I can thankfully say I didn’t hear about anything political yesterday. Unless you count watching a couple of chimps at the zoo literally throw shit at each other political discourse. Either way, it was pretty awesome except for one thing. It made me fear for the future of our planet since it kinda grossed out the two younger German people that were there witnessing it at the same time. I mean, since when does something, anything, gross out Germans? That nation truly has lost her way.
Anyway, on to…the links!
Texas Governor Greg Abbott signs bill making it illegal for state law enforcement officials to not assist federal immigration officers. The left immediately says elected law enforcement officials should be exempt since they represent will of constituency. Hey, kinda like Kim Davis, right lefties? Right? Where’d they go?
Harry Kraemer – average guy
If you thought American cops could be petty, vindictive and generally assholish when they set their mind to something, then it would appear that their Canuckistani brethren have been taking notes. (TW: there are a few stereotypes reinforced in the story.)
Chicago government releases plan for 760 incredibly valuable acres along Chicago river. Or in other words: Chicago politicians have a new toy with which to peddle influence and enrich themselves.
The Florida legislature is leading the way in something we can all get behind. No, seriously.
DeKalb County Sheriff Jeffrey L. Mann
I’m not sure how many people would lose their job after being caught with their dick literally out (claims it was a misunderstanding) in a place known for late night prostitution (it was late at night) with a pair of condoms in his pocket (at least he was prepared for that water balloon fight which is what the misunderstanding is, I’m sure) and then running from the cop for a quarter of a mile (because that’s a sure sign of a misunderstanding) and then … aw shit, here’s the back story so you can just read it. Anyway, not sure how many people lose their jobs when that happens and its all over the news. But I know if you’re the DeKalb, GA county sheriff, then apparently you don’t.
You want to know how stupid “art” people can be? Maybe stupid is too strong a word, but THIS is how easily “art” people can be had. I swear, those Nigerian princes need to do a little better targeting in their marketing. They should just buy donor rolls from all the major galleries and foundations in the world and go after some of those dumbasses.
That’s it. Enjoy something a little lighter than usual.
Don’t know who cares, but last night I finished the first draft of Shadowrealm, the latest entry in the Tarnished Sterling series. It is now moving on to the revision and editing process which takes a month to six weeks on average. I’m hoping for a release date in June, or early July by the latest.
…and there was much rejoicing.
Yay.
PS – Would it be wrong to try to convince the editors to let me shill as a post instead of a comment when the release date announcement rolls around?
Aren’t almost all of your comments posts anyway?
Well there’s a difference from an ‘article’ post in the wordpress parlance and a ‘comment’.
Admittedly all of my posts are comments as well…
Congrats. Fininshing a manuscript is a pain, but a joyful one. I wish you success. Are you self- or old school publishing?
Congratulations! I’m in the final few chapters of my latest book….
Just one suggestion–there appears to be a fantasy series already called Shadowrealm. Maybe change the title to avoid confusion?
I’m not concerned if the book title overlaps with someone else’s series title. If you look at the number of “Shadowboy”s out there, I’ve already run over that problem. But I don’t think the superhero book Shadowrealm (Tarnished Sterling Book 4) is going to cause confusion with a fantasy series. People will be able to tell the two apart.
The editors would be delighted.
Is it a raunchy love romance with tits and shit?
No, I don’t write Sheisse porn.
Huh. I thought that’s where you were headed with that Dutch-girl thing.
Something about putting a finger in a dyke?
And on a more serious response, no, it’s the next book of an ongoing superhero series that I started writing because I got frustrated with a more serious work. I still haven’t gotten back to the work I took a break from, but I did re-read it recently.
It was not good.
Don’t sell yourself short. Post some here so we can rip it apart like a pack of wild dogs.
Here I’ll start: You’re book is as bland as your taste in food.
You. Are. Welcome.
“You’re book is as bland as your taste in food.”
Not spelling-magic are you? ; )
He’s a book!! Nice way to other him, AC.
Thanks!
*your
Happy now? Leave a guy to troll in peace, sheesh.
I have seen the art thing played out differently by different people. One of my favorite memes is of a guy who set his glasses on the floor of a museum and walked away for like 5 minutes. Came back and snapped a photo of people admiring his floor-glasses as art
They didn’t see what he did there.
Apparently Pepe is dead.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/08/pepe-the-frog-creator-kills-off-internet-meme-co-opted-by-white-supremacists
At least we still have Lou Reed
Wait. By ‘wait supremacists’ he merely means Trump supporters and idiots like us who have no patience or sympathy for pant-shitting, anti-intellectual, hypocritical hysterical left-wingers, right?
Just checking.
I think it was mostly random people having fun. I don’t know why it is so hard to understand that people to stuff for fun and to get a reaction, and the internet makes this easy. Off course I think most do understand but they still wanna keep the outrage industry going. And it is so easy to find random bullshit to be outraged about on the internet.
I know. They should adopt Harriet Tubman as their new symbol
Are you some kind of secret alt-right hate genius?
No, I’e heard wait supremacists are those who believe no one should complain if they’re unable to get food or other necessary goods on a timely basis.
They’ve been strong in Valenzuela for some time, although their rain may be ending.
I saw that yesterday. The artists can hold whatever BS ceremony he wants. If anything that will just drive the trolls to troll harder. I’ve already seen zombie pepe, jesus pepe and zombie jesus pepe.
WWZJPD
Next thing you know there will be a superhero pepe, since if there’s one genre where death is meaningless it’s the superhero genre. Or an Obi-Wan pepe, since “if you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”. You’re right: the trolls will win. The only way to defeat a troll, is to ignore it.
The horny skunk finally got AIDS?
So is Mohammad. But that didn’t stop anybody from drawing him.
24) I’ve often heard it said, both by gleeful liberal-types and despairing conservatives, that most Americans will say they want less spending and smaller government, but when you actually start listing programs, they don’t want to cut any specific ones. My suspicion is that claims like these result from public polling where people are presented with popular programs, or at least programs people don’t want to be seen opposing, like Head Start or Social Security.
I say, let’s really put that to the test. Let’s make a detailed list of government programs, really breaking it down, and let people vote online for which ones they want to keep. Give people a certain number of votes, say ten, and see what people really prioritize. My guess is most programs won’t actually get a whole lot of votes.
I think to a lot of people saying they want smaller government sounds good just like saying they are pro liberty sounds good, so they say it. But they rarely mean it.
As with all things, there’s a Yes, Minister for that. Can’t link right now, but I suspect it’s phrasing.
So you are saying you are in favor of reintroducing national service?
Back in the late 20th C., that think tank in New Hampshire (or somewhere) did better than that. They assembled focus groups and had them play Congress to hammer out a budget.
How does your numbering system work? Comments per week? Month? I MUST KNOW!
I think he numbers the main comments but not the replies. The real question is not how, but why?
“My suspicion is that claims like these result from public polling where people are presented with popular programs, or at least programs people don’t want to be seen opposing, like Head Start or Social Security.”
Or they word the questions creatively like “do you support healthcare for the elderly?” or “should schools have more resources to better serve at-risk students?”
I got called for a phone survey for Virginia Dominion Power. The questions were very progressive-leaning. One of them in particular was about companies who put profit first as opposed to community first. I said I like companies that put profit first, but it was clearly trying to get me to “see” that Dominion puts community first and aren’t they awesome for doing that?
But I’m an outlier on literally every survey I’ve ever taken, so I’m guessing my answers are always thrown out.
That wasn’t a poll, it was a PR campaign
I got a call too, but when I said I was part of a co-op, they hung up 🙂
A public servant saying that without a hint of irony.
If I ever win a really huge amount in the lottery, I have a plan to buy the Tampa Bay Rays and move them to Mexico City. It would be huge! Mexico’s own team would attract fans from all over the country.
