Elsewhere (248)
Jim Goad on rappers, shootings and bullet-hole cred:
In late October 2005, a rapper named Cam’ron took three bullets in an attempted DC carjacking. When a reporter asked him for a quote as he was leaving Howard University Hospital, Cam’ron quipped, “I got shot three times and my album comes out November 22.” […] Being shot is such a shot in the arm for the aspirant hip-hop mogul, a rapper named Gravy got shot in the buttocks outside a Brooklyn radio station in April 2006 before heading right into the studio for an interview. As it turns out, Gravy had one of his friends shoot him because he knew it would be good publicity.
Toni Airaksinen on more things you mustn’t think on campus:
Angela Putman, who teaches public speaking at Penn State-Brandywine, designed a comprehensive three-day seminar on “white privilege” for her students, then interviewed 12 attendees on their belief in meritocracy and equal opportunity. To her dismay, Putman discovered that these “whiteness ideologies” were widely endorsed by students, many of whom agreed that “if I work hard, I can be successful.”
Believing in study, effort and diligence as positive things and broad prerequisites for success is, apparently, a harmful and racist ideology. Unlike cultivating resentment and then spending decades seething at how racist, sexist and hopelessly unfair everything is, which I’m sure is bound to pay off.
And Mark Steyn on the indignant librarian, The Cat In The Hat, and the great racist retcon:
The piece argues that the Cat in the Hat’s bow tie is meant to be an evocation of 19th-century racist minstrel shows. Now, just off the top of my head, cartoon characters who wear bow ties: Porky Pig, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Huckleberry Hound. Yogi Bear doesn’t wear a bow, he wears a tie like me, but his boy sidekick Boo Boo the Bear wears a bow tie. Ambrosia, I think the name is, in ‘My Little Pony’ wears a bow tie. I’m not one of the many men in the western world who are obsessed with ‘My Little Pony’ and have ‘My Little Pony’ parties, but I happen to know this one character in ‘My Little Pony’ wears a bow tie. Cartoon characters wear bow ties. That has nothing to do the minstrel shows. We are making ourselves a society too stupid to survive.
Readers are invited to speculate as to exactly when said books became so “steeped in racist propaganda,” as the librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro claims, and therefore corrupting of children. Presumably, it was at some point after Ms Phipps Soeiro was photographed proudly dressed as the aforementioned cat, at work, with children, while celebrating the birthday of one Theodor Seuss Geisel.
As usual, feel free to share your own links and snippets on any subject, in the comments.
It’s telling that Ms. Putman is the one who views things like “hard work” as “white.” Does she think that non-Caucasians are genetically incapable of possessing them?
“Why do they make it so easy to loathe them?”
That.
That.
Well, you have to wonder what the mental process was. Seizing an opportunity to be churlish and to publicly berate the First Lady as ignorant, for not knowing how terribly racist the Cat In The Hat books are, allegedly, while simultaneously knowing that you’ve dressed as said cat, at work, while encouraging children to read the very books that you’re now claiming are obviously racist and corrupting. Did she not think the photos would come to light, or was she too busy displaying her pieties to even think that far?
This.
Seizing an opportunity to be churlish and to publicly berate the First Lady as ignorant, for not knowing how terribly racist the Cat In The Hat books are, allegedly, while simultaneously knowing that you’ve dressed as said cat, at work, while encouraging children to read the very books that you’re now claiming are obviously racist and corrupting.
Further to that would have to be the sudden onset of amnesia, since the previous First Lady, and her hubby Dear Leader! – had been photographed several times reading said evil racist propaganda book to children wearing Cat in the Hat hats. I think Mrs Obama even wore a Cat in the Hat hat while reading.
Whether or not it is racist and evil all depends on *who* is doing the reading or promoting of the book.
It’s enough to drive a sane person to drink…or eat one of those pickled eggs from that jar of murky liquid sitting there on the bar.
one of those pickled eggs from that jar of murky liquid sitting there on the bar.
Er, that’s quality brine, that is. And flavoursome.
I often wonder how hard the likes of Puntam work on their seminars and theses.
“Music teacher suspected of contaminating flutes with semen”
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-flute-investigation-20171001-story.html
David, thanks for the links (yesterday) to Star Trek Discovery. Shame it’s not very good.
Pickled eggs, eh? That’s not what I’ve heard.
Pickled eggs, eh? That’s not what I’ve heard.
What have you heard? Does it involve hippos?
David, thanks for the links (yesterday) to Star Trek Discovery. Shame it’s not very good.
I tried to look past the political posturing of the writers and actors and watch the thing as objectively as I could. I did want it to be better than it is.
It’s very pretty to look at, in that some money has been spent on the effects and production, and it’s visually slicker than previous iterations. Though I think the ship exteriors are quite ugly. What struck me is that it’s a fairly cold and joyless affair. I assume they’re going for a Battlestar Galactica tone, or Westworld or something, sort of dark and gritty, but as yet I’m not sure that sits well with the usual Star Trek trappings.
