Restoration

I try to spend at least a week a year away from civilization. Alone with family and friends on a isolated lake in central Ontario. No electricity, no indoor toilet, no access roads.
We get in by float plane and out the same way.
This comes as close to true wilderness as one can get in today’s on demand world in which we live.
I go there to fish. I go there to relax. I go there to spend time with those I care most about. But mostly, I go there to remember. To refresh in my mind how little one truly needs in order to survive. To recall for a week the pleasure derived from being self-reliant. To be reminded of the value in hard work.
I fish for my food. Clean it and cook it. I chop wood for the fire. Build it and tend it. I battle daily my most fierce of foes...the ice house. Chip and clean the ice, keep the coolers filled, and the beer ice cold. I keep the camp clean to keep the bears away.
And I watch for those bears, and the moose, and the eagles. To get a glimpse of the natural world hidden from me through most of the year.
In short, I leave the world of my other fifty one weeks behind and remember what it is to be a man.
So little in today’s culture demands of one any struggle whatsoever. Sacrifice is a word better left to other generations. Surely never heard uttered from the mouths of the ‘gimme generation’ and its political patronizers.
I yearn for that harder life. For the man versus nature conditions of our forefathers. For the demands of self-sufficiency. For the honor that comes with struggle.
I am daily saddened by what I see of the young males loose on the streets of today’s America. Sad at the lack of respect. Sad at the lack of responsibility. Sad at the lack of interest of what makes up a man.
I long to take these young men with me. Miles away from iPods and Grand Theft Auto. Let them discover the true self esteem that comes from experience and self-reliance. Find the honor inherent in personal responsibility and struggle. Learn that character comes from hard work and respect. See them spend at least a week a year away from civilization.

Like a Fish Torches a Bicycle

For those without the ability to extrapolate, the riots in France should come as solemn warning of things to come.
When the mental process of Socialistic entitlement moves from the conscious to the subconscious mind, this is the result. A bratty ‘it is my right’ mentality develops. An inherent disassociation from personal compulsion and responsibility inevitably arises.
These are the creatures one would expect.
Humans so rapt in a mixture of self-loathing and false self-esteem, confusion ultimately manifests in anger. Add to that the feminine Narcissistic tendencies that are reinforced by a culture that deserves rather than earns. And we end with a stew of young people without the masculine qualities of self sacrifice and restraint.
So here we are at the true meaning of this post. The new book, "Raising Boys Without Men : How Maverick Moms Are Creating the Next Generation of Exceptional Men", is an accurate example of the sickness that inhabits our society today. It is a book designed to help single and lesbian mothers raise ‘exceptional men’. ‘Exceptional’ by what standard, one wonders. By the standards of radical Feminism?
It once again brings example to the utter disrespect for the qualities strong males bring to the raising of children and to society in general. Men, finally, are irrelevant. The fish can at last save its money, better a hybrid than a Schwinn anyway.
Much of what one would consider qualities of the Left are in fact feminine attributes. Such things as compassion without responsibility, feelings oriented action, Socialistic sharing of resources, nonjudgmental acceptance, neurotic fear of failure, all are aspects of Jung’s anima. But they are only one side of the human psyche.
A strong health society can not long exist without the positive aspects of masculinity, as well. Can not long survive with out men of strength, valor, honor, and respect. Will fall into chaos without boys who exhibit self-control, protective instinct, personal responsibility, and drive.
Our schools choose to medicate the male out of the boy. Our culture reinforces the effeminate, while demeaning the masculine. Our government plays the role of mother rather than father.
Just what kind of man are we trying to build here?
For those without the ability to extrapolate, the riots in France should come as solemn warning of things to come.

