The Crying Game

I was thinking about The Crying Game the other day, a so-so British movie that made some waves back in the early 90s.  It had a cult following but has now been mercifully forgotten. 

Today, however, we witness another type of crying game.  Namely, a mawkish display of American “manhood” in which grown men cry, weep or otherwise emote at the drop of a hat.  Sadly, this happens in the highest reaches of politics.  (I imagine the waterworks get turned on in the Pentagon as well, what will all the gender-fluidity that goes on there.)  

We saw a morbid display of this last week during the “1/6 Commission”, essentially a kangaroo court hastily cobbled together to make everybody forget about the present dystopia presided over by Obama’s former Vice President.

And by “dystopia” I mean, by all indicators, it sucks.  Big time.  Look around the corner and it’s Thunderdome.  Under every bridge in America there are ever-growing homeless encampments.  If we’re lucky, we can contain all the pathology to an island on the East Coast, you know, like another cult movie, Escape from New York.

So, what does our political class do?  They jury-rig a “commission” with only a few Recucklicans on in it, to create the illusion of “bi-partisanship”. 

Will it work?  No.  Why not?  Because nobody believes their BS anymore.  Gone are the days of three major networks.  Gone, as well, are the days of respected institutions of higher learning.  And gone are the days of belief in recommendations from governmental institutions like the CDC.  Every other day there’s a new directive from these bozos.

Gone.  Totally gone.  As in Gone with the Wind gone.  Ain’t coming back.  

Let’s be honest, what we saw last week was nothing but kabuki theater.  Nobody cries or chokes up like that in public.  At least real men don’t.  And I’m not even blaming the soyification of our food supply for the tears that we witnessed.  It was all for show.  And even if you thought that there might have been a scintilla of sincerity in one or two of those tears, the fact remains that we are far past caring. 

Why?  Because we’ve seen way too many cities burn, too much vandalism happen, and a horrendously cavalier loss of life in most of our biggest cities.  And not one political hack on that panel or witness on the stand gave a rat’s ass about those atrocities when they happened in real-time.  They didn’t even say “Boo!” since then, when it was safe to do so, now that the Bad Orange Man was driven from office.

So they saved all their crocodile tears for the “mostly peaceful” protest that took place on January 6.  Freud called it “projection”.  In this, he was right.

Part of it, of course, is because things are spiraling out of control.  Biden is not in charge and the Oligarchy is worried that people are seeing through the subterfuge.  All you have to do is consider how badly things have gotten in the last six months, especially in the economic sphere.  Have you filled your tank lately?  Bought any groceries?  What happens when the moratorium on eviction gets underway?  

Did you hear Nancy Antoinette say why there will be no cancellation of student college debt?  Or Medicare for all?  Now, she doesn’t owe me an explanation for not doing the wrong thing (after all, I’ll quote Milton Friedman and Adam Smith for you).  But such betrayal isn’t going to sit well with all the crazed lefties out there, just ask Crazy Eyes Cortez.

People can be relatively quiescent to a great extent as long as the official narrative makes sense.  And it will continue to make sense as long as things remain stable.  On the other hand, when you go to the grocery store and can’t get food –or toilet paper–then it doesn’t matter how many times Gov Gary  Goodwhite unveils another George Floyd monument, then you can start counting down the remaining days of the regime.

Personally, I feel that our situation is akin to where the Iron Curtain countries were back in 1988.  In less than one year, the Berlin Wall fell and, one by one, the various Warsaw Pact countries were smashing statues of Lenin and praising Reagan.  The Romanians shot their president and his wife like rats in a junkyard.  Then in two years, the Big Kahuna, the Soviet Union fell like a ton of bricks.  

In other words, the official Marxist-Leninist narrative collapsed.  Why?  Because the economy collapsed and nobody gave a damn anymore about the evil, capitalist running-dogs on the other side of the Elbe river.  

So, that’s my take. 

Now, mind you, I don’t want to see us turn into Belfast or Beirut.  And as much as I love the Stars and Bars, I’d rather we remain a united States of America.  I like the vast majority of ordinary Americans, regardless of race, color or creed.  (Let me put it this way:  I only have problems with the BLM, Antifa, and assorted SJWs out there.)  Having said that, I’m not so sanguine about the future.  I would much rather turn the clock back to when Father Knows Best or Bishop Sheen was on TV and the most risque thing at the Bijou was Pillow Talk.  But that’s not going to happen, is it?

So, barring Trump pulling a Grover Cleveland, if we’re lucky, we can start amicably divorcing ourselves:  let all the SJWs migrate to Libtardistan (basically any Blue city) and the rest of us will try to ignore them as best we can.  

And as for those stalwart “statesmen” who got all choked up last week, lemme tell you something:  when the American version of 1989 happens, you will be crying real tears.  Then, what you saw on January 6, will look like a walk in the park in comparison. 

Comments

  1. It’s like evangelical protestantism. They assume that displays of emotions mean authenticity and sincerity. But actually emotions are the opposite of realness, because they are so easily influenced.

