Month: June 2017

Trump vs Morning Shmoe and Lycra

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Morning Shmoe (MS) – Welcome back from that commercial break and it’s 13 and 1/8th minutes after the quarter hour and we’re here at the newly refurbished set of the Morning Shmoe Show.  And Lycra Spandexy and I were just saying how much better it is to be us, young and in love and not old and racist like President Trump.

Lycra Spandexy (LS) – Yes, he’s a creep with small hands and bad hair.  He’s not beautiful like me.  I am still very, very young and don’t need a facelift and would never get one and besides it’s called a dermatological procedure and everyone gets them because they’re young and not because they need them.

MS – That’s right sweety.  But this is not about us.  It’s about this very bad man.

LS – Yes, he’s a very bad man.  And there was no blood and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

MS – Okay honey, let’s move on.  So, as you all know we’re deeply in love and being together here on the show and also constantly morning, noon and night, all day every day is great.  We never tire of each other’s company and we do everything together.  Every single blessed thing.      ….        And it’s great!   Really, really, really   …     great.

LS – Yes, and I tell Shmoe every little thing that pops into my head.  Like yesterday when the girl doing my nails told me that I had a cold sore on my lip and I said it was a white-head and she said it was herpes and I told her that my dermatologist told me that you can tell if it’s herpes because you get that tingling feeling ahead of time and then you use the Abreva and then it’s a lot less icky and nobody can notice it under the make-up on the show and I don’t have to go on assignment for a week and that’s really great and I told her that it was a white-head and I knew that because it looked like a white-head and I popped it with a pin and squeezed out the puss and then it hurt but not much and it looks like it will heal without a scab that’s noticeable so I won’t have to go on assignment for a week.  And Shmoe was so interested while he sat there listening and drinking that scotch without the water and I asked him if he wanted some water but he just kept filling up that tumbler and I said, “Boy that’s a lot of scotch and he just kept smiling and nodding his head and it was great.”

MS – Yeah that was great.  Really, really, really   …   great.

LS – But Producer Jorge says we have a caller on the line.  Hello caller, you’re on the Morning Shmoe Show.  What would you like to say?

President Trump (PT) – Hello Lycra, it’s me President Trump.  I was told by some of my friends who are forced to watch terrible shows like yours for a living about the nasty things you’ve been saying about me.  I figured I’d call up and set the record straight.

MS – Trump, you’ve got a lot of nerve calling us up and invading our safe space.  But we’re not scared of you and we won’t be intimidated by your bullying.

PT – I won’t need to bully you, I only want to ask you one question.

MS – What’s that?

PT – Did the network force you to marry her for ratings?  Because if not then I don’t get it.  I mean to have to listen to that blathering for an hour or two in the morning is doable, but all the time?  I mean come on!  Don’t you ever feel like just putting a bullet in your head to stop the incessant babble.

LS – Hah, that’s ridiculous.  Just because you are a cave-man and don’t value women for their intelligence doesn’t mean all men are that way.  Shmoe loves to hear my opinions.  Like this morning when we were in the middle of that long commute from Jersey and I started telling Shmoe about what my mother told me the other day about how when I was a little girl and my sister stole my “My Pretty Pony” doll and I told her to give it back and she said it was hers because she said I promised to give it to her if she told me what Marcy said about me to Charlene but I told her that I found out from Debby what Marcy really said and it wasn’t what she told me and my mother said that I really hurt my sister’s feelings and to this day she still wants that doll and she told my mother that my face looks too tight after that dermatological procedure that I didn’t have done and I told Mom that that was mean and I thought that my sister’s butt had gotten really fat and I wasn’t going to give up the doll.  And then I asked Shmoe wasn’t he going too fast and why was he swerving toward the guard rail and then he laughed and laughed.  And he laughed so hard that a tear was in his eye and then I told him that I was enrolling us in a couple’s yoga class and there was a jazzercise section too.

MS – I’m sorry folks but I’m out of time.    …  BANG.

PT – Thought so.

