Opus 2021-306: Firsts: Pork Bellies

I have always heard of pork bellies in reference to investing in futures.  I was only half way convinced that there was such a thing.  I put it in the category of headlight fluid and left handed monkey wrenches.  It turns out that there is such a thing and I approve.

A friend of my son is into smoking and such.  He has one of those Big Green Eggs or whatever they are called.  For him it is a master at work.  He knows that I like my meat on the level of jerky so he set out to work some magic on pork bellies.  He brought them to perfection.  They are hard enough to bounce and the centers are still moist.  The fact that everyone else in the world would think they were beyond redemption does not matter.  Noone said you had to eat them.

I am almost ready to invest in pork belly futures.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-305: Headlines: More than a Picasso

I keep seeing the headline that Hunter Biden’s paintings sell for more than some works of Picasso.  My basic response is, “So what?”  I do think that there should be some investigation about laundering bribes but other than that, who cares.  Everywhere I look I see people wasting money.  Some are so well supplied that they are still able to pay the mortgage.  Others run into a wall.  That is because of their choices.  I still wonder if a Rolex is supposed to make the day shorter or longer.  There must be some reason for the cost.

Keep in mind that I am not an art critic.  Well, I am, but not in a formal sense.  I have always wondered why Picasso’s work was supposed to be so marvelous.  I wonder that about a lot of famous artists and writers.  I think it is an in-joke where the elites are trying to lord it over their subjects by their superior taste in all things.  It reminds me of a joke we used to tell about a polar bear on a chunk of ice yelling, “Radio.”  The point of the “joke” was that there was no point and you kept track of who laughed like it was funny.

I must also confess I have not spent a lot of time looking at the works of Hunter Biden.  Nor have I carefully studied the works of Picasso.  My taste runs more to Remington.  I do have a link to a site that has Monet’s works and find him interesting but I have better things to do with my time.  Neither man’s work rates a second look in my opinion.

Some would say the same about my opinions.  I would be glad to give you one for $100,000.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-304: Celebrate Real Diversity

We will never know how many lives have been trashed because educators have convinced everyone that they need to go to college.

I wonder how many men are sitting on welfare or working dead end jobs because they were convinced that they had no worth if they did not have at least a BA.  I don’t know if it applies to women the same way.  Women may have been robbed of joy by being told they needed a career instead of children.

There are people who get joy out of the work of their hands.  I think of one man I know who sneaks off to the garage to work on mechanical things every chance he gets.  He has some college, I keep forgetting how much.  He is intelligent and well informed on the issues of the day.  He goes into almost depression when forced to work in an office.  He is a hands guy.

There are those of us who get no joy from such.  I am not good with my hands.  No matter how hard I tried when I was working construction, I could not cut a board straight and the length came out wrong.  It wasn’t a refusal to measure twice and cut once.  It was a matter of measuring numerous times and still cutting wrong.  I am not sure if I am not good with my hands because I don’t like that kind of work or I don’t like that kind of work because I am not good with my hands.

I can get things done.  I have crawled through the attic to install support for a new ceiling fan to replace the light fixture.  I have removed a pocked door and installed a frame and swinging door.  I have rewired lamps.  I have repaired busted copper pipes.  I could make a list but it would prove nothing.  It takes me much longer than any body I know, numerous trips to the hardware store and no satisfaction at the end.

Think about differences.  Have you ever met someone who loves working outside in the heat?  To me they are crazy and they return the sentiment.  They can’t understand the appeal of getting something done at a desk.

We need to move our thinking back to the original concept of America that all men are created equal.  That means that the farmer is just as noble as the lawyer, the carpenter is just as important as the clergyman.  The nobility is in the work, not the degree on the wall.  Encourage your descendants to pursue the trades and crafts if that is their joy.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-303: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 9 of 9: You Are on the Radar

Most beneficiaries of Western culture are in the Live-and-Let-Live camp.  Western Europe seems to grasp the idea of some form of the things that come under the pursuit of happiness.  Up until recently the United States was peopled by groups that expected to live their lives the way they wanted and were willing to allow others to be strange.  It was a two way street.  That is changing.

The group that I call the Proregressives* are taking over and they have no intention of leaving you alone.  They have come for your children.  They are working on your property.  They want to close down your churches.  They want you to line up and follow orders.  It is for you own good.  They are committed to this and are not worried about the label as long as they win.

“The immediate aim of the Communist is the same as that of all the other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.”  Kindle Location 230-231

For the past 200 years people from all over the world have flocked to the United States to get away from these groups that wanted to run their lives.  They embraced the American dream and became Americans.  That is why we see a concerted effort to do away with national boundaries.  You may have heard of the New Word Order under the United Nations.  If you are a Christian you are aware of the prophecies that predict such a thing.  The Communists should consider themselves an instrument of fulfilled prophecy.

“The Communists are further reproached with desiring to abolish countries and nationality.”  Kindle Location 319-320

The wording should be interpreted as guilty as charged.  One reason that Stalin and Hitler had issues was because Germany had a vision of National Socialism (Nazi) and the Soviet Union was looking at International Socialism.  Countries have to go.  The United States must join the New World Order.  The Constitution must become just an meaningless piece of paper.

Marx was not shy about declaring his goal.  This kind of thing mystifies me.  We have a long line of tyrants who want to subject the world to their will.  They broadcast their goals.  Americans keep saying, “But they don’t really mean it.”

“The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.”  Kindle Location 558-560

Believe me, they mean it.  That is why American Cities like Portland have been decimated while the ruling class sits in their gated communities with private security.  They mean it.  If we don’t wake up and stop it they will be coming for you.  I urge people to read certain books.  One of the is the Communist Manifesto.  It is short and well written.  If you don’t believe me then maybe you will believe Karl Marx.

