Tom’s World – 14AUG2024 – Statues – 2

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This is Jasper Smith, currently “residing” in Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta, across I-20 from the Braves old stadium. I don’t have any history for him though there is a Jasper, Georgia, though I have no idea if there’s a connection.. But Jasper sits on top of his very own mausoleum, mulling things over in mild consternation. And who wouldn’t aspire to such a state?

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This is one of the shots I took at a museum display of 18th & 19th century French art.

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Trisdan De Luna y Arellano, Conquistador and the founder of a Spanish colony at what in now Pensacola in 1559. Funny thing, I did a quick google of him to make sure I had the dates right and the lead article on google was using one of my pictures from this shoot as the lead without permission or attribution. Theoretically, that’s illegal but, I’ve found, common.

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This is a near life sized resin casting of a female that I found in the Porch Creek Indian casino in Atmore Al. The Porch Indians are an offshoot of their brother tribe, the BMW Indians. I absolutely do not have the “gambling bug” but my wife does. On the occasion I take her there, I wander around with my camera shooting interesting stuff of which there is a bunch while she’s hypnotized by the slots. The casino staff gets pretty quirky about cameras in the casino until I assure them that I’m shooting the facility, not the people.

And with Strange Aeons Even Death May Die

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“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

 

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,

And with strange aeons even death may die.”

 

After yesterday’s post I received several communications from readers outraged at the manner in which such a venerable and iconic entity as the First Selectman could be allowed to leave this continuum.  Many simply refused to believe the facts such as they are and hang onto hope that Cthulhu lives.  As the quotes above attest there is a tradition that Cthulhu can remain inert for literally billions of years and still reanimate and wreak a terrible vengeance on mankind when the stars align just right (or just wrong).

Well, I will not speculate at this point on the Great Old One’s chances of resuscitation.  As Hamlet very cleverly noted, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  And if we add to heaven and earth the depths of hell, then we begin to list the span of infinities where knowledge of the First Selectman can be hiding.  And since I already miss the old villain a little bit, I’ll keep an open mind as to his chances of reintegration.  Let’s leave it there for now.

I have finally completed the herculean task to which I was yoked.  My spirit, such as it is, has rebounded measurably and I look around me to see the state of life in the here and now.  I note the same stale prattle about polls and bickering with the names Trump, Harris, Vance and Walz attached.  Frankly all of this is too tedious to even consider.  Let all of that stew for a while.

The summer wanes and school children are already frozen with existential dread at the approach of Labor Day.  But, this time of year is not without its charms.  I was forced to rise hideously early Tuesday morning and so I was out and about before 4:00 am when I happened to look up at the sky and was struck by the brightness of the stars and planets and their inspiring beauty.  If I had not been on an unavoidable mission, I might have stood there for a quarter hour and marveled at this arresting vision.  At that moment I was reminded of this aspect of reality and how these incomprehensible phenomena we call stars can be both the source of our lives and these beautiful beacons that light up the night sky that we so rarely bother to view.  So out of the most tedious and soul-crushing activities it is possible to experience a moment of primal joy and wonder.

But now I’ll spend a day or two catching up with my various duties.  Bear with me as I take up again the reins of my daily routine and restore order to my life.  I must write and trim some posts and schedule them and I must read up on any “news” I might have missed and try to draw inspiration from my surroundings and the important things that need to be said and done.

So good morning!

The Death of a Great Old One

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Farmer Cthulhu in His Fields

All of Dunwich is in shock and mourning.  Today at three ‘clock in the morning it was discovered that First Selectman Cthulhu was no more.  Apparently, it was a self-inflicted accident.  This was the final night and day of his de-lousing treatment and over the ten day he had enjoyed the effects of the boiling sulfuric acid bath so much that some time after midnight he cranked the thermostat on the heater to maximum.  But something went wrong and the bath was turned into an electrolytic cell and Cthulhu was completely dissolved into the solution with only some siliceous fragments left on the bottom of the tank.

The First Selectman’s personal physician; Dr. Fraudulent Practices declared him dead and assured the grieving throng of well-wishers that Cthulhu’s last moments were painless and in fact probably completely unconscious.  Strangely this crowd demonstrated their grief by dancing in circles and uttering what almost sounded like, “Ding-dong Cthulhu’s dead, brush your teeth get out of bed, ding-dong the lousy squid is dead,” to the tune of that song from the “Wizard of Oz” that the Munchkins sing.  Well, different people process grief in different ways.  Possibly these people were just overcome by horrible sorrow and didn’t know what they were saying.  Although they were doing it in three-part harmonies.  Very strange.

