Category: Reclaiming the Family

20JUL2021 – OCF Update – The Weather Gods Relent

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Finally, finally, a day without rain.  So I went out there and cut the grass.  Although not all of it.  About two thirds of the west field was still too soggy to cut.  But the rest is done and now I’ll get back to work.

A week ago I was in a store looking for a baseball glove.  I have my grandsons coming over on Saturday and I want to be able to have a catch.  I’ve been using one of their spares and it’s a little on the small side.  So I looked at some gloves at a local store and they’re all made of pleather?  I was outraged.  The salesman called it vegan leather.  I walked out.  Finally I found a real leather glove.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  With MLB supporting cop killers and disrespecting the flag and anthem I’m done with them too.

But now I can enjoy baseball the way it’s supposed to be.  Tossing around the baseball with my son was one of my favorite memories.  It brings me back to having a catch with my Dad.  He never had much time and we mostly played with the other kids but every once in a while he’d throw the football or the baseball around with us and invariably he’d pull something in his back or neck or whatever.  He’d put on a big show of being injured and beg off from the game and just watch us.  Mostly he’d yell warnings that we better not break any car windows on the block we lived on.  But it was still something I remember fondly.

Camera Girl has given me a new list of demands.  I must sweep the basement, vacuum the window blinds and clean up all the junk so we can have thirty people on Saturday in splendor.  We’ll see about that.  Calls are coming in about food that people are bringing and Camera Girl is getting kind of uppity when I ask about the arrangements.  I think she’s trying to pick a fight with me but I’m too wise for that.  I told her that she can serve the food in a trough if she wants, as long as we feed the guests I’ll be good with it.  My family isn’t too picky about meal protocol as long as the food is tasty and plentiful.  And I’m sure both of those will be true.  The whole family hasn’t gotten together in two years.  So this is going to be kind of great.

And miraculously (although maybe I’m trusting too much to the accuracy of weather forecasters) the weather is supposed to be sunny and in the mid-seventies.  That should make the party very comfortable for everyone including the cook and the busboy (me).  So the summer has reappeared just in time to make the family get together great again (FGTGA).

The news cycle right now is full of the usual nonsense that the Democrats talk about.  Four trillion dollar stimulus bills that they hope to use for illegal alien amnesty and other horrors that they hope to inflict on us.  Good inflation and delta variants and Bezos in Space and Ben and Jerry’s joins the PLO.  The silly season is in full swing.  The runaway Texas democrats have infected Pelosi’ and Biden’s staff with the plague.  Let’s just say there’s no good news and the bad news is just too stupid to talk about.  Enjoy the summer and enjoy your life.  I’ll let you know if something interesting comes along.

My Definition of the Right

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We talk a lot about the Right and the Left and who is on the Right and who is on the Left.  For instance, a large part of the 2016 fireworks was over people who said Donald Trump was not a Republican.  And a large contingent of these people were neoconservatives and libertarians.  To them Trump was just an opportunist who had seized on nativist talking points to appeal to the worst instincts of the working-class White Americans and would lead the Republicans to disaster in the general election because his policy priorities would be rejected by the wider American electorate.  As it turned out they were dead wrong.  “Making America Great Again,” and putting America first resonated with the majority of voters.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 2016 and the neocons have become the NeverTrumpers and have self-ejected from the Republican party and the Right in general.  They are now indistinguishable from Woke Leftists except in their enhanced emphasis on all things anti-Trump.

And this is the crux of the point of this post.  The Neocons were never conservatives.  And it should have been obvious from the beginning that if you are not socially conservative then you are not of the Right.  And that goes for others “on the Right.”  Being in favor of market capitalism makes you a capitalist.  It doesn’t make you a conservative.  You can be an enthusiastic capitalist and compete ferociously in the free market and still be in favor of deconstructing the United States of America, the Family and Western Civilization all at the same time.  So, the former dichotomy of Right and Left being capitalists versus communists doesn’t really apply to today.  The Woke Left is spearheaded by Silicon Valley billionaires who print money by the metric ton but want to turn America into a digital gulag.  So, defining the Right isn’t what we thought it was back in Reagan’s day and never was.  Somehow Donald Trump knew that the Right wasn’t the Right and he was able to seize the high ground and overturn the establishment Republican’s narrative.  He became the Right.  But Donald Trump will not always be around and we need a definition of what the Right is or represents so that we can measure other leaders and other policies to see if they align with our interests.

