It's Hard, Country Hard

Life may be easy if you're a hedge fund manager, lobbyist, or one of our privileged, deracinated, bi-coastal ruling elite. Everything's laid on; there it is, just watch the cash roll in off the gravy train. But that's not the way it is in the country, you have to get out there and make it happen. My philisophical pal, GWB, reminded me of this, sometime after Morning Prayer.

"Look, LSP, you can sit around all day in slack-jawed dismay at the Deep State of this country, or you can do something about it. Like fish." I took that to heart.

Reeled In.

Thirty minutes later I was on the water somewhere in Texas, making it happen, with worms, plastic and real, and a variety of spinners. The fish scorned that like the American public in the face of yet another Hillary lie. Contemptuous indifference was their hallmark and like I said, it's not easy in the country. Do you give up? No, you don't, you keep going at it.

Bass

With strawberry dough bait. And guess what? The fish thought it was the best thing. A Catfish went for the delicious red strawberry morsels like a commie on a five year plan. Then a Bass tore into it, fighting and leaping all the way to the bank. 

Catfish

Not the privately owned, create your money at interest for profit Federal Reserve Bank, no the bank of the lake. And it wasn't over, another cat hit the delicious strawberry bait and ended up at the shore. It was a mutated kind of yellow, which was interesting, if off-putting. 

Strawberry Dough Bait. Who Knew?

New rods vindicated, I drove through the waterlogged fields, praying that my 2x2 rig didn't get stuck in the mud. It's hard enough in the country without having to tow a fisherman out of the clay... But no worries, the truck made it to higher ground and out the gate, which I closed.

Fish On,

LSP

Get Back in The Fight

When the action goes against you, you can give up, defeated. Or you can reengage, get back in the fight and win. I chose the latter path, it wasn't easy.

After vicious setbacks, culminating in thieves stealing my rods right out of the bed of the rig this morning, I was tempted to pack the whole fishing thing in, at least for the week. But no, that would've been useless and defeated, so I rearmed.

Several Ugly Sticks and an Abu Gracia and a Mitchell reel later, there was Lake Aquilla, fish beckoning. I tried my luck by the ramp with worms, and sure enough they were biting, but no strikes. So change it up, put a red treble hook on the line and try some strawberry catfish bait. Yum, fish love that, although, to be honest, I've never caught anything with it.

First cast and... bam! Something hit the hook and ran with it. A Bass and a decent little fish at that, putting up plenty of fight and leaping out of the water like Bass are supposed to do. Great result. Reel it in.

Next up, a catfish took the line. It wasn't big but not shy of a fight either, and there it was, another fish. Then low ominous clouds scudded in from the Northeast, the wind picked up and the lake got choppy, so I called it a day.

Moral of the story? Don't give up, like a sad loser, get back in the fight and fish.

Fish On,

LSP

Ripped Off

Yesterday's fishing was hijacked by locksmithery and I thought I'd make up for that this morning. First things first, put a couple of rods in the bed of the rig and stop by Walmart to pick up a lure and some worms. 

Simple, and so it was until I returned to the truck from the store, looked in the bed and lo and behold, no rods. Some goon had ripped them off, so I drove 'round the car park looking for rod thieves but they were long gone.

Some Thieves Ripping Off a Crop

Maybe it was some crew of freaks, chancing it on their way back to Austin, trying their luck down the I35 corridor. I don't know, it's possible, but one thing is certain.

It takes a special kind of wickedness to steal someone's fishing rods.

LSP

Peasants, Revolt.

You follow the news, so you know that an anonymous politician, "Congressman X", blew the lid off something which everyone knows, that Washington is a sinkhole of graft, cronyism and corruption.

Congressman X's revelations are based on transcribed discussions spanning several decades and are published as a book, The Confessions of Congressman X, by Mill City Press. Here's some excerpts, via the New York Post and ZeroHedge:

“Like most of my colleagues, I promise my constituents a lot of stuff I can never deliver. But what the hell? It makes them happy hearing it . . . My main job is to keep my job.”

