Pork Brains with Milk Gravy

The reality of knockdown power

2026-08-25T11:04:36.488-07:00

For decades, I have read gun writers repeatedly say knockdown power is a myth.

I did not believe it the first time I read it. I do not believe it now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycjblUbiflA

The gents at Ballistic High Speed have literally shot down the myth that knockdown power does not exist.

12 pounds moving at 350 feet per second delivers 22,000 foot pounds of energy,

Someone is going to go splodey head here and say yeah, but that is a cannon.

And? It uses gunpowder. It fires a projectile, using the chemical combustion gas forces generated by the burning powder.

The cannon also sent bowling pins literally flying. Looks and sounds like knockdown power to me.

Run yer bottom lip out as far as you like.

Some years back I was headed into my deer stand. I saw a fox squirrel high up in a tree. As I was in a pecan orchard and squirrels wreak hell on pecans, I took aim with my .270 Win. The impact sent the squirrel flying from one side of the tree to the other.

If that is not knockdown power, please explain how I do not understand what knockdown power is.

In case you don't wonder, I've hunted grey squirrels with soft lead 300-grain in a .45-70. No squirrels were launched into space. They simply fell out of the tree, dead.

Can you explain the difference?

YouTube (if the YT overlords allow the vids to remain up) has videos of prairie dogs being launched more'n 20 feet in the air by .223, .22-250s and other high-velocity rifle rounds.

Again, if this is not knockdown power, please tell me where I am wrong.

Some things I just need to say on a Tuesday morning

2026-07-21T10:17:55.309-07:00

Earth date 21 July 2026

The clock is banging on 10 a.m. The 3rd cup of decaf is half done (can't have caffeine anymore).

This is gonna be a long one.

BA

Talked to BA yesterday. I have spoken with him a serious lot since Sunday.

Hoping he got some sleep last night. He is a man on the ragged edge and, literally, is considering the final solution.

I ain't talking him out of it. I ain't talking him into it. That is his decision. I shall support whatever he decides. I am not nor will I accept being in charge of his life and the manner and timing of ending it. An exception is if he is on life support and he specifically tells me not to let him linger. I will pull the plug.

LARA

I have no idea when L and I first met. I knew her before she met BA. She told me she was moving from NYC to Texas to be his slave. A slave, yes, in the literal sense of the word. I figured I would never hear from her again. Indeed, it was a while before I heard from her again. She called, at BA's instruction.

They moved to Alaska, first to the bush on the northern side of the state. Then down to the southeast side near the Aleutians.

Yeah. I planned to visit them. Never did. Never will.

The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley.

BA told he moved to Alaska for her. She always wanted to live there. I think it suited both of 'em.

SUNDAY

Sunday, around 10 am or so, phone rings. It is them. I figure it was L checking in. She did that frequently. Am sure you know where this going.

BA spoke. With the first word from his mouth the world sent sideways.

She was groggy and lethargic that night. Sunday morning, she would not wake. He gathered her into his arms to put her in his truck to go to the ER.

On the porch, she went limp.

"The paramedics are doing compressions on her now," he said, panic obvious in his voice, on that first phone call.

I knew it was over. I did not say it. BA had enough to deal with. As an RN for decades, I am equally certain he knew, but like all of us, he demanded reality adapt to him.

More than that, on Saturday, I started having feelings that are not me, do not apply to me and are simply foreign to me. What feelings? A terminal end to matters.

Now, I know. L was dying and was sending me a message.

Days prior to Sunday, for reasons I now understand, I had a compulsion to start prepping to bring L from Alaska to Georgia live. Now I realize I had it backward. It was BA I was prepping for. Still am right now, with his cooperation.

You may discount this as Woo Factor. Don't care. As soon as SCIENCE can explain things and get it right, I'll give it the credence it deserves. You ain't me and I ain't you. Nuf said.

L died in his arms. That is exactly what she wanted, to be held close by the man who was her world. At the same time, she knew this would go far beyond wrecking him. We talked about this extensively. I assured her, I'd be there for BA, even if it meant a trip to Alaska.

I am there for him as much as I can be and as much as he will let me. Over the past 2 days, we have talked more, many times more, than he and I spoke in the 18 years I have known him.

It is good.

CRUSHED

I have never seen a person so crushed, devastated and ruined.

In one of our talks over the past 2 days, BA said, "I have never loved anything or anyone. My parents died, no tears. My brother and sister died. I was all right. Now, I cannot stop crying. Hell, I am almost a sociopath."

With those words I remembered something L told me years ago. Even the most despotic, cruel and tyrannical human being has limits. Example: Someone who delights in torturing a human to death could be the kindest person to a dog and would react with unimaginable fury to someone who mistreated a dog.

I am also certain BA wishes he could retreat back into the hardened fortress of self he once occupied.

He has, more than once, said he is ready to end it. Discussed that already.

I add that if he opts for the final solution, I want him let me know so I can send someone to collect his remains. Waiting to be discovered is not fair to those who do the finding.

He has not chosen that option, yet, because of Max, their dog. Max, as you might expect, is grieving in his own way. Max is a lifeline BA is desperately holding to.

I am certain if BA could find a good home for Max, BA would leave this existence.

NO HELP THERE

As is common in such times, BA turned to a place that should provide solace. Instead, he got rejection. No help there.

BA is a former devout Christian. He turned atheist. L was born and raised Jewish. She too became an atheist. Over the past few years, she started praying, not for herself, but for me.

Sunday morning, after L was carried to the morgue, BA got in his truck and started driving. Just driving. Aimless wandering. He stopped in the Soldotna Baptist Church parking lot.

Folks in the church sent an armed guard out to him.

I wish I could say I was surprised. More in a moment.

After realizing he was not a threat, a deacon invited him into the church. Coffee was served.

They spoke for a few minutes. The deacon said they had to leave as the youth group was coming in to listen to music.

"Thanks for the coffee," BA later recounted to me, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

NO SURPRISE

Really, no surprise there. I have Southern Baptist relatives who are convinced I am hell-bound because I was baptized Catholic. I am not Catholic now, more in a moment. I am now a co-pastor of a bilingual independent pentecostal church; the relatives are of the same opinion regarding my fate.

"Southern Baptists. They believe they will be the only ones in heaven," BA said.

I realize and state for the record, this is not the case with many Baptists. It is, however, the state of mind of far too many of them. Not that Baptists have a monopoly on that line of thinking. Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, Mormons and Islamists don't have a problem in telling other faiths they are wrong.

BA's reception was way too common. I have spoken to too many people who have left religion because of the reception of the people within the church.

Beyond sad.

The Book Of Southern Baptists
Chapter 13 -The Book Of Fellowship

And there cometh unto you a man in need of succor.
And ye, being followers of the man known as The Christ, shall turn him away for he followeth not your teachings.
Ye shall likesum disregard the teachings of the risen Savior for the man who cometh unto you brings ways are anathema unto you, albeit not to the Savior.
Ye shall then retreat unto the Sanctuary to hear the words of the Lord and shall be fed and grow complacent.
Upon departing services to enter into the world again, let not the words spoken to you guide you. Rather, rest upon thy self-centered superiority and ignore those in need.
Excepting thou shalt give from thy wallet unto mission programs that go to those on the other side of the world, for their need is greater as they are many thousands of miles away.
For charity does express itself in the greatest manner with those who thou shalt never see or come to know in person.

ANATHEMA

In that vein, I too am excluded. Call me Anathema.

I am, specifically, excommunicated from the Catholic church. Why? Because of hypocrisy. The Catholic church will not accept membership in secret societies, never mind the fact that the Catholic Church's history is packed with secret societies.

I cannot be a JW because I have this annoying habit of thinking for myself and asking questions. I am shunned, according to their own words, which they have recently changed. Not sure what they call it now. JW friends say they want to come talk to me about faith and the Bible. Words again fail to meet the actions. Which is good. Any conversation with them will not go the way they expect. They expect rejection and hostility. I will serve up questions they will not answer.

I am not a Southern Baptist because I cannot follow their dogmatic structure. 2 different SB preachers have told me as much at 2 different churches.

Can't be an islamist because I believe killing people because they do not believe as I do is a death penalty on the person demanding the killing.

Buddhist? Could be. I find nothing in the Buddhist tenets that conflict with Christianity.

I still, at this moment anyway, have a membership in the Church of God. If the leadership at the state level learned of my activities and views, I would be dropped from the rolls. Why haven't I resigned? I find satisfaction in being a member of that association, knowing that the hierarchy would be horrified if they only knew. Three former preachers at the Church of God here in Ashburn made it extremely clear through words, and more importantly deeds, that I did not fit in, would not fit in and could not be fully accepted unless I changed to meet their expectations.

As Danny Joe Brown sang, "If I have to change to be with you, then I have to be on my way."

I did, am and will change. On my terms. For my reasons.

PAIN

At this moment, BA is in the most intense pain he has ever felt. I can do nothing to assuage this, which compounds my own pain at the loss of L.

BA will either get through this or will not. Either way, I will give him all the support I can, no matter which option he chooses.

His pain is not mine. Mine is not his. Pain is unique to each person who so suffers. I do not judge people because of their pain. I work hard every day to not judge people who strike out because of their pain.

Guns, rights and SCOTUS got it wrong

2026-06-29T13:03:02.019-07:00

The Supreme Court got this one wrong.

SCOTUS ruled 6-3 that people who carry guns can carry on private property with public access.

Arg. Complicated.

Lemme simplify.

SIGN SIGN EVERYWHERE A SIGN

Waffle House used to have a sign on the building. “No firearms allowed.” If you walked in with a gun, the WH folks could tell you to leave. If you did not leave, you could get arrested for trespassing.

SCOTUS says that is not allowed. If you are legally allowed to haul a hogleg in public, you can tote it into the WH.

You can tote that freedom seed dispenser into any privately owned place that has public access. Grocery store, appliance shop, bookstore, bank, auto parts shop. That heater has to be allowed.

The prohibition on toting a gun into government buildings is still in place. No guns in the courthouse, Post Office, school, library, etc.

So I restate - SCOTUS got this one wrong.

BACK UP

Lemme back this up.

Before, if you walked in with a gun, the WH folks could tell you to leave. If you did not leave, you could get arrested for trespassing.

Do you see the problem?

M’k. I ‘splain.

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

Start with this. Individual rights matter.

I am hardcore on individual rights, gun rights, property rights, free speechifying and etc. I support the right of that gay married couple to use a full-auto, belt-fed M60 to protect their marijuana crop while holding Down With The Establishment signs.

At the same time, if I own it, I set the rules.

That couple just above? Their property, their rules.

You don’t like it? Here’s yer options. You can suck it up. You can leave. You can attempt to negotiate with me, up to and including purchasing my private property be that a gun, a business, my house, my farm, my truck, etc.

Aside, if you have a full-auto, belt-fed M60, you are welcome on my farm ANY time if I get to shoot it.

YOUR RIGHTS

You are now asking, “What about my rights? Do I surrender some or all of my rights the moment I step onto your property.”

Some. Yep.

Again, I own it, I set the rules.

I can tell you to leave my property and you have to do so. If you don’t, I call the local constabulary and they escort you off with a warning that if you show up again, you will be arrested and charged with trespassing.

This applies. Applies when and under what circumstances? It applies. Nuf said.

Do I need a reason? Nope. Reasons for this are good, but not necessary. I just need an excuse.

Me believing “yer ugly and yer mother dresses you funny” is enough to have you trespassed.

Waffle House can kick you out at any time.

BY ANY OTHER NAME

A skunk by any other name still stinks. In other words, tackle this from another direction with a different right.

You have the right to free speech. Yup.

I co-own several newspapers. I am not obligated to publish your letter to the editor. This causes immense consternation every so often.

I own real estate. I am not obligated to let you stand in my yard and share your opinions with the world at large.

Your right to free speech ends where my property begins.

My property, My rules still apply.

RIGHTS

You have rights. I have rights. Some of my rights trump your rights when on my property. Some of your rights trump mine when on your property.

Some. Not all.

You carrying a sign promoting your beliefs is one right you surrender if you are on my property. You walking onto my property with a gun is another right subject to my approval or denial.

Don't like it? See above.

SCOTUS simply got this one wrong.

Deliberate Descent into Pain

2026-05-29T12:35:07.338-07:00

He said, “How are you Ben?”

I replied, “Best day ever!”

She said, “I wish I could say that.”

I looked at him and saw a human being who got exactly what she wanted.

Unrelenting pain. Tortured breathing. Staggering forward with the aid of mechanical devices. Systemic failure slowly creeping forward, making this existence a personal dystopian nightmare.

A personal economy standing on the brink of disaster, just needing one gentle bump to complete the destruction.

Understand, this is what she did to himself. It was not an accident. It was deliberate. This was not a cruel twist of fate. This was taking a roll with the dice of life, knowing full well the dice are loaded.

It was a personal choice he made to ruin herself.

50+ years of being approximately the size of a forest hippo.

50+ years of sucking down the smoke of burning tobacco.

50+ years of saying “I need to do that” and never doing it.

50+ years of doing just enough to get by and never enough to really get ahead.

50+ years of knowing better and refusing to do better.

50+ years of wanting desperately to believe lies and living those lies.

Now, with the end clearly in sight, 50+ years of realizing this could have been avoided.

And now, hunched over a walker, she demands a surcease to the self-generated degeneration. He demands from the doctor an addiction, steadfastly refusing to admit it is an addiction. The cure was 50 years ago.

