Books I’ve Read 2020

I haven’t posted on my blog for a year and a half. I log in periodically to install updates, but I guess I haven’t had much to say. 2020 was a good and busy year. I completed my Master’s degree, my children live with me now, and we had to sell our little old house and buy a larger new one. We also had to upgrade one of our vehicles. My children are very active in the youth program at our church, and one started his first job (McDonald’s, where I started about 30 years ago.) This requires me to do a LOT of driving.

I used to write a lot of book reviews. Starting around 2008, I began tracking how much I read every year. My best year was over 70 books. My worst year was 22. For 2020, I read 35 books. Since I keep them in a table in Microsoft OneNote, I’ll just paste the table here, then going forward I’ll resume writing reviews for books and posting them. I’m going to adopt the star system Robert David Steele uses for his book reviews. I copied directly from his blog and left his links in place if you want to check out his book reviews. Steele also uses a 7th star for “Cosmic, life altering” books, which I included in my ratings.

Of course, rating books is relative. I might read my first book in a subject and give it 5 or 7 stars, but after reading more on the subject, I may come back and downgrade the first book when I understand it in context.

6 Star (top ten percent across 2000+ books)
5 Star (totally satisfactory recommended without reservation)
4 Star (important contribution with some flaws)
3 Star (fragmentary contributions in a poor contextual work)
2 Star (a fractional contribution in annoyingly flawed context)
1 Star (toxic ignorance)

It turns out my table doesn’t convert to the Internet very easily. This is the best I can do. I’ll go back to writing regular reviews of some books so I don’t have to do this again. I had to set fixed width to get my Notes column to show completely, so it is a long, narrow column.

For 2021, I’m planning to add some structure to my reading. I normally stumble across a book, or I choose from my vast backlog something I feel like reading at that moment. I’m planning a goal of 10-15 books that I will read, which should give me 20 or more open slots that I can get to spontaneously. I’m picking 10 books from Steele’s recommendations, and another 3 for professional development. I especially want to get my mind around a subject Steele talks about “True Cost Economics”.

Last note regarding my “Catholic Project” mentioned in several of my notes. During the summer of 2019, I woke up one day with a strange urge. For some reason, I had a burning urge to reinvestigate Catholicism by listening to what Catholics have to say about it. I listened to some of their podcasts and read several books; mostly from Catholic Answers apologists. It was an interesting project. I discovered some of what we are told about Catholics are lies that have been repeated for hundreds of years. Then there are a lot of misconceptions. I underwent a similar “Freemason Project” in 2016.

