Apparently over the weekend a movie called The American Society of Magical Negroes bombed pretty badly at the box office.

The first I heard of it was that Hollywood was blaming the black population of America for not doing enough to promote it. Which, as one of you put it, is bizarre lunacy, because even if all 14% of America that self identifies as black were madly in love with it and pushed it, how would it have made the movie a blockbuster.

Put that in your mental tab for a moment. We’ll come back to it.

Today I stumbled on an article on it in Bounding Into Comics, and in it this curious quote from the director.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, when Grier, Smith, and Libii talked about their own “experience with racism,” Smith said, “It’s so funny because, as black audiences… as any marginalized person can attest to, we’ve had to find ourselves in white stories.”

“We’ve had to find white characters that we identify with for so long, and then now that we’re centering ourselves in these stories white audiences, for the first time ever, are being like, ‘Oh, like, like, now I have to find myself, even though no one in this looks like me. Like, I really identify with this protagonist.’ But that’s where empathy comes from, you know, that’s where actual movement comes from,” the actor asserted.

I was flabbergasted. The whole idea that there are black stories and white stories is bizarrely racist. There are human stories. There are cultural stories.

Most of the movies made in America, before the curious plague of woke, were simply American stories. They couldn’t be written or filmed anywhere else. The skin color of the actor playing it might matter, if the character’s back story indicated the character was black or of African origin, or white, or purple with polkadots. Or it might not matter at all. Men in Black (the first) would work just as well if both leads were white, or both were black, or whatever. It would not work if the characters were other than American.

The idea that skin color is somehow a culture is one that Hitler believed in. Your skin color, your level of tan, your ancestry defines everything about you, and you must think and feel and have a common culture and values of people of similar levels of tan. This is also self-evidently crazy cakes, if you’ve ever been outside the US where the northern European cultures span the gamut from England to Scandinavia to areas of France, and no, they’re not all the same, not even close.

Even more so, if you’ve ever been to or even studied Africa, you know that it’s not all the same culture. In fact, it’s a new culture every hundred miles or so, with completely different values, language, etc.

Seriously, it’s an idea so stupid and provincial, only our exquisitely educated entertainment elites could believe this. And that’s because they’ve been indoctrinated into believing it.

Ultimately, though, given the joy with which they take over those “white stories” like, oh, the life of Anne Boleyn (I do realize that was in England, but the overculture at this point is all the same crazy) or “the Little Mermaid” just by changing the characters to black, the truth is that I have to suspect they really are extremely shallow and only believe they can “see themselves” in the stories if they are played out before their eyes by people of the same exact skin color or close enough.

I can’t describe the level of shallowness of this, which makes it doubly hilarious to hear the director lecture the world on empathy. That’s just the chef’s kiss.

To be fair I started being furious at this with women who couldn’t read books — fantasy, science fiction, whatever — unless the protagonist were a woman.

This is just as childish, and a fatal flaw of human empathy and understanding of humanity.

I don’t think it’s normal either. I think you need to be indoctrinated to be that bizarrely incapable of functioning like a normal human being.

Because as an eleven year old girl in Portugal I could read stories of middle aged men in a future US and empathize with the heroes and dread the villains. The story didn’t need to have women, or people with Portuguese names or whatever.

Okay, Sarah, you say, but if you don’t need it, why not let them do the good stories with an all black cast? Why aren’t people going to it?

Well, you know the problem is… remember I told you to open a tab and leave it open? These people apparently believe that the black population of the US is about 50%. Mostly because that’s what they see in the movies and TV. And if they grew in urban areas, they might very well think that’s reality too.

But it isn’t. And this is why movies and TV shows that have entirely black casts tend to strike people as false. And even black people tend to bounce away from it, because it’s not real, and at some level they know it’s not real. At least black people that live in the real world.

You can tell a story with an all white cast, sure, because you can tell a story with roughly 75% of the population and it just incidentally doesn’t include any other parts of it. But telling the entire story with 14% is ridiculous and it feels forced and bizarre.

And what’s causing all this lunacy, including people thinking they can’t identify with other humans of different sex or skin color, is … well, propaganda.

Propaganda has convinced people that they’re widgets who belong only with other people who look exactly like them.

And it has driven deep rifts between men and women, between people of different tans (or not even that. Again a world in which Megan Markle is black is a world not in contact with reality.) It has brought us to the edge of destruction, with everyone thinking everyone slightly different from them is out to get them.

And it’s ridiculous. All of it is utterly ridiculous.

The people who bought into it hook line and sinker, and think it’s vital to propagate it in every piece of entertainment and every news item, and every possible mass communication, also expect to be rewarded for it with accolades and told they’re doing good.

And when it doesn’t happen, they’re baffled and angry because it must mean people are really out to get them.

And this is where we are.

The only way to back out of this, particularly now when they are so lacking into imagination that they can’t tell compelling stories that aren’t the equivalent of just screaming at the audience, is to replace them.

We have to tell stories that appeal to people. And keep doing it. And break all the stereotypes. And bring people together, instead of apart.

It’s nothing, right? So?

Roll up the sleeves and get to it.

A Peek Into American Racism, or is it? by the Balloonatic

I finally decided to join the platform previously known as Twitter, now X almost a year ago. And it took this long for me to finally unlock the “Blocked by Raging Leftist” achievement. It happened when I was scrolling through my feed on my break a few days ago and casually commented on a political post where someone was replying to a post about Trump being racist by observing that Biden had idolized a KKK leader. Another left-leaning commenter countered that Mitch McConnell and a bunch of other Republican senators had also attended and spoken at the late Senator Byrd’s funeral, so I posted what I thought would be a drive-by comment that no true conservative supports Mitch McConnell. Boy, was I wrong. Almost three days and I’m sure hundreds of comments later as I’m writing this, the conversation is still going on.

It’s been an interesting conversation over all. My ADHD has been in full force the past week as I’ve been putting in 10+ hour days while still trying to keep up with the work on the house, the never-ending housework, trying to get some exercise in because I’m spending too much time on my butt in front of a computer and definitely not getting enough sleep. Today I broke down and had a 3 hour nap – something that usually only happens if under migraine meds or severely ill. I ended up exchanging posts with a young man who seems geniunely curious about where I’m coming from as well as a very angry young woman who has not yet learned how to have a civil discussion. I’m afraid that I let my sense of humor get the better of me to the detriment of the conversation, but I’ve always found it hard to resist poking bears. Internet bears, at least. Real bears are much more dangerous.

The discussion ended up scattering in many directions, mostly due to me getting distracted (squirrel) because when you get a chance to actually speak to someone who is listening, how can you not want to take advantage of it? But trying to have a good discussion when you’re limited to 160 characters at a time is frustrating to someone who actually adores writing essays and loved that part of university, even if they usually were written at the last minute or handed in late. We ended up discussing racism, poverty, culture and programs which are run usually by the government and large organizations that deal with the first two and ignore the third, which is why I think they almost always fail.