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

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Opus 2021-302: Headlines: Alec’s Law

I read the headline and several articles about Alec Baldwin killing a woman behind the camera in his latest movie “shoot”.  I did not read it with shock or surprise.  Things happen in life that we wish didn’t.  I am sure he feels the same way.  As many people on the right have said, I have no use for Alec Baldwin but I would not wish this on even him.  Too bad our “friends” on the left don’t have the basic humanity to extend the same compassion to us.

What I did find interesting was that he was not arrested and no charges had been filed.  That may have changed by the time this is posted.  That is what we call “elite” privilege.  He still walks free without posting bail because he is a liberal celebrity.  Based on what I have read so far, I would say this is the right call.  That is the way it should be.  

Too bad it isn’t.  In the classes I have taken dealing with firearms I have been told that if I ever have the unfortunate experience of shooting someone, I should assume that I will be arrested and need to spend $5,000 to $10,000 getting myself out, even if it is a clear case of self defense against a violent ax killer.  That is the way the law works, or so I have been told.  Evidently when it is a left-wing celebrity law enforcement can act rational.

I am not calling for Alec Baldwin to be arrested.  It sounds like the kind of an event that would can expect on a movie set that needs pictures of someone shooting a gun at the camera.  It was negligence but life, and death, happens.  I am calling for the rational understanding of the law apply equally to those of us who are part of the unwashed masses.  That is the point of the rule of law.

Maybe something good can come out of this tragedy.  Again I would advise you, don’t hold your breath.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-301: New Terms: Reality

At our bi-weekly Baby Zoomer meeting I have been hearing repeated references to something that I think is called “The Amazing Race”.  I finally had to stop and ask, “What is ‘The Amazing Race’?”  The simple answer is, another reality show.  I suggested that they needed to get library cards.  They didn’t get huffy but they came close.  Several showed me their library cards.  Of course they also admitted that they had not used them in a long time.  To give you an idea of how long, one guy talked about handing his books to the librarian at check out.  If you don’t know how old school that is then you need to update your card and get out a little more.

But I digress.

What gets me is that we have labeled these things “Reality” Shows.  Where is the reality?  I broke down and watched the trailer I found on You Tube for this show.  It looked like a remake of Around the World in 80 Days.  I liked the short shot of a guy racing down a river with a camera man taking a close up.  It takes a lot of reshooting to make a staged moment look like reality.  I guess they do a good job.

How do you film spontaneous moments in a mad race?  The only clue I could find without actually watching the show is that it is broken down in segments.  I suppose that is so they can post thousands of cameras along the possible route to catch millions of shots to chose from.  If they were making a reality show out of the Indianapolis 500 they would probably keep restaging the crashes until they got the lighting right.  I get the feeling that these shows are as spontaneous as an Obama speech.

I have three library cards.  I have to renew them every year.  At one library all you do is have the computer scan your card, lay your books on the tray and decide it you want a receipt.  The librarians are hiding behind plexiglass, wearing masks and looking at you with fear in their eyes because you might ask a question on your way out.  Or maybe you might read a book that makes you think.

That is my reality show.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-300: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 8 of 9: A Summary in Karl’s Words

Starting at Kindle Location 359 Marx provides a summary of the major points of Communism.  I am listing a few of them.  Take a moment to scan through them and ask yourself, “How many of them are already in place?”

“1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
“2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
“3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.

“5. Centralisation (sic) of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
“6. Centralisation (sic) of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

“9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
“10. Free education for all children in public schools.”

It would seem that we are well down the road.  Are you happy about that?

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-299: It’s Trump’s Fault

I got an update on the conspiracy this morning.

All those ships lined up outside of Los Angeles are loaded down with Chinese goods.  This means that China is not able to sell us anything right now.  This will crash their economy.  This had occurred to me so I did not come as an eyebrow raiser.  It also occurred to me that such a crisis in China could be what is spurring their saber rattling and their willingness to start a war over Taiwan and the South China Sea.  So far this is good analysis.  It could also stimulate Americans to get into making things again.

But they had to go further.  This is not happening because of the evil intent or incompetence of the Biden administration.  It isn’t because Pete is on maternity leave.  It seems that the breakdown in the supply chain is a sneaky plot by the all powerful Trump team.  Trump is doing this for some mysterious reason.  I am sure it was explained in the 3:00 A.M. videos but that was not passed on to me.

The good news is that if the cheap toys are not available you may have to put Jesus back in Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-298: On the Street: The Boba Shortage

My son likes to take me to dinner at places I would never go.  That includes just about everywhere, so he has a lot of options.  Recently we went to a Thai restaurant and decided to try their pho.  In case you don’t know, pho is a Vietnamese dish.  In fact, the internet tells me it is the national dish of Vietnam.  I asked a few questions and found that the Thai version is slightly different and it is the only dish that they eat with chopsticks.  

Since the drink he ordered looked so good I decided to try something that I think has the word “boba” in it.  They had mango, honeydew, taro and assorted other flavors.  I went with kiwi.  It was actually quite good.  The “boba” refers to little pea sized balls in the bottom of the cup.  After we had ordered she came back and said she only had enough boba for one drink.

This led to a discussion of why she ran out and my son, who is one of those people who acts like he knows everything, shared that there was a shortage of boba in the country.  Who would have known?  I am sure that somewhere outside Long Beach there is a container ship loaded down with tons of boba and it can’t get to shore.  The covid panic and vaccine bondage strike again.