If I win I will not do anything that would require this amount of effort
Most lotteries actually fall into a range of winnings that I wouldn’t know what to do with. I can picture what I would do with, say $10K. And if I had a *whole lotta* money, like hundreds of millions, I could do cool things like invest in sports teams or build skyscrapers. But in between amounts–$5 million or something? No idea. I don’t care about cars. I like where I live and wouldn’t want to move. Planes and boats sound like a pain in the ass. What good would the money do me, except bring out acquaintances and relatives I’m glad not to have seen for years?
I’ll deal with that problem when it occurs. 5 mill would at least allow me to quit my job which I do not particularly enjoy for a while, travell a bit and then see about find something else to do.
Assume the $5 million is after taxes: take $500k-$1 million to buy land/house/both outright and pay off all debt, put the rest in an annuity, ???, profit
I see what you’re saying, but we’re already well on our way to paying our house off. Other than our mortgage we have no debts. I put 10% of my income in my 401K and we have built substantial savings in the kids 529 plans for their college. Basically, those who live below their means don’t need a lot of extra money. Winning more would just introduce bad spending habits that would make us worse off in the long run.
A $4 million annuity at a 2.5% rate could pay out $135k/year for 50 years (the expected remainder of my life).
You’d have a guaranteed income of almost triple the national average for the remainder of your life + the freedom of being able to choose when and where you did any type of work if you so chose + the ability to save portions of your annuity withdraws and reinvest them for other things.
I’m all for living within your means and whatnot, but I’m sure as hell not going to turn down free money or act like pissing some of it away on frivolous things is worse than the alternative of having less money and working WAY more.
Oh, that’s unlikely. You would still live below your means. But your means would just be a little bit higher.
Land and house – buy a large lot out in the woods, build a compound, start cult… ? profit!
Ditto on big house out in the woods, with plenty of space, but I’d add a nice townhouse in Savannah and a decent fishing boat. Oh, and fucktons of ridiculous guns and a private range. And maybe a pony.
You’re missing one key step: have sex with the attractive wives of your followers. Tried and true method to buffer your profits.
You misspelled daughters
Yeah but he’ll have to make some daughters first. Chicken before the egg, rookie.
What good would the money do me
Hookers and blow, man. Hookers and blow.
*Calls Alanis Morrisette*
I don’t think she’d be disdaining the lottery right about now.
From the link about the cops ticketing the smoker in his car in Ontario:
Linda Stobo, program manager for the chronic disease prevention and tobacco control team at the Middlesex-London Health Unit, said though she couldn’t speak specifically about the Kraemer case, she believes the investigators were not out of bounds when they charged him in his SUV.
“The purpose of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act is to protect people from the harmful exposure to second-hand smoke at work,” she said.”
Go. Fuck. Yourself.
That, and second-hand smoke is bullshit.
But third-hand smoke is legit!
But who will protect us from harmful exposure to meddlesome assholes?
Messers Smith and Wesson?
Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, & Richard le Breton?
Totes Woke Tuesday: You Have Got To Be Fucking Kidding Me Edition
Temper that last statement with:
I hope the participating students are considerate and mark the area off with a large sign reading “Coloreds Only.”
It must be tiring work being so woke all the time.
Epistemic racism? Beautiful. There’s nothing quite like when someone tries to sound smart by using the wrong big word.
Knowledge is racist.
Knowledge is the White Man’s tricknology!
+1 Jakub
I like your ideas. Could I prescribe to your newsletter?
Affirmative action will take down Harvard.
You can’t let in remedial to average minds into an institution based on racial quotas and not expect some kind of negative consequences.
Hence, they turn around act like entitled cunts and racists within the institution and saying stuff like ‘epistemic racism’.
Yeah, I was just scratching my head trying to figure out…oh never mind. Jebus fuckin’ face palm.
God they’re tiresome.
It’s like they’re narcissistic about slavery.
Slavery of blacks in America is the only slavery that ever existed.
The funny thing is out of about 10 million that came to the Americas, what, half a million (if that) came to a southern part of a country.
It’s disproportionately consuming the contemporary black mind to unhealthy levels. They’re too far removed from that event which makes me wonder why they’re so obsessed over it. They’re exhibiting little sense of perspective.
The history of slavery in America is still used as a club to beat the Southern states and their political beliefs, preferred policies, and candidates. It’s far far too useful to ever give up.
The labels change, the names change, but the age old rivalry between the Yankees and the Cavaliers goes back to the English Civil War.
Don’t they play in two different sports?
/groan.
Patriots vs. Falcons?
The south outplayed the North for the majority of the war, but fell apart in the end?
I’d love to slap a Norman Yoke on one of those snooty New England assholes FWIW
yankees being roundheads? and cavaliers being planter aristocracy?
doesn’t entirely make sense, the roundheads/parliamentarians by and large were landed gentry who were pissed about being taxed and having their prerogatives taken away unilaterally, not the regular paid laborers who generally didn’t care as the taxes didn’t so much apply to them
Well there was also a very prominent religious component to it. Roundheads being largely Calvinists/Puritans and Cavaliers being High Church Anglicans/Catholics. The early English settlers of the Bay Colony were absolutely Roundhead supporters and Virginia/Maryland were royalists areas, by and large.
Three of the regicides of King Charles the Martyr who escaped England were settled and protected in the Dominion of New England
Also, there’s the “lost cause” element that flows pretty easily from the Jacobites to the ex-Confederates. My family came to the colonies as Jacobites on the lam and fought for the Confederacy. There’s an element of “Again!? Are you serious!?!” to it all.
“There’s an element of “Again!? Are you serious!?!” to it all.”
My mom’s side of the family rode with Bonnie Prince Charlie, then when he lost they fled to Ireland, where they took part in the 1798 rebellion a couple generations later, then ended up fleeing to the US, where they again took part in a losing rebellion against a tyrannical government.
I don’t know why more of them aren’t pissed off at Brazil. They imported so many because they kept working them to death.
Or the Muslim world that took many times more slaves out of Africa, worked them to death, culled the sick, elderly and infants.
No profit in that. Only white Americans are stupid enough to hand out special treatment because some people’s ancestors were treated badly 150 years ago.
Even in the pursuit of slavery, the Europeans did it with more moral wherewithal than the Arabs and other Africans did. This is partly evidenced by the fact that the slaves that were sent to the Arab world have almost no descendants alive today.
Don’t forget forcing the African females into sex slavery.
Perhaps next they want black only parts of the city, black only water fountains, and for maximum safe space black only schools. I’d like to propose we call this policy resegregation.
“They’re more comfortable among their own kind.”
Darn, I was a few mins. early for this one, and put my comment in last night’s as #25, about the discussion of the racial composition of the students handcuffed in NYC schools.
Florida shoplifting suspect impales self on stolen knife, police say
He died with honor. *Bows deeply*
My first reaction whenever I see a “Florida Man” link is to wonder if it is anyone I know.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-presidential-candidate-emmanuel-macron-donald-trump-us-climate-change-scientists-please-come-a7572811.html
France asking climate ‘scientist’ to leave the Trumpistan and come work for the frogs. They’re going to fix the climate!
Well why not. But they better ask for more money. And free cheese.
This is the perfect solution for everyone, and I completely encourage this in every way. The only way to improve it would be France to insist that all climate change-related publications should be published exclusively in French.
It’s because Trump is literally Hitler, and the frogs are trying to help the persecuted scientists.
Franquackery.
Progressives Eat One of Their Own in the Latest Campus Controversy
There is some peak derp in the quotes. Why do young people pay schools to make them dumber?
I think that is a week old or so. I am sure there was more controversy in the mean time. Like this
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/duke-divinity-crisis-griffiths-documents/
Take it easy on Drake. I titled the link “Tranny on Tranny Action”. Don’t blame him for not clicking.
I was on vacation last week and took a vacation from links as well.
Hope it was a good one. Taking a break from us freaks is not the worst idea.
That guy has balls – and was obviously ready to leave Duke before all this started.
That is a beautiful quote.
Unfortunately, that and a dollar will get him a cup of coffee. Apparently the perpetually offended have won and he is out. It was a really good read though.
Online learning looks more attractive daily.
I would love to start new learning institutions where there’s absolutely no in loco parentis.
No dorms, no cafeterias. You can find a place to live. You can find food to eat.
