On Magic & Lunacy; Yanks & Bites; Real World Reality & Bedrock Truths

Michael Walsh’s column entitled, Events, Dear Boy, Events, with an excerpt posted at Insty today, covers the territory, from the magical fantasies of now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t-science, to real world realities and bedrock truth.  Of note: another mention of mental illness, accompanied by lunacy and cultural suicide; the inclusion of yanking, biting, and slipping as part of the action; and the recognition of pluck in the face of a real shooting war.  Also showing up is the word/concept of "reality" in line with the Peck definition mentioned here before of mental health as "an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs".

For those who may not have seen this at Instapundit, here it is again, worth a repeat and read through for the observations and truth it contains.

"And so, just like that, Covid hysteria has suddenly receded, the manifest limitations of "green energy" have revealed themselves, and "gun control" suddenly doesn't seem so urgent in light of plucky little Ukraine's citizen-soldiers. Inflation is soaring, pocketbook issues are back on the table, and the outbreak of a real shooting war in the Ukraine , in which people are fighting and dying, has suddenly yanked the word "catastrophic" back from the realm of mental illness and into reality. As the late British prime minister Harold Macmillan is supposed to have replied when asked what was his greatest challenge: "Events, dear boy, events."

Amazing what happens when reality bites. The small stuff, the transient concerns, the self-indulgence in lunacy and cultural suicide suddenly slips away, revealing bedrock truths beneath. The prolonged propaganda assault by the national media, led by the unabashedly racialist New York Times, on the traditions and institutions of this country has screeched to a halt as people stare in disbelief at supermarket receipts and gas pump prices and watch the shelling of Kiev on their televisions. Perhaps now words like "assault" and "hostile environment" won't be thrown around with such gay abandon:

Volunteer fighters armed with assault rifles patrolled central Kyiv on Friday, ready to defend their country.

Follow live updates. https://t.co/hQc2wYb6r0 pic.twitter.com/n2B2lPrgVL

— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 26, 2022

So much for the dreaded "assault" rifles, which now seem to have some usefulness after all. Note as well that these "assault" rifles aren't firing themselves, but are instead wielded by responsible adults in an actual hostile environment in defense of their lives, their families, and their homelands—exactly the conditions under which the Congress and the several  states ratified the second amendment..."

On Knowing Good and Evil & Words as an Inexhaustible Source of Magic

With little holding our interest as we lived through the malaise that accompanied our recovery from Omicron, we turned to watching three different book-based movie series. Two centered around epic encounters with darkness and light/good and evil in markedly different fantasy worlds, while the third,  in more realistic present day setting involved a superhero character intent on using his outstanding strength and will “to do the right thing”, solve his brother’s murder and avenge his death.  All three addressed the difficulty of “knowing good and evil” as mentioned in the ancient story recorded by Moses in the book of Genesis.  First up was Lord of the Rings, followed by the new Reacher series on Amazon, based on Lee Child's Killing Floor; and we finished up with the 8th and last of the Harry Potter film releases this past weekend. At one time we’d owned  DVD sets of the Rings and the Potter series, but with our move and subsequent tech changes, they’re no longer with us, requiring rental for another viewing.

Looking back, I realized we’ve paid for the Privilege of Partaking of Potter five times over.  Starting with the first book out in 1997, we bought the print versions, then the audio CD’s played on car trips with the family, followed by costly forays to the cinema to watch (with popcorn) those stories unfold again on the wide screen, with subsequent purchases of the aforementioned DVDs as Christmas gifts, and finally using funds magically sent from our TV screen to Amazon, we purchased another prime viewing experience, allowing us to stop, talk about and start the play at will.  Was it worth it?  All that money and time spent taking them in? Yes. Five times over.  With each run through, in whatever form of media used, something good and relevant was waiting to be received.  Such is the power of story and myth to speak to the moment, link past to present, affirm experience and invite new awareness.   Watching them this time wasn’t about nostalgia so much as engaging with a touchstone.  One that allowed us to encounter and reconsider familiar stories and situations in which truth mattered and made a difference for greater good. As such, they invited us into more awareness of what we’re contending with in life and politics today.