NumberAuthorTitleDateNotes
1 Ghost Fleet3 FebRecommended by a Marine Col at an event I went to. I do not concur with his recommendation. Red Storm Rising was better. 3 Stars for a decent story in the context of a war with China with 2015 technology and a flawed (well, “Official Narrative”) understanding of geopolitics. I liked the privateer though. Very busy story with a LOT of threads to keep track of. It both jumped around too fast and not fast enough depending on the story.
2Trent HornCounterfeit Christs1 Mar4 stars. Read as part of my Catholic project. Easy read, not very memorable.
3Tim StaplesBehold Your Mother6 Mar5 Stars. Part of my Catholic project; really did help me understand the Catholic perspective on Mary. Very comprehensive; covers topics like “the new Arc of the Covenant”, which I’d never heard before.
4Michael S. TyrrellThe Sound of Healing18 Apr5 stars. Bought with Wholetones. Comprehensive understanding of music and frequencies. Not the world’s best written book, but very good in its niche. The “Key of David” is tuning A to 444hz.
5Jimmy AkinThe Fathers Know Best Part 130 MayFree from Catholic Answers
6Fr. Hugh BarbourPrayer 20 Answers2 JuneFree from Catholic Answers
7Roger StoneJeb! And The Bush Crime Family13 June5 Stars. Contains a LOT of information about the family going back to Samuel, the CIA, drugs, the Franklin Scandal, etc.
8Roger Stone Robert MorrowThe Clintons’ War on Women17 June5 Stars. Overlaps with Jeb! And The Bush Crime Family a little bit.
9Tony DungyUncommon17 June4 stars. Read as part of men’s group. Good read on being an “uncommon” man i.e. living Christian virtues in a non-Christian world. Heavy football focus written by a retired coach.
10Dr. Edward SriPraying the Rosary Like Never Before17 June4 stars. Part of my Catholic project. Good information. I got bogged down and came back to the book several months later.
11Gary MichutaWhy Catholic Bibles Are Bigger20 June5 stars. Comprehensive coverage of the history and issues surrounding the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books. Part of my Catholic project. I told a Catholic friend about it, and summarized it as “Catholics give you more Bible for your money”. She said she was going to use that.
12Dr. William DavisUndoctored25 June5 stars. Lots of rehash from Wheat Belly, but the program is good (if I could only get my wife on board…)
13David WilcockThe Synchronicity Key26 JuneI’ll give Wilcock 5 stars for this. I bought the book because he said it explained “The Hero’s Journey”. He covers lots of other topics, such as reincarnation, which I’m trying to give a fair hearing to. Also gave some of his own story, at least, how he ended up in California.   One comment about Wilcock is that he needs to respect his own ignorance of the Bible. I think he said in 2019, he read the Gospels for the first time. Yet throughout his career, he’s thrown out Bible verses badly misinterpreted. He needs to respect where his knowledge lies and be honest in areas where he’s ignorant, such as the Bible and Christianity. He pontificates here as if he’s studied it as well as the “Law of One” or the alternative science he writes about, and he does not know what he’s talking about. And if he’s going to claim Jesus taught reincarnation, he needs better references. He claims  one of the Church Fathers taught it (I think he says Origen), but I’m willing to bet he’s as ignorant of them as he is of the Bible itself. He also claims Constantine held the counsel of Nicaea to lock up Christian teachings and create the Catholic church as a system of religious control, but gives no reference. I think he’s just passing on bullshit he read somewhere that he takes as true, but he is out of his area of expertise here. I’m not saying it couldn’t have happened, but it should be documented somewhere if it did.
14Christopher HitchensThe Missionary Position27 June5 stars. Acerbic wit, and a contrary position on “St. Theresa”, who had shitloads of money but operated her orphanages in poverty. She also associated with a LOT of unsavory people, including Robert Maxwell. Also took a lot of money from those people. She is NOT the saint everybody thinks she was. I also suspect she was involved in human trafficking, but can’t back that up yet. But she was in the perfect position and had contacts who were.
15Devin RoseThe Protestant’s Dilemma29 June5 stars. Part of my Catholic project.
16Michael MaliceDear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il4 July5 stars. Very amusing and fascinating look into Kim Jong Il’s life. It actually humanized him.
17Brian GodawaEnoch Primordial18 Jul4 stars. Great fictional account of Enoch’s times. Gets a little repetitive from his Noah book though.
18Philip Delves BroughtonAhead of the Curve23 Jul5 stars. A journalist attends HBS
19Peter TheilZero to One2 Aug4 stars. Bought it years ago through a recommendation. It gives a little insight into Theil’s career and a few things you can do and should consider in yours.
20Fr. Gabriel AmorthMemoirs of an Exorcist4 Aug4 stars. English translation of the Italian transcripts of an interview with the Vatican’s late Chief Exorcist. Good understanding of Exorcism in Catholicism.
21Mark DiceThe True Story of Fake News9 Aug5 stars. Solid research by Mark Dice, as always. His recent books overlap somewhat, but so does the Fake News and Tech Tyranny, which Robert David Steele calls #GoogleGestapo
22Mark DiceThe Liberal Media Industrial Complex15 Aug5 stars. Solid research by Mark Dice, as always. His recent books overlap somewhat, but so does the Fake News and Tech Tyranny, which Robert David Steele calls #GoogleGestapo
23Mark DiceBilderberg: Facts and Fiction16 Aug4 stars. Great work as Mark always does, but I don’t actually remember reading it. I was trying to plan out reading for 2021, saw this, thought “I’ve had that for years; I better read it”, then found it on my record of books I’ve read. This was during one of my spurts where I read several books in a short time frame before going a month or more between finishing a book.
24Brian NeimierDon’t Give Money to People Who Hate You20 Aug5 stars. Short read. Summarizes the “Death Cult” and the “witches”, who they are, and how and why you should avoid them and their products. How to support independent creators who don’t want to destroy you.
