Open Thread

Mark Noonan14 Comments

So they had a whole bunch of “Pride” parades this past weekend and the usual suspects among the Democrats were out there with their social media posts holding up a “Pride” flag and saying how happy they were to attend. But this year things went a bit different – given that Twitter, especially, isn’t as subjected to censorship as it used to be, when people posted the other photographs from “Pride”, it got into a lot of places…so many places that the Left went nuts. Not over the naked guys flashing their dangly bits in front of kids…no; they were mad that we noticed naked guys (and enormously fat, old and ugly guys, into the bargain) were waving the short arm.

Of course, we’ve known this all along – and, indeed, a few old degenerates showing off their privates is actually fairly tame for a “Pride” parade. The actual sex acts are a bit more grotesque. I’m sure that was posted as well but I’ve a fairly decent “follow” count on Twitter and so none of that got Tweeted into my time line.

It did get me thinking that a lot of the real freaks at these things aren’t so much gay as, well, freaks. Sure, they talk up the gay aspect of it, but they’re mostly about the freakiness. What “Pride” really means to this type is the ability to engage in their perverted kink without censure. I’m very firm on this because none of the gay guys I know and have known – including some really good looking guys – ever felt the urge to whip it out in public.

But, that aside, the Left had a meltdown about it. And rightly so – most people simply do not know what is going on. What they’ve seen of “Pride” is highly sanitized by the MSM. Just as what most of them have seen of transgenderism is some nice, soft spoken person who isn’t threatening…the six foot two weirdo in a pink miniskirt is a bit more off-putting and so not shown (yes, I’ve really seen this; the Left likes to think nobody on the Right gets around – but, for instance, I’ve been the only white guy at a Mexican bar and the only white guy at a black house party. Heck, I once hitched a ride at 2 am from a gangbanger. I like people; I get along with them. I’m not afraid of people, not even the weird ones. I can shift in an instant from biker bar to classical music concert). A lot more of this stuff gets out – if people actually see it – then the game is up for the Left. The way they get what they want is slow, incremental change until the Far Left is implemented – the guy with the fake breasts and three foot dildo strapped around his waist kinda kills that plan.

Both Trump and DeSantis are campaigning on ending birthright citizenship – it has become the price of entry into the GOP field. Oh, sure; some of the candidates will reject it, but anyone who wants a serious shot at the nomination will embrace it.

And it has to be done. I’m of the position that birthright citizenship does not cover persons born to non-citizens and certainly not those born to non-citizens illegally in the country. I know the arguments saying the 14th says anyone born in the USA, but one has to place things in their historic context, and that is precisely what the Left – and part of the Right – refuses to do; to them, it is a “living document”. Except for this one thing. They are only literalists in this tiny area – which happens to be the area where GOP moneybags and Marxist Democrats agree on the outcome. In the time it was enacted, what was intended by the 14th was a complete shutdown of any ex-Confederate attempt to refuse citizenship to any freed slave or their descendants. It was ratified in direct response to Southern States attempts to write their citizenship laws in a manner with de-facto excluded black Americans from citizenship.

Now, this won’t be easy! And eventually it may take an Amendment. But we start with what we can: in this case, Trump and DeSantis promising Executive Orders. This will naturally generate lawsuits. That is good. It gets the issue into the public square and it will force Democrats to take what is bound to be the unpopular opinion: just get across the border and your kid is as American as apple pie! Most Americans probably don’t even realize this is an issue…it isn’t something the MSM talks about. Just by getting it into the debate, we gain the advantage…and a fight over this means other things like border walls and strict deportation for adult illegals will become easier.

The MSM is busy trying to downplay the Hunter Biden scandal – seriously saying it is all about a father’s desire to help his addict son. Yeah, sure…every addict son gets $10 million from foreign entities funneled through a raft of offshore shell companies. They’re caught and they know it – but there’s also nothing anyone can really do about it. Its all Federal and Pudding Brain’s people simply won’t allow anything to happen.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan28 Comments

I guess there is some coup-like activity going on in Russia at the moment – nobody really knows what is going on but it appears that Putin’s Wagner mercenaries are angry and they are claiming they are heading to Moscow to wipe out the Ministry of Defense. Could be a host of things running from a fake coup set up by Putin to consolidate power and eliminate enemies all the way to a real coup attempt. In a few days, we’ll know. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians should be attacking all along the line right now with whatever they’ve got – if it is a real coup attempt. Because if it is, they’d likely find a demoralized enemy in front of them who might collapse at a blow. But if they keep just slogging it out with the Russian army in their counter-offensive as for the past couple weeks, then it means at least Ukrainian intel doesn’t think its a real coup.

