Category → Family
Sunday Hunting
Two weeks ago I was hunting and fishing in Alaska. Moose, sheep, goat, and grizzly seasons all began on a Sunday, and my religious, Evangelical friend and I were right there opening morning, rifles in hand, ready. Now, Alaska may be the world’s most prominent destination for hunting and fishing, and hunting and fishing may be significant parts of the state’s economy, but don’t you think it says something that the hunting seasons for the most sought after species all began on Sunday?
No one blinked an eye, no one gnashed their teeth, no one howled at the sky about the supposed sacrilege, the horribleness of it all. People in Alaska either hunt on Sunday, or they choose not to hunt on Sunday, and they do not make a huge whiny federal case about it. They are adults about it.
Like Alaska, nearly every other state in the United States has Sunday hunting. Unlike here in Pennsylvania, where for some inexplicable reason a lot of annoying busybody people in politics believe it is their job to police how we grownups spend our Sundays. These people have made Sunday hunting, and only hunting, not sports or fishing or drinking at bars or whatever else, a very difficult thing to do in Pennsylvania. Unless you are from Schuylkill County, where everyone does it, law be damned, and no is ratting out anyone else about it.
On October 1st, next Tuesday, the PA House Game and Fisheries Committee is holding a hearing on a Sunday hunting bill that will allow the Pennsylvania Game Commission to set game seasons any day of the week, including Sundays, if that makes the most sense to our professional game managers. You are encouraged to contact the PA House Fish & Game Committee members and let them know what you want: You want hunting freedom like almost every other state in the USA, you want to make your own choices about how to spend your precious Sundays, you want to be able to hunt without having to take time off from your week day job.
You can also join or financially support Hunters United for Sunday Hunting, a group I used to have a long founding association with, and which I am still indebted to for their hard work trying to establish freedom here in PA.
Pennsylvania should be able to join the 20th century, at least, on this issue. Pennsylvania is after all the Keystone State and the cradle of American democracy and FREEDOM.
Should conservative Americans travel abroad?
Earlier this year several news stories circulated about American tourists being jailed in Caribbean island nations, because one or two loose and forgotten hunting bullets were found lodged deeply in remote seams and pocket corners of their luggage.
While firearms are mostly illegal in these Caribbean island nations, American tourists vacationing on Caribbean beaches were treated as violent criminals when single stray bullets were discovered in their luggage upon entering the islands. Reportedly, these bullets were left over from prior hunting trips, and they had escaped the scrutiny of USA TSA security personnel during the first leg of their trip.
Despite having committed a simple mistake, with the help of the TSA mind you, these travelers were roughly handled by island police, jailed, and held without much due process. Their dream vacations turned into nightmares, and spawned a lot of online discussion about whether or not Americans should risk traveling abroad these days. We are clearly no longer valued for our tourist money in these tiny places, but rather we are valued as political prisoners, symbols of an impotent laughingstock America run by a demented old man and his bribery-plagued family. That American government refuses to flex a little muscle to extract innocent US citizens from these ridiculous destinations is yet another indication of our empire’s forced decline.
Were I president of the USA, and one of these microscopic places dared to lay their filthy hands on an American tourist for some silly mistake, I would sail one or two large US Navy ships into their main harbor, and dispatch several thousand armed US Marines to forcefully re-acquire our illegally detained citizen, by any means necessary. Maybe it’s about time an American flag fly over these local places, anyhow.
Shifting gears to another big tourist destination, Americans have always felt most comfortable and welcome in the “United Kingdom” aka Britain, Wales, Scotland, and formerly Ireland, now its own nation. Because English is the native language or the common language in these places, countless American tourists have traveled there to sight-see, see relatives, marvel at world class museum collections. However, one must openly wonder if these destinations are also now tainted and dangerous for us to visit.
Not too long ago, several American hunters in different parts of Scotland ran into unexpected and undeserved criminal charges for doing exactly what Scottish law allowed, exactly following the directions of their hunting guides. These hunters, both women, had done nothing criminal. What they were guilty of was hunting and having anti-hunters get angry about it. Mind you, paid hunting is about eighty percent of the economic activity in rural Scotland, which is about 80% of Scotland itself. I have hunted in Scotland, and the views there are unbelievably majestic, the animals plenty wild and difficult to take, the “stalkers” (hunting guides) and “ghillies” (hunting assistants) incredibly talented.
