It's (nearly) The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Isn't autumn beautiful?

Is Our Christianity Too Victorian?

A thought-provoking post by VD:

Christianity isn't etiquette

What We Did Yesterday

We tried this out:

The end result was quite good:) Anyway, it's a much better way to spend your evening than sitting in front of a TV.

Speaking Of Pirates

They are coming back apparently. Or, at least, their ships:

The owners of Fairtransport were inspired to revive sail cargo after witnessing at first hand the yellow smog caused by commercial vessels. They restored two ships, a 70-year-old minesweeper renamed the Tres Hombres and a wooden ketch called Nordlys that dates back to 1873.
Templeman arranged to board the Tres Hombres, sailing from the Azores to the Netherlands. “I was watching the ocean and it came like a ghost ship through the dawn mist. It looked like a pirate vessel. I was so excited.”

All in the name of sustainability, of course:) Well, this is one climate initiative which I don't mind:)

H/t to Wrath Of Gnon

Vikings Weren't S*xually Progressive

You don't tell me! TV shows are full of lies and propaganda??? Who would have thought...

More On Shills

I think I created a bit of confusion with my previous post on this topic, so I thought I'd try to better explain what I mean. In my opinion, a shill is someone fundamentally dishonest who creates a fake internet persona to sell you some product or ideology. I'll give you a couple of examples which (please keep it in mind) are pure fictional in nature.

Imagine somebody starts a blog saying they are a Christian homeschooling mother of 4 and will share their daily life with you. The target audience of this blog will be obviously women in a similar situation (Christian, homeschooling etc). The blog is quite successful and after a couple of months has a certain number of readers. Then the supposed blog owner starts telling you that though her life is hectic at times, there is a certain brand of supplements which helps her to pull through and that they are produced by a Christian company and if you buy them, you'll help all Christians and homeschoolers out there.

Then later you find out the supposed lady was a single guy in his twenties who sells supplements online.

Now imagine that by some reason, I hate Christian homeschoolers and want to give them a bad name so I set up a blog calling myself a Christian homeschooling mom from Arizona and will expressly state that my blog exists  to support and promote homeschooling and then I'll proceed with publishing  stories which will be ever so slightly over the top, portraying my imaginary family as rather dysfunctional and unpleasant, with spoilt kids, borderline abusive husband etc etc. A normal person will read it and think that home educators are crazy and should be avoided at all costs. So my objective of discrediting the homeschooling movement will be achieved.

There is a difference between a shill and someone who is convicted about a certain issue. There are plenty of Christians who will belong to a certain church and think it's the best. Some will even go so far as to state all others are heretics. They may be misguided in some things but they are sincere and moved by the desire to warn others and to promote their own church/community. They will tell you to join this or that religious group because it's the closest to the Scriptures.

A shill, on the other hand, would pretend to be a sincere Christian and then go around bashing all existing churches, communities and preachers without pointing you to any healthy alternatives as to leave you in the state of despair. (Or sometimes they will point to themselves as the only ones in the possession of some truth which will save you. In this case, it may be not really  a shill but simply someone who is very full of themselves and likes cult-like following. ). You see, he's pretending to be one of you and to help, but in reality, such a person is something totally different.

It's much easier to do online due to the relative anonymity of the internet, so it's always a good idea to practise some discernment:)

Climate Activists Aren't That Popular These Days

Check this tweet:

Upper middle class comes into contact with men who actually have to work for their living:)

How To Recognise A Shill

I guess by now we are all aware of "fake news" and what it means. Most people will associate the term with MSM and turn to the alternative news sources, such as the internet. Yet, here another danger lurks: fake persons, aka shills, who may present dangers of their own, especially if they are in the business of giving advice, outside of the sort which is general in nature. I'll give you one example of what I mean. Apparently, there used to exist a site which published erotic fiction supposedly written by a housewife and yet later, it turned out to be a man.

