RIP David Prowse

David Prowse, the man behind the Darth Vader suit, has died.  James Maliszewski has a nice write up remembering the man who put the legs under one of filmdom's most memorable characters.  It could be argued that Darth Vader is certainly one of the most iconic villains of the movie industry.  

Though the voice would be James Earl Jones all the way, it was Prowse who had to put the movements and the physical presence into each scene.  Of course he delivered the lines that were later overdubbed by Jones.  So he was acting as the movie was filmed.  He was unaware, however, that Lucas would eventually choose to overdub his voice (something that happens with amazing frequency in Hollywood).  By Lucas's own admission, he wanted a darker, more menacing voice than Prowse could deliver. 

That little quip has cost Lucas over the years as we have morphed into our lunacy race based anti-Western culture, where young post-moderns are sure Lucas meant dark as black, as African American, as in all blacks are evil.   Almost every interview about the making of the originals in recent years has had Lucas apologizing and trying to qualify that statement.  Such is the lunacy of 21st Century living. 

But back then, we knew what he meant.  We also knew that Vader's all black outfit was not a nod to Nazis and Jim Crow attitudes.  Black is often seen in a dark and sinister way across the cultural spectrum.  That's because black is night, the darkness, the grave - it's the universal fear we have when the sun goes down.  Let's face it, if your car breaks down on a lone country road at high noon, that's bothersome and even a bit worrisome.  But if your car breaks down on the same road at midnight, you have an entire lair of fear added to the mix.  

Ford next to Prowse in a publicity photo

That is something universal with humanity, and it took modern leftist nuttiness to miss that fact. 
Thankfully, Lucas made this movie before the plague of secular leftism reduced everything to stupid and unreal bilge.  Vader steps through the portal into a smoke filled corridor, a large gong sounds in the soundtrack, and nobody has to be told he's a villain.  Not because black means evil.  But because black means night, dark, foreboding, and hence is the preferred vestment of the dark side. 

Behind that, however, was Prowse.  The only name I associated with the character of Darth Vader for many years.  Whoever David Prowse was, he was Darth Vader to my child's mind.  The trickery and movie sleight of hand that put together such a powerful character was beyond my reckoning.  For example, though Prowse stood an imposing 6'6", it was only slightly taller than Harrison Ford, who comes in over 6'1" give or take.  Hence, you never see Han Solo and Vader standing in the same shot. Instead you have Prowse against such diminutive actors as Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Peter Cushing, who make Prowse/Vader seem all the larger and more imposing.

But as Maliszewski points out, with all of these little tricks, it was Prowse who did a fine job bringing to life a character that could have fallen flat and been a laughing stock.  Even detractors of the Star Wars saga seldom have much bad to say about the character of Vader.  And that is a testimony to the silent actor behind the mask as much as anything else that went into the making.

Thank you for the memories Mr. Prowse, and may you find peace in the hereafter, held in the hands of a loving and merciful God.  

My November Book Club

Or books I read in the dead of fall. 

Let's face it, November is the neglected child of that illustrious Autumnal season we all celebrate.  Anyone who has spent more than a few months visiting my humble contribution to the digital decline of civilization knows my love for Fall and all things Autumn.  I won't even link to them here.  Check them out as you will. 

Most of that gushing over the season tends to happen early on.  It begins for me around the end of June, when we approach our first birthday of the calendar and look toward July 4th as the beginning of our time of year.  Then by August I begin anticipating the coming Fall season and everything to do with it.  The year 2020 notwithstanding, all of the things to do with Autumn begin drawing me forward.  Even though I was always careful not to 'wish my life away' by looking forward to future things, especially once we had children, I still get pretty anxious as the days counted down.

Then comes September and October, the football, the bonfires and homecoming parades, the college campuses and the foliage, the cooling temperatures, the apple cider, the pumpkin pastries - why the list is endless!  And the activities.  No other time in our calendar year are we, or have we been, as active.  Road trips and pumpkin patches, football tailgating, apple orchards and ghost runs through endless cemeteries, walks through the parks to see the changing leaves, ghost movies and Halloween specials, decorating for fall and All Hallow's (and let's not forget Columbus Day!), and all the buildup.  It leaves us exhausted, but even in this year of crazy, it still leaves us happy and satisfied.

But then comes November.  Oh we have Veterans Day, a day we still set aside for the important reasons it represents.  We have Thanksgiving to look forward to and get ready for.  And we know Christmas - that holiday of all festive days - is that much closer.   But from All Saints Day, there is a definite drop.  The morning after Halloween (on which is always Tricks or Treats in our little Ohio town), when I go out to survey the damage and pick up any stray candy, there is always a 'feel'.  Those crisp gray mornings, the leaves on the ground and the Jack O Lanterns burned out seem to bring a sense of 'it's over.'  Relief and rest.  And wait for the end of that next month. 

And that's November.  The 'also ran' of Autumn.  By now, most of the leaves are down and the branches bare.  The fireworks display of foliage is behind us.  Rains are common, cold, chilling to the bone rains.  Sometimes there is snow, though not as often as in days gone by.  Football is halfway done, and high school football has ended (at least for my high school since we never had a ghost of a chance to go to the championships).  Marching band was over and concert band began, though at least the first order of business was getting the year's Christmas Holiday Concert music going.  In college November marked the second half of the semester, midterms over (and the subsequent parties and celebrations), and back to the grind until that brief break before finals. 

Because of November's 'stuck in the middle' feel, things are a little different around these parts.  We do have some things we watch as a family, though we seldom watch all of these every year, save for Charlie Brown.   We don't have any particular feasts, holding out for that feast of feasts at the end of the month.  And there isn't much we do, unless I happen to have tickets for an Ohio State football game at this time.  

Therefore, one thing I've tended to develop over the years as a quasi-tradition, for me at least, has been to reread certain books at this time of year when I normally wouldn't otherwise.  Not that I don't like them or anything.  In fact, they're usually ones that I've read and reread a thousand times because they are among my favorites.  

