Why are we letting our hobby (and civilization) be destroyed?

9-17-25

Why are we letting our hobby (and civilization) be destroyed?

First, I would like to express my sorrow for the unjust, insane, and evil slaying of Charlie Kirk. May God rest his soul and give his family strength in this dark time.

He did not deserve this untimely end by a mentally disturbed coward who felt violence was an appropriate response to his inability to debate in the most basic, civilized, intellectual fashion.

When I was first introduced to roleplaying games (TTRPG, as it is referred to these days), I was about twelve years old. It was 1980. My cousin and a friend at school - two different occasions/sources - opened up for me the amazing fantasy world of AD&D, D&D (the red box), and Villains & Vigilantes. I actually think V&V might have been the next summer. It all gets a little blurry after so many years.
Anyway, before good special effects in movies and tv (not all shows were bad, but the immersion was just not there), before non-basic pixel video games (I am talking PRE-Mario Bros.), all we really had were things like books, sports, Atari, boardgames, cards, darts, pool, pinball, music, rollerskates, bikes, our imaginations in the backyard, ...and D&D.

I still remember the smell of a new book or module at Walden Books, in the mall. The thrill of opening it up for the first time. Excitedly skimming through the pages before settling down on the sofa or my bed, a Faygo Rock & Rye soda on the endtable, to begin reading from cover to cover. The maps, the traps, the monsters
(yes, Orcs were and still are monsters. They were created by an evil deity and are beyond redemption or compassion. Period. Hunt them down wherever they dwell, whenever they breed, whatever they do. They are basically demons made manifest),

and once in awhile... the plot. While, in my opinion, some stories were just dumb (and in the case of Barrier Peaks, didn't really have any place in a fantasy game), others were pretty good. Prime example - Ravenloft.

We used to play every weekend. Sometimes, during the week, too. A few friends, a few pizzas, way too much soda and crackerjack, and we had the makings of a fun night that transported us into a realm of danger, excitement, treasure, achievements, and glory. Hunting orcs, infiltrating thieves' guilds, spelunking into deep dark caverns, tomb raiding, sailing against pirates, sailing For pirates, taking on quests to find religious artifacts, save the noble's daughter, find that Holy Defender sword for the Paladin, or (trying) to slay the black dragon terrorizing the peaceful farming valley. It was a non-stop ride through adventure after adventure.

Now add other genres to the mix. TTRPGs about superheroes, superspies, an apocalyptic future of wars fought by tribes of bikers and cars, giant battle robots you pilot from inside, investigating Lovecraftian horror mysteries, actual space operas, cowboys and marshals, psionics, you name it. Most of them very enjoyable games, depending on your personal tastes. Many of those RPGs actually improved our skills in math, language, writing, accounting, cartography, public speaking, teambuilding, tactics, history, engineering, or a few dozen other fields. These weren't video games. We had to work at it for success. Or just to learn the game. But most importantly, it helped us to make friends and be part of a community that welcomed outcasts, geeks, nerds, spazzes, and all the rest of the awkwardites. Then companies like Wizard of the (Left) Coast bought some of the RPGs. At first, we were pleased (well, maybe half of us). TSR had a bad falling out. 2e AD&D was not the hit they were hoping for. The company had been sued some years prior and was struggling. We really thought one day soon, they would be done and we'd only have our books and nothing new ever again.

Then 3rd edition came out. I admit, I was cautious at first, but then I came to really like it. I think they fixed a lot of grey areas and conflicts in the old rules. They added a fair amount to character building and flavor. It just seemed like an upgrade that was long overdue. I mean, the diehard BECMI guys hated it, but my counter argument is that we were already using damned near everything out of Dragon Magazine anyway - from new classes to crit charts to skills and feats - so why not just officially bundle it all up into some revised hardback books and get the party restarted?

And that's what they did. Next they printed a fair amount of decently good content over the next several years, which also sparked a creative restart by third parties like Mongoose, Green Ronin, Paizo, and other companies back in the day. In my opinion, they made some really good stuff.

But then WotC decided to try to create a whole new D&D (4e). It failed. Badly. It felt like someone who played too much World of Warcraft tried to dumb down D&D into a min/max build system. I read through a friend's copy of the player's handbook. That was enough for me. Total garbage. Most other folks in the hobby felt the same way. So, into the dustbin of history it quickly went. For most of us.
We continued playing 3/3.5e.

Next came D&D 5e, to which many of us older gamers asked "Why?"
They claimed it was streamlined, simplified, quicker to make characters, easier to understand, blah, blah, blah...
That was a lie. They just changed around some of the 3e mechanics, added some unnecessary gimmicks (like advantage rolls), and then began to slowly reshape the community itself. This is where the social engineering crap began. First quietly, by inches, forcing more ghey stuff on us, the normalizing of evil, reshaping the game into something more anime, gonzo, furry, perverted... and far less about honor, chivalry, good, righteousness, guardianship, and defending the weak.

Finally, over the last few years this was getting done far more loudly, obnoxiously, and with a whole lot of deceit, vitriol, and bigotry. The original outcasts have once again become the outcasts, but from their own subculture. Hence, the Grognard/OSR movement - our war against this insanity, to retain the greatness of our hobby, in the face of such mental illness and sick hatred.

Along the way, other games began to shift, too. Such as PathFinder (which is really just a D&D 3e ripoff but with added rules, spells, effects, gimmicks, etc.). It is a way over-encumbered version of D&D. Nothing more. The more I play PF 1e, the more I see it.

Not to mention the hard left turn Paizo has taken, as well. Here's a mentally ill dude on one of their scripted liveplay fiascos.







And lately, I have just been growing weary of their whole system. PF seems to train the DM (PM? GM? PFM?) to roll for EVERYTHING. Which is just dumb and lazy.
For example, Perception. This is a skill that was added first via Dragon magazine, I think, in 2nd edition? Then after 3rd edition. It has been used by many other RPGs since the 70s, though. Used correctly, it is a very useful skill. I discovered this playing Eden Systems games such as AFMBE (All Flesh Must Be Eaten), Buffy, and Conspiracy X.
Now, Perception is generally based on your wits. Your common sense intuition of your surroundings. In other words, it is a situational awareness skill. Are you as sharp as a Navy SEAL? Or as clueless as the Three Stooges? Specifically... what did you "notice"? That is what this skill is used for. To NOTICE something, at the edge of where your five senses and your subconscious meet.
Example, "You walk through a room. Nothing really amiss. But... (roll Perception, succeed) you back up a few steps and look closer at a bookshelf as something niggled at your attention and then you see it. The Necronomicon, shoved deep in the shelf between two larger books."
THAT is how you use Perception.
Perception (nor Spot) is not "Look" or "Eyesight" or "Vision." You do not roll it to 'SEE' something. Even then, you do not use Spot to check if you can see the bad guy running across an open courtyard, in front of you, in broad daylight, with you at one end and him only a 100' away (twice the length of an average ranch house). That does not require a roll.
Here is how that scene Would require a roll. It's dark. Night time. Many shadows. Dense fog. Blizzard. Monsoon downpour. Someone threw sand in your eyes. THAT is when you might need a Spot or Perception check. Not for a normal, everyday activity that your character does reflexively a million times a day.

