Damned Politics

Ya know, when I started writing my St. Tommy NYPD novels, I didn't exactly think that I would be writing future events.

Take book one, Hell Spawn.

It had an offhand, casual mention of Black Lives Matter after our hero arrests a serial killer. The Serial killer is in the "right" profession and thus call out BLM,... because reasons.

There were, of course, reviewers who cringed that I even mentioned BLM.

I wonder if their thoughts on the matter would change any now?

We won't even go into what I did to the mayor, or the death cult. I just figured I would have the mayor as an idiot that concealed a truly darker side to the office. (no spoilers). But Death Cult came out only three months before NY states' Moloch bill. (I forget, does that include killing children ten days after birth?)

And, of course, I do expect social media to "fact check" my sarcasm, telling me that it wasn't called the Moloch Bill, blah blah blah.

Then de Blasio goes and shows exactly how much of a pure f***ing psychopath **he** really is. Here I thought he was just a moron and a thief. Now he wants to destroy the entire city. 

The endgame of the first trilogy is being enacted on the streets of New York city this very minute with this stupid catch and release "bail reform: nonsense

And since I wanted to get away from politics for later books, I didn't even want to touch the governor's office.

Then Cuomo goes and shows that, yes, he's a straight up f***ing mass murderer.

I mean, really guys? I mean, in 2019 I thought that my darkest dreams could not conceive of something so twisted and evil that the Democrats would not put it on their platform.

But killing off the elderly? Not even assisted suicide, or euthanasia, or any of the nice terms they like to throw around. But straight up bio-warfare the old fashioned way.

I mean, good God, last year I came out with Crusader: sex trafficking run by a succubus in conjunction with Jihadis.

This year: is there any Leftist who isn't a supporter of Epstein's client list?

The slippery slope used to be "gay marriage to pedophilia" (which took five years).

Now it's "close the churches" to "burn the churches" in five MONTHS.

I think I preferred it when I could at least imagine that they were misguided idiots instead of straight up fiends from the pit.

It used to take full on wartime propaganda to dehumanize the enemy to such a state that we perceived them as something so monstrous and alien that we didn't even blink at killing them.

Now all I have to do is listen to what comes out of their mouths.

.... This is the point where I should mention that you should vote in the Dragon Awards before this Sunday, here's My Dragon Award ballot is here and here is where you should vote. But I don't feel like doing PR today.

Oh Corona

Over the fourth of July weekend, illegal fireworks went off from about twelve different sites around my home.

It was probably New Yorkers telling Mayor de Blasio to go fuck himself.

That Sunday, I went to church, where the pastor, another spineless eunuch, held a public service announcement about social distancing, and not a mass worshiping Jesus Christ.

I am sick to death of an asshole I didn't vote for, telling me how to worship. 

I'm even more pissed off about my bishops, who are more concerned about being invited to the right parties than about tending to their flocks.

With my family I joked about crowdfunding an assassination of a few mayors and a few bishops. The response was less of a laugh and more of an "I'm afraid that you'd make money."

It's gotten so bad that I've had people suggest running for public office in New York.

It's so bad, I'm considering it.

I want to violate every mask regulation on a daily basis. The only reason I don't is because the jackbooted thugs have closed down the few places I like going. For once in my life, I've gone to my nearby parks, just so I can go somewhere and flaunt the mask laws.

Mercifully, my local cops are more concerned about riots than masks. 

Speaking of Black Lives Matter, don't you like their political privileges? After months of Jews being denied the quorum required for services (a minion is ten people-- De Blasio capped gatherings at 9) and funerals and masses being denied, BLM can go riot without masks on or social distancing, and wreck whole city streets without consequence.

Talk to me again about white privilege? 

Fuck it. I'm done for right now.

While I think about it, please remember to vote in the Dragon Awards. The nominations period is up on July 19th -- this Sunday.

My Dragon Award ballot is here.

Voting is here.

Top ten blogs of all time (2020)

Once upon a time, I used to do this every hundred posts or so. But last year, I was busy with the books, and remembering to do a mailing list when I  could, and self-publishing novels. 

These are the most popular blogs of all time. I can't even tell you how most people found them. But people have liked them. A lot. 

And if you're new here, this will give you a sample of what it's like to be here on a regular basis.

Here we go.



10) The Story of Moira Greyland continues

If you don't know who Moira Greyland is, you will soon. All this blog post was about was simply a discussion of Moira's largely biographical work The Last Closet -- I say largely because she bounces from her life to various and sundry issues behind and around her life.

9) Building Catholic Vampire Lore (Honor At Stake)

This was basically how I built my vampire universe for the Love at First Bite series. Elements I've stolen from philosophy, theology, a Star Wars video game called Knights of the Old Republic. There was a lot of miscellaneous theft going on that tied together in a nice neat little deranged bow.

8) Newsflash: Hugo Awards Swamped by Crap

The 2017 Hugo Awards were about as bad as you'd expect. I think that was the last time I paid them even a modicum of attention.

7) A Short Biography of a Catholic Vampire

Another Love at First Bite post. As a historian, I do so enjoy the hidden world genre. It gives me an excuse to get creative with history -- all of the fun of alternate history, without having to write a full butterfly effect of what happens next.

6) Sex, DC Comics, and ... wtf?

2011 is when DC Comics unveiled their New 52 lineup of comic books ... and stopping just short of an R-rating,. with bad character design, bad artwork, and bad choices.

5) Sad Puppies Bite Back

The fever dream that started it all. 

Take a fracas going on in fandom, a rash of SWATting happening in the real world, and throw it in for mental processing when someone can't sleep at two in the morning.

4) Who would Captain America vote for? An election special

I posted a few days before Election 2012. So I can guess why this made it so high.


3) Disasters to Marvel At: A Comic Discussion.

This was the day I got fed up with Marvel comics going to pot. It had less to politics at the time and more to do with really terrible decisions by the writers. This included all of Civil War and One more Day.

2) A Review of Death Note (Anime)
This is exactly what it says in the title. 

This one also came out of no where. Posted in 2017, it only picked up steam last year. Every day between April and July, it maintained hundreds of hits PER DAY. There was no particular place it came from or reasons for it. It just was.