She must drag an oxygen tank, feeding bursts into lungs that sort of function. Lungs that will not allow enough breath to let him laugh anymore and lungs that, in their agony, are still greedy for the killer that brought them this far. The time to put that killer to death was 50 years ago.

The days are spent counting something that is no longer made to see if there is enough to make it through the week, hoping next week will bring more, but knowing that too will not happen. The time to count for the week was 50 years ago.

She asks for grace and mercy that demanded a continuing sacrifice from him 50 years ago.

Now, a crumbling edifice to greed, lethargy, self-lies and procrastination, she staggers forward drawing pity from nearly all who watch him.

A few who look upon this grand living monument of deliberate ignorance, active stupidity and intentional moronification and silently scream to themselves - You got what you asked for. If it is not what you wanted is your fault.

For they do not pity. They know. The result of actions demands absolute accounting for those actions. The bill has come due. The account is nearly empty

All that remains is more of what is now until the last breath comes and brings this to an end.

Who is really more dangerous?

2026-03-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

Which is more dangerous: Allowing people to vote OR allowing people to own a gun?

I am confused (normal) and I am asking for help.

Below I list some points. Accept them as fact for right now. I’ll get to my questions afterward

Posit 1 - In countries with properly elected leaders, voters decide who runs the government.

No proof or source offered for this.

Post 2 — Asking for ID to be able to vote is wrong. The right to vote is fundamental and a reason we fought the War of Independence. Example - “He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.”

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Posit 3 - Demanding ID, background checks and restrictions on gun ownership is lawful and necessary. Example - “Background checks for firearms have been conducted through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) since November 1998.”

https://www.nraila.org/get-the-facts/background-checks-nics/

Posit 4 - Background checks make the nation safer and prevent mass shootings, children’s deaths and so forth. Example - “In states where elected officials have taken action to pass gun safety laws, fewer people die by gun violence.“

https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/

Posit 5 - Government is the leading killer of people through gun violence. Just in war, a rough estimate is 570 million since 500 BC. And that is low. “This list broadly defines war as an extended conflict between two or more armed political groups. Consequently, it excludes mass death events, such as human sacrifices, ethnic cleansing operations, and acts of state terrorism or political repression during peacetime or in contexts unrelated to war.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_by_death_toll

Posit 6 - It is hard to get a firm number, but most estimates say the US has more than 20 hunters. I find no evidence of mass shootings of humans in the billions of hunts in the US. “In 2021, the number of people who participated in hunting in the United States (aged six years and older) amounted to approximately 25.87 million. “

https://www.statista.com/statistics/191244/participants-in-hunting-in-the-us-since-2006/

Posit 7 - 43% of US homes have a firearm. More than 80 million people own at least 1 gun. “Based on NICS background data and manufacturing records, it is estimated that there are 500 million civilian-owned firearms in the U.S.”

https://ammo.com/articles/how-many-gun-owners-in-america

Posit 8 - In the past Presidential Election, 154,308,000 voted. Voter “turnout may reflect the health of popular democracy. Well-functioning democracies are more inclusive and will have higher turnout.“

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/voter-turnout-in-presidential-elections

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/06/26/voter-turnout-2020-2024/

I explain my confusion.

We elect people to office.

Those elected are supposed to serve us, do what we demand and in general, handle business subject to our approval.

These elected officials start wars, sending us and our children to die and to kill other people and their children.

I Samuel 8:11-12 is a good example. “And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.”

R and D administrations have launched wars and continued wars.

Lemme make this clearer.

People vote -> Government is created to work for the people -> Government has a war -> People die from the war’s gun violence.

Who is at fault? Who is the real danger? Who is the killer we should be most concerned about? If government works for us, where does the buck stop?

This may be illogical or flawed. If it is, please point out where the chain of thought collapsed. This may be why I am confused.

If I am correct, please explain to me why we should not have an ID to vote when the US government, the people voters put in place, killed and continue to kill untold numbers of people in mass attacks and individual attacks.

Please explain why an ID and background check are needed to buy a gun when millions of gun owners, about half of the people who actually voted, have never shot anyone and hope they never have to shoot anyone.

Guns and voting are both are rights enshrined in the Constitution

Who really is the most dangerous here? What am I missing?

Based strictly on ALLLLLL the evidence I can gather, voting is way more dangerous than owning a gun.

You want IDs and background checks to buy a gun. I want the same exact rules, whatever they are, applied to voting.

Another rambling rant

2026-03-06T09:28:01.201-08:00

Accepting reality whether I want to or not

This week (week of 2 March 2026), I have dropped my face into my hands and dang near wept.

I may yet do so before the day (6 March 2026) is over.

This is not a column on religion, but I must make one reference to get my point across. I understand more and more why “Jesus wept.” John 11:35. He was utterly heartbroken at how incredibly dense people could be. He was simply flattened because people refused to accept the reality standing before them.

Ok then. To explain in secular terms:

HOW STUPID

Never underestimate how deliberately stupid a person can be.

Before you get excited about that, that statement includes you and it includes me. Over the years, I’ve become better at not being deliberately stupid. Sometimes I slip.

Also, never underestimate how much hypocrisy one person can spew with full righteous fury.

Today, I refer you to politicians at every level and leaders of various countries around the world.

I tellya, it is enough to make a preacher cuss.

Yep. I have resorted to profanities more’n once where the current state of affairs rests. This situation reaches from my small community in Southwest Georgia all the way up to the international stage.

GETTIN’ LOCAL

Gettin’ local on you, I also say the sheer ______ _______ __________ stupidity evidenced by some of the folks here in Turner County, Ga., is not unique. It is not rare. It is not unusual. It is entirely commonplace.

I have lived in Georgia, Alabama, Nevada and Florida. I tell you this: Change the names and the geographic location and the negative IQ among the leaders is exactly the same.

To the north of us, Crisp County has imploded over and over and over.

To the west, Dougherty County actually got bad enough to merit a letter from the Georgia Attorney General. The AG basically said, “Stop being naughty.” I have addressed the Attorney General's deliberate impotence elsewhere. Won’t rehash here.

To the east, Irwin County has suffered through meltdown after meltdown.

I am surprised the newspapers covering these mass self-done and intentional lobotomies did not spontaneously explode into flames in the sales racks.

This does not apply to all leaders. Some are actually good, worthwhile and are doing what is right regardless of the consequences. They do not last long. They are hounded until they retreat to a cave or are killed.

FERTILIZER

Why do people put up with this high-grade organic bovine fertilizer? Because people are generally weak, want to be led and hate the idea of thinking for themselves so much, they happily farm the task out to whomever yells “I AM THE GREAEST” the loudest, the longest and the mostest.

Yes huhn.

Only a very few are willing to say “Nah. I think I can do a better job of running my life than anyone else can. If I cannot do a better job, it is still life to run as I see fit.”

These people do not last long. They are hounded until they retreat to a cave or are killed

Monks walk for peace

This is here for a reason, but I can’t remember why right now. Something to do with politics whether the monks wanna admit to it or not

THE POINT I REALLY WANTED TO MAKE

If you have read this far, here is the point I really wanted to make.

We have some ______ _________ ______ ___ ___________ _____ _______ idiots in office and in positions of leadership here in Turner County. Again, change names and geography and I’ll say the same thing.

It is like these leaders have farmed out their thinking to AI, Artificial Idiocy. Apparently, their own idiocy was not sufficient. Reinforcement and all that.

If someone else came at these leaders with that same line of _____ ____________ ______ _______ _______, these leaders would be offended, irked, irritated, mad, angrily amused, annoyed and so on.

But when THEY do it, noooooo. They are the Supreme Galactic Overlord handing down a pronouncement.

One of these “leaders” is raising hell over what this “leader” sees as nepotism.

Apparently, someone has a daughter (shocking) with a boyfriend (EGAD! How dare she) and this boyfriend got a job (horrendibilus) and the daughter’s parental unit (imagine a child having a parent!) is one of the boyfriend’s superiors in the hierarchy (an organized leadership chain of command, unfathomable!).

This “leader” had the power to hire or fire - get this! - the leader’s own progeny. Never any question but that the offspring had to be hired.

But that’s different.

I assure you, I am not spreading guano on your crops. This is a bona fide reality where I currently hang my hat, collect tax notices and pontificate on a Macintosh.

DOUBLE WIELDING DAMOCLES

What we have here is an elected official going Florentine with a Sword of Damocles in each hand.

https://geddon.org/Florentine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Damocles

This elected official has no idea how to sword fight, to extend the metaphor.

In a ... well, dang. Hang on.

Most of the other elected leaders involved in this matter have sided against this “leader.” They all sit on the same board.

The hierarchy of the “leader” and the cohort supervise have also arrayed against the leader.

This is a mildly surprising display of cohesion and unity in the face of well-precedented blatant hypocrisy (example at the federal level - https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-kills-effort-release-congressional-sexual-misconduct-harassment-rcna261679) and a thorough, deliberate ignorance of the law, some important contracts and chains of command.

Leaders can come together to oppose another leader and they do so frequently.

At the same time, the leaders’ opposition is very often just as wrong as the leader they go after. This time in my community, they are in the right. Mostly.

As to the rest of my descriptive phrases above, I say deliberate et al and I mean it. In the Peach State, elected officials are required to have a certain amount of training, which includes:

• Updates on laws affecting their jobs
• HR
• Policies and how to implement & use them
• General information on how to do the job

This training is too often like pouring water into a bass fishing dip net. Something happened, maybe, probably not and if it did, it was not worth paying attention to.

_______ _______ _____ ____________ ________ _________ ________ AND ______ ___________ EVERY ___________ ___________ __________!

OFFENDED

You might say I am offended by this. You are not entirely wrong, as evidenced by the blank spaces above representing words I am not using in this post.

I am more disappointed.

I am, increasingly, annoyed with myself.

To ‘splain

Not long ago, Mike M. attempted to talk me down as my internal boiler was reaching critical pressure. The situation was simply: Some people did not do what they repeatedly stated they would do. This is sometimes more than I can handle.

https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/when-autism-and-adhd-occur-together

Mike tried to tell me I cannot expect others to live to my standards and expectations. He is right. 100% He got that from the Stoics. However, in the middle of an ... attack for lack of a better word, my grey matter simply does not process this.

In hindsight - “When you are offended at any man’s fault,” Epictetus tells us, “turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.”

Yeah. Thanks.

So, as I rail against our leaders, I stop to see when I have done the exact same thing. I realize i am no better than they.

However, I am not in a position to make a decision that will affect the lives of thousands and thousands of people for better or worse. These leaders are.

They abdicate or, even worse, abrogate the responsibility to do what is right.

My negative emotions and reactions are further fueled by my inability to make needed changes. One man, one vote can make a difference, but it is rare. I have seen local races decided by 3 votes. What little I can do (this blog being evidence), I do.

Too often, I feel that I am calling for Pancho to saddle my steed, for there are dragons to be slain.

We have met the enemy and he is us - Walt Kelley from the Pogo comic strip

2026-03-02T10:13:00.000-08:00

Let's talk about countries.

Call the nation Wlhud (We Live Here You Don’t).

Imagine if you will Wlhud has repeatedly attacked and periodically invaded other countries. These are not defensive attacks. These attacks are attempts at regime change, attempts to shut down various lawful activities, proxy battles between Wlhud and Tioc (This Is Our Country). Sometimes these attacks are resource grabs because Wlhud is big enough, strong enough and mean enough to just go in and try to take it.

Tioc defends its way of life and that of its allies. Tioc insists there is nothing wrong with the way people in its country and other places are living. Tioc also says invading to grab resources, regime change and so far is plainly wrong.

Consider also that Wlhud has broken more treaties than any other country in the world.

Whoops. Got that backward.

Tioc is the one doing the attacks. Wlhud is the other side.

Ah crap. I had it right the first time.

Sheet. Maybe it is reversed.

Eh.

The leaders of Wlhud make sure none of the leaders’ family members get involved in combat. If a family member accidentally winds up in the military, strings are pulled to make sure Family Guy is a REMF (rear echelon mother fucker) in no danger whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Tioc makes sure to take the poor, those with limited prospects, sometimes criminals and put them in the military. Yes, some to most of Tioc’s forces are volunteers and joined because they actually wanted to, for whatever reason. Still, Hobson’s Choice ain’t a choice at all.

Hang on. Did I get that one backward, too? Y’all let me know.

Wlhud goes out and kills civilians and children in other countries. Collateral damage. It happens. Wlhud excuses this as just a cost of war and it was nothing personal.

Homes are bombed into dust. Hospitals are shattered. Infrastructure is demolished and vital supplies like water are cut off, often poisoned and so forth. Crops are razed before harvest. Wlhud said this demoralizes the enemy and is a quick path to victory.

No, sorry. That is what Tioc does. I am sure of it.

Meanwhile, Tioc oppresses its citizens, violates basic human rights and insists it is a paragon of virtue. Any criticism of how citizens are treated are shouted down, loudly and repeatedly, with plenty of finger-pointing at the accuser’s own record of human rights violations.

Tioc citizens died because they cannot get the medicare care they need. They go hungry sometimes. Relief is often shanghaied and dumped into the leaders’ pockets and their friends. This is either covered up or a token arrest is made, usually someone who offended the leadership. An example is made and the leaders roundly back slap each other and tell citizens what a good job they are doing.

Yanno what? I believe that is what Wlhud does.

Arg.

Confused yet? Why? It’s very simple.

Do this -

Strip away the country’s name and its geographic location. Remove identifiers.

Now look at the records I mention above. Go with JUST what that country does and forget the name and location.

