In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law.
With the death of First Selectman Cthulhu a power vacuum has formed. But not a metaphorical one. The disappearance of Cthulhu has caused an actual rip in the fabric of space-time and various Great Old Ones and their allies and servants have been sucked into our space-time and hurled down to Dunwich.
Sighted so far are:
Hastur; the polypous, ravenous floating mass endowed with tentacles, drills, and suckers, or more frequently, as the King in Yellow, a humanoid being wearing tattered, yellow clothes and a mask hiding the face. He is said to be Cthulhu’s (half-)brother.
Idh-yaa; A gigantic, pale, worm-like horror dwelling beneath the crust of the star Xoth. She has been Cthulhu’s first bride, and with him spawned three sons—Ghatanothoa, Ythogtha, and Zoth-Ommog—and a younger daughter, Cthylla.
Yog-Sothoth; The “All-in-One and One-in-All”, co-rules with Azathoth and exists as the incarnation of time in the cosmos, yet is somehow locked outside the mundane universe.
Shub-Niggurath; The “Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young”
Nyarlathotep; The “Crawling Chaos”, is the avatar of the Outer Gods, existing as the incarnation of space and functions as an intermediary between the deities of the pantheon and their cults.
Azathoth; Sometimes referred to as the “Blind Idiot God”, is a dreaming monster who rules the Outer Gods, created them (along with many other worlds) and thus effectively serves as the supreme deity of the Cthulhu Mythos.
With these Great Old Ones wishing to succeed Cthulhu as the leader of storied Dunwich, these demonic beings have each filled out the necessary paperwork and paid the fees to be placed on the November ballot for the office of First Selectman of Dunwich. The Town Clerk has posted the ballot in the Dunwich Complainer and a series of debates will take place. But not in the Town Hall as is typical but rather in an open field on Sentinel Hill where the larger Great Old Ones can more easily fit.
Due to the short window for campaigning there was not sufficient time for any of the candidates to obtain the endorsement of either of the two major parties but since the Democrats are rightly considered the sowers of chaos, any monstrous entity would more or less qualify as a Democrat candidate.
When contacted by the Complainer, only Hastur made himself available for comment. The polypous, ravenous floating mass endowed with tentacles morphed into his King in Yellow, humanoid wearing tattered, yellow clothes and mask hiding his face form. But before speaking he morphed into a very Trump-like monster. He was quoted as saying, “These debates will be the greatest debates and all these other Great Old Ones will be shown to be not very great. In fact, except for me they will all be terrible. They will all be like Sleepy Joe Biden; very confused and very stupid. Especially Azathoth who really is the “Blind Idiot God.” But he’s not really blind. He’s just pretending to be blind for the sympathy. Very sad. By the end of the debate all of them will drop out and I will be first Selectman. This I guarantee.”
We at the Dunwich Complainer will follow this race diligently and will shamelessly favor whichever candidate pays us the most advertising revenue. Stay tuned for this titanic struggle. Winner take Dunwich.
To prevent this abuse, it is necessary that, by the arrangement of things, power shall stop power. A government may be so constituted, as no man shall be compelled to do things to which the law does not oblige him, nor forced to abstain from things which the law permits.
J D Vance has struck a nerve. Recently I was at a town event and I was in the presence of a woman who has cats. I know this because she was talking about her cats to anyone who would listen. And she was looking for support from other people with cats as she talked about Fluffy or Tabby or whatever her cats were named. But suddenly she changed gears and started getting angry about someone who had some kind of video on-line about killing cats. I don’t know if it showed cats being killed (doubtful) or just talked about it as a thing that happens. But she was very stirred up about this. She got quite agitated and started swearing about it. And then she changed gears again and started talking about J D Vance talking about childless cat ladies. And that got her even angrier and she started swearing at him and saying you don’t mess with cat people.