I think the first problem in discussing racism with other people, especially if they are a generation or two younger than you is that you will each have different definitions of racist. I am not going to deny racism is real. I’ve encountered it in several of the standard racist stereotypes, from the right and from the left. In some ways, I feel like the person in the meme that shows them slightly left of center, with someone to the left of them and someone to the right of them. Then the next image shows the person now being in the center, with the left moving farther left, and honestly, it should also show the right moving farther right. More time passes and the person who was left of center is now right of center, with the person at the left moving even further left, and the person on the right still far right. I think really, there should be a fourth person added, who was just right of the center line and is now in what would be the middle right. But I digress. The squirrels are still distracting me!

My encounter with the far right happened after my divorce. I entered the world of online dating. It was fun in some ways, but very eye-opening in others. It was a lot of chatting, sometimes talking on the phone, but mainly texting and getting to know other people. I was filtering for fellow conservatives, because politics can be very divisive in a relationship. There was one man I was starting to get to know, who seemed pretty nice and we were getting along until he asked a question that stunned me. He asked me what color my son was. When I asked why that would matter, he made a comment about not wanting to be in a relationship with any woman who may have had sex with a black man. He then accused me of all sorts of things and was quickly blocked. I was shocked. You hear about people like that, but you never really think that they exist, and they do. I’ve heard of the same happening in the reverse, so I am now under the impression that those stories are true, too.

The racism that I’ve seen on the left though, was different to that, but just as racist in its own way. People who know me in real life or on social media, have heard me talk about my neighbor. For the sake of privacy, I will call her Mrs. C, using the initial of her actual first name. When I first moved to my current home, I was quickly welcomed by my neighbors to the east. The neighbors to the west, Mrs. C and her husband, were an older couple and we really did not hit it off well to start. They introduced themselves by telling me that in the months before I technically took possession of the house in June until we moved in August, one of the oak trees on the side between our two houses had fallen down against my house, so they had it cut down and they presented me a bill for my half of the cost. Well. And then there were other issues. We had dogs, so one of the first things I did was hire a contractor to put up a fence and do some things around the house while my ex was back in Tulsa getting our previous house ready to put on the market. I quickly learned that contractors say one thing, but getting them to actually do what they said for the price they quoted is another, and ended up with a rather substandard fence that was definitely not dog-proof so the dogs were escaping out into the neighborhood. And then there were barking restrictions. And increasingly larger fines if your dogs barked for more than ten minutes at night. And someone was calling the police constantly on the dogs, and I was sure it was Mrs and Mr. C.

Why? It was election season, and it was obvious they were Democrats. Mrs. C is one of those nosy neighbors, always pointing things out, like lights left on in the house and the garage. What sealed my dislike for them, though, was that first Hallowe’en. I was trying to find out what the neighborhood normally did and was informed that Hallowe’en was Mr. C’s birthday, and they did not hand out candy any more because the neighbourhood was inundated with trick-or-treaters from the poorer area just north of us. Black kids. Not their kind. So I held my tongue and kept my distance. But oh, the horror when the young family two houses down from them ended up moving and a black family moved in. That made two black families and a mixed race family on our street! The Horror! They said their kids told them it was time to move. It made me wonder what they thought and how they were judging me when my younger brother came to visit with his beautiful, amazing three brown children he has with his Grenada-born wife. But I shrugged it off as their loss and kept my distance. I had seen that type of racism in my Ex’s family, too, when the rich white women would gather to talk about debutante balls and pat themselves on the back for being inclusive and allowing in black girls, while their black and hispanic maids cleaned their houses.

However, as time went on, I got to know Mrs and Mr C a little better. We began to build a bit of a friendship. I found out that no, it wasn’t they who were calling the cops every time the dogs barked. In fact, I found out that Mr. C had been sneaking over to my fence and giving the dogs treats. Turns out he likes dogs and missed having one. My regret now is that my military/gun-loving son didn’t get to spend more time with Mr C and join him at his gun club and talk about his time in the service. So after Mr. C ended up having to move into assisted living due to Parkinson’s and dementia, I tried to keep a bit of an eye on Mrs. C. And then covid hit, and people were being told to stay home, don’t go outside, don’t socialize with others. Isolation is not good for anyone, especially seniors. So one day I called Mrs. C and invited her for Sunday supper. And a tradition began. I think since early 2020 there may be less than a dozen Sundays where Mrs. C hasn’t joined us for Sunday dinner. We were there for her when she needed to talk to someone about how hard it was for her not to be able to visit Mr. C, to have to try to find his room and wave at him from the window. And we have continued to be there for her. And she is there for us. She went with me to my divorce hearing. She has been there to support and encourage me as I rebuild both my house and my life.

What does this have to do with racism, you may ask? Are you off chasing squirrels again? Well, the funny thing is that once you spend time with people, get to know them, treat them with respect and love them, they change. It is not an instant thing. It is sometimes a years long process. But it happens. Three Hallowe’ens ago, when I was getting ready for the trick-or-treaters, Mrs. C invited me over to join her other neighbours, as they set up lawn chairs with blankets, and a table full of treats for the kids. And Mrs. C started ooing and awing over the cute costumes and those beautiful smiles, and talking to those folk who live just north of us. A new tradition has been born. And a passing comment the other day – “Boy, that man who lives two doors down sure is doing a great job improving his house and keeping up with the yard.”

I talked to my son about his experiences while we were in the car together and he was able to confirm this. He attends a school where the majority of the students are black, so while they study traditional English stuff like Shakespeare, he also had some interesting assignments based on a lecture and writings of an African author named Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on “Danger of a Single Story.” His essays on that and our recent talk led into a good discussion about how the racism he encounters is not like that man I chatted with online. That it’s more about judging people based on our own pre-conceptions, perpetuating stereotypes instead of learning about people as individuals and hearing their story, and that the same thing applies to how he is treated as someone who is white. That the only harassment based on color has been kids who are black making fun of those who are not black enough. So yes, racism exists in the U.S. in many forms. But in my experience, it isn’t limited to just one group or another. And it’s not as prevalent as people try to push. It’s more about putting people into boxes instead of getting to know them as individuals, something that everyone is guilty of. Most of us are just regular people who really don’t care what color you are. I’ll smile at you, and hope you smile back. In the end, we are all Americans, and that should be all that matters.

All over the world, the pseudo-expert elites are embattled and being challenged by increasingly more vocal masses who have had about enough.

In a way it’s a very recognizable landscape to students of history, and it will make you go “um…. I see it.”

Or at least it should be recognizable, because in the history of mankind there have been many such periods of equilibrium that finally break and lend to periods of extreme turmoil.

The turmoil isn’t always bad, and the result suddenly isn’t always bad, but while it’s happening, it feels like the world itself is coming apart, even in the places not afflicted by turmoil and horror.

