Opus 2022-224: Be a Skeptic

In some ways conservatives are no better than liberals.  Have you notice that so many of those who claimed that the poles were useless are now quoting them?

When it was Trump’s popularity then the polls were biased.  Now that the poles are showing Biden in the dumps we suddenly shout them from the rooftops.  Pick your topic.  

I would go for consistency.  That does not mean you have your choice of being a happy believer or a total skeptic.  You need to be a skeptic but be one all the time.  Don’t let people manipulate your peace with skewed numbers.  Keep in mind that statistics can be correct and still be meaningless.  If I say the number of people who read my posts has doubled it doesn’t have quite the same significance as Jordan Peterson doubling his.

When you find a reliable source then pay attention but never give up that moment when you ask yourself if it is true.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-223: Security Is on Its Way

The Progressive* dream is to make you perfectly safe.  They will do this by managing your life and taking away all risks.  They think they are clever enough to do it and they know you don’t have a clue.  This is why the Soviet Union always had a five year plan.  To date they have never worked.  You see, according to Adam Smith, there are too many variables at work for a finite number of human beings to keep ahead of all the changes.  Ignore it all you want.  It is still true.  The Law of Unintended Consequences always rears its ugly head.

I hope that all the snowflakes of America enjoy the security they have in store for them.  I have been trying to remember all the ways in which my government has tried to keep me safe.  So many of the limitations on our life have become automatic that we don’t even think about them any more.  Here are a few:

Banning artificial sweeteners
Nutrition labels

Seat belts
Helmets
Car seats
Air bags
Increased fuel efficiency
Handicap parking at golf courses and gyms

Reduced flow showers and toilets
Making incandescent lights illegal
Carbon monoxide, smoke and radon detectors in my bedroom

Mandatory education
Removing offensive language from Mark Twain books
20 MPH speed limits in school zones

Licenses for brow weavers
Inspections and ratings for restaurants

Items keep coming to me but I have to stop somewhere.  I tried to arrange it by area of interference.  To add to the list all you really need to do is stop and think about something you do or pay for that you really would not do if not mandated by the government.

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

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-222: Mystery Before My Eyes

At first I thought it was a fox.  Later I wondered if it was really a coyote.

I was on a Zoom call and caught motion out of the corner of my eye.  Right in front of me a fox was calmly trotting across the yard and into the trees.  Cool.  About ten minutes later a roadrunner followed him.  

This made me question my first judgement and guess it might have been a coyote running from a roadrunner.  There were no explosions or trees falling over so we will never know.

Another day in Texas hill country.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-221: The Game of Law

More and more Americans are asking what kind of games the Proregressives* are playing with out legal system.  We have watched cities burn with few arrests and those arrested turned loose.  We have read about criminals arrested with a huge load of illegal drugs and they walk free.  Recently we had some of Stephen Colbert’s staff were wandering around the capital unescorted after hours.  It is called trespass.  They were out on the street again shortly.  Those arrested for trespass on January 6 are still in jail a year and a half later.  Their big crime was they were Trump supporters.  It makes a difference.

Ths kind of thing is another example of how the elites are applying the values of the Soviet to the judicial system of the United States.  Solzhenitsyn saw the same thing going on in the prison system of Communist Russia.  There were at least two types of trial.  One trial was criminal and the other was political.

“Nor had the thieves ever been put through the same kind of interrogation.  Their entire interrogation had consisted of two sessions, an easy trial, and an easy sentence, and they wouldn’t have to serve it out.  They would be released ahead of time:  either they would be amnestied or else they would simply escape....  And he was supported in this pride by all the chiefs in blue shoulder boards and blue piping.  ‘Oh, that’s nothing.  Even though you’re a bandit and a murderer, you are not a traitor of the Motherland, you are one of our own people; you will reform.’”  (Emphasis in original) p. 505

Does this sound like what is going on in our courts?  It should.  Everything we see happening is designed to bring fear to the streets and terrorize the citizens into subjects.

Be aware.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.  Translated by Thomas P. Whitney.  The Gulag Archipelago, Vol 1.  New York:  Harper & Row, Publishers, 1973.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-220: New Info

It has been an informative morning.  I just learned that my granddaughter has two daddies.  One of them milks cows and the other gives piggy back rides.  It seems the cow milker is more interesting.

As things unfolded I was informed my daughter has two husbands.

They have cows that give milk all over their bodies, much of it chocolate.  They mix the chocolate milk with popcorn.

My granddaughter also confessed to having dementia.

And after that things really got bizarre.

Another day of being a grandparent.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-219: Off the Dime

I went to Sunday School last Sunday.

Big deal, you say.  It is.  I can’t count the years since I attended a Sunday School class.  I am not going because I think I am going to be amazed at the learning.  To be honest, I have heard more than I put into action.  I have also taught it.  The reason I am going is to force myself to get out of my shell and get to know the people of the church.  I don’t look at it as socializing as much as building the body of Christ by getting involved.  I have been telling myself I would do it.  Now I have.

On the desk in front of me, at eye level, written in clear English is little card that says, “Do it now.”  It is there to combat my procrastination.  Sometimes it works.  What also got me moving was a re-reading of the Screwtape Letters.  In it I found Screwtape’s advice to Wormwood on how to deaden the spirit of revival in the new convert,

“The great thing is to prevent his doing anything.  as long as he does not convert it into action, it does not matter how much he thinks about this new repentance....  Let him do anything but act  No amount of piety in his imagination and affections will harm us if we can keep it out of his will.”  p 66

I do not confuse C.S. Lewis with the Apostle Paul but that does not mean that he can’t say things that need to be said.

So I got active.  Now to make it through all the excuses I will have for next week.

