Donald Michael Kraig's Great Work

"Modern Magic" was Kraig's Great Work, just splendid in every way, and so far above texts that came before. I have found it of immense practical value. Every chapter is an eye-opener, packed full of exciting information and ideas. Every writer seems to have one great work, and that was his. I don't know of anything that even comes close.

Lowly

Seems one cannot escape the influence of Lackluster Lowly (my nickname for A. Crowley). That he was gay doesn't cut mustard with me. You know, just because someone belongs to the same tribe, does not mean they escape criticism. I prefer a straight guy any day of the week if he comports himself well with dignity and ethics, as opposed to a gay that does the opposite. Lackluster Lowly did some bad things that we know about, and probably a lot of worse things we don't know about and would rather not know about. Frankly, I'd prefer he were straight, so as not to besmirch the noble gay tribe. Fortunately, straight know-nothing homophobes like Donald Tyson are under the misapprehension that Lackluster Lowly was straight. Good. Keep on thinking that.

Well, turns out, Lackluster Lowly made important contributions, or at least they are widely accepted and taught by the big-time magicians that have written the best books for the reading masses. Whether you pick up with Donald Michael Kraig, Donald Tyson or anybody else, you're likely going to see them quoting Lowly not once, but a dozen times. I just deal. I will even learn and practice his stuff. Why? Because it has been adopted and accepted, that's why, and I don't see anything better available at the present time. It is passable and purported to actually work. So, the options before me are either forge my own way or adopt what the teachers have to offer. I figure, go with the teachers, at least when starting out, because it is just possible they know what works.

Iran

Iran is a country that could have been. Could have been awesome, with oil galore and a hungry people ready to embrace modernity. Except for the crazy buffoon Islamist reactionaries. Constant bickering and trouble with the U.S. seems to be the overriding goal of Iran from the 1970s to the present day, and Iran has nothing to show for its policy.

Due to Iran, there has to be war all around Israel all the time. The Palestinians have to be terrorists, killing random kids and women. For as long as the Palestinians embrace random killings, they do not deserve any concessions. The idea that somehow Israel is to blame for all of the trouble is pretty cute, when all the Israeli man on the street wants is peace and security. The reason for the so-called "repression" of the Palestinians is pure, raw fear of terrorism. There are many Westerners that put an eye mask on. They pretend not to see terrorism. They pretend it doesn't happen. Or, worse, they imagine killing is justified, because of X, Y, or Z. That is pretty unacceptable to those on the receiving end of terrorism. And in the end, you shack up with terrorists, and sooner or later the terrorists will turn on you, as the Europeans are discovering. The one thing a terrorist doesn't like is peace and calm.

If the terrorists win, guess what, welcome to a terrorist nation, where beheadings and torture and extremism become the norm. Iran and Syria are cases in point, where the world gets a glimpse of exactly where the Palestinians would go, if given half the chance. They would, of course, follow the model of their chief sponsors, Iran and Syria. They would not necessarily have a choice, because Iran is the main player over in their world. Torture, extremism, mass executions, repression. That is what a lot of Europeans want for themselves, which is why they invite in millions of Islamists as "refugees". It is a curious part of human nature that, given a reasonably good society, people want to introduce and embrace violence and atrocity, because at some level, they have an irrational need for suffering.

If anyone is wondering why Britain is having to deal with Brexit, the reason is simple, that the masses of the British people do not really want to embrace bombs blowing up in public and people getting beheaded on the street. The politicians show the world how "nice" Britain is to the poor, poor, suffering masses of the Middle East, who express their gratitude by opening the arteries of the random British subject. Well, now there's Brexit to deal with, due to the blind stupidity of the liberal politicians that wanted to butcher their own people in order to signal virtue on some level to other politicians in their immediate circle. Poor policies of the past are coming home to roost, and the economy suffers as a result.

I think Britain should turn to the Americas, Canada, the U.S., and all the other countries in the New World, and strike trade deals with its natural allies, rather than dicker around with the E.U. Let Europe turn eastward, as it seems to want to do anyway. In time, Europe will become like Turkey.

The U.S. should bring all of its troops home and let Germany pick up the tab for defense of Europe. Maybe Germany can reinstate the draft. The social programs, retirement and medical, can be abandoned to pay for the defense of Europe. The time when the American taxpayer paid for everything, well, that time is about up. Time to bring our troops back home and let Europe pick up the tab, for once. Seventy years is long enough, time to pick up the check, you moochers. Europe wants to slap the U.S. with tariffs, well, that is biting the hand the feeds it. Europe should enact negative tariffs on American products, that is, pay our businesses to import their products into Europe. Either that, or learn Russian.

