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June 2nd, 2026

Does your happiness determine your politics?

Having grown up with leftists, and been surrounded by leftists, and worked primarily if not almost exclusively with leftists for the first 2/3 of my career, I have developed a loose theory of political orientation: Our happiness determines our politics.

Americans holding leftist political views tend to be less happy, dis-satisfied, or just generally unhappy.

“If you are not angry, you are not paying attention” went one popular leftist bumper sticker in the 1990s. Anger seems to be a self-recognized trait among leftists, a bond uniting them.

Given that what seems like 98% of political violence or culturally-based violence in America is committed by Democrats or leftists, it would follow that anger and unhappiness are driving traits in the left. Anger and hate are precursors to violence.

Karl Marx, the 1850s father of Marxism/ socialism/communism and the ends-justify-the-means political tyranny, was a notoriously dis-satisfied guy. One famous letter from his father to him excoriates Marx for never being happy and always looking to blame others for his own failures. To think that Karl Marx’s political descendants would fall far from his ideological tree is really stretching the truth of natural human character.

I could go on and on and really develop this theory, like Ten Commandments level envy is the core of evil “equity”/ thieving redistributive politics, but if you doubt this, look around yourself. Look at the people around you, and ask yourself, Who is angry, and who is optimistic and positive?

And then figure out the politics of the angry, dis-satisfied people and the politics of the happy, optimistic people. In my experience, with a few exceptions, the unhappy people are almost always on the political left. And the optimistic people are almost always on the political center-right. The few exceptions to this rule have all been rural Democrats from around Central PA. Maxine, Robb, a few others I know from rural backgrounds, all seem to be happy people and also liberal-left.

And of course we all know some gruff, jaded, grumpy old conservative curmudgeons…

So it just made me wonder if our life experience, family background and upbringing, etc determine our happiness, and then our politics naturally follow that. It seems to be the case, much more often then not the case.

My two cents.

Your experience may differ, but I doubt it will by much.

By Josh • Posted in Family • No Comment

May 25th, 2026

Memorial Day, does it fit in America any more?

Does Memorial Day fit into American culture any more?

I ask because our national culture is changing so fast, and diverging so hard from the values and principles that founded America. We have foreign-born elected and appointed officials who openly despise America (Khanna, Prayapal, Ilhan Omar, plenty of others, tons of judges including Juan Merchan), and who call our military personnel sacrifices “war crimes” against the foreign countries who still hold their loyalty.

The idea that Americans would mourn the death of our military heroes, whose deaths ensured our own freedom here at home, is not just foreign to a lot of people living in America, it is anathema. Even our own native born youth are being told that the American military is immoral and bad and terrible etc, and because our young people live extravagantly comfortable lives, they don’t question such an outrageous claim.

Our American teachers and college educators are largely tools of our worst enemies – China, Iran, Cuba – and they fill our young people’s heads with exactly the kind of rotten crap a nation’s enemies would say. Globalist moral relativity does not help either, because it is easier to say “America is no different than Iran’s violent theocracy” (or is worse) than it is to actually weigh out and think out and talk out the enormous differences.

Thus does America have pampered middle income White kids giddily marching down our streets alongside White-hating genocidal maniacs waving the PLO Hitler flag, and wearing the ultimate anti-Western jihadi fashion statement, the keffiyeh. Our own pampered middle income White kids wouldn’t know a heroic battlefield military sacrifice from an hour without internet service, so why should they mark this Memorial Day as something significant?

Not only is our broader culture changing, but our young men are changing for the worse, too. As a small business guy who works in the woods, I see it a lot. For every hard working rural young guy, there are now five lazy rural young guys. This is an inversion of the old rural-urban culture break, which now shows that for every five lazy rural guys, there are five hundred lazy urban guys. American culture is suffering, yes, but most of the military-age young men who should be riding to our national culture rescue via military service, training, discipline, and sacrifice are now themselves in need of rescuing.

Nobody embodies the lazy bitchy whiner limp wristed weak-ass little wuss American boy better than Nick Fuentes. His entire life is devoted to breaking cultural taboos by saying naughty and mean spirited things about people. And Fuentes is dragging down a lot of American young men with him.