July

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The line goes there are only two seasons in New England.  Winter and July.  Usually I have this big family gathering in July.  It’s a ton of planning and communication and it sort of monopolizes a good chunk of the month with the before, during and after.   But conflicting commitments have forced me to schedule the event in late August.  In a way, this is kind of a good thing.  This means I can enjoy July on its own merits.  So, the New England statement about July acknowledges the fact that July is pure summer.  June can start out feeling like spring.   August can end up feeling like fall.  July has no excuses.  It has to deliver.  Too many children (and adults) are depending on it.  On Bastille Day, I want to look up at a pale blue sky with a blazing sun forcing me to close my eyes and feel the heat of the daystar on my face.  I want to lay in a hammock under a shady tree and hear the deafening whir of the cicadas in the trees overhead.  I want a hot breeze to blow over me and feel the oven-like heat surround me and make me think that jumping in a swimming pool is actually a good idea.  I want a glass of lemonade to seem tempting.  I want to be so lazy that reading an old book like Dandelion Wine sounds strenuous.  I want to put off anything difficult like watching old movies or eating ice cream until night.  I want to watch a baseball game as if I actually care who wins.  I want to take my grandsons fishing.  I want to take the perfect photo of the Milky Way or a dragonfly’s eye.  I want to write a classic short story.  And I want to spend one whole day just trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

As you can tell I’m pretty passionate about July.  Truth be told July belongs to me.  I patented it many years ago.  I own it lock stock and barrel.  So, I feel it’s my duty to reap the maximum benefit from it every year.  And once it’s over I relinquish my hold on summer.  After that it’s fitting to put aside childish things.  It’ll be time to start considering the realities of the calendar.  And sure, there are all kinds of things to look forward to in Autumn.  There’s Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas ahead with all that those entail.   But never again for the rest of the year ahead is there that feeling of pure freedom.  Maybe it’s my Mediterranean blood.  Possibly northern peoples don’t crave the intemperate heat of July.  Or maybe if I lived in a southern state I would have my fill of heat and shun July’s burning sun.  Maybe.  But neither of these is the case.  I truly believe that if July disappoints and does not present me with the extreme weather I crave then my whole year is spoiled and I will go into the colder seasons weakened and at a disadvantage.

So, you see July is my time.  Maybe I’m not the only one who feels this way.  But trust me, July belongs to me.  The rest of you just get to borrow it.  But I don’t mind sharing.  You’re welcome.  Enjoy.

Justified – A TV Series Review – Part 3 – Season 2

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Justified – A TV Series Review – Part 2 – Season 1

Thanks to the magic of Netflix’ DVD service, I and Mrs. Photog (aka Camera Girl) have been burning through Justified at a goodly clip.  We finished Season 2 last Friday and are now barreling along through Season 3 like a meth-head racing to a pawn shop with an ill-gotten Rolex.  But that’s a story for another post.  Right now, I’m reporting on Season 2 and I’m happy to report that it lives up to Season 1 and maybe even surpasses it too.  In Season 1 we met Raylin Givens and his kin and spent the season getting to know the Crowder clan.  That was fun.

In Season 2 we meet the Bennetts.  The matriarch is Mags Bennett and she has three sons.  One of them is the sheriff of Bennett, Kentucky.  The other two help Mags run the Bennett store and their thriving weed business.  It goes without saying that Raylin has history with the Bennetts and the season builds up to a climactic encounter.  Along the way Ray becomes more formally involved with his ex-wife Wynona and Ava becomes Boyd’s girl.  Many sub-plots involve all manner of exciting and amusing scenes.  Probably the outright funniest is Ray’s boss Art trying to apprehend a geriatric outlaw trying to escape onto a private plane at the airport.  Having reached a certain maturity myself I could see the humor of two old men in a foot race that neither can possibly finish.  By the finish both are gasping on the ground recovering their breath for the slow stroll back to Art’s waiting car.

Just as an aside, a recurring role, Loretta, is played by 14 year old Kaitlyn Dever, who played youngest daughter Eve to Tim Allen on “Last Man Standing,” another show that I enjoyed until its recent untimely cancellation by social justice network jerks.

Justified is fast becoming my favorite series of all time.  And that is saying something.  I’ll always have a soft spot for Firefly but if Justified can continue to be as good as it’s been for another season or so I don’t rightly see how I can deny it a place of preference if for no other reason than more hours of enjoyment.  It’s really a show that does not disappoint.  I know I’m beginning to sound like a paid shill for the network that produced the show but I must say I highly recommend it to anyone who likes crime drama with a heapin’ helpin’ of humor thrown in on top.

Stay tuned for Season 3.  It’s already looking very good.