Harvest in the Prisons

What we need is a good harvest-time in the prisons. Anyone who has killed should be killed, same day, same hour. Just get it done. Prior to execution, the maximum possible amount of blood should be extracted in order to help those in trauma. Following the execution, organs should be harvested to help those in need. Execution should be by hanging. Worked before, works now, and it is a symptom of chronic stupidity that the State dithers around with questionable chemicals from unreliable sources. A rope is all that is needed.

If this practice were followed, not only would the taxpayers receive mercy, but these killers would not have the opportunity to kill again. It is really atrocious when killers get paroled and kill again, or kill prison guards or even other inmates. Violence within prison is a huge problem. The idea that it is somehow better for the State to keep a killer in a cell for fifty years is just nonsense. Eventually, the killer is going to figure out a way to get back at either the guard or another inmate. And if parole ever happens, watch out.

The main reason that some people, often termed bleeding hearts, oppose the death penalty, is that on an unconscious level, they want to die themselves. They want their loved ones to die as well. They welcome death into their lives. Thanatos is the irrational impulse that moves people to want to embrace danger and death. They see in killers, not something to be avoided, but opportunity to rejoin the Void, to become annihilated. But Thanatos should not write public policy.

Mexico Should be Our China

I always felt like China was a stupid idea from the get-go. If there really are segments of the production chain that just have to be handled by very low-wage workers, then Mexico fits the bill, and cuts transportation costs by more than half. The whole problem has always been the drug war and the enormous amount of crime and corruption in Mexico. Cleaning up Mexico was never a priority for Washington, D.C. We figured, it's their problem, neglecting the fact that many of our U.S. citizens have fallen in thrall to meth, heroin or cocaine, supplied by criminals south of the Border. Both sides lose, not just Mexico, when crime lords rake in billions at the expense of human suffering through addiction. More than likely, the U.S. loses more than Mexico. Meanwhile, China gets richer, while Mexico languishes and sends its workers North to find jobs. And China has made it abundantly clear that they hate the West, want to take over Taiwan, and are interested in taking over all of Asia, actually. I imagine Alaska and Hawaii too, one day.

Why didn't Mexico become our China? The main problem with Mexican society has always been crime and corruption, fueled in large part by the long-term, continuing criminal class of the drug gangs.

As for the big drug war, I would suggest legalizing pot in all fifty states. Just blanket legalization, stop the gears spinning altogether, just drop it. The people know marijuana is not so terribly horrible, and it is preferable to alcohol by about ten to one, any day of the week. Anyone who thinks pot is worse than alcohol, they do not understand the first thing about medical science.

One thing is for sure, the people can really get behind a war on drugs that targets real, hard, horrible, addictive drugs. There won't be any sympathizers of high ethics for things like meth. Everyone knows meth = death. The only good meth dealer is a dead one. That was the best part of the show, "Breaking Bad," that all the meth dealers eventually got theirs.

Probably, hallucinogens should also be legalized. Anything like LSD, peyote, or mushrooms. These things are not subject to addiction either and most people have no interest, or very limited interest, in them. They are not party drugs.

So with a much narrower scope on the drug war, the people really can get behind a much more aggressive drug war that really pulls out all the stops. What is left on the other side are just hardened criminals, instead of foolish potheads. The drug war can be recast in patriotic terms, and young people recruited as front line soldiers and informants. If the drug war really targets truly harmful substances that without any doubt ruin people's lives, there is no longer any moral ambiguity, no room for reasonable people to disagree. Meth, heroin, fetanyl, cocaine, things like that. Now, some libertarians may balk at cocaine. They point to use of the coca leaf. Well, the coca leaf is O.K., it is a mild stimulant, unlikely or impossible to lead to overdose. Cocaine is a man-made concentrate of the active principle in the coca leaf. That is the problem with cocaine, that it can become extremely addictive.

Stupid Gadgets

Too bad, all these stupid gadgets people waste their money on will soon cost more due to tariffs on their foolishness. It is about time something was done to counter-balance this huge tax break that businesses got away with. Americans waste entirely too much money on frivolous junk from China, and meanwhile, the Chinese are building roads and factories that can easily be converted to military material. Either get used to tariffs, or get used to the idea of your future generations being slaves in Chinese labor camps and you being dead. That is pretty much the stark choice before the U.S. today, and it is pretty sad that it took a fool like Trump to see what was so blindingly obvious for the past twenty years. The Democrats, in particular, have no excuse, because they were supposed to be the party of labor.