But what happens if you follow all the laws, all the rules, and still get in trouble with the government? This bizarre official behavior at odds with the basic rule of law is the very core of lawless arbitrary and capricious government, and it is about the most evil sort of criminal law for a government to engage in. After all, how can you trust a government to host you as a tourist if you follow their laws and they put you in jail anyhow?
I don’t think I would return to hunt in Scotland. And while we are on the subject of the United Kingdom and its environs, I am not sure I would return to Scotland, or England or Ireland or Wales for any reason, for the simple reason that these jurisdictions are now enforcing unbelievably arbitrary speech laws.
In fact, over the past two weeks Britain has descended into complete tyranny, with senior police officials threatening to arrest Americans and others living abroad “wherever you live” for violating Britain’s new arbitrary and capricious speech laws. Britons are being jailed right now for posting simple questions on Fakebook, and apparently even criticizing the current government there can get you handcuffed and taken to jail, for years. Even little kids!
Canada’s lawless and violent customs officials are notorious for their brutality towards Americans who even question why their vehicle is being strip searched at the beginning of their family vacation. American families traveling to Canada have had their family dog shot dead in front of the kids by hyper aggressive Canadian customs agents, who unnecessarily but nonetheless sadistically revel in their complete power over helpless Americans. I would avoid Canada if possible, because it is a place that is also presently descending into lawless tyranny, run by people eager to unfairly make examples of political opponents.
(I wonder why the hell America has not turned Canada into our 51st state by now, but again, I am the kind of proud American who believes in using American military force for the benefit of America and Americans, and to send clear messages to our adversaries)
France just arrested the CEO of the social media company Telegram, because he believes in the free speech of his users. Screw France! France does not believe in individual rights or free speech. France also is descending into tyranny, for your own good, as the British tyrant Keir Starmer also asserts.
So one cannot help but wonder if Americans should refrain from traveling abroad much right now. Maybe this is not a good time for us to be tourists abroad. It seems that no one fears us, no one fears our government or military, and we Americans, used to our personal freedoms and free speech rights, and used to expressing ourselves plainly on every topic we wish, are placing ourselves in harm’s way by traveling abroad.
I don’t think the risk is outweighed by any possible benefits. The benefits of traveling abroad are outweighed by the risks right now.
Here in America we have an incredible array of national and state parks and monuments just begging for tourists and appreciative visitors, beautiful beaches from Maine to Texas, and all within the confines of a nation that at least will respect our right to have opinions. And by vacationing within America you don’t get ripped off by the money changers preying upon us in every other nation.
Americans, you and your tourism dollars belong here in America for the foreseeable future. The upsides are many, not the least of which are that you will see just how incredible this huge and majestic nation is, and why so many of us want to keep it free.
summertime fun! great ETAR & Kempton shows
Big Jim replaced the arrow shelf material on my bow as only one of the top archery professionals can
The shuttle at ETAR was in constant use this year
Conservationist and outdoor leader Rose Anna Moore gave a fascinating lecture about her experiences as a wilderness survivor contestant and a mom and entrepreneur.
The Eastern Traditional Archery Rendezvous this year was the biggest, most successful ever. The Ski Sawmill location is far superior to the old Denton Hill State Park. Much more flat ground, much easier to access everything. Thousands of archery fiends camped out, and when I left campfires were just breaking out everywhere, their aromatic smoke resurrecting memories from childhood.
First time I have had to park way out on the landing strip, and take the hay wagon shuttle. Lots and lots of people!
Tyler Mazer demonstrating how he forges historically accurate knives from the 1700s
Learning how to boil cow horns in 325 degree lard so you can make a flat powder horn
Colorful character Jerry Heister is a super talented artist who works in all kinds of mediums, including horn, wood, metal, and raucous humor
Jerry Heister’s signature flat “hunter’s horn”
A ton of vendors at Kempton, this is just one room of many
Big vendors were there, including Big Jim’s Bows, KUIU hunting clothing, etc. Big Jim replaced the original arrow shelf padding on my Mike Fedora bow, showing me the advantages of simple Velcro®️in lieu of the original “Bear Hair” that had been put on by Fedora when he made the bow in 2001. Big Jim said he had sold all but a few of the bows he had made and brought with him on just the first day of the show.
