All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Thursday and Friday were critically busy times around the office so I haven’t been able to post much. But after next Wednesday I’ll be vacationing until New Year’s Day. I anticipate a bunch of posts will be published including reviews, political opinion and photographic. So sorry for the drought. Things will be back to normal very soon.
photog
Rebuilding from the Ground Up – Part 1
As the results of one of my recent website polls reminded me, opinions differ about what the future will bring for our country and world. Some people think that we are irrevocably moving down the path that will put an end to the things that made the United States a great nation. They say that our culture and the freedoms that are built into our Constitution will be swept aside and we will end up in a banana republic that resembles the condition of Brazil. Other people contend that a revolution either more or less violent will achieve a division of the country into a Red State model and a Blue State one. And some believe that we will be able to regroup from our differences and patch things together.
Honestly, I don’t know which, if any, of these scenarios will occur. I’m not even sure anybody actually knows. What I am sure is that the old way of life and the things it stood for are under continual attack from the Progressives. And they are succeeding to a great extent in destroying the culture that has existed in this country and made it great. They are eliminating all the concepts and behaviors from American life. The three biggest weapons in this effort are the entertainment industry, the schools and the corporate America. They are using these forces to shape the images that children and young adults see all around them and convince them that it is the only acceptable choice. By subtle and not so subtle imagery they are showing children how they must think about sex roles and even the definition of men and women. They are preaching the globalist doctrine that says that national identity and patriotism are social constructs that have no place in the modern world and thinking otherwise is a hate crime.
The first thing that needs to be done is locating and preserving all the remnants from the earlier time. Books, movies, pictures and study aids that can be used to show the younger people what used to be the normal world need to be identified and made available to families to allow them to undo some of the damage. I’m making it a point to review and recommend any books or movies that have value. At some point I intend to put together a curriculum for different age groups that will both inform and entertain.
The next effort will be to organize into local groups to provide support and fellowship for people on the right. These can be anything from hobbies to social events to sports to political activities. It can even extend to religious and educational organizations that provide resources for families who don’t feel they can utilize the existing local groups. Over time it is hoped that these groups can replace the existing institutions that have become debased by the culture at large. I guess it could be hoped that some of these organizations could be reformed but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.
But as I said above, preserving the knowledge of the better times is first. If anyone has a recommendation about a book, music or a movie or some other thing like a website or an on-line course, or even a business that deals in things that need to be preserved then, pass it along.
Here’s a quick review of where everything stands. The President comes out of the mid-terms losing the possibility of getting things easily through the Congress because of the Democrat capture of the House. But he gains a reliable Senate majority for appointments to the Supreme Court Bench and the Cabinet. Having disposed of Jeff Sessions and seeing the Mueller investigation blind-sided by a Manafort defection on his plea bargain it looks like the President is maneuvering to a place where he can deal with Mueller. His temporary appointment of Matthew Whitaker as Attorney General is angering the Progressives so it must be a good move. The strong stand the President is taking at the southern border is the right move and I hope he holds firm on that front. It will win him support and help make clear that a wall at the border is a necessity. It might even force the Democrats in the House to support funding out of fear of losing re-election in 2020.
The economy continues to move forward and unless you have all your money in the stock market (which is finally seeing a long overdue correction) this will be a very Merry Christmas.
The bad publicity and federal investigations examining anti-conservative deplatforming in the social media and on-line circles hasn’t materially helped our side very much yet. But the comments by the President and other government leaders have had some effect on Silicon Valley and if there is more than just threat associated with this talk maybe we can see some pushback. It would be nice if paypal and the other fund transfer vendors are slapped down and forced to play nice.
And finally, the continuing awakening of Americans to the reality of the assault on their way of life and even their identity is moving apace and is having a powerful effect on attitudes and actions. Many people have gone from mindlessly following the proclamations of the left-wing media to seeing for themselves who is on their side and who is selling them out to the progressives. This doesn’t involve the Millenials unfortunately, they are pretty much hopelessly in thrall to the Narrative and will continue to be the most loyal proponents of the Progressive path. But I think it’s apparent that older folk will have to help steer the next generation (Gen Z?) into a better mode of thinking. That is something I have thinking about myself. Hopefully other are too.