I retain my standard position: don’t care. Not our problem.

So that jury-rigged sub apparently imploded pretty much right away after it got down to the ocean floor. It was made at least partially with carbon fiber material and from what I understand, never make a sub out of carbon fiber material. Something to do with the nature of carbon fiber that makes it unsuitable for submersibles. The nimrod zillionaire who built the thing was warned about this but he wasn’t going to let experts who know what they’re talking about stop him! The event is an exemplar of modern life: narcissists who don’t know anything wasting money doing things which don’t need to be done but which give an ego boost. I’ve no sympathy for anyone on that sub – even going down there in a properly constructed sub is horribly dangerous and unless you are a scientific researcher you’ve no business going there. To go down in a rich guy’s vanity boat is simply stupid.

The release of all that Hunter Biden info pretty conclusively shows that Hunter has been running a scam based on his father’s name for years. Naturally, Never Trump’s reaction is: “well, we’re still not sure there was a crime”. They assert this because they are so filled with hatred of Trump it has made them stupid. You see, they can’t admit that the DOJ is letting Hunter skate because if they do, it calls into question the indictment of Trump. After all, if the DOJ is so corrupt as to let obvious law-breaking slide for political reasons, what’s to stop them from prosecuting an innocent man for political reasons? On the other hand, you do have to give Hunter credit for trying to write off the sex club membership fees on his taxes – that takes some guts. On the other, other hand, it let me know there are “elite sex clubs” in the USA…which makes me want to burn the system down to the ground, twice.

Garland is now claiming that if we complain about his corrupt DOJ, we’re a threat to Democracy. Don’t take this lightly: he is threatening you. The FBI has become a de-facto secret police along the lines of the NKVD.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

Hunter skated. Of course he skated. We all knew he would skate. He’s the son of a prominent Democrat. Even if Pudding Brain hadn’t been installed into the White House, Hunter would have skated. That Daddy was given the office just makes it even more existentially sure that a skate would occur.

This doesn’t really make any of us mad. We’re already angry with the two-tiered justice system. What we’re mad about is supposed fellow Righties justifying it.

The most absurd take – so widespread on the Never Trump Right that it must have been a memo sent out – was “well, Hunter cooperated and this is what happens when you do that, unlike Trump!”. FFS…cooperated on what? He committed several obvious felonies – especially given Democrat shrieks regarding guns his weapons violations. When you play ball with the prosecutor it is to get a light sentence as you drop dime on your criminal partners…Hunter isn’t dropping dime on anyone. He doesn’t have to: he had a “get out of jail free” card issued to him the moment his Dad showed himself to be a loyal Democrat Party foot soldier. So, like back by 1975. Getting to the VP slot and the White House just gold plated that ticket. Hunter got off because his name is Biden; plain and simple and that is all there is to it. Meanwhile, Trump is indicted not for breaking a law, but for being Trump. He’s guilty on an infinite charge of being Trump.

But what should also be noted here is that to justify this deal – to either participate in making it happen or excuse it after the fact – indicates sheer sociopathic behavior. Narcissism of the serial killer variety. It really is that stark; no person with any sense of decency can say other than the evidence in the Hunter case at least merits felony charges be issued. Whether or no Hunter could beat the rap in court is an unknown…but sending him to trial is warranted. Not allowing him to plea out with no jail time. But people are out there saying just that – it is all cool! These are the people who will happily shove you into a boxcar for the death camp. Who would happily inform on you to the secret police. Who would shout the loudest during a show trial.

Heard about that missing tourist sub on the Titanic? More I read, the more ridiculous it becomes…seems like it was a home-brew submersible with off-the-shelf equipment. I’m pretty confident those poor people are dead. But I would like to point out that the Titanic sits at 12,500 feet deep and the pressure is 390 times greater than on the surface. My point: it is dangerous. Even the best designed sub with the most experienced crew can be killed in an instant if something goes wrong. People simply should have a little more sense – certainly a greater understanding of risk/reward.

Looks like we “accidentally” sent an extra $6.2 billion to Ukraine. Yeah. Accident. How much you wanna bet me we never see a dime of that back and it all wound up in Swiss bank accounts?

