Things I Don't Understand

 I'd like to consider myself a reasonably aware and somewhat intelligent person.  Even so, there are some things I just don't understand.

For example, when a Christian marries a Jew and converts to Judaism, how is it that a Christian who, for most of his or her life, has believed the Jesus is the Son of God, now demotes him to a mere prophet?  I can understand how a Jew converting to Christianity now believes the Jesus is God, but a Christian relegating Jesus to a mere prophet confuses me.

When I worked on street crews for our village during summers to earn money for college, we sometimes worked with concrete trucks that brought concrete to the sites.  The truck would have a chute in the back that the revolving drum would then use to deliver the concrete.  After I'd graduated law school, I saw that the chute now delivered from the front of the trucks.  Why?  How is that better?

Volleyball when I played it in gym class had a rotation system.  It also had a scoring system that only allowed the team serving could score a point.  Now it has a libero and points are scored regardless of which team is serving.  When did this change?

I love music.  I will never understand how songwriters come up with the beautiful melodies they do.  James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer and others like them just mystify me.  What a wonderful gift they've been given.  

(c) 2026 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

 

65

 Over the weekend I turned sixty-five.  I never pondered the age, but here we are.  I am officially eligible for social security and retirement, although I probably could have retired three years ago.  Funny thing is, I don't feel old at all.  I am the living embodiment of the adage that one can only be young once, but one can always be immature.  I am an eternal twelve-year-old.

But I got to thinking:  Even though the Greatest Generation gets the laurels -- rightly so -- in my humble existence I've seen a few things.  Here's a list of the things I've seen during my six decades on earth:

--  The Kennedy assassination (technically I was too young, but I was alive)

-- The Vietnam War

-- The MLK assassination

-- The RFK assassination

-- Man walking on the moon

-- The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

-- Two Arab invasions of Israel

-- The Munich Olympic massacre

-- Test tube babies

-- Personal computers

-- Cellphones

-- The Gulf War

-- 9/11

-- First female presidential candidates

-- Death of Elvis

-- Compact discs

-- 8 tracks, cassettes, Blu rays, streaming 

-- Cubs won a World Series

--  Non-politician POTUS

-- First female, African American and Latino SCOTUS justices

-- Creation of the European Union

-- Downfall of the Soviet Union

The list is not exhaustive, obviously.  But in my short time on earth, I've seen some things.

What makes this list even more poignant is that today I found out today that a fifty-eight-year-old colleague died.

QDEP Brian...

(c) 2026 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles 

The Muslim Menace

 Another day, another atrocity committed by Muslims.  This time, a shooting on Bondi Beach killing innocent Jews.  When will it stop?

The answer is never.  Despite what its adherents claim, Islam is not a religion of peace.  It is a religion of conquest.  I don't know whether it's the religion itself, or the twisted application that Muslims put to it, but no matter how peaceful some Muslims may be, a very troubling minority sees no problem with killing those of us it views as kafirs, or infidels, as part of their religious obligation.

The problem for us in the United States is that we can't limit immigration from Muslim countries because it would clearly be discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional.  The other side of that coin is that Muslims antagonistic to this country are using those laws to infiltrate our country to destroy us from within.  They don't even try to hide it.  Just look at what's happening in Dearborn, Michigan.  It's already happened in the UK.

Personally, I'm intrigued by the Arab world and Arabic as a language.  Were this not so dangerous I would study Arabic and its culture.  But now, it's a question of whether it would be worth it.  In order to learn a language, one needs to immerse himself in it.  There is no way I could do that now.  

What's really hard to swallow are the useful idiots who politic on behalf of Muslims and Islam.  Any criticism of either immediately brings charges of Islamophobia.  I think that's mistaken.  It's gone way beyond fear to hatred for many people.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Pendulum Swings

Right now, I'm mostly satisfied about the direction of the country.  President Trump has kept many if not all of his promises.  But it's not the political shift that I like the most.

Culturally, we're getting away from Wokeness, a scourge on this country unlike any other we've ever faced.  Trans people mass illegal immigration being accepted, criminal acts excused by sociology and the suppression of free speech are things that should never have existed.  The acceptance of these things, even to society's detriment, was unthinkable when I was growing up, but the Left, operating on what Karen calls the "feels," has perverted society almost to the point that this country was unrecognizable.

So while I support the return to more normal values, I do worry.

Much of the angst from the Left uses certain words:  Fascism, oligarchy, patriarchy, Nazi.  These terms are wildly misused, often to the point of being projection, but the drumbeat from the Left almost never excludes the terms or uses them correctly.

Still, I worry.  

The charge of fascism from the Left is wrong, as is the term Nazi.  But for anyone who has an iota of understanding of history, it's not impossible to see a future where the current trend in our society devolves into either.  Sure, the situation in 1933 Germany isn't exactly the same as what we have here.  The Versailles Treaty had brought Germany to its knees.  We aren't in the same situation by any means.

But if the young turks on the Right insist on expanding their power, it could happen that fascism could breed Nazis.  I could see it happening, unfortunately, although I don't think I'd see it in my lifetime.  And if it did happen, it would be every bit as bad, if not worse, as Antifa is now.

