Breaking History

That's kinda-sorta what was older brother was talking about. And I think to some extent it's true, if only because our pains tend to make us crankier. The threshold for holding one's tongue is a lot lower.

All I could think of when Artler wrote, "that people don't really change, however, marriage can cover a multitude of sins" is that "adversity reveals character." It makes me think of the mean drunks one will find in bars and such. One's natural character tends to come out if unrestrained by a coddling wife or lubricated by alcohol.

Buddhists spend their days trying for some form of "enlightenment," to cast off worldly concerns and perspectives. But I've not come here to praise Buddha but to bury him. Still, given "wokeness," the vileness of "social media," and just people acting more and more like they did evolve from apes, there's an aspect of elder "enlightenment" whereby you don't have to play the same stupid and insipid social games that younger generations get hooked into in a way that seems to bypass free will.

Many a movie has shown Europeans traveling, for instance, in the Middle East. There's a good Poirot episode which is set in the Valley of the Kings. All the Europeans are dressed more or less in their finery (visitors to the dig). And they are over-heating.

But I can understand the desire not to go native. They play that aspect up very well in the movie with Peter O'Toole. When Lawrence visits headquarters occasionally (usually meeting with Allenby), he seems to the other British soldiers as having gone a bit peculiar, as well as native. And he does seem to have become a bit peculiar (or always was that way). But when they hear of his exploits, they eventually accept his garb as just a practical aspect of leading rebel natives. It's results that count, at least in this instance.

I can believe that was the case, although the movie, of course, makes it look like Lawrence and his band of Ay-Rabs are turning the tide by themselves. And speaking of the regular army influence, there's a great scene in the movie that shows a distant artillery barrage at night:

Sherif Ali (Omar Sherif): God help the men who lie under that.

Lawrence: They're Turks.

Sherif Ali: God help them.

And, as you know (at least from the movie), Allenby wasn't going to give the Arabs artillery because it would have given them too much power and independence. But what a pounding.



Barbarians of the desert, without a doubt. And that reminds me of scene where Auda Abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn) is finally slinking away back into the desert with the prize white stallion he's procured from the raiding of a Turkish train. I forget who's talking with Auda:

Colonel Brighton? (Anthony Quayle): Major Lawrence will campaign this winter. But you got what you wanted, so you're going home, is that it?

Auda Abu Tayi: Of course. When Lawrence has got what he wants, he will go home.

I think Quinn plays Auda brilliantly, without a trace of sentimentality. I could believe this guy is a real Ay-Rab.



I hadn't heard of the Wingate situation. And I didn't know that Or-awnce was despised in Israel. I guess we need to separate between the on-screen Or-awnce and the real one. I like the mythical on-screen one.

Congratulations ask your best girl why she married an old man as she surely has not gotten older. May you have 38 more, Mazel Tov. 

Many thanks. 

So we are in this strange position that in order to "save the republic" we – the party of "family values" – must rally around a man who paid off a hooker with campaign funds.

To his credit, the man that this man-child slandered as "Ron DeSantimonious" has declared that he will not aid the extradition because he thinks (correctly) that this is motivated by politics, not law, by a truly sanctimonious (perhaps demonous) Soros-backed prosecutor. Whether that also means obstructing extradition, I wasn't clear about that.

And, of course, David French was kind enough to point out that Ron DeSantis doesn't have that power. Why shouldn't French aid and abet the Devil? Would Trump's name for David French by David "French-kiss my ass"? Maybe. And the New York Times and other publications are kind enough to point out that DeSantis' mention of "Soros" is just a dog-whistle meaning "those dirty Jews."

All a normal day in the world's oldest Republic, which arguable is on its last legs.

And I always thought I was just smart. 

Aside from ripping up a couple Amendments – and you know which ones I mean – one has too choices:

A) Put on a long pair of galoshes.



B) Go swimming in the filth.



Now, I know this is where I should say to never give up, that reform (or even a counter-revolution) is possible. And history is a hell of a lot bigger than I can imagine. Who can ever see what's coming?

But it is 100% true that no reformation can happened without honorable men to lead it. And there are just almost none of those these days.

America was built, in part, by people looking to isolate themselves from the grungy and overbearing plague of gutter-Europe. Yes, persecution was part of the story. But many places were just not fit for decent people to live in, especially if they saw for themselves a purpose greater than drinking and fornication.

We have become Old Europe (and New Europe isn't much better). Our land has indeed been fundamentally transformed. Federalism can save us (or a few states) for a time from the worst of it. Small pockets of sane people at least stand some chance.

But we are in the midst of a plague. We are right now printing some business cards for someone in the Bremerton School District that has "She/Her/Hers" under her name. (And, frankly, I'm not sure how anyone could do on-the-fly substitution of these if they were different and custom.)

The is the Mark of the Idiot as surely as there was a Mark of Cain. There is zero chance of reforming our country and saving it from the crazies while women can vote and remain the most powerful voting bloc. Yes, that message would get me banned from Facebook or Twitter. Most truth will. But I think it is still true, and obviously so.

Now, the downside is that we have too few honorable men. Let's say the ladies en masse acknowledged how unfit they are to lead a free and prosperous rational society so they give up the vote. Fine. The problem is, the "men" that are left are either economically sociopaths (read: "libertarian") – that is, they are capable, but only of selfish action – or the "men" are complete heathens.

Listen, I get why it was temping for Kari Lake to bitch-slap adult thirteen-year old...even apart from trying to kiss up to the MAGA crowd. The fact is, men have become uncouth heathens, and in large numbers. And those who don't fit the prior two categories are wimps...or regressed thirteen-year-olds.

Yes, there is an existing bloc of sixty-year-old and up citizens who are not crazy and who are not the problem. But they are too few in number and they will not be here in 30 years. The future belongs to the idiots, the hysterical women, the economically sociopathic men, and the legions of blood-suckers (and I don't mean the Jews, I mean the entitlement hoarders, the "homeless," and the rest of the unproductive classes).

I do believe, and have been saying so for some time, the bonds we must strengthen are the personal and local ones. We must form self-protective groups who share the same outlook and who can, if need be, act as a unit, for I do believe the die are cast.