Note: This post was sticky for a couple of days. Look for other recent stuff below it.

Right here at the beginning of this post, I need to do a few heads-up notices and then set them aside because this post is not about me. though at first it may appear so. Patience, please: it has fallen to me to tell you the story about the travails of a friend, a man I’ve corresponded with for some time. Among the other things that he is, Ed is writer whose work I admire even though we don’t agree on every jot and tittle. Our most important points of agreement are two: We’re both capitalists to the core and we both find Islam to be pernicious.

The first thing to acknowledge is the plain fact that this post should have been up days ago and the fact that it wasn’t is my doing. This is too crucial a situation not to have been in front of our readers days ago, since time is of the essence here. My bad.

Unfortunately for us both, the emergency my friend is coping with has unfortunately triggered every single PTSD neuron I have. Even contemplating writing this post triggered them. Sigh.

PTSD is the mind gone awry, wildly dumping its overload into the body. In my case, it first began to go sideways probably before I could speak — at any rate, that’s the best guess of the graybeards we consulted. Since we’ll never know precisely when this strange phenomenon began, I’ll take their best guesstimacation; an etiology of “preverbal” has the virtue of simplicity. It makes the most sense. Isn’t it strange how comforting knowledge can be? While knowing might not change anything, knowledge in and of itself can be a balm…As T.H. White has Merlin say in The Once and Future King :

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

Learning is a salve, a balm in these fraught times. But sometimes it fails me. What I’m going to tell you has troubled me deeply. When the more severe exigencies of PTSD show up, I know I’m in trouble. And this time they started their insistent honking almost immediately.

Psychosomatosis (yes, I can say it real fast three times) is the official diagnosis when chronic PTSD rises like a monster from the limbic system and starts cascading down the HPA axis, and from there to wreak havoc in the various organs and structures of the body. The best remedy is preventive: avoiding the near occasions of chronic stress; an easy work-around, eh? But here’s the rub: if someone I care about is in trouble, I can’t merely empathize. Oh no, that’s not nearly enough: I must needs sit in the Slough of Despond and do a slo-mo freak-out. While there, I do try various mind tricks to avoid letting my distress for my friend paralyze the quotidian pleasures of my life here with the Baron. But sometimes nothing works but to do something toward resolving the problem.

Thus this reaching out to y’all in an attempt to find a help for my friend’s problem…all the while avoiding sliding any further into the muck. This time it took almost a full week to get out of the swamp and be of some use…I’m so sorry, Ed.

[For those who are interested in the subject, or who find themselves somatizing their stress, I recommend this gem:

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

I’ve followed Dr. van der Kolk’s research since he first began publishing his monographs at Baylor decades ago. I knew I’d found some answers when he described the startling differences in the aftermath of physical exercise between normal children and those with PTSD. The upshot? It takes a far longer time for us to return to our baseline vital signs than it does for normal children — and our “baseline” is abnormally high to start with. I’d already observed this phenomenon when I was twelve, playing basketball. I loved the game so much that I’d only quit when I couldn’t breathe anymore. “Exercise-induced asthma”, I later discovered. As soon as the asthma receded I was back on the court.]

Second, and far more important: the main point of this post is to move you to help my friend (and thereby relieve my stress). So this is a fund-raising post. As we discovered with Tommy Robinson, there are indeed some problems that can be significantly reduced by having money thrown at them. This is most assuredly one.

Have you been following the strange news about that so-called ISIS Kill List? It has seemed creepy to me since I first came across it. How did they get eight thousand names? Did they hack some FBI database? However they managed to compile this list, we’re not to worry because FBI director Comey assures us that they’re “laser-focused on it”… doesn’t that make you feel better?

The director of the FBI said Tuesday that the Islamic State group is currently the main threat facing the United States, both in its efforts to recruit fighters to join its members overseas and to have others carry out violence in America. Director James Comey said the IS group poses a third potential threat: a “terrorist diaspora” that he said will eventually flow out of Syria and Iraq and end up in Western Europe, where members will have easy access to the U.S. “There’s [sic] three prongs to this ISIL threat,” Comey said. “The recruitment to travel, the recruitment to violence in place, and then what you saw a preview of in Brussels and in Paris — hardened fighters coming out, looking to kill people.” He said officials are “laser-focused on that.” Last week, three Minnesota men who were accused of plotting to join the IS group were convicted of conspiring to commit murder overseas — which carries a potential life sentence — as well as conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and other charges.

