Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro and Thaddeus Russell take a look at Zionism and its relationship to Judaism in a conversation that flies in the face of US corporate and political propaganda.
Is Zionism Antisemitic?
Can’t Be Canceled
Tucker Carlson interviewed Alex Jones this week.
Jones has been blocked from every social media platform and refuses to go away.
Listen to the interview and find out why the corporate media has conspired to silence him.
“I Hope You Win”
I took this message from Tucker Carlson personally. I’m not through his conversation with Theo Von, but I was inspired by this positivity to return to blogging.
I listen to a lot of podcasts and I’m trying to read more. I’m going to work to share the resources I value. The effort to silence dissident voices (even those as vanilla as Carlson) is a threat to individual thought and I hope to combat it with some “radical” conversations.
Fun-A-Day 2023
Catching up on all our builds!
This year, my sons and I committed to creating a Lego One Piece build every day for the month of October.
This was our most collaborative year participating in Delaware Fun-A-Day.
My eldest son (Westen, 14) and I don’t know much about my younger son’s (Isaac, 12) favorite manga. Isaac was our guide in choosing subjects, finding referencing pictures, and providing narrative context. It was encouraging to see him take on the role of project manager while also putting together a couple of our most impressive Lego scultpures.
His first build was The Red Force, captained by Shanks, mentor of the main protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy.
Westen’s specialty is minifigures and scenes. One Piece has many wild ships and islands, but the characters bring the world to life.
I thought a “raft” would be a simple build, but Blackbeard’s Raft grew into one the month’s largest.
Capone Bege captains Nostra Castello, an amphibious castle.
The Big Top was a fun challenge from the color scheme to the main tent and clownish insignia.
Westen completed the build with an almost-to-scale Captain Buggy.
Westen’s imagination shined on his dynamic depiction of a One Piece game feature.
Isaac’s re-creation of Torino Kingdom is one of my favorites. His waterfall effect is exceptional.
The following builds were from my own imagination. When I was stuck on a One Piece build, I would clear my head with another nautical build.
The orange hydrofoil came out of a challenge to use Lego separators and a single color. I had to bend the rule for a couple bushings.
These two grumpuses are not going to be happy at the Delaware Fun-A-Day Opening!
The Canary Camel was also born out of a challenge to only use the classic Lego yellow.
I made this island oasis when I was intimidated by the more complicated One Piece designs.
Shoutout
Here’s a shoutout to all the folks who leave laughing reactions and no comment.
This is the mockery we are modeled in a school environment where any ideas outside of allowable opinion cannot be engaged. If school hasn’t taught you how to compassionately listen to, and engage with, ideas you disagree with, it has failed you.
Blackbeard’s Raft
I don’t know a thing about Blackbeard, but my son said he had a raft and I thought that might be a simpler build.
The flag, angular sail, and rigging were all significant challenges.
I’m very happy with the result, but I have got to build smaller. We have a limited amount of space at Delaware Fun-A-Day.
Hitsugibune
Dracule Mihawk carries an absurdly large sword and captains one of the smallest ships found in the world of Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece.
The Hitsugibune is coffin shaped and adorned with green-flamed candles. This was the last detail I added and was an extra joy as we own just two green flame elements. I’ve never seen much use for them, but they are perfect in this build.
The mast is a scaled-up version of the hilt of Mihawk’s sword. That sword may also appear in our Delaware Fun-A-Day exhibit.
Arlong Park
This is getting more fun.
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This is Arlong Park, an amusement park commandeered by Arlong, a pirate fish-man.
One of our Lego Unschool Club visitors helped me find the right shark head for the peak of the pagoda. There should be shark heads on the ground level guard houses, but I scaled them down to grey pyramids, each with a single, sharp tooth.
The Red Force
The Red Force is the ship headed by Shanks, Luffy D. Monkey’s pirate mentor.
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Isaac modified a boat hull design he found online to create his version of The Red Force.
He drew on a couple tiles to create some of Shanks’ flag, but I love how he used the red tiles to recreate the red stripe.
The figurehead gave him some difficulty, but we were able to solve the issues together and build a pretty cool dragon.
Unschool Opportunities
God has given me a difficult gift.
He has seen fit to place me in the company of widows.
I try to be an honest comfort. This isn’t a fun ride and telling someone, “It’s all gonna be okay,” won’t cut it for long.
God also gave me an allergy to bullshit.
I usually offer a listening ear and my limited experience. Sometimes I can help in more material ways.
Today I was able to “volunteer” my sons to help on a farm owned by a recent widow. We are exceedingly busy, but without five days a week consumed by school, we are able to open days to service oppotunities like this.
As a bonus, they’ll get to bring home a little goat’s milk.
