This last year has been a form of hell. The shock that the country submitted meekly to what I was sure — and turned out be right — was a massive psy-ops over an otherwise unremarkable cold/flu virus. I was astonished and revolted no one was questioning the bullshit handed down, even to meekly donning the masks that everyone knows do nothing, if they so much as read a couple of studies. (Yes one study showed they were maybe beneficial — the result was within the margin of error — but that was for 17 layer masks worn for no more than 20 minutes per mask. Frankly, I and other asthmatics couldn’t breathe through 17 layer masks.)
I was appalled that, even with the numbers of the Diamond Princess showing this was mostly very dangerous to the very elderly, but even to them not as dangerous as many other viruses, people chose to run panicking and screaming. That people allowed governors to become mini-kings who decided who got to win and who got to lose at life; who was essential and who wasn’t.
And there aren’t words to describe how viscerally revolted I am at the churches that closed. They closed, at government command, at a time when their flocks needed them more than ever. They submitted to sign ups and bullshit, rather than do the only thing they really exist for: serve their flock. People have died for their religion, but our unspeakable main line “pastors” were too scared of fines and being spoken harshly to or about.
As the election approached and the insanity continued, I realized why this was going on, and what it trended to. It was no more and no less than an attempt to both crash the economy and steal the election.
And they did. And we let them get away with it. Not that most of us could do much about it. Which is when I realized how little I could do, and that my country might die, and I couldn’t save it. I’m just one person, and my reach is limited.
Mind you, I don’t think they will HOLD the country. They can’t. And they know it as well as we do, which is why we have a bizarre military occupation of DC. I stand by my “on the outside, two years till the Junta’s hold breaks completely apart.” I just can’t tell how it will do it or how bad it will get. But they are, at best, toddlers running around with hammers hitting things. And our interconnected world is too complex to take much hitting. There’s only so much resilience in the system.
But I don’t know what comes out of it. I don’t think the country will break apart, but it might, at least for a while.
You guys know how I feel about our Constitutional Republic. The thought that the country might die — is dying — which took hold sometime mid-summer punched me hard.
It took the underpinnings from beneath me, and I spent months — MONTHS — unraveling my life and trying to figure out if what I had done was ever worth it, what I could have done differently and feeling guilty for everything I’ve DONE.
Like, you know, if I’d never left Portugal, yeah, I’d be an old maid living with my parents, but at least they’d have someone to look after them, and Dan would have married this woman who was making a big play for him when I came on the scene and he’d be living in the South East, which is safer, and he’d probably have been happier, because I’m so complicated and fraught to live with.
And if I hadn’t insisted on being a writer, we could have homeschooled the kids and–
Just on and on and on, unraveling everything I’ve done. It is not an exaggeration to say these wide-awake nights (always at night) often ended with “And if I hadn’t been born, everyone would be happier.”
Except by unraveling everything, I then had to reweave it. I had to find out how things have happened, and would they really have been so very different if I could do it again? And most of all I had to find out what matters, and what is worth it.
So, sure, I could have stayed in Portugal and fulfilled my traditionally expected role.
Except by now I’d be a murderer. Probably several times over.
The role is traditional, but I’m not. And I don’t take well to authority, to handed down maxims, to demands I obey because of who and what I am.
At best, if I still survived, I’d be stunted and full of bile. Stunted because mom is very different from me, but doesn’t understand it. She doesn’t even understand how different I can be. So she worries about me, and this translates into an obsessive need to treat me — still — as though I were about 10 and make all my choices for me.
That means living together for these last 30 years, we’d probably be each other’s hell. Normally you hear this about people getting divorced, but: we love each other, but we can’t live together. And my deciding to stay there…. would have been good for no one.
Dan MIGHT have been happier. But let’s face it, he bores easily. And that chick was none too smart. He might also very well have a string of divorces, and be bitter and hate women.
Who knows? He wouldn’t be who he is without me, because we’ve become DanandSarah. I wouldn’t be who I am without him, either.
And you know, as much as I drive me insane, I LIKE US.
And I’m happy when we’re together. Now, is that all the time? Well, no.
Could things have been better? Sure. If we went back in time and retained our memories, we’d have done things differently and we’d have had a better life.
BUT with who we were, when we made those decisions? We’d have fucked up in different ways that’s all.
I do regret writing. Not the books.
I regret the effort to break into trad publishing. Someone was saying something about a writer friend needing less stress. I’ll be honest, insane levels of stress are sort of part of trad pub, and part of what has fucked me up, health wise.
The problem in trad pub is you have NO agency. It doesn’t matter how good you are, you can get fucked by issues outside your control. OTOH that’s not my FAULT, that’s the field. The field was fucked, yo, and it was the only game in town. Yes, it would have been better, if we’d lived a lot tighter and I hadn’t tried to publish, just written my little things and put them up when indie became available. BUT that gets to the way I’m put together, okay?
Any career path I took, I was going to try to clamber to the top. And btw, the more I find out about the shit done to my books…. I might not be the best writer around, but it took them a lot of work to keep me from getting to the top. (Not skill, not talent, but sheer determination and work. Meh. In the field as it was a talen for stabbing in the back might have got me there.) And I didn’t KNOW indie would be a thing. No one knew. (Oh, and they didn’t do it to my books only and probably in most cases not on purpose. It’s just the field is fucked up, yo.)
I AM worried for the guys and DIL. DUH.
I’m somewhat worried for us, too, but the funny thing is “not too much. We’ll survive. We’ve done it before.”
BUT here’s the thing: I can get maudlin and “envy the barren.” BUT even with all the shit that was needed to have #1 son and how much the delivery messed me up?
I cannot and will not regret that the boys are here and are alive, or that #1 son found DIL
Like with DanandSarah they’re Thehoytfamily and they make me happy, and I love it when we’re together, even when #1 son is fussing over maybe not having made enough food, like an Italian grandmother.
It’s like the cats: some of them have been pills, and dear LORD I’d have refinished a lot fewer floors without Euclid the piddle pot, but if I had to do it again, the only one I wouldn’t adopt would be Randy, because he was in real suffering after about 8 weeks, and anyone else would have put him down.
The others? I loved having them around when I didn’t want to kill them, but one way or another, they made life “better” or more life or something.
Even with he horrible parting all too soon.
I wouldn’t give up the boys, even when they’re pains in the butt. NOT even for the chance to be a billionaire, or whatever. And I could never give up Dan because he’s part of who I am. And together we’re bigger and better than the sums of our parts.
Yeah, #1 son was planned, and was born at the WORST possible time. And we moved three times before he was one, and I was very ill for almost two years, and couldn’t even think straight. But in the middle of all that, what made it worth was…. #1 son. Those were the good times. The times I held him, or played with him, or read to him. I don’t know if I would have survived that year without him. EVEN if I hadn’t been so sick. #2 son was completely unplanned. We found out I was six months pregnant in the middle of moving.
And he was less needed to save my life, (as it were) and my only regret is that while recovering from pneumonia I put him in pre-school. I should have kept him and had more time with him. (And less time to write, but bah.) But he’s been a wonderful addition tot he family, and his quirky sense of humor and mother-hen ways has helped me through this year from hell.
Come hell or high water, what makes life worth living is the people and living things we love. It’s much easier to go through the years from hell with love. Easier even than going through paradise years without.
As I unravel my life and my decisions that’s what I can’t unravel. Because I can’t regret the love or the time with people I love. And I’m not talking romantic ecstatic love. That’s not what married life or parenthood are.
Sometimes you want to throw them all in a sack and walk away. Of course you do. Other people are HARD and harder for introverts. But you don’t do it. And you worry about them. And you do things for them. And somehow, through all that, you’re happy. It’s a weird form of happiness, but perhaps better described as “I don’t have time to obsess and catastrophize about myself” (which is a danger for ALL writers.) And I know I’m doing something worthwhile, and it’s not JUST my stupid volition and a search for an abstract “happiness.”
Look, some of the unhappiest people alive kept themselves “free” of entanglements.
I know someone who is very rich and completely free of entanglements. She has money for the foreseeable future. She’s very healthy for her seventies. She owns several houses and buys cars like I buy books. And yet her greatest hobby seems to be to tell people how rich she is and how much sex with younger guys she’s having. And none of it sounds like happiness.
Or take this person we tried to be friends with for years: no woman was good enough for him. And if he ever had kids, they had to be perfect which could only happen with the perfect woman. And the most important thing every morning is determining whether he’s happy. Hint, he never is. Since he’s the only thing he has to fuss about, he fusses about all sorts of imaginary symptoms, and he spares himself any hard work, so he’s not rich either. And he just spirals deeper and deeper into neuroticism. And even people who would like to help him eventually get disgusted and walk away. Because all he keeps trying to do is make himself happy. And you can’t make yourself happy in isolation. Happiness, long term happiness, is a result of living, of doing, of loving.
Actually most dems in politics and the arts live like that, for themselves only, (which is why those that are married have such miserable families) and their one focus seems to be stealing mo’e money, because that makes them happier.
They live on the impulse of the moment of what would make THEM happy at that moment, with no regard for anyone or anything else. And somehow, this brings on the most acute sort of self loathing and misery. And all the money they steal, and all the power they claim can’t cure it.
In a way loving others and paying the price of that love: worry and work, and living for them is the key to happiness. If you don’t do that, if you never risk loving others, you’re forever an emotional infant, excepting happiness to somehow descend on you, and being upset when it doesn’t.
Something that was REALLY hard this last eternity since the lockdown was realizing how little I as an individual can do to keep this country going, to keep it free, to keep the world from hurtling into madness.
But I’ve come to terms with the fact that there’s stuff I can do to make my little corner of the world better: work at the tasks appointed to me.
Write, and look after the husband and the kids and the pets. And try to insulate them and make things better for them.
EVEN if Earth should fall, I’ll be here, keeping the roof over my family, and doing what I can to keep them happy and fed. And in that, there’s a sort of happiness.
Sure it could all go horribly wrong, and we could all die. Everyone dies. Until we do, the only thing we can do is live: live as hard as we can.
Beating ourselves against history is kind of like a fly beating itself against the window pane. It doesn’t do anything but kill us. (And by that I don’t mean kill us in a political martyr, taking a stand sort of way. Those are sometimes needed. I mean kill us in a “I fretted so much I had a heart attack.” That helps no one.)
Looking after what we can look after, and keeping our values?
Yeah, okay, we might lose IN THE VERY LONG RUN. But until then? Meh. We’ll go through some terrible times, but we’re still alive and trying. And those of us who are religious KNOW we won’t lose in the long run, either. Because Himself is not a dystopic author.
Sure this regime is a horror, and we’re outraged daily by the attacks on the republic, but please let’s not make them worse than they are. They would just put us all in camps if they could, but we’re the vast majority of the country. And the country itself is vast and varied. WHO is going to put us in camps? And are WE going to let them?
Sure, there will be some people who will be lost. My guess is mostly people in the establishment. Because they still trust the establishment.
The camps aren’t sure to happen. Nor are mass executions. For that this crew would need to be minimally efficient. And they’re not. They’re more like toddlers running around with hammers, in a glass shop. Which means, yes, the next few years are going to be very difficult. FOR EVERYONE. Yes, being married, having a kid, caring for other human (or not) beings might make it worse. OR NOT.
Keep in mind that #1 son kept me alive through that horrible year, with no jobs and continuous moves, and money so tight we could barely eat. Because without him, what was there to live for, really? Hell, there were times the cats, as complicated as they made every fucking move, kept me alive, because I couldn’t just give up and let them starve/be taken to the humane society and be euthanized.
A lot of us look forward and see only bleakness, but it’s important to remember you can’t feel/see the future. This for me is a big deal, as I have at least a little bit of forward-sight. Or as I call it, I’m a bit unmoored in time. So I’m used to “sensing” what comes next, and for a long time last year I couldn’t.
HOWEVER ninety percent of “I can’t feel the future” isn’t that. It’s more that we’re outside our experience. We’re caught up in really big world events (this shit is worldwide) and when the dice are rolling no one knows how they’ll land.
Or if you prefer a friend’s terms for it: “we are at a huge inflection point, and everything is on the table.”
But — for what it’s worth remember I have a lot more in the hopper than most of you for the subconscious feelings I get. I’ve lived through revolution and counter revolution; I won’t claim to have read more history than most of you mugs, but I’ve read a lot of it, and I spent years reading about revolutions and progroms and the most unplesant people of history — and m sense of the future has come back. And as it did my feeling has gone from grimdark to “this will get better.” And “The future is better than the past.”
I REALLY feel what we’re going through is largely undoing the statist, centralist fixation of the 20th century. I REALLY feel (not think, because how do you think through that?) that in the end we win, they lose. Now, what is the time frame? I don’t know. The future is a very long time. And yes, for a while things might get worse before they get better. Though I still don’t think this Junta holds very long.
I will keep up my corner of the world and work and serve those I love.
So, my advice is this:
If you’re young enough and of a mind to marry but have no one, make yourself into the sort of person who will attract a mate. Part of this is making a living serving your “highest, best purpose.” If what you’re suited to do is make really good furniture, do so. Give yourself to it with your whole heart. (I’m fairly useless. All I can do is tell stories and sling words. But I’m going to do that as hard and as well as I can. In my case, not to attract a mate, but to help my family.) This will serve you well in looking after a mate and a family when you get there. Oh, and put word out you’re looking. You never know.
If you’re in a relationship but not married, and the relationship is good, commit to it. Get married. Go all in. Being half committed is not enough to see you through the hard times. As with whatever occupation you find yourself in, do it with your whole heart and soul.
If you can have children, have them. Looking after them is the best way to become adults, and it’s what makes us fully human. Besides, they will give you something to live for through the hard times.
If you can’t have kids get a couple of puppies, a couple of kittens, something that needs you and whose hpapiness matters to you.
If you aren’t and can’t get married, if you can’t have children, get a friend or a group of friends and make them important to you. Commit yourself to their happiness, to their success. when I say make connections and how important it is to you, remember that good connections you go all in on, as much for the other person’s sake as your own.
The next few years are going to suck. I’m not lying to you on this. Imagine things getting very very difficult. They will. Prepare as well as you can, and work to make it worth to live through the max suckage to get to the other side. Try to make sure others you love and care about get through the max suckage, and feel it as little as possible.
Put one foot in front of the other. And love. Love as much as you can, as many people as you can. Seeking your own happiness and relevance is a dead end. Working in the light of our principles to secure freedom, prosperity and happiness for those we love is the way this is won. We love them, so we do what we can to get them through this. And loving them gives us a reason to get through this. And on we go.
This is how we win. One person at a time. One day at a time. Even if we don’t see it in this life.
Be not afraid. Go work. And I will too.
According To Hoyt 
Hold onto your Pandora’s Box, for it still contains, HOPE.
Hope is a great, fat, big deal. I’m holding on to mine and making some to share.
Hope being the thing so terrible all the evils in the world fled from it when offered the chance.
Now that’s a perspective I haven’t heard. Makes sense though. Love and faith have that same quality – they can drive a man to do great things, things that scare the living crap out of evil.
Hence my handle :). I picked it years ago, actually, but recent events have made it even more apropos.
This very naked post makes me appreciate you more than I thought I could.
It made me cry, and my heart ache in that “too filled up” way.
Great post.
I hope this is sorted out soon. The FAA stopping that SpaceX test scares me.
Me too.
Public statements are all vague enough that I’m thinking a major part of the issue was “respect mah authority” based on Elon tweeting out the cause of the SN8 boom (header tank press) and their fix (add Helium press) before the FAA investigation came up with their official cause, and then venting on the FAA when they delayed the SN9 hop.
Backing that up is Elon’s announcing he is stepping away from TehTwittler for a bit, which is so completely out of character that it has to be part of their new pacify-the-bureaucrats effort.
Just like with the SEC and the Joe Rogan Show joint thing, adding some filters so as to not directly poke the bureaucrats in collective eyes is probably a necessary thing.
And I should note the Elon holiday from TehTwittler relating specifically to Starship lasted but a day. He’s answered a question (paraphrased) of “Gee, why didn’t you just light all three Raptors for the flip and then pick the best one to land?” with “We were too dumb”.
Release the FAA Hounds!
Also apparently the HarrisBiden DOJ has decided to “investigate” SpaceX for NOT hiring a foreign national
Because ITAR is apparently racist.
Yes, not breaking the law is a crime.
Musk had also been tweeting in support of the Redditors who pushed up the price of GameStop stock. Apparently he’s had short-sellers target his companies in the past.
Shorts have been after Tesla for a long time. Tesla Shorts (red very-short-shorts, in satin) were an offering on the Tesla swag web store last summer, selling out in minutes – see https://nypost.com/2020/07/06/elon-musks-red-satin-tesla-short-shorts-sell-out-in-minutes/
Market manipulation by short sellers is aristo-approved market manipulation, being implemented by the Ivy-league elite – young Buffy and Chad landed jobs using their family connections at Hedge Funds, after all. The issue now is these basement dwellers taking advantage of zero-fee trades are no aristo-approved.
That’s hilarious and I don’t even like Tesla or even Musk all that much.
Is it terrible of me that I’m wondering when the next Con Vampire novels and the next Shifter novels will be available? [Crazy Grin]
The next shifter novels, by summer.
The next con vampire novel…. Kate is still in hide out mode. Have you considered emailing HER?
She Might Send Jim After Me!!!!!! 😈
she needs to know her work is still loved.Honestly.
Seriously, I don’t have her email but she created a post in Mad Genius Club so I commented there.
Is there a way you could link to her work, so I can read it for the first time? And… her name would be good, I got a little confused.
I love new authors and old authors and would be glad to encourage them both/all. With cash for their work and eyes to read their stories.
Her name is Kate Paulk.
Here’s the link to her book
Thanks, Paul. Just bought it.
It’s a hoot-and-a-half! Plus you will recognize certain supporting characters with great affection….
Oh, yeah. She changed my family’s name….
I am so looking forward to reading this, and then someday meeting the real fam.
Not to mention the greatest line after a Joe Buckley death of all time! (Is that really a spoiler?)
I can hardly wait. 🙂 Now my eyes are peeled, and on point.
I see the FBI/US STASI are now investigating the US military during the “60 Day Standdown.” I’m thinking a lot of military members are about about to be former military members for believing in their oath to the US Constitution.
