Is There Room For Anything But Materialism?

“Our great war is a spiritual war.” – Fight Club

Does a llama think the end of the world is called the Alpacalypse?

Generally, around holidays, I let my remaining seven strands of hair down and allow a post or two to deviate a bit from the normal categories.  Why?  Because we live in a world where often unusual ideas will eventually be found to be true, and I like to ask, from time to time, “What if?”

Enjoy!

Just as the pendulum of society has oscillated to the GloboLeft position (and, is oscillating back to the TradRight as we speak) there has been an oscillation of the way people think about the world.

Now, I would suggest, Western Civilization is at another peak:  peak materialism.  By materialism, I mean not that people are into material goods (even though they are) but that the entire focus is that there is a material explanation for everything, including why Kamala Harris exists.

Ever notice that Tom Cruise has one tooth in the middle of his face?  Now you’ll never be able to unsee it.

This isn’t a revelation to anyone in the West, since this is what we’ve been dealing with for the majority of our lives.  We have a mechanistic determinism that says that everything has an explanation, and that those explanations are all based in some sort of material, physical, phenomenon.

I used to play rugby, back in the day (prop) and our coach would, during practice, say “bad luck!” when someone goofed up.  My immediate thought was, no, that wasn’t bad luck, the player goofed up.  But was I right?

Well, if the world had taken a slightly different turn, the ball a different bounce, the opponent a different line, maybe the decision the player made would have been the right one.  Perhaps, then, there is a place for luck.

What’s the difference between a teabag and the American Rugby World Cup team?  The teabag stays in the cup longer.

And I do believe in luck.  Part of is because my life has been an extraordinarily lucky one.  And, no, not the “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity” definition, but “How is that stupid SOB so lucky?”

Okay, that’s a sample size of one, and the average scientist would say that’s just one data point, and not a series.  But, it’s not:  a series of improbable events in a single lifetime isn’t just one datapoint, it’s a series of them.

But what about actual studies that show phenomena that are far outside of the real of anything science can explain?

This one (LINK) shows that 90 experiments across 33 labs in 14 countries have shown that precognition exists.  What’s precognition?  That’s knowing the outcome of a future event, before the event occurs.

What kind of event?  Well, one study that I read used sensors on someone viewing a computer screen.  The screen would show random images, most of which were rather dull.  Occasionally, though, the screen would an emotionally charged picture – think nudity or an accident victim, meant to be a “shocking” picture.  The sensors recorded (in general) things like increased heartrate and increase blood pressure before the emotionally charged images showed up onscreen.

I went to a swimwear store and asked them if I could “Try on the bathing suit in the front window.”  They told me I’d have to use a changing room.

The subjects “knew” subconsciously that something was up and their bodies reacted.

Now, I can certainly come up with several ideas from quantum physics that might allow for this time-reversed phenomenon, you know, when effect happens before cause.  But people before, say 1900, would have just said that precognition was part of life – from the ancient Greeks to the prophecies of the Bible, precognition was just accepted as a part of reality – one that couldn’t be explained.

I’ve even had weird, precognitive dreams about odd events.  One time when I was in seventh grade, I awoke, laughing.  Why?  Because someone had stolen the lock off of my school locker, but left the valuable stuff inside.  I found it really humorous that someone would just steal the lock.

The next day?  After fourth period (the period immediately after I’d told my math teacher the humorous story) the lock was . . . gone.  My stuff?  There.

I can’t understand kids these days and their overwhelming Axe®-scents.

Certainly, it could be a coincidence.  But the odd perfection of the dream and the reality was jarring.  I’ve had other dreams that came true as well.  Most have been relatively boring things, and, certainly I’m not above calling them coincidences.

However, .gov, (in conjunction with the Stanford Research Institute) created a project for remote viewing – clairvoyance, where they created a program that produced (according to some sources) actionable information and according to at least one independent statistician were clearly 5-15% above random chance.

Those are just two examples of potential phenomena that exist outside of our ability to explain using purely material descriptions.  And, no, I’m not wedded to the idea that those phenomena exist, but that would certainly be the simplest explanation for several events in my life.  But, I am a committed Christian, so obviously I have the belief in things that have and always will be beyond the understanding of men.

And, again, before 1900 or so, the vast majority of people in all civilizations all over the world would have agreed that while there is the material plane of existence, but there is also the spiritual plane of existence, with as much (if not much more) relevance to our daily lives than the physical.

I like Chihuahuas, but not enough to eat a whole one.

One thing I’ve learned during my life, is to understand that there’s a lot that I’ll never understand, but that I do think that there is far, far more to our lives than just materialism.  Heck, if I had a dime for every time I thought about materialism, I could probably afford some Gucci™ socks.

Want Early Fireworks? Then Come Listen To This Edition Of The Podcast – It’s Gonna Be A Blast!

Streams will show up at 9EDT (click the link below), that’s in just over 30 minutes!  (and we typically pregame for five minutes, so it really starts up at 8:55PM)

Mrs The Mrs – YouTube

Funniest News On the ‘Net.