Sheer numbers. Straight numbers. Only numbers. No identifiers.

Now you tell me, which country is which.

You can’t.

You tell me children and civilians are dying and it just happens. Really. Bombs go off on your community and you lose family members, will you still say "it just happens?" Will you be as nonchalant when the water you drink is fouled and poisonous? NIMBY much? Why?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PivWY9wn5ps

Unions? You mean worthless employee protection racket

2026-02-16T08:09:00.000-08:00

A recent experience has reinforced my decision that unions are nothing more than a money-making scheme both for the unions and for union members AND a scheme to keep bad employees on the payroll.

I shan't bore you with all my experiences with unions. Those are somewhere herein. Dig 'em out at your own risk.

Rather, today I present you another example of a union protecting a bad employee.

I am a federal firearms license holder. I buy, sell and trade guns with the (not needed) permission of the government.

Guns are shipped to me.

A recent shipment was a handgun. It came via US Post Office.

That same day a shipment of medicine for an organ transplant recipient (roommate in the house) was also delivered via the Post Office.

The gun required, please note the word required as this is vital, an adult signature.

I got home the evening the items were delivered. Because I was in Big Red, I had to pull past the mail box and get out to get the daily delivery. This is important. If I were in the little truck, I could have reached the mail box. Likely, I'da driven into the yard and parked, never seeing the packages.

There, lying against the front yard pecan tree, were 2 packages from the USPS. Note here, I live on US Highway 41, the second most famous road in the United States. Allman Brothers, Ramblin' Man.

I also live on the edge of the Hood. The packages were visible from Highway 41. I've had stuff stolen from my fenced back yard in the past.

I took the packages inside. Look at me, being a responsible adult and all.

Meds for the kidney transplant patient. These are literally life and death medications.

A pistol.

FAILED

Once again, I failed the Stoics. I was mad enough chew steel and s--t nails. My ass wanted to crochet bobwar.

Let's not belabor the point.

COMPLAINT

I filed a complaint.

I wrote, at the request of the USPS investigator, 2 reports on what happened.

The first report outlined what happened.

Report 2 addressed the statement the letter carrier gave to the investigators:

1) The package signature had Baker Brothers. BB Easy Handling Watermelon System is the name of the gun company.

2) The carrier said she spoke to my daughter who the carrier said refused to sign. The carrier said my daughter (who she could not identify) told her to leave it under the tree. For the record:
a) Progeny 2 is a paramedic. She knows how important those meds are.
b) Also, my favorite daughter was at work that day.
c) Offspring the Second receives mail at my house but does not live there.

THE INVESTIGATION

The investigation included an interview with USPS officials and, of course, a rep. from the USPS union.

Under questioning, the carrier would not identify who signed for the gun. Would. Not. Hrmmm.

Repeating questioning, with the union rep present, proved as useful as interrogating a wood duck about the current state of affairs in Iran. Lots of quacking, plenty of ruffled feathers and s--t piled high and deep.

THE CONCLUSION

The lead investigator and I talked, in person, in front of my house. The investigator fell on the metaphorical sword.

What'd I learn?

The carrier was given "punishment." The investigator did not say what that was, what it involved or how serious it was. Reading between screaming billboards on fire on the Interstate, I inferred the carrier was given a mild reprimand and was told, "Do not do this again."

The investigator told me that is what the Union "would allow."

Uh huhn.

So we have a quasi-federal government employee in a union who was derelict on duty and:

1) Put another human being a real risk of severe health problems, possibly death.
2) Put an entire community at risk of a stolen firearm going into the hands of various community thugs. My neighborhood has shootings (generally no one hurt) pretty regularly.

The union has, once again, stepped in to protect someone who should not have the job the person holds.

AFTERMATH

Aftermath? Exactly as I have come to expect from unions.

In other words, not a diety-cursed making-of-the-beast-with-2-backs thing.

The investigator told me that carrier is "our problem child" and is under increased "observation" by the Investigator and the Post Master. "If (entity) did it once, likely (entity) has done it before," the investigator said.

Again, in other words, not a diety-cursed making-of-the-beast-with-2-backs thing will be done.

This has reinforced my belief that unions are not worthless. They serve as a bad example and tell us what we should not do.

When I failed the Stoics

2026-01-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is about deadlines. This is about me. This is about how I react to deadlines. This is how I failed the Stoics, sort of.

For more'n 40 years I have lived with, by, through, for and on deadlines in a way most people won't quite understand.

In my world, missing a deadline is more than just being late. It is losing. Losing exponentially as that distance between the deadline and when the work will actually be done gets greater.

Arg. Complicated.

Try this - In my world, missing a deadline has very real costs. Those costs grows exponentially as time passes.

It is more than just what it does to my wallet. It is more than what it does to the company wallet. Those are bad enough.

Missing a deadline, without a valid reason is worse for a 2-part reason:

1) It is rude
2) It is an inconvenience

These, these, ~~they drive me~~ I allow these 2 things far more control over me than they should have.

Needs work, as one friend in particularly regularly states about himself. That's a reminder to me.

RUDE

It is rude because the people who missed the deadline do not care about other folks and their lives and what they have to do. They are too self-centered. They believe the word revolves around them.

What and when they want is all that matters. Other people are either obstacles to be obliterated, steps to reach higher or something to simply be ignored in the way Cthulhu considers this reality.

I do not like dealing with those kind of people. Where possible, I do not deal with them.

INCONVENIENCE

These people who think of deadlines as something that applies to other people also have no problem being an inconvenience to others. See above.

These inconsiderate people have no problem in making others set aside their schedules, their wants, their needs and everything else.

Deadlines to these people are simply ficticious points on a chronological map. At least until it blows up and they have to start eating the cost.

Ahhhhh.

A LESSON

You might think that is enough to teach a lesson. You are wrong. Humans have a singular ability to tilt at windmills up to their final breath.

Me? I have spent far too much time sounding the charge and demanding Pancho give me the best lance. I am trying to change this.

TIME

Time is apparently an illusion to these folks. They do things when they feel like it.

Round here we call it Turner County Time. I am certain you have a similar saying where you are. The geographic name changes. The idea is constant.

I recall dedicating the High School gym here to the late Ronalda Pierce. Time set. Time started. Moved through the 45-minute ceremony. Done.

As we were shaking hands, remembering Ronalda and such, people were still coming into the gym expecting to see the ceremony. 45 minutes late is still on time to some people.

When these people are the ones being treated rudely or inconvenienced by missed deadlines, the world has come to an end. People responsible must be punished.

Point out they do the same thing? Insults fly. Cognitive dissonance rules.

FAILED

And this is where I failed the Stoics, sort of.

They tell us everything that happens is good.

The Stoics also remind me I am not in control of my circumstances, but I am 100% in control of my reaction to them. Unreasoning emotional reactions are not good.

The Stoics tell us to accept our fate and go a step further. Embrace it. Love it. Amor Fati.

They also tell us if we can change things, do it. If we cannot, accept it.

I try to do that. I presently ~~can't~~ won't always do that with those other people who think a deadline is just a word in a dictionary. I am trying to be better.

Where deadlines and other people are concerned ... stoicism is replaced with fury. I explain further.

GREATER THE IRE

The more people who are affected, the greater the ire. This is not just about me.

If it was about me, I'd be a Mt. Vesuvius every time I went to the doctor. Appointment 9:30. Get into the exam room 10:30. Doc walks in 10:45.

This only affects me. I ain't always happy. I am resigned to it. I manage. I have learned to block off the time needed for events like this. Where possible, I do things that need doing while I wait.

Some day I will learn to accept and embrace it. Amor Fati.

Maybe.

Again, it only affects me. I roll with it.

Add more people to the mix, I presently ~~cannot~~ will not handle it in a rational way.

BETTER

I am getting better at handling other people missing deadlines. I am learning to just say, "Cool." and then walk away leaving those who mangled matters to sort it out without my presence.

This is me changing things.

When I have walked away, this has left other people shocked, stunned, outraged and etc.

Their problem. Not mine. They ~~can~~ should become Stoic and enjoy it. Or, learn what a deadline is and stick to it.

Ooooooo.

Unfortunately, walking away is not always reasonably possible for me. It is always possible, but may come with a cost I ~~cannot~~ am unwilling to pay. If you know much about me, you understand that. In those cases, I ~~should~~ must accept the matter with calm dignity.

I'm trying.

If someone misses a deadline enough times, that person is no longer part of my situations and circumstances. I simply will not acknowledge them. I handled the matter. Costs will be paid.

VALID

Missing a deadline with a valid reason, not an excuse, I can deal with that. Fecal materials are a space-time occurrence.

Need to change the deadline? Let folks know as soon as you can. Let people who are also in the queue know so they can adjust their schedules.

This notice and adjustment recently happened in a matter I was involved with.

All involved got an update when the matter was pushed back about 30 minutes. Cool! I made adjustments. It worked. The Stoic in me smiled and said "This too is a good thing."

That notice showed:

Respect
Acknowledgement
Awareness

To me, that ain't a lot to ask. To too many others, that is a task required effort beyond measure.

To those people, I offer a modern Stoic response - A lack or planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

Cannot help

2026-01-26T05:42:00.000-08:00

<sigh>

UPDATE: The individual in question below was taken into custody by the Ashburn Police Department on Monday afternoon. Charged with a minor offense. She had a warm place to sleep and food.

Rolled into work a few minutes after 6. Across the street, she was standing, rocking back and forth. She likely slept there in that small, unheated space.

The space holds a kiosk for people to pay their power bill. That's it. No heat, that I know of. Might be heated. May have AC because this is S. Georgia. Summer temps and electronics do not pair well.

She had to be — no she did not. If the owner arrived before she left, she'd get arrested again.

Then she'd have a warm place to stay and food, for at least as long as she stayed in jail. She is a regular at the Iron Bar hotel.

WHAT WAS COMING

Knowing what was coming, I opened the door, stepped in and locked it behind me.

Yep. 30 minutes later, the door rattled. She was trying to get in.

The crew arrived. Left door unlocked.

She came back. Mumbling incoherently. Obviously wanting something, anything. She'd take it and trade it to someone for money to buy lottery tickets, cigarettes and whatever else struck her as necessary at that moment.

In that moment, I remembered why my desk is behind a wall, away from public view, for those times when people come into the building. At least I get a second or so to react, if needed, before they make it around the counter and back to me.

I ain't paranoid. I have proof. Tangible proof. Come by. I'll show you the bullet holes.

Anyway, the door was locked after she left. She came back a few moments ago. Door still locked.

A LIFE OF FREEDOM

A brief story -

Yakutsk, Russia, is supposed to be one of the coldest cities on earth. Temps regularly hit -50 C. If you wanna believe Google, that's -58 F. You can freeze to death quite quickly.

Yakutsk has homeless people. One gent there has lived homeless there for 20 years. He does not want a home. He prefers his life of ultimate freedom. Wow.

Yes, it is freedom. No taxes, no job, no expectations.

She has the same freedom. She refuses to cooperate with people who try to help. People have gotten her an apartment, a room, etc. Never stays long. Either leaves or gets kicked out. The kicking is far more likely.

MENTAL HEALTH

She probably has mental health issues. I cannot state this for certain. Other people have told me she does.

I hear people yelling, "We need to do more for people with mental health issues."

How? What? When? Where? People like her refuse any and all help. Will. Not. Take. It. Handouts of cash, drugs, food, booze, gladly accepted.

Years ago, we dealt with these people by putting them in "mental institutions." That is now cruel and inhumane. Sometimes, I agree. Sometimes, I disagree. Some people need to be removed from the public.

Is she one? I am not sure. As best I know, she's never harmed anyone. She has yelled at people, including me. Could she harm someone? Sure. We all have that potential.

Potential is not reality. If we lock up people because "they might," then we should all be behind bars.

Anyway, how can you help someone who just walks away every time?

SHE BE SWINGING

She can be rational. She can be as irrational as a toddler denied a cookie. There is no telling who you'll get when you encounter her. Those swings are massive.

According to her, I am either her pastor, a racist, a handout provider or something else found within her personal universe.

Yeah.

I do my best to avoid her, as I did this morning. No good comes of the times we interact.

CANNOT HELP

I cannot help. I do not know how to help.

I am not sure I want to know how to help. It may take too much. It may take something I am not willing to give.

At least for a while, I am pretty much a prisoner in my office. I can leave, maybe. Walk, yes. Drive? No. If I get into the truck, I am genuinely concerned she will stand behind it so I cannot back out. If she does that, then the local constabulary has to be called in. I do not want to do that, even though it means she'd have food and a place at least for a few days.

I am at a loss.

If you have suggestions, I'm listening.

Rose colored glasses

2026-01-21T12:02:00.000-08:00

This one is gonna offend a LOT more people than usual. A very few won't be offended. Very. Few.

This is a-poke-you-in-the-eye-with-a-sharp-stick rant. We are slaying sacred cows. We are taking the meat and burning it away on piles of rainforest timber.

On with the show, eh?

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Ooooh. Big word. Fancy word. Try another - delusional. Again? Homo non clara mente cogitare.

Bah. Make this simple.

Human.

We - that is you, me, that guy who just ducked around the corner so you won't see him staring at you and everyone you know - we are all afflicted with this disorder to some degree or another.

We mentally ingest what we want and consign the rest to a hazardous-waste dump.

A very rare, very few people can overcome this. History has a handful of examples. None of 'em appear in this rambling.

GET TO THE POINT ALREADY

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's yer point -

We have what we asked for. Well, you did and do. That we don't like it, see the Cognitive Dissonance above. "We" because I got hauled into the mess you made against my will.

