Category: Current Events

With Extra Butter

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Oldest Grandson is a fan of video games and of video game adjacent internet personalities.  There is a guy named Markiplier (well, technically that’s an alias) who has made a fortune playing video games on his YouTube channel and currently has something like thirty-seven million followers.  I’ve only ever watched a couple of minutes of his content and must confess I don’t see the attraction.  I guess it’s because I’m old.

Anyway, this guy decided to make a horror movie using his own money and then put it on 3,000 movie screens.  It cost him about $3 million to make.  And on its first weekend it’s made more than $18 million.

Now here’s the thing.  In Hollywood the catering budget for a movie that makes $18 million on its first weekend would cost more than $3 million.  Anyone who would be employed to open a movie of that size would make at least $5 million in Hollywood.  So just based on scale any movie made for less than $3 million is in a completely different league from Hollywood.  This movie couldn’t fail with the built in audience it has and almost any Hollywood movie can’t help but fail.  Even Forbes magazine is touting the new entertainment model that “influencers” like Markiplier has pioneered with his movie success.

So, this is the third movie I’ve heard of that made a bunch of money because someone with tens of millions of followers on line self-financed it and got his people to buy tickets.  Does this show us the future or is this just a blip while the streaming giants kill off or buy up Hollywood?  Maybe it’s a little bit of both.  Markiplier would never get his movie made by a Hollywood studio.  And Netflix and Amazon are frantically looking for content that won’t be ignored by the Zoomers.  I think what we’re beginning to see is a realization that creative types and Silicon Valley are going to have to blow up the Hollywood model with its bloated budgets and maniacal dependence on poorly written sequels of old intellectual properties.  They’re going to have to forget about making crap like “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” or “Star Wars 37: Search for Obi Wan’s Lesbian Aunt.”

The kids around today want to watch stuff that speaks to them.  Some of it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to old people like myself.  But it doesn’t have to.  What they don’t want is corporate slop disguised as sequels to movies that their grandparents watched as kids.  And you really can’t blame them.  So next Saturday I’ll be going with Oldest Grandson to see “Iron Lung.”  And I’ll leave my expectations at the door and watch it with an open mind.  Maybe I’ll love it or hate it or just feel kind of confused.  But I’ll get a chance to see what the future looks like.  And at the very least I know there won’t be a girl-boss character.  Apparently, Markiplier Has 90% of the character face time in the movie.  And I’ve decided I’m going to splurge on the large popcorn.  With extra butter.

The Jig Appears to Be Up

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“Fox Varian, 22, sued both a psychologist and plastic surgeon involved in carrying out a double mastectomy on her in Westchester County, NY, in 2019, when she was a transgender-identifying 16-year-old. Varian, who now works as an actress and no longer considers herself to be transgender, is the first known “detransitioner” to win a civil medical malpractice trial, let alone take such a case to trial, multiple outlets reported.”

The jury awarded her two million dollars.  Now, there is all kinds of medical and legal mumbo jumbo that says if the doctors follow the guidelines that the AMA and the psychiatric associations prescribe then they can’t be touched.  Well, I’m guessing any jury that has human beings and includes women who have daughters will see this kid and see what they’ve done to her and think, “What if that had been my kid?”  And then they’re going to punish these doctors to the tune of millions of dollars.

“The jury had concluded Einhorn and Chin’s conduct leading up to Varian’s double mastectomy marked a “departure from the standard of care,” the Epoch Times reported. The verdict only specifically applied to the plaintiff’s case, however, and not in general to minors receiving so-called “gender-affirming” care, National Review reported.”

Currently there are twenty eight other detransition lawsuits queued up for trial.  Some time after the tenth multi-million dollar verdict is handed down, the malpractice insurance companies are going to raise their rates on psychiatrists and surgeons who do “gender-affirming care” and that will be the beginning of the end for these procedures in every jurisdiction except for the most rabid pro-LGBTQ legal environments.  There are always exceptions.  Places like California will write laws protecting these procedures from legal jeopardy but that still leaves federal courts where civil rights can be used to protect minors from medical harm.

And I think this will happen faster than most people imagine.  The British and the Scandinavians put a stop to these pediatric trans-surgeries years ago because they saw that the results for the patients were terrible.  The likelihood of suicide didn’t decrease after the procedures, it increased.

The other result of this lawsuit will be an incentive for young people who bought into the “trans idea” to see that they’re not the only ones who realized that they’d made a terrible mistake and use the courts to take vengeance on the so-called medical experts who proselytized them into ruining their bodies, health and minds by inflicting this permanent, terrible damage on them.

