Bwa ha ha ha ha!

Speaking of why Democrats never lose.  

I've more or less sworn off Twitter, and ignore most Catholic activists who frequent there.  Nonetheless, I still belong to groups that do the dirty work, and every now and then something is so funny it's worth repeating.  Case in point:

I can now barely fill a shopping cart halfway from where I could a year ago, and that was after almost the first year of the Covid pandemic.  Beyond that, an unraveling international scene mixed with empty shelves, lack of crucial goods, and rising prices for living, I don't hear many saying things are hunky-dory. Could it be they know the facts, and it's those known facts that are driving down his poll numbers? 

I have always loved how Americans are treated when they don't support Democrats.  They're either evil, or they're stupid, or, most charitably, uninformed.  It couldn't be because 'Ignore the bad and focus only on the good' doesn't work when most Americans are being impacted by the bad.  Heaven forbid it's because most Americans are good folks who are informed and who have assessed the current situation and found liberal Democrats wanting.  That doesn't seem to be near the radar, much less on it. 

It's been a theory of mine that one reason Donald Trump won in 2016 was that the press circled the wagons around Hillary Clinton by trying to lift up Obama as the savior of mankind. I can still remember Fareed Zakaria giving a monologue in 2016 on how, after 10 billion years, we've finally reached the pinnacle of human history in the universe, all thanks to Obama.  Really. He said because of Obama we were now at possibly the best situation that the world has ever seen.

Of course it wasn't like that in the least, and there were problems aplenty.  Remember when Islamic terror attacks were now the New Normal?  Heck, even Rick Steves joined in that lament.  Wages were stagnant.  Jobs still wavering.  Economic growth anemic.  Terror attacks and ISIS and a world increasingly laughing in our face.  Yet the press seemed to think if it just said so, said that Utopia was around the corner because of Obama/Clinton, it would be true.  

I've often thought that is why many didn't vote.  They didn't vote for Trump mind you.  But enough didn't vote at all because they were tired of being told their suffering didn't count, because it might make the wrong candidate and party look bad.

So if you hope for Republican victories in the next round of elections, my advice is to lift Mr. Dailey and his posse up on a pedestal.  Encourage him and others like him to continue ignoring, downplaying or denying the suffering of those who are being crushed by our current state of affairs - especially the poorest and lowest income Americans.  Because in the end, people are never as stupid as they appear to hope. 

Speaking of hilarious - and I'm warning you to put down your coffee or you might spill it laughing - we have this from that respectable news organization CNN:

Heh.  What can I say.  I think the media was harder on Trump than it was Hitler.  I can't think of anyone who got reamed by the press more than Trump.  They might as well have added to their slogan 'All the news that's fit to defeat Trump.'  But like Agent K, I'm beginning to think the tabloids are far more reliable news sources than most traditional news outlets. 

Hillary Clinton speaks!

Or rather, reads.  She 'tearfully' reads her victory speech prepared for 2016.  Of course she has also blamed all the sexists and misogynists and other deplorables for defeating her chance to unite America.  Other reasons for her defeat are given here:

Remember, whenever a Democrat loses, it's because Americans are stupid or evil or both.  It's not hard.  I mean, let's follow the science people. 

They used to be called Human Toothaches

That was a phrase Mark Shea used to describe various radical leftwing groups, especially atheists when they would swoop in to remove a memorial cross or some Christian tribute on public ground.  I always liked that because it fit.  They are the type of people you wouldn't mind seeing take a seat on a commode at Jurassic Park. If this story is halfway true, it certainly applies to them. 

To be gracious, knowing the proud contempt that many millennials and post-millennials have for history of any type, it could be that they've never heard of Pearl Harbor or anything to do with it.  Or, on the off chance that they have, they don't link it to any particular date.  I'm willing to believe that for the sake of giving the benefit of the doubt.  If that's the case, then they don't deserve the label Human Toothache.  For why single them out for being as ignorant as our media, culture and education institutions have wanted them to be. 

Pope Francis - Culture Warrior

Heh. Read it here.   The Church has spent the better part of the last few generations losing.  Protestants were ahead of the game and started their surrendering some generations earlier.  The defeats have been a string of battles large and small, but all adding up to one thing: Convincing people that the Gospel is false, therefore to be abandoned. 