In this episode:

  • War and Stuff
  • Jackass of the Week?
  • Conversation Street
  • Two Minutes of Guns in One Minute
  • ThinkRealFast

The Best And Funniest Fourth Of July Post You’ll Read Today

“What do you do when you’re not buying stereos, Nick?  Finance revolutions?” – Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

I guess the taxes were too steep.

In honor of the holiday, here are some facts that I made up about the Declaration of Independence:

  • John Adams felt that July 2 would be the national holiday, but just to spite him because he was a tool, it was changed to July 4.
  • The Continental Congress could not afford air conditioning, so Thomas Jefferson used his sweat as the liquid in the ink.
  • The original Declaration of Independence was stored at the Pearl Harbor naval base until 1941 in a rusty footlocker, but was moved back to Washington, D.C., because John Wayne told “that pinko” FDR to bring it back.

They were going to name a street after John Wayne, but then realized that no one could cross John Wayne and live.

  • Thomas Jefferson was originally going to have the Declaration printed, but because his HP™ printer kept flashing “replace black ink cartridge” and because Office Depot™ would not exist for another 200 years, he wrote the whole thing out by hand.
  • The Declaration has a secret message written on the back, that, when translated said, “D-R-I-N-K-Y-O-U-R-O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E. No one knows what that means.
  • Disney® tried to buy the rights to the Declaration in order to make a cartoon, and then a live action version of the document, replacing Thomas Jefferson with Jada Pinkett Smith.
  • Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the same day, and their bodies regenerated in a secret lab of Benjamin Franklin’s where they were combined with parts from a cotton gin to become MechaAdamson who took the lead in opening trade relations with Japan, and whose portrait is on the $1500 bill.

Okay, on to the more serious bit.

It has been 248 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed.  Obviously, it was written the night before, because Jefferson was cramming for the final.  We often think of the Founding Fathers as Old Dead Guys, because they are, but let’s go back in time to 1776:

Thomas Jefferson was 33.  In 2024, that would mean that in 2024 he would still be saving for a downpayment on a house, but when he was 13, he inherited nearly eight square miles of productive farmland.

Jefferson wasn’t very old, but I think he did the job of writing this amazingly subversive document very, very well.  John Adams, who was 40 at the time, convinced the committee (yes, the Declaration was the result of a committee) that Jefferson should write it because everyone liked Jefferson, and everyone thought that Adams was a tool.  Adams said that.

“The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you’re finished. – Benjamin Franklin”

So, if a Jefferson would be alive today to write up a new Declaration, he’d have been born in 1991 and would be younger than Teen Spirit.

Jefferson was a genius, but how big a bag did they have to pick from to find him?  2.5 million people were the total number of citizens in the colonies.  Today, all but fourteen states each have more people than the colonies did, and yet they produced a Franklin, a Jefferson, a couple of Adams boys, and a Washington.

The point I’m trying to convey is that even though we look back at the bravery and genius and learning of the Founding Fathers, we sometimes overlook the fact that they were ordinary men in an extraordinary time.  I would bet that in any population of 2.5 million Americans of similar stock in the United States today that you’d find men of Washington’s bravery and ability; Franklin’s learning, cunning and sense of humor; Adam’s stoic stubbornness; and Jefferson’s erratic brilliance.

What was Thomas Jefferson’s father’s name?  Thomas Jefferdad.

Keep in mind, too, that the whole proposition of “standing up to the world’s biggest empire” was pretty risky.  War had been ongoing sporadically with Great Britain for the better part of a year, but up until the Declaration, the idea and hope was for a reconciliation with the Mother Country, although one built upon respect for the Colonies.

Obviously, that didn’t happen.  Once the committee tasked with drafting the Declaration was done, Congress itself edited the document, word by word, and sentence by sentence.  This chopped a bunch out, and Jefferson was miffed.  Regardless of Jefferson’s butthurt, on July 2, the Declaration was adopted on a 12-0-1 vote, with New York being in a dither, as usual that finally changed its vote due to peer pressure from the cool kids, eventually making it 13-0.

When it was time to check out of the empire, they all checked out.

I have said before that the United States of our forefathers, even the United States of my youth is dead – heck, one wag even said, “we all die in a foreign country”.  But I have also said, and I will stand by that, although we may not live to see it, we stand ready for the seeds of a new, and hopefully more glorious Republic in the future.

It will require the burial of nearly 200,000 pages of federal regulations.  There will certainly be depravation, and likely more than one horrific battle.  It took decades to get the United States into this mess, and digging out will be the task of generations:  keep in mind that from 1775 (the real start of the Revolutionary War) to the first presidential election was 13 years, and that we’re not even to 1775 yet – I peg us at somewhere between 1765 and 1773, and I think the Revolutionary War will look easy in comparison.

I accidently signed up for the company 401k – I don’t think I can run that far.

Along the way, a new form of government will be born, hopefully with an eye to the freedoms we have lost and with sure prohibitions (I can think of another dozen amendments today of what government should never be allowed to do) to keep government in check and make it take at least another 200 years before the rotten edifice of regulation and emanations and penumbras can be reconstituted.  Maybe we’ll add a third house of Congress that can repeal any legislation with a 33% vote, I mean, if 33% of the country hate a law, why keep it?

