Better Than I Could Have Said

A Leftist complains about ‘book banning’, and is schooled. Read it all, but especially the comments. 

Are We There Yet?

Not yet. We seem to be getting into place, just waiting for the spark.

Keep in mind, this is not a one-way rachet. It may take some back-and-forth to push Americans to the wall. At that point, it's Fight or Die.

Few of us would initiate a fight. Most of us would work very hard to avoid a confrontation from which we cannot walk away.

But, the time may come. I'm planning as though it may come at any time - for that purpose, we store up food, water, and emergency supplies. Not necessarily guns and ammo - that's a personal decision.

Find or develop some skills that might make you useful, should there be a disruption of civil services:

• Food prep or food gardening
• Being able to rig/supply equipment for safe, clean water
• Communications - ham radio, both with the handhelds and with HF (long-distance) equipment would be good
• Use of drones - there are programs to train you to handle them correctly
• Neighborhood security - that may, in some cases, merely be knowing your neighbors and making sure they are safe and supplied. Might be experience with spotting IEDs or other issues - I have little doubt that the Left will use any means to achieve their goals - they have already demonstrated that they will use clubs and incendiary devices to wreck havoc, destroy property, nd assault anyone who stands in their destructive way.
• First aid/medic capability/training/EMT
• Use of defensive tools - preferably, knowing when NOT to use them
• Fitness to handle physical work
• Leadership experience

Note, I'm not suggesting a training camp to drill people on weapons and ways to kill. MOST of what will be needed will be support for people in the affected areas - IF it is needed (the current tyrants and their accompanying thugs may just run for the hills).

It's possible that the whole shebang may collapse with hardly a shot fired on either side.

Who knows? But, as a former Girl Scout, I know it's better to Be Prepared.

Not me, but that was the uniform I wore. The newer ones are tan.

I took my oath seriously. I threw myself into the experiences as best I could.

I would expect no less today, however much I've aged. And, my husband, a former Boy Scout (Order of the Arrow), who learned the camping skills over many years.

The Human Dream, Expressed in Media

I found this link on Substack. The creator is Ted Gioia, who writes on The Honest Broker.

Ted begins this essay with Don Quixote, and links the would-be knight to the Star Wars franchise. 

Now, Star Wars and other action heroes franchises are currently teetering on the verge of collapse. That’s not because the yearning for a hero is over.

Rather, that’s because the manufacturers of the movies have lost touch with the underlying motivation of the audiences to spend their time with the stories.

They want a hero. They enjoy the idea that ordinary men (and women) can rise to an occasion of need, and face overwhelming odds against them, and yet, not give up.

That’s the common theme of so many of the most successful movies:

• StarWars
• Spider-Man
• Superman
• Batman
• Die Hard
• The Hobbits and other characters in LOTR
• Walking Tall
• All the President’s Men
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Sargent York
• The Alamo
• Finding Private Ryan

It’s probably one of the most ancient desires of humankind. We will forgive a lot of flaws in those that are willing to defend their people till the end. That is why the campaign by the Leftists to disassociate reciprocal loyalty on the part of women was so devastating to families and the culture.

Why was Superman (the 1978 version) such a shock for Hollywood?

They MEANT the movie to be seen ironically. In subsequent movies, they incorporated increasing levels of “wink, wink, we’re playing this for laughs” scripting.

Didn’t matter. Christopher Reeves played Superman straight, and kept the story alive. Without him, the movies  would have flopped.

Biometrics Are in Your Future, Peasant!

I don't get it. The Overlords are fighting REAL ID with all the ammunition they have at their command (Federal DOJ, lawsuits, state-level roadblocks, OCR - Office of Civil Rights, etc.), and yet they are pushing this privacy-invading 'technology' with all their might.

Currently, the recognition technology for facial analysis and matching is in the 90/100 for accuracy. That's a lotta false positives, and more than a few false negatives.

Essentially, at this point, worthless. However, what the manufacturers are doing, by being installed at airports, is gaining access to a wide variety of faces at the intersection points. In essence, getting their technology testing done at OUR expense. And, in the process, building a Giga-Big database - which THEY will control. Note that the TSA is planning on a NO EXEMPTIONS policy. Wonder if that will extend to Muslims?

The other tech that TSA is planning to impose on you is here.

How soon before they bring in the retinal scans? Mandatory fingerprint checks - at least or those non-favored people. Wouldn't do to use it on Black people - you might catch them with open warrants or other reasons to detain them.

Local Push-Back on Leftism

Oklahoma is one of those leading the way!

The more I think about it, the more I am interested in city, county and state government as a way to push back against the Woke-and-Soon-to-be-Broke.

It doesn't take that many votes to prevail. At the state level, the legislators are elected from relatively small districts. Those districts often outnumber those of the big cities. So, non-urban concerns have a chance to be heard.

Catholic Church Under Siege

And, unfortunately, the Church leadership is NOT standing firm.

In NYC, a Church posts a pro-trans statement - next to the altar. 

A good project (I'm not volunteering, I have too much on my plate already) would be for people in a given diocese to contribute to a data set of Non-Canonical Abuses by Church Leaders. Name the people involved.

The motto of The Christophers organization comes to mind now - "It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness".

Apparently, the Biden Tyranny doesn't agree. This time, they eventually backed down.

Faithful Catholics scare governments. The concept of putting spies in churches is one that ALL churches should resist, and make their displeasure known. Doubt they will, though. That really does tick me off - Catholics have been in the forefront of government resistance on behalf of other churches for many years. It would be nice to see some solidarity on the part of the Protestants, Jews, and other religious organizations.

BTW, for those who want a more traditional media for the same story as above, here is Newsweek.

Salon thinks that Catholics who involve themselves in government are scary.

And, finally, not directly related to the Catholic Church, but certainly in opposition to one of its core tenents:

Humans to be immunized against pregnancy by vaccine.

Because, of course, the record of medicine re: vaccines is so good.

/sarc

As someone who suffers from two different autoimmune diseases (Rheumatoid Arthritis and Asthma), I have some personal experience with the downside of over-activation of the standard bodily defense system. That effort can cause it to turn on the patient.

What, exactly, causes the immune system to go into hyperdrive is unknown at this time. But the prevailing hypothesis is that there is a trigger - a recent infection possibly - that starts the autoimmune avalanche.

COULD vaccines be a factor?

Possibly. And, for that reason, we need to be very cautious about adding more vaccines to the current mix.

Offbeat Reading for Me

I don't often delve into economics. I had an incredibly boring Econ 101 class my first semester in college, and it soured me on the field.

To this day, I have a hard time understanding how money - the exciting way we trade commodities - could possibly be made to be so sleep-inducing. I always said that if economists taught Sex Ed, the human race would die out.

But, I do try to shore up my deficient knowledge. I've read some of the seminal articles and essays of the Libertarian core library. That's been helped by the free and very full downloadables of FEE (The Foundation for Economic Education) - a great resource for teachers anxious to counter the Leftist propaganda in schools. Another resource is Mises Institute, which has an extensive collection of books, articles and courses.

I was following a link from another site, when I landed here. VDare is frankly a White Supremacist site. However, I could not access the original interview on Forbes. Amazingly, that magazine dedicated to commerce actually insists on being PAID for their work!

I urge you to read it. It explains a lot about why the Leftists currently in power have so much in common with the Chinese government. They both operate along the same lines of putting Elites in charge, and exacting their pound of flesh from the proles to do their jobs.