This is going to go so well…..
Supremely wonderful with no drawbacks whatsoever.
Saying ‘no tradeoffs’ is easy mode, because the ultimate geniuses have no awareness of cost, consequence or imperfect goods, and thus unaware of making decisions that are a mixture of positive and negative results for various conflicting goals.
So if one were a member of the transgender community, would one not suspect that eliminating the Klinger Deferral Option for military service by a Reigning Party that is A) all in on lots of new wars, and B) the only people talking about reviving the draft in the last 50 years might be a bad sign?
Closely related is weighting tradeoffs on yourself. Never plan to own a gun, live in a city with halfway effective public trans, have money for private flights? Then ban away. The folks living out in boondocks, burning gallons to and from post office, one cop across hundred Square miles, meh. They can adapt.
I grew up in New York City. It’s ok but Dallas and Texas are nicer.
My condolences. Sorry you have the evil baseball team.
Which evil baseball team? I like the Mets.
Mets! Blech! My grandfather was assigned as the cop in the dugout at Ebbits Field because he was the only Yankee fan in the borough of Brooklyn and hated the Dodgers. All the other cops were fighting for the duty so it was actually quite an elegant solution until Leo Durocher threw him out for cheering for the Yankees during a charity game.
I used to catch 40-50 Yankee games a year and maybe 10 Mets because a couple of friends of mine were Mets fans. they enjoyed suffering. marriage put a stop to that. I don’t bother with sports ball much anymore but I still love baseball. Won’t pay what the major leagues want but there’s still minor league ball.
“I used to catch 40-50 Yankee games a year and maybe 10 Mets because a couple of friends of mine were Mets fans.”
Who were your favorite pitchers to catch for? And how many runners did you throw out when they tried to steal second?
😉
Indeed. Alas, I never strapped on the tools of ignorance at any level.
“There are only two types of people in this world: people who hate Yankees fans —- and those who don’t know any.”
Now, now. As for the crowd from that cold, grey, dark city in the north who inflicted the Kennedy’s, DiBlassio, Phil the Gauleiter Murphy, Bloomberg, and Boston City Hall which is possibly the ugliest building in the world, on the rest of us …. pfui. And let’s not forget Harvard and that stupid Dropkick Murphy thing and Fauxahontas and John Forbes Kerry and all the rest. Feh. Yeah, we have Cuomo the killer, but he married a Kennedy ….
The only time in my life I rooted for the Mets is against the Red Sox, and for years I treasured the immortal words “and Buckner dropped the Ball.”
Good
Ian that is an understatement of epic proportions. At a minimum they’re going to get retention issues that will make the post Viet Nam 70s look like a cake walk. But they don’t think this is an issue. They’re not our hostesses toddlers with a hammer in a china shop. They’re toddlers with an ignition source and lots of highly volatile explosives. Either they get a rebellion, or they so weaken the military they induce a Sino/US war. I knew they were stupid but this is amazingly tone deaf and stupid.
It’s not tone deaf and stupid if it is knowing malice.
Okay, these are authoritarianism fanatics who apparently cannot comprehend the bottom up model of the US.
I just raised my blood pressure again looking at best (for me, for now) ignored. Supposing that they are not out to hurt a lot of people is like supposing that kiddy diddler Walt Breen did not understand exactly what he was doing. (Specifically, the Breen apologists who claimed to think that.)
You’ll be convinced you’re correct if you visit the article on military.com and get really depressed. Some commenters understand the theft. In general, they’re the woke-brigade and want whitey out out out.
They aren’t your military nor your Papa’s military.
Extremism of course will be defined as anything less than full enthusiastic adherence to and support for the left’s radical identity group based Marxism and support for the Democratic Party., Anyone who voted for Trump will be deemed to be an extremist and terrorist threat and given a dishonorable discharge and persecuted thereafter.
Sounds like the military is gonna get a whole lot smaller.
It’s going to get a lot smaller except for the (expletive deleted) Zampolits. Of those there will be a plenty.
So what I’m hearing is, they intend to gut the very same armed forces they’re depending on in terms of both size and competence while simultaneously giving the competent ones a reason to hate them and fight for our side?
Where do we send the “thank you” cards?
Yep, you got the memo. Exactly this.
Y’know, I saw this at Instapundit last night and went WTF?
Notice that lower right box … 30% of Democrats say they believe the Democrats stole the election, TWENTY % say it is “Very Likely”???
Note also:
“Before the pre-planned riot, before uniformed security was recorded opening capitol doors to un-screened entrants, before Mitch & Nancy’s offices repeatedly blocked increased security, 45% of All Voters still want a debate. https://twitter . com/Rasmussen_Poll/status/1350848953626095616″
Emphasis added.
Note also this headline from the Washington Post: Proud Boys may have planned Capitol breach to retaliate against police for member stabbed at earlier march, FBI alleges
Man, Biden’s puppeteers, Schumer & Nancy must be shaking in their slippers fearing the hit they’ll take
ifwhen the s[tuff] hits the fan. No wonder they’re going all out to destroy the GOP; they’ve got no defense except a fierce offense.~
The “30% of Democrats” number was in a poll taken two weeks after the election. I suspect it’s come down somewhat by now. It is the sort of thing that would have halfway intelligent people sitting up and taking notice, though.
If Leftroids were halfway intelligent they’d be twice as smart as they are.
Then there is this, from Byron York today:
Byron York’s Daily Memo: What we don’t know about the Capitol riot
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE CAPITOL RIOT. The storming of the Capitol by pro-Trump rioters was four weeks ago. In that time, it has become perhaps the most important factor in our politics, and particularly in the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. But there are a lot of basic facts that we do not know about the riot. It is not clear when we will learn them.
[SNIP]
A week ago, I sent the Capitol Police a list of questions about the riot. It is not an exhaustive list; it just asks for some basic facts about the violence and its aftermath. Here is the list:
1. — How many Capitol Police officers were injured in the riot?
2. — What were their injuries? What is their condition now?
3. — Did Capitol Police confiscate any firearms from rioters? If so, how many and what types?
4. — What is the status of the investigation into the killing of Officer Sicknick?
5. — Is there an autopsy report for Officer Sicknick? If so, will it be released to the public, or will its key findings be released to the public?
6. — What is the status of the investigation into the shooting of Ashli Babbitt? Has it been ruled a justifiable shooting?
7. — Who was the officer who shot Ms. Babbitt?
8. — Did any other officers discharge firearms during the rioting? If so, under what circumstances?
9. — Did any rioters discharge any firearms during the rioting? If so, under what circumstances?
Capitol Police have not responded to the questions, including a follow-up email and phone calls. (There was an anonymous leak this week that the still-unidentified officer who shot Babbitt will not be charged.) As Chris Hayes, the MSNBC anchor, pointed out in a tweet on January 27, many of these facts are the kind of thing that are quickly released in the routine course of an investigation. And yet they have not been released by Capitol Police.
[END EXCERPT]
Chris Hayes is asking questions???? Chris HAYES?!?
~
There is a clear effort to bury the police shooting of Ms. Babbitt, the same way the Bernie Bro shooting Rep. Scalise and other Republican members of Congress was buried. Now if someone said something that hurt some Democrat’s feelings, that would be covered 24/7.
“Now if someone said something that hurt some Democrat’s feelings, that would be covered 24/7”
Oh – so you watched (a portion of) the AOC Squad’s therapy hour on the House floor Thursday night?
~
I do not ‘get’ this Leftroid obsession with hoarding their pain and inflicting it on the world. Shit happening to you does not make you special; shit happens to everybody. Failing to deal with shit happening does not make you special either.
Maybe she’s ‘triggered’ by her last name? We all know what Cortez did to the native peoples of Central America. Of course, that was no worse than what they were already doing to each other…
———————————
Most days, I suspect that we could get a better government by picking 535 people at random. On bad days, I’m certain we’d get a better government by picking 535 people at random from lunatic asylums.
Add these tidbits from NY Post columnist Miranda Devine:
Noxious Nancy’s cynical timing
Nancy Pelosi took hypocrisy to new heights during the memorial for the police officer who died after the Capitol riots — and that’s saying something, for her.
The newfound faux reverence for law enforcement from the House speaker and her “defund the police” comrades after cheering on and inciting violence against cops most of last year is grotesque.
Despite Pelosi’s nauseating insincerity as she presided over the two-day commemoration of Brian Sicknick, the dignity and grace of his grieving parents and police colleagues mercifully elevated the honors high above tawdry political opportunism.
Because, of course, what else is it but cynical opportunism of Pelosi to wait 27 days after Sicknick’s death to offer his family the opportunity to bury him with full honors, less than a week before her second impeachment show trial of Donald Trump hits the Senate.
[SNIP]
Pelosi embraced Wednesday’s theater deliberately to set the stage for the Senate impeachment and wedge Republicans by pulling at their core beliefs of patriotism, God and love of law enforcement.
But few are fooled.
The cause of Sicknick’s death in hospital at 9:30 p.m. the day after the Capitol riot still has not been publicly confirmed, despite Pelosi’s efforts to pin it on Trump supporters.
At the time, Capitol Police said in a statement that he was injured “while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed.”
Police union chair Gus Papathanasiou told reporters Sicknick suffered a stroke after returning to his office.
Unnamed sources told ABC that Sicknick’s death “was driven by a medical condition.”
Ken Sicknick told ProPublica his brother had texted him the evening of the riots to say: “ ‘I got pepper-sprayed twice,’ and he was in good shape.”
Sicknick’s family issued a statement: “The direct causes of Brian’s injuries remain unknown and our family asks the public and the press to respect our wishes in not making Brian’s passing a political issue . . . Brian is a hero and that is what we would like people to remember.”
But it was too late. Malicious actors were determined to politicize the death of a hero.
[SNIP]
… there are too many unknowns at present for anyone definitively to say that Sicknick was murdered by rioters.
In any case, Sicknick himself was a Trump supporter who reportedly sent a letter to his local Democratic congressman opposing Pelosi’s first impeachment.
It is a dark irony that his death would be used by Pelosi to dramatize the second Trump impeachment.
Where’s the justice for Ashli?
The one participant we know who was directly killed in the Capitol riot last month was Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Trump supporter and Air Force veteran shot by a Capitol Police officer as she climbed through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby.
That officer, we learned this week, likely will not be charged with any crimes in connection with her death, after a preliminary investigation by the Washington Metropolitan Police.
Unlike in other police shootings, his identity has been kept secret.
But veteran NYPD officers are calling it a “bad shooting,” knowing the strict protocols around the use of deadly force by police.
Babbitt was unarmed, and the officer was not threatened or facing deadly physical force. In any other police force in the US, he would face criminal investigation and potential charges.
Is there a different standard of justice for Trump voters?
~
“No wonder they’re going all out to destroy the GOP; they’ve got no defense except a fierce offense.”
YES.
Thing is, there is no way to keep information quiet forever. Well, mostly not–we may never see all the video from January 6th.
Because the truth is out there, the barbarism that the enemy will use to destroy any hint of the truth will be something Americans haven’t seen. Most of them, anyhow. Cowardly, enraged morons are a bad, bad mix.
Those brigades of illegal foreign nationals? Yep, riot control.
Don’t confuse volume with numbers. The people who have time to comment at military.com are far more likely to be useless REMFs than proper members of the Armed Forces.
Most of the training is going to look something like:
“ALRIGHT YOU CHUCKLEHEADS! LISTEN UP!
“We have mandatory training on extremism today. Do NOT attempt to overthrow the legitimately elected government of the United States! Any questions? Didn’t think so. See you at the bar.”
“All mandatory training for today has been completed, Sir. The division is at PT.”
I my Army? Exactly. Today’s Army? They are mostly REMFs.
All armies have a tooth-to-tail ratio significantly below 1, but the combat effectiveness of the tail is extremely limited.
What, no PowerPoint? How can it be a proper briefing if there’s no PowerPoint? /sarc
It’s got to look pretty for the Admiral.
>> “Do NOT attempt to overthrow the legitimately elected government of the United States! Any questions?”
“Which one would that be, sir?”
Right?
Oh, yes – something of that sort, I think. All the lower and mid-ranks being ordered to attend at a mandatory briefing/ struggle session are going to be rolling their eyes and passing notes where the briefing officer/NCO ordered to organize this flop-fest can’t see them.
Most of the time the officers and NCOs will see, but they won’t care either.
I wonder if they know that saying about, “Never do an enemy a small injury.”
And boy howdy did that purge of the Iraqui army in the de-Baathification efforts contribute to long-term stability of Iraq and the Mideast.
I recognize these policies as enemy action, and that the Left is an echo chamber reflecting their own false perceptions, but I am amazed at the level of stupidity that belief in the possible success of their actions and policies requires.
On another site, I read a story of an English WWII fighter pilot going home on leave, and his dad asking for a pistol, to shoot a German, should they invade. At his response that dad woukd be killed, dad said “England asks you to sacrifice yourself in battle. I served in WWI, why shouldn’t I also be prepared to fight to defend her again?”
John
At this point, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some fool in DC is thinking that if they can replace the “dumb rednecks” with illegals foreign recruits and come up with a “better” (i.e. “more loyal to us”) army.
I GUARANTEE that’s exactly what they’re thinking. It won’t work.
“Let’s take all the people who know how to actually fight a war and see that we stole the election and place them outside any legal control from us. What could possibly go wrong?”
Right.
If they were smart they wouldn’t be Democrats.
Generalized smart. They can be extremely smart in a small area of expertise, which frequently contributed to generalized dumb.
For the most part they’re good at school, which requires a minimum intelligence but not much. Thing is, in school there’s a right answer and it’s written down in the textbook, in life not so much.
Your car can have all the horsepower in the world but it isn’t going to go fast if you don’t press the accelerator. Likewise, a high IQ means nothing if you don’t actually think.
The thinking here is “We’ll keep them away from all that weaponry.” Also “We’ll keep them away from all that intel.”
Illegal immigrants in the military really frustrates me. I mean, I’m all people who actually are willing to sacrifice and even die for this country; Americans are not defined by geographic boundaries.
But if I as a citizen have to show my ID to even walk around the Naval Academy’s grounds for fear I could learn, steal, or sabotage something, why the bloody hell are we letting people who we don’t know from Adam on military bases with actually dangerous things?
Tyrants always recruit their guards from foreigners since they know the natives hate them for being tyrants. You can’t trust locals to fire on their own fathers and mothers, brothers and sons.
My guess is that the Army will create brigades of illegal foreign nationals. Sign up, get your citizenship immediately. And citizenship for all your eight generations of family.
Which worked out so well for the Roman Empire…
Yup. They’re going to pressure out all the honest patriots from red states and traditional military families in favor of illegals, moron gang-bangers and fools who will eagerly do as directed.
I guess I’m rather lucky the way my brain works. I’ve never (or at least so seldom it really not memorable) looked back, seriously though if I’d done that, instead of this, how much better my life or the world would be.
Part of that is that everything that happened leads to now, and I guess when I go introspective, surfing the past, I’m pretty much delighted with my now, the right now I happen to be in when I go introspective. The children, sitting up here on top of the world (North Pole, Alaska), the cup of coffee at my left hand, right here, right , now, the things making up this moment, just wouldn’t be if one smidgen of the past were changed.
Oh yes, we’re living in interesting times, but it sure ain’t boring.
Just last night, for example, my son & I were discussing various smugglers coves we know down the Pacific coast, from here to California, where we, when the fit hits the shan, could pull in and trade Alaska gold and/or salmon for garlic and artichokes.
Assuming Fraudulent Biden signs an executive order robbing tax payers of 1.6 trillion at gun point to “forgive” student loans; I wonder how many Americans are going to say FU to paying taxes? Or is he just going to instruct the Fed to print the bills and devalue the dollar that way?
Alas most Americans are taxed via payroll deduction. Sam gets the money, and earns interest on it, before they even see it.
Of course if you list 27 dependents your payroll deduction will probably be zero….
I’m inclined to dispute that — I suspect most Americans are now taxed by devaluation of the dollar, which is even LESS visible than payroll withholding.
~
And the massive inflation that’s already started. it’s going to be a wild ride. My early warning recession models are starting to twitch.
And it will be Trump’s fault for putting the economy on a “sugar rush.” The sugar rush is a quote from Twitter.
Probably, but another scenario is that they’ll be running around taking credit for reigniting the economy and will get smacked when it turns out to be a money illusion boom followed by a bust. then again, Bathhouse Barry the Unready blamed bush the whole 8 years he was in office.
Their biggest concern is that the economy will recover too soon, before they’ve been able to do anything enabling them to claim credit.
That will not stop them from doing so, of course, even though it actually year thirteen of the Obama recovery.
~
No worries there. January job report just came out 49M rather than expected 105M. the Biden bounce isn’t. the jobs number can be very volatile and the expectations are usually wrong but the old narrative took a shot. They’ll talk about the unemployment rate, but that’s a lagging indicator and has as much to do with reductions in the labor force as people give up along with the sheer amount of fudging that’s going on.
Doesn’t change my outlook for recession in second half of 2022. The only thing that will change that is a recession earlier or a moderation in commodity prices. We’ll see.
i doubt it will take that long.
Meaning it actually worked!
Leave it to the Leftists to suck any value out of everything they touch.
Embrace the power of ‘And’.
And how fast can I take out a $3 million student loan please?
Or buy up $3m in other people’s student loans?
A bubble in student loan debt!
Since the Fed is so big into race issues nowadays, the student loan forgiveness thing makes me wonder.
I applied for one in the 1970s. Got turned down flat. And they admitted straight out, I didn’t qualify because I was white. I tried again in the 1980s, and while they didn’t come straight out and *say* it that time, it was strongly implied.
So, just for curiosity’s sake, what demographic is holding the bulk of all those student loans?
“Enquiring minds want to know.”
Middle to upper class white liberals hold most the student loan debt.
So is bailing out is bailing them out, racist? Might be a good red pill meme to spread… 😀
It may be ‘most’, but no one talks about the students who were cheated.
I’m talking about colleges with low pass rates, meaning only a small percentage of the freshmen class will graduate. Oh, they’ll give them loans and do their best to keep them in the program for years, racking up loans. Oh sure the numbers can be small compared to the ivy leagues, but think of this. The 20 year old flunks out of college, along with 80% of their class, looking at $10K in loans that are going to be needed to be paid back in a few months after graduation. If they let them go into default, or even if they are put in forbearance, the interest is accruing.