What did we (most of you) ask for?

More government.

What did we (all of us) get? More government.

Me and very, very, very, very few others wanted and tried for something different. We actually tried to get less government, but our voices were shut down, drowned out and crushed beneath the weight and power of what the rest of you demanded.

Mind you, this tiny peer group and I are not excluded from the Cognitive Dissonance. It rages within us. We too idealize a utopia and believe it can happen.

<sigh> It can't. It won't. Keep reading.

NO!

I hear your screams. You did not ask for more government.

Yeah, you did. If you voted, you asked for more government, more than 99% of you voted for more anyway. If you did not vote, you definitely asked for more government. You are part of that 99%.

And, you got it. Jesus, Harold and Joseph, you got it and slammed it down on everyone!

The joy I find in this debacle is that you are in the same grinder as the rest of us. A bunch of you will not admit that. Of course, a bunch of you will insist nothing is wrong while being dissolved in the belly of a sarlac.

LEFT

The left - you have loudly demanded more government as if government will magically (government is magic, or rather sleight of hand) cure all the ills facing us.

Ooooh, yes you have. The left in this country has ballooned government in lock-step with the right. Look at the voting records. Look at how spending has increased.

A very close friend of mine, call him Mua'Dib, is so vocal about more government, it is one of 3-4 things he talks about. The others are irrelevant.

I have tilted at his windmills for too long. I have told him when you ask for more government, you will get it and not like it. Prophecy fulfilled. Each time I said this in the past, his reply is "You have to be careful who you vote for."

How's that working out, Usul?

See Get To The Point above.

RIGHT

The right - you have loudly demanded more government as if government will magically (government is magic, or rather sleight of hand) cure all the ills facing us.

The right in this country has ballooned government in lock-step with the left. Look at the voting records. Look at how spending has increased. Who did it?

I have a friend on the far right who swears government is the problem and it must be reduced. Call him Gipper. He can talk about 3-4 things, one being government. The others are irrelevant.

His words do not match his actions because he literally demands more government that will get rid of the problems he sees. I have told him that when you ask for more government, you will get it and not like it. Prophecy fulfilled. Each time I said this in the past, his reply is "You have to be careful who you vote for."

How's that working out, Dutch?

WOOPS!

I just read what I wrote. Apologies. I got them reversed. Mua'Dib is on the right and Gipper is on the left.

Um. No. I had it correct the first time.

No, the second time is the proper placement.

Wudja. Hold on. What? Wait. Is this?

Bah. You figure out which one is which. I have something more to say.

ANARCHY

I have a friend who is a total anarchist. He does not want any laws. Call him Sid.

I point out Somalia is a place where anarchy is the order of the day. (See what I did there?) He says no, Somalia is a failed state.

Mr. Vicious, pray tell what is the difference, I ask.

His mouth moves. Sounds come out. He has created his own language, which he and he alone understands. Through this language, I guess he explains why he is correct and I am a buffoon with less understanding than Mike the famous headless chicken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken

INTRODUCING THE PROBLEM!

Here is the problem. As Pogo said many decades ago, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Nature abhors a Hoov - er, vacuum. Power does the same. Something is going to fill that void.

People.

Humans will either lead or follow. That very, very few I mentioned earlier are willing to just get out of the way. The leaders and followers will not tolerate that so they hunt down the very, very few and kill them.

Yep. Check human history.

People will NOT leave well enough alone. Gotta tell someone else what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to do it and the reverse, not do it.

Why? Because the dude with the biggest stick said do it or do not do it. Otherwise, get hit with the stick. Sometimes a group of people will rise up and hit the big stick dude. Then, they start telling people the whats, etc., and whatnots, etc.

Again why? Because they said so. Big stick, remember?

People will NOT follow the rules. Check out my FB page for the posts I call, "People who park like hammerhoids." (That is how I want to spell the word and this is my column.) These people just flat out ignore parking lines and parking spaces.

Some of them would drive through the store if they could get their vehicle down the aisles.

Each time I take a picture, I say, "And you are why we need laws." More & more people are submitting pictures for me to post. Keep it up. Each time I post a submitted picture, I say, "And you (the driver) are why we need laws."

Karl Marx screwed it up. The truth was and is there. His dialectic even calls for a continual rollover and roll over of those in charge. He just put on rose-colored glasses to temper what he wanted to see.

The truth is, the struggle to rein in government will always be with us.

Why? Because see everything above.

Meanwhile, we have more government.

I hope you are happy because you got what you asked for and it is literally killing us.

I sure ain't happy about it.

A happy guy

2026-01-10T13:18:00.000-08:00

This morning, 10 Jan. 2026, I rolled outta bed.

"Better check messages. Just in case."

Yep. There it was. Canceled. More than canceled, gone, baby gone.

Cool.

If I had put odds on it the day before, it'd be something like 85-90% exactly what happened.

She did it before, albeit that other time she was also strung out on 'scripts. This time, sober. At least I think sober. WTH do I know?

"I will not bother you again" were the last words.

Cool. In order to make sure I did not dwell on it, go back to it and etc, I blocked her briefly. Just long enough to erase all the contacts and messages. Then, I unblocked her. Erased the other threads in other places.

Ain't mad. Ain't skeered. Also, ain't got no reason to leave the block in place. She did not engage one of the very few rules that get people blocked. She can contact me again.

85-90% sure she will.

Gonna be a different set of rules when that happens.

And that, luddites and geraniums, will result in another "I will not bother you again" on her part.

Goose said he was sorry. I said no worries. I am a happy guy. Still am. Plan to continue to be.

What happened was a good thing, the best thing in fact.

Mel asked what I was expecting. A discussion about a business decision she was pondering and pizza. Anything else, up to her.

I am a happy guy. If the follow-through occurred, I'd be a happy guy.

Yes, it was expected. I fault no one. It happened. What happened was a good thing, the best thing in fact.

Cool. I am a happy guy.

Going Socratic

2026-01-06T07:19:00.000-08:00

I have questions.

I will be attacked for these. Socrates drank hemlock for corrupting the youth of Athens. The vast majority of people do not like having to examine their belief structure. They like it even less when they cannot defend that belief structure.

Ad hominem gets you dropped, block and banned.

You may ask questions. I absolutely WILL answer them to the best of my ability and will back up my answers with facts and evidence, if the question is of that nature. If you ask my opinion, that may or may not require empirical proof.

Where appropriate, I request that you cite your sources. If you do not cite sources, then do not expect much in the way of my answers to your questions. If the question asks your opinion, sources not necessary.

Part 1

Should we charge leaders of other countries with US-specific crimes? Can other countries charge our leaders with their country-specific crimes? If we charge the leaders of other countries with violating US law, who else will be arrested? Vladmir Putin? The midget from N. Korea? Myanmar's leaders? African country leaders? If China decides to come and arrest Trump for violating Chinese law, is this fair?

Part 2

At what point do we as a nation stop controlling what American adults do to themselves? What gives anyone the right to tell an adult he or she may not engage in risky behavior? What else should we ban? How many lives has alcohol ruined v. how many lives has marijuana ruined? What is your acceptable death or ruined life threshold? Do you believe in body autonomy?

Part 3

If we are looking to hold mass killers accountable, when will we hold the US government accountable for the deaths the military has inflicted over the past 20 or so years? What about other countries? Iran, Iraq, Syria? Great Britain? Russia? China?

Part 4

Can you show me anywhere prohibition has actually worked? How did the US experiment with alcohol prohibition work out?

Part 5

"And now the head has been cut off the snake. Let's hope Trump cleans out the cartels for good." Can you show me any place, any time, anywhere in which a power vacuum was not promptly filled? How did the regime change in Afghanistan work?

Part 6

Given the double-talk coming out of Washington, whom should we believe and when? Are we at war with Venezuela or not? Are we there to run the country or not? Are we there to take over the oil fields or not?

Part 7

If we are at war, are you willing to sign up and fight? Are you, if you are a parent, willing to send your children to the fight? If you are not willing to physically join the fight, do you truly support this military effort? If you will not physically fight, how is OK to send someone else to fight?

Contradictions

2025-12-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

Mike M set me a link to a video. Mike always, always sends good stuff.

This one came with a warning-

"Are you able to view tiktok videos? If so, I will send you one that messed me up. I felt violated by it, and didn't even realize what it was talking about was a real thing."

I really should pay closer attention to warnings like that.

After I watched it and tried, and failed, to express what it did to me, Mike said, "I was wrecked that night. Violated. Someone had stolen shit from inside me that I couldn't even put into words."

https://www.tiktok.com/@shehryar.motivati43/video/7564122001309191455

I watched it. My jaw dropped. Mike watched it several more times. I ain't yet ready for that.

It was like the narrator split my skull open, scooped out my brain and explained every cell in it in excruciating detail.

My initial reaction was to cry and laugh. I wanted to run into the street yelling in celebration, inviting the world to join me and I wanted to get into the tiny closet under stairs at the office and bolt the door from the inside.

I wanted to go Jeremiah Johnson in the PNW and go to a TSO concert in Madison Square Garden.

I wanted to demand people come to me so I could say go away. I wanted people I could hug and tell them to never touch me.

I wanted to go on a wrecking spree and start building something.

In those few minutes, the narrator describes my life from the oldest memories I have until now.

Here, words succeed at failing in a spectacular fashion, or fail at succeeding in equally abysmal fashion. I have almost always found comfort, solace and healing in writing. Now, I have a better understanding of why. It is one place where the contradiction that is me can cleave, in both senses of the word to bring chaotic harmony to my existence.

Regardless.

Whether you who read this wish to believe or not, accept or not is irrelevant. What matters is someone who is not me, has ... well, it has brought me understanding and it has shown I am not the only person in the world like this.

Tribe.

I do not know everyone in this tribe, but simply knowing they exist is enough for now.

Milestones, cosmos and the future

2025-11-24T10:35:00.000-08:00

If yer looking for something of cosmic significance, this ain't it. It you are looking for sometimes disjointed ramblings of an over-educated redneck newspaper editor, you are in the right place.

Today, 24 Nov. 2025, The Wiregrass Farmer newspaper achieved something never before done in its history.

We put the entire paper out with InDesign, a computer program. The InDesign is the significant part. We've put the paper out electronically for years.

While this is not something that will shake your world, it did shake mine.

A BIT O' HISTORY

When I started this journalism journey more'n 40 years ago, the first computer system I learned to use was a Compugraphic. Text was typed into a video display terminal (VDT). After we put in the programming codes, it was sent to a a camera with spools of film inside.

The type came out on photographic paper which was developed in a different machine.

We then moved to a MicroTek VDT system. This was a glorified word processor with 12 terminals. It had about as much memory and storage space as cocker spaniel on meth. A laser printer spit out columns of copy we still have to cut and paste onto layout grids.

Then the Hall School of Journalism got a Mac, one of the originals with a 9-inch screen, self contained with a 3.5 floppy drive and the first electronic mouse ever seen on a computer at Troy State University.

At this time, The Greenville Advocate in Greenville ALA had a functioning Linotype which they still used for some things for the newspaper.

From Troy I moved to Nevada where we again used the Compugraphic. The office there also had Macs and there I was exposed to the first commercial version of Pagemaker. It mostly worked.

Back in Georgia, I returned to the MicroTek VDTs. After losing an argument with the then-editor, I moved to Florida, Windows 3.1 and an updated version of Pagemaker. I hate the PCs, but that is what we had.

Again back in Georgia at the newspaper where I presently work, I brought in Macs and Pagemaker. The week before I took over, they were using Compugraphic. The old Compugraphics were on their last leg both in our office and commercially. Pagination was taking over.

Soon, we upgraded computers and went to QuarkXpress. Quark was designed with newspapers in mind. It worked astonishingly well. I upgraded that twice and upgraded computers 4 or 5 times.

Around 2005, we started creating PDFs from the paginated computer images. We abandoned the physical page layout. The old wax machine was shut down. Hard copy pages were shoved into a corner. Pages were transmitted to the press over the Internet.

I forget exactly when, but I launched an Internet version of the newspaper on SurfSouth. I was one of the first in the nation and possibly the first in Georgia. It didn't last. Some years later the company bought domains for the papers and we went live online again.

TODAY

Today, for the first time, this week's newspaper was produced using InDesign, the Adobe software part of the suite of production tools. Last week was partly produced with the old Mac and the old Quark.

The old Mac remains in play as I migrate stuff from it to the new server. It will stay up and running for a while as it has stuff not yet moved over.

And, it has Quark.

InDesign was built with graphic designers in mind, not newspaper folks. ID works, but I am certain the latest iteration of Quark is better for what I do. Other offices use ID. We are now all on the same platform.

The learning curve was sharp, steep and sometimes painful. Quark shortcuts didn't work. Mac shortcuts did work, but they were/are of little help while using ID.

Robin spent time watching ID tutorials and learning how to run the new programs. She quickly learned what was needed to get her part of the paper done. Me? I managed, with her help.

We still have a lot to learn. We will.

THE FUTURE

If we ever have to upgrade computers and production software again, I may retire.

It is not a process I enjoy.

Over the years I have learned, and forgotten, several computer programming languages, several page production systems and several computer operating software systems. Even now, I feel my grasp of Quark slipping away as ID replaces what I know/knew. My knowledge of using a PC is eroding even faster and that makes me happy.

I read stories about how Gen Right Now gets irked with us older folks for not wanting to change and adapt. I get that. I was once a 20-something and jumped on new stuff with the enthusiasm of a honey badger finding Pooh Bear's secret stash.