Lewis, C.S.  The Screwtape Letters.  Norwalk, Connecticut:  The Easton Press, 2002.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-218: Persistent Payoff

One of the side effects of reading through the Bible is that by the time you come around again it is fresh.  It always amazes me when I read something that I don’t remember seeing before.  Even after all these years.  Sometimes it is just a new understanding but often I don’t remember it at all.

It is something like the war games in which I played years ago.  They were played on big paper maps of the battlefield broken down into hexes.  One battle I enjoyed was called Quatra Bra.  It was fought just before Waterloo.  I would play both sides.  Because it was so complicated when I was playing the English I couldn’t remember what I had done as the French.

Reading through the Bible also gives a good gestalt experience.  The Bible is a complex book that is designed to be interpreted and understood in light of the complete story.  We have a tendency to live by proof texts, one liners, because they don’t require much thought, but you can’t understand references to church [eklesia, called out ones] and love [agape] in the New Testament unless you have read about the synagogue [called together ones] and loving kindness in the Old.

It always amazes me how a book written over millennia can fit together so well.  I enjoy the genre of science fiction.  One of the saddest things about it is the ways in which it tries to deal with God.  You read entire made up religions in some of the fantasy that duplicates the vocabulary of the Bible but makes little sense.  Sometimes the authors even slip up and admit their quest.  For instance,

“Newton and Einstein and McElroy had been fortunate:  They’d lived in eras when much about the nature of things remained mysterious.  But in Pete Damon’s age, no true mysteries remained.  Other than creation itself, and the anthropic principle.  What had started the universe?  And why were all the myriad settings, gravity and the strong force and the tendency of water to freeze from the top down, why was all that tuned precisely in such a way to make possible the development of life-forms?  Those two great questions had not been answered, but the consensus was that they would remain forever beyond the reach of science.”  p. 48

Read but keep your mind engaged.  There is much to stretch the mind.  Enjoy it.

McDevitt, Jack.  Chindi.  New York:  Ace Books, 2002.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-217: Gulag Reruns

We are deluged with conspiracy theories.  Many center around the mystery of untested vaccines and the long range effects.  Some prophecy that they are designed to start killing off the human race.  On the surface that seems a bit extreme.  After all, if you kill off all the peasants, who will mow  your lawn and scrub your floors?  A little knowledge of history however gives the extreme predictions a bit of bite.  The world has had more than its share of nasty, vicious people.

This has come through to me reading The Gulag Archipelago.  It is mind numbing to keep reading about the body count piled up by the Soviet Government.  Picture the total ruthlessness of Communism.  Follow the bouncing heads through the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Pol Pot’s Cambodia.  The followers of Karl Marx have quite a record.

Some people like to act like the Europeans were the first ones who killed off Indians.  The Iroquois eradicated at least one tribe.  The Aztecs refrained from total genocide because they wanted a steady source of sacrifices.  The innocent Carib Indians were cannibals.  I sure the list could go on.

Shall we list the intertribal warfare of Africa?  How about the way the Mongols treated defeated cities.  It doesn’t take much research to get the picture, unless you are woke.  Genocide is a worldwide phenomena.

The attitude is still alive and well.  The people who are destroying America have a Gulag in mind for you.  They would love to send people of faith on their own trail of tears.  They have camp in mind for our future and it will not be one with campfires and many choruses of Kumbaya.  

Speak up while you can.  Face the reality of what they will do if they are given a chance.  It is not a conspiracy theory, it is a knowledge of how history has been played out.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-216: The Show Must Go On

The January 6 “hearings” are frightening, or they should be to average Americans.  They are right out of the Communist play book.  That is why you see the term “show trial”.  It is used historically to refer to the series of trials put on by Stalin in the Soviet Union around 1937.  They were done with great theater and attention of dramatic detail.  They were widely publicized and made open to the public and the media.  They were all circus and no justice.  

Aleksnandr Solzhenitsyn goes into a lot of detail as he describes them.  One of the things that stood out to me was this statement.

“The only witnesses heard were those of the prosecution.  Defense witnesses were not permitted to testify.”  p. 351

You would wonder if he was talking about 1937 or 2022.  Welcome the Amerika as morphed by the Democrats and Rinos.  You may not be able to change the clown show but you can wake up and stay that way.  Keep in mind that wake and woke are not the same thing.

Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.  Translated by Thomas P. Whitney.  The Gulag Archipelago, Vol 1.  New York:  Harper & Row, Publishers, 1973.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-215: Get Inside the Box

I was watching my grandson “read” a book.  Actually, he was reading more than one.  The first was impressive.  The second he held upside down.  It isn’t as if he was looking at a page of print.  These were pictures with a few words.  It didn’t seem to bother him that the animals were standing on their heads.  I found myself wondering at what age he would begin to notice.

That of course made me start wandering about all the people around me that don’t seem to notice that the world is upside down.  My grandson is two and a half.  He is able to discern that the wheels on a car go down.  He put together a wooden train with the engine first.  He never tries to pour tea into an upside down cup.  Yet he still is not bothered by upside down pictures.  Does this mean that he has not yet learned to think inside the box?  What about people who know enough to put on a jacket when it is cold but think that cold weather is a sign of global warming?  In history they probably read about the vast herds of buffalo that covered the middle of the country but they worry about cow farts destroying life on earth.  

There are times when I think I am going to need to stop watching my grandchildren so much.  Probably not.  If nothing else it is a way of being reminded how above average they are.  The big question is, “Heredity or environment?”

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-214: Vive la Difference or Die Heretic

I find myself wondering if I need to watch more TV or go to more movies.  I am not sure that I have any clue to the raw material that makes up modern thinking.  My personal opinion is that I am better off that way but how do I understand my fellow Americans?

