Elsewhere (202)
Thomas Sowell on dubious graduation messages:
Two themes seem to dominate Commencement speeches. One is shameless self-advertising by people in government, or in related organisations supported by the taxpayers or donors, saying how much nobler it is to be in “public service” than working in business or other “selfish” activities. In other words, the message is that it is morally superior to be in organisations consuming output produced by others than to be in organisations which produce that output. Moreover, being morally one-up is where it’s at. The second theme of many Commencement speakers, besides flattering themselves that they are in morally superior careers, is to flatter the graduates that they are now equipped to go out into the world as “leaders” who can prescribe how other people should live. In other words, young people, who in most cases have never had the sobering responsibility and experience of being self-supporting adults, are to tell other people — who have had that responsibility and that experience for years — how they should live their lives.
Michael Strickland learns that interracial smiling can be a sign of “white fragility” and therefore proof of racism, at least when people of pallor do it:
They continue to ponder if they are racist for crossing the street the wrong way, or when they smile at people of colour. “Am I doing the ‘white guy smile’?” asks one of the students.
Robert Tracinski on the vanity and incompetence of Mrs Bernie Sanders:
While her husband has been out promising everyone free college, [Mrs Sanders] used to run a $25,000-per-year private college — which just announced it will be closing down due to the crushing weight of debt it incurred under her leadership. The debt was backed by fraudulent claims about millions of dollars in pledged donations. The case of Burlington College is a nice little microcosm of what we can expect from her husband’s economic agenda: grandiose schemes for expansion and improvement and lavish benefits offered to everyone — based on lies and financed by reckless, unsustainable borrowing, resulting in eventual collapse. It’s a microcosm of socialism in one other respect, too, which is that Jane Sanders and her friends and family did pretty well skimming the gravy off the top of the system while she ran it into the ground.
And Katherine Timpf on what that student debt is getting you:
A professor at Santa Monica College took a group of students on an “EcoSexual Sextravaganza” trip earlier this month, during which they “married the ocean”… The students were specifically instructed to think of this marriage as one involving sex, and encouraged to “consummate” the marriage and “make love to the water” by sticking parts of their bodies into it.
Feel free to share your own links and snippets, on any subject, in the comments.
In other words, young people, who in most cases have never had the sobering responsibility and experience of being self-supporting adults, are to tell other people — who have had that responsibility and that experience for years — how they should live their lives.
Sounds like every leftist I’ve ever met.
This comment, by Andrew Z over at Tim’s, is quite good. On identity politics and its corrupting effects.
On the basis of mail-order Ph.D. in “leadership studies,” whatever that means, Mrs. Sanders got a $160,000 a year job as president of Burlington College.
I’ll have to try that one myself.
I’ll have to try that one myself.
Note also the reference to Gawker’s Matt Bruenig, whom Salon describes as an “incisive poverty analyst and combative Twitter personality,” and who was mentioned here previously for his curiously non-reciprocal principles. Among which, a belief that one mustn’t disapprove of rioting and people behaving like thugs because smashing and burning other people’s property and terrorising entire neighbourhoods is a good thing, a revolutionary act, and a way to chastise the police. Presumably, Mr Bruenig doesn’t expect himself ever to be on the receiving end of the violence, looting and acts of random malice that he so happily endorses.
Interesting comment from Andrew Z.
I was recently speaking to a man who bemoaned the current state of affairs. He feared to be seen speaking to a child, feared being alone with a woman, feared approaching women in pubs, feared being accused of etc etc. This neatly turns the perceived oppressing males into victims and the self declared victims into oppressors.
I can’t but help feeling sorry for the younger generations in this impoverished world.
And further to this eye-widening saga, an update:
Must be all that “white privilege” we hear so much about.
Should a male obtain consent from the ocean before “entering” the water?
Interesting comment from Andrew Z.
It does rather capture the essence of the thing.
the vanity and incompetence of Mrs Bernie Sanders
I think ‘incompetence’ is a euphemism.
The Andrew Z comment is spot on.
