Movie review

While the berry pie is in the oven I think I'll share with you my opinion of Christopher Nolan's new movie, The Odyssey.

But first, a joke. Two goats were in the back lot of MGM one day, eating old cans of film. One goat says to the other, "Oh, wow! Billy, you have to try this Gone With the Wind! It's amazing!" So, Billy took an bite, chewed, swallowed, then said, "Yeah, It's okay. But the book was better."

There are a lot of interesting things about Nolan's movie. I liked how the bard reciting Homer's poem introduced the story and reappeared near the end. I didn't like Penelope's angry speech at Telemachus; totally out of character with the woman we know from the poem. And the armor the Greek soldiers were wearing was not like the armor Agamemnon's solders wore. (But if you like the Gladiator movie that won't bother you.)

The actress who played the part of a man who wasn't in Homer's poem was an interesting thing. She pretends to be a man, plays a man's role from Virgil's version of the story, and the character was duped into into tricking the Trojans. Which is, I think, a pretty good way of expositing Odysseus's cunning and trickster nature. Lies upon lies upon lies.

There were a couple very jarring references to the Bronze Age Collapse. While it is historically true that the Greeks (and they didn't call themselves Greeks, that's what the Romans would call them centuries after the events portrayed in the movie.) would forget how to read and that the Bronze Age was coming to an end, there was no way for anyone alive then to know that was going to happen. But the most bizarre thing in the movie was how the ending was changed. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it, but the most beautiful part of Homer's poem, when Odysseus and Penelope were reunited in the bed/tree and all was right in Ithaca was changed to Odysseus dealing with is regret for all the killing. In the poem Odysseus did not regret killing anyone.

I will say this good thing about the movie: It dealt with the gods in a way that was better that that Troy movie from a few years ago. Now, I had better go check on that pie.

A Few Things About Architecture And Urban Planning

I. Tolkien's buildings

II. The California bungalow

III. The Arts and Crafts movement

IV. The Sears Mail-Order House

V. The 15-Minute City

VI. Bad Urban Planning

VII. Old Byzantine Architecture

IIX. New Byzantine Architecture

IX. Zoning in America

Of Popes

The pope of Rome died. Already, people have asked me who I think the next pope of Ronme should be. I'm Orthodox so it doesn't, really, matter to me. Seriously, the last pope of Rome who was Orthodox was Damasus II (d. 1048) so, I suppose, the person who should be the next pope of Rome is the person who will bring the RC Church back into the Orthodox Church. But that isn't going to happen. The next best thing, I think, is to have a pope of Rome who can bring the RC Church closer to Orthodoxy. As far as I can tell, there are handful of RC bishops who might do that, including Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke (former archbishop of Saint Louis), Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Francis Cardinal Arinze of Nigeria, Archbishop Joseph Naumann (fomerly of Kansas City), and Peter Cardinal Erdo of Hungary. Well, I doubt the Catholics will choose any of these men.

Duets

It seems to me, and maybe, it's just because of how old I am and the music I heard growing up, but the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s were the heyday of pop music duets.

I remember hearing the song Private Dancer sometime in the 1980s. My Mom said, "That's too bad. Tina Turner was one of my favorite rock and roll singers." I think that, propably,bthis song was in her mind when she said that. 1971 -Proud Mary - Ike and Tina Turner.

I remember hearing this song on KOIT FM back in the 1970s. What I didn't know then is that the two singers, Niel Diamond and Barbara Streisand didn't record it together. In fact their two recordings of the song were made years apart. Back about 20 years ago I met a guy on Facebook who had recently converted to Holy Orthodxy and who had been a radio DJ in, I think, North Carolina. He told me about how they splice together the two recording to make their two recordings into a duet. They probably violated all kinds of copyright laws when they did it, but the duet version was a bigger hit than the two solo versions. Here are Barbara and Niel performing the song together for the first time at the 1980 Grammy Awards.

This song was a favorite of my late brother Ken's wife. Everytime it came on the radio or teevee she would say, "Oh! Kiki Dee!" 1976 - Don't go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and KiKi Dee

I was in the 4th grade when I saw the movie Greeae. At that age (9 or 10) I didn't know what the story was about. (It was only many years later when son #3 was running the lights in his high school production of the play that I finally saw and was appallled by what it was about.) But I knew from this song that if I was ever going to have a woman like Sandi I had better "shape up". You're The One That I Want- 1978 - Olivia Newton John and John Travolta.

There is a maried couple I really want to put on this list of duets but only one of them actually sang. The other was an instrumentalist. The Capatain and Tenille had some hits in the '70s but I don't think he ever sang so I can't count them as a duet. But there is another couple who were married (Until his heroin addiction wrecked that marriage. You know there is a reason why we outlaw that drug.) This song was part of Carly Simons 1974 album Hotcakes. I remember my teacher in kindergarten teaching it to me. I didn't understand it but it was fun to sing. 1974 - Mockingbird - Carly Simon and James Taylor It is one of my favorite songs. I hope you enjoy it. And, Oh My Gosh, do you see the look of love on her face when she looks at him?

I wanted to see the movie because I was 12 years old and "in love" with Brooke Shields but my parents wouldn't let me see it. Now, having read about the film, it seems to me, thaey made the right decision. 1981 Endless Love - Lionel Ritche and Diana Ross

This song was origiinally relesased by Bob Seegar as a solo, only later was it releasd as a duet with Keny Rogers and Shiela Easton, but I din't hear it until 1985 when Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton released it. 1985 - Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers - We've Got Tonightgt

Another Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton song on this list of duets is, really, a Beegees song. (in the late 70s and early 80s I was huge Beegees fan.) This song was written by the Beegees but not recorded by them. 1983 - Islands in the Stream

in 1981 my Dad was chosen to oversee the churches of his denomination in Florida. When they first moved there I stayed in California with my sister and brother-in-law. One day I was listening to the radio and heard a song by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warrens. I loved it from the moment I heard it. All these years later I still haven't seen the movie for which it was written but in the mid-1990s I met Cocker's protoge Phil Driscoll in at a night club in San Farancisco. That is wheen I learned, if I remember correctly, that many years ago they owned, or maybe they only perfornmed, at a burlesque therater in Canada. It is hard to remember these days. Anyway - 1982 Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warrens - Up Where We Belong

I didn't even know about the exitence of Bary White until the mid 1990s but, OH HY GOSH, what an amazing phenomonon he was. Here he is singing All Around the World with Lisa Stansfield, the authhoress of the song, 1990

TELOS of this song. Though this song had been recorded by many singers between 1980 and 1989, the fullness of this song was only revealed by Neville and Rondstadt in in 1989.

