Curiously, the forms work well, and the basic instructions are fine. It’s the damnable worksheets. I’d love to see a worked example, or better yet, some text explaining what Line 8 minus Line 7 is supposed to represent. Oh well, this is the first year I screwed up badly, and it wasn’t that bad–just got less money than I thought.
Next year I’ll have to spend a day or two setting a spreadsheet to handle these. Now that Obamacare is not a factor (Medicare FTW), it should only be a couple of worksheets.
Quarterly payments are pretty easy. You can either get form 1040es from download (what I do), and then fill out in Acrobat (or similar program). Oregon made the pdf forms saveable a few years ago.
Once you’ve sent quarterly estimated payments, the IRS will send paper forms, but you don’t have to use them.
“working computers to Linux”
I do that and I have to “work” to maintain them. No thank you.
Pretty conservative on what is allowed on the computers. Have hubby and kid trained well. Kid built his own desktop gaming system, so he is really conservative. Plus some college coarse material required installs really screwed him up and he had to fully restore his (then) system (with help from college IT. No, he was NOT happy.)
None of our computers are linked, nor HD shared; we use the same internet gateway (non standard password, conservative settings, and I, big meanie that I am, shut off the public “shared” internet gateway access) and wireless printer. We sneaker net share, if needed … rarely needed.
My job at HP/Agilent had me using Unix a lot, so when I got a consulting gig, the desktop computer I bought for work-at-home turned into a Linux box right away. Later, it became a Win XP box, but it’s now the shop Linux machine, handling documentation and the mp3 music collection. (I ripped all the CDs in the house; road trips, I get to select my music.)
When Win 10 came out, I checked it out, and thought nope. Followed askwoody dot com and became a “group B” Win 7 user. Security updates only, until MS made that hard to do. I already had an old machine running Linux, and figured out what I needed to do to switch. Software updates handled by the main distribution can use the slackpkg tool. I have to do separate updates for Pale Moon (forked from Firefox; it’s a bit cranky with video, but I have a current copy of FF for the few I watch).
Linux has a low enough penetration in the marketplace that the virus/malware perps don’t try very hard. Our neighbor left his WiFi open to the world until somebody watched a movie or five on his satellite internet. Not good when you run out. I’m wired ethernet unless the Kindle wants to be fed. My wife doesn’t want to go on line, and we’ve left the Win 7 laptop off for a year now.
Quicken and Turbotax were the stalling points to have a Windows-less machine setup, but kmymoney does the book keeping role well enough, and for a while, our taxes were bog-simple.
Now our taxes are a bit more complicated as we have just enough money from different sources to require paying attention to the worksheet all the way through. (Used to see the first income level trigger and got the not enough answer, but we’re just above some of the thresholds now.)
Ah, disregard my previous comment then. Should’ve read further down.
I’ve been running Linux since 2001 (currently MX-18) and I keep a Windows 7 Virtual Machine on my PC just for the tax program. If you have a computer that came with Windows 7 that you are no longer using Windows on (in my case a lappy with a fried motherboard) you can download the same version Windows ISO, install it in VirtualBox and register it with that key.
Hmm, have to give it some thought. Thanks!
…Uhm, I’m not sure of the name, but KMyMoney, IIRC, is accounting software. Maybe it can help with taxes.
Don’t forget to document!
Thanks, Mrs. Hoyt. It’s a discouraging place to be sometimes, but i find your writing keeps me inspired to keep working, despite the reality of how much of our country we’ve lost.
Never give up! Never surrender!
Keep before your eyes at all times that the current chaos is an IMPROVEMENT on the placid idiocy that came before.
Yes. Things are better, much better, than I had hoped for three years ago.
And some people are discovering that breaking the law just might have consequences: https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/04/25/howie-carr-finally-accountability-in-the-courtroom/
Schadenfreude: it’s what’s for dessert tonight.
I find it bizarre they’re furious at the leaks of Hillary’s malfeasance because it “gave Trump the victory” which is somehow “cheating.”
Oh, I understand that one.
Basically, it’s cheating because “everybody does it.”
The lack of evidence of both sides doing it equally is proof that the media has a pro-Republican bias.
HRC had a severe case of “Above the Law because she is the Wife of the Sainted Bill Clinton and also “because she is the Anointed Democratic Candidate for President”. The media had a serious case of “Her night soil smells like roses and lilacs”.
First she couldn’t be prosecuted because she was the candidate. Then because she wasn’t. . . .
I literally saw leftists saying that losing the election was punishment enough.
The fact that “Arkencide” is a word also comes into play.
Meme on the ‘net: Somebody holding a sign at a marathon: “Run like you’re scheduled to testify about Hillary.”
Typo on my first try:
The fact that “Arkencide” is a word also comes into play.
Meme on the ‘net: Somebody holding a sign at a marathon: “Run like you’re scheduled to testify about Hillary.”
Fox… you’re making my head hurt.
Me, too.
It helps if you’re already loopy from lack of sleep.
c4c
Watch your Nazi mouth, Nazi, or it’ll be watched for you.
As the providential and prophetic CBS show The Good Fight made abundantly clear in one of their most recent episodes: the Overton Window WILL be enforced. The poor, put-upon elites and SJWs are tired of backtalk and the disruption of the proper order of things from those of you who don’t know your place. From here on out, anyone who steps out of line will be dealt with properly and pre-emptively. You have been warned.
I trust you will react appropriately:
https://pjmedia.com/trending/dems-insist-criticism-is-violence-and-also-violence-is-good/
They want to normalize violence.
