Author: Mark Noonan

G K Chesterton on Family and Community

Mark Noonan26 Comments

Taken from his book, Heretics:

The family may fairly be considered, one would think, an ultimate human institution. Every one would admit that it has been the main cell and central unit of almost all societies hitherto, except, indeed, such societies as that of Lacedaemon, which went in for “efficiency,” and has, therefore, perished, and left not a trace behind. Christianity, even enormous as was its revolution, did not alter this ancient and savage sanctity; it merely reversed it. It did not deny the trinity of father, mother, and child. It merely read it backwards, making it run child, mother, father. This it called, not the family, but the Holy Family, for many things are made holy by being turned upside down. But some sages of our own decadence have made a serious attack on the family. They have impugned it, as I think wrongly; and its defenders have defended it, and defended it wrongly. The common defence of the family is that, amid the stress and fickleness of life, it is peaceful, pleasant, and at one. But there is another defence of the family which is possible, and to me evident; this defence is that the family is not peaceful and not pleasant and not at one.

It is not fashionable to say much nowadays of the advantages of the small community. We are told that we must go in for large empires and large ideas. There is one advantage, however, in the small state, the city, or the village, which only the wilfully blind can overlook. The man who lives in a small community lives in a much larger world. He knows much more of the fierce varieties and uncompromising divergences of men. The reason is obvious. In a large community we can choose our companions. In a small community our companions are chosen for us. Thus in all extensive and highly civilized societies groups come into existence founded upon what is called sympathy, and shut out the real world more sharply than the gates of a monastery. There is nothing really narrow about the clan; the thing which is really narrow is the clique. The men of the clan live together because they all wear the same tartan or are all descended from the same sacred cow; but in their souls, by the divine luck of things, there will always be more colours than in any tartan. But the men of the clique live together because they have the same kind of soul, and their narrowness is a narrowness of spiritual coherence and contentment, like that which exists in hell. A big society exists in order to form cliques. A big society is a society for the promotion of narrowness. It is a machinery for the purpose of guarding the solitary and sensitive individual from all experience of the bitter and bracing human compromises. It is, in the most literal sense of the words, a society for the prevention of Christian knowledge.

…

This is, indeed, the sublime and special romance of the family. It is romantic because it is a toss-up. It is romantic because it is everything that its enemies call it. It is romantic because it is arbitrary. It is romantic because it is there. So long as you have groups of men chosen rationally, you have some special or sectarian atmosphere. It is when you have groups of men chosen irrationally that you have men. The element of adventure begins to exist; for an adventure is, by its nature, a thing that comes to us. It is a thing that chooses us, not a thing that we choose. Falling in love has been often regarded as the supreme adventure, the supreme romantic accident. In so much as there is in it something outside ourselves, something of a sort of merry fatalism, this is very true. Love does take us and transfigure and torture us. It does break our hearts with an unbearable beauty, like the unbearable beauty of music. But in so far as we have certainly something to do with the matter; in so far as we are in some sense prepared to fall in love and in some sense jump into it; in so far as we do to some extent choose and to some extent even judge—in all this falling in love is not truly romantic, is not truly adventurous at all. In this degree the supreme adventure is not falling in love. The supreme adventure is being born. There we do walk suddenly into a splendid and startling trap. There we do see something of which we have not dreamed before. Our father and mother do lie in wait for us and leap out on us, like brigands from a bush. Our uncle is a surprise. Our aunt is, in the beautiful common expression, a bolt from the blue. When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world that we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.