In a way this is a continuing of the turmoil from the eighteenth century, even if the “nobility” is wearing a different mask. What you have to understand is that Marx, and his theories, and the thing they whelped were not revolutions, but an attempt by the “elites” to stop the the revolution and establish a new equilibrium where they could again ride mankind as though we’d been born with saddles. But the patch put on the software doesn’t work. The system is not stable. And it’s now obviously tearing itself apart.

Yeah, I see you looking at me with the look on your faces that’s best transcribed as “Arooo?”

Look, Marx glomed onto the somewhat cyclical nature of history (over the very, very long run) and decided it was not only a much shorter cycle, applicable to the problems of his time, but also that it was all going to automagically work to gratify envious grifters.

Then he wrapped it all in the words of superiority and expertise, and it’s been killing millions ever since.

But its one actual, appreciable effect was to mimic the end of a cycle. Or rather its devotees brought about extreme instability and mimicked the end of a cycle over and over again, in a sort of blood-soaked cargo-cult, thereby satisfying Marx’s idea of:

Instability — revolution –?????? — Utopia.

It hasn’t worked, not in the long run, because it’s not an organic cycle, it’s an underwear gnome on.

The first attempt at such a reset was actually pre-Marx and trying to mimic the organic nature of the American revolution (Which was the first fruit of cycle change due to unique circumstances, and yes, I’ll explain) and what it ended up doing after the revolution and the ???? was letting things go back to the way they were, but hitting just in time for the Marxist deformations, which means the “new” system patch on the old system worked worse than the old one even in disintegration.

Every other one since, as well as attempts to install part of Marx’s patch to avoid revolution which Marx assures us will come otherwise (here, most of the west, etc etc) only leads to the same weird mix of old and new, with the new being worse than the old, somehow.

So, to explain, humanity, over the very, very long periods of time goes through cycles which we’ll call diaspora. This means we spread out, colonize “new” territory (new to the group. We’ve been stealing land from each other from prehistory because land we could use and get to was limited and almost always had other humans on it. BTW the whole “the frontier is closed” is bullshit on the same order as thinking we live worse than in the fifties. In our 4x larger homes. Sure. There is no land anywhere where there aren’t some humans and which are not claimed by some potentate. And? The point being we can get to other hands very fast. What is happening with the idiots streaming over our border is that they think they’re conquering new frontiers. And I’m going to stand by idiots. Because they’re traipsing into the lion’s den and going “I’ll make this the dining room.” But that’s a whole other post. Except that again, it’s the “elites” attempt to turn back the tide and back engineer Marx’s revolution to their profit. It will end in tears. Of blood.)

These are relatively free times (and part of the reason that the American revolution was the much-advanced “first fruits even while the rest of the world was still going the other way.) Then something forces the centralization of authority, power, etc. And centralization (to whatever degree. In the stone age it might be merely to tribe level) proceeds driven by by the fact the humans who want power want more of it. The methods for keeping the masses under foot are refined. Humanity is bound hand and foot.

Until something breaks that control. In the past this has been a combination of new territories opening up and some technological break through or cataclysm.

I know I’m going to make Suburban yell at me, because this is not true in close analysis, but in macro, from a distance analysis, let’s look at feudalism.

It came about because of the threat of invasion from the coasts, mostly, by Vikings or Moors, depending where you were, and it ran on like that, with the system of keeping the serfs quiet and tied to the land refining its old, even as the “lords” became less and less useful for their original purpose, and mostly devolving to fighting each other.

The black death broke its hold on the human spirit, allowed people to create new types of society, etc. At the same time the hyper-centralization went on because the king allied with the new classes of clerks and lawyers (so, the innovation was writing things down and creating written laws.)

Then the centralization from the king started to become burdensome, and the clerks and lawyers started to tighten and tighten such rules, until they themselves became burdensome. And then there were colonies, but the power of the king followed colonists (because travel wasn’t that onerous, and there were those writs. Note, what they’re called.)

America is where the first fruits of the discontent of the people: the disbelief with the wet-paper efficacy of the aristocracy, the anger at the ever tightening rules, the belief in the inherent dignity of humans no matter what their condition at birth (a patch installed by Christianity) etc. all culminated.

In a way it was early. Very early. It was brought about by the fact the English monarchy had other worries at the time, and was over extended.

Left alone, the French mimicry would have run through its course, and gone back to a king and stayed that way, though maybe more in the manner of the English monarchy with some French twists.

Except the elites installed the Marx patch. No? Oh, please. As far back as you look, you can see the minor gentry and nobles head over heels for it. The “people” and “the workers” were the weapon they used. The battering ram. They were not the people who swallowed Marx hook line and sink. Marxism is a craze of the elites, who impose it from above.

Oh, it is supported by envious scoundrels of all classes, and powered by envy. But what it actually does is turn the righteous fury of the masses at the boot in their necks into a lot of blood, death and suffering and destruction of wealth ending mostly, in the long run, with the descendants of the “old families” mounted, booted and spurred on the saddles they install on others’ backs. Instead of into something like what we had here which manages to still work, even with the FDR Marxist patch. In the default more often than not, but still work.

Thing is the Marxism patch is failing.

To be fair, it always sucked. The only reason it stayed on at all is that the elites had full control of the press, and story is really powerful. In “news” “entertainment” and “art” they told the same story, which always pushed for the rule by experts, and “scientific” improvements to society.

All of them, pretty much, were crazy, from devaluing of humanity and humans to the point that we’re facing a radical de-population event and we have vast swathes of young people who… hate humans without ever asking themselves “as opposed to what?” To treating humans as widgets either according to “class” or “race” or whatever pseudo-scientific classification that fits no actual individual human.

But now–

Well, now there’s a way to know what is happening and the narrative doesn’t fit.

And there’s a new frontier. Several, in fact. It’s ironic, but also illustrative of the process we’re going through right now that both the internet and work from home resulted from the elites attempts at getting a closer hold on the population: Arpanet, and the Covidiocy.

But trust me, as someone who moved from a technically fly-over area, but fly over where the elites play, to true “flyover” country, it is very much a new frontier, and land is cheap. (Though for various reasons we got very little.) New frontiers. All over. That people can leave the large, easily controllable cities for and where they can work and prosper.

The thing is once the system starts falling apart, once the critical innovation has been made, all attempts to flail against it bring about more decay and the establishment of the new system.

In a way this is a continuation of the 18th century revolution (in the US) for less centralization and more individual freedom. And in a better way we’re throwing off the Marxist patch, with its built in worship of the experts and its pseudo-scientific claims of infallibility.

Now, this is worldwide, because the technological breakthroughs are worldwide. And Elon Musk’s efforts might give our great-great-grandkids a new frontier, but before that — alas — there will be tons of internal new frontiers, as (did I mention it?) we’re facing a radical depopulation event worldwide.

In fact, those people streaming over the border, it’s my guess, are leaving behind areas in deep trouble, as they lose their (relatively) younger people. Now for kleptocratic political reasons, there might be absolutely no opportunity there for anyone under sixty. Because breaking down socialist systems are brutal on youth, as we’re finding here.