It was in the late 1980s and I was a PFC in the U.S. Army's 101sst Airborne Division when a srgeant (his name was Morrison) came in to the battlion HQ one early Monday morning and said, "PFC Karnes, you need to see Dirty Dancing. Take your wife to see it with you. That is an order." This is th on;y song I remember from that movie. 1989 Jenifer Warraens and Bill Meddly - I had the time of my life.

Finally, Beloved, I give you a duet by Al Green and Annie Lennoox. Niether claims to be ORTHODOX buth bothhave opinions of Jesus. Lennox seems to be more complicated than Green. But we should pray for the salvation of both of them. Put a Little Loe in Your Heart.

Movies

In the last couple of years it has come to my attention that people rarely go to the cinema to see movies anymore. I know I don't, I can count on one hand the number of movies I've seem in the last two years. It is a strange change in my life, and I guess I am thinking about it because David Lynch died three days ago. But several years before I saw my first David Lynch Film (I986, Blue Velvet, the only movie I saw after reading a review in a newspaper) I used to watch Siskel and Ebert on KQED chanel 9 out of San Francisco. It was my favotite show on the teevee. I don't think I missed a week. But my movie going memories really started years before I started watching Siskel and Ebert. The first three movies I remember seeing were Fantastic Planet at theMountain View Theather in Mountain View, California with my Brother-in-Law Dan, The Gumball Rally with my brother Mark at the Moffat Drive-in in Mountain View California, and the Swashbuckler at the Century 21 cinema in San Jose, California. All of those cinemas, the Mountain View, the Moffet Drive-in, and the Century 21 are gone now. The 1980s and early 1990s were to me the golden age of cimema for me. A Room with a View, Out of Africa, Big Trouble in Little China, Leaving Las Vegas, Remains of the Day, Romancing the Stone, Stand by Me, Howards End, Platoon, Glory, Nuch Ado about Nothing, Body Heat, and Gump were some of the best movies I ever saw. Hmmmm. Nostalgia might not be a good thing.

My Grandfathers

My father's father died when he was 43, I think. He was a lead and zinc miner in and around Commerce, Oklahoma. He died of silicosis of the lungs back in the late 1930's, or at least before WWII. His legal name was Clarence but everyone called him Bill.

My mother's father was a preacher (And an artilleryman in WWI). He served as a pastor in East St. Louis, Illinois. and as a missionarry to Mexico and, at the end of his life, a pastor in the central valley of California. His name was Clovis Cagle, in the United Pentecostal Denomination. That is a Christian denomination that denies the Trinity. His brother was the superintendant of the California district and, sometime in the 1950s, he visted my grandfather's church and put him out because he thought my grandfather was a Trinitarian. Isn't it funny that I, my grandfather's grandson am an Orthodox Christian who hangs all of life, even all of existence on the relationships between the Persons of the Holy Trinity.

Well, now I am running for school board in east San Jose and am trying to get in touch with the pastor of the largest church in east San Jose to get his permission to put flyes on the cars in his church's parking lot. I hope he recognizes the threat my oponents pose to the salvation of the kids in his church. I hope we can work together to save them.

Christmas on Madison Avenue

As you know, from 1997 to 2004 I was an advertising executive. And though it has been 20 years since I worked in the industry I do still enjoy a good Christmas commercial. (Raise your hand if you have fond memories of Santa riding the Norelco shaver through the snow, the ringing of the Andre commercial, or the weirdness of the Harvey's Bristol Cream ads.) In my opinion, these are the top ten English language Christmas ads of 2023, not counting ads that are promoting charities.

10. There are two ads on this list that feature slippers. This is the first of them. Macy's "For After Work"

9. Amazon "Joy Ride". The older I get the more weepy I get when I see old people remembering their youth. Amazon "Joy Ride"

8. There is no snow in this ad because the company only operates in Florida. I especially love that the dog knows where to go to get fed. And, gosh, look at that crown roast of pork! Publix "Merry Christmas to you and yours"

7. Puppies and kittens. Enough said. Pet Smart "Make Merry Memories"

6. Beautiful people driving beautiful cars to beautiful places to be together. Mercedes-Benz "With Love"

5. Now, it is true that this advertisement came out five years ago but I only saw it running on FaceBook a couple of weeks ago. The number one thing an ad should do is make the viewer want to buy the product. After seeing this ad I thought, "Oh, I should wear cravats." And then I thought, "Oh, those little flat hats and those slippers would be perfect for cold winter nights." And then i thought, "Crikey, I think I need everything in that ad!" Peter Christian "Spirit of Christmas".

4. OMGosh! Is that really John Travolta playing Santa Claus?

3. If you know much about Michael Bublé you will chuckle at the little jokes in this ad. Also, browned butter. That was funny. Asda "Career Change"

2. "Who gives presents to Santa?" It is the question that launches a mother daughter giving trip. Boots "Give Joy"

1. A friend of mine, a very old woman named Charlotte had dementia. At Christmas parties she would sit someplace quiet in the house. I would sit by her at those parties and let her talk about things and people I knew nothing about. She died in 2023. This ad made me think of her and the Chevy Suburban, one of the best cars ever made in America. Chevrolet "A Holiday to Remember"

The Day Before Thanksgiving

This week I gave all my students an extra credit assignment: Read three Thanksgiving Proclamations: George Washington (1789), Abraham Lincoln (1864), and Ronald Reagan (1988) then write a 6-10 page Chicago Style essay comparing and contrasting the proclamations. I gave them until next Monday to turn it in. Some of them have submitted their essays early, and they are beautiful.