This colour as of a fantastic narrative ought to cling to the family and to our relations with it throughout life. Romance is the deepest thing in life; romance is deeper even than reality. For even if reality could be proved to be misleading, it still could not be proved to be unimportant or unimpressive. Even if the facts are false, they are still very strange. And this strangeness of life, this unexpected and even perverse element of things as they fall out, remains incurably interesting. The circumstances we can regulate may become tame or pessimistic; but the “circumstances over which we have no control” remain god-like to those who, like Mr. Micawber, can call on them and renew their strength. People wonder why the novel is the most popular form of literature; people wonder why it is read more than books of science or books of metaphysics. The reason is very simple; it is merely that the novel is more true than they are. Life may sometimes legitimately appear as a book of science. Life may sometimes appear, and with a much greater legitimacy, as a book of metaphysics. But life is always a novel. Our existence may cease to be a song; it may cease even to be a beautiful lament. Our existence may not be an intelligible justice, or even a recognizable wrong. But our existence is still a story. In the fiery alphabet of every sunset is written, “to be continued in our next.” If we have sufficient intellect, we can finish a philosophical and exact deduction, and be certain that we are finishing it right. With the adequate brain-power we could finish any scientific discovery, and be certain that we were finishing it right. But not with the most gigantic intellect could we finish the simplest or silliest story, and be certain that we were finishing it right. That is because a story has behind it, not merely intellect which is partly mechanical, but will, which is in its essence divine. The narrative writer can send his hero to the gallows if he likes in the last chapter but one. He can do it by the same divine caprice whereby he, the author, can go to the gallows himself, and to hell afterwards if he chooses. And the same civilization, the chivalric European civilization which asserted freewill in the thirteenth century, produced the thing called “fiction” in the eighteenth. When Thomas Aquinas asserted the spiritual liberty of man, he created all the bad novels in the circulating libraries.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan12 Comments

On vacation for the next few days!

But, I won’t leave you hanging.

First off: Book VII: Empress will release on June 15th. If you haven’t started the Mirrors series, you can pick it up with Book VI: Heirs. This is because in Heirs the story line starts to be taken over by the children of our heroes – but, don’t fret: the original heroes still play big roles!

They hosted a “pride” event at the White House and relegated Old Glory to a supporting role. This is simply un-American. Our flag always takes primacy…but the new secular religion of our government admits of no equals.

Now, lets lighten it up:

The United States of America: 1776 – 2043 (or so)

Mark Noonan22 Comments

Guys, I’m really down on our long term prospects right now.

It isn’t so much the indictment of Trump though that is bad. What is bad is the number of people on the Right who are all, “Trump did this to himself” and/or “we have to let the process play out.”

I did do some checking and while I’m no lawyer nor am I able to search all possible sources, I’m pretty confident at this point that there is no US law which requires a President to submit his declassifications to anyone. No forms to fill out. No person to check with. Doesn’t even have to mention it to anyone. As far as I can tell, the person in office can pretty much take our deepest secrets and pass them out to winos behind 7/11 and he wouldn’t be breaking any law. Now, anyone other than the President or those designated by the President would be in deep, deep trouble doing that. But the President to the best of my knowledge has plenary authority here. Anyone find a statute which specifically enjoins the President to follow certain procedures in declassification, I’m all ears.

But when you think about it, how can it be otherwise? Who other than the President would the President clear such a thing with? Fill out a form and send it to himself? You think some fourth level bureaucrat in the EOB is going to be able to say, “sorry Mr President, can’t declassify that – you didn’t fill out the forms correctly”? Of course the President’s authority here is absolute. Can’t work any other way.

I bring this up because it shows that there was no basis for the investigation to start, let alone for an indictment to come down. Given this, it is clearly entirely political in its intent; the Democrats are using the DoJ to stir up political issues which will affect the votes of the American people. If this seems like something ok to you…well, then you’re dumb as a box of rocks.

“But he’s not President any more!” is one objection and, on the face of it, not quite as stupid as the rest. But it is is easily disposed of: he was President when he obtained the documents and as such he could declassify at will without telling anyone. So, if he has them, they’re declassified.

But more than just the particulars of the case is what it foretells: if this works (and it looks like it will, thanks in large part to the Never-Trump Right) then it will be used again. What is to stop them? They had no reason to start this investigation. They had no reason to start the Trump-Russia investigation. They had no reason to start the campaign finance investigation in NYC. They don’t need a fact – they just need people willing to do it and an MSM willing to play along. Of course they will now proceed to serially indict anyone they view as a threat. They are going to take a GOP which is only now learning how to fight back and gut it. Anyone who is a fighter will find themselves under increasing judicial pressure…and all people who aren’t fighters will quickly learn to back down.

