...a STRAT?
Maybe you're an SG?
Your call, no "rule," except one. As with guns, you can't have too many.
Rock on,
LSP
It's said we create in our image, which is more than a little terrifying when it comes to this tepid Kebob Stand on the Information Superhighway. But still, think of the bigger picture. Previous ages built, sculpted, drew and painted beautifully. Their artists produced beautiful things to elevate soul and mind. Why?
Because the soul of those artists was filled with beauty, the beauty of God, of reality Himself, and they tried to express it. Flash forward to today. We live in a time of unparalleled wealth and unparalleled ugliness, witness our hideous art and architecture.
This reflects the state of the souls who create it, and what a miserable, demonic state it is. Witness the latest Balenciaga ad series, featuring children, bondage bear bags, pedophilia and more. They've issued an apology, but so what? The Devil's in the detail and he's still there.
The problem, of course, is that a degenerate, filthy, nihilist revolt against all that's good and true will produce its accordant ugly offspring. And how ugly that is. Stand against it, don't put up with it, don't sponsor it. And yes, I'm looking at you, Podesta Brothers, be assured of justice before the throne of God as you are cast into the Pit and Lake of Fire.
That in mind, strive to fill yourself with the beautiful, good and true, with God; creation follows.
Imago Dei,
LSP
Here's a prayer for the day:
O MOST merciful Father, who hast blessed the labours of the husbandman in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness to us, that our land may still yield her increase, to thy glory and our comfort; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God bless you all,
LSP
A well known solutions provider commented on this shallow, barely read mind blog, "You need to build your own club. Maybe not in Texas Hill Country, but close enough. It would need to have at least a pistol range. I'd go and hang out. If you build it, they will come."
As a notorious clubman this got me thinking. What would such a place be like, like some hideous faux Tudor country club, complete with links, a 20k joining fee and JEB! sinking into a leather armchair? No, nothing Rat Claw Rubio like that. I replied:
A ranch house (extended), fires throughout, 12' ceilings (cooler) with wrap 'round porch. Trophy Room (smoking), Light Cav Bar, Living Room, Ante Room, Dining Room, Billiards/Pool Room and maybe a pool. And a Writing Room (laptops allowed). Food? Club special = Chicken Fried Steak, your choice of sides and Fried Pies for dessert. Or your choice of cut, Rib Eye, Strips etc, all from the club's herd. Farm to table you see, this club's sustainable.
Also:
A RANGE. Pistol, skeet and 100, 200, 500, 1000 yard
Ideally there'd be a river to fish too, but I know you can't have everything. Would there be old retainers? Well yes, of course.
In other words, a home from home and a real country club, you see. Would it have accommodation? Yes. Some members would stay year 'round. Would it be exclusive? Obviously, no libs allowed except for my pals. Expensive? Not necessarily, depends on who you are, for some it's free, thank you for your service. Would it be "fancy"? No, of course not. Think lodge. Recip rights? Oh yes, especially with the Savage. Women allowed? Accompanied by a gentleman.
Just some thoughts, Must get a consortium together and explore this further, thanks LL for the initiative. Good call.
γλαυκῶπις,
LSP
An old musical pal texted in from Venice, "As a guest of the Biennale I get a chauffeured boat. My driver runs his boat FAST and listens to Italian METAL."
I thought about this for maybe a second and fired back, "Where's my BOAT? Dammit." He replied with another photo.
"Venice. 23:37. Quiet." It's quiet here too in the North Central Texas Exclusion Zone, and a gentle rain falls upon this small farming community. We call it "Skywater."
But back to Venice, wasn't the place supposed to be underwater by now? Someone's obviously been paying their weather tax. That in mind, more on this Venetian exploit as the story unfolds.
Vicariously,
LSP
Lo and behold, turns out the alleged Colorado gay club shooter, Anderson Lee Aldrich, identifies as "non-binary," uses they/them pronouns and the title, "Mx." Aldrich's pansexual identity came to light thanks to a court filing on Tuesday. Mx. Aldrich is accused of killing 5 people and wounding another 18.
Why did they/them go postal on the LGBTQ club? Our objective, honest, unbiased, truth telling media initially blamed the GOP in general and Lauren Boebert in particular. Evil, bigoted rightwingery provided the motive, but that narrative's fallen curiously flat.