1) Politics Kills Mercedes Grabowski (August Ames)

This is the story of a woman in pornography, bullied to death by leftist douche bags of Twitter. And it pissed me off because she was only 23.

I can guess how this made the #1 spot. I mentioned porn. Apparently, it's popular, even when people are reading about non-sexual content. Who knew?

Anyway. I hope you find them enjoyable. 

You can check out any and all of my latest books here. 

If you like, you can sign up for my mailing list here. 

Why we can't have nice things

I had an interesting exchange a while back with a random jerk on Twitter.

The start of this exchange really begins with my posting yet another stupid thing done by Pope Francis. No, not heretical, not apostasy, just stupid.

I publicly said that I was "done defending this idiot." Because seriously, both John Paul II and Benedict managed to get a hold of their message and deliver it clearly. within short order of becoming Pope. This is ... what? 12 years later, and more often than not, reading a Pope Francis statement is like trying to interpret a drunk text? And of course, guys like me who actually understand Catholic stuff have to be the ones to interpret the Pope into English.

The Left: THE POPE IS SUPPORTING ABORTION 

Me: Um, no, he's cleared up red tape so that someone who's had an abortion can walk into a confessional and be absolved without going into a bishop for approval.

Etc. 

It's a long, arduous process that requires time and energy on my part that I just can't be bothered investing as I come out with six books this year as well as publishing several short stories as one-shots, and editing an anthology, and being accepted into three others.

So defending the idiot known as Pope Francis is a waste of my time. This was even before the Amazon Synod insanity. I said as much on Twitter as a comment with whatever latest drivel the Pope was talking about that week.

I end up with a comment by this Rando: "STOP SPREADING CALUMNY!"

Calumny, as defined by Miriam Webster,  is

• n. A false statement maliciously made to injure another's reputation.
• n. The utterance of maliciously false statements; slander.
• n. False accusation of crime, misconduct, or defect, knowingly or maliciously made or reported, to the injury of another; untruth maliciously spoken, to the detraction of another; a defamatory report; slander.

I said I was done defending this idiot.

Somehow, my stating that I would no longer take action was slanderous in itself. 

Frankly, Pope Francis is either an idiot or a heretic. I figured "idiot" in reference to his message management was the more upbeat and hopeful course to take.

Anyway, I moved on. Radio silence from the rando.

Later on, I posted to Twitter John C. Wright's review of Avengers Endgame. John liked it, but, like I did, saw that this was the beginning of he end of the MCU, if not the outright end. Apparently, we differed in our estimates of how the time it would take. Later, even JCW would be shocked at how fast we would realize that this was The End, plain and simple.

This exact same Rando showed up on Twitter. What was his issue this time?

"BLASPHEMER! IDOLATER! YOU WORSHIP THE GOLDEN MOUSE. EVERYONE COME LOOK AT THE BLASPHEMER!"

Oh, and if it was a single Tweet, it would have been nothing. I wouldn't have cared. My mistake, I tried to have an honest conversation with this jerk. I asked and offered the Wright review three times in order to having him read it, and then we could discuss it.

His response was, of course, an endless string of insulting memes.

Yes, I was stupid enough to engage with some fuckwit on Twitter. 

See? We really never should engage with people on social media.

You know, I have faults. To quote one of the few good moments from that lousy Firefly universe, if I'd have to pick a sin, "I'm gonna have to go with wrath." It's my default position. I have some redhead in me, so that's a thing.

And lately, I will admit to feelings of envy as hypocritical cowardly invertebrate eunuchs enjoy fame and notoriety for virtues they preach, but promptly violate as often as possible. 

But frankly, if I have any virtue, it's that I'm honest with people. I prefer the term blunt, but some people insist on describing it as "brutal." While I may occasionally soften the blow publicly, privately, people will get the cudgel.

I also have my faith. To be perfectly honest, I don't even think it's faith as much as knowledge, due to personal experiences, but that's a different conversation.

So yes, having someone accuse me of spreading untruths and being an idolater irks me. In part because it's some rando saying "Here is the mote in your eye" when there's a nice big log I can pick out of my eye and beat you to death with.

On top of that -- by slandering me with the blasphemy bullshit, he also slandered John C Wright as well. You know, John C Wright, who is only slightly less Catholic than God himself.  Suggesting that Wright worships anything less than the Lord High God of All Existence requires negative IQ points.

Of course, just to make everything perfect -- and I mean PERFECT -- is this guy's Twitter feed. It is filled SOLID with an endless stream of "WWWAAAAHHHH, The Right should support each other! We should stop punching right! The Establishment Right should fight the Culture War! They should especially support my books of ideas I cribbed from 20 year old anime. But my books! No, I'm not going to review anyone else's. Why should I?"

Of course, this is while this rando jerk is ... punching right. Into my face.

Fucking Twitter. 

I called him on it. He was treating me like an enemy. We were both right wing. We were both Catholic, supposedly.

Know what he said? 

He said he didn't treat his enemies like this. He prefers to talk to them... 

Ain't that special? Shit like this is why we can't have nice things.

Of course, this jerk would later apologize. 

What for? 

"Playing rough." 

Not calumny. Not slander. Not punching right. "Playing rough."

Oh, and it had to be "pointed out to him" by someone else. Because of course rando jerk who whines about people who punch right ... while he punches right ... would have to have his basic hypocrisy pointed out to him by someone else.

This is why I'm not in favor of weaponized autism, since they have no idea what direction "This side towards enemy" is.

And I must admit, this level of cowardice pisses me off. This is the sort of fool who nails himself to the cross and claims that he is being oppressed. He whines and cries about punching right ... while punching right. Bitching at me for one tweet about how the Pope was an idiot, then, within the month, publicly accusing me in a string of nearly a dozen Tweets about violating the first commandment. Yeah. Sure.

Better still is recently, this jerk joined a coalition of people online boasting about how they "created" of epic Christian fiction and fantasy... 

Fascinating. Tell me more about where you were when I self-published A Pius Man back in 2013. Or Honor at Stake in 2015. Or Saint Tommy, NYPD for the past year. Or when Russell Newquist published War Demons in 2017.

As I said, it's funny how "support conservative artists" quickly turned into "support me."

There's a reason why I review other books. Because they're good and they need the PR.

