Category → Fruit of Contemplation
I USED to be a Democrat
I used to be a registered Democrat, until 1992, the last time I voted for a Democrat for president, when Bill Clinton became president and immediately went to war against private gun ownership. Guns in civilian hands is a sign of a healthy nation, and when politicians want to disarm the civilians, it is a bad sign, that tyranny is awake and active. The Democrat Party hates private gun ownership and is constantly trying to end it. Kamala Harris is on record that she will come and take our guns, if she is elected. No way.
So I am not a big believer in political parties, because as the Pennsylvania GOP has shown over and over, it is really just about a small handful of wealthy elite people here making most of the decisions. This is not democratic, open, transparent, or good for representative government. Both political parties suck, it is just that one is much worse than the other.
That said, one thing that is really acutely toxic to democracy is a group like today’s Democrat Party. This is the political party of tyranny, of big government, of market intervention, of no gas stoves for you, indoctrinating little girls to cut their breasts off in school, and so on. Today’s Democrat Party is anti freedom, anti choice, anti child, anti education, anti family, anti religion, anti science, and anti America. It is so bad that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of all people had to leave it. So as bad as the PAGOP is, the Democrat Party is worse, and it must be resisted at all turns.
I have yet to have a meaningful conversation with ardent Democrats. They to a person turn off, tune out, walk away, get really angry and defiant. Not one has been able to have a calm conversation about politics, or to calmly explain what they stand for and why they stand for it. Way too many are waving around signs that have some nonsense about Trump and Project 2025. Trump had nothing to do with the Heritage Foundation’s ultra nerdy conservative wishlist Project 2025.
The #WalkAway movement is really valuable, and anyone feeling like they are uncomfortable with the Democrat Party can simply Walk Away from it like so many others are doing. I am not saying you have to become a registered Republican, although the more independent minded voters that register as Republicans, the greater the likelihood that The People can finally defeat the bad GOPe. If you become an Independent or No Political Party, you will suddenly find yourself…unburdened by what was.
You are a Zionist, so am I, the Irish especially
Whether you think you are a Zionist, or not, you absolutely surely are one if you love your country. And it turns out you are in good company, because literally everyone else around the world is also a Zionist, albeit in shades of grey that suit each person and nation. The Irish are especially Zionist, they who have been exhibiting intense nationalistic pride and fervor lately in defense of their homeland.
The Scots, on the other hand, are nowhere near being Zionist, as they have completely given up on their own nation and turned it over to people who violently hate them. How sad; pathetic, really. They of Highlander and Claymore fame have no self pride, no sense of their own fantastic history. The irony here is that the nation that once dominated Scotland so brutally, England, is right behind them, also swirling down the “diversity” toilet bowl and throwing national pride and defense of homeland over the side of the boat filled with foreign invaders who hate them.
What is Zionism, this strange sounding word? Why call nationalism Zionism? Good question!
Zion is the ancient Biblical word for Israel, and in its most essential form Zionism is just simple old nationalism for Zion, which is simply a national pride in and defense of one’s homeland. Here it is Zion (Israel, Jerusalem, the Holy Land), but you can have nationalist feelings like Russiaism, Francism, Chinism, Brazilism etc. All the same thing about different places.
Generally speaking, that is all Zionism is, and literally everyone around the planet has some degree of national pride in their own country, whether they are from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Russia, France, or especially Japan and China. Thus, it follows that everyone has their own form of Zionism, though they might call it something different than that exact word. It is really simple:
Zionism = nationalism = universally felt love of and pride in one’s own country. Everyone feels it, everyone is it, everyone is Zionist. Everyone, especially the Irish. Go Irish!
The fact that Israelis are also proud of their nation and devoted to its defense like everyone else around the world is devoted to their own country is no surprise or deviation from the international norm. Israeli nationalism is no different than anyone else’s nationalism, except that Israel’s nationalism, called Zionism since the 1850s, is recorded throughout the Bible and begins about 3,500 years ago. That is a pretty old claim on a piece of real estate! Especially when we think of the Franks claiming what ended up becoming France only a thousand years ago, at most.