“The students were specifically instructed to think of this marriage as one involving sex, and encouraged to “consummate” the marriage and “make love to the water” by sticking parts of their bodies into it.”
I’m married to my love doll cos I stick a part of my body into it?….Gawwwd…
http://esexdolls.com/?gclid=CMr1lJHzg80CFYKYvAodEV4L6Q
Go on……you would, wouldn’t you?……
They can be contacted at 410 Peachtree Parkway, Cumming, 30041, USA.
Really.
In other words, young people, who in most cases have never had the sobering responsibility and experience of being self-supporting adults, are to tell other people — who have had that responsibility and that experience for years — how they should live their lives.
Exhibit A:
“An influential students’ group has called for prisons to be abolished because they are ‘sexist and racist’ in the latest in a series of far-Left interventions by the student movement.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3616041/Students-call-prisons-banned-NUS-group-says-criminals-freed.html
An influential students’ group has called for prisons to be abolished because they are ‘sexist and racist’
I’m not sure which is the more grimly comical. The arrogance and vanity, the inevitable anti-Semitism, or the fact that these would-be intellectuals are either unwilling or unable to do elementary research.
SJWs to the rescue; gorilla killed to save kid’s life because of white privilege.
Oops.
Interracial smiling: I certainly don’t partake any longer unless it’s a known acquaintance. The risk/reward equation these days is way out of kilter.
Then again, I learned 20 years ago to stop smiling at children as well. Apparently that marks you as a potential pervert/abductor/molester here in the States if you’re a middle-aged man. Again, nothing to be gained by merely being polite.
“The prison-industrial complex”
If they end it, where are we going to get our number plates made and mailbags sewn?
Farnsworth, no disrespect to our host’s selection this morning, but those two links you provided me with a substantial amount of happiness with my AM coffee.
The Andrew Z comment is spot on.
I agree. We have a saying here: “You need to get your head screwed on straight.” In addition to preventing cross-threading, it’s good advice that leftists seem incapable of.
An influential students’ group has called for prisons to be abolished because they are ‘sexist and racist’
1. Rape culture is endemic.
2. Abolish all prisons so rapists can run free.
#FeministLogic
An influential students’ group has called for prisons to be abolished because they are ‘sexist and racist’
It’s been noted here many times that calls for leniency in sentencing – to say nothing of abolishing prisons altogether – are an insult to the lives and property of just about everyone and especially to people who live in crime-ridden areas, whose expectations of basic lawfulness are casually dismissed as unimportant. People who, incidentally, are typically much poorer (and often darker skinned) that those signalling their imagined sophistication by demanding leniency or abolition.
For instance, readers may recall a Guardian interview with Clive Stafford Smith, who airily dismissed burglary as “really quite inconsequential,” thereby implying that the wellbeing of burglars is more important than the wellbeing of their numerous, often very poor, victims. For the lofty Mr Stafford Smith and Guardian columnist Decca Aitkenhead, for whom such things are largely theoretical and not a routine fact of life, anger at being burgled and the subsequent sense of violation are somehow plebeian and unsophisticated.
As Theodore Dalrymple said in response to the middle-class leftist China Miéville, “Leniency toward criminals is not a form of sympathy for the poor, but a failure to take either their lives or their property seriously.”
[ Edited. ]
Pointing out inconsistencies in social justice warriors leads you into bizarre logical Möbius strip thought patterns.
One. Prisons should be abolished because they are sexist and racist.
Two. There is a rape epidemic in society generally, and further education specifically.
Three. The conviction rate for rapists is appallingly low. It needs to be increased.
Four. More rapists (men) should therefore be arrested, charged, convicted and –
Five.. What? Oh yes. I forgot. We closed the prisons.
Six. We should reopen all the prisons…
“They then go on to define ‘whiteness’.”
Because they aren’t racists.
“Leniency toward criminals is not a form of sympathy for the poor, but a failure to take either their lives or their property seriously.”
That.
That
And variations of the same moral contortion are a Guardian staple.