At the KUIU tent I yukked it up with the guys and bought an Axis outer shell. KUIU makes their clothing super tight, and I ended up with a 4XL…. 😬. Unsure how to interpret this data. Let’s see how this works in Alaska this Fall, where water resistance if not waterproof is a necessity whenever you are outside. I hunt and fish outside. Especially in Alaska.
I did some shooting, and was generally happy with my accuracy, though I did not take a shot at Bigfoot, who was at least 150 yards out, if not farther. That’s just too far for my ability. Can you find the Bigfoot target in the picture of the archery range?
Saw some friends and acquaintances, maybe even a family member, and soaked up the breezy sunshine surrounded by wholesome families and kids.
Topped it off with a fascinating lecture by Rose Anna Moore, a pretty and down to earth mom and conservation entrepreneur and leader who competed in one of those “survival” tv shows several years ago, and whose body is still recovering. Guess those shows are real, after all…Rose Anna almost died because of her competitive spirit being boxed out by Canada’s ridiculous bureaucratic nonsense. She wasn’t allowed to eat squirrels, or even mice! Not even salmon…guess the producers of these survival shows are not the smartest people. <sigh> city people…
The next day I was at the Kempton Gunmaker’s Fair, where I was able to replace a flat powder horn I apparently left way up on our hillside in Pine Creek. Colorful character Jerry Heister made a new one almost as nice as the one he made me ten years ago.
Checked in with Mark Wheland to see how the 62 caliber BSR is coming along, and met a lot of friends along the way.
Topped off Kempton with a long and really helpful lesson in forging a knife by blacksmith Tyler Mazer.
The summer is going to be over in a few weeks, so you had better get a move on with your own plans. By the way I am seeing hardly any berries left anywhere.
It’s summer, have fun
Good antidote to miserable politics, your garden. On the left are cut up peaches from one of our trees, destined for the chest freezer. On the right are a potful of ripe tomatoes and basil, plucked from the garden this evening and destined to become a delicious red sauce.
Cucumbers and tomatoes and a pile of peaches came in from the back yard tonight.
I agree with you, politics is sucking all the air and happiness out of people. Whether you live in Ireland, where the government is clearly working overtime against the vast majority of the citizens who live and come from the Emerald Isle, or you live in America, where the government is clearly working overtime against the interests of all of the people who grew up here or who immigrated here legally, it is evident that democratic processes in every single democratic nation were used to achieve undemocratic outcomes that favor big money interests.
If you like your democracy, and you want to keep your democracy, it is now clear that you will not be allowed to have democracy unless you become just as ruthless as the evil people who are ripping you off.
Wasn’t the whole purpose of representative government to avoid physical violence for political control, and use voting as a substitute? For the better of us all? I guess that attempted murder of President Trump opened a lot of eyes… looks like some bad people are desperate to keep him from getting into office like The People want.
Well, it’s summertime and despite the scary efforts to erase democracy worldwide, we can and should still have fun. Summer county fairs are a wonderful place to spend a hot afternoon and cool evening, with live music and naughty food. I am looking forward to the Eastern Traditional Archery Rendezvous, which starts this Thursday in Oregon Hill, at the ski place thing. Traditional Archery people come from all around the world to just fling arrows at targets (my favorite is the 3-D Bigfoot at 85 yards), buy new or replacement kit, get a new bow for a special upcoming hunt, or to listen to the archery greats explain their techniques. There’s also trick shooting demonstrations, which really will take your breath away. Serious talent.
