I just got a letter from my mom’s health insurance company. They started by saying that they were sorry about her death, and then noted that the most recent insurance premium’s automatic payment was denied because the account was closed. If I correctly read the letter, if the payment is not made her health insurance will be cancelled. And I’m sitting there thinking… she’s dead… I think she’s a bit beyond needing health insurance now…
Jesse did not handle losing his wingman at Epsilon Reticuli well. He was devastated in fact, and I think he was close to giving up. Maybe he had. It can be hard to tell with him at times. He’s good at hiding his cards. He needed a good mission to perform to keep him going, and he needed a good partner to help him. That is why I transferred Dawn DeMarco to back him up. I knew if anyone could bring him out of his funk it would be her, and I authorized her to use extreme measures to do so. She smiled at me, and started to do exactly that. She even dragged me, and the redoubtable Captain Wyatt, to some of the first formal balls and more informal parties following the Battle of Serenity. Serenity needed to celebrate as much as the rest of us did, and the parties especially were good for public moral. But I’m not really a big party lover, so I was happy when it came time for Wyatt to return home. It gave me the perfect excuse to get away from those dang parties.
It is interesting to see how the Blaine Lee Pardoe news this weekend has brought certain matters into focus. We know that certain movements have made it a policy to dox Conservatives, to harass their workplaces, harass their family and friends, and to generally seek to get them fired, social media accounts locked, and otherwise be removed from society as we know it. Some companies bow to these demands. Some do not. I have been slowly shifting my spending and time towards the companies who do not. I can’t trust the companies that bow to those demands to not bow again in the future when the mob comes for someone else. Because there will always be someone else. And often there were other people before that just didn’t hit the news. I think it is terminally stupid for us to give money to people we know will betray us when the mob demands it. That is why I am taking a careful look at those I give my money to. Because money matters. What we do with it matters.
The news has been going all over the internet this weekend. Blaine Lee Pardoe no longer writes stories for BattleTech. Some people say he is a bad man who deserves to be fired. Other people say he was cancelled by the woke mob for being a conservative. I know everybody involved. I have met them all in person and talked to them. I have looked them in the eyes. I actually like most of them. I would not say I know any of them good enough to call friends, but they are definitely acquaintances of the working variety. I have seen them work over the years and recognize their patterns. That makes me absolutely biased of course. If you are looking for an unbiased opinion, look elsewhere. My opinion is that Blaine Lee Pardoe is substantially accurate in his description of the events and reasons. And that opinion will affect my financial transactions in the future.
Dawn DeMarco flew under Ken Banno’s wing back during the War’s early years, but she quickly became the heart and soul of the gang of misfit Cowboys that enjoyed the party scene. They glomped onto her like birds of a feather and spent years going to rich and fabulous parties throughout Alpha Centauri, Earth, and the other core worlds. They worked with various and sundry Western Alliance intelligence agencies to stop war profiteering, and those agencies helped keep their involvement under cover so they could continue their good work. And of course Ken joined her for most of them. He was famous in his own right, and could fit into those parties just as well as she. I pulled them out of all that when it came time to send Third Fleet to strike back at the Russians. That was for the Epsilon Reticuli campaign. Yeah. Epsilon Reticuli.
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