From Behind Enemy Lines

Vaccines are a hot topic right now. A lot of states are removing mandates about vaccines. It’s a topic that’s come up often between Chris and myself, as I struggle to come to terms with damage. Chris has said, and I suppose this is true (though I still struggle with it), that I believe most people are too stupid to make good decisions about vaccines.

I believe childhood vaccines are important. I have friends (now passed away, sadly) who couldn’t have kids because, as children, they’d had chicken pox that scarred their ovaries so badly that they weren’t capable of bearing children. Their adopted children were vaccinated; they all have kids of their own. Yes, we treated “common childhood diseases” as no big deal, but I don’t believe that was correct. It WAS a big deal, but we didn’t have a good way to deal with them.

As an example, when Ed Jenner discovered milk maids who’d had cow pox as youngsters didn’t get infected with smallpox, he came up with the general idea of vaccination. He gave pus from someone with smallpox to an 8 year old child, James Phipps. The child didn’t die; instead, he had a mild case, recovered, and went on to live a normal life. That whole thing led to us finding the vaccine for smallpox. At the time when Jenner did it, there was nothing better, and infecting Phipps with the disease in a controlled manner was the best he could do. Many people did it. You got sick, yes, but you didn’t die of it. I think that a lot of the “measles parties” and such were an extension of that desperation that caused Jenner to infect a healthy child with a deadly disease.

But we DO have vaccines now for measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough, and others. I don’t think we’ve had a tetanus death in the United States in years, because of the vaccine. Shingles, HepA and B, Yellow Fever, Diphtheria, and others are all well controlled (though not eradicated) by vaccines. All these vaccines are well tested, with 40+ years of use and reporting behind them. The handful of severe reactions to them are noted, and reflected in information given to people getting the vaccines. The chances of getting a disease and having a severe reaction to it is much higher than the chance of having a severe reaction to the vaccines.

When I was growing up, I was taught that vaccines don’t make you immune. They boost your immunity, meaning they make it much less likely that you’ll get a disease, and if you do get it, it will be much more mild. This is what I’ve always believed. That’s what my immunologist friend told me during COVID, too. It’s why I like to get a flu shot when I can, because when I do get influenza, I get it very badly and it puts me out for weeks. If I’m vaccinated, my likelihood of getting the flu goes down exponentially (in fact, the years I got shots, there’s only twice that I did get the flu, and both times it was relatively mild, if bothersome). Not everyone has that reaction to the flu, and there are enough people that get the jab that it’s neither here nor there whether anyone gets it or not.

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I don’t know how much I can speak “from behind enemy lines” at this point. I’m no longer there. As of this week, I’ve pretty much slammed the door shut on the faces of those who would like to see me dead or silenced or have my rights ripped from me at gunpoint. The scales have fallen from my eyes, and all that crap. I’ve also stood up, and for those who ask, I’m no longer hedging about my political stance.

I am not “announcing” that I’m conservative. That’s for a few reasons. First and foremost, politics is not my main pursuit in life. In that, I am definitely NOT Charlie. I write cookbooks, vampire novels, and fantasy stuff. I don’t want to make a career out of political writing or talk. That’s not where I’m called, and I know Charlie would understand that you have to follow your own calling, not someone else’s. On the other hand, I write here, and it’s very important to me, and so I also have to follow Charlie’s lead in my style of communication. Second, I’ve never liked people who led conversations with, “I’m a liberal” or “I’m gay.” Good for you Karen, whatever. I want to know WHO you are, not what you are. Therefore, it would be disingenuous for me to lead in a similar way.

However, I am also not hiding anymore. I posted stuff about Charlie. I have made it clear that if people think bullets are a good answer to words, I will both report them to the authorities, and block them. I don’t need that kind of crap in my life. So it’s becoming obvious, at least from a leftist viewpoint, that I am indeed conservative.