And running simultaneously, unfortunately, is the “new” Kempton Gunmakers Fair, in Kempton, PA. This is the replacement for the very long running Dixon’s black powder Rendezvous in the same area. I intend to take some blacksmithing classes on making traditional knives there, as well as check up on how the 62-caliber flintlock British Sporting Rifle is coming along. It’s been in the works for 18 months, so it must be really taking shape. The man making it is a very well known black powder gunmaker. For those who don’t know, these are the kind of guns that require the old fashioned gun powder to be poured down the barrel, and which often have flintlocks with a real piece of flint that makes a spark that lights gunpowder in a pan (“he’s just a flash in the pan” comes from a flash that failed to ignite the main charge of powder you had just poured down the barrel). These are not real dangerous guns. The last time one killed somebody was in 1812 or thereabouts. Although Mark Twain did have a humorous warning about “safe” old guns hung above the fireplace accidentally bagging grandma in her rocking chair. They are not toys, but they are not weapons of modern war, either.
Anyhow, go on an git, git on out to the local county fair, or to some summertime evening live music. Maybe there’s a park waiting for you and someone you care about to go have a picnic. Summer’s just about 2/3 over, and you better git while the gittin’s good.
I have been enjoying working in my garden and fruit trees, when I don’t have to share them with swarms of vermin. Today I watched birds eat four beautiful peaches, despite my attempts to drive them away. The squirrels are on temporary hiatus, probably scheming to come grab everything tomorrow morning before I wake up.
Harvest time is natural, healthy
Shirey’s blueberry patch in Linden, PA. You-pick for about two to three weeks every summer. Strawberries are across Rt 15
Until a hundred years ago, just about everyone in western civilization had some sort of garden and fruit trees. Growing your own food is as old as human agriculture, roughly ten thousand years. Maybe more. Point being, being self reliant and engaged with Nature in natural cycles is a healthy and natural thing for us to do today.
Our fruit trees have been ravaged by hordes of unnaturally over abundant squirrels this year. So far they have eaten all our cherries, all of our MacIntosh and Winesap apples, and two thirds of our peaches. None of the fruits were close to ripe, but to a verminous feral rodent, they are edible. It’s quite frustrating.
The garden is putting out regular vegetables now. Zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, butternut squash. A few groundhogs have tried to muscle in, and have found themselves in a very new and distant home.
The “Zen” and personal health of gardening is a well discussed subject, and all I can add is that I too find gardening greatly rewarding. Our produce is organic, natural, and the fruit of our own labors. We water daily and constantly fuss with the plants. We eat or can what we harvest. Very natural, and rewarding.
Last week I visited someone else’s garden, Shirey’s blueberry field in Linden, PA. In 45 minutes my bucket had 6.5 pounds of freshly ripe blueberries I myself had picked in the blazing sun. It was 99 degrees in the sun, and I had no more energy to stand in it picking fruit. On a cooler day I have picked roughly twelve pounds of berries, most of which go into blueberry jam I make. Some are eaten fresh, and some are frozen for eating with pancakes.
Being outside is healthy and necessary for all humans. Some sunshine is necessary for creating Vitamin D, critical to the function of our brain and body. Vitamin D is actually a hormone, and a deficiency is a big risk to your health. So being outside gardening, picking fruits and vegetables, cultivating and husbanding your own food, is essential to having a clear mind and a healthy body.
Sweet corn is coming soon.
Wildlife biologist Aldo Leopold said that he knew civilization had ended when people no longer had to split their own firewood to stay warm in the winter, and had only to rely on a tiny switch on the wall to achieve exactly the temperature they wanted. Hard work, self reliance, producing things of use and value, all add meaning to our lives. Growing and picking food is a small but important statement about not being historic roadkill.
One dad’s Father’s Day question to young Americans
Hi kids. Today is Father’s Day, a card company-inspired day for Americans to spend money on things like cards and gifts. It is a blatantly commercial event, but in the grand scheme of things, there are worse things to celebrate than fatherhood. Like an entire month dedicated to a person’s private sexual practices. I can make a strong case for June being Gardening Month.
Along with Motherhood, Fatherhood has been the guiding idea of the healthy and safe human family for probably close to a hundred thousand years: Physical protection from predatory animals and humans, life guidance in a world full of pitfalls and confusion, passing on skills and knowledge in a competitive world where making a living to stay alive and out of poverty is not easy. In short, fathers have been the other half of a successful family since the dawn of our species.
