Ironhold

There's a chance of rain starting tonight and going until Sunday afternoon. We actually *need* the rain, as we're in severe drought and the amount of rain we could get this weekend will go a long way to helping alleviate it.

There's a level of extreme paranoia in place. Some people are afraid that we've changed things up. Others are afraid that if people see we *didn't* change things up their flocks will realize we're not what they've been telling everyone we are.

Yeah, the only new mass release this weekend is "Sinners", about twin brothers from opposite sides of the law going back home and discovering that the place has been taken over by a cult. Fortunately, "The Amateur" is also being held over locally so I have that as an alternative to do for review.

"Sometimes, the easiest way to destroy someone is to just let them keep talking." - bit of internet advice. A lot of these "hate" groups and such were so very public in their actions through social media that it allowed everyone from local residents to watchdog groups to law enforcement the ability to see what they were doing and make plans accordingly. For example, at one point there were multiple channels on YouTube dedicated to cataloging the actions of these groups for the sake of providing information to the public about their activities. The crackdowns against these groups very often also snagged the watchdog groups and others who were trying to track & investigate them, and in general made it difficult for even law enforcement to continue tracking them. So as much as we might not like what Elon and others did by opening social media back up, it's actually allowed a greater level of surveillance and scrutiny while helping to remove the "forbidden fruit" aspects.

Check your local movie theaters. I just tried checking the site for my local multiplex. It was sluggish to load, as if they were still in the process of updating everything, but it seems that "King of Kings" is getting a second weekend.

I've seen individual observers suggest that Trump himself doesn't expect to survive long enough to finish his term, and in fact there's a popular internet meme claiming that Trump has only made it thus far because he's being protected from the other side by the late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. As it is, you've got to wonder what the events of the last 5+ years have done to Trump mentally.

OK. I saw it yesterday. From a Bible standpoint, it's basically the Cliffs Notes (C) version of the Gospels, which isn't surprising as it's meant to be a one-off family-accessible movie. From a movie standpoint, it's a masterpiece of voice acting and cinematography, which Hollywood should feel really bad about as it's putting a lot of their recent live-action releases to shame in that regards.

The college I was going to for graduate school was a branch campus of a larger network of colleges. As a result, many of my classes were actually virtual classes taught by professors located at one of the larger facilities. Well, one of my finance professors wanted us to do all of our homework and tests through a particular online portal operated by the publisher of the textbook. Given that I wasn't making a whole lot, I was buying my textbooks used. The professor was assuming that we were all buying our books new. Because he assumed that we were all buying brand-new textbooks, he neglected to inform us that each book when purchased new had an individualized access code that we would *specifically* need in order to access the *specific* content he was using for the course as we needed to use that code to register ourselves individually and get directed accordingly. It took several weeks and multiple e-mails - including a few to my academic advisor - for me to actually get through to him and explain to him that because I purchased my textbook used I didn't have that code and so didn't have access to the specific content. By this time, we were deep enough into the semester that if I tried to withdraw from the class it'd have been an automatic F under the college policy. Fortunately for me I'd made enough noise via my advisor that some of the upper echelon realized I was about to get messed over through no fault of my own and brought some thunder down upon that professor. This led to the college officials offering me a deal: I would get an "incomplete" for the class, a code they use to indicate situations where a person is forced to withdraw through no fault of their own and so shouldn't receive any sort of academic punishment provided they retake the course within a designated amount of time. They had already lined up a professor to teach that class in person at the branch campus the next semester, and so they would guarantee me a slot in his class. PS, that textbook and the online portal were about to go bye-bye for good. Problem is, that "incomplete" put me below the minimum threshold of credit hours needed in order to receive the aid, and because the system was automated nobody bothered to actually check to see if the appropriate exemption I should have gotten was put through. Well, it wasn't, and so by the time the financial aid department got the official notice from the computer that I no longer qualified for aid, it was too late for me to reapply or petition for reinstatement. I was thus stuck paying out of pocket for an entire academic year.

Oh that was pretty miserable at times too, but for far different reasons. ...Like how I had to pay for an entire year of B-school *completely out of pocket* because of a snafu on the part of the college's financial aid department which I wasn't notified about until it was too late for me to appeal it. That wasn't cheap, and I was paying for it on the wages I was making delivering newspapers.

