The pith of conversation does not consist in exhibiting your own superior knowledge on matters of small consequence, but in enlarging, improving, and correcting the
I’m a Texan.
I was unhappy about John Cornyn’s love for amnesty but let it slide because “he was the one who could win in the general”.
Then Cornyn stabbed us in the back on gun control. That was a bridge too far. I swore then that I would vote for a democrat for US senate before I would vote for Cornyn again. My reasoning was that we would have to put up with the dem for 6 years and then we could replace him with a real conservative but that Cornyn was there until he died.
Apparently, I was not alone in this and John picked up on it announcing that this would be his last term in the senate.
Didn’t care. Didn’t trust John to keep his word anyway.
(BTW, John was warned. He was warned by constituents such as myself and by organizations like GOA and NRA that if he supported Biden’s gun control he would face an expensive and grueling primary. He did not care.)
Then along came Ken Paxton. Fresh off 4 years of suing the Biden administration to a standstill, Ken was the guy who could beat John.
I sent Ken money in the primary and in the runoff and I will again for the general.
We are sick to death of RINOs pissing on us and telling us it is raining.
I am very happy to see John Cornyn in the rear view mirror.
Don’t go away mad, John. Just go away.
ICYMI
Here is a small sampling of James Talarico psychotic statements.
There is no way anyone can convince me Texans will vote for this freak over Paxton. pic.twitter.com/3FaHC5LAvq
Isn’t this a crazy world. Our politics are suicidal. Our culture is demented. The captains of industry and the oligarchy are made up of sociopaths. What passes for “artists” are debauched narcissists who don’t even know what they’re supposedly rebelling against. And yet, in some strange sense we’re starting to shake loose from the system that seems hellbent on tearing all of society down to the ground.
Despite the havoc that surrounds us and the confusion that even “our” side seems to be strewing in all directions I feel like the mass of people have shaken off the stupor that enveloped us for decades and are now willing to say openly that the narrative is a bunch of lies and search out like minded people and in what ever ways they can, move their lives in the direction that benefits them.
One of the signs of this is the recent spate of Republican senators and congressmen being primaried out of their offices. It used to be we’d be told that if we didn’t support a John Cornyn or a Mitch McConnell then we would weaken the party and the Democrats would “win.” So, we’d hold our noses and vote for the RINO and watch as he voted with the Democrats on a whole host of issues that hurt us. Well, no more. I tell you the truth. Even if the Democrats pick up a few seats I’d rather see that than have another traitor stabbing us in the back at the last minute when we need him most.
It’s like Susan Collins in Maine or Lisa Murkowski in Alaska. Neither is a conservative and they’re just as likely to vote with the Democrats as against them. If we lost both those seats it would hardly matter at all. The main thing is that voters are voting their convictions and attempting to eject the fakes from the party.
Another sign that people are starting to wake up is the situation in Hollywood. For the last few years it’s become painfully obvious that movie-goers are staying away from movies that push “the narrative.” The biggest victims are the Star Wars franchise and the superhero movies. These two formerly unstoppable money-printing engines abused their fans by tearing down the storylines and characters that the fans loved and replacing them with “woke” versions of them. And the result is these franchises have stopped making money. Where before some of these properties might gross over a billion dollars and make hundreds of millions in profits, now they can’t even break even against the production and advertising budgets. And in opposition to this model, lately you have a few studios trying to court these fans with more traditional fare like Amazon producing the science fiction movie “Project Hail Mary” where a positive message and a minimum of preaching “the message” were rewarded with a handsome profit and the lesson that a fresh storyline and traditional values can make the studios lots of money. In addition, some independent internet content creators have of late begun to make movies on a shoestring budget and been rewarded with the profits that such an endeavor can reap. Horror movies costing $1-5 million are making ten or twenty times that much money at the box office. Now, not all of these movies are any good. But they’re no worse than some of the schlock that comes out of Hollywood and they have audiences that will pay to see them. They’re giving an audience what they expect. We will see changes in Hollywood and those who don’t change will lose a lot of cash. That is progress.
Let me be clear. We have not won the culture war. What we have done is awakened to the fact that the war was rigged against us by our “friends.” And waking up to that fact is a very important start.
I’ve been reading Andy Weir’s book “Project Hail Mary” and I’ll finish it soon and put out my review (which will be quite favorable). But while working my way through it I was impressed by how the improbability of some of the “science” in a story doesn’t spoil the enjoyment garnered by its use. After all, the premise of the story requires that Earth send an interstellar mission twelve light years away in order to move the story forward. So, the “MacGuffin” has to be accepted to go forward with the story. But what’s the formula for inventing an acceptable MacGuffin?
I suppose there are several methods. The simplest is don’t explain anything. Figure out a way for the main character to be unaware of any of the “technical” details for the MacGuffin. Maybe he’s a completely non-technical individual; a grade school dropout or a literal caveman. Or the technology is owned by an alien race that we can’t interrogate.
A more common way is to build up some technology based on a breakthrough in physics and other sciences. And because it’s fictitious the main requirements and advantages of the explanation would be that it’s self-consistent and allows some very convenient short cuts in the plot. This is the avenue Weir goes down. His MacGuffin is both the problem and the solution to the problem. He has built up a scenario that creates an existential catastrophe but also provides a mechanism for solving the problem and also turning the danger into a potential boon.
And that’s what’s extremely clever about this plot he’s invented. It mimics the idea of the double-edged sword that some new discovery can be, for example, nuclear energy. That was something that both threatened human extinction and promised the solution to the energy crisis.
As much as the mechanism Weir invents for his MacGuffin is intensely improbable, still, once accepted as fact, the rest of the story follows logically and satisfyingly from this premise. He has this new “fact” introduced into the world and then spins that world around on it until he gets the wild ride that ensues.
So now he has interstellar travel at a respectable fraction of the speed of light, a reasonable excuse for an intelligent alien first encounter and throws that together with a likable protagonist who is swept along against his will by this cosmic catastrophe. What’s not to like?
But what I realize is that I’m going to have to up my game when I write my sequel. I’ve never fleshed out the rationale behind how Connors’ mining drone is able to do what it does. I just sort of waved my hands around and said “abracadabra!” Weir is careful to count up the zeros when he describes the amount of energy that his “astrophage” is able to store and discharge as the basis of his star drive. Sure, attributing a neutrino-based energy storage system to a one-celled animal living in the hard vacuum of space in the vicinity of a star is pure nonsense. But he does acknowledge the magnitude of the nonsense. And that does make it fun.
If you cannot afford to do justice speedily and well, you may as well shut up the Exchequer and confess that you have no right to raise taxes for the protection of the subject, for justice is the first and primary end of all government.
There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest numbers of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest, who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.