So don’t forget to call, email, text, or send a card to your dad today. Show some appreciation, even if your dad is occasionally foolish, an assh*le, selfish, whatever. The truth is, this man created you (with your mother), and you are here only because of him. Your life exists because of him.
So, in my role as a dad I have a question for the young people in America right now: Why are any of you supporting the main source of uncertainty that you face in the world’s greatest nation?
America went from a powerful and successful economy in 2020 to a continued and purposeful self-destructive free-fall from 2021 to today, with high inflation that eats away at the value of the Dollar in your pocket, fewer and fewer jobs, fewer good jobs, higher fees and taxes, millions of illegal invaders pouring over our borders who impose huge costs directly on you, and a huge amount of uncertainty now facing you.
There is just one source for all of this uncertainly: The political Left, which includes the mainstream media, academia, the government schools, the teacher’s unions, government bureaucracies, and the Democrat Party.
Not to mention all of the censorship, the attempt to control your words, your thoughts, your freedom to spend your money the way you want, your freedom to travel when and how you want. I could go on, but there is just one source for all of this effort to control everything you do and think and say: The political Left.
You say that abortion is your number one issue? Why? What on earth makes you feel empowered about ending the life of another person on demand, on a whim, without any thought or consideration? Don’t you think this is a weak approach to a literal life-and-death issue?
Did your parents treat you like a whim and just tear your little body apart and flush you down a drain? No, because you are here reading these words, probaby because your Father and Mother valued you and your presence on Planet Earth as a living human.
And if you think abortion is a constitutional issue, well, that has been dealt with in recent years. You can choose to live in a state that supports abortion on demand, if that is what is most important to you. As a dad, I find this a confusing motivator, but each to her own…just how many abortions do you plan on having?
For the constitutionally uneducated, abortion is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, mostly because abortion was frowned upon for the vast amount of human existence. Especially in 1787, when the Constitution was being ratified. Children (like you, who were not aborted and are therefore reading these words here and now) were almostly always welcome, not seen as burdens.
But the argument can and has been made that abortion involves some self-rule over one’s body, because the Constitution blocks the government from having unfettered access to your person, place, and things, and it is hard to argue with that on principle. And so abortion has become legal in many places. This is the Yin and Yang of a dynamic America.
Consider how your perception of abortion rights compares to the general mainstream media discussion of self defense and firearm rights, which the Second Amendment expressly says “...shall not be infringed...” while in Pennsylvania our state constitution says the right to own and carry firearms “...shall not be questioned...” Universal abortion rights are presented as absolute and unquestioned, despite being found nowhere in our founding documents or debates, while the mainstream media complex constantly presents private citizens owning guns as completely up for debate, even though this is an actual right expressly enshrined in our founding documents.
This has been a bit of a digression from our initial question above, but the point has to be made, especially for young people: How you perceive yourself and your rights and your freedom and opportunities is largely influenced by the far-Left that has a death grip on academia, schools, and media.
As a loving dad on Father’s Day today, I encourage the young people who have stumbled upon this essay to really consider your future. Think hard and long about the causes of your scary future and the bedrock support most of us get from our family and dad. The political Left and its primary agent, the Democrat Party, is at war with family, with motherhood, with fatherhood, with your economic future and your personal freedoms and choices.
Everyone else is extending a helping hand to you. This essay is my way, as a loving, caring and understanding father, of helping you young people get your bearings. You know this, and you should vote like you know this.
To all the dads out there: Today we all salute you, and thank you, for doing your best to help guide us through our life.
Insurrectionist Democrat Party part 2
In 1865 the Republican Party ended the first Democrat Party insurrection by taking away the Democrats’ African slaves and defeating the Democrats in the Civil War. But instead of putting a stake through the vampire’s heart, and ending the Democrat Party’s culture of lawlessness and insurrection, the GOP got all soft and sad faced for the po widdle Democwats. And despite a hundred subsequent years of Democrat Party Jim Crow, KKK, lynchings, beatings, and voter suppression, the GOP looked the other way.
And the Democrat Party never forgave the Republicans, and so now here we are again, Democrat Party Insurrection Part Two. Not only a stolen election in 2020, and not only the weaponization of the entire federal government against Democrat Party political opponents, and not only opening the American borders wide so that the American people can be replaced by illegals who will vote for more lawlessness, but now we have the first time ever in American history that a sitting president is trying to jail his opponent.