President Trump is more of a populist than he is a Republican.  I'm not sure where JD Vance is on the spectrum.  But President Trump is only in office for three more years.  Right now, no one seems interested in expanding MAGA beyond what it is.

But if history teaches us anything, the more we ignore history the likelier we are to repeat it.

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

The Left's Desperation

 After two indictments, the Russia Hoax, the endless lies and two assassination attempts, the Left is unbowed.  It constantly invents new attacks on the President -- and half the country -- which only underscores the charge that it is not concerned about the country or its citizens, but about gaining and holding onto power.

Desperate to find its version of Joe Rogan, it's hitching its wagon to some shill named Jennifer Welch.  An uglier human would be hard to find.  Think of her as the female James Carville, only without functioning grey matter.  Engaging in unnecessary profanity as if to show how earnestly she believes in her cause, she makes unfounded declarations that are as provocative as they are libelous.  One of these days she's going to be taken to court and, even if she prevails because of bad SCOTUS precedent, she'll lose whatever credibility to which she lays claim.

There seems to be an adjustment of sorts happening at CNN, where the hosts push back against the more scurrilous comments from guests.  MSNOW, formerly MSNBC, holds course in its self-destructive past.

Meanwhile, on a state and local level, insanity prevails.  The governors of New York, Illinois and California continue to sound the alarm against non-existent fascism and oligarchy.  Mayors of larger cities, like whatever that is in Chicago, have lost their ever-loving minds.  The new communist mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, makes illogical pronouncements, putting at risk much-needed federal funding.  Even those who aren't even in office yet, with an opportunity to modify their political zeal, proceed unafraid of the consequences.  The governors-elect of New Jersey and Virginia crusade against Orange Man Bad, trying to bolster their liberal bona fides.

Of all the liberals, the man once thought to be out of his mind, Senator John Fetterman, seems to have retained a grasp on reality.  Hardly a convert to conservatism, he speaks with a more rational and measured tone than most of his liberal cohorts.  Sadly, he has few colleagues willing to join him.  

Civil war looms.  Whether it actually breaks out is anyone's guess.  

(c) 2025 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Favorites

 Here is a list of my favorite things.  It's more of a repository for me than anything:

Favorite movie:  The Quiet Man

Favorite food:  Pizza

Favorite fruit:  Blueberries

Favorite ice cream flavor:  Chocolate chip

Favorite book:  The Count of Monte Cristo

Favorite foreign country:  Spain

Favorite vacation:  2019, the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian Rockies

Favorite boardgame:  Chess

Favorite drink:  Iced tea

Favorite beer:  Guinness

Favorite bird:  Loon

Favorite color:  Green

Favorite fashion:  Art deco

Favorite architect:  Frank Lloyd Wright

Favorite musical instrument:  Drums

Favorite phenomenon:  the Northern Lights

Favorite sport:  Baseball

(c) 2025  The Truxton Spangler Chronicles

Free Speech and the Left...Again

 College campuses used to be centers of learning, where students were challenged to reason and analyze together with learn.  Nowadays, they're nothing more than expensive indoctrination centers where jaded professors inculcate them with nothing more than the ability to regurgitate anti-conservative tropes that are inherently flawed.

After Charlie Kirk's assassination Turning Point USA ("TPUSA") chapters have sprung up around the country, much to the consternation of the indoctrination centers.  Conservative students put up folding tables inviting people to join the organization.  These tables have brought in plenty of new recruits, but they also serve as a magnet for the opposition's ire.  At Illinois State, Oklahoma and other campuses, self-appointed defenders of the One True Faith approached these tables and upended them, claiming that it was their exercise of free speech under the First Amendment.  What these civics-challenged idiots don't understand is that although it is, in fact, an expression of their right to free speech, it is also a crime in many of these states.  No one suggests that they can't oppose TPUSA; quite the opposite.  It's the manner in which they express their opposition.  It's akin to murdering someone then claiming it was simply the exercise of their right to speak freely that the murdered the person to show how much they disliked him.

________________________________________

Although this may not encompass the Left, Moslem immigrants in this country are also embracing a warped interpretation of the First Amendment.  At a town hall meeting in Dearborn, Michigan, a fellow citizen spoke out against the call to prayer that is now being broadcast throughout the town.  He was told in no certain words by the City Council that there was no place for him in Dearborn and cut off from speaking further.

Moslems are enjoying the benefits of the First Amendment to tell the rest of us how they are going to take over the country, that Sharia law trumps the Constitution and how our way of life -- the one in which they inserted themselves when they moved here -- is wrong.  Again, they have a right to not only their opinion but also to express it, no matter how incongruous or vile it may be.  But native Americans should not only take heed of these incidents but also watch out.  I fear that Dearborn is tinderbox of insurrection.  Just last week the FBI arrested five people -- Moslems -- in connection with a planned massacre.  I pray that I'm wrong but don't think that I am.

I may be gone before anything happens regarding an insurrection, but the Useful Idiots on college campuses are paving the way for the Moslems to engage in their initiative.  Proof of that is abundantly available in the UK.

(c) 2025  The Truxton Spangler Chronicles