So, what is the Right, what is conservatism?  As far as I can tell, conservatism is the Right and what it means is conserving the things in life that have value, things that give life meaning.  And so, it comes down to individual judgement.  But I think if the “normal” opinion on what gives life meaning is assumed then what we are talking about are the rock-bottom requirements to making life human.  And I don’t think you can get any more fundamental than the preservation of the family.  A man and a woman raising kids is just about as basic as it gets.  All that needs to be added is the framework for raising them which we call religion.  So, God and Family.  And because this is America, we add in the Constitution of the United States to allow all the families to interact without having to kill each other.  In fact it’s probably one of the finer blueprints for running a country.  God, Family and Country.  That’s it.

For the most part what we have to do is see where a particular policy or leader aligns with or hampers these things and we’ll know whether it’s of the Right or not.  For instance, the Supreme Court has declared gay marriage a Constitutional right.  This makes it very difficult for a politician to do anything about eliminating it.  But if a politician says he’s a conservative and he also espouses gay marriage or transgender rights then you know that he’s a Leftist.

There, that’s easy.  Look at what politicians say they agree with and you’ll know what side they are on.  If a politician says he’s anti-communist but his idea of capitalism means sending all the jobs overseas and importing low wage laborers into this country then guess what?  He’s a Leftist.  He may claim he just believes in free markets and capitalism but what he really believes in is globalism and therefore he doesn’t believe in the United States of America.  If a politician says he believes in God but says that you aren’t allowed to object to sexual deviancy being taught to your children then guess what?  He’s a Leftist.

Now how easy is that?  Try it on any politician who waxes poetic about conservatism but never seems to get any results.  Find out what he’s actually said about specific policy points like illegal immigration or bringing jobs back to this country or tariffs or “free trade” or transgender rights or freedom of religion.  It should be pretty easy to sort the wolves from the sheep dogs.

I’ll try to put together some further examples to try to refine my thoughts on the definition of the Right and the various groups like libertarians and social conservatives and socialists but I hope this makes clear what I think conservative means.  It means pro-family, pro-religion, pro-America.  In other words pro-normal.

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 3 – Dr. Livingstone I Presume!

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So the first survivor has made his appearance in the yard.  This one found his way into the stella d’oro daylilies in the swimming pool area.  May he be the first of many that show up.  My little granddaughter will find out that praying mantises don’t talk like they do in her Eric Carle books but they are very exciting for an insect.

 

 

Good hunting little fellow.

 

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 1

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 2 – The Arrival

Preying Mantis (photo study)

 

When in the Course of Human Events – Part 1

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I am grateful to the Haters of America for putting their new Independence Day in June.  I’ve always loved July as the finest time of the year.  And not just because my birthday is slap dab in the middle of it or because it is the hottest and therefore the time when we in the north feel most vitally alive.

But also, because the Fourth of July was every young boy’s idea of the perfect holiday.  You had it right in the middle of your summer vacation (back then we had all of June, July and August off).  It included playing with and watching fireworks, eating huge amounts of barbecued food, corn on the cob and watermelon and drinking lemonade.  We would go down to Coney Island and swim in the polluted waters of Lower New York Harbor and then watch the fireworks display that the city put on for us proles.  It was a mighty fine time to be had by all and sundry.  I can remember neighbors that typically spent most of the year yelling at their neighbors’ kids coming out and sitting on their porches and stoops and talking about the weather and the baseball teams and acting almost human.  We didn’t really think about the patriotic aspect of it.  After all we were boys and therefore barely human.  But I am grateful to the Cloud People and Antifa and BLM and the illegal immigrant lobby and the LGBTQ Mafia and everyone else who hates the normal everyday things that America stood for.  I’m grateful that I no longer have to share the Fourth of July with them.

