The Boys and a Shooting Club

Basil has been accepted by all of the universities to which he applied but he is really only interested in two: Cal Maritime (business/logistics) and San Jose State (accounting). Personally, I hope he chooses Cal Maritime. The student body and the teachers seem much less radicaly leftist than the student body and teachers at San Jose State. Maybe the accounting department won't be too yucky. But I think he is looking at the cost of housing at Cal Maritime as opposed to living with me or his mom here in San Jose.

Anselm is under the arctic ice right now. (I got a notice from the commander of the pacific submarine forces.) He's been at sea for a month and won't be back until April.

Today during the meatfare lunch after liturgy Fr. Basil said he wants to go shooting with kathleen and I because he inherited all his dad's guns and hasn't shot them in years and years. So I asked when. He said after Pascha. And a whole bunch of other people said they want to go, too. And someone suggested a parish shooting club, and Fr. Basil said "YES!". So it looks like we are going to have a parish shooting club.

Oh! That reminds me, Kathleen bought a new gun a couple of weeks ago. It's a Sig Sauer P365.

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"

Christmas Movies

I used to love watching Christmas Movies with my boys when they were little. I miss those years. This year I am planning on watching all of these: Love Actually (2003), The Muppets Christmas Carrol (1992), The Bishop's Wife (1947), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carrol (1963), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), A Christmas Carrol (1951), Die Hard (1988), Santa Claus is Commin' to Town (1964), The Little Drummer Boy (1967), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), Cricket on the Hearth (1967), A Christmas Story (1983), Elf (2003), White Christmas (1954), The Santa Clause (1994), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1967), Remember the Night (1940), Christmas in Connecticut (1945), National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989, Home Alone (1990), A Very Murray Christmas (2015), A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), Merry Christmas (2004), The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), and The Santa Clause 2 (2002). I am curious to know, dear reader, what would you add to my Christmas movie list?

Baking for Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving but Anselm is at sea and Basil is out of town visiting some of his Mom's relatives. So my step-children, Maximo and Sophia are helping me make the cranberry walnut pies and fruited molassas balls. (Of course, I forgot to get molassas and powdered sugar so Kathleen is at the store right now buying those ingredirents.) Earlier today I baked chocolate chip cookies for Maximo and Sophia and a berry pie for Kathleen. Before I go to sleep tonight I'll start brining the turkey and make the cranberry relish. It has been years since I've watched Macy's Thanksgiving parade. I think I'll get up early tomorrow and watch it.

This and That and getting ready for Christmas.

Since August of 2022 I've been teaching U.S. history, world history, economics, and U.S. government at Cambrian Academy in San Jose, California. (I'm also the coach of the clay target team.) It is, I think, only because of God that I was given this job just a few weeks after I wrote this.

I have almost finished buying Christmas presents. I have only two more people to buy for.

Basil has had the flu for the past week but as soon as he has recovered he and I will begin making the fruitcakes and the Christmas sausage. Hopefully, this week.

This was the first year in many that I did not go to Farmer Bob's to get pumpkins.

Oktoberfest

One of the fun things I do at work is that I play a little jodel (I know, it's swiss but they wear lederhosen and dirndle. on the screen for my students every morninng in October and give them a few extra credit points if they show me they've learned to jodel by the end of the the month.) Tey seem to enjoy it and some of them desperately need the points by the end of October, when the midterm exams happen.

Today, Kathleen and I shared a guest lecturer from F.E.E.. First he came to my school and spoke to my two classes of economice on business ethics, a lecture I would have titled The Beauty of Profit. It was truely was beautiful. I wish I had recorded it. After the presentation, when the guest lecturer had left to go to Kathleen's school, one of my students said, "It was like having Henry Hazlitt talk to us", and she was right.

At the end of the School day we took the lecturerer from F.E.E. out to dinner at Teske's Germania, a resturaunt in San Jose. (I was there once before, when I was 26 years old, that was more than half my life ago.) Kathleen ordered the Schweinshaxe. I ordered the Jagerschnitzel. When the dishes came to the table she was grossed out and didn't want to eat what she had ordered. So we traded dishes and, wow, I am glad we did! I have a new favorite food. When I came home I looked up the recipe online and it looks pretty easy to make. I am sure I will be able to convince her that it is good.

In other news, Son #3 called me from Peru. His submarine has been at sea for a couple of weeks, and i knew he was headed south, but I didn't know he was going to be stopping in at Peru. It sounds like he is working hard but having fun.

Son #4 is applying to universities. I think the four on his list are Hillsdale College (In America the words University and college are, mostly, interchageable.) California Maritime Academy, Montana State University, and San Jose State University. Personally, I wish he were not considering San Jose State but, I think he wants to live with his mother and save money on room and board. I'm much prefer he go to Hillsdale or Montana state where there are very active OCF chapters, or to Cal Maritime where the gradutes have the highest average starting salaries of any college in California, but I think he just sees the expense of room and board and wants to avoid it.

And finally, the highschool clay target shooting team I coach is in second place in our conference this season. That is much improved from #39 out of 54 that we placed last season. The team is really working hard and it shows.

A Different Life

Today son #4 is 18 years old and I have no minor children. Since 1988 I have had, at least, one child under the age of majority. Son #1 died more than 10 years ago. Son #2 is living his own life in Arizona. Son #3 is a sailor aboard a submarine somehwere in the south Pacific, son #4 is a college student here in San Jose, California. From the time they were born I had one mission: Keep them out of Hell and keep them out of prison. I do not know if I was sufccessful but I tried. All I can do now is pray.

A Vision

I want to write this down before I forget it completely. Already the words are getting confused in my memory.

Holy Tikhon of Zdonsk

Last night was standing in the nave of St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Saratoga. My mind was wondering and I was praying for my children instead of praying the communal prayers being sung by the choir. Suddenly it was like I was having a dream and St. Tikhon of Zdonsk was standing in front of me. And he said something like "Remind the Holy Synod of Metroplitan Leonty" or "Tell the Holy Synod to remember Metropolitan Leonty". Then the vision was gone but I was shaking a little and crying.