A Muslim-majority town in Michigan banned the display of the “pride” flag on public buildings. A completely reasonable stance to take and one which Christians should duplicate in communities where they hold a majority. Naturally, this has caused some problems on the Left – how to square that “refugees welcome” and “pride” circle? After a few days to think it over, they’ve arrived at their solution: tell Muslims they are being fooled by White Supremacists and they better get their kids into transition indoctrination centers right quick.

I don’t think this will work.

South Africa’s Failed Promise: A Warning for the USA

Mark Noonan1 Comment

How are things in South Africa? Not too well:

The peace of a normally tranquil suburban road near South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, is being shattered by the sound of drilling.

These are not prospectors looking for a new source of the country’s mineral wealth, but workers digging for an arguably more precious resource: water.

Private boreholes – like this one being excavated in Garsfontein – are springing up across the wealthier neighbourhoods in the country’s economic heartland, where taps have been running dry.

Why have they been running dry? Not for lack of water – it is for lack of power to keep the pumps running:

South Africa’s state power utility Eskom may have to increase power cuts to an unprecedented level this winter, a company executive said on Thursday, as the country grapples with its worst power crisis on record.

This is leading to some interesting, new experiences of South Africans (aside from having to drill their own wells):

The death toll from a cholera outbreak in South Africa has climbed to 26 in recent days, with dozens more hospitalized while frustration mounts over the government’s response to the disease, which is common in several areas of Africa but rarely spreads in this country…

…Analysts point to chronic power outages that have left economically impoverished areas of South Africa without electricity for up to 12 hours a day as winter takes hold in the Southern Hemisphere.

The South African government response? Blame (and punish) whitey:

Newly-drafted regulations in South Africa are sparking anger over water usage for white people. The nation continues to grapple with the idea of race quota politics aimed at addressing the inequalities caused by apartheid.

Last month, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government published draft regulations that would implement race quotas for the allocation of water use licenses for businesses.

South Africa is a civilization in collapse. And it is rather sad – I had some hope early on that they’d avoid what the rest of Africa went through when it transitioned to majority black rule. Mandela, especially, impressed as he did speak strongly for racial reconciliation and then, most incredibly, voluntarily left power when he could have easily set himself up as yet another African “President for life”. I figured that after a while of trying Socialism (the ANC emerged out of Communism, of course) wiser heads would prevail and they’d get to work building the wealth necessary to raise the black majority up to First World economic standards. South Africa is a very large country (doesn’t look like it on the map, but its more than 471,000 square miles) which is just slopping over with natural resources. It also inherited a functioning, First World economic system and infrastructure. All it would have taken was work – lots and lots of hard work. And time: at least a century to fully complete the process.

But who wants to work and take all that time?

After Mandela, the ANC opted for favoritism and graft. They took the wealth of South Africa and spent it on themselves and their cronies. This did have the benefit of keeping the ANC in power against its weak and divided opposition but that money was supposed to be spent extending the economic system and infrastructure to black South Africa. It wasn’t spent on that – and over the last decade or so, they didn’t even allocate enough money to maintain the infrastructure they inherited…and so the power and water crisis. And as that crisis deepens the ANC is opting for ever more strident racial politics – it is all whitey’s fault! The legacy of Apartheid! Aside from their proposal to dole out water based on race there is also a growing movement to confiscate white-owned farms (white South Africans do own most of South Africa’s agricultural land) – this is a page out of Zimbabwe.

And it is useful to recall what happened in Zimbabwe. As the post-white government there floundered deeper into corruption and economic decline, they confiscated almost all the white-owned farm land and passed it out to cronies. The drawback here (aside from the injustice) is that these people had no idea how to run a modern, cash-economy farm. Most native African farmers are still subsistence farmers – that means they grow enough for themselves with a small amount leftover to sell for the goods they can’t make themselves. There is a huge difference between subsistence and market agriculture and you can’t just willy-nilly switch from one to the other. You have to learn how to modern farm – and it takes time to do so.

In the end, those confiscated farms (which used to be a breadbasket for Africa) collapsed under mismanagement. The white farmers mostly left but some stayed…on the small plots they were able to keep these (mostly older) white farmers set to work, and taught young black Zimbabweans how to farm. In a few years, these small farms were doing great and while still white-owned, the now very aged white farmers were pretty much retired while the black farm workers were doing well. The Zimbabwe government had a response for all this: confiscate the farms and kick out not just the few remaining white farmers, but also the skilled black farmers working the land. These farms then, too, collapsed under mismanagement.