It is so easy to think other people have values and priorities like we do.  They don’t.  That is sometimes what makes like interesting.  Other times it is what makes life maddening.  The differences can be as simple as the impossible reality that some people like liver and onions.  I have a child like that.  I would blame it on my wife’s French blood but she doesn’t like liver.

People see the world differently.  I know someone who is more than a little bit color blind.  He can’t tell the difference between pink and gray.  Purple fits in that same category.  It is a simple thing but it means he will make different choices than I would.  There are also entire nuances of life that he will never know.  

Some are brought up with different values.  Consider the difference between a guilt culture and a shame culture.  In one you are guilty for breaking the rules because you broke the rules.  In the other you are only guilty if you are caught and the main shame is that you failed to get away with your criminal behavior.  It makes a difference in your entire scope of ethics and everything downstream from those standards.

These kinds of differences are what are pulling the country apart.  The moral framework being taught today is a do-your-own-thing approach that puts each individual at the throat of their neighbor.  Maybe it is time to introduce something simple, like the Ten Commandments.  Or we could even start with what Jesus gave as the greatest commandment,

(Luk 10:27 KJV)  And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

It would be a good place to start.

Maybe I don’t need to go to movies.  Maybe I should stick to what I know.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-213: Election 2024: A Never Happen Slate

Many people are speculating on whether Donald Trump will run again in 2024.  Evidently Joe Biden is thinking about it.  Maybe in his dreams.  What will be the match up?

The big question really is what slate the Democrats can come up with to compete in the next presidential election.  I have a combination that might get them some traction.  I only suggest it because it will never happen.  I would not want to give them any clues.  I prefer them without one.

I am suggesting a Manchin/Gabbard ticket.  Or go with Gabbard/Manchin.  Either way it would have a better chance of winning than anything I have heard so far.  Of course it seems like both of them have been going out of their ways to be ignored.

The way they have alienated the Democratic leadership is by making reasonable statements and taking genuinely moderate positions.  Joe Manchin has been the one vote that the Democrats have not been able to get on several bills.  Good for him.  Tulsi Gabbard has made a number of statements like she is actually an American citizen.  I don’t think I could vote for either one of them because they are Democrats at heart but I am glad to see a bit of reality on the other side.

We continue to live in interesting times.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-212: Cultural Shortcuts

I enjoy memes and associated humor.  I have a problem at times because I have drifted so far out of the mainstream that I don’t know who some of the people are in the cartoons and I don’t get some of the contemporary cultural references.  I don’t spend too much time trying to figure out some of them.  My sense of humor also makes allowance for the possibility that there is no real joke except on me for looking for one.  

The internet is loaded with acronyms.  Sometimes I make up my own.  Recently I suggested MRB (Male Refrigerator Blindness) but don’t really expect them to catch on.  For some reason I learned that YOLO stands for “you only live once.”  We all know LOL.  My favorite it TL;DR which stands for “too long; didn’t read.”

This hit me when I was humming Sonny Salisbury’s song, “I’ve Got Something to Sing About” when I came to the line “every song that you hear on KFWB”.  What does that mean?  Unless you were raised in Southern California in the 60's I don’t think you would have any idea.  At that time it was one of the two or three pop music stations.  It later went to all news.  I am not sure if it is around any more.

Enjoy your own personal cultural memories.  Try to understand the one’s others use.  You might even try to use age old classics that come from the Bible and Shakespeare when you are around the younger generation.  If you can’t educate them you might at least humble them.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-211: A Big Step Backwards

Somewhere recently I saw a meme poster that showed a large contingent of Boy Scouts marching in a parade with a forest of gay pride flags.  That got me to thinking about how the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have moved from the asset side of the cultural ledger to the debit column.  For most people this has gone mostly unnoticed.  Or they might remember the time period when the Boy Scouts were still resisting and standing tall.  No longer.  Both have gone full woke.

We need to withdraw our support.  This is a key age in the development of character.  My wife’s grandfather brought home a war bride from Germany.  She had been a proud member of the Hitler Youth.  She never got over it.  She hated Jews til her dying day.  She was a wonderful, generous, giving person.  She was still a Nazi at heart.  I am reading Orwell’s 1984 and he describes how The Party worked to pervert the young people.  

“It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children. And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which 'The Times' did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak--'child hero' was the phrase generally used--had overheard some compromising remark and denounced its parents to the Thought Police.”  (Kindle location 319-321)

Keep in mind that the goal of the Proregressives* is to totally destroy our Constitutional Republic and put a Socialist Paradise in its place.  The Scouts are now just another merit badge on their sash.  

Speak up.  Stand up.  Don’t become a silent member of the sheep fold.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-210: Headlines: Don’t Bother Looking It Up

The times are really changing.  One of the old standbys in the world of references was the dictionary.  I used to wonder why home schoolers were so intent on the old Webster dictionary.  After all, a word is a word, right?  Not so fast.

I had seen this click bait before but decided to check it out at The Gateway Pundit.  It seems that Merriam Webster has changed the definition of female in their dictionary.  I assume this is the online version for now.   I am sure that if they still do a print version it will keep them busy making all the changes that the Wokers are demanding.  

By the way, it seems they have also changed the definition for “male”.

I might suggest some name changes for these woke leftists but I try to not use those kinds of expressions.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-209: Headlines: Shocker

I am shocked.  We seem to have one Democrat who cares about the country.  Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is surprising everyone.  He has a history of talking big and voting small.  It is necessary because he comes from a very red state.  How he gets elected is beyond me but he is coming through better than a Rino lately.  

I wonder if he has presidential aspirations.  How would the country respond if the choice included a real moderate on the Democratic side?  It would certainly make for a more interesting race.  It is one of the possibilities that should keep the Republicans on their toes.