And I don’t see how we stop it. People who won’t stand up to abuse of power won’t actually start a physical fight over it. We simply lack enough people with guts. This is just the start of the process whereby the USA will be converted into a de-facto one-party State. And then, piece by piece, all liberty and property will be taken.

Hate to see it. Wish I were wrong. I pray I am wrong. But where’s the upside? Should take about 20 years to get us to the level of Canada where they froze the bank accounts of demonstrators. Maybe 30 years to China-like tyranny, but even Canadian or European level of tyranny is a huge fall for a nation conceived in liberty.

Just disgusted with the whole thing – and especially our supposed allies who are so incredibly stupid over it. I think this is because they are only instinctively on the Right. They never really thought it through. Could also be very mercenary…they just wanted low taxes. That is all they ever wanted and they don’t give a damn about social disintegration as long as their investments remain fat.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan26 Comments

Interesting thread over on Twitter about the origins of “gender ideology”. Worth a read but I’ll nutshell it – some degenerates wanted to have whatever sex they wanted, including with kids, and so cooked up a philosophy which made out that you can only be free if you’re a degenerate.

That someone would think this up isn’t at all surprising. People can think up all sorts of things. The problem comes in when evil ideas aren’t smacked down. And insane, evil ideas should be smacked down. The trouble is, since the breakup of what used to be called “Christendom” into divergent beliefs, there has been no Authority capable of smacking.

And I’m not talking here about arguing the lunatics into submission. You can’t do that. They’re lunatics! If they weren’t insane, narcissistic degenerates, they wouldn’t have their evil ideas. You can only stop them. As King St Louis of France allegedly said – after a while, if all attempts at reason have failed, all you can do is drive your sword in as deep as it will go.

Our problem here – and what might prove fatal to the Republic – is that with all the sublime good of our Declaration and Constitution, they are still suffused with so-called Enlightenment ideals. Primarily the ideal that thought must be free to go wherever Reason takes it. As was pointed out back then, if you make that your standard, then people will Reason themselves into all manner of horrors. At that time that just seemed like old fashioned reactionary fear-mongering…but Auschwitz and Gulag kinda show the old reactionaries were right back there around 1750. So does “men can get pregnant” and a host of other horrors now common in our society. Our Founders assumed that some things would just be accepted – that Patriotism is good. Manly courage. Womanly virtue. Thrift. Sobriety. That people would always take these as their basic standards and whatever Reasoning they did would never contravene these basics.

They forgot about crackpots. Made all sorts of provisions against the tyrant of the Napoleon type…but made no provision against the rise of a Nero…or, worse, ten thousand Neros, all trying to outdo each other in nauseating filth. They were heirs, at the time, to 17 centuries of Christian indoctrination and assumed that the basic morality of Christianity was the natural state of humanity. Thinking this, they left no way in our Constitution to deal with a neo-Marxist professor of gender studies.

We’re going to have to find one. And pretty quickly.

The bottom line is that we can’t allow these people to freely express their insane, anti-human ideology. They must be curbed, as we once upon a time curbed the lunatics. These people are simply destructive – of themselves and everyone around them. Have you ever checked into their bios on social media? All of them claim some form of mental illness (as a badge of honor!). They routinely describe themselves as depressed, lonesome, bitter and pessimistic (all with a rainbow banner, of course). These are people who have no hope, no sense, no knowledge…all they have is a burning sense of self importance. Their various mental and moral failures have been translated into a belief that because they are mental and moral failures they are superior…especially to the sane, boring people who go to work, raise their families and pay their taxes.

And they can’t be reasoned with. They lack the wit and are unwilling to learn. All we can do is stop them; to build the mechanisms whereby they are prevented from implementing their ideas anywhere outside their personal lives. People determined on self destruction really can’t be stopped – but we can stop this desire from spilling over into societal destruction.

