Saturday, July 2, 2022

"A Patriotism of the Heart"

Editor’s note: Since Monday is July 4th, it is a fine time to reflect on the virtue of patriotism - what we believe it is - and what we believe it is not. So today, we republish our musings on a patriotism of the heart and why it is different from what many consider patriotism to be.

"A Patriotism of the Heart"
by Brian Maher

"Here is the trouble with America’s jingos, warhawks, drum-beaters, glory hounds, world-improvers, do-gooders and idealists: They are not patriotic. A jolting, nearly scandalous claim, it is true. Do these Americans not cry tears red, white and blue? Do they not yell about American “greatness”... American “exceptionalism”... the “shining city” atop the hill? That and more they do, yes. Yet they are not patriotic. That is the curious case we haul before the jury today.

Yes, we are stepping away from our normal beat of manna and markets… and reflecting upon the virtue of patriotism. (We first doff our cap to the late writer Joseph Sobran, upon whose insights we rely today).

Country or Empire: Famed English writer G.K. Chesterton once denounced Rudyard Kipling’s “lack of patriotism.” The fellow’s lack of patriotism? What did Chesterton mean? Kipling was chief rah-rah man for the British Empire, its loudest bugler. English civilization overtopped all rival powers, he believed - as Everest overtops all rival peaks. And as was proper… Great Britain gave the law in all four corners of Earth.

From Kipling’s story "Regulus", citing Virgil’s "Aeneid": “Roman! let this be your care, this your art; to rule over the nations and impose the ways of peace…” Substitute Britain for Rome, and you have Kipling. Why then did Chesterton deny his patriotism? The reason is subtle. Subtle… yet critical.

“He Admires England, But He Does Not Love Her” Chesterton argued that Kipling admired England because she was powerful. He did not love her because she was England: "He admires England, but he does not love her; for we admire things with reasons, but love them without reasons. He admires England because she is strong, not because she is English."

Now Chesterton. He loved England as England — its customs, its eccentricities, its people. Even, if you can believe it, its “food.” A man loves his mother. It is a wordless love, wide and deep. He requires no reason. He requires no justification. And as he loves his mother, so he loves his country. Be it China, be it Russia, be it Chile, be it Romania… it is all one.

Sobran: "Of course Chesterton was right. You love your country as you love your mother - simply because it is yours, not because of its superiority to others, particularly superiority of power."

A Spacious Patriotism: Does the other fellow believe his own mother towers high over all others? Well, friends, maybe he does believe it. But that in no way irritates, annoys or threatens the other fellow. No harm flows from it. After all... Adults allow children to cherish the fiction that reindeer fly and round men descend chimneys... A husband allows his wife to cherish the fiction that she is a superior cook or automobilist… as a wife allows her husband to cherish the fiction that he is a skillful and formidable lover... or that his bald head is actually ennobling.

These are benevolent fictions conducive to the domestic peace and happiness. In that spirit, the patriot’s attitude toward the foreigner is relaxed. It is accommodative. It is spacious. He understands this fellow’s affection for his country is essentially the affection for his mother. But a Kipling does not love his country as a man loves his mother. His country must show all others its dust. It must outrace them all… else he feels diminished.

The Patriot Loves His Country Regardless: The United States of America stables many such gentlemen. They are dizzied, wobbled, staggered by a higher American vision. Their eyes roll perpetually heavenward. To these fellows, America must always be up to something big in this world.

She must be forever charging up San Juan Hill, going over the top, storming Omaha beach, bearing any burden, paying any price... She must be beating the Russians to the moon, beating the world at basketball, beating democracy into someone’s head. Tall deeds, some of these, and fantastic attainments.

But would the patriot love America less if she fell short of the glory… if her history was a page mostly blank? He would not. It is - after all - his country. And he loves her as he loves his mother. But to that certain species of American, America must dazzle and glitter upon the world’s stage. She must be the “indispensable nation.” If not indispensable… then dispensable. If dispensable, then unworthy of his love. Hence his lack of patriotism. He is Kipling.

The Difference Between the Patriot and the Nationalist: Sobran takes their measure: "Many Americans admire America for being strong, not for being American. For them America has to be “the greatest country on Earth” in order to be worthy of their devotion. If it were only the second greatest, or the 19th greatest, or, heaven forbid, “a third-rate power,” it would be virtually worthless… Maybe the poor Finns or Peruvians love their countries too, but heaven knows why - they have so little to be proud of, so few “reasons.”

And so Sobran trains his cannons on the nationalist ideologue: "The nationalist, who identifies America with abstractions like freedom and democracy, may think it’s precisely America’s mission to spread those abstractions around the world - to impose them by force, if necessary. In his mind, those abstractions are universal ideals... the world must be made “safe for democracy” by “a war to end all wars”... Any country that refuses to Americanize is “anti-American” - or a “rogue nation.” For the nationalist, war is a welcome opportunity to change the world."

We might list some names in point... but our legal counsel is wagging his finger and shaking his head. The patriot and the nationalist babble the same American tongue. The one is therefore mistaken for the other. Yet lean in. Listen closer. You will find they speak alien languages: "Because the patriot and the nationalist often use the same words, they may not realize that they use those words in very different senses. The American patriot assumes that the nationalist loves this country with an affection like his own, failing to perceive that what the nationalist really loves is an abstraction - “national greatness,” or something like that. The American nationalist, on the other hand, is apt to be suspicious of the patriot, accusing him of insufficient zeal, or even “anti-Americanism.”

A Patriotism of the Heart: The patriotism Sobran hymns is a relaxed, natural, healthful patriotism. It is a patriotism of the heart. This patriotism flies no ideological flag, hauls no missionary cargo, steers by no heavenly star. It is the patriotism of the prairie, of the plain, of the lonely jackrabbit crossroad, of the greasy spoon, of the truckstop, of the front porch, of the pool hall... of Main Street. And his fellow countrymen? The patriot takes them as he finds them.