Social media has lowered conversation online to the comments section. The comments section used to be the sewer level of the internet. And now, social media has turned every interaction into bull shit virtue signaling. Whether it be how intersectional you are, or how much more churchy you are. This rando wants to boast about everything "the right should be doing," but lucky for him, he can sit on the sidelines and Monday morning quarterback, throw beer cans at passerbys, then tell you to buy his book because of "the culture."

Funny thing is that I actually believe in the culture wars, and that yes, every indie author who's to the right of Mitt Romney (yes, that's deliberate) should stick together and spread the word around our social media circles about each other.

Until there's some jackass like this who will screw it up for everyone. 

And that's why we can't have nice things.

... I usually feel obliged to pimp a book, but not today. Click on anything in the right hand column, or check out my book reviews on this blog. Or there's my kickstarter. You can find something for everyone.

Catholic Politics

After weeks of having nothing but writing on the brain, it's occurred to me that I do have something else to talk about aside from writing.

Politics!

Thankfully, I don't have anything particular to talk about. I just want to talk about politics in general. Especially since politics are over half of the top ten posts on my blog.

Some of you may not know this, but my faith informs my politics.

Quell surprise, right?

This means I'm pro-life, pro-death penalty, pro-gun, pro-closed borders, anti-taxes, anti-communist, pro-community, pro-capitalist, anti-consumerism, pro-charity, pro-isolationist, pro-just war, pro-assassination, anti-regulation.

How's that for a fun time?

"How can I be any of that?" you ask. "It seems a little contradictory."

Because I follow the catechism of the Catholic church as laid down by the magesterium.

Meaning that I follow the Catholic Church, not whatever random crap is spewed out by the Pope's latest wingnut interview... or whatever the media tells us the Pope's whims are this week.

The magesterium is basically "what the church believes." It does not include "the opinion of the Pope on non-theology matters."

So, no, I don't follow "the Pope," I follow "THE CATHOLIC CHURCH." If you don't see that there's a difference between the Church and the Pope, then you can't tell the difference between Trump and the Presidency, either.

So, let's break this down.

• I'm pro-life.

Do I need to explain that part? I like to play it safe and say that life begins at conception. Democrats like to play it fast and loose, and think that life begins whenever the paperwork is issued to give a baby a social security number.

There are ramifications of this that are non-political. As children are best raised in a two-parent environment, I kept it zipped until I got married. Since that is best, I waited until I found the perfect woman to get married to. Etc, etc, blah blah. I guess this is also theological and political, but eh.

When you consider how little I like other people most days, you'll see that this is a tough one for me. 

• Pro-death penalty.

Some idiots like to think this is a contradiction. If you're one of those people, you're a fool. Protecting the unborn is protecting the innocent, who have committed no crime and deserve no punishment.

The death penalty is as close as we can come to justice, in certain cases. Life sentences, and no death penalty, is a nice way of saying "Murder all the guards and inmates you like, the next kills are free." There is no justice there; it's merely a license to slaughter.

"But oh, we're so much more enlightened now." Bullshit. Life sentences are for suckers. They are a luxury afforded by how good we have it right now, and we have it better than everyone else who has ever been born. If you're going to base your theology on current conditions, you are the fairest of fair weather faithful.

For 2000 years, the Church has been pro-death penalty. For over five thousand years, Judaism concurred. If you think that doesn't fall under "tradition informing the faith," then you can just throw out tradition entirely. And if you want to see the size of this baby you're throwing out with that bath water, it's called the Baltimore Catechism. It can stop bullets.

• Pro-gun 

Self defense is a fundamental, God-given right, and we need the proper tools for it. The political implications of this is simple -- everyone needs to be armed. It should be part of metalworking shop classes and PE. First you build your own gun, then you fire your own gun. When you graduate high school, you get your owners permit. You fuck it up, it's revoked.

Though if I had my way, people would own machineguns, but no one asks my opinion.

• Pro-closed borders

This may be a little strong on my part. Largely because the Church (1) insists on welcoming refugees, BUT (2) also insist that the immigrants FOLLOW THE LAWS OF THE LAND THEY'RE MOVING TO. 

Obviously, there seem to be some people having a problem with #2.

In America, sorry, but we need to lock the border, create an opening that's more narrow, and check everyone's paperwork as they come in. Frankly, we need to lock down the border and make sure no one comes in until we know what to do with everyone in the country illegally already.

THEN we need to revise the stupid immigration process, because last time I checked, people have bitched about how screwed up it is for 30 years, but no one wants to do anything about revising them. 

• Anti-taxes

I'm against theft. It was on a collection of stone tablets. And government spending seems to be an endless series of excuses for why the government needs to keep taxing you.

And frankly, the tax system is either rigged to make certain that no one pays their "fair share"-- it's all an excuse for politicians to exert more control over more people. Thank you FDR, you pig.

• Anti-communist

There's an entire encyclical dedicated to why Communism is evil under Catholic law.

Short version -- again, we're against theft. And stealing someone's work is theft. Wage slavery is bad. Communism is worse. Because it's slavery while dressing it up in language of "communal good," and lately "social justice."

The longer version is here.

• Pro-capitalist

Catholics invented capitalism. Don't believe me, ask the Medicis. 

And why? When done right, it creates the fairest exchange rate for man's labor.

When done wrong, you get crony capitalism, where only the people with money rig the economy in their favor.

Every time you see something on Catholic economics in the catechism (seriously, check the magesterium, not news articles), they're largely about making certain the capitalism we have is as not as rigged as Socialist dumbasses whines it is.

• Anti-consumerism

One should not worship anything that isn't God -- this includes worship of the Home Shopping Network. 

Yes that could just boil down to being shallow, but I've known people who worshiped their precious things like Gollum and his ring. (Not only have I known them, I've been related to them.)


That's one of the problems with things broadly labeled "capitalism." It has been used as an excuse to cover greed instead of good business. And when I mean good business -- consider that most of the "robber barons" didn't actually rob anybody, but envy will will slap a label on any success as "greed" and "theft,"

On the other hand, I will admit that "capitalism" has been used to cover a multitude of sins. That's why there's laisse faire capitalism, and there's crony capitalism.