Recently I saw a video of some goofball lout yelling at participants in a pro-Israel rally, “Zionism isn’t even a part of Judaism,” he said over and over.
Really? I don’t think he is right about this.
If anything, the historical and Biblically commanded devotion of Jews to living in and militarily controlling Zion AKA The Holy Land AKA Israel AKA Judea is one of the most fundamental tenets of Judaism. In the very beginning of the Bible, and repeated again and again throughout the Bible with different characters, God promises to Abraham that his Jewish descendants will inherit Israel. So strongly did Jews feel their Zionistic nationalism 1,960 years ago, that they ended up in a war (year 67 CE) with the world’s leading superpower, Rome. And then again, seventy years later (year 131 CE) the Jews rose up and duked it out with the Romans again. And then again in the 1940s with the British Empire, and now again with the Islamic Empire.
So yeah, Jews are super nationalistic and Zionism is fundamentally a part of Judaism. Always has been, always will be.
True, there are Jews who say they are not Zionists, but hey, there are chickensh*t traitors in every group, people looking for what they think is the easiest way out of whatever situation they find themselves in. Those Jews decrying Zionism and Israel are, no surprise, the least involved, least devoted, least Jewish Jews you can find anywhere. So for them, attacking the most visibly Jewish thing, Israel and Jewish nationalism, is their way of trying to disassociate from being Jewish. After all the hell that Jews go through for simply being Jewish, I can’t say I blame them for wanting to check out.
Interesting, then, that Christian America has SO MANY PLACES named Zion!
In the Bible, Zion was always the Promised Land, and to America’s European founders, America was the new Promised Land. And so they named thousands of places in America and across America after Biblical places, including Hebron, Zion, Jerusalem, etc.
America has a Zion National Park, and my area of central Pennsylvania has a ton of places named Zion (see some of the photos I took below).
The point is, when a person opposes Zionism they are opposing just one country’s nationalism. Now why would any person oppose just one country’s nationalism, and not everyone else’s? I mean, I don’t think I have met anyone who loved French nationalism who did not also grudgingly recognize German nationalism and pride. Lots of us Americans are nationalists for America, but we understand why others feel strongly about their own country. Right?
So why are only the Jews being singled out for attack and de-nationing among an entire planet filled with people and nations? Why is only Jewish nationalism such a terrible thing?
I think we all know why. Zionism is being singled out because the same evil envious loser people who always hate Jews have simply found another way to show that they hate Jews. And so Zionism is attacked by people who themselves have tremendous Zionism for their own country.
Oh, the irony of people claiming that Zionism is a “colonial settler ideology,” when Zionism is simply the 3,500-year-old unbroken Biblical and modern history of Jews living in their ancient homeland, Judea/Israel/Zion. Jews cannot possibly be strangers or colonists in their own homeland, and so it is richly ironic that it is the land-stealing Islamic imperialists and Arab and Turkish colonialists who oppose the Jews. Across the planet, jihadi imperialism has spread Islam (Two Billion People total) by force and violence far beyond the Arabian Peninsula, and yet these same colonists covet this tiny little sliver of land held by the smallest of peoples, the Jews (Ten Million People total).
The Han Chinese ethnic group numbers somewhere close to a billion people, in one of the largest nations on the planet, and yet they maintain a sincere fear of being replaced, and so the Han Chinese maintain one of the most aggressive, largest militaries on the planet, and they are in a constant state of imperial expansion.
If we have to render unto Caeser what is Caeser’s, and if the Han Chinese get to keep testing everyone else’s boundaries, and if political and jihadi Islam never stops trying to take over other people’s lands, can’t we just let the tiny Jews enjoy their tiny little Zion, their ancient Promised Land? Is that really too much to ask? I don’t think so. You yourself don’t want to give up your own Zion, either, wherever that happens to be.
Every human being is a Zionist for their own Zion, whether that Zion is actually in Zion or is in France or China or Russia, America, or Italy.
A picture is worth a thousand words
I am recovering from Alaska
To our three loyal readers, my apologies for not posting in two weeks. The reason our blog here has been quiet is I was away in Alaska, almost every day spent in remote locations with no cell or wifi, the nights spent falling asleep immediately, and I just returned a couple days ago.