So here’s a young adult, lied into thinking college is a way out of poverty. Totally in debt for more than a car, and told they are a failure. Can’t declare bankruptcy. Can’t sue the college. Just stuck with a debt that they can never repay. Add in if they stop paying, the IRS starts taking their already pittance of a paycheck.
No wonder they flock to the promise of getting that sword of Damocles off their head.
> It may be ‘most’, but no one talks about the students who were cheated.
A friend of mine has a masters’ degree in electronic engineering. He lucked onto a prize job… and then found out that his 4.0 grade average didn’t translate into much in the way of real-world competence. In order to retain student numbers, the school pushed things like microcontroller programming, microprocessor design, etc. What they didn’t push was the grunt work of basic electronics. Very shortly after being hired he found out he knew almost nothing about what his employers considered to be very simple analog electronics; his curriculum had mostly skipped that “old school” stuff. He managed to come up to speed and keep his job, but it took a lot of long nights and weekends.
He’s still a bit resentful. He wasn’t a hobbyist; he picked the field because it looked interesting and had good employment prospects. He did all the course work, took lots of extras, and excelled at all of it. But since he had no prior electronics experience, and the coursework was highly modularized, he had no idea that fluff was being substituted for the basics.
Nowadays he would know better, but there wasn’t any Web when he graduated, and the only electronics people he was around were his fellow students, who were just as clueless as he was.
Argh! And one reading of Elements of Radio (dated, but the general concepts do not change) would at least have let him know something wasn’t quite right.
a) This is why it is important to wangle internships after sophomore and junior years: you find out what skills the field is really seeking rather than the ones the professors, grad students and adjuncts want to teach.
b) This is why it is important to look at a college’s placement rates and how long graduates remain in the field. That this information is nearly impossible to come by should provide useful information about the modus operandi of higher education.
~
Serendipitously, the Martin Center has a piece up addressing just this sort of problem:
To Close the Skills Gap, Create Industry-Vetted Certificate Programs for Students
“Even though experts believe college is still worth the cost, employers question the value to their businesses. Many believe college degrees do not provide graduates with the skills needed in today’s workplace.
“In a 2014 survey of over 600 business leaders, only 11 percent strongly agreed that college graduates had the skills their companies needed. The majority believed that universities are not adequately preparing students. The gap has only widened since then. Employers expect more from college graduates.
“The mismatch between college programs and the needs of the business community creates two problems for graduates. Many cannot find meaningful employment after graduating, and then they cannot pay off their student loan debt. Unfortunately, universities are doing little to address this issue.
“So why aren’t colleges offering courses that teach students the skills employers want?
“The answers lie with university faculty who make course and curriculum decisions. Without industry experience, faculty cannot teach workplace skills.
“This problem is often more severe for STEM degree programs despite STEM grads’ higher salaries because of the large gap between theory and practice. Universities need to change their approach and work with the business community when they create new courses.
“One way four-year colleges could make their degrees more valuable (and marketable) is by embedding skills-focused courses in degree programs.
“Certificate programs are packages of four or more courses focused on specific employers’ needs that teach students in-demand skills. Colleges could also mandate an industry internship as part of a certificate program, so students gain relevant working experience. Many of those courses will require adjunct faculty who actively work in the business world. Academics seldom have the experience or the industry perspective needed to teach those more practical courses, as they connect theory with real-world application.”
[SNIP]
“In a visionary report titled “Deliberate Innovation, Lifetime Education,” Georgia Tech provost Rafael Bras envisions certificate programs as micro-credentials so employers can evaluate job seekers. However, “the future is now” and colleges need to work with local industry to develop and vet certificate programs.
“Many previous examples focus on STEM disciplines, but certificates can enhance other degree programs. By embedding such programs within arts, humanities, and business degrees, universities become more relevant, and college degrees can be more valuable to graduates and employers.”
Laurence I. Peterson is Dean Emeritus, College of Science & Mathematics, Kennesaw State University, and former Vice President of Research with BASF Corporation and Celanese Corporation. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University and his PhD in chemistry from Yale University. This article represents his views and not those of the university.
~
Yep. Ours did that too. They offer half the course younger son needs, in hte middle of something else. Why he’s still finishing….
Stupid school shenanigans are why I’m ABD.
In my case? I ran away to get married.
Like a bimbo.* And that’s why I’m ABD. 😛
*Truly. Ask my mom!
LOL!
I don’t support student loan forgiveness, but I’ll accept it as the Vaseline on the suppository we shove into the university system.
In my considered opinion, the most appropriate coating for a suppository to be administered to the university system would be a spiral winding of barbed wire. Then shove it in with a LOOOONG stick. 😮
THIS!
My one Internet friend who got out of the military and started using his GI Bill – and then the college of his choice kept ending his college programs or changing the requirements before he could graduate, as well as making his credits from that same college expire. I mean, yes, he couldn’t take a lot of classes at a time, but I’m pretty sure he had two majors and several minors by the time they finally let him out with a single Bachelor’s degree. (And that required some major behind the scenes work, because they were trying to expire his credits again.) He was in school something like fifteen or twenty years, and the whole thing was ridiculous.
Administrators are supposed to work _with_ students about this stuff. They are supposed to _want_ people to graduate.
That’s sort of the inverse of Zelazny’s “Doorways in the Sand.”
Poor Fred Cassidy. All he wanted was to milk his uncle’s bequest for a few more decades, and what did they do? They graduated him! What a dirty trick! 😀
SPOILER WARNING!
Remember they revived the uncle so he was out either way.
“Tut, boy. Tut.”
Suburbanbanshee, THIS! What you describe is not uncommon at all! It’s disgusting, predatory, and makes me mad! I know lots of people who had similar happen to them. One even had the school fail to fill out the GI paperwork correctly, said not their problem, but here you can take out a loan.
I have encyclopedias from the early 1960’s. All universities and colleges in the US easily fit on a page or two. Now there’s a glut and they exist by peddling dreams and mortgaging futures. Sure I did well, but I witnessed too many spit and chewed out by the system with nothing but so much debt they could never buy a house or, in some cases, ever escape it.
Wait a couple of years. Barry the Unready oversaw a significant decline in births and the number of students in this cohorts will start to decline in about 5 years. Lots of supply with dropping demand.
Incentives matter. Administrators don’t want graduates, they want tuition-paying students.
I have only rarely met someone who went to a state university who got out in less than six years. I’m convinced it’s due to a combination of having to declare a major at the start of freshman year and course offerings and major requirements changing on a regular basis.
–
Son got out in 5 years, 2012; could have been 6. Started out in Chemical Engineering, a 5 year program but scheduling problems would have kicked it to 6 years. Switched to Chemistry start of his 3rd year. Was essentially part time his 5th year picking up classes due to schedule problems. Allowed him to pickup extra classes he wanted, but still. He lost out on an option since he couldn’t finish summer or fall 2011.
Balzacq, exactly! The incentive is to keep people students, not graduates!
I would say it’s not just that, but also putting ‘weed out’ classes in the second year, making sure that they get two years worth of money out of them before they make the students either change majors or flunk out. Oh, the added bonus of using ‘weed out’ classes, also, tanks a GPA and has the student lose scholarships which aren’t as easy to process as there’s not a central clearing house.
*Weed out classes, are ones which are made insanely hard or with insane qualifications. Math requirements are the easiest ones to teach obtusely and get the desired results. Heck, I had one class where the grading was this: 100-90=A, 80-90=B, etc. However, we were told if one student got 95, and the next 93, the 95 would be the A, and the 93 would be the B, and so on. When I asked around, that’s when I learned the term “weed out class”.
NO. Whites or most non-blacks aren’t elligible for SCHOLARSHIPS.
Everyone gets loans though. And apparently Utah is different, but everywhere else? you can’t afford to work through college. My kids went to a state college, lived at home, and made about half what they needed to pay their half of the tuition (we paid the other half.) Yes, it’s that bad.
What they’ve done to the university system makes me want to weep. For one brief shining moment – perhaps three generations – state universities and colleges made education available to just about anybody who was willing to work hard. College wasn’t on my grandparents’ horizons; for my parents it was the key to a better life; I benefited from a system that made the same thing possible for me. Then both things changed. What they offer now is not education, and it’s not available to the self-respecting peasants.
THIS. My grandparents were farmers who couldn’t afford college, as much as they might have wanted it.
No. I didn’t share Larry’s post about how his kids are working through school, though I SUDDENLY understood why he kept telling me I should make my kids pay for their college.
Apparently Utah has REALLY cheap colleges, for reasons having to do with religion and how the state chooses to make them available.
For our kids, the low end of a semester in state college while living at home was 14k. We paid 7 k. The kids just CAN’T make 7 K part time, while taking stem degrees (The lab hours don’t count, but often double the credit hours. And the younger kid does PROJECTS which are graded as much as tests if not more.)
So, yeah. We paid (mostly my earnings went for their tuition for 10 years) AND they have debt. It is what it is. If they had wanted to study anything but the fields they wanted, we’d have said “go fish.”
(Why the low end? Because some of their minors involved graduate level classes and it could go higher. One semester REALLY hurt.)
What has been done to high school makes me weep! My mother talks about the three levels of high school degrees, and how proud she was to have one of the higher ones, and the first one in the family to get a HS degree. When my grandmother was a girl living across from the high school she either couldn’t test into it, or she couldn’t AFFORD it. Because before the 50’s, high school wasn’t public and wasn’t free. And when you came out at 17/18, you knew more than someone at 21+ with a BA degree.
And now they want to make college free, which will just mean eating away at the prime years of a persons life before it can ‘start’.
My grandmother was proud of having finished 8th grade. At the time the vast majority left school after 6th. From time to time they publish what a NYC 8th grader was tested on and most University students can’t do it.
Look at the handwriting of ordinary poor people before the 60’s. Most of them wrote far better than “educated” people today.
I know. Oh I know. I collect ephemera, and weirdly textbooks. I have some high school textbooks which are insanely chock full of good useful information. There’s no eye-candy, nor brightly colored boxes with asides, but just pure information.
And yes, my mother had copper plate handwriting all her life. (Though having done some genealogy, some census takers had appalling handwriting! =) )
To be fair, back then 8th grade got you out at 16 years of age and gave you the skills to run a business.
> high school wasn’t public and wasn’t free
And now it’s free, and worth every penny.
It ain’t free now. I pay private school tuition in property tax to fund a school system none of my children attended.
ANSEO
Seo. seo. SEO.
Níl go leor le n-ól…
Sir, I will have swearing in this blog. If you’re going to gaelic us, make it worth our time.
*looks around for the gentleman, realizes the missus is talking about himself, runs screaming*
I do be sorry, missus Hoyt. I will do me best.
Ah, but you overlook the benefits you gain from living in a community with an educated and informed youth.
Which calls to mind a long ago visit to Bourbon Street and joints what charged a two drink minimum then watered the drinks (as well as serving bar liquor when call brands were ordered.)
~
Whaddaya mean not free?
Like the sponsor of the Green Raw Deal says, “you just pay for it!”
Scholarships (individually applied for and combined) were why I could go to college at all. Mind you, it was a private (Jesuit) college, but it was cheaper than any of the public colleges in my state would have been. Also note that the UC system (California, not Colorado) was going through one of its periodic throes of being incapable of graduating its students in a reasonable time period through not having necessary classes available, so I really didn’t want that. Applied to three private colleges and got into two of them. (The one I didn’t was Caltech, which didn’t bother me given their almost dismissive attitude when we toured the place. Harvey Mudd was much nicer, along with the “we don’t really have scholarships, so we totally understand if you don’t go here because of it.”)
My 3 sisters and I went to state schools, about 4K at the time (1972- mid 80’s). We had worked this out as the only way for us to get degrees with grad school w/o major debt. I lived for several years with my sister and other students in a run down house. Another sister started in a lower rung school to be on the swim team and then transferred to Madison (UW) to get the name on her diploma. The plan worked and debt was avoided. Our parents were the heroes. All 4 of us started work immediately upon graduation ,except my youngest sister who went world traveling at the invitation of her great grandmother (a great story of it’s own.)
The problem was getting an education from UW -Madison (Wisconsin) in the 1970’s. Madison was already a very left, liberal school.
My two sisters graduated with Masters degrees in accounting and social work (danger!!). They avoided becoming dogmatic without any help from me. This was a great achievement. UW was already a school tilting left with students often being trained in what to think, rather than how to evaluate the pros and cons of any issue. Gathering information on an issue and actually THINKING can be hard. Being told what to believe is much easier, so things were pro Marx, Mao, Fidel, oppressed peoples, the Wilson- F.D. Roosevelt expansion of the State, the so-called “Living Constitution”(which allowed judges to change the Constitution because “ that’s how people think now,” which is no reason at all, and REVOLUTION as a goal. Teaching was anti free market, military, conservatives, “the rich” and THE MAN. Still, ideas were in flux and ferment, with older professors being less left liberal.
The somewhat indoctrinating environment was softened by the end of demonstrations and bombings (1967-1971) and a return to Madison’s role as a non-stop party school. Yes, the weekend starts now, with a drinking age of 18 and no enforcement of drug laws. Most students were not activists but preferred to party as they were away from parental supervision for the first time. Even the dormitory cafeteria’s served beer.
My beliefs formed before UW, and the Cancel Culture did not yet exist. I calmly argued for my beliefs and while I was often 1 out of 30 or 80, I was not harried or shouted down. This may have been because one person is no threat to the teacher and the rest of the class and the left- liberal ideas of the 70’s were far from the current Marxist Totalitarian beliefs, which are cruel, illogical and indefensible. Only brainwashing and the use of force can sustain the current Democrat- Media rule, which is absolutely indefensible in any logical or ethical analysis. I was lucky to hit college when I did. It’s been all downhill since.
After school I was able to follow my plan, developed in high school, and went to work for an international company that manufactured and developed products for sale to other companies for use as components or for use in the production process, avoiding sales to end users. My Higher Power certainly helped and I am thankful.
Schools K-12 and college through grad school have become an incredible problem as they now serve themselves, their Unions and the Democrat party, not the people , school boards and the law. When at UW Madison in the 1970’s, many people told me that the Teaching Department students had, on average, the lowest SAT scores and the highest grade point average upon graduation. This environment could not be worse for giving way to indoctrination in “equity” and not training in how to think through conflicting ideas to find the best result. Real thought is too much work. True Believers teaching across the country do not believe in real history, real justice, or helping children develop real thinking skills and real knowledge. The meanings of words have also been turned 180 degrees through a brainwashing or Gaslighting process. American students are being trained to be anti-America, pro racism, anti achievement, pro communism, pro China and willing to turn a blind eyed to genocide, eugenics, slave labor, the destruction of the US economy the creation of a one party dictatorship in the US and giving 100 trillion in new debt to our grandchildren which will harm their lives just so Democrats can use the money to buy votes and corruptly bail it Democrats at the state and local level.
Teaching has also been harmed by the deterioration of textbooks. I have read ( but can’t find) an article on a computer study of information density in textbooks. In 1947 the information density was 4 times greater that 1990 textbooks. The textbooks were dumbed down so low achieving students did not feel left behind . This harmed high achievers who were bored and had to to do home learning just to tech there potential. Low achievers were not helped. Current textbooks are even worse as they are tools of brainwashing and indoctrination.
I’m tired now and sign off. A sad summary of this deterioration is found in the BSA handbook . A 1920 ‘s edition has 5 times the information found in the 2010 edition. Even the Scouts are deteriorating.
Even when I was in school, in the late 80’s/early 90’s, we had an on-campus pizza restaurant for students that served beer, if you were of age. I grew up near another state university, and they had a German-themed student bar, the Ratskeller. But now, even though a lot of students are of age, I’m pretty sure all the state schools lack on-campus beer. (And you’re not allowed to smoke on-campus, even outside, although apparently marijuana is now semi-okay.)
Admittedly, most students have cars, and most state universities are surrounded by restaurants with liquor licenses. But ugh.
You know, Dan and I had our colleges fully paid for. Both on academic performance. (It’s different in Portugal.)
Our sons are arguably more brilliant than us. There were no academic scholarships.
There were some they overlooked/didn’t apply for because doing so would give their professors cause to harrass them (Daughters of the American Revolution. Ayn Rand essay scholarship) but those were penny ha’ penny. Or you know $500 at a time.
They both worked at money making things while in shcool (one still does) with mixed success.
BUT there is not enough to pay for everything. ever.
Sigh.
So many don’t realize how much things have changed regarding education. Heck, I don’t even have a handle on how many changes, except that the alumni newsletter I get is like something from a parallel world.
We may have overlapped in our time in Madison — I was there from 1972 to 1976, when I graduated. My memories pretty much match yours. I did have a number of older professors who weren’t left/liberal, but things like Sociology were pretty solidly infested. They hadn’t developed the total intolerance of other ways of thinking that exists now, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as it is now. People did tend to think that those of a conservative bent were rigid and unenlightened, but they didn’t cut you off from friendship. My positions on issues were not well formed at the time. I did pick up the sense that “smart people of my kind were Democrats”, which took quite a while to wear off. Several of my siblings still fall into that category.
Yes, we overlap. I was at UW 1972-79. Your description is spot on, especially Sociology. Xiden has appointed a Sociology professor to a top role.
I was lucky in the one Sociology course I took. It was all about the historic Tibetan culture. The professor did not like the Chicoms. My PoliSci professor’s made up for this by loving the Chicom’s.
Heh – what’re the odds, eh? My older brother went to UW-Mad, graduating, I think, in ’72, and I recall visiting over Memorial Day weekend in 1971, for my eighteenth birthday. It seems unlikely we crossed paths (and how would we now know if we had?) but it is pretty improbable that there’d be three of us in the same ten square miles other than attending a con.
I still have fond memories of a long weekend spent playing pinball.
~
Before anybody points out that JSE’s term at UW did not commence until 1972 and my declared date of visit was 1971, I attended my brother’s graduation ceremonies i 1972. I forget who the speaker was.