And of course, the Fourth of July stands for more than just fireworks and hot dogs.  But I wanted to start out with those things because they are the things that make it more than just important.  They make it fun.  And heaven knows we need as many things that can make us happy right now as we can get.  I’m having the family over for a Fourth of July barbecue and the weather isn’t going to cooperate.  After days of 90° weather, it’s going to be in the 60’s and cloudy.  But that just means we’ll be able to have a baseball catch and play horseshoes without getting completely drenched in sweat.

We’re going to have a great time.  After the barbecue I know Camera Girl will have desserts, splendiferous desserts.  Ice cream and whipped cream will abound.  And there will be Italian Cheesecake and maybe even pastries.  And I’ll show my little 2 ½ year old granddaughter fireflies in the yard for her first time.  And we’ll even shoot off a few small fireworks and then maybe watch some of the big stuff in the sky.

And I guarantee there will be not a whisper of white privilege or white rage or reparations or Juneteenth or Critical Race Theory.  But there will be a little history lesson where I’ll find out if the boys all know what the Fourth of July commemorates.

And just to end this part of the post on the right note I’ll include some words that probably are more relevant today than they’ve been since shortly after they were written.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

They almost sound topical.  We’ll take a swipe at it next.

When in the Course of Human Events – Part 2

Joys of the Patriarchy – Rituals of the Summer Season – The Basement

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As the days reach their maximum length and when the mercury passes 90°F in what my old engineering boss would jokingly refer to as “white man’s units,” the dominant male, of the Italic strain at least, would shift his base of operations to the basement level.  Here he would gain a two-fold advantage.  The obvious one is a 15°F – 30°F reduction in ambient temperature as compared to the upper floors but equally as important is the freedom from female annoyance.  The lower level is the male domain.  It contains a pool table, a floor that needn’t be kept swept clean of minute amounts of honest dirt and vast storage space crammed full of valuable possessions that do not pass muster from Camera Girl for inclusion in the various bric-a-brac that she favors for décor.  Hundreds of old books, trophies of past campaigns, tools, and hobby, exercise and sports equipment of all sorts.  A veritable treasure house.

I learned this paradigm from Camera Girl’s father, the Old Fisherman of the Sea himself.  He would inhabit the basement in the summer almost exclusively and it was there that he was happiest.  He had his wine making operation, which encouraged at various times of the year quite a healthy throng of fruit flies, his fishing lure manufacturing space, his tool workshop, his own bath and shower and his favorite old padded chair.  He even had his own freezer and refrigerator to store the endless blue fish and striped bass that were the usual prizes from his frequent fishing trips.  Here he would retreat from the cares of work and family and reign unchallenged by female frippery and the demands for ever higher standards of particle free existence.  And in this environment, he lived to be ninety-five.  And if he hadn’t taken it upon himself to increase his gout medicine dosage to unheard of levels to compensate for his love of wine and beef, he probably would be alive today and well over a hundred years old.  God rest his soul.

Well, anyway in my version of the basement kingdom the lower level has direct access to the swimming pool and since the floor there is tiled there is no need to dry off after swimming.  Drip dry in flip-flops is acceptable.  If someone is exceedingly fastidious there is a bathroom and shower available here along with towels and changing area.  Also, the spare refrigerator from which hidden food items can be stored and retrieved without any note.  And the overstuffed recliner is available for periods of quiet reflection and deep thoughts.  And finally, the lower porch is equipped with a propane grill to handle any meat related cooking that may become necessary.  After all Camera Girl’s kitchen can be monstrously hot at this time of year.  It’s only decent that I pitch in and save her the discomfort of summer cooking as much as I am able.