Just come to learn how to do something that you can get paid for later in life.
In the comments of the article: (that his letter and the ‘education’ is part of an ongoing thing at Drake)
“In a discussion about the racist incidents with some other Div School students, I said that perhaps the way we were responding to the incidents was hurting rather than helping, because after every incident the black students would make public announcements about how hurt and afraid and rejected they felt, and then everyone would hatch plans to re-educate the whole university on issues of racism. I suggested that instead perhaps we should respond to the perpetrators like we would a bully, with strength and confidence and even defiance, to show them they didn’t have power over anyone. You would have thought I had suggested we start a chapter of the KKK. They made it clear I was a horrible person in denial of the harsh realities of racism for suggesting such a thing, and I learned to keep my mouth shut. It appears to me that what’s going on is that they’re playing roles in a perverse drama, in which everyone so enjoys their own role that they don’t want the drama to end. The Bullies enjoy seeing how others react to their bullying; the Victims enjoy having everyone rush to their side to reassure them of their worth; and the Saviors enjoy the moral high ground of condemning the Bullies and comforting the Victims. I was so glad to get away from all that.”
she nails it. By not reacting with strength, they just encourage the perpetuation of this shit. and thus we get Divinity professors losing their tenure, black students feeling so “oppressed” they want segregation, and on and on.
That is an excellent read.
Why are they always writing things like “black bodies” “trans bodies”, queer bodies”? She even writes it unironically as she complains about the objectification of people with language. Wouldn’t referring to them as “people” or “persons” be a less objectifying term? But whatever, I’m not going to listen some feminist professor that doesn’t even have a nice pair of tits and a tight ass.
It’s Ta-Nehisi Coates thing, you wouldn’t understand.
It comes from a writing tic of Ti-Neshi Coates, who stole the phrase from James Baldwin. They think imitating a bad writer attempting to imitate a good writer makes them sound smart.
You’d think it would have evolved into “Black Entities” etc, since I think the use of the word “bodies” would be a dog-whistle to the KKK who – you know – *created* so many *bodies*.
But what do I know? I’m just a cishet shitlord.
Sounds vaguely like the kind of writing one would use for a bad porn script.
NOOOOOO!!!!!
“I was kind of shocked to receive this news,” Robert Richardson, an ecological economist and an associate professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Community Sustainability, said in an interview Sunday.
…
Courtney Flint, a professor of natural resource sociology at Utah State University who had served one term on the board, said in an email that she was also surprised to learn that her term would not be renewed, “particularly since I was told that such a renewal was expected.” But she added, “In the broader view, I suppose it is the prerogative of this administration to set the goals of federal agencies and to appoint members to advisory boards.”
Sciencey.
ehm yeah… scientists. yup. sad.
I’m sure they were marching the other week. Unlike fake scientists like me who work in fringe areas like physics and chemistry.
Do you have a Bill Nye stamp?
If not, you’re no scientician.
I still get a kick out of Netflix editing out the Nye segment where he explains that there are two genders, and your gender is determined by chromosomes. Down the Memory Hole!
Nikolai Antiopov was never there, comrade.
Really? I missed that. Any links to a story about it?
Youtube has a couple up about it.
Here you go.
Netflix insists they had no hand in it, that the content owner delivered the episode in that form. One unnamed Disney exec suggests the edit may have taken place as early as 2006. Which, if true, shows how long this crap has been percolating up out of academia and into the national consciousness. Long march, indeed.
Anyway, it seems unlikely that Netflix would have taken it upon themselves to edit down content they’re licensing from a media vendor like Disney.
Corbyn says Labour will transform Britain as he launches election campaign
Lotsa bullshit buzzwords, little else …
He’s right. Labour will transform it into a single-party nation. That party being the Tories.
I was going to say it will transform Britain into Venezuela, but yours is better.
Corbyn is done. No one has a high approval rating at the moment, but Corbyn’s is so low that the 7/7 bomber is probably more popular in Britain than he is.
Well, at least the bomber knew *some* people who weren’t Mao-worshipping prototyrants.
Apparently Corbyn’s twitter feed or his party’s feed posts pictures of their rallies where they carefully photoshop away Stalin banners, which is ironic given Stalin’s history of airbrushing his enemies out of existence.
Corbyn’s is so low that the 7/7 bomber is probably more popular in Britain than he is.
Well to be fair, in many areas of London that statement has been true of most (natural born English) politicians since 7/7 itself.
Yeah, it’s possible that I’m only slightly exaggerating. Corbyn might be only a few percentage points more popular.
CM Poll: 20% of British Muslims sympathize with 7/7 bombers
NOP Research: 1 in 4 British Muslims say 7/7 bombings were justified
Channel Four (2006): 31% of younger British Muslims say 7/7 bombings were justified compared to 14% of those over 45.
I keep seeing his ads, which read like someone running for high school class president:
— vote for me and you get free parking at your NHS center!
— vote for me, and I’ll make sure your kids don’t eat nasty hamburgers!
like, dude, is that the best you’ve got? laaaaaame
Luna, The Most Groundbreaking and Human Like AI You will Ever See!
Conversely, it means social justice is such a symplistic mode of thought that we’ve been able to replace the advocates with machines.
So Luna is programmed to be a SJW. They should ask Luna if all lives matter, or if men are entitled to due process when accused of sexual harassment. The answers might be interesting.
Since AI is a self developing process that is suppose to react to the inputs it receives, Luna could quite possibly develop into a racist misogynist cis-hetro shitlord.
Right now her AI is based on the limited inputs the developers fed her.
Wait until the filthy internet proles get a hold of her and thrust their inputs inside her until there’s nothing left but a quivering pile of misogynistic racism. I can’t wait.
She would tell you that they do and that every human has a right to live.
Ooh, a pro-life AI interface. The left ain’t gonna like that.
“Luna, are human fetuses also human? And as human, do they therefore have a right to live? Is abortion then murder?”
*Bzzzt… does not compute….Noman, coordinate!…bzzzzzt!*
I like how she does not believe that women *have* rights, but that they have to be given rights. Whatever the benevolent government decides to give I assume.
I was looking for any indication of how the programming framework works, the closest it comes is this:
If I take this at face value, it means that Luna is a more advanced internet trawler that builds its factbase by consensus.
“A day after Microsoft introduced an innocent Artificial Intelligence chat robot to Twitter it has had to delete it after it transformed into an evil Hitler-loving, incestual sex-promoting, ‘Bush did 9/11’-proclaiming robot.”
http://www.newstarget.com/2016-03-25-microsofts-ai-robot-became-a-hitler-loving-sex-addict-in-less-than-24hours-forced-to-shutdown.html
Yeah, the most frustrating thing with AI is the way it it’s often proclaimed as non programmatic. These machines are modeled and programmed, they are just programmed to figure out answers and then update their model. It’s not super difficult to explain, but tech journalists love to make it sound different than it is.
This has the negative side effect of having my boss who loves tech, think programming AI is easy as it just teaches itself.
The article reads like total bullshit. If I had to guess, it’s a startup looking for venture capital funding.
Tell him that a blank slate AI will take somewhere around twenty to thirty years to learn enough to be useful to the company. ie, as much time as a human to learn from zero.
As one of my friends at work said, if AI has to learn from the general population, we have no need to fear it taking over the world.
“Luna artificial intelligence learns just like how a human does”
So she’s as dumb as the rest of us? Noted.
“She believes that women are important and need to be given equal rights.”
This is called being a human, dipshits.
Having encountered multiple scenarios where issues like hunger, illiteracy, energy depletion, medical negligence have been rampant, Arana believes that its time we begin to understand the importance of technology and how it can be used to alleviate these radical issues which threaten humanity.
And, like every other exercise in crafting Marxist solutions to endemic human problems, it’ll likely end up murdering countless millions of peasants.
This won’t end well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6o881n35GU
It’s truly glorious. It killed a bunch of stupid, business-killing regulations.
They also weren’t able to pass their dumb-ass medical marijuana enabling law, so it goes to the Department of Health, which will hopefully not be quite so awful.
