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The New American Digest

For Followers of Gerard Van der Leun's Fine Work

  • About American Digest
  • About New American Digest
  • “The Name In The Stone”
  • Remembering Gerard Van der Leun
    • from the website: Through the Looking Glass
    • from the website: Barnhardt
    • from the website: Neo’s Blog
  • Articles
    • The Overland Stage
      • The Holladay Overland Stage: 1 – The Central Route
      • The Overland Stage – 2 Company Operations
      • The Overland Stage – 3 Exploring The Route – An Overview
      • The Overland Stage: 4 – South Platte/Julesburg/Ft Sedgwick
        • Jack Slade
      • The Overland Stage: 5 – Julesburg to Junction Station (aka Ft Morgan)
      • The Overland Stage: 6 – Junction Station to Latham
      • The Overland Stage: 7 – Latham Crossing to Fort Collins
      • The Overland Stage: 8 – LaPorte to Virginia Dale
      • The Overland Stage: 9 – Virginia Dale to Cooper Creek
      • The Overland Stage: 10 – Cooper Creek to Pass Creek
        • Fletcher Family
      • The Overland Stage: 11 – Pass Creek to Bridger Station
      • The Overland Stage: 12 – Bridger Pass to Duck Lake
      • The Overland Stage: 13 – Duck Lake to LaClede
      • The Overland Stage: 14 – LaClede to Almond
      • The Overland Stage: 15 – Almond to Rock Springs
      • The Overland Stage: 16 – Rock Springs to Fort Bridger
      • The Overland Stage: 17 – Fort Bridger to Weber Station

I find I don’t wish to explore new lands, but to explore again those I have already passed through, trying to see what I’d missed in the first hectic rush … Gerard Van der Leun

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Yearly Archives: 2025

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Who?

The New American Digest Posted on September 7, 2025 by DTSeptember 7, 2025

"The suspects have not been identified because of their age."

This protection of violent "children" past puberty- call it 12 for those that want firm lines in the sand - needs to stop . The suspects in this case were 15 - old enough to commit felonies. Big difference between a 15yo and a 5yo. I can see not releasing juvenile names for "crimes" such as obtaining under-age beer but when said juvenile commits violent felonies, they are not juvenile anymore and the public should be aware of potential danger in their midst. And said juvenile should be treated as an adult in the court system.

Old enough to do the crime? FAFO.

Tolerance for the sake of tolerance is no virtue when tolerance ignores that which is being tolerated.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Replies

In The Name Of Equality

The New American Digest Posted on September 7, 2025 by DTSeptember 7, 2025

A father rushed to the ball and grabbed it before giving it to his son, who was celebrating his birthday at the park. But one woman wasn’t going to let the young boy have that ball and began harassing the father and son until they caved and gave her the ball.

In a viral clip of the confrontation, the woman can be seen grabbing the man’s shoulder, startling him, and screaming at him before ultimately making the confused young boy give up his home run ball.

The father should have punched her lights out as soon as she grabbed him. Battery at least if not assault.
Though I understand his hesitation - as I probably would have done the same.

But damn! this type of behaviour is getting too far out of control with no consequences.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Replies

The Far Side Of Infinity – Sacrilegious Sunday Musings

The New American Digest Posted on September 7, 2025 by DTSeptember 6, 2025

I - who know nothing.

No offense intended but some of you may not approve or agree. That's OK ... I don't know enough to disagree with you - or to even suggest you're wrong.

As I see it, humans - not just humans, life - were either made or just happened. I find either theory highly improbable but here we are and I have no other ideas. I suppose I lean toward "made" which implies a belief in a maker - aka "God". Whether the trinity monotheistic god, or one of several other "gods" is beyond my knowledge - one must lean on belief ... which is not the same as "truth". The alternative is that our world "just happened". I find the string of that argument more unbelievable than "we were made".

But by either thought, what's on the other side? The Big Bang theory suggests that the universe began with an incomprehensible explosion ... but gives no idea as to what existed before the explosion. Us - humans - came about by a series of improbable events lumped together as "evolution". Evolution is a poor explanation of race; an even poorer explanation of non-optimal adaptation to our environment(s). Very few humans run around completely naked as do the animals. Why not if we evolved to our environment?

