A couple of weeks ago, a number of local firms were sent ITB’s (invitations to bid) for the removal of a local Confederate Memorial. Nobody replied.
Category: Guest Contributors
27JUL2020 – OCF Update
Over the weekend I got in touch with some friends of mine that I knew had expertise that I was interested in having showcased on the site. One fellow is a gun guy and by this I mean that he is both a gun enthusiast and also a staunch Second Amendment partisan. I told him I’m interested in articles on both topics. I think there’s broad interest for these kind of articles. So hopefully he’ll have the time to contribute a post or two on these subjects.
The other guy, among many other interests, is a student of the theory of technological innovation. He’s interested in what kinds of corporate enterprises produce value like replacing a typewriter with a word processor and what kinds merely suck the life out of an industry like when Hollywood rolls out “Star Wars MCMXXXIX – The Search for Transgender Ewok Wokeness.” He has very definite opinions and some of them seem counter intuitive to me but I find this stuff useful when I try to imagine how I would want to see the US government incentivize the re-industrialization of America.
So these two guys will write the stuff they know about and since these aren’t my strong suits it will add more breadth to the site.
And by the same token if any of you folks out there are interested in contributing to the site either on a one off basis or more regularly then just let me know either in a comment or by e-mail to orionscoldfire(at)charter(dot)net and I’d love to hear your ideas and what you want to share.
As we head for August and inch closer to the fall campaign season we will all be bombarded with propaganda by both sides. But I expect the Dems to reach ludicrous levels of untruth. I fully expect to see a commercial claiming that President Trump is a space alien and that he eats puppies for breakfast. I fully intend to intend to revel in their mendacity and am toying with the idea of having “Stupid Democrat Ad of the Week” or something like that. But what is more important, I’m hoping to see the President’s campaign focus on the rioting and associated chaos and relentlessly paint the Democrats and Joe Biden with the guilt for what they have tolerated and even sponsored. It seems to me that hammering that home should be all that is needed to give the sane fraction of the voting public what it needs to disqualify the Dems from running this country. Whether that sane fraction has the votes or not to put us over the top is the question of the hour.
So stay tuned. There should be lots of good stuff, political and cultural, coming down the pike.
Guest Contributor – Tom D – Photo
If you don’t mind a suggestion for you to extend photography, I’d suggest you start taking your camera with you where ever you go to record the unexpected. I just happened to stumble on the below.

A Plug for Someone on Our Side of the Culture Wars
Tyler Cook, my friend over at The Portly Politico, is having a sale of his music at his site. Even though I’m a country music guy I think it’s my duty to provide a link to show my solidarity for non-Leftist arts of all kind. If you are a music lover and feel so inclined check out his link and see if it’s your kind of sound
Guest Contributor – TomD – An Alternate Technique for Extended Focus
Here’s another way to extend your focus range without special gear or software: shoot the scene from a distance using a telephoto lens. And then crop in. This works best when using a camera with sufficient MP that you can have a usable resolution after the crop.
This was shot from around 8′ away at around 180 mm.[img]
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Guest Contributor – War Pig – Service Stories – Part 1
I got trapped into a tour as an Army Recruiter. It was after my sister was killed in a car wreck (she was a passenger). I thought I was okay and could go back to work but I blew my cover and had to be pulled. Instead of putting me in planning, the general decided that I needed to be taken down a peg so he sent me to recruiting. I went to the school at Ft Ben Harrison in Indianapolis. Then I was sent to Pennsylvania.
Recruiting command is the most anal retentive, micromanaging, pack of nervous people you’ve ever seen. They make the pointy haired boss look good. This was before 9/11 so half the time when we went on campus at a high school or college, we were given the Nazi salute. The good thing was I got to meet Joe Paterno. But the command had a formula they insisted everyone follow. You had to make so many phone calls in order to get so many appointments to talk to a kid face-to-face. Then of those you’d get so many enlistments to fill your quota. You were to emphasize the educational and training and slack off on patriotism and adventure. They actually counted your phone calls and how long you were on the phone with each potential recruit. You had to account for every minute of your day.
As a professional NCO it was insulting. I did it my own way. I talked about patriotism, I talked about hard work. I told them their drill sergeants would not be nice to them and why drill sergeants had to act as they did to find out who could handle stress. To those who said there would be no more wars I said there will always be another war. I took them out to where the Guard and Reserve were training and had them rappel down walls and shoot M-16s and ride in tanks. And they had to help maintain and clean equipment, too. I was always the high scoring recruiter of the battalion. Professional Development (recruiting command’s tattletales) would come down, look over my numbers and tell me I was doing it all wrong. So, I brought out the score sheet for the battalion, laughed and went to go get a coffee while they fumed. I found out as long as I was bringing in quality numbers, I could get away with murder, pretty much, so I did. I’d fill my quota early then take my family to Hershey Park or somewhere. When my year was up, they wanted me to stay, badly, I said not just no, but hell no. So, I was able to go back to counterintelligence and special ops command. The general said I was too stubborn to teach a lesson as I got an Army Commendation medal for getting a gold recruiting badge in only one year. I told him I had indeed learned a lesson, that if they ever tried to put me back in recruiting command, I’d go AWOL first.