Now, do not mistake me. Some skills are 100% necessary. If you want to sail a ship, you need sailing. If you want to effectively ride a warhorse, you need Riding 'and' Handle Animal (in my games, at least). If you want to try and quickly figure out what some wizard is chanting, you must have knowledge arcana or spellcraft AND be a fellow MAGIC caster (not a cleric, shaman, etc.)(Clerics do not cast spells - they Pray for divine intervention). Now, it may be possible for a cleric to have studied arcana, in which case I would allow a tougher Knowledge Arcana roll (but not Spellcraft).
The same logic applies to spellcrafting a Cleric who is currently casting a divine spell. If you're a mage type without an aptitude for divine casting (ie, you have one or more levels in a cleric type class), or Knowledge Religion and Spellcraft, you won't be getting a roll to determine what (prayer) spell the cleric is casting.

See, some skills make sense. But you have to Use them sensibly. GMs are the ONLY anchor in RPGs that keep the games from becoming utter dogpiles of illogical, chaotic, nonsense. Most players hate nonsense. If the game sessions are already challenging, never make it harder (ie, worse) by tossing in the nonsensical without a damn good reason. "Because it's in the rules" is not a good reason if it contradicts logic, physics, reality, common sense. GMs must use the rules as a guideline and Think for Themselves. Make a smart decision. Use your own wisdom. Stand by it.

Here is another example of the subtleties that escape too many GMs these days. A player wants to 'climb' a wall. They do not have Climb or Athletics. But they do have Acrobatics. So... that's a no. No skill bonus to add. Acrobatics are not for wall "climbing." The player would just roll and add his Strength bonus, and hope for the best.
Same player wants to parkour (sp?) his way up a 10' wall. NOW you can use Acrobatics (or just Dex bonus). Do you see the difference?
Logic Must have a place in RPG mechanics. Just rolling dice cannot resolve everything. And some skills are just not suitable for what players might think they are. And sometimes, you don't need to roll at all. Unless they are blind, just tell them what they see. If they want to do a simple action, like climb up a sturdy 8' ladder, unless they are being attacked or in an earthquake or something similar, the player should NOT need to make a climb check to go up a short ladder. Yes... that happened to me once.

In the last decade and a half, many GMs have gotten very lazy and have players roll for everything. Perception is the worst of the lazy.
Example, "Hey, GM. I am looking at that bookshelf across the room (bookshelf only contains maybe a dozen books). What books do I see?" GM, "Roll Perception."
No! That is not how you use that skill. You either tell the player exactly what they see, or you tell them they cannot make out the titles or see well enough from where they are - which necessitates the character moving Closer to the bookshelf. You don't roll a Perception.

Perception essentially replaced Spot and Listen, but vaguely. It really is just situational awareness. Spot and Listen were separate skills because they are, well, separate skills. You might have great hearing and sucky eyesight. Or vice versa. You might have good peripheral vision, but are tone deaf. So Listen and Spot were separate. Now, I never agreed with the OD&D concept that you had to be a thief type to have these skills. But, thief types should have a class bonus to those skills. In my opinion, so should Rangers. Any class that truly relies heavily on hearing and/or sight, like rogues, hunters, certain sailing professions (just sight for those guys), should have a bonus to that basic skill because they use it more. The distance sense-perception, I mean. And strolling around in jingling, clinking armor and a ruck should reduce the Listen skill. Common sense logic.

Another example of skill abuse is in a modern game I played recently. Driving a car. The character is American, early 30s, grew up around cars, has an automotive repair skill, and a driving skill. Now... the driving skill (in any other game) is for difficult maneuvers. Drifting, bootleggers, hard 90 or 180 turns, driving 90 thru a narrow residential zone, offroad in a hurry (or just in bad conditions like mud or sand). Stuff like that. The drive skill is Not intended to roll a check when driving 30 mph, slowing down, and making a normal left hand turn onto another street. That's illogical. Yet it happened.

So... the overuse of skills has bogged down games. It has made GMs (and players) lazy. I have seen games where literally everything is rolled on the dice. Even the player unable to decide if they want to eat in a tavern. "Barwench asks you if you would like food or just ale." Player rolls a 6-sided, "I guess I'm hungry."
/facepalm

This is where the game stops being an RPG and just becomes a weird boardgame that Looks like an RPG. Too much rolling... not enough 'role'ing. In other words, RPGs are Roleplaying games, not Rollplaying games. Yes, we roll dice to determine outcomes when necessary, but the emphasis is on the Roles we assume, in the game, to make our way through that world and accomplish whatever goals or quests we need to. Otherwise, if you roll for everything... you're really just playing a video game on paper. AND it slows the game down. Combat is sluggish enough. We don't need extra, unnecessary, and sometimes utterly useless dice rolls.

When you couple the excessive dice rolling for every single thing your character needs to do with a nonstop combat agenda, it turns the game into a bogged down merderhobo (*misspelled intentionally - blame the leftist nanny filters) slugfest. Additionally, when you have gamers start their RPG careers in games in those conditions, it adversely affects their ability to effectively run their own games, one day (unless, of course, they recognize the errors in running a dice heavy slugfest). The sessions end up becoming a semi-railroady, hack-n-slash marathon. Those are truly the worst kinds of game sessions/campaigns (not even sure if it can be called a campaign).

They cause burnout quick and sour the experience. They rob the players of immersion, story, adventure, and true character development. I truly loathe "games" like that. In the past, I would normally remove myself from those games. Occasionally, however, I stuck with it solely out of friendship. But, that usually makes the burnout worse. That is the point I would begin planning out my own campaign and then just take over the GMing.

Our TTRPGs (Table Top Role Playing Games) are meant to be immersive and grandiose to everyone's imagination.
They are Not video games. Our goal is not supposed to be blast/hack your way through scenes in order to reach the end of said scenes, just to gain new levels, in order to immediately go back out and hack/blast your way to the next goalpost. That is what video games are for.
An RPG game session is a story. An inquiry. A mystery. An exploration. A quest. A journey. An adventure.
This is the purpose. This is the point.

This is also where I strongly disagree with, at least in part, some semi-prominent OSR styled commentators and bloggers, who loudly proclaim "You are a GM, not a story teller."
In the words of my Granddad... that's horsesh!t.

Our job, as a Game Master, is to be a Referee. An information Kiosk. A worldbuilder. A Narrator. A coach. And a Storyteller.
It is literally our primary job to flow the story and umpire the game. Storytelling is 50% of our work. It is part of the world build, sometimes right off the cuff. Winging it. In the moment.
It is our job to assume every npc role, from villain to stablemaster, barkeep to henchmen. We account for armies, history, politics, civilizations, and the metaplots of the entire game world we are within. That is what a good and experienced GM does and is responsible for.
Now, you can take the simplistic approach. Roll the dice for everything. Encounters, reactions, directions, weather, terrain, features, etc., etc.. But, in my opinion (all 45 years worth of GMing opinion), that is the method of those who are 1) not really invested in their campaigns, 2) struggle from poor imaginations and need a lot of help, or 3) just not very good GMs.
I am bound to p!ss off some "GMs" here, but them's the facts, Lords and Ladies.