I like the God theory better. But not by much.

Isn't it funny that most peoples have some sort of tale of creation?

Sometimes I think all gods exist - even the Devil is a god. They sit in some room playing heavenly poker for souls - may the best god win. At this time, Christianity and Islam represent the largest faiths in the world, but those religions - including Judaism - all theoretically worship the same god; are offshoots of the same core belief. They play poker at the big-boy table (a family argument - like WWI. Who did Abraham sacrifice?).

But who's to say the god of the Oingo-Boingos is not the one true god? Or who's to say there is only one true god?

But assume the existence of a neutral god or gods. Where do these gods exist? Assume the rightfulness of evolution: In what space did the Big Bang occur? And if not a big bang, what? Some say the universe is expanding. Expanding into what? where?

Who's to say we're not just quarks on a larger scale atomic structure?

What's on the other side of infinity?

Ecclesiastes 3:11 "He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end."

Does this make the world and all in it simply someone's lab experiment? Did the dinosaurs die off because the lab manager decided that experiment was a failure? Is "the rapture" just a prediction that the humankind experiment is also a preordained failure? Will humankkind even leave as much behind as the dinosaurs?

Why is it humankind as we know it only came into existence since the last ice age? - 30 thousand, 50 thousand years ago; a trivial time ago if geological theory is even close to correct. Or only 5 or 6 thousand years ago???

No one explains the time between "human" bones millions of years old in Africa and the time of "cavemen". Or between the time of cavemen and the Sumerians. If mankind evolved from origins in central Africa, why is it no major civilization occurred there? Lots of "empty time" there for PhD students to speculate upon.

How is it that "technology" - steam power, reapers, cotton gins, oil - was never of much use until the last 200 years or so? I can track my family back to before Watt's steam engine. The Chinese, the Romans, the Egyptians, etc - never discovered or utilized such things?

Everlasting life? A heady promise by the priest class to keep the sheep in line? Is "everlasting life" a curse? When you've done everything to boredom, what's left?

I have a neighbor that truly wishes to save my soul. Believe in Jesus, she tells me. I believe Jesus was a historical figure but what does "Believe in Jesus" mean? His existence, his beliefs? ... or just worship the man himself? Or better yet, worship his mother. Is this not idolatry Moses warned against? Is not idolatry simply the worship of a different god?

And are we not all children of god?

Jesus the peacemaker?

Matt 10:34 "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."
Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

Was it not a reformed tax collector (Paul) that actually began the Christian religion some years after Jesus' death?

What if a former IRS agent today started a religion?

History records the tragic fact that men have gone to war and cut each other’s throats because they couldn’t agree as to what was to become of them after their throats were cut.”
Walter P Stacy 1895 - 1951

Why is it I can't get over the idea that when we die, we simply "turn off"? There is no more.

Genesis 2:7 "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Genesis 3:19 "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Ecclesiastes 3:20 "All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again."

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

But what do I know?

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Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Replies

The Homestead

The New American Digest Posted on September 6, 2025 by DTSeptember 5, 2025

Way out in the back country. Eastern Oregon if I recall correctly. I was on a less than optimal dirt road myself when I saw this place. Cattle country.
A long way from nowhere.

What toil to build such a home? What hopes and dreams? What tales? Did they raise a family? Did they have ranch hands? Did they grow crops? Hay at least seems likely. Vegetable garden?
No signs of any of that but plenty of time for such to have disappeared "back to nature"

One didn't settle this land for the sake of just finding a place. There must have been water, grass ... a place within reasonable distance for supplies. A typical homestead was 160 acres - ½ x ½ mile. Several plots could be obtained or free-range* for cattle.

The building is old; made of logs ... perhaps from the hills in the background. I would suspect late 1800s to 19-teens. A well with hand-pump sits by the right front of the main building. The roof shows signs of red tarpaper covering what appear to be the original shingles. The extension at the rear looks to have had corrugated tin roofing - again, over what appears to be the original shingles. One of the windows appears to have glass remaining. It looks like a large groundhog hole - or some other critter - in a corner of what I'll call the mudroom.