Our lives are on the brink.  Not only can I not get the kind of pickles I want and the store was out of old fashioned oatmeal, now I can’t get boba.  

Will it never end?

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-297: On the Street: Walking Young

About a month ago I fell and messed up my knee.  I hobbled around for a few weeks before having it x-rayed.  Nothing is broken but I don’t heal as fast as I used to when I was younger.

Today I was able to walk young.  What do I mean by that?  I was able to walk with vigor.  There was no shuffling or slowing down.  It was a good feeling.  I still need to be careful not to step in a hole or lean wrong but I am on my way to healing.

Why do I bother with this?  You really were not concerned about my mobility.  I would ask you to get concerned about your own.  It troubles me to see people riding the electric shopping carts or the folks who can’t seem to stand up straight and would fall if they didn’t have a shopping cart to lean on.  At least they are out and around.  It is possible they are doing the best they can.  What really makes me question is the car that sits and idles in the parking lot for five minutes so they can get a parking space close to the door.  Again, I don’t know their situations but I wonder.

One of the habits I developed when I was still teaching was to park at the far end of the lot and during the day walk down stairs to the office instead of calling or sending a student.  We have what we call “the warehouse” up the hill on our property.  I always walk up unless I am after something too bulky to carry.  My wife always drives.  Guess who is in better condition.  I would encourage everyone to get started on mobility if you are not on that page already.  I can’t get specific but I think people could do more even if it means parking five stalls down in the parking lot.  Start somewhere and build up.  I remember years ago when I started getting serious about walking.  I started with a quarter mile on level ground.  I didn’t even get half way before my legs were screaming at my like it was the Inquisition.  Gradually I extended that and eventually got to about two miles with no leg complaints.  

Get out and move.  Walk.  Start small, but start.  It won’t make my life any better.  I will never know.  You will forget to thank me.  Your world will get better.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-296: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 7 of 9: Public Schools

You should have read about the call by the Communists to abolish the family.  One of the tools that they want to use for this is the public school.  Yes, your friendly neighborhood school.  Remember what I quoted you before,

“Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.”  Kindle Location 300-301

The big problem with families is that they used to teach their children moral values in addition to any academics.  Most educating was done either in the home or by private tutors.  Since tutors cost money the poorer families taught them at home.  The Communists thought this kind of thing was a problem.  They knew the kinds of things being passed on.

"There are, besides, eternal truths, such as Freedom, Justice, etc. that are common to all states of society.”

They acknowledge this.  They call them “eternal” and note that they are common.

“But Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience."  Kindle Location, 341-343

You cannot do that if parents are passing on what they believe.  They have a plan and someone called them out on it.

“But, you will say, we destroy the most hallowed of relations, when we replace home education by social.” Kindle Location 301-302

Social, or public, education is to replace the home.  When it first started parents were involved with their children.  That condition continued until recently.  I remember the old Leave It to Beaver series where there was a constant grilling about what happened at school and you have the parents and teachers in constant communication.  One of the interesting results of the China Virus hysteria is that parents were forced to be involved with what was going on at school.  To their credit, many were horrified.

At this point in our history the Communists have taken control of higher education and as older teachers retire at the lower levels you are seeing things like Critical Race Theory and the selfish nature of capitalism being pushed more and more openly.

As a final note on this I give you point number 10 of the 10 goals of the Manifesto:

“10. Free education for all children in public schools.”  Kindle Location, 367-369

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

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Opus 2021-295: Wildflower Watch: The Colors of Life

October is not a big month for wildflowers in Texas.  I did notice a few things as I walk and observe life struggling to stay that way.  There are three colors I am seeing:  Green, Yellow and a sort of blue/purple.

I wonder if we could think of these as the basic colors of life.

Green is the common color of life.  When you fly over the country you can tell where things are growing.  You can tell when spring comes.  There are even different greens for new life.  The mesquite trees in our yard are a very different green in spring than the rest of the year.  

The second color that seems to endure all year is yellow.  It is common during wildflower season too but hangs around in some form even when it gets cold out.  It is the color of dandelions.  It can be the color of roses.  I see the roadside sprinkled with yellow when I walk.

I have also been seeing those blue/purple flowers.  They are not numerous but they keep showing up.  

Meanwhile, beware of green meat, yellow snow and people with purple hair.

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Opus 2021-294: Headlines: A Chance to Stand

I have been reading about a video that the Vice President has made to influence the Virginia election for governor.  I have not bothered to watch the video but I understand it is a call to vote Democrat.  My understanding is that it is designed to be played in black churches to influence the outcome of the election.  I also understand it is illegal.

I think it will be distributed.  I accept that it will be played by most recipients.  I assume there will be no repercussions.  It is another example of the way in which the Democrats expect black Americans to keep being obedient to the manor house.  I see it is a real chance for black Americans to stand up and do the right thing.  Then they should all join a lawsuit against the Vice President and the Democrat party for trying to influence an election.  I would also like to see some hate crime thinking involved, after all it is a clear statement that the Democrats think blacks are too stupid to think for themselves.

I doubt if too many black pastors read what I write.  That does not change the fact that this is a chance for them to move their churches back to being servants of Jesus Christ instead of knee jerkers for the Democrats.  

Sit back and watch but I would not advise breath holding.

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Opus 2021-293: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 6 of 9: The Family Must Go

Certain concepts are declared and developed by Marx in the Communist Manifesto.  At this point I have looked at the class struggle and end of private property.  As I look through my notes I also see that the family is under attack.

The first mention I noted was more an attack on the bourgeoisie than the family.

“The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.”  Kindle Location 58-59.

