A little humor goes a long way

The Catholic Bard can sometimes be a fun read.   Here is a list of important lessons that Halloween brings.  This one made me laugh (in the section about how Peanuts makes every holiday better):

Halloween is a perfect time to teach children about military aviation history.

Heh.   There's more fun there, so check it out. 

Movies to scare kids by - the long awaited sequel!

Just in time for a nice Halloween rambling!

Back in the earliest days of my blog, Simcha Fischer posted a list of scary movies she watched with her family around spook season when she was at National Catholic Register.  Deciding to shamelessly steal the idea, I posted the same thing, and it led to an early boost in my visits. No doubt in part because of the images I used being ones people at the time were likely searching for.  Eh.  It still worked, and the old blog got quite a lift in page views. 

Since then, we've watched many more movies that weren't on the list. Some on the list aren't watched as much anymore.   Of course most aren't watched with everyone because of obvious life changes.  And there are those not listed here because, while we have watched them many times over the years, they aren't even a once every three Halloween watch.  So here is the much awaited update - Movies to Scare Kids By, Part II:

Night of the Demon, 1957

MacGinnis (L) and Andrews selling the story

They say this was the first movie in the modern era, post-war at least, to handle the topic of demonology, the occult and Satanism.  Subjects that would dominate the film world during the 1970's 'decade of realism', culminating in the early 1980's infamous 'Satanic Panic.'  In the 1950s, the old monsters of folklore and myth were passe, giving way to radioactive giant reptiles, insects, and people, all mixed with endless aliens from everywhere in the universe.  At the high noon of such nuclear age focus came this British movie.  The story deals with the 'Great Karswell' and his cult of devil worshippers.  It shows you up front what is happening, so the audience doesn't ponder if it is real (something the film makers didn't want but were forced to show by the studio).  Nonetheless, Dana Andrews is the usual skeptical scientist who needs bludgeoned over the head by a hundred foot tall demon before he'll believe - and even then he seems to drag his feet.  Beyond the subject matter, the movie is carried by Irish actor (and physician) Niall MacGinnis as Karswell, whose unique "poetic timbre" gives an offsetting, odd and not quite right feel to what could have been a cardboard caricature.  

The City of the Dead, 1960 (US: 1961)

The shadow of the cross will protect them...

Released in the United States with the unfortunate title Horror Hotel, The City of the Dead is a movie also seeking to discard the post-Nuclear monster insect fad that dominated the late 50s and 60s. No mad scientists here.  In fact, the only scientist is the obligatory sceptic, having nothing to do with their obsession with witches and witchcraft.  Christopher Lee stars as Alan Driscoll, a professor of history and expert in the topic of New England witchcraft. A prize student of his, Nan Barlow, played by model and actress Venetia Stevenson, is directed to Professor Driscoll's childhood home, which happens to be the the sight of a famous witch burning that is shown in the movie's opening.  Once there, the fog never lets up.  Really. It is never daytime, and not foggy in the village of Whitewood.  It is a ramshackle, run down community where nobody speaks and everyone looks, well, off kilter.  Soon things begin to happen, young Miss Barlow vanishes, and her brother (a professor of science) and boyfriend must find out what happened.  The whole drama culminates in a final scene I saw on TV as a child and never forgot.  It has much atmosphere, and continues with the themes of the occult and supernatural that we saw with The Night of the Demon.  Also it's fun to watch and see the obvious influences on some of Stephen King's works, as well as the age old question - given the basic framework of the movie and its year of release, did it come first or did Psycho?  

Psycho, 1960

No caption needed

Speaking of which, somehow this began to be included in the annual cycle of spooky viewing.  I needn't dwell on the specifics.  I mean, is there a more iconic suspense thriller than this?  I knew about the shower scene before I knew what showers were.  And that was back then.  Though I will say this. I have forever envied those moviegoers who saw the film upon its initial release. Only they could have appreciated Hitchcock's sleight of hand, as it's clear the early movie sets up Janet Leigh as the actual psycho. Embezzling money from her boss to force the hand of her lover Sam Loomis into marrying her, she then drives across country,  becoming more neurotic and paranoid with each mile.  Each person she runs into -seeing her boss cross the street, a police officer, California Charlie the used car salesman - becomes more and more of a threat as her mind runs wild.  Then as the weather turns sour, she pulls into the isolated Bates Motel.  Upon meeting a young Norman Bates, the audience thinks here's another person she's going to go crazy worrying about.  And yet, as they converse over an impromptu snack, something is different this time.  From the moment you see him change from picking keys to Room 3 to Room 1, you begin to get the impression that somehow, in some way, perhaps she wasn't the psycho after all.  To be able to watch it like that is something I do envy.   