Metropolitan Leonty at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, 1955.

As soon as the service was over I found Fr. Basil in the church hall and told him what had happened and asked him what I should do. I didn't know anything about St. Tikhon of Zdonsk excpt that I saw his icon and have heard is name mentioned during Saturday night vigils. And, other than having seen a photograph of Metropolitan Leonty and having read his name somewhere I knew nothing about him. I didn't even know he had been the primate of the OCA. I told this to Mitered Archpriest Basil, and as I was a telling him I started crying and shaking again. He told me then that the Holy Synod is trying to decide whether or not Metropolitan Leonty should be recognized as a saint in the Orthodox Church. And he crossed himself and said "I believe this" and said he would relay the message to the Holy Synod.

Needless to say, when I got home from church last night I read everyting about these men I could find online.

Honeymoon and Covid

We went on a cruise to Alaska. We flew from San Jose to Seattle, where we got on the ship, the M.S. Westerdam. Our first stop was in Juneau where we visted St Nicholas Orthodox Church (They currenty do not have a rector and are surviving on reader services and occasional clergy visits), and then Glacier Bay, then Sitka where we visted St Michal Orthodox Church and were blessed to venerate a relic of St Herman. The ships next stop was Ketchican, where we went fishing.

We caught amazing number of fish, and Kathleen caught the largest one, a 34" Silver Coho.

We had 180 pounds of various species of salmon flash frozen and shipped to us, even one chum salmon which we will feed to the dog.

The next stop was Victoria, BC but we did not get off the ship. That was the night Kathleen started coughing. The next morning we got off the ship in Seattle and Kathleen had a fever. Our hotel, the Mayflower Park Hotel was very comfortable and the staff was very helpful. As soon as I told them my wife was sick they had a room ready for us, letting us check in 7 hours early.

Kathleen spent a miserable night. I walked to a nearby drug sstore to get her medicine but it did not do much. The next morning I was coughing too. By the time Basil Wenceslas picked us up at the airport in San Jose on the 31st of June we both had fevers. When we got home we went strait to bed. The next morning we both tested positive for covid. Then the next day Basil tested positive. All three of us got perscriptions for paxlovid that day. As of Sunday (today is Tuesday the 8th of August.) we are both testing negative and Kathleen says she is 80% recovered. She began teaching her fall semester yesterday. Today was the first day I was able to get out of bed. I can't taste anything except for salt and citrus, or smell anything except for what I think is a hallucination (burning wood), and my sense of balance is off, and I am partially deaf. Hopefully, that all corrects soon. I go back to work tomorrow so today I spent writing my course syllabi. Basil is doing worse than Kathleen and I. This is his third time to have covid.

A Man Under Authority

A centurian asked Jesus for a miracle. Jesus said he would be right there to heal the centurian's servant. The centurian said, "No, Lord. I am a man with autority. I know how these things work. Just say the word and my servant will be healed." Jesus spoke and the servant was healed.

Long ago, in the 1980s, I was a soldier in the 502nd Air Assault Infantry Regiment, which is part of the 101st Airborne Division. A few of our sergeants were combat veterans from the Vietnam War. But none of our officers had seen combat except for one captain. He was 15 years older than any of the other captains in the regiment and medals covered him: The Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, as well as decorations from the Chancellor of Germany, the President of the French republic, the King of Thailand, and the President of the Republic of Vietnam. Unlike the other 22 captains in the regiment he had been an enlisted man, a sergeant, during the Vietnam War.

I was only a Private First Class but I worked for the adjutant on the colonel's staff so I knew all the officers in the regiment. There was one lieutenant who was a Christian. There was a major who loved the Lord and with whom I sang Handel's Messiah one year. He and I would have been friends but he was an officer and I was enlisted. There was one captain who very ostentatiosly proclaimed his Christianity, as though he thought it would make people think he was a better man than he was. There was the colonel, he was a Christian of some sort, and attended the protestant chapel service every Sunday (it was on his official schedule). But there was my captain, who you think I would have known better than all the others because he was actually my commander. But he was quiet. When he came into the headquarters he didn't talk to anyone but would quickly walk to the colonel's office and make his report or recieve his orders. Always, on his way out of the headquarters he would stop by my desk and ask, "Soldier, do you have everything you need to do your job?" then go back to doing what ever he spent his days doing. I never saw him smile. The only time I saw him angry was when the lieutenant in charge of the mortar platoon said his men were too tired to complete a task. (That lieutenant was forced to resign his commission.) Though he worked us hard, that captain was absolutely loved by all his men.

He was loved because he was humble. He knew his power over us. He knew his responsibility to us. He never abused us but made us perform to the highist standards, much higher than the army-wide standards. I would sometimes hear the captains bragging to each other about how good their companies were. My captain never braggged. He didn't have to. The records were clear. His company had highest PT scores, the highes SQT Scores, the most days in the field, the highst marsmanship scores.... He just stood there and listened to the other captains brag on their men. I never felt like the the standards he set for us were so he would look good to the colonel or the other officers in the regiment. I think all we soldiers knew he demanded so much from us so we would survive on the battlefield, because he had survived on the battlefield.

He was Baptist. He attended a little Baptist church in Clarksville, Tennessee. He never talked about it. He didn't keep a Bible on his desk like the ostentatious captain did. He didn't talk about Jesus to his men. But he went to church every every Sunday morning, as I learned when I heard some of the other officers talking about why my captain wouldn't go out drinking with them on Saturday nights. Did I mention he was humble? There were 4 lieutenant colonels, and 7 majors in the regiment who outranked him, but as a Distingushed Member of the Regiment the captain should have always been seated beside the colonel at any dinner. But one time the adjutant (he was new in the position and didn't listen to me or the sergeant in charge of protocol) seated him below the majors. The colonel, of course, corrected the adjutant, and the adjunt apologized all over himself. What did the captain say? "Don't worry about it. We all put our pants on one leg at a time."

