On Manhood and School Massacres

I notice that all of the school shooters have been male.  Never female.

Two things I can take away from this.  The first is that based on this pattern it can be deduced that indeed there are drastic differences between men and women.

 

The second thing I take from this, is that there is something TERRIBLY wrong with how our society handles its young men.

 

The average boy once had a father, or at least a father figure, to look up to and learn values from.  Values came from a lot of sources actually.  The Boy Scouts, religious institutions, even teachers and principals.  There was some authority figure who young men learned from. Learning everything from simple decency, to how to accord one’s self in honorable fashion with the opposite sex.

 

And then there is the basic psychological needs of young men.  Needs to compete, to “prove himself”.  Needs to achieve.  Needs for wisdom and learning.  The need for self restraint from falling to the lesser aspects of human nature.  These used to be virtues of what was called “chivalry”.

 

From all of these and more, we prepared young men for their roles in the larger world.

 

We used to anyway.

 

Want to know what I blame this latest school shooting on?

 

I blame modern liberalism.

 

Our young men are increasingly without a father figure.  There is rarely anyone to tell them what is right and what is wrong.  The fathers among us should be going to bat for their children’s very souls… and they are failing.

 

Young men are denied the right to explore moral certainties… because in our “modern” world there are no moral absolutes, at all.  How can there be?  When our children grow up being taught that innocent life can be vacuum aspirated out of the womb.

 

Young men today no longer play “cops and robbers”.  The “child experts” took away all of the toy guns.  They apparently never grasped that such childhood playtime was actually instilling the VALUE of good versus bad.

 

All of these have been taken away from young men and instead they are over-medicated, under-educated, and have it constantly drilled into them that their natural hard-wired instincts rather than being benevolently curbed, are instead “toxic masculinity” to be punished.

 

We do all of these and more to our boys and young men.

 

And we dare lay blame on the damned GUN when another massacre happens?

 

We have DESTROYED what it means to be a man of virtue and character, that we were supposed to be teaching our young people.

 

And I can think of no more responsible parties for it, than those who adhere to modern liberalism.

 

Just my .02

 

 

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Rapid Fired Pizza: When you absolutely need it fast!

They promise "zero to pizza in 180 seconds" and they are not wrong.  I hadn't visited Rapid Fired Pizza  for some time now.  Guess I've been trying to cook on my own more, and I've been learning some new recipes (including quiche, thank you very much Heather :-).  But I was coming back from a friend's birthday party yesterday evening and had the craving for a good pizza.  So I went to one of Rapid Fire's locations here in upstate South Carolina.  By the time I'd finished, I had vowed that I'd make myself a more regular customer, because their pizza ROCKS!

Rapid Fired Pizza for the most part uses a standard 11-inch pan.  Atop the dough you tell the guy assembling your pizza what kinds of sauce, toppings, spices and salt etc. you want on it.  Or you can pick from their menu of their many craft pizzas.  After that's done (and while you're paying for it all) the pizza goes into a big oven, where it cooks for three minutes.  By the time you've gotten your drink and found a seat they will have called your name to pick up your cooked pizza pie.  Take it to your table and enjoy!

So, what's Rapid Fired Pizza's errr... pizza, taste like?  As you can see I got a pretty standard pepperoni and mozzarella cheese (and a Dr. Pepper soft drink).  It arrived good 'n hot and I discovered that I had forgotten the childhood agony of hot cheese dripping off the slice and onto my tongue.  Yee-OUCH!!  But it doesn't take long to cool to a more palatable degree.  My taste buds delighted in the rich flavor of the traditional sauce and what can only be described as the perfect crust for a pizza chain.  The pepperonis cooked nicely and had a good bite to them.

In short, my dinner was a true delight.  And as I said I'll be going back more often.  Either dining in or taking a pizza home with me on the way back from the office.

Rapid Fired Pizza is a franchise that's seeing some growth.  They're mostly based around Ohio but there are a few locations beyond that region including four in the Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina area.  And according to their website they're also expanding to California.  So check it out and see if there's a location near you.  It's well worth making a visit!
 

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What the leaked majority opinion REALLY does

 I'm seeing a lot of outrage about the leaked draft of the majority opinion overturning Roe v Wade. Much anger about destroying a "right" to abortion. But for all their screaming these people are showing us that they have NO grasp whatsoever of what they are screaming about.

Justice Alito's draft does NOT end the right to abortion. It does however articulate that the federal government has no standing in establishing such a right. The opinion is of the belief that Roe erred when it legislated into being a notion that the federal government had no constitutional basis in creating.

 

All that the majority opinion is arguing, if it is indeed the final say in the case at hand, is that the issue of abortion is one that per the Tenth Amendment is the sole province of the individual states. Which is exactly where it should have been given to almost fifty years ago.

 

So now it is going to be up to state legislators, who have been voted into office and who are beholden and accountable to their constituents (i.e. the voters), to decide if abortion will be legal in their respective states. It will NOT be a "right" whipped out of thin air by a judge or group of justices who do not answer to the people, but instead act upon their own politics.

