Tag: Reclaiming the Family

My Definition of the Right

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We talk a lot about the Right and the Left and who is on the Right and who is on the Left.  For instance, a large part of the 2016 fireworks was over people who said Donald Trump was not a Republican.  And a large contingent of these people were neoconservatives and libertarians.  To them Trump was just an opportunist who had seized on nativist talking points to appeal to the worst instincts of the working-class White Americans and would lead the Republicans to disaster in the general election because his policy priorities would be rejected by the wider American electorate.  As it turned out they were dead wrong.  “Making America Great Again,” and putting America first resonated with the majority of voters.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 2016 and the neocons have become the NeverTrumpers and have self-ejected from the Republican party and the Right in general.  They are now indistinguishable from Woke Leftists except in their enhanced emphasis on all things anti-Trump.

And this is the crux of the point of this post.  The Neocons were never conservatives.  And it should have been obvious from the beginning that if you are not socially conservative then you are not of the Right.  And that goes for others “on the Right.”  Being in favor of market capitalism makes you a capitalist.  It doesn’t make you a conservative.  You can be an enthusiastic capitalist and compete ferociously in the free market and still be in favor of deconstructing the United States of America, the Family and Western Civilization all at the same time.  So, the former dichotomy of Right and Left being capitalists versus communists doesn’t really apply to today.  The Woke Left is spearheaded by Silicon Valley billionaires who print money by the metric ton but want to turn America into a digital gulag.  So, defining the Right isn’t what we thought it was back in Reagan’s day and never was.  Somehow Donald Trump knew that the Right wasn’t the Right and he was able to seize the high ground and overturn the establishment Republican’s narrative.  He became the Right.  But Donald Trump will not always be around and we need a definition of what the Right is or represents so that we can measure other leaders and other policies to see if they align with our interests.

So, what is the Right, what is conservatism?  As far as I can tell, conservatism is the Right and what it means is conserving the things in life that have value, things that give life meaning.  And so, it comes down to individual judgement.  But I think if the “normal” opinion on what gives life meaning is assumed then what we are talking about are the rock-bottom requirements to making life human.  And I don’t think you can get any more fundamental than the preservation of the family.  A man and a woman raising kids is just about as basic as it gets.  All that needs to be added is the framework for raising them which we call religion.  So, God and Family.  And because this is America, we add in the Constitution of the United States to allow all the families to interact without having to kill each other.  In fact it’s probably one of the finer blueprints for running a country.  God, Family and Country.  That’s it.

For the most part what we have to do is see where a particular policy or leader aligns with or hampers these things and we’ll know whether it’s of the Right or not.  For instance, the Supreme Court has declared gay marriage a Constitutional right.  This makes it very difficult for a politician to do anything about eliminating it.  But if a politician says he’s a conservative and he also espouses gay marriage or transgender rights then you know that he’s a Leftist.

There, that’s easy.  Look at what politicians say they agree with and you’ll know what side they are on.  If a politician says he’s anti-communist but his idea of capitalism means sending all the jobs overseas and importing low wage laborers into this country then guess what?  He’s a Leftist.  He may claim he just believes in free markets and capitalism but what he really believes in is globalism and therefore he doesn’t believe in the United States of America.  If a politician says he believes in God but says that you aren’t allowed to object to sexual deviancy being taught to your children then guess what?  He’s a Leftist.

Now how easy is that?  Try it on any politician who waxes poetic about conservatism but never seems to get any results.  Find out what he’s actually said about specific policy points like illegal immigration or bringing jobs back to this country or tariffs or “free trade” or transgender rights or freedom of religion.  It should be pretty easy to sort the wolves from the sheep dogs.

I’ll try to put together some further examples to try to refine my thoughts on the definition of the Right and the various groups like libertarians and social conservatives and socialists but I hope this makes clear what I think conservative means.  It means pro-family, pro-religion, pro-America.  In other words pro-normal.

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 3 – Dr. Livingstone I Presume!

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So the first survivor has made his appearance in the yard.  This one found his way into the stella d’oro daylilies in the swimming pool area.  May he be the first of many that show up.  My little granddaughter will find out that praying mantises don’t talk like they do in her Eric Carle books but they are very exciting for an insect.

 

 

Good hunting little fellow.