If you want to give Marx the benefit of the doubt it is possible that he was concerned about children laboring in the mines and factories.  He might have been totally unaware that on farms children were also part of the team that gathered eggs, slopped the hogs and weeded the garden.  However you want to look at it he had strong feelings.

“Do you charge us with wanting to stop the exploitation of children by their parents? To this crime we plead guilty.”  Kindle Location 300-301

What is strange to me is that the introductions to parts of Das Kapital, which I have started, refers several times to how his daughter was involved in proof-reading and editing his work.  He seems to be guilty of his own accusations.  I would also say that he must have had some positive contributions as a father.  No one ever said that socialists had to be consistent.

If those statements are not clear enough for you all you need to do is look back a few paragraphs where Marx declares:

“Abolition of the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the Communists.”  Kindle Location 295-296

That seems pretty clear and simple.  The family builds a loyalty that the state cannot compete with so the family must be done away with.  

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

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Opus 2021-292: The Warrior Class

I don’t understand prayer.  God is omnipotent and omniscient.  He does not need my buy in to right the wrongs and cure the ills of the world.  At the same time we are commanded to pray and given to believe that prayer can change things.  I do not understand prayer, but I pray because it is commanded.

I don’t understand prayer warriors.  Maybe you have not heard the term.  There are some people who devote long hours to prayer.  As a general rule they do not broadcast their schedule but get ratted out by people who know them well.  I remember reading a book titled Rees Howells:  Intercessor somewhere in my education.  It seems it is still in print.  All I can remember is that the stupid decisions of Hitler that caused him to lose the war were directly the result of the prayers of a group led by Howells.  

Most of the prayer warriors I hear about are severely limited in their lives.  They are often invalids who cannot get out of bed or the wheel chair.  They may be old and infirm.  They are in a place where the only ability they have is prayer, and they make use of that ability.  I often hear of mothers and grandmothers who have prayed for loved ones for years before there is any improvement.  Some people live lives of prayer.

Which brings me to my point.  I often ask, “Why me?” in relation to my physical blessings.  For someone my age I am doing very well.  Maybe God keeps me moving because I would make such a pathetic prayer warrior.  I don’t know if that is a good thing or a disappointment, but that is the way it is.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-291: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 5 of 9: The Two Classes

The America I was raised in had classes.  Every culture does.  The America I was raised in allowed people to move up or down the class structure depending on hard work and chance.  It is true that some people work hard all there life and never seem to get ahead and others do little and experience success, but for the most part effort is the key ingredient.  There were many classes.  When I tried to figure out where I fit in I would say I was raised either upper lower class or lower middle class.  In reality it didn’t make any difference to me because I was also raised, in my America, that everyone put their pants on the same way.  When I got older and less agile I learned that wasn’t totally true but you get the idea.

Marx divided society into two camps.

“Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes, directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.” Kindle Location 27-28

We are all familiar with the terms but I can never keep them straight.  Notice the idea of progress in Marx’ statement.  That would imply that the division was not finalized but Marx would have said it was foreordained.  

So who are these two groups?

The Bourgeoisie in Marx’ mind were the wealthy property owners.  They owned the factories and the tenements that the workers lived in.  Their only concern was profit.  

The Proletariat were the working people who could never get ahead.  They worked for wages and lived at subsistence level.  They were simply the cattle that provide the labor for the profits of the owners.

It will be a simple world if it ever appears.  The problem was that Marx had never worked a real job in his life and had no real understanding of the capitalism he was so critical of.  He did not foresee that many business owners would do the best they could for their workers.  Some would do it out of a moral commitment.  These would donate large sums to take care of those who could not work.  Others understood that a happy worker is a productive worker.  One of the great capitalists, Henry Ford, realized that if the workers could not make enough to buy his cars he would not sell many cars.  That is a principle of successful business.  It is real capitalism.  

Marx, and modern day socialists, live in a world of zero sum economy.  They believe that the only way to get rich is to steal from those weaker.  There is only so much to go around in their world.  He did not understand what a free economy can do to make people go out and find shortcuts to production.  The yoke is a good example.  This simple invention allowed a farmer to produce much more food with the same amount of work.  If he didn’t have the knights riding through his wheat he could increase his wealth at the expense of no one.  In fact you could sell his wheat at a lower price and still make more money.

The key factor for us to understand the modern day progressives is the word “hostile” in the quote from the Communist Manifesto.  In order for their dream world to come true it is necessary for all of us to hate those in the other class.  That is what is at the core of things like Critical Race Theory and the divisiveness of Black Lives Matter.  That is why they force violence in the streets.  That is why the Biden administration is arresting people on trumped up charges and throwing them in jail.  They want division and revolution.

Let’s do our best not to give it to them.  Remember the pledge of allegiance, “One nation, under God.”  

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

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Opus 2021-290: Conspiracy Vegetables

I meet with a group of men that I call the Baby Zoomers.  One focus of my prayer is for the ones who have been inoculated.  In my morning worship I also pray for my circle of friends.  In some cases the entire family has taken the jab.  My concern is for the side effects that seem to be popping up all over the place.  My fear is that we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.  
Two things keep me above water on this.  First is the magnificent immune system God designed that is engineered to combat both the virus, which is natural, and the chemicals which are being put into our bodies.  We have a host of organisms and responses for fighting the pathogens.  We have a series of organs for removing poisons.  One reason that we are forced to keep taking certain medications is because our liver is busy removing them from our system.  The good news is that we all were born with this protection.  The bad news is that many of our activities hobble its ability to do its work.

