Author: photog
MA Sanctuary Activist Springs into Action (and Rolls Into Pond)
Upton MA is a suburban town in Central Massachusetts with a good sized pond within the town limits. It must also have some illegal aliens and some sanctuary activists within the the town too.
The unidentified motorist’s failure to put her car in park sent the SUV rolling into Pratt Pond next to the cemetery in Upton, police said.
“That sucks,” an ICE officer can be heard saying on the video.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were actively arresting a suspect that day, Sept. 8, as part of Operation Patriot 2.0, the Trump Administration’s name for their newest surge in immigration enforcement in the Bay State.
Upton police said the driver saw two ICE vehicles stopping an illegal immigrant, and she pulled her SUV over, jumped out without putting it in gear.
The fire department had to tow it out, police added, and she was cited for unsafe operation of a vehicle. Upton police have yet to release the driver’s name.
The video shows her car mostly submerged after rolling down an embankment into a pond located at Lakeview Cemetery.
I guess everyone learned some kind of lesson that day. Even the fish in the pond.
Guest Contributor – Ed Brault – 01OCT2025 – Military Revival
Been a long time coming. I saw the “Social Laboratory Syndrome” creeping through the military for over thirty years. The worst started with Obama’s purge of true warfighters and replacing them with careerist toadies who would rubber-stamp his social agenda. Then the loss of standards in dress, fitness, and appearance, and the transgender idiocy. When Biden came in with his policies and appointments of deviants to high office, I was glad I was retired. Now we have leadership that knows what the military’s job is and will enforce standards, performance and mission…at ALL levels. I admit I had put on weight in my later years, but I could still pass the PT tests, and I worked out every day, and could keep up or surpass the younger troops, even working for three hours in a Level-A HAZMAT suit in 90-degree heat.
I’m waiting to see how many of the perfumed princes at that meeting put in for retirement.
Updates and Comments
Chemist
“Full disclosure: I have never served.
But I have to believe that the PT standards are different for a logistics specialist than for a Special Forces operator.
So if you have some middle age spread but still can pass the PT test for your specification – that’s all Pete is asking for.
And I think that’s fair.
We’ve all seen the videos of the 110 pound female cop trying to control a 300 pound ‘roided up perp and they are not pretty. (The videos, not the cops. Or the perps.)
But I hope to never see the day when a 200 pound jihadi starts pounding on undersized US servicewomen.
If this makes me a misogynist – then the definition is wrong.”
Jess
“My brother was in the Air Force, looked good, not carrying any noticeable weight, achieved Staff Sargent, and was over ten years in service, but was worried because he was notified his weight, and waist size, need to lower or face being removed. That was in the eighties. Seeing some of those in the military over the last few years made me wonder what happened to the discipline, since many looked way beyond anything resembling an effective military member demanded thirty years ago.”
No More Dudes in Dresses
Pete Hegseth gave “the speech.”
And it was a thing of beauty. He said everybody had to get in shape including generals and admirals. And he said women will have to pass the male physical fitness standards.
That was remarkable.
Then he said unless they were in special forces, men would have to shave. That was pretty good.
Then he declared the end of DEI, dudes in dresses and all the rest of the woke nonsense. And he said that there would be no more exceptions to the rules so that racial and gender “firsts” could be celebrated.
Music to my ears.
He justified all this by saying that every parent in America whose sons (or daughters) were joining the military should know that their children will be surrounded by Americans that were completely qualified to perform the mission and maximize the prospects for success and returning home alive and safe.
Wow!
So, I’ve been waiting for decades for someone to finally say these things. Clinton and Bush and Obama and Biden all “celebrated” the freak show that the woke military became. Pushing weak, unqualified women into combat positions and promoting people just to be the first woman or minority or gay or transgender individual to reach some rank or responsibility.
But does this mean we won’t be getting anymore “Admiral Rachel Levines” going forward?
But more importantly what happens to all those women in combat roles when they fail their PT exams? Where will they end up? And will there be any useful work for them to do in non-combat roles? These are important questions. Our federal government is a bloated bureaucracy and the military is part of that. There isn’t room for the military to be some kind of make-work organization for people who can’t find a place in civilian life. We want strong, smart, dedicated and hard-working people defending this country. And most importantly we can’t afford to make it a work program for men who think they’re women and women who think they’re men. I’ll have to say, of all Donald Trump’s many exciting and innovative policy initiatives, straightening out the military may be my favorite. To my mind the corruption of the warrior role in our society is the most dangerous and disgusting aspect of the woke agenda. For that reason, this initiative of Hegseth’s is extremely timely and barely in time.
I’m curious to see if this speech, all on its own, results in any resignations or retirements among the upper brass that were represented in that audience. Specifically, I wonder how many really obese generals will just give up and retire rather than lose the hundred pounds they’d need to shed to conform to the height to weight requirements of the military.
I want to follow up on this incident going forward and try to identify whether his dictates are being faithfully obeyed and what tangible results they produce. To that effect if any of you guys who were military know of any sources for information on how the military is changing (or staying the same) please put information in the comments and I’ll try to follow up on this post with updates.
01OCT2025 – Photo of the Day
01OCT2025 – Quote of the Day
The sailor tells of winds, the ploughman of bulls,
the soldier counts his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.
Propertius
Tomorrow the Stars – A Science Fiction Book Review – Part 1 – Poor Superman
A while ago I spoke of buying a book I owned fifty-some-odd years ago. So, here’s a story from that book to talk about. The author Fritz Leiber was pretty popular back in the day. So, I don’t intend to rewind the plot here because it’s a short story (twenty-eight pages) and anyone can find it out there in the public domain, I’m sure.