Today I expalined to my stuents how NPR broadcasts Mama Stamberg's cranberry relish recipe every year, let them hear some recordings of the broadcast from years past, then let them taste it. I've heard the recipe many times over the last thirty years but this was the first time I ever made it. It tasted good and most of my students liked it.

Now I am baking two cranberry walnut pies. I just put them in the oven. Once I finish writing this post I'll get to work on two peanut butter chocolate pies (recipe below), and then I'll make pheasant pate (we have lots of pheasants in the fridge!) for tomorrow. We are going to be at the cathedral in San Francisco.


Peanutbutter Pie Recipe
Use two Keebler chocolate pie crusts or two Graham cracker pie crusts. The filling is one cup of creamy peanut butter, 8 oz cream cheese, 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar beaten together, then fold in 8 oz of cool whip (refrigerated but not frozen). The filling is enough for two pies. Top with whipped cream. I like to whip 8 oz of heavy cream with 1/4 cup powdered sugar. That way it doesn't separate as quickly as it would otherwise.

So Excited!

For the past few days I've been writing syllabi and planning my classes. Tonight I made it up to Thanksgiving week in my U.S. History courses. And guess what I am going to do. I am going to have my students read Thanksgiving proclamations from Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Reagan, and then write a comparitive essay. I can not begin to tell you how excited I am about this assignment!

Oh, no, I said it.

The other day, because 98% of the Monkey Pox cases in the U.S. are in men who have sex with other men, I said the spread of Monkey Pox could be halted if men would stop having sex with men. I was astounded by the reaction. People were quick call me a bigot, to inform me that the disease is spread easily between people and not just by sodomy, that it is possible for non-homosexual men to be immoral, and more. It was just astounding to me. All one has to do is look at the SCIENTIFIC FACTS to see that what I said is true. But it seems that the Overton Window has shifted and we are no longer able to say what is true about the link between homosexual behavior and disease. But I am going to say it anyway because it is not love to not warn people when they are in danger or, even worse, to encourage them to engage in the behavior that will kill them. Just like my parents who used to warn me to lose weight, like my sister who used to tell me to not drive too fast, like the Church that warned me not to commit suicide (because sucides are separated from God forever) when I was suffering from depression, like the U.S. government that warns people not to smoke cigarettes, love also demands that we warn the homosexuals that what they are doing is deadly.

Here are some facts about homosexual behavior and disease.

Only about 4.5% of the U.S. population (male and female) engages in homosexual activity but just the men in that 4.5% account for:
83% of primary and seconday syphillis cases
10% and 20% of hepatitis A and B cases
Between 64% and 72% of the people who have HIV

Those are facts. But what should be done about them? In the early days of the HIV epidemic the mayor of San Francisco closed all the bath houses (it's a euphemism for orgy club) in the city. (I'm not arguing that the closure stopped the spreead of HIV.) In 2020 the whole country was shut down to halt the spread of Covid-19. (I'm not arguing that the shutdown stopped the spread of Covid-19.) What I am arguing is that if we could shut down private sex clubs and even the whole country, we should be free to say what is obvious. We have laws that forbid the sale of tobacco to minors but it is the social and moral approrbium that have really cut the percentage of cigarette smokers to historic lows. Maybe, a good first step to reducing HIV, syphillis, monkey pox, and hepetitis infections is to speak the truth about homosexual behavior leading to disease instead of celebrating their behavor in Pride Parades and Up Your Alley street orgies.

Teaching High School in the Age of Wokeness

The HR director in the the school district I work in the most has asked me to apply for one of their vacant social science positions. It would be a lot more money (and benefits!) than I get as a long-term sub. And I would LOVE to teach American history, U.S. government, and economics. In fact, because of all of the prep-work I've done for Kathleen over the past few years I've already written all the lectures and tests I'll need if I take the job. That part would be easy. So what is the hard part? Why don't I apply for the job?

There are two problems. The first is something called the Cal TPA. It is a tool the State of California uses to winnow out people who don't agree with the pedagogical philosophy and social mission of the system. I wrote a TPA a couple of years ago and it was rejected. I could do another one, I know what they want me to say, but I think it is wrong. I think, that for teaching history, especially, that reading history and writing history (with Chicago style footnotes and bibliography) is the best way. But the state wants teachers to embrace the idea that different people have different styles of learning and to use all those styles at once, to adapt each lesson every day to every student's imagined learning style, even though there is no evidence that that helps students learn more. But the woke mob doesn't want kids to read and write real history, such as those books written by Thucydides, Julius Caesar, James McPherson, SShelby Foote, Paul Johnson, David McCullough, and Winston Churchill. But the woke mob just sees white male opressors in that list of names. The woke mob only wants Howard Zinn the plagiarizer, the communist, the liar, the perverter of the minds of children. (I do think students need to know about Zinn, but not because he is right. They need to know about him because he is influential and wrong. Very extremely wrong.)

I think that for teaching U.S. Government one must start no later than the Mayflower Compact, but preferably with Moses and Plato for one,really, can't understand The Mayflower Compact without reference to the Bible and The Laws. and deal with the English Civil War, Separation of Powers (No, it did not start with Montesquieu, but with Moses and Isaiah. But I would still have my students read Montesquieu.), John Locke's Two Treatises on Government because they are the foundation of The Declaration of Independence, and the Declaration of Independence because it it is the foundation of the Constitution, and the Constitution (article by article with accomanying readngs from the Federalist Papers for who better to the explain the Constitution than the men who wrote it?) because the Constitution is the foundation of all our laws. But the woke mob only sees white male oppressors. They (according to a recent poll, more than 90% teachers in my area) think training studendents to "change the world" a la Paulo Freire, Saul Alinsky, and Angela Davis is what they ought to be doing, not teaching them what our civilization has learned over the millenia, which is what I think teachers ought to be doing.