A serious public ass kicking would benefit both Fuentes and his young followers, and therefore American culture, but somewhere an overly anxious urban helicopter mom is reading this and figuring out how to get at me and any other hard ass dad figure, if only to “protect” her son from the hard comeuppance every boy needs to experience either at home from a loving Dad, at school from fistfighting other boys, or in the military from a tough drill sargeant.

Speaking of messed up young men culture, Jeremy Boreing provides a compelling monologue here.

Remember, young men, you must be able to ride hard and shoot straight. Frontier grit and military sacrifice are what gave you this incredible nation you now enjoy. Do not squander it or allow others to ruin it for you. For America to succeed as the citizen-run republic it was founded as, all of its citizens must be politically and culturally engaged. Hiding behind a video screen or serving only one’s own personal enjoyments is not only not contributing to our national success, it is ceding hard-won battleground to our enemies.

To your enemies.

So saddle up, young men, and dust off your hidden manliness. Show us what you are made of, that old fashioned American frontier true grit and self sacrifice. Show appreciation for those who gave you what you now have here in America.

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By Josh • Posted in Family, Immigration • No Comment

May 12th, 2026

Musical “1776” Two Thumbs Up

Please do not tell anyone, but I saw a musical play the other day, and I liked it. Humiliating to admit, yes, but our three readers come here for honesty, if nothing else. Today you get five doses of honesty: The musical “1776” was excellent, timely, accurate, entertaining, and all the other positive stuff that my movie and theater critic mentors Siskel & Ebert would say about it.

We saw it at the historic Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, America’s oldest longest-continuously running theater. Because the venue has a sane policy on weapons (have your carry permit available if anyone asks to see it), I was strapped. I was strapped because it is downtown Philly, where the Wild West can descend upon one in the blink of an eye.

The docents, volunteers, and paid staff were all nice and helpful. Before the show started, we could have raised Lazarus more readily than actually reaching a human being during operating hours. Weak spot, but probably a weak spot in all theaters. No one there answers the phones or the emails until after you have come and gone.

Look here, theater is not for me. Watching adults play dress-up and make-believe is usually overwhelmingly annoying for me. These are not mature people, and many of them have gratingly annoying personalities. It is impossible to take actors seriously, on stage or off. Now that TDS is ravaging Hollywood, I am reminded daily about how much I dislike actors. It seems that the kind of people drawn to acting all fall into the “Big Jerk” category of life.

One exception in my world exists for those live stage performances that are about meaningful, inspirational, true stories. Biblical stuff ranks “acceptable.” Political theater is almost always heavily slopped to the falling overboard-left, preachy, inaccurate, dumb, communist, and, thus, annoying. Best bets are on movies, where the nonsense and forgotten lines moments have been left on the editing room floor.

“1776” is about the writing of the Declaration of Independence over a one month period, however, and is, therefore, a ten out of ten in my book, any day. It involves the story of the delegates from 13 colonies, debating the break-up with Britain, in Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, in June and early July, 1776. The widely documented personal performances of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and our own (local to PA) John Dickinson are performed admirably by the capable actors. Thank you!

Real focus is put onto the debate about slavery, which did occur in the actual Continental Congress, and how that hot issue was taken out of Jefferson’s first version of the Declaration of Independence. Depicting this on stage is especially important these days, as it is bizarrely considered “cool” by some to incorrectly badmouth America about slavery.

Fact: In 1794 America just about had a civil war over slavery. We also almost had a full civil war over whisky and taxes, then, too. But abolishing slavery was an early goal in our nation’s founding, and white people were ready to fight and die to end it, even as slavery was a full blown enterprise in the rest of the world. Eventually American whites got around to that fighting and dying thing, in 1861, when the insurrectionist Democrat Party declared separation from the rest of America, over keeping their slaves.

By 1865, the Republicans took away the Democrats’ slaves, and as we see even today, the Democrats never forgave them for it.

I digress.

That this was a musical without much singing was God’s way of showing me that beauty can occasionally exist in the darnedest places, including on a stage full of … feh… actors. That most of the singing that did occur was bawdy or silly really took the sting out of the musical part.