I sometimes think that the captain was a man like Holy Czar Nicholas was. Instead of letting his men bow to him, the Saint would hold an icon of the Savior before his men so they would bow to the Lord instead. That is what people who have authority and understand authority do; direct attention to the One who really has authority, who is the source of authority. And Jesus gave his life for us. And in a desperate attempt to to save his people, the Czar humilated himslf by abdicating. And my captain made no big deal of his rank or reputation but reminded one who gave offense that we are all just men.

A Marriage and an Engagement

Kathleen and I were married yesterday at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Saratoga, California.

And today, my son Anselm Samuel asked Tiffany Patterson to be his wife. She said yes.

Wedding Rehearsal

The rehersal was tonight at St Nicholas Orthodox Church in Saratoga. The chanter, the reader, the priest, the sponsors, and us. After the rehearsal Kathleen and I said our confessions, then we joined the others in the church hall for Togo's sandwiches.

A wedding and other things

Kathleen and I got the wedding license last week. The service has been scheduled for July 16. My boss asked me to stay on for another year and teach the same subjects. Anselm recieved his dolphins and got promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class. Basil is still going to Evergreen Valley Community College and is gtting his documents ready to apply next month to Hillsdale College and Cal Maritime for Fall 2024.

Kathleen and Basil and I wanted to go to a San Jose Giants baseball game on July 4 but this is their year to play in Fresno. o, after looking around at all the parades and concerts and fire works shows we decided to see the San Francisco Symphony and fireworks at Shoreline Amphitheater. It was utterly beautiful.

Radio, Shotguns, and Marriage

I read yesterday that car makers are going to stop putting A.M. radios in cars because the electric motors interfere with reception. I think I dislike electric cars even more now than I already did.

Speaking of radio, I really miss the days when I was a teenager in Florida. I used to lie on the floor doing my school work and listen to WCIE (Where Christ is Everything) out of Lakeland. I'd hear preachers such as Chuck Swindoll, J. Vernon McGee, Karl Strader, and late in the night I'd listen to the music program, The Haven of Rest with Ray Ortland. One of my favorite shows on WCIE was James Dobson's Focus on the Famly and others.

I haven't been listening to radio much for the last few years. I tried to listen to KQED, the local NPR affiliate but it has become nothing but filth. I did an expiriment to see if I could drive from home to work or from work to home without hearing a story promoting drag queens, homosexuality, abortion, or or the mutilation of childrens sex organs (they call it gender affirming care). The drive between work and home is about 15 minutes one way. Every morning and every afternoon I heard of of the vile promotions. On some drives I'd hear two or three. Gone are the days of listening to KQED and hearing Linda Worthheimer, Cokie Roberts, Nina Totenberg, Garison Keilor, Bob Edwards, Click and Clack, and To The Best of Our Knowledge with Steve Paulson and Anne Strainchamps. At least, KQED still has TechNation with Moira Gunn.

I've tried listening to KSFO an conservative talk station but they are so angry and I don't see Conservativeism that way. We are happy becuse we know the truth and see a path to a bright future. I just don't dig the negativity.

And there is no country music anymore.

Kathleen, Fr. Basil and I have set the wedding date for July 16. I'll be a married man again soon. And Anslem Samuel told me he is going to ask his girlfried to marry him.

My school's shotgun team had the last shoot of the season today. We finished 39 out of 51. I am very proud of them.

Getting Ready

Kathleen and I made Paskha tonight. We have seven terra cotta pots in the fridge. Looking at the work and church schedule, I can't see where I am going to have time to make the kulich. I'm sure it will work out somehow. I found out that Basil Wenceslas is bringing a girl to the Paschal Divine Liturgy. I'm making a pascha basket for her, too.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pascha Eggs

Every year up till now I put a couple of Reese's egg-shaped peanut butter cups in the Pascha basket but this year, because of Hershy's anti-human stance I refuse to buy anything made of their chocolate. So Basil came over today and we made our own. I bought molds, chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. I figured, since all the videos I watched on Youtube that show how to make them were 20 to 30 minutes long we could start at 4pm, be done by 5pm, and be at church at 6pm. I was wrong. It took four hours to make six of the things. The nice thing is that Cyndi and Kathleen spent a lot of time talking while Basil and I worked in the kitchen. It was also nice to use the copper and ceramic double boiler I bought for Cyndi a decade ago.

The Clay Target Team

I don't think I've mentioned this before: I'm the coach of my school's clay target team. Late last month Basil went with me to Nevada to buy ammo and we got stuck in a giant record-breaking snowstorm. It took us 19 hours to get from Reno to San Jose, a drive that normally takes 5 or 6 hours.

Yesterday was the team's first practice. They did better than I expected and they had a lot of fun.

In other news: Anselm Samuel's submarine put into port in Guam a couple of days ago. They were not there long. Only about 30 hours; just long enough to load up on food and head back out to sea. I spoke to him briefly. He sounded very tired.

A Day in Napa

Kathleen and I went to see Ottmar Liebert and Luna Nega at the Blue Note in Napa yesterday. It was much fun to see in person a band I first heard of back in 1994 when Columbia House sent me a CD. It is very rare that I go to a live music performance but I really like very much Ottmar Liebert's music. It was surpising to see him as an old man. The only picture I had ever seen of him was on the CD cover from 30 years ago. But I just saw my old drives license from back then and I'm old now, too.

The Blue Note was a nice place. I would not be opposed to seeing other performers there, but it is a long drive from San Jose. If I go to Napa again I'll stay overnight in a hotel.

Feeling Better

Kathleen, Basil, and I were sick for the whole month of January. Basil had covid. Kathleen the flu that turned into bronchitis. I just had fevers aches and pains. It has been tough going to work every day but neither of us can get subs to cover for us; Kathleen because she is on special assignment from her school district and me because I teach at a private school. Two days ago, on the(Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee) was the first time since Christmas we've been to confession and communion.