Pilot episodes are often shaky, especially in Trek, but setting aside the clunky dialogue, the interminable stretches of subtitled Klingon, which grate on the ear and cripple the pacing, and the erratic structure – with flashbacks that repeatedly undercut the drama… setting aside all that, the biggest problem is that the main character is jarringly inconsistent and devoid of charisma, bordering on obnoxious. I’d have been much happier with Michelle Yeoh as the lead. Sadly, her character is killed off in episode two.
The third episode is the more interesting of the three, I think, with a Section 31 kind of theme, so maybe there’s hope. But I’m by no means sufficiently wooed to stick with it, even via YouTube copies, let alone enough to take out a subscription to CBS All Access.
For those who missed them, the links to the first three episodes are here.
Putnam’s argument has a bitter truth at its core: A meritocracy is only good for people with merit, therefore she is against it.
In the wake of the massacre in Las Vegas, Twitter is a dumpster fire. (Who saw that coming?) The CBS executive who mentioned that it was a good thing that gun-toting Trumpistas were likely to be attending the country music festival — he was just fired.
I mentioned merely that when schizos kill they don’t have political motives, and no fewer than three people immediately jumped down my throat because THE MENTALLY ILL ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE VICTIMS THAN PERPS.
As if that weren’t true of every single demographic group on the planet.
(For the record, I think that the puke was a garden-variety psychopath who decided to go out in a blaze of glory, no politics intended.)
Nevertheless, it’s sobering to wake up to the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. The worst mass killing still goes to Timothy McVeigh, but this guy comes in second with body count.
http://brandywine.psu.edu/person/angela-putman
Putman- white, overweight, 40’s, teenager red dyed hair, malicious.
@dicentra,
Twitter is the medium of the Id. Whether at 140 or 280 characters, tweets are impossible to phrase in a way which adequately conveys tone or depth of thought. It’s just raw cogitations spewed into the ether in real time, without any any reflection. The fact that there are hordes of amateur though police prowling around ready to pounce on anything “problematic” and you have the makings of a nightmare. It’s one of the reasons, I never had an interest in it.
(BTW, your point about the mentally ill killers is correct. Why the denunciation is not clear.)
Re: “Dr.” Putnam
From her bio posted by Kirby above, we learn, “She is passionate about engaging students and encouraging them to become lifelong critical thinkers, contributing to the field of communication studies, promoting and practicing social justice, and the Detroit Lions.”
For a communications scholar, she doesn’t seem to recognize problems with parallel grammatical construction.
If believing that sexual fidelity in marriage, the value of the Work Ethic, or gracious good manners expressed in a simple “thank you” for gifts offered in good faith make me guilty of White Privilege, then I stand convicted of White Privilege.
This is for the good and simple reason that attacks on those things are an indictment of me, and my kind.
But I would prefer the term Western Supremacist. One doesn’t have to be white to reap the bounty of sound moral values, the ones which saw the West rise to the heights it has achieved.
So now that these values, and the people that hold them, are under assault, the hard questions for people of the West;
Do me and my kind deserve to continue? To prevail?
What is likely to be necessary to preserve me and my kind?
Am I willing to suffer, perhaps die, as my forebears did to provide me with the comfortable world I have been blessed with?
There are no battles when only one side makes war, only surrenders and occupations, pogroms and purges at the whim of those who win bloodless victories.
Here’s one for the ages: “Learning to love myself enough to f*ck raw while Black and HIV positive”
In other bad news from the USA, Tom Petty has apparently suffered a catastrophic heart attack and is not expected to survive (taken off life support at last report – some outlets have reported he’s died, but it’s not official).
The Wilburys are down to two. 🙁
Why the denunciation is not clear.
Because I mentioned something negative and schizophrenics in the same Tweet. That’s seriously how they roll: if two things are temporally or spatially proximate, they’re being equated.
That’s the amount of depth they’re working with.
Cripes.
Twitter Tom Petty = Schrodinger’s Tom
How is it possible for (a) someone to take the courses Dr Putman did and be awarded degrees
(b) get a paid position on the strength of said degrees
(c) look forward to teaching a course on White Privilege?
Why would any student paying a ton of money want to take such a course?
Why would any student paying a ton of money want to take such a course?
Most wouldn’t. That’s why universities make such courses mandatory. It’s a works program for the SJW types and keeps all those diversity administrators happy in their cushy sinecures.
But I would prefer the term Western Supremacist. One doesn’t have to be white to reap the bounty of sound moral values, the ones which saw the West rise to the heights it has achieved.
As already noted, and see also, Sapeur.
I do not like red fascists, damn,
I do not like them Sam I Am.
I do not like them in our schools.
I do not like their commie rules.