The Wicker Man, 1973

Christopher Lee gives another understated performance

A disturbing movie on many levels, brilliantly executed, and a reminder for all of those who pine for the peace loving hippy days of love fest paganism.  On the surface, it does look like a celebration of good old pagan free sex versus that tired old religious puritanism of Christianity.  Edward Woodward plays a devout Christian policeman investigating the disappearance of a young girl from a nearby island off the English coast.  As he makes his rounds, he is stunned at what he sees - like a Woodstock orgy on acid.  This is only made worse when he meets the island's unapologetic lord, played by Christopher Lee in what he called one of his favorite roles.  Things begin to go from crazy to nightmarish for Woodward until, only when it is too late, he realizes just what he has uncovered.  It is an ending that will stay with you a long time after the movie is over. 

Steven King's Silver Bullet, 1985 

Made in the wake of The Howling and Rick Baker's groundbreaking effects for An American Werewolf in  London, it is inferior to those two movies in most ways.  The design for the monster in question always looked like a teddy bear with a mean streak and not much more.  With most of King's movies, either they deviate enough to improve the material, or try to stretch the material out to a two hour version of not much.  Somehow, this movie manages to do a little of neither.  Still, there are some things to like.  It wisely adds a seasonal feel by having the final confrontation take place on Halloween night (while picky observers note that in the actual year it is supposed to happen, the moon was not full on Halloween).  The principal actors are good enough, and do their jobs well enough to carry the story.  Many in the support cast actually shine brighter than the leads.  There are some heartfelt moments, and some good scenes that suggest a better movie in the making.  Plus it does contain one of the most purely gothic scenes ever put to celluloid.  Then of course there is Gary Busey.  Never has Gary Busey more Gary Bussied than here.  If you like your Gary Busey acting three sheets to the wind even when he's not drunk, this is the movie for you.

L to R: Angry teddy bear; Werewolf to scare the bloody pants off of you (courtesy of The Howling)

The Fall of the House of Usher 

One of the catalogue of Roger Corman's 'how to mutilate Poe' films.  Of all of them, this is the one trying at least somewhat to cleave unto the original source material.  Vincent Price, Mr. Horror of Poe himself, does a good job of making the ailing Roderick Usher come off as unsettling at best.  The settings are typical Corman, lots of fog, everything looks dead (as well it should), the interior shots are properly gothic, and the costumes are straight out of a Broadway costume drama.  At only 79 minutes, it still feels like the main goal is to stretch and stretch again the story into a full length theatrical release.  Nonetheless, when it does get going, and the set of the crypts is revealed, the whole begins to come together and makes for viewing that fits well into the Halloween seasonal feel.  

Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966)

The sequel to Hammer's The Horror of Dracula, its first instalment of an eternally long string of Dracula movies.  Featuring one of the best showdowns between Dracula and his arch-nemesis Van Helsing, Hammer reminds us that when it comes to adapting books into movies, don't worry about the books.  The names are the same, but don't apply to the same people.  We still have no clue where it is supposed to take place.  The story begins in the first minute by quoting Jonathan Harker's journal, and then promptly begins rewriting the journal itself, with the story to follow.  Nonetheless, so successful was its performances at the box office that a sequel from Hammer was inevitable.  Dracula, Prince of Darkness begins a decade or so after the events of the first movie.  Not able to get Peter Cushing back, they bring in four stalwart Brit performers as well as the always reliable Andrew Keir to weave together a new story centered around a speechless Dracula (the reasons for Lee having no dialogue being debated to this day).  Two brothers and their wives defy warnings from a rambunctious abbot and visit too close to the Castle Dracula.  As they say, when you're in horror movies, you make dumb decisions.  What follows is predictable, and the ending, while interesting in leaning on the tale that vampires can't cross running water, is nowhere close to the first movie's ending (see below).  Also, the 'vampire as bizarre mutant monster, not supernatural' gets kicked into high gear, and you're left pondering just what Keir's abbot actually believes about - anything.  I suppose it was the apex of accepting that everything spiritual must really be material.  It's worth noting, BTW, that the TV channels we had when I was growing up must have owned this movie outright, because more than almost any other horror movie, it seemed this was shown repeatedly.  Also, like The City of the Dead, one can see some clear influences on both Stephen King and, of all things, Dungeons and Dragons! 

Curse of the Werewolf (1961)    

Oliver Reed shines in this tortured tale.  While Hammer would raid old Universal story lines and adapt them liberally from the source material, they toss Curt Siodmak's concocted Wolf Man story out the window.  Instead, for this movie they lean on actual European folklore and superstitions about werewolves and their origins.  Reed's Leon is definitely a tragic character, almost as much as his adopted father, played brilliantly by Welsh actor Clifford Evans.  A viewer will almost be lost at first, as the initial scenes in the movie tap into historical beliefs about where werewolves originate.  Then we meet Leon as a young child with decidedly un-childlike tendencies: Like sleepwalking and returning with blood all over his torn up clothes.  Growing up doesn't help, and like any true Gothic tale, it oozes with tragedy, for that's typically what defines a Gothic tale.  True to form, Hammer Films, as it so often did, managed to punch well above its weight in terms of what it could do with very limited budgets and resources, and makes this one of the most rewatchable of its extensive catalogue. 