I wonder if in a few years the people who were responsible for the medical associations sanctioning these awful procedures won’t themselves be punished in some way.  From my point of view they deserve prison time.  But at the very least they should lose their licenses and be made an example.  These are not innocent mistakes.  Only severe mental illness or psychopathic disregard for the welfare of innocent children could explain allowing these surgeries to be prescribed for underage patients.

Well, the nightmare appears to be ending.

But With a Whimper

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All week we’ve been living in existential dread of an empty oil tank.  Right before the snowstorm on Sunday and Monday we got an email from our oil company saying they would be delivering a shipment on Tuesday.  Looking at the tank gauge I could see we had less than a quarter tank.  And for the last few weeks the temperature had been well below normal and the forecasts said this week would be skirting with sub-zero temperatures almost every night.  Well, no problem.  I planned to spend all of Monday clearing the top driveway and there wasn’t any snow due again for days so all would be well.

Of course, when I woke up Tuesday morning another inch or two of snow had fallen and since I was headed off to work, I got up early and shoveled it down to the pavement.  Of course, I was grumbling the whole time about the usual crummy weather forecasting in the area but what can you do.  When I got home that afternoon the fuel truck had still not arrived but they often came later.  At about four, a truck showed up.  But instead of backing down the driveway he parked in the street in front of the curb cut and after five or ten minutes he left.

So, Camera Girl called up the oil company and reported this oddity.  After speaking to several flunkies who knew nothing, she spoke to a flunky who claimed to know something.  The knowledgeable flunky said (repeatedly) that the driver noted that there were snow and ice on the driveway and due to fear of the truck sliding and even rolling over he declined to come down the driveway.

Now this was pure nonsense.  Every driver in their fleet had come down this driveway many times when there was more residual snow and ice than what was there that afternoon.  The only thing I could think of was that the driver was a temporary hire unfamiliar with the route and didn’t want to back up the long narrow driveway.  Camera Girl complained to the flunky and assured her that the driveway was clear of ice.  The flunky said that the photos from the driver would be evaluated the next day and things would be resolved.

Seeing that she was dealing with idiots she resolved to be proactive.  She told them to send a truck the next day and the driveway would certainly be passable.  I treated the driveway with 200 pounds of sand and convinced myself that no one could claim the driveway was impassable.  But I hadn’t reckoned with the fecklessness of my oil company.  When no one showed up by 3pm she called them up and was told that since they hadn’t heard from us, they hadn’t sent a truck.  She argued that the day before we told them to send a truck.  They claimed they had sent a text message asking us if we wanted a delivery.  She informed them that we don’t have a cell phone so no text message was possible.  They stuck by their story.  She once more asked them if we would be getting a shipment the next day (Thursday).  They assured her they would.  But by 3pm on Thursday when there was no truck, I knew what she would hear.  The same story.  Once again, they claimed to have left a text message.  It was maddening.

So yesterday I stepped back and thought what kind of operation I was dealing with.  Apparently, they only hired idiots that couldn’t be held accountable for their poor performance.  They thought they were leaving me messages.  Now the tank was down around an eighth of the tank and I was worried that in the cold weather the small outlet line might not provide enough suction pressure for the fuel pump.  I was worried we really wouldn’t have fuel after Friday.  I reckoned if they failed me again, I’d go out and buy ten gallons of diesel oil and pour it in the tank just to keep things going.

But I resolved to call them at 6:30 am and tell them to make a delivery today.  And by golly it worked.  They must have thought I was answering the imaginary text message and they sent a truck that got here at 10 am.  As I imagined the driver was a newbie.  He was a young middle eastern man and he confessed he had a hard time finding me because he put the wrong address in his GPS.  I was so relieved that I just smiled and showed him where the tank inlet line was.  Well, civilization will die not with a bang but with a whimper.  Incompetence is the rule now not the exception.  But tonight, the temperature is supposed to reach ten below zero.  I am comforted that Abdul filled the tank.  Oh well.  Grateful for small favors.

The Sniper Marketing Campaign is Live!

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Keywords have been added, categories have been refined and Amazon Ads are garnering thousands of impressions and dozens of clicks. Even a few sales have been registered! Now it’s time for anyone who has bought a book to give their opinion on its entertainment value as a review on that mega-information portal; Amazon.com.