Crossposted @ The Wide Awakes

Another Useful Idiot

You remember Madeleine Albright, don’t you?
She was Clinton’s Secretary of State during the Rwanda genocide.
And still Secretary of State as Osama bin Laden grew from “an ordinary man to a Hydra-like monster”, while he directed the bombings of the American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and the bombing of the destroyer U.S.S. Cole.
She wondered while on Fox News before the election in 2004, “Do you suppose that the Bush administration has Osama bin Laden hidden away somewhere and will bring him out before the election?"
In October of 2003 she wrote, “I regret not having done more to push for liberalization within the Arab world...We must be relentless in shaping a global consensus that terrorism is fully, fundamentally, and always wrong. No exceptions, no excuses. I made this argument to Arab leaders many times when I was secretary of state. The responses, however, were rarely satisfactory.”
And she had these words to say about Saddam Hussein, “Saddam doesn't care a fig about the Iraqi people, whom he has used and victimized. We will not allow Baghdad to get away with flagrantly violating U.N. resolutions.”
Well, she’s back.

The Bush administration's newly unveiled National Security Strategy might well be subtitled "The Irony of Iran." Three years after the invasion of Iraq and the invention of the phrase "axis of evil," the administration now highlights the threat posed by Iran — whose radical government has been vastly strengthened by the invasion of Iraq. This is more tragedy than strategy, and it reflects the Manichean approach this administration has taken to the world.

I wonder, Ms. Albright, how different our ‘strategy’ on Iran would be now if Mr. Hussein were still in power in Iraq? How much more complicated? How much more dangerous?
You seemed to understand the Iraq problem while Secretary of State under Clinton as you stated, “What we are doing is trying to follow out the diplomatic string, but it is running out, quite frankly. And we are prepared to use military force.” And Saddam is “trying to sneak out the back with weapons of mass destruction in hand”
Or was your ‘strategy’ all bluster and threat?
Ms. Albright goes on...

It is sometimes convenient, for purposes of rhetorical effect, for national leaders to talk of a globe neatly divided into good and bad. It is quite another, however, to base the policies of the world's most powerful nation upon that fiction. The administration's penchant for painting its perceived adversaries with the same sweeping brush has led to a series of unintended consequences.

Hmm...

Iranian police and plainclothes agents yesterday charged a peaceful assembly of women’s rights activists in Tehran and beat hundreds of women and men who had gathered to commemorate International Women’s Day, Human Rights Watch said today.

On Sunday, November 13, the semi-official Tehran daily Kayhan reported that the Iranian government publicly hung two men, Mokhtar N. (24 years old) and Ali A. (25 years old), in the Shahid Bahonar Square of the northern town of Gorgan.

The government reportedly executed the two men for the crime of "lavat." Iran’s shari`a-based penal code defines lavat as penetrative and non-penetrative sexual acts between men. Iranian law punishes all penetrative sexual acts between adult men with the death penalty. Non-penetrative sexual acts between men are punished with lashes until the fourth offense, when they are punished with death. Sexual acts between women, which are defined differently, are punished with lashes until the fourth offense, when they are also punished with death.

Mass graves in Iraq are characterized as unmarked sites containing at least six bodies. Some can be identified by mounds of earth piled above the ground or as deep pits that appear to have been filled. Some older graves are more difficult to identify, having been covered by vegetation and debris over time. Sites have been discovered in all regions of the country and contain members of every major religious and ethnic group in Iraq as well as foreign nationals, including Kuwaitis and Saudis. Over 250 sites have been reported, of which approximately 40 have been confirmed to date. Over one million Iraqis are believed to be missing in Iraq as a result of executions, wars and defections, of whom hundreds of thousands are thought to be in mass graves.
Most of the graves discovered to date correspond to one of five major atrocities perpetrated by the regime.
The 1983 attack against Kurdish citizens belonging to the Barzani tribe, 8,000 of whom were rounded up by the regime in northern Iraq and executed in deserts at great distances from their homes.
The 1988 Anfal campaign, during which as many as 182,000 people disappeared. Most of the men were separated from their families and were executed in deserts in the west and southwest of Iraq. The remains of some of their wives and children have also been found in mass graves.
Chemical attacks against Kurdish villages from 1986 to 1988, including the Halabja attack, when the Iraqi Air Force dropped sarin, VX and tabun chemical agents on the civilian population, killing 5,000 people immediately and causing long-term medical problems, related deaths, and birth defects among the progeny of thousands more.
The 1991 massacre of Iraqi Shi’a Muslims after the Shi’a uprising at the end of the Gulf war, in which tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in such regions as Basra and Al-Hillah were killed.
The 1991 Kurdish massacre, which targeted civilians and soldiers who fought for autonomy in northern Iraq after the Gulf war.

