Noted in Passing: Nice People
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WHEN in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary….
Welcome to the New American Digest: 2001-2022
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice.
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress.
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountains start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
– – WH Auden
Sometimes it seems I had a dream, and, as a dreamer woke immersed in mineral baths closed within a cool, dark chamber fed by streams flowing in from the center of nowhere.
Hanging from the granite ceiling a kerosene lantern cast shards of light through the pale steam rising from the surface of the pools.
Ripples radiated outwards from the edges of my body and tapping faintly on the rock revealed the edges of the chamber.
Outside I could hear the wind slide across the spine of the mountains, speaking in a language that I remembered but could no longer understand.
Steam filled my nostrils and heat penetrated my bones until, after a time, I had no body, only a sense of silence and distance and calm.
As if I had just woken from all water into dream.
— Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, 1973
FSA/8d22000/8d224008d22491a.tif
The steel mill sky is alive.
The fire breaks white and zigzag
shot on a gun-metal gloaming.
Man is a long time coming.
Man will yet win.
Brother may yet line up with brother:
This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers.
There are men who can’t be bought.
The fireborn are at home in fire.
The stars make no noise,
You can’t hinder the wind from blowing.
Time is a great teacher.
Who can live without hope?
In the darkness with a great bundle of grief
the people march.
In the night, and overhead a shovel of stars for keeps, the people
march:
“Where to? what next?”
— Carl Sandberg
Down valley a smoke haze
Three days heat, after five days rain
Pitch glows on the fir-cones
Across rocks and meadows
Swarms of new flies.
I cannot remember things I once read
A few friends, but they are in cities.
Drinking cold snow-water from a tin cup
Looking down for miles
Through high still air.
BY GARY SNYDER
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Van der Leun: The Normblog Bio of Your Host
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.
– – W. B. Yeats, 1865 – 1939
Stone-cutters fighting time with marble, you foredefeated
Challengers of oblivion
Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits, records fall down,
The square-limbed Roman letters
Scale in the thaws, wear in the rain. The poet as well
Builds his monument mockingly;
For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth die, the brave sun
Die blind and blacken to the heart:
Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained
thoughts found
The honey of peace in old poems.
— Robinson Jeffers
Sometimes it seems I had a dream, and, as a dreamer woke immersed in mineral baths closed within a cool, dark chamber fed by streams flowing in from the center of nowhere.
Hanging from the granite ceiling a kerosene lantern cast shards of light through the pale steam rising from the surface of the pools.
Ripples radiated outwards from the edges of my body and tapping faintly on the rock revealed the edges of the chamber.
Outside I could hear the wind slide across the spine of the mountains, speaking in a language that I remembered but could no longer understand.
Steam filled my nostrils and heat penetrated my bones until, after a time, I had no body, only a sense of silence and distance and calm.
As if I had just woken from all water into dream.
— Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, 1973
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If I resist the delusional ‘trans’ movement does that make me a transistor?
Shitttttt, these mofos and the blog daddies gonna talk em to death. Resist, use to have a very definitive ending. These days just talk louder, thump your chest, you’ve done resisted!
Sorry We The People, are a joke. The blog daddies, when their not selling their “skip thru the woods” ninja class, wearing their latest fashioned poggy bait. All yours for a mere 400.00, plus tax!
Hey uncle sugars gotta recover his cut. Wonder why they haven’t got an online class set up yet.
Haha. God I sometimes crack myself up.
Big D
Little irk
Here’s a news story about a Nazi who just did a “nice guy” thing.
Governor Gavin Newsom, the control-freak Nazi who just passed a law DEMANDING all Commiefornia school kids get the deadly and ineffective Covid Jab(s) just decided to do something positive and wonderful for us residents of the RED state Ohio.
He just added OHIO to the list of states (now about 1/3 of the USA) that he BANS state-funded travel to from California- thus sparing the Great Buckeye State from infestations of idiot Liberal Commiefornian scumbags who are lower than the slime that clings to the floor of Hell.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/10/05/california-now-bans-state-funded-travel-to-one-third-of-america/
THANK YOU, GAVIN!
To reward Gavin for his humanitarian good deed, we Ohioans have agreed to provide him with water from our bounteous Great Lakes, and for the mere price of $6,850 per gallon + tax, handling and delivery costs. And to fit in with the Liberal “green” agenda, none of the natural algae will be filtered out, since doing so might somehow cause “Global Warming.”
Pleasant, complacent, compliant slaves.
I know not what others may choose. That is entirely up to each individual.
As for me, I don’t know how to pleasantly comply to force or coercion. Neither am I inclined to be complacent. Nor will I be a slave.
I choose resistance….on my terms. At the time and place of my choosing, unbeknownst to those that expect subservience. Me. Not “we”.
This is a 12 minute video that focusses upon societies that embrace the official lie out of fear, ignorance, or personal convenience.
https://academyofideas.com/2021/09/the-big-lie-how-to-enslave-the-world/
Good to know your Nazis. There is an entire criminal organization, government sponsored and dressed in black garb, who call their political enemies “Nazis”. It’s by-the-book Anarcho-Communism, but certainly shares the totalitarian structures of the Nazis, themselves. I guess it takes one to know one.