Thought for the future? Don't be ridiculous:

“We spend money we don’t have and blithely mortgage the future with a wink and a nod. Screw the next generation. It’s about getting credit now, lookin’ good for the upcoming election.”

But what about the sheeple?

“Voters are incredibly ignorant. It’s far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification . . .”

I like this one best:

“Business organizations and unions fork over more than $3 billion a year to those who lobby the federal government. Does that tell you something? We’re operating a f–king casino.”

Congressman X believes that America is in "irreversible decline and that no one in Washington seems to care... God help us."

Divine intervention aside, the question is, can this be fixed by anything less than a total reset? Let's hope it can, because the reset in question won't be nice when it comes. Not least for our ruling elite overlords.

Smart people are laying in food and ammo. Maybe they're investing in a Compound.

Kick out the JAMS,

LSP

Hijacked!

The great thing about the day after Pentecost is that you get to go fishing, at least that was the plan. Walk the dog, get a coffee at the pick 'n steal, then head off to the fish zone. A simple, elegant, straightforward Monday solution and it was going so well. Then the key snapped in the lock of the front door.

The View

I stared hard at that lock. Maybe telekenesis would move the key. No, it didn't, fail. Then I tried to pry the key out of its lair with needle nose pliers, a knife, and nail cutters. That didn't work either. Useless. So what do you do?

The Cry Babies

Sit around whining, like a cry baby, spoiled brat social justice warrior, and accuse the keyed up lock of oppressive gender stereotyping? Or maybe you stand there, open-mouthed like a Bass, hoping that the State will step in and fix the lock, with its big government magic? 

The Cylinder

You can try all that; sure, go ahead, just don't be surprised when your lock stays permanently broken. I chose a different path, I took the thing apart.

The Cam

Getting the key out of the cylinder wasn't too hard and I took it to the hardware store, where a helpful keysmith cut me a new one, using the broken offender as a model. He assured me "it wouldn't work." Thanks, key bloke. But it did, and everything turned out fine, except for the fishing, which didn't happen.

The Fix

So there it is, a fishing experdition stopped dead in its tracks by locksmithery. I'll have to make up for that tomorrow.

Cheers,

LSP

Peak Absurdity?

Via ZeroHedge: 

This talk examines the relation between Islamophobia as the dominant form of racism today and the ecological crisis. It looks at the three common ways in which the two phenomena are seen to be linked: as an entanglement of two crises, metaphorically related with one being a source of imagery for the other and both originating in colonial forms of capitalist accumulation. The talk proposes a fourth way of linking the two: an argument that they are both emanating from a similar mode of being, or enmeshment, in the world, what is referred to as ‘generalised domestication.’

Leaving aside the glaringly obvious fact that Islam isn't a race, what can we say?

ISIS laughs,

LSP 

Pentecost

It's the Feast of Pentecost, when our Holy Mother, the Church, celebrates the descent of the Spirit upon the disciples, resting on them likes tongues of fire. I like Basil the Great's exhortation:

The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress. He enlightens those who have been cleansed from every stain of sin and makes them spiritual by communion with himself... Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we are admitted to the company of the angels, we enter into eternal happiness and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations - we become God. 

And note this, all you heretics out there who are busy reading this important mind blog: Basil's divinization, or theosis, in which the faithful participate in God's nature, shouldn't be confused with apotheosis, deification in God's essence. 

Some Crew, Goofing Off in Church

That's an error and a bad one. Like liturgical dance, which is also a bad mistake.

God bless,

LSP

Detroit Shanty Town

Do you remember Detroit? It used to be America's motor city, now it's a prospective venue for zombie parks and "sack of corn, take a mule" land grants, as the once great automotive capital reverts to green field site.

Well done, Libs. Detroit was your great experiment and now it's a wreck, some would say a shanty town,

I know I was there.

LSP

Country Life

I file this picture, from the local Walmart, under "country life in Texas." The same goes for these venison sausages, Rifle to skillet and thank you very much. I think they go well with farm fresh eggs.

Heavy Metal

And you know what? I'm not complaining.