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

The Hammer film that put Hammer in the spotlight. Initially panned for its gore, its production and its gratuitous levels of - then - shocking visuals, the movie has since been seen as a milestone due to its role in bringing back the classic horror genre in the age of sci-fi and nuclear paranoia.  Like most Hammer films, the source material is out the window. It isn't even based on stage plays.  The film begins with Dr. Frankenstein awaiting his execution.  He tells his tale of what happened, a tale we should be at least vaguely familiar with.  If Frankenstein is sometimes less sympathetic than his creation in the original novel, here he's pure villain.  Willing to murder to maintain his project of life creation, Cushing's Frankenstein ranks as one of Hammer's most heartless monsters.  Even more than the grotesque creature itself, played again by a speechless Christopher Lee.  Scottish actor Robert Urquhart is wonderful as Frankenstein's mentor, turned adversary as he begins to recoil in horror at what his prized student is capable of doing.  Like most Hammer films, for its day it pulled no punches, and the ending shows that not all movies need to end happily. 

The House on Haunted Hill, 1959

The move makes as much sense as this photo

Pure schlock of the highest degree of schlock.  Vincent Price is at his hammy best here, playing the eccentric zillionaire Frederick Loren in what has to be one of the most hilariously convoluted storylines ever.  Released back when low budget movie gimmicks was a fad, the story, the logic, the consistency, the defiance of reality, the basic 'what the hell is going on here' problems with the plot, all take a back seat to a faddish technology long lost on modern audiences.  The basic idea is that Mr. Loren has put together a party at a notoriously haunted house - for reasons?  And then he and his wife pretty much hate each other, until it is revealed there is at least a five way double cross conspiracy orchestrated by - someone?  Elisha Cook is almost slappable with his annoying prattling, and most of the actors seem genuinely confused, because the audience certainly is.  Nonetheless, it sort of got added to the mix some years ago, and is a family favorite.  Especially since the boys like to do with it what they do with the old Frosty the Snowman Christmas special.  That is, eviscerate it down to its core with comedic jabs and digs at the obvious loopholes of logic and plotlines.  

The Haunting, 1963

In keeping with the emerging focus on the supernatural and away from space aliens and giant mutants, we're treated to this cinematic version of Shirley Jackson's novel The Haunting of Hill House. To be honest, this isn't really my cup of tea.  For some reason, the atmosphere and the portrayal of the haunting itself comes off as almost tinny, if that means anything.  There is a mechanical feel to it all that doesn't hit me as 'supernatural' or 'spiritual.'  More like sound machines and drum sets behind the stage than ethereal spirits.  Nonetheless, it is liked here on the home front, and I don't hate it.  There is some good there, especially the lore attached to the story.  The sets themselves are good, and the acting solid.  Yes, we all get the subtle inuendo behind the two female leads' relationship. But overall, each actor of the small cast does good enough.  Not to mention Julie Harris's Elinore Lance has a bullseye over her that even the least attentive viewer can't help but see.  So it's OK, but probably not a favorite, at least for me. 

Night of the Living Dead, 1968

And in color, too!

The low budget independent film against which all low budget independent films are measured.  Literally filming out of the trunk of his car, George Romero managed to redefine a mythical concept and invent a genre in almost one fell swoop.  Despite the heavy handed Civil Rights Era messaging, Romero has always insisted the story was already in place when Duane Jones was cast.  The ending just coincidently looked like it was pushing a message.  A spin on societal paranoia and survival against all odds that would make Rod Serling proud, it manages to start with a punch and never let up.   With a budget barely enough to buy a McDonald's happy meal in terms of movie financing, Romero managed to piece together an intense, suspenseful, and compelling labor of love that still holds up, and unsettles the viewer, even today. 

Ghost Story, 1981

Enough class to fill the screen

Based on Peter Straub's 1979 novel of the same name, the movie distills the book down to the classic 'old dark secret shared by friends' storyline. As they enter the twilight of their years, four life long friends become concerned when one suddenly dies, for no apparent reason.  Then goes another one.  Finally, the son of the first to die shows up and tells his tale.  A beautiful young woman came into his life who seemed, well, every guy's dream.  It being the sex saturated early 80s, this dream is played out on screen in very non-family friendly ways.  Yet something begins to look wrong.  He soon links her to his own brother who died mysteriously after meeting a young woman who sounded a lot like his current flame.  Stories are told, and the dark secret the four pledged to keep forever when they were young is revealed.  At that point, they conclude this might be a case of revenge from the netherworld.  The fact that they rounded up some phenomenal acting power - Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Fred Astaire, John Houseman and Patricia Neal to name a few - lifts the movie by at least a letter grade.  Good atmosphere and creepy settings don't hurt. 