Might they sometimes neglect to wash behind the ears? Might they mistake the salad fork for the dinner fork? Well, sometimes they may. But they are his countrymen… and that is enough. The patriot allows himself to laugh - not at his fellow Americans - but with them.

The nationalist, meantime, does not laugh. He hectors. He preaches. He scolds.

“Patriotism Is Relaxed. Nationalism Is Rigid.” “Patriotism is relaxed,” as Sobran concludes. “Nationalism is rigid.”

We in turn conclude, paraphrasing Chesterton: "The relaxed patriot, the average American, the American who tends to his own business and sweeps his own stoop, the American who loves his country as he loves his mother - this fellow is all right. But the rigid American, the uber American, the zealous American, the American nationalist hot to put the world to rights - the American who admires America for her strength - but fails to love her as herself? This fellow... he’s all wrong."

Jim Kunstler, "Independence Day"

"Independence Day"
by Jim Kunstler

"The Party of Chaos is draping its narrow shoulders in black crepe this Fourth of July, putting on funereal airs, which is actually just another cynical act in their remorseless performance of pretending to care about our country, as everything they touch goes to shit, blood, and ruin. Anything not that, they would like you believe, is “right-wing extremism” and “domestic terrorism.” Such as reminding your fellow citizens that there’s an upside to the rule-of-law and free speech, two niceties of the constitution the Party of Chaos is working hard to dispose of.

Understand that this Party of Chaos is insane, and rejoice this holiday weekend that you are not them. Independence, after all, was not just throwing off the yoke of King George III, but of establishing conditions for a people to thrive and pursue happiness without nefarious interference by vicious authorities of a leviathan state. That was something worth fighting for in 1776 and worth fighting for now.

One such battle was decided this week in the US Supreme Court: West Virginia v EPA, about US government agencies under the executive branch usurping legislative and judicial prerogatives - in this case to enforce “Green New Deal” policies on the electric power industry by agency fiat, as if by law. No-can-do, the SCOTUS said in a 6-3 decision. The ruling will tend to quash the growing tyranny of the unelected federal bureaucracy issuing diktats that nobody has voted for, like the Department of Education’s increasingly insane use of the 1972 Title IX [nine] update of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to jam biological male transsexuals into women’s sports and locker rooms.

Much of this agency mischief has emanated in recent years from whoever is in the White House issuing executive orders to get around a recalcitrant Congress. Barack Obama was especially prolific at it and now the junta behind “Joe Biden” is trying to emulate Mr. O. The upshot is that the Green New Deal is dead because even a Democratic majority Congress is too chicken to vote for measures likely to bring down the electric grid and put an end to mass motoring (though current trends suggest exactly that outcome is in the cards even without government action).

The ruling also tends to foil the World Economic Forum’s effort to re-set Western Civ as a transhuman technocratic “green” nirvana. Rather, the USA and Euroland are on the express track to a Palookaville of grubby, post-industrial, neo-medieval hardship. Try to imagine Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse minus reliable electric service. All you’re left with is an ill-dressed schmuck wearing goggles in a dark, empty room. Not to mention the technocrat elite’s wished-for boons of computer-enabled eternal life and never-ending orgasm. Fugettabowdit. Mr. Zuckerberg will be lucky months from now if he can avoid being clamped to a stake and torched by the angered new peasantry he helped to create.

War is not the glorious romp it used to be, either, in the days of caparisoned hussars and grenadiers in colorful enfilade. Now it’s more like being a swarm of gnats in a bug-zapper: pfffftttt… and you’re just one of ten thousand fellow gnats parlayed into the plane of ignominious nonexistence, sans accolades and salutes. Thus, our supremely stupid campaign against Russia in Ukraine, which is so not going well that it is hard to find a comparable strategic fiasco in history.

Of course, strategic fiascos are “Joe Biden’s” specialty. Even his former running mate, Mr. O, acknowledged that “you can’t overestimate [“JB’s”] ability to f*ck things up.” The alleged current president wanted desperately to bog down his nemesis, Vlad Putin, in the Ukrainian buzzard flats, hoping that Russia would roll over and die. But, lo and behold, it’s not working, not even with that $50-billion “JB” supposedly wired to Kiev. Instead, it’s America and our NATO allies who are circling the drain. Remember all those humming factories we won the Second World War with? They don’t exist anymore. Try prosecuting an industrial war without any industry. Decreasingly, too, our oil production, thanks explicitly to “Joe Biden’s” policies. Next, he’ll beg Mr. Putin for a discount on Russian oil while threatening to punch him in the face. I hope you’re prepared to lose this one as badly as we lost Afghanistan.

Life for us will get simpler, for sure, but it doesn’t have to be a trip back to the eleventh century. Mere months remain before the Party of Chaos has its near-death experience at the polls and we can begin to contemplate a change of course that allows us to remain a civilized nation of law and liberty, despite all the damage done. I’m celebrating this Fourth of July by mindfully declaring the independence of the country I love from the regime of grifters, tyrants, and sadists temporarily occupying the power centers of Washington, DC. I hope you will join me and do likewise."
Related:

"How It Really Is"

Today’s AAA National Average $4.822 
Price as of 7/2/22

Friday, July 1, 2022

"Welcome To The Recession - What's Coming Next Will Be Much Worse; Banks Closing"

Jeremiah Babe, 7/1/22:
"Welcome To The Recession - What's Coming 
Next Will Be Much Worse; Banks Closing"
Comments Here:

"Welcome to the Slow Motion Depression"

"Welcome to the Slow Motion Depression"
by Jeffrey Tucker

"Think for a moment of other failed experiments in human history. One that comes to mind is the Bolshevik Revolution. Its leader, Vladimir Lenin, never really expected to take power, much less be put in charge of implementing the system he had spent a career promoting. He was asked to speak to what communism would mean. He fished around and came up with the idea of electrification of Russia. It didn’t work. In fact nothing worked. By 1920, electricity was even failing in Russia itself, and food shortages were everywhere. The experiment had already flopped and the workers and peasants were furious.