For what it's worth, I'd suggest "they/them" implies some kind of schizophrenia at best and demonic possession at worst. Or is there something else going on here? Regardless, the Unicorn's clearly a dangerous beast.
In related news, outgoing RINO Adam Kinzinger's attacked a cartoon cat on social media. You can read all about it here.
Mind the gap,
LSP
Who were the men who built the mighty British Empire? Were they effete, tofu gorging, soy swilling, self-apologizing, climate aggrandizing soi bois? Were they puberty blocking trans Rainbow Warriors? No, they were not. Here's IKB:
You'll note he had a knighthood, in contradistinction to Paul McCartney, give that man a K. My, how that worm's turned. Then there's Gladstone, the Great Statesman. Look at his face and ask, "Would he have been in favour of trans marriages, for a second."
No, of course not. Point being, who were these men? Giants.
Arduus Ad Solem,
LSP
It took a while, some would say too long, but at last Alberta's hated Chief Medical Officer Deenah Hinshaw has been fired. Hinshaw was notorious for recommending policies which shut down schools and churches, to say nothing of draconian vaccine mandates. Those who didn't comply were fined, arrested or fired.
Hinshaw's well deserved axing came as Alberta's new Premier Danielle Smith made good on election promises to purge the province's self-serving, dictatorial Health Services (AHS) quango. Smith's kept her pledge by firing the entire AHS Board along with the repellently smug leftist Hinshaw. The eleven person board's been replaced with one man, Dr. John Cowell.
In an open letter, one of the terminated board members Tony Dagnone accused Smith of being "against science" and "unhinged" accusing her of acting "under the guise of freedom." Via AlbertaPrimeNews:
"The current premier defies all those aspirations as she spews wacko accusations at Alberta Health Services and its valued workforce," he wrote.
The premier has chosen to "play to her misguided followers who rant against science and academic medicine under the veiled guise of freedom," Dagnone said in the letter.
“Her warped stance on COVID, which I remind the premier was and is a public health issue not a political punching bag, is nothing short of borderline dereliction when the lives of AHS staff and Albertans are at stake," Dagnone wrote.
“In light of her unhinged public pronouncements, the premier represents the bleakest of role models for women who aspire to be accepted in positions of influence and leadership.
What can we say. Spews wacko accusations, warped science, unhinged, bleakest of role models, dereliction? Tony, Hinshaw and the rest of you, if the hat fits. And think yourselves lucky while you're at it. In the meanwhile, the increasingly popular rulership of the United States persists in faux Covid emergency, one of the last countries in the world to do so.
Make of this, gentle readers, what you will.
Drinks at Ranchmen's all 'round,
LSP
I won't preach, done that already, but here's Conrad Black via Zerohedge:
That the Democrats and their lock-step allies in the national media succeeded in putting across the colossal smear that former President Donald Trump is a supporter of violence and a threat to the constitutional system could be interpreted as a long step toward the national suicide that Abraham Lincoln foresaw is the only way in which the American project could perish.
Former CIA Director John Brennan called Trump a traitor; former National Intelligence Director James Clapper declared as a matter of settled fact that Trump was a Russian intelligence asset. The corruption of the FBI and the intelligence agencies in the dissemination of the infamous Steele dossier funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign as authentic intelligence revealing Trump as completely unsuited to public office and the profound dishonesty of former FBI Director James Comey in white-washing Clinton’s alleged destruction of subpoenaed evidence and his recourse to surveillance granted in response to false affidavits while attempting to destroy the Trump presidency have escaped legal retribution by the somnambulant Durham investigation, and there will be no retribution for any of it.
Yet, Trump is the tainted protagonist. The Russian collusion hoax was the most monstrous defamation ever inflicted on a U.S. president. The spurious impeachment of him, for an innocuous telephone call to the president of Ukraine about the commercial activities of the Biden family in his country—now notorious but probably a matter of political suppression of the normal working of American justice—was in the same category of misuse of the political system for the lowest and most destructive partisan ends.
It’s obvious that the potentially millions of harvested ballots that couldn’t be verified in the 2020 presidential election could easily have provided the 50,000 vote switchover needed in Pennsylvania and two other states to flip that election to Trump in the Electoral College. The dishonesty of the universal media stone wall that 2020 was a pristine presidential election is compounded by the judiciary’s abdication of its coequal role in government and reassertion of its refusal to consider overturning the apparent presidential election result.
Democratic strategists deserve a near-perfect score for tactical judgment...