But in fifty years or so, we’re going to find vast portions of the world are for all intents and purposes depopulated.

You’d think that’s what our peculiar (I mean what I say) elites are doing, streaming the invasion in. But it’s not. They’re still trying to run the Marx patch. “Bring in the dispossessed and have them rebel and take things from the people here who refuse to submit.” Oh, it will work, here and there — it’s working like a dream in NYC — for a little while. Until it goes from bothersome to intolerable. What’s not tolerable won’t be tolerated. They forget they no longer have control of the narrative.

I’m a little sad, honestly, for the dupes streaming in and promised the Earth. The elites deserve what’s coming, and a bunch of them will manage to talk themselves out of it. But those poor saps are going to get hit hard. And there’s a danger for a lot of us who look like them, though we aren’t.

The Marx patch — international version — has stopped to work a good fifty years ago. But they’re going to keep trying to run it.

Some of their sallies and fights back against us — we’re called by so many interesting names, from deplorables to hobbits but they all mean “escaped serfs” — will succeed. It’s the nature of the beast.

And increasingly more and more of ours against them will succeed, or at least leave a deep mark.

Most of them, though, are battles. Not the war. The war is very very long. It’s been going on a long time. It will be a long time before it’s fully won. At least a hundred years, maybe more.

At the end of it, though, I am sure that the idea of infringing individual freedom will be unspeakable the world over.

Oh, the weasels will get around it. They always do, but there will be a period of lovely flowering in between.

Before it turns again.

Book Promo

If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH

FROM LILANIA BEGLEY: Farmwife: A Sweet Western Romance

The big day is looming on the horizon. After everything Dev and Irina have been through, this should be the happiest day of their lives so far. Can they overcome the clouds of the past together? Is there hope for a happy ending in their farmhouse with found family around them?

FROM ALMA T. C. BOYKIN: Wolves of the Woods: The Elect Book the Third

The Elect want nothing more than to live and let live. An all-too-familiar danger arrives instead, along with a stranger.

The Elect, the werewolf survivors and pack of Lord Gregor, slowly adapt to a world that passed them by. Gregor hires a museum designer, Joakim Davis, to help with a regional museum that might, perhaps, make life easier for the Elect and please the locals. But Davis has two secrets of his own.

Mara and Gregor remain cursed to take wolf form. As they hunt, they make two discoveries, one intriguing and one very troubling indeed. The blight they thought banished has returned.

When Gregor and his lady depart for Krakow, it remains for the other Elect, aided perhaps by this secretive stranger from America, to deal with the new evil that trespasses on their territory. Can they withstand this new threat, or will they succumb to the curse as they each did before?

FROM CELIA HAYES: Lone Star Blood: Another Volume of the Entertaining and Mostly If Not Always True Adventures of Texas Ranger Jim Reade and his Blood-Brother Delaware Scout Toby Shaw.

The Continuing adventures of Texas Ranger Jim Reade and his blood-brother Toby Shaw in the days of the Republic of Texas! A pair of eccentric English explorers ask for a guide into a dangerous country, seeking not a fortune … but something more! There is the mystery of a haunted house on Galveston Island to unravel, and the safety of a beneficiary to an unusual will — and more! The old wild west rides again in this continuing set of adventures from the pen of historical novelist Celia Hayes!

https://amzn.to/3vfk7mqFROM BLAKE SMITH: The Hartington Inheritance

Almira Hartington was heir to the largest fortune in the galaxy, amassed by her father during his time as a director of the Andromeda Company. But when Sir Josiah commits suicide, Almira discovers that she and her siblings are penniless. All three of them must learn to work if they wish to eat, and are quickly scattered to the far reaches of the universe. Almira stubbornly remains on-planet, determined to remain respectable despite the sneers of her former friends.

Sir Percy Wallingham pities the new Lady Hartington. But the lady’s family will take care of her, surely? It’s only after he encounters Almira in her new circumstances that he realizes the extent of her troubles and is determined to help her if he can. He doesn’t know that a scandal is brewing around Sir Josiah’s death and Almira’s exile from society. But it could cost him his life, and the lady he has come to love.

FROM MICHAEL A. HOOTEN: Till the Conflict Is Over

Peter Wright not only survived the most deadly space battle in US Navy history, he also managed to defeat the enemy as well. He’s hailed as a hero, and everyone wants to know his story, but all he wants is to avoid everything that reminds him of that day. Instead he endures interviews, cotillions, and the ever-surprising demands of being a celebrity. And also anxiety attacks, suvivor’s guilt, and funerals. Through it all, he wishes he could just be a normal sailor again.

Be careful what you wish for.

FROM RACONTEUR PRESS, WITH STORIES BY CEDAR SANDERSON, BECKY JONES AND LEE ALLRED: Moggies in Space: A Galaxy Fur. Fur Away

Here is yet another collection of tales about space floofs of the feline flavor. This compendium sports cosmic kitties doing more of what cats do, and entertaining us in the bundle: saving ships, crews, sometimes living together with dogs, and featuring at least one pesky litter that’s into everything and smarter than the grownups. Yeah. Total anarchy.

FROM SPENCER HART: Death on the Moon (Bert Henderson Adventures Book 1)

Pulp-Noir meets Sci-Fi. A short story adventure. The Year is 1949, in a timeline not quite our own.

Bert Henderson, ex-GI and ace troubleshooter for the Phillips Atomics Corporation, is sent to Roosevelt Base to solve the first murder on the Moon. But will the daughter of a top scientist distract him from his mission?

Can he untangle the web of deceit before he becomes just another victim of Death on the Moon?

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: One Last Homecoming

Sherry had planned a quick trip to her home town for her forty-year class reunion, to see the current classes’ Homecoming game. Instead, she arrives to find the high school just as she remembers it, complete with long-demolished buildings and long-retired teachers. It’s Homecoming, all right — her senior year.

For someone with happy memories, revisiting one’s younger days might be pleasant nostalgia. Sherry dreads the thought of being stranded in the past, forced to reassume the old roles after decades of independence.

How can she return to her own time when she has no idea how she got here? Worse, a hostile entity is making its presence known — and it may not want to let her go back. And the Homecoming game isn’t the one she remembers from four decades ago.

Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Your writing prompt this week is: DULL

The Brain Coffee by King Harv’s Imperial Coffees

The True Tale of King Harv’s Imperial Coffee’s Horrible Experiments with Rapid Caffeine Intake – Part 1

Chapter 1 – The Brain Probe

I still remember my 5th shot of espresso, waiting impatiently for the caffeine to do its thing. Time ticked by so slowly.  Too slowly!  “Use your mind, Man!”, I said to myself.  There must be a quicker way!  Didn’t those folks in North Texas come up with some ingenious ways of staying awake a few decades ago?  Sadly I did not have access to any cattle, so I would have to come up with my own system.

