 No, it is not. A great friend and force of Reckonin’ emailed me a Faulkner quote recently about those few magical days that come along in August with a cool hint of the approaching autumn. I replied to her that while I used to relish those days, sadly, these days, I just drift right through them unaware. I may have missed them again, though it’s hard to tell. The pleasant-looking (in a light, at an angle) suburban small town where I exist is caught in a slew of 100-degree-ish days and concurrent warm, sticky nights. Hello, it’s another excuse for a column. Quality will improve tomorrow, maybe in two months or thirty degrees. Etc. I drafted two full alternatives to this ramble, but I simply could not pull the trigger on either of them. The first was a socioeconomic assessment of the lyrics of “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The second was a follow-up fictional report from your CSA Ambassador to Russia. The latter dealt with the subject matter of the former, set against the 2023 BRICS+ meeting in Johannesburg. I had not previously (seriously) contemplated the possibility of a preemptive ticket-taking plant, though I am unsurprised by it. The meeting in SA is, of course, very real. It’s of great importance to those out in the free world and of great consternation to the “rich men.” My news feed has a hiccup! I swear I saw a rehashing of a rerun about Donald Trump being indicted for something or another. At the gym, I imagined that one of the CIA-installed morons on the TeeVee was again stupidly saying, “If we don’t do something, we’re going to LOSE OUR RePubLiC!!!” [Note: If one cannot find a remote control, then a curl bar works just fine to silence the blathering nonsense.] Langley’s lackey wasn’t entirely wrong about needing to do something. As such, I have a crazy idea. I need to think through it some more and refine it for publication. In brief detail, I figure what we need is what I call an “election.” Hear me out. Just the basics. What I envision is dredging the country and finding a couple of the lowest, dumbest, wickedest heathens in this strange, nation-shaped kind of place between Mexico and Canada. Then we let the great unwashed vote for one of them to lead our dead country. After that, regardless of what the hoi polloi decide, we let a computer and a mailbox pick whichever rodent is best suited to serve as head puppet for the “rich men.” Crazy, I know. But just think about it. Had we tried something like this before, we might not be where we are today. The near-mathematical certainty of an alternative that I foresee, as expressed quasi-mathematically, looks something like: (The Rwandan Genocide x The Yugoslav Civil War)^The Partition of India. I heard something called “Covid” was making the rounds at airports and college campuses. It appears to be some sort of religious icon or possibly a demi-god. It has potential voters donning festive face coverings, gibbering about what I take for a Jonestown kind of poison, and/or stepping and fetching like a bunch of slaves without a future. I have never heard of anything like this before, yet I suppose this “Covid” might be the robot’s choice for a political savior. We’ll keep an eager eye on it, that’s for sure. On a related note, where the hell is Marvin? Something wrong with the AI? Thought he’d be heard by now. Watch. The. Skies. In sci-fi, fantasy geopolitical news, Brandon the AI, Voldemort Zelenski, and some of the “rich men” have a plan to ship 10 aging F-16s to the former Ukraine. Maybe it was 60 of them. Or 600. Kiev (pronounced, with a lisp, “kEEEEEEEEy-Vsp”) has five pilots qualified to fly them. Or they will be qualified after they qualify. How would that work? Well, it’s technical. It’s some “Ghost of kEEEEEEy-Vsp” wizardry that I suppose would see each pilot operating multiple targets planes at once. When asked for commentary on the matter, one V. Putin muttered something about 30,000 SAMs and then laughed until he walked off, beat up a pack of wolves, ate some glass, roared, killed a few men by staring at them, and looked ten trillion times more presidential than this “Covid,” whatever the hell it is again. Anything substantive? I am reading a few books, per my usual bad habit. One is by an author I like, but which isn’t necessarily his best work. In fact, I think it was his first novel. All things being equal, it’s equal. I’m inching towards the midpoint of just-released, posthumous Eschatological Optimism by the late, lovely, and thoughtful Daria “Platonova” Dugina. I told another