Elsewhere (188)
Katherine Timpf on when blue hair and facial piercings just aren’t enough to get a girl noticed:
A Norwegian woman is claiming that she is actually a cat trapped in a woman’s body — and that the fact that she has a human body is a “genetic defect.” […] Because Nano believes that her true identity is as a feline, she sees no choice but to live her life as one, even wearing cat ears, a tail, and fluffy pink paws that she grooms herself with in order to express her true self. Nano claimed to have feline characteristics such as superior hearing, better night vision than day vision, the urge to hunt mice (although she’s never actually caught one), and a fear of water. In fact, she even said that some of her catlike behaviours are involuntary. For example, she claimed to have no real control over how she started hissing at a dog in the middle of her interview.
Happily, there’s a video.
Kevin Williamson on the inadvertent comedy of identitarian Oscars protests:
The protest rhetoric inevitably has been concentrated into a Twitter hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite, which invites the longstanding and sometimes uncomfortable question of who is white — and who decides. The 88th Academy Awards are hardly an all-Anglo affair: Alejandro González Iñárritu of Mexico has been nominated for best director; Rosa Tran, an Asian-American, shares a nomination for Anomalisa; Gabriel Osorio Vargas and Pato Escala Pierart of Chile share a nomination for Bear Story. There are Danes and Irish and Welsh and loads of Brits, and the nominations were announced by Guillermo del Toro of Mexico and Ang Lee of Taiwan… The convolution necessary to maintain #OscarsSoWhite–type thinking is substantial. If excessive whiteness is the offence, then “white” needs to be defined in such a way that it includes Alejandro González Iñárritu and Pato Escala Pierart.
And Jacob Kohlhepp on the farce and dishonesty of “diversity” classes:
[Psychology professor Anna] Lau recalled a situation during which a foreign student asked “what if the reason black males are incarcerated more than whites is because they commit more crimes?” She said there was a total silence in the room. She then stated she wished she knew how to answer, because hard questions should be asked. Shortly after, Assistant Professor Safiya Noble stated “we cannot let unsophisticated comments stand.” She said that as a faculty in residence for the “Afrikan Disapora” dorm floor, she has learned that “those questions outside the norm make black students feel not just microaggressed, but actually aggressed.”
Yes, those unsophisticated questions can really be a bitch. By most credible estimates, black males aged 15-24 – around 2% of the U.S. population – are responsible for around 5o% of U.S. murders, and for disproportionately high rates of other violent crime, including rape, armed robbery and assault. The disparity is so great that even if one assumes police bias and differential rates of conviction, despite evidence to the contrary, one still has to wonder why the victims of such crime - whose descriptions match rates of arrest and who are themselves very often black – would lie about the appearance of their attacker.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for.
She said there was a total silence in the room.
I bet there was.
I bet there was.
Well, I suppose it’s easily done. Causing scandal in “diversity” class, I mean. If a class is premised on a victimhood narrative – if that’s the sacred assumption on which everything else is based – then anything that might reduce the scope of that victimhood or challenge it in some way is likely to be met with disapproval. And Professor Lau admits that her students are a “relatively homogeneous group. It is like an echo chamber.”
Heavens. Can’t imagine why.
Speaking of unsophisticated views that must not be allowed to stand, The Guardian is changing its moderation policies.
In particular, they are concerned with “a change in mainstream public opinion and language that we do not wish to see reflected or supported on the site”, particularly concerning Muslim fundamentalism.
I’ve noticed a change in The Guardian. In previous years, a comment like “The rise of Islamic fundamentalism presents a serious threat to western liberal democracy.” would almost certainly be removed. I know. I tried it a couple of times. Now you can get away with such “hate speech”. I wonder if they’re now returning to the bad old days.
How dare you invent/promote hate fill trans-speci-phobia(c)?
she claimed to have no real control over how she started hissing at a dog in the middle of her interview.
That isn’t the kind of Catwoman I was hoping for.
Meanwhile, in academia:
No laughing at the back.
“White” is as much a social distinction as a racial one. It generally means “law-abiding, future-time-oriented, within-means-living, productive” etc. The racial aspect is secondary, hence “Oreos” and “Zebras”, ie blacks who “act white”. You’ve linked to Caprice Hollins’ “thoughts” on this subject yourself.
Reminds me of a joke. American in Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles is accosted by violent Irishmen (redundancy alert?) who ask him if he’s a Protestant or a Catholic. He replies “I’m an atheist”. “Aye”, they say, “but are ye a PROTESTANT atheist, or a CATHOLIC atheist?”.
The racial terms “white” and “black” have become cultural, tribal labels as much as, if not moreso than, racial identifiers.
Tim Worstall ponders the brain fever of the Guardian’s Zoe Williams.
