From Behind Enemy Lines

I belong to several writer’s groups on Facebook, partly because I like to connect with other authors and partly to hear about new opportunities when they come by. One of the groups I belong to is run by a very successful cookbook author (who I’m not at liberty to talk about in public, as the group is private and very bougie). The owner posted this video, and then left us to comment on it before coming back. I’ll skip to the good part: if you watch about five minutes of it, you’ll get the whole gist.

Basically, what she says is cookbooks are training you to think you’re bad.

That’s right folks, the recipes you’ve been enjoying in your family for the last umpteen years, the ones you’ve snatched off the internet? They’re apparently actively attempting to strip you of your abilities. I can’t make this shit up. Here’s a quote:

“I want to show you that your cookbooks are more than just lists of instructions for how to cook your next meal. Your cookbooks are in fact deeply judgmental stories telling you that you are not already good enough at doing mundane household tasks.”

What I got from the half of this travesty that I managed to watch is that because a cookbook usually contains a story, it’s only a vehicle for the author to tell you that you’re a failure, because if you weren’t a failure, you wouldn’t need to read the cookbook. As a secondary message, apparently we’re also being told that if we cook like Rachel Ray, we’ll look like her and be rich like her. As near as I can tell, the only thing cookbooks aren’t communicating to you, is how to cook. She’s adamant that people cannot possibly learn to cook from a book, and that it must be transmitted from person to person.

I’m aghast that this woman, Dr. Rachel Rich. She’s a doctorate, so that means she has a PhD in this stuff. Per her own words, “…I’m a historian at Leed Becket University and co-editor of the journal Food And History. I’ve been researching and writing about cookbooks for over 20 years…”

So, is there enough information out there to keep a food historian busy for over 20 years? Absolutely. It’s a fascinating subject, and one which has important connections with today’s world. Not only are food historians bringing the past to life in a way that no other historian can, they’re also behind the revival of several old types of food, plants that were popular in the middle ages or earlier but that had faded into obscurity in modern times. That’s important because we can learn about plant genetics, and how to better feed our growing population by studying those plants and the recipes that they were used in. So yes, there’s a ton of information out there, and a solid researcher could spend a lifetime tapping it.

Instead, this Dr. Rich is handing out this pap.

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So I’ve just gotten home from the Fort, where I stayed for a whole week. One week with minimal running water (cold only, from a single slow tap in the staff kitchen, which I had to then carry to where I was cooking/cleaning/etc). One week with minimal electricity (I could charge my phone at night, and there was a light in the kitchen, and a fridge because I do cooking demos and we don’t want to poison people). One week with almost no social media, news, television, and all the rest of the modern stuff. One week of walking from place to place, interacting in person, baking and cooking over a fire. One week without a shower (that one was difficult lol).

While I was there, the Fort was hosting “The Original” which is the name of a 40+ year old Rendezvous. This is for folks who portray anything from French and Indian War up to War of 1812 and a bit beyond (basically 1740 to 1840). They have some very specific rules that are required of those attending. You must be dressed in period correct clothing (including footwear and eyeglasses unless medically required otherwise) during the entire event, including during set up and tear down. You must have all modern items covered at all times, so if you have a cooler it needs to have something over it or be stashed in an unseen part of your tent. Same with propane stoves, though most people just dug fire pits and cooked that way. It’s rather intense just how serious they take it, though they’re also not rude to people who are just starting out and might not be “quite right.” A good, honest attempt is worth more than perfection, in most cases.

During the event, I was one of the Fort “liaison” people, meaning folks at the Rendezvous could reach out to me to get in touch with the director. I didn’t get called on much, which was nice, but it meant I could visit and participate in Rendezvous stuff without having to pay to get in (which I could not afford). I baked a bunch of bread on the second day of the event, and then loaded it all (still warm) into a huge basket and hefted it onto my shoulder. I went down to the lower field, calling as I went: “Bread for sale! Fresh, warm bread for sale!”

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I’m up at the fort from today until next Wednesday, so I’m writing up some canned words for you, to tide you all over ’til I’m home again. Of course if you want to come visit me at the Fort this weekend (it’s open Friday through Monday because of the holiday), I’d be pleased to meet ya! 😉

One of the things that has gotten to me of late is the use of clickbait titles on articles. While the Left is definitely using them for everything and anything, the Right also uses them. I find it not only annoying, but disingenuous. It leads you down a path and you really don’t know what you’re going to find at the end.