When I was in high school I was half feral due to the combination of undiagnosed mental health issues and what was, for all intents and purposes, neglect. I only had a few friends, and they were all outcasts like me. Yet somehow, in spite of everything, it was still expected that I be the best at everything *and* follow perfectly in whatever plans were laid out for me. To this day I question if anyone other than the family cat we had at the time would have shed tears over me. This is why I loathed the movie so much, as even when I was at my lowest I still wouldn't have done what Evan did, nor would I have tried to use it as an excuse to justify anything. And yeah, he rather skated after everything he did when by all rights there should have been some sort of redemption arc in which he had to *earn* the goodwill of the community again after his lie was exposed.

Saw the movie version for review, and TBH I loathed every moment of it. My big thing is that Evan suffered no true negative consequences for his deception even though what he did was heinous and possibly even illegal since he used it to fundraise.

This Friday, there is going to be a new movie in theaters called "King of Kings". It's an animated faith-based movie in which a fictionalized version of Charles Dickens tells his son the story of Jesus. Check your local theaters to see if it's going to show up, as faith-based movies of this nature often don't last very long outside of major cities and/or massive multiplex facilities.

That's my point.

There's a song out there called "You're Gonna Go Far Kid" by The Offspring. It opens with the line "Show me how to lie / you're getting better all the time / and turning all against the one / is an art that's hard to teach" and goes from there; note that the version you hear on the radio is actually censored for airplay. I've tried to play that song for people, or at least show them the lyrics, as a way of explaining to them that years of having to deal *with* manipulative people & what I've learned about how to turn things around on them has basically trained me to do very horrible things to people. I can destroy someone through words alone, and back during the bad old days of the internet when people would come for my scalp just for being a member of the church I would do just that; I could actually tell when someone's sanity was on the verge of cracking and whether or not pressing my counter-attack would do the job. It's from this experience that I know how things are done, which is why I'm trying to warn people about how it can happen to them.

Whenever you're mocked like this, write it down in a notebook that you keep on your person for safety. Note who said it, what they said, when it was said, and if there are any witnesses who can confirm. Here in the United States we have a concept called "Hostile Work Environment", wherein the words and actions of individuals make the job site toxic and unsafe for people who are members of various protected groups... which include religious minorities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_work_environment Given how uptight the UK is compared to the US, you more than likely have some form of "Hostile Work Environment" regulations in place. If the company you work for doesn't have a human resources department, then look up your country's version of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. EEOC claims and the like do tend to burn bridges, but if these people are smarting off to you to their face they'd gladly do the same to others. Sometimes the only way they'll learn is if they face consequences. A good lawyer will likely be able to advise you on how to proceed under UK law, so it might be worth a few quid for a consultation.

It's not much better than littering leaving hate literature lying around in your wake as you go shopping. If you do, truly, really want to share the gospel, you first must be living your life in such a fashion that your life *is* a part of your testimony. This is because once people so much as come to suspect that you're a member, everything you say and do will be under scrutiny. You need to make it so that there's as little to hold against you as possible. That being said, you also need to understand discretion. There's a time and place to bring the church up in a conversation, and knowing the difference can make or break your efforts to talk to a person about it.

Remember, between my MBA training and what I got from the School of Hard Knocks I have a de facto minor in psychological warfare, with an emphasis on how to determine points of failure within a system. I was essentially trained to do the kind of thing he was warning about. That's why I'm doing what I can to warn people without coming off as the Boy Who Cried Wolf. As it is, a *lot* of people who identify as "educated", "woke", and "progressive" have chosen to ignore me because what I'm trying to tell them would force them to engage in the kind of self-reflection that by definition they feel they aren't required to do.

Organizers? The modern Antifa movement is shot through with anarcho-communists who believe that violence is an inevitable part of the "revolution" that will destroy capitalism and so they use that as an excuse to be violent. They fail to understand that their decision to engage in violence in order to suppress and destroy alternate viewpoints and those who express them makes them the fascists by default. One of the fastest ways to get an anarcho-capitalist screaming at you is to confuse them with an anarcho-communist, as anarcho-capitalists and anarcho-communists *hate* each other despite both being anarchists at heart. There's also no love lost between the anarcho-pacifists and the anarcho-communists.