The actors said their lines well, performed very well, and entertained us audience people well, about an important subject. The Walnut Street Theater was clean, had no stray odors, and was a pleasure to visit. All the audience members upon whom I threw myself were friendly and gracious.

In another couple of months America, us, our nation, will celebrate its 250th anniversary since our founding. It is a really big deal. This play was timed to synch with our national celebration, and it fits well. If you find yourself going anywhere near Philly in the coming weeks or months, go see “1776.”

And go strapped, because the venue has a Constitutionally-minded policy on 2A concealed carry. God bless ’em. That was the only reason I set foot inside the theater…they actually believe in FREEDOM.

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By Josh • Posted in Family, Fruit of Contemplation • No Comment

May 4th, 2026

America’s 250th Anniversary approaches… how many people care?

America’s 250th anniversary arrives this July 4th Independence Day. A huge milestone, an enormous achievement, a remarkable record, two hundred and fifty years protecting indivdiual rights as a constitutional republic.

I am excited about this event. But is anyone else?

When I drive around, anywhere, do I see extra American flags, extra examples of patriotism or excitement? Nope. Nothing.

The silence is deafening.

It seems that very few Americans are excited enough about our nation’s 250th anniversary to do much about it, to show their extra enthusiasm, or appreciation. Don’t you think this is odd? I do.

It may be that Americans do not know how to celebrate the 25oth. I mean, will we set off more fireworks than ususal? Wave more flags and banners and patriotic bunting than ususal? Hang flags from our vehicles? Drink more, war whoop more, or shoot tracers into the night sky more than usual?

One thing for sure, most Americans seem to take America for granted, as if we are too big to fail. So, they think, why celebrate something that we take for granted, that we already believe is due and kind of boring and unremarkable…

This is how cultures and nations end.

When a nation’s citizens cease being excited about their nation, and about its longevity in a world hostile to individual freedom and liberty, they cease valuing that nation. And when they cease valuing it, they cease protecting it, safeguarding it. They give it away, like give its citizenship and taxpapyer money to illegal border jumpers; they throw it away, engage in all kinds of self-destructive virtue signaling, like calling America bad names and unfairly criticizing her for ridiculous things.

America is not too big to fail, folks. And while there are a lot of folks trying to make America fail, like Barack Hussein Obama, we do not see a commensurate backlash against them.

Mad Magazine’s longtime cover was Alfred E. Newman, saying “What me worry.” Because he was an idiot. Because only idiots do not worry about the future, and stability, and the strength of national currency, etc. Has America become populated by a bunch of Alfred E. Newmans?

The lack of American flags and patriotic fervor about our 250th sure seem to indicate it.

Is this the American citizen on the eve of America’s 250th birthday? Really?!

By Josh • Posted in Family, Government Of the People..., Immigration • No Comment

April 14th, 2026

Best colleges are the ones you never heard of

The best colleges are the ones you have probably never heard of, including community colleges. The supposedly “elite” Ivy League schools are actually the very worst, because unless you study hard science, a student there is not getting educated, but stupider.

This is a subject of discussion because “higher education” (especially the biggest name schools) a) is proving itself to be a useless enterprise that rarely provides students with useful, valuable skills, abilities, or knowledge, b) is collapsing under the weight of its own political indoctrination, c) abandoned merit and critical thinking decades ago for pet political narratives with no practical application in a student’s life or career, and d) is unfathomably corrupt, a violation of the entire founding idea of the academy, which was supposed to be a place of truth, honest debate, and accountability.

Colleges are the very last place on this planet where you are likely to encounter the free speech or freedom of assocation rights needed for the academy to attain its purported goals. More likely, today’s college students experience a Stalinesque gulag lacking only those Siberian snows in its icy rigidity and mortal danger to the brain, soul, and, if you are white, Asian, or Jewish, to your body.

Colleges are now where American kids go to die intellectually, and where they are carefully trained to remain in perpetual spoiled childhood status. These ever-child beings have been created by colleges for the sole purpose of being ever-present street activists, loud cannon fodder for the political Left’s non-stop war against a constitutional America, capitalism, meritocracy, equal opportunity, societal order etc.