They were, however, able to pass awful new mandatory minimum laws for opiates, which means again that people with a month prescription are going to be picked up for trafficking.
You People?
Why Are You People Surprised That Ivanka Trump Sucks?
“Women, for some reason, must grapple with Ivanka Trump’s feminism.”
I’ll have to ask my wife about this. I’m pretty sure she’s felt no such compulsion, being sane and all. But maybe she’ll surprise me, and she thinks about some random woman’s feminism day and night.
From my wife, the fabulous SP, on what now passes for feminism: “Fuck that shit.”
SP is quite pithy.
And the person who wrote that is criticizing someone else writing about feminism.
I tend to be ambivalent towards “first children” so long as they are children but adult first kids are a different story. I want Chelsea Clinton to shut up and go far, far away. And she can take Ivanka with her. Both of them get on my very last nerve. I guess that makes me a bipartisan hater.
You’re just jealous because Chelsea is such a voracious reader.
(Yes, it’s two plus months old, but I remain amused by the media’s attempts to prepare us for Chelsea’s inevitable candidacy)
I know five year olds who are voracious readers. That is not all that important a trait with regards to handing someone power.
She certainly has plenty of free time on her hands to read, that’s for sure. Not working has its benefits.
Hilariously, they both were supposedly best friends until their parents started running for the same seat.
Chelsea is so ugly that a blowjob from her counts as anal.
You bring this VICE shit in here?
I BLAME YOU!
So I’m perusing FB (hey, I gotta keep in touch with family) and I noticed a post about “Way to Go France! Congrats Macron”. Now I’m not jumping in on that shit thread, but I did notice one young liberty snapper wadded in with a comment about how the EU is bureaucratic nightmare and Macron a massive statist. Oh, this ought to be fun, so I kept an eye on the thread. The lefties piled on the smug derision and insults, but our intrepid libertarian kept coming back with the standard arguments. Problem was that he was using terms and language his opponents had no idea as to their meanings. He went waaay overboard on the Rothbard and I doubt he made much headway. I was tempted to jump in and give him a hand, but he actually weirded me out, too. Taught me a lesson: Tone it down a bit and pick a few easy to win battles and let the others go until a better time arises. From Macron to fiat currency in 4 posts. Wonder if I’m guilt of this myself.
My mother in law wanted Macron.
My mother in law, God bless her, knows absolutely jack shit about European politics.
There is a random libertarian who comments on one of my prog “friends” posts all the time. He does the same thing. He goes way too hard philosophy angle. He’s also an asshole so he never wins anyone over.
” He’s also an asshole so he never wins anyone over.”
So a regular libertarian like us, then.
Eh, the issue is if you concede to them the state, and you concede to them central banking, and you can concede to them any kind of utilitarian calculus, at that point you just become a guy arguing for legal pot and against seatbelt laws in the framework of a society controlled by a completely unchecked government.
Centralized taxation and inflation backed with force is the State, the rest is just a pleasant mask. It’s why I have mostly given up arguing.
Like, if they ever actually shut down a Cabinet department, the functions will be transferred or outsourced. So long as they can tax and print money, there’s no actual limit to what they can do.
We agree with that, but the others are so far away that you may as well be speaking Klingon. I’m trying to use Socratic style questioning more and more and just giving them enough rope to hang themselves. Also, agreeing on premises before moving on seems to avoid moving goalposts and intentional obfuscation, but that isn’t easy either.
Yeah citing Rothbard to a person whose greatest exposure to philosophy is a youbtube clip of Elizabeth Warren waxing about income inequality is going to be a dead end.
Yeah I mainly go with the Socratic thing too.
“How big a group to I need to get together before taking your stuff becomes right? You clearly think one man taking another man’s property is a thief, but hundreds of millions of voters voting to take other people’s property is a legitimate exercise of ‘democracy’. So where’s the tipping point? If I come to your house with a hundred friends and auction off your belongings, are we a gang of thieves or a government? A thousand? A million?”
I rarely argue politics on FB, but when I do I try to keep my examples of government overreach small, often making comparisons between it and a large, poorly run company. Like: “Top man? Have you ever worked at a company where the management knew what they were doing?” Or: “Would you trust the accounting department at your company to decide what you can or cannot buy?”
Or, if I don’t feel like arguing, I’ll say something like “Read some Bastiat and get back to me.”
I usually just default to “fuck off, slaver”.
BIngo.
Libertarians don’t do propaganda well.
I’ve been working on a simple poster series with various images with the headline “This is what big government looks like”
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the pineapple was probably more aesthetic than most of the art in that gallery.
One more femiwhatevs…
Why More “Bromances” Could Be a Win for Feminism
so more “Wild Bunch” and less “A Fistful of Dollars?”
I wish they’d have done more like Thelma and Louise than either of those you mentioned.
Wild Bunch is probably the most underrated western of all time. So good?
My dumb comment was about the mass slaughter that can be done by a group of guys (The Wild Bunch) versus the toxic masculinity of the solitary Clint Eastwood.
“A real male friendship where nobody ever felt the need to say “no homo.” It felt vulnerable, natural. ”
How could this author possibly have enough insight into Obama’s and Biden’s interpersonal relations to reach this conclusion?
Uh, she watches TV, dude. She can just tell.
“Essentially, more bromance equals less toxic masculinity, and that means we all win.”
You know what culture is really into bromance? Arab culture. I understand it’s not unusual for men to walk down the street holding hands in Arab countries, and that men form deep friendships with each other far more often than in Western culture. Don’t think it’s cut down on the toxic masculinity there, though.
Stop mansplaining!!!111!!
Toxic is just for white guys. Do Arabs count as white? I sometimes forget …
Depends. If one of them guns down a black teen in self defense, then they are a “White Arab”.
Gang raping an uncovered woman really shows you who your friends are.
I’ve seen the same with certain Asian cultures as well, where intimate, emotionally-expressive friendships are socially permissible yet the societies at large are far more patriarchal. In fact, in classical European history we see a whole lot of affectionate male-male relationships in societies that are extremely patriarchal. I think it’s safe to say that patriarchy is not negatively affected by tolerating intimate male-male affection; in fact, it could even be enhanced, as there would be less need to build respectful relationships with women if all a man’s emotional needs are met by his male companions.
“A real male friendship where nobody ever felt the need to say “no homo.”
That is correct. ‘No Homo’ never crossed my mind.
“At least one homo”?
So of course they’re still hanging out, right?
Maybe if queer theory hadn’t spent the last 20 years trying to cast every male friendship as sublimated homosexual longing, the “no homo” idea wouldn’t have sprung up in the first place.
These people realize that “no homo” is itself a subversion of homophobia, right? Nobody who says “no homo” is worried about appearing too homoerotic. It’s used to mock the idea that any such concern exists.
Or, to put it more simply: it’s a fucking joke, you clowns.
You know who else idealized the Nazis…
Germany trying to rid military of Nazi-idealizing views
I figured most of the German military would be into honoring the great Sultans of the Ottoman Empire.
nice
Jesse James
The Germans really are determined to commit demographic and cultural suicide.
It’s hard to watch.
This sort of over-paranoid, zealous behaviour is gonna manifest itself in nasty ways and will have unintended consequences. I don’t know how or what they will be but it will.
I linked that once at the Other Place. Crusty claimed it caused his gender to flip.
Good song, though.
Thanks. I always liked the lighter new wave stuff. They knew what they were doing.
Then you probably remember this, too.
Strangely enough, this song always brings back very strong memories of that era. It’s like I’m 13 again.
Joe Jackson was (is) brilliant. I think was in 9th grade when this gem was released.
Exactly. The 911 is obviously the right vehicle for the situation.
If you visit a Porsche dealership and drive off in an SUV, you have failed at life.
I think that’s more accurate.
You know I dig you, UCS, but that is some crazy shit, right there.
How can you not like Porsches?!?
They’ve always struck me as not not good enough for their drawbacks. With so many net negatives I keep boggling at how the company is still able to move enough units to stay afloat.