My economics class would start with watching two movies. Yes, this is such an enormous departure from the book-based pedogogy of the history and government classes but these are such a good movies for introducing economics and illustrating why economics is important. The movies are I, Pencil and The Road to Serfdom. From there we would talk about the history of economics beginning with Sargon of Akkad, ancient Chinese economic philosophy (special attention to Confucious since he was and reamins so infuential) and coming up through the French Physiocrats, Adam Smith (with special atention given to the impact of coastal geography on the economies of Japan and Africa),William Bradford's diary of telling of the first communist expiriment in the New World, culminating with reading the The Law by Frederic Bastiat. That would all be in the first three weeks of the semester. Then we would read through Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, one chapter at a time, culminating with an assignment to read and criticize The Communist Manifesto in 10 to 15 pages. The woke mob would freak out at this because it deals with facts of how the world actually works; how people deal with scarcity, how people make decisions to allocate time and physical resources, and how people reckon costs and benefits of economic opportunities instead of the fantasy of a state-coerced collectivest utopia.

But why do I keep saying the "the woke mob"? Well, this brings me to the second reason why I am not going to apply for the job the HR department wants me to aply for. Like a mob they act as one are irrational and dangerous. While working in the distrct I see lots and lots of indicators that I, really, would not be welcome here as a full-time teacher. First there are all the social-justice activism signs, posters, flags, and murals. The people who put up all these eblems of anti-racism, and [insert oppressed group here] pride are a mob that shouts down disagreement, that looks at the ideas I hold as true and beautiful but sees oppression and hate; their reaction being one of attack and censor. I was only here a couple of days when another history teacher told me the classroom I am subbing in had a teacher but that teacher "was never on-board with the social-justice part of the job." They got rid of him. I know the same thing would happen to me. So there is no future for me as a history, government, and economics teacher in California.

But, maybe, you suggest, a private school would hire me. I've tried that but there are three problems I keep running into:
1. All the schools I have looked at require a state teaching credential and that puts me right back in the TPA problem. (See above.),
2. They are as woke as public schools, or
3. Or they require agreement with a non-Orthodox statement of faith.

But today I came across a school that is looking for a 3 month high school history substitute. I know a couple of the founders of the school, one since I was a little boy in the early 1970s. I know one of the teachers. They are all Fundamentalist Protestants but don't require adhearance to an Orthodox-excluding statement of faith, hmmm, at least, it is vague enough that I think I can sign it. It will pay less than I make working for the government schools but I will apply. Maybe, it will turn into something good.

Death, Statistics, and Politics

From April 24, 1980 to December 31, 2000 the United States saw 448,060 of her citizens die from AIDS. This resulted in protests, sit-ins, an AIDS Quilt, and massive politicization. That is an average of 22,403 deaths per year.

The same period saw an average of 41,400 people die from the flu each year. There is no flu politics. There are no flu protests. There is no Flu Quilt. Why not?

A couple of days ago, in Texas, a sick man killed a bunch of kids and teachers in a school. And it isn't the first school shooting. The first school shooting I remember hearing about happened in Columbine, and it inspired a movie. From then until this week there have been been a bunch of school shootings. Here is a list of school (Kindergarten through university) shootings designated as "mass shootings" by the F.B.I. (There might be more but this is all I could find.):

Date (Deaths) Location

4/1999 (13) Columbine High School
3/20000 (9) Red Lake High School
10/2006 (5) West Nickel Mines Amish High School
4/2007 (32) Virginia Tech
2/2008 (5) Northern Illinois University
4/2012 (7) Oikos University
12/2012 (27) Sandy Hook Elementary School
5/2014 (6) University of California Santa Barbara
10/2014 (4) Marysville-Pulchick High School
10/2015 (9) Umpqua Community College
2/2018 (17) Marjory Stoneman Douglas Highschool
5/2018 (10) Santa Fe High School
11/2021 (4) Oxford High School
5/2022 (21) Robb Elementary School
TOTAL: 167
YEARLY AVERAGE DEATHS FROM SCHOOL MASS SHOOTINGS: 7.59


There is a political movement to require licensing of gun owners, banning of certain guns, there are marches that oppose the right to bear arms, there are politicians giving speaches and introducing bills, and there are activist organizations agitating for the abolition of private ownership of guns. They even have quilts.

During the same period of time hundreds of Americans were killed by lightning. In 2021 there were 42,915 people killed in vehicles on America's roads. That is just one year!!! Are there marches protesting this?
In 2019 (the last year for which I could find the number) there were 5,333 Americans killed by injuries at work. Are there grandstanding politicians? No. Are protesters marching in the streets? No. There is just one labor union that is trying to do anything about it.

We don't panic over the numbers of people dying on the roads, at work, from lightening, the flu, or from drowning. And we shouldn't freak out over school shootings. Kids in schools are safe, at least, from mass killings by gunfire. So why are people on the news and in the Democratic Party acting like they aren't? I don't believe it is because they want to save lives. If it were they would be opposed to abortion on demand (629,898 killed in 2019) in America. No, I think this, like the AIDS movement is about something other than saving lives.

Equity

For the last few years I've been hearing the word equity used in a non-business/non-finance context but in a race politics context. One of the most terrifyig uses of the word was in a Biden/Harris 2020 advertisement. The ad said equality isn't good enough but that America should strive for equity, which to Marxists means equality of outcomes. Or in the words of the advertisement "means we all end up at the same palce."