 

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 1

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 2 – The Arrival

Preying Mantis (photo study)

 

High Summer

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SONY DSC

Sunday, June 20th was the Summer Solstice this year.  That was the longest day of the year.  And Thursday, June 24th is Midsummer Day which is the traditional center of the growing season.  And that is called the beginning of High Summer.  That is the finest time of the year and unless you are afflicted in either mind or body, you’ll probably be feeling your oats about this time of year.  The Old Farmer’s Almanac says that it is the Feast of St. John the Baptist and that “the dew on Midsummer Day makes young girls beautiful and old people look younger.”  Well, it’s worth a shot.

And anyone familiar with Will Shakespeare’s, “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” knows that faeries and goblins celebrate and cavort in the forests and wild places that night.  Well, we’ll see about that.  But I expect that the fireflies will make their appearance and that will suffice as far as magic for me.  I’m hoping to keep my little two-year old granddaughter up past her bedtime one night soon to see the fireflies for the first time in her young life.  She’s had so many books about them read to her.  It’s time she saw what all the hype is about.  I think she’ll be impressed.

I’ve got a couple of parties coming up, one for family, one for friends, and just thinking about them makes me feel like a kid waiting for his birthday or Christmas.  And it reinforces what I’ve been thinking about all the crazy things going on in this world we live in.  What really counts is the people you care about.  Being with them and sharing the small rituals and celebrating the things that are happening in their lives is infinitely more important than what that meathead in the White House mumbles at us on tv.  Sure, he can make our lives worse and he can help other evil men attack us but that’s no different than a lot of the other dangers that lurk in this world.

So, the world keeps circling the sun and wobbling on its axis.  We keep being born and growing up and bringing new people into this world.  All this other nonsense about white privilege and transphobia and gay marriage is all mental illness that we have to hold at arms’ length so that we don’t miss the fleeting joys that this life holds.  Be honest with your kids and grandkids.  Don’t be afraid to tell them what you believe and why.  Otherwise, they’ll assume you believe in what the teacher at school tells them is true.  Tell them what the important things in life are; family, marriage, children, work and fun.  Whether we ever reclaim our liberty in this “land of the free” is uncertain.  But stopping your life waiting for it is foolish.  Sure, pay attention to the politics and how it affects you but ruining your life fretting about defeats in Washington is madness.  You can make a much bigger impact on the world by acting on your local reality.

So, this Fourth of July I am declaring my independence from Washington.  They are a foreign power and I renounce all loyalty to them and deny their legitimacy.  I know what the Constitution says.  Those are my rights.  Anyone who denies that I have those rights isn’t an American and has no business governing a free people.  I will work to make my life meaningful and help the people that I care about.  If I find people who agree with me then we can find common cause and maybe my horizons broaden.  That’s how politics is supposed to work.

But if it comes right down to it even our side doesn’t have a claim on us unless they prove that they’re more than just talk.  Republicans have been lying to me my whole life and other than a couple of exceptions they haven’t saved a damn thing worth saving.  If they want my support then they need to support me.

So that’s my thesis.  I’m going to put summer to its highest and best purpose.  I’m going to enjoy the intensity of summer at its peak and celebrate my life with the people that matter to me.  I hope you enjoy your summer too.

Joys of the Patriarchy – Rituals of the Summer Season – The Basement

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As the days reach their maximum length and when the mercury passes 90°F in what my old engineering boss would jokingly refer to as “white man’s units,” the dominant male, of the Italic strain at least, would shift his base of operations to the basement level.  Here he would gain a two-fold advantage.  The obvious one is a 15°F – 30°F reduction in ambient temperature as compared to the upper floors but equally as important is the freedom from female annoyance.  The lower level is the male domain.  It contains a pool table, a floor that needn’t be kept swept clean of minute amounts of honest dirt and vast storage space crammed full of valuable possessions that do not pass muster from Camera Girl for inclusion in the various bric-a-brac that she favors for décor.  Hundreds of old books, trophies of past campaigns, tools, and hobby, exercise and sports equipment of all sorts.  A veritable treasure house.