America is dead, but also waiting to be born.  Come with me.

Let us go and find her.

Chevron And The Fall Of The Deep State

“I’m Jack’s medulla oblongata.  Without me, Jack could not regulate his heart rate, blood pressure, or breathing.” – Fight Club

Don’t worry!  I’ve been told by 51 intelligence operatives that the Deep State isn’t real.

I know that the event of last week in the media was the debate.  I’ll agree, it was pretty significant, significant enough that I stayed up even later to chat about it with The Mrs., who gets up really early.  How early?

JW:  Tonight’s debate was thermonuclear.

The Mrs.:  You mean yesterday’s debate.  Oh, wait, you haven’t slept, so for you it’s still yesterday.

Whatever timeframe you’re using, a really, really big thing happened on Friday.  Let me explain, I’m a trained professional.

Let’s go back in time a bit.

Back in 1938, the Congress passed a law establishing a thing called the “Code of Federal Regulations” act.  That act required all federal regulations to be put in a single source, which is now called the CFR.  Note that I didn’t say a single book, since the CFR pages totaled 188,343 in 2021.

That’s not a typographical error.  There are nearly 200,000 pages of federal regulations.  They say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but I’m pretty sure that there is no sane human that could read and retain that insane level of regulation, except for Alex Trebek, and he is, alas, no more.

That meant that people like these were responsible for making the regulations you had to live by, with no restraint.  It’s like allowing random members of a Pride march to decide on your healthcare.  Oh, wait.

Now, there are several groups that really love that level of regulation:

  • Lawyers, who build careers on understanding them,
  • Big Business, to keep out small-fry competition that can’t afford lawyers to interpret the rules to keep them out of trouble,
  • the Antifa® fascists, who are the people who really get bent out of shape if your lawn is 0.05” higher than the regulations say, and
  • They exist to write regulations, so they just want to write more.

This is an unholy combination.

Regulations are based on law.  The Congress of the United States passes a bill, and the President of the United States signs it, and, a law is created.  I learned that on Schoolhouse Rock™ when that damn bill just wanted to be a law.

If we emailed the Constitution to each other, would the NSA give it to the Deep State so they’d finally read it?

Laws, however, almost always constrain human activities.  In some cases, like murder, a law can be a net social benefit, at least when the courts actually enforce the law equally and without favor.

But murder is simple when compared to some of the federal laws on the books.  I could get into the details, but it’s a federal crime:

  • to wash your fish at a faucet if it’s not a fish-washing faucet,
  • to let your pet make a noise that scares wildlife in a national park,
  • to sell onion rings that resemble onion rings, but made with diced onion,
  • to skydive drunk, and,
  • sell wine with a brand name including the word “zombie”.

Yes.  This was made the force of law, that unelected regulators could make up whatever they wanted and put you in jail if you didn’t do what they made up last week.  This was based on the “Chevron Deference” – a court decision that effectively let the Executive Branch make regulations, enforce them, and courts had to bow to their interpretation.  It’s been the rule for 40 years.

Here is a partial list of the people who will actually have to have a law to rely on to take away your rights in the future.

But the most pernicious part of this is that it feeds into the same mindset that the GloboLeftElite has relied on for years.  They want to take an existing law and pound and beat it to meet whatever they believe this Tuesday.  For example, there was a requirement that industries stop pollutants from going into the air.

That makes sense.  I could argue that it doesn’t need to occur at a national level and that states could regulate it and that might make it un-Constitutional, but, whatever.  The law is there.  It’s been there forever.  The regulations meant to enforce the law when it came out made sense – spewing methyl-ethyl-death across the elementary playground might not be a great idea.

On the other hand, maybe it would have made our children strong enough to work in the mines.

But that same law, written decades ago, was interpreted to mean that sweet, sweet carbon dioxide, you know, plant food, is now a pollutant.  Why?  Because the GloboLeftElite knows that gives them more control, and because it now fits with the Narrative of the Moment despite the original law being signed into law in 1963 and last amended in 1990.

I just found this X account, and I like the cut of their jib.

Since CO2 wasn’t on the list of evil things in 1963 or in 1990, having the EPA to suddenly decide it was evil is just regulators making things up.  The Supreme Court said, “No, you can’t do this.  You have to pass a law.  And no, the President can’t just say so.”  The Chevron™ Deferral effectively allowed the Executive branch of government be also the Legislative and Judicial.  This is extremely dangerous.

92% plus of people in Washington D.C. voted Biden.  If regulations can be made willie-nillie without congress even having to pass a law, well, it will be members of the GloboLeftistElite that will write them.  And, remember, these folks live to do one thing:  write regulations.

One of the worst regulators at fault is the ATF®, who can’t even decide what a gun is.  They’re in trouble on the rules they made up on “ghost guns” and pistol braces, and even the definition of who can sell guns without needing an ATF license.

Make no mistake, this is a shattering blow for the Deep State, who wants to make regulations with the force of federal law, without there even having to be a federal law change in the first place.