All in all, we go into December in a better place than we were last year and with a clear path to improving things on all fronts. It still remains for President Trump to resolve the Mueller situation. But he seems much better suited than I to decide how that should be done. And he needs to get his Justice Department working on bringing relief to all of us suffering at the hands of Progressive tech barons and lower court judges who attack conservatives whenever they can. And I think he will. So, paint me optimistic and here we are at the quick sprint to Christmas and New Year. Ho, ho, ho.
I inhabit an area that is adjacent to a wetland that can vary from a pond to a bog. In the last few days an unseasonably heavy pre-Thanksgiving snowfall was melted off by substantial rainfall. When this happened I could hear the stream that feeds the puddle flowing pretty heavily and I noticed the level of the puddle was rising pretty significantly. Well, what of it? Winter is coming and that will put a stop to most of the flow.
After that the puddle will solidify and stop being a concern until Spring. But Camera girl has the vision of a hawk or eagle or something. And she saw something interesting.
Now I wish I had bought that Sigma 600mm zoom. I assume soon my basement will be underwater and the beaver will be cohabiting with us and borrowing my stuff. There’s never an end to the indignities of living in New England. This undocumented migrant probably has all kinds of protected status, doesn’t pay taxes and for all I know is a trans-gender study major at the local state college all on my dime. I’ll keep everyone updated on the horror.
One of the news sites I look at each day is realclearpolitics.com. They often have dueling headlines on a topic from the Left and the Right. Today featured the New York Times article “My New Vagina Won’t Make Me Happy” by someone now called Andrea Long Chu, and an article by the American Conservative called “Andrea Long Chu’s Fake Vagina” by Rod Dreher. The New York Times article is liberally quoted in the Dreher article so if like me you don’t traffic on the New York Times, at least you’ll know what Dreher is referencing. I read Dreher’s article and honestly, I’m still shaking my head. The level of masochism and self-delusion necessary to allow anyone to get involved in the surgical and medical madness described in the article is stunning. I’ve felt that reporting on the unhealthy practices occurring on the Left is important to warn people (especially the young) of the dangers lurking nearby these troubled groups. And I still feel that way. The fact that there are physicians and social workers who advocate to allow these dangerous practices and medical procedures to be performed on young people is alarming and should be highlighted as further proof that our society is now a menace to our children and not to be trusted.
But it’s too much. I can’t stomach the nausea of even thinking about these things at this time of the year.
I’m off from work for a few days this week and I’ve been visiting with family during this holiday weekend. And even writing on this nightmarish article is too depressing to consider. So, adios Andrea Long Chu and all his pseudo-gynecological considerations. Unless there is an eruption on the Mueller front or the Mexican Caravan manages to reach southern New England, I propose to address the positive aspects of the news. And if there are absolutely no positive news items (which is quite possible) I’ll concentrate my time on cultural concerns that are of a positive nature. Probably this will entail music, book and movie reviews that I think will bring a pleasant moment to the readers. I have some macrophotography files I’ve been working on. I’d prefer to subject my readers to the terrors of magnified beetles and moths and thorny plants than dwell on these other horror stories for the next few days. I’ll regale you with my delusional theories for restoring pulp science fiction to its rightful primacy on book shelves (or at least the first page of the browser search results). I’ll tout my obscure non-commercial choices for country music. And when I run out of real subjects to bloviate on, I’ll fabricate a story involving my alt-reality President Trump and his equally fictitious minions as they face off against zombie civil servants, undead Clinton opponents and the truly nefarious forces of the main stream media. In other words, I’ll do all the things I usually do except with 30% less outrage.
Meeting with family, especially the grandsons was extremely enjoyable, almost inspirational. We played cards, talked about what they wanted for Christmas, ate grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers, watched some old movies together and talked about artificial intelligence. So, for the next few days, I’ll try to stay on the lighter side of things. Please bear with me. I promise to try and be extra specially outraged by Saturday.