The Witch, 2015

It's a family in-joke

A movie that came out of nowhere and absolutely awed everyone who saw it. The story is of a Puritan family in 17th Century American concluding their community isn't up to their own high Christian standards.  Therefore, they strike out to make their own way in the American wilderness.  Things soon go from bad to catastrophic as the disappearance of their newborn is followed by a strange and disturbing series of events, both natural and unsettling.  Meanwhile, one by one the members of the family are either lost or turn on one another.  The movie itself deserves a full blog post, and much has been written about it.  The thing I like, beyond it leaving things open at the end, is that the movie respected the material.  It didn't hoist the Calvinist family up for ridicule or mockery or 'gee they were the pits' levels of derision.  It merely says 'these people did this, this is how they saw things, and this is what happened.'  Such a treatment of the past is almost rarer today than a valid witch sighting in these jaded times of ubiquitous presentism. And it helps make this some great, if not disturbing, viewing for a Halloween season lineup. 

CHEATS:

The next couple are movies we used to watch but my wife began to find a bit troubling.  I think it has to do with raising teenagers and college students.  

Halloween, 1978

It begins

It was like Romero's Night of the Living Dead, but taken to the next level.  The initial charge was for John Carpenter to make another garbage quality hack and slash movie for the post-adolescent palate.  But rather than just grab a camera and shoot, he decided to reach into that haversack of creativity, add a little golly-gee-whiz, along with some out of the box seasonal inspired thinking, and came up with a movie that blew the socks off of audiences when it was released, and showed just what independent filmmaking could accomplish at the box office. My cousin Joannie, the night they saw it in theaters, made her husband go in and turn on all the lights in their house and check all the closets before she got out of the car.  I heard that story repeated endlessly back then.  It's amazing what a bag of dead leaves, a William Shatner mask, a machete, a pumpkin special ordered from New England, Donald Pleasance, and the date October 31st gave to an otherwise forgettable low budget project.   Also, we should mention the movie's musical score, written by Carpenter, has become one of the most iconic scores ever.  A fitting bit of trivia for a movie that carved its own niche in movie history. 

The Blair Witch Project, 1999

You have to admit - it works

One of the first fruits of the Internet age, it played the new medium like a maestro and generated one of the biggest blockbusters, in terms of profit margins, in movie history.  Of course like anything, it quickly became just as fashionable to hate and despise the movie as initially praise it.  A film by actual students in the University of South Florida film department, the story centers around students in a film department doing a documentary on the legend of the Blair Witch.  The basic premise is sort of like Dracula, but in the video age.  That is, their film cameras they used to track everything that happened were discovered, and what we are watching is what actually went down.  Ok.  If Dracula's whole 'quick, something isn't right, let's get to the diary' framework seemed to stretch things at times, this movie's 'oh no, we could die - quick, grab a camera', went over the edge. But putting aside the obvious need for suspending tremendous amounts of disbelief, the movie did a good job of reminding us that less can often be more.  The fall foliage, the wilderness isolation, the nod to a cemetery, the community with only hints of Halloween decorations never focused on, the abandoned house, the strange yet understated totems in the middle of the woods, did a far better job at helping the viewer paint a frightening mental picture than most movie special effects artists could ever do.  

SPECIAL MENTION

Ghost Story (2017)

Really, he's in a bed sheet

We still aren't sure what to make of this.  Staring Casey Affleck, it is the story of a young couple, madly in love, whose lives are shattered by the sudden and tragic death of the young man (Affleck).  After the shock of the accident, Affleck suddenly finds himself in, well, a bedsheet and confined to his home.  Without saying a word, he watches as the love of his life moves on, only to be replaced by others who come and go until suddenly it looks like the year 2929 with space skyscrapers and flying cars and then -  woosh!  There he is, in his sheet, looking upon a barren wilderness.  He sees 19th Century settlers, then the decaying body of a dead child with an arrow in her back (gutsy move that), and suddenly, things start coming full circle as around him emerges the neighborhood and house he knew.  Each scene contains characters and dialogue that muse on life, death, time, morality, the divine, and the eternal.  All while the ghost with two eye-holes silently observes.  My wife isn't keen on watching it again, but I admit I wouldn't mind giving it another whirl. 

So there you have it.  For the record, not all of them are watched every year, and some more often than others.  A few have only been watched a couple times, but almost always around October, owing to the seasonal vibes.  