Somehow they think:
1. It will only be used against their enemies.
2. It will never be used against them (ask Moldly Locks how that worked for her).
3. That they can control it no matter how much of a fever pitch they create.
If their failure to learn sick to #1 and #2 I’ll be satisfied.
My fear is they will push to a level where they learn how wrong #3 is and then all bets are off. Especially because civil wars are great cover for settling scores. I’m sure more than one observer of all this has a list of scores and once that starts it isn’t a short trip to Hell.
A general inability to grok unintended consequences is a general defining characteristic of the Left.
Could’ve stopped at ‘inability to grok’, really.
“I can’t live in your lie any longer, no matter how beautiful it is. Because I know that beneath that beauty is the lie, and I can smell it festering from here.”
At some point, I will have to use that line.
I’m in the middle of the lie, every day. I walk on streets in SF-major streets in the Financial District, mind you-where human feces and needles are common. There are the trustees of modern chemistry and the homeless out there, and any sympathy I had for them was gone when one of the “locals” started to stalk women going up and down the street. Got arrested, and he was back before the next trash cycle could clean his crap out. You can’t even live in SF unless you’re making a middle six-figure income, let alone afford anything decent. Unless you’re able to work the various welfare systems like a violin. And, unless you’re a dudebro with a startup and plentiful supplies of cocaine and cash, being a white heterosexual male in this city sucks.
But, the lie is that this is a beautiful city, full of caring and kind people and it is how the world should be.
There is beauty here. But, unless you’re powerful, it’s fleeting.
I want…
I don’t know what I want, anymore.
I just know that I don’t want the lie, anymore.
Come to Texas or here to Atlanta. There is no reason, beyond military obligations, to stay there.
…and there is no military left anywhere around The City By The Bay – the Presidio is now Lucasfilm, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is all condos, and even outside the City and County of San Francisco around the bay, the many many military installations that used to be here as recently as the 1990s are all long gone, with only a scattering of reserve units left (CalNG spread about at various armories, the CANG 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Federal Airfield flying MC-130P and HH-60G, that field now officially operated by and for Google with NASA Ames as a mostly-not-flying-anything tenant).
The USCG still has a location up on Treasure Island, but that’s pretty much it.
What about Mare Island Shipyard?
decommissioned 1996.
Hmmm. Now I wonder where the SP submarine(s) homeport.
I have family here. And, Atlanta is getting to be about as bad. Texas…is nice for three months out of the year. Five if you don’t live on a flood plain.
As a 12 year old, went through months of “Extremism is no vice” clips. They left out enough to scare people, as the full quote was “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
Of course, the 1964 version of never _kins hated Goldwater. Many stalked out of the convention during Goldwater’s speech. And made sure one of the biggest crooks in the history of the Senate won a landslide.
Extremism defending the truth is also no vice, and moderation in the face of an onslaught of lies is just chickens___!
Sarah,
Great article, I enjoyed it very much.
However, I think you may have a typo in para 24. It reads:
“It is cheating, in their minds, because it never happened before. The electorate should always, ever, think any corruption is on the right. They should be fed outright laws about the left so they think they’re Simon Pure and give them more power. Why? Well, because ‘they’re the good guys’ who want ‘the best for everybody.’ ”
In the third line, I think the word “laws” was intended to be “lies”.
Thank you for your considerable efforts.
Keep up the good fight!
DJ
You are correct. I write these off the cuff, early morning, and don’t proofread, mostly because I don’t make any (okay, some donations, but not a ton) money from the blog.
Don’t sweat the typos; come for the ideas, stay for the conversation.
When Our Gracious Hostess is taking a day off, beware the renovations discussed. Oh yes, and be careful when you pet Fluffy’s scales. He’s ticklish in spots, and a laughing firebreathing dragon is a bit hazardous.
To do as the media (and virtually all Democrats) do, they must either believe that “the end justifies the means” (even if the putative end never arrives), or must worship power above all other things. There can be no more devastating moral case against them.
Thanks for another great post Sarah. I’ve been thinking about this issue of exerting control over others – power, command and control, etc. Sometimes it stems from the desire to have your own way. For others it seems to exist by itself – power itself is what’s desired. In any case, I’ve started to think that this is the truest definition of the nature of evil – this desire to control others.
“Note, btw, this is being done by supposed charitable foundations.”
Ah yes, the “charitable foundations.” It came to my attention once upon a time that virtually ALL the anti-gun “research” in the medical literature, of which there is quite a lot, was funded by a very few organizations. The Pew Charitable Trust was a frequently seen name, as were both the Packard Foundation and the Hewlett Foundation, there was also TIDES which is a conglomerate of various trusts and foundations.
If you look up the source of funding for any Left-leaning fruitbat group or egregiously unscientific “study” about global warming, renewable energy, anti-pipeline activism, open borders, anti-gun activism etc. the same names keep coming up over and over.
Basically they’ve been corrupting the scientific literature with crap since the 1960’s at least. The oldest example from the medical literature I could come up with was from the 1960’s, most likely put there to help pass the 1968 gun control act. They have labored mightily since. Several gentlemen have made a very good living publishing these fake-science papers since the 1980s.
The Bail Project fiasco in Saint Louis was the rage epitome of SJW principle over sanity.
(Perp assaulted his wife and was arrested. Judge set $5000(!) bail for him, and TBP paid it. At which point, he went to his wife’s place and killed her.)
The manager’s comment: “and argued that the group’s cause was more important than Johnson’s murder, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.”
I think I needed my blood pressure medication this morning.
Of course, the judge should hang next to the perp and the project people…