Category: Current Events

06JUN2023 – Coffee Walk Reunion

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From the farthest reaches of the known universe, a hardy crew of hard-bitten desperados descended upon a tavern to relive old glories and trade lies about their exploits.  Well anyway I had to travel for an hour or so.  So, I sojourned out beyond Dunwich to consult, confer and otherwise hobnob with my fellow wizards.  Old times were remembered.  Fallen comrades and enemies were recalled and mockery for the masters of the universe that we had suffered under flowed freely.  So many funny stories.

And we compared notes on the worst of the changes that had slowly turned our former corporate home from a great place to work to a bureaucratic hellhole.  And all agreed that the problem could be described with three letters … DEI.  The most recent outrages were some of the worst.  DEI has become embedded in the goals of every manager.  But how can you advance DEI when there’s no budget to hire new people.  Surprise, surprise.  You have to eliminate white men.  And the way to do that in the zero-sum game of corporate competition is to give them bad reviews.  No matter how valuable they may be or how carefully they work to accomplish their goals it is absolutely critical to advance minorities and women.  So, the white men must be demoted.  And if you’re a normal man and that’s what you’re told to do it’s going to stick in your craw.  Eventually if you can, you walk away.

And that’s not an easy thing.  These jobs pay very, very well.  The perks include stock options, five figure bonuses and retirement plans that any peon would give his right arm to have.  But at a certain point stomaching the things you have to say and do can become too much.

Opinions were espoused about the 2024 race.  I was sort of a downer with my, “We can’t vote ourselves out of this” schtick.  But I was happy to listen to everybody’s opinion on the Trump versus DeSantis question.  And everyone laughed at Biden’s last few fails like tripping over the sandbag and wandering off stage whenever his handlers lost track of him.  And gallons of beer (no Transheuser Busch ordered at that table) were imbibed and mass quantities of meat were wolfed down.

So, we commiserated and compared notes on families and summer plans and vowed to drag the wives into a larger gathering involving grilled meat of a ribeye variety that we have agreed is optimal.  Whether all can attend this upcoming event is of course problematic.  Wives are troublesome, fretful creatures who rarely acquiesce in the expansive plans that men imagine.  Their problem is that they lack the big broad flexible outlook on life.  They want to nail down time and place and attendees and food budgets and other troublesome details that just complicate their husbands’ days.  Why can’t a woman be more like a man?  Wait, scratch that.  Maybe I’m really glad that they’re completely different from men.  Look at all the trouble Matt Walsh has had just getting “experts” to define “WhatIsAWoman?”  Let them be as different as they want as long as they stay just as they are.

So, a very good day.  Reconnecting with the guys is critical.  Camaraderie is of the essence of a normal male life.  We have to spend so much time providing for our families and interacting with the wife and kids that it’s essential now and then to escape from those twittering voices and flighty emotions and hang out with coarse, vulgar, boorish, insensitive, cruel, funny, inventive, enthusiastic and masculine peers.

Well, I’m home now.  The fun is over.  Back to chores and routine.  No more pastrami Reubens.  Just healthy food and diet.   Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 02JUN2023 – Comments of Transgender Industry

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The Transgender movement we currently see has the markers and characteristics of other historical fads-only with monumental life-altering effects for those who fall prey to its empty promises of making someone feel mentally compatible with their bodies. What is more sinister is the parade of doctors and self-described experts on the condition of gender dysmorphia who obscure even the slightest possibility of downsides to making the decision to alter the human body. The doctors make an incredible amount of profit on the surgeries performed, as well as the lifetime regime of Frankenstein medicines required to “live as one’s true self.” We can infer from the number of post-surgical patients who proclaim to be 100% happy that the pressure and influence not to express any regrets must be high. It is human nature to rationalize big life decisions such as buying a home, selection of a mate, or to invest heavily into something financially. It cannot be that different with the commitment to fully transgender. I would even compare it to the ‘sunken cost’ fallacy. Sadly, the impact of these decisions is not easily reversible, or have a margin of recovery for most. A rueful purchase of a home or vehicle can be amended, one can decide to divorce, while returning one’s body back to factory settings is practically impossible. The level of deception and subterfuge needed to mask the dangers and harm are plain to see by watching Walsh’s film. To push this ideology onto children is another level of evil and perversity in and of itself.

Walsh’s “What is a Woman?” Movie

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I just finished watching Matt Walsh’s documentary on transgenderism.  He did a very good job highlighting the inaccurate information that the transgender industry presents and he interviewed people whose personal stories illustrated the irreversible harm associated with the chemical and surgical procedures called transitioning.

My takeaway is this.  We live in a society that has allowed medical professionals to become accomplices in allowing delusional people, even children, to have themselves sexually mutilated in the vain attempt to become the opposite sex.