• Pro-charity

Charity isn't government enforced. It comes from below, not above. Meaning we can and should be helping one another. It's one of the many reasons taxes are an abominations -- how can anyone be charitable and help out their fellow Man if we spend more than a quarter of the paying off our slave owners in the government? It's pretty damn hard unless you have a lot to start with.

• Pro-community

I, like the church, believe in solidarity. "Hey, look, we're going to treat each other like human beings." You work, you get paid. You sell, you get paid for it. You're neighbors, you help each other out. You see someone in trouble, you help them. The goal is to work out every problem on the most local level. If you can work it out within the family, you do. If you can work it out within the parish, great.

... I think it was once called "living in a community."

Not these forced "diverse communities." Please. Actual community has been heartily discouraged, replaced by photo ops of "look at how diverse we are." Please. I want to show off my "diverse" acquaintances, I'll take a photo of the masses I go to.

The Catholic church -- we take in everybody.

This should also apply to "pro-small government."

• Pro-isolationist

I largely believe in leaving people alone. Including other countries. 

The church likes to talk about international solidarity, where other countries live in peace with each other. Doesn't mean they give up their sovereignty. 

Of course, the IMF, the EU, the UN all like to believe that there is no sovereignty, but they're a bunch of dictator friendly schmucks. 

• Pro-just war

As the old saying goes, War is not the answer... unless it's about freedom, slavery, communism and Nazism.

Pardon me, I just eyerolled so hard, I strained something.

Sometimes, the evils of war are the lesser evil, especially when doing nothing allows evil to persist.

(And the first schmuck to insist that industrialization would have ended slavery without a war, the American South was already looking into training slaves for factories, so I doubt that.)

• Pro-assassination

Sometimes you don't need a war. Sometimes you just need a bullet. It's call tyrannicide. I believe Thomas Aquinas was all for it.

Now we're just back to, "If you're against the death penalty and Catholic, you're a heretic."

• Anti-regulation

No, seriously, how can the Catholic church be against regulations?

Because the more regulations you pass, the more you abridge individual rights and freedoms.

And most regulations passed in the past few decades have all been about punishing people for ... well, breathing, really.

I think that's it for now. Most of the ranting and raving can be held off for another day.  If anyone wants to go "but you could have done more about X!" ... well, yeah, I could have done a blog post on each of these bullet points. Or I could have added more bullet points.  I still might. But for right now, thanks, but this has been more politics than I like talking about at any one sitting.

Anyway, at the moment we're doing a Kickstarter for an audio book of Hell Spawn. If you want good rates on the entire Saint Tommy NYPD series, check it out.

Agit-Prop TV

Blanket statements annoy me.

For example, "All TV shows are propaganda."

Frankly, that's not true, even with CBS shows, where there is at least one episode of agit-prop per season demanded from the higher ups. (You can tell it's a command from above when you get a character in one episode being a monumental jerk in one episode, then the character returns in the very next episode, and it's like nothing ever happened. For whiplash like this, see Blue Bloods Season 5, episodes 3 and 4).

However, this season I can make you one very exact generalized statement.

All TV lawyer shows are propaganda... Especially this season.

I think it's been a near constant over the past 20 years. David E Kelly was broken by the existence of George W Bush in the White House. As far as I can tell, every lawyer show he's done since then has been less about the law and more about whatever BS agit-prop agenda du jour the writers wanted to push.

Fast forward to the two TV lawyer shows of today. All Rise and Bluff City Law. They are both crap shows with lousy acting and writing -- in one case from a halfway decent actor.

All Rise... my Lord, is this such insulting garbage. The TV show is supposed to be about a new judge appointed to the LA bench. But the first episode spends a few seconds on how she's "different" from other judges -- mostly that she's black and female. The casual racism is very casual, and is even insulting to the people of Los Angeles ... about which I don't care, though; LA can burn for all I care. And while the first episode was mostly trying to treat Night Court scenarios in a straight fashion, it was largely harmless.

However, you know the entire series goes straight to garbage in short order when the second episode is all about agit-prop. And I mean all of it. From minute one to the last.

First, you have to believe that an ICE agent can charge willy-nilly into an LA court in pursuit of an illegal alien. Then you have to believe that ICE stakes out the LA court houses in order to "go fishing" to "get easy catches"...

I'm sorry. I'm wrong. The first thing you have to believe is that ICE is even allowed in the City of LA or the state of California.

But then you have to believe that the "solution" to the episode involves an LA prosecutor, judge and defense attorney all conspiring against the federal government to make certain to enforce the "sanctuary" status of California ... which, if anyone was honest, is a flagrant disregard for the actual law.

This is the same week that real life California released two men charged with rape and murder because they were illegal aliens. So the idea that ICE is even some sort of threat is ludicrous.

This was followed by Bluff City Law. Someone wanted to make Erin Brockavich, the TV show, so it's "small lawyer versus big business" every week. Which works fine if you're Leverage and you want to do a cross between The Sting and Mission: Impossible. But this is more like Matlock -- where the writers cheat and pull out a deus ex machina solution for everything.

I would feel sorry for Jimmy Smits being part of this garbage on Bluff City Law, but apparently, he's one of the producers. 

Even the "villains" are stock cardboard cutouts from the communist playbook. Evil chemical company. Big Agra. I'm relatively certain that they even stole the antagonists from Leverage episodes. 

Both of these would be bad enough as they are for the main plots alone. We won't even go into the tonnage of schmaltz and soap opera crammed into each of the episodes. And of course, the curse of every "legal drama" -- the speeches. The endless, lengthy, "heartfelt" speeches that have no place in a courtroom, and dialogue that has never been spoken by a living person who knows how to actually use the English language.

And while we're at it, let's throw in another bit of agit-prop TV. S.W.A.T.

No, not the 1975 TV show, the PC crap starring Shemar Moore. I can tell you how most of these plots are developed.

• "Hey! Let's make a story around illegals!"
• "Hey! Let's make a story around LGBTBBQ"
• "Hey! Let's make a story around evil white people."
• "Hey! Let's make a story around commie protesters who hate cops, but make them smarter than our heroes."

I've actually being watching the 1975 TV show S.WA.T. on DVD. Why? Because it was $10 remaindered in the Edward R Hamilton catalog and I'm cheap.

