John Hawkins is one of my favorite conservative authors. In an essay penned back in October 2017 he listed, presciently, how the Left was then destroying and would in the future destroy our culture. With full credit and attribution to Hawkins, who’s full essay is available on Town Hall, here’s a summary:
First, to quote his introduction (Note: I’ve replaced the term “Liberalism with “Leftism, “Liberals” with “Leftists”:
“There was a time when we used to be a nation that pushed freedom, responsibility, decency, patriotism and hard work. Some of us still believe in those things, but because of Leftism, much more destructive values have seeped into our culture like toxic waste. There are many ways that Leftists have degraded our culture, but these are the worst of the worst.”
And here’s his list:
1. The Politicization of Everything.
2. Political Correctness.
3. Victimhood.
4. Leftist Feminism.
5. Tribalism.
6. “Non-Judgmentalism”.
Today, one has only to open one’s eyes and ears to see these weapons on display. I would add to his list:
7. Atheism. While I believe that the only Being in the universe who can prove to you whether He exists or not is God, faith is a very individual thing. By way of contrast, Atheism is a collective imposition of an ideology that doesn’t just eschew faith, but condemns and seeks to eradicate it. It’s obvious that the Left, by seeking to destroy faith, is seeking to replace God with its own brand of religion.
8. Saturation. The Left seeks to dominate the airwaves in every form and in every medium so as to crowd out, squash, eradicate any dissent.
9. Falsehood. “Creative Misrepresentation” is the euphemism that Leftist intellectuals use to describe the outright lying and deception used to advance their poisonous ideology. This should be obvious to any paying-attention individual.
10. Projection. Have you ever noticed that the Left screams at the top of their lungs accusations at the Right that represent precisely what the Left is doing? There is no end to the hypocrisy and deceit they will use to achieve their ends.
11. Hijacking the Vocabulary. “Choice”, “Social Justice”, “Democratic Socialism”, “Extremism”, “Investment (a.k.a. ‘taxation and spending’), “Science”, “Fair Share”, “The Wealthy”, “Balance”, “Liberal”, “Progressive”, “Racist”, “Undocumented Immigrant”, “Domestic Terrorist”, “Universal Background Checks”, “Assault Rifle”, “Diversity”, “Inclusion”, “Affirmative Action”, “Globalism”, “Climate Change”, “Resistance”, “Human Rights”, “Tolerance”, etc. All of these terms and countless others have been utilized, twisted, turned into Orwell’s Doublespeak, used as euphemisms or been completely destroyed and replaced by the Left.
12. Revising History. The 1619 Project, the tearing down of historical figure statues, Howard Zinn, the vilification and attempted discrediting of historical leaders like the Founding Fathers…need I say more?
I expect if I thought about it long enough I could expand this list considerably. No matter. My readers know exactly what I’m talking about anyway, and could similarly add to it. The key is to fight, advance and not retreat in the face of these Leftist tactics.
We must pick our battles, yes, but not shun the fight.
I just read one of the most damning and frightening exposés ever written by my most respected conservative intellectual. Victor Davis Hanson has penned a piece describing not only what is currently happening to our country and society, but also what more could happen to it if the Left gains any more power.
I strongly recommend reading the entire essay, entitled “Will 2021 be 1984”, available here. To wet your appetite, the first paragraph follows:
“Cultural revolutions are insidious and not just because they seek to change the way people think, write, speak, and act. They are also dangerous because they are fueled by self-righteous sanctimoniousness, expressed in seemingly innocuous terms such as “social activism,” “equality,” and “fairness.”
I’ve often used the fable of the frog dropped in a pot of water as well as the adage “a death by a thousand cuts” to describe what’s happening to us. The former, just in case you’re not familiar with it, teaches us that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out. If, however, you place a frog in lukewarm water and turn up the heat gradually, it will remain until it is boiled to death. The latter, of course, refers to how we could bleed to death while hardly noticing it.
Referring to these in either case, what I’ve suggested many times is that it is by small steps and increments that the evil ideology perpetrated by the Left has infiltrated virtually every aspect of our lives. And, truth be known, it has gone past the point where we can openly criticize it for fear of our personal safety, livelihoods and property not to mention our communities. Teaching by example doesn’t work. “Hitting them up side of the head” doesn’t work. Shaming their disgusting behavior and exposing their lies, distortions and idiocies doesn’t work. Now, we have cause to be fearful that even the ballot box and our ability to vote out the fools will be violated.
Could it be that our pugilist/counter-puncher-in-chief and those on the Right, fractious and fractured as they may be, will nevertheless successfully defend what’s left of Good and triumph over Evil? Alas, I wish I were young again and had the strength, clarity of mind and resources to add my outcry and condemnation to the cause of preserving our liberty, meritocracy… in short, our way of life. I hope by bringing to the attention of my now hundreds of readers the words and ideas of people far smarter and articulate than I, I will have done a small service to countering the noxious noise with which the Left has saturated the air.
I fear that we’ve traveled so far down the slippery slope that it will take something akin to another 9-11 or a counter-revolution from within to leash or better, destroy this Leftist cancer. On the other hand, the optimistic view is that perhaps, what we’re seeing are the remaining, thrashing, death throes of a dying hydra. I pray it’s the latter and urge EVERYONE who values what’s RIGHT to courageously speak up, defend yourselves and your families against the scourge, and vote, futile as it may seem, accordingly.
I’ve been saying for some time now that the Left will eventually implode on itself. Optimist that I am, my view has been that Right (.sic) will prevail over wrong (Left) as Americans eschew the nonsense that fills the airwaves and either: a) by example prove that the virtues of our country embodied in the ideology of the Right are, while of course not perfect, the best way to achieve the most prosperity for all and/or b) vote to support political candidates, imperfect as they too are, who support TRUE American values rather than the necrotizing vacuousness of the Left.