IF you invest a fair amount of time in prepping, learning your system/mechanics, reading a good amount of fiction in the genre (or even in that world, if you play in a prefab setting, like Forgotten Realms or GreyHawk), and just trying... putting yourself and your (growing) talent for narration out there, in your game sessions, then you can become a very good GM. Not just a ref. But a GM, which involves copious amounts of storytelling.

One variant, however, would be those who like to HexCrawl blind. Now, I have no issues with this style of gaming. It's actually fun, with a decent group of exploration-minded players and GM. You roll for every 2, 5, 6, or 10 mile Hex on the world map you are building as you go. Creating the game world you are playing in, step by step. This is also a method of RPG, but different than what I am referring to. My games are mostly written ahead of time, in either established worlds or new worlds that I have created, and I already know what lies ahead in most directions. However, storytelling works in HexCrawl, too... it is just more challenging because you are doing everything 100% improv. That takes a very special and experienced GameMaster to pull it off well.

Two great examples of this HexCrawl gaming/creation style can be found here: (fyi - I am a fan of their methods, but do not equate them with my political or religious views. They are their own free thinking men and not associated with me or my ranty blog.)

Crit Happens by Flint Fireforge - http://www.youtube.com/@FlintFireforge

and Hexed Press - http://www.youtube.com/@HexedPress



But here is the difference (back to my story teller discussion), and I think some RPG commentators get this a little confused... I do not mean run a game like you are directing a play. Do not play like those poseurs you see on Critical Role or that nonsense liveplay garbage Paizo does. I do not mean write a script and railroad the story into existence and turn your players' characters into parts of Your attempt at a larped novel.
I am referring to allowing the players to direct the campaign, within their abilities, and you narrate the results. You literally improv build the detailed portions of the world, as needed, but also have a good chunk of the important information already established, memorized or written down or easily accessible in notebooks/tablets/corebooks/etc.

Do not be a railroad. Do not force the characters in a linear progression because you wrote a story.
Rather, be an open world that you already know, even if you had to create that region the week before the game, and narrate the players through that area while encouraging them to make decisions that may either further the story or cause you to toss out that week's notes and wing it. But keep narrating their tale and the effects.
And yes, this is done with dice, as well. But not all of it is a dice roll. Use common sense. Imagination. Realism within the fantasy. And even let the party take the lead. Encourage them to. Then, it will end up a pretty good story after all is said and done.

Again, this is the purpose. This is the point.


But sadly, many of the current RPG "tourists" have taken license with part of that practice, abusing the hell out of it, to ridiculous proportions, equating (in their approach to) games like D&D with a diversity lecture, a rainbow bake sale,

a pseudo-intellectual trip to the local cafe for a soy latte, or a radical protest in order to destroy what D&D (and every other infected TTRPG) is/was (in their deluded minds) in order to turn it into something it isn't (wasn't meant to be) and further muddling the gaming experience, particularly for the new and/or younger players who do not have an old skool baseline with which to compare.
The "tourists" have inserted their own imagined slights and "microaggressions" (w/e t. f. those are) into our subculture and beloved RPGs, and in some cases have turned a wonderful fantasy gaming framework into a unicorn battleshriek against white men or some troon flagwaving cry for blood.

They have used false equivalency, strawman, red herring, and half a dozen other logical fallacies in order to smear gaming, plant racism, pretend they see misogynism, and utterly lie to the consumer base as to why the founders of D&D (Thank you Gary, Dave, Rob, and the rest of the early Geneva crew) were (a few actual genderconfused within the industry in the early days notwithstanding) evil and fascist.
All the while literally acting racist, misandric, bigoted, dishonest, and violently hateful themselves. They are so deranged that instead of sitting down and having a rational discussion, they would rather burn cars and buildings, scream/shout/blare airhorns to prevent us from speaking, assault us, dox us, stalk us, fire us, try to shame us, come after our kids, attack our churches, use lawfare against us, steal our work, help flood our communities with hostiles and illegals... the list goes on and on.

And it's not just in gaming. It's in every aspect of our current society. It has become a cancer that has festered and rotted our broader western culture, and especially our gaming culture. Nerds and Geeks used to be relatively safe within their own subculture. Now, if you are white, straight, male, and (GASP) Christian - Or even any two or more of those categories - you are a target for the raging loonies that cannot even confirm what gender they are, let alone if reality is really real.

I will bring this to a close by stating a few things, so there is no confusion. If you wanna be ghey, that is your business and that is between you and Christ. I had ghey friends in the past. Had because they are no longer with us. But I never got on them about their choice of partners. AND they never shoved it in my face or became radicalized and tried to force in on children or into our places it didn't belong in a displayed fashion. In other words, it is about attraction and sex and has no place being a primary pillar of an RPG. I loved my friends, but considered their nocturnal habits rather disgusting, abnormal, and an abomination. But again... that was between them and God. As far as troons (I use that word because I cannot use the normal word without getting flagged unfairly), I do not hate them. They anger me with their behavior and threats. They really angered me last week with the erasure of an important intellect and Christian voice (Charlie Kirk) for GenZ and Gen Alpha. He was about half a step away from becoming Catholic, like his wife, and I believe that is why the Adversary had him removed from this world. Kirk, being who he is And leading more of our young back to the true Church... that would have done a lot of damage to the evil agenda of this world. As it is, he became a martyr and will affect change in a slightly different way, but hopefully nearly as potent. Anyway... I don't hate troons. I pity them. I feel sorry for them. I have prayed for them. They are obviously mentally ill and belong in an institution where they can receive proper care. Thinking you are the opposite sex (gender is a socially constructed word/concept - it has no value beyond its deceptive nature) is clearly mentally unwell. It's akin to thinking you are Napoleon. Or a dog. It has the highest self-deletion ratio of all the unnormals walking around in society today. And after meatball surgery, the ratio actually inches up. Normalization is not the answer. A mental hospital is. And as they become more violent (with boomsticks and sidearms, anyway), the realization of this well-known fact of old is finally becoming refamiliar, cutting through the crazy leftist propaganda machine one centimeter at a time. I pray this understanding finally reaches everyone before we have another Children's Mass or Kirk incident.

As you can see, this (RPG tourist diversity/rainbow agenda) is clearly a bigger problem than just our hobby. It cuts across every aspect of our lives, our children's lives, our grandchildren's lives... this is about an evil that has crept into our nation nearly two hundred years ago. One that was reinforced and emboldened almost a hundred years ago, by inundating our centers of higher learning with radical staff from Germany and Eastern Europe after WWII ended. When the hippies started fomenting their unrest, our society became pretty much broken, it just didn't know it yet.
This is all just above and beyond (or really just an appendage of) the age old evil we've been warring with for two thousand years.
I'll have more thoughts soon. For now... enjoy the memes.