Odai and Qusay were partial to having prisoners forced to drink gasoline and then shot with incendiary bullets that ignited their bodies. Others were stripped naked, smeared with honey and tossed to starving dogs.
Odai when he was head of the Iraq National Olympic Committee used torture of the country’s athletes as a motivational technique.

Torture victims in Iraq have been blindfolded, stripped of their clothes and suspended from their wrists for long hours. Electric shocks have been used on various parts of their bodies, including the genitals, ears, the tongue and fingers. Victims have described to Amnesty International how they have been beaten with canes, whips, hosepipe or metal rods and how they have been suspended for hours from either a rotating fan in the ceiling or from a horizontal pole often in contorted positions as electric shocks were applied repeatedly on their bodies. Some victims had been forced to watch others, including their own relatives or family members, being tortured in front of them.

Other methods of physical torture described by former victims include the use of Falaqa (beating on the soles of the feet), extinguishing of cigarettes on various parts of the body, extraction of finger nails and toenails and piercing of the hands with an electric drill. Some have been sexually abused and others have had objects, including broken bottles, forced into their anus. In addition to physical torture, detainees have been threatened with rape and subjected to mock execution. They have been placed in cells where they could hear the screams of others being tortured and have been deprived of sleep. Some have stayed in solitary confinement for long periods of time. Detainees have also been threatened with bringing in a female relative, especially the wife or the mother, and raping her in front of the detainee. Some of these threats have been carried out.

You can put me in the column, Madeleine, of those who want a “globe neatly divided into good and bad”. And I’ll put you in the column of ‘useful idiots’.

State-Mart

Honorable Governor and members of the General Assembly.
It is time we deal with what has been a thorn in the side of not only the government of the great state of Maryland, but to its constituency as well.
The recent Supreme Court ruling in Kelo vs. New London has given us all the powers necessary in order to put an end to our state’s most grievous of human rights violators.
I am, of course, referring to the blight that is Wal-Mart.
I do not choose the word ‘blight’ lightly.
The taxpayers of this state have suffered far too long under the tyranny of Wal-Mart’s excesses. The meager share this evil corporation adds to the public trust will in the end be its final undoing.
It is high time these bourgeoisie capitalists paid for their disrespect.
As the esteemed Mr. Marx understood, communism can not be created on the backs of the poor. And we must understand that our way to freedom rests on the shoulders of the producers as well. We must appreciate the power of Capitalism to build a base of wealth. And likewise comprehend our responsibility to use that wealth for the betterment of our citizenry.
So here, comrades, is what I propose.
As it is now understood, the state’s powers of eminent domain and the Fifth Amendment’s Taking Clause allow a state to seize the property from a property owner in order to use that property in what the state deems a more profitable manner.
With these expanded powers, this state government may at long last have the ability to fulfill the obligations it has towards its people and their needs.
I propose that the state of Maryland and the local governments which are effected take action. That we simply repossess what was rightfully ours in the first place. That we as the ruling body of the state of Maryland take over ownership of every Wal-Mart within our borders.
The advantages to the citizens of our distinguished state of such a move would seem to leave us little choice.
As you will see, it is a no lose gambit for us.
As the new owners we would still receive the tax dollars already intended for us. But with Wal-Mart’s profit now averaging nearly 3.5%, how much more money could we then send to upgrade our schools, healthcare, and roads.
Present Wal-Mart employees, who scrape by on sub-standard wages would now be state employees entitled to all the inherent benefits. Benefits which would surely include health care.
Unionization, of course, would be a first priority. Increasing the standard of living for the employees and availing them of due process in any grievances they may suffer.
This unionization would, over time, lead to increased prices and through the laws of proportion thus again increase cash revenue to the state.
Our future control over the loose cannon that was the monopoly known as Wal-Mart would allow the legislature of Maryland vast opportunities. The opportunity to bring the manufacturing of products sold there back to the people of our state. The undisputed power to enforce the selling of whichever pharmaceuticals we would deem appropriate. An unbridled control over hiring practices, finally leveling the playing field for minorities and women.
As you see, comrades, the only wrong move in this instance would be no to move at all. To leave control of Wal-Mart to the fascists now in power there would be a gross negligence of our duties to the public. An utter disregarding of the responsibilities our positions require.
In closing, I simply ask that Maryland no longer follow other lesser states into the oblivion that is Capitalism, but let it lead the American proletariat to a greater and brighter future. A future where State-Mart is merely one brick in the foundation that is social justice.