Now, I'm far more Steve Martin about it.

"We're closed!" Steve said in one of his standup routines about aging.

Not prejudiced, not weary, not angry, not really apathetic and perhaps mildly annoyed, well, definitely annoyed at times. just done. We have learned, and forgotten, more than Gen Whatever knows. Been there, got the T-shirt, scars and ... yeah.

We are not interested in more change. Well, I am not interested in more change of the kind I just went through.

Change is on the way. It will happen. I cannot and will not stop it. But I don't have to participate in it.

Pete Hegseth, may fire ants nest in his underwear

2025-10-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

Pete Hegseth, may fire ants nest in his underwear, is one of the current administration's backup Liars in Chief. Hegseth, may fire ants nest in his underwear, is also the current Secretary of Pissing Off The Media, Most Of The Military, A Lot Of Congress and People With Sense.

Hegseth, may fire ants nest in his underwear, insulted the military.

Hegseth, may fire ants nest in his underwear, also decided he can tell the media what to do.

In what should be no surprise to anyone with brains, every media outlet with any integrity which was asked to agree to this Order From Hell said no. This includes Fox News. Thursday, 16 Oct. 2025, they walked out of the Pentagon. This includes Fox News.

Only One News Now signed. ONN, which is not The Onion but might as well be now, is operated by American Family Radio. AFR is a far-right current administration toady. I regret to say AFR claims to be Christian.

Claims.

Eh. They may be better Christians than I am.

SUPPORT

In what absolutely did not surprise me, a lot of the public supports Hegseth, may fire ants nest in his underwear. These people say the media only causes problems, writes news that could threaten US interests and troops and in general are a bunch of idiots.

Not gonna beat that already composted horse.

FASCISM

Make this clear. Hegseth's, may fire ants nest in his underwear, order is 100% fascism. A succinct definition - "fascism is a mass political movement that emphasizes extreme nationalism, militarism, and the supremacy of the nation over the individual." Oh 1984, we hardly knew ye.

Hegseth's, may fire ants nest in his underwear, order was not his idea. That came from the current Liar in Chief who is so desperate to control the media and whatever is said about him that he wants to change the way the First Amendment works.

I could give you near unlimited links pointing out the lies he has told. Ain't gonna. You already know OR you refuse to believe the paint is wet and will scrub your entire body down the wall to prove there is no paint on the wall whatsoever. ('Cause it's now all on you.)

APPLY TO YOU

Understand this - Any change to the way 1A works will also apply to you. If the media cannot do it, neither can you.

You may like the idea that people cannot criticize the current Liar in Chief. Cool. If this nation elects a leftist demagogue, the same rule applies. You do not get to criticize that person.

Oooooo.

Ahhh, but such ideas require the ability to think ahead and think rationally.

Ennyhoo...

SHUT YO MOUF

Every. Journalist. I. Know. has enough stories to figuratively sink a battleship. These stories never see the light of day. Everyone of of us has these shut yo mouf stories we will never share, never tell and never let anyone know.

While I may not know (maybe I do) any of the crew that walked out of the Pentagon, I am willing to testify on the Holy Scripture of your choice, they also have these stories.

Telling these stories serves no one. It will do the public no good to know. The stories could harm a lot of people without good reason.

So, we keep our mouf shut.

Hegseth's, may fire ants nest in his underwear, order is not meant to protect any military secrets, any member of the military or national security. It is ONLY meant to make sure the Liar in Chief looks good when the military appears in the press.

If Joe Biden had tried this, the LIC would have an even bigger aneurysm.

THE SPEECH

Remember "the speech" before all the military's generals, admirals, etc?

Hegseth, may fire ants nest in his underwear, and the LIC came off looking like buffoons. In other words, the truth was told.

That is a major reason behind Hegseth's, may fire ants nest in his underwear, order.

ONE LAST THING

“When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals.”
― Edward Snowden

Short painful life of Norah Vincent

2025-10-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

Norah Vincent is dead.

Who is Norah Vincent? A better question is "Who wasn't Noah Vincent?"

Think John Howard Griffin. Think Ralph Ellison.

Please leave your arguments about gender constructs at the door. How you choose to identify yourself is not my business. I do not want it to be my business. Please do not make it my business.

Argue the idea behind this blog if you like. Cut loose! I like it.

TO READ OR NOT READ

To read or not to read. That is the question. Whether tis more idiotic to remain unread and look down upon those who cannot read, while being exactly same, or read and by reading realize one's own shortcomings and by realizing, end them. Yeah. Shakespeare is gonna have Words for me when I get to the next realm of existence.

Ennyhoo.

I have not read Mr. Griffin's work. I probably should. I did read Mr. Ellison's work at the prompting of a HS English teacher. She said I would really like the book.

I read it. The only reason I read it is because she suggested it. Were it a class assignment or even an individual assignment from her to me, the book would remain forever unread. It's how I roll.

I told her I did not like it. And yet, it has stuck with me. I vividly remember passages. With 40+ years of experience now behind me I can still say I did not like the book. Today, I appreciate the book. Like, well ... maybe. Need? Without question. That book was a shot of verbal nutrients to an embryonic philosophy that continues to grow today.

Mebbe I do like it after all.

LEARN MORE

Until this day - 10 March 2025 Gregorian - I had no idea the person Norah Vincent existed. Now I do. Now, I must learn more. Why?

Read this.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/mar/18/gender.bookextracts

Norah's literary work is the experience men have.

Someone is going to insist this is a hasty generalization, perhaps a bandwagon fallacy or some other kind of flawed logic. G'head.

Norah said her 18-month experience living as a man so transformed her, that her only release was the final option. Sad, sad, sad. It is also reflected the reality of being a male Homo sapiens. Men account for 80% of suicides. Men also commit somewhere around 90% of violent crimes.

Causation is not correlation? Then you explain it. We'll get to a statement on reality in a moment.

What Norah reports in her book is what heterosexual male Homo sapiens in the United States and likely the modern world experiences. Is that experience universal? It is for every heterosexual male Homo sapiens I've come across. It is in the anthropological studies and books I've read.

(Unless you are an anthropologist or sociologist, I'm willing to bet I've read more of the studies than you have.)

If you are that person who says this is so much fertilizer, I'm willing to bet you are not a heterosexual male Homo sapiens.

Remember, reality is under no obligation to conform itself to your expectations. Nor does it have to be warped to my preconceived notions. Arg. Complicated. Lemme simplify.

Mebbe this kinda thing does not happen in places like Afghanistan where women are considered propetty. I don't care enough to research it.

If the truth hurts, yer living wrong.

Can't make it any clearer than that.

IT'S TOUGH

Norah said that time she lived as a man, it was tough. Ellison wrote the same thing. Griffin wrote the same thing. Quibble semantics if you wish, the base premise is the same; live as someone else to experience what they have to go through. It is fucking HARD.

The difference? Norah died by assisted suicide in Switzerland in 2022.

It is tough being a man. Women have a hard go of it too, but in today's modern societies - Taliban ruled Afghanistan, Iran and other places ain't modern as defined for this blog - they can have it easier than men. Not always.

You ain't gotta believe me. Norah did not want to believe it. Rather than stand on a belief without empirical evidence, she lived it. Well, she lived it for as long as she could and then she quit living altogether.

Do you have the kind of stamina to prove me wrong? Are you willing to risk the kind of breakdown she had to prove me wrong? Reality is, a lot of men don't have what it takes to live as a man in today's world. Some men are so shredded by it they resort to violence. Norah writes about that too.

Norah was also a lesbian and a feminist.

Ooooo. I just heard the wind go out of a LOT of sails. Truth and pain, truth and pain.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Men have to live up to a higher level of expectations than women. We are expected to earn more. We are not supposed to cry or show reactions to pain. So many things are required that are not required of women.

If a woman defeats us at anything, we are ridiculed. If we defeat a woman, we get, "Ooo. So you beat a woman" with as much sarcasm as can be packed into that small statement. A tie? "What, you ain't man enough?"

A woman defeats a man? "She got lucky." A woman loses to a man. "Yep. That's what happens."

We have to be macho!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ1glxX1BiQ

The standards are not the same. As evidenced by suicides, violence and etc, so many male standards are harder than those for women.

VIOLENCE

I've written about men and the penchant for violence and how that has been transformed into socially acceptable outlets - sports for instance. Been roundly ridiculed for it. Eh. Prove me wrong, then I will change my opinion. Pick a sport women and men play with the same set of rules. The male version is more violent.

Sports trace their roots back to the hunting, fishing and war, all being violent activities, traditionally men's activities.

TRADITIONALLY! Not exclusive. Lots of women do these same things, but it is more common for men. Stone-age societies mostly leave the hunting & fishing to men while women gather and care for babies.

Why are men this way? The Animal Kingdom has a clue.
https://www.prodiveinternational.com/top-10-least-known-bull-shark-facts/

Bull sharks are the most aggressive sharks around. If they walked on land, lions, tigers and bears would not be safe.

Causation is not correlation?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3693622/

Why are men this way? Evolution maybe?

As Norah saw it, being a man is tough. Women do have a hard time of it, but in a different way and in a way that is just simply less difficult, she said. SHE SAID.

I concur.

Don't like what she said? Argue with her and refer to the above statement on truth.

You do not have to agree. Prove me wrong. I will change to fit the truth. Will you?

VAW

Violence against women (VAW) is bad. Violence against men is more common. This too is bad, but it reinforces my point. Men attack men far more often than they attack women.
https://noviolence.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Whataboutmen.pdf

Domestic violence is different. Women are the primary victims.

Historically, VAW was also institutionalized by men. Extreme surgeries, denial of basic human rights, etc etc etc. Granted.

Today is different, in modern societies at least.

Someone is gonna point out attempts to continue to regulate women, especially when it comes to reproductive rights. Granted. Politicians are only interested in maintaining power, not protecting anyone's rights, except their own to get back into office.

Someone else is gonna point out that women are massively more likely to be sexually harassed or assaulted than men. Granted.

Someone is gonna point out men earn more than women, in a lot of cases. Granted.

Lemme cut these off right here.

A wonderfully brilliant, kind and intelligent friend of mine has Hodges' Rule of Thumb: Do not expect rational behavior from beings with an opposable thumb.

Quit expecting 100% logical and rational behavior. Ain't none of us a Vulcan. Homo sapiens runs on emotions, hormones and what we think we can get away with and then, if there is any brain left over, compassion, empathy and reasoning.

H. sapiens has no problem whatsoever working against its own interests.

Women verbally snipe at each other. They snub, ignore, put down, etc. It is psyche attacks. Women intentionally go for the emotional heart.

Men have no problem slinging the insults, but the words are more direct and blunt. Sometimes it is meant as and attack. Many times it is not, it is just manly banter. Also, men, as noted above, are also far more likely to take things physical when things get hot.

The difference is men are encouraged to hide their feelings. Those feelings are gonna come out one way or another. For men, keeping that bottle capped until it cannot hold the pressure leads to bad results. Women are encouraged to have emotional reactions.

Eh. Digest this -
https://www.heartfeltcounselingmn.com/blog/2020/12/28/are-men-more-logical-and-women-more-emotional

And Norah Vincent said it is harder to be a man than a woman.

ALL THUMBS

Let's run this VAW idea from another direction. Assume Hodges is correct. Might as well say H. sapiens is all thumbs when it comes to reason. Even the much-vaunted Stoics admit emotion is a ruling force their life. It is a force that sometimes needs to be subdued, sometimes let free to run wild but is always a force that must be reckoned and considered.

Watch what you do, where you do it and how you do it. H. sapiens is territory-defending predator with this instinct (yes, instinct) being more violent in males than females. Disagree? Visit your community's hood, a hood where you stand out and are clearly an outsider. Lemme know how it goes.

'Nother example. Someone breaks into your house. What are you going to do?

ASKING FOR IT

How does this apply to ladies? Ever heard the expression, "She was asking for it?"

You do not have to like that statement. In fact, if that statement is an accurate reflection of your belief structure, pray thee and I never meet, especially if you intend to act upon that belief. Juuuuust for the record, I once put 5 shots into a 6&3/8ths inch group at 1,000 yards. My worst group for the whole tournament was 5 shots in about 2 feet.

My daughter can do the same thing.

Regardless of our thoughts on "asking for it," this is a ~~false~~ ~~wrong~~ ~~distorted~~ ~~unfortunate~~ ~~misguided~~ idiotic ~~reality~~ mental mindset many men live. Yes. Ladies are in danger.

Ladies can also do something about that. Don't behave in a way that would invited such attention. Is that fair? No. Is it reality? Yes. Wear your rose-colored glasses if you wish. Remember this, corpses do not get to testify.

Lemme put this another way.

I am NOT going to wade into the ocean wearing a Lady Gaga meat dress.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_dress_of_Lady_Gaga

Apply some common sense, except it is not common.

REPRODUCTIVE URGES

Here's another one for you to chew on. The sex industry is mostly aimed at men. Reproductive urges dominate. Evolution & biology again, I think. Women are biologically limited in the number of kids they can generate in a year. Men? Men are only limited by the number of ladies willing to say, "O happy dagger! This is thy sheath! There rust and let me die." Until she gets pregnant.

As the late Norah Vincent almost states —Women need a reason. Men need a place. She may have said it exactly that way in her book. I want to find out.

I'm saying it.

Sex is a major driver for most men.

It is true. Sure, there are exceptions. By and large, that's the way it works.