A Re-Iteration for New Readers

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Greetings OCF readers.  We have some newer readers out there who may not have dipped into the archives far enough back to the aftermath of the November election to have read my post  Of Trump, the Alt-Right and Me  but after rereading it and comparing the position of the country and the direction we may be heading I thought it still reflects my feelings on how I see myself in relation to the new right and how I think their vision of the future differs from my aspirations for America.  It’s fair to say that I can see the value of the Alt-Right’s rejection of establishment conservatism’s legitimacy based on its failure to resist any progressive actions no matter how egregious.  For the last few years I’ve followed some of the Alt-Right sites and read what they had to say about the left and the right and found some pretty astute observations.  But I can’t see myself accepting the dark vision of the future they forsee.  I want to think America can survive the insanity that the progressives have imposed on us.  They don’t.

After rereading the post I was satisfied with my summation of where things stand.  But I felt it was fair to give the new readers an idea of where I stand vis-a-vis the “Alt-Right.”  In a nutshell, I acknowledge their accuracy about the old right.  I agree with their direction of fighting back and building alternate institutions and entities to bypass the progressive controlled media, schools and corporations and in fact I support some of these efforts myself.  I see no need to disown or attack their membership seeing as they are the enemy of my enemy.  But I can’t allow myself to believe that their dark vision of the future is inevitable.  Holding people accountable under impartial law and respecting the freedoms we already should have under the Bill of Rights seems like the basis for a cohesive society.  If we get back to such a place I still believe it can be a good place to live and raise children.  That’s what I believe.  Maybe I’ll find out if it’s true.

What Have We Learned?

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Fifty years into this egregious bout of cultural devolution it is probably worth analyzing what we’ve learned.  What seems clear is that the leaders of the supposed pillars of the old regime have proven themselves almost completely useless at withstanding the onslaught of the forces of dissolution.  A closer examination of how this conflict proceeds demonstrates that these supposed leaders don’t actually care about the values of their institutions.  Their primary motivation is maintaining their positions and prestige.  They are completely comfortable with compromising their morals and even the legitimacy of their organizations if doing so will extend their places in the hierarchy.  This has allowed almost unlimited damage to be done to the structure of human culture. It has been responsible for plummeting birth rates, widespread divorce and the crumbling of families.  It also has contributed to an enormous increase in mental illness and depression.  It is hard to imagine that the continuation of this trend for even a very short time won’t prove fatal to our people and way of life.

Looking around I see that several groups and individuals have begun to produce strategies and tactics to allow both offensive and defensive activities.

  • Right wing blogs provide articles and discussion on who the enemy is and what tactics work best against them. A good example is Vox Day’s excellent book “SJWs Always Lie.”
  • These same websites also act as news sources that allow you to bypass the mainstream media.
  • On the religious side Rod Dreher wrote his book “The Benedict Option” to awaken orthodox believers to the severity of the problem and provide information on support organizations and tactics to protect families and educate kids on what it means to be a conservative Christian.
  • Donald Trump provided us with a concrete example of what it means to expose the sell-outs in the republican party and call out the liars in the main stream media and get your message out there by social media and your own websites.
  • Grassroots activism coordinated by some of the right-wing pundits and more prominent individuals can push back against thugs paid for by Soros and other progressive bankrollers.
  • And finally, it becomes important to start building alternate structures to bypass the ones completely infested with progressives. Once again Vox Day has taken the lead with a publishing company that seeks out non-progressive authors.  In addition to the science fiction and fantasy books that are the staple of Castalia House his company also produces books of interest to people on the right wing.  He started up Infogalactic as an alternative to Wikipedia.  And other individuals are building non-progressive structures too.  Gab was started as an alternative to Twitter and Brave is an alternative browser that isn’t slanted to the left like Google.

Looking at this situation gives a mixed impression.  Something like Trump winning the presidency and possessing majorities in the House, Senate and Supreme Court should be a reason for great hope and enthusiasm.  But progress is sporadic and push back from the Deep State and the press is insanely vicious.  The contrast in strength between the rich and powerful progressive institutions like the colleges and other schools, Hollywood and the Media against the tiny fledgling conservative websites and other businesses is staggering.  And yet, being able to read free thoughts and express your own opinion is intoxicating.

What seems apparent is that the odds are daunting.  But what also seems true is that the news black-out against our side is no longer as effective as before.  Word is starting to get out.  When Steve Bannon goes from Breitbart News to the White House change is definitely happening.

So, what I think can be said is that the road is a very long one.  But the first few steps have been taken and the direction is known.  My advice is link up with the others out there who are against the progressives.  Remember that the enemy of your enemy is your ally.  Don’t get into battles over our differences.  Look to form ties to like-minded folks.  But beware those in the republican party who attack Trump and say we must be “fair.”  What they mean is kowtow to the politically correct nonsense that gives the progressives the whip hand.