The funny thing about the 1975 show? The plots are smarter than the current edition. The writing is stronger. The tactics ... exist (S.W.A.T 1975 knew what vertical movement meant, and what rappelling was for).

Hell, the 1975 version has better characterization. How is that possible? I've seen 70s TV. It largely sucked. But this is so much better than the current edition, I used it to convince current viewers of the new show to stop watching it.

But you know how bad all three of these the current shows are? Here's how bad.

• I would rather watch Bull, which is average on its best day.
• I would rather watch the current thing that calls itself MacGyver, which is barely even watchable on its best day.
• I would rather watch the current Hawaii 5-0, which makes me want to take a power drill to my ears.
• I'd rather watch the thing call Magnum, PI, which has exactly one actor I even find tolerable, and he's only there for three minutes every episode.

Frankly, I'm going to recommend a laundry list of books rather than this current batch of suck. Only some of them are mine. But you can check out any review on this website, I'll back it over the current schlock.

Start here, though, if you wouldn't mind. :)

#EatTheChildren / #EatTheBabies

I fucking hate politics. I hate it so much, I'm happy to use R language on a blog that's usually PG-13.

The latest news is so insane, I literally tried to make it up, and reality decided "Hold my beer."

For those of you who read Hell Spawn, I had a possessed serial killer. It was as monstrous as I could make him. There were call backs to Aztecs, who ripped people's hearts out, and reference to Moloch and Crowley.

But nope. Leave it to politicians to take the most demonic shit I can think of, and then say "Challenge accepted".

Everyone knows that Alexandra Occasio-Cortez, the ex-bartender and current congress critter, comes from my home city... Damn it. 

Though, to be fair, AOC ran from a district so gerrymandered, it's painful to look at. (Sure, have a district that's part East Bronx and part Chinatown, there's nothing sketchy about that whatsoever.) It's 51% Hispanic, and she ran on the "I look like you and will disband ICE" ticket. And she's made so many friends, there are people on both sides of the aisle lining up to take her out in the next election.

One of her more infamous statements (lately) is that how the Earth will be destroyed by climate change in a matter of years / months/ weeks/ days, something like that.

So is it any wonder that we end up with a town hall meeting that ends like, well, this...

One woman stood up in the middle of the town hall meeting (about two from the front row, if I see it correctly) who proposed that AOC's Green New Deal didn't go far enough when fixing the planet. This woman cited the Swedish professor who suggested eating dead people, and stated that it, too, wouldn't be fast enough. 

She suggested that AOC's next slogan should be "We’ve got to start eating babies."

The nutcase kept going.

"..I’m so happy that you are supporting a Green New Deal, but it’s not enough. Even if we were to bomb Russia, it’s not enough. There’s too many people, too much pollution. So, we have to get rid of the babies. That’s a big problem. Just stopping having babies just isn’t enough. We need to eat the babies. This is very serious. Please give a response.”

The woman was at least on message. She even wore a shirt that said “Save the planet. Eat the Children. We don’t have enough time. There’s too much CO2."

Ocasio-Cortez responded by thanking the woman and saying, “One of the things that’s very important to us is that we need to treat the climate crisis with the urgency that it does present. Luckily, we have more than a few months.”
The woman shouted back, “no, we don’t!”

On the one hand, to her credit, AOC talked to her like any New Yorker would talk down any crazy person. Kudos. Granted, she burned all of that good credit when she started spinning it the very next day as trying to blame all of this ... on Republicans. Because endlessly claiming that the sky is falling will never create neurotic messes out of people in the public. 

AOC can't seem to figure out what to blame the Republicans for -- if this woman was a plant, or that "they" are focusing on this poor unfortunate soul who's a total nutcase...

But I'm not focusing on that. Because endless fear mongering is going to spark neurotic messes into a full psychotic meltdown. Duh. It happens. Nutcases are gonna nutcase. Especially when you tell them the fucking sky is falling and keep giving an ever-shrinking timeline in order to justify idiotic taxes.

What is truly disturbing isn't that some random nutter in the crowd suggested something so insane. Random nutcases happen. No. What's really and deeply concerning is that NO ONE IN THE AUDIENCE EVEN BLINKED. No, look at the audience. Eating children? Bah. Not the craziest thing they've ever heard on the climate change discussion. If they rode the subway, it probably wasn't even the craziest thing they'd heard in the last few hours.**

Though let's face it, this woman, and this audience, have been fed a steady diet of "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" for their entire lives. They're true believers.  Apparently, they've all come to the conclusion that if the world's gonna end, then all things really are permitted. Even if you buy into the spin that it's a Republican setup (and if the establishment right had enough chutzpah to pull this in New York City, they'd actually run candidates anyone would remember long enough to vote for).

Hell, the only person in the entire room who looks put off by this is Occasio-Cortez herself. Which makes me suspect there might be a flicker of synapses in there... somewhere ... buried deep. Otherwise, AOC puts on a great act as a raving lunatic. But seeing what we have of her, I wouldn't bet on brains.

But even in my darkest dreams, I couldn't have imagined a mass political movement suggesting a proposal as insane as cannibalism ... and no one in the audience even making a face at it. And trust me, for Hell Spawn and the rest of the Saint Tommy series, I'm doing my damnedest. Literally.

But seriously, this once again proves that no matter what I do, no matter how much of the deepest, darkest, savage inhumanity and mass murder in the history of the world I research, nothing I create or assemble can top whatever horrors are thought up the the far left.

Apparently, being creative about evil can't top real evil.

Then again, I probably could not have created

• A cruelty to animal group that murders puppies by the ton.
• An environmental group that starts or encourages fires
• A civil rights group that tries to deny civil rights to people they don't like.
• "Child protective services" that abuse children.
• "Education" that's indoctrination.
• Enacting legislation to help child abuse victims while ignoring pedo-friendly BS enacted in public.

People wonder why I don't generally like talking politics on my blog. Or in general. Because it makes the thugee look like teddy bears and the Temple of Doom look like a tourist attraction for newborns.

I'd ask what was wrong with people, but if I liked people as a rule, I wouldn't be in a profession that locks me at a solitary desk all day.