With this last viewing of the Potter series, I finally gained a better understanding of what really put JK Rowling on the NY Times hit list.  Her supposed trans-transgressions (or worse yet, her biological essentialism) appear as the most visible tip of the iceberg of intense dislike (hatred?) and angst currently coming at her.  From my POV, however, the more unspeakable transgression she committed was her willingness to use words and story to reveal truth and convey the value of freedom and choice, the importance of speaking out and standing up for good, and yes even fighting ‘til death, for what matters most.  She provided an accessible model, dressed up as fantasy, that continues to be available and appeal to a broad age range, including children and impressionable adolescents as well as adults.  Through the vehicle of story, she presents a view of what it looks like when those who oppose the tyranny of oppression and evil do so with accountability and compassion.  She also promotes love (the holding of grace and truth) as the highest good.  And that message is not popular with the woke crowd intent on controlling information and narrative along with hearts and minds by squelching the voices of people who value freedom and seek a more balanced approach.  A loving approach that honors freedom and responsibility, allows for the exercise of justice and mercy, and seeks highest good.

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”    Dumbledore

Earlier in the week Instapundit posted this link in response to the posed question of: “WHY DOES THE NEW YORK TIMES HATE WOMEN?   A response to the NYT’s ad unpersoning J.K. Rowling." A few days later, while this post was sitting in my drafts folder, more on that “unpersoning” came up at the motherblog, along with another explanation of why JK Rowling and her writing matter, provided through a link to Simon Even’s column in Spiked on The Erasure of JK Rowling. 

And that tracked back to this, from a Jan 2 post at Insty: Harry Potter Knew the Fake News Media Is the Enemy of the People: The 20th anniversary of the first film is an occasion to recall J.K. Rowling’s inspiring political agenda. “As a fan of the books and films who had not revisited them in quite some time, I had always remembered how unflatteringly Rowling portrayed the government of her fictional world. But I was surprised to rediscover another entity that is absolutely savaged in the Harry Potter universe: the mainstream media. Rewatching the films this month for the first time in years, I was particularly struck by how much fake news was printed in the pages of The Daily Prophet. . . . It is the wizarding world’s version of the mainstream media; it is also an ever-evolving source of lies and propaganda.”  Related: My friend Ben Barton’s Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy.

Behind it all, in addition to Rowling’s current pronouncements being regarded as divisive, and the stinging relevance of her unflattering portrayal of the gov’t and the media in the Potter Series, is this hard to dismiss truth:  her written words continue to perform the magic of offering through story an ongoing invitation to take in and consider what it means to live with the knowledge of good and evil. 

So What Really IS Going On? UPDATED

If you know some history, you know the Ukranians allied themselves with Hitler and stuck with it all the way to the end. And they were nasty about it. A lot of Uke participation in Einstatzgruppen, etc. They hated that miserable little Georgian and what he did to them.

We all know about the thousands of prisoners the Krauts took in Barbarossa and how close they came. It wasn't the winter that stopped the Krauts, but muddling through logistics, Hitler suddenly deciding Moscow wasn't all that important and sending the Panzers south for 3 months when Moscow was easily in his grasp, the Rasputitsa (the Fall and Spring rains that turn the country into a swamp) and Uncle Joe shooting anybody who even thought of retreat.

What isn't so well known is that Uncle Joe tried to sue for peace at one point and the Russkies' logistics were even worse than the Krauts and the Russkies couldn't go on the offensive until '44 when there were enough trucks and stuff from the US of A to make it possible.

And Mother Russia did even worse in A-stan.

Which brings us to today.

I've linked a video that lays out what's been going on the first day. It don't look too good for Poot.

Think about the business of the airfield mentioned in the vid. Airborne and airmobile troops are supposed to be the best in any army, but they don't seem to have held that field. Also think about the fact the Ukes are fighting back hard. The President may be a crook (and a stupid crook for trusting Brandon), but he hasn't flown to Paris and is rallying his country. He's voided the gun confiscation law and anybody who want to fight will be provided one.

Not exactly South Vietnam.

Also consider what the defense in depth angle means in terms of Russian casualties. It bought Stalin 3 years. It also turned places like Iwo, Peleliu, Saipan, and most of Italy into Hell on earth. Eisenhower lost more men in the hedgerows in 2 months than MacArthur did taking the SouthWest Pacific and the Philippines in 3 years.