~
The math building bombing was in 1970, I think. So I got there after all of that. I do remember that streaking was a thing :). I remember being on the hill and watching naked guys running up the hill. And somebody ran through a party in similar undress. Lots of bell bottoms and belts with heavy metal buckles, tie dye, and expensive “hippy” clothes in the stores. Marijuana and beer bashes on fraternity row and grocery co-ops with lots of grains, etc. Also Pink Floyd, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac… Good times, good times :). Though I do think that a lot of the current dysfunction grew out of the sixties university culture.
I have several older BSA handbooks, including the late 1970s one with the hilarious second-person summer camp section (which makes for a great campfire skit.) You’re right about the information density, but at least the information can be found elsewhere if you bother to give the scouts a nudge.
I intend to search for one more 1920’s handbook my father gave me. Theoretically I may have my own 1960’d handbook, but I think it got tossed .
I got to see some of my friends GSA handbooks, when I was young. They were huge and more pop-art than useful. I have a 1920’s or 30’s GSA handbook. I actually can use that on camping trips as it slips into a pocket and is DENSE with what you need to know! But no color pictures! No “factoids”, just facts!
Either way would be Interesting, and not in a good way. Especially if the loan forgiveness doesn’t include making the forgiven amounts non-taxable, there’s going to be a lot of people who go from owing a monthly payment they couldn’t pay to owing a huge pile of income tax they’re going to be even less able to pay.
only good thing about my deduction never being correct is I had enough “refund” to pay for some debt write-off when I consolidated, yet still was barely getting by, and they got around to the bigger 2 left at the end. I get the feeling Capital One (bought out the bank I had a loan with) gives such a massive discount on a write-off just so the person has a bigger tax bill for the year. (I got 3 different mailings with that form too. They made sure it got to me.)
iirc my “refund” that year was low double digits.
I’d prefer Taxes to be paid at return time, instead of collected as you go, and as the billing date, the day before elections.
At which point the government can institute a program allowing them to “work it off,” doing whatever the government wants for forgiveness and a stipend. ( darn WP and its moving reply box).
BINGO! The only good news about going from student loan debt to income tax debt is that you *can* discharge tax debt in bankruptcy. And the IRS is a hell of a lot more willing to work with people than the Department of Education.
FYI, student loan payments have been waived until “at least September,” per my loan provider. That rather suggests they’re planning something for this summer.
Personally, I won’t feel especially grieved at the injustice of “robbing the poor to pay the rich” since that’s the entire basis of the Social Security I’ll never see either. And since the lower middle class — who generally didn’t go to college — pay so little in income taxes, it’s more “robbing the successful college grads to pay the indebted professional/post-undergrad graduates.” Not fair, no, not exactly the doctor putting a gun to the salesclerk’s head.
Via Insty open thread:
I met way too many people with college degrees working as salespeople at the mall when I myself was working at the mall after graduating law school to believe that everyone with student loans they couldn’t afford was wasting their money on designer sneakers, vape pens, and AirPods. Thanks Obama economy! (And while yes, I wore $80 flip-flops, it was only because I could get them 70% off with an employee discount.)
Of course, I also met way too many single parents who never went to college working at the mall getting more in their tax “refunds” that they ever paid in taxes to believe that student loan forgiveness would be paid by such people.
No, student loan forgiveness is going to be people like my friend Dan — a pharmacist who paid off his loans in five years with a six digit salary right after graduation — paying off my loans from law school that doubled in size from not having a job that paid mid-five digits for seven years after graduation.
Personally, I’d like a system where student loans were dischargeable in bankruptcy. And to address the original concern that caused them to be non-dischargeable — the prospect of doctors and lawyers declaring bankruptcy right after graduation then going on to be successful without the loans — I’d require the former student to wait until seven years after graduation and place a permanent hold on their transcript, so they could never use their degree for a professional qualification or license. e.g. I could declare bankruptcy on my law school loans, but I would lose my bar license. Under those terms, only the people who really need relief would talk such a step.
*take such a step. Razzin’ frazzin’ darn thing!
I prefer the idea of putting the colleges in the hook. If you declare bankruptcy from student loan debt, it comes out of the colleges’ endowment. That would make them desperate to help you be well employed, and get rid of some of the studies that will never be self-supporting.
Since you can’t put third parties on the hook without throwing the rule of law down the drain, that would work by ending loans.
You absolutely can put 3rd parties on the hook for loans, you just can’t do it retroactively. (It’s called cosigning.)
I don’t think if we required that the university assume responsibility for some percentage of the loan* that it would eliminate loans entirely, but if it vastly reduced them then that would be all to the good for all the reasons we can probably all repeat by heart — fewer administrators, less spending on fancy luxuries, students & families concentrating more on studies, etc. etc.
(* this need not be a fixed one size fits all percentage, either; it could be negotiable between the lender and the two other parties.)
Durr. “Going forward, I don’t think etc.”
It would eliminate them. No one sane co-signs for a loan for a penniless person who can just sit you with the bill without consequence.
Especially given that they can take out the loans for living expenses.
–
We talked about our son getting some loans. That way he’d have a direct stake in his education. He did work, of which 100% went to his part. He got a scholarship (about 10% annual), he got small grants (oh good, we can pay for books). We had the Oregon College Account (*). BUT the only type of loans that could be had were “Parent Plus” at 6%, no payment delay. Sorry, No. His last 4 quarters we were saving the money needed the quarter before. We got him through without any loans without touching any of our tax deferred savings. Our non-tax-deferred, OTOH, was decimated. Sounds bad on the face of it. But only child. He gets it all eventually, anyway.
(*) Other than Tax Deferred on the money there was no earnings thanks to how the program invested. Accounts recovered if you weren’t pulling money out. But the recovery time was when the kid was in college (2007 – 2012).
North and South Dakota are both working on a FU to DC. Lemme find the articles again…
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keloland DOT com/keloland-com-original/south-dakota-bill-seeks-power-to-reject-presidential-executive-orders/
PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) — A bill introduced into the South Dakota House of Representatives seeks to give the state’s attorney general the authority to review executive orders issued by the president of the United States.
Introduced by new member Rep. Aaron Aylward of Harrisburg, HB 1194 outlines a process of review for any presidential orders that have not been approved and signed into law by the U.S. Congress.
This process begins with a review by the Executive Council of the Legislative Research Board, followed by a referral from the Council to the attorney general and the governor. Once the referral has been made, the attorney general may examine the order to determine whether the state can seek an exemption or declare it unconstitutional.
The bill takes a broad view, stating that no executive order may be implemented “that restricts a person’s rights.”
===
zpatriot DOT com/2021/02/03/horowitz-north-dakota-legislators-introduce-bill-to-block-bidens-illegal-executive-edicts/
“All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for the protection, security and benefit of the people, and they have a right to alter or reform the same whenever the public good may require.“ ~Sec. 2, North Dakota Declaration of Rights
A group of North Dakota legislators have taken up the call for states to reassert control over the Constitution, as the Biden regime continues to rule by executive fiat, often promulgating unconstitutional orders infringing upon civil rights. … The question is whether leaders in those legislative chambers as well as Gov. Doug Burgum will pick up the mantle, not to mention Republicans in other states.
Recently, Rep. Tom Kading and eight other Republicans in the North Dakota House introduced HB 1164, which would task the attorney general with reviewing the constitutionality of the president’s executive orders. If any of his orders are deemed to be unlawful, this bill would prohibit any state or county agency or publicly funded organization from enforcing the edict.
The list of issues covered under the bill are:
Pandemics or other health emergencies.
The regulation of natural resources, including coal and oil.
The regulation of the agriculture industry.
The use of land.
The regulation of the financial sector as it relates to environmental, social, or governance standards.
The regulation of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Thus, an easy first candidate for such legislation is Biden’s recent mask mandate, which unconstitutionally prohibits humans breathing without cloths on their mouths and noses inside any public transportation, including in-state ride-shares and taxis. The CDC created an entire criminal offense for something that never passed Congress.
What if Congress decides to pass a bill that is unconstitutional? HB 1282, introduced by Rep. Sebastian Ertelt, would take this a step farther by proposing a “Committee on Neutralization of Federal Laws” to recommend whether a given law or regulation is unconstitutional. Upon the recommendation of this committee, consisting of state legislative leadership and their appointees, the legislature would pass a concurrent resolution on whether to nullify the law or edict. Until the resolution is passed, state and county agencies would be prohibited from enforcing the law or regulation at issue.
These bills should serve as a model for all 31 GOP-controlled legislatures, especially in the 23 states where there are also Republican governors. I hear so many conservatives acting despondent and either resigned to tyranny or calling for secession or even a civil war. But the solution implied in these bills would keep the union loosely intact while peacefully maintaining a constitutional sanctuary for those who still value constitutional freedoms. This is the best way to peacefully and gradually separate blue and red America into their respective cultural, economic, and governing choices so we can live together more agreeably as a federal union.
North Dakota Republicans control the Senate 40-7 and the House 80-14. If this were a Democrat state passing a sanctuary bill for illegal aliens, the bill would pass in a day. Given that the rights of American citizens are on the line, Senate leaders Randy Burckhard and Rich Wardner should bring this bill to the Senate floor, and Speaker Kim Koppelman should bring the bill to the House floor immediately. North Dakota has an opportunity to lead the nation in liberty, if only all the Republicans in the state would govern the way they campaign.
Madison predicted in Federalist #46 that a federal encroachment would easily be mitigated by state action, because “the means of opposition to it are powerful and at hand.” What is the winning formula?
The disquietude of the people; their repugnance and, perhaps, refusal to co-operate with the officers of the Union; the frowns of the executive magistracy of the State; the embarrassments created by legislative devices, which would often be added on such occasions, would oppose, in any State, difficulties not to be despised; would form, in a large State, very serious impediments; and where the sentiments of several adjoining States happened to be in unison, would present obstructions which the federal government would hardly be willing to encounter.
In other words, public outrage, state and local officials refusing to enforce it, and correspondence with counterparts in other states together in unison would prevail over federal tyranny.
South Dakota already has a similar bill to HB 1164 targeting Biden’s executive lawmaking. Rep. Aaron Aylward of Harrisburg, South Dakota, introduced HB 1194, which would set up an executive board to review the constitutionality of executive orders pertaining to the six issues laid out in the North Dakota legislation. With a 32-3 majority in the Senate and a 62-8 majority in the House, South Dakota Republicans have the strongest majorities since the Eisenhower era. The Dakotas, as well as many other parts of the country, can easily become constitutional sanctuaries.
Additionally, county commissions, prosecutors, and sheriffs should also seek to criminalize enforcement of unconstitutional edicts at the county level.
Let’s be very clear: The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution subordinates states to follow only laws that are pursuant to the Constitution on issues that were given over to the federal government to determine. However, if the federal government blatantly violates the Constitution, especially in a way that harms individual liberty, even Alexander Hamilton, the great supporter of a powerful national government, said that states should ignore it. “It will not follow from this doctrine that acts of the large society which are NOT PURSUANT to its constitutional powers, but which are invasions of the residuary authorities of the smaller societies, will become the supreme law of the land,” wrote Hamilton in Federalist #33. “These will be merely acts of usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such.”
Well, if it was good enough for Hamilton, it should be good enough for states with strong Republican majorities in the legislature.
===
This is wonderful, and cheer me up immensely.
…the GOP will torpedo this bill and introduce a bill to make all Biden EOs have double penalties.
zpatriot calls itself “America’s Fake News Site. What does that *mean?*
Hell if I know. I didn’t notice that. But landed there via a chain of other reports. Kelo, tho, is an established news site.
“ZPatriot” is being sarcastic. They are basically trying to do old-style news coagulation, a la the old Drudge Report, but with the addition of having user-submission of news items if they miss something.
Yeah, sometimes people are overdoing the “sarcastic owning of my enemies’ insults” thing. Not the best marketing.
US Supreme Court will strike down the law, stating that only the Federal Judicial Branch has the authority to determine whether a law is or is not unconstitutional.
Well, on the same note… talks a lot about the Constitutionality:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/video-why-texans-want-to-leave-the-union-interview-with-daniel-miller_3685779.html
[See also mirror on Crossroads channel on YT]
“The Justices have made their decision. Now let them enforce it.”
I think it would be an interesting experiment for the states of North & South Dakota to enact laws expropriating Federal lands as abandoned property which is unduly deleterious to the state interests in development of physical assets of the states.
If they can’t seize the land they ought tax it according to its “optimal use” — e.g., as pipeline for oil and natural gas. They could even fine the Feds for increased endangerment resulting from denial of the pipeline.
Sure, they’d probably lose in court but they might win, if only a partial victory. And it would be such a great way of making certain points about Federal impoverishment of the public.
~
Their lawyers are state employees; it would cost them only an additional workload. And I bet they have state colleges with law schools; how about “research Federal lawsuits for credit!?”
The Feds would simply dismiss them for “lack of standing”, but it would be a good educational experience for the students and the other citizens…
They will just add it to the debt and use that massive debt as a pretext for the patently unconstitutional wealth tax they intend to enact and have rubber stamped by a packed Supreme Court. They have made it clear they are going full commie, and private property will exist in name only. Elections will be like the old Soviet elections, and trials will be show trials of the politically incorrect. We will have massive stagflation (over 20% unemployment and inflation, which may be a best case scenario) and they will lie about the numbers claiming that they are declining in “the chocolate ration has been increased to 3 ounces” fashion.
I’m always curious about what people who say this about student loans think “student debt forgiveness” would look like.
Currently, all student loan debt is held by the federal government.
It is serviced by a few different companies, meaning they’re the ones who send out notices and operate the web portal and process the payments, but I’m not sure that these companies aren’t also federal agencies.
Currently, all federal student loans are in forebearance – no one is required to make a payment, and interest isn’t accruing. They’ve been in this status since last March, when President Trump told the loan servicing agencies to make it so. (I’m not even sure that required an EO, quite frankly, though it might have been done by those means.)
Now, “not required to make a payment” does not mean “not allowed to make a payment.”
Anyone with the wit to realize this and their usual paycheck could have been making significant progress toward paying down their loan principal over the last 11 months.
As I mentioned, the debt is held by the federal government. The federal government receives all the payments. The federal government benefits from the accrued interest. Student loan debt is a positive on the federal government’s ledger
Joe Taxpayer does not hold the debt. Joe Taxpayer does not receive any of the payments. Joe Taxpayer does not benefit from any of the accrued interest. The only benefit Joe Taxpayer derives from the student loans is the knowledge and skills that were gained in exchange for Joe Taxpayer taking on that debt. Joe Taxpayer, in fact, probably owes bits and pieces of the debt to the government. The student debt is a minus on Joe Taxpayer’s ledger.
If the federal government decided to tell Joe Taxpayer “Your debts are forgiven, you don’t owe them any more,” how is that a detriment to Joe Taxpayer? Joe Taxpayer doesn’t have to pay those debts any more, freeing up his cash to do something else.
If the federal government decided to tell Joe Taxpayer “Your debts are forgiven, you don’t owe them any more,” how is that a benefit to the federal government? The federal government has lost a source of revenue, a point of control over Joe Taxpayer, and employment for everyone who was servicing the loans.
Answer: it’s not a detriment to the taxpayer, and it’s not a benefit to the federal government. Therefore, it will never happen.
And if it did, so what? Does the holder of a debt not have the right to say “I don’t want your money anymore, you don’t owe me anything.”?
If the debt holder says that a debt no longer exists, then there’s nothing to pay.
Nothing is going to be stolen to pay off existing loans.
And the debt isn’t going to be forgiven. Debt is what props up our monetary system. They’re not going to crash that to benefit us.
Except for, as noted above, debt forgiven is construed as income by the IRS, so the debt holder now has a different debt to the government. At my income and student loan debt level, forgiving my student loan debt with the DoEd would mean I now owe 32-35% of it to the IRS. Student loan forgiveness is a cramdown on government debt, not a write-off.
Isn’t there some kind of rule that, if you get a windfall, you can divvy up your tax liability over two or three years?
Or is this one of those things that used to exist, but doesn’t exist anymore?
I’m not sure, but I know from personal experience the IRS is one of the nicest creditors to have. Seriously. Very low interest (like 2.5%) and fees, and they’ll accept a financing plan of any payment you can afford so long as you can pay off the balance within five years. Never ever ever use your credit card to finance a tax payment.
Now granted, this is if you agree that you owe them money and respond to their correspondence. Pulling the sovereign citizen stuff, or just ignoring everything they send you, and they are nasty and will drain your bank accounts.
It still sounds like a net benefit to the debtors, though.
65%-75% less money owed to the feds and an interest rate reduction of 3%?
And income tax debt is bankruptable.
Agreed. It is a benefit. I’m just noting that it is not as big a benefit as many people believe.
But also, I would like to note that in another 10-15 years, an awful lot of people are going to hit their “20 years on Income Based Repayment” to get their loans forgiven anyway. Whatever evils that come of forgiving student loans, well, let me quote Hamlet: “If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come.”
Unless the feds change the rules on those. Again.
Sure. But then you run into the problem of “promises that can’t be kept, won’t be.”
My career has turned a corner in the last couple of years, and it is now possible I will be able to pay off my loans completely before my forgiveness period comes up. But if my break hadn’t come through and I was still stuck making $35K/yr with a loan ten times that size (law school with a payment that didn’t even cover the 6.8% compounding interest for 7 years), it didn’t really matter whether the balance was forgiven or not: I was never going to be able to pay it back. And there are a lot of debtors in the same position. We’re a small minority of total student loan borrowers (6%), but we hold over half of all student loan dollars.
It’s a bit like what happens when the SS, MCare, and MCaid trust funds run out. What the government wants is irrelevant; they will have to break their promises.
Part of the reason ‘Peoples Republics’ have revolutions every few years — the new government can ditch the old government’s inconvenient promises.
Social Security insolvent? No problem? Just confine the recipients in a plague zone…..
There’s that. There’s also the point that the Dems have already (as far back as early in the first term of Obama’s presidency; or possibly late in Dubya’s term after the Republicans lost Congress) quietly discussed seizing retirement accounts.
Excellent advice. And it’s good to be reminded that the gang that can barely deliver our junk mail and certainly can’t distribute vaccines in any kind of systemic, wide-spread matter won’t be able to manage mass camps. Plus it would be like herding cats.