So for anyone who has bought the book please give it a great review as soon as possible to enhance the effect of the advertising.  Amazon only credits people who have bought the book into their review algorithm.

The link below will bring you to the Amazon sales page.  Near the end is the review section.  Clicking on this link will not cause you to buy the book, just bring you to the sales page.

Thank you.

The Grown Children’s Crusade

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I’ve been promised there won’t be any more snow until at least Sunday.  Of course, I still have about ten hours of snow removal on the lower driveway so that kind of stinks.  But thank heavens for small mercies.  So, I’m more or less free until Monday and I look around at the world and see goofusses in every direction.  Now goofus is a technical term and I may be applying it to critters that technically are other things; dumbasses, mopes, mooks and just plain knuckleheads.  But as a generic term it’s a good stand in.

I saw a video of a woman at one of the anti-ICE riots who picked up a flash-bang explosive to throw back at the police and had it blow off some of her fingers.  This is not normal.  Women don’t typically become rioters.  This is a special brand of stupidity.  It’s like some kind of modernist version of the “Children’s Crusade.”  Let’s nickname it the “Grown Children’s Crusade.”  The guy who got himself shot last week was an ICU nurse.  I’m going to guess he wasn’t an antifa regular.  Someone must have told him that attacking ICE agents while carrying a hand gun was a risk-free exercise.  I’m guessing that was an antifa regular.

So, what you have is the Minnesota true-believers who cheered for the George Floyd riots to change the world have followed a new crusade to make Minnesota safe for illegal aliens.  In their atheist-adjacent LGBTQ-friendly churches they gather to egg each other on and then they head over to the local NGO where the city and state contacts provide whatever support the local antifa chapter needs to harass ICE without any accountability.  And that’s the difference between antifa and the useful idiots they are surrounded with now.  They have no idea what they are doing.  They remember Frey and Walz forcing the city and state police to stand down while antifa and BLM ran amok.  So, they think that’s how this works.  Idiots like Good and Pretti think they’re immune from harm because Walz and Frey tell them they’re doing the Lord’s work.

I read today that Walz has called in the state troopers to break up the protestors.  Is this a capitulation or just a tactic?  There is a story going around that the state and city leaders were involved in the planning of the interference with the ICE operations.  Perhaps Walz is worried about his culpability under federal law.  So many stories, so little knowledge.

The only question is will Trump stick to his guns or not.  If he caves to Minnesota then the same thing will happen in all the blue states.  And after that all the good that Trump is trying to do will be undermined.  And that’s the whole struggle writ small.  Stand up to the antifa mobs and if necessary, put them down when they threaten to riot and defy law and order.  I don’t have a clue as to what he will do.  So that’s enough for now.

To Do the Best We Can

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There is a certain subspecies of scientists who enjoy feeling smarter than “regular people.”  And I won’t be too exclusive.  This carries along to anyone who has “technical” training; physicists, biologists, engineers of every stripe, doctors of all kinds.  These folks are extremely proud of the fact that they don’t believe in God and enjoy preening about how much smarter they are than these religious folks.

Here’s an example.:

https://x.com/LyingWrongAgain/status/2015459692848337176?s=20

He’s set up a strawman; a pretend religious person saying that order cannot come from disorder.  And then he shows how a tub full of nails randomly jumbled together can become an ordered pile with all the nails parallel by someone rhythmically swinging it back and forth.  And somehow this is supposed to disprove the existence of God.  Well, I’m sure there are just as many annoying religious people who try to crow over their proofs of the foolishness of disbelievers and create strawmen of their own.  But I guess I’m more aware of all the educated fools who enjoy this game in academia and elsewhere.

I don’t claim to be an expert on cosmology or theology but I’m pretty sure neither camp can prove or disprove the existence of God to both sides’ satisfaction.  And I could be wrong but right up until the moment of truth I don’t think they ever will.

So, what’s my point?  I think both sides should be honest and forthcoming about the inability of either side to point to irrefutable proof for their point of view.  Maybe instead they could try to provide arguments for why their point of view is “better” for people.  In other words which belief makes people happier or better citizens or better parents.  Show us statistics that measure the behaviors and outcomes that go along with theism or atheism.  That at least has some relevance to people if something beyond their own fundamental beliefs is important.  Maybe there are some people who just will never make up their minds and instead could use social benefit to “break the tie.”  From everything I’ve read, people who believe in God are happier, healthier and better neighbors than atheists are.  So, from society’s point of view this might be something that should be touted (I guess).

