Month: September 2021

The Crisis of the 21st Century

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The Twentieth Century was the American Century.  And the Ruling Elite created the American Dream to fuel it.  They fed us the Walt Disney/Norman Rockwell version to get us to fight World War II and then they handed us the Right Stuff version to get to the moon and beat the Soviets.

But somewhere near the end of the last century this elite decided that they really didn’t want to be Americans.  They wanted to be the masters of the universe and rule Planet Earth in its entirety.  We got a preview of this when George H. W. Bush spoke of the “new world order.”  Well, the cat is now thoroughly out of the bag.  Our services are no longer required.  The people who own most of the wealth and control everything of importance are saying in no uncertain terms to get lost.

And to be totally honest my first impulse is to say goodbye.  Who wants to be somewhere you’re not wanted?  But as a practical consideration where can I go?  I guess I can return to the land of my ancestors.  I hear the pasta there is really good.  But the problem is that after four generations you become the place you’re from.  I’ll always be a twentieth century American.  That was the world I grew up in and knew.  I wouldn’t know how to be an Italian at this point if I tried for the rest of my life.  And the same goes double for anyplace else.  Sure, I might be able to make a living and I might be able to find a place there but it would never be home.  Leaving this country would be the last desperate act of a man with no other choice.  And I assume this is the case for tens of millions of other Americans who are no longer welcome in the land they were born in.  Where can they go?  The answer is nowhere.  We’re stuck.

What our betters hope happens to us is a quick death.  Their best case is opioid overdose.  The worst case is a marginal life as a welfare case with a shortened lifespan and no descendants.  This is the fate of people that no longer fit in with the plan.  And they’ve already made a decent start to the plan.  Lots of devastated areas of the rust belt are curling up and dying.  Upstate New York, Western Pennsylvania, large swaths of Appalachia, the upper Midwest and various places around the country are shocking remnants of what they were fifty years ago.  Some of them are almost depopulated.

But something happened back in 2016 that wasn’t supposed to happen.  Donald Trump held up a mirror to men like Jeb Bush and John Kasich and exposed them for the con men that they were.  They were in on the racket and were meant to block the emergency exit that people flee to when the building is on fire.  In the past when the Democrats got tired of the working-class people the people could go to the Republicans and get relief.  But the Bushes were given the franchise by the Democrats to hold that exit closed.  Both George Bushes did an excellent job at that station.  Now it was Jeb’s turn but Trump blew his cover.  He told us the true story.  And we got four years of relief and daylight.  We got a reprieve.

But in 2020 the Deep State cemented up the emergency exit and here we are.  We’re stuck inside a burning house and there’s no way out.  If anyone is going to save us it’s going to be ourselves.  No help is coming from Washington.  That’s where the fire is coming from.  If no one steps forward to lead us out then the only thing left is to jump out a window.  And when there is no other choice that’s what you do.  That’s what I consider leaving the country is.  It’s jumping out the window of a burning building.

But here’s the thing about arson.  If the victims survive the fire, they’re going to come looking for the arsonist.  And there’s a chance his house is made of wood too.  Our masters have depended on the fact that we’re too busy trying to raise our families and live our lives to notice that our masters don’t like us anymore.  Well, we know that now and maybe we’ll find some new masters.  And maybe the old ones are going to go where mobs usually send aristocrats.  Why let a good crisis go to waste?

Larry Correia’s WriterDojo Episode 4

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I was just listening to episode 4 of Larry Correia’s podcast on writing.  The episode was called “Outlining vs Discovery” and it was exactly what I’ve been working on in my own writing.  Discovery is also called “seat of the pants” writing.  That’s where you just start writing and stop when you reach the end.  And that’s what I usually use.  The danger is that you can either paint yourself in a corner or meander off into the middle of nowhere.  Outlining is exactly what it sounds like.  That’s where you take an idea for a story and then develop it into a story with a beginning middle and end.  And depending on how detailed you want to get it may include a number of the characters, sub-plots and even important scenes.

Larry and his podcast partner Steve Diamond represent the opposite sides in this dichotomy.  Larry is an outliner and Steve discovers.  But listening to both of them describe how each gets around the weaknesses of each of these two methods gives a better understanding to the listener about how both methods are used by every writer.  Basically no matter how much outlining you do it’s while you’re actually writing the story that “discovering” the true nature of your protagonist emerges.  And even if you think that you’re not outlining at all, the back of your mind is filling in that outline for you.  You may not know where the story is going but your subconscious does.

But it is true that every writer is one kind of these two kinds.  I’m a discovery writer but I’ve decided that I want to provide an outline for my stories going forward.  That way if the story decides on its own to deviate from the outline I’ll know it’s meant to be.  It’ll be my unconscious mind dope-slapping my conscious mind.  And that I’m used to.

Biden’s Decision to Push Booster Shots Forced Two FDA Leaders to Quit

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The Biden administration’s push to start triple vaccinating Americans against COVID has triggered the resignation of the two most senior members of the FDA vaccine review office.

“”Marion Gruber and Phil Krause, two of the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine reviewers, are leaving the agency, the regulator confirmed on Tuesday.”

and …

The White House announced plans to begin administering boosters the week of Sept. 20, a debated decision that got ahead of the FDA completing its own review. The Biden administration was criticized for the public announcement, which puts considerable pressure on the regulator to clear boosters in time for the planned rollout despite limited evidence they are broadly needed at this time for healthy adults.”