And support any of these alternative structures that are formed.  They need your help, patronage and encouragement.  And if you can build anything of your own do it.  If you have a talent or a knowledge base use it.  And don’t get discouraged.  It took half a century to get us in this mess.  We won’t clean it up in a year or even a few but we can start to build a new foundation for a better world.  And we can annoy the hell out of a lot of snowflakes, so there is that.

Lance the Boil Now

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Now that the Resistance seems to have run out of steam and Trump needs to get the Congress in gear on healthcare and tax cuts, it seems to me the time has come to think about firing the Special Counsel Mueller.  The reason for this is the fact that he is assembling a republican  killing machine.  And once it’s been assembled it’s inevitably going to get to work killing republicans.  Now, democrats and timid republicans are going to say you can’t fire a special counsel.  But, which is more dangerous and destructive, firing him or keeping him?  Unless Mueller is actually secretly a friend of Trump’s I don’t see his present actions (hiring Clinton operatives) as anything but inimical to Trump’s administration.  And with respect to timing, getting negative press now is much better than getting bad press in a year.  We want the mid-term elections to occur when the biggest news stories will be successful republican initiatives (e.g., tax breaks showing up in refund checks and healthcare reform becoming lowered healthcare premiums).  So to my mind, the time to lance this boil is now.  After all, firing Comey was actually a non-event after all was said and done.  Firing Mueller will be basically the same thing.  And the fact that Trump hasn’t done it yet may just mean he’s taking a wait and see attitude.  That is to my mind a mistake.  If you wait until Mueller starts to leak damaging results to the press means people will be reminded of all the nonsense the press dredged up in the first half of the year.  And that will scare the cowardly republican congress and that will delay the agenda.  Obviously that’s a self-defeating strategy.  Lance the boil now, not when it’s too late.

 

21JUN2017 Hat Tip to the Z Blog

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The Z Blog has a very interesting article up “Utopian Misanthropes”

http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=10628#comments

It’s hard to believe that the witless leftists that depend on safe space and intersectional double talk could have any relation to Orwell’s 1984 but once the first and second amendments are gone the knives would immediately come out. It’s nice to see someone who can discuss Huxley and Orwell in relation to the world we live in.

Plug for a Useful Video on the Sony A9

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Tony Northrup is a well-known photographer/photo pundit.  He has used all the major camera manufacturers’ gear and has been a pretty honest critic of Sony’s mirrorless cameras over the years.  He is neither a shameless fanboy nor a Sony Hater.  He’s a good source of information.  In this video, he addresses several common allegations against the Sony A9.

I think he’s extremely convincing.  I have an A9 rental scheduled at the end of August for a family gathering but I already feel that he has put to rest the infamous “banding” uproar.  Good for him.  Anyway, if you’ve been following Sony for the last few years and were excited about the specs of the A9 (and the soon to be announced A7 III, A7R III and A7S III) you’ll be interested in getting Tony’s remarks on how these “terrible problems” turned out once he owned his own A9.

Check it out.

A Short Book Review of Rod Dreher’s – The Benedict Option – Part 2

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A Short Review of Rod Dreher’s Book, “The Benedict Option” – Part 1

Today I finished “The Benedict Option.”  Regardless of whether you are a Christian or just someone who adheres to the traditional cultural norms of western civilization this book gives you a great deal to think about.  And for someone trying to live as a Christian in this post-Christian world and even more importantly someone raising Christian children this book is extremely relevant.

Dreher presents his thesis as bad news/good news, in that order.  The bad news is we’ve lost the culture wars and the younger generations have rejected the Christian precepts on sexuality and hedonism.  He declares that to pretend that we can win back the culture is delusional and counter-productive.

The good news is now Christians can prove that they are Christians.  His thesis is that because we thought we could depend on the Christian nature of America we didn’t have to do the hard work of living the Christian lifestyle and making sure our children were brought up in the faith.  We assumed our kids would pick up faith through osmosis, even if we ourselves didn’t really reflect this lifestyle.  America stopped being Christian because Americans weren’t living as Christians.  Basically, the communists who were running our schools and Hollywood made an end run around religion by replacing God with fairness and used the highly materialistic consumer culture that is present day America to convince our children that this culture is really all there is to America.  And they bought it.

His logic is that in order to survive in this anti-Christian society we’ll have to return to the mindset and behaviors that the Christians adopted when they lived in a non-Christian society.

