All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
From first day to the last, he is the same, always the same, majestic and simple, extremely severe and extremely mild in the business of public life, so to speak, Jesus does not hold to any criticism, his prudent manner so delighted admiration by a mixture of strength and gentleness”.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Another long day and another late-night post. I didn’t see anything on the news-side worth discussing. The pundits are milking the 50/50 presidential race for all it’s worth. Trump, Harris! Nobody knows how it will turn out! Oh, woe is me!
Well, I’ll be busy right through 11/6 so I can wait for the result or the lack of a result on Election Day.
But what I’m waiting to see is who will step forward and provide real-life solutions for thriving in the post-freedom, post-affluence America.
And maybe I’m looking for something that can’t possibly exist. But it seems to me that there are shards of the glory that was America strewn across the landscape of this country and if some visionary gathers them up and recombines them into something new but based on the old pattern, then he could assemble a foundation for a resurgent American identity.
Maybe one of the southern states can act as the incubator for some kind of resurgence. DeSantis has Florida showing signs of taking the lead on questions of freedom and cultural sanity. And economically it is showing strength. Or maybe Texas will take the lead.
But that is what needs to happen. We can no longer expect the United States as a whole to move in the right direction. Powerful forces have decided to destroy the middle class in support of the looting of the stored-up wealth of this country by the elites. We have to band together under the leadership of some clear-thinking individual who has a plan for saving the middle class and restoring this country to health. Who knows? If he is defeated in November maybe Donald Trump will attempt to fill that role. That is assuming he isn’t tossed in jail by his enemies. Or maybe it’ll be a group headed up by Elon Musk and others. There have already been hints at something like this happening.
I’ll admit I have no proof for this idea. Maybe nothing will happen and we’ll just drift down the wind toward a larger version of the post-WWII Britain where drab socialist ideas were allowed to turn Britain into a shadow of its former self.
But I think there is still an enormous amount of entrepreneurial dynamism diffused in the people who live here and with the right catalyst very great things could still be achieved. And so, regardless of whether Trump or Harris is declared the winner in Tuesday’s little passion play, I think the next big development in our society will not be authored by the political establishment but rather targeted against that establishment.
Some will say I’m looking for a strongman; a Caesar. And in a sense, I am. But not in the way that Caesar ruled. Rather I am looking for a man to declare war against the oligarchy that seeks to destroy the middle class. I’m looking for someone who is plotting an American renaissance. Someone who can harness the energy that still exists in this country and direct it and concentrate it on the problems that we are currently facing.
That’s a big question mark. But I like to dream big.
Among so many conflicting ideas and so many different perspectives, the honest man is confused and distressed and the skeptic becomes wicked … Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than to be eaten.
Napoleon Bonaparte
October Viewing – 9
So, this being October 30th and tomorrow a really long work day, it’s a pretty good bet this will be the last “October Viewing” of the year. A good friend who has been following this series of posts proposed the “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” movies as a good subject. And we both liked how it sort of dovetails with the whole woke Democrat pod-people meme. You know, how they speak like lifeless automatons and point and shriek if you reveal yourself not to be one of them.
Now my friend felt that even the two reboots were good subjects for the post. But as in all things I am conservative. So, let’s harken back to the 1956 original in all its black and white splendor. Dut, dut, dut daaaah!
Spoiler alert! If you want to avoid knowing the plot, skip to the boldened text below to just get my opinion.
Sturdy character actor Kevin McCarthy (no, not the politician!) stars as Dr. Miles J. Bennell. He’s a small-town doctor in the fictitious California town of Santa-something-or-other. Miles is puzzled to find that several patients are claiming that their friends and relatives have been replaced by visually identical individuals that lack any emotion. One case is a young child claiming his mother has been replaced.
So, Miles and his girlfriend Becky and their friend Jack and his wife “Teddy” begin investigating a very strange series of occurrences. Jack finds what looks like a human body but with very indistinct features, almost as if acid had burned away the facial features. Shockingly, over time the “body” begins to take on Jack’s features. And more of these bodies begin appearing. Eventually they learn that enormous seed pods are the source of these transforming “bodies.”
