Month: January 2022
14JAN2022 – Quote of the Day
What would a man do, if he were compelled to live always in the sultry heat of society, and could never bathe himself in cool solitude?
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Supreme Court Strikes Down OSHA Vax Mandate
This is fantastic news. Unless that old psychopath wants to fly in the face of the judiciary branch of government this should be the end of his attempt to deprive people of their livelihood.
Unfortunately, they upheld the the mandate for federally funded healthcare agencies with a 5-4 vote. But half a loaf. I have to assume this will hasten the end of a lot of this COVID fascism. Companies that don’t want to torture their employees anymore will be able to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and that may make them more competitive.
Well anyway, baby steps here. One small step for the Right. One giant step for America.
Springing Ahead, So to Speak
Being out and about yesterday was most enjoyable. The combination of sunlight and activity was a tonic. And all the positive comments for the classic car photos in the last couple of days made me want to forage outside in the real world again. Being couped up at the Compound is too confining. I’ve got to look around and see what day trips I can find to provide photographic subjects. I’ll start small with some forays around Dunwich and then branch out around New England. Who knows, maybe I’ll hazard a trip into Boston or New York city to photograph the wreckage of 21st century urban America. But it’s apparent that it’s time to call an end to the pandemic. It’s just too stupid to maintain any longer, even for people as stupid as the politicians.
And there are many signs of this in the articles both the Left and the Right have been posting in the last week or so. Even the hopeless Karens are yearning to be free. All that is needed to throw this over the top is the Supreme Court to veto the vaccine mandates and set us free at last.
Will they do it? My guess is yes. I think enough information on the stupidity of the vaccine strategy exists to give the justices a compelling reason to recognize the unconstitutional nature of the mandates. Sure, we know the Supreme court will ignore constitutionality when national security is at stake or seems to be at stake. They proved that with the Patriot Act. And at least the Patriot Act had a bipartisan majority and the legislature and president behind it. This is an overreach of an executive order that orders people to take a medicine in order not to lose their jobs. It’s an outrage. Of course, I guess I’ll have to figure out what to think if the Supreme Court fails us.
I read that the White House is building bunker walls and concrete barriers around the building. Sounds like they might be thinking of doing something very bad to us sometime soon. Or maybe the latest favorability polls have scared Dementia Joe. The Quinnipiac poll has him at a net -19% (meaning 35% unfavorable to 54% unfavorable). That’s getting down into Nicolae Ceaușescu territory. Maybe he should be building that bunker.
I read that the Senate is going to push forward with the election fraud initiative but Manchin and Sinema aren’t on board. If that fails, they’ll try to convince them to eliminate the filibuster. If that fails, they’ll try to convince them to eliminate the filibuster for just this one election law. But it seems like they’re up against a stone wall. Now wouldn’t that be marvelous!
I’m sure there are Republicans just champing at the bit to screw all this good fortune up. Mitt Romney comes to mind for some unknown reason. But right now, we seem to be dodging bullets left and right. Damn it! I’m gonna be optimistic today. It just feels right. And nothing breeds bad luck like bad luck and the Dems just keep stepping on those garden rakes. Have a nice day and get some sun.
Update: The Supreme Court did the right thing on the OSHA Vax Mandate. They just struck it down. So there’s some good news for us.
Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 22 – The Savage Curtain
Ah, the last three episodes. The light at the end of the tunnel. Must stay strong.
The Enterprise is investigating signs of life on a planet whose surface is covered with molten lava. Suddenly the viewscreen on the Bridge is filled with an image of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a leather chair in his usual coat and stovepipe hat. He explains that he is on the planet’s surface and would like to come aboard the Enterprise. Suddenly an area of earthlike environmental conditions appears on the planet’s surface. Kirk orders full presidential honors to be extended to this inexplicable appearance of an historical personage. This occasions Scotty to assume the kilt. Lincoln displays a charming personality and obvious ignorance of the modern sociological conditions when he describes Uhura as “a charming negress.”
Despite strong opposition by McCoy and Scotty Kirk and Spock decide to transport down to the planet’s surface with Lincoln. There they meet up with another historical personage, Surak. He was the founder of modern Vulcan culture and revered by all Vulcans including of course Spock.
Next, they meet up with a native of the planet. He looks much like a giant steaming cow-dropping with eyes. He informs us that the Enterprise crew have been selected to instruct the natives with a demonstration of the relative strengths of good and evil. Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak will represent good and Genghis Khan, Kahless the Klingon, Zora and Col. Philip Greene will represent evil. If you don’t recognize any of the names other than Genghis Khan the reason is because they’re made-up conquerors from pseudo future history.
The Cow-Pat declares that the winning side gets to live and the losing side will already be dead. But to make the deal more persuasive to Kirk it is revealed that the Enterprise is being held captive in orbit and will also be destroyed if Kirk’s side loses. The bad guys fake a parlay then attack. They are driven off by our heroes in whom the force is strong. While Kirk attempts to convince everyone to build spears for a battle to the death. Surak declares that he will attempt to negotiate a peace with the enemy. Spock declares that this is an honorable position. But he continues to build weapons with Kirk and Lincoln.
