Is It Time to Stop Funding Libraries?

 Have you been to the library lately? I bet you haven’t. I bet, unless you have young kids, you haven’t been there in 10 or 20 years, at a minimum. Why would you go when you have everything they offer available to you at home, either delivered immediately digitally, or the next day physically? It begs the question: why are we still paying for them?

Yes, the things in libraries are “free,” but sometimes free is too high a price to pay for something.

There are two types of libraries: the small ones in rural communities, and the large ones in major cities. The small ones are cesspools of left-wing propaganda – go to one and look at the children’s book section and you’ll see “graphic novels” that would put the Penthouse letters section to shame. There are drawings for kids that, if they were photographs, would be a crime.

But these are done under the banner of “diversity,” so they’re important and good…or something.

The big city libraries are glorified homeless shelters. It would be child abuse to bring your kid there without an armed guard. The smell of body odor and weed has tattooed itself to the books and walls, and whispers of “Quiet, please” have been replaced by grunting junkies if you happen to disturb their high.

What does the library offer that people need?

Used books are basically given away online and in local shops or garage sales, and they have no due date. Anything new can be bought cheap online or just digitally, requiring no space to store them.

I remember when they started carrying VHS tapes and DVDs, giving Blockbuster fits over the “free” competition. It was just a ploy to get people to go into them again. It worked for a while, then it worked out about as well as it did for Blockbuster.
Recommended
The Fantasy House of Mark Carney Victor Davis Hanson
Could the Kennedy Center Be Demolished? What We Know Right Now. Cameron Arcand

Now, libraries are meeting places for Drag Queen Story Hour and deviant art that couldn’t make it anywhere merit mattered.

Librarians get taxpayer money to put on events, and they all end up being left-wing events. Why do conservatives vote to fund our opponents? Is it simply because voting against library funding would trigger some kind of nostalgia in people that doesn’t exist otherwise? They’re there, they exist, and people are free to go to them, but we don’t. Still, the prospect of them going away maybe triggers something in people they don’t want to let go of, even though they have no practical use for them.

It's the mentality that fills boxes in basements with things we can’t get rid of but never see the light of day – sentimental value does not create usefulness or shelf space.

My wife will kill me for this, as she absolutely loves libraries, but even she comes away from trips with the kids there full of disgust over what the kids’ section is full of.

We should not be paying for it.

Sell the books, sell the buildings and the land, use the money to pay off debt or lower taxes, and recognize that the days of libraries are over. They weren’t necessarily rendered useless by the Internet, but by the people hired to run them.

The problem isn’t the concept; it’s the people. The politicians who must bring a left-wing agenda into everything they do and the librarians who can’t have a desk without a seizure-inducing “progressive” rainbow flag on it. The 40-year-old single white women angry at the world that all their abortions didn’t pay off with love, riches and happiness who’ve decided to take their pending fear of dying alone out on the societal norms they think they’re courageously standing up to. They’re the type of people who view agreement and conformity to a radical left-wing agenda as an act of rebellion.

We should stop paying them by eliminating the need for their jobs.

Shut it all down. History is full of things – businesses and organizations – that have outlived their usefulness. The library absolutely had its time and place, but that passed long ago. It’s time to call it a day and stop wasting money by funding our opponents. Maybe a new, online model can be created by the private sector – if there’s one thing to know about life is if there is an actual need or want, the private sector will fill it – or some left-wing billionaires can step up and pay for them. Otherwise, close them down, end the subsidized indoctrination and drug centers (watch this video for one example) and enjoy the savings.

Charlie Kirk’s Bold Mission to Rescue a Lost Generation

 I

’d like to comment on the legacy of the late Charlie Kirk and why he is going to be remembered and what he accomplished.

There’s been a lot of encomia about him, but I think one of the most unusual things that he did was he changed politics, but he didn’t address political issues first. In other words, he saw politics as a reflection of deeper social, economic, and cultural issues.

I talked to him in late August, and what he was intent on was trying to tell a new generation of Americans that they were suffering from prolonged adolescence, and part of that wasn’t their fault.