But I just want to give some impressions of the best aspects of the story. This is explicitly a post-apocalyptic world. New York City and Washington DC are craters. And because of the disaster the US government has been supplanted by a regime called the Thinkers. They are frauds who have convinced the populace that they have supercomputers and atomic rockets that go to Mars to commune with the all-wise Martians and something called the “Mind Bomb,” etc., etc., etc. The real scientists have been cowed into keeping quiet and the nominal leader is a guy named Jorj Helmuth who was a publics relations specialist in the before time but now believes his own hype and thinks he’s a master of sleep learning and hypnotism and whatever else he’s made up.
The story is basically the maneuvering of Jorj, his cronies, the scientists and a few other actors on stage. Leiber lays out the story and the characters in broad strokes but very skillfully and it’s fun to recognize the Soviet (and American) propaganda playbook being run to fascinating effect. It’s a cautionary tale about idealism and chicanery and power politics and the danger of believing in your own lies. And even thought this story was written in 1951 it reads the same as if it was written today or tomorrow.
And it has a great villain who just exudes realpolitik and a feme fatale and even a twist ending to make sure you don’t forget that it’s from the golden age of science fiction. And even the title of the story is the punchline.
All these same people inhabit our present world. The lies and make believe from then is no different from the BLM or Antifa grifts that we see all around us. Probably the closest thing would be the climate change scam that has bankrupted Europe and exacerbated the monetary problems we’re experiencing.
So, that was fun. There are a few more stories in the book that I’ll highlight in later episodes of this book review. But I’ll say that “Poor Superman” is the crème de la crème of the entire collection. And since it’s the last story in the book you finish it off with a smile on your face. See, that Bob Heinlein really knew the trick to editing an anthology. Make sure the last story leaves them wanting more.
So, who remembers this story or at least remembers the name Fritz Leiber? Surely, I’m not the only old science fiction fan here and I’d love to get some other opinions. After all, I’m just one man. And I’m not even superman.
30SEP2025 – Photo of the Day
30SEP2025 – Quote of the Day
NOW
Rise! for the day is passing,
And you lie dreaming on;
The others have buckled their armour,
And forth to the fight are gone:
A place in the ranks awaits you,
Each man has some part to play;
The Past and the Future are nothing,
In the face of the stern To-day.
Rise from your dreams of the Future–
Of gaining some hard-fought field;
Of storming some airy fortress,
Or bidding some giant yield;
Your Future has deeds of glory,
Of honour (God grant it may!)
But your arm will never be stronger,
Or the need so great as To-day.
Rise! if the Past detains you,
Her sunshine and storms forget;
No chains so unworthy to hold you
As those of a vain regret:
Sad or bright, she is lifeless ever,
Cast her phantom arms away,
Nor look back, save to learn the lesson
Of a nobler strife To-day.
Rise! for the day is passing:
The sound that you scarcely hear
Is the enemy marching to battle–
Arise! for the foe is here!
Stay not to sharpen your weapons,
Or the hour will strike at last,
When, from dreams of a coming battle,
You may wake to find it past!
Adelaide Anne Procter
A Respite. What’s Not to Love?
Another day, another mass killing in a church. Okay we need a break today. Need something that won’t push me over the edge into catatonia. Let’s see.
So, Camera Girl and I went to a gathering of my weekly zoom-call buddies. It was a rescheduled Labor Day party that was cancelled because of weather, I think. Our host had a pork roast in a smoker and other delicacies. Camera Girl baked a ricotta cheesecake and some other stuff and we relaxed around a giant fire pit in a cauldron hung from a heavy chain attached to a tripod. We ate and socialized. There was a lot of talk about music. Our host is a musician. He’s a singer and guitar player and after dinner he set up a band and played country favorites and some eclectic tunes along with songs of his own. The audience was very appreciative as well they should have been. It was very enjoyable.
Afterward there was some political discussion amongst a few of us but my heart wasn’t into it. It was much more enjoyable to discuss the merits of and differences between Hank Williams Senior, Junior and the III. And talk about who really played the instruments on the Beach Boys, “Pet Sounds” (apparently studio musicians called, “The Wrecking Crew”). Sure, we did talk a little about Charlie Kirk’s murder, but I much preferred spending time talking about the old days and some of the characters who we worked with but hadn’t thought about in a long time. Reminiscing actually is a lot of fun. And there were people there I hadn’t seen in a long time. And everyone got along great. And I did hear some very good health news about someone who had had a terrible accident. So, all in all, it was an excellent night.
But all too soon Camera Girl reminded me I needed to head home and we said our goodbyes. But when I got home, I was inspired by the musical nature of the night to dig out a bunch of CDs that I had bought but never ripped onto my computer and put on some thumb drives to listen to in my car and around the house. You see I’ve never gone in for streaming. I don’t use a cell phone at all (well, I have a flip phone that I charge up if I have to go out of town). So, my music is based on my CD collection. Well, I had about ten albums that I hadn’t heard in a few years so I added them to the playlist and damn! All of a sudden, my music was light years better than it’s been in forever. So, ignoring the present apocalypse has been very pleasant. Sure, I’ll have to come up for air soon and the horror is just waiting for me to come back to the surface but for a short exciting moment I was living in a happier world without trans-psycho-killers, Antifa losers and government shutdowns. What’s not to love?