Disney owns the rights to The French Connection – that magnificent 1971 movie which won Gene Hackman an Oscar for his excellent portrayal of Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle. Why do we care about this? Because Disney censored a line from the movie without telling anyone. Any copy you buy or stream now won’t have that line in it. Why? Because Hackman’s character makes a horribly racist statement. And, indeed, it was a horribly racist statement. But it wasn’t in the move to be racist, but to be part of Hackman’s character, who is a racist and otherwise ill-tempered man. The only reason we care about the guy is because for all his flaws, he broke up a major drug smuggling ring. This is Orwellian Ministry of Truth stuff. They are re-writing the past. If there are any books, movies or songs you love, get them now on hard copy because if they in any way offend the woke, they are going to be changed or destroyed.

You know any Armenians? I know a few. Very handsome men. Women of spectacular beauty. Most are very deeply Christian. And there’s the problem – a lot of these people live in LA and are not pleased with the over-the-top “Pride” drivel the public schools are pushing. Naturally, a fight broke out when these people were protesting…started by Antifa goons who then had to call in the cops to protect them. Think about that: decent, hard working Christians are being hassled by the cops for fighting back against Commie thugs.

Joke of the day which I stole from Twitter: the PGA merger will work out that the PGA retains control of holes 1-9 and 12-18. The Saudis do 9-11.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan35 Comments

I do have to point out that Donald Trump has been fairly ridiculous of late. Some of his statements and actions have been downright absurd. Thus far it hasn’t made a dent in his GOP Primary support…but my bet is that if he doesn’t get hold of this stuff it will. OTOH, DeSantis has also had some miscues. This is why a Primary is a good thing; whoever emerges with the prize will have earned it.

My position remains the same: I will support the nominee. There is no GOPer who is in any way the moral or intellectual inferior of any Democrat. Even supposing every bad thing said about Trump is true – and further stating that supposing every bad thing said about Biden is false – it is still no contest. Somewhere in Trump’s heart is the understanding that such things as abortion to birth, transition of minors and open borders are objectively evil and must be stopped. In Biden’s heart there is no such understanding – nor is there such understanding in the heart of any Democrat. The Democrat party proposes to push us into a world of complete lunacy where obvious facts are denied in service of ideological goals. It is the moral duty not of Republicans and not even of Americans to vote GOP…it the the moral duty of every human, as such. There is no evading this one: if the Democrats retain power for much longer, this nation will be destroyed. The stakes are that high. There can’t be any compromise…and no faltering of our will. Nominate Romney and I’ll vote for him. Anyone is better than any Democrat.

There has been a surprisingly large amount of pushback against “Pride” this year. In previous years we just laughed at it and moved on but this year there is a sharper edge to it. People are tired of it – and angry that everyone is being told to fall in line.

Bottom line: gay is boring. We don’t care. Be gay. Have fun. But we don’t need to know you’re gay. And it is perceived that the sort of gay people most of us know – regular, rather boring folks who just live, work and pay taxes like anyone else – aren’t being celebrated. The celebrations are always of the most absurd and/or disgusting people. So much so that I’m starting to wonder if a bunch of weirdos have de-facto hijacked homosexuality because it allows them to be freaks without any fear of censure? Crazy people crave attention and approval…and if you’ll do something disgusting in public and call it gay, you’ll not only not get arrested, you’ll be called a hero. That sort of thing is an irresistible attraction for the narcissistic lunatic. They simply wouldn’t pass on the opportunity.

NYPD had their cop cars painted up in “Pride” colors and it looks like the artist managed to sneak in the anti-cop “ACAB” logo. This is enormously funny. Leftists never forgive.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers will apparently argue that the gun laws Hunter violated were unconstitutional. And, to be sure, they are: as I’ve noted before, “Shall not be infringed” is pretty straightforward. It doesn’t have any wiggle room. Any law restricting any person – and that is citizen or not – from keeping and bearing any arm they choose is a violation of the Constitution. But it is annoying that Liberals are such complete hypocrites.

The Triumph of the Anti-Human

Mark Noonan43 Comments

I had mentioned a few days ago the fracas over the LA Dodgers inviting, un-inviting and then re-inviting the anti-Catholic “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” to their Pride Night. There has been some developments in that and it has brought a realization to me.

