MUSICAL WANDERINGS: COUNTRY AND SUGAR RAY IS MY NEW FAVOURITE BAND?

Didn't like Sugar Ray when I heard them on the radio in 1997 but a few months ago I listened to "Floored" and loved it!

Ashley Cooke is a talented singer but a complete ditz.

Astounding how many country songs these days are about drinking. 

RADIO-RELATED STUFF: MORE CATCHES AND OBSERVATIONS

Last Friday I picked up WBEE Rochester with Rob and Holly and featured guest Ashley Cooke.

Earlier this week picked up 93Q Syracuse with fair signal and top forty music.

The next night I picked up Rock 95.1 Rochester with rock music and I assume voice tracked anncr. Came in like a local.

Glad to pick up Froggy 97 Watertown last night with Rowdy Yates. Early this evening when I checked it had disappeared, but was back late tonight with automated country music and commercials; also had the same strength as the station above did.

Hits FM Belleville plays an incredible variety of music now. Heard "Seasons in the Sun" tonight.

Glad CJMR Missisauga and Joy 1250 Oakville are back.

AED ISSUES STATEMENT REGARDING CANADA-US TRADE SITUATION

Schaumburg, Ill. - Brian P. McGuire, president & CEO of Associated Equipment Distributors (AED) issued the following statement regarding the trade situation between the United States and Canada: 

“AED is disappointed that the United States and Canada could not come to a trade agreement during recent negotiations. However, our resolve remains strong.” 

 

“AED has always had a stance supporting free and fair trade in North America, as the best means for achieving economic prosperity and growth in the sectors our members serve. Tariffs and retaliatory tariffs damage the economies on both sides of the border. Any measures that target equipment that builds, feeds and fuels both countries are detrimental regardless of if they're imposed by Canada or the United States. AED will continue to work with officials and political leaders on both sides of the border to encourage a return to the bargaining table.” 

1 THESSALONIANS IN A NUTSHELL (NEW TESTAMENT IN A NUTSHELL)

In this sermon, Pastor Aaron Vriesman provides an introduction to and overview of Paul's first letter to our spiritual ancestors in Thessalonica. 

OPEN MIC AT GOLD RUSH BREWERY IN MADOC THIS SATURDAY AUGUST 22

Dear Friends: 

Here's your bi-weekly reminder that there is an Open Mic at Gold Rush Brewing THIS and (almost) Every Saturday 6:00 - 9:00 pm. - Hosted by Torbic Kagmire. 

On Sept. 4/5 weekend Torbic Kagmire will be performing Friday Night. There is no Open Mic on Saturday Sept.5 at Gold Rush Brewing.  Instead:  24K Comedy: Casey Corbin Headlines  7 PM for a night of laughs you won’t want to miss! Check Gold Rush Brewing facebook for more info.

Everyone is welcome at the Open Mic at Gold Rush Brewing - come and play or just to enjoy - Cold Craft Beer and Barbee's Smoking BarBQ. 

I'm also happy to announce that Madoc's Open Mic will be beginning again at the Madoc Legion  

33 St. Lawrence St. every other Friday night beginning Sept.4 6:30-9:30 pm. - where we are in our 3rd year of providing Live Local Music in Madoc. Everyone is also welcome at the Madoc Legion. You don't have to be a member to come out to the Open Mic - or ANY event at the Legion. Robert and I look forward to seeing old and new friends as we start a new season of fun and music with Madoc's Open Mic.

See you this Saturday August 22 with Torbic Kagmire at Gold Rush Brewing!! 

Elizabeth 

FOOTAGE OF FORGOTTEN WATER PARK PERFECTLY CAPTURES UNABASHED CALIFORNIA CULTURE THAT IS LONG GONE

New York Post

 

Forgotten waterpark footage perfectly captures ‘unabashed California culture that is long gone’

By Aurielle Weiss

Published Aug. 17, 2026, 2:32 p.m. ET

 

Say hello to cowabunga culture.