25Dr. Steve TurkeyThe Return of Christendom22Aug4 stars; short read. Summarizes how Christendom is coming back worldwide.
26Robert KaplanAsia’s Cauldron20 Sep2 stars. I bought it several years ago when I trusted Stratfor and finally got around to reading it this year. It is a decent high-level overview of the players, issues, and histories of Asian countries. I’ll recommend a better work when I come across one.
27H.A. IronsideThe Four Hundred Silent Years26 Sep4 stars. Somewhat dry, but an attempt at a history of what happened during the so called 400 “silent years”, which Catholics don’t consider silent (see “Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger”). Having read that book first, I found this author’s discussion of the deuterocanonical/apocryphal books to be argumentative and somewhat uninformed.
28Randolph Richards Brandon O’BrienMisreading Scripture With Western Eyes9 Oct7 stars. Should be required reading for all Christians. Both authors have lived and been missionaries overseas. We tend to interpret the Bible through 21st century American eyes, and that is not how it was written or understood throughout history. The authors discuss this, discuss how the cultures they’ve lived in see things, discuss how the ancient Israelites saw things, and explain several passages and the differences between the ancient culture and how our culture sees them.
29Anonymous ConservativeThe Complete QAnon25 Oct5 stars. AC covers the mysterious backchannel Military Intelligence source “Q” from his own unique perspective. He starts with his story; how after he published his first book, two neighbors moved out and an entire surveillance network moved in. He explains what he’s seen of this surveillance network and how it operates.   At the end of the book, AC covers Q’s first 400 posts and exposits on them from his unique viewpoint.   AC himself is about as mysterious as Q. I’ve read everything he’s written since about 2013, and all I really know about him is I *think* he has a daughter named Amy, he loves guns, he’s a patriot, he’s trained in martial arts, and he lives within a two hour drive of Baltimore. And I think he accidentally dropped that point. I used to think he lived in the mid-west but I had nothing to base that on. He also was apparently some kind of scientist. I don’t even know how old he is. Sometimes I think he’s the same age I am; sometimes I think he’s in his 60’s.
30Dr. Michael HeiserThe Unseen Realm20 Nov7 stars. The definitive work on the subject; best I’ve ever read. Dr. Heiser covers the supernatural understanding of the Bible we should all have, including God’s Divine Council, who all these other “gods” mentioned were, the Nephilim, angels, demons, and so on. I don’t read many books that are life and worldview altering, but this is one.
31Joachim HagopianDon’t Let The Bastards Getcha Down3 Dechttp://www.redredsea.net/westpointhagopian/index.html Author successfully sued West Point and forced them to abide by Due Process. 5 stars. Free online at the link above. West Point may have once been a great institution, but now it turns out lying, treasonous scumbag Generals who lose wars. It keeps cadets busy on mickey mouse bullshit that has never been proven to produce good officers or leaders. It covers up scandals, such as the West Point childcare pedo scandal in the 1980’s (See Satanism & Pedophilia Book 4), which will be on my 2021 books.)   For more on West Point, look up John T Reed, another West Point grad with a lot to say on the subject.
32Joachim HagopianBook 1: A Quarter Million Millenia of Human Enslavement, Child Rape and Blood Sacrifice from Antiquity to the Modern Catholic Church6 DecBook 1 of 5 (four more coming) https://pedoempire.org/contents/ 7 stars. While this should be common knowledge, it is VERY dark material and not for the faint of heart. But if you don’t already know the world is run from the shadows by Satanic pedohiles who drink adrenochrome, you’re better off staying away. I can’t really send you to a 101 level material for this subject. Maybe there should be one. Look for “Fall of the Cabal” on YouTube. But this book series is an exhaustive documentation of people and organizations behind it all, and their methods of operation including blackmail, assassination, brainwashing, gaslighting, and so on. The series traces this network up to the UK as the center with Lord Rothschild as the head. I don’t know if there is anybody above Rothschild. This author did not document, but I suspect there are people or forces above him. The author was a therapist who has worked with children affected by pedophiles and has expertise in the subject.   Book 1 introduces the subject, gives some background (Annunaki) and covers high level organizations. Book 2 covers the Royal Family and Jimmy Savile, also the BBC, Parliament, and so on. Book 3 covers Rothschilds and more pedo scandals from around the UK. Book 4 comes back to the US. Book 5 will be about Australia and the rest of the world. All books are available from Amazon or can be read free at the link above, which is how I read them. Book 4 should be out this month (physical) and Book 5 in March.
I am currently reading book 4.
33Joachim HagopianBook 2 The United Kingdom – The World’s Pedophilia Epicenter22 DecBook 2 of 5 (planned)
34Joachim HagopianBook 3:The Rothschild Illuminati Bloodline and Ties to More British Scandals29 DecBook 3 of 5 (planned
35Robert David Steele Dr. Cynthia McKinney#Unrig Election Reform Act30 Dechttps://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-UNRIG-Guide-1.2.pdf 5 stars. More of a white paper than a book, but is a comprehensive reform badly needed in US laws. We need to destroy the bifactional ruling party tyranny. I disagree with the section on unions because I view them as corrupt as any other method of Cabal’s control over us. Nice theory; terrible implementation. Hitler had a proposal in Mein Kampf for state unions that in theory were supposed to bring businesses and employees together as citizens. I like that particular idea better than I do the Teamsters and the rest of the system we have.

