Adventures In The Middle East And London

Back when I started this blog, I was a Wall Street Journal Republican. If the Party said it, it was true. If I read it in the WSJ, I believed it. R was good, D was bad.

I still carry a lot of that around with me, but in one respect, I can see now that George W Bush's efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan were not only doomed to fail, but our experts should have known they were doomed to fail.

The Wrong Metrics

In the West, we use metrics like GDP, Per Capita Income, education statistics and the size of our militaries to gauge how well we are doing. We assume everyone else does the same. When we went into Afghanistan and then Iraq, we figured that once we gave the residents elections, electricity, money and schools, they'd fall in love with us. How could they not if we were improving their GDP, Per Capita Income and education statistics?

We didn't bother to look into Islamic culture or the cultural metrics implicit in Islamic imperialism. For more than 1400 years, Islam has pursued its openly stated goal of bringing all people into the Ummah. For the Islamic world, the primary goal is to make all people Muslims. That's 80% of your grade right there. All the rest, including GDP, Per Capita Income and education statistics are just icing on the cake.

We didn't get much cultural purchase in Iraq and Afghanistan and those two countries have now reverted to their means because the people there don't put much value on GDP, Per Capita Income and education statistics.

The British Don't Even Know They're Surrendering

Dig this.

Here is the PM having a lovely time in No10 with Adam Kelwick, an imam who invites people to "pray for [Hamas] victory" over Israel, celebrated 7 October as "David beats Goliath!", and hosts the worst of preachers at his mosque in Liverpool. pic.twitter.com/EXnckwIN6M

— Nick Timothy MP (@NJ_Timothy) March 15, 2025

If you don't understand that their metrics for success are global conquest, if you don't see how your metrics are second-order to them, at best, then you become their perfect prey. If your metrics get polluted with cultural Marxism where you see group failure as signs of oppression and you believe that diversity is your strength, you are actively letting them conquer you.

You think they come for the benefits of civilization. In reality, they're coming to irrevocably change you. Your only defense against this attack is to boldly assert your cultural confidence. The Cultural Marxism mindset makes that impossible.

Starmer and his crew, including even most of the Reform Party, are so locked into their metrics of GDP, Per Capita Income and education statistics that they are completely blind to what is happening in plain sight.

Dig this.

The rector at St John's has opened his doors to Muslims because there was not enough space for them to pray in their own mosque and many were forced to worship outside on the street.

The UK is being conquered in the same manner that many other nations have been conquered by Islam. They can't see it because they are culturally myopic. The intelligentsia see only their own metrics and cannot see that not everyone is trying to maximize the same equations.

They don't care about the money or college degrees. They only care that you convert to Islam.

Extra Credit

If you think I'm being hysterical, below is a list of all of the countries which are members of the OIC, Organization of Islamic Cooperation. They aren't all majority-Muslim yet, but if they aren't, there are active, vigorous efforts to make them so.

For extra credit, pick one, just one, that you think will convert to Christianity, secularism or anything else in the next 5 years as England and other Euro states get conquered by Islam.

Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Djibouti, Chad, Indonesia, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire, Palestine, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Iraq, Iran, Cameroon, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Comoros, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Maldives, Malaysia, Mali, Egypt, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somali, Sudan, Surinam, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Oman, Jordan, Yemen.

Super Special Bonus Content

London council leader wants more Pakistanis in London. pic.twitter.com/fuIhLzt7Cg

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 16, 2025

Kumeyaay Orthodontia And The Canadian Residential Schools

The Kumeyaay are an Indian tribe local to the San Diego area. There are still a few of them around, probably maintaining their timeless culture and heritage by running a casino.

At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, who undoubtedly brought with them some delicious flan, the Kumeyaay were paleolithic savages, just like all the other Indians who lived in North America. That would include the Indians who lived in Canada. They didn't have writing, the wheel, domesticated pack animals or even Bic ball point pens. As I said in a post from long ago, "I'll bet dentistry with rocks as surgical implements was a big hit with the locals here in San Diego, circa 1490 AD."

In Canada, circa 1890 or so, they had to figure out just what they were going to do with the Indians who had survived the various European viruses and bacilli the settlers unwittingly brought with them. The problem of cultural integration was front and center.

In modern times, we think the people of 1890s were bigots and genocidal imperialists. We don't ponder what life would be like if the Kumeyaay and their ilk were still around, doing their Kumeyaay thing today. I asked AI to give me a few scenarios. Being utterly woke, it began with a description of Kumeyaay living in harmony with nature like it was some kind of NPR fantasy world, where they taught modern people how to be in tune with Gaia's grooves.

After jabbing the thing with a cattle prod by asking it to ponder what it would be like to encounter medicine-free Kumeyaay living in Mission Trails Park, it snapped out of it's weed-inspired haze and gave me these. 