In other news: Work is going well. Three of my students were inducted into the National Honor Society and I have three students signed up for the clay target shooting team (Yes, there is a state-wide high school league) of which I am the coach. .

The Past

Fifty three years ago, August 1969 to be more exact, my biological mother was murdered. Until tonight I never knew her name. Her name was Cletha.

The Sixth Day of Christmas

The festivities have been beautiful. We missed Royal hours on Friday but Vigil on Saturday and Divine Liturgy on Sunday were greatly joyful. A fun thing is that our friend Rowan from church joined us for Christmas dinner. It was just Kathleen, Basil, Rowan, and I for Christmas dinner. And the dinner itself was simple compared to past Christmas dinners: Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, peanut butter pie, cranberry walnut pie, fruitcake, au gratin potatoes, and Brussels sprouts, a port wine cheese ball, and pheasant pâté made from pheasants we shot.

On the second day of Christmas Kathleen and I went to Lake Pillsbury in the Mendocino National Forest to shoot wood ducks. But we saw no wood ducks but we saw tule elk. One bull had a harem of more than sixty cows and a huge set of antlers. No, we didn't shoot any of the elk. They are protected and rare. We stayed at lake Pillsbury three nights. There was lots and lots of rain.

Now we are back in San Jose and are preparing for the next semester. It will by my first time teaching economics. I'm excited.

Two nights till Christmas

Wednesay was they last day of the semester. The only Christmasy things I did with my students were that in the last few days of the semester I read Tony's Bread to them one day and cut up pannetone for them. None of them had ever tasted it so that was fun. And I read The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomy (I don't like the second edition as much as the first. The first had bigger pages.)to them on another day. That had 1/2 the class crying. And then, on Finals Week (only three days, actually.) I gave them all a copy of In Hoc Anno Domini from the Wall Street Journal.

Basil came over a few different times during Advent and helped me bake fruit cakes. I gave one to each of the eleven other teachers at my school, and just this morning, mailed off a bunch of them to friends and family all over the country. And he came over and helped my grind and stuff the Christmas sausage. He is such a good boy.

I was going to go to Royal Hours at the cathedral in San Francisco tonight but I have too much to do. I have two pies in the oven, presents to wrap, and a pheasant pâté to make tonight.

About a week before my son Anselm's boat left for the deep blue sea, I sent three fruitcakes with instructions not to open until Christmas, to the skipper of the boat. One for the skipper, one for the COB, and one for Anselm Samuel. I hope they got to him before they left port. Oh, well. I have been told that if they didn't get to the boat before it left San Diego they will be waiting for them at their next port of call.

Finals Week

It is late Monday night in Finals Week. I gave the Final Exam to my civics (mostly political philosophy and economics in the Fall semester) and A.P. Government students today. They did pretty well. I am happy for them. They all turned in the term papers last Friday. One girl did an amazing job. I think her paper is publishable, and I'm going to send it off to a journal and see if I can't help her get sonme serious attention. Her research and synthesis abilities are amazing. She would be such an amazing politics scholar or historian but she wants to major in math or chemistry. Maybe, if I can get her published I can convince her to pursue philoshopy. Probably not though. She is Singaporean and her parents want her to get a B.S. in Chemistry and then go to Med school or get into a bio-chem Ph.D. program.

I've been pheasant hunting twice since Thanksgiving. I have a freezer full of dead birds but one was so beautiful I am having it taxidermied. Sadly, I had no idea that dry ice is considered a hazardous material and that I would have to pay mucho dinero to ship the bird to the taxidermist in Idaho because of the dry ice. I think I would have spent less mony if I had hired someone local. Oh well. Live and learn.

Saturday night (this is Monday night) Kathleen's niece spent the night with us. She is a single mother, has a drug problem, and some mental health problems on top of that. It is difficult to know how to help her. We would adopt her baby but as long as she has him the State of Claifornia pays her money so she won't give him up. I am vey worried about that little boy. Tonight Basil and Kathleen helped me make the Christmas sausage. It is something we have been doing since Basil was a little boy of only 3 or 4 years. He is 17 now. Wow, where have the years gone?

Well, in the morning I have to give final exams to my U.S. History classes. I'd better get to bed.

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.

Pheasant Shooting

It was a busy week. Basil had school (student), I had school (teacher), and Kathleen had school (teacher). Yesterday, Veterans Day we did not do our usual activities. Instead, I slept all day, Kathleen did stuff with her kids, and Basil did homework.

Today the three of us went pheasant hunting. The dogs were not doing their job; acting more like pets than working dogs, but we each got one pheasant. Later we had lunch in the clubhouse and Kathleen picked out a new shotgun. All our shotguns are a little bit to big for her so she tried out this Syren and really like it. Now I just need to save up the money for it.

Well the timer on the oven just went off so I better take the pheasant out.

Fruitcakes and civilization

Kathleen and I made 10 more fruitcakes today. We were going to go pheasant hunting but it was raining this morning so we decided to stay home and bake. The house smells beautiful; like cinnamon, butter, and whiskey.

Last week it dawned on me that in my world history class (we have been reading the about the pagan world; the Indians, the Japanese, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Akkadians, the Incas, the Nubians, the Minoans etc.) that the whole pre-Christian world (except the Hebrews), all of them practiced human sacrifice and canibalism. Right now we are on ancient Greece and we have just finished reading Hesiod's Theogony, a gruesome tale of murder, incest, infanticide, cannibalism, rape, and war. I think we will be right up to Caesar Augustus in early December. And then I will assign my world history students the Gospel of Mark. I didn't plan it this way but isn't it amazing to be able to make the transition from the horrors of the demon-ruled pagan history to the Christ-filled history of the years of our Lord right at Christmas time.

So much news.