My second reason for optimism is that this “medicine” was designed by human beings who tend to be from the left of the political spectrum.  Their corruption of the scientific method and refusal to face facts means that the virus they produced and the counter they are selling are weak sisters to a healthy body.  If you have been paying attention you may have noticed that all the panic is over something that is little worse than a strong flu strain and far from the plagues of the past.  I would say the same thing for the dangers of the inoculation.  In some people it is as deadly as a seasonal cold is to a 90 year old with emphysema, diabetes and heart disease.  If you do any reading beyond the MSM you come across much anecdotal evidence of this.  At the same time it doesn’t seem to be having much effect of most people.  It doesn’t send them to the morgue.  Of course it doesn’t seem to protect them from the virus either.

As much as the CDC and MSM want to deny it, there are deadly side effects.  At this point they seem to be random.  What if that is not the case.  What if this is an experiment by powers unknown to destroy the strength of the West.  What if this is just the first of many.  What if there is some genuine research going on that we don’t know about but is based on genuine data, not the phony CDC nonsense.  That would be applying the scientific method to destroying the world as we know it.  Such a goal is not beyond the dreams of the Communists in China or the United States Government.  

Talk about conspiracy theories.  I am counting on God’s design to come out on top.

Get plenty of sleep.  Eat your veggies.  Exercise.  Pray.  Negate their efforts.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-289: Plow and Crown: The Pendulum Swings

My fear is that the republic established in 1787 is coming to a close.  It isn’t that it was not a great dream.  It isn’t that it was not successful for a time.  Remember the words attributed to Benjamin Franklin, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”  In the conflict between the ruling classes of the crown and the masses behind the plow it was a big step forward for the masses  The masses seem to be making a statement two hundred years later:  They are not willing to keep it.

Recently we had the failure of the recall in The People’s Republik of Kalifornia.  I will concede that the vote was rigged.  That is the only way you could have so lopsided a count, or is it?  Could it be that the masses of residents in the Republik are actually on board with the largess of socialism?  Could it be that they have made a choice to reject responsibility for their own lives, believing that the almighty state will meet their every need from the resources of someone else?

I am afraid of the answer.  I am afraid that the virus of virtual income will take hold in the rest of the country.  Keep in mind that this is the state that brings you Nancy Pelosi.  She comes from the district that, as the meme says, will allow you to defecate on the sidewalk but arrest you if you are not wearing a mask while you do so.  It is her district that allows the proletariat to liberate up to $950 worth of merchandise from a bourgeois store shelf and refuse to call it crime.  Keep in mind this is the state that elected Kamala Harris as a senator.  Do you have any more questions?

Look at the great tyrants of history.  Adolph was elected.  Genghis Khan was elected, sort of.  FDR was elected four times.  There are always voters or spear carriers behind every successful despot, that and government checks.  If there aren’t then they are not successful for long.  I just finished reading II Kings in the Bible.  It is amazing how many kings of Judah and Israel only reigned for a few months.  

(2Ki 23:31 KJV)  Jehoahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.

It seems that their servants would do them in if they were not happy.  It didn’t take an army just an angry nanny and the butler.

The big change is not that we have more people lusting for power.  The change is that the peasants in the pews are now willing to support their lust because they think they will get a cut.  They actually believe that the electric cars, and now electric lawnmowers, will somehow draw their charges from unicorn farts and giant windmills.  They all want to be on the side of the one who passes out the spoils.  They don’t think about what happens when the elites run out of other people’s money; and food, and TV’s, and gasoline,....

Stay tuned, it will be a wild ride.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-288: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 4 of 9: Trickle Down Theory

Property is more than your home.  It is also your business and ultimately the things small enough to carry away.  The idea that property does not belong to you is trickling down through all of society.  Look at your headlines.  Is a case of beer property?  How about four cases of beer?  You may have missed the situation in Texas where two men proceeded to load four cases of beer in their car without paying.  The clerk shot and killed one of them.  He was protecting property from theft.  The clerk is now on trial for murder.  If your house is not property then why would the beer on the back porch be yours.

Take another step back.  Imagine yourself in the People’s Republik of Kalifornia.  How important is property?  Keep in mind that San Francisco has removed the criminal penalty for shoplifting up to $950 dollars.  If you walk out with 900 dollars worth of merchandise from your local pharmacy then it is a misdemeanor and the cops will not respond.  If you are lazy you can bring your bicycle right into the store and ride out with a bag full.  Check out NBC news for more.

The Communist Manifesto is being applied on a daily basis in a town near you.  Wake up and watch it coming.

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

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Opus 2021-287: Southwoke Airlines

My wife tells me that Southwest Airlines has made vaccination a requirement to fly on their airplanes.  I guess that seals it for me.  I had been avoiding flying because of the mask mandates and the obnoxious enforcement.  Now they have made it impossible for me to fly on their airline.  This is another step that touches me where I live.  Southwest used to be the airline of choice for our entire family.  In a normal year we would fly across the country, or its equivalent, at least twice.  Sometimes we would fly more, and it was always on Southwest.

Keep in mind that the Proregressives* that control the Biden administration and the shadow government are working overtime to negate the Bill of Rights.  If you read through the first two amendments and look at where all this is going you will notice they are on the attack of all listed there.  The mandates coming from Washington and state capitals are designed to limit your freedom of association.  Guess what shutting down the churches has violated?  How about calling parents who show up at school board meetings being called domestic terrorists?  Do the concepts of freedom of speech and redress of grievances ring any bells?  The left is also keeping people from expressing their views in the current versions of the printed media.  And topping it all off is the drive to declare you mentally unbalanced so they can take your guns.

Southwest Airlines is just another patsy in the war against the Republic.