Shortly after he leaves for his peace mission Kirk, Spock and Lincoln hear a scream followed by a voice that supposedly sounds like Surak repeating over and over, “Help me Spock!” It is in reaction to this that Spock declares, “A Vulcan would not cry out so.” But Kirk and Lincoln want to attempt a rescue. The plan is for Kirk and Spock to perform a frontal attack on the enemy base while Lincoln circles behind their position and frees Surak. But when he reaches Surak, he finds him already dead and his entry discovered. Then we find out that Kahless was mimicking Surak’s voice and now shows how he will mimic Lincoln’s cry for help.
But suddenly Lincoln staggers toward Kirk and Spock to warn them of the trap. After warning them he falls forward and we can see he has a spear planted in his back. He dies there and the battle is joined between Kirk and Spock and the four evil warriors. When Kirk manages to kill Col. Greene the other three evil fighters run away.
At this point Road Apple declares Kirk and Spock winners and sends them home.
This episode is the source of a quote that has echoed down the decades with my brothers and me. At any random time since its inception in 1969 any one of us might exclaim in “Spockian” tones the seemingly meaningless sentence, “A Vulcan would not cry out so.” The question of why we would say this is open to psychological or maybe neurological debate. But suffice it to say that mocking Star Trek could be boiled down to mocking that one line.
I assumed this episode would be as aggravating as many of the season three installments. But I actually enjoyed it. Sure, it was absurd but the extra characters added some much-needed novelty to the overdone interactions between Kirk and Spock. Once again, the guest stars were much better actors than the crew of the Enterprise. Even the oversized cow chip had more panache than Kirk and Spock. Although I did enjoy one comment by Scotty where he mentioned something about haggis in the lunch room.
I’ll be magnanimous and give this a 7 // 4.
A Vulcan would not cry out so.
13JAN2022 – Photo of the Day
13JAN2022 – Quote of the Day
We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream: it may be so the moment after death.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
12JAN2022 – OCF Update – The Big Wide Wonderful World
I must go out there today. I will be crossing state lines and breaking barriers. I will be conversing, consulting and otherwise hobnobbing with my fellow wizards. And until such time (if ever) that I return I want you all to feel free to comment on my past utterances in the comments sections and spread the good word about OCF to the far-flung limits of the Matrix.(or at least check back later to see what I’ve written).
Hollywood Blacklists White Men
Hollywood has codified affirmative action employment rules and is enforcing them. So if the calculus of their rules requires that the director has to be a black transgender paraplegic then the results of the production should be fascinating. And the results are already appearing. Emboldened by the whip hand they’ve been given BIPOC cast and crew members now routinely lodge complaints against white male showrunners and directors knowing that the studio will put pressure on the man to kowtow to the empowered minorities or be fired.
The result of all this is obvious. It will be all girl Ghostbusters all the time. Expect humorless screeds from now on. Every production from romantic comedy to action adventure will be so drowned in racial resentment and feminist screeching that the idea of being entertained will completely disappear from the experience.
I think it’s great, I can think of no quicker way of impoverishing the industry than to let them put into practice their stupid beliefs about running society. It’s all too reminiscent of Soviet cinema with its social justice messaging and secret police surveillance. My only wish is that they dispense with white men all together. Everyone from the owner of the studios to the assistant wig master should be some combination of non-white, non-male and non-normal. I think of the great job they’ve done at reducing revenues and driving away their customers. Eventually the Chinese will start producing movies for the American audiences and I’m sure they’ll be much, much better than the dreck Hollywood has put out in the last decade or so.
Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 3 Episode 21 – The Cloud Minders
For the second episode in a row, the Enterprise needs to get a mineral to cure a plague. Go figure. The planet with the mineral has an elite that lives in a city floating in the sky called Stratos. The common people are called troglytes because they work in the mineral mines. Kirk and Spock beam down to the mine entrance to pick up the mineral but the troglytes are in revolt and they try to capture Kirk and Spock for hostages but Plasus the leader of Stratos saves them and brings them to the city. Plasus’ daughter is this incredibly skinny blonde model-looking girl who has the hots for Spock. Anyway, we find out that the trogs are angry and stupid because the mineral they dig gives off stupid gas. The rest of the episode is about Kirk trying to convince the cloud people and the trogs to wear masks in the mines. Finally, Kirk traps Plasus and the head of the trogs in a mine and when they all start becoming homicidally angry, they finally realize the truth about the stupid gas. Kirk gets the mineral. The trogs and cloud people continue to hate each other but with a little more clarity and Spock and the emaciated blonde agree that she should go down to see the mines for some reason.
This is a social justice episode. The poor oppressed masses are being held down by the fat cats living in Stratos. How original. But it wasn’t as bad as some other episodes I’ve just watched. Kirk is kind of amusing when the gas made him irritable. I think he yelled at Scotty at one point so that was good.
Point of interest. Plasus is played by Jeff Corey who was the outlaw that Rooster Cogburn is hunting in the original version of True Grit.
I’ll call this a 5 // 5.
I apologize for the brevity of this review. But I’m really running out of patience with this series as it runs out of merit. The least they could have done was blow up a planet or something to keep my interest. But all we get are whiny aliens and social justice.