The fact that the Biden Administration refused to wait for the FDA to approve the additional dose before rolling it out shows us just what “following the science” means to them.  It means we’re their guinea pigs in a mad scientist version of science.

 

 

 

 

 

Yasujirō Ozu’s Noriko Trilogy – A Movie Review – Part 3 – Tokyo Story

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Yasujirō Ozu’s Noriko Trilogy – A Movie Review – Part 1 – Late Spring

Yasujirō Ozu’s Noriko Trilogy – A Movie Review – Part 2 – Early Summer

 

In the third installment of the Noriko trilogy, Tokyo Story (1953), Setsuko Hara, once again, plays a young Japanese woman named Noriko.  But in this story Noriko is less of a central player.  In this tale the main action involves the visit of an elderly mother and father to visit their children living in Tokyo.  Shūkichi and Tomi Hirayama have two sons and daughters and they have a daughter-in-law, Noriko, from their son who was killed in the war.  The youngest daughter lives at home with them in the country.  Their eldest son, Kōichi is a pediatrician in Tokyo and has two sons.  The eldest daughter Shige is married and runs a hairdressing salon there too. Neither Koichi or Shige is anxious for the parents to stay with them.  After tossing them back and forth for several days they split the cost for the two elderly people to stay at a resort spa.  But the wild nightlife disturbs the sleep of Shūkichi and Tomi so they are at last forced to accept Noriko’s hospitality.  She is very gracious and generous with her time and her meager resources.  Both Shūkichi and Tomi express how grateful they are for her generosity and her mother-in-law especially tells her that she is sad that Noriko has not remarried and restarted her life.

Shortly after Shūkichi and Tomi return home to the country Tomi becomes critically ill and the family assembles at her bedside.  When she dies the children attend the funeral but all of them leave hurriedly for home except Noriko.  She remains with Shūkichi for several days during the bereavement.  The youngest daughter, Kyōko complains bitterly to Noriko about the selfishness of her brothers and sister.  But Noriko defends them saying that grown children have their own lives and it is inevitable that they will drift apart from their parents.

On the day that Noriko must return to Tokyo for work Shūkichi speaks to her about his happiness at the treatment she showed to her parents-in-law whereas his own children showed such callous disregard for their parents.  He gives Noriko a pocket watch that belonged to Tomi.  Noriko humbly claims that she showed no such generosity but was actually very selfish.  Then Shūkichi renews his entreaties for her to remarry.  Finally, after repeated inquiries she admits that she has been very lonely and she weeps.  Afterwards we see Noriko deep in thought on the train ride home.

Despite the very sympathetic portrayal of Noriko and the very unflattering picture that we have of Koichi, Shige and their families, we are forced to somewhat believe the opinion that it is inevitable that grown children become so absorbed by their own lives that they appear selfish to their parents.  But admitting that much we are charmed by the respect, affection and generosity that Noriko lavishes on her mother- and father-in-law.  Ozu must be making the point that the modern world was forcing the abandonment of the old culture that lavished respect on elders as a primary virtue and replacing it with the Western cult of commercial success.

It is a well-made film.  The parents and Noriko are sensitively portrayed and even the slightly caricatured siblings are well acted.  Many of the details of the story provide human interest.  One example is the doctor’s sons displaying childish anger at their father reneging on a promised outing on account of a sick patient needing attention.  Their peevishness in the face of an unavoidable disappointment rings true to anyone who has raised a family.

I’ll include a conclusion for the whole series here.  Ozu has shown how the changing world the Japanese found themselves in impacted the roles and behavior of each family member but most especially the younger women whose lives were shunted away from the traditional template that girls typically followed on their way to becoming wives and mothers.  The various versions of “Noriko” act as the barometer to indicate to her family that something very different is happening in their world.

These stories have appeal far beyond the Japanese public they were made for.  The roles of women have radically shifted even again in our most recent times.  And exploring the fallout from this change and noting the value that the traditional roles that women play in family life possess are worthwhile exercises.  I recommend the Noriko trilogy for anyone who sees the value in the stories I have described in these reviews.

08SEP2021 – OCF Update – This’N’That

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First up, the ZMan manages to have a lot of fun with the Theranos fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes.  And how could you not have fun with it?  With Holmes’ fake baritone voice and the complete collapse of her fake medical device company it has something for everyone on the right to cheer about.

Secondly, although Biden’s poll numbers are still underwater, so far, the Taliban and ISIS-K have somehow neglected to behead any Americans yet.  I attribute this to enormous monetary bribes from Dementia Joe.  But however it’s being done it may prevent Joe from being tarred and feathered by the public.  And I don’t discount the F— Joe Biden phenomenon.  But who knows?  Maybe Biden will survive his term in office.

And finally I noticed that the Delta Variant Spike in Florida and Texas is almost back down to the baseline in early July before it started.  Kudos to DeSantis and Abbott for not panicking.  Hard to say how long the COVID Iron Curtain will remain up in Blue America but just knowing there are areas outside its control is inspirational for us on the inside.