The lead contamination scandal in Flint, Michigan will have the SJWs tying themselves in knots, because if they wish to assert that
criminality is caused by environmental factors, they will have to accept that the crime stats are accurate.
Regarding the cat-lady, has anyone thrown her from a roof to see if she lands on her feet?
From the “diversity” link:
Professor Aaron Panofsky said “I try to provoke them past their colorblind priors. Then we show them how race really does matter. [Colorblindness] is a great ethos that doesn’t really practically work.”
Well, sure Professor, because–stay with me here–you won’t fucking let it work, inasmuch as it would destroy your cushy sinecure in “Victim-ology.”
She said there was a total silence in the room.
But I was told by the Guardian that political correctness is just another word for politeness.
Professor Aaron Panofsky said “I try to provoke them past their colorblind priors. Then we show them how race really does matter.”
It’s interesting how “diversity” hustlers want their prey to fixate on race, often in cartoonishly tribal and obnoxious ways – say, by “teaching children to view the world through a racial lens” and by dismissing grammar, punctuality and foresight as “white values” and expectations thereof as “cultural racism.” And yet some of the more obvious things one might notice about the subject are strenuously avoided and, if mentioned at all by some insufficiently cowed student, are met with a scandalised silence.
Black people are just 13% of the US population, and black males aged 15-24 barely 2% – yet in 2013 young black males committed 52% of murders in the US, 31% of rapes, and 56% of robberies . These figures change very little from one year to another, over decades. Faced with such a marked disproportion in criminality, and a much higher likelihood of resisting arrest, it’s scarcely surprising that many police officers, including black officers, should be especially wary of young black males. But apparently we aren’t meant to notice this, let alone talk about it.
Professor Aaron Panofsky said “I try to provoke them past their colorblind priors.
So the students arrive at university not bothered about race then they *learn* to see race (and racism, natch) everywhere. #Progress
Funny thing though, as a recent Infinite Monkey Cage http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ybg84 says, there is no such thing as race*.
So all those race hustlers can now pack up and go get a proper job.
*Apart from the human race and – maybe – the Grand National.
So the students arrive at university not bothered about race then they *learn* to see race (and racism, natch) everywhere.
Pretty much. But if you don’t get teenagers to cultivate pretentious grievance and pretentious guilt, there’s not much for opportunist hustlers to exploit and fashion into a career. You have to inculcate the neurosis before you can pretend to offer a solution, a path to atonement.
And dogmatic mediocrities need to earn a living too.
And dogmatic mediocrities need to earn a living too.
Color me unconvinced.
I think the version that I’ve always known, in which the bloke is Jewish, is funnier. After all, an atheist might have been brought up in a Christian family. But the point is a good one. “Are you a black Korean, or a white Korean?”
I’m just amazed she can talk.
It reminds me of the way that the only people in Britain you ever hear still talking about “class” are socialists.
“The Guardian has announced it will close comments underneath articles on race, immigration, and Islam. The reason, according to the ultra-progressive newspaper, is that such topics attract an “unacceptable level of toxic commentary.””
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/02/01/the-lefts-war-on-comments-sections-continues/
The cat-lady is, er, barking.
“what if the reason black males are incarcerated more than whites is because they commit more crimes?”
They commit more of the scary crimes like murder and assault and robbery.
But socioeconomic status predicts not whether you’ll break the law but which laws you’ll break. Bill Gates won’t bust into your car and take your stereo, but he will break anti-trust laws hand over fist and won’t spend a day in jail because high-paid lawyers.
Identity fraud is still crime but it doesn’t scare people like assault does, so it doesn’t get included in the scary-crime stats.
That’s not to say we should go easier on the scary crimes but that we should go harder on the “white collar” crimes.
You know, to balance out the scales a bit.
@dicentra
While I don’t necessarily disagree with your point, the problem is “white collar” crime includes virtually everything these days. A faulty septic system can cause one to be a felon without any mens rea. When one can go to jail for trapping surface water, there is problem.
Sure, we can throw more white people in jail, because they’ve run afoul of some administrative malum prohibitum edict, but does that really protect the public?
Unless you omitted the < /sarc > tag, in which case, never mind and carry on.
The Guardian has announced it will close…
I got this far and fainted.
Racially segregated dorms on campus.
Onwards, comrades, the future beckons!
Racially segregated dorms on campus.
I’ve heard this tune before: https://youtu.be/6C-kBVggFrs?t=48s
Sure, we can throw more white people in jail, because they’ve run afoul of some administrative malum prohibitum edict, but does that really protect the public?
I’m not talking about malum prohibitum but white-collar malum in se: identity fraud, insurance fraud, fraudulent fraud, that kind of thing.