I keep envisioning Hogan’s Heroes, with Biden appointees in Col Klink’s place.
Tch! Klink is at least trying to do his job honestly. Mostly. And Schultz straight-up tells you how he’s not doing it! 😉
Werner Klemperer accepted the role of Colonel Klink only under the express condition that the Germans would always be made to look incompetent and foolish and the POWs would always win. Understandable given that he was born in Cologne Germany in 1920, his father was Otto Klemperer, and they were both opposed to the Nazis.
*Nod*
They will still attempt to imprison us all. When everything collapses, they recruit people from the prison population to run things.
Then I won’t feel bad about “misbehaving”.
Oh, no sir! And you shall soon have a public bully pulpit from which to misbehave! Thus shining a light for those who are eager to follow.
Won’t work.
Nope. We’re masters at Creative Incompetence.
I can’t do incompetent, but I can do clueless.
We’ll be the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of “Cain’t Get Nuthin’ Done.”
They will use the release of selected gang members to fill the ranks of their new brownshirts, as the AGs in Portland, Seattle, and Chicago have done with arrested rioters.
The left may be a Medusa. Do we need to pay closer attention to those heads?
John
I didn’t know that and am not surprised at all.
I have to remember that barbarity is now on my doorstep and is very real. If I pretend I’m living in civil society, I’ll get myself killed.
OK, OT, but this is cool:
I think this is the part where those of us who don’t do church get to nod meaningfully.
Feh! Going back *once* to fix the mistakes is for quitters. Personally I plan to keep iterating the timeline until there are no mistakes anywhere.
Which is a good indicator that his not having kids was the best choice he could have ever made. Because there is no more reliable way to destroy a child than to intend having a perfect one.
Someone needed a lesson on the difference between baseline reality and perception. The perfection of one’s spouse is perceived, and understood to be partially an illusion in the way all ideals are. Ironically Revenge of the Sith got this one right….
Well…… depends on how far out the zoom is. Plenty of versions that have hell on earth, in the most literal way possible. But that the earth side doesn’t matter because something better is off screen.
I *really* want to bash this because it is obvious to anyone with half a brain who knows even the faintest smidgen of history.
Unfortunately I’ve seen conservative forums; so I know that there is no end of people with above freezing IQ who can’t wrap their heads around it.
As before….. I want to bash this for being too obvious. And yet “be the kind of person someone would want to marry” appears to be an unheard of concept in general society.
I do not understand the mindset of taking all the risks to get into a relationship, but then refusing to commit enough to gain the benefits. Maybe I’m just naive, but it is a ridiculous position.
Maybe I’m just naive, but it is a ridiculous position.
And yet people DO it.
Because people have a tendency to act ridiculous.
Some people have been broken by divorce, and others have just bought into all the propaganda.
There’ve been a lot of postings I’ve run into, where a woman buys her own house and has a good job, and then acquires a boyfriend with no job, and then he moves in, and then he wants her to put him on the title deed to her house. And sometimes, he wants her to put his kids by other women into her will, or pay for his kids’ college with her kid’s college fund
And then, if the woman doesn’t want to “share,” the guy gets all righteous about how she’s selfish and untrusting, and he would have asked her to marry him but not now. Hmph.
*Waves* I honestly, fully believe my parents getting divorced was one of the best possible outcomes. But they were both horrible people, and the level of pettiness they descended to during the divorce – you had to be there to believe it.
And yeah, it broke us kids. Not so much them getting divorced, but the fact that the entire community wanted the kids to pick sides, and punished us all for not picking “the right one”. Once you’ve faced an entire town doing that….
Picking sides. Ugh. No good comes of picking sides in a lovers’ dispute.
Of course, this is one reason a lot of people are surprised that their friends “melt away” during divorces, but it’s usually either the friends picking sides or refusing to pick sides.
Actually, there’s a plot point in Ye Old Mystery Novel Strong Poison, where the (mostly male) jury has trouble understanding why a woman would have sex with a man because he refused to marry anyone and then get upset when he does ask her to marry him. (The female juror decided this was insufficient motive for murder and produced a hung jury. This is at the very beginning of the novel, so not really a spoiler!)
I love this story. I’ve listened to the audiobook probably a billion times. I love the judge explaining why Harriet would be outraged at a proposal of marriage.
It is legally impossible to commit as long as there is one person no-fault divorce. Marriage is supposed to be a set of shackles tying the couple together even when they would rather split It isn’t anymore.
Forcing two people to remain married when one or both of them desperately want not to be sounds to me like the next thing to slavery. Should a woman (or a man, for that matter) be forced to remain married to an abuser? A drunk? A compulsive gambler? Any of the many other failings of character that make living with them Hell on Earth?
Marriage can be a mistake. Would you condemn someone to misery rather than allow them to correct it? What level of ‘proof’ of that misery would you require?
A marriage is dead when either partner decides it is. Preserving the corpse does no one any good.
Many people divorce because they feel unhappy, which does not make them happier, and can destroy their children.
Literally. The children of divorce are more likely to die than those of intact marriages as old as forty (which was when the study ended).
Note the opposition was to “no fault” divorce. Being abusive, etc. is a fault.
I found out something interesting in regards to Catholic marriage annulment, in that it only resets one of the parties, for the most part. (Kids are considered the product of a marriage, even though the marriage “never existed” in the case of an annulment, since you were wondering.)
Basically, it says that from the sacramental POV, one party was incapable of giving their true consent, whether that is from mental incapability, which includes addiction, or from being abusive, or whatever. The other person, if this is the case, is considered free and clear for a future sacramental marriage—but you know the thing about trust, how it takes a long time to built and is almost impossible to restore? That’s pretty much what an annulment can do to the party “at fault.” It’s possible that they might be eligible for a sacramental marriage in the future, but it’s not likely…
That’s the common reason nowadays, but there are others.
Simulation of consent for instance. Though if you can prove that your spouse never intended to be faithful, or always planned to get a divorce if the going got rough, there may be conditions on your spouse’s ability to remarry.
Apparently, the popularity of writing one’s own vows has made annulment for a Catholic second marriage much easier, since most of the vows do not actually constitute form a canon marriage. The creative vows I’ve seen certainly don’t include any analogs to “to have and to hold, forsaking all others, as long as we both live.”
“I take you as my wife” and “I take you as my husband” suffice. It’s the filigree that effectively declares that you don’t mean it that makes it so much easier.
Don’t you have to jump over the broom too?
On the other hand, marriage in the West is something you volunteer for.
In most cases (and by most, I mean 99%), you can’t be forced into it.
And if you are volunteering for a lifelong commitment to someone on whom you (with or without the assistance of your family or your trusted allies) didn’t do your due diligence, why should you be let off the hook if it turns out badly?
And if you did your due diligence, and you knew that the person you were marrying was scum (even if you lied to yourself by saying that it’s not so bad, or you deluded yourself into thinking that you can change the other person with the power of your love), and you married them anyway, you chose that freely.
None of that makes it slavery as most people today understand the concept.
If you did your due diligence, and turned up nothing untoward, but the person turned out to be scum anyway… well. Then you could have a case for divorce.
In a lot of ways the tactics are the same as those used by abortion advocates. …or the other way around, I suppose. Tactics used by abortion advocates are the same as those that no-fault divorce advocates used successfully.
The cases in which something (a marriage or a child) has to be killed, or rather, dies incidental to an effort to save it, are such a small fraction of the cases that the entire practice does not have to be legal in order accommodate those unfortunate edge cases. Most of the reasons why advocates want it to be unrestrictedly legal are borne out of selfishness or hard-heartedness or fear or foolishness.
But they take advantage of people’s pity for the unfortunate edge cases and use those as cover to get their way for the selfish, hard-hearted, fearful, foolish cases. And they lie about the severity and frequency of the edge cases in order to make their arguments more persuasive.
It is worth holding in mind that all parties to any marriage are (generally) equally human and thus equally susceptible to flaws. This song, while sung by a male, is not exclusive to that sex … although it is one reason why women will tend to be more clear-eyed about some aspects of marriage.
She got the gold mine! She got the gold mine!
I got the shaft. I got the shaft.
They split it right down the middle,
And then they give her the better half.
Well, it all sounds sorta funny,
But it hurts too much to laugh.
She got the gold mine – I got the sha-a-aft.
~
–
Hasn’t been always true. In fact, I’d say, not true prior to 1960’s or 1970’s. A divorce, if could be gotten, meant She got nothing. Not the kids, not a stipend, nothing; She got the cloths on her back, at best. Plus She couldn’t own anything. Only Widows could have and manage property, they lost that as soon as the oldest son came of age. Lord help them if there was no son, and their spouse had a brother.
Mom didn’t get a credit card in her name, with her as primary, until in the ’70s. Before dad had to initiate it.
How quickly people forget. Not that the current perceived status is right either … but still.
Why is this ‘equality’ business so hard for some people to figure out? You treat everybody the same, until they give you a valid reason not to. Such as lying or cheating.
Treating everybody the same, that’s sooo unfair.
–
Why is it so hard to explain that the present can’t make up for the sins of the past?
What I posted is true. Doesn’t mean the pendulum should swing as far as it has.
Grandfather was divorced before he married my grandmother. He paid child support, even when the child resided with him and his new family; $100/month. No indication of how assets were split (might not have been any.)
I know not every man gets the shaft, nor every woman gets the gold. My cousin was divorced, one child. Turns out she only married him because both (catholic) set of parents insisted. She was looking for a baby daddy and child support, not marriage. Thought she’d found a rich family (did she screw that up, on steroids, rich this aunt and uncle are not). Nor did/does cousin have any assets of any kind. Custody was 50/50. Her child support was limited, but she got some. Recent wake up call? Child decided to not go to college. No more child support. Mamma didn’t call, but she sure had the adult child call “Mom has to move out of her apartment. She can’t afford it without the child support payments.” Cousins response? “That money was for you. Not my problem. Sucks to be her.” He still has a relationship with his child, as do his folks. They may not be rich, but they are able to indulge the grandchildren (there are 3 others with another son) some.
If you are under the impression that widows lost the ability to manage property if their sons were of age — in the 1950s — you need to educate yourself.
No. I don’t know exactly when Widows were able to inherit directly. Even historically it likely depended on where. Do have a sense, antidote, that it is more recent where widows inherited directly by default. More recent as in “sometime in 20th century”.
Then your sense, being badly misinformed, should not be consulted. The Magna Charta specifies that a widow’s inheritance rights in her husband’s estate take precedence over any other debt.
Glad to know.
Mostly we’ve been fed a lot of lies about women’s rights in the past.
Well, and about everything, generally.
I’m willing to believe there were jurisdictions where that happened, but they would be few and far between
“Well…… depends on how far out the zoom is. Plenty of versions that have hell on earth, in the most literal way possible. But that the earth side doesn’t matter because something better is off screen.”
This is where those of us who are religious will shake our heads, agree with what Sarah wrote, and go “no, Himself wrote another story.”
My church not only went coward, it went full BLM pray for the pedophile crazy. I’m so angry with my pastor and “elders” I can’t even talk about it.
There’s nothing wrong with praying for the FICUS.
Pray that he will wake up and repent of all his wrongdoing, and repudiate all the benefits he’s reaped from it.
Pray that he will (somehow, miraculously) govern wisely and justly.
Pray that he won’t start any new wars or intensify the wars-by-any-other-name that we’re already involved in.
Pray that he will be brought down if he fails to do any or all of the above.
See? It’s praying for your leaders!
Pray Kamala doesn’t want a Klingon Promotion? 😮
Especially considering the chain of succession that comes after her.
I was thinking more along the lines of “when did this become the mirror universe?”
Ya know, you’re right! there was this government anomaly, and a malfunction, and here we are… now how do we get back??
I wonder how many factions in the Swamp are jockeying for control of the figurehead-in-chief, and how messy the fight will get over the next couple of years.
Is it weird that I visualize DC right now as a version of the old SPI game “The Plot to Assassinate Hitler”?
https://boardgamegeek.com/video/10492/plot-assassinate-hitler/ptah-intro
I think more of, “I, Claudius.”
“How DID you poison my stepson Germanicus?”
It will be more of an “accidental” fall over the stairs, the dog, etc.
If the struggle over Biden’s strings gets vicious enough, ol’ Joe might outlive a veep or two.
I love I, Claudis. Derek Jacobi is one of the finest actors, ever. And the rest of the acting is superb.
I confess to finding his Brother Cadfael unwatchable, but I don’t blame that on him. Whoever was responsible for adapting those ought be restricted to writing copy for Popeil commercials and whoever produced it should be flogged — it may have only been the producers of the umbrella program (Mystery!) for sequencing the shows so that the suspect in the second episode shown (One Corpse Too Many) was revealed in the first episode broadcast as an ally of the good Brother.
Okay – a quick Wiki check reveals that One Corpse Too Many was broadcast first in Britain, so it was the “good” folk at PBS who butchered the sequence. Sean Pertwee as Hugh Beringar is interesting …
Sheesh. Maybe if I hadn’t already read a number of the books, but it was cringe-inducing.
~
No, not at all. I’m obligated to do so, though I haven’t been able to do more than an imprecatory prayer, wishing for his destruction.
The way it happened was this: about thirteen seconds after the installation began the email flew out from the PCA, through the local churches, to me. It was. COMMAND TO PRAY FOR THE LEGITIMATE PRESIDENT INSTANTLY.
It was so pre-programmed, so obviously planned that I stepped back and made the decision to leave the organized church there and then.
Command? COMMAND?? We’re Protestants, we don’t do commands from the hierarchy.
Suggest, implore, recommend, ok. Command? Uh-uh.
I stand corrected!
It sure felt like a command when that email showed up. That’s what pushed me over the edge.
Ir would give me a hearty shove, too. I wasn’t criticizing you, I was after them. (For Kathy).
🙂
That’s more a Baptist response than a Presbyterian… 😉 And even now, that’s less than it should be.
–
So you immediately prayed for Trump, right? 😛
You could always pray for them to receive the justice they deserve. Not your fault if some of them find that a curse, rather than a blessing.
Working in whatever way you can to ensure they receive the justice they deserve is more likely to produce results, though.
If I was the praying sort, praying for the legitimate president would be just what I would do and in pretty much those words. I pray for fairness, I pray for “peace and rain” (even though it doesn’t do men no good,) I pray for justice. I don’t know what any of those things actually are, for that knowledge is beyond me, but I figure that if I was an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent being, I could probably figure it out.
I pray for the nation’s leaders to lead in righteousness, and according to the Lord’s will. I’m intentionally vague about which leaders might and might not be trying to do so, in part because I recognize that there might be things that I’m not cognizant of.
Or in other words, I can probably make some pretty good guesses. But I might be missing some key facts.
We are “told” to pray for our enemies, and to pray for those in authority over us.
We’re also reassured that if we don’t know what to say or how to pray, we let the Holy Spirit do it for us. I did that a lot with the kenyan marxist.
I cannot yet pray for the thieves.
That makes me sad … my dad has been considering jumping to Presbyterianism, and I thought the PCA would be better than the PCUSA.
I would recommend the orthodox Presbyterian church as a denomination instead of any of the larger mainline Presbyterian denomination. They are much more in line with classic Christian doctrine .
It makes me sad, too. I’d suggest the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Listen to pastor Sinclair Ferguson or Derek Thomas for a feel/flavor of the style and orthodoxy. If I do organized religion in future, that’s the direction I’m headed.
PCUSA includes Jew hatred in its official platform, so…. can’t really do that.
Well, I’d still recommend the jump and head to PCA for sure. Without guilt!
What you do is find a good local church with a courageous pastor. That way you get the solid doctrine, great teaching, excellent community without all the cultural stuff. And a courageous man won’t surprise you. I think you’ll be happy with the PCA, just be wary of their trending.
(I’ve been with the PCA for awhile and I think part of my problem is that the local area is spiritually darkest dark, and culturally communist/statist. The culture lends itself to congregations sliding downward with the culture.)
Last Sunday, we prayed “for all elected officials, and for President Biden.”
I clamped my jaw shut so that I wouldn’t laugh out loud. I’m not precisely sure that it was intentional, as young kids writing petitions are not necessarily familiar with English grammar implications… but yeah, probably.
From (IIRC) The Fiddler On The Roof
“May The Lord Bless And Keep The Tsar … far away from us”. 😈
You should have issued a splutter alert before that prayer! Thank goodness it was diet Coke, so the keyboard isn’t going to be a sticky sugary mess…
Sorry….
*Tries not to bust out laughing.*
+1
May God bless and keep the Tzar far away from us.
My church is very big on obey the law of the land…even if it’s unjust, and in a representative democratic republic, the injunction is to seek out good, honest, and wise men for public office. In the absence of those, there’s also a strain of “defend your freedom of religion and your families”, and an explicit, “if you are not guilty of the first offense, or the second, (or the third) you should not let yourselves be killed”. The situation is threatening, but not yet that dire. Back in the 60’s, and ’70s there was a strong emphasis on supporting the Constitution, but now that “support the Constitution” has become a partisan political position that only right wing kooks support, that kind of talk has been a lot more muted. There has been talk of the growing threat to religious freedom, and It doesn’t just come from the left wing. However, most Muslims are not militants, and even militant Islam is not viewed as nearly the threat that things like domestic lawfare and cancel culture are. If things get much worse, that could flip over, because it’s not just the US at stake, it’s the entire world.
Yes, that kind of prayer. However, I have a hard time praying without much faith.
Pray that he gets what he deserves. The decision on what he deserves is up to God the all knowing not to us. Plus, if you pray around your congregation, they are likely to freak out and call you a h8ter. You can then ask why they think that he deserves bad things,
mine too. That’s why I’ve been avoiding it with a vengeance.
You can always pray for justice for all…
Where’d that guy with the hot poker come from??
Amen !!
Great post. Hopeful, realistic and touching. The entire year last year was spent with a feeling of foreboding, coupled with frustration as so few in my circle could hear or see what was really happening. Dennis Prager nailed it early with his concerns that the damage from the lock downs would far exceed the damage from the virus.
What you describe so well is the human resiliency that especially characterizes the conservative mind set.Get on with it, Life goes on etc. And indeed it does. My kids have at various times expressed the idea of not bringing kids into this. (for any value of this) My response is some iteration of “It has always been thus” Get on with the living and loving because that is how we win they lose.