I see this happening in high schools. Kids who's parents imigrated from China and who should be doing calculus are forced into elementary algebra classes so everyone stays together as they progress through highschool. I've seen imigrant kids from India with excellent fluency in three langueages, outstandng musical ability, and completion of the whole caluculus series turned down by U.C.L.A. because too many Asians get accepted there. I've seen a black student who can't write a sentence with both a noun and a verb accepted to Cal Poly simply because he is black and his high school teachers felt sorry for him and gave him good grades for the sake of equity.

How are we served by forcing kids to take classes they don't need, by keeping them out of the U.C.L.A. because of their race, and by letting unqualified kids into Cal Poly? California is not served. But the Marxist goal of equity is served. For a little while.

There is aphenomenon that has been observed all over the world, in diverse poplations, even in diverse species: About 20% of a population winds up with 80% of the stuff everyone wants, are responsible for 80% of an organization's sales, get As in the hard classes. No matter how hard the Marxists try to stop it, the cream will rise. Unless, they follow Marxism's internal logic and pull a Pol Pot.

Enemies in the Classroom

“The more students work at storing the deposits entrusted to them, the less they develop the critical consciousness which would result from their intervention in the world as transformers of that world.” - Paolo Ferrar

"Ethnic studies is the critical and interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with a focus on the lived experiences and perspectives of people of color. It centers the knowledge, narratives, and intellectual scholarship of racial or ethnic groups,1 including how groups define and experience social, cultural, and political forces and their connections to gender, class, sexuality, and other intersections of identity. Ethnic studies provides culturally relevant pedagogy that helps students develop inclusivity by fostering understanding of diversity, connecting students with their community, and giving them the tools to identify and change the institutional structures that perpetuate inequity." - Executive Board of the University of California Senate

For decades the Bolshivek Lev Vygotsky has been an insedious influence in American education. He is required reading in California's teacher credentialing programs, and arguing against his ideas is a sure way to kill your teaching career before it starts. Of course, Orthodox Christians know Vygotsky not so much for his ideas about education but for his work in the Soviet system of mental hospitals where so many of us were confined, tortured, and killed. But Vygotsky's is not the only Marxist influence on the American education system. For months we have been hearing people in the news media saying Critical Race Theory [C.R.T.] is not being taught in American schools. I assure you it is. Not by name, but as Shakespeare's Juliet reminds us, the name we give something doesn't change its odor.

This morning I read a document from the University of California's systemwide Senate. Like Hitler's Mein Kampf and Stalin's Communist Manifesto, this document plainly lays out the goals of the twisted people who wrote it. In short, the radicals who control the University of California are going to refuse admission to any student who has not been indoctrinated with the ideas of the Marxist education philosopher Paolo Ferrar.

Before we go on, I think I should explain the A-G requirements. The University of California requires that for a person to be admitted as a student they must have completed certain courses in high school. Those courses include certain numbers years studying math, English, economics, foreign languuages,American Hstory, etc. This is important to know because more than 84 thousand freshmen were completed the A-G requirements last year and were admitted to study at one of the University's nine campuses in 2021, and these students are, in general, the best students from their high schools. These students are, in general, the best and the brightest who will go on to govern California, run businesses, control the media, and educate future generations.

It looks like a pretty good preparation for university doesn't it? But now it gets dark. Now I will show you some excerpts from the document that outlines how the Marxist teaching of Ferrar comes in, requireing that even math and scince be used to spread the C.R.T. venom. What you see below is how the U.C. Senate is polluting the sensible list of A-G requirements and the minds of adolescents. From the U.C. Senate's instructions to highschools (linkd above.) for emplementing the ethnic studies curricula (I actually liked my ethnic studies course when I was in college. I learned about lowriders, Flaco Jimenez, zoot suits, and Cesar Chavez.) for ALL courses in the A-G requirements. Notice, this is not just social studies (e.g. geography, history, government, and ecnomics) but is for all courses. That in itself is curious because California law says ethnic studies is only required for one semester. So, I wonder, why are they mandating that all subject be aligned with the ethic studies curricula? What is going on? What is the agenda? Does someone want to purge teachers, even math and science teachers, who refuse to poison the minds of young people?

What follows are quotes from the Course Content Guidlines and the Skill Guidlines found in the document. Pictures are all from a California 7th grade classroom.:

"CENTER an understanding of Indigeneity, routes, and roots through acknowledgement that the course takes place on stolen, unceded land of ____ Native Peoples and in spaces forged through labor, paid,unpaid, and underpaid. This is taught through anti-racist and anti-colonial liberation, cultural work,self-worth, self-determination, and the holistic well-being of the widest conceivable collective,especially Native people and people of color."

"CULTIVATE communities that foster, acknowledge, and value the relationships of Indigenous and all communities of color for their survival. Place high value on Indigenous knowledges, worldviews, and epistemologies, and those of other communities of color.

[Notice: there is no search for Truth, merely independant and competing "knowledges, worldviews, and epistomologies". Think about what this means. It is a rejection of Aristotle's laws of identity and non-contradiction. Thus it means there can be no science. Futhermore, it is a return to the non-morality of Euthyphro, for what is piety when the gods disagree with one another? And of course, because there is no Truth there is no Christ for he is the Truth.]

"CRITIQUE histories of imperialism, dehumanization, and genocide to expose how they are connected to present-day ideologies, systems, and dominant cultures that perpetuate racial violence, white supremacy, and other forms of oppressions

"CHALLENGE and examine how multiple oppressions and identities intersect (e.g., race, ethnicity, class,gender, culture, nationality, sexual orientation, belief-system, history, language)."

"CONCEPTUALIZE and create spaces that embrace the idea that racial and ethnic groups are not monolithic and model the joy, knowledge, agency, strength, and endurance of Indigenous and People of color communities."



"Because ethnic studies requires that students develop a repertoire of skills for critical analysis and engagement with and transformation of society and the world, approved courses will support them, as critically conscious intellectuals gaining varying levels of mastery, to do the following:

"1. Identify, analyze, contextualize, and corroborate sources, with attention to epistemologies, histories, explicit and implicit biases, insider and outsider perspectives of all course materials andobjects of study (i.e., books; articles; films; primary documents; artwork; media; websites; archaeological “finds”; scientific and mathematical theories, methods, and “discoveries”; mathematical applications, etc.).