I'd say Black's got a point and you can read the whole thing here if you like. He concludes:
The only way to complete Trump’s work and root out and politically exterminate those who have corrupted the intelligence and justice arms of the federal government and have dragooned the contemptible but still insidiously influential national political media in full metal jacket Trump-hate, is for Trump to identify and support the successor whom he favors as Republican presidential candidate.
He shouldn’t go back to his 2016 playbook and insult all the other prominent Republicans. He has exchanged enough fire with his Republican enemies, contemptible though many of them are, and did well to win the first round and come so close in the second. The third round last week was an acute disappointment, and the Republican Party doesn’t need, and the American public doesn’t wish for, an internecine war on the scale that would rage if Trump sought another presidential nomination. But another candidate plausibly pledged to the enactment of the Trump program and supported by Trump but not stigmatized by him, could lead the desperately needed national political purgation.
Black's awesome "full metal jacket Trump-hate" line aside, do you think he's right or wrong? Should 45 run for 47 or not? Serious question.
In the meanwhile, the most popular president in the history of history, turns 80. Just think, a million votes for every year of our beloved leader's life, and a little more.
Cheers,
LSP
Do you remember the chorus of teeth gnashing, incohate rage when now defunct Tory Premiere and her POC Chancellor had the literal, brazen temerity to cut taxes in the Sceptered Isle? Sure you do, and the unfortunately named Truss was kicked out of power along with her pet POC.
Lo and behold, a new budget's been announced in the UK by the ruling Brahman and the media love it. It goes like this, we will raise taxes, a lot, on anyone earning over 100k a year. Yes, you'll be hit, you robber barons, with a punitive 60% levy on your ill-gotten gains. Take that, capitalist swine!
In the meanwhile, Deep State civil servant pensions rise exponentially in tune with inflation. All animals, you see, are equal but some are more equal than others, not least retired Whitehall Mandarins. Nice gig if you can get it, which most Britons can't. They're being replaced by low cost immigrant labor to the tune of 100s of thousands of people a year.
What I love most about this is that the Progressive Left applauds it. Get taxed outta existence, small business owner, and rejoice in your new trans bathroom as Blockrock takes over the franchise. Top hats, private jets and exclusive island clubs all 'round.
In the old days we used to know where these people lived, they were landowners on a grand scale and accountable to their estates. Today? That's gone, along with their contract to the people they should serve and manifestly don't.
It will end in tears, I tell you, and as always...
Guinea on the Monkey,
LSP
Drive into the light on the way to yesterday's evening Mass at Mission #2, by the lake. There it was, a Texan sunset and there I was, powering into the incandescent beauty of the thing. Is the infinite glory of God revealed to us in creation? It certainly was to me on the way to Lake Whitney and I was reminded of a time, several decades ago now, in London.
It was one of those points when pretty much everything seemed to have collapsed and I was utterly miserable, staying at Fr. Michael Hollings' eclectic community in Bayswater. He lived, this cousin of the Duke of Norfolk, in a small office which somehow doubled as a bedroom and in I marched to pour out my tale of woe, and it was exceedingly woeful. No kidding.
Well, the priest listened, smiled and said, "Look out of the window at the sky," it was uncharacteristically blue, "and the trees. Beautiful, God is very, very good." So I looked out of the window and yes, it was beautiful, and my heart felt peace at that moment in the revealed goodness our loving God.
Sentimental, mawkish piety? No. Bear in mind, Hollings had fought at Monte Casino in the Guards, I think as a Major. No small thing, and the point of this story? There's several, not least this. Look out, open your eyes, and behold the glory, goodness and love of God. As even the pagans of antiquity sensed, Sol Invictus. There's immeasurable hope in that.
God bless you all,
LSP
Everyone's familiar with Gobekli Tepe, the astonishingly ancient megalithic temple in Turkey originally excavated by Klaus Schmidt from 1995-2014. But we're less familiar with Karahan Tepe, 46 km south east of Gobekli Tepe and equally ancient, being some 11,500 years old, maybe older.
Both sites are remarkable for their extreme age, being built at the end end of the Younger Dryas and the dawning of the Holocene Age, at a time archeologists assumed humans were hunter gatherers and incapable of monumental architecture.
It's a fair assumption. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, what were humans doing beyond drawing pictograms on cave walls, gnawing bark, collecting roots, berries and, if they were lucky, driving the odd bison off a cliff. They were like, so the theory went, North American Indians or their equivalents in Africa.
