Not Legends, Facts II (Left Behind Is A Lie VI, Nine.)

Red Army General : I carried out my orders. I sent in all of my boys. But the Germans engulfed us. They have artillery, aircraft, tanks. And me, what did I have?!

Khrushchev: A sacred duty to resist! I have to report to the Boss. [puts a pistol on the table] Perhaps you'd prefer to avoid the red tape.

[Khrushchev walks out of the room to address political officers. There is a gunshot, then he begins.]

Krushchev: My name... is Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. I've come to takes things in hand here. This city... is not Kursk, nor is it Kiev, nor Minsk. This city... is Stalingrad. Stalin-grad! The city bears the name of the Boss. It's more than a city, it's a symbol. If the Germans capture this city, the entire country will collapse. Now, I want our boys to raise their heads. I want them to act like they have BALLS! I want them to stop SHITTING THEIR PANTS! [briefly pauses] That's your job. As political officers, I'm counting on you. [stops at one] You, what's your suggestion?

Officer #1: Shoot all the other generals who have retreated. And their chiefs of staff, too.

[Khruschev looks at another.]

Officer #2: [terrified, stuttering] M-make s-some examples. D-d-d-d-d-de-port the families of the d-d-deserters...

Khrushchev: [bored] Yes, yes, that's all been done.

Danilov: Give them hope!

[Kruschev walks over and looks at the officer standing in the front, who motions with his eyes toward Danilov.]

Danilov: Here the men's only choice is between German bullets and ours. But there's another way, the way of courage, the way of love of the Motherland. We must publish the army newspaper again. We must tell magnificent stories, stories that extol sacrifice, bravery. We must give them hope, pride, a desire to fight. We must make them believe in the victory. Yes, we need to make examples; but examples to follow. What we need... are heroes.

Khrushchev: [looks around, wryly] Do you know any heroes around here?

Danilov: Yes, Comrade. I know one.

~From the film Enemy At The Gates.

Last month I wrote a post entitled "Not Legends, Facts." There was a reason for that.

Last night I saw some idiot at some bullshit event trying to blame Satan for Feminism and saying the Salem Witch Trials happened because of abortion. I studied the colonial history largely in Christian schools, I've been to Salem, albeit as a bored, disinterested teenager at that time. None of this works like that.

And These Fucking People know it.

They're just trying to mythologize our history and turn it into fables and legend because they think that'll make it harder for people to argue with them.

You can argue and to a certain extent prove your point via careful study of the Bible, Christian doctrine, history and tradition, the same goes for secular politics.

You can go to a place like Salem, walk around, visit museums and shit, or if you'd rather just sit at home and read all type of history about it. The Devil didn't do it, there was all type of conflicts with Native Americans, political upheaval at the time, poverty, a whole litany of Puritan bullshit that was then ongoing both over here and in England...these are known, historically proven facts.

You cannot actually prove Athena emerging fully armed and armored from the split head of Zeus after somebody cleaved his head because he had a headache. It's not even that kind of story.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. ~2 Timothy 4:3

And that's the point. That's what These Fucking People want. It's not "What does the Bible say" it's "What did the Pastor say?" They want to make everything subjective because then the loudest or most vehement voice is more likely to win the argument.

These fucking idiots want everything, up to and including religion...to be subject to political power.

Because they think they will have it.

The Mormons got a big surprise last week when they found out that hyper-Calvinists and Evangelicals don't actually consider them Christians and the Department Of Defense changed the designation of their religion on the new list accordingly.

Oops.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

Now These Fucking People want Trump to personally fix it...when the literal point of the Constitution is he shouldn't have to!

This is exactly the kind of problem for why the Founders put the First Amendment in the Constitution and indeed put Freedom of Religion first on the list.

When religion is subject to political power, nobody's really free to believe anything at all. In the world our Founding Fathers grew up in, it was nothing for people to have to change their religion every time there was a new king, or a new foreign army conquered the region in which they lived, Europe's wars of religion, the Puritan wars in England, etc. were still in living memory.

The moral and religious framework I was taught cannot exist in such a world as that. The entire concept of Christian Salvation as most Protestant American Christian churches believe it (or at least say they do) does not function in a world where the State in any capacity can say that one religion is valid and another is not, for any purpose.