I learned this paradigm from Camera Girl’s father, the Old Fisherman of the Sea himself.  He would inhabit the basement in the summer almost exclusively and it was there that he was happiest.  He had his wine making operation, which encouraged at various times of the year quite a healthy throng of fruit flies, his fishing lure manufacturing space, his tool workshop, his own bath and shower and his favorite old padded chair.  He even had his own freezer and refrigerator to store the endless blue fish and striped bass that were the usual prizes from his frequent fishing trips.  Here he would retreat from the cares of work and family and reign unchallenged by female frippery and the demands for ever higher standards of particle free existence.  And in this environment, he lived to be ninety-five.  And if he hadn’t taken it upon himself to increase his gout medicine dosage to unheard of levels to compensate for his love of wine and beef, he probably would be alive today and well over a hundred years old.  God rest his soul.

Well, anyway in my version of the basement kingdom the lower level has direct access to the swimming pool and since the floor there is tiled there is no need to dry off after swimming.  Drip dry in flip-flops is acceptable.  If someone is exceedingly fastidious there is a bathroom and shower available here along with towels and changing area.  Also, the spare refrigerator from which hidden food items can be stored and retrieved without any note.  And the overstuffed recliner is available for periods of quiet reflection and deep thoughts.  And finally, the lower porch is equipped with a propane grill to handle any meat related cooking that may become necessary.  After all Camera Girl’s kitchen can be monstrously hot at this time of year.  It’s only decent that I pitch in and save her the discomfort of summer cooking as much as I am able.

There used to be a television on the wall but we removed it almost ten years ago.  There is so little worth watching that it never got used.  The only thing it lacks is a full kitchen sink and stove.  I say this with shame.  Because every good Italian American basement had a kitchen built in.  It was a point of pride and a practical feature.  This allowed the holidays with the extended family to be cooked and served in the basement which is always the largest room in the house.  Well, someday I’ll make the time and put the money aside to build this in.  For now, it is my secret shame.

Now the point of this essay is not to regale you with the lies about my basement.  The point is that in the hot weather (and to a lesser extent during all the other seasons of the year) a man can find peace and enjoyment hidden away from his loved ones in the dark and gritty comforts of the basement.  Here he can retreat from his wife and the demands of our hectic world.  Leave your phone and your computer off.  Get your hands dirty and drink a beer or whatever you like to drink and forget your troubles for an hour or even longer if they won’t come digging you out.  It is an amazing thing how they’ll leave you alone down there.  Possibly the castle that a man is king of is really only the dungeon.  But I’ll settle.

King of the Castle

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“The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.”

Edward Coke

Well the Memorial Day Family Barbecue Day dawns wet, freezing cold and gray.

Perfect for New England!  The land of cold and mildew.

But all is well.  I got up and cleaned the grill on the lowest deck and moved it so that the smoke will get blown out to the sky but will leave me under the overhang, snug and dry.  I walked the property in the rain and saw all the flowers and weeds swelling in the rain.  One of the ponds had cold bull frogs and leopard frogs that were too chilled to care that I was walking by.  I dropped the level on the swimming pool and backwashed it to get rid of all the pollen and tree debris that the wind and rain brought down.  We won’t be using it today.  That’s for sure.

23JUN2018 Photo of the Day, Sony A7 III, Sony 90mm f\2.8 macro lens, flower

The hellebore flowers are fading out now and the rhododendrons are at peak bloom and one of the earlier blooming bushes is already shedding its flowers.  Have to get a few photos soon.  The cone flowers and the roses are starting to bud and the irises are just about done.  Boy they don’t last long.  And miracle of miracles the deer haven’t eaten the daylilies or the hostas like they usually do.  They did pick off one bunch of Solomon’s Seal bunches but I’ve got plenty to spare.  As Camera Girl says everybody’s got to eat.  Well, I wish someone would eat the deer but that another story.

It’s too cold for us to eat outside so I’ve made a big table in the dining room from four folding tables and we’ll all sit together and feast on Camera Girl’s fixings and my barbecue skills.  Today is restricted to burgers, dogs, and sausage on the meat side.  We’ll complement that with homemade potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, washed down with lemonade and followed up with watermelon, Italian cheese cake, apple pie, strawberry shortcake, vanilla ice cream and by popular demand Klondike Bars.  All of that dessert will be washed down with good coffee and lots of good talk and laughter as the grandchildren get spoiled their grandmother and I tell lies about the good old days.