He was arguing that the Republican Party cannot empower people like [New York City mayoral candidate] Zohran Mamdani and the socialist Left, who have no solutions and will make things worse, but they have to address why they are popular.

Some of it, of course, is ignorance, but what he was trying to say is that people who cannot afford a home, they cannot afford energy, they cannot afford gasoline, they can’t afford to buy a car, they prolong their adolescence. They do not get married, or they’ve been indoctrinated in college that the nuclear family is toxic, or they don’t understand the beauty of child raising or raising children. And in a larger sense, these personal decisions they’re making are not only making them unhappy, but they’re hurting the country.

In other words, we’re suffering from 1.6 fertility, a radical drop in the last quarter century from 2.0 at the turn of the millennium.

And what he was also trying to say is that there were solutions to these problems in sort of the red state paradigm in places like Florida, in places like Texas, in places like Arizona, in places somewhat like Nevada, where people were moving to—4 million, 6 million people a year—and they felt they could afford insurance, they could buy a car, it was safe, homes were affordable, they could get married at an earlier age, they could rediscover traditional norms of their grandparents.

So, he was concentrated, not in those areas, but in the swing states, especially in the 2024 election—Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, not Minnesota so much, but Michigan, somewhat Minnesota—and then blue states because he thought the battle had been won.

We turned to common sense in half the country, but he was going as an emissary into hostile territory and telling people:

There is a reason why you’re leaving in the millions. There is a reason why you’re not buying houses. We have to look at zoning laws. We have to look at energy production. We have to unleash people’s individual talent to produce more goods and services at an affordable price.

We have to champion the idea that a two-parent family is not aberrant. It was the historical norm for 2,500 years. It’s a good thing to have two or three children. It’s a good thing to be a young person and wanna buy a house in your 20s and not in your 40s, or to have a child in your 20s and not in your late 30s.

Nothing wrong with the latter, but he was trying to offer a different paradigm that had proved successful.

The second thing, very quickly, about him is his methodology was as varied as his message. In other words, to get that message across that there were cultural, social, economic factors that reflected one’s political view, and if you’re gonna win people over to the conservative politics, you have to explain socially, culturally, and economically why they’re not receptive at first and what can be done about it. But he also was a good orator.

He spoke extemporaneously. He had one year of college, and he waded into Oxford and Cambridge and took on people at, supposedly, the most prestigious universities in the English-speaking world. He could write. He created this huge organization, $100 million budget, somebody—we don’t do that in America without an MBA or a B.A. So, he was a multitalented figure.

And then, finally, as Aristotle said, courage is the most important of all virtues. And he was not afraid of his person. He was not afraid of getting into arguments with people. He was not intimidated by Ph.D.s, J.D.s, MBAs.

So, he was a rare individual. And I don’t think we’re gonna see anybody like him. I can’t think of anybody on the conservative or the Left that has that many skills and that many talents and that much energy, and more importantly, saw that the problem with America is not whether you’re conservative or liberal per se, not necessarily, but why you are.

And people who have some faith and some vision of being economically viable, and they can marry at an age at which they want to, they can have as many children as they please, they can buy a home, they are happier people. And the Republican Party in the past has not always ensured that they have that opportunity, and he was trying to address it.

I am glad I put in the hours.

 I am glad I played 25 of my 50 playstation 5 games. I am glad I wrote 580 internet movie database reviews. I am glad I wrote 290 album reviews at Discogs since 2011. I am glad I was on bluray.com and had 1090 posts since 2011. I am glad I uploaded archive.org memories in 100 videos and 7000 JPEGs. I am glad I wrote 500 game reviews and 300 blog entries on my blog and gamespot blog. I am glad I wrote 100 book reviews at Goodreads and have 4900 friends. Now people can be friends with me or marry me someday.