Why does the GloboLeftElite and the GloboLeft hate this?  Because all of their termites that have burrowed into the Fed.Gov are now less useful, and they actually have to follow the rules to make their changes.

If a priest becomes a lawyer, does that make him a father-in-law?

And that’s the sand the GloboLeftElite will have in their panties.  They have to pass a law.  They can’t make their regulatory changes in the dark of the night by unelected bureaucrats who reliably only vote for more government.

And, no, I won’t be waiting up for The Mrs. to get up so we can discuss this post.  I’ll probably just sneak into bed while she gently snores beside me.

Hey, wait, is there a federal regulation about snoring?  I’ll bet there is . . .

Also – this is what winning looks like.  Enjoy this one.

The Best And Funniest Debate Post You’ll Read Today: Read It For The Salty Tears

“I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay.” – Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Whelp!  All memes from X, and I didn’t even have to scroll more than three times.  This is an implosion.

I had very different plans today for this post.  During the debate, I had no fewer than 1200 words worth of notes, and had penciled in no fewer than nine really funny jokes on the first pass.  It would have been hilarious.  I guess that’s just me, pining for the humor of the situation.

But as the debate ended, I realized that wasn’t the post I was going to write. It couldn’t be.

I have predicted that Joe Biden would not be the DNC candidate for the 2024 election on these pages months ago.  When the debate happened so very early, I began to wonder:  why?

Someone on Team Joe® convinced him (which doesn’t appear to be hard right now) that he needed to debate Trump in June.  Why?  The conventions hadn’t occurred, and Joe wasn’t even the official nominee, merely the presumptive one.

Now I understand.  Having these debates in October would have assured a Trump landslide.  Even the deepest blue GloboLeftist couldn’t even salvage this monstrosity in a real manner after an October showing like today.  It would not be possible.

So, Team Brandon© (yes, Trump really called him Brandon and Joe didn’t react) decided to get him out early.

To expose him.

Joe is done.  He’s finished.  His political career is finished, and his candidacy is in shambles.  Reports are that his team are in tears, and “25th Amendment” (the one that allows for the removal of incompetent folks as president) are trending on X.

I had predicted that either Gavin Newsom (whose wife allegedly willing banged Harvey Weinstein) or Big Mike Obama would be the candidate months ago.  I’m pretty sure I predicted it in the blog, but certainly did so in conversations and it’s too late to check – Ricky might help me here! – that Joe would not be the candidate.

That is now certain.  There is another, like they said in Star Wars™:  Hillary.  I don’t think she’s physically up to the task, but she’s still in the running.

It won’t be Joe.  So, here’s my take on the night, along with a few memes.  I’ll respond to previous post comments tomorrow (like I said, it’s late).  Python, Monty® predicted this years ago.  Note, I hope that Joe Biden lives a long and pleasant life, this is in reference to his chances on being elected in November:

A voter watches a debate.

Voter: ‘Ello, I wish to register a complaint.

(The DNC does not respond.)

Voter: ‘Ello, Miss?

DNC: What do you mean “miss”?  Are you assumin’ me gender?

Voter: (pause)I’m sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!

DNC: We’re closin’ for the Juneteenth Pride Festival.

Voter: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this Candidacy what I decided to vote for not half a year ago from this very DNC.

DNC: Oh yes, the, uh, the Scranton Joe…What’s,uh…What’s wrong with it?

Voter: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. This Candidacy is dead, that’s what’s wrong with it!

DNC: No, no, ‘e’s uh,…he’s resting.  He has COVID.

Voter: Look, matey, I know a dead Candidacy when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now.

DNC: No no this Candidacy’s not dead, he’s, he’s restin’! Remarkable Candidacy, the Scranton Joe, idn’it, ay? Beautiful plumage!

Voter: The plumage don’t enter into it. It’s stone dead.

DNC: Nononono, no, no! ‘E’s resting!

Voter: All right then, if he’s restin’, I’ll wake him up! (shouting at the Candidacy) ‘Ello, Mister Dark Brandon! I’ve got a lovely fresh 10% for the Big Guy for you if you show…

(DNC hits the cage)

DNC: There, he moved!

Voter: No, he didn’t, that was you hitting the cage!

DNC: I never!!

Voter: Yes, you did!

DNC: I never, never did anything…

Voter: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) ‘ELLO JOE!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o’clock alarm call!

(Takes Candidacy out of the cage and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)

Voter: Now that’s what I call a dead Candidacy.

DNC: No, no…..No, ‘e’s got COVID!

Voter: COVID?!?

DNC: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin’ up! Scranton Joe stuns easily, major.

Voter: Um…now look…now look, mate, I’ve definitely ‘ad enough of this. That Candidacy is definitely deceased, and when I decided to vote for it not ‘alf a year ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein’ tired and shagged out following a prolonged ice cream.

DNC: Well, he’s…he’s, ah…probably pining for Corn Pop.

Voter: PININ’ for Corn Pop?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got ‘im home?

DNC: Scranton Joe prefers keepin’ on it’s back! Remarkable Candidacy, id’nit, squire? Lovely hair plugs and replacement teeth!