No thought was given by college administrators to how exactly these perpetually angry spoiled little brats were going to eventually support themselves through gainful employment. No one, not even the Ford Foundation and its fellow underwriters of chaos and destruction, has any use for a confused and angry 22-year-old who cannot think itself out of a wet paper bag. So imagine the actual work places available to “woke” college grads: Mean adults who expect 9 to 5 productivity from the college grads they are paying.

These two things, college grads and productive work places, do not belong together. To wit:

Unfortunately, in my line of work I must occasionally employ attorneys skilled at litigation. And in this process, I have learned over and over that the best litigation attorneys are the ones from the no-name schools. Third-tier law schools that no one ever heard of now produce, in my experience, the hungriest, most assertive, most zealously-represent-the-interests-of-your-client kind of lawyers out of all. These small schools have the least amount of time for woke DEI crap, and their mostly blue collar students have the least amount of interest or money to spend on that crap.

So, for most of those young Americans contemplating post-high school education, may I recommend the following:

Tech degrees in surveying (big shortage of young surveyors), medical equipment, welding, diesel engine mechanics, and machinery operation from schools like Penn Tech in Williamsport, PA.
Directly applicable degrees in finance, marketing, math, science, economics from community colleges (like Harrisburg Area Community College, or HACC) and small regional no-name colleges that never got into DEI, much less just got out of it like so many schools are now doing.
Assiduously avoid any kind of “degrees” in environmental anything, history, English, French, German, women’s studies, gender or race studies. These 100% subjective and micron-deep fields are completely useless, are based on various theories of cultural Marxism, have zero practical application in the real world where the work must get done every day for whatever the particular business is to succeed, they will rot your brain and fill your head with toxic poison of no interest to anyone trying to make a living and feed themselves on this planet, and they will saddle you and your parents with huge student debt that bought you nothing but a diploma worth less than the piece of paper it is printed on.

For those high school grads who want to make money, buy a house, have nice things, raise a family, may I suggest starting a small business or two in a garage, and see where that takes you. No college experience anywhere is a substitute for your own hard work and enterprising spirit. America has a million untested markets available, each one just waiting for some young person to test it and see what the prospective buyers want to spend in it.

This is one area the college experience will not prepare you for, and in fact will dumb you down: Free markets.

By Josh • Posted in Family • No Comment

April 10th, 2026

“OK Boomer” and other spoiled brat crap

No apologies at all today, this essay is a frustrated old man rant. And like most frustrated old men, I am certain this will be ignored by the vast majority of its audience, if not every single person for whom it is meant: You bratty kids who say “OK, Boomer” about everything you don’t like hearing from your elders, including frank universal truths that supposedly conservative adults embrace.

One of the great successes of America and the civilized West is our material wealth and comforts. Our poorest citizens generally live better than all of the poor people in most other countries as well as their middle income people; and our middle income citizens live better than almost everyone else across the planet.

We Americans have so much overabundant food that a lot of our citizens are fat, lazy, and pre-diabetic. And the fat and pre-diabetic Americans do not even have to work hard, physically or otherwise, to get a roof over their head and put food in the fridge. Many of us are practically sleep walking through life.

Our American people are largely being lulled to sleep by all this overabundance and daily over-indulgence. Very little effort is required to have nice things, a modern cell phone, a car, a roof over one’s head, as much food as you can eat any time you want it, endless entertainment and opportunities for personal expressions, etc

Life in America is not hard for a lot of our people, and in fact, life here is so good that it is almost too good. We have so much of every thing that the abundance is nearly killing us. Not just physically, but mentally, spiritually, culturally, too. Many Americans seem to be addicted to ease of life, easy living, easy everything, to the point where any minor hiccup in their life is cause for the now ubiquitous TikTok breakdown sob story video.

Guys (and many women) like me, who grew up at a time when Americans began working hard at age twelve or fourteen, who had daily chores to do as part of living in a family house, who every day felt personal duties and obligations beyond their/ our own personal desires and wants, who have a hard, tough core inside of us from having worked hard and sacrificed for long, we have a real tough time understanding or even empathizing with today’s young people. And by young, I mean up into the forties, sad to say.