August 30, 2025

A meandering of thoughts, positions, and warnings


A lot has happened this year. Some good, some bad. Some unexpected.
Of course, the worst for me was the death of my mother. Not sudden, but it was a terrible loss regardless. I miss her greatly. But I had missed her for a few years before she passed. She had alzheimers, so she sort of left us a while ago. The mother I grew up with disappeared in a fog of confusion and erased memories. The first time she forgot to call me on my birthday, I knew things had changed forever. A couple years later, when she asked me who I was, I knew my mother was gone. So, this was a slow roll toward the end. Do not mistake me. I know she is in a far better place spiritually. She is on her way to God. That gives me some comfort. But it's not the same as having your mother in the world with you.
At her funeral, I discovered two of my favorite cousins had passed on, and no one bothered to inform me. I am still sore over that. I also discovered an old gaming friend, Kirk, had passed away a few years earlier.
A couple months ago, my younger cousin Brent died unexpectedly. That hurt. I had not seen him in many years, but we were close in our youth and that bond was still there. He had a hard life. He deserved better than he ended with.
And that news came on the heels of me finding out my best friend from High School had died in the winter of early 2024. His name was Craig. That poor guy had a difficult life. Childhood diabetes, daily insulin shots, strict diet, and even then it wasn't always enough. He spent a fair amount of time in the hospital over it. By the time he was 40 or so, he was on social security disability because he began having seizures randomly, his eyesight began to fail, and his legs started to atrophy. His marriage began to suffer, as well. His ending was very sad, from what I read in his obit. Basically, he passed away in a nursing home. Alone.
I'm still working through that one. I'm angry, to say the least. But at least he, too, had become Christian in his final years. Hopefully I will see him again one day.
So yeah... it's been a rough first half of the year. I have been thinking of my youth, and the family and friends from that life. Some of whom are no longer here, others have drifted off into another life of which I have not been part of for a long time. Some I have purposely discarded due to betrayal. I do miss some of them, but that was another life.
And then there have been changes and events which have been life-altering. The birth of my last child nine years ago. My newest granddaughter a year ago. My youngest son's first Reconciliation & Communion. My next youngest son's new career in intelligence in the Army and getting stationed in Europe. My youngest daughter marrying into a fine Lakota family. My other daughter engaged to be wed next year. My third son becoming a Marine and getting married. My second son finally getting his life together and driving longhaul truck in a steady career he likes and is helping him finally get out of his financial hole. My brush with death six years ago. My first ever vacation, with my wife, to a beautiful island in the West Indies. Our tenth wedding anniversary this year. My conversion to Catholicism, Rome approving my annulments, and my Confirmation into the Roman Catholic Church & first Eucharist on Easter Vigil.
I am thankful, as well as grateful to everyone in the Church who helped make it happen. Overcoming mistakes of the past is always the first step toward seeing your future and working towards it.



On that note, please pray for the families who have had their futures taken away or permanently stained because of the vile, evil acts of the demonically possessed and mentally unhinged. Pray for the victims, and their families, of the most recent tragedy in the Catholic School attack in that deep blue wasteland we know as the Twin Cities. These malevolent events, whether enacted by troons, jihadies, demsocs, or marxist pyschos, are the worst sort of betrayal. Especially in situations like this last one, where grade school children had just started their weekly Mass (prayer) in the school's chapel. This one hits home for me. My youngest child goes to Mass every week, at his Catholic School's chapel. He is in grade school. We are under the ArchDiocese of St Paul, same as the school just attacked in Minneapolis. As a Catholic parent in the same scholastic situation, this hits hard. I feel the loss of those children every time I look at mine.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,
blessed are thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come; thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses; as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.


But it also angers me. This should never have happened. And that retard of a mayor in Minneapolis rushed to lay blame on our second amendment and those on the rightside of the political spectrum. How absolutely shallow, insensitive, self-absorbed, and moronic. He should have been working to console the families and community. Working to help find out who the perp was and how he came to be this evil.
Instead, that dolt of a mayor chose the route of political flamewars and deception. I have come to expect nothing better from the Left, to be honest. Twits like him are why I eventually got redpilled and walked away from the Left, and their insane, inane, inept, and ignorant perspectives. In the 90s, I just went with the flow. I agreed with my circle of friends because I figured surely they, as a group, must know better than me. In the 2000s, I went along with them because of those I had been married to and what I was being fed in college.
It wasn't until I had been out of academia for a time, and began to do my own research, outside of the echo chambers of "Liberal" Arts, that I realized how corrupt and indoctrinating universities (and public schools, K-12) were. As I looked back on my time at IU, I realized how subtle it was. Writing a paper? Be sure it is relevant not just to the subject matter, but to the professor's approved list of perspectives. Using sources? Be sure you only use approved and credible sources from the approved list (which only ever included left media, magazines, authors, etc.). I recall asking once, as I looked over the approved list for news sources to use for a paper, why FOX news was not approved. I was told that they were not a serious news organization and tended to leave out important info. I realized later that what he meant was they offered a different perspective than the approved opinions of the Left. The deeper I dove into researching this, I came to discover that the bulk of "approved and credible" sources were all hard Left (democrat, marxist, socialist, communist, progressive, modernist, postmodernist, nihilist, atheist, darwinistic, etc.). The Atlantic, Huffington Post, NPR, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Daily Beast, Wire, Slate, Mother Jones, Washington Post, NY Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, BBC, CBC, CBS, ABC, NBC... all of them. This became so apparent during the kung flu nonsense, that even clueless folks began to see it. Remember the scene from (again) Minneapolis with the token minority field reporter standing in front of a neighborhood being razed to the ground and him blathering about how the "protests" were "mostly peaceful"?

And then we saw just how vile, lying, and corrupt the Left and many on the Right (RINOs) really were, over the next few years. Forcing an untested, unproven, and dangerous experimental shot on innocent civilians and military. The theft of our tax money to prop up violent protests by cowards in masks, entitled and miseducated minorities angry over events that happened two centuries prior, push an agenda for aberrant and mentally ill deviants and then try to push it on our young, and then we finally discover that all of the bs purported against the 45th president was made up by his opposing candidate, outgoing executive branch, their political party, our own intel community with the help of our federal law enforcement and the UK's intel agencies. And WE paid for all that nonsense. How about the hundreds of billions of dollars that they poured into the unwinnable war Ukraine was in - money of which most is still unaccounted for but yet the Left pushed hard to keep pouring money into it. Every person in Congress and the WH who was proUkraine needs to be audited and explain how their financial portfolios increased by 1000s of percents. Then there is the corruption within the UN, mainly directed at jokes like China, Pakistan, Sudan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Iran being put on their Security and Human Rights Councils. Then we have the hobby organizations of the uber-rich, like the W.E.F. and financial fronts such as Vanguard, Blackrock, and State Street interfering with the wealth and the Rights of the world, forcing up property values, working to eliminate the middle class in order to reestablish the former peasant/aristocrat system most of the uber-rich families enjoyed for several centuries before America gave them the middle finger and became an independent nation.