God bless Texas,

LSP 

Statesmen and Hillary

Russian strongman, former KGB Colonel Vladimir Putin, loves animals. Dogs, horses, baby chicks, big cats, dolphins, whatever, he loves them and they love him. 

Putin also loves the Church and is a great statesman. He's made Russia great again.

Then there's US President, Barack Obama, who hasn't made America great again. He loves animals, too, and one special animal in particular. Which one would that be?

But what about Hillary, does she have an animal? Some say she does.

Perhaps she'll be indicted. Will her animals save her?

Your Friend,

LSP

Straight To The Shredder

A Texan Flag

Obama's Rainbow Directive, telling the country's schools to go trans, and allow men to use girl's bathrooms and vice versa, has received short shrift in Texas. One Superintendent said the Presidential decree was going "straight to the shredder."

“I got news for President Barack Obama,” said Port Neches-Groves Superintendent Rodney Cavness, “He ain’t my President and he can’t tell me what to do. That letter is going straight to the paper shredder. I have 5 daughters myself and I have 2,500 girls in my protection. Their moms and dads expect me to protect them. And that is what I am going to do. Now I don’t want them bullied… but there are accommodations that can be made short of this. He is destroying the very fiber of this country. He is not a leader. He is a failure.”

A Typical White House Flag Dash

Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, and Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick, have also denounced the Rainbow Directive, promising to fight against it, even if that means losing federal funding.

Fort Worth ISD

The Fort Worth school district, which went trans before the Obama directive, continues to ride the rainbow. Fort Worth parents have not been consulted. And as one reader commented:

"The movement for greater human equality - and safe and clean drinking water across the planet for millions of people in poverty - has been rather derailed if all it's interested in is a collective trip for the elite to the toilet in the richest society in the world."

Well done, Texas, fight back against the Unicorn and its presidential rider. Fort Worth ISD? We scorn you.

LSP

Fort Worth Rides The Rainbow

Who'd have thought it, the gateway to the West, Cowtown, Texas' own Fort Worth, with its fabled stockyards and legends of the frontier, has gone trans and decided to ride the rainbow. At least its schools have. Here's highlights from the recent Fort Worth ISD Rainbow Directive, via Dreher:

There doesn’t need to be a medical or mental health diagnosis involved. If a male student says he’s a girl, then he’s a girl, and vice versa.

Schools are instructed to keep the student’s asserted gender identity hidden from parents unless authorized to share that information with them.

School personnel are to consider themselves to be allies of a student undergoing gender transitioning. That means not telling their parents or guardians.

Transgender students must have the opportunity to participate in school sports as the gender they claim to be, though they are not guaranteed this as a right.

Teachers are no longer to call their students “boys” and “girls,” but to use gender-neutral language to refer to them, e.g., “students.”

Classrooms are to “feature diversity” in their classroom materials.

Well there you go, parents. Send your kids to a Fort Worth public school so they can get sexually confused. But don't worry, it'll be a special secret between your child and their teachers, you won't be allowed to know. That's forbidden, by the State and its Teachers. Obey. Them. 

No fooling and remember, you're paying for this. Where will it end?

Dreher observes:

Don’t be fooled: the bathroom issue is a proxy for a deeper conflict over what it means to be male and female, and beyond that, about fundamental human nature. These standards are collapsing in American society in part because of elites pushing against them, but also — and perhaps more so — because radical individualism is going into hyperdrive. We call it freedom — freedom to choose who you are, with neither custom, nor religion, nor even biology standing in the way of your will. But here’s what’s going to happen. People who submit to this way of thinking will find that their freedom, so construed, will make it impossible for them to construct a coherent, stable identity. They’re not going to make it. This perversion of liberty will wreck them.

I'd add that the perversion of liberty will end in totalitarianism, the same totalitarianism we're beginning to see in Fort Worth's schools. You can read all about it in Dostoevsky's Devils and Crime and Punishment, the ideology hasn't changed, though technology has.

Good Look, Dude. now Everyone Will Think You're a Sexy Chick

In a similar vein, Bruce Jenner wants to be a man again. Good thing he kept his "biology," eh?

LSP