Yes, yesterday’s fake conviction of President Trump was 360 degrees of fake crimes, fake evidence, fake process, a fake and deeply corrupt judge who screamed at the defense counsel, threatened to jail the defense witnesses, and who allowed all kinds of illegal behavior by the prosecution. But the conviction is still very real, because if they can, the Democrats will indeed put Preisdent Donald Trump in jail. These are lawless people who engage in lawlessness for a concrete purpose. They are not half heartedly fooling around.
So what happens if the insurrectionist Democrat Party is successful in jailing their political opponent Donald Trump? Do you really believe they will stop at that person? If the GOP fails to mount a vigorous offense in response, then the entire method and purpose of the Democrat Party will be focused on fake accusations against Republicans everywhere, and then jailing them in kangaroo courts. After that, the Democrat Party gets what it was after in 1861, when they started the first American Civil War – full control.
If you are a normal American and are shocked at the lawlessness you are witnessing, then the real simple response is a) stop voting for Democrat candidates, b) stop donating to the Democrat Party and its many subsidiaries, and c) get involved and fight back any way you can, whether it is running for school board or dog catcher. This has to be a bottom-up response to the attempted elimination of Trump, because you cannot look to elected Republicans for answers. The GOP culture is weak and wussy and timid. So YOU need to succeed, or we will watch this Democrat Party Insurrection Part Two succeed where they failed in the past.
And if you think Republicans are all mean and wacist n stuff, nonsense, just wait until these fascist Democrats have their hands around your family’s throat… then you will understand MAGA and Tea Party and NRA etc.
Get crackin’, ‘Merica..
Don’t bite the flag that feeds ya
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, dedicated to remembering the many many sacrifices of military service personnel who from the beginning of America to right now have protected you, me, our kids, our lifestyle, and enabled us to pursue the American dream.
Because we American citizens are not required to serve our fellow Americans in any way, it seems that a great many Americans have forgotten about what it takes to keep this huge country going, or maybe they don’t even care about it.
Extreme examples of Americans showing their purposeful disrespect to America used to be limited to smelly hippies from successful families, who could afford to pose and posture and virtue signal. Today, huge swaths of Americans outright trash their own country and actually call for its destruction. Across America we have daily reports of teachers banning the American flag from their classroom, American school administrators banning the American flag from school sports events and uniforms. We even have a report this week about Brooke Merrell, director of Denali National Park in Alaska, ordering a road construction crew to remove American flags from their vehicles.
This disrespect and bizarre virtue signaling is a sign of a deep sickness taking over America. You cannot possibly hate yourself and also simultaneously succeed. You cannot bite the flag that feeds you, and also expect to have plenty more to eat any time you want it. Americans hating America is suicidal.
A request: Young people who consider the American flag to be all bad and everything, racist and other nonsense, try giving your flag respect today and tomorrow. Take a 24 hour break from being careless with such a powerful and meaningful symbol, full of sacrifice for you, and instead show it appreciation. I guarantee doing this will change some things inside of you. Some good things. Some needed things. The people who died for your comfort would appreciate it, just as you would had you been the one to die in battle for America.
Monument to unknown soldiers at Valley Forge Military Park, 1777-1778. Photo by Author
“Fall Guy” movie review
I did it, I went and saw a movie at a theater. Notify the media.
Partly out of a commitment to celebrate Mother’s Day in whatever way the Princess of Patience-Mother wanted on her special day, and yes, she wanted to see a movie, and in particular this one. And partly out of an almost morbid fascination with the ever more gruesome demise of Hollywood, its actors, its writers, its physical space (I know it well and have hiked from poopy-needly-trashy West Hollywood up to and through Runyon Canyon and back, many times), its culture, its leaders, etc. In general, Hollywood and its dreck movies, people, and physical space is something I avoid on principle.
But what the heck, for ten bucks I could go see the freak show, and also make my Princess of Patience aka Mother happy.
However, I was pleasantly surprised on this now rare trip to Regal Theaters in Harrisburg. Not only were the theaters clean, the employees friendly and easy, and the fellow movie guests well behaved, the movie itself was actually worth seeing.