 

Nearly 65 years ago, America’s first water park was created and home to over 250 acres deep in the Mojave desert. Right off I-15, its remote location proved to be a spot where kids across California drove hundreds of miles for a chance to drift down one of 10 waterslides.

 

The Lake Dolores Waterpark was recently brought back to life after an X post shared footage of the now-long gone swimming spot.

 

The poster — Brian Roemmele — dropped the video and commented, “It was another time and it was another place. Unabashed California culture that is long gone.” The video was from an old news program showing the place in all its glory.

 

The footage features tons of swimmers on zip lines, hurling themselves on the slides and lying around the lake. The video shows an interview of the then-owner walking the team around the park — which he ran with his entire family.

 

Fans from all over raced to try eight of the identical 150-foot slides from the man–made hill or conquer the two V–shaped waterslides — also about 150 feet — where thrill seekers would ride the slide standing up.

 

The waterpark was built by Bob Byers — a local in Newberry Springs and named after his wife. The man-made playground used underground springs fed by the Mojave Aquifer, pumping water to fill the lake and its attractions.

 

The park also featured a zip–cord ride, where folks hung from a hand–held device attached to a guide wire — getting flung from the cord at approximately 200 feet above the water on a 30–degree downward angle.

 

Parkgoers could lie in the lazy river, drive around in bumper boats or even catch a race around the Go-Kart track.

 

For the less adventurous, there were also diving boards and a lake to swim in and watch the daredevils.

 

Even the news anchor got in on the fun as the clip shows him trying to master the stand up slide and hanging on for dear life when using the zip line.

 

Users flocked to the post and shared in on the nostalgia from years ago.

 

“We need [to] bring back this type of California energy,” one wrote.

 

Another said, “Holy smokes I remember this place!! My teenage years were spent in Barstow.”

 

Folks who drive by the famed spot where kids once splashed and screamed will now see an abandoned site. The California park was deserted back in 2004 after three failed attempts to revive it.

 

According to Realtor.com, the sunken swimming attraction is covered in graffiti and dirt where overgrown trees rule the barren stretches of land. Folks can see a slew of barbed wire and chain link fence protecting the area as it’s in desperate need of repair.

 

The park had tons of legal and other financial troubles which ultimately led to its closing back in 1980s. Lake Dolores rebranded almost 20 years later, and reopened in 1998 under the new name “Rock-a-Hoola.”

 

Shortly after opening, an employee was paralyzed after an accident resulted in a $4.4 million judgment against the park, forcing the investors into bankruptcy, according to Jam Press. But the park was resilient, in 2002, it was again trying its luck with a new name — Discovery Waterpark.

 

The move was short-lived as it was only around for two years after closing for a third time in 2004. Reports show that slides were sold off to other major parks and the once-climbed structures were left to rubble.

 

Realtor reports revealed it was last listed in 2023, at a whopping $11 million and was later removed just almost 180 days after.