The developments were Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw organizing a Christian Faith and Family Day with the Dodgers and, more directly, Nats pitcher Trevor Williams explicitly condemning the “Sisters” due to the anti-Catholic nature of the group. It was, naturally, Williams’ statement which caused the most ire as it was a direct challenge to the reigning orthodoxy in America.

I fully expected Williams’ statement to cause a lot of blowback (so did everyone else) and the Left didn’t disappoint. As Williams is devoutly Catholic, a lot of the comments harped upon the usual anti-Catholic tropes old and new but what struck me about it was that the people condemning Williams and the Church are the people most committed to transitioning minors and allowing them to be groomed for sexual abuse. Think about that: these people are in favor of deliberately and maliciously destroying lives and their attack on Williams was based upon their claim that Williams condemnation of the “Sisters” was destructive.

Supposing it was destructive, so what? All you have to do is do a bit of searching of the “Sisters” and the pics and video will be all the argument you need to convince any sane person that the “Sisters” are wicked people. I do strongly advise against such a search – you won’t be able to unsee the images and they are uniformly disgusting. Of course, Williams’ statement wasn’t destructive. It wasn’t even a call for any action against the “Sisters”…it was just a statement saying that we must not tolerate the intolerant. Williams would have condemned just as readily someone inviting the Klan. If the battle is to end hate, then why have a group committed to hatred? The “Sisters” are committed to anti-Catholic hatred. We’re not supposed to hate based on race, color, gender, orientation or religion, right?

Right.

But, wrong. The Left doesn’t mean that at all.

The whole purpose of “tolerance” and “inclusion” wasn’t to get us old fashioned Christians to make nice in the public square…it was for the anti-Christians to seize the public square and then exclude us. It was from the start a war against religion…against truth…against decency…against humanity.

They are the anti-humans. They don’t like family, faith or property. They see a neat and tidy community and their blood boils. A woman choosing to be a stay at home mom drives them nuts. They despise a man who stands up for the weak. They don’t want us traveling. Drinking. Smoking. Eating meat. Air conditioning our homes. Grilling in our backyards. They don’t want us to be friends with or marry people of different skin colors. They don’t want cross-cultural social exchanges. They hate our heroes. They loath our history. They, in short, hate everything which makes humanity human.

To be sure, they do have an idea that once they have destroyed all human attachments and desires they’ll be able to rebuild us into something better. They even still give a bit of lip service to that ideal. But I doubt any of them really believe it. They just want us to suffer. Not them, of course; they’re too smart to suffer. Also, they know what’s best for you, so they’ll need their lavish lifestyle to help them build us into something better. But, you? You’re pretty much hopeless…so eat your bug paste and shut up.

But whether they believe it or not, we know it is a pipe dream. Humans are human; they want a bit of a place they can call their own. They want a family of mom, dad and the kids, not some random collection of weirdos pretending to be a family. They want to take that trip to Hawaii and have a steak off the grill. Have a drink. Smoke that cigar. Be human. And any attempt to turn us into a hive of social units living off credits provided based on our social credit score is doomed to failure.

But they are still going to try and right now they stand triumphant. I fully expect quite a lot of pressure on Williams to recant his heresy. We’ll see how strong he is – but if he caves don’t be too ready to condemn him. A lot of pressure will be forthcoming. They will seek to destroy anyone who questions their worldview…all the while holding up as heroes those who are expressly rejecting human sanity. It is deliberate and it is malicious: it is designed to destroy.

What we must do – aside from pray, hope and don’t worry – is work for the power to remove these people from power. I’m not talking about just winning an election and replacing Tweedledee with a slightly conservative Tweedledum…I’m talking about forcing them out of all institutions. Taking away all their money. Reducing them to complete social, economic and political impotence. Here’s the thing – the more we push back, the less social territory they control, the more they’ll be exposed as ultimately a tiny minority of kooks who just happened to get control of the institutions. Even most Left voters don’t fully understand what is being done in their name…so just a few small cracks in the edifice which allows people to stand up against it and very rapidly it will all fall apart.

