Month: March 2022
Nuclear War Again?
I haven’t thought seriously about the reality of nuclear war since 1988. That year I moved from New York City to a small New England town. And one day the town fire alarm was sounded. I had never heard anything like it and I assumed it was an air raid siren. Luckily a neighbor straightened out my thinking and told me these were a regular feature of town life. But for just a minute I was desperately trying to figure out where the kids were and where was the best place to bring them for safety. Never in my life before did I ever worry about nuclear war, nor since. And once the Soviet Union imploded it no longer seemed like something that could happen. No one would be stupid enough to push us into nuclear war.
Well, that was before I imagined Joe Biden as president. Now I’m not saying Joe Biden is brave enough to start a nuclear war with the Russians. Joe talks tough in speeches about going toe to toe with Putin. But in reality, I think he’d be afraid being in the same room alone with the Russian.
He’s not brave enough to start a nuclear war but he’s stupid enough to start one accidentally. Putin seems to be an egoist and Biden has said some provocative things about him. If things go poorly for Putin and his back is against the wall, he might decide to settle scores with those he hates. Now that is a sobering thought.
This is just something I thought about today, not as something that has me frightened, but as something surprising. I guess in some sense I stopped thinking that nuclear war was still something to worry about. And now I don’t think that way any more. And maybe I should never have stopped worrying about it. Truthfully, nuclear weapons are a balancing act. And if that balance ever slips the probability they’ll be used goes from extremely low to fairly high very easily. And when that happens who you have in charge of them becomes even more critical. The judgement and reputation of the man with the nuclear football could be the difference between peace and destruction. Would you want that man to be Dementia Joe? I know I don’t.
I know one thing for sure. It makes a lot of sense to live far away from large American cities, not only to avoid the crime and chaos they now represent for residents and neighbors but also because they’re on the target list for Russian and Chinese ICBMs. This sounds slightly melodramatic and pessimistic but honestly, pessimism is now becoming the default setting when I think about our government. The level of dishonesty and just plain stupidity it exhibits makes it the biggest threat to my family’s future. So, I have to be pessimistic. Let’s call it realistic instead.
When the election memes for 2024 are being thought up it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have one of those “Who’s answering the phone at 3 am at the White House?” commercials to remind the voters that Dopey Joe isn’t even sentient at 3 am.
So that’s what I was thinking about today.
Update
Apparently great minds think alike. Read this.
Reality Dawns on Zelensky
President Zelensky of the Ukraine confronts reality. He explains to reporters, “I don’t want to talk to Putin but I think I have to talk to Putin because there are no other ways to stop this war.”
It’s funny how all the West is disappointed that Zelensky isn’t thrilled about the idea of fighting to the last Ukrainian. For the reporters and neocon pundits it’s a video game. To Zelensky it’s probably starting to get very scary. If he forces Putin to kill thousands of people I think Zelensky realizes things won’t end up well for himself. Let’s hope for his people’s sake he sees the light really soon.
The Westerner (1940) – An OCF Classic Movie Review
In this western story Gary Cooper is Cole Harden a drifter passing through Vinegarroon, Texas on his way to California. But Vinegarroon is the home of “Judge” Roy Bean, the only law west of the Pecos River. Bean (played by Walter Brennan) is a hanging judge who hands out rough justice based on being an advocate for the cattlemen. If the cattlemen stampede a herd of cattle through a corn field and the farmer shoots one of the steers he’ll be hanged by Bean for the offense.
(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)
When Harden appears in the movie, he’s being led to Bean’s court house (saloon) because one of the locals recognized Harden’s horse as one that was stolen from a local. Naturally the jury will declare him guilty but Harden manages to convince Bean that he is a friend of the famous actress Lily Langtry whom Bean greatly admires. Claiming that he has a lock of her hair Harden gets Bean to “suspend” his sentence while evidence of his innocence can be found. While Harden and Bean cement their friendship over bogus tales of Langtry and Bean’s rotgut whiskey the real horse thief walks into the saloon and Harden punches him out and retrieves the purchase price of the horse from his pockets. When the thief attempts to shoot Harden, Bean beats him to the draw and thus reinforces the bond between the drifter and the hangin’ judge.
After this the movie drifts off into other directions. Harden leaves town and while travelling through the area ends up working as a field hand for the Mathew family on their farm. A romance blossoms between and Harden and the daughter Jane. But we find out that Judge Bean has been persecuting the farmers and intends to drive them off their land through harassment and judicial malfeasance. The farmers organize and decide to go en masse and shoot Bean to end their problem. When Harden hears this, he gallops to Bean’s saloon and warns Bean. Harden and Bean stop the plot and send the farmers away. But Harden convinces Bean to remove all the cattle from the valley where the farmers live in exchange for Lily Langtry’s lock of hair that Harden claims to have. Harden manages to get a lock of Jane Mathew’s hair for the purpose and when Bean fulfills his promise to move the cattle, he ceremoniously hands over the hair.