Headlines in my current Google news feed:

• The over-the-counter medicine scientists say may raise your dementia risk.
• Is there a least-bad alcohol?
• Queen Camilla welcomes a new member to the Royal Family.

Yes, there are still some decent headlines. More and more, though, even the more standard headlines are misleading. Some are that way because they are Left leaning. As an example, the ones suggesting Vance was “waved away” by the new Pope. The actual “news” is in there, but you have to read to the bottom of the article to find it. There’s definitely no BLUF, as Chris calls it.

All of these headlines are about exactly the same thing. They each read differently. They contradict one another. Yet the information inside them is largely the same.

The all powerful media is using headlines to alter how people think. It’s a bit disturbing. It’s something to keep an eye on, by the by, especially in your own news feeds. Especially in your own news feeds.

I am well and truly confused over the panic that’s currently occurring over the use of tariffs. An acquaintance of mine just posted the following (changed slightly to protect the author, who I didn’t ask before posting this):

“We have to reconstruct the exterior stairs that were ripped off this house before we moved in, so there is a second exit during an emergency. This requires wood. Which comes from Canada. I also sell books, otherwise known as printed paper. Which comes from China. Tariffs, that’s where my money goes.”

I had to ask said person, where are they printing their books? The last price hike I had, via Amazon KDP, was a couple or three years ago, and came to a grand total of about four cents on each of my books. I chose to eat the cost; it wasn’t enough to bother the customers. There doesn’t appear to be any kind of price hike going on at KDP for print-on-demand, and while there’s no definitive answer available (as with all things Amazon related), it appears as if about half their paper is recycled (meaning we recycle it and turn it into more paper here in America), and the other half is “sourced from the cheapest domestic available,” which to me means whatever they have on hand but local if it’s not prohibitive. At the very least, it’s not enough to cost me more per book to print.

Obviously I can’t speak for other companies, but I have to say… if Amazon, the Great Gouger, isn’t raising prices… well, I am going to guess no one else is either.

When it comes to wood, I can speak a bit more authoritatively. In 2024, about 72% of our wood for building (lumber) came from domestic sources. That means it was sourced here in the good ol’ United States. That’s about to change, because of the tariffs on Canadian imports. The cost of new homes will go up. Currently, that cost is NOT up. And it is entirely possible to buy American lumber for making exterior stairs or other small projects. Does American lumber cost more? For the moment, that’s possible, though I couldn’t find an example of it. Once the tariffs kick in, American lumber will go up slightly in price (because we don’t have the huge forests that Canada does, and so we can’t be cutting down as many trees as they do and have it be sustainable), but it’ll still be less than wood from Canada.

I just don’t get it.

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Right now, as we all know, the media is in a tizzy. At one time, they owned the airwaves, and everyone had to report whatever it was that the letter agencies (ABC, NBC, AP, etc) found out at the White House press room. All the “little people” were forced to get their news from the NEWS agencies. That’s not the case, these days. Leavitt has opened the press room to other media platforms, and routinely makes certain that people other than the letter agencies get to ask their questions. This makes Big Media very angry.

We can speculate about who owns Big Media, but it seems fairly obvious to most of us, I believe. In the end, it doesn’t really matter who owns them; what matters is that the “standard” news is being used to wage war. For those who’ve known this for a long time, you  may not realize just how difficult that is to swallow, especially if you’re generally a thinking person.

I grew up with news being the place to turn to for up to date, factual information. I could look at news on the television at 6pm, or I could look in one of the newspapers local to me. Sure, there were some less than savory newspapers, but we all knew they were only good for their page two girlie of the week. It was easy to know what was good news and what wasn’t. It was obvious for a number of reasons, and there wasn’t any confusion over it.