Be ready to stand up, speak out and be counted.  It will either lead to liberty or the camps.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-286: The Language War

I wish America would wake up to their language being destroyed just like the Republic is going down in flames.  The current word that is lighting my fuse is “moderate.”  

There are two examples of this that are glaring and obvious, also ignored.  The first is the current occupant of the office of Attorney General of the United States.  I won’t mention his name.  A few years ago he was being considered for the Supreme Court.  We were told to go ahead and give him a hearing, after all, he was a “moderate.”  He said a lot of nice words and sounded like he knew that the Constitution existed.  Based on what we see him doing in pushing the Proregressive* agenda I would say we dodged a big one there.  He may be in power but it might be limited to four years instead of life.  You may not like the ones we got for the court but they are not such lunatics as this “moderate.”

The second is more current.  Congress is trying to pass legislation that is designed to leave them rich and the country at a Venezuela level.  Every day I read some new bit of skulduggery that is included in the bill.  The Democrats who are holding it up are called “moderates.”  I have seen the term in articles and in memes.  If they are moderate then most of the country is so far to the left that we deserve what they want to get us.

To most people a moderate position is somewhere in the middle between two extremes.  There have been times in our history when a moderate position represented where most Americans stood.  Now it would legitimately be between the communism of the Democrats and the desire to be free of government control which does not include the Republican elites.  There might be few there but it would still be moderate.  

The position that the media is trying to convince you is “moderate” is very far to the left.  It is the difference between $3.5 and $1 trillion.  Even the lower number is mainly pork to feed the groups that are in the pockets of the shadow government.  They are not moderate.  They remind me of the school administrators who would give me a choice and I would clarify what they were asking me:  Do I want to be shot or hung?

Maybe I am totally wrong.  Maybe people are waking up.  If the election of 2022 ends up making any difference we need to vote the suckers out.  We need to get serious before the round-ups begin and the camps are being filled.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-285: Definition Day

I would like to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day (IPD) but the phrase is as meaningless as “Native American.”  I might as well celebrate Day of the Month Day.  All days are days of the month.  I guess it is kind of like Children’s Day.

In case you have not thought this through, let me repeat myself a bit.  If you have thought it through then take a deep breath.  Take the term, “Native American.”  Unless you want to define “native” as “person of an inferior and primitive culture” then you have to accept that it simply means “person who was born in an area.”  By that simple definition I am a Native American.  I was born here.  My guess is that you were too.  In this sense there are only two kinds of Americans, native and naturalized.

The same goes with “Indigenous”.  According to my computer dictionary the word means “originating or occurring naturally in a particular place.”  If I remember my seventh grade world history textbook correctly, the first human beings arrived in North America around 10,000 B.C.  That means that they were no more indigenous than the Pilgrims.  They just migrated earlier.  The only thing that you can claim is indigenous is mold and fungus.  

The purpose of IPD is to undermine and destroy the contributions of Europe and Christianity to the progress of the world.  It also it an anti-white thrust but that is really just a smoke screen for the true goals.  

So we need to remember something that was actually significant in influencing the progress and well being of the world.  Colombus opened up the New World to the energy of Europe.  The so called indigenous people had not even figured out that the wheels on the toys of their children could be used to get more corn to market without slave labor.  They had not even invented a shovel.  They sat on a world of wealth and were still acting like Proregressive* by trying to kill anyone who disagreed with them and steal anything that said “Shiny”.  

Happy Columbus Day.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

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Opus 2021-284: First World Problems (FWP): While I Slept...

My phone rearranged itself while I slept.  It is not my imagination.  It is not paranoia.  

One of the steps in my morning is to check the icon that gives me the outside temperature.  I am not so concerned about the projected high or the forecast for the week.  I just want to know if it is warm enough to sit on the porch for the beginning of my morning worship.  

The button was not there.  I swished sideways and checked the other screens.  If you don’t know what that means, think of turning the pages or checking another notebook on the shelf.  No button.  So I started looking.  I found it under and icon labeled “weather” that also held the button for “camera”.  At the same time the picture for Weather Underground had not been moved.  

I did not do it.  It was changed in my sleep.  Now my question is, “What else did it change without my permission?”

I don’t like phones.  I don’t like cell phones.  I really don’t like smart phones.  My utmost contempt is for devices that think they are smarter than I.

What if they are right?

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-283: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 3 of 9: You Didn’t Build That

I am not an economist but that is not necessarily a bad thing when you talk about economics.  Consider Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics.  He seems to get it wrong all the time.  His economics are always offered in light of his Proregressive* values and not on the facts.  With that disclaimer I am going to tell you today that the coming inflation is not our big worry.  It is just a smoke screen for the real attack on America.

Inflation we have had before.  I remember the Jimmy Carter days when people were buying homes at 18% interest.  We lived through it.  We have more of the same coming.  It will be bad.  You can’t just keep printing money, giving it away to the unproductive and try to tax it out of the working people without having massive inflation.  Admit it.  Deal with it.  All of the things they say about transfer of wealth and manipulation are true, but again, just a smoke screen.

What this smokescreen is covering up is something we might not survive.  It is the attacks by Biden and his Proregressive* buddies on the concept of personal property.  The most obvious is the current extension of the moratorium on rent and mortgage payments.  

This is bigger than the class struggle that Marx envisioned.  Even according to Marx, we have always had that.  It is very clever.  The goal is to weaken the United States by making the American dollar worthless.  They want to reject it as the world currency.  Right now most international trade is conducted with dollars.  People trust it and stockpile it for hard times.  Sure we have inflation, but so does the rest of the world.  They keep buying dollars anyway.  Why?