This is what many in South Africa are proposing to repeat.

And it all comes down to racism, though not as the Global Racial Narrative holds. It isn’t whitey keeping people down. Sure, under Apartheid (and Jim Crow here in the USA) that was the case…but once Apartheid (and Jim Crow) are gone the whole thing becomes a matter of learning and working.

The learning is rather crucial. You don’t just know how to do things. Everything you know was taught to you. You were instructed, even if you don’t remember it. Everyone has to learn.

The economic system and structure of South Africa on the glad morn when Apartheid ended was the product of Dutch and English knowledge applied to South African conditions over a period of centuries. It didn’t just happen – and it wasn’t stolen from anyone. When the Boers showed up in what became Orange Free State there simply wasn’t much there. They reached agreement with some local chiefs about where they could settle but other chiefs were marauding through the area and the Boers had to fight them to secure their lands. That done, they just set to work. It wasn’t easy. They were pioneers in what was mostly a howling wilderness; they had to learn how to farm and work the land to best effect. And they did so.

Make no mistake about it – from the get-go the Boers considered black Africans inferior and would not admit them into Boer society outside a subservient role. They did treat blacks unfairly. You can’t forget that nor undo what happened. But what is crucial to understand is that the Boers worked – they built up out of nothing a modern, functioning society. Around the edges of this society lived black Africans…who also started to learn. But the learning curve was steep and the Boers were exclusionary so there was no full imparting of knowledge from Boer to black African. But there was some and over time black Africans started to enter the modern society the Boers (and, later, the British) were building in South Africa. But most did not; weren’t interested, didn’t like the whites (for good reason) and so kept to their immemorial ways.

But the thing about old ways is that they can’t compete with modern ways. As South Africa went ever higher, more and more black Africans wanted a piece of that pie. The Boers, though, didn’t want to give them a piece and so developed Apartheid. They did want black labor, but not blacks as social equals. Part of this was, of course, sheer malevolent racism…but they also knew that to turn over the country to black Africans would be a disaster. Black Africans wouldn’t know how to run it – just in a practical, day to day sense. It takes time for a people to integrate into new ways of doing things. The Romans governed Britain for more than 350 years – bringing all sorts of social and material advancement to what had been a very backwards people. When the Romans pulled out, the British people forgot how to make bricks.

Bricks. You know: simple rectangular things anyone can make.

Except not everyone can make them. You need the skills – and you also need the settled, regular economic and political system which allows people to take the time to make things like bricks. When the Romans exited they took the skills and the system with them. At the end of Apartheid the black majority simply wasn’t ready to do things like maintain and expand a modern, electrical production and distribution system. White South Africans knew how – and the post-Apartheid government should have had these whites instruct. Instead, they systemically fired the white workers and replaced them with blacks who didn’t have the first clue and only got the job because they were cronies of some ANC power broker.

We’re not supposed to say that, don’t you know? That is, we can’t say that a population of black people is incapable. But it is what it is. Certainly, part of the reason they were incapable was white refusal to teach them over a period of decades. That was grossly unjust – but once again, it is what it is. For whatever bad or good reasons, the black majority simply didn’t know what needed to be done. To get them to the level of the white South Africans was going to take a long time. But nobody can campaign on a promise that you grandchildren will be doing great. The political reality of the sudden transition to black majority rule was always going to be: “vote for me and everything will be perfect”…soon to be followed, after inevitable failure, by “that wicked minority has sabotaged us.”

And it is racism – now just directed at the white minority instead of the black majority. The only way the ANC can fix South Africa’s problems is to enact policies which will eventually lead to ANC political defeat. Can’t have that, right? Much easier (if you’re rich, juiced in and have a government-supplied power generator) to just keep with the current system behind your walled and privately-guarded neighborhood while everything outside goes to hell in a handbasket (yes, Ruling Classes are that cruel and indifferent: they really don’t care how much suffering there is as long as they stay rich – not for nothing did Our Lord say the love of money is the root of all evil). I can easily see the ANC eventually going for anti-white pogroms…which will lead to lots of death and destruction and increased poverty for poor blacks, especially. But what of it? As long as the bosses keep theirs…and as long as the Global Elite looks the other way because the last thing the Global Elite wants is for everyone to pay attention to what is going on in South Africa.