Last thought, resiliency encompasses many things including preparing for the worst, learning everything you can and salting away the wisdom in books as well as in our hearts. Cleave to the republic and teach the children the history and the ennobling characteristics of western liberal thinking, and how we got here.
C4c
EOs that Xiden has already signed will cost over $10 trillion. That is the cost in higher prices, forced costs, waste, lost jobs and more. That’s why he’s doing it by diktat; it would never pass even in Dem controlled Congress. I believe (but also pray) that people will wake up to all the damage and throw them out.
Hard to find the way to say it, but our host should take care of herself, and now get more sleep, and continue to inspire this community . That may sound selfish on my part. But it’s meant as an Italian/Jewish grandmother; both good where I live.
Selfishly, Sarah please do take the best care of yourself that you can. This place is like manna from heaven for me. Comments can make me cry for heaven’s sake, what other site does that? No one.
This place is a beacon of light to a hopeless world.
I’m not entirely certain, but we may have passed the point of being able to recover from our national debt load. Now the United States assumed the debts of previous United States formed under the Articles of Confederation. I’m not sure that’s doable today. Which means a lot of people and nations are going to be holding worthless investments, or thinking they need to recoup them via war, or seizures.
Yep, and the issue is akin to the old saw about owing the bank a billion dollars and whose problem that is – Given the rest of the world is all in on the dollar and US debt, and the only way out for the US is to devalue, then whose problem is that?
Sorry. All the damage is bad orangeman fault.
At this point the only way to throw them out is violently. Voting will not do it because they count the votes.
I’m still smarting from the fact that so many people meekly stood by and took this BS. I did predict public disturbance would break out in May but not the public disturbance we actually got. I consistently underestimate just how vile these people are and I fear I overestimated my fellow citizens.
My brother-in-law once described me as Savonarola since I think the system is so corrupt there’s no alternative except burning it down. This isn’t really true since Savonarola was a fraud and I’m actually a bit of a quietist politically, especially compared to some here. That said, too many find meaning and salvation in the state and neither meaning nor salvation is not to be found there.
Still, I think that the stoicism that emerged under similar circumstances in Rome is not the answer but rather that human flourishing is to be found in doing what we were meant to do, through work, art, and family. My advice to #2 son has been to find a woman who finds your jokes funny, marry her, and make a life together. That’s what I did and we’ve had 32 years so far. Swings and roundabouts there have been but I can’t imagine my life another way.
“I’m still smarting from the fact that so many people meekly stood by and took this BS. I did predict public disturbance would break out in May but not the public disturbance we actually got. I consistently underestimate just how vile these people are and I fear I overestimated my fellow citizens.”
I think this is what bothers me the most: passive, cowardly citizens. I had no idea, none, that I lived amongst people who hear “wear two masks” and rather than go “FU,” instantly don the diaper. I have a next door neighbor boy, in his 30s, did just that. I want to weep and hit him with a bat.
The history of the Holocaust, and the “good German”. Most people are social animals, not moral ones.
Same with MY 2 son. Who has my sense of humor poor kid.
It struck me last night that America is fast approaching our 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Somehow I do not envision the current administration establishing the appropriate commissions to see to properly celebrating the event a mere five years from now.
~
Not the government’s job. If we value the Declaration and what it means, each of us is responsible for the celebration.
And it’s never too early to start planning.
I still think we need a “Thank You” rally for POTUS. It would be super fun, and lots of people could come.
If you can have kids, have as many as you can reasonably care for, and home school them. If schools stay in gubermint hands they won’t be straightened out for a long time, no matter who’s in office.
TPTB have most dissenting people sitting on their hands because of the fear of being cancelled, a la Chinese Communist social credit style. Whoops, no job, no bank, etc. Unless there’s a big change (trust elections, anyone?), some kind of en masse action would be needed to get meaningful things done. I hold little hope that the oppressors will voluntarily make a benevolent change.
I don’t enjoy looking back on my life except for some warm comedic chapters. Everyone has their woulda, coulda, shoulda moments, and some are painful and not to be dwelled on. I just consider them teaching moments.
The big deal is the forest we’ve made from all our little trees. Viewed from way up high and looking down, did we live a balanced life that helped others? How hard did we try? I better get moving!
THIS
Sarah this post was so fantastic and true, thank you.
I’m 61 and have a future full of opportunity. I’m starting low, which will make the rise all the greater. My goal is to live my best years as an old woman, and to put the lie to the cultural “aging is shiite” meme. It isn’t, and I aim to be the #1 shining example.
Because I’m religious I know Papa (Himself) will bring the people I need, the money, the connections. I need to show up every day and live in truth.
And when things are very, very bad, this gives me the will to look up. Les Brown always says “If I can look up, I can get up.”
So true….
I REALLY feel what we’re going through is largely undoing the statist, centralist fixation of the 20th century. I REALLY feel (not think, because how do you think through that?) that in the end we win, they lose. Now, what is the time frame? I don’t know. The future is a very long time. And yes, for a while things might get worse before they get better. Though I still don’t think this Junta holds very long.
I may be overly optimistic, but (again) based on my entirely non-scientific anecdotal look at FB, I think the realization that they voted for a dementia puppet is starting to sink in for some people. I’m seeing a LOT fewer political posts, and not even the “Yay! He signed whatever thing it is that I like!” posts. Some people are weirdly silent (and I checked, we’re still friends), others are focused on kids, pets, family, home improvements where previous posts were almost all either Wuflu/politics or national politics.
My plan going forward is to write write write. That includes fiction and blog posts. We have no kids, but lots of nieces and nephews. As for animals, right now, we’re a one cat household (at the cat’s request; we’ve had up to five at one time), but that will likely change in the future.
If anybody needs a book list to look over for books for yourself, the kids, or friends and family, based on a previous post here, I have created a page on my blog for that (http://ornerydragon.com/book-titles-links/). Feel free to add to it in the comments.
I see the same thing in my limited interaction with zuckerbook – lots of cat pics and photos of the latest stay-at-home project, and none of the expected crowing and nose rubing, or even tutt-tutting about Cruz et al. not being locked up.
It’s quiet. Too quiet.
My assessment is that 8% of the electorate who would have voted the other way if they had ever somehow found out about Hunter has swelled to a much, much higher percentage, with everyone who thought they were voting for Billy-Jeff-style triangulatory governance being repeatedly shocked at the kneepad service The China Joe Muppet Show is giving the hard left. This is even showing up in the Rassmussen tracking polls, and being allowed to be published past all those gatekeepers who hid all the Biden Crime Family stories, because “At this point what difference does it make?”
I’m not seeing any nose-rubbing because the people I know can barely conceive that anyone they know might be a Republican.
On the other hand, I’ve seen a lot of “isn’t it nice to be back to all this normalcy and not have to worry about what Trump tweeted today?” (Why what Trump tweeted made any difference to anybody’s daily life is still kind of a mystery to me, but oh well.)
I’m not seeing any realization that Biden is a demented puppet, at least not yet. In fact, most people seem to have deliberately suppressed the memory that they all hated Biden and Harris separately and for different, convincing reasons, no more than a year ago.
He’s still in there rent-free in their heads – they want to believe he’s gone now that he’s banned from tehtwittler and zuckerbook, but they keep it set aside and keep looking in there just to make sure, so he’s still got that braincell allocation tied up.
That all makes me think the whole impeachment2.0 thing is going to backfire – so many of them want him to be gone, and here’s the Dems dragging him right into the public square again.
Speaking of Impeachment 2.0, reportedly Trump has declined to testify on his own behalf, which is a wise move. Prevents him from being maneuvered into saying something unwise, or finding himself in the dungeon.
The purpose of trying to get him to testify is the same reason they questioned Flynn; to set up a perjury trap over something innocuous so they can persecute him for perjury because their is no underlying offense, either criminal or impeachable.
Exactly so. If necessary, we instruct his attorneys to gag him and tie him to a chair for the duration.
The purpose of Impeachment 2.0 is to facilitate removal of all of the Republicans who vote against impeachment. Democrats claim that Trump incited insurrection and committed treason for challenging the election, and they have already stated that the refusal of Republicans in Congress to certify the vote constitutes a coup attempt to overturn the election. They intend to have the DOJ prosecute every Senator who votes to acquit Trump and every House Member who refused to vote to impeach him so that they can be arrested, taken into custody by the DOJ, and then expelled by the Democrats who will have emptied the chamber of Republicans through the DOJs actions.
In essence what is going on is a coup by the Democratic Party to completely overthrow the constitutional republic and replace it with one party CCP style rule in a Marxist “people’s Republic”.
Farfetched? Remember that Democrats tried this stunt already in Texas when a local Democratic Prosecutor charged the Governor criminally for exercising his state constitutional right to veto legislation.
There is nothing the Democrats won’t do in their quest for absolute power.
Yeah, I think it’s going that direction. Some of the language being used is right out of the CCP playbook, too.
Well, nice of them to have fenced themselves in. Makes ’em that much easier to round up once they’ve expelled everyone who doesn’t need hangin’.
We really are putting up a perma promo site. The first version should be up this weekend. Between my editing and writing and the kid’s classes and tests, it’s been SLOW.
Sarah, my list is history books, western civ, that kind of thing. It was born from a discussion about where to find original texts that haven’t been bowdlerized by the left.
duh
“One person at a time. One day at a time. Even if we don’t see it in this life.” Good advice, always good advice, regardless of the current circumstances.
‘Do right till the stars fall, do right till the last call Do right when there’s no one else to stand by you! Do right when you’re all alone, do right though it’s never known. Do right since you love the Lord — do right, do right!’
but that was for 17 layer masks worn for no more than 20 minutes per mask.
Why would anyone wear more than six, when six solve what my betters assure me is the most pressing issue of the last summer:
https://i1.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/01/IMG_4125.jpeg?w=526&ssl=1
And there aren’t words to describe how viscerally revolted I am at the churches that closed. They closed, at government command, at a time when their flocks needed them more than ever.
Having searched my entire adult life for a home where it a Christian could pursue a moral life and have a brain and having finally found it, the profound loss of “we only allow 14 families on Sunday” parish policy is hard to express.
I’ll read the readings and work to maintain the fasting calendar and daily prayer, but I doubt I’d darken the door of a church again in my lifetime. I know of so few that have chosen the life of the faith over the life of the world when it comes COVID that I know of no where to go.
I am right there with you.
I may start a church on my own, but I won’t pretend I can go to another church building and call it home.
Kind of where I am….
My lifelong Southside Irish Catholic wife pulled the trigger on the church last summer. She had taken a job at a little Protestant (used to be Baptist, now independent) chiurch school last summer and got to know the head pastor very well. Randy is a very personable guy who is very easy to like. A top notch organizer who when he knows he can trust you is willing to let you run a project with very little supervision from him. Westarted going there on Sundays and the 3rd week of September, he announced he was done complying with the state lockdown mandates. He had already decided to fully open the school in August. Wear a mask if you want to, but he does not care and refuses to wear one himself, no restrictions on the number of folks who can come in, the more the merrier.
Guess what? No huge outbreaks of wuflu, maybe 2 or 3 got it, but no mass outbreak, and the Illinois stasi has left him alone, as the church has Tom DeVore on retainer.As far as he is concerned, it is full steam on normal activities. The church is open to political activities and has held 2 concelaed carry classes so far this year.
Judy has not been this happy in years.
I’m so glad for her, and filled with longing for that same joy.
That stinks, especially because a lot of Orthodox churches have apparently been wide open all the time. I don’t know if that’s because they go under the radar, or what; certainly in some places they don’t seem to get the scrutiny that small Protestant churches have gotten, and yet Orthodox parishes can be large, in places.
Possibly some babushkas are more intimidating than other babushkas.
I think you might have hit on something there. Orthodox is something that people who are not religious, don’t really know about. Yeah, sure, it’s that Russian thing. But I don’t think they realize Orthodox is so much more than that. When the left and non-religious types think about Protestants, most of them, I think, picture snake handlers and tent revivals…those people are *dangerous* because they’re a cult! I think it’s pure ignorance about the multitude of Christian denominations that exist.
Orthodox Jewish have taken a lot of heat in NYC. Texas is a great place for Jews. Or TN, large Jewish community in Memphis.
I should have been clear…I meant Orthodox Christian churches…Russian, Albanian, Serbian, Greek…those guys.
American press and leftists (BIRM) think “Joe Bob’s Bible School” when they think Christianity.
Nearly 30 years ago the Washington Post asserted evangelical Christians are “largely poor, uneducated, and easy to command.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1993/02/01/energized-by-pulpit-or-passion-the-public-is-calling/f747ded3-b7c5-4578-ad3b-2f500dbaeacf/)
The reality is, they think any believer is that way.
Thirty??? years ago? Try fifty! Beloved Spouse and I, I guess some thirty years ago, back when we still watched PBS they had a 4-part series on Religion In America. Part one ran up through the Christians’ retreat following the Monkey Trial, Part 2 began with the Jimmy Carter campaign and featured a hilarious clip of, I dunno, Roger Mudd doing an intro, intoning that NBC News understood that many people were wondering about this Carter “faith” thing and he was here to reassure everybody that NBC News has looked into this “Born Again” phenomena and were ready to assure their audience that it was familar to almost fifty percent of Americans.
After Beloved Spouse stopped rolling about the floor we changed the channel and did not watch the other two parts (which, if I recall correctly, were full of the horrors of Jerry Falwell and the Religious Right.)
!
I do love being considered an interesting anthropology observations candidate by supposed countrymen who are my supposed intellectual better.
It’s the religious Wrong we should worry about, not the religious right….
That fifty percent in 1976 may have been fairly regional, and fairly new.
My anecdotal evidence is this: growing up in Anchorage, AK, in the late ’60s/early ’70s, I was aware that pretty much everybody went to church or synagogue, and that there was a difference between various denominations, but it was all pretty low-key.
But starting in 1975 when I was 10 and the pipeline boom got going, Anchorage was flooded with Texans and mountain-staters and assorted Southerners, and Christianity got a lot more… public. A very large Southern Baptist church went up and started advertising on TV, and which kind of Christian you were became a much hotter topic among my fellow students. In the next few years there were a lot of new churches of the non-denominational megachurch type (although they were more storefront than mega), and Sunday afternoon TV filled up with Oral Roberts and Jim & Tammy Bakker, etc.
So I can see a Northeastern WASPy/ethno-Catholic audience being unaware of just how big the evangelical wave had become in 1976.
While I agree with your analysis of that audience, NBC stood for National Broadcasting Network, not Northeastern Broadcasting Network, and had some duty of diligence to be aware of more than just their little echo chamber.
Of course, you’d think David Brinkley, born in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1920, and having attended Chapel Hill, Emory and Vanderbilt he should likely have been able to clue them in about that “Born Again” thing.
~
In the Navy they told me NBC stood for Nuclear, Biological, Chemical. As in warfare.
If we start talking about the misconceptions people have of Christian denominations and Christianity in general we’ll be here till 2022.
I think the ROCOR parish up in Roswell is still in person.
Last time I went there, they were not the most welcoming of non-Russians. That said, even the cold “we don’t know you” feeling is better than a closed church door.
Also, I wonder what Abbot Tryphon would say to me on this.
Y’all keep saying Himself has a weird sense of humor.
Consider yourself as one of His better jests. 😀
🙂 I consider myself His Masterpiece.
I have this weird flash of Himself peeling me out of the mold, shaking his head, and saying… “Seriously? THIS is the new prototype??”
I envision, “Really? This is how it came out? …Huh, toss it in, let’s see what happens!”
<Me
Far Side cartoon, “G*d” taking ‘earth’ out oven… with the thought(?) ‘I get the feeling this thing is only half baked.’
Dear G0d: I wish to file a bug report…
As humor that’s a terrific image. I hope you don’t really think/feel that, though. Humans are his finest creation.
It’s kind of like what Peterson talks about with people who were told growing up that “they are perfect just the way they are”, and end up destroying themselves because they know exactly how terrible they are, and if that is “just fine”…
Yes, the whole “I’m lovely just as I am because that’s how He made me” got really, really distorted.
I mean….. I was the kid who as a teenager couldn’t take a complement, in the sense that I would correct anyone who tried to give one. (no being told over and over that it was incredibly rude didn’t help; was I supposed to let someone have a falsely-high opinion of me!? the absolute nerve of some people!)
I still refuse to use “great minds think alike” when I’m one of the subjects.
They probably thought it was false humility. Or, they just wanted to force you to think what they wanted you to think.
….I’m not quite sure who the “they” are here. I would get compliments *all the time* growing up due to being exceptionally gifted, even if I was blind* to it.
If “they” means the people saying it was rude then no, not that. They simply didn’t recognize that there was a serious problem beyond “he’s shy”, or would have known what to do if they had realized it.
* easily one of the most horrifying events I can remember was the realization that no, every single person I had ever met had not been lying to me.
“They” were the people *you* referred to in your post, Ian.
I’m done with the conversation–you just turned obtuse, and it’s not fun, at all.
They could have referred to either the people I was correcting or the ones telling me it was rude…..
“Great minds think alike.”
“And sometime so do ours.”
“And fools rarely disagree.”
BUT IAN not being able to take a compliment is a problem. Often people really do mean it.
As I said; that was when I was a teenager.
That isn’t a problem anymore. Mostly. *twitch*
(actually being able to hold one’s own — even if only as a neophyte — among the really skilled people of a field does wonders for stabilizing such things)
Bully for you. I still have issues. ‘;)
“Fools seldom differ” is more vigorous.
I prefer Patton’s “If everyone is thinking the same thing, someone isn’t thinking.”
Strictly speaking Reziac was talking about an individual human. While an individual will inherit the group-traits of Human, that does not therefore mean they will be a good or even average example of the class.
Oh, yes. Of course.
Second finest.
At best.
Frankly, I think He did the platypus as a warm-up for humans.
~
Nope.
The “crown of creation”!
“They will find the stability they seek, in the only way it is granted — a place among the fossils.”
I really really really do not want to be that.
It already happened. You already are the Crown. Can’t wash it off, can’t sell it.
reeeeeeeeeee
Yep!
Oy, me ‘ead!
Funny, you don’t look like a wallaby.