"2. Recognize and interrogate power and oppression at ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalized levels.

"3. Analyze and assess the impact of systems of power and oppression—including empire, white supremacy, white supremacist culture, anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, racism, xenophobia, patriarchy, classism, ableism, belief systems, ageism, anthropocentrism—across race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other intersections of identity.

"4. Critique dominant narratives of power and their claims to neutrality, objectivity, color-blindness,freedom from bias, and meritocracy in order to examine their harm to Indigenous and other communities of color.

"5. Develop leadership, community participation, publicly engaged research, communication, praxis, and other skills to address and dismantle systems of oppression and dehumanization in the many forms in which they appear (i.e., anti-Blackness, xenophobia, ableism, heteropatriarchy).

"6. Participate in Indigenous, Black, and people of color-centered histories, knowledge systems, and pedagogical practices that challenge traditional Western educational approaches and practices.

"7. Cultivate critical hope, community care, relational accountability, and self-determination for past, present, and future generations.

"8. Nurture community engagement in order to foster anti-racist futures and solidarity across communities."

[You might be asking yourself, what's wrong with anti-racism? Isn't racism a bad thing? Yes, it is. And we should not be racists. But that is not what is meant when the radicals use the word anti-racist. They actually mean Marxist.]

An then, because teenagers have not been taught to protect and nurture the deposit entrusted to them, but have been trained by Marxists to arrogantly think they can transform the world, we get to live through a revolution and see the death of the Republic.

Jordan Peterson

For my birthday back in February Kathleen bought us tickets to hear Jordan Peterson lecture at the San Jose Civic Auditorium last night.

It was very interesting. He was promoting his new book (I didn't know he had a new book.) and lectured based on a chapter in the book which, I think, says something like if you want the best possible life you must abandon ideologies but the only way to do that is if you correctly think of and relate to God.

He started out by talking about different kinds of truth; scientific, historical, psycholoical, maybe more. But he concentrated on psychologicial and showed the psycological truth of several stories from the Bible:

Creation - Yes, God is He who is above all and behind all and calls order out of chaos, and if you do not acknowledge that you have no principles by which to understand the world or by wich order your life. And there is a cost to this: you ave to admit you aren't in charge.

The sacrifices of Cain and Able - Yes, the pursuit of God, He being who is above and beyond all things is worth sacrifices. And sacrifice, by definition is costly, but you have to do it or you don't attain what is better.

The Tower of Babel - Don't try to make anything as high as God because if you do horrible things happen. Here he mentioned Communism as the most deadly ideology ever.

The call of Abraham - Yes - leave your father's tent and get out and live your own life, even if you are 80 years old, its not to late to embrace adventure, and if you don't you will never develop into a whole strong person. And there is a cost to this. You might have someone try to take your wife. You might never have a place to live. You might spend your whole life as a wanderer but that is better than living your whole life in your father's tent.

Finally, after a few more stories, Peterson ended with the story of God sending the plague of snakes after the Israeiltes but then telling them to erect the brazen serpent and that lead to the Crucifixion of Jesus.

It really was a very good presentation. Actually, calling it a presentation might be wrong. It was more like he was trying to figure out what all these stories mean and how he should regard them and how he should live but unlike most people he was doing it in public. But Peterson is still not a Christian. He talks about our God. He talks about our book. He says it is true. But he is not baptized. I know he has been talking with a few Orthoox Christians, among them Jonathan Pageau, the iconographer and youtuber. I think Pageu is very patient. I am sure I would have tried to close the deal by now, whereas Pageu is just a caring friend to Peterson. I have a lot of admiration for him.

GNOSTICISM AND THE LGBTQ+ MOVEMENT

I saw something interesting posted on facebook by a friend of mine. (I won't name him because he is a friend and I want to keep him as such. Also, he is not a Christian so what I'm saying in this post is not directed to him. This post is intended for my fellow Christians to think about.) Many years ago, when I was eleven or twelve years old I heard and believed a heresy from Sunday school teacher. What he taught us, with the help of lots of snazzy charts and diagrams was this: We are spirits That have souls and live in bodies. Of course, any Orthodox or Roman Catholic Christian, and most Protestant Christians, should easily recognize this heresy as Gnosticism. But here is what my friend said, and again, my friend is not a Christian and, to the best of my knowledge, is unfamiliar with the Gnostic heresy; he was merely seeking to explain the sexual ideas that are popular in the larger Western post-Christian society. So this is what he said: a persons identity (whether he thinks of himself as male, female, or other) is located in his mind which, if one is not a materialist, usually means the spirit, while who a person is attracted to (e.g. wants to have sex with) is determined by his heart/soul, and a person's sex is determined by his body. When I saw what my friend said I was astounded. As Ecclesiastes says, there is nothing new under the sun. Of course, I knew before I saw my friend's Facebook post that there was some kind of link to Gnostic anthropology but I hadn't thought it all the way through. Now that my friend explained it I see it clearly. There is nothing that can or should be done to try to convince a non-Christian (they won't believe us) that this idea is an error, but we can and should strive to show Christians that the whole LGBTQ+ movement is merely the most recent iteration of the Gnostic understanding or human personhood. Of course, the Christian understanding of a human person is that we are a spirit and a soul and a body, created by God to be such, in unity without confusion, and forever. But there is a deceiver who does his best to make people think they are not one being, who tries his best to think there is and ought to be confusion between the spirit, soul, and body. It is the demonic idea, the lies the enemey puts into people's minds that must be combatted through prayer and fasting and a liberal application of holy water.

A Christmas List

Kathleen saw me Christmas shopping for my sons, and asked me for my Christmas list. In no particular order (BUT I REALLY NEED A NEW PRAYER BOOK), and please don't buy more than one thing, here it is.