And for guys like me, in particular, who grew up in rural places where hands-on chores in forests, the woodshed, and the farm yard were standard operating procedure, this disbelief we feel while watching American culture devolve into a giant cry-and-whine-fest, is a million times accentuated.

You weak little bastards.

See, like our own elders did before us, it was us elders who sacrificed so much for you young people. We who worked so hard to continue on the growing America that was handed to us. We who believe in hard work and diligence and deferring pleasure and gratification in lieu of achieving some important goal, personal or national. It is us who are disgsuted by the arrogant, dismissive, unappreciateive “OK, Boomer” quip from young people who a) Do not know how to work b) Do not want to work and c) Could not save their ass with both hands if it was handed to them on a silver platter.

We think “OK, Loser.”

Reputed conservatives, of all Americans, are the ones who shock me the most in this regard. Young people who brag how “religious” they are, and how traditional their conservative their beliefs are, are also the same ones casually dismissing us, their wise elders, while they get to either wallow in self pity over nothing, or, just as bad, start scapegoating other people for imaginary slights and failings that have nothing to do with where so many floundering young people find themselves today.

For tough old coots like me, the last generation with any connection to the original frontier lifestyle and values that created our America, the culture that serves you now, we elders, who know how to shoot a rifle and swing an axe and put up with personal insults without disintegrating into a pile of pathetic mush, you spoiled little brats look like the face of failure, all right. You look like you are going to drag down our beautiful America into complete and absolute failure once us tough old “OK, Boomer” adults are dead and gone or unable to put up a fight to save this great republic.

Get your shit together, kids, and work hard to get America on track to future success. Hard work is good for you. It makes you strong, it makes you tough, and it makes you appreciate the things that you get to own and call your own. Being tough means that you can survive when the going gets tough. Leverage the strong economy this current administration is brilliantly putting together for you.

No, socialism is not and has not been successful, anywhere or at any time it is tried. Socialism is for weak, lazy, losers; it is not for true Americans. And respecting your elders is still “a thing” the world around, in every traditional society. If you cannot show respect to us “Boomers,” then do not call yourself a conservative, or religious. Rather, you are just a slightly different anarchic leftist.

Rant done for now, and definitely not over. Ol’ Papa is just beginning to work up a good lather. You ungrateful, weak little shits.

By Josh • Posted in Family, Fruit of Contemplation, Immigration • No Comment

February 13th, 2026

Great American Outdoor Show last days

This morning I received an email from a regional Yamaha dealer, offering me about a thousand bucks off the ATV I had looked at the other day, while at the Great American Outdoor Show here in Harrisburg, at the Farm Show complex.

And what a show this is, this GAOS. There is nothing else like it in the world. Something like twenty or thirty acres of floor space, covered in ATVs, UTVs, camping and RVing equipment, hunting gear, outdoor clothing and boots, firearms, gun parts, specialty ammunition, scopes, slings, binoculars, tents, roof-top tents with bike racks for your Toyota Tundra, kayaks, canoes, fishing boats (some Carolina Skiffs and some center consoles with twin Yamahas that make my mouth water), fishing rods and reels and lures, fishing and hunting guides from around the world, archery everything, tractors, farming attachments, seed dealers, etc

You, too, need to go to this show. Especially tomorrow, Saturday, or early Sunday, when many if not all of the vendors will be looking to make a deal on some of their wares, like ATVs, UTVs, forestry equipment, overlanding gear, etc. Nothing bugs a vendor more than having to lug back home all of the stuff they so carefully packed up and brought to the show a week ago. This weekend a lot of this stuff will be “priced to sell.”

And if you are a social butterfly, like I am, then you will have the added opportunity of seeing old friends here, like I did. In fact, one person I needed to see about important business just randomly sat down in a chair next to me, and kept looking at me out of the corner of her eye, while I made silly faces at her. Despite being friends for nearly thirty years, she did not recognize me, and I had to re-introduce myself. Yes, much of me is gone and what remains is unrecognizable, apparently, and that is all for the good. We ended up getting half of the business stuff done, while surrounded by all of the great energy of the Great American Outdoor Show, which included many of the people she needed to see, or expected to see, too.

See, when you are friends with a NRA national board member, and one of the better known ones at that, you have to accept taking second seat about half the time you are together anywhere in public, including at a small diner in East Succotash, PA, where such a person is really a celebrity.

