Exaggerations of the Simple Stuff of Human Life

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Act 4, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, when the second witch says:

“By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.”

And Macbeth enters.  What a marvelous scene.  Witches, bloody ghosts and a demigod truly drained of his humanity.  A horror story in a stage play.  And then Ray Bradbury takes that line, “Something wicked this way comes” and makes it the title of his own American ghost story; the story of a haunted carnival.  Now what does Macbeth have to do with Bradbury?  Well, in both cases we have basically good people seduced by the devil.  Whether it’s Shakespeare’s witches or Bradbury’s Mr. Dark it is the story of men succumbing to the devil’s promise for their heart’s desire in exchange for their souls.

Macbeth wants the Scottish crown.  Bradbury’s Green Town denizens want various things.  Tom Fury and Mr. Crosetti succumb to lust.  Mr. Tetley wants money.  Miss Foley and Charles Halloway want their youth back.  Jim Nightshade wants to be older so he can indulge his various negative desires.  And for these things they risk becoming permanent prisoners of Mr. Dark and Mr. Cooger’s haunted carnival travelling the American continent in search of more souls to consume.

What a marvelous conceit.  An ancient locomotive from the Civil War era, arrives in small towns in the middle of the night and sniffs out the spiritually wounded inhabitants and lures them into the haunted attractions of the show.  If they wander into the house of mirrors, they will see their heart’s desire or their greatest fear.  Or they can follow the barker’s lure and enter the tent where the belly dancers expose their bodies for a silver dime.  And those that disappear are no longer recognizable as themselves and so cannot be rescued by any police force.

And redemption can only be had in Bradbury’s story if the devil is laughed out of town.  Laughter and happiness are the only cures for this evil.  The secret is to realize that life is not a tragedy.  Even at its worst, it is better than the alternative which is nothingness.  Pain and sadness and even death are a human story and in fact the only certainty in this world.  But it’s also still better than never existing.  Because no matter how sad and awful our existence, it’s still ours.  We get to feel it and react to it and maybe win a few rounds before we’re finally cornered and beaten by death.

So, the ride’s the thing.  That’s the lesson that Charles Halloway learns by the end of the story.  Even though he’s old and overwhelmed with trying to be the father of a young boy, that overwhelming challenge is his greatest opportunity to squeeze every bit of meaning and gusto out of what remains of his life.  And the boys get to see that fears and desires are exaggerations of the simple stuff of human life.  Lust and greed and fear are just the ingredients of life taken out of balance from their normal proportions and occasions.

I wonder who will take this theme up next?  Maybe I will, someday.

14SEP2025 – Quote of the Day

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The British Parliament has no right to tax the Americans.   …   Taxation and representation are inseparable… whatever is a man’s own, is absolutely his own; no man has a right to take it from him without his consent, either expressed by himself or representative; whoever attempts to do it, attempts an injury; whoever does it, commits a robbery; he throws down and destroys the distinction between liberty and slavery.

Charles Pratt

And the Other Shoe Drops in the Kirk Assassination Case

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And as everyone probably was waiting to hear, Tyler Robinson has a transgender “girlfriend” (meaning a man dressed as a woman) named Lance Twiggs. Twiggs is cooperating fully with the FBI and claims he knew nothing about the plot.

Yep, they are just the nicest most peaceful people on the planet those friendly, sane trans-folks and their friends.

Do Something Useful

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So, what have I learned from this week?  The Left believes that anyone who disagrees with their truths deserves death.  Literally.  So, this confirms what has been said about leftist ideology being a religion.  And if you blaspheme against their religion, they will declare a fatwah against you and then execute you.  This resembles Islam remarkably well.  Therefore, what we are dealing with are religious fanatics who do not recognize our right to peaceful coexistence.

Well, that’s the definition of an existential enemy.  And that is the lesson to remember.  Regardless of what lies they offer up to foolish people; they are not your friends or countrymen.  You do not laugh with glee at the death of a fellow American.  They are not Americans.  They are not normal people.  They are truly depraved and anyone who justifies this behavior is part of that cult.  So that’s the truth.  Now, the important thing to figure out is how you go forward knowing this truth?  What behaviors, tactics and strategies should be employed in the environment that contains millions of people like these?

One thing that works well is exposing them when they reveal themselves as they did this week.  Matthew Dowd got himself canned from MSNBC, of all places, because he was incautious enough to say what he really believed.  He explicitly said that a murder victim was responsible for his own murder.  Not the murderer, not even “mental illness” but the victim himself.  So even the morons on MSNBC knew they couldn’t save Dowd.

And the same kind of thing is happening all over the country mostly with school teachers, social workers and health care workers.  But a smattering of other idiots (including an active Secret Service agent) is finding themselves unemployed for celebrating the death of a man whose only crime was being too good at debating cultural issues on campus.  In addition to firing these mutants it is important to expose them to the light of day.  All of their neighbors should know who they are.  No one should be uninformed as to their mental illness.  They shouldn’t be mistakenly voted into local office or allowed to babysit your kids.  They should be shunned for the unclean pariahs that they are.

So, it behooves everyone to pay attention to these people when they reveal themselves.  I’ll be looking on-line to see who in Dunwich goes over to the dark side and celebrates Charlie Kirk’s murder.  I live in a blue state so I can only escape the mutants by one day fleeing the region.  But the Dunwich local scene is different.  There I can definitely have an impact on just how depraved things can get.  Shaming and pointing to what they’ve said is the way to reveal what monsters they truly are.

Well, that’s about it.  I guess the other thing that all this brings up is that it’s time for the FBI to step up and root out Antifa once and for all.  The fact that these people aren’t already in jail strikes me as negligence by the Trump Justice Department.  Come on boys, get on the stick and use all that federal power that was used against us for the last four years.  Do something useful.

13SEP2025 – Quote of the Day

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The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole. The cases where this right of property is set aside by private law, are various. Distresses, executions, forfeitures, taxes etc are all of this description; wherein every man by common consent gives up that right, for the sake of justice and the general good. By the laws of England, every invasion of private property, be it ever so minute, is a trespass. No man can set his foot upon my ground without my license, but he is liable to an action, though the damage be nothing; which is proved by every declaration in trespass, where the defendant is called upon to answer for bruising the grass and even treading upon the soil. If he admits the fact, he is bound to show by way of justification, that some positive law has empowered or excused him. The justification is submitted to the judges, who are to look into the books; and if such a justification can be maintained by the text of the statute law, or by the principles of common law. If no excuse can be found or produced, the silence of the books is an authority against the defendant, and the plaintiff must have judgment.

Charles Pratt