Author Archives: diestl

At the turn of the century, I was working at Fox Sports, on Best Damn Sports Show Period. Tom Arnold was hosting, with John Salley and Michael Irvin. I built props for the show. Comedy sketches were written for guests, sometimes they landed, sometimes they didn’t. One day, John Leguizamo was scheduled to appear. TheContinue reading “The Arbiter of Nothing”

The best part of Facebook right now is watching the idiot fringe unfollow itself out of existence. They can’t acknowledge disagreement because it would require thought, not slogans. Once committed, reversing isn’t an option. It doesn’t matter how wrong they are. Present an opposing view and the mental engine stalls. Spark plugs blown. Reality rejected.Continue reading “Regulated Failure”

The huddles achieved together, becoming strength where the other was weak, supporting one another through strife and sorrow. Difficulties were overcome as one. Those baleful, profane with jealousy of that unity, slip into the cracks, filling them with poison. Advice arrives from those with plaques on the wall, yet unable to govern the misgivings ofContinue reading “Solve et Manere”

Don’t donate attention while something important is aligning. Next time while you’re scrolling and you see a post that upset you, stop and say, why should I care about it? Stop letting people in your head. When you comment on a thread, you don’t like, you now are in a conversation with somebody you don’tContinue reading “Guard this time”

I was twenty years old in the spring of 1986 when my father handed me a failing record store and said, “Run it.” Not advice. Not encouragement. Responsibility. Customers. Money. Consequences. No applause. No safety net. I was a musician. I loved music. I didn’t think anything of it. But that store taught me howContinue reading “Presence isn’t infinite”

With the implosion of sports media on social platforms, commentary has devolved into something fully farcical, an endless loop of memes and half-baked takes delivered with absolute certainty and zero regard for reality. Grown adults speak confidently about the most absurd coaching and player acquisitions as if roster construction were a fantasy draft run byContinue reading “The Delusion of Certainty”

Freemasonry is dying a slow death as it is now. Many Grand Lodges and its leadership don’t have a clue and only care about their per-capita. Leadership is lacking. Every year Masons are being expelled for embezzlement. In California, these are not isolated incidents; they are symptoms of a deeper decay in oversight, mentorship, andContinue reading “Unguided Wisdom”

“If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.” — Abraham Lincoln  Lincoln understood something many still refuse to face: Great nations rarely fall to foreign armies. They collapse when internal discipline, responsibility, and shared standards erode. The modern ideological left, often labeled “woke”, embodies this internal decay. It rewards grievanceContinue reading “Awareness Compounded, Yet Unseen”

Collectivism does not arrive wearing chains. It arrives with open hands. The chains arrive soon after. At first, it speaks in fairy tales, of unity, of shared burden, of fairness redefined by laziness. It speaks of cooperation through obedience. Then alignment. Then disillusionment through hunger. The sovereign individual is not attacked, but shackled to theContinue reading “The Reassignment of Reassurance “

We’ve reached a strange point in history where having an opinion is mistaken for having something to say. Conversation used to require presence. A room. Shared air. Eye contact. At least the courtesy of listening and understanding before responding. Now an algorithm tosses a headline or a thumbnail into the void, and suddenly everyone feelsContinue reading “Algorithm the newest Testament.”