And soon the two couples discover that the great majority of the townspeople are pod people. The distinguishing characteristic of pod people is a complete lack of emotion in their voice and actions. While pursuing an unsuccessful attempt to broadcast this alarming news to the rest of the outside world, Jack and Teddy become “podified” and so Jack provides the exposition to Miles and Becky to explain exactly what the hell is going on.
In his sedate pod-man voice Jack explains that spores floating through outer space landed on Earth where they grew into the pods. If a pod is placed near someone (how near?) and that person falls asleep the pod will absorb the person’s memories and appearance and somehow disintegrate the real person and replace him. Jack tries to convince Miles and Becky that the procedure is painless and all for the good. Miles and Becky decide not to cooperate and run away. They try to escape from town. But they have to pass through a crowd of pod-people who are loading up trucks with seed pods for delivery to the surrounding towns. They try to act like pod-people by being emotionless but are given away by Becky’s scream when she witnesses a traffic accident. Women!
The pod people chase after them but the couple successfully take refuge in a cave that was conveniently around when they needed it. But when Miles goes out to scout an escape route Becky falls asleep and by the time Miles returns, she’s fully podified and sounds the alarm to the rest of the wooden-faced pursuers to catch Miles.
Sleep-deprived Miles runs in a nightmarish state and ends up in another town trying to warn people on the highway about the pod people. Of course, they assume he’s nuts and drag him to a hospital where he tells his story to the skeptical doctors. But just at the end of his story an emergency room worker reports that a traffic accident with a truck full of giant seed pods has produced casualties in the ER. And so, the doctors get to work calling in the FBI!
Dunt, dunt daaah!
End of the spoiler alert!
So, as you can see this is a hum-dinger of a paranoid’s dream come true. They’re all out to get you and they’re all monsters. And the emotionless pod-people are a pretty good stand in for the swarms of antidepressant-doped leftists that walk the Earth all around us and can only summon energy when they point and shriek to their cohort about the presence of some normal human in the immediate vicinity.
And this is the modern horror story. If you add a violent angle with the imposters capable of becoming murderous creatures like in John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” then it’s doubly frightening, especially with the modern special effects available.
But even this old-fashioned cinematic portrayal hits home by showing the confusion when familiar surroundings aren’t what they seem. And when the truth is doubted by everyone except the growing crowd of pod-people who are coming after you then panic results. Yep, a perfect nightmare scenario. It does resemble the current state of our world too. But I’ll save that for a current events post.
It’s a small story And as you know I like to keep my posts short too. A little slice of life that I enjoyed reading.
A general of ordinary talent, occupying a bad position and surprised by a superior force, seeks his safety in retreat; but a great captain supplies all deficiencies by his courage, and marches boldly to meet the attack. By this means he disconcerts his adversary, and if this last shows any irresolution in his movements, a skillful leader, profiting by his indecision, may even hope for victory.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Regardless of how jaded we may feel about the American electoral system, Vox has provided an inspirational reason to vote.
The mental image of Bono driving his car over a cliff a la “Thelma and Louise” is just the perfect antidote for the sad reality we see around us.
The aircraft are, I fear, getting a little stale. So I’ll change the subject to—no subject, no theme. Just pictures that I think are interesting.
Fractal Symmetry, This photo was taken at a US Military Cemetery Near Canton, Ga.
Mardi Gras, Pensacola version. Don’t know her but she seems to be having a great time.
Beach scene, In January way out on Ft Pickens.
Early March, my front yard
I’m not sure just what the hell was going on with the winds aloft but I don’t remember seeing the like either before or since. For my front yard.
Oliver, one of my cats.
“Run you stick bastards!” Seen in a local parking lot.
Just stopped at a light somewhere. I thought close focus on the drops on the windshield with the background blurred out would make an interesting shot.
TomD