WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Sites to See: There’s One Breath Wisdom in the Woodpile
byVanderleunonSeptember 4, 2019
When I lived in the Norman Rockwell New England Small Town world, one of the most frequent conversation starters down at the Norman Rockwellesque (No kidding.) General Store with its ( I ain’t joking.) pot-bellied stove was, “Did ya git yer wood in?” This meant, “Winter is incoming in and you’ll need heat. Did you have enough foresight to cut a couple of woodpiles or enough money to buy a couple to be dumped in your driveway so you could stack it where you’d dig it out after the first big snow.” Gittin’ yer wood in meant you could survive the coming winter. Woodpile Report is a lot like that. Fuel to keep you warm as the nation slides deeper and deeper into the forthcoming “Game of Thrones Winter.”
Policy: Ol’ Remus offers his opinions as-is, where is. He rarely cites support for his opinions so they are, in that sense, unwarranted. He comes by them largely by having lived and watched and listened rather than by argument or persuasion. His opinions, not having been arrived at by debate are, therefore, not particularly vulnerable to debate. He entertains opposing opinion but he feels no inclination, much less obligation, to discuss or defend his own. Whatever usefulness or amusement readers may find in them is their own business….
The handmade Remus Woodpile is one of those standing stones of stability that do not change in a web noted for its unceasing clumps of clutter and crap served up by the minute.
In a vain attempt to keep up just with the sites I care about I scan more than 150 sites every morning via the Feedly service, but the Woodpile is so vital and interesting that I don’t even keep it on Feedly. It’s one of those select sites whose place and pace you know by heart. Hence, my heart says “It’s Tuesday and there must be a new Woodpile. Let’s go over and see all the important things you missed when you were looking for myself out there.”
Woodpile is my kind of site, one that is all too rare in this epoch of endless ads and jams and notices of cookies, and cookie-cooked notices asking if I want notifications, and the lebenty-leventh bleg for me to sign up for their newsletters to tell me what I am seeing on the site I am already at. Oh, and please turn off your adblocker and refresh so we can load your page with so much junk it will slow the loading to a crawl…. (Sheesh! No wonder the Ponzi ad scheme of Googletising is sinking into the melting mire of Googlepowered gobbledegook.)
Woodpile Report is from the Hermetic School of websites. There is no advertising, no partnerships, log-ins, popups, subscriptions, print version, Disqus, feedback section, tip jar or shop. There are no trackers, cookies, LSOs, analytics or widgets. Posted links are cleansed of superfluous identifiers.
Although the sentiment warms Remus’s tiny little heart, Woodpile Report has no mechanism for receiving donations or gifts, nor does he accept them by subterfuge.
Woodpile Report does not maintain an archive. Some issues linger on the server until Remus gets around to deleting them. Don’t confuse Woodpile Report with a blog. It isn’t. It’s an olde tymme internet site made by hand and archives are a dispensable chore.
All these curmudgeonly policies warm the curdled cockles of my own curmudgeonly heart. When, on sad occasions when Remus does not stack the Woodpile weekly, I miss it as do others. We all wonder where we’d go to “git yer wood in” if not the Woodpile. Here’s just one of the standard features of the pile…
Wisdom in one breath
From Eric Peters AuTO If we went back to burning gas without alcohol, gas mileage would go up about 3 percent across the board. What does this say about the government’s interest in MPGs?
From John Meyers at Zero GovMountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.
From James Dakin at Bison Prepper
All the problems stemming from Libertarianism are shared by capitalism. It assumes Surplus Forever.
From Vox Day at Vox Popoli
Who cares what conservatives do, say, or think anymore? They didn’t conserve America. They didn’t conserve the ladies room. They couldn’t even conserve the two human sexes!
From John Wilder at Wilder, Wealthy, and Wise
The erosion of rights we have seen won’t continue in a linear fashion. It will accelerate.
From Staff at Amerika
When one anonymous phone call can cause police to descend on your house, seize your firearms, and shoot you if you resist, then you no longer live in a nation of laws.
From Ben Hunt at Epsilon Theory
There are enormous vested interests spread across multiple avenues of violence and power that will not allow that Mob system of sociopathic oligarchy to collapse on a single point of failure like Epstein’s direct testimony. And so it didn’t.
From Selco at Organic Prepper
There are a lot of sick and perverse people around us. We are simply not seeing them. They are waiting for the SHTF.
From James Capua at Liberty Nation
Now education exists to level, not elevate.
From Science Daily
Measurement is everything. At the quantum level, reality does not exist if you are not looking at it.
