Happy New Year

So, 2020 finally ended last night Huzzah, Huzzah, Huzzah! Frankly, though looking east this morning I don’t see much sign of a “New Morning in America’ or for that matter Great Britain. Looks a lot like S²D² to me. Although for our peoples, it’s up to us, if we won’t let them get away with it, they won’t, and we’ve been in some damned tight spots before, and won through. So buck up and fight the people’s corner. The one sure way to lose is not to fight, peacefully, with the tools our ancestors left us if possible.

But I wanted to say a little about how things went here at NEO to the people who make it possible, our readers. we had about 45,350 viewers last year, by far our best year, beating the next by about 14,000 views. What’s even better those people who visited us looked on average 3.8 pages each. That’s pretty healthy for us, people are looking around while they are here not just reading what they came for.

864 People follow us one place or another, starting with subscribing here and the rest on social media including a lonely two on Tumblr.

In the eight and a half years we’ve been here our most read post is “The He Shall be the Greatest Man in t World” about the respect that George Washington received from King George III when John Adams was appointed the first US Ambassador to the Court of St. James. The second is “Sea Lines of Communication” an explanation of the Maritime policy that has allowed first Great Britain and then the United States to dominate world trade.

Most views here are from the US, which is likely no surprise. The US leads number 2 UK fivefold, which means the UK is catching up kind of slowly but measurably. Number 3 is Canada this year, last year it was Hong Kong which sadly has all but disappeared, maybe the Chicoms don’t like us much here.

So for us as a blog the future looks pretty good unless we get hauled off for reeducation

As for the rest, Open Blogger at Ace’s Morning Report (it’s all worth reading, as always) made a point I want to emphasize.

One thing is clear. We cannot go on as before and while the Enemy has a stranglehold on us we certainly will not go on as before because things are going to be on their terms. But no one is infallible. Not even them. As we reflect back on this past year and the three prior to that, the verdict from my perspective is in: President Trump will go down as one of the greatest presidents in our history. In spite of all the political and social forces arrayed against him, he instituted the greatest economic boom in history, engineered major foreign policy triumphs by challenging geopolitical rivals and enemies and orchestrating Middle East peace deals thought impossible, and helped bring about vaccines against a Chinese engineered biological weapon at “warp speed,” among other things.

But his greatest achievement is exposing the decades-long generational corruption of our government to a vast swathe of the populace, heretofore unaware or uncaring. To put an ironic twist on a disgusting threat from an equally disgusting woman who once was first lady, what President Trump revealed will never allow us to be able to go on with our lives as before. And ultimately, that is a good thing.

Keep the Faith – In God and in the Anglo-American people.

And a memory from my America – “The Black Ghost”

New Years Eve – Finally

Is there anyone in the Anglo-American world who hasn’t had their fill (and much more) of 2020? Well, kids, it looks like we’re gonna make it. Not that anything is solved really, the pols are still trying to remove our freedom using Wuhan Flu as their excuse, Boris still hasn’t a clue as to what Churchill was really about, in truth he’s a poseur, and here in America not least because our judges are cowards, it increasingly looks like we have the illegitimate Biden regime to look forward to. No good prospects in sight.

But it isn’t 1941 yet when FDR and Churchill met at Argentia Bay the free people of the world all spoke English, and Uncle Sam was just starting to get over being Rip van Winkle with his 20-year nap.

That’s not so true now, the American people sound increasingly like it’s either 1859 or maybe and more accurately 1774. Well, even a British education can’t hide what happened next and from what I’m reading the British are also starting to wake up. Even more, than us, they have a dearth of leadership. President Trump issued a proclamation honoring St Thomas Becket on the 850th anniversary of his martyrdom in Canterbury Cathedral, last Monday. St Thomas, he referred to as “a Lion of religious Liberty” and the proclamation states this…

The president’s proclamation heralds Becket as the precursor to “numerous constitutional limitations on the power of the state over the Church across the West,” particularly the Magna Carta, which declared that “[T]he English church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired.”

“It is because of great men like Thomas Becket that the first American President George Washington could proclaim more than 600 years later that, in the United States, ‘All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship’ and that ‘it is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights,’” the proclamation said.

That is important for us, and it is important for the British to realize that we honor their pioneering efforts in making men free, all that America is was built on English foundations, that still hold.

But for the first time since 2016, this blog is not all Neo, thankfully. My two main contributors, gingers both (go figure) have much to do with what we do here, like our new fiction category which was Audre’s idea, strongly supported by Jessica.

If you’ve been here long, you’ll realize that Jess is my dearest friend, and here she tells a bit about that came to be. here’s Jess

Neo asked me to say something about how it feels to be back blogging, so here goes.