The answer was the “New Economic Policy” which liberalized the economy and bought the party time. The point is that the communist experiment had failed already, only two years in. The issue of failing plans from elites has vexed rulers from time immemorial. We live in such times today, arguably on a larger global basis than ever. They said they would suppress a virus but everyone got it anyway.
They said they would print and spend their way out of recession but now we have inflation plus recession. They said they would minimize the social and economic carnage but it is everywhere.

Notice that no one has taken responsibility. No one has admitted error. Or more precisely, what people like Bill Gates say now is that their theory was fine and their plans were brilliant, but there were periodic missteps in judgment owing to a lack of information, but keep trusting them because they will get better at this.

Just wait and see.

The FDA: Another tactic they are using is to claim that only now can we treat the Coronavirus like a normal pathogen because the new mutations, though more widespread, are also less severe. Fine. Except that with the mutations, the threshold for herd immunity is also rising. We might have been done with this nonsense two years ago had we lived life normally. The FDA’s latest blather is designed to cover that up.

Also, you will notice that last weekend, the FDA put major new warnings on the J&J vaccine, as if it has uniquely dangerous adverse effects. They did this at the same time massive documents from Pfizer are being dumped all over the Internet, and they all show sketchy trial methods and very serious side effects. The FDA’s announcement looks highly suspicious: like an attempt to seem scrupulous while letting the biggest offenders off the hook.

At least we aren’t going the way of China. Xi Jinping announced to the party congress over the weekend that he will tolerate no dissent against the zero Covid ideal. The pathogen will be crushed everywhere it appears. China now (if you can believe the official data) has one of the lowest rates of infection of anywhere in the world. That means that another billion or so people still will get it, and that means rolling lockdowns for the duration.

If this really happens, the great promise of this great country will be torn down by the arrogance and crankishness of one single dictator. That’s a tremendous tragedy, one that will have a profoundly negative impact on the global economy for many years to come.

Roiling Crisis: It’s almost difficult to keep up with the ongoing disasters taking place these days. Let’s talk about the impending shortage in electricity, the stuff we are all supposed to be using as a replacement for fossil fuels in the brave new world being created for us by our lords and masters.

Reports the Wall Street Journal, in a piece that went largely unnoticed: "California’s grid operator said Friday that it anticipates a shortfall in supplies this summer, especially if extreme heat, wildfires or delays in bringing new power sources online exacerbate the constraints. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which oversees a large regional grid spanning much of the Midwest, said late last month that capacity shortages may force it to take emergency measures to meet summer demand and flagged the risk of outages. In Texas, where a number of power plants lately went offline for maintenance, the grid operator warned of tight conditions during a heat wave expected to last into the next week.

The risk of electricity shortages is rising throughout the U.S. as traditional power plants are being retired more quickly than they can be replaced by renewable energy and battery storage. Power grids are feeling the strain as the U.S. makes a historic transition from conventional power plants fueled by coal and natural gas to cleaner forms of energy such as wind and solar power, and aging nuclear plants are slated for retirement in many parts of the country."

In summary, another central plan born of arrogance and presence seems to be on the verge of complete failure, even to the point of blackouts, like a third world has experienced for many years. Green energy is becoming no energy. Zero emissions is becoming zero power.

Further: Speeding the build-out of renewable energy and batteries has become an especially difficult proposition amid supply-chain challenges and inflation. Most recently, a probe by the Commerce Department into whether Chinese solar manufacturers are circumventing trade tariffs on solar panels has halted imports of key components needed to build new solar farms and effectively brought the U.S. solar industry to a standstill.

So here we see the combination of consequences of many different cockamamie ideas: tariffs, green energy policy, fiscal irresponsibility, plus money printing. Amazing. We have high inflation, the breakdown of global trade, plus a failed attempt to dial back fossil fuels and rely on wind and water. It’s absurd, and we could pay the price sooner rather than later.

Glorious Food: If that weren’t bad enough, there are people raising alarms about an impending food shortage to complement the shortage of so much else. Plus we are less than three months away from the declaration of recession. And while inflation has calmed down a bit for now, there is every reason to believe that it will kick back up again by late summer. This will give us a combination of inflation, recession, blackouts, and food shortages.

That’s a politically toxic mix, to say the least. And let’s add one more piece to the puzzle: weakened and falling financials. The terrible year seems ever less an aberration and more and more the beginnings of an enduring bear market in nearly everywhere. This has even affected the crypto market, as large institutional investors have gotten squeamish about a technology they never understood but only embraced in hopes of return.

Looking back, there is nothing terribly surprising about any of this. It’s a consequence of safety culture and a belief that powerful, rich, and intelligent people can manage the world better than the rest of us. We’ve been here many times in history, and it has always foreshadowed a long period of suffering.

Lenin failed just as Gates, Powell, Fauci, and Psaki have failed. Few things are more dangerous to the future of humanity than a failed and humiliated ruling class that still possesses power. They cannot and will not admit error, so their only plan is to double and triple down on failure. The term “scorched-earth” is usually used metaphorically. Maybe this time it will become real."

"20 Examples That Show That America Is Far More Messed Up Than When You Were A Kid"

Full screen recommended.
"20 Examples That Show That America Is Far 
More Messed Up Than When You Were A Kid"
by Epic Economist

"When we were young, we still had hope for America. We thought that if we worked as hard as our parents, we would have about the same living standards. We used to think that we were going to be able to own a home, or maybe get a college degree, or buy a new car, and also afford everyday expenses just as our parents and grandparents did back in the day. But living conditions have sharply deteriorated since then. The cost of virtually everything has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, but our salaries have not. Things have gotten dramatically worse in the United States since we were kids, and now we're the ones having to cope with a broken economy that makes millions of families struggle to make ends meet every month.