Being in recruiting command is worse than being at the Pentagon, which I thought was impossible until I was in recruiting command.
Guest Contributor – War Pig – In Defense of Western Civilization
[Editor’s Note: The following post by War Pig was in reaction to my essay “The Paradox of Western Civilization.” I thought it was such a good antidote to the usual anti-western diatribes that it deserved to be appended to that earlier piece. – photog]
I am half Blackfoot. The North American Indians were not peaceful, elven protectors of Mother Earth. Being an Indian in the days before the Palefaces is almost a religion, even to Indians who know better.
The tribes in those days were beset by continual internecine warfare. Enemy camps and villages raided, women and even girls raped and maybe carried off or murdered, children old enough to be adopted into the attacking tribe taken. Slaves taken. Children too young to be of use were slaughtered, even babies in their swaddling. Often killed right in front of the mother as a cruel joke. She could then look forward to being gang raped and either taken as a slave or killed. All goods and animals not taken were burned to further try to completely wipe out their rivals. North American Indians committed genocide gladly when they could. Those males and older children too old to adopt were taken back to the victor’s camp where they were tortured to death in slow and devilish ways. It was what the tribes had instead of movies for entertainment.
Even if not under attack, the life was hard. Little agriculture meant hunt or gather or starve. Eventually planting maize caught on. Famine was a threat at every turn, the environment was also cruel. In hard winters the very old would wander off into the winter to die to save resources for the rest of the tribe as the elders were of no use anymore. Also, epidemics could run through an area and kill most if not all.
The North American Indians were not simple Neolithic hunter gatherers. They wasted and polluted. They exploited their environment and committed warfare to the limits of their technology. They stayed in an area until they used it up then moved on, following the buffalo. They littered, leaving broken things carelessly behind them. When they hunted buffalo, it was often near “jumps”. Cliffs where they would stampede the buffalo over said cliffs to die, some instantly, most slowly, below. They killed far more buffalo than they could eat or dry or use the hides and sinew. Most of the dead herd would rot and draw scavengers. They did have some herbal knowledge but most of their medicine was shaman tricks.
When Palefaces arrived the Indians gladly traded with them for metals and especially weapons and liquor.
Now, many a Caucasian group has been a thorn in the side of the world. Leopold of Belgium, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc., etc. The British taught the world how to run a drug empire and taught the world that cross-ocean slavery could be very profitable. But in that they were just parroting the mores of their Neolithic ancestors. Today, Africa and lower Asia are the main flash points for trouble. You mentioned the Rwanda Genocide. Arabs want to kill all Jews. Milosevic wanted to kill all Muslims in his nation. He had a cute trick of forcing them into a mosque or other building, then setting it on fire with men, women and children all dying as his soldiers stood outside and shot any who tried to escape. Slavery is still practiced, sometimes openly, in Africa and lower Asia. Hard line Islamic nations allow girls as young as 8 to be sold or given into marriage to old men to pay debts. The girls are then raped over and over again, often by men sometimes 50 years their senior. When old enough, usually at 12 they become pregnant and many die as a result as they are seldom afforded medical care.
Women’s rights as a whole are not respected outside of the Anglosphere and those places conquered by the same. Women in most of the world outside the anglosphere can be bought and sold. Bride murder is common in rural India even today. Oh, it is made to “look” accidental and no real official notice is taken. Go get another wife with a higher dowry.
Look at Mexico and see a failed narcostate. Look at Venezuela and see a failed socialist/communist state. Dictators and “ruling councils” abound.
And what are our children taught by socialist union members in our public schools? That all is okay, every point of view is valid. People who are successes must be dragged down to the common level, except for the ruling oligarchy, of course.
Our Constitution was not in effect 20 years before the professional politicians began taking over. Why? Because they are ruthless enough and amoral enough to do anything, literally ANYTHING which will get them elected and reelected. The founding fathers figured there would be a complete change in the House of Representatives every 6 years at most. Where they erred was in not establishing term limits from the get-go. Russia, and before them the old Soviets, have been after our institutions of education since the late forties. Agents provocateur planted in universities. Half of FDRs cabinet were closet commies and more than a few Stalin’s agents. Then they began infiltrating the newspapers and magazines. As more commie professors turned out more commie-leaning graduates, their long-term effort saw fruit. Khrushchev would have been so proud.
Guest Contributor – TomD – 19JAN2020 – Photo – Bald Eagles
Tom D kindly provided a nice closeup of a pair of bald eagles.

Guest Contributor – TomD – 05JAN2020 – Photo