Some of you may recall Zoe Williams gushing with fake compassion for so-called ‘problem families’ – the kind of malevolent, verminous trash who abuse their neighbours for no reason, who let their kids run wild, who blast out loud music at 3am, and who throw pets from tenth floor windows. And Zoe did this while not giving a shit, or even the hint of a shit, about the families who are forced to live next door to them. Because for Zoe and her ilk, the obnoxious and dysfunctional poor are more deserving of fake solidarity and fake compassion than the functional and law-abiding poor.
I have a theoretical notion.
You start a website asking for input from members of the public. Please post a picture and full address (with postcode and Google map geolocation) of the homes of any of the following individuals. You then list every bleedingheart social justice warrior who has ever campaigned in favour of property crime, open borders – or housing unlimited refugees, or excused the violent sexual crimes of our favourite religious culture.
You then disseminate and promote the website as widely as possible across the Internet.
I’m assuming that George and Amal Clooney would be only too thrilled to have 750 young Syrian men between the ages of 16 and 25 turning up at their property. They’d obviously let them in immediately, instructing the armed security guards to open the wall around their premises. I mean, it’s not like they’d have a wall around their house to keep people out like Donald Trump is proposing.
You then list every bleedingheart social justice warrior who has ever campaigned in favour of property crime, open borders – or housing unlimited refugees, or excused the violent sexual crimes of our favourite religious culture.
Be sure to include the ludicrous hypocrite Simon Schama, whose genteel domestic bliss in Westchester County is unlikely to be disturbed by any rough-looking Eritrean youths.
What Stuck-Record said.
Worth watching.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07czw5k/last-whites-of-the-east-end
Apparently, Richard Dawkins thinks that the problems at Universities are being caused by sending stupid people there. Who’d ‘a thunk it?
Simon Schama, whose genteel domestic bliss in Westchester County is unlikely to be disturbed by any rough-looking Eritrean youths.
Do they get many rape gangs in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester?
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/03/04/scared-sweden-almost-half-of-women-afraid-to-be-out-after-dark-in-europes-rape-capital/
Do they get many rape gangs in Briarcliff Manor, Westchester?
I shouldn’t think so, no. Of course, Briarcliff Manor is desirable in large part because of its cultural homogeneity, the shared values and standards of behaviour. I.e., the things that Mr Schama enjoys at home but thinks other, poorer people shouldn’t want, and shouldn’t complain about losing.
problems at Universities are being caused by sending stupid people there. Who’d ‘a thunk it?
Oh, I don’t know. Dawkins is an academic himself. Don’t know this for sure but given his background and his age (boomer) I suspect he is responsible for a good number of stupid people getting university degrees. And many of those people are now themselves teaching at these universities, taking in raw talent and making it stupid regardless of the quality of the inputs. But then given some of the more extreme things he has said, I’m probably one of the kind of people Dawkins considers stupid. And it’s Dunning-Kruger all the way down.
Simon Schama – a man that goes to a debate on politics and reads poetry.
To be fair to the Santa Monica students, there is a precedent. As part of his investiture, the incoming Doge underwent a marriage ceremony with the sea, Venice being a maritime state. It involved casting a gold ring into the waters.
Thankfully he never had to consummate the marriage.
I turned my recent comments on here into a full post: When an Engineer meets an Artsy Type.
<p>I turned my recent comments on here into a full post: <a rel=”nofollow”>When an Engineer meets an Artsy Type</a>.</p></span></p>
Not so much…
I like cats and I still think this should be killed with fire.
Just say no.
Not so much…
Yeah, Googlemancy is of no use, where prolly that title has not been online long enough to get noticed, and even Posted by: Tim Newman | June 01, 2016 at 02:02 leads to http://www.deserteun.co.uk/ and does also get Server not found, Firefox can’t find the server at http://www.deserteun.co.uk.
Then again, noting possibilities, and doing what seems to be a rather obvious bit of educated guessing, there can be results.
Sam Duncan: “They then go on to define ‘whiteness’.”
Because they aren’t racists.
Hmm, yeah. Remember who else was obsessed with ‘definitions of colour’..?
Oh, dammit! Here’s the link.