So how to recognise a fake? I guess if someone desires to create a fake persona online we don't really have a way to be 100% sure unless they get doxxed or self-doxx by some reason, yet, imo, there are certain signs which can betray them and their intentions. When in doubt, follow your gut feeling and stay on the safe side!

Personally I distrust everyone who will give online counselling, unless it's something general like "exercise and eat well", especially if they will go into detail discussing someone's personal situation, family conflicts, etc. Another category is the type who will always try to sell you something. It's one thing to be an affiliate and link to a product you like but it's quite another thing when someone obsessively pushes you to buy his brand of vitamins/supplements "because that's the only thing that works!"

Then you have conspiracy theorists. Sometimes they are onto something and may be even right about many things, but there is a type who will tell you that everything around you is fake and that you yourself probably don't exist, either. Generally, when the internet persona tells you that he or she alone is in the possession of (some) truth and everybody else is a shill, they are possibly a shill themselves:)

There are also fake Christians out there, which are probably the worst of all since they can promote false doctrine and that is much worse than wasting money on vitamins (which are probably harmless  anyway and can even do you good). And here is an idea of mine: I may be wrong, but personally I don't trust anyone who will tell you one thing and promote another. You can't be a Bible following Christian and defend things like p0rn, for instance. You can't say that you are all for traditional family and then discourage marriage, whether directly or indirectly. You can't say that you support Biblical gender roles and then say it OK for married women to work.

I also find it rather strange when I see churches being attacked. Yes, churches aren't ideal. We aren't ideal, either. It may be that in the area where you live there is not one decent church left. It could be probably better in some situations for some people to worship at home. But to blatantly say that ALL the churches are bad and corrupted and you can only find the truth on someone's web page is a sign of a cult mentality.

If you have real life problems, please try to solve them by interacting with real life people, and not by joining an internet personality cult!

If you have any ideas, please feel free to share!

The Autumn Garden

Some pictures from last week:

It's mild for the time of the years but it has been raining every day for like 4 weeks:)

How's your weather? 

You Are Allowed To Eat Meat Again!

Is red meat back on the menu?

A controversial study says cutting down on sausages, mince, steak and all other forms of red or processed meat is a waste of time for most people.

The report - which disagrees with most major organisations on the planet - says the evidence is weak and any risk to people's health is small.
Some experts have praised the "rigorous" assessment.
But others say "the public could be put at risk" by such "dangerously misguided" research.

In my opinion, there is little use arguing about what is the best diet. I do think veganism and eating too much soy are unhealthy (B12 deficit and hormonal dis-balance come to mind) , plus, too many vegans have some kind of a radical political agenda, but a vegetarian who eats dairy and/or eggs (and at least, some of them eat fish, too), should be OK. On the other hand, there are folks who have gone paleo/primeval and they also appear to be doing fine. One thing everyone agrees is bad for you is over-consumption of fast/processed food, sugary drinks and alcohol.

And if you are a Christian, the Scriptures certainly allow eating meat, but don't mandate it, either. Isn't it great that we have a freedom of choice?

Primitive Living And Other Cool Stuff

My favourite YouTuber uploaded this video a couple of days ago:



Each time I'm tramautised by another account of a soyboy young man who needs his mommy to hold his hand at any given moment of his life, Rune Malte restores my faith in European manhood:)

Birth Announcement

Greta will have to wait now as I have more pressing things on my mind!!!

She was and she is - our cat Frida became a proud first-time mother of 4 this Tuesday. Everything went fine and now she has to get adjusted to her new role:) Sometimes she is kinda not really sure what to do, but in general, she's doing great. As my husband told me: "I went to work as the owner of 2 cats and now I have 6:)"

Is there An Incentive To Destroy Your Marriage?

There is a popular opinion going around that women are encouraged to end their marriages "for cash and prizes".  Let's examine whether it's true or just another emotional tool to discourage marriages among Western people.

