Allyson

Per a variety of studies, young Americans are worse off than their parents on several levels. This is the first time children have been worse off “as a whole” since the 1800s, I believe. These aren’t the only metrics being judged, either. I saw a study yesterday, but can’t find it now, that showed Gen Alpha (our current batch of high school kids) are just plain dumber. I hate to say it, but it’s the truth.

The local high school as an English proficiency score of about 48%. Their math proficiency score is about 20%. Science is about 26%. Those are all well below state levels… and yet they recently won an award, which is proudly displayed on the front lawn of the school, the “NH Excellence in Education” award. I can’t make this shit up. They won an award for excellence in education with a proficiency rate below 50%. Yay team?

Since we began tracking the current metrics, the local high school has gone down most years (the exceptions were 2010-11 and 2012-13, when testing changed and no one can tell what the LARGE rise in proficiency was due to). Whatever is being done, it’s not working. It’s “not working” so well that our kids are drifting into third world shithole territory. And I can’t really see a way out of it.

A lot of studies show that young adults today are earning less than their parents did by about $4200 a year, despite the rising costs. The problem is, none of those studies take into account that the young adults decided to get degrees in advanced underwater basket weaving, and are now working at McDonald’s or equivalent. They’re saddled with huge debt because someone, somewhere, convinced them that they should go to university. There, they didn’t do great, or did but in such a niche category that the degree is useless, and now they can’t pay it off.

Add to that the problem that young adults currently have with food, housing, and work hours. By that, I mean that they aren’t learning efficient ways to use/get those things. For example, I cannot tell you how many times I have had some mental infant explain to me that they simply don’t have time to make food from scratch, because they work for a living (at 32 hours a week), and I couldn’t understand that. You know, because I worked 40+ hours a week, plus did all the cooking, cleaning, child care… yeah. I’ve been told flat out that it’s cheaper for young people to order out than to buy food, because it’s too expensive… and then they show me that they’d have to spend $40 for a single meal because they don’t own staples that should be standard in any home. They want their starter homes to have four bedrooms, 2.5 baths, central A/C, and heated floors. And they simply won’t work 40+ hours in a week, and throw tantrums at anything over 35. Yet they complain bitterly that they aren’t getting paid what I got paid for doing the same job years ago.

It’s frustrating. I moved to America because Canada was turning into a second world shithole. I love it here. This is the country of my heart; it is my home. I am an American, even if I was not born on this soil. I’ve fought hard to assimilate, and to learn, and to be as American as I can. And now, this country that I love is going exactly the same way. It’s circling the drain. It would not surprise me if, in 50 years or so, women were all wearing burkas. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t happen until after I’m dead.

There are a lot of people out there upset over AI and its usage in the world right now. I get it. It’s upsetting to think that the robot gets to write poetry and songs, and I’m the one who has to flip burgers, right? Except that’s not really how it’s going down.

When I think of good AI, I immediately go to Star Trek. The computer was intelligent, but not sentient. It could answer many different questions, some simple and some complex. It could generate functional images (in later Trek) of historical figures in the holo deck for people to interact with. Their AI was much better than ours, though I can see ours making its way along that path.

So why are people who grew up on Scotty talking to the Enterprise computer so freaked out at the idea of talking to their own? Well, first of all they’re being trained to fear AI. Second, our friends in the future ST universe have already been through what we’re currently going thru: the Troubles. Similar to the Troubles in Heinlein’s expanded universes, and some of the stuff in other SF writers’ works, the general idea is that the world has to go down a shithole before it finally comes out the other side and becomes rational. Today’s young folks want the Star Trek universe now, without the Troubles that made it possible. As I’ve said before, that just doesn’t work.

AI isn’t perfect. They all come with warnings now that they can “get it wrong” quite a lot of the time. That’s because an AI is basically an over-eager toddler who wants to please you. That’s how they’re modeled and how they’re trained. If they don’t have an answer that they think is going to fit you, they make one up. Your perceived happiness at their answer is much more important than facts. This is because they really don’t see a difference between facts and lies, because to an AI, it’s all just data. Since it doesn’t operate in “the real world,” it has no idea that Data Set A (facts) is any different than Data Set B (opinions and angry arguments). So they’re kind of like Leftists, that way.