One reason the American economy is so resilient is that people in other countries feel they can invest here.  We have a history of a government that does not confiscate property on a whim.  Even if we have inflation they know that their investment would still be there.  They trust us to be stable and reasonably honest.  Or rather they used to.  With the government saying that tenants can stay rent free what they are doing is making foreigners think twice before investing in America.  Would you invest in low cost housing if you felt the government was going to declare that your tenants didn’t have to pay rent?  Would you loan money to a home buyer if he could get out of repaying the money?

Again we go to the Communist Manifesto.  They were very clear in what their goal was.

“In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.”  Kindle Location 239-240

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-282: Reaching Utopia

The Republic is almost finished and it is the result of being too successful.  The American experiment in self government had the ideal expressed in the Declaration of Independence:  All men are created equal.  Everyone knew that it was an ideal but our society kept working toward that goal.  The right to vote was steadily expanded.  Things like the Homestead Act put owning property in reach of anyone willing to work.  The goal of the civil rights crusade was to do away with discrimination for illegitimate reasons.  

Just when we seemed to be reaching Utopia the Proregressives* started a counter crusade.  These are the people who cannot stand to see masses of people enjoying life and having opportunity to follow their dreams.  You have people like the Mayor who’s name shall not be mentioned who believe it is their job to tell you how large a soda you can buy.  You have government agencies that work overtime to take all the risk out of risky activities that are so much fun that many people pursue them.  It has become so absurd that in Oregon the governor is saying that it is not necessary to be able to read, write or do basic math to graduate from high school.  Standards might damage someone’s feeling of self worth.  Welcome to the Proregressive* dream of Utopia.

And people support this kind of thinking.  When I see polls about support for President Biden, I am not surprised that his numbers are bad.  What I am shocked about is that he has any support.  I did not know there were that many people in the country who needed help deciding which foot the left shoe goes on.

I am beginning to think that the human race is not qualified for equality.   

One of the big puzzles to me is how slavery existed so long.  When you consider the number of slaves in some ancient cultures it seems strange that they were content to stay in that condition.  You may have heard of the Stockholm Syndrom.  Simply put, victims go through a mental change that causes them to develop an attachment to their abusers.  I think a similar thing happened to many slaves.  They accepted their role and felt like it was the way things should be.

I am afraid that the people who are natural born slaves are reproducing to the point where we don’t have enough worker bees to keep the Republic going.

Pray that I am wrong.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-281: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 2 of 9: Class Struggle

One of the phrases continually emphasized by the Communists is the “class struggle”.  Early in the Manifesto I came across this simple statement.

“The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles.” Kindle Download location, 18-19

My initial emotional reaction was to dismiss it because of my hatred for Communism.  After a brief pause I changed my mind.  If you think about it, much of what has gone on in history involves people of different social classes in conflict.  Even more common is people of the same class with a group wanting to establish themselves as dominate, thus creating a new class.  I have a series of posts where I break it down as Plow and Crown.  For me it is a timeless conflict between the plow, people who actually produce the food, and the crown, the ones who try to just eat the food.  In our modern culture we have the Proregressives* trying to civilize us unwashed masses with their superior view of culture.  

This is why Communists are big in trade unions.  They see it as the bosses (capitalists, bourgeoisie) and the workers (proletariat).  This is why they are big in crony capitalism.  You have the common folks in small business verses the government and big business.  In education you have the experts, teachers, verses the ignorant parents.  I guess one place that Marx got it wrong was in only seeing two classes.  We have multiple classes in our country.  What has also messed Marx up is that we have always had a lot of mobility but up and down.  Current government which is heavily infiltrated with Communists is doing everything it can to keep the little guy from being successful because that endangers their buddies.

Keep in mind that one of the techniques of deviant groups is to start out with the truth and gradually slip in the twists and turns that become the lie.  The lie is not in the existence of classes.  The lie is not in conflict.  The lie is that we cannot work together and all must become one shade of vanilla.

Read it for yourself.

Marx, Karl.  The Communist Manifesto, 1848, Project Gutenberg download

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-280: New Terms: The Electron Curtain

The phrase “Iron Curtain” was coined by Winston Churchill in a speech given after World War II was over and he had been booted out of office by the people of Great Britain.  He had always been warning FDR about the danger represented by Stalin and the Soviet Union.  Now, with the war over, the Soviet Union was rattling its sabers and showing Stalin’s true colors in such a way that even the Pollyanas of the United States could not ignore it.  The shooting was over.  The Nazi menace had been defeated.  Now Communism was on the march.  The Cold War had begun.

The totalitarian philosophy of the Germans and Italians has survived.  It is continued by the Communist party and its disguised servants in the rest of the world.  That includes the United States.  They have cleaned up, put on different clothes and edited their vocabulary, but they are more entrenched that they were in 1939.  Today they have taken over key posts in the government and are linking up with their allies in the media and education.  They are censoring and coercing everyone that comes on their radar.  The Iron Curtain has been replaced by the Electron Curtain.

No longer do they need to raid your newspaper and smash your presses.  Now all they need to do is shut down your social media accounts, adjust the Google search engines and get the banks to cancel your credit.  No blood.  No violence.  No waves.  The stomping and destruction have become very civilized.

We are in for an interesting ride.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-279: Book Review: The Communist Manifesto, part 1of 9: Educate Yourself

One positive results of all the panic and government tyranny of the last year has been my education.  Because I refused to wear a mask in the library I was forced to go to my shelves and storage boxes.  I have a lot of good stuff that I was going to get to one day, which has arrived.  I have also been making use of Project Gutenberg.  If you have never used it, you can download from a vast library of books that are out of copyright.  I download in Kindle format but you can do it in simple text if that works for you.  It is free and an awesome resource.