1. An inexspensive holster that I won't mind getting scratched and torn and dirty when I am out in the wilderness.

2. Any Wegewood Christmas tree ornament.

3. Go to Nativity Royal Hours with me at Holy Trinity Cathedral.

4. The Lamp

5. A ferry ride to Larkspur where we can get pannetone at Emporio Rulli.

6. I've broken a couple of my pipes. I could use one in a waterfowl or gamebird theme.

7.A pig theme tie to wear when hunting pigs. But don't buy new. The prices are crazy high. Look on eBay.

8. A new Prayer Book.

Why So Many Guns?

Sometimes there will be a person who commits a horrible crime and then the news media reports the story. Often in those news reports there will be a statement such as this, "When they searched the alleged culprits house, police found an arseal of 6 guns and 10,000 rounds of ammuntion." While statements such as that are factual and should be included in a news story, that information is often used in a way that maens "nobody should have that many guns or that much ammo". Now, if all the guns were Barret Model M2A1 and all the ammo is .50 caliber armor piercing tungsten then yes, that would be strange, and possibly an indicator of mental illness. But there are reasons to have more than one gun. Here is an explanation of why a person would want several guns.

Scenario 1. Hunting for tree squirrels in a populated are with little confidence about where a missed shot might land. For that you would use a .177 calibre air gun, such as the Gamo Wildcat or the Benjamin Titan. Even though the pellets leave the barrel of these guns traveling faster than 1,300 feat per second the mass of the pellets is so little that they can only cary a tiny amount of energy, and they quickly lose velocity due to friction against the air. And when the pellet reaches the apex of it's arc and falls to the Earth it has less energy than a pea-sized piece of hail falling from a storm cloud. Additionally, these air rifles have a very short range. The pellets are not going to go very far, 100 yards max, and when they get there they will have too little energy to do anything. Their effective range, meaning the range at which they can damage a squirrel is about 30 yards.

Scenario 2. Rabbit hunting in the scrublands of the American west. A bolt action rifle chambered for .22LR cartridges, such as the CZ American. It delivers much more energy on target than the .177 calibre air rifles do, which is needed for a rabbits greater mass, but not so much energy that the rabbit is varorized, as it would be with a bullet from a larger caliber bullet. And the ammunition for this rifle is very inexpensive. Two summers ago I bought 1,500 rounds for less than $80 though, because of the election and covid, ammo is scarce now and the prices have risen dramatically.

Scenario 3. Pest control on a farm or ranch. With no cover as there is on scrubland, the rancher will not be able to get close enough to the praire dogs and ground squirrls to consistently hit them with a .22LR. That means he will want to use a gun that shoots a .17HMR, such as the Tika T1x MTR. It is designed to hit small targets out to 300 yards with a high-velocity small-calibre bullet shaped for minimum air resistence. Yes, one could use a deer rifle on praie dogs and ground squirrels but the cost of typical deer rifle ammo would be enormous compared to .17 HMR.

Scenario 4. Trap and skeet shooting. Competition rules require that the gun has no more than two rounds loaded at any time. The need for maximum reliability requires no semi-automatic shotguns. The need for maximum speed requires minimum weight and minimum time between shots. That means skeet and trap competitors want short barrels, small gauge, over-under guns, such as the 20 gauge Fausti XF4 Sport with 28-in barrels and an adjustable comb.

Scenario 5. Pig hunting in Texas. In Texas wild pigs are a serious agricultural pest and the government there wants them irradicated. There are almost no rules regarding when or how a person can kill them. If one has the money one can even ride in a helicopter and shoot them from the sky. ( I'm not making that up). Without a doubt the most popular gun to use for pig hunting in Texas is the AR-15 chambered in 5.56mm NATO. The gun's low weight, low recoil, and pistol grip allow for quick transition from target to target. So this gun is ideal for taking on sounders of 20, 30, or 40 pigs.

Scenario 6. Home defense for people living in apartments. No one wants to think about killing another person. But shooting someone might be necessary to defend your spouse or children. But what it you live in an apartment and don't want to accitentally shoot through the wall and hurt your neighbor or your own children. Well, obviousy, the first solution to that problem is don't miss your target. But everyone misses, at least, once in a while. So that rules out all rifles and hand guns. Even a .22 Short will penetrate the typical apartment wall or bedroom door with enough energy to hurt the person on the other side. But there is a solution. A short barreled shotgun loaded with "shorty" rounds. Because of the low energy of shorty rounds they can not be reliably used in semi-auto shotguns, so that leaves two good options. The first is the Mossberg Shockwave. It can hold 7 shorty rounds and because of its tiny size it is very manueverable in cramped indoor spaces. Sadly, this gun is not legal in California, where I sell guns, so I recommend Stoeger Coach Gun, the shortest shotgun legal to own in California, to my customers looking for a houshold defense gun.

Scenario 7. ISSF 50-meter pistol competition. Most competitors who hope to get to the Olympics use the Walther GSP. It is as close to perfect as an ISFF compliant pistol can get.

Scenario 8. Grizzly bear hunting in Alaska. Long shots, very few hunters, and extremly dangerous game require long range powerful rifles that are still light enough to cary on long hikes over rugged country. The gun needed for this scanario is the Winchester Model 70 chambered for .338 Magnum. It is one of the few bullets that can stop a grizzly with one shot. That's important because you do not want to have to contend with a wounded grizzly bear. You might not have time to fire a second time.

Scenario 9. Black Bear hunting in California. Black bears are dangerous but easier to kill than a grizzly bear. And in the forests of California there are more people, which means one should not use a long range rifle such as the Winchester Model 70. Rather, a large calibre brush gun, such a Henry repeater in .45-70 Government calibre. It is massive enough to not be deflected by twigs and small branches but the balistics are such that the bullet loses elevation quickly, so it does not pose much danger to hunters the next valley over if the shot misses the bear. But it will drop the bear.