I’ve had a lifetime of information and history on the Nazis, simply because WWII has dominated history even in my lifetime, although the war ceased 13 years before I was born. My father fought in the war, in an elite unit that made the Rangers look like pussies, and parachutists look like pre-schoolers. So, naturally I, like every other Boomer boy, cut my teeth on WWII.
All this to say that Naziism is mutable on open source sites like Wikipedia, and certainly if the universities are as full of commie professors as I think they are, then today’s young are getting told some tall tales abut Nazi politics. To them, Trumpists are Nazis. Clearly, the US Constitution is about as far away from the Nazis as one can get. Trump supporters love the constitution, and socialists hate it.
Nazi politics included (past tense because the Nazis are toast) a socialist form of economics, in that it was a command economy. You owned the means of production, as a businessman citizen, but all privileges of “ownership” ended immediately. The Nazis told you what, how many, where to distribute and how much profit you could remit from your production. There was, for no reasons other than rhetoric and hate, a racial component to the Nazi profile. They hated Jews, and assorted other minorities, to the point that they used critical logistics infrastructure to gather Jewdom into central kill-factories. They used trains and manpower badly needed for the war effort to do this evil deed. They had a powerful totalitarian leader; he makes all political leadership forever look bad. Hitler is the meme of memes for shitty political leadership.
The nazis came into power using street violence and intimidation. When you see stupid compliance to bad political rules, you are reminded of the run-up to WWII. When I shop at big box retailers, I can’t help but imagine what would’ve happened if at least 2 or 3 of these mega-stores would’ve pushed back at the governor’s authoritarian horse shit during the pandemic fuckery.
Keep a clear head and don’t be too compliant with anything. The US Constitution is a manifest for violent opposition and revolution – it has gun provisions for those who oppose the government. It’s right there on the fukkin paper. Is it any wonder the politicians want to erode the Bill of Rights?
I’m going to keep doing what I always do, but better, if I can.
There’s a lot of plain ol’ silliness going on all over the place.
I don’t know why this is but I can’t let it drag me down.
I got a lot of stuff to get done before I hit the exit sign so there’s not a lot of time left over for wasting.
I imagine for younger folks the exit sign is around the bend ahead and not yet visible so they don’t appreciate the passage of time. Same with all people prolly. It was that way with me. Then one day, zipping along at the speed of light, the exit sign came into view. Still way up there, almost out of view (I hope) but I am convinced it is there and there will be no avoiding it. Up until a couple years ago the exit sign was just a rumor, or, something that other people had to deal with. Not me. Until that one day I mentioned, where I caught a glimpse of it, taking all doubt away.
So there ya have it. I’m riding this one man car alone and I’m the only one in control of it. Others may think they have control, but they don’t. Those that think that, still haven’t seen, or recognize their own exit sign. It may come as a surprise to them when that exit sign is suddenly wrapped all the way around their ocular glands one fine day soon. I’ll wave and toot the horn as I go by….
Casey is correct about WWII dominating history when I was a kid, and I was born only three years after the end of the war.
Apropos of war factories in Nazi Germany and elsewhere during the war, there is an entire series titled “War Factories”: the playlist is here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL64-uvJRwJ5kCO_b8YnBmsjXBwv37aTLQ
On German aircraft factories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFTY6WyJU0E&t=588s&ab_channel=FreeDocumentary-History
(There are two other docs on German war factories in the series: Krupp and Volkswagen)
On American war factories in WWII: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp3wQhDpQG8&ab_channel=Timeline-WorldHistoryDocumentaries
(Ignore ad at the beginning.)
Now I would like to ask Casey for one small favor in return for giving him some binge-watching material: kindly do not refer to my paratrooper dad as looking like a pre-schooler. The fighting he saw in Sicily, Normandy, and the Bulge haunted him for the rest of his life.
You’ll forgive my intra-service shittalk. It’s just what I do; honor to your father. The guys who fought early in the war did so balls-out and they were the toughest times of the war. Re: 82nd Airborne.
You may notice I never mention that the US also went over to a command economy, in order to win the war.
Nazi production: my father said the German equipment was better by a large measure. That was a real man’s war.
BTW, I’m waiting for an opportunity to war game the China/Taiwan conflict on here. I did it at the geopolitical level the last time – now want to look at the operational level.
PA Cat, did I ever mention that my dad went behind German lines with Bill Darby?
Born less than five years after the end of the war. My father was very lucky, Harry dropped the Bomb and he didn’t get drafted (BTW, for the fem-nazis; that’s the government telling your what to do with your body and it’s sucks a lot more than being told you can’t abort a baby at nine months).
Instead he shipped out on the Merchant Marine, not like the war at all; although they were still on watch for naval mines.
There were a lot of male teachers when I went to school, most were WWII vets. I’d hate to try to explain to them what’s happening in the schools today. Especially the guys missing limbs.