And then we can just be human, again.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan31 Comments

The Trump vs DeSantis war is heating up – but I do caution that a lot of it does seem to be driven by terminally on-line people looking for social media clout. But there is a worry in that it is getting people not just to stake out positions, but really dig in their heels on it…which is likely orchestrated by Democrats with the intent of getting people to hate the other guy. As I said before: I will support the GOP nominee and I urge everyone to dial it back. From Trump to the most neo-con shill, all GOPers are the moral and intellectual superiors of Democrats. Whatever we get it is better than Pudding Brain or anyone they might replace him with.

Memorial Day is Monday and people are posting a lot of military stuff. This is appropriate but one which popped up for me was not about a man who died in combat, but who did a small deed of decency in the hell of war. It was Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds – taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge he was the senior non-com at his POW camp and when the commandant ordered all Jews to identify themselves – likely for at least hideous treatment, if not murder – Edmonds ordered every man to identify as Jewish. The commandant backed down. It was a small thing, as I said. In the grand scheme of things, it at best saved a couple hundred lives out of the millions who perished. But it was still important. And it took some guts. It is easy to look away, after all.

But that then brought me to Yad Vashem and the Righteous Among the Nations: these are gentiles who have been honored by Israel for helping Jews during the Holocaust. It is quite a list of heroes but something rather sticks out for me: that they were all just regular folks. There weren’t highly decorated soldiers who charged into the enemy – these were just people who saw what was going on and did whatever they could, no matter how small, to just throw a wrench in it. And then you realize two things: if every decent person had just thrown a wrench, the Holocaust could never have happened…and since all the wrench-throwers were regular folks with no special, inside knowledge everyone could have been a wrench thrower. They all knew – but most chose not to act on the knowledge. Many out of ideological commitment, of course, but the regular run of people simply because they didn’t want to be bothered.

And so it has been since then – we’ll likely never see the unique evil of the Nazi regime ever again, but we will certainly contend with evil until God in His good time brings it all to an end. Evil does walk the world today – ever more openly. And it is able to do so because most of us, most of the time, are just hoping it passes us by. The drug addicts rotting in the streets. The illegals being abused. The children being groomed. We for the most part pretend we don’t see it – pretend it isn’t happening. Because if we see it, we have to act. So we talk ourselves into believing that we don’t see it.

But, take heart: some times evil is so brazen that it wakes everyone up. And I think we have now reached that point. The Pelosi Democrats knew when to tap the brakes and allow people to continue to not see until it was too late. The modern Democrats are driven by ideological commitment and they are pressing forward on a variety of fronts to implement their evil. And so brazen is the attempt that regular folks can’t miss it…and just here and there but in my view in growing numbers, people are standing up and saying, “I will not participate”. No, none of us will have a chance to be as brave as Edmonds…but we are increasingly brave enough to say out loud that we will not participate. Sure, we still risk social opprobrium and our jobs are at risk…but none of that matters. We see it. We must say it is wrong…and as more of us do so, others gain the courage to stand up and be counted.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan34 Comments

My view on the GOP Primary is: I will support the nominee. I will not engage in nasty fights with fellow GOPers or GOP-leaning voters.

With RDS now officially in, the shape of the race is clear; it is mostly Trump vs DeSantis with Trump enjoying a huge amount of loyal Trumpster support while RDS is looking for a way to draw some of that vote over to himself. The rest of the pack is probably kidding itself about getting the nomination and, on balance, they probably help Trump by splitting up the anti-Trump vote. Of course, some of these also-rans likely won’t make it to January…the money battle is important right now. Not for Trump and RDS who functionally have unlimited amounts, but for the rest…any of them who want to be around past South Carolina had better come up with some hefty bucks. Those who can’t will likely bow out before the Iowa caucuses.

Do keep in mind that the Democrats are very likely paying for GOP division. We have seen over and over again how relative peanuts will get people to alter their views. It would cost only, say, $100,000 to get a prominent Trumpster pundit to start going “only Trump” as a means of keeping Trumpsters home if Trump doesn’t get the nomination. It wouldn’t cost any more to pay a DeSantis pundit to start going “only DeSantis” for the same reason. The Democrats very much need a divided and weakened GOP for 2024 because that is the only way they drag Biden’s senile carcass into a second term.