Let’s drill down a bit further, to Vocativ, here:

Most of the names and the accompanying addresses listed appear to belong to people in the United States, Australia, and Canada. Out of 7,848 people identified as being in the U.S. alone, 1,445 were listed as having addresses in California, 643 in Florida, 341 in Washington, 333 in Texas, 331 in Illinois, and 290 in New York. Another 312 names and addresses allegedly belong to people in Canada, while 69 allegedly belong to people in Australia. Another 39 are affiliated with the U.K. and the rest are listed with addresses in Belgium, Brazil, China, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Korea, Sweden and Trinidad and Tobago. It is unclear, however, if the list, posted on Telegram [sic] on Monday, includes any new information or details that weren’t already accessible online. It’s also unclear why the specific names and addresses outlined were selected, and whether or not they’re in some way related. The group that posted the directory is also dubious. A recent study by Flashpoint, an intelligence firm, showed that the United Cyber Caliphate—a merger of pro-ISIS groups—is incompetent when it comes to hacking. Their highest-profile “hack” involved taking credit for others’ work, according to the study.

Yeah? Well, we’re told they’re coming in over the southern border. And our State Department continues to bring in “Syrians” as does the Office of Refugee Resettlement. So even if their computer hacking skills aren’t up to snuff, I have little doubt they’ve all got their Scout badges in Hacking and Slitting Throats.

There wasn’t a comment section so I scraped out an email contact from Vocativ and suggested they take this more seriously (just my interpretation, but they seemed to treat it causally). I told them about Ed’s visit from the FBI… To their credit, they did contact Ed.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It’s about time to introduce you to my friend. He comments here occasionally, so you might know Edward Cline. Perhaps you’ve read his books, or either of his websites?

Here’s a particularly ironic post from three years ago — ironic, that is, in the light of today’s situation. In “Islam on My Mind”, he says:

I’ve been criticized by some readers as having “Islam on the brain.” It’s not a very kind criticism considering the seriousness of the Islamic jihad against them and me and everyone else in the West. Why, my critics ask, don’t I devote myself to more important topics such as President Barack Obama’s assault on freedom of speech, on his assault on private ownership of guns, on the government’s assault on private property, on Obamacare, on Holder’s Fast & Furious, and so on? I don’t know where these readers have been, but I’ve logged in over 500 columns on those and many more subjects on Rule of Reason alone. I think I am well versed in the damage Obama and Company have wrought domestically, never mind the twisted alchemy of their foreign policies, and have written extensively on both phenomena. I’ve been excoriating Obama ever since he poked his head out of Illinois many years ago in a stage-managed debut at the 2004 Democratic Convention. A faraway friend lamented the shortsightedness of my critics, as well, saying they lacked my “metaphysical intelligence.” That being said — I’ve penned close to a million words on all those subjects over the years, including movies, TV series, book reviews, etc.; I write these columns gratis, thank you very much — I offer this roundup of things Islamic.

He then outlines some of the peculiar features of this ideology, each subtitle being a subject you and we have discussed endlessly, no?

The Beast That Bites the Hand that Feeds It The Inbred Insanity of Islam Mommy! Johnny Stuck His Tongue Out at Me! Or, Islamic Grievance-Mongers The PsychoSyndrome of Islam

[I recommend the whole post, especially in light of Ed’s current emergency. I remember reading it back then and being glad he was calling attention to the excellent work of Nicolai Sennels. Here’s a recent interview with Dr. Sennels on the economic impact of “refugees”. Well, Ed sure is feeling their “economic impact”.]

There’s a wiki on Ed’s authorial output, which is both varied and prolific.

And there is his other blog, listed on our blog roll, this post to get the flavor.]

But back to Ed’s predicament…[yes, I’m having trouble focusing here]. Fortunately, he took pity on the fact I have one foot nailed to the floor and am walking in circles. Today he sent me this précis of his experience with the FBI visit and the subsequent eviction from his apartment:

“On May 18th, I was visited by the FBI/NCIS and told by the agent that my blog site, Rule of Reason, and I were on the ISIS radar, but that I was in no imminent danger of attack. The chances were minimal to nil. Nevertheless, after I informed my landlord of this as a matter of courtesy, the landlord chose instead to evict me from my apartment, claiming, quite irrationally, that my presence posed a “risk” to the safety of all the other tenants. So I had to go. The landlord said I had to be out of the apartment by July 1st, relented and changed the date to July 31st, and then reneged on that and repeated the June 19th date. There was no arguing with the landlord, as her mind was completely closed to reason. I am definitely moving — to Texas — as the state’s [Virginia, he means] landlord/tenant laws favor the landlord, who doesn’t even need to give a reason (which is not cited in her three eviction notices). She in effect was acting like a proxy ISIS agent, throwing me under the bus for the most ludicrous of reasons. My safety and well-being were of no concern to her. In conversations with her, she didn’t like either my characterization of Muslim women as “brood mares” (there are Muslims living on the development property). Daniel Greenfield wrote a wonderful defense of me on Front Page (“What Happened to One Air Force Veteran Threatened by ISIS”) and two radio talk shows expressed an interest in my situation. As Greenfield remarks, ISIS doesn’t need to “target” me for violence; the landlord has done it for them.”

Here is Daniel Greenfield’s excellent post from Monday, the one which decided me on wrestling this thing into being:

And another post, from Ruthfully Yours.