Well, dear reader, there is much that goes on in life. I'll start with work, which is going wonderfully. I teach two sections of U.S. history, and one section each of civics, world history, and A.P. goverrnment. It is so much fun I can hardly stand it. Here is an example: In my civics class I have had my students read Aristotle, Cicero, John Locke, parts of Isaiah, all of Judges, and the first two chapters of Forest McDonalnd's Novus Ordo Seclorum. I was going to have them read the third chapter, which deals with the economic ideas underpinning the American Revolution and our ConstItution but I realized that most of my students don't have the background to understand that chapter. So, what are we doing? We are reading childrens books together! Yes! I read A Year at Maple Leaf Farm to them and had them identify every instance of production, consupmption, capital preservation, life preservation, and conservation of natural resources. Then we did the samething with The Ox Cart Man but this time I told them to keep in mind John Locke's discusions of property, waste, savings, and surplus. Then, on Friday I assigned each of them one of Laura Ingalls Widler's Little House books and assigned them a 10 page essay (in Chicago Style) on the economic ideas contained in the books. And in addition to the classes I teach I am the faculty advisor to the gardening club and the internatinal relations club. It is just so much fun!

My son Basil Wenceslas (I think I mentioed in a previous post that the graduated from high school two years early) just registered for twoclasses (U.S. history and U.S. government) at EVCC. He says he is prepearing for transfer to the Maritime Academy but he just turned 17 and his plans might change. Also, he is my hunting buddy. We go pheasant hunting on Saturdays.

I have cooked two pheasants and pheasant sausauge, and have smoked pheasants in the fridge. The only thing is that I don't enjoy running the dogs. I think from now on I'll leave that to Kathleen. I can't manage the dogs and shoot at the same time, and she likes running the dogs and is better at it than I am. Basil just likes shooting and then rewarding the dogs when they bring him the pheasants.


Anselm has a girlfriend. I haven't met her but Athanasia has has met her and says the girl, (Woman actually, she is a 23 year old speech therapist.) is good to our son. But Anselm is about to go on a 7 month mission and we will see if the relationship will last; 7 months is a long time to a 23 year old.

I am making 12 more fruitcakes today. This brings the total up to 30. It is much fun and is probably my favorite Christmas tradition. I think I have enough dried fruit to make another 16 but I'll Not make them today; maybe next week. It is hard to believe I've been doing this for 11 years. While I am baking thim I am listening to a recording of the Fireside Christmas Stories. It isn't even Advent yet but I am already enjoying Christmas.

Pheasants and Fruit Cakes

The last two Satudays I have been pheasant hunting. Kathleen and I went the first Saturday. We came home with four. Then the second Saturday, Basil went with me and we got three. I've roasted two, had three truned into sausage by the club butcher, and have two in the freezer.

LAst Saturday afternoon, after pheasant shooting, Basil and I made 8 fruit cakes. I just got off work and we are going to make 14 more.

A new high school graduate

Six days ago my youngest son, Basil Wenceslas completed all the requirements to graduate from high school. Two years early. He did it by being co-enrolled in college and transferring the college credits to his high school. He worked hard and I am very proud of him.

To celebrate we got together and made this pork loin recipe. It was amazing.

A Fundraiser

I am raising money for my class. My students need so much stuff! Books, maps, a pencil sharper, etc. Most of the parents of the kids I teach are not wealthy and are stuggling just to pay the tuition. I've been using books from my own library but the students really need access to classroom sets of several important history, philosophy, and econoomics texts. For that reason I have started a GoFundMe page. If you think you can help, please click here.

A Joyful Day!

Today Basil Wenceslas, who has been suffereing from Long Covid, was well enough to return to Church. It was his first time to be in Church since Holy Week. He was exhausted by the end of Communion and we left before the Prayers of Thanksgiving but he was there. I am much relieved and very happy.

Planning Classes

All day Friday, all Day Saturday, and all night to this very moment all I have been doing is planning my World History Class. From Sargon of Akkad to the Global Communist Conspiracy I think I have covered all the highlights. Oh, my poor students. They had better be good readers. Now I have to get in bed and get a sleep before I get up for church in three hours.

Update on my children

My son, Anselm Samuel has been on a couple of short training missions, each one only a few days, aboard the U.S.S. Hampton. They were just off the coast of California for the short missions and all they did was test equipment and run through some drills. Today he told me they are leaving for a real mission (I didn't ask what it is because I know he can't tell me.) in a couple of weeks and will be gone until after Christmas.

My son, Basil Wenceslas is doing better. Last night he went out of the house with some friends for the first time in months. When I called him about 11 p.m. to read Exodus together he was whiped out and feeling exhausted by the exertion of going to a movie but I am just so happy he was able to get out of bed and go outside!!!

Truth Is Truth No Matter Who Says It

I wish this were an Orthodox preacher but like a bee I'll take nectar where I can find it. From minute 9 through minute 20 is the best explanation of the reality of the bread and wine truly being the Body and Blood of Jesus. Following that he goes down list of some of the Church Fathers of the first 3 centuries, including Ss. Ignatius, Justin, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Chrysostom.

On a personal note, I remember when I was about 11 or 12 years old hearing, as though for the first time, my Dad do a communion service in Ukiah, California. Like most of the pastors in that denomination at that time, he read St. Paul's words from I Corinthinans 11:23-26, and when I heard the words I was astounded. And I was confused when I tried to reconcile those words with that denomination's teaching that the bread and grape juice are not really the Body and Blood of Jesus. I mean, we were Protestants and our whole religion was supposed to be based on the Bible (I first learned the Five Solas when I was 10 years old at Sunnyvale Christian School.), and we weren't just Protestants, we were Pentecostals who believed miracles and in the literal interpretation of the Bible. Why would we not interpret "this is my body" and "this is my blood" literally? Why would we think God couldn't do this miracle? The disagreement between the words I heard from St. Paul and the teaching of my denomination made no sense to me. It is no wonder I became Orthodox when Orthodoxy found me.