This whole marrying the sea thing. Does it mean King Cnut was raped? I think I’ve been triggered.
Link fixed. Morning all.
When an Engineer meets an Artsy Type
Ah yes . . .
I know some of the people who started Burning Man—I don’t know all, I have only a vague memory of the historical details I’ve run across, and there rather prolly certainly is plenty of commentary online to tell the history. From knowing several such Burning Man founders, and granting some degree of variance of them, a safe blanket observation of that founding generation is that in contrast to “Angela” and hipsters of that ilk, that founding generation does not attend Burning Man.
In fact, at the point that I first heard of Burning Man, some quite a few years ago, the fairly uniform assessment with that bunch of the people I was hanging out with at the time was already a matter-of-fact; It just hasn’t been the same since they banned the drive by shooting range
I’ve never been to Burning Man, where when I first heard of it, my overall reaction was that the operational logistics were going to be a bit past me at that point, where by more years along and these days, my distinct reaction is much more rather Ehhhhhhn, nevermind.
Ah, yes, Santacon, also originally known as Santarchy.
Santacon is a creation of The Cacophony Society. And one of these days I really need to get around to reading my copy of The Book, also available in the UK. The idea for Santarchy is very simple. Just when you thought you thought you were at your limits with the massed and ravening whordes of frantic and insistent Christmas shoppers all demanding that you also must get dragged into the unending deluge of dayglo red and green decorations and blaring Christmas muzak, then what should you encounter but a screaming mob of two-hundred-fifty instances of Santa Claus, all cheerfully bellowing HOHOHO as they perambulate through a pretty much set sequence of about fifteen bars, starting in Oakland—California—near the Jack London Square waterfront, wandering onto one of the transbay ferries, and then finishing the tour through some part of San Francisco that’s within strolling range of the Ferry Building that the ferries drop off at.
Two hundred fifty instances of Santa Claus. One set of two cities. Only two hundred fifty, or so, plus or minus . . . .
As you may have guessed, the Cacophony Society doesn’t do Santarchy. In fact, when John Law gives another one of his history talks these days, he makes it extremely clear that he has nothing to do with the masses of drunken hipsters that Tim has run into or has references of . . .
These days, the actual artists of the Cacophony Society and related and varied offshoots are indeed still around and still doing stuff, where you’ll find ’em at the Saint Stupid’s Day Parade of the First Church of the Last Laugh, you’ll find ’em at occurrences of Last Gasp Books, you’ll find ’em at occurrences of Survival Research Laboratories.
But y’won’t find ’em at Burning Man, you won’t find ’em at Santarchy, you won’t find ’em at any instance of masses of hipsters.
I like cats and I still think this should be killed with fire.
Hmmm! Cats? Oh.
. . . as a grown man — complete with beard — puts the brush in his mouth . . .
No, this isn’t a cat thing, it’s just a hipster thing. The givaway is having to specify the claim of grown, underlined by specifying that there is a beard.
In fact, at the point that I first heard of Burning Man, some quite a few years ago, the fairly uniform assessment with that bunch of the people I was hanging out with at the time was already a matter-of-fact; It just hasn’t been the same since they banned the drive by shooting range
Funny you should mention that: as part of her (vain) efforts to get me interested in going with her, “Angela” did mention that the original founders were of a sort of libertarian bent which I might find common cause with, part of which was firing guns and blowing shit up in the desert. Like most of these things, I’m sure the original founders give it a wide berth these days.
From Tim’s piece:
Yes, it’s interesting how voluntary support, given willingly, is viewed as a kind of moral contamination, something to shun ostentatiously. But taking funds that have been confiscated from strangers, from people who may not wish to support your project, and who may find it worthless and absurd, somehow this signals the purest of motives, a higher moral plane.
I see Milo has been on campus again.
gorilla killed to save kid’s life because of white privilege
Did the SJWs in question just compare gorillas to bl–…
…did they just say that?
(I confess I’m a little stunned.)
I see Milo has been on campus again.
I find her arguments compelling and wish to subscribe to her newsletter.