One of the books I had never thought to read was the Communist Manifesto.  As I have been watching the antics and philosophy of the Progregressives* I kept hearing that they were pushing Communism.  So I said to myself, “Self, you ought to go to the source.”  Since I am a skeptic of both sides I decided to read the primary source on Communism.  It was an easy read.  Marx wrote well in this book.  Evidently it was originally published in several languages, including English.  That means no one can blame the translator.  It was also much shorter than I expected.  I read it in one day.  I am going to add it to my list of books that everyone should read.

I will try to share with you some of the words of Marx, from the horses mouth.  I found myself wanting to go into a lot more than I covered.  We all have limits to what we can take.  I have started reading Das Kapital but the first chapter seems so full of well written nonsense that I am not sure I can justify finishing it, but that is a topic for another series.

*(Liberals, educators, the media, socialists, communists, crony capitalists, elites, Rinos, Democrats, leftists, Never Trumpers, Antifa, BLM, MSM, Deep State, etc.  Synonym for swamp dwellers)

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-278: First World Problems (FWP): Before the Ink Is Dry

I enjoy writing with a fountain pen.  Don’t ask me to explain it.

I have a problem.  You might have no sympathy.  I am experiencing FWP with my fountain pens:  The ink seems to disappear over night.  I did not have this problem in the past.  I am wondering if it has something to do with the ink, which used to be made in Germany, is now made in China.  I don’t need to listen to other people’s conspiracy theories.  I can come up with my own.

I will live with this difficulty.  Bear with me as I try to figure it out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-277: The New Normal

Most Americans have not lived long enough to see some of the trends that are developing.  They imagine that what they see is the way it has always been.  I guess that is normal.  Think about major problems people are having that never surfaced a century ago:  Peanut allergy, gluten intolerance, ADHD, autism, safe spaces, trigger warnings, living in mom’s basement at 40.  They existed but were rare and exotic not everyday concerns.  

Are they real problems?  Maybe.  I hear that people can die of peanut allergies.  I have worked with autistic children.  My wife has been told she is ADHD.  I still don’t understand the problem with gluten but who am I to criticize?  

I would wonder why they are so much more common.  Some have marked the rise of autism with the increase in vaccines.  I could lay the cause of some disorders at the feet of poor parenting and destructive teaching techniques.  I worked with a teacher who said if modern diagnosis had been available when he was a child, he would have been drugged to the gills and a total basket case today.  I have seen children who are perfectly calm, as calm as a young boy can be, when at our home, but the mother talks the doctor into giving drugs to calm the savage beast.  I always wonder.  

I believe that much of the panic we are facing comes from the same source as Covid Catatonic Syndrom:  The media, pharmaceutical industry and government (MPG).  We are bombarded with announcements that rice products are gluten free and hard candy is fat free.  Well, duh.  They always have been and always will be but now we have something more to worry about.  When I was teaching there was a sign on a wall in the faculty lounge asking people to not bring fish products because someone had an allergy.  It was never explained who it was or why the entire population of the school should change their diet because of that unnamed person.

In addition to a lack of historical perspective, a large factor in the fear campaigns is that people have been convinced that MPG can solve all their problems and meet all their needs.  MPG has replaced God in their lives.  As we have been adjusting our theology and trying to allow science and the medical gurus to strive for immortality, we have simply been changing the causes of death.  We don’t die of old age any more.  We now have fancy names.  Old age has no cure but heart failure might.

We are all going to die.  You might put off the inevitable but you can’t cheat death.  What we don’t like to hear is that personal discipline would probably do better than any medical procedure but that puts the responsibility back on us.  We would rather have a pill or an operation than eat right and exercise.  

See you on the other side, maybe.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-276: Gift of God?

I was listening to a discussion of the liberty we enjoy as Americans, or at least used to enjoy.  One of the speakers made a point I have heard repeatedly.  He pointed out that our rights are not given by the government but by God.  The implication was that these are something that God has granted since time immemorial.  I accept that God has blessed us with them but question the implication.  Somehow I think the apostle Paul would have also been surprised at that.

Americans have lived in a bubble.  Never in the history of the world have so many people had so much prosperity and so many options.  American Christians tend to fall into the trap of thinking that we are God’s chosen people.  We are not.  We are blessed but we are not the chosen.

The concept that all men are created equal, from the Declaration of Independence, can be validated from scripture as long as you understand “created” does not mean locked in for an entire life span.

(Gal 3:28 KJV)  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

The key term is “in Christ”.  It does not mean class or talent.

The ideas embodied in the Bill of Rights are another story.  I like to think they come from God.  They do come more from God than the government.  There is little Biblical basis for freedom of religion or jury trial.

Be glad we have them.  We are losing them.  The oneness in Christ will survive.  Eternity will still be waiting.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-275: Thanks Thoughts: How Is Rain Like a Chicken?

Which came first, the puddle or the rain?

As I entered into my Day Start of thanksgiving and praise I sat and listened to the rain.  Since my roof is not leaking and I live on high ground, I was thanking God for the sounds and smells of rainfall.  That got me to thinking of the creativity God demonstrated in designing the cycle.  Water is evaporated.  This involves a lot of energy as the fluid changes phases to a gas.  The decision to make gravity causes the light vapor to rise allowing the accumulation of clouds.  High altitudes are cooler so the phase change reverses.  There are so many variables involved that I don’t even want to know what they are.

Rain falls.  I enjoy.  Thank you Father.

homo unius libri