Category: OCF

Arthur Milikh Writes On A Way Forward for Conservatism – I Beg to Differ

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Over at Real Clear Politics Arthur Milikh of the The Claremont Institute’s ‘Center for the American Way of Life’ has an essay called  “A New Conservatism Must Emerge.”

His thesis is that the Left has conquered all of the institutions of America not because of any inherent strength of its point of view but because the Right is so unaware of what it stands for that it never even knew when things were slipping away.

Actually I reject this thesis.  I think we were sold down the river by the supposed conservative leaders of the Republican party who were really only part of the Left in disguise.

Now his solution to fight back against the current situation is to attack the institutions of the Left and to re-affirm the tenets of the “American Way of Life.”

Well, I guess so.  But all of that is kind of vague.  Mr. Milikh does list the symptoms of the disease that is now killing us but a more straight forward approach to how to save us from the Left is to say we need a leader to gather up the splinters of our resistance and shape it into a weapon with which to club our enemies into submission.  Because no amount of defensive action is going to make them stop.  Their teeth need to be pulled.  Their ability to assault us needs to be neutralized.  Someone with brains and guts needs to call a conservative convention to plot out a survival strategy.  America has been turned into Orwell’s 1984 and people are acting like it’s just a slight inconvenience.  We all know what must be done.  But how can it be done and who can do it?  It will take a bold leader who finds some strong position and fires the first shot and proves that he can’t be taken down by all the forces of the Left.  If someone does that it will cause a chain reaction that will shatter the illusion of the Potemkin Village that the Left has built up like a strong wind blows down a house of cards.

So my short counter proposal is “We Need a Champion.”

 

 

 

 

15FEB2021 – OCF Update

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We got a good response on my “Who is the Worst RINO in Recent History?” post.  And I’ll have to say I really enjoy getting the feedback.  In fact, I crave that experience.  It’s no secret that I despise Romney.  But even if the winner had been someone I don’t really care that much about like Richard Burr or Bill Cassidy, I still would have been gratified to get the information.  I only have my small group of friends here in the Northeast and finding out what the rest of the country thinks is valuable.  Not knowing what has been going on in the rest of the country is part of how they have been able to rip this country apart.  When people get to tell their stories it makes us all better informed.

I encourage all of the readers to say what you think even if you think my opinions are mistaken, even, especially if you think they’re mistaken.  And I’m interested in any topics you are interested in me writing about.  If you have a topic send it in the comments.  And if you want to write on it, even better.  I’ll set up a folder for you and post it.  Just pick an alias and it’ll be searchable for your alias and if you ever want it removed I’ll be happy to do it.

Now that the impeachment is over I’m hoping that we’ll start to hear from Donald Trump and what his plans for the future are.  I’ll continue my own series of posts about what I think the country needs.  At this point I think a convention of conservative leaders is desperately needed.  A national organization separate from the federal government is going to be needed.  It will need to coordinate all the red states that are tired of being ignored or persecuted by the feds but it will also have to represent and help the conservatives living behind the enemy lines in blue state America.

I am also looking for any practical experience with the topics that I am discussing for the “Reclaim the Family” series.  This is one of the most important topics but it’s also one of the most difficult to come up with practical and actionable advice.  Families aren’t widgets.  Each is different and the people in them aren’t as easy to model as simple things like economics and missile ballistics.  Even anecdotes about life and families would be welcome.  The contributors’ stories are some of my favorite content here.  I really miss War Pig’s stories.  They were always entertaining.

I think after I finish the Star Trek series I’m going to review the old Jackie Gleason series, “The Honeymooners.”  I haven’t watched them in decades.  They should be a lot of fun.  Ralph and Norton, Ralph and Alice; these are almost archetypal relationships that I think still resonate with men and women.  Plus they really are funny and we could all use a good laugh.

So stay tuned, plenty coming up and even beside the politics there should be plenty to read and discuss.

Now Let’s Switch It Up – Who Will Lead Us Out of the Wilderness?

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Yes, Mitt Romney is the lowest of the low.  But who do we we think could be part of the solution?  We need a leader, a hero.  Someone powerful and smart.  But who is out there?  I’ll put a few names out there, pick any that seems like they could help.  If you have a better name pick “other” and list him in the comments.