But honestly, I’m happy that we live in a country where freedom of religion (or freedom from religion) is written into the fine print.  Making people pretend to believe something they don’t is counterproductive and absurd.  If there is a God, how abominable would he find unbelievers forced against their will to pretend to faith.  And alternatively forcing believers to deny God is bound to make them hate the state that forces them into this lie.

Whether we consciously consider it or not, we are all constantly looking for some part of the truth about life.  We are always making decisions to try and make our lives better; health wise, socially, politically and maybe spiritually.  And so, we come up with ad hoc rules for ourselves and how we live with our fellow humans.  But I think we’re all better off if we tread lightly on other people’s religious (or irreligious) beliefs.  We’re all here in the valley of the shadow of death and most of us are trying to do the best we can.

Now Where is That Hammock

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It’s ten a.m. on Sunday morning and the much-vaunted snow-pocalypse has begun its reign of terror. A steady fall of small snow flakes are descending out of a gray sky.  The temperature has soared from a low last night of two degrees Fahrenheit to a current balmy twenty degrees.  I’ve announced to Camera Girl that I intend to skip snow removal altogether today and save my efforts for Monday when the lion’s share of the snow will be on the ground.  The current predicted accumulation for Sunday through Monday is ten to fifteen inches of the white stuff.  All in all, that’s not horrible.  The snow blower is 24 inches high.  Now, even fifteen inches will slow the work way down but you have to look at these things in the right way.  I’ll abandon the bottom driveway for the next few days and start off with a path for my car to get out on the top.  Then I’ll clear the entire top driveway and adjacencies and slowly work on the bottom driveway in a strategic fashion.  And the wind will play an important part in that operation.  Fifteen inches of snow isn’t a monstrous height but if wind forces me to dump off the snow right next to the row I’m clearing, it will quickly end up as three feet before very long.

And this is the sad reality of life in New England.  Aspects of snow removal become the focus of your every waking hour.  Equipment maintenance and repair, severity of the weather, work and chore scheduling, current health and injuries.  It’s all very, very tedious and boring.  But completely unavoidable.  That is unless there is some plan for escape!  But I know that will never be.  I’m bound by the heavy chains of family responsibility.  They’ve got me.

And that’s why Jake Barter is such a comfort to me in these times of tribulation.  Jake resides on an island paradise somewhere in the South Pacific.  Lying in a hammock beneath coconut palms he sips a cool drink while balmy zephyrs maintain a perfect seventy-eight degrees.  And if by some miracle the temperature reaches eighty-two, he need only spring from his berth and swim about in the warm clear ocean for a few minutes before returning to his rest where he awaits the mellow sound of a dinner gong announcing the beginning of a feast concocted of pork, coconut, honey and spices, fit for the king that he is.

Oh, well.  Maybe in my next life.  But for now, I’ll count my blessings.  The roof hasn’t collapsed under the weight of the snow.  The propane tanks are full enough for even a two-week power outage.  I have plenty of DVDs to keep me amused during the “weather crisis” and Camera Girl assures me we have enough food for the next few days at least.  And tomorrow, my marketer has informed me begins the efforts to advertise “The Sniper.”  I had assumed it would happen when the publication occurred on Wednesday.  But you know what they say about assuming.

Well, we shall see.  Today Amazon has it listed as:

Best Sellers Rank: #144,617 in Books

#599 in Technothrillers (Books)

#14,261 in Science Fiction (Books)

It would be nice if each of those numbers was shortened by a zero or two.

 

Now where is that hammock?

Greg Bovino Press Conference in MN

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Bovino is one of the head honchos with Border Patrol and together with his associate from ICE they gave an update on the MN operation and also addressed the protester with the gun who got himself shot.

I’ll say I like his style and the way he addresses the press.  He lays the whole situation out as basically the choice of the protesters that have bought into Frey’s and Walz’s framing that obstructing law enforcement is a reasonable activity instead of a crime.

Bovino said that these people have made poor choices and these have terrible consequences.  So Frey and Walz are trying to repeat the playbook from the Summer of Floyd and Trump and ICE won’t have it.