Gobekli Tepe and now Karahan Tepe change all that. These prehistoric humans were well capable of monumental architecture and art, to say nothing of astronomy. They were clearly much more advanced than supposed. For that matter, were they, in fact, hunter gatherers who came together to build and then settled in one place with agriculture and civic life rising in the wake, or the other way around or both?
We don't know, but we do know this. The larger sculpted stones of the "T-Builders" at Gobleki Tepe weighed around 15 tons and these are the earliest, dating to approximately 9,500 BC, apparently the same holds true for Karahan Tepe. Later structures at both sites are smaller, with older construction being back-filled and replaced by lesser architecture. What does this suggest?
Shockingly, that the earlier builders were more advanced as a civilization than their descendants. They initiated the building and did so massively, later generations didn't. This implies a civilization in decline, for whatever reason, and begs the question, who were the original builders and what did they come from?
It's tempting to imagine an architectural people, and all that goes with it, somehow surviving the Younger Dryas glacial period and emerging in diminished form in what we now call Turkey as the climate mercifully warmed.
But again, we don't know, and with apologies to Graham Hancock, there's precious little evidence. That said, wouldn't it be strange if humanity, whose origins keep getting pushed back into the mists of prehistory, weren't able in hundreds and thousands of years to move beyond rock chucking and grubbing for roots to something better? An antedeluvian megalithic civilization of which little if anything remains, except their heirs in Anatolia around 11,500 BC.
Well, that's as maybe. Perhaps there's a parable in Gobekli Tepe and its twin at Karahan. Viz. They devolved.
Antedeluvia Forever,
LSP
You no sooner attempt to step away from the news cycle to concentrate on producing an overdue magazine than boom, everything goes rodeo.
Governor Abbott invokes Texas' Invasion Clause, authorizing exceptional measures to stem the flood of migrants into the state, some 1.26 million in 2022 alone. Abbott intends to:
Deploy the National Guard to safeguard the border, and to repel and turn back immigrants trying to cross the border illegally
Deploy the Texas Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) to arrest and return immigrants to the border who crossed illegally, and to arrest illegal immigrants for criminal activity;
Build a wall in multiple counties on the border;
Deploy gun boats;
Designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations;
Enter into a compact with other states to secure the border;
Enter into agreements with foreign powers to enhance border security;
Provide resources for border counties to increase their efforts to respond to the “border invasion.”
Quite a thing, to put it mildly, and that's not all. According to AP, a Russian missile/s(?) hit a farm in Poland, causing outraged cries for NATO heads to call an Article 4 meeting, frontrunners to suggest Article 5 and, well, war with Russia. No, not the proxy one we're fighting now but the real deal and all that goes with it. Huh, World War III. We can imagine the overworked DIs at Benning working 'round the clock to learn their intakes' pronouns.
But the next Big One's averted for now, thank God. Turns out the missile in question was a Ukrainian S 300 which went astray trying to take out a flying Russkie adversary. AP walked back the story and Biden confirmed the new narrative, much to Zelensky's discomfort. In fairness to the Ukraine's diminutive if coke fueled President, the most popular Ruler of America ever, Old Joe, must be a difficult paymaster.
And then, just as you're recovering from the news that Armageddon isn't quite yet, 45 announces a bid for the White House in 2024. Will he be defeated by JEB! in the most insanely vicious revenge arc ever?
That, along with everything else, remains to be seen. In other positive news, Nancy Pelosi's finally fired...
Saints preserve us,
LSP
I find this soothing, you may too, and I remember as a child gown ups slow dancing in Texas as it played in the exotic heat of the night. At least that's how memory serves; quite a thing and vastly different to Military Correction Centre Colchester (MCCC).
You can have a gaze at MCCC above via the link. Wild commented, before I took the prison post down, "I don't think that's how they did it at LBJ. That's Long Binh Jail for the uninitiated."
Speaking of Stardust, it's freezing here in Texas and it's raining. Will it turn to sleet? Perhaps. Thanks a lot, John "Woodentop" Kerry. In the meanwhile...
LSP
Massive disturbance in the Force. Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) was rolling the bones to the tune of billions, borrowing massive amounts of money from his crypto exchange FTX to pay for his hedge fund Alameda Research's trading. And everything else, including mega millions to the Ukraine > Democrat funding funnel.