SECOND THOUGHTS FROM AN EX-FEMINIST

Second Thoughts from an Ex-Feminist F. ROGER DEVLIN • AUGUST 17, 2026 The Occidental Observer The Goddess that Failed: Feminism’s Unending War Against Men, Families, and Civilization Itself Janice Fiamengo New English Review Press, 2026 Janice Fiamengo, born 1964, is a retired professor of English at the University of Ottawa. Entering the academy as an impressionable young woman in the 1980s, her initial acceptance of feminism must have been almost a foregone conclusion: “I have felt its euphoric exultation and its self-flattering conviction of moral purity,” she admits. She studied all the standard feminist texts and for many years took the validity of their analysis for granted. But The Goddess that Failed is not her personal story. However her disillusionment came about, she began speaking out against the movement in 2012. Her work can be followed online at The Fiamengo File. The author does not blunt her message with any assumption that there must originally have been a good, moderate, or reasonable feminism that was later hijacked, betrayed, or taken to excess by wayward followers. She reminds us, for example, that the campaign for women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom over a century ago escalated from heckling politicians and smashing shop windows to arson attacks on homes and churches. Some suffragettes concocted letter bombs out of phosphorous and sulfuric acid. One threw a hatchet at Prime Minister Asquith: Through all the destruction of property, threat to livelihoods, and physical harm to innocent bystanders, the suffragettes saw themselves as sacrificial heroines. Like many terrorists, they envisioned their cause as pure enough to justify nearly any level of violence…. They were successful in their campaign at least in part because the men they castigated as villains couldn’t bear to deal firmly with their maudlin claims and dangerous acts. Fiamengo knows that a crucial element in feminism’s success has been the strong natural bias in favor of women that characterizes both sexes: a synergy between female in-group preference and the male protective instinct. There has been some objective research on this timeless phenomenon. In 1994, for example, psychologists Alice Eagly and Antonio Mladinic reported that both male and female research subjects were more likely to ascribe positive traits to women than to men, with the bias measurably stronger in women; they christened this the “women-are-wonderful” effect. Later studies found women’s in-group bias four and a half times stronger than men’s. In 2019 British psychologists Martin Seager and John Barry developed the concept of “Gamma bias” to describe “unconscious prejudice against men and boys,” as observed in the tendency of both men and women to sympathize more with women than men. Such studies are valuable, but as with much of social psychology, they merely confirm something that has always been widely known: men are expected to put the needs of women and children first. As Fiamengo points out, feminists could never have achieved the success they have if men were remotely similar to the selfish brutes they depict. Even half a century of feminist fury has been unable to do away with men’s natural bias in women’s favor. The other side of male bias in women’s favor is what the author calls “the empathy gap”—the often-shocking inability or unwillingness of many women to empathize with male suffering. She recounts that after the sinking of the Titanic, a group of women survivors organized to build a memorial to the men who had sacrificed themselves in the women’s favor: Some feminists refused gratitude, noting that men had built the ship and therefore could be expected to take their lumps when it proved faulty. Some proclaimed with fury that women suffered daily under men’s cruelty; a single day of suffering and death paled by comparison. During the First World War, thousands of British women participated in a mass-shaming ritual of their menfolk, accosting any man they found in civilian clothing to present him with a white feather as a symbol of his cowardice. They accompanied the gesture with rehearsed speeches making clear their furious contempt: “Why don’t you fellows enlist? Your King and Country want you. We don’t.” This went on for the entire duration of the war, and feathers were even given to wounded men on leave or underage boys. One sixteen-year-old was so mortified by the bullying that he lied about his age in order to enlist and was promptly killed. Fiamengo also mentions an officer awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery; that same day he changed into civilian clothes only to be given a white feather by some female passers-by: “He accepted without a word and, as a curiosity, put it with his V.C. He remarked to a friend that he was probably the only man who ever received on the same day emblems of bravery and cowardice.” The man later died at the front. Such attitudes continue to this day, as feminists brag online about “bathing in male tears” and exult over various instances of male suffering. The similarities between feminism and Marxism have long been noted: indeed, as far back as 1884, Friedrich Engels explicitly drew a parallel between wives and the oppressed proletariat. Most importantly, feminism shares the Marxist mental gestalt whereby society is envisaged in terms of conflicting innocent and guilty groups. As Fiamengo observes, this leaves feminism unable to affirm any universal principles of justice: “it is incapable of extending empathy to whose it has been taught to see as oppressors” or “of demanding accountability from those it has been taught to see as