There is slight evidence of what must have been a road coming from the left to the house. there appears to be a foundation to the left of what is presumably a barn or simply a large shed . A single post of some sort - bigger than a fence post - appears to the left and some distance away from that. Barely visible some distance to the right and rear of the house is what appears to be a barbed wire gate - fenced off now with another fence running along. Far to the left is another cluster of fence posts enclosing an area perhaps 10x10 or 15x15.

There doesn't appear to be any electrical connections; there is nothing to indicate any vehicle having visited the site for many years. No tire tracks, no bare dirt. No old tires or rusting car bodies as is not unusual for homesteads dating into the 40s. The construction appears older than that.

I find these places occasionally. A place to stop and wonder about lives and times past. What a different world these people of not really all that long ago must have lived.

*Side note: I've not seen them back east but out here in open country, one may see signs stating "Open Range". The practical meaning is that if you hit livestock in open range territory (no fencing required), you are responsible for damages. I happen to live in open range territory even though I live in a "subdivision (of sorts).

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Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Replies

Communication Breakdown

The New American Digest Posted on September 5, 2025 by DTSeptember 3, 2025
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Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Replies

The Dear Mrs DT

The New American Digest Posted on September 4, 2025 by DTSeptember 4, 2025

Honey, how many burgers do you want for dinner?

Two sounds good.

But you're having corn and salad and some leftovers from last night. Isn't two too many?

Then why do you ask?

You'll have to eat it tomorrow.

Wouldn't give her up for the world ...

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Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Replies

Making Frogs

The New American Digest Posted on September 4, 2025 by DTSeptember 2, 2025
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Dollars

The New American Digest Posted on September 3, 2025 by DTSeptember 3, 2025

Excerpts from ZeroHedge, Sept 3, 2025
"Is The Fed Setting Up Trump To Be The Scapegoat?"

It should be obvious the answer is "Yes".
Not that I'm pessimistic or anything.

When the SHTF ... coming soon to wherever you be ... it will be unlike anything we've ever seen.
The US won't escape this time - the US will be the target.

The Doors - The End

There will be no proper prepping, there will be no planned "safe place"; when it comes - signs seem to indicate soon - there will be only luck, fate, the grace of God.
God may have mercy on our souls but there are no promises for our corporeal selves.
My suggestion? Live life as if it's normal. Don't worry, don't "prep" beyond normality, just enjoy what you have and where you are.

And when the time comes (which no man knows of) ... ?
**********************************************

Examining the US price Index from the year 1800 to 1913 reveals a period of continuously falling prices. The price index was down by more than 40% by 1913, as compared to the starting year 1800. By some estimates, this fall in prices was even higher as the product basket was continuously becoming better and not even strictly comparable. Most major innovations we can think of – telephones, automobiles, airplanes, computers, mass production, modern medicine, military hardware, etc – happened during this period. The transition of the US from an erstwhile colony of the British Empire to the dominant superpower also occurred in this period. If falling prices had caused the Great Depression of 1929 to 1946, as is popularly believed, or as the Phillips curve implies, the entire 19th century (1801-1900) should have been an extended depression. Instead, what we actually witnessed was a boom of unparalleled proportions in modern history, except for what has happened in China starting in 1990 to date.

The mainstream media narrative even today is that Trump wants to lower interest rates to achieve even higher growth rates, from already what is the “best performing economy ever”. On the other hand, Powell intends to hold the rates steady to protect the purchasing power of the US Dollar. The economic truth is that both narratives are flawed.

Even a 0% rate today cannot prevent a bust of the financial systems that is floating on a sea of asset bubbles – an AI bubble that dwarfs the NASDAQ 2000 bubble; a housing bubble that is far bigger than the 2008 housing bubble; and a US bond bubble that is bigger than these two bubbles combined. The bust at this point is inevitable and imminent – the timeframes would be a few months and not a few years.

The current rate of 4.25% to 4.5% is way too low to contain price inflation meaningfully. The National debt is increasing at an even higher pace than before, and monetary inflation is a natural outcome, indicating that the rates are very accommodative.

For more than 50 months in a row, the core inflation rate – the Fed’s preferred measure – has been above the target 2%. The June 2025 number was 2.82% and under normal conditions, the US Fed would have aggressively hiked the rates. The only reason why they do not do so is “Fiscal Dominance”.

