Home » Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of commenter FredHJr’s death

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Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of commenter FredHJr’s death — 32 Comments

  1. RIP 🙁
    I understand you very well as in 12 years I have also lost some of my close friends to my YouTube blog. I really miss them..

  2. one of the first persons who passed who I knew on another blog, was named peteruk, he was an acerbic very welll informed english fellow, I found out at the time of his passing, he had been a musician in his earlier career, his name was peter bocking he had worked with graham nash on occasion, so much so he was even noted in his most recent memoir, there were quite a few persons that I came to know as well as my own family even though I never met them,

  3. I love the names or handles. strcpy is a C programming language function. parker could be a reference to Donald Westlake’s iconic novel character, which I didn’t know about until I stumbled across it a few times in different movies.
    ____

    But once in office the venomous swarm of this network will burst out of the nest and devour the host [Pres. Obama].

    I do agree with his idea of a network of alliances. I don’t think Obama got devoured. My guess is that Obama meant it when he said one of his guiding principles is “Don’t do stupid shit.” And he had capable people like Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod who agreed and helped.

    On the other hand, with Biden there is nothing there to devour. That part of the network’s job was over with before it began.

  4. I was not here when FredHJr was commenting but do appreciate your yearly commemoration of him. He seems to have been an unusually intelligent and perceptive person.

  5. How time flys! I remember all those you mentioned: strcpy, Occam’s Beard, and FredHJr.
    I was a regular reader of the half Comanche blogger David Yeagley. He wrote about Indian stuff, religion and the border, among other things. He has been dead for a number of years now.
    And the Media Research Center writer for Newsbusters, Noel Sheppard, who died years ago, with whom I had corresponded on a brief level.
    Never met any of those people in person, but read their writings and had interacted with some of them in the comments section and felt like I “ knew” them on some distant level.

  6. It is indeed sad to see so many online commenters pass – There are also some blogs that are no more and I do miss them.

    I was never one for paying attention to the TV talking heads; but, there is something special about ordinary folks who post blogs and comment. They are mostly more insightful and bring a “common man” view to what they have to say.

    And, even though I only knew them through their online comments and posting I feel that I have been blessed to have known them.

    P.S. 13 years!? holy cow does time fly!

  7. A beautiful tribute, neo.

    Mortality within the context of social media is a novel topic, but becoming less novel.

    LinkedIn is the only social media I am on and I occasionally get reminders about upcoming birthdays and work anniversaries of people I knew who have passed. Even though it’s just a computer program reading dates it saddens me to think the computer algorithm is not honoring their deaths. I’ve thought about reaching out to their loved ones to notify them, so they can click the appropriate boxes in the users’ profiles to bring “closure,” but a part of me is curious to see how long it will continue.

  8. RufusTFirefly:

    LinkedIn also sends me notifications to congratulate a deceased cowoker for work aniverseries. She died in late 2019. The intertubes are forever, but I seriously doubt that LinkedIn can monitize the better place where Angela is now.

  9. I am post-Fred and sorry I missed him. Historian, philosopher, clear thinker and great writer is my assessment, based solely on the few passages you posted. i wonder what his day job was. EDIT – Just dug through some of the other postings and my question was answered.

  10. It is a beautiful tribute. Great thoughts, well expressed. I wish I had been active on the blog when he was.

  11. I was here for all those mentioned. I miss their commentary. And I’m grateful for all of you here now.

    I never guessed, when I was home waiting for my second child to be born, that I would soon be privileged to be part of a community so thoughtful, interesting, and – dare I say it – interactive, in the still-young internet age.

  12. Time flies, but the truths of human nature persevere. Fed understood the attractions of Marxism and power to humans better than most. Hed was a voice of experience warning of what is now transpiring. I didn’t want to believe it but can now see how truly visionary he was.

    RIP FredHJr.

  13. I’m sorry that I missed FredHJr as well, but I’ll say this: It says a lot about you Neo, that you would honor the people who have provided input to help make your blog as exceptional as it is. Your efforts are exceptional and much appreciated.