Here. Something upbeat and cheerful -- a horror novel where a lone man kicks the everlasting shit out of the forces of darkness, fueled only by the Power of God.

**To be fair, there are conflicting opinions about the crowd reaction. Some people hear audible gasps in the crowd. I'm looking at faces, and have had crappy audio. If I missed it, mea culpa. But seriously, will someone blink, damn it.

Covington Catholic School and the Coming Gulags

You could say that I'm a little Upset.

The links referred to are here

Tommy, NYPD, 

The Pius Trilogy 

Why no one cares about the #Oscars, 2019

I know I've already discussed how no one gives two damns for the nimrods in Hollywood and their pretensions and their BS.

But it's Tuesday, the blog is late, the Oscars are trending, and I can do this quickly without tuning my brain on.

Let's look at the latest crop of these Oscar nominations that have been forced down our throats this time.

I'll make a few guesses here and there about what's going to win, but those guesses will be made largely on content, virtue signalling, and victim points -- since CONTENT seems to be the last thing Hollyweirdoes want to even consider, unless the content is about a black hispanic homosexual being brutalized by rich white oppressors, or screaming "REPUBLICANS ARE EVIL" over and over again, but enough about the film Vice.

And no, I don't think that was cynical enough for today's insanity.

I don't think anyone cares about documentaries ... (RGB? Zion? I can't even find an IMDB page on some of these).  Foreign language films ... Poland did something about the Cold War, which probably slipped in because no one in Hollywood was looking.

For the log of God Almighty --- FIFTEEN musical score nominations? Fifteen... talk about overkill. I know they expanded nominee rosters to allow for their pretensions and for popular films, but this is insane.  Besides, they all enjoy masturbating to Lin Manuel Miranda, so we know that Mary Poppins Returns is a shoe - in. It satisfies their politics (after all, LMM might as well have started "Orange Man Bad") and has the illusion of being popular (the nicest review I heard called the film "unnecessary"). Then again, as I look closer, the only thing on this list that doesn't check all of the usual boxes is Infinity War.... unless someone really wants Thanos to be the Green Peace mascot.

Original songs ... fifteen. Again. Ugh. This is .... an amazingly terrible collection.

Short films....  who cares? Visual effects....  who cares?

Ah! Best actor! .... Let's see, Christian Bale has signaled his virtue by calling Dick Cheney "Satan." Rami Malek played gay (if he is for real, don't tell me, I don't want to know.) Bradley Cooper... may have had to act. Viggo Mortensen ... I don't want to look at what he did. I"m guessing Bale is the winner.

Best Supporting Actor. If anyone cared about acting ability, I'd even give Mahershala Ali a nod -- I've seen him, he can act. But if I recall correctly, he didn't virtue signal hard enough in Green Book, and no one will ever give anything to Sam Elliott if it can be avoided. So I'm assuming Sam Rockwell for Vice, because George W. Bush is stupid and evil, etc etc, blah blah blah.

Actress in a Leading Role..... I'm assuming it's going to either Lady Gaga for being a freak or to Melissa McCarthy because her Ghostbusters film "fought the patriarchy," thus making it "her turn," or something.

Actress, Supporting role. The Favourite, a film about women being bitchy to each other, is up twice. I'm assuming they get canceled out. I'd say Amy Adams in Vice, but that requires that people like Amy Adams. I do, but Hollywood doesn't seem to.

Animated Feature Film .... I look here and I don't care. I'm sure everyone I know wants it to be Spider-Verse. 

Cinematography .... does anyone care? Costume design, oy.

Directing ... Cold War is up for it (I found it on IMDB... Romeo and Juliet, Cold War style? Didn't more interesting things happen then?). BlackKKKlansman has the virtue signal points, but I'm not sure Spike Lee has enough by himself. Roma ("A year in the life of a middle-class family's maid in Mexico City in the early 1970s.") The Favourite and Vice. This one is more of a crap shoot -- virtue signalling on virtue signalling violence. Though Roma may win out because "working class Mexican" seems to have more victim points than anyone else right now.

Documentary ... eh. Media has decided for the last two years to do very little BUT jerk off to Ruth Bader Ginsberg. So that's my bet there.

Best picture ... already? Oy. Let's see ... Black Panther has been thrown on probably because it made a ton of money and they may not be seen as out of touch. If it wins, it'll be so they can say "we gave Marvel an award. We never have to do it ever again" and move on. Frankly, it's one of the lesser marvel films. It really is.  If BlacKKKlansman wins, they can say they gave Spike Lee something. Bohemian Rhapsody might win ... because gay, but "gay" may not have the right victim status anymore and lacks the points.  The Favourite .... "rich white girls are bitches" movie.... who cares? Green Book seems to be about people who work for a living with people who can act-- I'm almost certain it's not going to win, though it may be the only thing here that might deserve it. Vice, A Star is Born, and Roma might win for the reasons mentioned above in other categories.

Wow, such pretentious bullshit. I'm 100% certain that nothing here was nominated based on the strength of their acting, writing or directing, and based entirely on political math.  Yet again, I'm going to stay far, far away from the Oscars. Screw these guys.

Here, have some books that have no pretension whatsoever

Hell Spawn  Death Cult

What's going on with my writing?

So, I'm sure that people are wondering what the heck has been going on with my writing lately.

Lord knows, some of my reviews have questioned it.

Why are my books suddenly getting such a strong political thread?

The Saint Tommy series has been a horror story since book one, ever since the demon claimed his first victim ... assuming that it wasn't during the fight in the precinct.

Can anyone think of something horrible and terrifying doesn't have a connection to a political movement? Hell, I can do a laundry list of human atrocities that are all connected to politics. At the end of the day, if anyone actually put together a list of all wars on the planet, you'll find that some variation on politics is like the top 5 to 10 reasons. (The Irrational Atheist, and I may be stretching the term "politics" to it's broadest, but nowhere near the breaking point).

Then again, we've entered into a strange political climate in which using MS-13 as a source of disposable thugs is considered a "political" choice. So I'm not sure if there's anything left that isn't political.

"Your hero uses guns? You must be a gun nut." .... Thomas Nolan is a cop.

And what did John Wick use? Hair dryers? Is Keanu Reeves an NRA spokesman now?

How about Liam Neeson in the Taken series?

