So, What Is This Place, Anyway?

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Hello!

I’m Kriselda Gray and I’m the owner and writer here at Earthbound Valkyrie, and this is a site for me to post about, well, whatever comes to mind, really. Mostly, that’s going to involve politics, my faith, things I find funny, entertainment, and things happening in the news.

As for who I am, I’m a middle-aged, married mom to 2 wonderful dogs. I’ve been disabled for quite a while and bedbound for about the last decade. Politically, I’m progressive, and spiritually, I’m Heathen, which means I honor the pre-Christian Norse gods and goddesses (yes, like Thor 🙂 )

I read a lot, and have a particular love for historical fiction, urban fantasy, books about political and business scandals, and some true crime, I watch shows following similar themes, and have a special love for competition shows that feature skills like cooking, baking, forging, make-up application, pottery throwing and glass blowing. For movies, I tend toward Marvel superhero movies (sorry, DCfans, I just can’t get into those,) whodunits, docudramas and intelligent comedies.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope to see you again. Please feel free to leave comments on my posts and have a great day!

Kriselda

A Taste of Things to Come

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Several Representatives watching as Rep. Hudson (R-NC) pulls Rep. Rogers (R-AL) back - with his hand on Rep. Rogers face - from confronting Rep. Gaetz (R-FL) after he votes "Present" on the 14th attempt to elect a House Speaker.

If you’ve been awake at all this week, you’ve almost certainly heard about the colossal mess the Republicans have made of the House Speaker election. Sadly, this photo from earlier this evening, showing Rep. Hudson (R-NC) pulling Rep. Rogers (R-AL) back from Rep. Gaetz (R-FL), is about as good of a representation as any of what we can expect from the 118th Congress.

After 15 rounds of voting, the House appears to have finally elected a Speaker of the House, and – surprise! (not) – it’s Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy has been super transparent about his desire to be Speaker for at least the last 2 years, if not longer, and the Freedom Caucus of the House has used that desperation to great effect. pushing McCarty to make a large number of often significant concessions to buy their votes. Unfortunately, it’s not just McCarthy who will be paying that bill. It may be a bit before we know exactly how much he’s truly given up and how much it will cost us, but it’s not going to be cheap.

Now, let’s see if they can get a rules package passed so they can actually start doing things.

Can Viking Virtues Defeat “Wokeness”?

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Arthur Herman, writing at Fox News, is concerned about the “plague of CRT and wokeness”, but he thinks it’s about to end:

The return of Bob Iger to leadership at Disney, and Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, are signals that the leftist madness that had seized America’s biggest corporations is starting to turn around. Americans are also more aware than ever that this systematic attack on American culture, history, traditional institutions, and the American family has benefited communist China

He also thinks he has the solution for the “leftest madness” (aka progressive policies) – he thinks that conservatives need to adopt more Viking virtues.

I would suggest that the key for doing this can be found in the virtues that brought the first Europeans to the shores of North America, despite the risks and uncertainties — namely the Vikings. The virtues that sustained those intrepid explorers, traders, and settlers, in the world’s most dangerous waters, are precisely the ones Americans will rediscover in 2023.

What kind of virtues does he ascribe to the Vikings? According to Herman, they are the spirit of entrepreneurship, an instinct of workmanship, commitment to family, and meeting all challenges with agility and bold innovation. How do these values challenge progressive policies? It’s not terribly clear, especially since the values he cites are hardly exclusively conservative values. What do I mean? Well, let’s take a look at a couple of his examples.

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