Pull 100 men from anywhere. More than 90 of 'em are going to have sex, plain simple sex, as a major driving force in how they live their lives.

Women? The number is gonna be a LOT lower.

You don't have to believe me. Try this experiment.

Have a guy enter a bar and loudly announce "I need to get laid, now!"

What do you think is gonna happen?

Have a woman enter a bar and loudly announce "I need to get laid, now!"

What do you think is gonna happen?

Incels sometimes use their lack of lady companionship as a reason for violence. Is it justified? Hell no. Is it their reality? Yes. Is their reality distorted? Not to them. We (including me in that statement) believe their reality is distorted. Because of that distortion, they are, well, whatever you wanna call 'em.

My point here is, many men use lack of sex as an excuse to get violent. Now, how many women use lack of sex as an excuse to get violent?

Here's other gelled-sand monkey wrench for your gears. How many women use withholding sex to try to control men? How many men use withholding sex to try to control women?

Ahhhhhhhh.

Norah, dammitall, I never met you, but I miss you.

I may never make this post public. I have plenty of haters coming after me these days and see no need to give them something else, especially when -

No. What I started to write is a lie.

Truth is, what I write here is important, one of the most important things I could ever communicate. I still have to deal with enough hate from presenting other truths, a few more important and many a bit less important.

Yeah. Folks have plenty to hate me about right now. Don't think Imma let them have more.

Less than human

2025-09-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

https://www.facebook.com/greg.millette/videos/1321608892683522

The idea that the current Liar in Chief may send federal troops into various cities to restore order is causing splodey heads, especially among those who don't know what they are talking about.

A VERY short listing of federal troops used against citizens. https://www.history.com/articles/national-guard-federal-troops-deployments

The actual and complete list of using federal troops against US citizens has probably closed to 100 instances. Just a few that come to immediate mind:

The Whisky Rebellion
Bacon's Rebellion
The Boston Revolt
War of the Regulation
Shay's Rebellion
Frie's Rebellion
Cortina Troubles

We shall not enumerate the mass attacks on Native Americans mainly because I ain't got the time and I've provided enough proof to back my claim.

DEHUMANIZING

Some are claiming the Liar In Chief is trying to dehumanize people. Well, yeah.

Government always attempts to reduce people, individuals, to an economic point. How much can government get out of the individual? How much does the individual cost the government? Want proof?

https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/14-556

"Finally, this Court’s cases and the Nation’s traditions make clear that marriage is a keystone of the Nation’s social order. See Maynard v. Hill, 125 U. S. 190, 211. States have contributed to the fundamental character of marriage by placing it at the center of many facets of the legal and social order. There is no difference between same- and opposite-sex couples with respect to this principle, yet same-sex couples are denied the constellation of benefits that the States have linked to marriage and are consigned to an instability many opposite-sex couples would find intolerable. It is demeaning to lock same-sex couples out of a central institution of the Nation’s society, for they too may aspire to the transcendent purposes of marriage."

In another section of Obergrfell, an individual judge's opinion says:

"For that reason, just as a couple vows to support each other, so does society pledge to support the couple, offering symbolic recognition and material benefits to protect and nourish the union. Indeed, while the States are in general free to vary the benefits they confer on all married couples, they have throughout our history made marriage the basis for an expanding list of governmental rights, benefits, and responsibilities. These aspects of marital status include: taxation; inheritance and property rights; rules of intestate succession; spousal privilege in the law of evidence; hospital access; medical decisionmaking authority; adoption rights; the rights and benefits of survivors; birth and death certificates; professional ethics rules; campaign finance restrictions; workers’ compensation benefits; health insurance; and child custody, support, and visitation rules."

Etc.

I have more proof. If you need, I will supply.

If I am wrong, prove it. Show your evidence.

This is not a case, as me bud Tom Clark says of "doing your homework for you." I showed you mine. Show me yours.

You can't. It doesn't exist.

MILITARY

Given enough time, every government will always use its military against citizens. How much time? Dunno, except that almost every government that existed more than 100 years has used the military against its citizens.

I provided proof about the US. Pick another country. Will be glad to show you proof about that nation.

Make this clear from the start - The function of a military is to dehumanize people.

In order to start killing people on a mass scale, you have to reduce those people to being less than human. Carlos Hathcock referred to his targets as "hamburger." I only heard him refer to one person he killed as human, an NVC woman who tortured plenty of Americans and others.

Also, government(s) is(are) the world's biggest serial killer(s) and biggest mass murderers on the planet. Want to really save lives from gun violence? Make it illegal for the government to have guns. But that's another story for splodey heads on another day.

FOOTSTEPS

The current Liar in Chief is only following in the footsteps of previous Liars In Chief from both sides of the aisle. Those who deny this are not only ignoring but flatly rejecting history.

Complain as much as you need to if it makes you happy. I'm be sitting over here laughing to keep from crying.

Great leaders must have enemies

2025-09-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

To be a truly great leader, you must identify an enemy for your followers to hate and attack.

I hear the splodey heads.

History proves me right. If I am wrong, correct me. As Paul says, I will write a retraction, change my mind and probably throw in a good story about how I messed up and got corrected.

DEFINED

Lemme define great before I go on. By great, I mean:

Popular with a huge group of people, millions or more
Able to command said huge group of people
Followers, some of 'em, are willing to kill and die for the leader
Followers, some of 'em at least, give unquestioning loyalty

By great I do not mean:

Right or wrong
Good or evil
Moral or amoral
Kind or cruel
Nor any other ethical or moral judgment category.

Those definitions are too flexible. Your moral and ethical code are not universal.

Great, as I define it, must come with tangible, empirical measurements. How many people died at the leader's command? How many followers? Etc.

And still someone is gonna have splodey heads now.

DEUS EX HUMANA

Sometimes great leaders exalt themselves to be deities. Deus ex humana. The ancient pharaohs, kings and emperors did this.

Medieval Europe had something almost to that point - divine right of kings. Kings were considered appointed by whatever god was supposed to be in charge. Divine right is not exclusive to Europe, but it is the most familiar example.

In both cases, these leaders commanded people. Go there and do this. The people went there and did that.

GREATEST LEADERS

Consider some of the greatest - mind my definition! - leaders we know. Look at their legacy, at least what we know of it.

Alexander the Great
Genghis Khan
Hitler
Stalin
Pol Pot
Stalin
Mao Tse Dung
Mohammad
Jesus bar Joseph of Nazareth
Mahatmas Ghandi
Martin Luther King
Many of the kings in Europe
Rulers in the Western hemisphere, most of whose names we do not have.
Pretty much all US presidents, including the current liar in chief, the one he replaced the first time and others.

What did they all have in common? They identified an enemy and rallied their followers to resist, to attack and defeat the enemy.

No? Show me one of the above leaders who did not have a clearly identified enemy.

ENEMY IDENTIFIED

I better identify enemy before I go on.

An enemy can be:
A person
A people/race
A nation
An ideology
A religion
A concept
A practice
Morals
Ethics

Laws/Regulations
More I ain't gonna list.

The enemy does not have to be something physical.

And still someone will disagree with me.

NO ENEMIES

I hear it now - "Jesus had no enemies!"

We ain't reading the same Bible. You tell me where these quotes come from. "We fight not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities." "Get thee behind me, Satan!" "What have you to do with me?" "Our time is not yet come." "He who has 2 cloaks, let him trade one for a sword."

Khan? Fought everybody he came across unless they surrendered.

Ghandi? Fought the British. Encouraged his followers to take up weapons.

MLK? He fought a system he saw as corrupt and oppressive.

Mohammad? At first he saw Jews and Christians as the enemy. In later years he shifted gears to say his version of Satan is the enemy.

The others should be self-explanatory. If they are not, do some research and edify yourself.

DEMAGOGUERY LIVES HERE

Demagoguery is the platform on which all great leaders build. Every. One.

Wikipedia has a pretty good definition of demagogue:
A political leader in a democracy who gains popularity by arousing the common people against elites, especially through oratory that whips up the passions of crowds, appealing to emotion by scapegoating out-groups, exaggerating dangers to stoke fears, lying for emotional effect, or other rhetoric that tends to drown out reasoned deliberation and encourage fanatical popularity. Demagogues overturn established norms of political conduct, or promise or threaten to do so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demagogue

I don't agree with the "in a democracy" and "against elites" phrase. I can do that because this is my blog and I get to define my terms the way I want 'em.

Every one of the leaders I mentioned used these techniques. Reason and rationality are how you lose followers. R&R require people to think, which is painful to many. R&R takes too long to explain. R&R just does not work.

You can use logic to explain why X needs to happen. You detail the costs, impacts and benefits. Prove your point that everyone will benefit in the long run. Show how X is not only necessary, but vital.

A great leader will beat you down with just a few words - The bastards are coming to take away your Y or Z! Help me stop them to save you!

You lose. Not only do you lose, you become the enemy.

WRONG

I may be wrong. G'head. Prove I am wrong. You can't.

A new religion is created

2025-09-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

Stranger in a Strange Land. SISAL to those of who read it.

Today is 15 Monday 2025. (I am editing this on 19 Sept. 2025)

This afternoon I finished a blog about violence -https://porkbrainsandmilkgravy.blogspot.com/2025/09/violence-last-resorts-and-necessities.html

Over at Quora, this question JUST popped up in my feed: JD Vance will guest host the TurningPoint USA podcast. Should Vance sit in Charlie's chair or use a different seat? Should he use Charlie's microphone or a different microphone? Thoughts?

These are important in the context of this blog. Lemme link 'em together for you.

IMMEDIATE REACTION

On hearing of the death of Charlie Kirk and finding out more about him, my first reaction was, the dude is now a martyr. I immediately jumped to SISAL and thought about of Mike being ripped to shreds by the crowd and Jubal Harshaw immediately setting plans in motion to buy the ground where Mike was killed.

I wondered who would try to buy the place where Charlie Kirk was when he was shot. I wondered what kind of shrine will be built to this conservative icon. I wondered and wondered.

Heinlein's magnum opus ranks just below Dune as a commentary on humanity. The Grand Master said he wrote a book to make people think, challenge assumptions and question, hopefully to learn.

Whoa. Now I wonder if Charlie Kirk read SISAL.

RAH's seminal work in his fictional universe also set the stage for a new religion built around the young Valentine Michael Smith. In the book, Harshaw saw it coming and took steps to push the concept forward.

The similarities here are eerie. Of course, there are a metric ton of differences in the specifics. Space travel, real Martians, etc. But the underlying thread... it's just uncanny.

31

Jesus, son of Joseph, was killed in his early 30s.

The first record we have of Jesus doing His ministry was when he was around 12. According to the protestant Bible, there is a gap until he was around 30. That gap is covered in some of the recently discovered scrolls. A lot of people discount those works. Of course, a lot of people discount the entire Bible.

Charlie launched his work around age 18.

Charlie was killed at age 31.

The Charlie Kirk radio show started in 2020. His first TV appearance was in 2012.

He died in 2025.

Trying to tie all that together into something that clearly joins up is also something out of conspiracy theory handbooks. Even stretching the point, the numbers do not line up.

And? Too many "conspiracy" theories are proving true for me to be a complete atheist about 'em.

What if, as Lara asked, this was meant to be? Christians believe Jesus was meant for death even before He was born. And Charlie? If there is a being in charge of creation, we have to accept that possibility.

VIOLENCE

Jesus, like so many other leaders in history, was persecuted by both the government and by the people around Him. His message was radical, offensive to many and presented a very real challenge to the status quo.

A lot of people disagreed with Jesus. They wanted nothing to do with him. They wanted him gone, as in leave town or die.

So it is with true bastions of peace and change. Those who really sought the least violent ways of change, those who wanted people to really look into themselves, they were pariahs to the intelligentsia and the leaders.

Charlie? ~~Much~~ Exactly the same thing.

Conspiracy theorists started almost immediately. This was some kind of plot by a group to kill this man. Some pointed to an actual government conspiracy. No evidence, but evidence doesn't matter to true believers. Some say it was part of a national left-wing or right-wing group. Some say the killer was really acting alone.

2000 years later, we know there was a conspiracy to kill Jesus. We know the government was complicit.

Oh. You thought I was writing about Charlie.

You are correct. I wrote about both.

As of this writing, we don't know all the particulars. About which one? Both.

Just as a religion grew around Jesus, well, the stage is certainly set, as Lara says. Centuries from now Charlie Kirk and his legacy and record certainly may become the stuff of religion.

When I heard he was killed and did a bit of research, I immediate concluded some people will turn this man (you pick which one) into a saint. Is he a saint? Jesus is not; He is more than a saint. Charlie? Ehhhh.

The Catholic Church has a process for canonization. Jesus was not a Catholic. Charlie, not being a Catholic, won't be honored by the Church of Rome. Of course, the Catholic Church also does not speak for all Christians. It does not even speak for a majority of Christians. Increasingly, it does not speak for all Catholics.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/opposition-pope-francis-rooted-rejection-vatican-ii

WRONG

He appealed to people to provide real evidence that he was wrong. If he was wrong, he promised to change.

Look at how he talked to with people. I have talked to people who said they did not agree with everything he said. These people did say they loved the way he talked, drawing in people from everywhere and having a kind, forthright and honest discussion with them. No insults, no invective, just two friends finding common ground and building on that.

No wonder he was killed.

Which one? Yes.

Charlie challenged people to think. Charlie challenged people to look at the real world, the real facts and most importantly, themselves.

No wonder he was killed.

Charlie gave hope to many people. Some people will not tolerate that.

No wonder he was killed.