Voter: Look, I took the liberty of examining that Candidacy when I watched the debate, and I discovered the only reason that it had been standing by the podium in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.

(pause)

DNC: Well, o’course it was nailed there! If I hadn’t nailed that Candidacy down, it would have nuzzled up to that podium, bent it apart with its strong arm, and VOOM! It would have talked about String Theory in six languages!

Voter: “VOOM”?!? Mate, this Candidacy wouldn’t “voom” if you put four million volts and a gallon of Adderall® through it! It’s bleedin’ demised!

DNC: No no! ‘E’s pining!

Voter: It’s not pinin’! It’s passed on! This Candidacy is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! It’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the podium it’d be pushing up the daisies! It’s metabolic processes are now ‘istory! It’s off the twig! It’s kicked the bucket, It’s shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-CANDIDACY!!

(pause)

DNC: Well, I’d better replace it, then. (he takes a quick peek behind the counter) Sorry squire, I’ve had a look ’round the back of the shop, and uh, we’re right out of Candidacy, except for Big Mike, Hillary, and Gavin.

Voter: I see. I see, I get the picture.

DNC: (pause) I got a Kamala.

(pause)

Voter: Pray, does it talk?

DNC: Nnnnot really.  Slurs quite a bit like it’s drunk.

Voter: WELL IT’S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!!???!!?

DNC: N-no, I guess not. (gets ashamed, looks at his feet)

Voter: Well.

(pause)

DNC: (quietly) D’you…. d’you want to come back to my place?

Voter: (looks around) Yeah, all right, sure, it is the Juneteenth Pride Festival.

DNC: (to the audience) Well! I never wanted to do this in the first place. I wanted to be… a lumberjack!

Gamer Gate 2.0: Ugly Women Edition

“Report here safely, stop.  Do not play video games.” – John Wick

Proof once again you’re an un-person if you remember the 1990s, intact families, and Christmas. (as found)

Pop culture exists, and I often write about it.  The reason is that it is pervasive, surrounds us, and can absolutely be used to manipulate human feelings and behavior, so, in a sense it is a form of programming about who and what we are.  In essence, it can be a myth that evolves with us, sort of like intestinal parasites.

Pop culture has always been around, but it has transformed over the millennia of human existence.  It likely started with Grug talking around the communal fire, telling stories of the clan, their origin, and the evils they defeated, and how he had to walk uphill both ways to get back to the cave when he was a child and that they didn’t have any of those new-fangled flint arrowheads when Grug was small.

Through this mechanism, the ideas that the clan had, its virtues, its norms, and even its fears were transmitted from one group to another.  It told the story of the group.  Their story.  That narrative bound them together as one – they knew the deeds of their fathers and sang songs about the virtues of their fathers.

My eye got infected with COVID. I had Corona-Iris.

Control of that story, then, is very, very powerful, and Grug probably (rightfully) skipped the part where he pooped his wolfskin jockstrap the first time he had to fight someone from the Wilder clan.  Grug’s stories and pop culture thus both provide and define the Overton Window – those ideas that are safe to speak about in a polite society.

An example:

The idea that JFK was assassinated by literally anyone other than Lee Harvey Oswald acting totally alone was not acceptable to The Powers That Be®.  What did they do?  They invented an entire new term to disparage any idea that varied from the Warren Commission report – “Conspiracy Theory”.

Oddly, when the House Select Committee on Assassinations looked into the JFK Lone Gunman theory in the late 1970s, they decided that, no, it couldn’t have been Lee Harvey Oswald acting by himself.  The results of the Committee were mostly ignored.  The smear of anyone with a different opinion continued, and if it weren’t for the Zapruder film, I imagine they’d probably try to convince everyone JFK killed himself because he hated Dallas.

I promise, I don’t know any dirt on the Clintons.

The cast of people who benefited from Kennedy’s death was huge:  The CIA, the Military-Industrial Complex, the Mafia, LBJ, Israel’s nuclear program, the gun control agenda, and the Boy Scouts™ all benefited.  Okay, maybe not the Boy Scouts©, but you get the picture.  The only person I’m sure wasn’t involved was me, and that’s because I wasn’t born yet.

Beat that alibi.

But crafting that public opinion isn’t just for the CIA or whatever thinktank meme’d the phrase “Conspiracy Theory” into existence.  Nope.  Pop culture is largely put out by Hollywood™ and, increasingly game companies.

Hollywood™ (if I include television, which I should) was the biggest influence when I was a kid.  Everyone in my grade was watching the same movies at the same time on the same station.  If a James Bond® movie was on, you were watching that, because cable came to the vicinity of Wilder’s Mountain about the time I was finishing high school and you had three choices (no one watched PBS™) and James Bond™ was always going to be better than whatever else was on.

I’ve never played Warhammer®, so I’m really hoping that it doesn’t have a “Shoe” or I’ll feel more stupid than usual.

We watched the same television shows, too.  And, I’ve related before, I remember wondering in middle school if there was a reason that the TradRight couldn’t be funny, since even in seventh grade I recognized that every comedy and drama on television was written from a GloboLeftElite perspective.  Even in middle school I recognized that Hollywood™ was a Leftist enclave.