Sometimes the simplest explanations are also cogent. … Should also repost the notes on the ’55 Book – “They Thought They Were Free.”; with the original cover displaying the co-opted Buddhist Temple symbol.
Let’s remember history when judging the Germans. Having just gone through a devastating defeat in WWI, then the grave political extremism and devastating hyperinflation of Weimar, and finally the global economic crisis of the late 20’s the German people were vulnerable to Hitler’s BS. And let’s remember that a relatively small percentage of the German people were actually Nazi party members. Even soldiers in the army, navy, and Air Force were not necessarily Nazis. They fought for their homeland more than their fuhrer. The point being made is that the Germans as a people didn’t do enough to put a stop to the evil that was Nazism. Good, pleasant people did nothing. Modern parallels anyone?
Good point SteveS:
“They fought for their homeland more than their fuhrer. The point being made is that the Germans as a people didn’t do enough to put a stop to the evil that was Nazism. Good, pleasant people did nothing. Modern parallels anyone?”
==========
That’s some thinking material right there for any concerned person about the goings on right here right now. We all know that something must be done, but we don’t what, when, how, or who. We also realize the consequences of sticking our heads up out of the bolt holes. We lay in wait. For a signal. Maybe it will never come. Maybe it will be 500 bombers wing tip to wing tip over head.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman
Every time I have been chided for being unreasonable, I smile and wear it as a badge of honor.
The Stoic man/woman deals with reality, not pipe dreams. The stoic has the wisdom to deal with what they can control, not what they have zero control over.
People, live your lives, quit reading the nonsense put forth by good men, with a tilted ideology, I really do admire the fire in their hearts, I just learned the hard way they’re cowards, shit-talking cowards.
That’s the thing, they enjoy their “ Internet personality” role. To a point have a following of like-minded folk.
Not that it matters, but for me to take these clowns seriously their going to have to address realistic solutions, having challenged many of the blogdaddies to do just that. Let’s talk solutions, not continue to point the obvious out, not stir the pot. Which BB gun, which boots, our enemies kicked our asses in sandals and tennis shoes. Pushed their supplies on bicycles.
I used to identify with the usual suspects. What I’ve seen is this. Anytime a series of people adjourn into Group Think, there is but one outcome. It’s the self-licking lollipop syndrome. These people feed off of each other, while amusing, totally ineffective.
Don’t believe me, stop by their sites, look at the orgy of the same blogdaddies, using the exact same material. It’s modeled after network TV, using the same talking heads every other day.
Seems to me we are wayyyyy beyond “which carbine you’re carrying into glorious battle”, what’s in your pack, which face paint, and Gucci’s camo to wear. And I’m absolutely amused at these retards carrying two hundred pounds of kit tromping thru the woods.
Every enemy we’ve ever lost to, had little, made the most of sticks and stones, ate dead and rotting goat, or horse, or whatever they could find. It’s The history IN our Faces, yet we ignore the reality of HOW and continue to sell nonsense.
You follow these guy’s models, you’re dead, it’s that simple. These guys mostly “ has been” military, teach stuff, make money doing it, for nonsense.
Stay off trails, don’t be where THEY think you should be, hide small, and be the master of your mountain. Be fair to all in your AO, protect all in your AO. No such thing as one camp, but a dozen camps, ten ways in, twenty ways out. Cultivate successful relationships with the locals, they WIlL be your suppliers. Bamboo Telegraph is your friend.
VI
Na, I’ll take Stoic every time.
VI
Who, specifically, are you speaking of?
You’ve mentioned this a number of times.
I am aware of a couple of the “training” sites that are gung-ho on paramilitary stuff and I can’t get too worked up over them because I’m not the brazen 20 something I once was. I read their stuff, keep what I might be able to use, let the other stuff lay where it lands. I tried a friends plate carrier on one time and took it off immediately. I just don’t see the point in carrying a heavy tank around.
I’ll say this Ghost, you sir post on their sites. No harm no fowl. I use to dam near live on those sites.
I was convinced with the theft of the election we were going to stuff big govt, up big govts ass.
Not only did it not happen, the bulshit got deeper, the silence was defining.
I finally asked myself what exactly did I think I found on those site. What I thought the answer was wasn’t.
Like minded people, maybe.
Battle buddies, laughable.
Equipment exchange availabilities, again if your looking for kit from vietnamVS modern hi tecc light weight, sure.
Weapon selections option. Another joke.
What I really got was an education. While nice guys, with angry hearts, I once thought I’d be fighting side by side one of em, I got schooled. This retards are cowards talk shit all day long everyday. Not one of em got the balls to take the first step. This includes me.
I counted on another associate,,,,,,, never again,
my supply lines run deep very deep, what’s been seen as my stored stuff was but 1/3 of what I really got stashed for a rainy day. We’ve been at this for thirty years.
What I thought I would learn, I discovered I already knew.
Anymore is same shit,,,,,different day. Not one of ems talking solutions, always always always storing the shit.
Fucking clowns.
Dirk Williams