It's just that I set my usual reading regiment aside and bring back the usual suspects - books that give me that 'fall feeling', whether in terms of history or fantasy or nostalgia or some other form of fiction that strikes my autumn nerves.  Unless I get a really big recommendation, I don't get new books at this time.  Below is a partial list of the most common, and indeed ones that I will usually read, if not every November, at least once in a two or three year period at this time of year.

1. The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien  (one a year, rotating)

2. Beowulf, favorite translation being Howell Chickering, Jr. (it's also interlinear, and someday I'll have that Anglo-Saxon down!)

3. Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott  

4. Godric, Frederick Buechner 

5. 1066: The Year of Conquest, David Armine Howarth 

6. The Middle Ages, Morris Bishop

7. The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer 

8. Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier: The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin, Joseph Plumb Martin 

9.  Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler (not a bad book to brush up on right now)

10. The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan 

11. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque 

12. Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe 

13. Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick 

14. Paradise Lost, John Milton 

15. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

Again, I don't read all of them every year.  Time simply doesn't allow it.  Though I don't make a habit of picking up newer books in November, if for no other reason Christmas and my birthday are around the corner.  Still there are times when a recommendation comes so strongly that I go ahead and get the book in question and read it, momentarily setting those above aside.  Plus time.  Time doesn't allow all of them in only a few weeks, given other obligations of life.

But for those dreary, raining, bare tree, gray November evenings, you can rest assured that at least a half dozen of the above list will be spread about the house, next to the bed, in our basement by my Grandma's antique rocking chair (my hiding place down there), or in the living room.  And there they'll be until I've gone through them in time to read whatever I inevitably get for my birthday, then Christmas, and then back to normal as another year begins afresh. 

American Indian activists say Happy Thanksgiving

The 21st Century way: by launching an all out war on America and the Christian Western tradition.  That war is well under way, and the panzer divisions are making endless progress. 

Increasingly the violence and destruction is more flagrant, because increasingly the power players of our nation on on their side: politicians and legal experts, big business and the entertainment industry, even religious leaders and social activists.

Gone is yet another plank of post-war liberalism's platform, in this case the idea that violence is never the answer.  Just like we now celebrate oppressing offensive art and speech, judging based on skin color and ethnicity, so now we realize just how good violence, destruction, and even death can be for the cause. 

The brilliance of "the Left" was to hijack the right and just repentance that many felt for the sins of our past. There was never anything wrong with trying to right old wrongs, or admit when our own ancestors or heritage was at odds with virtue and goodness.  The deep roost of the Christian Faith beckoned us to do so. 

But Christianity was long rejected by our nation, and only the most convenient parts were kept, purely for the reason of advancing the Left's agendas.  So it took penance, repentance and regret and weaponized them, using them to encourage hate and revenge, to incite violence and barbarism, and to pit as many people against each other as possible.  All for the purpose of destroying the very civilization that Christianity helped build. 

Though the media spent its time on Covid, and the politicians were busy gathering with their loved ones so we wouldn't have to, such hate based activists were busy little beavers.  There will be no push back or condemnation, and it's possible that before I leave this life, I will see such things as Thanksgiving, and the country and heritage, the legal inheritance and rights and freedoms it represents, go the way of the dodo bird.  Christmas and Easter will no doubt be next on the list. 

This is, once more, because all of those with the power to stop it not only won't stop it, but increasingly are on their side.  A culture that has supported the abortion of billions of babies to sustain a porn culture during the AIDS pandemic is likely not one that will sympathize against the rugged brutality of the pre-Columbian peoples after all. So Happy Thanksgiving.  If you have grandchildren, it's a good bet such a phrase will be something they only hear rumors of in the most whispered tones.  

It never gets old

The rot had long set it, but most didn't realize it.  From the street level, it harkens back to a time when we had many things we assumed were still what made us a country.  Now that the presidency will again be celebrated and all will be well, expect more such portrayals of our awesome White House.  Fun memories, and a well done segment.  Happy Thanksgiving. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's not inaccurate, at least in spirit

Thanksgiving, the forgotten holiday.  But for grocers and turkey farmers, I think many would forget it's here.  In recent years, our friends in Wall Street almost seemed as if they wished they could ban the holiday in order to get to the much needed spending frenzy of St. Walmart season.  That attitude was joined by the Left's ever enduring crusade to find disaffected descendents of those wronged by the US government or Europeans in general and rally them to bring and end once and for all to the American experiment.  

It wasn't long ago that I would have bet that in a decade or more it would be a holiday long replaced by Juneteenth, or some other celebration of America's unforgivable sins.  But alas, we have Covid.  Suddenly, the only thing that matters is Covid, and insisting Americans do anything but celebrate that holiday as they have.  To do so, the holiday itself has to be lifted up, just to demonstrate how great the sacrifice we're being told to make really is. 

Why, I've actually seen news stories talking about how great the holiday is, how necessary, how essential.  That makes being told we can't celebrate it all the more powerful.  It also makes our willingness to acquiesce and do as we're told all the more noteworthy.  

True, in all the 'why Thanksgiving matters' I don't think I've seen a single pilgrim or Mayflower anywhere.  But then, truth be told, it was never the big thing.   I remember in first grade a picture of the pilgrims on their way to church (famous painting) and talking about the story.  I remember it being mentioned a couple times through the years.  But we didn't worship them or anything, as Americans are sometimes accused of doing.  Mostly we admired their courage, their devotion, and the role they played for helping to lay the groundwork for this most prosperous and free nation we inherited.  That's when we mentioned it at all.  Sometimes it was like in kindergarten, when the emphasis was just on turkey art and making gooey pumpkin pie as a group project. 

But celebrating our heritage, and those who made it all happen, is certainly our approach to the holiday.  We've resisted where some Catholics go in trashing and hashing the pilgrims.   In an odd twist, the Orthodox seemed willing to give a nod to the pilgrims and their story more than Catholics.  But then, they might have seen the pilgrims as a finger in the Church's eye, and that could also be reason for the pilgrim love.