Debt Forgiveness?

Every now and again, something bubbles up in the Zeitgeist that can cause us to wonder why we never saw it before. All the talk about writing off student loan debt has some of us pissed off, although as long as the banks, not the taxpayers absorb it, I’m fine with the concept. Screw the banks as they have been screwing us.

The Bible calls for the forgiveness of debts periodically, and it’s even in the Lord’s Prayer (non Catholic version) “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”. I knew about it in the Bible, which I’ve read several times, but I gloss over it. I’ve never lived in a society that forgives debts, and I’d rather focus on the fun stuff like stoning adulterers and other sexual deviants.

I heard about this book yesterday while I was listening to one of Vox Day’s Darkstreams. Once I finish the book I’m reading on J Edgar Hoover, I’ll probably read this one. It’s available on Kindle Unlimited.

https://amzn.to/2J9DQt8

Survival and Prepping – Threat Analysis

Though I’ve followed these subjects from a distance for several years, it’s only been recent that I started taking them seriously. One catalyst is my wife somehow got into prepping. She started out watching shopping videos on YouTube and somehow ended up watching preppers. She got me Michael Snyder’s “Get Prepared Now!” for Christmas. She’s also been buying as much dollar store paracord as she can find (although I keep telling her to get the 550 or MILSPEC.)

With my wife’s sudden interest in the subject, I started digging back into it. I even started watching the show “Doomsday Preppers” on Hulu. Some of those people have some off-the-wall fears and plans, but some of them are really smart.

I figured before I come up with a strategy, I should probably know what kind of threats I’m likely to face. There is no sense in prepping for a “zombie apocalypse” that is never likely to happen, although who doesn’t need an excuse to stock up on shotguns? But if you’re going to prep, you should probably give some thought to what you’re up against realistically.

On episode of Doomsday Preppers had me shaking my head and muttering. One guy was prepping for a supposed cyber attack that would entirely take down America. I obviously know more about cybersecurity than he does, and I kept muttering “That’s not how a cyber attack works.” The other guy was prepping for a “Red Dawn” style Russian invasion and somehow he and his two buddies were going to sneak behind enemy lines and stop it.

Some of these preppers live in a cabin on a mountain 2 hours from the nearest (small) town, and are prepping for terrorism and dirty bombs. I’m not sure they understand how terrorism works, but small towns are unlikely targets.

I have some experience in Risk Management, so I applied it to likely threats I could face in my area and the possible responses. This was a brainstorming exercise I did over the course of an afternoon, and very informal. I created a table in OneNote. I was unable to import my table to WordPress with any kind of formatting that made it readable, so I screen-shotted it. Again, this was very informal and while I did anonymize it somewhat, I figured cleaning it up and removing the profanity was probably too much work for a blog I haven’t posted to in over 6 months and probably don’t have readers for.