Postgame Wrap-up: Soul Blazer

 

Growing up in the 1990’s meant experiencing the joy of the Super NES and Sega Genesis first hand. Unfortunately, it also meant not having the money to acquire all those great looking games sitting on the shelf at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Toys’R Us, etc… As an adult, I’ve made it a point to try to find those games I missed out on and give them a chance. One such game that I just recently played for the first time is the Enix / Quintet classic, Soul Blazer. It should also be noted that I played this via the Super Famicom cart (titled Soul Blader) using an English patch on a Retron5. I’ve found that Super Famicom games are vastly more affordable than their North American counterparts.

The Set-up:

You are the Blazer. A warrior sent by The Master to rescue the people and villages of the Freil Empire. The evil spirit Deathtoll has taken over the land and sealed the citizens away while also populating the world with monsters. Armed only with your sword, you must find a way to the World of Evil where Deathtoll dwells.

So, technically speaking, you are an unnamed entity, but the spiritual successor to Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, does reference this game and refers to the main character as the Blazer, and that sounds much cooler than “Brando,” which is the name I used.

The Story:

Upon your arrival, the world is empty of all creatures, save the monsters sent by Deathtoll. You, the Blazer, must travel into the dungeons of Deathtoll and release the people/creatures of the world. As you do so, you gain new abilities and new allies that will be needed as you move on to the next region.

It’s very empty

The story of Soul Blazer is fairly simplistic, but is at least a bit familiar if you’ve played other Quintet games. Quintet seemingly had a fascination with destruction and creation, and it shows up again in Soul Blazer. This isn’t meant to imply a negative, but merely to point out a clear interest the developers at Quintet had when crafting narratives. There is a narrative running through the game, and characters that you’ll encounter or encounter mentions of from region to region, but ultimately the strength of this game lies more in the gameplay.

The Gameplay:

Soul Blazer is played from a top down perspective and, as noted above, tasks you with freeing the creatures of each region you visit. Each region begins with your arrival in a deserted landscape. After exploring for a bit, you’ll find your way to a dungeon that contains monster lairs producing, you guessed it, monsters. Each lair produces a set number of monsters, and when those are eliminated, the lair turns green. Once this is done, you can walk over the lair to release a creature, trigger a change in the dungeon, or gain an item. More often than not, a creature will be released in the deserted area you started in. The game will show you where the person/animal is so you can visit them once you’ve exited the dungeon. Most of these will offer advice or, on occasion, a new ability. And the game is structured in such a way that you may need to exit the dungeon area, speak to someone, find a new item or ability, then re-enter the dungeon. This sounds tedious, but there three warp points in each region, one in the populated area and two in the dungeon area. Also, the dungeons aren’t overly large, so it’s truly not an issue to exit and re-enter when needed.

In regards to monster lairs, the game does let you know how many are active in your current area when you pause the game. This sounds minor, but is extremely helpful if you’re wanting to be sure you complete everything. Also, in the first half of the game, you will come upon monsters that you can’t yet defeat, meaning their lair will remain open until you obtain the means to defeat the enemies. Again, while this could be tedious, the game makes traveling from region to region very easy. You simply navigate to the region you want to go back to on a world map.

So, the question is, how do you defeat those numerous monsters lurking in the dungeons of Soul Blazer? Fortunately, the Blazer is armed with a both a sword and magic spells. You’re primary attack will be your sword, which will be replaced with a stronger swords as you complete the different regions. If you’ve ever played Zelda, then you know how the sword works. You push a button and it swings in an arc. I will say that in Soul Blazer, the arc is rather large, even hitting enemies that are partially behind you. The enemies sometimes have sketchy hit boxes so this is certainly welcome. Soul Blazer also includes a strafe mechanic. If you hold one of the shoulder buttons, your character will hold his sword out and continually face in the same direction regardless of the direction you’re moving.

As mentioned above, there is also a magic element in Soul Blazer, but it’s a bit odd. Your character has a light blue orb constantly circling him. It is this orb that provides your selected magic attack (there are multiple magic attacks to be found in the game). I was never a fan of this mechanic because it means having to line up the orb with whatever enemy you’re hoping to attack with magic. Ultimately, this meant that I used one specific, multi-directional spell for the entire game as I found almost all of the others to be unreliable. This is truly a shame because the magic attacks are all rather interesting, but are somewhat neutered by the odd method of attack.