I started my own blog back in 2012, and met Neo soon after, as fellow start-ups we got along more than just fine. In November 2012 I began writing here, partly as a filler for Neo’s absence over the holiday season. The fun came to an end round Easter 2016 when I got seriously ill. Neo was sweet and kind enough not only to keep me in his prayers, but to re-publish a few pieces, but I suspect that like me, he never expected to see me back here again – and yet he kept the faith, which is, as regulars will know, just what the man does – and then in October this year, I was well enough to come back. Since then I have been publishing mainly fiction here, and much enjoying it.

Has this place changed? Sure, we all change. There are some new (to me) readers, who have been kind enough to comment, and there is my co-blogger, Audre, who always adds a note of common sense and quiet humour. I have never been particularly political, and don’t feel I have a political home. What I do enjoy, is good company, which I get here, and good writing, ditto. I think you are all terribly sweet to put up with this Anglo-Welsh changeling who inflicts her stories on you. I love writing my Gospel stories from the female point of view, and for those of you still awake, there’s a length to run yet on my “Rowan” saga, as well as on my imagining on Mary Magdalen.

Above all though, it’s fun to be back here and with you all – and let’s hope for a better 2021 for us all!

She’s right, I kept the faith, well mostly, it began to waver a bit here and there as despair began to sneak in. I’m told that seeing Audre’s posts both here and on Jess’ AATW encouraged her to come back first there and then here. My word how I missed her, her blog posts yes, but even more her steady friendship and love, and some fine advice as well.

We have spoken of Audre, and I asked her for her thoughts as well, and they make an excellent end to this post because they are true for all of us. And I think we all want to thank you gluttons for punishment who read here, we admire your fortitude, if not always your sense. Here’s Audre…

What a flippin’ year it’s been. And yet – how wonderfully amazing.

I was generously given a little patch of land to do with as I saw fit. The surprise of the offer set me back and I had to think about it awhile but in the end, I accepted it with both joy and trepidation. I’ve never had a little patch of land before and wanted it to be sprinkled with wild flowers and decorative boulders and a little river running through it. That’s what I’ve tried to create.

My little patch of land is the space Neo offered to me. I’ve never done a blog before. And – Neo casts a mighty big shadow; following in his footsteps is daunting but in the end, I can only be me and he’s never once complained. Grimaced once in awhile I suspect but he gave me free range and now it seems as natural to me as brushing my teeth. I’m retired; I don’t do ‘deadlines’ anymore – but I find that there’s no shortage of things to consider and I actually get ahead in pieces to be published.

As you have walked by and stopped to look at my little patch of land, you smiled, or laughed, or rolled your eyes (probably mostly rolled your eyes) but in your kindness you watered the flowers, added your own decorations, and greatly improved the content of the little patch of land.

Many thanks to Neo, and to you, for your fortitude and forgiveness. It’s been a great 10 months of writing and of reading your comments.

Happy New Year (finally) from all of us at NEO

 

The Suicide of Fox News; Now What?

Bookworm has a question many of you may be asking, “Where will you go without Fox News?” It’s a very valid question, as she says.

Fox News didn’t shoot itself in the foot. It dealt itself a death blow. With it out of the picture, what are you watching?

I watch Tucker Carlson every night. I think he’s intelligent, funny, moral, honest, and genuinely conservative. I watch a little bit of Sean Hannity because he comes on immediately after Tucker, but usually don’t stick around. Sean’s a true conservative, but I don’t have the time to watch more TV than 1 hour per day, and Tucker gets that hour. For the same reason, I don’t watch Laura Ingraham, another consistent conservative.

I’m not currently boycotting the rest of Fox News when I don’t watch it. I’ve never watched it.

Having said that, if I had been watching other Fox News shows, I would be boycotting them now. I think the Fox News corporation’s behavior has been heinous. Chris Wallace’s debate performance was a disgrace. The Outnumbered panel’s decision to censor Newt Gingrich when he discussed George Soros was a disgrace. And Fox New’s election night coverage went beyond disgraceful.

We knew when Roger Ailes got pushed out and Rupert retired in favor of his sons that the station would struggle to remain conservative. Sadly, it didn’t struggle much. It put Paul Ryan on its board, hired Donna Brazile, and let its left-leaning people know that they didn’t need to pretend anymore.

According to reports, with its ratings crashing, Fox News has hired an expensive PR firm to help it out. It can pay me the money, instead, and I’ll tell it what to do.

She gives her list in the article, and it’s a good one. I mostly gave up Fox News when I cut the cord several years ago, even then I was occasionally yelling back at it. I don’t miss it, and doubt I would go back under any conceivable circumstances. I often watch Tucker as well, someplace on the web, don’t mind Sean and actually like Laura and a few of the weekend people. That’s not even close enough to justify a cable bill again.