victims.” Because of this inability, “one of feminism’s biggest lies has been its declared aim to overthrow traditional Western gender arrangements in order to liberate men as well as women into an equal partnership.” This last remark is a useful reminder: in the more optimistic days of early “second wave” feminism, back in the 1970s, the movement did indeed claim to seek the liberation of men as well as women from traditional arrangements. Female careerism, e.g., would supposedly ease the burden upon husbands to be sole providers for their families. Such talk has now largely disappeared. The parallel with Marxism is instructive here as well. Officially, socialist revolution was supposed to liberate the bourgeoisie as well as the working class from the “alienation” that characterizes capitalism. The sons of capitalists would one day join hands with the sons of the proletariat in order to build the classless society of the future, and the unfortunate but necessary stage of “merciless class struggle” would barely survive as a memory. But Marxist practitioners such as Lenin quickly became too preoccupied with killing the class enemy to worry much about healing him of his capitalist alienation. A similar development can be observed in feminism as well: an involuntarily divorced husband would not make much headway in family court by appealing to the supposed feminist goal of reducing his burdens as a provider. “The last thing aimed at by feminism,” Fiamengo notes, “is the liberation of men from their traditional roles and obligations.” Feminists alternate opportunistically between their explicit egalitarian ideology and appeals to traditional notions of male duty; logical consistency is not important to them. For this reason, close analysis of feminist doctrine is perhaps of less use in making sense of the movement than a look at the psychological rewards it provides to adherents. A relevant 2020 study involving researchers from America and—perhaps not accidentally—Israel identifies what it calls “TIV,” the Tendency for Interpersonal Victimhood, as a stable personality trait involving a chronic, deep-seated feeling of being a victim across many different relationships and situations. Fiamengo summarizes: Passionate belief in one’s victimhood creates an identifiable personality type, one that ruminates on grievance and interprets all experiences through the victimhood lens. Belief in victimhood need have no correlation with actual experience of victimization. The victim personality is characterized above all by a strong need to have one’s suffering recognized. With this need comes a conviction of immaculate morality, a resulting inability to accept criticism or disagreement, and a profound lack of empathy for those perceived as enemies. The researchers also found that people with a victim personality believe themselves justified in taking revenge on those who appear to oppress them. Even when presented with facts and evidence to rebut their beliefs, they are unwilling to relinquish their worldview, which becomes intimately associated with their sense of self. Anger at others and the belief in innocent victimhood create a toxic stew of self-righteousness and moral blindness. Fiamengo notes that many young women experience something like a religious conversion upon “finding” feminism: “adherents feel washed clean, reborn, filled with purpose and zeal…. All of life’s dissatisfactions make sense and can be blamed on the oppressive system. Nothing is one’s own fault.” Obviously, not all women are feminists. American conservatives have long taken comfort from the well-attested finding that a majority of women express reservations about the label. But all radical movements involve a small, hard core and a far larger and fuzzier periphery, and feminism’s periphery now extends deeply into Western society. Fiamengo writes that, while she tries to maintain the distinction between women and feminists, this can sometimes be difficult. A 2020 Pew poll found that only 19% of American women say the term feminist describes them “very well,” but another 42% say it describes them “somewhat well.” So that makes 61% unwilling to distance themselves from feminism unambiguously. A closer examination of the other 39% would probably reveal plenty of feminist influence as well. As the author notes, most women now take for granted that they belong to a “historically oppressed group,” and accept as a matter of course that special legal protections and government programs should promote their advancement and well-being. People cannot be marinated in an ideology their entire lives without coming to believe that at least some of its claims must be true. Fiamengo also mentions the phenomenon of “confirmation bias:” applying a feminist lens when viewing the world helps one see evidence supporting it while screening out contradictory information. The author is under no illusions that feminism can be reformed: Even today, half a century after the implementation of equity hiring programs as well as ceaseless female empowerment campaigns in schools and universities, many women are still angry and many men still trying to make amends. It must be stopped. We will never reach a point where feminists decide to call off the gender war, accepting that men have done enough for them. There will never come a point where the suffering of boys and men matters more to feminists than their own power. 

Women can destroy any society to which they belong simply by refusing to be wives and mothers. Feminism brings such a refusal about by directly undermining women’s ability to love. No less than other hostile forces discussed on this website, it is a deadly threat to European Civilization.