Oh, and every type of malfeasance committed by gubmint bureaucrats that heretofore has gone unpunished, such as wasting tax dollars on vanity projects or pursuing policies that are demonstrated to have exactly the opposite effect that they were “intended” to have.
I’m sure we can all get behind THAT.
If she thinks she’s a cat, then she’s a cat, it’s the rules. And you’re a bigot if you even question it.
I’d bet a lot of money the “cat-girl” votes liberal( or will when old enough )
Messed up in the head people such as her are usually liberals.
feline . . . . fear of water.
Must not be a Maine Coon, a cat species particularly noted for hyperintelligence.
“Assistant Professor Safiya Noble stated ‘we cannot let unsophisticated comments stand.’ “
From the professor’s UCLA webpage:
“Professor Noble conducts research in socio-cultural informatics; including feminist, historical and political-economic perspectives on computing platforms and software in the public interest. Her research is at the intersection of transnational culture and technology in the design and use of applications on the Internet. She is currently writing a book about Google and information bias (forthcoming on NYU Press).”
Riiight.
‘We cannot let unsophisticated comments stand.’
Did you try refuting them?
The Guardian has announced it will close…
I got this far and fainted.
The Independent must be on the rocks too.
https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/694134376284684288
I have friends who have a thing for anime catgirls. Of course in the anime’s world they actually catgirls. Not lunatics. Well not that kind of lunatic.
Yes, those unsophisticated questions can really be a bitch
“We want to have a conversation about race.”
“You can’t ask that question.”
“You can’t ask that question.”
It turns out that “diversity” is a subject on which there’s only one permissible opinion.
No trans-species cat-ladies here, but essential reading all the same:
http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/feb/01/top-10-books-transgender-authors-trans-characters
Philosophy student who doesn’t read the contracts he signs belated discovers that he’s spent $200,000 of other people’s money. And is shocked by the idea that he’s expected to pay it back.
That’s priceless. No pun intended.
@svh….So Owen “Russell Brand has endorsed Labour and the Tories should be worried” Jones is generously donating his time to sell The Big Issue on the mean, impoverished streets of, er, Covent Garden is he?
A courageously selfless act by our Owen and one that definitely doesn’t reek of a self-aggrandising stunt, nor designed to make him look enviably pious and peerlessly empathetic either (unlike those nasty Tories, boo, hiss).
Much.
Regardless, he’s surely depriving a genuine Big Issue seller of their pitch (and earnings) by doing this though isn’t he? I’ve no doubt that he wouldn’t actually keep his takings of course, but still…..
…shocked by the idea that he’s expected to pay it back.
The bitter, billowing borrower is Samuel Garner — currently a bioethicist at a Washington, D.C. nonprofit.
Why am I not surprised?
In my college days, I was once forced (by the all-knowing California legislature) to take one out of a selection of “broadening” classes for engineering students. I chose “Women’s studies” as the least offensive. I wasn’t offended, anyway. The prof certainly was.
She once showed us a cropped close-up of the Statue of Liberty’s hand holding the torch, turned it upside down, and claimed it was actually a stylized penis.
After I quit laughing, I asked “When was the last time you got properly laid, doc?”
It did not go well from there.
The infants at Connecticut College are so babied that first-year (freshman) seminars are held IN THE DORMS so the precious twee ones can roll out of bed and into class, where their teachers will hold their widdle hands and pwaise them!
This Samuel Garner learned to blame everyone else for his own mistakes SOMEWHERE….
political-economic perspectives on computing platforms and software in the public interest.
It’s always fun to point out that the first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace.
And that there’s a programming language named after her.
And that until 1997 the U.S. DoD mandated that Ada be used for All The Things.
Which explains the phallocentrism in the immutably binary nature of computing: 0 or 1, on or off. Nothing in between; no mixing.
John Leo and Jonathan Haidt discuss the corruption and degeneracy of leftist academia:
Examples – some ludicrous, some sinister, often both – can be found in the archives here.
This Samuel Garner learned to blame everyone else for his own mistakes SOMEWHERE….
I think it’s fair to say he choose poorly, repeatedly, and has yet to learn the obvious lesson. However,
So there’s that.
“It’s always fun to point out that the first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace.”
And then mention Grace Hopper. Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, author of the first compiler, first winner of the Computer Sciences Man of the Year Award (heh) in 1969 (awarded by what is now the AITP), Distinguished Felllow of the British Computer Society since 1973 (the first American to be so honoured), and later a senior consultant at DEC. Throw in the fact that the Navy named a destroyer after her. That’s sure to explode a few heads.
(Or not. “Only a Rear Admiral? Glass ceiling!”)
Pato Escala Pierart isn’t white?!
From the Norwegian “cat lady” YouTube video:
“Comments are disabled for this video.”
Gee, I wonder why?