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Our Real Enemy

Bureaucracy, Gummint, Resistance

This article suggests that the real enemy of America is not called the Chinese Communist Party, or the Russian Menace, or the Muslim Invasion.  Who is, then?

There are two irrefutable and intertwined realities that the citizens of any constitutional republic must recognize and understand. First, any group or entity that espouses ever greater power for the central government, socialist-centric economic policies, and continual erosion of individual freedom is an existential threat to that nation as founded.

Second, the leaders of these factions and their disciples will lie incessantly, and under no circumstances will they alter their policies or tactics, as they can never be wrong in their pursuit of unbridled political power. They must be soundly defeated at the ballot box, or civil strife will inevitably ensue.

Steve McCann lays out the most egregious scenario in recent memory where the Powers That Be did just that.  Here it is:

Nothing better defines this mindset of infallibility, arrogance, and pathological lying to achieve political power than the most malicious exploitation of the citizenry in American history: The deliberate manipulation and mismanagement of the Chinese Coronavirus “pandemic.”

Beginning in March 2020, the ruling class/Democrat party and their accomplices in the medical establishment knowingly regurgitated innumerable falsehoods and were responsible for a variety of catastrophic actions that caused not only massive economic and societal dislocation but also countless deaths. The Democrats still have not acknowledged the errors that they made and, of course, will not admit that those errors were compounded by abject refusals to change course.

I have a simple take on all this.  As time passes and memory fades, we run the danger of forgetting not just the consequences of this bastardy, but the suffocating effect of what was essentially mass house arrest, as well as the fear of shortages — from frigging toilet paper to essential drugs like insulin — and the massive overreach of the police state to enforce all those restrictions on our liberty.

And just remember that the enforcement of the restrictions was selectively enforced:  churches were closed, but the Antifa/BLM riots went ahead without a strong response from the police.

Read the whole article above, be reminded, remain angry, and let’s not let it happen again — ever.

A Breath Of Sanity

Communication, Deep Thoughts

I’m pretty sure that I share quite a few Readers with The Divine Sarah (Hoyt), even though we write about totally different things most of the time, and even when we do write about the same thing, each will  often have a totally different (but not opposite) take on the thing under discussion.

And anyway, most of the time she writes about gay pirates or whatever, living on a spaceship or some other planet five hundred years in the future, while I write stuff based on actual historical events.  She’s also sold a jillion novels, and I haven’t.  Clearly the market is more attuned to fantastic (literally) worlds somewhere else than it is to late 19th-century Europe;  so she makes a living from her writing, and I don’t.  Annoyingly, as anyone familiar with her historical novels knows, she writes Regency better than I write Victorian/Edwardian.

C’est la vie.

However, thanks to her upbringing in a tiny rural village in Portugal, the real-life Sarah is — unlike many writers — firmly planted in the here and now, and every so often she writes a post that is full of common sense, pricks many fantastical bubbles along the way, and (in her own sweet way) says, “Stop that bullshit.”  It’s all the better if you’ve heard her speak in person, as I have, because that thick Portuguese accent, with its liquid vowels and strange intonation, is unbearably compelling, exotic and — dare I say? — sexy.

So it’s really wonderful when you imagine her saying something like this:

Guys, let me give you a tiny hint here “Science fiction warned us” really means “Guys and gals who were writing by the rule of cool and trying to make their next month’s rent warned us.” Now, is that scary? Of course not. It’s people writing drama to pay their rent.

Do most of them know what they’re talking about? Well, people like Heinlein did. That’s why he doesn’t have any big insanity like that. But most of my colleagues? Dear Bob (Heinlein). Remember, these are the people who write regencies with exploding carriages and the duchess taking the gig to the supermarket. Stop it, just stop it.

So get over to Sarah’s place and read her take on A.I., if you haven’t already.  You’ll emerge from it refreshed, as I did.

Unsung Heroes: John Lodge

Music

I see with great sadness that Moody Blues bassist John Lodge died a couple of days ago, and although I know that the passing of boyhood heroes is pretty much a daily occurrence now that I’ve reached my own senior years, this one still hurt.

Lodge was one of those musicians whom few people noticed — attention focused mostly on lead singer Justin Haywood and occasionally on multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas — but if you ask any bassist what he thought of Lodge’s contribution to the Moody Blues, all you’ll get is praise.  His playing was rock solid, either complex or simple as the song required, and he never tried to overpower the music with his undoubted virtuosity.  Oh, and he was an excellent singer as well, either as the lead or in his tuneful harmonies.

Just listen to how the bass drives this classic Moodies song (written mostly by Lodge himself).  And note that Lodge is not just playing the bass, but singing at the same time.  You know:  back when the musicians played their own music and didn’t have to rely on Autotune.

I think I’ll go and listen to a Moody Blues album or two.  My favorites:  On the Threshold of a Dream and In Search of the Lost Chord.

And I think I’ll make a series of this thread.  Yeah, it’ll be somewhat tilted towards bassists and drummers, because I was once a bassist, part of the band’s rhythm unit.  Sue me.

Reaction

Music

Mostly, I find the “reaction” videos on Eeewwchoob to be exercises in frustration, because most of the reactors don’t have a clue about music, or what the songs represent and so on.

But this one is absolutely priceless.

It’s just a pair of musical morons listening to one of the greatest songs ever written — but their reaction is pretty much the same as mine when I first heard it.

I dunno what that means or what it says about me… but hey, you get to listen to Gerry Rafferty, so how bad can it be?