Now the farmers are triumphant and have a celebratory feast. But while it is going on the cattlemen set fire to the fields and homesteads of the farmers and destroy the whole valley. Jane’s father is murdered by the cattlemen and she blames Harden for the deeds she attributes to his friend Bean.
Harden forces Bean to admit that he was responsible for the fire and Harden leaves town to get a warrant for the arrest of Bean for murder and arson. Coincidentally Lily Langtry is in the area for a concert and Judge Bean buys up all the tickets so that he can enjoy a private audience with Miss Langtry. And the performance becomes the site of a shootout between Harden and Bean. Eventually Harden fatally wounds Bean but before Bean dies Harden carries him backstage so Bean can see Langtry before he dies.
In the final scene Harden and Jane are a married couple on a rebuilt farm celebrating the return of the other settlers that had been driven out by Bean.
By the description, you can tell this is a very strange western. The way I can describe it is a comedy for the first half of the movie that switches over into a more conventional melodrama. From my point of view the comedic portions of the movie are the better parts. Cooper and Brennan have a weird funny chemistry that makes the movie interesting and enjoyable. The later romance and drama are okay but clash with the comedic elements. I’ll recommend the movie based on the scenes with Cooper and Brennan even though as whole the movie is sort of a mess.
04MAR2022 – Photo of the Day
04MAR2022 – Quote of the Day
I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.
Ernest Hemingway
Tax Time and Other Painful Realities
Today is the day. This afternoon I’ll bundle up my wretched documentary evidence and head off to the tax accountant for another government mandated pummeling. It’s like heading for the dentist with a toothache. You know there will be pain and annoyance. But what choice do you have? Well painful realities seem to be the order of the day.
This morning I was listening to an interview Tucker Carlson had with a farmer about what the cost increases on fertilizers will do to the price of food. The numbers were staggering. He said that fertilizer prices had skyrocketed already and that natural gas prices were driving it. Part of this increase in natural gas prices stem from the Biden administration’s shutting down of coal powered electrical plants. Add to this the decision by the Europeans to shut down their nuclear power plants and you see the perfect storm that is driving energy and food prices to unsustainable levels.
You know, I’m starting to believe there is a chance that Biden will be forced to make an about face on his stupid “green energy” policies. When people start suffering extreme hardship, actual hunger, that amount of anger might drive a revolt on both sides of the political street. November might be more than just a “bloodbath.” If we see blue states flipping their congressional delegations, I have no doubt that Dopey Joe will flip his script and discover his inner conservative.
I know this sounds far fetched but there is currently a perfect storm of economic conditions that will hammer home how delusional green energy really is. Wind and solar power generators provide single digit percentages of our electrical capacity and even these low percentages are of low quality and necessitate additional gas turbine capacity to jump in when these green utilities inevitably peter out.
And as much as this is hammering the American people, I think it could be an even bigger catastrophe for the Germans. They’ve buckled under the pressure from the Biden administration and agreed to the sanctions against the Russians and cancelling the start up of the Nord Stream 2. What happens if the Russians stop sending them gas? They’ll be buying it from the Saudis. And it will not be cheap. Add in the likelihood of a recession associated with all of this sticker shock for energy and food and you’ll see a manufacturing country like Germany experiencing extreme economic pain.
Of course, there won’t be any joy in my heart as I too suffer the consequences of Biden’s madness. We’ll all be reeling from the effects of inflation on our lives. But if any good can come from this it should be the realization by young people that idealistic and simplistic approaches to complex and deadly serious aspects of life are disastrous. Powering an industrial economy can’t be achieved by wishful thinking and good intentions. It’s the work of engineers and industrialists who have to work within the constraints of available resources and real-world tradeoffs between costs, environmental damage and reliability.
Maybe it will take an actual economic depression to pound home to these idiots the real world we live in. We never seem to make any permanent progress. Why are they called progressives anyway? Because they grow progressively more stupid?
Update:
Chemist – “The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us… Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business.” -Ronald Reagan
Galaxy’s Edge – Legacies – A Science Fiction Book Review
Before I proceed to the review a quick note. It’s been over a year since the last review in this series. The explanation is a puzzling fact. I buy the paperback version of books and for some reason Legacies never came out in paperback. I’ve checked and the subsequent books in the series are now available in paperback but Legacies never was. So recently I gave up and bought the hardcover version. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit. Anyway, welcome back.
Legacies rejoins the story with Aeson Ford, aka Aeson Keel, aka Wraith and now aka Tyrus Rechs in search of Prisma, the young woman who has found herself embedded in the conflict between a confusing array of sides. From the previous volumes in the series, she has seen Goth Sullus destroy her family in his quest to convert the Galactic Republic into a personal weapon against lurking threats and she has been swept along by Tyrus Rechs and Aeson Keel and discovered that she has mysterious powers that somehow make her important in the conflicts still to come.