Of course I always think it is better to go with the conservative rather than the moderate, but last time I checked no one was listening to me.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-208: Score One for the Liberals

Recently I read on Power Line about a liberal writer, Ruy Teixera,  who was leaving his liberal cesspool, Center for American Progress, and being accepted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  Evidently the Wall Street Journal thinks this is a sign of the vigor of conservatives.  I see it as the first step in the destruction of AEI.  

Keep in mind that many of our colleges and universities used to be conservative.  Like AEI they were open to opposing views and opened their ranks to professors from the left.  They refused to acknowledge that they were slowly taken over until the modern academic world is a tyranny of Progressivism.  One thing you can say for the left, they know better than to give conservatives a voice.  They know liberal ideas don’t work.  They know socialist theories won’t stand the rigor of the light.  They use the cancel culture and coercion to keep themselves in power.  That is one reason I feel it will ultimately be necessary to close down the public universities.

Enjoy AEI while you can.  The heat is being applied and the frog is still asleep.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-207: The Scorpion and the Conservative

I had never heard of Sir Roger Scruton but Peter Robinson and the staff of Uncommon Knowledge know him well enough to have an interview.  He is touted as a British intellectual who is conservative and what I have heard so far sounds good.  If you like intelligent conversation you might give it a listen.

As I listened I heard a gracious man who thinks deeply trying to be open minded about his liberal friends.  At one point, after pointing out the destructive force of liberals in our society, he had to pause and point out that not all liberals are phoney.  Some of them do care about the well being of the masses.  This highlighted the problem with conservative intellectuals.  They are blinded by their desire to be kind and forgiving to their liberal friends.  They cut them slack when it is not really deserved.  They try to see both sides and have an honest dialogue.   

Conservative intellectuals seem to usually miss the whole problem.  They are engaged in a one way desire to communicate.  Liberals do not want to communicate.  They want to dominate and control.  What they can not control they seek to destroy.  That is what they are doing to our Republic.  When they could not win by elected officials they turned to the courts to do an end run.  When they don’t win in court they release the home addresses of the Justices and sic their deranged minions on them.  Then President Biden starts writing executive orders that contradict the courts.  

You can’t reason with these people.  It is questionable whether they can be reclaimed for civil society.  Still, I guess we have to try but we need to quit giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Always keep in mind the scorpion getting a ride across the river on the frog.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-206: Angels from the Realms of Glory

I believe that guardian angels exist.

(Psa 91:11 NAS77) For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.

That seems simple and direct.  Of course it leaves a lot of questions.  I sometimes wonder if there is one angel assigned to each person or whether they have neighborhoods assigned.  Or the other extreme, maybe there are several keeping an eye on me.  I have no idea but I like the idea that they exist.  I sometimes remember to thank them

I think there is a lot of confusion over what angels would look like if we could see them.  I like the bit of artistic slight of hand used in the comic strip Rose Is Rose.  Pasquale has a guardian angel who usually appears as Pasquale with wings and a halo.  Every once in awhile the cute cherub gets a bit vexed and appears in his real form with is a macho warrior from the middle ages.  I like that.  I have noticed that when an angel appears to someone in the Bible they usually start off with, “Don’t be afraid.”  

At the same time there seems to be the ability to blend in.  Notice this verse,

(Heb 13:2 KJV)  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.  

It would seem that we don’t always know.

I look forward to meeting my guardian or guardians at a time when we can sit down over a cup of coffee and share my stupidest moments.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-205: A Contagion That Is Spreading

Almost every contact I have had today reinforces how unbrilliant the average American is.  That goes double if they are under thirty.

My wife came screaming into the back room of the house screaming, literally, about how stupid the people she is dealing with in matters such as insurance.  I don’t know if I feel her pain but my ears certainly heard her frustration.

On the Zoom call I join twice a week there was extended discussion of such books as The Closing of the American Mind and a new one The Coddling of the American Mind.  I have read the first but not the second.  We were all agreed that our university system was failing the young people of America.  

An example of that would be one of those man-on-the-street videos I watched.  The interviewer was asking people if they knew who Anne Frank was.  Many of them had no clue.  With that in mind along with the previous paragraph I though a good term for higher education would be Intellectual Auschwitz.  

All I can advise you is count your change, check behind your car when you back up and watch for young people walking down the street with their heads bowed in prayer.  If you are in that stage of life you might also consider home schooling your children.  You need to know that you will have to work hard to get worse results than the public school and you will not need to spend so much time explaining sexual terms that used to be isolated in the porn shop.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-204: Headlines: A Mother Missed

We were greeted yesterday morning by the announcement that Ivana Trump, Donald Trump’s first wife, has died.  My condolences go out to the family.  It is a tribute to her, as well as him, that the children of that union have turned out so well.  A major ingredient in how I evaluate people is the way their children turn out.  I know nothing about her other than that and she becomes five stars because of it.  I felt that the gracious comments by her ex said a lot about her and about him.

It was interesting to note that she was married several times and the time with Donald Trump was far longer than any of the others.  I take that as saying something about him as a husband and the children as a good indication of him as a father.  All of this goes to say that he is a good man at heart.

Life moves on.  When someone famous dies it is a good time to stop and remember the unfamous people in our lives.  It is also a good time to examine how much time you give to those still alive.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-203: Virus or Vaccine?

I find myself praying for people to be protected from the vaccine rather than the virus.  Maybe I am the only one.  I don’t want to ignore those who have gotten sick in the past year but I still feel on the whole that there is more danger from the untested vaccines.  Just like the viral infections blamed on the Covid virus, the reported side effects seem to bypass the majority, but they strike a different demographic.  

Keep in mind that the best prevention is sound health practices:  Wash your hands, get plenty of sleep, eat a well balanced diet, get enough exercise.  Of course it would help if you have a history of good genes and have avoided the legal and illegal substances that are so abused.  