I sincerely believe, and I’m prayerfully hopeful I’m right, that that which fills our television screens, computer monitors and reading material these days represents the death throes of the evil hydra that seeks to gain ultimate power over our people. I used to believe that the Left was comprised of a benign, warm and fuzzyy people who just wished we “could all get along;” who believed that equality of opportunity needed to be preserved (rather than equality of outcomes). What has become obvious is that the Left truly is bent on dominating the minds and will of mankind by marshaling the forces of the Have-Nots against the Haves. In case this struggle sounds familiar, it is the essence of Karl Marx. It is war of Winners against Losers. I don’t mean winners at any cost, or losers who are such because of circumstances truly beyond their control. I refer to those who live by traditional principles like hard work and meritocracy, self-reliance and societal virtue, law and order, etc. fighting against those who don’t have the self-discipline or strength of character to adhere to these winning principles but rather envy these Winners and simply want to suck from them the fruits of their labor, their honor, their prosperity, alleging “unfairness” and all the other arguments advanced by Marx and his Leftist disciples and progeny.
And while I happen to agree with those who condemn crony-capitalism, a “the ends justify the means” approach to policy and a “winner take all” attitude towards the distribution of both resources and opportunities in our country, having lived and traveled extensively around the world I can state with unequivocal certainty that America, democracy and capitalism have done more for the advancement of humankind than any other country, form of government or economic framework in world history.
The amplifying megaphone that the internet has given to the Leftist hydra has all but drowned out voices of reason, honest debate or any view which opposes the hydra orthodoxy. Thinking people know this of course, but Bari Weiss’ scathing confirmation in her July 14, 2020 resignation letter from the New York Times corroborates and vindicates this understanding. It’s a shame. When I used to live in Los Angeles in the 1970’s I couldn’t bear to read the L.A. Times because of its Leftward inbrededness . Rather, I’d obtain copies of and/or read the New York Times because I felt, at the time, it was more balanced and much less biased.
The New York Times, of course, has become what the L.A. Times always was: a completely biased, nay, militant mouthpiece for every Leftist crackpot idea extant. Nowadays, the term is “woke”. To quote Bari, up until yesterday the Opinion Editor of the Times,
“But the truth is that intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at The Times. Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world? And so self-censorship has become the norm.
What rules that remain at The Times are applied with extreme selectivity. If a person’s ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinized. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets.”
And there you have it. It’s worth reading the entire letter which can be found here.
It takes courage to so openly and transparently swim against the Tsunami. I commend Ms. Weiss and hope her valiance will serve as an example for others oppressed by the Hydra and yearning to share what they know to be true in their hearts.
In the midst of the pandemic (I’m talking here not about the Wuhan Virus but the metastatic insanity befalling our nation), I’ve decided to do more than just turn off the ‘news’. I’ve returned to doing something that I haven’t done adequately since the beginning of the World Wide Web…READING.
But what to read. I’ve got numerous lists of “The Great Books”, but I don’t want just great literature. I want prose that is uplifting, inspiring, filled with good triumphing against evil, morals without “preachiness”. For what it’s worth, I’ve compiled this reading list for myself and I commend it for those who are similarly sick and tired of all the negativity, the constant whining and gnashing of teeth that is permeating virtually everything we hear and see today, not just on television, but on store notices, advertising, even invoices!
Advise and Consent (Allen Drury, 1959) – In the context of today’s politics, this timeless novel deals with the inner workings of Washington and particularly, the juxtaposition of political ambition against fundamental integrity.
Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy, 1998) – The techno thriller that displays the virtues of a G.I. Joe group of counter terrorist soldiers who go after cells worldwide.
Red Storm Rising (Tom Clancy, 1986) – Another great Clancy novel for the guys that pits NATO against the WarsawPact.
The Time it Never Rained (Elmer Kelton, 1973) – A western novel with a lot of homepun wisdom.
Freddy and Fredericka (Mark Helprin, 2005) – A tongue in cheek about a prince and princess of Wales banished to the United States.
Shelley’s Heart (Charles McCarry, 1995) – A political thriller that exposes the corruption of Washington.
On the Road (Jack Kerouac, 1957) – The fictionalized story of Kerouac’s journey across America.
Caribbean (James Michener, 1989) – Since I can’t travel there this year, think I’ll tour the islands and their history by re-reading this one.
The Blackford Oakes Series (William F. Buckley, Jr. 1967-2005) Spy novels from the pre-eminent conservative intellectual.
And I’m still going to binge on videos. I’ve hauled out, for example, my collection of “24” and look forward to see Jack Bauer take on the terrorists and bad guys again.
ANYTHING, ANYTHING to keep away the horror show that’s unfolding in our major cities and even some secondary ones. And anything to drown out the constant Wuhan Gloom and Doom!
I truly am at a loss for words. The emotions coursing through me at this moment are so powerful that I expect anything I write might not reflect what I think and feel even a couple of weeks from now. I’ve run out of adjectives and adverbs to describe the emotions: sadness, fear, disgust, hopefulness, resolve, patience and impatience, anger, compassion, hate and love, just to name a few.
Physically, I’m fine. I had a routine medical procedure last week that required me to visit my doctor. I thus had a COVID test and am negative. I don’t know whether I’ve got antibodies. I’ve stopped watching and reading the news on this topic because my economist/banker/businessman’s critical thinking training has me so put off by the so-called experts, even many whom I’ve trusted and relied on in the past, that I’ve shut them all out.
Spiritually and emotionally I’m sickened by what I see happening to our country. Having grown up in the 60’s witnessing all the rebellion and profligacy of that decade, I never saw anything like the soul-crushing necrosis I’m seeing today. I’m of course referring to the rioting, looting and what’s almost worse, the cowardice, demagoguery and genuflection on the part of Leftist politicians to what truly is domestic terrorism. In the 60’s it was easy to write off the chaos and attribute it to fringe lunacy. The great majority of Americans, while silent, appreciated what we had and were mostly bystanders to what was generally accepted to be foolishness or youthful exuberance. The vast majority of us still cherished and appreciated all that was good about America.