I digress. Because the GAOS is really awesome, and filled with many wonders, and if you go you will make friends and see old friends and possibly empty your wallet and maybe empty your bank account, too. For all the right reasons.

Not every mountain house has to be luxurious. Maybe this is what most people can afford, and while it is small, it works just great

World class taxidermy. Imagine the trophy house this stuff goes in!

With a name like “BuckFinder” what could possibly go wrong with using a drone for hunting…er…they mean finding the deer AFTER it was shot

Old friends

Incredibly technical overlanding and cross country camping gear

Old friends

The Matthew Quigley rifle from the movie Quigley Down Under

By Josh • Posted in Family • No Comment

February 8th, 2026

What NFL football game? Halftime halfwit what?

I keep hearing about this NFL something-or-other, and seeing headlines about this football halftime thingybob today. No idea what these people are talking about, what these events are.

See, in 2015 the National Football League began going “woke” and invoking national politics while trying to pose as athletes peforming circus tricks for audiences seeking a time-out from life. Being politically Leftwing while trying to entertain the masses are two mutually exclusive endeavors. Never the twain shall meet. And both shall fail.

It was intriguing that in 2016 the NFL players began kneeling during the National Anthem, as a sign of disrespect to America. The same America that made these halfwit imbeciles multi-millionaires was suddenly no good, they said, and apparently by demonstrating that they rejected America, the NFL players showed how virtuous they were.

None of it made any sense, until we realized that it all had to do with rejecting Donald trump’s Make America Great Again political message and movement, and the capitalist American culture that created the NFL among many other things.

So, since 2016, I have ceased watching football. I refuse to support something and somebody that does not support me. I refuse to embrace and celebrate people who reject and denigrate everything I hold dear and value the highest (America, our flag, our anthem, our 250 year old identity as a constitutional republic etc etc).

So, no NFL game for me today, and no halfwit time-out “entertainment” freak show by a South American man in a woman’s dress who sings about how much he hates America, followed by a Canadian band called Green Gay or Green Bay or something, who also sing about how much they hate America.

None of this makes sense to me, none of it is entertaining to me, but all of it does make me recognize, yet again, just how acidly destructive the political Left is. Because the Left makes every effort to take over every institution it can get ahold of, and then bend that institution to its ideological purpose of promoting Marxist revolution and destroying freedom and capitalism, it will destroy the very things that the people hold dearest. Like football.

At one time football was “America’s sport,” and from PeeWee Football on up to the NFL, young men from every corner of our great nation aspired to qualify to aggressively compete in front of the nation. It was fun, it was an honor, and the NFL was a good income. Now? To quote Rush Limbaugh, watching the NFL games is like watching the Crips versus the Bloods, a gang fight. Very little class, all violent, all selfish and arrogant behavior, and now in 2026, with a huge helping of We Hate America FU poured on top of it.

No thanks, NFL. You can stick your crappy event and your crappy business up your you-kn0w-what. You lost me. I will be spending my evening reading by the fire, maybe smoking some cherry cavendish in my pipe, maybe a glass of whisky at my elbow. Things here at my home will be peaceful, happy, and all-American, not that you NFL people have any idea what I am talking about.

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By Josh • Posted in Family, Immigration • No Comment

February 5th, 2026

Feeling antique? See you at the 18th Century Artisans Faire

Every February, a bunch of fascinating people gather round to share in their enjoyment of living history here in Central PA. At my age, and at their age, at our collective antique age, it sounds like a big ol’ birthday party social, but in fact there is a lot of cool stuff at the 18th Century Artisans Faire.

Now in its third or fourth year at the Carlisle Expo Center (in Carlisle, PA), all kinds of talented blacksmiths, funnily dressed people, gunmakers, historians, antique tool and furniture makers, jewelers etc will gather tomorrow Friday and Saturday. I will be visiting gunmaker Mark Wheland, who has a 62 caliber percussion rifle project under way for me. Modeled on the 1850s British Sporting Rifle design, with a custom Rice barrel using Forsyth rifling, a beautiful Rod England lock, and stocked in a museum display grade piece of highly figured Turkish walnut, it will be my go-to percussion hunting arm for Pennsylvania’s October antlerless and bear hunting seasons. More on this rifle later, as an article about it is forthcoming when Mark is done.