Whatever, despite other traditions joining the modernist in trashing the pilgrims and their story, and despite the attempt to rally more and more people to attack and destroy anything to do with the whole Western and American stories, we are happy to tip our hats to Christians who were, in many ways, better than us.  So Happy Thanksgiving.  Enjoy it while we can.  And remember what could have been. 

Only the worst people disagree with Pope Francis

I know this because Pope Francis makes this clear, especially if you're disagreeing with his acceptance of various leftwing narratives.  Oh, you can disagree with him on all that Jesus and Trinity and boys  and girls existing, and it's no problem.  True, Pope Francis himself is the first to point to the problems with transgender mutilations, abortion for convenience, and marriage between men and any combination thereof.  But if you'll notice, he seldom condemns or judges those who endorse, promote or practice these.  The closest he seems to have come is being troubled with the manifold problems that are associated with transgender surgery, especially on children.  But again, no real condemnation of the motives or reasons why people do and support such things.

All such 'love the sinner/hate the sin' goes out the window, however, when it comes to people who challenge decidedly left leaning narratives around various issues like capitalism, socialism, open border post-national globalism, global warming, or the fighting the Covid crisis.  In those cases, Pope Francis seldom appears much different than old socialist and liberal professors I had, liberal and socialist and Marxist pundits and columnists, journalists, and most leftwing politicians.

And those who challenge such narratives or political policies and opinions?  Why, according to Pope Francis, they're the lowest of the low.  Rigid is the best they can hope for.  Everything they do is for the most wicked and evil reasons.  They're greedy.  They're bigoted.  They're callous, uncaring and care not for the suffering of the innocent.  They are truly the basket of deplorables, and Pope Francis has their numbers and thinks nothing about judging them, their motives and their ideas.   

Ever notice?  Pope Francis became an overnight superstar with the Left when he first made his famous 'who am I to judge?' statement about homosexuality. That sentiment clearly exists for most sins, evils, and other failings associated with modern, secular liberalism, Marxist thinking, and various other left wing political movements and ideals that run afoul of traditional Christian orthodoxy.  He may say these things aren't good.  He may even say they are themselves evil.  But I've seldom noticed him impugning the motives of those behind them. 

But it doesn't hold for those who believe in more traditional values, those who look to the special contributions of Western Christian civilization.  Or heck, the special contributions of Christianity in general.  For those who do such things, Pope Francis wades into them, assuming the worst of everything they are, and letting fly one volley of judgement after another.   In fact, that's the biggest problem I see.  Give me der panzer papa all you want.  Show me a brass knuckles, fist and kicking pope going after the baddies all day long.  But it should be more, what?  For the Gospel?  For Jesus?  For the Church?

In fact, Pope Francis seems to put a low premium on those things. Perhaps to him the Gospel is political narratives and socialist economic theory as espoused by modern political liberalism.  If it isn't, then he doesn't seem to care as much about the Gospel as he cares about our hopes and salvation brought to us through the horses and chariots of such political and economic theories and policies.  That's where his pronouncements always hover, that's where he says our problems always reside. Those who challenge such things - not rejecting Jesus or the Gospel, but rejecting such economic and political theories - are those for whom he reserves his wrath and sometimes contempt.   And that, to me, is a big problem. 

Just to recap

Brevity, they say, is the soul of wit.  So rather than a lengthy discourse, I thought I'd sum up the basic media consensus on our democratic electoral process as presented over the last couple decades, based on each major presidential election year:

2000: Our process is on the brink, corruption is everywhere, Bush, the GOP, the SCOTUS have all stolen the election, Bush is an illegitimate president, our very democracy stands on the brink.  This consensus lasted until we forced Muslim terrorists to attack us on 9/11. 

2004: Especially in Ohio, corruption is everywhere, months of investigations and charges of voter fraud, suppression and corruption. Our process is on the brink, corruption is everywhere, our very democracy stands on the brink.  This seemed to be less a national assessment as much as it was here, but the scuttlebutt remained the same. 

2008: Everything is just peachy.

2012: Everything is just peachy (though whispers of potential voter suppression and discrimination did circulate in various media outlets leading up to the election). 

2016: Russia is on the verge of destroying our democracy; Trump and Putin have colluded to undermine our rights and freedoms, corruption is everywhere, voter fraud, suppression and manipulation has undermined our very national fabric. Dishonesty is everywhere, our very democracy stands on the brink.

2020: One week before the election: Intelligence officials are warning federal legislators that Russia is on the move, it is hacking and intruding on our electoral process even as we speak, foreign powers could be undermining our very democracy, the results of the election may be compromised.

2020: One week after the election: All is right with the world, we've seen the most secure election in history, by even suggesting there are problems with the election President Trump is undermining our democracy, our freedoms, and our faith in our democratic process.

Hope this helps.  Sometimes it's easy to forget, and delving into long, complex screeds trying to make sense of things can bog you down in our STEM driven world.  So a nice little recap to remind us of the strange and bizarre timing involved when our democratic process is at one time a disgrace that stands on the brink of oblivion, and when it is the bestest system in history.  I'm sure there's a trend there, and with more time, I might be able to figure what the common factors behind the differences are.

The right way to do history

Courtesy of Donald McClarey at The American Catholic.   As opposed to the dumpster fire of presentism and intolerant judgmentalism (at least toward the Christian West and America) that defines the Left's approach.  It's as good a treatment of the Gettysburg Address and its context as you'll find on this side of a history book. 

A brief overview of the destruction of Western Civilization that we're witnessing

Courtesy of John C. Wright.  By brief I mean in terms of an educated and literate society.  In our Twitter Age, it reads like a multivolume set of history.  

It's worth the read.  Like any history, what we're seeing happen in our move toward a post-national globalism, focused exclusively on the destruction of the Christian West, has many roots and causes.  History is never so simple as 'Event A happened all because of X.'   When you hear someone say that, you're dealing with someone who is ignorant or a huckster.  Sadly, that would be the majority who teach in our schools and universities, as well as those who produce the shows we see on National Geographic and PBS.  