Today we’re seeing the fruits of the dark underbelly of the 60’s, amplified and expanded thanks to the internet and decades of indoctrination by the same losers who lacked self-control and self-discipline then. They now populate academia, law, and above all, government. Even the military and law enforcement haven’t been spared. There are neurotic, unproductive or barely productive adult children in virtually all our institutions.
I’ve already said too much. I will now go back to my bucket-list pursuit of reading all the Great Books. In them I find refuge, wisdom and truth that transcends all the nonsense bombarding me from all directions every minute of every day (were I to allow it).
Keep your seat belts fastened and your seat backs and tray tables in their full upright position. It’s going to be a bumpy ride for some time to come.
So much to write about. COVID-19, Michael Flynn…now the riots around the country in the wake of the George Floyd killing. So many people smarter than I have said it better than I could regarding the last item. Think I’ll draw on and repeat things that have been said that I wish I could have said!
John Podhoretz, in an op-ed titled “Only an Intellectual Could ‘Justify’ These Riots” May 31st in the New York Post:
“George Orwell’s timeless admonition, ‘Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them,’ has been given new life by the desperate efforts of pundits, scholars and Twitter blue-checks to defend the violence, looting, disorder and general monstrousness that have overtaken America’s cities.”
The glorification of mob violence and petty criminality that was one of the disgraceful hallmarks of bien-pensant thinking throughout the 20th century resonates through every tweet, every deep TV observation and every piece of writing that casts the coast-to-coast destruction and anarchy in a positive light.”
Comparisons have been made between the violent rioters setting fire to police precincts and department stores over the last few days to the ‘hoodlums’ of the past. Podhoretz cites in his article the difference is: “…our insurgents are fully aware there is a phalanx of media and academic apologists at the ready, who will not only excuse their behavior but laud it. This both provides them internal psychological cover for the unleashing of the evils inside them and a vocabulary to explain away the evils they release.”
“Making excuses for rampant violence has been a reflexive habit among the cognoscenti in the United States since the 1960s, from the Leonard Bernsteins hosting the Black Panthers at the elegant party immortalized by Tom Wolfe in his essay “Radical Chic” to the aftermath of the 1977 New York City blackout, when the looting of entire neighborhoods causing more than $1 billion in damage ($4.5 billion in today’s dollars) was justified in the op-ed columns of The New York Times as a consequence of (wait for it) a cutback in city-provided teenage summer employment.
Ideological partisans of all stripes face this temptation every day — the temptation to believe that those who seem to be making the same argument you make but then add violence to the mix only do so out of an excess of zeal. In other words, the violent people may be wrong in their tactics, but their passionate loathing of injustice simply got the best of their good intentions.
Perhaps they feel it necessary to do so because they don’t want the bad behavior to discredit their beliefs, or because they can’t bear to examine their beliefs in light of the violence and wonder if they are a part of what made the violence happen.
Or they double down and come to think that the violence is a mark of virtue — that the violent are even more committed than the cowardly couch potatoes who sit on the sidelines bemoaning injustice but refuse to put it all on the line. That was also the story with the cop-killing and bank-robbing terrorism by the Weathermen and others that erupted from the anti-Vietnam-War student protests.
The perpetrators were romanticized rather than vilified. That was half a century ago. And the spiritual virus that provided such rancid moral “immunity” has surged anew with a recurrence of the evil.”
Wish I could have put it like that. Thank you John.
I used to be able to pick up the phone sitting on my desk and 99.9% of the time I’d get a dial tone and be able to call out. Today about three quarters of the time I use my cell phone the call either gets dropped, I can hear him but he can’t hear me (I feel like the guy in the commercial, “Can you hear me now???”), or I get one bar or no bars from the start.
Technology has delivered many conveniences to be sure. But personal attention is certainly not one of them. And reliability (a.k.a. quality) has been a casualty as well. So help me, if I here the words, “It’s software, what do you expect?” one more time I’m liable to scream “arrrrrggggghhhh!” right in the face of whomever uses those words with me!
What happened to craftsmanship? What happened to companies who’d boast about the quality of their products and due to real competition, didn’t charge a highway robber’s take for it?
Technology is what happened. Benefits gave way to features. Reliability gave way to creature comforts. Stuff that would last forever gave way to planned obsolescence. In short, an honest profit gave way to greed and Good Housekeeping seals of approval gave way to “5 Star Comments” on Amazon, honest or not!
I have a personal example. About 30 years ago I bought a Black and Decker Workmate portable workbench. It folds up nicely, flexibly adjusts, and is made of solid steel and wood, the screw mechanism that adjusts the vice having many threads. It still serves me as well today as the day I bought it.
Wandering around Home Depot the other day, I saw my Workmate’s 2020 version. It was, to put it succinctly, a piece of, well you know what, compared to mine and cost in today’s dollars, roughly twice as much.
Another example. Over 40 (yes 40) years ago I bought a fun kid’s sled made by a Norwegian company called a Sno-kart for my own children. It was made of steel tubing and high density polyethylene plastic with strongly welded joints. My grandchildren still gleefully use it today.
I checked, and the company still exists but their sleds now are made of cheap plastic throughout. I can’t imagine they’d survive my grandson’s first run down the hill!
Another thing that technology has caused is a decline in honesty. Doctors will tell you, “Everybody lies about their health.” That may be true, but the phenomenon was, until the last twenty years or so ago, largely restricted to the medical field. Today, it seems everybody lies about everything! I don’t just mean blatant, with a straight face bald-faced lying. I also mean lying by omission, lying by “creative misrepresentation”, or “lying for the greater good.”
In other words, there has been a serious decline in the quality of truthfulness, of probity, of ethics, of morals…one could even say a decline in the quality of reality!
Quality being almost completely dead, a renaissance is needed.
I have re-committed myself to giving 100% to everything I do, of restoring quality to my everyday tasks and professional endeavors. I have also re-committed myself to be not just truthful and honest, but to being forthright as well.