Charlie wanted people to live a better life. Some people cannot stand the idea of people being allowed to chart their own course unless it adheres to what they dictate. These are the people hurling vitriol at the memory of Charlie Kirk.

No wonder he was killed.

Charlie tried to bring joy to a world in desperate need of it.

No wonder he was killed.

Charlie wanted to bring an end to pain.

No wonder he was killed.

Charlie Kirk was the kind of radical that a society of sheep will not tolerate.

No wonder he was killed.

So was Jesus.

All the criticism I have read of Charlie Kirk is from people who twist his words, warp them and insist they really know what Charlie was saying. Put Charlie's words in context and every. single. argument. in these lines falls apart. We have enough of his stuff in his own words to put paid to the naysayers.

Attacks on genuine leaders are the price of being a genuine leader.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gncyDkWWY_w (My all time favorite song.)

POOH-POOH

Today, we may pooh-pooh the idea of all this lining up in a certain way.

200 years from now? 300, 400 years?

Consider all the records we have of Charlie. What will people centuries from now think about this?

Charlie Kirk stands a very good chance of becoming a religious icon, as Lara said.

WORMHOLES

I was headed that way in my thinking about this. Maybe I'da made it there. Maybe not. Lots of idea germinate, get started and go into a sort of stasis. This blogsite has lots of half-completed ideas. I may finish them. I may not. (I'm done with this, 19 Sept. 2025.)

For this one, thanks to Lara, I rolled through a Lara-cut space-time wormhole of thought process and reached the conclusion I needed to complete this. It is a conclusion I may have never reached on my own.

As she and I talked earlier this same day I said, "I gotta write this."

"Really?"

"Really."

"You'll send me a copy?"

"Of course."

"Wow. I gave you something to write,"

Indeed.

TWO addenda

Got 2 items to add that are only tangentially connected to the above. I wanna say it. My blog. I make the rules.

Today, I saw a Washington Post columnist was fired for remarks she made about Charlie's work. Who was it? You can go look that up.

At first, I was infuriated. So, I did some reading.

My fury abated, turned to confusion, shifted into disappointment and finally into satisfaction.

The fundament of journalism is accuracy.

Get.

It.

Right.

You can be arrogant. You can even be late (sometimes). You can be opinionated. You can be many things.

You. Can. Not. Be. Wrong.

This columnist was racist. While I do not like that, I would not silence the voice. I know many who want to.

This writer was anti gun. Again, don't like it, but opinions must be shared. I repeat - Opinions must be shared. I know many who would silence such voices.

This journalist was definitely well past the moderate left. Hey. We need people like that just like we need people like Charlie Kirk, that InfoWars idiot and others.

I know many who believe radicals should be shut down completely.

This employee - correction - former employee of one of the nation's most prestigious newspapers had no problem in taking direct quotes and changing them to fit her narrative and offer that as fact. I saw it in her posts which I then went and checked against verified records.

These were not honest mistakes. She crafted deliberate distortions of easily verified facts.

Oh, hell no.

Don't let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!

Meantime, this person who used to be a journalist is now spinning the story so she is a victim. If you read her work, you will say, "Yep, knew that was gonna happen."

That she was fired in once place, canceled in another, not her fault. It is oppression in her view.

In other words, she refuses to accept responsibility for her own actions.

I'll betcha Charlie would have talked with her like they were friends since they were toddlers. She would have tried to tear him down, as she's done in her post-assassination writings. He would have reasoned, encouraged and offered help.

No wonder he was killed.

Free speechifying (19 Sept. 2025 addenda)

One of the late night TV show hosts was also canned. The left is all splodey heads right now over free speechifying

His firing was a business decision.

Was that decision influenced by the government? Maybe. The government does issue broadcast licenses. Those licenses come with a LOT of controls.
https://govfacts.org/federal/fcc/how-the-fcc-controls-your-phone-tv-and-internet/

Here's something the Left and the Right will not tell you - Gummint control over content on cable, satellite TV and the Internet is massively less, almost nonexistent.. You can stream adult porn online over cable TV the Internet and via satellite. Legal. Can't get that on broadcast TV.

It is illegal to stream child porn; I really need permission to personally deal with child molesters. I'll need more small caliber, low-power ammo. Donations will cover that.

Anyway, that fired TV person was watched by massively more people over cable, satellite and Internet than via broadcast TV.

It. Was. A. Business. Decision.

Here's something else they won't tell you. The right to free speech also means government cannot force you to say, produce, publish (whatever) anything. You do not have to provide space for speech you disagree with. You can say no and the speakers have to leave.

Yes. 1A and 5A are in tandem on this. I can prove this to you and will, if pushed.

Also, those bitching about that TV show guy getting canned? They celebrated when Rosanne (however you spell that entity's name) was fired.

In case you don't wonder, I do not like Rose(whatever), the guy who got fired or any of the late night TV comedian/hosts I've had the displeasure to watch.

I may not agree with them being hired or fired, but that business decision is not mine.

Fired

A few years back I had a columnist at the paper. I fired that person.

The person brought in a proposed column that was obviously copied from somewhere. The columnist denied it. I gave the writer a warning - Do not do this again.

A while later, the person brought in another column, obviously copied from another source. I confronted the writer. The person doubled down. Claimed he/she wrote it.

"Then how could I find this exact same article online?"

Shoulders shrugged.

Columnist terminated.

I did not always agree with what this person wrote. Irrelevant. I am all about sharing views that are different from mine. I may learn something!

I did not and will not tolerate intellectual property right theft, as that person did.

Violence, last resorts and necessities

2025-09-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Is violence necessary? Is it ever necessary? Is "violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" as Isaac Asimov wrote?

Dad thought so. I guess he was incompetent as he resorted to violence sometimes.

I 'spose the ~~best~~ ~~important~~ needed thing is to define violence. Try this on.

Violence is force that cause pain, hurt, harm, injury and even death to another entity. That violence can be physical, mental, emotional, economic or any combination.

If I am wrong, tell me.

Accepted.

EXAMPLE

Let's look at an example of violence.

In 2024, I had a total knee replacement. That was violence committed on my person. The doc and crew nearly cut my leg off.

I wanted it. I was tired of the constant pain and being unable to walk any distance. I could have live with the deteriorating knee. I chose another path, a path of violence.

If a joint replacement is not violence, then I ~~need~~ ~~want~~ ~~demand~~ request to hear your definition of violence.

Enlighten me.

ANOTHER QUESTION

Here is another question. Is it violence only when it is a human being doing it to another human being? Leave the idea of rights out of this. Just want to know about violence.

Can a human commit violence against or on a wombat? Is it violence when a shark bites a human? When a male lion takes over a pride and kills the kits, is that violence?

Share your insights, please.

RUNNING ON ASSUMPTIONS

Running on my assumptions that violence is pain, hurt, harm, injury and even death to another entity, then I ask, is violence necessary?

At this point someone is gonna bring up MLK, Ghandi and other so-called pacifists. I say so-called because maybe they never threw a punch, fired a gun or tore someone apart verbally. They absolutely engaged in violence.

The famous bus boycott was economic violence. https://blackpast.org/african-american-history/1955-martin-luther-king-jr-montgomery-bus-boycott/ It brought a public transit system to its knees. How did this affect the bus drivers? Businesses along the routes.

A lawsuit was filed.https://www.britannica.com/event/Montgomery-bus-boycott A court order was issued. Dunno about you, but where I am from, defying a court order leads to violence. You get arrested, you get fined, your salary gets garnished and so on. Physical and economic violence automatically. The stress of being arrested, having your money taken away also leads to mental and emotional stress, externally inflicted violence.

Beyond that, MLK issued a call for force when speaking on the bus situation. "Standing beside love is always justice, and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion, but we’ve come to see that we’ve got to use the tools of coercion."

The online Dictionary defines the word coercion as "the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats: 'our problem cannot be solved by any form of coercion but only by agreement'"

Mmhm.Ghandi? https://wagingnonviolence.org/2013/02/what-gandhi-really-thought-about-guns/ "In truth, Gandhi did not oppose the use of violence in certain circumstances, preferring it to cowardice and submission. Even though Gandhi’s spiritual philosophy of ahimsa rejects violence, it permits the use of violent force if a person is not courageous and disciplined enough to use nonviolence. Gandhi regarded weakness as the lowest human flaw, and would rather see a person use violent force in self-defense than be passive."

Jesus? He said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one." Luke 22:36.

GOVERNMENT

Government is violence. Period. Anything government does, it then assumes the authority to back up with punitive measures against those who resist. No? Gimme an instance of a government action that either does not have direct violence or is backed up by violence.

I'm not gonna wait.

HISTORIC HYPOTHETICALS

If you could, you would go back in time and kill Pol Pot? Stalin? Genghis Khan? How about today? If you could whack the midget running North Korea today, would you?

Would you kill one to save millions?

Margaret Traylor is now deceased. When she was alive she told me she could not kill someone no matter the provocation. She would try to stop them, but lethal force was not an option for her. She had 2 daughters.

What about you? Someone comes to kill you, will you defend yourself? Would you defend others if lethal force was the only way?

Violence. It is unfortunately necessary only because someone will always want to control you against your will. Some of these people cannot be reasoned with. Some of these people will only understand superior force.

It really is free, the delivery, no

2025-08-13T12:33:00.000-07:00

People constantly whine at me that the newspaper I run is not free to read online. I also see this whine about other media outlets.

Here is the reality that will cause cognitive dissonance and disconnect in the vast majority of people reading this. Any replies are gonna hilarious.

In other words, splodey heads inbound.

The information you seek is free. Yes it is. It's 100% free. YOU, yes you, just have to go and get it.

If you want it free, you have to get it all on your own. No help from anyone at all. No resources you do not bring. No resources you did not create from the raw materials you harvested, mined, whatever and shaped into what you need.

This includes the clothes you wear. Yeppers. Someone, not you, had to make those clothes from the raw materials like plant fiber or animal skin.

Aye, there's the rub! No, a little lower. Lower. Lower.

Lemme 'splain this slightly differently. This will also create more splodey heads

IT IS FREE

The water coming through your pipes, that you buy in a store, the electricity powering your domicile, devices and yes, even the fuel that powers whatever you use to get around, all that is free.

Yes. It is. Free. Free. Free. Free.

George, siddown and keep reading.

What you are paying for is the gathering, sorting, storage, delivery and other treatments to and for the things you buy.

These processes involve a live human being at various points in the supply chain.

This is what you are paying for, the peoples' work.

You are NOT paying for the whatever it is, unless you hire someone to work. Then, yeah, you are paying for labor.

SUPPLY LINE

Keep up, George. This is not as complicated as you think, or not think as the case may be. Let's follow a supply line.

That electricity is free. It is just electrons. Electrons are everywhere. Your body has more electrons than any thing else down to the atomic level. Lightning and static electricity are electrons.

So why do you get a power bill?

You have to pay for everything that goes into making those electrons flow through the wires. THAT is what you pay for.

An astonishingly short list of what you pay for is:

The transmission wires.
The poles holding the wires.
The pipes for underground wires.
Everything at the generating plant.
Salaries for people to keep everything working.

This is nowhere near comprehensive. I don't have the inclination to list everything nor are you willing to read an entire dictionary's worth of writing to see that whole list.

SALARY

Splodey head #3 - Salary, wages, pay and even profit.

Eventually everything you are paying for comes down to a salary, wages or profit for someone. In other words, money in someone's pocket. To briefly dip into the evils of Maths, money is the lowest common denominator.

George, you must pay Fred to get and make the things you want to exist.

This is the circle of economics.

Someone is now screaming I am an idiot and have no idea what I am talking about. Likely true.

Prove me wrong.

SPEARMINT

Try this experiment, or spearmint as George says.

Go completely off grid. 100%.

Do not rely on ANYONE except yourself for everything you need.

Whatever you think you need, gather the materials yourself and make it.

You can't do it. No. You can't.

Need clothes? Harvest plant fibers and process them. Hunt animals and tan the leather. Each animal, except buffalo and many reptiles, has exactly enough brains to brain-tan the hide. Betcha didn't know that.

Think you need electricity? Build your own generator. Mine the copper and iron ores. Smelt the metals. Cast and draw the parts. Rig the generator to run with flowing water from a creek or a boiler.

You can exist completely isolated. This is literally possible. It is literally done in the world today.

See Sentinel Island. See the Japanese WWII soldier discovered in islands decades after the war. See the Russian family in Siberia

You can't do what they did and are doing.

Now, show me anything you think is not free, except for labor. I will prove you wrong.

Workers got bills, yo.

THAT NEWSPAPER

Yeah, the newspaper ain't free to read online.

The information is free.

Another VERY short list of what you pay for with your subscription is:

Very f'dangin' little profit
The monthly website fees
The reporter salaries for gathering the news
The salaries behind the people doing the website work
The computers needed to generate the news and transmit it to the webhosting company
And so on

Eventually all this runs right back to giving another human money to do the work needed to get the information to you.

Everything else is free.

Unless you are slave, in which case your labor is free and your life is forfeit for not working. But that's another Constitution blog, 'cause slavery is still legal in the United States. Yes, huhn. Look it up.

We charge for newspaper access because we have to pay for everything that goes into getting the information to you. The information? Absolutely free. Yer welcome.

Get out of the way already!

2025-07-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

D called me this morning. D lives in Washington State. He and I are members of a globe-spanning association. Don't read a lot into that. I am a member of several associations/groups with global membership.