Umm. Great speed, handling, style, resale value and longevity?
Small size (interior), small size (exterior), German maintenance costs, ticket magnets, no pothole resistance, lack of versitility.
Every time I see a middle aged guy in one, I want to yell, “Sorry about the penis!”
Let me guess, you drive a light brown 4-cyl Camry with 285k miles.
Don’t be silly. Why would I own a Japanese car?
I drive This rolling toxic waste drump. Because it’s comfortable to drive.
That is a fitting car for you.
I’m only annoyed that it got assembled in Detroit. I did not want to pay the UAW.
(Yes, I know I got into an argument with Robc over US manufacturing and how many products made in this country I actually own. That’s one…)
I always find it funny seeing GM cars with these license plates.
Kristen, you Kibbled the link.
Awww sheeeit.
SF’ed
light brown 4-cyl Camry
That’s CHAMPAGNE to you, mister!
AKA Baby-Shit Brown.
Baby shit brown is a darker shade than Champagne.
I have not driven one in a long time but the 911 in it’s basic form (with a manual transmission and without all the gizmos) is something special. Probably what it’s like to ride a race horse – scary and exhilarating.
It was the geometry. Positioning the engine where he did, Ferdinand assured plenty of work for body shops. A lot if the dudes who bought them didn’t understand what they were getting.
Still don’t, come to think of it. A guy down the street has a “used” 2016 4S (like 5K miles) that he got a sweet buy on because the guy who bought it new thought it was too rough of a ride.
Unreal…
My uncle had a 911 SC in the 80’s. Air-cooled, unassisted steering and barking. The motor would spit and buck at low RPMs. Once it started to rev hard, all was beautiful in life. That thing was a bad influence.
That’s what I want. Perhaps after the kids leave I will have the time and $$ to take a crack at one.
What the shit? I got to drive my buddy’s 911 at Charlotte motor speedway once at a Porsche club rally. This was over 20 years ago. It was fucking incredible. Those cars have always been among the most engaging to drive sports cars in the world.
How does it manage when you’re off the nice, neatly maintained track and on the crowded, pock-marked pathways that pass for roads in the frozen wastes?
Like a boss.
That road is Empty – and well plowed.
I’ve driven my (now departed) rear wheel drive BMW 325i on unplowed Michigan roads out in the sticks – Blizzak snow tires, along with the very good BMW traction and stability control make it a blast. I never got stuck in any weather in that car, even an ice storm that shut down the city.
Same thing with my wife’s Mini Cooper S with Pirelli SottoZero. FWD is a different sort of handling than I prefer, but that car is like driving a go-kart. It tracks so nicely on the corners that it is exhilarating to drive. And that supercharger whine is addicting as the boost gets stronger as the RPMs climb.
I drove my 1984 RX-7 GSL-SE year round. As LH says, snow tires make all the difference in the world. Oh, and removing the front fairing.
It was a damn near perfect winter car. 50/50 weight distribution, 5 speed and a great suspension.
I grew up driving rwd in the winter. The 911 would be a dream.
How did they do with the craterscape left behind after the melt? (which was what I was actually trying to allude to, but mentioning the cause of the damage made people think of handling on snow and ice)
Minneapolis is pothole capital of the universe. I don’t care what you drive, you gotta stay out of them. An Escalade with 22″ rims will get fucked up by a good pothole.
*dreams of being able to dodge potholes.*
Actually it’s only one pothole in particular…
The road is the feeder to the bridge I have no choice but to cross on a daily basis. The parked cars along the shoulder and the other lane of traffic being constantly backed up means there’s very little wiggle room left to right.
I hate that road.
It handles fine. In fact, it handles like a fucking dream.* But it a driver’s car. It’s not for the faint of heart and should be left alone by people unwilling to treat driving it differently than they would a run of the mill sedan.
*If by “dream”, you mean it is nimble as fuck, has great acceleration, can turn on a dime (if you know what you’re doing) and can stop in no time (if you know what you’re doing).
Was the American Revolution such a good idea?
“We could have been Canada”
We could have gotten English food, French technology, and American culture!
What they should be mourning is the fact that Canada could have been part of the United States… if a couple of battles had turned out differently. I’d wager the Canukistanis would have been better off.
If only our Founding Fathers had just submitted…
^This^
I have heard that quite a lot lately.
I usually respond with “They didn’t. They stuck a bayonet up George’s ass and ‘they’ will be happy to do it again.”
For some reason the conversation usually ends there.
It’s amazing how little someone can actually say in such a long piece of writing
Probably the most succinct definition of The New Yorker I’ve ever heard.
These are the same people who go apeshit if you suggest there might have been avenues other than the Civil War that could have ended slavery.
I didn’t read it but the idea ‘we could have been Canada’ is stupid.
Greatest nation in world history by most metrics and this idiot wants to be….Canada. Splendidly mediocre (great figures notwithstanding!) Canada…because universal health care.
American left-wingers are just about the most vapid, ignorant bunch. He knows jack shit about this place.
Nice country though.
It’s a trite idea that is often the fallback of idiots, but in this case it fits – there’s literally nothing stopping this clown from leaving. If you pine so fiercely to be Canadian or Australian, then go be one. No one’s stopping you from emigrating.
That is where our political culture is now, Enlightenment argle-blargle.
I want to hit something.
Blackadder: Three… and that one. [waves the fourth bean in front of Baldrick’s face] So if I add the three to that one, what will I have?!
Baldrick: Oh! Some beans.
Blackadder: [pause] Yes. To you, Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people, wasn’t it?
There it is. I knew I’d find it in there somewhere. Leftists love to draw connections between libertarianism and slavery. It’s a corruption of the states right’s libertarian rhetoric, but a corruption that has been allowed to stand for too long.
“If only we’d fulfilled this arbitrary historical event that perfectly matches up with my bias, we would have become something that exactly matches up with my bias! Also, the thing I want to become is actually an imaginary thing in my head, and not reflective of reality.”
-The deep and insightful thought of The New Yorker.
Something something revealed preferences. Never mind that in the example cited said war was literally started by the Senator so he could consolidate power and turn a democratic republic into an imperial dictatorship. Maybe I’m just a crazy libertarian but I’d prefer the guy who doesn’t start wars for personal gain to do the negotiating.
Daniel Greenfield tries to explain why Western leaders can’t bring themselves to admit that they’ve been scammed by Islam.
A good read. Thanks.
Anyway, not sure how many people lose their jobs when that happens and its all over the news. But I know if you’re the DeKalb, GA county sheriff, then apparently you don’t.
“Let’s not quibble about who sexually assaulted who… look over there- an opiod epidemic. Get the flashbangs, boys, and follow me.”
Lenin: Living, eating and dreaming revolution
I wonder if there has ever been a commie revolutionary who actually lived up to his or her own standards in their day-to-day life?
Sure, but they were among the first up against the wall.
It is all about power. Only the useful idiots actually believe any of that drivel.
I wonder if there has ever been a commie revolutionary who actually lived up to his or her own standards in their day-to-day life?
You mean other than Pope Francis?
Trotsky tried. Then, the ice ax cometh!
Do any of you think Barry is giving speeches now as a form of ‘shadow’ against Trump in an indirect way to undermine him?
I think he thinks it undermines Trump, but fails to realize how little effect he has outside of his bubble – where no more gains are to be had talking people into being against the president.
I hate to say this, but I want Republicans to win the presidency for the next 30 years. Not out of some great love for the GOP, but: Barack Obama is 56 years old. If a Democrat wins the presidency, and a Supreme Court spot opens up…I don’t even want to finish this sentence.
Worked for Taft.
I don’t know. I think Barry would find the collegiance (a portmanteau of collegiality and allegiance?) and sinecure of the court very gratifying in a way that would probably dull his most progressive impulses. I don’t look at a guy taking $400k from Wall Street as a risk taker.
Isn’t it rather obvious?
Not really, I think Barry is all about Barry. If his speeches are against Trump, it’s simply because he thinks he benefits from riding the public opinion wave.