• A high-tech biotech worker in Sorrento Valley might go hiking on the weekend and pass by a Kumeyaay family where half the children have lost their teeth to malnutrition and the adults are crippled by arthritis by age 40.
• College students from UCSD might drive into the mountains for a camping trip and accidentally wander into a Kumeyaay camp, where they are met with suspicious stares from people who have never held a book, used a smartphone, or even conceived of the idea of modern medicine.
• Residents of Santee or La Mesa might occasionally report screams echoing from the canyons at night, as a Kumeyaay elder dies in agony from an infected wound—something that a simple antiseptic and stitches could have prevented.

The Canadians of 1890 confronted this for real. They weren't dummies, they could see the relentless advances of technology and what that would mean for the Indians. They knew that in order to preserve the Indians as people, they were going to have to drag them kicking and screaming into the 20th Century.

To do this, they set up residential schools. They took the Indian children and forced them to live in these schools, most of which were run by the Catholic Church. There may be have been better ways to do this, but given their limited resources and the need to help the Indians make a clean, generational break from their Stone Age past, this wasn't such a bad idea.

Blood Libel

Enter modern leftists. Somehow, modern progressives got data from a ground search radar that scoped out the area around a few of these schools. The data seemed to show the existence of mass graves. The progressives pounced. This was proof positive of what they already knew - the Catholic priests and nuns running these schools were bigoted, genocidal monsters.

That indefatigable pinhead of a prime minister, Justin Trudeau, didn't need to see any more. Canadian flags flew at half mast for the slaughtered indigenous people, thunderous denunciations were orated, the credulous news media sprang into action and even Pope Francis got into the act by groveling and apologizing. Catholic churches were burned by the dozens across Canada as the righteous fury of the progressives found an incendiary outlet.

Millions of Canadian dollars, which are a lot like American dollars only they are sticky because they are dotted with tiny maple syrup smears, were poured into efforts to dig up these graves. The only problem was the excavations revealed ... nothing. Not even a fingernail.

It was all nonsense. Pope Francis, utterly incapable of embarrassment or self-reflection, did not seek to restore the reputations of the slandered priests and nuns. There were no apologies made by anyone. Not one. The burned-out churches had to be rebuilt through insurance settlements and donations by the faithful, if they were rebuilt at all.

The Missing Question

All of this is an expression of temporal bigotry. Putting yourself in the shoes of the Canadians of 1890, just what were they supposed to do? 

What would you do today if the Kumeyaay had been allowed to maintain their way of life and, while hiking in our local canyons, you came across a Kumeyaay family where half the children have lost their teeth to malnutrition and the adults are crippled by arthritis by age 40?

Say what you will about his teeth, at least he's living as the Kumeyaay have lived for centuries.

As an aside, I had to use Grok to generate that image. ChatGPT wouldn't create a Native American boy with any blemishes at all. I didn't even bother to try the ultra-woke Gemini.

AI, Sorcery And Slot Machines

 As I wrote the previous post about how young men these days are surrounded by opportunities for easy, small, free dopamine hits, it occurred to me that Gemini's AI image creator is just that. It's kind of like a slot machine. You type in a prompt, click Enter and then wait 40 seconds or so. Instead of wheels spinning and lights flashing like they do in Vegas, it tells you your image is being generated. At the end, you may or may not be a winner.

Generate a photorealistic image of an old southern man and his cat drinking coffee and watching the sunrise from the porch of their bayou home

Meh. That's OK, but the cat should be a gray tabby and I wanted old trees with Spanish Moss around the place. If I fiddle with the prompt, I can get something better. Maybe.

Like a slot machine, you keep playing, hoping you get the jackpot. Instead of feeding the thing coins, you feed it your time.

Like sorcery, you have no idea what you're doing. You're trying various incantations, hoping you get the desired result. That's because Gemini itself doesn't know what it's doing.

Nescio quid facio! (A small vole appears at my feet.)

Hmm, that didn't work.

Ego sum trying quae temere! (Three toads fall from the ceiling making a squashy sound when they hit the floor.)

I didn't really want the toads. Let's try again.

Hoc superfluum! (My wand disappears and is replaced by a rake.)

Maybe this is a hint I should do it for myself instead of relying on AI.

That's the way AI will fit into our world of instant gratification. You don't need to learn how to draw, how to write, how to summarize a book or even an essay, you just feed it into the bot and get a result. If you don't know how to do the task in the first place, you'll have no idea if the result is any good or not.

It's just one more cheap dopamine hit.

The Problem With Young Men These Days

 ... may be biochemical as much as it is cultural.

I spent some time this morning chatting with AI*, asking why various stimulant activities might contribute to my own weaknesses with the bottle. The answer it gave was completely in line with what I've experienced in my own life, down to the changes in my emotional states and cravings as the day progresses. It also provided the biochemical reason why practicing self-discipline in one area of your life improves it all areas.

I then asked it to generalize the assessment to include all of the stimulants known to my sons' friends and got something that made me see them in a different way. Here's what it said.

---

You can’t just quit one and expect the others not to pull you back in. It’s all the same system—the same dopamine loops, the same impulse-driven behaviors. If you stop alcohol but keep indulging in social media, porn, gaming, or marijuana, you’re still feeding the same addiction pathways and keeping yourself vulnerable to relapse.