friend I planned to review it in some capacity. This is not the review, perhaps just a preview. It’s a most interesting read, especially for an Aristotlenova. I suspect I am an Optimist of the kind she describes, though my views and reasoning are a little different than those she defined. All of these ideas, however, play well in the head. I’ll save my favorite quote, so far, for another time. Instead, I’ll close with a cursory look at the topic of the second section, “The Feminine Principle.” While differentiating between what passes for feminism in the dying West and what the ladies live in Russia, Dugina lands on the fascinating concept of Christian Feminism. To give one an idea of the magnitude of the difference, she earlier addresses the fact women are not allowed on Palestine’s Holy Mount by writing, “There is something right about this.” It’s not a statement or principle that professors at Barnard would approve. Thus, there is something right about it. What she discusses, in higher apophatic terms, sounds to me like what I have also heard in more common words from the sweet lips of other Russian women, and younger women in the city at that. We’ll credit the amazing Eli from Russia’s EweTube channel with a video interview or three with some attractive Moscovites. Almost all of them claim to be “feminists”, and then proceed to expound upon the virtues of womanly femininity (of which their personal appearances and demeanor extol anyway without words) while also expressing a love affair appreciation for masculine men. Dugina explains the plain phenomenon, which will surely confound the Western feminist, by saying Russian (feminist) women saved the Russian Patriarchy(!) when it threatened to fall upon hard times. She mentions a dislike of inter-sex warring and the existence of communication and harmony between Russian men and women. In other words, they approach life and love in an honest, rational, and traditional way. None of this pleases the “rich men.” And before they destroyed America, we used to have a similar practical view of romance, life, and just being. Maybe after the next hoax, any of you still standing could try to revert to those better ways. That is a wrap for this week. Deo vindice!
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  THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office of the Ambassador to the Russian Federation Sixty-First Floor, Imperia Tower 12 Presnenskaya Naberezhnaya Moscow, Russia 123112 August 16, 2023 REPORT to the American People Hon. Perrin Lovett, Acting Ambassador My Dearest Fellow Americans: Мы - живая история нашего собственного будущего! That, of course, is Russian for “We are the living history of our own future!” Though we pause to remember the additional 611,895 heritage Americans who departed us last year without replacement, let 1859 lie where she may. Our time is now. It is with the greatest pride and pleasure that I report to you from the energized heart of the civilized world. Greetings. Specifically, it has been my high honor and enlightened entertainment to represent you this week at the Army-2023 International Weapons Show and Forum at the impressive Patriot Congress and Exhibition Center and Alabino-Kubinka military facilities. I offer many thanks to the RUS-MOD and Rosoboronexport for hosting this grand event. And I thank you for heeding my previous calls for resource modernization and alliance building. Your forward-thinking and perseverance will be well rewarded. [I have sent an encoded diplomatic communiqué to the appropriate government offices and officials.] First, my only regret is that I was not joined by any liaison from the CSA-MOD, perhaps because such does not exist. Regardless, were they real and had they attended, they would have enjoyed an almost unbelievable experience. In all honesty, I have a second regret. For some reason, my courteous hosts assessed my dozen or so hours behind the yoke of a Cessna 172 some 25 years ago as insufficient experience necessary to pilot the awe-inspiring SU-57. While they all agreed my takeoffs and landings from PDK and adjacent travels about Hotlanta (fo-o-fo, ah, yeah!) did count as combat flight experience, it was driven home to me — a painful realization — I am unqualified for command of such an exotic bird. While I drowned my sorrows in a deep mug of Nevskoe Imperial, I instead watched as a professional performed aerial acrobatics to beat the band. I am utterly in love with these people, but they are a tad on the insane side. A double sonic