What I said a few days ago about Poot not having the men to pull this off may or may not turn out to be the case, but the Ukes are united and Poot is facing a lot of pushback on this. That's important because, while he's not all that popular, he was still rolling along singing a song compared to all of Shih's troubles, the messed-up Olympics being only the latest. Now he's got a mess like A-stan on his hands. Now it's back to the Russians and the Red Chinese, just like the 50s.

When Zippy made his crack about the 80s wanting their foreign policy back, I'll bet he never dreamed he'd have to eat those words. And Brandon has shown once again what a corrupt fool he is and how his insistence he's always right* shows just how wrong he always has been.

Any shakeup in the New World Order just got a big boost if I read the tea leaves right and Idiot trying to put us in the middle of a war with Russia seems to be the icing on the cake.

* Old gag.

I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always.

I'm here all week.

UPDATE Another clear, insightful video on the last day's fighting.

I'll keep it brief, but direct you to the facts that the Russians could not take the airfield they wanted so badly, even with VDV (comparable to our 101st Air Assault) troops. The Ukes destroyed it and pulled back; as the narrator notes, this is a major failure.

Also pay attention to the logistics issue, something Russkies have never done very well and how Zelensky turned down the US offer to be flown out of the country (I need anti-tank ammo, not a ride) - how many Democrats would say that?

The projection of a 4 day fight is not holding up (where have we heard this before?)  and there is talk of a brokered settlement and, interestingly, Poot's health. There have been rumors he has Parkinson's or cancer and Putin may be suffering from spinal issues, perhaps as a result of previous injuries, which may be forcing Putin to take stronger painkillers that could affect his mental and psychological capacity.

The nature of his address justifying the invasion was a rambling, unhinged Brandonesque statement that raised Western eyebrows.

Which leads us to an interesting situation. What if the US and Russia are both being run by senile old men?

Chew on that for a while.

On War and Peace

Once again, war, with death, destruction, and the slaughter of innocents as a result.  Once again, shock waves of fear, anxiety, anger and alarm vibrating through all who are experiencing it directly or taking in the visuals and info streaming around the world, and attempting to find a place to stand and protect themselves and their loved ones from the unfolding chaos.  From my home in the woods, far from eminent danger, I don't know what to do.  What's coming up takes me back to the arrival of COVID two years ago.  What started in early 2019 as a few red dots in specific locations, according to the John Hopkins report, multiplied until the entire world was covered in red as a different battle took place.  Will the blood staining the ground and the power plays currently taking place in one area of the world, once again result in it being covered in red and engulfed in blood shed and profound change?  

Below are the words that showed up in my inbox today, which I gratefully received and released as the prayer of my heart as well, for Presence, Peace and life giving change. 

God of mercy, by whose grace

in all who suffer is Christ crucified,

we pray for those in danger today,

for all who know oppression, injustice or fear,

whose land is invaded,

or whose home is unsafe.

Be with them and shelter them in your love;

give them courage and hope;

enfold them in your grace.

Touch their wounds; heal their trauma.

May the strength of the earth be theirs,

the freedom of the sky, the peace of the trees.

We bear in our hearts all who are afraid.

May they bear our love in theirs, for we are one.

In the unity of your Holy Spirit

you hold us together as one humanity,

one world, one body, one hope.

May your Peace change the hearts

of those who misuse power.

May the Peace of Christ

be with us all.

Amen.

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes

Unfolding Light

www.unfoldinglight.net

On Wading Around in Outright Scientific Fraud Territory & Another Hole in the Windshield

Dumb as a Rock would be another title befitting the picture above, as that's how We the People are seen and treated by the leadership of a government regime that’s attempting to use the media to render us dumb by squashing and quashing relevant COVID information, and cancelling and destroying those who refuse to be silent or refrain from asking meaningful questions. Decent into Madness would work as well, in keeping with the madness described below.

Robert Malone’s substack article from yesterday begins with a link to the following declaration from the NY Times (link AYOR) from an article in their Feb 21, 2022, edition entitled: 

The C.D.C. Isn’t Publishing Large Portions of the Covid Data It Collects The agency has withheld critical data on boosters, hospitalizations and, until recently, wastewater analyses.