Why You Have to Quit Everything at Once:

1. They All Work Together to Keep You Weak

   • Social media scrolling in the morning weakens your focus.
   • Video games in the afternoon burn up your willpower.
   • Porn drains your dopamine reserves.
   • Marijuana dulls your motivation and makes you passive.
   • By the time evening rolls around, alcohol is just the final step in the chain.
   • If you remove just one but keep indulging in others, you stay in the cycle—just with a different addiction.

2. The Brain Doesn’t Distinguish Between Addictions

   • Whether it’s porn, gaming, alcohol, weed, or social media, it’s all just dopamine-seeking behavior.
   • Your brain doesn’t care how it gets the hit—just that it gets it.
   • If you quit drinking but still smoke weed, you’re still relying on artificial dopamine stimulation to regulate your emotions.
   • If you stop porn but still play video games for hours, you’re still training your brain to seek artificial pleasure instead of real-world fulfillment.
   • Every indulgence weakens you for the next battle.

3. Marijuana Makes the Whole Cycle Worse

   • Weed makes it easier to binge on everything else—it reduces impulse control, making you more likely to watch porn, scroll social media for hours, or drink.
   • It keeps you mentally foggy, so even if you quit alcohol, you’re not operating at full clarity.
   • It creates emotional dependence, so instead of dealing with discomfort, you just numb it—just like with alcohol.

What Happens When You Quit Them All?

• Your brain resets. Dopamine sensitivity starts to normalize, meaning you no longer feel like you need constant stimulation.
• You reclaim your willpower. Without cheap dopamine, your ability to resist temptation grows stronger every day.
• You regain real focus. Instead of chasing easy pleasure, you start enjoying deep work, meaningful activities, and real-life rewards.
• You don’t just quit addictions—you change how you live.

The Hard Truth:

You don’t prioritize quitting one thing first—you quit the mindset of indulgence itself. That’s the only way to truly break free.

---

When I was growing up, we weren't awash in addictive activities like this. Our world was much safer in a biochemical sense. It was easier to grow up with a healthy psyche.

What if there's nothing wrong with the kids, but instead they are growing up marinating in poisonous activities?

Maybe the good old days really were that good.

* - Read: ChatGPT. It's my AI bot of choice.

A Cat And A Mirror

Well, given how mysterious cats are, this comes as no surprise. I kind of figured that they had some magical powers. Apparently, those powers involve mirrors.

In all seriousness, that's a Gemini image with this prompt: "generate a photorealistic image of a cat sitting in front of a mirror."

Gemini does a good job with images, but I didn't think it would get the mirror image right.

Staggering Numbers

Along with BDaddy and Ohioan, I spent a few years working for the DoD. If you haven't been a DoD employee and you haven't gone through the procurement system, you need to understand how thoroughly the processes have evolved to prevent Uncle Louie from getting an undeserved contract padded with a zero or two at the end.

A $40,000 set of software licenses typically took 6-9 months to procure so you would begin the paperwork for your renewals just about the time the current set of licenses arrived. If, while the paperwork was working its way through the system, some of the forms were updated, you had to take your procurement out of the system, use the new version(s) of the form(s) and then resubmit. It was unbelievably cumbersome.

Dig this.

The Biden regime funneled nearly $20 billion dollars into newly founded environmental groups, according to the New York Post.

Kamala Harris handed over a check for nearly $7 billion to a group called Climate United Fund.

The group does not appear in the IRS’s charities database, and has no federal filings.

The non-profit fund had only been incorporated five months before the check was handed over.

The cash for the charity came from a huge $370 billion climate slush fund of taxpayer money overseen by Clinton political consultant John Podesta.

Here's the NY Post story.

The Biden administration funneled at least $20 billion dollars into environmental groups, most of which had only recently been founded, The Post has discovered.

In one case, former Vice President Kamala Harris handed over a check for nearly $7 billion to Bethesda, Maryland, based group Climate United Fund, which does not appear in the IRS’s charities database, and has no federal filings.

The non-profit fund had only been incorporated in Delaware on November 30, 2023, according to public records, five months before Harris handed over the cash in April 2024...

However, because the company is so new, there is no publicly published accounting of how it plans to spend the $7 billion.

Forget about $40K of software licenses, this is enough money to buy a complete aircraft carrier. They followed no procurement processes that I ever saw. I was on a couple of contract selection boards and they were insanely rigorous because you knew that the losing bidders were bound to sue you if they could.

Not here. This level of corruption is positively Biblical.

Billions with a "B."

The Personal Is Not The Political

 ... when it comes to Christian theology.

We recently had a Gospel reading from Matthew 5 which has this section:

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

During Mass, it was asserted that this is the only way to proper peace on Earth, to peace between nations. Like nearly all attempts to take Jesus' words and turn them political, to generalize them to groups, it makes zero sense.

If Pakistani Muslims gang rape half the girls at your local high school, do you then introduce them to the other half? Clearly, no.

Jesus is talking about individuals. If you are struck by someone, don't hate them. He's not recommending suicide, he's recommending not escalating the situation between you and someone else. He's definitely no recommending total capitulation to a national enemy.