boom-generating low buzz almost caused me to spill my lager! However, the following show more than compensated for my shock. In addition to being very fast, the “Felon” is well-equipped for its operational mission. We watched a reportedly live demonstration from a neighboring country of an air-launched KH-38 attack, allegedly against ZATO forces in Lviv. In addition to being very fast and very deadly, she’s also very graceful and beautifully agile. She can stand still, vertically. And, yes, she can both “walk” and “waltz”. Before they gave me beer, I was allowed to drive a brand new T-14 a short distance over an obstacle course. This was followed by firing the automated 125 mm smoothbore at a test target I designated “Yankee Small Hat”. Humoring my aloof giddiness and enthusiastic tipsiness, they guided me through one amazing demonstration after another. [His Excellency, the Council, the Senate, and the MOD-GS will pay special attention to my report on the S-300-36D6, Pantsir-S1E, S-400+, 3M22, KH-47, 9K720, and associated systems.] The hyperventilation generated by these toys aside, I was primarily assigned to inspect various ISR, EW, and tactical battlefield radar systems. [The short video attached to my BIG REPORT is of me actively peering inside a sealed hanger via the use of a 1L111M Fara-VR platform. Through the disturbing clarity, please note the green crosshair markers, indicative of real-time fire control and targeting ability. The longer video is degraded live footage from Mariupol, 2022, and a real demonstration of those combat capabilities.] [The “Guinea Hunt” file is a degraded audio/visual/EM record compilation of the 7/2023 interaction between next-gen microwave EW based, I believe, off a SU-27 against a hapless F(You)-35; imagine that scenario all the way to the unforgiving sea.] Not that we have an enemy to fight, per se, but if we did, then we would be ready. Our future, well-planned by all of you, is secure. Throughout my days and nights (and the show is still in progress as I report) here, I made multiple friends from some of the sixty-plus nations represented. “Zone B” is the future, the wide world of growth, peace, and prosperity; Americans of the CSA are wise to join the march deep into the 21st Century. Traveller, barbeque, TikTok pickin’, demographic stability, industrial-agricultural integration, modern weapons, and a stable currency will see our grandchildren’s future guaranteed. Regarding the subject of money, it is my pleasure to meet later this week with executives of the CBR, Gosbank, and their Chinese counterparts to establish the direct linkage between our currency and the rising permanent replacement of the MIR-SIPs gold-petro-Ruble. Again, this development is only possible because you, all of you, have been proactive rather than watching statues fall while electing Judas Party women, foreigners, and blowhard morons. And again, your efforts will pay off. Because of our dynamic, living (not collapsing and dying - 611K, RIP) demographics, our armaments, and our industrial financial capabilities, I will, this very fall, venture to China for the third annual BRI-BRF conference and planning session. While we remain adamantly committed to debt-free, unentangled progress and cooperation, Dixie can and will have the finest air, road, rail, port, and socio-industrial infrastructure in the Western Hemisphere. I estimate that by the end of this decade, your healthy family of ten will be able to transit our great land, border to border, should you desire, within a matter of ground-based hours, all for less than the price of a single airline ticket from Charlotte, CSA to NYC, GAE. The sky really is the limit, though we will soon push the terrestrial envelope on electrified steel tracks. For driving fanatics, I will soon release the full plan for both GAZ and KAMAZ factories within the Southland, with information on possible Hongqi developments to follow. For now, think high-paying jobs and a better-than-Corolla ride at essentially half the price. Soon, my wise, stalwart friends. Alas, I must return to my pleasant duties. As always, I leave you with the reminder that, Бог - наш защитник! ~ Deo vindice! Your dedicated servant, Perrin Lovett “Ambassador” *”Ambassador’s” Note: Some of the foregoing, of course, is fictional. For instance, no one maintains an office on the 61st floor of a 60-story building. Also, we know darn well they’d let me fly her. Right? They would, right? Eh… This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on August 15, 2023.