In effect [what] they are doing is the equivalent of putting the National Debt on an Adjustable Rate Mortgage System (ARMS)

Trump is unwittingly setting himself up to be the fall guy for what has essentially been the blunders of the US Federal Reserve.

It would be uncharacteristic of the Fed not to utilize the opportunity and pass the buck, as it has almost always done.

What about the supposed critical issue of the Fed’s Independence?
Truth to be told, the independence of the Free World’s monetary system was eliminated in 1913 with the formation of the Federal Reserve.
The Independence of the Fed was effectively abolished in 1971 when Nixon closed the Gold Window.

Sigh ...

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Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Replies

Topkapi Palace

The New American Digest Posted on September 3, 2025 by DTSeptember 2, 2025

This photo is of some of the detail along the interior friezes.

From 1460 to 1856, Topkapi Palace was the main residence of the Ottoman sultans and primary administrative center of the empire. This was also the location of the (in)famous harem.

Originally named the "Imperial New Palace" (Saray-i Cedid-i Amire or سرای جديد عامره in Ottoman Turkish), the name was changed to Topkapi in the mid-1700s.

The palace overlooks the Golden Horn where the Bosphorus Strait enters the Marmara Sea; the Golden Horn being the location where the Moslem Turks finally captured the Byzantine capital of Constantinople.

The palace was transformed into a museum by the new Turkish Republic after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s. The palace is now a primary tourist destination and is heavily guarded by Turkish troops.

It is crowded and since it contains artifacts of Mohammed - as Constantinople was the seat of the Islamic Caliphate until 1924, one needs to deal with the not-pleasant looks of the faithful when passing by the exhibits.

There will be more images coming of the western Turkey as the muse strikes.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Replies

Tunesday – Mazzy Star “Mary Of Silence”

The New American Digest Posted on September 2, 2025 by DTAugust 30, 2025

A sample of some obscure – and some maybe not obscure – tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.

Today’s selection: Mazzy Star "Mary Of Silence" 1993

Mazzy Star formed in 1988 out of Santa Monica, CA. Their most famous song was "Fade Into You" of 1993 but as I like to post obscure items, I've selected "Mary Of Silence" from the same album.

I like the composition; I find it reminiscent of The Stooges' 1969 composition, "We Will Fall".

Stooges - We Will Fall

I kind of implied ahead of time I have an off-the-wall taste in music.

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Contact: dt@newamericandigest.org

Gerard Van der Leun
12/26/45 - 1/27/23


Gerard's Last Post
(posthumous): Feb 4, 2023
"So Long. See You All a Little Further Down the Road"

When my body won’t hold me anymore
And it finally lets me free
Where will I go?
Will the trade winds take me south through Georgia grain?
Or tropical rain?
Or snow from the heavens?
Will I join with the ocean blue?
Or run into a savior true?
And shake hands laughing
And walk through the night, straight to the light
Holding the love I’ve known in my life
And no hard feelings

Avett Brothers - No Hard Feelings

The following was posted along with the announcement of Gerard's passing.
Leonard Cohen - Going Home

For a 2005 interview with Gerard


April 2026
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    You mention enough places to bring back memories. For a while, I spent time in Oscoda - well, at one…

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    I need to mow, kinda, but don't feel like it. Mostly tall places here and there, dead leaves everywhere, and…

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    DT, your weather report mirrors ours in Northern Michigan. The AuSable River is higher than any old timer up this…

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    $5.28 for a gallon of off road diesel for a tractor that drinks 8 gallons per hour under load.

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    Strangely enough the past 2 years have plagued us with unnormal expenses too and I'm getting tired of it. We're…


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Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man,
play a song for me
I'm not sleepy
and there ain't no place I'm goin' to

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man,
play a song for me
In the jingle jangle morning,
I'll come followin' you

Take me for a trip upon
your magic swirling ship
All my senses have been stripped
And my hands can't feel to grip
And my toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wanderin'

I'm ready to go anywhere,
I'm ready for to fade
Unto my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way
I promise to go under it


Men who saw night coming down about them could somehow act as if they stood at the edge of dawn.


From Gerard's site. The picture always caught my eye.

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