Boy, there’s nothing that gut-shoots a novel like bad dialogue! I am sorry to say you find more of it in fantasy than in any other genre. For every “What’s it to ya?” tossed up by detective stories, fantasy can counter with a double dose of “I prithee, sweet prince, hast thou a big deal goin’ down?”
‘We Gather Together’
We used to sing this, and other hymns, in school–in our neighborhood public school. We Gather Together was always sung to celebrate Thanksgiving. It made for a better world. Humbly seeking God and giving thanks to Him always makes a better world. It’s when we seek after man that things start to fall apart.
But God is nigh, always nigh, He does not forget His promises, He hears us when we pray–and that is ample reason to give thanks.
This Just In: Yet Another Dirty Old Man in Congress
Why is this creature extinct, but Congress isn’t?
Thirty-two years in the House, Texas’ longest-serving representative, Joe Barton is in hot water today because of a disgusting nude photo of him that has zoomed around the Internet (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-congressman-apologizes-for-circulation-of-nude-photo/). My wife says the picture literally made her sick. And for once I’m glad WordPress won’t get my news links to link to any news.
This, folks, is our ruling class. The two-legged nematodes who enact our laws (even if they don’t read them first, much less write them), spend our hard-earned money, refuse to secure our borders, tirelessly labor to enrich themselves at our expense, and demand that we obey them and defer to them because they are our betters, they’re the ones who know best, they’re the ones with the private jets and limousines so who the devil do we think we are, to question them…
All I can say is, you can’t spend seven or eight decades bombarding a country with Kinsey, Fifty Shades of Grey, Madeline Murray, abortion, the Clintons, “gay pride” parades, transgender lunacy, and all the rest of that filth and then expect it not to be governed by perverts, clowns, liars, thieves, blockheads, and loons. That’s what we’ve done and that’s what we’ve got.
May God deliver us.
Study: Teen Depression Way Up Since 2012
According to a new study published by Clinical Psychological Science–which you could read more about, if WordPress would allow my news links to link to any news–the number of American teenagers feeling “useless and joyless”–that is, depressed–increased by 33% from 2010-2015; and at the same time, teen suicides increased by 31% (http://theconversation.com/with-teen-mental-health-deteriorating-over-five-years-theres-a-likely-culprit-86996).
The author of the article I try in vain to link to believes something happened in 2012 to fuel this epidemic of teen depression. In 2012, she says, “smartphone” ownership in America passed the 50% mark–and a lot of teens were spending a lot of time online: much more than is good for them.
I’m not going to defend the smart phone. Anything carrying the label “smart” is almost certain to be bad for you. But this answer strikes me as far too simple.
The biggest thing missing in these teenagers’ lives is family. And family is even more important for young, developing children. But now both parents are chasing their careers all day, they think “quality time” is driving the kids to soccer for half an hour on the weekend, and they make up for what they know, deep down inside, to be neglect by buying their kids expensive goodies. Like smartphones.
And the kids go to public school where they learn that there is no God, their country sucks, their parents are idiots, the only sins are political sins as defined by left-wing teacher unions and the Democrat Party, abortion is a holy sacrament, Science Is Real and your life has no intrinsic meaning–and why, O 12-year-old, aren’t you having sex every chance you get? You must be a biggit!
The wonder is that they aren’t all depressed.
Keep your kids out of public school, make time to raise them yourselves, and don’t give them smartphones. And I’ll betcha anything the depression rate goes down.
‘Someone Actually Said This’ (2014)
If you still think the folks who run public education in America mean well, read on.
Really, how interested are you in raising up “the international child of the future”?
Update: My Family
So the phone rang last night–never good news, when the phone rings at night–they’re taking Aunt Joan back to the hospital, her fever has returned. It hadn’t been 24 hours, I don’t think, since they’d discharged her.
Tomorrow we hit the terrifying Garden State Parkway for Thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s house. Once upon a time Thanksgiving meant a huge family gathering. Now there are only the four of us left, Patty and me, my brother and sister. Everyone else has either died or moved too far away for any personal contact. And we have to walk on eggs tomorrow because my brother is a hair-trigger leftid and we feel sorry for him. My sister has a new job, is being worked to a frazzle, but didn’t want to skip Thanksgiving.
I find that the more I need them, the more I get out of my memories. Their flavor is stronger and richer than it once was. The more evil grows this age, the more recourse I have to prayer and to the Bible. These call forth my thankfulness. God’s Word brings forth hope. And the more we need from it, the more it has to give.
Beautiful! ‘Come, Ye Thankful People, Come’
Either I’m getting kind of soppy in my old age, or there is something special about this hymn: Come, Ye Thankful People, Come, traditionally associated with Thanksgiving but really applicable to all the year. It’s the lyrics, it’s the message, it’s the feeling. It’s the suddenly, unexpected awareness of God’s love. It’s the music, it’s the gorgeous background scenery. It’s thankfulness to the Lord Our God, who daily loadeth us with benefits. Love and be loved. It’s from God.
Versatile Pet Owls
It turns out owls can do a lot more than just sit around and look wise and criticize Freddy the Pig’s poetry. Before youtube came along, who knew owls could make such good pets?
I remember the first time I saw an owl. My friend and I were walking in the woods, I guess I was about six years old, when we disturbed the world’s most enormous owl, who flapped his wings with a sound of thunder and took off. Man! To this day I’m sure that bird was bigger than I was. One of those memories you just don’t forget, ever.
‘The Silver Trumpet’: Almost Ready
If you’re wondering where I’ve been all afternoon, I’ve been right here at this computer, doing my part of the final edit of The Silver Trumpet. Our boss, Mark Rushdoony, hopes to publish it in January.
No one has ever published an error-free book, but at Chalcedon we come about as close to it as humanly possible. This will be my third time proofreading the book, and I’m only one of several proofreaders. Actually, it’s quite shocking when I discover–after the book is published!–a typo on a page.
Susan, my editor, had a rather complicated reaction to The Temptation. She’s worried about some of the characters’ welfare. Some of them are very definitely sailing into harm’s way. I pray that in the spring I’ll be ready to start writing the next installment of the story.
But first we’ve gotta get The Silver Trumpet into print!
At least the editing job takes my mind off WordPress.
Trying to Make Sense of WordPress
(Calling the shots at WordPress’ Fortress of Ineptitude…)
At least one of our regular readers is not getting notified when a new post is published here. If you follow the blog, WordPress is supposed to do that for you. Is anybody else not getting those notifications?
And of course they now notify me when I’ve posted something, just in case I’ve done it in my sleep or something.
And of course my news links within the posts still don’t link to anything anymore. WordPress fixed that once, but in just a few days it happened again.
What are they doing? It seems like the whole business has been taken over by gremlins. I can see no rhyme or reason in it. Imagine if they were in charge of manufacturing cars. On second thought, I don’t want to imagine it.
When are they going to get their act together?