Month: December 2022
23DEC2022 – Quote of the Day
Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy.
Samuel Johnson
22DEC2022 – OCF Update – Out of Pocket
Today I have to catch up on some work. I have to read some pretty boring procedural documents for work. Also I’m trying to figure out how to make a global change in the website database. There’s a free “plugin” that can be used to make the change one post at a time but I need to carry it out on something like 5,800 posts. There’s a commercial version that supposedly will carry out the change globally but I think it’s a small programming change to do it myself. So I’m reading this book on PHP and MySQL development. The book’s about 600 pages so I suspect this will take a while to get a handle on. But I feel it’s a good idea to start understanding how this web development stuff works. Underneath the HTML page structure the PHP programming controls the dynamic aspects of the web site. the thing I want to do is a database copy and paste operation. In my ignorant take on this it should be like copying a row of excel cells and pasting it into another row. But the reality, I’m sure, will be much much messier. If the website crashes and burns you’ll know I pushed the wrong button.
Other than that, I’m continuing on with my holiday routine of eating too many Christmas cookies and watching way too many old movies. It’s a simple plan but it works for me.
I studiously avoided the Zelenskyyyyyyyyy speech before Congress. I added the extra y’s because I have now seen his name spelled with one y and two y’s and want to get ahead of the curve. Honestly I wonder how long we can keep up sending billions of dollars to those people. All we’re doing is throwing gasoline on a fire. It’s pretty scary. If the Russians level Kiev are we going to try and invade Russia. Even Dementia Joe can’t be that stupid. He’ll end up on the trifecta with Napoleon and Hitler.
Well, that’s enough for now. I’ll get something together later when the Muse strikes.
22DEC2022 – Quote of the Day
The true, strong, and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.
Samuel Johnson
22DEC2022 Photo of the Day – 2022 Yellowstone Trip
Quote for the Winter Solstice 2022
“The days were growing shorter, the light was quickly failing, and towards the end of
each afternoon the heart became uneasy. A primitive terror seized us – that of our
ancestors who during the winter months watched the sun go out a little earlier each
day. ‘Tomorrow it will go out for ever,’ they must have thought in despair, and spent
the entire night on the heights in fear and trembling.”
Nikos Kazantzakis “ZORBA THE GREEK”
21DEC2022 – Winter Solstice
Winter Solstice. The first day of winter, the day when the sun spends the least amount of time above the horizon. The longest night of the year. Well, while some neo-pseudo-druids will be cavorting around the Stonehenge site I’ll spend today reveling in the joys of the season. I’ll watch some more of my favorite seasonal movies, eat some more Christmas cookies and try to work off the calories with some exercise. Camera Girl is devilishly busy with her preparations for the Christmas feast and I am more or less nothing but a hindrance to her at this point. I ask if I can help and just get scowls of contempt for what she considers hollow offers. Maybe I can carry some heavy pots of soup or sides of meat downstairs. But other than those few things I’m essentially of no use to her. Well, what can I say? God has divided us, quite wisely, into men and women and along those same lines he has provided or withheld various talents to the members of the human race. And like the fabulous ant and grasshopper of Aesop some of us toil and are productive and others of us feast and sing. I am cursed to be among this latter group. And Camera Girl is solidly in the former category. Such is life.
It’s bright daylight today. I intend to walk around in the woods and snap a photo or two of whatever strikes my eye. If tonight is as clear I must take a walkaround in the starlight and enjoy a sight of the winter constellations on this longest night. In fact, the moon is on the next to last night before New Moon so viewing the sky will be almost optimal. Orion will be about 45 degrees above the horizon at about 11 pm and that’s when I’ll take a wander outside. The forecast is for mostly clear skies and 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Sounds pretty good for late December in New England.
The world diverges into two contrasting pictures. When I hear what is going on in the wide world it is a ghastly disaster. Evil men run just about everything there is to control. Joe Biden is a symbol for a world collapsing into decay. But when I look at my personal world, I see good things all around me. Good people are working hard to improve the lives of their families and displaying wonderful qualities of self-sacrifice and industriousness. I see youngsters working hard at their studies and displaying intelligence and good will. So, it’s a paradox. How can so much good exist in a world that has embraced nihilism and irrational goals? And I must say I haven’t an answer. But I will celebrate the good and hope for the future no matter how bleak the big picture seems to be.
So, I’ll go out today and take the optimistic approach. From here on in the hours of daylight will be increasing and the New Year comes with the ever-renewed hope that the world will come to its senses. That’s good enough for today.
21DEC2022 Photo of the Day – 2022 Yellowstone Trip
21DEC2022 – Quote of the Day
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.
Samuel Johnson
Us and Them
Half the news today is about the January 6th Committee recommending criminal charges against Donald Trump to the Justice Department. Now, there is nothing surprising about that recommendation. Nor is there any doubt that if the Justice Department decides to prosecute him that they can find a crooked DC court to convict him. They’ve proven they’ve got access to any number of kangaroo courts and they can pack a jury with partisan hacks. But what they can’t do any more is convince the majority of Americans that there is anything legitimate or honest in their activities.
Thirty percent of the country consider the federal government to be a pirate operation. Probably more than 50% feel that voting laws have been tampered with to the point that fair elections are no longer possible. And a safe majority of Americans are aware that the press and many institutions are obviously controlled by the Democrats.
So, whatever the Justice Department does, no one will mistake it for justice. It’s just the application of power against their enemies. And that’s where we’ll be. From now on we’re sort of where the Soviet Union was in the 1980s. Everyone knows how things get done and no one believes the “official” explanation for anything. It’s just the way the system works.
And that’s the way it will be. The Left controls this country lock, stock and barrel. They’ll do whatever they want to do. But at the same time, they’re ruling over something between 30 and 50% of the population that considers itself under forced occupation by a banana republic junta. Based on the activities that we’ve seen from the Obama and Biden gangs we can expect that gross incompetence and corruption will be the hallmarks of this regime. And the faltering economy portends great suffering for the former working and middle classes.
So, it’s an open question where this goes. Can the Democrats screw things up badly enough that despite election fraud they could still be voted out of office by their own voters? I sort of doubt it. I think the outcome of these elections is no longer in the hands of voters at all. If that is the case then it will take the disruption of normal life to finally wrench control of the country away from the Left.
It will take something on the order of what Germany went through in the 1920s and 1930s to convince Americans to finally reject their current masters. That’s a harrowing idea. We’ll need to be ruined and destitute to finally cast off the crooks currently running this country.
It took about seventy years for the Soviet Union to fall. But the United States has a much more robust economy and a long history of governmental stability. Nevertheless, Americans are not used to true poverty. Even during the Great Depression most people worked and could feed themselves. But the way the current gang are deindustrializing the country any level of economic destruction seems possible. I won’t pretend to know how things will turn out for us. It’s an open question.
But I will say that they’ve achieved permanent alienation of a very large minority of the country and that will seriously change the complexion of life in this country. Joe Biden can wave the flag all he wants. No one is following him to the Ukraine or anywhere else. Let him organize the Tranny Brigade to head over that hill for him and best of luck with that.
Half the country (and probably a lot more) are now completely pragmatic about how they interact with their government. No one is volunteering for anything anymore. Self-interest of themselves and their families is the name of the game. There’s us and there’s them.