Scenario 10. Goose hunting on San Francisco Bay. Geese fly high over the bay, and not every shotgun can knock them out of the sky. The gun that does shoots 3" or 3.5" ammo, not the usual 2.75" shotgun ammo. A 26" barrel, commonly used in duck and quail hunting is almost useless when hunting geese. Finaly, U.S. Law prohibits hunting waterfowl with more than 3 rounds in the gun. So, what is the best gun for hunting geese? That is hard to say. A lot depends on the ability of the shooter. A very skilled shooter, who can get off three shots and bring down three geese while two are alrmed and flying away might benefit from using a Baretta A400 Extreme Plus with 30" barrels. If the shooter is of average skill that third shot will be wasted so there is no reason to buy such an expensive gun. In that case the best gun is probably the Stoeger Longfowler with 30" barrels.

Scenario 11. Cowboy Action Shooting. The shooter who competes in this game will use three guns: A 12 gauge double barreled shotgun, such as the Stoeger Coach Gun and Longfowler (mentioned above), a lever action rifle chambered in .30-30 such as the Winchester 1873, and a single action revolver chambered in .45LC calibre, such as the Ruger Vaquero.

And that is how one person can have enough guns to scare news reporters and the people who pay attention to them.

A trip to Reno, an Eagle Scout, and a Fountain in the Garden.

Kathleen and I just got back from spending two nights in Reno. 

We drove there on I-80.  I've spent so much time on that road this summer I am starting to memorize all the business along the way.  We stopped in Auburn to eat at Ikeda's. All we bought there was water and coffee because I can't eat their food. (It is difficult.  I used to enjoy shopping for groceries but now I just feel resentment when I go shopping.) But we used their outdoor tables and ate some cold roast pork and cheese.  I also bought some  of their peach jam for Basil Wenceslas, who was minding the garden and the dog while we were gone.

We arrived Monday afternoon and went to our new favorite shooting range, where we practiced with the Swedish Mauser (the most accurate rifle I've ever fired) and the Star Model S.  We fired about 200 rounds and got some really good groups.  Kathleen has decided that because she likes revolvers more than semi-autos and because of the price difference between .380 ACP ammo and .22 LR ammo she wants to get a Heritage Rough Rider.

For dinner we ate at Mel's.  I went off my diet and had a Reuben sandwich.  Other than Max's in San Francisco, it is the best I've had.  Yes, I felt the pang of no martini with my reuben.  But something really wonderful happened during dinner:  Anselm Samuel called me to say he had passed his board of review and was officially an Eagle Scout, something we have been working toward since the autumn of 2008.  Yes, I cried at the table.

We had a room at the Sands Regency.  And it was a great price; much lower than the rate I paid at the Inn at Truckee were we stayed last week.  It was a nice room with a great view of the Sierras to the west.

We woke up early Tuesday morning and drove to Donner lake to go fishing.  We trolled the lake for three hours but caught nothing.  After stowing the boat we stopped at Cabela's in Verdi where we bought matching shooting vests.  I was going to buy ammo for the guns so we could go shooting again but since the wuhan there has been a shortage of ammo in America,  and Cabela's was out of almost everything but bird shot and .22.  They had no .380 or 6.5mm Swedish.  So, we drove to Mark Fore and Strike.  They had the Swedish but, wow, crazy high price.  I'm used to paying between $25 and $27 for a box of 20 bullets but this was $34 for a box of 20.  I really need to start reloading my bullet casings.  It doesn't look that hard.

The afternoon was about doing nothing.  Kathleen went to the pool to lounge.  I stayed in the air-conditioned room and read.  For dinner Kathleen picked the Wild River Grille.  I had the meat loaf.  Kathleen had the rainbow trout.  It was good food.  That night I played blackjack in the Casino.  I stayed within budget and it took me almost 3 hours to lose $50.   I think that is, probably, enough gambling to last the rest of my life.  Kathleen played a slot machine and won $16 on one spin.

On the way home we listened to a book by Sir Roger Scruton: How to be a Conservative.  It was very enjoyable.  One thing he said very much rang true.  He was discussing Edmund Burke and conservatism being based in  love for family, truth, beauty, and goodness, when he said something along the lines of this:  Those who disrespect their ancestors also hate their descendants.  And I thought, wow, that really sums up the American leftists.

When we got home this afternoon we found the stem on the garden faucet broken.  I turned off the water at the main and began fixing it.  Then I broke the pipe and, to the joy of the neighborhood kids, sent a fountain of water 30 feet into the air.   It seems I had turned off the wrong valve.   Thankfully, one of my neighbors is a landscaper and helped me find the right valve, told be what parts to buy at the hardware store, and then fixed the pipe.  We paid him with tomatoes from the garden.

It is good to be home.

 

Working and healing

Well, I've been working 30 ours a week as a hunting outfitter for Bass Pro Shops.  It's kind of fun.  Mostly, I help people pick out range finders, scopes, binoculars, and knives.  I am astounded every day by how much money people spend on hunting equipment.  But, I guess, if you are flying to Alaska to hunt moose, or to Kyrgyzstan to hunt ibex you don't want want to miss the shot because of not having the best possible equipment.  I enjoy my co-workers.  Politically, it is exactly opposite from working as a teacher.  Instead of gay pride flags and coexist stickers I am now surrounded by American flags and Don't Tread On Me stickers.

Yesterday, I accepted a job with a real estate/property management company.  I'll be serving notices, inspecting properties,  and showing vacant properties to potential tenants.  It is only about 20 hours a week but the hourly rate is jut insanely high.

My thumb is healing. The other day I saw my doctor and she took the cast off my arm and made a plastic brace for me instead.  It only covers my thumb and half my hand.  My left thumb is longer now.  And it barely moves.  I'm doing the exercises.  The doctor said It should be back to normal in 8 more weeks.