  14. Also want to add my thanks for your annual commemoration of someone who, because he was once part of it (in the David Horowitz mold) understood clearly, cogently and intelligently the inner workings and hideous goals of the so-called “gloriously humane”—not-so-much termite-like rot as “ichneumon wasp”-type (echoing Wretchard)— destructiveness of Left-wing “project”; and was able to warn so articulately about its dire, inexorable, inevitable results, e.g.:

    “…I think the beginning of the end of our civilization began with the French Revolution and The Terror. It was the beginning of the elaboration of totalitarian thought and throughout the 19th century this kept on finding newer permutations of elegant, intellectual terror…”

    The only thing missing here really is the assiduous “packaging” of such destruction as “HOPE”: as “for the people”, “massive improvement”, “achieving Nirvana”, “paradise on earth”….
    As “TRANSFORMATION”…

    (Think Ronald Reagan’s “thirteen most terrifying words” on steroids—pumped up to the ultimate horrific level…)

  15. Remembering Fred, strcpy, and Occam’s Beard today. Thanks for the continuing memorial.

    Speaking of Occam’s Beard, I just found this today via a DuckDuckGo search:

    Occam’s Beard | what if Occam never had a razor?
    The Symposium of Occam’s Beard is a celebration of creativity in science, though not necessarily in the way you would expect… At this symposium, scientists from varying backgrounds present theories that are solidly scientific, except for one thing: they are nowhere near the ‘simplest explanation’ for the observations and data that they have.

  16. Sounds like he was a very prescient observer, especially for someone who has not lived under these commies (my presumption) Few of us realized that the Mau Mau’s would become ascendant in our society. Those of us that lived under commies saw it in academia and it’s scholars and knew it was spreading. We were often ridiculed-especially after the Wall fell because we knew that the failure of yet another communist country was not a deterrent to the (religious-really that is what it is) progressive left. As told to me by family members, as early as the mid-60’s the Dept of Education at the University of Miami was already a captured department. It started with the humanities, and now widespread and pretty complete in STEM schools too. I was listening to Razib Khan’s podcast where he interviews the editor of Quillette. He mentions (which I had heard about previously, but underlines it for me) how in stem programs there was intense pressure to sign various BLM pronouncements-and if an errant grad student didn’t want to sign it, the pressure from all essentially forced the person to do so (careful with those pronouns!)

  17. Wow. Only 54. RIP. Thanks for remembering him. I can’t remember if I was here then. Since blog commenters tend to be older, I have seen some losses. One big one was at Ace of Spades. I attended Cathy Seipp’s funeral.

  18. “What the American dopes who will put him in office are getting is a NETWORK of alliances and interests, running the gamut from Finance (Soros) to academia to media to law.”

    True. County Attorneys who won’t enforce the law to the insane Green New Deal with mandated EVs.

    I see that Fred was with the Jesuits for a time. No surprise.

  19. I didn’t know Fred and now I miss him!

    Thanks Neo for providing one of the most humane spots on the World wide web.

    I see Fred passed before Benghazi and the hearings. He would have provided sharp analysis of Hillary Clinton sitting before Jim Jordan and lying through her teeth. Solzhenitsyn’s observation that Leftism is marinated in lies was evident in HC’s testimony on Benghazi and the White House blaming an obscure filmmaker for the terrorist attack.

  20. Tina…”He mentions (which I had heard about previously, but underlines it for me) how in stem programs there was intense pressure to sign various BLM pronouncements-and if an errant grad student didn’t want to sign it, the pressure from all essentially forced the person to do so (careful with those pronouns!)”

    Sell Your Soul or Lose Your Livelihood:
    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/63248.html

  21. Some of his ideas echo those of Russell Kirk, author of The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot.

  22. @ david > “Sell Your Soul or Lose Your Livelihood:”

    That was frightening — all of your and Neo’s posts referencing Haffner are.
    I used to wonder just how the very enlightened, religious, sophisticated, progressive German state fell to the Nazis so quickly.
    I don’t wonder anymore.

    Once they get into control, no matter how it’s done — the fall is like Hemingway’s description of going bankrupt: gradually, then suddenly.
    We seem to be on the “sudden” part of that cycle.