This situation is so diseased that it risks our civilization’s very existence as a self-sustaining enterprise.  I found several of the “experts” that he interviewed to be borderline unhinged.  The fact that more than one of them were transgender is of course unsurprising.  The one I found the most disturbing was a medical doctor in Rhode Island who claimed repeatedly that puberty blockers were totally reversible and harmless.  Meanwhile several patients and doctors confirmed that women placed on puberty blockers were at very high risk of osteoporosis and that once puberty is missed it is impossible for the organism to develop into a normal adult.

But probably the most compelling testimony was from a woman who at 42 tried to transition into a man.  She admitted that although she outwardly might appear as a male she would never be one.  And she talked about the horrible side effects of her surgeries that cause her ongoing and excruciating pain and would ultimately shorten her life.  Because of this experience she has become a counselor to parents of gender dysphoric children. She does everything she can to help steer people away from the transgender medical industry.

Matt Walsh has done a service to society making this film.  It’s well made and effective.  It gives you a good sense of what’s going on out there.  Anyone with children or grandchildren should watch this film.  It’s usefully frightening.  And it once again provides a good reason to move out of blue states and all of Canada.

Weaponized Justice Against Jim Justice

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You couldn’t make something up that was more blatantly partisan and cooked.

 “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”

Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s secret police chief

01JUN2023 – Unofficial Summer Begins

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In his ode to summer, “Dandelion Wine,” Ray Bradbury identifies June, July and August as summer.  And as opposed to the calendar and the astronomical basis for the definition of summer that it measures, every school boy of my generation knew it to be these same months.  And this year especially, the beginning of June is every bit as much summer as the more legitimate last week.  Today will be close to ninety degrees.  Nothing defines summer more than that Fahrenheit measure.  Ninety degrees Fahrenheit is summer.

And so, the laziness that is the glory of summer already holds me in thrall.  I have a laundry list of yard chores and yet I spend my time walking around the yard looking at flowers and bugs and listening to the birds quarrel over their nest sites and the fattest grubs.  Every once in a while, I’ll pull a weed but despite Camera Girl’s hectoring, I rarely carry the plucked plant to the mulch pile.  I usually just drop it where I found it.  Just too lazy to make the effort.  And that is the beauty of summer; giving in to the pleasure of lazy heat.  Every dog, every lizard knows the ecstasy of laying in the hot sun.  The heat bakes into your bones and the oven air scorches your lungs.  It’s remarkable.  And that is why the seashore is so perfect a summer setting.  It allows you to get that feeling over and over again.  You take the heat until it becomes unbearable, then a plunge into the cold water quenches the heat and you’re ready to do the whole thing over again.  The therapeutic effects of a week or two by the sea can sometimes offset a whole year of office drudgery and even a long New England winter’s worth of cold.

And while I’m at play in the fields of the Lord I can forget for a few moments all of the absurd nonsense that infects the present-day world around me.  I can forget the culture war and the collapse of western civilization and even the internet drudgery that I have embraced.  I don’t have to read what the pundits are saying and what the fake news is trumpeting.  I can forget about war drones following their GPS paths to destruction and watch their natural world analog as a dragonfly patrols the perimeter of the yard, as mechanical and precise as the machine but much more lyrical.

Later on, today I’ll get around to reading the awful news and the boring opinions of the pundits.  And I will have to be out and about on my list of chores.  But it was nice to be up and around early this morning and see the fields while it was still cool and moist.  All that moisture will be sucked up into the blast furnace of noon and I will take another walk to experience that too.  The grasshoppers and the bees will be about their chores and I’ll look for a good photo or two (or two hundred) and I’ll even knock an item or two from the chore list.  But summer’s begun and the living is easy.  Enjoy it if you can.

US, NATO and Ukraine Organize Peace Summit Without Russia

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This is hilarious.  Apparently the West will end the Ukraine war without involving the Russians.  Maybe they’ll leave a transcript of the terms in Vladimir Putin’s e-mail in-box so he won’t accidentally violate them.  I’m sure he’ll want to know that he’ll be handing back the provinces that he’s annexed and surrender himself to the Hague for war crimes prosecution.

“Kyiv has made a concerted effort in recent months to engage with countries such as China, Brazil and India. Ukraine is ready to talk with all countries and hear their opinions, Yermak said, including representatives of China and Brazil, who visited this month.
Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan calls for restoring Ukraine’s control over its territory, returning prisoners of war and prosecuting war crimes. It also proposes addressing nuclear safety, which it says is compromised by Russia’s occupation of a nuclear power plant, and food security, by protecting grain exports that are hampered by Russia’s invasion.”
I kind of doubt China will be coming on board for this farce.  I’m not so sure about India either.
This is my favorite line:

“The process is not possible without the whole world, including the leaders of the global south,” said Yermak, who is Zelensky’s top adviser.”

The whole world except the country they’re actually at war with.  Delusional and in fact embarrassing.