Full Circle

Timeline 2075. Anadyr, Chukotka, Siberia

“Hey, Sven.”
“Yes, Vladimir?”
“Another Vodka Pina Colada?”
“‘Absolut’ly”
“Sven, you are one funny surfer dude!”
Absolut Vodka, The Vodka for all your beaching needs.

The preceding ad would have seemed ridiculous just a mere 65 years ago. We here in the Northern Alliance wish to convey our deepest of gratitude to the desert states of the South. And with this in mind, we are offering a free week at any of our all inclusive resorts that dot the tropical coast of our beloved Bering Sea. You need only be a survivor of the cataclysmic rise in global ocean levels that so plagued the Southern superpowers in order to be eligible.
The Northern Alliance states...Russia, Finland, Alaska, Greenland, Sweden, and Nunavut are thankful to all who have had a hand in bringing the tropics to our shores. With an average temperature now of 85 degrees Fahrenheit, beautiful sand beaches, and a growing season of 8 to 10 months, our states are a Utopianist’s dream.
And it never could have happened without the efforts of the entire world community.
Even the American Left pitched in when we brought our case before them just a half century ago. On the one hand there was the threat and fear of Global Warming. On the other, the gross inequality of their countries lying fixed in moderate climates while ours ever remained lifeless frozen wastelands. They capitulated once they understood the stark unfairness in this state of affairs.
Understood the poverty that the ceaseless cold brought forth. Our living wage consisted of enough seal fat to survive the winter.
Understood the woeful lack of doctors needed for our free health care system and on demand abortions.
The utter deficiency in the numbers of homosexuals who at that time chose to live in less difficult environments.
The absence of Liberal indoctrination on people who had to live off the land and on their own individual wits. Uneducated people who actually had the gall to think first of themselves and their own families.
All these injustices they freely understood and embraced. Their compassion was a joy to behold.
We further explained that our wildlife, which at that point was suffering from the mind wrenching cold, would live a more comfortable life if Carbon Dioxide was more favorably embraced.
With that they ditched their hybrids, cancelled their Sierra Club memberships, and cooked on open wood burning stoves. They bought Excursions and went on non-essential trips. In short, they brought equality to our modern world.
You see, they understood that it was not our fault we lived in the far North. That our situation was not one we would willingly have chosen. But one forced upon us by the warm climate Nazi capitalists who would not fairly share their bounty.
So again we of the Northern Alliance, and I am sure those of the Far Southern Pact as well, wish to forward our utmost gratitude and thanks to the American Left and to all those who had a hand in building the fairer world that we inhabit today.

“Hey, Sven.”
“Yes, Vladimir?”
“Did you just feel that cool breeze?”
“Uh oh. Here we go again. Better break out the cheap s***”
Gordon Vodka, for when the Earth’s natural cycle comes full circle.

Crossposted @ The Wide Awakes

Some Fun With Sticks and Stones

There a few things as vitriolic as a Liberal when faced with an opposing opinion.
And fewer yet, things quite as funny.
At the risk of seeming like I am injecting a cheap plug, my blog name is Sticks and Stones. How this is relevant here will become clear soon enough.
Recently I was blog surfing and came upon a blog that caught my eye. Why? The name of the blog is With Sticks and Stones.
Interesting, I thought. And in my normal playful sarcastic mode posted the following comment on a post there:

gblagg said...
Argghhhh. You stole my blog name and your a Liberal. I'm in hell!!!
2/16/2006 6:10 PM