    June 18, 2020 by David Foster

    Surely this passage [about the WW2 situation in Germany] comes close to describing the feeling and actions of many genuine scholars while watching their university departments be taken over by the forces of political correctness, or the emotions of many experienced government officials and corporate managers as these institutions also are subjected to the rack of ideological absolutism.

    There can be no serious doubt that the election of a Democratic President..especially if coupled with Democrat control of Congress…would greatly strengthen the push toward an America in which the expression of unapproved opinions is dangerous and the affirmation of approved opinions is mandatory. We are already heading in that direction at alarming speed: a Democrat presidency–with all that means in terms of empowerment of the ‘progressive’ wing of the Democratic party and its allies in media and academia–would accelerate the trend greatly and quite possibly make it unrecoverable.

    (An earlier version of this post was published here in 2016; the current post is cross-posted at Ricochet)

    That last sentence references the “gradually” part of the cycle.
    You didn’t have to do much to bring the older post up to date — looks like our reprieve only lasted four years.

    There can be no serious doubt that the election of Hillary Clinton would greatly contribute to a climate in which expression of unapproved opinions is dangerous and the affirmation of approved opinions is mandatory. We are already heading in that direction at alarming speed: a Hillary Clinton presidency–with all that means in terms of empowerment of the ‘progressive’ wing of the Democratic party and its allies in media and academia–would accelerate the trend greatly and quite possibly make it unrecoverable.

  23. And just when you thought things couldn’t get more INSANE….
    “The Illinois Political Establishment’s Shameful Response To The Departure Of Ken Griffin And Citadel”—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/illinois-political-establishments-shameful-response-departure-ken-griffin-and-citadel
    ‘US Will “Continue To Provide Seamless Access” To Abortion In Military: Defense Secretary’—
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-will-continue-provide-seamless-access-abortion-military-defense-secretary
    + https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/06/26/lloyd-austin-needs-to-resign-as-secretary-of-defense-n478790

    …and there’s dozens more articles of this nature (if not hundreds) on a whole variety of topics…
    Though it DOES help to keep in mind that “Biden” is the perennial OPPOSITION, the perennial VIVA-LA-REVOLUCION party, the perennial ADOLESCENT that never stops playing with (Orwellian) matches and gasoline.

    (And so, apparently, things can ALWAYS get more insane…until they simply can’t…AKA “The point beyond no return”?)

  24. Rufus and Om, you bring up a great point that I am wrestling with. I lost my wife of 41 years in May of 2021 and was confronted with how to inform her many online correspondents. I knew most of the close ones and could email them, but many have trickled in over the last year, and I had to inform them as they tried to reach her. I don’t monitor her email as closely as I once did and have closed most of her subscriptions, but I still check once a week or so.

    When I go, there will be no one to inform anyone, so my online presence will just languish. This is becoming a bigger problem for online businesses as well. Now companies on the web that have to worry about bots also should start worrying about zombies. We need a living online will that will stipulate how long to wait with no interaction to pull the plug. I have many other ideas, but people should start thinking about this. (Urrk, I feel a LinkedIn post coming on.)

  25. Frank:

    Sorry for your loss.

    By the way, the only reason I learned of Fred’s death was that I was on his email list and a relative had access to his email and informed people on it that he had died.

    Here’s a book that might be of interest.

  26. IIRC, Occam’s Beard was an emeritus Chemistry professor from UC-San Diego.

    Yes, we miss them.

  27. In going to the link that Neo provided for FredHJr’s obituary, I realize that he and my sister shared some stomping grounds, though sometimes at several decades apart. He attended high school in Ipswich, graduated from high school in Peabody, and graduated from UNH.

    My sister attended UNH for 3 years, but after 5 years in the “real world,” got her degree from Northeastern. She worked for a company in Peabody for 2+ decades, and lived in Ipswich for 2 decades. The closest time frame would have been UNH, but even there they were separated by 5 years.

    Small world, as they say.

  28. Thanks Neo for both your sympathy and your suggestion. I’ve added the book to my shopping cart. As to my wife, she’s in heaven having the fun her body wouldn’t allow her in life. She only hung on so long to not leave me alone. If I’m not good enough to get in when I go, I fully expect her to nag the Big Guy until he lets me in. We had a magical life together for over 40 years.

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