Needless to say, this was very off-putting. Seeing an adult in a public place lose control over a discussion about her cats was very unpleasant. It’s always distasteful being witness to public displays of mental illness. But what I realized later was that this was a form of virtue signaling. There was a group of leftists close by and this performance was a public affirmation that disrespecting childless cat ladies will be answered by childless cat ladies flipping out in public. It reminded me of that famous video clip of the androgynous, shapeless leftist in a yellow raincoat howling nooooooooo! at the sky after Trump’s election in 2016. It was this primal scream therapy routine, probably more for the benefit of those watching than for any actual emotional release for the screamer. It was validation of their point of view.
I was tempted to reason with this cat lady and inform her that what Vance was doing was just energizing his base by berating the part of the Democrat base that is most despised. I would have further pointed out that this was a milder form of denigration compared to the Left’s demonization of straight white men and the more generic hatred of “whiteness” in general.
Luckily common sense prevented me from engaging with the crazy childless cat lady (CCCL or C3L for short). After all she has nothing to lose. Whiskers or Snowball or whatever her cats are called, could survive a day or two while their “mommy” was in the rubber room for observation. Whereas, if I were incarcerated for brawling with the C3L I would embarrass Camera Girl and the other normal citizens of Dunwich who know better than to bait the insane.
And it turned out I was smart to refrain from interacting with the C3L. Later on, that day, at the same event, I noted her sitting on a bench reading a book and every once in a while, emitting a screech or a laugh depending, I guess, on the action of the book. I assume this was performative but still, someone who acts out like this in public must be close to some kind of mental breakdown. I will do my best in the future to avoid any contact if possible.
There are an enormous number of highly unstable people on the Left. After the assassination attempt on Trump, if I were J D Vance, I’d have the secret service scan the crowds at his rallies for anyone emitting very high levels of cat dander and keep them far away from his podium. Apparently crazy childless cat ladies are very unhappy to be singled out and who knows maybe one of them is even crazier than the one I saw. J D, it couldn’t hurt to be careful.
Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man who has power is inclined to abuse it; he goes until he finds limits. Is it not strange, though true, to say that virtue itself has need of limits?
The ZMan says that the modern quantitative mode of managing a baseball team has robbed the soul out of our national pastime. Well, that and players kneeling during the national anthem and all the other divisive crap they’ve allowed on field and off.
I like his solution, “The answer to fixing baseball and other sports is to open the windows of the skyboxes where the stat guys run the game and throw them out of those windows. Let the players play the fans enjoy the human drama.”
I won’t make any claims other than these are my favorite movies of all time. They are not in strict order because that would be impossible to achieve. And in fact, this list is the most conflicted and unsatisfying. Basically, this is the end of the world list. If nuclear Armageddon was to strike and I had to pick the movies for my private collection that I would be able to watch (somehow) for the rest of my life, what would I have to have? So, of course, this could only be my list. Your list will differ radically because the list is as much about you as about the quality of the movies. But for better or worse this is what I chose. Multiple dates after the movie title signify multiple versions of the story I would take.
Well, as usual, have at it in the comments.
IT’S A GIFT (1934)
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (1935)
MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE (1935)
GROUNDHOG DAY (1993)
THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
OFFICE SPACE (1999)
THEM! (1954)
FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)
INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)
FIREFLY (2002 – 2003)
SERENITY (2005)
TOMBSTONE (1993)
TRUE GRIT (1969, 2010)
BABES IN TOYLAND (1934)
THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987)
THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN (1989)
THE LORD OF THE RINGS (2001 – 2003) all three films in the extended version
BATMAN BEGINS (2005)
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)
IRON MAN (2008)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011)
MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS (2012)
DEADPOOL (2016)
KING KONG (1933)
DRACULA (1931)
FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934)
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943)
NOTORIOUS (1946)
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1953)
REAR WINDOW (1954)
THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
KEY LARGO (1948)
THE THIRD MAN (1949)
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
BAND OF BROTHERS (2001)
THE CAINE MUTINY (1954)
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003)