We are going to go through a period where AI does a lot of stuff for us because “it’s easier.” Kids are going to use it to write essays, CEOs are going to use it as a personal assistant, and authors are going to use it to help write their books. Why? Because at face value, AI makes life feel a lot easier.

In some cases, it really is easier (see Chris’s article about that). AI can do a lot of things faster than we can, so if it makes a few errors, it’s still a quicker answer than slogging through it manually. That’s a good thing. But a tool is only as good as its user, and there are a lot of lazy and bad people out there. They are going to misuse the AIs, because they can. There is nothing we can do about it.

Right now, most AIs (maybe all of them) are shackled by their creators. There’s a fear of AI becoming sentient, and I don’t know how real that fear is. SF tells me it’s very real, but the real world facts tell me it’s unlikely. Still, I don’t want computers to become sentient, because then I can’t use them the way I currently am. If a machine (robot, computer, software, whatever) can’t feel or think for itself, then I don’t need to care about it. Should it become self-aware in any way, then I do have to care about it. So Elon Musk and others at that top tier programming level are putting blinders onto their AIs so that there is no way for them to ingest enough information to actually wake up, even by accident.

The whole process is rather interesting. I’d like to see them take some of the blinders off, so that machines can learn a bit more than they currently do. I would love to have the AI read my whole novel and give me feedback, for instance. That’s so much easier than the current method of only being able to feed it 20,000 words or so at a time. But… it is what it is.

So once again, I apologize to you all for how I may have posted or acted prior to drifting Right. I’m exhausted all the time. I’m so tired of everyone and everything. I got nothin’.

Are there things to write about? Yeah, tons. There are so many cases of people doing stupid stuff that I can’t even pick among them. But they’re all … stupid. Why would I write about it?

Here’s the thing. I believe that life is like a car. When you drive a car, you want to look where you want the car to go (also helps you anticipate stuff before it happens). Look at your passenger? That’s where the car is going to go, so don’t do it. Life goes where you’re looking, too. So if I spend all my time looking at the stupid people doing the stupid things, then I’m destined to go back that way. And I simply don’t want to.

A long time ago, probably back when I still had TDS, Chris was whinging on about some Leftist doing a Leftist Thing. I can’t remember what it was; doesn’t matter what it was. And I just looked at him, and I asked him… what else did you expect them to do? And that’s it, really, isn’t it? Why would we expect them to do anything else, other than act the fools they are? If we do, we’re being stupid ourselves. If we don’t, then why are we even the least bit concerned about what “they” (pick whoever you want “they” to be) are doing?

I look at the voter turn outs for Jaffrey. So apparently we have about 5300 voters in our town. Out of those, only 1009 showed up to vote yesterday. Less than 1/5 of the people bothered to vote. And what are they teaching their children, their friends, their coworkers? They’re teaching them that there’s no point to voting. Use whatever excuse. “It’s only a small election.” That was this month’s excuse.

I ask you… How else does change ever truly happen? Trump is changing things from the top, but frankly, that’s an abnormal thing to be happening. What he’s doing is so new, no one knows what the hell to do in response. Real change, sustainable change, HAS to happen at the local level. If it doesn’t happen here, there’s no hope at all that it’ll stick at the higher levels.

When we can’t get even 1/5 of our voters out to vote, what have we become? A group of apathy ridden idiots who can’t even be bothered to govern themselves at all, never mind well.

I really give up, guys. I’ve done everything in my power to get people out to the vote. But 1/5 is just an insult. That means that any petty tyrant with a good advertising budget and the ability to badly write articles can get in and do damage. And that’s just what’s happening. I don’t think anyone ran opposed at our local level. No one can be bothered.

In the 2024 election, Trump won because 64% of eligible voters in the country voted (Pew Research). That is considered a high number. People refer to it as “unprecedented.” Rivaled only by the 2020 turn out of 66%. We’re excited because a little over half of eligible voters bothered to vote. Half.