It might also help if your trust was in God rather than the Pharmacy.

Interesting times.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-202: Irritations and Heirs

Life used to be full of daily checks and irritations.  You used to need to check your oil daily, prime the pump in the kitchen, check your boots for critters, pick the seeds out of your watermelon, and many regional specialties such as checking for ticks.  If you go back far enough you get to hitching up the team and chopping firewoord.  Modern conveniences have done away with many of those.

Today we have new irritations.  Many of them can be blamed on Microsoft and Apple.  I cannot figure out how I can keep Microsoft from trying to get me to use Bing.  I am weary of both companies constantly demanding to update devices.  Then you have click bait.  Until you become hardened you will click on a link actually thinking you are going to an article about a coming tax increase only to find it takes you to an offer of Russian brides.  Then there are the news aggregators that take you to an article that wants you to click again to actually read it.  And then you have the pay walls.

As Robert Heinlein once said, TANSTAAFL, There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch for the uninitiated.  I don’t know if he said it first, but it was said.  Every day is an adventure.  Just remind yourself that the good old days weren’t and you will be half way to getting the easy open jar in that condition.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-201: A New Hypocrisy

One of the terms that emerged from the book 1984 was “Newspeak”.  It was a process that The Party was going through of developing new words for old concepts.  You may have noticed that the Proregressives* of our country are busy with a similar process.  We are doing it my redefining words or adding adjectives that change the meaning.  One of the words of Orwell’s Newspeak is called “doublethink”.  It is not a new concept.  In our modern vocabulary of psychology we would call it “cognitive dissonance.”  Here is how Orwell explains it.

“His mind slid away into the labyrinthine world of doublethink. To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it,...”  (Kindle Location 457-459)

This has to describe the mind set of the left today.  I find it hard to believe that anyone really believes so much of the foolishness that is called science, law and justice today.  The answer is that they are aware of it but choose to live in the world that they want.

Think of someone who calls themself a scientist and works in research on the climate.  They know the real numbers.  They know the contortions used to get the phony data.  They collect their paycheck and go home to their family or out to the bar with their friends.  The fact that they are destroying a culture and an economy is shoved under their mental rug.  If they are really good they will move to a new apartment before they have to clean up the mess.  Too bad there is no place to run if America goes down.

Use any label you want:  Socialism, progressivism, Communism or the anointed.  It is still bad news for all of us.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-200: Ideologues Are Ubiquitous

I continued listening to Jordan Peterson and Rod Dreher discussing Live Not by Lies.  I heard it in sound bites that went until they continued the discussion behind a “pay wall.”  Pay walls and advertising I can’t skip are usually a notice to me that I have other things to do in my life.  I respect their right to be entrepreneurs and exercise my right to not listen.  

One reason I listen to discussions between people like this is the tangents they produce in my mind.  One of those tangents came up when they began to discuss the belief systems that guide people.  I believe it was Peterson who asked Dreher, “What is the difference between ideology and religion?”  I wasn’t satisfied with his answer.  I think he was trying to be reasonable instead of being called something rude like, ideologue.  So I asked myself the same question.

First, there is nothing wrong with the word ideology.  It becomes a problem because the Progressives* want to attack people who have strong beliefs.  It is another one of those perfectly useful bits of vocabulary that the left has highjacked and loaded with their content.  It is simply a system of ideas.  Anyone who thinks coherently has an ideology.  The word breaks down into the roots meaning ideas and study.  Just as biology is the study of life so ideology is the study of ideas.  We really need to rise up when we hear this kind of cultural abuse by the deconstructionist Progressives*.

Ideology can be based on religion.  This is true whether the religion is Communism or Christianity.  I am in the process of reading 1984.  In it the basics ideas of Communism, or The Party, are presented.  Among them is the idea that truth is whatever the party says it is today.  

“In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy.” (Kindle Location 1065-1070)

For the party the ultimate truth was a sliding scale of convenience.  In the same way your local church has traditionally had a Statement of Faith that gave the basics it believed in.  So I would say that all ideology has a religious belief at its root.

Religion is based on what are accepted as unchanging, eternal truths.  Christianity is based on the Bible and its teachings.  Islam is based on the Koran.  Communism goes to the Manifesto.  It is not something to be ashamed of or deny.  It is simply a fact.

So just as there is no real shame in being white, patriotic or a home owner, neither is there any real shame in being ideological.  If you feel shame then shame on you.

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Opus 2022-199: Gilded Guilt

I had recently read Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher so when I saw him in a discussion with Jordan Peterson, I decided to listen.  At the end of the first snippet I had time to digest, Peterson presented the problem that there is a grain of truth in the privilege we enjoy.  Much of our prosperity was generated over the years from exploiting weaker people and we need to concede that.  Now, I don’t know where he will go with this, I ran out of time, but it got me thinking.

People who hate the benefits that capitalism delivers to the common people have a way of lifting out the abuses of any situation and comparing it to a socialist Utopia.  It is a battle no one can win since socialists don’t need to deal with facts and reality when they set up their perfect world.  Have there been times when the western world has taken advantages of other groups?  Of course.  The unvarnished and ignored truth is that you would do the same thing.  You probably have.  My wife has been known to purchase items at yard sales that still have their price tags on them and return them to the store for the full value.  Was she exploiting the capitalists or the yard birds?  Of course, but she was playing by their rules.  It was a win/win.  

Much of the so-called exploitation was a case of one group giving the producers of a raw material what the seller considered a fair value and then transporting, transforming into useful materials, manufacturing useful products and selling them at the price the consumers feel is fair value.  If you compare the purchase price of raw materials to the sales price of the finished merchandise then there will obviously glaring differences.  Keep in mind that the raw sugar, iron ore, hardwood and coffee beans would just be so much junk if the “exploiters” had not seen a way to use them.