*Sigh...
Sorry for the rants and the not-so-nice names. Even though they are well-deserved.
If you really want to understand what has been happening politically and financially, for the last century, start with a couple books. A two-volume set by Whitney Webb, titled "One Nation Under Blackmail"
There are many other sources out there, now. The list grows daily, it seems. But Whitney is one of the best places to start.

But, all that being said, the deepest roots of all this wickedness and deception thrown at us goes back millennia. Eons. It is supernatural. It is the purest evil. It is older than almost anything else effecting change on this world - but only ill change, unholy change. And all of these things, all these events throughout time, occurring now, yet to come... they all spawn from a single source of darkness that has prowled through time, seeking the ruin of all humans. This is what I eventually came to realize, to witness, to discern. Most of us (humans) have been duped into a lulled sense of blasé, or false contentment, or misconception of the true fight we should be involved in. As prophecy states, many will fall away. Many will be misled before the end. The gate is narrow. Most will not give up their material things, their idols of modernity, their notions of false virtues, or their outright depravity and evil. Most will be on the wrong side of the spiritual warfare because they are too worried about losing their freedom of lust, gluttony, hate, anger, ignorance, apathy...


This year, I chose the only winning side. Personally, I have a long way to go, as I am a sinner, like every once else. And I feel more attacked today than ever before. That goes with the territory. The adversary hates to lose anyone he has snagged.
I am stating all of this so that you know where I stand and to give you something to think on.
For many years, we have been lied to by those we considered virtuous, ethical, intellectual, scientific, philosophic, and beyond reproach. In universities, in schools, in govt, in business, in the medical and pharma fields, even in many "churches" (looking at you, protestants). Even my own Church has been suffering a quiet schism since 1962. When you count out all the entities who you cannot trust to be honest or good, the list of trustworthy becomes radically small. I can tell you all of those whom I think should be trusted, but many of you really need to deep dive into this research and see for yourselves.
And most of all, I pray my eldest daughter does this for herself. She has not spoken to me in 12 years. Sadly, I helped walk her down the wrong information path very long ago. I misled as I was misled. Then her attendance of the same university as me further cemented that indoctrination.
Only she can correct her course, now. All I can do is give her buoys by which she might find her way.


*Also, public service announcement - for those of you who still game, abandon the woke trash that is D&D 5e and beyond.
Play Shadowdark. Play Baptism of Fire. Play Traveller. Play Cthulhu (older versions). Play Battletech (FASA version, not CGL), and play old school D&D. Don't give time or attention to all this garbage that WotC and others are putting out. Get back to the roots of the hobby. That's where the fun and adventure still lives.
For those who know me, I still have the same email addy I had 15 years ago.

"What Would Jesus Have Said to the Christian Nationalists?"

(A question posed in a video, from a channel created, and wholly produced, by Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen)
(btw - I like Bjorn. He's generally very considerate, intelligent, and kind, as well as an author and traditionalist. Check out his channel. Good stuff.)

(In response to his video, link posted below)
First, allow me to state that I enjoy your show. I appreciate the plethora of topics you speak on, particularly your common sense bearing on the errors of wok(e)ism and the feminization of our young men (and some older men). However, I think perhaps you're a bit out of your element on this one.
You admit you're not a Christian, yet you feel educated enough on the subject matter to speak on it. You're not American, but you feel informed enough to speak on it (MAGA, politics, etc.), as well.
Here is my position. I hope it helps your understanding.
I'm American. 10th generation. My ancestry is Scot, Irish, Saxon, and Norwegian. Probably why I like your show. I come from a very long military lineage. Even two of my boys are military - one Marine, one Soldier. I'm a Traditional Catholic (pre-Vatican 2 and pre-progressive/modernism). I'm an historian, philosopher, and archaeologist, by education. I'm a Constitutional Conservative.
When I was young and understood much less, I was democrat, progressive, liberal, and pagan. After years of education and research, and a few undeniable nudges from God, my world view changed. Essentially... I grew up. I put away the notions of youth and idealistic notions of utopianism. That is not the world we live in, nor was it ever. Our world needs order. It needs to hold on to traditions. I'm positive that you appreciate That one. Our world also needs God. When we do not follow him, our societies eventually fall to ruin, our moral center decays into nothing, and our very children pay the price for such hedonism and evil. That is also evident everywhere on this Earth, more so today than much of the past.
To be a nationalist is to be a patriot to your country. There is nothing wrong with that, as long as that country tries to maintain goodness and takes care of it populace, does not act out of evil or malice towards its own or its neighbors, exudes truth and good morals, protects the weak, aids those in need without compromising its own values or people. Too many people get this silly knee jerk reaction that "nationalism" means aryan, or national socialism, or fascism, or despotism... it does not. Those things are counter to true nationalism because they ultimately threaten the very thing they claim to protect.
You want a good example of nationalism? America, 1942.
You want a good example of Christian Nationalism? America, 1942.

Wanting the country founded upon God and Christian values to remain a Christian nation is not a bad thing.
It's the correct thing.
It doesn't mean forcing others to become Christian. That's between the nonbelievers and God. But it Does mean having a society that operates under the tenets of that religion (such as no murder, no theft, be honest, etc.) that gave those people the very freedom and peace they enjoy.
It also means not forcing demonic or insane garbage upon the Christian people of said nation because a loud, unhinged minority feel compelled to undo said nation, at the very fundamental core of its being.

Do I think America should be Christian Nationalist? Only if it is done right and not allowed to become a tyranny. Adhering to our core values as a Christian nation would see to that.
Do I think America 'will' become one? No. Because in this mortal life, we are not to find that sort of peace again, until Christ returns and the last great war is fought. That's Scripture.
It has hints of Ragnarok to it. Curious, no?

As far as MAGA goes... it's just a patriotic movement and slogan. We've had many over the last 250 years. This one will eventually fade into the history books, too. But for now, we need it. We very nearly lost this country to an evil, insane, despotic oligarchy taking orders from another evil, insane, tyrannical oligarchy (who probably meets in Davos every year).
We're trying to save our nation. And whether our cousins across the pond like to admit it or not... if We fall... eventually You all fall.
Pray we are successful. This fight will take a generation or more. If we're lucky.
God bless. Gruß Gott. Skol. 🤟

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyMp6MGmKvw

*FYI - This was a comment I originally posted on a yourube channel (link above), which the fascists running yourube (not the channel owner - he's cool) quickly removed w/o warning. Since I felt compelled to write it, and it took a little thought and had some meaning (at least to me), I'm reposting it here. Yes... in years of dealing with the purple hairs at yourube, I have learned to copy/save all my lengthy comments because yourube is actually run by modern day nazi scum, and I do not trust them any further than they can throw a football.


If you're interested in this subject (Christian Nationalism), here is a concise, thoughtful piece written by Prof. David Carlin:

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2024/07/08/on-christian-nationalism/

Mom died today...

Sunday, January 5, 2025

"Mom died today."