Suffice it to say that Dunwich is plunged into solemn mourning and all official activities have been postponed in anticipation of the funeral.  It is rumored that both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris intend to speak at the funeral.  It is believed that Biden will use the occasion to break out his “My Uncle Bosie was eaten by cannibals” story.  And this may cause some controversy because several of the invited guests are themselves cannibals and may take offense.

But the real worry for the funeral is any comments by Kamala.  It is open knowledge that she had a longstanding romantic affair with the First Selectman and if she chooses to speak at the ceremony there is speculation that Mrs. Cthulhu will take umbrage and may possibly eat her.  In and of itself this situation may not seem so dire.  But it would be a shame if Harris’s secret service team got between the two “women” and were themselves swallowed too.  But all things considered it might be a better fate for them than spending every day walking around and listening to stories about yellow school buses from Kamala Harris.

Personally, I cannot yet speak to my feelings about Cthulhu’s death.  It’s too soon.  The amalgam of fond familiarity and cosmic horror is a hard to explain emotion.  You never can be sure whether the appropriate response is a rye chuckle or a panic-stricken sprint for the exit.  Too soon, too soon.

Every citizen of Dunwich will receive a jar containing one liter of the electrolyzed remains of Cthulhu to be treasured and displayed in a place of honor in each home.  The jar will have the First Selectman’s famous motto, “Shut up and second my motion or I will swallow you whole and digest you in my second stomach.”  Words to live by!

The bottle will be made of tantalum to prevent any possibility of breakage or leakage.  The EPA has rated the First Selectman’s remains as a potent compound with a lethal dose estimated in the picogram range.  I have elected to have my share donated to Nancy Pelosi.  I’ll tell her it’s Botox.

Cataclysmic Pep Talk

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Imagine if Kamala Harris becomes president. Some people might think that things will actually run better than when Joe Biden was in charge because she’s even stupider than he was and won’t attempt to run anything at all and so the “geniuses” in charge of the deep state will manage all the decisions of the federal government and everything will be coordinated to the nth degree.

And maybe to some extent this will be true.  But I don’t think the various bureaucracies of the federal government can be allowed to run their little satraps indefinitely without supervision by someone who understands reality.  I’m imagining the State Department and the CIA explaining to Harris that it’s going to be necessary to return to Afghanistan to prevent homophobia and transphobia from threatening the LGBTQ population there.  And Kamala would immediately approve of such a plan.  Or suppose the EPA talks her into banning fossil fuels altogether.  Or the Justice Department easily convinces her that reparations for slavery to the tune of $45 trillion dollars can no longer wait.  You can see how having a complete moron as president could lead to extremely unfortunate decisions being made.

This kind of analysis goes along with the accelerationist theory for destabilizing the current regime.  Specifically, if the terrible people in charge of the Left are allowed to follow their inclinations without a brake from the Right, eventually they’ll damage the system so much that it will cease to function.  I think this is a simplistic version of how things will go but essentially it is correct.  This is what happens in a blue state like Massachusetts for instance.  The Democrats will assume complete control of the legislature, governor’s mansion and the courts and they will run hog wild and vote themselves anything and everything.  And then they go broke and everything stops working.  And they will vote a Republican governor in to fix the budget and return at least a modicum of sanity to the state government.  And of course, a Massachusetts “Republican” means William Weld or Mitt Romney.  Basically, they’re middle of the road Democrats anywhere else.  And as soon as this Republican has balanced the budget he is immediately cast into the outer darkness and replaced by a lunatic lesbian who wants to fund on-demand gender affirming surgery for toddlers and cradle to grave benefits for illegal aliens.

So the problem is how to avoid the return to power by the Democrats?  I think part of the answer is to take a page from Milei’s book.  Radically reducing the size of the federal government would reduce the power and control of the deep state.  And it would make policies that favor private sector job creation critical.  Of course, most of these laid off bureaucrats will be at a distinct disadvantage in the real world of the private section but I’m sure a few of them will survive.  So, it would be a win/win, sort of.

But I’m not trying to paint the accelerationist model as a pain free scenario.  In order to get to a place where a solid majority would be willing to let the Right have their way, there will have to be economic chaos unleashed on our society, the like of which hasn’t been seen for over a century.  We’re talking 30% unemployment or runaway hyperinflation.  That kind of stuff.  So, shock therapy.  Anything less than that will be tolerated by the schlubs who now populate this sad benighted world we live in.

I’ll be honest.  Having this be the path forward is a pretty depressing plan.  But I now doubt anything less will shock this nation out of its addiction to infantile socialism.  So that’s my pep talk!