I find her arguments compelling and wish to subscribe to her newsletter.
More on his visit here and here. The humiliated protestors screaming their hatred of Milo and promptly being shut down by one of their own favourite chants is quite amusing.
Yes, it’s interesting how voluntary support, given willingly, is viewed as a kind of moral contamination, something to shun ostentatiously. But taking funds that have been confiscated from strangers, from people who may not wish to support your project, and who may find it worthless and absurd, somehow this signals the purest of motives, a higher moral plane.
I used to argue with “Angela” about this. She mounted a robust defence of the state-funding of the arts, saying “artists should not have to live in poverty”. Which might be debatable, just. Maybe. But what she didn’t mention is these state funds are, in part, paying for what looks to be the social life of her, her (ex)husband, her mates, and various lovers which they all share between them. That they “run” these social events serve only to inflate their egos and their sense of entitlement.
She mounted a robust defence of the state-funding of the arts, saying “artists should not have to live in poverty”. Which might be debatable, just.
If, say, I devoted my waking hours to making huge and ugly porcelain shoes that no-one wanted to buy, and went on doing it anyway, I doubt I could credibly claim that my lack of sales was a matter of great social injustice. It would merely be a matter of very poor judgement and comical obstinacy.
It would merely be a matter of very poor judgement and comical obstinacy.
Indeed. But there is an argument that a wealthy society should *maybe* pay for *exceptionally* talented people to engage in activities which are culturally of benefit but not commercially, i.e. the study of philosophy, or ancient Hebrew texts. This *maybe* could be extended to pay for *exceptionally* talented artists. Perhaps. The argument is there to be made. For example, if a state-run hospital opens in a certain district, is there a case for the walls to be decorated with paintings produced by a talented local artist? The debate is there to be had.
But these talentless wasters like Angela and her mates use this question to justify participation in an industry which campaigns for and receives public money granted by people just like her, which siphons money away from genuine artists – even assuming those genuine artists should be subsidised in the first place.
But these talentless wasters like Angela and her mates use this question to justify participation in an industry which campaigns for and receives public money granted by people just like her,
And so, inevitably, coerced public subsidy becomes an institutional hustle and a license for attitudes like this. Or like this.
As I’ve mentioned before, one of my local publicly-funded galleries – a glorified coffee shop for two dozen middle-class lefties – can be relied on to disappoint any aesthetic expectation – and to go on disappointing precisely because there’s no obvious mechanism for correction. No box office takings to fret about, no bums on seats, no commercial metrics. If no-one turns up or likes a thing, or if they find it ludicrous and insulting, it has no consequence for those involved. And so the featured artists, or pseudo-artists, often chosen for their political noises rather than any discernible talent, can expect taxpayers to serve as patrons, over and over again, whether they wish to or not, while being immune to the patron’s customary discrimination between promising art and opportunist flim-flam.
Being indulged with an exemption from the preferences of one’s supposed audience and customers is an arrangement that in practice most often rewards and encourages, not great art – (or inspired innovation, or better phones or better washing machines) – but the peddling of drek. As illustrated here many, many times. Art, even good art, which is rare and not always agreed upon, is not an emergency service or part of the welfare state. And it seems to me that what “Angela” and her peers are demanding is rather like a caste system, in which self-appointed, socially and politically homogeneous Brahmin are to be exempt from normal social and economic proprieties, normal determinations of value and merit. Because they imagine they’re above such things.
[ Added: ]
And regarding who gets to choose those deemed worthy of exemption and subsidy, see also this and the subsequent discussion.
And it seems to me that what “Angela” and her peers are demanding is rather like a caste system, in which self-appointed, socially and politically homogeneous Brahmin are to be exempt from normal social and economic proprieties, normal determinations of value and merit. Because they imagine they’re above such things.
Exactly. And I don’t think it ever occurred to them that they weren’t artists in the sense that somebody with talent, skill, and a portfolio is.
The commencement address to beat all commencement addresses
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/alexandersolzhenitsynharvard.htm
From the reportage on Milo’s visit to UCLA (Emphasis supplied):
One protester was dressed in a Native American costume, and he spoke to the crowd through a megaphone.