When every church and social organization from the Roman Catholic Church to the Boy Scouts has been compromised you have to rebuild from the ground up. I know it has to be done but how do you start? Do you emphasize the religious aspect of the effort or do you concentrate on the family and cultural concerns? I guess eventually all of these facets come into play if you’re trying to reclaim your world but it is without a doubt a daunting task. Even the idea seems ridiculously ambitious. But from my point of view there doesn’t seem to be any other way forward. All the existing institutions and groups have surrendered completely. No other way forward exists except starting from scratch and creating something that hasn’t been deformed by the madness of the modern world. It’s going to involve selecting members one by one. Everyone will have to be vouched for ahead of time. Writing a charter will be important but what does it require? What does it forbid? It has to support activities that are important to families. It has to include activities that include different age groups. Children sports is a natural part. A women’s auxiliary would be an idea. But the leadership has to be adult men. Fathers and especially grandfathers have to step up and start contributing to keeping the culture alive. And eventually we’ll need a curriculum for after school teaching, sort of a Sunday School for traditionalists.
I’ll have to reread Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option” to see what practical information he includes for organizing a reclamation. I don’t know if anything will come of this or not but it feels like the only really important thing I can do to help this degraded culture we are embedded in. If anyone knows of information that would be useful pass it along. To be continued.
The only places you will find this on the Internet are a couple of Cold War casualty websites. The news is remarkably blank on the subject as they were caught doing bad reporting (no reporting at all, really). The news media at the time basically ran a story based on what they heard, not an investigation of the facts (sound familiar?).
I was stationed in (then) West Germany when this happened. There was some difference of opinion whether or not it was over a card game or a love triangle, but the rest of the facts were clear. A GI put a sabot round into his M60 tank’s gun and fired it into another M60 directly behind him at the rail head.
By the time the story got back to the USA and the American media coverage was repeated on Armed Forces Radio and Television, this story would not have been recognized by its own mother. It was variously portrayed as a terror attack, as communist infiltration within our ranks, in fact, almost everything but what it was.
I admit I trusted the US media when I was young. Walter Cronkite and the rest. That trust was shaken during Vietnam and finally destroyed in West Germany. The reporting in Vietnam was slanted, we all realized that, but the reporting from West Germany on this incident was so far off the mark I realized they were just making it up. And it as all of them back then. All three networks. I’ve never trusted the Fourth Estate since. I always insist on backup, then backup for the backup. Having the mainstream media decide what you should hear and how it should be spun is a bad idea. That’s why I like the Internet. It can, and has, held the media’s feet to the fire and caught them being wrong, lazy, and out & out lying and/or making stuff up. That is also why I am worried about the big Internet companies censoring people for political views which hold the liberal media up to scrutiny. We need freedom to challenge opinion, even (or especially) the media’s. I find it strange that the big Internet companies allow flat-earthers and anti-vaxxers free forums, yet censor conservative political views.
Here’s the real scoop from the Association of the 3rd Armored Division. I looked all morning for news reports on this but there are none I can find. Only other Cold War casualty websites:
1980
SP4 Gregory “Frank” Montoya & SP4 Patrick Romero, A Company 3rd Battalion 32 Armor. were killed on 4 November 1980 at the Hohenfels rail head when (name deleted) climbed into a tank during rail loading, loaded the M60A3 main gun with an armor piercing round (Sabot) & fired the main gun into the tank behind his. All tanks are rail loaded with the main gun in a travel lock position over the back deck. There was apparently a lot of confusion about the whole incident with reports of a lighting strike causing rounds to explode. The incident was finally solved when the tank main gun rounds were counted & inventoried. SGT Jeffrey Young & PVT David Park were also badly burned during this incident. *****The SOB convicted of this murder was sentenced to 20 yrs in Leavenworth but only served 8 years!!