From the Z Man, about Trump vs. Warren
It will be the cad versus the nag, largely a fight among white people about how best to go into that dark night.
From the Z Man, about women in men’s sports
Only a degenerate wants to see women beat one another to a pulp in a fighting ring. This is not how civilized people treat their women.
From Michael Anton at Claremont Review of Books, about equality
A hectoring, vindictive, resentful, levelling, hypocritical equality that punishes excellence and publicly denies all difference while at the same time elevating and enriching a decadent, incompetent, and corrupt elite.
From SteveF, comment at Daily Pundit, via Cold Fury
If you have one set of laws for the members of the government and another set for everyone else, you are not being governed, you are being ruled.
From Don Surber
Comey got the last laugh. He is above the law. He earned that by keeping the Clintons above the law.
Same here, don’t remember the first time I went to the Woodpile, probably referred from WRSA whom the owner of that and me go back to the old usenet days of the 90’s.
I accidently found out Remus posts the new page on Mon evenings so that is when I start reading it. Sometimes I gobble the whole thing down like a big piece of choc cake. Other times I nibble on it all day long like a bag of M&M’s. When I get to that last WWII pic at the bottom, then the multi-colored graphic just below that, I go back to being my sad ol’ self.
In my mind I live in Remusland all the time. A land where people work hard all day with dirty hands and blisters and at dark they eat their scratch-built supper then sit and relax in idle conversation and thought, anticipating the approaching new work day. Reading Woodpile is sort of like reading a newspaper 50 years ago. Mostly important stuff but now and then a dabble of entertainment. Just the right ratio between serious and fun. Reading an hour of Woodpile produces more positive results than a year worth of mainstream trash which is mostly a waste of time.
Remus stopped doing the Woodpile a few years ago and I sent him a heartfelt email asking him to reconsider. He replied but his mind was made up. So we did without, and we got along in spite of the hollow void. Then he came back and all was well on the ghostly compound again. I hope Remus and his Woodpile out live me.
Sam L.September 4, 2019, 11:43 AM
From John Meyers at Zero Gov Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated. How about napalm?
NeudaySeptember 4, 2019, 12:36 PM
A good rifleman knows the importance of a good bunker and how to build one in thr field. Also, napalm is now outlawed against civilians, or I’d have a suggestion for border security.
Bill in TennesseeSeptember 4, 2019, 1:20 PM
Yeah, when I want to appear erudite and well-read, I frequently cite The Woodpile Report or American Digest, or works that they present….works every time!
lhSeptember 4, 2019, 2:13 PM
Yes yes and yes again. When Remus went “on hiatus” I grieved, akin to the grief I felt when Calvin and Hobbes stopped publication. I thank the universe that he reconsidered and is back educating and delighting us again. He is true grace and class in a world rapidly devolving in both.
RosalindJSeptember 4, 2019, 5:01 PM
Reading there weekly has become a religious practice.
Me too. Me too. I read every word… and click onto, almost, every link Remus provides to illustrate the point he was wanting us to perceive. I wrote him when he threw in the towel about 4 or 5 years ago. I was deeply saddened to see it all end. He wrote me back with heartfelt appreciation for my concern. We both appreciate so many passions. He loves the great beautiful advertising and products of the golden area of America. He loves great paintings, great photography, great architecture, great books and philosophy. He is keenly aware of the deranged sickness and evil festering all around and is determined to secure himself and loved ones as far away from the “crowd” as he can achieve. Bravo. Bravo to you my internet friend. Maybe someday my face to face friend.
HSeptember 5, 2019, 3:51 AM
I can’t imagine the amount of sweat it had to take to gin that jewel up on a daily basis, never mind the time.
Scarily there was this notification plopped in the middle this week:
There will be more every-other-week Woodpile Reports from time to time, for the next two to three months. And posting may not be on Tuesday. It’s unavoidable. ‘Nuff said.
Perhaps after the snows come Ole Remus will have more time to hand, we can hope.
Incidentally, in a Civil War (or Revolution) nukes or napalm would definitely be on the table.
ghostsniperSeptember 5, 2019, 6:44 AM
As we age time becomes smaller and less our own. Age itself is time consuming, and you’ll find it out eventually. These age-time adjustments can come in small bits and pieces or in giant chunks, we have no choice in the matter. We don’t get to drive the age-time bus, we are just passengers.
All the time everything is on the table, noox, naypalms, whatever, again, we ain’t drivin’.