I consider myself a thinking person. I am not traditionally educated, but I have put a lot of effort into keeping myself educated. I’ve attended classes, both formal and informal, I’ve gotten certificates, I’ve always achieved good grades. I can think my way through most problems, even if I do still struggle with the math**. When Chris started telling me that the media was lying to me, I was disbelieving. Sure, Weekly World News was all made up, but ABC nightly news? That was just the facts. How did I know this? Because all of the news agencies reported the same thing. Statistically speaking, it is quite silly to think that the entirety of every news agency out there would be lying, and lying in much the same (or sometimes exactly the same) way. That would be a statistical anomaly the size of New Jersey.

It’s a hard mouthful to chew, the idea that ALL of the news agencies are telling whoppers every day. The problem, of course, is that anything they say could be true, or might not be. There must be a balance of actual facts thrown in there. It allows newscasters and stations to say, “Hey, look, we covered that thing at the library, all that was factual. What makes you think the rest of it isn’t?” Plausible deniability, I think it’s called. Regardless, it’s been quite the eye opener realizing that basically none of the news stations I’d counted on (even ones like AP) were accurate or to be trusted.

This brings me to the concept of capturing minds.

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Sorry for posting so late, lately. It’s almost fair season, and I’m having a minor procedure done on my foot tomorrow, so I’ve been going crazy getting things ready. With any luck at all, after tomorrow I might be able to heal up and start to wear shoes again. Oy.

The Left is going nuts over the knuckle pic posted of Garcia by Trump. Because Trump had his people label the tats with “MS13” so people understood, the Left is now saying that the “MS13” is photo shopped. Um. Yeah. Like, Trump had the letters and numbers put there. The Left is NOT saying the tats are fake. Just the numbers. You can’t make this shit up.

I’ve seen a number of articles and videos talking about how American citizens have been “wrongly detained” in the immigration crackdown. Of course, if you read through, you find out that they were pulled aside, had their documentation verified, and then released. Sometimes, if it was busy, it took a few hours. Yes, that sucks. No, I don’t like it. But yes, right now it’s going to happen to anyone who looks like they don’t belong in America. Please note, that doesn’t mean a different skin color. It means people who don’t speak English, people who seem to want to destroy American culture, etc.

Still, I firmly believe in what Heinlein wrote:

“When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.” — Robert A. Heinlein, from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

It sounds like China is about to give in with regards to Trump’s tariffs. Some 50 other countries have already caved. The Left is still melting down over how horrible it is that we’re trying to force other countries to pay more to sell things here in America, and how Americans will suffer. I’ve become rather unpopular for presenting the (admittedly VERY Leftist, imo) view that if you Buy Local [tm], you avoid tariffs altogether. Aren’t we all supposed to be buying local? *I* buy local, don’t you? That usually leaves them confused and unable to respond.

I admit to being concerned over Trump pushing AI into schools. I’d like to see LESS electronics in schools. Let’s face it, AI used incorrectly is basically just theft. It takes an inherently ethical person to use it without stealing from others surreptitiously. I really don’t think we can expect elementary or high school kids to have that kind of responsibility. At this point, teachers are having to work their asses off to find out which essays come from AI and which are actually written by the students. It was bad enough when the parents were doing the homework, but now it’s Siri and ChatGPT, and teachers can’t always tell because AI is better at it than the parents were. I’d like to know more about what kind of AI Trump wants in our schools, because based on what I’ve read in mainstream media, I’m concerned.

And of course there’s still the overarching panic over making the government smaller. It’s amazing how many Dems seem to be down on trades people, negative about buying local, and pissed off to have more control at local levels. TDS is still in full bloom.

On the other hand, I’ve seen more and more people on the Left questioning their own folks. Of course, they immediately get tossed out of the party, which leaves them floundering. I offer cookies and a place to catch their breath. I’m unhappy that the Left has no leadership and no direction right now. This country works best with a two party system, and while I’d support the idea of MORE parties, I definitely don’t want one party, and that seems like where we’re headed.

Alright, time for bed. I’ll try and write something for Friday, but if I don’t, forgive me. 😉

If I’m in enemy territory right now, it’s because I’m under cover of darkness, cloaked in mystery, and mistaken for a friend. I spend at least a few minutes each day, reading the news and whispering, “What the actual fuck…” over and over again. It’s depressing. Yes, I realize most of you have been doing that for ages, but hey, I’m new here.

Yesterday morning, it was the entire mess with El Salvador and Ábrego García being deported.