    The 1/6 stormers defiled one of the highest temples of Satan. Certainly his worshippers would be crying over that. We saw the pictures of them cowering at the time. I hope the Capital Storm happens every four years like the Olympics.

    As to whether all of this will soon be over or not, it’s not about whether they can convince the people of anything. It’s about whether the federal government has enough fighting power to subdue the 95% of the land mass that isn’t major metropolitan areas. As we’re seeing with Afghanistan this week, bombs and airplanes isn’t everything.

  2. Oh, and the DHS just released a bulletin claiming that domestic terrorism is on the rise and that you should snitch if you hear anything suspicious, particularly COVID skepticism. You people are more than welcome to rat on me for supporting the Capital Storm and all the other anti-ZOG things I’ve written here. Only God can judge me.

  3. I would love to think you’re right. My only problem is I don’t see this collapsing within the next couple years. The Soviet Union collapsed, sure. But not before 70 years of oppression, starvation and murder. The leftists who got their power last year are never going to let a righty back in the White House. And there are too many people still buying into the covid bs and naively believing the government will save them. Again I’m sure this will all come crashing down eventually. I just wonder how many thousands/millions of us will be slaughtered or stuck in federal prison for 30 years before it does.

    • Seraphim,

      Consider the fact that we’re seeing all the bs for what it is, and that the majority of the country is in the same position.

      Soviets, CCP, etc., seized power and in doing so seized the media (back then print). They attempted to create a hermeneutically sealed environment where only their bs could pervade. At most, what the Regime is attempting is to herd the MSM and Big Tech as a defensive rear guard action while leaving the new right media free to wax on about coups and treason. They’re only really trying to gaslight Blue America, not occupy the field and snuff out media dissent.

      That is probably because it is not yet in their power to do so. That which resists them at this point is all private sector. They have to provide the illusion that they remain liberals in order to avoid a real insurrection. Allowing widespread dissent without taking draconian measures against the free media is part of that. They and their minions are barking about domestic terrorists and threatening re-education camps and vaccine passports for normal activities along with further lockdowns. But this is only really solidifying in blue states.

      At some point they would have to truly seize power in order to make it stick. That means purging Congress, shutting down election reform, eradicating the free media and seizing firearms. Now Bernie and AOC know exactly what needs to be done. But they can only press so hard for so much. Moreover, even they are not really Molotov cocktail throwers. Omar and Tlaib might well be, and they might be able to drag AOC and Bernie with them, but though most of the liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party are amenable to “democratic socialism” without a clear authoritarian, draconian crackdown, they are still essentially incrementalists. They are like the Russian Provisional Government after the abdication of the tsar. They are not Bolsheviks at heart, regardless of how we paint them as fellow travelers. They lack the cruel, shameless brutality in the face of public opinion that Lenin possessed. That is why he characterized such people as “useful idiots”.

      Lenin, by what he admitted was a conservative estimate, personally ordered the execution of over 200,000 people.

      All romanticism aside, that is what true totalitarian revolutionaries are like. And neither ChiCom Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Pelosi, the liberals, the progressives and even the “democratic socialists” have that kind of sand. They dream about a future which it would take serious revolutionaries to produce. That does not mean they are not dangerous. Creeping totalitarianism got us where we are today and it is high time we eradicated the whole thing, root and branch, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and beyond. But the fact that there is such a vocal, widespread, well informed resistance to this bs is a testament to the fact that these guys are rank amateurs and incapable of true revolution.

      My only concern is that the same can be said of the Right. Trump should have purged the executive branch and launched full scale war on the MSM. If the next MAGA president doesn’t, then we will be caught in this Sisyphean loop indefinitely. The only thing that can end it from the Right is right wing authoritarianism, perhaps retaining our constitutional structure, but nevertheless operating as a single party/dominant party enterprise.

      • Two applicable quotations come to my mind:

        1) Bertolt Brecht: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
        https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7757429-if-we-could-learn-to-look-instead-of-gawking-we-d

        “If we could learn to look instead of gawking,
        We’d see the horror in the heart of farce,
        If only we could act instead of talking,
        We wouldn’t always end up on our arse.
        This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;
        Don’t yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!
        Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
        The bitch that bore him is in heat again.”

        2) William Butler Yeats: The Second Coming
        https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming

        Turning and turning in the widening gyre
        The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
        Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
        Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
        The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
        The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
        The best lack all conviction, while the worst
        Are full of passionate intensity.

        Surely some revelation is at hand;
        Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
        The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
        When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
        Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
        A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
        A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
        Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
        Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
        The darkness drops again; but now I know
        That twenty centuries of stony sleep
        Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
        And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
        Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

        Yet, bleak as these visions are, they are outmatched
        by our hope of Resurrection in Christ Jesus.

        Let us be afraid, yes.
        Let us be very afraid!
        But let us not be terrified out of our wits;
        or out of our Orthodox Faith.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Seraphim, I don’t disagree with you. But as an amateur historian, the comparison between the Bolsheviks and the Demsheviks today is that the Bolshies were able to control all of the media and give some measure of bread to the populace. And disarm them. Their regime lasted for 70 years, basically three generations.

