When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a duckstack
There are a lot of tools used in construction. Measuring tape. The leveling square. Ducks. As any construction worker will tell you, selecting the right tool for the job is essential. Every rookie construction worker has had the experience of trying to pound a nail in with a screwdriver, only to be informed by their seniors that there is a better way. You and I are kind of like that rookie. Simpleminded. Lost. But if you learn well, miracles happen. A bunch of metal, boards, and ducks becomes a beautiful building1. That people can live in and perform all sorts of activities. Sometimes, even further construction projects. This is called by construction workers “recursion”. This is called by me a duckstack.
Blood Atonement
Preaching of pipe-dream peace
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, we have seen a deluge of Democrats rushing to tweet that they “denounce violence”. Its the most generic and tepid stance ever, but if you can seize the opportunity to do a little virtue signaling in the wake of your political opponents getting assassinated, why wouldn’t you?
Of course, unlike Republicans who can protest all day that they aren’t racists, or sexists, or fascists, and still get fired from their jobs for these things, Democrats can just say they aren’t something and immediately wash their hands of it, no matter how involved they were otherwise. That’s power you can’t buy. That’s the power of giving people what they want (political violence)
If the words you write on forums such as The Duckstack are “literally killing trans kids”, then violence is the justified, merited, and natural response. If someone is “literally” killing you or “literally” hitler2, then “literal” violence is justified. That’s the point of saying they’re nazis. Its to exaggerate the scale of the problem so that more drastic solutions look more justified. This is how propaganda works. It is what news media is. The one problem: They aren’t literally nazis, they aren’t literally killing people, and violence is literally not justified. But Democrats have been calling for escalation for two decades now. “I didn’t think someone would take my words this far” would be honest, but if they were honest, they wouldn’t be politicians.
You can’t get mad at a leftist shooting you any more than you can get mad at a snake biting you. They slither and they bite, that’s what they do. Hopefully they can grow up someday and hopefully we can snake-proof the garden or get shoes for everyone in America or something to increase our safety. I generally believe Democrats either literally do not know better or literally have sold their souls to the devil so its all a moot point for me.
What isn’t a moot point is what must be done in response to the shooting, and on this there are two camps: “We have to protect ourselves”, and “protecting ourselves isn’t Christian.” By this they mean: “protecting ourselves isn’t wholesome.” Its a resurfacing of the despicable centrist impulse, the prude right, which I have written about before. For example, after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, the pope immediately tweeted about how we are all brothers and sisters and need “reconciliation”.
Because, after one of your political and religious allies gets violently murdered, why wouldn’t you take the opportunity to virtue signal?
Reconciliation and brotherhood are in fact good things. Just one small problem. The left is literally killing us.
This isn’t a case of a feral or schizophrenic person having a violent outbreak- this person had very normal leftist views, and Charlie Kirk had very normal rightist views, and nobody can, nor should, have any confidence that this was or will be an isolated event. More assassinations should be understood to be on the horizon, and this should have been understood when Donald Trump was nearly assassinated on three separate occasions in 2024 if not earlier3.
I don’t mean to construe that the majority of Democrats are assassins, I mean to construe that following Charlie Kirk’s death they are not remorseful. Many, many of them are cheering. While most of them will not commit political violence, most of them will happily egg them on, and when speaker Mike Johnson asked for a moment of prayer in congress over the assassination, the democrats in congress objected and I suspect, booed and laughed at him.
It is important, and good, to seek peace. But not without a plan. Advocating peace without any plan for it is just wishcasting. It isn’t brave. It absolutely isn’t moral. It certainly isn’t honorable. It isn’t temperant. You aren’t doing the hard thing and taking the high road.
The Christian term for this behavior is “sloth.” Brigham Young taught most strongly that God does not honor people who will not raise a finger for what they believe in. He sees through you.
Letting criminals go unpunished is equivalent to a punishment upon the innocent. Many Christians come to believe in one way or another that mercy should rob justice, that this is the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice. That the duty of a Christian is to be inoffensive, and passivity is the greatest virtue. You can see why they would believe this, but you can also see, very clearly, why it is wrong.
Getting stabbed for your beliefs can be a virtuous act. Charlie Kirk is a true martyr, and will inherit a martyr’s reward in heaven. Volunteering other people to get stabbed, for your beliefs, is not a virtuous act. Telling people to pretend they aren’t under fire, in many cases literally4, is abject dishonesty. In the best case it is thievery, an attempt to graft honor from the life accounts of people when you yourself pay little. In the worst case it is malicious, and we must recognize it as such. In this political climate, it is very well possible that lives depend on it. No man is called to be suicidally merciful. No man is called to be a libertarian.