'Happy Holidays' and 'Seasons Greetings' have been around for many moons. There was nothing wrong with them.  And people with advanced sensitivities no doubt dropped a generic greeting in mixed company, or if they were in the presence of someone who, for instance, is Jewish.   That was no problem and I doubt too many gave it much thought.

But somewhere, at some point, it started to be insisted upon.  And among the earliest mischief makers were Jewish activists who rode the 1970s wave in America's reassessment of itself.  Perhaps it happened at another time in Europe.  But here in the colonies, it was when I could remember that suddenly we were told to say the non-Christian version of the greeting.

This reached a zenith back when our wonderful corporate brothers got caught telling their employees to drop the J-Word or any overtly Christian terminology at this time of year. Keep secular in Christmas, or so were the directives.  That was when FOX branded it the 'War on Christmas.'  An over the top phrase to be sure.  And false.  It wasn't just a war on Christmas, but on Christ and His Church, as it ultimately always is. 

But these are not small things.  Forcing people to speak words is a classic way of control.  All societies have their taboos and polite language that excludes certain words or phrases.  But forcing people to say things they disagree with, especially when they are true, is a good indicator that something seriously wrong is happening. 

Those who poo-poo such worries (I'm looking at you Russ Moore) are often found to be people who are giving up the fight.  Compromise, surrender, giving up - whatever.  We've seen many who, decades ago, laughed at worrying about such trivial things jump ship or in some way or another find ways to suck up to this new world order.  That is, they shouldn't have been trusted.

In this case, I agree with Pope Francis.  It's a sign of dictatorships to control people on this level.  It's not a laughing matter.  Remember, we're looking at the state of things today for a reason.  It wasn't some sudden massive attack on our civilization.  It was the death of a thousand cuts.  And this little gem, this 'War on Christmas', was merely one of those thousands too many ignored or downplayed when we could have stood up for the cause. 

Remembering

Early on here at the blog I wondered how much longer we will remember this day, or any part of the war for that matter.   Growing up, WWII loomed large in our national memories.  It was also being chipped away, with many pop culture portrayals of war vets being comedic: Archie Bunker types, constantly remembering the olden days and talking about war stories, to rolled eyes and sighs.  

Part of the problem was that by the 70s and 80s, when gore and violence and 'realism' were becoming the norm in visual media - not to mention sex - it left many old war movies, and war documentaries, looking rather tame and dry by comparison.  What was Fighting Seabees compared to Platoon?  What was Why We Fight next to The Deer Hunter?  It led to a college roommate saying that while wars are no doubt bad, Vietnam was worse than any war in history.  After all, in our generation, it was the first one to look 'real' on film. 

There were other reasons no doubt.  I don't think it was an accident that, growing up, the war was downplayed and critiqued.  In schools, by my college days, unless it was a course in WWII, we mostly focused on the European colonialism that was omnipresent, the embargos, the Japanese internment camps, the propaganda and sexism and segregation and, of course, Dresden, Tokyo and the A-Bombs.  

In it all, however, Pearl Harbor was the only day other than D-Day that got regular play.   Each year we would be reminded of that date that was to live in infamy.  For some reason, that still resonated.  Less and less each year, but it was still mentioned.  At least until recent years.  Today is the 80th anniversary, so we'll likely hear more than normal.  Within a decade, it's unlikely we'll hear more than an aside.  

But today, we remember.  We remember a day when the Japanese hoped for the results that the terrorists on 9/11 achieved, and that's the defeat of the West and America.  The generation that worked feverishly to move past the days of that Greatest Generation achieved their goal, and laid the groundwork for defeat and decline that their parents were willing to fight and die to avoid.  

Speaking of old clips and films versus reality, there are few more nauseating war movies than 2001's Pearl Harbor.  A hot mess that.  It tried to weave a Titanic storyline with Pearl Harbor references.  It ended up a dumpster fire.  One reason was the lack of attention to detail during the attack sequences.  Ships that bore no resemblance to the historical counterparts.  Effects that looked more at home with Loony Tunes than an A-List war film.  The explosion of the Arizona was especially egregious since we actually have that sad moment on film for all time to see:

When you consider how large a battleship is, that explosion is stunning.  If you look real, real, real close, the explosion is so massive that it actually lifts the ship up out of the water.  When the ship drops, it creates  minor tsunami; a wall of water about ten feet high that came crashing up on the banks of Ford Island (before about the .10 mark).  Someday Hollywood may do it justice.  For now, the best cinematic treatment remains also the driest war movie of all time, Tora, Tora, Tora.  It's a movie that shows why movies have to cheat and rewrite the history for dramatic purposes.  But its attack scenes try, with some creative liberties, to stick to the actual events the way they happened.  If you want to watch a movie treatment of the events on that sunny Sunday, that is about the best you can get.   