      A whole different set of circumstances obtains today. The stranglehold on information doesn’t exist for one thing. For another, we’re way more heavily armed. As for bread, our country is the most obese in the world. Then, there’s this fact: the demographics that made up the Russian Empire-cum-Soviet Union were neither as lazy nor as insipid as the American populace as a whole. For all of the evil of the Soviet Union, they could field an army that defeated Hitler, expand their empire, create nuclear missiles, and launch a space program.

      This bears some expansion: the coalition that makes up the Democrat Party is incapable of doing anything that approaches these things. In fact, the Dems are going in the opposite direction: they are doing what they can to do away with advanced placement courses, SAT tests, IQ tests, etc. STEM learning is going the way of the humanities. Medical school professors now use terms like “birthing persons” and “chest-milk producing providers” to describe pregnant women and nursing mothers.

      This is insanity on steroids on stilts.

      The Soviets had a brutal system but one which recognized and cultivated raw intelligence. We’re headed straight for Idiocracy. Marxism, which was a fantasy, was welded with Leninism/Stalinism, which prized widgets over intellectualism. We prize BLM, feminism, trannyism, and other fantastical concepts that have absolutely no basis in reality.

      Our military is bogged down on the right pronouns. The Soviets were concerned with throw-weight of artillery.

      So even if the Dems went full Bolshie, they would not be able to control all of the levers of power for as long and as exclusively as the Bolshies did.

      • George,
        You make some good points. But does their aim really matter? Even if they are idiots, they have the power to put non-idiots in prison, cause the larger portion of the police and military will do their bidding. They might not last 70 years, but again, they can do plenty of damage before they collapse.

        And you touched on something too. The obesity of Americans. There is a mental/spiritual component there as well. There’s a lethargy in most Americans, even in many who claim to have the most passionate right-leaning belief. Look at the protests that are happening in other parts of the world. You can’t get that many freedom-loving Americans to turn out for anything. There’s always the possibility I’m wrong. Maybe they just haven’t done anything drastic enough to receive a drastic response. But that might be the most worrisome part of this whole thing. Are we frogs in the pot here? Are they turning up the heat in small enough increments that before long we’ll all look around from our perpetual lockdowns and think “how the heck did we get here?”

        • Seraphim, the game changed the other day when Sen Rand Paul told the people to resist at all costs. And that “they can’t put us all in jail”. He’s 100% right.

          Last year, when our churches were being locked down, I mused openly that all Christians of whatever denomination should go to church unmasked and in full force.

          Q: “What about when the Sheriff comes to arrest us?”

          A: “He won’t be able to arrest 100 people.”

          Q: “Then he’ll just take down everybody’s licence plate and/or give everybody a ticket.”

          A: “OK, then hundreds of people show up at the courthouse on the date specified and challenge their ticket, demanding a court date.”

          This is how you collapse the system.

      • The government just lost a war to literal cavemen. I’m feeling relatively optimistic about the upcoming purges.

  4. Question. How are you folks who have explored the shot and rejected it, dealing with those who have submitted and think it is the greatest thing since the last medical solution? And that you are crazy.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      I console myself with knowing that the truth will be revealed soon and weep.

      I used to be someone who believed that no one in authority would deliberately bring harm to our country through genocide. I remember sleeping much better then. Those days are gone.

      • Dear, the only consolation at this point is that those in authority are losing all credibility. As with the Afghan government, no ruling elite can long survive if the people don’t believe them.

        Not that there won’t be bitter never-enders –there will be. But their numbers will continue to shrink. (Heck, there’s still a Communist Party in Russia. Hardly anybody votes for them.)

        • The problem is the schizophrenia of the US political arrangement (semi-sane, partially corrupt party (R) married to bat sh*t insane, thoroughly corrupted party (D)). Nixon turned over the Vietnam War to the South Vietnamese Army who, given American strategic and logistical support, held the country for two years. After Nixon’s resignation and when the Democrats had the power in Congress, they cut off aid to the SVA. That was when Saigon fell with the images of fleeing the capitol.

          That resulted in several million deaths at the hands of the NVA, Khmer Rouge, etc. That blood is on the Demshevik Party. They are evil. They have been evil. They will be evil. It is their nature.

          Now, Trump signs a treaty with the Taliban laying out an orderly, conditioned withdrawal of US forces, turning over control in gradations to the Afghan National Government which were to bring the Taliban into the ruling clique through negotiations. Had that plan been followed, we might be out of Afghanistan and the Afghan Natioinal Government might be in power, sharing it to some extent with the Taliban. This was to be done in steps where misbehavior by the Taliban would change the timeline. Gradual, stable withdrawal leaving the prior civilian government in control.

          Biden cut off air support and intelligence, evacuating bases in the night. He did not even manage the logistics of getting our people, Afghan cooperators, etc. out. He simply cut and ran when everyone told him what would happen; i.e., his senior military officials. There is absolutely no defense to this. Everyone agreed it was time to leave. But there is a difference between dismounting a horse and falling off a horse.