I am willing to acknowledge that as an American I live in an world of affluence and privilege.  It is obvious if you know anything about the rest of the world.  The Progressives*, who want to destroy America try to put me on a guilt trip.  I take a different approach, thanksgiving.  By being thankful, I acknowledge how good I have it but I also recognize the source of that bounty.  And my thanksgiving does not start with my food supply and A/C.  It starts with being thankful that God has put in place a plan of salvation through Jesus that delivers me from the greater evil of sin in my life.  I then move on to such things as the benefits provided by a long line of inventors and entrepreneurs who have done such simple things as make a wide variety of coffees available at a reasonable price.

I reject the guilt because it is manipulative.  The conviction God lays on me causes me to respond in a way that benefits me and society.  The victory of Progressive* guilt leads to the destruction of both.  It is not exploitation to leave people better off than they would have been if you had not passed by.

Skip the phoney guilt.  There are plenty of real things to feel guilty about such as not spending enough time with your children.

*(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 2022-198: Scholars

I am starting to think that scholars should be banned from speaking to the general public and be forced to interact only with other scholars.  It isn’t a matter of vocabulary or knowledge.  It is a matter of attitude and ways of reasoning.

In the past I have listened to a scholar named William Lane Craig (WLC).  He is a Christian apologist who does research, writes books, records podcasts, debates and gives lectures.  His doctorates are in Philosophy and Theology but he seems to be a bit of a Renaissance man because he has also dabbled in physics and other areas of science.  He recently wrote a book, The Quest for the Historical Adam.  I listened to a forum at the Southern Evangelical Seminary which had scholars from four different disciplines react to his writing.  The four speakers weaved in and out of being interesting and being profound but I was generally able to follow them.  When Craig got up to respond I found I could understand what he was saying but it still didn’t make any sense to me as a common person.

When scholars get on their high horse they feel they have to put so many qualifications on anything they want to say that their statements become mush and fog.  Much of the bobbing and ducking focused around his statement that Genesis 1-11 was something he called “mytho-history”.  It seemed to me like he was focused on pleasing the scientific community more than actually making a clear statement.  

I don’t think I will bother with the book.  It fits into that genre of scholarship that is so inconclusive that the time would be better spent reading something else.  I hope it is just a hiccup in his career because he has a lot to say and usually says it well.  Meanwhile I hope he enjoys debating the other egg-heads.

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Opus 2022-197: Three, Not Two

One of the themes on the internet is a second civil war.  I would submit that if things are pushed as far as the Progressives want it will be at least the third civil war.  It occurred to me that the American Revolution was as much a civil war as a war for independence.

Although I don’t know if anyone can give definitive numbers, I have heard that citizens of the thirteen colonies were divided in thirds on the issue of independence.  One third were pro-British, one third were ready to fight and one third just wanted to be left alone.  After the war was won a large number of the Tories moved to Canada because of their loyalty to the king.  It was as much a civil war as a revolution.

The Civil War, which bears many names such as The War of Northen Aggression, had similar divisions.  Population in the two areas were wildly different but the land mass would have been similar.  And I would imagine that there were many people who just wanted to be left alone.  That would include almost everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line.

We are looking at similar division today.  We hear about how divisive the country is today.  That is nothing new.  The big difference is that only one of the players is willing to play by the rules.  The other is intent on inciting a violent response to their “peaceful protests”.  While drug traffickers and thugs are released back on the streets the January sixth suckers who actually believed the police were opening the doors and beckoning them in are sitting in jail.  It is still possible to avoid a Russian Revolution scenario but not if the people who believe in the rule of law don’t start speaking up and taking a stand.

November is coming.  Vote like there is no tomorrow or they very well may not be one.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-196: Headlines: Lessons from Japan

Shinzo Abe was been murdered after a speech.  He is an ex-Prime Minister of Japan.  All that I know about him was positive so this is a double tragedy, personal for him and his family and consequential for the world at large.  

A couple of thoughts.

Gun control did nothing to protect this man.  Japan is an unarmed country.  You can get a permit to own a rifle but it is very expensive and I think you are required to keep it locked up at the shooting range.  It is the kind of culture where shootings are not supposed to happen.  It did.

World leaders are concerned, as they should be.  What happens in Japan can happen in any country of the world.  If it could happen to a popular figure like Abe then what is the likelihood of it happening to the tin pot dictators of the world or the well dressed elites of Davos?

Be careful what you believe.  Keep in mind that the media kneads the message to achieve the desired results.  Abe was reported to be a popular Prime Minister.  That is possible since he was the longest serving Prime Minister in Japan’s history.  The social media released a picture of the home-made shot gun used by the murderer.  That will probably be covered up.  So far we know nothing of the killer’s background and associations.  I am guessing that we never will or what we “learn” will be all wrong.

Watch your back and keep your hand on your wallet.

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Opus 2022-195: Choices

My memory says I have already named my specific targets for economic warfare.  I can’t find it in the Boycott box so I will take another look at it.  This is stimulated by something I read that mentioned Dick’s Sporting Goods.  I had forgotten that I did not shop there any more.  If you do this kind of thing right it becomes automatic.  You don’t even consider visiting them.  Maybe you could make an exception on a hot day if you want to use their a/c or when you need a bathroom.  It would depend on your ability to resist that sale they are having.

Part of my thinking is that no one can boycott everything that is offensive to our values.  The way things are going the woke companies may give you no options.  My suggestion is to develop a reasonable list, maybe with four categorizes and one company in each.  That is doable.  Thus you would not boycott both Walmart and Target unless there is a K-Mart still open in your area.  I have my truants in several categories.  