“Fall Guy” is one of the rare funny, wholesome, entertaining movies to come out of un-natural disaster Hollywood in a long time. If you want to simply be entertained by a movie, without being hectored, lectured, propagandized, indoctrinated, lied to, talked down to, then Fall Guy is for you.
If my rusty memory serves me now, making entertaining movies was really at the core of Hollywood’s business model. Once upon a time. Like fifty years ago or more. With Hollywood both captured/ owned by China now, and also going broke because its actors, writers, et al are at war with America, it was reassuring to see some evidence of sanity there. Someone made this movie to actually appeal to Americans, and make some money along the way.
Fall Guy is done tongue in cheek, deliberately mocking Hollywood and movies in every way, and in one especially (Spoiler Alert) pleasing way: The movie’s two villains are truly villainous, bad, evil people: The silver tongued movie producer, and the secretly dull witted, incompetent high paid big name actor. Ah ha, we knew it already after listening to Robert DeNiro incoherently blab away about politicians and political and cultural issues he doesn’t understand last week, despite the now annual Oscars debacle. But it is nice to see that some people in Hollywood are willing to admit to their sins, in the form of a movie, if not in person.
Fall Guy is about a stunt man who loves a woman on set. He screws up, they get separated, and they end up back together on another movie set. The movie plot deliberately zigs and zags between serving up touchy feely girl feeling scenes that left my head uncontrollably lolling about like my spine had been snatched away from my neck, and death defying action and fight scenes, outstanding stunt scenes, and physical comedy that had me sitting erect in my seat, alert and happy enough to forget all about the sappy girl stuff that had been putting a wooden stake through my heart just moments before.
It is two hours long, which worked fine for me. An evening out should be worth it.
When we left the theater with the other couple also watching Fall Guy, it was well after midnight. The entire Regal Cinemas Theater building was shut down, the lights were out, no other movies were playing, no staff were visible or heard, and we were completely alone. We had the entire place to ourselves. For a moment I had this instinctive impulse to run amok in there, in personally gratifying ways that are not destructive. But alas, I am almost a responsible old guy, and was reminded of this by Mother, bless her matronly always responsible way, who gently led me by the elbow out the front door and into the dark and rainy night on my sudden discontent.
My heart sank when I heard the theater door lock shut behind me. No more fun for you here, the klatch locking sound said. I don’t recall having experienced that feeling at a movie theater in many years.
Congratulations, Hollywood and Fall Guy makers.
“Higher Education” is dead
What was over-generously called “higher education” since the 1950s, when a college degree became the American standard and cultural norm for most coastal kids and the middle-America elites, has died. Also known as “the academy” and “academia” and the “ivory tower,” colleges and universities across America have just collectively rolled over, died, and begun to stink badly like the unburied rotting corpses they are.
How did this entire nation-wide network of institutions suddenly give up the ghost? Because of a known but unanswered, unaddressed, uncured cancerous rot inside of it that began in the 1920s, and hit its zenith in the past few weeks. The cancerous rot metastesized, spread throughout the body of each college and university, and finally killed the host. We who are reading this essay now have with our own eyes just witnessed the mass die-off of the species once known as higher education. We have seen it happen on the news, in first-hand documentary reports by participants and observers alike, on social media, and in the first-hand experiences college kids have relayed back to their friends and families.
What happened?
To start with, “higher education” became neither higher, nor education. Instead of having quantifiably elite thinkers spending time carefully training students measurable skills, especially critical thinking skills designed to have well-trained students capable of unemotionally resolving complex problems, colleges long ago began indoctrinating students with toxic cultural slogans and bullsh*t political narratives.
Such indoctrination strips away the thin veneer of Western Civilization, and appeals to the most base animal instincts all humans have, and which Westerners have long since buried deep and far away from our daily lives. This indoctrination taps into the most raw feelings of hate, anger, and a sadistic desire for personal retribution that people can have. We saw the full results of this indoctrination in the Nazi gas chambers and concentration camps, the Socialist Soviet gulags, the killing fields of Cambodian communist Pol Pot. Nazis and Communists alike enjoyed the help of children denouncing their own parents, because the toxic indoctrination was so deep.