Deportus interruptus

I'm sure you've heard, if you ignore the mainstream media, about the case in Sweden.  Once again, it turns out it isn't some rightwing social media generated hoax.  Though the Left is going so far overboard, you can forgive those who hear about what is going on and conclude it is a hoax. After all, it couldn't possibly be real.

But, alas, it is. A young Swedish girl was raped by an immigrant.  The immigrant was arrested and charged.  However, the harsh penalty of being deported for having raped a young woman was dismissed.  The reason?  Because while he did rape her, for reasons undisclosed the rape proper didn't last long enough.  I know.  It seems like a joke waiting to write itself.  And if it didn't involve what it involves, you might think the SNL team came up with it.

But it's real.  Of course we all know why.  Sweden, like most of the West, is hellbent on its own destruction.  Anyone not European and eager to help with that destruction takes favored status.  Oh, if you're a woman wanting to tear down the Western Patriarchy, that's good.  But if you run afoul of a more important demographic group, then sorry about your luck. Hence to this young woman and young women everywhere - maybe next time.  The next time we want a political opponent taken out, then you'll matter. 

We've seen this already, the idea that there is no human race or individual, merely intersecting demographics whose worth and value are based on the latest intersecting demographics.  Given the number of minority voters who swung toward Trump in 2024, however, there might be a gradual dawning on these groups that they matter insofar as it is convenient for them to matter, and not a minute more. 

But for now, the ever devolving Left is almost boasting that there is nothing so heinous, so evil, so dishonest, so brutal, and so terrible that it won't defend it, condone it, and even enable it  - as long as it furthers the Left's ends, no matter who is harmed in the process.  Those ends, again, being the end of the Western Christian Tradition including, but hardly limited to, the American Experiment.  

Another belated birthday shout-out to our second oldest.

Another belated birthday shout-out to our second oldest, several weeks late. As my boys are still on their journeys, and by the grace of God they will never really stop those journeys in this lifetime, I must say our second oldest does us proud.  He cashed in his credit on some pretty tough cards dealt to him for a time by running into a young lady who is what you would want for a first time daughter-in-law.  

He is still on his journey, but is in the process of helping build a family in the process.  Always curious and never settled, he and his wife are forever coming up with ideas, taking chances, thinking outside the box and generally building a legacy of creativity, leaps in faith and amazing accomplishments.

In barely a few years together, and only a couple years of marriage, they have opened a brick and mortar bookstore while our country was in the financial doldrums of the previous four years, redefined their business venture and bringing more financial success, published their own novel, gotten involved in their church, he has become involved in the community theater, she has developed a staggeringly good talent for binding and repairing books, and all while being first time parents in the wake of a birth that was anything close to calm and routine.  

To illustrate their approach to life, when he auditioned for a part in the local play You Can't Take it With You, he got the part of Ed Carmichael, the eccentric musician wannabe.  Problem is, in the play Ed is the xylophone player always tapping along through different scenes.  My son had never come close to playing the instrument before.  My third oldest, while he was in school and played percussion in band, did have some experience.  So he got his old bells from school and gave them to my thespian son, and viola!  After a self-taught crash course, he managed to learn the instrument enough to sell the part.  Not bad, and pretty much their lives together in a nutshell. 

Still a favorite picture

Teaching himself a new instrument - not bad at all
(from You Can't Take it With You)

As the eccentric Ed Carmichael, peering around Paul 
to catch a glimpse of the action
(from You Can't Take it With You)

With our youngest, also in the play, after a performance
(from You Can't Take it With You)

A born angler, thanks to his in-laws' family

A chance for all smiles

As a young family, they'll have their ups and downs, triumphs and failures, struggles and accomplishments.  But their daughter is one of the happiest babies I have ever seen.  And more to the point, when she sees them coming to pick her up, she beams with smiles big enough to light the sky.  If I didn't know anything else about them, that alone would be evidence that they are definitely doing something right.  

Obligatory cuteness collage must be posted!

Getting it wrong

So October 7th, the anniversary of the worst single day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust, came and went with some minor mention.   A mixed bag.  There were stories of subdued remembrance in Israel. Other stories mixing up the mess of October 7th against Israel's genocide against Gaza.  Still others mentioned that some governments or government leaders took a dim view of protests siding with Hamas.  And, of course, Hamas went full blown celebration two years later. I haven't found if the US Bishops or Pope Leo said anything only addressing the massacre itself. 

To that end, I saw this story, by journalist Matthew Syed, going to a pro-Palestinian rally in England.  His point is that just asking if Hamas could be partly to blame for what has happened opened up a withering broadside of rage and accusations from those present.  After recounting some of his discussions with people there, he wrote this: 

with two exceptions (including a lovely black guy from North London who conversed intelligently and politely), the motivation for being here was obvious, potent and implacable. The hatred of Jews

No.  Not really.  Not that Jews aren't hated like any other group.  And I have bad news for the poets and dreamers and well meaning Christians in the world: There are Jews who hate Christianity and Christians just the same.  Hatred of others goes back to the beginning.  Just ask Abel. 