          Instead he blamed Trump, prior presidents, the Afghan army and the Afghan people, while disingenuously claiming that the “buck stops with me”. The Demshevik Party is attempting to defend him as best they can along with their minions in the MSM, though some in the MSM have been quite critical at times.

          As long as I have been commenting on Monomakhos, I have asserted two propositions which I hold unassailable:

          1. The Democrats cannot safely be allowed to remain as one of two dominant parties in the United States.

          2. The Muslims are Amalek.

          You only get this abject incompetence when the Democrats are a factor. The shame and humiliation of what you are seeing is solely the property of the Demsheviks. They created this mess and the one on our southern border. They cannot be trusted with power. Almost half the country is not fit to hold office. This is what they have brought us down to. They are insane and incompetent as well as being dangerous and evil. No one with a (D) next to his name should ever be allowed to even run for dog catcher, much less any state or federal office.

          That is only part of the problem. They have many enablers in the Republican Party and the midterms are over a year away.

          I have tried to be optimistic and positive about our situation here in America and look forward to the 2022 and 2024 elections to rectify matters. But The Steal dealt a severe blow to our national prowess. We have a demented coward as president and a feckless hustler as VP with a fascist crone as Speaker. That’s our bench, given our Constitutional order.

          In 2023, Republicans could shut things down to the extent that perhaps major harm might be avoided until 2025 when we have a new president. But we are flying blind in a hell storm until at least January, 2023, absent a revolution. Again, I try to remain optimistic, but the indications are that this is going to get worse. We have a stubborn, demented, crotchety old man in the White House being propped up by a completely corrupt Democratic establishment and MSM with no sane, stable replacement in sight.

          Pray. May God have mercy on us all and the United States of America.

          Pray for the Americans left to “shelter in place” in Afghanistan, as well as the cooperators who worked with us who are trying to get out. I am not particularly concerned about the Afghan people in general. They are Muslims and used to Islam. If they want out they should get out. But the sickness is Islam and they need to leave that disease behind them. Other than that, let the jackals have self-rule.

          We should never attempt to nation build again. It is a fool/s errand. Our form of government suits our people. That’s it. We should not try to export “human rights” in the form of feminism and LGBT. These people hate it, find it contemptible and it drives them to reject and attack us. Not only is it against shariah, but it is against the Law of God (Закон Божий). Even a broken clock is right twice a day. In some ways, Muslims are better Christians than Progressives are. Of course, they are excessive and take the patriarchy too far, but we cannot claim to have the upper hand if the argument is between Progressive Feminism and Islam. Pretty much a draw. Both evil in different ways.

          In that sense, we deserve to be driven out. Flying the LGBT flag and preaching perv rights in that environment is suicidal and insane. And that brings us to the real point:

          Before we deal with Islam and the rest of the world, we have to purge ourselves of the evil of the liberals, progressives and the Democratic Party. Their power must be destroyed, not one stone left on another. That is our first priority because everything – everything else – depends on it. If we cannot do that, we are doomed.

        • George,

          We really, seriously, need to start ostracizing these people. I cannot shake hands or engage in small talk with Democrats anymore. I know this cuts through families but Christ Himself said He came not to bring peace, but a sword. We are exhorted to purge the evil from among us (Deut. 17:7). If we must associate with these minions for purposes of work, that is one thing. But in the personal/private realm we should shun them.

          They are that evil. All of them. Either they are the vanguard or they are enablers.

          • Misha,
            I think you are missing something profound. You still believe in the two party system. Our government has long been a Uniparty, with the Republicans playing the role of the loyal opposition, that always loses. They are in on it, otherwise the outrage would be much greater. The voting machines allowed certain republicans victory, because it can’t be that one sided for a long term change. This is the endgame now. Voting for Republicans won’t solve the problem. Will the populace really revolt? Probably not, we are too comfortable, worried about our 401ks, and no one is ready to sacrifice those for ANYTHING which shows you our spiritual state. Lord Have Mercy!

            • “You still believe in the two party system.”

              Gene, I think you misunderstand me. I believe in a dominant party model where one party rules, perhaps with smaller parties holding some seats as watchdogs of a sort. I have made no secret that I recognize the Establishment (what you refer to the Uniparty) basically forms a contiguous whole. Moderate conservative Republicans joined with Democrats to accomplish The Steal. This is the Romney, Murkowski faction (true RINOs) as well as the McConnell and Cheney faction (disloyal conservatives).

              I will only vote for MAGA Republicans. Christians guard against dejection and loss of hope:

              “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

              And so we are eternal optimists. This does not mean that we are not also realistic. It is a glass half full vs. glass half empty type decision. We should always choose to see the glass half full. The consolation of pessimism seems like it is absence of disappointment. But with the absence of the possibility of disappointment also comes dejection, hopelessness and depression. We don’t go there. That darkness is where the evil one wants us.

              There are Christians here, albeit heterodox, but nonetheless sincere who wish to see the country saved from the abyss. MAGA is the best route I see for that at this point. The Demsheviks seem unconsciously committed to putting themselves out of business by having the reverse Midas touch. Everything they touch turns to sh*t. If your enemy is committing suicide, stay out of the way.

        • no ruling elite can long survive if the people don’t believe them.

