If you’re not already aware of it, I think you’d enjoy (or at least find interesting) some of the episodes of the podcast called “Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World.”

What brings it to mind is several episodes with oft-unknown instances of government misbehavior (especially by the FBI) which can be…disillusioning for those who’re apt to be overly trusting of the honesty of the system. (That, of course, is how it’s related to this thread.)

Here are some examples, :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iSzPhycoGc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4fOjKuvGPM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9lHkdf5jVk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI9cH6ZeJt0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ruzotbtJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6MDin_Ec5c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HINykG4QL4Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_FCSff37ZI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuMuD4i_6ZY

Now, the podcast in general is about “mysteries” of various kinds, past and present, and thus ranges widely from early-American ghost stories to UFO sightings, and picks up items like Ruby Ridge and the Branch Davidians, and revelations of FBI misbehavior like those described in the above-listed episodes.

So, it’s a little bit like the old “In Search Of” and “That’s Incredible” television shows, with one important difference: Jimmy Akin does his best to scrutinize the “mysteries” in a reasoned way and derive some rational conclusions, when possible. And he tries not to over-sensationalize anything, save temporarily for dramatic effect when “telling the tale” at the outset. This, for me, ranks him above a Coast-to-Coast-AM kind of show. (And his cohost “Dom” does a nice job of being the “everyman” foil for these stories.)

Note: Jimmy Akin’s other job is with Catholic Answers, a Catholic apologetics website/broadcaster/publisher. Consequently, there will be times when he looks at things “also from the faith perspective” or takes on mysteries like the “Miracle of the Sun” at Fatima, Portugal. So, listeners should know at the outset that, on such topics, he sounds (surprise!) like a middle-of-the-road Catholic. That said, I find his breakdown reasonably evidence-oriented even when touching on topics of potential religious import, and I don’t think it’d detract from anyone’s enjoyment of the show, on most topics.

I suppose I should add: I have no affiliation with Akin or the show in any way. I just like it, and I like how he presents things, and those FBI-related episodes came to mind.

I thought you, and some of the other regular commenters here, might like it also.

JimNorCal:

I haven’t been tracking that. Though googling “portland drug use” I found this:
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Today, Oregon became the first state in the United States to decriminalize possession of small amounts of all drugs and greatly increase access to treatment, recovery, harm reduction and other services.

https://drugpolicy.org/press-release/2021/02/drug-decriminalization-oregon-officially-begins-today
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I’m for legalization of marijuana, but this looks like one big invitation for homeless drug addicts — a disaster in the making.

For me it shall always be the stand at Thermopylae. I’ve always had a powerful attraction to ancient Greece, starting with the Trojan war. I have an unprovable hypothesis that any time period that we inexplicably find particularly fascinating is due to having had a past life in that place & time.

werewife,

Yes, that’s why I included Thermopylae, the greatest loss/victory of them all and arguably the most important battle in history because if Leonidas and his fellow Greeks had not delayed the invasion, Greek democracy would have been stillborn.

“It seems our elite betters have been lenient towards domestic terrorism from the left for decades now.” huxley

Well, they do it for the ‘right’ cause. A cause that justifies any and all means, no matter how depraved. Besides, utopia isn’t built in a day.

What if Felt hadn’t tainted his investigation of the Weather Underground and succeeded in putting its leaders in prison?

I’d like to think it would have made a difference, but those radicals who did go to prison usually did not pay much of a price in proportion to their crimes.

Jane Alpert (a bomber and ally of Weather, though not a member) only served 28 months.

Susan Rosenberg was on the hook for the murder of two policemen and a security guard during a robbery. She was caught with 750 lbs of explosives and firearms. She was also involved in the real bombing of the US Senate Building. She never showed any remorse. She was sentenced to 58 years, but only served 16 because Clinton pardoned her on his last day in office.

It seems our elite betters have been lenient towards domestic terrorism from the left for decades now.

Susan Rosenberg has surfaced lately as the vice chair of Thousands Currents, a non-profit which turns out to do fundraising for Black Lives Matter.

Watch Snopes dance around the question of whether Rosenberg was a domestic terrorist:
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In the absence of a single, universally-agreed definition of “terrorism,” it is a matter of subjective determination as to whether the actions for which Rosenberg was convicted and imprisoned — possession of weapons and hundreds of pounds of explosives — should be described as acts of “domestic terrorism.”

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/blm-terrorist-rosenberg/
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Nauseating.

I’m pretty sure. Easily 75% of my ex-hippie friends vote Democrat and are strongly progressive. Those who are now conservative or independent are all men.

Just about all the voices in the psychedelic movement I’ve tracked remained progressive.

Maybe the glass quarter-full is a win.

It’s hard to know for sure. Perhaps. Certainly the ones who speak loudest.
Dick Adler, sounds crushingly frightful. Still, there are many rivulets in that stream.

Sienkiewicz’s (sic) trilogy comes a close second.

I need a graphic novel version of both so I can introduce my nine year old to this tale before his school indoctrination takes hold.

I was inoculated by watching Friedman’s free to choose on pbs when I was eight

I have read The Drawing of the Dark! Tim Powers is a favorite of mine.

One small point: At Thermopylae, the “good guys” DID lose, which is kind of the point of their immortality. Their sacrifice bought the time for the eventual victories at Salamis and Plataea (sp?). Which means that your larger point is 100% right on.

Fractal Rabbit: You are invited to read “The Drawing of the Dark” by Tim Powers, which is a delightful rethinking of the siege of Vienna, IIRC.