The Dementia Category

My first category is companies I have gradually rejected over the years and either never bought their goods or have stopped and don’t think about it.  It is like the names you can’t remember when you get to a certain age or the things you did last week you don’t remember.

Ford Motor Company has drunk the koolaide on the homosexual agenda.  Since I don’t ever see myself buying a new car this is painless to me.

Levi is something I don’t shop for any more.  It was all I wore as a teen and young adult.  They also became a gay company and made it even worse by undermining the Boy Scouts back in the days before the Scouts gave up the good fight.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is a no-go because of their position on selling firearms and ammunition.  This has cost them some business because there have been items I would have considered buying there but purchased somewhere else, but I don’t consider them any more.

The Hold that Line Category

This category involves companies that are on my primary list of boycotts.  I have to think to not use them because they have been part of my life.

Amazon is off my list, or on it depending how you look at it.  To be honest there may come times when I have no choice but I have been able to go a year or so without ordering anything from them.

Target is not an option.  Banning the Salvation Army from collecting was only made worse by their embracing the transgender bathroom idea.

Pepsi products were one of my earliest boycotts.  The big problem is that Pepsi has a lot of spin offs like Taco Bell and Frito Lay which really cut into my fast food and junk food binges.  It also makes me drink water a lot at restaurants but that is probably a win/win for me.

Coke went woke and I had to walk away.  They were the ones I turned to when I stopped using Pepsi and now they seem to hate white people.  I don’t hate them, I just choose not to put my money where their mouth is.

Farm League Category

There are businesses which I would like to avoid because of the political positions they have taken but since I can’t boycott everyone they didn’t make the cut.  In this I have Walmart, Chick-fil A, Bed Bath and Beyond and any product with a rainbow in its labeling.  

I urge you to get involved in economic warfare.  Make your own list.  Have your own reasons.  Keep in mind that they don’t care about you or your values.  It may be hard but it is something we can all do.

And vote like there will be tomorrow because there may not be.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-194: Games: That’s Cold

We play a lot of games that infringe on our radar only a tad.  One of those is the game of Refrigerator Dominance.  It may be a mutation of Male Refrigerator Blindness (MRB) which can be either a game or a condition.  It is similar in that it involves both men and women.  It is also the same genre because it can be played other places such as the kitchen cupboards.  

Refrigerator Dominance is about how different containers are placed in a refrigerator.  The naive observer might suggest such things as availability or frequency of use as conditions for location.  Not so.  The chief qualification is the sense of entitlement dominating the placer.  There is a feeling that objects they feel are important should be given primary placement.    

My things get moved to a lower shelf.  I would open the door, reach for a jar in the spot I left it and come up empty handed.  Well, not empty, but the contents are not what I expected.  I had a small spray bottle of artificial butter that I used several times a day.  There was an empty spot that I had been filling and making useful.  Suddenly, after months of routine, my bottle was down a shelf and a bottle of ketchup had been relocated.  

How do I respond?  My first response is to shrug my shoulders, act like an adult and get used to the new location.  I am willing to do so because I Corinthians 13:5 says love “does not seek its own, is not provoked.”  It does not become a problem until the playoffs begin.

The playoffs are when it becomes a public issue.  It seems it is not enough to move my stuff to the bottom shelf.  Suddenly comments are needed.  It seems that the entire refrigerator is dominated by my stuff.  Who would have known?  I didn’t know until it was announced to visitors.  It is hard to understand how a jar of pickles takes up more space than two jars of mayonnaise, a jar of Miracle Whip and a bottle of ketchup.  That may just be a symptom of MRB.

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Opus 2022-193: Here We Go Again

I just finished Omega by Jack McDevitt.  Once again I see someone writing a science fiction story that is really a theological treatise.

The theology comes in when the rescuers from Earth are driven to masquerade as deities of the natives they are trying to save in order to warn them about a coming catastrophe.  They are laboring under a policy of non-intervention, The Protocol, but find that they only way they can save the alien civilization is to intervene.  So they appear in the guise of a goddess and pass on the information the natives need.  It was a simple message, “Flee to the high ground for a few days.”  

The theological statement has two elements.  First, it looks at the past in our history where there have been strange occurrences that need an explanation.  Since science fiction authors as a whole reject the idea of God, it is necessary to bring in the advanced aliens from outer space to save our cookies.  It is the same approach that evolutionists take in trying to figure out where advanced life came from on earth.  They know it could not have happened by chance.  They can figure the odds.  They know how probability works.  They know there was not enough time for evolution to take place even if they overlook the Original Cause or Prime Mover problem.  By having advanced humans save beings on another planet that says it could have happened here.  It is a popular theme in science fiction.  It also overlooks the problem of where the aliens came from.

The second theological position is that religious traditions come from people faking the activity of the gods.  Miracles are slight of hand.  Prophecy is theater.  There is no God so it must have been some legend that developed among credulous humans.

I have started the next volume in the series.  I am not sure I will finish it.  In the first few chapters there has been repeated reference to how the oceans are rising and all of that nonsense that is being pushed by the global warming lobby.  It is always introduced as if it is a done deal.  If he drops it and moves on I may keep reading.  If he keeps playing the most recent Song of Indoctrination, I will find something else to read.

McDevitt, Jack.  Omega.  New York:  Ace Books, 2003.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-192: Hang It

I put out my flag today.  I had a moment of wondering if I should bother.  The way things are going you wonder if we will soon need one with fewer stars.  The Progressives* are out to destroy the country by aggressive acts of power usurpation which destroy our liberties and opportunities.  Of the three branches of the federal government only the Supreme Court has any glimmer of being on the side of historic America and that is an undependable majority when you consider how Roberts waffles and weaves.