          The same can probably be said of most of our current bishops

    • Like Gail, I weep
      and pray for them.

    • As Fr Thomas Hopko advises wisely in his 55 maxims for daily life as an Orthodox Christian, don’t try to convince anyone of anything.

      It’s as clear as day to anyone not half asleep that masks, social distancing, and these non-sterilizing “vaccines” that we have won’t kick covid. The most respected virologists in the world are publicly stating this now.

      Even with the 3rd, 4th, 5th “boosters” it won’t work to kick covid – after all, non-sterilizing boosters will simply put more mutational pressure on the virus. But they make big pharma trillions!!

      Yet some still latch on to these vaccines as saviors – my guess is that some people just need to latch on to something in order to feel safe.

      Some people still think that Fauci and the FDA/CDC have credibility. Why? I’ve no idea.

      Sometimes you have to just let people be wrong.

      • Well said. Fr Hopko was right: “don’t try to convince people of anything.” If something is true, then those who have a modicum of wisdom will eventually figure it out on their own. If they don’t, then may God have mercy on them.

        I wish I’d known that years ago.

        Still, like Galileo, this will not stop me from stamping my foot on the ground and saying “it moves!”

        • “Well said. Fr Hopko was right: ‘don’t try to convince people of anything.’ If something is true, then those who have a modicum of wisdom will eventually figure it out on their own”

          We need to pass along links to medical doctors and scientists that are saying things like this:

          https://seed163.bitchute.com/hYAwjR83sVSl/YrSHfJW24tpr.mp4

          If people don’t listen, then it is on them, but people need this info to make a informed choice before taking the “vaccines,” not after.

          As far as Fr. Hopko, I’m not in the habit of taking advice from clergy whose words would seem to deny their own vocation.

          • Gail Sheppard says

            We have been talking about this almost daily since back in March 2020. Go look. If people didn’t listen then, when it really mattered, they won’t listen now. People have made their decision.

            THIS CHILLED ME TO THE BONE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9_sX93RHOk

            Notice how the substance caused a cytokine storm (like COVID) but it was a trial for leukemia.

    • And that you are crazy.

      A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.”

      -Saint Anthony the Great

      It may not be a ‘comfortable’ place to be in, Lina, but there is nevertheless a certain comfort in knowing that times like these were foretold, – a peace that passes understanding. These are not the first of such times, and they are almost certainly not the last.

      “All these are the beginning of sorrows… Behold, I have told you beforehand.”

    • Lina: “And that you are crazy.”

      As my late friend Calum Macleod of Stornoway was exceedingly fond of saying:
      “I might be crazy, but I’m not f***ing stupid!”

      • And for more on the stupid, see:

        Jacques Attali, 1981, advisor to François Mitterrand:
        https://www.covfefebakery.com/pdf/The_Future_of_Life.pdf

        ” The future will be about finding a way to reduce the population.
        We start with the old, because as soon as they exceed 60-65 years,
        people live longer than they produce and that costs society dearly.
        Then the weak, then the useless that do not help society because
        there will always be more of them, and above all, ultimately, the
        stupid.

        Euthanasia will have to be an essential tool in our future societies,
        in all cases. Of course we will not be able to execute people or build
        camps.

        We get rid of them by making them believe that it is for their own
        good. Overpopulation, and mostly useless, is something that is too
        costly economically.

        Socially, too, it is much better when the human machine comes to
        an abrupt standstill than when it gradually deteriorates.

        Neither will we be able to test millions upon millions of people for
        their intelligence, you bet that! We will find or cause something a
        pandemic targeting certain people, a real economic crisis or not, a
        virus affecting the old or the fat, it doesn’t matter, the weak will
        succumb to it, the fearful and stupid will believe in it and seek
        treatment. We will have made sure that treatment is in place,
        treatment that will be the solution. The selection of idiots then
        takes care of itself: You go to the slaughter by yourself. ”

        [The future of life – Jacques Attali, 1981] Interviews with Michel
        Salomon, Les Visages de l’avenir collection, éditions Seghers. “…

      • And for more on the stupid, see:

        Jacques Attali, 1981, advisor to François Mitterrand:
        https://www.covfefebakery.com/pdf/The_Future_of_Life.pdf

        ” The future will be about finding a way to reduce the population.
        We start with the old, because as soon as they exceed 60-65 years,
        people live longer than they produce and that costs society dearly.
        Then the weak, then the useless that do not help society because
        there will always be more of them, and above all, ultimately, the
        stupid.

        Euthanasia will have to be an essential tool in our future societies,
        in all cases. Of course we will not be able to execute people or build
        camps.

        We get rid of them by making them believe that it is for their own
        good. Overpopulation, and mostly useless, is something that is too
        costly economically.

        Socially, too, it is much better when the human machine comes to
        an abrupt standstill than when it gradually deteriorates.