I think the mice have gotten to my neighbor. She was acting like a lunatic last night. And absolute nutter. There is too much craziness to review, but it’s clear she’s suffering from MDS™
The sound of mice in the same building as me gets to me.
My reaction is to wage a war of extermination on the mice with every tool our monkey brains can come up with.
It has worked so far. Your neighbor should go on the offensive.
This is part of the craziness. I went off on her because she has done NOTHING to take care of the problem in her own unit. She had un-baited sticky traps for weeks. I told her she needed to bait them. She complained about how the mice were just running around the traps. I told her she needed to bait them. As soon as I brought her a jar of peanut butter (which she could have gotten at the store 100 yards from our building), she caught SEVEN mice in one night. She has literally taken no action, and just waited around for people to take care of it for her, or for it to resolve itself. My house is an anti-mouse fortress. I have every trap and repellent known to man in there.
I told her I didn’t understand why she wasn’t at Lowe’s at the ass crack of dawn the day after she first saw the mice, emptying their shelves of anti-rodent stuff.
But the craziness last night was beyond, beyond. Her MDS put my dog at risk – when she dropped him off in the afternoon (I pay her to walk him), she left his leash on (presumably because she was in freakout mode), and he was stuck in the couch. Gawd knows how long he was like that. I got home at 6 and found him stuck. Thing is, my dog will sit and stay at the door, so all she had to do was take his collar off and open the door, and he would have strolled right on in.
Don’t fuck with my dog, man. Don’t.
Confused me for a moment. I was trying to puzzle out how mice had dragged your dog by the leash into the couch cushions. Seemed horribly carnivorous.
In such a situation, a couch would not survive our dog.
I’ve lost two couches to my dog. If it isn’t large enough to be a threat to my possessions, it isn’t a dog, it’s a rat that barks.
Little dogs are effective early warning systems. And bed warmers.
My barking rat says “fuck you!”
My rule has always been – if my cats can kick your ass, then you’re not a dog but some kind of mutated gerbil.
I’m battling a country rat right now in my workshop. Normally, I place a few rat traps (unset) with peanut butter for a few days and train the rats that the traps are safe and a great food source. Then I set them and get every rat. This rat has avoided traps, sticky traps, poison, and water buckets. Not looking forward to spending my Saturday with a bb gun in the workshop but that’s probably my last resort at this point.
http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2017/05/an-honest-question-to-progressives-when-does-the-proportion-of-tax-money-claimed-by-government-workers-get-too-large.html
What exactly does office of the president do at a US university?
based on my years of higher education – University presidents having building built. As many as possible.
At my University, the replaced the fine old library with a newer one that had less space for books. And a new work out center / gym. And a new computer/technology wing… that was taken up with aged PCs.
By my experience, university presidents have affairs, and then get forced out by the board of trustees.
Sounds like good work, if you can get it.
Or is there a progressive argument for larger-than-needed government staff and higher-than-necessary pay and benefits
Multiplier effect?
I like to ask progressives what portion of a dollar that I earn should I be allowed to keep? They invariably give an answer that is significantly more than what I actually do get to keep between federal, state, and local taxes. At which point I can say, “so then you agree taxes are way too high and need to be cut.”
When Does the Proportion of Tax Money Claimed By Government Workers Get Too Large?
Since the examples being looked at were in CA, imma say about 20 years ago.
#1 raise money
#2 raise money
#3 raise money
#4 other stuff
The many reasons that people are having less sex
There’s more available distractions now. Netflix or Nookie?
Right? That season of House of Cards ain’t gonna watch itself!
Sorry babe, season 93 of Supernatural just became available. Sam’s been possessed by God’s great uncle and Dean is too old to get out of his lazy boy and fight anymore. I’ve got to see what happens!
Or simply marriage…
Pffffft. I was having no sex way before it was cool.
We live in one of the most sexually liberated times of human history.
The opening line. If you’re gonna believe every story of rape without evidence, completely screw the man in divorce court and tell them they are evil anyways, I wouldn’t say it’s been “liberated” for everyone.
That, and everything is sexual harassment.
Apparently my wife hasn’t gotten the message yet. /tired old man
Only skimmed through that, but I noticed what is probably a major reason for the drop that they didn’t list. Having your life legally destroyed by false rape claims. I think fear of that might be a rather large factor in guys avoiding sex. But of course stating that as a reason would upset the feminazis, so can’t have that.
That’s my thought on it as well.
Doesn’t explain Japan.
Personally, I think its the pixels.
That’s my fault. Sorry.
Yeah, whatever. Speak for yourself Simon.
Simple Simon’s not a pieman, I guess.
There’s something presumptuous and aggressive about taking a part of yourself and sticking it in someone.
Take the following classic exchange, for instance. A hockey player named Bellows was apparently hurt and drew a penalty. After drawing the penalty, Bellows quickly came back into the game. When Bellows skates up near the opposing team’s bench to line up for a faceoff, the microphones capture the following exchange:
“Your knee must be killing you, Bellows”
“Get off the fucking ice, you faggot”
“Bellows, you must be really hurt”
“Fucking freak”
“Bellows, you must be really hurt”
“Get off the ice, you pussy”
“You’re the best”
“Go lay on the ice”
“You’re the fucking best, Bellows”
“You’re a superstar”
“Lay on the ice like a little . . . lay on the ice like a broad, pussy”
“You fucking woman”
“You make me want to puke”
“Get up you faggot”
“You fucking tit fucker”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MNA0_n32Hc
Notice, the players are denigrating Bellows for what they see as a lack of manliness. Just like the rest of you, I’m shocked and appalled by these expressions of homophobia, but what I’d really like to focus on, there, specifically, is the use of the term “tit fucker”. I think they may have hit on something there!
Is it in any way sexist to suggest that the male member is designed for penetration? And that if a guy is somehow too shy to use the male member as designed, then maybe he isn’t being . . . manly?
I mean, form follows function, and while there’s no reason why women can’t also be aggressive, penetration itself is still an act that lands somewhere on the presumptuous and aggressive spectrum. Even when women are penetrating someone with an object, at some point, they approached the situation with some level of presumption and aggression. She must have been thinking, I’d like to take my . . . and stick it . . .
If young guys these days are less presumptuous and aggressive, then maybe that explains why they’re having less sex.
There’s something
presumptuous and aggressivewonderful about taking a part of yourself and sticking it in someone.I think there’s something manly about it.
Testosterone is the antidote to estrogen, right? And it makes people more aggressive?
I’ve heard that the average gay male couple has sex more frequently than the average heterosexual couple.
I’ve heard that the average lesbian couple has sex less frequently than the average heterosexual couple.
I’ve seen it deduced from this that heterosexual couples have sex more often than lesbian couples because men are aggressively lobbying for sex, and women sometimes give in.
The other observation is that if heterosexuals are having sex less often than gay male couples, it’s because men compromise and give up sometimes–but that’s not the point here.
The point is that if guys aren’t as aggressive (and presumptuous) as they used to be, that may explain why couples aren’t screwing like they used to.
Years ago, there was a post on that other site about how this woman was trying to get high school boys to stop pressuring girls to have sex, which is sort of like pressuring Canadian geese not to fly north for the summer. No doubt, women can be aggressive in pursuit of their desires, too–but we’re talking about averages over millions of people.
More akin to flying south for the winter, innit
Herding cats with boners!
I don’t mean using boners to herd cats, I mean cats that have their own boners being herded . . . to Canada for t he winter when they’ve already got a bunch of female cats around and they’ve a keg of catnip for everybody.
It’s like the feline version of how I met my girlfriend!
You wouldn’t know her, she lives in Canada.
Tit fucker is a Canadian thing.
And Bellows kind of was. Thanks for the memories, though. That was the North Stars swan song. I was at every home game at the old Met Center.
A glorious time.
A tit-fucker isn’t a manly thing, is it?
It should be, but as used in hockey, not so much.
Tit fucker should not be manly.
It’s a greenhorn who’s not manly enough to do the act.
A “wanker” in UK parlance, whatever it is, is also a guy who isn’t manly enough to get a girl.