Television (and movies!) was a pipeline that was well in place as owned turf of the GloboLeftElite by the end of the 1970s.  But a new medium was emerging, and the old monolith of the big three networks was fracturing.

The new medium was gaming.

I hear she wears Fruit of the Tomb™ underwear.

Gaming was, especially at the early parts, unabashedly libertarian, as was much of the infant Silicon Valley at the time.  Games like Pac-Man™, Pong©, and that one with the plumber were big, and largely free of politics, which is to say skewed towards the TradRight in the opinion of the GloboLeft.

Games rose under Atari™, sank, then rose again, this time higher and higher with Nintendo™ and then Sony™ and Sega™ and finally the X-Box™.  Each iteration brought more story and visual complexity to the games, but the consumer was mainly the same:  young white dudes.  Sure, women have always played games, but the biggest gamers have always been boys.  Oh, and the Prussians.  They invented wargaming when it wasn’t convenient to duel or kill someone just to pass the time (seriously, look it up).

And what do boys like?  Girls.  Thus, Lara Croft™ and the Tomb Raider© series came into existence, complete with her huge . . . eyes.  And shapely . . . hair.  Lara Croft® was about as realistic as He-Man® was, but that was okay.  She was an idealized version (through the eyes of a fourteen-year-old boy) of what a hot woman looked like.

But the GloboLeftElite have started a war against hot women.  I’m not sure why, but I think it’s because that women feel threatened by hot women.  I will note that not a single feminist ever jumped out and said that Superman™ was an unrealistic body model, or has tried to get Brad Pitt out of movies and replace him with that guy that plays Paul Blart.

When He-Man© did a PSA, was he He-Man®-splaining?

No.  They want to uglify women characters in video games.  I think so that ugly feminist women feel better.

The latest?  Jean Grey™, that buxom fiery-haired psychic that, ahem, inspired so many young men, has been redone.  Yup, here it is.

Yes, hot Jean Grey™ has been turned into a plank of wood that looks like Melinda Gates.  And who was responsible?  Not sure, but Sweet Baby, Inc. (links below) have allegedly been busy as they can be with Jean Grey, gumming up the works to make sure that all of the GloboLeftElite talking points and propaganda is included in the game and that the women in the games are as ugly as the Sweet Baby, Inc. women feel that they are inside.  And outside, I guess.

When I play a video game, I’d rather play a cool strong character rather than Archie Bunker.  Do women want to play as a hot chick, or do they want to play as a woman with a body best described as “tubular and featureless”?

Gamer Gate 2.0: Woke On Patrol

Gamer Gate 2.0 Update: Disproportionate Response Edition

It’s not just video games.  Dungeons & Dragons™ has said that they’ll be happy when white guys stop playing their games.

Okay, done. (meme as found)

Disney’s© latest Star Wars™ flop, The Acolyte, has lesbian witches creating a baby without needing no man via the Force™.  The producer also said that if we didn’t like it, don’t watch it, and then when we didn’t watch it, blamed us for not being the audience she (yes, you guessed it) deserved.  I guess that in Star Wars©, they don’t need no man to have a baby.

And since Sweet Baby, Inc., Marvel™, D&D®, Disney© and Star Wars© don’t need me, I won’t be there.

You can do what you want, but I’ll be skipping this round.  I like Grug’s stories better, anyway.

Illegal Immigration: It’s a Pyramid Scheme

“If you’re trying to extort us because we are immigrants, we know the law.” – Taken

If you would like a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve our lives, please press 1 for English. (All memes today are as found.)

As I look to the vast, teeming hordes of illegals washing on to our shore daily, I ask myself, what rational nation would make it easy for hundreds of thousands of fighting-age men to easily enter the country each month, every month, for the entirety of the Biden administration?

Some have claimed that as many as 11 million to 13 million of these fighting-age men are entering the country every year.  That’s a total of nearly 40 million in the three and a half years since Biden assumed the office.  Of military aged men.  Who won’t be in the military.  At least not our military.

It has even gotten to the point where the normies that tend to vote left (not the committed GloboLeft, mind you, but the normies who voted for Biden) have come to realize, “No, this is too much.”

It’s gotten to the point where other immigrants have said, “No mas.”

It’s gotten so bad that Joe Biden, he who Executive Ordered out of existence Trump’s border strategy in the first forty minutes after he took the oath, had to pretend it was the Republicans who were against border security last month.

Oh, and a few minutes after that he then offered immediate legal status to 500,000 spouses of illegals.  It must be wonderful to be a GloboLeftist and have the memory of a goldfish.

Of course, one of the main reasons the GloboLeft want to haul in illegals over the border is that most people who are illegals want free stuff, and most immigrants in general (not all, but in general) have come from countries where a higher degree of socialism is the norm.  Plus, many don’t speak the language, so they’re left to whatever the local GloboLeftist “Community Organizer” tells them for political beliefs. 

