Tagged: men
The Natural Response to Seeing Clearly: Thankfulness
Sight has aways been important in my life. For whatever reason, from the youngest age, whenever I took a vision test and had 20/20, people told me I could be a pilot.
These days, as a pilot who often flys with night vision goggles, I can’t help but wonder how different life would be if the ancients had NVGs available as they searched the sky.
Of course, the fact that they didn’t is because of their own ridiculous beliefs about motion and rest and circles and spheres.
I remember a childhood friend who had recently got a better prescription telling us how different the world looked. She said something like, “It’s like the trees now have individual leaves.”
How did she react? Obviously she was thankful and happy about her new glasses.
Why, then, is this not the case when we use telescopes and microscopes to see more than before?
Why would seeing more somehow make us angry?
Why would seeing more somehow make us give up beliefs, like Christianity? It’s not like Christianity said, “There are three hundred stars, and the smallest unit of material is a grain of sand.”
If we can see more, I think the appropriate response should always be the same—and limited. We should be happy and thankful.
It says more about your heart, or more broadly “you”, than it does about the “data” (what is now seen) when you react otherwise.
On Somalis
The best thing, if you ask me, about what’s happening in Minnesota regarding the Somalis is, wait for it, the Somalis have literally no idea what is happening!
They don’t know what Minnesota is. They don’t know what America is. They wouldn’t care if they woke up back in Somalia. They, by every measure, are utterly ignorant people who also are illiterate. Their only path in life is following the herd. Can they even commit fraud if they don’t know how to commit fraud?
It’s great to actually ponder these facts at the deepest level and significance.
What is man?
On Our National Foundation
It’s not quite the season for weather-induced late starts or snow-days, but it’s close. This morning I received the text alert that a power outage in the neighborhood resulted in the kids’ school deciding to run their delayed start schedule on the hope that power will be restored by then. Immediately my mind went to, “How do other parents deal with this?”
My life is such that either mom or dad is 100% available, entirely stay-at-home every single day of the kids’ lives. But from what I understand, this home scenario is more and more rare, if not the literal exception that proves the rule. So what are the other moms and dads doing when their entire day gets disrupted by a random power-outage? Are they taking PTO for a couple hours? Are they bringing their kids to work and then taking an early lunch to take them to school? Do families have plans with other families for these days, ie, drop the kids at some stay-at-homer’s house and this stay-at-home friend loads all the kids up at the appropriate time?
I have no idea.
But I do know that this is probably the strongest example of why being a stay-at-home mom (extreme cases it can be the dad) matters. The kids, the future-citizens of America, need to understand the concept of stability.
Civilizational stability, national stability, community stability is not intuitive like “water is wet” is intuitive. We humans need to witness the example of stability. It is entirely possible, see all the places of the planet that you couldn’t be paid to visit, for humans to never understand that there is a better way to live, that there is a stable way to live. Of course it involves rule of law, literacy, guns, and effort etc. But at its foundation, it involves stability. The stay-at-home mom provides this. And the exemplar experience is the completely thought-free way in which a late start or cancelled school day is handled.
It’s Not “Happy Veterans Day” Anymore
I say this because of two reasons. First, I saw a headline about a British, 100 yr old Vet who said plainly that his brother’s-in-arms sacrifices (WWII) were not worth it, looking back. I’m only 44 and I agree.
I didn’t see anything I would classify as true combat. I only knew about a few AF pilots and crew from my squadron that lost their lives or were injured while in OIF/OEF. But, if they ever were sound in theory, the whole “fight them now rather than later” or “fight them over there rather than back at home” concepts have been blown to shit now. I see now that the only defensible reason to fight and sacrifice has to be in the framework and timeline of “now”. “These people must be killed now.” “These buildings and capabilities must be destroyed now.” Put another way, the main feeling I had when I got back from Iraq remains: While I was over there trying to stop them, y’all let them in the back door here? WTF, Over?