It's worked like a charm.  Buttressed by Multicultural education, which has been one of the primary means for the West's destruction, this simplistic approach to everything including, but not limited to, the study off history, or philosophy, or ethics, or anything has laid the groundwork for what we're all seeing. 

The biggest thing to realize is that this is no accident.  And as Christians, we know who is behind it all.  As Mr. Wright says, we deal with "the little enemies on earth, some of whom know what dark power they willingly serve, some not."  But serve those dark powers they do, and so far over the last century or more, those dark powers have had their way.  Including with the Church itself. 

Biden is right to condemn all acts of violence

Whether it be right or left, Black Lives Matter or White supremacists or Antifa.  He doesn't even have to name them.  Simply point out that such acts of violence are wrong.  That's good enough for me.

Of course the big problem is that this is just what Trump did after the Charlottesville protests turned violent, and he was called NaziHitlerHimmler for his efforts.  It didn't matter how many times he denounced racism and white supremacy.  For daring to say what Biden said he was labeled a racist Nazi 100% for daring to do anything but condemn only one side. 

Sigh.  You can't play with cheaters.  If you cheat to beat them, you're now as bad as tehm.  If you don't, they'll win unless there is a higher power to call them out.  As it is, all of the higher powers on this sod at least are in on the cheat.  And that makes it difficult if you're not on the side of the cheaters. 

There and back again Friday Frivolity style

So the game of games we played for a season, seasons and half a season, Empires and Arms, was wrapped up some time ago.  Back in April, just as the Covid Era was beginning, we called quits on the game we had played for more than a couple years.  

In fact, that's one of the great problems with that game.  Some have called it the flawed masterpiece of wargames.  It has almost everything you could want to get a feel for the Napoleonic era on every level.  But unless you have a handful of people who can commit to about a year's worth or so of playing, it's going to be rough. 

So after going away, we're back.  As I've said before, the boys decided to stay home during this year of college.  They were thrust onto online classes last spring, just as they were preparing to move on.  Seeing the way things were, they reasoned it was senseless to spend the extra money to be on campus when all you would be doing would be shut in your apartments on campus.  

So there you go.  The balance is better this time.  Our oldest, and most timid and reserved, is Russia.  That does well to sit back and wait and defend.   Our next to the youngest is Austria, which forces on him his weakest ability, and that's diplomacy.  Plus he doesn't have the monster armies that Russia and France have to buttress his already excellent tactics, aggressive play and generally good fortune where dice are concerned. 

Our second oldest is France.  He's not a great player, but a wily diplomat, and though his dice rolls leave something to be desired, he now has France's bountiful benefits, and Napoleon.  That's something ol'Austria just learned the hard way.  He was used to wiping the floor with my second oldest, but this time Napoleon made the difference and Austria's Charles-led army was sent packing.  Now he sits with strong French forces ready to threaten an under garrisoned Vienna, the French fleet ready to resupply, and most likely left with the choice of suing for a conditional surrender, or watching France occupy his capital.  Choices, by the way, he's not used to pondering.

So it promises to be interesting. Already the boys' college has all but nixed Spring semester and all its activities, so they plan on staying close to home in the meantime.  They're plenty busy of course. The college answer to online classwork seems to be tons of meaningless busy work.  But it must be done.  And since, unlike Colin Kaepernick, my boys are awash with privilege, they also have to work long hours, sometimes with more than a single job, in order to get through their schooling without plunging into debt.  

On the flip side, socializing has been at a minimum, and those they are close to are, for the time being, at arms length through Zoom and other outlets.  So when they can, as they always have, they'll set some time aside and see if we can glide through another campaign from two centuries past.  

Apparently one of the Church's best kept secrets

Is that you can unquestioningly support one political party 100% no matter what intrinsic evils or mortal sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance it advocates because you oppose the the other political party no matter what good it accomplishes for the least of these:  

Here is what it says, so you can read it an chuckle: 

The problem is that his magical thinking is not real and the trouble with that, like the trouble with jumping off Trump Tower, is that though it may take a while for Reality to impact on your fantasy, when it does it does so without regard for your feelings or sense of entitlement.  

The idea of Trump splitting the GOP into the Mere Prostitutes and Opportunistic Predators sect (ruled by nihilists like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and cynical liars like Sean Hannity) and the Wild-Eyed QANON True Believers sect (dominated by the weirdos of the Evangelical and Catholic Right such as Abp Vigano and Taylor Marshall as well as the sundry paganized magic practitioners like Paula White and straight up nuts like Alex Jones) is a happy thought. A splintered GOP in which the weirdos turn on the predators is a GOP that will be hampered in hurting the rest of us for a good long while.

And this will be doubly so if, as seems certain, Trump the Psychic Vampire insists on continuing to cultivate his Cult with a Forever Campaign of never-ending Ego Rallies that suck the lifeblood of money and attention away from the GOP coffers and candidates and into the engorged gut of bottomless narcissistic sociopathic need that is Donald Trump.

If that happens, he will continue to cripple the GOP for as long as he lives, perhaps longer if his vile crime family takes up his mantle after he is no longer able to function and tries to keep exploiting the ultra-crazies and set them against the Party regulars with accusation that the GOP is not pure enough.

Uh huh.  The above quotes were from a post of his sent to me by email.  I refuse to link to his outlets because I believe he incarnates most of what is bad and ugly and wrong with the Internet and Social Media. If you wish to inflict suffering on your Christian based sensitivities, then by all means look him up and see what else he had to say.  For me, I no longer go to his websites and the sun shines all the brighter for it. 

Rage inducing hypocrisy and restrained conservatives

OK, this is the stuff that pushes most non-leftists over the edge:

Even as tens of thousands gathered, sometimes without masks, to celebrate Biden's victory, the press, experts, and Left have focused on only one culprit: Those fans who celebrated Notre Dame's victory over Clemson.  Wow.  I mean, they're not even trying to hide the double standards at this point.