This is a lot more difficult than the other survey.  This isn’t a simple choice between obvious choices.  None of us know the answer to this.  Some of these people want to help us and even have done things to help us like President Trump.  But who has the wherewithal to get us out of the trap that the Left has gotten us in.  Strength, brains but also enormous courage.  That’s what’s needed.  Because the enemies ranged against him will be almost irresistible.

And honestly, what it’s going to require is someone who can organize the other leaders around him and forge that coalition into a weapon to defeat the Deep State.  And that is going to take more than anyone has shown so far.

 

Who Will Lead Us Out of the Wilderness?

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Who is the Worst RINO in Recent History?

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I skipped small timers like most of the house reps who voted for impeachment and guys like Jeb! and some of the small time hoodlums who showed up in the White House cabinet positions.  But if I missed someone good feel free to pick “other” and add him in in the comments.  Pick the creepiest low down skunk of the bunch.  I tell you it’s not an easy pick.  McCain, Romney, Ryan.  It’s real close.

 

Who is the Republican You Despise the Most?

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Update:  The people have spoken.  Mitt Romney is, hands down, the the most despised Republican.  Quite an honor.

 

 

 

 

 

12FEB2021 – OCF Update – The Mid-Winter Blues

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The Mid-Winter Blues have got me today.  I should be celebrating the end of the Impeachment Farce and the beginning of better things but for some reason the prospect of another couple of months of this weather has sort of sunk into my soul.  It won’t last but it does make me slightly sorrowful.

I finally started reading the latest Harry Dresden book (Battle Ground).  I’m a few chapters in but I really haven’t gotten hooked.  Something seems different about Harry’s voice.  Jim Butcher took about six years off between his earlier books and these last two ( this one and the previous one Peace Talks) and it seems to me there’s been a change.  Who knows, maybe I’ve changed.  But we’ll see, maybe I’ll snap into it.

I finally got through the first chapter of Gulag Archipelago.  It was ninety pages of purges that killed off sixty million people.  Stalin truly was a monster.  One of the footnotes had an historical idea I hadn’t heard before.  There was a belief that Stalin may have been part of the Czarist secret police before the revolution.  The records were burned by some of the Bolsheviks and it would explain Stalin’s expertise at pulverizing resistance.  The next chapter is about interrogation.  Just from the little I’ve already read it appears that torture was one of their areas of expertise.  Oh well, onward.

I’ve been thinking more about what is the practical way to start making some headway against the Left.  It seems to me that a coordination of consumer practices would be a way to leverage the numbers that our side has.  And that could be both positive and negative coordination.  Boycotts would definitely be an important tactic but also cutting deals with companies such that they would acknowledge the monetary advantage of working with us in exchange for the complete cessation of woke kowtowing.  So if we give them a lot of business they stop virtue signaling to the Left and stop attacking normal culture.  No boycotts of right-wing books and products. No transgender bathrooms.  It seems astonishing that something like this hasn’t already happened.  But our side is so lacking in leadership that I guess it shouldn’t be.

I saw a headline that Nikki Haley is attacking President Trump.  Good.  She’s clearly shown her true colors and anyone who tells me what a great presidential candidate she’d make is going to get laughed out of the room by me.  Another snake.  Boy there are so many.

I’ve been reading about a movement to have 2nd Amendment sanctuary counties and constitutional counties where the sheriff will refuse to allow anyone to be prosecuted for offenses that are protected under the constitution.  That sounds like a step in the right direction.  Although in blue states that will become very tricky.  A governor has a lot more fire power than a sheriff.

Well, maybe when the Senate votes to acquit today or early next week I’ll snap out of my funk.  But I really could use some good news.  If anyone hears of anything splendiferous please pass it along.  I could really use it.

12FEB2021 – photog’s Friday Finds

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Powered by Whatfinger News, the nervous system of Free America

It’s Culture Week here at photog’s Friday Finds.  Way more Culture Items than Political Items.

Politics

Stop Calling It an ‘Insurrection’  (Kurt Schlichter at Townhall)

(Sums up how ridiculous it is to call the theatrical riot that went on on January 6th an insurrection.)