Malone’s response begins with: We the people, demand to see the data! CDC withholding evidence concerning COVID vaccine safety is scientific fraud.  

And he continues on with, ..."Why is this important?  If the CDC released the age stratified data for COVID, it would be clear that a vaccine for most Americans is not necessary. If the vaccine risk ratio of those vaccinated and hospitalized were published for Omicron - it would be clear that the vaccine benefit is not observed.  The FDA have not revealed what the efficacy of the boosters for children is. They have not released the safety data. They have withheld the safety data on the vaccines for children and adults.

This must stop. We are deep into outright Scientific Fraud territory.

Let’s remember where this started… We have been manipulated from the VERY start of this pandemic. The government has been deciding what has been written, removed, censored by media and the big tech giants. This is propaganda."

He goes on to list evidence that..."makes it crystal clear that the government has been manipulating data from the start. Now that Omicron is here and the vaccines are clearly not working. That we have data from other countries that there are issues, we much demand transparency and a stop to the manipulation of the American people. Free speech is free speech.

Scientists and physicians must be allowed to discuss data on the Internet. We ALL must be allowed to discuss data. It is time to stop the madness."

And he ends with this last thought for the day:  "The US government appears be complicit in the creation of this virus. Again, the people are being manipulated. The NIH and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency at the US Department of Defense must be held accountable and they must release the data as to what they have funded and what they knew when - about the creation of SARS-CoV-2. It is time for our government to come clean. It is time for an investigation. Congress must lead the way. They can not shirk their responsibility any longer.

As Insty says, Read the whole thing     https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/we-the-people-demand-to-see-the-data?utm_source=url                                               H/t to B. Hayden at the RWSD   

They will never learn

 

They are beating the drums for war just like they always do.

The New York Post is full of editorials demanding that we stop Russia and what they are doing in the Ukraine. They wail and cry that this is just the first step in Russia taking back the rest of Eastern Europe and somehow it is our problem, so we have to send troops or impose sanctions or some other shit.

As Tucker Carlson has so ably pointed out we should be worried about our border not Ukraine's as it is really not any of our business. The Ukraine has long been a part of Russia and we really should not dip our beak into that mess. Most of the inhabitants of the two disputed provinces are ethnic Russians and would welcome the control by Moscow. So let them take back their country and lets not be the policeman of the world.

We have enough problems with our own policeman who are enforcing illegal and immoral mask mandates and arresting people who protest. We need to clean up our own house.

America first. Let the European weenies worry about their problems. We aren't responsible for them anymore. They hate us and only want to take our money and let us expend our blood and treasure defending them. It's time to come home. 

America first. 

If you can grab the Tyenol from my hand Grasshopper!

 

I was interested in reading Mama M's post about the Kung Flu. I have had it for about three weeks, and I am just now feeling normal.

I had a pretty bad cough and sore throat as we as a general ache and pain that was pretty debilitating. I called up to see about antibody treatments, but I did not qualify. My doctor told me to wait to see and if my oxygen reading went below 80 to go the ER. I was lucky that it did not so I road it out.

They don't seem to do much if you have the virus. I think I got the Oby Doby version, so I guess it wasn't that bad even though I felt like shit.

It was enough to make you want to hang yourself while you are jerking off.

On Dissonance & Dissidence; Quelled Curiosity & the Need for Clarity

 American Thinker addresses this today in a post entitled “America's cognitive dissonance continues to deepen” by Terry Paulding.  In it, feelings are acknowledged while the author thoughtfully covers facts and processes through what I’ve also taken in, seen and heard from my perspective.  In addition, it includes a reference to closed eyes and ears, a favorite phrase that tracks back thousands of years to the complaints from prophets of old regarding human foolishness.  And the whole thing circles back to touch on the mental illness aspect, in keeping with the “craziness/mass psychosis/barking mad” observations from others that have been copied and posted here at Levity in recent months.  Plus, what’s said fits with the Scott Peck definition from forty years ago of mental health as “the ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs”.  In the overall, it's a piece that pulls things together and clearly states the problem and the need.

