Month: April 2014

I’ve Started My Next Book

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Just so you know, yesterday I went back to Obann to clean up the mess I left at the end of Book. No. 7, The Glass Bridge. This one, No. 8, I’ve entitled The Temple.

Oh, how good it is to be back!

Here’s what I’ve started with: a title, certain things that the general arc of the story requires, a cast of characters, and a few scenes which I can see in my mind’s eye and which I hope I can write up to be as compelling as I imagine them. Beyond that, I trust in the Lord my God to take my hand and lead me. May He give me the story that He wants me to tell, and no other.

My Answer to a Schlub

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Yesterday some stunata on the Internet, confounded because I wasn’t buying into his vision of Big Government, Big Science, Big Sodomy, and atheism as the keys to the earthly paradise, responded with this rhetorical flash: “You still don’t get it, do you, grandpa?”

Yes, it makes me mad to be insulted by a pygmy. I will have to learn to ignore it. Someone calling you names online is like a monkey throwing feces at you from way up in the treetop. Nothing you can do about it. You might as well argue with a cinderblock.

So, let’s see… I am worthy of disrespect and contempt because I’m old. That’s the Loving Left for you. My ideas are invalid because I’m old.

And yet I’m able to feel some compassion for this clown.

You poor sap. Because I am old, I have seen better things than you will ever see, and known better people than you will ever know. Because I’ve had more time than you, and used it as wisely as I can, I have accumulated much more knowledge than you will ever have. Because I read, I have access to times before my own.

That’s how I know that your warmed-over citizen-of-the-world, softcore Stalinist, repackaged 1930s socialism never has worked, anywhere, and never will. Because you are ignorant, you think these are all hot new ideas.

Well, OK–“gender choice” does seem to be a new idea. But because you have been maleducated in the left-wing bantustan of the university system, you just can’t recognize a truly lousy idea when you see one.

Lefties are people who never outgrow their ignorance and immaturity. That’s why their most trusty devices of argumentation are to shout and call names. Sometimes physical assault is on the menu, too, when the opportunity presents itself.

I guess the only thing you can say for so much ignorance is that the poor schlub doesn’t know he’s ignorant and doesn’t feel his lack of understanding. A few words from Harry Reid, a few minutes watching MSNBC, and he’s as right as rain.

But I am sure I would have more compassion for them if they weren’t allowed to vote.

 

‘The Right Side of History’ (Barf Alert)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Have you noticed the libs’ ‘n’ progs’ new catch phrase–that is, words introduced as a substitute for thinking?

Now, anyone who doesn’t embrace “gay” pseudomarriage and the “gender fluidity” twaddle is (drum roll)… on the wrong side of History!

Marxists have always been keen on impersonal, irresistible forces blindly propelling humanity toward, well, perfect communism, or whatever else they think ought to be the goal. This used to be called “the dialectic,” but that term never appealed to anyone but nerdy pinheads who called themselves citizens of the world.

So now, see, The Right Side of History is men marrying men and women getting their boobs cut off and getting shot full of hormones so they can grow bad-looking beards and say they’re men. That is The Right Side of History, say lefty dingbats, and there’s just no point in trying to resist it.

Other things that are on The Right Side of History are Man-Made Global Warming, Redistribution of Wealth (coercively, by the government, of course), and Bringing Back Communism because it’s really the only form of government that can push us over into the earthly paradise.

Why do I use capital letters for this bilge?

Because the ninnies speak so portentously when they use these terms, you’d almost think they expected us to believe in them.

The Persistent Squirrel

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Hi, Mr. Nature here again.

Have you ever wondered how squirrels can know how to build their nests, way up there in the treetops? I mean, I doubt the mother squirrel actually teaches them.

Well, today I found out.

I saw a young squirrel climbing up a maple tree with a twig in her mouth. What was she up to? She was building a nest in a crotch formed by three main branches–nice location, plenty of support.

A moment later, the whole kit and kaboodle fell apart and a mass of little twigs and leaves rained down to the ground. And as I write this, the squirrel is collecting more twigs and preparing to start over.

So that’s how they learn to build nests–by trial and error (in this case, rather a large error). As the saying goes, experience is a good school, but the tuition is high. Still, there she is, trying again. A human being would have just sat down and cried. But the squirrel only goes back to work, and she’ll keep at it until she gets it right.

And the next time she has to build a nest, she’ll do a better job.

The lesson to be learned is too obvious to need to be said.

A Game of Drones

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

We have to go see my sister today–two to three hours on the Road of Doom, the Garden State Parkway–so I don’t have time to be terribly creative. Instead, let me pass you on to the wags at Honest Trailers, who have whipped up for us their take on “A Game of Thrones” (see http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/videos/game-of-thrones-honest-trailer/ ). A new season of “Game of Thrones” is starting up on television, so here are some laughs at the show’s expense.

Let’s see… What is “Game of Thrones” about? Uh, the bad guys always win. That doesn’t really matter because nobody is really all that good, anyhow. Everyone who is able to do anything does evil.

Oh, and lots of bare-breasted women. They could have called this something that rhymes with “Your Hit Parade.”

This is supposed to be a fantasy, but it sounds more like a day’s sample of The Drudge Report. Why would anyone want to invent a world as lousy and befuddled as ours has been lately? They call it “dark fantasy.” I call it news.

Oh, well, the Honest Trailer is funny. A lot funnier than being tailgated on the Parkway, at least.

I’ll let you know if we come back in one piece.

A Unique Storyteller Who Deserves to be Remembered

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

As promised, here I am today, writing about L.P. Davies, one of the all-time cool writers. My wife and I discovered his books in our local library back in the 1970s, when he was still writing them, and became instant fans.