It was clear from the start that I would need direct access to my brain.  And so it began with a Black and Decker drill and a 1/2” steel bit.  How to bypass the initial pain of penetration was a concern.  Alcohol and drugs were not possible, as I had to operate the drill while looking in the mirror.  My remedy was to acclimate myself to the procedure.  For 27 consecutive days I would, with ever increasing force, hit myself in the target spot with a Phillips screw driver, gradually getting used to the pain.  By the time I used the drill, it would seem mild compared to what I had already gone through.

And so it was.  Really, there were only about 4 seconds of intense pain as the bit burst through my skull, then into the non-sensitized neural tissue.  I had hoped, and apparently was correct, that I had picked a “safe” area where losing a quarter inch deep chunk of brain tissue would not be overly harmful.  

Once done, I had a delightful 1/2” hole directly into my brain in which to experiment.  I used a black rubber plug purchased at the local hardware store to fill the hole when not in use.  Oh, I know, you are concerned about infection.  Well, that is where alcohol did indeed come in handy.  I would each day remove the plug, fill the hole with a mixture of gin and vodka, and then reinstall the plug. Shaking my head vigorously afterwords seemed like a good idea, so I did that as well.

Ok, so now I had brain access.  As a self made working man, I did not have expensive surgical probes available, so I purchased a box of stainless steel 9” nails, the thinnest I could find, washed them in hand soap, and proceeded to slowly insert one into the open plug.  Through the gin/vodka slurry, past the rough edges of drilled out skull, and finally directly into my brain itself.

It a fiasco!  Apparently I must have tapped into the “nausea” part of the brain, as I almost instantly had to disgorge my stomach’s contents, which I did, directly into the mirror in front of me.  I used a hand towel to try to clean the mirror, which only succeeded in spreading around the disgusting residue.  Why oh why did I have Mexican food the night before? Well, no one said it would be easy.  I pulled out the probe, poured in a shot of the alcohol mixture, and put the plug back in. I would have to start again tomorrow. 

Tomorrow came and went, and I did not proceed.  Why you ask? Were you conceding defeat?  Of course not!  But the experience did made me think perhaps I should go about this in a smarter fashion.  And so the breakthrough came.  A probe made not of metal, but of myself.  Bone!  I needed bone!  My own bone!  It would be the answer.  Once inserted, the bone’s own marrow, a virtual stem cell factory, would encourage brain cells to grow in and around it, happily multiplying the way those little darlings like to do.  But where to get this bone?  Well, dear friend, you might have noticed, had we shaken hands via the left arm instead of the right, that I am a man of 9 fingers.  

Chapter 2 – Are You Out of your Mind?

My God, it hurt!  My left index finger apparently had its own religious views on the subject of amputation.  It strongly let me know of its disapproval by violently spouting out arterial blood and making these horrid cracking sounds as I pressed down harder and harder with my vintage PVC pipe trimmer.  What was I thinking?

One could, arguably, say I was not thinking at all.  But that would be untrue.  I’ll tell you about that night.   I was slowly savoring my usual evening meal of eel, lutefisk, and blue cheese lasagna while downing countless shots ‘Earl’s Famous’ Durian Fruit Brandy.   Out of character, I had the radio on. The shortwave radio.  The one tuned to the British Halley VI Research station in Antarctica’s nightly broadcast.  The one with the drunk radio operator.  The one ranting about PVC pipes and their resemblance to deep sea vent worms.  And how, if you have PVC pipes of smaller widths, you can spray paint them red and slide them in and out of white outer pipes, making them look even more like those angelic vent worms.  Well, someone was most certainly having a long winter! Still, how intriguing. I could do that!  I could…  No I could not.  I had my own dreams to pursue, and tonight was amputation night.  While I could not dance the night away with PVC sea worms, I could, at the least, use the tool that would have created them.  My trusty PVC pipe trimmer.

Chapter – 3 Preservation and Preparation 

That all happened three days ago, as  you well know.  My rebellious index finger spent that time in a luxury resort of sorts for lonely body parts, otherwise known as a half empty pickle jar.  From all appearances, it seemed to have done the job, as Mr. “Get that thing off of me!” Finger looked none the worse for wear.  The pickles still tasted the same as well.  Meanwhile, I had a bit of a problem with my black rubber brain plug.  Maybe more than a little problem.  It had become loose.  Quite embarrassing at the All You Can Eat Chinese Buffet, I can tell you that!  I was bending down to reach for that last piece of Szechuan Short Ribs  when the plug popped out and landed in the formerly popular General Tao’s Chicken tray.  Even worse, the alcohol lymph fluid literally gushed onto the Egg Foo Young platter. 

The elderly woman to the right of me seemed to be turning green in the face, until she converted copious amounts of of what was once very content domestic stomach acid into its riotous, sebaceous cousin known to gentlemen worldwide as involuntary regurgitate.  The lady had been planted in front of the Scallops in Lemon Garlic Sauce for most of the evening, which subsequently became her own personal ‘ground zero’ .  Hence the poor deceased mollusks were to soil my acquaintance for the second time that evening. 

At this point Mr Chang, the once gracious and welcoming restaurant owner was to all intents and purposes auditioning for the one man play, ‘I Aneurysm’.   It did raise the thought that perhaps I should be moving on, and after a few pieces of sheet cake that would have caused a chemist to blush, I did indeed take my leave.

Chapter 4 – Bumbling Luck

It’s 5:15 am, and snow is blowing all around. Time to take a chance.  Time to be on my ‘A’ game.  Time to act with abandon and wild instinct! I reached back and pulled on the brain plug.  Nothing  happened.  It was stuck!  I tried again, and again failed.  I knew what it had to be, the enemy of all Brain explorers had come to pay a visit.  Mr. Vacuum is here.  Cockiness preceded him.  And total shock, shame, and weakness would soon become him, as I pulled out Swiss army knife and began to scrape.  What an unpleasant sound!  Finally, with a small burp of gas, the brain plug was free.  I rinsed it a few times, left it on the kitchen counter, and exhaled slowly. 

The two ounce shot of espresso was ready.  The funnel was in place.  It was time to pour the espresso.  DIRECTLY into meet my Brain!  END OF PART 1

UPDATE: just for this post , on a whim King Harv Imperial Coffees created a special blend just for the Brain story.  Here’s a link…

https://www.kingharvscoffee.com/product/TheBrainCoffee/262

And it’s on sale for only $19.95 for a pound, with free shipping.  Good lord! (And good coffee!)

Authors Note

This is the first of an expected 4,268 part series.  And as an completely unbiased aside, I highly recommend King Harv’s Imperial Coffees, www.kingharv.com, for all your coffee needs. (This is endorsed. Not the 4,268 part series — I’d need a bigger blog! — but if you look to the right side of this blog there is a link to King Harv’s coffees. I don’t get a cut of sales. Full disclosure forces me to say I DO sometimes get coffee, but that’s it. Anyway, it’s great coffee. Over time my preference has moved from Saturn to Two Cats and I can’t tell you why. Oh, yeah, I believe they’re also having a sale.)