“I’m tired of people making fun of me and hurting my feelings.
Well, then stop auditioning for the part of an Hekawi chieftain on a remake of F Troop“.
This guy in the red loin cloth?
![](http://www.thecollegefix.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/MiloUCLA2.jpg)
And again, note this:
It isn’t about “social justice.” It’s about the thrill of mob power.
dicentra: “I gave my cat a bath the other day…they love it. He sat there, he enjoyed it, it was fun for me. The fur would stick to my tongue, but other than that…”
– Steve Martin
[My other favourite Steve is ‘The Stevening’. Or ‘The Stevil’. Or whatever he’s calling himself these days]
My other favourite Steve is ‘The Stevening’. Or ‘The Stevil’. Or whatever he’s calling himself these days
For God’s sake, don’t tell him. He’ll be asking for a cut of the door. Or worse, the bar.
And the protesters win again. They block the entrance to the building, why didn’t the people wishing to attend the event just push on through them? Were the police protecting the protesters? How is this any different than someone blocking my access to any public space, a sidewalk, a park, etc.? They should be charged with assault.
And furthermore, socialism is theft.
And the protesters win again.
Well, a lot of people who’d queued for an hour or more were prevented from hearing a talk they’d travelled to attend. A talk, for God’s sake. No tormenting of blind orphans or beating of kittens. Just two people talking onstage. It’s hard to see much sanity in wilfully thwarting random members of the public in this way. After all, the talk went on, was watched online by most of those who’d been prevented from getting in, and was publicised widely, and watched online widely, precisely because of the protestors’ attempts to obstruct and disrupt, and the fuss they made.
I mean, if some ludicrous leftist figure were holding court at the local university, as is often the case, I can’t readily imagine what would make me spend my evening trying to prevent people from getting into the venue and hearing that person speak, however much I might find their views ridiculous or objectionable. It’s not something that sane people tend to do. And so the protestors’ behaviour only makes sense if you assume a less noble motive than the one being stated, i.e., the thrill of frustrating people and feeling powerful.
a lot of people who’d queued for an hour or more were prevented from hearing a talk they’d travelled to attend. A talk, for God’s sake. No tormenting of blind orphans or beating of kittens. Just two people talking onstage.
Every time they do this someone decides to vote Trump.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/05/31/donald-trump-politically-correct-speech-codes-column/85163810/
Every time they do this someone decides to vote Trump.
Lots of someones, I should think.
why didn’t the people wishing to attend the event just push on through them?
I think it’s important that they don’t. Conservatives must be seen as the sane, peaceful ones in order for things to swing back in our direction.
It is kind of fun to think about grabbing a few of my larger, meaner, friends and pitching a few of them down the stairs though…
I think it’s important that they don’t. Conservatives must be seen as the sane, peaceful ones in order for things to swing back in our direction.
Which is what conservative people have been doing for 20-30 years. Much akin to the George Will/Karl Rove mentality of “don’t go to war with people who buy ink by the barrel”, it’s a loser. I’m not advocating breaking heads, I am advocating exercising one’s rights to attend a public event. Get a few larger people like myself in front and just move through the the crowd that is blocking you. This can be done. I’m not one for these political rallies and such but I do believe that one has a right, an obligation even to exercise such a right when threatened, to attend a public event. Sure, people were able to watch on TV and Internet, but I don’t think that’s the point based on where things have gone in this country.
Engage Conspiracy Mode!
“A candidate might muster 500 supporters to a speech on a college campus, but if Adam sent just five recruits to demonstrate outside the auditorium, he discovered that the media would give equal coverage to both the rally and the demonstration.”
Every time an anti-Trump protestor throws a stone, a shitlord is born.
I’m not advocating breaking heads, I am advocating exercising one’s rights to attend a public event. Get a few larger people like myself in front and just move through the the crowd that is blocking you. This can be done.