Green is obviously good. Red is severe. Black is off the charts, yet highly unlikely.

All of these are for my area. I judged the severity of a hurricane as yellow. While hurricanes are serious threats, by the time they get to me they’re just bad tropical storms. I got hit by two of them last year. I had to drive home from work in what was left of Florence. I also forgot to add under tsunami that I’m far enough inland that I don’t think it would affect me.

Now in the event I had to leave, the traffic in my area could be at a standstill for days with everybody else evacuating, so my most likely scenario is to shelter in place.

Having done that analysis, I can conduct some realistic preparations for the more likely scenarios, which are weather related. If I had to bug out, about the only way I could expect to pull it off is to be the first one to know so I can get on the road and out of the area.

How To Evaluate An Alex Jones Claim

I’ve followed Alex Jones for a looooong time. I first heard of him around 2002, and have followed him off and on since then. I listened to his podcast daily from about 2008-2012. I only quit because his radio show is a poor format for a podcast. He spends too damned much time going to break and coming back, then repeating information. Plus, on the podcast, when he goes to a commercial break every 20 seconds, I had to keep fast forwarding. I got sick of this after 4 years and unsubscribed. I still subscribe to his YouTube channel, where I can watch his videos and adjust the speed to 2x. I’ve listened to Alex Jones at 2x for so long, he doesn’t sound right at normal speed.

The way to judge whether Alex Jones is speaking from evidence or out of his ass is whether he can support it or not.

Alex Jones has some subjects where he had a stack of documents. Usually, these are from “mainstream news”. He has a document camera and can speak to his subject and support it from “mainstream” news articles. Normally, when he does this, you can trust him and take him seriously.

But there are some topics in which Alex yells and freaks out and screams “We have the government documents!”, but never puts one of those government documents under the document camera, nor does he give you a reference for which government document he is referring to so you can look it up for yourself. When he does this, you can safely assume he’s talking out of his ass and ignore him.

There is a certain theological issue in which I disagree with Alex Jones. I won’t go into it here because I consider it minor, but there is some disagreement among Christians about it. He claims it’s a conspiracy, and that he has shitloads of “government documents” to support his claim. But in the last 16 years I’ve followed him off and on, he has yet to give me a name of a single “government document” that I can look up for myself to verify his claim. In that case, I assume he’s talking out of his ass and ignore him.

Like him or not, Alex Jones is here to stay. He’s a man, and just as fallible as any other man.

Book Review: God Hates Me by Richard Cain

You can buy God Hates Me here.

This is a very unique and interesting book. The basis of the story is this: a demon has a story he wants to tell. He begins by possessing a teenager and speaking to the youth pastor. 4 chapters later, he is cast out by the pastor and goes off in search of others to tell his story to until he finishes. Most chapters are with one person, although I think he gets another two chapters out of one more person. Some of these are hilarious in their own right. In one case, he crashes a sleepover of girls playing with an Ouija board.

The demon’s name is Malach. He doesn’t consider himself evil. Sure, he was part of the rebellion, but he was there because of some really cool music the “Choir Director” was playing. He tries not to be too evil, although he keeps getting roped in. But he wants to get back into Heaven, so he keeps looking for ways to get their attention by doing good. But, he keeps messing things up.

The author limits Malach’s attendance at Biblical events. I figure it would have been too self-serving to have him there at the crucifixion. Malach keeps himself busy with plant taxonomy and loves Florida for some reason. When he’s not cataloging plants, he gets involved with pixies (it ends badly), and tries to raise a little boy as his “guardian angel”. That ends badly too.

The author’s imagination is good. The demon explains what the world was like pre-fall (Noah laser-leveled the deck of the ark), the Nephilim, and the change in strategy after the flood. While I would never base theology on this book, it is a work of fiction and should be enjoyed as such.

I’m not sure what the deal with the cover is. The first time I saw it, I thought it was the story of a boxer or MMA fighter or something.

OK, I won’t give spoilers. I don’t know if this is the author’s intent or just my own mind. While Malach’s story appears to have a happy ending, demons lie. It’s a great and entertaining read.

ROK on Government Plot to Fake An Alien Invasion

Return of Kings posted an article about the government and aliens.