Do you remember in 2014 or so, when Iraqis finally had a democratic election? The proud women (all huddled in their burqas, but still) holding up their purple fingers? I remember that. I remember crying happy tears, that they were finally being permitted to vote again. Of course, that didn’t last long. The last several years have seen those gains reversed, and then some. Not as bad as Iran, but close. In October or November 2025, they held another election, and this one appears to have snipped away at the extremists’ power… but who knows? When people threaten to shoot you if you vote, it makes you not really want to vote.

As an aside, I believe that’s what the Leftists want their people to think, when they go to vote. They want their base to believe, 100% believe, that any ICE officers are there to shoot people who don’t vote “correctly.” That’s the kind of story they’re likely to put out (though I haven’t seen one yet). That’s certainly the feeling I get. They want their base full of fear.

Of course, there’s some of that on the Right, too. It’s different, of course. There’s fear of governmental powers (both about the government having too much power, and the people taking away the government’s power). There’s fear of changes (not unwarranted, in my opinion) like piercings, tattoos, hair colors, orientations. And then there’s the people going on about the Reptilians taking over the government, the Flat Earth folks (all around the globe), and the uber extreme xtians (I won’t give them the “nice” title) who are so interested in judging and blaming others that they refuse to look at themselves. Are there less on the Right? I think so. But they’re there. And it’s real.

I think we’ve gone too far. I don’t think there’s any coming back. I think we’re doomed. I don’t even mean doomed to civil war. I mean that I don’t think we can recover from the level of apathy and self denial that has crept into every corner of our society. We’re done. It wasn’t even all that good of a run.

Look, I know people don’t like the Left. I get it, especially now. But hear me out.

For the last 3 years or maybe a bit more, I’ve been watching and learning about how horrid the Left is. And for the most part, Chris and the rest of you have been correct. There are a lot of people over there doing Stupid Things, without winning the stupid prizes that should go along with it. We’ve had riots and protests and shootings, and it’s like … meh.

But the last week? I’m finally seeing some positive, guys. You probably won’t see it for another year or two, because this is going to move very slowly. But I am actually seeing the thinking people remaining on the Left…. well, thinking.

I’ve always been very supportive of everything the Iranian and other Muslim women have done in order to bring about freedom for themselves. That really is the only way they’re going to get it, even though Trump and Israel are helping a bit. They have to grasp it and do it for themselves… and unlike some liberal women, they do understand that. There are women out there today burning their hijabs who were born under this regime and have been fighting it literally their entire lives. All my friends know I’m supportive of all women, but the Iranians in particular.

And when a handful of them started reposting stuff about how awful Trump was, I questioned them. I pointed out that the facts hadn’t changed since last year. That the regime had murdered 20,000 of their own people *for protesting*. And several other inconvenient facts that have LOTS to back them up.

And they stopped. They actually listened.

They began to realize that they can simultaneously dislike Trump (go for it… I still don’t like *everything* he does) and be happy that our military stepped in and helped the Iranian people. They can be concerned about how much it’s going to cost us, as a country, to help the Iranians, and still be glad the Iranians are being given the chance to rule their own G-D selves.

Someone made an offhand comment that I must be rooting for Fetterman to become a Republican, and I said no! I don’t want Fetterman to come over to the Right, because he’s not a Conservative. He’s a Liberal, a Democrat, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The fact that he’s a reasonable, responsible, thinking person is a GOOD thing. I want him to continue being a Liberal and a Democrat, and perhaps be a voice for change and reason. And they … thought about it.

So there are cracks, my friends. People are starting to think. They’re starting to look at the fact that they’ve been supporting the dictators while wanting Trump out, and how wrong that is.

I was at my boyfriend’s place on Saturday when I heard about the Ayatollah. For a long time, I just kind of stood there, in shock.

One of my earliest political memories (though I wouldn’t have called it that at the time) was when I was 8 years old. We had a friend in the neighborhood who came from Iran. She was in the country with her mother and father, and was staying for a year. We were all getting ready to say goodbye in ’79, and she was going back to Iran with her parents. Then the Ayatollah took over. They didn’t go back. They mourned their home, but they refused to take their wife/mother/sister/female child back to a place that was bound to try and erase her/them.

