Month: July 2025

Real Hate

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More than a hundred Americans lose their lives in a weather catastrophe.  And what is the reaction of some of their fellow Americans:

Now this a female pediatrician.  If you were to guess what profession and which sex would score highest in empathy for children, I’d assume she’d be near the top of the list.  But in her case empathy is very clearly a politically dependent emotion.  Twenty-seven children wiped off the face of the Earth by a raging flood in her home state is merely a good way to score political points on a man thousands of miles away in Washington.  Well, it’s a remarkable insight into the humanity of these Democrat activists.

Here are some more reactions from Democrats in Texas:

I guess it’s some consolation that the pediatrician’s employer terminated her for this horrifically cruel and psychotic crowing over the deaths of children.  But it does provide a reference point when considering how we stand as “fellow citizens.”  You watch these videos and you are hearing the true feelings of these people.  If our children die then we are getting what we deserve.  When those two Minnesotan law-makers were attacked by a psychotic man no one was saying “they got what they deserved.”  No normal person would be stupid enough to say something like that.  Displaying your inhumanity like that is reserved for psychopaths who have no empathy and don’t even know how to fake it.  Normal people understand that regardless of differences on political policy we all have human feelings and wishing evil on children based on ideology is a sickness.

But here are people totally comfortable doing it.  One of them was actually a political leader in Houston at one time.  Now I make an exception for Rosie O’Donnell.  She is a well-documented imbecile and allowance has to be made for those who have been afflicted in this way.  But anyone of somewhat normal intelligence (and a medical doctor should fit that description) who wishes ill on innocent children should be shunned as a pariah.

Of late the Left has been rallying their psychopaths.  Antifa and especially the transgender core of antifa have been taking to the streets armed now with guns and knives.  They’ve decided they can come directly against ICE and other law enforcement agents.  Luckily, they are ill-equipped to be shock-troops and in the last few days a bunch have been arrested for attempted murder and one of them got himself killed when opening fire on peace officers.

But apparently not all of the psychopaths are armed with guns and knives.  Some, as shown above, are armed with hate of a particularly disgusting sort.  Laughing at the death of someone else’s children is so callous, so subhuman, that it deserves a special recognition.  And as it stands, there is one.  Dante identified the seventh level of hell for that kind of cruelty and specifically for those violent against their neighbors they were submersed according to their level of guilt in a river of boiling blood.  Well, that sounds about right.  Mocking the pain of a parent who has lost a child should be recognized with something awful.  Let’s hope Dante had the details right.

Lost Histories

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Lots of fantasy and science fiction authors have used the rediscovered history theme.  I think maybe Robert Howard used it for Conan and maybe some of his other sword and sorcery stuff.  Tolkien sort of used it for the Lord of the Rings.  The Red Book of Westmarch is supposed to be the source from which he wrote his books.

So, the conceit is usually a scholar is searching through old manuscripts and suddenly finds stories that somehow no one has ever read before.  I guess maybe a case could be made that an existing manuscript might have a palimpsest layer that couldn’t previously be seen or read and now because of advances in sensing techniques it can.

But usually, this kind of text underneath text is limited to at most a few pages of written language.  But as anyone who has been a religious reader of this site knows, the Roman papyri from the ruins of Herculaneum are slowly and painfully being deciphered using a form of x-ray tomography.  These charred and unopenable papyrus scrolls are being read right through the other layers of charred plant material by an artificial intelligence that can scan the three-dimensional surface of the scroll in its rolled up and damaged condition.

Currently the progress is glacially slow.  And this is even though a million-dollar prize has been announced for the tech genius who can take the scans and turn it into text.  Currently the part of the library being examined contains the works of an obscure stoic philosopher which has extremely limited popular appeal.  But there have been claims made that the total library was an extensive collection of Graeco-Roman literature and history.

If this turns out to be true and the scanning technology becomes robust, there may be many lost masterpieces of ancient writing to be found.  Lost plays by Sophocles and histories of ancient peoples like the Etruscans.  Every classical scholar has a wish list of what would be wonderful to recover.

But what comes to my mind is what a perfect place to find some lost history with fantasy or science fiction elements.  Now exactly what they would be is something that will require careful thought.  As I said there have been a lot of stories somewhat in this vein.  The trick would be to allow this history to tie into the present day in some way.  There could be detailed information of something that’s been buried and could be retrieved.  Or maybe it’s something that’s hidden in plain sight and possibly still operating in the present day.

So, this is the vaguest of outlines and needs lots of thought but while I was out watering the vegetable patch and photographing half-grown preying mantids it occurred to me.  And since I never have an undocumented thought, lo and behold; here it is.  It occurs to me I’ve never written a horror story.  Mostly I just make fun of H.P. Lovecraft but a two-thousand-year-old Etruscan demon might be something I could get interested in.  And since we know next to nothing about the Etruscans, I could make up anything I wanted and no one could definitively call me out on any of it.  What could be lazier?

2025 Summer Movies

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I’ve been listening to some of the movie reviewers about the crop of summer movies.  I guess the first “tentpole” film is whatever they’re calling the latest sequel to Jurassic Park.  I think the consensus is that it’s a tired derivative rehash of the original concept.  It’s also making a ton of money.  So, from the studio’s point of view, a success!  From an actual sentient movie watcher’s point of view not so much.  But as a grandfather of a dinosaur super-enthusiast, it does check a lot of the boxes as a way to bond with said enthusiast.  So not a total loss.

Then there are the latest comic book superhero movies.  So, they’ve given the Avengers the summer off and instead they’re taking another crack at “The Fantastic Four.”  Now this has always been a sort of oddball franchise.  They’re superpowers are “odd.”  One is a guy who can stretch his body.  Huh?  Then there’s a guy who can fly and shoot fire at stuff; well, pretty good, I guess.  Then there’s a girl who can become invisible and also has a force field.  This is actually the most powerful superpower amongst them.  And then there’s a guy who looks like he’s made of rock and is somewhat strong.  None of these “heroes” is going to compete with Superman or even Thor.  They’re powers kind of suck and they’re relegated to protecting Manhattan from intergalactic troublemakers like Dr. Doom, Galactus or Annihilus.  So, if you have a villain that can devour planetary system how does a stretchy guy and a rock stop you?  Even forcefield girl and “flame on” boy aren’t that much use.  On top of all that apparently the powers that be have decided that forcefield girl will be the girl boss of the movie and there will be much female empowerment on display.  Yay?  Well, I guess I can skip that one for my grandsons.

And then there’s another reboot of Superman coming out.  Initial reviews hint at the importance of Superman’s “immigrant” status.  Also, there’s been a lot of talk about “inclusion.”  Well, that doesn’t bode well in my book.  Worst case Superman is protecting cartel gangbangers against Trump’s ICE agents.  Best case Superman will be propagandizing the kids about how great it is to be an illegal alien from Krypton.  I could be wrong but I’m not seeing a Superman movie in my summer lineup.

Alright, let’s review.  Stupid dinosaur sequel is my best bet.  Check.  You know what?  I think I’ll assemble a sci-fi and fantasy film festival of my own.  That’s what I’ll do.  I’ll arrange a schedule and invite the grandkids over.

Let’s see; Them, Destination: Moon, The Thing from Another World, Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, Terminator, Blade Runner, Independence Day and The Martian.  I’ll have to split it up to allow for the ages of the viewers.  And then we’ll end on a fantasy note; original Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings.  Okay, that’s a starting point.  And think of the money I’ll save on tickets and popcorn!  photog, you’re a bloody genius!