Most people will dismiss it as BS. But it’s nothing new. Both Ronald Reagan and Paul Krugman have been on record saying an alien invasion (real or faked) would be a great way to “unite the planet.” I’m sure others have too.

I’m pretty sure, if such a thing ever happened, it would be a fake. Though I grew up on science fiction, my own position on extraterrestrial life is “I’ll believe it when I see it.” Or at least, some plausible evidence of it.

But this is nothing new. I remember a conversation with my dad around 1996 when “Independence Day” came out. He seemed to think the reason why there were so many movies and TV shows about aliens was that the government is softening us up for the possibility. And I’ve gone MUCH deeper down the “conspiracy” rabbit hole than my dad ever would.

I Have Found No Use For Home AIs

I ran out to Best Buy yesterday to buy a TV for my office (I’m not a knuckle-dragging primate and therefore do not have a “man cave”.) While I was there, I looked around. I wandered by the AI section and played around with them. I even tried to rationalize buying one. I gave myself permission to do it. And I couldn’t. I walked away, grabbed the 32″ Roku TV I came for, paid, and left.

There are numerous problems with these AIs. For one, the “wiretap” implication:

That isn’t too big a problem. All of our devices are wiretaps, so that isn’t my objection. None of the use cases appeal to me. I watched the Alexa video at the display, and almost dislocated my shoulder from the jerking off motion I wanted to make. There’s some idiot at the top of the stairs about to slide down the stairs onto some pillows and the child actors playing his children. He says “Alexa, play punk music!”

I don’t listen to punk. I can’t stand it. Never could. I also don’t trust Alexa to find songs for my musical tastes, and I use Amazon Music Unlimited.

Then some woman asks it to change the temperature. OK, somewhat useful.

Google Home won’t work with my smart thermostat. Alexa has a skill for it, but I can change it from my phone anyway.

Of course, Alexa is programmed to repeat SJW talking points. I have no use for SJW talking points. And of course, your flash news briefing only comes from left-wing “fake news”. You can’t program it for custom sources, like InfoWars.

Then of course, as a tech enthusiast, I don’t see the point to a fixed location. I carry a phone with me all the time. What if I’m driving home, and want to have Alexa add something to my shopping list? I have to wait until I get home. (I don’t think there’s an Alexa app for Android, and I don’t care enough to look it up.) I have Alexa on my Kindle Fire, and I never use it (Alexa, not the Fire.)

So, even though I gave myself all the leeway possible, I don’t see myself owning one of these wiretaps anytime soon.

I would totally buy this thing if it existed:

Book Review: The Heretics of St. Possenti by Rolf Nelson

About 3 or 4 years ago, Rolf Nelson published “The Stars Came Back.” It was originally written like a screenplay. He has since published half of it as a novel. I believe it’s called “Back From The Dead.” In TCSB, Rolf included as part of the background of the smartship AI a group of warrior monks.

The Heretics of St. Possenti is about how the order got started.

The book starts with a Catholic bishop being robbed. He goes to jail, where he is subjected to mocking for how useless the church is in the lives of the imprisoned men. This sends him on an exploration to find answers for how the church can attract younger men and meet their needs. This lays the groundwork for starting a new kind of monastic order, beginning with troubled and forgotten veterans.

All in all, it’s a really good story. And I want to state right up front, this is a positive review from one of Nelson’s fans. I highly recommend the book.

Thinking over this book, one thought I had was “Atlas Shrugged for the alt-right.” By that, I mean similar to Ayn Rand, Nelson writes his characters with pretty much the same voice and uses dialog to lay out his philosophy. I also agree pretty much entirely with his philosophy. As a Castalia House author, I’m sure Nelson reads books by other Castalia House authors, and I saw quite a few of them in Heretics. He touches on “Cuckservative” by Vox Day and John Red Eagle, 4th Generation Warfare Handbook by William S. Lind, and of course, Vox Day’s 2 SJWs Always… books.

In fact, if you’re not a big reader, but you want to get a good overview of CH, reading Heretics is an efficient way to do it. It touches on enough to help you follow along with the discussion.