Here’s the bad news – they are bringing this to the USA. Via affirmative action placement in all our institutions and an increasingly brazen racial spoils system the physical infrastructure of the USA collapses in pace with the social collapse as racial animosity increases because people are perceiving that there is a double standard (almost Apartheid-like double standard) in how people are treated by the system. Just as in South Africa, it is unsustainable. Eventually you either have to have people who know what they’re doing, or the infrastructure falls apart (you know; like with bridge collapses and train derailments)…and as the racial divide becomes more stark in how people are treated, social cohesion collapses as people break up into warring tribes, each just looking to loot a bit more than the other tribes.

If we want this to stop then we simply have to stop it. All racial considerations must be dropped. In fact, probably best if we made racial categorization illegal; that is, explicitly forbidding people to take race (or gender, religion, orientation, etc) into consideration on any decision. Merit must be the absolute dictator – from kindergarten to the heights of economic and political power. Anyone who can’t cut it…well, they can’t cut it. Maybe the reason they can’t cut it is because of some injustice in the past. Doesn’t matter. Either you can, or you can’t. If you can’t, then the world still needs ditch diggers…be a good ditch digger and maybe your kid will go to college and be one of those who can cut it higher up the ladder. Sorry that life can suck at times – but all work is honorable and we’re trying to build for the future, not make you feel better today.

What we certainly can’t do is go on as we are – because if we do then in 10 years we’ll have “load shedding” for electricity use as cholera spreads…and while a corrupt Ruling Class steals the last nickel we have. Better for a time a of reality – where we simply call things as they are, and build up from where we are, not where we wished we were.

You Can’t be Half Bad

Mark Noonan1 Comment

Someone tweeted out “what President would you make a movie about?” and this in relation to the excellent Lincoln which covered a short span of time where Lincoln ushered the 13th Amendment through the House. My pick was for a movie about Eisenhower dealing with the period of time covered by the Suez Crisis.

I’ve talked about this before but the more I think about it, the more crucial this event becomes in my mind. It set in motion so many disastrous effects.

First off, it essentially terminated the idea of a treaty as binding on all contracting parties. The genesis of the crisis was Nasser’s nationalization of the Suez Canal which abrogated several treaties – and was also unnecessary because when Nasser nationalized it was only 12 years before the treaty which allowed the construction of the canal in the first place was set to expire. You might think, then, that it was rather trivial and in a certain sense it was – but it was still a violation of a treaty and nobody is allowed to do that. Or, at least, nobody is supposed to do that. If treaties can be broken at will, then what is the point of them?

Well, since then the point of a treaty has been to merely paper over a problem of the moment – something which allows people to say a problem is solved when it isn’t and nobody really has any intention of solving it. The best example of this sort of mindset post-Suez was the Paris Peace Accords ending the Vietnam war. We entered into them without getting South Vietnamese agreement and it was clear from the get-go (and became clearer as time went on) that the purpose wasn’t to end the war but give us time to get out with a “decent interval” before South Vietnam fell to North Vietnamese aggression. It would have been more honorable if we had just pulled out without so much as a word of explanation.

But it wasn’t just in the practical sense that it is wrong – it is also in the moral sphere. If your word isn’t your bond then you have deliberately made yourself a bad person. And as has been pointed out, you can’t maintain a level of bad…if you start down that slope you’ll just go from bad to worse. Now we don’t even make treaties – we sign a memo and we’ll honor it, or not, depending on whatever political and economic calculus seems best at the moment. This is how we got into Ukraine – we don’t have a treaty. But there is a memo! The memo doesn’t call for us to render aid…but the Biden Administration needed to make out that Russia was this huge enemy and so when Russia attacked Ukraine is dovetailed perfectly into Administration needs…and so we’ve got a proxy war. We also had agreements with the Afghan government but it was time to leave, so you see how that came out. Why go above and beyond with Ukraine while abandoning Afghanistan? Morality has nothing to do with it – it is all expedience.

But we didn’t have to come here – that is, Eisenhower didn’t have to take Nasser’s side in the Suez Crisis. Britain and France were perfectly within their treaty rights to intervene while Israel was within her rights to assist the Anglo-French because the Egyptians’ were illegally blockading Israel’s access to the sea. We took Nasser’s side ostensibly because we feared a Muslim-world backlash if we didn’t. We should have stood by the law. We didn’t. Now we’re here.

