Author: photog

Camera Girl Grows Up

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Camera Girl is acknowledged across the multi-verse as the worst dog trainer of all time.  Whereas children and grandchildren respond to and obey her enlightened methods of child rearing, her dogs on the other hand are completely wild.  This happens because she thinks dogs are perpetually infants.  And so, she coddles them and allows them to walk all over her and run amok.  Many years ago, we had our first German Shorthaired Pointer, Max.  He was a magnificent specimen of a very large GSP and I thought he was fairly well-behaved.  But one weekend I come home to find my youngest daughter standing on the couch because the dog had taken her socks while she was putting them on and was growling whenever someone came near them.

So, I went to get the socks from Max and he bit me.  I was shocked.  I asked Camera Girl, “When did this start?”  She looked sheepish and said since he’d started to mature, he had been getting aggressive.  I guess I’d been busy over the last six months and hadn’t spent any time training Max.  But now we were in a bad situation.  I didn’t want to lose the dog but I couldn’t have a large strong dog that might bite my kids.  So being a lunatic I put on a pair of cowhide gloves and winter coat and attacked Max.  I went for the socks and he went for me.  I grabbed him around the neck and threw him to the floor and pinned him.  Then I growled like a lunatic and bit him on the throat.  And I never had another bit of trouble from that dog again.  From that point on he worked for me.

Over the years Camera Girl has improved slightly.  But depending on the temperament of the dogs, she’s done anywhere from fairly well to really poor at training them.  Our latest pup is a female basset hound and she is feisty.  And she likes to chew on things, including me.  So, I started to follow Camera Girl when she was “training” Penny.  And of course, the dog was running the show.  She had this short legged chunky hound running around causing chaos and the only attempt at training was baby talk admonishments. So, I demanded that we get her straightened out.  Now luckily there have been great strides taken in dog training since my days of biting Max on the throat.

One training aid is a shock collar.  Well, actually it’s a combination buzzer/shocker.  Camera Girl is way too tender-hearted to shock the dogs.  But I’ve finally demanded that she start using the buzzer and use it consistently to get Penny to stop biting and jumping up.  This is actually also for her own good.  Basset hounds are very prone to hurting their backs and jumping up is a good way for them to do that.

And what do you know?  After about two weeks of consistent training the absurd puppy is finally, finally beginning to behave.  She hasn’t even tried to chew on my face once today.  And I’m overjoyed.  I think Camera Girl is finally beginning to grow up.  Any day now I’ll be comfortable enough to finally throw that ratty coat and gloves away once and for all.  And it’s a good thing.  I think next time the dog would win.

What’s the Secret Password?

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The commonly expressed opinion is that we have become two separate nations living within the boundaries of one territory.  And that is becoming true.  More and more normal people are waking up to the fact that the nation we grew up in is being erased consciously and thoroughly.  And because all the private and government institutions are aligned in doing this we have no recourse.  We’ve become strangers in a strange land.  And as the young adopt the new world being created the rest of us become isolated and atomized.  And being isolated reinforces our dispossession and makes us feel powerless and alone.  This needs to be addressed.

When I consider the idea of the Right forming a replacement for the Republican party, I think the political function of the organization might actually be a less important aspect.  I believe a new organization for non-progressives might be more valuable as a meeting place for them socially.  And by socially, I mean personally and for business networking and for community organizing.  So this can run the gamut from looking for a date to looking for a job to looking for a new mayor.  But the first two of those tasks feel more critical.

Let’s face it.  In some parts of this country progressives outnumber us by orders of magnitude and identifying like-minded individuals is extremely difficult.  Churches and fraternal organizations have become moribund and even deceptive.  So, what better way of increasing the odds of meeting people who don’t hate you than giving them a home away from home?

Let’s take an example.  If you live on one of the coasts and are a rock climber, you might join a local club and try to fit in with that group.  But suppose the club is a hive of Bernie Bros.  Well, you can keep quiet and just go along and try to enjoy the climbing activities but socializing with people who despise your values is a frustrating ordeal of maintaining silence in the face of continuous abuse.

But suppose instead that an organization is gathered from people who believe the same things you do.  And just imagine that a bulletin board exists where these like-minded people advertise clubs and activities that you could involve yourself in.  Basically, that becomes like Facebook but with the social justice warriors stripped away.  It would be sort of like heaven without the clouds and annoying harp music.

Now, I’m not downplaying the importance of having a new political entity.  The Republican party is an absurd joke in terms of its commitment to our values.  We need someplace where non-leftists can rate the Republican office holders and decide which ones are okay and which ones need to go.  And this could be done away from the Republican party that has vested interests in keeping the incumbents in office regardless of their policy positions.  But above and beyond politics normal people need an organization that allows them to be themselves around people that are like them.