Secede Or Die

(Ben Garrison at GrrrGraphics)  (This cartoon and the accompanying post matches what I think of our present situation.  Washington is criminalizing our freedoms and our lives.  Why shouldn’t we leave?)

 

TBT: Romney’s Perfidy Runs in the Family

(The Portly Politico)  (Tyler has an historical piece that talks about Romney and his father and how Rockefeller Republicanism runs in the family)

 

The Culture

The Culture War is Coming For You Whether You Like it Or Not

(Larry Correia at Monster Hunter Nation) (For those who are unfamiliar with him, Larry is a science fiction and fantasy novelist who came face to face with the woke establishment in his industry and did battle with them during the so-called “puppy wars” of a few years back. He was able to shed so much light on the corrupt publishing industry controlled Hugo Awards that they have become a byword for rewarding talentless leftist hacks. When he goes on a rant against the Left it’s usually a lot of fun to read.)

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

(Vanderluin at American Digest) (Watch this video just to revive your hope that soon we’ll tell the COVID police to go to hell.  Very uplifting)

The Babylon Bee Guide To Being Woke

(The Babylon Bee)  (The title says it all.  My favorite rule: Select the most oppressed identity possible: Test people’s loyalty to the cause by identifying as a walrus and cancel anyone who doesn’t make walrus noises every time they see you.)

 

Who’s up for some “Pearl Milling Company” syrup on their pancakes?

(Allahpundit at HotAir)  (Just reading about the cowardice of the modern corporate rabbits is somehow comforting.  When the revolution comes these jellyfish will do whatever they are told.)

Exit Excitement – Is Your State a Candidate?

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When I first heard about the concept of Texas seceding from the United States it seemed far-fetched.  But lately, considering the insanity the Left has inflicted on us, it doesn’t seem all that unreasonable.  And hearing that other states are actually in discussions with the Texit folks it occurred to me that maybe I was behind the curve on what’s out there in the real world.

But since I haven’t been consulted by the folks actually involved in these discussions I thought it might be fun to open up the speculation to the wider world.  Each of you know more about your state than I could.  Take an educated guess and let’s see if your fellow citizens agree with you.  Now obviously states like NY and MA and CA aren’t going anywhere.  In fact they’re the reason other folks are thinking of leaving.  But how about AL or FL or WY.  Granted, we’re talking about very conditional situations.  For instance OK and LA would feel pretty safe tagging along with their neighbor TX.  But just for the sake of argument, suppose each of the other states had a situation where they would be contiguous with a seceding entity.  Let’s say the vertical column from ND down to TX coordinated an exit.  Would there be any states that would just flat out say no, no matter what conditions could be met?  If every southern state from NC all the way around to LA also was given that situation would any pass on the offer?  How about the western states, AZ, UT, ID,MT and WY?  If we could hook them up with the northern tier would they bite?  And just to make it really easy, what if it wasn’t a complete secession from the USA but instead what if all the red states declared that as a coalition they were going to agree to nullify any federal laws that they all agreed were unconstitutional?  Now that almost seems normal and sensible.  Almost like all the hippie states deciding that pot is legal no matter what the federal law is.  It’s starting to sound kind of inevitable.

I admit this is nutty but it’s intoxicating trying to guess just how many states would really love to escape from the madness of the coasts.  Maybe it could happen.  Anyway, there it is.  Is your state one that under the right circumstance would revolt against the madness or would it stay put, no matter how bad it gets?  You give your opinion.  The results might be interesting.

 

 

Do You Think That Your State Would Consider Leaving the Union

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photog’s Corner – Surviving Winter – Exercise – Rower

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Normally Camera Girl and I like to go for a daily hike through the local State Park.  It’s pretty scenic with a lake, pond, streams, tree covered hills and wildlife.  But in the last week or so we have returned to the usual New England winter condition.  There will be a foot or more of snow on the ground for the next few weeks so that will put a damper on our hike.  And that hike was more than just recreation.  It was part of the exercise that we really need this time of year.  Snow removal is less harmful to your body if you maintain good muscle tone.

We have a treadmill and an exercise bike but I despise both of these devices passionately.  I have a lat machine and I’ll do calisthenics but it’s hard to get a meaningful aerobic workout this way without some pretty serious exertion.