Sponsored Message: The Hate Haters
Who you gonna call
(man walking around in circles): “Man, this guy hates me. I turn away from him, but always end up facing him again. So I turn away again, but I keep ending up where I started!”
(man who hates circle walkers): “look at this douche bag I hate him”
(Man jumps from behind curtain): “Problem? We can help!” (man begins hating on the circle walker hater)
(Man who hates circle walkers): “This guy is hating on me! I need to turn away, but I keep running back into him, causing me to turn again!”
(Man who jumped from the curtain): “We can solve all sorts of hate problems. This gentleman could hate circle walkers, but now, he can only hate himself.
(Man who hates circle walkers who is walking in a circle): “To avoid hypocrisy, I must give up my hatred for circle walkers, for I have become one. My experience has given me a new perspective. I will dedicate my life to finding new and creative ways to walk in circles.”
The two circle walkers shake hands while walking in circles.
End
The Table Saw
Nothing gets past this guy
Continuing our construction education, have you ever considered “what the table saw”? You’ve heard it many times. “the table saw”. What did it see? Horrors. That’s why you have peace. It took the horrors from you. It saw. It caught them in its spiraling depths, a dream catcher for wood and death. It also might catch your fingers. Be careful!
History
What are my kids up to this week? Hopefully not table saws.
We’ve got this pair of giant pikachu slippers and the baby found one and ran up to us and showed us it and said: “Woof”
Toddler, unprompted: “I got married three years ago”
Grandpa had a talk with toddler about death and now everywhere we go the first thing my kid says to people is ”my brother died”. Thankfully, this is not awkward I hope.
We attended a wedding this week! For a dear relative, and it was a great time. The baby even won the bouquet toss with my help. All the single girls gathered together and I lifted the baby high up in the back, as a joke, and the bride threw the flowers across the entire venue and they landed right next to me so I slammed that baby down on the flowers so fast and she got them.
The toddler randomly ran and climbed into the groom’s dad’s lap. Thankfully the groom’s dad was pretty chill.
The toddler told me “I want to cuddle on the couch.” And I was busy so I told him “no.” and he thought about it and said, “but you’re not a mean parent!” strong argument
The toddler has been doing a lot of preschool learning activities lately, and he told us “P is for Poop!” hes learning his letters so well
Imagine if you will a comedy where my wife is cooking and gets out all of the spices while her husband is cleaning, and her husband sees a bunch of spices lying around so he thoughtfully cleans them up just before she uses them, leaving the wife confused and baffled because they were RIGHT THERE
The toddler has written a song. Here it is: “I know better than that. I know better than to make messes and to poop in my underwear and pee in my underwear. I know better than that.” He was found singing this to himself on the toilet. We’ll get it on the local radio station soon I expect
Duckstack Cooking: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
An old classic and a family staple
Kids love this one. You will need:
Grill
Spatula
Duck
Hammer
Measuring Tape
Peanut Butter
Bread
Duck (spare)
Hammer (spare)
Butter Knife
Butter (or Margarin, salted or unsalted)
100% GMO free Nutrition Essentials™ Protein Powder for Parents and Children
Leveling Square
Get out your grill and put the bread on it. Using your duck, spread peanut butter on it, and then using a butter knife, spread jam on the other slice. Cover the grill with butter and nutrition essentials, to prevent sticking. Using the spatula as a buffer to spread the impact, hammer down the two slices until bonded, and verify the sandwich is 1/2” tall using the measuring tape. Keep applying the hammer to get it right. If your hammer slips out of your hands and goes flying, grab the spare, and if they don’t bond properly reapply the jam and peanut butter with the spare duck and the used butter knife. Use the leveling square to make sure the sandwich is at a right angle from the grill. DO NOT TURN THE GRILL ON. Place the sandwich on a plate (not included) and serve. Enjoy!
Ducksnax
Moby
or a vaguely unobjectionable building, if you’re a business modernist
or “literally” orange
Watching the Kyle Rittenhouse response, for example.
This is also a pun because 15 of my friends got fired from their jobs over their support of the family proclamation in 2021.
Democrat party platform as I see it: Join us in hating those terrible hateful, racist, fascist, Nazi Republicans because people who hate are the worst people on the planet. They are truly the scum of the earth. It is okay to hate haters. In fact, it is expected that you hate haters because they are so incredibly evil. People who hate are just terrible/awful human beings. So join us in hating those racist, fascist, Nazi haters because people who hate are such evil human beings.
The shooter texted his boyfriend and told him he was killing Charlie Kirk because Charlie was a hater, spreading hate. How does the incredible hypocricy never slap them in the back of the head?