Simeon England, one of the talented blacksmiths at the show

Hope to see you there tomorrow. And don’t forget that the Great American Outdoor Show at the PA Farm Show complex starts on Saturday. Lot of cool stuff going on here in a very cold time of year.

Andy Curtis

By Josh • Posted in Family • No Comment

February 1st, 2026

MELANIA movie is great!

If you had told me before this afternoon that I would willingly go see a movie about a pretty lady and her courtiers, and actually really enjoy it, I would have told you that you are nuts. This is because I am an unapologetically toxically masculine Alpha male who likes old firearms, leather boots (Danner Canadians are my fav), custom hunting knives, heavy packs, and rugged landscapes far from humanity that challenge my physical stamina.

My favorite thing to do is a solo wilderness camping hunt in wilderness areas, where if something badly goes wrong, there is only me to deal with it. A man should regularly spend time living on the edge, and challenging himself, smelling badly and getting dirt and maybe blood under his fingernails.

So, girl stuff, girl clothing, high heels (lots and lots of high high heels in this film), fabric, pretty hair, makeup, etc are not really in my bailiwick let alone my universe, OTHER THAN enjoying a beautiful woman who can put it all together in a nice package that makes my head turn and makes me let out an involuntary whistle. And if you are a manly man lucky enough to find one like that who will share your man cave with you, you have hit the jackpot.

President Donald J. Trump hit the jackpot with Melania, and this movie about her shows us why. She is gracious and graceful, gentle and kind yet quietly tough, stoic, better-than-Vogue stylish and stone cold to those who say they are her enemies, while openly loving to her family and allies. World class beautiful. What a woman.

Lucky you, Mister President. Lucky America, to have a First Lady (FLOTUS) with all this class and refined poise.

Apparently Amazon owner Jeff Bezos underwrote this film, and in it we catch a brief glimpse of Bezos sitting next to VP Vance at one of the main 2025 gala Inauguration dinners. Money buys you political access, right? Smart guy, Bezos, right? Everything about this film is A+ professionally done. Everything. Every tiny detail. The music choices, the editing, the filming, the scenes, every. single. thing. in this film is 100% perfectly done. And if Melania were a Democrat, this whole movie would have been done free of charge a hundred times over by the mainstream media, NPR, PBS, etc. in a hundred different articles and documinis.

One of the other perfect things that comes through is the enormous role of gay men, behind the scenes, in Melania’s life. Which is the life of chic lifestyle the world over. From the clothing that Melania wears to the Inaguration invitations to the table settings and arrangements, gay guys are running the show.

Now, if a hulking, hairy, smelly, straight Alpha guy with the artistic sense of a brick like me is telling you the following, you can put it in the bank: Our world would be a much much poorer, much less pretty, much less enjoyable, much less beautiful place without gay men. Strange though they may be from a biological perspective, gay men are a work of hybridized biological art that combines the best that men and women do separately, in one package, only better. Just have to say it, because though I have known that the fashion world is rife with them, this movie revealed it like nothing else could. Serious talent, gentlemen. Wow.

No, I am not an “ally.” Nor am I “pro gay.” Rather, I am pro human. I want everyone on this planet to be treated fairly and equally and to have the same opportunities. I also like giving credit where it is due to people who have earned it.

President Trump obviously makes some appearances in this behind-the-scenes filming done after the 2024 election and through all of the White House prep and resulting balls and dances and Inauguration speeches. Some funny quips and comments on and off the camera. His kids make brief appearances, while young Barron Trump gets the most attention out of all of them. I would not underestimate Barron Trump. Whatever this young man sets out to do, he is going to do it perfectly.

And why not? His mother is the most impressive Melania.

Go see this neat film. Sharing the movie theater with us were 85 other people. I have not counted anywhere close to 85 people in a movie theater since Top Gun: Maverick four years ago, and before that I cannot recall being in another movie pulling in so many people at one showing. After the lights went on, I spoke with some of the audience members still standing around, and they all liked it for different reasons.