Maybe we’re talking about different things, but if we’re referring to the topless blowjob with mammary assist, I’ve always gotten them after I’d already proven myself in the conventional way. Well.
“Just like the rest of you, I’m shocked and appalled by these expressions of homophobia,”
Meh. Sounds like ordinary conversation when I was in high school.
Ken, you are waaaaay overthinking this.
That’s what makes it funny.
You titfucker.
Sshhh. He’s trying to impress Robby.
“Just like the rest of you, I’m shocked and appalled by these expressions of homophobia,”
Also, don’t forget about sarcasm.
If I said that I’m sure everyone here is shocked and horrified by expressions of homophobia, really, that’s not necessarily how I see you all.
Just because I don’t think the government should discriminate against people doesn’t mean I find expressions of homophobia shocking or appalling. People say things on the ice sometimes.
Sometimes when they’re driving on the way to work, too.
There was a section of dialogue kind of like this in that movie The Believer, where Ryan Gosling was a Nazi skinhead who was secretly Jewish.
You know who else was called secretly Jewish…
George Lincoln Rockwell?
That was an interesting movie.
I think it’s one of those movies where they have to pretend it’s a real story and connect it somehow–to make it alright. It needs to be in code. You can’t make a movie blaming Jews for not standing up for themselves and making themselves victims–so some Jew becomes a skinhead because the more brutalized Jews are, the more they stand up for themselves.
You can’t make that movie. So you make it about how skinheads are so retarded that one of them is a Jew.
In a lot of ways that movie has the same topic as Bellow’s “Henderson the Rain King”.
You can’t give people that straight or all you get is pitchforks and torches. Give it to them as metaphor, and they give you prizes.
Just in case there was any confusion . . .
The central message–of that movie–was on the question of whether Jews were ultimately responsible for their predicament. That isn’t my take! That’s what the film was saying.
SPOILER ALERT!
The Nazi skinhead that’s Jewish had an unusual reading of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac when he was a kid in Hebrew school learning to read the Torah. The kid argued that when Abraham sacrificed Isaac, there was no intervention. God just let Abraham kill his own son. That the Jewish people were horribly traumatized by this, they made up a story to deal with it, and that trauma made them fearful and easy to push around. As he grew older, the Jewish kid came to believe that the most heroic examples in Jewish history of Jews standing up for themselves was when they were forced to stand up for themselves. In his interpretation, thus, the greatest thing he could do for Jews was to become a Nazi skinhead and go around beating the shit out of them. As he gets deeper and deeper in with the Nazis, he never abandons that idea. At one point, he’s screwing the daughter of a neo-Nazi big shot (none of whom know he’s Jewish), and she finds his Torah–and he starts teaching her how to read Hebrew, without skipping a beat. He sees what he’s doing as a Nazi skinhead as being in the true service of Jews.
That’s in the film! I’d hate for anyone to think that’s something I thought or condoned or . . .
The last scene of the film (from memory) has him trying to run his argument back–from when he was a little kid learning Hebrew. But he can’t. He’s gone too far. Whether he can’t run the argument back because he can’t undo what he’s done in the meantime or because he remains convinced that he was wright–but he’s so emotionally attached to his Jewish roots–could be argued. Regardless, you can’t have an exploitation movie about skinheads and Jews without the skinhead being the ultimate loser. Otherwise, like I said, you get pitchforks and torches knocking on your door.
The difference between an exploitation movie and a non-exploitation movie is that in an exploitation movie, the SuperFly pimp, the women gone wild, the kids who tried cannabis, etc. they all lose for their actions. People can forgive these things if you make the kids pay for . . . doing what they shouldn’t have done. Showing young girls hacked to death in slasher movies is okay with the general public–as long as she was, you know, taking her top off, having sex before marriage or guilty of some other ungodly sin.
Anyway, “Henderson the Rain King” makes the same sorts of arguments as that film, it’s just that he doesn’t become a Nazi. The cow people become like cows because of their circumstances and the other cows around them. The lion people become like lions. The king of the lion people spends a ridiculous amount of time associating with lions in a private chamber where they could tear him to pieces. By choosing to associate himself with lions, he becomes like a lion. As I recall, wasn’t Henderson a pig farmer before he went to Africa? He brings a lion home with him so that he can associate with it regularly and gets rid of his pigs. Because being a pig farmer, he became like a pig. If you want to be a lion . . . you gotta run with lions.
It’s saying the same thing, basically, it’s just that “The Believer” made it more explicitly about Nazis, where “Henderson the Rain King” made it about lions. Make it about Nazi skinheads, and maybe the left will let you go–so long as you show the Nazis being sorry ass pieces of shit in the end for which there can be no redemption. Make it about lions instead of Nazis and cows instead of . . . and they call you one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century.
Hell, they gave Gunther Grass a Nobel Prize for Literature, but that was when it was all in metaphor. The he wrote a book about the German version of the sinking of the Lusitania and confessed that he’d once been a member of the Waffen SS during the war, and suddenly all those metaphors don’t hide the truth of what you’re saying anymore.
Again, I’m not saying I agree with any of these books or that movie–in fact, I think I’m kind of excoriating their central messages. My attempt was to drag their filthy messages out into the light.
German officials have turned their focus on the country’s military, trying to weed out groups that have a dangerous combination of extreme, Nazi-idealizing views and access to military weapons, according to the BBC.
Fewer hillbillies, more Prussians? That’ll work.
Chris Froome, the British cyclist, has been rammed off the road in a hit-and-run attack – but is understood to have forgotten the driver’s number plate.
The three-time Tour de France winner and Olympic medallist’s bike was left badly damaged after he was struck “on purpose by an impatient driver”.
Froome said he was “thankfully okay” after being deliberately hit by the driver, who is said to have followed him onto the pavement, while training in southern France.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/09/chris-froome-deliberately-rammed-road-hit-and-run-driver-leaves/
The guy I used to cycle with was a three-time triathlete. When I started dating his daughter he was still recovering from a similar accident: hit from behind while cycling hills somewhere in Colorado, pitched a ways down the embankment, roused by a couple state troopers and couldn’t remember where he was or where he was staying. The accident fucked up his inner ear and he had to deal with bouts of vertigo and nausea for years afterward.
Hope they catch this fucker.
Dayum. I like Froomie.
What is with the author using “it is understood” over and over and over?
Forget it, KK; it’s Telegraphistan.
Look at it this way – a journalist that is prepared to signal that something they wrote is subject to interpretation and may be inaccurate should be congratulated, ‘cos it always seems like a lost art nowadays with all the “Person X is literally Hitler” crowd.
Read elsewhere:
“the old Cato scowl once rooted the genius of so fucking old
Ludwig Von Mises a Superman of mind and country
Not a single voice echoes in these halls so adept and agile
…
always keep in mind once Mises DID state that immigration can change
a country but in economics sensibility immigrants are
bologna sandwiches for neighborhood people….
But no one eats bologna sandwiches unless they are retarded…”
—-Agile Cyborg, May 9, 2017
Maybe, but leave off my spam sandwiches.
Now I want grilled cheese and spam.
Thanks, Commodious
We always did the tuna salad thing as kids, but with spam. Mmm… been years.
I think the mice have gotten to my neighbor
Nibble, nibble, like a mouse- who’s that nibbling on my house?
That was good, Brooks.
Are Brooks and Agile Cyborg the same person?
Trying to remember if AC threads its comments. If it does, then definitely not the same person. LPB would never be so gauche!
You know it’s really Brooks, because of the threading fail.
Maybe stupid is too strong a word, but THIS is how easily “art” people can be had.
Well, that’s art: it was a creative act that provoked a reaction. It’s just that art is stupid, stupid, stupid. Should have stuck to patronage and more starving artists.
I am a patron of the arts.
I pay my cover artist to create pieces. Sometimes just to have the image come into existance without the intent of wrapping it around a book.
I don’t know what these people are looking at.