Already seeing at least one individual on social media bringing the fire and brimstone because one of the speakers said missions were essentially a commandment. The person in question was calling anyone who didn't serve wicked, sinful, slothful, and the like, then started trolling anyone who called them out over the matter or noted that there are in fact valid reasons why some members might not be comfortable with wearing a name tag (such as being neurodivergent to the point that they'd struggle to function in a formal mission environment). I have a very bad feeling that this talk is going to be weaponized and do a lot of damage accordingly.

Even some atheists & agnostics I know have been forced to admit that a lot of today's "free-thinkers" are just as rigid and dogmatic in their beliefs as the more extreme religious types, and we're often hand-in-hand in trying to battle the ignorance & bigotry caused by this regardless of who it's from. But yeah, it's mostly the "progressive" and "intellectual" forces that are discouraging religion these days, especially if it's a religion that upholds traditional Western values and seeks accountability of its members. I've had more than a few self-described "progressive" types become unhinged when they learn I'm a member of the church, with several of them going on tirades about how if they had their way we'd all be erased from the planet.

During the 1950s, there was a moral panic triggered by the book "Seduction of the Innocent" in which the author made several very, very questionable claims about the societal effects of comic books, especially on minors. This resulted in the end of the "Golden Age" of comics and the rise of the "Silver Age" as the industry was forced to adopt the Comics Code Authority as an internal regulating body. The CCA was infamously strict and authoritarian in regards to what it did or didn't allow into print. As a consequence, several companies were forced to either transition their books from comics to magazines to escape CCA authority or take them out of print; EC Comics in particular faced this dilemma. Entire genres, like horror and true crime, were massively and negatively affected. Depending upon who you talk to, the CCA also inadvertently helped cull the ranks of superhero titles. Matters came to a head around the late 1960s when the United States government asked Marvel Comics to produce a comic warning the public about the dangers of substance abuse. Marvel responded by producing a Spider-Man story arc in which Peter must help someone he knows get out of the grip of addiction. But the CCA *refused* to certify the story arc as being CCA compliant because it depicted substance abuse, and when Marvel told the CCA they were doing it at the government's request the CCA officials responded with, in a nutshell, "Your problem; not ours". This led to Marvel choosing to run the story arc without the CCA stamp of approval, and this led to the CCA's spine being broken. DC would soon run their own anti-drug story arc not long after, and this time around it got a CCA stamp of approval, the result of the CCA having had to loosen their own restrictions in the wake of the controversy over Spider-Man. Before this, comics that didn't get the approval of the CCA were only available in "underground" venues or at dedicated comic shops that weren't devoted to CCA approval; these "comix" often pushed the boundaries in regards to content. Once it became clear that the CCA's spine was broken, both "comix" publishers and indies who wanted to explore more mature themes had a field day. By the late 1970s / early 1980s, even mainstream comic shops were now stocking comics that lacked CCA stamps, allowing customers a variety of product akin to what used to be available during the Golden Age. In response, Marvel and DC began to get a bit darker and bolder in their content and themes... while also attempting to launch all-ages spin-offs like Marvel's Star Comics to ensure that kids could still have "safe" content to read. Things came to a head in the 1990s, what many people like myself regard as the "Extreme" Age. In the very late 1980s companies like Image emerged that made it a point to push all boundaries they could, and as these companies often employed veteran writers & artists who had followings people eagerly got on board. This is when the content of comics really went overboard, but even then you still had all-ages fare from companies like Archie. Problem was, the industry itself went to extremes in regards to gimmicks, movie deals, TV deals, and the like, causing an industry collapse near the end of the decade. As part of the collapse, most major publishers ceased handling their own distribution and instead gave Diamond a de facto monopoly on comic distribution. Diamond began pulling back from mass retail to focus on comic book shops and book store chains, setting in motion the dominos that would cause the fall of the comic book shop as people started to forget that comic books even existed. Fast forward to the present. The Big Six -> Marvel, DC, IDW, Dark Horse, Image, and Archie -> are so mired in controversy and have so completely lost sight of who and what they were that their content is largely unreadable even if one could afford the $4 - $5 an issue cover price. This is also affecting a lot of the B-list publishers. And even if the content was worth the price, far too many writers, artists, and editors behave in such publicly unprofessional ways that a lot of folks don't feel morally comfortable handing their money over. This has led to a surge in popularity of Japanese, South Korean, and indie-produced titles, which tend to stick to the classic themes, typically have more classical tales & virtues, and have systems of accountability in place to ensure that the professionals in the industry maintain professional behavior at all times. In fact, since September of 2017 there's been a bit of a civil war within the US comic book industry, with the "Comicsgate" movement arising as a response to the excesses of the industry to encourage people to vote with their wallets & create the indie content they want to see. Comic shops are still dying faster than they're being born, however, to the point that most cities no longer have their own dedicated comic shop. The entire industry needs reforms to stop the collapse, including a deliberate return to mass retail in order to encourage people to seek out their local comic shops.