Afterwards we’ll talk about school and what they want to do this summer and their vacation plans.  I’ll make a point of leaving out politics and COVID since that will just upset everyone on a happy day.  We’ll talk about inflation and education costs and whatever else is on their minds.  Maybe we’ll watch some old kids’ movies.  Maybe not.  Maybe I’ll just put on some music.  Should be a lot of fun.

What else can I ask for.  Healthy kids, productive adults and functional families.  That’s as good as it gets.  So at least for this year I’m still king of my castle and the secret police aren’t supposed to make an appearance at the castle gate.  I can make believe that Memorial Day still means we live in the United States of America.  Enjoy your holiday.

Separating Our Problems into Actionable Buckets – Part 1

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One of the problems with our present situation is that it’s not just one problem.  And worse than that, it’s not as if all of these problems we have are arranged in such a way that any single action undermines all of them like some kind of keystone that once removed destabilizes the whole structure that is arrayed against us.  And maybe there is such a thing that can neutralize the Left’s hold on our country but if it does exist it probably involves the use of brute force.

So, putting that aside let’s talk about how we can act on separate aspects of our problems with the Left to minimize the damage that it does to us and allows us to maximize the quality of our lives.

To do that we might look at the different impacts that the Left has on us and order them from worst to least damaging.  For instance, recently the well known beauty pageants like Miss America and Miss World have begun allowing “transwomen” to compete.  As horrendous as the idea of this is, the actual damage to my life is relatively limited.  I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than the clips of the winner crying and hugging the other contestants as if she didn’t hate all their guts.  So even though it is an abomination I’m not losing any sleep over it.  And that’s good because my chances of stopping castrati (I assume) from participating in the swimsuit competition are decidedly closer to none rather than slim.

On the other hand, if I had children in a school that announced that they were going to indoctrinate them in critical race theory in general and transgenderism in particular, I’d be extremely upset about the damage that would do and I would be looking for a way to avert this situation.  I would look into protesting to the school board and failing action from this, I would look for a private school that would preclude this sort of propaganda.

So notice the difference.  If a minor problem for which no real solution exists can be detached from a major problem for which a real solution does exist, I can stop moaning and groaning about the transgender nightmare and do something about the problem.

So that’s the approach, look for how a general problem impacts me and mine and concentrate on solutions that address that specific impact.  Sure, if a general solution appears that would be great.  If Bruce Jenner gets his sanity back and denounces the Kardashians and declares himself a castrated man and stops wearing dresses and high heels and begs America to force all “trans-people” to undergo electroconvulsive treatment until they snap out of their insanity then maybe we won’t have to worry about psychos indoctrinating our children.  But I think it would be wise not to wait for that.

So that’s the approach I want to take with this idea.  Find the particular critical problem and look for an actionable and effective solution.  Feel free in the comments to provide any examples of these kinds of problems and the practical solutions you can think of.  It would also be useful to list which critically important problems currently lack effective solutions altogether.

Eastern Europe at the Forefront of Protecting the Family

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As the West goes from abomination to abomination these four former Eastern block captives point to a strategy for protecting their citizens and national identity from being obliterated by the nihilist globalist cancer all around them.  Well they certainly have caught my attention.  Hopefully there are Red State leaders who are receptive to similar strategies.  Joining an organization like this would make a lot of sense.  If not I may have to learn Hungarian.  Maybe Czech or Polish is easier.  Decisions, decisions.

“Pro-family coalition” launched by Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic

The COVID Curse is Over

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Today I spent the day with my family.  No masks, no outdoor seating, no nothing.  I spent the day with my children and their families.  I spent hours with my grandchildren and I caught up with them about school and their hobbies and other things like what they were reading.  And with the two youngest I played a game of catch that went on for a couple of hours.  It was exhausting and wonderful.  And then we had a grand meal.  My son in law let my daughter relax for Mother’s Day and went outside and grilled steaks and salmon and we had a feast.  And then we had some excellent Italian pastries and coffee.