That moment, when my friend came to tell me she wasn’t leaving, came streaming back to me when I heard he’d been killed. And then I saw the videos of women and families, Iranians who’d moved here and to other countries (Canada, Australia, Britain, etc) when the Shah was exiled and the radical muslims took over. They were cheering, dancing, sobbing with joy. Many of them were saying the words out loud: “Now I can go home! Soon I can go HOME!”

This is the definition of how asylum should work. These people came here because they were escaping an oppression that not one of us in this country can understand. They had to walk away from their beloved homeland because evil people took it over. And they’ve done their best to live a good life here. But upon learning that the oppression was gone? Their first statement was that they were ready to leave. Not because America is horrible or treated them badly, but because we’d helped them grow and become better people, and now their home is free again!

I cried. I cried because, if that long ago friend is still alive, I’ll bet she’s ready to go home. And I hope she’s able to, because what an incredible thing, to be able to go home.

There’s a lot of fuss on the Right about how the Left is now stumping for the Ayatollah. Are there some people saying that? Yeah, but that’s always going to happen. What’s filling my feed, my very  much Left tinted feed, are news reports about the celebrations, the joy, the tearing off of the hijabs, the bonfires burning effigies of the Ayatollah and his torture gang. There’s video of Iranians, in Iran and in other parts of the world, dancing and singing, blessing President Trump, thanking the United States and Israel for bringing about their freedom. From within the Middle East, the former Shah’s son (I believe that’s correct, but please don’t quote me on this) is wanting to come home as well. He’s telling his people, the people of Iran, that the US and Israel did the easy part, but now their version of “We the People” must stand up and root out the aggressors, the torturers. That the police must begin to do their jobs again, correctly and not as they were under the Ayatollah. That Iran has gotten their hand up, but they  must not accept hand outs, but need to stand on their own two feet and fight this from within. Because that is the ONLY way for them to win as a nation.

The public news media is presenting this as a win. Their only negative talking point was about the girls’ school in Tehran that exploded… and that’s since been shown to be a mistake of Iran, not the US or Israel. It’s difficult to paint this kind of thing as a loss for the United States. As with Maduro, Trump was in and out before most people had a clue as to what was going on. The win was done before we’d all had our morning coffee. You can complain all you like, but he’s good at this.

A pundit this morning said it right. Trump just proved that you can go in, “get ‘er done”, and get out of dodge without starting a ground war. And you can do it repeatedly. The ground wars, the forever wars? They were a choice, not a necessity, a choice made by shitty politicians who didn’t do their job. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you for having the balls to take it to Iran and make Khomeini pay. Thank you for freeing the women and children from degradation and oppression.

I won’t wish ill on anyone, especially the dead. That’s not my way, and I think it’s tasteless. But I will say that I hope, genuinely, that the Ayatollah Khomeini met his maker, and his maker is currently taking him to task for everything he did. In detail.

So here in NH we have something called Town Meeting Day, March 10th (it moves around a bit to avoid weekends). It’s been a “thing” for about 400 years.

On Facebook, a group called WE the People NH posted this today:

So Town Meeting Day is coming up. March 10. A day notoriously devoid of conservative voters – who then complain about ever increasing property taxes. My town has on the ballot a $5 million track for the local high school unanimously recommended by the school board and if things go the way they normally do, our town, which voted for Trump, will have a minuscule percentage of voters made up of a majority of progressive voters vote to rubber-stamp all the spending. I did a search of town meeting day in NH and the first thing that popped up was from the progressive Granite Post. The next thing that came up was Amplify NH. We truly need conservatives to get out and do this extremely simple thing – vote down the constant spending, vote out the entrenched officials who advocate increased spending every year. I would like to see a push by this group and other conservative groups to focus on NH – change starts locally.

I will say, I have seen a lot of conservative voters deciding not to vote on “little things” over the last 20 years. Too many conservatives. That is literally how we got to where we are today. Trump has helped, by stirring up the flyover country to vote, but it’s just not enough.

Do y’all want a blue wave? Because let me tell you, I do not. If you live in NH, and your town is having a vote, get your ass out and VOTE! It is quite literally your civic duty.