Besides, as many of you know, I’m a reader, not a watcher, and always have been. I read the Economist for years until it fell in the left ditch and US New & World Report. But now, it’s all online for me. Now? These: (and note there is no pretense of balance here, no real order, either.)

• Ace of Spades, especially The Morning Report, a good summary of what’s going on.
• The Other McCain, measured and rational analysis from a real journalist and southern American Patriot
• The Powerline Blog, like the two above it a veteran blog, which does an exceptional of reporting current events
• American Thinker. one of the best sites for reasonable analysis
• Town Hall, another really good site
• Second City Cop, what’s really going on in my old stomping ground, where the city administration is trying to kill the police department
• Chicago Boyz, good rational thinking
• The Duran, in a sense the Russia Today of the internet. Lots of videos and a different (but mostly conservative) take on events
• Althouse, interesting, but often frustrating look at many things. About as middle of the road as one can expect, especially from Madison.
• Samizdat, Anglo-American blog named after the subversives in Soviet Russia, and serves the same purpose for us.
• Watcher of Weasels, where I stumbled across and often read Bookworm
• Victory Girls, news and analysis, from all over the country.
• The Conservative Woman.co.uk, one of the best conservative British sites
• The Salisbury Review, another British site, this one founded by Sir Roger Scruton
• The Spectator, British, Australian, and American editions, the electronic form of the world’s oldest magazine, and still fairly conservative.
• Guido Fawkes, The big British aggregator
• And many others, often through The Morning Report
• Plus whatever videos Audre sends over, since she a visual type which I’m not as stated above.

I do watch some Newsmax, and events on RightSide broadcasting

That should be enough to keep you out of trouble, although not the re-education gulag.

Random Observations

Not funny at all – but hilarious. The cartoon of the person with his glasses on his head, searching the house for his glasses. Walking into a room and forgetting why you went there. I had something I wanted to write and in the space of time of a couple of clicks – I forgot what it was. Sigh. My excuse, however, is that I’m tired. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I have some very dear friends that live in England; I so enjoy them and they share so much of their lives with me. I’m a hopeless Anglophile and these relationships have proven my wisdom – delightful people. There are two expressions that I just love. In families, when speaking to someone on the street or wherever, they are apt to refer to a family member as “our Robert” or “our Emily”. I think that is so charming. It sounds so homey and loving. But the expression that does me in is ‘darling’. We haven’t used that word in decades so it especially catches my ear. They tend to use it when there’s concern for a friend or loved one and when there is joy to share. “How wonderful you got that award, darling!” or “Oh, darling, I’m so sorry to hear that.” It just makes me catch my breath.

Because I’m Christian before I’m anything else, I always have an eye out for idolatry. I watch President Trump’s rally and enjoy them – he’s a natural-born comedian and has a New York sense of humor that I know and understand (I’m a native New Yorker). I see the excitement on the faces of the attendees and their great enthusiasm for our President but I have to admit, sometimes I get uncomfortable. Where is the line between support and idolatry? It’s sometimes difficult to tell.

We’re all adults here so I can mention that the Tampax company has announced that ‘not all people who bleed women’. I’ll just let you think about that awhile.

Lead us

Not into temptation. I must beg that every day. I’m an adult; I’ve learned to get rid of some bad habits, I’ve learned to adopt some good habits, and I appreciate that I have a fairly good head on my shoulders. With all that, you’d think I’d be better at not tempting myself!

Wrong again! Evidently, I love to torture myself with temptation. What tempts me away from the narrow path? Home decor videos. Bane of my existence. It all started (this time) when it went from September to October. O, October – gentle friend of autumn, harbinger of winter (except in Florida, of course). October; the showcase for the harvest, the promise of Hallowe’en, and the coming holidays. It’s been one hellova long year already and any excuse for soothing the exhausted beast is most welcome.

And that’s where the temptation comes in. Home deco videos. “Tis the season” to fall decorate! The colorful foliage, the heaping harvest, the fun and spookiness of Hallowe’en inspires creativity and some of the deco people are chock full of it. Some of the people are over-the-top excellent, some of them are anal retentive, and some are right up my alley!

Here is a project I’m actually going to do

We have 12 foot ceilings so mine will be taller (no, silly – not THAT tall!) and I’ve already determined how to do that. The supplies are inexpensive and few and unlike some projects, it looks like great fun and may be done in a day. Then, of course, there are fall foliage garlands to surround artificial fruits and veggies.