This blue orb, right here

Finally, there are multiple items to be found in Soul Blazer. There’s a standard healing item that will revive you if you lose all of your health, though it must be equipped to take effect, which is true of all items. There are story items that are used only in specific settings, such as the dream rod, which lets you enter sleeping characters’ dreams to access new areas. There are also items that buff your defense and attack, which are probably the most useful, and are certainly the ones I used most of the time. There are three “Red Hot” items that must be found to advance at the end of the game as they provide a magic spell that is key to fighting the final boss. These items aren’t too difficult to find, but do require some backtracking. There is a collection of items that, when all collected, can be traded for an incredibly useful item. These items can be very aggravating to find, given that at least two of them are placed randomly on the map with no indication whatsoever to indicate that they are where they are.

Conclusions:

The thought that kept coming back to me as I played through Soul Blazer was that I had forgotten how little hand holding games in the 16-bit era gave you. For example, the first boss. For this fight, you are in a room that has ledges on the north and south of the room which are connected by three conveyor belts. You begin on the south ledge while the boss is on the north ledge. The two conveyor belts on the outside move north to south while the one in the middle moves south to north. The wrinkle with this fight is that the boss turns to metal if you step foot on his ledge. You can get a hit in if you’re quick, but it’s tough and you’ll almost certainly get hit yourself. I tried this fight a couple of times and lost so thoroughly that I was convinced I had missed an item. Except I couldn’t find an item. Finally, out of desperation, I watched a YouTube video to see what I was missing. Turns out that the strafe maneuver I noted above, which you are specifically told about by a person you free in the village, is the key to the battle. You have to face the boss, hold the shoulder button, then advance on the middle conveyor belt, hitting the boss, then retreating to your side before he attacks with his fireballs. This way, you never touch his ledge and he never turns to metal. I think younger me would have figured this out, but current me had completely forgotten the strafe technique. Again, a reminder that this game was not going to go out of its way to correct me or subtly push me forwards.

This guy…

The realization that my 16-bit skills were woefully rusty aside, I did enjoy this game. It’s not perfect, and I prefer the other Quintet games I’ve played (Actraiser and Illusion of Gaia), but it is a solid 16-bit game, and does deserve its reputation as a gem in the Super NES library. The rights to this game are apparently in question (the head of Quintet has apparently vanished as no one knows where he currently resides), so it’s not widely available (though we got a remake of Actraiser, which is also a Quintet title, so who knows). This is a shame given that this is a fairly unique game that has elements of both Actraiser and Legend of Zelda in its DNA. In spite of the limitations, I would absolutely recommend this game to anyone that wants to scratch a 16-bit itch or play one of the more interesting games on the Super NES.

The Naughty Nineties (1945) review

 While The Naughty Nineties is a great choice for me as far as entertainment goes I'll admit it isn't an obvious choice for a blogathon centering on backstage action, but there is some to be had here. The movie takes place during the 1890s with the action happening mostly on the showboat, The River Queen, which travels along the Mississippi River delivering the cleanest, finest entertainment available. That entertainment includes the talents of hammy leading man, Dexter Broadhurst (Abbott), actress/singer Caroline Johnson (Lois Collier) and a host of other acts that fill the vaudeville-style variety shows. Incidentally, The River Queen we see in The Naughty Nineties is the riverboat that was created for Universal's Show Boat directed by James Whale in 1936.