Of course we've seen it so many times before:

Late 1990s: The media declares it a mortal sin to even care what young Chelsea Clinton is doing with her life while she's in college, she's just the president's child after all - off limits!

Early 2000s: Media all over the Bush's daughters with stories of any and all wrong doing allegations, rumors or anything.

Late 1990s: In wake of Clinton's  blue dress revelation, media and liberals declare an end to our puritanical obsessions with character and morals where the presidency is concerned.

2016: Press and liberals declare Trump's character and morals deplorable and a deal breaker for being president.

2016: Press and liberals point out hypocrisy of conservatives who criticized Clinton's morals and yet supported Trump, failing to note the obvious opposite. 

2000: Press and liberals declare any criticism of Hillary Clinton, even her speeches, as proof of sexism and misogynist bigotry. 

2008, 20012: Press stands by and ignores, and sometimes even joins, waves of sexist and deplorable assaults on Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman, even as they're call milfs, bimbos, morons, and words I won't use.

1996: Press universally blames Republicans in congress for government shutdown

2013: Press universally blames Republicans in congress for government shutdown

2018: Press universally blames Trump administration for government shutdown

2015: A white mass shooter holding a Confederate flag becomes the basis of deconstructing our nation's past and blaming the sins of one white American on all

2016: A black man pledging to murder white people who murders five police officers in cold blood becomes the basis for deconstructing out nation's past and blaming the sins of one white American on all.

2011: A mentally unstable anti-government and anti-religious anarchist goes on a shooting rampage in Tucson and the press declares it to be proof conservatives are more violent than liberals

2017: A card carrying liberal Democrat Bernie Sanders supporters pledges to stop conservatives and shoots multiple Republican politicians, and press insists we shouldn't look into motives

2020: No heroes were ever more heroic than our front line medical pros risking everything to fight Covid, so everyone must sacrifice everything no matter how painful to protect them, including avoiding gatherings of more than one person. 

2020: Press rejoices and declares it a beautiful thing to see thousands of medical pros protesting with tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter protesters against our racist nation.

You get the point.  I could go on forever.  This sort of thing is beyond rage inducing.  It isn't that conservatives, or Christians, or atheists, or liberals, or anyone can't be hypocrites or indulge in the old double standard.  

The problem is that this is the news media.  This is the press.  This is also our beloved 'Scientists!(TM)'.  This is our experts and academics and all those who are supposed to stand against the machine.  The ones who are supposed to speak truth to power.   The ones who seek and proclaim truth, no matter how painful.

And yet we can see now that they are all as beholden to advancing the cause of liberals, socialists and the Democratic Party as all such outlets and professions were in advancing the war effort in World War II.  I mean, it's either bad to gather in  large numbers, or it isn't bad.  To me, the actual science wouldn't support the narrative that any and all gatherings can be lethal unless the gatherings are to advance a leftist political agenda.  

Still, in it all, I notice something.  Per the press (see the wake of the Tucson shooting), conservatives are the most violent and unstable bunch in the country.  We continually see carefully parsed news stories proving that white, right wing Americans are the worst, the terrorists, and the threat to all life and peace on the planet. 

Yet where are the riots?  Where are the killings?  Where is the looting, the destruction, the arson, and the death?  Where is it?  Per the media narrative, you should see white people with MAGA hats on the rampage, burning buildings and dead bodies mounting by the dozens.  You should have mass shootings everywhere.  It should be a slaughterfest.  

But it isn't.  I pray to God it won't be.  Yes, we've had some over the top and unacceptable rhetoric:

But most haven't run with this sort of rant.  Some have even condemned it.  Otherwise, no cities brought down by violence and carnage.  No actual, real uprisings, or killing and reducing poor neighborhoods to ruin. 

I just thought it interesting.   I see the naked, vomit inducing hypocrisy of the press and its clear fealty to advocating the Left's narratives and policies and power, and it makes me want to burn cities and steal big screen televisions.  And yet, contrary the media narrative, I don't.  And so far at least, most who are supposed to be aren't.  And that's not bad.  It's almost like there is reality, there is the news media, and never the twain shall meet. 

To all the veterans

 Thank you, and I'm sorry we didn't rise to the occasion to defend the nation you left to us.

Heh

A little levity for these troubling times.

HT: James Maliszewski at the always interesting Grognardia 

Allow me to edit this tweet

 

'What I love about Biden's [_____________] is that he's the candidate for my political party.' 

Seems a bit less wordy. I could be wrong, but given Sam's past jots and tittles, I'm figuring it's not too far off the mark. 

Expect in the coming months that leftist Catholics will be gushing with love and praise, ignoring anything and everything that leftist Biden detractors were emphasizing earlier in the year, turning a blind eye to any indescirations in either Harris or Biden's lives, and singing to the new administration with all praise and rejoicing.  

Will they ever criticize Biden?  Will he be able to do anything - other than not being hard enough on conservatives and Republicans - that they will criticize?  Time will tell.  But expect worshipful levels of adoration and exaltation in the coming months. 

RIP Alex Trebek

Alex Trebek has passed away from his bought with pancreatic cancer.  I've heard more of that cancer in the last half dozen years than I had for my entire life.  I wonder why.

Anyway, he will be missed.  I remember when Jeopardy was rebooted by in my youth. I hadn't heard of the show before, but noted the buzz.  By the time I was a young adult, I began watching the show.  I enjoyed the challenge of trying to guess the answers before the contestants.  Truth be told, I wasn't bad.  But knowing nerves and my dislike for being up in front of people, I see me not making it to Final Jeopardy.  I still watched it, humbling though it was.  For many years it was required viewing in my house, and all four of my boys became better at it than I ever was. 