I maintain… only in a crazy world would I be considered conservative. I’m polyamorous, pansexual, kinky, pagan… these are not hallmarks of conservatism. I do believe in being fiscally conservative, though, along with smaller government (possibly moreso than many of you reading this), traditional values (to a point… I don’t care who makes up a family, so long as there are at least two adults involved in every child’s life, and if they’re same sex, no biggie, and if there’s 3 or more, no biggie, etc), and individual liberty (your right to freedom ends at my nose, and vice versa). There are some points I’ve always been conservative about, at least since I became a functioning adult (which didn’t happen until I was in my 30s, but there you go). Other things I cling to, because they feel right to me, and they meet my spiritual and religious morals and ethics.

Still, I find myself asking all the time now, what would Charlie say?

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So everyone occasionally shares a rumor. Most of us catch onto a good one and speculate among ourselves, making sure everyone we talk to understands IT IS A RUMOR. Rumors are not truth, and I suspect that everyone on Vine of Liberty and most conservatives are quite aware of that fact. Liberals in general and Democrats in particular are less sure of this distinction.

Rumors I have heard this week on social media:

• Trump is dead.
• Trump is being defeated in the courts.
• Trump is giving massive tax cuts to the rich and forcing the poor to pay for everything.
• Able bodied people dumped off of food stamps and other gov’t funded charities will die.
• Republicans are racist, homophobic (and/or hate gay people), misogynistic, etc.
• JK Rawlings is a racist, homophobe, etc.
• Trans people are dying because of Trump’s rules and laws.
• Gay people are losing their rights.
• Trans people are losing their rights.
• People of any ancestry other than “white” are losing their rights.
• Women are losing their rights.
• We’re on track to be in an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale.

I could go on, but I know you’ve heard it all before, too. And I could sit here and refute most of the above without even having to look stuff up, but why bother? Even when I present factual, irrefutable proof that their rumors are actually untrue, they continue to believe.

Most of the rumors I hear are bullshit, and I treat them as such. I just skim onward, ignoring them. There’s simply no point in giving them any traction, and there’s no way to weed them out. They’re teflon, because people on the Left have such strong belief that it’s … well, unbelievable.

And then there’s the recent set of rumors (I refuse to call them facts, but I have no other word to use, so we’re going with “rumors”) that Pew has put out. I’m disappointed in them, by the by. I normally consider their stuff to be not too bad, but this really got me.

They did a survey of Americans, asking what their opinions were on the economy, and a variety of economic factors. Now, even red states have a low view of the current economy in certain areas, because we’re recovering from four years of Liberal spending and waste. That’s to be expected. But the headlines that came out of it was stuff like “Economic failure in sight!” and “Trump’s Economy Problem is Threatening his Entire Agenda.”

The Left is all excited that Trump is apparently disliked by most people. They miss that the polls only polled people who would answer a certain way. The outcome is one of opinion, not fact. Someone a few weeks ago was explaining (mansplaining) to me that the economy was shite, that everything was becoming so expensive that it wasn’t affordable to eat, businesses were failing, and the world was going to sink under massive debt. I looked over at the lowest gas prices I’ve seen in years, and the cost (expensive but affordable) of the sushi dinner I had with my partner last week, and how the price of my groceries has dipped by about a third since Trump came into office. I tried to explain that to the person, but was rebuffed. I don’t understand economics, they said. They’re correct that I’m not great with economics, but I know how to make a budget and I know I’m coming in UNDER budget for most things for the first time in years. So… I guess they don’t understand economics either.

Everything presented by the Left lately is based on opinion. Now the Right does that sometimes too, but most of the time the Right manages to rightly label something as opinion. They don’t put opinion out as if it’s fact. They don’t say the economy is bad because people think it’s bad. That is literally what’s happening right now on the Left. They can’t point to facts to show how bad things are going, so they’re polling people who are “proving septum ring theory” and presenting it as fact. By that, I mean that they’re proving that septum ring theory is correct.