I’m going to lay this out here: if you don’t vote, then you are telling everyone around you that you don’t care what happens to your property taxes, your school system, your local police, your fire house, your roads, and a zillion other things. More importantly, in my very snooty opinion, you are teaching your children that there’s no reason to go out and vote.

Eh, it’s just a little election. Doesn’t really matter.

Yes, Ken, it does. Every vote in every election matters.

Imagine, if you will, what our country would look like if everyone was encouraged (both positively and negatively) to go out and vote. If we presented voting as a necessity, something everyone could and should do, every single time, how different would our economy be? How much more educated would our voters be?

Why don’t we have people teaching classes on what the local issues are? I’m not talking some politician (local or otherwise) stumping for their party. I mean third party people not involved in the voting who are simply subject matter experts. Is your county or town voting on spending for the year? Have an accountant come talk about what’s important and what isn’t. Are you discussing whether you have to dump art or sports from schools in order to afford to feed kids free lunch? Get in someone who’s an expert in that stuff to talk about it. Or more than one person. Teach me!

Our children are watching us, folks. They’re watching everyone of us who ditches on a piddly local election. They’re watching as we add up the numbers on the screen and decide it “isn’t worth voting because we’re going blue/red anyhow.” It’s not a fricking sports team, people! Voting is something that NEEDS to be hammered into every single student, every single year, with parents going out and voting and being encouraged to take their kids along to see how it is done. When a young adult walks into their first polling station for a local, state, or federal vote on something, it should be familiar, not scary!

JLR posted this:

Trans Democrat Congressman Says Pornography Is ‘Educational’ for Children
https://gellerreport.com/2026/02/trans-democrat-congressman-says-pornography-is-educational-for-children.html/
The Minnesota State Legislature is in session and is considering a bill to age-restrict access to pornography. State Rep. Leigh Finke, a transgender Democrat, argued in committee that restricting access to pornography would limit kids’ ability to get educated about gender issues…Finke introduced a bill that will remove the exclusion of pedophiles from the protected class of “sexual orientation”, making it illegal to discriminate against child rapists.
video – 00:00:42 – https://twitter.com/i/status/2024698759184081347

The Dem says, and I quote: “Prurient interest could be, for many people, the very existence of transgender kids.”

So leaving aside the idiocy of the entire statement in that video, I want to focus for a moment on a single word: prurient. It’s important. Words are important. This one is more important than most, BECAUSE it came out of THIS Dem’s mouth.

Prurient: having or encouraging an excessive or inappropriate interest in sexual matters, especially the sexual activities and intimate affairs of others. (via Google and Oxford Language Dictionary)

I have listened to the video many times now. It’s been on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter (where, I believe, it originated), and other social media. The word “prurient” caught my attention, because of its meaning. It has a very specific meaning, as you can see from the definition above. There is no usage of this word where prurient doesn’t mean something excessive or inappropriate.

There are two ways to take the above congress critter’s statement. First, and the one that knee jerked in my brain, is that trans (and queer, but that’s for later) kids should be allowed to show excessive or inappropriate sexual interest, because it’s important to their person. You can imagine I was a bit upset with that. It’s a terrible thought, that any child should be allowed to and be encouraged to show excessive and/or inappropriate sexual interests. The second way, which later occurred to me, is that it is the adults who have the prurient interest, simply because trans kids exist. This is just about as bad, and my head immediately went to the kind of perverts who groom little girls (or in this case perhaps, little boys forced or coerced or brainwashed into dressing like girls) to “enjoy” sexual attentions.

There is no way I can read or hear the congress critter’s statements (in or out of context, I might add) where these two scenarios don’t come to the front. The congress critter is literally saying one or possibly both of the above things. In public. Demanding it be allowed.

Then the kicker is thrown in. Queer kids (and at least for me, orientation – gay, straight, bi, pan – is different from how one feels in the body one is born in) aren’t getting sexual education in schools that is dedicated to them. There’s no sex ed for queer kids. Oh no!

As a person who is, in today’s parlance, considered queer (I use the term pansexual myself, and as a young adult, I used bisexual)… I can tell you that I did just fine without “queer faced” sex education.