By definition, if worldly Power can determine Spiritual Truth we're all damned anyway, and nothing matters. Jesus said His kingdom is not of this world for a damn reason.

And what happens, Evangelicals, when everything goes to shit and civilization falls and all the sudden armed men show up and tell you, at gunpoint, that you have to worship Baal or some other such Demon now??

If religion is subject to Political Power and political power grows only from Force, what grounds have you to say "NO?"

The clocks stopped at one seventeen. There was a long shear of bright light, then a series of low concussions. By day the dead impaled on spikes along the road. I think it's October but I can't be sure. I haven't kept a calendar for five years. Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies. No animals have survived and all the crops are long gone. Soon all the trees in the world will fall. The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food. Within a year there was fire on the ridges and deranged chanting. There has been cannibalism. Cannibalism is the great fear. Mostly I worry about food. Always food. Food and the cold and our shoes. Sometimes I tell the boy old stories of courage and justice - difficult as they are to remember. All I know is the child is my warrant and if he is not the word of God, then God never spoke. ~The Man, from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" (Film.)

Truth is the only floor most of us will ever have to stand on to push back against power.

Faith requires belief in certain things and actions based on those beliefs to be more than just a bullshit word.

You can do legends and myths and all that in a positive fashion, to expand the mind, to make a point, to teach, that's literally what mythology is for. Jesus used Parables.

Revelation is a larger example of the same thing, an Apocalypse isn't just destruction, if there is to be destruction it's for a purpose...an Apocalypse is actually supposed to be a great revealing.

You can take a lot of things away from a man. Cigarettes, the gym. You can take his freedom, his legs, but not his feelings. Not his feelings. A man loves a woman. Don't matter what kind of man he is, if he loves her, he wants her. He wants her body. He wants her to want his. So you say to him, "you can never make love again. You will never touch her in that way again. This is the last time. The last time. Forever." If that's not cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. ~Augustus Hill, from the HBO series Oz, S1.E2 "Visits, Conjugal and otherwise."

"Conservatives" such as they are at this point want to make up myths and legends to get people to stop thinking, to obfuscate the Truth, to let them just reorder the country, the world, hell, the Universe according to whatever crap they like...but what they want is largely based on partisanship, personal preferences and politics, it's all subjective and it literally cannot and does not work for everybody...or even most people...and it's not even meant to!

If you're not one of these people, or if your beliefs or preferences were set (For example) a generation or two ago...Fuck You!

And I am one of those people, as is my partner, much less my Mom. Our beliefs predate all this current bullshit and we like it that way. None of us are gonna change at the drop of a hat because some dipshit Influencer on a stage thinks we should.

I've got people to think about, I can't sign on to this garbage even if I wanted to.

And it's getting worse.

You either believe in freedom or you don't.

You either believe our rights are God-given, or you don't.

Слава Україна!

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan

Eight

[Mon Mothma addresses the Senate chambers again]

Mon Mothma: Fellow Senators, friends, colleagues, allies, adversaries, I stand before you this morning with a heavy heart. I've spent my life in this chamber. I came here as a child, and as I look around me now, I realize I have almost no memories that predate my arrival, and few bonds of affection that cleave so tightly. Through these many years, I believe I have served my constituents honorably and upheld our code of conduct. This chamber is a cauldron of opinions, and we've certainly all had our patience and tempers tested in pursuit of our ideals. Disagree as we might, I am hopeful that those of you who know me will vouch for my credibility in the days to come.

I stand this morning with a difficult message. I believe we are in crisis. The distance between what is said and what is known to be true has become an abyss. Of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil! When truth leaves us, when we let it slip away, when it is ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable to the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudest. This Chamber's hold on the truth was finally lost on the Ghorman Plaza! What took place yesterday, what happened yesterday on Ghorman, was unprovoked genocide! Yes, genocide! And that truth has been exiled from this Chamber! And the monster screaming the loudest, the monster we helped create, the monster who will come for us all soon enough, is Emperor Palpatine!

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S2.E9 "Welcome To The Rebellion."