One more memory.  Back in the early 00s, I was attending a local Irish Festival we used to visit each year with the kiddos.  The usual Irish festival trappings  were there, including booths and tents with this to buy or that to look at.  One of the tents was an 'Irish Heritage' tent, where you could look for things that might point to your Irish roots.  Much of my family came from Ireland, with County Sligo being a major stomping ground for my ancestors.

Anyway, while we were there, I saw an elderly man looking at one of the tables.  He had one of those 'Vet ball caps' on.  I maneuvered my way around, just to see what it said, who he served with, what war.  And there, on his cap, was written USS Arizona.  It took my breath away.  But I feared it would be tacky to run up to him like a groupie and assail him when he was minding his own business.  So I let it go.  I hate that I did that.  I wish I would have just gone up and shook his hand and said thank you. 

It does no good to suffer when a Democrat sits in the White House

 As NBC makes clear.  

Sure, there seems to be this inflation thing.  Also the Republicans are going to 'target' Biden and the Dems over inflation.  But what would the GOP do about it, huh?  Huh??

Of course the press could target Biden and the Dems over inflation.  But most stories I've seen are about how awesome everything is: more jobs, spending off the rails, a better economy overall than we've ever seen!  There is this inflation stuff,  but let's not quibble.  So says the press.

That's because Biden is a Democrat.  Were he a Republican, we'd see nightly stories about the plight of the poor, the lower income, the working classes who are being crushed by the soaring prices.  Every night would feature stories showcasing the agony of those 'falling through the cracks', as I heard so much in the 1980s.  

But not now.   Now their suffering does nothing to move the leftwing ball down the field, so sorry about their luck.  Likewise, last year when the press was fully behind the draconian lockdowns, I think I counted on a single hand the stories I saw bothering to talk about how such lockdowns and disruptions of our economy were devastating the poorest Americans.  Most stories featured wealthy Americans and celebrities showing how they were coping from their mansions and Manhattan penthouses. 

Again, the press, thralls of the Left, care only about the poor in the same way they care about blacks, women, or other non-LGBTQ minorities.  That is, not at all unless they can be exploited.  It is simply one of the greatest evils of the modern age.  And we've lived long enough to see how such evils can manifest themselves when they are not be challenged. 

On the other hand

You have this opinion piece from FOX.  Worry less, thank Jesus more. No doubt a hundred years ago such an editorial would be nothing unusual.  Today it stands out like a sore thumb.  

Problem is, it's FOX.  And just like the old movies and publications that pandered to our Christian sensitivities because that's where the money was, but no longer do, FOX may stop such stories when it's no longer convenient.  Christians are going to have to learn the hard lesson that being Christian in a non-Christian culture means being Christians in a non-Christian culture.

Grabbing for the hope of sympathetic power structures is a fool's errand.  FOX is about one third what conservative and traditional Christians would value, and two thirds keeping up with the World. It might be best for Christians to find greener pastures rather than wait for that to become one tenths.  

A simple lesson in Christian consistency

 If this is heretical, and goodness knows I saw many Catholics who screamed that it is:

Then this image of George Floyd at The Catholic University of America is heretical too:

Or vice versa.  

See how easy it is?  Of course people could argue there are valid messages in each of the portraits, and I'm fine with that.  As long as we listen to both sides and assume best motives with each.  As long as we apply the same Christian standards whether something glorifies the Left or the Right.  

The minute we make it clear we're applying different standards based purely on ideology, politics, social activism, personal opinions, or what have you, then we've just handed the World the ball and told it to go ahead and score the next goal.  And after over a century of losing to the World, it might be time for the people of the Way to start considering new tactics so the Church can win again. 