What are the actual facts? Well, you really have to dig to find them. They’re always behind the “read more” line in any article on a news site. Basically, García came to America illegally in 2011. Now, if that was the case (and it does seem to be correct), if he had no ties to any gangs or illegal operations, and his ONLY illegal act was in coming to America, he could have appealed to Obama for clemency. If that had happened, he would have been here legally by the time Trump came into office this time around. Regardless, he was granted “protection from deportation” (what does that mean? I can’t seem to find any info on it… Chris?) some years ago, and has been living with his wife and kid in Maryland. (BBC)

Kristi Noem has said, “This was just one of those examples of an individual that is a MS-13 gang member, multiple charges and encounters with the individuals here, trafficking in his background, was found with other MS-13 gang members—very dangerous person…” (DHS) So according to the director of DHS, García has multiple charges of being in MS-13, trafficking, and other stuff. I would VERY much like to see the paperwork involved with that, partly to shut up the Left, but also because I continue to have a healthy distrust of all things government and I like to check their information as much as I check anyone else’s. I don’t like it when we’re “told but not shown” stuff. It makes me wonder if they’re hiding things.

Regardless of all of the above, García was transported to El Salvador. At this point, he has been repatriated to his home country, whether that was the right thing to do or not. We no longer have any control over García because he is in the hands of his own government. We don’t get to say, “Hey, García was here illegally and should have been deported, but we want him back so we can run him through the court system to prove it well enough to make some of our citizens happy.” It doesn’t work that way. El Salvador isn’t required to send their citizens to another country, especially another country where they’re going to face possible legal trials. The fact that the president of El Salvador simply locked the dude up as a gang member doesn’t phase me.

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I had a Right leaning friend post this meme yesterday:

What I responded with is very honest: “I don’t think so, or not without full due diligence. Remember, what the Right does to the Left or puts into practice can later be used by the Left against the Right. Put NOTHING in place that could even remotely possibly go wrong when turned around. This is something that could *easily* be turned around.”

There will always be people on both sides of the aisle who feel they are doing what they are doing to support the Constitution. The problem with the person who posted this originally is that he knows darn well HE is defending and adhering to the Constitution… and assumes that those on the Left are not, and/or will not.

I can think of quite a few legitimate reasons why someone in the House or Senate might choose to support an illegal alien over a US citizen. For instance, no matter how illegal someone is, if a US citizen assaults, sexually or otherwise abuses, murders, etc. someone from another country (legal or illegal), that’s wrong. I’ll support the person who was the victim.

Putting up something this broad is not “making it perfectly clear” or stating it’s in black and white (in any way other than the fact that it’s black and white lettering). This is akin to the Dems wanting to get rid of the filibuster while the Republicans are in office and then trying to get it back in when they’re in office. If the proposed rule can’t be broadly applied, or applies only “sometimes” (ie when your opponent is in office), then it’s not a good rule.

This is not a good suggestion.

Words, as I’m constantly told, have meaning. I might be pretty sure I know what’s being implied in this meme, it’s NOT clear. If we were to put something like this into practice, it would immediately be turned around and used against the Conservatives. And rightly so, quite frankly.

There’s a lot going on around us right now. According to the Left, the stock market is crashing like never before. I’ve heard the term “huge” used more than Trump uses it, which is driving me batty.  

As you can see in this image (Morningstar, Inc.), the mess during Biden’s time as President was quite impactful, especially as seen after the moderately beautiful recovery started by Trump 1.0. Now, this image doesn’t include the stock market information of the past few days, but frankly, I think you can all go look yourself. Yes, there was a dip. No, it would not even register on a graph of this size. It’s barely visible on a graph that includes only 2016 onward, quite frankly. Yes, there was a dip, and that’s natural. It’s a great time to buy stock, quite honestly. With the Left influencing what people think, there are bound to be some run offs with certain types of stock. We know that nothing huge is going to happen with Trump at the helm, so we may as well invest. Just be sure to pull out before the next President gets in, unless it turns out to be Vance, in which case, stick with it.