For people in red states all of this is less pressing.  They can find local groups that share their values and fraternize with.  But in the blue states you live a cryptic existence finding your friends floating almost at random in a sea of unsympathetic adversaries.  But I actually like the idea of a “secret” society.  There could be insignia pins and secret handshakes and initiation ceremonies where we have to drink cool-aid from a replica of a Trump golden sneaker or something.  And of course, there would have to be a national event where we all gather in a sufficiently cheesy location like the Las Vegas strip and take selfies with semi-celebrities and wear funny hats.

Believe it or not I think all of that would be great.  Belonging to something that proclaims your beliefs is liberating.  No one has to guess if you’re “one of those.”  You’re declaring it openly and you can wear it as a badge of honor.  It will self-select your friends and enemies and that’s okay too.

Will it ever happen?  I think it will.  Maybe it will have to wait for 2025 to wake up the rest of the sleepwalkers who still think this is one country and that the Republicans represent them.  Maybe it will take a Supreme Court decision restoring the right to free association.  But one way or another people will begin self-selecting by what they believe in and don’t believe in.  As you know I’m partial to the name, “The He-Man Woman-Haters Club.”  But “The Normies” would work for me too.

Reform UK Has Overtaken Tories in Polls for First Time

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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party is narrowly ahead of the Conservative Party (Tories) in polling.  I suppose this makes Reform the official Opposition to the Labor Party that is miles ahead of both these “right wing” parties.  I put that in scare quotes because the Tories have proven themselves to be progressives.  And now it is Farage’s difficult job to recreate a conservative party out of the ashes of the disaster that the Tories concocted in their eight years in power.  God speed Nigel.  All the best luck.

 

14JUN2024 – Quote of the Day

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I am angry at the custom of forbidding children to call their father by the name of father, and to enjoin them another, as more full of respect and reverence, as if nature had not sufficiently provided for our authority. We call Almighty God Father, and disdain to have our children call us so. I have reformed this error in my family.—[As did Henry IV. of France]—And ’tis also folly and injustice to deprive children, when grown up, of familiarity with their father, and to carry a scornful and austere countenance toward them, thinking by that to keep them in awe and obedience; for it is a very idle farce that, instead of producing the effect designed, renders fathers distasteful, and, which is worse, ridiculous to their own children.

Michel de Montaigne

The Insecurity State

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Recently I was part of a training exercise that was meant to update the kinds of risks that might occur during the workday.  And most of it was what everyone expects; fire, flood, power outage, tornadoes and hurricanes, earthquakes(?), downed power lines, automobile crashes, etc.

And after several hours and hundreds of questions that were meant to flesh out our thoughts about what would have to be done in these circumstances, I was thoroughly bored (as you could imagine).  But then we got to the really wacky stuff.  We got to the active shooter, hostage taking, suspicious powder in a letter, malicious drones and angry mob scenarios.

Now I had gone through what-ifs for active shooters, hostage situations and anthrax attacks.  But killer drones and mob violence was new.  And (as you could imagine) some of my answers started getting a little humorous.  Even the instructors were a little tongue in cheek when it came to events like the angry mob (actually called large combative protest group).  Our predictable answer was to summon the police. Lock the doors and provide information to employees and bystanders and shelter from the demonstrators.  But when first asked for my plan I said, “I’d recruit a squad of able-bodied men armed with salad tongs and cafeteria trays and wade into the center of the mob.”  This got some chuckles and some frowns.

Suffice it to say that our answers were very perfunctory and tended toward actions that revolved around calling for police support, summoning emergency workers such as utility companies, calling for an ambulance and providing the kind of first response help that usually doesn’t accomplish much.  So afterward I didn’t think much about the training but later it occurred to me that drone attacks and mob violence are both now solidly in the center of the radar screen for corporations and governments.

And they’re right.  Ten years ago, drones were toys that photographers were starting to buy to get interesting and difficult to capture perspectives on photographic subjects.  Now they’re almost the primary weapons of war.  They can take out a tank or a trench full of infantrymen.  They can spy on people in their homes and even attack other drones.

And everyone is now aware that mob violence is a favorite tactic of Leftist groups like BLM and Antifa.  And, of course, the favorite answer we had for the trainer; calling for the police and waiting for their arrival, isn’t really an answer when the police have been instructed to stand down and let the mostly peaceful mob sack and torch your home.  As far as the drone scenario, chances are the drone belongs to the federal government and if you attempt to interfere with its activities, I’m guessing that will just increase the charges against you to include malicious destruction of government property.

What I’m trying to say here is that we live in very troubled times.  None of these scenarios are what Americans of fifty years ago would consider things to worry about or plan to survive.  But today, if you don’t you may be putting yourself at risk.  Even twenty years ago home invasions and carjackings only happened in the worst parts of the worst cities.  Now they happen in Beverly Hills and the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  We live in the dystopic future that science fiction writers imagined back in the 1970s.  And we’ve just kind of accepted it.  And that is the scariest thing of all.