Pauling begins with, “Our schizophrenic national divide is reaching a point at which the fabric of society is being shredded. The willful adherence to false “facts,” by both media and government actors is impossible to miss. Yet those in power plow forward with evil intention, knowing that the bulk of society will pay no attention; they’re asleep, they don’t care, and the label “misinformation” is enough to quell curiosity…"

He goes on to recognize the fear, alarm, willful ignorance and frustration present with, “People must willfully ignore being manipulated. Those of us who notice are shouting into the wind but nobody hears us. The frustration level can become intolerable.

It’s the same with every aspect of society. With COVID, we’ve done just about everything wrong, leaving people both invested and terrified. How could they not live in fear, if they’ve become aware of the ill effects of their vaccine shots? They must close their eyes and ears.

If I were vaccinated, I would be scared every time I exercised, after watching athletes falling over on the field. I would be scared, if I were of childbearing age, and knew someone who had an unexplained stillbirth. I am afraid for everyone I know who took the jab. Will they live long and prosper? We don’t know. The large upswing in unexplained deaths is alarming. Certainly, the CDC and Pfizer coming out with a warning on blood clots is alarming—but of course, they never mention the source of those clots."

And ends with, "…We who watch, who try to keep sane by writing about what we see in hope that more people will notice, we who try to live our lives and love our families, are being torn to pieces by how divided we are from one another, friends from friends, family from family. History will look back and see clearly. Yet what we need is clarity right now."

Clarity right now.   Yes to that.

H/t to Ray-SoCal at the RWSD

On Freedom and Immunity

 I’m beginning to hope we’re turning the Covid Corner, personally and for my family, as well as nationally.  Heck, maybe even for the rest of the world.   I’m just now starting to feel alive again after a late January go round with the Omicron virus.  While my experience included cold symptoms that really weren’t “much worse than having a cold”, it was creepily different.  And the wariness and fear of not knowing what was coming next, how my body might respond, or what else might compromise my survival, vibrated strongly through-out, similar to the fear that accompanies a tornado alert. It’s still rumbling in the background like distant thunder following a storm, as I wonder if I’ve survived the worst or there is more to come?  

Apparently some people contending with the Omicron version can develop serious lung crud eight days out that’s not as deadly as it was with Delta but hard to shake. Other odd symptoms can include  “Covid toes” (see Google images)  which I didn’t have, and an itchy rash on the torso below the arms that was with me for a week. Although my first thought regarding the rash was that I might be getting shingles, I was surprised to later learn that a rash in that area can be another one of the odd symptoms of Covid.  Also found out after the fact that breakthrough bleeding in pre and post menopausal females is another symptom and how strange is that, affecting tissue in female reproductive organs?  All of which paints a creepy picture of that humanly tweaked little red brushy thing rolling around inside looking for  places to land and wreak havoc, with our bodies responding by doing all they humanly can to fight it off and subdue it.   Another form of war, in my book; a serious and “more evolved” form of foreign invasion. 

On Wednesday, I ventured out to go swimming at an indoor hotel/motel pool in our area. I’d purchased a pass two years ago prior to the shutdown and was finally able to use it.  It felt wonderful and weird to be out again around people, seeing families playing and interacting with their children in the pool, while I was free to float and exercise.  When I went back to swim again the next day, I was enjoying my freedom when the older woman who was water walking next to me decided it was necessary to determine my vaccination status with a questioning pronouncement of “You’ve had the vaccine, of course?!?" To which I pleasantly responded with a “No. I've had Covid and survived and now have natural immunity'' only to have her come back with an equally confident, “Ooooh, but that doesn’t last!” reply.  Following my “Neither do the vaccines” response, she let me know she’d had two shots and a booster, which she’s apparently banking on to keep her safe.   Good luck and smooth sailing was my unspoken thought before deciding to announce I’d also “used the controversial Ivermectin to help get me through and had avoided hospitalization; and was grateful for that”  Well, that ended the quizzing and water pleasantries for a time   But not without her later working in how much she really wished there weren’t so many lies allowed to be told in the media and I refrained from asking which were most irritating.  She also informed me that she swims everyday around 1pm (which I was grateful to know) and carries a pool thermometer with her to measure how warm the water is, because "it's supposed to be kept between 80 and 86 degrees”.  The most peculiar part of our time together involved her pulling a large floating pool thermometer the size of a small birdhouse out of her gym bag when she got out to leave, to measure the temp and let me know it was 84 degrees.  Why she finds it necessary to tote that around with the rest of her swimming paraphernalia (including a large portable radio playing loudly in the cavernous, echoing pool room (because she needs music to exercise–so everyone else swimming also gets to partake of those vibes banging around the room) is anyone’s guess, making me wonder if I’d encountered another one of those “vivid people” TY mentioned in an earlier post?  Maybe she thought I was just as odd, abusing my freedom by not following the program and spreading germs around like unwanted radio waves.  All in all, I had another lovely swim, feeling alive and part of life again, sprung from the trap, at least until my natural immunity fades.