But what we're seeing here aimed at a normally protected group, is not the sudden hatred of Jews.  It's the hatred of the West.  It's accepting the Muslim/Palestinian version of history as Israel being the colonizing, imperialist oppressive extension of the Christian Western tradition that swept in and took what was always the Palestinians' part of the world.  That is what has set the hatred of these particular Jews into full swing.  Not hatred because they are Jews per se.  But they are linked to Israel.  Which in turn is linked to the West. 

The boilerplate defense is that you can condemn Israel and not hate Jews.  Perhaps that is true.  I think it is.  But that doesn't mean therefore that everyone who condemns Israel doesn't hate the Jews in question.  And while some have always hated Jews (like those on the Left who have always hated blacks, Hispanics, Asians and others and merely found new ways to live out this bigotry), most do so now because of the view that Israel is a Nazi State, like all of the West since the history of the West.

My oldest son, back when he was an undergraduate, made an interesting observation.  When I was growing up, the two dollar parlor debate was how the German people allowed that to happen.  How did they allow the Nazis to rise to power?  How the Holocaust? What the hell?  

My son said, at least in the view of not a few of his classmates and even professors, the answer was right in front of us all along.  It was because the Germans were Europeans.  It's what Europeans do.  And in the last few generations, many young people believe that Nazi Germany was merely one iteration of the typical history that has always defined all of Europe and the United States.  And that includes anything to do with the West, as in Israel. 

It's the reason why serious and continued support for the murder of Charlie Kirk is not going away. In fact, defending the right to want people like Charlie Kirk murdered has become the basis for the media's sudden obsession with free speech again.  Which speaks volumes.  It's because Kirk is defending, in the view of an ever consolidating movement, the broader Nazi reality of everything West that the Left seeks to undo. 

Remember, to the Left, the West is the enemy.  Like the Bolsheviks tearing down the memory of Tsarist Russia, the Left would throw down as much of the West, its heritage, history, values, religion, and identity as possible.  That includes such tools of oppression and injustice as forgiveness, freedom of speech, religious liberty, equality, and sometimes even democracy itself.  We won't even discuss the long ago discarded idea of the sanctity of human life. 

To that end, the Left allies with anything on the planet to aid in this endeavor.  And that includes the Muslim world.  I mean, we didn't think after almost a millennium of attempting to sweep into Europe and subjugate Europe to Islamic rule, the Muslim world just gave up because, for a couple centuries, Europe and the West got the upper hand, do we?  And this reality is either not known to Western progressives, or well known by them, and hence the alliance.  

No, what we're seeing is not just hatred of Jews.  It's hatred of the West, and that includes Jews that get swept up in identifying with anything to do with the West.  It includes Jews, Asians, Hispanics, women, blacks, and any group that doesn't properly join the cause of the West's eradication.  If we can't see that by now, I doubt even a dead man raised from the dead and telling us will do the trick. 

Yes it is good news

AKA Hitler, at least to the left of center

Apparently President Trump has brought back Columbus Day, much to the chagrin of the Left.  I've written about the assault on Columbus Day many times.  It represents the rampant presentism that defines the Left's approach to history.  It often rests heavily on our modern pick and choose approach to facts and reality.  Its replacement rests on that multi-cultural deifying of any civilization not west of the Urals.  And it certainly shows that side of out country that wants our country burned to the ground.  Since obviously, as President Trump said a decade ago, it didn't stop with Columbus or Robert E. Lee.  

Nonetheless, it will be a short-lived victory.  The minute - the second - the Democrats get a president in the Oval Office it will be stricken just the same.  As will many things President Trump has done in such a manner.  The problems are deeply rooted.  It's been said we're in a Cold Civil War.  That is likely true, though it has been getting hot in recent years.  

Of course take the win while we can.  We've never stopped referring to Columbus Day in our home, and despite having a significant line of American Indian in us, never bought into the indigenous people worship endorsed by the Left (and, sadly, no small part of the modern Church). We even still give the day off from school to our youngest. But again, a short lived victory no doubt, unless things take a radical turn from where the Left would have them go. 

There comes a time in a man's life

When you're out walking around your neighborhood, and you see a bunch of signs in a yard celebrating someone's 40th birthday.  

At first you smile, then it dawns on you when you see the 1985 sign that 1985 was when you graduated high school.  That is, the person who is now 40 was born the same year you graduated.  Then you continue walking, but more keenly aware of the aches and pains with each subsequent step.  

Not surprising at all

We live in an era of lies. Lies upon lies wrapped in lies and almost always in the service of rank, unadulterated evil.  I think we've grown numb to it, to be honest.  For instance, this July the Journal of Psychiatric Research released yet more evidence that abortion does mental harm to the women who have the procedure done.  Overwhelming numbers according to the study.  I know.  Studies.