David McCullough, Dead

I was just looking up something for work (I'm dealing with the close of the western frontier right now) and saw this very sad news. David McCullough was one of the most important historians of America who ever lived. I mentioned on this blog one time that there are different schools of history. In the late 20th and early 21st Centuries there was no more powerful proponent - all the more powerful because he was quiet about it - of the proviential school of historiography, that idea held by some historians that Providence guides history. We are richer for the work he did. We are poorer because of his death. Memory Eternal!

I do not often post sermons on my blog but when I do...

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!

What We Call Fun at Our House

Fun thing #1: Basil was feeling well enough to get out of bed yesterday. We sat at the table and played three games of 7 Wonders and two games of Go. (I am a 30th degree white belt. The boys laugh every time I remind them of that.) He is paying for it today, however. He has not been able to get out of bed at all today.

Fun thing #2: Kathleen and I are both history, government, and economics teachers, and we have been sitting in the living room most of the day with computers on and surrounded by books as we plan out our courses, share sources, write syllabi, and refine lectures.

A Day Off

Until today all I'd been doing since Friday was reading textbooks and preparing for the coming school year. While reading the McClay history textbook (mentioned in my post) I came accross a small error so I looked up McClay's email and sent him the information he needs so he can fix the error in the second edition. He wrote back. It turns out he is a really neat guy. We are getting together later this year.

Today, Kathleen and I went to the Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Scott Creek Beach. I think it was the first time I've been to that beach since my boys were little. Scott Creek Beach, Waddell Creek Beach, and Bonny Doon Beach were the beaches I used to take them to all the time. It was Kathleen's first time at Scott Creek Beach.

There were lots of kite surfers today. Just before we came home the dog dug up a large crab, shook it ferrociosly, ripped it to pieces, and rolled in it. The smell in the car was horrible. We stopped at dog wash and got him all cleaned up before we let him in the house.

It was fun reading about Righteous Gamaleil today. As I was reading about him today I learned that he was a famous rabbi and the Jews still cite some of his decisions. I wonder how many secret Christians there are today. My guess is many.

This is thesecond day of the Dormition Fast. I am always surpised about hw good the food is. Also, meal prep and clean up is much easier when there is no meat, fish, dairy, or oil. I did make some vegan pesto for Katleen yesterday (Yesterday was an oil day. I don't know why.) I don't like pesto but she does so I made it for her.
A normal pesto recipe has five ingredients: fresh basil, Pamagiano Regiano, olive oil, fresh garlic, and pine nuts. To make it vegan, and thereby fast-friendly, all you have to do is leave out the cheese, add a little salt and, bingo, you have vegan pesto.

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.

American History and the Divine Liturgy

Yesterday and today all I did was go page by page through a history book writing down questions for class discussions. I'm using three different texts for my history classes, which star in two weeks. The book I've been in all of Friday and yesterday is Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story by Wilfred McClay. I don't really like history textbooks which are written by committes, and read like they were written by comittees. In general, monograph narratives of specific events such as Patriots: The Men who Started the American Revoluiton by A.J. Lannguth which only deal with the American Revolution and The Second Work War by Winston Churchill are much better, having been written by experts, having one point of view with which the reader can grapple, and having lots of footnotes so the reader can see what the author's sources are. History textbooks for highschool try to cover so much in so few pages that it is difficult to really know anything, there is often no point of view, and they always lack footnotes.

What McClay has done, however, is really good. Land of Hope might be the best history text book I have ever read. It has a point of view, e.g. America is good but flawed and we are still struggling to perfect it, so let's be thankful for the past, hopeful for the future, and get to work living lives worthy of our ancestors' hopes for us. Land of Hope is written in such a way that even though it doesn't go into much detail about anything it leaves you wanting to read more. Sadly, there are no footnotes but for those who want to go deeper into the knowledge of the people and events McClay wrote about there is, in the back of the book, a four page list of the kinds of history books I prefer to read. And finally, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story is one long flowing narrative, which is in itself, a huge improvement over every highschool history textbook I have ever read. I think my students will learn much from it.

Today I went to the Divine Liturgy at Saint Stephen Orthodox Church in Campbell, California. My parish, Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church in Saratoga has been hit by Covid-19, and both the priest and choir director are suffering. After liturgy I ate an ommelette and took a nap. Now I have to get back to preparing for the semester.

A Vacation, a Job, and My Youngest Son

Last week Kathleen and I went fishing on the Rogue River in Oregon. I caught no fish but Katheleen caught a beautiful steelhead smolt. I cleaned it and cooked it for her. On the way to Oregon we stopped in the charming little town of Winters. Then we drove on to Red Bluff, at the north end of the Central Valley where we spent the night. While we were there someone stole our anchor off the the trailer. I had read it was a high crime area but I never would have thought someone would steal an anchor. We drove past Mount Shasta (I had never seen it. Wow! It is amazing. Even in July the peak was covered with snow.) It was fun going over the Siskayou Pass. After Passing Mount Shasta we stopped in Yreaka to mail postcards to the kids. I talked to the postmaster and saw something interesting. She sprayed my money with a chemical that neutralizes meth and cocaine. She said that cocaine isn't a problem in the area but meth is everywhere. Cute town, though.

When we got to the Rogue River we had to go get a new anchor. The owner of the Rogue River Boat Shop was friendly and helpful. And then one of the fishing reels broke. I bought some new ones. They are better than the old ones. Talked with the owner of Bradbury's for a long time. He was an MP in the Army a few years before I enlisted. He gave me the fishing line for free and gave me some good information about fishing on the Rogue River, mainly, that I was there at the wrong time of year and that I shouldn't expect to catch anything. We stayed there four nights. The river was beautiful.

On the way home we stopped in Yreka again and had a picnic at the Greenhorn Reservoir Park. Deer walked within 30 feet of us. The dog almost died trying to break his leash to get to them but the deer didn't care.

On Monday I applied for a job teaching history, government, and economics at a private school in San Jose. I interviewed on Tuesday. On Wednesday I found out I got the job. Later this afternoon I'll go in to fill out all the HR paperwork. On Monday of next week I'll start training to get AP certified.