As I’ve said for a while, I’m not at all confident of GOP victory in 2024 – because of those divisions being diligently fostered. But I have had a little bit of a mental shift; there is a chance. What I see is that Biden – who has never been loved – is losing what popularity he had. Inflation continues to bite as does overall economic anxiety. We’re already in a recession which is being hidden by number juggling. And now the Culture War has taken an interesting turn. From Biden on down, they are all-in on the transgender thing especially for kids…but outside a few lunatic Blue enclaves, parents are rejecting this. What we might have is a perfect storm brewing where Democrats are set to become unpopular both on economics and social issues…hammering on abortion just barely scraped them by in 2022…that issue is a lot less salient for 2024 while other social issues are coming to the forefront. It could be a very interesting year.

CNN Headline: “Minorities, immigrants and now members of the LGBTQ community are being warned of the risks of visiting Florida after the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group issued a travel advisory following newly passed laws and policies”

Reminder: this lie is not pitched at you. They don’t care about you. They know you’ll never vote Democrat. This lie is for Democrats. And it doesn’t require them to actually believe there’s tyranny in Florida…but what it does tell them is that this is what they have to say is happening in Florida. This is to keep the conversation within the Party Line. That is, to keep them voting Democrat no matter how bad it gets.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan35 Comments

Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) announced his Presidential bid and one of the first questions the MSM asked him was, “are you a virgin?”. Just absolutely flabbergasting. Until I heard that, I didn’t know if Scott was married or not – but as it turns out, he’s 57 and unmarried and has no kids. This does, especially in 2023, bring up the prospect of homosexuality but this does not appear to be the case for Senator Scott. But, whatever: who’s danged business is it? Unless you have some solid information of inappropriate sexual activity, it is nobody’s business. But there goes the MSM – and you know why: they’re hoping he is homosexual or at least hope they can get people thinking he’s homosexual because you know us bigoted, hill-ape inbred MAGA morons would hate that. For goodness sake.

I don’t know Senator Scott’s personal life. No whiff of scandal along those lines has come up and you gotta figure that something would have by now. Is he chaste? I don’t know. Not my business. But it isn’t impossible for him to be chaste, you know? Not everyone even in 2023 is an animal. Some people remain civilized…and if Scott is a real believer in God and he is trying to follow his Christian faith then he might remain chaste because for the true Christian, sex – any sort of sex – outside of marriage is immoral.

There is the meme out there which goes, “you think you hate the media as much as you should, but you don’t.” There is no bottom for these vile and disgusting people.

Now, as for Scott’s ambitions: everyone assumes he’s auditioning for the VP slot for whomever gets the nod – likely Trump or DeSantis at this point. He’s kept friendly with both sides. But never count anyone out. I know that plenty of MAGA folks have problems with Scott but he’s a pretty good guy. Sure, he is close to the Establishment and that is a worry…but he also seems to be his own man. We could do a lot worse. If he does emerge, he gets my vote.

Target has been marketing “tuck friendly” clothes for little children. If you don’t know what they’re “tucking” then just think about it for a minute: it’ll come to you. And I mean really little children. Like 5 year olds. That is how far this insanity has gone. There has been good pushback on this and we’re winning lots of victories in Red States…but the overall American Establishment is still fully committed to making medical transition of minors the norm. We have a long way to go here. Victory comes when major retailers won’t even think about making “tuck friendly” clothes for kids.

LA Dodgers invited the anti-Catholic hate group Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to “pride night”. Then uninvited them when everyone pointed out that, hey, they’re bigots. But now has re-invited them because when it comes to bullying, the LGBTQ community has that nailed down. Corporate America is simply too weak. I know that the basic principle we have is free markets…but in order to win this battle, we are going to have to forcibly instruct Corporate America that non-Lefists also exist.