One of the criticisms against Trump — and frankly anyone who is effective at speaking out against the current mess — is that he’s “uncouth” and “loud” and “vulgar” and generally a troublemaker.

I’m not saying he’s not a troublemaker, just asking who would have left his stable and safe position to get in this fight for the country if he weren’t. Just a thought. Also he’s a New Yorker.

But every congressman and woman who speaks out against the left gets tagged with the same. As do mere bloggers and writers. (I’m only “peculiar” because of my lady like qualiies. Grandma would be proud.) And even “just people.” I’ll remind you they destroyed the life of Joe the Plumber for having the nerve to talk back on camera. And apparently they’re hounding down FDNY firemen who didn’t applaud the mayor of NYC NY Attorney General Leticia James. [Distracted at the wrong time. Sorry]

So it’s not Trump. It’s all of us. “So rude.” “So uncouth.” “So loud.” “Insane.” “Conspiracy theory.”

Meanwhile Stacy (Tank) Abrahams spent years screeching in everyone’s face that she wuz robbed and that was cool, because she was just an empowered girl boss, right?

Or take Hillary “How I really won” Clinton who was never even looked at sideways.

And don’t get me started on AOC. Who straight up offered to fight someone “outside” but you know, nothing wrong. Etc. etc.

Oh, and Elon. Elon Musk went from “So smart, so cool” to the devil himself when he took over twitter and broke their censorship toy. At once. On a dime. And no one seems to be aware of that switch or how lightening fast it was. And how suddenly “he is the devil” was everywhere.

So what is going on here? Double standards, of course but why are most people — including people hurt by it — not even aware of the double standards?

Well… Because they’re not. They’re the standards society has imposed over the last 100 or so years. We’re only aware of their being “double standards” because the information regime of the last 100 years has broken wide. It hasn’t stopped having influence. it’s just split wide.

It’s important to remember that, because a lot of people are really panicking because they think all of it: double standards, cancelling, etc. are new. Instead of being, you know, only visible now.

The problem is not what’s happening now. It’s what happened for the hundred years when the left had control of the highly centralized, tight focus, lockstep information regime.

Because the regime included art, news, political discourse, entertainment, everything, the result is that they got to portrait left-opinions and positions as sane, normal and main stream. And anything that opposed them, no matter how sensible, as unhinged, out there and insane.

No? Think of the token right-wing voices in every single sitcom or TV serial. Not that there seem to be any now, which is by itself a measure of how scared they are, but they used to be in there, in every other show. And they were not right wing, not sane, and usually attached to the most repulsive characters imaginable. (When they made the mistake of not doing that, such as with Family Ties, the character inspired an entire generation.)

Think of what they said about Rush Limbaugh, the things they tried to get to stick to him, let alone a lot of the more minor pundits and voices of earlier times.

In my opinion this is responsible for the turn-coat syndrome, in which someone prominent turns to the left suddenly and stays there. You can only take so much pressure without cracking. (Don’t worry too much about me. If I seem to crack that way, I’m probably buried in the basement and it’s someone else doing this. I cracked in other ways long before I came out of the political closet. This is actually less pressure.) But you know the people from the early oughts who did that. I don’t need to name them. (And don’t need that on me.)

The pressure was always there, but it was mostly unspoken. Because if you were on the right and they knew it, they could take your profession away on some excuse, and no one would ever know how or why. And if they investigated they’d find the kind of “oh, him” that hinted you were guilt of unspeakable crimes and vices.

Now it’s broken wide, so we see the screaming and the attempts at cancelling (Some aren’t even sticking anymore) in the full light of day. And the left is terrified. The hint of how terrified they are is that there are no longer sin-eating-right-wing characters in TV shows and movies.

Oh, I suppose there are some in movies. they more or less immediately get jumped on as “that’s not the right.” And “Are you nuts.”

But even people on the right — at least to an extent — are still falling for the “so uncouth” “making people upset” “trouble maker.” (FYI in Florida DeSantis is called all of that, also. And always was.)

So… Here’s the thing: The discourse and the level of polite discourse in our back brains was set for our entire lives up to about six years ago. It was set at the level and keys and triggers of the left, because they had control of everything. So they set the “You can’t say that in public. People will think you’re nuts” that’s at the back of every one of our brains.

They set the stereotype that when you hear certain things, these are coming from a “bad person” — this was set by those caricatures of right wing characters — and its’ some kind of con or straight up evil.

You have to re-examine anyone that you’re flinching from in that light. No one is saying you SHOULD like them. I’ve said before and will say again, I don’t think I’d have married Donald Trump, if offered, despite all the money. But I don’t want to marry him, or date him. And frankly, I’ve hired people I outright disliked for jobs, provided I didn’t have to see them every day, and I could trust them to do the job I wanted. (Within limits. The job I want is what Milei is doing in Argentina, and I doubt even Trump will do that here.) Heck, I don’t even want to have a drink with Trump. (Though if a miracle happens and he beats the fraud, if I had money I’d pay money to be his White House Press Secretary. What? Oh, dear, it would be the most fun I’ve ever had out of bed. Including sudden “lapses” into “Portuguese” (but really village gutter language.) I’m a brat. Okay?)

But “so uncouth” is bullshit. Straight up? More or less uncouth than Obama giving people the “scratch my face” middle finger like a middle schooler? More or less uncouth than Clinton having women brought to his hotel room? More or less uncouth than Hillary shrilling at the universe? Than Michelle Obama scowling through the flag ceremonies? And that’s without even touching Brandon and his crazy remote control older, who would be spat at in a homeless camp for their behavior. (Or beaten up. Possibly with a live duck.)

So every time you flinch, examine your back brain for the “but you can’t say that,” that cues all the uncouth, crazy and conspiracy theorist feelings. (Besides I think the difference between conspiracy theory and reality is now …. two days?)

You have to, because your social pack instincts were trained by the left.

Also, the sky isn’t falling. What is falling is the information regime set up by the left. They have reason to panic, you don’t.

Just be aware that to an extent their government and organization regime too. NOT what was laid out in the constitution, but the massive bureaucracy and the insane web of power that comes from DC and covers the entire country.

And part of the problem of its falling apart is that it’s just not working, or how it works is bizarre, irrational, and might feel personal, but is not. It’s just the chaos of “it can’t work anymore.” Our insurance problems are apparently mirrored in all our friends’ problems, and it’s the result of their trying to reach for fully socialized medicine with Obama care.

They had plenty of control before, just not full control, and being idiots they didn’t realize the whole thing was already coming apart at the seams, so they pressed for full control…. and —

It doesn’t work. Everyone else seems to be going through this crazy thing where necessary, absolutely vital meds are just being denied, or the insurance pays $10 off the top and leaves you with $900 to pay or something. This is of course the result of sex changes, abortions and contraception being 100% free and treated as vital, while everything else gets pushed out of the way.