He called to talk about the association, how things are going with it and my role within that association. Mostly he called to talk about what I'm doing and how he wants to help. No complaints, no criticism, just D saying "Lemme help."

Thank you, D.

Anyway, one of the things we touched on is how this association needs to attract younger members. This seems to be an issue everywhere as young folks don't join organized groups as much as their elders did and do. (Egad, it strikes my soul to use the phrase "younger crowd" or "young people.")

One thing he and I agreed on is this association has some older members, around since the beginning, and they are keeping new folks away. Their attitudes are just ... self-righteous, condemning and dismissive.

Potential younger members show up and encounter these attitudes. Their reaction?

"I don't have to deal with this." So saying, if only to themselves, they walk away. Forever.

Reality check time. The old guard ain't gonna be here forever. New and younger people will take over, if this or any other association continues to exist.

THE PAIN

I know the pain of that kind of attitude and even attacks. I ain't young, but I am new and REALLY new to a position within the global group. I took over from a gent who'd been there for 20+ years.

Some of the old guard resent this. They are taking it out on me. They do not like what I am doing.

So be it.

D, whatta guy, offered to step in on my behalf. D was there at the beginning. He knows stuff so many others do not. He just wanted to know who has problems with me. He offered to set them straight.

Wow. Thanks again, D.

I said I'd rather not say who is mad at me as I do not want to cause more division and problems. As long as they are just mad at me, all is good. I realize they are seeing their control slip away and they cannot accept this. I'm just a convenient target.

Cool. Target R Me.

Here's an important item. No one else was willing to step up and do the work I do. No one. They even offered to pay a pretty significant salary.

GET OUTTA THE WAY

It is time for them to get outta the way, sort of. Them who? Pick a group anywhere that has been in control for decades. It is time for them to let go. Let the younger crowd step up.

If the next set of leaders are not allowed to step up and start assuming leadership roles, the association will fail.

I have seen it happen.

I used to be a member of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association. I was driven out. I was young (early 20s), new and with some ideas the old guard did not like. At the time, SEOPA was second in prestige only to the national outdoor writer's association. I also did not fit in with the clique running the place.

I know some of you are shocked to read that (heavy sarcasm).

Some years ago SEOPA folded. A big part of that collapse was the old guard and that clique who wanted things done their way. Doing it differently was simply not going to happen. Rather than relinquish control and accept others, they chose to let SEOPA shut down.

That national association? It had a major split around the same time. Again, the entrenched members refused to move. A second national association was created. Even combined, neither is as strong as the single national association used to be.

So be it.

MOVING ON

Before you get excited and starting pointing fingers at me, know this. I am moving on.

I have backed off. I have stepped down. I have excused myself. I have let other, much younger people take over.

Sometimes I stepped back, knowing there was no one to take over. Things fell and failed. That hurt. It should hurt. Rather, I should feel that the failure was the best thing to happen. Whatever failed did not need to exist.

Sometimes, I did not leave completely. I hung around to help if asked. I am still on the sidelines in some places. I'm there to offer support, advice and input.

If these new folks have new ideas, I give them ideas on how to do it.

They may come up with something the old guard tried and failed at. Cool. I tell 'em we tried and it flopped but y'all are new so let's see if it works now.

I do not tell them how to do it, unless specifically asked. Even then, I say "This is how we did it. How do you want to do it?"

Mentor. Sage. Old man on the mountain. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, kinda thing. Also, very ready to hand the reins over because it is time someone else jumped on this wagon's driver's seat. I want to sit inside the coach and take a well-deserved nap.

This brings me to another idea.

DON'T TRUST

"Don't trust anyone over 30," is a statement often attributed to a bunch of people. Jack Wienberg said it first. As of this writing, Mr. Weinberg is in his mid-80s. Does he still endorse that statement or has he backed off it. I did not look because I do not care.

His statement is an attitude and opinion I shared in my teens and 20s.

Now nearly double that age, I see the foolishness in it. However, that foolishness is a reaction to an entrenched mindset of older folks who say "Change is bad."

Young folks have always rebelled. They have always challenged their elders. They have always tried to force change. We did when we were young!

“[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances.
...
They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.”

Rhetoric Part 12 On Youthful Character, Aristotle, 4th Century BC

And yet, the world has continued to move right along.

I am desperately trying to not be that person on either end of those quotes. I want to welcome the new and see where it takes all of us.

Some days I am better at that than others. I need to at my best every single time. Working on it.

And the truth shall set you free

2025-07-18T06:59:00.000-07:00

Or, as I often say, if the truth hurts, yer living wrong.

Such is the case with PBS and NPR and public broadcasting all the way around. Congress is set to cut the "public broadcaster" free. A bill that passed the Senate and likely will pass the house is eliminating funding for these agencies.

Liberals are screaming.

Good.

Unless you think I'm being partisan here, lemme say I rejoice when conservatives start screaming. Why is for another blog some other day. We're here right now to celebrate our tax dollars no longer going to support this outlet for left idiotology.

As a formerly devoted fan of NPR, I listened oviaGeorgia Public Radio. I loved the Saturday morning shows especially. I often just sat in my truck weekday mornings because I had to hear the whole news report. NPR calls 'em "driveway stories."

Now, not interested. I cannot stand the hard left agenda being pushed there. I also cannot stand a hard right agenda being pushed.

Don't take my word for it.

THEY WORK FOR NPR

So how about taking the word of some people who work for NPR?

"I didn’t use to count myself among them. But over the past year, under the leadership of a divisive new CEO, instead of taking criticisms of its coverage to heart, NPR instead doubled down on agenda-driven journalism. So, as someone who had spent most of his career at the network, I didn’t support defunding. I instead suggested that NPR could build back credibility by voluntarily giving up federal support. Obviously that didn’t happen."

Uri Berliner, longtime senior editor at NPR

https://instapundit.com/732620/

I used to listen to Uri. I found his stories to be great journalism. I'd listen again, if I could find a nonpartisan place to hear him or at least a place that gave equal coverage to both sides.

So you do not want to believe Uri. Cool.

"You know the stereotype of the NPR listener: an EV-driving, Wordle-playing, tote bag–carrying coastal elite. It doesn’t precisely describe me, but it’s not far off. I’m Sarah Lawrence–educated, was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother, I drive a Subaru, and Spotify says my listening habits are most similar to people in Berkeley.

"I fit the NPR mold. I’ll cop to that.

"It’s true NPR has always had a liberal bent, but during most of my tenure here, an open-minded, curious culture prevailed. We were nerdy, but not knee-jerk, activist, or scolding.

"In recent years, however, that has changed. Today, those who listen to NPR or read its coverage online find something different: the distilled worldview of a very small segment of the U.S. population. "

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

Listened to Sarah Lawrence too. Was not as impressed with her as I was Uri.

THE SEPARATION BEGINS

My departure from public broadcasting was not overnight. The separation began slowly. It sped up.

Turner County had an important story, one with national and perhaps global significance, an ethanol plant. The plant went belly up. Beside the point.

I called Atlanta to Georgia Public Radio to brief them. I even did a short segment for that day's news cast. It aired.

I offered to do more, free! No charge. Call in once a week with major news from Southwest Georgia.

The news director at GPR said "It's not important enough." That is the policy to this day. If it does not happen in Atlanta, Savannah, Columbus and sometimes Macon, it just ain't news to GPR.

The first crack formed.

Over in Irwin County, a major news story came out thanks to the Ocilla Star and editor Luke Roberts. A federal investigation looked into the illegal immigrant detainees at the privately run prison. The feds were looking at what they said was an unusually high number of hysterectomies in the women there, among other things.

That should be national news. GPR? Nope.

For that matter, it was not worth of the attention of our Congresscritter Austin Scott. Another blog for another day.

If this was native-born Americans, the place would have been shut down.

And the crack widened.

NO TIME

Increasingly, I noticed GPR had no time for the rest of Georgia. If it happened below the Fall Line, it was not news.

I get that. GPR's money mostly comes from the big cities mentioned above. That's where the biggest audience is.

Except according to the very business model of public broadcasting, that is just flat wrong. Public broadcasting is meant to bring information to everyone, equally. Money was not the issue, the semi-annual fundraising campaigns aside. They gotta get money from someone to keep the lights on.

And the crack widened.

THE MAUL HITS HOME

A maul is tool used to split logs. It is really heavy and it is more of a wedge than an axe. I've used them.

NPR slammed that maul home a while back reporting on another "mass shooting." Rather than give straight information, the reporting crew interviewed people who whined about how bad guns are.

That was it. On that day, I turned off NPR and walked away. Ain't been back and don't plan to go back.

CONSTITUTION

It comes down to a matter of rights and Constitution. That grand old document says nothing about taxpayer funding any media outlets. Well, I can't find it anyway. If you can, please point it out.

So, eliminate it.

If you demand taxpayer funding for such media, cool. Work to Amend the Constitution. I'll fight you over that. If it passes, I will fight to repeal it.

FREEDOM

This is freedom for public broadcasting across the nation. If this passes, public broadcasting outlets are no longer tied to the capricious whims of an elected body that does not truly represent constituents. Ahem. Is anyone at PBS reading this?

PBS is now free to find its own way and its own source of revenue.

Taxpayer funding, as those at PBS constantly point out, is a very small percentage of their income.1% to 10%. The rest comes from donations and, yes, advertising. PBS will tell you it is not advertising, but recognizing the support these companies provide. PBS does not accept advertising, they say.

Looks like a duck, talks like and duck and walks like a duck, pretty sure it ain't a rhino.

Cut those "support" announcements and see how long those companies would continue to give money.

YOU GIVE

Like PBS, NPR, GPB or whatever it is in your state? Give 'em money direct from your wallet.

YAY! Good'un onya mate. You go! Go shawty, go shawty!

Just do not steal from me to fund them. Let me decide where my money goes.

If PBS believes its liberal base is enough to support its mission, then let 'em prove it. Let them live it exactly the same way private media companies around the nation do every single day.

In case you don't wonder, cantservatives are more giving than liarberals. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34429211/

I don't get it

2025-04-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Make this clear from the start-

For too many years I was an angry man, angry at myself, the people around me and the world in general. This anger was something I chose. It was created by me, instilled in me and nurtured by me. No one else.

No one can make mad except me. No one can make you mad except yourself.

It is easy, too easy, to point fingers and say "THIS! This is why I am angry." This being an external source. It's also a lie. I chose to be angry and I chose to let that spill out into other areas of my life. I let other people push my buttons.

I've come to know these buttons too well. A few people can still push them. That old rage bubbles and I have to back off and remind myself -

I ain't that person any more.
What happens now is a good thing.
This will make me better and stronger.

2 AM

And yet despite that seething resentment, because that is all anger is, I have 2 a.m. friends. I have people in my life who are loyal to me as I am to them. I have people I can call at any time, day or night, and we pick up a conversation as if it was interrupted by one of us going to the bathroom.

Yes. I have people in my life who are not blood kin but are closer than that. These people will ... nuf said. I have done for them and they will do for me.

Why?

I don't get it.

TRUTH AND PAIN

My daughter Susan asked Robin how she can work for me.

Damn. That hurts. If the truth hurts, yer living wrong. I have to change. Reality will not adapt to me, I must change to flow with it.

I asked Robin the same thing.

"Well, you do your thing and I do mine. It works," she said.

wow.

I have run other people away from working for me, literally. One lady, a preacher's wife, came to interview for a job. I talked to her. Then, I said as I always do to people who think they can work here, "I'm gonna leave. You talk to (whoever is in the office). Ask what I am like to work for. You decide if you can work for and with me. I do not want to know what you talk about or what is said."

I went for a walk. I came back and the lady was rushing out the door, nearly at a run. She said something about not being able to work with and for me. A few others tried to work here and could not.

That's on me.

Other people worked for me. They left for better jobs and better pay. They told me that except for the pay, they would stay. They told me, "You need me, call. I'll come help."

REGRET

I sit here thinking back on the days when I was a walking bucket of toxicity, a ball of rage, a flamethrower hosing everything.

And yet, there are people who saw this and stood by me. They still do.

I don't get it.

And that is my regret - that I hurt too many people without just cause. That I drove away too many people because I refused to control myself. That I chose to be someone I now look on with sadness and regret.

I cannot undo that damage. If I could, I would. No sacrifice is too big to erase, not just heal for that leaves a scar, but to erase as if it had never been. I would do it.

Maybe.

Then again, erasing will leave a hole, an empty place, a lacunae. What will fill it? Damfino. Would that hole even be noticed? Damfino.

I also wonder about that these people I hurt without cause, will they look at it as a beneficial experience? Will they say, "That too was a good thing."? Will they look on what happened and believe they came out better and stronger for it?

I hope so. I do not know. Still, I wish it had not happened.

BIZARRE

Even more bizarre, sometimes I meet people. We spend a few hours together and they are a 2 a.m. friend.

Why? I don't get it.

Other people I meet, we spend a while together and they walk away never wanting to see me again. That, whether I get it or not, is something I'm used to.

But those people who hang around, want to come back and so on, I don't get it.

She Who Must Not Be Named is one of those who met me and took an instant liking. Over the decades she has defended me to those who attacked me in her presence. Did not ask her to do this. She did.

"Ben Baker has integrity," she said. "You can tell him something [in private] and it stays there."

Well, yeah. That's the way it is supposed to be. Nothing unusual there, to me anyway. <shrugs>

But why?

What do other people see in me that I cannot see?

Some of these people say I am a good man.

I am not. I am trying and frequently failing to be better. Don't they see all the pain, hurt and misery I caused in others and suffered my own self?

I don't get it.