Debt battle is rather boring but I am pleased that McCarthy is at least showing some backbone. The problem is that we can’t forever keep printing up new money so we can borrow it. It does come to an end. It might actually be better long term if it came to an end right away. We don’t have any money left. Its all gone – blown on wars and graft over the past 70 years as America’s industrial, agricultural and mining base has been destroyed. Go broke and start all over again.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan23 Comments

Over on Twitter @ZubyMusic asks, “What is the most damaging popular myth?”. Getting a lot of responses, some of them jokes of course. But it did get me thinking.

And I think that the most damaging popular myth is the history (so-called) of the last 100 years. That is, what we’ve been told is the history.

I’ve yammered on quite a bit over the past couple years about aspects of our received beliefs which don’t hold up to scrutiny and I’m coming to the conclusion that just as we have Narrative-Drivers for our politics (ie, story lines created – often in advance – to drive opinion in certain directions desired by those in charge) so we’ve had History-Drivers: that is, gatekeepers in the production of history who make certain that the historical Narrative only rolls into accepted grooves.

Just as in the MSM and the larger popular media the ability to be seen and heard largely depends on your ability to do as you’re told, so too is it likely to be this way in all disciplines. Do we really want to think that there is some institutional aspect of our society which isn’t controlled? That the people who have crafted Narrative after Narrative for our immediate political debates would let slip something as crucial as how history records things? That in a world of overwhelmingly conformist thought, they’d let independent thinkers have a place all to their own?

I’m just reminded of a story I heard some years back – it involved a moderately famous man but I can’t remember exactly who at the moment, but no worry as that isn’t fully relevant here. The key thing is that this man’s father was a British colonial official at the tail end of the Empire and upon a time this man pointed out to his son a ragged ship heading north from coastal east Africa and said, “that ship is filled with slaves, and I’m under orders to do nothing about it”. The British were leaving, as were all the colonial powers and with them went any impetus to stop the slave trade…and what had been firmly suppressed was now rising to the surface as the anti-slavers quite the scene. And then, 40 years later, we were all told that the British Empire was nothing but racist colonial oppression. Of course, a true history of Africa since the end of colonial rule would rather harp upon the breakdown of services, the rise of oppression and ethnic murder, the return of slavery…but, we can’t have that, can we? Doesn’t fit the Narrative. Oh, sure, when some particularly hideous thing happens, the world takes notice (like, say, the Rwandan genocide) but it is never placed in context. If any context is given at all, the problem is ascribed to “the legacy of colonialism”, as if the people today had no agency. And then we move on, not noticing until the next outrage occurs. Meanwhile, South Africa is slipping back into Third World status as the millennium promised with the end of Apartheid breaks down under the weight of bribery, incompetence and a raft of anti-white laws and rhetoric.

Just a little bit of the actual history of Africa and none of this would have had to happen. But just as in everything else, all we got was the Narrative history…and it is sustained in spite of any contravening facts.

Pudding Brain’s Secretary of Education said the quiet part out loud – asserting that teacher’s know better than parents what is best for kids. It is absurd and evil, but they really do think that way. They believe, that is, that someone with credentials is inherently superior. No surprise there: they all rise based on their credentials and so they hold credentials as supreme. None of these people – either in government or corporation – has ever had to produce. To actually make something happen or come into existence by their own efforts. Its all just reviewing plans and picking among them based upon the Current Thing and where the strongest pressure is coming from. And they are never tossed out, never jailed, never wind up in poverty. What we’re going to have to do is change laws to require first of all real world experience before you can take a government position and, secondly, entrance exams…really tough exams. Like, say, if you are seeking employment at the Department of Transportation, one of the questions should be along the lines of, “what is the per mile cost of moving a ton of goods from Long Beach to Denver?” and “if fleet average MPG is increased by 10 percent, what will be the average annual cost to an American consumer?”. Guarantee it will weed out these credentialed morons and allow room in there for people who actually know how things work.

See that little flap of metal up the pole there that everyone is smiling about? That was a shade installation to make travel by bus more equitable in Los Angeles. No, seriously; that little bit of metal is supposed to provide shade. I guess when its high noon and if you can stand right under it. It cost $10,000.00 to install. The Progs are seriously proud of this.

How about some fun stuff, now?