I’m tired, folks. I’m worried about a lot of things. I’m worried about vaccines (because I know most vaccines work and I don’t want to see the baby thrown out with the bath water). I’m worried about the economy (because if Vance doesn’t get in for 2028, the economy is going to circle the drain). I’m worried about books in schools (while I don’t see anyone banning any books, I do wish some books were more readily available in schools and I worry that the Karens of the world will spoil school libraries for everyone). I’m worried about the posting of Christian-only religious materials in public schools (because I’ve long held the opinion that either it’s “everyone gets to” or “NO ONE gets to”). I’m worried about the next generation being able to manage the world (because other than the few successful kids I personally know, all I see out there are slackers who think that working more than 7 hours in a day is some kind of abuse, and they’re damn vocal about it). I’m worried that the ideal of personal success is gone. I’m tired, and I’m worried. The rumors don’t help; they make it worse.

Please note, I didn’t say *anti* trans. I have trans friends who did it right (therapy, slow social transition, deep social transition, then when therapists and docs and friends all agreed that transitioning was the right way to fix this particular mental health problem, a full transition to the desired gender… and now there’s no telling she was once a he, or that he was once a she). I don’t care if a fully formed adult decides to transition, quickly or slowly, so long as they’re paying for it. When women with massive back problems due to their tits weighing so much (an actual physical health issue that’s REAL) can get their breasts reduced on insurance, then we can discuss other “vanity” surgeries. Otherwise, I don’t even want to begin to hear about it.

Oh, I lie. If a group of people get together and start an insurance company that chooses to cater to or otherwise insure trans people, because they WANT to, that’s also fine. Choice is a good thing, and I wouldn’t want to stop someone from doing that if it’s what they want. I just don’t want it thrust upon other people. Oh, and I don’t want to pay for your viagra, either. And stop mutilating little boys; we’re not allowed to cut off girls’ genitals so why is it okay to do it to boys? Just saying.

But I digress.

There are a lot of people who are standing up (and out) as detransitioners right now. While I support the right of an adult to do whatever they want to their own body (yes, *whatever* they want… it’s their body, not mine), at their own cost, the -TQIA++ community (LGB and part of T are not lumped in there, btw) need to back the fuck down and leave detransitioners alone. More importantly, they need to LISTEN to those who’ve chosen to go through the incredibly traumatic process of detransitioning. We all need to listen to them.

There are hundreds of hours of video at this point, of young men and women telling Congress and various courts why transitioning was wrong for them. There’s a lot to listen to. We should ALL be listening to them. Too many of us were taken in by doctors saying that “a trans kid is better than a dead kid.” Even the kids themselves bought in on that line. To listen to these young people talking about what was really going on in their heads during this “transition process” is terrifying. Many of them knew it wouldn’t fix anything. They simply got caught up in the social storm and couldn’t dig their way out.

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Found on the book of faces:

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I’ve seen a couple of videos of DC police (or at least people dressed as police well enough that they appear real to me) challenging people sitting on their own porches, asking for ID and demanding their questions be answered. This is, in my VERY strong opinion, not good. Unless those people are having a rave and offering the cops illegal drugs, or are smashing in windows or beating their wife and kids in front of the cops, the cops should not be bothering them. We’re protected against unreasonable search and/or seizure.

It’s easy to blame this on Trump. That’s what the Left is doing. “Oh look, Trump has weaponized the National Guard!” First and foremost, Trump has not “weaponized” anything other than maybe his ability to tweak leftists. Second, the DC Nat’l Guard is different from the States’ Nat’l Guard. It is the only branch of the NG that directly reports to the President. That’s for good reason. In other words, the Nat’l Guard was already under the President’s control. It wasn’t “wrested away” from the Mayor; she never had control of it to begin with.

