The sun shone, birds sang, squirrels attacked a cat nesting on the Compound's fence, and the cat won. All was right with the world, so I went for a ramble after morning prayer.
Past the broken down shacks behind Tarleton House, past the flotsam and debris of Biden's America and into the comparative sanity of the local High's "discipline school."
Dicipline School? It used to be a bakery and sounds ferocious. Like, maybe, Prussian BCT, but it's just where malfeasant teens go to pass high school. The kids have to wear khakis and a polo, a veritable uniform, and they're not allowed to talk in class unless it's requested, either, and their performance or miserable lack thereof is monitored daily. Good heavens.
Sounds a bit like school, which puts the normal ISD carry-on in perspective. Whatever, I know all this because the SPC attended this hallowed hall of academe before embarking on a career of military adventure. He's enrolled in college now, partly thanks to the DS. Thanks, teachers.
Mathematics. 2+2=4. Simple truth, right? No, you Nazis, racist white imperialism. So let's get with Woka Cola and stop oppressing our dusky brethren persons of color with the racist assumption that they can add and subtract. How very top Nazi Cecil Rhodes.
But seriously, when you get rid of truth what are you left with? Opinion and force, to say nothing of infernal pride and the deadly, insane logic of the Pit.
Speaking of which, we wonder, why does Satan thrash so furiously? For the same reason that the doomed Fuhrer did in his bunker. In the face of utter defeat, burn it all down. He failed, and so has the Devil.
Your Pal,
LSP
Talk after Mass at mission #2 turned naturally to famous Bosque County outlaws, and I learned something. The famous Bandit Queen, Belle Star, née Myra Shirley, owned a 160 acre ranch not far from the church, in what became Fairview.
This would have been in the 1870s, in the turbulent years following the War, and the ranch served as a hideout for Belle, then Myra, her first husband Jim Reed and assorted outlaws. These could well have have included members of the James and Younger gangs, former Confederate raiders turned horse thieves and bandits.
Wild West Show?
The Bandit Queen knew these men because she'd served as a scout(?) with Quantrill, "Bloody Bill" Anderson and other guerrillas during the Missouri-Kansas border war. Her brother Bud served as a raider and taught Belle to ride and shoot.
After Bud was killed in action in 1864, Belle's family, the Shirleys, moved to Texas, northeast of Dallas, where they continued their relationship with the very irregular cavalry.
Jim Reed was shot in 1874 in Paris, Texas, and Myra moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) where she set up on the South Canadian River with a Cherokee outlaw, Sam Starr, her second husband. Starr was shot by lawman Frank West at a Christmas party and Belle went on to marry another Cherokee horse thief, Bill July, who she renamed Jim Starr.
My home became famous as an outlaws' ranch long before it was visited by any of the boys who were friends of mine in times past. Indeed, I never correspond with any of my old associates, and was desirous my whereabouts should be unknown to them. Through rumor, they learned of it. Jesse James first came in and remained several weeks. He was unknown to my husband, who never knew until long afterward, that our home had been honored by Jesse's presence. I introduced Jesse as one Mr. Williams from Texas. But, few outlaws have visited my home, notwithstanding so much has been said. The best people in the country are my friends. I have considerable ignorance to cope with, consequently, my troubles originate mostly in that quarter. Surrounded by a low down class of shoddy whites, who have made the Indian country their home to evade paying tax on their dogs, and, who I will not permit to hunt on my premises, I am the constant theme of their slanderous tongues. In all the world, there is no woman more peaceably inclined than I.
You can just say I am a friend to any brave and gallant outlaw, but have no use for that sneaking, coward class of thieves who can be found in every locality, and who would betray a friend or comrade for the sake of their own gain. There are three or four jolly, good fellows on the dodge now in my section, and when they come to my home, they are welcome, for they are my friends, and would lay down their lives in my defense at any time the occasion demanded it, and go their full length to serve me in any way.
Belle Starr, an excellent horsewoman, see Venus, who often rode side saddle, was a crack shot with two revolvers which she called her "babies," served less than a year in a Detroit jail, acted in a Wild West show where she robbed a stagecoach and... became a legend in her lifetime.
She had, to my mind, a hardbitten look by the time she married July, and no wonder. You can imagine her running hospitality for killers like the James and Younger brothers.
For my part, I'll remember her when I drive down 56 past Fairview on the way to Valley Mills. And rumors that some of our people are part Cherokee and out of Bonham are just that, vicious, unfounded rumors.
Ride on, and ride fast. Or slowly if you've busted your hip,
LSP
I drove to Meridian this evening as the sun was setting to officiate at a funeral. It's a good drive, hilly for Texas with a western feel to it, I always think. You can imagine John Wesley Hardin riding this road before it was a road, the Horrell Boys, and more. Not that long ago, when you think on it.
Outlaws aside, the funeral went well, pretty much a country crew, and good people to boot. So the prayers were said and may the soul of Don, who liked to hunt and fish, rest in peace.
God bless,
LSP
Yes, it's Friday evening and time to spin up the jukebox. I'll go first, and because today's been all about lawyers, guns and money, here it is.
Jim asked for Steve Young's Tobacco Road. Great song and a good call.
Nothing wrong with Pancho and Lefty either, thanks, RHT. I like Emmylou's version.
And Brig requested Waylon and Jessi's Storms Never Last. What a great choice.
With a H/T to Jim and WSF, here's the original Big Ball's in Cowtown. Have we devolved since 1949? Sure looks like it to me.
On topic, this one's for LL, who's focusing on the Great Reset and life in the Hive. Sorry, arcology. Do you remember the tale of Babel? Let's hear it for Hawkwind.
Rock on,
LSP
And at normal price, too, from Walmart. Some claim the age of miracles is over. I would dispute that claim.