The other side of this coin is that I will continue to throw the yellow or red BS flags on the field whenever I see they’re warranted. I will refuse to abide or tolerate dishonesty of all kinds in my interactions with vendors, agents, advisors and most definitely with politicians!
I sincerely hope and pray I’ll be successful and may be able to influence others to join in the fight to restore quality to everything we have and do.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of the three types of people: sheep, wolves and sheep dogs, I strongly urge you to read about it in Lt. Col Dave Grossman’s book, “On Combat”. Sometimes it’s not easy to tell which category a person falls into until circumstances or events make it plainly obvious. One of the things the COVID-19 situation has done is make the distinctions more transparent.
Very briefly, and quoting from the book…
“If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath–a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.”
The vast majority of people are sheep. This isn’t a pejorative term, unless of course we’re referring to “sheeple”. Sheeple are docile, fearful, easily-led, easily-manipulated, often ego-centric, gullible and seek the approval of others, particularly “expert authorities” and some kind of outside validation for their actions.
The truly evil sociopaths are of course wolves, but we can characterize scammers, demagogues, fearmongers, ‘hypercrits’ (.sic), ‘patronizers’, ‘condescenders’, megalomaniacs, holier-than-thou types, petty bureaucrats and of course, the majority of politicians as wolves too!
FInally, there are among us, thankfully, sheepdogs: combat soldiers, intelligence operators, police, firemen, first responders, much of the medical community, community emergency response teams and myriad volunteers who seek to serve others.
Look around you these days and you’ll clearly see who’s who.
What does this mean for our new lives… our during and post-COVID lives?
If you are a sheep. I strongly urge you to seek out, get to know, listen to and if need be, follow one or more sheepdogs whom you can trust and try to help as they seek to protect and serve others.
If you are sheepdog, I strongly urge you to embrace your role and let people know you care about them, will try to look out for their well-being, will defend them (with violence if necessary!) against evil and will lead from the front, not from your behind (.sic).
A few years ago a regional newspaper run by wolves and staffed by sheeple, in a fit of anti-Second Amendment pique, published an online, interactive map of those of us with concealed carry gun permits. Their attempt was to ostracize and shame us. It backfired.
No less than three of my neighbors, after seeing that I (and no-one else within a radius of about five miles) had a carry permit, quietly told me something to the effect of, “If the s— hits the fan, I’m coming to YOUR house.” Besides offering to mentor them on firearms training and permit acquisition (usually met with a “noooo, I could never do that…”) I reassured them they could indeed rely on me to help them in a dire situation, and if necessary, I’d given them on-the-spot training!
If you are a Sheeple, you’re not reading this but if perchance you do I urge you to wake up, shut up, engage your brain and do something useful instead of whining, weeping, wailing and gnashing your teeth!
Finally, if you’re a wolf, you too are probably not reading this. But I would strongly urge all wolves to be mindful of the rapidly increasing number of sheepdogs who are coming out of their doghouses to confront the evil you represent. We’ve thrown the bulls— flag on the field and while we haven’t seen apocalyptic civil unrest at this time, we’re ready to confront you and will not hesitate to defend our families and our friends from everything from petty unrighteous dominion to violent threat.
This crisis has clearly brought out both the best and worst in people. I have no data to support this, but I would not be surprised if the number of sheepdogs reading these words is greater than for most blogs. Why? Because people who would actually take the time to read the reflections and musings of an old, traditional fart like me probably care deeply about their loved ones, their communities and our nation. I expect many of you are courageous in the face of hardship and would, like a sheepdog, step up when called upon (if you’re not already doing so) to defend the flock.
May God bless the Sheepdogs and the Sheep. May He help the Sheeple and may He render the Wolves impotent…
In a recent post I noted some of the positive things that have or will emerge from the Coronavirus pandemic. One of the MOST positive is the impact that social distancing, closed schools and quarantining is having on COMMUNICATION among family and friends.
While I will admit that I texted my wife the other night while
she was sitting in another room in the house instead of getting off my butt and
going to speak to her directly, I partially justify this because it’s actually
far more efficient.
Let me explain. Were I to wander into the room where she is
to ask a question directly, one of two things would occur: either a) I will ask
my question and no matter how clearly I do so, she will ask me to repeat it, or
b) I will speak loud enough to get her attention so she will hear me the first
time immediately to be told, “I’m right here, stop yelling at me!”
This is in GOOD times. Now that we are both stuck at home,
essentially quarantined, and have had to figure out how to communicate with one
another, we had to have a conversation about YELLING! She thinks raising my
voice above normal conversation is yelling. I think anything less than speaking
at a normal decibel level when the tv or microwave are on constitutes mumbling
under one’s breath. She refuses to “yell” and we both get frustrated having to
ask one another to constantly repeat ourselves. Texting, on the other hand, has
that blissful silence about it while still getting the question out and/or the response back! And ALL
UPPER CASE is only ‘virtual yelling’, not ‘actual yelling’!
So one of our first conversations as we sat at dinner since being quarantined involved talking about talking. Yes, talking about talking. With no ambient noise except for the dog panting nearby we could actually hear one another, and despite having vastly different definitions of what constitutes communication, yelling, mumbling, etc., we, in fact, actually TALKED to one another! How cool was that?
We agreed to disagree, but when she did start “yelling” at me I COULD HEAR HER! Yay! Now, if she could just take that “I’ll speak up but I’m going to kill you” tone out of her voice, we may be able to avoid texting to one another while in the house altogether!
On a serious note, having families confined to quarters is
forcing us to interact beyond email and texting. It’s forcing us to deal with
one another in what are now unusual ways. Used to be we talked over dinner
routinely, or had one-on-one time with our kids at some point before bedtime.
Now we talk in both these cases, and even over breakfast…and sometimes even
during the day. What a novel idea!