Because it's that time of year

 The one that started it all:

Was it the first time anyone had ever synched a lights display and music?  No, it's unlikely.  But this was the one that started the fad that hasn't stopped.  I remember seeing Carson Williams, the electrical engineer who put this together, interviewed by Matt Lauer on the Today show. And it was one of several interviews and news stories.  It isn't just that he did something in a way that captured people's attention, and at a time when social media on the Internet was taking off.  It's that the display is amazingly well choreographed, with various elements composed and lighting in order for a purpose.  In most cases, even the biggest such displays just have lights go on and off while the music plays.  But Mr. Williams took it to the limits in 2004, and made an impact that has entertained millions ever since. 

Most mornings in one easy video

 

An Advent greeting from the Pride Community

 Here:

Any movement that takes its name from one of the Seven Deadly Sins should be avoided. 

On the other hand, Pride fits.  Only a movement wrapped in pride would continue in the same direction as millions of its own members die from the very goals the movement has obtained.  In America, the majority who have died of AIDS identify as homosexual.  But that seems to be small potatoes.  As does the endless millions of others who of have died of AIDS worldwide.  Never mind the hundreds of millions of abortions and millions of lives otherwise wrecked and shattered.  It takes a certain golly-gee-wiz to stand on a pile of bodies higher than Everest and still have pride in your accomplishments.  Such is the 21st Century in a nutshell. 

Yet, despite this, the Church has been utterly impotent when it comes to standing up to the carnage and suffering of this sexual revolution.  I'm not sure which is worse. 

Remember kids, Christmas is all about us being saved from such sin, not being given a blank check to embrace it no matter how many die.  That might be the Xmas of the world, but it isn't the Christmas of the Gospel of Christ. 

The horror of Rep. Lauren Boebert's comment

By now, if you've glanced at a newspaper or watched the news, you've seen that Republican lawmaker Lauren Boebert found herself in hot water.  Why?  Because at some point she made an off-color remark about anti-American/anti-Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar.  For reasons known only to her, she made that remark about the coming 'jihad squad' in reference to Rep. Omar.   

OK.  Poor taste and, what's more, stupid.  In any event, Rep. Omar immediately went on the attack.  Ms. Boebert was clever enough not to invoke the 'I was just joking' defense, which has become all the rage among various minority activists openly wishing them some hate on the vile white race.   She knew that wouldn't work.  So she apologized, apologized to the Muslim community, and called Representative Omar to reconcile ... which went nowhere, as any sane person or conservative could have guessed. 

But here's the thing.  Why am I hearing about this, an off the cuff remark among many such remarks today, in which the individual apologized?  First, there is no way in hell anyone on the Left would let this be, and they know they'll have the press in their back pockets when it comes to making this a thing.  Second, the press is more than happy to find anything that fits the 'Non-Leftist White = Nazi' template, especially to deflect from that pesky auto accident in Waukesha, Wisconsin last week. 

Have I mentioned the Left is evil?  That's what this is all about Charlie Brown.  This and any story in the world that it can use to ignore that inconvenient story about a black assailant with allegedly anti-white racist rants who is accused of murdering six white victims at a Christmas parade.  That hurts.  The whole 'only the White is capable of racism' lie hangs on the gossamer thread of a single non-white murdering whites out of racism.  So it's necessary to find anything to deflect or ignore when that little incident happens.

A black man murdering five police officers could be blamed on America as a four hundred year old racist, Nazi state of endless oppression and terror.  Cops represent that oppression, so that's something. Sometimes people just snap. But six people, including a child, who are run down out of cold blood by a black man who allegedly hates whites with  the white hot fury of a thousand suns?  That ain't so easy to spin.  So the press does the next best thing, it grabs the next tool in its toolbox.  It deflects.  Especially if the story deflected to helps buttress the 'all white, all racist, all the time' narrative.  

Forbes joins the surge of race hate

The Left's whole 'Let's talk about whites the way Nazis talked about Jews' fad is picked up by Forbes.  That publication has long been associated with corporate interests.  Which is about right.  Wall Street and Madisen Avenue have figured out that destroying the Christian Western tradition and the American Experiment is where the money is.  Likewise, white-hate, prejudice, racism, bigotry against all the right ethic groups will increase that all important bottom line.  Expect more of the same.  

I was schooled by a philosophy professor some time back over my assertion that the Left is as Nazi as communist.  He said I'm wrong.  Sure, it's a myth that there was no racism in the Soviet  Union or other communist states.  But like most things communist, it wasn't because of deep seated beliefs.  The Nazis, on the other hand, really believed in the racial inferiority of Jews and other ethnic groups.  For the communists, they believed it if it benefited communists to believe it.  If not, then any persecuted group is fine and dandy, let's be friends. 