Shoot straight,
LSP
California is famous for being incredibly rich, populous, and totally lib progressive. A veritable Millionaire Socialist utopia, or is it? Perhaps people are fleeing the Golden State for a reason. Via Zero:
Yet now, California is in terminal collapse and crisis. Governor Gavin Newsom, farcically promoted by the national Mainstream Media (MSM) as a heroic White Knight in Shining Armor in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring has been exposed even in his own state as a catastrophic bungler and hypocrite who has never had a clue what he was – or more usually was not – doing. As I write, California’s sick and tired citizens are close to providing the 1.5 million signatures necessary to pull Newsom into what would certainly be a chaotic recall election.
Again:
Los Angeles, the state’s largest city and arguably the most populous now in the United States, has become a byword for violent crime and especially the stronghold of the enormous, ultraviolent and rapidly growing MS 13 organization, routinely mislabeled as a mere “gang” in media reports. MS 13 has up to 50,000 members worldwide of whom at least 10,000, officially, and probably twice as many according to the private assessments of many police officers are in LA.
And what about San Francisco, notoriously twinned with Austin?
San Francisco – America’s “anything goes” city – is in even worse shape. Its most famous, historically popular and beautiful stylish locations are now swamped with aggressive, unsanitary street people who openly urinate and defecate in the streets. Public services, long superb, are now appalling.
To say nothing of mindless, Green induced wildfires and rolling blackouts as energy follows the science and turns off. We had a taste of that in Texas last week when snow broke all the windmills.
The question is, will the rest of the country follow California's gender neutral Potato Head genius into dystopian nightmare? If the ongoing ammo shortage is anything to go buy, the people are voting "yes."
Cheers,
LSP
It's the Feast of St. Mathias the Apostle today. Here's the Collect:
O ALMIGHTY God, who into the place of the traitor Judas didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles; Grant that thy Church, being alway preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Clement of Alexandria says this:
Not that they became apostles through being chosen for some distinguished peculiarity of nature, since also Judas was chosen along with them. But they were capable of becoming apostles on being chosen by Him who foresees even ultimate issues. Matthias, accordingly, who was not chosen along with them, on showing himself worthy of becoming an apostle, is substituted for Judas.
Apocryphal tradition tells us that the Apostle preached the Gospel amongst the cannibals of Aethiopia (latter day Georgia) where he was martyred and buried near the Temple of the Sun at Sebastopolis. Other sources tell us he was martyred in Jerusalem.
God bless,
LSP
When we think of the mighty US Navy our minds go to massive aircraft carriers, LL's favorite Littoral Combat Ships, and perhaps transsexual diversity training, so relevant on a warship. But look a little closer and you'll see that the Navy's behind some pretty interesting research.
Dubbed "UFO Patents," Navy backed research into ground breaking tech, such as compact fusion generators and inertial mass reduction devices, useful for FTL travel, seem more like the stuff of science fiction than reality, but the patents are out there. Here's a snapshot, from Forbes:
When Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais, an aerospace engineer at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), filed a patent for a “Plasma Compression Fusion Device” in 2019, it was either a giant breakthrough – or mad science. According to the patent application, the miniature device could contain and sustain fusion reactions capable of generating power in the gigawatt (1 billion watts) to terawatt (1 trillion watts) range or more. A large coal plant or mid-size nuclear powered reactor by comparison produces energy in the 1–2 gigawatt range. The revolutionary invention by Dr. Pais, if real, would produce near unlimited clean energy from something no larger than a sports utility vehicle.
Check out the whole article if you like, it's not long, and we have to wonder, where's our technology really at and are we on the verge of significant breakthroughs? I'd love to think we were, but if so, could we trust our rulers to use the advance wisely, for the benefit of the people? That's another question again.
In related news, the venerable Church of England appears to be falling into a black hole. You can read the excellent Holy Relic here. Whether the starfaring denomination escapes the event horizon remains to be seen.
Ad Astra,
LSP
Far-sighted readers of this inconsequential mind blog will know that the Diocese of Fort Worth has been in a protracted legal battle with the Episcopal Church. Why?
Because we decided to break free of their rainbow embrace in 2008, so the enraged unicorn sued the diocese for all its money and assets. This belongs to us, the gaily colored beast hissed with a stamp of its lacquered hoof, and proceeded to lawyer up. That's the context.
I'll spare you the blow-by-blow, but after a decade plus of incredibly expensive litigation, Texas' Supreme Court ruled decisively in our diocese's favor last May. Sorry, unicorn, you're not allowed to steal all their stuff, was the gist of the unanimous ruling. Undaunted, the aggressively litigious Church of Tolerance got to work and appealed all the way to the top, to SCOTUS itself. And here's the punchline:
As of today, SCOTUS refused to hear their appeal. It's dead, sunk, lost. They don't get to thieve our property and money. It's not theirs, and no amount of chicanery, skulduggery and malfeasance, and there's been plenty, can make it so.
What a great result. It means our clergy and people get to stay in their Compounds, accounts intact. This is a relief to me, obviously. But more than that, it's a vindication of the Church of God and those Christians who've remained true to the Gospel and the Faith once delivered by Christ to the Apostles.
The next step is this. Texas' Supreme Court will order the lower court in Tarrant county to enforce its May ruling. Then the games begin, as the enraged unicorn charges around the diocese attempting to recoup some of its enormous losses, as in cash.
We'll see how that goes, but I don't think the spitting fury of the horned glitter pony's going to go very far. In fact, it's rumored the disco ball quadruped's facing a bill for our insurance company's not inconsiderable legal costs. In the meanwhile, Te Deums sing out and we celebrate...
VICTORY,
LSP