But let’s go back to the police and/or NG who are roaming DC’s streets and harassing people on their porches. That is illegal, and those who are bothering people doing nothing suspicious beyond filming the authorities should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I believe that what they’re doing is a form of malicious compliance. I’ve only seen a handful of videos showing authorities badgering people doing nothing wrong, and while the cops in the videos are being excessively polite, they’re making statements I consider to be stupid. They’re asking to see ID, and proof that people live in the homes which they’re sitting in front of. Last I checked, you don’t have to prove that kind of thing. I believe that there are a handful of angry authorities out there, leftist holdouts or whatever, who are not interested in making DC safer. I believe they’re interested in making a scene on camera to make the whole of the NG operation look bad.

The term malicious compliance means that the letter of the law is being followed, to the detriment of the spirit of the law.  Sometimes, this is done because a boss is telling you to do something stupid, and you’ve made several attempts to correct that boss, to no avail. So you follow the boss’s instructions exactly, enabling you to show that you’ve done only what you were told to do, and nothing else. Generally, it can be a good method to winnow out bosses who really don’t understand how to utilize good employees as it’s non-violent and generally not overly harmful. In the hands of leftists in DC, however, it could (and I believe will) undermine what Trump is trying to do.

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AKA: Maine Renaissance Faire, weekend the third.

I have somehow managed to create a “Conservative Safe Space” at Ren Faires. I’m not sure how this happened, but it’s definitely an interesting thing!

As I’m writing this, I’ve just gotten home from the third and final weekend of Maine Renaissance Faire. I had a blast, sold a ton of books, and cooked my way through a heatwave and the smoke from Canadian wildfires. I’m slightly sunburned, though not badly, and I managed to avoid getting dehydrated this weekend. I’m rather proud of that. I made Good Choices LOL!

By choice, I stayed on site one extra night, both to get a bit of extra sleep and to not have to load and unload the truck while exhausted and filthy. Instead, I helped other people pack up their stuff on Sunday evening, and then at 9pm I retreated to my tent with some gatorade and my phone (which I basically didn’t look at for most of the weekend). With the big queen bed out of the tent and just my single low cot in there, I had room for my comfy chair and a table, as well as my basket (which doubled as a foot rest on Sunday night). I sat down and watched some Futurama, played a couple of games, took my meds, and was out cold by 10:30pm. I didn’t even shower, even though I could have, because the sheets were already dirty anyhow and I really didn’t care. Come Monday morning, I was up by 8am, feeling actually RESTED. Once the ibuprofin kicked in, I was in fine fettle. I organized all my stuff, packed it neatly, and piled it for easy movement into the truck when Chris arrived to pick me up. THEN I went and showered, and lordy, it felt lovely.

Anyhow, safe spaces. If you listen to people long enough, you can usually tell if they’re liberal or conservative. There are enough code words in both groups that you can pick up on and make an educated guess. I spent the last three weekends learning who the closet conservatives were. I say closet, because at a Ren Faire, you just don’t really talk politics. Well, definitely not conservative politics, but even liberal stuff is largely not spoken about. It’s supposed to be a place to enjoy the fantasy of medieval or Renaissance life, and most everyone does their best to stick to the fantasy and ignore the real world outside.

As I found those I suspected of conservatism, I found a way to privately ask if I was correct. Bonus, I was right every time! I’m sure I missed some people, but that’s fine. I invited several of those people here to the blog, because they’re awesome folks. I let them know that, in my kitchen, we have true equality. Everyone is welcome. I also made it clear that I make my money off of liberals as much (or maybe more) than conservatives, and so if patrons or others were around, we needed to not talk politics. They all understood. Every conservative on site is well versed in keeping their mouth shut while liberals say things they dislike. That’s the price we pay for enjoying the fair and selling our wares to the liberals. It’s fine, most of the time it’s not all that painful.

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The big question on everyone’s mind is who’s on “the list.” The problem is that there’s no real chain of custody for the damn thing. Anyone could have made changes or edits to it along the way.