How about every 80s action hero who casually used machine guns in everything?

Strangely enough, some of the reviews are treating this like my most political novel.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

All I can think is "Wow. never read the Pius books."

Though on the other hand, politics really is getting to be a real horror show.

Riots seem to be a viable form of "free speech."

Trash a city, you're "protesting."

Murder over a dozen people? It's racist to discuss it.

Apparently, it's even political and ranting to even MENTION some topics.

Sigh. Pardon me while I bang my head against a wall.

So, yes, while my writing has become slightly more political .... that's because it's been horror, and the most horrid thing I've seen lately is political news. Why? Because I'm a philosopher and a historian by training. And the crap in the news sets my Aquinas senses tingling as well as my Herodotus senses. Imagine That Hideous Strength only applied to real life. If you don't know that novel, you should.

But don't worry, after Death Cult, the politics dies down by a ton. Mainly because everyone is too busy getting shot at.

GenCon: This Won't Stop

I generally dislike discussing politics, but enough is enough.

In a move that will shock no one, after months of Anti-FA violence and rioting in the streets, calls for right wingers to be harassed and assaulted...

A right winger was harassed and assaulted at Gen Con. Shocking, huh?

Brian Niemeier has the details on the incident in question.

Richard Paolinelli has called for sanity to reign, saying clearly that This Must Stop.

I'm here to tell you that it won't stop.

To look at the history of Leftism is to look at the history of mass slaughter and bloodshed.

The French Revolution? Tens of thousands dead. Check.

Slavery in America? Tens of thousands dead. Check.

National Socialism? Tens of MILLIONS dead. Check.

Any Socialist movement? HUNDREDS of millions dead. Check.

Abortion movement? Tens of millions in America alone, God knows how many worldwide.

I don't know why, but Leftist psychopaths never really know when or where to stop. Even at the beginning, with the French Revolution, it devolved into purity tests and the Committee of Public Safety. Ultimately, the Committee itself was fed to the guillotine.

Today? Well, the Leftist nutters of today don't know where to stop. Part of it is the higher ups in the Democratic party encourage violence ... possibly as a way of keeping the base engaged.

But looking at violence spreading to Gen Con, I'm here to tell you this: the only way to make the violence stop is to force them to stop. Psycho Leftists won't play this game if they know they're going to lose.

• Step one: When they attack, hit them fast and hit them hard.
• Step two: Press charges.
• Step three: Sue them for everything they're worth.

Let me explain.

Step one: The will to self defense.

First and foremost, keep your head on a swivel. Keep aware. And be ready to hurt someone if they take a swing at you. The first step to stopping attacks by Lefty psychos is to make sure that every time they try to hurt someone, they're the ones who are left bleeding in the gutter.

Get self defense training. Carry knives where legal. Carry guns where legal.

But most importantly, if you wish to defend yourself? Reconcile yourself to the fact that defending yourself will require harming someone else. Because defense training and weapons will do no one any good if the owner doesn't have the will to use them. If you punch someone, punch through them. If you shoot, shoot to kill. If you draw a knife, be willing to draw blood, or don't bother.

And frankly? Given that these people attack people from behind, or attack people only when they're in mobs? I suggest that if you find yourself in this situation, reconcile yourself to using deadly force. Because if more than one person tries to corner me, I expect to have to kill at least one of them before the attack will stop.... and since most police will probably arrest everyone left standing until everything is sorted out, expect to spend some time in cuffs, even if you're 100% in the right, and you can prove it with video footage. I also recommend body cameras / cell phone cameras, just to make sure that the gang of idiots don't foot, then edit, their own footage.

Because if two or more people come up to attack you, and you AREN'T in fear for your life, I sincerely worry about you.

Step two: Press charges

There is no such thing as a friendly bar fight anymore. I know that for some people, they can take a couple of swings at each other and end up with drinks in the back of the bar. But these lefty nutcases? No. They only exist to hurt people. First, hurt them fast and hard, preferably with blunt objects.

Then, after the attacker is on the floor, if he's still alive, don't walk away. Don't try to have a friendly chat. Don't try to convince him that he's in the wrong, and you understand that he's insane. No. Call the cops, have the cops haul his ass away and throw him in jail. Because not only will these Lefty psychos stop when they risk getting hurt, but they will also be unable to hurt anyone else when they're in jail.

And once they start getting thrown in jail? Well then, that'll make the average human being think twice about starting a fight.

Step three: Sue them.

Most street cops have better things to do than to try and sort out the details of a fist fight. Most prosecutors have better things to do than to spend countless hours prosecuting an assault.  You may never get to the trial stage. The attacker may plead down to a misdemeanor.

That's when the civil suit comes out. And pick your charges with your lawyer. Mental injury. Physical injury. The short version is that by the time you're done, you will own them.

Jim McCoy has also touched on this a little. The right to self defense. Because the Gen Cons and the 770s of the world want people who disagree with them DEAD. Not converted, dead. They label any dissent as the work of "Nazis," and claim it's time to punch "Nazis," because "Nazis" are untermench. They are subhuman. Are you a Jewish Libertarian like my friend Jason Garrick? "Nazi." Do you support Israel over Palestine? You're a "Nazi." Are you a Democrat who believes in conversation and discussion with people who disagree with you? "Nazi." Are you a woman / black / homosexual who wants to #WalkAway from the Democrats? "Nazi."

I disagree with almost every -ism of Lefists, and a good chunk of those among the right. So, yeah, I expect them to come after me sooner or later, because they don't believe in my right to exist.

So, I hate to break it to Richard, but yes, this has to stop ... but we'll have to stop them. By force.

Because we talked about peace.

They don't want peace.

We talked about cooperation.

They don't want cooperation.

They. Want. War.

I only suggest that we acknowledge that the lefty psychos have already started this fight, and that we should be the ones to finish it. And we should finish this fight by putting the violent ones in the hospital, before they start putting people in the morgue.

Non illegitimi carborundum.

Honor at Stake  Demons are Forever

Live and Let Bite

Social Media Whining

On the one hand, I love the internet.

The internet enabled me to self publish, which in turn got me a publisher.

On the other hand, there's so much stress and melodrama that I could have done without it and become a plumber.