On Sticking the Landing

It's windy here in MI today, with spring making its first signs of stirring; but not windier that it was at London Heathrow just hours ago, where the large incoming planes were attempting to land.  Some required 2-3 passes before making it down, with others giving up to divert elsewhere.  The video starts with reports coming in from the coasts of 85kn wind speeds (close to 100mph) with gusts of 60kn at the airport. About an hour and a half in things get even woolier, as it shows some on their 2nd pass doing some stomach dropping dipping and diving before wobbling in to finally stick the landing.  At that point, 10 planes had already tried their number of allotted passes (3?) and diverted.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to have been in either seat, the pilot's or one of the passenger's in one of those heaving tubes.  And the wind went on for hours with the shears and gusts in the first three hours being the worst with a head wind developing later.   However, it looks from the short time I watched the recorded feed that the British Air pilots are not only skilled but still hold some remnants of the famous British resolve in the face of huge odds.   I hope the Canadian truckers manage to make it through to survive the ill winds blowing them off and around as well.

You may have been right all along

Since so much truth is coming out vindicating what we've been saying, each in his or her own way, it may be time to go back to where all the lies began.

Yes, I'm talking about (oh, no!!!!!!!!!!!) the assassination of Jack Kennedy.

First caught sight of this as a linked item off Emerald Robinson's substack (I really am falling in love with her; she's about to make the list of my all-time fave newsbabes along with, from Fox, Jennifer Griffin and Catherine Herridge, and, from Black Rock, Liz Trotta (my first love) and Sharyl Atkisson) and it's all quite interesting.

I never really thought that much about it, actually, and all the toing and froing over the Warren Commission wasn't really on my radar. Who in their right mind trusts anything chaired by Earl Warren?

The whole single bullet thing bounced off me and the second shooter business was all conjecture. That changed a bit after I read years later a quote of Jack Kennedy to Newsweek after he'd just had his lunch eaten by Nikita Sergeivich in the settlement of the Cuban Missile Pandemic.

"We have to make our power pertinent in the world and Vietnam seems to be the place".

Think about that for a short second. A guy who may have come closer than anybody knows to blowing up the world refused to learn the lesson from it. He was not up to the job of being President because he thought he was double Aught Whatshisface (his reading the Bond books sparked the spy thing in the 60s, if you recall). He was going to keep on trying to pick a fight with the Russkies. 

Just like so many Democrats of the 20th century, he was a dangerous fool.

It also tells us he was not getting ready to pull out (insert punchline).

I was 16 when Kosygin and Brezhnev pensioned off Nikita to a little dacha and the event at the time struck me as being more significant than just your usual generational power thing, but the reason eluded me.

So, years later, when I read the whole single bullet thing was probably a crock because the contention the carbine Oswald used couldn't be fired that quickly was a lie because an expert with that weapon, and he was an expert, could fire it that quickly and that seemed to be reasonable to me.

Howsomever, there was that time frame. A year after Kennedy makes his Newsweek quote, he's dead. A year after that, Nikita's out.

Coinkydink? Maybe, but it seemed to me, if there was a plot, it wouldn't have been the Military Industrial Complex (who were getting rich off Kennedy's adventurism) or the Mob which was supplying him with babes. A more likely scenario was the Russkies, especially Nikita, who'd lived through a Hellacious war and it was no fun. No way this clown was going to start another war.

The Russians as the good guys. Whoda thunk?

That bring us to this piece by Emerald Robinson which blows everything into the stratosphere and proves that the truth really was out there. But you're going to have to dig to find it.