But wait! There’s more! (Heaven help me!) It’s never too soon to start planning the decor for Christmas! I refuse to hang black crepe paper – it’s how I feel right now but there’s always the chance for a ‘positive’ November (if you know what I mean) – but all my Christmas stuff is as old and tired as I am and few new shiny baubles here and there, new glittery garland around that, fancy nutcrackers next to those, big designer ‘stockings’ filled with straw and artificial bittersweet over there … t’will make the season shiny and bright! See what I’m up against?

Fortunately/unfortunately, I’m a tightwad. My refrain at seeing a sale sign is “Yes, I’ll save! ‘Cause I ain’t gunna buy it!” So I lead myself into temptation and then set up a roadblock to the temptation.

And you thought it was easy being me.

 

 

Goldilock’s Syndrome

And so it continues! Quick now, while Nightmarish Evil Ogre is spell-bound, read the next of the horrible horror stories!

This is from Dave Smith, a friend of Neo and all of us at the blog

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I awoke and immediately went to the light switch on the wall and flipped the switch. And once again nothing happened. There was no consequence of my action; it was ineffective. The room remained eerily lit as though it were dawn. And so I proceed to peer into my bedroom mirror and once again am expectantly met with a face which was not my own reflection. What greets me is a grotesque monstrosity staring back at me with a Mona Lisa-like smile and unexpected movements which frighten me every time I witness it. This is the ritual to which I have grown accustomed. First the light switch and then the mirror-gazing. These are the tests I have developed so that I might differentiate reality from non-reality.

I have lost track of time altogether; for I know not when this began or how long this has been going on. I do remember thinking that it was not dissimilar to Franz Kafka’s experience as witnessed in his famous novella, Metamorphosis and that perhaps his work was merely being mimicked in my mind or worse, that it might be a manifestation of what we call reality. How will I know?

Indeed, I do not know anymore if I am dead or in a coma and have but little hope of returning to that reality from which I started. Or if it even still exists. For I have tried thousands of times to escape this nightmare and hopelessness and despair are my constant companions with each attempt. My life has vanished.

Within my mind, I constantly think of my return to the Goldilock’s Zone of reality. It is not unlike the Goldilock’s Zone spoken of when we think of the placement of the Earth from the Sun; a place just right. It is a place where the temperature is perfect for water and life to exist. A place where the Moon is seen as exactly the same size as the Sun. A place where men contemplate the cosmos, their existence and consciousness itself.

I have now come to see another Goldilock’s Zone as well; that zone between the Micro and the Macro universes of existence. For in the subatomic universe we have no ability to have active consciousness and in the stellar universe, it is impossible as well. We are at the optimal, nay, the only spot in the spectrum that exhibits what we call reality. For reality is merely the ability for creation to self-direct thoughts, actions and reactions to an infinite stretch from the infinitely small to the infinitely large. From the heavenly to the deep dark corridors of hell. It is from this perfect zone from which I have fallen.

And to think that this zone might be lost by such a simple and natural process as sleep. I did wonder at times if that third of life spent in dreams was not akin to going from the last sentence of a book’s chapter to the first sentence of a successive chapter without any notice that perhaps a great deal may have transpired from the last to the next. But somehow we take up where we left off without any thought of lapsed time . . . an enormous percentage of our lives having been spent in slumber. But that is merely what passes for amusement for me these days.

And so I dream. I think that I awake and to my amazement, I can no longer find a way back to my previous life and take up where I left off. My friends and family are lost to me as they are in the Goldilock’s Zone and I reside in a dream within a dream within a dream. My only path is to try to sleep and awake once more until I might find myself back where I began.

But time has stood still or moved so far from where I started that I have lost all measure of it. It is like my dreams have been stacked up like a deck of cards and that I go three cards up or two cards back but never go far enough in one direction to pop out at the top of the deck. For I have no ability to self-direct where a dream will take me; further toward my escape into reality or further into the prison of my own subconscious. So I live an eternity of repeating the above sequel of sleeping, dreaming, awaking and then realizing that I am still lost in sleep without any certainty of the outcome. At one end of the spectrum awaits the Goldilock’s Zone and at the other, harmless dreams or night terrors of the most terrifying and frightening experiences.

I can only send out warnings of this malady which awaits us in sleep should anyone or anything I meet within my dreams be able to find their way out of this labyrinth. Do not take it for granted that the reality in which you awake is necessarily the reality from which you left in sleep. Someday soon you too may be lost in an eternal maze of unreality and see that your perception of life was a phantasm; no more real than the dreams you used to enjoy as a release from the troubles of the day. Instead, they may be quite worse than any trouble you have yet witnessed and I conclude that they may even last for an eternity. Sleep at your own peril.