I put my flag out today.  Ultimately I am an American and historically I am proud of that.  It was, of course, only an act of God that had me born here instead of a refugee camp somewhere in the third world.  Even then I could have emigrated and become an American.  I am grateful.  We have our problems but if there were a balance of history we would be overwhelmingly in the good guy column.  The only thing that would keep you from believing that is believing the lies that are being perpetuated by our elites.  

I put my flag out today.  It is a sign of hope for the future.  It is an expression of hope in the American people, the silent masses.  We could take that phrase from the Statue of Liberty, “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” and apply it to the workers and families that now live here.  Ultimately my hope is based on a belief that God is not through with us yet.  It is time to remind ourselves of the promise given to ancient Israel,

(2Ch 7:14 KJV)  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

We are not Israel but the principle remains the same.  Keep in mind the key parts we don’t like to remember:  humbling ourselves and turning from our evil ways.

As you put out your flag remember that there is hope.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-191: The Problem with Bedrooms, part 4 of 4

The problem with bedrooms is that eventually the problem gets too big to confine.

(1Ki 11:4-7 KJV)  For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.  For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.  And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.  Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.

The key you need to see here to show you how extreme this became is in the name in that last verse:  Molech.  You may have zoned out or gone to skim mode when you blew past it.  When you see that name you need to think about parents taking their first born down to the local temple and throwing the living baby into a raging furnace.  Do a little search of the exact phrase “pass through the fire” in the KJV and you will find it 11 times.

So no, they are not nice people just minding their own business.  They are people on the level of Solomon who may have just not gone down the road far enough.  If we don’t find a way to draw a line then they will eventually bring the wrath of God down on us as a nation.

Maybe they already have.

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Opus 2022-190: The Problem with Bedrooms, part 3 of 4

A good historical example of the problem with bedrooms is demonstrated by King Solomon of Ancient Israel.  He started out very well.  God gave him a wish, kind of like the genie in the bottle,

(1Ki 3:5 KJV)  In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.

and Solomon asked for the wisdom to rule his people.

(1Ki 3:9-12 KJV)  Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?  And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.  And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

And of course there was the condition demanded,

(1Ki 3:14 KJV)  And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

How did it work out.  Solomon probably figured since he was king he could fudge a little.  After all, who knows what goes on in the bedroom of the king.

(1Ki 11:1-3 KJV)  But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

What was the social result of this legal and expected behavior?  Keep in mind that a king was expected to have many wives.  Solomon was just doing what all the other kings were doing.

To be concluded...

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Opus 2022-189: The Problem with Bedrooms, part 2 of 4

After theological and logical problems with the unfettered bedroom comes the social reality of moral license.  

A society that rejects the standards of God as the expectation of behavior begins to morph into a gross pagan culture.  Most Americans have no idea how bad it can get.  As paganism spreads through our culture and the church starts to be polluted with its thinking we are seeing the beginnings.  If you want a feel for where society will go when you remove Christian values then go on a little trip to San Francisco.  Drug addicts litter the sidewalks.  Cars are routinely broken into.  Thugs walk into stores and take what they want knowing there will be no penalty.  

Think of cultures that are painted as advanced.  How about the ancient Chinese.  They were very sophisticated.  They were stable.  They honored education.  Then consider that their idea of education was memorizing the works of Confucius and using that education to do little beside putting a complex bureaucratic structure in place.  Women of the lower classes were considered equal with their husbands who were considered cattle to work for the overlords.  Women of the upper classes were porcelain dolls with heavy make-up and bound feet.  Welcome to an advanced pagan culture.

Or consider Islam.  Much is made of the Golden Age of Islam.  They had universities.  They also had sharia law and the main topic of study in the universities was the Koran.  Again you see that women are there to be used and slavery is embraced.  Minority religions have a choice of oppressive taxes, limited opportunities, dress codes and inferior status.  Of course they can also convert.  They can also choose death.

To be continued...

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Opus 2022-188: The Problem with Bedrooms, part 1 of 4

One sentiment that I keep reading and hearing is that what people decide to do with their lives is no issue as long as they don’t try to force others or get others to pay for it.  It often comes from conservatives with traditional values who would never personally get involved in adultery, fornication, sodomy, pornography or the myriad of new and creative kinks of our current culture.  They sound like they are being open minded and non-judgmental of the general population.  They sound very noble and kind.  After all, it doesn’t matter what people do in their own bedrooms, right?

Wrong.  It does matter what people do inside their own bedrooms.  It matters on a theological basis, a logical basis and a social basis.

First, and what should be most important to Christians, are the standards and behaviors approved and banned in the Bible.  Yes we are saved by grace but somewhere in your moral framework you need to get past the happy fantasy of antinomianism and realize the Paul, the apostle of grace, was also big on living a moral life.  For instance he wrote the following,

(Gal 5:19-21 KJV)  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Notice that he did not give a pass for activities in private.

So to start with we need to get on board with what the Bible tells us about behavior.  Keep in mind that when it comes to things like murder and theft we don’t accept such things in unbelievers.  We legislate morality all the time.  The question is what is the basis for that legislation.  It should be the Bible.  We should never forget that our behavior reflects what we believe and what we believe effects our eternal soul.  God does not overlook sin just because it happens in the bedroom.

Second, what people do in their own bedrooms does not stay there.  That is in reality a bit irrational.  It is like saying if you only get drunk in your living room it does not effect society.  Yes, it does.  If nothing else it effects your children.  It also can’t help but change the ability to think and function.  It causes problems in your mental processes and judgment.  It also drags down your finances.  Sexual perversion in the bedroom does something to your mind and attitudes.  Stop acting like it is just a private matter.  Recently we have seen parents taking their children to a gay bar to observe drag performers.  I would assume that there are things going on in their bedrooms that lays the groundwork for such behavior.

To be continued...

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