 What’s genius got to do with it?! What did Tina Turner have in common with Boston’s Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge? That’s right! Sensing the impending final chapter of American history approaching, the late, talented, and wise Turner removed herself to Switzerland, settling comfortably in a magnificent chateau just down the lake shore from a school most Americans may not have heard of. And one will literally drive over the engineering legacy of that same school as one heads north on I-93, passing TD’s new Garden, perhaps lamenting the loss of the old Garden, and slowly realizing the Red Tavern up in Methuen has been closed for twenty years. Hello. It’s another book review. Today we briefly examine School For GENIUS: The Story Of The ETH - The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, from 1855 to the Present, Front Street Press, (2005/6). ETH, short for the Allemand “Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule,” is that famed engineering school in Zurich with which some might not be familiar. It’s also sometimes referred to simply as “the Poly.” It is Switzerland's and Europe’s preeminent technical school and consistently ranks as one of the world’s top ten universities. I purchased School for Genius for two very special, personal reasons. First, I am giving the book as a gift to a most important person who may choose to study at ETH in the near future. Second, it is yet another fine work authored by my dear friend, my brother, and our champion of the West, the late, great Thomas G. Moore. That last point alone should sell this review to my readers. As many know, Tom and I first met at a school. Many might not know that Tom held three advanced degrees from two European universities. The man understood academia. He knew Europe. Previously, I was vaguely aware of ETH, and he and I had discussed the book and his resident process of researching and writing it. Reading it was nonetheless eye-opening. As usual, Tom did something utterly fantastic with ETH. He crafted an authoritative history, apology, and exposition that flows and reads like one of his thrilling fictional narratives. It’s not quite like reading an Erik Larson book; one need not constantly remind oneself that Albert Einstein and Carl Jung were real men and not novel characters, but it’s somewhat close. The book opens with words of knowledgeable praise from Hon. Faith Whittlesey, a two-term former US Ambassador to Switzerland. Tom begins with a bit of history and culture, wherein he compares the ancient and functional idea of Swiss “diversity” with the doomed and deadly buzzword of late American fame. He then moves into the school’s genesis as it was founded based on the established principles of Paris’s École Polytechnique (another school someone might consider). The rise of ETH coincided with, was governed by, and helped steer the rise of the industrial revolution and the modern world. Tom beautifully covers how a decent and intelligent people bridged the transition from a rural agrarian culture to an advanced industrialized society while maintaining the best elements of both. Repeated emphasis is given to the stubborn independence and decentralization that has marked the Swiss people and their Cantons for centuries. He also delves as deeply into the copious scientific and academic contributions and achievements the school and its score-plus Nobel laureates have given the world as 270 pages will allow. Here I will stop and highly recommend School For Genius. If not for my two privy circumstances, I might not have ever developed an interest in the subject matter. It is, I suppose, a niche study. Yet, if you or someone you know has an interest in educational history, engineering, math, Tom Moore prose, or the continuation of civilization, then do consider adding the book to your reading list. As for gifted young American students who might contemplate ETH as their future alma mater, Tom perhaps outdoes even his own general curiosity and kindness. He dedicates a short section towards the end of the book to just those American kids who might follow Mrs. Turner toward Zurich. The requisite standards are high. Therefore, so too should be the intellectual caliber of the potential scholar. If one is qualified, and one decides to pursue this select excellence, then the process is doable. At Tom’s original press time, the annual cost of attending ETH was approximately $950. This year, it is closer to $1,500. That figure applies to all students, domestic and international. Compare that price to the tuition at MIT. Compare Zurich to Boston, and the CH to the US. ETH is oftentimes referred to as the “MIT of Europe.” That moniker might be reversed. For general education buffs, Appendix II provides a cursory examination of the general Swiss school system. As one might guess, compared to what passes for schooling in the US, the CH’s approach is, in a word, “better.” In a self-propagating system of merit and advancement, ETH does its part to keep the cycle spinning much like CERN’s ETH-affiliated Large Hadron Collider. The adventuresome American pupil might further assist this grand process. Learn much more in Moore’s School For Genius. A special note: Based on my outstanding experience, I also highly recommend Booketeria of San Antonio, Texas as a used bookstore of great worth. If you order School For Genius or any other preowned book from Amazon, do look for them as a source. At their website, they maintain an independent catalog of titles. For the ridiculously low price I paid for my copy, what was delivered bordered on the unbelievable. My mint condition book arrived early and double wrapped like a Christmas present. I sincerely thank these good people for their extreme dedication to quality and service. Up there in Heaven, I once again thank you, mon frère. Really miss you. Deo vindice! This piece was published at Perrin Lovett on August 9, 2023.