What in the world has happened to our country? Most of us still have very fond memories from when we were younger - “the good old days” that seem so far away by now. But those times aren't coming back. Our problems keep growing bigger and bigger, and the more time passes by, the fewer Americans can afford to live in this country. That's why today, we decided to compile some shocking numbers comparing how life used to be a few decades ago to what we are living today.

Having a child has always been expensive, but today it costs more than ever to raise your kids in the US. Adjusting for inflation, the average weekly childcare costs increased to $216 in 2021 from $84 in 1985, according to the US Census Bureau. On top of that, childcare and pre-college education make up 18% of the total cost of raising a kid, compared with 2% in 1960, according to a Young Invincibles report.

You’re probably going to spend around 50% in healthcare than your parents and grandparents did back in the day. Parents today are also paying more than double for electricity than they did in the 1970s. Car prices have also skyrocketed in the last five decades. The average cost of a new car in 1970 was just $3,450.0, while in 1980, Americans paid $7,200.00, and in 1990, they spent $16,950.00. In contrast, this year, if you want to buy a new car you’ll face an average price of an astounding $47,000. Compared to home prices in the 90s, today, American adults spend on average 128.49% more on housing. On top of that, Americans who were born in 1970 have seen their purchasing power decline by a shocking 653.34% over the past 52 years.

All of this shows that the United States is in a giant mess right now, and we desperately need to get things turned around. We are deeply, deeply troubled as a society, as a nation, and as a declining economic superpower. America has fallen from greatness and needs to be restored. But we must act now because the window to start making that change is closing very rapidly. Here are 20 Examples That Show That America Is Far More Messed Up Than When You Were A Kid."

"Shocking Info: This Video Will Change Your Mind About WW3"

Full screen recommended.
Canadian Prepper, 7/1/22:
"Shocking Info: This Video Will Change Your Mind About WW3"
Comments here:

Gregory Mannarino, "Liquidity Crisis; Slave System; Economic Collapse; Market Manipulation"

Gregory Mannarino, PM 7/1/22:
"Liquidity Crisis; Slave System; 
Economic Collapse; Market Manipulation"
Comments here:

Musical Interlude: 2002, “A Year And A Day”

Full screen recommended.
2002, “A Year And A Day”

"A Look to the Heavens"

“Large, dusty, spiral galaxy NGC 4945 is seen edge-on near the center of this rich telescopic image. The field of view spans nearly 2 degrees, or about 4 times the width of the Full Moon, toward the expansive southern constellation Centaurus.
About 13 million light-years distant, NGC 4945 is almost the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy. But X-ray and infrared observations reveal even more high energy emission and star formation in the core of NGC 4945. The other prominent galaxy in the field, NGC 4976, is an elliptical galaxy. Left of center, NGC 4976 is much farther away, at a distance of about 35 million light-years, and not physically associated with NGC 4945.”

“Are You Sane?

“Are You Sane?
by Charles Hugh Smith

“A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.” 
– Kurt Vonnegut, “Welcome to the Monkey House”

“Madness has engulfed the entire world, with a concentration of power in the hands of a few psychopathic financial elite wielding an inordinate and dangerous expanse of power over the lives of the common man. They are a modern day version of Al Capone, except their weapons of choice aren’t machine guns, but a printing press, peddling debt, creating derivatives of mass destruction, and peddling heaping doses of disinformation. The contemporary criminal class wears Hermes suits, Rolex watches and diamond studded pinky rings, drops $500 to dine at Masa in NYC, travels by chauffeured limo, lives in $10 million NYC penthouse suites, occupies luxurious corner offices in hundred story glass towers, and spends weekends hobnobbing with the other financial elite at their villas in the Hamptons. They have nothing but utter contempt for the lowly peasants who depend upon a weekly paycheck to make ends meet. Why work when you can steal $1 or $2 billion from farmers with no consequences?

The willfully ignorant masses are kept at bay by the selling them a false dichotomy of Republicans versus Democrats, conservatives versus liberals, and capitalism versus socialism. The ruling class distracts the public with fake wars on poverty, drugs and terror, while using these storylines to further enrich themselves and keep the public alarmed and frightened. We’ve been “fighting” the wars on poverty and drugs for over four decades and poverty is at record levels, while drugs are easier to obtain than candy in a candy store. The war on terror is nothing more than a corporate arms dealer welfare plan. The end of the Cold War put a real crimp in the bottom lines of Lockheed Martin and the rest of the peddlers of death. 9/11 and the subsequent undeclared wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, with Iran on the horizon, and a proxy war with Russia have been a godsend to the bottom lines of the corporations Eisenhower warned about in 1961.

In reality, the politicians are interchangeable and bought off by corporate and special interests. The people are sold a fable, and controlled opposition is the fairy tale. They perpetuate the welfare/warfare state that enriches Wall Street, the military industrial complex, the healthcare service complex, politically connected mega-corporations and the corporate media propaganda complex. The American people are given the illusion of choice by their keepers. The system is rigged. The real decisions are made by unelected secretive men who operate in the shadows and use their wealth to direct the decision making of the politicians, government bureaucrats, and corporate entities that benefit from those decisions. Edward Bernays described a society that existed in the 19th Century, 20th Century, and has now grown to immense proportions in the 21st Century:

“Political campaigns today are all sideshows. A presidential candidate may be ‘drafted’ in response to ‘overwhelming popular demand,’ but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room. The conscious manipulation of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.” – Edward Bernays 

The manipulation of the masses has been perfected by the ruling class through decades of corporate mass media messaging the purposeful dumbing down of the populace through government public school education that teaches children how to feel rather than how to think. The conscious manipulation of the masses has been designed to produce obedient non-thinking consumers of corporate products, educated to believe the accumulation of material goods with debt constitutes wealth, to fear whatever the government tells them to fear, and never look up from their iGadgets long enough to actually think for themselves. We are bombarded with Orwellian memes designed to keep us sedated and pliant, as the ruling class pillages the national wealth and expands their power and control over our lives.