Alaska tourism can be done several ways – cruise ship, fly to main city like Anchorage or Fairbanks and use tourism services to sightsee and experience, or, my preferred way, go all-in hands-on. And so I spent ten days in remote locations, hunting, fishing, and hiking, marveling at God’s creation. Fortunate am I to have a long time friend who lives there, and who has long shared my outdoor adventure interests here in PA and there in AK. While he was looking for a moose more than anything, he did have a grizzly tag in his pocket, and that is the animal “we” ended up getting.
I say “we” because we were a team, because only a fool hunts alone in grizzly country, especially around the salmon streams when the fish are running, and because it takes two large men to effectively get out and cape out a large bear after one of them gets the critter. Large here was about 600 pounds; it was trying to elude a 1200-pound monster that nearly ran me over, which is terrifying and exhilirating. It is my friend’s bear, not mine. But I was “in on the kill” as used to be said in the old days.
Despite having field dressed and butchered well over a hundred big game animals in my life, I have never before seen connective tissue between muscle and skin like on his grizzly bear. We had three custom fixed blade hunting knives, and they all went dull about 3/4 of the way through the job (my JRJ made of ATS-34 was the last to go dull and the one we both alternatively used as we closed in on finishing the job). Dull due to extremely tough hide, a thick fur filled with dirt and grit and small rocks after we winched it through the woods, and that unbelievable connective tissue that just did not want to be cut. The part of skinning a big game animal that is usually the easiest, pulling the skin off the carcass, was really challenging and tiring with this grizzly. Again, I have neither seen anything like it, nor could I have been challenged to adequately imagine the toughness of that connective tissue. No wonder these huge beasts bite the heck out of each other without showing real wounds!
While I had a black bear tag in my pocket, and wolves were on the menu, I was actually most excited to be present for my friend when he got a moose. Getting a moose out of the woods is a quintessential American wilderness experience, and the one I have not done before. A trip to AK just to eventually help your friend get his moose out of the woods is a worthwhile trip, regardless of what else one might do there. However, when the beautiful male grizzly presented itself, my friend took it. As for the black bear tag I purchased, I actually walked right up to a small black bear deeply enmeshed in a blueberry bush on a steep mountainside drowning in the roar of a nearby glacial stream’s torrential rush. I could have easily killed it, but I would not shoot a bear that small here in Pennsylvania, and so I did not shoot that bear. I think if I am going to remove a black bear from the face of the sacred Alaskan earth, it will have to be a real wall hanger. So I watched this small one duck down, try to hide, and then run like hell up the mountainside, over logs, rocks, and sticks and through devil’s club like nothing was in its way. Even the small bears are impressive.
As for the salmon fishing, I could have as many pinks as the law allows, and my friends’ freezer grew full of them and short of room they preferred to save for the silver coho salmon. And so I dutifully fished daily for the no-show coho, and felt the pang of defeat when the report came in from Juneau that the cohos were there in force, on the day I was leaving. Fishing is almost always “You should have been here yesterday” or “You should have stayed one day longer,” and this rule of thumb applies just as much to Pacific salmon species as it does to striped bass or tuna in the Atlantic.
Thanks for checking in here, friends. I had a hell of a grand trip to Alaska, got my head cleared, my lungs expanded, my blood moving, my heart pumping, my legs working again, and reveled in the this-is-oh-so-right feeling of a pack and rifle over my shoulder.
A little bit of risk is good for us sedentary Western men; it keeps us sharp, feeling alive. Combine risk with hard hunting, and you end up feeling your most alive possible. Back here in PA we have a month to go before pack-and-rifle early muzzleloader season, and then another month after that before bear and then deer seasons give us that brief but intense visit with our inner and most honest, truest paleo inside.
Pictures to come.
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.
Fallen apples
Recently drove to Upstate New York and back, and the country roads everywhere were loaded with apple trees. Especially in New York, and less so in Pennsylvania.