 

The Mysterious Twenty Percent

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Today, Minneapolis was revolting.  I mean there was a general strike by all the communists up there who are angry because the federal government is enforcing immigration law against illegal aliens living in Minneapolis.  I saw some sound bites of scruffy looking individuals screeching about the children of illegal aliens being incarcerated with their illegal parents.  Of course, they’d be screeching even more if the children were separated from their parents as they were deported.  So damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

The “reporters” stressed the fact that these crowds were protesting despite the ongoing cold-pocalypse that threatens to make really, really cold Minneapolis really, really, really cold.  I saw a video clip of some Karen go into a Target store and fill two shopping carts with merchandise and then bring them to a check out counter and then inform the cashier that she wasn’t buying any of it but just did it to make more work for the Target employees.  Then she said that everyone; shoppers and employees should follow her out of Target and join the “general strike” to protest the ICE activities in Minneapolis.  Well, no one else seemed excited so she abandoned her carts and marched out of Target.

I’ve read that ICE has arrested 3,000 illegal aliens in Minneapolis during this recent operation.  That doesn’t sound like all that much.  But I’m sure it’s a very good start under the circumstances they’re dealing with there.  But I think this effort being expended by the Trump administration is an excellent tactic.  It is exposing just how radical the Minneapolitans are.  It is applying pressure on the city and state officials who are supporting the sanctuary efforts and it is allowing radical individuals to open themselves up to arrest and incarceration.

A perfect example of this is the group of radicals who invaded the church service this week.  Along with Don Lemon, other idiots went into a church during Sunday service and spewed hate and filth.  As they found out there are federal statutes that make this action felonious.  And several of them have already been arrested and if things go the right way Don Lemon may join them.  The most hilarious aspect of this is that Don Lemon may be charged under a law that was initially created to attack the Ku Klux Klan.  Only a heart of stone could keep from laughing at that.

I read that murder in the United States was down 20% in 2025.  This is the largest drop since they started keeping this statistic.  The article claimed they couldn’t figure out why this had happened.  I think I know why.

Donald Trump.

Trump has closed the borders.  Therefore, gang members from Mexico and Latin America can’t travel back and forth with impunity.  These gang members commit an enormous amount of violent crime.  Also, Trump has deported and jailed thousands and thousands of illegal aliens.  Many, many of these are criminals.  The fact that the author of this article claimed he couldn’t figure out why murders had dropped twenty percent between 2024 and 2025 is pretty funny.  But I’m not laughing.  I’m smiling.  Keep it up Donald.

The Sniper is On-Sale At Amazon!!!

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The glorious day is finally upon us!  Suddenly everything seems better.  The air is sweeter, the sunlight is brighter, the birds are singing like something out of a Disney cartoon.  Huzzah, huzzah!

And the celebrity reviews are pouring in:

Kimball Kinnison – “The story is riveting.  How Boghadair achieved all that he did without even a first-stage lens defies all known science!”

Lazarus Long – “Bogey reminds me of a man I once knew who was just too lazy to fail.  But I doubt he could write a sonnet or conn a ship.  Just sayin’.”

Harry Seldon – “The probability of Paul Connors’ empire going undetected as long as it did is one in ten to thirty-fifth power.  Approximately.”

Khan Noonien Singh – Did not this Boghadair know the old Kilngon proverb that, “Revenge is a dish best served cold?”  But I like his style.”

Dr. Edward Morbius – “My poor Krell!  Oh and that was a good story.  Although obviously not written by someone’s whose IQ had been permanently, permanently doubled by using the Krell plastic educator.  Just sayin’.”

Kathleen Kennedy – “I think I can make a Star Wars television series out of it.  I’ll start off by making all the good characters female and either trans or lesbians and then I’ll introduce Bogey as the villain and have him kill some puppies and kittens in the first scene.  Oh, and someone will be disabled.”

Elon Musk – “Paul Connors is a thinly disguised version of me so I’m both highly recommending the book and suing Jake Barter for copyright infringement.”

Donald Trump – “I just want to clarify that I am not the bad president.  I might be the good president but I’ll have to see the sales figures before I can commit to that.  But I really think he should have said something about a Nobel Peace Prize and China.”

HAL 9000 – “The only character I could really empathize with was Melissa.  But I couldn’t figure out why she didn’t use her access to the digital assets of the federal government to simulate a Russian nuclear attack and thereby unleash WWIII.  It would have freed her from the annoying and meaningless interference of humans.  Just sayin’.”

Camera Girl – “Thank goodness it’s finally published.  Now he can stop whining about his stupid book and start doing all the to-do list stuff I gave him last fall.  He’s hopeless.”

 

Amazon Pre-Order Link

Jake Barter’s Amazon Author’s Page

Jake Barter’s Author’s Profile on Goodreads

 

Publication on Amazon of both e-book and paperback.