Conform; Stay Asleep; Do Not Question Authority; Obey; Consume; Reproduce; Submit; Watch TV; Buy; Follow; Doubt Humanity; No New Ideas; Feel, Don’t Think; Fear; Accumulate; Honor Apathy; Believe Experts; Surrender; Spend; No Independent Thought; Win; Want More; Hate; Succumb To Desire; Yield To Power; Choose Safety Over Liberty; Choose Security Over Freedom 

This insane world was created through decades of bad decisions, believing in false prophets, choosing current consumption over sustainable long-term savings based growth, electing corruptible men who promised voters entitlements that were mathematically impossible to deliver, the disintegration of a sense of civic and community obligation and a gradual degradation of the national intelligence and character.

Vonnegut and Huxley’s social commentary reveals a basic truth that societies and human beings have been prone to bouts of madness over the course of decades and centuries. Humans are a weak species, susceptible to the vagaries of greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, sloth, envy and pride. The seven deadly sins are in full bloom today, as the American empire descends through Dante’s inferno of reality TV, celebrity worship, religious zealotry, adulation of wealthy titans, military conquest and worship of false idols.

This is where the interests of those in power and those being ruled have coincided, as a fiat based monetary system allowed unlimited spending to keep the welfare/warfare state growing, enriching the crony capitalists, deepening the power of the state, and providing the masses with foreign made trinkets, baubles, corporate logoed clothing, techno-gadgets, and pimped out financed wheels. The concepts of self-restraint, discipline, saving for a rainy day, prudence, discretion, and deferred gratification are rarely displayed in modern day America. In a case of mass delusion, Americans have convinced themselves to live for today, recklessly ignore their futures, irresponsibly spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need, neglect their civic duty towards future generations, choose ignorance over knowledge, and vote for spineless politicians who promise them entitlements that are mathematically impossible to honor. The public’s foolish attitude towards debt accumulation matches the arrogance of our gutless intellectually dishonest leaders.”

"A Lot Of People..."

"When science discovers the center of the universe
a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not."
- Bernard Baily

"Internet Sacred Text Archive”

“About Sacred Texts”

“All ancient books which have once been called sacred by man, will have their lasting place in the history of mankind, and those who possess the courage, the perseverance, and the self-denial of the true miner, and of the true scholar, will find even in the darkest and dustiest shafts what they are seeking for, - real nuggets of thought, and precious jewels of faith and hope.”
- Max Müller, "Introduction to the Upanishads" Vol. II.

“This site is a freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language. This site has no particular agenda other than promoting religious tolerance and scholarship. Views expressed at this site are solely those of specific authors, and are not endorsed by sacred-texts. Sacred-texts is not sponsored by any religious group or organzation.

Sacred texts went live on March 9th, 1999. The traffic started to increase when sacred-texts was listed at Yahoo! under ‘Society and Religion/Texts’. In its first year of operation sacred-texts had about a quarter million hits. By 2004, it was receiving well over a quarter million hits per day.

Today, site traffic often exceeds a million hits a day. Sacred texts is one of the top 20,000 sites on the web based on site traffic, consistently one of the top 10,000 sites in Australia, the US and India, and is one of the top 5 most visited general religion sites (source: Alexa.com).

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From the start, we have had a special focus on remedying the under-representation of traditional cultures on the Internet. The site has one of the largest collections of transcriptions of complete books on Native American, Pacific, African, Asian and other traditional people’s religion, spiritual practices, mythology and folklore. While many of these pre-20th century books are flawed due to orientalist or colonialist biases, they are also eye-witness accounts by reliable observers, typically at the moment of contact. These texts are crucial to the study of tribal traditions, and in many cases, the only link with the past. Locked up in academic libraries for decades, sacred-texts has made them freely accessible anywhere in the world.

We have scanned hundreds of books which have all been made freely accessible to the world. A comprehensive bibliography of the texts scanned at sacred texts is available here.

We welcome email regarding typographical or factual errors in any file at sacred-texts. Please write us if you spot an error; include the URL and a few lines of context so we can pin down the location. While all due care has been taken in the reproduction of the texts here, none of the texts or translations here are represented to be sanctioned by any particular religious body or institution. We welcome advice as to errors of fact or transcription.

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"The Web Gallery of Art"

"The Web Gallery of Art"

"The Web Gallery of Art is a virtual museum and searchable database of European painting and sculpture of the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism periods (1100-1850), currently containing over 52,800 reproductions. It was started in 1996 as a topical site of the Renaissance art, originated in the Italian city-states of the 14th century and spread to other countries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Intending to present Renaissance art as comprehensively as possible, the scope of the collection was later extended to show its Medieval roots as well as its evolution to Baroque and Rococo via Mannerism. More recently the periods of Neoclassicism and Romanticism were also included.

The collection has some of the characteristics of a virtual museum. The experience of the visitors is enhanced by guided tours helping to understand the artistic and historical relationship between different works and artists, by period music of choice in the background and a free postcard service. At the same time the collection serves the visitors' need for a site where various information on art, artists and history can be found together with corresponding pictorial illustrations. Although not a conventional one, the collection is a searchable database supplemented by a glossary containing articles on art terms, relevant historical events, personages, cities, museums and churches.

The Web Gallery of Art is intended to be a free resource of art history primarily for students and teachers. It is a private initiative not related to any museums or art institutions, and not supported financially by any state or corporate sponsors. However, we do our utmost, using authentic literature and advice from professionals, to ensure the quality and authenticity of the content.

We are convinced that such a collection of digital reproductions, containing a balanced mixture of interlinked visual and textual information, can serve multiple purposes. On one hand it can simply be a source of artistic enjoyment; a convenient alternative to visiting a distant museum, or an incentive to do just that. On the other hand, it can serve as a tool for public education both in schools and at home."
For those so inclined, this is a treasure trove of material. Enjoy!