Additional information provided by CPT Mark S. Atwood: The 1980 incident in 3/32, when the sabot round was fired into the turret of another tank during movement by rail, it is my understanding there was bad blood between the shooter and some/all members of the other crew over a card game. During rail movements the troops played cards, D and D, etc to pass the time. The shooter had been the big loser and I believe, thought he had been cheated. Here is additional information on this incident from Ken Armstrong: I served with 3/32 in 1979-1981 and was stationed in Freidburg at Ray Barracks. I also served with Greg Montoya and Pat Romero and was present when they were killed in November of 1980. Pat was a good friend and we drank many a beer together. Additional information on this event from Richard Zipse: I didn’t know Pat Romero but Frank was not only a great guy but getting very short. It was sad indeed that the filthy **** that killed him got out of Germany, much less Leavenworth, alive. As I remember it, he had been chasing a section 8 for months. I’m pretty sure Sgt. Young and I were on 14 together for a bit before he made rank and moved over to the third platoon; and, also that Park was very new to the unit and had just arrived as they needed crewmen. I’m thinking SSGT Able got him out of the smoked vehicle but not certain…also I’m thinking he was flown to Walter Reed Hospital due to the extent of his burns and later passed on….though this obviously may be incorrect.
So, the mid-terms are over. Pelosi or some other moonbat will be obstructing the House and raving on the front page of the Times and Post for the next two years. Soon the Democrat candidates for the 2020 race will begin foaming at the mouth. Nothing legislative will happen for the next two years, except approval of presidential appointments in the Senate and the budget farce to produce continuing resolutions from both bodies of the Congress. President Trump has his work cut out and will have to use all his wits and resources to clean up the Justice Department and remove as many illegal aliens from the country as he can.
What should we be doing? It seems to me we need to make some progress on our own. There’s all kinds of talk about building our own platforms and I agree with that idea. But it seems there’s more talk than building going on. Well, in the spirit of being part of the solution I’ve been putting my money where my mouth is. I’ve been investing in advertising on various conservative sites. I’ve used both an advertising company and also contacted directly with a couple of sites that place the ads directly. And I will say that although the company that can put your ads on big sites like Drudge gets lots of traffic the direct advertising gets plenty of traffic too and is a good value on a per click basis. I plan to continue investing in advertising and also attempt to broaden my content by partnering with other writers who have similar points of view to my own. As an experiment I requested some content from one of our viewers last week and thought the results were excellent. I think providing a broader range of content, including non-political subjects is a necessity if I intend to grow the site. I also intend to start running contests to encourage more comments and participation. As an example I am accumulating all these paperback books from the sf&f reviews I’ve been doing. I could bundle some of these and make them a prize for some contest. And similarly, for a photographic contest I can make some camera equipment a prize.
Basically I’d like to expand the site to build up a community of people mostly on the right who enjoy the experience of communing with like-minded individuals on subjects that they enjoy. Not to be grandiose, but it can be a social media locale on a much smaller scale than a Facebook but with a lot more satisfaction in the interactions. And I don’t minimize the probability that I’ll run into the usual problems with trolls and cyber-attacks that go along with anything on our side of the political divide. But I think it’s important to actually make the effort to get going on it. Talk is cheap. Organizing is a lot of talk but it’s also time and money and I’m encouraged already that with a little bit of both I’m already seeing some results.
Thanksgiving. Short work week and then the Thursday and Friday family gatherings. I expect posts may be a little sparse those two days. But most folks will be equally busy with their own doings. As a consolation I’m off most of next week and will use up all of that turkey and pumpkin pie typing away feverishly at OCF content.
Here’s to hoping 2019 will be the year when the right starts doing its own thing and stops waiting for the government to do it for us. Here’s hoping that the New Year will start to look like a new world. But it will only happen if we ourselves individually make it happen in large and small ways.
Stay tuned.
Science fiction writer L. Sprague de Camp has been quoted as having said “It does not pay a prophet to be too specific.” He was right. Seeing into the future is a fool’s errand. But it is also what we have to do every day of our lives. And the farther into the future you can see the more successful you will be.
Here at Orion’s Cold Fire, prognostication is a scientific endeavor utilizing all the latest technology and the most powerful data crunching systems to make our forecasts the envy of Nostradamus. Sure.
We live on the knife’s edge. Everything we’ve seen in the last few years shows us that the fate of the United States and indeed the world is balanced on a teetering point and the smallest breath of wind has the capacity to save us, at least temporarily, or tumble us into the abyss. Sucks to be us.
Lately I have been trying to figure out what are the most likely directions the future may take. Let me number them here.
I’m sure there are several other cases that I’ve neglected. If you have your own idea for a different version feel free to leave it in the attached poll or comments.
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