Not because the things they prioritize are bad (well, you know my opinions) but because they’re stupid and irrational and held as sacrosanct above everything else. When it was COVID and everything else was “optional” it caused the same kind of mayhem.

When you’re spending a fortune on tiddly wink betting, you don’t have money for food. So insurance, trying to save itself, is denying vital care. The fact the idiots in power want — or pretend they want. It’s difficult to tell because like cats, they say “I meant that” anyway — us all dead is a bonus. The companies are just coming apart at the seams and not just through shortages and supply issues.

And it’s like this for everything, and yes, some of it feels like a targeted attack, and some might try to be, but mostly isn’t. Mostly it’s the Wilson-FDR creation falling apart. And it can’t go back together because it never worked.

They could just pretend it worked by their control of information. Oh, that’s why they want censorship, yes.

But it’s not working, any of it, and anything that they try to do to shore it up makes it fall apart more.

I stand by my image that they’re trying to build the Berlin wall after it’s been pulled down, and while people are driving out through gaping holes in it.

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put the Marxist wall up again.

Which is glorious. And also yeah, terrifying, as things fall apart and we don’t yet have replacements ready.

But that’s the way things work. Unless you’re invaded by an invader with a plan (you wouldn’t like those.) the new structure is never ready to go.

In fact having a structure all ready to fall in place should be a danger sign. A big, flashing one.

Is it going to hurt? Hell yes. Are we going to spend some time when mere daily survival will be difficult? Hell yes. Is it possible that by fraud they’ll hold on to the apparent levers of power and make the transition a million times more difficult? Hell yes?

I know you get tired of me saying, but not only do we win and they lose in the end, but it’s already happening.

It’s just that in the middle things will get really really awful and in big turmoil.

Remember every birth means pain and blood. This is not a death. It’s the rebirth of the republic.

Yes, it hurts. Do your best and push hard.

Be uncouth. It’s not “the way”, it’s the only way.

In most fantasy it’s relatively easy to know who the ruler should be:

He’s the one who pulls the sword from the stone. He’s the one whom the gods have decreed in prophecy will come. He has the magical birthmark, the ability to do things no other man can do. He is wedded to the land and knows her every need.

It’s a nice thought. I mean, if you could have it be true. It will all work out because it’s magically pre-ordained.

In fantasy it works precisely because we all wish it were like that, that clear cut.

But our newest generations — oh, forty and under — have been raised more in fiction than in reality, and our fiction has indulged entirely too much in this sort of nonsense. So has our news “government by the best people” “top men in charge of everything.”

I remember the media’s breathless, fly-swallowing open mouths describing Clinton’s administration of “wonks” and the pronouncements from the pulpit of the left’s expert “pundits.”

We (to the right of Lenin) in the counterculture immediately took the terms and ran with them and we have that nonsense to thank for names like Instapundit and Vodkapundit. (My poor mostly apolitical husband was so tired of hearing me say “I read on instapundit” that when I said “Vodkapundit said–” he answered with a laugh and “Stop making pundits up.” Later, of course, we became friends with Mr. and Mrs. Vodkapundit and miss them terribly.) But those of you old enough probably remember as I do “Wonk” and “pundit” being pronounced as if they were “master” and “Lord.” (Curiously no one uses wonk anymore. It truly was a horribly ugly word and everyone that used it as a license to put boot on American necks was equally ugly.)

But the kids don’t know that. They only retain a vague idea government should be by the “best” people and the most “expert.” Add to that their disillusionment with what has been done to our country these last 16 years or so (with a brief interregnum) and the fact they have no idea how the system is supposed to work, or only a fractured idea because they tried to learn, but it’s hard, and even online there are incomplete and contradictory bits and…

Yeah. I’ve been seeing a plague of monarchists and worse absolute monarchists among the young everywhere.

And they get very upset and disappointed when it’s pointed out that they have the wrong end of the wrong weasel tail.

In their heads, because of poorly absorbed history, they’re convinced that monarchism is the opposite of communism. And they’ve learned communism is bad. But this thing called capitalism that is talked about is mostly crony capitalism, and therefore equally bad.

So the way to do it all right is to have people who are born and educated to their roles, and are therefore the bestest people for the role.

They’re not wrong about something: feudalism as it was in the past was, in its platonic, ideal form (which is not the form it assumed) better than the feudalism we get when communism achieves its final form. (Looks at North Korea, and Cuba and yeah Venezula significantly. Or Russia which is sort of post communist, kind of, but really? Putin is still the product of communism and hankering for that sort of feudalism.)

You see, the people were raised to be servants of the role and to work at it honestly. In an intensely religious society where people believed they should fulfill their role or they’d answer for it to an eternal judge, it kind of worked. Sometimes. There were always people who didn’t believe, and you know, power is a sweet, sweet drug.

And yeah, the rulers who actually believed in doing the best for their countries were admirable. Heck, some of the rulers who only believed in making their country rich so they would be so were pretty good.

Both technically better than communists, where the “ideal” they serve fast devolves to “because I say so” so that Cuba, an island nation, has its starved people forbidden from taking seafood from the sea. For…. reasons.

But the difference is not as big as you’d think. There were plenty of feudal Lords who used their position to do whatever pleased them, sometimes at great cost in treasure and blood to their people.

Because it’s absolute power, and what are you going to do to them? Fight them?

The number of unreported peasant revolts under feudalism is immense, and very few of them were successful.

Once the boot is on the neck and the assumption of authority being by birth, it’s hard to dislodge.

And there’s no guarantee that birth will confer authority on the competent, let alone the moral.

So–

It is necessary once more to say this: Our system of government has revolutionized everything in the world.

We have fed the world, we have industrialized the world, we’ve taught the world to reach for the stars.

Yes, we’ve also done a lot less admirable things.

Because our system of government is corruptible and influentiable by people who seize it. And it is the worst. Except for all other systems.

Sure, I believe in foreordained kings.

The king of America is the people. Each and every one of them.

And yeah, there are usurpers who’ve seized our throne. They’re terrified of us even though we’ve been sleeping. You can tell from the way they sneer at populism and scream at nationalism.

Because the king and the nation are one.

And the people are the king.

And we’re waking.

Sorry I didn’t do a post today. I’d completely forgotten we had a doctor’s appointment. To make matters worse, we’re still locked in battle with the insurance, which seems to think Dan’s diabetes should go untreated because any meds that treat it are not covered. And we don’t have a second mortgage’s worth of money to hand.

That’s life. We’re doing battle. This was the inevitable result of Obama Care’s regulating insurance. Every year it goes up and it covers less.

This too shall pass one way or another. Right now I have a righteous mad, and I’m going to have some tea, then write fiction to calm myself.

I would very much like the government out of our healthcare yesterday, please and thank you. But it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

So, tea and fiction.