It took me two days to write this sentence.
She actually died Friday morning, 6:50AM EST, January 3, 2025. She made it to 2025. I thought we had a few more months, but around Christmas time, she just couldn't keep going. Her body and her mind were failing her. In the end, she went in her sleep the morning after I spoke to her for the last time, on the phone. My sister placed the phone next to her ear and put it on speaker. I read Mom something I wrote half an hour before I called her:

'Mom,
It's me, your oldest boy.
I'm told your time with us is almost done and soon you'll be with Nanny and your Daddy.
(pause)
I just want to tell you that we'll be ok. (long pause, difficult getting the words out) You taught us well. I will do my best to meet you in Heaven someday, and with God's grace all my children will follow me there.
(pause) I am writing you into one of my books, with a slight name change, to honor you and so that your grandchildren might know you a bit more.
(very long pause, trying my best not to break down in tears) You were my whole world when I was young. (pause) My happiest memories all include you. (pause, tears) I'll remember them for the both of us.
I imagine you'll be watching over me soon. And I will be praying for you. (sniffle, straightening up in chair, wiping tears, pushing through)
Try to forgive me for the mistakes I make and ask Christ to go easy on me. I'm still working on my sailor-mouth.
I love you, Mom. May God keep you and give you peace. I will come find you in a few decades.'

There is a hole in my world, now. I have not spent much time with her in the last twenty years. After Nanny (her mom) passed on, Mom decided to sell her place and semi-retire to Florida for a few years. She lived and worked with a good friend of hers from high school. They catered parties and conferences. They also spent a lot of time sight-seeing and enjoying the beach. After a few years, she missed her family, so she moved to Kentucky to live with my sister around 2008. We saw each other only a few times after that. We spoke on the phone once in awhile, but life kept us busy. My job with Roadway and YRC kept me extremely busy. Then in December 2013, I moved to North Dakota, eventually got married, had another child, and worked very busy jobs until I took a sabbatical in December of 2022 to finish school and write books. By this time, after a few days we visited Mom in 2017, we had learned she had alzheimer's. From 2020 on, it progressed rapidly. By the end, she was blind, mute, and couldn't mobilize herself. She left this world helpless and in the dark. My only consolation is that she is with God, now, and will be with Nanny and Grandma Mac (Nanny's mom). She might even be with her Daddy and GrandDaddy Orr. I do not know where they were at spiritually, with Christ, before they died. I hope they made it. I hope they all made it. Hope is all I have left, now.
We are links to our past. Our parents are the links before us. When they leave this world, that link is broken. Like a wave erasing a shape in the sand. The ocean removes it. Flattens and smooths it out. Like it was never there. Only we remain to tell others what was on the beach. When we're gone, the story of it slips further into memory as our children must tell the story, and then their children, and so on. Our parents are our direct connection to our past, to our lived memories, to the world we grew up in that only now lives in our minds and hearts. Now half of my connection is gone.
At the moment, I'm part numb, part sad, part angry, a lot nostalgic. Sitting here, writing, listening to Chicago "Hard Habit To Break." No, I didn't plan it. It just came up in the 80s playlist I'm listening to.
I feel sad for my youngest son. He will never really know my Mom. He was too young, too far away. Mom only got to meet him twice. Once before the diagnosis and once a few years later. By that time, we all knew. She had aged considerably in those few short years. Just a few years after that, towards the end, she looked as if she'd aged twenty years in just seven. Mortality came for her with a vengeance. A stark reminder that none of us are immune. None of us will leave this world alive. My Mom was ok with me becoming Catholic. We spoke about it two years ago. She was happy I came back to God, and understood my draw to the Traditional Christianity of the Holy Church. I explained my reasoning, the nudges God had given me. She agreed that I was on the right path. I wish I could have brought her to a Traditional Mass before she passed on. It just wasn't possible. All I can do now is offer prayers for the repose of her soul. I know she will enter Heaven quickly, maybe even instantly. But a few extra prayers couldn't hurt to speed up the queue, just in case.
My extended family are protestant, so they wouldn't understand. Nor, in my experience, do protestants tolerate even hearing that they're not doing it quite right and, regardless of where their hearts are at, in rebellion against the Church Christ began. But my own family is my concern, now. My children are my legacy. It is they whom I must try and bring to Christ's true Church before the end. I need to do better, as well. I have been laxed, lately. School, holidays, illnesses, deaths... so many things blocking the way. I need to get back into the swing of it. Health, Church, Family, Writing, Research, Career. It's time to finish my life better than I started it.
I will miss my Mom. I'm sure more as time goes by. It hasn't really set in, yet. I can feel it hasn't. Still numb.
Goodbye Mommy.

Walking back into the Light

These are a couple of social media posts I have made, over the last 17 months. 

I have made some significant personal changes, and may reconstitute this blog accordingly. 

At least in order to include this new stage of my life, not necessarily become the sole topic of this blog. 

In addition to semi-retiring from the “rat race,” in order to become a fulltime researcher and author, I am putting my past experience in paganism to academic and literary use, as I further study materials pertaining to Angelology, Demonology, Exorcisms, Sacramental Rites, and the differences between the Roman Catholic Church, The Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Coptic Christian Church, mainly historical and fundamental doctrinal variances. 

Anyway… I would just like to share. I am not the same man I was a decade ago. Moreso even from three years ago. 

I'm not even sure anyone reads this blog, anymore. But, here goes... 

[*Some current notes have been added below, throughout] 

--------------------- 

[posted on Gab] 

My sojourn back to God 

Oct 15, 2021 

So, after meeting with my [new] Pastor last night, a nice three hour talk over ale and dinner, about the world today, the evil spreading everywhere, our insane subculture/cancel culture, etc., we also delved into the Lutheran doctrine (LCMS). 

I have completed my adult [Lutheran] catechism and (after years of research, comparisons, soul searching) have decided to be confirmed Lutheran (for those unfamiliar- think ‘evangelical catholic’, or as I heard in a podcast, jokingly, ‘diet catholic.’ Lutheran is the first protestant church: see Martin Luther – The Reformation.) 

I was raised baptist, then charismatic, brethren, presbyterian, and evangelical. 

Then I left the faith thirty years ago. 

I got mad at God and walked away. 

I spent years in various pagan traditions and the occult, even practiced the medicine path for a time. 

I went to college at 30 and discovered existentialism and nihilism. For a time, I hovered somewhere between agnostic and atheist for a long time. 

Then, Trump came and I watched the evil of this world reveal themselves openly after Billary lost the election. I watched as society turned itself inside out [and the Left went insane]. 

I watched as Revelations began to unfold. 

Long story short - I couldn’t ignore what I learned from the Bible in my youth, as prophecy came to pass. 

I began a very awkward, humble, procrastinated shuffle back to Christianity. But this time I did research [rather than blindly following someone else - ie., a family member or friend], found the denomination that not only felt right for me but scripturally [seems most] right. 

It’s hard, though. I sin. Every day. But I am determined to keep going, because it’s what’s right, because it’s what we’re supposed to do, it’s what my heart says to do, and because [I believe] I know what’s coming. 

I encourage all y’all to think on this, if you’re unsure or unwilling to kneel before God [let alone admit to yourselves that God really exists]. Our time here is growing shorter. Eventually, it’ll run out. Then it’ll be too late. 