Come on, you know it's true. And the last few months should prove it better than anything.

Let's simply start with the egomaniacs who are so super sensitive to comments and posts that they have to lose their minds.

Starting Small

I mean, heck, there was a project where I was so thrown by editorial comments that I went to a group of friends and went, "Okay, I'm showing A, B, and C, so I can imply and the audience can infer D, E and F.  But the editor is seeing X, Y, and Z .... what am I doing wrong?"

So, of course, I ask what I'm doing wrong, in a post about my personal anxieties .... and said editor decided to go bat guano insane, then whine bitch and moan about how "unprofessional" I am that I was complaining about them....

Huh?

Welcome to the internet, where your personal anxieties about the quality of your own work are actually considered insults to someone else...

Then again, in Sad Puppies Bite Back, I had conservative authors SWATted, and Lefties proclaimed that SPBB threatened them.

So this isn't about any one person. This is about, well, the internet.

Don't worry, I'm certain that someone is going to whine about this post too.

No, seriously. It's insane. My friend and fellow author Jon Van Stry wanted to celebrate with friends in a group on Facebook about how his sales had gone up! He found marketing that worked! Isn't it great!

Then at least one person decided to go outside the group and bitch about how it was "bragging" to mention how good your sales were....

Welcome to social media.

• You can't be happy -- you're bragging.
• You can't be sad -- you're either pathetic or playing for attention
• You can't be angry about politics -- you might alienate readers
• You can't be anxious -- you might offend someone even more insecure than you are.

Social media, where it's all about the "me" in media.

Hell, there are also whiny little bitches who block me, then complain "Declan Finn is passive aggressive!!!" .... Really? Unblock me, I can be aggressive aggressive if you want.

But no, there's a reason I've gone on a recent rampage of unfollowing or blocking people on Facebook. Why? Because social media is a sewer. It's filled with people who want to get a reaction. And I don't want to play in the sewer. We're now at the point where a lot of people (correctly) deride tabloid sights like File 770 for being a bot-filled rumor mongering sewer... but they don't seem to see social media as a whole is much the same thing. It's like high school all over again. Everyone, go get your cliques! Then make fun of the fat guy / nerd / geek / "outsider". If that person hits back, belittle them some more because all of the insults are merely "constructive criticism." Huh?

Again, it's high school. But instead of high school cliches, first we can break down by politics. Then by profession. Then a splinter group forms so they can make fun of the larger group, and then bitch whine and moan about individual members, because God forbid civility happens. "X isn't Left/ Right-wing enough."  "Y isn't / is too Libertarian."  "Z is a prima donna / playing victim / bragging / trolling / isn't serious" (that I've seen all at the same time).

Social Media at Large

And it's not just local social media. It's not just my streams. Or my groups. Or just personal interactions. Take the larger view in the regular world.. Expand this to social media at large.

It's no longer "avoid the comments section, and you'll be fine." For the past three, maybe four years, we've seen the "comments section" become a living, breathing part of the internet. Social media has elevated the sewer of comments to general discussion....

Or, looking at it from a different angle, social media has lowered online discussion to what used to be dismissed as "the comments section."

Every thread has has potential to become a flame war, and duel of the trolls. If feels like half of every post made online threatens to turns into "I hate X." Every thread turns into some type of virtue signaling. What group defines what the signal looks like. "I hate Vox Day / Trump / the Alt-Right" are just some of the virtue signaling I've seen on threads, public or private... and those aren't even the Leftists.

Hell, think I'm exaggerating? Look at half of the Sad Puppies "discussions" from 2015. Half of it was the bots of China Mike's File 770 throwing mud, and another quarter is by "professional" authors, mostly employed by Tor, throwing mud. The rest of the discussions were ... actual discussions, with real ideas being exchanged. Mostly by Brad or Larry.

And today? Today it's gotten even worse.

Look at the Origins or ConCarolinas BS. All of that was generated by glorified lefty trolls on Facebook. Either trolls who libeled Larry Correia, or trolls who claimed that John Ringo's fans "made them feel unsafe."

That was enough to get both of these bestselling authors removed from conventions.

Online, we have a Twitter channel called Diversity and Comics, and it's mostly about observing the downfall of the major comic book series and companies. He started his own comic book Jawbreakers... and it's starting to look like comic book "professional" Mark Waid went after his publisher to prevent Jawbreakers from being distributed.

Jawbreakers is now a fully funded kickstarter projected, and making money hand over fist.

So, I will acknowledge that these stories have happy endings.... mostly. Larry had been banned from Origins, but Origins has lousy attendance (according to people I know who were there, with photos).

But ConCarolinas has vowed never to bow to SJW and online pressure about guests ever again.

Jawbreakers will be published despite outside pressure.


But still, does anyone remember ten years back? The active phrase about the internet was "don't look at the comments."

Now, imagine back then if the comments of a blog or a YouTube channel actually dictated guest attendance at Cons.

Imagine if a flame war meant whether or not a product could be carried in a store.

Imagine a flame war having real world consequences and dictating what celebrities can show up at what locations?

I'm trying to imagine this happening as recently as five years ago. It would have been insane. I honestly can't imagine that it would have happened even two years ago, but I may just be way too optimistic about this.

But now? Mobs of trolls believe they can destroy people through slander / libel, and in some cases, they come close.

These "mobs" are only about twenty, and sound like hundreds.

Any number of authors have come under attack in the hopes that online lynch mobs will hurt them, or destroy them, or get them unemployed. It's been done to me. It's been done to Brian Niemeier. It's been done to Jon del Arroz. On the level of conventions, it actually worked (once) against Larry Correia and John Ringo. It's up for grabs to see if it'll work on that level again.... I'm certain someone will try. I don't think it's going to work, but we'll see.

So, yes, social media is important. Don't get me wrong. But it can also be a pain in the ass, where one whiny little a-hole can make the noise of twenty, whining and crying whatever narrative they like. Social media has lowered the standard of conversation online to such an extent, it's barely worth talking to some people.

Just remember, non illegitimi carborundum, and the internet is filled with the illegitimi.

Just like high school.

And this is why I don't write about high school. I write about adults in college. And setting things on fire.

Honor at Stake & Demons are Forever

Live and Let Bite