But you know how libraries are. Ours stopped buying L.P. Davies’ books, and then the ones it had started disappearing from the shelves, one by one. Our library has no books by L.P. Davies anymore. I suspect this has happened elsewhere. If not for the Internet, by now there might be no sign that this writer had ever existed.

What was so cool about him? Well, his stories are impossible to pigeonhole. He freely mixed science fiction, supernatural horror, and psychology to come up with plots and situations like no one else’s. His stock in trade included contagious dreams, amnesia, telepathy, persons on different planets sharing the same identity–very far-out stuff. And he could make it work because he was a skilled storyteller, able to create believable and interesting characters, lively dialogue, and realistic settings.

Thanks to online resources like amazon.com and Alibris, it has become possible to get L.P. Davies’ books at reasonable prices. We’ve just acquired The Lampton Dreamers. Other titles I’d like to get include Psychogeist, Give Me Back Myself, and What Did I Do Tomorrow?

Finding out about Davies himself is a bit trickier. Some of the information given on his books’ dust jackets wasn’t true. One researcher was unable to find out whether Davies had actually died on any of the dates given by various sources, or was still alive. The story of his search for “the real L.P. Davies”–in the end he had to hire a private detective–is told in “L.P. Davies: International Man of Mystery, Author and… Gift Shop Owner” (http://www.trashface.com/lpdavies.html ). This short piece makes for fascinating reading, and I heartily recommend it.

Why all the confusion? Why are we sometimes reduced to trying to deduce things about this man by studying his picture on the dust jacket?

I have a very strong suspicion that L.P. Davies was having a bit of fun with us!

 

An Apology to My Readers

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

You know what? I would really, truly like to post brief essays about my favorite writers and their books, classic TV shows, movies, nostalgia, animals, toys… and I never seem to get around to it.

Every time I sit down to write about L.P. Davies–a very cool writer who some of you have never heard of–the news comes thundering down on me and I just have to pass it on to you. I can’t help it if the news is always bad. There are a lot of people out there trying to wipe out what’s left of our freedom, and I think they should be stopped.

Tomorrow, it’s Saturday, maybe tomorrow I can write about L.P. Davies.

I promise to try.

Parliament Seeks to Ban an Opinion

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

In the land where the Magna Carta was signed, and modern notions of liberty were born, there is a movement in the House of Commons to ban an opinion and to prevent the public from hearing it.

What opinion is that? Britain should have sharia law? The Queen is a space alien?

Nope: various members of the house want to silence other members who are guilty of the crime of “Climate Change skepticism.” Furthermore, these members want to order the BBC not to interview skeptics, or report their public comments, without first getting a special clearance from the government ( http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/environment/article4051905.ece ).

Liberty, the gift of God, established in England and America at such great cost in blood–our ruling classes and their nooze media lackeys are throwing it away with both hands. How many years do we have left, before they abolish it altogether?

Father in Heaven, deliver us out of the hands of these wicked and ungodly persons, for your own name’s sake. Amen.

 

Your FBI Is On The Job

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

All right, you British readers–stop snickering at the headline.

It’s true, though: the FBI is on the job. Just a few days ago they swooped down on a 91-year-old enemy of the people and seized the contents of his home museum, collected during a lifetime of world travel (see http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/03/fbi-seizes-thousands-artifacts-at-indiana-property/?cn.pid=cmty_twitter_fn ).

Thousands of souvenirs from out-of-the-way places like Haiti, Australia, New Guinea, and Peru have been grabbed by the FBI. The FBI says, “The cultural value of these artifacts is immeasurable.”

The FBI admits the man acquired these objects legally. Well, at least without breaking any laws that were in force at the time.

Wait a minute. The guy committed no crime. He wasn’t hiding stolen goods. He was displaying these mementos in a museum. And the FBI sends armed men to his home, to grab all his stuff?

They say they’re going to give the artifacts back to their rightful owners. But wasn’t this old man in Indiana the rightful owner?

This current administration, including the Justice Dept. headed by Eric Holder, will go down in history as a byword for lawlessness, corruption, arrogance, incompetence, and sheer fecklessness.

The FBI is supposed to protect us from gangsters, not from old men with souvenir collections.

But when you have a government that’s run by gangsters, it does things that are not quite what you’d expect.

To Believe or Not to Believe

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Everyone has to believe in something. But are people altogether sure  what they believe in?

The Bible tells us, “The earth is the Lord’s” (Ps. 24:1). Naturally, a pagan won’t believe this. A pagan creates something with his own hands and then worships it. In ancient times, this might be an idol carved from a block of wood. Modern pagans have more sophisticated creations, namely Science and the State, to worship.

The pagan story we hear today is that human activity is going to destroy the planet by causing Global Warming, unless other human activity–coercive action by the State, acting upon the advice of Science–saves it. This is their religious creed.

Why do so many people believe it, who call themselves Christians? If the earth really is the Lord’s, then it’s His property and we are only living on it, by His grace. It is impious to believe the pagan story.

Do they think God will just sit there, chewing on His fingernails, impotently fretting while the creature, man, destroys His creation? “Oh, ooh, what can I do? I’m sorry, Son, but you went through all that trouble of the Cross for nothing! They’re destroying the planet and there’s nothing you nor I can do about it. Oh, I hate it when that happens!”

God’s Word says that only God can destroy the world, or save it. God will do the things He has promised to do. If it becomes necessary for Him to intervene in history, He will.

Or don’t we, in our comfortable suburban churches, believe that?

Our attitude is more, “Oh, I believe in God, all right, and Jesus Christ; but when the chips are down, give me worldly wisdom every time.”

Do we worship God, who created us; or Science and the State, which men created?

Warning from the Bible, from I Corinthians 1:18-19,

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.