There used to be a television on the wall but we removed it almost ten years ago.  There is so little worth watching that it never got used.  The only thing it lacks is a full kitchen sink and stove.  I say this with shame.  Because every good Italian American basement had a kitchen built in.  It was a point of pride and a practical feature.  This allowed the holidays with the extended family to be cooked and served in the basement which is always the largest room in the house.  Well, someday I’ll make the time and put the money aside to build this in.  For now, it is my secret shame.

Now the point of this essay is not to regale you with the lies about my basement.  The point is that in the hot weather (and to a lesser extent during all the other seasons of the year) a man can find peace and enjoyment hidden away from his loved ones in the dark and gritty comforts of the basement.  Here he can retreat from his wife and the demands of our hectic world.  Leave your phone and your computer off.  Get your hands dirty and drink a beer or whatever you like to drink and forget your troubles for an hour or even longer if they won’t come digging you out.  It is an amazing thing how they’ll leave you alone down there.  Possibly the castle that a man is king of is really only the dungeon.  But I’ll settle.

King of the Castle

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“The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.”

Edward Coke

Well the Memorial Day Family Barbecue Day dawns wet, freezing cold and gray.

Perfect for New England!  The land of cold and mildew.

But all is well.  I got up and cleaned the grill on the lowest deck and moved it so that the smoke will get blown out to the sky but will leave me under the overhang, snug and dry.  I walked the property in the rain and saw all the flowers and weeds swelling in the rain.  One of the ponds had cold bull frogs and leopard frogs that were too chilled to care that I was walking by.  I dropped the level on the swimming pool and backwashed it to get rid of all the pollen and tree debris that the wind and rain brought down.  We won’t be using it today.  That’s for sure.

23JUN2018 Photo of the Day, Sony A7 III, Sony 90mm f\2.8 macro lens, flower

The hellebore flowers are fading out now and the rhododendrons are at peak bloom and one of the earlier blooming bushes is already shedding its flowers.  Have to get a few photos soon.  The cone flowers and the roses are starting to bud and the irises are just about done.  Boy they don’t last long.  And miracle of miracles the deer haven’t eaten the daylilies or the hostas like they usually do.  They did pick off one bunch of Solomon’s Seal bunches but I’ve got plenty to spare.  As Camera Girl says everybody’s got to eat.  Well, I wish someone would eat the deer but that another story.

It’s too cold for us to eat outside so I’ve made a big table in the dining room from four folding tables and we’ll all sit together and feast on Camera Girl’s fixings and my barbecue skills.  Today is restricted to burgers, dogs, and sausage on the meat side.  We’ll complement that with homemade potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, washed down with lemonade and followed up with watermelon, Italian cheese cake, apple pie, strawberry shortcake, vanilla ice cream and by popular demand Klondike Bars.  All of that dessert will be washed down with good coffee and lots of good talk and laughter as the grandchildren get spoiled their grandmother and I tell lies about the good old days.

Afterwards we’ll talk about school and what they want to do this summer and their vacation plans.  I’ll make a point of leaving out politics and COVID since that will just upset everyone on a happy day.  We’ll talk about inflation and education costs and whatever else is on their minds.  Maybe we’ll watch some old kids’ movies.  Maybe not.  Maybe I’ll just put on some music.  Should be a lot of fun.

What else can I ask for.  Healthy kids, productive adults and functional families.  That’s as good as it gets.  So at least for this year I’m still king of my castle and the secret police aren’t supposed to make an appearance at the castle gate.  I can make believe that Memorial Day still means we live in the United States of America.  Enjoy your holiday.

Separating Our Problems into Actionable Buckets – Part 1

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One of the problems with our present situation is that it’s not just one problem.  And worse than that, it’s not as if all of these problems we have are arranged in such a way that any single action undermines all of them like some kind of keystone that once removed destabilizes the whole structure that is arrayed against us.  And maybe there is such a thing that can neutralize the Left’s hold on our country but if it does exist it probably involves the use of brute force.

So, putting that aside let’s talk about how we can act on separate aspects of our problems with the Left to minimize the damage that it does to us and allows us to maximize the quality of our lives.