        Neither will we be able to test millions upon millions of people for
        their intelligence, you bet that! We will find or cause something a
        pandemic targeting certain people, a real economic crisis or not, a
        virus affecting the old or the fat, it doesn’t matter, the weak will
        succumb to it, the fearful and stupid will believe in it and seek
        treatment. We will have made sure that treatment is in place,
        treatment that will be the solution. The selection of idiots then
        takes care of itself: You go to the slaughter by yourself. ”

        [The future of life – Jacques Attali, 1981] Interviews with Michel
        Salomon, Les Visages de l’avenir collection, éditions Seghers. “…

        The Devil’s Bargain:
        Sell your liberty
        to buy some security
        and get tyranny

        • Angea Sinzianu says

          This reminded me of a book I read last year….The Devil is Politically Correct…translated from Romanian.

          “A CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX CLASSICIn a world where sin is the new law and God is a distant memory, can one man’s inheritance change his entire life?Jacob Kohner is like anyone else.He wakes up, he goes to work. He spends too much time addicted to his computer, fighting with internet strangers. He uses his credit card since cash transactions are a distant memory. He knows that at 65, he will be euthanized, as was the law. He doesn’t agree with it, but he doesn’t fight it. No one does. After all, the politicians, bankers, and wealthy 1% have the power, and everyone else marches along. It’s life.Until everything changes. After his mother’s euthanasia, Jacob receives an unexpected inheritance–a Bible. At the same time, the world as he knew it alters in the blink of an eye.Sinners succumb to a gruesome death overnight, and the government struggles to hide the details. An end-of-the-world computer virus renders all money useless. Millions die in a revolt against banks, the government, and a way of life that has brought only misery.But is it really all an unexpected crisis? Or are the powers that be behind the pandemonium that reshapes the population, and the world?While lives are turned upside down, Jacob relies on unexpected friends and a renewed faith in God to show him what true happiness is.”

    • Thankfully I haven’t had any experience with it. But I will pass in this humorous anicdote from my job. They said whoever provided proof of vaccination could stop wearing a mask. Some did, I didn’t. Then the delta variant started going around and cases went up. Now everyone, regardless of vaccination status, has to once again mask. I couldn’t help but laugh a little.

  5. Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Assumption of Our Lady, the last dogma to be declarated, back in 1950. Does the Orthodox recognizes such dogma?

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Yes. It’s called the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos. I don’t think we call it dogma though. We call it Tradition!

      • As I understand it, the RC dogma is that the Mother of God
        was ‘assumed’ into Heaven without actually dying, whereas the Orthodox tradition (not dogma) is that she actually died (fell asleep) and was then raised by her son.

        For a useful discussion of the Orthodox view, see:
        Dormition or Assumption?
        https://www.oca.org/reflections/fr.-john-breck/dormition-or-assumption

        ‘ In our Orthodox tradition we are usually very careful to distinguish between the “Dormition” of the Mother of God and her “Assumption” into heaven. The former, we feel, is properly Orthodox, while the latter strikes us as a purely Western designation, derived from a Roman Catholic “misunderstanding” of the meaning of this feast, celebrated universally on August 15. … ‘

    • Aug 15 according to the traditional Church calendar occurs 13 days later in the civil calendar, so the church calendar Aug 15 will be on the civil calendar Aug 28.

      More than 70% of the Orthodox Christians in the world follow the church calendar (as opposed to the western civil calendar) for church-related feasts and fasts.

      Thus, for most of the Orthodox world, the Falling Asleep of the Most Holy Theotokos will be on Saturday, Aug 15/28.

      • FTS,
        Pre-covid, my wife and I were in the Antiochian archdiocese, who are NC. One of the biggest reasons we switched to ROCOR after the restrictions were lifted was so we could be on the OC.

        We were so upset that the Church was folding on icons, wearing masks, etc. And then we looked at each other and thought, then why are we ok with innovation on the calendar? If one thing matters then why doesn’t the other?

        There are Orthodox holy people who were persecuted for not folding on the calendar issue. There were multiple monks who were kicked out of Valaam cause they wouldn’t go along with it. I do NOT judge the many Orthodox who are on the NC. We just felt it was what we needed to do if we were going to be consistent.

        • Seraphim,

          I agree. One of the arguments that revised Julian calendar (RJC, or “new calendar”) enthusiasts use is that it is astronomically more accurate. It may be, but this fact has nothing to do with Church conciliarity or the Holy Spirit.

          The Holy Spirit cannot and will not divide the church, and when the Patr Meletios Metaxakis of ignominious memory unilaterally instituted the RJC almost 100 years ago, he *knew* that it would divide the Church, yet he did it anyway. This is how we know it did not come from the Holy Spirit.

          The Russian Church – comprising well more than half of the entire Orthodox Church – was busy being shot and martyred and put in camps by the Soviets at that time in the early 1920s. They weren’t even represented at the pseudo-council where Metaxakis did this.

          The truth that RJC enthusiasts conveniently ignore is that the RJC only ever had two intended goals:
          1. To make us feel not so weird among our Western friends at Christmastime, and
          2. Some delusionally thought the RJC would be a missionary tool.

          Note that the RJC does nothing for the Pascha date – only for Nativity – and it often makes the Sts Peter & Paul fast only two days or completely nonexistent. My guess is that too many Orthodox in the West simply felt weird around Christmastime (Western Christianity’s major feast), celebrating it almost two weeks later, and wanted to stop doing that.

