It's below freezing here in South Carolina...

 ...and Tammy is staying warm with three blankets.She is as snug as a bug in a rug :-)We had a dusting of snow in the past two days but nothing significant.  My friends and family in North Carolina got enough to cover the ground and cancel school.  I doubt those of us in the Upstate are going to get any more at this point in the season.  But I've been...

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Welcome home Sergeant Hardy

Came upon this obituary on the website of a funeral home that is back where I'm from originally.  I find this fascinating, on so many levels. Official Obituary ofDavid Eugene HardyNovember 1, 1928 ~ February 28, 1951 (age 22)SGT David Eugene Hardy was born on Nov 1, 1928 and died on Feb 28, 1951 as a POW at Camp 5, Pyoktong, North Korea. ...

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J.D. Vance is right: Europe is becoming totalitarian

Okay, I watched Vice-President J.D. Vance's speech at the Munich conference.  And he was absolutely spot-on.  The same European countries we fought for and lost lives for are now becoming as oppressive as the Soviet Union was.  There is for all intents and purposes no more freedom of speech in places like England and Germany.  Dare to speak against the government and you're declared "far right" and subject to arrest and imprisonment....

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After backers burned by Mythic, Privateer Press has news about Monsterpocalypse

Over the years I've expressed my fondness for Monsterpocalypse: Privateer Press's game of giant kaiju battling it out in cities that players put together before thrashing them to smithereens.  It's an awesome game that has a lot of appeal and when it first came out a decade and a half ago it enjoyed quite a dedicated fan base.Then some decisions were made.  And...

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I'm starting to feel like this guy...

And hey, I've got a dog too.The Tramp.  Charlie Chaplin's classic character.  Seemingly forever making his way from one set of experiences on to another.  A life of un-sedentary misadventures.  And that's where I've wound up once more, also.I've had to find out the hard way that my training and experiences in regard to working with adults in the mental...

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Movies I've Never Seen finally returns with EVENT HORIZON!

Almost exactly ten years ago I launched a new series on The Knight Shift: Movies I've Never Seen.  It's just what it suggests.  I would watch a movie that until now I've not beheld before and write about it.  It would be an attempt to fill in the many gaps that exist in my personal motion picture database.  It would be contributing to the cultural dialogue....

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How Elon Musk and DOGE did it (and are still doing it)

The past three weeks in American life have been extraordinary, to put it mildly.  There hasn't been this much history made in my lifetime since the collapse of communism.  In some ways there are parallels between the two.  The Soviet Union fell because of Gorbachev's reforms in the face of that country's unsustainable bureaucracy.  And what some are calling...

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I started a new career today!

Over the two decades of this blog's existence there have been times when I've landed a new job.  Sometimes, like the TV master control operator and the vocational instructor and the mental health peer support specialist, I've shared about here.  Guess I couldn't resist holding back on the good news.  Other jobs (like the part-time one I had recently that... nah, nevermind) were quietly not mentioned.  That part-time job was mostly...

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Book status for early February 2025

It's been over a month and a half or so since I've posted an update about the manuscript I spent a decade of on and off work on, that I finished writing a few days before Thanksgiving.  As with a lot of other things in my life since I began this blog, some chronicling is in order.  Because this site is all about documenting the human condition and also for sake of anyone who might come across it and find themselves likewise wanting to write...

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Here is a new photo of Tammy!

Today was a very good day.  God answered prayer and provided for my needs in a mighty and powerful way.  I am going to bed tonight thankful for His provision and for the people He used to accomplish it with.And since it's been awhile since I've posted a pic of her, here is my miniature dachshund Tammy making a German spectacle of herself.  How shamele...

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For anyone in a relationship...

Writing my book compelled me to examine a lot of situations that have come about in my life.  Especially where other people are involved.  I've forced myself to take a long and hard and on occasion very difficult look at how I've related to them.  And that includes all the times... all of them... when I have wound up hurting others.I had a feeling from...

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BEING BIPOLAR, Part Thirteen: A New Project

Being Bipolar is a series that began in the winter of 2011.  Every now and then I post a new article, as an ongoing attempt to chronicle what it is to have a mental illness.  In my case it is bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression.  Perhaps in doing so others might gain greater insight and understanding of what it means for millions of people...

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Nobody is trying to take citizenship away from Native Americans

"Trump wants to deprive Native Americans of their citizenship!"That's what I've heard from a number of people since yesterday, so I looked into it.Yes, it's true: per the strictest interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment at that time, indigenous Americas were not counted as citizens of the United States.  They were instead citizens of their respective tribal reservations.So the attorneys et al on Trump's side are literally correct.  Up...

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Happy Birthday Barney Miller!

Barney Miller premiered fifty years ago today, January 23rd, 1975.  This is definitely high up on my list of most favorite television series ever.Here's one of my favorite episode, "Hash".  This is the one when most of the detectives get stoned from eating cannabis-laced brownies...Happy fiftieth Captain Miller and the staff of the 12th Precin...

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Have a new op-ed piece at American Thinker

Continuing my commitment to write a new op-ed piece each week of 2025 (or aspiring to anyway), news and commentary website American Thinker - a site I can't recommend nearly enough - has just published my latest.In 'It's Time to Cleans the White House Press Corps", arguments are laid out for why the gaggle of journalists assigned to cover the president and his affairs should be thoroughly pruned down.  Not just because too many...

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Joe Biden is gone today (thank the Lord!)

The infamous "red speech" in Philadelphia, September 2022Before I render a final grade for Joseph Robinette Biden's term as president, let's wind the clock back four years ago on this blog.  I predicted then that come January 2025 the United States of America would be in the worst condition it had been in, in half a century.A bold forecast.  I swore then that...

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GOOD NEWS: Short Sugar's BBQ Sauce is hitting store shelves soon-ish!

This blog has been SLAMMED with visitors since three days ago coming to read about Short Sugar's Bar-B-Q in Reidsville, North Carolina shutting down after more than 75 years in business.  The counter has been ringing up visits from all fifty states, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Germany, even some people in Brazil. There were few corners of the globe that hadn't...

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