That's the Left today.  They don't really believe in the racial inferiority and vileness of white people.  It's just convenient.  Convince people that anything born of White is default evil, then anything in the way of the communist juggernaut can be dismantled if it can be linked to White.  That includes such troubling ideas as freedom of speech, liberty, equality, the Golden Rule.   

Though I will correct the professor on one thing.  My sons who have gone through universities today say he's only right about those old time communist leftists.  They probably don't believe it any more than they believe most things they say.  But younger radical leftists?  From what my sons say and have shown me, these youngster leftists believe the inherent evil of White with the blind zeal that the Hitler Youth believed about Jews.  The sooner 'whiteness' is wiped off the planet along with everything it tainted, the better off humanity will be. So say young white radical leftists.  

A strange Christmas gift in its day

Obvious picture of Satan

I've written many times over the years about how I was first introduced to the game Dungeons and Dragons in study hall my freshman year of high school.  In those early days, there was no particular stigma attached to it.  At least not in our rural community school.  As many jocks and football captains were playing it as nerds and geeks. It was just a popular fad game among many games. 

Nonetheless, there was also pushback against it almost as soon as I discovered it existed.  I remember the following year, my mom called me out of my room.   The 700 Club was on, and Pat Robertson had a guest on who was talking about the clear and obvious satanic inspiration behind this terrible game. Why just look at the cover of one of the books!  He spoke of how it warps kids' minds and leads them to suicide.  My mom asked if I had ever played this game.  She was happy to learn that I hadn't.  

So it was funny on Christmas that year when I unwrapped a hardbound book titled "The Monster Manual", courtesy of Mom  and Dad.  I chuckled then because I knew what it was.  I had a feeling my parents didn't.  They just saw the title, knew that I liked monster movies like most young guys my age, and picked it up for me at the old Walden Books.  

Not that I was unhappy with the gift.  I had seen the book before.  The other kids playing the game would bring that and other rule books with them to study hall.  The rule books were Greek to me.  Almost none of it made sense, and I couldn't get my mind around a game with no game board or playing pieces.  It simply didn't register. 

But the Monster Manual?  I would try to get them to lend it to me in study hall just so I could peruse the pages.  Never before had I seen something with that much art and that many entries.  It used to be that if you were interested in dragons, you'd have to consult three encyclopedias and five other sources to find perhaps a half dozen images or old wood carvings accompanying a few articles.  Vampires?  There was always Lugosi.  Lee was popular in those days.  Werewolves?  Mostly Chaney.  Though for aficionados we also could produce Reed.  For dinosaurs the world gave us Harryhausen. 

But so many pictures and entries about so many monsters of myth, legend, fiction and film all in one volume?  Never.  Most of the entries were of things I had never heard of before.  Wight? What's a wight?  I knew of dragons, but not so many.   I couldn't tell a golem from a grocery bagger.  But it was all there in a way I had never seen before.  Perhaps it was growing up in a small community with only a few thousand citizens and a library that could fit in most doctors' offices, but this was more info than I had ever had in one source about the subject.  

My sons often query me about that, given their love for all things sci-fi and fantasy.  How that stacked up compared to today.  I tell them there is no comparison.  Today, if I want to know anything, I Google it and then I am treated to endless thousands of CGI and digital images, not to mention hundreds of other, traditional pictures as well.  I can find a million articles on just about anything.  Everything can have a million different versions. Lugosi you say?  Lee?  How about Twilight?  Vampires as vermin scourge of humanity or beefcake hunks with ripped abs?   Why the options are endless.

I've heard people who are into the game say that the original book I received that Christmas was too sparse, too bland in its descriptions.  Too little information.  Perhaps it's because, even in those days, a full decade after the wheels came off the bus in the 1960s, we were still a relatively 'homogenous' society.  The entries I didn't know about I learned about, but the ones I knew?  They were familiar.  I didn't need a fifteen page write up to say what a vampire is or looks like, or a dragon for that matter.  That's because who ever wrote that book, and whoever else owned that book, and I shared a similar culture, heritage, and national ancestry.  It was enough to be vampire, and most would have a similar mental and cultural image. A fact that is no longer true. 