          Some people in some jurisdictions like the GOAA and the OCA still put out the lie that the JRC is a “missionary tool” – which is nonsensical. People become Orthodox to grow close to Christ through the sacraments in His Church. I’ve never once heard of an instance where the use of the RJC was the clincher in someone’s decision to become Orthodox.

          Yet this “missionary tool” lie is still active today. Just last week was the repose of Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky – memory eternal! – whose parish in Sea Cliff, NY, was torn apart by issues around OCA autocephaly in the early 1970s. In his obituary on OCA.org, they mention that “Father Leonid was able to restore peace in the parish and move forward in its liturgical life, gradually adding English language to the services and adopting the ‘new’ calendar to advance its missionary outreach.” (Fascinating tidbit: the prior pastor of the Sea Cliff parish, before Fr Leonid, was Fr Alexei Ionov, who was an amazing priest who served in the Pskov Orthodox Mission – made famous by the fantastic movie available for free online, “Pop” (or “Priest”) (in Russian with English subtitles). Definitely watch it.)

          It’s accepted as a truism that the RJC advances missionary outreach. Yet there is absolutely no data that has ever demonstrated this to be true.

          In fact, it’s the opposite — the traditional-church-calendar jurisdictions that are growing in the West.

          Some of the RJC-calendar jurisdictions (most notably, the Patr of C’ple/GOAA) are collapsing like houses of cards. And how many Orthodox parishes have been torn apart by the mandatory institution of the RJC, when it’s been imposed from above? Among them the large parish in Mayfield Pa. and many other parishes in Pa./NY/NJ/Ohio (mostly OCA) that were divided when dioceses mandated the RJC from above; the former ACROD parish in Hollywood Fla (now ROCOR); the list goes on.

          It’s as if the RJC has an entirely inverse effect on missionary growth of a jurisdiction.

          Anyway, these are my thoughts on the RJC, for what they’re worth, which is not much.

          • FTS “One of the arguments that revised Julian calendar (RJC, or “new calendar”) enthusiasts use is that it is astronomically more accurate. ”

            Actually it is not. Because of the procession of Earth axis, seasons shift in relation to the stars.

    • Antiochene Son says

      Yes, the Theotokos died — as is made eminently clear in the liturgical hymns of the feast; there is no room to doubt that she actually fell asleep in the flesh — and after three days her tomb was opened and it was found empty.

      The Apostles were enlightened to understand that she was granted to receive the General Resurrection by special dispensation of her Son, and was assumed into heaven in her glorified body. This is to assure us of the truth of the future General Resurrection.

      This has not been declared a dogma per se, but it is the plain teaching of the Church and there is no latitude for doubt or question that this took place. To do so would certainly be a sin.

  6. Speaking of crying, have you all been following events in Afghanistan?

    Total debacle.

    Even the BBC is blaming Biden for this cluster f%$k. Trump had an orderly transition planned for May, when the Taliban were just coming down from the mountains. It was contingent on the Taliban cooperating according to the agreement. They were to be integrated into the existing government. Biden pushed the date to the end of August and made little effort to support the Afghan government and army we’d built.

    People are comparing it to Saigon, but this is much quicker. We already had combat troops out of Vietnam and had turned over the country to South Vietnamese forces in 1973. The Demsheviks cut off funding for the government we left behind in 1975 and this precipitated a bloodbath. Millions killed.

    Biden managed to do it all in a matter of weeks.

    Setting aside the humanitarian situation, this is a clear indication of incompetence. Let us hope the Taliban are in a merciful mood.

  7. The left needs one thing badly: resources to leech off of. That is exactly why we will see the left trying their hardest to prevent so called ‘balkanization’: rob the left of a big tax base and they lack the resources to build overpowering government. They expire like a vampire in the sunlight.

    This is precisely why the communists in the USSR moved fast to prevent emigration, then kept it that way for all 74 years: if they gave people the right to leave they would have no more human resources as the basis for a world revolution (or even the ‘socialism in one country’ concept with its inherently inefficient allocation of capital and resources).

    It’s not easy to separate a society like America, but with the states rights concept we already see it happening. We can already see the poison pen journalism about Florida and Texas emerging.

  8. The Federal Reserve runs America now. Sorry to break the bad news.

  9. “mawkish display of American “manhood” in which grown men cry, weep or otherwise emote”

    Like Jesus for Lazarus?

    • George Michalopulos says

      Jesus wasn’t emoting. He was genuinely sorry for his friend. What these bozos did before the 1/6 Commission was cheesy theater at its worst.

      Nobody was fooled.

      Although I do imagine that Gen Milley is genuinely crying in his beer tonight. If only we could have got the media to declare the Taliban takeover of Kabul an “insurrection”, they might have taken it seriously.

    • Jesus wept, yes.
      But his emotion did not unman him,
      or prevent him taking appropriate action.

    • Antiochene Son says

      Jesus cried over a death.

      Which of those manbabies cried for Ashley Babbitt? None.

