Rant

MamaM's free style swim through a pool of thoughts churned something in my head. She wrote about how "funny" some people act as they approach death back here. This immediately reminded me of Helmuth James von Moltke, a remarkably little known Christian martyr who was murdered during the last year of WW II. I say "murdered" because while technically he was executed for treason, in truth he was murdered solely for being a true Christian. His story still gives me the chills when I reread it. I tried to distill the gist of his trial in his own words here.

Helmuth James von Moltke held a very unique position in Berlin during WW II. He was involved in the minutia of war without himself being a Nazi. And he had what might today be called "security clearance." He secretly wrote to his wife Freya in August 1941:

The news from the East is terrible again. Our losses are obviously very, very heavy. But that could be borne were we not burdened with hecatombs of corpses. Again and again one hears reports that in transports of prisoners or Jews only 20% arrive, that there is starvation in the prisoner-of-war camps, that typhoid and all the other deficiency epidemics have broken out, that our own people are breaking down from exhaustion. What will happen when the nation as a whole realizes that the war is lost, and lost differently from the last one? With a blood-guilt that cannot be atoned for in our lifetime and can never be forgotten, with an economy that is completely ruined? Will men arise capable of distilling contrition and penance from this punishment, and so, gradually, a new strength to live? Or will everything go under in chaos?

That passage may seem like old news, but, it was prescient: Note the early date: August 1941. Operation Barbarossa was barely a year old. Stalingrad -- the conventional turning point in the war against the Germans -- was 16 months in the future: 1942-43. We Americans were not even in the war yet.

Today we have the Mueller squads going around, not shooting people in the head, but essentially holding guns to the heads of former Trump associates and convicting them of crimes for no other reason than political ones. Their sole intent is to get Trump. And yet they call us Nazis. Their physical henchmen -- antifa -- are more literally shedding blood under the same banner. Both don't seem to realize that they are spreading political blood-guilt that cannot be atoned for in any future election.

I'm soured on Apple

Apple computers that is. I have an iPhone 5 which no longer communicates with my much older MacBook. I took it to the "friendly" Apple store and they flat out told me "dude, you need to upgrade your computer." No genius fix. No advice. No nothing. Just a smug admission that they believe in planned obsolescence.

I took some great video of a tarantula and the mud caves at Anza Borrego, but, I am unable to share them because the files are too huge to get off my phone. This used to be breeze -- a snap -- with communicating devices, but no more.

I am a longtime Apple customer, going back to the 1980's. To be honest, I've been disturbed by the stances the company has taken since Steve Jobs died. They are both sucking and blowing it.

Mark Levin Rips Megyn Kelly

Link in case the video doesn't load

Thanks to Third Coast for the tip. I haven't heard part 1, but I thought this was so good I had to share it.

I liked the part about Fox News doing Clinton-style opposition research

Peeling Back The Layers Of Stupidity

The Onion blows it: "No Way To Prevent This"

The Onion doesn't explain its layers of deception, but they could start by explaining how guns motivated the carnage and mayhem expressed in the killer's video. If guns weren't the motive, The Onion could explain how guns enabled Rodger's killing of his initial victims (and, btw, explain what was the motive for that initial phase which didn't seem to involve guns).  That's where it started (motive and tools) so that's where the discussion should start if we want to get somewhere.