Many years ago my father had told me that rowing was a good aerobic exercise that didn’t wear out the knees and hips.  There was a rower at a gym that I had access to at work at one time.  And it was a good machine to use but using it at work was inconvenient.  So I was pretty sure that a home rower was the right choice for me.

A couple of months ago I did a search into what rowing machine would be a good choice.  After looking at several types and several manufacturers I settled on the flywheel air rowing machine type and the Concept 2 brand as the best quality out there.  The problem was that they were only made in one factory in Vermont and the COVID madness had effectively slowed the output to a trickle.  So there was a two month waiting list to get one.

Well last week it finally showed up and I was like a kid at Christmas assembling it.

It didn’t take much time or effort and before I knew it I was using it and I was very, very pleased with the experience and the results.  The unit is well made and sturdy.  It really is a painless workout and it eats up calories relatively quickly and painlessly.  Where I’ve set it up I can look out onto the yard and relax my mind.  Next I’ll set up some music in the area and I’ll be in nirvana.  I even got Camera girl to try it out and she was unexpectedly very interested.  So it looks like we’ll come out of the winter hibernation more or less intact.

If you’re looking for an aerobic machine for the home and can afford the relatively hefty price tag ($900 plus tax and shipping) I can recommend this model.  If you are cautious wait a few months and I’ll update this review for any possible problems.

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

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I’ve been writing this blog for almost five years.  And now that I’m providing enough content to warrant people keeping up with it it’s begun expanding its following, which is of course very gratifying to me.  And I am especially grateful to those of you who have passed along the site address or the link to a particular post.  I think this is the real “organic” growth mechanism as opposed to a Google or even a DuckDuckGo search link.  The opinion of the target audience is the only meaningful measure of the success of a journal.

But I must take the time to ask you all for a favor.  I am not looking for money or more clicks from you.  I’m not even looking for compliments, although praise is a wonderful narcotic that I crave as much as the next man.  What I’m looking for is feedback of some sort.  And it doesn’t even have to be agreement, in fact, disagreement combined with your opinion on the subject at hand would be splendid.  And I’m certainly not looking for histrionics and mock squabbling.  The last thing I think we need is more Jerry Springer theatrics.  And I’m not looking for people to make declarations that they consider dangerous for them to make.  I am quite aware that government and corporate busybodies are everywhere attempting to imitate the KGB on a Keystone Cops basis.  What I’m looking for is a real dialog with the audience.

As much as I like hearing my own voice and as much as I enjoy the scintillating brilliance of my every captured thought, I still believe that there are other people out there in the universe who have something that they can add to all this marvellousness.  I hold to the idea that there is intelligent life in the universe besides me.  And my goal is to discover it and make contact with it and learn something from it and even enjoy the camaraderie of shared humanity.  I feel like that character from the Pink Floyd song saying, “Hello, hello, hello is there anybody out there?”  But I know there are many somebodies out there.  I’ve met some of them.  And they are fantastic people.  But what would be more fantastic would be to reach a critical mass where the conversations become self-sustaining and I become almost an insignificant part of the dialog.

Think of all the brilliant and thoughtful and experienced people that are out there.  And they’re being thrown off social media by the hundreds of thousands and they’re rooting around on the internet looking for a community.  Some have probably found some good ones.  I’ve done it myself.  But many of these places are extremely odd.  Maybe it’s the times we live in.  Maybe it’s some artifact of the monetizing system but there is just too much anger and confusion.  Even the ones that seem to have a lot of good information on what is going on are strange and sort of depressing.  I’m looking to build some kind of community that at least can function in a way that allows information and some kind of dialog to go on.

I think that with the stalinesque woke purges going on almost everywhere in our society; in social media, in corporations, in government, in schools, in churches, even in the military; it’s necessary to have a place where we can go and be able to say what we want to without having someone tell us that we’re not allowed to.  That’s actually the origin of this site.  I got tired of being censored on photography web sites when I disagreed with the ridiculous leftist slant to everything on those sites.