Smart, and what was the collateral for the loans, the billions of dollars borrowed? FTX's native token FTT, which disastrously nosedived 75% triggering margin calls and FTX bankruptcy. The money, you see, just wasn't there. Is this a Lehman moment? I don't know, but I'll leave you with a helpful Day by Day infographic via Ed, widescreen it if you like:
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It's been a rough week for crypto. BTC's crashed to a wretched just over 16k, ETH's down to a miserable 1.2k and everyone's beloved DOGE sits and wags its adorable tail at a mere 8 cents. Wipeout across the board. So what happened? Several things, not least the collapse of the ponzi laundromat FTX exchange. Here's a helpful infographic:
Word to the wise, don't put more in than you can afford to lose and while you're at it, think about getting tokens off of exchanges and into secure wallets. That said and for what little it's worth, I'm long crypto and see an opportunity to buy at bargain basement prices, but caveat emptor, buyer beware. Do you dare reach out and catch the falling knife?
Money on the monkey and twice as fast, eh?
Cheers,
LSP
A man in his 70s has been given a 6 month gaol sentence for selling mince pies at a shooting range during a scamdemic lockdown. Where? North Korea? China? No, in England.
Picture the scene: Maurice Snelling, a British pensioner from Staffordshire, was serving wine and mince pies in December, bringing some festive cheer to his local area. For this ‘crime’, he was reported to the police. This then set off a chain of events that have now landed him in prison. This is because Snelling was selling his mince pies in December 2020, the first winter of the pandemic – a time when the world was gripped by Covid hysteria and England was under ‘tiered’ lockdown rules.
Snelling served his pies on the premises of his Cloudside Shooting Club. At the time, Staffordshire was under ‘Tier 3’ lockdown restrictions, meaning that hospitality venues were only allowed to operate as takeaways or drive-throughs. But Snelling was allowing people to gather, eat and drink on the site.
Wow. Snelling had the sheer, brazen, literal temerity to break Tier 3 Lockdown with malfeasant mince pies. What an enemy of the people. Now this 72 year old criminal can serve well deserved time for his so-called "festive cheer." Good thing his neighbours reported the old age perpetrator to the Stasi.
Take a deep breath and remember the old line in the song, "Britons never, ever, ever shall be slaves." No, not slaves, maybe serf peons of the rainbow ascendant NWO. In other news, Russia pulled back from Kherson to take up defensive lines on the Dnieper. Check out pro-Russkie RWA's intelligent analysis if you're interested.
Then there's us, here in the States, the most powerful, advanced country in the world which, apparently, finds it hard to manage the free and fair mechanics of an election. Don't say Zimbabwe.
Libera Nos,
LSP
Hawk-eyed observers of the religious scene will have noticed that the venerable if shrinking Church of England's getting gayer by the day. Yes indeed. In October, an openly partnered rainbow clergypersyn, The Very Revd Dr David Monteith, was promoted to one of the COE’s most prestigious positions, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justsin Welby, congratulated the new Rainbow Dean on his promotion:
"I'm delighted by David's appointment as Dean of Canterbury," gushed Old Etonian Welby, "He has been an exceptional Dean of Leicester -- and his deep faith and spirituality, creativity, and profound sense of service will be a gift to Canterbury Cathedral and all the communities it serves."
How very lovely. Monteith lives in a civil partnership marriage, which somehow isn't a marriage, with David Hamilton, a bereavement counselor. But that's not all, no, not by a long shot.
Only last week, the Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, wrote and published an annoyingly long 52 page argument in favor of same-sex wedding rituals. Other bishop figures were swift to applaud Croft's interminably gay essay.
The Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Rev Dr John, the Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Rev Martin Gorick, the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Olivia Graham, the Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson, and the Bishop of Dorchester, the Rt Rev Gavin Collins, all backed Croft’s call for the COE to embrace same-sex marriage.
There's more, much moar, but I'll leave you with this. Rainbow Rider Croft unironically deployed Matthew 7:15-20 as a proof text in support of his lengthy argument in defense of gayness. Here it is:
15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
"Thus you will recognize them by their fruits." Quite, to say nothing of false prophets. Rainbow Rider Croft curiously doesn't expound upon these but feels the Church since its conception has been an unhealthy tree because of its bizarre insistence that marriage is something which can only take place between, gasp, shock, horror, a man and a woman.
Kyrie Eleison,
LSP