Also part of the entertainment troupe on The River Queen is Sebastian Dinwiddie (Costello) who's sort of jack of trades, but mostly master of mayhem. Throughout the story we see Sebastian as drummer of the showboat band, as stagehand and as sound effects engineer. Of sorts. Eventually Sebastian takes his place on the stage as an entertainer, but he's willing to do it all - even attempting to quiet babies that interrupt the show with their crying, but of course he does more damage than the babies when he causes havoc with the sets. It's through Sebastian and his many duties that we get a glimpse of what the backstage machinations would look like on a riverboat. And all indications are they'd be a lot of fun. Unfortunately though the merriment aboard The River Queen is threatened when three unsavory characters - Bonita Farrow (Rita Johnson), Mr. Crawford (Alan Curtis) and Mr. Bailey (Joe Sawyer) - join the fray in Ironville with sinister intentions involving crooked gambling. It takes them no time at all to put their plan into play even though they've been warned by the Sheriff (played by an uncredited, but instantly recognizable John Hamilton who speaks in full Perry White mode in a brief scene at the beginning of the movie.)

Against everyone's advise The River Queen's Captain and owner, Sam Johnson (Henry Travers with eyebrows in full bloom) agrees to a card game with the crooked trio who manage to get him drunk and fix the game so that they win controlling interest in the riverboat. Immediately after that The River Queen is turned into a floating casino with odds 100% in favor of the house. With depravity now permeating through the beloved River Queen Sebastian and Broadhurst join forces to get rid of the criminals and return the showboat to Capt. Sam and good family entertainment.

NN Cast

The Naughty Nineties is great fun due to its great cast and a hoot despite some of the gags being older than dirt. Or so some seem in any case. There's the familiar mirror routine done here by Sebastian (Costello) and Bailey (Sawyer) where the former mimics the actions of the latter as if it were a reflection in the mirror. Then there's a bit where Sebastian wrestles with a bear thinking it's Broadhurst dressed as a bear as part of a scheme to scare everyone out of the casino. Both of those are a bit stale, but all of the other routines are right on the money and still entertaining as hell, including a swapping glasses bit when one of the bad guys slips poison into Sebastian's glass and the hilarious scene during which Sebastian thinks he's eating chopped cat burgers after he overhears the chef mentioning cats in the kitchen.

My favorite Abbott and Costello routine in The Naughty Nineties, however, actually takes place in a sort of backstage setting, during rehearsals as Broadhurst is giving stage directions to a stage hand. Hoping to get a spot in the show Sebastian steps onto the stage to audition by singing "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" and misinterprets Broadhurst's stage directions as intended for him. As Broadhurst says "lower" Sebastian lowers his voice, when Broadhurst says to lift the leg of the backdrop Sebastian responds by lifting his own leg and so forth. I roar during this bit and could watch on a loop.

The most famous routine in The Naughty Nineties also happens to be what the movie is best remembered for. That is, the brilliant "Who's On First?" which is featured here in its most complete version (and probably the best). It's absolutely wonderful. The critic for the Los Angeles Examiner noted in 1945, "the 'Who's On First?' routine alone is worth the price of admission" and that would also be true today for the price of a DVD.

The "Who's On First?" routine remains tops among all of the comedy routines of the 20th Century, which is saying a lot. The routine was formerly immortalized in October 1956 when Abbott and Costello were invited to appear before a live audience on "The Steve Allen Show." Bud and Lou performed the routine on Allen's show that night, in what at least one source reports was their swan song - the final performance of the classic skit they claimed to have done 15,000 times. Other guests on the special "Salute to Baseball" episode of the Allen Show included Mrs. Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. Also on the program that night was Allen's announcement of the induction of Abbott and Costello and their Gold Record of "Who's On First" into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N. Y. Abbott and Costello are the first and only non-baseball playing celebrities ever to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The version of the routine as seen in The Naughty Nineties plays continuously in the museum to this day.

One last note - something else associated with the "Who's On First?" routine can also be heard continuously if one wishes. It happened backstage in a way as Abbott and Costello taped the routine for The Naughty Nineties. It turns out that the director and crew could not keep from laughing while Abbott and Costello performed. After many failed attempts to keep everyone quiet Yarbrough gave up. If you listen closely you can hear the laughter on the DVD (version from The Franchise Collection Vol. 2). There's no better reminder than laughter of the legendary duo at their best and in this case that there were people backstage experiencing history in the making.