Author: photog

Boy, That Was Depressing

photog Current Events , ,

The Charlie Kirk murder has revealed just how deep the divide has grown between the Left and the Right.  And the visibility of the hatred is adding to the anger on both sides.  I’m pretty sure we’ve already reached the tipping point.  In other words, we aren’t going to heal this rift, ever.

But that doesn’t make it clear what follows.  After all, the South hated the North for over a century after the Civil War but there was nothing they could do to fight back.  In the same way, up until now there hasn’t been a mechanism for the red states to separate from the blue states in any meaningful way.  All they could do was compete to capture the White House, Supreme Court and Congress to keep the progressives at bay.

But with Trump back in charge of the federal government I think I’m hearing the first grumblings from the Left about splitting up the country into two separate nations; one red and one blue.  I was talking with some of the boys today at our weekly video coffee walk and someone noted this and asked where does Delaware end up.  I answered, ”With whomever gets stuck with it.”  But it’s a real consideration.  If this country gets split there will be tens of millions of people moving to escape the other camp.  And personally, I’ll be one of them.  And I’m sure it won’t be fun.  But it will be a relief in a lot of ways.  The acknowledgement that there are two different societies, two different moralities, two different souls living in these fifty states will motivate the realignment of people into two separate groups as naturally as oil and water separate.

And maybe that’s a good analogy.  If you take oil and water and put them through a high-speed mixer (homogenizer) you can emulsify the oil into the water as extremely small droplets that look like a blended material.  But if you turn off the motor slowly but surely the oil will reform into a separate immiscible layer.  And that’s what’s happening to us.  The forces that acted to bring us together are disappearing and the natural repulsion that each side feels for the other is getting the upper hand and we’re separating into two unmixable masses that repel each other as naturally as oil and water.  That’s what it looks like to me.  And the Left’s open glee at Charlie Kirk’s death just makes it easier to see.

But no one knows how this moves forward.  Fear of the unknown is a very strong force.  Both sides are feeling their way around this new dynamic.  Both sides sense the divide and have begun to attack the other side more openly.  But so far neither side has tipped over into mob violence (yet).  So far, we just have the ultra-psychotics on the Left attacking whomever they can find.  Charlie Kirk was unfortunate to give them such an easy target to hit.  But it could get much, much worse.

I guess the best case would be for both sides to sit down and hammer out a reasonable divorce settlement with each side getting a cut of the assets of “The United States of America,” like some kind of bankruptcy proceeding.

Boy, that was depressing.

Sabine Excoriates Fake Physics, Again!

photog Fake Science , ,

I know it’s a weakness of mine.  I do enjoy listening to this intelligent, honest woman with a wonderful German accent lambast these fake scientists for wasting time, money and lives in a racket that must be shut down.  And not just in physics.  All of the academic disciplines that produce nothing useful but are subsidized by our money to the tune of billions and billions of dollars must be defunded.

Kudos to Sabine for saying it out loud.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

photog Book Reviews, My Fiction, photog's Corner, Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Book Reviews , ,

Update:

To verify my ownership of “The Sniper” for the Royal Road folks, I am adding this note to show I also control Orion’s Cold Fire.

 

We interrupt the daily progression of actual civil war to bring you a message about a fictional civil war story.  I’ve finished the manuscript for my book, “The Sniper.”  Now I’m looking for beta readers.  I’m looking for folks to read the book and give me their honest feedback.  Also I’d like to disseminate the book to friends and family who you judge would be a good fit for the book based on your estimation and if they agree to read it I’d like to get their opinions too.

I’m looking to get this book out to the largest group of people possible to see whether it is something that people will want to read.  So after reading it if you think it’s appropriate for people you know let me hear that too.  And remember, I’m not a fragile author.  If you think it sucks, say so, but also tell me why you think it.

If you’re interested leave a comment to that effect and I’ll e-mail you a copy of the story.  Now this is just a pdf.  No nice cover, no actual paper.  Just electrons.  But I will guarantee that this sniper is nothing like the actual sniper we’ve had to hear about for the last week.

And just to remind you here’s the beginning of the book.

 

Chapter 1 – An Object Lesson

Joseph Boghadair was set up at a loophole in a small prefabricated metal building at the top of the mountain that contained the Icarus Mine.  His .50 caliber sniper rifle was trained on the narrow road that led up to the mine.  He could see a line of black SUVs about a mile and a half down the road and he was getting ready to start firing on the convoy.  His first shots took out the engine of the lead vehicle thereby halting the convoy.  His second volley took out the engine of the last car in line thus trapping the rest of the vehicles between.  Then at a more leisurely pace he took care of the other eight vehicles.  By this point the passengers were crouching behind their disabled cars and randomly firing handguns and automatic weapons in Joseph’s general direction with almost no discernible results.

After about half an hour a few of the men in black body armor attempted to reach a stand of trees about 300 yards away to their left.  Joseph put a few well aimed rounds in front of their path and they quickly retreated back to the supposed safety of their not-so-mobile-autos.  Joseph snorted wryly at their shyness.

An hour after that a helicopter approached the mountain from the opposite direction to Joseph’s loophole.  Walking over to a window on the other wall he could see a distant Blackhawk approaching at relatively high altitude.  Joseph then began his preparations for their reception.