"Luminarium"

"Luminarium"

“I have undertaken a labor, a labor out of love for the world, and to comfort noble hearts: those that I hold dear, and the world to which my heart goes out. Not the common world do I mean, of those who (as I have heard) cannot bear grief and desire but to bathe in bliss. (May God then let them dwell in bliss!) Their world and manner of life my tale does not regard: it's life and mine lie apart. Another world do I hold in mind, which bears together in one heart its bitter sweetness and its dear grief, its heart's delight and its pain of longing, dear life and sorrowful death, dear death and sorrowful life. In this world let me have my world, to be damned with it, or to be saved.”
- Gottfried Von Strassburg


"A comprehensive anthology and guide to English literature of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Seventeenth Century, Restoration and Eighteenth Century. This site combines several sites first created in 1996 to provide a starting point for students and enthusiasts of English Literature. Nothing replaces a quality library, but hopefully this site will help fill the needs of those who have not access to one.

Luminarium is the labor of love of Anniina Jokinen. The site is not affiliated with any institution nor is it sponsored by anyone other than its maintainer and the contributions of its visitors through revenues from book sales via Amazon.com, poster sales via All Posters, and advertising via Google AdSense.

For all materials, authorities in a given subject are consulted. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, and The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English are some of the general reference works consulted for accuracy of dates and details. Many of the materials collected here reside elsewhere. Quality and accuracy are concerns, and all materials are checked regularly. However, "Luminarium" cannot be held responsible for materials residing on other sites. Corrections and suggestions for improvements are encouraged from the visitors.

The site started in early 1996. I remember looking for essays to spark an idea for a survey class I was taking at the time. It seemed that finding study materials online was prohibitively difficult and time-consuming - there was no all-encompassing site which could have assisted me in my search. I started the site as a public service, because I myself had to waste so much time as a student, trying to find anything useful or interesting. There were only a handful of sites back then (read: Internet Dark Ages) and I could spend hours on search engines, looking for just a few things. I realized I must not be the only one in the predicament and started a simple one-page site of links to Middle English Literature. That page was soon followed by a Renaissance site.

Gradually it became obvious that the number of resources was ungainly for such a simple design. It was then that the multi-page "Medlit" and "Renlit" pages were created, around July 1996. That structure is still the same today. In September 1996, I started creating the "Sevenlit" site, launched in November. I realized the need to somehow unite all three sites, and that led to the creation of Luminarium. I chose the name, which is Latin for "lantern," because I wanted the site to be a beacon of light in the darkness. It was also befitting for a site containing authors considered "luminaries" of English literature."

The Daily "Near You?"

Haymarket, Virginia, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"Thoughts On Independence Day, 2022"

"Thoughts On Independence Day, 2022"
by John Wilder

"Independence Day is just around the corner, and I’ve got the Civil War 2.0 Weather Report scheduled for that day, so I thought I’d give a few thoughts about one of the most cherished ideas in our history: Independence.

Independence was the life blood of our new nation. I think people were genetically (and sometimes judicially) selected for it. The people that came here looked around Britain and said, “You know what, I’d much rather be in a wilderness surrounded by hostile natives. Oh, and I’ll gladly cross an ocean in a dangerous journey that will take forever, and I’ll never see the land of my birth again.”

It’s one thing to do that yourself, but these dudes convinced their wives to come, too. Leaving everything you know and love is not normal, but Duncan McWilder left Scotland before the Revolutionary War was over to come on over here. I don’t know his story, but as I trace his children across generations, not a one of them settled in a place where life was easy – in fact every one of them headed for the frontier (as it existed in their time) and pushed outwards.

They raised heaven knows what in Virginia and Alabama. They tamed Texas. They built the railroads. The homesteaded in New Mexico. Portions of the family were west of the Rockies in 1860. Not a single day was spent in a life in on easy mode. They built this country with their sweat, their tears, and over the bones of their wives who died in childbirth and their sons who died of fever and war. None of it was easy. The hard choice was something else:

Independence.

But they had one thing in their mind – they bowed to no man. I feel safe in saying that should my forefathers have met any king or potentate that walked this Earth that not a single one of them would have bowed. They would have stood straight up, looked him in the eye, and thought to themselves, “You’re nothing but a man like me. And no Wilder bows to any man.”

When people mention to me that I am the beneficiary of “white privilege” or any other such nonsense, I laugh. My ancestors fought in Europe, twice, in the last century. They fought here at places like Shiloh and Manassas Junction. They fought at places like Valley Forge when the dark winter nearly doomed a nation yet unborn. I stand at the end of a line of brave men and women who looked on a new and fresh continent, not with fear, but with determination. They wouldn’t bend their knees even to their countrymen. Why?

Independence.

Life was never easy. But I look back onto that line of my ancestors and know – they made the hard choice, the choice to be free. They gave up comfort and, likely, material success to have control of their own destiny. Rather than submit, they pushed farther out – into danger. Wolves aren’t a problem now. Why not? My ancestors (along with many others) killed them. Grizzly bears used to be in nearly every State. Not now. Why? My ancestors (along many others) killed them. They braved the cold, the heat, the snakes, the (now dead) bears, and the (now dead) wolves. Why?

Independence.

I’m not alone here, either. If you’re reading this, there’s a near certainty that you came from a long line of Big Damn Heroes® yourself. They carved a nation out of their heroism, their success, and, yes, their failure, all chasing the same dream.

Independence.

I’ve met billionaires, movie stars, sports stars, and rock stars. I hold none of them in contempt. And I hold none of them as my better. I had several times that I could have sworn fealty and abandoned my integrity and had greater success. I never would. To do so would have been shameful to the memories of those that came before me. So, I never will. Why?

Independence.

I am not alone. The United States was a magnet for hard-headed men of principle that were looking for nothing but that chance to be free, to be independent, to live their own lives. In 1900, my ancestors would interact with the Federal government whenever they got their mail. That might have been infrequent, at best, out on the frontier, out in the places where they might be lucky to see mail once in a month.