But this is a study that challenges the dominant progressive narrative.  And the Journal itself isn't some rightwing rag - though some might call it that for producing such a finding.  A common tactic these days. However, I doubt they'll have to since I've not seen a single story on the thing we used to call the news media mentioning it. 

But it just goes to show.   We're at a stage now where the lies are beyond the lies.  It's almost as if we want the lies.  Everyone who is anyone knows women who have had abortions often struggle in later years.  Oh, you have the rich and powerful types who have come out and cheer any abortion that paved the way for their rise to wealth.   But on the more grounded scale, I know for a fact from my own experiences as a former counselor that abortion weighs heavy on women, more often as a rule than an exception. 

But you'd never know it.  The same with AIDS and our modern Sodom and Gomorrah civilization.  Or the godless, soulless age we've built and the staggering drugs and suicide and violence plaguing our children.  Or the Me Generation of endless narcissism built on F-Bombs and middle fingers and the rise of senseless mass killings and violence. 

Nope.  Follow the science, they say.  #I Believe in Science!  And yet, only when it's the right science and scientists telling me what I want to hear.  The stunning thing is the lack of serious pushback about this from our best and brightest religious leadership.  I know some are out there fighting the good fight.  But so many appear happy to see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil, and if the media aids in that endeavor, then all the better. 

On this October 7th

A comment I left on a post that was decrying Israel's Nazi style genocide against Gaza and the Palestinians.  Like this story here.  This is in no way a defense for anything and everything Israel is or might do.  It is to keep it real.  We live in an age of untruth, and there's nothing we like more than telling it like it ain't.  Why is Israel doing what it is doing and ignoring virtually the entire world's outcry?  My take: 

You call this being what happens when someone gets backed into a corner. As one military historian I follow pointed out, October 7th was a probing action. For years, terror groups in surrounding areas could attack Israel, kill a couple Israelis, and then as soon as Israel responded, the world condemned - Israel. October 7th was to see just how many Jews can be killed, tortured, and mutilated in a single day and still have the world condemn Israel. That number now being over a thousand. Because almost immediately, after a day or two of shock while protests erupted around the world celebrating Hamas and cheering what it did, the world once again condemned - Israel.  Initially the outrage was triggered by the hospital Hamas turned out to have attacked, but as soon as it could, the world dropped the hammer on Israel and hasn’t stopped since. Because a significant number in the surrounding nations and those in alliance with those nations have made it clear they want Israel wiped off the map and are willing to kill any number of Jews to do it, and the world has expressed solidarity with those saying so, there just isn't much motivation for Netanyahu to do anything else. Not everyone in the world today builds vast networks of ethics around the premise that as long as it's those other shmucks who get taken out and they leave me alone, I'm good.  Of course, none of this excuses what Israel is or might do no matter what.  But the problem is, we’ve learned from years of experience that nothing Israel does will be excused, while those wishing for a post-Israel world are the ones garnering the world’s support time and again.  

An October Friday Frivolity: A Ravenloft Retrospective

Bless that good, good woman who hung the crucifix round my neck! for it is a comfort and a strength to me whenever I touch it. It is odd that a thing which I have been taught to regard with disfavour and as idolatrous should in a time of loneliness and trouble be of help.  From Jonathan Harker's Journal, Chapter III, Dracula. 

Released in 1983, Ravenloft was an 'Adventure Module' for the Dungeons & Dragons brand roleplaying game. By 1983, the Fantasy Renaissance kicked off by Star Wars was beginning to fizzle.   It was still there.  Fantasy and Sci-Fi would still find plenty of interest for the next few years.  But it was slowing.  By then, the media's full blown assault on D&D and the collateral damage to the genre as a whole was starting to reveal growing cracks in its popularity.  Perhaps that is why TSR, publisher of D&D, was looking for something new. 

Since I wasn't particularly into the whole D&D/Roleplaying world, the release of this went right by without me noticing.  But in college, I ran into a fellow who played the game extensively.  He had quite a collection of these books, including this one, so I decided to have a look.

I discovered in later years that this was a new approach to the game in at least two ways.  First, TSR hired a new batch of  highly skilled professional freelance artists to give a more credible look to the product as a whole.   Gone were ink sketches and line drawings that looked like they came from a middle school art class.  These were seasoned pros, and it looked it. 

From the original 1974 edition, and the later pro artist version

Second, TSR looked to a new author who decided it was time to move from 'hack and slash and get the treasure in the next room' to something more story centered.  His name was Tracy Hickman.  He already broke with the traditional theme of most modules by writing an adventure module containing a little more atmosphere and story.  Centered around an ancient Egyptian themed setting (and not the usual quasi-Medieval European), the product was called Pharoah (co-authored by Laura Hickman).   