Over the years, Alex Trebek and his show became a cultural icon.  In the last years, Jeopardy began to emerge as a new attention getter, with various contestants arriving to either wow the audience, frustrate Trebek, or just break the system.  That last one was with Jeopardy super-winner James Holzhaur. In fact, to be honest, after Holzhaur departed, the game was never the same.  He had more or less beat the system, and the feel of the post-Holzhaur games was always different than before.

But through it all, Trebek remained the face of the show.  Though his own beliefs and leanings weren't hard to guess, he didn't flaunt them.  Perhaps harkening back to an age when we didn't define people by their politics, he kept a low profile in that regard, even if it could be said Jeopardy was the more liberal version of the conservative leaning Wheel of Fortune. 

It took Trebek to be the host, because he had the personality, the charisma, and the intelligence.  Even if at times he seems a bit haughty with his knowledge, he had the brains to back it up.  It was nothing for a contestant to give a wrong answer, and Trebek to nonetheless know exactly to what the answer alluded.  

So for the years of entertainment, challenge and general good will, I say thank you Mr. Trebek.  You will be missed.  May the loving arms of God receive you in all His mercy, and may perpetual light shine upon you.  May God cover the hearts and minds of all you leave behind, your family, your friends, and your millions of friends.  Pax.  

Now that Joe Biden is president elect

 I have one thing to say: 

And I mean it.  Not like Mark Shea and others the day after the 2016 election, who posted the quote, and then by the end of the first day had declared the election a fraud, screamed corruption, Russian conspiracy, and Trump a Nazi racist needing taken out of office by hook or by crook.  I mean just what that vile and unforgivable racist John Wayne said (and what I said in 2016): Biden is my president. I hope he does a good - and godly - job. 

I'm  fine with looking into allegations of fraud.  I was in 2016.  If there's evidence of wrongdoing - and there wasn't any found in 2016 that I'm aware of - I say throw the book.  Same here.  But even assuming the clear and obvious fact that the whole process was manipulated and there likely was fraud and a grand rigging of the election against Trump, I think the numbers are still against him.  And that might be worth looking into for those who would rise up and stop the Leftist juggernaut. 

Therefore, I won't do  what conservatives condemned liberals of doing in 2000, 2004 or 2016 (Hmmm, I'm noticing a trend there), and that's undermine the validity of one of our most cherished freedoms.  Look for wrongdoing and prosecute, but in the meantime Biden is president elect.

I  certainly won't be part of the vomit inducing hypocrisy of the Left and all those liberals running about today whining about how horrible it is that anyone is questioning the scared purity and infallibility of our electoral process.  That level of double standards that the left gets away with from a sympathetic propaganda ministry (that is, news media) is one of the most rage inducing parts of our modern society. 

Nope.  Biden is president elect.  I will pray for him.  I will pray for his health (oh, boy will I pray for his health), and I will pray that somehow the Spirit of God can melt his heart and lead him away from the manifold evils and sins he has had to embrace in his fealty to a godless and opportunistic political movement.  Especially the horrible sex and drugs culture that his party supports and the unprecedented body count that floats in its wake.  

I understand what is at stake.  But if we are going to call things wrong, we can't turn about and suddenly do them because they're convenient.  Nothing defines the modern Left, after all, more than that. 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way.   1 Timothy, 2.2

Where's Russia?

 I mean, from before the 2016 Election, all we heard was russia, Russia, RUSSIA!  For four years, all we heard was Russia!  Going up to the election it was Russia!  Everything happening, no matter what, was Russia!  

And now ... I've heard almost nothing about Russia.  TIME mag ran a piece about how Democrats questioning the 2016 election Trump questioning the 2020 election plays into Russia's hands.  But that's been it.  It's mostly Covid, or Putin's health, or nothing.  

As my son said, if you want to make an election seem rigged, this is how you do it.  I don't think it's rigged in the 'guys caught carrying bag of fake ballots' rigged.  I think the rigging is far larger, far grander, and for much greater designs than just defeating Trump.

In fact, my other son suggested that the refusal to call the election might be deliberate on the Left's part.  The longer Trump is the focus, the more they can promote while America's eyes are on the Trump ball.  Think on it.  We now have businesses and colleges openly discriminating and segregating based on skin color.  Dems pushed elective late term abortions and even flirted with infanticide.  Multiple media outlets have run stories and editorials celebrating the glories of communism.  People can lose their jobs because they say boys and girls exist.  Scientists have continued to prove that Science is always what the liberal narrative wants (see BLM and Covid).  Per CBS, over 40% of AMericans now want the Constitution and Bill of Rights eliminated (because polls are always accurate).  An entire ISIS level iconoclasm has been launched against anything remotely American, Caucasian, Western or Christian.

But in it all, the press avoided covering these things by always turning the attention back to TRUMP!.  Without him there, what will be the distraction?   What will they be able to deflect to in order to hide the increasingly plain and obvious designs of this global revolution?  

I admit, it's an interesting theory. As I've said many times, sometimes it becomes more difficult to disbelieve a conspiracy theory than believe one. 

How old am I?

I'm so old that I remember when one of the most sacred dogmas of liberalism was that segregation based on skin color was of the Devil, was Nazi, was born of the very pits of Hell:

Which is why it's being embraced by the modern Left.  To understand the 21st Century Left take everything postwar liberalism said was evil and demand it be called good, and take all that postwar liberalism said was good and righteous and condemn it as evil. Easy peasy, Japanesey*.

*Since liberals used to condemn such a phrase as racist I'll assume we must use this phrase repeatedly to avoid being called a racist by the Left today.   

Latest election updates

 That's about right:

My son said it best

 In an election between Jesus and Hitler, Hitler still gets one out of 100,000 votes:

That certainly stinks to high heaven, and I'm no conspiracy theorist.  If all last minute tight races all swing against Trump at the eleventh hour, I'll admit it will seem fishy.

Of course with that said, I'll want evidence before I move to convict.  I'm not a Leftist after all.  Plus, in the end, I'll have to consider how much of an impact such things would have on the overall numbers.