As she says (which is close to what I’d written in one of my fifteen or so drafts of this post):

It does not matter that ISIS, if it had the power, would not spare anyone in Mr. Cline’s building, regardless of their politics. It is easier to evict a man whom ISIS has made a target and imagine that this makes us all safe. Being so terrified of a terrorist group some 6,000 miles away allows any moral outrage to be committed, including kicking an elderly writer out of his home, in the hopes that somehow the dread shadow of terror will pass them by next time. And maybe the time after that. Edward Cline is only one man. Perhaps his friends, who have succeeded in raising some money for him on GoFundMe, may be able to help him. Or perhaps not. Lawson Enterprises, which boasts a one-star Yelp review, is likely not the most pleasant of residences. And yet there is more at stake in such a conflict than a place to live. As we anticipate decades of war, such choices will occur more often. Our moral mettle will be tested and we will either do the right thing or be found wanting. We will not defeat ISIS by having the biggest weapons. We will either do it through moral courage or not at all. Edward Cline has shown that species of moral courage. That he is being punished for it shows us why we are losing and what it will take for us to truly defeat the Islamic State.

If you think this is an overreaction, bear in mind that poor Molly Norris is still in hiding after all this time. Remember Molly? Although I’ll admit I was hard on her — she reminded me too much of the battered women I worked with in crisis counseling — this wasn’t her fault:

If she’d ever demonstrated any understanding of Islam, of her situation, I’d have been in there pitching for her. But the leftist blind spots wouldn’t allow for that. Instead she begged the imam for forgiveness. And she’s still hiding, per Mark Steyn, as of May 2015. I had no idea he’d been corresponding with her during that fiasco. I had done so, too, thinking my experience in helping women go underground would be of some use. It wasn’t. At the end of our exchange she was as blind and baffled as she’d been when that fatwah was issued against her. If I sound harsh, that’s why. I do feel sorry for her, though.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I am asking you to help Edward Cline move to a safe place so he can pick up the pieces of his life. He is moving, with very short notice, from Virginia to Texas, and the moving costs alone would be a burden if he had to assume them by himself. Then he’s going to have to stay somewhere while he finds a safe apartment/home. I presume he’ll drive his own car there and seek a temporary haven once he arrives.

Then there is the higher rent he’ll face, because at the very least he needs both a gated community and a top-of-the-line alarm system in his home. He’ll probably need to upgrade his weapons skills, acquired in the Air Force. And he should probably replace his weapon with something he can have on his person since Texas is a concealed carry state.

A friend of his established a Go Fund Me page for his expenses, Called “Patriot on The Homeless Brink”.

She says:

My name is Hilda and I’m a good friend of Edward Cline, an American author and patriot who has recently become a target of political correctness and cowards. If you are someone who believes that political correctness is destroying our country, I’m asking for your help. By helping Ed Cline you are taking a stand against those who attempt to silence Americans that speak out against Islamic terrorism. Yes, Ed Cline, is under threat of eviction from his home here in America because he writes about the threat of Islamic terrorism. His landlord gave him a tenancy termination notice, because his landlord learned that Ed was visited by the FBI/NCIS to inform him that his “Rule of Reason” column and his books, “Islam’s Reign of Terror” and “A Handbook on Islam” along with his novel, “The Black Stone” have attracted the attention of ISIS and other terrorist groups. The FBI agent who visited him said that he is in no imminent danger, but the landlord believes that his presence on the property poses a risk to other tenants and has asked him to vacate the apartment. He is nearly 70 years old. He cannot afford to move or to hire legal counsel because as a self-published writer his income is minimal. In contributing whatever you can, Ed will be able to find another place to relocate to another state that is more welcoming and friendlier to Americans who exercise their right to freedom of speech. Thank you for your contribution. Please share this link with other patriotic Americans.

Ed also has a post office box. Go Fund Me only allows for credit cards, so I’m using the cash-at-the-post-office-box, as many of our donors do with us. We’ve never lost a donation so, I trust that system.

Ed’s first idea was to stay in Williamsburg, no doubt because of the expense of moving. I am so glad he changed his mind; that place isn’t safe anymore.

In addition, I’m going to ask Ed if he’ll let me check around to find someone qualified to do a Threats Assessment with him before he settles on a place to live. A meeting with someone like that would give him expert guidance regarding choosing an apartment, what kind of lease to have, what alarm system, and even possible physical security at times. Should he change his car? His cell phone? Those are all the questions that go through my head at two a.m.

I want Ed to get back to writing, living in a congenial safe place. As he was doing before ISIS came along.

To that end, I am asking our readers to help him. If you write to me for his P.O. Box, I’ll send your email on to him; I don’t even have it yet for our own donation. If I’m not familiar with your email address, give me some information about yourself. Everything ought to be vetted, yes?

Use my Gmail account to contact me. It’s dymphnagates (at) gmail (dot) com.

You can also donate via credit card at the Go Fund Me page.

It permits you to give anonymously, no name appearing on the page.