I've witnessed many divorces (unfortunately). Sometimes the husband was to blame, sometimes the wife and sometimes both. Most women who I know who initiated divorce had either adulterous husbands or were adulterous themselves. There were also women who were partly motivated by the husbands being lousy providers/borderline abusive etc. I don't know anyone who was motivated by boredom (they probably exist but I have never met them), much less by the desire "to steal the half of his stuff".

However, this is anecdotal evidence, so let's turn to facts. Obviously, I'm not going to disclose anyone's personal history online, so we'll have to do with an estimation. And here I have a question: when virtual sages are talking about "half his stuff" do they suggest that every man is a millionaire? Because half of the lower middle class guy's stuff is not that much. Plus, most women nowadays work at least part-time while married or have worked before and have some savings or have had money from their family etc etc. It's their stuff, too.

So here is our hypothetical family who live in a house which costs about 200k. It could be less or more but it's about average in some places. Let's say they bought it for 175k and also they paid a part of their mortgage.They have been married for 10 years and the wife works 2.5 days per week and is about 40. Then one day they divorce. The house is on both of their names so they sell it, pay the bank and have the profit of about 50k which they have to divide in 2. Each has 25 000. The man works full time and is the main breadwinner. He comes to the bank and easily gets another mortgage. The wife whose income is much less, not so much...

To get a decent amount of money she'll have to start working full time which most women don't want to do here in Europe. Still, the house she'll be able to buy with her income alone will probably be worse than what they could buy with their combined income if you follow me. It all may work very well when she finds another man, but as long as she stays single she won't really become wealthier. I'm not even talking here about custody arrangements, the costs of daycare (and no, child support won't make you really rich, either, plus fathers nowadays can ask for split custody).

The peaceful separation described above isn't always a fact, either, as may people have a contested divorce which means they will have to hire a lawyer, go to court, miss work and so on. You really need to be very stupid to divorce a good husband hoping for any "cash and prizes"".

The same people warning you against thieving females will tell you especially to beware of the housewives because they will get more out of you. So let's get back to our scenario above but now the lady is a housewife who's been out of the workforce for 10 years. She comes to the bank with her 25 000 and no job, does she get a mortgage, what do you think? If she can't find a good job, which is quite possible in this day and age, she'll probably have to move to social housing which is full of the sort of people most normal folks will try to avoid like a plague.

What about alimony,the biggest scare in some parts of the web? First, depending on the husband's income and the amount of child support he has to pay, it won't be much unless he is very wealthy. Second, if the wife can work and has no children under the age of 12, she probably won't get it. Third, the new law states that partner alimony can't be paid longer than 5 years in the majority of cases. Older women and women with small children or both (since so many women nowadays get kids late in life) will have problems both finding a good job and finding a new provider as modern men don't rush to rescue the damsel in distress.

The chance is that the divorced older woman will end up on welfare which is based on the minimum salary. You won't be able to go on vacation and you won't even be able to have a car any more. So no, unless the woman is married to a wealthy guy, she won't profit from her divorce.

And wealthy guys all marry with contracts where you can stipulate that the ex-wife will get nothing if divorce is her fault, for instance. There are also other ways to safe keep your family money, by creating a fund, by declaring the family property as the company property and putting the company on the husband's name etc etc. A rich man will always find a way.

You will tell me that it's different in the USA. It can be, I don't really know. But the times of life-long alimony in the world of the working women are more or less over.  It is my personal opinion that scare-mongering about the financial horrors of divorce for men (if it's so horrific why do I know so many guys who ran away from their wives?) and the advice that if you do marry you should keep your wife working and never ever allow her to stay home are a malicious attack on the traditional Western family model coming from the same progressive corner, only this time they pretend to be friends to men.

The truth is that nobody profits from a divorce. It's true that  young women nowadays are taught to ditch their husbands for the most trivial of reasons. However, it's mostly a lie that this will improve their situation, especially if the young children are involved. I would like to end this post by reminding you that God hates divorce and that if you are any sort of a Christian you should hate, it, too. Please don't do it, unless there are really very compelling reasons ("falling out of love" isn't one of them).