After this Dreher compares the present-day situation to late 5th century Italy when Saint Benedict was starting his monastic system to allow Christians to survive the Dark Ages after the fall of Rome.  There is a good deal of description of the components of the Benedictine Rules and how these would apply to lay Christians.  This is followed by chapters that describe the ways that Christians can circumvent the dangers of present day educational and work-life anti-Christian realities.  These sections are full of examples of individuals and groups building organizations and support systems that are referenced in the Notes section at the end of the book.  I was surprised at how much already exists to allow parents to locate traditional Christian schooling or resources for home schooling.  But most important is the need for parents to heavily involve themselves in teaching their children what Christianity means.  One thing that I found interesting was his insistence that in order to inoculate children against the sexual hedonism of the modern world parents were going to have to learn how to talk about sex with their children.

And finally, the book stresses the fact that it wasn’t really an enemy from without that destroyed the Christian West.  It was the logical conclusion of the Enlightenment philosophy that puts man at the center of the universe.  Basically, there was no longer a place for God.

For those interested in practical solutions to the problem of living a traditional Christian life in these godless times I highly recommend this book.  Even if you disagree with some of the suggestions you will find yourself thinking of the world and your place in it in a totally different way.

Justified – A TV Series Review – Part 2 – Season 1

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Justified – A TV Series Review – Part 1

I just finished watching the last two episodes of Season 1.  This is some kind of crazy show.

I guess I better preface my opinions by saying I haven’t been a member of the audience during the much touted “golden age of cable television” that’s been going on for the last decade or so.  I never cared about “The Sopranos” and I didn’t care about “Madmen” although I watched a few episodes a while back.  Likewise, I started watching the “Breaking Bad” episode where he is burning his money on the barbecue and then throws it into the swimming pool.  All I saw was Hal from “Malcom in the Middle” in his underwear making funny noises that weren’t particularly funny.

So maybe I’m not up on what’s current in TV Land.  Take that as given.

This is some kind of crazy show.  Apparently, Kentucky is located in the Twilight Zone where endless criminal activity and gun play is completely routine.  Timothy Olyphant’s character (Raylan Givens) is literally submerged in family, friends and strangers who all seem to be at each other’s throats twenty-four, seven.  Over the course of those two episodes at least sixteen people were shot dead.  And this is ignoring beatdowns, kidnappings, arson, non-lethal shootings, and even shoulder mounted rocket attacks.  And the cast of characters are almost exclusively highly conflicted and dangerous individuals.  Perhaps the only exception (and it’s a little early for me to be sure of this) is Ray’s boss, Art Mullen, the Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal (played by Nick Searcy).  He is, of course, surrounded by the insane happenings but so far seems to be operating as a sane law enforcement agent trying to manage his team and stay within the law.  But I’m sure in the course of the show’s six-year run he must crack.

Season One documents Ray’s return to Kentucky.  And the circumstances highlight Ray’s already unorthodox perspective on law enforcement.  He has a code of behavior that allows him to supersede normal legal protocol when he determines that someone isn’t just a normal criminal.  In other words, if someone has figured out how to game the system to commit acts that Ray cannot allow to occur he is determined to use extra-legal activities to curtail them.  He takes the law into his own hands.  That’s the premise of the show.  In his mind, he’s justified.  I guess we’ll find out if the world confirms this or changes his mind.

So as of the end of season 1 I am enthusiastically a fan of the show.  As I said the character are conflicted and most of them are not good people by any definition of the word.  But several of them have been shown to be interesting.  Of special importance seems to be Boyd Crowder, played by Walton Goggins.  Boyd’s criminal family is the focus of much of season one’s action.  Boyd is both a career criminal and Ray’s boyhood friend.  They worked together in the Kentucky coal mines.  And it seems apparent they are meant to be two sides of a coin throw.

The show maintains a very active pace with rarely a dull moment.  Ray’s romantic life is, so far, the least interesting part of the show but perhaps with additional insight into the motivations and back story of the main women in his life we’ll get a better understanding of why we should care which of them is his leading lady.  Of course, that is assuming any of them lives long enough to develop a domestic back story.

And as a point of information on the female reaction to Justified, Camera Girl (or more formally, Mrs. Photog) is also enthusiastically a fan of the show.  But she is more blood thirsty than I and less philosophical.  So that makes it less surprising to me.  Stay tuned and I will update this as I view the succeeding seasons in the coming weeks.

Justified – A TV Series Review – Part 3 – Season 2