As for friends and family. We still use email, text and
Facetime or something similar, but we do so deliberately: to check in, to coordinate
plans, to engage in one-on-ones by phone because we’re really concerned about
one another. We’ve always been concerned about one another…but now we mean it!
And that’s a good thing. We’ve relearned that what really
matters are family, and friends, and neighbors. We’ve relearned that when we’re
all in deep yogurt, we can and need to help one another out. In our community I’m
partially surrounded by Leftists who in good times have warped values and moronic
ideologies. But today, they’re just neighbors sheepishly venturing out on their
front lawns to say hi from afar.
Let’s take this opportunity to get to know one another again.
Let’s try to remember that we like one another even when communicating may
require us to YELL! And, let’s hope that when this is all over we’ll not forget
whom we got to know while we were fighting the virus war together!
The stock market has crashed. Unemployment is skyrocketing.
The number of confirmed Wuhan Virus (that’s what I call it) cases is
growing exponentially. Grocery store shelves are bare. Gun sales are going
through the roof. Office buildings in Manhattan are empty. People are walking
around with masks. Schools are cancelled. The internet is bogging down because
so many people are home its vaunted capacity (bandwidth) is proving to be
inadequate for the demand. California is “locked down”. Hell has
broken loose.
However… “The wonderful thing about Tiggers is,
tiggers is wonderful things. Their tops are made of rubber, and their tails are
made of springs. They’re bouncy, flouncy, trouncy, pouncy, full of fun, fun fun.
The wonderful thing about Tiggers is, I’m the only one.” Substitute Americans
for tiggers and you’ll have a hint as to why despite the misery and impending
doom I’m optimistic for the future.
My thoughts…
1. As bad as
the pandemic is, it’s not as bad as you think. Simple arithmetic coupled
with basic critical thinking points to the conclusion that greater than 99% of
everyone who contracts the disease will recover, and we don’t know of course how
many people WILL or WILL NOT contract it. Thousands get sick and many die each
day from heart disease, cancer, jaywalking, ‘regular’ flu and chronic lung
disease from smoking, etc. As of this morning, ~a quarter of a million people WORLDWIDE
have been confirmed to have the virus, ~10,000 people WORLDWIDE have died from
the virus, and ~86,000 have recovered. These numbers are DWARFED by regular flu.
In the U.S., ~15,000 people have
confirmed cases and ~100 people have died. This flu season alone (roughly
from October 2019 to the present) 31MM people IN THE UNITED STATES (!) have had
the flu. Somewhere around 275,000 give or take have had to be hospitalized, and
as many as 30,000 (vs. 100) have died from run-of-the-mill flu! (See https://www.health.com/condition/cold-flu-sinus/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year
for a plain language discussion.) Translation – this isn’t anywhere near as
bad as the media and politicians would have you believe.
2. Despite
what you hear or see, the government is doing the right things. They may not in
all cases being doing things right, but the medical, logistical, economic and
societal response is “gettin’ ‘er done”. I expect the response is
even overdone if you look at the statistics in the previous paragraph. So,
for example, NOT EVERYONE NEEDS A TEST! If you get sick, sure, go get a test.
But it’s self-centered, selfish and “looking out for number one” just
to confirm you’re NOT sick, and may deprive someone who really needs to be
tested from getting the help they need. Testing is NOT a cure, and satisfying
statistical number crunching is nowhere near as important as preventing and
treating the actual disease. Mobilization and coordination among all the health
care agencies, departments and the private sector is exactly what is needed,
and again, no matter what you hear, there are very competent people who care
about others and this country hard at work on the problems. Have some faith in
them!
The backstopping of employers in various ways and the anticipated
support given to individuals and families is being matched by lenders,
landlords, tax collectors… you name it. Everyone’s in this and making
accommodations following the lead of the federal, state and local governments.
Just remember that “the government” is made up of
people who have the same hopes, dreams, fears, constraints, problems as
everyone else in the country. The vast majority are working their asses off to
help and do what’s right within their on organizations and spheres of influence.
I had to go to the department of motor vehicles the other day. Everyone there
had taken a large dose of patience pills and I was both shocked and thrilled to
see how both the people behind the counter and in front of it were behaving.
The government, of course, is damned if they do and damned
if they don’t, but on balance, its response to this crisis has been overwhelmingly
appropriate and helpful. Its communications, despite the handwringing and
teeth-gnashing of a “if it bleeds it leads” media has been solid,
optimistic, informative and suitably cautionary as to get virtually the whole
nation (except the Florida beach Spring Break party animals) to respond as it
should. This all happened in a matter of days, unlike the responses during the
H1N1, SARS, MERS and other pandemics.
3. Gas
prices and interest rates are falling. The one commodity everyone needs is
fuel, and the stimulating effect of a drop in gas prices to the ~$2.00 – ~$2.50
level is incredibly impactful on regular budgets. This will benefit us all,
except of course for oil producers. But Washington is on to the Russian and
Saudi’s game to try to destroy our energy-independent status and crush our
shale industry, and are NOT going to let them get away with it. Similarly,
we’re not standing idly by while China spews its propaganda and stomps its feet
and blames our military for what they caused or worse, threatens us with
withholding drugs such that we become “awash in a sea of Coronavirus”.
We’ve thrown the bull#%*& flag on that already and will continue to rub
China’s nose in the mess they’ve created and left on the world’s floor. Xenophobic?
No, just highlighting the truth in the face false accusations.
4. One of
the silver linings in this mess is the awakening that has occurred among
government, industry and the American people that we must no longer be held
hostage by foreign manufacturers and suppliers. The Globalist agenda has been
thoroughly trounced by this exposure of its flaws, and bringing our
manufacturing and supply chains home may result in higher priced goods, but
we’ll all benefit in the long run.
5. Kids are
getting educated again. Home schooling is exposing the inadequacies, biases and
absurdities of the current state of our education system. Parents are waking up
to what is being taught, and what is NOT being taught to our children. I predict
that for whatever time period home-schooling prevails, our kids will get a
BETTER education than what they’re getting at school, and teachers will be
astonished when students return at how far they’ve advanced. You heard it from
me first.