But, perhaps, another reason that the GloboLeft wants so much immigration is debt. If you look at average debt in the United States, it’s at $104,000.  Even Gen Z is getting on the debt train:  the average Zoomer debt is about $30,000, even though the oldest Zoomer is 26.

Average illegal (or legal) immigrant debt load?  Zero.

The opportunity then appears:  load the illegals up with loans at silly high interest rates.  Keep in mind, they have crappy credit, so a 20% interest rate to buy a car at a buy here/pay here place seems like a good deal.  Illegals also have, generally, lower reading comprehension and less experience with the debt-industrial complex, so renting to buy a tv, a car, furniture (rent to own!) which makes it look like the immigrant is actually adding to the economy rather than subtracting from it.

And they are subtracting from it:  medical care, schooling, infrastructure, housing, and criminality all pile on.  While American might have become a third-world hellhole all by itself (which I doubt) illegals are a pyramid scheme.  The scheme requires more and more illegals to take on the debt and consooom the resources.

The solution to all of these problems brought on by the immigration?  GloboLeftists want to import yet more illegals to solve the problems caused by all of the previous illegals.  The endpoint of this is disaster.  It ends up destroying the countries, no, nations, that were insane enough to practice this importation.  A nation, like Ireland, filled with Irish people ceases to be a nation when it ceases to be Irish.  A Moroccan born in Ireland is no more Irish than a mouse born in a stable is a horse.

No, Ireland then ceases to be a nation when it ceases to be Irish, and then it becomes a country, and it will never be the same.  I think the Irish have figured this out, as they’ve been pushing back on the GloboHomoElite as of late.

Several years ago, I was listening to NPR™ before I gave up on it entirely – it was probably 2016.  This was an out-and-out propaganda piece, and I realized it at the time.  In this snippet, the child of Iranian parents that had lived in California had moved to Copenhagen.  He was quite upset that his daughter (born in California) was not considered to be Danish.

Well, she’s not.  She never will be.  Persian?  Sure.  Danish?  Never.  At best, a resident.  Her children, three or four generations hence?  Maybe so, as soon as they are named Viggo or Alfred or Clara or Freja.

These changes have consequences that range far deeper than just the economic.  England was a country made for the English, and that’s how it works.  The customs and attitudes of India or Pakistan?  Well, import enough of that, and England won’t be England.

America is not Ireland – I’m of Scots-Dane-English extraction, and no Scot, Dane, or Englishman would claim me as anything but their very distant kin, which I understand.  But I am more than three generations American, so I have no other home, no other place that is mine.

And just like England was made by and for the English, America was made by and for the Americans.  Whoever is coming across the border is not an American, but someone who is actively destroying America.

None of the GloboLeftElite care that this will ruin all of the nations of the West economically or demographically.  As an anon put it,

“They’ll destroy it all, all of society, for a lifetime of personal hedonism and debauchery, funded off of the suffering of billions.”

I’m not sure that’s right.  The forces of the GloboLeftElite do like their pleasures, but many of the foot soldiers of the GloboLeft simply want to watch it all burn.  They don’t care, particularly, to see anything grow in its place, just so long as the True, the Beautiful, and the Good are destroyed.

Destruction, though it may be easy, and though it may be very common in the coming years, will not be the final say.  In the end, since the beginning of man, the True, the Beautiful, and the Good have proven to come back alive, again and again, even when the night seemed the darkest.

I have never said the path is easy, and I’ve never said any of us will live to see the end of the tale, and I hate to give spoilers, but we’re not done.

Not even close.

It Came From . . . 1989

“Why don’t they ever bring back or remake good shows, like BJ and the Bear?  Now there’s a concept I can’t get enough of, a man and his monkey.” – Mallrats

Thankfully, if A.I. ever tries to attack us, it will try to drive trucks on water.

Back again with movies from the 1980s.  This has been fun, but I think there may only be one year that we haven’t done – 1980.  I’ll verify that, and if so, that’ll be the next one.  It seems like people enjoy taking these walks through history, and perhaps we’ll hit the 1990s next.

Or not, still haven’t decided, though it’s certain I’ve seen some great movies based on your recommendations.  Keep in mind that I’ve excluded sequels (mostly, there are one or two that I did allow for various reasons).  On that, note, off to the races . . . and let me know what I’ve missed in the comments.

DeepStar Six – This1989 underwater movie starred Peter Weller . . . oh, no, that was Leviathan.  Right.  DeepStar Six is the 1989 underwater movie that starred Ed Harris as a Navy . . . oh, that was The Abyss.  What was Deepstar Six?  The 1989 underwater movie with the guy that played BJ from BJ and the Bear?  Never mind.

The Experts – This was a random pick of a movie back when I was at the grocery store getting Cheerios® or something.  Really, I think I was getting Cheerios™ that night, which are the perfect food if you like miniature donuts that taste like sawdust and despair and yet dissolve into a slimy mushy paste when exposed for more than 20 seconds to milk.  Regardless, this was John Travolta doing what he was meant to do:  play an idiot.  The plot is simple, stupid night club guys from the United States are drugged and taken to the Soviet Union to help make their spy school more effective.  It’s not serious, but it is funny.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure – Again, another random video pick about the same time as The Experts.  A time travel story done by the son of Richard I Am Legend Matheson about two idiots who travel back in time for a history report so that their band can save the universe.  Surprisingly well done and internally consistent with the appropriate 80s-rock soundtrack.  Party on, dude!