~
I identify as a Wallaby Lover, so it’s easy to mistake me for a real one.
We’re glad you’re here, Sarah. Keeps the rest of us centered.
OK I wish I read this before I went to the doctor this morning. It looks like that I need to see a cardiologist.
Ouch. Hope you feel better soon.
As long as I go slow– I’m okay. Except that isn’t my normal speed. 😀
Maybe you just need new meds?
I’m on low dosages of everything I need. Levothyroxin is the one med I MUST have. I’ve been working towards this– before dialysis I had potassium problems. So I think something else is going on.
HUGS.
Thank you
*Hugs*
THIS.
(even if I do mostly use it as a place to spiral off the rails a couple times a month…)
Meh. We’ll spiral you back. No biggie.
You are on rails to begin with?
We have rails?
Oh yeah! people here are all the time railing about all kinds of things … although I’ve yet to notice anyone railing about the designated hitter rule.
~
Why bother? “Crash” said it all in “Bull Durham.” It should be banned by Constitutional Amendment.
Plenty of forums for that. Use this for the other topics.
In fairness to some churches, we attend a tiny county church with a largely older membership. The members are worried about getting sick and the pastor’s are worried about being responsible for them getting sick. (That said, we found another tiny country church which has been more open and have been going there.)
Also, the whole “weaponized niceness,” thing comes into play, as in, “if you’re really compassionate you won’t put people in danger by holding live services.”
I am tired to death of the entire, “If you were really a good Christian, you’d do it our way,” school of manipulation.
I suspect smaller churches (and larger ones), even in states without unconstitutional lockdown prohibitions, are wary of in-person services due to the fear of legal liability if someone gets sick and sues; it would not surprise me if the real fear came on down high from the insurers who warned of crippling damages claims if someone got sick while attending an in-person service or activity. It’s quite possible that insurers warned of potential denial of coverage in such cases.
Yet another example of using “private business” to strip away constitutional rights that government isn’t allowed to.
You’d think someone in Zuckerbook or Tehtwittler would walk through the logic chain that starts with acting as a proxy for governments to do what .gov are prohibited from doing and ends up with corporate assets – buildings and employees and cyber – ending up just as valid warfare targets as military bases.
If Zuckerbook is acting as an arm of the US government, well then, Chinese missile strikes and commando raids when the war breaks out over Taiwan are completely kosher, yes?
My sister’s church tried to use that reason. I don’t think it’s fair at all, I think it’s a rejection of reality, and unfair to all. At a time when we need courage the most.
If the old people do not wish to attend, that’s what the Zoom is for. But even if there are five souls in attendance, that needs to happen. Without the fiction of the face diaper or distance or any of the other garbage from the overlords.
Old people 100 years ago had sense enough to know they needed church, and they knew how to care for themselves when they got sick. I think we still have this knowledge, if we’re led by the courageous.
Having said that, I give all grace to people who are afraid.
There’s still a lot of people who don’t have Internet by choice, or who can’t have it. My dad (United Methodist) goes to a church that set up a conference call so people could hear church without Internet, but… you can imagine how well that goes.
The main thing is that his church has co-pastors, both women, and both… well, they don’t have other jobs, and they’re both married without kids, and yet they don’t seem to have a lot of time to do church things, even when there’s not a lockdown or restrictions. You hate to say people are lazy or not particularly interested in the Gospel, but… that seems to be the case with these women.
And yet, there are other churches that have lockdowns, and those ministers or priests are coming to people’s houses and doing individual services, or checking on every individual member of their flocks and giving substantial help. It’s a very mixed bag.
You sure got that “mixed bag” right.
I live in such a dark area that even the solid churches are full of the cancerous cultural rot. But another PCA church in a right-thinking, American area? They might be rocking it. Each church is so, so different even within the denomination.
The wheat and the tares will grow together until harvest.
Also the blatant, “I used to look up to you, but if you don’t repudiate your homophobic/hateful/racist remark (because I don’t like it so it must be bad) I can’t be your friend anymore,” emotional blackmail. A friend of ours got that just last week for posting a cartoon suggesting the fringe right and fringe left were mirror images. So not everyone is having second thoughts.
A lot of the people here (deep blue Austin) are barely capable of having first thoughts. Second? That’s a thought too far.
An entire generation is being taught/conditioned not to think, in true Ignorance is Strength fashion.
Meh, doesn’t distinguish them in any way from the last few generations.
Oh, that’s right up there with “If you think x y z is perfectly fine, just unfriend me now!” crep. No, I’m not doing your dirty work. If you don’t have the balls to just unfriend me (likely because you’re afraid of what I’ll say the next time I physically see you), then I no longer care about your opinion.
Meh, I just unfriend them without saying a word. If that’s how they feel, they won’t miss me.
a… friend? acquaintance? from the VFX industry kept resending me friend invites and couldn’t understand why we were suddenly unfriended when he said on FB that a good solution for the people that were still going to church and sitting in their cars (last spring, like, April) was cluster bombs.
I’m ornery. I’ll stick around just to piss them off. 😀
“Dude, if you didn’t go into the relationship prepared to tolerate my aberrant beliefs, we were never really friends. I’ve always had opinions that I would never change for a ‘friendship’. I value my own counsel, and I’m not willing to compromise. People worth knowing understand the limits of what they can justly ask of others.”
We are being told we can no longer choose sides.
No.
THIS. These people really do believe we are the equivalent of subhuman pus pockets. We’re too deformed to have any legitimate beliefs.
I’ve seen nothing but verbal fellatio for the pedo and the whore, especially on the youtoob. CNN viewers are the worst.
Well, that’s because Youtube keeps canceling channels that say nasty things, like quoting what Biden and Harris used to say.
“Dan would have married this woman who was making a big play for him when I came on the scene and he’d be living in the South East,”
She’s the one who became a meth addict, right? Who would have cheated on Dan to underwrite her habit, gotten several STDs and given those to Dan — as well as three dumber than dirt children who’d have gone on to join a biker gang to be with their Mum?
NEVER assume that alternate histories end up happier, just as odds favor any past lives your soul might have known had been nasty, brutish and short.
~
You are clearly insufficiently skilled in the Way Of The Depressive.
Piffle – I have so far advanced i those arts that I am considered beyond black belt, rated as black braces, in fact. Being a born depressive amongst a tribe of depressives I long ago learned the truth of the adage that “This is the best of all possible worlds.”
If you do not understand the aspect of a cheerful depressive you are insufficiently versed in the art.
~
Oh I am quite familiar with it. The nice thing about a pitch black room is that an even extinguished candle wick is blinding.
LOL. Not that I know of, but yeah.
It’s like reincarnation. the best argument against reincarnation is that everyone seems to have been an interesting, rather glamorous, person rather than an illiterate peasant with a high portion of the past lives having curiously modern concerns.
My uncle made the argument that in previous lives we were all Chinese peasants. Given that what the Left wants us to be *now* I find it less funny than I used to.
A different take (Why do I seem to only discover these sorts of talents only after they’ve died? It gets depressing…)
The only one I’m aware of who reported memories of being an ordinary soldier or even a common pirate in addition to higher ranks was Patton.
It’s weird with writers. I have some very odd memories. And I remember really early in my life. I remember hearing Portuguese and thinking “Oh, not this shite again.”
And I’ll honestly say two might be known, but the others are dreary and kind of weird. Because not me.
One set might explain the obsession with Denver (I googled the name. Such an accident did happen. The kid was 6.)
BUT here’s the thing: writers’ heads are porous. If I take dictation from other worlds, why not other times?
So, who the heck knows?
I choose to believe I’m brand new, and YOLO.
Have you ever read stories of children who talk about their past lives? https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1dkj6o/has_a_child_ever_told_you_a_reincarnation_type/ has a lot of these stories. It’s enough to make me consider the possibility of reincarnation, though I agree that the adults who claim to have it are mostly likely making it up.
Come into the Mounds – You can exist a long long time ….
*toothy smile*
Chesterton observed in his day they were not only always royal but always Egyptian
“The next few years are going to suck.”
That’s what I thought when Carter became president, that’s what my parents were thinking in January of 1942, that’s what most of the nation was thinking in 1861, that’s what was the general opinio of Americans in 1776.
OTOH, good time never last, do they? Ain’t nobody lived happily ever after except in a fairy tale.
~
A fine point. I’m reminded of the “permanent Democrat majority” that All The Right People were assuring us of in 2008.
Of course, the fraud variable and propaganda machine is different now than in those other times, but three of those historical data points were far bleaker than our current mess.
Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
Biden didn’t just “become president”. He was NOT ELECTED. This is a totally different situation…
Or as I’ve been noting recently, sometimes 1989 happens.
More like, sometimes 1789 happens.
1989 was the year that every last nation in Eastern Europe removed its Soviet puppet government. It was a completely unexpected, out of the blue occurrence that no one in their wildest dreams foresaw happening so quickly. It started with Solidarity finally winning and East Germany opening the Wall, and ended with Nicolae Ceaucescu executed by his own government after people spontaneously didn’t applaud at the designated moment during one of his speeches.
I mean *exactly* what I said.
Aye. It felt like The Wall would be there “forever” and so on. That it fell apart in a cascade exceeded only by Criticality Incidents… it was genuinely astonishing to those alive during that time.
“Who won the Cold War?”
“Everyone!”
(Well, it sure seemed that way, just then.)
Yes, and the shocked look on Bush 41’s face when it happened – recall, old George was DCI up until Jimmeh took office, and as such was solidly in the IC’s 10ft-giant-Soviets USSR-will-never-end strategic-accommodation-with-the-inevitable-future camp – was really priceless.
The shocked moment when I was reading in the newspaper about the fall of the Berlin Wall, and how, of the East Berliners who poured through the wall to revel, about 99% of them had trudged back through the wall and the streets of East Berlin when it came time to sleep.
You don’t really know Us well, do you? 😉
Some to believe they only lived Happily Ever Before.
These are known as the “Forgetful.”
Yes, there were *some* good things in the 1970’s, say, but overall? Not so much.
“Kodak moments” are *moments* – not Reality.
Reality is a [name for dog, female]. And I apologize to the canines.
One can only *hope* that “St. Peter” is really a canine (in his nature), and figures people (of any species) are pretty good, really.
The wise old fairy tales never were so silly as to say that the prince and the princess lived peacefully ever afterwards. The fairy tales said that the prince and princess lived happily ever afterwards; and so they did. They lived happily, although it is very likely that from time to time they threw the furniture at each other.
— G. K. Chesterton
Or as C.S. Lewis once put it in ‘The Horse and His Boy’, Shasta and Aravis (the male and female leads, respectively) got so used to arguing and then making up that they figured they ought to get married and do it properly.
Got two grown kids, but have two more little ones, almost 3 and almost 5. The oldest grown one I lost to Bernie, to my great disappointment; and the 2nd is a staunch conservative. Of my good younger friends and family that I trust (and who, not coincidentally, are all of the emotionally stable and well adjusted), and who value what this country used to be, I’ve been imploring for the last few years to have babies. “The world needs better people”, I tell them. And within the past month, two different couples in that group finally brought a new little one each into the world.
My two little ones are going to be homeschooled. We’ll be living on our own 60 acres down in Mississippi within about a year. At some point, the rest of the adjacent parcels – about 160 more acres – will come into the fold.
Come on down, stay a while.
Where in MS if you don’t mind my asking? My husband’s niece lives there. Also we drive through MS when we go home to AL.
About 45 mins east of Jackson near a little town called Morton.
Our line has always been “can’t fix the world, just fix everything we can touch in our little corner”. My corner is each little kid in front of me. Your corner is the worlds you bring into being so well. Your corner keeps a lot of little corners sane and moving towards the Light.
Our line has always been “can’t fix the world, just fix everything we can touch in our little corner”. My corner is each little kid in front of me. Your corner is the worlds you bring into being so well. Your corner keeps a lot of little corners sane and moving towards the Light.
Thank you.
I “war-game” the actions of the Left to try to understand how they could reasonably believe that the inputs they are forcing could reach the results they seem to / claim to want, and I just can’t make the connection. I think that my problem is my insistence on reasonability and a selection for the likely results of a pattern of actions.
The actions present and future, of this mal-administration will break much of what America has, but I hope that we are resilient enough that what America IS survives.
To justify their imposition of martial law, “insurrection” must happen. I suspect that they will use both police excesses / anuses and crime to force a violent resistance.
The Progs will use the release from prison of selected gang members to fill the ranks of their new brownshirts / reconciliation forces in the way that the AGs in Portland, Seattle, and Chicago have done with their arrested rioters.
The left may be a Medusa.
We mayvneed to pay closer attention to those many heads.
See also: Spiked-online, long article about how Leftist money flows into their influence operations, following Pierre Omdyiar of EBay.
https://spiked-online/2021/01/29/the-billionaire-takeover-of-civil-society/
Link on the permalink page also.
John
The Spiked article TL;DR:
many heads … do you mean hydra?
Strongly suggest you check out the “raised by narcissists” reddit. Believe me, a lot of people with progressive views are not using logic. They wouldn’t recognize logic if you gave it to them giftwrapped and labeled!
Depending on how they’re used, “police anuses” might be the thing that pushes me toward violent action.
It’s not about making sense or making a better outcome. It’s about control, with a light dusting of Communist religion/ideology. If they have control, and they make the right sacrifices, eventually the Perfect World will materialize.
Some of the things happening seem SO provocative that I don’t think they are I tended to produce unity. And from what I can tell, TWANLOC are also being sold incredibly provacative tales to make them think peace with us monsters (what else would you call someone who thinks someone’s life doesn’t matter just because they are black O_o) is impossible… The Birchers claim that the first Civil War was deliberately engineered in that way to allow fundamental changes to these united States. I used to think the John Birch society was goofy. I also used to think the government didn’t listen to my phone calls. Here is the first part of a Bircher explaining it:
Feel free to tell me I’m going around the bend, but it sure looks like our noses are being rubbed into it harder and harder to provoke things on purpose. The latest Times story is practically “Here’s how we screwed you over, and you deserved it.”
PS The videos aren’t about the War, they are about political oddities leading up to it, so hopefully that’s allowed. If not I apologize.
The apparent strategy of the left (or the powers-that-be): If sufficiently provoked, eventually the Deplorables will respond and the result will lead to a civil war.
Why ? Qui bono ? I think most people have seen the extant ties Biden, his controllers, and the party faithful have with the CCCP. The Chinese are well-known for playing the long game. I submit this is their calculus:
1) War. The Democrats, Antifa, deep state, technocrats win. Result: victory for global communism / China.
2) War. The Democrats et al lose. Result: the country is wrecked physically and financially. Victory for global communism / China by elimnation of an economic competitor.
3) War. A stalemate. Either through secession of hostilities or actual secession of states, the country is weakened on the world stage by economic dimishment. Result: victory for global communism / China by elimination of an economic competitor.
So, by their calculus, how do they lose ? The CCCP’s investment in Biden may well prove to be the best investment in History, sad to say.
They lose because they need us to survive. BUT TBF they might not GET that.
We’ll be stronger in other ways once the left no longer controls our institutions. So secession or a war we win could put us in a better position overall, even if the immediate cost is high.
Plus, the left is crippling us anyway. At this point, what do we have to lose by getting rid of them?
THIS.
MEA CULPA. That should have been police excesses / ABUSES.
Damn autocorrect.
John
But police anuses are something that the left abhors as well… :`D
I confess that I abhor them as well…
You addressed so much of what I’ve been ruminating over. An unhealthy rumination, that has resulted in a profound contempt for my friends, neighbors & community. I can’t believe how they’re going along with, if not enabling, this junta. It’s has made me so angry and bitter. But your advice on how to handle it is spot on. Not too different from Viktor Frankl. Thank you.
I need to get another copy of Man’s Search For Meaning. (I swear I had one somewhere…)
I still have hope that there is a plan and our military IS protecting us from this communist takeover through fraud. Just a bit longer…
I believe the military is as corrupt as every other part of the US government.
One of my problem that is that my social support system is weak. If I’m financially trapped and barely treading water in my own self-management, what kind of support can I offer to others? If those who are closest to me and know me best are relentlessly critical, how can I trust acquaintances or strangers?
Sometimes emotional support is enough. And maybe those who know you best are wrong. Happens.
Don’t underestimate the effect of being able to unload a bit to a stranger.
Sometimes you’re just surrounded by… jerks, to put it politely. Seriously, sometimes it’s not you who’s the screwup, it really is everyone else.
The nice thing about confiding in strangers is that you don’t have to care about whether they have an opinion of you, or what it is.
That’s really what the function of a psychologist/counselor is – or should be – a non-involved person that you can tell your problems to, who isn’t going to get offended because you don’t like cousin Ethel’s brownies, but aren’t allowed to refuse to eat them. Or whatever.
I’ve heard that people used to be able to get that kind of listening ear in bars, but I don’t know if that’s true anymore, or how one would go about finding a sympathetic-looking sucker to bounce things off of.
Maybe it would be as simple as going up to someone and saying “You look indifferent and non-reactive. Can I sit here and pour out my woes to you? I’ll buy you a drink for the trouble”?
Or you can scream into the void of the Internet. You never know, sometimes the void returns useful suggestions.
And sometimes the void screams back… 😛
“And if thou scream long into an abyss, the abyss will also scream ‘Fuck off and let me sleep!’ at thee.”
– Nietzsche, kinda
“One of my problem that is that my social support system is weak. If I’m financially trapped and barely treading water in my own self-management, what kind of support can I offer to others?”
It’s *because* you’re in the circumstances you’re in that you can offer support, encouragement, and wisdom to others. You see things from a perspective that’s typically dismissed, but it offers wisdom about perseverance, loyalty, how not to despair too often…. This is stuff people need to know, and you’re living it.
My advice on critical fam: get away and stay the hell away from them unless you absolutely have to engage. They are using you and you deserve better. I’ll assume you’ve evaluated their criticisms and have taken/left them as needed.
“If those who are closest to me and know me best are relentlessly critical, how can I trust acquaintances or strangers?”
You get to make the decision to trust or not, as a default. And you determine the degree to which that trust exists. If you decide to risk trusting other people, you’ll get burned at some point. Maybe a lot. Maybe a sequence of burns that’ll make you feel like giving up and saying “Yes. I am a hermit.” Trusting is the only way we have to connect, and the connections that happen are worth every bit of pain from the burns.