I do not like red fascists, and
I will not tolerate Sam I Am.
Hal, you don’t need to prove in every post that Berkeley is full of insane people.
Thank goodness for celebrity insight.
The academic feminist is the brightest star of all.
I’d have been much happier with Michelle Yeoh as the lead. Sadly, her character is killed off in episode two.
Huh. Well, there goes my pandering-to-the-Chinese-market theory.
I think it says something that my reaction to that “dude, spoilers!” tidbit was a resounding “meh”.
I think it says something that my reaction to that “dude, spoilers!” tidbit was a resounding “meh”.
Ah, um, that wasn’t clumsiness on my part. No, no. I’m sparing you any needless investment in the character.
Speaking as we were of John Jay College and its quality employees, here’s an insight into the college’s aesthetic sensibilities:
How nice of them.
Once upon a time, one might have hoped that a librarian would have understood the value of research. Minstrel shows might have commonly featured bow ties but that was because bow ties were common wear for men and especially when dressing smartly and/or flamboyantly… such as for the stage. Of course, once upon a time one might have hoped that a librarian was more interested in facts than distorting them in favour of activism.
The academic feminist is the brightest star of all.
Grammar is hard.
Whether or not it is racist and evil all depends on *who* is doing the reading or promoting of the book.
Apparently.
There is, I think, a story about running a zoo which has, or had, some passing reference to distant people whose eyes are ‘worn at a slant’, or something to that effect. Which is the nearest thing I can think of as being umbrage-worthy. But the idea that children today would read The Cat In The Hat and assume that the cat is actually a black man, and a mocking caricature of a black man, is faintly bizarre.
I’m sparing you any needless investment in the character.
You’re a prince, sir. A veritable prince.
Via Julia, some ‘splaining is done.
Hal, you don’t need to prove in every post that Berkeley is full of insane people.
. . . . . . ???????????
Perhaps you are doing a contribution of the surreal? If there was any context to your post, it wasn’t detailed . . .
Dicentra:
Third, actually. The Happy Land fire killed 87.
Obviously, we need common-sense gasoline control.
Lost in all this is that Dr. Seuss books might be held in fond esteem by generations of parents and children, but they’re not all that good.
I mean, anybody can rhyme if you get to make up your own words.
Angela Putman, who teaches public speaking at Penn State-Brandywine, designed a comprehensive three-day seminar on “white privilege”
There seems to be a whole group of white people who hate white people. I wonder if there’s something in their childhood that makes them feel that way?
Meanwhile, at Berkeley, being expected to sit a scheduled midterm exam is much too stressful and unfair for the brave little Mao-lings, who chose instead to disrupt the exam, thereby disdaining other students who’d prepared, and then berated their professor for being “privileged” and white.
Video of the Mao-ling clown show can be viewed here.
brave little Mao-lings, who chose instead to disrupt the exam, thereby disdaining other students who’d prepared,
The parents of the other students should sue Berkeley and every one of the protestors.
“We are making ourselves a society too stupid to survive”
That’s the plan, far easier to control and manipulate the stupid… as we have seen day after day with your blogs examples.
The parents of the other students should sue Berkeley and every one of the protestors.
Gratuitously disrupting an exam should have severe consequences, i.e., expulsion. And as you say, whatever additional compensation the affected students and their parents, who are paying for this farce, deem appropriate.
Mouthing slogans and randomly accusing people of being racists and “white supremacists” is of course much easier than studying for, and passing, a midterm exam. It’s therefore not unfair to entertain the possibility that the ‘protestors’ may not be the sharpest or most diligent of students, and may have opted for fatuous grandstanding rather than taking the exam and receiving more graded confirmation of their own academic inadequacies.
Re: Berkeley. My generation of college students would have simply detailed a freshman to pull a fire alarm while we slept in.
Of course, if the students had spent the time they used orchestrating the disruption of the class and writing their scripts actually preparing for the test, maybe they would not be so stressed out. It will be interesting to see whether the university rewards their SJW kibuki in some fashion or allows the professor to run his class as he sees fit.
I am always struck by how parochial US race hustlers like Puttnam are. She seems entirely ignorant of the literally billions of non-white people who believe in the virtues of hard work, education and pretty much everything that she and her ilk denounce as white privilege.
However, to cheer us all up:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/28/adjunct-professors-homeless-sex-work-academia-poverty
In a better and brighter world, all clown quarter academics would have to live in their cars and fellate sailors to make ends meet.
In a better and brighter world, all clown quarter academics would have to live in their cars and fellate sailors to make ends meet.
It’s the only way any of their ‘work’ could ever be described accurately as seminal.
Sailors are, in general, hardworking. Why would you wish to punish them so?
“Hi Sailor, me love you for an indeterminate amount of time based upon your ability to provide financial recompense and in an entirely non-binary fashion.”
It’s enough to make a man look forward to the lash.