Now, I’m sure there will be plenty of readers who will find that their views fall so far to the Left and the Right of where I am that this site will be uninteresting to them.  The woke will think I’m just a hateful racist.  In fact, I’ve been told that repeatedly.  And there are people way out on the edges of the dissident right who will find my beliefs hopelessly naïve and useless to their taste.  And that is reasonable.  I have no desire to straddle hopeless opposites.  It can’t be done.  But I know that there is an enormous swath of people that exist in the spectrum of conservative thought that would benefit from a chance to talk to people like themselves without being lectured to and hectored and treated like bad children or criminals.

So, if you have anything at all to say.  Say it!  I don’t need your name or even your actual e-mail address.  Put down whatever you like.  But pitch into the conversation with me.  It’ll help me.  It will help other people who are shy.  And who knows, you might really enjoy talking to other intelligent and like-minded people.  So come out, come out, wherever you are.

And if you like what you read here, tell a friend or two or three who are like you and might enjoy it too.

Back in the USSA, Not Quite

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The downside of reading the Gulag Archipelago is that you become dismissive of the power of the FBI.  I mean compared to the KGB and its precursor the NKVD our secret police are pretty lame.  Of course, everything is relative.  Compared to the unimaginable freedom that we used to enjoy here, the present police state is very repressive and upsetting.  A generation ago we would have laughed at the idea of the government spying on all of the phone conversations of the American people.  And the idea that political opponents would now be the targets for re-education camps would have been the subject of science fiction dystopias that sane people would have found too far-fetched to be interesting.

But getting back to the USSR, the Soviets didn’t do anything half way.  They were so zealous and thorough that they would arrest random people just because their quotas hadn’t yet been met.  I was reading a story about a landlady who went to the police station to ask about what to do with a nursing infant whose mother was one of her tenants.  The mother had been arrested by the NKVD and now the child needed milk.  She wanted to know where she should bring the child.  They brought the landlady to a waiting room and after a delay of a few hours they decided to arrest her just because she was already there and the quota needed filling.  She disappeared into the gulag and was never seen again.  Now there’s an action that would bring tears of joy to Jim Comey’s eyes.

I guess my point is that as maddening as it is to see the freest country ever imagined devolving into a police state the reality is that we have a lot of latitude to communicate our ideas and information with each other.  After all I can call Joe Biden, Dementia Joe and Kamala Harris, Willie Brown’s Ho.  And so far, I haven’t been dragged away to Siberia (or even Minnesota) or been shut down by the thought police.  Sure, they’ve shut us out of Twitter and Facebook but honestly those things were overrun with Leftists anyway and from what people on them have told me they weren’t fun anymore anyway.  Larry Correia is one of my favorite fantasy authors partly because he is not a Leftist.  On his blog, Monster Hunter Nation, he wrote a recent post that chronicled his decision to abandon Facebook.  Apparently, they didn’t shut down his very popular page but instead blocked him from writing to it.

I have a Gab page, but honestly, I’ve never really gotten any traffic from it.  The short-short form of writing doesn’t really seem to suit me.  Maybe it’s a skill I need to learn.  But I like writing on my blog and if I can get some visibility from folks like Whatfinger, Disturbed Deputy and MaddMedic then I’m happy to communicate that way.  Lately I’ve been getting some organic search traffic but it’s still quite limited and is restricted to very specific posts that have little to do with the majority of my content.

What I’m getting at is that although I’d love to suddenly go viral and have millions of readers, I’m not sure that was ever a realistic thing.  Are there really that many people interested in the things I am?  Maybe I’ll never know.  But if the people who like my stuff tells some of their friends that’s probably the best way for my site to grow and right now, I don’t think the FBI or even Google is interested in my nefarious writings.  If I do get hurled off my platform, I guess I’ll change my tune but I think what I’d do is what Gab did.  I’d make my site completely bullet proof.  I believe I’ve found a hosting plan that avoids all the vulnerable infrastructure and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Circling back to the beginning.  We have lost a lot of freedom but compared to real totalitarian hell like the Soviet Union or that madman in North Korea we have enough wiggle room to say what we want, to whom we want.  And right now, that’s good enough.

So spread the good word, send all your conservative friends to Orion’s Cold Fire and spit in the eye of Google and the FBI.  Free America still exists here and I’m not feeling pessimistic today.