I’m strongly of the opinion that, if “the list” had Trump’s name on it, the Dems would have released it already. They had four years to do so, and using a simple list to get rid of Trump at the expense of Biden or the Clintons would have been trivial. Still, Bondi said that Trump’s name was somewhere in those files.

On TikTok and Facebook, several of the left leaning people I follow are asking everyone, “If you knew your favorite politician or star was on the list, would you still want it released?” There’s been a lot of crickets from the Left (with a few vehement outliers saying absolutely yes), and a lot of noise from the Right saying “release it already.” More than half the country chose Trump to be our President, and we did so on a platform of transparency. It’s time to be transparent.

I happen to be on the “release it” side of things. Yes, it may have been doctored. It’s up to our Justice Dep’t and Bondi to track that back, have experts look at it and figure out what, if any, changes were made. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be released. Yes, it should. And if it turns out that Trump was bonking little girls and there’s definitive proof, then we toss his ass in jail. Again, we know that won’t be the case or it would already have happened, but that’s the bottom line. I don’t want ANY kiddie diddlers as part of the ruling class of America. I don’t care what “side” they say they’re on; if they’re into children, then they’re not a politician, they’re a cretin.

What is the problem with just opening it all up? Well, first and foremost, doing so would expose victims and people who haven’t been charged with crimes, which is basically re-victimizing those who already suffered. Some of it is definitively child pornography, so that won’t be released. It also exposes a lot of information that is definitively private (financial stuff, etc.). In order to “just release” everything, they’d have to redact large portions of the information. Some in the government fear that would just feed conspiracy theories that the government is holding information back (CNN).

The FBI put out a memo this month, basically saying that they’ve gone through all the information that was gathered. In the gigabytes of information retrieved, they found plenty of evidence of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell doing stuff, and not much else. My guess is, like most predators, Epstein kept images of himself but not others. He wasn’t gay; why would he keep images of other men with the children he was abusing? It doesn’t seem to fit the pattern of how that type of predator works, at least in my understanding.

Most people think there’s an actual list, a client list (Wikipedia). While there’s definitely a list of thousands of names and contact information, it’s not a list of those people who actively did things on the island. It’s basically a huge phone book of all the people Epstein might need to contact. I offer you in evidence my own phone book, which contains my mother’s phone number even though she’s entirely cut out of my life and I would never call her.

As to Trump being named in those files, well, we already knew that. He shared a plane with Epstein several times, or so I have heard. Apparently it’s a thing the ultra rich do. Steven Hawkings was in the files, too, but I don’t see anyone accusing him of doing illegal things with children.

All that said, I want to see the information. Even if it’s redacted to protect the innocent. I want the transparency promised us by Trump when he was running for office. If that means some Dems have to make excuses, so be it. Some will likely say that it was doctored by the Right. So be it. Transparency is HARD… but necessary.

I’ve been a teacher for 38 years. I still remember when I was taking my education classes early in my career, and my conservative uncle, who was a school superintendent in the Chicago suburbs, gave me a bit of advice that stuck with me. He said, “Do not join a teacher’s union.” At the time, I didn’t fully understand what he meant. I guess I was too young and idealistic. But now, decades later, I understand exactly what he was trying to warn me about.

Over the years, I’ve gone back and forth on union membership. Sometimes I joined the NEA (National Education Association), sometimes I didn’t. If there was no pressure, I stayed out. If everyone else around me was joining, I’d go along with it. For the past 15 years or so, I’ve been a member off and on. But this year, as I prepare to move to a new school in a larger city where nobody knows me, I’ve made a clear decision: I will not be joining the teachers’ union again—especially after what I’ve seen recently.

In the past few weeks, I’ve read several articles that left me stunned. One headline from the Washington Free Beacon hit me like a ton of bricks: “Largest Teachers’ Union in the United States Erases Jews From the Holocaust.” According to the article, the NEA described Holocaust victims as “12 million people from various faiths”—never once mentioning the systematic extermination of the Jewish people. That omission is not just disappointing—it’s disgraceful.