Between crew and troops, the Blackhawk had a dozen men on board.  And more importantly it had a couple of Hellfire missiles.  From a very safe distance away it targeted Joseph’s position and fired.  The missile struck precisely on target and obliterated the steel structure almost completely.  All that remained was the foundation of the structure around the mine shaft, now clogged with debris.

The Blackhawk landed about three quarters of a mile from the mine entrance.  At this point the agents, hunkered down behind their vehicles, began to stream toward the helicopter.  By the time they reached the aircraft the troops had exited and were waiting for their rescued brethren to arrive.

FBI Special Agent in Charge, George Chastain assembled both teams and briefed them on the updated mission plan.  “We will proceed to the mine head and look for any human remains.  We will collect whatever we can retrieve for lab analysis and attempt to seal the mine head until qualified personnel can be assembled for recovery operations.  It is presumed that the target, Joseph Boghadair was killed by the missile strike but we will take no chances.  He was an extremely dangerous individual and should not be approached by anyone without backup and prior approval from leadership.  In addition to his war record it is believed that Boghadair is responsible for the shooting deaths of forty-six people in the last six months with thirteen of those people being FBI personnel.  No one enters the mine until remote sensing equipment is brought in.  Alright, proceed.”

The agents formed two groups.  Apparently, SUV agents and helicopter agents must not bond very well.  But before they were more than a hundred feet from the helicopter the ground began to quake so powerfully beneath them that they were irresistibly knocked off their feet.  And while they were clawing at the ground for dear life, they could see that the high ground where the mine head was located had collapsed into the earth.  The roar of that collapse was more frightening than the initial earthquake and some of the agents hid their heads under their arms in abject terror.  When the mountain stopped shaking the men started to collect themselves and stand up.  When they looked around them, they were astonished.  A circular pit had opened up centered on the mine head.  It was a thousand yards in diameter and so deep that only blackness could be seen at its center.  Several cracks had formed outside the circular pit.  One of these had nearly swallowed the Blackhawk.  It was on its side and half buried in the crevice.  Its rotors were fractured and it wouldn’t be flying away from this landing.

Chastain went over to the edge of the crater and just stared down into the blackness below.  Then he went back to his team and started giving orders to begin a retreat from the stricken mountain.  He was trying to think of what he was going to tell his boss.  Nothing reasonable came to mind.

Various Kinds of Pruning

photog Country Music Reviews, Current Events, Music Reviews , , ,

Monday was a good day at work.  Progress was made and I’ve got a much better understanding of what we’re going to be up against in the next couple of weeks.  Sure, madness will break out now and then.  But it’s not just this fog of ignorance.  There’s the beginning of planning and a path forward.

And there’s the situation going on in the world.  Charlie Kirk’s murder is disgusting and the more details that come out the worse it shows the Left’s psychotic fringe to be.  These people aren’t merely insane.  They have ceased to be human.  The assassin was a “furry.”  The fact that his “partner” was trans wasn’t enough.  He also pretended to be an animal.  These people are so far beyond help that simple execution might be the kindest thing we could do for them.

Hopefully Kash Patel is up to the job he needs to do.  Proving conspiracy by all the other members of Robinson’s associates is the first step.  Then he must widen out the investigation to locate the entire Antifa network and trace back their money to the donors and NGO’s that fund them.  It would be nice if Obama gets caught up in that net.  But first things first.  Shut off the money and arrest the ringleaders who call the shots.  Without them and the money, the small fry psychos will wander off and starve on the streets.

I’ve heard Trump is pivoting from invading Chicago with ICE and the National Guard to going to Portland, Oregon instead.  Now that’s an interesting idea.  Portland probably has the highest per capita number of trans weirdos, Antifa thugs and homeless drug addicts of any city in the country.  It would be the perfect place to haul away tractor trailers full of degenerates and psychopaths.  But I hope they’ve planned this carefully to avoid injury among law enforcement and maximize the jail time meted out to the Antifa “community.”  I know they like throwing Molotov cocktails at law enforcement.  Intelligence will be needed.  But Portland is definitely in need of pruning.

I have a feeling I’ll be self-publishing my book.  I don’t think there are many traditional publishers who are brave enough to embrace my dystopian world of armed insurrection against the deep state.  It is pretty radical.  I’m still trying to learn the basics of book marketing; especially advertising on Amazon and elsewhere on the web.  But I have gotten the book out there in the real world now.  I have a friend reading it and I’m very interested in getting his feedback.  My intention is to decide one way or the other about self-publishing and then send out a bunch of copies of the manuscript to friends and associates and see what they think.  It’s pretty heady stuff to even have a small audience read your words.

The weather has been summer-like for the last few days and the forecast is for another couple of weeks of the same.  That should allow me to handle the winterizing chores easily and plan for next year’s spring.  Probably the highlight of the garden season was the thornless raspberries.  I took a chance that they were the kind that mature in one season.  I cut all the canes to the ground and added a bunch of fertilizer and they grew like crazy and spread and produced tons of fruit.  In fact, they’re not done yet.  Next year I’ll do the same (cut down and fertilize) and I expect them to spread to almost double where they are now.  We’ll have to give them away to strangers.  But I’ll eat a ton of them myself.  They’re delicious.

Well, that’s enough talk of pruning for Monday.