Secondly, over the past couple of years, as covid restrictions and pandemic mentality lifted, my Ethiopian wife has seen more instances than she ever did between 2011 and now (met me in 2018) of me standing and receiving applause (and me applauding) upon being asked to stand at certain events which take a moment to honor Veterans or First Responders. As I learn more about my wife, which includes learning more and more about how little she knows or understands about America*, I can’t help but wonder (I will laugh in your face if you think there is value in me asking her directly) what goes on in her mind when she sees this exercise of up-and-down, wack-a-mole. If I was to give it my best shot, I’ll be damned if her thoughts go beyond, “Oh look! People are happy and clapping!” while her face uncontrollably forms a smile to match the group’s mood. I ask you to likewise look around America at the first-generation immigrants’ faces during these moments and see if they have a clue.
What to do? Who knows.
——
*Keep in mind, this is despite being married to yours truly. It is a significant feature of the uneducated to hold strongly to their uninformed beliefs through the barrage of all contrary experience.
Modern Prayer, From One Modern Dad, In One Modern Marriage
Of late, especially due to participation in a CBS (Community Bible Study) study of the Psalms, I have been hearing Metallica’s lyrics (as sung by James) more and more as prayers. If the reader can understand this concept, then they can understand that the following cryptic glimpse into my marriage is likewise more than a blogpost.
“In six years you haven’t learned that giving the kids snacks right before dinner ruins their appetite for dinner and sets in motion a painfully long pleading to finish, but you’re going to learn how to get rich at a three day everyone-knows-its-a-(un)Christian-scam conference on day trading?”
Yesterday Was A Good Day
Took A- and J- on probably their longest hike and highest summit yet (4.2 miles/8000’). Sausage, cheese, crackers, and a cutie at the top.
Stopped at Crumbl for cookies on drive home.
Watched Starship 11 test flight (success).
Ate at Freddy’s.
Traditional Archery club at night, before driving in to work.
“Thanks for Nothing, Idiots!” The Iowa Superintendent Headlines Have Some Super Embarrassing Conclusions That Aren’t Being Discussed
Charlie Kirk said college was a scam. This fraud in the great state of “Idiots-Out-Walking-Around” proves Kirk correct, at least among these derecho-blown-cornfield-surrounded morons, for two main reasons. Firstly, if a formally uneducated man can fake being educated—TO FORMALLY EDUCATED PEOPLE—then wtf are we even talking about? Formal education is a scam. In other words, I believe people could fake being a pilot to non-pilots, but people could not fake it amongst actual pilots. Even newbie student pilots who think the world of themselves are easily distinguishable from the real deal, to the real deal. Secondly, if formally educated people are willing to outsource their brainpower and pay others for things such as education level background checks, then wtf are we even talking about? Formal education is a scam. In other words, I believe in outsourcing tasks/work (this is fundamentally “division of labor” and absolutely essential to civilization). But there is a point at which, say, paying a surgeon to perform a surgery on me, only to learn that he merely pays another surgeon to perform said surgery on me, is disingenuous, if not stupid.
With me?
But wait! There’s more.
Now, thanks to the “I-Owe-the-World-an Apology” citizen-educators, every BIPOC employee has verifiable good reason to fear what they have always feared and what they have been told will always be the true nature of things: They are not respected by Whites. They are being handled with kid gloves by Whites. Whites are two-faced. They (back to BIPOC) are viewed as inferior by Whites. They are unequal—window dressing at best—in a White world.”
Truly, this situation’s tragedy is far greater than ICE or lawsuits can reveal. And all parties, especially those who immediately rallied around the fraud/criminal/illegal alien, should be ashamed of themselves and shamed by us to the degree it takes to right the orbit of the earth around the sun.
“Right Under Their Nose Rings”: LOL! Let’s Hope Bill Maher Just Became the Savior of Muslim Women.
Here’s the monologue, if interested.
In sum, Maher argues that the youth of the nation would spend their natural energy better if they called for the end of what he calls “Gender Apartheid”, but really is “Sex Apartheid”, that is, “Islam”.
Before he accomplishes this—and I cannot be more sincere in my hope that he does—he needs to address a simple fact which he did not mention in that monologue: Muslim women, en masse, are satisfied with their shitty lives.