As I said, I was completely unaware at the time, but I guess it was quite successful and made an impression on the TSR management.  Perhaps people wanted more, too.  So Hickman was given the chance to produce another similar module, expanding on what he had done before.  This time, the module, released near Halloween in 1983, would be Ravenloft.  Cool name, huh.  

You didn't have to be a genius to get the basic setting of the module or figure out the genre that it was based upon. Mind you, this was the early 80s.  We were still a somewhat homogenous culture, so we got vampires and Dracula and all.   You didn't have to wonder what someone meant when they said vampire.  Most of us still conjured images of Bela Lugosi, or perhaps Christopher Lee.  A few might have thought of Frank Langella, but not likely.   No Twilight edgy dropouts, Underworld ninja warrior vampires or Rice hipster rockstar types.  Vampires were basically supernatural undead vermin that must be destroyed, looking like an Eastern European nobleman for trappings.  

After I perused the module, there were a couple things that happened. First, it lent a credibility that I felt had been lacking the first time I attempted to get into the game.  I suppose this is what made me more receptive when a mutual friend invited me to a group of students - mostly in the computer science field - getting together and playing games on Wednesdays.  Though different games were played, and I eventually pushed the group to a more strategy game focus, at the time the anchor game was obviously D&D.  Since by then I had seen this and other more professional products (such as the second 'Monster Manual' ), I was willing to give it another shot. 

The second thing that happened was that it encouraged me to track down and buy the original source material behind the module.  That is, the actual novel Dracula.  Even growing up, I was aware that Dracula was originally a novel.  Though my exposure to vampires was typically through the sequel runs of Hammer or Universal or Abbot and Costello.  Back then, the originals, the classics, like the original Dracula, or  The Wolfman, or Frankenstein, were seldom shown.  Rare was the occasion for those to appear on TV.  It was usually Dracula XVII, or Those Darn Vampires or similar fare on Fritz the Night Owl's Friday Night Double Feature. So I tracked down the novel at the old Long's Bookstore at OSU to discover what I might have been missing.  I bought it in small, Penguin Classics form and took to read it. 

I'll admit, it's an acquired taste.  Done up in epistolatory form, the basic premise is that we're looking at diaries, journal entries, papers, news articles, captain's logs, and a variety of written sources that, pieced together, tell this remarkable tale that the heroes of the book experienced.  Of course I needn't go into the details of the story proper.  That's too well known.  But when I first read it, the format and just the basic cultural and social contexts were certainly a trick to get through.

Despite all that, over the years the novel has grown on me.  I wouldn't say it's a regular read.  Though I have read it several times over the decades.  But I will say the opening - Jonathan Harker's entry Journal - is stand alone one of the best pieces of horror fiction ever.  Even if I don't read the whole book, every Fall I will make sure to squeeze in a jaunt through Mr. Harker's experiences visiting Castle Dracula.  I know of few horror novels or stories that hit almost every perfect bullseye the way that section of the book does.  And not only did it leave a mark with me - heh - it also turned me on to an entire genre of literature that I had, up until then, largely ignored.  Not bad for a game module. 

Oh, and one more thing.  I was a long time fan of maps, dating back to when I would pull out the old Mercator projection we had and spread it on the living room floor, spending hours looking over the different countries and places of the world.  I must admit the breakthrough 3-D maps of the module were alone a piece of inspiration for me - even if the game itself still didn't make sense. There was something they triggered by having the small scale inkblot for the castle, which was then unpacked by such a magnificent 3-D, interconnected floorplan. I've always been a sucker for maps, and castles, and just that feeling you get when you look into a dark doorway and wonder what's beyond. That was more than satisfied with the module's floorplans. 

So that isn't bad from an old module to a game that, at that time, I didn't even play.  It made me receptive to the game after a less than stellar attempt to learn it years earlier.  That helped in later decades when, during the age of Jackson and Potter-mania, my boys would be all about this and similar genre based activities.  It also turned me on to reading not only gothic horror, but 19th Century literature in general.  And that, over the years, remains my favorite period for fiction.  I guess it strikes a chord with me that aligns with my general personality and tendencies.  

I seek not gaiety nor mirth, not the bright voluptuousness of much sunshine and sparkling waters which please the young and gay. I am no longer young; and my heart, through weary years of mourning over the dead, is not attuned to mirth. Moreover, the walls of my castle are broken; the shadows are many, and the wind breathes cold through the broken battlements and casements. I love the shade and the shadow, and would be alone with my thoughts when I may.  From Jonathan Harker's Journal, Chapter II, Dracula 

Gratuitous granddaughter picture

Yes, I'm that unashamedly proud.  In only a couple months, she'll have a younger sibling to help take care of.  It should be fun.