 August is again upon us, and that means the great majority of American children will soon march back to their child sacrifice and slave training camps, aka “schools”. Well, like so many little victims in this strange, nation-shaped kind of place, the kids in the suburban small town where I exist started last month. “School” in July. If their parents were capable of thinking above the first or second logical order, then they might know that almost all of their “schools” are now majority vibrant. If they knew, then I suppose they’d be proud. I’d ask, “Who, really, cares?” But, of course, I do. Somewhat. A little, and less every year. The only future for education in fading America is homeschooling. Thus I was greatly encouraged by Katie O’Neal’s latest article on homeschooling and by the great comments left by Joe Putnam and Dr. Clyde Wilson. Dr. Wilson knows a thing or two thousand about education, and Katie and Joe have direct, personal experience with homeschooling. My best plausible contribution might be my role as an amateur psychometrist and whistle-blower. Another strong suit (or hindrance) might be my concentration on the right tail of the old intelligence distribution bell curve. Regardless, I’ve decided today to present a rerun of a 2021 column with a few minor editions. That old column was itself a follow-up to another one that dealt with related demographic issues. A fun fact for Newton County, GA: a few more years have done the opposite of improving those demographics. Make Them InvulnerableLast week’s column struck a nerve with me, a depressing if predictable nerve. Compared to those at the top, the people at the bottom of a double Hollingworth gap are not just relatively retarded. They are, in a relative sense, profoundly retarded. It’s akin to the mental difference between a person of ordinary intelligence and a house cat. This week, happily, I’m addressing those of us on the far right tail of the curve. I never liked school - from kindergarten through graduate school. I especially detested my short-lived experience with the “enrichment” program in middle school. I only lasted a few days or maybe weeks before I absolutely refused to participate. The pitiful government school I attended was bad enough. The special program was worse. At the time, someone should have foreseen the incompatibility. Just before I was subjected to that particular draining make-work project, a relevant paper was published: Wendy Roedell, Vulnerabilities of Highly Gifted Children, Roeper Review, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1984)(read it HERE). Roedell briefly outlined the difference between “gifted” and “extraordinarily gifted,” ever cognizant of the semi-subjective assessment and application of both labels. Her work is good, great even, and thus, it has been roundly ignored, especially her overly-optimistic conclusion: “As information about the needs of highly gifted children becomes more widespread, and society’s expectations become more closely attuned to the realities of gifted development, the degree of vulnerability of these children will diminish.” If only. The ensuing period of nearly forty years has seen many things. America has degenerated into a ridiculously stupid third-world cesspool. The schools - almost all public and most private - have dropped even the pretense of former Western educational standards. And, while the existence of the UHIQ is reluctantly acknowledged, society has adopted an almost universal bias against the cognitive elite. This is the phenomenon Tom Ironsides observed in THE SUBSTITUTE when he occasionally encountered a languishing child of true intelligence in the wild. It is the same treatment he received from a system blindly obsessed with meaningless credentials. Sadly, the experience is not limited to fiction. Consider The Genius Famine by Edward Dutton and Charlton for the negative effects of this bias on society. One of Charles Murray’s four simple truths in Real Education was that the future of society is dependent on how well high-IQ children are educated. As a country and a nation, the USSA and America have failed; hence, our future looks like war, fracture, and a diminished quality of life. More recently, thought criminal on the lam, Gonzalo Lira, had this to say about our “schools”:
