Month: January 2026

The Grown Children’s Crusade

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I’ve been promised there won’t be any more snow until at least Sunday.  Of course, I still have about ten hours of snow removal on the lower driveway so that kind of stinks.  But thank heavens for small mercies.  So, I’m more or less free until Monday and I look around at the world and see goofusses in every direction.  Now goofus is a technical term and I may be applying it to critters that technically are other things; dumbasses, mopes, mooks and just plain knuckleheads.  But as a generic term it’s a good stand in.

I saw a video of a woman at one of the anti-ICE riots who picked up a flash-bang explosive to throw back at the police and had it blow off some of her fingers.  This is not normal.  Women don’t typically become rioters.  This is a special brand of stupidity.  It’s like some kind of modernist version of the “Children’s Crusade.”  Let’s nickname it the “Grown Children’s Crusade.”  The guy who got himself shot last week was an ICU nurse.  I’m going to guess he wasn’t an antifa regular.  Someone must have told him that attacking ICE agents while carrying a hand gun was a risk-free exercise.  I’m guessing that was an antifa regular.

So, what you have is the Minnesota true-believers who cheered for the George Floyd riots to change the world have followed a new crusade to make Minnesota safe for illegal aliens.  In their atheist-adjacent LGBTQ-friendly churches they gather to egg each other on and then they head over to the local NGO where the city and state contacts provide whatever support the local antifa chapter needs to harass ICE without any accountability.  And that’s the difference between antifa and the useful idiots they are surrounded with now.  They have no idea what they are doing.  They remember Frey and Walz forcing the city and state police to stand down while antifa and BLM ran amok.  So, they think that’s how this works.  Idiots like Good and Pretti think they’re immune from harm because Walz and Frey tell them they’re doing the Lord’s work.

I read today that Walz has called in the state troopers to break up the protestors.  Is this a capitulation or just a tactic?  There is a story going around that the state and city leaders were involved in the planning of the interference with the ICE operations.  Perhaps Walz is worried about his culpability under federal law.  So many stories, so little knowledge.

The only question is will Trump stick to his guns or not.  If he caves to Minnesota then the same thing will happen in all the blue states.  And after that all the good that Trump is trying to do will be undermined.  And that’s the whole struggle writ small.  Stand up to the antifa mobs and if necessary, put them down when they threaten to riot and defy law and order.  I don’t have a clue as to what he will do.  So that’s enough for now.

To Do the Best We Can

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There is a certain subspecies of scientists who enjoy feeling smarter than “regular people.”  And I won’t be too exclusive.  This carries along to anyone who has “technical” training; physicists, biologists, engineers of every stripe, doctors of all kinds.  These folks are extremely proud of the fact that they don’t believe in God and enjoy preening about how much smarter they are than these religious folks.

Here’s an example.:

https://x.com/LyingWrongAgain/status/2015459692848337176?s=20

He’s set up a strawman; a pretend religious person saying that order cannot come from disorder.  And then he shows how a tub full of nails randomly jumbled together can become an ordered pile with all the nails parallel by someone rhythmically swinging it back and forth.  And somehow this is supposed to disprove the existence of God.  Well, I’m sure there are just as many annoying religious people who try to crow over their proofs of the foolishness of disbelievers and create strawmen of their own.  But I guess I’m more aware of all the educated fools who enjoy this game in academia and elsewhere.

I don’t claim to be an expert on cosmology or theology but I’m pretty sure neither camp can prove or disprove the existence of God to both sides’ satisfaction.  And I could be wrong but right up until the moment of truth I don’t think they ever will.

So, what’s my point?  I think both sides should be honest and forthcoming about the inability of either side to point to irrefutable proof for their point of view.  Maybe instead they could try to provide arguments for why their point of view is “better” for people.  In other words which belief makes people happier or better citizens or better parents.  Show us statistics that measure the behaviors and outcomes that go along with theism or atheism.  That at least has some relevance to people if something beyond their own fundamental beliefs is important.  Maybe there are some people who just will never make up their minds and instead could use social benefit to “break the tie.”  From everything I’ve read, people who believe in God are happier, healthier and better neighbors than atheists are.  So, from society’s point of view this might be something that should be touted (I guess).

But honestly, I’m happy that we live in a country where freedom of religion (or freedom from religion) is written into the fine print.  Making people pretend to believe something they don’t is counterproductive and absurd.  If there is a God, how abominable would he find unbelievers forced against their will to pretend to faith.  And alternatively forcing believers to deny God is bound to make them hate the state that forces them into this lie.

Whether we consciously consider it or not, we are all constantly looking for some part of the truth about life.  We are always making decisions to try and make our lives better; health wise, socially, politically and maybe spiritually.  And so, we come up with ad hoc rules for ourselves and how we live with our fellow humans.  But I think we’re all better off if we tread lightly on other people’s religious (or irreligious) beliefs.  We’re all here in the valley of the shadow of death and most of us are trying to do the best we can.

Now Where is That Hammock

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It’s ten a.m. on Sunday morning and the much-vaunted snow-pocalypse has begun its reign of terror. A steady fall of small snow flakes are descending out of a gray sky.  The temperature has soared from a low last night of two degrees Fahrenheit to a current balmy twenty degrees.  I’ve announced to Camera Girl that I intend to skip snow removal altogether today and save my efforts for Monday when the lion’s share of the snow will be on the ground.  The current predicted accumulation for Sunday through Monday is ten to fifteen inches of the white stuff.  All in all, that’s not horrible.  The snow blower is 24 inches high.  Now, even fifteen inches will slow the work way down but you have to look at these things in the right way.  I’ll abandon the bottom driveway for the next few days and start off with a path for my car to get out on the top.  Then I’ll clear the entire top driveway and adjacencies and slowly work on the bottom driveway in a strategic fashion.  And the wind will play an important part in that operation.  Fifteen inches of snow isn’t a monstrous height but if wind forces me to dump off the snow right next to the row I’m clearing, it will quickly end up as three feet before very long.

And this is the sad reality of life in New England.  Aspects of snow removal become the focus of your every waking hour.  Equipment maintenance and repair, severity of the weather, work and chore scheduling, current health and injuries.  It’s all very, very tedious and boring.  But completely unavoidable.  That is unless there is some plan for escape!  But I know that will never be.  I’m bound by the heavy chains of family responsibility.  They’ve got me.

And that’s why Jake Barter is such a comfort to me in these times of tribulation.  Jake resides on an island paradise somewhere in the South Pacific.  Lying in a hammock beneath coconut palms he sips a cool drink while balmy zephyrs maintain a perfect seventy-eight degrees.  And if by some miracle the temperature reaches eighty-two, he need only spring from his berth and swim about in the warm clear ocean for a few minutes before returning to his rest where he awaits the mellow sound of a dinner gong announcing the beginning of a feast concocted of pork, coconut, honey and spices, fit for the king that he is.

Oh, well.  Maybe in my next life.  But for now, I’ll count my blessings.  The roof hasn’t collapsed under the weight of the snow.  The propane tanks are full enough for even a two-week power outage.  I have plenty of DVDs to keep me amused during the “weather crisis” and Camera Girl assures me we have enough food for the next few days at least.  And tomorrow, my marketer has informed me begins the efforts to advertise “The Sniper.”  I had assumed it would happen when the publication occurred on Wednesday.  But you know what they say about assuming.

Well, we shall see.  Today Amazon has it listed as:

Best Sellers Rank: #144,617 in Books

#599 in Technothrillers (Books)

#14,261 in Science Fiction (Books)

It would be nice if each of those numbers was shortened by a zero or two.

 

Now where is that hammock?