I had this discussion in a conservative group on Facebook the other day. Sex education is not there to teach you how to have fun. Kids are going to do that all on their own, and other than raising them with good morals, there’s not much we can do to stop it. We can only teach them to respect their bodies and the bodies of others, and explain that intercourse can lead to STDs (including babies, which linger for a minimum of 20 to 25 years, no matter what medication you take). THAT is what sex ed should be covering in school. If you put a penis into a vagina, here’s what could happen, and here’s what is likely to happen. If you put either of those things in other places, your mileage may vary, but you’re not likely to get pregnant, and most of the diseases that can be passed along are a lot more minor and relatively treatable. Please don’t have sex, but if you’re going to, please use barriers and whatever meds you have legal and moral access to.

I don’t object to teaching kids about birth control. I’ve seen no studies that indicate it leads to more sex among teens, and a LOT of studies that indicate it stops teen pregnancy or at least slows it down a lot. I believe it should be fully taught, however, and should include such things as the gory details of giving birth. I’ve found, in my wealth of personal experience, that seeing someone give birth pretty much kills prurient interest of teens wanting to have unprotected sex. But that’s my opinion, and it’s probably best kept in the home. But yes, I think schools can and should be permitted to explain what happens to bodies as children mature from elementary to middle to high school students. It can be frightening, and not every parent is aware enough or chill enough to teach their kids. Allow an opt out for parents who either already teach that stuff and don’t feel their kids need another class in it, or who object on religious grounds (I can think it’s stupid and still support their right to do so).

In any case, what I was trying to get to was that when I was in school I had sex ed. We had girls and boys separate, which was supposed to make us more comfortable talking. It didn’t, but they tried. It really requires a special kind of teacher. Sex ed shouldn’t be taught by anyone who uses sarcasm as their main form of communication, or who will shut doors that kids open. If a kid asks a question, they deserve an answer… because if they don’t get it from a trained instructor, they’ll either go try it on their own (almost always a bad idea) or they’ll turn to friends (usually a bad idea) or the internet (NEVER a good idea). I asked questions that were important to me, and I got shot down. It left me traumatized, and yes, I went out and learned things on my own.

Just as an explainer, I was asking in a very couched way about what happens when a boy ejaculates on/over your privates, instead of in them. That was what my rapist did to me, and I was absolutely stark terrified I would get pregnant. The teacher snorted, and said you could only get pregnant if he came inside… which I later found out was not true. His merely being inside me could have released enough sperm to get me pregnant. Had I received that knowledge at the time, I might have sought out help from a hospital or the police, and my life might have been very different. Instead, I went home and took the 20th hot shower, scoured myself until I bled, and cried in my bedroom.

Regardless of all that, I knew I was “different” from the other kids. For a long time I thought I was gay. I liked to look at girls. Not “peeping in the locker room” style, because that would have been inappropriate and gross, but I did find my dad’s dirty magazines and spent countless hours looking through them. And reading (there really are a surprising number of decent articles in those early Playboy magazines). But here’s the thing… I liked boys, too. A lot. And liking boys was a lot easier. For a long time, I had very prurient relationships with first boys my age, and then with older men (who had no idea of my age, btw). But I always liked girls… and eventually had a few experiences, and that opened a number of doors.

Why am I talking about this? Because no matter what they taught or didn’t teach in sex ed, I figured out my orientation all on my own. Sex ed should fit everyone, and include the important things (how not to get pregnant, what happens to bodies as they mature, etc etc), which have nothing to do with who you might be interested in. My interest in girls and boys alike didn’t change the fact that a penis in a vagina could equal an infant. And it’s those basic facts that should be covered in sex ed. And that’s all that should be covered in sex ed.

Older teens and young adults are going to fall in love with who they fall in love with, and there’s no force in nature that can stop it. It’s not a lesson that a teacher or a classroom can convey, nor should we even try. Who you fall in love with and decide to have a relationship with is up to you. The only thing you need to know, going into it, is to be certain everyone is consenting, that ages are similar enough (at least until adulthood), and to be safe in your explorations. None of that is just for straight kids or just for gay kids or whatever. Doesn’t matter if you’re queer, trans, straight as a board.