I don’t think Nelson is Catholic, but where else would a monastic order come from? Nelson apparently spent a lot of time researching Catholicism and monastic orders, and I believe did a great job of putting together a story based around the necessary technical, logistical, and doctrinal details that would be necessary for a new order to come into existence and thrive. He did such a great job, I’d convert to Catholicism if this order existed to join it. And I don’t state this lightly. And Nelson rendered the story in a way that is palatable to evangelical Christians, and possibly even non-believers who are friendly to Christianity but not considering participating.

Nelson addresses many issues in the church (which includes all denominations.) Churches are generally not friendly to men. I’ve commented several times on the contrast between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. On Mother’s Day, the sermon is invariably about Mary or Hannah, and full of praise for the heroic, hard-working moms. On Father’s Day, the best you can hope for in the average church is the pastor will forget it. Otherwise, you’ll have a sermon about how you’re not doing enough, and screwing up. The pastor never stops to think that it’s the men who work hard to provide for their families and attend church who are sitting in the pews, getting bitched out in front of their wives and children. I started skipping church on Father’s Day because of this.

Many churches have bought into the secular world. Rather than preaching Christian virtue, they preach virtue signaling. Many families now forgo protecting their children and invite strangers into their homes, putting their own children at risk of rape and attack. How is this sane? There are also classic mistranslations of the Bible that have become mainstream doctrine, such as “turn the other cheek” is taken to mean “roll over and play dead for those who seek to victimize you and your family.” And don’t even get me started on how forgiveness is abused in Christian doctrine…

This was a good book. Someday, Nelson will grow into a great writer, able to create different characters who face difficult challenges. I look forward to more from him. Like, how did the St. Possenti order grow through hundreds of years to become involved with a smartship AI?

Supersize Me Was Vegan Propaganda

Remember Morgan Spurlock’s “Supersize Me”? Turns out it was crap. His technical advisor was a lawyer suing McDonald’s.

Tom Naughton produced a rebuttal to Supersize Me called Fat Head. He analyzes Spurlock’s math, which doesn’t add up. He does his own month-long fast food diet, although using his own rules; not Spurlock’s.

He also looks at some of the “science” involved and comes to the same conclusion I did: “fat makes you fat” is the greatest scientific fraud ever perpetrated upon mankind.

Jay Dyer on The Shining

People have written and recorded a lot of information about Stephen King’s book “The Shining”, and Stanley Kubrick’s movie of the same title.

The first time I saw the movie “The Shining” was around 1992 or 1993. I was in my “A” school, or my first Navy technical school as a Fire Controlman at Great Lakes Naval Training Center north of Chicago. I visited a friend’s barracks room and he was watching the movie. I stayed for it. Talk about a mind fuck. I thanked him for wrecking my sleep for the next few weeks, but I watched the entire thing.

On my first ship, the U.S.S. White Plains (AFS-4) in Guam, I bought the book and read it. I can remember walking around the ship at night, especially outside in the dark. I’d turn a corner and my mind would tell me, “What if there is something there?” I credit that to the book.

While I was on that ship, I learned it had some ghost stories associated with it. The ship was commissioned in the 1960’s, and since it had a refrigerator hold, often functioned to carry bodies from Vietnam to the Philippines, where the bodies were flown out of Clark AFB back to the states. Apparently, people saw ghosts of those soldiers. I never saw one but heard enough stories from people who claimed to have seen them for me to believe somebody had. There was apparently a ghost of a little Vietnamese girl carrying a doll who liked to hang out with the aft lookout at night.

The ship also had a mainspace fire in 1989 that is well known, and ghosts of the 6 who died in that fire would show up.

In any case, Stanley Kubrick got ahold of “The Shining” and made the movie in his own image. I saw a documentary several years ago. I think it was called “Room 237”. Some people claim “The Shining” was Kubrick’s testimony of “faking the moon landings”.  The documentary included several “conspiracy theories”, including Indian burial grounds and the moon landing thing.

My position on the moon landing follows: I believe Stanley Kubrick was hired to fake the moon landing, but he was a control freak perfectionist and made them film it on location.

Jay Dyer has a short, free video about “The Shining”. I haven’t bought his book yet, but it’s in my plan. Very interesting stuff.

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