6. Neighbors
are helping neighbors. Our little local email chain is lit up with offers of
help and assistance. People are getting outside and checking on each other from
afar (i.e. more than six feet). Kids are teaching parents and grandparents about
Facetime, Skype and Zoom. And Animal Planet is running shows about carefree kittens
and puppies. Come on…how much better is it to watch than the gloom and doom
on broadcast tv?
7. People
are learning who their leaders are. Not the ones with the titles, but the ones
who are true leaders as opposed to managers and demagogues. True leaders step
up in times of crisis and go to the front of the crowd, carry a light and turn
back to shout encouragement and instill confidence in others. People who may
have labored in the shadows or punched well below their weight are now emerging
as the shepherds of our society. This separating of the leaders from the
followers can only be a positive development.
8. The Silent
Majority is silent no more. Having to adapt to the situation, conservatives and
the Right who normally are head down working and caring for themselves and their
families are speaking up and speaking out. They are not just throwing the BS
flag on politically correct nonsense, they are ignoring social engineering and
all its related evils and practicing true philanthropy and real, beneficial community
activism.
9. Complacency
is evaporating. It’s amazing what being forced to rely on fundamentals and
things that matter will do to a spoiled and coddled population. In the face of
what’s going on, do people really care what the Kardashians think?
10. Faith is
making a comeback. It’s sad but true that there are no atheists in foxholes.
We’re rediscovering our faith despite not being able to attend Church. And
whether it’s one religion or another, it’s the common principles of right and
wrong, goodness versus evil and a belief in a set of universal truths that are
moving back into the public consciousness. This is a good thing.
11. Families
are getting to know one another again. Yes, we’re cooped up and hunkered down.
And things get testy at times as we bumble around in each other’s way. But for
many of us, we’re forced to seek virtue: patience, understanding, caring for
one another, and learning anew about each other. It doesn’t take a village, it
takes a family, and families are binding together out of necessity and love.
And finally, THE MOST IMPORTANT REASON I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT
THE FUTURE is that America has the most natural and other resources of any
nation on earth. We can produce enough of EVERYTHING to take care of
ourselves and help the rest of the world to boot. We have the smartest people.
We have a spirit of “can do” that is unparalleled on the planet. Many
nations think we’re brash, loud, obnoxious, overly proud and nationalistic and
hate us for our bad manners and profligacy. So be it. I’d rather live in the
United States than in any other country. We will not only get through this, but
emerge stronger than ever and once again, we’ll be the city set on a hill
letting our light so shine as to be a beacon of freedom and prosperity to the
entire world.
I’m a pragmatist, and I recognize the challenges that lie
ahead to recover from this mess. But I believe with every fiber of my being
that things are going to be better than ok, and sooner than the so-called
experts predict. I’m not suggesting we all go Hakuna Matata on this, but let’s
put things in perspective shall we?
May God continue to bless us. And may God continue to bless America.
TODAY IS
Tuesday May 06, 2025
Quips & Quotes
April 20, 2025 "There’s a price to pay when you go all-in on DEI—and the piper always comes calling. You can’t lower standards, abandon merit, and inject politics into everything, then act shocked when the results go straight into the toilet. Life doesn’t work that way. Businesses don’t work that way. And elite universities certainly don’t work that way.
Once the gold standard of higher education, they’ve become a punchline—rotting from the inside out thanks to progressive nonsense and DEI disasters. It’s gotten so bad, they’re now offering high school-level math to students who can’t keep up—students who have no business being at Harvard in the first place. These aren’t academic standouts—they’re DEI charity cases, picked because of the color of their skin or their sexual fetishes.
Let’s be honest—you don’t need a Harvard Ph.D. to see what’s going on here. When you stop choosing the best and start choosing the most diverse, you don’t get excellence. You get mediocrity, decline, and total embarrassment.
That’s exactly what former law professor Jonathan Turley is sounding the alarm about.
Turley took to X and pointed out that since 1636, Harvard has prided itself on admitting only the best students with the highest scores. And shockingly now, it only took one generation of woke ninnies to wipe all of that greatness out." Revolver, April 19, 2025 "The Mayo Clinic just tried to pull a fast one on the Trump administration, but social media busted them…"
April 4, 2025 "American families have been strip-mined, plundered, and debrided of healthy tissue, that essential primordial ooze from which happy parents and children spring. Americans have been forced to soak in sterilizing solvent—liberal feminism, K–12 school indoctrination, toxic social media, and four years at woke finishing schools formerly known as “college.” How could anyone escape with their morals, identity, and mind intact? Many don’t.Some manage to make it through the gauntlet intact, but their children aren’t so lucky; their budding hopes and dreams are blown apart or mangled by landmines buried in the ground. These landmines include infinitehorizon dating, the abortion industry complex, the failure to marry or stay married, unwanted childlessness, careerism, opioid addiction, pornography, “finding yourself,” and the temptation to sell your eggs, your sexuality, your identity, and your soul to the highest bidder—among many others. All that’s left is a cohort of young people unable to form meaningful relationships, raise children, and otherwise perpetuate the species into the future. Loneliness, depression, drug abuse, infertility, and generalized despair have taken hold." Peachy Keenan, (2003) "Domestic Extremist", Regenery Publishing, New York
January 2, 2024 "As we enter 2024, there is widespread public agreement about two things: (1) something big is about to happen, and (2) whatever that something is, it sure as hell won’t be pretty! While it may get pretty ugly pretty fast, though, there is an upside to what’s coming: as a country, we can finally pull this disgusting Band-Aid off, face reality for what it is, and stop pretending. However bad this year might prove to be, it might also be tremendously liberating.