Talk to God. Ask for his help, his guidance. 

Think about going to church. Find one that suits your spiritual needs and feels like a good fit. [Though I highly recommend one of the older Churches – pre-1600. Remember… the farther back in time we go, religiously, the closer to Christ we find ourselves. Look to the ancient Christian doctrines first.] 

And be not ashamed. [This world is wicked and demonic. Many will scorn you for seeking the moral, righteous narrow path to God. Stay the course.] 

God bless. 

--------------------- 

[posted on Gab] 

May 6, 2023 

[This is in response to a social media post by a Traditional Catholic. He had asked why Protestants rarely refer to themselves as Protestant, noting that Catholics and Orthodox are open and unhindered about proclaiming themselves as such. Many of the replies seemed to be from protestants, and they were not very nice. What follows here, is my rebuttal and comment to them.] 

[*Note - this describes, briefly, where I currently am in my Christian sojourn.] 

Reading through these responses clearly demonstrate why, after all these centuries, we're all [Christian denominations] still split up. We can't even find common ground on the number of Sacraments, let alone doctrine and Church history. 

This is what put folks like me off for so many years. 

I was raised mainly Baptist [as well as a few other Protestant denominations]. 

Then, I was pagan [black arts witch, wiccan, wittan, stregan, enochian, egyptian, hermetic, asatru, neomedicine path] and then [thanks to college], agnostic for decades. 

God led me back. That's a longer story [see previous post]. 

I had to do my own research, for a long time, about my direction. What Church should I go to? God gave me a few, very clear, way too coincidental hints/nudges on which way to go. 

I ended up at an LCMS Lutheran Church. 

Then, more reading and podcasts, more nudges, a year later I found myself in RCIA and attending Mass. I finally feel that my spirit [soul] is involved [engaged] and where it belongs. 

But I still have grave reservations about a few things. Mainly, what's been going on in the Church since 1962 [see “Vatican 2 controversy”]. And I think [Pope] Francis is demonically misled. 

So, I have also been reading about [Catholic] Traditionalism and [Catholic] Sedevacantism [as well as studying contemporary Church history, and portions of ancient through Medieval Church history, to gain a fuller understanding]. 

The deeper I go, in all my studies, the more I find that I have More to learn than previously thought... that I am not 100% convinced which path (Orthodox, R. Catholic, or Protestant.) is definitively correct, but I am going where God is leading me... And [in addition,] once I Finally sat down and took the time to understand about Mary and the Saints, I discovered that Protestants are wildly uninformed/misinformed on the entire subject [of Marianology and the Intercession of Saints]... and the Triune God [equally God, Jesus, & The Holy Spirit] is the true understanding [of the Trinity] (sorry, Orthos). 

The end result for me is that 95% of what Catholics and Orthodox do seems correct. Only about 30-50% is true for [some] Protestants [while other Protestant denoms are closer to 5-25% correct, like Jehovah's Witness, Mormons, or any progressive church that condones open defiance of God's Word]. 

This is my personal, informed observation as a Philosopher and an Historian, not as a Theologian [although, I am striving to become a Theologian - at least an amateur one]. 

So, I am trusting Christ to continue guiding me. 

But I'm pretty much in the Trad Catholic camp, now. [I attend Mass. I pray the Rosary. I’m seeking Confirmation, hopefully by next year. I may even take a few courses in Catholic Studies at the local Catholic University, just to further my knowledge and aid my research.] 

My youngest son is being brought up in Catholic, in a good Catholic School. [We pray and attend Mass together.] 

Everything feels to be in the right place in our lives, now. Religiously/Spiritually-speaking. 

Also, my 75 year old Baptist mom didn't freak out when I told her I was in Catechism. 

That’s a Bonus. 

---------------------

To absent best friends and family. 

Know that you are ever missed and ever loved. 

May you survive and thrive in these dark times. 

And may God watch over you.

Me, Connor, Wenny - Jan 2020

Bismarck, ND

Gavin, Connor, Wenny, Me, Liam -  Oct 2018

San Diego USMC Recruit Depot

Connor, Me - Oct 2018

Connor - Oct 2018

Me and Liam - July 2018

Lake Sibley, ND

                                 Where we're headed as a nation and society...

        *Originally posted on a conservative forum I belonged to in August 2019:

    Nine months ago, I officially gave Twitter, Jack, and the rest of the leftist nutbags the finger and abandoned Twitter. Account is deactivated. App’s gone from my phone. Link is deleted from my PC browser. [And since I discovered that I was perma-banned]
It’s just become too stupid and vicious. And, sadly, I was getting caught up in the (as Glenn Beck put it) “Outrage” addiction.
    I turned 50 on that day. People still tell me I look like I’m mid-30s. But I’m 50. That means I have had the opportunity to observe close to 4.5 decades of societal change in this country, on this planet. I have watched as our schools eroded. I have witnessed the weirdo, drug addicted, zero morals leftists from the late 60s/early 70s slowly worm their way into our educational system and political machine, and change things from within - for the worse. I have seen tyrants and crooks lose power only to be replaced by others who took up the corruption mantle and became despots themselves. I have watched technology blossom and then get stuck for twenty years in a reboot/upgrade/expansion cycle (we should be living on the Moon by now). And I have watched, over the past 25 years, as the democrats used "hope and change" mantras to deceive the general populace, while they insidiously worked their socialist agenda into our daily lives, beginning at the most rudimentary level with the most basic social programs and policies, from welfare expansion, to mandatory seat belts, to social services kidnapping children, to widespread indoctrination in our schools, universities, and media & literary venues. 