I know if things go against Trump, he'll have to fight an uphill battle against the Left/Press/Democrats who won't lift a finger to investigate.  Nonetheless, the burden of proof is, in my world, still on the accuser.  Unless the number of electoral votes are past 270 for Trump, for me Trump loses.  

Trump loses

OK, I'm calling it. Michigan is going Blue, and the main bulk of outstanding ballots are from Detroit.  A city that has lived in hell pit misery under Democrats and yet continue to be solid Democrat. 

North Carolina and Georgia are still contested, but even if Trump gets both of those and Pennsylvania, there is no path to 270.  Trump has lost Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Those numbers are insurmountable.  It's as if Trump miscalculated. 

Who knows.  I get that Trump supporters will float endless conspiracy theories and tales of widespread corruption and voter tampering will be the talk for years to come.  It's probably true.  My guess is it's true every election year.  

But we're seeing America change.  Trump wins Ohio, Texas, Florida - and even if he pulls Pennsylvania along with keeping the others, he still can't win.  The fact is, despite the Democrats' hatred of the Electoral College, it now heavily favors Democratic Presidents.  If a Republican can win all of those states, hold the bulk of traditional Red bastians, and still lose, then future presidential elections look bleak for those who put their hopes in the GOP. 

If Trump should win?  We'll have four more years of the last four years.  The same charges of corruption and voter oppression will resound just like they did in 2016.  Remember, the Democrats never really conceded, and they fought the election results well into 2017.  

In any event, we're a very divided country.  I would like to think the winners will reach across to the losers, but I'm not betting on it.  I'd like to think leftist New Prolife Catholics will now turn and hold the Left's feet to the fire.  Again, not holding my breath.  Too many are now swept up in the divide and I don't see anything changing it, as we lurch toward the post-American nation my children will inherit. 

What will New Prolife Catholics do if Harris wins?

If Harris defeats Trump, what will the vaunted New Prolife Catholics do?  Since Trump's election, most NPLCs have solidly allied with the Left, no matter how radical the Left has become.  If it's hating America, hating  white people, hating men, boasting of aborting millions of pregnancies, pushing sex onto children, euthanizing the weak and sickly - it matters not.  No hypocrisy, evil, or wickedness of the Left was a dealbreaker.  It was always Trump.  Trump was the one evil greater than which there was no evil able to be conceived.  Therefore, no matter what those NPLCs may have once said was good or bad, they embraced all the Left offered for the purpose of defeating Trump.

So ... what if Trump loses?  It's likely he will.  It would defy all of everything we've come to know in the world if he wins.  So let's just say he loses and Harris wins.  Then what will those NPLCs do?  Trump will have been defeated.  The GOP brought low.  

If they have been honest and are really just old faithful Catholics and even conservatives at heart, compelled to align with dark forces for the greater good of defeating the Great Evil - then the Great Evil is defeated.  At that point, we would expect such NPLCs to immediately turn around and begin working against the evils, the death, the debauchery, the blasphemies that exist to the left of center.

And some no doubt will.  I have no doubt there will be some who have truly believed Trump was such an immediate threat to the universe that any and all measures needed to be embraced to defeat him.  But with him defeated, they no longer have that reason.

I guess that will be a chance to see who was telling the truth, and who had long ago sold mind, heart, body and soul to this emerging darkness covering the world.  The ones who turn and begin fighting against the evils of the Left will have been honest, I'll assume.  Those who find ways to continue being the Left's mouthpieces, however, I'll assume we know where their hearts are.  We'll then know that Trump was irrelevant, and merely a cheap excuse to align with forces they long ago had decided to follow.  

My election prediction

In 2016, on the eve of Election Day, I predicted that Hillary Clinton would be our first female president. As you can see, my predictions about election results and a fistful of money will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.  

As for this election?  It's impossible to tell.  I don't think anyone even cares about Biden.  Heck, I don't think many even care for Harris, the one most likely to be president in four years.  They're voting against the media's portrayal of Trump.   Fifty years ago, most who are voting for Trump wouldn't have gotten near the man's ballot if they had to.  And that's if he did everything good he's done for the last four years.  That was simply not acceptable decades ago.

But this is today.  CBS reported last Memorial Day that almost 40% of Americans feel it's time for the Constitution and Bill of Rights to go.  My boys report that no small number of their fellow students embrace the whole 'hate speech is not free speech' mantra.  Not a few former Evangelicals I remember, who were all about 'Conservative Evangelicalism' twenty years ago, sound more liberal than most liberal professors they once condemned.

And that last thing is a bugger.  Some who are Never Trumpers are so because of the first part I mentioned above.  Trump simply isn't someone they ever would have supported.  Not forty years ago.  Not today.  His problems, failings, and general moral laxity and behaviors negate any support they could have for him.  Not that they will vote for Harris, but they will not cross that line and vote for Trump either.

Most Never Trumpers, however, appear to be people who have been itching to join the obvious dominion of the emergent Left.  Rats and sinking ships, and it's tough to imagine how many will eventually go there. 

This global revolution embraces many things widely considered evil by the majority of people only a few years ago; certainly considered evil by so many Never Trumpers.  Ten years ago you wouldn't be fired for saying boys and girls existed.  Twenty years ago you were innocent until proven guilty in the court of public opinion every bit as much as an actual courtroom.  All my life violence was never the answer.  The only way to be cleansed of our sin of racism was to put race behind us and be color-blind. 

Today, in only a few years, all of these things once called evil are not just called good, they are mandated.  Whites are told to humiliate themselves in ways Jews were in 1930s Germany.  Violence on behalf of the political Left is all but excused, if not endorsed and supported.  Guilt or innocence is now based on the latest group label and group identity.  Gender simply isn't and the link between sex and babies is a mystery.  We know overpopulation is causing Global Warming, so anything to reduce the surplus population is a boon.  And we live in an age that treats the forty million who have died of a disease spread overwhelmingly by sex and drugs as martyrs to the holy cause of our libidos.  