Why? Because, one way or another, things will soon change. For too long, those who “run” America have had two things in common: (1) a hatred for individual freedoms, and (2) an even deeper hatred for the one country on the planet explicitly founded on their protection. As a national security surveillance State superseded the U.S. Constitution, leftists have controlled academia, journalism, the legal system, and entertainment. They have shoved anyone with a working brain out the door while assuring themselves that they deserve their privileged social positions and unearned accolades. They tell themselves that they are smart and enlightened, but anybody capable of self-examination knows this not to be true. Leftists are not happy people. They have not figured out any special meaning to life because, to them, life is meaningless. In other words, for too many years, a collection of the most depressed, least curious, morally relativistic, and intellectually homogenous people on the planet have been given pampered positions in exchange for acting as nihilistic and narcotic-dependent sea vessel captains willing to steer America into an iceberg of decline and failure." J.B. Shurk, American Thinker, January 2, 2024 "Do We Hit the Iceberg or Finally Change Course?"
November 3, 2023 "There’s a subtext to nearly all American political trends today. It’s hardly ever spoken about overtly and explicitly. But the topic is nonetheless always there. All insiders know about it. It’s also the central and critical debate concerning America’s future.
The question is as follows. Will the United States continue the present system whereby representative democracy persists as a mere veneer to keep the public distracted and defocused on the real rulers in the nation? Or will something dramatic be achieved whereby the swamp is truly drained, the administrative state gutted, the agencies disempowered, and we return to an actual constitutional system in which the people truly rule themselves through their elected representatives?
These are the two paths. It’s one or the other. They’re mutually incompatible." Jeffrey A. Tucker, November 3, 2023, Epoch Times, p A22, "Are You an Institutionalist or Anti-Institutionalist?"
October 30, 2023 "If you want an indicator of how lost Western civilization has become, go to your kids’ school and check their rules on fighting. Most likely, you’ll find out if two kids get into a fight, both get suspended, regardless of whether one was a punk bully who started it and the other was simply defending himself or some little kid. This is a moral disaster, of course – violence in the defense of what is right is a moral obligation and a symbol of a greater rot within society."
"The world's true nature is that good is forever pitted against evil."
"We must learn again to be ruthless in defeating our enemies. The big lie that Western civilization tells itself is that there are no real enemies, that there are no bad people – except the people of the West themselves, who bear some sort of original sin for not being corrupt and inept Third World barbarians."
"We have forgotten our strength and our courage. We have forgotten that we survive not through gentle hugging but through sword-swinging.The idea that Israel should somehow give these Hamas barbarians food, water, and electrical power even if it surrounds Gaza and prepares to attack is mind-boggling insanity. The moral illiteracy of expecting Israel to care more about the Palestinian people than other Palestinians do is simply bizarre."
"The hard truth is that the world contains bad people who must be crushed through ruthless violence, which shocks and horrifies modern sensibilities. But it is reality nonetheless. When people want to kill you, you are at a decision point. You can either let them kill you or stop them. But stopping them often involves aesthetically displeasing actions, such as blowing them into little bits with bombs or shoving a bayonet into their guts and watching them die in agony. And it necessarily means inflicting death and damage on the noncombatant camp followers around them. That’s why they say war is hell. And that’s why starting one is probably not a good idea. But when someone else starts one, you have to choose them or you. Someone’s going to die badly, and you know, I propose it is those other guys."
October 16, 2023 "Though around the world sociopaths stabbed some folks, the Day of Jihad fizzled in America – how many bummed patriots slammed in a mag hoping some mutant was going to choose his small town to prove Jason Aldean right? But it is only a matter of time. When you allow millions of military-aged males to come unvetted into your country, including many from bizarre hellholes where hatred for Americana is more common than food and indoor plumbing, there is a non-zero chance that some of them are part of sleeper cells waiting for the signal to murder Americans here at home." Kurt Schlichter, Town Hall, October 16, 2023, "We Are Sitting Ducks And Our Leaders Do Not Care"
August 22, 2023 "When arguing in federal court in HI in 2020, I had to get permission from the governor to enter his precious state to argue that his silly COVID lockdowns violated the Constitution. I lost. This same state, in real life, has shown how little respect for life its leaders really have. My perfectly healthy clients were not allowed to travel from one island to another to visit their own property. American citizens were turned away at the airport because they got the wrong COVID test on the mainland. The hotel gave me “parole” from the one way card key rule only to do my legal business and leave. I could not call an Uber or take a taxi at the airport. The National Guard met me at the gate to escort me to Hawaii COVID immigration to provide my information, which they verified with the hotel. I was to keep my phone on at all times so that they could track my location. This same police state didn’t turn the water on in Lahaina, didn’t have sirens, can’t begin to tell you how many children died from their incompetence. Or begin to explain it. Remember all this the next time you are asked to comply with farcical, unjust “laws” made by dictators. They are lying when their lips are moving about how much they care about you and your little life and your paper constitutional rights. Americans are beginning to realize how much we are on our own. Such a betrayal." Harmeet K. Dhillon, on "X", 8/22/23 12:44 AM
August 17, 2023 - A MUST READ!!!! The following is a transcription of Newt Gingrich's comments on Hannity last night. "“I think what you’re seeing tonight is one tree in a forest, and I think we are drifting towards the greatest Constitutional crisis since the 1850s, uh, and the rise of secession and the Civil War. I don’t mean that as hyperbole. Uh, if you read Andy McCarthy’s remarkable book, Ball of Collusion, which came out in 2019, he makes very clear that it is Barack Obama who corrupts the Justice Department, it is Hillary Clinton who routinely breaks the law and gets away with it. And now we have Joe Biden who’s learned, he’s learned from Obama that is doesn’t matter what you do, if you’re a liberal Democrat, you will not be prosecuted. He learned from Hillary that a person in high public office can get millions and millions of dollars. And they learned from watching Donald Trump that a true outsider, willing to take on the entire system, could destroy their entire machine. So what you’re seeing across the country, is a desperate, last-ditch effort by a corrupt machine to destroy their most dangerous opponent in a way which not only breaks the Constitution, destroys the rule of law, and establishes a moment of bitterness, uh, which I think will last for a generation or more. I think this is gonna be a horrendous period and we just need to understand: The people who want to control America and dictate to the rest of us will break any law, lie about any topic, and manipulate the system any way they can, and that includes a lot of the elite news media.”