The Warren Commission said there was no entry hole by a bullet in the windshield. But the people at the Ford plant where it was sent to create a new one saw one and destroyed the original on orders. Then there are all those home movies that show the effect of a shot from the front and the ER people at Parkland Memorial.

So, did the Russkies hit Jack Kennedy? Seems likely, but that's just my theory.

All the Unicorn rainbows of what might have been had St Jack lived would IMHO have been just so much smoke and mirrors, but it does tend to show the Democrats of today didn't begin with Occasional Cortex.

YMMV

William Frawley was always one of my heros!

 

New York Post, Page Six February 15, 2022

“I Love Lucy” star William Frawley was such a crass curmudgeon that he once allegedly called his on-screen wife, Vivian Vance, a “miserable c–t.”

Tim Considine exclusively tells Page Six that Frawley uttered the vulgar insult when a lieutenant general and his adjutant visited the set of the actors’ 1960s sitcom “My Three Sons” while Considine was in the Air Force Reserve.

After a pleasant lunch, the quartet walked back to work.

“I was thinking, ‘Hey, this is a great success. [Frawley] hasn’t said anything to put anyone off,'” Considine remembers. “I was pretty pleased with myself.”

Unfortunately, not even 30 yards from the entrance, the lieutenant general asked Frawley what Vance was really like — and that’s when Considine’s stomach dropped.

“I saw it coming,” he recalls.

According to Considine, Frawley succinctly responded, “That miserable cunt.”

Enlarge Image

On Clowns and Pair o' Ds, of One Kind and Another

 

A creative exercise in the application of both/and, by ampersand. 

Words to live by

On Rooting for Something Real

 It wasn't until I saw this over at Powerline, that I realized how the situation playing out with the Truckers is another version of the USA vs USSR Hockey Game played out at the 1980 Olympic Games.  The Mark Spitz dominated Summer Olympics of 1972 in Munich, were my first televised experience of the Olympic Games.  And in the fifty years  since, up until this year's games in China, I have looked forward to watching and enjoying all the Olympic Games that have followed, from opening ceremony and the lighting of the flame to the close.  This year, however, no interest.  Zip. Nada.  No time spent viewing the televised coverage and very little effort expended to read about what's happening there. But I can tell you I'm who I'm rooting for in the current contest of wills.  

On More Than Meets the Eye; & Hiding in Plain Sight

 When I first saw this over at Powerline's Week in Pictures, I passed over it without taking much note of the details.  Which is why I need other people to expand my view or invite more attention, as it's easy to miss something of value in my search for it else where.  In this case, the artist was intentional about including much more than I initially took in.  Thanks go out to Breitbart for publishing an expanded version.  

Cartoons above and below created by Bob Moran @bobscartoons

Highlighted version at https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/02/13/wheres-trudo-comic-brutally-mocks-justin-trudeau-for-hiding-during-freedom-convoy-protests/

This one too, contains something to see in the middle that I overlooked at first glance. 

On a Different Note: What if?

Through email, books and online reading,  I encounter some unusual invites and prompts.  Yesterdays email brought this.  Another take on "crazy".  One that fit with other recent thoughts and wonderings about what matters most and what's needed to move forward.    

What if

What if the bread you were eating
split apart― flour here, yeast there,
a puddle of water and a little pile of salt?

What if the stuff in your soup rose up,
the vegetables in little groups,
the broth purifying and purifying itself,
the meat wandering off to find its chicken?

What if your house divided― boards here, tile there,
paint in a place of its own but experiencing
some disagreement among colors,
nails, being metal, forming a loose alliance with the plumbing
but refusing to associate with wood,
the insulation sitting alone in contemplation,
window treatments rolled up and having nothing to do with anyone,
and all the glass stacked up on the lawn, weeping?

What if your legs stayed in bed,
your liver said, “None of that running around for me,”
your arteries said, “That right hand does some nasty things.
We’re not supplying it,”
and all ten fingers posted a Manifesto of Individuals’ Rights
and each formed its own caucus?

What if your thoughts, memories, words and beliefs
had nothing to do with each other?

Yeah, that would be crazy, wouldn’t it,
if we ever got to be like that?