Don’t get me wrong. I do not mean that all burqa’d women love life. I do not mean that I believe the majority would say that they are living their best life or some other Western, constant-self-evaluation BS. I mean that, like the poor, like the ignorant masses of humanity, especially considering access to the internet and books, these fully covered women have “outs” but do not seem to have the motivation or work ethic to take advantage of them. Again, I am not “blaming the victim.” Instead I am declaring that unlike racial apartheid, the so-called victims of sex apartheid haven’t indicated on any meaningful scale awareness that they are victims. In other words, I am leery of another Vietnam/Iraq/Afghanistan attempt at helping people who don’t know they need help.
In the end, if I could say one thing to Bill it would be this: “I wish you luck. More than luck, I want to record here that I thank you for your bravery and wish you safety and wisdom.”
5 Course Corrections for Pro-Kirk Discussions/Reporting
I believe that it is exceedingly important to continually improve. Even and perhaps especially when the going is rough. That’s the reason for this post.
1. Until you saw the footage, you were safe to say he was shot and needs prayer. But once you saw the footage, it became very important to call it for what it was. He gave up the ghost on impact. We all saw it. Quit indirectly denying this. Your whole industry rests on the idea it is most important to be “first to report”, so don’t act like you wanted to wait to get the facts. You probably saw before us. He was gone immediately. Especially now that we all saw, adjust the description of what happened. Most importantly, please try to do better next time.
2. I fly sick or injured people around. They are lying there right next to me. When they have vomited (never due to my flying 😉) the backsplash has landed on my arm. Sad stuff. Do I get to cry while I do my job? No. Likewise, y’all need to stop the crying. Be a professional like me, or drop the act that you’re legitimate journalism.
3. There is a theme going around that Mr. Kirk was exemplary in his noble quest to have honest dialogue. That’s fine. But the adults in the room (aren’t you supposed to be one?) need to also say that Kirk brought talk to a gunfight. I don’t mean that we’re in a “hot war” or something. I don’t mean that he somehow caused anything. I mean that Tolstoy’s book title “War and Peace” is as simple as life gets. Life is continuously both. Don’t forget to highlight this truth. We all need to choose wisely and with the full knowledge that war is constant, just like peace. Will I send or support my kid going around the country on a public speaking tour on the topic of free speech? I’ll tell you the names of countries to where I wouldn’t send them to do it. And that there are these countries means that even you know that his choices weren’t as good as they could have been. There is a foolishness to them. Put short: noble does not encompass foolhardy. Remind us of this.
4. This brings me to another part of war talk that keeps sliding into the discussion. Pay attention all you civilian pukes. This is for you. Never submissively listen to a veteran describe that we’re in a war. Or that they know that war is coming soon. Certainly never act like veterans have some special insight or access to knowledge that leads to this conclusion. The veteran’s burden is that they can’t help but see that we’re in war. But we’re not. And more than that, us veterans need you non-veterans to call out what you see regarding how there is not a war. It is your own special burden. But it is real and you need to insist that the assassination doesn’t indicate that war is occurring or coming soon.
5. Finally, please, please, please stop believing that your words and reporting actually influences the longevity of your career/paycheck. No, ma’am. No, sir. You don’t actually help. We don’t actually care. In all likelihood, your profession is a detriment to people and society, vice. So just calm down and be yourself. We can tell when you apply pressure (for no reason) to yourself to react in a way which you think will boost ratings. It looks silly and unattractive. We watch or read because we’re bored and lack self-control. Not because we need you.
Two Updates on the Boy Child
First, during my attempt to get more of the cookie for myself, when I told him that the cookie was very big, J- innocently said, “My mouth is big!”
Second, we have this game Poop Tracks which is actually a pretty fantastic board game for little kids (if you care to have them turn into Tom Brown Jr.-like trackers). You spin a spinner and do what it says. The options are, “Draw 1 (or 2), Trade, Swipe, or Skip.” Naturally, I take it upon myself to teach my progeny the proper way to trade and swipe. And, naturally, the proper way to swipe is through distraction. So my kids now look forward to the spinner landing on “swipe” so they can say, “Look at that, Dad!” before proceeding to take one if my cards. Well, just now, as J- and I (A- is now in kindergarten 😦 ) were having a donut, he says, “Look out the window, Day-ad!” Obviously he was priming me for the take, but for what? I played along and then he swiped my napkin. What a guy!
Captain’s Log 