Why it isn't true is probably because of many reasons.  But I think it has to do with the fact that at some point in modern history we learned not only the United States, but Western Civilization as a whole, has no right to exist.  At some point, perhaps a court decision or some secret ballot, we were told that Western Culture could not exist, even while accommodating minority groups within its borders.  It simply can't exist. There can be no common values, no common culture, certainly no common religion, no common truths.  We had to tear down everything to accommodate everyone.  So said a movement that is no making it clear today that all must now conform to it, since it has no intention at all of accommodating anyone. 

Pray for Ryan Rogers

Ryan Rogers is a fourteen year old who went on a bike ride but never came home.  The nightmare of every parent.  I haven't heard of this until now.  Pray for him and his poor family. I can't comprehend what they are going through now.  May God give them peace and the strength to merely endure the coming days. And may God welcome young Ryan into a far better place than he has left. 

As for the case, the suspect is a black man with multiple run ins with the law who is said to have a long list of rants and conspiracy theories to his name.  Those theories are not mentioned in any story I've found.  The official report is that the motive is unknown.   Let that last part sink in and you'll see it's time to pray for Ryan and his family, but also for all who have been marked expendable by our society, its leaders, and its followers. 

Ever present God, you called us to be in relationship with one another and promised to dwell wherever two or three are gathered. In our community, we are many different people; we come from many different places, have many different cultures. Open our hearts that we may be bold in finding the riches of inclusion and the treasures of diversity among us. We pray in faith. - Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

I like this thinking

How to recognize a leftist in one easy glance

The most important thing to do, according to the Left, is to focus 100% on the evils of the Christian West and America.  The negative must always be front and center.  To that end, if something or someone associated with the West or America does or is good, it is necessary that you find something - anything - negative to say about it nonetheless. 

So Deacon Greydanus reminds us that justice may have been done in the Arbery case, but it wasn't done ... perfectly.  That's the problem.  Our generation, one of the most failed generations in history, can only lift ourselves up by tearing everything and everyone down.  And that fits like a glove on the Left, that can only thrive by convincing us everything and everyone around us falls short of the mark at best, and are rotten and deplorable at worse, and therefore must be eliminated. 

Most do not want this

I was looking at a story from the Associated Press picked up by FOX News.  It's the typical 'Thanksgiving is genocide, woe to the poor Indigenous people who were beautiful'.  As was pointed out in the comments section of my post on this earlier, check the  comments.  Most people think this is bunk.  My experience in the work place and the streets of America is that most Americans - Black, Red, Yellow and White - reject such nonsense.

The problem is, our institutions are run by people who want such nonsense sanctified and proclaimed as gospel truth.  In the above story, many of the commenters say they are American Indian.  That's about right.  My wife's family is replete with Native American heritage, with some family members a mere generation away from American Indian parentage.  None of them buy this bilge.  Like that funny meme a few years ago, if you think the Redskins should change their name, chances are you're not Native American.  That was after the WaPo tried desperately to find overwhelming numbers of Native Americans wanting it changed, and barely found a quarter of those surveyed to agree.

The Left, Marxist based and communist driven, seeks the destruction of the Western Democracies, and our concepts of liberty, freedom and sanctity of life.  To that end, it will do and try - anything.  And since it controls our media and educational outlets, it can do as it will. 

The Rivalry returns

Close friends and bitter rivals: When the press named it The Game

It was late November during my freshman year of college.  The branch campus I went to had its annual Beat Michigan party.  It was cleverly named Much Fishcigan.  Get it?  Oh, they were clever weren't they?  I went because a girl I liked named Kathy was going to be there.  I was only vaguely aware of the game itself.  Turns out we lost.  Among the reasons we lost was a shock 77 yard touchdown pass by a young Michigan quarterback named Jim Harbaugh. 

Well, this year coach Jim Harbaugh was back, and he gave a dose of humiliation to the old Buckeyes juggernaut, ending an almost twenty year drought for the Maize and Blue.  For the last two decades, Michigan won only two games of the storied rivalry.  One of those years included a transition season following the great Tattoo-Gate scandal that left us without a coach and stripped of our previous year's accomplishments. 

Because of that, the 'Rivalry", once considered one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports, was beginning to wane.  Many Michigan fans I knew adopted the 'we're too cool to care about football rivalries' attitude.  OSU fans were even getting a bit bored.  This was a long cry from the days of the 1970s, when coaching legends Woody Hayes and his protégé Bo Schembechler took the ages old rivalry to heights few rivalries have ever experienced.  After that, the national press nicknamed it simply "The Game." 