Steve Garnaas-Holmes,  Unfolding Light, www.unfoldinglight.net  Published February 11, 2022

On Sharts and Prayers; Don't You Worry, Don't You Fret

 Along with my sense of smell, I also temporarily lost my sense of humor as my body took on the Omicron virus.  Yesterday, in the midst of lingering lethargy, an intermittent cough, and low food interest (with smell slowly returning) it showed up again with a burst that surprised and delighted me.   After  pondering in dead-seriousness the possibility that good men may once again be on the verge of putting their lives and livelihoods on the line to defend what matters most to them, I came on the clip below.  It had been posted at the motherblog (and brought here for those of you who don't venture there); and when I saw it, I laughed out loud at the fit.  So close to the truth, yet far enough from it to allow the laughter of delight and recognition to bubble up.  The artist/presenter's creative use of the material at hand also impressed me.  And the weird non-match with the hair, which at first was disquieting, worked to created the offset needed to hold attention and allow the dissonance between the voice/words and the look to keep the viewer from dismissing what they were seeing as more of the same old Joe.  

On IDing the Source

 An diverse offering from the Department of Poop Emojis,

with sample set collected by ampersand. 

Note from Dept. of D.E.I.: Blue Moon Ice Cream was left off the list.

On Complete Inversion of the Truth; Saying Enough; and a Night with the Untouchables

The two at DarkHorse said it for me, putting into words what's left me feeling so unsettled in recent days, my awareness of the great divide between reality and the exact inverse as it's being portrayed in media.     

"What role is suspension of disbelief playing in what is happening?  How much of this is effectively requiring the viewer to accept the fiction in order not to confront the reality?  

I'm seeing evidence of this all over the place, really, and I don't know what to do about it. The fictionalization that is taking place, and I almost never use this word, it's evil.  This is our civilization attacking itself by blinding people to the actual facts of their existence. "

From The DarkHorse Podcast, with mention there made of the article linked below, written by David Maybury, Feb 3, 2022.

A night with the untouchables

"I live in downtown Ottawa, right in the middle of the trucker convoy protest. They are literally camped out below my bedroom window. My new neighbours moved in on Friday and they seem determined to stay. I have read a lot about what my new neighbours are supposedly like, mostly from reporters and columnists who write from distant vantage points somewhere in the media heartland of Canada. Apparently the people who inhabit the patch of asphalt next to my bedroom are white supremacists, racists, hatemongers, pseudo-Trumpian grifters, and even QAnon-style nutters. I have a perfect view down Kent Street – the absolute ground zero of the convoy. In the morning, I see some protesters emerge from their trucks to stretch their legs, but mostly throughout the day they remain in their cabs honking their horns. At night I see small groups huddled in quiet conversations in their new found companionship. There is no honking at night. What I haven’t noticed, not even once, are reporters from any of Canada’s news agencies walking among the trucks to find out who these people are. So last night, I decided to do just that – I introduced myself to my new neighbours...

...As I finally made my way back home, after talking to dozens of truckers into the night, I realized I met someone from every province except PEI. They all have a deep love for this country. They believe in it. They believe in Canadians. These are the people that Canada relies on to build its infrastructure, deliver its goods, and fill the ranks of its military in times of war. The overwhelming concern they have is that the vaccine mandates are creating an untouchable class of Canadians. They didn’t make high-falutin arguments from Plato’s Republic, Locke’s treatises, or Bagehot’s interpretation of Westminster parliamentary systems. Instead, they see their government willing to push a class of people outside the boundaries of society, deny them a livelihood, and deny them full membership in the most welcoming country in the world; and they said enough. Last night I learned my new neighbours are not a monstrous faceless occupying mob. They are our moral conscience reminding us – with every blow of their horns – what we should have never forgotten: We are not a country that makes an untouchable class out of our citizens."

https://maybury.ca/the-reformed-physicist/2022/02/03/a-night-with-the-untouchables/

Doctor, doctor

Got it!

Feel like shit!

WKRP Dr. Johnny Fever Awakens From The Dead

I bet he wishes this was true!

CONVOY! Coming to a fascist state near you!

What’s 2/2/22

How many times I rubbed one out to Karen Valentine.