If America had a symbol, it would be bigger than.

Matthew Bowman (probably in one of those flashes of insight one has when baby is making one sleep-deprived) said on Facebook, that the rest of the world just sees Americans as extreme. Americans is where big things happen. Good or bad? Yes. but big. Much bigger than in the rest of the world. And it got my mind ticking.

He’s right. And wrong. I mean, it’s how the rest of the world sees us, and there’s a lot of things that feed into the myth. But it’s not true. It’s more that we’re more… real? than the rest of the world. We take things to their logical conclusions, little hampered by “but it’s never been done before.” We have severed our roots, but we’ve bound ourselves to other roots, to a document that is supposed to set our limits.

And yes, I know what you’re going to say. And yes, that’s the problem precisely. To the extent that America is bound to the Constitution America is bigger than but good. In gamer terms? Chaotic good. (No bear with me. I’ll explain.) But if we’re unbound? Good or bad? Mostly yes. Very fast. And very, very big.

What do I mean by bigger? Well, I remembered the other day that the Guiana’s People Temple massacre took place on my birthday. I remember waking up to the newspapers being full of it. But you know, I never associated it. I have pleasant memories from that birthday, because it was probably my biggest party. For some reason I had a lot of “friends” at the time. (Yes, note the quotes. They weren’t enemies, but they weren’t close friends either. Yet, for the first time in a long time, I had people who were very friendly acquaintances, ten or so, which made it the biggest group I ever had at a party. Ever.)

How could I wake up to descriptions of that horror and not identify it with the date? Easy. because at the time I had it firmly set in my head that in America huge things happened all the time, good and bad. I don’t think I believed, as a lot of people we fight with on line do, that in America people got up and shot fifteen people before breakfast, then shot their way into work, etc. But I did believe that in America crime was much, much higher. Particularly in the cities. When I stayed fifteen days in NYC upon landing (In an enclosed college campus — it was an orientation thing for our group) I heard sirens day and night, and I thought ‘Ahah.’ It wasn’t till much, much later that I realized the bulk of those sirens would be in hot pursuit of speeders, red light runners and just coming to the scene of accidents.

But it’s the image. You can be shivved in any random walk through the neighborhood, but on the other hand, someone can discover you and make you a Hollywood star, or give you a million dollars or something.

You can be a pauper or a king, but not anything in between.

Look, I know that’s not true. Most of us live lives of routine and politeness, and while I personally was once two minutes from an armed robbery (we’d just left the Kroger when the armed robbers went in. No seriously. Downtown Colorado Springs. Tiny neighborhood store) the only times I’ve been shot at, or been near someone who was shot was not in the US.

Part of this is of course that they get our news, but they imagine that our news instead of sensationalizing things mute them down. So they imagine it’s more like the movies, all the time. I have the hardest time explaining to mom that I don’t routinely get shot at on the way to the grocery store and don’t have to dodge a car chase on the regular, while going out for sewing notions or something. And she visited the US. (Granted tiny Manitou Springs. She probably thinks it’s the exception.)

But the other part of it is that to them (and to an extent to the history of the world) we’re unfathomable.

You guys, if you grew up here probably don’t get this. Heck, I didn’t fully get this until I was here and had more contact with Portuguese, from here to there, because I was broken and never paid any attention to what people expected of me. (Not paid any attention is the wrong way to put it. I didn’t “see it”. I still have that issue here, just less so because things tend to be more explicit. Except where they aren’t, and then I run into trouble.)

But there is a bound assumption that you’ll do something like what your ancestors have done. Jobs are acquired ONLY through connections (It’s getting that way here) so changing ‘class’ is really really hard (Not so much here because our connections frankly don’t care about “class” or if someone is in a manual or intellectual profession.)

Some jumping can occur through entering University, say, when you’re the first in your family, but it’s still hard. And beyond that, there is a powerful substratum of “this is how it’s always been done. Always.” and shock when people do things differently.

In America, even when that happens, it’s not what is expected. America as a culture is where we can do anything, or at least that’s the expectation.

And part of the expectation was us doing the impossible. Don’t ask me why, but we’re the only country who kicked out the king, put up a constitution and hasn’t FORMALLY reconstituted three or four times since. I mean, yes, the Constitution has been ignored and twisted every which way but lose, but we’ve not outright tossing it out and rewriting it every generation. Most of the countries who tried to follow in our footsteps (with various degrees of crazy shot it, like France which had all the crazy) have.

Instead, we have despite fraud and other things followed the peaceful revolution every four years, and except for the Civil war (which yes, was big, but also the result of pushing big issues under the rug) haven’t had a set-to in forever.

This is so weird that even the founding fathers didn’t expect it.

And it’s not genetics, because genetics have changed so much from the beginning. (BTW, that alarming statistic of most Americans or half Americans or whatever have a parent born abroad? I see those families every time I go grocery shopping. To an extent I are those families ;) . And it’s because American males are marrying abroad a lot, now that communication across the ocean is a trivial matter. And that’s because American culture is bigger than life, and women are attracted to the winning tribe. Also, from my kids’ friends, those with one parent from abroad are more American than George Washington and FAR more American than Alexander Hamilton.)

Anyway, I think the magic sauce is that all of us here are either immigrants or descended from those who were. (Shut up. There are no full blood Amerinds. Not a single one.) In a new place, it’s easier to break the unspoken ties of culture and stick to the Constitution. or try to.

This has cast us loose to make our own way. Sometimes we choose bloody stupid things — like Prohibition — but most of the time, it frees us from the errors of the past.

Which means, to the rest of the world, we appear unfathomable. And bigger. Just bigger.

This is why I say communism has to die here. No, it has never worked anywhere else, but stupid idiots don’t realize it’s against human nature itself, and think it could maybe work here. I mean we’ve done the impossible before.

They’re not wrong. Except about communism, which is a mind virus hooking into very old tribal sentiment. Part of the reason it had and still has such a hard time infecting here. But it it were a simple utopian philosophy? Yeah, we’ve done that before. (Most of them have failed, yes, but we sure tried them.)

It’s also why if any nation or culture can take us to the stars, we can. Because we do the impossible, the strange, what can’t be done.

We’re greater than. We’re humanity unleashed.

And this is why dooming based on other people’s histories will not be predictive.

We’re not the same. We’re qualitatively and quantitatively different.

This is not chest beating. It’s just a change in how things are done. Romans were just such a step. They were the first culture to more or less (less than more, but all the same) look beyond tribalism. We’re the next step in that, with classism also left in the dust, and innovation baked in.

We’re something quite new.

Which means the old pathways turn weird shapes here.

And yeah, that does mean we could end up worse than anyone else, sure thing.

Or you know, we could end up better.

It’s a risk we take, and we’re a risk taking people? Me? I choose to believe and work towards our ending up better.

Someone has to take humanity to the stars. And I say it should be us.

Because we’re greater than.