It’s become increasingly clear to me that the NEA is no longer focused on students, academics, or educational excellence. Their priority now seems to be pushing political and ideological narratives. I’ve read how they’ve voiced support for groups aligned with Hamas and use language that downplays the suffering of Jewish people while glorifying the Palestinian “Nakba” and vilifying the state of Israel. According to their 2025 handbook, they want to “educate” the public about the Nakba, which literally means “catastrophe,” framing the founding of Israel in 1948 as a disaster rather than a historic triumph for the Jewish people and a vital democratic ally of the United States.

This is not why I became a teacher.

I’ve also seen videos from PragerU, like the story of a gym teacher who was fired because she wouldn’t allow a biological male to enter the girls’ locker room. She was then investigated simply for expressing Christian beliefs in her personal life. They actually questioned whether her faith could be “accommodated.” This isn’t just anti-education. It’s anti-freedom.

I am deeply disappointed, not just in the NEA, but in how so many educators have fallen in line with an agenda that is increasingly radical, anti-patriotic, and anti-Israel. The NEA has strayed far from its mission. It is now a political machine, not a professional organization serving teachers and students.

As someone who has dedicated nearly four decades to education, I feel disillusioned. I love my country. I support Israel. I believe in the importance of free speech, faith, and honest history. But I can no longer support an organization that undermines these values.

So goodbye, NEA. I’m walking away—with a clear conscience and my eyes wide open.

I belong to a small (in the hundreds) community of social media folk who are LGBT and are all done with the bullshit of the alphabet mafia. The vast majority are Trump supporters. All of them are Conservative. All of the ones I’ve personally connected with are intelligent, forward thinking, well educated, and forthright. It’s been a breath of fresh air to be able to have conversations over why I disagree with some of the stuff going on right now (the BBB comes to mind), without getting trampled.

One of the ladies I follow is a big butch dyke. When I say big, I don’t mean fat. She’s stocky, muscular, a little bit masculine but definitely female, and she has the (if you’ll excuse the term) typical lesbian short haircut. She’s a Christian, an unabashed Trump supporter, and is married to a person who is not a Trump supporter. They provide a fairly balanced viewpoint of things, which I really appreciated during the election time.

This lady was recently told that she has to stop identifying as a lesbian. Because she has a masculine look to her, and she wears cargo shorts and high neck tees, she’s “trans masc” and therefore that’s what she needs to present as.

Let’s just say that this order didn’t go down well with the butch. LOL… She very clearly, very concisely, and very pointedly explained that “we the normal gays” are no longer part of the “rainbow community.” There may have been some four letter words, but most were beeped out because TikTok is like that. Let it be said, the butch was not the least bit interested in backing down from her personal viewpoint of her own lesbian self. In Leftist speech, they didn’t respect her pronouns so they’re dead to her.

That whole incident has led to a new movement, though, and I thought it was a good idea to let you all know about it. The first thing these few hundred LGBT people did was to “fix” the pride flag. They took off the “TIAA+” part (the triangle on the left side) and replaced it with a purposefully poorly tacked on other regular rainbow.

Note, this is my version of it. I wanted you to get the idea. Basically, the idea is that if the alphabet mafia doesn’t want anything to do with “normal” gay folk, then they can go. And they should take their part of the flag with them.

The second thing they did was reclaim the rainbow. Keep in mind, these are largely Christian people. Not only did they lose their “gay” rainbow to the alphabet mafia, they lost their Biblical rainbow. So they took it back. Now, they’re doing an upside down rainbow. The upside down rainbow is meant to look like a smile. It represents both the original basis of the rainbow flag (solidarity, wanting to be a part of the greater human community, etc.) and the idea that God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.

I rather like it. So if you see someone with an upside down rainbow, they’re probably a gay Conservative. I might start sporting this one myself. And again, that’s my version of the smile. 🙂