WTP, I don’t disagree in principle. The problem is, the game is rigged. There is no doubt in my mind that if the protesters described at Milo’s latest event had attempted to push through, two things would have happened:
1) The would have been arrested on some bogus charge of “inciting violence,” “disturbing the peace,” “assault,” or some such (Remember during the recent DePaul University debacle, the Police Commissioner was connected to the protesters); and
2) The media would have played the “Milo’s minions are evil” angle to the extreme.
These people want a forceful response. My emotional side agrees with you in spades, but the realities argue for a different course of action.
Sadly, the day is quickly approaching, I fear, where social mores and decorum have lost all meaning. The Leftists who’ve relied upon “polite society” to ignore their trespasses will be very surprised when that day arrives.
Deep Thoughts™ from the Libertarian candidate:
“And look, libertarians agree with socialism as long as it’s voluntary,” he said.
OK.
He’ll be asking for a cut of the door. Or worse, the bar.
Oh, do a quick bit of work with a chainsaw. He’ll be happy and you can announce you’re being artistic . . . .
What Sherman said.
We have to keep turning the other cheek until they actually hit one of them; after that happens I promise I will be out in front with you, WTP.
The problem is, the game is rigged… during the recent DePaul University debacle, the Police Commissioner was connected to the protesters
That is correct. Another example is the result of the recent vote in Austria which was declared won by a leftist Greenie after the mail-in ballots reversed the 52%-48% edge that the right-wing candidate Norbert Hofer had after the regular ballots were counted. The self-proclaimed elite that is running our institutions will stop at nothing to protect its sinecures.
Seems apposite.
![](http://davidthompson.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451675669e201bb090a9768970d-pi)
Via dicentra.
The problem is, the game is rigged.
Then stop playing their game. So long as they act and we cry foul, we are reacting to their game. Stop playing defense. How long do you continue to turn the other cheek? When they stand in your way you have every right to move them. Conceding is not winning. Again, I am not advocating cracking heads. I am advocating, literally, pushing back.
Again in reference to turning the other cheek, that girl at DePaul snatched the microphone out of Milo’s hand. She shook her fist right in his face. If the police and government will not act to protect the citizens, they must be held accountable. If they refuse to respond, the citizens have the right, and I would say the duty, to provide their own security.
WTP, I truly understand and appreciate what you’re saying. The problem is confrontation, preferably physical, is their game. Again, I don’t disagree with you. But is Milo or Christina Hoff Summers going to come find you when the Chicago PD takes you away? I doubt it.
It’s going to take more than just a few shoves to accomplish what you’re talking about.
Yeah…looking at the picture you posted, I’m really not getting a sense that physical confrontation is the game of those pajama boys and girls. As for fearing the police, well good thing MLK never worried about such. These cops, even the Chicago ones, are nowhere near the kind that he faced. The left is not afraid of the police, and they are the ones doing the assaulting and obstructing. I would like to see how such a case would really play out. I am really curious as to why we hear nothing about Milo or Brietbart suing DePaul for breach of contract or some such.
Seems apposite.
Also this disturbing news.
Meanwhile, at Yale, Students Tell English Profs to Stop Teaching English: Too Many White Male Poets.
Yes, the faculty must let students decide which courses are mandatory. What is it about the course that has given them a case of the ass ?
Because if one learns English, one then can recognize the arglebargle of Useless Studies and will then realize that the way they use words is meaningless, I guess.
“We have spoken. We are speaking. Pay attention.”
Y’all need to STFD and STFU and take the damn class, it is obvious you need it.
Diploma mill wallpaper . . .
![](http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/16jun/xuf008001.gif)
![](http://www.arcamax.com/newspics/144/14465/1446591.gif)
. . . and being triggered.
One of our local SJWs (a LGBTQI activist no less, they’ll run out of letters soon) has been suspended by her uni:
https://newmatilda.com/2016/06/01/latrobe-suspends-safe-schools-co-founder-and-academic-roz-ward-for-criticising-racist-australian-flag/
Let’s start that debate:
I think we need to write those kids a check.