Thank you. I can’t disengage from critical family entirely, but I do limit my interaction. It’s taken me years to evaluate the criticisms and understand which ones were true and correct, which ones were based on misperceptions and self-interest, and which ones were outright malicious. Being a hermit has served me reasonably well during this COVIDiocy, but eventually, I hope that my outreach attempts will become less cautious and diffident and more fruitful.
Good luck to you!
My sister is having her eighth child and sixth boy; this one is unplanned by her but I’m happy about it. Having so many nieces and nephews makes me feel better about not having children myself. I want to do what I can to give them a fighting chance.
There is a dog who didn’t bark here. Who leads the left? Clearly someone decided his fraudulency was going to win just before South Carolina. Who gave the order?
Every one obediently dropped out, including one of the richest men on earth, someone with their own TV network. What was he offered? Or did one of Hilary’s “friends” leave a horse for him?
Who is in charge of their clambake?
Consider this: The left has organization, but no leader. The right has a leader, but no organization. Who wins?
To see God’s possible hand in this, consider how many corrupt repub members have outed themselves in this mess. Perhaps this is the only way to expose all the corruption, and build a party that is not part of the uniparty. We must go through this fiery trial.
This reminds me of of a hymn: “How Firm a Foundation”, a verse goes:
” When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not harm thee, I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”
Just remember:
When Peter walks on water poorly, Jesus does not calm the storm until they get into the boat. He seems to delight in sending us into storms and fiery furnaces.
As long as the questions don’t spiral into premillenial dispensationalism….
Who leads a swarm of starlings doing that mob flight trick they do?
actually we don’t have an organization. And I’m not even sure Trump is the leader.
BUT we’re Americans.
You might want to point that out to Rick Moran.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/02/05/local-republican-parties-come-down-hard-on-anti-trump-apostates-n1423424
Maybe this column from Kim Du Toit should be tattooed on his forehead:
https://www.kimdutoit.com/2021/02/05/too-late-she-cried/
Sarah, if by some chance you have not watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” you should. And when you feel it would have been better had you not been born, remember it and listen for bells.
my highest hope is to sit down with you and John Ringo at Libertycon in a few years, sip some 24-year old scotch and laugh about this past year.
Click to access Mask-Order-CDC_GMTF_01-29-21-p.pdf
“All persons traveling on conveyances into and within the United States must wear a mask over the mouth and nose.”
“Operators of transportation hubs must ensure that any person entering or on the premises wears a mask”
Apparently this includes planes, trains, buses, subways, Uber/Lift, etc
So much for Federalism.
I love how they put the exemptions waaaaaay far back in the order.
“So much for Federalism.”
Remember, for the Left “Federalism” has two meanings:
1) When the Administration is headed by a Democrat, the Feds craft the plans, issue the orders, claims credit for all successes, and states (especially the Red ones) take the blame for any failures.
2) When the Administration is headed by a Republican, the Feds craft the plans, issue the orders, takes the blame for any failures, and states (especially the Blue ones) get the credit for any successes.
~
Wisdom.
Believe me, I know how negative this will sound, but I just don’t see any clean way out of this mess. The only way to defeat this socialism is to let the people have what they’ve “voted” for, good and hard (yes, scare quotes around voted). It seems like it’s the only thing that will ever possibly awaken these people.
Definitely no clean way out, but there are three things worth focusing on, that will bear results.
Thing to keep in mind here, these folks have pushed a lot of people out, and made the regime very fragile. The decision makers now are deranged and delusional, and will be erratic and do their reputation a great deal of harm in the process of attempting to wreak the US. But since they believe in top down government, and disbelieve that bottom up government exists, they will pick targets that are not the center of gravity.
Things you can productively focus on:
1. Take care of yourself.
2. Local election process.
3. If you have the appropriate gifts, there are events that will probably occur, and actions to be taken.
Taking care of your own local situation, and discarding concerns about the big national issues, can be a path to victory. (US is big, and when you start looking at the numbers of reliably coopted persons, they are few. Congress does not realize how much they have relied on the reputation and persuasion they have thrown away.) The are counting on being able to stampede folks into holding certain positions, or acceding to certain claims. Disconnect emotionally, and do not be persuaded.
” you’re in a relationship but not married, and the relationship is good, commit to it. Get married. Go all in. Being half committed is not enough to see you through the hard times. As with whatever occupation you find yourself in, do it with your whole heart and soul.
If you can have children, have them. Looking after them is the best way to become adults, and it’s what makes us fully human. Besides, they will give you something to live for through the hard times.” – Sarah Hoyt
Mostly lurker and forgive the TMI post-
This came a difficult time for me as I very much want to do exactly that. However, I’m getting old for a first child and while my long term boyfriend and I are comfortable with each other, I think he’s drunk the koolaide. I’m contemplating getting out of a deep blue state, but upon telling the BF that I’m looking elsewhere, he said he’s not sure he can follow me because he’ll be killed for being neuro-atyplical and Jewish.
I don’t even know where to begin. Do I cut my losses and flush the last decade? How do I try persuasion when he’s declared that I’m misguided in the right wing news bubble because he’s researched these issues and I’m misinformed? Do I just accept the differences in opinion, which were fine pre-WuFlu, but have become increasingly divisive? Head-desk, head-desk, head-desk.
Tell him he sounds just like my Orthodox Jewish wife’s NYC friends and relations in 2001. Still alive, still married, and glad she moved.
Tell him at this point he’s more likely to face persecution from Dems than from anyone else. Here in NYC, Cuomo the Killer won’t forgive or forget and DiBlassio and the rest of his jackbooted thugs simply lack a good tailor to make them Nazi’s in fact.
On the other hand, my wife says people who can’t live together shouldn’t have to, but then her father was a psychopath. if you’re banging your head you need to ask yourself about going forward. What’s past is past and is what economists call sunk costs. you have to decide is the future worth it. In a way you’re lucky since there aren’t children to factor in.
Good luck.
Snelson and BGE-
Thank you for responding to me. I happen to agree with your assessments of the political situation, but how to get that through to someone who really takes people at face value and has bought into, what I consider weaponized, “fairness”? The saving grace in this situation is if his face is rubbed in primary sources backing up the opposing position, he’ll often acknowledge that they’re correct. However, I don’t know where to begin to search for the info that might be persuasive when anything from the “right wing” (read NewsMax, Brietbert, or Fox) is automatically disregarded as spreading lies and fake news and I’m boycotting the U-tube, besides anyone speaking out there would also be written off as a conspiracy nut.
I run into the same problem trying to convince my relatives. They refuse to allow anything vaguely rightwing as a source, and I won’t accept the Democrat Media as a source. We’re operating in two separate information realities.
There’s none so blind as will not see. His refusing to look is a datum. I hesitate to give advice to a stranger but would reiterate the notion of sunk cost. The only thing that matters now is the future. You have no vows, there are no children. Money, property, etc., you don’t say, let’s assume it’s a wash. There’s only his and your future. There’s a price no matter what you do and you have to decide which price you’re going to pay. it’s the comfort of the known versus the risk of the unknown. The hardest lesson to learn is that it’s all unknown and that no decision is a decision.
I truly wish you luck.
CDC had/has an aggregate murder/homicide rate, was on the order of 10k per year.
Census has stats on categories like jew. Comparison of the data is a pretty strong indication that the expected rate of murder for a Jew cannot be that huge.
Of course, while the census is pretty easily to tie to locations, CDC aggregates are not. Otherwise, it would be pretty easy to do the analysis, and walk someone through each step, and show that risks might be fairly low. I’m not sure where to find localized crime stats.
Joker in the deck is the ‘neuro-atypical’. That can include things like bipolar, which can be co-morbid with substance abuse. Substance abuse has a higher risk of fatal accident, and a higher risk of being murdered. So as a category, ‘neuro-atypical’ takes some work to develop good risk estimates for from impartial data.
As an aside, I personally dislike the term ‘neuro-atypical’. Neurotypical was coined by an autistic for an elaborate joke, where neurotypical was used to mean not autistic. So neuro-atypical and neurodivergent are implicitly claiming to be categories that include autistics. The common usage of these terms is as categories that include autism, bipolar, etc. These are a bunch of wildly different conditions, with different mechanisms, treatments, and coping techniques. As categories, at worst they conflate condition A, and condition B, and use condition A as a basis to recommend treatment C, regardless of whether treatment C is counter productive for condition B.
“… has bought into, what I consider weaponized, “fairness”?”
Having grown up Jewish in West Virginia and currently residing in North Carolina nobody has tried to kill me in nearly seventy years … well, fifty-five years, but I don’t think my big brother had problems with my being Jewish … I think your guy is reaching conclusions based on tainted evidence and needs to eschew his provincial tendencies and abandon regionalism. He should try seeing realities on the ground himself rather than taking Deliverance (or anything by Michael Moore) as documentary.
Travel a bit. Georgia has one of America’s oldest synagogues, Florida claims third place, behind New York and California, for largest Jewish populations of the fifty states, and a little searching on the term “Florida Man” ought relieve all concern over being neuro-atyplical, Wikipedia asserts that “Until the 1830s, the Jewish community of Charleston, South Carolina, was the largest in North America.”
There is a term for people who judge populations by the reporting of others, and it is not one he ought want to claim.
~
Dawn, the only thing I can offer is, “What if I show you that the Merdia are lying to you? How many examples of that would it take to make you doubt them in general and, if not fully distrust them, at least question them regularly and accept questions as valid when provided externally?”
Then present him with examples of lying and/or misinformation by the Left Merdia —
1) Compare results from DuckDuckGo with Google. Two particular examples come to mind:
Google/DDG “Jake Tapper Fact Checks Jake Tapper”. This is a specific headline from RedState, which DDG has at #2 in the results, and google won’t show you in the first three pages of results.
2) NOW. Yes, the response is going to be, “That’s just google eliminating fake news”. Except all it is ACTUALLY doing is showing how Jake Tapper’s OWN TWEETS from 2016 show him to be lying after the 2020 debate. He acked in a tweet after the 2016 debate with Hillary that Trump disavowed any connection with white supremacists. But after the first 2020 debate, he openly lied and said Trump had never done it. He’s not going to be able to claim “fake”, when it’s some reporter in their own words lying.
3) Similarly, you should be able to find Chris Wallace doing the same thing. I haven’t been able to re-find it, but there was a similar piece that showed CW making the same admission after Trump-Clinton that he denied Trump had done after Trump-Biden.
4) Viva Frei, a law vlogger, has two examples of “fact checking” which he shows are overt lies. DDG (DuckDuckGo — if you still use Google you’re a fool) “Viva Frei fact check”. CNN, The Network of the Flaming Pants”
5) Also DDG “Viva Frei Candace Owens”. She has a lawsuit going on which challenges two of FB’s “fact checkers” as not just lying, but making money from their lies. And again, VF provides the needful evidence that a rational person can see that there is AT LEAST a good reason to doubt both.
6) Get an EXACT TRANSCRIPT of Trump’s speech in Columbia, SC, where he’s accused of saying “White Supremacists are good people” — collect multiple online recitations of that “quotation” in those exact words or similar, and contrast them with the transcript, which blatantly shows that the merdia are lying their asses off about what he said…
7) Search for a video which has 20 instances of Trump disavowing white supremacy… or some similar count. It’s out there, and contrast this with x examples of the merdia claiming he’s never distanced himself from them.
If, after all that, he won’t ack that he can’t trust the merdia completely, cut your losses and head for a red state without him.
It does not sound like he respects you. “You’re in a right-wing bubble.” “You’re misguided.” “You have wrong opinions, I have Truth!” And then refusing to listen to anything you say.
You have to decide if that’s what you want to put up with for the rest of your life.
———————————
Argumentum ad nauseum — to keep repeating the same bullshit until everybody is so sick of it they stop listening, then claim victory.
It is AWFULLY difficult to be in a “right-wing” bubble in this world, even if you get all your news from Fox, Breitbart and similarly tilted sources. A great deal of their news coverage is addressing what the MSM is reporting (and how it misrepresents events, history, and everything else misrepresentable.) Living in a left-wing bubble, OTOH, is extremely easy. One should always be a critical consumer of news, and few left-wing bubble dwellers are.
This is a point she might want to make.
~
Precisely. The comic sums it up perfectly. The only thing it’s missing is the so called “neutral” fact checkers.
Replying to other folks-
Spero- have you found any sources that you and the relatives are both willing to accept?
BobtheRegisteredFool- in this case, neuro-atypical = Aspergers. I was quoting a conversation from last week where he used the imprecise “PC” term. There are times when I think his liberal politics are a consequence of taking people at face value and an inability to grok that it’s always necessary to look for the ulterior motive.
Imaginos1892- Regarding “misguided” and “in a bubble,” yes, it’s something I need to contemplate.
RES- Thank you for the history lesson. I think I was vaguely aware of some of the stats you mentioned, but had never put it together like that. And yes, I think next something comes up, I’ll try mentioning “There is a term for people who judge populations by the reporting of others, and it is not one he ought want to claim.”
“One should always be a critical consumer of news, and few left-wing bubble dwellers are.” My big question is how to help someone become a critical consumer of news? I would love to share Sarah’s “How to Read the News in Totalitarianism” article, but I know it’ll be disregarded.
Overall, I’m still holding out hope that persuasion can work, but how?
You can’t persuade somebody if they won’t listen to what you say, and THINK about it. If they won’t consider for even a second that you might have a point. If they’re convinced they already know everything, so if you disagree you are by definition wrong.
People are best persuaded when they reach conclusions o their own, from sources they recognize as legitimate — that is one reason the rhetoric courses rate “admissions against interest” as highly credible.
Thus:
1) search out and (if practical) print out the many arguments published in the MSM before the November election, warning of the dangers of mail-in balloting.
2) print (if practical) for him the just published Time magazine article about the cabal (their word) of Big Business, union, and other special interests rigging of the election.
3) dig out the NY Post article about Hunter Biden’s laptop, ask him a) if he acknowledges its suppression, b) why he thinks it was suppressed, and c) whether he agrees with the approximately six percent of Biden voters who reported they would not have voted for Joe had they known about the laptop. Point out that the margin of Biden’s victory was far less than that.
4) Re-read Sarah’s “How to Read the News in Totalitarianism” article until you’ve committed the basic elements to memory, then feed those to him piecemeal, artfully, by asking suitable questions of the “Hmmmm … why do you believe that?” sort. Use those elements when discussing politics to reframe his assertions, such as pointing out the half billion dollars of damage done by “mostly peaceful protests” in Minneapolis (Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Washington DC, and elsewhere and ask why the reporting of the Washington DC riots of January 6 were different than all those others.
5) when (if) you watch news together, be active in analyzing it. Ask questions of the “Wonder why they’re framing the story that way” sort, or observe recent similar stories were reported differently.
6) make random observations such as “I know this person online who is Jewish and jokes the reason Jews have always been hated is “We keep our own set of books” and counter those in power who declare “Things have never been better!” I doubt the Pharaohs appreciated the Jews’ version of life in Egypt, nor the Romans fond of their Middle Eastern subjects. I know for fact that the Soviet Union disliked the Baltic Jews rebuttal to “Things in Riga have never been better!” — especially as those Jews pointed out that about which the Soviets bragged — grand architecture, museums, culture — predated the Soviet arrival.
7) slip a red pill into his drink, assuming you can find one. If you cannot, then simply gradually chip away at his conditioning, letting him discern the flaws in what he’s being told.
~
Excellent suggestions. I’ve been thinking in a similar vein, but tbh I’m not in good practice doing it, because we’re somewhat socially isolated at the moment. Maybe I should make myself some scripts…
Frankly, as a Jew, I would be a hell of a lot more worried about getting attacked in NYC, Boston, or Detroit than anywhere in Texas, Indiana, or Virginia
A tacit admission from Time Magazine that yes, the Left conspired with big business in a “shadow campaign” (Time’s wording) to shape recent events.
https://archive.is/i9v7f
Breitbart has two pieces on this also; I posted link to the other one which is not showing in the timeline yet:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/05/time-magazine-secret-well-funded-cabal-worked-to-protect-2020-election/
Democratic Party media admitting that the Democrats rigged the election but that the rigging was okay and was in the “defense of democracy” because the rigging insured that the “correct” candidate won: Of course in true Oceania fashion, they refer to the rigging as “fortifying” the election
https://www.wordnik.com/words/tacit
That isn’t tacit – it’s explicit. And admissible as a confession.
So what are they trying to ward off by this? Do they really think that the conspiracy can be spun right now that its exposure is inevitable?
Or are they trying to take a victory lap by being able to gloat publicly about it?
Democratic Party media admitting that the Democrats rigged the election but that the rigging was okay and was in the “defense of democracy” because the rigging insured that the “correct” candidate won:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/05/delingpole-presidential-election-wasnt-rigged-it-was-fortified-says-time-magazine/
Of course in true Oceania fashion, they refer to the rigging as “fortifying” the election.
I have to go work, and take care of my corner of things… But I dropped by to say that I think WandaVision maybe the best news commentary show about the 2020 election crisis on TV. Daring of Disney at a time when not even Newsmax or Fox will cover it anymore.
We have always been at war with Eastasia.
The real question is why did they admit it? Is this an attempt to spin it because the truth is too blatant? Or because it’s about to become so (and if so, why?)? Or are they just attempting to gloat?
c4c
Sarah,
I’m working on that WSB meme post you asked for and I’ve discovered something. It looks like I can put images directly into the .rtf file, which would save you from having to download and insert them all yourself. Shall I do this or do you PREFER to handle images on your side?
I can try?
No. doc files, the images have to be saved and re-uploaded.
Just making sure I’m clear on this: You want a .doc file rather than an .rtf, and you’ll be handling images on your end?
No. You can see if the RTF will work. It might not though.
Let’s try it out before I do the whole thing this way, then. I’ve just sent an e-mail to your hotmail account titled “guest post test.” The attached .rtf should have a single image in it. Let me know if you see it.
In fact, put it in the editor as a post and preview it while you’re at it, just to be sure.
Sarah,
Just going out on a limb here, but I’m guessing the test post never made it to your gmail account either?