To do that we might look at the different impacts that the Left has on us and order them from worst to least damaging.  For instance, recently the well known beauty pageants like Miss America and Miss World have begun allowing “transwomen” to compete.  As horrendous as the idea of this is, the actual damage to my life is relatively limited.  I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than the clips of the winner crying and hugging the other contestants as if she didn’t hate all their guts.  So even though it is an abomination I’m not losing any sleep over it.  And that’s good because my chances of stopping castrati (I assume) from participating in the swimsuit competition are decidedly closer to none rather than slim.

On the other hand, if I had children in a school that announced that they were going to indoctrinate them in critical race theory in general and transgenderism in particular, I’d be extremely upset about the damage that would do and I would be looking for a way to avert this situation.  I would look into protesting to the school board and failing action from this, I would look for a private school that would preclude this sort of propaganda.

So notice the difference.  If a minor problem for which no real solution exists can be detached from a major problem for which a real solution does exist, I can stop moaning and groaning about the transgender nightmare and do something about the problem.

So that’s the approach, look for how a general problem impacts me and mine and concentrate on solutions that address that specific impact.  Sure, if a general solution appears that would be great.  If Bruce Jenner gets his sanity back and denounces the Kardashians and declares himself a castrated man and stops wearing dresses and high heels and begs America to force all “trans-people” to undergo electroconvulsive treatment until they snap out of their insanity then maybe we won’t have to worry about psychos indoctrinating our children.  But I think it would be wise not to wait for that.

So that’s the approach I want to take with this idea.  Find the particular critical problem and look for an actionable and effective solution.  Feel free in the comments to provide any examples of these kinds of problems and the practical solutions you can think of.  It would also be useful to list which critically important problems currently lack effective solutions altogether.

Eastern Europe at the Forefront of Protecting the Family

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As the West goes from abomination to abomination these four former Eastern block captives point to a strategy for protecting their citizens and national identity from being obliterated by the nihilist globalist cancer all around them.  Well they certainly have caught my attention.  Hopefully there are Red State leaders who are receptive to similar strategies.  Joining an organization like this would make a lot of sense.  If not I may have to learn Hungarian.  Maybe Czech or Polish is easier.  Decisions, decisions.

“Pro-family coalition” launched by Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 2 – The Arrival

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Preying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa Part-1

 

Well, the little buggers arrived two days ago and unharmed apparently.   Some hatched out today so I held onto a few and attached the egg cases to tree and shrub branches around the perimeter of the yard.

They’re minuscule.

 

 

 

But I’ll try to feed them by raising fruit flies and letting them feed on them.  Here is my fruit fly attractant.

 

The game is on!

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 1

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My two-year-old granddaughter is a big fan of the books by the children’s author Eric Carle.  And one of her favorites is the Very Quiet Cricket.  There is a YouTube video of an animated version of the book and one of the characters is a preying mantis that whispers in a hoarse voice a funny sounding “HELLOOOOO!”  And that character is my granddaughter’s favorite part of the book.  So, she is a fan of preying mantises.  And by a strange coincidence so am I.  I’ve always liked finding mantises wherever I have lived.  And I have found them here in New England too but infrequently.

And so, for that reason I’ve decided to increase my odds of finding them this summer for my granddaughter.  She said, “Pa, show me preying mantis.”  She calls me Pa because that is what all my grandchildren call me.  My oldest grandson made the name up when he was barely able to speak and it became official.

So I have to find her a mantis.  I looked to see if any of the gardening supply stores in the area sell preying mantis egg cases.  They didn’t so I just ordered some on-line and should have them soon.  Camera Girl thinks it will be educational to see the baby mantises hatch out and thinks we should keep a few to raise up.  The prospect of finding aphids and then larger insects to feed them sounds challenging but I’ll give it a try.

With any luck by summer we’ll have a few good sized mantises and my granddaughter will learn a little bit about an interesting insect.  At least that’s the plan.

Me and My Shadow