      • George Michalopulos says

        Bingo! The elites “cried” for the thug George Floyd, who never contributed anything to society but for this charming young female veteran (who, btw, was an Obama supporter) –crickets.

        That’s how you know it was all just a sham.

    • “grown men cry, weep or otherwise emote”

      I don’t know. Is it any worse when “grown women cry, weep or otherwise emote”?
      For example Italian men cry. It is a cultural thing.

      BTW, inability to cry I see as a psychological defect, that I unfortunately suffer from. I could not cry even at the death of my closest people. When I read that Christ wept or Fathers speak about gift of tears, I long for this ability. You guys (and gals?) do not know what you wish for.

      • There are tears
        and there are crocodile tears
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodile_tears

        • Brendan “There are tears
          and there are crocodile tears…”

          Perhaps, and you must be very insightful to distinguish one from another 😉
          Perhaps not the tears are the problem, but hypocrisy?

      • George Michalopulos says

        Martin, I never said that it’s wrong for grown men to cry. I have. Jesus said that “blessed are those that mourn.”

        What we saw was a mockery of mournfulness.

        • George,

          Ever hear of the comeback, “I’ll give you something to cry about!”?

          There are acceptable reasons for men to cry. There is also a drama queen/snowflake affectation, usually reserved to women, hyperbolizing the fear and emotional trauma to claim victim status and punctuate the accusation of misdoing.

          A bunch of goofs trespassed, unarmed, and entered the Capitol when invited in and shown around by Capitol police. There’s no trauma. No reason to cry. No jeopardy. No crisis. Totally manufactured event. Reichstag Fire to stop accountability in Congress and get the election certified and pin a “revolt” on MAGA which was not a revolt but a walk in the park led by FBI cooperators.

          The faux tears were theater. Moreover, men don’t cry about something like this since there was no actual harm (at least to security), just a bunch of disorder. It’s like being scared and crying from getting lost in a crowd. Men cry from sorrow at loss. We have an obligation and inclination not to cry from anxiety, danger, “when the sh*t hits the fan”. It is unbecoming and cowardly. Women and children are looking to us for strength.

          At best it was pathetic if sincere. But it was not, but rather insincere political drama.

  10. Before this gets (inevitably) taken off of YouTube wanted to share. It’s from Fr. Peter Heers

    https://youtu.be/_9n3sU_rHJA

  11. Looks like those that are celebrating “Build Back Better” better not reach for the champagne just yet:

    https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2021/08/17/retail-sales-crash-as-inflation-and-delta-variant-fear-ravage-america/

  12. Nate Trost says

    An old chestnut comes to mind:
    “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”

    The testimony of the Capitol Police about the events of 1/6 are just another stick of dynamite blowing up the false narrative that 1/6 was nothing more than a rowdy Spring Break. Of course, when the facts aren’t on your side, what is left to do but attack the character of the cops? And not even for any actual moral failings, but oh noes, men shedding tears!

    So much for ‘Back the Blue’ I guess.

    George Michalopulos wrote
    “I like the vast majority of ordinary Americans, regardless of race, color or creed”

    You might have undermined a perception of sincerity of this statement by making it right on the heels of you approvingly linking to and commending of one of America’s most notorious white nationalists.

    I mean, watching some man shout “I love my wife!” comes across as eyebrow raising rather than heartwarming if it happens immediately after observing him stuff some bills in the garter of a stripper.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Nate, the problem with your tenacious clinging to “the facts” is that nobody believes them. Not even the Demsheviks. That’s why they had to put on that clown show.

      If the 1/6 Commission were a serious enterprise they’d do several things:

      1. release all of the political prisoners who participated in “the insurrection” from prison and/or solitary confinement on bond.

      2. let them get representation.

      3. Subpoena those FBI agents-provocateurs who took part in the “insurrection”.

      4. Release the name of the Capitol Hill policeman who killed Ashley Babbit. (After all, we knew everything there was to know about Derek Chauvin, didn’t we?)

      Until you yourself agitate for these things to happen, then your own credibility will go down the crapper as well. (You want to be associated with Liz Cheney at this point? Good luck with that.)

  13. From what I understand, the policeman who shot her was not in uniform. Not identifiable as a policeman.

  14. PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD PTSD
    Obviously something that many people just don’t understand………………………………………………..
    Until some armed folks invade your home!!!!!

    • From the article:

      ‘ An endocrinology professor at a top-tier med school in California,
      for example, apologized for saying “pregnant women,
      ” because it “implies that only women can get pregnant.” … ‘

      From Macbeth: Act 1, Scene III

      Banquo: ” … What are these
      So wither’d and so wild in their attire,
      That look not like the inhabitants o’ the earth,
      And yet are on’t? Live you? or are you aught
      That man may question?
      … you should be women,
      And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
      That you are so. “

      • Gail Sheppard says

        I remember a few decades ago when women would get all upset if you called them “girls.”

        A guy I use to work for announced one of our associates had a baby. Excited, our secretary asked if it was a girl or a boy so we could come together with a gift. My boss seemed tongue-tied for a moment and then he said: “She had a woman.”