That was part of a list of reasons to evacuate out of the West before it's too late. In general, some European schools, and especially colleges are in better shape than others. European education is vastly preferable to what passes for the same thing in the USSA. Still, he’s not wrong. At the higher levels, on both sides of the Atlantic, hard science and engineering departments are, by and large, still holdouts against the rot, even if their host schools have already succumbed. Once a child is effectively homeschooled, he and his parents should think long and hard about college. Aside from exceptions to the horrible new rule, there are outside alternatives for learning at that level. No child deserves to be trapped in a failed modern K-12 Amerikan school. While some do much better than others, exceptional children are failed in exceptional fashion. Most of those children above 140-145 WAIS (or SB) are utterly tortured. Especially boys. In many cases, programs allegedly there to help, in fact, hinder. As I’ve written previously, the only way to assist a truly intelligent child is for his parents to point him in what they think is the right direction and then step aside and see how far he can go. This isn’t necessarily easy. The parents may not know the correct direction. They may have communication difficulties with their son. And, as is usually the case, they may be plagued with a desire to control that which is not ultimately controllable. Homeschooling is really the only option. Back in 1984, Roedell saw the need to remove the bright child from the doldrums of the standard classroom: “Highly gifted children experience increased vulnerability when they spend large portions of their time in inappropriate educational settings. The more a gifted child’s abilities differ from the norm, the more inappropriate becomes the educational program offered in the regular classroom.” She nailed the problems with “enrichment” programs:
The cat comparison is hyperbole, but it is accurate.
That was my experience in both the special program, specifically, and the schools in general. There was a reason why I independently reached the same conclusion about my subject program as the professional and why I reached it faster with less information. Then, and worse today, the problem is compounded by a number of factors. First, the schools are geared towards low-achievers; ultra and very high-ability students are seen as nonconforming nuisances. The programs, all of them, are designed to indoctrinate rather than to educate. The people who plan and organize curriculum, general and advanced, have ulterior motives. The “gifted and talented” courses are most appropriate for the “all-rounders”, and, these days, best suit the needs and proclivities of female students. That is of no service to the young minds with the most to offer an ailing country and culture. Additionally, the instructors in charge of even the special programs, in most cases, simply cannot communicate at the appropriate mental level with the most advanced students in their care. The average school teacher in the USSA has an IQ of 110. A child forced to endure such low-level foolishness will endure. He may very well continue to perform well, grade-wise, into college or even graduate school. But by being denied a real start, he will always be behind his potential. And he will come to resent or even hate the system and those who operate it and those to whom it primarily caters. There is the danger he might take up the digital pen. In the end, he will become adrift in a society that denigrates intelligence - more to its detriment than to that of the high-IQ pariahs. Chris Langan, a genius if ever there was one, was brutally punished in the USSA for his high intelligence. Wang Huning was allowed to maximize his intellectual potential from an early age in China. One man’s nation rises while the other’s collapses. The sane alternative is relatively simple even in the absence of something controlling like the CPC. Don’t expect smart children to succeed and do not “help” them. Rather, let them succeed. Give them the necessary tools and encouragement and then let them build. What is rightly seen as vulnerability, if properly channeled, can become great strength, beneficial both to the children and to the greater society. A system designed by and for 90 IQ simpletons cannot and will not help. This is up to us. They are our children, after all. Make them invulnerable. It is my reasoned suspicion that the foregoing approach will work for children of all ability levels. It will at least work better than the one-size-fits-none ways of the “schools”. By my count, this is education article number 439. And while it may not yet be time for me to fully put down my baton, I sense the time has arrived to lay off some of my education scribbling. At least in English. (Друзья мои, продолжайте делать то, что работает! Если я могу вам помочь, мы поговорим.) In any event, I look forward to more genuine wisdom about what really works from Katie, Joe, and any and all of you who know. Onwards. Deo vindice! PS: I dedicate this song to Gonzalo Lira. Go, boy! Good luck, and maybe make for Russia. PPS: Regarding all the building excitement about choosing ‘Murica’s next national dinosaur, I just cannot get excited. Allosaurus or Triceratops, you say? Friends, I truly don’t think these critters exist anymore if they ever did. This piece was posted at Perrin Lovett on Aug. 2, 2023.
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