There are great artists and great works of art. There’s just nothing especially rarified about art as a category, certainly nothing worth the reverence it’s shown that winds up with pineapples in display cases. We’re coming around to recognizing that not everything published in an academic journal is worth the ink its unreadable jargony prose is printed in, so maybe it’s time to let the air out of the art world a bit too.
Do any of you think Barry is giving speeches now as a form of ‘shadow’ against Trump in an indirect way to undermine him?
There’s nothing indirect about it.
“The Minnesota Department of Health has now confirmed 48 cases of the measles”
http://www.kare11.com/news/measles-cases-now-at-48/433731747
“Forty-one of the cases are Somali-Minnesotan.”
“Another sign expands upon the definition of “pee privilege,” noting that the “ability to use a restroom without fear or concern for your own safety constitutes” such a privilege, explaining that other factors like the “gender binary,” or the “ability to undoubtedly know which bathroom to pick,” contribute to “pee privilege.”
http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9156
The other seven were unfortunate enough to come into contact with a Salami.
Caps take it to game 7 which is good but it sets us up for the most Capsiest scenario possible tomorrow night when the caps take a giant shit on home ice and lose 2-1 in OT.
All my friends are saying “this is the year!!!!”. I say “thanks for jinxing it, assholes”
I actually thought last year was “our” year. My brother is going to game 7 tmw night I can’t bring myself to go with him, I just have too much ptsd from past series against the stupid pens. Regardless if they don’t resign TJ Oshie next year I’m going to be mad
I just started following the Caps in this series, but I don’t understand how you could possibly not do everything you can to keep Oshie. Then again, I’m a Redskins fan, but I can’t imagine the Caps front office is as wildly dysfunctional as theirs.
As long as the Caps and Senators win their respective series I’ll be fine with the rest of the playoffs. Washington winning wouldn’t be ideal but it’s a hell of a lot better than Pittsburgh or the Rags winning.
“to the Penguins”
you forgot to add “to the fucking Penguins” at the end.
So they’re moving me from my own interior cubicle to a shared office (with 3 dudes), but with this view. I love my private space, but I also love a good view. I’m also facing the approach to DCA runway 19, so there’s that, too.
But who’s the bobblehead? Burt Reynolds?
Ron Swanson?
Kristen’s sex toy.
Oh, dear.
I’ve got a big cubicle in an office that hasn’t been updated since the late 90s, but I have a view of the Naval Academy across the creek which makes up for it all. Natural light, no need for overheads (until the one dickhead who shows up for like an hour a day storms in and turns all the damn lights on). It’s all about the view, man.
I have a nice view of the street – but hey, sometimes the beer truck drives by. And the occasional accident because of the idiots who don’t know how to drive when semi trucks are around.
But it beats the days when I was in a cubicle with no view. It was like living in a submarine.
shared office with 3 dudes?
go ahead and burn your olfactories now.
Florida Man asks to show murder jury his PENIS as evidence his lover died accidentally choking during oral sex
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3502754/man-asks-to-show-murder-jury-his-penis-as-evidence-his-lover-died-accidentally-choking-during-oral-sex/
That really should have been in Links.
That should really be its own post.
I really have no idea what to say.
“Art Student with Glue Gun Provokes Lockdown, Soul Searching at New York Liberal Arts College”
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20170505/art-student-with-glue-gun-provokes-lockdown-soul-searching-at-new-york-liberal-arts-college
Ah yes, finally people are asking the question:
“Of what possible fucking use is an art degree?”
About time.
Art certainly strikes me as something more suited to an apprenticeship system than university.
Someone I stumbled across recently whose work I quite like. Apprenticeship seems to have been the rule of the day.
Did they find the soul?
Anybody watching American Gods? I can’t decide if I hate it or love it yet. Ian McShane is great but jesus I have absolutely no idea what’s going on.
I’ve seen the first episode. It’s been a while since I read the book, but I liked it and the show seems to have the same feel. Ian McShane, of course. And the guy who plays the Leprechaun was good in The Wire. I saw a spoiler review of the second episode that mentions something about a “powerful statement that Black Lives Matter” or something, so I’m a little apprehensive, but I’m still willing to go with it.
Second episode was pretty good nothing happens but the characters drive the show. Also there is an erect penis in it. The opening monologue was interesting I didn’t really see it as anything but a god convincing a bunch of slaves to sacrifice themselves for him, sort of like that chick whose vagina consumes people she meets on tinder.
So many maybe cameos and excellent actors in the show though. But it is so fucking bizarre, which I like.
I just read that Tuvel piece in National Review (linked above). What a nightmare. I’m really really glad I don’t have kids.
Social Justice Warrior Meets Lord of the Flies.
All I can see in my head is the ouroboros. That, or the human centipede.
This is fun – apparently, other philosophy professors were writing her privately to support her while at the same time publicly excoriating her. What a bunch of hypocritical cowards.
I hope Tuvel replied to any of those private support emails with “Fuck off you two-faced bitch.”
eventually some of these progs will go after the wrong person and there will be Actual Violence against them in retaliation.
On the subject of hockey and the Caps, past performance is no guarantee of future results.
Yeah, the Caps have rolled over in this situation in the past, but the problem of induction still stands there silently like a laughing mountain.
. . . not to mention the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Huh, what about the Infinite Monkey Theorem?
Let’s go, Caps!
Yeah, I have no idea what that is.
But yesterday, Bobarian introduced me to the Trunk Monkey, which is awesome!
Infinite monkeys on typewriters will eventually produce an exact copy of the works of [insert famous writer here]
Hah! I remember, about ten years ago, one of the older salesmen I worked with was absolutely obsessed with that Trunk Monkey video. You’d hear him laughing his ass off at that video almost every day while at his desk.
I wouldn’t even know what I would do with myself if we won. At this point just making it to the Conference Finals would be almost as good as a Stanley Cup let alone beating the Pens in 7 to do it.
Assuming we make it past the Pens, who is next up?
Hopefully Ottowa.
If the Caps somehow beat the Pens I want them to go through the Rangers.
Not happening, because Vigneault is a fucking moron who hasn’t yet figured out that Marc Staal is always on the ice when they give up those backbreaking late goals.
And, besides, in the remote chance that we DO make it past Ottawa, the Rangers own the Caps in the playoffs lately. You know it, and they know it.
I expected whomever won between the Caps or Pittsburgh to win the whole thing.
Now, I think Pittsburgh is playing really hurt, more so than they’re letting on.
I think there was more to the eye that Crosby wasn’t examined by way of the NHL concussion protocol after going head first into the boards at high speeds, too. I think the Pens are just beaten up.
Ottawa or the Rangers.
Either way, the Pens scared me more than either one of them, and Holtby has his groove back.
There is no way he wasn’t concussed after sliding head first into the boards.
INFINITE STEVE SMITH THEOREM MORE TERRIFYING
SINGLE STEVE SMITH THEOREM PRETTY FUCKING TERRIFYING
Fleury’s psyche is rocked. 9 goals in two games. Caps know where to shoot. left hip or ear every time.
Art certainly strikes me as something more suited to an apprenticeship system than university.
Like this guy?
““It is embarrassing,” DeKalb County Commissioner Nancy Jester said Sunday. “It’s certainly not a good headline for DeKalb County.””
Hey, Nancy, why so serious?
But seriously, here is the first hint in the article about the sheriff’s political affiliation:
““It’s tragic and unfortunate the citizens of DeKalb County have to endure yet another black eye,” said Harold Dennis, a business owner and Republican whom Mann defeated in November’s election with 80 percent of the vote. “The citizens of DeKalb deserve better by their elected officials.””
So I suppose if his *oppnent* was a Republican…that means the Sheriff was…
#NameThatParty
Here we go:
“Mann, a Democrat, defeated Harold Dennis, a Republican business owner, in the November election for sheriff.”
(AUTOPLAY)
that means the Sheriff was…
Near? I think he said the sheriff was near.
I don’t know about that, but he is alleged to have whipped it out.
Speaking of the P{orsche 910 platform…
It only took fifty years to get the motor where it belongs.
*not coming to a Porsche showroom near you
Typing is harf.