 

This is a return to the balance of powers established in the original Constitution and then the Bill of Rights. Nothing more and nothing less.

 

This is stuff we were supposed to have learned in ninth grade civics class.

 

But I suppose too many politicians, and celebrities, and "useful idiots" in the streets, never paid attention to.

 

 

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My first op-ed piece was about abortion. This is what happened...

During the four years I spent (of my seven year undergraduate career... ehh, family tradition you might say) at Elon, I was on the staff of the student newspaper The Pendulum.  First as a reporter but mostly as an op-ed writer.  It was a continuation of all the letters to the editor I had been sending the bigger newspapers.  I figured that being an essayist for my school's paper would provide for constructive feedback.  Well, that and also having a more captive audience.

 

My first column was published in March of 1996.  And for the subject I chose abortion. Mainly, why it was destroying our capacity for the value of the human soul.  The heartmeat of the argument was that we were numbing ourselves to the sanctity of human life, and I kicked the piece off with a quote from Mother Teresa.  It was, I thought, a solid essay.

 

Naturally, it touched some nerves. This being a fairly liberal private school (albeit one with a sizable evangelical Christian presence).  A number of people contacted me and said they were glad somebody was standing up for the unborn.

 

But there was hate also.  By the end of that weekend I think three or four death threats had come my way.  I took it all in stride.  To me, it only meant that three or four additional people had read my essay and took it seriously.

 

But then, there's what happened the week after that issue ran.

 

I had come down with the flu, with a 102 degree fever and of course like an idiot, I was walking around campus.  I was with two friends that day, and we were going into the library.  The original building that is, before Elon's new one a few years later.

 

Two people were coming out of the building and, to this day I can still hear the voice of one of them as she got into my face and said:

 

"You stupid pro-life fucking piece of shit."

 

I was so feverish that it took several seconds for what she said to fully impact me.  I asked one of my friends if he heard that and he said yes.  Our other friend hadn't been able to make out what she had said, so we told him.  He immediately wanted to go and confront her, but we dissuaded him.

 

Here it is twenty-six years later, and I still see the face of that young woman, warped with anger and hatred.

 

If she had only kept her thoughts to herself, I would likely not be as I am today: someone who sees the pro-abortion movement as one composed of some very ugly people.  Ugly in heart, ugly in thought, and ugly in face.

 

Have you ever looked at pro-abortion protestors?  They don't smile.  Not smile like normal people do.  Their faces aren't filled with love and light as are the faces of pro-lifers.  Instead the pro-abortion protestors are angry, dour, mean and filled with hatred.  The two could not be more unlike each another.

 

If only that fellow student (no, I don't know her name and don't really care to either) had not confronted me as she did, I might be able to give the pro-abortion side the courtesy of hearing them out.  But that possibility has long passed.  There is no courting civility with people so dark and rife with rancor.

 

A quarter century later, and I am no closer to communion with people who so blatantly advocate terminating the life of an unborn child for "convenience" sake.

 

Be mindful of the impression you make.  It persists, and maybe longer than you ever mean for it to.

 

 

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Monsterpocalypse Board Game is coming at ya!

Several years go, this blogger went a little nuts over Privateer Press's Monsterpocalypse.  The kaiju-inspired miniatures game became a staple every week at friendly local game store HyperMind.  I ended up collecting a complete army for all the factions that got released.

Then something happened: Privateer Press sold the rights to a Monsterpocalypse movie.  The project - which was to have been helmed by Tim Burton - did not get made.  And the game languished in licensing hell for several years.  And then a few years ago Privateer Press brought Monsterpocalypse back: as a "hobby game".  The minis were no longer pre-painted, although they were somewhat larger than the original models.  By that time I wasn't feeling up to getting into the game again, though my love of the concept was always there.

Well, call Monsterpocalypse the franchise that just won't die, because soon there'll be ANOTHER way to get your kaiju-crushing kicks!  A few months ago Privateer Press announced along with Mythic Games the coming of the Monsterpocalypse Board Game:

Look!  Game trailer!

 

 

A Kickstarter campaign followed and it was very successful at meeting its aims (I think the final "stretch goal" was the mini of a giant radioactive corgi dog).

 

The project is now on Gamefound, where you can do a late pledge for the core game along with any of the add-ons... and there are MANY.  The game will be released for retail sale but if you want to get in on it sooner (estimated shipping date for the Kickstarter product is November 2022) you'll want to go to the above link on Gamefound and get at least the Smasher pledge.  That'll snag you not only the Core box's eight monsters, you're also getting the unlocked fifteen other monsters: that's at LEAST a seven hundred dollar value for $119.

 

Needless to say, I'm back in the game.  I pledged during the Kickstarter and have since tacked on a few of the add-ons.  Especially the Simian Corp one (because really, who can resist giant monkeys and evil conglomerates?).  It's a great deal and if you like giant monsters and robots thrashing the crap out of each other, you're DEFINITELY going to want to check it out!

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