I really don’t get the absolute panic over the tariffs. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I “just don’t understand” how tariffs work (hint: I do), and how Trump’s tariffs are going to tank our whole economy (hint: they didn’t, and aren’t). People I love and care for are absolutely devastated over the whole tariff business, and it’s sad, because it’s not something to be upset about.

But… again, when tariffs get applied, our prices are likely to go up slightly. It behooves us to be ready for that. Once it all turns around, we’ll still be sitting pretty. No need for panic, folks.

The art of the emotional appeal, aka “emotional blackmail,” is usually mastered by around age 3. The first time your child’s chubby little hands rise up and they pout, saying, “Pweeeeeze?” you can feel it, that tugging of the heartstrings. As responsible adults, it’s our job to teach our offspring (and local offspring in our vicinity) that you can’t get everything you want, and sometimes the answer is going to be no.

Saying no isn’t something that comes easily to the current crop of newly minted adults out there. Those who fall between the ages of 25 and 35 seem to have no concept whatsoever of “no” or “FAFO.” They’ve essentially never “found out” about anything, because they so rarely hear the word no.

While I don’t always put a lot of stock into certain theories of civilization, there’s one going around that seems to have at least some grasp on reality.

I don’t know if the dates are accurate, but it does seem to be grounded in factual research. Excuse the article I pulled it from; it was the only one with a decent enough graphic explaining it. The article is horrid, poorly written (imo), and not well grounded. But the theory that Ingraham’s study is based upon is real, and not too bad. If you want to really go down the rabbit hole, check out this post by Noema. You don’t have to do that, though. The graphic does a fairly decent job of making it easy to understand.

The general idea is that society, civilization as a whole, goes through these multi-stage cycles that last somewhere between 180 and 280 years in length. This is borne out by history, which does indeed seem to follow such cycles. They’re not perfect, but they are present, and they can be seen quite clearly. Drop in the history of Greece, and it fits. Rome, it fits. Early China, it fits. And so on.

The theory, followed through for America, states we’re in the end stages of one complete cycle. This isn’t too difficult to believe, considering we’re 248 years old as a country. Things were bound to break. After all, no one had previously attempted to run a country under a President, an elected official, prior to America. Our Constitution was radical in the most vast understanding of that word. The fact that so many other world leaders are now attempting to use our methods to run their countries is a testament to how well it has worked.

The thing is, though, I believe our Founders knew it wouldn’t work forever, as given. That’s one reason why they created the Constitution. It was created in such a way as to allow We The People to change and ratify it, as we became better as a People, and as we matured as a country.

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Not so much “behind enemy lines” today, as a mental dump.

There is a belief that the Republican and Democratic parties did an ideological flip around 1932 (with FDR). Some people claim it’s a fact, and others are less sure about that. Regardless, we know that Lyndon B. Johnson said his famous line in 1964: “I’ll have those niggers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.” He was wrong. It was less than a hundred years. Thank you, Pres. Trump.

For all I dislike Johnson, he did say a few things that really hit home right now (obviously gleaned from some MUCH less savory quotes):

• “[T]he vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.“
• “If we stand passively by while the center of each city becomes a hive of deprivation, crime and hopelessness…if we become two people, the suburban affluent and the urban poor, each filled with mistrust and fear for the other…then we shall effectively cripple each generation to come.“
• “Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.“

These words, if they were the only words he’d said, are good words. It’s a shame that he sullied them by making so many other horrid statements.

Regardless, that brings me to today. I believe we’re seeing another shift of the party ideologies. Trump is at the helm, and many of us (still sounds odd to me to say that) are supporting him and his goals. He wants to drain the swamp, fix the financing, get us out of debt, stop us being the world’s police, and much more. They’re noble dreams, and I hope many or all of them come to fruition.

They’re also the dreams that belonged more to the Left of a decade ago. I watch some of the really old GOP folks getting their panties in a bunch over Trump’s takeover of the Republican party, and I have to smile. Being “on the inside” now, I can see more of what he’s doing. Let’s face it… Trump was considered a Dem until a little under a decade ago. There’s a reason Hilary didn’t have any issues with him running on the Republican ticket. She figured if she lost, if the Dems lost, they’d STILL have a Dem in the White House. Little did they know that Trump actually stuck to his moral guns. Shocking, I know. He took his campaign promises seriously.

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