But we do get to stay out of the way of the out of control bus driven by maniacs. The key is to always look way ahead, and learn what the bad signs are. And prep for self sufficiency and small tribe.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
When I lived in the Norman Rockwell New England Small Town world, one of the most frequent conversation starters down at the Norman Rockwellesque (No kidding.) General Store with its ( I ain’t joking.) pot-bellied stove was, “Did ya git yer wood in?” This meant, “Winter is incoming in and you’ll need heat. Did you have enough foresight to cut a couple of woodpiles or enough money to buy a couple to be dumped in your driveway so you could stack it where you’d dig it out after the first big snow.” Gittin’ yer wood in meant you could survive the coming winter. Woodpile Report is a lot like that. Fuel to keep you warm as the nation slides deeper and deeper into the forthcoming “Game of Thrones Winter.”
If we went back to burning gas without alcohol, gas mileage would go up about 3 percent across the board. What does this say about the government’s interest in MPGs?
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
I think I’ve been enjoying the Woodpile report even longer than I’ve been enjoying American Digest.
& yep I’ve done got my wood in.
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/319805/48751128
Same here, don’t remember the first time I went to the Woodpile, probably referred from WRSA whom the owner of that and me go back to the old usenet days of the 90’s.
I accidently found out Remus posts the new page on Mon evenings so that is when I start reading it. Sometimes I gobble the whole thing down like a big piece of choc cake. Other times I nibble on it all day long like a bag of M&M’s. When I get to that last WWII pic at the bottom, then the multi-colored graphic just below that, I go back to being my sad ol’ self.
In my mind I live in Remusland all the time. A land where people work hard all day with dirty hands and blisters and at dark they eat their scratch-built supper then sit and relax in idle conversation and thought, anticipating the approaching new work day. Reading Woodpile is sort of like reading a newspaper 50 years ago. Mostly important stuff but now and then a dabble of entertainment. Just the right ratio between serious and fun. Reading an hour of Woodpile produces more positive results than a year worth of mainstream trash which is mostly a waste of time.
Remus stopped doing the Woodpile a few years ago and I sent him a heartfelt email asking him to reconsider. He replied but his mind was made up. So we did without, and we got along in spite of the hollow void. Then he came back and all was well on the ghostly compound again. I hope Remus and his Woodpile out live me.
From John Meyers at Zero Gov Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated. How about napalm?
A good rifleman knows the importance of a good bunker and how to build one in thr field. Also, napalm is now outlawed against civilians, or I’d have a suggestion for border security.
Yeah, when I want to appear erudite and well-read, I frequently cite The Woodpile Report or American Digest, or works that they present….works every time!
Yes yes and yes again. When Remus went “on hiatus” I grieved, akin to the grief I felt when Calvin and Hobbes stopped publication. I thank the universe that he reconsidered and is back educating and delighting us again. He is true grace and class in a world rapidly devolving in both.
Reading there weekly has become a religious practice.
Me too. Me too. I read every word… and click onto, almost, every link Remus provides to illustrate the point he was wanting us to perceive. I wrote him when he threw in the towel about 4 or 5 years ago. I was deeply saddened to see it all end. He wrote me back with heartfelt appreciation for my concern. We both appreciate so many passions. He loves the great beautiful advertising and products of the golden area of America. He loves great paintings, great photography, great architecture, great books and philosophy. He is keenly aware of the deranged sickness and evil festering all around and is determined to secure himself and loved ones as far away from the “crowd” as he can achieve. Bravo. Bravo to you my internet friend. Maybe someday my face to face friend.
I can’t imagine the amount of sweat it had to take to gin that jewel up on a daily basis, never mind the time.
Scarily there was this notification plopped in the middle this week:
There will be more every-other-week Woodpile Reports from time to time, for the next two to three months. And posting may not be on Tuesday. It’s unavoidable. ‘Nuff said.
Perhaps after the snows come Ole Remus will have more time to hand, we can hope.
Incidentally, in a Civil War (or Revolution) nukes or napalm would definitely be on the table.
As we age time becomes smaller and less our own. Age itself is time consuming, and you’ll find it out eventually. These age-time adjustments can come in small bits and pieces or in giant chunks, we have no choice in the matter. We don’t get to drive the age-time bus, we are just passengers.
All the time everything is on the table, noox, naypalms, whatever, again, we ain’t drivin’.
But we do get to stay out of the way of the out of control bus driven by maniacs. The key is to always look way ahead, and learn what the bad signs are. And prep for self sufficiency and small tribe.
As thankful as I am for the Woodpile Report, I miss Sippican Cottage.
No, not a blog, but Ol Remus will occasionally reply to an email with additionally wise palaver.
His recent post of a group rebuilding WWII military armor was a hit with my son, 13. He got swallowed up in it and was almost late for school.