And that's just a few of the obvious evils.  All of them are endorsed by the political Left; the same Left becoming more and more open about its desires for a one world global order heavy on the sex and population control, low on personal freedoms and religious liberty.  That is the Left embraced by Kamala Harris and who those who vote for her will either purposefully or ignoantly support. 

Who will win?  I have no idea.  Trump supporters are betting the farm on stacked decks, corrupt polling and a vast underground movement of silent, underreported voters.  If he wins, however, it won't be like last time.  Last time Hillary lost because she ran one of the laziest and most arrogant campaigns I've ever seen.  Plus, the country was not doing well despite the press's insistence otherwise.

Today, the country is hurting, and the press is singing its blues from the rooftops.  We can blame not-Trump as much as we want, but he's still in charge.  And when things go wrong, it's always the leader's fault.  Plus, just in our state, the Harris campaign has not made the same mistakes as last time.  In 2016, we barely saw Clinton or any real backing for Clinton.  For every Clinton sign there were at least two Trump signs. 

Today, for every Trump sign there are two or three "Biden/Harris" signs.  Airwaves have been saturated by Democratic ads, while Trump has largely been silent.  In fact, Trump's campaign seems almost to be working for Biden.  If other states are seeing what we have witnessed, I would be shocked to see Trump win.  He's barely made a dent compared to four years ago.  

Maybe he'll wijn.  If he does, it will be a crushing setback for this new World Order we're witnessing.  The press will certainly be smacked down, as all pretense of objectivity is now dead, and most news casts I watch with few exceptions look more like campaign ads for the Democrats than news.  If Americans reject that, it will send a definite message.

They might not, however.  Trump's campaign has been poorly executed, at least here in the Buckeye State.  Likewise, the press has shut him down, and political non-junkies might have missed just what he has done.  On the same point, such uninformed voters will certainly blame Trump since that is how the press has presented things.  Plus, in fairness, Trump has dropped the ball, especially this year.  While it's almost obscenely evil to suggest everything this year is Trump's fault, it's not much  better to insist none of it is. 

With that said, if the election results are even closely pointing to a Biden win, the PressDemocratsLeft will rush in and demand Trump concede immediately and without delay, will declare it a global mandate, and will call for unity (in Leftist terms meaning conform to the Left or watch your butt).  If it isn't a clear Warren/Biden victory, then expect it to be dragged out interminably.  Expect a repeat of 2000 on acid.  Charges of racism, corruption, voter fraud and oppression, and a broken system in need of reform, just like 2000, to an extent 2004, and of course the years since 2016.  

So we'll see. As a person of Faith, I care about this land of the free that seems tired of its freedoms.  I care about the dying civilization that brought notions of human rights, sanctity of life and democracy into the world.  I worry for my boys and their children.  But I also realize people of faith have faced these things before. 

I never thought I could consider voting for Donald Trump

 But the Left has done yeoman's work making me reconsider that assumption:

The Left's self righteous and arrogant war on America, the Christian West and Christ are enough to make a person do all sorts of things. Since I won't follow the 'kiss the Left's arse' approach to hoping it just impacts everyone else, voting for Trump increasingly doesn't just seem like the right thing to do.  It seems increasingly like the sane thing to do. 

All Souls Day

One problem the Christian Faith has in the world, especially the Dying West, is death by familiarity.  That is, so much of the Faith is so engrained in our cultural mindset - even in today's wildly anti-Christian environment - it's no more special than a pair of shoes or an end table.  In some cases, it's even worse.  Terms, words, phrases have been captured, used, misused, mocked, derided, so that for many people, accepting various Christian doctrines is between believing in the Tooth Fairy and believing in Unicorns.  

Words like demon, devil, Satan, angels, even heaven and hell in today's society are as simple-simon and pedestrian as butter churns and believing the earth is flat.  For most today, Science(TM) has long proven there is no God, spirit, miracles or anything.  It doesn't help that other doctrines, like Purgatory, have been dragged into the cultural wasteland and critiqued by other Christians in a negative light.

Truth be told, Purgatory is simply a word and concept that demonstrates what most Christian traditions affirm: that we're never perfect in this life, we then stand in perfection before God for eternity.  With the exception of a couple holiness branches of the pietist movements, and the Orthodox Church - which believes we are never fully complete, even in eternity, but are ever improving and growing - the bulk of the Christian witness suggests something must occur between our last breath of this life and our first moment in the perfect presence of God.

Purgatory is the doctrine - and word - the Catholic Church uses to explain that gap between the here and now and the eternal perfection.  As such, unless you're part of those couple pietest traditions or Orthodox, you shouldn't really have a problem with it.  It's certainly better than what many in my old Evangelical traditions resorted to, and that was some variation on 'we don't know.'   Are we immediately before the presence of God (see thief on the cross), do we 'fall asleep' only to be awakened on Judgement Day and then stand before the Almighty?  Either way, there is still that moment when we are imperfect, and then the moment when we are made perfect.

As a convert, of all the Catholic doctrines I had to struggle with, this was the least difficult of them.  Truth be told, I always found the Orthodox insistence that we never become perfect, and heaven is simply the next phase in discipleship (not how they frame it of course) a bit wanting.  Certainly on a biblical level it seems to demand a few select readings of the texts.  Based on what I learned of the Scriptures and the Christian model of Creation, Purgatory seemed to make all kinds of sense.

Therefore, praying for those in purgatory made as much sense as praying for those not in purgatory, but who are here on this sod.  I can pray for healing for someone I'll never see again and never know if he is healed.  Not knowing in that case doesn't mean I shouldn't bother to pray.  Same with those souls undergoing that purging of the remnant of sinfulness we accumulate in this vale of tears.  So we pray for them every bit as we ask them to pray for us.  All Souls Day is the day set aside to focus on that part of the very ancient Christian witness to the communion of saints. 

This says it all

 

Just because it's All Saints Day

Following up to yesterday's post, this seems the appropriate reminder that it doesn't end their for the faithful.