Author: Crowhill Report

There’s a common theme in life and art of the “inner circle.” That is, among the people who seem to be in charge, there’s an inner group of the people who are really in charge. (Although sometimes the people who are really in charge are hidden in the background.) C.S. Lewis speaks of the inner circle at the university in That Hideous Strength.

To get into that group you have to show your loyalty to a particular mindset, and sometimes there’s a price for entry. Sometimes that price involves giving the group the ability to blackmail you.

You hear about that sort of thing in gangs, where you have to go commit some crime before you can enter, or get to advance to a certain level in the gang. The concept was also explicit in the NXIVM cult, where women had to give “collateral” to join a special group. The collateral was stuff they could use to bribe you with.

There are tons of examples of this sort of thing, and I’ve heard some real-life examples that are scary.

If this happens with law firms and cults and gangs and such, is it more likely or less likely that it happens with more consequential organizations — like governments, big corporations, or maybe even governments and big corporations?

I’m not sure what to make of it. You have the Harvey Weinsteins and Jeffrey Epsteins of the world, who seem to show that powerful people are complicit in very awful things. And while it would be nice to believe that there are institutions to uncover such crooked behavior (the media, law enforcement), we know that often they are complicit. (Think of the Rotherham scandal.)

What’s your opinion of these kinds of stories?

This is an encouraging story. Six schoolboys stranded on a desert island did not become horrible savages.

The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months

P&C drink and review 1634 Ale from Brewer’s Alley, a historic Maryland ale, then discuss kingship, and the divine right of kings.

The show starts with a Ben Franklin Players production about Charles II, then the boys riff off of that into issues about kings, succession, and what God has to do with it.

Pigweed reviews some of the historic issues surrounding Charles II and his succession, and how issues of competence didn’t matter as much as blood lineage and other weird things that don’t make much sense to modern people.

Pigweed and Crowhill celebrate mothers and Mother’s Day.

Mothers are nice to have around. They’re comforting and nurturing, and especially necessary for little children. From the moment a child is conceived, the child has a deep biological connection to mother. The child grows up hearing mother’s heartbeat, her voice, and literally living off her body.

As the child grows, his emotional control is regulated by the mother. He learns what to be scared of and what to trust by watching how mom reacts.

But unfortunately, motherhood has been politicized. Women are taught that being a mother is not a noble pursuit. They have to put career first, marriage and family maybe later. Children should be rushed off to daycare so women can become another cog in the industrial machine.

This morning I heard some clips of Joe Biden from two years ago. He sounded sharp and alert. I didn’t agree with what he was saying, of course, but he sounded like a man in full possession of his faculties.

We’ve all heard clips of him from the past few weeks and months. The man is deteriorating before our eyes. It’s ridiculously obvious, and it’s past time for somebody to end this.

It’s elder abuse to put this man out there as a candidate for president. He’s getting worse by the month, and if there are any debates this fall, …. Well. It will be very sad.

I don’t know if I have ever liked or agreed with Joe Biden, but it’s simply wrong to let him do this, and the party has to intervene.

There comes a time when you have to take the keys away from your father and tell him that he can’t drive anymore. It’s a hard thing to do, but it has to be done.