There is a lot to unpack in the mentality and culture behind the rivalry and why things went south for Michigan.  Perhaps some other time.  But this year, the football gods were definitely for the Blue.  Ours was a pass heavy offensive, almost unstoppable.  Then it snowed, essentially neutering the passing game.  Michigan was a run heavy offense and that worked fine snow or no snow.

Plus, we were a young team.  Last year the game was canceled.  We were coming off one of the strongest programs in the country.  Filled to the brim with veteran players, we imagined it was going to be yet one more win against that Team up North.  But Harbaugh canceled, citing Covid cases.  Most of us knew it was bunk, since the numbers before and after didn't suggest they were worse off than any other program that year.  Most of us guessed he was simply trying to avoid another loss. 

But last year did set us up for problems.  This year we began with an almost rooky lineup.  Our freshman quarterback would lead a team in which many had never played before, and few had played the big games in the big lights.  Despite this, after an embarrassing loss to Oregon, we came back and soon dominated the field.  We didn't just win against top teams, we obliterated them.  But in many cases, those games had situations that favored us:  home field advantages, the right teams at the right time.

Then came Michigan.  Harbaugh took a page from Oregon's playbook, with help from the weather.  He gave the ball to his star running back Haskins, who our defense could not stop.  He then watched us and coach Ryan Day implode.  At the end, I said Michigan didn't play at some historic level, it played like a competent late season team.  Unfortunately, OSU played like an incompetent early season team, and it cost us.  It cost us the first legitimate loss to Michigan in two decades.  It cost coach Day, a man who up until now had never lost to a Big 10 team; a string of firsts where losses are concerned.  And it handed Buckeye nation a slice of humble pie.

Mostly, however, it's given OSU a new rage induced call to beat Michigan next year.  Most Buckeyes were upset about the canceled game last year.  Some even petitioned for the game to be played at OSU this season, as it would have been last year.  That at least would have helped our novice team.  That didn't happen.  Somehow there is a feeling that Harbaugh gamed the system and came out winning.  I think a lot of us know how that feels when a system is gamed, you know it, you lose, but there's no way to really prove the charge.

Next year it should be fun.  Already Michigan is acting like the rivalry has always been the biggest thing in the world, and rightfully gloating over their earned victory.  Whatever happened last year, Michigan out played us plain and simple. But now the bitterness of the rivalry is back in a way it hasn't been for years, if not decades (for before the 00s, under coach Cooper, it was OSU who couldn't beat Michigan for over a decade).  We'll see what happens.  But in a crazy world of crazy change, it's nice to see something go back to the olden days. 

A new chapter in the great rivalry?  Only time will tell.

A fine Thanksgiving reflection

Courtesy of John C. Wright.  

A great failure among conservatives, traditional Americans, and orthodox Christians is missing just how terrible the intellectual and educational rot is in our schools and colleges.  What Mr. Wright lays out is the story of what happened and reflections on why it happened.  In my son's college, it's very simple: the white race is a pox upon humanity that came to the lands of the Indigenous Peoples for the sole purpose of genocide, racism and slavery.  All indigenous people being pure and sinless.  

The proof?  No proof is needed for what is obviously true.  To ask for proof that could counter the Leftist narrative, from what my sons have said, is to all but admit you're a white supremacist racist.  Everything Mr. Wright put onto his post would be viewed the way Joe McCarthy would view communist propaganda.  

What to do about this, I don't know.  When all you have is facts, truth, reality and data against a movement that has taught generations to mock and ignore the same, I'm not sure where to go next.  We  have the weight of evidence on our side.  But the other side has trained thirty years of students to be nothing but trolls, caring not a rip for right or wrong, truth or error, good or bad, except that they get to be awesome and get what they want because they're awesome. 

If anyone has a solution, I'd be happy to hear it.  We often bemoan the monopoly that the anti-Western Left has in our media, pop culture and educational institutions.  But it has had this for decades, and has trained entire generations to no longer need such propaganda organs to sway them.  Those generations are fully prepared to use the tools of unreality, untruth, amorality and arrogance to continue to fight the fight if the media and school systems were to fail tomorrow.