    Now, they are crafting legislation to destroy our 2nd Amendment, greatly restrict or abolish portions of the 1st Amendment, openly ignore the 4th Amendment, and discussing the real likelihood of enacting the 25th Amendment. We have democrats who ran a campaign on an openly socialist platform and WON. We have ignorant, mentally deranged, fascist thugs roaming portions of the larger leftist metropolises, starting brawls, riots, destroying property, sending people to the hospital, stealing, committing arson… all while the local police either stand back and watch or show up in riot gear but do very little to halt these lunatics from breaking the law. And uneducated buffoons like Bloomberg and Pelosi want you to call those same police forces to come save you in an active shooter situation, rather than you being armed yourself and saving your own life or that of your family’s.
    I have seen a lot of change in the world over the past 50 years. Most of it was not for the better. Perhaps more interesting. More distractions and social opiates (like smartphones, tablets, 1200 cable channels and lifelike sim video games). But in general, we have lost our way. Facts are apparently no longer truth (just ask Biden). Virtue is scoffed at. Morals have become subjective. Honor isn’t even understood anymore. Honesty is relative. Ethics, principles, integrity are meaningless when compared to convenience, instant gratification, and reality shows.
    God has become a relic of a long forgotten era, or so thinks most youth and many adults these days. Instead of the creator of the universe, he is seen as a fairy spirit in the sky that has no more validity than a unicorn or a smurf.
    While I may struggle with my belief, hence my agnosticism, I understand the need for a divinity in our society. Without the thought of an all-father watching over us, and someday passing judgment on us, it seems most people simply run amok. It’s like the parents are gone for the weekend, so they break in to the liquor cabinet and re-enact Animal House. Whether God exists or not, we need God to be in our world, in our heads and hearts, in our actions and intentions, in our nation and our homes. He is sorely lacking in all these places today, and we are seeing the damage it is causing.
    In 50 years, I have gone from thinking the world was somewhat manageable and ok to utterly chaotic and in a tailspin. My last perception, I think, is the most accurate.
    As a student of history, I have read about the internal strife and collapse of many civilizations and countries. What I see today sends chills up my spine, because what I see, read, and hear from our own nation and world is echoing what I have read in many of my historical texts. Nazi Germany, Communist China, Rogue North Korea, and Stalin's Soviet Union used the same tactics and rhetoric as today's leftists (democrat, socialist, progressive, liberal sheep) employ.
    If we do not retake our country from those who would see it undone, then I fear within a generation - two at the most - we will no longer have an America.
    So, I will sit here at my desk, sipping my coffee, thinking of my family and the possible battles ahead. If they come, I hope they come when I am still young enough to hump it through a field with a rifle and a pack, and spare most of my children the need to endure what our direct ancestors had to endure on the east coast, 244 years ago.
    My father is a marine. One thing he taught me was always be prepared, hope for the best, and expect the worst.
    No matter how crazy this might sound - America is tearing itself apart and headed for a 2nd civil war (or perhaps Revolution). It’s happened before, virtually everywhere else. It can most certainly happen again. How ready are we? Who will actually stand up? How many folks on the wrong side of the line (yes, I am talking about you, Leftists) will realize it, before it's too late, and rejoin their fellow Americans to save their homeland from its decadent, out of control spiral to ruin?

A belated farewell to the best Vulcan

    When I was a young boy, every week I would spend a particular evening with my family gathered in the living room. My mother would be sitting on the sofa, my father in his recliner with a jar of planter roasted peanuts. My younger sister and brother would be laying on the floor with me, all of us at my father's feet.

    At the designated magical time, the TV screen would go black, then we'd see a few stars appear, moving, then that familiar music followed by a young William Shatner's voice, "Space... the final frontier...".

As I was too young to have been witness to the original airing of the series, Star Trek was rerun for many years during most of the 1970s. My exposure to Sci-Fi, Star Trek, and the varied personalities, as well as philosophical concepts and questions began at an early age. It would seem I may have paid attention more than I realized at the time. My way of thinking began to change, grow. Not simply with age, but in my perception of the universe at large, the people within it, why things were the way they were, and how they could be made better.

    One of the key figures in my birth of knowledge-seeking was a strange and (mostly) stoic character many have come to revere as an icon of intellect we should all strive to become. A human-vulcan hybrid named Spock.

    Admittedly, when I was young, Kirk was my hero, as he was to most boys of that time and culture. However, as I aged, and my interest in science and astronomy began to develop, I came to notice Spock more and more. When I reached adulthood, and some level of maturity in both physical, as well as mental capacity, I found myself drawn to a new series. Star Trek The Next Generation. In it, I found myself drawn to Captain Picard and Data, as they seemed to be the more intelligent, honorable, and philosophically/logically inclined. But always in the back of my mind, I thought of Spock. That's what Spock would say, or That's what Spock would do. Somehow, sometime during my life, Spock had imprinted something into my thought process that stuck and began to shape how I processed most of my intellectual patterns and inner debates.

    I imagine it was this imprint that led me to develop a more logical means of thinking and living my life, in general. My love of philosophy grew from this, I posit, as well. I studied the subject intently, for six years, while attending my state university. Logic and Critical Thinking were the first fields, but then I soon branched out into Existentialism, Ethics and Morals, Religious, Feminist, Ancient, and a few others. The scope of my thinking and perception of how everything 'is' expanded beyond my limits, for a time. I gained a much more holistic view of the universe. My life had been changed forever, just as my thought process.

If you were to ask me twenty years ago who my heroes were, I would have said something like Spider-man, Robin Hood, the Lone Ranger, Luke Skywalker. Ask me now and I'd say Robert E. Howard's Conan, Nietzsche, Picard, Sun Tzu, Plato, Socrates, Sartre, and Spock.

    I realize Leonard Nimoy was simply an actor (as well as being very talented in many other fields), but the life he breathed into a character for a dated scfi series back in the 1960s propelled him, as that character, into legend. He became immortal. He became Spock. And he provided us with one of the greatest icons for logic, peace, and intellectual advancement we could have ever asked for.

    We will miss Mr. Nimoy, greatly. But We will miss Spock even more.

    
    Live long and prosper, Leonard.

I invaded Aliens

That's right. This past Saturday, I travelled to a local cheeze joint to immerse myself in fake, plasticy big-eyed, little-mouthed, scrawny-body alienism.

*Note   not all of the photos you see here were taken by me.

And I wanted to assess their cheeseburgers. That's right. We come fer yer burger, Chuck.     :)

This was the Planet Zombie burger. That's Alien-speak for "Taco Burger". I wasn't feeling that brave, yet.

So, I settled on my comfort zone. A cheeseburger and fries. Or "Alien Burger".

  

*queue spacey Twilight Zoney music.

The sandwich was about 30-40% larger than McDonald's Quarter Pounder and one of the better burgers I've had in life. And filling.

The fries were not bad, either. In the upper 50% category. Tastier than Five Guys' fries but not quite as good as Big Boy's.  Wow... rereading that last sentence felt reeeeally naughty.

ANYWHO... they have a FaceBook page, if you're interested. And a website, with a pdf menu I will link in this post.

Space Aliens in Bismarck was exactly what I expected. A bit crowded, lots of fluff and cheap effects, tons of tiny people running about, over-priced arcade, too long of a wait for a table, and very young adults trying to keep it all afloat.

They did have a real spacesuit, from one of the earlier Apollo missions, displayed in the arcade, however.

Neat.

But, the atmosphere was comfortable, the seating wasn't bad, the decor in peripheral blur mode was nice, and the food was awesome.

And the inside of the domed ceiling had a nice airbrushed mural of space. I would have gone with more realism, but still not bad. Better than a boring drop tile with greasy lighting.

The place was a bit expensive. $9.50 or so for a cheeseburger and fries. But at least I got a spiffy cup on request. And it is a big ass cheeseburger, folks.

All in all, worth the trip.

The building itself was interesting, if not a bit touristy.

           

Obviously not my pics. The world displayed here isn't currently in Ice Age mode. Mine is.

As promised, here is their menu. Couldn't get the pdf to upload, so this is a link to it.
Space Aliens Grill & Bar menu
Fairly standard, though they do have a few themey items listed.

I can tell you their cheeseburger rocks. And the BBQ was very good. Think it's called the Martian Munchie platter. And the Raspberry tea was enjoyable. They even have an onion blossom thing, which wasn't bad at all - but nothing compared to Outback Steakhouse's Bloomin' Onion.

On a 1 - 10 scale, for good food and good environment, I'd give it an 8.

And I will be going there again. If only for takeout.