The Saviour Won't Come From The Internet

Western society is very liberal and as a result folks often feel isolated, especially if they don't subscribe to the official world view, so it's hardly surprising that they are increasingly turning to the internet for answers. Internet is full of great resources, YouTube videos, podcasts, twitter feeds, like-minded individuals on Facebook, you name it. It can create a real sense of community  and teach you skills they hardly teach you at school any more (how to be a good homemaker, for instance).

It's all fine. I use many of these resources daily myself and even run a blog:) However, there is a caveat: internet can't substitute real relationships with real people in the real world. There is also this tendency to cult-like behaviour by followers of this or that internet personality. When we encounter others in real life we see both their positive and negative sides. Yet online it's easy to create a  certain persona, there is very little accountability so to say.

I tend to be very wary of those teachers who we know next to nothing about. No picture, no info of any kind, no personal details of any sort. How can we even know that they are what they claim? Yes, there are good reasons for anonymity when you are on the wrong side of the modern political spectre, but one can still go too far if you know what I mean.

I'm also suspicious of those who will give you advice which promotes actions known for their negative consequences, like supporting p*rn which is known to create sexual dysfunction in men as "liberating" or pretending to be a Christian and then telling you to avoid churches of any kind because none of them is good enough etc.

Sound advice for young people of both sexes would be to eat a healthy diet, be physically active, avoid promiscuity and substance abuse, go to church, spend time outdoors in the sunshine, have a group of family and friends you can rely on etc.  It then would include more specific advice on dating and marriage, child-raising etc. While it's important to warn young people of the pitfalls of the modern world, being overly negative and nihilistic only creates more dysfunction and despair in the long run. Instead of being nihilistic, we should be realistic.

I also don't believe that scolding works. While progressives are known for castigating men (specifically "white males") right-wingers often behave like their mirror image and spend enormous amount of time blaming women for all the world's ills, as if an average young woman is somehow responsible for the actions of the woke elites.

Fiery preaching on the topic of sin belongs in the church. Heated political discussions are the domain of men. When I write my posts I do hope to encourage others but I don't have a presumption to function as a Sunday sermon substitute. I just don't see the point and I don't think that I have all the answers, either.

If you have any ideas on the topic, feel free to share!

When Propaganda Backfires

Check this tweet and watch the video, it's hilarious:

Satire Gone Wrong

Unfortunately I can't embed tweets on Blogger...

Is Eating Out Frivolous?

Someone linked to this discussion on Twitter.  One person wrote that women basically waste their youth working in a cubicle and spend the money they get on frivolous things like dining out.

Eating out is in general very popular nowadays. People will talk of the rising costs of living and yet, whenever you go to a restaurant, it'll be full. The cost of dining for 2 grown-ups in a budget restaurant has risen from ab. 30 to 60 euros in the recent years (basically doubled), and yet, they still have as many customers as before, if not more! Just as housework, home cooking is probably viewed as too patriarchal, like something out of dark ages.

I will admit, like everybody else, I do like eating out though it's more often lunch and drinking tea/coffee with cake, than dining since I frankly see it as wasteful and something which should be reserved for special occasions like birthdays. We do order takeout sometimes or go to a local Chinese. When we do, my conscience nags me: the food is probably not healthy and you could just buy a can of soup at the supermarket and eat it with some sandwiches for a fraction of the price. However, it's much less fun, if you know what I mean.

So while I don't subscribe to eating out being frivolous, healthy it's probably not. My readers will remember that 3 weeks ago I came down with food poisoning after dining at what looked like a decent hipster restaurant. Unfortunately, their hygiene standards weren't as up-to-date as they should be and it took me a better part of the week to recover.

And then I found this interesting twitter post:

"My buddy works at a well known restaurant chain and he says the oil from the deep fry has not been changed a single time since hes been there. He was telling me that its gone from yellowish, to brown and that its now black" - from an email this morning

Makes one think, doesn't it?