August 10, 2023 "The fact that young men are getting more conservative is a cause for optimism. Remember, if you grew up male in the last ten years or so, every institution has been deployed against you. You’ve been told you are bad and horrible and evil and worthless. In contrast, every girl is an empowered girlboss ready to take her rightful place at the pinnacle of society. And to facilitate that, they must displace the dudes. And it’s no secret – that displacement, that consignment of men to second-class status, is not merely admitted but celebrated by our trash ruling class." Kurt Schlichter, August 10, 2023, Town Hall, "Angry Young Men Are Going To Disrupt The Garbage Paradigm"
Articles/Writings We Think Are A Must Read
Who Will Say No More to the Current Madness?
Once again, Victor Davis Hanson has nailed it. In his article there is a list of the most egregious crimes and failings of the Left and this Administration. Stronly urge readers to read the whole article. Here’s an excerpt of the most salient points:
“America is in existential danger.
The Biden administration has utterly destroyed the southern border — and immigration law with it.
Biden green lighted 7 million illegal aliens swarming into the U.S. without legal sanction or rudimentary audit.
China spies inside and over the U.S. with impunity. Beijing has never admitted to its responsibility for the gain-of-function COVID virus that killed a million Americans.
President Joe Biden printed $4 trillion at exactly the wrong time of soaring post-COVID consumer demand and supply shortages. No wonder he birthed the worst inflation in 40 years.
In response, interest rates tripled, gas prices doubled.
Our military is thousands of recruits short. It lacks sufficient munitions.
Following Biden’s humiliating pullout from Afghanistan, vast troves of arms were abandoned in Kabul. Billions more in scarce weapons were sent to Ukraine.
The Pentagon’s woke agenda trumps meritocracy in promotions and advancement.
Our enemies — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — are on the move, while the U.S. seems listless.
The Biden renegade Department of Justice, CIA and FBI have become weaponized. Ideology, politics, and race — not the law — more often guide their investigations, intelligence operations and enforcement.
The downtowns of our once majestic major cities are becoming unlivable.
They are mired in refuse and trash, violent crime and homelessness. Stores and businesses leave. Millions each year flee the blue urban coasts to the red west and south.
To even say there are still two biological genders, that global warming may not be entirely manmade or necessarily destroying the planet, or that class, not race, is the proper barometer of inequality is to face ostracism and career cancellation.
The public assumes that Biden is severely cognitively challenged, likely corrupt, and a serial fabricator.
Most know what must be done, but few will tell the truth: Balance the budget. Return to legal only immigration. Restore a well-funded, but unwoke Pentagon.
Insist on racial unity. Curb the overweening administrative state. Enforce the rule of law.
Produce more gas and oil. Reestablish civic education. Insist universities protect free speech and due process — and stop proselytizing.
In other words, restore what until recently made America the strongest, most prosperous, and freest nation in the world. And quit undoing all the great good that eight generations of prior Americans bequeathed to us.”
Victor Davis Hanson saying it better than anyone. Perfectly describes the childish, impetuous behavior of the Left. A quick and incredibly accurate take on everything we see before our eyes.
An excerpt:
“Cry-baby tantrums won’t win over the public. These nonstop puerile meltdowns have turned off most Americans who tire of whiny narcissistic hypocrites.”
Strongly recommend the artful summary of what the Left is trying to do with the Disinformation Governance Board canard written by Michael Walsh in “The Pipeline”, May 2, 2022. You’ll find the whole article here. Some excerpts:
“So now the mask has dropped and, for the first time, the American people can see the modern Left in all its hateful, unadorned, vituperative, spiteful glory. Case in point: the announcement last week that the Department of Homeland Security—one of the excrescences of the Bush administration, cobbled together in its panic over 9/11—has created the “Disinformation Governance Board” in order to combat what it has, via its hitherto little-known Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, already dubbed “mis-, dis-, and mal-information.” Otherwise known as alternative points of view, but shut up, citizen.”
“Let us now remind ourselves of the late historian and Soviet scholar Robert Conquest’s third law of politics: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.” At this point in American history, that is not only a theory but a fact. Having narrowly “won” the 2020 election by stealing it fair and square, the Left is putting pedal to the metal to accomplish as much of its anti-foundational agenda as it can before the clock runs out on its tiny congressional majorities this fall.”
On the Subject of “Things happening in the background to purge the illicit Biden administration“
The article in American Thinker by Dr. Brian Joondeph entitled: “Nothing Can Stop What is Coming. What if Nothing is Coming?” lays out the case for the increasingly skeptical that anything is going to halt the Leftist Leviathan. Strongly recommend this article not to throw cold water on all the hope so many of us have of there being some justice on the horizon, but to lay out the stark possibility that it’s all wishful thinking and we’re stuck with what we’ve got at least until January 2023.
On Climate Change Fraud
One of the best debunking articles/videos I’ve seen recently on the revolting fraud being perpetrated by the climate alarmists. In very calm, easy to understand terms the author shows how graphs and picking the right starting point for data visualization is being used to create the narrative that they rely on for their funding, their power, their nefarious attempts to alter society and our world. This same manipulation occurs with ALL kinds of data and the Left is expert in obscuring truth, altering perception and brainwashing a lazy, non-thinking mass of sheep to believe what they want them to believe. Strongly recommend watching this…12 minutes long and a must see!
Featured Friends
Straight Line Logic
Robert Gore’s blog. I put Gore up there with Victor Davis Hanson, Jordan Peterson and Thomas Sowell. His theses are chock full of substance.
The Burning Platform
Unabashedly conspiracy-theory driven, but thoughtfully so and well-written. Makes one think, “could this really be what’s happening?”