Franklin Graham Wants Bella Abzug To Speak Up For Women– But There’s Just One Problem
Students… are ill-prepared to take higher-level courses relating to race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, ability, or even to engage with critical theory
Perhaps someone should tell these clowns that Angry Studies and “critical theory” are, to borrow a phrase, the lowest difficulty setting on campus. Devised by, and for, credulous mediocrities.
We have spoken. We are speaking. Pay attention.
Having chosen to take a degree in English literature – a language originated on a smallish island in the northern hemisphere and developed by the pallid Englishmen who lived there – the students seem upset that the key figures in the history of that language are very often pallid Englishmen. As if this were some kind of surprise, indeed an outrage. The students also seem to imagine that, for instance, Shakespeare’s work utterly ignores issues of gender, sexuality, race and disability. Which suggests they really ought to try reading some of it. Or does the content not actually matter, just whether the author’s skin matches that of the indignant students?
In the name of diversity.
. . . the students seem upset that the key figures in the history of that language are very often pallid Englishmen.
—Yes, Prime Minister
“Shakespeare’s work utterly ignores issues of gender, sexuality, race and disability.”
Wasn’t Richard III a humpty-backed Quasimodo?
Has anyone else seen this car-crash?
https://news.vice.com/video/jeremy-corbyn-the-outsider
Has anyone else seen this car-crash?
![](http://davidthompson.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451675669e201b8d1f15b9e970c-pi)
![](http://davidthompson.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451675669e201b8d1f15ba3970c-pi)
Seumas has spotted something.
By the looks of it, it must be a member of the actual working class.
What?
Regarding David Taylor’s link and the rayciss Australian flag, I was a bit puzzled why or how the flag could be rayciss.
Fortunately one “Bill Logan” in the comments section provided the answer:
Clear indeed; I am now shocked and offended by the Flag of Alaska with its Big Dipper and Polaris, the symbolism of which must, by the same reasoning, be all about Alaska as part of The Great Satan dominating the entire northern hemisphere.
Don’t get me started about those perfidious Brazilians who apparently flaunt the domination of half the universe with their flag.
Where are the…Bella Abzugs
I’m not sure what the quoted writer is complaining about. I’m pretty sure there was only the *one* Bella Abzug, and thus using her name as a plural isn’t a call for the woman herself, but rather for her modern-day equivalents.
I could likewise ask “where are the Frederick Douglass’, the Martin Luther Kings” etc., and the question would be perfectly valid, despite the metabolically-challenged condition of those two gentlemen.
‘Seumas has spotted something’.
Oh that bit is priceless.
Steptoe and team are all preparing for PMQs. Iain Duncan-Smith has just resigned, nominally over disability benefits, and George Osborne’s budget was in trouble. During the course of the meeting Steptoe insisted that he would stick to questions quoting Amnesty International over the refugee crisis, saying words to the effect of ‘It’s not my job to embarrass the government on this’.
He’s the Leader of the Opposition, by the way. Part 1 of the job description being ‘Take every opportunity to embarrass and discredit the government that is offered to you on a plate’.
That look from Seumas Milne comes from realising that the boss still wants to stick with the full frontal assault on the enemy’s defences – minus a preparatory bombardment – even though someone’s discovered a way of taking it from the flank.
If even Milne thinks you’re a useless wanker, the chances are you might actually be one.
Stuck-Record said…
“Pointing out inconsistencies in social justice warriors leads you into bizarre logical Möbius strip thought patterns.
One. Prisons should be abolished because they are sexist and racist.
Two. There is a rape epidemic in society generally, and further education specifically.
Three. The conviction rate for rapists is appallingly low. It needs to be increased.
Four. More rapists (men) should therefore be arrested, charged, convicted and –
Five.. What? Oh yes. I forgot. We closed the prisons.
Six. We should reopen all the prisons…”
Wishing to amend…
Six. Start the bonfires/ovens.
Meanwhile there ARE serious moves afoot to close all womens’ prisons in the UK.
I think I’ve mentioned her before but Scottish Laurie Penny-wannabe Vonny Moyes is on top form telling the world about the language of menstruation
https://twitter.com/scotnational/status/739530279849721857