The apple trees were growing alongside the roads because most of the roads were built along the original dirt tracks that connected farms. And farms always had apple trees growing as an important source of food. The farms are largely gone, and the dirt farm lanes have become paved public roads, but the trees remain, and for whatever reason this is a banner season. Lots of production, lots of beautiful delicious apples of every variety and sort.
What intrigued me was not just how many trees held apples that had not been picked by people, but how many trees had apples gathering at their base. Piles of fallen apples at tree after tree, many of which were in front of or right next to homes. The apples were just lying there rotting in the hot summer sun, and no one cared. No one was picking them up to use them.
My family members chuckled at my constant outbursts about these beautiful apple trees and their abandoned apples both on the ground and on the branches. But what do my kids know about having to forage for food? I grew up in a time and a place where no food was ever wasted, discarded, or thrown away. Or worse, ignored. Apple trees were always picked clean by somebody, if not by many people, for home made applesauce and canned sliced apples, or for fresh apple pies.
I have never seen apples go to waste in my life, until now.
The idea that literally tons of free delicious, organic fruit is just sitting there and rotting within arm’s reach of the public way is anathema to me. For miles and miles and miles. It is a literal shame, and it casts a shadow over the American culture that has emerged from ubiquitous junk food and over-abundance.
It is almost as if these miles and miles of fallen, rotting, abandoned apples are symbolic of our rotting, fallen, bloated, pudgy and lazy culture. Everyone has more than they need, and so they just ignore the free healthy and abundant food that Mother Nature and past farmers have bequeathed to us now, if only we get out of our speeding vehicles for five minutes to gather some.
America and its apples, falling. I think the whole world sees it, and our people don’t.
One meme that says everything about Josh Shapiro
PA governor Josh Shapiro is on the short list to be Kalamity Kamala’s VP running mate. Well, I don’t agree with a lot of Shapiro’s actual policies, although I did like some of the policies that he ran on and then discarded after getting elected.
One incident really speaks volumes about Josh Shapiro’s horrible character, and that is the coverup of the Ellen Greenberg murder in Philly. You can read all about this sweet girl’s horrendous homicide in all kinds of news outlets, just don’t use Google because that search engine is terribly compromised.
The short story is that Ellen was murdered with a knife in her kitchen, and yet her patently obvious murder was inexplicably changed to “suicide”.
Most suspicion is focused on Ellen’s fiance at the time of her death, Sam Goldberg, because all of the crime scene evidence points directly at him. Ellen’s body was covered in bruises, the kind that come from physical abuse. It is really emotionally painful stuff to look at, those autopsy drawings and pictures. I knew Ellen, and she was a wisp of a beautiful and gentle creature. She did not deserve to be physically abused nor murdered.
Josh Shapiro fits into this because as PA AG he deliberately allowed the coverup of Ellen’s murder to happen, and then blocked it from being revisited years later when public pressure and legal challenges mounted to get all of the facts out of the recalcitrant Philly police.
Why would Shapiro be such a piece of sh!t? Because he was then and is now personally close with the uncle of Sam Goldberg, attorney James Schwartzman, a big and generous political donor to Shapiro’s many political campaigns. James Schwartzman and his lawyer son Kamian Schwartzman were both called by Sam Goldberg right before Sam Goldberg called 911 to report his fiance’s murder.
Try to make sense of that…calling two different lawyers in your family before you call 911 to report a murder, which Sam Goldberg laughably described to the 911 dispatcher as “Ellen stabbed herself.”
The Philadelphia DA at the time ended up going to federal prison not much later for bribery. To my knowledge no one has asked him what he knows about this rotten situation. I tried several years ago, and he broke off with me, a friend of many decades. It is going to take real legal force to re-open this murder case and bring justice to gentle Ellen.
So now that Shapiro is up for operating on the national stage, new focus has been brought to this obvious murder and to the coverup that Shapiro oversaw on behalf of one of his big donors, the uncle of the murder suspect.
In sweet Ellen’s memory, I would like to contribute a meme about this murder and coverup. The meme, below, uses one of the forensic drawings done to show the many stab wounds to Ellen’s head and neck. Let’s circulate this meme and help Josh Shapiro’s career go exactly where it should have gone long ago: To Hell.