This indoctrination in America began in the 1920s with the penetration of Marxists and communists into education at all levels, as they appealed to normal people’s acceptance of strange versions of “fairness” and “compassion.” And after that, the cancer simply metastesized and spread. Sure, we had some heroes like Senator Joseph McCarthy who tried to warn Americans about what was happening. But McCarthy and other patriots like him who tried to diagnose and treat the cancer were shouted down and shamed by the mass media and entertainment industries, which before the academy had already been penetrated and quietly occupied by Marxists and Communists. Who spread the indoctrination in their own way.
So over the past few months and weeks, Americans have watched the result of all the indoctrination in every single academic field, to the point where even math is said to be “racist.” The premier, most elite, “best” examples of so-called higher education literally emerged in the past weeks from decades of politicized hiring and indoctrination as living examples of Lord of the Flies. Amid hysterical shreiks of young women and mooing noises of young men, civilization is tossed overboard while students, faculty, and administrators alike contort into a frenzied violent orgy of racist hate and anti-American slogans.
These schools are not institutions of higher thinking, high principles, or anything else rooted in Western Civilization. They are now hives of terrorist training. And the shreiks and moos of bratty, spoiled children.
Best representative examples include former Harvard president, Claudine Gay, engaging in pathetic moral relativism in Congress, only to then get outed as a serial plagiarist and lose her president job, but then keep her $900,000 a year job “teaching” utter garbage and subjective nonsense at Harvard. To save her feelings, if not her students. Everything that happened around and after the Claudine Gay Incident revealed Harvard to be the exact opposite of an elite institution. Claudine Gay’s humiliation was months ago, before the nationwide college campus hatefest and orgy of violence began.
Another example is the nationwide college campus hatefest and orgy of violence we all get to see every day now. It’s not just that a few radicalized young people are doing this destructive assault on our civilization. It is that large portions of the students are enabled by their faculty and administrators alike to act like savage wild beasts. That is, those adults (the college professors and administrators) who are supposedly the best embodiment of elite education and higher values are themselves actual Nazis and communist Stalinists, all rolled into one angry, bizarre, gobbledigook speaking and acting person.
(To say nothing of the daily neo-Nazi Islamofascist violence visited upon major capitol cities worldwide. Especially on bridges and major city streets, and often filled with the same students, faculty, and administrators that are seen and felt on campus.)
Instead of using their leadership roles to diffuse the illegal and policy-breaking violence and racism, the college professors and administrators enable and promote it, usually joining the overgrown children themselves. And often repeating or teaching the overgrown children the indoctrination’s disinformation, lies, and fake political narratives at the core of the “protest” activities. And so, we see a total vertical breakdown of almost all “higher education” institutions, from the highest overpaid and underworked administrator to the untenured part time adjunct faculty to the first year middle income spoiled brat: Everyone involved in college today is a useless windbag with no discernable skills or value to larger society, but full of disinformation coming out of their ears.
But boy, do those “higher education” institutions sure charge a lot of money! What a scam!
Now that the mask is off, and we Americans see what a load of horse crap a college “education” is, here is what we can learn and apply:
- Parents: Don’t send your children or your hard-earned money to college, unless your child has a high aptitude for math, science, or technology, and will only study those subjects.
- Parents: Don’t expect your college graduate children to be able to do much for themselves or for society or for you, but to actually be a liability.
- Parents: Explore trade school for your kid. And if your kid does not have an aptitude for math, science, or technology, then teach them yourself how to work hard, save money, forego immediate gratification, and to plan ahead. Help them find a job where they can be themselves and succeed.
- College-age kids: Question authority and motive, especially of your teachers and their administrators, and always respect and appreciate your parents. And whatever you do, don’t go to college, because your brain will end up as dead and useless as those “higher education” institutions have become, and you will end up as a dumb loser with high debt for something that did not benefit you. Yes, you might feel that being throw-away cannon fodder for the anti-America movement is exciting, but this is only a flash of a moment. After this is over, your reputation will be in tatters and your future will be a big question mark. Your future will be as dead as the college that made it.