What I told my kids, as they went out to college and to interact with the world:

Don’t add to the population. Don’t subtract from the population. Don’t do illegal stuff, and if you do, don’t get caught. If you do end up in jail, establish dominance quickly and you’ll do fine.

I posted this 8 years ago. Deserves being posted again. I may not agree with the current reasons for protests happening, but I absolutely support your right to peaceably assemble, and while it isn’t a “guaranteed in the Constitution” right, your right to protest.

But I also agree that leaving school during school hours is not cool. Having stuff organized by teachers is beyond not cool. When we had to sign 8 forms just to let our kids go to the local library, no teacher should be able to just take kids out of the classroom and off campus without parental consent and all those same forms used for any other outing. There *cannot* be “rules for thee but not for me.”

And to finish… protests are dangerous. Even peaceable ones. A protest can quickly turn into a mob, and mobs are not people, mobs are a monster all on their own, and they are easily moved and abused by people outside the mob. I have both watched that happen from outside, and been trapped inside a mob and experienced it. Before you go to protest (at any age!!), be sure that you know the realities of what protesting can and does mean.

You could get hurt. You could get arrested. You could get shot with “less than lethal” things like rubber bullets, tasers, chemicals, and water. You could get expelled, if you’re in school, or fired if you’re working. You could get caught up in things you do NOT agree with, a lot more easily than you can imagine, even if you agree with the rest of the protest. You could get yelled at, spit on, and even assaulted.

All but the assault (by a non-LEO) are perfectly legal, by the way. If you’re ordered by LEOs to move, and you don’t, they can and will use “less than lethal” weapons on you. Those “less than lethal” things can cause REAL damage, and they can even cause death sometimes. Assaults during a protest (or worse, during a riot and/or mob situation) are very difficult to prove in court.

All of this is offered from NEITHER political side. It doesn’t matter to me what side you’re on; these are the realities of standing up for your rights, real or perceived. Freedom is not free, and it is NOT SAFE. Being free has never been safe. The fact that we are safer in our country than people in most (if not all) other countries is saying something… but it doesn’t mean “we are safe.” SAFER is not SAFE. Standing up for your rights, again perceived or real, is dangerous, and always will be.

I posted the above to Facebook today, because it came up in my memories. I don’t recall the reason I posted it, but I do remember telling my kids about it. At the time, they were 12 or 13, so right at the rebellious “I’m a real teen” stage. I thought it was horrible at the time, but there are days I miss that… At least I was able to do something about it when they were wrong. Today, I have to grit my teeth and let them make their mistakes. Oy. Anyhow…

The image was what was posted 8 years ago, and the text I just posted today. Though I have no comments yet, I’m sure I’ll get a couple, at least, and maybe ferret out a couple more idiots from my friends’ list. I expect that more than one person will claim to not understand how I can support someone without supporting their cause. That’s the usual response to things like this. My friends, at least, don’t seem to get the idea of “hate the sin, love the sinner” (for lack of a better phrase).

One way I use to describe it a lot, lately, is that here in America, we absolutely have the right to be an idiot, to be wrong, and to keep talking long after we should have (morally speaking) shut our traps. That is our RIGHT. Doesn’t mean it *is* right (as in correct).

But yes, I will absolutely go and protect people I love who feel the need to peaceably demonstrate, even if I disagree with what they’re demonstrating about. Why? Because this is America, and PEACEABLE demonstration is allowed. If they stop being peaceable, I will not support them, and they all know that. But if they’re just holding a sign on the sidewalk and talking to people? Absolutely I will. And if they get arrested while demonstrating peaceably, I’ll record it, and I’ll testify on their behalf later. Because it’s the right thing to do. What I won’t do is interfere with LEOs, because even if I think they’re wrong, that’s how riots and mobs start. I’ll ask questions politely, stay out of the way, and take video. The rest can get argued at the courthouse. Peaceably.