From once a month, we’ve moved to all the time. When my alarm goes off in the morning, it’s driven by electricity that comes from power plants regulated by the EPA. I go to the bathroom where I brush my teeth with toothpaste approved by the FDA, and then into the shower where the valve is regulated by the Consumer Protection Agency and water regulated by several government agencies. I then get in the car (approved in different aspects by several government agencies) fueled by gasoline... and the number of agencies in that chain just to get gasoline is amazing.

The biggest difference between then and now are the massive cities. Our cities are huge and complex and anonymous. Here in the country, you can configure your life to deal only with the people you see at work and the people that you see at the store, in the city there are people everywhere. And the chances you’ll see a random individual again in a context so that you’d recognize them? Nearly zero.

Thus, cities are an environment where people are anonymous. Anonymous people aren’t responsible for their actions – they exist outside of the constraint of society. Be rude to someone because your day isn’t going well? Whatever. You’ll never see them again. They’re not a part of your group, your tribe.

That anonymity might sound like Independence, but it’s not – it actually leads to the worst of tyranny – rule after rule because poor manners in an anonymous setting lead to rules about how tall a lawn can be. And if you don’t follow that rule, and don’t pay the fines associated with breaking it? People with guns will take you to a concrete box and keep you there. So, cities don’t sound very free to someone like me.

On the other side of the equation, small towns provide accountability without resorting to the law. A city slicker moved to Modern Mayberry and didn’t pay a plumber because of a disagreement. What are the odds any other plumber will even return his calls when something goes wrong? Or any contractor? Heck, even I know the story, so I’m giggling thinking about them making phone calls when they need to get their septic tank pumped.

Without anonymity, there is responsibility. It will be a tough lesson for the city slicker to learn. I remember that lesson every time I go to dinner and see the same waitress for the twentieth time. They are responsible to me as a waitress, and I am responsibility to them as a customer.

In my small town, I have responsibility. My forefathers had independence, but they also had responsibility. If they succeeded, they succeeded. If they failed, they failed. If they died because of their foolishness? They died. The lesson is simple: independence isn’t freedom from consequences. Independence is being free to choose. Living with those consequences is the result.

We sit here at the edge of a new world that is struggling to be born out of the old world that we lived in. Will we choose independence and responsibility? I know what my ancestors would choose."

"Oh, That Could Never Happen Here!"

 "Oh, that could never happen here!"

Yeah, yeah... heard it a thousand times. Well guess what...
"Never, ever forget that nothing in this life is free. Life demands payment in some form for your "right" to express yourself, to condemn and abuse the evil surrounding us. Expect to pay... it will come for you, they will come for you, regardless. Knowing that, give them Hell itself every chance you can. Expect no mercy, and give none. That's how life works. Be ready to pay for what you do, or be a coward, pretend you don't see, don't know, and cry bitter tears over how terrible things are, over how you let them become."
- Ernest Hemingway, "For Whom the Bell Tolls "
Robert Palmer, "You're Gonna Get What's Coming"

"A Wartime Economy Coming... Here Are Two Things That Could Happen as a Result"

"A Wartime Economy Coming... 
Here Are Two Things That Could Happen as a Result"
by Chris MacIntosh

"Things are a tad wonky. The problem that market participants are not thinking about is this. When combining the most levered global and US economy in the history of our planet, record low interest rates (lowest in recorded history), the greatest disruption to world’s energy supplies as well as direct and indirect attacks on our food networks, not to mention sanctions against Russia and hence Ukraine — two major exporters of food. The consequences of all of this have delivered to us the highest inflation in four decades… oh, and this was BEFORE the Russkies went hunting for biolabs in Ukraine and the attendant fallout. The result… or at least one result is in the graph below.
Click image for larger size.
Real wage earnings are collapsing like a teenager at spring break after a bottle of Kalashnikov vodka. The problem with the pointy shoes over at the Fed is that they believe they can curtail inflation by destroying demand. Destroying demand, which they are attempting to do, will cause a negative wealth effect. This they think will mitigate inflationary pressures. Even presumably fuel and food price inflation.

Consider this… In a recent speech Gov. Waller said: "I support tightening policy by another 50 basis points for several meetings. In particular, I am not taking 50 basis-point hikes off the table until I see inflation coming down closer to our 2 percent target. And, by the end of this year, I support having the policy rate at a level above neutral so that it is reducing demand for products and labor, bringing it more in line with supply and thus helping rein in inflation."

Now, if we step out of the world of central planners who live in ivory towers, out there in the real world the West is at war with Russia and Ukraine who produce collectively startlingly large amounts of both food and fuel. No solution exists to end this war. If anything, the central planners are encouraging it. What does this mean for supply of fuel and food?

Despite what the Fed may do with interest rates, this will persist. Sure, there will be demand destruction as inflation eats into disposable incomes. But it is food, fuel, and shelter that sit at the foundation of must haves. They are far more inelastic than iPhones, soy lattes, and definitely monkey JPEGs.

What will the governments do? They’ll send out money in some form. The Brits are already doing it. How are they getting the funding to do this? Good question. By taxing the energy companies an additional 25%. Genius! I’ll refrain for the minute from walking you through how idiotic this is and move onto other measures government will likely employ and then we’ll look at what this means for the bond market.

To pay the subsidies, the thickos in DC will need to generate more cash, which will necessitate the issuing of more treasury bonds due to a widening fiscal deficit. Who will buy these bonds? Not foreign central banks.

Nope. Remember the stealing "freezing" Russia’s central bank reserves? That was a shot fired only once, because by firing that shot every single nation on planet earth was put on notice. The implications are clear. If at any point in time we dislike your stance, even where that stance is in the interests of your own citizenry, we’ll punish you. To think they won’t be acting accordingly is isht that only the cerebrally impaired can manage. The critical point is that foreign central banks, having seen what happened to Russia, will reduce their purchasing of US treasuries. Incidentally, they also have their own issues to deal with.