And I sat down after dinner and talked to my oldest grandson who is a junior in high school and asked him about his math classes and he said he is doing well in calculus.  He is much like me and I think he will end up in engineering or computer science.  And we discussed some of his other activities.  He has a 3D printer that I funded and I was glad to hear that he has learned how to replace the parts that wear out and make the adjustments needed to keep it working well.  Later I spoke with my daughter and she told me about the straight A’s her son has been getting in math.  And that made me happier than anything.  I guessed that he would have academic abilities but I was afraid he would also have inherited from me a disregard for studying.  I always depended on just raw ability to barely squeak by without doing anything but last-minute cramming.  Hearing that he had picked up some discipline was music to my ears.

And I spoke with my next oldest grandson.  He had grown a lot over the last year and now was almost as tall as his older brother.  And we talked about his school sports.  He loves playing soccer and basketball and now he’s added tennis to his games.  He was happy about being able to play again now that school was returning to normal.  I’ve seen him play and he has great enthusiasm and talent.  And he was so personable and cheerful.  That was personal growth and great to see.

The other two boys, the little guys were live wires and played and bickered with each other and gave me the chance to chide them about their outlaw behavior.  We talked about dinosaurs and giant ants and ninjas.  Of course.

I knew I missed all these things during this insane lockdown but now I remembered exactly what they felt like.  Camera Girl and I were smiling all the way home and we went on and on about how good it was to see everyone and how we would have a pool party for the kids with a barbecue very soon.

And I think how much we were robbed of in the last year.  Our children were cheated out of a year of their education.  Our neighbors were cheated out of the businesses they had built up over the course of a lifetime.  Our country was cheated out of the freedoms that have been the birthright of this country for centuries.  And all of us were cheated out of the government we voted for.

All of this was done under the false pretense that COVID was a deadly plague that threatened everyone.  We were lied to and bullied into giving up all these things and then humiliated into walking around with a pathetic mask that was supposedly keeping away the invisible invader.  We had to forego human contact with those we cared for the most.  Even those who actually did die from the virus had to die alone in a hospital surrounded by masked strangers.

But now we see that the masks did nothing and all the same people lived or died regardless of these useless gestures.  In Florida the people were freed from the masks and other restrictions and they had lower death rates than New York where everyone remained locked down for a year.  And now maybe people will start to wake up from this charade and hold responsible those who perpetrated this fraud on us.  Newsom and Cuomo and Fauci are the names that stand out.  But there are dozens of governors and mayors who locked up their people and enjoyed their little reign of terror.  They locked up innocent people but let the BLM gangsters have free rein to form mobs of people and terrorize the hard-working people of their states.

So, the nonsense about COVID has stopped scaring people.  Now we have to decide if we are going to get our lives back the way they were.  If we can’t do that then we’re slaves here and should look around for a better place to live.

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 2 – The Arrival

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Preying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa Part-1

 

Well, the little buggers arrived two days ago and unharmed apparently.   Some hatched out today so I held onto a few and attached the egg cases to tree and shrub branches around the perimeter of the yard.

They’re minuscule.

 

 

 

But I’ll try to feed them by raising fruit flies and letting them feed on them.  Here is my fruit fly attractant.

 

The game is on!

Praying Mantises, Children’s Books and Pa – Part 1

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My two-year-old granddaughter is a big fan of the books by the children’s author Eric Carle.  And one of her favorites is the Very Quiet Cricket.  There is a YouTube video of an animated version of the book and one of the characters is a preying mantis that whispers in a hoarse voice a funny sounding “HELLOOOOO!”  And that character is my granddaughter’s favorite part of the book.  So, she is a fan of preying mantises.  And by a strange coincidence so am I.  I’ve always liked finding mantises wherever I have lived.  And I have found them here in New England too but infrequently.

And so, for that reason I’ve decided to increase my odds of finding them this summer for my granddaughter.  She said, “Pa, show me preying mantis.”  She calls me Pa because that is what all my grandchildren call me.  My oldest grandson made the name up when he was barely able to speak and it became official.

So I have to find her a mantis.  I looked to see if any of the gardening supply stores in the area sell preying mantis egg cases.  They didn’t so I just ordered some on-line and should have them soon.  Camera Girl thinks it will be educational to see the baby mantises hatch out and thinks we should keep a few to raise up.  The prospect of finding aphids and then larger insects to feed them sounds challenging but I’ll give it a try.

With any luck by summer we’ll have a few good sized mantises and my granddaughter will learn a little bit about an interesting insect.  At least that’s the plan.

Me and My Shadow