I should have known better. Here is what I got in return:

ariadnek, ph.d. said...
gblagg: "STOLE" your blog name? Hmm...in that case, please provide a link; I also highly doubt you even had (or even now have) a clue about Einstein's statement...'cause I'm not sure if fascist conservatives are capable of reading that well.
2/16/2006 11:17 PM

and:

ariadnek, ph.d. said...
gblagg, I found your blog (and incidentally, yours definitely was not a title "stolen" by us: yours is somewhat weak and out of context). I find it intriguing that you claim to be a Libertarian...I think your problem is that you're just a disguised neoconservative that desperately needs to get laid. Your hand doesn't count, either. :-P
2/16/2006 11:29 PM

Oh yeah, I'm also a neo-Nazi(thanks, Brad):

Brad said...
Interesting you can't point to any outside source that denies what I know to be true, only your own idiotic ramblings.

"Libertarians" are what KKK members would call themselves were they still active.

2/20/2006 12:24 AM

And for more on the Pandora’s box my sexual practices:

ariadnek, ph.d. said...
Dude...I guess you didn't get laid last night after all. I'm right on with Brad's perspective, and it would be impossible for any of your inane drivel to flex my convictions.
2/19/2006 5:32 AM

So as the adult in this internet relationship, I felt it was up to me to offer the olive branch. I sent the following e-mail to ariadneK, Ph.D.:

Dear Writers @ With Sticks and Stones,

Let me begin by stating my original comment on your blog was made half in jest. I have been blogging for a little over a year over at Sticks and Stones and when I ran across your blog, I was rather amused and somewhat excited. I was curious at its content and at what a brothers-in-name might have to say. When I stated you stole my blog name, it was meant in a wry, playful manner. I hope it was taken as such.

But let us get to the point of this correspondence.

Our country is deeply divided, as I am sure you are well aware. This is not a special case in the history of this nation, but the level of vitriol seems more intense and in all seriousness downright dangerous.

Thus, I feel, fate has offered us a unique opportunity here. It seems obvious to me, and I am sure to you as well, that our ideologies could not be more dissimilar. It is here where the opportunity presents itself. I offer you a truce. No, an alliance.

Here is my idea. In the interest of understanding, I propose we each be open to cross posting on the other’s blog. When a story of mutual interest pops up, we could express our opinions on the matter and run both posts on each other’s blog(Or on a different blog completely with the ‘Sticks and Stones’ theme, linked from our individual blogs).

This would allow both of us to reach an audience we never would have had access to. As well, it would allow the reader entrance into a world of ideas he may have never thought existed. It could open eyes to the innate differences, as well as spark awarenesses of what we actually may have in common. Beyond these honorable reasons, it is just quirky enough to turn into something big.

If you are interested, I do have a few prerequisites. We must remain civil in our arguments. We must allow that the other is intelligent and thoughtful in his ideas and opinions even while we may be in disagreement. We must agree that although our opinions on matters may differ, we both have the good interest of our nation and its people at heart. We must allow comments, unmoderated, as I feel that understanding the motivation of an argument is often more important than reaching agreement. These terms are open to discussion.

Think on it. If you are interested, please comment on one of my posts and we can work out details from there.

Thank you in advance,

GBlagg @ Sticks and Stones
stickandstone.blogspot.com

I received no reply. Although in all truth I had actually hoped for a hate filled rant, seething with bile. I guess you can't always get what you want.
So it was back to work for me.
Next was my comment on their profound post that basically stated that rape is bad:

gblagg said...
Wow, you guys are against rape...you really stepped out on a limb on that one. Pat yourselves on the back for your high fallutin' moral compass. Whew boy, you should start a religion or something. We lower life forms need direction.
2/27/2006 6:00 PM

Back to my sex life:

ariadnek, ph.d. said...
Go f***(asterisks are mine) yourself with a razor, gblagg. Then again, you'd probably get aroused by the prospect.


kim: we'll have a party with it!!! :-)
2/28/2006 11:54 PM

Alas, it goes on and on with Cracker entering the fray(If you enjoy this sort of thing or would like to jump in, go here). Yada, yada, yada.
But here is the tally so far. I am an idiotic, fascist, stupid, undersexed neoconservative. A pseudo-anarchist militia member in the KKK. A dumf*** Repulitard.
Wow. I guess I really am all that.

Crossposted @ The Wide Awakes