In this book we will follow separate stories involving Prisma and Keel as they struggle to survive in a galaxy filled with confusing threats. Prisma is aboard a war machine left over from the Savage Wars, a device that replays historic battles to evaluate alternate strategies to some mysterious end. Keel goes under cover as Tyrus Rechs to find out who has put a price on his head and why. And these two seemingly unrelated threads are slowly woven into one fabric. Truths are revealed about Aeson Ford’s father and Tyrus Rechs and Goth Sullus that go back to the beginning of the Savage Wars and maybe beyond.
The book shifts back and forth between the two main narratives and then adds another plot line from the past. This leads to some whiplash for the reader from time to time but the writing is quite well done and it kept my interest throughout. Anspach and Cole have a very complex world-building project going on in this series. In this volume, they provide origin information on the Cybar, Aeson Ford and links with the Savage Wars plot lines that expand a great deal on what I knew about the story previously. And any hope of finishing this series in less than a million volumes has flown out the window. But I’m happily resigned to my fate.
Highly recommended for all fans of the series. Year two of the series is barreling along on hyperdrive.
Guest Contributor – War Pig – 03MAR2022 – On War
(In reply to comments on the review of the 1965 movie “The Battle of the Bulge”) – photog
I’ve never heard what Eisenhower had to say about it. I get my lean on it from my uncle, an enlisted man. Battles are seen quite differently if you’re one of the dogfaces in the ranks than by staff generals and politicians and people who write about it later.
Having been in a couple or so battles myself I can say the troops fight a battle intimately, not cooly and detached like they do at headquarters. You fight what is in front of you and you do not fight for king or country. You fight for the dogfaces to your right and left, your brothers. Your own world in battle is quite small, really. Your brothers on your right and left, and what you can see to your front. Usually about 400 yards or so. Modern thermal sights changes that for tank xrews and the like, and better optics on rifles extends that range a little bit but the soldier with the rifle in the ranks can only worry about what he sees and what can see him.
I generally don’t watch war movies that involve ground action. They are so fake overall. I’ll watch Battle of Brirain or In Harms Way about planes and ships, but I usually don’t watch ground war movies. I saw Bulge before I went to Vietnam. After that I gave up on ground war movies. I especially never watch movies about conflicts or operations in which I took part. They remind me of things I’d rather not remember and they are so wrong I get angry.
Curtis Yarvin Talking to Alex Jones, a Sign of the Apocalypse?
Yesterday I said the Right has to start getting organized and eliminate divisions. Almost on cue my e-mail sends me Curtis Yarvin’s newsletter and I see a link to his appearance on Alex Jones’ show. Watching this was almost surreal. Two more dissimilar individuals existing on the same political “side” is hard to imagine.
Of course, the question could be asked whether this is a positive or negative sign. Could it be that the ravages of cancel culture have thrown these polar opposites into each other’s arms out of desperation I guess it’s possible. But if so, it seems to be happening quite a bit.
I’ve watched several conversations between Yarvin and Michael Anton. And then one between Anton and two infotainment guys called the “Good Ol Boyz.”
On the more dissident end of the spectrum paleoconservative Paul Gottfried serves as a bridge between the more hard-edged thinkers like ZMan and the more civic nationalist crowds at American Greatness and the Claremont Institute. And reading these two mainstream outlets I notice edgier material gaining on more mainstream essays. And this is happening on many mainstream publications like the Federalist and American Conservative.
Maybe my post was just resonance with a process already occurring. Either way, I see all of this as movement in a positive direction. The Left has gone so far into radicalism that it has alienated a wide swath of people from the far-right to moderate progressives. Our side can use this reaction to take back territory and prove ourselves rational and competent. And that will make it harder for the Left to demonize us when the inevitable pendulum swing heads the other way.
What it doesn’t mean is that we should “reach across the aisle” to adopt the status quo. The current state of American culture and governance is already a leftist nightmare. We must aim to reverse the current shape of things and restore the things that made the United States a healthy and sane society. Just because the voters of San Francisco recalled three of their school board officials doesn’t mean I would want to get the advice or approval of Left Coast weirdos before picking a presidential candidate.
I’ll be watching for further signs of a loosening of the gatekeeping on the right. If a lot of the Trump approved primary candidates displace the RINO’s I expect that after the Republicans take control of Congress there will be investigations and scrutiny of the more outrageous excesses of the Biden Justice Department with respect to the January 6th witch hunts. And we might see more emphasis on legislative topics that align with the agenda that goes beyond the weak priorities approved by the Republican establishment.
But even if we have to wait for 2024 to see any large changes in government actions, I am very interested in seeing Republicans of all stripes communicating with each other honestly. We’re each different. We represent a continuum of beliefs and priorities. And it will take negotiations and compromise to find a platform that a solid majority will stand behind. But if we don’t talk it will never happen.