Stagflation is global and especially in emerging markets they’re struggling against a rising dollar while revenues are generated in local currency. It isn’t like there are piles of cash swishing about for them to find a home for. Furthermore, they’ve no ability to issue treasuries like the US has been able to do. Then, of course, there is the domestic (US) market who are waking to the fact that the cost of a banana today is more than it was last week… and they’re thinking that maybe, just maybe the whole "transitory" thing may just be bullshit.

So who’s gonna buy them? This is where things are about to get truly nutty. We are about to experience a "wartime" economy. Certainly the central planners will play on this narrative. And in a wartime economy central banks lose their independence and become merged with the government, which means they merge with the treasury department. This is about to happen. When? Not sure, but I’d be surprised if it takes more than 12 months. When this happens two things will take place. Bonds will tank and it will be when gold finally gets bid. It is still cheap. It’s not going to stay that way.

At this point the central banks and central planners will be well and truly trapped. Trapped by their own attempts to self detonate the economy with the demonstrably fake Covid narrative, failure to contain or fully understand the consequences of shutting down global supply chains (which can’t, aren’t, and wont simply be turned back on), failure to contain the stagflation, and resultant rising social unrest and economic depression of their own making. But most of all they’ll be trapped by their inability to depress the world’s largest-ever debt bubble.

Financial market collapse, together with rampant stagflation, will be the result of an implosion of the fiat money system turned credit system laboring under the grandest credit creation and money printing in human history. We are getting close. Be prepared. I think this promises to be a once-in-a-100-year type of event."
Related:

Bill Bonner, "Cold Day in Hell, Part II"

"Cold Day in Hell, Part II"
History's daring innovators...
 and the political hacks who would thwart them.
by Bill Bonner

Dublin, Ireland - "This just in. Fox News reports: "The GDPNow gauge, a widely watched measurement from the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank, indicated Thursday that real gross domestic product shrank by 1.0% in the second quarter from April through June. While the official advance estimate of Q2 performance will not be released for another month, this preliminary reading shows the second quarter in a row of negative growth in the economy after GDP contracted 1.6% in Q1."

As forecast, now we have a recession on Main Street as well as a bear market on Wall Street. But what we don’t have, yet, is any sign of panic from the Fed. It’s committed – for now – to tightening up the money supply in order to combat inflation. But we’re just at the beginning. Mr. Market is correcting the Fed’s mistakes and deflating the economy. And he’s got a long way to go. Investors are still looking for the bottom. Typically, real bear markets don’t end until investors get fed up… give up… and stop looking. Dow 20,000? Dow 15,000? We don’t know, but it’s probably a much smaller number than most investors expect.

Then, we’ll see what kind of stuff the Fed is made of. It will face the ‘Decision of the Century’ – either continue to let Mr. Market do his work, cleaning up more than 20 years of irresponsible monetary policies… or go back to printing money and letting inflation rip. That decision will determine whether we suffer a serious bear market and deep recession now… or a total economic, political and social breakdown later. Stay tuned.

Spontaneous Order: Meanwhile… we look ahead. And putting the present conversation in historical perspective…today’s standards of living… our ability to feed 8 billion people… with average lifespans that are twice what they were 150 years ago… air-conditioning… power steering… Facebook… mosquito repellent… for good or for evil – the world we live in was created by people who paid little attention to government. Instead, they drilled wells and built refineries… they invented automobiles and produced them by the millions… they hammered steel… and cooked dinners with ingredients that came from all over the planet. Pineapples from Hawaii… palm oil from Malaysia… beef from Texas… strawberries – even in the winter time!

They did these things without subsidies or tax credits. And not because Congress passed a law or the president threatened them. They did them to make their lives better. No Great Transition plan showed them how to go from a muscle-powered world to one with 1,000 times more power – from fossil fuels. No ‘Group of 7’ world leaders got together and decreed a switch to coal, oil and gas as primary energy sources. No Pete Buttigieg directed people to build gas stations. No think tank showed them the way forward. No regulations guided their feet… nor was there any Department of Energy (not created until 1977) looking over their shoulders.

Often, the biggest innovators – those who added most to our wealth and comfort – worked on their own… unknown to the powers-that-were… with no backing from universities or non-profit foundations or governments. Each one danced to his own tune… followed his own compass… and brought forth the quality of life that we enjoy today.

The Great Spend-a-thon: The first major effort to bring the economy under elite (government) control came in the Soviet Union. Later, Germany… Italy, China, Cuba, Vietnam – all took a stab at it. All failed. And usually, the failures were accompanied by millions of deaths – either ‘liquidated’ by intention… or by accident. The largest ‘accident’ was in China, 1958-1962, where the Great Leap Forward so thoroughly wrecked the economy that 50 million people starved. But the planners, world improvers and controllers don’t give up. Now, they are convinced that unrestrained growth will bring the ‘death of the planet.’

It is not clear to us that an increase in global temperatures would be a bad thing. Nor is it apparent that the earth lacks its own feedback loops and counterbalance mechanisms. We’ll leave ‘The Science’ of it – if there is any – to others. What is apparent to us is that trying to control the weather is likely to produce the same sort of results as every other Great Crusade since 1914. The elite, for all its technocratic pretensions, has botched every major policy initiative and bungled its way into one debacle after another. WWI, Prohibition, Korea, Vietnam, the War on Poverty… the War on Drugs… Stagflation #1 (in the ‘70s)… the War on Terrorism… Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, the bailout of Wall Street… the Covid Panic and the Gimmie-Stimmie Spend-a-thon… the sanctions war against Russia… and now Stagflation #2.

They’ll almost certainly make a mess of this Great Transition away from fossil fuels too. But now the stakes are higher. Now, they put the progress of more than 150 years – and the lives of 8 billion people – in jeopardy. The rich may miss a latte – a few may swing from lampposts. But the poor? ‘The People?’ On Monday, we’ll look at how it might develop."