Apparently, A.I. isn’t interested so much in Ted “Theodore” Logan.

The ‘Burbs – Spielberg with a very dark comedy about serial killers moving into the neighborhood on a suburban cul-de-sac.  I saw this one in the theater, and wasn’t disappointed.  Tom Hanks before he became all “actor-y” and Carrie Fischer before she became all “dead on an airplane”.  Not a hit, but some pretty good performances.

Leviathan – Okay, this is really the “creepy thing under the sea” movie from 1989 that I wanted to write about.  I thought this was far superior to The Abyss and to DeepStar Six.  I caught this while just driving through a city, decided to stop and watch a movie, and really enjoyed it.  The screenwriter, David Peoples also did the screenplays for Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys, and Unforgiven.  The movie does star Peter Weller, and is really a version of Alien, but under the ocean.

Heathers – Yet another dark comedy.  I’m sensing a trend.  In this one, Winona Ryder plays Veronica, who finally made the right high school clique with three girls named Heather, which is a really weird coincidence, because that’s the name of the movie.  Anyway, suicides ensue, and maybe just a bit of light murder.  Heathers was intended to be a counterpoint to movies like Sixteen Candles or The Breakfast Club, but still maintained a comedic edge without going too dark.

Apparently, the Heathers are all Phoebe Cates, including black Phoebe Cates, and one of them stole Doc Brown’s DeLorean.  Lick it up, baby.  Lick it up.

Dead Calm – Another video pick, random off of the rack.  The moral of the story is if you’re traveling around the world on a sailing ship with Nicole Kidman never stop to pick up Billy Zane because Billy Zane always sweats a lot is always going to try to take your woman and your ship.  Bonus?  Sam Neill.

Major League – Tom Berenger got tired of killing Willem Dafoe, and decided to become a major league baseball player.  But he chose the Cleveland Indians® (note, they changed the name of the baseball team so that they could erase the memory of Indians from the continent) and they sucked, so they had to hire a bunch of loveable losers to destroy what was left of the team so a Las Vegas showgirl could move it.  Made buckets of money.

Looks like Ricky Vaughn has been cloned?

Field of Dreams – Yet more baseball, but this one is more serious.  Kevin Costner plows under his corn to make a baseball field so he can have a last game of catch with his deceased father after watching the Chicago Black Sox.

How I Got into College – Who would believe that Anthony Edwards could snag Lara Flynn Boyle?  The casting director, apparently.  It’s a fun, wacky comedy that Savage Steve Holland put together.  It cost $10 million, made $1.6 million.  Bomb.  Still funny.

Miracle Mile – More Anthony Edwards.  This time he’s a guy who’s chasing Mare Winningham, who is much more in his league:  Winningham looks sort-of like a short Irish linebacker with a punk haircut in this one.  Edwards gets a wrong number call at a phone booth by a guy trying to call his dad to warn him that the United States is getting ready to launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the Soviets, probably to kill John Travolta before he makes superspies.  Not a comedy.  I’m watching this one right now.  Also, who names their daughter “Mare”?

Batman – Tim Burton’s last good movie, but I hate it because after this Michael Keaton started to do things other than comedy and I think he had a lot more funny movies in him.  It is the only movie where someone kept all of Tim Burton’s bad instincts in check.  Burton makes pretty movies, but can’t do a plot to save his life, so his first three were okay.

You knew there would be unnecessary PEZ® and cats, didn’t you?

Weekend at Bernie’s – Two junior employees end up with their dead boss and have to convince people he’s alive so that they can party.  Reminds me of the Biden administration.

UHF – This movie showed up and left the box office before I had any idea it existed, which probably explains why it was unprofitable.  What is the movie about?  Give Weird Al a television station, and what shows would he put on?  This.  Although the movie was a bomb, I’m certain that it’s made a profit since then.  It’s a classic, and very funny.  Okay, it’s very funny if you like Weird Al.  If you don’t like Weird Al, it would be torture and probably be prohibited by the Geneva Convention.

Uncle Buck – This may be John Candy at his best, a wise-cracking uncle who doesn’t want to but will take care of kids.  John Candy was a comedy treasure, and left us too soon – some people like Planes, Trains, and Automobiles better, and that’s a very strong movie, but Uncle Buck is sharp and smartly written, though Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is the very best Thanksgiving movie.

Is this Henry V if he was guest starring on Miami Vice?

Henry V – I though that this was the sequel to Henry IV, but was disappointed to find out that this was a standalone film about some dead British guy written about some dead British guy.  Yawn.  Oh, wait, it has this:

And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered—
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Tango & Cash – Tango & Cash could have been titled “Generic Buddy Cop Movie Between Cops That Are Opposites And That Also Features A Monster Truck And Features Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell”.  What more do you need?

Like I said, sound off for other movies from this late, great year.