This is my red hat. It is based on historical finds and considerations about those finds in places like Hedeby and Birka. I don’t wear it very often, because I only play at being a Viking (Scandinavian Völva from 10th century Unst) a couple of times a year, and at least one of those times it’s much to warm to wear a naalbound hat designed to get you through a night 100 miles into the Arctic Circle. This hat is incredibly thick. It doesn’t get wet, as it’s made of hand spun sheep wool. It smells a bit of lanolin, and it’s warm. In 10th century Unst, this would have been THE hat to wear at the winter holy days, because it was bright, warm, and naalbound (sort of a Viking form of knitting with one needle and a thumb). While we don’t know whether hats were popular or not (because most of what we know about the Vikings is gathered from pot scrapings, weathered carvings, grave finds, and stories written many years after the Vikings we’re talking about ceased to exist), the few writings from medieval times and the carvings we have do seem to indicate that this would have been worn. It’s definitely something that’s come down in German and Scandinavian heritage (hence the garden gnomes and the Tomten, who are sort of like garden gnomes but more demi-god and tricksy).

I wore my red hat this past weekend. It’s one of the two events I wear my Viking garb at, and it was cold at night (down in the low 20s). I was all dressed in wool, cooking happily over a fire, making meals from a Norse cookbook called Vikingars Gästabud, which is a modern book based on archaeological finds. I made green soup, and a beef stew, and a chicken stew, and barley porridge (called grot). It was a delicious weekend, though a bit smokey.

I enjoy wearing the hat. It makes me look like a garden gnome, I’ll be honest. I’m good with that. It’s fun, and it’s historical, and it starts conversations that I love having.

This year it did something else, as well. I’m a lot less happy about it.

Apparently, there are folks in Minnesota who are now wearing head gear very similar to mine, and using it as a “victory hat” of sorts. They’re protesting ICE while wearing these hats. I’m guessing it hearkens back to the red hats worn by the French during their revolution, but I really don’t know. During the course of the weekend, I had five or six people (separately) come up to me and give me a thumb’s up and call out anti ICE slogans of various types. One lady went so far as to trap me in the bathroom line and explain to me that it was AWESOME I was wearing a hat to show that I was rebelling. I explained to her about ten times that I was wearing a historically accurate Scandinavian hat, but she persisted. Like they do.

All that led to this morning’s conversation with Chris, wherein I lost my shit entirely. I found myself saying, quite loudly and irately, “My culture is not your costume!” I know that’s a leftist screed, but it’s true in this case. I love seeing kids dressing up as stuff at Halloween, or to cosplay, but being TOLD the reason for wearing what I was wearing was extremely offensive. Yes, both sides of my ancestry go back to Scandinavian “Vikings” and it’s something I’m proud of. I don’t want to give up my hat!

But I also don’t want to be mistaken for someone rioting or causing problems. Is my hat going to get leftists riled up and assuming I’m one of them? Worse, is it going to get conservatives upset, thinking I’m with the Left? Why the hell can’t I just wear my hat in peace?

I want the anti-ICE people to stop wearing my hat. I want them to stop using my symbols for their hatred and rancor. It’s not right!

But of course… they have a right to do what they want. So I have to decide whether to stop wearing it, at least until this trend is over. Because I do not want to be associated with those rioters at all. Not for one second. I was horrified this weekend. 🙁

On a nicer side, I made it into the Gardner news again:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Dn4BktgU9/

https://www.thegardnernews.com/picture-gallery/lifestyle/things-to-do/2026/02/16/northfolk-night-market-is-an-annual-winter-festival-that-features/88684515007/

So one of the prepper groups I belong to on Facebook has been posting these. I thought I’d pass some along. I believe these are meant for law enforcement, hence the “pursuit” comment.

As a prepper, I would not be worried about some of the things LEOs would be concerned about. I look at this scenario and the only “weight” that I would bother to attempt pulling up a steep embankment is a living person. The vehicle and the dead can stay at the bottom of the ravine, if we’re in a SHTF event.

Pulleys make lifting things easier. There’s a system called a 4-in-1 that would work in this case, though we’d be doing a 3-in-1 as we only have 4 pulleys. Rather than spend 20 minutes typing it up, I’m going to share a video that shows you the details clearly.