A lot of Japanese works have a sort of "hero's journey" concept undergirding everything. The central character is someone who is put in a hard situation, usually through no fault of their own. Even though most people would forgive them for giving up and fading away, the character pushes themself in order to grow and develop what skills and traits they do have, along the way gaining sympathy for others from their trials. Because they've kept working and pushing, when the call to action comes they're well able to answer it. It's not easy, but they do just well enough for themselves that they begin gaining a level of esteem. This esteem, however small, is enough for them to start gathering a group of friends and mentors, possibly even including a lover. With their help and encouragement, the central character is able to overcome the increasing challenges they face as they try to reach their ultimate goal. In the process they build their relationships with these individuals, and possibly even make it official with their love interest(s). This sends the message that if a person works hard, cultivates good characteristics, and seizes opportunity as it comes, they too can be a hero. You'll see everything from romantic comedies to science fiction to high fantasy using this formula. Pick up a lot of the pop culture material created in the United States and what you'll see... is anything *but* this formula. A lot of modern-day hero characters didn't earn their call to action, let alone the perks that came with answering the call. Meanwhile, solid, stable, romantic relationships are being spat upon by people whose own relationships failed utterly or who can't get a relationship going and so are cynical about the entire idea. And of course the classic virtues and classic ideals of heroism are being rejected outright in the belief that nobody could match that ideal so there's no point in even bothering. I think you can understand why a lot of folks are preferring what Japan's cranking out to what the mainstream US studios are cranking out.

Also - Right now, the US entertainment industry is such a flaming mess that a lot of people are seeking out foreign-produced entertainment, especially comic books, simply because the foreign-produced material is seen as being of better quality and more entertaining on the whole. I wonder how much of our trade deficit is people spending money on foreign-produced content.

The Secret Service behaved in *such* an incompetent fashion, such as by not inspecting or securing that roof despite it being plainly visible, that there are conspiracy theories about whether or not the attempt was allowed to happen, especially since agents who had originally been intended to be there got pulled away at the last minute for a Biden event. Not helping matters any is all of the Democrats who insisted that the incident was staged because Trump was up and around soon after; in their eyes, he wasn't injured enough for it to have been a real attempt, and they had no comeback for the civilian who had been killed. Things are only going to get worse before they get better. That's the one guarantee we have right now.

What happened was that in the 1960s Detroit got complacent. Even with Volkswagen, Renault, and other European car manufacturers slowly moving into the United States the Big Three truly believed that they were untouchable. As part of this, they utterly ignored and rejected the various efficiency experts that came in to try and explain what and how they could improve everything. Well, those efficiency experts went to Japan, where the automakers there were quite eager to hear about these new proposals. Couple this with a variety of other factors going on, like the difference between the yen & dollar, and by the late 1970s Japan was flooding the United States with competitively priced vehicles that were often just as good as, if not better than, their American counterparts. By the time Detroit actually managed to come back with better-quality vehicles, it was too late and the Japanese companies had gotten a permanent foothold. As it is, I'm presently chipping my way through Lee Iacocca's "Talking Straight", and he devotes an entire chapter in there to warning about the nation's growing trade imbalances, especially with how countries like Japan put up barriers and whatnot to make it difficult for American products to be sold abroad. This was 1987 when the book was published, so it's been an known issue for nearly 40 years now. Trump, it seems, is trying to force a resolution of some sort, but he is doing it in a rather ham-fisted fashion.