Basil is still very sick from having Covid back in April. He has many of the long covid symptoms but the doctors do not seem to know what to do. It is very alarming. Please, pray for him.

A Trip to Reno.

I went to Reno for one night, just to buy ammo for rabbit and pheasant hunting. The shortage in California is severe and the prices are sky high. The prices are almost as bad in Nevada but, at least, they had some for sale. I like Nevada.

How are my kids?

Anselm reported to his submarine, the U.S.S. Hampton last Friday. (Today is Wednesday). He drove all the way to my house from Connecticut. He had a fun drive out. He drove by Ft. McHenry in Maryland to see where the battle that inspired the Star Spangled Banner was faught. He visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Tennessee. He visited the Petrefied Forest in Arizona. He camped in national parks and forests to sleep at night and pocketed the money the Navy gave him for hotels. He stayed with Kathleen and I for about 12 days. We went fishing and clay shooting. He served as the sponsor for Katheen's son when he was baptized. My sister and brother-in-law came over for dinner. He bought a surf board he found on craigslist.org for $50 and tried to learn to surf but the board is too small for him.

Basil is still very sick from covid. He has all the long covid symptoms and is miserable. I go over to his mom's house where we pray the hours and play chess. He beats me all the time now.

Repentance

Without comment I offer you these two stories.

News from the World

News from the Church

Judicial Review

It is June and that means the Supreme Court of the United States is announcing it's decisions. Another one was handed down this morning and that prompted one pundit I heard on the radio to opine that the Constitution does not give the Supreme Court as much power as it currently exercizes, meaning the Court does not have the power to limit or abolish the legislation passed by the Congress and signed into law by the President. In short, according to the man on the radio, judical review is an unconstitutional agrandizement of the Supreme Court that began with Marbury vs. Madison in 1803. Over the course of my life I have heard many people say the same thing, that Chief Justice John Marshal invented the power and foisted it on the American people in the Marbury vs. Madison decision, and that the Congress and the President should resist the Supreme Court's usurpation with patriotic vigor. Strangely, even the U.S. judiciary's official website goes with the Marbury vs. Madison origin story. I think this is wrong.

Just as I look to the authoress of the New Testament to expalin the New Testament, I look to the authors of the Constitution, reveranlty called "The Framers", to the Founding Fathers, and the Patriots to explain the Constitution. And among The Framers, Founders, and Patriots, three stand out as explainiers of the Constitution: John Jay, (Member of the Continental Congress, writer of the Olive Branch Petition, ambasador to Spain during the American Revolution, signer of the Treaty of Paris, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Governor of New York, and founding member and first Vice President of the American Bible Society), James Madison (colonel in the Orange County militia, drafter of the Constitution, 4th President of the United States, and respondent in the case of Marbury vs. Madison), and Alexander Hamilton (founding member of the Hearts of Oak militia, officer in the Continental Army, member of the Congress of the Confederation, delegate to the Constitutional Convention, founder of the Bank of New York which is now known as BNY Mellon Bank, founder of the New York Post, and first United States Secretary of the Treasury, and founder of the U.S. Coast Guard) After the Constitution was written, debated, and passed by the delegates it was sent to the 13 States for ratification. It was a touch and go thing as one State, Rhode Island was totally against the Constitution and several were on the fence. Many of the Founding Fathers and Patriots were opposed to ratification and lead a campaign against the ratification. But these three, Madison, Hamilton, and Jay gave themselves the task of convincing the people of New York to ratify the Constitution. They wrote a series of essays for publication in the various nwespapers in New York, that explained and defended the Constitution to the New Yorkers. The essays are now called Federalist Papers.

In Federalist Paper #78, published in the New York Packet 17-20 June 1788, Alexander Hamilton explained the judicial branch of the new Constitution, and was not ambiguous about the Supreme Court's power to define the limits of Congress's power to make laws, and that the Supreme Court is a buffer between the Congress and the People who have to live under the Congress's laws.

"If it is said that the legislative body is themselves the constitutional judges of their own powers and that the construction they put upon them is conclusive upon the other departments, it may be answered, that this cannot be the natural presumption, where it is not to be collected from any particular provisions in the Constitution. It is not otherwise to be supposed, that the Constitution could intend to enable the representatives of the people to substitute their will to that of their constituents. It is far more rational to suppose, that the courts were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and the legislature, in order, among other things, to keep the latter within the limits assigned to their authority.

Furthemore, that the Supreme Court is the final barrier to legilative tyrrany, interpretting the laws pased by the Congress and judging them according to the Constitution, the Constitution being superior to any act of Congress.

If there should happen to be an irreconcilable variance between the two, that which has the superior obligation and validity ought, of course, to be preferred; or, in other words, the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents. . . .where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental. . . [W]henever a particular statute contravenes the Constitution, it will be the duty of the judicial tribunals to adhere to the latter and disregard the former.

Thus we see that the authors of the Constitution considered the doctrine of judicial review to be fundamental to the Supeme Court's role in our government, and, therfore judicial review should not be though of as an arrogancy of Chief Justice John Marshall only invented in 1803.

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.

Gun Laws

I used to sell guns. I know something about gun laws. I have refused to sell guns to people who were intoxicated, who failed back ground checks, or just seemed a little bit weird. I have sold guns to transvetites who feared for their safety, to brand new citizens thankful for freedom, old women who lived alone and were afraid at night, to hunters who traveled the world looking for trophies, and to collectors of specific brand names or designers. I know someting about what the American people think about guns.