And that is the main point: you can’t go halves. It is all or nothing. You’ll either tell the whole truth, or you will lie. You will either uphold all laws, or you will be lawless. You will either be brave at all times or a complete coward. You can’t be half bad. We tried to be, and now we’re all bad.

And that extended to one thing after another. If our government and institutions are shot through with corruption – and they are – then it all stems from a desire in the past to have it both ways. To have honor while lying. But once you start being bad in one area, you won’t remain good in other areas. After all, you abandoned honor…what’s left to hold on to? To be sure, we don’t have to blame Ike – we can go back to Truman allowing us to fight a war without a desire for victory. We can go back to FDR and his serial mendacity. Wilson implementing anti-American policy to “make the world safe for Democracy”. But I’ll still lay it as Ike’s feet. He was an old school West Point graduate – back when they really did impart, “Duty, Honor, Country” as ideals. He knew the deal, and yet went along with an attempt to reward lying and treaty-breaking. And if someone like Eisenhower could play that sordid game, who wouldn’t going forward?

Everyone would, of course; and they all did. Increasing as time went on and infecting more and more institutions and ever more deeply…until we get what we have today: any person of wisdom assumes the government is lying. All other institutions, as well. Our operational thesis is that whatever they’re saying it is a deflection from what they are doing. And the country is disintegrating because of it.

I’m Back Open Thread

Mark Noonan29 Comments

We had a great time – best was actually the last day where we wound up at Aliso Beach…and got to see dolphins not ten yards off shore (the beach is peculiar in that is very steeply goes into the water and so its pretty deep very close to shore). There my granddaughter came up with the clever idea of leaving one of my books in the “take one, leave one” book library there…we’ll see if it generates any sales! So, I’m tanned…but not really rested because grandpa keeping up with an 11 year old took its toll on the knees (fellow geezers will understand).

But it was pretty cool and rainy – which is remarkable for June in the San Diego area. Highest temp we experienced was about 68 or so. So, back to Vegas and the heat, right? Nope: it has been raining all morning so far and the forecast is for off and on all day. To remind: the average rainfall in Las Vegas for June is 0.0 inches. So, this is a total global warming fail.

I did continue monitor the Trump indictment stuff and I remain flabbergasted at the number of people on the Right to continue to lend it credence. For heavens sake, it was put together by the same people who did Trump-Russia! In the end, we might just be too stupid to win.

Latest polling (pound of salt, as usual) shows Trump running away with the nomination and beating Biden. I’ll believe either when I see them. But the fact is that Biden remains catastrophically unpopular. Conventional Wisdom (which is never right) says that is ok because Trump is even more unpopular. We’ll see. DeSantis is still in the mix but he’s got a minefield to cross – attacking Trump while getting Trumpsters on board. If he can do it, then he’s sheer genius.

The pushback against TQ+ continues to grow – and more and more LGB are joining it. Honestly, isn’t everyone just sick to death of this? A whole month to celebrate the particular sexual activities of a small minority? It is that they are pushing the TQ+ on kids that is driving it, but as it is being driven the whole concept of “gay pride” is coming under attack. Ok, we get it: you’re gay. Whatever. All the laws criminalizing homosexuality are gone. Nobody cares. Move on.

But the Left can’t stop, can they? And they are getting ever more absurd. Saw a ridiculous MSM report earlier where there’s a “rainbow underground railroad” rescuing gays from Texas. I mean, come on! What is it – phone number for U Haul? But they are on and on about the “genocide” of gays and transgender…which, when you dig down into it, comes out to mean they’re mad at straights for not letting them turn their kids into transgender. I don’t really know how this will play out – Team Pudding Brain and every Democrat is fully committed to it – they’re even working on a law in California which will strip kids from any parent who doesn’t affirm their chosen gender. This is absolute objective evil…but the Democrats are all-in on it. Might this start to create a suburban backlash? For every Karen who wants a designer Trans kid might there be a hundred who are horrified at the prospect? We’re going to find out.

Looks like Uncle Grabby made an attempt to grab Eva Longoria’s breasts…TBF, that is an urge all men have but, my goodness, if this is what he does when the cameras are rolling, just what does our Creep in Chief do in private?

Anyways – did you hear that my Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup?

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.