Over the last few days I have heard politicians making absolutely crazy statements. I have heard bans proposed for guns that don't exist. I heard the President claim that a 9mm bullet can rip a lung out of a human body. (It is physically impossible) I heard the President say that when the Constitution was written a person couldn't buy a cannon. (In reality, up until the 19th century more cannons were owned by private citizens than by the United States government. Even the Washington Post knows this, and they pointed it out over a year ago but the President keeps lying.) I hard a lawmaker describe a gun that holds a 17 cartridges as having a "high magazine capacity clip" which tells me that the lawmaker has never held a gun or read a gun operator's manual. I've heard politicians call for increased and expanded background checks instead of just enforcing the laws already on the books, such as putting the President's son in prison for lying on his background check form. I heard a congresswoman call for the banning of 9mm pistols, as though they are more deadly than 10mm, .45 calibre, .44 calibre, and .38 calibre pistols. All of this does not mean that I am opposed to changing some laws to reduce the number of murders.

Here are some facts which inform my ideas for changes to the law:

1. According to the U.S. Department of Justice "Seventy percent of violent felons had a prior arrest record, and 57% had at least one prior arrest for a felony. Sixty-seven percent of murderers and 73% of those convicted of robbery or assault had an arrest record."

2. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinguency Prevention, the young are responsible for most violent and physically dangerous crime.
2a. 28% of vandalism is commited by people under the age of 21. 12% by poeople 21-24.
2b. 26% of arson is committed by people under the age of 21. 8% by people 21-24
2c. 26% of car theft is committed by people under the age of 21. 12% by people 21-24
2d. 24% of murder and non-negligent manslaughter is committed by people under the age of 21. 17% by people 21-24.
2e. 39% of robbery is committed by people under the age of 21. 14% by people 21-24.

3. I have observed that somewhere between 10% and 30% of teenage boys hate school. I do not mean they dislike it. I mean they utterly hate it. It does nothing but tell them that they are failures and treats them like they are in prison or a mental

hospital. School turns these boys into defeatist anti-social malignancies, who have no regard for their neighbors or larger society. I hear these boys talking about illegal car racing, sideshows, getting high, and vandalism. Many of them seem to be attracted to the apparant freedom and power of gangs, whether those gangs are the Nortenos, Crips, or the Aryan Nation one thing they all have in common is that they disregard the "system" the boys experience as oppressive, and, vicariously (none of my students are actually in the gangs) make the boys feel successful.

4. Because they are legally adults 18 year olds can buy any gun offered for sale. Though some States have recently passed laws reguiring people to be 21 before they can buy handguns, those laws are sure to be stuck down by the Supreme Court on 2nd and 14th Amendment grounds.

5. Most Americans who die from guns are suicides.

6. Most mass shootings in schools are committed by boys under the age of 21.

7. If you can trust the sample survey methodology (I am always a little skeptical of statistical extrapolations.), an estimated 4.6 million American children live in a home where at least one gun is kept loaded and unlocked.

8. According to the F.B.I.s Crime Data Explorer in 2020 there were 17,813 homicides. Of those, 662 were committed by people using only their hands and feet as weapons, and only 455 were commited by people using rifles of any kind.

So what changes would I make to our laws if I could?

1. I would do away with compulsory academic education. If kids can't stand sitting behind a desk and doing mind-numbing worksheets and struggling to learn how to do quadratic equations don't force them to. Let them train to be heavy equipment operators, electricians, farriers, or anything else that involves physical labor. The teacher unions will hate it, just like they hate vocational education in highschools now. (Just try being a master machinest and getting a job teaching high school students to be machinists. You have to stop earning money, for at least, three years and go to college to get a degree, then work six months as a student teacher for no pay, then put up with all the educational beaurocracy bullshit. This is why the school I work at has two vacant vocational education teacher position open since September.) This will help get a lot of kids out of the place that feels like prison and into a place where they can grow and achieve, and hopefully, forestall the building of resentment and desperation that results in school shootings.

2. I would ammend the Constitution of the United States to make the age of majority 21. This will free the states to outlaw the purchase of some guns or all guns by people under the age of 21. Merely keeping guns out of the hands of the young will lower the death by gun rate.

3. Require that guns be stored in a safe, even if there are no children in the house. This will keep guns out of the hands of people who do not own them.

4. Because the vast majority of murderers have a history of felony violence convictions and people under 25 make up such a lage percentage of murderers, I would sentence violent criminals to 20 years for the first offense, no matter the age. BUT (this is a big but.) change the way the prison works. Instead of just locking people into giant concrete warehouses like we do now, assign the young men 12 to 25 to prisoner brigades that live in the rough out in the deserts of Arizona or Utah. Work them hard everyday. Subject them to something similar to the harsh military life of the late 18th/early 19th century. After a few years, after the inclination to bad behavior is worked out of them, train them in more skilled jobs, such as forestry, soldiering, and construction. After 20 years, or longer if their sentence is for more than 20 years, they will will be set free, and with a good recommendation, maybe, they can stay in the prisoner brigades as cadre instead of as prisoners. And even those who do not stay in the prisoner brigades and return to freedom will be older than the prime age for committing murder.

6. Boys and girls distract each other and change their behavior to show off for each other which lowers academic performance. Also, boys and girls, on average, have different academic strengths that are displayed in divergent patters of academic success , with boys on the losing end. Therefore, to keep boys from feeling humiliated in front of girls, which is a factor in school mass shootings, I would make all K-12 schools single-sex.

7. Because an armed society is a polite society, follow the example of Kennesaw, Georgia and require every head of household to be armed. Actually, I am joking about this, kind of. It makes me wonder, why is Kennesaw so much safer than Detroit when the gun ownership rate in Kennsaw if much much higher in than in Detroit? I don't think it's because of guns. I think its because of the cultural differences between those places.

8. Though the evidence linking mental illness to violent crime is sketchy the link between mental illness and suicide is well established. Expedite hearings for temporary removal of firearms from people for mental health reasons, that they are a danger to themselves or others. But I would want them represented by a court appointed lawyer if they can't afford their own, and be able to require the government to prove within a reasonable amount of time (48 hours to a week) that they are not okay in the head. I would want that decsion made by a jury, not by judges and psychologists. And I'd require the government to prove again the danger from the person possessing guns every thirty days or return them to the owner.

These changes won't stop all homicides but it might stop a lot of them.